IT was a quaint difference the Ancients did put twixt a Letter , and an Oration , that the one should be attird like a Woman , the other like a Man : The latter of the two is allowd large side robes , as long periods , parenthesis , similes , examples , and other parts of Rhetorical flourishes : But a ●…etter or Epistle , should be short-coated , and closely couchd ; a Hungerlin becomes a Letter more hansomly then a gown ▪ Indeed we should write as we speak ; and that 's a true familiar Letter which expresseth ones mind , as if he were discoursing with the party to whom he writes in succinct and short terms . The Toung and the P●…n are both of them Interproters of the mind ; but I hold the Pen to be the more faithful of the two : The Toung in udo posita , being seated in a moyst slippery place may fail and falter in her sudden extemporal expressions ; but the Pen having a greater advantage of premeditation , is not so subject to error , and leaves things behind it upon firm and authentic record . Now , Letters , though they be capable of any subject , yet commonly they are either Narratory , Objurgatory , Consolatory , Monitory , o●… Cougratulatory . The first consists of relations , The second of reprehensions , The third of comfort , The last two of counsel and joy : There are some who in lieu of Letters write Homilies , they Preach when they should Epistolize ; There are others that turn them to tedious tractats ; this is to make Letters degenerat from their tru nature . Some modern Authors there are , who have expos'd their Letters to the world , but most of them , I mean among your Latin Epistolizers , go fraighted with meer Bartholomew ware , with trite and trivial phrases only , listed with pedandic shreds of Shool-boy verses . Others ther are among our next transmarin neighbours Eastward , 〈◊〉 , write in their own language , but their stile is so soft and 〈◊〉 that their Letters may be said to be like bodies of lo●…se slesh without sinews , they have neither joyn●… of art , nor 〈◊〉 in them : They have a kind of simpering and ●…ank hectic expressions made up of a bombast of words and finical affected complement ▪ only : ●… cannot well away with such sleazy stuff , with such cobweb-compositions , where there is no strength of matter , nothing for the Reader to carry away with him , that may enlarge the notions of his soul : One shall hardly find an apothe●…m , example , simile , or any thing of Philosophy , History , or solid knowledg , or as much as one new created phrase , in a hundred of them ; and to d●…aw any observations out of them , were as if one went about to dis●…il cream out of froth ; Insomuch that it may be said of them , what was said of the Eccho , That she is a meer sound , and nothing else .

I return you your Balza●… by thi●… bearer , and when I found those Letters , wherein he is so familiar with his King , so flat , and those to Richelieu , so puff'd with prophane hyperboles , and larded up and down with such gross flatteries , with others besides which he sends as Urinals up and down the world to look into his water , for discovery of the c●…azie condition of his body , I fo●…bore him further : so I am

BEing to take leave of England , and to lanch out into the world abroad , to Breath forren air a while , I thought it very ●…andsom , and an act well becoming me , to take my leave also of ●…ou , and of my dearly honoured Mother Oxford : Otherwise both ●…f you might have just grounds to exhibite a Bill of Complaint , or rather , a Protest , against me , and cry me up , you for a forgetfull friend ; she , for an ingratefull Son , if not some spurious Issue . To ●…revent this , I salute you both together : you , with the best of my ●…ost candid affections ; her , with my most dutifull observance , ●…nd thankfulnesse for the milk she pleased to give me in that Exuberance , had I taken it in that measure she offered it me while ●… slept in her lap : yet that little I have sucked , I carry with me ●…ow abroad , and hope that this cours of life will help to concoct 〈◊〉 to a greater advantage , having opportunity , by the nature of ●…y employment , to study men as well as Books . The small time I ●…upervis'd the Glasse-house , I got amongst those Venetians some ●…atterings of the Italian Toung , which , besides the little I have , ●…ou know , of School-languages , is all the Preparatives I have made ●…or travell . I am to go this week down to Gravesend , and so ●…mbarque for Holland : I have got a Warrant from the Lords of ●…he Councell to travell for three years any where , Rome and S. Omer excepted . I pray let me retain some room , though never so little , in your thoughts , during the time of this our separation , and let our souls meet sometimes by intercours of letters ; I promise you that yours shall receive the best entertainment I can make them , for I love you dearly dearly well , and value your friendship at a very high ra●…e : So with apprecation of as much happiness to you at home , as I shall desire to accompany me abroad , I rest ever ,

I Could not shake hands with England , without kissing your hands also : and because , in regard of your distance now from London , I cannot do it in person , I send this paper for my deputy .

The News that keeps greatest noise here now , is the return of Sir Walter Raleigh from his myne of Gold in Guiana the South parts of America , which at first was like to be such a hopeful boon Voyage , but it seems that that golden myne is proved a meer Chymer●… an imaginary ai●…y myne ; and indeed , his Majestie had never any other conceipt of it : But what will not one in Captivity ( as Sir Walter was ) promise , to regain his Freedom ? who would not promise not onely mynes , but mountains of Gold , for Liberty ? & t is pity such a knowing well-weigh'd Knight had not had a better Fortune ; for the Destiny ( I mean that brave Ship which he built himself of that name , that carried him thither ) is like to prove a fatall Destiny to him , and to some of the rest of those gallant Adventurers which contributed for the setting forth of thirteen Ships more , who were most of them his kinsmen and younger brothers , being led into the said Expedition by a generall conceipt the world had of the wisedom of Sir Walter Raleigh ; and many of these are like to make Shipwrack of their estates by this Voyage . Sir Walter landed at Plymouth , whence he thought to make an escape ; and some say he hath tampered with his body by Phisick , to make him look sickly , that he may be the more pitied , and permitted to lie in his own house . Count Gondamar the Spanish Ambassador speaks high language , and sending lately to desire Audience of his Majestie , he said he had but one word to tell him , his Majestie wondring what might be delivered in one word ; when he came before him , he said onely , Pyrats , Pyrats , Pyrats , and so departed .

T is true that he protested against this Voyage before , and that it could not be but for some praedatory designe : And that if it be as I hear , I fear it will go very ill with Sir Walter , and that Gondamar will never give him over , till he hath his head off his shoulders ; which may quickly be done , without any new Arraignment , by vertue of the old Sentence that lies still dormant against him , which he could never get off by Pardon , notwithstanding that he mainly laboured in it before he went ; but his Majestie could never be brought to it , for he said he would keep this as a Curb to hold him within the bounds of his Commission , and the good behaviour .

Gondamar cryes out , that he hath broke the sacred Peace twixt the two Kingdoms , That he hath fired and plundered santo Thoma a Colony the Spaniards had planted with so much blood , neer under the Line , which made it prove such a hot service unto him , and where , besides others , he lost his eldest son in the Action ; and could they have preserved the Magazin of Tobacco onely , besides other things in that Town , something mought have bin had to countervail the charge of the Voyage . Gondamar alleadgeth further , that the enterprise of the myne failing , he propounded to the rest of his Fleet to go and intercept some of the Plate-Galeons , with other Designes which would have drawn after them apparent acts of Hostility , and so demands Justice : besides other disasters which fell out upon the dashing of the first designe , Captain Remish , who was the main Instrument for discovery of the myne , pistol'd himself in a desperate mood of discontent in his Cabin , in the Convertine .