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 Cornell University Library 
 PR 3461.F8A6 1892 
 
 Wise words and quaint counsels of Thomas 
 
 3 1924 013 182 997 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013182997 
 
WISE WORDS 
 AND QUAINT COUNSELS 
 
 Of 
 
 THOMAS FULLER 
 
 JESSOPP 
 
 e 
 
Bonbon 
 
 HENRY FROWDE 
 
 OxFOHD Ukiveesity Press Warehouse 
 
 Amen Corner, E.C. 
 
 QJw ?)orft 
 
 112 Fourth Avenue 
 
Wise Words 
 and Quaint Counsels 
 
 Thomas Fuller 
 
 SELECTED AND ARRANGED 
 WITH A SHORT SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE 
 
 AUGUSTUS JESSOPP, D.D. 
 
 RECTOR OF SCARNING, NORFOLK 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 1892 
 
. 1 ■, 1' i, ()()'■- A .T 0G> to 
 
 Y yViM./VIU' 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 BY HORACE HART, FRtNTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE writings of Thomas Fuller had become almost 
 forgotten when, at the beginning of the present 
 century, Coleridge and Charles Lamb set themselves to 
 claim for them a foremost place in English literature. 
 Since then Fuller has been ' a name to swear by ' among 
 all cultured classes ; but the very large surface over which 
 Fuller's works extend makes it impossible for any but 
 the favoured few to possess them or to acquire anything 
 like a familiar acquaintance with them as a whole. The 
 present volume is intended therefore as a convenient 
 treasure-house for such as may wish to form some 
 estimate of Fuller's genius and who have not the time 
 to give to a general survey of his voluminous and very 
 unequal writings. Though the Church History and the 
 JVorthies must live as long as the English language lives, 
 only oblivion can be expected for much else that Fuller 
 published in his lifetime. There are books that must die 
 and be forgotten though they be written by the great- 
 est and most gifted. The attempt to resuscitate these 
 and to win for them a perennial acceptance can only 
 
 end 
 
vi (preface 
 
 end in disappointment for such as would fain put too 
 high a value upon the obiter dicta or the obiter scripta of 
 every giant of literature. Meanwhile it is well to rescue 
 here and there a precious thought from the wrapping 
 of commonplace in which it has been hidden, just as 
 men gather grains of gold when the earth or the mire 
 has been washed away from them. 
 
 A. J. 
 
 SCARNING : 
 
 24 May, 1892. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS FULLER 
 
 THOMAS FULLER was the son of a clergyman of the 
 same name, by Judith, widow of James Payne and 
 daughter of John Davenant, a citizen of London and a man 
 of considerable wealth, of which doubtless his daughter 
 received her share. Fuller's father was a Fellow of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, and, on leaving the University, was 
 presented to the Rectory of Aldwinkle St. Peter, in 
 Northamptonshire, the next parish to Achurch. Of 
 Achurch the notorious Robert Browne, the separatist, was 
 rector during the last forty years of his life, and with him 
 and his family Fuller was brought into intirdate relations 
 in boyhood and early manhood. 
 
 The fact of Fuller's father having been a Fellow of Trinity 
 is a sufficient proof that he was a man of more than ordinary 
 ability. From his mother, too, he must have inherited a 
 great deal of his intellectual power, and he very early 
 attracted the special notice of his uncle John Davenant, who 
 became Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in Cambridge 
 the year after Fuller was born, and in 1614 was appointed 
 Master of Queens' College, then, as now, a position of more 
 honour than emolument. 
 
 Fuller was baptized at Aldwinkle on the 19th June, 1608, 
 that is, he was born just six months before Milton. He had 
 
 few 
 
viii ZU BifC of 
 
 few of those advantages of early training which so power- 
 fully influence a man's career in life. He was never at any 
 school except the village school of Aldwinkle. What little 
 scholarly teaching he received was at the hands of his father, 
 and it was probably at the suggestion of his uncle that he 
 was sent up to Queens' College, Cambridge, when he had 
 just completed his thirteenth year (29 June 162 1), and 
 placed under the tuition of a cousin, Edward Davenant, for 
 whom his uncle the Master had procured a Fellowship in the 
 College some time before. Under Edward Davenant the 
 boy soon did much to retrieve what little loss he may have 
 suffered in his early teaching, and he took his M.A. degree 
 on the ist July, 1628, with some credit and not without 
 being noticed as the youngest Master of Arts in the 
 University. But he was evidently not up to the higher 
 standard required for election to a Fellowship. His uncle, 
 now Bishop Davenant, did his best for him, and wrote strong 
 letters in his favour. After being twice passed over at 
 Queens' he migrated to Sidney Sussex College and entered 
 as a Fellow Commoner. But here again he was disappointed, 
 and he never became Fellow of his College, though he lived, 
 like Milton and Brian Walton and Bishop Hall and Henry 
 Wharton and many another intellectual giant, to win for 
 himself a high place in his country's literature, from which 
 his more successful competitors for academical honours 
 have been for ever shut out. 
 
 There is some reason for believingthat Fuller was ordained 
 by his uncle Bishop Davenant before the canonical age. 
 Be that as it may, he was certainly presented in 1630 to 
 the perpetual curacy of St. Benet's, Cambridge, by the 
 Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College ; and here he 
 
 began 
 
began his life as a working clergyman and soon obtained 
 some reputation as a preacher. If his own words admit of 
 such an interpretation — ' I must thankfully confess myself 
 once a member at large of this house ' — Fuller with this little 
 piece of preferment obtained the advantage of free access 
 to the incomparable Library of Antiquarian MSS. which 
 Archbishop Parker had bequeathed to the College; and 
 there is abundant evidence that during the next seven 
 or eight years which he spent in Cambridge he made 
 diligent use of his opportunities of study. 
 
 Like many a man of genius, Fuller made his first venture 
 as an author by publishing in verse. The book was 
 entitled 'David's Hainous Sinne, heartie repentance, 
 heavie punishment.' It is wretched doggerel, and gave no 
 promise of any literary power on the part of its author. It 
 was printed in London by T. Cotes, who printed an edition 
 of Shakespeare's Pericles, and some of the Early Poems of 
 Francis Quarles, James Shirley, and Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 together with many more books, some of which have lived 
 and some are forgotten. 
 
 If Fuller offered the little volume to the Cambridge 
 printers they would have nothing to do with it. 
 
 In June 1631 Fuller, being then just twenty-three years 
 old, was presented by his uncle to the prebend of Netherbury 
 in ecclesia in the Cathedral Church of Salisbury. It was a 
 valuable piece of preferment, though robbed of its revenues 
 during the Commonwealth days ; and he held it till his death. 
 He appears to have held St. Benet's till July 1633, and next 
 year he became rector of Broadwindsor, in Dorsetshire. This 
 living too was given to him by Bishop Davenant. Fuller 
 spent the next seven years at his benefice, diligently pursuing 
 
 his 
 
Z^i Bift of 
 
 his studies and apparently refreshing himself by occasional 
 visits to Cambridge. In June 1635 he went through the 
 usual exercises and proceeded to the B.D. degree, attended 
 by some of his parishioners. He married, about the year 
 
 1638, a lady whose family name is unknown, but whose 
 Christian name was Ellen. It is a mere guess which has con- 
 jectured her to have been one of the Seymours of Dorset. 
 
 In 1639 Fuller brought out his first important work, Tke 
 History of the Holy War. It is a history of the Crusades, 
 in five books, the last of which he calls the supplement as 
 containing less of history than comment. It was published 
 in folio with several illustrations, a curious map, and some 
 valuable and elaborate chronological tables at the end, and 
 was printed by Roger Daniel, the Cambridge printer, in 
 
 1639. A second edition was issued the next year, and it 
 continued to be a very popular book till the great wave of 
 the Rebellion passed over the land. After Fuller's death it ■ 
 shared the fate of much of the literature of the time. With 
 the Restoration a new and vicious taste came in which could 
 not relish the strong meat that the great men of a previous 
 generation were wont to assimilate. 
 
 The reception which the Holy War met with, and the 
 reputation which it immediately made for its author, prob- 
 ably led to Fuller's being chosen Proctor to Convocation, 
 next year, for the diocese of Bristol. In this Convocation 
 too sat Peter Heylin, the Oxford High Churchman, as 
 Fuller was the Cambridge Puritan. The two divines were 
 sure to disagree and be opposed to one another. They 
 were both men of capacious memory, witty, learned and 
 omnivorous readers; but Heylin was essentially an aca- 
 demic, with the critical faculty stimulated to the point of 
 
 censoriousness, 
 
censoriousness, and that sort of obstinate aggressiveness 
 which gave an air of personal bitterness to his controversial 
 writings. , Fuller was rather a man of letters than a mere 
 scholar, with such a genial and joyous temperament, that 
 there was an air of gaiety about his very seriousness. He had 
 no rancour in his composition; and when, years later, Heylin 
 attacked him waspishly, like the good hater that he was, 
 Fuller showed his magnanimity by going to his antagonist 
 in his retirement and blindness at Abingdon, and almost 
 compelling Heylin to become his friend. Both these men 
 wrote their reminiscences of this memorable Convocation, 
 each from his own point of view. It was inevitable that there 
 should be divergences in the two Reports, and he who would 
 understand the Church feelings of the time, and the force of 
 the two currents of opinion that were running, must read 
 both Reports and harmonise or reconcile them as he can. 
 
 Fuller's election as Proctor to Convocation brought him 
 up to London, and introduced him to a new circle of 
 acquaintance. He was only thirty-two years of age, and he 
 had all those personal gifts and intellectual accomplishments 
 which are sure to make a young man admired and sought 
 after. Of course he became a popular preacher, and he 
 thought it worth while to publish a volume of sermon notes 
 — they are no more — under the title oiJosepK s Party-coloured 
 Coat, which was printed in London in 1640, but seems to 
 have been received somewhat coldly. 
 
 The book has lately been reprinted and included among 
 Fuller's Collected Sermons, which were very ably edited 
 by the late Mr. J. Eglinton Bailey and completed by Mr. 
 W. E. A. Axon in 1891 ; but it is impossible to speak of it in 
 heroics. It is Fuller's, and therefore, of course, it contains 
 
 some 
 
xu 
 
 Zh ^ife of 
 
 some good sayings — some shrewd wit, some sparkling sen- 
 tences — but it leaves an unpleasant impression upon the 
 reader. The preacher is wonderfully clever and makes 
 an astonishing number oi points, but the notes are pulpit 
 fireworks ; though one hopes that while delivering them the 
 real earnestness of the man may have come out in the living 
 warmth which he may have breathed into these somewhat 
 lifeless skeletons. One of Fuller's most successful exploits in 
 the trick of alliteration is to be found in this book. Speaking 
 of the effects of Holy Baptism he says '. . . though the 
 bane be removed the blot doth /-«main, the guilt is remitted, 
 the blem\%\i retained ; the sting is gone the stam. doth stcrj ; 
 which if not consented to, cannot ^amn this infant, though 
 it may ifefile.' 
 
 Other instances of whimsical affectations are the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 ' Woful was the estate of the world when one could not 
 see God for gods.' 
 
 'They are justly to be reproved which lately have 
 changed all hearty expressions of love into verbal compli- 
 ments — which etymology is not to be deduced a completione 
 mentis but a complete mentirii}) ' 
 
 ' The number seven is most remarkable in holy writ and 
 passeth for the emblem of perfectness or completeness ; as 
 well it may, consisting of a Unity in the middle, guarded 
 and attended by a Trinity on either side.' 
 
 The Long Parliament met in November 1640, and in 
 the following April the clergy who had been members of 
 the Convocation were heavily fined. Fuller's fine was set 
 at ;^2oo, but it was never exacted. About the same time 
 his uncle Bishop Davenant died, and a little later a son 
 
 was 
 
^^otttae jfttffer xiii 
 
 was born to him, who was baptized at Broadwindsor on 
 the 6th June. This same summer he had the unhappiness 
 of losing his wife. Then came the ' suppression ' of Epi- 
 scopacy and of the cathedral chapters, with the confiscation 
 of the incomes of the bishops and clergy concerned ; and 
 Fuller, finding himself in straitened circumstances, removed 
 to London, leaving his people at Broadwindsor in the 
 charge of a representative who managed to hold the benefice 
 till the Restoration, while he himself was soon elected by 
 the Master and Brotherhood of the Savoy Chapel to be 
 their Lecturer or Chaplain. 
 
 From this time (1642) till his death, Fuller must have 
 depended largely upon his pen for his subsistence. It has 
 been said that he was the first clergyman who earned a 
 living by literature. This is certainly not the case. Bishop 
 Hall's writings sold much more largely than Fuller's ; and 
 after having been plundered in the most outrageous way. 
 Hall kept up a certain state in his retirement at Norwich, 
 and dispensed his charities with a very open hand, though 
 he had a large family to support. Bishop Hall had a far 
 larger public who read his books than Fuller could ever 
 have commanded, and the sale of those books was rapid 
 and continuous. 
 
 Fuller held his Preachership at the Savoy for about a 
 year, during which he was frequently called upon to preach 
 on memorable occasions. He was very outspoken in the 
 pulpit, and made no secret of his loyalty to the King. The 
 last of these sermons, and the most important, entitled 
 A Sermon of Reformation, was preached at the Savoy on 
 the 27th July, 1643, and pubhshed on the 2nd August. It 
 was probably suggested by Milton's Treatise on the same 
 
 subject, 
 
xii Z^t Bift of 
 
 some good sayings — some shrewd wit, some sparkling sen- 
 tences — but it leaves an unpleasant impression upon the 
 reader. The preacher is wonderfully clever and makes 
 an astonishing number oi points, but the notes are pulpit 
 iireworks ; though one hopes that while dehvering them the 
 real earnestness of the man may have come out in the living 
 warmth which he may have breathed into these somewhat 
 lifeless skeletons. One of Fuller's most successful exploits in 
 the trick of alliteration is to be found in this book. Speaking 
 of the effects of Holy Baptism he says ' . . . though the 
 bane be i^«moved the blot doth rexa2!m., the guilt is /remitted, 
 the blemi^ retained ; the sting is gone the stava. doth sta^ ; 
 which if not consented to, cannot davan this infant, though 
 it may dei^e,.' 
 
 Other instances of whimsical affectations are the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 ' Woful was the estate of the world when one could not 
 see God for gods.' 
 
 ' They are justly to be reproved which lately have 
 changed all hearty expressions of love into verbal compli- 
 ments — which etymology is not to be deduced a completione 
 mentis but a complete mentiriij) ' 
 
 ' The number seven is most remarkable in holy writ and 
 passeth for the emblem of perfectness or completeness ; as 
 well it may, consisting of a Unity in the middle, guarded 
 and attended by a Trinity on either side.' 
 
 The Long Parliament met in November 1640, and in 
 the following April the clergy who had been members of 
 the Convocation were heavily fined. Fuller's fine was set 
 at ;^2oo, but it was never exacted. About the same time 
 his uncle Bishop Davenant died, and a little later a son 
 
 was 
 
^^oma0 jfttffer xiii 
 
 was born to him, who was baptized at Broadwindsor on 
 the 6th June. This same summer he had the unhappiness 
 of losing his wife. Then came the ' suppression ' of Epi- 
 scopacy and of the cathedral chapters, with the confiscation 
 of the incomes of the bishops and clergy concerned ; and 
 Fuller, finding himself in straitened circumstances, removed 
 to London, leaving his people at Broadwindsor in the 
 charge of a representative who managed to hold the benefice 
 till the Restoration, while he himself was soon elected by 
 the Master and Brotherhood of the Savoy Chapel to be 
 their Lecturer or Chaplain. 
 
 From this time (1642) till his death, Fuller must have 
 depended largely upon his pen for his subsistence. It has 
 been said that he was the first clergyman who earned a 
 living by literature. This is certainly not the case. Bishop 
 Hall's writings sold much more largely than Fuller's ; and 
 after having been plundered in the most outrageous way, 
 Hall kept up a certain state in his retirement at Norwich, 
 and dispensed his charities with a very open hand, though 
 he had a large family to support. Bishop Hall had a far 
 larger public who read his books than Fuller could ever 
 have commanded, and the sale of those books was rapid 
 and continuous. 
 
 Fuller held his Preachership at the Savoy for about a 
 year, during which he was frequently called upon to preach 
 on memorable occasions. He was very outspoken in the 
 pulpit, and made no secret of his loyalty to the King. The 
 last of these sermons, and the most important, entitled 
 A Sermon of Reformation, was preached at the Savoy on 
 the 27th July, 1643, and published on the 2nd August. It 
 was probably suggested by Milton's Treatise on the same 
 
 subject, 
 
XIV 
 
 ZU ^if^ of 
 
 subject, which had appeared two years before. The sermon 
 is, like all Fuller's pulpit efforts, entirely deficient in anything 
 approaching eloquence of a lofty character ; but it provoked 
 an attack from a certain John Saltmarsh, a Cambridge man 
 and Minister of Hestlerton in Yorkshire. Saltmarsh 's 
 pamphlet reached Fuller's hands in September ; but before 
 that time he had been driven out of London by the Parlia- 
 mentarians, and had, with many others, betaken himself to 
 Oxford. Before this, however. Fuller had published what 
 is perhaps his most beautiful and characteristic work. The 
 Holy and the Profane State. It is divided into five books. 
 The first two are concerned with the Holy State as it 
 exhibits itself (i) in the family, (2) the business of life; 
 the third book lays down certain general rules of conduct 
 'placed in the middle,' he says, 'that the books on both 
 sides may reach equally to them because all persons therein 
 are indifferently concerned'; while the fourth is an attempt 
 to set forth the duties of those who, as courtiers, judges, 
 bishops, ambassadors, &c., are called upon to occupy pro- 
 minent positions in the Commonwealth. The last book, on 
 the Profane State, is very inferior to the other four, and 
 consists of a very miscellaneous collection of unpleasant 
 biographies and scarcely less disagreeable introductory essays, 
 which bear every sign of having been hurried over to bring 
 the book up to the necessary number of pages. The volume 
 was printed at Cambridge in 1642. From no work of 
 Fuller's have so many brilliant passages been extracted 
 which it has been thought advisable to insert in the follow- 
 ing pages. 
 
 While Fuller was at Oxford he lodged at Lincoln College, 
 but his reception among the Royalists was not as cordial as 
 
 he 
 
^^oma0 frxUn 
 
 XV 
 
 he might reasonably have expected ; he felt the expense of 
 living in the town very burdensome ; he was looked upon 
 by the extremists as a lukewarm supporter of the cause, 
 and he gave much offence by a sermon which he preached 
 before the King at St. Mary's on the loth May, 1644, 
 being the day of the Public Fast. Before the delivery 
 of this sermon, however, he had thrown in his lot with Sir 
 Ralph Hopton, and appears to have attended that ablest of 
 all the Royalist commanders in the capacity of Chaplain for 
 at least some months. 
 
 In the autumn of this year we find him at Exeter, where 
 the Queen was delivered of her fourth child, the Princess 
 Henrietta, and Fuller was appointed Chaplain to the new- 
 born infant by Charles I. At Exeter he continued to reside 
 for the next two or three years, working hard at the com- 
 position of his Worthies, and in the meantime publishing his 
 Good Thoughts in Bad Times, which were first printed at 
 Exeter ; though the book was also issued in London and a 
 third edition was called for the very next year. A little later 
 he put forth his Life of Andronicus, which in its original, and 
 much shorter, form had appeared as the closing piece of bio- 
 graphy in the Profane State. It is the only work of Fuller's 
 that deserves to be called a very dull and purposeless perform- 
 ance. Yet for some reason or other it was a very successful 
 book; no less than four editions were called for in three 
 years, and it was actually translated into Dutch in 1659. 
 
 Before the year 1645 had closed, it was becoming 
 apparent to all men of any foresight that the Royal cause was 
 hopeless, and the Parliamentarians began to receive the 
 adhesion of one after another of the nobility and gentry. 
 Such men were Edward, second Lord Montagu of Boughton, 
 
 Sir 
 
xvi Z^c BiU of 
 
 Sir John Danvers of Chelsea, James Hay second Earl of 
 Carlisle, and Lionel Cranfield third Earl of Middlesex. Fuller 
 managed to ingratiate himself with all these, and received 
 substantial assistance from them all during the remainder 
 of his life. Early in 1646 Lord Montagu offered him 
 a home in his magnificent mansion at Boughton, and it was 
 here that he wrote his tract TAe Cause and Cure of a Wounded 
 Conscience, which he dedicated to the Countess of Rutland, 
 Lord Montagu's sister. It is a somewhat dreary production 
 in the form of a dialogue between Timotheus an enquirer 
 and Philologus his friend and adviser. One paragraph only 
 — but that a very beautiful one — from this work will be found 
 in this volume, at p. 178. Shortly afterwards appeared Good 
 Thoughts in Worse Times, which may be accepted as a 
 continuation of the Good Thoughts in Bad Times printed 
 at Exeter in 1645. The book is divided into four parts — 
 'Personal Meditations,' 'Scriptural Observations,' 'Medita- 
 tions on the Times,' and ' All kind of Prayers ' — and is rich 
 in striking passages which indicate that he had felt the 
 bitterness and pathos of those tumults and tragic events in 
 which he had been compelled to take a part during the 
 course of the last five years. Of all Fuller's books this 
 had the widest circulation, and appears to have been used 
 as a kind of Devotional Manual by all classes even to the 
 close of the seventeenth century. 
 
 While he was under the protection of Lord Montagu, 
 Fuller paid frequent visits to London, making friends among 
 the London merchants, with whom he seems to have been 
 a great favourite. For a little while he was Lecturer in 
 Lombard Street, then at St. Clement's, Eastcheap, at 
 St. Dunstan's in the East, and elsewhere: but it was unsatis- 
 factory 
 
Z^mae fuiht 
 
 XVII 
 
 factory work, not unattended with a certain amount of 
 risk; for Fuller had been for a short time one of the 
 * Silenced ministers.' Several of Fuller's sermons of this 
 period were printed ; they are all very scarce, especially the 
 Sermon of Contentment, which was preached in Sir John 
 Danvers' chapel at Chelsea, as was the sermon entitled The 
 Just Man's Funeral, delivered on the occasion of the King's 
 death in January 1649. About this time Lord Carlisle 
 presented him with the perpetual curacy of Waltham Abbey, 
 a benefice, if it deserved to be called by such a name, 
 which Bishop Hall had accepted some forty years before, 
 and had held till he was promoted to the Deanery of 
 Worcester in 16 16. Here Fuller was within an easy 
 distance of London ; here he had the run of Sion College 
 Library ; and besides this he had large command of books 
 which were freely placed at his disposal by Lord Middlesex 
 and other friends. At no time of his life was his literary 
 activity more remarkable. In 1650 he published his Pisgah 
 Sight of Palestine, in folio. The work is a descriptive 
 geography of Palestine, illustrated by no less than twenty- 
 eight double-paged maps, and at the time of its publication 
 was at once accepted as by far the most complete and 
 serviceable account of the Holy Land which had ever 
 appeared. The heavy cost of engraving so many maps and 
 illustrations was borne for the most part by the author's 
 wealthy friends, but even so the volume was an expensive 
 one. Nevertheless three editions were issued during Fuller's 
 lifetime, and to this day it may be consulted with profit by 
 the student, not to speak of the pleasure which its extra- 
 ordinary wit and literary brilliancy will aiford to the general 
 reader. The highest testimonial to the excellence and 
 
 b thoroughness 
 
xviii ZU Bifi: of 
 
 thoroughness of the Pisgah Sight, as an exhaustive descrip- 
 tion of the Holy Land and as a comprehensive survey of 
 its historical geography, was borne by the great master of 
 rabbinical learning, Dr. Lightfoot. He had himself been 
 engaged for some years upon a work of the same character, 
 and had made extensive collections for it ; but, on the 
 appearance of Fuller's book, he abandoned his own project, 
 convinced -that there was no need of going over the ground 
 which had been so well covered by the other. 
 
 The Pisgah Sight had been published only a few months 
 when Fuller brought out a new and very different volume, 
 entitled Abel Redivivus. This is a very miscellaneous 
 collection of biographies, numbering ii8 in all, containing 
 Sthe Jives and deaths of the modern divines, written by 
 several able and learned ,™en.' It was little better than 
 a mere bookseller's venture with Fuller's name as a figure- 
 head. It was published by ' John Stafford dwelling in 
 Bride's Churchyard, near Fleet Street.' Fuller was the 
 Editor, and in the Epistle to the Reader he acknowledges to 
 the authorship of seven of the Lives ; but he implies by an 
 ' &c.' that he wrote some others. Of the rest a few were 
 contributed by Gataker, Dr. Smith, and Mr. Isaacson ; the 
 life of Erasmus was written by Dr. Robert Maxwell, Bishop 
 of Kilmore. Nine tenths of the Lives 'the stationer got 
 transcribed out of Mr. Holland and other authors.' By 
 ' Mr. Holland ' is meant Henry Holland, son of Philemon 
 Holland, the learned but luckless bookseller, who for any- 
 thing we know to the contrary was probably alive at this 
 time : the transcriptions were made, presumably, from 
 Holland's now forgotten work, Heroologia Anglica. The 
 lives of foreign divines appear to have been borrowed from 
 
 Melchior 
 
^^otnae §\iiUv xix 
 
 Melchior Adam's Vifa Germanorum Theologorum. As a 
 rule there are certain English verses appended at the end of 
 each biography ; of these Fuller says that ' the most part of 
 the poetry was done by Master Quarles, father and son, 
 sufficiently known for their abilities therein.' Master 
 Quarles was John Quarles, son of Francis Quarles the 
 author of the Emblems ; he was at this time a bookseller's 
 hack. ' He wrote many things merely for maintenance sake ' 
 says Wood; ' he lived as occasion served,' and 'was esteemed 
 by some a good poet.' Of the son of this man nothing 
 certain is known. The poetry, as Fuller calls it, has been 
 characterised by Mr. Nichols as ' arrant doggerel,' and the 
 expression is not too strong. Of Fuller's share in this volume 
 not much need be said. The Lives of Cranmer and Foxe the 
 Martyrologist are far above mediocrity ; but Fuller could not 
 put pen to paper without writing some sentences which arrest 
 the reader and astonish him by their brilliancy. For instance, 
 when summing up Cranraer's character, he exclaims : 
 ' O there is more required to make us valiant, than barely 
 to be able to call another " coward".' The Abel Redivivus 
 was not reprinted till twenty-five years ago (1867), nor did 
 it deserve to be. 
 
 Fuller had taken to himself a second wife early in 1651 : 
 this was Mary, daughter of Thomas Viscount Baltinglass, an 
 Irish peer who died in 1637, leaving a son Thomas, who 
 succeeded him, and the daughter, who could have brought 
 Fuller very little, if any, fortune. Fuller was evidently in 
 straitened circumstances about this time, and, though still 
 living at Waltham, was glad enough to officiate as Wednes- 
 day Lecturer at St. Clement's, Eastcheap, at which church 
 two years later Dr. — afterwards Bishop — Pearson delivered 
 
 b 2 his 
 
XX Z^ iSife of 
 
 his sermons on the Creed, which he eventually published in 
 the form in which we now have them. I'uller published a 
 series of sermons, twelve in number, on Christ's Temptation, 
 delivered in the same church in 1652 ; and during the next 
 five years he printed no less than nine sets of sermons — 
 among them the very dull and worthless ones professing to 
 be a Commentary on the Book of Ruth, which he had 
 preached at Cambridge when he was twenty-three years 
 old, and now fished up from his desk to turn into money. 
 Of all these sermons those on the Temptation are the only 
 ones possessing any merit as pulpit compositions. They are 
 all pulpit exercises, curiously wanting in fire, or even warmth ; 
 and bad taste disfigures them painfully. One would have 
 thought that any man in writing down a prayer to the Most 
 High would at any rate then have been awed to solemnity 
 of utterance, dignity of language, and earnestness in supplica- 
 tion ; but ' Mr. T. F. his Prayer,' composed for use before 
 the delivery of the sermons on the Temptation, though con- 
 taining passages that are striking and suggestive, contains 
 others that can only be described as meanly rhetorical. 
 
 In 1655 Fuller at last brought out the great work by 
 which his name is chiefly remembered. The Church His- 
 tory of Britain from the birth of Jesus Christ until the year 
 MDCXL VIII must always remain one of the glories of 
 English literature. It represents the labour of a life-time 
 devoted to original research. It is the achievement of 
 a scholar who had every natural qualification for entering 
 upon so gigantic a task ; a vigorous constitution, enormous 
 power of work ; a special aptitude for the subsidiary studies 
 of heraldry and genealogy ; a peculiar faculty for attracting 
 to himself such friends as could be of real service to him in 
 
 gaining 
 
'Z^om<x0 §\niUv xxi 
 
 gaining access to libraries and archives of MSS. public 
 and private ; a wonderfully quick eye, extraordinary fluency 
 with his pen, a memory that was incapable of forgetting a 
 fact, a quotation or any other impression, unbounded 
 curiosity which kept him always on the alert for every fresh 
 accession of knowledge, and a genuine delight in the 
 pursuit of his self-imposed task. In his power of marshalling 
 his facts and giving to every little incident which he records, 
 a sparkle of its own, Fuller has no rival in English literature ; 
 but the very fact of his being the gayest and liveliest— not 
 to say the most frolicsome — annalist that the world 
 has ever known has rather detracted from the reputation 
 which is fairly due to him. To Fuller belongs the honour 
 of having been the first who set himself to write the 
 Ecclesiastical History of England since Bede conceived 
 that grand project nine centuries before; and though his 
 light was not as ours is, nor his opportunities as ours are, 
 his Church History can never cease to be consulted as a 
 recognised authority by those who come after, nor his name 
 cease to be revered by all who follow his lead in the long 
 and arduous quest of truth. 
 
 The Church History is a magnificent folio of more than 
 1300 pages, divided into eleven books, with an appendix 
 constituting the twelfth book which contains the history of 
 Waltham Abbey and of the University of Cambridge. The 
 eleventh book ends with the death of Charles I, of which 
 dreadful event he gives a very pathetic narrative, containing 
 many curious details that are deeply interesting and very 
 valuable as contributions to contemporary history by one 
 who had excellent opportunities of knowing the facts. Of 
 the ecclesiastical history of Scotland he says little or 
 
 nothing. 
 
XXII 
 
 ZU &iU of 
 
 nothing, and less of that of Ireland. His dislike of the 
 Scotch was almost as strong as Dr. Johnson's, and his 
 ignorance of the Irish language rendered it impossible for 
 him to pursue researches into the past of a country which, 
 had he had the opportunity, would have possessed for 
 him a great attraction. The first edition of the Church 
 History was sold off in a year, and in 1656 a new edition 
 appeared with some corrections. Three years later Heylin 
 issued his ' Examen Historicum, or a discovery and ex- 
 amination of the Mistakes, Falsities, and Defects in some 
 modern Histories.' It was a waspish and captious attack, 
 and Fuller had no difficulty in meeting it with an elaborate 
 rejoinder which he calls his ''Appeal of Injured Innocence. . . 
 In a controversy betwixt the Animadvertor — Dr. Peter 
 Heylin and the Author — Thomas Fuller.' This reply has 
 been called the wittiest of Fuller's works, and, in the 
 exuberance of the fun, it may be regarded perhaps as the 
 drollest; but the book is obviously meant to turn Heylin 
 into ridicule, and the wit is to my mind by no means of 
 a high order. Take as instances the following ; — 
 
 'When an author tells us what he was told by Mr. 
 Hubbard, Mr. Hubbard by Mr. Barlow, Mr. Barlow by 
 Mr. Bust, and Mr. Bust by Sir Henry Saville, it brings to 
 my mind the like pedigree of as true a story, even that of 
 another, Milo in Sir Philip Sidney, telling the young ladies 
 an old tale, "which a good old woman told her, which an 
 old wise man told her, which a great learned clerk told him 
 and gave it him in writing; and then she had it in her 
 prayer book " ; as here our author hath found his in the end 
 of his creed.' 
 
 Heylin, objecting to Fuller's introducing the word ' Cister- 
 cians ' 
 
'Z'^Qmae ^uihv xxiii 
 
 cians' as a novelty in the place of the more usual phrase 
 ' monks of Cisteaux,' adds : ' And yet our author hath hit 
 it better in his Cistercians than Ralph Brooke, York herald, 
 did in his Sister-senses. . . .' Fuller replies, ' What is Ralph 
 Brooke's sister-senses, brother-senses,, or nonsenses to me ? 
 This spends time in writing, money in buying,, pains in 
 reading, makes some angry, none more knowing.' . . . 
 
 ' The Animadvertor here makes a Professor's Chair ; and 
 having solemnly set me down therein, puts words into my 
 mouth, and makes an oration for me, as Moderator in the 
 present controversy, with a jeer to boot on my memory of the 
 reverend Dr. Prideaux. But know, there is another chair, 
 which David calls "the chair of the scornful," and it is 
 to be feared, that the Animadvertor on this point is too near 
 sitting down therein.' 
 
 ' If the Animadvertor loves to eat both corn and chaff, 
 much good may his diet do him, and let him and horse 
 feed on their loaf together.' 
 
 ' See ! he calleth that circumventum, which our dictionaries 
 English " a flat lie," which I have mitigated into " a flam," as 
 importing in common discourse " a. falsehood " which hath 
 more of vanity than mischief therein.' 
 
 ****** 
 
 The Appeal was the last book of any importance whicK 
 Fuller published. The Restoration was approaching, and 
 the only question which presented itself to the minds of all 
 men of foresight and influence was how it could be brought 
 about. In the spring of 1660 there was a general move- 
 ment of the nobility, and of all those who were worshippers 
 of the rising sun, to present themselves at the Hague, and to 
 pay their court to the King. Foremost among these was 
 
 Fuller, 
 
xxiv •e^e Bifi. of 
 
 Fuller, coining in the same ship with Lord Berkeley, one of 
 the commissioners of the House of Lords, and accredited too 
 by Lord Montagu, who committed his little son to the 
 temporary tutorship of Fuller. Before starting, however, 
 Fuller had printed his Mixi Contemplations for better 
 times, astutely dedicated to Lady Monck, from Sion 
 College. On the King's landing, Fuller at once printed 
 a Panegyrick on His Majesties Happy Return. It is a 
 pamphlet in quarto, containing forty-two dreary and turgid 
 stanzas in rhyme. 
 
 The Restoration brought very little to Fuller. He 
 recovered his living at Broadwindsor, though he did not 
 again take up his residence there ; he resumed his place as 
 preacher at the Savoy ; he was re-instated in his prebendal 
 stall at Salisbury, and he was made D.D. of the University 
 of Cambridge by Royal mandate. He had many warm 
 friends among the nobility, and he had deserved well of the 
 Royal Family and the Royal cause ; but there were many 
 others who had higher claims. Accordingly more than 
 a year passed after the return of the King before he was 
 even appointed 'Chaplain extraordinary to His Majesty.' 
 He was set down to preach before the Court, and had 
 actually written his sermon, but it was never delivered. 
 There is no doubt that he would have been rewarded with 
 a bishopric, if he had lived a little longer ; but towards the 
 end of the summer of 1661 he set out on a tour to the 
 West of England, from which he returned at the beginning 
 of August, having, it appears, contracted typhoid fever some- 
 where during his absence. On the 13th of August, being 
 very ill, he persisted in preaching a wedding sermon at the 
 Savoy. He had to be lifted out of the pulpit, and was taken 
 
 to 
 
C^omft0 ;^ttffet xxv 
 
 to his lodgings in Covent Garden, where he died on the i6th 
 August, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. 
 
 Fuller left his great — perhaps his greatest — work, The 
 History of the Worthies of England, not far from complete 
 at the time of his death ; but it was not issued from the 
 press till six months after that event, and it was published 
 by his son with a dedication to Charles II in February 
 1662. It had been the occupation of the twenty best years 
 of his life, and had been looked for by the learned as 
 a book to be desired, and from which much was to be 
 expected, for a long time before it was sent to the printers. 
 The design of the book can hardly be better described than 
 by its author : — 
 
 ' England may not unfitly be compared to an house, not 
 very great, and the several shires may properly be resembled 
 to the rooms thereof. Now as learned Master Camden and 
 painful Master Speed, with others, have described the 
 rooms themselves, so it is our intention, God willirig, to 
 describe the Furniture of those rooms : such eminent 
 commodities, which every county doth produce, with the 
 persons of quaUty bred therein, and some other observables 
 coincident with the same subject.' 
 
 The work was published in a noble folio, uniform with the 
 Church History, and extends to over 1000 pages. To enter 
 upon anything like an analytical description of it would be 
 out of place here, and the more so as the words of a modern 
 writer may be accepted as no exaggerated estimate of its 
 value. ' Perused as a book of amusement, there are few in 
 the English language which a man with the slightest tincture 
 of love for our early literature can take up with a keener 
 relish.' Nevertheless, it was never reprinted till 181 1, 
 
 though 
 
xivi ZU ^tfe of 
 
 though an abridgment, under the title olAnglorum Speculum, 
 was published in 1684. It is probable that the original 
 edition was a very large one. 
 
 ****** 
 
 When we set ourselves to estimate the value of Fuller's 
 contributions to English literature, and to arrive at a fair 
 judgment upon his place as a man of genius, the task proves 
 a far from easy one. 
 
 I. As a divine, or theologian. Fuller was simply nowhere. 
 His sermons are altogether wanting in even the pretence 
 of learning ; they are homely, practical, often very much to 
 the point, and sometimes entertaining : but there is nothing 
 in them that appeals to the heart and conscience, nothing 
 that goes below the surface of things, nothing that remotely 
 resembles enthusiasm. Nor do they contain any evidence 
 that the preacher had any real interest in the controversies 
 of the time, or even was at all familiar with the great com- 
 mentators or Biblical critics of his own age, or of any other. 
 If one turns from such sermons as his to the wonderful 
 sermons of Donne (whom, there is some ground for believ- 
 ing, he must have heard preach), or even of Andrewes or Hall, 
 one finds oneself lifted into a higher region of speculation, 
 hermeneutics and spirituality. Fuller was quite content 
 with his English version of the Scriptures, he never cared to 
 turn to the original, and there is no evidence that his know- 
 ledge of Hebrew, or even of Greek, was anything more 
 than elementary. If he had ever been what the seventeenth- 
 century divines called a Textualisi, it is hardly conceivable 
 that a man of his amazing memory should have never been 
 found quoting or referring to the Greek or Hebrew text, in 
 an age when preachers were not chary of displaying their 
 
 learning 
 
t^omciB ;^MiUv xxvii 
 
 learning in the pulpit. So again, it is clear that Fuller 
 could have had no taste for, and no acquaintance with, the 
 Scholastic Divinity, which Richard Baxter always spoke of 
 with respect and recommended young clergymen not to 
 neglect. Of patristic literature he appears to have been 
 altogether ignorant. That he was a sincerely devout man 
 is evident, but even his devotional writings are shallow and 
 very limited in their range of ideas. He had never had any 
 of those iierce and fiery conflicts with the powers of evil that 
 Baxter's writings bear witness to, none of those strong 
 cryings and tears, those upliftings and despairing agonies 
 of the soul, which tell of dark remorse and ecstasy, of 
 aspiration and spiritual rapture. His emotions were always 
 subordinated to his intellect. In some of his published 
 prayers he argues the question calmly with the Heavenly 
 Father, and the fire upon the altar is a flame to lighten his 
 path, but never to kindle a fire within him that could blaze 
 and burn and consume. There was no heat there, no 
 passion, no losing of himself, no capacity of being carried 
 up into the third heaven, whether in the body he could not 
 tell, or whether out of the body he could not tell. When 
 any voice or language came to him which was not im- 
 mediately intelligible. Fuller was the sort of man who would 
 at once resort to grammar and dictionary. What he knew, 
 he knew, what he felt he would not even analyse, it must be 
 reduced to the form of syllogism. We look in vain for any 
 record of religious experiences in these thousands of printed 
 pages. 
 
 2. If then, by temperament and for want of early 
 theological training, it seems pretty evident that Fuller had 
 not the making of a great divine in him, it is the less to be 
 
 regretted 
 
xxvm 
 
 ZH Bifc of 
 
 regretted that during the best years of his life no career 
 was open to him in the clerical profession. With his 
 commanding stature and handsome face, his great ambition, 
 his diplomatic ability, and his remarkable conversational 
 powers, he w^as sure to have secured high preferment in the 
 Church at any other time than under the Commonwealth, 
 when the Church was disestablished. In that case English 
 literature would have lost, and the Church would hardly 
 have gained much. As it was. Fuller followed his natural 
 bent with all his heart. English history was as yet in the 
 empirical stage. Even Milton's so-called history is a 
 wonder of uncritical credulity. But a new school of 
 research was rising up — a school of hard students and 
 scholars, who were beginning to look into original sources 
 with quite other eyes than their predecessors. Such men 
 as Twysden and Selden and Dugdale, and others like them, 
 were setting themselves to examine the records of the past 
 and to hunt up all the available materials of English history 
 hidden away in public and private depositories; and the 
 work not only of collecting, but of sifting and weighing 
 evidence began, and was carried on with a new ardour. Fuller 
 was one of this new school, whom it is the fashion to speak 
 of as only antiquaries, in strange forgetfulness of the fact 
 that the antiquary must always be the historian's guide and 
 teacher, and that, till his labours have been intelligently 
 utilised and digested, the historian cannot even begin to 
 reconstruct a faithful picture of the past. The merit and the 
 glory of Fuller, however, is that he was much more than 
 a collector of bare facts. He was the first Englishman who, 
 with a critical instinct, and a power of accumulating informa- 
 tion such as few among us have ever equalled, had also that 
 
 measure 
 
Z'^Qmci0 jfttffer xxix 
 
 measure of constructive genius which breathes life into 
 the dry bones, and, from the heaps of ruin and rubbish 
 which the mere collector piles up without discrimination, 
 can call into being that which had passed out of men's 
 knowledge, and present us with a suggestive outline of the 
 growth and the struggles and the life of a people who were 
 not, and yet who were, as we are. 
 
 3. In saying that English history was still in the empiric 
 stage in Fuller's time, it is implied that we must withhold 
 from him the claim to be considered a great historian. 
 Honest, laborious, truthful, candid, and fair-dealing in the 
 main he always was, but calmly impartial and free from 
 prejudice he could not have been unless he had been much 
 more than he actually was in advance of his time. He says 
 somewhere that he was brought up upon Foxe's Book of 
 Martyrs ; and the influence of that early training becomes 
 apparent whenever he has to speak about Popery. Then 
 he shows himself a good hater. Bale was a great deal too 
 coarse and virulent for him, but he never learnt to under- 
 stand the real greatness of the work done by the monastic 
 orders ; and monks and friars (whom he more than once 
 confuses, as everybody else did) were to him abomination. 
 It is true that he sometimes has a word to say in their 
 defence, and he can speak kindly of some nunneries and even 
 express his regret that they were all swept away \ but on 
 such matters he never could break loose from his early 
 
 ' ' Yea, give me leave to say, if such feminine foundations had still 
 continued, provided no vow were obtruded upon them (virginity is least 
 kept when most constrained), haply the weaker sex, besides the avoiding 
 modern inconveniences, might be heightened to a higher perfection than 
 hitherto hath been attained.'— C/4»«^ Hist. B. vi. (Brewer), vol. iii. 
 
 P- 336- 
 
 prejudices. 
 
XXX Zf^t ^ife of 
 
 prejudices. He had eyes to see the dark side, and the 
 dark side only. 
 
 4. ^t is as a literary craftsman that Fuller occupies a 
 
 unique position. Those priceless jewels of his, 
 
 ' Which on the stretched forefinger of old Time 
 Sparkle for ever,' 
 
 do not so often owe their value to the thought suggested, or 
 the profound wisdom of hints thrown out, as to the setting 
 of the gem. No writer of the English language was so great 
 a master of those trickeries of speech which are the 
 essentials of what we call wit. Of mock seriousness, which 
 we call irony, I remember no single instance in his writings. 
 This is only another way of saying that Fuller had no 
 humour. Warburton was right after all, however much the 
 critics may protest against the name, for Warburton calls him 
 'Fuller the Jester.' Not that Warburton meant to imply 
 that Fuller was always frivolous, that his aim was always to 
 make men laugh; for none knew better than he that 
 Fuller could be simply serious when it was meet and right 
 for him so to be ; but that there was an irrepressible fund of 
 oddity about his utterances and a way of putting things 
 which was unlike that of other men — a certain mannerism 
 which the saturnine and gloomy would be likely to take 
 offence at, and which would shock the sour disputant 
 horribly in earnest to do battle for a commonplace or a 
 foolish paradox. Fuller must have always been the terror 
 of the pompous and the pretentious. He was the Sydney 
 Smith of the seventeenth century, and he had a great deal 
 in common with the brilliant Canon of St. Paul's. Like him 
 he was nobly free from any suspicion of jealousy, spite, or 
 bitterness, but he was incomparably the other's superior in 
 
 wide 
 
^5oma0 ;^ttfPetr xxxi 
 
 wide and solid learning. It is noticeable that, except when 
 he went to the Hague in the train of Lord Berkeley, 
 Fuller never crossed the Channel. Indeed he never 
 travelled as far as Scotland, Ireland, or even Wales. 
 Though his memory was phenomenal, he appears to have 
 had little or no command of any foreign language, nor any 
 considerable acquaintance with European literature. On 
 the other hand, the map of England was to him as an open 
 book, whose leaves he was always turning over. There was 
 scarcely an English cathedral which he had not visited ; he 
 rode on horseback through shire after shire. Palestine he 
 was content to describe at second hand, but in doing so 
 he exhibited his wonderful literary skill and his no less 
 wonderful faculty of digesting and assimilating the labours 
 of others. But England he knew, as only they can know it 
 who set out on their journeys well furnished with such lore 
 as qualifies them to start on a voyage of discovery, and who 
 are gifted by nature with a geographical eye. 
 
 it: * + * * =1= 
 
 If in this review of Fuller's life and of his Uterary work 
 I may seem to some to have rather underestimated the 
 greatness of a writer whose name is a household word, and 
 whose enthusiastic admirers have numbered among them 
 some of the most subtle and some of the most profound 
 ■ of England's critics and thinkers, there will be found in 
 the pages that follow abundant proofs of the Wit and 
 Wisdom, which give a never-ending charm to the writings 
 of Thomas Fuller. In those writings there are still rich 
 veins of ore to work, or rather, let me say, there are in that 
 casket precious jewels still to find. 
 
WISE WORDS AND QUAINT COUNSELS 
 
 THOMAS FULLER 
 
 A. B. C. D. 
 
 The Use of the Alphabet 
 
 There was, not long since, a devout but ignorant 
 papist dwelling in Spain. He perceived a necessity of 
 his own private prayers to God, besides the Pater 
 Nosters, Ave Marias, Sic. used of course in the Romish 
 church. But so simple was he, that how to pray he 
 knew not. Only every morning, humbly bending his 
 knees, and lifting up his eyes and hands to heaven, 
 he would deliberately repeat the alphabet. And now, 
 said he, O good God, put these letters together to spell 
 syllables, to spell words, to make such sense as may be 
 most to thy glory and my good. 
 
 In these distracted times I know what generals to 
 pray for. God's glory, truth and peace, his majesty's 
 honour, privileges of parliament, liberty of subjects, &c. 
 But when I descend to particulars, when, how, by whom 
 
 B I 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
(H){0e (^ovbe ana 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 I should desire these things to be effected, I may fall to 
 that poor pious man's A, B, C, D, E, &c. 
 
 Good Thoughts: Meditations on Worse Titnes^ xi. 
 
 Advice to a Traveller 
 
 Let discourse rather be easily drawn, than willingly 
 flow, from thee, that thou mayest not seem weak to hold 
 — or desirous to vent — news, but content to gratify thy 
 friends. Be sparing in reporting improbable truths, 
 especially to the vulgar, who, instead of informing their 
 judgments, will suspect thy credit. Disdain their peevish 
 pride who rail on their native land (whose worst fault 
 is, that it bred such ungrateful fools), and in all their 
 discourses prefer foreign countries ; herein showing 
 themselves of kin to the wild Irish, in loving their nurses 
 better than their mothers. Holy state, b. lii. c. iv. n. 
 
 Ah; Ha! 
 
 Ha is the interjection of laughter ; Ah is an interjec- 
 tion of sorrow. The difference betwixt them is very 
 small, as consisting only in the transposition of what 
 is no substantial letter, but a bare aspiration. How 
 quickly, in the age of a minute, in the very turning of 
 a breath, is our mirth changed to mourning ! 
 
 Good Thoughts in Bad Times : Mixed Contemplations, xiv. 
 
 All afore 
 
 There are in our age a generation of people who are 
 the best of prophets, and worst of historians ; Daniel 
 
 and 
 
Ouainf Cottn0ef0 
 
 and the Revelation are as easy to them as the ten com- 
 mandments and the Lord's prayer : they pretend exactly 
 to know the time of Christ's actual reign on earth, of 
 the ruin~ of the Romish antichrist, yea, of the day of 
 judgment itself. But these oracles are struck quite 
 dumb, if demanded anything concerning the time past ; 
 about the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt 
 and Babylon, the original increase and ruin of the four 
 monarchies ; of these and the like they can give no more 
 account than the child in the cradle. They are all for 
 things to come, but have gotten (through a great cold of 
 ignorance) such a crick in their neck, they cannot look 
 backward on what was behind them. 
 
 Good Thoughts : Mixed Contemp. on Better Times^ Pt. II. i. 
 
 Almsgiving 
 
 Some men there be whose charitable deeds are as rare 
 as an eclipse, or a Blazing- Star : these men deserve to 
 be pardoned for their pious deeds, they are so seldom 
 
 guilty of them. Colt. Serm. : Comment, on Ruth, ii. v. 20. 
 
 I HAVE observed some at the church-door cast in six- 
 pence with such ostentation, that it rebounded from the 
 bottom, and rung against both the sides of the bason 
 (so that the same piece of silver was the alms and the 
 giver's trumpet) ; whilst others have dropped down silent 
 five shiUings without any noise. 
 
 Worthies : Bristol Benefactors. 
 
 B 2 Alms-houses 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
4 
 
 (XOiee (ps)ot:60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Alms-houses 
 
 Because we live in an age wherein men begin to be 
 out of charity with charity itself; and there be many 
 covetous (not to say sacrilegious) people, whose fingers 
 itch to be nimming the patrimony of the poor ; we will 
 here present the cavils of this against the charity of 
 former ages herein. 
 
 Cavil I . — Shew us the foundation of such structures 
 in Scripture, either in the Old or New Testament. As 
 for the place with five porches, wherein 'the impotent 
 poor lay,' near the Pool of Bethesda, it was of another 
 nature. Alms-houses therefore, not being jure divino, 
 may lawfully be abolished. 
 
 Answer. — The constitution of the Jewish was far 
 different from our Enghsh commonwealth, wherein every 
 one originally was a freeholder of some proportion of 
 land, which, though alienated, reverted to the owner at 
 the year of Jubilee. There needs not an express or par- 
 ticular precept for all our actions ; that general one, ' He 
 that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord,' is 
 bottom broad enough to build more alms-houses on, 
 than all ages will afford. Besides this precept, we have 
 the practice of the primitive Christians in the time of 
 the apostles, parting with the propriety of all their estate ; 
 and well then may we appropriate a part of ours, for the 
 relief of the poor. 
 
 Cavil 2. — The builders of them for the most part 
 have been people formerly guilty of oppression, who, 
 having lived like wolves, turn lambs on their death beds, 
 and part with their fleece to people in want. Having 
 
 ground 
 
Ouainf Coutt0ef0 
 
 '5 
 
 ground the faces of the poor, they give the toll thereof 
 to build an alms-house, though too little ^o hold half the 
 beggars which they have made. 
 
 Answer. — The aspersion cannot be fastened on many 
 founders ; so free from the same, that malice may sooner 
 break her own teeth and jaws too, than make impression 
 on their reputation. But grant the charge true in this 
 sense, beatum estfuisse, ' blessed are they that have been 
 bad ; ' — ' And such were some of you.' I.,et not envious 
 man repine at that whereat the blessed angels rejoice, 
 the conversion of sinners, and their testifying thereof by 
 such public expressions. 
 
 Cavil 7. — Hospitals generally have the rickets, whose 
 heads, their masters, grow over great and rich, whilst 
 their poor bodies pine away and consume. 
 
 Answer. — Surely there is some other cure for a 
 ricketish body, than to kill it ; viz. by opening obstruc- 
 tions, and deriving the nutriment to all parts of the 
 same. But enough of this unwelcome subject, whereof 
 what is spoken is not to put new cavils into the heads of 
 any, but to pluck old ones out of the hearts of too many, 
 who have entertained them. If these our answers seem 
 not satisfactory to any, know, that as a left-handed man 
 hath great odds in fencing against one that is right- 
 handed ; so in controversies of this kind, cavillers, with 
 their sinister inferences from men's frailties, have a vast 
 advantage over those who are of candid and ingenuous 
 dispositions. 
 
 Many faults must be confessed in such foundations, 
 which for the future may be amended. 
 
 But, grant corruptions should continue in such founda- 
 tions, 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(K)i0e (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 tions, it is not plea enough for their abolition. If the 
 sentence of condemnation was pronounced on those who 
 saw Christ naked, and would not clothe him ; how heavy 
 a doom would fall on such who found Christ clothed, 
 and stript him in his poor members of endowments given 
 to their maintenance ! ivortkies: c. xi. 
 
 Anger 
 
 Be not mortally angry with any for a venial fault. — He 
 will make a strange combustion in the state of his soul, 
 who, at the landing of every cock-boat, sets the beacons 
 on fire. To be angry for every toy, debases the worth of 
 thy anger : for he who will be angry for any thing, will be 
 angry for nothing. Holy state, B. iii. c. viii. .=. 
 
 Antioch 
 
 Hamah, the city which gave the name to this country, 
 was afterwards called Antiochia. Seven and twenty 
 cities are said to be of the same name ; for, several 
 Antiochuses being successively kings of Syria, stocked 
 their dominions with many cities after their names, as 
 being either built, beautified, strengthened, or enlarged by 
 them or their favourites. But it matters not how many 
 younger brethren there be of the same family, as long 
 as our Antioch is the heir, and, though not in age, in 
 honour to be preferred before all the rest. Here the 
 professors of the gospel — formerly termed believers for 
 their faith, sometimes brethren for their love, saints for 
 their holiness, disciples for their knowledge — were, for 
 all these, first called Christians (Acts xi. 26). Probably, 
 when many of all nations believed, the name Christian 
 
 was 
 
Ouaitt^ Cotttt0ef0 
 
 was given to them to bury the difference betwixt Jews 
 and Gentiles (thus England and Scotland happily joined 
 in Great Britain), which two names, though remaining 
 afterwards, were used as terms of civil difference, not 
 odious distinction. Had this happened at Rome, how 
 would the tide of Tiber have swollen above all his 
 bounds and banks at the conceit that in her city religion 
 itself was christened? But this Antioch hath still more 
 to brag of— the chair of St. Peter, wherein he sate 
 patriarch many years before his removal to Rome ; and, 
 therefore, no wonder if Antioch grudge to give Rome 
 the superiority. Why should not that place be the 
 prime which was the first? Besides, St. Peter was 
 honoured at Antioch, murdered at Rome. And why 
 should that city receive most credit by him, which 
 used most cruelty unto him ? But let ecclesiastical 
 heralds deduce the pedigree and marshal the prece- 
 dency of these churches, we will only add, that this 
 Pharisaical taking of the upper hand hath in all ages 
 hindered the giving of the right hand of Christian fel- 
 lowship. ■ Pisgah Sigit, B. iv. C. i. 27. 
 
 Antiquaries 
 
 Some report, that the toad, before her death, sucks 
 up, if not prevented with sudden surprisal, the precious 
 stone (as yet but jelly) in her head, grudging mankind 
 the good thereof. Such generally the envy of anti- 
 quaries, preferring that their rarities should die with 
 them, and be buried in their graves, rather than others 
 receive any benefit thereby. 
 
 CA, Hist. B. iL S. 7, Dedication. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(^i0e (5S)or60 (xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 The true Church Antiquary 
 
 He is not peremptory, but conjectural, in doubtful 
 matters. Not forcing others to his own opinion, but 
 leaving them to their own liberty; not filling up all 
 with his own conjectures, to leave no room for other 
 men; nor tramples he on their credits, if in them he 
 finds slips and mistakes. For here our souls have but 
 one eye (the apostle saith, ' We know but in part ') ; 
 be not proud, if that chance to come athwart thy seeing 
 side which meets with the blind side of another. 
 
 He thankfully acknowledgeth those by whom he hath 
 profited. Base-natured they, who, when they have 
 quenched their own thirst, stop up, at least muddy, the 
 fountain. But our antiquary, if he be not the first 
 founder of a commendable conceit, contents himself 
 to be a benefactor to it in clearing and adorning it. 
 
 He affects not fanciful singularity in his behaviour. 
 Nor cares to have a proper mark, in writing of words, to 
 disguise some peculiar letter from the ordinary character. 
 Others, for -fear travellers should take no notice that skill 
 in antiquity dwells in such an head, hang out an antique 
 hat for the sign, or use some obsolete garb in their gar- 
 ments, gestures, or discourse. 
 
 He doth not so adore the ancients as to despise the 
 moderns. Grant them but dwarfs, yet stand they on 
 giants' shoulders, and may see the further. Sure, as 
 stout champions of truth follow in the rear, as ever 
 marched in the front. Besides, as one excellently ob- 
 serves, Antiquitas saculi juventus mundi. ' These times 
 are the ancient times, when the world is ancient ; ' and 
 
 not 
 
Quaint Couneef© 
 
 not those which we count ancient ordine retrogrado, ' by 
 a computation backwards from ourselves.' 
 
 Hoki state, B. ii. C. 6. 
 
 Love of Approbation 
 
 He must be deaf, indeed, who hears not that spoken 
 which he desires. Hoiy state, b. v. c. 5. 
 
 He must rise early, yea, not at all go to bed, who will 
 have every one's good word. Holy War, b. iv. c. m. 
 
 Arguing from Scripture 
 
 A REVEREND Doctor in Cambridge, and afterwards 
 bishop of Salisbury, was troubled at his small living at 
 Hogginton, with a peremptory Anabaptist, who plainly 
 told him : ' It goes against my conscience to pay you 
 tithes, except you can show me a place of Scripture 
 whereby they are due unto you.' The Doctor returned : 
 ' Why should it not go as much against my conscience, 
 that you should enjoy your nine parts, for which you can 
 show no place of Scripture?' To whom the other re- 
 joined : ' But I have, for my land, deeds and evidences 
 from my fathers, who purchased and were peaceably 
 possessed thereof by the laws of the land.' ' The same 
 is my title,' saith the Doctor; 'tithes being confirmed 
 unto me by many statutes of the land, time out of mind.' 
 Thus he drave that nail, not which was of the strongest 
 metal or sharpest point, but which would go best for the 
 present. It was argumentum ad hominem, 'fittest for 
 the person he was to meddle with;' who afterwards 
 
 peaceably 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
lO 
 
 (S)i0e (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 peaceably paid his tithes unto him. Had the Doctor 
 engaged in Scripture argument, though never so preg- 
 nant and pertinent, it had been endless to dispute with 
 him who made clamour the end of his dispute, whose 
 obstinacy and ignorance made him uncapable of soUd 
 reason; and therefore the worse the argument, the better 
 for his apprehension. c*. /fist. b. ii. s. iv. 12. 
 
 Spanish Armada 
 
 Now began that fatal year generally foretold that it 
 would be wonderful ; as it proved no less. Whence the 
 astrologers fetched their intelligence hereof, — whether 
 from heaven or hell, from other stars or from Lucifer 
 alone, — is uncertain. This is most sure, that this pre- 
 diction, though hitting the mark, yet missed their 
 meaning, who both first reported and most believed it. 
 Out comes their invincible navy and army, perfectly 
 appointed for both elements, water and land, to sail and 
 march complete in all warlike equipage ; so that for- 
 merly, with far less provision, they had conquered 
 another new world. Mighty was the bulk of their ships, 
 the sea seeming to groan under them, (being a burden 
 to it as they went, and to themselves before they re- 
 turned,) with all manner of artillery, prodigious in num- 
 ber and greatness ; so that the report of their guns do 
 still and ought ever to sound in the ears of the English 
 not to fright them with any terror, but to fill them with 
 deserved thankfulness. 
 
 It is said of Sennacherib, coming against Jerusalem 
 with his numerous army, ' By the way that he came shall 
 he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the 
 
 Lord,' 
 
Oudinf Cottn0ef0 
 
 1 1 
 
 Lord,' 2 Kings xix. 33. As the latter part of this 
 threatening was verified here, no Spaniard setting foot 
 on English ground under other notion than a prisoner ; 
 so God did not them the honour to return the same 
 way, who coming by south-east, a way they knew, went 
 back by south-west, a way they sought, chased by our 
 ships past the fifty-seventh degree of northern latitude, 
 then and there left to be pursued after by hunger and 
 cold. Thus, having tasted the English valour in con- 
 quering them, the Scotch constancy in not relieving 
 them, the Irish cruelty in barbarous butchering them, 
 the small reversion of this great navy which came home 
 might be looked upon by religious eyes, as relics, not 
 for the adoration but instruction of their nation here- 
 after, not to account any thing invincible which is less 
 than infinite. 
 
 Such as lose themselves by looking on second causes 
 impute the Spanish ill success, partly to the prince of 
 Parma, who either mind-bound or wind-bound, staying 
 himself, or stopped by the Hollander, would or could 
 not come to their seasonable succour; and partly to 
 the duke of Medina's want of commission to fight with 
 the English, (save on the defensive,) till joined with 
 Parma. Thus, when God will have a design defeated, 
 amidst the plenty, yea, superfluity, of all imaginable 
 necessaries, some unsuspected one shall be wanting to 
 frustrate all the rest. We will not mention (save in due 
 distance of helps) the industry and loyalty of the lord 
 Howard, admiral, the valour of our captains, the skill of 
 our pilots, the activity of our ships ; but assign all to the 
 goodness of God, as queen Elizabeth did. Leave we 
 
 her 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
lO 
 
 (^iet (^ovb0 Anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 peaceably paid his tithes unto him. Had the Doctor 
 engaged in Scripture argument, though never so preg- 
 nant and pertinent, it had been endless to dispute with 
 him who made clamour the end of his dispute, whose 
 obstinacy and ignorance made him uncapable of solid 
 reason; and therefore the worse the argument, the better 
 for his apprehension. ck. Hut. b. ii. s. iv. 12. 
 
 Spanish Armada 
 
 Now began that fatal year generally foretold that it 
 would be wonderful ; as it proved no less. Whence the 
 astrologers fetched their intelligence hereof, — whether 
 from heaven or hell, from other stars or from Lucifer 
 alone, — is uncertain. This is most sure, that this pre- 
 diction, though hitting the mark, yet missed their 
 meaning, who both first reported and most believed it. 
 Out comes their invincible navy and army, perfectly 
 appointed for both elements, water and land, to sail and 
 march complete in all warlike equipage; so that for- 
 merly, with far less provision, they had conquered 
 another new world. Mighty was the bulk of their ships, 
 the sea seeming to groan under them, (being a burden 
 to it as they went, and to themselves before they re- 
 turned,) with all manner of artillery, prodigious in num- 
 ber and greatness ; so that the report of their guns do 
 still and ought ever to sound in the ears of the English 
 not to fright them with any terror, but to fill them with 
 deserved thankfulness. 
 
 It is said of Sennacherib, coming against Jerusalem 
 with his numerous army, ' By the way that he came shall 
 he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the 
 
 Lord,' 
 
Cuainf Cottn0ef0 
 
 1 1 
 
 Lord,' 2 Kings xix. 33. As the latter part of this 
 threatening was verified here, no Spaniard setting foot 
 on EngHsh ground under other notion than a prisoner ; 
 so God did not them the honour to return the same 
 way, who coming by south-east, a way they knew, went 
 back by south-west, a way they sought, chased by our 
 ships past the fifty-seventh degree of northern latitude, 
 then and there left to be pursued after by hunger and 
 cold. Thus, having tasted the English valour in con- 
 quering them, the Scotch constancy in not relieving 
 them, the Irish cruelty in barbarous butchering them, 
 the small reversion of this great navy which came home 
 might be looked upon by religious eyes, as relics, not 
 for the adoration but instruction of their nation here- 
 after, not to account any thing invincible which is less 
 than infinite. 
 
 Such as lose themselves by looking on second causes 
 impute the Spanish ill success, partly to the prince of 
 Parma, who either mind-bound or wind-bound, staying 
 himself, or stopped by the Hollander, would or could 
 not come to their seasonable succour; and partly to 
 the duke of Medina's want of commission to fight with 
 the English, (save on the defensive,) till joined with 
 Parma. Thus, when God will have a design defeated, 
 amidst the plenty, yea, superfluity, of all imaginable 
 necessaries, some unsuspected one shall be wanting to 
 frustrate all the rest. We will not mention (save in due 
 distance of helps) the industry and loyalty of the lord 
 Howard, admiral, the valour of our captains, the skill of 
 our pilots, the activity of our ships ; but assign all to the 
 goodness of God, as queen Elizabeth did. Leave we 
 
 her 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
12 
 
 (^(0e (^ov^e anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 her in the choir of St. Paul's church, devoutly on her 
 knees, with the rest of her nobles in the same humble 
 posture, returning their unfeigned thanks to the God and 
 Giver of all victory ; whilst, going abroad, we shall find 
 some of her subjects worse employed, — in implacable 
 enmity about ecclesiastical discipline one against an- 
 other. And let not the mentioning of this deliverance 
 be censured as a deviation from the ' Church History of 
 Britain;' silence thereof being a sin. For had the 
 design taken effect, neither protestant church in Britain 
 had remained, nor history thereof been made at this 
 present. a. Hist. b. ix. s. vii. 14. 
 
 The Thirty-nine Articles 
 
 Hence some have unjustly taxed the composers for 
 too much favour extended in their large expressions, 
 clean through the contexture of these Articles, which 
 should have tied men's consciences up closer in more 
 strict and particularizing propositions ; which, indeed, 
 proceeded from their commendable moderation : chil- 
 dren's clothes ought to be made of the biggest, because 
 afterwards their bodies will grow up to their garments. 
 Thus, the Articles of this English Protestant Church, in 
 the infancy thereof, they thought good to draw up in 
 general terms, foreseeing that posterity would grow up 
 to fill the same. I mean, these holy men did prudently 
 pre-discover, that differences in judgments would un- 
 avoidably happen in the church, and were loath to 
 unchurch any, and drive them off from an ecclesiastical 
 communion, for such petty differences; which made 
 them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take 
 
Quaint tovinede 
 
 13 
 
 in all, who, diifering in the branches, meet in the root, 
 of the same religion. 
 
 Indeed, most of them had formerly been sufferers 
 themselves, and cannot be said, in compiUng these 
 Articles, (an acceptable service, no doubt,) to offer to 
 God what cost them nothing ; some having paid im- 
 prisonment — others, exile — all, losses in their estates — 
 for this their experimental knowledge in religion ; which 
 made them the more merciful and tender in stating 
 those points, seeing such who have been most patient in 
 bearing, will be most pitiful in burdening the consciences 
 of others. 
 
 It is observable, these Articles came forth much about 
 the time wherein the Decrees of the Council of Trent 
 were published; truth and falsehood starting in some 
 sort both together, though the former will surely carry 
 away the victory at long running. Many of which 
 Decrees begin with lying, and all conclude with cursing, 
 — thundering anathemas against all dissenters : whilst 
 these our Articles, like the still voice, only plainly 
 express the positive truth. a. Nisi. b. ix. s. i. 51. 
 
 'As it was' 
 
 Some alive will be deposed for the truth of this strange 
 accident, though I forbear the naming of place or persons. 
 
 A careless maid, which attended a gentleman's child, 
 fell asleep whilst the rest of the family were at church ; 
 an ape, taking the child out of the cradle, carried it to 
 the roof of the house, and there (according to his rude 
 manner) fell a dancing and dandling thereof, down head, 
 up heels, as it happened. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
12 
 
 (K)t0e (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 her in the choir of St. Paul's church, devoutly on her 
 knees, with the rest of her nobles in the same humble 
 posture, returning their unfeigned thanks to the God and 
 Giver of all victory ; whilst, going abroad, we shall find 
 some of her subjects worse employed, — in implacable 
 enmity about ecclesiastical discipline one against an- 
 other. And let not the mentioning of this deliverance 
 be censured as a deviation from the ' Church History of 
 Britain;' silence thereof being a sin. For had the 
 design taken effect, neither protestant church in Britain 
 had remained, nor history thereof been made at this 
 present. o. Hist. b. Ix. s. vH. 14. 
 
 The Thirty-nine Articles 
 
 Hence some have unjustly taxed the composers for 
 too much favour extended in their large expressions, 
 clean through the contexture of these Articles, which 
 should have tied men's consciences up closer in more 
 strict and particularizing propositions ; which, indeed, 
 proceeded from their commendable moderation : chil- 
 dren's clothes ought to be made of the biggest, because 
 afterwards their bodies will grow up to their garments. 
 Thus, the Articles of this English Protestant Church, in 
 the infancy thereof, they thought good to draw up in 
 general terms, foreseeing that posterity would grow up 
 to fill the same. I mean, these holy men did prudently 
 pre-discover, that differences in judgments would un- 
 avoidably happen in the church, and were loath to 
 un-church any, and drive them off from an ecclesiastical 
 communion, for such petty differences; which made 
 them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take 
 
Quaint CovinetSe 
 
 13 
 
 in all, who, differing in the branches, meet in the root, 
 of the same religion. 
 
 Indeed, most of them had formerly been sufferers 
 themselves, and cannot be said, in compiling these 
 Articles, (an acceptable service, no doubt,) to offer to 
 God what cost them nothing; some having paid im- 
 prisonment — others, exile — all, losses in their estates — 
 for this their experimental knowledge in religion ; which 
 made them the more merciful and tender in stating 
 those points, seeing such who have been most patient in 
 bearing, will be most pitiful in burdening the consciences 
 of others. 
 
 It is observable, these Articles came forth much about 
 the time wherein the Decrees of the Council of Trent 
 were published; truth and falsehood starting in some 
 sort both together, though the former will surely carry 
 away the victory at long running. Many of which 
 Decrees begin with lying, and all conclude with cursing, 
 — thundering anathemas against all dissenters : whilst 
 these our Articles, like the still voice, only plainly 
 express the positive truth. a. Hist. n. ix. s. i. 51. 
 
 'As it was' 
 
 Some alive will be deposed for the truth of this strange 
 accident, though I forbear the naming of place or persons. 
 
 A careless maid, which attended a gentleman's child, 
 fell asleep whilst the rest of the family were at church ; 
 an ape, taking the child out of the cradle, carried it to 
 the roof of the house, and there (according to his rude 
 manner) fell a dancing and dandling thereof, down head, 
 up heels, as it happened. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
14 
 
 (Wiei. (Wotbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 The father of the child, returning with his family from 
 the church, commented with his own eyes on his child's 
 sad condition. Bemoan he might, help it he could not. 
 Dangerous to shoot the ape where the bullet might hit 
 the babe ; all fall to their prayers as their last and best 
 refuge, that the innocent child (whose precipice they 
 suspected) might be preserved. 
 
 But when the ape was well wearied with its own 
 activity, he fairly went down, and formally laid the 
 child where he found it, in the cradle. 
 
 Fanatics have pleased their fancies these late years 
 with turning and tossing and tumbling of religion, up- 
 ward and downward, and backward and forward, they 
 have cast and contrived it into a hundred antic postures 
 of their own imagining. However, it is now to be hoped, 
 that after they have tired themselves out with doing 
 of nothing, but only trying and tampering this and that 
 way to no purpose, they may at last return and leave 
 religion in the same condition wherein they found it. 
 
 Gnad TlwugUs: Mixed Contemp. on Better Times, Pt. ii. 46. 
 
 Aspirations 
 
 How large houses do they build in London on little 
 ground! Revenging themselves on the narrowness of 
 their room with store of stories. Excellent arithmetic ! 
 from the root of one floor to multiply so many chambers. 
 And though painful the climbing up, pleasant the staying 
 there, the higher the healthfuUer, with clearer light and 
 sweeter air. 
 
 Small are my means on earth. May I mount my soul 
 the higher in heavenly meditations, relying on divine 
 
 providence ; 
 
Ouainf Cotttteefe 
 
 15 
 
 providence; he that fed many thousands with five 
 loaves, may feed me and mine with the fifth part of 
 that one loaf, that once all mine. Higher, my soul ! 
 higher ! In bodily buildings, commonly the garrets are 
 most empty, but my mind, the higher mounted, will be 
 the better furnished. Let perseverance to death be my 
 uppermost chamber, the roof of which grace is the pave- 
 ment of glory. Gocd Thoughts in Worse Times: Occ. Med. 2. 
 
 Beauty of Situation 
 
 A PLEASANT prospect is to be respected. A medley 
 view, such as of water and land at Greenwich, best 
 entertains the eyes, refreshing the wearied beholder with 
 exchange of objects. Yet I know a more profitable 
 prospect, — where the owner can only see his own land 
 
 round about. Holy state, B. iii. C. vii. 
 
 Better and Best 
 
 I WELL knew that wealthy man, who, being a great 
 improver of ground, was wont to say, 'that he would 
 never come into that place which might not be made 
 better;' on the same token, that one tartly returned, 
 ' that then he would never go to heaven, for that place 
 was at the best.' But the truth is, fertilizing of barren 
 ground may be termed a charitable curiosity employing 
 many poor people therein. WoHhies: WaUs. Buildings. 
 
 The best Bedmaker 
 
 When a good man is ill at ease, God promiseth to 
 make all his bed in his sickness. Pillow, bolster, head, 
 
 feet, 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
i6 
 
 (^t0e (Wotbe an& 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 feet, sides, all his bed. Surely that God who made him, 
 knows so well his measure and temper, as to make his 
 bed to please him. Herein his art is excellent, not fit- 
 ting the bed to the person, but the person to the bed, 
 infusing patience into him. 
 
 Gooii Thoughts m Worse Times : Scrip. Obs. -zi. 
 
 A Bishop Hater 
 
 Indeed, so great is his antipathy against episcopacy, 
 that if a seraphim himself should be a bishop, he would 
 either find or make some sick feathers in his wings. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. V. S a. 43. 
 
 Black for Mourning 
 
 Black is conceived by Arias Montanus to be the 
 general wearing of mourners, chiefly grounding it on 
 David's words, ' I bowed down heavily as one that 
 mourneth for his mother' (Psalm xxxv. 14); the Hebrew 
 is ininti' "nip, qdder shahkoihl, incurvabam atratus, ' I 
 bowed down in black.' However, I conceive this black- 
 ness no superinduction of a dark dye on David's clothes, 
 but rather a dirty hue or soil contracted on his white 
 garments, from neglect of washing them {vesfes potius 
 sordidcR quam nigra, as we say, mourning shirts), it 
 being customary for men in sadness to spare the pains of 
 their laundresses, with Mephibosheth, who, when David 
 was driven from Jerusalem, during his absence, washed 
 not his clothes from the day the king departed until he 
 came again in peace (2 Sam. xix. 24). 
 
 Pisgak Sight, B. iv. C. vi. 4. 
 
 Superfluity 
 
Quaint Couneef© 
 
 17 
 
 Superfluity of Books 
 
 When the author of an idle and imperfect book endeth 
 with a catera desiderantur, one altered it non desideran- 
 tur, sed desunt. Indeed they were not, though wanting, 
 wanted ; the world having no need of them ; many books 
 being like King Joram, who lived not being desired : yea, 
 the press beginneth to be an oppression of the land, 
 such the burden of needless books therein. 
 
 Worthies: Chap. a. 
 
 Some will say, the charge may most justly be brought 
 against yourself, who have loaded the land with more 
 books than any of your age. To this I confess my fault, 
 and promise amendment, that, God willing, hereafter I 
 will never print book in the English tongue, but what 
 shall tend directly to divinity. Worthies.- chap.*. 
 
 Books falsely attributed 
 
 As for those spurious tracts, which monks in after-ages 
 set out under these worthy men's names, they are no 
 more to be accounted the true oflFspring of these learned 
 saints, than that common manna, ordinarily sold in 
 apothecaries' shops, is the self-same with that angels' 
 food which fell down from heaven, and feasted the Is- 
 raehtes. ch. Hist. b. i. s. 6. 13. 
 
 Book Worms 
 
 Some men live like moths in libraries, not being better 
 for the books, but the books the worse for them, which 
 
 they only soil with their fingers. worthies: Hants. Writers. 
 
 c Bread 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
]8 
 
 (Wi0t ^otr50 <in& 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Bread 
 
 Bread is a dish in every course : without this can be 
 no feast, with this can be no famine. sutk, c. ^. 6. 
 
 Breeding better than birth 
 
 It graceth a gentleman of low descent and high desert, 
 when he will own the meanness of his parentage. How 
 ridiculous is it when many men brag, that their families 
 are more ancient than the moon, which, all know, are 
 later than the star which, some seventy years since, shined 
 in Cassiopeia. But if he be generously born, see how 
 his parents breed him. /foij, state, b. ii. c. xxv. 2. 
 
 Brothers 
 
 The Elder Brother 
 The elder brother is one who made haste to come 
 into the world, to bring his parents the first news of 
 male-posterity ; and is well rewarded for his tidings. 
 
 The Younger Brother 
 Some account him the better gentleman of the two, 
 because son to the more ancient gentleman ; wherein his 
 elder brother can give him the hearing, and a smile into 
 
 the bargain. Holy state, B. i. C. xiv. xv. 
 
 Bull-baiting 
 
 It seems that both the gentry and country folk in this 
 shire are much affected with that pastime, though some 
 scruple the lawfulness thereof, i. Man must not be a 
 barrater, to set the creatures at variance. 2. He can 
 take no true delight in their antipathy, which was the 
 
 effect 
 
Ottdin^ tounedtf 
 
 19 
 
 effect of his sin. 3. Man's charter of dominion empowers 
 him to be a prince, but no tyrant, over the creatures. 
 4. Though brute beasts are made to be destroyed, they 
 are not made to be tormented. Others rejoin, that God 
 gave us the creatures as well for our pleasure as necessity ; 
 that some nice consciences, that scruple the baiting of 
 bulls, will worry men with their vexatious cruelties. All 
 that I dare interpose is this, that the tough flesh of bulls 
 is not only made more tender by baiting, but also thereby 
 it is discoloured from ox-beef, that the buyer be not 
 
 deceived. Wm-thies .- somerset. Mastiffs. 
 
 Burial of the Dead 
 
 Oh, if monuments were marshalled according to men's 
 merits, what change would it cause in our churches ! 
 See we here the care the Jews had of decent burying 
 their dead. True it is, bodies flung in a bog will not 
 stick there at the day of judgment ; cast into a wood, 
 will find out the way ; thrown into a dungeon, will have 
 free egress ; left on the highway, are still in the ready 
 road to the resurrection. Yet seeing they are the taber- 
 nacles of the soul, yea, the temples of the Holy Ghost, 
 the Jews justly began, and Christians commendably con- 
 tinue the custom of their solemn interment. 
 
 PUgah Sight, B. iii. C. i. S. vii. 5. 
 
 Cards 
 It were no great harm if there were no other cards 
 used than those of clothiers about wool, and of mariners 
 in the ship. But as for cards to play with, let us not 
 wholly condemn them, lest, lacing our consciences too 
 strait, we make them to grow awry on the wrong side, 
 c 2 Such 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
20 
 
 (5E)i0e (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Such recreations are lawful, if we use them as Jonathan 
 tasted the honey : putting forth the end of his rod, he 
 touched a little of it, and his eyes were cleared. But let 
 us take heed of a surfeit, into which those do fall who 
 either play out of covetousness, or for more than their 
 estates can bear, or constantly and continually. All their 
 meat is sauce ; all the days in their almanack play-days, 
 though few holy-days. The creation lasted but a week, 
 but these men's recreations all the days of their lives. 
 Such using of lawful exercises is altogether unlawful. 
 
 Notes on Jonahs i. 7. 
 
 Catechising 
 
 Reader, pardon an excursion caused by just grief and 
 anger. Many, counting themselves Protestants in Eng- 
 land, do slight and neglect that ordinance of God, by 
 which their religion was set up, and gave credit to it in 
 the first Reformation ; I mean. Catechising. Did not 
 our Saviour say even to Saint Peter himself, ' Feed my 
 lambs, feed my sheep.' And why /a»Z(5j first ? i. Because 
 they were lambs before they were sheep. 2. Because, if 
 they be not fed whilst lambs, they could never be sheep. 
 3. Because sheep can in some sort feed themselves ; but 
 lambs (such their tenderness) must either be fed or 
 
 famished. Worthies: Sussex. Writers. 
 
 Cathedrals 
 
 I HAVE read of duke d'Alva, that he promised life to 
 some prisoners ; but, when they petitioned him for food, 
 he returned, ' he would grant them life, but no meat ; ' 
 by which criticism of courteous cruelty the poor people 
 were starved. If our cathedrals have only a bare being, 
 
 and 
 
Ouain^ CouneePc 
 
 21 
 
 and be not supplied with seasonable repairs (the daily 
 food of a fabric) soon will they be famished to nothing. 
 
 Worthies: Stafford. Buildings. 
 
 Ceremonies 
 
 I HAVE a high esteem for the cross in baptism, so long 
 as it observes the due distance of an ancient and signifi- 
 cant ceremony, and intrudes not itself as essential. A 
 chain of gold is an eminent ornament about the neck ; 
 but it may be drawn so close, as to choke and strangle 
 the wearer thereof. And in like manner ceremonies, 
 though decent and useful, when pretending to essentiality, 
 become (as Luther saith) carnificincB conscientice, and 
 therefore justly may we beware thereof. 
 
 Appeal of Injured Innocence, P. ii. Animad. Ch. Hist. ii. 41. 
 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 Thomas Allen 
 Thomas Allen was born in this county, deriving his 
 original from Alanus de Buckenhole, lord of Buckenhole, 
 in the reign of king Edward the Second. He was bred 
 in Gloucester Hall in Oxford ; a most excellent mathema- 
 tician, where he succeeded to the skill and scandal of 
 friar Bacon (taken at both, but given I believe by neither), 
 accounted a conjuror. Indeed vulgar eyes, ignorant in 
 optics, conceit that raised which is but reflected, fancy 
 every shadow a spirit, every spirit a devil. And when 
 once the repute of a conjurer is raised in vulgar esteem, 
 it is not in the power of the greatest innocence and learn- 
 ing to allay it. He was. much in favour with Robert earl 
 of Leicester ; and his admirable writings of mathematics 
 
 are 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Fuller 
 
22 
 
 (^iee (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 are latent with some private possessors, which envy the 
 public profit thereof. He died, a very aged man, towards 
 the end of the reign of king James. 
 
 Worthies: Stafford. Writers. 
 
 Characters {continued) 
 Bishop Lancelot Andrewes 
 The world wanted learning to know how learned this 
 man was, so skilled in all (especially oriental) languages 
 that some conceive he might, if then living, almost have 
 served as an interpreter-general at the confusion of tongues. 
 Nor are the Fathers more faithfully cited in his books, 
 than lively copied out in his countenance and carriage ; 
 his gravity in a manner awing king James, who refrained 
 from that mirth and liberty in the presence of his prelate, 
 which otherwise he assumed to himself. He lieth buried 
 in the chapel of St. Mary Overy's, having on his monu- 
 ment a large, elegant, and true epitaph. . . . He was the 
 prince of all our Enghsh critics : and whereas men of that 
 tribe are generally morose, so that they cannot dissent 
 from another without disdaining, nor oppose without 
 inveighing against him, it is hard to say whether more 
 candour, learning or judgment, was blended in his ' Miscel- 
 lanies.' By discovering how much Hebrew there is in the 
 New Testament Greek, he cleareth many real difficulties 
 
 from his verbal observations. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. xi. S. i. 46. 
 
 Andronicus 
 We must be wary how, in our censures, we shut heaven- 
 door against any penitents. Far be it from us to distrust 
 the power of God's mercy, or to deny the efficacy of true 
 
 (though 
 
Ouainf Cottn0ef0 
 
 23 
 
 (though late) repentance. The last groan which divorces 
 the soul from the body, may unite it to God : though the 
 arm of his body was cut off, the hand of his faith might 
 hold. All that I will add is this : If Andronicus's soul 
 went to heaven, it is pity that any should know of it, lest 
 they be encouraged to imitate the wicked premisses of his 
 life, hoping by his example to obtain the same happy 
 conclusion after death. prc/am state, b. v. c. xvUi. 9. 
 
 Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor 
 None can character him to the life, save himself. He 
 was in parts more than a man ; who in any liberal pro- 
 fession might be whatsoever he would himself: a great 
 honourer of ancient authors, yet a great deviser and 
 practiser of new ways in learning : privy counsellor, as to 
 king James, so to nature itself, diving into many of her 
 abstruse mysteries. New conclusions he would dig out 
 with mattocks of gold and silver ; not caring what his ex- 
 perience cost him, expending on the trials of nature all 
 and more than he got by the trials at the bar ; posterity 
 being the better for his — though he the worse for his own 
 — dear experiments. He and his servants had all in 
 common ; the men never wanting what their master had ; 
 and thus what came flowing in unto him was sent flying 
 away from him, who, in giving of rewards, knew no bounds 
 but the bottom of his own purse. Wherefore, when king 
 James heard that he had given ten pounds to an under- 
 keeper, by whom he had sent him a buck, the king said 
 merrily, ' I and he shall both die beggars ; ' which was 
 condemnable prodigality in a subject. He lived many 
 years after ; and in his books will ever survive : in the 
 
 reading 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
24 
 
 ^t0e OX>ovi>0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 reading whereof, modest men commend him in what 
 they do — condemn themselves in what they do not — 
 understand, as believing the fault in their own eyes, and 
 not in the object. ch. Hist. b. x. s. v. 22. 
 
 Characters {continued) 
 Sir Nicholas Bacon 
 He gave for his motto, ' Mediocria Firma ; ' and prac- 
 tised the former part thereof, mediocria ; never attaining, 
 because never affecting, any great estate. He was not 
 for invidious structures, (as some of his contemporaries), 
 but dehghted in domo domino pari; such as was his 
 house at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire. And thereforei 
 when queen Elizabeth, coming thither in progress, told 
 him, ' My lord, your house is too little for you : ' ' No, 
 madam,' returned he, no less wittily than gratefully, ' but 
 it is your highness that hath made me too great for mine 
 house.' Now as he was a just practiser of the first part 
 of his motto, mediocria, so no doubt he will prove a true 
 prophet in the second part thereof, ^r«a, having left an 
 estate, rather good than great, to his posterity, whose 
 eldest son. Sir Edward Bacon, in this county, was the 
 first baronet of England. He died on the 20th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1578, and heth buried in the choir of St. Paul's. 
 In a word, he was a good man, a grave statesman, a father 
 to his country, and father to Sir Francis Bacon. 
 
 Worthies: Suffolk. Statesmen. 
 
 Baldwin II 
 The Death of Baldwin the Second 
 King Baldwin, a little before his death, renounced 
 the world, and took on him a religious habit. This was 
 
 the 
 
Ouainf Couneefe 
 
 25 
 
 the fashion of many princes in that age, though they did 
 it for divers ends. Some thought to make amends for 
 their disordered lives by entering into some holy order at 
 their deaths ; others, having surfeited of the world's vanity, 
 fasted from it when they could eat no more, because of the 
 impotency of their bodies ; others, being crossed by the 
 world by some misfortune, sought to cross the world again 
 in renouncing of it. These, like furious gamesters, threw 
 up their cards, not out of dislike of gaming but of their 
 game ; and they were rather discontented to live than 
 contented to die. But we must believe that Baldwin did 
 it out of true devotion, to ripen himself for heaven, 
 because he was piously affected from his youth, so that 
 all his life was religiously tuned, though it made the 
 sweetest music in the close. Holy War, b. ii. c. 18. 
 
 Baldwin IV 
 Thus anguish of mind and weakness of body (a doughty 
 conquest for their united strengths, which single might 
 suffice) ended this king's days, dying young at five and 
 twenty years of age. But if by the morning we may 
 guess at the day, he would have been no whit inferior to 
 any of his predecessors ; especially if his body had been 
 able : but (alas !) it spoiled the music of his soul, that the 
 instrument was quite out of tune. He reigned twelve 
 years, and was buried in the Temple of the Sepulchre 
 [May 16, 1 185]: a king happy in this, that he died 
 before the death of his kingdom. Holy war, b. ii. c. 42. 
 
 Nicholas Breakspear 
 He was afterwards chosen Pope of Rome, by the name 
 of Adrian the Fourth. There is a mystery more than I 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
24 
 
 (^i0e QX)ovbtf (xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 reading whereof, modest men commend him in what 
 they do — condemn themselves in what they do not — 
 understand, as believing the fault in their own eyes, and 
 not in the object. ca. i/ist. b. *. s. v. 22. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Sir Nicholas Bacon 
 He gave for his motto, ' Mediocria Firma ; ' and prac- 
 tised the former part thereof, mediocria ; never attaining, 
 because never affecting, any great estate. He was not 
 for invidious structures, (as some of his contemporaries), 
 but delighted in domo domino pari; such as was his 
 house at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire. And therefore^ 
 when queen Elizabeth, coming thither in progress, told 
 him, ' My lord, your house is too little for you : ' ' No, 
 madam,' returned he, no less wittily than gratefully, ' but 
 it is your highness that hath made me too great for mine 
 house.' Now as he was a just practiser of the first part 
 of his motto, mediocria, so no doubt he will prove a true 
 prophet in the second part thereof, firma, having left an 
 estate, rather good than great, to his posterity, whose 
 eldest son, Sir Edward Bacon, in this county, was the 
 first baronet of England. He died on the 20th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1578, and heth buried in the choir of St. Paul's. 
 In a word, he was a good man, a grave statesman, a father 
 to his country, and father to Sir Francis Bacon. 
 
 Worthies: Suffolk^ Statesmen. 
 
 Baldwin II 
 The Death of Baldwin the Second 
 King Baldwin, a little before his death, renounced 
 the world, and took on him a religious habit. This was 
 
 the 
 
Ouainf (toxunet^U 
 
 25 
 
 the fashion of many princes in that age, though they did 
 it for divers ends. Some thought to make amends for 
 their disordered lives by entering into some holy order at 
 their deaths ; others, having surfeited of the world's vanity, 
 fasted from it when they could eat no more, because of the 
 impotency of their bodies ; others, being crossed by the 
 world by some misfortune, sought to cross the world again 
 in renouncing of it. These, like furious gamesters, threw 
 up their cards, not out of dislike of gaming but of their 
 game ; and they were rather discontented to live than 
 contented to die. But we must believe that Baldwin did 
 it out of true devotion, to ripen himself for heaven, 
 because he was piously affected from his youth, so that 
 all his life was religiously tuned, though it made the 
 sweetest music in the close. ffoi^i ivar, b. u. c. 18. 
 
 Baldwin IV 
 Thus anguish of mind and weakness of body (a doughty 
 conquest for their united strengths, which single might 
 suffice) ended this king's days, dying young at five and 
 twenty years of age. But if by the morning we may 
 guess at the day, he would have been no whit inferior to 
 any of his predecessors ; especially if his body had been 
 able : but (alas !) it spoiled the music of his soul, that the 
 instrument was quite out of tune. He reigned twelve 
 years, and was buried in the Temple of the Sepulchre 
 [May 16, 1 185] : a king happy in this, that he died 
 before the death of his kingdom. Holy War, b. h. c. 42. 
 
 Nicholas Breakspear 
 He was afterwards chdsen Pope of Rome, by the name 
 of Adrian the Fourth. There is a mystery more than I 
 
 can 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
26 
 
 (^iu (K)ovJi0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 can fathom in the changing of his name, seeing his own. 
 font-name was a papal one ; yet he preferred rather to be 
 Adrian the Fourth than Nicholas the Third. He held 
 his place four years, eight months, and eight and twenty 
 days: and, anno 1 158, as he was drinking, was choked 
 with a fly ; which in the large territory of St. Peter's 
 Patrimony had no place but his throat to get into. But, 
 since a fly stopped his breath, fear shall stop my mouth, 
 not to make uncharitable conclusions from such casual- 
 ties. Worthies: Herts. Pcfe. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Bishop Brownrigg 
 
 King James, coming to Cambridge, was (amongst 
 others) entertained with a philosophy act ; and Mr. 
 Brownrigg was appointed to perform the Joco-serious ^zii 
 thereof; who did both, to the wonder of the hearers. 
 
 Herein he was like himself, that he could on a sudden 
 be so unlike himself, and instantly vary his words and 
 matter from mirth to solidity. No man had more ability, 
 or less inclination, to be satirical, in which kind posse et 
 nolle is a rarity indeed. He had wit at will ; but so that 
 he made it his page, not privy councillor, to obey, not 
 direct his judgment. He carried learning enough in 
 numerato about him in his pockets for any discourse, and 
 had much more at home in his chests for any serious 
 dispute. It is hard to say whether his loyal memory, quick 
 fancy, solid judgment, or fluent utterance, were most to 
 be admired, having not only flumen hut fulmen eloquentia, 
 being one who did teach with authority. 
 
 IVortkies: Suffolk, Prelates, 
 
 Death 
 
Ouaittf Cotttt0e00 
 
 27 
 
 Death of the Venerable Bede 
 Bedels last Blaze, and the Going- out of the Candle of 
 his Life. a.d. 734 
 One of the last things he did was the translating of the 
 Gospel of St. John into English. When death seized on 
 him, one of his devout scholars, whom he used for his 
 secretary or amanuensis, complained, ' My beloved 
 master, there remains yet one sentence unwritten.' 
 ' Write it, then, quickly,' replied Bede, and, summoning 
 all his spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle 
 going out, he indited it, and expired. Thus, God's 
 children are immortal while their Father hath any thing 
 for them to do on earth ; and death, ' that beast, cannot 
 overcome and kill them, till first they have finished their 
 testimony,' Rev. xi. 7 ; which done, like silkworms, they 
 willingly die when their web is ended, and are comfort- 
 ably entombed in their own endeavours. Nor have 
 I aught else to observe of Bede, save only this : A foreign 
 ambassador, some two hundred years since, coming to 
 Durham, addressed himself first to the high and sump- 
 tuous shrine of St. Cuthbert, ' If thou beest a saint, pray 
 for me ; ' then, coming to the plain, low, and little tomb 
 of Bede, ' Because,' said he, ' thou art a saint, good Bede, 
 pray for me.' ch. nut. b. ii. is. 
 
 Benedict Biscop 
 In a word, I reverence his memory, not so much for 
 his first bringing over painted glass into England, as for 
 his bringing up pious Bede in his monastery. Being 
 struck beneath the girdle with the dead palsy, his soul 
 retired into the upper rooms of his clay cottage, much 
 
 employed 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(Wint (BJorde rtn^ 
 
 TtiontKi 
 FmUw 
 
 oini>loyod in iwalitation, until tl>o il;iv of l\is doiith, \vliicl> 
 Chftracters {>\mtiMH<^i) 
 
 \\U11\M lU'riKK 
 
 \\u 1 1 AM lU'n KK was Ihhii at Ipswivh in this <Hniuty, 
 whrix- ho had one only hi\>th(M\ who, j;v>in,i; In-Yond si\i, 
 turui-d I'apist, for w'liirl\ cause this William was so 
 olVoudod with hin\, thut ho U-ft hin\ nv>uo of his ostalo, 
 I ohsorvo this tlAO rather, hooauso this \Villi«n\ lUitU'i 
 was oausolossly suspoolcil for (lopish inohnatious. llo 
 was hrod follow of Claro Hall in (,"au\l>ridgo, whoro ho 
 hooau\o tho ^I'lsoulanius of our ago, llo was Iho first 
 I'aiglislunan who quiokoi\od (lalonioal physio with a 
 tovioh of I'araoolsus, trading in ohouiioal ixH'oipts witl> 
 groat suoooss. His oyo was o\ot>llont at Iho instant 
 disoovory of a oadavounis faoo, on which ho would not 
 lavish any art. This inado hin>, nt tho lirst sight of siok 
 prinoo llonry, to got hin\solf i>iit of sight. Knowing 
 hinisolf lo ho tho prinoo of physicians, l\o would ho 
 olisorvod accordingly. (\iinplin>onts wimld prevail no 
 thing with hiu>, onlroalios hut little, surly thrcalonings 
 would do uuich, and a witty jeer do anything, lie was 
 hotter pleased with pro.sonis than u\onoy, loved what was 
 pretty rather than what was cosily ; and prefoired rarities 
 hofore riehos. Neatness he nogloelod inti> slovenliness; 
 and aeoounting oiiiVs to ho manacles, ho n\ay ho said not 
 to have ukuIo himself ready for some seven years tO' 
 gi-thor. llo made his huinorsomoi\oss lo hecon\o hin\, 
 whoreii\ ,s(>n\o of his profession have rather apod than 
 imitated him, who had nionwHiiti-m (ri/uiif'ili-ni, ami kopi 
 
 the 
 
Qudint Coun0el!0 
 
 -"; 
 
 l\w li'iKir of lh(^ Muine HurlliicHH to nil purHoiiw. I lu was ft 
 KimkI hfiifrni'Inr id ( ,'lmt! Hull ; iind dying i()ar, he waH 
 liiiiird in the (Oifliiccl of S(. Mary'H In C:uiiil(ri(l|.f, iinilcr 
 ft fiiir iiKimnnent. Mr. John ('nine, llml cxjumI iiiiotlit- 
 <iuy iiiid hJH exrciilor, In «iniu biirinl by him ; and If 
 miiiic fiiiinaiiL miini'dn WUH Inti'iicd on hin oilier Hidf, I 
 would Kfty, thilt i)hy,sic Ifty liu'io in Hdilt.', with ilH Iwo pngCH 
 unending it. in^nhku n„//m. i'h'leln»>- 
 
 Cami'ian 
 
 C'ami'IAN, one llltcr lorn tninipcliT tlum (i soldier; 
 
 whoNt; licHt ubllity WUH, llml hccoultl IioiihI In ^ood l.ulin, 
 
 lifinf,' cxcellunt ul tliu lint liiuid of rhcloric, which rulhfr 
 
 gIvt'H pulH thun blowH ; but he I'oiild not bend hiw list to 
 
 dlspiltf. lloly.SMt, II. II, t'. J, 
 
 Cadh', and SruAw 
 CaiU ami Shvw liko and iin/ikr. a, ii. i .150 
 Aiuiur IIiIh time Jink ( !«dt! rium'd hin rebellion, like 
 and unlike to the Conner coinniotion of h"'' Siniw. 
 Like, I'irHt. HectiiiHe Jiicks both ; \ im-iui, insolent, 
 !ni|>ndenl, domineering clownM. Seeoiully. Moth of 
 them were Kenli.sh by their exlrnctions, 'Thirdly. Ilolh 
 ol' Iheni pressed upon London, and there prinei|ially 
 pltiyed Iheir pranks, hoiirlhly, Uoth of them, ftfler 
 they hud troubled the land tor a short lime, were justly 
 olfttn, and their numerous rubble routed and dispersed. 
 In other remarkubles, ("ude dil'fered from Jack Straw. 
 I''ii'st. Straw delied all nobility and leurninn, vowing nnd 
 endeavouring Iheir ruin and extirpation; whilst fade 
 pretended himself to be the lord Mortin\er, and next 
 
 heir 
 
 Thonmii 
 rullsr 
 
3° 
 
 ^i0e (^ovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 heir to the crown, and no design against learning is 
 charged on his account. Lastly. Straw's rebellion is 
 (though most falsely) fathered by popish writers on 
 Wickliffe and his adherents, [who are said] to have 
 occasioned, at leastwise connived at, his commotion; 
 but I never met yet with any Romanists accusing the 
 Lollards, as they term them, for having any hand in 
 Cade's rebellion. a. Hist. b. iv. s. Hi. 22. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 
 Catherine of Arragon 
 
 At this time, January 8th, Catherine dowager, whom 
 we will be bold still in courtesy to call ' a queen,' not- 
 withstanding King Henry's proclamation to the contrary, 
 ended her woful life at Kimbolton. A pious woman 
 toward God, (according to her devotion,) frequent in 
 prayer, which she always performed on her bare knees, 
 nothing else between her and the earth interposed ; little 
 curious in her clothes, being wont to say, she accounted 
 no time lost but what was laid out in dressing of her ; 
 though art might be more excusable in her, to whom 
 nature had not been over bountiful. She was rather 
 staid, than stately ; reserved, than proud ; grave from 
 her cradle, insomuch that she was a matron before she 
 was a mother. This her natural gravity increased with 
 her apprehended injuries, settled in her reduced age into 
 a habit of melancholy, and that terminated into a con- 
 sumption of the spirits. She was buried in the abbey- 
 church of Peterborough, under a hearse of black say; 
 probably by her own appointment, that she might be 
 plain when dead, who neglected bravery of clothes when 
 
 living. 
 
Qttaitti ^oun0ef0 
 
 31 
 
 living. A noble pen tells us, that in intuition to her 
 corpse here interred, king Henry, at the destruction of 
 abbeys, not only spared the church in Peterborough, but 
 also advanced it into a cathedral. If so, it was civilly 
 done of him not to disturb her in her grave whom he had 
 so disquieted in her bed. ch. Hist. b. v. s. iv. ig. 
 
 Death of Charles I 
 
 My cue of entrance is to come in where the state-writer 
 doth go out, whose pen hath always followed the con- 
 fessors into the chambers of dying people; and now 
 must do its last devoir to my gracious master, in de- 
 scribing his pious death and solemn burial. 
 
 Having received in himself the sentence of death. Dr. 
 Juxon, bishop of London, preached privately before him, 
 at St. James's, on the Sunday following, January 28th; 
 his text, Romans ii. 16 : 'In the day when God shall 
 judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to 
 my Gospel.' 
 
 Next Tuesday, January 30th, being the day of his 
 dissolution, in the morning alone he received the com- 
 munion from the hands of the said bishop. At which 
 time he read for the second lesson, the twenty-seventh 
 chapter of St. Matthew, containing the history of the 
 death and passion of our Saviour. Communion ended, 
 the king heartily thanked the bishop for selecting so 
 seasonable and comfortable a portion of Scripture, seeing 
 all human hope and happiness is founded on the suffer- 
 ings of our Saviour. The bishop modestly disavowed 
 any thanks due to himself, it being done merely by the 
 direction of the church of England, whose Rubric ap- 
 
 pointeth 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(^iee (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Characters (amtinueii). 
 
 pointeth that chapter the second morning-lesson for the 
 thirtieth of January. 
 
 His hour drawing nigh, he passed through the park to 
 Whitehall. As he always was observed to walk very 
 fast, so now he abated not any whit of his wonted pace. 
 In his passage a sorry fellow (seemingly some mean 
 citizen) went abreast along with him, and, in an affront, 
 often stared his majesty in the face, which caused him to 
 turn it another way. The bishop of London, though not 
 easily angered, was much offended hereat, as done out of 
 despiteful design, to discompose him before his death, 
 and moved the captain of the guard he might be taken 
 away ; which was done accordingly. 
 
 Entering on the floor of death, he asked of colonel 
 Tomlinson, who attended there, whether he might have 
 the liberty to dispose of his own body, as to the place 
 and manner of the burial thereof. The colonel an- 
 swered that he could give his majesty no account at all 
 therein. 
 
 His majesty held in his hand a small piece of paper, 
 some four inches square, containing heads whereon in 
 his speech he intended to dilate; and a tall soldier 
 looking over the king's shoulders read it, as the king 
 held it in his hand. As for the speech which passeth 
 in print for the king's, though taken in short-hand, by 
 one eminent therein, it is done so defectively, it deserveth 
 not to be accounted his speech, by the testimony of such 
 as heard it. His speech ended, he gave that small paper 
 to the bishop of London. 
 
 After his death, the ofificers demanded the paper of the 
 bishop ; who, because of the depth of his pocket, small- 
 
Ouainf £outt0ePe 
 
 33 
 
 ness of that paper, and the mixture of others therewith, 
 could not so soon produce it as was required. At last 
 he brought it forth; but therewith the others were 
 unsatisfied, (jealousy is quick of growth,) as not the 
 same which his majesty delivered unto him ; when 
 presently the soldier, whose rudeness (the bad cause of 
 a good effect) had formerly over-inspected it in the king's 
 hand, attested this the very same paper, and prevented 
 farther suspicions, which might have terminated to the 
 bishop's trouble. 
 
 On the Wednesday se'nnight after, (February 7th,) his 
 corpse, embalmed and coffined in lead, was delivered to 
 the care of two of his servants, to be buried at Windsor ; 
 — the one Anthony Mildmay, who formerly had been his 
 sewer, as I take it ; the other John Joyner, bred first in 
 his majesty's kitchen, afterwards a parliament-captain, 
 since by them deputed (when the Scots surrendered his 
 person) cook to his majesty. This night they brought 
 the corpse to Windsor, and digged a grave for it in 
 St. George's chapelj on the south side of the communion- 
 table. Ch. Hist. B. xi. S. x. 36-43. 
 
 Charles, King of Jerusalem 
 
 He survived a year or two longer, but dull and 
 melancholic, living as it were without life, and died at 
 last, having reigned king of Jerusalem twenty years : 
 a prince who had tasted of various success ; fortune 
 for a while smiling on him, and at last laughing at him. 
 
 Holy War, B. iv. C. xxxi. 
 
 His 
 
 ThomES 
 Ftiller 
 
34 
 
 (^t0e (^ovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 His Son 
 For as high hills . near the seaside, though otherwise 
 never so base and barren ground, yet will serve to be 
 sea-marks for the direction of mariners ; so this Charles, 
 together with Hugh, John, and Henry, Kings of Cyprus, 
 pretending also to Jerusalem, though we read nothing 
 remarkable of them, will become the front of a page, 
 and serve to divide and distinguish times, and to parcel 
 the history the better to our apprehension. As for the 
 bare anatomy of their reign (for we iind it not ileshed 
 with any history), with the dates of their beginnings and 
 endings, we shall present it to the reader hereafter in our 
 chronology. idtm. 
 
 A Fighting Cock 
 
 [AMP.] Cock. I am sorry I cannot add 
 
 his Christian name, and more sorry that I cannot 
 certainly avouch his nativity in this county (though 
 inclined with many motives to believe it) being a cock 
 of the game indeed : for in the eighty-eight, ' Solus 
 cockus Anglus in sui inter medios hostes navicula, cum 
 laude periit.' And whereas there was not a noble 
 family in Spain but lost either son, brother, or nephew, 
 in that fight ; this cock was the only man of note of the 
 English, who, fighting a volunteer in his own ship, lost 
 his Ufe, to save his queen and country : 
 
 'Unus homo nobis pereundo restituit rem.' 
 
 Pity it is his memory should ever be forgotten ; and 
 my pen is sensible of no higher preferment, than when 
 
 it 
 
Ouain^ Couneefe 
 
 .35 
 
 it may be permitted to draw the curtains about those 
 who have died in the bed of honour. 
 
 IVorikies; Devon. Seamen. 
 
 Will. Compton 
 He was highly and deservedly a favourite to this king 
 Henry VIII ; so that, in the court, no lay-man, abating 
 only Charles Brandon (in whom affection and affinity 
 met), was equal unto him. He might have been, for 
 wealth or honour, what he pleased ; but contented 
 himself with what he was. For the happiness of whom, 
 and his, when I cannot orally pray, I will make signs of 
 
 my affection to heaven. WorthUs: Worcester. Sheriffs. 
 
 Thomas Coriat 
 
 Though some will censure him, as a person rather 
 ridiculous than remarkable, he must not be omitted ; 
 for, first, few would be found to call him fool, might 
 none do it save such who had as much learning as 
 himself. Secondly, if others have more wisdom than 
 he, thankfulness and humility is the way to preserve 
 and increase it. 
 
 He was born at Odcombe nigh Evil, in this county ; 
 bred at Oxford, where he attained to admirable fluency 
 in the Greek tongue. He carried folly (which the 
 charitable called merriment) in his very face. The 
 shape of his head had no promising form, being like a 
 sugar-loaf inverted, with the little end before, as com- 
 posed of fancy and memory, without any common sense. 
 
 Such as conceived him fool ad duo, and something 
 else ad decern, were utterly mistaken : for he drave on 
 D 2 no 
 
 Thomas 
 roller 
 
(^i0e (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 no design, carrying for coin and counters alike; so 
 contented with what was present, that he accounted 
 those men guilty of superfluity, who had more suits 
 and shirts than bodies, seldom putting off either till 
 they were ready to go away from him. 
 
 Prince Henry allowed him a pension, and kept him 
 for his servant. Sweet-meats and Coriat made up the 
 last course at all court entertainments. Indeed he was 
 the courtiers' anvil to try their wits upon : and some- 
 times this anvil returned the hammers as hard knocks 
 as it received, his bluntness repaying their abusiveness. 
 
 His book, known by the name of ' Coriat's Crudities,' 
 nauseous to nice readers, for the rawness thereof, is not 
 altogether useless ; though the porch be more worth 
 than the palace, I mean, the preface, of other men's 
 mock-commending verses thereon. 
 
 IVorthies : Somerset, Mem. Pers. 
 
 Characters {continued^ 
 
 Sir Rowland Cotton 
 
 Incredible are the most true relations, which many 
 
 eye-witnesses, still alive, do make of the valour and 
 
 activity of this most accomplished knight; so strong, 
 
 as if he had been nothing but bones ; so nimble, as if 
 
 he had been nothing but sinews. Worthies: Shropshire. 
 
 Thomas Cromwell 
 
 Match-makers betwixt private persons seldom find 
 great love for their pains, betwixt princes often fall into 
 danger, — as here it proved in the lord Cromwell, the 
 grand contriver of the king's marriage with Anne of 
 
 Cleves. 
 
Ouainf Cottneefe 
 
 Z7 
 
 Cleves. On him the king had conferred honours so 
 many, and so suddenly, that one may say, the crudities 
 thereof lay unconcocted in his soul, so that he could 
 not have time to digest one dignity before another was 
 poured upon him. Not to speak of his Mastership of 
 the Jewel-house, he was made Baron, Master of the 
 Rolls, the King's Vicar-General in spiritual matters. 
 Lord Privy Seal, Knight of the Garter, Earl of Essex, 
 Lord Great Chamberlain of England. And my author 
 observeth', that all these honours were conferred upon 
 him in the compass of five years, most of them possessed 
 by him not five months ; I may add, and all taken from 
 him in less than five minutes, with his life on the 
 scaffold. 
 
 This was the cause why he was envied of the nobility 
 and gentry, — being by birth so much beneath all, by 
 preferment so high above most of them. Besides, many 
 of his advancements were interpreted not so much 
 honours to him as injuries to others, as being either in 
 use improper — or in equity unfit — or in right unjust — 
 or in conscience unlawful — for him to accept. His 
 Mastership of the Rolls, such who were bred lawyers 
 conceived it fitter for men of their profession. As for 
 the -earldom of Essex conferred upon him, though the 
 title lately became void by the death of Henry Bour- 
 chier, the last earl without issue-male, (and so in the 
 strictness of right in the king's free disposal,) yet because 
 he left Anne, a sole daughter, behind him, Cromwell's 
 invading of that honour bred no good blood towards 
 him amongst the kindred of that orphan, who were 
 
 ' Camden. 
 
 honourable 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(^tce (?E)or50 an6 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Characters (continued). 
 
 honourable and numerous. His Lord Great Chamber- 
 lainship of England, being an office for many years 
 hereditary in the ancient and honourable house of 
 Oxford, incensed all of all that family, when beholding 
 him possessed thereof. His Knighthood of the Garter, 
 which custom has appropriated to such who by three 
 degrees at least could prove their gentle descent, being 
 bestowed on him, did but enrage his competitors thereof, 
 more honourably extracted. As for his being the King's 
 Vicar-General in spiritual matters, all the clergy did rage 
 thereat, grudging much that King Henry the substance — 
 and, more, that Cromwell his shadow — should assume 
 so highi a title to himself. Besides, Cromwell's name 
 was odious unto them, on the account of abbeys dis- 
 solved ; and no wonder, if this Samson, plucking down 
 the pillars of the popish church, had the rest of the 
 structure falling upon him. These rejoiced when the 
 duke of Norfolk arrested him for treason at the council- 
 table, July 9th, whence he was sent prisoner to the 
 Tower. 
 
 And now, to speak impartially of him, though in 
 prison : If we reflect on his parts and endowments, it 
 is wonderful to see how one quality in him befriended 
 another. Great scholar he was none, (the Latin Testa- 
 ment gotten by heart being the master-piece of his 
 learning,) nor any studied lawyer, (never long living, 
 if admitted, in the Inns of Court,) nor experienced 
 soldier, (though necessity cast on him that calling, when 
 the duke of Bourbon besieged Rome,) nor courtier in 
 his youth, till bred in the court, as I may call it, of 
 cardinal Wolsey's house ; and yet, that of the lawyer in 
 
 him 
 
Quaint tovLvicde 
 
 39 
 
 him so helped the scholar ; that of the soldier, the 
 lawyer ; that of the courtier, the soldier ; and that of 
 the traveller so perfected all the rest,^ — being no stranger 
 to Germany, well acquainted with France, most famihar 
 with Italy, — that the result of all together made him for 
 endowments eminent, not to say admirable. 
 
 a. Hist. B. V. S. V. 20, 22. 
 
 Sir Francis Drake 
 
 His escape from shipwreck 
 
 On January 9th, 1579, his ship, having a large wind and 
 a smooth sea, ran aground on a dangerous shoal, and 
 struck twice on it ; knocking twice at the door of death, 
 which, no doubt, had opened the third time. Here they 
 stuck, from eight o'clock at night till four the next 
 afternoon, having ground too much, and yet too little 
 to land on ; and water too much, and yet too little to 
 sail in. Had God (who, as the wise man saith, ' holdeth 
 the winds in his fist,' Prov. xxx. 4) but opened his little 
 finger, and let out the smallest blast, they had un- 
 doubtedly been cast away ; but there blew not any wind 
 all the while. Then they, conceiving aright that the 
 best way to lighten the ship was, first, to ease it of the 
 burden of their sins by true repentance, humbled them- 
 selves, by fasting, under the hand of God. Afterwards 
 they received the communion, dining on Christ in the 
 sacrament, expecting no other than to sup with him in 
 heaven. Then they cast out of their ship six great pieces 
 of ordnance, threw overboard as much wealth as would 
 break the heart of a miser to think on it, with much 
 sugar, and packs of spices, making a caudle of the sea 
 
 round 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
40 
 
 ^i0e (ps)otd0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 round about. Then they betook themselves to their 
 prayers, the best lever at such a dead lift indeed ; and it 
 pleased God, that the wind, formerly their mortal enemy, 
 became their friend ; which, changing from the starboard 
 to the larboard of the ship, and rising by degrees, cleared 
 them off to the sea again, — ^for which they returned 
 unfeigned thanks to Almighty God. Boiy state, b. ii. c. xxH 
 
 Characters (continued ) 
 Sir Francis Drake 
 Disappointment and Death 
 Now began Sir Francis's discontent to feed upon him. 
 He conceived, that expectation, a merciless usurer, com- 
 puting each day since his departure, exacted an interest 
 and return of honour and profit proportionable to his 
 great preparations, and transcending his former achieve- 
 ments. He saw that all the good which he had done ir) 
 this voyage, consisted in the evil he had done to the 
 Spaniards afar off, whereof he could present but small 
 visible fruits in England. These apprehensions, accom- 
 panying, if not causing, the disease of the flux, wrought 
 his sudden death, January 28th, 1595. And sickness did 
 not so much untie his clothes, as sorrow did rend at 
 once the robe of his mortality asunder. He lived by the 
 sea, died on it, and was buried in it. Thus an ex- 
 tempore performance (scarce heard to be begun, before 
 we hear it is ended) comes off with better applause, or 
 miscarries with less disgrace, than a long-studied and 
 openly-premeditated action. Besides, we see how great 
 spirits, having mounted to the highest pitch of per- 
 formance. 
 
Ouain^ 4^outt6ef0 
 
 41 
 
 formance, afterwards strain and break their credits in 
 striving to go beyond it. Lastly, God oftentimes leaves 
 the brightest men in an eclipse, to show that they do 
 but borrow their lustre from his reflexion. We will not 
 justify all the actions of any man, though of a tamer 
 profession than a sea-captainj in whom civility is often 
 counted preciseness. For the main, we say that this 
 our captain was a religious man towards God and his 
 houses, (generally sparing churches where he came), 
 chaste in his life, just in his dealings, true of his word, 
 and merciful to those that were under him, hating 
 nothing so much as idleness : and therefore, lest his 
 soul should rust in peace, at spare hours he brought 
 fresh water to Plymouth. Careful he was for posterity, 
 (though men of his profession have as well an ebb of 
 riot, as a float of fortune,) and providently raised a 
 worshipful family of his kindred. In a word : should 
 those that speak against him fast till they fetch their 
 bread where he did his, they would have a good stomach 
 to eat it. Idem. 
 
 Mr. John Dod 
 
 The same year with this archbishop (Laud), died 
 another divine, (though of a different judgment,) no less 
 esteemed amongst men of his own persuasion ; namely, 
 Mr. John Dod, who, in the midst of troublesome times, 
 quietly withdrew himself to heaven. He was born at Shot- 
 ledge in Cheshire, the youngest of seventeen children ; 
 bred in Jesus College in Cambridge. At a disputation at 
 one Commencement he was so facetiously solid, (wild yet 
 sweet fruits which the stock brought forth before grafted 
 
 with 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
42 
 
 (K)t0e (^or60 cinb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Characters (continued). 
 
 with grace,) that Oxford-men, there present, courted him 
 home with them, and would have planted him in their 
 university, save that he dechned it. 
 
 He was a passive nonconformist, not loving any one 
 the worse for difference in judgment about ceremonies, 
 but all the better for their unity of affections in grace 
 and goodness. He used to retrench some hot spirits 
 when inveighing against bishops, telling them how God 
 under that government had given a marvellous increase 
 to the Gospel; and that godly men might comfortably 
 comport therewith, under which learning and religion 
 had so manifest an improvement. He was a good 
 decalogist, and is conceived, to his dying day, (how 
 roughly soever used by the opposite party,) to stick to 
 his own judgment of what he had written on the fifth 
 commandment, of obedience to /awful authority. 
 
 Some riotous gentlemen, casually coming to the table 
 of Sir Anthony Cope, in Hanwell, were half-starved in 
 the midst of a feast, because refraining from swearing, 
 (meat and drink to them,) in the presence of Mr. Dod ; 
 of these one after dinner ingenuously professed, that he 
 thought it had been impossible for himself to forbear 
 oaths so long a time. Hereat Mr. Dod (the flame of 
 whose zeal turned all accidents into fuel) fell into a 
 pertinent and seasonable discourse (as better at occa- 
 sional) of what power men have, more than they know 
 of themselves, to refrain from sin, and how active God's 
 restraining grace would be in us to bridle us from 
 wickedness, were we not wanting to ourselves. 
 
 Being stricken in years, he used to compare himself 
 to Samson when his hair was cut off. ' I rise,' saith he, 
 
 'in 
 
Ouattt^ Cottn0ef0 
 
 43 
 
 ' in a . morning as Samson did, and think, I will go out 
 as at other times, go, watch, walk, work, study, ride, as 
 when a young man. But, alas ! he quickly found an 
 alteration ; and so do I, who must stoop to age, whicR 
 hath clipped my hair and taken my strength away.' 
 
 Being at Holdenby, and invited by an honourable 
 person to see that stately house built by Sir Christopher 
 Hatton, the master-piece of English architecture in that 
 age, he desired to be excused, and to sit still looking on 
 a flower which he had in his hand. ' In this flower,' 
 saith he, ' I can see more of God than in all the beau- 
 tiful buildings in the world.' And at this day, as his 
 flower is long since withered, tHat magnificent pile, that 
 fair flower of art, is altogether blasted and destroyed. 
 
 It is reported, he was but coarsely used of the Cava- 
 liers ; who, they say, plundered him of his linen and 
 household-stuif, though, as some tell me, if so disposed, 
 he might have redeemed all for a very small matter. 
 However, the good man still remembered his old 
 maxim, — 'Sanctified a,fflictions are good promotions:' 
 and I have been credibly informed, that, when the 
 soldiers brought down his sheets out of the chamber 
 into the room where Mr. Dod sat by the fire-side ; he, in 
 their absence to search after more, took one pair and 
 clapped them under his cushion whereon he sat, much 
 pleasing himself after their departure that he had, as he 
 said, plundered the plunderers, and by a lawful felony 
 saved so much of his own to himself. 
 
 He was an excellent scholar, and was as causelessly 
 accused, as another John of his name, (Mr. John Fox 
 I mean,) for lacking of Latin. He was also an exquisite 
 
 Hebrician 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
44 
 
 (5E)i0e (3X)otri0 att5 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Hebrician ; and, with his society and directions, in one 
 vacation taught that tongue unto Mr. John Gregory, 
 that rare linguist, and chaplain of Christ Church, who 
 survived him but one year ; and now they both together 
 praise God in that language which glorified saints and 
 angels use in heaven. 
 
 He was buried at Fauseley in Northamptonshire, with 
 whom the Old Puritan may seem to expire, and in his 
 grave to be interred ; humble, meek, patient, hospitable, 
 charitable as in his censures of — so in his alms to — 
 others. Would I could truly say but half so much of 
 the next generation ! ch. Hist. b. xi. s. ix. 85. 
 
 Characters {continued^ 
 King Edward I 
 The death of King Edward I. gave a great advancement 
 to the Pope's encroaching. A worthy prince he was, fixed 
 in his generation betwixt a weak father and a son ; as if 
 made wise and valiant by their antiperistasis : equally 
 fortunate in drawing and sheathing the sword, in war 
 and peace ; having taught the English loyalty, by them 
 almost forgotten ; and the Welsh, subjection, which they 
 never learned before. In himself, religiously disposed ; 
 founded the famous abbey of Vale Royal for the Cis- 
 tercians in Cheshire, and by will bequeathing thirty-two 
 thousand pounds to the Holy War : obedient, not servile, 
 to the see of Rome : a foe to the pride, and friend to 
 the profession, of the clergy ; whom he watered with his 
 bounty, but would not have to spread so broad as to 
 justle, or grow so high as to overtop the regal authority ; 
 dying in due time for himself, almost seventy years old ; 
 
 but 
 
Ouaitt^ fi^ouneefe 
 
 45 
 
 but too soon for his subjects, especially for his son, 
 whose giddy youth lacked a guide to direct him. In a 
 word : As the arm of King Edward I. was accounted the 
 measure of a yard, generally received in England ; so 
 his actions are an excellent model and a praiseworthy 
 platform for succeeding princes to imitate. 
 
 Ck. Hist. B. iii. S. vii. ii. 
 
 King Edward II 
 
 The calamitous reign of King Edward II. afforded little 
 history of the Church, though too much of the common- 
 wealth except it had been better. A debauched prince this 
 Edward was ; his beauty being the best (not to say only) 
 commendable thing about him. He had an handsome 
 man-case, and better it had been empty with weakness, 
 than (as it was) ill-fitted with viciousness. Pierce Gave- 
 ston first corrupted him, maugre all the good counsel 
 that Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, and all his good 
 friends, could give him. And, when Gaveston was killed 
 and taken away, the king's badness was rather doubled, 
 than diminished ; exchanging one pandar to vice for two, 
 the two Spencers. In a word, the court was turned 
 tavern, stews, stage, play-house : wherein as many vain 
 and wanton comedies were acted before the king in his 
 lifetime, so a sad and sorrowful tragedy was acted by 
 him at his death. ca. HUt. b. ui. s. vii. 13. 
 
 Queen Eleanor 
 
 It is storied, how Eleanor his lady sucked all the poison 
 out of his wounds, without doing any harm to herself; so 
 sovereign a medicine is a woman's tongue, anointed with 
 
 the 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(^10^ ^otr60 (xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 the virtue of loving affection. Pity it is so pretty a story 
 should not be true (with all the miracles in Lover's 
 Legends), and sure he shall get himself no credit, who 
 undertaketh to confute a passage so sounding to the 
 honour of the sex ; yet can it not stand with what others 
 have written how the physician who was to dress his 
 wounds spake to the Lord Edmund and the Lord John 
 Voysey to take away Lady Eleanor out of the prince's 
 presence, lest her pity should be cruel towards him, in 
 not suffering his sores to be searched to the quick. And 
 though she cried out and wrung her hands, 'Madam,' 
 said they, ' be contented ; it is better that one woman 
 should weep a little while, than that all the realm of Eng- 
 land should lament a great season : ' and so they conducted 
 her out of the place. And the prince, by the benefit 
 of physic, good attendance, and an antidote the master 
 of the Templars gave him, showed himself on horseback 
 whole and well within fifteen days after. 
 
 Ifoly War, B. iv. C. xxU. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Queen Elizabeth, her Death 
 
 Then prepared she herself for another world, being 
 more constant in prayer and pious exercises than ever 
 before. Yet spake she very little to any, sighing out 
 more than she said, and making still music to God in 
 her heart. And as the red rose, though outwardly not 
 so fragrant, is inwardly far more cordial than the damask, 
 being more thrifty of its sweetness, and reserving it in 
 itself; so the religion of this dying queen was most 
 turned inward, in soliloquies betwixt God and her own 
 
 soul 
 
Oua(n( Cottn0ef0 
 
 47 
 
 soul, though she wanted not outward expressions thereof. 
 When her speech failed her, she spake with her heart, 
 tears, eyes, hands, and other signs, so commending her- 
 self to God, the best Interpreter, who understands what 
 his saints desire to say. Thus died Queen Elizabeth ; 
 whilst living, the first maid on earth ; and, when dead, 
 the second in heaven. 
 
 Surely, the kingdom had died with their queen, had 
 not the fainting spirits thereof been refreshed by the 
 coming-in of gracious King James. 
 
 She was of person, tall ; of hair and complexion, fair, 
 well-favoured, but high-nosed ; of limbs and features, 
 neat ; of a stately and majestic deportment. She had 
 ■a piercing eye, wherewith she used to touch what metal 
 [mettle] strangers were made of, who came into her 
 presence. But as she counted it a pleasant conquest, 
 with her majestic look to dash strangers out of counten- 
 ance ; so she was merciful in pursuing those whom she 
 overcame ; and afterwards would cherish and comfort 
 them with her smiles, if perceiving towardliness and an 
 ingenuous modesty in them. She much affected rich and 
 costly apparel ; and if ever jewels had just cause to be 
 proud, it was with her wearing them. /^^^ state, b. iv. c. xv. 
 
 Erasmus' Complaint of College Ale 
 
 Erasmus often complained of the College-ale, cervisia 
 hujus loci mihi nulla modo placet, — as raw, small, and 
 windy ; whereby it appears, i. Ale in that age was 
 the constant beverage of all Colleges before the innova- 
 tion of beer (the child of hops) was brought into 
 England. 2. Queen's College cervisia was not vis 
 
 Cereris 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
48 
 
 (Wiet (^ovbe <xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Cereris, but Ceres vitiata. In my time, (when I was 
 a member of that house,) scholars continued Erasmus's 
 complaint; whilst the brewers (having, it seems, pre- 
 scription on their side for long time) little amended it. 
 The best was, Erasmus had his iagena or flagon of wine 
 recruited weekly from his friends at London ; which he 
 drank sometimes singly by itself, and sometimes en- 
 couraged his faint ale with the mixture thereof 
 
 Hist. Camb. S. v. 48. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 
 John Feckehnam 
 
 The same year also John Feckenham late abbot of 
 Westminster, ended his life : whereon we must enlarge 
 ourselves, if not for his, for history's sake, seeing he was 
 a landmark therein ; his personal experience being a 
 chronicle, who, like the axletree, stood firm and fixed 
 in his own judgment, whilst the times, Uke the wheels, 
 turned backwards and forwards round about him. He 
 was born in Worcestershire, in the forest of Feckenham, 
 (whence he fetched his name,) bred a Benedictine monk 
 in the abbey of Evesham, where he subscribed with the 
 rest of his Order to the resignation of that house into the 
 hands of King Henry VIII. Afterwards he studied in 
 Oxford, then applied himself first to Bell, bishop of 
 Worcester, and after his death to Bonner, of London, 
 where he crossed the proverb, ' Like master, like man,' 
 the patrftn being cruel, the chaplain kind, to such who 
 in judgment dissented from him. He never dissembled 
 his religion, being a zealous papist, and under King 
 Edward VI. suffered much for his conscience. 
 
 In 
 
Ouaittf Cottn0ef0 
 
 49 
 
 In the reign of queen Mary, he was wholly employed 
 in doing good offices for the afflicted protestants, from 
 the highest to the lowest. The earl of Bedford, and 
 (who afterwards were) of Warwick and Leicester, tasted 
 of his kindness : so did Sir John Cheke, yea, and the 
 lady Elizabeth herself; so interposing his interest with 
 queen Mary for her enlargement, that he incurred her 
 Grace's displeasure. Hence it is that papists complain, 
 that in the reign of queen Elizabeth he reaped not a crop 
 of courtesy proportionable to his large seed thereof in the 
 days of queen Mary. 
 
 Queen Mary afterwards preferred him from being dean 
 of Paul's to be abbot of Westminster ; which church she 
 erected and endowed for Benedictine monks, of which 
 order fourteen only could be found in England, then 
 extant since their dissolution, which were unmarried, 
 unpreferred to cures, and unaltered in their opinions. 
 These also were brought in with some difficulty at first, 
 and opposition; for the prebendaries of Westminster, 
 legally settled in their places, would not resign them, till 
 cardinal Pole, partly by compulsion, partly by compen- 
 sation, obtained their removal. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, coming to the crown, sent for abbot 
 Feckenham to come to her, whom the messenger found 
 setting of elms in the orchard of Westminster abbey. 
 But he would not follow the messenger till first he had 
 finished his plantation, which his friends impute to his 
 soul employed in mystical meditations, — that as the trees 
 he there set should spring and sprout many years after 
 his decease, so his new plantation of Benedictine monks 
 in Westminster should take root and flourish, in defiance 
 
 E of 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
50 
 
 (^iec (^otbe an5 
 
 Thpmas 
 Fuller 
 
 of all opposition J which is but a bold conjecture of 
 others at his thoughts. Sure I am, those monks long 
 since are extirpated ; but how his trees thrive at this day, 
 is to me unknown. Coming afterwards to the queen, 
 what discourse passed betwixt them, they themselves 
 knew alone. Some have confidently guessed she prof- 
 fered him the archbishopric of Canterbury, on condi- 
 tion he would conform to her laws; which he utterly 
 refused. 
 
 In the treaty between the protestants and papists, 
 prima Elizabeths, he was present : but in what capacity, 
 I cannot satisfy myself: surely more than a disputant, 
 (amongst whom he was not named,) yet not so much as 
 a moderator. And yet his judgment, perchance because 
 abbot, and so principal man in that place, was asked 
 with respect, and heard with reverence, his moderation 
 being much commende4 : Now, although he was often 
 confined, sometimes to the Tower, sometimes to friends' 
 houses, (and died, it seems, at last in restraint in Wis- 
 beach Castle,) yet generally he found fair usage from the 
 protestants. He built a conduit in Holborn, and a 
 cross in Wisbeach, and relieved the poor wheresoever he 
 came. So that flies flock not thicker about spilt honey 
 than beggars constantly crowded about him. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. ix. S. vi. 34-38. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 
 Death of the Emperor Frederick 
 
 But Frederick the emperor, being now entering into 
 the Holy Land, was, to the great grief of all Christians, 
 suddenly taken away, being drowned in the river of 
 
 Saleph ; 
 
Ouain^ £^oun0ef0 
 
 51 
 
 Saleph ; a river (such is the envy of barbarism, obscuring 
 all places) which cannot accurately be known at this 
 day, because this new name is a stranger to all ancient 
 maps. If he went in to wash himself, as some write, 
 he neither consulted with his health nor honour : some 
 say his horse foundered under him as he passed the water ; 
 others, that he fell from him. But these several rela- 
 tions, as variety of instruments, make a doleful concert 
 in this, that there he lost his life : and no wonder, if the 
 cold water quickly quenched those few sparks of natural 
 heat left in him at seventy years of age. Neubrigensis 
 conceiveth that this his sudden death was therefore 
 inflicted on him because, in his youth, he fought against 
 the popes and church of Rome : but I wonder that he, 
 seeing the emperor drowned in a ditch, durst adventure 
 into the bottomless depths of God's counsels. Let it 
 content us to know, that oftentimes heaven blasteth 
 those hopes which bud first and fairest ; and the feet of 
 mighty monarchs do slip, when they want but one step 
 to their enemies' throne. miy War, b. iii. c. 4. 
 
 Frederick II, Emperor 
 
 Little hope have I to content the reader in this king's 
 life, who cannot satisfy myself ; writers of that age are 
 so possessed with partiality. The faction of the Guelfes 
 and GibeUines discovereth not itself more plainly in the 
 camp than in the chronicles ; yea, historians turn school- 
 men in matters of fact, arguing them/w et con. And as 
 it is in the fable of the man that had two wives, whilst 
 his old wife plucked out his black hairs, the evidence of 
 his youth, his young one un-grayhaired him, that no 
 E 2 standards 
 
 Thomas 
 FuHer 
 
52 
 
 (H?i0e (^oxbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 standards of antiquity might remain, they made him bald 
 betwixt them : so amongst our late writers ; whilst Protes- 
 tants cut off the authority from all papized writers of that 
 age, and Romanists cast away the witness of all imperial- 
 ized authors then living (such as Urspergensis is, and 
 generally all Germans), counting them iesies domesticos, 
 and therefore of no validity : betwixt them they draw all 
 history of that time very slender, and make it almost 
 quite nothing. We will not engage ourselves in their 
 quarrel ; but may safely believe that Frederick was 
 neither saint nor devil, but man. Many virtues in him 
 his foes must commend, and some vices his friends must 
 confess. He was very learned, according to the rate of 
 that age, especially for a prince, who only baiteth at 
 learning, and maketh not his profession to lodge in. 
 Wise he was in projecting, nor were his thoughts ever so 
 scattered with any sudden accident, but he could in- 
 stantly recollect himself. Valiant he was, and very fortu- 
 nate, though this tendeth more to God's praise than his ; 
 wondrous bountiful to scholars and soldiers, whose good 
 will he enjoyed, for he paid for it. ... In a word, he 
 was a better emperor than a man, his vices being personal, 
 most hurting himself; his virtues of a public nature and 
 accomplishing him for government. Holy War. b. iii. c. ^^g. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 
 King Fulco 
 
 A PRINCE of a sweet nature ; and though one would 
 have read him to be very furious by his high-coloured 
 countenance, yet his face was a good hypocrite ; and 
 
 (contra 
 
Oudn^ Coun0ef0 
 
 53 
 
 (contra leges istius coloris, saith Tyrius) he was affable, 
 courteous, and pitiful to all in distress. id. b. u. c. 23. 
 
 Nicholas Fuller 
 
 He was most eminent for that grace which is most 
 worth, yet costeth the least to keep it ; I mean humility, 
 who in his writings doth as fairly dissent from, as freely 
 concur with, any man's opinions. He died about the 
 
 year of our Lord 1626. worthies: Hants. Writers. 
 
 Richard Greenham 
 
 His master-piece was in comforting wounded con- 
 sciences. For, although Heaven's hand can only set a 
 broken heart, yet God used him herein as an instrument 
 of good to many, who came to him with weeping eyes, 
 and went from him with cheerful souls. The breath of 
 his gracious counsel blew up much smoking flax into a 
 blazing flame. 
 
 Hereupon, the importunity of his friends (if herein they 
 proved so) persuaded him to leave his parish, and remove 
 to London, where his public parts might be better advan- 
 taged for the general good. They pleaded the little 
 profit of his long pains to so poor and peevish a parish. 
 Pity it was so good a fisherman should cast his nets else- 
 where than in that ocean of people. What was Dry 
 Drayton but a bushel to hide — London a high candle- 
 stick to hold up — the brightness of his parts? Over- 
 entreated by others, even almost against his own judgment, 
 he resigned his cure to a worthy successor, and repaired 
 to London ; where, after some years' preaching up and 
 
 down 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
54 
 
 @E)i6e (^otbe an5 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 down in no constant place, he was resident on no cure, 
 but the curing of consciences. I am credibly informed, 
 he in some sort repented his removal from his parish, 
 and disliked his own erratical and planetary life, which 
 made him fix himself preacher at last at Christ Church, 
 in London, where he ended his days. . . 
 
 Thus goodly Greenham is fallen asleep ; we softly 
 draw the curtains about him and so proceed to other 
 matter. c&. Hist. b. ix. s. vH. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 
 Archbishop Grindal 
 
 Whoso beholds the large revenues conferred on 
 Grindal, the long time he enjoyed them, (bishop of 
 London, archbishop of York and Canterbury, above 
 eighteen years,) the little charge encumbering him, 
 dying a single man, will admire at the mean estate he 
 left behind him. Yea, perchance they will erroneously 
 impute this to his prodigality, which more truly is to be 
 ascribed to his contempt of the world, unwilling to die 
 guilty of m.uch wealth ; not to speak of fat servants made 
 under a lean master. The little he had, as it was well- 
 gotten, was well-bestowed, in pious uses on Cambridge 
 and Oxford, with the building and endowing of a school 
 at St. Bees in Cumberland, where he was born. Yea, 
 he may be beheld as a benefactor to the English nation, 
 for bringing tamarisk first over into England. As the 
 inventors of evil things are justly taxed by the apostle, 
 Rom. i. 13 ; so the first importers of good things deserve 
 due commendation; that plant being so sovereign to 
 
 mollify 
 
Ouain^ fi;ottn0e00 
 
 55 
 
 mollify the hardness of the spleen ; a malady whereof 
 students (betrayed thereunto by their sedentary lives) too 
 generally do complain. z^. b. ix. s. v. 25. 
 
 John Gower 
 John Gower was born, saith Leland, at Stitenham (in 
 the North Riding in Bulmore Wapentake) of a knightly 
 family. He was bred in London a student of the 
 laws, till, prizing his pleasure above his profit, he quitted 
 pleading to follow poetry. He was the first refiner 
 of our English tongue, effecting much but endea- 
 vouring more therein. Thus he who sees the whelp of 
 a bear but half licked, will commend it for a comely 
 creature, in comparison of what it was when first brought 
 forth. Indeed Gower left our English tongue very bad, 
 
 but found it very very bad. Worthies: Yorks. Writers. 
 
 GUSTAVUS Adolphus 
 After his death, how did men struggle to keep him 
 alive in their reports ! partly out of good-will, which 
 made them kindle new hopes of his life at every spark of 
 probability ; partly out of infidelity, that his death could 
 be true. First, they thought so valiant a prince could 
 not live on earth ; and when they saw his life, then they 
 thought so valiant a prince could never die, but that his 
 death was rather a concealment for a time, daily expect- 
 ing when the politicly dead should have a resurrection in 
 some noble exploit. Holy state, b. iv. c. 18. 
 
 Richard Hampole 
 Richard Role, ahas Hampole, had his first name 
 from his father, the other from the place (three miles from 
 
 Doncaster) 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUur 
 
56 
 
 (Witft. (^otbtf anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Tuller 
 
 Doncaster) where living he was honoured, and dead was 
 buried and sainted. He was an eremite, led a strict life, 
 and wrote many books of piety, which I prefer before his 
 prophetical predictions, as but a degree above almanac 
 prognostications. He threatened the sins of the nation 
 with future famine, plague, inundations, war, and general 
 calamities from which no land is long free, but subject 
 to them in some proportion. Besides, his predictions, 
 \i hitting, were heeded: \i missing, not marked. 
 
 However, because it becomes me not ayiajiaxeiv, let 
 him pass for a saint. I will add, that our Saviour's 
 dilemma to the Jews may partly be pressed on the 
 papists his contemporaries. If Hampole's doctrine was 
 of men, why was he generally reputed a saint ; if from 
 God, why did they not obey him, seeing he spake much 
 against the viciousness and covetousness of the clergy of 
 that age? He died anno Domini 1349. 
 
 Worthies : Yorks, Saints, 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Henry HI 
 Quiet king Henry HI, our English Nestor, (not for 
 depth of brains, but length of life,) as who reigned 
 fifty-six years, in which term' he buried all his con- 
 temporary princes in Christendom twice over. All the 
 months in a year may in a manner be carved out of an 
 April day ; hot, cold, dry, moist, fair, foul weather, being 
 oft presented therein. Such the character of this king's 
 life, certain only in uncertainty: sorrowful, successful; 
 in plenty, in penury; in wealth, in want; conquered, 
 conqueror. ca. /r,v. b. m. s. in. ,. 
 
 Henry V 
 
Ouain( (toixnede 
 
 57 
 
 Henry V 
 
 On the last of August, king Henry V ended his life 
 in France; one of a strong and active body, neither 
 shrinking in cold, nor slothful in heat, going commonly 
 with his head uncovered : the wearing of armour was no 
 more cumbersome unto him than a cloak. He never 
 shrunk at a wound, nor turned away his nose for ill 
 savour, nor closed his eyes for smoke or dust ; in diet, 
 none less dainty or more moderate ; his sleep, very short 
 but sound ; fortunate in fight, and commendable in all 
 his actions ; verifying the proverb, that an ill youth may 
 make a good man. The nunnery of Sion was built and 
 endowed by him ; and a college was by him intended in 
 Oxford, had not death prevented him. 
 
 Id. B. iv, S. ii. 44. 
 
 Henry VIII 
 
 Henry VIII, . . . one of a beautiful person, 
 and majestic presence, insomuch that his picture 
 in all places is known at the first sight. As for the 
 character of his mind, all the virtues and vices of all 
 his predecessors from the Conquest may seem in him 
 fully represented, both to their kind and degree, — 
 learning, wisdom, valour, magnificence ; cruelty, avarice, 
 fury, and lust; following his pleasures whilst he was 
 young, and making them come to him when he was old. 
 Many memorable alterations in church and state 
 happened in his age; as, God willing, hereafter shall 
 appear. ^d. b. v. s. i. 5. 
 
 Richard 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Fuller 
 
^8 
 
 (Piee (^Qvb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 Characters ifontinued) 
 
 Richard Hooker 
 
 Hooker was born in Devonshire, bred in Oxford, 
 Fellow of Corpus Christi College \ one of a solid judg- 
 ment and great reading. Yea,, such the depth of his 
 learning, that his pen was a better bucket than his 
 tongue to draw it out ; a great defender both by 
 preaching and writing of the discipline of the Church of 
 England, yet never got (nor oared to get) any eminent 
 dignity therein ; conscience, not covetousness, engaging 
 him in the controversy. Spotless was his conversation ; 
 and, though some dirt was cast, none could stick on his 
 reputation. . . . 
 
 Mr. Hooker's voice was low, stature little, gesture 
 none at all, standing stone-still in the pulpit, as if the 
 posture of his body were the emblem of his mind, 
 unmovable in his opinions. Where his eye was left 
 fixed at the beginning, it was found fixed at the end of 
 his sermon. In a word, the doctrine he deUvered had 
 nothing but itself to garnish it. His style was long and 
 pithy, driving on a whole flock of several clauses before 
 he came to the close of a sentence ; so that when the 
 copiousness of his style met not with proportionable 
 capacity in his auditors, it was unjustly censured for 
 perplexed, tedious, and obscure. His sermons followed 
 the inclination of his studies, and were for the most part 
 on controversies, and deep points of school-divinity. 
 
 Ch. Hist, ix, S. vii. 49, 53. 
 
 Hooker's 
 
Ouainf Couneefe 
 
 59 
 
 Hooker's style was prolix, but not tedious ; and such 
 who would patiently attend and give him credit all the 
 reading or hearing of his sentences, had their expecta- 
 tions over-paid at the close thereof. He may be said to 
 have made good music with his fiddle and stick alone, 
 without any resin; having neither pronunciation nor 
 
 gesture to grace his matter. IVorthies: Deaon. Writers. 
 
 Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury 
 
 A Jewel (sometimes taken for a single precious stone) 
 is properly a collective of many, orderly set together to 
 their best advantage. So several eminencies met in this 
 worthy man ; naturals, artificials, (amongst which I re- 
 count his studied memory, deserving, as well as Theo- 
 dectes the sophister, the surname of Mnemonicus,) morals, 
 but principally spirituals ; so devout in the pew where 
 he prayed, diligent in the pulpit where he preached, 
 grave on the bench where he assisted, mild in the con- 
 sistory where he judged, pleasant at the table where he 
 fed, patient in the bed where he died, that well it were 
 if, in relation to him, secundum usum Sarum were made 
 precedential to all posterity. He gave at his death to 
 Peter Martyr a golden rose, yet more fragrant for the 
 worth of the giver than the value of the gift ; to the city 
 of Zurich, a present which they converted into a piece of 
 plate with JeweFs arms thereon; to several scholars, 
 large legacies ; to the church of Salisbury, a fair library ; 
 and another, to the Church of England; I mean, his 
 
 learned 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
6o 
 
 (XOiee (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 learned ' Apology.' It is hard to say whether his soul 
 or his ejaculations arrived first in heaven, seeing he 
 prayed dying, and died praying. a. HUt. b. ix. s. iiL ». 
 
 Characters {continued^ 
 Bishop Jewel's Weakness 
 To return to Mr. Jewel : He had not lived long in 
 Broadgates Hall, when, by the violence of the popish 
 inquisitors being assaulted, on a sudden, to subscribe, 
 he took a pen in his hand, and smiling, said, ' Have you 
 a mind to see how well I can write ? ' and thereupon 
 underwrit their opinions. Thus the most orient Jewel 
 on earth hath some flaws therein. To conceal this his 
 fault, had been partiality ; to excuse it, flattery ; to defend 
 it, impiety ; to insult over him, cruelty ; to pity him, 
 charity ; to admire God, in permitting him, true devotion; 
 to be wary of ourselves, in the like occasion, Christian 
 discretion. ch. Hist. b. via. s. i. 15. 
 
 William Lily, first Schoolmaster of St. Paul's 
 
 William Lily was the first schoolmaster thereof, by 
 Colet's own appointment : an excellent scholar, born at 
 Odiam in Hampshire, and afterward he went on pil- 
 grimage as far as Jerusalem. In his return through Italy 
 he applied himself to his studies. . . . Returning home into 
 his native country well-accomplished with Latin, Greek, 
 and all arts and sciences, he set forth a grammar, which 
 still goes under his name, and is universally taught all 
 over England. 
 
 Many were the editions of this grammar ; the first set 
 
 forth 
 
Ouain^ £:oun0ef0 
 
 6i 
 
 forth anno 15 13, when Paul's school was founded, as 
 appears by that instance, meruit sub rege in Gallia, 
 relating to Maximilian the German emperor, who then at 
 the siege of Therovenne in Flanders, fought under the 
 banner of king Henry VIII, taking an hundred crowns 
 a day for his pay. Another edition, anno 1520, when 
 audita rege Doroberniam proficisci refers to the king's 
 speedy journey into Canterbury, there to give entertain- 
 ment to Charles V emperor, lately landed at Dover. 
 
 Formerly there were in England almost as many 
 grammars as schoolmasters, children being confounded, 
 not only with their variety, but (sometimes) contrariety 
 thereof ; rules being true in the one which were false in 
 the other. Yea, which was the worst, a boy when re- 
 moved to a new school lost all he had learned before : 
 whereupon king Henry endeavoured an uniformity of 
 grammar all over his dominions ; that so youths, though 
 changing their schoolmasters, might keep their learning. 
 This was performed, and William Lily's grammar en- 
 joined universally to be used. A stipend of four pounds 
 a year was allowed the king's printer for printing of it ; 
 and it was penal for any pubUcly to teach any other. I 
 have been told how, lately, bishop Buckeridge examining 
 a free school in his diocese of Rochester, the scholars 
 were utterly ignorant of Lily's rules, as used to others ; 
 whereat the bishop exclaimed, ' What, are there Puritans 
 also in grammar ? ' 
 
 I deny not but some since have discovered blasted 
 leaves in our Lily, observing defects and faults therein ; 
 and commendable many persons' pains in amending them. 
 However, it were to be desired, that no needless variations 
 
 be 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
62 
 
 (^i0^ (K)or60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 be made, and as much left of Lily as may be; the 
 rather, because he submitted his Syntaxis to the judg- 
 ment of Erasmus himself, so that it was afterward printed 
 amongst his works. Indeed Qucr Genus was done by 
 Thomas Robinson, and the Accidence (as some will 
 have it) by other authors, after Lily was dead, and prince 
 Edward born, of and for whom it was said, ' Edvardus 
 is my proper name.' And thus we take our leave both 
 of Lily and Paul's school, ilourishing at this day as much 
 as ever, under the care of Mr. John Langley, the able 
 and religious schoolmaster thereof. 
 
 Ch. Hist, B. V. S. i. 17, 20. 
 
 Characters {continued) 
 
 Queen Mary 
 
 Take queen Mary in herself abstracted from her 
 opinions, and by herself secluded from her bloody coun- 
 sellors, and her memory will justly come under com. 
 mendation. Indeed, she knew not the art of being 
 popular, and never cared to learn it, and generally 
 (being given more to her beads than her book) had 
 less of learning, (or parts to get it,) than any of her 
 father's children. She hated to equivocate in her own 
 religion; and always was what she was, without dis- 
 sembling her judgment or practice for fear or flattery ; 
 little beloved of her subjects, to whom though once 
 she remitted an entire subsidy, yet it little moved 
 their affections, because, though liberal in this act, she 
 had been unjust in another, — her breach of promise 
 
 to 
 
Ouain^ tounetie 
 
 63 
 
 to the gentry of Norfolk and Suifolk. However, she 
 had been a worthy princess, had as little cruelty been 
 done under her as was done by her. Her devotion 
 always commanded her profit, and oftentimes did fill 
 the church with the emptying of her own ejcchequer. 
 
 Id. B. viii. S. iii. 53. 
 
 Toby Matthew, Archbishop 
 
 Within the compass of this year [1628] died the 
 reverend Toby Matthew, archbishop of York. He was 
 born in the Somersetshire side of Bristol, and in his 
 childhood had a marvellous preservation, when with a 
 fall he brake his foot, ancle, and small of his leg, which 
 were so soon recovered to eye, use, sight, service, that 
 not the least mark remained thereof. Coming to Oxford, 
 he fixed at last in Christ Church, and became dean 
 thereof. He was one of a proper person, (such people 
 cmteris paribus, and sometimes cceteris imparibus, were 
 preferred by the queen,) and an excellent preacher; 
 Campian himself confessing, that he did dominari in 
 concionibus. He was of a cheerful spirit, yet without any 
 trespass on episcopal gravity; there lying a real dis- 
 tinction between facetiousness and nugacity. None 
 could condemn him for his pleasant wit, though often 
 he would condemn himself, as so habited therein, he 
 could as well not be, as not be merry, and not take up an 
 innocent jest as it lay in the way of his discourse. . . . 
 
 He died yearly in report ; and I doubt not but that, in 
 the apostle's sense, he died daily in his mortifying 
 meditations. He went over the graves of many who 
 looked for his archbishopric. I will not say, they 
 
 catched 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
64 
 
 ^t0e (^otb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 catched a cold in waiting barefoot for a living man's 
 shoes. His wife, the daughter of bishop Barlow, (a 
 confessor in queen Mary's days,) was a prudent and 
 a provident matron. Of this extraction came Sir Toby 
 Matthew, having all his father's name, many of his 
 natural parts, few of his moral virtues, fewer of his 
 spiritual graces, as being an inveterate enemy to the 
 protestant religion. George Mountaine succeeded him, 
 scarce warm in his church before cold in his coffin, as 
 not continuing many months therein. 
 
 C&. Hist. B. xi. S. i. 74, 76. 
 
 Characters (continued^ 
 Dr. Metcalf, expelled St. John's Coll. Cambridge. 
 
 Well, good old Metcalf must forsake the House. 
 Methinks the blushing bricks seem ashamed of their 
 ingratitudes ; and each door, window, and casement in 
 the college was a mouth to plead for him. 
 
 But what shall we say? Mark generally the grand 
 deservers in States, and you shall find them lose their 
 lustre before they end their life; the world, out of 
 covetousness to save charges to pay them their wages, 
 quarrelling with them, as if an over-merit were an offence. 
 And whereas some impute this to the malignant influence 
 of the heavens, I ascribe it rather to a pestilent vapour 
 out of the earth ; I mean, that rather men, than stars, 
 are to be blamed for it. 
 
 He was twenty years Master ; and on the fourth day 
 of June, 1537, went out of his office, and it seems died 
 soon after. His epitaph is fastened on a piece of brass 
 
 on 
 
Ouaitt^ £:outt0eP0 
 
 65 
 
 on the wall, in the college chapel. We must not forget 
 that all who were great doers in his expulsion were great 
 suiferers afterwards, and died all in great misery. There 
 is difference betwixt prying into God's secrets, and being 
 stark blind. Yea, I question whether we are not bound 
 to look where God points by so memorable a judgment, 
 showing that those branches most justly withered which 
 plucked up their own root. Holy state, b. u. c. xv. 
 
 Walter Parsons 
 
 Born in this county, was first apprenticed to a smith, 
 when he grew so tall in stature, that a hole was made for 
 him in the ground, to stand therein up to the knees, so 
 to make him adequate with his fellow-workmen. He 
 afterwards was porter to king James; seeing as gates 
 generally are higher than the rest of the building, so it 
 was sightly that the porter should be taller than other 
 persons. He was proportionable in all parts, and had 
 strength equal to height, valour to his strength, temper 
 to his valour ; so that he disdained to do an injury to 
 any single person. He would make nothing to take two 
 of the tallest yeomen of the guard (like the gizzard and 
 liver) under his arms at once, and order them as he 
 pleased. 
 
 Yet were his parents (for ought I do understand to the 
 contrary) but of an ordinary stature ; whereat none will 
 wonder who have read what St. Augustine reports of a 
 woman which came to Rome (a little before the sacking 
 thereof by the Goths) of so giant-like a height, that she 
 was far above all who saw her, though infinite troops 
 came to behold the spectacle. And yet he addeth, 
 
 F 'Et 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
66 
 
 (^iee (H)otr60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fnller 
 
 ' Et hoc erat maximse admirationis, quod ambo parentes 
 ejus,' &c., (this made men most admire that both her 
 parents were but of ordinary stature). 
 
 This Parsons is produced for proof that all ages afford 
 some of extraordinary height, and that there is no general 
 decay of mankind in their dimensions ; which if there 
 were, we had ere this time shrunk to be lower than 
 pigmies, not to instance in a less proportion. This 
 Parsons died anno Domini 162 . . 
 
 Worthies : Stafford. Rcjiiarkdble Persons, 
 
 Characters {continued) 
 Mr. Perkins 
 
 His sermons were not so plain but that the piously 
 learned did admire them, nor so learned but that the 
 plain did understand them. What was said of Socrates, 
 'that he first humbled the towering speculations of 
 philosophers into practice and morality ; ' so our Perkins 
 brought the schools into the pulpit, and, unshelling 
 their controversies out of their hard school-terms, made 
 thereof plain and wholesome meat for his people. For 
 he had a capacious head, with angles winding and roomy 
 enough to lodge all controversial intricacies; and had 
 not preaching diverted him from that way, he had no 
 doubt attained to eminency therein. An excellent surgeon 
 he was at jointing of a broken soul, and at stating of a 
 doubtful conscience. And, sure, in case-divinity Protes- 
 tants are defective. For, (save that a Smith or two of 
 late have built them forges, and set up shop), we go 
 down to our enemies to sharpen all our instruments, 
 
 and 
 
OuAin^ toMntfde 
 
 67 
 
 lind lllr lil'lioldi'll lo llll'lll for orCrnNlvc (Uld (IrlcuHlve 
 Wi'llpOMM ill (ilHCN ()( (■Olllirlr||C(', 
 
 III' WDiild iironoiiiirc iJic word i/tu//u willi iiiidi ;in 
 '•iiiiiIkinIm, im li'ft II, dolcl'iil cclio In |iIn luidilorM' I'lim ;i 
 K<i()d whili- iiricr; mid wln'ii (:iilc(;h|Kt of Cjniol CiiWiy^c, 
 In <'x|i()iiiidlnK iIh' ( loiiiiiiiiiidini'nlH, ii|i|)liitd tlnMii mo 
 liuiiic, libit' iiliiuml, lo iiiiilut hiN li(!iiri'r»' liniiln liiil down, 
 mid liiiirM lo Mliiiid ii|iri(/,iil,. Iliil: in IiIh oidrr ny,t; lie 
 iilli'idd IiIn voiii', iind n-iiiillcd iiiii' Ii of ]•\\^ Conner 
 rl((l(lni^NM ; ollrn profcNHliig llml, lo piviicli ninry wiiii 
 tliiil |Mo|icr ollirc ol'llic ininiNlerH oCllii' OoHpcl. 
 
 //«/j/ ,V/»///, II. II, C„ X, 
 
 ||'h/\N('ih '.)iiAiu,h;:i 
 
 I In; WHM II, niohl i'X(('||cnl- poi'l,, inwl lind 11, mind liiiiHcd 
 lo di'volliMi, lliiil iic^ liccn coiiLcniponny witil I'liilo 
 (llliil H,ii'iil, liiii'ii-li'lt'iid lo |)o('Ih), iif would nol, only liiivi: 
 iiilowi'd liliii lo live, lull. imIviiii'cuI him l.o iin oDicct in iiiH 
 
 romilionwcilllll. Ii;:,ll,hti limu l\-,ll,>n. 
 
 Siu Wai.tkk Kamuiiii 
 
 'Tiiic NonN <ir Ih-lli NLild iiiilo Alii'iiliiim, 'I'lioii in'l, a 
 gri'iil, |irlni-i' iimon|j,Nl iin ; In llu^ clioirc of our hciiiiIiIiich 
 liiiry lliy dciid ; none nIiiiII williliold llicm Iroiii llici'.' So 
 iiwiy wn Nfty to llic int'inory of IIiIh worlliy kniKiil, 
 ' KcpoNn yoiii'Hcll III iIiIn our ciiIiiIokui! iindrr wliiil lnpic 
 yon pIciiHi', ol' Htiili'Miniin, Hcinnim, mildicr, li'iiriu'd wrili'r, 
 lind wliiil not?' Hill woilli iinloi^kN our cIoncnI, <'iiliiiU'lH ; 
 lind pi(ividi.'M liolli room iiiul wt'lroinc lo cnUirliiin 
 
 illlll. lit. Ihwii. ,\Minfti, 
 
 V J 'I'llOMAH 
 
 TJiom«i« 
 Irull«r 
 
68 
 
 (JOiee (^otr&0 (xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Characters {continued) 
 
 Thomas Randolph 
 
 Thomas Randolph, born at Houghton in this county, 
 was first bred in Westminster School, then fellow in 
 Trinity College at Cambridge. The Muses may seem 
 not only to have smiled, but to have been tickled at his 
 nativity, such the festivity of his poems of all sorts. But 
 my declining age, being superannuated to meddle with 
 such ludicrous matters, consigneth the censure and 
 commendation of his poems (as also of his countryman 
 Peter Haulsted, born at Oundle in this county) to 
 younger pens, for whom it is most proper. Master 
 Randolph died anno Domini 167 1. 
 
 Worthies: Northampton. Writers, 
 
 Saladin 
 
 Saladin was the first of the Turkish kings who began 
 the gainful trade of the mamalukes. These were Christian 
 captives, brought out of Taurica Chersonesus, and in- 
 structed as in Mahometanism so in all military discipline ; 
 Saladin disposing them in martial nurseries, and con- 
 tinuing a constant succession of them one under another. 
 It is above belief how much and speedily they were 
 improved in warlike exercises : art doubled their strength 
 by teaching them to use it. And though they came 
 rough out of their own country, they were quickly hewn 
 and polished by education; yea, their apprehensions 
 prevented the precepts, and their practice surpassed the 
 precedents of those that instructed them. And it is 
 
 observed 
 
Ouain^ Coutteef0 
 
 6^ 
 
 observed in fruits and flowers, that they are much 
 bettered by change to a fitter soil ; so were these people 
 by altering their climate : the cold country wherein they 
 were bred gave them big and robustious bodies; and 
 the hot climate whereinto they were transplanted ripened 
 their wits, and bestowed upon them craft and activity, 
 the dowry of the southern countries. They attained to 
 be expert in any service, especially were they excellent 
 horsemen ; and at last they began to ride on the backs 
 and necks of the Turkish kings themselves. 
 
 True it is, Saladin kept his distance over them, used 
 them kindly, yet made them not wantons ; and so poised 
 these mamalukes with his native Egyptians, that in all 
 actions he still reserved the casting voice for himself. 
 But Meladin and Melechsala, his successors, entertained 
 them without number, and instructed them beyond 
 reason, so that under them in a manner they monopolized 
 all places of strength and command ; till at last, the stem 
 of these mercenary soldiers being too great for the stock 
 of the natives, the Turkish kingdom in Egypt, like a 
 top-heavy tree, became a windfall. Indeed, the dastard- 
 ness of the Egyptians made these mamalukes more 
 daring and insolent. For the Egyptians more loved 
 profit than honour, and wealth than greatness ; and 
 though contented to abide labour, would in nowise 
 undergo danger, Merchandise they were wholly employed 
 in ; and it seemed they used trading so long, till at last 
 they made sale of their own spirits. Yea, one could not 
 now know Egypt to be Egypt, but only by the over- 
 flowing of the Nile, not by any remaining ancient marks 
 of valour in the people's disposition. Thus the genius 
 
 of 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
70 
 
 ^iee (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 of old kingdoms in time groweth weaker, and doteth at 
 the last. 
 
 But, whoever knew a wall that had no better cement, 
 to stand so sure and so long ? Two hundred sixty and 
 seven years this state endured : and yet had it to do 
 with strong and puissant enemies. Some kingdoms owe 
 their greatness not so much to their own valour and 
 wisdom as to the weakness of their neighbours, but it 
 fared not thus with the mamalukes. To omit Prester 
 John, who neighboured them on the south, on all other 
 sides they were encompassed with potent opposers, from 
 whom right valiantly they defended themselves, till in the 
 year 15 17 they were overcome by Selimus, the great 
 Turkish emperor. 
 
 To conclude : as for the Amazons and their brave 
 achievements, with much valour and no manhood, they 
 and their state had only being in the brains of fabulous 
 writers. As for the Assassins, or regiment of rogues, it 
 never spread to the tireadth of any great country, nor 
 grew to the height of a kingdom ; but, being the jakes of 
 the world, was cast out in a place betwixt barren hills. 
 But this empire of vassals was every way wonderful, 
 stretching so far over all Egypt and most of Syria, 
 and lasting so long. A strange state, wherein slavery was 
 the first step to their throne, and apostasy the first 
 article in their religion ! Hofy war, b. iv. c. 19. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Thomas Sternhold 
 He was a principal instrument of translating the 
 Psalms into English meter ; the first twenty-six (and seven- 
 
 and-thirty 
 
Ouaitt^ Coun0ef0 
 
 71 
 
 and-thirty in all] being by him performed. Yet had he 
 other assistance in that work. Many a bitter scoff hath 
 since been past on their endeavours by some wits, which 
 might have been better employed. Some have miscalled 
 these their translations Geneva gigs ; and, which is the 
 worst, father, or mother rather, the expression on our 
 virgin queen, as falsely as other things have been charged 
 upon her. Some have not sticked to say, 'that David 
 hath been as much persecuted by bungling translators, 
 as by Saul himself.' Some have made libellous verses in 
 abuse of them ; and no wonder if songs were made on 
 the translators of the Psalms, seeing drunkards made 
 them on David the author thereof. 
 
 But let these translations be beheld by impartial eyes, 
 and they will be allowed to go in equipage with the best 
 poems in that age. However it were to be wished that 
 some bald rhymes therein were bettered ; till which time 
 such as sing them must endeavour to amend them, by 
 singing them with understanding heads, and gracious 
 hearts, whereby that which is bad meter on earth will be 
 
 made good music in heaven. WorlMes : Hants. Writers. 
 
 The Legend of Simon Stock 
 
 We must not forget how the Carmelites boast very 
 much of one Simon Stock of their order, a Kentish-man, 
 or rather Kentish-boy ; which, being but twelve years of 
 age, went out into the woods, and there fed on roots and 
 wild fruit, living in the trunk of a hollow tree, whence he 
 got the surname of Stock, having a revelation,— that soon 
 after some should come out of Syria, and confirm his 
 order ; which came to pass when the Carmelites came 
 
 here. 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
72 
 
 (K)i0e (H)or60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Tuller 
 
 here. He afterwards became master-general of their 
 order, (to whom the respective provincials are account- 
 able,) and is said to be famous for his miracles. Let 
 Syria, then, boast no longer of the sanctity of their Simon 
 Stulites, so called, it seems, because constantly living 
 about a stone-pillar; our Simon Stock may mate their 
 Simon Stone in all particulars of holiness ; though, 
 under the rose be it spoken, Mr. Richard Stock, the 
 painful minister of St. All-hallows, Bread-Street, in 
 London, for thirty-two years did advance God's glory 
 more than both of them. a. Hist. b. vi. s. ;. 21. 
 
 Characters {continued) 
 Thomas Tarlton the Jester 
 
 My intelhgence of the certainty of his birth-place 
 coming too late, I fix him here, who indeed was born at 
 Condover in the neighbouring county of Shropshire, where 
 still some of his name and relations remain. Here he was 
 in the field, keeping his father's swine, when a servant of 
 Robert earl of Leicester (passing this way to his lord's lands 
 in his barony of Denbigh) was so highly pleased with his 
 happy unhappy answers, that he brought him to court, where 
 he became the most famous jester to queen EHzabeth. 
 
 Many condemn his (vocation I cannot term it, for it is 
 a coming without a calling) employment as unwarrantable. 
 Such maintain, that it is better to be a fool of God's 
 making, born so into the world, or a fool of man's making, 
 jeered into it by general derision, than a fool of one's 
 own making, by his voluntary affecting thereof. Such 
 say also, he had better continued in his trade of swine- 
 keeping. 
 
Ouain^ torxnetitf 
 
 73 
 
 keeping, which (though more painful, and less profitable) 
 his conscience changed to loss, for a jester's place in the 
 court, who, of all men, have the hardest account to make 
 for every idle word that they abundantly utter. 
 
 Others allege, in excuse of their practices, that princes 
 in all ages were allowed their aperdKoyoi, whose virtue 
 consisted in speaking anything without control : that 
 jesters often heal what flatterers hurt, so that princes by 
 them arrive at the notice of their errors, seeing jesters 
 carry about with them an act of indemnity for whatsoever 
 they say or do : that princes, overburdened with state- 
 business, must have their diversions; and that those 
 words are not censurable for absolutely idle which lead to 
 lawful delight. 
 
 Our Tarlton was master of his faculty. When queen 
 Elizabeth was serious (I dare not say sullen) and out of 
 good humour, he could un-dumpish her at his pleasure. 
 Her highest favourites would, in some cases, go to 
 Tarlton before they would go to the queen, and he was 
 their usher to prepare their advantageous access unto her. 
 In a word, he told the queen more of her faults than 
 most of her chaplains, and cured her melancholy better 
 than all of her physicians. 
 
 Much of his merriment lay in his very looks and 
 actions, according to the epitaph written upon him : 
 
 ' Hie situs est cujus poterat vox, actio, vnltus, 
 Ex Heraclito reddere Democritum.' 
 
 Indeed the self-same words, spoken by another, would 
 hardly move a merry man to smile; which, uttered 
 by him, would force a sad soul to laughter. 
 
 This is to be reported to his praise, that his jests never 
 
 were 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
74 
 
 (JOiee (ISOot^e anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 were profane, scurrilous, nor satirical ; neither trespassing 
 on piety, modesty, or charity, as in which J>/urifnum inerat 
 sails, multum aceti, aliquid sinapis, nihil •veneni. His 
 death may proportionably be assigned about the end of 
 
 Queen Elizabeth. worthies .■ Stafford. Memorable Persons. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Lady Temple 
 Dame Hester Temple, daughter to Miles Sands, 
 Esquire, was born at Latmos in this county, and was 
 married to Sir Thomas Temple, of Stow, Baronet. She 
 had four sons and nine daughters, which lived to be 
 married, and so exceedingly multiplied, that this lady 
 saw seven hundred extracted from her body. Reader, I 
 speak within compass, and have left myself a reserve, 
 
 having bought the truth hereof by a wager I lost 
 
 Had I been one of her relations, and as well enabled as 
 most of them be, I would have erected a monument for 
 her — thus designed. A fair tree should have been erected, 
 the said lady and her husband lying at the bottom or 
 root thereof ; the heir of the family should have ascended 
 both the middle and top bough thereof. On the right 
 hand hereof her younger sons, on the left her daughters 
 should, as so many boughs, be spread forth. Her grand- 
 children should have their names inscribed on the 
 branches of those boughs; the great grandchildren on 
 the twigs of those branches ; the great great grand- 
 children on the leaves of those twigs. Such as survived 
 her death should be done in a lively green, the rest (as 
 blasted) in a pale and yellow fading colour. 
 
 Id. Bucks. MeTnorahle Persons, 
 
 Theodorus, 
 
Ouain( £otttt0ef0 
 
 75 
 
 Theodorus, the Patriarch 
 
 Soon after his retiring, he ended his life. We need 
 not inquire into his disease, if we consider his age, 
 accounting now fourscore-and-four Winters. And well 
 might his years be reckoned by Winters, as wanting 
 both Springs and Summers of prosperity, living in 
 constant affliction. And yet the last four years made 
 more wounds in his heart, than all the former ploughed 
 wrinkles in his face. He died, not guilty of any wealth, 
 who long before had made the poor his heirs, and his 
 own hands his executors. After hearty prayers that 
 religion might shine when he was set, falling into a pious 
 meditation, he went out as a lamp, for lack of oil. No 
 warning groan was sighed forth to take his last farewell, 
 but even he smiled himself into a corpse; enough to 
 confute those that they belie death, who call her grim 
 and grisly, which in him seemed lovely and of a good 
 complexion ! The few servants he left, proportioned the 
 funeral rather to their master's estate than deserts, 
 supplying, in their sorrow, the want of spices and balm ; 
 which, surely, must be so much the more precious, as 
 the tears of men are to be preferred before gums, which 
 are but the weeping of trees. Holy state, b. v. c. xviii. s. iv. n. 
 
 Archbishop of Tyre 
 
 William Archbishop of Tyre, a pious man and 
 excellent scholar, skilled in all the learned Oriental 
 tongues, besides the Dutch, and French his native 
 language; a moderate and faithful writer: for in the 
 latter part of his history of the holy war, his eye guided 
 
 his 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
76 
 
 (H)i0e (^otb& anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 his hand, till at last the taking of the city of Jerusalem 
 so shook his hand, that his pen fell out, and he wrote no 
 
 more. I/oly JVar, B. ii. C. 38. 
 
 Characters (continued) 
 Archbishop Warham 
 
 William Warham was born at Ockley, of worshipful 
 parentage in this county ; bred fellow and doctor of the 
 laws in New College; employed by king Henry the 
 Seventh (who never sent sluggard or fool on his errand) 
 to Margaret duchess of Burgundy, and by him advanced 
 bishop of London, then archbishop of Canterbury, 
 living therein in great lustre, till eclipsed in power and 
 profit by Thomas Wolsey, archbishop of York. 
 
 It may be said, that England then had ten archbishops, 
 if a figure and cipher amount to so many ; or else, if it 
 had but two, they were archbishop Thomas and arch- 
 bishop Wolsey, drawing all causes to his court-legatine, 
 whilst all other ecclesiastical jurisdictions in England 
 kept a constant vacation. This, Warham bare with 
 much moderation; contenting himself, that, as he had 
 less honour, so he had less envy, and kept himself cool, 
 whilst Wolsey, his screen, was often scorched with just 
 
 and general hatred. worthies: Hants. Prelates. 
 
 John Wickliffe 
 
 And here we will acquaint the reader, that, being 
 to write the History of Wickliffe, I intend neither to 
 deny, dissemble, defend, nor excuse any of his faults. 
 'We have this treasure,' saith the apostle, 'in earthen 
 vessels,' 2 Cor. iv. 7; and he that shall endeavour to 
 
 prove 
 
Ouain^ Couneefe 
 
 n 
 
 prove a pitcher of clay to be a pot of gold, will take 
 great pains to small purpose. Yea, should I be over- 
 officious to retain myself to plead for Wickliffe's faults, 
 that glorious saint would sooner chide than thank me, 
 unwilling that, in favour of him, truth should suffer 
 prejudice. He was a man, and so subject to error; 
 living in a dark age, more obnoxious to stumble ; vexed 
 with opposition, which makes men reel into violence; 
 and therefore it is unreasonable, that the constitution 
 and temper of his positive opinions should be guessed 
 by his polemical heat, when he was chafed in disputation. 
 But beside all these, envy hath falsely fathered many 
 foul aspersions upon him. ch. Hist. iv. s. i. s. 
 
 His Unburying 
 
 Hitherto the corpse of John Wickliffe had quietly 
 slept in his grave, about one-and-forty years after his death, 
 till his body was reduced to bones, and his bones almost 
 to dust. For though the earth in the chancel of Lutter- 
 worth in Leicestershire, where he was interred, hath not 
 so quick a digestion with the earth of Aceldama, to 
 consume flesh in twenty-four hours, yet such the appetite 
 thereof, and all other English graves, to leave small 
 reversions of a body after so many years. 
 
 But now, such the spleen of the council of Constance, 
 as they not only cursed his memory, as dying an obstinate 
 heretic, but ordered that his bones (with this charitable 
 caution, ' if it may be discerned from the bodies of other 
 faithful people, ') to be taken out of the ground, and 
 thrown far off from any Christian burial. 
 
 In 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
78 
 
 (^tee (^otr&0 att5 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 In obedience hereunto, Richard Fleming, bishop of 
 Lincoln, diocesan of Lutterworth, sent his officers 
 (vultures with a quick sight scent at a dead carcase) to 
 ungrave him accordingly. To Lutterworth they come, 
 Sumner, Commissary, Official, Chancellor, Proctors, Doc- 
 tors, and the servants (so that the remnant of the body 
 would not hold out a bone, amongst so many hands) 
 take what was left out of the grave, and burnt them to 
 ashes, and cast them into Swift, a neighbouring brook 
 running hard by. Thus this brook hath conveyed his 
 ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the 
 narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus 
 the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, 
 which now is dispersed all the world over. 
 
 Ch. Hut. B. iv. S. ii. 51, & 53. 
 
 Characters (continued^ 
 
 Mr. Wiemark 
 
 One Mr. Wiemark, a wealthy man, great novellant, 
 and constant Paul's-walker, hearing the news that day 
 of the beheading of Sir Walter Raleigh, ' His head,' said 
 he, ' would do very well on the shoulders of Sir Robert 
 Naunton, secretary of state.' These words were com- 
 plained of, and Wiemark summoned to the privy council, 
 where he pleaded for himself, 'that he intended no 
 disrespect to Mr. Secretary, whose known worth was 
 above all detraction; only he spake in reference to an 
 old proverb, ' Two heads are better than one.' And so 
 for the present he was dismissed. Not long after, when 
 rich men were called on for a contribution to St. Paul's, 
 
 Wiemark 
 
Ouain^ torxntfde 
 
 79 
 
 Wiemark at the council-table subscribed a hundred 
 pounds : but Mr. Secretary told him two hundred were 
 better than one; which, betwixt fear and charity, 
 Wiemark was fain to subscribe. 
 
 Worthies : Suffolk. Statesmen. 
 
 The three Sons of William the Conqueror, 
 how denominated 
 
 William the Conqueror left three sons, — Robert, 
 William, and Henry : and, because hereditary surnames 
 were not yet fixed in families, they were thus de- 
 nominated and distinguished : — i. The eldest from Ms 
 goods of fortune, to which clothes are reduced, Robert 
 Curthose from the short hose he, wore; not only for 
 fancy, but sometimes for need, cutting his coat ac-, 
 cording to his cloth ; his means, all his life long, being 
 scant and necessitous. 2. The second from the goods of 
 his body, namely, a ruddy complexion, William Rufus, or 
 ' Red.' But, whether a lovely and amiable or ireful and 
 choleric red, the reader, on perusal of his Life, is best 
 able to decide. 3. The third from the goods of his mind, 
 and his rich abilities of learning, Henry Beauclerk, or, 
 ' the good scholar.' ch. Hist. b. iii. s. ;. 26. 
 
 Archbishop Williams 
 
 Retiring himself into North Wales, (where his birth, 
 estate, alliance, but chiefly hospitality did make him 
 popular,) he had a great — but endeavoured a greater — 
 influence on those parts. It gave some distaste, that in 
 all consultations he would have his advice pass for an 
 oracle, not to be contested with, much less controlled by 
 
 any 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
8o 
 
 (JOiee (P?or&0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Characters (amtmued) — Archbishop Williams 
 
 any. But vast the difference betwixt his orders in 
 Chancery, armed with power to enforce obedience, and 
 his counsel here, which many military men (as in their 
 own element) took the boldness to contradict; buff 
 coats often rubbed and grated against this prelate's silk 
 cassock, which (because of the softer matter) was the 
 sooner fretted therewith. Indeed, he endeavoured as 
 much as might be to preserve his country from taxes, 
 (an acceptable and ingratiating design with the people,) 
 but sometimes inconsistent with the king's present and 
 pressing necessities. All his words and deeds are re- 
 presented at Oxford (where his court-interest did daily 
 decline) to his disadvantage, and some jealousies are 
 raised of his cordialness to the royal cause. 
 
 At last some great affronts were put upon him, 
 (increased with his tender resenting of them,) being 
 himself, as I have been informed, put out of Commission, 
 and another placed in his room : a disgrace so much 
 the more insupportable to his high spirit, because 
 he conceived himself much meriting of his majesty, by 
 his loyalty, industry, ability, and expense in his cause, 
 who hitherto had spared neither care nor cost in ad- 
 vancing the same, even to the impairing of his own 
 estate. 
 
 But now he entereth on a design, which had I line 
 and plummet, I want skill to manage them in measuring 
 the depth thereof. He sueth to the parliament for 
 favour, and obtained it, whose general in a manner he 
 becomes in laying siege to the town and castle of 
 Aberconway, till he had reduced it to their service, and 
 much of the town to his own possession. 
 
 And 
 
Ouctin^ totXYicdtf 
 
 8i 
 
 And now meruit sub parliamento in Wallid, is the 
 wonder of all men. I confe^ss he told his kinsman who 
 related it to me, that if he might have the convenience 
 to speak with his majesty but one half-hour, (a small 
 time for so great a task,) he doubted not but to give 
 him full satisfaction for his behaviour. Sure it is, those 
 of the royal party, and his own order, which could not 
 mine into his invisible motives, but surveyed only the 
 sad surface of his actions, condemn the same as irre- 
 concilable with the principles he professed. And though 
 hereby he escaped a composition for his estate in 
 Goldsmith's Hall, yet his memory is still to compound 
 (and at what rate I know not) with many mouths, before 
 a good word can be afforded unto it. But these, per- 
 chance, have never read the well-Latined ' Apology ' in 
 his behalf. And although some will say, that they that 
 need an apology come too near to fault, the word (as 
 commonly taken) sounding more of excuse than defence ; 
 yet, surely, in its genuine notation it speaks, not guilt, 
 but always greatness of enemies and opposers. 
 
 Of all English divines since the Reformation, he might 
 make the most experimental sermon on the apostle's 
 words, ' By honour and dishonour, by ill report and good 
 report;' though the method not so applicable as the 
 matter unto him, who did not close and conclude with 
 the general good esteem, losing by his last compliance 
 his old friends at Oxford, and, in lieu of them, finding 
 few new ones at London. 
 
 Envy itself cannot deny, but that, whithersoever he 
 went, he might be traced by the footsteps of his 
 benefaction. Much he expended on the repair of 
 G Westminster 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
82 
 
 (^i0e (K)otr50 Anb 
 
 Thomas 
 
 ruUer 
 
 Characters {continued) — Archbishop Williams. 
 
 Westminster Abbey church ; and his answer is generally 
 known, when pressed by bishop Laud to a larger con- 
 tribution to St. Paul's, that he would not rob Peter to 
 pay Paul. The library of Westminster was the effect of 
 his bounty; and so was a chapel in Lincoln College 
 in Oxford, having no other relation thereunto than as 
 the namesake of his bishopric : so small an invitation 
 will serve to call a coming charity. At St. John's in 
 Cambridge he founded two fellowships, built a fair 
 library, and furnished it with books; intending more, 
 had his bounty then met with proportionable entertain- 
 ment. But benefactors may give money, but not 
 grateful minds, to such as receive it. 
 
 He was very chaste in his conversation, whatsoever a 
 nameless author hath written on the contrary : whom his 
 confuter hath styled, aulicus e coquinari&, or ' the courtier 
 out of the kitchen,' and that deservedly for his unworthy 
 writings, out of what dripping-pan soever he Ucked this 
 his sluttish intelligence. For most true it is, (as I am 
 certainly informed from such who knew the privacies and 
 casualties of his infancy,) this archbishop was but one 
 degree removed from a misogynist, yet, to palliate his 
 infirmity, to noble females he was most complete in his 
 courtly addresses. 
 
 He hated popery with a perfect hatred ; and though 
 oft declaring freedom and favour to imprisoned papists, 
 as a minister of state, in obedience to his office ; yet he 
 never procured them any courtesies out of his proper 
 inclinations. Yea, when Dr. [Bishop], the new bishop of 
 Chalcedon, at the end of king James's reign, first arrived 
 in England, he gave the Duke of Buckingham advice, 
 
 (in 
 
Ouatn( Couneefe 
 
 83 
 
 (in case other circumstances conveniently concurred), 
 that the Judges should presently proceed against him, 
 and hang him out of the way, and the king cast the 
 blame on archbishop Abbot or himself, prepared (it 
 seemeth) to undergo his royal displeasure therein. 
 
 Not out of sympathy to nonconformists, but antipathy 
 to bishop Laud, he was favourable to some select persons 
 of that opinion. Most sure it is, that in his greatness he 
 procured for Mr. Cotton of Boston a toleration, under 
 the Broad Seal, for the free exercise of his ministry, 
 notwithstanding his dissenting in ceremonies, so long 
 as done without disturbance to the church. But as for 
 this bishop himself, he was so great an honourer of the 
 English Liturgy, that, of his own cost, he caused the 
 same to be translated into Spanish, and fairly printed, 
 to confute their false conceit of our church, who would 
 not believe that we used any Book of Common-Prayer 
 amongst us. 
 
 He was of a proper person, comely countenance, and 
 amiable complexion, having a stately garb and gait by 
 nature, which (suppose him prouder than he should be) 
 made him mistaken prouder than he was. His head was 
 a well-filled treasury, and his tongue the fair key to 
 unlock it. He had as great a memory as could be 
 reconciled with so good a judgment ; so quick his parts, 
 that his extempore performances equalized the pre- 
 meditations of others of his profession. He was very 
 open, and too free in discourse, disdaining to lie at 
 a close guard, so confident of the length and strength 
 of his weapons. 
 
 Thus take we our farewell of his memory, concluding 
 G 2 it 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
84 
 
 ^t0e (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 Characters (continued) — Archbishop Williams. 
 
 it with one of his speeches, (as savoury, I beheve, as ever 
 any he uttered,) wherein he expressed himself to a grave 
 minister coming to him for institution in a living. ' I 
 have,' saith he, ' passed through many places of honour 
 and trust, both in church and state, more than any of 
 my order in England this seventy years before. But were 
 I but assured that by my preaching I had converted but 
 one soul unto God, I should take therein more spiritual 
 joy and comfort, than in all the honours and offices 
 which have been bestowed upon me.' 
 
 He died, as I take it, anno 1649 ; sure I am, on the 
 25th of March, leaving a leading case, (not as yet 
 decided in our law,) whether his half-year's rents (due 
 after sunrise) should go with his goods and chattels, unto 
 his executor, or fall to his heir. The best was, such the 
 providence of the parties concerned therein, that, before 
 it came to a suit, they seasonably compounded it 
 amongst themselves. ch. Hist. b. xi. s. to. 21-32. 
 
 Mutual Charity 
 
 We see other men's, other men see our mistakes ; 
 so necessary is mutual candour and charity, because he 
 who forgiveth to-day may have need to be forgiven 
 
 to-morrow. WorthUs.- Kent. 
 
 Posthumous Charity 
 
 It is the life of a gift, to be done in the life of the 
 giver ; far better than funeral legacies, which, like Ben- 
 jamin, are born by the loss of a parent. For, it is not 
 so kindly charity, for men to give what they can keep no 
 
 longer ; 
 
O.uainf Couneefe 
 
 85 
 
 longer : 
 abuses. 
 
 besides, such donations are most subject to 
 
 Silver in the living 
 
 Is gold in the giving; 
 
 Gold in the dying 
 
 Is but silver a-flying; 
 Gold and silver in the dead 
 Turn too often into lead. 
 
 Hist. Camb. : Sect, viii, ded. 
 
 How scandalous was it that exiles of the same 
 country, for the same cause, could not agree together ! 
 But man in misery, as well as ' man in honour, hath no 
 understanding.' ca. Hist. b. viii. s. iii. 16. 
 
 Cheerfulness 
 
 One said, he loved to hear his carter, though not his 
 cart, to sing. ' God loveth a cheerful giver : ' and Christ 
 reproved the Pharisees for disiiguring their faces with a 
 sad countenance. Fools, who, to persuade men that 
 angels lodged in their hearts, hung out a devil for a sign 
 in their faces ! Sure, cheerfulness in doing renders a 
 deed more acceptable. Not like those servants, who 
 doing their work unwillingly, their looks do enter a pro" 
 testation against what their hands are doing. 
 
 J/aty S/ate,B. i. C. B. ^. 
 
 Entrance of Christianity into Britain 
 
 The entrance of the Gospel was facilitated by the 
 Roman conquest. The entrance of the Gospel into this 
 island was so far from being done in an instant, or, si'mu/ 
 et semel, that it was not res unius seculi, ' the product of 
 one age ; ' but was successively done, 7roX«/*epSs mi woXu- 
 
 rponas, 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
86 
 
 (JK)i0e (lSOotb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Tpmas, 'at sundry times, and in divers manners.' So that 
 this extensive entrance of the Christian religion, gradually 
 insinuating itself, took up a century of years, from the 
 latter end of Tiberius, and so forwards. 
 
 Christianity entered not into this island like lightning, 
 but like light. None can behold this essay thereof in 
 the time of Tiberius, otherwise than a morning-star; 
 some forty years after, the day dawned ; and lastly, under 
 king Lucius, (that leuer-maure, or ' the great light,') the 
 sun of religion may be said to arise ; before which time, 
 the south of this island was sufficiently colonized by the 
 Romans, whereby commerce and civility ushered Chris- 
 tianity into Britain. 
 
 Appeal of Injured Innocence. Part I. 4. Animadv. onCh, Hist. 
 
 Chronology 
 
 As for the many chronological differences, where- 
 with the building of this Temple is encumbered, we 
 utterly decline them as alien from our subject. ' He 
 that meddleth (saith Solomon) with strife belonging not 
 to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears ' (Prov. 
 xxvi. 17). Chronology (all know) is a surly, churlish cur, 
 and hath bit many a man's fingers, who have causelessly 
 meddled therewith. Blame me not therefore, if wilHng 
 to keep mine own hands whole. 
 
 Pisgah Sights B, iii. C. ii. S. iii. 5. 
 
 Painstaking in Church History 
 
 Give me leave to add, that a greater volume of general 
 Church-History might be made with less time, pains, and 
 cost ; for in the making thereof, I had straw provided me 
 
 to 
 
Ouain^ (tovuxetie 
 
 87 
 
 to burn my brick ; I mean, could find what I needed, in 
 printed books. Whereas in this British Church-History, 
 I must (as well as I could) provide my own straw ; and 
 my pains have been scattered all over the land, by riding, 
 writing, going, sending, chiding, begging, praying, and 
 sometimes paying too, to procure manuscript materials. 
 
 Appeal of Injui'ed InnocencBy-^. i. Ans. to Inttoduction. 
 
 ' Charity begins, but doth not end, at home.' The 
 same method was embraced in my Church-History. It 
 began with our own domestic affairs, to confute that ac- 
 cusation, commonly charged on Englishmen, that they 
 are very knowing in foreign parts, but ignorant in their 
 own country. I intended (God willing) to have pro- 
 ceeded to foreign churches ; but I am discouraged by the 
 causeless cavilling at what I have written already. 
 
 My Church-History beginneth (for point of time) in- 
 determinately, before the birth of Christ, (lapping in, or 
 folding over, part of Paganism,) and presenteth the dole- 
 ful condition of the Britons, whilst yet unconverted, and 
 grievous idolators. 
 
 Determinately, my History begins Anno Domini 37 ; 
 which is but four years after Christ's passion, and that is 
 very early, I assure you : Christianity in this island being 
 a timely riser, to be up so soon, and dressing itself, whilst 
 as yet (and many years after) rhost countries were fast 
 asleep in pagan impiety. idem. 
 
 Clothes 
 
 Clothes are for necessity ; warm clothes, for health ; 
 cleanly, for decency; lasting, for thrift; and rich, for 
 
 magnificence. 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
88 
 
 (^iee (^ovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Fuller 
 
 magnificence. Now there may be a fault in their — 
 number, if too various — making, if too vain — matter, 
 if too costly — and mind of the wearer, if he takes pride 
 
 therein. ffoly state, B. iii. C. vi. 
 
 Vanity of Conferences 
 
 The parties, place, and time were agreed on ; who, 
 where, when they should dispute ; but in fine nothing 
 was effected. Yea, who ever knew conferences in so 
 great oppositions to ripen kindly, and bring any fruit 
 to perfection ? for many come rather for faction than 
 satisfaction, resolving to carry home the same opinions 
 they brought with them : an upright moderator will 
 scarce be found, who hangeth not to one side; the 
 place will be subject to suspicion, and hinder liberty ; 
 boldness and readiness of speech, with most (though not 
 most judicious) auditors, will bear away the bell from 
 solidity of arguments ; the passages in the disputing will 
 be partially reported, and both sides will brag of the 
 conquest ; so that the rent will be made worse, and more 
 spirits conjured up than allayed. miy War, b. m. c. 21. 
 
 A Timid Convert 
 
 King Edwin demurred to embrace Christianity. But 
 he communicated with the sagest of his council, with 
 whom he had daily debates, being loath rashly to rush 
 on a matter of such moment. And, truly, that religion 
 which is rather suddenly parched up than seasonably 
 ripened, doth commonly ungive afterwards. Yea, he 
 would sit long alone, making company to himself, and 
 silently arguing the case in his own heart, being partly 
 
 convinced 
 
Ouain^ Cottn0ef0 
 
 89 
 
 convinced in his judgment of the goodness of the 
 Christian religion ; and yet he durst not entertain Truth, 
 a lawful king, for fear to displease Custom, a cruel 
 
 tyrant. Ch. Hist. B. H. Cent. vii. 40. 
 
 Contentment 
 
 Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but 
 in taking away some fire. — Not in multiplying of wealth, 
 but in subtracting men's desires. Worldly riches, like 
 nuts, tear many clothes in getting them, spoil many teeth 
 in cracking them, but fill no belly with eating them, 
 obstructing only the stomach with toughness, and filhng 
 the guts with windiness. Yea, our souls may sooner 
 surfeit, than be satisfied, with earthly things. He that 
 at first thought ten thousand pounds too much for any 
 one man, will afterwards think ten millions too little for 
 
 himself. Holy state, B. iii. C. xvii. 7. 
 
 It is not a word-braving or scorning of all wealth in 
 discourse. — Generally those who boast most of content- 
 ment, have least of it. Their very boasting shows, that 
 they want something, and basely beg it, namely, com- 
 mendation. These in their language are like unto kites 
 in their flying, which mount in the air so scornfully, as if 
 they disdained to stoop for the whole earth, fetching 
 about many stately circuits. But what is the spirit these 
 conjurers, with so many circles, intend to raise ? A poor 
 chicken, or, perchance, a piece of carrion : and so the 
 height of the others' proud boasting will humble itself for 
 a httle base gain. id. b. iii. c. xvii. 2. 
 
 A 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
90 
 
 (H)t0e (^ovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 A CONTENTED mind extendeth the smallest parish into 
 a diocese, and improveth the least benefice into a 
 
 bishopric. worthies : Ha-nts. Writers. 
 
 The Controversial Divine 
 
 He is not curious in searching matters of no moment. 
 —Captain Martin Forbisher fetched from the farthest 
 northern countries a ship's lading of mineral stones, (as 
 he thought,) which afterwards were cast out to mend the 
 highways. Thus are they served, and miss their hopes, 
 who, long seeking to extract hidden mysteries out of nice 
 questions, leave them off as useless at last. Antoninus 
 Pius, for his desire to search to the least differences, was 
 called cumini sector, ' the carver of cumin seed.' One 
 need not be so accurate ; for as soon shall one scour the 
 spots out of the moon, as all ignorance out of man. 
 When Eunomius the heretic vaunted, that he knew God 
 and his Divinity, St. Basil gravels him in twenty-one 
 questions about the body of an ant or pismire : so dark 
 is man's understanding ! I wonder, therefore, at the 
 boldness of some, who, as if they were lord-marshals of 
 the angels, place them in ranks and files. Let us not 
 believe them here, but rather go to heaven to confute 
 
 them. Holy state, B. ii. C. iv. ii. 
 
 The Convocation of 1640 
 
 In these distracted times a Parliament was called, 
 Monday, April 13th, with the wishes of all, and hopes 
 of most that were honest ; yet not without the fears of 
 
 some. 
 
Quaint Coun0ef0 
 
 91 
 
 some, who were wise, what would be the success thereof. 
 With this ParHament began a Convocation; all the 
 mediate transactions (for aught I can find out) are em- 
 bezzled ; and therein it was ordered, that none present 
 should take any private notes in the House ; whereby the 
 particular passages thereof are left at great uncertainty. 
 However, so far as I can remember, I will faithfully 
 relate ; being comforted with this consideration, that 
 generally he is accounted an unpartial arbitrator who 
 displeaseth both sides. 
 
 On the first day thereof, Tuesday, 14th, Dr. Turner, 
 chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, made a Latin 
 sermon in the choir of St. Paul's. His text : ' Behold, I 
 send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,' Matt. x. 
 16. In the close of his sermon he complained, that all 
 bishops held not the reins of church-discipline with an 
 even hand, but that some of them were too easy and 
 remiss in the ordering thereof; whereby, while they 
 sought to gain to themselves the popular praise of meek- 
 ness and mildness, they occasionally cast on other bishops, 
 more severe than themselves, the unjust imputation of 
 rigour and tyranny ; and therefore he advised them all 
 with equal strictness to urge an universal conformity. 
 Sermon ended, we chose Dr. Stewart, dean of Chichester, 
 Prolocutor. 
 
 Next day of sitting, Friday, 17th, we met at West- 
 minster, in the chapel of king Henry VII, both the Houses 
 of Convocation being joined together; when the arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury entertained them with a Latin 
 speech, well nigh three quarters of an hour gravely 
 uttered, his eyes oft-times being but one remove from 
 
 weeping. 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
92 
 
 (BOiee (5E)ot:5e anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
 weeping. It consisted most of generals, bemoaning the 
 distempers of the church ; but [he] concluded it with 
 a special passage, acquainting us how highly we were in- 
 debted to his majesty's favour so far intrusting the 
 integrity and ability of that Convocation, as to empower 
 them with his commission, the like whereof was not 
 granted for many years before, to alter old — or make 
 new — canons for the better government of the church. 
 
 Some wise men in the Convocation began now to be 
 jealous of the event of new canons ; yea, became fearful 
 of their own selves, for having too great power, lest it 
 should tempt them to be over-tampering in innovations. 
 They thought it better, that this Convocation, with its 
 predecessors, should be censured for laziness, and the 
 solemn doing of just nothing, rather than to run the 
 hazard by over-activity to do any thing unjust. For, as 
 waters long dammed up oft-times flounce, and fly out too 
 violently, when their sluices are pulled up, and they let 
 loose on a sudden ; so the judicious feared, lest the Con- 
 vocation, whose power of meddling with church-matters 
 had been bridled up for many years before, should now, 
 enabled with such power, over-act their parts, especially 
 in such dangerous and discontented times. Yea, they 
 suspected, lest those who formerly had out-run the canons 
 with their additional conformity (ceremonizing more then 
 was enjoined) now would make the canons come up to 
 them, making it necessary for others what voluntarily they 
 had pre-practised themselves. 
 
 Matters began to be in agitation, when on a sudden, 
 (May 5th,) the Parliament (wherein many things were 
 started, nothing hunted down, or brought to perfection) 
 
 was 
 
Ouainf Couneefe 
 
 93 
 
 was dissolved. Whilst the immediate cause hereof is 
 commonly cast on the king and court, demanding so 
 many subsidies at once, England being as yet unac- 
 quainted with such prodigious payments ; the more con- 
 scientious look higher and remoter, on the crying sins of 
 our kingdom. And from this very time did God begin 
 to gather the twigs of that rod (a civil war) wherewith 
 soon after he intended to whip a wanton nation. 
 
 Expect not here of me an exemplification of such 
 canons as were concluded of in this Convocation ; partly, 
 because being printed they are public to every eye ; but 
 chiefly, because they were never put in practice, or 
 generally received. The men in Persia did never look on 
 their little ones till they were seven years old, bred till 
 that time with their mothers and nurses ; nor did they 
 account them in their genealogies amongst their children, 
 but amongst the more long-lived abortives, if dying before 
 seven years of age. I conceive such canons come not 
 under our cognizance, which last not (at least) an ap- 
 prenticeship of years in use and practice : and therefore 
 we decline the setting down the Acts of this Synod. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. xi. S. 8. ii. 
 
 Courtesy 
 
 When one oifers us a courtesy, especially being our 
 superior, it is fitting we should requite him. It is a 
 noble conquest for to be overcome with wrongs ; but it 
 is a sign of a degenerous nature to be outvied with 
 courtesies ; and therefore, if one begin a kindness to us, 
 let us (if it lie in our power) pledge him in the same 
 nature. Ruth^ u. 4. 
 
 There 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
94 
 
 (P^iee (]SOotb(f an^ 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 There is great difference between painting a face and 
 
 not washing it. C&. Hist. B. vii. S. i. 32. 
 
 The Battle of Cressy 
 
 Coming to the town of Cressy, they found the Enghsh 
 fortified in a woody place, and attending in good array 
 to give battle. Whereat the French, falling from their 
 hopes, were extremely vexed, (a fool's Paradise is a wise 
 man's hell !) finding their enemies' faces to stand where 
 
 they looked for their backs War is a game wherein 
 
 very often that side loseth which layeth the odds. 
 
 Holy state, B. iv. C. 20. 
 
 Crossing the Line 
 
 Then cutting the Line, they saw the face of that heaven 
 which earth hideth from us, but therein only three stars 
 of the first greatness, the rest few and small compared to 
 our hemisphere ; as if God, on purpose, had set up the 
 best and biggest candles in that room wherein his civilest 
 guests are entertained. id. b. il c. 22. 
 
 The Cnisaders 
 
 The French, Dutch, Italian, and English were the four 
 elemental nations whereof this army was compounded : 
 of these the French were predominant ; they were the 
 cape merchants in this adventure. That nimble nation 
 first apprehended the project, and eagerly prosecuted 
 it. As their language wanteth one proper word to express 
 stand, so their natures mislike a settled, fixed posture, 
 
 and 
 
Ouaitt^ €otttt0ef0 
 
 9S 
 
 and delight in motion and agitation of business ; yea, 
 France (as being then best at leisure) contributed more 
 soldiers to this war than all Christendom besides. 
 
 Germany is slandered to have sent none to this war 
 at this first voyage; and that other pilgrims, passing 
 through that country, were mocked by the Dutch, and 
 called fools for their pains. But though Germany- was 
 backward at the first, yet afterwards it proved the main 
 Atlas of the war ; that nation, like a heavy bell, was long 
 a raising, but being got up made a loud sound. 
 
 Italy sent few out of her heart and middle provinces 
 nigh Rome. The pope was loath to adventure his 
 darlings into danger; those white boys were to stay at 
 home with his holiness their tender father : wherefore 
 he dispensed with them for going, as knowing how to 
 use their help nearer, and to greater profit. Peter's 
 patrimony must as well be looked to, as Christ's sepulchre. 
 But though the pope would spend none of his own fuel, 
 he burnt the best stakes of the emperor's hedge, and 
 furthered the imperial party to consume itself in this 
 tedious war. 
 
 England (the pope's packhorse in that age), which 
 seldom rested in the stable when there was any work 
 to be done, sent many brave men under Robert Duke of 
 Normandy, . . . Neither surely did the Irishmen's feet 
 stick in their bogs, though we find no particular mention 
 of their achievements. jfo^y War, b. ;. c. xiH. 
 
 The Crusade 
 
 Thus after a hundred ninety and four years ended the 
 Holy War ; for continuance the longest, for money spent 
 
 the 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
96 
 
 (K)i0e (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas the costliest, for bloodshed the cruelest, for pretences the 
 most pious, for the true intent the most politic the world 
 
 ever saw. 
 
 //oijf War, B. iv, C. xxxlii. 
 
 Curiosity 
 
 Curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit, which still 
 sticketh in the throat of a natural man, sometimes to the 
 
 danger of his choking. worthies: Yorks. writers. 
 
 The Dead Sea 
 
 The Salt Sea was sullen and churlish, differing from 
 all other in the conditions thereof. David, speaking of 
 other seas, saith, ' There go the ships, and there is that 
 leviathan which Thou hast made to play therein ' (Psalm 
 civ. 26), so instancing in the double use of the sea for 
 ships to sail and fishes to swim in. But this is serviceable 
 for neither of these intents, no vessels sailing thereon, 
 the clammy water being a real remora to obstruct their 
 passage ; and the most sportful fishes dare not jest with 
 the edged tools of this Dead Sea ; which if unwillingly 
 hurried thereinto by the force of the stream of Jordan 
 they presently expire. Yea, it would kill that apocrypha- 
 dragon which Daniel is said to have choked with lumps 
 of pitch, fat, and hair, if he should be so adventurous 
 to drink of the waters thereof, so stifling and suffocating 
 is the nature of it. In a word, this sea hath but one 
 good quality, namely, that it entertains intercourse with 
 no other seas, which may be imputed to the providence 
 of nature debarring it from communion with the ocean, 
 lest otherwise it should infect other waters with its 
 malignity. Nor doth any healthful thing grow thereon, 
 
 save 
 
Ouaitt^ Cotttt0ef0 
 
 97 
 
 save only this wholesome counsel, which may be collected 
 from this pestiferous lake, for men to beware how they 
 provoke divine justice by their lustful and unnatural 
 enormities. pugah sight, b. h. c. xiu. s. 
 
 Thoughts on Death 
 
 To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for 
 the body ; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to 
 
 the soul. Holy state, B. iv. C. xiii. 13. 
 
 Sudden Death 
 
 Lord be pleased to shake my clay cottage before 
 Thou throwest it down. May it totter a while before 
 it doth tumble. Let me be summoned before I am 
 surprised. Deliver me from sudden death. Not from 
 sudden death in respect of itself, for I care not how 
 short my passage be, so it be safe. Never any weary 
 traveller complained that he came too soon to his 
 journey's end. But let it not be sudden in respect of 
 me. Make me always ready to receive death. Thus no 
 guest comes unawares to him who keeps a constant 
 
 taole. Good Thoughts. Personal Meditations, xxv. 
 
 A Dedication 
 
 To the Right Worshipful Sir Richard Shugborough, 
 of Shugborough in Warwickshire 
 
 Master Ha ward returned this answer to queen Mary, 
 (demanding the causes of his coming to court), that it 
 was partly to see her Highness, and partly that her 
 Highness shbuld see him ; an answer, which, though 
 more witty than court-like, yea, more blunt than witty, 
 she took in good part. 
 
 H You 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
98 
 
 (H)t0e (^ori0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 You will not be offended at this my Dedication, partly 
 that I may know youi partly that I may be known unto 
 you. Besides, being informed that you love to have 
 your hospitable table handsomely attended with ancient 
 servitors, I presumed that this Section, containing much 
 of memorable antiquity, would not be unwelcome 
 
 unto you. a. Hist. b. v. S. Hi. 
 
 Dedication to Church History, Bk. xi 
 
 To the honohrabk Edward Montague, Esquire, son 
 and heir to the Right Honourable Edward Lord 
 Montague of Boughton 
 
 It is a strange casualty which an historian ^ reporteth 
 of five earls of Pembroke successively, (of the family 
 of Hastings,) that the father of them never saw his 
 son, — as born either in his absence or after his death. 
 
 I know not whether more remarkable, the fatality of 
 that — or the felicity of your — family ; where, in a lineal 
 descent, five have followed one another, the father not 
 only surviving to see his son of age, but also (yourself 
 excepted, who in due time may be) happy in their 
 marriage, hopeful in their issue. 
 
 These five have all been of the same Christian name. 
 Yet is there no fear of confusion, to the prejudice of 
 your pedigree, which heralds commonly in the like 
 cases complain of; seeing each of them being, as 
 eminent in their kind, so different in their eminency, 
 are sufficiently distinguished by their own character to 
 posterity. 
 
 ' Camden's Britannia in Pembrokeshire. 
 
 Of 
 
Ouain^ €otttt0ef0 
 
 99 
 
 Of these, the first a judge ; for his gravity and learning 
 famous in his generation. 
 
 The second, a worthy patriot, and bountiful house- 
 keeper ; blessed in a numerous issue ; his four younger 
 sons affording a bishop to the church, a judge and peer 
 to the state, a commander to the camp, and an officer to 
 the court. 
 
 The third was the first baron of the house ; of whose 
 worth I will say nothing, because I can never say enough. 
 
 The fourth, your honourable lather ; who, because he 
 doth still (and may he long) survive, I cannot do the 
 right which I would to his merit, without doing wrong 
 (which I dare not) to his modesty. 
 
 You are the fifth in a direct line ; and let me acquaint 
 you with what the world expecteth (not to say requireth) 
 of you — to dignify yourself with some select and peculiar 
 desert ; so to be differenced from your ancestors, that 
 your memory may not be mistaken in the homonymy 
 of your Christian names ; which to me seemeth as im- 
 probable, as that a burning beacon (at a reasonable 
 distance) should not be beheld ; such the brightness 
 of your parts, and advantage of your education. 
 
 You was bred in that school which hath no superior 
 in England ; and successively in those two universities, 
 which have no equal in Europe. Such the stock of 
 your native perfection, before grafted with the foreign 
 accomplishments of your travels : so that men con- 
 fidently promise themselves to read the best, last, and 
 largest edition of Mercator's Atlas in your experience 
 and discourse. 
 
 That good God who went with you out of your native 
 H 2 country 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
lOO 
 
 (Wiee {^0x^0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
 country, and since watched over you in foreign parts, 
 return with you in safety in due time, to his glory, and 
 your own good ; which is the daily desire of 
 
 Your Honour's most devoted servant, 
 
 Thomas Fuller. 
 
 Defender of the Faith 
 
 There is a tradition, that king Henry's fool, (though 
 more truly to be termed by another name,) coming into 
 the court, and finding the king transported with an 
 unusual joy, boldly asked of him the cause thereof; to 
 whom the king answered, it was because that the pope 
 had honoured him with a style more eminent than any 
 of his ancestors. ' O good Harry, ' quoth the fool, ' let 
 thou and I defend one another, and let the faith alone 
 to defend itself ' a. Hut. b. v. s. l 23. 
 
 Deformity 
 
 Mock not at those who are misshapen by nature. — 
 There is the same reason of the poor and of the de- 
 formed; he that despiseth them despiseth God that 
 made them. A poor man is a picture of God's own 
 making, but set in a plain frame, not gilded ; a deforme 
 man is also his workmanship, but not drawn with even 
 lines and lively colours : the former not for want of 
 wealth — as the latter not for want of skill — but both for 
 the pleasure — of the Maker. As for Aristotle, who 
 would have parents expose their deformed children to 
 the wide world without caring for them, his opinion 
 herein, not only deformed but most monstrous, deserves 
 rather to be exposed to the scorn and contempt of all 
 
 nien. Holy state, B. iii. C. xiv. 3. 
 
 Delays 
 
Ouain^ Coun0ef0 
 
 lOI 
 
 Delays Dangerous 
 
 The English ambassador some years since prevailed 
 so far with the Turkish emperor, as to persuade him to 
 hear some of our English music, from which (as from 
 other liberal sciences) both he and his nation were 
 naturally averse. But it happened that the musicians 
 were so long in tuning their instruments, that the great 
 Turk, distasting their tediousness, went away in dis- 
 content before their music began. I am afraid that the 
 differences and dissensions betwixt Christian churches 
 (being so long in reconciling their discords) will breed in 
 pagans such a disrelish of our religion, as they will not 
 be invited to attend thereunto. 
 
 Good Thoughts in Bad Times, Hist. Apf. i. 
 
 Democracy 
 
 So irresistible is the tyranny of a tumult ; and, there- 
 fore, it may be all good men's prayers, that the people 
 may either never understand thfeir own power, or always 
 
 use it aright. Holy state, B. V. C. xviii. 7. 
 
 Men who would not have magistrates compel them, 
 — query, whether, if they had power, they would not 
 compel magistrates ? id. b. v. c. xi. 
 
 Detraction 
 
 What a monster might be made out of the best 
 beauties in the world, if a limner should leave what is 
 lovely, and only collect into one picture what he findeth 
 amiss in them ! I know there be white teeth in the 
 blackest Black-Moor, and a black bill in the whitest swan. 
 
 Worst 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
102 
 
 (^i0e (XDotr60 an6 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 Worst men have something to be commended, best men 
 something in them to be condemned. Only to insist on 
 men's faults to render them odious, is no ingenuous 
 employment. God, we know, so useth his fan, that he 
 keepeth the corn, but driveth away the chaff. But who 
 is he that winnoweth so, as to throw away the good grain, 
 and retain the chaff only ? ch. Hist. b. x. s. ii. 2. 
 
 Cornish Diamonds 
 
 These of themselves sound high, till the addition of 
 Cornish subtracteth from their valuation. In blackness 
 and hardness they are far short of the Indian : yet, set 
 with a good foil (advantaged hypocrisy passeth often for 
 sincerity) may at the first sight deceive no unskilful 
 lapidary. As their lustre is less than Orient diamonds, 
 so herein they exceed them, that nature hath made both 
 their face and their dressing, by whom they are pointed 
 and polished. But enough hereof, the rather because 
 some, from the Latin names of jewels, Jocalia, ' things 
 to be jested and played with,' and BaubellcB, 'things 
 which are trifles and baubles,' spitefully collect that 
 stones, accounted precious, are more beholding to the 
 consent of fancy, than their own intrinsic worth, for their 
 
 high valuation. Worthies: Commall. Natural ComtnoditUs. 
 
 A Diary 
 
 An exact Diary is a window into his heart who 
 maketh it ; and, therefore, pity it is that any should look 
 therein, but either the friends of the party, or such 
 ingenuous foes as will not (especially in things doubtful) 
 make conjectural comments to his disgrace. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. xi. S. V. 79. 
 
 Discretion 
 
Ouain^ Cottn0ef0 
 
 103 
 
 Discretion 
 
 Discretion puts a difference betwixt things absolutely 
 necessary to salvation to be done and believed, and those 
 which are of a second sort and lower form, wherein 
 more liberty and latitude is allowed. In maintaining 
 whereof, the stiffness of the judgment is abated, and 
 suppled with charity towards his neighbour. The luke- 
 warm man eyes only his own ends and particular profit ; 
 the npoderate man aims at the good of others, and unity 
 
 of the church. Holy state, B. Hi. C. XX. 3. 
 
 Discussion 
 
 As no cloth can be woven except the woof and the 
 warp be cast cross one to another, so discourse will 
 not be maintained without some opposition for the time. 
 
 Id. B. V. C. 6. 
 
 Disparity of Station 
 
 He that eats cherries with noblemen shall have his eyes 
 spirted out with the stones. — This outlandish proverb hath 
 in it an English truth, that they who constantly converse 
 with men far above their estates, shall reap shame and 
 loss thereby. If thou payest nothing, they will count 
 thee a sucker, no branch ; a wen, no member of their 
 company. If in payments thou keepest pace with them, 
 their long strides will soon tire thy short legs. The 
 beavers in New-England, when some ten of them 
 together draw a stick to the building of their lodging, set 
 the weakest beavers to the lighter end of the log, and the 
 strongest take the heaviest part thereof: whereas men 
 often lay the greatest burden on the weakest back ; and 
 
 great 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
I04 
 
 @Oi0e (^ovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 great persons, to teach meaner men to learn their 
 distance, take pleasure to make them pay for their 
 company. I except such men, who, having some 
 excellent quality, are gratis very welcome to their 
 betters ; such an one, though he pays not a penny of 
 the shot, spends enough in lending them his time and 
 
 discourse. Holy state, B. iii. C. v. 6. 
 
 Discoverers 
 
 The lord Bacon would have rewards given to those 
 men who, in the quest of natural experiments, make 
 probable mistakes, both because they are industrious 
 therein, and because their aberrations may prove in- 
 structions to others after them ; and to speak plainly, an 
 ingenious miss is of more credit than a bungling casual 
 
 nit. Good Thoughts. Mixt Contemp. on Better Times, 25. 
 
 Disputes Ended 
 
 Whilst mutual animosities were heightened betwixt 
 the opposers and assertors of the Liturgy, Providence 
 put a period for a time to that controversy in England. 
 Such who formerly would not — soon after durst not — use 
 the Common Prayer ; mass and popery being set up by 
 queen Mary in the room thereof. Thus when children 
 fall out and fight about the candle, the parents, coming 
 in and taking it away, leave them to decide the differences 
 in the dark. ch. Hist. b. vii. ad fin. 
 
 Eels of Cambridgeshire 
 
 Which, though they be found in all shires in England, 
 yet are most properly treated of here, as most, first, and 
 
 best 
 
Ouain( £;oun0ef«f 
 
 105 
 
 best ; the courts of the kings of England being thence 
 therewith anciently supplied. I will not engage in the 
 controversy whether they be bred by generation as other 
 fish ; or equivocally, out of putrefaction ; or both ways, 
 which is most probable ; seeing some have ventured to 
 know the distinguishing marks betwixt the one and other. 
 I know the silver eels are generally preferred, and I could 
 wish they loved men but as well as men love them, 
 that I myself might be comprised within the compass ,of 
 that desire. They are observed to be never out of 
 season (whilst other fishes have their set times) ; and the 
 biggest eels are ever esteemed the best. 
 
 Worthies : Camis. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Economy 
 
 Let us spare where we may, that so we may spend 
 where we should. 
 
 Eccentricity 
 
 Though such spheres and orbs which agree in one 
 centre may proportionably move one within another ; yet 
 such as are eccentrical can never observe equal distance 
 in their motion, but will sag aside to grind and grate one 
 the other. ch. Hist. b. ix. s. 3. 2. 
 
 Ely Minster [a. d. 1660] 
 This presenteth itself afar off to the eye of the traveller, 
 and on all sides, at great distance, not only maketh a 
 promise, but giveth earnest of the beauty thereof. The 
 lanthorn therein, built by Bishop Hotham, (wherein the 
 labour of twenty years, and five thousand ninety-four 
 pounds eighteen shillings ten pence half-penny farthing 
 
 was 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
io6 
 
 (JOiee (K)otrd0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 was expended), is a masterpiece of architecture. When 
 the bells ring, the wood-work thereof shaketh and gapeth 
 (no defect, but perfection of structure), and exactly 
 chocketh into the joints again ; so that it may pass for 
 the lively emblem of the sincere Christian, who, though 
 he hath motum trepidationis, of fear and trembling, stands 
 firmly fixed on the basis of a true faith. Rare also is 
 the art in the chapel of Saint Mary's, the pattern or 
 parent of that in King's College in Cambridge, though 
 here (as often elsewhere) it hath happened, the child 
 hath outgrown the father. Nor must the chapel of 
 Bishop West be forgotten, seeing the master-masons of 
 king James, on serious inspection, found finer stone-work 
 herein, than in king Henry the Seventh's chapel at 
 Westminster. 
 
 It grieved me lately to see so many new lights in this 
 church (supernumerary windows more than were in the 
 first fabric), and the whole structure in a falling condition, 
 except some good men's charity seasonably support it. 
 Yet was I glad to hear a great antiquary employed to 
 transcribe and preserve the monuments in that church, as 
 all others in the late-drowned land. And it is hard to 
 say, which was the better office, whether of those who 
 newly have dried them from the inundation of water, or of 
 those who shall drain them from the deluge of oblivion 
 by perpetuating their antiquities to posterity. 
 
 Worthies : Camb. Natural Commodities. 
 
 New England Emigrants 
 
 Now if any do demand of me my opinion concerning 
 our brethren which of late left this kingdom to advance 
 
 a plantation 
 
Ouainf Couneefe 
 
 107 
 
 a plantation in New England ; surely I think, as St. Paul 
 said concerning virgins, he had ' received no command- 
 ment from the Lord ' ; so I cannot find any just warrant 
 to encourage men to undertake this removal ; but think 
 rather the counsel best that king Joash prescribed to 
 Amaziah, 'Tarry at home.' Yet as for those that are 
 already gone, far be it from us to conceive them to be 
 such to whom we may not say, ' God speed,' as it is in 
 2 John verse 10 : but let us pity them, and pray for them ; 
 for sure they have no need of our mocks, which I am 
 afraid have too much of their own miseries. I conclude 
 therefore of the two Englands, what our Saviour saith of 
 the two wines, Luke v. 39 : ' No man having tasted of 
 the old presently desireth the new : for he saith, The old 
 is better.' Ruth. ch. i. ^. 
 
 Envy 
 
 That dark shadow, ever waiting on a shining merit. 
 
 Holy State, B. ii. C. 3. 
 
 Epitaphs 
 
 The shortest, plainest, and truest epitaphs are best. 
 — I say, 'the shortest'; for when a passenger sees a 
 chronicle written on a tomb, he takes it on trust, some 
 great man lies there buried, without taking pains to 
 examine who he is. Mr. Camden in his 'Remains' 
 presents us with examples of great men that had little 
 epitaphs. And when once I asked a witty gentleman, 
 an honoured friend of mine, what epitaph was fittest 
 to be written on Mr. Camden's tomb ; ' Let it be,' said 
 he, ' Camden's Remains.' id. b. Hi. c. xiv. 5. 
 
 Evil 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
io8 
 
 ^iee (^ovbe attb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Evil Speaking 
 
 For as the basest rascal will presume to miscall the 
 best lord, when far enough out of his hearing ; so slan- 
 derous tongues think they may run riot in railing on 
 any, when once got out of the distance of time, and 
 reach of confutation. ff^iy state, b. iv. c. xiv. 
 
 The Exchange 
 
 Yet, because much of mutability is imported in the 
 word Change, it may be a fit remembrancer to merchants 
 meeting here, not to build their hopes of perpetuity on 
 what is so subject to vicissitude and alteration. Well 
 may this place be termed the Change, where poor men 
 so soon become rich by good success, and rich men poor 
 by losses and casualties unexpected ! 
 
 Worthies: London. Buildings. 
 
 Experience 
 
 Surely they leap best in their providence forward, who 
 fetch their rise farthest backward in their experience. 
 
 Holy State, B. iv. C. xvii. 3. 
 
 The Falsehood of Extremes 
 
 It happeneth in all heights and heats of oppositions, 
 as in horse-races ; wherein the rider, if he doth not go 
 beyond the post, cannot come to the post so as to win 
 the prize : for, being upon the speed, he must go beyond 
 it that he come to it, though afterwards he may rein and 
 turn his horse back again to the very place of the mark. 
 Thus men being, in the heat of contest, upon the very 
 
 career 
 
Ouain^ toMnetie 
 
 109 
 
 career of their souls, because of their passions, cannot 
 stop short at the very mark they aim at, but some ex- 
 travagancies must be indulged to human infirmity, which 
 in their reduced thoughts they will correct and amend ; 
 as some Protestants, no doubt, now lashing out so far in 
 their language, retrenched them afterwards to a just pro- 
 portion of truth. c&. Hist. B. V. S. iv. 29. 
 
 Faith and Love 
 
 And here such as brought the man sick of the palsy 
 not finding a door on the floor made one on the roof 
 (love will creep, but faith will climb where it cannot go) 
 let him down with cords, his bed bringing him in, which 
 presently he carried out, being perfectly cured (Mark 
 
 ii. l). Pisgak Sight, B.ii. C. iv. 15. 
 
 Of Fame 
 
 Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the 
 world, save that the echo repeats only the last part, but 
 fame relates all, and often more than all. 
 
 Holy State, B. iii. C. xxiii. 8. 
 
 A FOND fame is best confuted by neglecting it.— By 
 ' fond ' understand such a report as is rather ridiculous, 
 than dangerous, if believed. It is not worth the making 
 a schisni betwixt newsmongers to set up an anti-fame 
 against it. Yea, seriously and studiously to endeavour 
 to confute it, will grace the rumour too much, and give 
 suspicion that indeed there is some reality in it. What 
 madness were it to plant a piece of ordnance to beat 
 
 down 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
no 
 
 (^i0t (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 down an aspen leaf, which, having always the palsy, will 
 at last fall down of itself! And fame hath much of the 
 scold in her ; the best way to silence her is, to be silent, 
 and then at last she will be out of breath with blowing 
 her own trumpet. ffoiy state, b. w. c. xxKi. s. 
 
 Familists 
 
 These Familists (besides many monstrosities they 
 maintained about their communion with God) attenuated 
 all Scriptures into allegories ; and, under pretence to turn 
 them into spirit, made them airy, empty, nothing. They 
 counterfeited revelations ; and those, not explicatory or 
 applicatory of Scripture, (such may and must be allowed 
 to God's servants in all ages,) but additional thereunto, 
 and of equal necessity and infallibility to be believed 
 therewith. In a word, as in the small-pox, (pardon my 
 plain and homely, but true and proper, comparison,) 
 when at first they kindly come forth, every one of them 
 may severally and distinctly be discerned ; but when once 
 they run and matter, they break one into another, and 
 can no longer be dividedly discovered; so though at 
 first there was a real difference betwixt Familists, Enthu- 
 siasts, Antinomians, (not to add high-flown Anabaptists,) 
 in their opinions, yet, (process of time plucking up the 
 pales betwixt them,) afterwards they did so interfere 
 amongst themselves, that it is almost impossible to bank 
 and bound their several absurdities, ch. nut. b. ix. s. iu. 38. 
 
 Fancy 
 
 It is an inward sense of the soul, for a while retaining 
 and examining things brought in thither by the common 
 
 sense. 
 
Ouain^ Coun0ef0 
 
 II I 
 
 sense. It is the most boundless and restless faculty of 
 the soul : for whilst the understanding and the will are 
 kept as it were in libercL cusfodid to their objects of verum 
 ef bonum, the fancy is free from all engagements. It digs 
 without spade, sails without ship, flies without wings, 
 builds without charges, fights without bloodshed, in a 
 moment striding from the centre to the circumference of 
 the world, by a kind of omnipotency creating and an- 
 nihilating things in an instant ; and things divorced in 
 nature are married in fancy, as in a lawful place. It is 
 also most restless : whilst the senses are bound, and reason 
 in a manner asleep, fancy, like a sentinel, walks the round, 
 ever working, never wearied. The chief diseases of the 
 fancy are, either that they are too wild and high-soaring, 
 or else too low and grovelling, or else too desultory and 
 over-voluble. 
 
 Of the first :— 
 
 If thy fancy be but a little too rank, age itself will cor- 
 rect it. — To lift too high is no fault in a young horse, 
 because with travelling he will mend it, for his own ease. 
 Thus, lofty fancies in young men will come down of 
 themselves, and, in process of time, the overplus will 
 shrink to be but even measure. 
 
 Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy in- 
 ventions to his censure. — When thou pennest an oration, 
 let him have the power of Index Exfurgatorius, to ex- 
 punge what he pleaseth ; and do not thou, hke a fond 
 mother, cry if the child of thy brain be corrected for 
 playing the wanton. Mark the arguments and reasons of 
 his alterations, — why that phrase least proper, this passage 
 more cautious and advised; and, after a while, thou 
 
 shalt 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
112 
 
 (^iee (P?or60 an5 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 shalt perform the place in thine own person, and not go 
 out of thyself for a censurer. 
 
 If thy fancy be too low and humble, — 
 
 Let thy judgment be king, but not tyrant, over it, to 
 condemn harmless, yea, commendable, conceits. — Some, 
 for fear their orations should giggle, will not let them 
 smile. Give it also liberty to rove, for it will not be ex- 
 travagant. There is no danger that weak folks, if they 
 walk abroad, will straggle far, as wanting strength. 
 
 Acquaint thyself with reading poets, for there fancy is 
 in her throne. — ^And in time the sparks of the author's 
 wit will catch hold on the reader, and inflame him with 
 love, liking, and desire of imitation. I confess, there is 
 more required to teach one to write than to see a copy. 
 However, there is a secret force of fascination in reading 
 poems to raise and provoke fancy. 
 
 If thy fancy be over-voluble, then — 
 
 Whip this vagrant home to the first object whereon it 
 should be settled. — Indeed, nimbleness is the perfection 
 of this faculty ; but levity the bane of it. Great is the 
 difference betwixt a swift horse, and a skittish that will 
 stand on no ground. Such is the ubiquitary fancy, which 
 will keep long residence on no one subject, but is so 
 courteous to strangers, that it ever welcomes that conceit 
 most which comes last ; and new species supplant the old 
 ones, before seriously considered. If this be the fault of 
 thy fancy, I say, whip it home to the first object whereon 
 it should be settled. This do as often as occasion re- 
 quires, and by degrees the fugitive servant will learn to 
 abide by his work without running away. 
 
 Holy state, B. iii. C. ii. 
 
 Faults. 
 
Ouain^ ^oun0ef0 
 
 113 
 
 Faiilts 
 
 Here are four faults of the archbishop mustered up by 
 me ; and is it not a thin muster indeed ? When a gentle- 
 man was told, that he would be much ashamed if all his 
 faults were written in his forehead ; he (in my mind) 
 modestly and wittily replied, that he should be right glad 
 that his face could hold them all ! Happy is that man 
 whose faults may be reduced to the number of four ! 
 
 App^ Inj. Inn. Pt. iii. B. xi. 319. 
 
 Fertile in Resources 
 
 He is no fox whose den hath but one hole. 
 
 Holy State, B. iv. C. iii. 
 
 Rarity of Fires at Cambridge 
 
 Sixteen years did students continue in University 
 Hall on their own charges ; but a casual fire reduced 
 their House to ashes. Here, by the way, whosoever 
 shall consider in both Universities the ill contrivance of 
 many chimneys, hollowness of hearths, shallowness of 
 tunnels, carelessness of coals and candles, catchingness 
 of papers, narrowness of studies, late reading and long 
 watching of scholars, cannot but conclude, that an 
 especial Providence preserveth those places. How small 
 a matter hath sometimes made a partition betwixt the fire 
 and the fuel ! Thus an hair's breadth, fixed by a Divine 
 finger, shall prove as effectual a separation from danger 
 as a mile's distance. And although both Universities 
 have had sad accidents in this kind, yet neither in 
 
 I number 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
114 
 
 @E)t0e (^ovbe anh 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 number nor nature (since the Reformation) so destructive 
 as in other places : so that, blessed be God ! they have 
 been rather scare-fires than hurt-fires unto them. 
 
 Ifzsi. Camh. S. ii. 40. 
 
 First and Last 
 
 Thus, as the last dog most commonly catcheth the 
 hare which other dogs have turned and tired before ; so 
 such who succeed in dangerous and difficult enterprises, 
 generally reap the benefit of the adventures of those who 
 
 went before them. Worthies: Derhysh. Seamen. 
 
 Fitness of Things 
 
 A MAN ought to be like a cunning actor, who, if he be 
 enjoined to represent the person of some prince or noble- 
 man, does it with a grace and comeliness ; if, by and by, 
 he be commanded to lay tl\at aside, and play the beggar, 
 he does that as willingly and as well. But, as it happened 
 in a tragedy, (to spare naming the person and place), 
 that one, being to act Theseus (in Hercules Fureni) 
 coming out of hell, could not for a long time be per- 
 suaded to wear old sooty clothes proper for his part, but 
 would needs come out of hell in a white satin doublet ; 
 so we are generally loath, and it goes against flesh and 
 blood, to live in a low and poor estate, but would fain 
 act in richer and handsomer clothes, till grace, with 
 much ado, subdues our rebellious stomachs to God's 
 
 will. Holy state, B. iii. C. xvii. 9. 
 
 Flowers 
 
 The Dutch brought hither with them, not only their 
 profitable crafts, but pleasureable curiosities. They were 
 
 the 
 
Ouainf Cottn0ef0 
 
 115 
 
 the first who advanced the use and reputation of flowers 
 in this city. A flower is the best-complexioned grass (as 
 a pearl is the best-coloured clay) ; and daily it weareth 
 God's livery, for ' He clotheth the grass in the field.' 
 Solomon himself is outbraved therewith, as whose 
 gallantry only was adopted, and on theirs innate, and 
 in them. In the morning (when it groweth up) it is 
 a lecture of Divine Providence. In the evening (when 
 it is cut down withered) it is a lecture of human mor- 
 tality. 
 
 Single flowers are observed much sweeter than the 
 double ones (poor may be more fragrant in God's nostrils 
 than the rich) ; and let florists assign the cause thereof, 
 whether because the sun doth not so much dry the 
 intricacies of such flowers which are duplicated. . . 
 
 In my judgment those flowers carry it clearly, which 
 acquit themselves to a double sense, sight and smell ; for 
 though in some things it may be true, optimi qua minimi 
 olent, yet in flowers (besides a negation of an ill) the 
 position of a good scent is justly required. 
 
 Worthies : Norwich. Natural Comwodiiies . 
 
 Fog and Tempest 
 
 Divine providence is remarkable in ordering, that a 
 fog and a tempest never did, nor can, meet together in 
 nature. For as soon as a fog is fixed the tempest is 
 allayed ; and as soon as a tempest doth arise the fog is 
 dispersed. This is a great mercy ; for otherwise such 
 small vessels as boats and barges, which want the conduct 
 of the card and compass, would irrecoverably be lost. 
 
 How sad, then, is the condition of many sectaries in 
 I 2 our 
 
ii6 
 
 (P?i0e (K)ori0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 our age ; which in the same instant have a fog of 
 ignorance in their judgments, and a tempest of violence 
 in their ailections, being too blind to go right, and yet 
 too active to stand still. 
 
 Good Thoughts. Mixt Cmtempl. on Better Times, P. i!. 5. 
 
 A Fool 
 
 One may get wisdom by looking on a fool. — In be- 
 holding him, think how much thou art beholden to Him 
 that suffered thee not to be like him. Only God's 
 pleasure put a difference betwixt you. And consider, 
 that a fool and a wise man are alike both in the starting- 
 place — their birth, and at the post — their death; only 
 they differ in the race of their lives. 
 
 Holy State, B. iii. C. xii. 4. 
 
 Over Estimate of Foreigners 
 
 Indeed, it is a humour of our English, strangely to 
 admire strangers, believing invisible perfections in them, 
 above those of our land : a quality commendable in our 
 countrymen, whilst inclining them to hospitality, but 
 sometimes betraying their credulity to be thereby danger- 
 ously deluded. ch. Hist. b. ^. s. vi. ^. 
 
 Fox's Acts and Monuments 
 
 And because I have mentioned that book, wherein 
 this lady's virtues are so highly commended, I am not 
 ignorant that, of late, great disgrace hath been thrown 
 on that author and his worthy work, as being guilty of 
 much falsehood ; chiefly, because sometimes he makes 
 Popish doctors, well known to be rich in learning, to 
 
 reason 
 
Ouaittf Couneefe 
 
 117 
 
 reason very poorly ; and the best fencers of their schools, 
 worsted and put out of their play by some country poor 
 Protestants. But let the cavillers hereat know, that it is 
 a great matter to have the odds of the weapon (God's 
 word) on their side ; — not to say any thing of super- 
 natural assistance given them. Sure, for the main, his 
 book is a worthy work, (wherein the reader may rather 
 leave than lack,) and seems to me, like ^tna, always 
 burning, whilst the smoke hath almost put out the eyes 
 of the adverse party ; and these Fox's ' fire-brands ' have 
 brought much annoyance to the Romish 'Philistines.' 
 But it were a miracle, if, in so voluminous a work, there 
 were nothing to be justly reproved ; so great a pome- 
 granate, not having any rotten kernel, must only grow in 
 Paradise. And though, perchance, he held the beam at 
 the best advantage for the Protestant party to weigh 
 down, yet, generally, he is a true writer, and never 
 wilfully deceiveth, though he may sometimes be un- 
 willingly deceived. Holy state, B. iv. C. xiv. 
 
 French and English 
 
 I KNOW not whether his observation, with the reason 
 thereof, be worth the inserting, who first took notice, 
 that our cattle for food are English when feeding in the 
 field, but French when fed on in a family. 
 
 English. I. Sheep. 2. Ox. 3. Calf. 
 French, 1. Mutton. 2. Beef. 3. Veal. 
 
 4. Hog. 5. Pig. 
 4. Bacon. 5. Pork, 
 
 Whereof he assigned this reason, that, after the Norman 
 Conquest, the French so tyrannized over the English 
 tenants, that they forced them to keep and feed their 
 
 cattle ; 
 
ii8 
 
 (ps)t0e (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 cattle ; but the Monsieurs ate all their good meat after 
 
 it was slaughtered. Worthies: Bucks. Natural Commodities. 
 
 False Friends 
 
 False friends will forsake us in time of adversity. 
 He that believeth that all those who smile on him 
 and promise fair in time of prosperity will perform it in 
 time of his want, may as well believe that all the leaves 
 that be on trees at Midsummer will hang there as fresh 
 and as fair on New Year's Day. 
 
 Coll. Serm. Goodfrotn Bad Friends^ 2 Sam. xv. 31. 
 
 Fuller's Name 
 
 I HAD rather my name should make many causelessly 
 merry, than any justly sad; and seeing it lieth equally 
 open and obvious to praise and dispraise, I shall as 
 little be elated when flattered, 'Fuller of wit and 
 learning,' as dejected when flouted, ' Fuller of folly 
 and ignorance.' App. inf. inn. Pt. Ui. b. x!. 314. 
 
 A Funeral Sermon 
 
 When one was to preach the funeral sermon of a most 
 vicious and generally-hated person, all wondered what 
 he would say in his praise; the preacher's friends 
 fearing — his foes hoping — that, for his fee, he would 
 force his conscience to flattery. 'For one thing,' said 
 the minister, ' this man is to be spoken well of by all ; 
 and for another thing he is to be spoken ill of by none. 
 The first is. Because God made him ; the second. Because 
 he is dead.' id. Pt. iii. b. xi. 324. 
 
 The 
 
Ouain^ CoMnstie 
 
 119 
 
 The Good General 
 
 He hath gained skill in his place by long experience. 
 — Not beginning to lead others, before himself ever 
 knew to follow; having never before (except in cock- 
 matches) beheld any battles. . . . He makes his flying 
 enemy a bridge of gold, and disarms them of their best 
 weapon ; — which is, necessity to fight, whether they will 
 or no. Men forced to a battle against their intention, 
 often conquer beyond their expectation. Stop a flying 
 coward, and he will turn his legs into arms, and lay about 
 him manfully; whereas open him a passage to escape, 
 and he will quickly shut up his courage. 
 
 Haiy State, B. iv. C. xvii. 
 
 Men have a touchstone whereby to try gold, but gold 
 is the touchstone whereby to try men. rd. b. iv. c. vH. 5. 
 
 A Passing Generation 
 
 Thus, when a generation of contemporary persons 
 begins to crack, it quickly falls ; and the leases of their 
 clay cottage, commencing, it seems, much from the same 
 date, at the same term did expire. ch. HUt. b. ix. s. in. 27. 
 
 Poor Gentlemen 
 
 Gold, though the most solid and heavy of metals, yet 
 may be beaten out so thin as to be the lightest and 
 slightest of all things. Thus nobility, though in itself 
 most honourable, may be so attenuated through the 
 
 smallness 
 
I20 
 
 (H)t0e (H)otr60 an^ 
 
 Thomas 
 FtiUer 
 
 smallness of means, as thereby to grow neglected : 
 which makes our nobleman to practise Solomon's pre- 
 cept : ' Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and 
 look well to thine herds ; for the crown doth not endure 
 to every generation.' (Prov. xxvii. 23.) If not ike crown, 
 much less the coronet; and good husbandry may as well 
 stand with great honour, as breadth may consist with 
 
 height. Holy state, B. iv. C. xii. 3. 
 
 The Ancient Gentry 
 
 And here under favour I conceive, that if a strict 
 inquiry should be made after the ancient gentry of 
 England, most of them would be found amongst such 
 middle-sized persons as are above two hundred, and 
 beneath a thousand pounds of annual revenue. It was 
 the motto of wise Sir Nicholas Bacon, mediocria firma, 
 ' moderate things are most lasting.' Men of great estates, 
 in national broils, have smarted deeply for their visible 
 engagements, to the ruin of their families, whereof we 
 have had too many sad experiments, whilst such persons 
 who are moderately mounted above the level of common 
 people into a competency, above want and beneath envy, 
 have, by God's blessing on their frugality, continued 
 longest in their conditions, entertaining all alterations 
 in the state with the less destructive change unto them- 
 selves. Worthies: C. xv. Sluriffs. 
 
 It happened in the reign of king James, when Henry 
 Earl of Huntingdon was lieutenant of Leicestershire, 
 that a labourer's son in that county was pressed into 
 
 the 
 
Ouain^ tountfdtf 
 
 121 
 
 the wars, as I take it to go over with count Mansfield. 
 The old man at Leicester requested his son might be 
 discharged, as being the only staff of his age, who by 
 his industry maintained him and his mother. The 
 earl demanded his name, which the man for a long 
 time was loath to tell, as suspecting it a fault for so 
 poor a man to confess a truth. At last he told his name 
 was Hastings. ' Cousin Hastings,' said the earl, ' we 
 cannot all be top branches of the tree, though we all 
 spring from the same root : your son my kinsman shall 
 not be pressed.' So good was the meeting of modesty 
 in a poor, with courtesy in an honourable person, and 
 gentry I believe in both. And I have reason to believe, 
 that some who justly own the surnames and blood of 
 Bohuns, Mortimers, and Plantagenets, though ignorant 
 of their own extractions, are hid in the heap of common 
 people ; where they find that under a thatched cottage, 
 which some of their ancestors could not enjoy in a leaded 
 castle, contentment with quiet and security. 
 
 Itiefn, 
 
 Giants 
 
 There need no other evidence be produced to prove 
 the fruitfulness of their country than the vastness of 
 their bodies, whereof the rankness of their ground must 
 be allowed a partial cause. Our English proverb saith, 
 ' Show me not the meat, but show me the man.' The 
 well battling of the giants bred in Philistia (chiefly in 
 Gath their seminary), being heteroclites, redundants 
 from the rules of nature, sufficiently attests the fertility 
 of their soil. Some of these giants had their hands 
 
 branching, 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
122 
 
 ^t0e (S)or50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 branching out into six fingers, though who had one 
 fewer had enough to kill them. Let naturalists curiously 
 inquire whether or no this stock of giants be wholly 
 spent in our age, and if so, what the true causes thereof, 
 whether intemperance of diet, or over-early marriage, 
 seeing every one that is raw to work count themselves 
 ripe to wed. Let them consult whether nature hath 
 not some other way recompensed in our age that want of 
 strength by giving them quicker wits, whereas in volu- 
 minous men commonly there is much empty margin. 
 
 Pisgah Sight, B. ii. C. x. 25. 
 
 Goats 
 
 An he-goat is recounted by wise Agur amongst ' the 
 four creatures which are comely in going.' Yea, if that 
 ornamental excrement which groweth beneath the chin 
 be the standard of wisdom, they carry it from Aristotle 
 himself. 
 
 Plenty of these are bred in Wales, especially in Mont- 
 gomeryshire, which mindeth me of a pleasant passage, 
 durirjg the restraint of the lady Elizabeth. When she 
 was so strictly watched by Sir Henry Benefield that 
 none were admitted access unto her, a goat was espied 
 by a merry fellow (one of the warders) walking along 
 with her. Whereupon, taking the goat on his shoulders, 
 he in all haste hurried him to Sir Henry. 'I pray, 
 Sir,' said he, ' examine this fellow, whom I found walking 
 with her grace; but what talk they had I know not, 
 not understanding his language. He seems to me a 
 stranger, and I believe a Welshman by his freize coat.' 
 
 Worthies : Wales. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Good 
 
Ouain^ £:oun0ef0 
 
 123 
 
 Good from Evil 
 
 It is usual with God's wisdom and goodness to suffer 
 vice to sound the first alarm to that fight wherein virtue is 
 to have the victory. ch. Hist. b. v. s. iii. 31. 
 
 Some Great Men of low Extraction 
 
 If inquiry be made into all men's descents, it would be 
 found true what the poet doth observe : 
 
 ' The first of all thine ancestors of yore 
 Was but a shepherd, or — I say no more.' 
 
 Besides, it plainly proveth the properness of their parts, 
 and tallness of their industry, who thereby, and by God's 
 blessing thereon, reached so high preferment, though 
 disadvantaged by standing on so low ground of their 
 
 extraction. Worthies; C. xxiv. 
 
 Groans 
 
 How comes it to pass that groans, made in men by 
 God's spirit, cannot be uttered ? I find two reasons 
 thereof First, because those groans are so low and 
 little, so faint, frail, and feeble, so next to nothing, these 
 still-born babes only breathe without crying. 
 
 Secondly, because so much diversity, yea, contrariety 
 of passion, is crowded within the compass of a groan, 
 they are stayed from being expressive, and the groans 
 become unutterable. 
 
 How happy is their condition who have God for their 
 interpreter? who not only understands what they do, 
 but what they would say. Daniel could tell the meaning 
 
 of 
 
 Thomas 
 ruUer 
 
124 
 
 (H)t0e (ps)ot60 cinb 
 
 Thomas 
 FoUer 
 
 of the dream which Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten. 
 God knows the meaning of those groans which never 
 as yet knew their own meaning, and understands the 
 sense of those sighs which never understood themselves. 
 
 Good Thoughts in Worse Times, Prayers 4. 
 
 Gunpowder Plot 
 
 They fall a-working in the vault. Dark the place, in 
 the depth of the earth; dark the time, in the dead of 
 the night; dark the design, all the actors therein con- 
 cealed by oath from others, and thereby combined 
 amongst themselves. O ! how easy is any work, when 
 high merit is conceived the wages thereof ! In piercing 
 through the wall nine feet thick, they erroneously con- 
 ceived that they thereby hewed forth their own way to 
 heaven. But they digged more with their silver in an 
 hour, than with their iron in many days ; namely, when 
 discovering a cellar hard by, they hired the same, and 
 these pioneers saved much of their pains by the 
 advantage thereof And now all things were carried so 
 secretly, no possibility of any detection, seeing the actors 
 themselves had solemnly sworn that they would not — 
 and all others might as safely swear they could not — 
 make any discovery thereof. 
 
 But so it fell out, that the sitting of the parliament was 
 put off from time to time ; namely, from the seventh of 
 February (whereon it was first appointed to meet,) it 
 was adjourned till the fifth of October, and afterward 
 from the fifth of October, put off till the fifth of 
 November ; and accordingly their working in the vault, 
 which attended the motion of the parliament, had several 
 
 distinct 
 
Ouain( Cotttt0eP0 
 
 ^25 
 
 distinct intermissions, and resumptions thereof; as if 
 Divine Providence had given warning to these traitors, 
 by the slow proceeding and oft adjourning of the 
 parliament, mean time seriously to consider what they 
 went about^ and seasonably to desist from so damnable 
 a design, as suspicious at last it would be ruined which 
 so long had been retarded. But no taking-off their 
 wheels will stay those chariots from drowning which 
 God hath decreed shall be swallowed in the Red Sea. 
 
 ' Behold ! here is fire and wood ; but where is the lamb 
 for the burnt-offering ? ' Alas ! a whole flock of lambs 
 were not far off, all appointed to the slaughter. The 
 king, prince Henry, peers, bishops, judges, knights, and 
 burgesses, all designed to destruction. 'Let me smite 
 him,' said Abishai of Saul, * even at once, and I will not 
 smite him the second time.' So here, a blow so sound, 
 secret, and sudden, was intended it would not need 
 iteration : Once and ever, the first act would finish all in 
 an instant. But, thanks be to God, nothing was blown 
 up but the treason, or brought to execution but the 
 traitors. ch. Hist. b. x. s. h. 28. 
 
 Hampshire 
 
 A HAPPY country in the four elements, if culinary fire 
 in courtesy may pass for one, with plenty of the best 
 wood for the fuel thereof. Most pure and piercing 
 the air of this shire ; and none in England hath more 
 plenty of clear and fresh rivulets of troutful water ; not 
 to speak of the friendly sea conveniently distanced 
 from London. As for the earth, it is both fair and 
 fruitful, and may pass for an expedient betwixt pleasure 
 
 anci 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
126 
 
 (5E)i0e (H)otr60 Anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 and profit; whefre, by mutual consent, they are mod- 
 erately accommodated. IVortkies: Hants. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Hampshire Hogs 
 
 Hampshire hogs are allowed by all for the best bacon, 
 being our English Westphalian, and which, well ordered, 
 hath deceived the most judicious palates. Here the 
 swine feed in the forest on plenty of acorns (men's meat 
 in the golden, hogs' food in this iron age) ; which, going 
 out lean, return home fat, without either care or cost 
 of their owners. Nothing but fulness stinteth their 
 feeding on the mast falling from the trees, where also 
 they lodge at liberty (not pent up, as in other places, 
 to stacks of peas), which some assign the reason of 
 the fineness of their flesh ; which, though not all glare 
 (where no banks of lean can be seen for the deluge 
 of fat), is no less delicious to the taste, and more whole- 
 some for the stomach. idem. 
 
 Hampshire Honey 
 
 Hampshire hath the worst and best honey in England ; 
 worst, on the heath, hardly worth five pounds the barrel ; 
 best, in the champaign, where the same quantity will well 
 nigh be sold for twice as much. And it is generally 
 observed, the finer the wheat and wool, both which 
 are very good in this county, the purer the honey of that 
 place. 
 
 Honey is useful for many purposes, especially that 
 honey which is the lowest in any vessel. For it is an 
 old and true rule, ' the best oil is in the top ; the best 
 wine in the middle ; and the best honey in the bottom. 
 
 It 
 
Ouciinf Cottn0ep0 
 
 127 
 
 It openeth obstructions, cleareth the breast and lights 
 from those humours which fall from the head, looseneth 
 the belly ; with many other sovereign qualities, too many 
 to be reckoned up in a winter's day. 
 
 However, we may observe three degrees, or kinds 
 rather, of honey : — i. Virgin honey, which is the purest, 
 of a late swarm which never bred bees. — 2. Chaste 
 honey, for so I may term all the rest which is not 
 sophisticated with any addition. — 3. Harlot honey, as 
 which is adulterated with meal and other trash mingled 
 therewith. 
 
 Of the first and second sort I understand the counsel 
 of Solomon, ' My son, eat honey, for it is good ; ' good 
 absolutely in the substance, though there may be excess 
 in the quantity thereof. idem. 
 
 Hampshire Wax 
 
 This is the cask, where honey is the liquor ; and, 
 being yellow by nature, is by art made white, red, and 
 green, which I take to be the dearest colours, especially 
 when appendant on parchment. Wax is good by day 
 and by night, when it aflfordeth light, for sight the 
 clearest ; for smell the sweetest ; for touch the cleanliest. 
 Useful in law to seal instruments ; and in physic, to 
 mollify sinews, ripen and dissolve ulcers, &c. , Yea, the 
 ground and foundation of all cere-cloth (so called from 
 cera) is made of wax. idem. 
 
 Happiness and Heaven 
 
 If a herd of kine should nieet together to fancy and 
 define happiness, they would place it to consist in fine 
 
 pastures, 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
128 
 
 (^i0e (K)otr&0 <xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 pastures, sweet grass, clear water, shadowy groves, con- 
 stant Summer ; but if any Winter, then warm shelter, 
 and dainty hay, with company after their kind ; counting 
 these low things the highest happiness, because their 
 conceit can reach no higher. Little better do the 
 Heathen poets describe heaven, paving it with pearl, 
 and roofing it with stars, filling it with gods and goddesses, 
 and allowing them to drink (as if without it no poet's 
 paradise!) nectar and ambrosia; heaven, indeed, being 
 poetarum dedecus, ' the shame of poets,' and the disgrace 
 of all their hyperboles, falling as far short of truth herein, 
 as they go beyond it in other fables. 
 
 Holy State, B. iv, C. xiii. 12. 
 
 Hard Words 
 
 We have an English proverb, that ' bones bring meat 
 to town ; * and those who are desirous to feast themselves 
 on the pleasant and profitable passages of history, must be 
 content sometimes to stoop their stomachs to feed on 
 hard words, which bring matter along with them. 
 
 Id. B. V. C. xviii. 6. 
 
 Help to work, the best help to live 
 
 Where we learn, that is the best charity which so 
 relieves people's wants as that they are still continued 
 in their calling. For, as he who teacheth one to swim, 
 though happily [haply] he will take him by the chin, yet 
 he expecteth that the learner shall nimbly ply the oars of 
 his hands and feet, and strive and struggle with all his 
 strength to keep himself above water : so those who 
 are beneficial to poor people, may justly require of them 
 
 that 
 
Ouaint £otttt0ef0 
 
 129 
 
 that they use both their hands to work and feet to go in 
 their calling, and themselves take all due labour, that 
 they may not sink in the gulf of penury. Relieve a 
 husbandman, yet so as that he may still continue in his 
 husbandry ; a tradesman, yet so as he may still go on 
 in his trade ; a poor scholar, yet so as he may still 
 proceed in his studies. Hereby the commonwealth 
 shall be a gainer. Drones bring no honey to the hive ; 
 but the painful hand of each private man contributes 
 some profit to the public good. Hereby the able poor, 
 the more diligent they be, the more bountiful men 
 will be to them ; while their bodies are freed from 
 many diseases, their souls from many sins, whereof 
 idleness is the mother. Ruth, xi. 15. 
 
 The Herald and the Fool 
 
 The queen, hearing of his commotion, sent an herald 
 unto him to desist, which herald came to Sir Thomas 
 [WyatJ's house deeply-moated round about, the bridge 
 being drawn up, yet so that a place like a ford pretended 
 a safe passage thereunto. On the inside thereof walked 
 the proper case of a man well habited, and his face carry- 
 ing no despair of wisdom therein. The herald asked him 
 whether he might safely go over there ; to whom the 
 other slightly answered, 'Yea, yea.' But had not the 
 strength of his horse been more than ordinary, he either 
 had been drowned in the water, or buried in the mud. 
 
 The herald, hardly escaping, fills all the house with 
 complaints, that, being an officer sent from the queen 
 under the protection of the public faith, (having his coat, 
 his conduct, upon him,) he should be so wilfully abused 
 
 K by 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
I30 
 
 (PS)t0e (K)otr60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 by false directions to the danger of his life by one of Sir 
 Thomas's servants. The knight, highly oifended at the 
 fault (as gentleman enough, and enemy to actions of 
 baseness,) summons all his servants to appear before the 
 herald, vowing that the offender should be sent prisoner 
 to the queen with his legs bound beneath his horse's belly, 
 to receive from her the reward of his wickedness. 
 
 The herald challengeth the party at the first sight of 
 him. ' Alas ! ' said Sir Thomas, 'he is a mere natural ; 
 as will appear, if you please to examine him.' 'Why, 
 sirrah,' said the herald, ' did you direct me to come over 
 where it was almost impossible to pass without drowning ? ' 
 To whom the other answered, ' The ducks came over not 
 long before you, whose legs were shorter than your 
 horse's.' Hereat the herald smiled out his anger, adding 
 withal, 'Sir Thomas, hereafter let your fool wear the 
 badge of his profession on him, that he may deceive no 
 more in this kind.' c&. Hht. b. vUi. s. i. 26-^8. 
 
 Heraldry 
 
 Something must be premised of Arms in general. 
 They may seem in some sort to be jure divino to the 
 Jews, having a precept for the practice thereof : ' Every 
 man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own 
 standard, with the ensign of their father's house.' 
 
 The use thereof is great, both in war and peace. I 
 begin with war, because Arms had their first rise from 
 arms, and had a military origin. Without these an army 
 cannot be methodised, and ig but an heap of men. 
 ' Like an army,' saith the Scripture, ' terrible with 
 banners;' without which an army is not terrible, but 
 
 ridiculous. 
 
Ouain^ £^outt0ef0 
 
 131 
 
 ridiculous, routing itself with its own confusion. Now as 
 no army without banners, so no banner without arms 
 therein. ' If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who 
 shall prepare himself to the battle?' Now, as the 
 trumpet tells the time, so the banner proclaims the place 
 of meeting ; and if it have not distinguishable emblems 
 therein, who shall know whither to repair to his captain 
 or company. 
 
 Arms are also useful in peace, to distinguish one man 
 from another. They be termed nomina visibilia, ' visible 
 names.' For as a name notifieth a man to the ear, so his 
 arms do signify him to the eye, though dead many years 
 since ; so signal the service of arms on tombs to preserve 
 the memory of the deceased. Wonues: ch. xvi. Arms. 
 
 Heredity at Fault 
 
 Jeffrey [the dwarf] was born in the parish of Okeham 
 in this county, where his father was a very proper man, 
 broad shouldered and chested, though his son never 
 arrived at a full ell in stature. 
 
 It seems that families sometimes are checquered, as in 
 brains so in bulk, that no certainty can be concluded 
 
 from such alternations. id. Rutland. Memm-ahU Persons. 
 
 Heresy 
 
 Every scratch in the hand is not a stab to the heart : 
 nor doth every false opinion make a heretic. 
 
 Learning is necessary in the heretic, if he trades in a 
 
 critical error. — But if he only broaches dregs, and deals 
 
 in some dull, sottish opinion, a trowel will serve as well 
 
 as a pencil to daub-on auch thick coarse colours. Yea, 
 
 K 2 in 
 
 Thomas 
 fuller 
 
1^2 
 
 (^iei: (K)otr50 anh 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 in some heresies, deep studying is so useless, that the first 
 thing they learn is, to inveigh against all learning. 
 
 Hofy state^ B. v, C. lo. 
 
 Heresies clearing to the Truth 
 
 Her (Truth's) evidences which have lain long neg- 
 lected will then be searched and found out : her rusty 
 arguments will be scoured and furbished up. Many 
 will run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 
 Those which before shooting at the truth, were over, 
 under, or wide, will now with the left-handed Gibeonites, 
 hit the mark at an hair's breadth and fail not : many parts 
 of true doctrine have been but slenderly guarded till 
 once they were assaulted by Heretics and many good 
 authors in those points which were never opposed, have 
 written but loosely and suffered unwary passages to fall 
 from their posting pens. But when thieves are about the 
 country every one will ride with his sword and stand on 
 his guard : when heretics are abroad in the world, writers 
 weigh each word, ponder each phrase, that they may 
 give the enemies no advantage. 
 
 Coll. Serm. : Josepli s party Coloured Coat^ Com. x Cor. xi. 19. 
 
 Heretics 
 
 Not learning, but the conceit thereof in those that 
 wanted it, and the abuse thereof in such as had it, caused 
 
 heretics. Holy and Profane State B. v. C. xi. 
 
 Hertfordshire 
 
 I HAVE been informed, from an ancient justice therein, 
 that one cannot be so advantageously placed in any part 
 
 of 
 
Ouaitt^ Cottneef0 
 
 133 
 
 of this shire, but that he may recover another county 
 within the riding of five miles. It is the garden of 
 England for delight ; and men commonly say, that such 
 who buy a house in Hertfordshire pay two years' purchase 
 
 for the air thereof. worthies: Herts. 
 
 Hertfordshire Horses 
 
 Their teams of horses (oft-times deservedly advanced 
 from the cart to the coach) are kept in excellent equipage, 
 much alike in colour and stature, fat and fair; such is 
 their care in dressing and well-feeding them. I could 
 name the place and person (reader, be not offended with 
 an innocent digression), who brought his servant with a 
 warrant before a justice of peace for stealing his grain. 
 The man brought his five horses tailed together along 
 with him, alleging for himself, ' that, if he were the thief, 
 these were the receivers ; ' and so escaped. 
 
 Id, Herts. Natural Commodities. 
 
 High and Low 
 
 Hence, as hills, the higher, the barrener ; so men com- 
 monly, the wealthier, the worse ; the more honour, the 
 less holiness. And as rivers, when content with a small 
 channel, run sweet and clear ; when swelling to a navig- 
 able channel, by the confluence of several tributary 
 rivulets, gather mud and mire, and grow salt and brackish, 
 and violently bear down all before them : so many men, 
 who in mean estates have been pious and religious, being 
 advanced in honour, and enlarged in wealth, have grown 
 both impious and profane towards God, cruel and 
 tyrannical over their brethren. Ruth, ii. 2. 
 
 History 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
134 
 
 (^i0e (^ovbtf anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 History 
 
 Now know, next religion, there is nothing accom- 
 plisheth a man more than learning. Learning in a lord 
 is as a diamond in gold. And if you fear to hurt your 
 tender hands with thorny school-questions, there is no 
 danger in meddling with history, which is a velvet study, 
 and recreation work. What a pity is it to see a proper 
 gentleman to have such a crick in his neck that he can- 
 not look backward ! yet no better is he who cannot see 
 behind him the actions which long since were performed. 
 History maketh a young man to be old, without either 
 wrinkles or gray hairs; privileging him with the ex- 
 perience of age, without either the infirmities or incon- 
 veniences thereof. Yea, it not only maketh things past, 
 present ; but enableth one to make a rational conjecture 
 of things to come. For this world affordeth no new 
 accidents, but in the same sense wherein we call it a new 
 moon, which is the old one in another shape, and yet no 
 other than what hath been formerly. Old actions return 
 again, furbished over with some new and different 
 
 circumstances. Dedicatim ia Holy War. 
 
 Its Advantages 
 
 We Uve in a troublesome and tumultuous age ; and he 
 needs to have a very soft bed who can sleep soundly 
 now-a-days, amidst so much loud noise, and many 
 impetuous rumours. Wherefore it seemeth to me both a 
 safe and cheap receipt, to procure quiet and repose to the 
 mind which complains for want of rest, to prescribe unto 
 it the reading of history. 
 
 Great 
 
Ouain^ Couneefe 
 
 135 
 
 Great is the pleasure and profit thereof. Zaccheus, we 
 know, was low and little in stature ; but when he had 
 borrowed some height from the fig-tree, into which he 
 climbed, (Luke xix. 4,) the dwarf was made a giant on a 
 sudden ; last minute beneath the arms, but now grown 
 above the heads, of other men. Thus, our experimental 
 knowledge is, in itself, both short and narrow, as which 
 cannot exceed ' the span of our own life.' But when we 
 are mounted on the advantage of history, we can not only 
 reach the year of Christ's incarnation, but even touch the 
 top of the world's beginning, and, at one view, over-see 
 all remarkable accidents of former ages. 
 
 Wherefore, until such time as I shall, by God's 
 providence, and the authority of my superiors, be 
 restored to the open exercise of my profession, on terms 
 consisting with my conscience, (which welcome minute I 
 do heartily wish, and humbly wait for ; and will greedily 
 listen to the least whisper sounding thereunto,) it is my 
 intent, God wilUng, to spend the remnant of my days in 
 reading and writing such stories as my weak judgment 
 shall commend unto me for most beneficial. 
 
 Holy and Profane State^ B. v. C. xviii. pref. 
 
 Study of History 
 
 The historian may make himself wise, by living as 
 many ages as have past since the beginning of the world. 
 His books enable him to maintain discourse, who, besides 
 the stock of his own experience, may spend on the com- 
 mon purse of his reading. This directs him in his life, 
 so that he makes the shipwrecks of others sea-marks to 
 himself ; yea, accidents which others start from for their 
 
 strangeness, 
 
 Tbomas 
 Fuller 
 
136 
 
 (XK)i0e (^otie (xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Strangeness, he welcomes as his wonted acquaintance, 
 having found precedents for them formerly. Without 
 history a man's soul is purblind, seeing only the things 
 which almost touch his eyes. ifaiy state, b. u. c. vU. 7. 
 
 Historians Flatterers 
 
 Many historians (like some painters, which rather show 
 their skill in drawing a curious face, than in making it 
 like to him whom it should resemble), describe princes 
 rather what they should be, than what they were ; not 
 showing so much their goodness as their own wits. 
 
 Holy War, B. iii. C. xiv. 
 
 Paradoxical Historians 
 
 Duke Richard was low in stature, crook-backed, with 
 one shoulder higher than the other, having a prominent 
 gobber-tooth, a warlike countenance which well enough 
 became a soldier. Yet a modern author, in a book by 
 him lately set forth, eveneth his shoulders, smootheth his 
 back, planeth his teeth, maketh him in all points a 
 comely and beautiful person. Nor stoppeth he here ; 
 but, proceeding from his naturals to his morals, maketh 
 him as virtuous as handsome, which in some sense may 
 be allowed to be true ; concealing most, denying some, 
 defending others, of his foulest facts, wherewith in all 
 ages since he standeth charged on record. For mine 
 own part, I confess it no heresy to maintain a paradox in 
 history, nor am I sup h an enemy to wit as not to allow it 
 leave harmlessly to disport itself, for its own content, and 
 the delight of others. Thus Cardan hath written his 
 Encomium Neronis ; and others (best husbandmen who 
 
 can 
 
Ouatn( Coun0ef0 
 
 137 
 
 can improve the barrenest ground !) have by art 
 endeavoured to praise as improbable subjects. But 
 when men shall do it cordially, in sober sadness, to 
 pervert people's judgments, and therein go against all 
 received records, I say, singularity is the least fault can 
 be laid to such men's charge. Besides, there are some 
 birds, ' sea-pies ' by name, who cannot rise except it be 
 by flying against the wind, as some hope to achieve their 
 advancement by being contrary and paradoxical in 
 judgment to all before them. ck. Hist. b. iv. s. iv. 8. 
 
 Home-made Clothes 
 
 As for the shape and making of the Jewish garments, 
 they were no affecters (Englishmen-like) of various 
 fashions, but according to the commendable gravity of 
 the ancient Germans, kept the same form for many ages. 
 Indeed, their clothes, being for the most part loose vest- 
 ments, not exactly fitted to their bodies, but only cast 
 over, wrapped about, or girded unto them, the less 
 curiosity was required in their making. Hence it is that 
 we find the Philistines' clothes fitting Samson's friends 
 (Judg. xiv. 19), and Jonathan's robe given to David (i 
 Sam. xviii. 4), serving him without any considerable 
 difference ; and because we meet not with the trade of a 
 tailor, clean through the Scripture (though frequent men- 
 tion of weavers and fullers therein) it seems anciently no 
 distinct occupation among the Jews, being probable the 
 men or their wives made their own clothes, with Dorcas, 
 who made coats and garments for the widows, whilst she 
 was with them (Acts ix. 39). Thus the state and 
 gallantry of the Jews consisted not in their changeable 
 
 fashions 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
138 
 
 ^i0e (H)or50 (Xixb 
 
 fashions but in their various changes, orient colours, 
 costly matter, curious embroideries, of their garments. 
 
 Pisgah Sight, B. iv. C. vi. 9. 
 
 Honour and Worth 
 
 And now, my lord, how silly a thing is that honour which 
 lies at the mercy of such men's mouths, to tender or deny 
 the same ! The best is, men's statures are not extended 
 or contracted with their shadows ; so as to be stretched 
 out into giants in the morning, shrunk up into dwarfs at 
 noon, and stretched out at night into giants again. In- 
 trinsical worth doth not increase and abate, wax and wane, 
 ebb and flow, according to the fancy of others. 
 
 Ck. Hist. B. viii. Dedication. 
 
 Horses 
 
 These are men's wings, wherewith they make such 
 speed. A generous creature a horse is, sensible in some 
 sort of honour, made most handsome by (that which de- 
 forms man most) pride. The kings of Israel were not 
 forbidden (as some may mistake) the having, but the 
 multiplying of them ; chiefly because they were a foreign, 
 yea, an Egyptian commodity, and God would cut off 
 from his children all occasion of commerce with that 
 country, which was the staple-place of idolatry. 
 
 Our English horses have a mediocrity of all necessary 
 good properties in them ; as neither so slight as the Barb, 
 nor so slovenly as the Flemish, nor so fiery as the Hun- 
 garian, nor so airy as the Spanish gennets (especially if, 
 as reported, they be conceived of the wind), nor so earthly 
 as those in the Low Countries, and generally all the 
 
 German 
 
Ouaitt^ CouneePe 
 
 139 
 
 German horse. For stature and strength, they are of a 
 middle size, and are both seemly and serviceable in a 
 good proportion. And, whilst the seller praiseth them 
 too much, the buyer too little, the indifferent stander-by 
 will give them this due commendation. 
 
 Worthies ; Yorks. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Hospitality 
 
 Hospitality is threefold : — for one's family, this is of 
 necessity ; for strangers, this is courtesy ; for the poor, 
 
 this is charity. Holy state, b. iu. c. I. 
 
 Measure not thy entertainment of a guest by his 
 estate, but thine own. — Because he is a lord, forget not 
 that thou art but a gentleman ; otherwise, if with feasting 
 him thou breakest thyself, he will not cure thy rupture, 
 and (perchance) rather deride than pity thee. 
 
 Id. B. iii. C. i. 2. 
 
 The Good Husband 
 
 He beats not his wife after his death. — One, having a 
 shrewd wife, yet loath to use her hardly in his life-time, 
 awed her with telling her, that he would beat her when 
 he was dead J meaning, that he would leave her no main- 
 tenance. This humour is unworthy a worthy man, who 
 will endeavour to provide her a competent estate. Yet 
 he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow, 
 destroys a quick-hedge to make a dead one. 
 
 Id. B. i. C. iii. 8. 
 
 Humility. 
 
 Thomas 
 FtiUer 
 
I40 
 
 (^i0e (^ovbo (inb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Humility 
 
 ICartiii.y Kings may make men humblcil. Cod alono 
 cnn humble. J/isi. n. v. s. ii. 4. 
 
 Hypercriticism 
 
 It is a greater fault rigidly to censure, than to commit 
 a small oversight. The one showeth liiniKolf man, in 
 mistaking ; the other no man, in not pardoning a light 
 mistake. //<•//• ifnr, ii. ii. c. iv. 
 
 Hypocrites 
 
 Hypocrites are of so glutinous a nature they will stick 
 close in every visible (^liurch. They cannot be divided 
 who i-annot be discerned. coii.strm..- rndu i\u,h,i„utf<i. 
 
 Ignorance at Fault 
 
 For, ignorant people count all circles above their own 
 sphere to be conjuring ; and presently cry out, those 
 things are done by black art for which tiieir dim eyes 
 can see no colour in reason. And in such case, when 
 they cannot fly up to heaven to make it a miracle, tiiey 
 fetcli it from hell to make it magic, though it may lawfully 
 be done by natural causes, ii,,iy .\i„i,; w. li, c, x. 
 
 Imaginary Coincidences 
 
 Wn will conclude all with Roger Iloveden's witty 
 descant on the time : — When Jerusalem was won by the 
 Christians, and afterwards when it was lost, .m Urban 
 was pope of Rome, a I'Vedcrick emperor of (ierniany, an 
 lieraclius i)atriarch of Jerusalem, But by his le.ive, 
 
 though 
 
Quaint tomnedtf 
 
 141 
 
 though the first of his observations be true, thu second 
 is a flat falsity, the third a foul mistake, and may thus be 
 mended : (it is charity to lend a crutch to a lame conceit) 
 — When the cross was taken from the ]'ersians, Heraclius 
 was emperor ; and when it was taken from the Turks, 
 Heraclius was patriarch. Thus these curious obser- 
 vations (like over-small watches), not one of a hundred 
 goeth true. Though it cannot be denied, but the same 
 name (as Henry of J'lngland, one the win-all, another the 
 lose-all in France) hath often been happy and unhappy 
 in founding and confounding of kingdoms. But such 
 nominal toys are rags not worth a wise man's stooping to 
 take them up. //„/j, ivar, b. ii. c. 46, 
 
 An Index 
 
 An Index is the bag and baggage of a book, of more 
 use than honour ; even such who vehemently slight 
 ii, secretly using it, if not for need, for speed of what 
 Uiey desire to find. piseah Sight, ad fin- 
 
 An Interdict, laoy 
 
 See now on a sudden the sad face of the English 
 church 1 — a face without a tongue, no singing of service, 
 no saying of mass, no reading of prayers : as for preaching 
 of sermons, the laziness and ignorance of those times had 
 long before interdicted them. None need pity the living 
 (hearing the impatient complaints of lovers, for whose 
 marriage no license could be procured), when he looks 
 on the dead, who were buried in ditches, like dogS) 
 without any prayers said upon them. True, a well- 
 informed Christian knows full well, that a corpse, though 
 
 cast 
 
 Thomai 
 Fuller 
 
142 
 
 (JDtee (^oxbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
 cast in a bog, shall not stick there at the day of judgment ; 
 thrown into a wood, shall then find out the way ; buried 
 by the highway's side, is in the ready road to resurrection ; 
 in a word, that wheresoever a body be put or placed, it 
 will equally take the alarm at the last trumpet : yet 
 seeing these people believed, that a grave in consecrated 
 ground was a good step to heaven, and were taught that 
 prayers after their death were essential to their salvation, 
 it must needs put strange fears into the heads and 
 hearts both of such which deceased and their friends 
 which survived them. ca. Hist. b. iii. s. iv. 7. 
 
 Inventors and Improvers 
 
 I CONFESS it is easier to add to any art, than first to 
 invent it ; yet, because there is a perfection of degrees, 
 as well as kinds, eminent improvers of an art may be 
 allowed for the co-inventors thereof being founders of 
 that accession which they add thereunto, for which they 
 deserve to be both regarded and rewarded. W(nihies: c. xU. 
 
 Irishmen in England 
 
 I MUCH admire, that never an eminent Irish native 
 grew in England to any greatness ; so many English 
 have prospered in that country. But, it seems, we love 
 to live there, where we may command ; and they care 
 not to come where they must obey. 
 
 Id. C. xxiv. English Gentry. 
 
 Iron 
 
 Great the necessity hereof; some nations having 
 lived in the ignorance of gold and silver, scarce any 
 without the use of iron. Indeed we read not of it in 
 
 making 
 
OtiAint Coun00f0 
 
 '43 
 
 mnkiii^; llir 'riiJirnincIn (llioiigli from no iiicntioii, no 
 UHO lliftrol' Ihciviii <'iuin(il liifiillilily lie iiilcn-cd), wliicli 
 licliiK ImiI (I Nllght mill t>(ii'Uil)lc l)tiililiii|{, bmNH ivukIU 
 Mlipply llip wMiil llir'irdr. Hill in llip 'rniiplc, which wnM 
 a liiiiiri liihiii'i we find 'lion lor Ihc thIngN of Iron, 
 iind II hiinihi'il Ihoimniiil liilriitH of Unit iiichil employed 
 thcirin. 
 
 (Irriil llip (|ii(ijilily of iron niiidn in this coiinly ; 
 wlifrfof mill h UKod liu'rcin, iind more exported tlicnec 
 inio olhn piirlH ol' llie hind, iind licyond tiie Dean. But 
 vvhrlher or no the piivMlc pnilU Ihcrrhy will iit long 
 running niiinlerviiiJ llir piililii' loss in llio ileHtriiclioii of 
 woodii, I nm tim unwilling lo iliHcuHH as iiniililc lo deride. 
 Only Irl ine iidd the enMiihig eompliiiiil, wherein the 
 llmlier Iittm of Ihlw ('oiinty deplore their condilion, 
 in my opinion rirhly worth Ihn remlcr'M jicrilHiil ; 
 
 ' Jhvc^'b emit, llin wnilllin aiti'i, vclnrd pini, llio nullri' \)an'M, 
 Sliiiil hn/r'i, iiiflpln pliilM, ll()lit (ifl|i, Hip liriiillii|{ wyiili, 
 'rtiii^li liiilly, mill miiiiiilli lilri;li, mutt nUii(;rllior liiirii ; 
 Whnl mIhiiiIiI llic liiillilr'ni Bprvr, Bii|i|illc'« llm liii'i^pin' tiini j 
 
 Wlieii uiiilpi' |iiililli' (J I, luiKP pilvnto khIii I'llto" li'ilil. 
 
 Anil vvp |MHM' vvdIuI WnmU In nilii Indlly milil.' 
 
 Mill il in to lie hoped Ihiil a. wtiy miiy lie found oiil, to 
 eharkt Nen loul in sueli iiiiinner hn lo render il useful for 
 llie iiuildng of iron. All things are not round out in one 
 iige, n» refierved lor I'liliirc diwuivery ; iind thiil perehimre 
 limy lie cany lor the next, wliirli Heeiim iinpoHMihIc to tliii 
 
 genertllion. /,/, .\,,xxm. tfatnyal <\<mm,i,Min. 
 
 Jerusalam: lt« A«pect 
 
 JituiKHAi.if.M better neijiiittelh itnelf to the eiir thiui 
 lo the eye i licing no whil lieiUitiful lU nil, 'I'hegituation 
 
 thereof 
 
 Thonia* 
 ITullar 
 
144 
 
 (H)i0e (^otb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 thereof is very uneven, rising into hills and sinking into 
 dales ; the lively emblem of the fortunes of the place ; 
 sometimes advanced with prosperity, sometimes de- 
 pressed in misery. Once it was well compacted, and 
 dui/i as a city that is at unity in itself; but now distracted 
 from itself: the suspicious houses (as if afraid to be 
 infected with more misery than they have already, by 
 contiguousness to others) keep off at a distance, having 
 many waste places betwixt them; not one fair street 
 in the whole city. Holy War, b. v. c. 27. 
 
 Jesting 
 
 Harmless mirth is the best cordial against the con- 
 sumption of the spirits ; wherefore jesting is not unlawful 
 if it trespasseth not in quantity, quality, or season. 
 
 Holy State, B. iii. C. 2. 
 
 He that will lose his friend for a jest, deserves to die a 
 beggar by the bargain.— Yet some think their conceits, 
 like mustard, not good except they bite. We read, that 
 all those who were born in England, the year after the 
 beginning of the great mortality 1349, wanted their four 
 cheek-teeth. Such let thy jests be, that they may not 
 grind the credit of thy friend, and make not jests so long 
 till thou becomest one. u. b. Hi. c. li. 7. 
 
 A Jest of Queen Elizabeth's Commissioners 
 
 What credit there is to be given to that thorough old 
 (if not doting) prophecy, that a Spaniard shall one day 
 recover Jerusalem, we leave to the censure of others ; 
 
 and 
 
Ouaitt^ Cottttcefef 
 
 145 
 
 and meantime we will conclude more serious matters 
 with this pleasant passage : — 
 
 When the late wars in the days of Queen Elizabeth 
 were hot between England and Spain, there were com- 
 missioners on both sides appointed to treat of peace ; 
 they met at a town of the French king's; and first it 
 was debated, what tongue the negotiation should be 
 handled in. A Spaniard, thinking to give the English 
 commissioners a shrewd gird, proposed the French 
 tongue as most fit, it being a language which the 
 Spaniards were well skilled in; 'and for these gentle- 
 men of England, I suppose (said he) that they cannot 
 be ignorant of the language of their fellow subjects; 
 their queen is queen of France as well as England.' 
 ' Nay, in faith, masters (replied Doctor Dale, the master 
 of requests) the French tongue is too vulgar for a 
 business of this secrecy and importance, especially in 
 a French town ; we will rather treat in Hebrew the 
 language of Jerusalem, whereof your master is king ; I 
 suppose you are herein as well skilled as we in French.' 
 
 Holy War, B. v. C. 29. 
 
 A Good Judge 
 
 He is patient and attentive in hearing the pleadings 
 on both sides. — And hearkens to the witnesses, though 
 tedious. He may give a waking testimony, who hath 
 but a dreaming utterance; and many country people 
 must be impertinent, before they can be pertinent, and 
 cannot give evidence about a hen, but first they must 
 begin with it in the egg. All which our Judge is con- 
 tented to hearken to. Holy state, B. iv. C. vii. u 
 
 L The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
146 
 
 (^iee (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 The Judge may be deceived by false evidence. But 
 blame not the hand of the dial, if it points at a false 
 hour, when the fault is in the wheels of the clock which 
 direct it, and are out of frame. Holy state, b. iv. c.vii. 7. 
 
 Judgment lingers 
 
 God's justice on offenders goes not always in the 
 same path, nor the same pace : and he is not pardoned for 
 the fault, who is for a while reprieved from the punishment; 
 yea, sometimes the guest in the inn goes quietly to bed, 
 before the reckoning for his supper is brought to him to 
 
 discharge. /foty and Profane State, B. v. C. xix. adfiti. 
 
 Judge nothing before the Time 
 
 Let us not with rash judging thrust all into the pit 
 of hell whom we see walking near the brink thereof 
 
 Holy War, B. iv. C. s. 
 
 God's Judgments 
 
 I CONFESS, God's best servants sometimes have had 
 sad and sudden ends : witness good Eli himself, who fell 
 down, and brake his neck, 1 Sam. iv. 18. I confess 
 likewise, that some wicked men, who have lived like lions, 
 have died (to use the common country-phrase) like 
 lambs ; or, to use the expression of the Psalmist, ' they 
 have no bands in their death,' Psalm Ixxiii. 4 ; so fairly 
 and quietly do they expire. It is not good, therefore, to 
 be over-tampering in this particular, (our Saviour himself 
 retrenching the censoriousness of the Jews, for falling so 
 heavy on the memories of those on whom the tower of 
 
 Siloe 
 
Ouaitt^ Cottn0ep0 
 
 147 
 
 Siloe fell, Luke xiii. 4,) and infallibly to infer, from their 
 fatal death, their final damnation. However, when a re- 
 markable death suddenly follows a notorious, wicked life, 
 even such passengers as are posting in the speed of their 
 private affairs are bound to make a stand, and solemnly 
 to observe the justice of God's proceedings therein ; 
 the rather, because Bellarmine, our adversary, afiSrmeth, 
 that, infelix exitus eorum qui ecdesiam oppugnant, ' the 
 unhappy end of the adversaries therof,' is one of the marks 
 of the true church. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. viii. S. ii. 36. 
 
 Knives 
 
 These are the teeth of old men, and useful to those of 
 all ages ; for, though some think themselves scarce 
 gentlemen with knives, as good as they, conceive them- 
 selves scarce men without them, so necessary they are on 
 all occasions. The most of these for common use of 
 country people are made in this county; whereof the 
 bluntest, with a sharp stomach, will serve to cut meat 
 if before them. Sheffield, a remarkable market, is the 
 staple town for this commodity, and so hath been these 
 three hundred years ; witness Chaucer, speaking of the 
 accoutrements of the miller, 
 
 ' A Sheffield whitel bare he in his hose.' 
 
 One may justly wonder how a knife may be sold for one 
 penny, three trades anciently distinct concurring there- 
 unto, bladers, haft-makers, and sheath-makers, all since 
 united into the corporation of Cutlers. Nor must we 
 forget, that though plain knife-making was very ancient 
 in this county, yet Thomas Matthews on Fleet-bridge, 
 
 L 2 London, 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
148 
 
 (^iet (H)or50 cinb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 London, was the first Englishman who (quinto Ehzabeth^) 
 made fine knives, and procured a prohibition, that no 
 more ships-lading of hafts should be brought from beyond 
 
 the seas. IVortkies: Yorks. Manufactures. 
 
 The Court Lady 
 
 She is a good scholar, and well learned in useful 
 authors. — Indeed, as, in purchases, a house is valued at 
 nothing, because it returneth no profit, and requires great 
 charges to maintain it ; so, for the same reasons, learning 
 in a woman is but little to be prized. But, as for great 
 ladies, who ought to be a confluence of all rarities and 
 perfections, some learning in them is not only useful but 
 necessary. 
 
 In discourse, her words are rather fit than fine, very 
 choice, and yet not chosen. — Though her language be 
 not gaudy, yet the plainness thereof pleaseth, it is so 
 proper, and handsomely put on. Some, having a set of 
 fine phrases, will hazard an impertinency to use them all, 
 as thinking they give full satisfaction for dragging in the 
 matter by head and shoulders, if they dress it in quaint 
 expressions. Others often repeat the same things ; the 
 Platonic year of their discourses being not above three 
 days long, in which term all the same matter returns 
 over again, threadbare talk ill suiting with the variety of 
 their clothes. 
 
 She affects not the vanity of foolish fashions. — But is 
 decently apparelled according to her state and condition. 
 He that should have guessed the bigness of Alexander's 
 soldiers, by their shields left in India, would much over- 
 proportion their true greatness. But what a vast over- 
 grown 
 
Ouain^ toMixede 
 
 149 
 
 grown creature would some guess a woman to be, taking 
 his aim by the multitude and variety of clothes and 
 ornaments, which some of them use ! insomuch as the 
 ancient Latins called a woman's wardrobe, mundus, ' a 
 world ; ' wherein, notwithstanding, was much terra incog- 
 nita then undiscovered, but since found out by the 
 curiosity of modern fashion-mongers. We find a map of 
 this 'world 'drawn by God's Spirit, (Isaiah iii. 18-24), 
 wherein one-and-twenty women's ornaments, all super- 
 fluous, are reckoned up; which at this day are much 
 increased. The 'moons,' there mentioned, which they 
 wore on their heads, may seem since grown to the full in 
 the luxury of after-ages. Holy state, b. iv. c. xUi. 6-8. 
 
 The Lamb and the Lion 
 
 One may be a lamb in private wrongs ; but in hearing 
 general affronts to goodness, they are asses who are not 
 
 lions. Id. B. iv. C. xiii. 4. 
 
 The Lambeth Articles 
 
 When these articles came abroad into the world, men's 
 brains and tongues, as since their pens, were employed 
 about the authority of the same, and the obedience due 
 unto them ; much puzzled to find the new place, where 
 rightly to rank them in reputation ; how much above the 
 results and resolutions of private divines, and how much 
 beneath the authority of a provincial synod. Some there 
 were that almost equalled their authenticalness with the 
 acts of a synod, requiring the like conformity of men's 
 judgments unto them. . . . 
 
 Others maintain the contrary. For, grant each man, 
 
 in 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
I50 
 
 (H)i0e (S)or60 <xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 in this conference at Lambeth, one of a thousand for 
 learning and religion ; yet was he but one in power and 
 place, and had no proxy or deputation, the two Cambridge 
 doctors excepted, to appear in the behalf of others ; and 
 therefore their determinations, though of great use to 
 direct, could be but of little authority to conclude and 
 command the consent of others. 
 
 But a third sort, offended with the matter of the 
 articles, thought that the two archbishops, and the rest 
 at this meeting deserved censure for holding an unlawful 
 conventicle. For they had not express command from 
 the queen to meet, debate and decide such contro- 
 versies. . . . 
 
 One goeth further to afifirm that those articles of 
 Lambeth were afterwards forbidden by public authority ; 
 but when, where and by whom, he is not pleased to im- 
 part to us. And strange it is that a public prohibition 
 should be whispered so softly, that this author alone 
 should hear it and none other to my knowledge take 
 notice thereof. . . . 
 
 And now I perceive, I must tread tenderly, because I 
 go not (as before) on men's graves, but am ready to 
 touch the quick of some yet alive. I know how danger- 
 ous it is to follow truth too near to the heels ; yet better 
 it is that the teeth of an historian be struck out of his 
 head for writing the truth, than that they remain still 
 and rot in his jaws, by feeding too much on the sweet- 
 meats of flattery. All that I will say of the credit of these 
 articles is this, — that as medals of gold and silver, though 
 they will not pass in payment for current coin, because 
 not stamped with the king's inscription, yet they will go 
 
 with 
 
Ouainf Couneefe 
 
 151 
 
 with goldsmiths for as much as they are in weight ; so, 
 though these articles want authentic reputation to pass 
 for provincial Acts, as lacking sufficient authority, yet 
 will they be readily received of orthodox Christians for 
 as far as their own purity bears conformity to God's word. 
 And though those learned divines be not acknowledged 
 as competent judges to pass deiinitive sentence in those 
 points, yet they will be taken as witnesses beyond ex- 
 ception ; whose testimony is an infallible evidence what 
 was the general and received doctrine of England in that 
 agCj about the fore-named controversies. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. ix, S. viii, 24-28. 
 
 Lampreys 
 
 A DEFORMED fish, which for the many holes therein, 
 one would conceive nature intended it rather for an in- 
 strument of music than for man's food. The best 
 manner of dressing whereof, saith my author, is ' to kill 
 it in malmsey, close the mouth thereof with a nutmeg, 
 the holes with so many cloves ; and when it is rolled up 
 round, putting in thereto filbert-nut-kernels stamped, 
 crumbs of bread, oil, spices, &c.' Others (but those 
 miso-lampreys) do add, that, after all this cost, even cast 
 them away, seeing money is better lost than health; 
 and the meat will rather be delicious than wholesome, 
 the eating whereof cost king Henry the First his life. 
 But, by their favour, that king did not die of lampreys, 
 but of excess in eating them ; and I am confident the 
 Jews might surfeit of manna itself, if eating thereof above 
 due proportion. 
 
 ' Worthies : Worcester. Natural Commodities. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
152 
 
 (XOiee (^ovbff anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 The Rigour of the Law 
 
 The most wholesome laws would be poison, (justice, 
 hot in the fourth degree, is cruelty,) if enforced at all 
 times, and on all persons, to the utmost extremity. 
 
 CA. Hist. B. ix. S. iv. lo. 
 
 Lawn Sleeves 
 
 Let canvass be rough and rugged, lawn ought to be 
 soft and smooth ; meekness, mildness, and mercy being 
 more proper for men of the episcopal function. 
 
 Id. B. xi. S. ii. 68. 
 
 Lead 
 
 Plenty of the best (for the kind thereof) is digged out 
 of Mendip hills. Indeed it is not so soft, pliant, and 
 equally fusile, as that in Derbyshire ; not so proper for 
 sheeting, because, when melted, it runs into knots, and 
 therefore little known to, and less used by, our London 
 plumbers ; for, being of a harder nature, it is generally 
 transported beyond the seas, and employed to make 
 bullets and shot, for which purpose it is excellent. May 
 foreigners enjoy wild lead, to kill men ; whilst we make 
 use of tame lead, to cover houses, and keep people warm 
 
 and dry therein. Worthies .• Somerset. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Undated Letters 
 
 But one thing I must clear in our entrance thereon, 
 in excuse that these letters are dateless as to the day and 
 month ; a great omission, which I have seen in many 
 originals, whose authors so minded the matter that they 
 
 neglected 
 
Ouain^ Cotttt0ef0 
 
 153 
 
 neglected the time, the present dispatching of them being 
 date enough to their purpose, though now the want 
 thereof leaves posterity at a loss. A blue coat without a 
 badge is but a white coat in effect ; as nothing informing 
 the beholder to what lord the bearer thereof doth relate : 
 and as little instructive (will some say) are these letters 
 as to the point of chronology. But be it known, that no 
 reader's stomach can be so sharp set on the criticalness of 
 chronology, but that, being fed with the certainty of the 
 year, he will not be famished with the uncertainty of the 
 month or day. Indeed, as such whose names are 
 casually omitted in the register may recover the truth of 
 their age by a comparative computation of their years, 
 who were borii about the same time ; so, by the mixture 
 and comparing of these dateless letters with those having 
 date of secular affairs, I could competently have collected 
 and inserted the time, save that I loathe to obtrude any 
 thing conjectural on the reader's belief. 
 
 Ch.Hist. B. bt. S. v. 9. 
 
 Letter-History best History 
 
 I SHALL now withdraw myself, or at leastwise stand by 
 a silent spectator, whilst I make room for far my betters 
 to come forth and speak in the present controversy of 
 church-government. Call it not cowardice, but count it 
 caution in me, if desirous in this difference to lie at a 
 close-guard, and offer as little play as may be on either 
 side, whilst the reader shall behold the masters of defence 
 on both sides engaged therein in these following letters 
 of state. Baronius, the great Roman Annalist, was wont 
 to say, Epistolaris historia est optima historia, ' That is the 
 
 best 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
154 
 
 (BS)(0e (^oti>0 <xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 best history which is collected out of letters.' How much 
 of the Acts of the Apostles (especially for the regulation of 
 time) is contained in Ihe Epistles of St. Paul ! Of the 
 primitive history, the most authentical part is what is 
 gathered out of the letters of the Fathers. 
 
 CA. Hist. B. ix. S. V. 8, 9. 
 
 Liars unconscionable, do little Harm 
 
 The best is, that unconscionable liars, though they 
 most hurt themselves, do the least harm others, whose 
 loud ones are both the poison and the antidote, seeing 
 no wise man will believe them. Small grit and gravel 
 may choke a man ; but that stone can never stop his 
 throat which cannot enter into his mouth. 
 
 Id. B. i. 30. 
 
 Lies beget Lies 
 
 A wilful falsehood told is a cripple not able to stand 
 by itself, without some to support it ; it is easy to tell a 
 lie, hard to tell but a lie. 
 
 Good Thoughts in Worse Times : Scrip. Observ. 7. 
 
 Liturgy, some Revisors 
 
 Some complained against the liturgy to the lord 
 Burleigh, of whom he demanded, ' whether they desired 
 the taking away thereof They answered, 'No. But 
 only the amendment of what was offensive therein.' He 
 required them to make a better, such as they would 
 have settled in the stead thereof. Whereupon, 
 
 The 
 
Ouain^ Cottn0ef0 
 
 155 
 
 The first classis framed a new one, somewhat ac- 
 cording to the form of Geneva. 
 
 The second classis, disliking it, altered it in six hundred 
 particulars. 
 
 The third quarrelled at these alterations, and resolved 
 on a new model. 
 
 The fourth classis dissented from the former. 
 
 Thus, because they could not agree amongst them- 
 selves, that wise statesman put them off for the present, 
 until they should present him a pattern with a perfect 
 
 consent. Ch. Hist. B. ix. S. vi. 32. 
 
 Main Amber 
 
 Main is in Cornish the stone ; and Amber, as some 
 conceive, of Ambrosius that valiant Briton, erected 
 probably by him on some victory achieved against the 
 Romans, or some other enemies. This is a master-piece 
 of mathematics and critical proportions, being a great 
 stone of so exact position on the top of a rock, that any 
 weakness by touching it may move it, and yet no force 
 can remove it, so justly it is poised. I have heard in 
 common discourse, when this Main Amber hath been 
 made the emblem of such men's dispositions, who would 
 listen to all counsel, and seem inclined thereunto, but 
 are so fixed, that no reason can alter them from their 
 first resolution. 
 
 But know, reader, that this wonder is now unwondered ; 
 for I am credibly informed, that some soldiers of late 
 have utterly destroyed it. Oh, how dangerous is it for 
 art to stand in the way where ignorance is to pass. 
 
 Worthies: Cornwall. Natural Commodities, 
 
 Malt 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
156 
 
 (5E){0e (^or50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Malt 
 
 Though commonness causeth contempt, excellent the 
 art of the first inventing thereof. I confess it facile to 
 make barley-water, an invention which found out itself, 
 with little more than the bare joining the ingredients 
 together. But to make malt for drink, was a master- 
 piece indeed. How much of philosophy concurred to 
 the first kill of malt ! and before it was turned on the 
 floor, how often was it tossed in the brain of the first 
 inventor thereof. 
 
 First, to give it a new growth more than the earth had 
 bestowed thereon. Swelling it in the water, to make 
 it last the longer by breaking it, and taste the sweeter by 
 corrupting it. Secondly, by making it to pass the fire, 
 the grain (by art fermented) acquiring a lusciousness 
 (which by nature it had not), whereby it doth both 
 strengthen and sweeten the water wherein it is boiled. 
 
 iVorthies: Derbyshire. Manufactures. 
 
 '"Manners maketh Man," 
 
 quoth William Wickham.' 
 
 This generally was his motto, inscribed frequently on 
 the places of his founding ; so that it hath since acquired 
 a proverbial reputation. We commonly say, i. In the 
 Church ; ' God makes a man,' as who truly created him. 
 2. In the Court; 'Clothes make a man,' as which habit 
 and adorn him. 3. In the Change; 'Money makes a 
 man,' which puts him in a solvable condition. 4. In 
 the Schools ; ' Manners make a man,' as which complete 
 and accomplish him. 
 
 Grant 
 
Ouain^ Couneefe 
 
 157 
 
 Grant the two middle expressions, the extravagancy 
 of our pride and covetousness, the first and last must be 
 allowed proportionable to piety and truth. Without 
 manners, one is but a man-beast, or centaur. 
 
 Now seeing no man without manners, no manners 
 without some learning, no learning without teaching, 
 no teaching of youth to that in a grammar free-school, 
 men to that in a college in an university; how much 
 thanks doth posterity owe to this Wickham's memory. 
 
 Id.: Hants. Proverbs. 
 
 The Manufactures of England 
 
 Some Heathen have causelessly complained of Nature 
 as a step-mother to mankind, because other creatures 
 come into the world clothed with feathers, furs, or 
 fleeces, &c., or armed with paws, claws, beaks, tusks, 
 horns, hoofs; whilst man is exposed naked into the 
 world: I say a causeless charge, because Providence 
 having given men hands, and reason to use them (two 
 blessings denied to other creatures), all clothing and 
 fencing is eminently and transcendantly bestowed upon 
 him. 
 
 It is very remarkable to see the manufactures in 
 England, not knowing whether more to admire the rarity 
 or variety thereof. Undoubtedly the wealth of a nation 
 consisteth in driving a native commodity through the 
 most hands to the highest artificial perfection, whereof 
 we have taken especial cognizance in the respective 
 countries, yet so as (though briefly naming) not largely 
 handling that manufacture whereon we have formerly 
 insisted. 
 
 It 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
158 
 
 (H)t0e (pS)otr60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 It must not be forgotten that there be some things 
 which cannot properly be termed natural commodities, 
 because of their quality altered and disguised by men's 
 industry; and yet they attain not the reputation of 
 manufactures. As salt, being water boiled ; malt, barley 
 dried : cider, apples pressed. Worthies: c. i. 
 
 Marriage 
 
 Deceive not thyself by over-expecting happiness in the 
 married estate. — Look not therein for contentment 
 greater than God will give, or a creature in this world 
 can receive ; namely, to be free from all inconveniences. 
 Marriage is not like the hill Olympus, oXoj Xaimpos, 
 ' wholly clear,' without clouds. Yea, expect both wind 
 and storms sometimes, which when blown over, the air 
 is the clearer and wholesoraer for it. Make account 
 of certain cares and troubles which will attend thee. 
 Remember the nightingales, which sing only some 
 months in the spring, but commonly are silent when 
 they have hatched their eggs, as if their mirth were turned 
 into care for their young ones. Yet all the molestations 
 of marriage are abundantly recompensed with other 
 comforts, which God bestoweth on them who make a 
 wise choice of a wife. Holy state, b. Hi. c. xxH. 3. 
 
 Let there be no great disproportion in age. — They 
 that marry ancient people merely in expectation to bury 
 them, hang themselves, in hope that one will come and 
 cut the halter. id. b. iii. c. xxii. 6. 
 
 Martyrdom 
 
Quaint toxunetis 
 
 159 
 
 Martyrdom 
 
 Heart-of-oak hath sometimes warped a little in the 
 scorching heat of persecution. — Their want of true 
 courage herein cannot be excused. Yet many censure 
 them for surrendering up their forts after a long siege, 
 who would have yielded up their own at the first sum- 
 mons. O ! there*is more required to make one valiant, 
 than to call Cranmer or Jewel ' coward ' ; as if the fire 
 in Smithfield had been no hotter than what is painted in 
 ' the Book of Martyrs.' miy state, b. m. c. xix. 6. 
 
 Martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer 
 
 Old Hugh Latimer was Ridley's partner at the stake, 
 some time bishop of Worcester, who crawled thither 
 after him ; one who had lost more learning than many 
 ever had, who flout at his plain sermons ; though his 
 down-right style was as necessary in that ignorant age, 
 as it would be ridiculous in ours. Indeed, he con- 
 descended to people's capacity ; and many men unjustly 
 count those low in learning, who indeed do but stoop 
 to their auditors. Let me see any of our sharp wits do 
 that with the edge— which his bluntness did with the 
 back— of the knife, and persuade so many to restitution 
 of ill-gotten goods. Though he came after Ridley to 
 the stake, he got before him to heaven : his body, made 
 tinder by age, was no sooner touched by the fire, but 
 instantly this old Simeon had his Nunc dimitUs, and 
 brought the news to heaven that his brother was 
 following after. id. b. iv. c. xii. 
 
 Martyrs 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
i6o 
 
 (Wi0i. (^otb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Martyrs : Estimation of them 
 
 But before I go further, reader, pardon a digression ; 
 and yet is it none, for it is necessary. I have, within 
 the narrow scanthng of my experimental remembrance, 
 observed strange alteration in the world's valuing of 
 those learned men who lived in that age ; and take it 
 plainly, without' welt or guard ; for he that smarts for 
 speaking truth, hath a plaster in his own conscience. 
 
 When I was a child, I was possessed with a reverent 
 esteem of them, as most holy and pious men, dying 
 Martyrs, in the days of queen Mary, for the profession 
 of the truth; which opinion having, from my parents, 
 taken quiet possession of my soul^ they must be very 
 forcible reasons which eject it. 
 
 Since that time, they have been much cried down in 
 the mouths of many, who, making a coroner's inquest 
 upon their death, hath found them little better than 
 felons de se, dying in their own blood, for a mere 
 formahty, de modo, ' of the manner ' of the presence, and 
 a sacrifice in the sacrament ; who might easily, with one 
 small distinction, have knocked off their fetters, and saved 
 their lives. By such the coronet of martyrdom is plucked 
 off from their memories; and others, more moderate, 
 equally part their death betwixt their enemies' cruelty, 
 and their own over-forwardness. . . . 
 
 Thus the prices of Martyrs' ashes rise and fall in 
 Smithfield-market. However, their real worth floats not 
 with people's fancies, no more than a rock in the sea 
 rises and falls with the tide. St. Paul is still St. Paul, 
 though the Lycaonians now would sacrifice to him, and 
 
 presently 
 
Oudin^ CovLi\0ti0 
 
 i6i 
 
 presently after would sacrifice him. These bishops, min- 
 isters, and lay-people, who were put to death in queen 
 Mary's days, were worthy saints of God, holy and godly 
 men, but had their faults, failings, and imperfections. 
 Had they not been men, they had not burnt ; yea, had 
 they not been more than men, (by God's assistance,) 
 they had not burnt. Every true Christian should, but 
 none but strong Christians will, die at the stake. 
 
 Holy state, B. iv. C. xi. 
 
 A Good Master of a College 
 
 His learning, if beneath eminency, is far above con- 
 tempt. — Sometimes ordinary scholars make extraordinary 
 good masters. Every one who can play well on Apollo's 
 harp, cannot skilfully drive his chariot ; there being a 
 peculiar mystery of government. Yet, as a httle alloy 
 makes gold to work the better, so, perchance, some 
 dulness in a man makes him fitter to manage secular 
 affairs; and those who have climbed up Parnassus but 
 half-way, better behold worldly business, (as lying low 
 and nearer to their sight,) than such as have climbed up 
 to the top of the mount. id. b. h. c. xiv. i. 
 
 Mediocrity 
 
 The general weight of God's work in the church lieth 
 on men of middle and moderate parts. That servant 
 who improved his two talents into four, did more than 
 the other who increased his five into ten. (Matthew 
 XXV. 12.) Tradesmen will tell you, it is harder to double 
 a little than treble a great deal ; seeing great banks easily 
 improve themselves, by those advantages which smaller 
 M sums 
 
 Tbomas 
 Fuller 
 
l62 
 
 (Wi0t (^ot60 an6 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
 sums want. And surely many honest (though not so 
 eminent) ministers, who employ all their might in God's 
 service, equal, (if not exceed,) both in his acceptance 
 and the church's profit, the performances of such who 
 far excel them in abilities. ffist. cami. s. vi. lo. 
 
 This is the misery of moderation ; I recall my word 
 (seeing misery properly must have sin in it). This is an 
 affliction attending moderate men, that they have not an 
 active party to side with them and favour them. 
 
 Men of great stature will quickly be made porters to a 
 king, and those diminutively little, dwarfs to a queen, 
 whilst such who are of a middle height may get them- 
 selves masters where they can. The moderate man, 
 eminent for no excess or extravagancy in his judgment, 
 will have few patrons to protect, or persons to adhere 
 unto him. But what saith St. Paul, i Cor. xv. 19 : If in 
 this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the 
 most miserable. 
 
 Gffoti Thoughts X Mixt Contemfl. on Better Ti-mes, 33. 
 
 Meditation 
 
 Meditation, which is the chewing of the cud of the 
 food of the soul, turning it into clean and wholesome 
 
 nourishment. Worthies: Wilts. Writers. 
 
 Memory 
 
 None alive ever heard me pretend to the art of 
 memory, who in my book have decried it as a trick, no 
 art; and, indeed, is more of fancy than memory. I 
 confess, some ten years since, when I came out of the 
 
 pulpit 
 
Ouain^ Coun0ef0 
 
 163 
 
 pulpit of St. Dunstan's East; one (who since wrote a 
 book thereof) told me in the vestry, before credible 
 people, that he in Sidney College had taught me the 
 art of memory. I returned unto him, that it was not 
 so ; for I could not remember that I had ever seen his face ; 
 which, I conceive, was a real refutation. However, 
 seeing that a natural memory is the best flower in mine, 
 and not the worst in the Animadvertor's garden, let us 
 turn our competitions herein unto mutual thankfulness 
 to the God of heaven. Afp. inj. inn. p. ii. e. iv. 94. 
 
 [' He had a memory so tenacious and comprehensive, 
 that it enabled him to do things which are hardly 
 credible. He could repeat five hundred strange words 
 after twice hearing, and could make use of a sermon 
 verbatim, if he once heard it. He undertook once, in 
 passing to and fro, from Temple-Bar to the furthest part 
 of Cheapside, to tell at his return every sign as it stood 
 in order on both sides of the way, repeating them either 
 backwards or forwards : and he did it exactly. His 
 manner of writing [when thus testing his memory] was 
 very strange and rare, from the top of the page to the 
 bottom, something like that of the Chinese. The 
 manner was thus : he would write near the margin the 
 first words of every line down to the foot of the paper ; 
 then, by beginning at the head again, would so perfectly 
 fill up every one of these Hnes, as, without spaces, 
 interlineations, or contractions, would so connect the 
 ends and beginnings, that the sense would appear as 
 complete, as if he had written it in a continued series 
 after the ordinary manner.'] 
 
 Note to above by an Anonymovs Biographer. 
 
 M 2 Overburden 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
164 
 
 ^iee (pS)or60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Overburden not thy memory, to make so faithful a 
 servant a slave. — Remember, Atlas was weary. Have 
 as much reason as a camel, — to rise when thou hast thy 
 full load. Memory is like a purse, — if it be over-full 
 that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it. Take heed 
 of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the 
 greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the 
 digestion thereof. Beza's case was peculiar and memor- 
 able : Being above four-score years of age, he perfectly 
 could say by heart any Greek chapter in St. Paul's 
 epistles, or any thing else which he had learned long 
 before, but forgot whatsoever was newly told him ; his 
 memory, like an inn, retaining old guests, but having no 
 room to entertain new. hoIji state, b. iii. c. x. 4. 
 
 Many, especially Memory-Mistakes, and Pen- 
 Slips, must be expected in a great Volume 
 
 It is the advantage of a small book, that the author's 
 eye may in a manner be incumbent at once over it all, 
 from the beginning to the end thereof; a cause why 
 they may be more exactly corrected. A garden hard by 
 one's house is easier weeded and trimmed, than a field 
 lying at some distance. Books which swell to a great 
 volume, cannot be spun with so even a thread, but will 
 run coarser here and there ; yea, and have knots in them 
 sometimes, whereof the author is not so sensible as the 
 reader ; as the faults in children are not so soon found 
 in them by their own fathers, as by strangers. Thus the 
 poet : — 
 
 Veriim opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum. 
 
 As 
 
Ouain^ Coutt0efe 
 
 165 
 
 As for memory-mistakes, (which are not the sleeping, 
 but winking, of an author,) they are so far from over- 
 throwing the credit of any "book, as a speck, not paring- 
 deep, in the rind of an apple is from proving of the same 
 rotten to the core. Yea, there want not learned writers 
 (whom I need not name) of the opinion, that even the 
 instrumental penmen of the scripture might commit 
 i/iaprrinaTa livrntoviKa ; though, open that window to pro- 
 faneness, and it will be in vain to shut any doors : ' Let 
 God bfe true, and every man a liar.' However, I mention 
 their judgments to this purpose, to show that memory- 
 mistakes have not been counted such heinous matters, 
 but venial in their own nature, as not only iinding but 
 deserving pardon. 
 
 I confess when such mistakes become common and 
 customary in an author, they mar the credit of his book, 
 and intolerably abuse the reader. Nothing is lighter in 
 itself than a single crumb of sand, yet many of them put 
 together are the heaviest of bodily burdens : ' heavier 
 than the sand of the sea,' Job vi. 3. What is slight in 
 itself, if numerous, will become ponderous ; but I hope 
 that memory-mistakes and pen- slips in my book will not 
 be found so frequent ; and desire the benefit of this plea 
 to be allowed me but four times, in my answer to the 
 Animadvertor : a number low enough, I hope, for the 
 ingenuous reader to grant, though perchance too high for 
 me to request. /»/ /»»• p- •• c. v. 
 
 Mercenary Soldiers 
 
 And here my discourse (by the leave of the reader) 
 must a httle sally forth to treat of the danger of enter- 
 taining 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
1 66 
 
 (BE)t0e (^otbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 taining mercenary soldiers. They may perchance be 
 called in with a whistle, but scarce cast out with a whip. 
 If they be slugs, they endanger a state by their slothful- 
 ness; if spirited men, by their activity. Caesar Borgia, 
 Machiavel's idol, whose practice he maketh the pattern 
 of policy, saith, that he had rather be conquered with his 
 own men, than be conqueror with an army of others, 
 because he counted that conquest to be none at all. 
 
 We may observe, the Low Countries have best thrived 
 by setting this trade of journeymen soldiers on work. 
 Let them thank God and the good English ; for if 
 Francis duke of Anjou with his Frenchmen had well 
 succeeded, no doubt he would have spread his bread with 
 their butter. Next them the Venetians have sped best ; 
 for they have the trick, when they find it equally danger- 
 ous to cashier their mercenary general or to entertain 
 him any longer, fairly to kill him, as they served Car- 
 mignola. England hath best thrived without them ; 
 under God's protection we stand on our own legs. The 
 last I find are a handful of Almains used against Kett, in 
 Norfolk in the days of King Edward VI. And let it 
 be our prayers, that as for those hirelings which are to be 
 last tried and least trusted, we never have want of their 
 help, and never have too much of it. Bsiy War, b. u. c. 35. 
 
 Merit not measured by Success 
 
 Those actions are not ungodly which are unsuc- 
 cessful, nor those pious which are prosperous ; seeing 
 the lawfulness of an action is not to be gathered from the 
 joyfulness of the event, but from the justness of the 
 cause, for which it is undertaken. R-uth, ch. i. 3. 
 
 Metals 
 
Quaint Couneefe 
 
 167 
 
 Metals 
 
 Because metals are found in mountains, it is madness 
 to mine for them in every rich meadow. 
 
 Worthies : Yorks. Writers, 
 
 Militant not Triumphant 
 
 Triumphant perfection is not to be hoped for in the 
 mihtant church ; there will be in it many spots and 
 wrinkles as long as it consisteth of sinful mortal men, the 
 members thereof : it is Christ's work, not man's work, to 
 make a perfect reformation. 
 
 Such, therefore, are no good politicians who will make 
 a sore to mend a spot, cause a wound to plain a wrinkle, 
 do a great and certain mischief, when a small and uncer- 
 tain benefit will thereby redound. 
 
 Good Thoughts : Mixt Contempl. on Better TinteSy P. ii. 31, 
 
 Millstones 
 
 When in motion, in default of grist to grind, they 
 (millstones) will fire one another j so necessary is foreign 
 employment for active spirits, to divert them from home- 
 bred combustions. Worthies: Anglesea. 
 
 Miners 
 
 I HAVE read that the vicars in that country do receive 
 every tenth dish of ore for their due, being obliged 
 thereby to pray heartily for the miners. Now though 
 no such place or profit belongeth unto me, yet, treating 
 of this subject, I conceive myself bound, if not in 
 conscience, in courtesy, to wish these workmen a good- 
 speed 
 
 Ttaomaa 
 Fuller 
 
i68 
 
 (P?i0e (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 speed in their lawful endeavours, whilst they only 
 undermine the earth, and not their neighbours' right by 
 fraudulent practices. May their lot prove a prize unto 
 them, that they may gain, at the least, no blank to lose 
 thereby. Particularly, may Divine Providence secure 
 the persons of their labourers from damps and other 
 casualties, which have happened to many, when the 
 earth, though cruel to kill, was courteous to bury, them 
 
 by the same mischance. Wortkies: Devon. The farewell. 
 
 The Faithful Minister 
 
 However, let every minister take up this resolution : 
 'To preach the word, to be instant in season, out of 
 season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering 
 and doctrine.' If thou hast competent means comfort- 
 ably to subsist on, be the more thankful to God the 
 Fountain, to man the channel ; painful in thy place, pitiful 
 to the poor, cheerful in spending some, careful in keeping 
 the rest. If not, yet retire not for want of a spur. 
 Do something for love, and not all for money ; for love 
 of God, of goodness, of the godly, of a good conscience. 
 Know, it is better to want means, than to detain them ; 
 the one only suffers, the other deeply sins : and it is as 
 dangerous a persecution to religion, to draw the fuel 
 from it, as to cast water on it. Comfort thyself that 
 another world will pay this world's debts, ' and great is 
 thy reward with God in heaven : ' a reward, in respect 
 of his promise ; a gift, in respect of thy worthlessness : 
 and yet the less thou lookest at it, the surer thou shall 
 find it, if labouring with thyself to serve God for Him- 
 self; 
 
Ouaitti Cottn0ef0 
 
 169 
 
 self; in respect of whom even heaven itself is but a 
 sinister end. Holy state, b. iii. c. xxv. s. 
 
 Misprints in Bibles 
 
 Many impressions of English Bibles, printed at 
 Amsterdam, and more at Edinburgh in Scotland, were 
 daily brought over hither, and sold here. Little their 
 volumes, and low their prices, as being of bad paper, 
 worse print, little margin, yet greater than the care of 
 the corrector, — many most abominable errata being 
 passed therein. Take one instance for all : — Jeremiah 
 iv. 1 7, speaking of the whole commonwealth of Judah, 
 instead of, ' Because she hath been rebellious against 
 me, saith the Lord ; ' it is printed, (Edinburgh, 1637,) 
 'because she hath been religious against me, saith 
 the Lord.' ca. /rii/. b. xi. s. viii. 29. 
 
 Missionary Difficulties 
 
 Those make short miles who, looking through a 
 window, travel a day's journey in an instant ; whilst 
 wayfaring men must honestly pay for every step, and 
 dearly earn it with their industry. It is facile for men, 
 in their pleasing speculations, to project the conversion 
 of a kingdom, and with themselves to discourse a 
 Heathen nation into Christianity, whilst those must 
 encounter many difficulties who really go about to 
 perform it. id. b. ii. s. i. 3. 
 
 Christ employed fishermen for the first preachers of 
 the Gospel, as who, being acquainted with the water, and 
 
 mysteries 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
172 
 
 (5E)t0e (p)o»rd0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 which otherwise would have been starved; and better 
 it is, two drones should be fed, than one bee famished. 
 We see the heavens themselves, in dispensing their rain, 
 often water many stinking bogs and noisome lakes, 
 which moisture is not needed by them, (yea, they the 
 worse for it,) only because much good ground lies in- 
 separably intermingled with them; so that, either the 
 bad with the good must be watered, or the good with 
 the bad must be parched away. 
 
 Ck. Hist. B. vi. Abbeys, S. u. C. v. n. 
 
 Spoliation of the Monasteries 
 
 But alas ! those abbeys were now sold to such 
 chapmen, in whom it was questionable whether their 
 ignorance or avarice were greater ; and they made havoc 
 and destruction of all. As brokers in Long-lane, when 
 they buy an old suit, buy the linings together with the 
 outside; so it was conceived meet, that such as 
 purchased the buildings of monasteries should, in the 
 same grant, have the libraries (the stuffing thereof) 
 conveyed unto them. And now these ignorant owners, 
 so long as they might keep a ledger-book or terrier, by 
 direction thereof to find such straggling acres as belonged 
 unto them, they cared not to preserve any other 
 monuments. The covers of books, with curious brass 
 bosses and clasps, intended to protect, proved to betray 
 them, being the baits of covetousness. And so, many 
 excellent authors, stripped out of their cases, were left 
 naked, to be burned or thrown away. Thus .^Esop's 
 cock, casually lighting on a pearl, preferred a grain 
 before it; yet he left it as he found it; and as he 
 
 reaped 
 
Ouaittf Coutt0ef0 
 
 17.^ 
 
 reaped no profit by the pearl, it received no damage 
 by him. Whereas these cruel cormorants, with their 
 barbarous beaks and greedy claws, rent, tore, and 
 tattered these inestimable pieces of antiquity. Who 
 would think, that the Fathers should be condemned 
 to such servile employment, as to be scavengers, to 
 make clean the foulest sink in men's bodies? Yea, 
 which is worse, many an ancient manuscript Bible cut 
 in pieces, to cover filthy pamphlets ! So that a case 
 of diamond hath been made to keep dirt within it ; yea, 
 ' the Wise Men of Gotham,' bound up in ' the Wisdom 
 
 of Solomon.' id. B. vi. AUeys, S. v. C. iii. :<. 
 
 The Suppression of the Monasteries 
 
 Ten thousand persons were by this Dissolution sent 
 to seek their fortunes in the wide world. Some, indeed, 
 had fathers or friends to receive them, others none at all. 
 Some had twenty shillings given them at their ejection, 
 and a new gown, which needed to be of strong cloth to 
 last so long till they got another. Most were exposed to 
 want. I see no such certainty for a comfortable liveli- 
 hood as a lawful calling ; for monkish profession was no 
 possession, and many a young nun proved an old beggar. 
 I pity not those who had hands and health to work ; but, 
 surely, the gray hairs of some impotent persons deserved 
 compassion J and I am confident such, had they come 
 to the doors of the charitable reader hereof, should have 
 had a meal's meat and a night's lodging given unto them. 
 
 Id. B. vi. Abbeys, S. iii. 6. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
174 
 
 (P)i0e (^ovbB anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fnller 
 
 The First Monks 
 
 Their Pious Employment in a Solitary Life 
 
 Here they in the deserts hoped to find rocks, and 
 stocks, yea, beasts themselves, more kind than men had 
 been to them. What would hide and heat, cover and 
 keep warm, served them for clothes, not placing (as their 
 successors in after-ages) any holiness in their habit, 
 folded up in the affected fashion thereof As for their 
 food, the grass was their cloth, the ground their table, 
 herbs and roots their diet, wild fruits and berries their 
 dainties, hunger their sauce, their nails their knives, their 
 hands their cups, the next well their wine-cellar. But 
 what their bill-of-fare wanted in cheer, it had in grace ; 
 their life being constantly spent in prayer, reading, 
 musing, and such like pious employments. They turned 
 solitariness itself into society ; and, cleaving themselves 
 asunder by the divine art of meditation, did make, of 
 one, two or more opposing, answering, moderating in 
 their own bosoms, and busy in themselves with variety 
 of heavenly recreations. It would do one good even but 
 to think of their goodness, and at the re-bound and 
 second-hand to meditate on their meditations. For if 
 ever poverty was to be envied, it was here. And I 
 appeal to the moderate men of these times, whether in 
 the height of these woful wars, they have not sometimes 
 wished, (not out of passionate distemper, but serious 
 recollection of themselves,) some such private place to 
 retire unto, where, out of the noise of this clamorous 
 world, they might have reposed themselves, and served 
 God with more quiet. ca. Hist. b. vi. s. i. .. 
 
 Monstrous 
 
Ouaint £:oun0ef0 
 
 175 
 
 Monstrous Opinions 
 
 It is the happiness nature indulgeth to monsters, that 
 they are all barren ; whereas, on the contrary, monstrous 
 positions are most procreative of the like, or worse than 
 themselves. id. b. x. s. iv. s. 
 
 Mount Edgecumbe 
 
 I WRITE not this to tempt the reader to the breach of 
 the tenth commandment, 'to covet his neighbour's 
 house ; ' and one line in the prevention thereof. I have 
 been credibly informed that the duke of Medina Sidonia, 
 admiral of the Spanish fleet in the year eighty-eight, was 
 so affected at the sight of this house (though but 
 beholding it at a distance, from the sea) that he resolved 
 it for his own possession in the partage of this kingdom 
 (blame him not if choosing best for himself), which they 
 pre-conquered in their hopes and expectation. But he 
 had catched a great cold, had he had no other clothes 
 to wear than those which were to be made of a skin of a 
 
 bear not yet killed. Worthies: Comwall. Buildings. 
 
 Mulberry Trees 
 
 Mulberry trees (pardon a digression) were plentiful 
 in Palestine. A tree which may pass for the emblem of 
 prudence, slow in consultation, swift in execution, for it 
 putteth forth its leaves the last of all trees, but then (as 
 it is said) all in one night, as if, sensible of and ashamed 
 for its former neglect, she endeavours to overtake other 
 trees with her double diligence. Men feed on the fruit, 
 
 silkworms 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
176 
 
 (S)i0e (H)otr60 att6 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 silkworms on the leaves thereof ; creatures contemptible 
 in themselves, admirable in their qualities, appearing 
 Proteus-like in sundry shapes in the same year, eggs, 
 worms, flies, finishing for the most part yearly their life 
 and work together. But we leave these mysteries to be 
 discussed by naturalists, and will only add, that if the 
 original of silk were well considered, gallants had small 
 cause to be proud of gay clothes, for from worms it 
 came, and to worms shall the wearers thereof return. 
 
 Pisgak Sights B. ii. C. xiv. 23. 
 
 Music 
 
 Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilised into 
 time and tune. Such the extensiveness thereof, that it 
 stoopeth as low as brute beasts, yet mounteth as high 
 as angels : for horses will do more for a whistle than for 
 a whip ; and, by hearing their bells, gingle away their 
 weariness. . . . 
 
 I confess there is a company of pretenders to music, 
 who are commonly called crowders, and that justly too, 
 because they crowd into the company of gentlemen both 
 unsent for, and unwelcome ; but these are no more a 
 disgrace to the true professors of that faculty, than 
 monkeys are a disparagement to mankind. . . . 
 
 Right glad I am, that when music was lately shut out 
 of our churches, on what default of hers I dare not to 
 inquire, it hath since been harboured and welcomed in 
 the halls, parlours, and chambers, of the primest persons 
 of this nation. Sure I am, it could not enter into my 
 head, to surmise that music would have been so much 
 discouraged by such who turned our kingdom into a 
 
 Commonwealth, 
 
Ouain^ £otttt0ef0 
 
 177 
 
 Commonwealth, seeing they prided themselves in the 
 arms thereof, an impaled harp being moiety of the same. 
 When it was asked, ' what made a good musician ? ' one 
 answered, a good voice ; another, that it was skill. But 
 he said the truth, who said, it was encouragement. It 
 was therefore my constant wish, that seeing most of our 
 musicians were men of maturity, and arrived at their full 
 age and skill, before these distracted times began, and 
 seeing what the historian wrote in another sense is true 
 here in our acceptation and application thereof, 'Res est 
 unius seculi populus virorum ; ' I say, I did constantly 
 wish, that there might have been some seminary of youth 
 set up, to be bred in the faculty of music, to supply 
 succession, when this set of masters in that science had 
 served their generation. 
 
 Yet although I missed of what I did then desire ; yet, 
 thanks be to God, I have lived to see music come into 
 request, since our nation came into right tune, and begin 
 to flourish in our churches and elsewhere ; so that now 
 no fear but we shall have a new generation skilful in that 
 science, to succeed such whose age shall call upon them 
 to pay their debt to nature. Worthies, c. x. 
 
 Expect not here from me a panegyric in praise of 
 music (either in itself, or reference to God's service), 
 though in Scripture appearing instrumental to qualify 
 evil (i Sam. xvi. 23), and invite good spirits (2 Kings 
 iii. 15), heighten devotion both in men and angels; 
 seeing charity and melody, loving and singing, is almost 
 all we find expressed of celestial happiness. Nor can 
 
 N any 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
178 
 
 (Wiee (^ovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 any truly tax music, as the children their mates in 
 the market place — 'We have piped, and ye have not 
 danced ; we have mourned, and ye have not lamented ' 
 (Mat. xi. 17); seeing such the sociableness of Music, 
 it conforms itself to all companies, both in mirth and 
 mourning, complying to improve that passion with which 
 it finds the auditors most affected. In a word, it is an 
 invention which might have beseemed a son of Seth to 
 have been the father thereof; though better it was that 
 Cain's great-grandchild should have the credit first to 
 find it, than the world the unhappiness longer to have 
 wanted it. pisg-ak sight, b. iu. c. ii. s. x. 2. 
 
 Music is sweetest near or over rivers, where the echo 
 thereof is best rebounded by the water. Praise for 
 pensiveness, thanks for tears, and blessing God over the 
 floods of affliction, makes the most melodious music in 
 the ear of Heaven. 
 
 Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience, ad Jin. 
 
 Mysteries 
 
 How quickly are mysteries made blasphemies when 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. ix. 
 
 unskilful hands meddle with them ! 
 
 Nails 
 
 These are the accommodators generally to unite solid 
 bodies, and to make them to be continuous : yea, coin 
 of gold and silver may be better spared in a common- 
 wealth than nails ; for commerce may be managed 
 
 without 
 
Ouaitt^ Cotttt0ef0 
 
 179 
 
 without money by exchange of commodities, whereas 
 hard bodies cannot be joined together so fast, and fast 
 so soon and soundly, without the mediation of nails. 
 
 Such their service for firmness and expedition, that 
 iron nails will fasten more in an hour than wooden pins 
 in a day, because the latter must have their way made, 
 whilst the former make way for themselves. 
 
 Worthies: Stafford. Manufactures. 
 
 Names 
 
 If it should chance, through the indiscretion of parents 
 and god-fathers, that a bad name should be imposed on 
 any, O let not ' folly ' be ' with ' them, because Nabal is 
 their name ; but in such a case let them strive to falsify, 
 disprove, and confute their names. Otherwise, if they 
 be good, they must answer them. 
 
 In the days of Queen Elizabeth, there was a royal 
 ship called ' The Revenge,' which, having maintained a 
 long fight against a fleet of Spaniards, (wherein eight 
 hundred great shot were discharged against her,) was at 
 last fain to yield : but no sooner were her men gone out 
 of her, and two hundred fresh Spaniards come into her, 
 but she suddenly sunk them and herself ; and so ' The 
 Revenge ' was revenged. Ruth, \. 20. 
 
 Natvire Puzzles 
 
 The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the 
 
 weakness of God is stronger than men : so the dis- 
 
 portings of the God of nature are more grave than the 
 
 most serious employment of men : for such riddles are 
 
 N 2 propounded 
 
 Thomas 
 ruUer 
 
i8o 
 
 (S)i0e ^01:60 <xnb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 propounded on purpose to pose those profound shallow 
 Rabbis, counting themselves of the cabinet, when they 
 are scarcely of the common council, of Nature; so 
 unable to read such riddles, that they cannot put the 
 letters thereof together with any probability. 
 
 IVorthies : Gloucester. Wonders. 
 
 The Royal Navy 
 
 Queen Elizabeth erected a navy royal (continued 
 and increased by her successors) of the best ships 
 Europe ever beheld. Indeed much is in the matter, 
 the excellency of our English oak ; more in the making, 
 the cunning of our shipwrights ; most in the manning, the 
 courage of our seamen ; and yet all to God's blessing, 
 who so often hath crowned them with success. . . . 
 
 I am credibly informed, that that mystery of ship- 
 wrights, for some descents, hath been preserved suc- 
 cessively in families, of whom the Petts about Chatham 
 are of singular regard. 'Good success have they with 
 their skill ; ' and carefully keep so precious a pearl, lest 
 otherwise amongst many friends some foes attain unto it ! 
 It is no monopoly which concealeth that from common 
 enemies, the concealing whereof is for the common good. 
 May this mystery of ship-making in England never be 
 lost, till this floating world be arrived at its own haven, 
 the end and dissolution thereof! . . . 
 
 I confine this (the strength) only to the timber whereof 
 they are made, our English oak being the best in the 
 world. True it is (to our shame and sorrow be it written 
 and read) the Dutch of late have built them some 
 ships of English oak, which (through the negligence or 
 
 covetousness 
 
Ouain( Cottn0ef0 
 
 i8i 
 
 covetousness of some great ones) was bought here and 
 transported hence. But the best is, that, as Bishop 
 Latimer once said to one who had preached his sermon, 
 that he had gotten his fiddlestick but not his rosin, so 
 the Hollanders with our timber did not buy also our art 
 of ship-building. . . . 
 
 Being to take our leave of these our wooden walls; 
 first, I wish that they may conquer with their mast and 
 sails, without their guns ; that their very appearance may 
 fright their foes into submission. 
 
 But if, in point of honour or safety, they be necessitated 
 to engage, may they always keep the wind of the enemy, 
 that their shot may fly with the greater force, and that 
 the smoke of their powder, pursuing the foe, may drive 
 him to fire at hazard ! May their gunner be in all places 
 of the ship, to see where he can make a shot with the 
 best advantage ; their carpenter and his crew be always 
 in the hold, presently to drive in a wooden plug (whereas 
 a shot comes betwixt wind and water), and to clap a 
 board with tar and camel's hair upon it till the dispute 
 be over; their chirurgeon and his assistants be in the 
 same place (out of danger of shot) to dress the wounded ; 
 their captain be in the uppermost, the lieutenant in 
 every part of the ship, to encourage the seamen : the 
 chaplain at his devotions, to importune heaven for 
 success, and encouraging all by his good counsel, if time 
 
 will permit ! Worthies : Kent. Navy Royal. 
 
 Needles 
 
 The use hereof is right ancient, though sewing was 
 before needles ; for we read that our first parents made 
 
 themselves 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
I»2 
 
 ^(ee (^or50 cinb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 themselves aprons by sewing fig-leaves together, either 
 fastening them with some glutinous matter, or with some 
 sharp thing joining them together. 
 
 A pin is a blind needle, a needle a pin with an eye. 
 What nails do in solid, needles do in supple bodies, 
 putting them together; only they remain not there 
 formally, but virtually, in the thread which they leave 
 behind them. It is the woman's pencil ; and embroidery 
 vesits acu picta is the master-piece thereof. I say em- 
 broidery, much used in former, neglected in our age, 
 wherein modern gallants (affecting variety of suits) desire 
 that their clothes should be known by them, and not, as 
 our ancestors, they by their clothes, one suit of state 
 serving them for several solemnities. 
 
 This industrious instrument, needle, quasi ne idle (as 
 some will have it), maintaineth many millions. Yea, he 
 who desireth a blessing on the plough and the needle 
 (including that in the card and compass) comprehendeth 
 most employments at home and abroad, by land and 
 by sea. 
 
 All I will add is this : that the first fine Spanish 
 needles in England were made in the reign of queen 
 Mary, in Cheapside, by a negro ; but such his envy, that 
 he would teach his art to none ; so that it died with 
 him. More charitable was Elias Crowse, a German, who, 
 coming over into England about the eighth of queen 
 Elizabeth, first taught us the making of Spanish needles ; 
 and since we have taught ourselves the using of them. 
 
 Worthies : London. Manu/aciures. 
 
 Negroes 
 
Ouattt^ Couneefe 
 
 183 
 
 Negroes 
 
 Our captain counts the image of God, nevertheless, 
 his image cut in ebony as if done in ivory ; and in the 
 blackest Moors he sees the representation of the King of 
 heaven. ^^^^ ^^^^^_ 3 ii ^ ^^^ ^ 
 
 Neutrality 
 
 Just it is with God, that they should be strained in 
 the twist, who stride so wide as to set their legs in two 
 opposite sides. Indeed, an upright shoe may fit both 
 feet, but never saw I a glove that would serve both hands. 
 Neutrality in matters of an indifferent nature may fit well ; 
 but never suits well in important matters, of far different 
 conditions. /^. b. iv. c. v. 14. 
 
 The Conception of Nonconformity 
 
 Come we now to the saddest difference that ever 
 happened in the church of England, if we consider either 
 the time, how long it continued, the eminent persons 
 therein engaged, or the doleful effects thereby produced. 
 It was about matters of conformity. Alas ! that men 
 should have less wisdom than locusts ; which, when sent 
 on God's errand, did ' not thrust one another,' whereas 
 here such shoving and shouldering, and hoisting and 
 heavings, and jostling and thronging, betwixt clergymen 
 of the highest parts and places. For now nonconformity 
 in the days of king Edward was conceived; which 
 afterward, in the reign of queen Mary, (but beyond sea 
 at Frankfort,) was born; which in the reign of queen 
 Elizabeth was nursed and weaned ; which, under king 
 
 James, 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
1 84 
 
 ^{0e (H)otr50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 James, grew up a young youth, or tall stripling ; but, 
 towards the end of king Charles's reign, shot up to the 
 full strength and stature of a man, able, not only to cope 
 with, but conquer, the hierarchy, its adversary. 
 
 C4. ff:s/. B. vii. S. i. 23. 
 
 Three Sorts of Nonconformists 
 
 We must not forget, that this earnest contest was not 
 about the calling, but clothes — not the vocation, but 
 only about the vestments — of bishops. Whereupon the 
 judicious reader will distinguish three ranks (or, if the 
 word be better liked, three classes) of nonconformists, 
 according to their several dates and designs : — 
 
 1. Ancient nonconformists, here in king Edward's 
 days, who desired only to shake down the leaves of 
 episcopacy, misliking only some garments about them. 
 
 2. Middle nonconformists, in the end of queen 
 Elizabeth and beginning of king James, who struck at 
 the branches thereof, — chancellors and officials, and 
 other appendant limbs, which they endeavoured to 
 remove. 
 
 3. Modern nonconformists, who did lay 'the axe to 
 the root of the tree,' to cut down the function itself, as 
 unlawful and anti-christian. 
 
 Thus after-ages still made new additions, as if it would 
 be accounted idleness in them, if the strong and active 
 legs of the sons and nephews should not go faster and 
 farther, than the old and feeble feet of their fathers and 
 grandfathers. z^. b. vii. s. i. 30. 
 
 Numeration 
 
Ouatn^ £^outt0ef0 
 
 185 
 
 Numeration 
 
 And indeed number cannot create a new kind; so that 
 many trespasses cannot make a riot, many riots one 
 treason, no more than many frogs can make one toad. 
 
 Worthies .• Lotid. Writers, 
 
 Nunneries 
 
 Nunneries were good she-schools, wherein the girls 
 and maids of the neighbourhood were taught to read and 
 work ; and sometimes a little Latin was taught them 
 therein. Yea, give me leave to say, if such feminine 
 foundations had still continued, provided no vow were 
 obtruded upon them, (virginity is least kept where it is 
 most constrained,) haply the weaker sex (beside the 
 avoiding modern inconveniences) might be heightened 
 to a higher perfection than hitherto hath been attained. 
 The sharpness of their wits, and suddenness of their 
 conceits, which their enemies must allow unto them, 
 might by education be improved into a judicious solidity, 
 and that adorned with arts, which now they want, not 
 because they cannot learn, but are not taught them. I 
 say, if such feminine foundations were extant now-of- 
 days, haply some virgins of highest birth would be glad 
 of such places; and, I am sure, their fathers and elder 
 brothers would not be sorry for the same. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. vi. Abbeys, S. ii. 
 
 Oak 
 
 England hath the best in the world, not for fineness, 
 but firmness. Indeed outlandish oaks have a smaller 
 
 grain. 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
i86 
 
 (H)i0e ^or60 cinb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 grain, and therefore fitter for wainscot ; and whilst they 
 make the best Hnings, our English oak is the substantial 
 outside. 
 
 The best in England is in Dean Forest in this county, 
 and most serviceable for shipping ; so tough that, when 
 it is dry, it is said to be as hard as iron. I have read, 
 that, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, the Spaniard sent 
 an ambassador over purposely to get this wood destroyed 
 (by private practices and cunning contrivances) : who, 
 had he effected his embassy, deserved a good reward at 
 his return. It is suspicious, if not timely prevented, 
 carelessness and waste will gratify the Spaniard with 
 what then he could not accomplish. 
 
 IVorthies: Gloucester, Natural Commodities. 
 
 Oaks diminishing 
 
 One asked, when beech would make the best timber ? 
 meaning what season of the year was best to cut it down 
 for that purpose. It was answered, 'that beech would 
 make the best timber when no oak was to be had ; ' 
 a time, I assure you, which daily approacheth in our 
 
 lane Worthies : Bucks. Natural Comuwdities. 
 
 The Oak and the Acorn 
 
 Many see the oak when grown, (especially if a standard 
 of remark), whilst few, if any, remember the acorn when 
 
 it was set. worthies.- C. xxi. 
 
 Omens of Death 
 
 It is reported by credible and believed by discreet 
 persons, that there is a pool adjoining to Brereton, the 
 seat of the honourable family of the Breretons, wherein 
 
 bodies 
 
Ouainf toxintfde 
 
 187 
 
 bodies of trees are seen to swim for certain days together 
 before the death of any heir of that house. If so, let not 
 all men look for so solemn summons to pay their debts to 
 Nature. God grant us that grey hairs, dimness of sight, 
 dulness of other senses, decay in general of strength, 
 death of our dearest relations (especially when far younger 
 than ourselves) before our eyes, &c. may serve us (instead 
 of swimming logs), and be sanctified unto us, for sufficient 
 and eifectual monitors of our mortality ! 
 
 iVorthies : Cheshire. Wonders. 
 
 Non omnia possumus omnes 
 
 Now, many and fierce the conflicts of Friars against 
 Mr. Latimer, especially after he had preached at St. 
 Edward's the Sunday before Christmas, on the question 
 of the priests to the Baptist, (parcel of the Gospel 
 appointed for the day), John i. 19, Tu quis es? 'Who 
 art thou ? ' It seems, he suited his sermon rather to the 
 time than the text, thereby taking occasion to conform 
 his discourse to the playing at cards, making the Heart 
 triumph, and exhorting all to serve God in sincerity and 
 truth, not in the glistering show of men's ceremonies, 
 traditions, pardons, pilgrimages, vows, devotions, &c. 
 Now, show me not the sermon, but show me the souls 
 converted thereby. This blunt preaching was in those 
 dark days admirably effectual, which would justly be 
 ridiculous in our age. I remember in my time a country- 
 minister preached at St. Mary's ; his text, Rom. xii. 3, 
 ' As God hath dealt to every man a measure of faith.' 
 In a fond imitation of Latimer's card-sermon, he pro- 
 secuted the metaphor oi dealing, that men should //aj' 
 
 above-board, 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
1 88 
 
 (H)i0e (H)ot:50 Anb 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
 above-board, that is, avoid all dissembling, not pocket 
 cards, but improve their gifts and graces, follow suit, 
 wear the surplice, and conform in ceremonies, &c. All 
 produced nothing but laughter in the audience. Thus the 
 same actions are, by several persons and times, made not 
 the same actions, yea, differenced from commendable dis- 
 cretion to ridiculous absurdity. And thus he will make but 
 bad music, who hath the instrument and fiddlestick, but 
 none of the rosin, of Mr. Latimer. Hht. Camb. s. vi. 38. 
 
 Changing Opinions 
 
 Some think it beneath a wise man to alter their 
 opinion : a maxim both false and dangerous. We know 
 what worthy Father wrote his own ' Retractation ' ; and 
 it matters not though we go back from our word, so we 
 go forward in the truth and a sound judgment. 
 
 Holy State, B. iv. C. v. 4. 
 
 Ordeal by Fire 
 
 Emma, king Edward's mother, being suspected too 
 familiar with Alwin bishop of Winchester, under the 
 colour of devotion, put herself to be tried by ordeal; 
 whereof this the manner : Nine plough-shares, glowing 
 hot, were laid on the ground, one foot distant from 
 another ; the party suspected was to be brought blind- 
 folded, and bare-footed to pass over them. If he chanced 
 to step in the intervals, or on the hot iron unhurt, he 
 was pronounced ' innocent,' otherwise condemned for an 
 offender. An unjust law, wherein the triers had no 
 precept, the tried no promise. Must innocence be 
 ruined as often as malice would wrong it, if miracle would 
 
 not 
 
<3tt<xitt( £;otttt0ef0 
 
 189 
 
 not rescue it ? This was not a way to try man, but tempt 
 God : as just a trying by fire, as that of our modern witches 
 by water. This trial queen Emma admirably underwent, 
 not sensible of the plough-shares till past them, saying to 
 such as led her, ' O, when shall I come to the place of 
 my purgation ? ' c*. Hist. b. ii. s. vi. 14. 
 
 Outside Appearance 
 
 Some people, handsome by nature, have wilfully de- 
 formed themselves. — Such as wear Bacchus's colours 
 in their faces, arising not from having — but being — bad 
 livers. Should God survey the faces of many men and 
 women, he would not own and acknowledge them for 
 those whom he created : many are so altered in colour, 
 and some in sex, women to men and men to women 
 in their monstrous fashions ; so that they who behold 
 them cannot, by the evidence of their apparel, give up 
 their verdict of what sex they are. It is most safe to call 
 the users of these hermaphroditical fashions, ' Francisses ' 
 and ' Philips,' names agreeing to both sexes. 
 
 Holy State, B. iii. C. xv. 4. 
 
 That the sable faces of blackamoors come not from 
 the sun, but some other secret cause plainly appears, 
 because ebony and ivory, I mean black and fair faces, are 
 found in parallel climates. pugah sight, ad fin. 
 
 Oxford and Cambridge 
 
 My prayers shall be, that each university may turn all 
 envy into generous, yea, gracious, yea, glorious emulation ; 
 
 contending 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
igo 
 
 ^iee (^ovbe anh 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 contending by laudable means, which shall surpass other 
 in their serviceableness to God, the church, and common- 
 wealth ; that so, commencing in piety, and proceeding in 
 learning, they may agree against their two general ad- 
 versaries, ignorance and profaneness. May it never 
 be said of them, what Naomi said of herself, that she 
 was too old to bear sons ! May they never be super- 
 annuated into barrenness, but, like the good trees in 
 God's garden, ' they shall still bring forth in their old 
 age, they shall be fat and flourishing.' qh. Hist. b. ii. 59. 
 
 Oxford: the Colleges 
 
 Of the colleges, University is the oldest, Pembroke the 
 youngest, Christ Church the greatest, Lincoln (by many 
 reputed) the least, Magdalen the neatest, Wadham the 
 most uniform, New College the strongest, and Jesus 
 College (no fault but its unhappiness) the poorest ; and 
 if I knew which was the richest, T would not tell, seeing 
 concealment in this kind is the safest. New College 
 is most proper for southern, Exeter for western. Queen's 
 for northern, Brasen-nose for north-western men, St. 
 John's for Londoners, Jesus for Welshmen ; and at other 
 colleges almost indifferently for men of all countries. 
 Merton hath been most famous for schoolmen. Corpus 
 Christi (formerly called Trilingue Collegium) for linguists, 
 Christ Church for poets. All-souls for orators. New 
 College for civilians, Brasen-nose for disputants, Queen's 
 College for metaphysicians, Exeter for a late series of 
 Regius professors; Magdalen for ancient, St. John's 
 for modern, prelates ; and all eminent in some one kind 
 or other. And if any of these colleges were transported 
 
 into 
 
Ouainf Coutt0ef6 
 
 191 
 
 into foreign parts, it would alter its kind (or degree at 
 least) and presently of a college proceed an university, 
 as equal to most, and superior to many, academies beyond 
 
 the seas. worthies: Oxfordshire. Buildings. 
 
 The Good Parent 
 
 He showeth them, in his own practice, what to follow 
 and imitate ; and, in others, what to shun and avoid. — 
 For though ' the words of the wise be as nails fastened 
 by the masters of the assemblies,' (Eccles. xii. 11,) yet, 
 sure, their examples are the hammer to drive them in, 
 to take the deeper hold. A father that whipped his 
 son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he whipped 
 him, did more harm by his example than good by his 
 correction, . . . 
 
 He doth not give away his loaf to his children, and 
 then come to them for a piece of bread. — He holds the 
 reins (though loosely) in his own hands ; and keeps, 
 to reward duty, and punish undutifulness. Yet, on 
 good occasion, for his children's advancement, he will 
 depart from part of his means. Base is their nature who 
 ■will not have their branches lopped, till their body be 
 felled; and will let go none of their goods, as if it 
 presaged their speedy death : whereas it doth not follow, 
 that he that puts off his cloak must presently go to 
 
 bed. Holy state, B. i. C. v. i, 8. 
 
 Passions 
 
 Passions, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once 
 in motion move themselves, and know no ground but 
 
 the bottom. Holy War, B. i. C. xvii. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
192 
 
 (H)i0e (K)otrd0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 The Pastorells 
 
 An Hungarian peasant, who is said to have been an 
 apostate to Mahomet and well learned, gathered together 
 many thousands of people, pretending they had in- 
 telligence from heaven to march to the Holy Land. 
 These took on them the name and habit oi Fastorelli, 
 poor shepherds ; in imitation belike (as the devil is 
 God's ape) of those in the gospel, who were warned 
 by angels in a vision to go to Bethlehem. 
 
 Being to shape their course into Palestine, they went 
 into France ; showing they had a vertigo in their heads, 
 mistaking the west for the east; or else, that like vagabonds 
 they were never out of their way. 
 
 The holy Lamb was their ensign, but their actions 
 neither holy nor lamb-like. They pillaged and killed 
 the poor Jews as they went (an unhappy nation, whose 
 heads lie pat for every one's hands to hit, and their 
 legs so stand in men's way that few can go by them 
 without spurning at them) ; where they wanted Jews, 
 they made Jews of Christians, especially if they were 
 rich, using them with all cruelty. But at last near 
 Bourdeaux threescore thousand of them were slain, and 
 the rest dispersed. A rhymer of that age (or in courtesy 
 call him a poet) made this epitaph on them : — 
 
 M semel, et bis C, L, I, conjungere disce ; 
 Duxit pastorum sava Megtsra chorum. 
 
 Learn to put together well, 
 What M, C, C, L, I, do spell; 
 When some devilish fiend in France 
 Did teach the shepherds how to dance. 
 
 Holy War, B. iv. C. xxi. 
 
 Peace 
 
Ouain^ £^oun0ef0 
 
 193 
 
 Peace and War 
 
 Generally those who are best with their fingers are 
 worst with their arms. Holy War, b. u. c. xii. 
 
 Pins 
 
 A PIN passeth for that which is next to nothing, or 
 (if you will) is the terminus a quo from which something 
 doth begin, and proceed from a pin to a pound, &c. 
 However it is considerable both as hurtful and useful; 
 hurtful, if advantageously placed it inay prove as mortal 
 as a poignard, the life of the greatest man lying at the 
 mercy of the meanest thing ; useful, not only to fasten 
 our ornaments, but fill up the chinks betwixt our 
 clothes, lest wind and weather should shoot through them. 
 
 Many and very good of these are made in this county ; 
 a commodity not to be slighted, since the very dust that 
 falls from them is found profitable. We commonly say 
 that it is not beneath a proper person to stoop to take 
 up a pin, until he be worth ten thousand pounds, 
 according to the thrifty rule in Latin, Qui negligit minima 
 nunquam ditescet. Such who admire that so many miUions 
 of pins, made, sold, used, and lost in England, should 
 vanish away invisible, may rather wonder how so many 
 that wear them (being no more than pins in the hands of 
 their Maker) do decay, die, and slip down in the dust, in 
 
 silence and obscurity. WorthUs: Yorks. Manufactures. 
 
 Point of View 
 
 A mother-in-law's sermon seldom takes well with an 
 audience of daughter-in-laws. ... No razor will cut a 
 
 stony heart. ""^ ^^"t'' ^- ^- ^- "• 
 
 o Extemporary 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
194 
 
 (P?{0e (SOovbe anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Extemporary Prayers 
 
 In extemporary prayer, what men most admire God 
 least regardeth. Namely, the volubility of the tongue. 
 Herein a Tertullus may equal, yea exceed, Saint Paul 
 himself, whose speech was but mean. O, it is the heart 
 keeping time and tune with the voice which God listeneth 
 unto. Otherwise the nimblest tongue tires, and loudest 
 voice grows dumb before it comes half way to heaven. 
 Make it, said God to Moses, in all things like the pattern 
 in the mount. Only the conformity of the words with 
 the mind, mounted up in heavenly thoughts, is acceptable 
 to God. The gift of extemporary prayer, ready utterance, 
 may be bestowed on a reprobate, but the grace thereof 
 (religious affections) is only given to God's servants. 
 
 Good Thoughts in Worse Times: Prayer^, 7. 
 
 Preferment 
 
 ' But neither the best, nor the most painful and learned, 
 get the best preferment. Sometimes men bf the least — 
 get livings of the best — worth ; yea, such as are not 
 worthy to be the curates to their curates, and crassa 
 ingenia go away with opima sacerdotia.' 
 
 Thus it ever was, and will be. But is this dust only 
 to be found in churches, and not in civil courts? Is 
 merit every where else made the exact square of pre- 
 ferment ? Or did ever any urge, that all offices should 
 be made champaign for their profits, none higher than 
 other? Such corruptions will ever be in the church, 
 except there were a law, (ridiculous to be made, and 
 impossible to be kept!) that men should be no-men; 
 
 but 
 
Quaint tovinette 
 
 195 
 
 but that all patrons or people, in their election or 
 presentations of ministers, should wholly divest them- 
 selves of by-respects of kindred, friendship, profit, 
 affection, and merely choose for desert : and then 
 should we have all things so well-ordered, such pastors 
 and such people, the church in a manner would be 
 triumphant whilst mihtant. Till then, though the best 
 livings light not always on the ablest men, yet, as 
 long as there be such preferments in the church, 
 there are still encouragements for men to endeavour 
 to excel ; all hoping, and some happening, on ad- 
 vancement. Holy state, B. iii. C. xxv. 8. 
 
 Prejudice 
 Those enterprises need a strong hand, which are 
 thrown against the bias of people's hearts and con- 
 sciences, •'''• ^- '"• '-■ ""'• 
 
 Presentation Copies 
 To conclude, should I present all with books, who 
 courteously have conduced to my instruction, the whole 
 impression would not suffice. But I remember the 
 no less civil than politic invitation of Judah to the tribe 
 of Simeon, ' Come up with me into my lot [to conquer 
 the Canaanites], and I likewise will go with thee into 
 thy lot.' If such who have lent me theirs, shall have 
 occasion to borrow mine assistance, my pains, brains, 
 and books, are no more mine than theirs to command ; 
 which, besides my prayers for them, and thanks to them, 
 is all my ability in requital can perform. 
 
 JVorthies. C. xxiii. 
 
 o 2 Different 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
196 
 
 (^ise (ps)otr60 att6 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Different Prices 
 
 Now we must know, there be four several prices of 
 vendible things : First, the price of the market, which 
 ebbs and flows according to the plenty or scarcity of 
 coin, commodities, and chapmen. Secondly, the price 
 of friendship ; which, perchance, is more giving than 
 selling, and therefore not so proper at this time. 
 Thirdly, the price of fancy ; as twenty pounds, or 
 more, for a dog or hawk, when no such inherent 
 worth can naturally be in them, but by the buyer's 
 and seller's fancy reflecting on them. Yet, I believe, 
 the money may be lawfully taken : First, because the 
 seller sometimes, on those terms, is as loath to forego 
 it, as the buyer is willing to have it. And I know 
 no standard herein, whereby men's affections may be 
 measured. Secondly, it being a matter of pleasure, 
 and men able and willing, let them pay for it : Volenti 
 non fit injuria. Lastly, there is the price of cozen- 
 age ; which our merchant from his heart detests and 
 
 abhors. Holy state, B. ii. C. xvii. 4. ' 
 
 Pride 
 
 Pride is the greatest enemy to moderation. — This 
 makes men stickle for their opinions, to make them 
 fundamental. Proud men, having deeply studied some 
 additional point in divinity, will strive to make the 
 same necessary to salvation, to enhance the value of 
 their own worth and pains ; and it must be fundamental 
 in religion, because it is fundamental to their reputation. 
 Yea, as love doth descend, and men doat most on their 
 
 grandchildren ; 
 
Quaint Couneefe 
 
 197 
 
 grandchildren ; so these are indulgent to the deductions 
 of their deductions and consequential inferences to the 
 seventh generation, making them all of the foundation, 
 though scarce of the building, of religion. Ancient 
 Fathers made 'the Creed,' Symbolum, the shot and 
 total sum of faith. Since which, how many arrearages 
 and after-reckonings have men brought us in ? To 
 which if we will not pay our belief, our souls must 
 be arrested, without bail, upon pain of damnation. 
 Next to pride, popular applause is the greatest foe 
 moderation hath; and, sure, they who sail with that 
 wind have their own vain-glory for their haven. 
 
 Id. B. iii. C. XX. 6. 
 
 The Profit lies in the using 
 
 These abbey-lands, though skittish mares to some, 
 have given good milk to others : which is produced as 
 an argument, that if they prove unsuccessful to any, 
 it is the user's default, no inherency of a curse in the 
 things themselves. But let one keep an exact register of 
 lands, and mark their motions, how they ebb and flow 
 betwixt buyers and sellers, and surely he will say with 
 the poet, OuSfnoy oKKh. Tvxr)s- And this is most sure ; 
 let land be held in ever so good a tenure, it will never be 
 held by an unthrift. Holy War, b. v. c. 7. 
 
 Propagandism 
 
 The necessity of propagating the truth is error's plea 
 to divulge her falsehoods. Men, as naturally they desire 
 to know, so they desire what they know should be 
 
 known. /fo6' state, B. V. C. 107. 
 
 Bristol 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
198 
 
 (H)i6e (^otbe anb 
 
 Bristol Proverb 
 
 ' Bristol Milk ' 
 
 Though as many elephants are fed as cows grazed 
 within the walls of this city, yet great plenty of this meta- 
 phorical milk, whereby xeres or sherry sack is intended. 
 Some will have it called milk, because (whereas nurses 
 give new-born babes in some places pap, in others water 
 and sugar) such wine is the first moisture given infants 
 in this city. It is also the entertainment of course, 
 which the courteous Bristolians present to all strangers, 
 
 when first visiting their city. Worthies: Bristol. Proverbs. 
 
 An Italian Proverb 
 
 It is confessed that Wales affordeth plenty of barren 
 places ; (yielding the benefit of the best air) ; but the 
 Italian humour of building hath not affected, not to say 
 infected, the British nation — I say the Italian humour, 
 who have a merry proverb, ' Let him that would be 
 happy for a day, go to the barber ; for a week, marry a 
 wife; for a month, buy him a new horse; for a year, 
 build him a new house; for all his life time, be an 
 honest-man.' But it seems that the Welsh are not 
 tempted to enjoy such short happiness for a year's 
 
 continuance. 
 
 Id. : Wales. Buildings. 
 
 A Welsh Proverb 
 
 ' Give your Horse a Welsh Bait ' 
 It seems it is the custom of the Welsh travellers, 
 when they have climbed up a hill (whereof plenty in these 
 
 parts), 
 
OttAtttf Connede 
 
 199 
 
 parts), to rein their horses backward, and stand still a 
 while, taking a prospect (or respect rather) of the country 
 they have passed. This they call a bait ; and, though a 
 peck of oats would do the palfrey more good, such a stop 
 doth (though not feed) refresh. Others call this a 
 Scottish bait; and I believe the horses of both moun- 
 tainous countries eat the same provender, out of the 
 same manger, on the same occasion. 
 
 Id.: Wales. Proverbs. 
 
 Punishments of God 
 
 God's punishments though they last sometimes long, 
 yet always they end at last : and yet sometimes for the 
 manifestations of his power, and trial of his children's 
 patience, he suffers them to be brought into great 
 extremities : Abraham's hand shall be heaved up to slay 
 Isaac, before the Angel shall catch hold of it : Lazarus 
 shall be three days dead, before Christ will raise him : 
 the ship ready to sink before our Saviour will awake: 
 Peter must be drencht in the water before our Saviour 
 will keep him from drowning : St. Paul must be in the 
 Hon's mouth, before he shall be delivered out of it : the 
 famine must last ten years, before God will give them 
 
 bread. Call. Serm. Comment. Ruth, i. 6. 
 
 Puritan 
 
 We must not forget, that Spalato (I am confident I 
 am not mistaken therein) was the first, who, professing 
 himself a protestant, used the word ' Puritan,' to signify 
 the defenders of matters doctrinal in the English church. 
 Formerly the word was only taken to denote such as 
 
 dissented 
 
 Thomat 
 FuUer 
 
200 
 
 ^t0e (^otbe Anb 
 
 dissented from the hierarchy in discipline and church- 
 government ; which now was extended to brand such as 
 were Anti-Arminians in their judgments. As Spalato 
 first abused the word in this sense, so we could wish he 
 had carried it away with him in his return to Rome. 
 Whereas, now leaving the word behind him in this 
 extensive signification thereof, it hath since by others 
 been improved to asperse the most orthodox in doctrine, 
 and religious in conversation. ca. Hht. b. x. s. 6. 19. 
 
 The Pyramids 
 
 The pyramids themselves, doting with age, have 
 forgotten the names of their founders. 
 
 Holy State, B. iii. C. xiv. 6. 
 
 Qualificatives and Blanks left in this History 
 
 I APPROVE the plain country by-word, as containing 
 much innocent simplicity therein : 
 
 ' Almost and very nigh, 
 Have saved many a lie.' 
 
 So have the Latins \h€\r propi, ferl, juxta, drciter, plus, 
 minus, used in matters of fact by the most authentic 
 historians. Yea, we may observe, that the spirit of truth 
 itself, where numbers and measures are concerned, in 
 times, places, and persons, useth the aforesaid modifi- 
 catives, save in such cases where some mystery contained 
 in the number requireth a particular specification thereof. 
 
 None, therefore, can justly find fault with me, if on 
 the nice occasion I have secured myself with the same 
 qualificatives. Indeed such historians who grind their 
 
 intelligence 
 
Ouciin^ CouneePe 
 
 20I 
 
 intelligence to the powder of fraction, pretending to 
 cleave the pin, do sometimes miss the butt. Thus one 
 reporteth how in the persecution under Dioclesian there 
 were neither under nor over, but just nine hundred 
 ninety-nine martyrs. Yea, generally those that trade in 
 such retail-ware, and deal in such small parcels, may by 
 the ignorant be commended for their care, but con- 
 demned by the judicious for their ridiculous curiosity. 
 
 But such who will forgive the use of our foresaid, 
 qualificatives, as but limping and lameness, will perchance 
 not pardon the many blanks which occur in this book, 
 accounting them no better than our flat falling to the 
 ground, in default of our industry for not seeking due 
 information. But let such know, that those officers, who 
 by their place are to find out persons inquired after, 
 deserve neither to be blamed nor shamed, when, having 
 used their best diligence, they return to the court a ' Non 
 est inventus.' 
 
 For my own part, I had rather my reader should arise 
 hungry from my book, than surfeited therewith ; rather 
 uninformed than misinformed thereby ; rather ignorant 
 of what he desireth, than having a falsehood, or, at the 
 best, a conjecture for a truth, obtruded upon him. 
 
 Indeed, I humbly conceive that vacuity, which is 
 hateful in nature, may be helpful in history : for such an 
 hiatus h&ggeith. of posterity, to take pains to fill it up 
 with a truth, if possible to be attained ; whereas, had 
 our bold adventure farced it up with a conjecture intus 
 existens prohibuerit extraneum no room had been left 
 for the endeavours of others. woHUes, c. xxi. 
 
 Some 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
202 
 
 QSOiet f^ovbe Anb 
 
 Some Questionable Expressions 
 
 Some high-flown expressions often knock at the door 
 of blasphemy, but yet not with any intention to enter in 
 thereat ; in which we are more to mind the sense than 
 the sound of the words. a. nut. b. iii. s. i. 31. 
 
 Quotations 
 
 Fuller. — Never had Herodotus given his nine books 
 the names of the nine Muses, if such was his abstemious- 
 ness from poetry. Not one of them, which is aa-vfi^Xos 
 in this kind ; and there are found in Cho, the first, no 
 fewer than thirty verses of the oracles of Pythia. As 
 those his books are fruitful, so his book of the Life of 
 Homer hath a superfetation of them ; so that if prose be 
 the warp, verses are the woof thereof. Whereas the 
 Animadvertor instances in Plutarch ; open at the Life of 
 Theseus, and we are presented with poetry therein. 
 
 But, grant no precedent in this nature in these authors ; 
 a more free genius acteth in modern than in ancient 
 historians, manumissed from the servilities they were tied 
 (or tied themselves) unto. The Animadvertor, like 
 another Empson, endeavoureth to revive the penal 
 statutes of history against me, (so to subject me to fine 
 for the breach thereof,) which time in effect hath 
 cancelled. 
 
 Qui scribit historicl, scribit miserl, if enslaved to'Tall 
 punctilios thereof. Let the Animadvertor keep those 
 steel bodices for his own wearing, and not force them on 
 me. What ! not a plait or a ruffle, more or less, but all 
 must be done in number, weight, and measure ! ac- 
 cording 
 
Ouatn^ Cotttt0ep0 
 
 20' 
 
 cording to historical criticism ! This is not putting the 
 book, but the author himself, into the press. 
 
 Tacitus himself (here instanced in) would be tacitus 
 indeed, if all politic sentences and prudential results were 
 deleted in him, being trespasses on the preciseness of 
 history, confined to matter of fact. But well fare that 
 historian who will go out of his own way, to direct his 
 
 reaoer. Appeal of injured innocence : V. x.ans. Introduction. 
 
 Let me mind the reader to re-flect his eye on our 
 quotations, (the margin in such cases being as material 
 as the text, as containing the authors,) and his judgment 
 may, according to the credit or reference of the author 
 alleged, believe, or abate from, the reputation of the 
 report. Let me add, that, though it be a lie in the clock, 
 it is but a falsehood in the hand of the dial when pointing 
 at a wrong hour, if rightly following the direction of the 
 wheel which moveth it. And the fault is not mine, if I 
 truly cite what is false on the credit of another. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. ix. S. vii. 22. 
 
 Rates and Taxes 
 
 A GRAVE divine in the west country (familiarly known 
 unto me), conceiving himself over-taxed, repaired to one 
 of the governors of the king's garrisons for to move for 
 some mitigation. 
 
 The governor perceiving the satin cap of this divine 
 to be torn. Fie, fie, said he, that a man of your quality 
 should wear such a cap ; the rats have gnawed it. Oh 
 no, sir, answered he, the rates have gnawed it. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
204 
 
 (5Oi0e (^otie ana 
 
 The print or impression of the teeth of taxes is visible 
 in the clothes of many men, yea, it hath corroded holes 
 in many men's estates. Yea, as Hatto archbishop of 
 Mentz is reported to have been eaten up by rats, so the 
 vermin of taxes, if continuing, is likely to devour our 
 
 nation. GmiI Thoughts : Mixt Cmtempl. on Better Times, 14, 
 
 Of Recreations 
 
 Recreations is a second creation, when weariness 
 hath almost annihilated one's spirits. It is the breathing 
 of the soul, which otherwise would be stifled with 
 continual business. We may trespass in them, if using 
 such as are forbidden by the — lawyer, as against the 
 statutes — physician, as against health — divine, as against 
 conscience. 
 
 Spill not the morning (the quintessence of the day !) 
 in recreations. — For sleep itself is a recreation. Add 
 not, therefore, sauce to sauce ; and he cannot properly 
 have any title to be refreshed, who was not first faint. 
 Pastime, like wine, is poison in the morning. It is then 
 good husbandry to sow the head, which hath lain fallow 
 all night, with some serious work. Chiefly, intrench not 
 on the Lord's day to use unlawful sports ; this were to 
 spare thine own flock, and to shear God's Iamb. 
 
 Take heed of boisterous and over-violent exercises. 
 — Ringing oft-times hath made good music on the bells, 
 and put men's bodies out of tune ; so that, by over- 
 heating themselves, they have rung their own passing- 
 bell. 
 
 Refresh that part of thyself which is most wearied. — 
 If thy life be sedentary, exercise thy body ; if stirring 
 
 and 
 
Ouainf Counede 
 
 205 
 
 and active, recreate thy mind. But take heed of 
 cozening thy mind, in setting it to do a double task, 
 under pretence of giving it a play-day, as in the labyrinth 
 of chess, and other tedious and studious games. . . . 
 
 Choke not thy soul with immoderate pouring-in the 
 cordial of pleasures. The creation lasted but six days 
 of the first week. Profane they whose recreation lasts 
 seven days of every week. Rather abridge thyself of 
 thy lawful liberty herein : it being a wary rule which 
 St. Gregory gives us : So/us in illicitis non cadit, qui se 
 aliquando et a licitis caute restringit : and then recreations 
 shall both strengthen labour, and sweeten rest ; and we 
 may expect God's blessing and protection on us in 
 following them, as well as in doing our work. For he that 
 saith grace for his meat, in it prays also to God to bless the 
 sauce unto him. As for those that will not take lawful 
 pleasure, I am afraid they will take unlawful pleasure, 
 and, by lacing themselves too hard, grow awry on one 
 
 side. Holy state, B. Hi. C. xiii. i, 2, 4. 6, 11. 
 
 Reformation 
 
 A PERFECT reformation of any Church in this world 
 may be desired, but not hoped for. Let Xenophon's 
 Cyrus be King in Plato's Commonwealth, and bachelors' 
 wives breed maids' children in More's Utopia, whilst roses 
 grow in their gardens without prickles, as St. Basil held 
 they did before the fall of Adam. 
 
 These fancies are pleasing and plausible, but the per- 
 formance thereof unfeasable : and so is the perfect 
 reformation of a church in this world difficult to be 
 described, and impossible to be practised. For, besides 
 
 that 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
2o6 
 
 (^iee (K)otr50 anb 
 
 that Satan will do his best, or rather his worst, to undoe 
 it, man in this life is not capable of such perfection. 
 Look not to find that in man out of Paradise, which was 
 not found in man in Paradise, continuance in an holy 
 estate. Martin Luther was wont to say he never knew 
 good order in the Church last after fifteen years in the 
 purity thereof; yea, the more perfect the reformation is, 
 the less time it is likely to last. Man's mind being in 
 constant motion, when it cannot ascend higher, will not 
 stand still, but it must decline. 
 
 I speak not this to dishearten men from endeavouring 
 a perfect reformation, but to keep them from being 
 disheartened, when they see the same cannot be exactly 
 
 observed. collected Serm. : On Re/ormatim. 
 
 'An imperfect Church.' I said it, and will say it 
 again : It was a truth before your cradle was made, and 
 will be one after your coffin is rotten. 
 
 Id. ; Truth maintained. 
 
 The Best Religion 
 
 If that religion were surely the best which is of the 
 greatest latitude and extent, surveyors of land were fitter 
 than divines to judge of the best religion. 
 
 Holy War, B. !v. C. 6. 
 
 The Measure of Remorse 
 
 General punishments must have general prayer and 
 humiliation; otherwise the plaster will be too narrow 
 
 for the sore. 
 
 Notes on Jonah, C. i. i. 
 
 Renouncing 
 
Ottftittf Cottn0ef0 
 
 207 
 
 Renouncing the World 
 
 About this time it grew fashionable with kings and 
 queens in England to renounce the world, and turn 
 monks and nuns, commonly in convents of their own 
 foundation. Surely, it is not only lawful, but com- 
 mendable, for men to leave the world before it leaveth 
 them, by 'being crucified thereunto, and using it as if 
 they used it not.' But let others dispute, whether this 
 properly be renouncing the world, — for Christians to 
 bury their parts and persons in a cloister, which, put forth 
 to the bank, would turn to good account for church and 
 commonwealth. David, I dare say, as holy a man as any 
 of these, lived a king, and died a king. The swaying of 
 his sceptre did not hinder the tuning of his harp; his 
 dignity being no impediment to his devotion. And 
 whilst these kings, turning monks, pretended to go out 
 of the world, a world of spiritual pride and superstition 
 went into them, if (as it is too, too suspicious) they had 
 a high opinion to merit heaven thereby. 
 
 Ch. Hist. B. ii. Cent. viii. 12. 
 
 Reticence 
 
 Sure I am, such who are ' peaceable and faithful in 
 Israel,' may nevertheless be 'mourners in Zion,' and 
 grieve at what they cannot mend, but must endure. 
 This also I know, that that spoke in the wheel which 
 creaketh most doth not bear the greatest burden in the 
 cart. The greatest complainers are not always the 
 greatest sufferers; whilst as much, yea, more, sincere 
 sorrow may be managed in secret silence, than with 
 querulous and clamorous obstreperousness ; and such, 
 
 who 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
208 
 
 (Piee (JDo»r60 an5 
 
 who will neither print nor preach satires on the times, 
 may make elegies on them in their own souls. 
 
 Appeal of Injured Innocence^ P. i. C. 14. 
 
 He knows Uttle, who will tell his wife all he knows. 
 
 Holy State, B. i. C. iii. 7. 
 
 A Retort 
 
 Dr. Heylin. — How wise the rest were, I am not able 
 to say. But certainly our author showed himself 'no 
 wiser than Waltham's calfj who ran nine miles to suck a 
 bull, and came home athirst,' as the proverb saith. His 
 running unto Oxford, which cost him as much in 
 seventeen weeks, as he had spent in Cambridge in 
 seventeen years, was but a second sally to the first 
 knight-errantry. 
 
 Fuller. — I can patiently comport with the Animad- 
 vertor's jeers ; which I behold as so many frogs, that it 
 is pretty and pleasing to see them hop and skip about, 
 having not much harm in them. But I cannot abide his 
 railings ; which are like to toads, swelling with venom 
 within them. Any one may rail who is bred but in 
 Billingsgate-College : and I am sorry to hear such 
 language from the Animadvertor, a Doctor in Divinity ; 
 seeing railing is as much beneath a Doctor, as against 
 Divinity. 
 
 When Dr. Turner, a physician sufficiently known, gave 
 the lie (at the earl of Pembroke's table) to the earl of 
 Carnarvon : ' I will take the lie from you ; ' replied the 
 earl, ' but I will never take physic from you.' If such 
 
 railing 
 
Ouain^ torxnedtf 
 
 209 
 
 railing be consistent with the Doctor's Divinity, this 
 once I will take the calf, but never learn Divinity from 
 him. 
 
 Two things comfort me under his reviling. First. 
 That no worse man than David himself complained, 
 that he became ' a proverb to his enemies,' Psalm Ixix. 2. 
 Secondly. Though a calf be a contemptible creature, 
 passing for the emblem, not (with the dove) of simplicity, 
 but of plain silliness ; yet is it a clean one, and accepted 
 of God for sacrifice, Heb. ix. 19. Whereas the snarling 
 dog (though a creature of far more cunning and sagacity) 
 was so odious and unclean, that by a peculiar law it was 
 provided, that ' the price of a dog should not be brought 
 into the house of God,' Deut. xxiii. 18. 
 
 App. Inj. Inn. Pt. iii. B. xi. 268. 
 
 Another 
 
 Once king James in an afternoon was praising the 
 plentiful provision of England, especially for flesh and 
 fowl ; adding, the like not to be had in all Spain ,what 
 one county here did afford. 'Yea, but my master,' 
 quoth Gondemar, there present, 'hath the gold and 
 silver in the East and West Indies,' 'And I, by my 
 saul,' saith the king, ' have much ado to keep my men 
 from taking it away from him.' To which the don's 
 Spanish gravity returned silence. ck. Hist. b. x. s. vii. 32. 
 
 • It is pity they are not better situated -. I could always wish to see 
 a Diamond set in gold.' (Examiner.) 
 
 I CANNOT blame you especially if the Diamond be 
 their own. But what mean you by this expression? 
 
 p Would 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
2IO 
 
 (^i0e (^ovb0 anb 
 
 Would you have had the Truths in my sermon to have 
 been set in the gold of rich and glittering language? 
 Truly I could not go to the cost thereof, especially in 
 so short warning wherein the sermon was made. How- 
 ever, a diamond is a diamond though set in horn, 
 whereby the lustre thereof may be somewhat dimmed, 
 but the worth thereof no whit diminished. But in 
 one respect I must confess these truths were ill selected : 
 that they stood too near to a captious reader who took 
 
 causeless exception to them, select: Serm. Truth Maintained. 
 
 Reward of Honest Effort 
 
 Such sums attained by their own industry, though 
 small in bulk, were great in blessing, a Divine bene- 
 diction being always invisibly breathed on painful and 
 lawful diligence. Thus the servant employed in making 
 and blowing of the fire, (though sent away thence as 
 soon as it burneth clear), oft-times getteth by his pains 
 a more kindly and continuing heat, than the master 
 himself, who sitteth down by the same ; and thus persons 
 industriously occupying themselves, thrive better on a 
 little of their own honest getting, than lazy heirs on the 
 large revenues left unto them. ch. Hist. b. viii. s. iu. 28. 
 
 Rich Kindred: Vain Hopes 
 
 So soon may men's expectations be frustrated, who 
 depend on rich kindred. Yea, I have seen the twine- 
 thread of a cordial friend hold, when the cable-rope of 
 a rich kinsman hath broken. 
 
 Let those therefore be thankful to God, to whom God 
 hath given means to be maintained of themselves, without 
 
 dependence 
 
Ouatttf Couneef© 
 
 211 
 
 dependence on their kindred. Better it is to be the 
 weakest of substances, to subsist of themselves, than 
 to be the bravest accidents, to be maintained by 
 another. rm.h.^. 
 
 King Richard's Ransom and the Chalices 
 
 At last he was ransomed for a hundred and forty 
 thousand marks, coUen weight. A sum so vast in that 
 age, before the Indies had overflowed all Europe with 
 their gold and silver, that to raise it in England they 
 were forced to sell their church plate, to their very 
 chalices. Whereupon out of most deep divinity it was 
 concluded, that they should not celebrate the sacrament 
 in glass, for the brittleness of it ; nor in wood, for the 
 sponginess of it, which would suck up the blood ; nor 
 in alchymy, because it was subject to rusting; nor in 
 copper, because that would provoke vomiting; but in 
 chalices of latten, which behke was a metal without 
 exception. And such were used in England for some 
 hundred years after, until at last John Stafford arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, when the land was more replenished 
 with silver, inknotteth that priest in the greater excommu- 
 nication that should consecta.t& poculum stanneum. 
 
 Holy War, B. iii. C. xiii. 
 
 The Rickets 
 
 There is a disease of infants (and an infant disease, 
 having scarcely as yet gotten a proper name in Latin) 
 called the rickets ; wherein the head waxeth too great, 
 whilst the legs and lower parts wane too little. A woman 
 in the west hath happily healed many, by cauterizing 
 p 2 the 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(^iee (^ovbe anb 
 
 the vein behind the ear. How proper the remedy for 
 the malady I engage not, experience ofttimes outdoing 
 art, whilst we behold the cure easily effected, and the 
 natural cause thereof hardly assigned. 
 
 Have not many nowadays the same sickness in their 
 souls? their heads swelling to a vast proportion and 
 they wonderfully enabled with knowledge to discourse ? 
 But, alas, how little their legs, poor their practice, and 
 lazy their walking in a godly conversation ! Shall I say 
 that such may be cured by searing the vein in their head, 
 not to hurt their hearing, but hinder the itching of their 
 ears? 
 
 Indeed his tongue deserves to be burnt that talks 
 of searing the ears of others ; for faith cometh by 
 hearing. But I would have men not to hear few 
 sermons, but hear more in hearing fewer sermons. Less 
 preaching better heard (reader, lay the emphasis not 
 on the word /ess, but on the word better), would make 
 a wiser and stronger Christian, digesting the word from 
 his heart to practise it in his conversation. 
 
 Good Thoughts in Worse Titnes^ Med. 19. 
 
 A Famous Road 
 
 Here let us hold a while, and desiring to please all 
 palates, let us temper the harshness of old matters with 
 the mixture of a modern passage. If the reader should 
 ever travel this way from Damascus to Jerusalem, and 
 so into Egypt, he may repose himself for a night in 
 the cave, east of the bridge, on the other side Jordan. 
 A cave is a public building erected by some devout 
 Turk in nature of an inn, for the benefit of travellers, 
 
 of 
 
Ouain^ £^oun0ef0 
 
 213 
 
 of more or less receipt and conveniency, according to 
 the bounty or fancy of the founder. But here the guest 
 must be his own host to entertain himself, seeing 
 generally nothing but a bare lodging and water is pro- 
 vided for him. And though we pity the reader's bad 
 lodging this night, where (if not bringing better ac- 
 commodations with him) he and his camel must be 
 bed-fellows in straw; yet we promise him next day 
 a pleasant way and handsome entertainment. For about 
 seven miles off he shall pass by Cave Joseph, where 
 a well will be showed him full of water, and adorned 
 with marble pillars, which common tradition avoucheth 
 to be the pit wherein Joseph was put, and a learned 
 friar very zealously sticketh for the truth thereof, though 
 indeed the story is confuted both by the distance and 
 nature of the place. For it is sixty miles from Dothan, 
 near Shechem, where Joseph's brethren kept their sheep. 
 Besides, that pit had no moisture in it (save what fell 
 from the eyes of Joseph), whereas this is full of water, 
 so that Joseph's dreams had been but dreams if put 
 therein. But it is as good as a bait to tired travellers 
 (whose credulity is swifter than the camels they ride 
 on) to be refreshed in the way with such relations. 
 Some twelve miles off, the reader may lodge in a 
 convenient cave called Minium by the Moors, but by 
 the Turks Missia : and if early up next morning may, 
 going south-westward, before noon enter the tribe of 
 Zebulun, where we may in due time overtake him, 
 and hereafter give him larger direction for his travel. 
 
 Pisgah Sight, B. ii. C. iv. 13. 
 
 Why 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(Pi0e (^or50 ftn5 
 
 Why the Church of Rome was esteemed First 
 and Chiefest 
 
 Anciently in the primitive time the church of Rome 
 was esteemed the first and chiefest of all others, but 
 without any jurisdiction above them. Because that was 
 the imperial city and queen of the world, therefore 
 the church therein was highest in account ; as the 
 candle which is in the fairest candlestick is always 
 set above the rest (though otherwise equal unto it in 
 light) at the upper end of the table, uoiy War, b. iv. c. iv. 
 
 Sabbatarianism in Queen Elizabeth's Time 
 
 It is almost incredible how taking this doctrine was, 
 partly because of its own purity, and partly for the 
 eminent piety of such persons as maintained it; so 
 that the Lord's day, especially in corporations, began 
 to be precisely kept, people becoming a law to them- 
 selves, forbearing such sports as yet by statute permitted ; 
 yea, many rejoicing at their own restraint herein. On 
 this day the stoutest fencer laid down the buckler ; 
 the most skilful archer unbent his bow, counting all 
 shooting beside the mark ; May-games and morris-dances 
 grew out of request ; and good reason that bells should 
 be silenced from gingling about men's legs, if their very 
 ringing in steeples were adjudged unlawful. Some of 
 them were ashamed of their former pleasures, like 
 children, which, grown bigger, blush themselves out of 
 their rattles and whistles. Others forbore them for fear 
 of their superiors; and many left them off out of a 
 
 politic 
 
Ouain^ Couneefe 
 
 215 
 
 politic compliance, lest otherwise they should be ac- 
 counted licentious. 
 
 Yet learned men were much divided in their judgments 
 about these Sabbatarian doctrines. Some embraced them 
 as ancient truths consonant to Scripture, long disused 
 and neglected, now seasonably revived for the increase 
 of piety. Others conceived them grounded on a wrong 
 bottom ; but, because they tended to the manifest ad- 
 vance of religion, it was pity to oppose them, seeing 
 none have just reason to complain, being deceived 
 into their own good. But a third sort flatly fell out 
 with these positions, as galling men's necks with a 
 Jewish yoke, against the liberty of Christians; that 
 Christ, as Lord of the sabbath, had removed the rigour 
 thereof, and allowed men lawful recreations; that this 
 doctrine put an unequal lustre on the Sunday on set 
 purpose to eclipse all other holy-days, to the derogation 
 of the authority of the church ; that this strict observance 
 was set up out of faction to be a character of difference, 
 to brand all for libertines who did not entertain it. 
 
 Ck. Hist. B. ix. S. viii. 20-21. 
 
 SalisbTiry Cathedral 
 
 The Buildings 
 The Cathedral of SaUsbury (dedicated to the blessed 
 Virgin) is paramount in this kind, wherein the doors 
 and chapels equal the months, the windows the days, 
 the pillars and pillarets of fusile marble (an ancient 
 art now shrewdly suspected to be lost), the hours of 
 the year; so that all Europe affords not such an almanac 
 
 of architecture. 
 
 Once 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(BOiee ^ori0 ani 
 
 Once walking in this church (whereof then I was 
 prebendary) I met a countryman wondering at the 
 structure thereof. 'I once,' said he to me, 'admired 
 that there could be a church that should have so many 
 pillars as there be hours in the year ; and now I admire 
 more, that there should be so many hours in the year as 
 I see pillars in this church.' wcrtkies: wuts. Buildings. 
 
 Salmon 
 
 A DAINTY and wholesome fish, and a double riddle 
 in Nature : first, for its invisible feeding, no man alive 
 having ever found any meat in the maw thereof. 
 Secondly, for its strange leaping (or flying rather), so 
 that some will have them termed salmons, & saliendo. 
 Being both bow and arrow, it will shoot itself out of 
 the water an incredible height and length. I might 
 add the admirable growth thereof, if true what is con- 
 fidently affirmed, that it increaseth from a spawn to a 
 full-grown fish within the compass of a year. Plenty 
 of these in this county, though not in such abundance 
 as in Scotland, where servants (they say) indent with 
 their masters, not to be fed therewith above thrice a 
 
 ^^^'^* Id. : Hereford. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Salt 
 
 I BEHELD England as a long well-furnished table, and 
 account three principal salt-cellars set at a distance 
 thereon. Worcestershire, I fancy the trencher salt, both 
 because it is not so much in quantity (though very 
 considerable), and because it is whiter, finer, and heavier, 
 than any other. Cheshire, I conceive, deserveth to be 
 
 reputed 
 
Ouain^ Cc>\Mxeti0 
 
 217 
 
 reputed the grand salt-cellar, placed somewhat beneath 
 the middle ; whilst the third is the salt of Newcastle, 
 set far north, at the lower end of the table, for the 
 use of those who otherwise cannot conveniently reach 
 to the former. The usefulness of this not-duly-valued 
 blessing may be concluded from the Latin word salarium, 
 so usual in ancient and modern authors, which im- 
 porteth the entertainment or wages of soldiers, anciently 
 paid chiefly (if not only) in victuals, and taketh its name, 
 by a synecdoche, from sal, or salt, as of all things most 
 absolutely needful ; without which condiment nothing 
 can be wholesome nutriment. 
 
 Id.; Worcester. Natural Commodities. 
 
 The Good Schoolmaster 
 
 There is scarce any profession in the commonwealth 
 more necessary, which is so slightly performed. The 
 reasons whereof I conceive to be these: First, young 
 scholars make this caUing their refuge ; yea, perchance, 
 before they have taken any degree in the University, com- 
 mence schoolmasters in the country ; as if nothing else 
 were required to set up this profession, but only a rod and 
 a ferula. Secondly, others, who are able, use it only as 
 a passage to better preferment ; to patch the rents in their 
 present fortune, till they can provide a new one, and 
 betake themselves to some more gainful calling. Thirdly, 
 they are disheartened from doing their best, with the 
 miserable reward which in some places they receive,— 
 being masters to their children, and slaves to their 
 parents. Fourthly, being grown rich, they grow negligent ; 
 
 and 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(H)i0e (^oicb0 dnb 
 
 and scorn to touch the school, but by the proxy of an usher. 
 But see how well our schoolmaster behaves himself. 
 
 His genius inclines him with delight to his profession. 
 — Some men had as lieve be school-boys as school-masters, 
 • — to be tied to the school, as Cooper's ' Dictionary ' and 
 Scapula's ' Lexicon ' are chained to the desk therein ; 
 and, though great scholars, and skilful in other arts, are 
 bunglers in this. But God of his goodness hath fitted 
 several men for several callings, that the necessity of 
 church and state, in all conditions, may be provided for. 
 So that he who beholds the fabric thereof may say : 
 ' God hewed out this stone, and appointed it to lie in 
 this very place ; for it would fit none other so well, and 
 here it doth most excellent.' And thus God mouldeth 
 some for a schoolmaster's life ; undertaking it with desire 
 and delight, and discharging it with dexterity and happy 
 success. 
 
 He studieth his scholars' natures as carefully as they 
 their books. — And ranks their dispositions into several 
 forms. And though it may seem difficult for him in a great 
 school to descend to all particulars, yet experienced 
 schoolmasters may quickly make a grammar of boys' 
 natures, and reduce them all (saving some few exceptions) 
 to these general rules : — 
 
 1. Those that are ingenious and industrious. — The 
 conjunction of two such planets in a youth presage much 
 good unto him. To such a lad a frown may be a whip- 
 ping, and a whipping a death ; yea, where their master 
 whips them once, shame whips them all the week after. 
 Such natures he useth with all gentleness. 
 
 2. Those that are ingenious and idle. — These think, 
 
 with 
 
Ouain^ Coutt0ef0 
 
 219 
 
 with the hare in the fable, that, running with snails, (so 
 they count the rest of their school-fellows), they shall 
 come soon enough to the post, though sleeping a good 
 while before their starting. O ! a good rod would finely 
 take them napping ! 
 
 3. Those that are dull and diligent. — Wines, — the 
 stronger they be, the more lees they have when they are 
 new. Many boys are muddy-headed till they be clarified 
 with age ; and such afterwards prove the best. Bristol 
 diamonds are both bright, and squared, and pointed by 
 nature, and yet are soft and worthless ; whereas orient 
 ones, in India, are rough and rugged naturally. Hard, 
 rugged, and dull natures of youth acquit themselves 
 afterwards the jewels of the country ; and, therefore, their 
 dulness at first is to be borne with, if they be diligent. 
 That schoolmaster deserves to be beaten himself, who 
 beats nature in a boy for a fault. And I question 
 whether all the whipping in the world can make their 
 parts which are naturally sluggish, rise one minute before 
 the hour nature hath appointed. 
 
 4. Those that are invincibly dull and negligent also. — 
 Correction may reform the latter, not amend the former. 
 All the whetting in the world can never set a razor's edge 
 on that which has no steel in it. Such .boys he con- 
 signeth over to other professions. Shipwrights and 
 boat-makers will choose those crooked pieces of timber 
 which other carpenters refuse. Those may make excel- 
 lent merchants and mechanics who will not serve for 
 scholars. 
 
 He is able, diligent, and methodical in his teaching. — 
 Not leading them rather in a circle than forwards. He 
 
 minces 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
(Pi0e (TSOovbe anb 
 
 minces his precepts, for children to swallow ; hanging 
 clogs on the nimbleness of his own soul, that his scholars 
 may go along with him. 
 
 He is, and will be known to be, an absolute monarch 
 in his school. — If cockering mothers proffer him money, 
 to purchase their sons an exemption from his rod, (to live, 
 as it were, in a peculiar, out of their master's jurisdiction,) 
 with disdain he refuseth it, and scorns the late custom in 
 some places of commuting whipping into money, and 
 ransoming boys from the rod at a set price. If he hath 
 a stubborn youth, correction-proof, he debaseth not 
 his authority by contesting with him, but fairly (if he 
 can) puts him away, before his obstinacy hath infected 
 others. 
 
 He is moderate in inflicting deserved correction. — 
 Many a schoolmaster better answereth the name ttoiSo- 
 Tpi/3))s than iraiSayayos, rather ' tearing his scholars' flesh 
 with whipping, than giving them good education.' No 
 wonder if his scholars hate the Muses, being presented 
 unto them in the shapes of fiends and furies. . . . 
 
 To conclude : let this, amongst other motives, make 
 schoolmasters careful in their place, that the eminencies 
 of their scholars have commended the memories of their 
 schoolmasters to posterity, who, otherwise in obscurity, 
 had altogether been forgotten. Who had ever heard of 
 R. Bond, in Lancashire, but for the breeding of learned 
 Ascham his scholar ? or of Hartgrave, in Burnley school, 
 in the same county, but because he was the first [who] 
 did teach worthy Dr. Whitaker. Nor do I honour the 
 memory of Mulcaster for any thing so much as for his 
 scholar, that gulf of learning, bishop Andrews. This 
 
 made 
 
Ouain^ €:oun0ef0 
 
 2:?I 
 
 made the Athenians, the day before the great feast of 
 Theseus their founder, to sacrifice a ram to the memory 
 of Conidas, his schoolmaster, that first instructed him. 
 
 Holy State, B. ii. C. xvL 
 
 Bad Latin o( the Schoolmen 
 
 Their Latin is generally barbarous, counting any thing 
 eloquent that is expressive;' going the nearest way to 
 speak their own notions, though sometimes trespassing 
 on grammar, abusing, if not breaking, Priscian's head 
 therein. Some impute this their bald and threadbare 
 language to a design that no vermin of equivocation 
 should be hid under the nap of their words; whilst 
 others ascribe it to their want of change, and their 
 poverty in learning, to procure better expressions. 
 
 Ck. Hist, B. Hi. Cent xiv. 25. 
 
 Scruples of Conscience 
 
 Some have sluices in their consciences, and can keep 
 them open, or shut them as occasion required. 
 
 Holy War, B, ii. C. xxviii. 
 
 Sea and Land Service compared 
 
 And surely, generally sea-fights are more bloody than 
 those on the land, especially since guns came up, whose 
 shot betwixt wind and water (like those wounds so often 
 mentioned in the scripture under the fifth rib), is 
 commonly observed mortal Yea, far harder it is for 
 a ship, when arrested and engaged in a battle, to clear 
 itself, than for soldiers by land to save themselves by 
 
 flight 
 
 Thomas 
 FviUer 
 
^t0e (P?o»:&0 (xnb 
 
 flight. Here neither his own two nor his horse's four 
 legs can bestead any ; but like accidents they must perish 
 with their subjects, and sink with their ship. 
 
 And then why is a sea victory less honour, being more 
 danger, than one achieved by land ? Is it because sea- 
 service is not so general, nor so full of varieties, and 
 the mysteries thereof sooner learned? Or because in 
 seafights fortune may seem to be a deeper sharer, and 
 valour not so much interested? Whatsoever it is, the 
 laurel purchased on land hath a more lively verdure than 
 that which is got at sea. hcI^ War, b. w. c. xxiv. 
 
 The Sea-captain 
 
 He daily sees, and duly considers, God's wonders in 
 the deep. — Tell me, ye naturalists. Who sounded the 
 first march and retreat to the tide, 'Hither shalt thou 
 come, and no further'? Why doth not the water 
 recover his right over the earth, being higher in nature ? 
 Whence came the salt, and who first boiled it, which 
 made so much brine? When the winds are not only 
 wild in a storm, but even stark-mad in an hurricane, 
 who is it that restores them again to their wits, and 
 brings them asleep in a calm ? Who made the mighty 
 whales, which swim in a sea of water, and have a sea 
 of oil swimming in them? Who first taught the water 
 to imitate the creatures on land ? so that the sea is the 
 stable of horse-fishes, the stall of kine-fishes, the sty of 
 hog-fishes, the kennel of dog-fishes, and, in all things, 
 the sea the ape of the land ! Whence grows the amber- 
 gris in the sea ? which is not so hard to find where it is, 
 as to know what it is. Was not God the first shipwright ? 
 
 and 
 
Ottainf Cotttt0ef0 
 
 223 
 
 and all vessels on the water descended from the loins (or 
 ribs rather) of Noah's ^rk; or else who durst be so bold, 
 with a few crooked boards nailed together, a stick 
 standing upright, and a rag tied to it, to adventure into 
 the ocean ? What loadstone first touched the loadstone ? 
 Or how first fell it in love with the North, rather 
 affecting that cold climate than the pleasant East, or 
 fruitful South, or West? How comes that stone to 
 know more than men, and find the way to the land in a 
 mist ? In most of these, men take sanctuary at occulta 
 qualitas ; and complain that the room is dark, when 
 their eyes are blind. Indeed, they are God's wonders ; 
 and that seaman the greatest wonder of all for his 
 blockishness, who, seeing them daily, neither takes 
 notice of them, admires at them, nor is thankful for 
 
 them. Holy state, B. ii. C. xxi. 8. 
 
 Secrecy 
 
 Secrecy and Celerity are the two wheels of great 
 
 actions. 
 
 Id. B. V. C. ix. 
 
 Security 
 
 Security is the mother of danger and the grand 
 mother of destruction. id. b. v. c. xviii. i. 
 
 Severity 
 
 Severity hot in the 4th degree, is little better than 
 poison and becometh cruelty itself. 
 
 Holy War, B. i. C. xxiv. 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Similes 
 
224 
 
 (H)i0e (H)ot:50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Similes 
 
 Indeed, reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a 
 sermon : but similitudes are the windows which give the 
 
 best lights. ^«,/j, SMe, B. U. C. ix. II. 
 
 Simony 
 
 Reader, pardon a digression. I am confident there 
 is one, and but one, sin frequent in the former age, both 
 with clergy and laity, which in our days our land is not 
 guilty of, and may find many compurgators of her 
 innocence therein ; I mean the sin of simony : seeing 
 none in our age will give anything for church-livings ; 
 partly because the persons presented thereunto have no 
 assurance to keep them, partly because of the uncertainty 
 of tithes for their maintenance. But whether this our 
 age hath not added in sacrilege what it wanteth in 
 simony, is above my place to discuss, and more above 
 
 my power to decide. Worthies.- Oxfordshire. Prelates. 
 
 Slow and Sure 
 
 God's work must not be done lazily, but leisurely : 
 haste maketh waste in this kind. In reformations of 
 great importance, the violent driving in of the nail will 
 either break the head, or bow the point thereof, or rive 
 and split that which should be fastened therewith. 
 
 That may insensibly be screwed which cannot 
 suddenly be knocked into people. Fair and softly goeth 
 far ; but, alas ! we have too many fiery spirits, who, with 
 Jehu, drive on so furiously they will overturn all in 
 
 church 
 
Ouain^ Cotttt0ef0 
 
 225 
 
 church and state, if their fierceness be not seasonably 
 retrenched. 
 
 Good Thoughts: Mixt Contempl. on Better Times, P. 11. 34. 
 
 Small Beginnings 
 
 Such who are ashamed of contemptible beginnings 
 will never arrive at considerable endings. Yea, the 
 greatest giant was (though never a dwarf) once an in- 
 fant ; and the longest line commenced from a little point 
 
 at the first. Worthies : Cmnierland. The Farewell. 
 
 Blessings of Good Society 
 
 How many general benefits do the very tares enjoy, 
 because inseparably mingled with the wheat in the field 
 
 of this world ! 
 
 Pisgah Sight, B. iv. C. ii. 21. 
 
 Someone else's Fault 
 
 Should God scourge this land with famine, or any 
 other general punishment, the courtiers would impute 
 the cause thereof to the covetousness of the citizens; 
 the citizens to the prodigality of the courtiers : the rich 
 to the unthankfulness, discontented murmuring of the 
 poor ; the poor to the hard-heartedness of the rich : the 
 laity to the clergy's want of preaching ; the clergy to the 
 laity's want of practising. Every one would post the 
 fault from himself, and be inquisitive, with these mar- 
 iners, ' for whose fault this evil was upon ' them. 
 
 Notes oil Jotiah, i. 7. 
 
 Speed's Map of Carnarvon 
 
 The map of this county (as also of Denby and 
 Flintshire) in Mr. Speed is not divided (as other shires 
 
 Q in 
 
 Thomas 
 
 FnUer 
 
226 
 
 (PS)i0e (^otrie an5 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 in England and Wales) with pricks into their several 
 hundreds, which would have much conduced to the 
 completing thereof, whereof he rendereth this reason, 
 That he could not procure the same (though promised 
 him) out of the sheriffs books ; fearing lest the riches of 
 their shire should be further sought into by revealing 
 such particulars. He addeth moreover, 'This I have 
 observed in all my survey, that where least is to be had 
 the greatest fears' are possessed.' I would advise these 
 counties hereafter to deny no small civility to a painful 
 author, holding a pen in his hand, for fear a drop of his 
 ink fall upon them ; for, though juice of lemon will fetch 
 such spots out of linen, when once printed in a book 
 they are not so easily got out, but remain to posterity. 
 
 Worthies: Carnarvon. Farewell. 
 
 Having done all — Stand 
 
 He that intends to meet with one in a great fair, and 
 knows not where he is, may sooner iind him by standing 
 still in some principal place there, than by traversing it 
 up and down. Take thy stand on some good ground in 
 religion, and keep thy station in a fixed posture, never 
 hunting after the times to follow them ; and, a hundred 
 to one, they will come to thee once in thy life-time. 
 
 Holy state, B. ii!. C. xix. 12. 
 
 Standing Still 
 
 A College in Cambridge, much beautified with ad- 
 ditional buildings, sent a messenger to a Doctor, no less 
 ingenious than bountiful, who had been a great, and 
 promised to be a greater, benefactor unto them, request- 
 ing 
 
Ouatnf Cotttteefc 
 
 227 
 
 ing him to remember them, ' or else their College must 
 even stand stiil,' meaning they must desist from going 
 farther in their intended fabric. To whom the Doctor 
 answered, 'May your College, and all the Colleges in 
 both Universities, stand still ! ' In the charitable 
 meaning whereof all good men will concur. . . . 
 
 History ofCambridge^ S. ix. 49. 
 
 Storks 
 
 Some have confidently reported, that storks will not 
 live, save in a repubhc; who may with as much truth 
 affirm, that an eagle, the sovereign of birds, will not 
 breed in a commonwealth. Not to say that storks were 
 named in the monarchy of Adam, preserved in the ark 
 in the monarchy of Noah. Jeremiah, who lived in the 
 kingdom of Judah, upbraided the ignorance of the 
 people therein — 'Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth 
 her appointed times' (Jer. viii. 7). Which birds, had 
 they known their times, and the Jews not known the 
 birds, as frequent and familiar with them, both the 
 prophet's illustration had been obscure, and exprobration 
 improper for his present purpose. 
 
 Pisgdh Sighti B. iii. C. xiv. 2g. 
 
 Surgeons 
 
 Thus, wishing unto them the three requisites for their 
 practice, an eagle's eye, a lady's hand, and a lion's heart, 
 I leave them, and proceed. Worthies, chap. ix. 
 
 Suspicion 
 
 Generally, suspiciousness is as great an enemy to 
 wisdom, as too much credulity ; it doing oftentimes as 
 Q 2 hurtful 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
!28 
 
 ^i0e (X^ov&0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 hurtful wrong to friends, as the other doth receive 
 wrongful hurt from dissemblers. jf^ij, ivar, b. .. c. xU. 
 
 Tall Men 
 
 Often the cockloft is empty in those whom nature 
 
 Holy State, B. v. C. xviii. 19. 
 
 hath built many stories high. 
 
 Power of Teaching 
 
 He had an admirable faculty in teaching youth ; for 
 every boy can teach a man, whereas he must be a man 
 who can teach a boy. It is easy to inform them who 
 are able to understand ; but it must be a master-piece of 
 industry and discretion to descend to the capacity of 
 
 children. worthies: Vorks. Writers. 
 
 The Templars 
 
 There is scarce a harder question in later history 
 than this : whether the Templars justly or unjustly were 
 condemned to suffer. On the one side it is dangerous 
 to affirm they were innocent, because condemned by the 
 pope, infallible in matters of such consequence. This 
 bugbear affrighteth many, and maketh their hands shake 
 when they write hereof. If they should say the 
 Templars were burned wrongfully, they may be fetched 
 over the coals themselves for charging his holiness so 
 deeply ; yea, hereby they bring so much innocent blood 
 on the pope's head as is enough to drown him ; some 
 therefore in this matter know little, and dare speak less, 
 for fear of afterclaps. Secondly, some who suspect that 
 one eye of the church may be dim, yet hold that both 
 
 the 
 
Ouain^ £^oun0ef0 
 
 229 
 
 the eyes, the pope and general council together, cannot 
 
 be deceived. 
 
 Holy War, B. v. C. ii. 
 
 Tenterden Steeple 
 
 ' Tenterden's steeple is the cause of the breach in Goodwin Sands.' 
 It is used commonly in derision of such who, being 
 demanded to render a reason of some important accident, 
 assign 'non causam pro causS,' or a ridiculous and 
 improbable cause thereof. And hereon a story depends. 
 When the vicinage in Kent met to consult about the 
 inundation of Goodwin Sands, and what might be the 
 cause thereof, an old man imputed it to the building 
 of Tenterden steeple in this county ; ' for those sands,' 
 said he, 'were firm lands before that steeple was built, 
 which ever since were overflown with sea-water.' Here- 
 upon all heartily laughed at his unlogical reason, making 
 that the effect in Nature, which was only the consequent 
 in time ; not flowing from, . but following after, the 
 building of that steeple. 
 
 But one story is good till another is heard. Though 
 this be all whereon this proverb is generally grounded, I 
 met since with a supplement thereunto. It is this. 
 Time out of mind money was constantly collected out of 
 this county to fence the east banks thereof against the 
 eruption of the seas ; and such sums were deposited in 
 the hands of the bishop of Rochester. But, because the 
 sea had been very quiet for many years, without any 
 encroachings, the bishop commuted that money to the 
 building of a steeple, and endowing of a church, in 
 Tenterden. By this diversion of the collection for the 
 maintenance of the banks, the sea afterwards brake in 
 
 upon 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
2 30 
 
 (^iee (H)otr$0 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 upon Goodwin Sands. And now the old man had told 
 a rational tale, had he found but the due favour to finish 
 it. And thus, sometimes, that is causelessly accounted 
 ignorance in the speaker, which is nothing but im- 
 patience in the auditors, unwilling to attend the end of 
 
 the discourse. Worthies: Kent. Proverbs. 
 
 Text and Context stand together 
 
 It is an act as easy as unjust, for one to assault a 
 naked sentence, as it stands by itself, disarmed of the 
 assistance of the coherence before and after it. All 
 sentences (except they be entire and independent) have 
 a double strength in them, one inherent, the other 
 relative, and the latter sometimes greater than the former ; 
 when what in a sentence is doubtful, is explained ; 
 difficult, expounded ; defective, supplied ; yea, seemingly 
 false, rendered really true by the connexion. 
 
 We read in the Life of St. Edward, that Harold, cup- 
 bearer to the king, chanced to stumble with the one foot, 
 that he almost kissed the ground ; but with the other leg 
 he recovered himself : whereat his father Godwin, earl of 
 Kent, (then dining with the king,) said, 'Now one 
 brother doth help another ; ' to whom the king replied, 
 ' And so might my brother have helped me, if it had so 
 pleased you.' 
 
 Many times when one sentence in my book hath had 
 a casual slip, the next to it, out of fraternal kindness, 
 would have held it up, (in the apprehension of the 
 reader,) from falling into any great error, had the 
 Animadvertor so pleased; who uncharitably cutteth it 
 
 off 
 
Ouain^ Cottn0e00 
 
 231 
 
 off from such support, so that one brother cannot help 
 another ; whilst he representeth mangled and maimed 
 passages, to the disadvantage of the sense and writer 
 thereof Thus one may prove atheism out of scripture 
 itself: 'There is no God.' But what went before? 
 ' The fool hath said in his heart.' 
 
 The Appeal of Injured Innocence, Pt. i. C. vi. 
 
 Theory and Practice 
 
 Many who in England have learned the French 
 tongue, and afterwards have gone over into France, have 
 found themselves both deaf and dumb in effect, neither 
 hearing to understand, nor speaking to be understood : 
 they, in Uke manner, who frame to themselves in their 
 studies a model of leading an army, find it as full of 
 errors as rules, when it cometh to be applied; and a 
 measure of war taken by book falleth out either too long 
 or too short, when brought into the field to be used. 
 
 I have heard a story of a great mapmonger, who 
 undertook to travel over England by help of his maps, 
 without asking the least direction of any he hiet. Long 
 he had not ridden but he met with a non plus ultra, a 
 deep unpassable gullet of water, without bridge, ford, or 
 ferry. This water was as unknown to his Camden's or 
 Speed's maps, as to himself; because it was neither body 
 nor branch of any constant river or brook (such as only 
 are visible in maps), but an extempore water, flowing 
 from the snow which melted on hills. Worse unex- 
 pected accidents surprise those who conceive themselves 
 to have conned all martial maxims out of authors, and 
 warrant their skill in war against all events, out of their 
 
 jrreat 
 
 Thomas 
 FnUer 
 
23' 
 
 (XO{0e (S)otr50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 great reading; when on the sudden some unwonted 
 occurrent taketh them unprovided, standing amazed till 
 destruction seizeth on them. ffoiy War, b. v. c. xiv. 
 
 Time-serving 
 
 He is a good time-server that is pliant to the times in 
 matters of mere indifferency. — To blame are they whose 
 minds may seem to be made of one entire bone, without 
 any joints. They cannot bend at all, but stand as stiffly 
 in things of pure indifferency, as in matters of absolute 
 
 necessity. Holy state, B. iii. C. xix. 4. 
 
 Of all the extent of time, only the instant is that 
 which we can call ' ours.' ''^''"■ 
 
 Tobacco Pipes 
 
 The best for shape and colour (as curiously sized) are 
 made at Amesbury in this county. They may be called 
 chimneys portable in pockets, the one end being the 
 hearth, the other the tunnel thereof. Indeed, at the first 
 bringing over of tobacco, pipes were made of silver and 
 other metals; which, though free from breaking, were 
 found inconvenient, as soon fouled, and hardly cleansed. 
 
 These clay pipes are burnt in a furnace for some 
 fifteen hours, on the self-same token, that if taken out 
 half an hour before that time, they are found little altered 
 from the condition wherein they were when first put in. 
 It seems all that time the fire is working itself to the 
 height, and doth its work very soon when attained to 
 
 perfection. 
 
Ouainf Couneefe 
 
 233 
 
 perfection. Gauntlet-pipes, which have that mark on 
 their heel, are the best ; and hereon a story doth depend. 
 One of that trade observing such pipes most saleable, 
 set the gauntlet on those of his own making, though 
 inferior in goodness to the other. Now the workman 
 who first gave the gauntlet sued the other, upon the 
 statute which makes it penal for any to set another's 
 mark on any merchantable commodities. The defendant 
 being likely to be cast (as whose counsel could plead 
 little in his behalf) craved leave to speak a word for 
 himself; which was granted. He denied that he ever 
 set another man's mark ; ' for the thumb of his gauntlet 
 stands one way, mine another; and the same hand 
 given dexter or sinister in heraldry is a sufficient 
 difference.' Hereby he escaped; though surely such 
 who bought his pipes never took notice of that criticism, 
 or consulted which way the thumb of his gauntlet 
 
 respected. Worthies; Wilts. 
 
 Tombs 
 
 Tombs are the clothes of the dead. A grave is but 
 a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered. 
 Most moderate men have been careful for the decent 
 interment of their corpse. Few of the fond mind of 
 Arbogastus, an Irish saint, and bishop of Spires in Ger- 
 many, who would be buried near the gallows, in imitation 
 of our Saviour, whose grave was in Mount Calvary, 
 near the place of execution. 
 
 .Holy State, B. iii. C. xiv. 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Translators 
 
234 
 
 (^iet (K)ot50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Translators 
 
 Indeed some decry all translators as interlopers, 
 spoiling the trade of learning, which should be driven 
 amongst scholars alone. Such also allege, that the best 
 translations are works rather of industry than judgment, 
 and (in easy authors) of faithfulness rather than industry ; 
 that many be but bunglers, forcing the meaning of the 
 authors they translate, 'picking the lock when they 
 cannot open it.' 
 
 But their opinion presents too much of envy, that 
 such gentlemen who cannot repair to the fountain should 
 be debarred access to the stream. Besides, it is unjust 
 to charge all with the faults of some ; and a distinction 
 must be made amongst translators, betwixt coblers and 
 workmen, and our Holland^ had the true knack of 
 
 translating. worthies: Warwick. Writers. 
 
 Treason 
 
 Treason will run up the steepest ascent where valour 
 itself can scarce creep. H„iy war. b. ii. c. 42. 
 
 Trifles 
 
 Yea, a toy may be real, and a point may be essential 
 in the sense of some sentences, and worse to be spared 
 than some whole letter. 
 
 Holy State, B. iv. C. xvi. 12. 
 
 ' Philemon Holland, M.D., of Coventry. 
 
 True 
 
Ouaitt^ C^ottneef© 
 
 235 
 
 True Value 
 
 In London-exchange, one shall over-buy wares who 
 gives half the price at first demanded, so he that be- 
 lieveth the moiety of fame may believe too much. . . . 
 
 Yet virtues confessed by their foes, and vices acknow- 
 ledged by their friends, are commonly true. 
 
 Holy state, B. iv. C. v. 10, 11. 
 
 Are Turks or Tartars more easily convertible 
 to Christianity? 
 
 It is a pretty quaere, whether Turks or Tartars be 
 easier convertible to the Christian religion : I mean 
 ex parte objecti ; for otherwise all things are equally easy 
 to an infinite agent. Now it seemeth the Tartars are 
 reducible with most facility to our religion; for pure 
 Paganism and native infidelity, like white cloth, will take 
 the tincture of Christianity; whereas the Turks are 
 soiled and stained with the irreligious religion of Maho- 
 metanism, which first with much pains must be scoured 
 out of them. And though they may seem to be in some 
 forwardness to conversion, because they have a kind of 
 knowledge and reverence of Christ, yet the best joint of 
 their belief must be broken before it can be well set, 
 and every drop of their present religion pumped out 
 before true faith be infused into them. And experience, 
 the most competent witness herein, hath proved, that 
 afterwards more Tartars, both private men and princes, 
 than Turks of either condition, have embraced Chris- 
 tianity. Holy War, B. iv. C. a. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
2 36 
 
 (^iu (P?or50 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 The Turkish Empire 
 
 But the lion is not so fierce as he is painted, nor this 
 empire so formidable as fame giveth it out. The Turk's 
 head is less than his turban, and his turban less than it 
 seemeth ; swelling without, hollow within. If more seri- 
 ously it be considered, this state cannot be strong, which 
 is a pure and absolute tyranny. His subjects under him 
 have nothing certain but this, that they have nothing 
 certain ; and may thank the grand signior for giving 
 them whatsoever he taketh not away from them. Their 
 goods they hold by permission, not propriety ; not sure 
 that either they or theirs shall reap what they sow, or 
 eat what they reap; and hereupon husbandry is wholly 
 neglected ; for the ploughman (as well as the ground he 
 plougheth) will be soon out of heart, if not maintained 
 and (as I may say) composted with hopes to receive 
 benefit by his labours. Here great officers, if they love 
 themselves, must labour not to be beloved; for popu- 
 larity is high treason ; and generally wealth is a sin to 
 be expiated by death. In a word, it is a cruel tyranny, 
 bathed in the blood of their emperors upon every 
 succession ; a heap of vassals and slaves ; no nobles 
 (except for time being, by office) no gentlemen, no free- 
 men, no inheritance of land, no stirp or ancient families ; 
 a nation without any morality, arts, and sciences, that 
 can measure an acre of land or hour of a day. 
 
 ffoly War, B. v. C. xxx. 
 
 Twilight 
 
 Should our eyes be instantly posted out of midnight 
 into noon-day, certainly we should be blinded with the 
 
 suddenness 
 
Ouattt^ £;outt0ef6 
 
 237 
 
 suddenness and excellency of the lustre thereof. Nature 
 therefore hath wisely provided the twilight, as a bridge, 
 by degrees to pass us from darkness to light. 
 
 Ch, Hist. B. V. S. iv, 33. 
 
 Unhappiness no Proof of Unworthiness 
 
 All persons unhappy must not presently be accounted 
 unworthy, especially in distracted times. Have you not 
 heard of that humorous waterman on the Thames, who 
 would carry none in his boat save such who would go 
 along with the tide, till, by feeding his humour, he had 
 almost starved himself for want of employment ? 
 
 Worthies^ Ch. xxv^ 
 
 Various Sins, various Punishments 
 
 God inilicteth not the same punishment for all, but 
 hath variety of correction. In his quiver some arrows 
 are blunt, some sharp, and of these he draws some half 
 way, some to the head. And the reason is, because 
 there are divers degrees of men's sins : some sin out of 
 ignorance, others out of knowledge ; some out of in- 
 firmity, others of presumption ; some once, others often ; 
 some at the seducing of others, others seduce others. 
 God therefore doth not like the unskilful empirics^ who 
 prescribe the same quantity of the same recipe at all 
 times, to all ages, tempers and diseases : but wisely he 
 varieth his physic, few stripes to those that knew not his 
 will, and many stripes for them who knew his will and 
 did it not. Sometimes he shooteth halfe canon, weak- 
 ness; sometimes full canon, sickness; sometimes mur- 
 dering pieces, death itself. 
 
 Coll. Serm, foseph's Party-coloured Coat^ xv. 30. 
 
 The 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
,>«^ 
 
 (P^ie^ (^ovi« mb 
 
 
 Tlio Vliitatlons of Mnn^tnlou CoUoro 
 
 Wiwr sl\iill I sju-iik of K-;u'iu-(l 1 amviuo lluiwpUivv, 
 iwinl'ul John t'\>\, stutlioiis M\i-I>a>-I Konui.v^oi, s\vi-i'( 
 u,itinv»l John Molins, i>n'l\diM(on ot raul's, AilUm S;uil. 
 IVloi- Morviu, IIiikIi Kiikc, aiul I like ruiitii-, ilcai 
 hirlhivM in ("hrist, ntl nl this tinu- lon-od to loiwikv" Iht'ii 
 colU'go? SothiU lUon Ma,mlalt-n wopt iuilood Tor tl\i- Ioivn 
 of so \>\anv woiiUics. All Ihis o\liomilv WUK i-\i'i'\ili'tl 
 by Ihi-so visilors, not as vet omiiowoinl liv law, ihr 
 stalnlcs of kiiij; I'alwanl slandinp, hithoilo uiuopoali'il 
 Uut soni(> arc so dosivons lo \Y0i'sl\ip the iismj>, huu, lUa(, 
 to luaki- sini> work, Ihi'v will adoio Iho (lawuinf> day > 
 ami iwiiny of tin- 0\lonl srholais lhou(.',l\l rioU-psis tl>t' 
 lu'sl lij.\uro in their (Aiammai lo loiosro what tl\<' iinoiai 
 would havi- doui', and lo inf.',raliiilc thcinsi'lvcs hv ante 
 daliiig the dnin^; Ihoii-of. ch. iii>i\ U. \lil. s, I, «, 
 
 An llnn\usk'nl Vtilco 
 
 l,(n<ii, my voiro hy nalini- is harsh nnd in\lnn('alil(', 
 and it is yaiu lo lavish any aii lo liclliM' it, ('an my 
 sini-'jnf; of psalms hv plrasinn to tliy I'ais, whiih is 
 iinpli'asant lo n\y own? yt'l Ihonj-'Ji 1 cannot chant witlt 
 the i\i(.',hlin)-',alc, or chirp with Ihc lilackliiid, I had iiitlu'i 
 challcf witli Ihc swallow, yea, lalhcr cioak with Ihc lavrn, 
 than he allonelher silent. I lads! thiai p.iyen me a hellei 
 voice, 1 would have piaised Ihee with a lietter voice, 
 Now what my musi<' wantM in sweetness let it have in 
 sense, sii\f.',in|-\ piaiseH with mideistandinf.\. \'ca, 1 ,oi'd, 
 create in me a new hearl (therein lo make melody), and 
 I will he contented with my old voice until in Ihy due 
 
 liuu- 
 
Quaint €:outt0ef0 
 
 239 
 
 time, being lulmiiunl into the <:lii)ir of heaven, I have 
 Mfiothcr, nuiru liiirnioniuuH licHldwcd upon niu. 
 
 Gmd 'I'liiiiinliti. I'trional Mti/lldtlmi, v. 
 
 WeedR 
 
 iMriiHHiiiMc ii is that all nhould be good lu-'il)8 which 
 Krow in greul niinlenN. pugah sight, ii, II, ( ■. »ii. :i. 
 
 The Good Wife 
 
 Hick dolheH iin; nitliLT <i)nii;ly Ihrin costly, inul Hhe 
 nuil<('H plain riolli Ui lie velvet ljy her liiuulHonic wearing 
 il, -She is none of (uir diiinly dunieH, who love to iippeiir 
 In variety of units every diiy new, as if n good gown, lii<e 
 a Hlratngeni in war, were lo he iwed l)ul onee. Hut our 
 good wife Hi'lH n|) a Hiiil according to llie Iteel of iier 
 hUHl)and'H cHliilc ; inul if of IiIkIi parenlage, she dotli not 
 NO renienilier wliat Hlie was by birth^ that she forgelH what 
 she is by maU/t. iii^iy s'lmt, u, I, <'. I, Iv, 
 
 Willows 
 
 A HAn tree, whereof such who liave lost tlieir love make 
 Iheir mourning KinlandH ; and we know what exiicH luing 
 lip llieir liarpH upon hiicIi doleful supporters. The twigs 
 liereof me phywic, lo drive out llie folly of children. 
 This iree delighlelli in inoisl place's, and is triumphant 
 in llie I Hie of Uly, wliere the roolH strengthen their banks, 
 and lop iiffonlH fuel for their fire. Il growelh incredibly 
 liiHl ! it being a byword in this cuunly, 'that the profit 
 
 by 
 
 ThomM 
 rnllsr 
 
240 
 
 ^tee (BE)otr60 anb 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 by willows will buy the owner a horse, before that by 
 other trees will pay for his saddle.' 
 
 Worthies: CaTttbr. Natural Commodities. 
 
 Wiltshire 
 
 A PLEASANT county, and of great variety. I have 
 heard a wise man say, that an ox left to himself would, 
 of all England, choose to live in the north, a sheep in 
 the south part hereof, and a man in the middle betwixt 
 both, as partaking of the pleasure of the plain, and the 
 wealth of the deep country. Worthies: wnts. 
 
 Windows 
 
 Light God's eldest daughter! is a principal beauty 
 in a building. — Yet it shines not alike from all parts of 
 heaven. An east window welcomes the infant beams of 
 the sun, before they are of strength to do any harm, and 
 is offensive to none but a sluggard. A south window 
 in summer is a chimney with a fire in it, and needs the 
 screen of a curtain. In a west window in summer-time, 
 towards night, the sun grows low and over-familiar, with 
 more light than delight. A north window is best for 
 butteries and cellars, where the beer will be sour for the 
 sun's smiling on it. Thorough lights are best for rooms 
 of entertainment, and windows on one side for dor- 
 mitories. 
 
 Holy StatCy B. iii. C. vii. 
 
 Wit 
 
 Any man may be witty in a biting way ; and those 
 who have the dullest brains have commonly the sharpest 
 
 teeth 
 
Quaint C^ouneePo 
 
 241 
 
 teeth to that purpose. But such carnal mirth, whilst it 
 tickleth the flesh, doth wound the soul. 
 
 Ap^. Inj. Inn. P. ii. B. ix. 180. 
 
 A Witch 
 
 At the first she is only ignorant, and very malicious. — 
 She hath usually a bad face, and a worse tongue, given 
 to railing and cursing, as if constantly bred on Mount 
 Ebal; yet speaking, perchance, worse than she means, 
 though meaning worse than she should. And as the 
 harmless yapping of a cursed cur may stir up a fierce 
 mastiff to the worrying of sheep ; so, on her cursing, the 
 devil may take occasion by God's permission to do 
 mischief, without her knowledge, and perchance against 
 
 her will. Holy state, B. v. C. 3. 
 
 Woman, and so, weak 
 
 Of the two sexes the woman is the weaker ; of women, 
 old women are most feeble ; of old women, widows most 
 woful ; of widows, those that are poor, their plight most 
 pitiful ; of poor widows, those that want children, their 
 case most doleful ; of widows that want children, those 
 that once had them and after lost them, their estate 
 most desolate j of widows that have had children, those 
 that are strangers in a foreign country, their condition 
 most comfortless. Ruth, 1-5. 
 
 A Woman's reputation 
 
 There is a tree in Mexicana which is so exceedingly 
 tender, that a man cannot touch any of his branches, 
 
 R but 
 
 Thomas 
 FuUer 
 
242 
 
 (Wi0^ (Wovb0 an6 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 but it withers presently. A lady's credit is of equal 
 niceness ; a small touch may wound and kill it ; which 
 makes her very cautious what company she keeps. The 
 Latin tongue seems somewhat injurious to the feminine 
 sex; for whereas therein amicus is 'a friend,' arnica 
 always signifies 'a sweetheart'; as if their sex, in 
 reference to men, were not capable of any other kind of 
 familiar friendship, but in way to marriage. 
 
 Holy State, B. iv. C. xiii. 12. 
 
 Wonder 
 
 Well, let our admiration be given to God, seeing 
 deliberate wondering (when the soul is not suddenly 
 surprised) being raised up to an height is part of 
 adoration, and cannot be given to any creature without 
 some sacrilege. Such wondering consists of reverence 
 and ignorance, which best becometh even the wisest of 
 men, in their searches after God his ways. As for that 
 unkind wondering, which melts not man's heart like wax 
 into the praising of God, but clay-like hardeneth it unto 
 stupefaction, 'Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and 
 perish.' God keep all good men from being guilty 
 thereof ! 
 
 Worthies, Chap. ii. 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Be it here remembered, that the see of Worcester had 
 nine bishops successively ; whereof the four first, (being 
 all Italians,) none of them lived there; the five last, 
 (Latimer, Bell, Heath, Hooper, Pate,) none of them 
 died there, as either resigning, removed, or deprived ; 
 
 and 
 
Ouainf £oun0ef0 
 
 243 
 
 and all five were alive together in the reign of Queen 
 
 ^^"■y- * Ch. Hist. B. ix. S. i. 16. 
 
 Work keeps men alive 
 
 Lord, I read of the two witnesses, And when they 
 shall have finished their testimony, the beast that 
 ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war 
 against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
 They could not be killed whilst they were doing, but 
 when they had done their work ; during their employ- 
 ment they were invincible. No better armour against 
 the darts of death than to be busied in thy service. 
 Why art thou so heavy, O my soul ? No malice of man 
 can antedate my end in a minute, whilst my Maker hath 
 any work for me to do. And when all my daily task is 
 ended, why should I grudge then to go to bed ? 
 
 Good Thoughts in Bad Times : Scrip. Obs. 10. ■ 
 
 Wotton under Weaver 
 
 ' Where God came never.' 
 
 It is time that this old profane proverb should die in 
 men's mouths for ever. I confess, in common discourse, 
 God is said to come to what he doth approve; to send 
 to what he only permits ; and neither to go nor send to 
 what he doth dislike and forbid. But this distinction, if 
 granted, will help nothing to the defending of this profane 
 proverb, which it seems took its wicked original from the 
 situation of Wotton, so covered with hills from the hght 
 of the sun, a dismal place, as report representeth it. 
 But were there a place indeed where God came never, 
 how many years' purchase would guilty consciences give 
 R 2 for 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
244 
 
 (^iee (XOot50 anb 
 
 for a small abode therein, thereby to escape Divine 
 
 justice for their offences ! worthies: Stafford. -Proverbs. 
 
 Writing and Living 
 
 How easy is pen and paper piety for one to write 
 religiously ! I will not say it costeth nothing, but it is far 
 cheaper to work one's head than one's heart to goodness. 
 Some, perchance, may guess me to be good by my 
 writings, and so I shall deceive my reader. But if I do 
 not desire to be good, I most of aU deceive myself. I 
 can make a hundred meditations sooner than subdue the 
 least sin in my soul. Yea, I was once in the mind never 
 to write more ; for fear lest my writings at the last day 
 prove records against me. And yet why should I not 
 write ? that by reading my own book, the disproportion 
 betwixt my lines and my life, may make me blush myself 
 (if not into goodness) into less badness than I would do 
 otherwise. That so my writings may condemn me, and 
 make me to condemn myself, that so God may be moved 
 
 to acquit me. Good Thoughts in Bad Times: Mixt Contemp. 25. 
 
 The Good Yeoman 
 
 The good yeoman is a gentleman in ore, whom the 
 next age may see refined ; and is the wax capable of a 
 genteel [gentle] impression, when the prince shall stamp 
 it. Wise Solon (who accounted Tellus the Athenian the 
 most happy man, for living privately on his own lands) 
 would surely have pronounced the English yeomanry 
 ' a fortunate condition,' living in the temperate zone 
 betwixt greatness and want ; an estate of people almost 
 peculiar to England. France and Italy are like a die, 
 
 which 
 
Ouain^ Coun0ef0 
 
 245 
 
 which hath no points between cinque and ace, — nobihty 
 and peasantry. Their walls, though high, must needs be 
 hollow, wanting filling-stones. noiy state, b. h. c. xviii. 
 
 Zacharias 
 
 Hard by Emmaus, even at this day, are shown the 
 ruins of Zacharias' house, where John the Baptist was 
 born, being the voice of a crier (Mat. iii.) begotten of 
 a dumb father. This was that Zacharias who would 
 not believe God without giving him a sign, and was 
 punished that men could not understand him, without 
 making of signs. pisgah sight, b. ii. c. xiv. 26. 
 
 Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
In Six Volumes, Octavo, Cloth, Price £1 19s. 
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