TO
The
right
Worshipfull
,
SIR
WILLIAM
PORTMAN
,
BARONET
.
Honoured
Sir
,
THough
by
that
Splendor
with
which
the
bountifull
hand
of
Fortune
,
illustrated
by
the
more
excellent
Gifts
of
Nature
,
hath
Adorn'd
you
,
to
the
illumina●ting
the
Hopes
of
all
your
expecting
Friends
:
I
might
justly
fear
these
Glow-worms
of
Fancy
may
be
out-shone
,
to
the
obscurity
of
a
contemptible
Neglect
;
You
being
like
,
ere
long
,
to
prove
that
glorious
Luminarie
,
to
whose
ascending
Brightness
the
happiest
Wits
that
grace
the
British
Hemisphear
,
like
Persian
Priests
,
prostrated
to
the
rising
Sun
,
will
devote
the
Morning
Sa●●●fices
of
their
Muses
:
Yet
Animated
by
your
late
Candid
Reception
of
my
more
Youthfull
Labours
,
whose
humble
flights
having
your
Name
to
beautifie
their
Front
,
past
the
publick
View
unsullied
,
by
the
cloudy
Aspect
of
the
most
Critick
Spectator
:
I
have
once
more
assumed
the
boldness
to
let
the
Infirmities
of
my
Fancy
take
Sanctuary
under
the
Name
of
so
honoured
a
Patron
.
Though
my
Abilities
could
not
Cloath
Her
in
such
Robes
,
as
would
render
Her
a
fit
Companion
for
your
serious
Studies
,
yet
I
hope
her
Dress
is
not
so
sordid
,
but
she
may
prove
an
acceptable
Attendant
on
your
more
vacant
Hours
.
For
my
Subject
(
it
being
Heroick
Poesie
)
it
is
such
as
the
wiser
part
of
the
World
hath
alwaies
held
in
a
Venerable
Esteem
,
the
Extracts
of
Fancy
being
that
noble
Elixer
,
which
Heaven
ordain'd
to
Immortalize
their
Memories
,
whose
worthy
Actions
being
the
Products
of
that
nobler
part
of
Man
,
the
Soul
,
is
by
this
made
,
almost
Commensurate
with
Her
Eternity
;
which
otherwise
(
to
the
sorrow
of
succeeding
Ages
)
who
are
in
debt
for
much
of
their
Vertue
to
a
noble
Emulation
of
their
glorious
Ancestors
,
had
either
terminated
in
a
Circle
of
no
larger
a
Diameter
then
Life
;
or
like
short
breath'd
Ephemera's
,
only
surviv'd
a
while
in
the
Aiery
Region
of
Discourse
.
This
,
Sir
,
having
been
the
past
Fortune
of
our
Predecessors
;
And
,
as
the
Pregnant
Hopes
of
your
blooming
Spring
,
promises
the
World
like
to
be
yours
in
the
future
;
yours
,
when
both
the
splendid
Beauties
of
your
most
glorious
Palace
,
and
the
lasting
Structure
of
your
Marble
Domitory
,
time
shall
have
so
levigated
,
that
the
wanton
Winds
dally
with
their
Dust
:
I
doubt
not
but
to
find
you
so
much
a
Mecaenas
,
as
to
affect
the
Eternizing
of
your
Name
,
more
from
the
lasting
Lineaments
of
Learning
,
then
those
vaine
Phainomena
of
Pleasures
,
which
are
the
low
Delights
of
more
Vulgar
Spirits
.
Though
I
confess
these
〈◊〉
beneath
the
serious
View
,
〈◊〉
a
Wit
Acuated
with
the
best
Adjuncts
of
Art
,
will
,
ere
long
,
render
the
ordinary
Recreations
of
your
Progressive
Studies
;
yet
,
as
in
relation
to
the
Latitude
for
which
they
were
Calculated
:
I
hope
they
may
not
appear
unworthy
a
present
Supervisall
;
It
being
intended
(
like
the
weak
Productions
of
the
early
Spring
)
but
for
the
April
of
your
Age
;
where
,
though
my
Hopes
tell
me
it
may
subsist
,
whilst
irrigated
with
those
balmy
Dews
of
Passion
,
which
are
the
usuall
Concommitants
of
Youth
:
I
am
not
guilty
of
so
un-becoming
a
Boldness
,
as
to
think
it
fit
to
stand
the
heat
of
your
more
vigorous
Maturity
,
when
the
Meridian
Altitude
of
your
Comprehensive
Judgment
shall
have
attain'd
so
neer
an
universality
of
Knowledge
;
As
the
Sun
when
in
its
Apogaeum
,
doth
of
Light
,
that
being
only
hindred
by
a
Comparatively
Punctillo
of
Earth
;
As
the
powerfull
Energies
of
noble
Souls
,
are
by
the
upper
Garments
of
their
Mortality
,
from
being
at
once
Ubiquitary
Blessings
.
Fortifi'd
by
these
Considerations
,
with
the
hope
of
your
Acceptance
,
and
assur'd
,
that
prefixing
your
Name
,
is
an
Amulet
of
sufficient
power
to
preserve
me
from
the
Contagion
of
Censure
;
I
have
,
with
an
unruffl'd
Confidence
,
given
these
Papers
a
Capacity
of
being
publickly
viewed
:
If
their
being
lik'd
attain
but
neer
the
Dimensions
of
your
being
belov'd
,
it
will
co-equate
the
knowledge
the
World
shall
have
of
them
;
that
being
so
universall
,
as
the
Serenities
of
your
Bliss
is
the
happiness
of
your
neerest
Relations
;
so
is
it
much
of
the
hopes
of
those
,
that
only
know
you
at
a
remoter
distance
:
And
shall
be
still
the
Prayer
of
,
SIR
,
Your
devoted
Servant
,
William
Chamberlayne
.
Shaftsbury
,
May
12.
1659.
TO
THE
READER
.
SInce
Custome
obliges
me
to
give
a
Welcome
at
the
Gate
,
I
shall
not
be
so
irregular
,
as
not
to
meet
that
common
Civility
,
with
a
fair
Compliance
.
And
though
like
the
passive
Elements
,
I
lie
open
to
all
the
Incongruity
of
Aspects
,
of
which
I
have
some
reason
to
doubt
,
the
most
powerfull
may
be
found
in
a
disdainfull
opposition
;
yet
,
like
the
noblest
of
Active
Creatures
(
Light
)
I
shall
not
think
my self
sullied
by
every
Vapour
;
nor
sollicite
his
Acquaintance
,
that
cannot
so
long
spare
his
Eyes
from
beholding
more
Active
Vanities
.
I
have
alwaies
held
it
a
Soloescim
for
Entertainers
to
be
Beggers
.
And
,
although
by
exposing
these
Papers
to
the
publick
View
,
I
must
consequently
expect
variety
of
Censures
;
should
be
loath
to
descend
so
low
to
court
the
Applause
of
every
Reader
,
from
whose
various
Genii
,
I
am
necessitated
to
take
such
Welcome
,
as
Affection
in
most
(
though
Judgment
in
so
the
)
shall
incline
them
to
give
.
For
the
first
of
which
,
as
their
Censures
are
doubtfull
,
so
their
Calumnies
are
small
,
not
of
weight
sufficient
to
ballance
the
indifferent
temper
of
my
thoughts
:
But
for
the
latter
,
since
look'd
upon
as
competent
Judges
,
though
their
Sentence
may
be
formidable
;
I
shall
beg
no
further
favour
,
then
what
their
Abilitie
thinks
fir
to
bestow
;
only
,
for
what
they
may
justly
except
against
,
could
rather
wish
that
whilst
these
Papers
were
private
,
I
had
had
their
Advice
to
reform
,
then
now
they
are
publisht
their
Censure
to
condemn
.
Fortune
hath
plac'd
me
in
too
low
a
Sphear
to
be
happy
in
the
Acquaintance
of
the
Ages
more
Celebrated
Wits
:
Wherefore
wonder
not
,
that
I
appear
un-usher'd
in
with
a
Train
of
Encomiums
,
which
(
though
I
confess
)
If
from
knowing
and
juditious
Friends
,
they
add
a
Luster
to
the
Authors
ensuing
Labours
;
yet
the
Custome
of
these
Times
often
makes
them
appear
as
ridiculous
,
as
a
splendid
and
beautifull
Front
to
an
empty
and
contemptible
Cottage
.
I
have
made
bold
with
the
Title
of
Heroick
,
but
have
a
late
Example
that
deters
me
from
disputing
upon
what
grounds
I
assumed
it
:
If
it
suits
not
with
the
Abilities
of
my
Pen
,
yet
it
is
no
un-becoming
Epithite
for
the
Eminence
of
those
personated
in
my
Poem
.
For
the
place
of
my
Scean
,
manner
of
Composure
,
and
the
like
;
though
in
Prefaces
they
often
find
an
immature
Discovery
,
and
perhaps
,
but
acuate
an
Apetite
to
what
,
on
further
progress
may
prove
but
a
distastfull
Banquet
:
I
hold
them
so
impertinent
,
that
if
Will
,
and
Leasure
serves
you
to
read
,
you
may
suddenly
with
more
Advantage
,
satisfie
your self
,
if
not
omit
them
as
strangers
to
your
other
Affairs
,
and
not
to
be
understood
but
in
their
own
Dialect
.
I
have
done
with
all
that
in
probability
may
prove
my
Readers
;
And
now
a
word
to
such
,
whom
I
presume
,
will
be
none
,
for
they
are
desir'd
to
do
no
more
then
the
Epistle
,
It
being
fit
to
serve
them
like
Vagabonds
,
let
them
enter
no
further
then
the
Gate
;
I
mean
,
all
squint-ey'd
Sectaries
,
from
the
Spawn
of
Geneva
,
to
the
black
Brood
of
Amsterdam
:
together
with
some
Rascals
of
a
lower
Rank
,
such
as
usurp
the
abus'd
Title
of
,
Sons
of
Art
,
and
with
an
empty
Impudence
,
endeavour
to
pollute
those
Immaculate
Virgins
;
whilst
the
other
,
with
an
exalted
Villany
sully
the
Celestiall
Beauties
of
Divine
Truth
.
For
the
first
of
which
,
the
preposterous
Genius
of
the
Times
hath
so
far
favour'd
them
,
that
now
nothing
is
more
vendible
then
the
surreptitious
off-springs
of
their
immagin'd
Wit
:
Every
Stationers
Shop
affording
pregnant
examples
of
it
,
in
big
bulk'd
Volumes
of
Physick
,
Astrologie
,
and
the
like
:
By
these
indigent
Vermine
,
either
to
satisfie
their
clamorous
Wants
,
or
inhance
their
esteem
in
the
Vulgar
Opinion
,
basely
prostituted
to
every
illiterate
Spectator
;
whilst
Truth
,
and
a
guilty
Conscience
,
tels
them
nought
is
their
own
but
the
Hyperbolicall
Titles
,
which
to
discerning
Eyes
appear
but
the
glorious
out-sides
to
tainted
Sepulchers
,
in
which
their
detected
Villany
shall
be
Abominated
by
more
knowing
Posterity●
These
cry
down
all
things
of
this
Nature
,
for
Subjects
of
Inutility
,
not
tending
to
the
improvement
of
Science
,
which
in
the
most
genuine
Construction
of
it
,
hath
no
Enemy
from
which
her
ruine
is
more
formidable
then
from
them
.
But
for
my
more
dangerous
Sceptick
,
(
who
yet
is
so
much
like
the
Fole
of
an
Ass
,
that
he
appears
to
the
World
with
his
Spleen
in
his
Mouth
)
I
mean
,
my
pretended
zealous
Censurer
,
from
whom
in
mee
,
it
were
an
over-weaning
boldness
to
expect
Civility
;
since
(
though
not
for
the
Nature
,
which
he
understands
not
,
yet
for
the
Name
which
he
hath
only
heard
of
,
he
is
so
much
an
Enemy
to
the
Muses
;
that
should
the
Seraphick
Strains
of
Majestick
David
,
or
the
flaming
Raptures
of
Elegiack
Jeremiah
,
appear
to
the
World
in
their
pristine
and
unpolluted
Purity
;
his
Ignorance
would
extend
to
so
vast
an
Error
,
to
censure
them
of
Levity
.
But
as
no
man
will
esteem
the
Sun
less
Glorious
,
for
that
the
hated
Owle
avoids
its
sight
;
so
I
presume
,
none
,
except
their
own
deluded
Followers
will
betray
so
palpable
a
dearth
of
Judgment
,
as
to
bear
the
less
estecm
to
Majestick
Poetry
;
for
the
illiterate
scandal
of
flattering
Ignorance
:
Poesie
(
if
justly
meriting
to
be
invested
in
that
glorious
Title
)
being
of
so
attractive
a
Beauty
,
that
it
doth
rather
like
an
Orphean
Harmony
,
draw
that
Emblem
of
a
Beast
,
the
unpollisht
Clown
to
a
listning
Civility
,
then
like
Circe's
Inchantments
,
change
the
more
happily
Educated
,
to
a
swinish
and
sordid
Lethargie
.
But
her
defence
being
a
burthen
which
already
stands
firm
on
so
many
noble
Supporters
,
whose
Monuments
will
remain
,
till
Time
it self
shall
be
lost
in
Eternity
:
I
need
not
add
my
weak
Endeavours
to
illustrate
a
Beauty
,
which
the
wiser
world
already
admires
;
Now
(
though
she
want
the
Applause
of
some
)
Attribute
it
not
to
the
defect
,
either
of
her
Excellency
,
or
their
Judgment
;
but
to
that
various
Dress
of
Humours
,
wherewith
Nature
hath
Checquer'd
the
Universe
:
Concluding
with
that
Honour
of
ancient
Thebes
,
〈◊〉
〈◊〉
〈◊〉
〈◊〉
〈◊〉
.
Pindarus
in
Olympiorum
octavo
.
W.
C.