wonder why I did not this before, and why that ingenious piece which you had made speak English so well and naturally, came not out in print; seeing, besides the advantage to the public, it would in respect of the matter have been beneficial, and in respect to the hand whence it came honourable to me in particular, had it been published. This I understood well enough and put it into the printer's hand long ago, who (after finishing some work then in his hand) was to have undertaken it. The issue was, when I called upon him to go on with the MS., it was lost, and since cannot by any industry be retrieved. This fatal and sad accident, though it be not my crime, yet 'tis my great calamity, so that I shall deserve your pity, and if you will, your pardon too, if I have not been innocent in so great a loss. I hope you may have a copy of it still to present to that honourable person you mention, and then I shall not account the former miscarriage a misfortune, but a good providence, whereby that ingenious Tract was not lost but preserved for a dedication worthy of the person that presents it. This is the hope of, SIE, Sir, Your most obliged faithful servant, John Evelyn to the Honourable Robert Boyle. Sayes-Court, Sept. 13, 1661. I send you the receipt of the varnish, and believe it to be very exact, because it is so particular; and that I received it from the hand of a curious person, who, having made trial of it himself, affirms it to have succeeded. I send you also another trifle, which has a nearer relation to me, and you will easily pardon my indignation, however you pity the rest of my errors, to which there is superadded so great a presumption: not that I believe what I have written should produce the desired effects, but to indulge my passion, and in hopes of obtaining a partial reformation; if, at least, his Majesty pursue the resentment which he lately expressed against this nuisance, since this pamphlet was prepared. Sir, I am your creditor for Schotti, and shall faithfully render it whenever your summons calls: my leisure has not yet permitted me to transcribe some things out of it, which concerns me on another subject; but if the detaining it longer be no prejudice to you, it is in a safe depositum. Sir, I have not bought two of your last books, and yet possibly I could render you some account of them. My thirst and impatience is too great to show the least indifferency, when anything of yours is to be had; this does not absolve you from making him a present who, it may be, takes no greater felicity in the world than to see his small library enriched with your illustrious works, and they to 'come to me ex dono authoris. Dearest Sir, pardon this innocent stratagem, and the presumption of, Sir, Your most faithful, and most obedient servant, J. EVELYN. Sir, I must take this opportunity to give you thanks for your great civilities to my cousin Baily, and to supplicate the continuance of your favour to him, as by which you will infinitely oblige an industrious and deserving gentle man. DEAR SIR, Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. Dublin, November 16, 1661. Your own worthiness and the obligations you have so often passed upon me have imprinted in me so great a value and kindness to your person, that I think myself not a little concerned in yourself and all your relations, and all the great accidents of your life. Do not therefore think me either impertinent or otherwise without employment, if I do with some care and earnestness inquire into your health, and the present condition of your affairs. Sir, when shall we expect your "Terrestrial Paradise"-your excellent observations and discourses of gardens, of which I had a little posy presented to me by your own hand, and makes me long for more. Sir, I and all that understand excellent fancy, language, and deepest loyalty, are bound to value your excellent " Panegyric," ," which I saw and read with pleasure. I am pleased to read your excellent mind in so excellent an idea, for, as a father in a son's face, so is a man's soul imprinted in all the pieces that he labours. Sir, I am so full of public concerns and the troubles of business in my diocese, that I cannot yet have leisure to think of much of my old delightful employment. But I hope I have brought my affairs almost to a consistence, and then I may return again. Royston, the bookseller, hath two sermons, and a little collection of rules for my clergy, which had been presented to you if I had thought them fit for notice, or to send to my dearest friends. Dear Sir, I pray let me hear from you as often as you can, for you will very much oblige me if you will continue to love me still.' I pray give my love and dear regards to worthy Mr. Thurland: let me hear of him and his good lady, and how his son dies. God bless you and yours, him and his. I am, Dear Sir, Your most affectionate friend, John Evelyn to "Tho. Chiffing," Esq., Page of the back stairs to his Majesty and Keeper of his closet." In answer to the laudable design of his Majesty for fit repositories of those precious Treasures and Curiosities committed to your charge, I conceive you may completely marshal them in a Catalogue (as there set forth.) It is perhaps worthy of note that this is the last letter preserved of the long and affectionate correspondence of Taylor and Evelyn. Whether it really ceased at this time cannot with certainty be said, but it seems probable. Taylor survived his elevation to his bishopric six years, dying in August, 1667. Thomas Chiffinch, of Northfleet, Esq., Keeper of the Jewels to King Charles II., Keeper of the King's Closet, and Comptroller of the Excise. He was born at Salisbury in 1600, and was brought to the Court of King Charles I. by Bishop Duppa. After the King's death, he, with his wife, went abroad to King Charles II., and continued with him till the Restoration. He died in 1666, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a monument erected to his memory Hasted's Hist. of Kent, vol. i. p. 442. This were in truth a noble way to preserve his treasure entire; so as upon occasion to permit a sight of it to great princes and curious strangers: for it is great pity it should not be made as famous as the Cabinet of the Duke of Florence and other foreign princes, which are only celebrated by being more universally known, and not because his Majesty's collection is not altogether as worthy, his Majesty being likewise himself so exquisite a judge, as well as possessor, of so many rare things as might render not only Whitehall, but the whole nation, famous for it abroad. If it be his Majesty's pleasure, I shall, whenever you call upon me, and that it may least importune his privacy, make the inventory of particulars. To this I would have added, in another Register, the names and portraitures of all the exotic and rare beasts and fowls which have at any time been presented to his Majesty and which are daily sent to his paradise at St. James's Park. John Evelyn to Lady Cotton.1 Sayes-Court, 9 Sept. 1662. MADAM, It was by a visit which was made us this afternoon that we heard how it had pleased God to dispose of your little sweet babe; and, withal, how much the loss of it does yet afflict you. Whatsoever concerns you in this kind is, Madam, a common diminution to the family, and touches every particular of it—but so as our resentments hold proportion to the cause, and that the loss of one does not take away the comfort and the contentment which we ought to have in those who are left, since we must pretend to nothing here, but upon the conditions of mortality, and ten thousand other accidents; and that we may learn to place our felicities in our obedience to the will of God, which is always the best, and to sacrifice our affections upon that altar which can consecrate our very losses, and turn them to our greatest advantage. Madam, I have heard with infinite satisfaction how graciously God had restored you your health: why should you now impair it again by an excess 1 Wife to his brother, George Evelyn, of Wotton. of grief which can recal nothing that God has taken to himself in exchange without a kind of ingratitude? There be some may haply soothe your Ladyship in this sensible part (which was the destruction of my dear Mother); but your Ladyship's discretion ought to fortify you against it before it become habitual and dangerous. Remember that you have an husband who loves you entirely: that you have other children who will need your conduct; that you have many friends and a prosperous family. Pluck up your spirits, then, and at once vanquish these hurtful tendernesses. It is the vote of all that honour and love you; it is what God requires of you, and what I conjure you to resolve upon; and I beseech your La'p, let this express bring us some fairer confidences of it, than the common report does represent it to the grief of, Madam, your, &c. John Evelyn to Mr. Vander Douse, "Grandson to the great Janus Dousa." Sayes-Court, 13 Sept. 1662. SIR, I have to the best of my skill translated your Relation of China: if you find the Argument omitted, it is for that I thought it superfluous, being almost as large as the text; but I have yet left a sufficient space where you may, (if you think good) insert it. In the mean time, it would be consider'd, whether this whole piece will be to the purpose, there having been of late so many accurate descriptions of those countries in particular, as what Father Alvarez Semedo has published in the Italian; Vincent le Blanc in French; and Mandelslo in high Dutch; not omitting the Adventures and Travels of Pinto in Spanish; all 1 See Diary, vol. ii. p. 184. History of the great and renowned Monarchy of China; translated from the Portuguese into English, by a person of Quality; with cuts. Folio. 1655. 1658. Voyages fameux du Sieur Vincent le Blanc, Marseillois. 4to. Paris, • Peregrinations from Persia into the East Indies, translated by John Davies. Folio. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, his Travels in the Kingdoms of Ethiopia, China, Tartaria, Cochin China, and a great part of the East Indies translated out of Portuguese into English by Henry Cogan. Folio. 1663. |