nesse in the Proportion. A Man cannot tell, whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more Trifler: Whereof the one would make a Personage by Geometricall Proportions: The other, by taking the best Parts out of divers Faces, to make one Excellent. Such Personages, I thinke, would please no Body, but the Painter, that made them. Not but I thinke a Painter, may make a better Face, then ever was; But he must doe it, by a kinde of Felicity, (As a Musician that maketh an excellent Ayre in Musicke) And not by Rule. A Man shall see Faces, that if you examine them, Part by Part, you shall finde never a good; And yet all together doe well. If it be true, that the Principall Part of Beauty, is in decent Motion, certainly it is no marvaile, though Persons in Yeares, seeme many times more Amiable; Pulchrorum Autumnus pulcher: For no Youth can be comely, but by Pardon, and considering the Youth, as to make up the comelinesse. Beauty is as Sum→ mer-Fruits, which are easie to corrupt, and cannot last: And, for the most part, it makes a dissolute Youth, and an Age a little out of countenance: But yet certainly againe, if it light well, it maketh Vertues shine, and Vices blush.

N

XLIIII

Of Deformity

DEFORMED Persons are commonly even

with Nature: For as Nature hath done ill by them; So doe they by Nature: Being for the most part, (as the Scripture saith) void of Naturall Affection; And so they have their Revenge of Nature. Certainly there is a Consent between the Body and the Minde; And where Nature erreth in the One, she ventureth in the Other. Ubi peccat in uno, periclitatur in altero. But because, there is in Man, an Election touching the Frame of his Minde, and a Necessity in the Frame of his Body, the Starres of Naturall Inclination, are sometimes obscured, by the Sun of Discipline, and Vertue. Therefore, it is good to consider of Deformity, not as a Signe, which is more Deceivable; But as a Cause, which seldome faileth of the Effect. Whosoever hath any Thing fixed in his Person, that doth enduce Contempt, hath also a perpetuall Spurre in himselfe, to rescue and deliver himselfe from Scorne: Therefore all Deformed Persons are extreme Bold. First, as in their own Defence, as being

exposed to Scorn; But in Processe of Time, by a Generall Habit. Also it stirreth in them Industry, and especially of this kinde, to watch and observe the Weaknesse of Others, that they may have somewhat to repay. Againe, in their Superiours, it quencheth Iealousie towards them, as Persons that they think they may at pleasure despise: And it layeth their Competitours and Emulatours asleepe; As never beleeving, they should be in possibility of advancement, till they see them in Possession. So that, upon the matter, in a great Wit, Deformity is an Advantage to Rising. Kings in Ancient Times, (And at this present in some Countries,) were wont to put Great Trust in Eunuchs; Because they, that are Envious towards All, are more Obnoxious and Officious towards One. But yet their Trust towards them, hath rather beene as to good Spialls, and good Whisperers; then good Magistrates, and Officers. And much like is the Reason of Deformed Persons. Still the Ground is, they will, if they be of Spirit, seeke to free themselves from Scorne; Which must be, either by Vertue, or Malice: And therefore, let it not be Marvelled, if sometimes they prove Excellent Persons; As was Agesilaus, Zanger the Sonne of Solyman, Æsope, Gasca President of Peru; And Socrates may goe likewise amongst them; with Others.

XLV

Of Building

OUSES are built to Live in, and not to

HOU

Looke on: Therefore let Use bee preferred before Uniformitie; Except where both may be had. Leave the Goodly Fabrickes of Houses, for Beautie only, to the Enchanted Pallaces of the Poets: Who build them with small Cost. Hee that builds a faire House, upon an ill Seat, committeth Himselfe to Prison. Neither doe I reckon it an ill Seat, only, where the Aire is Unwholsome; But likewise where the Aire is unequall; As you shall see many Fine Seats, set upon a knap of Ground, Environed with Higher Hilles round about it: whereby the Heat of the Sunne is pent in, and the Wind gathereth as in Troughes; So as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great Diversitie of Heat and Cold, as if you Dwelt in severall Places, Neither is it ill Aire onely, that maketh an ill Seat, but Ill Wayes, Ill Markets; And, if you will consult with Momus, Ill Neighbours. I speake not of many More: Want of Water; Want of Wood, Shade, and Shelter; Want of Fruitfulnesse, and mixture of Grounds of severall Natures; Want

of Prospect; Want of Levell Grounds; Want of Places, at some neare Distance, for Sports of Hunting, Hauking, and Races; Too neare the Sea, too remote; Having the Commoditie of Navigable Rivers, or the discommoditie of their Overflowing; Too farre off from great Cities, which may hinder Businesse; Or too neare them, which Lurcheth all Provisions, and maketh every Thing deare: Where a Man hath a great Living laid together, and where he is scanted: All which, as it is impossible, perhaps, to finde together, so it is good to know them, and thinke of them, that a Man may take as many as he can: And if he have severall Dwellings, that he sort them so, that what hee wanteth in the One, hee may finde in the Other. Lucullus answered Pompey well; Who when hee saw his Stately Galleries, and Roomes, so Large and Lightsome, in one of his Houses, said; Surely, an excellent Place for Summer, but how doe you in Winter? Lucullus answered; Why, doe you not think me as wise, as some Fowle are, that ever change their Aboad towards the Winter?

To passe from the Seat, to the House it selfe; We will doe as Cicero doth, in the Oratours Art; Who writes Bookes De Oratore, and a Booke he entitles Orator: Whereof the Former delivers the Precepts of the Art; And the Latter the Perfection. We will therefore describe a Princely Pallace, making a briefe Modell thereof. For it is strange to see, now in Europe, such Huge Buildings, as the Vatican, and Escuriall, and some Others be, and yet scarce a very Faire Roome in them.