it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the fovereign good of human nature. The firft creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the fense; the last was the light of reason; and His fabbath-work ever fince is the illumination of His Spirit. First He breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos ; then He breathed light into the face of man; and still He breatheth and infpireth light into the face of His chofen. The poet that beautified the fect that was otherwise inferior to the reft [= Lucretius, b. ii.], faith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to ftand upon the shore, and to fee Ships toffed upon the fea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to fee the battle and the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth' (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and ferene), and to fee the errors, and wanderings, and mifts, and tempefts, in the vale below; fo always that this prospect be with pity, and not with fwelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, reft in Providence, and turn upon the poles of Truth.

To pass from theological and philofophical truth to the truth of civil bufinefs It will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falfehood is like alloy in coin of gold and filver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embafeth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the ferpent; which goeth bafely upon the belly, and not upon the fect. There is no vice that doth fo cover a man with fhame as to be found falfe and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne faith prettily, when he inquired the reafon why the word of the lie fhould be fuch a disgrace, and fuch an odious charge? Saith he, ' If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to fay that he is brave towards God and a coward towards man; for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man?' Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot poffibly be fo highly expreffed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold that, when Chrift cometh,

USURY.

Many have made witty invectives against Ufury. They say that it is a pity the devil fhould have God's part, which is the tithe. That the Ufurer is the greateft Sabbath-breaker, because his plough goeth every Sunday. That the Ufurer is the drone that Virgil speaketh of:

Ignavum fucos pecus a præsepibus arcent. That the Ufurer breaketh the firft law that was made for mankind after the fall, which was, in the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread '-not of the fweat of another's face. That Ufurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do Judaize. That it is against nature for money to beget money; and the like. I fay this only, that ufury is a conceffum propter duritiem cordis [a thing allowed by reason of the hardness of men's hearts]; for fince there must be borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, ufury must be permitted. (Effays, 1625, xli.)

VAIN-GLORY.

It was prettily devised of Esop, the fly fat upon the axle-tree of the chariotwheel and faid, 'What a duft do I raise !' So are there some vain persons, that whatsoever goeth alone, or moveth upon greater means, if they have never fo little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. (Essays, 1625, liv.)

PERKIN WARBECK.

Perkin, for his part, was not wanting to himself either in gracious and princely behaviour, or in ready and appofite answers, or in contenting and careffing those that did apply themselves unto him; or in petty scorns and difdains to thofe that feemed to doubt of him; but in all things did notably acquit himself; infomuch as it was generally believed (as well amongst great perfons as amongst the vulgar), that he was indeed Duke Richard [of York]. Nay, himself, with long and continued counterfeiting, and with often telling a lie, was turned (by habit)

R

aimoit into the thing he feemed to be, and from a liar to a believer. (Life of Henry VII) Bacon draws above from Speed. Shakespeare in his Tempest' has the fame thought :

'Like one,

Who having unto Truth, by telling of it
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie-he did believe
He was indeed the Duke."

It is marvellous how Bacon and Shakespeare alike tranfmute the least suggeition of arid chroniclers into imperishable stuff.]

Later-after Flight from Exeter to
Taunton [1497]-

Perkin was brought unto the King's Court, but not to the King's prefence; though the King, to fatisfy his curiofity, faw him fometimes out of a window or in pailage. He was in fhow at liberty, but guarded with all care and watchfulnefs that was poffible, and willed to follow the King to London. But from his first appearance upon the ftage in his new person of fycophant, or juggler,