thee better than the field; wherein art thou equal to any man thou seest, but in arrogance and presumption? The pastures of Bethlehem could not hold thee, but thou thoughtest it a goodly matter to see the wars; I know thee, as if I were in thy bosom; this was thy thought, 'There is no glory to be got among fleeces, I will go seek it in arms; now are my brethren winning honor in the troops of Israel, while I am basely tending on sheep; why should not I be as forward as the best of them?' This vanity would make thee straight of a shepherd, a soldier, a champion : get thee home, foolish stripling, to thy hook and thy harp: let swords and spears alone to those that know how to use them."

David's first victory is of himself; next, of his brother; he overcomes himself, in a patient forbearance of his brother; he overcomes the malicious rage of his brother with the mildness of his answer. There now lieth the great defier of Israel, grovelling and grinning in death: and is not suffered to deal one blow for his life and bites the unwelcome earth for indignation that he dies by the hand of a shepherd.

:

THE PLEASURE OF STUDY AND CONTEMPLATION.*

I CAN wonder at nothing more than how a man can be idle; but of all others, a scholar; in so many improvements of reason, in such sweetness of knowledge, in such variety of studies, in such importunity of thoughts: other artizans do but practise, we still learn; others run still in the same gyre to weariness, to satiety; our choice is infinite; other labors require recreations; our very labor recreates our sports; we can never want either somewhat to do, or somewhat that we would do. How numberless are the volumes which men have written of arts, of tongues! How endless is that volume which God hath written of the world! wherein

every creature is a letter; every day a new page. Who can be 'weary of either of these? To find wit in poetry; in philosophy, profoundness; in mathematics, acuteness; in history, wonder of

* From his Epistle to Mr. Milward. A discourse of the pleasure of study and contemplation, with the varieties of scholarlike employments, not without incitation of others thereunto; and a censure of their neglect.

events; in oratory, sweet eloquence; in divinity, supernatural light, and holy devotion; as so many rich metals in their proper mines; whom would it not ravish with delight? After all these, let us but open our eyes, we cannot look beside a lesson, in this universal book of our Maker, worth our study, worth taking out. What creature hath not his miracle? what event doth not challenge his observation? And if, weary of foreign employment, we list to look home into ourselves, there we find a more private world of thoughts which set us on to work anew, more busily and not less profitably: now our silence is vocal, our solitariness · popular; and we are shut up, to do good unto many; if once we be cloyed with our own company, the door of conference is open; here interchange of discourse (besides pleasure) benefits us; and he is a weak companion from whom we return not wiser. I could envy, if I could believe that anchoret, who, secluded from the world, and pent up in his voluntary prison walls, denied that he thought the day long, whiles yet he wanted learning to vary his thoughts. Not to be cloyed with the same conceit is difficult, above human strength; but to a man so furnished with all sorts of knowledge, that according to his dispositions he can change his studies, I should wonder that ever the sun should seem to pass slowly. How many busy tongues chase away good hours in pleasant chat, and complain of the haste of night! What ingenious mind can be sooner weary of talking with learned authors, the most harmless and sweetest companions? What a heaven lives a scholar in, that at once in one close room can daily converse with all the glorious martyrs and fathers? that can single out at pleasure, either sententious Tertullian, or grave Cyprian, or resolute Hierome, or flowing Chrysostome, or divine Ambrose, or devout Bernard, or (who alone is all these) heavenly Augustine, and talk with them and hear their wise and holy counsels, verdicts, resolutions; yea (to rise higher) with courtly Esay, with learned Paul, with all their fellow-prophets, apostles; yet more, like another Moses, with God himself, in them both? Let the world contemn us; while we have these delights we cannot envy them; we cannot wish ourselves other than we are. Besides, the way to all other contentments is troublesome; the only recompense is in the end. To delve in the mines, to scorch in

the fire for the getting, for the fining of gold is a slavish toil; the comfort is in the wedge to the owner, not the laborers; where our very search of knowledge is delightsome. Study itself is our life; from which we would not be barred for a world. How much sweeter then is the fruit of study, the conscience of knowledge? In comparison whereof the soul that hath once tasted it, easily contemns all human comforts. Go now, ye worldlings, and insult over our paleness, our neediness, our neglect. Ye could not be so jocund if you were not ignorant; if you did not want knowledge, you could not overlook him that hath it; for me, I am so far from emulating you, that I profess I had as lieve be a brute beast, as an ignorant rich man. How is it then, that those gallants, which have privilege of blood and birth, and better education, do so scornfully turn off these most manly, reasonable, noble exercises of scholarship? a hawk becomes their fist better than a book; no dog but is a better company: anything or nothing, rather than what we ought. O minds brutishly sensual! Do they think that God made them for disport, who even in his paradise would not allow pleasure without work? And if for business, either of body or mind: those of the body are commonly servile, like itself. The mind therefore, the mind only, that honorable and divine part, is fittest to be employed of those which would reach to the highest perfection of men, and would be more than the most. And what work is there of the mind but the trade of a scholar, study? Let me therefore fasten this problem on our school gates, and challenge all comers, in the defence of it; that no scholar cannot but be truly noble. And if I make it not good, let me never be admitted further then to the subject of our question. Thus we do well to congratulate to ourselves our own happiness; if others will come to us, it shall be our comfort, but more theirs; if not, it is enough that we can joy in ourselves, and in him in whom we are that we are.

FROM AN EPISTLE TO MY LORD DENNY.

EVERY day is a little life and our whole is but a day repeated:

*David vi. Epist. 1.

whence it is that old Jacob numbers his life by days, and Moses desires to be taught this point of holy arithmetic, to number not his years, but his days. Those therefore that dare lose a day, are dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, desperate. We can best teach others by ourselves; let me tell your lordship, how I would pass my days, whether common or sacred; that you (or whosoever others, overhearing me) may either approve my thriftiness, or correct my errors: to whom is the account of my hours more due, or more known. All days are his, who gave time a beginning and continuance; yet some he hath made ours, not to command, but to use.

In none may we forget him; in some we must forget all, besides him. First, therefore, I desire to awake at those hours, not when I will, but when I must; pleasure is not a fit rule for rest, but health; neither do I consult so much with the sun, as mine own necessity, whether of body or in that of the mind. If this vassal could well serve me waking, it should never sleep; but now it must be pleased, that it must be serviceable. Now when sleep is rather driven away than leaves me, I would ever awake with God; my first thoughts are for him, who hath made the night for rest, and the day for travel; and as he gives, so blesses both. If my heart be early seasoned with his presence, it will savor of him all day after. While my body is dressing, not with an effeminate curiosity, nor yet with rude neglect; my mind addresses itself to her ensuing task, bethinking what is to be done, and in what order; and marshalling (as it may) my hours with my work; that done, after some whiles meditation, I walk up to my masters and companions, my books; and sitting down amongst them, with the best contentment, I dare not reach forth my hand to salute any of them, till I have first looked up to heaven, and craved favor of him to whom all my studies are duly referred :

*See Bishop Taylor's rules in his Holy Living for employing our time."In the morning, when you awake, accustom yourself to think first upon God, or something in order to his service; and at night also let him close thine eyes, and let your sleep be necessary and healthful, not idle and expensive of time, beyond the needs and conveniences of nature; and sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes, when he is coming forth from his chambers of the east."

without whom, I can neither profit, nor labor. After this, out of no over great variety, I call forth those which may best fit my occasions; wherein I am not too scrupulous of age; sometimes I put myself to school, to one of those ancients, whom the church hath honored with the name of Fathers; whose volumes I confess not to open, without a sacred reverence of their holiness and gravity; sometimes to those later doctors, which want nothing but age to make them classical; always to God's book. That day is lost, whereof some hours are not improved in those divine monuments: others I turn over out of choice: these out of duty. Ere I can have sate unto weariness, my family, having now overcome all household distractions, invites me to our common devotions; not without some short preparation. These heartily performed, send me up with a more strong and cheerful appetite to my former work, which I find made easy to me by intermission and variety; now therefore can I deceive the hours with change of pleasures, that is, of labors. One while mine eyes are busied, another while my hand, and sometimes my mind takes the burthen from them both; wherein I would imitate the skilfullest cooks, which make the best dishes with manifold mixtures; one hour is spent in textual divinity, another in controversy; histories relieve them both. Now, when the mind is weary of other labors, it begins to undertake her own; sometimes it meditates and winds up for future use; sometimes it lays forth her conceits into present discourse; sometimes for itself, ofter for others. Neither know I whether it works or plays in these thoughts; I am sure no sport hath more pleasure, no work more use: only the decay of a weak body makes me think these delights insensibly laborious. Thus could I all day (as ringers use) make myself music with changes, and complain sooner of the day for shortness, than of the business for toil; were it not that this faint monitor interrupts me still in the midst of my busy pleasures, and inforces me both to respite and repast; I must yield to both; while my body and mind are joined together in unequal couples, the better must follow the weaker. Before my meals, therefore, and after, I let myself loose from all thoughts; and now, would forget that I ever studied; a full mind takes away the body's appetite no less than a full body makes a dull