only to testify, without design, my zeal for one whom I know you so highly value; quanto enim mihi carior est amicitia tua, tanto antiquior mihi esse debet cura, illam omnibus officiis testandi; which, Sir, is the product of this impertinency, and sole ambition of, Sir, your, &c. John Evelyn to his Cousin, Geo. Tuke, of Cressing [Of this letter only a portion has been preserved, in which he speaks of his cousin's brother, Samuel Tuke,' having been made a proselyte to the Church of Rome.] Jan. 1658-9. For the rest, we must commit to Providence the success of times and mitigation of proselytical fervours, having for my own particular, a very great charity for all who sincerely adore the blessed Jesus, our common and dear Saviour, as being full of hope that God (however the present zeal of Some, and the scandals taken by others at the instant afflictions of the Church of England may transport them) will at last compassionate our infirmities, clarify our judgments, and make abatement for our ignorances, superstructures, passions and errors of corrupt times and interests, of which the Romish persuasion can no way acquit herself, whatever the present prosperity and secular polity may pretend. But God will make all things manifest in his own time; only let us possess ourselves in patience and charity; and this will cover a multitude of imperfections. 1 See Mrs. Evelyn's character of him in a letter to Lady Tuke on his death, dated Jan. 28, 1672. Sir Samuel Tuke, of Cressing Temple, in Essex, Bart., was a colonel in the royal service, during the civil war, and afterwards, being one of those that attempted to form a body in Essex for King Charles, narrowly escaped with his life. In 1664 he maried Mary Sheldon, one of the Queen's dressers, kinswoman to Lord Arundel, and died at Somerset House, Jan. 26, 1673. His son followed the fortunes of King James, and was killed at the battle of the Boyne. George Tuke, afterwards Sir George, is frequently referred to in the Diary. Soon after the Restoration he wrote a comedy, (the Adventures of Fire Hours, of which the plot was borrowed from Calderon) for the Duke's Theatre, “which took so universally that it was acted for some weeks every day, and 'twas believed it would be worth to the comedians 4004, or 500" "The plot was incomparable," says Evelyn, drily, "but the language stiff and formal" Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. HONOURED SIR, Lisnagarvy, April 9, 1659. I fear I am so unfortunate as that I forgot to leave with you a direction how you might, if you pleased to honour me with a letter, refresh my solitude with notice of your health and that of your relatives, that I may rejoice and give God thanks for the blessing and prosperity of my dearest and most honoured friends. I have kept close all the winter, that I might, without interruption, attend to the finishing of the employment I was engaged in which now will have no longer delay than what it meets in the printer's hands. But, Sir, I hope that by this time you. have finished what you have so prosperously begun,-your own Lucretius. I desire to receive notice of it from yourself, and what other designs you are upon in order to the promoting or adorning learning: for I am confident you. will be as useful and profitable as you can be, that, by the worthiest testimonies, it may by posterity be remembered that you did live. But, Sir, I pray say to me something concerning the state of learning; how is any art or science likely to improve? what good books are lately public? what learned men, abroad or at home, begin anew to fill the mouth of fame, in the places of the dead Salmasius, Vossius, Mocelin, Sirmond Rigaltius, Des Cartes, Galileo, Peirisk, Petavius, and the excellent persons of yesterday? I perceive here that there is a new sect rising in England, the Perfectionists; for three men that wrote an Examen of the Confession of Faith of the Assembly, whereof one was Dr. Drayton, and is now dead, did start some very odd things; but especially one, in pursuance of the doctrine of Castellio, that it is possible to give unto God perfect unsinning obedience, and to have perfection of degrees in this life. The doctrine was opposed by an obscure person, one John Tendring; but learnedly enough and wittily maintained by another of the triumvirate, William Parker, who indeed was the first of the three; but he takes his hint from a sermon of Dr. Drayton, which, since his death, Parker hath published, 'His Treatise on Conscience appears to be alluded to. and endeavours to justify. I am informed by a worthy person, that there are many of them who pretend to great sanctity and great revelations and skill in all Scriptures, which they expound almost wholly to scriptural and mysterious purposes. I knew nothing, or but extremely little, of them when I was in England; but further off I hear most news. If you can inform yourself concerning them, I would fain be instructed concerning their design, and the circumstances of their life and doctrine. For they live strictly, and in many things speak rationally, and in some things very confidently. They excel the Socinians in the strictness of their doctrine; but, in my opinion, fall extremely short of them in their expositions of the practical Scripture. If you inquire after the men of Dr. Gelt's church, possibly you may learn much: and if I mistake not, the thing is worth inquiry. Their books are printed by Thomas Newcomb in London, but where is not set down. The Examen of the Assembly's Confession is highly worth perusing, both for the strangeness of some things in it, and the learning of many of them. Sir, you see how I am glad to make an occasion to talk with you: : though I can never want a just opportunity and title to write to you, as long as I have the memory of those many actions of loving kindness by which you have obliged, SIR, Honoured Sir, Your most affectionate and endeared friend and humble servant, JER. TAYLOR. John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle. Sayes-Court, April 13, 1659. Having the last year drawn a good quantity of the essence of roses, by the common way of fermentation, and remembering how soon it went away, amongst the ladies, after they had once scented it; the season of flowers now approaching, makes me call to mind, to have known it is sold by some chemists (and in particular by one Longsire at Chichester) mixed with a substance not unlike it; which retained the odour of it wonderful exactly; but in such a proportion, that for seven or eight shillings a sister of mine was used to purchase more than any man living can extract out of three or four hundred weight of roses, by the vulgar or Glauber's preparation: by which means that precious essence may be made to serve for many ordinary uses, without much detriment. Sir, I am bold to request of you, that if you know what it is (for if you know it not, I despair of encountering it) you will be pleased to instruct me; and, in lieu thereof, to command me some service by which I may testify my great ambition to obey you, and how profoundly sensible I remain of my many obligations to you, which I should not have been thus long in expressing, had not I apprehended how importune letters are to studious persons, where the commerce is so jejune; and that I can return you nothing in exchange for civilities I have already received. Sir, I have reason to be confident that you are upon some very glorious design, and that you need no subsidiaries, and therein you are happy; make us so, likewise, with a confirmation of it; that such as cannot hope to contribute anything of value to the adornment of it, may yet be permitted to augur you all the success which your worthy and noble attempts do merit; in the mean time, that some domestic afflictions of mine have rendered me thus long uscless, both to my friends and to myself; which I wish may be thought a just apology for, Noble Sir, Your most humble and most obedient servant, Sir, I know the impostors multiply their essence of roses with ol. lig. Rhodii, others with that of Ben; but it can be neither; for the oil of rosewood will vanquish it exceedingly, neither is it so fluid; and the other grows rancid. Some have told me it was spermaceti, which I have not essayed. Your commands will at any time find me, directed to the Hawk and Pheasant upon Ludgate Hill, at one Mr. Saunders's, a woollen-draper. Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. HONOURED SIR, Portmore, June 4, 1659. I have reason to take a great pleasure that you are pleased so perfectly to retain me in your memory and affections as if I were still near you, a partner of your converse, or could possibly oblige you. But I shall attribute this so wholly to your goodness, your piety and candour, that I am sure nothing on my part can incite or continue the least part of those civilities and endearments by which you have often, and still continue to oblige me. Sir, I received your two little books, and am very much pleased with the Golden Book of St. Chrysostom, on which your epistle hath put a black enamel, and made a pretty monument for your dearest, strangest miracle of a boy; and when I read it, I could not choose but observe St. Paul's rule, flebam cum flentibus. I paid a tear at the hearse of that sweet child. Your other little Enchiridion is an emanation of an ingenuous spirit; and there are in it observations, the like of which are seldom made by young travellers; and though by the publication of these you have been civil and courteous to the commonwealth of learning, yet I hope you will proceed to oblige us in some greater instances of your own. I am much pleased with your way of translation; and if you would proceed in the same method, and give us in English some devout pieces of the Fathers, and your own annotations upon them, you would do profit and pleasure to the public. But, Sir, I cannot easily consent that you should lay aside your Lucretius, and having been requited yourself by your labour, I cannot perceive why you should not give us the same recreation, since it will be greater to us than it could be to you, to whom it was alloyed by your great labour: especially since you have given us so large an essay of your ability to do it; and the world having given you an essay of their acceptation of it. Sir, that Pallavicini whom you mention is the author of the late history of the Council of Trent, in two volumes in folio, in Italian. I have seen it, but had not leisure to F |