read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man;

honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, "Would he had blotted a thousand," which they thought a 5 malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this but for their ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted; and to justify mine own candour, for I loved the man, and do

and, therefore, if a man write little, he had 10 honour his memory on this side idolatry as

need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make

much as any. He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that some

men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; 15 time it was necessary he should be stopped.

natural philosophy deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend: "Abeunt studia in mores"-nay, there is no stond nor impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by

"Sufflaminadus erat,"s as Augustus said of
Haterius. His wit was in his own power;
would the rule of it had been so too. Many
times he fell into those things, could not escape

Cæsar, one speaking to him: "Cæsar, thou
dost me wrong." He replied: "Cæsar did
never wrong but with just cause;'
."'4 and such
like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed

fit studies, like as diseases of the body may 20 laughter, as when he said in the person of
have appropriate exercises-bowling is good
for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs
and breast, gentle walking for the stomach,
riding for the head, and the like; so, if a man's
wits be wandering, let him study the mathe- 25 his vices with his virtues. There was ever

matics, for in demonstrations, if his wit be
called away never so little, he must begin
again; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or
find differences, let him study the schoolmen,
for they are "cymini sectores;" if he be not 30
apt to beat over matters, and to call upon
one thing to prove and illustrate another, let
him study the lawyers' cases-so every defect
of the mind may have a special receipt.

more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.

De piis et probis.5—Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live and illustrate the times. God never let them be wanting to the world: as Abel, for an example of innocency, Enoch of purity, Noah of trust in God's mercies, Abraham of faith, and so of the rest. These, sensual men thought mad because they would not be partakers or prac35 tisers of their madness. But they, placed high on the top of all virtue, looked down on the stage of the world and contemned the play of fortune. For though the most be players, some must be spectators.

40

Amor nummi-Money never made any man rich, but his mind. He that can order himself to the law of Nature is not only without the sense but the fear of poverty. O, but to strike blind the people with our wealth and 45 pomp is the thing! What a wretchedness is this, to thrust all our riches outward, and be beggars within; to contemplate nothing but the little, vile, and sordid things of the world; not the great, noble, and precious! We

good of the earth that is offered us, we search, and dig for the evil that is hidden. God offered us those things, and placed them at hand, and near us, that He knew were profitable for us,

The character and scope of this work of Jonson, is indicated in its title: Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men or Matter, as they have flowed out of his daily reading; er had their reflux to his peculiar notions of the time. The book, in other words, is a reflection upon men and things, 50 serve our avarice, and, not content with the suggested by Jonson's "daily reading." It is similar to Bacon's Essays, but Jonson's thoughts are jotted down as they occur to him, with little regard to logical order or grouping. The unsystematic, miscellaneous character of the book is indicated by its main title,Timber. Jonson uses Timber (i. e. a forest) as the English equivalent of the Latin word Silva (a wood, a crowded mass), which as Jonson explains, was applied by the ancients to those of their books in which were collected random articles upon diverse and various topics." Timber, the crude wood of the forest is thus "the raw material of facts and thoughts:" the "promiscuous" growth, undeveloped by art.

* Of Shakespeare, our fellow-countryman.

He ought to have been clogged. Haterius was sena.
tor under the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius.
Julius Cæsar, III. i. 47.

5 Of devout and honorable men.
Illuminate, make glorious.
The love of money.

but the hurtful He laid deep and hid. Yet do we seek only the things whereby we may perish, and bring them forth, when God and Nature hath buried them. We covet superfluous things, when it were more honour for us if we could contemn necessary. What need hath Nature of silver dishes, multitudes of waiters, delicate pages, perfumed napkins? She requires meat only, and hunger is not ambitious. Can we think no wealth enough 10 but such a state for which a man may be brought into a præmunire, begged, proscribed, or poisoned? O! if a man could restrain the fury of his gullet and groin, and think how many fires, how many kitchens, cooks, pastures, 15 rate? They are pleased with cockleshells, and ploughed lands; what orchards, stews, 10 ponds and parks, coops and garners, he could spare; what velvets, tissues, embroideries, laces, he could lack; and then how short and

all away in a day? And shall that which could not fill the expectation of few hours, entertain and take up our whole lives, when even it appeared as superfluous to the possessors as to 5 me that was a spectator? The bravery was shown, it was not possessed; while it boasted itself it perished. It is vile, and a poor thing to place our happiness on these desires. Say we wanted them all, famine ends famine.

8

11

De stultitia. 12-What petty things they are we wonder at, like children that esteem every trifle, and prefer a fairing13 before their fathers! What difference is between us and them but that we are dearer fools, coxcombs at a higher

whistles, hobbyhorses, and such like; we with statues, marble pillars, pictures, gilded roofs, where underneath is lath and lime, perhaps loam. Yet we take pleasure in the lie, and

uncertain his life is; he were in a better way 20 are glad we can cozen ourselves. Nor is it to happiness than to live the emperor of these delights, and be the dictator of fashions. But we make ourselves slaves to our pleasures, and we serve fame and ambition, which is an equal slavery. Have not I seen the pomp of a whole 25 kingdom, and what a foreign king could bring hither also to make himself gazed and wondered at, laid forth, as it were, to the show, and vanish

only in our walls and ceilings, but all that we
call happiness is mere painting and gilt, and
all for money.
What a thin membrane1 of
honour that is, and how hath all true reputation
fallen, since inoney began to have any! Yet
the great herd, the multitude, that in all other
things are divided, in this alone conspire and
agree to love money. They wish for it, they
embrace it, they adore it, while yet it is pos-

is gotten.

i. e., to incur the penalty (viz. loss of the protection of the Crown, forfeiture of goods, etc.) provided in one 30 sessed with greater stir and torment than it or more of the laws known as the Statutes of Praemunire. These statutes obtained their name from the first words of a writ issued under them; Praemunire facias A. B., etc.-you shall cause A. B. to be forewarned that he appear before us etc.

12 Of Folly.

13 An article purchased at a fair, a present brought from a fair.

14 Covering, tissue. The deceitful outward show, the (lath and lime, the painting and gill) is but a thin and superficial layer of honor.