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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY SINGULAR GOOD LORDS,

EDWARD LORD DENNY,

BARON OF WALTHAM,

AND

JAMES LORD HAY,

HIS RIGHT NOBLE AND WORTHY SON-IN-LAW:

J. H.

HUMBLY DEDICATES HIS LABOUR, devoteth himSELF, WISHETH ALL

HAPPINESS.

A PREMONITION OF THE TITLE AND USE OF CHARACTERS.

READER:

THE Divines of the old Heathens were their Moral Philosophers. These received the Acts of an inbred law, in the Sinai of Nature; and delivered them, with many expositions, to the multitude. These were the overseers of manners, correctors of vices, directors of lives, doctors of virtue. Which yet taught their people the body of their natural divinity, not after one manner: while some spent themselves in deep discourses of human felicity, and the way to it in common; others thought best to apply the general precepts of goodness or decency, to particular conditions and persons: a third sort, in a mean course betwixt the two other and compounded of them both, bestowed their time in drawing out the true lineaments of every virtue and vice, so lively, that who saw the medals, might know the face: which Art they significantly termed CHARACTERY. Their papers were so many tables; their writings, so many speaking pictures, or living images; whereby the ruder multitude might, even by their sense, learn to know virtue, and discern what to detest. I am deceived, if any course could be more likely to prevail: for herein the gross conceit is led on with pleasure; and informed, while it feels nothing but delight. And, if pictures have been accounted the books of idiots, behold here the benefit of an image without the offence. It is no shame for

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A PREMONITION TO THE READER.

us to learn wit of Heathens; neither is it material, in whose school we take out a good lesson: yea, it is more shame not to follow their good, than not to lead them better. As one therefore, that, in worthy examples, holds imitation better than invention, I have trod in their paths; but with a higher and wider step: and, out of their Tablets, have drawn these larger portraitures of both sorts. More might be said, I deny not, of every virtue, of every vice: I desired not to say all, but enough. If thou do but read or like these, I have spent good hours ill: but, if thou shalt hence abjure those vices, which bcfore thou thoughtest not ill-favoured, or fall in love with any of these goodly faces of virtue; or shalt hence find, where thou hast any little touch of these evils to clear thyself, or where any defect in these graces to supply it; neither of us shall need to repent of our labour.

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CHARACTERISMS OF VIRTUES.

BOOK I.

THE PROEM.

VIRTUE is not loved enough; because she is not seen: and Vice loseth much detestation; because her ugliness is secret. Certainly, my Lords, there are so many beauties and so many graces in the face of Goodness, that no eye can possibly see it without affection, without ravishment; and the visage of Evil is so monstrous, through loathsome deformities, that if her lovers were not ignorant, they would be mad with disdain and astonishment. What need we more, than to discover these two to the world? This work shall save the labour of exhorting and dissuasion. I have here done it, as I could; following that ancient Master of Morality, who thought this the fittest task for the ninety and ninth year of his age, and the profitablest monument that he could leave for a farewell to his Grecians. Lo here, then, Virtue and Vice stript naked to the open view; and despoiled, one of her rags, the other of her ornaments; and nothing left them, but bare presence, to plead for affection: see now whether shall find more suitors. And, if still the vain minds of lewd men shall dote upon their old mistress, it will appear to be, not because she is not foul, but for that they are blind and bewitched. And, first, behold the goodly features of Wisdom; an amiable virtue, and worthy to lead this stage: which, as she extends herself to all the following Graces; so, amongst the rest, is, for her largeness, most conspicuous.

THE WISE MAN

THERE is nothing, that he desires not to know; but, most and first, himself: and, not so much his own strength, as his weaknesses. Neither is his knowledge reduced to discourse, but practice. He is a skilful logician; not by nature, so much as use his working mind doth nothing all his time, but make syllogisms, and draw out conclusions every thing, that he sees and hears, serves for one of the premises with these he cares, first, to inform himself; then, to direct others. Both his eyes are never, at once, from home; but one keeps house, while the other roves abroad for intelligence. In material and weighty points, he abides not his mind suspended

in uncertainties; but hates doubting, where he may, where he should be resolute. And, first, he makes sure work for his soul; accounting it no safety, to be unsettled in the foreknowledge of his final estate: the best is first regarded; and vain is that regard, which endeth not in security. Every care hath his just order; neither is there any one either neglected or misplaced. He is seldom overseen with credulity: for, knowing the falseness of the world, he hath learned to trust himself always; others, so far, as he may not be damaged by their disappointment. He seeks his quietness, in secrecy; and is wont, both to hide himself in retiredness, and his tongue in himself. He loves to be guessed at, not known; and to see the world, unseen: and, when he is forced into the light, shews, by his actions, that his obscurity was neither from affectation nor weakness. His purposes are neither so variable as may argue inconstancy, nor obstinately unchangeable; but framed according to his after-wits, or the strength of new occasions. He is both an apt scholar, and an excellent master: for, both every thing he sees, informs him; and his mind, enriched with plentiful observation, can give the best precepts. His free discourse runs back to the ages past, and recovers events out of memory; and then preventeth time, in flying forward to future things; and, comparing one with the other, can give a verdict well-near prophetical: wherein his conjectures are better than another's judgments. His passions are so many good servants, which stand in a diligent attendance, ready to be commanded by reason, by religion; and if, at any time, forgetting their duty, they be miscarried to rebel, he can first conceal their mutiny, then suppress it. In all his just and worthy designs, he is never at a loss; but hath so projected all his courses, that a second begins where the first failed; and fetcheth strength from that, which succeeded not. There be wrongs, which he will not see: neither doth he always look that way, which he meaneth; nor take notice of his secret smarts, when they come from great ones. In good turns, he loves not to owe more than he must; in evil, to owe, and not pay. Just censures, he deserves not; for he lives without the compass of an adversary: unjust, he contemneth; and would rather suffer false infamy to die aloue, than lay hands upon it in an open violence. He confineth himself in the circle of his own affairs; and lists not to thrust his finger into a needless fire. He stands, like a centre, unmoved; while the circumference of his estate is drawn above, beneath, about him. Finally, his wit hath cost him much; and he can both keep, and value, and employ it. He is his own lawyer; the treasury of knowledge; the oracle of counsel; blind in no man's cause; best-sighted in his own.

THE HONEST MAN.

He looks not to what he might do, but what he should. Justice is his first guide: the second law of his actions, is Expedience. He would rather complain, than offend: and hates sin more for the indignity of it, than the danger. His simple uprightness works in

him that confidence, which ofttimes wrongs him, and gives advantage to the subtle; when he rather pities their faithlessness, than repents of his credulity. He hath but one heart, and that lies open to sight; and, were it not for discretion, he never thinks ought, whereof he would avoid a witness. His word is his parchment, and his yea his oath; which he will not violate, for fear, or for loss. The mishaps of following events may cause him to blame his providence, can never cause him to eat his promise: neither saith he, "This I saw not," but, "This I said." When he is made his friend's executor, he defrays debts, pays legacies; and scorneth to gain by orphans, or to ransack graves and therefore will be true to a dead friend, because he sees him not. All his dealings are square, and above the board: he bewrays the fault of what he sells, and restores the overseen gain of a false reckoning. He esteems a bribe venomous, though it come gilded over with the colour of gratuity. His cheeks are never stained with the blushes of recantation; neither doth his tongue faulter to make good a lie, with the secret glosses of double or reserved senses: and, when his name is traduced, his innocency bears him out with courage: then, lo, he goes on in the plain way of truth, and will either triumph in his integrity, or suffer with it. His conscience overrules his providence: so as, in all things, good or ill, he respects the nature of the actions, not the sequel. If he see what he must do, let God see what shall follow. He never loadeth himself with burdens above his strength, beyond his will; and, once bound, what he can he will do; neither doth he will, but what he can do. His ear is the sanctuary of his absent friend's name, of his present friend's secret: neither of them can miscarry, in his trust. He remembers the wrongs of his youth, and repays them with that usury, which he himself would not take. He would rather want than borrow, and beg than not pay. His fair conditions are without dissembling; and be loves actions above words. Finally, he hates falsehood worse than death: he is a faithful client of truth; no man's enemy; and, it is a question, whether more another man's friend, or his own. And, if there were no heaven, yet he would be virtuous.

THE FAITHFUL MAN.

HIS eyes have no other objects, but absent and invisible; which they see so clearly, as that to them sense is blind: that, which is present, they see not; if I may not rather say, that what is past or future is present to them. Herein he exceeds all others, that to him nothing is impossible, nothing difficult; whether to bear, or undertake. He walks every day with his Maker; and talks with him familiarly; and lives ever in heaven; and sees all earthly things beneath him. When he goes in, to converse with God, he wears not his own clothes; but takes them still out of the rich wardrobe of his Redeemer: and then dare boldly press in, and challenge a blessing. The celestial spirits do not scorn his company; yea, his serHe deals in these worldly affairs, as a stranger; and hath his

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