requital. But since your affection has vanquished yourreason so much to my advantage, though I wish the election were to make, yet I cannot but be very sensible of the signal honour, and the obligation which you have put upon me. I should now extol your courage in pursuing so noble an original, executed with so much judgment and art: but I forbear to provoke your modesty, and shall in the meantime that I can give you personal thanks, receive your present as an instance of your great civility, and a memorial of my no less obligation to you, who remain, Sir, Your, &c. John Evelyn to Mr. Maddox. Sayes-Court, 10 Jan. 1656-7. SIR, I perceive by the success of my letter, and your most civil reply, that I was not mistaken when I thought so nobly of you, and spoke those little things neither in diffidence of your bounty or to instruct it, but to give you notice when it would arrive most seasonably, and because I found the modesty of the person might injure his fortune, as well as the greatness of your kindness.-You are pleased to inform me of your course, and I cannot but infinitely approve of your motions, because I find they are designed to places, in order to things of greater advantage than the vanity of the eye only, which to other travellers has usually been the temptation of making tours. For at Marseilles and Toulon you will inform yourself of the strength and furniture of the French on the Mediterranean Seas. You will see the galleys, the slaves, and in fine, a very map of the Levant; for should you travel as far as Constantinople itself, or to the bottom of the Straits, you would find but still the same thing; and the maritime towns of Italy are no other. Nismes does so much abound with antiquities, that the difference 'twixt it and Rome is, that I think the latter has very few things more worth the visiting; and therefore it may as well present you with an idea of that great city, as if you were an ocular spectator of it; for it is a perfect epitome of it. Montpellier is the next in order, where I suppose you will make some longer stay; because there are scholars and students, and many rarities about it. There is one Peter Borell, a physician, who hath lately published "Centuries Historical and Medico-Physical." Montpellier was wont to be a place of rare opportunity for the learning the many excellent receipts to make perfumes, sweet powders, pomanders, antidotes, and divers such curiosities, which I know you will not omit; for though they are indeed but trifles in comparison of more solid things, yet, if ever you should affect to live a retired life hereafter, you will take more pleasure in those recreations than you can now imagine. And really gentlemen despising those vulgar things, deprive themselves of many advantages to improve their time, and do service to the desiderants of philosophy; which is the only part of learning best illustrated by experiments, and after the study of religion, certainly the most noble and virtuous. Every body hath book-learning, which verily is of much ostentation, but of small fruit unless this also be superadded to it. I therefore conjure you that you do not let pass whatever offers itself to you in this nature, from whomsoever they come. Commonly indeed persons of mean condition possess them, because their necessity renders them industrious: but if men of quality made it their delight also, arts could not but receive infinite advantages, because they have both means and leisure to improve and cultivate them; and, as I said before, there is nothing by which a good man may more sweetly pass his time. Such a person I look upon as a breathing treasure, a blessing to his friends, and an incomparable ornament to his country. This is to you the true seed-time, and wherein the foundations of all noble things must be laid. Make it not the field of repentance: for what can be more glorious than to be ignorant of nothing but of vice, which indeed has no solid existence, and therefore is nothing? Seek therefore after nature, and contemplate that great volume of the creatures whilst you have no other distractions: procure to see experiments, furnish yourself with receipts, models, and things which are rare. In fine, neglect nothing, that at your return, you may bring home other things than talk, feather, and ribbon, the ordinary traffic of vain and fantastic persons.-I must believe that when you are in those parts of France you will not pass Beau gensier' without a visit; for, certainly, though the curiosities may be much dispersed since the time of the most noble Peireskius, yet the very genius of that place cannot but infuse admirable thoughts into you. But I suppose you carry the Life of that illustrious and incomparable virtuoso always about you in your motions; not only because it is so portable, but for that it is written in such excellent language by the pen of the great Gassendus, and will be a fit Itinerary with you. When you return to Paris again, it will be good to refresh your gymnastic exercises, to frequent the Court, the Bar, and the Schools sometimes; but above all, procure acquaintances and settle a correspondence with learned men, by whom there are so many advantages to be made and experiments gotten. And I beseech you forget not to inform yourself as diligently as may be, in things that belong to gardening, for that will serve both yourself and your friends for an infinite diversion: and so will you have nothing to add to your accomplishments when you come home, but to look over the municipal laws of your own country, which your interest and your necessities will prompt you to: and then you may sweetly pass the rest of your days in reaping the harvest of all your pains, either by serving your country in some public employment (if the integrity of the times invite you), or by securing your own felicity, and indeed the greatest upon earth, in a private unenvied condition, with those advantages which you will bring it of piety and knowledge. Oh the delice and reward of thus employing our youth! What a beauty and satisfaction to have spent one's youth innocently and virtuously! What What a calm and serenity to the mind! What a glory to your country, to your friends, and contentment to your instructors: in sum, how great a recompence and advantage to all your concernments! And all this, Sir, I foresee and augur of Mr. Maddox, of whom may this be the least portion of his panegyric; whilst it serves me only to testify how great a part I take in all your pros perity, and how great an honour I shall ever esteem it to be accounted, Sir, your, &c. 'Belgenser, or Beaugensier, a town near Toulon, the birthplace of the celebrated Nicholaus Claudius Fabricius, Lord of Peiresk, Senator of the Parliament at Aix. John Evelyn to the Lieutenant of the Tower.1 From Greenwich, 14 Jan. 1656-7. SIR, I should begin with the greater apology for this address, did not the consideration of the nature of your great employment and my fears to importune them carry with them an excuse which I have hope to believe you will easily admit. But as it is an error to be troublesome to great persons upon trifling affairs, so were it no less a crime to be silent in an occasion wherein I may do an act of charity, and reconcile a person to your good opinion, who has deserved so well, and I think is so innocent. Sir, I speak in behalf of Dr. Taylor, of whom I understand you have conceived some displeasure for the mistake of his printer; and the readiest way that I can think of to do him honour and bring him into esteem with you, is, to beg of you, that you will please to give him leave to wait upon you, that you may learn from his own mouth, as well as the world has done from his writings, how averse he is from any thing that he may be charged withal to his prejudice, and how great an adversary he has ever been in particular to the Popish religion, against which he has employed his pen so signally, and with such success. And when by this favour you shall have done justice to all interests, I am not without fair hopes, that I shall have mutually obliged you both, by doing my endeavour to serve my worthy and pious friend, and by bringing so innocent and deserving a person into your protection; who am, Sir, &c. Endorsed: "This was written for another gentleman, an acquaintance with the villain who was now Lieut. of y' Tower, Baxter by name, for I never had the least knowledge of him." * Jeremy Taylor had at this time been committed prisoner to the Tower, in consequence of Royston, his bookseller, having placed before his collection of Offices the picture of Christ praying, contrary to a new Act concerning "scandalous pictures;" Evelyn's object in this letter, which seems to have been addressed to the lieutenant of the Tower through some mutual friend, was to procure alleviation of an imprisonment apparently owing rather to some individual caprice, than to any graver cause. John Evelyn to Edward Thurland. Sayes-Court, 20 Jan. 1656-7. SIR, I have read your learned Diatriba concerning Prayer, and do exceedingly praise your method, nor less admire your learning and reason, which by so rare an artifice has made notions that are very difficult and abstracted in themselves, so apt and perspicuous; besides, your arguments are drawn from the most irresistible and convincing topics, and the design not only full of learning, but useful also to a good life, which is indeed the right application of it. Sir, I am so much taken with your piece, and think it so excellent a homily against that abounding ingredient now in the world, that I presume you shall not need my persuasions to induce you to make it public; being a thing which may so greatly contribute to the cure of that epidemical madness, and the vindication of God's glory: since what Trismegistus so long time said is most true in our age, 'Η μεγάλη νόσος τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ ἀθεότες, and Silius Ita licus has interpreted with a complaint: "Heu! prima scelerum causæ mortalibus ægris, But because you have not only done me the honour to communicate so freely your thoughts to me; but have also laid your commands that I should return you my opinion of it; truly, I should both greatly injure the intrinsic value of the work, as well as my great esteem of the author, if I should say less than I have done: so that, if I am bold or impertinent in what follows, it will serve only to make you the more admire your own, when you shall find how little can be added to it. And you must only blame the liberty you have given me, if my silence would have become more acceptable. First, then, your distribution is most methodical and logical; the minor produced to assert the thesis very closely and skilfully handled; but, because your conclusion comes in so long after, whether it may not a little λsevazın, considering that your argument is prayer? I would therefore at the end of some of those chapters (before you arrive at |
