Logopandecteision. Book II. Chrestasebeia

Sir Thomas Urquhart (1653) Logopandecteision. Book II: Chrestasebeia, pp. 25-40.

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The second BOOK

OF THE

INTITULED

C H R E S T A S E B E I A.

Impious dealing of

CREDITORS.

WHEREIN

The severity of the Creditors

of the Authors Family, is desired to

be removed, as a main impediment to the
Production of this Universal Lan-

guage, and publication of other no less
considerable Treatises.

1. WHY IT PLEASED me to set forth this Preamble a part, without annexing thereto the rudiments of the Language, by the faith I owe to truth, it was against my will, and the cause thereof did meerly proceed from without : First, for that all the Papers concerning that Subject were lost at the spoil after Worcester fight, and next, there being in Scotland of those that would despoyl me of my whole Lands, who care as little for Learning, as a Sow doth for a Pearl : should I have publiquely exposed these treasures, like Æsops Cock, they would have preferred a Barley Corn before them.¹

2. And although I expect no applause from them, whose Arcadian ears by the warbling of no Nightingale, are to be demulceated : yet by reason of the power they have in the land, I thought fit to stop my Pen for a while, least otherwise I should fail of my designe, in the preservation of my Predecessors inheritance.²

3. For albeit it might be thought unreasonable, that I should be denuded of those possessions, my Ancestors have enjoyed these one and twenty hundred years, and upwards, and that by them to whom I was never beholding insomuch as a pennie, nor any of my predecessors, save my Father alone, whose facility, in making of unprofitable bargains, they abused, for inriching of themselves ; and at whose hands they have gained so much, although they never get a penny from mee they can be no losers.³

4. Yet as if I were their Debtor (of which title, the civilest Nations in the world will acquit me) I demand of the State, and Authority established, this favour amongst others, that they would allow me the benefit of the six and thirtieth Statute of the fifth Parliament of King James the third, which never yet was repealed, in so far as it provideth, that the Debtors moveable goods be first valued, and discussed, before his lands be apprised, much less possessed.⁴

5. And if conform to the aforesaid Act, this be granted, I doe promise shortly, to display before the world, ware of greater value, then ever from the East Indias were brought in ships to Europe.

6. And though there be many (even of my Fathers Creditors) that will postpose it to a Little money, yet are not Diamonds and gold of the less worth, because the Americans make more account of Iron, and Beads.⁵

7. I have seen of those, that choosed Sugar, before Ambergreece ; because they deemed it sweeter to the tast : and preferred Black Tours velvet, to pure Segovia scarlet ; for that it seemed softer to the touch : Yet is not such a simple, and unskilful misprising of things to passe for a Rule amongst the better sort, for inhansing, or imparing of their prices.

8. For truth being in indivisibili, as is the essence of what ever is, who is most versed in the nature, and properties of a thing, is alwayes best able to dignosce of its value.

9. A Shooe-maker cannot judge so uprightly of an elabourate Picture, as a cunning Artist in the trade of Painting : nor an illiterate Soldier pry so profoundly in a Metaphysical Argument, as a Learned Philosopher brought up with quiddities.

10. A Ploughman, is better acquainted with tilling, then bils of Exchange : and a Merchant banker, with the rate of what in the Hundred, is to be taken from Amsterdam to Venice, then what Fair he should go to, for buying of the cheapest, and best cattel.

11. Seamen will prove as ridiculous, in making on foot their approaches to a Fort, as Land warriers, in the conding of a ship ; and it will become a Clown as ill, to complement with a Lady, as a Courtier to carry Burthens. Each trade, or vocation having its own genius, and no man being skill'd in all alike.

12. I have heard an Italian of good report say, that, with the money got from a Lapidarie, for a box of precious stones, he bought a signiorie of Land, which the owner, ignorant in such, would not have disponed for a Hundred times as many Jewels.

13. And have likewise known a Citizen in Paris, that would not have let out one single Chamber of his, though but for a moneth, for six times more Cochenile, then at the hands of others, well seen in the like Chaffer, afforded the money, for which he was glad to tell a Ninteen yeares Lease of his whole house together, consisting of ten Rooms as good, which is the proportion of thirteen thousand six hundred and eighty, to one.

14. Out of which instances, is to be collected, that seeing men of all professions trade for money, who usually are unexpert in the Commodities of one anothers vocation, if it occurre, that the Debtor and Creditors be of several Faculties, the Debtor must otherwayes then with the Chevisance of his Imployment, Labour for the Contentment of his Creditor of another calling ; and consequently money being the common measure of all merchandize, must needs sell to some other, for the payment of him.

15. The case in some measure is my own, considering the condition, wherein, for the present, I am made to stand with my Fathers Creditors, whose lack of insight in the Ware, I would make sale of, together with their earnest pressing me for money, enforce me, for the better obtaining of the last, to have recourse to those, that are more skilful in the first to dispone it to.

16. Yet if I were not netled by such a Sect of bawling, & obstreperous Seekers, in a time so unfertil of good shifts, & wherein I have already essayed at the uneffectualness of all other manner of means, this vendacity should never have appeared in me of a Commodity, which to appreciate at the rate of any coyn, I would have accounted a kind of Simonie, and a course which, had my Land been as cleer of Merchants, as my minde is of mercinariness I had not daigned to stoop to for a Kingdom.⁶

17. But for want of other expedients, making bold to pitch on this, I heartily supplicate the subsidiarie-courtesie of the State aforesaid, towards the emancipation, and infranchising of my mind, from the drudgery, and servile ploddings, wherewith it hath been captivated, how to perform duty to these Fæneratorie Masters.⁷

18. Who always sticking close about me, like a cluster of stinging Wasps, and thundring upon me charges, as unwelcome to any generous Spirit, as is the touch of an Ibis Penne to a Crocodile, have so fretted, galled, and pricked me to the very Soul, that all the Faculties thereof, have by them been this great while most pitilesly, and atrociously inslaved, and incarcerated in the comfortless dump, of searching for wherewith to close their yawning mouths, and stop their gaping.

19. For truly I may say, that above ten thousand severall times, I have by those Flagitators been interrupted for money, which never came to my use, directly or indirectly, one way, or other, at home, or abroad, any one time whereof, I was busied about Speculations, of greater consequence, then all that they were worth in the world ; from which, had not I been violently pluck'd away by their importunity, I would have emitted to publick view, above five hundred several Treatises on inventions, never hitherto thought upon by any.⁸

20. But as a certain Shepheard, on a time (according to the Epimythist) would have perswaded the Fox not to destroy his flock, till he had got their fleeces, the wool whereof was to be employed in Cloth, for the royal Robes of the Soveraign of the Land : unto whom the Fox replied, That his main interest being to fatten himself, and his cubbs, he did not find himself so much concerned in either Soveraign or Subject, that upon any such pretext (how specious soever) he would leave his terrier unmagazined of all manner of provision, competent for his vulpecularie family.⁹

21. Even so may I avouch, that the nature of the most part of this strange kind of Flagitators, being without any consideration, or regard to the condition of a Gentleman,¹⁰ or whether the improvement or impairing of his Fortunes, should further, or retard the progress of the Countries Fame, totally to employ themselves in a coin-accumulating way towards the multiplying of their trash, and heedful accrescing of the mammon drosse, wherein their Lucre-hailing minds, and consopiated Spirits lie intombed, and imburyed.

22. For again, as the old Hyena of Quinzie (as it is reported in some Outlandish stories) after he had seized upon the sublimest witted Gymnosophist of that Age, on purpose to feed upon him,¹¹ being a Hungred, did vilifie and misregard the tears and sorrow, justly shed, and conceived by the Inhabitants of that populous and magnificent City, for the apparent loss of such unparallelled wisdom, and exquisite Learning, as through the death of so prime a Philosopher, was like for ever to redound to the whole Empire of China: and altogether postposing them, to the satisfying of his base appetite, with one poor meal of meat, and that only in a sorry breakfast he was to take out of his bowels, killed him, tore him in peeces, and greedily snatched up that repast, the better to dispose his stomach, within three houres thereafter, for another of the like nature.

23. Just so, amongst many of my Fathers Creditors,¹² hath there bin a generation of such tenacious Publicans, that cared so little, what the Countrey in general might be concerned in any mans private interest (though much by some singular good friends of mine, hath been spoke to them in my own particular) that through their Cruelty, and extreme hard usage, I have beene often necessitated to supply out of my Brains, what was deficient in my Purse, and provide from a far, what should have been afforded at home, one half tearms Interest, although but of a Pettie, and trivial Summe, being in their eyes of more esteem, then the Quintessence of all the Liberal Arts, together with that of the Moral Vertues, epitomized in the person of any, though imbellished to the Boot, with all other accomplishments whatsoever, for dicategorically, in despight of all order, by marshalling quality after habere, they have still preferred the possession of a little Lumber, and baggagely Pelf, to all the Choicest perfections of both body and mind.

24. And indeed, to speak ingenuously, as the Sparrow, whom a late Archbishop of Canterbury weeped to see as often forced to fall back, as it strove to flye upwards, by reason of a little Peeble stone, fast at the end of a string, that was tyed to her foot : the contemplatively devout Prelate thereby considering, that the sincerest minds, even of the most faithfull, are oftentimes impedited from soaring to their intended height, because of the clog of worldly incumbrances, which depresseth them.

25. Even so it may be said of my self,¹³ that when I was most seriously imbusied about the raising of my own, and Countries reputation to the supremest reach of my endeavours, then did my Fathers Creditors, like so many milstones hanging at my heels, pull down the vigour of my Fancie, and violently hold at under, what other wayes would have ascended, above the sublimest regions of Vulgar conception.

26. Thus I being, as another Andromeda, chained to the Rock of hard usage, and in the view of all my Compatriots, exposed to the merciless Dragon, Usurie : I most humbly beseech the Soveraign Authority of the Countrey, like another Perseus, mounted on the winged Pegasus of Respect to the weal and honour thereof, to releeve me, by their power, from the eminent danger of the jaws of so wild a monster.¹⁴

27. Which maketh the very meanest, and most frivolous summe of any (like the Giant Ephialtes, who grew nine Inches every moneth) immensely to spread forth its exuberant members, without any other sustenance, or nourishment, then the meer invisible Flux of time, that starveth all things else, untill it extend it self at last to a mighty huge Colossus of Debt, able, like that of the Rhodes, to take fastning upon two territories at once.¹⁵

28. And in recompence of a so illustrious and magnificent action, unto the State of this Land, as fittest patron for such a present, will I tender some of the aforesaid moveables whose value I doe warrantably make account of to be of no less extent, then in the estimation of all the Universities of both Nations, & other pregnant Spirits of approved Literature, shall centuplate the worth of the whole money, that for debt can be asked by those Creditors, out of the profoundest exorbitancy of their Covetousness.

29. By my appealing thus to a Judicatorie, conflated of the prime lights of the Isle, and who (as all wise men else) do more magnifie, and extoll the endowments of the mind, then those of either body, or fortune : it is very perceptible, unto which of these three branches of good this offer of mine is to be reduced.

30. No man will deny, that it is not destitute of common sense, but that Scotus, and Sacrobosco, brought more reputation to Scotland by their learned writings, then if they had enriched it with Gallioons, loaded full of gold : and that it had been better for that Nation, to have lost many millions of Angels, then that through penurie, or any other accident, the workes of those Gallant men had been buried in Oblivion.

31. For as in both body and mind, the instruments of the nobler faculties are esteemed of the greater value : so in a politick incorporation, so much the more should be respected, and dignified the advancers of the reputation thereof, then the accrescers of its wealth, that of the three degrees of goodness, the qualifications of the mind have the precedency.

32. And although, there be Legions in Scotland of those Gadarenal Swine, that will prefer the taste of a Skyball¹⁶ to the fragrancy of the most odiferous Jasmin¹⁷ : who also, like so many dunghil fowles, to a grain of wheat, will postpose the most precious Pearl that is : and haling only after sensual things, reduplicatively as sensual, give no repast at all to the better part, which preposterously dancing attendance, after the inferiour appetites, hath its eyes in a veternatorie somnolency shut up from the prospect of all mental speculations.

33. Yet the essence of man consisting in reasonability, he may be said to have little of man in him, that regards not another the more, for having his reason imbellished with the addition of Literature.

34. Which hath been held in such grandissim account by the prudentest of Pristin ages, that making it come in competition with Souldiery it self, they did not stick to aver, that Greece (which of all Nations was most renowned, and most worthy to be renowned, both for wit and valour) did owe more cordial praise, and commendation to the Philosophers thereof, then to all its most military and warlike Champions ; preferring in this Case, knowledge in Sciences, to fortitude in the fields ; and the habits of the Intellectual faculties, to those of the moral.

35. But unfainedly, seeing to the soundest judgements of any, and most consentaneous to one another, in their Adherence to Apodictick conclusions, is oftentimes incident a repugnancy of Opinion in matter of Dialectical ratiocination : and that some of them, in a very similitudinary probability of prevalency on both sides of the Argument, doe ferret, out of Topick celluls, mediums prompting them to have in greater estimation magnanimity of Courage, then vivacity of Spirit.

36. I will in so far as concerns my self, for that I hope ere long to breath in such auspicious dayes, as will give way to my good destinie, to present me with those favorable opportunities may make my deservings appear equally recommendable in both, rather choose to suspend pronouncing of my verdict, then by any sentiment of mine, positively to determine of the preeminence of either.

37. However, to discend more particularly to the purpose, seeing it is every where uncontroversibly acknowledged, that the goods of the mind are of more worth, then those of fortune ; and by consequence, the pregnantly conceived, and maturely ennixed ofspring of my own brain (which least I should seem to philotize it, I in all humility submit to the unpartial censure of the choicest Spirits) of farre greater value, then any peece of money due to my Fathers Creditors.

38. I do ardently desire, and supplicat the State not to suffer the majesty, and sacred name of Soveraign authority, under colour of a Law, any more to be abused in favours of those men, who have made use thereof in several charges gainst me, formerly in the name of both the King Charles's, and now in that of the Keepers of the Liberties of England, to no other end but to rob me of my Predecessors Inheritance, without any procurement of mine.

39. Withall, I heartily intreat them to vouchsafe the Patronizing of the present, I am to make unto them, and in Testimony of their acceptance of it, exoner me of the Burthen of these Flagitators, by taking such a course, as to their discretions shall seem most expedient, which, if they consider aright, were it for the defrayment of greater sums, will be of small difficulty.¹⁸

40. And here I promise, by the Faith I owe to God, that this courtesie, so conferred, shall (if I live) as Seed sown in a fertil soyl, yeeld a hundred fold, to the promoving of the reputation of the Land.¹⁹

41. Which in an age, so full of Calumnies, and wherein the most zealous thoughts do not escape mis-interpretation, is not to be rejected, nor any thing in that kind, which may conduce to the undeceiving of Forrainers of any prejudicate opinion of late conceived by them against the integrity of our Countreymen.

42. Some will say, that, I demand much, and things unusuall to be granted : others again, that I promise far more, & am too prodigal in my own praises : But my self will avouch, that as my demand is reasonable, so would I have ere now performed what I promised, and not spoke so much as one syllable in my own Favours, but that by one and the same occasion, I was necessitated to doe the one, and forbear the other.

43. It is ordinary amongst Seamen, to say the Tempest so increas'd, that, for safety of my life, I was glad to throw my goods over-board : I have heard Soldiers likewise affirm, and have seen, that they have heartily abandoned their Purse to the prevailing Enemy, for obtaining the better quarter : yet to examine either of these actions aright, they were but mixt ones tending to the lesser evil ; voluntarie, secundum quid, but simpliciter, unwilling.

44. Just so is it, for shunning of the greater harm, to wit, the Inconveniency might ensue upon the vilifying of my brain-works, I choosed both to restrain their Emission, and commend what was to be promulgated : either of which, had it not been for the aforesaid necessities, would have been as unwelcome to me, as to the Merchant, was the casting out of his goods into the Sea ; or to the Soldier, the delivery up of his purse unto his Foe.

45. Enjoyment commonly abates Estimation, but longing doth increase it ; And as there are of those, who, for one night of a Lady, have bestowed double the means, would have sufficed for a Joyncture to the Mother of their lawful Children, although a better and more handsome woman to the boot : so are vulgar Spirits (for the most part) highly mistaken in their sense of the true value of things of any importance.

46. Judas valued at three hundred pence the Box of Ointment, which Mary poured on the feet of Christ, whom himself sold for thirty.

47. I have seen of them, that accounted no more of Ambergrece, then of Fullers Earth, though in some parts, a handfull of the one, will be worth a Thousand cartloads of the other.

48. I have likewise heard of a hundred crowns, given for a Fresh Salmon, where the Scots Pint of wine did cost but three half-pence : and of a Salmon every whit as good, got for six pence, where so much wine of no better kind would have stood you in half a Crown, which is the proportion of twenty thousand to one. For who at Toledo with the hundred crowns got for a Salmon, supposed fresh, which at Aberdeen he bought for a sixpence, did purchase twenty fresh Salmons, which at his return to Toledo, yeelded him two thousand Crowns, hath in the same manner, for one six pence obtained twenty thousand, which is a hundred to one, two hundred times told.

49. Of these examples there are many, which to summe up in one of a more disproportioned mistake, then any of the rest, I will tell you, that there happening a Gentleman of very good worth, to stay awhile at my house, who one day, amongst many other, was pleased, in the deadst time of all the Winter, with a Gun upon his shoulder to search for a shot of some Wild-fowl : & after he had waded through many waters, taken excessive pains in quest of his game, & by means thereof, had killed some five or six Moor-Fowls, and Partridges which he brought alone with him to my house, he was by some other Gentlemen, who chanced to alight at my gate (as he entred in) very much commended for his love to sport ; And (as the fashion of most of our Countrymen is, not to praise one, without dispraising another) I was highly blamed for not giving my self in that kind to the same exercise, having before my eyes so commendable a Pattern to imitate ; I answered, though the Gentleman deserved Praise, for the evident proof he had given that day of his inclination to thrift and laboriousness, that nevertheless I was not to blame, seeing whilst he was busied about that Sport, I was imployed in a diversion of another nature, such as optical secrets, mysteries of natural Philosophie, reasons for the variety of Colours, the finding out of the Longitude, the squaring of the circle and wayes to accomplish all Trigonometrical calculations by signes, without tangents, with the same compendiousness of computation, which, in the estimation of learned men, would be accounted worth six hundred thousand Partridges, and as many Moor-Fowles.

50. But, notwithstanding this relation, either for that the Gentlemen understood it not, or that they deemed the exercise of the Body to be of greater concernment, then that of the minde, they continued firme in their former opinion, whereof I laboured not to convince them ; because I intended according to their Capacities to bear them Company.

51. In the mean time while that worthy Gentleman who was nothing of their mind, for being wet, and weary after travel, was not able to eat of what he had so much toyled for whilst my braine recreations so sharpened my appetite, that I supped to very good purpose. That night past, the next morning I gave 6 pence to a footman of mine, to try his fortune with the Gun, during the time I should disport my self, in the breaking of a young horse : and it so fell out, that by I had given my selfe a good heat by riding, the Boy returned with a dozen of wild fouls, half Moor-foule, half Partridge, whereat being exceeding well pleased, I alighted, gave him my horse to care for, & forthwith entred in to see my Gentlemen, the most especially whereof was unable to rise out of his bed, by reason of the Gout and Siatick, wherewith he was seized for his former dayes toyle.

52. Thus seeing matters of the greatest worth, may be undervalued by such as are destitute of understanding : who would reap any benefit by what is good, til it appreciated should be charie of its prestitution ; let this therefore suffice, why to this preface, or Introduction, I have not as yet subjoyned the Grammar, and Lexicon.²⁰

53. But why it is I should so extoll the worth thereof, without the jeopardy of vaine Glory, the reason is clear,²¹ and evident, being necessitated (as I have told in the fifth and twenty eight articles of the same Book) to merchandise it for the redintegrating of an Ancient family, it needeth not be thought strange, that in some measure I descend to the Fashion of the shop-keepers, who to scrue up the buyer to the higher price, will tell them no better can be had for mony, tis the choicest ware in England, and if any can match it, he shall have it for nought.

54. So in matter of this Literatorie chaffer, I determined not to be too rash in the prostitution thereof, least it should be villified : yet went on in my Laudatives, to procure the greater Longing, that an ardent desire might stir up an emacity, to the furtherance of my proposed end.

55. Thus the first step of this Scale, being to avoid the dispreciative censure of Plebeculary Criticks, who (as Children preferr an apple to an Inheritance, or, Esau like, postposing their birth-right to a dish of pottage) have no regard of intellectual perfections, where they come in Competition with any sensual goodnesse²² ; or if they doe consider of them, in so far as concerneth new inventions, they slightingly use to vent themselves thus, the matter is not great, another could have done it, what serveth it for edification, Philosophy is dangerous, the Apostle himself avoucheth it, and other such Quisquiliary diblaterations, to the opprobrie of good spirits, and cloak of their own ignorance, they cast in the face of Learning, that thee is more humanity in the voice of a bull, or that of the wildest bear that ever was, then in the speech of those monsters.

56. The second step thereof, is my elogiarie interthets, in extolling the proposed matter (without any philotary presumption) whereof in the most authentick writings there want not store of presidents.

57. Moses, in a book commonly said to be of his own writing, intituled himself, the meekest man upon the face of the earth, and Paul, in the 11 of the 2 to the Corinthians, which was an Epistle of his own, ascribed to himself the stile of one of the chiefest of the Apostles, magnifying likewise his own Learning therein, and other qualifications, wherewith he was endowed.

58. Nor was David, for all his heinous transgressions, free from this manner of exalting himselfe ; for in severall of his Psalmes, he wished to be judged according to his righteousnesse, all which, though proceeding from the pen of man, had the Spirit of God for the Dictatour.

59. Truths related to a good end, carry not along with them any Blemish of ostentation, and the intention being that which specified the Action, such self commendatives are not to be dispraised ; seeing they bring us to the third step of the Scale, which is serious to long after Learning.

60. Men of the greatest renown among the Ancients have been so taken with the love thereof, that some divested themselves of large Patrimonies, and vast possessions, the better to attend their Studies. Such was Anaxagoras: others pulled out their own eyes, that they might be subject to the lesse distraction from Philosophicall Speculations, as did Democritus: others again, like Carneades, with metaphysical raptures were so taken up, that when set downe to table to eat, they forgot to put their hands to their mouthes.

61. Nor was this at starts, but so indefatigably studious were the most of those prime men, in times of old, that Simonides writ his poesies, Chrysippus his Logick, and Isocrates his Panathenaicon, when each of them was full fourscore yeares of age : it being likewise reported by Cicero, that Sophocles, in his hundreth yeare, write the Tragedie of Oedipus.

62. From this earnest desire of Literature, wee ascend another step, which is to hold him in great estimation, that is well qualified therewith, and not permit the offspring of his brain to perish, through the defect of worldly goods wherewith to support it.²³

63. Of that most noble kind of Favorers of Learning, was Alexander the great who allowed several thousands of men to attend upon Aristotle, in the writing of his Natural history, for which, when done, he gave him in a donative, two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterlin. Largius Licinius to Plinie the younger, would have given four hundred thousand Crowns for his Annals : and Marcus Popilius Andronicus for a little treatise of that sort, got sixteen thousand Ducates.

64. Isocrates for one oration which he pend, had given unto him six thousand two hundred and forty pounds sterlin : and Antonius the Son of Severus, to Oppianus the Poet, gave a crowne for every verse of a great poesie, which he had written of the Nature of Fishes.

65. Potolomæ, on Cleombrotus the Phisitian, bestowed a hundred talents : and at how dear a rate Aristotle bought the Books of Speusippus; and Plato those of Philolaus the Pythagorian, is clearly set down in Aulus Gellius, and Valorius Maximus.

66. Notwithstanding what hath been said, I would not have it be thought, that these Largesses were so much competent prices for the Learning approved of, as manifest testimonies of the givers unfeigned affection to the learned man.

67. For, as there is no known proportion betwixt a crooked line, and a streight ; and that the angle of contingence, is lesse then the least acute angle that is : so cannot all the transitory goods in the world, be paralleled with those of the mind, if either we beleeve Ovid, whilst he saith, Nil non mortale tenemus, pectoris exceptis, ingeniique bonis: or the Dutch Poet Buschius, in this his Epigram,

Jngenium, virtus, sapientia, cedere fato,
Non norunt tristi, nec didicere mori :
Nec colæ (si cordis quod habes) sunt cætera mortis,
Divitiæ, robur, gloria, fama, genus.

Or yet Julius Scaliger, who in his sixt book de re poëtica, (intituled, Hypercriticus ) professeth, That he had rather have been the Author of Pindar's Pythonick, and Nemeonick lines, then King of Aragon, although he accounted them far short in value, to the third Ode of Horace's fourth book, or ninth of his third, which nevertheless he esteemed to be by many stages inferiour to Virgil's verses, at so high a rate he valued the minds endowments.

68. Seeing thus it is then,²⁴ that, being put into one ballance, the scale of learning depresseth the other, I would not expose any such talent of mine for external means, were it possible for any else to buy, with all the moneys in the world, that which I would preserve therewith, to with, that antiquitie of race, by a continuat discent from many Predecessors, in one and the same Land, which would be altogether buryed in oblivion, by dispossessing me of my ancient inheritance.

69. Yet were I free from the slavery of Flagitators,²⁵ though most of the Island should disapplaud my writings, I would nevertheless emit them,, without hope of any further recompence ; for a deed of vertue, whose reward is in the action it self, makes the very doing thereof to passe for a competent remuneration.

70. But the exigence of my estate, and fortune, requiring another course to be taken, I will on this fourth step of the scale, as on its landing place, expatiat my self upon the equity of my demand, and assurance of the performance of what I promise, for the better doing whereof, I make account to speak somewhat of our family, other some of the rigour of the Flagitator, a little of what the Law in Justice may provide for either of us : and lastly, to mount the highest degree of all, by closing with a perswasion to have my Ancestors inheritance made free to me, and mine.

Scotorum e templis nunc exulat omnis imago,
      Sculpta nec in saxo sed nec in ære manet.
Causa patet nimirum, est unum venerabile numen,
      Nec colimus, quanquam novimus esse deum.
Aurea nam postquam Scotis affulsit imago
      Nomina solæ colunt quæ gravis arca tenet.

2. Interea pleno cum turget saculus, ore. Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit.

4. Suos hospites male remunerat avarus serpens est in sinu ignis in gremio, mus in pera.

5. Quis studet nummis hic præsert infima summis : condita fastori proeponit & ejus amori.

6. Vide Art. 69. Hic bona pars hominum decepta cupidine falsa. Nil satis est inquit.

7. Ergo sollicitæ tu causa pecunia vitæ es. Tu vitiis hominum crudelia pabula praebes; semina curarum de capite orta tuo.. Fænus est onus etiam divitibus intollerabile, says Plutarch. Magno malo est hominibus avaritia inderico quod homines magnis & multis incommodis conflictantur propter immensam pecuniæ cupiditatem.

8. Vid. lib. 5. Ar. 43. Avarus omnia devorans vellet nullum hominem esse, ut omnia solus possideret.

10. Nullum est justiticiae in cordibus illorum vetigium in quibus avaritia sibi fecit habitaculum.

11. Omnium scelorum gravissima avaritia cum omnia humana & divina jura cultumque vel ipsius dei pessundare consuevit cum nihil sit tam sanctum quod avaritia viciare non soleat.

12. Quid non mortalia pectora cogas, auri scra fames. Qui maluat locupletari crumenas quam Camoenas consulere. Ab ipsis etiam statuis exigerent (ut aiunt) farinas.

15. Vid. B. 3. Art. 8. Inflammatur luceo avaritia & non extinguitur quasi gradus quosdam cupiditaris habet et quo plures ascenderit eo ad altiora festinat unde sit [etc.]

16. Skyball: or skybal, Scots dialect; "A low, rascally, or contemptible fellow; a lean or worn-out person or animal; a worthless article, etc." (Oxford English Dictionary).

17. Cum avaritia alicui dominatus sujectus malis omnibus demonstratum quia de avaritia omnia mala oriuntur & peccatorum omnium spinae productuntur.

18. O Avare sordidius nihil est nihil est te spurcius uno qui potes insidas dona vocata.

19. Sic avidus fallax indulget piscibus hamus Callida sic stultas decipit esca feras.

23. The reader may be pleased to have recourse to the Axioms mentioned in a Book of mine entituled The vindication of the reputation of Scotland.