Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]

LVIII. Ad conspectum fagi feracissima. Quam frugifera, hoc anno, est ista arbor! Non ita, superiore, onusta fuit; neque sic erit, sine dubio, proximè futuro. Ille mos harum arborum prodigarum est, ita se totas in fructum unà effundere, ut steriles postmodò et avaræ videantur.

On a beech-tree full of nuts. How is this tree overladen with mast, this year! It was not so, the last; neither will it, I warrant you, be so, the next. It is the nature of these free trees, so to pour out themselves into fruit at once, that they seem after either sterile or niggardly.

So have I seen pregnant wits, not discreetly governed, overspend themselves in some one master-piece so lavishly, that they have proved either barren, or poor and flat, in all other subjects. True wisdom, as it serves to gather due sap, both for nourishment and fructification; so it guides the seasonable and moderate bestowing of it in such manner, as that one season may not be a glutton, while others famish. I would be glad to attain to that measure and temper, that, upon all occasions, I might always have enough; never, too much.

Ita vidi ego prægnantia quædam ingenia, quibus justa prudensque sibi moderandi cura defuit, sic se tota in elaborato aliquo opere prodigere, ut aut parùm deinceps feracia, aut in aliis omnibus egena et elanguida, visa fuerint. Vera sapientia, uti succo attrahendo, cùm nutrimenti tum fœcunditatis causâ, inservit; ita regit ejusdem tempestivam moderatamque dispensationem, ut satura nimis non sit tempestas hæc, dum illa famelica est. Id mihi curæ erit eam assequi mensuram temperiemque, ut, quicquid tandem evenerit, sat mihi semper suppetat; nunquam verò, nimium.

On the sight of a piece of money under LIX. Ad conspectum nummi in aquam

the water.

I SHOULD not wish ill to a covetous man, if I should wish all his coin in the bottom of the river. No pavement could so well be

injecti.

NON malè forsan avaro optarem, si quicquid illi nummorum est profundo flumini devoverem. Nec quod pavimentum gurgiti il

come that stream: no sight could better fit his greedy desires: for there, every piece would seem double; every teston would appear a shilling; every crown, an angel. It is the nature of that element, to greaten appearing quantities: while we look through the air upon that solid body, it can make no other representations.

Neither is it otherwise in spiritual eyes and objects. If we look with carnal eyes through the interposed mean of sensuality, every base and worthless pleasure will seem a large contentment: if with weak eyes we shall look at small and immaterial truths aloof off, (in another element of apprehension,) every parcel thereof shall seem main and essential: hence, every knack of heraldry in the sacred genealogies, and every scholastical quirk in disquisitions of Divinity, are made matters of no less than life and death to the soul. It is a great improvement of true wisdom, to be able to see things, as they are; and, to value them, as they are seen. Let me labour, for that power and stayedness of judgment, that neither my senses may deceive my mind, nor the object may delude my sense.

li aptius: nec quod fortè spectaculum inexplebili illius desiderio accommodatius: foret singuli enim ibi nummi duplices viderentur; drachmæ nimirum omnes, totidem solidi; scutorum verò lilia, totidem angeli apparerent. Elemento nempe huic innatum hoc est, augere, quoad externam speciem, quantitatem quamlibet: dum, mediante tenuiore hoc aëre, solidum illud corpus perspiciendo penetramus, non potest quicquam nobis aliud representari.

Neque se habet aliter in spiritualibus sive oculis sive objectis. Si carneis oculis per interpositum concupiscentiæ medium prospi cimus, vilis quæque et frivola voluptas largam quandam perfectamque animi contentationem mentietur: si debilibus oculis minutulos penèque diάop8s veritatum apices à longè contueamur, (præsertim verò ubi apprehensionis nostræ medium variatur,) unaquæque particula et maxima videbitur et rei religionis haud parùm necessaria: hinc fit, inutiles quasque sacrarum genealogiarum mínutias, scholasticasque omnes in Theologicis disquisitionibus subtilitates, inter summą fidei capita annumerari. Veræ prudentiæ magna laus est, posse videre res, ut sunt; et, ut sic videntur, appreciari. Operam ego sedulò dederim, illam assequi judicii vim firmitudinemque, ut neque sensus mei animum decipiant, neque objecta sensum fallant.

On the first rumour of the earthquake LX. at Lime; wherein a wood was swal lowed up, with the fall of two hills.

GOOD Lord! how do we know, when we are sure? If there were

Accepto rumore terræmotûs Limensis; à quo sylva quædam, casis duorum montium, absorpta quasique sepulta fuit.

BONE Deus! unde nosse possumus, quando ac ubi in tuto si

man or beast in that wood, they seemed as safe, as we now are. They had nothing, but heaven above them; nothing, but firm earth below them: and yet, in what a dreadful pitfall were they instantly taken! There is no fence for God's hand. A man would as soon have feared, that heaven would fall upon him, as those hills. It is no pleasing ourselves with the unlikelihood of divine judgments. We have oft heard of hills covered with woods; but of woods covered with hills, I think never till now. Those, that planted or sowed those woods, intended they should be spent with fire: but, lo, God meant they should be devoured with earth. We are wont to describe impossibilities by the meeting of mountains; and, behold, here two mountains are met, to swallow up a valley. What a good God it is, whose Providence overrules and disposes of all these events! Towns or cities might as well have been thus buried, as a solitary dale, or a shrubby wood. Certainly, the God, that did this, would have the use of it reach further than the noise. This he did, to shew us what he could, what he might do. If our hearts do not quake and rend at the acknowledgment of his Infinite Power, and fear of his terrible judgments, as well as that earth did, we must expect to be made warnings, that would take none,

On the sight of a dormouse. AT how easy a rate do these creatures live, that are fed with rest!

mus? In sylvâ hâc seu bestia seu homines siqui erant, quàm se non minùs securos putabaut, quàm nos nunc istic sumus? Supra se nil, nisi cœlum; infra se nil, nisi terram firmissimam, videre potuerunt: et tamen, quàm horrendâ subitò decipulâ deprehensi periêre! Divinæ manus effugium nullum uspiam est. Æquè suspicatus fuisset quis, cœlum ruiturum, ac illos montes. Non est quòd nobis placeamus improbabili judiciorum divinorum eventu. Sæpe quidem audivimus vidimusque montes sylvis coopertos; sylvas verò montibus coopertas, nusquam antehac accepimus. Qui sylvas illas plantârunt severuntve, igne aliquando absumendas fore arbitrabantur: ecce, Deus terrâ absorbendas judicavit. Impossibilia quæque sole

mus occursu montium describere; et, ecce, istic montes duo convenerunt, vallem deglutien-. do. Quàm beneficus Deus est, cujus Providentia casus istos omnes regit disponitque! Oppida urbesve a què facilè sic sepeliri potuissent, atque vallis solitaria, ac fruticosa sylva. Certè quidem, ille, qui hoc fecit, Deus, eventus hujus usum longiùs quàm sonitum dilatari voluit. Fecit hoc, ut doceret quid et ille posset, et nos meriti. Si corda nostra sensu quodam reverendo Infinite ejus Potentiæ, terribiliumque judiciorum metu, non minùs tremant discindanturque quàm terra hæc, quid mirum exempla nos fieri aliis, qui aliorum exemplis moveri usque detrectavimus?

LXI.

Ad conspectum gliris. Quàm minimo sumptu vivunt hæc animalcula, quæ solo somno

So the bear and the hedgehog, they say, spend their whole winter in sleep; and rise up fatter, than they lay down.

How oft have I envied the thriving drowsiness of these beasts, when the toil of thoughts hath bereaved me of but one hour's sleep, and left me languishing to a new task! And yet, when I have well digested the comparison of both these conditions, I must needs say, I would rather waste with work, than batten with ease and would rather choose a life profitably painful, than uselessly dull and delicate. I cannot tell, whether I should say those creatures live, which do nothing; since we are wont ever to notify life by motion: sure I am, their life is not vital. For me, let me rather complain of a mind, that will not let me be idle; than of a body, that will not let me work.

On bees fighting.

WHAT a pity it is, to see these profitable, industrious creatures fall so furiously upon each other; and thus sting and kill each other, in the very mouth of the hive! I could like well, to see the bees do this execution upon wasps and drones, enemies to their common stock: this savours but of justice: but to see them fall foul upon those of their own wing, it cannot but trouble their owner; who must needs be an equal loser, by the victory of either.

There is no more perfect resemblance of a Commonwealth, whether civil or sacred, than in a hive. The bees are painful

pascuntur! Ita et ursos et erinaceos aiunt hyemem totam deterere; ac surgere pinguiores, quàm decubuerant.

Quoties invidi ego saginatrici harum bestiarum somnolentiæ, ubi cogitationum labor assiduus somnum mihi omnem ademerit, neque per horulæ unius momentum quiescere permiserit, languescentemque novo deinde penso addixerit! Attamen, ubi hanc utriusque conditionem probè appenderim, fatebor equidem lubens, malo labore deteri, quàm pinguescere otio: malo vitam utiliter operosam, quàm inutiliter segnem delicatamque. Nescio, an verè possim dicere animalia illa vel vivere quidem, quæ nihil agunt; quandoquidem nos vitam motu definire soleamus: certè, illorum vita parùm vitalis est. Quod ad me, malim ego profectò conqueri de animo, quiescere nescio; quàm de corpore, laboris impatiente.

LXII. Visis apibus secum pugnantibus. Quàm mihi dolet, videre utiles hasce et industrias creaturas in se mutuò tam furiosè involantes; seque, vel in ipso præsepiorum ingressu, stimulantes invicem interficientesque! Id mihi cordi foret, aspicere apes hasce idem fucis facere ac vespis, communis utilitatis hostibus notissimis: justitiam hoc sapit ilicet: videre verò apes has secummet ipsis dimicantes, non potest non esse molestum domino suo; qui, quæcunque demum vicerint, cives perdat necesse est.

Perfectior nulla potest esse Reipublicæ, sive civilis sive sacra, imago, quàm in istis apum præsepibus. Apes operosi sunt

and honest compatriots; labouring to bring wax and honey to the maintenance of the public state: the wasps and drones are unprofitable and harmful hangbyes, which live upon the spoil of others' labours; whether as common barretors, or strong thieves, or bold parasites, they do nothing but rob their neighbours. It is a happy sight, when these feel the dint of justice, and are cut off from doing further mischief: but to see well-affected and beneficial subjects undo themselves with duels, whether of law or sword; to see good Christians, of the same profession, shedding each others' blood upon quarrels of religion, is no other than a sad and hateful spectacle; and so much the more, by how much we have more means of reason and grace, to compose our differences, and correct our offensive contentiousness.

O God, who art at once the Lord of Hosts and Prince of Peace, give us war with spiritual wickedness, and peace with our brethren.

On wasps falling into a
glass.

SEE you that narrow-mouthed glass, which is set near to the hive? mark how busily the wasps resort to it; being drawn thither by the smell of that sweet liquor, wherewith it is baited: see how eagerly they creep into the mouth of it *; and fall down suddenly from that slippery steepness, into that watery trap, from which they can never rise: there, after

honestique concives; sedulò collaborantes ceræ ac melli ad communis rei sustentat onem importandis: vespæ ac fuci inutiles sunt et improbuli scurræ, qui alienorum laborum spoliis victitare solent; sive ut vitilitigatores, sive fures, sive edaces parasiti, proximos quosque despoliantur. Ubi justitia aciem sentiunt isti, tempestivasque pœnas sic luunt ut nihil deinceps mali perpetrent, fælix profectò spectaculum est: videre autem benè-affectos fidosque subditos duellis, sive forensibus sive mavortiis, decertantes; videre Christianos, fidei ejusdem professores, mutuum sibi sanguinem religionis causâ crudeliter profundentes, triste et horrendum quiddam est et prodigii plenissimum; eo que magis, quo plura ac commodiora et rationis et gratiæ media nobis, cùm componendis litibus, tum corrigendis vitiosis contentionum studiis, suppetunt.

O Deus, qui unà et Dominus Exercituum et Princeps Pacis audis, bellum cum vitiis, cum fra tribus pacem, indulge.

LXIII. Conspectis vespis in vitrum melle illitum decidentibus.

VIDE modò vitream illam ore angusto phialam, quàm proximè præsepio illi collocatam: quàm studiosè convolant illò vespæ; dulcis illius, quo inescatur, liquoris odore attracta; deciduntque illico à lubrico hoc præcipitio, in decipulam illam aqueam, nunquam deinceps evasure: ibique, post paulum vani laboris ac lassitudinis, suffocantur statim et

* "See how eagerly they creep into the mouth of it," omitted in the Latin. EDITOR.

« AnteriorContinuar »