LETTER I. From James Horvel, Efq; to Sir J. S. at Leeds Castle. Sir, I Weftmin. 25 July, 1625. T was a quaint difference the ancients did put betwixt a letter and an oration; that the one fhould be attired like a woman, the other like a man: the latter of the two is allowed large fide robes, as long periods, parenthefes, fimilies, examples, and other parts of rhetorical flourithes but a letter or epifle fhould be short-coated and clofely couched; a hungerlin becomes a letter more handfomely than a gown; indeed we fhould write as we fpeak; and that's a true familiar let ter which expreffeth one's mind, as if he were difcourfing with the party to whom he writes, in fuccinct and fhort terms. The tongue and the pen are both of them interpreters of the mind; but I hold the pen to be the more faithful of the two: the tongue in udo pofita, being feated in a moift flippery place, may fail and faulter in her fudden extemporal expreffions; but the pen having a greater advantage of premeditation, is not fo fubject to error, and leaves things behind upon firm and authentic record. Now letters, though they be capable of any fubject, yet commonly they are either it narratory, objurgatory, confolatory, mo nitory, or congratulatory. The first confifts of relations, the fecond of reprehenfions, the third of comfort, the two laft of counfel and joy: there are fome who in lieu of letters write homilies; they preach when they fhould epiftolize: there are others that turn them to tedious tractates : this is to make letters degenerate from their true nature. Some modern authors there are who have expofed their letters to the world, but most of them, I mean among your Latin epiftolizers, go freighted with mere Bartholomew ware, with trite and trivial phrafes only, lifted with pedantic fhreds of fchool-boy verfes. Others there are among our next transmarine neighbours eastward, who write in their own language, but their flyle is fo foft and ealy, that their letters may be faid to be like bodies of loose flesh without finews, they have neither joints of art nor arteries in them; they have a kind of fimpering and lank hectic expreffions made up of a bombaft of words, and finical affected compliments only: I cannot well away with fuch fleazy stuff, with fuch cobweb-compofitions, where there is no ftrength of matter, nothing for the reader to carry away with him that may enlarge the notions of his foul. One fhall hardly find an apothegm, example, fimile, or any thing of philofophy, hillory, or folid knowledge, or as much as one new created phrase in a hundred of them; and to draw any obfervations out of them, were as if one went about to diftil cream out of froth; infomuch that it may be faid of them, what was faid of the Echo, "That she is a mere found and nothing else." I return you your Balzac by this bearer: and when I found those letters, wherein he is fo familiar with his king, fo flat; and thofe to Richlieu, fo puffed with prophane hyperboles, and larded up and down with fuch grofs flatteries, with others befides, which he fends as urinals up and down the world to look into his water for discovery of the crazy condition of his body; I forbore him further. So I am your most affectionate fervitor. LETTER II. From the fame to bis Father, upon his first going beyond Sea. I Sir, Broad-street, London, 1ft March 1618. SHOULD be much wanting to myfelf, and to that obligation of duty the law of God and his handmaid Nature hath impofed upon me, if I should not acquaint you with the courfe and quality of my affairs and fortunes, efpecially at this time, that I am upon point of croffing the feas to eat my bread abroad. Nor is it the common relation of a fon that only induced me hereunto, but that mot indulgent and coftly care you have beer pleafed (in fo extraordinary a manner) to have had of my breeding (though but one child of fifteen) by placing me in a choice methodical school (fo far diftant from your dwelling) under a learned (though lashing) mafter; and by tranfplanting me thence to Oxford, to be graduated; and fo holding me ftill up by the chin until I could fwim without bladders. This patrimony of liberal educaLon you have been pleased to endow me withal, I now carry along with me abroad, as a fure infeparable treasure; nor do I feel it any burden or incumbrance unto me at all: and what danger foever my perfon, or other things I have about me, do incur, yet I do not fear the lofing of this, either by fhipwreck, or pirates at fea, nor by robbers, or fire, or any other cafualty on fhore: and at my return to England, I hope at leaft-wife I fhall do my endeavour, that you may find this patrimony improved fomewhat to your comfort. In this my peregrination, if I happen, by fome accident, to be disappointed of that allowance I am to fubfift by, I must make my addrefs to you, for I have no other rendezvous to flee unto; but it shall not be, unless in cafe of great indigence. The latter end of this week I am to go a fhip-board, and first for the Low Countries. I humbly pray your bleffing may accompany me in these my travels by land and fea, with a continuance of your prayers, which will be as fo many good gales to blow me to fafe port; for I have been taught, that the parent's benedictions contribute very much, and have a kind of prophetic virtue to make the child profperous. In this opinion I fhall ever reft your dutiful fon. LETTER III. From the fame to Dr. Francis Manfell, fince Principal of Jefus College in Oxford. Sir, London, 20th March 1618. BEING to take leave of England, and to launch out into the world abroad, to breathe foreign air a while, I thought it very handfome, and an act well becoming me, to take my leave also of you, and of my dearly honoured Mother Oxford: otherwife both of you might have just grounds to exhibit a bill of complaint, or rather a proteft against me, and cry me up; you for a forgetful friend; the for an ungrateful fon, if not fome fpurious iffue. To prevent this, I falute you both together: you with the best of my moft candid affections; her with my most dutiful observance, and thankfulness for the milk the pleased to give me in that exuberance, had I taken it in that measure fhe offered it me while I flept in her lap: yet that little I have fucked, I carry with me now abroad, and hope that this courfe of life will help to concoct it to a greater advantage, having opportunity, by the nature of my employment, to ftudy men as well as books. The fmall time I supervised the glafs-house, I got among thofe Venetians fome fmatterings of the Italian tongue, tongue, which, befides the little I have, you know, of school-language, is all the preparatives I have made for travel. I am to go this week down to Gravefend, and fo embark for Holland. I have got a warrant from the Lords of the Council to travel for three years any where, Rome and St. Omer's excepted. I pray let me retain fome room, though never fo little, in your thoughts, during the time of this our feparation; and let our fouls meet fometimes by intercourfe of letters I promise you that yours shall receive the best entertainment I can make them, for I love you dearly, dearly well, and value your friendship at a very high rate. So with apprecation of as much happiness to you at home, as I fhall defire to accompany me abroad, I reft ever your friend to ferve you. LETTER IV. From James Howel, Efq; to Dan. Caldwell, Efq; from Amfterdam. Amfterdam, April 10, 1619. My dear Dan, I HAVE made your friendship so neceffary unto me for the contentment of my life, that happiness itself would be but a kind of infelicity without it: it is as needful to me, as fire and water, as the very air I take in, and breathe out; it is to me not only neceffitudo, but neceffitas: therefore I pray let me enjoy it in that fair proportion, that I defire to return unto you, by way of correfpondence and retaliation. Our first league of love, you know, was contracted among the mufes in Oxford; for no fooner was I matriculated to her, but I was adopted to you; I became her fon, and your friend, at one time you know I followed you then to London, where our love received confirmation in the Temple, and elsewhere. We are now far asunder, for no lefs than a fea fevers us, and that no narrow one, but the German ocean: distance fometimes endears friendflip, and abfence fweeteneth it; it much enhanceth the value of it, and makes it more precious. Let this be verified in us; let that love which formerly ufed to be nourihed by perfonal communication and the lips, be now fed by letters; let the pen fupply the office of the tongue : letters have a ftrong operation, they have a kind of art like embraces to mingle fouls, and make them meet, though millions of paces afunder; by them we may converfe, and know how it fares with each other as it were by intercourse of fpirits. Therefore among your civil fpeculations, I pray let your thoughts fometimes reflect on me (your abfent felf), and wrap thofe thoughts in paper, and fo fend them me over; I promise you they fhall be very welcome, I fhall embrace and hug them with my best affections. Commend me to Tom Bowyer, and enjoin him the like: I pray be no niggard in diftributing my love plentifully among our friends at the inns of court: let Jack Toldervy have my kind commends, with this caveat, that the pot which goes often to the water, comes home cracked at last: therefore I hope he will be careful how he makes the Fleece in Cornhill his thoroughfare too often. So may my dear Daniel live happy and love his, &c. THOUGH you be now a good way cut of my reach, yet you are not out my remembrance; you are ftill within the horizon of my love. Now the horizon of love is large and spacious, it is as bound. lefs as that of the imagination; and where the imagination rangeth, the memory is ftill bufy to ufher in, and prefent the defired object it fixes upon: it is love that fets them both on work, and may be faid to be the higheft fphere whence they receive their motion. Thus you ap pear to me often in thefe foreign travels; and that you may believe me the better, I fend you thefe lines as my ambassadors (and ambaffadors must not lie) toinform you accordingly, and to falute you. I defire to know how you like Plowden: I heard it often faid, that there is no fudy requires patience and conftancy more than the common law; for it is a good while before one comes to any known perfection in it, and confequently to any gainful practice. This (I think) made Jack Chaundler throw away his Littleton, like him that, when he could not catch the hare, faid, A pox upon her, her, he is but dry tough meat, let her go: it is not fo with you, for I know you are of that difpofition, that when you mind a thing, nothing can frighten you in making conftant purfuit after it till you have obtained it: for if the mathematics, with their crabbedness and intricacy, could not deter you, but that you waded through the very midst of them, and arrived to fo excellent a perfection; I believe it is not in the power of Plowden to daftardize or cow your fpirits, until you have overcome him, at leaftwife have fo much of him as will ferve your turn. I know you were always a quick and preffing difputant in logic and philofophy; which makes me think your genius is fit for law (as the Baron your excellent father was), for a good logician makes always a good lawyer: and hereby cae may give a strong conjecture of the aptnefs or inaptitude of one's capacity to that ftudy and profeffion; and you know as well as I, that logicians who went under the name of Sophifters, were the firat lawyers that ever were. I fhall be upon uncertain removes hence, until I come to Rouen in France, and there I mean to caft anchor a good while; I fhall expect your letters there with impatience. I pray prefent my fervice to Sir James Altham, and to my good Lady your mother, with the rest to whom it is due in Bishopfgate-ftreet, and elsewhere: fo I am yours in the best degree of friendship. LETTER VI. fpecies, the loweft in the predicament of your friends. I fhall fojourn a good while in this city of Rouen, therefore I pray make me happy with the comfort of your letters, which I fhall expect with a longing impatience: I pray fend me ample advertifement of your welfare, and of the reft of your friends, as well upon the banks of Ifis, as amongst the British mountains. I pray prefent my service to Sir Eubule Theolal, and fend me word with what pace Jefus College new walls go up. I will borrow my conclufion to you at this time of my countryman Owen: Uno non poffum quantum te diligo verfu I cannot in one verfe my love declare; Whereunto I will add this firname Anagram, yours whole. YOURS of the third of Auguft came fafe to hand in an inclosed from my brother; you may make eafy conjecture how welcome it was unto me, and to what a height of comfort it raifed my fpirits, in regard it was the first I received from you fince I croffed the feas: I humbly thank you for the bleffing you fent along with it. I am now upon the fair continent of France, one of nature's choicest mafter From the fame to Dr. Tho. Prichard at pieces; one of Ceres's chiefest barns for Oxford, from Rouen. 6th August 1619. HAVE now taken firm footing in France; and though France be one of the chiefeft climates of compliment, yet I can ufe none towards you, but tell you in plain downright language, that in the list of thofe friends I left behind me in England, you are one of the prime rank, one whofe name I have marked with the white flone: if you have gained fuch a place amongst the choiceft friends of mine, I hope you will put me fomewhere among at yours, though I but fetch up the rear, being contented to be the infima corn; one of Bacchus's prime wine-cellars, and of Neptune's beft falt-pits; a complete felf-fufficient country, where there is rather a fuperfluity than defect of any thing, either for neceffity or plea, fure, did the policy of the country correfpond with the bounty of nature, in the equal diftribution of the wealth amongst the inhabitants; for I think there is not upon the earth a richer country, and poorer people. It is true, England hath a good repute abroad for her fertility, yet be our harvests never fo kindly, and our crops never fo plentiful, we have every year commonly fome grain from thence, or from Dantzick, and other places, places, imported by the merchant: befides, there be many more heaths, commons, bleak barren hills, and waste grounds in England, by many degrees, than I find here; and I am forry our country of Wales fhould give more inftances hereof than any other part. This province of Normandy, once an appendix of the crown of England, according as I fhall endeavour to deferve them. So with my due and daily prayers for your health, and a speedy fuccesful iffue of all your law bufineffes, I humbly crave your blefling, and reft your datiful fon. Sir, LETTER VIII. Bacon, from Paris. Paris, 30th March 1620. I RECEIVED two of yours in Rouen, with the bills of exchange there inclofed; and according to your directions I fent you thofe things which you wrote though it want wine, yet it yields the From James Howel, Efq; to Capt. Francis King as much demefnes as any one of the reft; the lower Norman hath cider for his common drink; and I vifibly obferved that they are more plump and replete in their bodies, and of a clearer complexion, than thofe that drink altogether wine. In this great city of Rouen there be many monuments of the Eng-for. lith nation yet extant. In the outfide of the highest steeple of the great church, there is the word GOD engraved in huge golden characters, every one almost as long as myfelf, to make them the more vifible. In this steeple hangs alfo the greatest bell of Chriftendom, called d'Amboife, for it weighs near upon forty thousand pound weight. There is alfo here St. Oen, the greatest fanctuary of the city, founded by one of our compatriots, as the name imports: this province is alfo fubject to wardfhips, and no other part of France befides; but whether the Conqueror tranflated that law to England from hence, or whether he fent it over from England hither, I cannot refolve you. There is a marvellous quick trade driven in this town, becaufe of the great navigable river Sequena (the Seine) that runs hence to Paris, whereon there ftands a strange bridge that ebbs and flows, that rifes and falls with the river, it being made of boats, whereon coach and carts may pafs over as well as men befides, this is the nearest mercantile city that stands betwixt Paris and the fea. My last to you was from the Low Countries, where I was in motion to and fro above four months; but I fear it mifcarried, in regard you make no mention of it in yours. 1 begin more and more to have a fenfe of the fweetness and advantage of foreign travel: I pray when you come tʊ I ondon, to find a time to vifit Sir Robert, and acknowledge his great favors to me, and defire a continuance thereof, I am now newly come to Paris, this huge magazine of men, the epitome of this large populous kingdom, and rerdezvous of all foreigners. The ftructures here are indifferently fair, though the streets generally foul all the four feafons of the year; which I impute firft to the pofition of the city, being built upon an ifle (the Ifle of France, made fo by the branching and ferpentine course of the river of Seine), and having fome of her fuburbs feated high, the filth runs down the channel, and fettles in many places within the body of the city, which lies upon a flat; as alfo for a world of coaches, carts and horfes of all forts that go to and fro perpetually, fo that fometimes one fhall meet with a stop half a mile long of thofe coaches, carts and horfes, that can move neither forward nor backward, by reafon of fome fadden encounter of others coming a cross-way; fo that often-times it will be an hour or two before they can difentangle. In fuch a flop the Great Henry was fo fatally flain by Ravillac. Hence comes it to pafs, that this town (for Paris is a town, a city, and an univerfity) is always dirty, and it is fuch a dirt, that by perpetual motion is beaten into fuch black unctuous oil, that where it flicks no art can wash it off of fome colours; infomuch, that it | may be no improper comparison to say, that an ill name is like the crot (the dirt) of Paris, which is indelible; befides the ftain this dirt leaves, it gives alfo fo ftrong a cent, that it may be smelt many miles off, if the wind be in one's face as he comes from the fresh air of the coun try; |