this fharpened the King fo, that not only in this voyage, but again in the 16th year of his reign [1517], and likewise in the 18th thereof, he granted forth new commiffions for the discovery and invefting of unknown lands. (Life of Henry VII.)

CASSANDRA.

They say that Caffandra was beloved by Apollo; that she contrived by various artifices to elude his defires, and yet to keep his hopes alive until she had drawn from him the gift of divination; that fhe had no fooner obtained this, which had all along been her object, than she openly rejected his fuit; whereupon he, not being permitted to feal the love once rafhly promised, yet burning with revenge, and not choofing to be the fcorn of an artful woman, annexed to it this penalty-that though she should always foretell true, yet nobody should believe her. Her prophecies, therefore, had truth, but not credit; and so she found it ever after, even in regard to the deftruction of her country, of which_she

had given many warnings, but could get nobody to liften to or believe her. (From the Latin of De Sapientia Veterum, 1609.)

CHILDREN.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears. They cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. Children fweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beafts; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men. (Essays, 1625, vii.)

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to Fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. (Ibid., viii.)

THE CHILDLESS.

Childless fhe was indeed, and left no iffue of her own-a thing which has happened alfo to the moft fortunate perfons, as Alexander the Great, Julius Cæfar, Trajan, and others, and which has always been a moot point and argued on both fides; fome taking it for a diminution of felicity, for that to be happy both in the individual self and in the propagation of the kind would be a bleffing above the condition of humanity; others regarding it as the crown and confummation of felicity, because that happiness only can be accounted perfect over which fortune has no further power, which cannot be where is pofterity. (From the Latin of The Fortunate Memory of Elizabeth, Queen of England.)

PRIVILEGE OF CLERGY.

The King began alfo then (4 H. VII., c. 13), as well in wisdom as in justice, to pare a little the privilege of clergy, or

daining that clerks convict fhould be burned in the hand, both because they might tafte of fome corporeal punishment, and that they might carry a brand of infamy. But for this good act's fake the King himself was after branded by Perkin's proclamation for an execrable hacker of the rites of holy Church. (Life of Henry VII.)

COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL.

1. That which has relation to truth is greater than that which has relation to opinion; and the proof that a thing has relation to opinion is this: If or what a man would not do if he thought it would not be known.'

So the Epicureans fay of the Stoics' felicity placed in virtue; that it is like the felicity of a player, who, if he were left of his auditory and their applaufe, he would straight be out of heart and countenance; and therefore they call

virtue bonum theatrale. But of riches

the poet faith:

Populus me fibilat, at mihi plaudo.

[= The people hifs me, but I applaud myself.]

And of pleasure :

Grata fub imo

Gaudia corde premens, vultu fimulante pudorem.

[= Her face faid, 'Fie for fhame!' but only bleft,

She nurfed the fecret pleasure in her breaft.]

The fallax [fallacy] of this colour is fomewhat fubtle, though the answer to the example be ready; for virtue is not chosen propter auram popularem, but contrariwise, maxime omnium teipfum reverere [=a man should above all reverence himself]: as a virtuous man will be virtuous in folitudine, and not only in theatro, though percafe it will be more ftrong by glory and fame as a heat which is doubled by reflexion. But that denieth the fuppofition; it doth not reprehend the fallax, whereof the reprehenfion is. Allow that virtue (fuch as is joined with labour and conflict)