sunne; how then shall it haste without stay, when all the whole lumpe is corrupted? "Be industrious and studious in thy youth; knowing, that if by thy labour thou accomplish any thing that is good, the labour passeth, but the good remaineth to thy comfort; if, by the contrary, for thy pleasure thou shalt doe any thing that is evill, the pleasure passeth, but the evill remaineth to thy tor ment 5. "Corrupt company is more infectious than corrupt air; therefore, be advised in thy choice for that text of thy selfe which could never so be expounded, thy companion shall, as thy commentarie, lay open to the world. Withall, because we see by experience, that if those that are neither good nor evill, accompany with those that are good, they are transformed into their vertues: if those that are neither good nor evill, consort with those that are evill, they are incorporated to their vice: if the good company with the good, both are made better; if the evill with the evill, both the worse. "Whatsoever good purpose thou intendest at thy death, that doe in thy life; for so doing, it shall be more acceptable to God, and commendable to man, He that gives when he cannot hold, is worthy of thankes when one cannot chuse. 5 Queen Mary penned a very similar passage before her copy of the Psalms: "If you take labour and payne to doo a vertuous thyng, the labour goeth way and the vertue remaynethe. If through pleasure you do any vicious thyng, the pleasure goeth away and the vice remaynethe." See Ballard, p. 133. "Live vertuously, that thou mayest dye patiently; for who lives most honestly, will dye most willingly. "Be ever diligent in some vocation: for continuall ease as it is most dangerous, is more wearisome than labour; and it is no freedome to live licentiously, nor pleasure to live without some paine. "Indifferent superiority is the safest equality; as the soberest speed is the wisest leisure. "He is worthy to fall that tempts himself; and therefore shun occasion of evill, and thou hast halfe overcome thine enemy. "In all thy attempts, let honesty be thy aym; for he that climbs by privy deceit, shall fall with open reproach and forget not in thy youth to be mindefull of thy end-for though the old man cannot live long, yet the young man may dye quickly. "The waste of time is a dear expence; and he that seeks for means to pass it unprofitably, spurrs a forward horse without reason, to the overthrow of his rider for whosoever wasteth many years, and purchaseth little knowledge, may be said to have had a long time, but a short life.] This precept accords with Hooker's estimate of Edward the sixth, that "though he died young he lived long, for life is in action." ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX. To enter into all the particulars of this remarkable person's life, would be writing a history of the sixteen or eighteen last years of the reign of queen Elizabeth: yet I shall touch many passages of his story, and enter into a larger discussion of some circumstances relating to him, than may be agreeable to persons who are not curious about such minute facts as do not compose the history of illustrious men, though they in a great measure compose their character. It is essential to the plan of this work, to examine many particulars of this lord's story, because it was not choice or private amusement, but the cast of his public life, that converted him into an author. Having consulted a great variety of writers, who describe or mention him, I may perhaps be able to unfold some of the darker parts of his history: at least some anecdotes, though of a trifling sort, will appear a stronger light than I think they have hitherto done. These sheets are calculated for the closets of the idle and inquisitive: they do not look up to the shelves of what Voltaire so happily calls, La Bibliotheque du Monde. in |