pitiful condition. The nobility and gentry would not suffer their sons or kindred to meddle with the church, and therefore at this day, when they see a parson, they think him to be such a thing still, and there they will keep him, and use him accordingly; if he be a gentleman born, that is singled out, and he is used the more respectively.

II. That the protestant minister is least regarded, appears by the old story of the keeper of the Clink. He had priests of several sorts sent unto him; as they came in, he asked them who they were; who are you? to the 10 first. I am a priest of the Church of Rome. You are welcome, quoth the keeper, there are those will take care of you. And who are you? A silenced minister. You are welcome too, I shall fare the better for you. And who are you? A minister of the Church of England. O God help me (quoth the keeper) I shall get nothing by you, I am sure you may lie and starve, and rot, before anybody will look after you.

great want of ministers, the bishops had 'heretofore admitted into the ministry sundry artificers and others not traded and brought up in learning; and as it happened in a multitude some that were of base occupations.'

These men are termed 'very offensive to the people; yea, and to the wise of this realm; they were thought to do a great deal more hurt than good; the Gospel thereby sustaining slander.' Strype, Life of Parker, bk. ii. ch. iv.

Even in Selden's day, the clergy were a mixed multitude, some of them (according to Sir Edward Deering) 'so poor that they cannot attend their ministry but are fain to keep schools, nay alehouses some of them.' Nalson, Collections, vol. i. 760.

1. 8. the Clink] The clink, according to Stow, was a prison, adjoining the Bishop of Winchester's House in Southwark, used in old time for such as should brabble, fray, or break the peace. Survey of London, bk. iv. p. 8 (ed. of 1720, 2 vols. folio).

For the use to which it was put afterwards, see Foxe (Acts and Monuments), who says that Bishops Hooper and Rogers, after being questioned by the Bishop of Winchester, were 'carried to the Clink, a prison not far from the Bishop of Winchester's house.' Vol. vi. p. 650, and again, p. 691 (8 vols. 1849).

12. Methinks 'tis an ignorant thing for a churchman to call himself the minister of Christ, because St. Paul, or the Apostles called themselves so. If one of them had a voice from heaven, as St. Paul had, I will grant he is a minister of Christ, and I will call him so too. Must they take upon them as the Apostles did? Can they do as the Apostles could? The Apostles had a mark to be known by, spoke tongues, cured diseases, trod upon serpents, &c. Can they do this? If a gentleman tell me he will send his man to 10 me, and I did not know his man, but he gave me this mark to know him by, he should bring in his hand a rich jewel; if a fellow came to me with a pebble-stone, had I any reason to believe that he was the gentleman's man?

LXXXIX.

MONEY.

1. MONEY makes a man laugh. A blind fiddler playing to a company, and playing but scurvily, the company laughed at him; his boy that led him, perceiving it, cried, Father, let us be gone, they do nothing but laugh at you. Hold thy peace, boy, says the fiddler, we shall have their 20 money presently, and then we will laugh at them.

2. Euclid was beaten in Boccaline, for teaching his 1. 21. Euclid was beaten, &c.] See Boccalini, I Ragguagli di Parnasso (Advertisements from Parnassus), Century II. Advert. 3; p. 201 in the Earl of Monmouth's translation.

The book is a curious medley. The scene is laid at Apollo's court on Parnassus-a great central Academy, at which news arrives, from time to time, of all dates, and from all quarters of the world (as e. g. in the text), and where various characters, ancient and modern, poets, philosophers, politicians, and historians, come up to be judged and have their proper rank assigned to them. It is a court of universal reference, open perpetually to hear complaints and to settle literary disputes. Sentence is given sometimes by Apollo in person, sometimes by his deputies. See also 'War,' sec. II and note.

scholars a mathematical figure in his schools, whereby he shewed that all the lives both of princes and private men tended to one centre, con gentilezza handsomely to get money out of other men's pockets, and put it into their

own.

3. The pope used heretofore to send the princes of Christendom to fight against the Turk; but prince and pope finely juggled together; the moneys were raised, and some men went out to the holy war, but commonly after they had got the money, the Turk was pretty quiet, and the prince and the pope shared it betwixt them.

4. In all times the princes in England have done something illegally, to get money. But then came a parliament, and all was well; the people and the prince kissed and were friends, and so things were quiet for a while. Afterwards there was another trick found out to get money, and after they had got it, another parliament was called to set all right, &c. But now they have so outrun the constable

ΙΟ

XC.

MORAL HONESTY.

20

THEY that cry down moral honesty, cry down that which is a great part of religion, my duty towards God, and my duty toward man. What care I to see a man run after a sermon, if he cozen and cheat me as soon as he comes home? On the other side, morality must not be without religion, for if so, it may change, as I see convenience. Religion must govern it. He that has not religion to govern his morality, is not a dram better than my mastiffdog; so long as you stroke him, and please him, and do not pinch him, he will play with you as finely as may be, 30 he's a very good moral mastiff; but if you hurt him, he will fly in your face, and tear out your throat.

XCI.

MORTGAGE.

In case I receive a £1000, and mortgage as much land as is worth £2000 to you, if I do not pay the money at such a day. I fail; whether you may take my land and keep it in point of conscience?

Answer. If you had my land as a security only for your money, then you are not to keep it; but if we bargained so, that if I did not repay your £1000, my land should go for it, be it what it will, no doubt you may with a safe Io conscience keep it; for in these things all the obligation is, servare fidem.

XCII.
NUMBER.

ALL those mysterious things they observe in numbers, come to nothing, upon this very ground; because number in itself is nothing, has nothing to do with nature, but is merely of human imposition, a mere sound. For example, when I cry one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, that is but man's division of time, the time itself goes on; and it had been all one in nature, if those hours had been called 209, 10, and II. So when they say the seventh son is fortunate, it means nothing; for if you count from the seventh backwards, then the first is the seventh; and why is not he likewise fortunate?

1. 14. number in itself is nothing] Numbering, Hobbes says, is an act of the mind; and by division of space or of time 'I do not mean the severing or pulling asunder of one space or time from another (for does any man think that one hemisphere may be separated from the other hemisphere, or the first hour from the second?), but diversity of consideration.' Hobbes, Computation or Logic, pt. ii. ch. 7, secs. 3 and 5.

XCIII.

OATHS.

I. SWEARING was another thing with the Jews than with us, because they might not pronounce the name of the Lord Jehovah.

2. There is no oath scarcely, but we swear to things we are ignorant of: for example, the oath of supremacy: how many know how the king is king? what are his right and prerogative? So how many know what are the privileges of the parliament, and the liberty of the subject, when they take the protestation? But the meaning is, they will defend 10 them when they know them. As if I should swear I would take part with all that wear red ribbons in their hats; it may be I do not know which colour is red; but when I do know, and see a red ribbon in a man's hat, then will I take

his part.

3. I cannot conceive how an oath is imposed, where there is a parity, viz. in the House of Commons; they are all pares inter se, only one brings a paper, and shews it the rest, they look upon it, and in their own sense take it. Now they are but pares to me, who am one of the house 1, 20 for I do not acknowledge myself their subject; if I did, then, no question, I was bound by oath of their imposing. 'Tis to me but reading a paper in my own sense.

4. There is a great difference between an assertory oath

1 One of the house] none of the house, MSS.

1. 9. when they take the protestation] The form of oath agreed upon, and taken by the members of the House of Commons, was as follows: ‘I, A. B., do, in the Presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest, to maintain and defend . . . . the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the lawful rights and liberties of the Subject, and every person that maketh this protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful pursuance of the same' (May 3, 1641). Commons Journals, ii. 132.