GENERAL DEDICATION TO THE POLEMICAL DISCOURSES. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND TRULY NOBLE CHRISTOPHER LORD HATTON, BARON HATTON OF KIRBY, PRIVY COUNSELLOR AND COMPTROLLER OF THE HOUSEHOLD TO AND KNIGHT OF THE HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH. MY LORD, WHEN We make books and publish them, and by dedications implore the patronage of some worthy person, I find by experience that we cannot acquire that end, which is pretended to by such addresses: for neither friendship nor power, interest or favour, can give those defences to a book, which it needs: because the evil fortune of books comes from causes discernible indeed, but irremediable; and the breath of the people is like the voice of an exterminating angel, not so killing but so secret. But that is not all; it is also as contingent as the smiles of an infant, or the fall of a die, which is determined by every part of motion, which can be in any part of the hand or arm. For when I consider that the infinite variety of understandings is greater than that of faces, not only because the lines that make our faces, are finite, but the things that integrate and actuate the understanding, are not; but also because every man hath a face, but every man hath not understanding; and men with their understandings, or with their no understandings, give their sentence upon books, not only before they understand all, not only before they read all, but before they read three pages, receiving their information from humour or interest, from chance or mistake, from him that reads in malice, or from him that reads after dinner; I find it necessary that he that writes, should secure himself, and his own reputation, by all the ways of prudence and religion; that God, who takes care of fame as certainly as of lives, may do that which is best in this instance; for no other patron can defend him that writes from him that reads, and understands either too much or too little. And therefore, my Lord, I could not choose you to be the patron of my book, upon hopes you can, by greatness or interest, secure it against the stings of insects and imperfect creatures; nothing but Domitian's style can make them harmless; but I can, from your wisdom and your learning, the great reputation you have abroad, and the honour you have at home, hope that, for the relation sake, some will be civil to it, at least until they read it, and then I give them leave to do what they please, for I am secure enough in all this; because my writings are not intended as a stratagem for noises; I intend to do not only what is good, but what is best; and therefore I am not troubled at any event, so I may but justly hope that God is glorified in the ministration: but he that seeks any thing but God's service, shall have such a reward as will do him no good. But finding nothing reasonable in the expectation that the dedication should defend the book, and that the gate should be a fortification to the house, I have sometimes believed that most men intend it to other purposes than this, and that, because they design or hope to themselves (at least at second hand) an artificial immortality, they would also adopt their patron or their friend into a participation of it; doing as the Cæsars did, who, taking a partner to the empire, did not divide the honour or the power, but the ministration. But in this also I find, that this address to your Lordship must be destitute of any material event, not only because you have secured to yourself a great name in all the registers of honour, by your skill and love to all things that are excellent, but because, of all men in the world, I am the unfittest to speak those great things of your Lordship, which your worthiness must challenge of all that know you. For, though I was wooed to love and honour you by the beauties of your virtue, and the sweetness of your disposition, by your worthy employments at court, and your being so beloved in your country, by the value your friends put upon you, and the regard that strangers paid to you, by your zeal for the church, and your busy care in the promoting all worthy learnings, by your religion and your nobleness; yet when I once came into a conversation with these excellencies, I found from your Lordship not only the example of so many virtues, but the expressions of so many favours and kindnesses to my person, that I became too much interested to look upon you with indifferency, and too much convinced of your worthiness to speak of it temperately; and therefore I resolved to keep where I am, and to love and enjoy what I am so unfit to publish and express. But, my Lord, give me leave to account to you concerning the present collection; and I shall no otherwise trouble your Lordship than I do almost every day, when my good fortune allows me the comfort and advantages of your conversation. The former impressions of these books being spent, and the world being willing enough to receive more of them, it was thought fit to draw into one volume* all these lesser books, which at several times were made public, and which, by some collateral improvements they were to receive now from me, might do some more advantages to one another, and better struggle with such prejudices, with which any of them hath been at any time troubled. For, though I have great reason to adore the goodness of God, in giving that success to my labours, that I am also obliged to the kindness of men for their friendly acceptance of them; yet when a persecution did arise against the church of England, and that I intended to make a defensative for my brethren and myself, by pleading for a liberty to our consciences to persevere in that profession, which was warranted by all the laws of God and our superiors, some men were angry, and would not be safe that way, because I had made the roof of the sanctuary so wide that more might be sheltered under it than they had a mind should be saved harmless: men would be safe alone, or not at all, supposing that their truth and good cause This, and some other expressions in this Dedication, refer to the folio edition.-ED. |