Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

may be true what Mandevil writes of the isle of Somabarre, in the East Indies, that all the nobility thereof brand their faces with a hot iron in token of honour.

He that boasts of sins never committed is a double devil. Let them be well whipped for their lying, and, as they like that, let them come afterwards, and entitle themselves to the gallows.

OF TRAVELLING.

It is a good accomplishment to a man if first the stock be well grown whereon travel is graffed, and these rules observed before, in, and after his going abroad :

Travel not early before thy judgment be risen, lest thou observest rather shows than substance, marking alone pageants, pictures, beautiful buildings, &c.

Get the language (in part), without which key thou shalt unlock little of moment. It is a great advantage to be one's own interpreter. Object not that the French tongue learnt in England must be unlearnt again in France; for it is easier to add than begin, and to pronounce than to speak.

Be well settled in thine own religion, lest, travelling out of England into Spain, thou goest out of God's blessing into the warm sun.

Know most of the rooms of thy native country before thou goest over the threshold thereof, especially seeing England presents thee with so many observables. But late writers lack nothing but age, and home-wonders but distance, to make them admired. It is a tale what Josephus writes of the two pillars set up by the sons of Seth in Syria, the one of brick, fire-proof, the other of stone, water-free, thereon engraving many heavenly matters to perpetuate learning in defiance of time. But it is truly moralized in our universities, Cambridge (of brick), and Oxford (of stone), wherein learning and religion are preserved, and where the worst college is more sight-worthy than the best Dutch gymnasium. First view these and the rest home rarities; not like

those English that can give a better account of Fontainebleau than Hampton Court, of the Spa than Bath, of Anas in Spain than Mole in Surrey.

Travel not beyond the Alps. Mr. Ascham did thank God that he was but nine days in Italy, wherein he saw in one city (Venice) more liberty to sin than in London he ever heard of in nine years. That some of our gentry have gone thither, and returned thence without infection, I more praise God's providence than their adventure.

To travel from the sun is uncomfortable; yet the northern parts with much ice have some crystal, and want not their remarkables.

If thou wilt see much in a little, travel the Low Countries. Holland is all Europe in an Amsterdam print; for Minerva, Mars, and Mercury-learning, war, and traffic.

Be wise in choosing objects, diligent in marking, careful in remembering of them. Yet herein men much follow their own humours. One asked a barber, who never before had been at the court, what he saw there? "Oh," said he, "the king was excellently well trimmed." Thus merchants most mark foreign havens, exchanges, and marts; soldiers note forts, armouries, and magazines; scholars listen after libraries, disputations, and professors; statesmen observe courts of justice, councils, &c. Every one is partial in his own profession.

Labour to distil and unite into thyself the scattered perfections of several nations. But (as it was said of one who, with more industry than judgment, frequented a college library, and commonly made use of the worst notes he met with in any authors, that he weeded the library), many weed foreign countries, bringing home Dutch drunkenness, Spanish pride, French wantonness, and Italian atheism. As for the good herbs, Dutch industry, Spanish loyalty, French courtesy, and Italian frugality, these they leave behind them. Others bring home just nothing; and, because they singled not them

VOL. II.

selves from their countrymen, though some years beyond the sea, were never out of England.

Continue correspondence with some choice foreign friend after thy return, as some professor or secretary, who virtually is the whole university or state. It is but a dull Dutch fashion, their Albus Amicorum, to make a dictionary of their friends' names: but a selected familiar in every country is useful; betwixt you there may be a letter of exchange. But sure to return as good wares as thou receivest, and acquaint him with the remarkables of thy own country, and he will willingly continue the trade, finding it equally gainful.

Let discourse rather be easily drawn than willingly flow from thee, that thou mayest not seem weak to hold, or desirous to vent news, but content to gratify thy friends. Be sparing in reporting improbable truths, especially to the vulgar, who, instead of informing their judgments, will suspect thy credit. Disdain their peevish pride who rail on their native land (whose worse fault is that it bred such ungrateful fools), and in all their discourses prefer foreign countries, herein showing themselves of kin to the wild Irish, in loving their nurses better than their mothers.

OF COMPANY.

Company is one of the greatest pleasures of the nature of man, for the beams of joy are made hotter by reflection when related to another; and, otherwise, gladness itself must grieve for want of one to express itself to.

It is unnatural for a man to court and hug solitariness. It is observed, that the further islands in the world are so seated that there is none so remote but that from some shore of it another island or continent may be discerned, as if hereby nature invited countries to a mutual commerce one with another. Why, then, should any man affect to environ himself with so deep and great reservedness, as not to communicate with the society of others? And, though we pity those who made

solitariness their refuge in time of persecution, we must condemn such as choose it in the church's prosperity; for well may we count him not well in his wits who will always live under a bush, because others in a storm shelter themselves under it.

If thou beest cast into bad company, like Hercules, thou must sleep with thy club in thine hand, and stand on thy guard. I mean, if, against thy will, the tempest of an unexpected occasion drives thee amongst such rocks, then be thou like the river Dee in Merionethshire, in Wales, which, running through Pimblemeer, remains entire, and mingles not her streams with the waters of the lake. Though with them, be not of them; keep civil communion with them, but separate from their sins. And if against thy will thou fallest amongst wicked men, know to thy comfort thou art still in thy calling, and therefore in God's keeping, who on thy prayers will preserve thee.

The company he keeps is the comment, by help whereof men expound the most close and mystical man, understanding him for one of the same religion, life, and manners with his associates; and though, perchance, he be not such an one, it is just he should be counted so for conversing with them. Augustus Cæsar came thus to discern his two daughters' inclinations; for being once at a public show where much people was present, he observed that the grave senators talked with Livia, but loose youngsters and riotous persons with Julia.

He that eats cherries with noblemen shall have his eyes spirted out with the stones. This outlandish proverb hath in it an English truth, that they who constantly converse with men far above their estates shall reap shame and loss thereby. If thou payest nothing, they will count thee a sucker, no branch-a wen, no member of their company. If in payments thou keepest pace with them, their long strides will soon tire thy short legs. The beavers in New England, when some ten of them together draw a stick to the building of their lodging, set the weakest beavers to the lighter

end of the log, and the strongest take the heaviest part thereof: whereas men often lay the greatest burthen on the weakest back; and great persons, to teach meaner men to learn their distance, take pleasure to make them pay for their company. I except such men who, having some excellent quality, are, gratis, very welcome to their betters; such an one, though he pays not a penny of the shot, spends enough in lending them his time and discourse.

To affect always to be the best of the company argues a base disposition. Gold always worn in the same purse with silver loses both of the colour and weight; and so to converse always with inferiors degrades a man of his worth. Such there are that love to be the lords of the company, whilst the rest must be their tenants, as if bound by their lease to approve, praise, and admire whatsoever they say. These, knowing the lowness of their parts, love to live with dwarfs, that they may seem proper men. To come amongst their equals, they count it an abridgment of their freedom, but to be with their betters they deem it flat slavery.

It is excellent for one to have a library of scholars; especially if they be plain to read; I mean of a communicative nature, whose discourses are as full as fluent, and their judgments as right as their tongues ready-such men's talk shall be thy lectures.

Repository of Arts.

THE MILK-MAID AND THE BANKER.

A MILK-MAID with a very pretty face,

Who lived at Acton,

Had a black cow, the ugliest in the place,

A crooked-back'd one;

A beast as dangerous, too, as she was frightful,
Vicious and spiteful,

And so confirm'd a truant, that she bounded
Over the hedges daily, and got pounded.

« ElőzőTovább »