POSTSCRIPT. THERE was a certain Pisander whose name has been preserved in one of the proverbial sayings of the Greeks, because he lived in continual fear of seeing his own ghost. How often have I seen mine while arranging these volumes for publication, and carrying them through the press! Twenty years have elapsed since the intention of composing them was conceived, and the composition commenced, in what manner and in what mood the reader will presently be made acquainted. The vicissitudes which in the course of those years have befallen every country in Europe are known to every one; and the changes, which, during such an interval, must have occurred in a private family, there are few who may not, from their own sad experience, readily apprehend. He has neither expunged nor altered any thing on any of these accounts. It would be weakness to do this on the score of his own remembrances, and in the case of allusions to public affairs and to public men it would be folly. The Almanack of the current year will be an old one as soon as next year begins. It is the writer's determination to remain unknown; and they who may suppose that By certain signs here set in sundry place, they have discovered him, will deceive themselves. A Welsh Triad says that the three unconcealable traits of a person by which he shall be known, are the glance of his eye, the pronunciation of his speech, and the mode of his self-motion; in briefer English, his look, his voice, and his gait. There are no such characteristics by which an author can be identified. He must be a desperate mannerist who can be detected by his style, and a poor proficient in his art if he cannot at any time so vary it, as to put the critic upon a false scent. Indeed every day's experience shows that they who assume credit to themselves, and demand it from others for their discrimination in such things, are continually and ridiculously mistaken. Circumstances which when they were touched upon in these volumes were of present importance, and excited a lively interest, belong now to the history of the past. They who were then the great performers upon the theatre of public life have fretted their hour and disappeared from the stage. Many who were living and flourishing when their names were here sportively or severely introduced are gone to their account. The domestic circle which the introduction describes has in the ordinary course of things been broken up; some of On that side the author is safe; he has a its members are widely separated from sure reliance upon the honour as well as the others, and some have been laid to rest. discretion of the very few to whom he is The reader may well believe that certain naturally or necessarily known; and if the passages which were written with most various authors to whom the Book will be joyousness of heart, have been rendered ascribed by report, should derive any gratipurely painful to the writer by time and fication from the perusal, he requests of change and that some of his sweetest them in return that they will favour his thoughts come to him in chewing the cud, purpose by allowing such reports to pass like wormwood and gall. But it is a uncontradicted. wholesome bitterness. Je vas de nouveau percer mon tonneau, et de la traicte, laquelle par deux precedents volumes vous est assez cogneuë, vous tirer du creuz de nos passetemps epicenaires un galant tiercin, et consecutivement un joyeux quart de sentences Pantagruelliques. Par moy vous sera licite les appeller Diogeniques. — Et peur n'ayez que le vin faille. - Autant que vous en tireray par la dille, autant en entonneray per le bondon. Ainsi demourera le tonneau inerpuisible. Il a source vive et veine perpetuelle. RABELAIS. The wholesom'st meats that are will breed satiety Except we should admit of some variety. In music, notes must be some high, some base. And this I say, these pages have intendment, Still kept within the lists of good sobriety, To work in men's ill manners good amendment. Wherefore if any think the book unseasonable, Their stoic minds are foes to good society, And men of reason may think them unreasonable. It is an act of virtue and of piety, To warn men of their sins in any sort, SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. The great cement that holds these several discourses together is one main design which they jointly drive at, and which, I think, is confessedly generous and important, namely, the knowledge of true happiness, so far as reason can cut her way through those darknesses and difficulties she is encumbered with in this life: which though they be many and great, yet I should helie the sense of my own success, if I should pronounce them insuperable; as also, if I were deprived of that sense, should lose many pleasures and enjoyments of mind, which I am now conscious to myself of: amongst which, there is none so considerable as that tacit reflection within myself, what real service may be rendered to religion by these my labours. HENRY MORE. Scribere fert animus multa et diversa, nec uno PALINGENIUS. Ja n'est besoin (amy Lecteur!) t'escrire Le tien esprit, et ton temps passeras. JEAN FAVRE Lector, esto libro te ofrezco, sin que me aya mandado Señor alguno que le escriva, ni menos me ayan importunado mis amigos que le estampe, sino solamente por mi MONTALVAN. gusto, por mi antojo y por mi voluntad. The reader must not expect in this work merely the private uninteresting history of a single person. He may expect whatever curious particulars can with any propriety be connected with it. Nor must the general disquisitions and the incidental narratives of the present work be ever considered as actually digressionary in their natures, and as merely useful in their notices. They are all united with the rest, and form proper parts of the whole. They have some of them a necessary connexion with the history of the Doctor; they have many of them an intimate relation, they have all of them a natural affinity to it. And the Author has endeavoured, by a judicious distribution of them through the work, to prevent that disgusting uniformity, and to take off that uninteresting personality, which must necessarily result from the merely barren and private annals of an obscure individual. He has thus in some measure adopted the elegant principles of modern gardening. He has thrown down the close hedges and the high walls that have confined so many biographers in their views. He has called in the scenes of the neighbouring country to his aid, and has happily combined them into his own plan. He has drawn off the attention from the central point before it became languid and exhausted, by fetching in some objects from society at large, or by presenting some view of the philosophy of man. But he has been cautious of multiplying objects in the wantonness of refinement, and of distracting the attention with a confused variety. He has always considered the history of the Doctor, as the great fixed point, the enlivening centre, of all his excursions. Every opening is therefore made to carry an actual reference, either mediate or immediate, to the regular history of the Doctor. And every visto is employed only for the useful purpose of breaking the stiff straight lines, of lighting up the dark, of heightening the little, and of colouring over the lifeless, in the regular history of the Doctor. Preface to WHITAKER'S History of Manchester, mutatis mutandis. Scripta legis passim quamplurima, lector, in orbe, Out of the old fieldes, as men saith, Cometh all this new corn fro' year to year; And out of old bookes, in good faith, CHAUCER. [Prefixed to Vol. IV. in the original Edition.] PRELUDE OF MOTTOES. TO THE READER IN ORDINARY. The Muses forbid that I should restrain your meddling, whom I see already busy with the title, and tricking over the leaves: it is your own. I departed with my right, when I let it first abroad; and now so secure an interpreter I am of my chance, that neither praise nor dispraise from you can affect me. The commendation of good things may fall within a many, the approbation but in a few; for the most commend out of affection, self-tickling, an easiness or imitation; but men judge only out of knowledge. That is the trying faculty; and to those works that will bear a judge, nothing is more dangerous than a foolish praise. You will say, I shall not have yours therefore; but rather the contrary, all vexation of censure. If I were not above such molestations now, I had great cause to think unworthily of my studies, or they had so of me. But I leave you to your exercise. Begin. BEN JONSON. Je n'adresse point ce Livre à un Grand, sur une vaine opinion que j'aurois de la garantir ou de l'envie, ou de le faire vivre contre les rudes assauts du temps, d'autant que sa principale recommendation doit deriver de son propre fonds, et non de l'appuy de celuy à qui je le dedierois : car rien ne l'auctorisera, s'il n'est remply de belles conceptions, et tissu d'un langage bref, nerveux, et escrit d'une plume franche, resoluë et hardie. La rondeur d'escrire plaist; ces choses sont pour donner priz et pointe à nos escrits, et dépiter le temps et la mort. Je prie Dieu que ces Tomes ressemblent à la beauté d'un jardin, duquel l'un cueille une belle rose, l'autre une violette, ou une giroflee; ainsi souhaitay-je qu'en ceste diversité de sujects, dont elles sont plaines, chacun tire dequoy resveiller, resjouyr et contenter son esprit. NICOLAS PASQUIER. Non ego me methodo astringam serviliter ullâ, COWLEY. Convien che varie cose al mondo sia, Come son varj volti e vario ingegno, Forse coloro ancor che leggeranno PULCI. Si ne suis je toutesfois hors d'esperance, que si quelqu'un daigne lire, et bien gouster ces miens escrits, (encores que le langage n'en soit eslové, ny enflé) il ne les trouvera du tout vuides de saveur; ny tant desgarniz d'utilité, qu'ils n'en puissent tirer plaisir et profit, pourveu que leurs esprits ne soyent auparavant saisiz de mal vueillance, ou imbuz de quelques autres mauvaises opinions. Je prie doncques tous Lecteurs entrer en la lecture ds presents discours, delivres de toute passion et emulation. Car quand l'amertume d'envie ou mal vueillance, est detrempee en desir de contredire, elle ne laisse jamais le goust que depravé et mal jugeant. PIERRE DE ST. JULIEN. Read, and fear not thine own understanding; this book will create a clear one in thee; and when thou hast considered thy purchase, thou wilt call the price of it a charity to thyself. SHIRLEY. One caveat, good Reader, and then God speed thee !——— Do not open it at adventures, and by reading the broken pieces of two or three lines, judge it; but read it through, and then I beg no pardon if thou dislikest it. Farewell. THOMAS ADAMS. Listen while my tongue AKENSIDE. Δεῦς' ἔλθ ̓, ὅπως ἂν καὶ σοφώτερος γένη. EURIPIDES. [Prefixed to Vol. V. in the original Edition.] PRELUDE OF MOTTOES. See here, see here, a Doctor rare, Come take his pills, - they cure all ills, Put it on your tif-taf. THE BISHOPRICK GARLAND. Quod virgo proba, quod stolata mater, Quod purus posità severitate Jam post pulpita perlegat sacerdos. T.L. ON SIR WM. KILLIGREW'S SELINDRA. I entered on this work certainly with considerable materials, and since engaging in it, in reading, in thinking, in correcting and improving, I have proportioned my labours to my undertaking. Every step 1 advanced, I did but more clearly see how much farther I might go. Here too readers and some writers may be reminded of the effect produced by finding a pleasure in your employ ment; some burdens are sweet; you lose the sense of weight by the deceptions of fancy and occasional rests; and in proportion as your journey becomes more agreeable, you are in danger of growing more dilatory. GEORGE DYER. Si tu tombes entre les mains de ceux qui ne voyent rien d'autruy que pour y trouver sujet de s'y desplaire, et qu'ils te reprochent que ton Docteur est ennuyeux; responds leur qu'il est à leur choix de lui voir cu ne lui voir point, -Si tu te trouves parmy ceux qui font profession d'interpreter les songes, et descouvrir les pensées plus secretles d'autruy, et qu'ils asseurent que est un tel homme et une telle femme; ne leur respond rien; car ils sçavent assez qu'ils ne sçavent pas ce qu'ils disent: mais supplie ceur qui pourroient estre abusez de leurs fictions, de considerer que si ces choses ne m'importent, j'aurois eu bien peu d'esprit de les avoir voulu dissimuler et ne l'avoir sceu faire. Que si en ce qu'ils diront, il n'y a guere d'apparence, il ne les faut pas croire: et s'il y en a beaucoup, a faut penser que pour couvrir la chose que je voulois tenir cachée et ensevelie, je l'eusse autrement desguisée. ASTRÉE-mutatis mutandis. I would not be in danger of that law of Moses, that if a man dig a pit and cover it not, he must recompense those which are damnified by it; which is often interpreted of such as shake old opinions, and do not establish new as certain, but leave consciences in a worse danger than they found them in. I believe that law of Moses hath in it some mystery and appliableness; for by that law men are only then bound to that indemnity and compensation, if an ox or an ass, (that is such as are of a strong constitution and accustomed to labour) fall therein; but it is not said so, if a sheep or a goat fall: no more are we if men in a silliness or wantonness will stumble or take a scandal, bound to rectify them at all times. And therefore because I justly presume you strong and watchful enough, I make account that I am not obnoxious to that law; since my meditations are neither too wide nor too deep for you. DONNE'S LETTERS. Such an author consulted in a morning sets the spirits for the vicissitudes of the day, better than the glass does a man's person. SIR RICHARD STEELE. We content ourselves to present to thinking minds, the original seeds from whence spring vast fields of new theories, that may be further cultivated, beautified and enlarged. Truth however being of a coherent nature, it is impossible to separate one branch from another and see it in all its beauty. I beg therefore my readers not to judge of the work by parcels, but to continue to the end, that so they may see the connection of every part with the whole. Scattered rays do not always enlighten; but when reunited they give a mutual lustre to each other. THE CHEVALIER RAMSAY. I must be allowed my freedom in my studies, for I substitute my writings for a game at the tennis-court or a club at the tavern. I never counted among my honours these opuscula of mine, but merely as harmless amusements. It is my partridge, as with St. John; my cat, as with Pope St. Gregory; my little dog, as with St. Dominic; my lamb, as with St. Francis; (my pig, he might have said as with St. Antony,) my great black mastiff, as with Cornelius Agrippa; and my tame hare, as with Justus CATHERINOT. Lipsius. As quoted and translated by D'ISRAELI. To ignorants obdurde, quhair wilfull errour lyis, JAMES I. Albeit I have studied much and learned little, yet I have learned to glean some handfulls of corn out of the rankest cockle; to make choice of the most fragrant flowers of humanity, the most virtuous herbs of philosophy, the most sovereign fruits of government, and the most heavenly manna of divinity; to be acquainted with the fairest, provided for the foulest, delighted with the temperatest, pleased with the meanest, and contented with all weather -greater men may profess and can achieve greater matters: I thank God I know the length, that is the shortness of my own foot. If it be any man's pleasure to extenuate my sufficiency in other knowledge, or practise to empeach my ability in words or deeds, to debase my fortune, to abridge my commendations, or to annihilate my fame, he shall find a cold adversary of him that hath laid hot passions watering, and might easily be induced to be the invective of his own non proficiency. GABRIEL HARVEY. Prefixed to Vol. VI. in the original Edition.] PRELUDE OF MOTTOES. Two thyngys owyth every clerk Look for no splendid painted outside here, A thing low prized in these too high-flown days: Love true solidity. And unto such brave noble souls I write, I care for no such noise. I write it only for the sober sort, Who love right learning, and will labour for't; By nine-tenths of the nation. I writ it also out of great good will Of it, without abuse. THOMAS MACE Physicians are many times forced to leave such methods of curing as themselves know to be the fittest, and being overruled by their patient's impatiency are fain to try the best they can in taking that way of cure, which the cured will yield unto: in like sort, considering how the case doth stand with this present age, full of tongue and weak of brain, behold we yield to the stream thereof: into the causes of goodness we will not make any curious or deep inquiry; to touch them now and then it shall be sufficient, when they are so near at hand that easily they may be conceived without any far removed discourse. That way we are contented to prove, which being the worse in itself, is notwithstanding now, by reason of common imbecility, HOOKER. the fitter and likelier to be brooked. Je sçay qu'en ce discours l'on me pourra reprendre, que j'ay mis beaucoup de particularitez qui sont fort superflues. Je le crois: mais, je sçay, que si elles desplaisent à aucuns, elles plairont aux autres: me semblant, que ce n'est pas assez, quand on louë des personnes, dire qu'elles sont belles, sages, vertueuses, valeureuses, vaillantes, magnanimes, libérales, splendides et très-parfaites. Ce sont louanges et descriptions genérales, et lieux-communs empruntez de tout le monde. Il en faut specifier bien le tout, et descrire particulièrement les perfections, afin que micux on les touche au doigt: et telle est mon opinion. BRANTOME. |