which was imputed to the lashty of Wilmot, who commanded; and had a colder courage than many who were under him, and who were of opinion, that they might have easily defeated that body of foot; which would have been a very seasonable victory; would have put Coventry unquestionably into the King's hands, and sent him with a good omen to the setting up of his standard. Whereas, that unhappy retreat, which looked like a defeat, 10 and the rebellious behaviour of Coventry, made his majesty's return to Nottingham very melancholy; and he returned thither the very day the standard was appointed to be set up. According to the proclamation, upon the 15 munication by land or sea. twenty-fifth day of August, the standard was erected, about six of the clock in the evening of a very stormy and tempestuous day. The king himself, with a small train, rode to the top of the castle-hill, Varney the knight- 20 marshal, who was standard bearer, carrying the standard, which was then erected in that place, with little other ceremony than the sound of drums and trumpets: melancholy men observed many ill presages about that 25 time. There was not one regiment of foot yet levied and brought thither; so that the trained bands, which the sheriff had drawn together, was all the strength the king had for his person, and the guard of the standard. There appeared 30 no conflux of men in obedience to the proclamation; the arms and ammunition were not yet come from York, and a general sadness covered the whole town. And the king himself appeared more melancholic than he used to be. 35 to Portsmouth: and that was the reason why answer, he had only the Lord Wentworth and Mr. Thomas Weston, who came to enjoy the delight of his company, which was very attractive, and for whom he had promised to raise 5 troops of horse, and three or four country gentlemen, who repaired thither upon the first news of his declaring with so small a number of men, as was fitter for their equipage and retinue than for the defence of the place, and an addition of twenty or thirty common men to his garrison, which the kindness of some friends had supplied with: and in this state Sir Will. Waller found him and the place, when he came before it, and when he was deprived of all comHe continued in the same jollity from the time he was besieged, and suffered the enemy to approach as he pleased, without disturbing him by any brisk sally or soldierly action, which all men expected from him, who were best acquainted with his other infirmities; and after about the end of three weeks, he delivered the town, upon no other conditions than the liberty for all who had a mind to go away, and his own transportation into Holland. When he recovered, and restored himself to the king and queen's favour and trust, after his foul tergiversation, he had great thoughts in his heat of power and authority; for his ambition was always the first deity he sacrificed to; and it was proposed by him, and consented to, that when the king should find it necessary to put himself into the field, (which was thought would be fit for him to do much sooner), the Queen should retire the queen was so solicitous that it might be put into a good condition; and by this means he should be sure never to be reduced into any straits without a powerful relief, and should always have it in his power to make good conditions for himself, in all events. But when the parliament's power was so much increased and the king's abated, that the queen resolved to transport herself beyond the seas, the edge The standard itself was blown down, the same night it had been set up, by a very strong and unruly wind, and could not be fixed again in a day or two, till the tempest was allayed. And within three or four days the news arrived that 40 Portsmouth was given up; which almost struck the king to the heart. Goring," who had received so much money from the parliament, to mend the fortifications, and so much from the queen, to provide men and victual and am- 45 of his zeal was taken off, and he thought Portsmunition, that he might be able to defend himself when he should be forced to declare, which he expected to be much sooner, and could not expect to be suddenly relieved, had neither mended the fortifications, or provided any- 50 thing for his defence, but had spent all the money in good fellow-ship, or lost it at play; the temptation of either of which vices, he never could resist. So that when he could no longer defer giving the parliament a direct 55 so often deceived, as to make it absolutely 2 Col. Goring, the Governor of Portsmouth. According to Clarendon he received £3000, from the Queen to fortify and victual Portsmouth, and accepted at the same time "a good supply from the Parliament" to pay the soldiers of the garrison. mouth too low a sphere for him to move in; and the keeping a town (which must follow the fate of the kingdom) was not a fit portion for him; and so he cared not to lose what he did not care to keep. And it were to be wished that there might be no more occasion to mention him after this repeated treachery, and that his incomparable dexterity and sagacity had not prevailed so far over those whom he had necessary to speak at large of him, more than once, before this discourse comes to an end. And this was the melancholy state of the king's affairs, when the standard was set up. LORD FALKLAND (From the same) In this unhappy battle1 was slain the lord viscount Falkland;2 a person of such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive sim not to see London, which he loved above all places, till he had perfectly learned the Greek tongue, he went to his own house in the country, and pursued it with that indefatigable 5 industry, that it will not be believed in how short a time he was master of it, and accurately read all the Greek historians. In this time, his house being within ten miles of Oxford, he contracted familiarity plicity and integrity of life, that if there were 10 and friendship with the most polite and ac no other brand upon this odious and accursed civil war, than that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all posterity. Turpe mori, post te, solo non posse dolore. curate men of that university; who found such an immenseness of wit, and such a solidity of judgment in him, so infinite a fancy, bound in by a most logical ratiocination, such a vast 15 knowledge, that he was not ignorant in anything, yet such an excessive humility, as if he had known nothing, that they frequently resorted, and dwelt with him, as in a college situated in a purer air; so that his house was a university in a less volume; whither they came not so much for repose as study; and to examine and refine those grosser propositions, which laziness and consent made current in vulgar conversation. Before this parliament, his condition of life was so happy that it was hardly capable of improvement. Before he came to twenty years of age, he was master of a noble fortune, which descended to him by the gift of a grandfather, 20 without passing through his father or mother, who were then both alive, and not well enough contented to find themselves passed by in the descent. His education for some years had been in Ireland, where his father was lord 25 deputy; so that, when he returned into England, to the possession of his fortune, he was unentangled with any acquaintance or friends, which usually grow up by the custom of conversation; and therefore was to make a pure 30 pervert him in his piety to the church of Eng Many attempts were made upon him, by the instigation of his mother (who was a lady of another persuasion in religion, and of a most masculine understanding, allayed with the passions and infirmities of her own sex) to land, and to reconcile him to that of Rome; which they prosecuted with the more confidence, because he declined no opportunity or occasion of conference with those of that re election of his company; which he chose by other rules than were prescribed to the young nobility of that time. And it cannot be denied, though he admitted some few to his friendship for the agreeableness of their na- 35 ligion, whether priests or laics; having dilitures, and their undoubted affection to him, that his familiarity and friendship, for the most part, was with men of the most eminent and sublime parts, and of untouched reputation in point of integrity; and such men had a 40 ever he read. And he was so great an enemy title to his bosom. gently studied the controversies, and exactly read all, or the choicest of the Greek and Latin fathers, and having a memory so stupendous, that he remembered, on all occasions, whatso to that passion and uncharitableness, which he saw produced, by difference of opinion, in matters of religion, that in all those disputations with priests, and others of the Roman He was a great cherisher of wit, and fancy, and good parts in any man; and, if he found them clouded with poverty or want, a most liberal and bountiful patron towards them, 45 church, he affected to manifest all possible civility to their persons, and estimation of their parts; which made them retain still some hope of his reduction, even when they had given over offering further reasons to him to even above his fortune; of which, in those ad- 2 Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland (1610-1643). While he took the side of the king, he did not share in the blindly partisan spirit of his time. V. Matthew Arnold's essay on him in Discourses in America. It could not be only a sorrow, it was a disgrace to die after thee. He had a courage of the most clear and keen temper, and so far from fear, that he was not without appetite of danger; and therefore, upon any occasion of action, he always engaged 55 his person in those troops, which he thought, by the forwardness of the commanders, to be most like to be furthest engaged, and in all such encounters he had about him a strange cheerfulness and companionableness, without L In his exceedingly affected with the spleen. clothes and habit, which he had minded before always with more neatness, and industry, and expense, than is usual to so great a mind, he was 5 not now only incurious, but too negligent; and in his reception of suitors, and the necessary or casual addresses to his place, so quick, and sharp, and severe, that there wanted not some men (who were strangers to his nature and disposi from which no mortal man was ever more free. at all affecting the execution which was then principally to be attended, in which he took no delight, but took pains to prevent it, where it was not, by resistance, necessary; insomuch that at Edge-hill, when the enemy was routed, he was like to have incurred great peril, by interposing to save those who had thrown away their arms, and against whom, it may be, others were more fierce for their having thrown them away: insomuch as a man might think, he 10 tion), who believed him proud and imperious, came into the field only out of curiosity to see the face of danger, and charity to prevent the shedding of blood. Yet in his natural inclination he acknowledged he was addicted to the profession of a soldier; and shortly after he 15 came to his fortune, and before he came to age, he went into the Low Countries, with a resolution of procuring command, and to give himself up to it, from which he was converted by the complete inactivity of that summer: 20 and so he returned into England, and shortly after entered upon that vehement course of study we mentioned before, till the first alarum from the north; and then again he made ready for the field, and though he received some re- 25 pulse in the command of a troop of horse, of which he had a promise, he went a volunteer with the earl of Essex. From the entrance into this unnatural war, The truth is, as he was of a most incomparable gentleness, application, and even a demissness, and submission to good, and worthy, and entire men, so he was naturally (which could not but be more evident in his place, which objected him to another conversation and intermixture, than his own election had done) adversus malos injucundus and was so ill a dissembler of his dislike and disinclination to ill men, that it was not possible for such not to discern it. There was once, in the house of Commons, such a declared acceptation of the good service an eminent member had done to them, and, as they said, to the whole kingdom, that it was moved, he being present, "that the speaker might, in the name of the whole house, give him thanks; and then, that every member might, as a testimony of his particular ac his natural cheerfulness and vivacity grew 30 knowledgement, stir or move his hat towards him;" the which (though not ordered) when very many did, the lord Falkland (who believed the service itself not to be of that moment, and that an honourable and generous person could clouded, and a kind of sadness and dejection of spirit stole upon him, which he had never been used to; yet being one of those who believed that one battle would end all differences, and that there would be so great a victory on 35 not have stooped to it for any recompense), one side, that the other would be compelled to submit to any conditions from the victor (which supposition and conclusion generally sunk into the minds of most men, and pre instead of moving his hat, stretched both his arms out, and clasped his hands together upon the crown of his hat, and held it close down to his head; that all men might see, how odious that of the person, though at that time most popular. vented the looking after of many advantages, 40 flattery was to him, and the very approbation that might have been laid hold of), he resisted those indispositions, et in luctu, bellum inter remedia erat. But after the king's return from Brentford, and the furious resolution of the two houses not to admit any treaty for peace, 45 those indispositions, which had before touched him, grew into a perfect habit of uncheerfulness; and he, who had been so exactly unreserved and affable to all men, that his face and countenance was always present, and vacant to his company, and held any cloudiness, and less pleasantness of the visage, a kind of rudeness or incivility, became, on a sudden, less communicable; and thence, very sad, pale, and The battle of Edgehill, Oct. 23rd, 1642, was the first battle of the civil war. The result was indecisive, but the advantage was, on the whole, with the Royalists. In misery, war was among the means of healing. Disengaged, not preoccupied with his own sad forebodings. When there was any overture or hope of peace, he would be more erect and vigorous, and exceedingly solicitous to press any thing which he thought might promote it; and sitting among his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs, would, with a shrill and sad accent, ingeminate the word Peace, Peace; and would passionately profess, "that the very 50 agony of the war, and the view of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him, and would shortly break his heart." This made some think, or pretend to think, "that he was so 55 much enamoured on peace, that he would have been glad the king should have bought it at any Pliancy, adaptability. Humility, entire submissiveness. governs all the world, and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great family. He were a strange fool, that should be angry, because dogs and sheep need no shoes, and yet 5 himself is full of care to get some. God hath supplied those needs to them by natural provisions, and to thee by an artificial: for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade, or some means to make or buy them, so that it only differs in the manner of our provision: and which had you rather want, shoes or reason? And my patron that hath given me a farm, is freer to me than if he gives a loaf ready baked. But, however, all these gifts come from him, price:" which was a most unreasonable calumny. As if a man, that was himself the most punctual and precise in every circumstance that might reflect upon conscience or honour, could have wished the king to have committed a trespass against either. And yet this senseless scandal made some impression upon him, or at least he used it for an excuse of the daringness of his spirit; for at the leaguer 10 before Gloucester, when his friends passionately repre- 10 hended him for exposing his person unnecessarily to danger (as he delighted to visit the trenches, and nearest approaches, and to discover what the enemy did), as being so much beside the duty of his place, that it might be 15 and therefore it is fit he should dispense them as understood against it, he would say merrily, "that his office could not take away the privileges of his age; and that a secretary in war might be present at the greatest secret of danger;" but withal alleged seriously, "that it con- 20 cerned him to be more active in enterprizes of hazard, than other men; that all might see, that his impatiency for peace proceeded not from pusillanimity, or fear to adventure his own person." he pleases; and if we murmur here, we may, at the next melancholy, be troubled that God did not make us to be angels or stars. For if that, which we are or have, do not content us, we may be troubled for everything in the world, which is besides our being or our possessions. God is the master of the scenes; we must not choose which part we shall act; it concerns us only to be careful that we do it well, always saying, "If this please God, let it be as it is:" and we who pray, that God's will may be done in earth, as it is in heaven, must remember, that the angels do whatsoever is commanded them, and go wherever they are sent, and refuse no circumstances: and if their employment be crossed by a higher degree, they sit down in peace and rejoice in the event; and when the angel of Judea1 could not prevail in behalf of the people committed to his charge, because In the morning before the battle, as always 25 upon action, he was very cheerful, and put himself into the first rank of the lord Byron's11 regiment, who was then advancing upon the enemy, who had lined the hedges upon both sides with musketeers; from whence he was 30 shot with a musket in the lower part of the belly; and in the instant falling from his horse, his body was not found till the next morning; till when, there was some hope he might have been a prisoner; though his nearest friends, who 35 the angel of Persia opposed it, he only told the knew his temper, received small comfort from that imagination. Thus fell that incomparable young man, in the four and thirtieth year of his age, having so much despatched the busi story at the command of God, and was as content, and worshipped with as great an ecstasy in his proportion, as the prevailing spirit. Do thou so likewise: keep the station, ness of life, that the oldest rarely attain to that 40 where God hath placed you and you shall never immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into the world with more innocence: whosoever leads such a life, need not care upon how short warning it be taken from him. Jeremy Taylor 1613-1667 OF CONTENTEDNESS IN ALL ESTATES (From Holy Living, 1650) 45 long for things without, but sit at home feasting upon the Divine providence and thy own reason by which we are taught, that it is necessary and reasonable to submit to God. For is not all the world God's family? Are not we his creatures? Are we not as clay in the hand of the potter?? Do we not live upon his meat, and move by his strength, and do our work by his light? Are we anything, but what 50 we are from him? And shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and herds, because their Lord or their shepherd chooses their pastures, and suffers them not to wander into deserts and unknown ways? If we choose, we do it so foolishly, that we cannot like it long, and most commonly not at all: but God, who can do what he pleases, is wise to choose safely for us, affectionate to comply with our needs, and 1 Dan., X., 13. 2 Isa., Ixiv., 8. 1. Contentedness in all estates is a duty of religion: it is the great reasonableness of complying with the Divine Providence, which 55 powerful to execute all his wise decrees. Here therefore is the wisdom of the contented man, to let God choose for him: for when we have given up our wills to him, and stand in that station of the battle, where our great general hath placed us, our spirits must needs rest, while our conditions have, for their security, the power, the wisdom, and the charity of God. 2. Contentedness, in all accidents, brings We are in the world, like men playing at great peace of spirit, and is the great and only 10 tables; the chance is not in our power, but to instrument of temporal felicity. It removes the sting from the accident, and makes a man not to depend upon chance, and the uncertain dispositions of men for his well-being, but only times." This, in Gentile philosophy, is the same with the discourse of St. Paul, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and 5 I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both how to be full and to be hungry; both to abound and to suffer need."4 play it is; and when it is fallen, we must manage it as we can; and let nothing trouble us, but when we do a base action, or speak like a fool, or think wickedly: these things God hath put into on God and his own spirit. We ourselves make 15 our powers; but concerning those things, which are wholly in the choice of another, they cannot fall under our deliberation, and therefore neither are they fit for our passions. My fear may make me miserable, but it cannot prevent what another hath in his power and purpose: and prosperities can only be enjoyed by them, who fear not at all to lose them; since the amazement and passion concerning the future takes off all the pleasure of the present our fortunes good or bad; and when God lets loose a tyrant upon us, or a sickness, or scorn, or a lessened fortune, if we fear to die, or know not to be patient, or are proud, or covetous, then the calamity sits heavy on us. But if we know 20 how to manage a noble principle, and fear not death so much as a dishonest action, and think impatience a worse evil than a fever, and pride to be the biggest disgrace, and poverty to be infinitely desirable before the torments of 25 possession. Therefore, if thou hast lost thy covetousness; then we, who now think vice to be so easy, and make it so familiar, and think the cure so impossible, shall quickly be of another mind, and reckon these accidents amongst things eligible. land, do not also lose thy constancy: and if thou must die a little sooner, yet do not die impatiently. For no chance is evil to him that is content, and to a man nothing is miserable, 30 unless it be unreasonable. No man can make another man to be his slave, unless he hath first enslaved himself to life and death, to pleasure or pain, to hope or fear: command these passions, and you are freer than the Parthian kings." But no man can be happy that hath great hopes and great fears of things without, and events depending upon other men, or upon the chances of fortune. The rewards of virtue are certain, and our provisions for our natural 35 support are certain; or if we want meat till we die, then we die of that disease, and there are many worse than to die with an atrophy or consumption, or unapt and coarser nourishment. But he that suffers a transporting pas- 40 sion concerning things within the power of others, is free from sorrow and amazement no longer than his enemy shall give him leave; and it is ten to one but he shall be smitten then and there, where it shall most trouble him: for so 45 the adder teaches us where to strike, by her curious and fearful defending of her head. The old stoics, when you told them of a sad story would still answer, "What is that to me?-Yes, 3 CONSIDERATION OF THE VANITY AND (From Holy Dying, 1651) A man is a bubble (said the Greek proverb), which Lucian1 represents with advantages and its proper circumstances to this purpose: saying, All the world is a storm, and men rise up in their several generations, like bubbles descending à Jove pluvio, from God and the dew of heaven, from a tear and drop of rain, from nature and Providence; and some of for the tyrant hath sentenced you also to 50 these instantly sink into the deluge of their prison. Well, what is that? He will put a Taylor seems to have had Epictetus, the Roman stoical philosopher especially in mind. first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world, but Epis. Phil. iv., 11, 12. Backgammon. The chance, here, the number thrown in a cast of the dice. When it has fallen, i. e., when the cast is made. Apparently taken as examples of the oriental despot. Persian kings would seem to be an exacter illustration. 1 A Greek satirist and humorist of the second century. His amplification of the Greck proverb referred to, occurs in his Charon, or the Spectator of the World. The passage in Taylor is a paraphrase of that in Lucian. |