dancing school to dance before her.

"Pish," said the queen,

"it is his profession-I will not see him."

Wanton jests make fools laugh, and wise men frown.

Jest not with the two-edged sword of God's word. Will nothing please thee to wash thy hands in but the font, or to drink healths in but the church chalice ?*

Let not thy jests, like mummy, be made of dead men's flesh. Abuse not any that are departed, for to wrong their memories is to rob their ghosts of their winding sheets.

Scoff not at the natural defects of any which are not in their power to amend. Oh! 'tis cruelty to beat a cripple with his own crutches.

No time to break jests when the heart-strings are about to be broken.

He that will lose his friend for a jest, deserves to die a beggar by the bargain.

OF TRAVELLING.

TRAVEL not early before thy judgment be risen; lest thou observest rather shows than substance.

Get the language (in part) without which key thou shalt unlock little of moment.

Know most of the rooms of thy native country before thou goest over the threshold thereof.

enjoyments, on magnificent schemes of pleasure, on charities, on subscriptions, on every profuse, liberal, and noble undertaking. Insomuch that these men who in the morning gather with a hundred hands, in the evening scatter with a hundred hands that which they gathered; and are under the providence of God but instruments for changing the current of his beneficence, for gathering it where otherwise it would be wasted, and bestowing it where otherwise it would not be had. He gathered it at a thousand fountains, as the streams which come out of the recesses of a thousand solitudes are gathered into one lake; then he dispenseth it through the fertile places of society, and setteth in action, or engageth a thousand departments of business, just as if you should sluice off that lake into a thousand rills, with each of which to fertilize a productive field, or give force to the wheel of some more active machine. E. I.

* As for jest, there be certain things which ought to be privileged from it; namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, any man's present business of importance, and any case that deserveth pity.-LORD BACON.

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Travel not beyond the Alps. Mr. Ascham did thank God that he was but nine days in Italy, wherein he saw in one city (Venice) more liberty to sin than in London he ever heard of in nine years.*

To travel from the sun is uncomfortable. Yet the northern parts with much ice have some crystal.

If thou wilt see much in a little, travel the Low Countries. Holland is all Europe in an Amsterdam print.

Be wise in choosing objects, diligent in marking, careful in remembering of them. Yet herein men much follow their own humors. One asked a barber who never before had been at the court, what he saw there?

cellently well trimmed !"

66 Oh," said he,

the king was ex

Labor to distil and unite into thyself the scattered perfections of several nations. Many weed foreign countries, bringing home Dutch drunkenness, Spanish pride, French wantonness, and Italian Atheism; as for the good herbs, Dutch industry, Spanish loyalty, French courtesy, and Italian frugality, these they leave behind them; others bring home just nothing; and, because they singled not themselves from their countrymen, though some years beyond sea, were never out of England.

* I was once in Italy myself; but I thank God my abode there was but nine days; and yet I saw in that little time in one city, more liberty to sin, than ever I heard tell of in our noble city of London in nine years. I saw, it was there as free to sin, not only without all punishment, but also without any man's marking, as it is free in the city of London, to choose without all blame, whether a man list to wear shoe or pantofle. And good cause why: for being unlike in truth of religion, they must needs be unlike in honesty of living. For, blessed be Christ, in our city of London, commonly the commandments of God be more diligently taught, and the service of God more reverently used, and that daily in many private men's houses, than they be in Italy once a week in their common churches: where making ceremonies to delight the eye, and vain sounds to please the ear, do quite thrust out of the churches all service of God in spirit and in truth. Yea, the Lord Mayor of London, being but a civil officer, is commonly for his For their time more diligent in punishing sin, the bent enemy against God and good order, than all the bloody inquisitors in Italy be in seven years. care and charge is, not to punish sin, not to amend manners, not to purge doctrine, but only to watch and oversee that Christ's true religion set no sure footing where the Pope has any jurisdiction.-ASCHAM.

OF COMPANY.

COMPANY is one of the greatest pleasures of the nature of man.

It is unnatural for a man to court and hug solitariness., Yet a desart is better than a debauched companion. The Nazarites who might drink no wine were also forbidden to eat grapes whereof wine is made.

If thou be cast into bad company, like Hercules, thou must sleep with thy club in thine hand and stand on thy guard; like the river Dee in Merionethshire, in Wales, which running through Pimble Mere, remains entire, and mingles not her streams with the waters of the lake.

The company he keeps is the comment by help whereof men expound the most close and mystical man. Cæsar came thus to discern his two daughters' inclinations, for being once at a public show, where much people was present, he observed that the grave senators talked with Livia, but loose youngsters and riotous persons with Julia.

OF MEMORY.

IT is the treasure-house of the mind, wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved. Plato makes it the mother of the Muses. Aristotle sets it in one degree further, making experience the mother of arts, memory the parent of experience. Philosophers place it in the rear of the head; and it seems the mine of memory lies there, because there men naturally dig for it, scratching it when they are at a loss. This again is twofold; one, the simple retention of things; the other, a regaining them when forgotten.

Brute creatures equal if not exceed men in a bare retentive memory. Through how many labyrinths of woods, without other clue of thread than natural instinct, doth the hunted hare return to her meuse? How doth the little bee, flying into several meadows and gardens, sipping of many cups, yet never intoxicated, through an ocean (as I may say) of air, steadily steer herself home, without help of card or compass. But these cannot play

an aftergame, and recover what they have forgotten, which is done by the mediation of discourse.

Artificial memory is rather a trick than an art, and more for the gain of the teacher than profit of the learners. Like the tossing of a pike, which is no part of the postures and motions thereof, and is rather for ostentation than use, to show the strength and nimbleness of the arm, and is often used by wandering soldiers, as an introduction to beg. Understand it of the artificial rules which at this day are delivered by memory mountebanks; for sure an art thereof may be made (wherein as yet the world is defective) and that no more destructive to natural memory than spectacles are to eyes, which girls in Holland wear from twelve years of age. But till this be found out, let us observe these plain rules.

First, soundly infix in thy mind what thou desirest to remember. What wonder is it if agitation of business jog that out of thy head, which was there rather tacked than fastened? whereas those notions which get in by "violenta possessio," will abide there till " ejectio firma," sickness, or extreme age dispossess them. It is best knocking in the nail over night, and clinching it the next morning.

Overburthen not thy memory to make so faithful a servant a slave. Remember, Atlas was weary. Have as much reason as a camel, to rise when thou hast thy full load. Memory, like a purse, if it be over full that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it; take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof. Beza's case was peculiar and memorable; being above fourscore years of age, he perfectly could say by heart any Greek chapter in St. Paul's epistles, or anything else which he had learnt long before, but forgot whatsoever was newly told him; his memory, like an inn, retaining old guests, but having no room to entertain new.

Spoil not thy memory by thine own jealousy, nor make it bad by suspecting it. How canst thou find that true which thou wilt not trust? St. Augustine tells us of his friend Simplicius, who being asked, could tell all Virgil's verses backward and forward, and yet the same party avowed to God, that he knew not that he

could do it till they did try him. Sure there is concealed strength in men's memories, which they take no notice of.

Marshal thy notions into a handsome method. One will carry twice more weight trussed and packed up in bundles, than when it lies untoward flapping and hanging about his shoulders. Things orderly fardled up under heads are most portable.

Adventure not all thy learning in one bottom, but divide it betwixt thy memory and thy notebooks. He that with Bias carries all his learning about him in his head, will utterly be beggared and bankrupt, if a violent disease, a merciless thief, should rob and strip him. I know some have a common-place against common-place-books, and yet perchance will privately make use of what they publicly declaim against. A common-place-book con tains many notions in garrison, whence the owner may draw out an army into the field on competent warning.

Moderate diet and good air preserve good memory; but what air is best I dare not define, when such great ones differ. Some say a pure and subtle air is best, another commends a thick and foggy air. For the Pisans scited in the fens and marshes of Arnus have excellent memories, as if the foggy air were a cap for their heads.

Thankfulness to God for it continues the memory ;* whereas some proud people have been visited with such oblivion, that they have forgotten their own names. Staupitius, tutor to Luther, and

* Dr. Fuller had an extraordinary memory. He could name in order the signs on both sides the way from the beginning of Paternoster-row at AveMaria Lane to the bottom of Cheapside. He could dictate to five several amanuenses at the same time, and each on a different subject. The doctor making a visit to the committee of sequestrators sitting at Waltham, in Essex, they soon fell into a discourse and commendation of his great memory; to which he replied; "'Tis true, gentlemen, that fame has given me the report of a memorist, and, if you please, I will give you an experiment of it." They all accepted the motion, and told him they should look upon it as an obligation, praying him to begin. "Gentlemen," says he, "I will give you an instance of my memory in the particular business in which you are employed. Your worships have thought fit to sequester an honest, but poor cavalier parson, my neighbor, from his living, and committed him to prison; he has a large family of children, and his circumstances are but indifferent; if you will please to release him out of prison, and restore him to his living, I will never forget the kindness while I live."