3. Question. Whether may subjects take up arms against their prince?

Answer. Conceive it thus; here lies a shilling betwixt you and me; tenpence of the shilling is yours, twopence is mine by agreement: I am as much king of my twopence, as you of your tenpence: if you therefore go about to take away my twopence, I will defend it; for there you and I are equal, both princes.

4. Or thus; two supreme princes meet; one says to the other, Give me your land; if you will not, I will take it 10 from you: the other, because he thinks himself too weak to resist him, tells him, Of nine parts I will give you three, so I may quietly enjoy the rest, and I will become your tributary. Afterwards the prince comes to exact six parts, and leaves but three; the contract then is broken, and they are in parity again.

5. To know what obedience is due to the prince, you must look into the contract betwixt him and his people; as if you would know what rent is due from the tenant to the landlord, you must look into the lease. Where the contract 20 is broken, and there is no third person to judge, then the decision is by arms. And this is the case between the prince and the subject.

1. 1. Whether may subjects &c.] The right of subjects to take up arms against their Prince was a natural subject of discussion in Selden's day. The clergy pronounced against it. The new Canons of 1640, put out by the two Synods and accepted and endorsed by the King, speak very decidedly about it. For subjects to bear arms against their Kings, offensive or defensive, upon any pretence whatsoever, is at least to resist the powers which are ordained of God; and though they do not invade, but only resist, St. Paul tells them plainly, they shall receive to themselves damnation.' Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, sec. 1. Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 545.

It was one of the charges against Archbishop Laud that he had ordered the clergy to preach in the above sense four times in the year, This order appears in the preface to the first Canon, and the doctrine thus approved is defended at length in Laud's own history of his troubles and trial. Conf. Laud's Works, vol. iii. pp. 366-370.

ΤΟ

6. Question. What law is there to take up arms against the prince, in case he break his covenant?

Answer. Though there be no written law for it, yet there is custom, which is the best law of the kingdom; for in England they have always done it. There is nothing expressed between the king of England and the king of France, that if either invades the other's territory, the other shall take up arms against him; and yet they do it upon such an occasion.

7. 'Tis all one to be plundered by a troop of horse, or to have a man's goods taken from him by an order from the Council-table. To him that dies, 'tis all one whether it be by a penny halter, or a silk garter; yet I confess the silk garter pleases more; and, like trouts, we love to be tickled to death.

8. The soldiers say they fight for honour; when the truth is they have their honour in their pocket. And they mean the same thing that pretend to fight for religion. Just as a parson goes to law with his parishioners, he 20 Says, for the good of his successor, that the church may not lose its right; when the meaning is to get the tithe into his own pocket.

9. We govern this war as an unskilful man does a casting-net; if he has not the right trick to cast the net off of his shoulder, the leads will pull him into the river. I am afraid we shall pull ourselves into destruction.

10. We look after the particulars of a battle, because we live in the very time of the war. Whereas of battles past, we hear nothing but the number slain. Just so for the 30 death of a man; when he is sick, we talk how he slept this

night, and that night; what he eat, and what he drank: but when he is dead, we only say, he died of a fever, or name his disease; and there's an end.

11. Boccaline has this passage of soldiers; they came to

1. 34. Boccaline has this passage &c.] This is not quite correct.

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Apollo to have their profession made the eighth1 liberal science, which he granted. As soon as it was noised up and down, in came the butchers, and they desired their profession might be made the ninth: for, say they, the soldiers have this honour for killing of men; now we kill as well as they; but we kill beasts for the preserving of men, and why should not we have honour likewise done us? Apollo could not answer their reasons, so he reversed his sentence, and made the soldier's trade a mystery, as the butcher's is.

1 The eighth] the eigth, H. and H. 2.

The passage is as follows:-'The precedency between Arms and Learning is still obstinately disputed on both sides, between the Literati and Military men in Parnassus. And it was resolved in the last Ruota that the question should be argued if at least the name of Science and Discipline might be attributed to the exercise of war. The business was very subtilly canvassed and argued, and the Court seemed wholly to incline to the Literati; but the Princes used such forcible arguments, as it was resolved that military men in their exercise of war might use the honourable names of science and discipline. The Literati were much displeased at this decision. . . when unexpectedly all the Butchers of the world were seen to appear The tin Parnassus; all besmeared with blood, with hatchets and long knives in their hands.... Apollo, that he might know what they meant, sent some Deputies to them. To whom those butchers stoutly said, that hearing that the Court had decided that the art of sacking and firing of cities, of cutting their inhabitants in pieces... and of calling with sword in hand, mine thine, should be termed a science and discipline, they also, who did not profess the killing of men but the killing of calves and muttons to feed men withal, demanded that their art might be honoured by the same illustrious names. . . . The same Signori Auditori di ruota, when they saw the butchers appear in the Palace, and heard their demand, they were aware of the injustice which but a little before they had done to all the Virtuosi by their decision; wherefore they again propounded the same question, and unanimously agreed, that the mysterie of War, though it were sometimes necessary, was notwithstanding so cruel and so inhumane, as it was impossible to honest it with civil terms.' Boccalini, Advertisements from Parnassus, Century 1. Advert. 75. Trans. by Henry, Earl of Monmouth, p. 143.

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CXLVIII.

WIFE.

I. HE that has a handsome wife, by other men is thought happy; 'tis a pleasure to look upon her, and be in her company; but the husband is cloyed with her. We are never content with what we have.

2. You shall see a monkey sometime that has been playing up and down the garden, at length leap up to the top of the wall, but his clog hangs a great way below on this side: the bishop's wife is like that monkey's clog; 10 himself is got up very high, takes place of temporal barons; but his wife comes a great way behind.

3. 'Tis reason a man that will have a wife should be at the charge of all her trinkets, and pay all the scores she sets on him. He that will keep a monkey, 'tis fit he should pay for the glasses she breaks.

CXLIX.

WISDOM.

1. A WISE man should never resolve upon anything, at least never let the world know his resolution; for if he cannot arrive at that, he is shamed. How many things did 20 the king resolve in his declaration concerning Scotland, never to do, and yet did them all? A man must do according to accidents and emergences.

2. Never tell your resolution before-hand; but when the cast is thrown, play it as well as you can to win the game you are at. 'Tis but folly to study how to play size-ace, when you know not whether you shall throw it or no.

3. Wise men say nothing in dangerous times. The lion,

you know, called the sheep, to ask her if his breath smelt; she said, Aye1; he bit off her head for a fool. He called the wolf, and asked him; he said, No; he tore him in pieces for a flatterer. At last he called the fox, and asked him; Truly he had got a cold, and could not smell. King James was pictured, &c.

CL.

WITCHES.

THE law against witches does not prove that there be any; but it punishes the malice of those people that use such means to take away men's lives. If one should pro- 10 fess that by turning his hat thrice, and crying buz, he could take away a man's life (though in truth he could do nothing), yet this were a just law made by the state, that whosoever should turn his hat thrice, and cry buz, with an intention to take away a man's life, shall be put to death.

CLI.

WIT.

1. WIT and wisdom differ; wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is in bringing about ends.

2. Nature must be the ground-work of wit and art; otherwise whatever is done will prove but jack-pudding's 20 work.

3. Wit must grow like fingers; if it be taken from others, 'tis like plums stuck upon blackthorn; there they are for awhile, but they come to nothing.

4. He that will give himself to all manner of ways to get

1 Aye] I, MSS.