Life for delays and doubts no time does give,
None ever yet made haste enough to live.
Let him defer it, whose preposterous care
Omits himself, and reaches to his heir;
Who does his father's bounded stores despise,
And whom his own too never can suffice:
My humble thoughts no glittering roofs require,
Or rooms that shine with aught but constant fire.
I well content the avarice of my sight
With the fair gildings of reflected light:
Pleasures abroad, the sport of Nature yields,
Her living fountains, and her smiling fields;
And then at home, what pleasure is 't to see
A little, cleanly, cheerful, family!
Which if a chaste wife crown, no less in her
Than fortune, I the golden mean prefer.
Too noble, nor too wise she should not be,
No, nor too rich, too fair, too fond of me.
Thus let my life slide silently away,
With sleep all night, and quiet all the day.

XI.

OF MYSELF.

IT is a hard and nice subject for a man to write of himself; it grates his own heart to say any thing of disparagement, and the reader's ears to hear any thing of praise from him. There is no danger from me of offending him in this kind; neither my mind, nor my body, nor my fortune, allow me any materials for that vanity. It is sufficient for my own contentment, that they have preserved me from being scandalous or remarkable on the defective side. But, besides that, I shall here speak of myself only in relation to the subject of these precedent discourses, and shall be likelier thereby to fall into the contempt, than rise up to the estimation, of most people.

You may see by it, I was even then acquainted with the poets (for the conclusion is taken out of Horace3); and perhaps it was the immature and immoderate love of them, which stampt first, or rather engraved, these characters in me : they were like letters cut into the bark of a young tree, which with the tree still grow proportionably. But, how this love came to be produced in me so early, is a hard question: I believe, I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head first with such chimes of verse, as have never since left ringing there: for I remember, when I began to read, and to take some pleasure in it, there was wont to lie in my mother's parlour, (I know not by what accident, for she herself never in her life read any book but of devotion) but there was wont to lie Spenser's works; this I happened to fall upon, and was infinitely delighted with the stories of the knights, and giants, and monsters, and brave houses, which I found every where there (though my understanding had little to do with all this ;) and, by degrees, with the tinkling of the rhyme and dance of the numbers; so that, I think, I had read him all over before I was twelve years old, and was thus made a poet as immediately as a child is made an cunuch.

As far as my memory can return back into my past life, before I knew, or was capable of guessing, what the world, or the glories or business of it, were, the natural affections of my soul gave me a secret bent of aversion from them, as some plants are said to turn away from others, by an antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and in- | scrutable to man's understanding, Even when I was a very young boy at school, instead of running about on holy-days and playing with my fellows, I was wont to steal from them, and walk into the fields, either alone with a book, or with some one companion, if I could find any of the same temper. I was then, too, so much an enemy to all constraint, that my masters could never prevail on me, by any persuasions or encouragements, to learn without book the com- With these affections of mind, and my heart mon rules of grammar; in which they dispensed wholly set upon letters, I went to the university, with me alone, because they found I made a but was soon torn from thence by that violent shift to do the usual exercise out of my own read-public storm, which would suffer nothing to stand ing and observation. That I was then of the same mind as I am now (which, I confess, I wonder at myself) may appear by the latter end of an ode, which I made when I was but thirteen years old, and which was then printed with mapy other verses. The beginning of it is boyish;

where it did, but rooted up every plant, even from the princely cedars to me the hyssop. Yet, I had as good fortune as could have befallen me in such a tempest; for I was cast by it into the family of

3 3 Od, xxix. 41.

No matter, Cowley; let proud Fortune see,
That thou canst her despise no less than she does
thee.

Let all her gifts the portion be
Of folly, lust, and flattery.
Fraud, extortion, calumny,
Murder, infidelity,

Rebellion, and hypocrisy.
Do thou not grieve nor blush to be,
As all th' inspired tuneful men,
And all thy great forefathers, were, from Homer
down to Ben.

one of the best persons, and into the court of one of the best princesses, of the world. Now, though I was here engaged in ways most contrary to the original design of my life, that is, into much company, and no small business, and into a daily sight of greatness, both militant and triumphant (for that was the state then of the English and French courts); yet all this was so far from altering my opinion, that it only added the confirmation of reason to that which was before but natural inclination. I saw plainly all the paint of that kind of life, the nearer I came to it; and that beauty, which I did not fall in love with, when, for aught I knew, it was real, was not like to bewitch or entice me, when I saw that it was adulterate. I met with several great persons, whom I liked very well; but could not perceive that any part of their greatness was to be liked or desired, no more than I would be glad or content to be in a storm, though I saw many ships which rid safely and bravely in it; a storm would not agree with my stomach, if it did with my courage. Though I was in a crowd of as good company as could be found any where; though I was in business of great and honourable trust; though I eat at the best table, and enjoy-shall separate me from a mistress which I have ed the best conveniences for present subsistence that ought to he desired by a man of my condition in banishment and public distresses; yet I could not abstain from renewing my old schoolboy's wish, in a copy of verses to the same effect:

Well then 4; I now do plainly see

This busy world and I shall ne'er agree, &c.

And I never then proposed to myself any other advantage from his majesty's happy restoration but the getting into some moderately convenient retreat in the country; which I thought in that case I might easily have compassed, as well as some others, with no greater probabilities or pretences, have arrived to extraordinary fortunes: but I had before written a shrewd prophecy against myself; and I think Apollo inspired me in the truth, though not in the elegance, of it:

"Thou neither great at court, nor in the war, Nor at the exchange, shalt be, nor at the wrangling bar.

Content thyself with the small barren praise,

Which neglected verse does raise."
She spake; and all my years to come
Took their unlucky doom.
Their several ways of life let others chuse,

Their several pleasures let them use;
But I was born for love, and for a Muse.

With Fate what boots it to contend?
Such I began, such am, and so must end.
The star, that did my being frame,
Was but a lambent flame.

And some small light it did dispense,
But neither heat nor influence.

However by the failing of the forces which I had expected, I did not quit the design which I had resolved on; 1 cast myself into it a corps perdu, without making capitulations, or taking counsel of Fortune. But God laughs at a man, who says to his soul, "Take thy ease:" I met presently not only with many little incumbrances and impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as would have spoiled the happiness of an emperor as well as mine: yet I do neither repent, nor alter my course. Non ego perfidum dixi sacramentum: nothing

loved so long, and have now at last married; though she neither has brought me a rich portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped from her :

-Nec vos, dulcissima mundi
Nomina, vos Musa, libertas, otia, libri,
Hortique, silvæque, animâ remanente, relin-

quam.

Nor by me e'er shall you,
You, of all names the sweetest and the best,
You Muses, books, and liberty and rest;
You, gardens, fields, and woods, forsaken be,
As long as life itself forsakes not me.

But this is a very pretty ejaculation.-Because I have concluded all the other chapters with a copy of verses, I will maintain the humour to the last.

MARTIAL, Lib. X. Epigr. xlvii.

Vitam que faciunt beatiorem &c.

SINCE, dearest friend, 'tis your desire to see
A true receipt of happiness from me;
These are the chief ingredients, if not all:
Take an estate neither too great or small,
Which quantum sufficit the doctors call:
Let this estate from parents' care descend;
The getting it too much of life does spend:
Take such a ground whose gratitude may be
A fair encouragement for industry.
Let constant fires the winter's fury tame;
And let thy kitchen's be a vestal flame.
Thee to the town let never suit at law,
And rarely, very rarely, business, draw.
Thy active mind in equal temper keep,
In undisturbed peace, yet not in sleep.

♦ We have these verses, under the name of Let exercise a vigorous health maintain, The Wish, in the MISTRESS,

Without which all the composition's vain.

In the same weight prudence and innocence take, | Hic sparge flores, sparge breres rosas

Ana of each does the just mixture make.

But a few friendships wear, and let them be
By nature and by fortune fit for thee.
Instead of art and luxury in food,

Let mirth and freedom make thy table good.
If any cares into thy day-time creep,

At night, without wine's opium, let them sleep.
Let rest, which nature does to darkness wed,
And rot lust, recommend to thee thy bed.
Be satisfied and pleas'd with what thou art,
Act cheerfully and well th' allotted part;
Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past,
And neither fear, nor wish, th' approaches of
the last.

MARTIAL, Lib. X. Epigr. xcvi.

Sæpe loquar nimium gentes, &c.

ME, who have liv'd so long among the great,
You wonder to hear talk of a retreat:
And a retreat so distant as may show
No thoughts of a return, when once I go.
Give me a country, how remote so'er,
Where happiness a moderate rate does bear,
Where poverty itself in plenty flows,
And all the solid use of riches knows.

[there;
The ground about the house maintains it,
The house maintains the ground about it, here;
Here even hunger's dear; and a full board
Devours the vital substance of the lord.
The land itself does there the feast bestow,
The land itself must here to market go.
Three or four suits one winter here does waste,
One suit does there three or four winters last,
Here every frugal man must oft be cold,
And little luke-warm fires are to you sold.
There fire's an element, as cheap and free,
Almost, as any of the other three.
Stay you then here, and live among the great,
Attend their sports and at their tables eat.
When all the bounties here of men you score,
The place's bounty there shall give me more.

EPITAPHIUM VIVI AUCTORIS3.

Hic, o viator, sub lare parvulo
Couleius hic est conditus, hic jacet ;
Defunctis humani laboris
Sorte, supervacuâqe vitâ.

Non indecorâ pauperie nitens,
Et non inerti nobilis otio,
Vanóque dilectis popello

Divitiis animosus hostis.

Nam vita gaudet mortua floribus
Herbisque odoratis corona

Vatis adhuc cinerem calentem.

A PROPOSITION FOR THE AD-
VANCEMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL
PHILOSOPHY 1.

THE COLLEGE.

THAT the philosophical college be situated within one, two, or (at farthest) three miles of London; and, if it be possible to find that convenience upon the side of the river, or very near it.

That the revenue of this college amount to four thousand pounds a year.

That the company received into it be as follows: 1. Twenty philosophers or professors. 2. Sixteen young scholars, servants to the professors, 3. A chaplain. 4. A bailiff for the revenue. 5. A manciple or purveyor for the provisions of the house. 6. Two gardeners. 7. A master-cook, 8. An under-cook. 9. A butler. 10. An underbutler. 11. A surgeon. 12. Two lungs, or chymical servants. 13. A library-keeper, who is likewise to be apothecary, druggist, and keeper of instruments, engines, &c. 14. An officer to feed and take care of all beasts, fowl, &c. kept by the college. 15. A groom of the stable. 16. A messenger, to send up and down for all uses of the college. 17. Four old women, to tend the chambers, keep the house clean, and such-like services.

That the annual allowance for this company be as follows: 1. To every professor, and to the chaplain, one hundred and twenty pounds. 2. To the sixteen scholars, twenty pounds apiece; ten pounds for their diet, and ten pounds for their entertainment. 3. To the bailiff, thirty pounds, besides allowance for his journies. 4. To the purveyor, or manciple, thirty pounds. 5. To each of the gardeners, twenty pounds. 6. To the master-cook, twenty pounds. 7. To the under-cook, four pounds. 8. To the butler, ten pounds. 9. To the under-butler, four pounds. 10. To the surgeon, thirty pounds. 11. To the library-keeper, thirty pounds. 12. To each of the lungs, twelve pounds. 13. To the keeper

1 Ingenious men delight in dreams of reformation. In comparing this Proposition of Cowley, with that of Milton, addressed to Mr. Hartlib, we find that these great poets had amused themselves with some exalted, and, in the main, congenial fancies, on the subject of education: that, of the two plans proposed, this of Mr. Cowley was better digested, and is the less fanciful; if a preference, in this respect, can be given to either, when both are manifestly Utopian: and that our universities, in their present form, are well enough calculated to answer all the reasonable ends of such institutions; provided we allow for the unSee a translation of this Epitaph among the avoidable defects of them, when drawn out into poems of Mr. Addison.

Possis ut illum dicere mortuum;
En terra jam nunc quantula sufficit!
Exempta sit curis, viator.

Terra sit illa levis, precare.

practice. Huan

of the beasts, six pounds, 14. To the groom, five pounds. 15. To the messenger, twelve pounds. 16. To the four necessary women, ten pounds. For the manciple's table, at which all the servants of the house are to eat, exccpt the scholars, one hundred and sixty pounds. For three horses for the service of the college, thirty pounds.

All which amounts to three thousand two hundred eighty-five pounds. So that there remains for keeping of the house and gardens, and operatories, and instruments, and animals, and experiments of all sorts, and all other expenses, seven hundred and fifteen pounds.

that in the middle there be a parterre of flowers and a fountain.

That the second quadrangle, just behind the first, be so contrived, as to contain these parts: 1. A chapel. 2. A hall, with two long tables on each side,for the scholars and officers of the house to eat at, and with a pulpit and forms at the end for the public lectures. 3. A large and pleasant dining-room within the hall, for the professors to eat in, and to hold their assemblies and conferences. 4. A public school-house. 5. A library. 6. A gallery to walk in, adorned with the pictures or statues of all the inventors of any thing useful to human life; as printing, guns, America, &c. and of late in anatomy, the circulation of the blood, the milky veins, and such like discoveries in any art,with short elogies, under the portraitures: as likewise the figures of all sorts of creatures, and the stuft skins of as many strange animals as can be gotten. 7. An anatomy-chamber adorned with skeletons and anatomical pictures, and prepared with all conveniences for dissection. 8. A chamber for all manner of drugs, and apothecaries' materials. 9. A mathematical chamber, furnished with all sorts of mathematical instruments, being an appendix to the library. 10. Lodgings for the chaplain, surgeon, library-keeper, and purveyor, near the chapel, anatomy-chamber, library, and hall.

Which were a very inconsiderable sum for the great uses to which it is designed, but that I conceive the industry of the college will in a short time so enrich itself, as to get a far better stock for the advance and enlargement of the work when it is once begun: neither is the continuance of particular men's liberality to be despaired of, when it shall be encouraged by the sight of that public benefit which will accrue to all mankind, and chiefly to our nation, by this foundation. Something likewise will arise from leases and other casualties; that nothing of which may be diverted to the private gain of the professors, or any other use besides that of the search of nature, and by it the general good of the world; and that care may be taken for the certain performance of all things ordained by the institution, as likewise for the protection and encouragement of the company, it is proposed: That some person, of eminent quality, a lover of solid learning, and no stranger in it, be chosen chancellor or president of the college, and that eight governors more, men qualified in the like manner, be joined with him, two of which shall That behind the second court be placed the yearly be appointed visitors of the college,and re- garden, containing all sorts of plants that our ceive an exact account of all expenses, even to soil will bear; and at the end a little house of the smallest, and of the true estate of their pub-pleasure, a lodge for the gardener, and a grove of lic treasure, under the hands and oaths of the professors resident.

That the choice of professors in any vacancy belong to the chancellor and the governors; but that the professors (who are likeliest to know what men of the nation are most proper for the duties of their society) direct their choice, by recommending two or three persons to them at every election: and that, if any learned person within his majesty's dominions discover, or emineutly improve, any useful kind of knowledge, he may upon that ground, for his reward and the encouragement of others, be preferred, if he pretend to the place before any body else.

That the governors have power to turn out any professor, who shall be proved to be either scandalous or unprofitable to the society.

That the third court be on one side of these, very large but meanly built, being designed only for use, and not for beauty too, as the others. That it contain the kitchen, butteries, brew-house, bake-house, dairy, lardry, stables, &c. and especially great laboratories for chymical operations and lodgings for the under servants.

trees cut out into walks.

That the second enclosed ground be a garden, destined only to the trial of all manner of experiments concerning plants,as their melioration, acceleration, retardation, conservation, composition, transmutation, coloration, or whatsoever else can be produced by art, either for use or curiosity, with a lodge in it for the gardener.

That the third ground be employed in convenient receptacles for all sorts of creatures which the professors shall judge necessary for their more exact search into the nature of animals, and the improvement of their uses to us.

That there be likewise built, in some place of the college where it may serve most for ornament of the whole, a very high tower for observation of celestial bodies, adorned with all sorts of dials, and such like curiosities; and that there be very deep vaults made under ground, for experiments most proper to such places, which will be undoubtedly very many.

That the college be built after this, or some such manner: That it consist of three fair quadrangular courts, and three large grounds, enclosed with good walls behind them. That the first court be built with a fair cloister; and the professors' lodgings, or rather little houses, four on each side, at some distance from one another, and with little gardens behind them, just after the manner of the Chartreux beyond sea. That the inside of the cloister be lined with a gravel-riments that can never be experimented), but

Much might be added, but truly I am afraid this is too much already for the charity or generosity of this age to extend to; and we do not design this after the model of Solomon's house in my lord Bacon, (which is a project for expe

walk, and that walk with a row of trees; and propose it within such bounds of expense as bave

often been exceeded by the buildings of private citizens.

OF THE PROFESSORS, SCHOLARS, CHAPLAIN,
AND OTHER OFFICERS,

an extraordinary), after consent of the other professors.

That all the professors shall sup together in the parlour within the hall every night, and shall dine there twice a week (to wit, Sundays and Thursdays) at two round tables, for the convenience of discourse; which shall be for the most part of such matters as may improve their studies and professions; and to keep them from fal

THAT of the twenty professors four be always travelling beyond seas, and sixteen always resident, unless by permission upon extraordi-ling into loose or unprofitable talk, shall be the nary occasions; and every one so absent, leaving a deputy behind him to supply his duties.

duty of the two arbitri mensarum, who may likewise conmand any of the servant-scholars to read them what he shall think fit, whilst they are at table; that it shall belong likewise to the said arbitri mensarum only, to invite strangers, which they shall rarely do, unless they be men of learn

That the four professors itinerant be assigned to the four parts of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, there to reside three years at least; and to give a constant account of all things that belong to the learning, and especiallying or great parts, and shall not invite above two natural experimental philosophy, of those parts. That the expense of all dispatches, and all books, simples, animals, stones, metals, minerals, &c. and all curiosities whatsoever, natural or artificial, sent by them to the college, shall be defrayed out of the treasury, and an additional allowance (above the 1207.) made to them as soon as the college's revenue shall be improved.

at a time to one table, nothing being more vain and unfruitful than numerous meetings of acquaintance.

That the professors resident shall allow the college twenty pounds a year for their diet, whether they continue there all the time or not.

That they shall have once a week an assembly, or conference, concerning the affairs of the college, and the progress of their experimental phi

That at their going abroad, they shall take a solemn oath, never to write any thing to the col-losophy. lege, but what, after very diligent examination, they shall fully believe to be true, and to confess and recant it as soon as they find themselves in

an errour.

That the sixteen professors resident shall be bound to study and teach all sorts of natural experimental philosophy, to consist of the mathematics, mechanics, medicine, anatomy, chymistry, the history of animals, plants, minerals, elements, &c.; agriculture, architecture,art military, navigation, gardening; the mysteries of all trades, and improvement of them; the facture of all merchandizes; all natural magic or divination; and briefly all things contained in the catalogue of natural histories annexed to my lord Bacon's Organon.

That once a day, from Easter till Michaelmas, and twice a week, from Michaelmas to Easter, at the hours in the afternoon most convenient for auditors from London, according to the time of the year, there shall be a lecture read in the hall, upon such parts of natural experimental philosophy, as the professors shall agree on among themselves, and as each of them shall be able to perform usefully and honourably.

That two of the professors, by daily, weekly, or monthly turns, shall teach the public schools, according to the rules hereafter prescribed.

That, if any one find out any thing which he conceives to be of consequence, he shall communicate it to the assembly, to be examined, experimented, approved, or rejected.

That, if any one be author of an invention that may bring in profit, the third part of it shall belong to the inventor, and the two other to the society; and besides, if the thing be very considerable, his statue or picture, with an elogy under it, shall be placed in the gallery, and made a denison of that corporation of famous

men.

That all the professors shall be always assigned to some particular inquisition (besides the ordinary course of their studies), of which they shall give an account to the assembly: so that by this means there may be every day some operation or other made in all the arts, as chymistry, anatomy, mechanics, and the like; and that the college shall furnish for the charge of the operation.

That there shall be kept a register under lock and key, and not to be seen but by the professors, of all the experiments that succeed, signed by the persons who made the trial.

That the popular and received errours in experimental philosophy (with which, like weeds in a neglected garden, it is now almost all over-grown) shall be evinced by trial and taken notice of in the public lectures, that they may no lon ger abuse the credulous, and beget new ones by consequence or similitude,

That all the professors shall be equal in all respects (except precedency, choice of lodging, and such-like privileges, which shall belong to seniority in the college); and that all shall be masters and treasurers by annual turns; which That every third year (after the full settletwo officers, for the time being, shall take placement of the foundation) the college shall give an of all the rest, and shall be arbitri duarum

mensarum.

That the master shall command all the officers of the college, appoint assemblies or conferences upon occasion, and preside in them with a double voice; and in his absence the treasurer, whose business is to receive and disburse all monies by the master's order in writing (if it be

account in print, in proper and ancient Latin of the fruits of their triennial industry.

That every professor resident shall have his scholar to wait upon him in his chamber and at table; whom he should be obliged to breed up in natural philosophy, and render an account of his progress to the assembly, from whose election he received him, and therefore is responsible to it,