XIII. JUDGES.

1. We see the pageants in Cheapside, the lions, and the elephants, but we do not see the men that carry them; we see the judges look big, look like lions, but we do not see who moves them.

2. Little things do great works, when great things will not. If I should take a pin from the ground, a little pair of tongs will do it, when a great pair will not. Go to a judge to do a business for you; by no means; he will not hear of it; but go to some small servant about him, and he will dispatch it according to your heart's desire.

3. There could be no mischief done in the commonwealth without a judge. Though there be false dice brought in at the groom-porter's, and cheating offered, yet, unless he allow the cheating, and judge the dice to be good, there may be hopes of fair play.

XIV. LANGUAGE.

1. To a living tongue new words may be added, but not to a dead tongue, as Latin, Greek, Hebrew, &c.

2. Latimer is the corruption of Latiner; it signifies he that interprets Latin: and though he interpreted French, Spanish, or Italian, he was called the king's Latiner, that is, the king's interpreter.

3. If you look upon the language spoken in the Saxon time, and the language spoken now, you will find the difference to be just as if a man had a cloak that he wore.) plain in Queen Elizabeth's days, and since, here has put in a piece of red, and there a piece of blue, and here a piece of green, and there a piece of orange-tawny. We borrow words from the French, Italian, Latin, as every pedantic man pleases.

4. We have more words than notions; half-adozen words for the same thing: sometimes we put a new signification to an old word, as when we call a piece a gun. The word gun was in use in England for an engine to cast a thing from a man, long before there was any gunpowder found out.

5. Words must be fitted to a man's mouth. It was well said of the fellow that was to make a speech for my lord mayor, he desired to take measure of his lordship's mouth.

XV. LAW.

1. A man may plead not guilty, and yet tell no lie; for by the law no man is bound to accuse himself: so that when I say, not guilty, the meaning is, as if I should say by way of paraphrase, I am not so guilty as to tell you; if you will bring me to a trial, and have me punished for this you lay to my charge, prove it against me.

2. Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because it is an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.

3. The King of Spain was outlawed in Westminster-hall, I being of counsel against him: 8 merchant had recovered costs against him in a suit, which because he could not get, we advised to have him outlawed for not appearing, and so he was: as soon as Gondimer heard that, he presently sent the money, by reason, if his master had been outlawed, he could not have the benefit of the law; which would have been very prejudicial, there being then many suits depending betwixt the King of Spain and our English merchants.

4. Every law is a contract between the king and the people, and therefore to be kept. A hun

dred men may owe me a hundred pounds, as well as any one man, and shall they not pay me because they are stronger than I? Object. Ô, but they lose all if they keep that law. Answ. Let them look to the making of their bargain. If I sell my lands, and when I have done, one comes and tells me, I have nothing else to keep me; I, and my wife, and children, must starve, if I part with my land-must I not, therefore, let them have my land that have bought it and paid for it?

5. The Parliament may declare law, as well as any other inferior court may, viz. the King's Bench. In that or this particular case, the King's Bench will declare unto you what the law is; but that binds nobody whom the case concerns: so the highest court, the Parliament, may do, but not declare law; that is, make law that was never heard of before. XVI. LEARNING.

1. No man is the wiser for his learning: it may administer matter to work in, or objects to work upon; but wit and wisdom are born with a man.

2. Most men's learning is nothing but history duly taken up. If I quote Thomas Aquinas for some tenet, and believe it, because the schoolmen say so, that is but history. Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak.

3. The Jesuits, and the lawyers of France, and the Low Countrymen, have engrossed all learning the rest of the world make nothing but homilies.

XVII. LIBELS.

Though some may make light of libels, yet you may see by them how the wind sits: as take a straw, and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which way the wind is, which you

shall not do by casting up a stone: more solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as ballads and libels.

XVIII. MARRIAGE.

1. Of all actions of a man's life, his marriage does least concern other people; yet of all actions of our life, it is most meddled with by other people.

2. Marriage is nothing but a civil contract: it is true, it is an ordinance of God: so is every other contract: God commands me to keep it when I have made it.

3. Marriage is a desperate thing. The frogs in Æsop were extreme wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well, because they could not get out again,

4. We single out particulars, and apply God's providence to them: thus when two are married and have undone one another, they cry, "It was God's providence we should come together," when God's providence does equally concur to everything.

XIX. MEASURE OF THINGS.

1. We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves. Nash, a poet, poor enough, as poets used to be, seeing an alderman with his gold chain, upon his great horse, by way of scorn, said to one of his companions, "Do you see yon fellow, how goodly, how big he looks? Why, that fellow cannot make a blank verse."

2. Nay, we measure the goodness of God from ourselves; we measure his goodness, his justice, his wisdom, by something we call just, good, or wise in ourselves; and in so doing, we judge proportionably to the country fellow in the play, who

said, if he were a king, he would live like a lord, and have peas and bacon every day, and a whip that cried slash.

XX. MORAL HONESTY.

They that cry down moral honesty, cry down that which is a great part of religion-my duty towards God, and my duty towards man. What care I to see a man run after a sermon, if he cozen and cheat 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 mastiff dog; so long as you stroke him and please him, and do not pinch him, he will play with you as finely as may be ; he is a very good moral mastiff: but if you hurt him, he will fly in your face, and tear out your throat.

XXI. NUMBER.

All those mysterious things they observe in numbers come to nothing, upon this very ground; because number in itself is nothing, has not 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 nine, ten, and eleven. 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: why is he not likewise fortunate?

XXII. OATHS.

There is no oath scarcely, but we swear to things we are ignorant of. For example, the oath