*

pany. Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself, nor be only content, but delight to be alone and single with Omnipresency. He who is thus prepared, the day is not uneasy nor the night black unto him. Darkness may bound his eyes, not his imagination. In his bed he may lie, like Pompey and his sons, in all quarters of the earth; may speculate the universe, and enjoy the whole world in the hermitage of himself. Thus the old ascetick Christians found a paradise in a desert, and with little converse on earth held a conversation in heaven; thus they astronomized in caves, and though they beheld not the stars, had the glory of heaven before them.

X. Let the characters of good things stand indelibly in thy mind, and thy thoughts be active on them. Trust not too much unto suggestions from reminiscential amulets, or artificial memorandums. Let the mortifying Janus of Covarrubias be in thy daily thoughts, not only on thy hand and signets. Rely not alone upon silent and dumb

* Pompeios Juvenes Asia atque Europa, sed ipsum terra tegit Libyes.

+Don Sebastian de Covarrubias, writ three centuries of moral emblems in Spanish. In the 88th of the second century he sets down two faces averse, and conjoined Janus-like; the one a

1

remembrances. Behold not deaths'-heads till thou
dost not see them, nor look upon mortifying objects
till thou overlookest them. Forget not how assue-
faction unto any thing minorates the passion from
it, how constant objects lose their hints, and steal
an inadvertisement upon us.
There is no excuse
to forget what every thing prompts unto us. To
thoughtful observators, the whole world is a phy-
lactery, and every thing we see an item of the
wisdom, power, or goodness of God. Happy are
they who verify their amulets, and make their
phylacteries speak in their lives and actions. To
run on in despight of the revulsions and pull-backs
of such remoras, aggravates our transgressions.
When deaths'-heads on our hands have no influ-
ence upon our heads, and fleshless cadavers abate
not the exorbitances of the flesh; when crucifixes
upon men's hearts suppress not their bad commo-
tions, and his image who was murdered for us
withholds not from blood and murder; phylacteries
prove but formalities, and their despised hints
sharpen our condemnations.

gallant beautiful face, the other a death's-head face, with this motto out of Ovid's Metamorphosis,

Quid fuerim, quid simque, vide,

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XI. Look not for whales in the Euxine sea, or expect great matters where they are not to be found. Seek not for profundity in shallowness, or fertility in a wilderness. Place not the expectation of great happiness here below, or think to find heaven on earth; wherein we must be content with embryonfelicities, and fruitions of doubtless faces. For the circle of our felicities makes but short arches. In every clime we are in a periscian state, and with our light our shadow and darkness walk about us. Our contentments stand upon the tops of pyramids ready to fall off, and the insecurity of their enjoyments abrupteth our tranquillities. What we magnify is magnificent, but, like to the colossus, noble without, stufft with rubbidge and coarse metal within. Even the sun, whose glorious outside we behold, may have dark and smoky entrails. In vain we admire the lustre of any thing seen; that which is truly glorious is invisible. Paradise was but a part of the earth, lost not only to our fruition but our knowledge. And if, according to old dictates, no man can be said to be happy before death, the happiness of this life goes for nothing before it be over, and while we think ourselves happy we do but usurp that name. Certainly true beatitude

F F

groweth not on earth, nor hath this world in it the expectations we have of it. He swims in oil, and

can hardly avoid sinking,

foundations to support him.

who hath such light

'Tis therefore happy

that we have two worlds to hold on. To enjoy true happiness we must travel into a very far country, and even out of ourselves; for the pearl we seek for is not to be found in the Indian, but in the empyrean ocean.

XII. Answer not the spur of fury, and be not prodigal or prodigious in revenge. Make not one in the Historia horribilis,* slay not thy servant for a broken glass, nor pound him in a mortar who offendeth thee; supererogate not in the worst sense, and overdo not the necessities of evil; humour not the injustice of revenge. Be not stoically mistaken in the equality of sins, nor commutatively iniquous in the valuation of transgressions; but weigh them in the scales of heaven, and by the weights of righteous reason. Think that revenge too high, which is but level with the offence. Let thy arrows of revenge fly short, or be aimed like those of Jonathan, to fall beside the mark. Too many there be to whom a dead enemy smells well, and

* A book so intitled, wherein are sundry horrid accounts.

who find musk and amber in revenge. The ferity of such minds holds no rule in retaliations, requiring too often a head for a tooth, and the supreme revenge for trespasses which a night's rest should obliterate. But patient meekness takes injuries like pills, not chewing but swallowing them down, laconically suffering, and silently passing them over; while angered pride makes a noise, like Homerican Mars,* at every scratch of offences. Since women do most delight in revenge, it may seem but feminine manhood to be vindicative. If thou must needs have thy revenge of thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his bones,† heap coals of fire on his head, forgive him and enjoy it. To forgive our enemies is a charming way of revenge, and a short Cæsarian conquest, overcoming without a blow; laying our enemies at our feet, under sorrow, shame, and repentance; leaving our foes our friends, and solicitously inclined to grateful retaliations. Thus to return upon our adversaries is a healing way of revenge; and to do good for evil a soft and melting ultion, a method taught from hea

* Tu miser exclamas, ut Stentora vincere possis, Vel potius quantum Gradivus Homericus.-Juv. + A soft tongue breaketh the bones.-Prov. xxv. 15.