The Vanity of Glorying in the Flesh, Letter
A LETTER from a Gentleman in Oxon. unto the Honoured and truly Honourable FRANCIS LUCY, Eſq
Deareſt Ʋnkle,
I Was a ſad Hearer of the Funeral Oration that was ſpoken at the interrement of my beloved Couſin K. L. wherein although his picture was ſo excellently well drawn, and ſo like him while it was then held forth unto us, as if he had been alive an houre longer then he was; yet give me leave to put a little varniſh upon it, which, I hope, may not at all deface that curious peece, but thus by embelliſhing each line, make his Labours laſt the longer: Truly I have for ſome yeares paſt very much ſtudied this deceaſed Gentleman, and although he ſoar'd a pitch too high for me to reach him, and thereby was above my imitating, yet I had been a very unhappy Proficient, if I had not boen able to draw ſome Notes, and make ſome Obſervations from him, whereby not only my ſelf, but thoſe that reade them from me may be the better by it.
It was no hard matter to raiſe a hanſome fabrick, upon a foundation ſo well order'd and diſpoſ'd to the receiving it, and in him Nature had ſo elegantly prepar'd the materials, that they were ſuſceptible of nothing, but a moſt delicate and beautiful forme; ſo that his Tutors Province was eaſie and maginable enough, whoſe paines conſiſted more in a methodical (though not an idle) hindring of his Proficiency, then any way in the quickening and advancing it, yet thereby the more water he poured upon this learned fire, did not at all extinguiſh or abate it, but made it flame out and burne the brighter.
By theſe degrees and rules of protraction, without any conſiderable ttouble did he come to a ripe and early knowledge, and was able to write Man, long before the perfect date of his childhood was expired, and was fitter to have been received into an Univerſity, before he came thither, then ſome that had ſweat and toiled under a degree there; into which place he was received with ſuch approbation, as if he had come warranted under the diſcipline of a Seneca, or a Cato: and it might well be ſo, ſince he never went wirhout the Teſtimonials of Demoſthenes and Cicero in his company. The Academy look't upon him, not only as one of her natural, but moſt legitimate children, and it could be no leſſening of his intereſt in your family, that he thought himſelf moſt at home, when he was moſt from you; He was made up of ſo gentle, and compoſ'd a temper, as that he would not commit a force upon his learning, neither needed he to take in the Arts and Sciences by ſtorme or violence, which came in moſt willingly, as it were, to ſowe themſelves in a piece of ground ſo manur'd and till'd, to their receiving, in hopes thereby, in ſo dry and barren a time, to receive a profitable return, by a more fruitful and plentiful Harveſt. Wherein they were not at all miſtaken, for it was inconſiſtent with his generoſity, to continue long indebted under the obligation of ſo ingenuous and free a bounty: Nature was no more beholding to Ariſtotle, then Ariſtotle was to him; whoſe exploded language and Philoſophy had never been repealed, but by ſo perfect a ſcholar of his own; and it was more newes, and welcomer, to hear him diſpute upon him out of the Original, then ever the Original was without ſuch a Commentor. By his care were the Ethicks made more intelligible, and by his life a more moral Philoſophy: He taught the Geographer a nearer way to his journeys end, and could have ſhewed him, not only where his terra incognita was, but how to have poſſeſt it alſo: He was Maſter of ſo profound a Reaſon, that he was a Logician without Art, and was ſo addicted to the ſeeking and diſpenſing of the truth, that he made conſcience of uſing a fallacy in his Arguments. He was an exact and perfect Mathematician, yet he ſtudied not ſo much with Archimedes, how he might remove this world, as to get a fixt habitation in the other, and certainly it would have been of much leſſe advantage to him, to have overcome that great difficulty ſquaring the Circle, then ſo often as he did to demonſtrate himſelf to be the ſervant and childe of God: In briefe, he arrived at ſo ſo great a knowledge in a few yeares, that although he was ſo modeſt as to aſſume to himſelf but one Degree, yet deſerved to have had many accumulated upon him, and was ſo grateful in the diſpenſing what he had received, as that the Univerſity muſt ſtill owe to his memory for thoſe many advantages ſhe received from him.
He was at laſt by the power and perſuaſion of his careful and indulgent Relations, put upon anothet courſe of life and ſtudies, who admitted him into Lincolnes-Inne, with faire and promiſing hopes of doing his Countrey good and faithful ſervice in the Profeſſion of the Law, who was ſo capable of the impreſſion of that ſtudy, as that he deſerved the title of a Lawyer before he had it, and was moſt eminent under that title ſo ſoone as it was beſtowed upon him. It is true, he found much favour at the Barre, and it had been injuſtice if he had not, where he brought ſo much merit to meet with that favour: and it had been a kinde of upbraiding of the calling, not to have look'd handſomely upon a perſon that had been as well able to have given lawes, as to have received them.
He did maintaine a ſober and becoming gravity, without affectation or ſoureneſſe when he was in his gowne, and a cheerful, graceful complacency when he was out of it: he was the example and the precept of the company, and knew how to governe them with that eaſe, as if he had had a dominion over their affections; and truly he was a kinde of Prince of chaſtity, and ſurely the ſofter ſex affected his converſation under that notion, that ſo they might be the better juſtified to the next company. He was incomparably a perſon of the greateſt ſobriety, that our age hath been acquainted with, and the ſeverity of his diet was ſo much the more commendable, in that it was practiſed by him out of choice and not neceſſity, in a region of the greateſt plenty, who by that ſpare refection, thrived ſo much the better, and out of pulſe and faire water, like Daniel appeared the more beautiful. He was made up of as much courage and ſoftneſſe as could meete in one perſon, in whoſe countenance appear'd that ſweetneſſe and magnanimity, as if Mars and Venus had been in conjunction there; certainly if he had been call'd to it, he could have done as much as any man, and by his end, it is evident, he could ſuffer as much, which was the nobler fortitude.
We are only to bewaile this great loſſe, and you, Sir, are to be comforted, that though your ſonne died very young, yet that he died full of honour and perfection, whoſe memory and example ſhall ſurvive, when we all are become as he is. I wiſh you all peace, and my ſelf a place ſtill in your memory under the Title of
Your Humbleſt Servant, and moſt Affectionate Nephew.
FINIS.
End of the text · Thomas Case, The Vanity of Glorying in the Flesh (1655)