2. 'Tis a wrong way to proportion other men's pleasures to ourselves. 'Tis like a child's using a little bird, [O poor bird, thou shalt sleep with me] so lays it in his bosom, and stifles it with his hot breath; the bird had rather be in the cold air: and yet too 'tis the most pleasing flattery, to like what others like.

3. 'Tis most undoubtedly true, that all men are equally given to their pleasure; only thus, one man's pleasure lies one way, and another's another. Pleasures are all alike, simply considered in themselves. He that hunts, or he 10 that governs the Commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit; as if a man place his delight in things that tend to the common good. He that takes pleasure to hear sermons, enjoys himself as much as he that hears plays; and could he that loves plays endeavour to love sermons, possibly he might bring himself to it as well as to any other pleasure. At first it might seem harsh and tedious, but afterwards 'twould be pleasing and delightful. So it falls out in that which is the great 20 pleasure of some men, tobacco; at first they could not abide it, and now they cannot be without it.

4. While you are upon earth enjoy the good things that are here, (to that end were they given) and be not melancholy, and wish yourself in heaven. If a king should give you the keeping of a castle, with all things belonging to it, orchards, gardens, &c. and bid you use

Nicomachean Ethics, and which he proves to be incomplete by showing that there are some kinds of pleasure to which it does not apply. Conf. Ετι ἐπεὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ τὸ μὲν ἐνέργεια τὸ δ' ἕξις, κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς αἱ καθιστᾶσαι εἰς τὴν φυσικὴν ἕξιν ἡδεῖαί εἰσιν. Ἔστι δ ̓ ἡ ἐνέργεια ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς ὑπολύπου ἕξεως καὶ φύσεως, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἄνευ λύπης καὶ ἐπιθυμίας εἰσὶν ἡδοναί, οἷον αἱ τοῦ θεωρεῖν ἐνέργειαι, τῆς φύσεως οὐκ ἐνδεοῦς οὔσης. .. Διὸ καὶ οὐ καλῶς ἔχει τὸ αἰσθητὴν γένεσιν φάναι εἶναι τὴν ἡδονήν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον λεκτέον ἐνέργειαν τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἕξεως, ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ αἰσθητὴν åveμñódiσтov. Eth. Nicom. vii. 13 (12), sec. 2 and 3.

them, withal promise you after1 twenty years to remove you to the court, and to make you a privy councillor; if you should neglect your castle, and refuse to eat of those fruits, and sit down, and whine, and wish that I was a privy councillor, do you think the king would be pleased with you?

5. Pleasures of meat, drink, clothes, &c. are forbidden those that know not how to use them; just as nurses cry, pah! when they see a knife in a child's hand; they will Io never say any thing to a man.

CV.

POETRY.

I. OVID was not only a fine poet, but, as a man may speak, a great canon lawyer, as appears in his Fasti, where we have more of the festivals of the old Romans than any where else: 'tis pity the rest were lost.

2. There is no reason plays should be in verse, either in blank or rhyme; only the poet has to say for himself, that he makes something like that which somebody made before him. The old poets had no other reason but this, their 20 verse was sung to music, otherwise it had been a senseless thing to have fettered up themselves.

3. I never converted but two, the one was Mr. Crashaw from writing against plays, by telling him a way how to understand that place, of putting on women's apparel, which

1 Promise you after] promise you that after, H. and H. 2. originally, with 'that' deleted.

In S. so

1. 24. that place, of putting on women's apparel] Deuteron. xxii. 5. This text is explained by Selden, after Moses Maimonides, as intended to forbid certain magical or idolatrous rites, in the course of which females appeared in male dress, males in female dress, and as having no reference, therefore, to the representation on the stage of female

has nothing to do with the business [as neither has it, that the fathers speak against plays in their time, with reason enough, for they had real idolatries mixed with their plays, having three altars perpetually upon the stage]. The other was a doctor of divinity, from preaching against painting, which simply in itself is no more hurtful than putting on my clothes, or doing anything to make myself like other folks, that I may not be odious or offensive to the company. Indeed if I do it with an ill attention it alters the case. So, if I put on my gloves with an intention to do 10 a mischief, I am a villain.

4. 'Tis a fine thing for children to learn to make verse, but when they come to be men they must speak like other men, or else they will be laughed at. 'Tis ridiculous to speak, or write, or preach in verse. As 'tis good to learn to dance, a man may learn his leg, learn to go handsomely; but 'tis ridiculous for him to dance when he should go.

5. 'Tis ridiculous for a lord to print verses; 'tis well enough to make 'em to please himself, but to make them public is foolish. If a man in a private chamber twirls his 20 bandstring, or plays with a rush to please himself, 'tis well

characters by male actors. See Works, ii. p. 365, De Venere Syriacâ ; and p. 1690, where Selden discusses it at length in a letter to Ben Jonson. The text was used by Tertullian (e. g. De Spectaculis, cap. 23) and by Cyprian (Epist. 61, sec. 1) in the sense which Selden disallows; and Prynne, in his Histrio-mastix, quotes and endorses both these authorities, and adds reasons of his own against the practice which they and he condemn. See, especially, p. 208 ff. (in the small 4to. ed. of 1633). It is clear that the objections to the practice do not depend only on what the text in question may or may not mean. 1. I. as neither has it, that the fathers &c.] The objections urged against stage-plays by the fathers were on account of their indecency even more than of their idolatry, and were continued as forcibly as ever at a time when the idolatry had ceased. See Bingham, Christian Antiquities, bk. XI. ch. v. §§ 6 and 9; and, especially, bk. XVI. ch. xi. § 12. Prynne, in his Histrio-mastix, quotes numerous passages from the fathers in condemnation of stage-plays, some of which are clearly open to Selden's remark, while others are not.

enough; but if he should go into Fleet-street, and sit upon a stall, and twirl a bandstring, or play with a rush, then all the boys in the street would laugh at him.

6. Verse proves nothing but the quantity of syllables; they are not meant for logic.

CVI.

POPE.

I. A POPE'S bull and a pope's brief differ very much, as with us the great seal and the privy seal, the bull being the highest authority the pope can give; the brief is of less. 10 The bull has a leaden seal upon silk, hanging upon the instrument; the brief has sub annulo piscatoris upon the side.

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2. He was a wise pope, that when one that used to be merry with him, before he was advanced to the popedom, refrained afterwards to come at him, (presuming he was busy in governing the Christian world) the pope sends for him, bids him come again, And [says he] we will be merry as we were before; for thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the whole world.

3. The pope in sending relics to princes, does as wenches do by their wassail at new year's tide; they present you with a cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them moneys, ten times more than it is worth.

4. The pope is infallible where he has power to command; that is where he must be obeyed; so is every supreme power and prince. They that stretch this infallibility further, do but they know not what.

5. When a protestant and a papist dispute, they talk like 30 two madmen, because they do not agree upon their principles. The only way is to destroy the pope's power; for

if he has power to command me, 'tis not my alleging reasons to the contrary can keep me from obeying: for example, if a constable command me to wear a green suit to-morrow, and has power to make me, 'tis not my alleging a hundred reasons of the foolery of it, can excuse me from doing it.

6. There was a time when the pope had power here in England, and there was excellent use made of it; for 'twas only to serve turns, as might be manifested out of the records of the kingdom, which divines know little of. If the king did not like what the pope would have, he would 10 forbid his legate to land upon his grounds. So that the power was truly in the king, though suffered in the pope. But now the temporal and the spiritual power (spiritual so called because ordained to a spiritual end) spring both from one fountain; they are like two twists that

7. The protestants in France bear office in the state, because though their religion be different, yet they acknowledge no other king but the king of France. The papists in England they must have a king of their own, a pope, that must do something in our king's kingdom; therefore there is no reason they should enjoy the same privileges.

8. Amsterdam admits of all religions but papists, and 'tis upon the same account. The papists where'er they live, have another king at Rome; all other religions are subject to the present state, and have no prince elsewhere.

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9. The papists call our religion a parliamentary religion, but there was once, I am sure, a parliamentary pope. Pope Urban was made in England by act of parliament, against pope Clement. The act is not in the book of 30

1. 15. they are like two twists that-] We may perhaps add here' are spun out of the same stuff.' If the metaphor of the one fountain is to be continued, some other words must be used. The early printed editions read 'they are like to twist that,' an unmeaning remark here.

1. 30. the act is not in the book of statutes] It is given in the folio edition of the Statutes (1816), in the original Norman French, and