Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

them on to wildness or extravagance. The prose of Quarles is, in fact, of that precise sort, which dwells upon the ear and seizes on the mind, and pleases more the oftener it is perused. Rich as it is with instruction, and pregnant with well digested thought, it can never lose its value. We are only induced to regret, that there is not more of it. His two principal prose works are his Judgment and Mercy for Afflicted Souls, and his Enchiridion. The former has been republished by Sir Egerton Brydges, and no work was ever better deserving of republication. His Enchiridion, though unquestionably the most valuable of the two, has never been reprinted since the beginning of the last century. We think, the extracts we are about to give from it will induce our readers to wish to see this admirable little book as widely diffused as its excellence deserves.

It is, as its title imports, a collection of maxims, divine and moral, and is, perhaps, the best collection of maxims in the English language. Nor is it merely valuable for the discernment and knowledge of mankind which it evinces, the justness and weight of its matter, and the pithiness and conciseness of the style. Quarles had always something higher in view than the exercise of his own ingenuity, or the mere intellectual gratification of his readers. His maxims fully display that his object was to produce a beneficial effect over human practice to amend and reform mankind; and his observations always carry with them a seriousness and unity of purpose. There is little of paradox, and nothing of the ostentation of ingenuity, in his Enchiridion, but every sentence strikes upon the reader with the force of irresistible truth. He speaks not with the levity of the fanciful theorist, or the more worldly sagacity of the worldly-wise man, but with the correctness of sincere conviction, and the determination of profound inquiry. He arrests the attention not by subtle chimeras or sophistical display-he does not plead with the dextrousness of the counsel, but pronounces with the gravity of he judge. He does not, like another great writer of maxims, anatomise the heart with curious and searchful malignity, merely to show his skill, probe into its secret wounds, and leave them to fester as he found them, and hold up, with petty triumph, the nakedness of his nature to derision; but broods over her weaknesses and failings with the gentle and kindly regard of the good physician, not more skilful in discerning the maladies and disorders of his patient, than able to alleviate and wishful to cure them.

His maxims, though all valuable, have different degrees of merit. They generally commence in an injunction which the author clenches by some pointed antithesis, or illustrates by some ingenious metaphor, or supports by some shrewd thought, or weighty apothegm. Originality does not appear to have

been so much the study of Quarles, as justness in his conclusions; and yet most of the maxims in this book seem to have been the result of his own meditation. Perhaps the eagerness, of the author to render his axioms striking, sometimes leads him too much into antithesis, and playing upon words; but this is the only defect which can be imputed to this excellent little work. It is divided into four Centuries, and dedicated by the author, to "the glorious object of our expectation, Charles, Prince of Wales," afterwards Charles the Second. Happy would it have been for that licentious monarch, if he had paid a little more attention to the admirable lessons it contains.

The first Century chiefly consists of political maxims, some of which we will select.

"Before thou undertake a war, let thine eye number thy forces, and let thy judgement weigh them: if thou hast a rich enemy, no matter how poore thy souldiers be, if couragious and faithfull: trust not too much the power of thy treasure, for it will deceive thee, being more apt to expose thee for a prey, than to defend thee: Gold is not able to finde good souldiers; but good souldiers are able to find out gold."

"If the territories of thy equal enemy are situated far south from thee, the advantage is thine, whether he make offensive or defensive war: if north, the advantage is his. Cold is lesse tolerable than heat: this is a friend to nature; that, an enemy."

"If thou desire to know the power of a state, observe in what correspondence it lives with her neighbouring state: If she make allyance with the contribution of money, it is an evident signe of weaknesse: If with her valour, or repute of forces, it manifests a native strength: It is an infallible signe of power to sell friendship; and of weaknesse to buy it: That which is bought with gold, will hardly be maintained with steele."

"It much conduces to the dishonour of a king, and the ill-fare of his kingdome, to multiply nobility, in an over-proportion to the common people. Cheape honour darkens majesty; and a numerous nobility brings a state to necessity."

"It is great prudence in a statesman to discover an inconvenience in the birth; which, so discovered, is easie to be supprest: But if it ripen into a custome, the sudden remedy thereof is often worse than the disease: in such a case, it is better to temporize a little, than to struggle too much. He that opposes a full-aged inconvenience too suddenly, strengthens it."

"It is the part of a wise magistrate to vindicate a man of power or state-imployment from the malicious scandals of the giddy-headed multitude, and to punish it with great severity. Scandall breeds hatred; hatred begets division; division makes faction; and faction brings ruine."

"If thou entertaine any forraigne souldiers into thine army, let them beare thy colours, and be at thy pay, lest they interest their owne prince. Auxiliary souldiers are the most dangerous. A forraigne prince needs no greater invitation to seize upon thy city, than when he is required to defend it."

"It is more excellent for a prince to have a provident eye for the preventing future mischiefes, than to have a potent arme for the suppressing present evils. Mischiefes in a state are like hectique feavers in a body: In the beginning, hard to be knowne, but easie to be cured; but, let it alone a while, it becomes more easie to be knowne, but more hard to be cured."

"If thou be ambitious of honour, and yet fearfull of the canker of honour, envy; so behave thy selfe, that opinion may be satisfied in this, that thou seekest merit, and not fame; and that thou attributest thy preferment rather to Providence, than thy own vertue. Honour is a due debt to the deserver; and who ever envied the payment of a debt? A just advancement is a providentiall act; and who ever envied the act of Providence?"

"Let not thine army at the first encounter be too prodigall in her assaults, but husband her strength for a dead lift. When the enemy hath abated the fury of his first heat, let him then feel thou hast reserved thy forces for the last blow: so shall the honour he hath gained by his valour increase the glory of thy victory: fore-games, when they prove, are speediest; but after-games, if wisely played, are surest."

The second Century is dedicated to Mrs. Elizabeth Usher, only daughter of the learned Usher, Archbishop of Armagh.— The maxims contained in it are ethical and economical. We will take a few, almost at random.

A promise is a child of the understanding and the will: the understanding begets it, the will brings it forth. He that performes it, delivers the mother: he that breakes it, murthers the child. If he be begotten in the absence of the understanding, it is a bastard; but the child must be kept. If thou mistrust thy understanding, promise not ; if thou hast promised, break it not: it is better to maintain a bastard then to murther a child."

"If evill men speake good, or good men evill, of thy conversation, examine all thy actions, and suspect thy selfe. But if evill men speake evill of thee, hold it as thy honour; and, by way of thankefulnesse, love them; but upon condition, that they continue to hate thee."

"To tremble at the sight of thy sinne, makes thy faith the lesse apt to tremble: the devils beleeve and tremble, .because they tremble at what they beleeve; their beliefe brings trembling: thy trembling brings beliefe."

"If thou desire to be truly valiant, feare to doe any injury: He that feares not to doe evill, is alwayes afraid to suffer evill: he that

never feares is desperate: and he that feares alwayes, is a coward. He is the true valiant man, that dares nothing but what he may, and feares nothing but what he ought."

"If thou stand guilty of oppression, or wrongfully possest of another's right, see thou make restitution before thou givest an almes: if otherwise, what art thou but a thief, and makest God thy receiver?"

"When thou prayest for spiritual graces, let thy prayer be absolute; when for temporall blessings, adde a clause of God's pleasure in both, with faith and humiliation: So shalt thou, undoubtedly, receive what thou desirest, or more, or better. Never prayer rightly made, was made unheard, or heard, ungranted."

"Not to give to the poor, is to take from him. Not to feed the hungry, if thou hast it, is to the utmost of thy power to kill him. That, therefore, thou mayst avoid both sacriledge and murther, be chari

table."

"Hath any wronged thee? Be bravely revenged: sleight it, and the work's begun; forgive it, and 'tis finisht: he is below himselfe that is not above an injury."

The third Century consists of general maxims, a few of which follow.

:

"Art thou banisht from thy owne country? thanke thy owne folly hadst thou chosen a right home, thou hadst been no exile. Hadst thou commanded thy owne kingdome, all kingdomes had been thy owne. The fool is banisht in his owne country: the wiseman is in his owne country, though banisht: the foole wanders, the wiseman travels."

"Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee: nor too near, lest it burne thee; if thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou lust after it, it destroyes thee: if vertue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soule's purgatory: it is the wise man's bonefire, and the foole's furnace."

"Take no pleasure in the folly of an idiot, nor in the fancy of a lunaticke, nor in the frenzie of a drunkard. Make them the object of thy pity, not of thy pastime; when thou beholdest them, behold how thou art beholding to him that suffered thee not to be like them. There is no difference between thee and them, but God's favour."

"Use law and physicke only for necessity; they that use them otherwise, abuse themselves into weake bodies, and light purses: they are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations."

"If what thou hast received from God thou sharest to the poore, thou hast gained a blessing by the hand; if what thou hast taken from the poore, thou givest to God, thou hast purchased a curse into the bargaine. He that puts to pious uses what he hath got by impious

usury, robs the spittle to make an hospitall; and the cry of the one, will out-plead the prayers of the other."

"Give not thy tongue too great a liberty, lest it take thee prisoner. A word unspoken is, like the sword in the scabberd, thine; if vented, thy sword is in another's hand. If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue."

"Wouldst thou multiply thy riches? Diminish them wisely. Or wouldst thou make thy estate entire? Divide it charitably. Seeds that are scattered encrease; but, hoarded up, they perish."

"The Clergy is a copy-book, their life is the paper, whereof some is purer, some coarser. Their doctrine is the copies, some written in a plain hand, others in a flourishing hand, some in a text hand, some in a Roman hand, others in a court hand, others in a bastard Roman. If the choise be in thy power, chuse a book that hath the finest paper; let it not be too straight nor too loosely bound, but easie to lye open to every eye. Follow not every copy, lest thou be good at none. Among them all, chuse one that shall be most legible and usefull, and fullest of instructions. But if the paper chance to have a blot, remember, the blot is no part of the copy."

"Wisdome without innocency is knavery; innocency without wisdome is foolery: be, therefore, as wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. The subtilty of the serpent instructs the innocency of the dove; the innocency of the dove corrects the subtilty of the serpent. What God hath joyned together, let no man separate."

We have already quoted enough, as we think, to make our readers acquainted with the value of this collection, We must, nevertheless, make an extract or two from the last Century.

"Infamy is where it is received: if thou art a mudde wall, it will stick; if marble, it will rebound: if thou storme at it, 'tis thine : if thou contemne it, 'tis his."

"Let not the sweetnesse of contemplation be so esteemed, that action be despised: Rachel was more faire, Lea more fruitfull. As contemplation is more delightfull, so is it more dangerous: Lot was upright in the city, and wicked in the mountaine."

"If thou expect death as a friend, prepare to entertaine it. If thou expect death as an enemy, prepare to overcome it. Death has no advantage, but when it comes a stranger."

"In the meditation of divine mysteries, keep thy heart humble, and thy thoughts holy. Let philosophy not be ashamed to be confuted, nor logic blush to be confounded; what thou canst not prove, approve; what thou canst not comprehend, beleeve; and what thou canst beleeve, admire: so shall thy ignorance be satisfied in thy faith, and thy doubts swallowed up with wonders; the best way to see daylight, is to put out thy candle,"

« ПредишнаНапред »