The Holy State, Book 3 · Chapter 7 – Chapter 8
CHAP. 7. Of Building.
HE that alters an old house is tied as a translatour to the originall, and is confin'd to the phancie of the first builder. Such a man were unwise to pluck down good old building, to erect (perchance) worse new. But those that raise a new house from the ground are blame-worthy if they make it not handsome, seeing to them Method and Confusion are both at a rate. In building we must respect Situation, Contrivance, Receipt, Strength, and Beauty. Of Situation.
Maxime 1.Chiefly choose a wholesome aire. For aire is a dish one feeds on every minute, and therefore it need be good. Wherefore great men (who may build where they please, as poore men where they can) if herein they preferre their profit above their health, I referre them to their Physicians to make them pay for it accordingly.
2Wood and water are two staple commodities where they may be had. The former I confesse hath made so much iron, that it must now be bought with the more silver, and grows daily dearer. But 'tis as well pleasant as profitable to see a house cased with trees, like that of Anchises in Troy.
—*Virgil 2. Aeneid. 32. quanquam secreta parentis
Anchisae domus arboribus que obtecta recessit.
The worst is, where a place is bald of wood, no art can make it a periwig. As for water, begin with Pindars beginning, foreign. The fort of *Camb. Brit. in Cambridgeshire.Gogmagog Hills nigh Cambridge is counted impregnable but for want of water, the mischief of many houses where servants must bring the well on their shoulders.
Next a pleasant prospect is to be respected. 3A medly view (such as of water and land at Greenwich) best entertains the eyes, refreshing the wearied beholder with exchange of objects. Yet I know a more profitable prospect, where the owner can onelyonly see his own land round about.
A fair entrance with an easie ascent gives a great grace to a building:4 where the Hall is a preferment out of the Court, the Parlour out of the Hall; not (as in some old buildings) where the doores are so low Pygmies must stoop, and the rooms so high that Giants may stand upright. But now we are come to Contrivance.
Let not thy common rooms be severall, 5nor thy severall rooms be common. The Hall (which is a Pandocheum) ought to lie open, and so ought Passages and Stairs (provided that the whole house be not spent in paths) Chambers and Closets are to be private and retired.
Light (Gods eldest daughter) is a principall beauty in a building:6 yet it shines not alike from all parts of Heaven. An East-window welcomes the infant beams of the Sun, before they are of strength to do any harm, and is offensive to none but a sluggard. A South-window in summer is a chimny with a fire in't, and needs the schreen of a curtain. In a West-window in summer time towards night, the Sun grows low and over familiar with more light then delight. A North-window is best for Butteries and Cellars, where the beere will be sower for the Suns smiling on it. Thorow-lights are best for rooms of entertainment, and windows on one side for dormitories. As for Receipt,
A house had better be too little for a day then too great for a yeare. 7And it's easier borrowing of thy neighbour a brace of chambers for a night, then a bag of money for a twelvemonth. It is vain therefore to proportion the receipt to an extraordinary occasion, as those who by overbuilding their houses have dilapidated their lands, and their states have been press'd to death under the weight of their house. As for Strength,
8Countrey-houses must be Substantives, able to stand of themseves. Not like City-buildings supported by their neighbours on either side. By Strength we mean such as may resist Weather and Time, not Invasion, Castles being out of date in this peaceable age. As for the making of motes round about, it is questionable whether the fogs be not more unhealthfull, then the fish brings profit, or the water defence. Beauty remains behind as the last to be regarded, because houses are made to be lived in not lookt on.
9Let not the Front look asquint on a stranger, but accost him right at his entrance. Uniformity also much pleaseth the eye; and 'tis observed that free-stone, like a fair complexion, soonest waxeth old, whilest brick keeps her beauty longest.
10Let the office-houses observe the due distance from the mansion-house. Those are too familiar which presume to be of the same pile with it. The same may be said of stables and barns; without which a house is like a city without outworks, it can never hold out long.
11Gardens also are to attend in their place. When God (Genesis 2.9) planted a garden Eastward, he made to grow out of the ground every tree pleasant to the sight, and good for food. Sure he knew better what was proper to a garden then those, who nowadayes therein only feed the eyes, and starve both tast and smell.
To conclude, in Building rather believe any man then an Artificer in his own art for matter of charges, not that they cannot but will not be faithfull. Should they tell thee all the cost at the first, it would blast a young Builder in the budding, and therefore they sooth thee up till it hath cost thee something to confute them. The spirit of Building first possessed people after the floud, which then caused the confusion of languages, and since of the estate of many a man.
CHAP. 8. Of Anger.
ANger is one of the sinews of the soul; he that wants it hath a maimed mind, and with Jacob sinew-shrunk in the hollow of his thigh must needs halt. Nor is it good to converse with such as cannot be angry, and with the Caspian sea never ebbe nor flow. This Anger is either Heavenly, when one is offended for God: or Hellish, when offended with God and Goodnes: or Earthly, in temporall matters. Which Earthly Anger (whereof we treat) may also be Hellish, if for no cause, no great cause, too hot, or too long.
Be not angry with any without a cause. Maxime 1.If thou beest, thou must not onelyonly, as the Proverb saith, be appeas'd without amends (having neither cost nor damage given thee) but, as our Saviour *Matth 5.22.saith, be in danger of the judgement.
Be not mortally angry with any for a veniall fault. 2He will make a strange combustion in the state of his soul, who at the landing of every cockboat sets the beacons on fire. To be angry for every toy debases the worth of thy anger; for he who will be angry for any thing, will be angry for nothing.
Let not thy anger be so hot, 3but that the most torrid zone thereof may be habitable. Fright not people from thy presence with the terrour of thy intolerable impatience. Some men like a tiled house are long before they take fire, but once on flame there is no coming near to quench them.
Take heed of doing irrevocable acts in thy passion. 4As the revealing of secrets, which makes thee a bankrupt for society ever after: neither do such things which done once are done for ever, so that no bemoaning can amend them. Sampsons hair grew again, but not his eyes: Time may restore some losses, others are never to be repaird. Wherefore in thy rage make no Persian decree which cannot be revers'd or repeald; but rather Polonian laws which (they say) last but three dayes: Do not in an instant what an age cannot recompence.
5Anger kept till the next morning, with *Exod. 16.24.Manna, doth putrifie and corrupt. Save that Manna corrupted not at all, and anger most of all, kept the next Sabbath. S. Paul *Ephes. 4.26.saith, Let not the Sunne go down on your wrath; to carry news to the Antipodes in another world of thy revengefull nature. Yet let us take the Apostles meaning, rather then his words, with all possible speed to depose our passion, not understanding him so literally that we may take leave to be angry till Sunset: then might our wrath lengthen with the dayes; and men in Greenland, where day lasts above a quarter of a yeare, have plentifull scope of revenge. And as the English (by command from William the Conquerer) alwayes raked up their fire, and put out their candles, when the *Cowels Interpreter out of Stows Annals.Curfew-bell was rung; let us then also quench all sparks of anger and heat of passion.
6He that keeps anger long in his bosome giveth place to the *Ephes. 4.27.devil. And why should we make room for him, who will crowd in too fast of himself? Heat of passion makes our souls to chappe, and the devil creeps in at the cranies; yea a furious man in his fits may seem possess'd with a devil, fomes, fumes, tears himself, is deaf, and dumbe in effect, to heare or speak reason: sometimes wallows, stares, stamps, with fiery eyes and flaming cheeks. Had Narcissus himself seen his own face when he had been angry, he could never have fallen in love with himself.