The Major Works (English Library) (48 page)

11. Look not for
Whales
in the
Euxine
Sea,
⁴²
or expect great matters where they are not to be found. Seek not for Profundity in Shallowness, or Fertility in a Wilderness. Place not the expectation of great Happiness here below, or think to find Heaven on Earth; wherein we must be content with Embryon-felicities, and fruitions of doubtful Faces. For the Circle of our felicities makes but short Arches. In every clime we are in a periscian state,
⁴³
and with our Light our Shadow and Darkness walk about us. Our Contentments stand upon the tops of Pyramids ready to fall off, and the insecurity of their enjoyments abrupteth our Tranquilities. What we magnify is Magnificent, but like to the
Colossus
, noble without, stuft with rubbidge and course
⁴⁴
Metal within. Even the Sun, whose Glorious outside we behold, may have dark and smoaky Entrails. In vain we admire the Lustre of any thing seen: that which is truly glorious is invisible.
Paradise
was but a part of the Earth, lost not only to our Fruition but our Knowledge. And if, according to old

Dictates, no Man can be said to be happy before Death, the happiness of this Life goes for nothing before it be over, and while we think our selves happy we do but usurp that Name. Certainly true Beatitude groweth not on Earth, nor hath this World in it the Expectations we have of it. He Swims in Oyl, and can hardly avoid sinking, who hath such light Foundations to support him. ’Tis therefore happy that we have two Worlds to hold on. To enjoy true happiness we must travel into a very far Countrey, and even out of our selves; for the Pearl we seek for is not to be found in the
Indian
, but in the
Empyrean
Ocean.
⁴⁵

12. Answer not the Spur of Fury, and be not prodigal or prodigious in Revenge. Make not one in the
Historia Horribilis
;
⁴⁶
Flay not thy Servant for a broken Glass, nor pound him in a Mortar who offendeth thee;
⁴⁷
supererogate not in the worst sense, and overdo not the necessities of evil; humour not the injustice of Revenge. Be not Stoically mistaken in the equality of sins, nor commutatively iniquous
⁴⁸
in the valuation of transgressions; but weigh them in the Scales of Heaven, and by the weights of righteous Reason. Think that Revenge too high, which is but level with the offence. Let thy Arrows of Revenge fly short, or be aimed like those of
Jonathan
, to fall beside the mark.
⁴⁹
Too many there be to whom a Dead Enemy smells well, and who find Musk and Amber in Revenge. The ferity
⁵⁰
of such minds holds no rule in Retaliations, requiring too often a Head for a Tooth, and the Supreme revenge for trespasses, which a night’s rest should obliterate. But patient Meekness takes injuries like Pills, not chewing but swallowing them down,

Laconically suffering, and silently passing them over, while angred Pride makes a noise, like
Homerican Mars
,
⁵¹
at every scratch of offences. Since Women do most delight in Revenge, it may seem but feminine manhood to be vindicative. If thou must needs have thy Revenge of thine Enemy, with a soft Tongue break his Bones,
⁵²
heap Coals of Fire on his Head, forgive him, and enjoy it. To forgive our Enemies is a charming way of Revenge, and a short
Cæsarian
⁵³
Conquest overcoming without a blow; laying our Enemies at our Feet, under sorrow, shame, and repentance; leaving our Foes our Friends, and solicitously inclined to grateful Retaliations. Thus to Return upon our Adversaries is a healing way of Revenge, and to do good for evil a soft and melting ultion,
⁵⁴
a method Taught from Heaven to keep all smooth on Earth. Common forceable ways make not an end of Evil, but leave Hatred and Malice behind them. An Enemy thus reconciled is little to be trusted, as wanting the foundation of Love and Charity, and but for a time restrained by disadvantage or inability. If thou hast not Mercy for others, yet be not Cruel unto thy self. To ruminate upon evils, to make critical notes upon injuries, and be too acute in their apprehensions, is to add unto our own Tortures, to feather the Arrows of our Enemies, to lash our selves with the Scorpions of our Foes, and to resolve to sleep no more. For injuries long dreamt on take away at last all rest; and he sleeps but like
Regulus
, who busieth his Head about them.

13. Amuse not thy self about the Riddles of future things. Study Prophecies when they are become Histories, and past hovering in their causes. Eye well things past and present, and let conjectural sagacity suffise for things to come. There is a sober Latitude for prescience in contingences of discoverable Tempers, whereby discerning Heads see sometimes beyond

their Eyes, and Wise Men become Prophetical. Leave Cloudy predictions to their Periods, and let appointed Seasons have the lot of their accomplishments. ’Tis too early to study such Prophecies before they have been long made, before some train of their causes have already taken Fire, laying open in part what lay obscure and before buryed unto us. For the voice of Prophecies is like that of Whispering-places: They who are near or at a little distance hear nothing, those at the farthest extremity will understand all. But a Retrograde cognition of times past, and things which have already been, is more satisfactory than a suspended Knowledge of what is yet unexistent. And the Greatest part of time being already wrapt up in things behind us;
⁵⁵
it’s now somewhat late to bait after things before us; for futurity still shortens, and time present sucks in time to come. What is Prophetical in one Age proves Historical in another, and so must hold on unto the last of time; when there will be no room for Prediction, when
Janus
shall loose one Face, and the long beard of time shall look like those of
David
’s Servants,
⁵⁶
shorn away upon one side, and when, if the expected
Elias
should appear,
⁵⁷
he might say much of what is past, not much of what’s to come.

14. Live unto the Dignity of thy Nature, and leave it not disputable at last, whether thou hast been a Man, or since thou art a composition of Man and Beast, how thou hast predominantly passed thy days, to state the denomination. Un-man not therefore thy self by a Beastial transformation, nor realize old Fables.
⁵⁸
Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, and
Caricatura
⁵⁹
representations. Think not after the old
Pythagorean
conceit, what Beast thou may’st be after death. Be not under any Brutal
metempsychosis
while thou livest, and walkest about erectly under the scheme of Man. In thine own circumference, as in that of the Earth, let the Rational

Horizon be larger than the sensible, and the Circle of Reason than of Sense. Let the Divine part be upward, and the Region of Beast below. Otherwise, ’tis but to live invertedly, and with thy Head unto the Heels of thy
Antipodes
. Desert not thy title to a Divine particle and union with invisibles. Let true Knowledge and Virtue tell the lower World thou art a part of the higher. Let thy Thoughts be of things which have not entred into the Hearts of Beasts: Think of things long past, and long to come: Acquaint thy self with the
Choragium
⁶⁰
of the Stars, and consider the vast expansion beyond them. Let Intellectual Tubes
⁶¹
give thee a glance of things, which visive Organs
⁶²
reach not. Have a glimpse of incomprehensibles, and Thoughts of things, which Thoughts but tenderly touch. Lodge immaterials in thy Head: ascend unto invisibles: fill thy Spirit with Spirituals, with the mysteries of Faith, the magnalities
⁶³
of Religion, and thy Life with the Honour of God; without which, though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity, and may hold a pitiful rank in that triple division of mankind into Heroes, Men, and Beasts. For though human Souls are said to be equal, yet is there no small inequality in their operations; some maintain the allowable Station of Men; many are far below it; and some have been so divine, as to approach the
Apogeum
⁶⁴
of their Natures, and to be in the
Confinium
⁶⁵
of Spirits.

15. Behold thy self by inward Opticks and the Crystalline
⁶⁶
of thy Soul. Strange it is that in the most perfect sense there should be so many fallacies, that we are fain to make a doctrine, and often to see by Art. But the greatest imperfection is in our inward sight, that is, to be Ghosts unto our own Eyes, and while we are so sharp-sighted as to look thorough others, to be invisible unto our selves; for the inward Eyes are more fallacious than the outward. The Vices we scoff at in others

laugh at us within our selves. Avarice, Pride, Falshood lye undiscerned and blindly in us, even to the Age of blindness: and therefore, to see our selves interiourly, we are fain to borrow other Mens Eyes; wherein true Friends are good Informers, and Censurers no bad Friends. Conscience only, that can see without Light, sits in the
Areopagy
⁶⁷
and dark Tribunal of our Hearts, surveying our Thoughts and condemning their obliquities, Happy is that state of vision that can see without Light, though all should look as before the Creation when there was not an Eye to see, or Light to actuate a Vision: wherein notwithstanding obscurity is only imaginable respectively unto Eyes; for unto God there was none, Eternal Light was ever, created Light was for the creation, not himself, and as he saw before the Sun, may still also see without it. In the City of the new
Jerusalem
there is neither Sun nor Moon;
⁶⁸
where glorifyed Eyes must see by the
Archetypal
Sun, or the Light of God, able to illuminate Intellectual Eyes, and make unknown Visions. Intuitive perceptions in Spiritual beings may perhaps hold some Analogy unto Vision: but yet how they see us, or one another, what Eye, what Light, or what perception is required unto their intuition, is yet dark unto our apprehension; and even how they see God, or how unto our glorified Eyes the Beatifical Vision
⁶⁹
will be celebrated, another World must tell us, when perceptions will be new, and we may hope to behold invisibles.

16. When all looks fair about, and thou seest not a cloud so big as a Hand
⁷⁰
to threaten thee, forget not the Wheel of things: Think of sullen vicissitudes, but beat not thy brains to foreknow them. Be armed against such obscurities rather by submission than fore-knowledge. The Knowledge of future evils mortifies present felicities, and there is more content in the uncertainty or ignorance of them. This favour our Saviour vouchsafed unto
Peter
,
⁷¹
when he fore-told not his Death in
plain terms, and so by an ambiguous and cloudy delivery dampt not the Spirit of his Disciples. But in the assured fore-knowledge of the Deluge
Noah
lived many Years under the affliction of a Flood, and
Jerusalem
was taken unto
Jeremy
before it was besieged.
⁷²
And therefore the Wisdom of Astrologers, who speak of future things, hath wisely softned the severity of their Doctrines; and even in their sad predictions, while they tell us of inclination not coaction from the Stars, they Kill us not with
Stygian
Oaths
⁷³
and merciless necessity, but leave us hopes of evasion.

17. If thou hast the brow to endure the Name of Traytor, Perjur’d, or Oppressor, yet cover thy Face when Ingratitude is thrown at thee. If that degenerous Vice possess thee, hide thy self in the shadow of thy shame, and pollute not noble society. Grateful Ingenuities are content to be obliged within some compass of Retribution, and being depressed by the weight of iterated favours may so labour under their inabilities of Requital, as to abate the content from Kindnesses. But narrow self-ended Souls make prescription of good Offices, and obliged by often
⁷⁴
favours think others still due unto them: whereas, if they but once fail, they prove so perversely ungrateful, as to make nothing of former courtesies, and to bury all that’s past. Such tempers pervert the generous course of things; for they discourage the inclinations of noble minds, and make Beneficency cool unto acts of obligation, whereby the grateful World should subsist, and have their consolation. Common gratitude must be kept alive by the additionary fewel of new courtesies: but generous Gratitudes, though but once well obliged, without quickening repetitions or expectation of new Favours, have thankful minds for ever; for they write not their obligations in sandy but marble memories, which wear not out but with themselves.

18. Think not Silence the wisdom of Fools, but, if rightly timed, the honour of Wise Men, who have not the Infirmity, but the Virtue of Taciturnity, and speak not out of the abun
dance, but the well weighed thoughts of their Hearts. Such Silence may be Eloquence, and speak thy worth above the power of Words. Make such a one thy friend, in whom Princes may be happy, and great Councels successful. Let him have the Key of thy Heart, who hath the Lock of his own, which no Temptation can open; where thy Secrets may lastingly ly, like the Lamp in
Olybius
his Urn,
⁷⁵
alive, and light, but close and invisible.

19. Let thy Oaths be sacred and Promises be made upon the Altar of thy Heart. Call not
Jove
to witness with a Stone in one Hand, and a Straw in another,
⁷⁶
and so make Chaff and Stubble of thy Vows. Worldly Spirits, whose interest is their belief, make Cobwebs of Obligations, and, if they can find ways to elude the Urn of the
Prætor
,
⁷⁷
will trust the Thunderbolt of
Jupiter
: And therefore if they should as deeply swear as
Osman
to
Bethlem Gabor
;
⁷⁸
yet whether they would be bound by those chains, and not find ways to cut such
Gordian
Knots, we could have no just assurance. But Honest Mens Words are
Stygian
Oaths, and Promises inviolable. These are not the Men for whom the fetters of Law were first forged: they needed not the solemness of Oaths; by keeping their Faith they swear,
⁷⁹
and evacuate such confirmations.