that begins with the Law, and ends with the Gofpel: but I never prejudicate or cenfure any preacher, taking him as I find him. And now that we are not only adulted, but ancient Chriflians, I believe the moft acceptable facrifice we can fend up to heaven is prayer and praife; and that fermons are not fo effential as either of them to the true practice of devotion. The rest of the holy fabbath I fequefter my body and mind as much as I can from worldly affairs. Upon Monday morn, as foon as the Cinque-Ports are open, I have a particular prayer of thanks, that I am reprieved to the beginning of that week; and every day following I knock thrice at heaven's-gate, in the morning, in the evening, and at night; befides prayers at meals, and fome other occafional ejaculations, as upon the putting on of a clean fhirt, washing my hands, and at lighting of candles; which, because they are fudden, I do in the third perfon. Tuesday morning I rife winter and fummer as foon as I awake, and fend up a more particular facrifice for fome reafons; and as I am difpofed, or have bufinefs, I go to-bed again. Upon Wednesday night I always faft, and perform alfo fome extraordinary acts of devotion, as alfo upon Friday night; and Saturday morning, as foon as my fenfes are unlocked, I get up. And in the fummer-time, I am oftentimes abroad in fome private field, to attend the funrifing and as I pray thrice every day, fo I faft thrice every week; at least I eat but one meal upon Wednefdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, in regard I am jealous with myfelf, to have more infirmities to anfwer for than others. Before I go to-bed, I make a fcrutiny what peccant humours have reigned in me that day; and fo I reconcile myself to my Creator, and ftrike a tally in the exchequer of heaven for my quietus eft, ere I close my eyes, and leave no burden upon my conscience. Before I prefume to take the holy facrament, I use fome extraordinary acts of humiliation to prepare myfelf fome days before, and by doing fome deeds of charity; and commonly I compofe fome tion; and if any odd thoughts intervene, and grow upon me, I check myself, and recommence; and this is incident to long prayers, which are more fubject to man's weaknefs and the devil's malice. By thefe fteps I ftrive to climb up to heaven, and my foul prompts me I shall go thither; for there is no object in the world delights me more than to cait up my eyes that way, fpecially in a tar light night and if my mind be overcaft with any odd clouds of melancholy, when I look up and behold that glorious fabric, which I hope fhall be my country hereafter, there are new fpirits begot in me prefently, which make me fcora the world, and the pleasures thereof, confidering the vanity of the one, and the inanity of the other. Thus my foul fill moves eastward, as all the heavenly bodies do; but I muft tell you, that as thofe bodies are overmaftered, and fnatched away to the weft, raptu primi mobilis, by the general motion of the tenth fphere, fo by thofe epidemical infirmities which are incident to man, I am often fnatched away a clean contrary courfe, yet my foul perfifts fill in her own proper motion. I am often at variance and angry with myfelf (nor do I hold this anger to be any breach of charity), when I confider, that whereas my Creator intended this body of mine, though a lump of clay, to be a temple of his holy fpirit, my affections fhould turn it often to a brothel-houfe, my palfions to a bedlam, and my excefies to an hofpital. Being of a lay profeffion, I humbly conform to the conftitutions of the church, and my fpiritual fuperiors; and I hold this obedience to be an acceptable facrifice to God. Diference in opinion may work a dif affection in me, but not a deteftation; I rather pity than hate Turk or Infidel, for they are of the fame metal, and bear the fame ftamp as I do, though the infcriptions differ: if I hate any, it is thofe fchifmatics that puzzle the fweet peace of our church; fo that I could be content to fee an Anabaptift go to hell on a Brownift's back. Noble Knight, now that I have thus evifcerated myfelf, and dealt fo clearly with you, I defire, by way of correfpond ence, that you would tell me what way you take in your journey to heaven: for if my breaft le fo open to you, it is not fitting yours fhould be fhut up to me; therefore I pray let me hear from you when it may ftand with your convenience. So I with you your heart's defire here, and heaven hereafter, because I am yours in no vulgar way of friendship. LETTER LIV. mities as I am from this. I am none of thofe mammonists who adore white and red earth, and make their princes picture their idol that way: fuch may be laid to be under a perpetual eclipfe, for the earth ftands always betwixt them and the fair face of heaven. Yet my genius prompts me, that I was born under a planet, not to die in a lazaretto. At my nativity my afcendant was that hot constellation of Cancer about the dog-days, as my Ephe From James Howel, Efq; to Thomas merides tells me: Mars was then predo Sir, Young, Ejq. Fleet, 23d April 1645. RECEIVED yours of the fifth of March, and it was as welcome to me as flowers in May, which are now coming on apace. You feem to marvel I do not marry all this while, confidering that I am paft the meridian of my age, and that to your knowledge there have been overtures made me of parties above my degree. Truly, in this point, I will deal with you as one fhould do with his confeffor. Had I been difpofed to have married for wealth without affection, or for affection without wealth, I had been in bonds before now; but I did never caft my eyes upon any yet, that I thought I was born for, where both thefe concurred. It is the custom of fome (and it is a common cuftom) to chufe wives by the weight, that is, by their wealth. Others fall in love with light wives, I do not mean venerean lightnefs, but in reference to portion. The late Earl of Salisbury gives a caveat for this, "That beauty without a dowry (without that unguentum indicum) is as "a gilded thell without a kernel;" therefore he warns his fon to be fure to have fomething with his wife, and his reafon is," because nothing can be "bought in the market without money." Indeed, it is very fitting that he or the fhould have wherewith to fupport both, according to their quality, at leaft to keep the wolf from the door, otherwife it were a mere madness to marry; but he who hath enough of his own to maintain a wife, and marrieth only for money, difLovereth a poor fordid difpofition. There is nothing that my nature difdains more than to be a flave to filver or gold; for though they both carry the King's face, yet they fhall never reign over me; and I would I were free from all other infir 46 minant. Of all the elements, fire fways moft in me I have many aspiring and airy odd thoughts fwell often in me, according to the quality of the ground whereon I was born, which was the belly of a huge hill fituated fouth-eaft; fo that the houfe I came from (befides my father and mother's coat) muit needs be illuftrious, being more obvious to the funbeams than ordinary. I have, upon occafion of a fudden diftemper, fometimes a madman, fometimes a fool, fometimes a melancholy odd fellow, to deal withal, I mean myfelf, for I have the humours within me that belong to all three; therefore who would caft herself away upon fuch a one? Befides, I came tumbling out into the world a pure cadet, a true cofmopolite; not born to land, leafe, house, or office: it is true, I have purchafed fince a fmall fpot of ground upon Parnaffus, which I hold in fee of the Mufes; and I have endeavoured to manure it as well as I could, though I confefs it hath yielded me little fruit hitherto. And what woman would be so mad as to take that only for her jointure? But to come to the point of wiving, I would have you know, that I have, though never married, divers children already, fome French, fome Latin, one Italian, and many English; and though they be but poor brats of the brain, yet are they legitimate, and Apollo himfelf vouchfafed to co-operate in their production. I have expofed them to the wide world, to try their fortunes; and fome (out of compliment) would make me believe they are long-lived. But to come at laft to your kind of wiving, I acknowledge that marriage is an honourable condition; nor dare I think otherwife without profaneness, for it is the epithet the holy text gives it. Therefore it was a wild fpeech of the philofo philofopher to fay, that "if our converfation could be without women, angels would come down and dwell among us ;" and a wilder fpeech it was of the cynic, when paffing by a tree where a maid had made herfelf away, wifhed that all trees might bear fuch fruit." But I wonder why you write to me of wiving, when you know I have much ado to maintain myself, as I told you before; yet, notwithfanding that the better part of my days are already threaded upon the ftring of time, I will not defpair but I may have a wife at laft that may perhaps enable me to build hofpitals: for although nine long luftres of years have now paffed over my head, and fome winters more (for all my life, confidering the few funfhines I have had, may be called nothing but winters), yet, I thank God for it, I find no fymptom of decay, either in body, fenfes, or intellectuals. But, writing thus extravagantly, methinks I hear you fay, that this letter thews I begin to dote, and grow idle; therefore I will difplay myself no further to you at this time. To tell you the naked truth, my dear Tom, the highest pitch of my aim is, that by fome condition or other I may be enabled at laft (though I be put to fow, the time that others ufe to reap) to quit fcores with the world, but never to cancel that precious obligation wherein I am indiffolubly bound to live and die your true conftant friend. LETTER LV. It is a true badge of a generous nature, being once embarked in a business, to hoife up, and fpread every fail, main, mizen, fprit, and top-fail; by that means he will fooner arrive at his port. If the winds he fo cross, and that there be fuch a fate in the thing, that it can take na effect, yet you shall have wherewith to fatisfy an honeft mind, that you left nothing unattempted to compafs it; for in the conduct of human affairs, it is a rule, That a good confcience hath alway within doors enough to reward itself, though the fuccefs fall not out according to the merit of the endeavour. I was, according to your defire, to vifit the late new-married couple more than once; and to tell you true, I never faw fuch a difparity between two that were made one flesh in all my life: he handfome outwardly, but of odd conditions; the excellently qualified, but hardfavoured: fo that the one may be compared to a cloth of tiffue doublet, cut upon coarfe canvas; the other to a buckram petticoat, lined with fattin. I think Clotho had her fingers fmutted in fnuffing the candle, when the begun to fpin the thread of her life, and Lachefis frowned in twisting it up; but Aglaia, with the reft of the Graces, were in a good humour, when they formed her inner-parts. A blind man is fitteft to hear her fing; one would take delight to fee her dance if mafked; and it would pleafe you to difcourfe with her in the dark, for there the is beft company, if your imagination can forbear to run upon her face. When you marry, I wish you fuch an infide of a wife; but from fuch an outward phif nomy the Lord deliver you, and your From James Heel, Efq; to Mafter faithful friend to ferve you. I Sir, Thomas Adams. Westminster, 25th August 1633. PRAY fir nimbly in the bufinefs you imparted to me lait, and let it not languish; you know how much it concerns your credit, and the conveniency of a friend who deferves fo well of you: I fear you will meet with divers obftacles in the way, which if you cannot remove, you must overcome. A lukewarm irrefolute man did never any thing well; every thought entangles him; therefore you must pursue the point of your defign with heat, and fet all wheels a-going. but the pen wherewith you have fo gafhed him, it feems, was made rather of a porcupine, than a goofe-quill, it is fo keen and firm. You know, Anfer, apis, vitulus, populos & regna gubernant. The goofe, the bee; and the calf (meaning wax, parchment, and the pen), rule the world; but, of the three, the pen is the most predominant. I know you have a commanding one, but you must not let it tyrannize in that manner as you have done lately. Some give out there was a hair in it, or that your ink was too thick with gall, elfe it would not have fo befpattered and fhaken the reputation of a Royal Architect; for reputation, you know, is like a fair ftructure, long time a rearing, but quickly ruined. If your fpirit will not let you retract, yet you shall do well to reprefs any more copies of the Satire; for to deal plainly with you, you have loft fome ground at Court by it; and, as I hear from a good hand, the King, who hath fo great a judgment in poetry (as in all other things elfe), is not well pleafed therewith. Difpenfe with this freedom of your refpectfal S. and fervitor. Sir, LETTER LVII. Weftminster, 15th August 1636. IN my laft I writ to you that C. Mor. was dead (I meant in a moral fenfe). He is now alive again, for he hath abjured that club which was used to knock him in the head fo often, and drown him commonly once a day. I discover divers fymptoms of regeneration in him; for he rails bitterly against Bacchus, and fwears there's a devil in every berry of his grape; therefore he refolves hereafter, though he may dabble a little fometimes, he will be never drowned again. You know Kit hath a poetic fancy, and no unhappy one, as you find by his compofitions; you know alfo, that poets have large fouls, they have fociable free generous fpirits, and there are few who use to drink of Helicon's waters, but they love to mingle it with fome of Lyæus liquor, to heighten their spirits. There is no creature that is kneaded of clay, but hath his frailties, extravagancies, and excedes, fome way or other; for you muit not think that man can be better out of Paradife than he was within it: nemo fine crimine. He that cenfures the good fellow commonly makes no confcience of gluttony and gormandizing at home; and I believe more men do dig their graves with their teeth than with the tankard. They who tax others of vanity and pride have commonly that fordid vice of covetoufnefs attends them; and he who ladies doth bafer things. We are no traduceth others of being a fervant to angels upon earth, but we are transported with fome infirmity or other; and it will be fo while thefe frail flexible humours warm blood running through our veins, reign within as while we have fluices of there must be oft-times fome irregular motions in us. : which the Turks Alcoran fpeaks of; This, as I conceive, is the black-bean when they feign, that Mahomet being afleep among the mountains of the moon, breaft, they took his heart and washed it two angels defcended, and ripping his in fnow, and after pulled out a black bean, which was the portion of the devil; and fo replaced the heart. In your next, you shall do well to congratulate his refurrection, or regeneration, or rather emergency from that courfe he was plunged in formerly; you know it as well as I; and truly I believe he will grow newer and newer every day. We find that a ftumble makes one take firmer footing; and the bafe fuds which vice ufeth to leave behind it makes virtue afterwards far more guftful: no knowledge is like that of contraries. Kit hath now overcome himself; therefore I think he will be too hard for the devil hereafter. I pray hold on your refolution to be here the next term, that we may tattle a little of Tom Thumb, mine hoft of Andover, or fome fuch matters. So I am your most affectionate servitor. LETTER LVIII. From the fame to G. G. Efq; at Rome. Sir, I HAVE more thanks to give you than can be folded up in this narrow paper, though it were all writ in the closest kind of ftenography, for the rich and accurate account you please to give me of that renowned city wherein you now fojourn, I find you have most judiciously pryed into all matters, both civil and clerical, efpecially the latter, by obferving the poverty and penances of the Fryer, the policy and power of the Jefuit, the pomp of the Prelate and Cardinal. Had it not been for the two firft, I believe the two laft, and that fee, had been at a low ebb by this time; for the learning, the prudential ftate, knowledge, and aufterity of the one, and the venerable opinion the people have of the abftemious and rigid condition of the other, efpecially of the Mendicants, feem to make fome compenfation for the lux and magnificence of the two laft: befides, they are more beholden to the Proteftant than they are aware of; for unless he had rifen up about the latter end of this last century of years, which made them more circumfpect and wary of their ways, life, and actions, to what an intolerable high excefs that Court had come to by this time, you may eafily conjecture. But out of my fmall reading I have obferved, that no age, ever fince Gregory the Great, hath paffed, wherein fome or other hath not repined and murmured at the pontifical pomp of that Court: yet, for my part, I have been always fo charitable, as to think that the Religion of Rome and the Court of Rome were different things. The counterbuff that happened betwixt Leo X. and Francis I. of France is very remarkable; who being both met at Bolonia, the King feemed to give a light touch at the Pope's pomp, faying, "It was not ufed to be fo in former times."- It may be fo," faid Leo," but it was then when Kings kept fheep (as we read in the Old "Teftament)."-" No," the King replied, "I fpeak of times under the Gofpel." Then rejoined the Pope, "It was then when Kings did vifit hofpitals;" hinting by thofe words at St. Lewis, who used oft to do fo. It is memorable what is recorded in the Life of Robert Grofthed, Bishop of Lincoln, who lived in the time of one of the Leo's, that he feared the fame fin would overthrow Leo as overthrew Lucifer. For news hence, I know none of your friends but are as well as you left them, bombres y hembras. You are fresh and very frequent in their memory, and mentioned with a thoufand good wishes and benedictions. Among others, you have a large room in the memory of my Lady Elizabeth Cary; and I do not think all Rome can afford you a fairer ledging. I pray be cautious of your carriage under that meridian; it is a fearching (inquifitive) air: you have two eyes and two ears, but one tongue. You know my meaning. This let you mut imprifon (as nature hath already done with a double fence of teeth and lip), or elfe fhe may imprifon you, according to our countryman iur. Holkins's advice, when he was in the lower; Vincula de linguæ, vel tibi lingua dabit. Have a care of your health; take heed of the fyrens, of excess in fruit, and be fure to mingle your wine well with water. No more now, but that in the large catalogue of friends you have left behind here, there's none who is more mindful of you than your most affectionate and faithful fervitor. LETTER LIX. From James Howel, Efq; to Dr. T.P. I The |