aliter quàm pro insomnio quodam habitum esse. Navigationes autem nostras, ad partes exteras, visum est legislatori nostro penitùs coërcere. In China hoc not fit. Etenim Chinenses quò volunt, et possunt, navigant: quod satis ostendit legem illorum, de exteris arcendis, à pusillanimitate solá et metu provenire. Interdictio autem hæc nostra unam tantùm recipit restrictionem, eamque certè admirabilem: bonum enim, quod à communicatione cum exteris trahi possit, conservat, malum autem evitat. Id vobis nunc aperiam. Atque hic videbor aliquantisper ab eo quod agitur digredi; sed mox hoc ipsum ad rem pertinere perspicietis. Intelligetis itaque, amici mei præcari, inter acta illius regis unum maximè eminere. Illud est, fundatio sive institutio Ordinis cujusdam et Societatis, quam nos Domum Salomonis' vocamus: nobilissimam dico (quantùm nos arbitramur) omnium per terrarum orbem fundationem, atque regni hujusce luminare magnum. Domus hæc studiis et contemplationibus operum et creaturarum Dei dicata est. Putant nonnulli nomen traxisse à fundatore, paululùm corruptum; ac si deberet dici, Solamone Domus : verùm archiva ipsa authentica sic scriptum habent, prout in sermone quotidiano nunc profertur. Itaque nomen fluxisse arbitror à Rege illo Hebræorum, qui apud vos celebris est, nobis autem non ignotus; habemus enim portiones aliquas operum suorum, quæ apud vos desiderantur. Historiam illam Naturalem dico, quam conscripsit de Plantis omnibus, à Cedro Libani usque ad Hyssopum quæ de pariete egreditur,' atque de omnibus rebus quibus vita et motus inest. Hinc animum meum cogitatio illa subiit regem nostrum, quandoquidem se in multis cum rege illo Hebræorum consentire sensit, qui multis ante eum

annis vixerat, ejus titulo fundationem hanc honorásse. Atque in hanc opinionem præcipuè adducor, quòd in historicis admodùm antiquis invenio Societatem hanc interdum Domum Salomonis' vocari, interdum autem Collegium Operum sex Dierum. Unde persuasum habeo, regem illum nostrum præcellentem ab Hebræis didicisse, Deum mundum hunc et omnia quæ ei insunt sex dierum spatio creásse; ideòque, cùm domum illam institueret ad inquisitionem et inventionem naturæ veræ et interioris rerum omnium, quò Deus conditor majorem reciperet gloriam ob fabricam earum, homines autem uberiorem perciperent fructum in usu earum, indidisse etiam ei illud alterum nomen, nimirùm, Collegii Operum sex Dierum.'

Verùm, ut redeamus ad id, quod nunc agitur. Postquam rex omnem subditis navigationem interdixisset, præterquam in partes huic imperio subditas, hanc nihilominus ordinationem sancivit : nimirùm, singulis duodenis annis mittendas ex hoc regno naves binas in partes orbis diversas: in utråque navium harum tres ex Fraternitate Domús Salomonis seorsim vehendos: his in mandatis dandum, ut nos de rebus et statu locorum illorum, ad quos appellerent, certiores facerent; præcipuè autem de scientiis, artibus, manufacturis, et inventionibus mundi universi; utque in reditu libros, instrumenta, exemplaria in unoquoque genere ad nos perferrent navibus postquam in terram Fratres exposuissent, redeundum, Fratribus autem usque ad novam missionem peregrè manendum: naves hasce non aliis mercibus instruendas quàm commeatus copia bona, necnon thesauri satis larga quantitate in usum Fratrum ad res eas coëmendas et homines tales remunerandos quibus opus esset. Jam verò ut

vobis proferam modos, quibus vulgus nautarum cöercentur ne in terris ad quas appellant dignoscantur, aut quibus modis in terram expositi sub nomine nationum aliarum lateant, aut ad quæ loca navigationes nostræ designatæ sint, aut quæ loca novis rursus missionibus præfigantur, atque alias hujus generis circumstantias quæ ipsam practicam partem spectant, mihi proloqui fas non est; neque multùm certe ad quæstionem vestram conducet.

"Sic itaque videtis, commercium nos instituisse non pro auro, argento, et gemmis; non pro sericis aut aromatibus, neque pro aliis quibusvis rebus crassis, sed tantùm pro creaturâ Dei primá, luce scilicet; luce, inquam, in quâcunque tandem terræ regione prorumpente et germinante. '*

* Other characteristical Extracts, if space had admitted, might have been made of the Prognostica Ventorum, from his 'Historia Ventorum;' of the Longevitas et Brevitas Vitæ in Homine, from his Historia Vita et Mortis,' §§ 33-44; of the sixth chapter of his De Sapientiâ Veterum,' entitled Pan, sive Natura; and, for the disgraceful grossness of it's adulation, the first part (as far as Quare, ut ad inceptum revertar) of his first book, being the Dedication of the De Augmentis Scien tiarum' to James I.; subjoining to it, from a somewhat later page, as a self-condemnation,- Interim monere placet, nos nihil minus agere quàm ut patrocinemur quibusdam professorum institutis abjectis et sordidis, quibus et seipsos et literas dehonestârunt: quales erant apud Romanos sæculis posterioribus philosophi quidam in familiis divitum, mensarumque eorum assecta haud absurde dicas Barbatos Parasitos.'—Ante omnia verò quos nihil tam offecit literarum dignitati quàm crassa et turpis adulatio, ad quàm multi (neque hi indocti) et calamos et ingenia submisére, Hecubam in Helenam, Faustinam in Lucretiam, ut ait DuBartas, transformantes! Neque vèro nimis laudo morem illum receptum libros patronis nuncupandi, cùm libri, præsertim qui hoc nomine dignandi sint, in veritatis tantum et rationis clientelam se debeant!'

Bacon's Considerations touching the Queen's Service in

THE WORLD.

The World's a bubble: and the life of man
Less than a span.

In his conception wretched; from the womb.
So to the tomb.

Nurst from his cradle, and brought up to years,
With cares and fears.

Who then to frail mortality shall trust,

But limns on water, or but writes in dust.

Yet, whilst with sorrow here we live opprest,

What life is best?

Courts are but only superficial schools,

To dandle fools."

The rural part is turn'd into a den

Of savage men.

And where's a city from foul vice so free,
But
may
be term'd the worst of all the three?

Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed,

Or pains his head.

Those that live single take it for a curse,

Or do things worse.

These would have children: those that have them, none,
Or wish them gone.

What is it then to have or have no wife,
But single thraldom, or a double strife?

Our own affections still at home to please,

Is a disease.

To cross the seas to any foreign soil,

Peril and toil.

Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease,

We're worse in peace.

What then remains, but that we still should cry
For being born, and being born to die?'

Ireland' also, and his Letter supposed to have been addressed to Buckingham, when he first became the favourite of his Sovereign, with Sir Thomas Bodley's Epistle to his Lordship upon his New Philosophy, are highly worthy of insertion.

492

GEORGE VILLIERS,

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

[1592-1628.]

GEORGE VILLIERS, the celebrated Duke of Buckingham, was born in 1592 at Brookesby in Leicestershire, where his ancestors had chiefly continued about the space of four hundred years, rather without obscurity than with any great lustre, having long before been seated at Kinalton in the county of Nottingham. He was the third son of Sir George Villiers, by Mary daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Cole-Orton, Esq., names on either side well known of ancient extraction. He was nurtured where he had been born, in his first rudiments, till his tenth year; and was thence sent to Billisden school in the same county, where he was taught the principles of music and other slight literature, till his thirteenth, at which time his father died. Then his beautiful and provident mother, for those attributes will not be denied her, took him home to her house at Goodby, where she had him in especial care; so that he was first, as we may say, a domestic favourite: but find

• Written, with few variations, by a contemporary in the stile of the times.