intelligence, and the ambaffador's prime tool: nay, the quill is the usefuleft thing which preferves that noble virtue friendfhip, which elfe would perish among men for want of practice. familiar letters well enough. When Queen Elizabeth did firft propofe to him that foreign employment to Flanders, among other encouragements fhe told him, that he fhould have 20s. per diem for his expences. "Then, Madam," faid he, "I will spend 19s. a-day.""What will you do with the odd fhil"ling?" the Queen replied." I will I fhall make no more fallies out of London this fummer, therefore your letters may be fure where to find me. Matters are ftill involved here in a ftrange confufion, but the ftars may let down" referve that for my Kate, and for milder influences; therefore cheer up, "Tom and Dick;" meaning his wife and reprieve yourself againft better times, and children. This induced the Queen for the world would be irksome to me if to enlarge his allowance. But this that you were out of it. Hap what will, you comes laft is the best of all, and may be shall be fure to find me your ready and called the fuperlative of the three; which real fervant. was, when at the overture of the treaty the other ambassadors came to propose in what language they fhould treat, the Spanish ambaffador answered, that the French was the most proper, because his mistress intitled herself Queen of France: "Nay then," faid Dr. Dale, "let us "treat in Hebrew, for your mafter calls "himself King of Jerufalem." LETTER XCIX. From the fame to Mr. T. Morgan. Sir, May 12. RECEIVED two of yours upon Tuefday laft, one to your brother, the other to me; but the fuperfcriptions were mistaken, which makes me think on that famous civilian Doctor Dale, who being employed to Flanders by Queen Elizabeth, fent in a packet to the Secretary of State two letters, one to the Queen, the other to his wife; but that which was I performed the civilities you enjoined me to your friends here, who return you the like centuplicated, and fo doth your entire friend. LETTER C. Madam, Lady E. D. April 8. THERE is a French faying, that cour meant for the Queen was fuperfcribed, From the fame to the Right Honourable the "To his dear Wife ;" and that for his wife," To her most excellent Majesty :" fo that the Queen having opened his let ter, the found it beginning with fweet heart, and afterwards with my dear, and dear love, with fuch expreffions, acquainting her with the ftate of his body, and that he began to want money. You may easily guess what motions of mirth this mistake raised; but the Doctor by this overlight (or cunningness rather) got a fupply of money. This perchance may be your policy, to endorfe me your brother, thereby to endear me the more to you: but you needed not to have done that, for the name friend goes fometimes further than brother; and there be more examples of friends that did facrifice their lives for one another, than of brothers; which the writer doth think he should do for you, if the cafe required. But fince I am fallen upon Dr. Dale, who was a witty kind of droll, I will tell you intead of news (for there is little good ftirring now) two other facetious tales of his; and familiar tales may become tefies and favours are like flowers, which are fweet only while they are fresh, but afterwards they quickly fade and wither. I cannot deny but your favours to me might be compared to fome kind of flowers (and they would make a thick pofie), but they should be to the flower called life everlasting; or that pretty vermilion flower which grows at the foot of the mountain Ætna in Sicily, which never lofes any thing of its first colour and fcent. Thofe favours you did me thirty years ago, in the life-time of you incomparable brother Mr. R. Altham (who left us in the flower of his age), methinks are as fresh to me as if they were done yeûterday. Nor were it any danger to compare courtefies done to me to other flowers, as I use them; for I diftill them in the limbec of my memory, and fo turn them to effences. Eut, Madam, I honour you not fo much for favours, as for that precious brood of virtues, which fhine in you with that brightnefs, but efpecially for thofe high motions whereby your foul foars up fo often towards heaven; informuch, Madam, that if it were fafe to call any mortal a faint, you fhould have that title from me, and I would be one of your chiefeft votaries: howfoever, I may with out any fuperftition fubfcribe myfif your truly devoted fervant. LETTER CI. and is a turned upward, with other differing letters, which yet concur all to the perfection of the whole work. There go many and various diffonant tones to make an harmonious concert. This put me in mind of an excellent paffage which a noble fpeculative Knight (Sir P. Her bert) hath in his late Conceptions to his fon: how a holy anchorite being in a wildernefs, among other contemplations he fell to admire the method of Providence, how out of caufes which seem bad to us he produceth oftentimes good effects; how he fuffers virtuous, loyal, and religions men to be opprefed, and others to profper. As he was tranfported with From James Howel, Figs to the Lord thefe ideas, a goodly young man appeared Marquis of Hartford. My Lord, I RECEIVED Your Lordship's of the 11th current, with the command, it carried, whereof I fhall give an account in my next. Foreign parts afford not ruch matter of intelligence, it being now the dead of winter, and the feafon unit for action. Bat we need not go abroad for news, there is ftere enough at home. We fee daily mighty things, and they are marvellous in our eye; but the greatet toarrel is, that nothing thould now be marvelled at; for we are fo habituated to woader, that they are grown familiar unto us. Foor England may be faid to be like a fhip tolled up and down the targo of a ta,bulent fed, having lol her old pilot; and God knows when the can get into fafe harbour again: yet doubtlefs this tempeft, according to the ufual operations of nature, and the fucceflion of mundane effects by contrary agents, will turn at lalt into a calm, though many who are yet in their nonage my not live to ice it. Your Lordinip Laows that the ziz, this fair frame of the universe, came out of a chaos, an indi yeited lump; and that this dementary world was made of millions of ingredients repugnant to themidves in nature; and the whole is Till preferve 1 by the relost mey ad retreluctncy If coming of the panciples. We 1 e how tapwight doch take ofe of kree thaber and other crof-grained pieces, as well as of firait and even, for fram a goodly veffel to ride on Neptune's back. The printer ufeth many Contrary characters in as art, 10 pet forth a fair yolur: tɔ him, and told him, "Father, I know your thoughts are diftracted, and I am fent to quiet them; therefore if you "will accompany me a few days, you "thall return very well fati.fied of thofe doubts that now encumber your mind.” So geing along with him, they were to paf over a deep river, whereon there was a narrow bridge; and meeting there with another paffenger, the young man juftled him into the water, and fo drowned him. The old anchorite being much aftonich.d hereat, would have left him; but his guide faid, "Father, be not amazed, becaufe I fhall give you good reafons for what I do, and you fall fee ftranger things than this before you and I part; "but at last I thall fettle your judgment, "and put your mind in full repofe." So going that night to lodge in an ina where bauched ruffiar, the young man ftruck there was a crew of banditti, and deinto their company, and revelled with them till the morning, while the anchorite fpent most of the night in numbering his beads: but as foon as they were de parted thence, they met with fome cers who went to apprehend that crew of bandi'ti they had left behind them. The next day they came to houfe, which was a fair palac, where they a gentleman's received all the courteous hofpitality which could be; but in the morning as they parted there was a child in a cradle, which was the only fon of the gentleman; and the young man, fpying his opportunity, ftrangled the child, and fo get away. The third day they came to another inn, where the man of the houfe treated them with all the civility that could be, and gratis; yet the young man embczzled embezzled a filver goblet, and carried it away in his pocket, which ftill increafed the amazement of the anchorite. The fourth day in the evening they came to lodge at another inn, where the hoft was very fullen, and uncivil to him, exacting much more than the value of what they had fpent; yet at parting the young man bestowed upon him the filver goblet he had ftolen from that hoft who had ufed them fo kindly. The fifth day they made towards a great rich town; but fome miles before they came at it, they met with a merchant at the clofe of the day, who had a great charge of money about him; and afking the next paffage to the town, the young man put him in a clean The anchorite and his contrary way. was guide being come to the town, at the gate they fpied a devil, who lay as it were centinel, but he was afleep: they found alfo both men and women at fundry kinds of fports, fome dancing, others finging, with divers forts of revellings. They went afterwards to a convent of Capuchins, where about the gate they found legions of devils laying fiege to that monaftery; yet they got in and lodged there that night. Being awaked the next morning, the young man came to that cell where the anchorite lodged, and told him, "I know your "heart is full of horror, and your head "full of confufion, aftonishments, and " doubts, for what you have seen fince "the first time of our affociation. But "know, I am an angel fent from heaven "to rectify your judgment, as alio to "correct a little your curiofity in the re"fearches of the ways and acts of Pro"vidence too far; for though separately they feem ftrange to the fallow apprehenfion of man, yet conjunctly they all tend to produce good effects. That man which I tumbled into the "river was an act of Providence; for he was going upon a most mischievous dengn, that would have damnified not only his own foal, bat destroyed the party against whom it was intended; thereture I prevented it. Touching the kind hoft from whom men are liable to croffes and loffes, "The caufe way I converfed all night with that crew of rogues was alfo an **act of Providence; for they intended to go a robbing all that night; but I kept them there purpofly till the next morning, that the hand of justice might felze upon them. "teous entertainment, know, that that gentleman was fo indulgent and doting "Now, concerning this great luxu"rious city, whereas we fpied but one "devil who lay afleep without the gate, there being io many about this poor "convent, you must confider, that Lu"cifer being already affured of that riot"ous town by corrupting their manners Ievery day more and more, he needs "but one fingle centinel to fecure it: but "for this holy place of retirement, this "monaftery inhabited by fo many devout "fouls, who fpend their whole lives in "acts of mortification, as exercises of piety and penance, he hath brought fo "many legions to beleaguer them; yet "he can do no good upon them, for they "bear up against him moft undauntedly, maugre all his infernal power and stra"tagems." So the young man, or divine metenger, fuddenly disappeared and vanished, yet leaving his fellow-traveller in good hands. My Lord, I crave your pardon for this extravagancy, and the tedioufnefs there. of; but I hope the fublimity of the mat. ter will make fome compenfatior, which, if I am not deceived, will well fuit with your genius; for I know your contemplations to be as high as your condition, and as much above the vulgar. T. figurative tory fhews that the ways of Providence are infcrutable, his intention and method of operation not conformable oftentimes to human judgment, the plummet and fine whereof is infinitly to fort to fathom the depth of his defigna: 23 there 1 therefore let us acquiefce in an humble admiration, and with this confidence, that all things co-operate to the beft at laft, as they relate to his glory and the general good of his creatures, though fometimes they appear to us by uncouth circumftances and crofs mediums. So in a due distance and pofture of humility I kifs your Lordship's hands, as being, my most highly honoured Lord, your thrice obedient and obliged fervitor. LETTER CII. s penny. can make true ufe of his riches: he Now, it is obferved to be the nature From James Howel, Efq; to Mr. R. Mayn- I believe fprung the city proverb, that waring. My dear Dick, IF you are as well when you read this, as I was when I wrote it, we are both well; I am certain of the one, but anxious of the other, in regard of your fo long filence. I pray, at the return of this poft let your pen pull out this thorn that hath got into my thoughts, and let me have often room in yours, for you know I am your perfect friend, &c. LETTER CIII. From the fame to Sir R. Williams, Knight. I Aм one among many who much rejoice at the fortunate windfall that happened lately, which hath so fairly raised and recruited your fortunes. It is commonly feen, that Ubi eft multum phantafie (viz. ingenii) ibi eft parum fortune; & ubi eft multum fortune, ibi eft parum phantafie: Where there is much of fancy, there is little of fortune; and where there is much of fortune, there is little of fancy. It feems that Recorder Fleetwood reflected upon one part of this faying, when, in his speech to the Londoners, among other paffages whereby he foothed and ftroked them, he faid, When I confider your wit, I admire "your wealth." But touching the Latin faying, it is quite evinced in you, for you have fancy and fortune (now) in abundance and a strong argument may be drawn, that Fortune is not blind, by her carriage to you; for fhe faw well enough what he did, when she smiled fo lately upon you. Now, he is the really rich man who "The fon is happy whofe father went to Your friend Mr. Watts is ftill troubled as the A dry cough is the trumpeter of death." He prefents his most affectionate respects to you, and fo doth, my moft noble Knight, your ever obliged fervitor. LETTER CIV. the late Hiftory tranflated by Mr. which accrue to a reader of history, one Now, among thofe fundry advantages is, that no modern accident can feem ftrange to him, much less aftonish him. He will leave off wondering at any thing, in regard he may remember to have read of the fame, or much like the fame, that happened in former times: therefore he doth doth not ftand ftaring like a child at every unufual fpectacle, like that fimple American, who, the first time he faw a Spaniard on horseback, thought the man and the beaft to be but one creature, and that the horfe did chew the rings of his bit, and eat them. Now, indeed, not to be an hiftorian, that is, not to know what foreign nations and our forefathers did, boc eft femper effe puer, as Cicero hath it, this is ftill to be a child who gazeth at every thing: whence may be inferred, there is no knowledge that ripeneth the judgment, and puts one out of his nonage, fooner than history. his wife," &c. But a little after, fome of Juan de Padillia's foldiers having quartered in his houfe, and pitifully plundered him, the next Sunday the fame prieft faid in the church, "Beloved "Kate: I charge you therefore pray no Chriftians, you know how Juan de "Padillia paffing this way, fome of his "brigade were billeted in my houfe: If I had not formerly read the Barons "truly they have not left me one wars in England, I had more admired "chicken; they have drunk up a whole that of the Leaguers in France. He " barrel of wine, devoured my bacon, who had read the near-upon fourfcore" and taken away my Catalina, my maid years wars in Low Germany, I believe, never wondered at the late thirty years wars in High Germany. I had wondered more that Richard of Bourdeaux was knocked down with halberds, had I not read formerly that Edward of Carnarvon was made away by a hot iron thruft up his fundament. It was ftrange that Murat the great Ottoman Emperor fhould be lately ftrangled in his own Court at Conftantinople; yet confidering that Ofman his predeceffor had been knocked down by one of his crainary flaves not many years before, it was not Arange at all. The blazing-far in Virgo 34 years fince did not feem range to him who had read of that which appeared in Caffiopeia and other contellat me years before. Hence may be inferred, that hiftory is the great lookthrough which we may behold with central eyes, not only the various altura of This history will difplay the very L in other nations. Among divers other easies LETTER CY From the jame to the Lari Bay of could be produced out of his brause will infance in one: Wafael |