WHoever Converses much among the Old Books, will be something hard to please among the New; yet these must have their Part too in the leisure of an idle Man, and have many of them, their Beauties as well as their Defaults. Those of Story, or Relations of matter of Fact, have a value from their Substance, as much as from their Form, and the va­riety of Events, is seldom without En­tertainment or Instruction, how indif­ferently soever the Tale is told. Other sorts of Writings have little of esteem, but what they receive from the Wit, Learning, or Genius of the Authors, and are seldom met with of any excellency, [Page 4] because they do but trace over the Paths that have been beaten by the Ancients or Comment Critick and Flou­rish upon them; and are at best but Copies after those Originals, unless upon Subjects never touched by them; such as are all that relate to the different Constitutions of Religions, Laws, or Governments in several Countries, with all matters of Controversie that arise upon them.

Two Pieces that have lately pleased me (abstracted from any of these Sub­jects) are, one in English upon the Anti­deluvian World; and another in French, upon the Plurality of Worlds; one Writ by a Divine, and the other by a Gentle­man, but both very finely in their se­veral Kinds, and upon their several Subjects, which would have made very poor work in common hands: I was so pleased with the last (I mean the Fashion of it, rather than the Matter, which is old and beaten) that I enquired for what else I could of the same hand, till I met with a small Piece concern­ing Poesie, which gave me the same ex­ception to both these Authors, whom I should otherwise have been very par­tial to. For the first, could not end his [Page 5] Learned Treatise, without a Panegy­rick of Modern Learning, and Know­ledge in comparison of the Ancient: And the other falls so grosly into the censure of the Old Poetry, and prefe­rence of the New, that I could not read either of these Strains, without some indignation, which no quality among Men is so apt to raise in me as Suf­ficiency, the worst composition out of the pride and ignorance of Mankind. But these two, being not the only Per­sons of the Age that defend these O­pinions, it may be worth examining how far either Reason or Experience can be allowed to plead or determin in their favor.

The Force of all that I have met with upon this Subject, either in Talk or Writing, is, First, as to Knowledge, That we must have more than the An­cients, because we have the advantage both of theirs and our own, which is commonly illustrated by the Similitude of a Dwarfs standing upon a Gyants Shoulders, and seeing more or farther than he. Next, as to Wit or Genius, that Nature being still the same, these must be much at a Rate in all Ages, at least in the same Clymates, as the [Page 6] Growth and Size of Plants and Ani­mals commonly are: And if both these are allowed, they think the Cause is gained. But I cannot tell why we should conclude, that the Ancient Wri­ters had not as much Advantage from the Knowledge of others, that were Ancient to them, as we have from those that are Ancient to us. The In­vention of Printing, has not perhaps multiplied Books, but only the Copies of them; and if we believe there were Six Hundred Thousand in the Library of Ptolomy, we shall hardly pretend to equal it by any of ours, nor perhaps, by all put together; I mean so many Originals, that have lived any time, and thereby given Testimony of their having been thought worth preserving. For the Scribbles are infinite, that like Mushrooms or Flies, are born and die in small circles of time; whereas Books like Proverbs, receive their Chief Value from the Stamp and Esteem of Ages through which they have pas­sed. Besides, the account of this Li­brary at Alexandria, and others very Voluminous in the lesser Asia and Rome, we have frequent mention of Ancient Writers in many of those Books which [Page 7] we now call Ancient, both Philoso­phers and Historians. 'Tis true, that besides what we have in Scripture con­cerning the Original and Progress of the Jewish Nation; all that passed in the rest of our World before the Tro­jan War, is either sunk in the depths of Time, wrapt up in the Mysteries of Fables, or so maimed by the want of Testimonies and loss of Authors, that it appears to us in too obscure a light, to make any Judgment upon it. For the Fragments of Manethon about the Antiquities of Egypt, the Relations in Justin concerning the Scythian Em­pire, and many others in Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, as well as the Records of China, make such Excursions be­yond the periods of Time given us by the Holy Scriptures, that we are not allowed to Reason upon them. And this disagreement it self after so great a part of the World became Christian, may have contributed to the loss of many ancient Authors. For Solomon tells us even in his time, of Writing many Books there was no end; and whoever considers the Subject and the Style of Job, which by many is thought more ancient than Moses, will hardly [Page 8] think it was Written in an Age or Country that wanted either Books or Learning; and yet he speaks of the Ancients then and their Wisdom as we do now.

But if any should so very rashly and presumptuously conclude, That there were few Books before those we have either Extant or upon Record; yet that cannot argue there was no Know­ledge or Learning before those periods of Time, whereof they give us the short account. Books may be helps to Learn­ing and Knowledge, and make it more common and diffused; but I doubt, whether they are necessary ones or no, or much advance any other Science, beyond the particular Records of Acti­ons or Registers of Time; and these perhaps, might be as long preserved without them, by the care and exact­ness of Tradition in the long Succes­sions of certain Races of Men, with whom they were intrusted. So in Mexico and Peru, before the least use or mention of Letters, there was remaining among them, the knowledg of what had passed in those mighty Nations and Govern­ments for many Ages. Whereas in Ireland, that is said to have flourished in Books [Page 9] and Learning before they had much Progress in Gaul or Britany; there are now hardly any Traces left of what passed there, before the Conquest made of that Country by the English in Henry the Second's Time. A strange but plain Demonstration, how Know­ledge and Ignorance, as well as Civi­lity and Barbarism, may succeed in the several Countries in the World, how much better the Records of Time may be kept by Tradition in one Country than Writing in another; and how much we owe to those Learned Lan­guages of Greek and Latin, without which, for ought I know, the World in all these Western Parts, would hard­ly be known to have been above five or six Hundred Years old, nor any cer­tainty remain of what passed in it be­fore that time.

'Tis true, in the Eastern Regions, there seems to have been a general Cu­stom of the Priests in each Country; having been either by their own Choice, or by Design of the Governments, the perpetual Conservers of Knowledg and Story. Only in China, this last was committed particularly to certain Offi­cers of State, who were appointed or [Page 10] continued upon every accession to that Crown, to Register distinctly the times and memorable Events of each Reign. In Ethiopia, Egypt, Caldea, Persia, Sy­ria, Judea, these Cares were commit­ted wholly to the Priests, who were not less diligent in the Registers of Times and Actions, than in the Study and Successive Propagation thereby of all Natural Science and Philosophy. Whe­ther this was managed by Letters, or Tradition, or by both; 'tis certain the Ancient Colleges, or Societies of Priests, were mighty Reservoirs or Lakes of Knowledge, into which, some Streams entred perhaps every Age, from the Observations or Inventions of any great Spirits or transcendent Genius's, that happened to rise among them: And nothing was lost out of these Stores, since the part of conserving what others have gained, either in Knowledg or Em­pire, is as common and easie, as the other is hard and rare among Men.

In these Soyls were planted and cul­tivated those mighty growths of Astro­nomy, Astrology, Magick, Geometry, Na­tural Philosophy, and Ancient Story. From these Sources, Orpheus, Homer, Lycurgus, Pythagoras, Plato, and others [Page 11] of the Ancients, are acknowledged to have drawn all those Depths of Know­ledge or Learning, which have made them so renowned in all succeeding Ages. I make a Distinction between these Two, taking Knowledge to be properly meant of things that are ge­nerally agreed to be true by Consent of those that first found them out or have been since instructed in them; but Learning is the Knowledge of the different and contested Opinions of Men in former Ages, and about which they have perhaps never agreed in a­ny; and this makes so much of one, and so little of the other in the World.

Now to judge, Whether the Anci­ents or Moderns, can be probably thought to have made the greatest Pro­gress in the Search and Discoveries of the vast Region of Truth and Nature; it will be worth enquiring, What Guides have been used, and what La­bours employed by the one and the other in these Noble Travels and Pur­suits.

The Modern Scholars have their u­sual Recourse to the Universities of their Countries; some few it may be to those of their Neighbours; and this, in quest [Page 12] of Books rather than Men for their Guides, though these are living, and those in comparison, but dead Instru­ctors; which like an Hand with an In­scription, can point out the straight way upon the Road, but can neither tell you the next Turnings, resolve your Doubts, or answer your Questi­ons, like a Guide that has traced it o­ver, and perhaps knows it as well as his Chamber. And who are these dead Guides we seek in our Journey? They are at best but some few Authors that remain among us, of a great ma­ny that wrote in Greek and Latine, from the Age of Hypocrates to that of Marcus Antoninus, which reaches not much above Six Hundred Years. Before that time I know none, besides some Po­ets, some Fables, and some few Epi­stles; and since that time, I know ve­ry few that can pretend to be Authors, rather than Transcribers or Commenta­tors of the Ancient Learning: Now to consider at what Sources our An­cients drew their Water, and with what unwearied Pains: 'Tis evident Thales and Pythagoras were the Two Founders of the Grecian Philosophy; the First, gave beginning to the Ionick [Page 13] Sect, and the other to the Italick; out of which, all the others celebrated in Greece or Rome were derived or com­posed: Thales was the First of the Sophi, or Wise Men, Famous in Greece; and is said to have learned his Astro­nomy, Geometry, Astrology, Theology, in his Travels from his Country Miletus, to Aegypt, Phoenicia, Crete, and Delphos: Pythagoras was the Father of Philoso­phers, and of the Vertues, having in Modesty, chosen the Name of a Lover of Wisdom rather than of Wise; and having first introduced the Names of the Four Cardinal Vertues, and given them the Place and Rank they have held ever since in the World: Of these Two mighty Men remain no Writings at all; for those Golden Verses, that go under the Name of Pythagoras, are generally rejected as spurious, like ma­ny other Fragments of Sybils or Old Poets, and some entire Poems that run with Ancient Names: Nor is it agreed, Whether he ever left any thing writ­ten to his Scholars or Contemporaries; or whether all that learnt of him, did it not by the Ear and Memory; and all that remained of him, for some suc­ceeding Ages, were not by Tradition. [Page 14] But whether these ever writ or no, they were the Fountains, out of which the following Greek Philosophers drew all those Streams that have since wa­tered the Studies of the Learned World, and furnished the Voluminous Writings of so many Sects, as passed afterwards under the common Name of Philoso­phers.

As there were Guides to those that we call Ancients, so there were others that were Guides to them, in whose Search they travelled far and laboured long.

There is nothing more agreed, than, That all the Learning of the Greeks was deduced Originally from Aegypt or Phoenicia; but, Whether theirs might not have flourished to that De­gree it did, by the Commerce of the Aethiopians, Chaldaeans, Arabians and Indians, is not so evident, (though I am very apt to believe it) and to most of these Regions some of the Grecians travelled, in Search of those Golden Mines of Learning and Know­ledge: Not to mention the Voyages of Orpheus, Musoeus, Lycurgus, Thales, Solon, Democritus, Herodotus, Plato and that vain Sophist, Apollonius, (who [Page 15] was but an Ape of the Ancient Phi­losophers) I shall only trace, those of Pythagoras, who seems of all others, to have gone the farthest upon this De­sign, and to have brought home the greatest Treasures. He went first to Aegypt, where he spent Two and Twen­ty Years in Study and Conversation, among the several Colledges of Priests, in Memphis, Thebes, and Heliopolis, was initiated in all their several Mysteries, in Order to gain Admittance and In­struction, in the Learning and Sciences that were there, in their highest Ascen­dent. Twelve Years, He spent in Ba­bylon, and in the Studies and Learning of the Priests or Magi of the Chaldaeans. Besides, these long abodes in those Two Regions, celebrated for ancient Learn­ing, and where one Author, according to their Calculations, says, He gained the Observations of innumerable Ages, He travelled likewise upon the same Sent, into Aethiopia, Arabia, India, to Crete, to Delphos, and to all the Ora­cles that were Renowned in any of these Regions.

What sort of Mortals, some of those may have been, that he went so far to seek, I shall only endeavour to Trace [Page 16] out, by the most ancient Accounts, that are given of the Indian Brachmans, since those of the Learned or Sages in the o­ther Countries, occur more frequent in Story. These, were all of one Race or Tribe, that was kept chast from any o­ther mixture, and were dedicated whol­ly to the Service of the Gods, to the Studies of Wisdom and Nature, and to the Councel of their Princes. There was not only particular care taken of their Birth and Nurture, but even from their Conception. For when a Woman among them was known to have Conceived, much thought and diligence was im­ployed about her Dyet and Entertain­ments, so far, as to furnish her with plea­sant imaginations, to compose her mind and her sleeps, with the best temper, during the time she carried her Burthen: This, I take to be a strain, beyond all the Grecian Wit, or the Constitutions e­ven of their imaginary Law-givers, who began their cares of Mankind, only after their Birth, and none before. Those of the Brachmans, continued in the same Degree for their Education and Instru­ction, in which, and their Studies, and Discipline of their Colledges, or sepa­rate abodes in Woods and Fields, they [Page 17] spent Thirty Seven Years. Their Learn­ing and Institutions were unwritten, and only traditional among themselves by a perpetual Succession. Their Opinions in Natural Philosophy, were, That the World was round, That it had a begin­ning, and would have an end, but reckoned both by immense periods of Time; That the Author of it, was a Spi­rit, or a Mind, that pervaded the whole Universe, and was diffused, through all the Parts of it. They held the Transmi­gration of Souls, and some used dis­courses of Infernal Mansions, in many things, like those of Plato. Their Moral Philosophy consisted chiefly, in prevent­ing all Diseases or Distempers of the Body, from which, they esteemed the perturbations of Mind, in a great mea­sure to arise. Then, in composing the Mind, and exempting it from all anxi­ous Cares, esteeming the troublesome and sollicitous thoughts about Past and Future, to be like so many Dreams, and no more to be regarded. They de­spised both life and death, pleasure and pain, or at least thought them perfectly indifferent. Their Justice, was exact and exemplary; their Temperance so great, that they lived upon Rice or [Page 18] Herbs, and upon nothing, that had sen­sitive Life. If they fell sick, they count­ed it such a Mark of Intemperance, that they would frequently dye, out of Shame and Sullenness, but many lived an Hundred and Fifty, and some Two Hundred Years.

Their Wisdom was so highly esteem­ed, that some of them were always imployed to follow the Courts of their Kings, to advise them upon all Occa­sions, and instruct them in Justice and Piety, and upon this Regard, Ca­lanus and some others, are said to have followed the Camp of Alexander, af­ter his Conquest of one of their Kings. The Magical Operations, reported of them, are so wonderful, that they must either, be wholly disbelieved, or will make easie way, for the Credit of all those, that we so often meet with, in the latter Relations of the Indies. A­bove all the rest, their Fortitude was most admirable, in their Patience and Endurance of all Evils, of Pain, and of Death; some standing, sitting, lying, without any Motion, whole days to­gether, in the scorching Sun; others standing, whole nights upon one Leg, and holding up a heavy piece of Wood [Page 19] or Stone in both hands, without ever moving, (which might be done, upon some sort of Penances usually among them.) They frequently ended their Lives by their own Choice, and not necessity, and most usually by Fire; some upon Sickness, others upon Mis­fortunes, some upon meer safiety of Life; so Calanus in Alexander's Time, burn't himself publickly, upon grow­ing old and infirm; Zormanochages, in the Time of Augustus, upon his constant Health and Felicity, and to prevent his living so long, as to fall into Diseases or Misfortunes. These were the Brach­man's of India, by the most Ancient Relations remaining of them, and which Compared with our Modern, (since Navigation and Trade, have dis­covered so much of those vast Coun­tries) make it easie to conjecture, that the present Baniams have derived from them, many of their Customs and O­pinions, which are still very like them, after the Course of Two Thousand Years. For how long, Nations, with­out the Changes introduced by Con­quest, may continue in the same Cu­stoms, Institutions, and Opinions, will be easily observed, in the Stories of the [Page 20] Peruvians and Mexicans of the Chine­ses and Scythians: These last, being described by Herodotus, to lodge al­ways in Carts, and to feed commonly upon the Milk of Mares, as the Tar­tars are reported to do at this time, in many Parts of those Vast Nothern Regions.

From these famous Indians, it seems to me most probable, that Pythagoras learn't, and transported into Greece and Italy, the greatest part, of his Natural and Moral Philosophy, rather than from the Aegyptians, as is commonly supposed: For I have not observed, any mention of the Transmigration of Souls, held among the Aegyptians, more ancient, than the Time of Pythagoras: On the contrary, Orpheus, is said, to have brought out of Aepypt, all his Mystical Theology, with the Stories of the Stygian Lake, Charon, the Infer­nal Judges, which were wrought up by the succeeding Poets (with a Mix­ture of the Cretan Tales or Traditi­ons) into that Part of the Pagan Re­ligion, so long observed by the Greeks and Romans. Now 'tis obvious, that this, was in all Parts, very different from the Pythagorean Opinion of Trans­migration, [Page 21] which, though it was pre­served long, among some of the suc­ceeding Philosophers, yet never enter­ed into the vulgar Belief of Greece or Italy.

Nor does it seem unlikely, that the Aegyptians themselves, might have drawn much of their Learning from the Indians, for they are observed, in some Authors, to have done it from the Aethiopians; and Chronologers I think agree, that these were a Colo­ny, that came anciently from the Ri­ver Indus, and planted themselves up­on that Part of Africa, which from their Name, was afterward called Ae­thiopia, and in probability brought their Learning and their Customs with them. The Phoenicians, are likewise said, to have been anciently a Colo­ny, that came from the Red-Sea, and planted themselves, upon the Mediter­ranean, and from thence spread so far the Fame of their Learning, and their Navigations.

To strengthen this Conjecture, of much Learning, being derived from such remote and ancient Fountains as the Indies, and perhaps China; it may be asserted with great Evidence, that [Page 22] though we know little, of the An­tiquities of India, beyond Alexander's time; yet those of China, are the oldest, that any where pretend to any fair Records: For these are agreed, by the Missionary Jesuits, to extend so far above Four Thousand Years, and with such Appearance of clear and undeniable Testimonies, that those Re­ligious Men themselves, rather than question their Truth, by finding them contrary to the vulgar Chronology of the Scripture, are content to have Recourse to that of the Septuagint, and thereby, to salve the Appearan­ces, in those Records of the Chineses. Now though we have been deprived the Knowledge, of what Course, Learn­ing may have held, and to what heights it may have soared, in that vast Regi­on, and during so great Antiquity of Time, by reason of the Savage Ambi­tion of one of their Kings, who desirous to begin the Period of History from his own Reign, ordered all Books to be burnt, except those of Physick and A­griculture; so that, what we have re­maining besides, of that wise and an­cient Nation, is but what was either by chance, or by private Industry res­cued [Page 23] out of that publick Calamity, (among which, were a Copy of the Re­cords and Successions of the Crown;) yet it is observable and agreed, that as the Opinions of the Learned among them are at present, so they were an­ciently, divided into two Sects, where­of one held the Transmigration of Souls, and the other the Eternity of Matter, comparing the World to a great Mass of Metal, out of which, some Parts are continually made up into a thousand various Figures, and after certain Periods, melted down a­gain into the same Mass. That there were many Volumes, written of old in Natural Philosophy among them: That near the Age of Socrates, lived their Great and Renowned Confutius, who began the same Design, of reclaim­ing Men from the useless and end­less Speculations of Nature, to those of Morality. But with this Difference, that the Bent of the Grecian, seemed to be chiefly, upon the Happyness of private Men or Families, but that of the Chinese, upon the good Tempera­ment and Felicity of such Kingdoms or Governments, as that was, and is, known to have continued for several [Page 24] Thousands of Years, and may be pro­perly called, a Government of Learned Men, since no other are admitted into Charges of the State.

For my own Part, I am much in­clined to believe, that in these Remote Regions, not only Pythagoras learn't the first Principles, both of his Natural and Moral Philosophy, but that those of Democritus, (who Travelled into Aegypt, Caldaea and India, and whose Doctrins were after improved by Epi­curus) might have been derived from the same Fountains, and that long be­fore them both; Lycurgus who likewise Travelled into India, brought from thence also, the Chief Principles of his Laws and Politicks, so much Renowned in the World.

For whoever observes the Account already given of the Ancient Indian, and Chinese Learning and Opinions, will easily find among them, the Seeds of all these Grecian Productions and Institutions: As the Transmigration of Souls, and the four Cardinal Ver­tues; The long Silence enjoyned his Scholars, and Propagation of their Do­ctrins by Tradition, rather than Let­ters; and Abstinence from all Meats, [Page 25] that had Animal Life, introduced by Pythagoras. The Eternity of Matter, with perpetual changes of Form; the Indolence of Body, and Tranquility of Mind, by Epicurus. And among those of Lycurgus; the Care of Education from the Birth of Children, the Austere Temperance of Diet, the patient endu­rance of Toil and Pain, the neglect or contempt of Life, the use of Gold and Silver only in their Temples, the De­fence of Commerce with Strangers, and several others, by him established a­mong the Spartans, seem all to be whol­ly Indian, and different from any Race or Vein of Thought and Imagination, that have ever appeared in Greece, ei­ther in that Age or any since.

It may look like a Paradox to de­duce Learning, from Regions account­ed commonly so barbarous and rude. And 'tis true, the generality of People were always so, in those Eastern Coun­tries, and their lives wholly turned to Agriculture, to Mechanicks, or to Trades: But this does not hinder, particular Races or Successions of Men, (the design of whose thought and time was turned wholly to Learning and Knowledge) from having been, what [Page 26] they are represented, and what they deserve to be esteemed; since among the Gauls, the Goths, and the Peruvi­ans themselves, there have been such Races of Men under the Names of Druids, Bards, Amautas, Runers, and other barbarous Appellations.

Besides, I know no Circumstances, like to contribute more to the ad­vancement of Knowledge and Learn­ing, among Men, than exact Tempe­rance in their Races, great pureness of Air, and equality of Clymate, long Tranquility of Empire or Government: And all these we may justly allow to those Eastern Regions, more than any others we are acquainted with, at least till the Conquests made by the Tartars, upon both India and China, in the la­ter Centuries. However, it may be as Pardonable, to derive some parts of Learning from thence, as to go so far for the Game of Chess, which some Curious and Learned Men have dedu­ced from India into Europe, by Two se­veral Roads, that is, by Persia into Greece, and by Arabia into Africk and Spain.

Thus much, I thought, might be al­lowed me to say, for the giving some Idea, of what those Sages or Learned [Page 27] Men, were, or may have been, who were Ancients to those that are An­cients to us. Now to observe, what these have been, is more easie and ob­vious. The most ancient Grecians, that we are at all acquainted with, after Lycurgus, who was certainly a great Philosopher as well as Law-giver, were the Seven Sages. Tho' the Court of Croesus is said to have been much resorted to, by the Sophists of Greece, in the happy beginnings of his Reign. And some of these Seven seem to have brought most of the Sciences, out of Aegypt and Phoenicia, into Greece, par­ticularly, those of Astronomy, Astrology, Geometry, and Arithmetick. These were soon followed, by Pythagoras, (who seems to have introduced Natural and Moral Philosophy) and by several of his Followers, both in Greece and Italy. But of all these, there remains nothing in Writing now among us, so that Hyppocrates, Plato, and Xenophon, are the first Philosophers, whose Works have escaped the Injuries of Time. But that we may not conclude, the first Wri­ters we have of the Grecians, were the first Learned or Wise among them. We shall find upon enquiry, that the more [Page 28] ancient Sages of Greece, appear by the Characters remaining of them, to have been much the greater Men. They were generally Princes or Law-givers of their Countries, or at least offered and invited to be so, either of their own or of others, that desired them to frame or reform their several Institutions of Civil Government. They were com­monly excellent Poets, and great Phy­sicians; they were so learned in Na­tural Philosophy, that they foretold, not only Eclipses in the Heavens, but Earthquakes at Land, and Storms at Sea, great Drowths and great Plagues, much Plenty or much Scarcity of cer­tain sorts of Fruits or Grain, not to mention the Magical Powers, attribu­ted to several of them, to allay Storms, to raise Gales, to appease Commotions of People, to make Plagues cease; which qualities, whether upon any ground of Truth or no, yet if well believed, must have raised them to that strange height they were at, of common esteem and honour, in their own and succeeding Ages.

By all this may be determined, whe­ther our Moderns or our Ancients, may have had the greater and the bet­ter [Page 29] Guides, and which of them, have taken the greater pains, and with the more application in the pursuit of Knowledge. And I think, it is enough to shew, that the advantage we have, from those we call the Ancients, may not be greater, than what they had, from those that were so to them.

But after all, I do not know, whe­ther the high flights of Wit and Know­ledge, like those of Power and Em­pire in the World, may not have been made by the pure Native Force of Spirit or Genius, in some single men, rather than by any derived strength among them, however encreased by Succession, and whether they may not have been, the Atchievements of Na­ture, rather than the Improvements of Art. Thus the Conquests of Ninus and Semiramis, of Alexander and Ta­merlane, which I take, to have been the greatest, Recorded in Story, were at their heighth, in those Persons that began them, and so far from being encreased by their Successors, that they were not preserved, in their extent and vigour by any of them; grew weaker in every hand they passed through, or were divided into many, that set [Page 30] up for great Princes, out of several small ruins of the First Empires, till they wi­thered away in time, or were lost by the change of Names and Forms of Fa­milies or of Governments.

Just the same Fate seems to have at­tended, the highest flights of Learning and of Knowledge, that are upon our Registers. Thales, Pythagoras, Demo­critus, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, were the first mighty Con­querors of Ignorance in our World, and made greater progresses, in the se­veral Empires of Science, than any of their Successors have been since able to reach. These have hardly ever pre­tended more, than to learn what the others taught, to remember what they invented, and not able to compass that it self, they have set up for Authors, upon some parcels of those great Stocks, or else have contented themselves only to comment upon those Texts, and make the best Copies they could, after those Originals.

I have long thought, that the dif­ferent abilities of Men, which we call Wisdom or Prudence, for the conduct of Publick Affairs or Private Life, grow directly out of that little grain of In­tellect [Page 31] or Good Sense, which they bring with them into the World, and that the defect of it in Men, comes from some want in their Conception or Birth.

And though this, may be improved or impaired in some degree, by acci­dents of Education, of Study, and of Conversation or Business, yet it cannot go beyond the reach of it's Native Force, no more than Life can, beyond the period to which it was destined, by the strength or weakness, of the semi­nal Vertue.

If these speculations should be true, then I know not what advantages we can pretend to modern Knowledge, by any we receive from the Ancients; Nay, 'tis possible, men may lose rather than gain by them, may lessen the Force and Growth of their own Genius, by constraining and forming it upon that of others, may have less Know­ledge of their own, for contenting themselves with that of those before them. So a Man that only Translates [Page 32] shall never be a Poet, nor a Painter that only Copies, nor a Swimmer that Swims always with Bladders. So Peo­ple that trust wholly to others Cha­rity, and without Industry of their own, will be always poor. Besides, who can tell, whether Learning may not even weaken Invention, in a Man that has great Advantages from Nature and Birth, whether the weight and num­ber of so many other Mens thoughts and notions, may not suppress his own, or hinder the motion or agitation of them, from which all Invention arises; As heaping on Wood or too many Sticks, or too close together, suppres­ses and sometimes quite extinguishes, a little Spark that would otherwise have grown up to a noble Flame. The strength of Mind as well as of Body, grows more from the warmth of Exercise than of Cloaths, nay, too much of this Foreign Heat, rather makes Men faint, and their Constitutions ten­der or weaker, than they would be without them. Let it come about how it will, if we are Dwarfs, we are still so, though we stand upon a Gyant's shoulders, and even so placed, yet we see less than he, if we are na­turally [Page 33] shorter sighted, or if we do not look as much about us, or if we are dazled with the height, which often happens from weakness either of Heart or Brain.

In the growth and stature of Souls as well as Bodies, the common pro­ductions are of indifferent sizes, that occasion no gazing nor no wonder: But there are or have been, sometimes Dwarfs and sometimes Gyants in the World, yet it does not follow, that there must be such in every Age nor in every Country. This we can no more conclude, than that there never have been any, because there are none now, at least in the compass of our present Knowledge or Inquiry. As I believe, there may have been Gyants at some time, and some place or other in the World, of such a stature, as may not have been equalled perhaps again, in several Thousands of Years, or in any other Parts; so there may be Gyants in Wit and Knowledge, of so over-grown a size, as not to be equal­led again in many successions of Ages, or any compass of Place or Coun­try. Such, I am sure, Lucretius esteems and describes Epicurus to have been, [Page 34] and to have risen, like a Prodigy of Invention and Knowledge, such as had not been before nor was like to be a­gain; and I know not, why others of the Ancients, may not be allowed to have been as great in their kinds, and to have built as high, though upon different Scheams or Foundations. Be­cause there is a Stag's-head at Amboyse, of a most prodigious size, and a large Table at Memorancy, cut out of the thickness of a Vine-stock, is it neces­sary, that there must be, every Age, such a Stag in every great Forest, or such a Vine in every large Vineyard, or that the Productions of Nature in any kind, must be still alike or some­thing near it, because Nature is still the same? May there not many cir­cumstances concur, to one production, that do not to any other, in one or many Ages? In the growth of a Tree, there is the native strength of the seed both from the kind, and from the per­fection of its ripening, and from the health and vigour of the Plant that bore it. There is the degree of strength and excellence, in that Vein of Earth where it first took root; There is a propriety of Soyl, suited to the kind [Page 35] of Tree that grows in it; there is a great favour or dis-favour to its growth, from accidents of Water and of Shelter, from the kindness or unkind­ness of Seasons, till it be past the need or the danger of them. All these, and perhaps many others, joyned with the propitiousness of Clymat, to that sort of Tree, and the length of Age it shall stand and grow, may produce an Oak, a Fig, or a Plane-tree, that shall deserve to be renowned in Story, and shall not perhaps be parallelled, in other Coun­tries or Times.

May not the same have happened in the production, growth, and size of Wit and Genius in the World, or in some Parts or Ages of it, and from many more circumstances that contributed towards it, than what may concur to the stupendious growth of a Tree or A­nimal? May there not have been, in Greece or Italy of old, such prodigies of Invention and Learning in Philoso­phy, Mathematicks, Physick, Oratory, Poe­try, that none has ever since approached them, as well as there were in Painting, Statuary, Architecture, and yet their un­parallelled and inimitable excellencies in these are undisputed.

[Page 36] Science and Arts, have run their circles, and had their periods in the several Parts of the World; They are generally agreed, to have held their course from East to West, to have be­gun in Chaldaea and Aegypt, to have been Transplanted from thence to Greece, from Greece to Rome, to have sunk there, and after many Ages, to have revived from those Ashes, and to have sprung up again, both in Italy and other more Western Provinces of Europe. When Chaldaea and Aegypt were Learned and Civil, Greece and Rome were as rude and barbarous as all Aegypt and Syria now are, and have been long. When Greece and Rome were at their heights, in Arts and Science, Gaul, Germany, Britain, were as ignorant and barba­rous, as any Parts of Greece or Turkey can be now.

These and greater changes are made, in the several Countries of the World, and courses of time, by the Revolutions of Empire, the Devastations of Armies, the Cruelties of Conquering, and the Calamities of enslaved Nations, by the violent Inundations of Water in some Countries, and the Cruel Ravages of Plagues in others: These sorts of ac­cidents, [Page 37] sometimes lay them so wast, that when they rise again, 'tis from such low beginnings, that they look like New-Created Regions, or grow­ing out of the Original State of Man­kind, and without any Records or Re­membrances, beyond certain short pe­riods of Time. Thus, that vast Continent of Norway, is said to have been, so wholly desolated by a Plague, about Eight or Nine Hundred Years ago, that it was for some Ages following, a very Desart, and since all over-grown with Wood. And Ireland was so spoiled and wasted by the Conquests of the Sceutes and Danes, that there hardly remains any Story or Tradition, what that Island was, how Planted or Governed above Five Hundred Years ago. What changes have been made by Violent Storms, and Inundations of the Sea, in the Maritime Provinces of the Low-Countries, is hard to know, or to be­lieve what is told, nor how ignorant they have left us, of all that passed there, before a certain and short period of Time.

The Accounts of many other Coun­tries, would perhaps, as hardly and as late, have waded out of the Depths [Page 38] of Time, and Gulphs of Ignorance, had it not been for the Assistance of those two Languages, to which we owe all we have, of Learning or An­cient Records in the World. For whe­ther we have any thing of the Old Chaldaean, Hebrew, Arabian, that is truly Genuine, or more Ancient than the Augustan Age, I am much in doubt; yet 'tis probable, the vast Alexandrian Library must have chiefly consisted of Books composed in those Languages, with the Aegyptian, Syrian and Aethi­optick, or at least, Translated out of them by the Care of the Aegyptian Kings or Priests, as the Old Testament was, wherein the Septuagints employed, left their Name to that Famous Trans­lation.

'Tis very true and just, All that is said of the mighty Progress, that Learning and Knowledge have made, in these Western Parts of Europe, within these hundred and fifty Years; but that does not conclude, it must be at a greater Heigth, than it had been in other Countries, where it was growing much longer Periods of Time; it argues more how low it was then amongst us, rather than how high it is now.

[Page 39] Upon the Fall of the Roman Empire, almost all Learning was buried in it's Ruins: The Northern Nations that Conquered, or rather overwhelmed it by their Numbers, were too barbarous to preserve the Remains of Learning or Civility, more carefully than they did those of Statuary or Architecture, which fell before their Brutish Rage. The Saracens indeed, from their Con­quests of Aegypt, Syria, and Greece, carried home great Spoils of Learn­ing, as well as other Riches, and gave the Original of all that Knowledge, which flourished for some Time, a­mong the Arabians, and has since been copyed out of many Authors among them, as theirs had been, out of those of the Countries they had subdued; nor indeed, do Learning, Civility, Mo­rality, seem any where to have made a greater Growth, in so short a Time, than in that Empire, nor to have flou­rished more, than in the Reign of their Great Almanzor, under whose Victori­ous Ensigns, Spain was Conquered by the Moors; but the Goths, and all the rest of those Scythian Swarms, that from beyond the Danube and the Elb, under so many several Names, over­run [Page 40] all Europe, took very hardly and very late, any Tincture of the Learn­ing and Humanity that had flourished in the several Regions of it, under the Protection, and by the Example and In­structions of the Romans, that had so long possessed them: Those Northern Nations, were indeed easier induced to embrace the Religion of those they had subdued, and by their Devotion gave great Authority and Revenues, and thereby Ease to the Clergy, both Secular and Regular, through all their Conquests. Great Numbers, of the bet­ter sort, among the Oppressed Natives, finding this vain among them, and no other way to be safe and quiet under such rough Masters, betook themselves to the Profession and Assemblies of Religious Orders and Fraternities, and among those only were preserved, all the poor Remainders of Learning, in these several Countries.

But these good Men either content­ed themselves with their Devotion, or with the Ease of quiet Lives, or else employed their Thoughts and Studies, to raise and maintain the Esteem and Authority of that Sacred Order, to which they owed the Safety and Re­pose, [Page 41] the Wealth and Honour they en­joyed. And in this they so well suc­ceeded, that the Conquerors were governed by those they had subdued, the Greatest Princes by the Meanest Priests, and the Victorious Franks and Lombard Kings, fell at the Feet of the Roman Prelates.

Whilst the Clergy were busied in these Thoughts or Studies, the better sort among the Laity, were wholly turned to Arms and to Honour, the meaner sort to Labour or to Spoil; Princes taken up with Wars among themselves, or in those of the Holy Land, or between the Popes and Em­perors, upon Disputes of the Ecclesi­astical and Secular Powers, Learning so little in use among them, that few could write or read, besides those of the Long Robes. During this Course of Time, which lasted many Ages in the Western Parts of Europe: The Greek Tongue was wholly lost, and the Purity of the Roman to that de­gree that what remained of it, was only a certain Jargon rather than La­tin, that passed among the Monks and Fryers who were not at all Learned, and among the Students of the several [Page 42] Universities, which served to Carry them to Rome, in pursuit of Prefer­ments or Causes depending there, and little else.

When the Turks took Constantinople, about two hundred Years agoe, and soon after possessed themselves of all Greece, the poor Natives fearing the Tyranny of those cruel Masters, made their Escapes in great Numbers to the Neighbouring Parts of Christendom, some by the Austrian Territories into Germany, others by the Venetian into Italy and France; several that were Learned among these Grecians, (and brought many Ancient Books with them in that Language) began to teach it in these Countries, first to gain sub­sistance, and afterwards Favour in some Princes, or Great Mens Courts, who began to take a Pleasure or Pride, in countenancing Learned Men: Thus began the Restoration of Learning in these Parts, with that of the Greek Tongue, and soon after, Revchlyn and Erasmus began that of the purer and ancient Latin. After them, Buchanan carried it, I think, to the greatest Heigth of any of the Moderns before or since: The Monkish Latin upon this [Page 43] Return, was laughed out of doors, and remains only in the Inns of Germany or Poland; and with the Restitution of these two Noble Languages, and the Books remaining of them (which many Princes and Prelates were curi­ous to recover and collect) Learning of all sorts began to thrive in these Western Regions, and since that time, and in the first succeeding Century, made perhaps a greater Growth, than in any other that we know of, in such a compass of Time, considering into what Depths of Ignorance it was sunk before.

But why from thence should be con­cluded, That it has out-grown all that was Ancient, I see no Reason. If a Strong and Vigororus Man, at Thirty Years old, should fall into a Consump­tion, and so draw on till Fifty, in the extreamest Weakness and Infirmity; after that, should begin to Recover Health till Sixty, so as to be again as Strong, as Men usually are at that Age; It might perhaps truly be said, in that case, that he had grown more in Strength, that last Ten Years, than a­ny others of his Life, but not that he was grown to more Strength and Vi­guor, [Page 44] than he had at Thirty Years old.

But what are the Sciences, wherein we pretend to excel? I know of no New Philosophers, that have made En­tries upon that Noble Stage, for Fifteen Hundred Years past, unless Des Cartes and Hobbs should pretend to it, of whom I shall make no Critick here, but only say, that by what appears of Learned Mens Opinions in this Age, they have by no Means eclypsed the Lustre of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, or others of the Ancients. For Grammar or Rhetorick, no Man ever disputed it with them, nor for Poetry, that ever I heard of, besides the New French Au­thor I have mentioned, and against whose Opinion there could I think, ne­ver have been given stronger Evidence, than by his own Poems, printed toge­ther with that Treatise.

There is nothing New in Astrono­my, to vye with the Ancients, unless it be the Copernican System, nor in Phy­sick unless Harvey's Circulation of the Blood. But whether either of these, be modern discoveries, or derived from old Fountains, is disputed; Nay, it is so too, whether they are true or no, [Page 45] for though Reason may seem to favour them more than the contrary Opini­ons, yet Sense can very hardly allow them, and to satisfie Mankind, both these must concur. But if they are true, yet these two great discoveries have made no change in the conclusions of Astronomy, nor in the practise of Physick, and so have been of little use to the World, though perhaps of much honor to the Authors.

What are become of the Charms of Musick, by which Men and Beasts, Fishes, Fowls, and Serpents were so frequently Enchanted, and their very Natures changed; By which the Pas­sions of Men were raised to the great­est heigth and violence, and then as suddenly appeased, so as they might be justly said, to be turned into Lyons or Lambs, into Wolves, or into Harts, by the Power and Charms of this ad­mirable Art. 'Tis agreed by the Learn­ed, that the Science of Musick, so ad­mired of the Ancients, is wholly lost in the World, and that what we have now, is made up out of certain Notes, that fell into the fancy or observation, of a poor Fryar, in chanting his Mat­tins. So as those Two Divine Ex­cellencies [Page 46] of Musick and Poetry, are grown in a manner, to be little more, but the one Fidling, and the other Rhyming, and are indeed very worthy the ignorance of the Fryer, and the barbarousness of the Goths that intro­duced them among us.

What have we remaining of Ma­gick, by which the Indians, the Chal­daeans, the Aegyptians were so renown­ed, and by which, effects so wonder­ful and to common Men so astonish­ing were produced, as made them have recourse, to Spirits or Supernatural Powers for some account of their strange Operations? By Magick, I mean some excelling knowledge of Nature, and the various Powers and Qualities, in it's several productions, and the ap­plication of certain Agents, to certain Patients, which by Force of some pe­culiar Qualities, produce effects very different, from what fall under vulgar Observation or Comprehension. These are, by ignorant People called Magick and Conjuring, and such like Terms, and an Account of them much about as wise, is given by the common Learned, from Sympathys, Antipathys, Idiosyncrasys, Talismans, and some scraps [Page 47] or Terms, left us by the Aegyptians or Grecians, of the Antient Magick, but the Science seems, with several others, to be wholly lost.

What Traces have we left of that admirable Science or Skill in Archite­cture, by which such stupendious Fa­bricks have been raised of old, and so many of the Wonders of the World been produced, and which are so little approached by our Modern Atchieve­ments of this sort, that they hardly fall within our Imagination? Not to mention the Walls and Palace of Ba­bylon, the Pyramids of Aegypt, the Tomb of Mausolus, or Collosse of Rhodes, the Temples and Palaces of Greece and Rome: What can be more admirable in this kind, than the Roman Theatres, their Aqueducts, and their Bridges, a­mong which, that of Trajan over the Danube, seems to have been the last Flight of the Ancient Architecture. The stupendious Effects of this Science, sufficiently evince, at what Heights the Mathematicks were among the Anti­ents; but if this be not enough, who­ever would be satisfied, need go no fur­ther than the Siege of Syracuse, and that mighty Defence made against the [Page 48] Roman Power, more by the wonderful Science and Arts of Archimedes, and almost Magical Force of his Engines, than by all the Strength of the City, or Number and Bravery of the Inha­bitants.

The greatest Invention that I know of in later Ages, has been that of the Load-Stone, and consequently, the greatest Improvement has been made in the Art of Navigation; yet there must be allowed, to have been some­thing stupendious in the Numbers, and in the Built of their Ships, and Gallies of old; and the Skill of Pilots, from the Observation of the Stars in the more serene Climates, may be judged, by the Navigations so celebra­ted in Story, of the Tyrians and Car­thaginians, not to mention other Na­tions. However, 'tis to this we owe the Discovery and Commerce of so many vast Countries, which were ve­ry little, if at all, known to the An­tients, and the experimental Proof of this Terrestrial Globe, which was be­fore only Speculation, but has since been surrounded by the Fortune and Boldness of several Navigators. From this great, though fortuitous Inven­tion, [Page 49] and the Consequence thereof, it must be allowed, that Geography is mightily advanced in these latter A­ges. The Vast Continents of China, the East and West Indies, the long Extent and Coasts of Africa, with the numberless Islands belonging to them, have been hereby introduced into our Acquaintance, and our Maps, and great Increases of Wealth and Lux­ury, but none of Knowledge brought among us, further than the Extent and Scituation of Country, the Customs and Manners of so many original Na­tions, which we call Barbarous, and I am sure, have treated them, as if we hardly esteemed them to be a Part of Mankind. I do not doubt, but ma­ny Great and more Noble Uses would have been made of such Conquests or Discoveries, if they had fallen to the share of the Greeks and Romans in those Ages, when Knowledge and Fame were in as great Request, as endless Gains and Wealth are among us now; and how much greater Discoveries might have been made by such Spirits as theirs, is hard to guess. I am sure, ours though great, yet look very im­perfect, as to what the Face of this [Page 50] Terrestrial Globe would probably ap­pear, if they had been pursued as far, as we might justly have expected from the Progresses of Navigation, since the Use of the Compass, which seems to have been long at a stand? How lit­tle has been performed, of what has been so often, and so confidently pro­mised, of a North-West Passage to the East of Tartary, and North of China? How little do we know of the Lands on that side of the Magellan Straits, that lye towards the South Pole, which may be vast Islands or Continents, for ought any can yet aver, though that Passage was so long since found out? Whether Japan, be Island or Conti­nent, with some Parts of Tartary, on the North side, is not certainly agreed. The Lands of Yedso, upon the North-East Continent, have been no more than Coasted, and whether they may not joyn to the Northern Continent of America, is by some doubted.

But the Defect or Negligence, seems yet to have been greater towards the South, where we know little beyond Thirty Five Degrees, and that only, by the Necessity of doubling the Cape of Good Hope, in our East-India Voi­ages; [Page 51] yet a Continent has been long since found out, within Fifteen De­grees to South, and about the Length of Java, which is Marqued by the Name of New Holland in the Maps, and to what Extent, none knows, ei­ther to the South, the East, or the West; yet the Learned have been of Opinion, That there must be a Bal­lance of Earth, on that side of the Line, in some Proportion to what there is on the other, and that it can­not be all Sea, from Thirty Degrees to the South-Pole, since we have found Land to above Sixty Five Degrees to­wards the North. But our Navigators that way, have been confined to the Roads of Trade, and our Discoveries bounded, by what we can manage to a certain Degree of Gain. And I have heard it said among the Dutch, that their East-India-Company have long since forbidden, and under the great­est Penalties, any further Attempts of discovering that Continent, having already more Trade in those Parts, than they can turn to Account, and fearing some more Populous Nation of Europe, might make great Establish­ments of Trade, in some of those un­known [Page 52] Regions which might ruin or impair what they have already in the Indies.

Thus we are lame still in Geogra­phy it self, which we might have ex­expected to run up, to so much greater Perfection, by the Use of the Compass, and it seems to have been little ad­vanced these last Hundred Years. So far have we been from improving up­on those Advantages we have received, from the Knowledge of the Anci­ents, that since the late Restoration of Learning and Arts among us, our first Flights seem to have been the high­est, and a sudden Damp to have fal­len upon our Wings, which has hin­dered us, from rising above certain Heights. The Arts of Painting and Statuary, began to revive with Learn­ing in Europe, and make a great, but short Flight; so for as these last Hun­dred Years, we have not had One Master in either of them, who deser­ved a Rank with those that flourished in that short Period, after they began among us.

It were too great a Mortification to think, That the same Fate has hap­pened to us, even in our Modern [Page 53] Learning, as if the Growth of that, as well as of Natural Bodies, had some short Periods, beyond which it could not reach, and after which, it must begin to decay. It falls in one Coun­try or one Age, and rises again in o­thers, but never beyond a certain Pitch. One man, or one Country, at a certain Time runs a great Length in some certain Kinds of Knowledge, but lose as much Ground in others, that were perhaps as useful and as va­luable. There is a certain Degree of Capacity in the greatest Vessel, and when 'tis full, if you pour in still, it must run out some way or other, and the more it runs out on one side, the less runs out at the other. So the greatest Memory after a certain De­gree, as it learns or retains more of some Things or Words, loses and forgets as much of others. The largest and deep­est Reach of Thought, the more it pur­sues some certain Subjects, the more it neglects others.

Besides, few Men or none excel in all Faculties of Mind. A great Me­mory may fail of Invention, both may want Judgment to Digest or Apply, what they Remember or Invent. Great [Page 54] Courage may want Caution, great Pru­dence may want Vigour, yet all are necessary to make a great Comman­der. But how can a Man hope, to excel in all qualities, when some are produced by the heat, others by the coldness of Brain and Temper? The abilities of Man must fall short on, one side or other, like too scanty a Blan­ket when you are a Bed, if you pull it upon your Shoulders you leave your Feet bare, if you thrust it down upon your Feet your Shoulders are unco­vered.

But what would we have, unless it be other Natures and Beings than God Almighty has given us? The height of our Statures may be six or seven Foot, and we would have it sixteen; the length of our Age may reach to an hundred Years, and we would have it a thousand. We are born to gro­vel upon the Earth, and we would fain soar up to the Skies. We can­not comprehend the growth of a Ker­nel or Seed, the Frame of an Ant or Bee, we are amazed at the Wisdom of the one, and Industry of the other, and yet we will know the Substance, the Figure, the Courses, the Influences, of [Page 55] all those Glorious Coelestial Bodies, and the end for which they were made; we pretend to give a clear Ac­count, how Thunder and Lightning (that great Artillery of God Almighty) is produced, and we cannot compre­hend how the Voice of a Man is Framed, that poor little noise we make every time we speak. The motion of the Sun, is plain and evident to some Astronomers, and of the Earth to o­thers, yet we none of us know, which of them moves, and meet with many seeming impossibilities in both, and be­yond the fathom, of human reason or comprehension. Nay we do not so much as know what motion is, nor how a Stone moves from our Hand, when we throw it cross the Street. Of all these, that most Antient and Di­vine Writer, gives the best Account in that short Satyr. Vain Man would fain be wise, when he is born like a wild Asses Colt.

But God be thanked, his Pride is greater than his Ignorance, and what he wants in Knowledge he supplies by Sufficiency. When he has looked about him as far as he can, he concludes there is no more to be seen; when he is at [Page 56] the end of his Line he is at the bot­tom of the Ocean; when he has shot his best, he is sure, none ever did nor ever can shoot better or beyond it. His own Reason is the certain measure of Truth, his own Knowledge, of what is possible in Nature, though his Mind and his Thoughts change every seven Years, as well as his Strength and his Features; nay though his Opinions change every Week or every Day, yet he is sure, or at least confident, that his present Thoughts and Conclusions are just and true and cannot be de­ceived; And among all the Miseries, to which Mankind is born and sub­jected, in the whole Course of his Life, he has this one Felicity to Comfort and Support him, that in all ages, in all things, every man is always in the right. A Boy of fifteen is wiser than his Father at forty, the meanest Sub­ject than his Prince or Governors, and the modern Scholars, because they have for an Hundred Years past learned their Lesson pretty well, are much more knowing than the Ancients their Masters.

But let it be so, and proved by good reasons, Is it so by Experience [Page 57] too? Have the Studies, the Writings, the Productions of Gresham Colledge, or the late Academies of Paris, out­shined or eclypsed the Lycaeum of Plato, the Academy of Aristotle, the Stoa of Zeno, the Garden of Epicurus? Has Hervy out-done Hippocrates, or Wilkins, Archimedes? Are D'avila's and Strada's Histories beyond those of Herodotus and Livy? Are Sleyden's Commentaries beyond those of Coesar? The Flights of Boileau above those of Virgil? If all this must be allowed, I will then yield Gondibert to have excelled Homer, as it pretended, and the modern French Poetry, all that of the Ancients. And yet I think, it may be as reasonably said, That the Plays in Moor-Fields are beyond the Olympick Games; A Welsh or Irish Harp, excels those of Orpheus and Arion; The Pyramid in London, those of Mem­phis; and the French Conquests in Flanders are greater than those of Alexander and Caesar, as their Operaes and Panegyricks would make us be­lieve.

But the Consideration of Poetry ought to be a Subject by it self: For the Books we have in Prose, Do any [Page 58] of the modern we converse with, ap­pear of such a Spirit and Force, as if they would live longer than the An­cient have done? If our Wit and Elo­quence, our Knowledge or Inventions would deserve it, yet our Languages would not, there is no hope of their lasting long, nor of any thing in them, they change every Hundred Years so as to be hardly known for the same, or any thing of the former Styles to be endured by the later, so as they can no more last like the Ancients, than excel­lent Carvings in Wood like those in Marble or Brass.

The three modern Tongues most e­steemed, are Italian, Spanish and French, all imperfect Dialects of the Noble Roman; first mingled and corrupted, with the harsh Words and Terminations, of those many different and barbarous Nations, by whose Invasions and Ex­cursions, the Roman Empire was long infested: They were afterwards made up into these several Languages, by long and popular use, out of those ruins and corruptions of Latin, and the prevailing Language of those Nations, to which, these several Provinces came in time to be most and longest sub­jected [Page 59] (as the Goths and Moors in Spain, the Goths and Lombards in Italy, the Franks in Gaul) besides a mingle of those Tongues, which were Original to Gaul and to Spain, before the Roman Conquests and Establishments there. Of these, there may be some remain­ders in Biscay or the Asturias, but I doubt, whether there be any of the old Gallick in France, the subjection there, having been more Universal, both to the Romans and Franks. But I do not find, the Mountainous Parts on the North of Spain, were ever wholly Sub­dued or formerly Governed, either by the Romans, Goths or Saracens, no more than Wales by Romans, Saxons, or Nor­mans, after their Conquests in our Islands, which has preserved the antient Biscayn and British more entire, than any Na­tive Tongue of other Provinces, where the Roman and Gothick or Northern Conquests reached, and were for any time Established.

'Tis easie to imagine, how imper­fect Copies these modern Languages, thus composed, must needs be, of so excellent an Original, being patcht up, out of the Conceptions as well as Sounds, of such barbarous or enslaved [Page 60] People. Whereas the Latin, was fra­med or cultivated, by the thoughts and uses, of the Noblest Nation that ap­pears upon any Record of Story, and enriched only by the Spoils of Greece, which alone could pretend to contest it with them. 'Tis obvious enough, what rapport there is, and must ever be, between the Thoughts and Words, the Conceptions and Languages of e­very Country, and how great a diffe­rence this must make in the Compa­rison and Excellence of Books, and how easie and just a preference it must decree, to those of the Greek and La­tin, before any of the modern Lan­guages.

It may perhaps, be further affirm­ed, in Favour of the Ancients, that the oldest Books we have, are still in their kind the best. The two most ancient, that I know of in Prose, a­mong those we call prophane Au­thors, are Aesop's Fables, and Phala­ris's Epistles, both living near the same time, which was, that of Cyrus and Pythagoras. As the first has been agreed by all Ages since, for the great­est Master in his kind, and all others of that sort, have been but imitati­ons [Page 61] of his Original; so I think the E­pistles of Phalaris, to have more Race, more Spirit, more Force of Wit and Genius than any others I have ever seen, either antient or modern. I know se­veral Learned Men (or that usually pass for such, under the Name of Criticks) have not esteemed them Genuine, and Politian with some others, have attri­buted them to Lucian: But I think, he must have little skill in Painting, that cannot find out this to be an Original; such diversity of Passions, upon such va­riety of Actions, and Passages of Life and Government, such Freedom of Thought, such Boldness of Expression, such Bounty to his Friends, such Scorn of his Enemies, such Honor of Learned Men, such Esteem of Good, such Know­ledg of Life, such Contempt of Death, with such Fierceness of Nature and Cru­elty of Revenge could never be repre­sented, but by him that possessed them; and I esteem Lucian to have been no more Capable of Writing, than of Acting what Phalaris did. In all one Writ, you find the Scholar or the So­phist, and in all the other, the Tyrant and the Commander.

[Page 62] The next to these in Time, are He­rodotus, Thucidides, Hypocrates, Pla­to, Xenophon, and Aristotle, of whom I shall say no more, than what I think is allowed by all, that they are in their several kinds, inimitable. So are Cae­sar, Salust, and Cicero, in theirs, who are the Antientest of the Latin, (I speak still of Prose) unless it be some little of old Cato, upon Rustick Af­fairs.

The Height and Purity of the Ro­man Style, as it began towards the Time of Lucretius, which was about that of the Jugurthin War, so it end­ed about that of Tyberius; and the last strain of it, seems to have been Vel­leius Paterculus. The Purity of the Greek lasted a great deal longer, and must be allowed till Trajan's Time, when Plutarch wrote, Whose Greek is much more estimable, than the La­tin of Tacitus his Contemporary. Af­ter this last, I know none that de­serves the Name of Latin, in compa­rison of what went before them, e­specially in the Augustan Age; If any, 'tis the little Treatise of Minutius Foe­lix. All Latin Books that we have [Page 63] till the end of Trajan, and all Greek till the end of Marcus Antoninus, have a true and very esteemable value. All written since that time, seem to me, to have little more than what comes from the Relation of Events, we are glad to know, or the Controversy of Opinions in Religion or Laws, wherein the busie World has been so much im­ployed.

The great Wits among the moderns have been, in my Opinion, and in their several kinds, of the Italians, Boccace, Machiavel, and Padre Paolo; Among the Spaniards, Cervantes (that writ Don Quixot) and Guevara; Among the French, Rablais, and Montagne; Among the English, Sir Philip Sydney, Bacon and Selden: I mention nothing of what is written upon the Subject of Divinity, wherein the Spanish and English Pens, have been most Conversant and most Excelled. The modern French, are Voiture, Rochfaucalt's Memoirs, Bussy's Amours de Gaul, with several other lit­tle Relations or Memoirs that have run this Age, which are very Pleasant and Entertaining, and seem to have Refi­ned the French Language to a degree, [Page 64] that cannot be well exceeded. I doubt it may have happened there, as it does in all Works, that the more they are filed and polished, the less they have of weight and of strength; and as that Language, has much more fine­ness and smoothness at this time, so I take it, to have had much more force, spirit and compass, in Montagne's Age.

Since those accidents, which contri­buted to the Restoration of Learning, almost extinguished in the Western Parts of Europe, have been observed, it will be just to mention some, that may have hindred the advancement of it, in proportion to what might have been expected, from the mighty growth and Progress made in the first Age after its Recovery. One great reason may have been, that very soon after the entry of Learning, upon the Scene of Christendom, another was made, by many of the New-Learned Men, into the inquiries and contests about Matters of Religion, the Man­ners and Maxims and Institutions in­troduced by the Clergy, for seven or eight Centuries past, The Authority [Page 65] of Scripture and Tradition, Of Popes and of Councils, Of the antient Fa­thers and of the later School-Men and Casuists, Of Ecclesiastical and Civil Pow­er. The humour of ravelling into all these mystical or entangled Mat­ters, mingling with the Interests and Passions, of Princes and of Parties, and thereby heightened or inflamed, produ­ced infinite Disputes, raised violent Heats throughout all Parts of Chri­stendom, and soon ended, in many De­fections or Reformations from the Ro­man Church, and in several New In­stitutions, both Ecclesiastical and Ci­vil, in diverse Countries, which have been since Rooted and Established, in almost all the North-West Parts. The endless Disputes and litigious Quarrels, upon all these Subjects, favoured and encouraged, by the Interests of the se­veral Princes engaged in them, either took up wholly, or generally employ­ed, the Thoughts, the Studies, the Applications, the Endeavours of all or most, of the finest Wits, the deepest Scholars, and the most Learned Wri­ters, that the Age produced. Many excellent Spirits, and the most pene­trating [Page 66] Genys, that might have made admirable Progresses and Advances, in many other Sciences, were sunk and over whelmed in the abyss of Disputes, about Matters of Religion, without e­ver turning their Looks or Thoughts, any other way. To these Disputes of the Pen, succeeded those of the Sword, and the ambition of Great Princes and Ministers, mingled with the Zeal, or covered with the Pretences of Religi­on, has for a Hundred Years past, in­fested Christendom, with almost a per­petual Course or Succession, either of Civil or of Foreign Wars; the noise and disorders whereof, have been ever the most capital Enemies of the Muses, who are seated by the antient Fables, upon the top of Parnassus, that is, in a place of safety and of quiet, from the reach of all noises and disturban­ces of the Regions below.

Another circumstance, that may have hindered the advancement of Learning, has been a want or decay of Favour in Great Kings and Prin­ces, to encourage or applaud it. Up­on the first return or recovery of this fair Stranger among us, all were fond [Page 67] of seeing her, apt to applaud her, she was lodged in Palaces instead of Cells, and the greatest Kings and Princes of the Age, took either a pleasure in courting her, or a vanity in admiring her, and in favouring all her Train. The Courts of Italy and Germany, of England, of France, of Popes and of Emperors, thought themselves Honoured and Adorned, by the Number and Qua­lities of Learned Men, and by all the improvements of Sciences and Arts, wherein they excelled. They were in­vited from all Parts, for the Use and Entertainment of Kings, for the Edu­cation and Instruction of young Prin­ces, for Advice and Assistance to the greatest Ministers; and in short, the Favour of Learning was the humor and mode of the Age. Francis the First, Charles the Fifth, and Henry the Eighth (those three great Rivals) a­greed in this, though in nothing else. Many Nobles pursued this Vein with great Application and Success; among whom, Picus de Mirandula, a Sovereign Prince in Italy, might have proved a Prodigy of Learning, if his Studies and Life had lasted as long, as those of [Page 68] the Antients: For I think all of them that writ much of what we have now remaining, lived old, whereas he died about Three and Thirty, and left the World in admiration, of so much knowledge in so much youth. Since those Reigns I have not obser­ved in our modern Story, any Great Princes much Celebrated, for their Fa­vour of Learning, further than to serve their turns, to justifie their Pretensions and Quarrels, or flatter their Succes­ses. The Honour of Princes has of late struck Sale to their Interest, whereas of old, their Interests, Greatness, and Conquests, were all Dedicated to their Glory and Fame.

How much the Studies and Labours of Learned Men, must have been damp­ed, for want of this influence and kind aspect of Princes, may be best conjectured, from what happened on the contrary, about the Augustan Age, when the Learning of Rome was at its height, and perhaps owed it in some Degree, to the Bounty and Pa­tronage of that Emperor, and Mecoenas his Favourite, as well as to the Felicity of the Empire, and Tranquility of the Age.

[Page 69] The humor of Avarice and greediness of Wealth, have been ever, and in all Countries, where Silver and Gold have been in Price, and of currant use; But if it be true in particular Men, that as Riches encrease the desires of them do so too, May it not be true, of the general Vein and Humor of Ages? May they not have turned more, to this pursuit of insatiable gains, since the Discoveries and Plantations of the West-Indies, and those vast Treasures that have flowed in to these Western Parts of Europe almost every Year, and with such mighty Tides for so long a course of time? Where few are rich, few care for it, where many are so many desire it, and most in time, begin to think it necessary. Where this Opinion grows general in a Country, the Temples of Honor are soon pulled down, and all Mens Sacri­fices are made, to those of Fortune. The Souldier as well as the Merchant, the Scholar as well as the Plough-man, the Divine and the States-man, as well as the Lawyer and Physician.

Now I think that nothing is more evident in the World, than that Honor [Page 70] is a much stronger Principle, both of Action and Invention, than Gain can ever be. That all the Great and No­ble Productions of Wit and of Cou­rage, have been inspired and exalted, by that alone. That the charming Flights and Labors of Poets, the deep Speculations and Studies of Philoso­phers, the Conquests of Emperors and Atchievements of Heroes, have all flow­ed from this one Source of Honor and Fame. The last Farewel that Horace takes of his Lyrick Poems, Epicurus of his Inventions in Philosophy, Au­gustus of his Empire and Government, are all of the same strain; and as their Lives were entertained, so their Age was relieved, and their Deaths softned, by the prospect of lying down upon upon the Bed of Fame.

Avarice is on the other side, of all Passions the most sordid, the most clog­ged and covered with dirt and with dross, so that it cannot raise its Wings, beyond the smell of the Earth: 'Tis the Pay of common Souldiers, as Honor is of Commanders, and yet a­mong those themselves, none ever went so far, upon the hopes of [Page 71] prey or of spoils, as those that have been spirited by Honor or Religion. 'Tis no wonder then, that Learning has been so little advanced since it grew to be mercenary, and the Pro­gress of it has been fettered by the cares of the World, and disturbed by the desires of being Rich, or the fears of being Poor; from all which, the antient Philosophers, the Brachmans of India, the Chaldaean Magi, and Ae­gyptian Priests were disentangled and free.

But the last maim given to Learn­ing has been by the scorn of Pedan­try, which the shallow, the superfici­al, and the sufficient among Scholars, first drew upon themselves, and very justly, by pretending to more than they had, or to more esteem, than what they had could deserve; by broach­ing it in all places, at all times, up­on all occasions; and by living so much among themselves, or in their Closets and Cells, as to make them unfit for all other business, and ridi­culous in all other Conversations. As an infection that rises in a Town, first falls upon Children, or weak Constitu­tions, [Page 72] or those that are subject to other Diseases, but spreading further by de­grees, seizes upon the most healthy, vi­gorous, and strong; And when the Contagion grows very general, all the Neighbors avoid coming into the Town, or are afraid of those that are well among them, as much as of those that are sick. Just so it fared in the Com­mon-wealth of Learning, some poor weak Constitutions were first infected with Pedantry, the Contagion spread in time upon some that were stronger, Foreigners that heard there was a Plague in the Country, grew afraid to come there, and avoided the commerce of the sound, as well as of the diseased. This dislike or apprehension turned, like all fear, to hatred, and hatred to scorn. The rest of the Neighbours began first to rail at Pedants, then to ridicule them; the Learned began to fear the same Fate, and that the Pid­geons should be taken for Daws, be­cause they were all in a Flock: And because the poorest and meanest of the Company were proud, the best and the richest, began to be ashamed.

[Page 73] An Ingenious Spaniard at Brussels, would needs have it, that the History of Don Quixot had ruined the Spanish Monarchy; For before that time, Love and Valour, were all Romance among them, every young Cavalier that en­tred the Scene, Dedicated the Services of his Life, to his Honor first, and then to his Mistress. They Lived and Dyed in this Romantick Vein, and the old Duke of Alva, in his last Portugal expe­dition, had a young Mistress, to whom, the Glory of that Atchievment was Devoted, by which he hoped to value himself instead of those qualities he had lost with his youth. After Don Quixot appeared, and with that inimita­ble Wit and Humor, turned all this Ro­mantick Honor and Love into Ridi­cule, the Spaniards, he said, began to grow ashamed of both, and to laugh at Fighting and Loving; or at least otherwise, than to pursue their For­tune, or satisfy their Lust, and the consequences of this, both upon their Bodies and their Minds; This the Spani­ard would needs have pass, for a great Cause of the ruin of Spain, or of its Greatness and Power.

[Page 74] Whatever effect, the Ridicule of Knight-Errantry, might have had up­on that Monarchy, I believe, that of Pedantry, has had a very ill one, upon the Common-wealth of Learning; and I wish, the Vein of Ridiculing all that is serious and good, all Honor and Virtue, as well as Learning and piety, may have no worse effects on any other State: 'Tis the Itch of our Age and Clymat, and has over-run both the Court and the Stage, enters a House of Lords and Commons, as boldly as a Coffee-house, Debates of Council as well as Private Conversation; and I have known in my Life, more than one or two Ministers of State, that would ra­ther have said a Witty thing, than done a Wise one, and made the Company Laugh rather than the Kingdom Re­joyce. But this is enough to excuse the imperfections of Learning in our Age, and to censure the sufficiency of some of the Learned; and this small Piece of Justice I have done the Antients, will not I hope, be taken any more than 'tis meant, for any injury to the Mo­derns.

[Page 75] I shall Conclude with a Saying of Alphonsus (Surnamed the Wise) King of Aragon;

THE same Faculty of Reason, which gives Mankind the great Advantage and Prerogative over the rest of the Creation, seems to make the greatest Default of Humane Nature; and subjects it to more Troubles, Mise­ries, or at least Disquiets of Life, than any of its Fellow Creatures: 'Tis this fur­nishes us with such variety of Passions, and consequently of Wants and Desires, that none other feels; and these follow­ed by infinite Designs and endless Pur­suits, and improved by that restlesness of thought, which is natural to most Men, give him a condition of Life suit­able to that of his Birth; so that as he alone is born crying, he lives com­plaining, and dies disappointed.

Since we cannot escape the pursuit [Page 76] of Passions, and perplexity of Thoughts, which our Reason furnishes us, there is no way left, but to endeavour all we can, either to subdue or to divert them. This last is the common business of common Men, who seek it by all sorts of Sports, Pleasures, Play, or Bu­siness. But because the two first are of short continuance, soon ending with weariness, or decay of Vigour and Ap­petite, the return whereof must be at­tended, before the others can be renew­ed; and because Play grows dull, if it be not enlivened with the Hopes of Gain, the general Diversion of Man­kind seems to be Business, or the pur­suit of Riches in one kind or other, which is an amusement, that has this one advantage above all others, that it lasts those Men who engage in it, to the very ends of their Lives; none e­ver growing too old for the Thoughts and Desires of increasing his Wealth and Fortunes, either for himself, his Friends, or his Posterity.

In the first and most simple Ages of each Country, the Conditions and Lives of Men seem to have been very near of Kin with the rest of the Creatures; they lived by the Hour, or by the Day, and [Page 77] satisfied their Appetite with what they could get, from the Herbs, the Fruits, the Springs they met with, when they were hungry or dry; then, with what Fish, Fowl or Beasts they could kill, by Swiftness or Strength, by Craft or Con­trivance, by their Hands or such Instru­ments as Wit helped, or Necessity for­ced them to invent. When a Man had got enough for the day, he laid up the rest for the morrow, and spent one day in labour, that he might pass the other at ease; and lured on by the Pleasure of this Bait, when he was in Vigour, and His Game fortunate, he would pro­vide for as many days as he could, both for himself and his Children, that were too young to seek out for themselves. Then he cast about, how by sowing of Grain, and by Pasture of the tamer Cattle, to provide for the whole year. After this, dividing the Lands necessary for these Uses, first among Children, and then among Servants, he reserved to him­self a Proportion of their Gain, either in the native Stock, or something equi­valent, which brought in the use of Mo­ny; and where this once came in, none was to be satisfied, without having e­nough for himself and his Family, and [Page 78] all His and their Posterity for ever; so that I know a certain Lord who pro­fesses to value no Lease though for an hundred or a thousand years, nor any Estate or Possession of Land that is not for ever and ever.

From such small Beginnings have grown such vast and extravagant De­signs of poor mortal Men: Yet none could ever answer the naked Indian, Why one Man should take pains, and run Hazards by Sea and Land all his Life, that his Children might be safe and lazy all theirs: And the Precept of taking no care for to morrow, though never minded as impracticable in the World, seems but to reduce Mankind to their natural and original Condition of Life. However by these ways and degrees the endless increase of Riches, seems to be grown the perpetual and general amusement or business of Man­kind.

Somefew in each Country make those higher Flights after Honour and Power, and to these ends sacrifice their Riches, their Labour, their Thought, and their Lives; and nothing diverts nor busies Men more, than these pursuits, which are usually covered with the Pretences, [Page 79] of serving a Mans Country, and of Publick Good. But the true Service of the Publick is a business of so much Labour and so much Care, that though a good and wise Man may not refuse it, if he be called to it by his Prince or his Country, and thinks he can be of more than vulgar use, yet he will sel­dom or never seek it, but leaves it com­monly to Men, who under the disguise of Publick Good, pursue their own de­signs of Wealth, Power, and such Ba­stard Honours as usually attend them, not that which is the true and only true Reward of Vertue.

The pursuits of Ambition, though not so general, yet are as endless as those of Riches, and as extravagant; since none ever yet thought he had Power or Em­pire enough: And what Prince soever seems to be so great, as to live and reign without any further desires or fears, falls into the Life of a private Man, and enjoys but those Pleasures and Entertainments, which a great ma­ny several Degrees of private Fortune will allow, and as much as Humane Nature is capable of enjoying.

The Pleasures of the Senses grow a little more choice and refined, those of [Page 80] Imagination are turned upon embelish­ing the Scenes He chooses to live in; Ease, Conveniency, Elegancy, Magnifi­cence, are sought in Building first, and then in furnishing Houses or Palaces: The admirable imitations of Nature are introduced by Pictures, Statues, Ta­pestry, and other such Atchievements of Arts. And the most exquisite delights of Sense are pursued, in the Contrivance and Plantations of Gardens, which, with Fruits, Flowers, Shades, Fountains, and the Musick of Birds that frequent such happy places, seem to furnish all the pleasures of the several Senses, and with the greatest, or at least the most natural Perfections.

Thus the first Race of Assyrian Kings, after the Conquest of Ninus and Semi­ramis, passed their Lives, till their Em­pire fell to the Medes. Thus the Caliphs of Egypt, till deposed by their Mama­lukes. Thus passed the latter parts of those great Lives of Scipio, Lucullus, Au­gustus, Dioclesian. Thus turned the great Thoughts of Henry the Second of France, after the end of his Wars with Spain. Thus the present King of Mo­rocco, after having subdued all his Com­petitors, passes His Life in a Country [Page 81] Villa, gives Audience in a Grove of Orange-trees planted among purling Streams. And thus the King of France, after all the Successes of His Counsels or Arms, and in the mighty Elevation of His present Greatness and Power, when He gives Himself leasure from such Designs or Pursuits, passes the softer and easier parts of His time in Country Houses and Gardens, in build­ing, planting or adorning the Scenes, or in the common Sports and Entertain­ments of such kind of Lives. And those mighty Emperors, who contented not themselves with these Pleasures of com­mon Humanity, fell into the Frantick or the Extra vagant; they pretended to be Gods, or turned to be Devils, as Cali­gula and Nero, and too many others, known enough in Story.

Whilst Mankind is thus generally bu­side or amused, that part of them, who have had either the Justice or the Luck, to pass in common Opinion, for the wi­sest and best part among them, have followed another and very different Sent; and instead of the common de­signs of satisfying their Appetites and their Passions, and making endless Pro­visions [Page 82] for both, they have chosen what they thought a nearer and a surer way to the ease and felicity of Life, by en­deavouring to subdue, or at least to tem­per their Passions, and reduce their Ap­petites to what Nature seems only to ask and to need. And this design seems to have brought Philosophy into the World, at least that which is termed Moral, and appears to have an end, not only desirable by every Man, which is the Ease and Happiness of Life, but also in some degree suitable to the force and reach of humane Nature: For as to that part of Philosophy, which is called Natural, I know no end it can have, but that, of either busying a Man's Brains to no purpose, or satisfying the Vanity, so natural to most Men, of di­stinguishing themselves by some way or other, from those that seem their Equals in Birth, and the common advantages of it; and whether this distinction be made by Wealth or Power, or appea­rance of Knowledg, which gains Esteem and Applause in the World, is all a case. More than this, I know no Ad­vantage Mankind has gained, by the progress of Natural Philosophy, during so many Ages it has had Vogue in the [Page 83] World, excepting always, and very justly, what we owe to the Mathema­ticks, which is in a manner, all that seems valuable among the Civilized Na­tions, more than those we call Barba­rous, whether they are so or no, or more so than our selves.

How ancient this Natural Philosophy has been in the World, is hard to know, for we find frequent mention of ancient Philosophers in this kind, among the most ancient now extant with us. The first who found out the Vanity of it, seems to have been Solomon, of which Discovery he has left such admirable strains in Ecclesiastes. The next was So­crates, who made it the business of His Life, to explode it, and introduce that which we call Moral in its place, to bu­sie Human Minds to better purpose. And indeed, whoever reads with Thought what these two, and Marcus Antoninus have said, upon the Vanity of all that mortal Man can ever attain to know of Nature, in its Originals or Operations, may save Himself a great deal of Pains, and justly conclude, That the Knowledg of such things is not our Game; and (like the pursuit of a Stag by a little Spaniel) may serve to amuse [Page 84] and to weary us, but will never be hun­ted down. Yet I think those Three I have named, may justly pass for the wisest Triumvirate that are left us, upon the Records of Story or of Time.

After Socrates, who left nothing in wri­ting, many Sects of Philosophers began to spread in Greece, who entred boldly upon both parts of Natural and Moral Philosophy. The first, with the great­est Disagreement, and the most eager Contention that could be, upon the greatest Subjects: As, Whether the World were Eternal, or produced at some certain time? Whether if pro­duced, it was by some eternal Mind, and to some end, or by the fortuitous Concourse of Atoms, or some Particles of Eternal Matter? Whether there was one World or many? Whether the Soul of Man was a part of some Aethereal and Eternal Substance, or was Corporeal? Whether if Eternal, it was so before it came into the Body, or only after it went out? There were the same Con­tentions about the Motions of the Hea­vens, the Magnitude of the Celestial Bodies, the Faculties of the Mind, and the Judgment of the Senses. But all the [Page 85] different Schemes of Nature that have been drawn of old or of late by Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Des-Cartes, Hobs, or any other that I know of, seem to agree but in one thing, which is, The want of Demonstration or Satisfaction, to any thinking and unpossessed Man, and seem more or less probable one than another, according to the Wit and Eloquence of the Authors and Advocates that raise or defend them; like Juglers Tricks, that have more or less appearance of being real, according to the dextrousness and skill of Him that plays 'em; whereas perhaps if we were capable of knowing Truth and Nature, these fine Schemes would prove like Rover Shots, some nearer and some further off, but all at great distance from the Mark, it may be none in sight.

Yet in the midst of these and many other such Disputes and Contentions in their Natural Philosophy, they seemed to agree much better in their Moral, and upon their Enquires after the Ultimate End of Man, which was His Happiness; their Contentions or Differences seemed to be rather in Words than in the Sense of their Opinions, or in the true mean­ing of their several Authors or Masters [Page 86] of their Sects: All concluded, that Hap­piness was the Chief Good, and ought to be the Ultimate End of Man; that as this was the end of Wisdom, so Wis­dom was the way to Happiness. The Question then was, in what this Happi­ness consisted. The Contention grew warmest between the Stoicks and Epicu­reans, the other Sects in this point siding in a manner with one or the other of these, in their Conceptions or Expressions. The Stoicks would have it to consist in Vertue, and the Epicureans in Pleasure; yet the most reasonable of the Stoicks made the pleasure of Vertue to be the greatest Happiness; and the best of the Epicureans made the greatest Pleasure to consist in Vertue; and the difference between these two seems not easily dis­covered: All agreed, the greatest Tem­per, if not the total subduing of Passion, and exercise of Reason, to be the state of the greatest Felicity: To live with­out Desires or Fears, or those Per­turbations of Mind and Thought, which Passions raise: To place true Riches in wanting little, rather than in possessing much; and true Pleasure in Temperance, rather than in satisfying the Senses: To live with indifference to [Page 87] the common Enjoyments and Accidents of Life, and with Constancy upon the greatest Blows of Fate or of Chance; Not to disturb our Minds with sad Re­flections upon what is past, nor with anxious Cares or raving Hopes about what is to come; neither to disquiet Life with the Fears of Death, nor Death with the Desires of Life; but in both and in all things else, to follow Nature, seem to be the Precepts most agreed among them.

Thus Reason seems only to have been called in, to allay those Disorders which it self had raised, to cure its own Wounds, and pretends to make us wise no other way, than by rendring us insensible. This at least was the Profession of many rigid Stoicks, who would have had a wise Man, not only without any sort of Passion, but without any Sense of Pain, as well as Pleasure, and to enjoy Himself in the midst of Diseases and Torments, as well as of Health and Ease; a Princi­ple, in my mind, against common Na­ture and common Sense, and which might have told us in fewer Words, or with less Circumstance, that a Man to be wise, should not be a Man; and this perhaps might have been easie enough [Page 88] to believe, but nothing so hard as the other.

The Epicureans were more intelligible in their Notion, and fortunate in their Expression, when they placed a Mans Happiness in the Tranquility of Mind, and Indolence of Body; for while we are composed of both, I doubt both must have a share in the good or ill we feel. As Men of several Languages, say the same things in very different Words, so in several Ages, Countries, Constitutions of Laws and Religion, the same thing seems to be meant by very different ex­pressions; What is called by the Stoicks Apathy, or Dispassion; by the Scepticks, Indisturbance; by the Molinists, Quie­tism; by common Men, Peace of Con­science, seems all to mean but great Tranquility of Mind, though it be made to proceed from so diverse Causes, as Human Wisdom, Innocence of Life, or Resignation to the Will of God. An old Usurer had the same Notion, when He said, No Man could have Peace of Conscience, that run out of his Estate, not comprehending what else was meant by that Phrase, besides true Quiet and Content of Mind; which however ex­pressed, is, I suppose, meant by all, to [Page 89] be the best account that can be given of the Happiness of Man, since no Man can pretend to be happy without it.

I have often wondred, how such sharp and violent Invectives came to be made so generally against Epicurus, by the A­ges that followed Him, whose admirable Wit, Felicity of Expression, Excellence of Nature, Sweetness of Conversation, Temperance of Life, and Constancy of Death, made Him so beloved by His Friends, admired by His Scholars, and honoured by the Athenians. But this Injustice may be fastned chiefly upon the envy and malignity of the Stoicks at first, then upon the Mistakes of some gross Pretenders to His Sect (who took Pleasure only to be Sensual) and after­wards, upon the Piety of the Primitive Christians, who esteemed his Principles of Natural Philosophy, more opposite to those of our Religion, than either the Platonists, the Peripateticks, or Stoicks themselves: Yet I confess, I do not know why the account given by Lucretius of the Gods, should be thought more im­pious, than that given by Homer, who makes them not only subject to all the weakest Passions, but perpetually busie in all the worst or meanest Actions of Men.

[Page 90] But Epicurus has found so great Ad­vocates of His Vertue as well as Learn­ing and Inventions, that there need no more; and the Testimonies of Diogenes Laertius alone, seem too sincere and im­partial to be disputed, or to want the assistance of Modern Authors: If all fail­ed, He would be but too well defended by the Excellence of so many of His Sect in all Ages, and especially of those who lived in the compass of one, but the greatest in Story, both as to Persons and Events: I need name no more than Caesar, Atticus, Mecoenas, Lucretius, Vir­gil, Horace, all admirable in their se­veral kinds, and perhaps unparallel'd in Story.

Caesar, if consider'd in all Lights, may justly challenge the first place in the Registers we have of Mankind, equal only to Himself, and surpassing all others of His Nation and His Age, in the Vertues and Excellencies of a Statesman, a Cap­tain, an Orator, an Historian; besides all these, a Poet, a Philosopher when His leisure allowed Him; the greatest Man of Counsel and of Action, of Design and Execution; the greatest Nobleness of Birth, of Person, and of Countenance; the greatest Humanity, and Clemency [Page 91] of nature, in the midst of the greatest Provocations, Occasions and Examples of Cruelty and Revenge; 'tis true He overturned the Laws and Constitutions of His Country, yet 'twas after so ma­ny others had not only begun, but pro­ceeded very far, to change and violate them; so as in what He did, He seems rather to have prevented others, than to have done what Himself designed; for though His Ambition was vast, yet it seems to have been raised to those Heights, rather by the Insolence of His Enemies, than by His own Temper; and that what was natural to Him, was only a desire of true Glory, and to ac­quire it by good Actions as well as great, by Conquests of Barbarous Na­tions, extent of the Roman Empire, de­fending at first the Liberties of the Ple­beians, opposing the Faction that had begun in Sylla and ended in Pompey; and in the whole course of His Victories and Successes, seeking all occasions of Bounty to His Friends, and Clemency to His Enemies.

Atticus appears to have been one of the wisest and best of the Romans, Learn­ed without pretending, Good without Affectation, Bountiful without Design, [Page 92] a Friend to all Men in misfortune, a Flat­terer to no Man in Greatness or Power, a Lover of Mankind, and beloved by them all, and by these Vertues and Dis­positions, He passed safe and untouched, through all the Flames of Civil Dissenti­ons, that ravag'd His Country the great­est part of His Life; and though He ne­ver entred into any Publick Affairs, or particular Factions of His State, yet He was favoured, honoured and courted by them all, from Sylla to Augustus.

Mecaenas was the wisest Counsellour, the truest Friend, both of His Prince and His Country, the best Governor of Rome, the happiest and ablest Negocia­tor, the best Judge of Learning and Vertue, the choicest in His Friends, and thereby the happiest in His Conversati­on that has been known in Story; and I think, to His Conduct in Civil, and Agrippa's in Military Affairs, may be truly ascribed all the Fortunes and Greatness of Augustus, so much celebra­ted in the World.

For Lucretius, Virgil and Horace, they deserve in my Opinion, the Honour of the greatest Philosophers, as well as the best Poets of their Nation or Age. The two first, besides what looks like some­thing [Page 93] more than Human in their Poetry, were very great Naturalists, and admi­rable in their Morals: And Horace, be­sides the Sweetness and Elegancy of his Lyricks, appears in the rest of His Wri­tings, so great a Master of Life, and of true Sense in the Conduct of it, that I know none beyond him. It was no mean strain of His Philosophy, to refuse being Secretary to Augustus, when so great an Emperor so much desired it. But all the different Sects of Philoso­phers, seem to have agreed in the Opi­nion, of a wise Man's abstaining from Publick Affairs, which is thought the meaning of Pythagoras's Precept, To abstain from Beans, by which the Af­fairs or publick Resolutions in Athens were managed. They thought that sort of Business too gross and material for the abstracted fineness of their Spe­culations. They esteemed it too sordid and too artificial for the cleanness and simplicity of their Manners and Lives. They would have no part in the Faults of a Government, and they knew too well, that the Nature and Passions of Men made them incapable of any that was perfect and good, and there­fore thought all the Service they could [Page 94] do to the State they lived under, was to mend the Lives and Manners of par­ticular Men that composed it. But where Factions were once entred and rooted in a State, they thought it madness for Good Men to meddle with Publick Af­fairs, which made them turn their Thoughts and Entertainments to any thing rather than this; and Heraclitus, having upon the Factions of the Citi­zens, quitted the Government of His City, and amusing Himself, to play with the Boys in the Porch of the Temple, askt those who wondred at Him, Whether 'twas not better to play with such Boys, than govern such Men? But above all, they esteemed Publick Business the most con­trary of all others, to that Tranquility of Mind, which they esteemed and taught, to be the only true Felicity of Man.

For this reason Epicurus passed His Life wholly in His Garden; there He Studied, there He Exercised, there He taught His Philosophy; and indeed, no other sort of Abode seems to contribute so much, to both the Tranquility of Mind, and Indolence of Body, which He made His Chief Ends. The Sweet­ness of Air, the Pleasantness of Smells, [Page 95] the Verdure of Plants, the Cleanness and Lightness of Food, the Exercises of working or walking, but above all, the Exemption from Cares and Sollicitude, seem equally to favour and improve, both Contemplation and Health, the Enjoyments of Sense and Imagination, and thereby the Quiet and Ease both of the Body and Mind.

Though Epicurus be said to have been the first that had a Garden in Athens, whose Citizens before Him, had theirs in their Villaes or Farms without the City; yet the use of Gardens seems to have been the most ancient and most general of any sorts of Possession among Mankind, and to have preceded those of Corn or of Cattle, as yielding the easier, the pleasanter, and more natural Food. As it has been the Inclination of Kings, and the choice of Philosophers, so has it been the common Favourite of publick and private Men, a Pleasure of the greatest, and a Care of the meanest, and indeed an Employment and a Pos­session, for which no Man is too high nor too low.

If we believe the Scripture, we must allow that God Almighty esteemed the Life of a Man in a Garden the happiest [Page 96] He could give Him, or else He would not have placed Adam in that of Eden; that it was the state of Innocence and Pleasure; and that the Life of Husban­dry and Cities, came in after the Fall, with Guilt and with Labour.

Where Paradise was, has been much debated, and little agreed; but what sort of place is meant by it, may per­haps easier be conjectured. It seems to have been a Persian Word, since Ze­nophon and other Greek Authors men­tion it, as what was much in use and de­light among the Kings of those Eastern Countries. Strabo describing Jericho, says, Ibi est palmetum, cui immixtae sunt, etiam aliae stirpes hortenses, locus ferax, palmis abundans, spatio stadiorum centum, totus irriguus, ibi est Regia & Balsami Paradisus. He mentions another place, to be prope Libanum & Paradisum. And Alexander is written to have seen Cyrus's Tomb in a Paradise, being a Tower not very great, and covered with a shade of Trees about it. So that a Paradise among them seems to have been a large space of Ground, adorned and beautified with all sorts of Trees, both of Fruits and of Forest, either found there before it was inclosed, or planted after; either culti­vated [Page 97] like Gardens, for Shades and for Walks, with Fountains or Streams, and all sorts of Plants usual in the Climat, and pleasant to the Eye, the Smell, or the Taste; or else employed, like our Parks, for Inclosure and Harbor of all sorts of Wild Beasts, as well as for the pleasure of riding and walking: And so they were of more or less extent, and of differing entertainment, according to the several Humours of the Princes that ordered and inclosed them.

Semiramis is the first we are told of in Story, that brought them in use through Her Empire, and was so fond of them, as to make one where ever she built, and in all or most of the Pro­vinces she subdued, which are said to have been from Babylon as far as India. The Assyrian Kings continued this Cu­stom and Care, or rather this Pleasure, till one of them brought in the use of smaller and more regular Gardens; For having married a Wife he was fond of, out of one of the Provinces, where such Paradises or Gardens were much in use, and the Country Lady not well bearing the Air or Inclosure of the Pa­lace in Babylon to which the Assyrian Kings used to confine themselves, He [Page 98] made Her Gardens, not only within the Palace, but upon Terrases raised with Earth, over the arched Roofs, and even upon the top of the highest Tower, planted them with all sorts of Fruit-Trees, as well as other Plants and Flow­ers, the most pleasant of that Country, and thereby made at least the most airy Gardens, as well as the most costly, that have been heard of in the World. This Lady may probably have been Native of the Provinces of Chasimer or of Damascus, which have in all times been the happiest Regions for Fruits of all the East, by the Excellence of Soyl, the position of Mountains, the frequency of Streams rather than the Advantages of Climat. And 'tis great pity we do not yet see the History of Chasimir, which Mounsieur Bernier assured me, He had translated out of Persian, and intended to publish, and of which He has given such a tast, in His excellent Memoirs, of the Mogul's Country.

The next Gardens we read of, are those of Solomon, planted with all sorts of Fruit-Trees, and watered with Foun­tains; and though we have no more particular Description of them, yet we may find, they were the Places where [Page 99] He passed the times of His Leisure and Delight, where the Houses as well as Grounds, were adorned with all that could be of pleasing and elegant, and were the Retreats and Entertainments of those among his Wives that He loved the best; and 'tis not improbable, that the Paradises mentioned by Strabo were planted by this great and wisest King. But the Idea of the Garden must be very great, if it answers at all to that of the Gardner, who must have employed a great deal of His Care and of His Study, as well as of His Leisure and Thought in these Entertainments, since He writ of all Plants, from the Cedar to the Shrub.

What the Gardens of the Hesperides were, we have little or no account, further than the mention of them, and thereby the Testimony of their having been in use and request, in such remote­ness of place, and Antiquity of Time.

The Garden of Alcinous described by Homer, seems wholly Poetical, and made at the pleasure of the Painter, like the rest of the Romantick Palace, in that little barren Island of Phaeacia or Corfu. Yet as all the pieces of this transcendent Genius, are composed with excellent Knowledge, as well as Fancy, so they [Page 100] seldom sail of Instruction as well as De­light to all that read Him. The Seat of this Garden, joyning to the Gates of the Palace, the Compass of the Inclo­sure, being Four Acres, the tall Trees of Shade as well as those of Fruit, the two Fountains, one for the use of the Garden, and the other of the Palace, the continual Succession of Fruits throughout the whole Year, are, for ought I know, the best Rules or Pro­visions, that can go towards composing the best Gardens; nor is it unlikely, that Homer may have drawn this Picture after the life of some he had seen in Ionia, the Country and usual Abode of this Divine Poet; and indeed the Re­gion of the most refined Pleasures and Luxury, as well as Invention and Wit: For the humour and custom of Gardens may have descended earlier into the lower Asia, from Damascus, Assyria, and other parts of the Eastern Empires, though they seem to have made late En­trance, and smaller Improvement in those of Greece and Rome, at least in no proportion to their other Inventions or Refinements of Pleasure and Luxury.

The long and flourishing Peace of the two first Empires, gave earlier rise and [Page 101] growth to Learning and Civility, and all the Consequences of them, in Mag­nificence and Elegancy of Building and Gardening; whereas Greece and Rome were almost perpetually engaged in Quarrels and Wars, either abroad or at home, and so were busie in Actions, that were done under the Sun, rather than those under the Shade. These were the Entertainments of the softer Nati­ons, that fell under the Vertue and Prowess of the two last Empires, which from those Conquests brought home mighty Increases both of Riches and Luxury, and so perhaps lost more than they got by the Spoils of the East.

There may be another reason for the small advance of Gardning in those ex­cellent and more temperate Climats, where the Air and Soyl were so apt of themselves, to produce the best sorts of Fruits, without the necessity of cultiva­ting them, by labour and care; whereas the hotter Climats as well as the cold, are forced upon Industry and Skill, to produce or improve many Fruits that grow of themselves in the more tempe­rate Regions. However it were, we have very little mention of Gardens in old Greece or in old Rome, for pleasure [Page 102] or with Elegance, nor of much curious­ness or care, to introduce the Fruits of Foreign Climats, contenting themselves with those, which were Native of their own, and these were, the Vine, the Olive, the Fig, the Pear, and the Ap­ple; Cato, as I remember, mentions no more, and their Gardens were then but the necessary part of their Farms, in­tended particularly for the cheap and easie Food of their Hinds or Slaves, im­ployed in their Agriculture, and so were turned chiefly to all the common sorts of Plants, Herbs, or Legumes, (as the French call them) proper for common nourishment; and the name of Hortus is taken to be from Ortus, because it per­petually furnishes some rise or producti­on of something new in the World.

Lucullus, after the Mithridatick War, first brought Cherries from Pontus into Italy, which so generally pleas'd, and were so easily propagated in all Climats, that within the space of about an hundred years, having travelled Westward with the Roman Conquests, they grew common as far as the Rhine, and passed over into Britain. After the Conquest of Africk, Greece, the lesser Asia, and Syria, were brought in­to [Page 130] Italy, all the sorts of their Mala, which we interpret Apples, and might signifie no more at first, but were after­wards applied to many other Foreign Fruits: The Apricocks coming from Epire, were called Mala Epirotica; Peaches from Persia, Mala Persica; Ci­trons from Media, Medica; Pomgra­nets from Carthage, Punica; Quinces, Cothonea, from a small Island in the Gre­cian Seas; their best Pears were brought from Alexandria, Numidia, Greece and Numantia, as appears by their several Appellations: Their Plums, from Arme­nia, Syria, but chiefly from Damascus. The kinds of these are reckon'd in Ne­ro's time, to have been near Thirty, as well as of Figs, and many of them were entertained at Rome, with so great Ap­plause, and so general Vogue, that the great Captains, and even Consular Men, who first brought them over, took pride in giving them their own Names, (by which they run a great while in Rome) as in memory of some great Service or Pleasure, they had done their Country; so that not only Laws and Battels, but several sorts of Apples or Mala, and of Pears, were called Manlian and Claudian, Pompeyan and Tiberian, and [Page 104] by several other such Noble Names.

Thus the Fruits of Rome, in about an hundred years, came from Countries as far as their Conquests had reached, and like Learning, Architecture, Painting and Statuary, made their great advances in Italy, about the Augustan Age. What was of most request, in their common Gardens, in Virgil's time, or at least in His Youth, may be conjectured, by the Description of His old Corycian's Garden, in the Fourth of the Georgicks, which begins,

Among Flowers, the Roses had the first place, especially a kind which bore twice a year; and none other sorts are here mention'd besides the Narcissus, tho the Violet and the Lilly were very common and the next in esteem, espe­cially the Breve Lillium, which was the Tubereuse. The Plants he mentions, are the Apium, which tho commonly inter­preted Parsly, yet comprehends all sorts of Smallage, whereof Sellary is one, Cu­cumis, which takes in all sorts of Me­lons, as well as Cucumbers; Olus, which is a common Word for all sorts of Pot­herbs [Page 105] and Legumes; Verbenas, which signifies all kinds of Sweet or Sacred Plants, that were used for adorning the Altars, as Bays, Olive, Rosemary, Mir­tle; the Acanthus seems to be what we call Pericanthe; but what their Hederae were, that deserved place in a Garden, I cannot guess, unless they had sorts of Ivy unknown to us; nor what His Ves­cum Papaver was, since Poppies with us are of no use in eating. The Fruits mentioned, are only Apples, Pears, and Plums; for Olives, Vines, and Figs were grown to be Fruits of their Fields, rather than of their Gardens. The Shades were the Elm, the Pine, the Lime-tree, and the Platanus, or Plane-tree, whose Leaf and Shade, of all o­thers, was the most in request; and ha­ving been brought out of Persia, was such an Inclination among the Greeks and Romans, that they usually fed it with Wine instead of Water; they be­lieved this Tree loved that Liquor, as well as those that used to drink under its Shade; which was a great humour and custom, and perhaps gave rise to the other, by observing the growth of the Tree, or largeness of the Leafs, where much Wine was spilt or left, and thrown upon the Roots.

[Page 106] 'Tis great pity the hast which Virgil seems here to have been in, should have hindered Him from entring farther into the Account or Instructions of Gard­ning, which He said He could have given, and which He seems to have so much esteemed and loved, by that admirable Picture of this old Man's Felicity, which He draws, like so great a Master, with one stroke of a Pencil, in those Four Words:

That in the midst of these small Posses­sions, upon a few Acres of barren ground, yet He equalled all the Wealth and Opulence of Kings, in the Ease, Con­tent, and Freedom of His Mind.

I am not satisfied with the common Acception of the Mala Aurea, for O­ranges; nor do I find any passage in the Authors of that Age, which gives me the Opinion, that these were otherwise known to the Romans than as Fruits of the Eastern Climats. I should take their Mala Aurea to be rather some kind of Apples, so called from the golden Co­lour, as some are amongst us; for other­wise, the Orange-tree is too Noble, in [Page 107] the beauty, taste and smell of its Fruit, in the Perfume and Vertue of its Flow­ers, in the perpetual Verdure of its Leaves, and in the excellent uses of all these, both for Pleasure and Health, not to have deserved any particular men­tion in the Writings of an Age and Na­tion, so refined and exquisite in all sorts of delicious Luxury.

The charming Description Virgil makes of the Happy Apple, must be intended either for the Citron, or for some sort of Orange growing in Media, which was either so proper to that Country, as not to grow in any other (as a certain sort of Fig was to Damascus) or to have lost its Vertue by changing Soyls, or to have had its effect of curing some sort of Poyson that was usual in that Country, but particular to it: I cannot forbear in­serting these few Lines, out of the se­cond of Virgil's Georgicks, not having ever heard any body else take notice of them.

The Tree being so like a Bays or Lawrel, the slow or dull taste of the Ap­ple, the Vertue of it against Poyson, seem to describe the Citron. The Perfume of the Flowers and Vertues of them, to cure ill Sents of Mouth or Breath, or shortness of Wind in pur­sie old Men, seem to agree most with the Orange: If Flos apprima tenax, mean [Page 109] only the Excellence of the Flower a­bove all others, it may be intended for the Orange: If it signifies the Flow­ers growing most upon the tops of the Trees, it may be rather the Citron; for I have been so curious, as to bring up a Citron from a Kernel, which at twelve years age, began to flower; and I ob­served all the Flowers to grow upon the top Branches of the Tree, but to be nothing so high or sweet-sented, as the Orange. On the other side, I have al­ways heard Oranges to pass for a Cordi­al Juyce, and a great Preservative against the Plague, which is a sort of Venom; so that I know not to which of these we are to ascribe this lovely Picture of the Happy Apple; but I am satisfied by it, that neither of them was at all com­mon, if at all known in Italy, at that time or long after, though the Fruit be now so frequent there in Fields (atleast in some parts) and make so common and delicious a part of Gardning, even in these Northern Clymats.

In these Countries our Gardens are very different from what they were in Greece and Italy, and from what they are now in those Regions in Spain, or the Southern parts of France. And as [Page 110] most general Customs in Countries grow from the different nature of Climats, Soyls, or Situations, and from the ne­cessities or Industry they impose, so do these.

In the warmer Regions, Fruits and Flowers of the best sorts are so com­mon, and of so easie Production, that they grow in Fields, and are not worth the cost of inclosing, or the care of more than ordinary cultivating. On the other side, the great Pleasures of those Climats are coolness of Air, and what ever looks cool even to the Eyes, and relieves them from the unpleasant sight of dusty Streets or parched Fields. This makes the Gardens of those Countries be chiefly valued by largeness of Extent (which gives greater play and openness of Air) by Shades of Trees, by fre­quency of living Streams or Fountains, by Perspectives, by Statues, and by Pillars and Obelisks of Stone scattered up and down, which all conspire to make any place look fresh and cool. On the contrary, the more Northern Climats, as they suffer little by Heat, make little Provision against it, and are careless of Shade, and seldom curious in Fountains. Good Statues are in the [Page 111] reach of few Men, and common ones are generally and justly despised or neg­lected. But no sorts of good Fruits or Flowers, being Natives of the Climats, or usual among us, (nor indeed the best sorts of Plants, Herbs, Sallads for our Kitchin Gardens themselves) and the best Fruits not ripening without the ad­vantage of Walls or Palisades, by re­flection of the faint Heat we receive from the Sun, our Gardens are made of smaller Compass, seldom exceeding four, six, or eight Acres, inclosed with Walls, and laid out in a manner wholly for ad­vantage of Fruits, Flowers, and the Pro­duct of Kitchin Gardens in all sorts of Herbs, Sallads, Plants and Legumes, for the common use of Tables.

These are usually the Gardens of England and Holland, as the first sort are those of Italy, and were so of old In the more temperate parts of France, and in Brabant (where I take Gardning to be at its greatest height) they are com­posed of both sorts, the extent more spacious than ours, part laid out for Flowers, others for Fruits, some Stan­dards, some against Walls or Pali­sades, some for Forest Trees and Groves for Shade, some parts wild, some exact, [Page 112] and Fountains much in request among them.

But after so much ramble into Antient Times, and remote Places, to return home and consider the present way and humour of our Gardning in England, which seem to have grown into such Vogue, and to have been so mightily improved, in three or four and twenty years of His Majesties Reign, that per­haps few Countries are before us, either in the Elegance of our Gardens, or in the number of our Plants; and I believe none equals us in the Variety of Fruits, which may justly be called good; and from the earliest Cherry and Strawberry to the last Apples and Pears, may fur­nish every day of the circling year. For the Taste and Perfection of what we esteem the best, I may truly say, that the French who have eaten my Peaches and Grapes at Sheen in no very ill year, have generally concluded, that the last are as good as any they have eaten in France on this side Fountainbleau, and the first as good as any they have eat in Gascony; I mean those which come from the Stone, and are properly called Peaches, not those which are hard, and are term­ed Pavies; for these cannot grow in too [Page 113] warm a Climat, nor ever be good in a cold, and are better at Madrid than in Gascony it self: Italians have agreed, my White Figs to be as good as any of that sort in Italy, which is the earlier kind of White Fig there; for in the later kind, and the blue, we cannot come near the warm Climats, no more than in the Frontignac or Muscat Grape.

My Orange-trees are as large as any I saw, when I was young in France, ex­cept those of Fountainbleau, or what I have seen since in the Low Countries, except some very old ones of the Prince of Oranges; as laden with Flowers as any can well be, as full of Fruit as I suffer or desire them, and as well tasted as are commonly brought over, except the best sorts of Sevil and Portugal. And thus much I could not but say, in de­fence of our Climat, which is so much and so generally decried abroad, by those who never saw it, or if they have been here, have yet perhaps seen no more of it, than what belongs to Inns, or to Taverns and Ordinaries, who ac­cuse our Country for their own De­faults, and speak ill, not only of our Gardens and Houses, but of our Hu­mours, our Breeding, our Customs and [Page 114] Manners of Life, by what they have ob­served of the meaner and baser sort of Mankind and of Company among us, because they wanted themselves perhaps either Fortune or Birth, either Quality or Merit, to introduce them among the good.

I must needs add one thing more in favour of our Climat, which I heard the King say, and I thought new and right, and truly like a King of England that loved and esteemed His own Coun­try: 'Twas in reply to some of the Com­pany that were reviling our Climat, and extolling those of Italy and Spain, or at least of France; He said, He thought that was the best Climat, where He could be abroad in the Air with Plea­sure, or at least without Trouble and Inconvenience, the most days of the Year, and the most hours of the Day; and this He thought He could be in England, more than in any Country He knew of in Europe. And I believe it is true, not only of the hot and the cold, but even among our Neighbours in France and the Low-Countries them­selves, where the Heats or the Colds, and Changes of Seasons, are less treata­ble than they are with us.

[Page 115] The truth is, our Climat wants no Heat to produce excellent Fruits, and the Default of it, is only the short Sea­son of our Heats or Summers, by which many of the later are left behind and imperfect with us. But all such as are ripe before the end of August, are for ought I know, as good with us as any where else. This makes me esteem the true Region of Gardens in England to be the compass of Ten Miles about Lon­don, where the accidental warmth of Air, from the Fires and Steams of so vast a Town, makes Fruits as well as Corn a great deal forwarder than in Hampshire or Wiltshire, though more Southward by a full Degree.

There are, besides the Temper of our Climat, two things particular to us, that contribute much to the Beauty and Elegance of our Gardens, which are the Gravel of our Walks, and the fineness and almost perpetual Greenness of our Turf. The first is not known any where else, and which leaves all their dry Walks in other Countries very unplea­sant and uneasie. The other cannot be found in France or in Holland as we have it, the Soyl not admitting that fineness of Blade in Holland, nor the Sun that [Page 116] Greenness in France during most of the Summer; nor indeed is it to be found but in the finest of our Soyls.

Who-ever begins a Garden, ought in the first place and above all, to consi­der the Soyl, upon which the taste of not only His Fruits, but His Legumes, and even Herbs and Sallads, will wholly depend, and the default of Soyl is without remedy; for although all Bor­ders of Fruit may be made, with what Earth you please (if you will be at the charge) yet it must be renewed in two or three years, or it runs into the nature of the Ground where 'tis brought. Old Trees spread their Roots further than any Bodies Care extends, or the Forms of the Garden will allow; and after all, where the Soyl about you is ill, the Air is so too in a Degree, and has Influence upon the taste of Fruit. What Horace says of the productions of Kitchin Gar­dens under the Name of Caulis, is true of all the best sorts of Fruits, and may determine the choice of Soyl for all Gardens.

Any Man had better throw away His Care and His Mony upon any thing else, than upon a Garden in wet or moist Ground: Peaches and Grapes will have no taste but upon a Sand or Gravel; but the richer these are the better; and nei­ther Sallads, Pease or Beans have at all the taste upon a Clay or rich Earth, as they have upon either of the others, tho the Size and Colour of Fruits and Plants may perhaps be more upon the worse Soyls.

Next to your choice of Soyl, is to suit your Plants to your Ground, since of this every one is not Master; though perhaps Varro's Judgment upon this case, is the wisest and the best: For to one that asked Him What He should do, if His Father or Ancestors had left Him a Seat in an ill Air, or upon an ill Soyl? He answered, Why sell it and buy ano­ther in good. But what if I cannot get half the worth? Why then take a quar­ter, but however sell it, or any thing rather than live upon it.

[Page 118] Of all sorts of Soyl, the best is that upon a Sandry Gravel, or a Rosiny Sand; whoever lies upon either of these, may run boldly into all the best sort of Peaches and Grapes, how shallow soever the Turf be upon them; and whatever other Tree will thrive in these Soyls, the Fruit shall be of much finer taste than any other: A richer Soyl will do well enough for Apricocks, Plums, Pears or Figs; but still the more of the Sand in your Earth the better, and the worse the more of the Clay, which is proper for Oaks, and no other Tree that I know of.

Fruits should be suited to the Climat among us, as well as the Soyl; for there are degrees of one and the other in England, where 'tis to little purpose to plant any of the best Fruits, as Peaches or Grapes, hardly I doubt beyond Northamptonshire at the furthest North­wards; and I thought it very prudent in a Gentleman of my Friends in Staf­fordshire, who is a great Lover of His Garden, to pretend no higher, though His Soyl be good enough, than to the perfection of Plums, and in these (by bestowing South Walls upon them) He has very well succeeded, which He could [Page 119] never have done in attempts upon Peaches and Grapes; and a good Plum is certainly better than an ill Peach.

When I was at Cosevelt with that Bishop of Munster that made so much noise in His time, I observed no other Trees but Cherries in a great Garden He had made. He told me the reason was, Because He found no other Fruit would ripen well in that Climat, or up­on that Soyl, and therefore instead of being curious in others, He had only been so, in the sorts of that, whereof He had so many, as never to be without them from May to the end of Septem­ber.

As to the size of a Garden, which will perhaps in time grow extravagant among us, I think from four or five to seven or eight Acres, is as much as any Gentleman need design, and will furnish as much of all that is expected from it as any Nobleman will have occasion to use in His Family.

In every Garden four things are ne­cessary to be provided for, Flowers, Fruit, Shade, and Water; and who­ever lays out a Garden without all these, must not pretend it in any perfection: It ought to lie to the best parts of the [Page 120] House, or to those of the Master's com­monest use, so as to be but like one of the Rooms out of which you step into another. The part of your Garden next your House, (besides the Walks that go round it) should be a Parterre for Flowers, or Grass-plots bordered with Flowers; or if, according to the newest mode, it be cast all into Grass­plots and Gravel-walks, the driness of these should be relieved with Fountains, and the plainness of those with Statues; otherwise, if large, they have an ill effect upon the Eye. However the part next the House should be open, and no other Fruit but upon the Walls. If this take up one half of the Garden, the other should be Fruit-Trees, unless some Grove for Shade lye in the middle. If it take up a third part only, then the next third may be Dwarf-Trees, and the last Standard Fruit; or else the Second Part Fruit-trees, and the third all sorts of Winter-greens, which provide for all Seasons of the year.

I will not enter upon any account of Flowers, having only pleased my self with seeing or smelling them, and not troubled my self with the Care, which is more the Ladies part than the Mens, [Page 121] but the Success is wholly in the Gard­ner. For Fruits, the best we have in England, or I believe can ever hope for, are, of Peaches, the White and Red Maudlin, the Minion, the Chevreuse, the Ramboullet, the Musk, the Admirable, which is late, all the rest are either vari­fied by Names, or not to be named with these, nor worth troubling a Gar­den, in my Opinion. Of the Pavies or Hard Peaches, I know none good here but the Newington, nor will that easily hang till 'tis full ripe. The forward Peaches are to be esteemed only because they are early, but yet should find room in a good Garden, at least the White and Brown Nutmeg, the Persian, and the Violet Musk. The only good Ne­ctorins are the Murry and the French; of these there are two sorts, one very round, the other something long, but the round is the best: Of the Murry there are several sorts, but being all hard, they are seldom well ripened with us.

Of Grapes, the best are the Chasselas, which is the better sort of our White Muscadin, (as the usual Name was); a­bout Sheen, 'tis called the Pearl Grape, and ripens well enough in common [Page 122] years, but not so well as the common Black or Currand, which is something a worse Grape. The Parsly is good and proper enough to our Climat, but all white Frontiniacks are difficult, and seldom ripe unless in extraordinary Sum­mers.

I have had the Honour of bringing over four sorts into Engalnd; the Ar­boyse from the Franche Conte, which is a small white Grape, or rather runs into some small and some great upon the same Bunch; it agrees well with our Climat, but is very choice in Soyl, and must have a sharp Gravel; it is the most delicious of all Grapes that are not Muscat. The Bur­gundy, which is a grizelin or pale red, and of all others is surest to ripen in our Climat, so that I have never known them to fail one Summer these fifteen years, when all others have, and have had it very good upon an East Wall. A Black Muscat, which is called the Dow­ager, and ripens as well as the common White Grape. And the fourth is the Grizelin Frontignac, being of that Co­lour, and the highest of that Taste, and the noblest of all Grapes I ever eat in England, but requires the hottest Wall and the sharpest Gravel, and must be [Page 123] favoured by the Summer too, to be very good. All these are, I suppose, by this time, pretty common among some Gardners in my Neighbourhood, as well as several Persons of Quality; for I have ever thought all things of this kind, the commoner they are made, the better.

Of Figs there are among us the White, the Blue, and the Tawny: The last is very small, bears ill, and I think but a Bawble. Of the Blew there are two or three sorts, but little different, one something longer than the other; but that kind which swells most is ever the best. Of the White I know but two sorts, and both excellent, one ripe in the beginning of July, the other in the end of September, and is yellower than the first; but this is hard to be found among us, and difficult to raise, though an excellent Fruit.

Of Apricocks the best are the com­mon old sort, and the largest Masculin, of which this last is much improved by budding upon a Peach Stock. I esteem none of this Fruit but the Brussels Apri­cock, which grows a Standard, and is one of the best Fruits we have, and which I first brought over among us.

[Page 124] The number of good Pears, especi­ally Summer, is very great, but the best are the Blanquet, Robin, Rousselet, Ro­sati, Sans Pepin, Jargonell. Of the Autumn, the Buree, the Vertelongue, and the Bergamot. Of the Winter, the Vergoluz, Chasseray, St. Michael, St. Germain, and Ambret: I esteem the Bon-Cretien with us good for nothing but to Bake.

Of Plums the best are St. Julian, St. Catharine, white and blew Pedrigon, Queen-mother, Sheen-Plum, and Che­ston.

Beyond the sorts I have named, none I think need trouble himself, but mul­tiply these, rather than make room for more kinds; and I am content to leave this Register, having been so often de­sired it by my Friends upon their designs of Gardning.

I need say nothing of Apples, being so well known among us; but the best of our Climat, and I believe of all o­thers, is the Golden Pippin, and for all sorts of uses: The next is the Kentish Pippin, but these I think are as far from their perfection with us as Grapes, and yield to those of Normandy, as these to those in Anjou, and even these to those in [Page 125] Gascony. In other Fruits the defect of Sun is in a great measure supplied by the advantage of Walls.

The next care to that of suiting Trees with the Soyl, is that of suiting Fruits to the Position of Walls. Grapes, Peaches, and Winter Pears to be good, must be planted upon full South or South-east; Figs are best upon South-east, but will do well upon East, and South-West: The West are proper for Cherries, Plums or Apricocks, but all of them are im­proved by a South Wall both as to early and tast: North, North-West, or North-East, deserve nothing but Greens; these should be divided by Woodbines or Jes­semins between every Green, and the other Walls, by a Vine between every Fruit-Tree; the best sorts upon the South-Walls, the common White and Black upon East and West, because the other Trees being many of them (espe­cially Peaches) very transitory, some apt to die with hard Winters, others to be cut down and make room for new Fruits: Without this Method the Walls are left for several Years unfurnished; whereas the Vines on each side cover the void space in one Summer, and when the other Trees are grown, make [Page 126] only a Pillar between them of two or three Foot broad.

Whoever would have the best Fruits in the most perfection our Climat will allow, should not only take care of giv­ing them as much Sun, but also as much Air as he can; no Tree, unless Dwarf, should be suffered to grow within Forty Foot of your best Walls, but the far­ther they lie open, is still the better. Of all others this Care is most necessary in Vines, which are observed abroad to make the best Wines, where they lie upon sides of Hills, and so most expo­sed to the Air and the Winds. The way of pruning them too, is best learnt from the Vineyards, where you see nothing in Winter, but what looks like a dead stump; and upon our Walls, they should be left but like a ragged Staff, not above two or three Eyes at most up­on the Bearing Branches; and the low­er the Vine, and fewer the Branches, the Grapes will be still the better.

The best Figure of a Garden is either a Square or an Oblong, and either upon a Flat or a Descent; they have all their Beauties, but the best I esteem an Ob­long upon a Descent. The Beauty, the Air, the View, make amends for the [Page 127] expence, which is very great in finishing and supporting the Terras-walks, in le­velling the Parterres, and in the stone Stairs that are necessary from one to the other.

The perfectest Figure of a Garden I ever saw, either at home or abroad, was that of Moor-Park in Hartfordshire when I knew it about thirty years ago. It was made by the Countess of Bed­ford, esteemed among the greatest Wits of Her time, and celebrated by Dr. Donne; and with very great Care, Ex­cellent Contrivance, and much Cost; but greater Sums may be thrown away without effect or Honour, if there want Sense in proportion to Mony, or if Na­ture be not followed, which I take to be the great Rule in this, and perhaps in every thing else, as far as the Conduct not only of our Lives, but our Govern­ments. And whether the greatest of mortal Men should attempt the forcing of Nature, may best be judged, by ob­serving how seldom God Almighty does it Himself, by so few true and undispu­ted Miracles, as we see or hear of in the World. For my own part, I know not three wiser Precepts for the Conduct either of Princes or private Men, than

Because I take the Garden I have na­med, to have been in all kinds the most beautiful and perfect, at least in the Figure and Disposition, that I have ever seen, I will describe it for a Model to those that meet with such a Situation, and are above the regards of common Expence: It lies on the side of a Hill, (upon which the House stands) but not very steep. The length of the House, where the best Rooms, and of most use or pleasure are, lies upon the breadth of the Garden, the great Parlour opens into the middle of a Terras Gravel-walk that lies even with it, and which may be as I remember about three hun­dred Paces long, and broad in Propor­tion, the Border set with Standard Lawrels, and at large distances, which have the Beauty of Orange-Trees out of Flower and Fruit; from this Walk are three Descents by many stone Steps in the middle and at each end, into a very large Parterre. This is divided into Quarters by Gravel Walks, and adorn­ed with two Fountains and eight Sta­tues [Page 129] in the several Quarters; at the end of the Terras Walk are two Summer-Houses, and the sides of the Parterre are ranged with two large Cloysters open to the Garden, upon Arches of Stone, and ending with two other Sum­mer-Houses even with the Cloysters, which are paved with Stone, and de­signed for Walks of Shade, there being none other in the whole Parterre. Over these two Cloysters are two Terrasses covered with Lead, and fenced with Ba­lusters, and the Passage into these airy Walks is out of the two Summer-Hou­ses at the end of the first Terras-walk. The Cloyster facing the South is cover­ed with Vines, and would have been proper for an Orange-house, and the other for Myrtles, or other more com­mon Greens, and had, I doubt not, been cast for that purpose, if this piece of Gardning had been then in as much Vogue as it is now.

From the middle of this Parterre is a descent by many steps flying on each side of a Grotto that lies between them (covered with Lead and Flat) into the lower Garden, which is all Fruit-trees ranged about the several Quarters of a Wilderness which is very shady; the [Page 130] Walks here are all green, the Grotto imbelish'd with Figures of Shell Rock­work, Fountains and Water-works. If the Hill had not ended with the lower Garden, and the Wall were not bound­ed by a common way that goes through the Park, they might have added a third Quarter of all Greens; but this want is supplied by a Garden on the other side the House, which is all of that sort, very wild, shady, and a dorn­ed with rough Rock-work and Foun­tains.

This was Moor-Park, when I was ac­quainted with it, and the sweetest place, I think, that I have seen in my Life, ei­ther before or since, at home or abroad; what it is now I can give little account, having passed through several hands that have made great Changes in Gar­dens as well as House; but the remem­brance of what it was, is too pleasant ever to forget, and therefore I do not believe to have mistaken the Figure of it, which may serve for a Pattern to the best Gardens of our manner, and that are most proper for our Country and Climat.

[Page 131] What I have said of the best Forms of Gardens, is meant only of such as are in some sort regular; for there may be other Forms wholly irregular, that may, for ought I know, have more Beauty than any of the others; but they must owe it to some extraordinary dispositions of Nature in the Seat, or some great race of Fancy or Judgment in the Contrivance, which may reduce many disagreeing parts into some Fi­gure, which shall yet upon the whole, be very agreeable. Something of this I have seen in some places, but heard more of it from others, who have liv­ed much among the Chineses; a People, whose way of thinking, seems to lie as wide of ours in Europe, as their Coun­try does. Among us, the Beauty of Building and Planting is placed chiefly, in some certain Proportions, Symme­tries, or Uniformities; our Walks and our Trees ranged so, as to answer one another, and at exact Distances. The Chineses scorn this way of Planting, and say a Boy that can tell an hundred, may plant Walks of Trees in strait Lines, and over against one another, and to what Length and Extent He pleases. But their greatest reach of Imagination, is em­ployed [Page 132] in contriving Figures, where the Beauty shall be great, and strike the Eye, but without any order or disposition of parts, that shall be commonly or easily observ'd. And though we have hardly any Notion of this sort of Beauty, yet they have a particular Word to express it; and where they find it hit their Eye at first sight, they say the Sharawadgi is fine or is admirable, or any such expres­sion of Esteem. And whoever observes the Work upon the best Indian Gowns, or the painting upon their best Skreens or Purcellans, will find their Beauty is all of this kind (that is) without order. But I should hardly advise any of these Attempts in the Figure of Gardens a­mong us; they are Adventures of too hard atchievement for any common Hands; and though there may be more Honour if they succeed well, yet there is more Dishonour if they fail, and 'tis twenty to one they will; whereas in regular Figures, 'tis hard to make any great and remarkable Faults.

The Picture I have met with, in some relations of a Garden made by a Dutch Governor of their Colony, upon the Cape de Buen Esperance is admirable, and described to be of an Oblong-Figure, [Page 133] very large Extent, and divided into four Quarters by long and cross Walks, ranged with all sorts of Orange-trees, Lemmons, Limes, and Citrons; each of these four Quarters is planted with the Trees, Fruits, Flowers and Plants that are native and proper to each of the four parts of the World; so as in this one Inclosure are to be found the seve­ral Gardens of Europe, Asia, Africk, and America. There could not be in my mind, a greater Thought of a Gardner, nor a nobler Idea of a Garden, nor bet­ter suited or chosen for the Climat, which is about Thirty Degrees, and may pass for the Hesperides of our Age, whatever or where-ever the other was. Yet this is agreed by all to have been in the Islands or Continent upon the South-West of Africa, but what their Forms or their Fruits were, none that I know, pretend to tell; nor whether their Golden Apples were for taste, or only for sight, as those of Montezuma were in Mexico, who had large Trees with Stocks, Branches, Leafs and Fruits, all admirably composed and wrought of Gold; but this was only stupendious in cost and art, and answers not at all in [Page 134] my Opinion, the delicious Varieties of Nature in other Gardens.

What I have said of Gardning, is perhaps enough for any Gentleman to know, so as to make no great Faults, nor be much imposed upon, in the De­signs of that kind, which I think ought to be applauded and encouraged in all Countries. That and building being a sort of Creation, that raise beautiful Fabricks and Figures out of nothing, that make the Convenience and Plea­sure of all private Habitations, that em­ploy many Hands, and circulate much Mony among the poorer sort and Arti­zans, that are a Publick Service to ones Country, by the Example as well as effect, which adorn the Scene, improve the Earth, and even the Air it self in some Degree. The rest that belongs to this Subject, must be a Gardners part, upon whose Skill, Diligence and Care, the Beauty of the Grounds, and Excel­lence of the Fruits will much depend. Though if the Soyl and Sorts be well chosen, well suited, and disposed to the Walls, the Ignorance or Carelesness of the Servants can hardly leave the Master disappointed.

[Page 135] I will not enter further upon His Trade, than to advise Him in all Plan­tations either for His Master or Himself, to draw his Trees out of some Nursery that is upon a leaner and lighter Soyl than his own where he removes them; without this care they will not thrive in several years, perhaps never, and must make way for new, which should be avoided all that can be; for Life is too short and uncertain, to be renewing often your Plantations. The Walls of your Garden without their Furniture, look as ill as those of your House; so that you cannot dig up your Garden too often, nor too seldom cut it down.

I may perhaps be allowed to know something of this Trade, since I have so long allowed my self to be good for nothing else, which few Men will do, or enjoy their Gardens, without often looking abroad to see how other mat­ters play, what Motions in the State, and what Invitations they may hope for into other Scenes.

For my own part, as the Country Life, and this part of it more particu­larly, were the Inclination of my Youth it self, so they are the Pleasure of my Age; and I can truly say, that among [Page 136] many great Employments that have fallen to my share, I have never asked or sought for any one of them, but have often endeavoured to escape from them, into the ease and freedom of a private Scene, where a Man may go his own way and his own Pace, in the common Paths or Circles of Life.

These are Questions that a Man ought at least to ask himself, whether he asks others or no, and to choose his course of Life rather by his own Humour and [Page 137] Temper, than by common Accidents, or Advice of Friends, at least if the Spa­nish Proverb be true, That a Fool knows more in his own House than a Wise Man in anothers.

The measure of choosing well, is, Whether a Man likes what he has cho­sen, which I thank God has befallen me; and though among the Follies of my Life, Building and Planting have not been the least, and have cost me more than I have the confidence to own; yet they have been fully recompensed by the sweetness and satisfaction of this Retreat, where since my Resolution ta­ken of never entring again into any Publick Employments, I have passed Five Years without ever going once to Town, though I am almost in sight of it, and have a House there always ready to receive me. Nor has this been any sort of Affectation, as some have thought it, but a meer want of Desire or Humour to make so small a Remove; for when I am in this Corner I can truly say with Horace,

That which makes the Cares of Gard­ning more necessary, or at least more excusable, is that all Men eat Fruit that can get it, so as the choice is only whe­ther one will eat good or ill, and be­tween these the difference is not great­er, in point of tast and delicacy, than it is of Health: For the first I will only say, That whoever has used to eat good, [Page 139] will do very great penance when he comes to ill: And for the other, I think nothing is more evident, than as ill or unripe Fruit is extreamly unwholsom, and causes so many untimely deaths, or so much sickness about Autumn, in all great Cities where 'tis greedily sold as well as eaten, so no part of Dyet, in any season, is so healthful, so natural, and so agreeable to the Stomach, as good and well ripened Fruits; for this I make the measure of their being good; and let the kinds be what they will, if they will not ripen perfectly in our Clymat, they are better never planted or never eaten. I can say it for my self at least, and all my Friends, that the season of Summer Fruits is ever the season of health with us, which I reckon from the beginning of June to the end of September, and for all Sicknesses of the Stomach (from which most others are judged to proceed) I do not think any that are like me, the most subject to them, shall complain, when ever they eat thirty or forty Cherries before Meals, or the like proportion of white Figs, soft Peaches, or grapes perfectly ripe. But these after Michaelmas I do not think wholsom with us, unless attended [Page 140] by some fit of hot and dry Weather more than is usual after that Season; When the Frosts or the Rain have taken them, they grow dangerous, and no­thing but the Autumn and Winter Pears, are to be reckoned in season, besides Apples, which, with Cherries are of all others, the most innocent Food, and perhaps the best Physick. Now who­ever will be sure to eat good Fruit, must do it out of a Garden of His own; for besides the choice so necessary in the sorts, the soyl, and so many other circumstances that go to compose a good Garden, or produce good Fruits, there is something very nice in gather­ing them, and choosing the best even from the same Tree. The best sorts of all among us, which I esteem the white Figs and the soft Peaches, will not carry without suffering. The best Fruit that is bought, has no more of the Masters care, than how to raise the greatest gains; His business is to have as much Fruit as He can, upon as few Trees, whereas the way to have it excellent, is to have but little up­on many Trees. So that for all things out of a Garden, either of Sallads or Fruits, a Poor Man will eat better, [Page 141] that has one of His own, than a Rich Man that has none. And this is all I think of necessary and useful to be known upon this Subject.

AMONG all the Endowments of Nature, or Improvements of Art, wherein Men have excelled and distinguished themselves most in the World, there are two only, that have had the honour of being called Divine, and of giving that Esteem or Appella­tion to such as possessed them in very eminent Degrees, which are, Heroick Virtue, and Poetry: For Prophecy can­not be esteemed any Excellency of Na­ture or of Art, but whereever it is true, is an immediate Gift of God, and be­stowed according to His Pleasure, and upon Subjects of the meanest capacity, upon Women or Children, or even things inanimate, as the Stones placed in the High-Priest's Breast-Plate, among the [Page 144] Jews, which was a sacred Oracle among them.

I will leave Poetry to an Essay by it self, and dedicate this only to that an­tiquated Shrine of Heroick Virtue, which however forgotten, or unknown in later Ages, must yet be allowed, to have produced in the World, the ad­vantages most valued among Men, and which most distinguish their Under­standings and their Lives, from the rest of their fellow Creatures.

Though it be easier to describe Hero­ick Virtue, by the Effects and Examples, than by Causes or Definitions, yet it may be said to arise, from some great and na­tive Excellency of Temper or Genius transcending the common race of Man­kind, in Wisdom, Goodness and Forti­tude. These ingredients advantaged by Birth, improved by Education, and as­sisted by Fortune, seem to make that no­ble composition, which gives such a lustre to those who have possest it, as made them appear to common eyes, some­thing more than Mortals, and to have been born of some mixture, between Divine and Humane Race; To have been honoured and obeyed in their Lives, and after their Deaths bewailed and adored.

[Page 145] The greatness of their Wisdom ap­peared in the Excellency of their In­ventions; And these by the Goodness of their Nature, were turned and exer­cised upon such Subjects, as were of ge­neral good to Mankind in the common uses of life, or to their own Countries in the Institutions of such Laws, Orders or Governments, as were of most ease, safety and advantage to Civil Society. Their Valour was imployed, in defend­ing their own Countries from the vio­lence of ill Men at home, or Enemies abroad, in reducing their barbarous Neighbours to the same forms and or­ders of Civil Lives and Institutions; or in relieving others, from the Cruelties and Oppressions of Tyranny and Vio­lence. These are all comprehended, in three Verses of Virgil, describing the blessed Seats in Elysium, and those that enjoyed them.

And indeed, the Character of He­roick Virtue seems to be in short, The deserving well of Mankind. Where this is chief in design, and great in success, the pretence to a Hero lies very fair, and can never be allowed without it.

I have said, that this Excellency of Genius must be native, because it can never grow to any great heigth, if it be only acquired or affected; but it must be ennobled by Birth, to give it more Lustre, Esteem and Authority; it must be cultivated by Education and Instruction, to improve its growth, and direct its end and application; and it must be assisted by Fortune, to preserve it to maturity; because the noblest Spirit or Genius in the World, if it falls, though never so bravely, in its first enterprises, cannot deserve enough of Mankind, to pretend to so great a reward as the esteem of Heroick Virtue. And yet perhaps, many a person has dyed in the first battle or adventure he atchieved, [Page 147] and lies buried in silence and oblivion, who had he out-lived as many dangers as Alexander did, might have shined as bright in Honour and Fame. Now since so many Stars go to the making up of this Constellation, 'tis no won­der it has so seldom appeared in the World; nor that when it does, it is received and followed with so much gazing, and so much veneration.

Among the simpler Ages or Genera­tions of Men, in several Countries, Those who were the first Inventers of Arts ge­nerally received and applauded, as most necessary or useful to human life, were honoured alive, and after death worship­ped as Gods. And so were those who had been the first Authors of any good, and well instituted Civil Government in any Country, by which, the native In­habitants were reduced from savage and brutish lives, to the safety and conveni­ence of Societies, the enjoyment of Property, the observance of Orders, and the obedience of Laws, which were followed by Security, Plenty, Civility, Riches, Industry and all kinds of Arts. The evident advantages and common benefits of these sorts of Institutions, made People generally inclined at home [Page 148] to obey such Governors, the Neigh­bour Nations to esteem them, and thereby, willingly enter into their Pro­tection, or easily yield to the force of their Arms and Prowess. Thus Con­quests began to be made in the World, and upon the same designs, of reducing Barbarous Nations unto Civil and well Regulated Constitutions and Govern­ments, and of subduing those by force to obey them, who refused to accept willingly the advantages of Life or con­dition, that were thereby offered them. Such Persons of old, who excelling in those Vertues, were attended by these fortunes, and made great and famous Conquests, and left them under good Constitutions of Laws and Govern­ments; Or who instituted excellent and lasting orders and frames of any Poli­tical State, in what compass soever of Country, or under what Names soever of Civil Government, were obeyed as Princes or Law-givers in their own times, and were called in after Ages, by the name of Heroes.

From these sources, I believe may be deduced all or most of the Theology or Idolatry, of all the ancient Pagan Countries, within the compass of the [Page 149] Four great Empires, so much renowned in Story, and perhaps of some others, as great in their Constitutions, and as ex­tended in their Conquests, though not so much celebrated or observed by Learned Men.

From all I can gather, upon the Sur­veys of ancient Story, I am apt to con­clude, that Saturn was a King of Crete, and expelled that Kingdom by his Son. That Jupiter having driven out his Fa­ther from Crete, conquered Greece, or at least the Peloponesus; and having a­mong those Inhabitants, introduced the use of Agriculture, of Property and Civility, and established a just and re­gular Kingdom, was by them adored as chief of their Gods.

That His Brothers, Sisters, Sons, and Daughters, were worshipped likewise, for the inventions of things chiefly use­ful, necessary, or agreeable to Humane Life. So Neptune, for the art or im­provement of Navigation; Vulcan, for that of Forging Brass and Iron; Mi­nerva, of Spinning; Apollo, of Musick [Page 150] and Poetry; Mercury, of Manual Arts and Merchandise; Bacchus, for the invention of Wine; and Ceres of Corn.

I do not find any traces left, by which a probable conjecture may be made of the Age, wherein this race of Saturn flourished in the World, nor conse­quently, what length of time they were adored; for as to Bacehus and Hercules, it is generally agreed, that there were more than one or two of those Names, in very different times, and perhaps Countries, as Greece and Egypt, and that the last, who was Son of Alcmena, and one of the Argonauts, was very modern, in respect of the other more ancient, who was contemporary with the race of Jupiter. But the Story of that Bac­ehus and Hercules, who are said to have Conquered India, is grown too obscure, by the dark shades of so great Antiqui­ty, or disguised by the mask of Fables, and Fiction of Poets.

The same divine Honours were ren­dered by the Aegyptians to Osyris, in whose Temple was inscribed on a Pil­lar, that he had gone through all Coun­tries, and every where taught Men all that he found necessary for the com­mon [Page 151] good of Mankind, By the Assy­rians, to Belus, the Founder of that Kingdom, and great Inventor or Im­prover of Astronomy, among the Chal­daeans, By the Original Latins or He­truscans, to Janus, who introduced A­griculture into Italy; and these Three were worshipped as Gods, by those ancient and Learned Nations.

Ninus and Sesostris, were renowned for their mighty Conquests, and e­steemed the two great Heroes of Assy­ria and of Egypt; the first, having ex­tended his Victories, to the River Indus, and the other, those of the Aegyptians, over Asia, as far as Pontus. The time of Ninus is controverted among Histo­rians, being by some placed, Thirteen, by others, Eight Hundred Years before Sardanapalus: But that of Sesostris, is in my opinion, much harder to be af­firmed. For I do not see, how their o­pinion can be allowed, who make him to be Sesack, that took Jerusalem in the time of Rehoboam, since no more is said in Scripture, of the progress of that Expedition: Nor is the time of it men­tioned in the Graecian Story, though some Records are there found, of all that passed after the Trojan War, and [Page 152] with distinction enough. But the most ancient among them, speak of the Reign of Sesostris, and His mighty Conquests, as very ancient then, and agree the Kingdom of Choleos, to have descended from a Colony there Established by this famous King, as a Monument how far Northward his Victories had extended. Now this Kingdom flourished in the time of the Argonauts, and excelled in those Arts of Magiek and Enchantments, which they were thought to have brought with them out of Egypt; so as I think the Story of this King must be reckoned as almost covered with the Ruins of Time.

The two next Heroes that enter the Scene, are the Theban Hercules, and The­seus, both renowned among the Greeks, for freeing their Country from Fierce Wild Beasts, or from fiercer and wilder Men that infested them; from Rob­bers and Spoilers, or from cruel and Lawless Tyrants. Theseus was besides honoured as Founder of the more Civil State or Kingdom of Athens, which Ci­ty first began to flourish and grow great by his Institutions, though His Father had been King of the Scattered Villa­ges or Inhabitants of Attica.

[Page 153] In the same Age, flourished Minos King of Crete, reputed to be Son of Jupiter, who by the force and number of his Fleets, became Lord of the Ae­gaean Islands, and most of the Coasts of Greece, and was renowned as a Heroe, for the justness of his Laws, and the greatness of his Reign.

For the Heroes, in the time of the Trojan Wars, so much celebrated in those two charming Poems, which from them were called Heroical, though 'tis easy to take their Characters from those admirable Pictures drawn of them by Homer and Virgil, yet 'tis hard to find them in the Relations of any Authen­tick Story. That which may be obser­ved, is, that all the Conduct and Cou­rage of Hector, were imployed in the defence of His Country and his Father against a Foreign Invasion: The valour of Achilles was exercised in the common cause, wherein his whole Nation were engaged upon the fatal Revenge of the Rape of Helen, though he had been as­sured by certain Prophecies, that he should dye before the Walls of Troy; and Aeneas, having imployed His utmost Prowess in defence of his Country, sa­ved his Father and the Trojan Gods, ga­thered [Page 154] up the Remainders of his Rui­ned Country, sailed to Italy, and there Founded a Kingdom, which gave rise to the Greatest Empire of the World.

About Two Hundred and Fifty Years after these, Lycurgus instituted the Spar­tan State, upon Laws and Orders so dif­ferent from those usual in those Times and Countries, that more than Humane Authority seemed necessary to establish them; and the Pythian Priestess told him, she did not know whether she should call Him a God or a Man. And indeed no Civil or Politick Constitu­tions have been more celebrated than His, by the best Authors of ancient Sto­ry and Times.

The next Heroes we meet with upon Record, were Romulus and Numa, of which the first, Founded the Roman City and State, and the other, Polished the Civil and Religious Orders of both in such a degree, that the Original In­stitutions of these two Lawgivers con­tinued as long as that Glorious State.

The next Heroe that came upon the Stage, was Cyrus, who freed His Coun­try from their Servitude to the Medes, erected the Persian Empire upon the [Page 155] ruins of the Assyrian; adorned it with excellent Constitutions and Laws, and extended it Westward, by the Con­quest of all the Lesser Asia and Lydia, to the very Coasts of the Aegean Sea. Whether the Picture of Cyrus drawn by Xenophon, be after the life, or only imagi­nary, we may find in it the truest Cha­racter that can be given of Heroick Virtue: And 'tis certain, His Memory was always sacred among the Persians, though not prosecuted by Divine Ho­nours, because that Nation adored one Supream God, without any Representa­tion or Idol; and in the next place the Sun, to whom alone they offered Sa­crifices.

Alexander, was the next, renowned in Story, having founded the Grecian Monarchy, by the entire Conquest of the Persian, and extended it, by the ad­dition of Greece and Macedon. But he attained not the esteem or appellation of an Heroe, though He affected and courted it by His Mother's Stories of His Birth, and by the Flatteries of the Priest and Oracle of Jupiter Ammon. His pretence was justly excluded, by His Intemperance in Wine, in Anger, and in Lust, and more yet by His Cruelties and [Page 156] His Pride; for true Honour has some­thing in it so humorous, as to follow commonly those, who avoid or neg­lect it, rather than those, who seek and pursue it. Besides, He instituted no or­ders or frame of Government, in the Kingdoms either of Macedon or Persia; but rather corrupted and disordered those He found: And seems to have owed the success of His Enterprises, to the Councels and Conduct of His Fa­thers old Officers, after whose disgrace and fall, immediately succeeded that of his Fortune and his Life. Yet he must be allowed, to have much contributed to his own Glory and Fame, by a great native Genius and unlimited Bounty, and by the greatest boldness of Enter­prise, scorn of Danger, and fearlesness of Death that could be in any Mortal Man. He was a Prodigy of Valour and of Fortune, but whether his Vir­tues or his Faults were greatest, is hard to be decided.

Caesar, who is commonly esteemed to have been Founder of the Roman Em­pire, seems to have possessed very emi­nently all the Qualities, both native and acquired, that enter into the Com­position of an Heroe, but failed of the [Page 157] Attribute or Honour, because He over­threw the Laws of his own Country, and Orders of his State, and raised his greatness by the Conquest of his Fellow Citizens, more than of their Enemies; and after he came to the Empire, lived not to perfect the frame of such a Go­vernment, or atchieve such Conquests as he seems to have had in design.

These Four great Monarchies, with the smaller Kingdoms, Principalities and States, that were swallowed up by their Conquests and Extent, make the Sub­ject of what is called Antient Story, and are so excellently related by the many Greek and Latin Authors, still ex­tant and in common vogue, so com­mented, enlarged, reduced into order of time and place, by many more of the Modern Writers, that they are known to all Men, who profess to study or en­tertain themselves with Reading. The Orders and Institutions of these several Governments, their progress and dura­tion, their successes or decays, their e­vents and revolutions, make the com­mon Theams of Schools and Colledges, the Study of Learned, and the Conver­sation of Idle Men, the Arguments of Histories, Poems and Romances. From [Page 158] the Actions and Fortunes of these Princes and Law-givers, are drawn the common Examples of Virtue and Ho­nour, the Reproaches of Vice, which are illustrated by the Felicities or Mis­fortunes that attend them. From the Events and Revolutions of these Go­vernments, are drawn the usual Instru­ctions of Princes and Statesmen, and the Discourses and Reflections of the great­est Wits and Writers upon the Politicks. From the Orders and Institutions, the Laws and Customs of these Empires and States, the Sages of Law and of Justice, in all Countries, endeavour to deduce the very common Laws of Nature and of Nations, as well as the particular Civil or Municipal of Kingdoms and Pro­vinces. From these they draw their Arguments and Presidents in all Disputes concerning the pretended Excellencies or Defaults of the several sorts of Go­vernments that are extolled or decried, accused or defended. Concerning the Rights of War and Peace, of Invasion and Defence between Sovereign Princes, as well as of Authority and Obedience, of Prerogative and Liberty, in Civil Contentions.

[Page 159] Yet the Stage of all these Empires and Revolutions, of all these Heroick Acti­ons, and these famous Constitutions, (how great or how wise soever any of them are esteemed) is but a limited compass of Earth, that leaves out many vast Regions of the World, the which, though accounted barbarous, and little taken notice of in Story, or by any celebrated Authors, yet have a right to come in for their Voice, in agreeing upon the Laws of Nature and Nations (for ought I know) as well as the rest, that have arrogated it wholly to them­selves; and besides, in my Opinion, there are some of them, that upon en­quiry, will be found to have equalled or exceeded all the others, in the wis­dom of their Constitutions, the extent of their Conquests, and the duration of their Empires or States.

The famous Scene of the four great Monarchies, was that midland part of the World, which was bounded on the East by the River Indus, and on the West by the Atlantick Ocean; on the North by the River Oxus, the Caspian and the Euxine Seas, and the Danube; on the South by the Mountain Atlas, Aethio­pia, Arabia, and from thence to the [Page 160] Mouth of Indus, by the Southern O­cean.

'Tis true, that Semiramis and Alex­ander are said to have conquered India; but the first seems only to have subdu­ed some parts of it that lie upon the Borders of that River; and Alexander's Atchievements there, seem rather like a Journey than a Conquest; and though He pierced through the Country, from Indus to Ganges, yet He left even undis­covered, the greatest parts of that mighty Region, which, by the Ancients was reported, to contain an hundred and eighteen great and populous Nations, and which, for ought I know, were ne­ver conquer'd but by the Tartars.

I reckon neither Scythia nor Arabia for parts of that ancient Scene of Action and Story; for tho Cyrus and Darius entred the first, yet they soon left it, one with loss of His Honour, and the other of his Life. And for Arabia, I nei­ther find it was ever conquered, or in­deed well discovered or surveyed, nor much more known, than by the Com­merce of their Spices and Perfumes. I mean that part of it, which is called Arabia Foelix, and is environed on three sides by the Sea; for the Northern [Page 161] Skirts, that joyn to Syria, have entred into the Conquests or Commerce of the four great Empires; but that which seems to have secured the other, is the stony and sandy Desarts, through which no Armies can pass for want of Water.

Now if we consider the Map of the World, as it lies at present before us, since the discoveries made by the Na­vigations of these three last Centuries, we shall easily find what vast Regions there are, which have been left out of that ancient Scene on all sides: And tho passing for barbarous, they have not been esteemed worth the Pens of any good Authors, and are known on­ly by common and poor Relations of Traders, Seamen, or Travellers; yet by all I have read, I am inclined to be­lieve that some of these out-lying Parts of the World, however unknown by the Ancients, and overlookt by the modern Learned, may yet have afford­ed as much matter of Action and Speculation, as the other Scene so much celebrated in Story. I mean not only in their vast Extent, and va­riety of Soiles and Clymats, with their natural Productions, but even in the excellent Constitutions of Laws and [Page 162] Customs, the wise and lasting Founda­tions of States and Empires, and the mighty Flights of Conquests that have risen from such Orders and Instituti­ons.

Now because the first Scene is such a beaten Road, and this so little known or traced, I am content to take a short Survey of four great Scheams of Go­vernment or Empire, that have sprung and grown to mighty heights, lived very long, and flourished much in these remote (and as we will have it, more ignoble) Regions of the World: Whereof one is at the farthest degree of our Eastern Longitude, being the Kingdom of China; The next is at the farthest Western, which is that of Peru; The third is the utmost of our Nor­thern Latitude, which is Scythia or Tar­tary; And the fourth is Arabia, which lies very far upon the Southern.

For that vast Continent of Africa, that extends between Mount Atlas and the Southern Ocean; Tho it be found to swarm in People, to abound in Gold, to contain many great Kingdoms, and infinite smaller Principalities, to be pierced by those two famous Rivers of the Nile and the Niger, to produce a [Page 163] Race of Men that seem hardly of the same Species with the rest of Mankind; Yet I can not find any Traces of that Heroick Virtue, that may entitle them to any share in this Essay. For what­ever remains in Story of Atlas, or His Kingdom of old, is so obscured with Age or Fables, that it may go along with those of the Atlantick Islands, tho I know not whether these themselves were by Solon or Plato intended for Fables or no, or for Relations they had met with among the Egyptian Priests, and which perhaps were by them otherwise esteemed.

THE Two common Shrines, to which most Men offer up the Ap­plication of their Thoughts and their Lives, are Profit and Pleasure, and by their Devotions to either of these, they are vulgarly distinguished into Two Sects, and called either Busie or Idle Men. Whether these Terms differ in mean­ing, or only in sound, I know very well may be disputed, and with ap­pearance enough, since the Covetous Man takes perhaps as much Pleasure in his Gains as the Voluptuous does in his Luxury, and would not pursue his Bu­siness unless he were pleased with it, upon the last Account of what he most wishes and desires, nor would care for the encrease of his Fortunes, unless he [Page 280] proposed thereby, that of his Plea­sures too, in one kind or other, so that Pleasure may be said to be his end, whether he will allow to find it in his pursuit or no. Much ado there has been, many Words spent, or (to speak with more respect to the antient Philo­sophers) many Disputes have been raised upon this Argument, I think to little purpose, and that all has been rather, an Exercise of Wit than an Enquiry after Truth, and all Controversies that can never end, had better perhaps ne­ver begin. The best is to take Words as they are most commonly spoken and meant, like Coyn as it most cur­rantly passes, without raising scruples upon the weight or the allay, unless the cheat or the defect, be gross and evident. Few things in the World or none, will bear too much refining, a Thred too fine Spun will easily break, and the Point of a Needle too finely Filed. The usual acceptation, takes Profit and Pleasure, for two different things, and not only calls the Followers or Vota­ries of them, by several Names of Busie and of Idle Men, but distingui­shes the Faculties of the mind, that [Page 281] are Conversant about them, calling the Operations of the first, Wisdom, and of the other, Wit, which is a Saxon Word, that is used to express, what the Spaniards and Italians call Ingenio, and the French, Esprit, both from the Latin, but I think Wit more peculi­arly signifies that of Poetry, as may occur upon Remarks of the Runick Language. To the first of these are Attributed, the Inventions or Produc­tions of things generally esteemed the most necessary, useful, or profitable to Human Life, either in private Possessi­ons or publick Institutions: To the other, those Writings or Discourses, which are the most Pleasing or En­tertaining, to all that read or hear them; Yet according to the Opini­on of those that link them together: As the Inventions of Sages and Law­givers themselves, do please as well as profit those who approve and follow them; so those of Poets, Instruct and Profit as well as Please such as are Conversant in them; and the happy mixture of both these, makes the ex­cellency in both those compositions, and has given occasion for esteeming, [Page 282] or at least for calling, Heroick Virtue and Poetry, Divine.

The Names given to Poets, both in Greek and Latin, express the same O­pinion of them in those Nations; The Greek signifying Makers or Creators, such as raise admirable Frames and Fabricks out of nothing, which strike with wonder and with pleasure, the Eyes and Imaginations of those who behold them; The Latin makes the same Word, common to Poets and to Prophets. Now as Creation, is the first Attribute, and highest Operation of Divine Power, so is Prophecy the greatest Emanation of Divine Spirit in the World. As the Names in those Two Learned Languages, so the Causes of Poetry, are by the Writers of them, made to be Divine, and to proceed from a Coelestial Fire or Divine Inspi­ration; and by the vulgar Opinions, recited or related to in many passages of those Authors, the Effects of Poetry were likewise thought Divine and Su­pernatural, and Power of Charms and Enchantments were ascribed to it.

But I can easily admire Poetry, and yet without adoring it, I can allow it to arise from the greatest Excellency of natural Temper, or the greatest Race of Native Genius, without ex­ceeding the reach of what is Human, or giving it any Approaches of Divi­nity, which is, I doubt debased or dis­honoured, by ascribing to it any thing, that is in the compass of our Action, or even Comprehension, unless it be raised by an immediate influence from it self. I cannot allow Poetry to be more Divine in its effects, than in its causes, or any Operation produced by it, to be more than purely natural, or to deserve any other sort of won­der, than those of Musick, or of Natu­ral Magick, however any of them have appeared to minds little Versed in the Speculations of Nature, of occult Qua­lities, and the force of Numbers or of Sounds. Whoever talks of drawing down the Moon from Heaven, by force of Verses or of Charms, either [Page 284] believes not himself, or too easily be­lieves what others told him, or per­haps follows an Opinion, begun by the Practise of some Poet, upon the facility of some People, who knowing the time when an Ecclypse would happen, told them, he would by his Charms call down the Moon at such an hour, and was by them thought to have performed it.

When I read that Charming Descripti­on in Virgil's Eight Ec [...]logue, of all sorts of Charms and Fascinations by Verses, by Images, by Knots, by Numbers, by Fire, by Hearbs, imployed upon occa­sion of a violent Passion, from a jea­lous or disappointed Love: I have re­course to the strong Impression of Fa­bles and of Poetry, to the easy mis­takes of Popular Opinions, to the Force of Imagination, to the Secret Virtues of several Hearbs, and to the Powers of Sounds; And I am sor­ry, the Natural History, or Account of Fascination, has not imployed the Pen of some Person, of such excellent Wit, and deep Thought and Learning, as Gasaubon, who Writ that curious and useful Treatise of Enthusiasm, and [Page 285] by it discovered the hidden or mis­taken Sources of that Delusion, so fre­quent in all Regions and Religions of the World, and which had so fatal­ly spread over our Country in that Age, in which this Treatise was so seasonably published. 'Tis much to be lamented, That he lived not to compleat that Work; in the Second Part he promised, or that his Friends neglected the publishing it, if it were left in Papers, though loose and unfinished. I think a clear Account of Enthusiasm and Fascination, from their natural Causes, would very much deserve from Mankind in general, as well as from the Common-wealth of Learning, might perhaps prevent ma­ny publick disorders, and save the Lifes of many innocent, deluded or delud­ing People, who suffer so frequently, upon Account of Witches and Wizards. I have seen many miserable Exam­ples of this kind, in my youth at home, and tho the Humor or Fashi­on, be a good deal worn out of the World, within Thirty or Forty Years past, yet it still remain in several re­mote Parts of Germany, Sueden, and some other Countries.

[Page 286] But to return to the Charms of Po­etry, if the forsaken Lover, in that Ec­clogue of Virgil, had expected onely from the Force of her Verses, or her Charms, what is the Burthen of the Song, To bring Daphnis home from the Town where he was gone and en­gaged in a new Amour; if she had pretended onely to revive an old faint­ing Flame, or to damp a new one that was kindling in his Breast, she might, for ought I know, have compassed such Ends, by the Power of such Charms, and without other than very Natural Enchantments. For there is no Que­stion, but true Poetry may have the Force, to raise Passions and to allay them, to change and to extinguish them, to temper Joy and Grief, to raise Love and Fear, nay to turn Fear into Boldness, and Love into Indiffe­rence, and into Hatred it self; and I easily believe, That the disheartened Spartans were new animated, and re­covered their lost Courage, by the Songs of Tyrtaeus, that the Cruelty and Revenge of Phalaris, were chang­ed by the Odes of Stesichorus, into the greatest Kindness and Esteem, and that many men were as passionately [Page 287] Enamoured, by the Charms of Sap­pho's Wit and Poetry, as by those of Beauty, in Flora or Thais; for 'tis not onely Beauty gives Love, but Love gives Beauty to the Object that raises it; and if the Possession be strong e­nough, let it come from what it will, there is always Beauty enough in the Person that gives it. Nor is it any great Wonder, that such Force should be found in Poetry, since in it are as­sembled all the Powers of Eloquence, of Musick, and of Picture, which are all allowed to make so strong Impres­sions upon Humane Minds. How far Men have been affected with all or a­ny of these, needs little Proof or Te­stimony; The Examples have been known enough in Greece and in Ita­ly, where some have fallen down right in Love, with the Ravishing Beauties of a lovely Object, drawn by the Skill of an admirable Painter; nay, Pain­ters themselves, have fallen in Love with some of their own Productions, and doated on them, as on a Mistriss or a fond Child, which distinguishes a­mong the Italians, the several Pieces that are done by the same Hand, in­to several Degrees of those made, Con [Page 288] Studio, con Diligenza, or con Amore; whereof the last are ever the most ex­celling. But there needs no more In­stances of this kind, than the Stories related, and believed by the best Au­thors, as known and undisputed; Of the two young Graecians, one whereof ventured his Life, to be lock'd up all Night in the Temple, and satisfie his Passion with the Embraces and Enjoy­ment of a Statue of Venus, that was there set up, and designed for another sort of Adoration; The other pined away and dyed, for being hindered his perpetually gazing, admiring, and em­bracing a Statue at Athens.

The Powers of Musick, are either felt or known by all Men, and are al­lowed to work strangely upon the Mind and the Body, the Passions and the Blood, to raise Joy and Grief, to give Pleasure and Pain, to cure Diseas­es, and the Mortal Sting of the Ta­rantula, to give Motions to the Feet as well as the Heart, to Compose di­sturbed Thoughts, to assist and heigh­ten Devotion it self. We need no Re­course to the Fables of Orpheus or Am­phion, or the Force of their Musick upon Fishes and Beasts; 'tis enough [Page 289] that we find the Charming of Serpents, and the Cure or Allay of an evil Spi­rit or Possession, attributed to it in Sa­cred Writ.

For the Force of Eloquence, that so often raised and appeased the Violence of Popular Commotions, and caused such Convulsions in the Athenian State, no Man need more, to make him Ac­knowledge it, than to consider Caesar, one of the greatest and wisest of mortal Men, come upon the Tribunal, full of Hatred and Revenge, and with a de­termined Resolution to Condemn La­bienus, yet upon the Force of Cicero's Eloquence, (in an Oration for his De­fence) begin to change Countenance, turn pale, shake to that degree, that the Papers he held, fell out of his hand, as if he had been frighted with Words, that never was so with Blows, and at last change all his Anger into Clemency, and acquit the brave Cri­minal, instead of condemning him.

Now if the Strength of these three mighty Powers, be united in Poetry, we need not wonder, that such Vir­tues, and such Honours have been at­tributed to it, that it has been thought to be inspired, or has been called Di­vine, [Page 290] and yet I think it will not be disputed, that the Force of Wit, and of Reasoning, the Height of Concep­tions and Expressions, may be found in Poetry as well as in Oratory, the Life and Spirit of Representation or Picture, as much as in Painting, and the Force of Sounds as well as in Mu­sick; And how far these three natu­ral Powers together may extend, and to what Effects, (even such as may be mistaken for Supernatural or Ma­gical) I leave it to such Men to Con­sider, whose Thoughts turn to such Speculations as these, or who by their native Temper and Genius, are in some degree disposed to receive the Impres­sions of them. For my part, I do not wonder, that the famous Doctor Har­vey, when he was reading Virgil, should sometimes throw him down upon the Table, and say he had a Devil; nor that the learned Meric Casaubon, should find such Charming Pleasures and E­motions, as he describes, upon the reading some Parts of Lucretius, that so many should cry, and with down­right Tears, at some Tragedies of Shake-spear, and so many more should feel such Turns or Curdling of their [Page 291] Blood, upon the reading or hearing some excellent Pieces of Poetry, nor that Octavia fell into a Swound, at the Recital made by Virgil of those Verses in the Sixth of his Aeneides.

This is enough to assert the Powers of Poetry, and discover the Ground of those Opinions of old, which derived it from Divine Inspiration, and gave it so great a share, in the supposed Ef­fects of Sorcery or Magick. But as the Old Romances, seem to lesten the Honor of true Prowess and Valor in their Knights, by giving such a part in all their Chief Adventures to En­chantment, so the true excellency and just esteem of Poetry, seems rather de­based than exalted, by the Stories or Belief of the Charms performed by it, which among the Northern Nations, grew so strong and so general, that a­bout Five or Six Hundred Years ago, all the Runick Poetry came to be de­cryed, and those antient Characters, in which they were Written, to be a­bolished by the Zeal of Bishops, and even by Orders and Decrees of State, which has given a great Maim, or ra­ther an irrecoverable Loss to the Story of those Northern Kingdoms, the Seat [Page 292] of our Ancestors, in all the Western Parts of Europe.

The more true and natural Source of Poetry may be discovered, by obser­ving to what God, this Inspiration was ascribed by the Antients, which was Apollo or the Sun, esteemed among them the God of Learning in general, but more particularly of Musick and of Poetry. The Mystery of this Fa­ble, means I suppose, that a certain Noble and Vital Heat of Temper, but especially of the Brain, is the true Spring of these Two Arts or Scien­ces: This was that Coelestial Fire, which gave such a pleasing Motion and Agitation to the minds of those Men, that have been so much admired in the World, That raises such infinite images of things, so agreeable and delightful to Mankind: By the influence of this Sun, are produced those Golden and Inexhausted Mines of Invention, which has furnished the World with Trea­sures so highly esteemed, and so univer­sally known and used, in all the Re­gions that have yet been discover­ed. From this arises that Elevati­on of Genius, which can never be pro­duced by any Art or Study, by Pains [Page 293] or by Industry, which cannot be taught by Precepts or Examples; and there­fore is agreed by all, to be the pure and free Gift of Heaven or of Na­ture, and to be a Fire kindled out of some hidden spark of the very first Conception.

But tho' Invention be the Mother of Poetry, yet this Child, is like all others, born naked, and must be Nou­rished with Care, Cloathed with Ex­actness and Elegance, Educated with Industry, Instructed with Art, Improv­ed by Application, Corrected with Severity, and Accomplished with La­bor and with Time, before it Arrives at any great Perfection or Growth: 'Tis certain that no Composition, re­quires so many several Ingredients, or of more different sorts than this, nor that to excel in any qualities, there are necessary so many Gifts of Nature, and so many improvements of Learning and of Art. For there must be an universal Genius, of great Com­pass as well as great Elevation. There must be spritely Imagination or Fancy, fertile in a thousand Productions, rang­ing over infinite Ground, piercing in­to every Corner, and by the Light of [Page 294] that true Poetical Fire, discovering a thousand little Bodies or Images in the World, and Similitudes among them, unseen to common Eyes, and which could not be discovered, without the Rays of that Sun.

Besides the heat of Invention and liveliness of Wit, there must be the coldness of good Sense and soundness of Judgment, to distinguish between Things and Conceptions, which at first sight, or upon short glances, seem alike, to choose among infinite Productions of Wit and Fancy, which are worth preserving and cultivating, and which are better stifled in the Birth, or thrown away when they are born, as not worth bringing up. Without the Forces of Wit, all Poetry is flat and languish­ing; without the succours of Judg­ment, 'tis wild and extravagant. The true wonder of Poesy is, That such contrarys must meet to compose it, a Genius both Penetrating and Solid; in Expression both Delicacy and Force; and the Frame or Fabrick of a true Poem, must have something both Sub­lime and Just, Amazing and Agreeable. There must be a great Agitation of Mind to Invent, a great Calm to Judge [Page 295] and Correct; there must be upon the same Tree, and at the same Time, both Flower and Fruit. To work up this Metal into exquisite Figure, there must be imploy'd the Fire, the Ham­mer, the Chizel, and the File. There must be a general Knowledge both of Nature and of Arts, and to go the lowest that can be, there are required Genius, Judgment, and Application; for without this last, all the rest will not serve turn, and none ever was a great Poet, that applyed himself much to a­ny thing else.

When I speak of Poetry, I mean not an Ode or an Elegy, a Song, or a Sa­tyr, nor by a Poet the Composer of any of these, but of a just Poem; And after all I have said, 'tis no wonder, there should be so few have appeared, in any Parts or any Ages of the World, or that such as have, should be so much admired, and have almost Divinity a­scribed to them, and to their Works.

Whatever has been among those, who are mentioned with so much Praise or Admiration by the Antients, but are lost to us, and unknown any further than their Names, I think no Man has been so bold among those that remain [Page 296] to question the Title of Homer and Virgil, not onely to the first Rank, but to the supream Dominion in this State, and from whom, as the great Law-givers as well as Princes, all the Laws and Orders of it, are, or may be deri­ved. Homer was without Dispute, the most Universal Genius that has been known in the World, and Virgil the most Accomplish't. To the first must be allowed, the most fertile Invention, the richest Vein, the most general Knowledge, and the most lively Ex­pression; To the last, the noblest I­dea's, the justest Institution, the wisest Conduct, and the choycest Elocution. To speak in the Painters Terms, we find in the Works of Homer, the most Spirit, Force, and Life; in those of Virgil, the best Design, the truest Pro­portions, and the greatest Grace; The Colouring in both seems equal, and indeed, in both is admirable. Homer had more Fire and Rapture, Virgil more Light and Sweetness; or at least the Poetical Fire was more raging in one, but clearer in the other, which makes the first more amazing, and the latter more agreeable. The Oare was richer in one, but in to'ther more re­fined, [Page 297] and better allay'd, to make up excellent Work. Upon the whole, I think it must be confessed, that Homer was of the two, and perhaps, of all others, the vastest, the sublimest, and the most wonderful Genius; and that he has been generally so esteemed, there cannot be a greater Testimony given, than what has been by some observed, that not onely the Greatest Masters, have found in his Works, the best and truest Principles of all their Sciences or Arts, but that the noblest Nations, have derived from them, the Original of their several Races, though it be hardly yet agreed, Whether his Story be True, or Fiction. In short, these two immortal Poets, must be allowed to have so much excelled in their kinds, as to have exceeded all Comparison, to have even extinguished Emulation, and in a manner confined true Poetry, not onely to their two Languages, but to their very Persons. And I am apt to believe so much of the true Genius of Poetry in general, and of its Eleva­tion in these two particulars, that I know not, whether of all the Num­bers of Mankind, that live within the Compass of a Thousand Years; for one [Page 298] Man that is born Capable of making such a Poet as Homer or Virgil, there may not be a Thousand born Capable of making as great Generals of Ar­mies, or Ministers of State, as any the most Renowned in Story.

I do not here intend to make a further Critick upon Poetry, which were too great a Labour, nor to give Rules for it, which were as great a Presumption: Besides, there has been so much Paper blotted upon these Sub­jects, in this Curious and Censuring Age, that 'tis all grown tedious or Re­petition. The Modern French Wits (or Pretenders) have been very severe in their Censures, and exact in their Rules, I think to very little purpose; For I know not, why they might not have contented themselves, with those giv­en by Aristotle and Horace, and have Translated them rather than Commen­ted upon them; for all they have done has been no more, so as they seem, by their Writings of this kind, rather to have valued themselves, than improved any body else. The Truth is, there is something in the Genius of Poetry, too Libertine to be confined to so many Rules, and whoever goes about to sub­ject [Page 299] it to such Constraints, loses both it's Spirit and Grace, which are ever Native, and never learnt even of the best Masters. 'Tis as if to make ex­cellent Honey, you should cut off the Wings of your Bees, confine them to their Hive or their Stands, and lay Flowers before them, such as you think the sweetest, and like to yield the finest Extraction; you had as good pull out their Stings, and make arrant Drones of them. They must range through Fields, as well as Gardens, choose such Flowers as they please, and by Proprieties and Scents they only know and distinguish: They must Work up their Cells with Admirable Art, extract their Honey with infinite Labour, and sever it from the Wax, with such Distinction and Choyce, as belongs to none but themselves to per­form or to judge.

It would be too much Mortificati­on, to these great Arbitrary Rulers, a­mong the French Writers, or our own, to Observe the Worthy Productions that have been formed by their Rules, the Honour they have received in the World, o [...] the Pleasure they have giv­en Mankind. But to comfort them, [Page 300] I do not know, there was any great Poet in Greece, after the Rules of that Art laid down by Aristotle, nor in Rome, after those by Horace, which yet none of our Moderns pretend to have out done. Perhaps Theocritus and Lucan, may be alledg'd against this As­sertion, but the first offered no further, than at Idils or Eclogues; and the last, though he must be avowed for a true and a happy Genius, and to have made some very high Flights, yet he is so unequal to himself, and his Muse is so young, that his Faults are too no­ted, to allow his Pretences. Faeliciter audet, is the true Character of Lucan, as of Ovid, Lusit amabiliter. After all, the utmost that can be atchieved, or I think pretended, by any Rules in this Art, is but to hinder some men from being very ill Poets, but not to make any Man a very good one. To judge who is so, we need go no further for Instruction, than three Lines of Horace.

[Page 301] He is a Poet,

Whoever does not affect and move the same present Passions in you, that he represents in others, and at other times, raise Images about you, as a Conjurer is said to do Spirits, Tran­sport you to the Places and to the Per­sons he describes, cannot be judged to be a Poet, though his Measures are never so just, his Feet never so smooth, or his Sounds never so sweet.

But instead of Critick, or Rules concerning Poetry, I shall rather turn my Thoughts to the History of it, and observe the Antiquity, the Uses, the Changes, the Decays, that have attended this great Empire of Wit.

It is I think generally agreed, to have been the first sort of Writing, that has been used in the World, and in several Nations to have preceded the very Invention or Usage of Let­ters. This last is certain in America, [Page 302] where the first Spaniards met with many strains of Poetry, and left seve­ral of them Translated into their Lan­guage, which seem to have flowed from a true Poetick Vein, before any Letters were known in those Regions. The same is probable of the Scythi­ans, the Graecians, and the Germans. Ari­stotle says, the Agathyrsi had their Laws all in Verse; and Tacitus, that the Germans had no Annals nor Records but what were so; and for the Graecian Oracles delivered in them, we have no certain Account when they began, but rather reason to believe it was before the Introduction of Letters from Phoe­nicia among them. Pliny tells it, as a thing known, that Pherecides was the first who writ Prose in the Greek Tongue, and that he lived about the time of Cyrus, whereas Homer and Hesiod, lived some Hundred of Years before that Age; and Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, some Hundreds be­fore them: And of the Sybils, se­veral were before any of those, and in times as well as places, where­of we have no clear Records now re­maining. What Solon and Pythagoras Writ, is said to have been in Verse, who were something older than Cyrus; [Page 303] and before them, were Archilochus, Simonides, Tyrtaeus, Sappho, Stesichorus, and several other Poets Famous in their times. The same thing is reported of Chaldoea, Syria and China; and among the antient Western Goths (our Ance­stors) the Runick Poetry, seems to have been as old as their Letters; and their Laws, their Precepts of Wisdom as well as their Records, their Religious Rites as well as their Charms and Incantations, to have been all in Verse.

Among the Hebrews, and even in Sacred Writ the most antient, is by some Learned Men esteemed to be the Book of Job, and that it was Writ­ten before the time of Moses, and that it was a Translation into Hebrew out of the old Chaldaean or Arabian Lan­guage. It may probably be conjectu­red, that he was not a Jew, from the place of his abode, which appears to have been Seated between the Chal­daeans of one side, and the Saboeans (who were of Arabia) on the other, and by many passages, of that admi­rable and truly inspired Poem, the Au­thor seems to have lived in some parts near the Mouth of Euphrates or the [Page 304] Persian Gulf, where he contemplated the Wonders of the deep as well as the other Works of Nature, common to those Regions. Nor is it easy to find any Traces of the Mosaical Rites or Institutions, either in the Divine Worship, or the Morals related to, in those Writings: For not only Sa­crifices and Praises, were much more antient in Religious Service, than the Age of Moses; But the Opinion of one Deity, and Adored without any Idol or Representation was Professed and Received among the antient Per­sians and Hetruscans and Chaldoeans. So that if Job was an Hebrew, it's pro­bable he may have been of the Race of Heber who lived in Chaldaea, or of Abraham who is supposed to have left that Country for the Profession or Wor­ship of one God, rather than from the Branch of Isaac and Israel, who lived in the Land of Canaan. Now I think it is out of Controversy, that the Book of Job was Written Originally in Verse, and was a Poem upon the Subject of the Justice and Power of God, and in Vindication of His Providence, against the common Arguments of Atheistical Men, who took occasion to dispute it, [Page 305] from the usual Events of Human things, by which so many ill and impious Men seem Happy and Prosperous in the course of their Lives, and so many Pious and Just Men, seem Miserable or Af­flicted. The Spanish Translation of the Jews in Ferrara, which pretends to ren­der the Hebrew (as near as could be) word for word; and for which, all Translators of the Bible since, have had great Regard, gives us the Two first Chapters, and the Last from the seventh Verse in Prose, as an Historical Intro­duction and Conclusion of the Work, and all the rest in Verse, except the Tran­sitions from one Part or Person of this Sacred Dialogue to another.

But if we take the Books of Moses to be the most antient in the Hebrew Tongue, yet the Song of Moses may pro­bably have been Written before the rest; as that of Deborah, before the Book of Judges, being Praises sung to God, upon the Victories or Successes of the Israelites, related in both. And I ne­ver read the last, without observing in it, as True and Noble Strains of Poetry and Picture, as in any other Language whatsoever, in spight of all Disadvanta­ges from Translations into so different [Page 306] Tongues and common Prose. If an Opinion of some Learned Men both Modern and Antient could be allow­ed, that Esdras was the Writer or Com­piler of the first Historical Parts of the Old Testament, tho' from the same Divine Inspiration as that of Moses and the other Prophets, then the Psalms of David would be the first Writings we find in Hebrew; and next to them, the Song of Solomon which was Written when he was young, and Ecclesiastes when he was old: So that from all sides, both Sacred and Prophane, It appears that Poetry was the first sort of Writ­ing, known and used in the several Na­tions of the World.

It may seem strange I confess, up­on the first thought, that a sort of Style so regular and so difficult, should have grown in use, before the other so easy and so loose: But if we consider, what the first end of Writing was, it will ap­pear probable from Reason as well as Experience; For the True and General End, was but the help of Memory, in preserving that of Words and of Acti­ons, which would otherwise have been lost, and soon vanish away, with the Transitory Passage of Human Breath [Page 307] and Life. Before the Discourses and Disputes of Philosphers, began to bu­sie or amuse the Grecian Wits, there was nothing Written in Prose, but either Laws, some short Sayings of Wise men, or some Riddles, Parables or Fables, where­in were couched by the Antients, ma­ny Strains of Natural or Moral Wis­dom and Knowledge; and besides these, some short Memorials of Persons, Acti­ons, and of Time. Now 'tis obvious enough to conceive, how much easier, all such Writings should be Learnt and Remembred, in Verse than in Prose, not only by the Pleasure of Measures and of Sounds, which gives a great Impression to Memory, but by the or­der of Feet which makes a great Fa­cility of Tracing one Word after ano­ther, by knowing what sort of Foot or Quantity, must necessarily have pre­ceded or followed the Words we re­tain and desire to make up.

This made Poetry to necessary, be­fore Letters were Invented, and so con­venient afterwards; and shews, that the great Honor and general Request, where­in i [...] has always been, has not proceed­ed only, from the Pleasure and Delight, but likewise from the Usefulness and [Page 308] Profit of Poetical Writings.

This leads me naturally to the Sub­jects of Poetry, which have been ge­nerally, Praise, Instruction, Story, Love, Grief, and Reproach. Praise, was the Subject of all the Songs and Psalms mentioned in Holy Writ, of the Hymns of Orpheus, of Homer and many others; Of the Carmina Secularia in Rome, Com­posed all and Designed for the Honor of their Gods; Of Pindar, Stesichorus, and Tyrtaus, in the Praises of Virtue or Virtuous Men. The Subject of Job, is Instruction concerning the Attributes of God and the Works of Nature. Those of Simonides, Phocilides, Theognis, and several other of the smaller Greek Poets, with what passes for Pythagoras, are In­structions in Morality: The first Book of Hesiod and Virgils Georgicks, in Agri­culture, and Lucretius in the deepest natural Philosophy. Story, is the pro­per Subject of Heroick Poems, as Ho­mer and Virgil in their inimitable Iliads and Aeneids; And Fable, which is a sort of Story, in the Metamorphosis of Ovid. The Lyrick Poetry has been chiefly Conversant about Love, tho' turned often upon Praise too; and the Vein of Pastorals and Eclogues has run the [Page 309] same course, as may be observed in Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, who was I think, the first and last of true Lyrick Poets among the Latins: Grief has been always the Subject of Elegy, and Reproach that of Satyr. The Drama­tick Poesy has been Composed of all these, but the chief end seems to have been Instruction, and under the dis­guise of Fables, or the pleasure of Story; to shew the Beauties and the Rewards of Virtue, the Deformitys and Mis­fortunes, or Punishment of Vice: By Examples of both, to Encourage one, and Deter Men from the other; to Re­form ill Customs, Correct ill Manners, and Moderate all violent Passions. These are the general Subjects of both Parts; tho' Comedy give us but the Images of common Life, and Tragedy those of the greater and more extraordinary Passions and Actions among Men. To go further upon this Subject, would be to tread so beaten Paths, that to Travel in them, only raises Dust, and is neither of Pleasure nor of Use.

For the Changes that have happen­ed in Poetry, I shall observe one An­tient, and the others that are Mo­dern will be too Remarkable, in the [Page 310] Declines or Decays of this great Em­pire of Wit. The first Change of Po­etry was made, by Translating it into Prose, or cloathing it in those loose Robes, or common Veils that disguis­ed or covered the true Beauty of its Features, and Exactness of its Shape. This was done first by Aesop in Greek, but the Vein was much more antient in the Eastern Regions, and much in Vogue, as we may observe, in the ma­ny Parables used in the old Testament, as well as in the New. And there is a Book of Fables, of the sort of Ae­sop's, Translated out of Persian, and pretended to have been so into that Language out of the antient Indian; But though it seems Genuine of the Eastern Countries, yet I do not take it to be so old, nor to have so much Spirit as the Greek. The next Succes­sion of Poetry in Prose, seems to have been in the Milesian Tales, which were a sort of little Pastoral Romances; and though much in request in old Greece and Rome, yet we have no Examples that I know of them, unless it be the Longi Pastoralia, which gives a Tast of the great Delicacy and Pleasure, that was found so generally in those [Page 311] sort of Tales. The last kind of Poetry in Prose, is that which in latter Ages has over-run the World, under the Name of Romances, which tho' it seems Modern, and a Production of the Gothick Genius, yet the Writing is antient. The remainders of Petronius Arbiter, seem to be of this kind, and that which Lucian calls his True History; But the most antient that passes by the Name, is Heliodorus, Famous for the Author's choosing to lose his Bishoprick, rather than disown that Child of his Wit. The true Spirit or Vein of antient Poe­try in this kind, seems to shine most in Sir Philip Sidney, whom I esteem both the Greatest Poet and the Noblest Genius of any that have left Writings behind them, and published in ours or any other modern Language; a Per­son born capable not only of forming the greatest Idoeaes, but of leaving the noblest Examples, if the length of his Life had been equal to the excellence of his Wit and his Virtues.

With him I leave the Discourse of antient Poety, and to discover the De­cays of this Empire, must turn to that of the modern, which was introduced after the Decays, or rather Extinction [Page 312] of the old, as if true Poetry being dead, an Apparition of it walked about. This mighty Change, arrived by no smaller Occasions, nor more ignoble Revolu­tions, than those which destroyed the antient Empire and Government of Rome, and Erected so many New ones upon their Ruines, by the Invasions and Conquests, or the general Inundations of the Goths, Vandals, and other Bar­barous or Northern Nations, upon those Parts of Europe, that had been subject to the Romans. After the Conquests made by Caesar upon Gaul, and the nearer Parts of Germany, which were continu­ed and enlarged in the times of Augu­stus and Tiberius by their Lieutenants or Generals, great Numbers of Germans and Gauls resorted to the Roman Armies and to the City it self, and habituated themselves there, as many Spaniards, Syrians, Graecians had done before upon the Conquest of those Countries. This mixture, soon Corrupted the Purity of the Latin Tongue, so that in Lucan, but more in Seneca, we find a great and harsh Allay, entered into the Style of the Augustan Age. After Trajan and Adrian had subdued many German and Scythian Nations, on both sides of the [Page 313] Danube, the Commerce of those barba­rous People grew very frequent with the Romans, and I am apt to think, that the little Verses ascribed to Adrian, were in Imitation of the Runick Poetry. The Scythicas Pati Pruinas of Florus, shews their Race or Clymate; and the first Rhyme that ever I read in Latin, with little Allusions of Letters or Sylla­bles, is in that of Adrian at his Death.

'Tis probable the old Spirit of Poe­try, being lost or frighted away by those long and bloody Wars with such bar­barous Enemies, this New Ghost began to appear in its room, even about that Age, or else that Adrian, who affected that piece of Learning as well as others, and was not able to reach the old Vein, turned to a new one, which his Expe­ditions into those Countries, made more allowable in an Emperor, and his Ex­ample recommended to others. In the time of Boetius, who lived under Theo­dorick in Rome, we find the Latin Poetry [Page 314] smell rank of this Gothick Imitation, and the old Vein quite seared up.

After that Age, Learning grew every day more and more obscured, by that Cloud of Ignorance, which coming from the North, and increasing with the Num­bers and Successes of those barbarous People, at length over-shaddowed all Europe for so long together. The Ro­man Tongue began it self to fail or be disused, and by its Corruption made way for the Generation of three New Languages, in Spain, Italy and France. The Courts of the Princes and Nobles, who were of the Conquering Nations, for several Ages used their Gothick, or Franc, or Saxon Tongues, which were mingled with those of Germany, where some of the Goths had sojourned long, before they proceeded to their Con­quests of the more Southern or Western Parts. Wherever the Roman Colonies had long remained, and their Language had been generally spoken, the common People used that still, but vitiated with the base allay of their Provincial Speech. This in Charlemain's time was called in France, Rustica Romana; and in Spain during the Gothick Reigns there, Romance; but in England, from whence all the [Page 315] Roman Souldiers, and great Numbers of the Britains most accustomed to their Commerce and Language, had been drained, for the Defence of Gaul against the barbarous Nations that Invaded it; about the time of Valentinian, that Tongue being wholly extinguish't, (as well as their own) made way for the intire use of the Saxon Language. With these Changes, the antient Poetry was wholly lost in all these Countries, and a new Sort grew up by degrees, which was called by a new Name of Rhymes, with an easy Change of the Gothick Word Runes, and not from the Greek, Rythmes, as is vulgarly supposed.

Runes, was properly the Name of the antient Gothick Letters or Characters, which were Invented first or Introduced by Odin, in the Colony or Kingdom of the Getes or Goths, which he Planted in the North-West Parts, and round the Baltick Sea, as has been before related. But because all the Writings, they had among them for many Ages, were in Verse, it came to be the common Name of all sorts of Poetry among the Goths, and the Writers or Composers of them, were called Runers or Rymers. They had likewise another Name for them, [Page 316] or for some sorts of them, which was Vüses or Wises, and because the Sages of that Nation, expressed the best of their Thoughts, and what Learning and Prudence they had, in these kind of Writings, they that succeeded best and with most Applause were termed Wise Men; the good Sense, or Learning, or useful Knowledge contained in them, was called Wisdom, and the pleasant or facetious Vein among them was called Wit, which was applied to all Spirit or Race of Poetry, where it was found in any Men, and was generally pleasing to those that heard or read them.

Of these Runes, there were in use a­mong the Goths above a Hundred several sorts, some Composed in longer, some in shorter Lines, some equal and others une­qual, with many different Cadencies, Quantities, or Feet, which in the pronoun­cing, make many different sorts of Origi­nal or Natural Tunes. Some were Framed with Allusions of Words, or Consonance of Syllables, or of Letters either in the same Line or in the Dystick, or by al­ternate Succession and Resemblance, which made a sort of Gingle, that plea­sed the ruder Ears of that People. And [Page 317] because their Language was Composed most of Monosyllables, and of so great Numbers, many must end in the same Sound; another sort of Runes were made, with the Care and Study of ending two Lines, or each other of four Lines, with Words of the same Sound, which being the easiest, requiring less Art, and need­ing less Spirit (because a certain Chime in the Sounds supplied that want, and pleased common Ears); this in time grew the most general among all the Gothick Colonies in Europe, and made Rhymes or Runes pass for the modern Poetry, in these parts of the World.

This was not used only in their mo­dern Languages, but during those igno­rant Ages, even in that barbarous Latin which remained, and was preserved a­mong the Monks and Priests, to distin­guish them, by some shew of Learning from the Laity, who might well ad­mire it, in what Degree soever, and Re­verence the Professors, when they them­selves could neither Write nor Read even in their own Language; I mean not only the vulgar Lay men, but even the Generality of Nobles, Barons, and Princes among them; and this lasted till the antient Learning and Languages [Page 318] began to be restored in Europe, about Two Hundred Years ago.

The common Vein of the Gothick Runes was what is Termed Dithyram­bick, and was of a raving or rambling sort of Wit or Invention, loose and flow­ing, with little Art or Confinement to any certain Measures or Rules; yet some of it wanted not the true Spirit of Poetry in some Degree, or that natu­ral Inspiration which has been said to arise from some spark of Poetical Fire, wherewith particular Men are Born. And such as it was, it served the turn, not only to please, but even to Charm the Ignorant and Barbarous Vulgar, where it was in use. This made the Runers among the Goths, as much in re­quest and admired, as any of the anti­ent and most celebrated Poets were a­mong the Learned Nations; for among the Blind, he that has one Eye is a Prince. They were as well as the o­thers thought inspired, and the Charms of their Runick Conceptions, were ge­nerally esteemed Divine or Magical at least.

The subjects of them were various, but commonly the same with those al­ready observed in the true antient Poe­try. [Page 319] Yet this Vein was chiefly imploy­ed, upon the Records of bold and Mar­tial Actions, and the Praises of Valiant Men that had Fought successfully or Dyed bravely; and these Songs or Bal­lads were usually sung at Feasts, or in Circles of Young or Idle Persons, and served to inflame the Humor of War, of Slaughter and of Spoils among them. More refined Honor or Love, had little part in the Writings, because it had lit­tle in the Lives or Actions of those fierce People and bloody Times. Honor a­mong them consisted in Victory, and Love in Rapes and in Lust.

But as the true Flame of Poetry was rare among them, and the rest was but Wild Fire that Sparkled or rather Crack­led a while, and soon went out with lit­tle pleasure or gazing of the Beholder; Those Runers who could not raise Ad­miration by the Spirit of their Poetry, endeavoured to do it by another, which was that of Enchantments; This came in to supply the Defect of that Sublime and Marvellous, which has been found both in Poetry and Prose among the Learned Antients. The Gothick Runers to Gain and Establish the Credit and Ad­miration of their Rhymes, turned the use [Page 320] of them very much to Incantations and Charms, pretending by them, to raise Storms, to Calm the Seas, to cause Ter­ror in their Enemies, to Transport them­selves in the Air, to Conjure Spirits, to Cure Diseases, and Stanch Bleeding Wounds, to make Women kind or easy, and Men hard or invulnerable; as one of their most antient Runers, affirms of himself and his own Atchievments, by Force of these Magical Arms. The Men or Women who were thought to perform such Wonders or Enchantments, were from Vüses or Wises, the Name of those Verses wherein their Charms were con­ceived, called Wizards or Witches.

Out of this Quarry, seem to have been raised all those Trophees of Enchant­ment, that appear in the whole Fabrick of the old Spanish Romances, which were the Productions of the Gothick Wit a­mong them during their Reign, and after the Conquests of Spain, by the Saracens, they were applied to the long Wars be­tween them and the Christians. From the same perhaps may be derived, all the visionary Tribe of Fairies, Elves, and Goblins, of Sprites and of Bul baggers, that serve not only to fright Children in­to what ever their Nurses please, but [Page 321] sometimes, by lasting Impressions, to dis­quiet the sleeps and the very Lives of Men and Women, till they grow to Years of Discretion, and that God knows is a period of time, which some People Arrive to but very late, and perhaps others never. At least this belief prevail­ed so far among the Goths and their Ra­ces, that all sorts of Charms, were not only Attributed to their Runes or Ver­ses, but to their very Characters; so that about the Eleventh Century, they were forbidden and abolished in Sueden, as they had been before in Spain, by Civil and Ecclesiastical Commands or Constitutions, and what has been since recovered of that Learning or Language, has been fetcht as far as Ysland it self.

How much of this Kind, and of this Credulity remained even to our own Age, may be observed by any Man that Reflects so far as Thirty or Forty Years; how often Avouched, and how gene­rally Credited with the Stories of Fai­ries, Sprites, Witchcrafts, and Enchant­ments; In some Parts of France, and not longer ago, the common People believed certainly, there were Lougaroos, or Men turned into VVolves; and I remember several Irish of the same mind. The [Page 322] Remainders are woven into our very Language, Mara in old Runick was a Goblin that seized upon Men asleep in their Beds, and took from them all Speech and Motion. Old Nicka was a Sprite that came to strangle People who fell into the Water; Bo was a fierce Go­thick Captain, Son of Odin, whose Name was used by his Souldiers when they would fright or surprise their Enemies; and the Proverb of Rhyming, Rats to Death, came I suppose from the same Root.

There were not longer since than the time I have mentioned, some Remainders of the Runick Poetry among the Irish. The great Men of their Septs, among the many Offices of their Family, which continued always in the same Races, had not only a Physitian, a Hunts man, a Smith, and such like, but a Poet, and a Tale-teller: The First, Recorded and Sung the Actions of their Ancestors, and Entertained the Company at Feasts; The Later, amuzed them with Tales when they were Melancholy and could not sleep: And a very Gallant Gentleman of the North of Ireland has told me, of his own Experience, That in his Wolf-huntings there, when he used to be a­broad [Page 323] in the Mountains three or four Days together, and lay very ill a Nights, so as he could not well sleep, they would bring him one of these Tale-tellers, that when he lay down, would begin a Story of a King, or a Gyant, a Dwarf and a Damosel, and such rambling stuff, and continue it all Night long in such an even Tone, that you heard it going on, whenever you awaked; and he believed nothing any Physitians give, could have so good and so innocent effect, to make Men Sleep, in any Pains or Distempers of Body or Mind. I remember in my youth, some Persons of our Country to have said Grace in Rhymes, and others their constant Prayers; and 'tis vulgar enough, that some Deeds or Conveyances of Land have been so, since the Conquest.

In such poor wretched Weeds as these, was Poetry clothed during those shades of Ignorance that over-spread all Europe, for so many Ages after the Sun-set of the Roman Learning and Empire toge­ther, which were succeeded by so many New Dominions, or Plantations of the Gothick Swarms, and by a new Face of Customs, Habit, Language, and almost of Nature; but upon the dawn of a New Day, and the Resurrection of other Sci­ences, [Page 324] with the Two Learned Langua­ges among us, This of Poetry began to appear very early, tho' very unlike it self, and in Shapes as well as Cloaths, in Hu­mor and in Spirit very different from the Antient. It was now all in Rhyme, af­ter the Gothick Fashion, for indeed none of the several Dialects of that Language or Allay, would bear the Composure of such Feet and Measures, as were in use a­mong the Greeks and Latins, and some that attempted it, soon left it off, despair­ing of Success. Yet in this New Dress, Poetry was not without some Charms, especially those of Grace and Sweetness, and the Oar begun to shine in the Hands and Works of the first Refiners. Petrach, Ronsard, Spencer, met with much Ap­plause upon the Subjects of Love, Praise, Grief, Reproach. Ariosto and Tasso, en­tered boldly upon the Scene of Heroick Poems, but having not Wings for so high Flights, began to Learn of the old Ones, fell upon their Imitations, and chiefly of Virgil, as far as the Force of their Ge­nius, or Disadvantage of New Languages and Customs would allow. The Reli­gion of the Gentiles, had been woven in­to the Contexture of all the antient Poe­try, with a very agreeable mixture, which [Page 325] made the Moderns affect, to give that of Christianity, a place also in their Poems. But the true Religion, was not found to become Fiction so well, as a false had done, and all their Attempts of this kind, seemed rather to debase Religion, than to heighten Poetry. Spencer endeavour­ed to Supply this, with Morality, and to make Instruction, instead of Story, the Subject of an Epick Poem. His Executi­on was Excellent, and his Flights of Fan­cy very Noble and High, but his Design was Poor, and his Moral lay so bare, that it lost the Effect; 'tis true, the Pill was Gilded, but so thin, that the Colour and the Taste were too easily discovered.

After these three, I know none of the Moderns that have made any Atchiev­ments in Heroick Poetry worth Record­ing. The Wits of the Age, soon left off such bold Adventures, and turned to o­ther Veins, as if not worthy to sit down at the Feast, they contented themselves with the Scraps, with Songs and Sonnets, with Odes and Elegies, with Satyrs and Panegyricks, and what we call Copies of Verses upon any Subjects or Occasi­ons, wanting either Genius or Applicati­on for Nobler or more Laborious Pro­ductions, as Painters that cannot Suc­ceed [Page 326] in great Pieces, turn to Miniature.

But the modern Poets, to Value this small Coyn, and make it pass, tho' of so much a baser Metal than the old, gave it a New Mixture from Two Veins, which were little known or little esteemed a­mong the Ancients. There were indeed certain Fairyes in the old Regions of Poe­try, called Epigrams, which seldom reach­ed above the Stature of Two, or Four, or Six Lines, and which being so short, were all turned upon Conceit, or some sharp Hits of Fancy or Wit. The only Antient of this kind among the Latins, were the Priapeia, which were little Voluntaries or Extemporaries, Written upon the ri­diculous Wooden Statues of Priapus, a­mong the Gardens of Rome. In the de­cays of the Roman Learning and Wit as well as Language; Martial, Ausonius, and others fell into this Vein, and applied it indifferently to all Subjects which was before restrained to one, and drest it something more cleanly than it was Born. This Vein of Conceit, seemed proper for such Scraps or Splinters, into which Poetry was broken, and was so eagerly followed, as almost to over-run all that was Composed in our several mo­dern Languages; The Italian, the French, [Page 327] the Spanish as well as English, were for a great while full of nothing else but Con­ceit: It was an Ingredient, that gave Taste to Compositions which had little of themselves; 'twas a Sauce that gave Point to Meat that was Flat, and some Life to Colours that were fading; and in short, those who could not furnish Spi­rit, supplied it with this Salt, which may preserve Things or Bodies that are Dead; but is for ought I know, of little use to the Living, or necessary to Meats that have much or pleasing Tasts of their own. However it were, this Vein first over-flowed our modern Poetry, and with so little Distinction or Judgment that we would have Conceit as well as Rhyme in every Two Lines, and run through all our long Scribbles as well as the short, and the whole Body of the Poem, what­ever it is: This was just as if a Building should be nothing but Ornament, or Cloaths nothing but Trimming; as if a Face should be covered over with black Patches, or a Gown with Spangles, which is all I shall say of it.

Another Vein which was entered and helpt to Corrupt our modern Poesy, is that of Ridicule, as if nothing pleased but what made one Laugh, which yet come [Page 328] from Two very different Affections of the mind; for as Men have no Dispositi­on to Laugh at things they are most plea­sed with, so they are very little pleased with many things they Laugh at.

But this mistake is very general, and such modern Poets, as found no better way of pleasing, though they could not fail of it, by Ridiculing. This was En­couraged by finding Conversation run so much into the same Vein, and the Wits in Vogue to take up with that Part of it, which was formerly left to those that were called Fools, and were used in great Families, only to make the Company Laugh. What Opinion the Romans had of this Character, appears in those Lines of Horace:

And 'tis pity the Character of a Wit, in one Age, should be so like that of a Black in another.

Rablais seems to have been Father of the Ridicule, a Man of Excellent and Uni­versal [Page 329] Learning as well as Wit, and tho' he had too much Game given him for Satyr in that Age, by the the Customs of Courts and of Convents, of Processes and of Wars, of Schools and of Camps, of Romances and Legends, Yet he must be Confest to have kept up his Vein of Ridi­cule by saying many things so Malicious, so Smutty, and so Prophane, that either a Prudent, a Modest, or a Pious Man, could not have afforded, tho' he had ne­ver so much of that Coyn about him, and it were to be wished, that the Wits who have followed his Vein, had not put too much Value upon a Dress, that bet­ter Understandings would not wear (at least in publick) and upon a compass they gave themselves, which other Men would not take. The Matchless Writer of Don Quixot is much more to be admi­red, for having made up so Excellent a Composition of Satyr or Ridicule, with­out those Ingredients, and seems to be the best and highest Strain that ever was, or will be reached by that Vein.

It began first in Verse, with an Italian Poem, called La Secchia Rapita, was pursued by Scarron in French with his Virgil Travesty, and in English by Sir John Mince, Hudibras, and Cotton, and [Page 330] with greater height of Burlesque in the English, than I think in any other Lan­guage. But let the Execution be what it will, the Design, the Custom, and Ex­ample are very pernicious to Poetry, and indeed, to all Virtue and Good Qua­lites among Men, which must be dis­heartened, by finding how unjustly and undistinguish't they fall under the lash of Raillery, and this Vein of Ridiculing the Good as well as the ill, the Guilty and the Innocent together. 'Tis a very poor, tho' common Pretence to merit, to make it appear by the Faults of other Men. A mean Wit or Beauty may pass in a Room, where the rest of the Company are allowed to have none, 'tis something to sparkle among Diamonds, but to shine among Pebbles, is neither Credit nor Va­lue worth the pretending.

Besides, these Two Veins brought in, to supply the Defects of the modern Poetry, much Application has been made to the smoothness of Language or Style, which has at the best, but the Beauty of Colouring in a Picture, & can never make a good one, without Spirit and Strength. The Academy set up by Cardinal Rich­lieu, to amuse the Wits of that Age and Country, and divert them from [Page 331] raking into his Politicks and Ministry, brought this in Vogue, and the French Wits have for this last Age, been in a manner, wholly turned to the Refine­ment of their Language, and indeed with such Success, that it can hardly be ex­celled, and runs equally through their Verse and their Prose. The same Vein has been likewise much Cultivated in our modern English Poetry, and by such poor Recruits, have the broken Forces of this Empire been of late made up, with what Success I leave to be judged by such, as consider it in the former Heights, and the present Declines both of Power and of Honor; but this will not dis­courage, however it may affect, the true Lovers of this Mistress, who must ever think her a Beauty in Raggs as well as in Robes.

Among these many Decays, there is yet one sort of Poetry, that seems to have Succeeded much better with our Moderns, than any of the rest, which is Dramatick, or that of the Stage: In this, the Italian, the Spanish, and the French, have all had their different Merit, and received their just Applauses. Yet I am deceived, if our English, has not in some kind excelled both the Modern [Page 332] and the Antient, which has been by Force of a Vein Natural perhaps to our Country, and which with us, is call­ed Humour, a Word peculiar to our Language too, and hard to be Expressed in any other; nor is it (that I know of) found in any Foreign Writers, un­less it be Moliere, and yet his it self, has too much of the Farce, to pass for the same with ours. Shakespear was the first that opened this Vein upon our Stage, which has run so freely and so pleasant­ly ever since, that I have often wonder­ed, to find it appear so little upon any o­thers; being a Subject so proper for them, since Humor is but a Picture of particular Life, as Comedy is of gene­ral, and tho' it represents Dispositions and Customs less common, yet they are not less natural than those that are more frequent among Men; for if Humor it self be forced, it loses all the Grace, which has been indeed the Fault of some of our Poets most Celebrated in this kind.

It may seem a Defect in the antient Stage, that the Characters introduced were so few, and those so common, as a Covetous Old Man, an Amorous Young, a Witty Wench, a Crafty Slave, a Brag­ging [Page 333] Souldier: The Spectators met no­thing upon the Stage, but what they met in the Streets and at every Turn. All the Variety is drawn only from dif­ferent and uncommon Events; whereas if the Characters are so too, the Diver­sity and the Pleasure must needs be the more. But as of most general Customs in a Country, there is usually some Ground, from the Nature of the People or the Cly­mat, so there may be amongst us, for this Vein of our Stage, and a greater variety of Humor in the Picture, because there is a greater variety in the Life. This may proceed, from the Native Plenty of our Soyl, the unequalness of our Clymat, as well as the Ease of our Government, and the Liberty of Professing Opinions and Factions, which perhaps our Neigh­bors may have about them, but are forc­ed to Disguise, and thereby they may come in time to be Extinguish't. Plenty begets Wantonness and Pride, Wanton­ness is apt to Invent, and Pride scorns to Imitate; Liberty begets Stomack or Heart, and Stomack will not be Con­strained. Thus we come to have more Originals, and more that appear what they are, we have more Humor because every Man follows his own, and takes a Pleasure, perhaps a Pride to shew it.

[Page 334] On the contrary, where the People are generally poor, and forced to hard La­bour, their Actions and Lives are all of a Piece; where they serve hard Masters, they must follow his Examples as well as Commands, and are forced upon Imita­tion in small Matters, as well as Obe­dience in great: So that some Nati­ons look as if they were cast all by one Mould, or Cut out all by one Pattern, (at least the common People in one, and the Gentlemen in another): They seem all of a sort in their Habits, their Customs, and even their Talk and Conversation, as well as in the Application and Pursuit of their Actions and their Lives.

Besides all this, there is another sort of Variety amongst us, which arises from our Clymat, and the Dispositions it Na­turally produces. We are not only more unlike one another, than any Nation I know; but we are more unlike our selves too, at several times, and owe to our very Air, some ill Qualities as well as many good: We may allow some Distempers Incident to our Clymat, since so much Health, Vigor and Length of Life have been generally Ascribed to it; for a­mong the Greek and Roman Authors themselves, we shall find the Britains ob­served, to Live the longest, and the Ae­gyptians [Page 335] the shortest, of any Nations that were known in those Ages. Besides, I think none will Dispute the Native Cou­rage of our Men, and Beauty of our Wo­men, which may be elsewhere as great in Particulars, but no where so in General; they may be (what is said of Diseases) as Acute in other Places, but with us, they are Epidemical. For my own Part, who have Conversed much with Men of other Nations, and such as have been both in great Imployments and E­steem, I can say very impartially, that I have not observed among any, so much true Genius as among the En­glish; No where more Sharpness of Wit, more Pleasantness of Humor, more Range of Fancy, more Penetration of Thought or Depth of Reflection among the better Sort: No where more Good­ness of Nature and of Meaning, nor more Plainness of Sense and of Life than among the common Sort of Coun­trey People, nor more blunt Courage and Honesty, than among our Sea-men.

But with all this, our Country must be confest, to be what a great Foreign Physitian called it, The Region of Spleen, which may arise a good deal from the great uncertainty and many suddain [Page 336] Changes of our Weather in all Seasons of the Year: And how much these Affect the Heads and Hearts, especially of the finest Tempers, is hard to be Be­lieved by Men, whose Thoughts are not turned to such Speculations. This makes us unequal in our Humours, in­constant in our Passions, uncertain in our Ends, and even in our Desires. Be­sides, our different Opinions in Religi­on and the Factions they have Raised or Animated, for Fifty Years past, have had an ill Effect upon our Manners and Customs, inducing more Avarice, Am­bition, Disguise (with the usual Con­sequences of them) than were before in our Constitution. From all this it may happen that there is no where more true Zeal in the many different Forms of Devotion, and yet no where more Knavery under the Shews and Pretences. There are no where so ma­ny Disputers upon Religion, so many Reasoners upon Government, so many Refiners in Politicks, so many Curious Inquisitives, so many Pretenders to Bu­siness and State-Imployments, greater Porers upon Books, nor Plodders after Wealth. And yet no where more A­bandoned Libertines, more Refined Lux­urists, [Page 337] Extravagant Debauches, Con­ceited Gallants, more Dablers in Poe­try as well as Politicks, in Phylosophy and in Chymistry. I have had several Servants far gone in Divinity, others in Poetry, have known in the Families of some Friends, a Keeper deep in the Rosy­crucian Principles, and a Laundress firm in those of Epicurus. What Effect so­ever such a Composition or Medly a­mong us may have upon our Lives or our Government, it must needs have a good one upon our Stage, and has given admirable Play to our Comical Wits. So that in my Opinion there is no Vein of that sort either Antient or Modern, which Excels or Equals the Humor of our Plays.

I cannot but observe, for the Honor of our Country, that the good Qualities amongst us, seem to be Natural, and the ill ones more Accidental, and such as would be easily Changed by the Ex­amples of Princes, and by the Precepts of Laws; such I mean as should be De­signed to Form Manners, to Restrain Excesses, to Encourage Industry, to Pre­vent Mens Expences beyond their For­tunes, to Countenance Virtue, and Raise that True Esteem due to Plain Sense and Common Honesty.

[Page 338] But to Spin off this Thread which is already Grown too Long: What Ho­nor and Request the antient Poetry has Lived in, may not only be Observed from the Universal Reception and Use in all Nations from China to Peru, from Scythia to Arabia, but from the Esteem of the Best and the Greatest Men as well as the Vulgar. Among the Hebrews, David and Solomon the Wisest Kings, Job and Jeremiah the Holiest Men, were the best Poets of their Nation and Lan­guage. Among the Greeks, the Two most Renowned Sages and Law givers were Lycurgus and Solon, whereof the Last is known to have Excelled in Poe­try, and the First was so great a Lover of it, That to his Care and Industry we are said (by some Authors) to owe the Collection and Preservation of the loose and scattered Pieces of Homer, in the Order wherein they have since appear­ed. Alexander is Reported neither to have Travelled nor Slept, whithout those admirable Poems always in his Compa­ny. Phalaris that was Inexorable to all other Enemies, Relented at the Charms of Stesichorus his Muse. Among the Romans, the First and Great Scipio, pas­sed the soft Hours of his Life in the [Page 339] Conversation of Terence, & was thought to have a Part in the Composition of his Comedies. Caesar was an Excellent Poet as well as Orator, and Composed a Poem in his Voyage from Rome to Spain, Relieving the Tedious Difficul­ties of his March, with the Entertain­ments of his Muse. Augustus was not only a Patron, but a Friend and Com­panion of Virgil and Horace, and was himself, both an Admirer of Poetry, and a Pretender too, as far as his Genius would reach, or his busy Scene allow. 'Tis true, since his Age, we have few such Examples of great Princes favour­ing or affecting Poetry, and as few per­haps of great Poets deserving it. Whe­ther it be, that the fierceness of the Gothick Humors, or Noise of their per­petual Wars frighted it away, or that the unequal mixture of the modern Languages would not bear it. Certain it is, That the great Heights and Ex­cellency both of Poetry and Musick, fell with the Roman Learning and Em­pire, and have never since recovered the Admiration and Applauses that be­fore attended them. Yet such as they are amongst us, they must be confest to be the Softest and Sweetest, the most [Page 340] General and most Innocent Amusements of common Time and Life. They still find Room in the Courts of Princes, and the Cottages of Shepherds. They serve to Revive and Animate the dead Calm of poor or idle Lives, and to Al­lay or Divert the violent passions and perturbations of the greatest and the busiest Men. And both these Effects, are of equal Use to Humane Life; for the Mind of Man is like the Sea, which is neither agreeable to the Beholder nor the Voyager, in a Calm or in a Storm, but is so to both, when a little Agitated by gentle Gales; and so the Mind, when moved by soft and easie passions or affections. I know very well that many who pretend to be Wise, by the Forms of being Grave, are apt to despise both Poetry and Mu­sick, as Toys and Trifles too light for the Use or Entertainment of serious Men. But whoever find themselves wholly insensible to these Charms, would I think do well, to keep their own Counsel, for fear of Reproaching their own Temper, and bringing the Good­ness of their Natures, if not of their Understandings, into Question; It may be thought at least an ill Sign, if not an [Page 341] ill Constitution, since some of the Fa­thers went so far, as to esteem the Love of Musick a sign of Predestination, as a thing Divine, and Reserved for the Felicities of Heaven it self. While this World lasts, I doubt not, but the Plea­sure and Request of these Two Enter­tainments, will do so too, and happy those that content themselves with these or any other so Easie and so Innocent, and do not trouble the World or other Men, because they cannot be quiet them­selves, tho' no body hurts them.

When all is done, Human Life is at the greatest and the best, but like a froward Child, that must be play'd with, and Humour'd a little, to keep it quiet, till it falls asleep, and then the Care is over.