ceptable to Dr. Wilkinson: and that you be pleased to communicate to me what success you have in the process of this receipt (myself not having had time to examine it), that in case of any difficulty, I may have recourse to the from whom I received it. John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor. person Sayes-Court, 9 May, 1657. SIR, Amongst the rest that are tributaries to your worth, I make bold to present you with this small token: and though it bears no proportion either with my obligation or your merit, yet I hope you will accept it, as the product of what I have employed for this purpose; and which you shall yearly receive so long as God makes me able, and that it may be useful to you. What I can handsomely do for you by other friends, as occasions present themselves, may, I hope, in time supply that which I would myself do. In order to which, I have already made one of my Brothers sensible of this opportunity to do God and his country an acceptable service: I think I shall prevail as much on the other: the effects whereof will show themselves, and care shall be taken that you have an account of all this in due time, and as you shall yourself desire it. I will not add, that by bringing you acquainted with persons of so much virtue (though I speak it of my nearest relatives) I do at all reinforce the kindness: since by it I oblige you mutually (for so beneficium dare socialist res est), and because it is infinitely short of his respects who (with Philemon) owes you even himself, and which, if I have not sooner paid, I appeal to philosophy, and the sentences of that wise man who, as some affirm, held intercourse with the Apostle himself: Qui festinat utique reddere, non habet animum grati hominis, sed debitoris: et qui nimis cito cupit solvere, invitus debet: qui invitus debet, ingratus est: and, Sir, you have too far obliged me to be ever guilty of that crime who am, Rev Sir, &c. Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, 15 May, 1657. A stranger came two nights since from you with a letter, and a token: full of humanity and sweetness, that was; and this, of charity. I know. it is more blessed to give than to receive: and yet, as I no ways repine at that Providence that forces me to receive, so neither can I envy that felicity of yours, not only that you can, but that you do give; and as I rejoice in that mercy which daily makes decrees in heaven for my support and comfort, so I do most thankfully adore the goodness of God to you, whom He consigns to greater glories by the ministeries of these graces. But, Sir, what am I, or what can I do, or what have I done that you can think I have or can oblige you? Sir, you are too kind to me, and oblige me not only beyond my merit, but beyond my modesty. I only can love you, and honour you, and pray for you; and in all this I can not say but that I am behind hand with you, for I have found so great effluxes of all your worthinesses and charities, that I am a debtor for your prayers, for the comfort of your letters, for the charity of your hand, and the affections of your heart. Sir, though you are beyond the reach of my returns, and my services are very short of touching you; yet if it were possible for me to receive any commands, the obeying of which might signify my great regards of you, I could with some more confidence converse with a person so obliging; but I am obliged and ashamed, and unable to say so much as I should do to represent myself to be, Honoured and dear Sir, Your most affectionate and most obliged friend and servant, JER. TAYLOR.' It may not be out of place to remark on this letter, and its predecessor, that Jeremy Taylor was at this time engaged in the composition of his beautiful Essay on Friendship. He refers to it as completed in a letter of three weeks' later date. Reverend Edward Snatt' to John Evelyn. NOBLE SIR, Lewes, 25 May, 1657. This is the third book that I have received from your Honour, the third book, I say, of your own making, which makes me stand amazed; I cannot tell whether more at the excellency of your work in writing, or at your condescension so low as to stoop to give it me in such a manner. Sir, others I see have praised you and it, but none have or can sufficiently set out your labour and pains. But what cannot such an artificer as yourself effect? Go on prosperously and finish that which none yet durst attempt, and none but you can perfect: though it be the first book, yet it cannot be absolutely the last, if Mr. Evelyn please. I did all this time forbear to write unto you, thinking every day to come unto you in person, and seeing still I was hindered, both by weakness in body and my serious employments: having this opportunity of so honoured a friend as Mr. Heath, I could not but break through all difficulties, and tell you, in spite of all the world, that in my judgment, or rather opinion, you are not inferior to the highest laurel. The five younger brethren will grieve if you clothe not them in as rich garments as their elder brother, and the elder will rejoice to see them as richly clothed as himself. Do you not think that your poor Mulcaster doth rejoice to think that he is like to have some in their kind as eminent as Winchester? You know Wenterton sent forth his first Book of Aphorisms as a spy, and then the next followed: yours, if I have any skill, are like to prove as good success as his. But I must desire you to pardon my errors, and to remember my best respects to your noble consort, whom (God willing) I purpose to see this summer, with yourself, at your house, and to visit, as by duty I am bound, your elder and noble brother Mr. George Evelyn, together with Mr. Richard Evelyn. In the meantime I humbly 1 Mr. Snatt, of Southover, was Evelyn's schoolmaster, and the subject of the worthy pedagogue's gresent gratitude and rapture was the First Book of the translated Lucretius, which his distinguished pupil had sent him. See Diary, vol. i. p. 6. desire to hear from you, and from my heart subscribe my. Your most humble servant, self EDWARD SNATT. SIR, John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor. Sayes-Court, 9 June, 1657. I heartily acknowledge the Divine mercies to me, both in this, and many other instances of his goodness to me; but for no earthly concernment more than for what He has conveyed me by your charity and ministration towards my eternal and better interest; and for which I wish that any new gradations of duty to God, or acknowledgments to you from me, may in the least proportion second my great obligations, and which you contínue to reinforce by new and indelible favours and friendships, which I know myself to be so much the more unworthy of, as I am infinitely short of the least perfection that you ascribe to me. And because you best know how sad a truth this is, I have no reason to look on that part of your letter but as upon your own emanations, which like the beams of the sun upon dark and opaque bodies make them shine indeed faintly and by reflection. Every one knows from whence they are derived, and where their native fountain is: and since this is all the tribute which such din' lights repay, τὰ σὰ ἐκ τῶν σῶν σοι προσφερουμεν, I must never hope to oblige you, or repay the least of your kindness. But what I am able, that I will do, and that is to be ever mindful of them, and for ever to love you for them. Sir, I had forgotten to tell you, and indeed it did extremely trouble me, that you are to expect my coach to wait on you presently after dinner, that you are not to expose yourself to the casualty of the tides, in repairing to do so Christian an office for, Sir, Your, &c. Evelyn's indorsement on this letter, “ to come and christen my son George," shows the occasion on which it was written. Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, 9 June, 1657. Your messenger prevented mine but an hour. But I am much pleased at the repetition of the Divine favour to you in the like instances; that God hath given you another testimony of his love to your person, and care of your family; it is an engagement to you of new degrees of duty, which you cannot but superadd to the former, because the principle is genuine and prolific; and all the emanations of grace are unequivocal and alike. Sir, your kind letter hath so abundantly rewarded and crowned my innocent endeavours in my descriptions of Friendship, that I perceive there is a friendship beyond what I have fancied, and a real, material worthiness beyond the heights of the most perfect ideas: and I know now where to make my book perfect, and by an appendix to outdo the first essay: for when anything shall be observed to be wanting in my character, I can tell them where to see the substance, much more beauteous than the picture, and by sending the readers of my book to be spectators of your life and worthiness, they shall see what I would fain have taught them, by what you really are. Sir, I know it is usual amongst civil persons to say kind things when they have received kind expressions: but I now go upon another account: you have forced me to say, what I have long thought, and spoken to others, even so much as to your modesty may seem excessive, but that which to the merit of your person and friendship is very much too little. Sir, I shall by the grace of God wait upon you to-morrow, and do the office you require; and shall hope that your little one may receive blessings according to the heartiness of the prayers which I shall then and after make for him: that then also I shall wait upon your worthy Brothers, I see it is a design both of your kindness, and of the Divine Providence. Sir, I am Your most affectionate and most faithful friend VOL. III. and servant, JER. TAYLOR. H |
