the means and degrees, pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly, care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first, and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them, like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly it is good to compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both, and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors; and lastly, good for external accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popularity youth. But for the moral part perhaps youth will have the pre-eminence, as age hath for the politic.

A certain Rab

bin upon the text, 'Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,' inferreth, that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections. ...

Of the Forty-third, entitled "Of Beauty," also published in 1612,the following is the most material portion :

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features, and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue, as if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labour to produce excellency; and therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit, and study rather behaviour than virtue. But this holds not always; for Augustus Cæsar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophi of Persia, were all high and great spirits, and yet the most beautiful men of their times. That is the best

.....

part of beauty which a picture cannot express, no nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion...

And here is the most striking part of the Forty-fourth,

entitled "Of Deformity," which likewise accompanied that on Beauty in the edition of 1612:

Whosoever hath anything fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn; therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold; first, as in their own defence as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time by a general habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind to watch and observe the weakness of others, that they may have somewhat to repay. Again, in their superiors it quencheth jealousy towards them, as persons that they think they may at pleasure despise; and it layeth their competitors and emulators asleep, as never believing they should be in possibility of advancement till they see them in possession, so that upon the matter, in a great wit, deformity is an advantage to rising..

...

The two next Essays, which are intimately connected, and which both appeared first in 1625, although long, will scarcely admit of curtailment. They are among the most elaborate and interesting in the collection. The Forty-fifth, entitled "Of Building," after some introductory remarks, proceeds as follows:

You cannot have a perfect palace except you have two several sides, a side for the banquet as is spoken of in the book of Esther, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs and the other for dwelling. I understand both these sides to be not only returns but parts of the front, and to be uniform without, though severally partitioned within, and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that as it were joineth them together on either hand. I would have on the side of the banquet in front one only goodly room above stairs, of some forty foot high, and under it a room for a dressing or preparing place at times of triumphs; on the other side, which is the household side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel (with a partition between), both of good state and biguess, and those not to go all the length, but to have at the further end a winter and a summer parlour, both fair; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground, and likewise some privy kitchens with butteries and pantries, and the like; as for the tower I would have it two stories of eighteen foot high apiece above the two wings, and a goodly leads upon the top railed with statues interposed; and the same tower to be divided into rooms as shall be

thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair open newel and finely railed in with images of wood cast into a brass colour, and a very fair landing place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants, for otherwise you shall have the servants' dinner after your own, for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel. And so much for the front, only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the lower room.

Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it of a far lower building than the front, and in all the four corners of that court fair staircases cast into turrets on the outside and not within the row of buildings themselves; but those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great heat in summer and much cold in winter, but only some side alleys with a cross, and the quarters to graze being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side let it be all stately galleries, in which galleries let there be three or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine coloured windows of several works. On the household side, chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments, with some bed chambers, and let all three sides be a double house without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms from the sun both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it also that you may have rooms both for summer and winter, shady for summer and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold; for inbowed windows I hold them of good use, (in cities indeed upright do better in respect of the uniformity towards the street,) for they be pretty retiring places for conference, and besides they keep both the wind and the sun off, for that which would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window; but let them be but few, four in in the court on the sides only.

Beyond this court let there be an inward court of the same square and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides; and in the inside cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches as high as the first story. On the under story towards the garden let it be turned to a grotto, or place of shade or estivation, and only have opening and windows towards the garden, and be level upon the floor no whit sunken under ground to avoid all dampishness; and let there be

a fountain or some fair work of statues in the midst of this court, and to be paved as the other court was. These buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides, and the end for privy galleries, whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary if the prince or any special person should be sick, with chambers, bed chambers, anticamera, and recamera joining to it; this upon the second story. Upon the ground story a fair gallery open upon pillars, and upon the third story likewise an open gallery upon pillars to take the prospect and freshness of the garden. At both corners of the further side, by way of return, let there be two delicate or rich cabinets daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst, and all other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery too I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much for the model of the palace, save that you must have, before you come to the front, three courts; a green court plain with a wall about it; a second court of the same but more garnished, with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon the wall; and a third court to make a square with the front, but not to be built nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces leaded aloft and fairly garnished on the three sides, and cloistered on the inside with pillars and not with arches below. As for offices let them stand at distance with some low galleries to pass from them to the palace itself.

And here is the Forty-sixth, " Of Gardens," in full :—

God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handy-works. And a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately Booner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection. I do hold it in the royal ordering of gardens there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year, in which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season. For December and January and the latter part of November you must take such things as are green all winter; holly, ivy, bays, juniper, cypress trees, yew, pine-apple trees, fir trees, rosemary, lavender, periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue, germander, flag, orange trees, lemon trees, and myrtles

There fol

In

if they be stoved, and sweet marjoram warm set. loweth for the latter part of January aud February the mazerion tree, which then blossoms; crocus vernus, both the yellow and the grey; primroses, anemones, the early tulippa, the hyacinthus orientalis, chamaïris, frittellaria. For March there come violets, specially the single blue, which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil, the daisy, the almond tree in blossom, the peach tree in blossom, the cornelian tree in blossom, sweet-briar. In April follow the double white violet, the wall-flower, the stock gilly-flower, the cowslip, flower de lice, and lilies of all natures, rosemary flowers, the tulippa, the double peony, the pale daffodil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry tree in blossom, the dammasin and plum trees in blossom, the white thorn in leaf, the lilac tree. May and June come pinks of all sorts, especially the blush pink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles, strawberries, bugloss, columbine, the French marygold, flos africanus, cherry tree in fruit, ribes, figs in fruit, rasps, vine flowers, lavender in flowers, the sweet satyrian with the white flower, herba muscaria, lilium convallium, the apple tree in blossom. In July come gilly-flowers of all varieties, musk roses, the lime tree in blossom, early pears and plums in fruit, genitings, codlins. In August come plums of all sorts in fruit, pears, apricots, barberries, filberts, musk melons, monk's hoods of all colours. In September come grapes, apples, poppies of all colours, peaches, melo-cotones, nectarines, cornelians, wardens, quinces. In October and the beginning of November come services, medlars, bullises, roses cut or removed to come late, hollyhocks, and such like. These particulars are for the climate of London, but my meaning is perceived that you may have ver perpetuum* as the place affords.

And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air, (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music,) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells, so that you may walk by a whole row of them and find nothing of their sweetness; yea, though it be in a morning's dew. Bays likewise yield no smell as they grow, rosemary little, nor sweet marjoram. That which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air is the violet, especially the white double violet

* Perpetual spring.