Truth Tried, Title page – Epistle
TRUTH TRIED: OR, Animadverſions On a Treatiſe publiſhed by the Right Honorable ROBERT Lord BROOK, ENTITƲLED, The Nature of Truth, Its Vnion and Vnity with the Soule. Which (ſaith he) is One in its Eſſence, Faculties, Acts; One with Truth.
By I. W.
LONDON, Printed by Richard Biſhop, for SAMUEL GELLIBRAND at the Signe of the Brazen Serpent in Pauls Church-yard, 1643.
To the Right Honourable ROBERT Lord BROOK.
My Noble Lord,
YOur Lordſhip being pleaſed to doe the World that honour, to impart to it ſomewhat of Yours (and therefore Honourable,) it was My Happineſſe, amongſt the reſt, to be an Object of that Favour; And yet my Vnhappineſſe ſo farre, as not in all things to fall in with your Lordſhip: Like a Mariner at Sea, deſcrying within kenne a faire Veſſell under Sa…le, promiſing a rich Lading, makes up to her; and underſtanding whence ſhe is, and whether ſhe is bound, deſires to view her Fraught; but comming ſo neere as to goe aboard, falls foule of her (as they ſpeak) and is entangled, and perhaps may both have work enough to get cleare. The …ire Veſſell I had in view, was your Lordſhips Treatiſe, now under Saile, (when made publique;) which however directed▪ to a Private Port or Sinus (a Friends Boſome) yet paſſes the Ocean to arrive at it: your Lordſhips Name enforms me Whence it is, and withall promiſes a Rich Fraught; which the Bill of Lading tells me What it is, The Nature of Truth; and blame me not if I were ambitious to ſee it, that I might adore it: If, by miſchance, I be entangled, I hope your Lordſhips hand will help me to get cleare. Our firſt fathers, which had never ſeene Fire before, while every one was catching at that which ſhone ſo Bright, no marvell if he that firſt meddled with it, Burnt his Fingers: The Beauty of Truth is likewiſe Bright and Glorious; ſo Glorious, that ſome have found her Dazle their Eyes, (he might have ſaid, Others have Burnt their Fingers, And I, perhaps, am one of them.) Truth is a Glorious Object, a fit Object only for a Noble Hand: Yet Sutor ſometimes, though he preſume not to Better Apelles Picture, may yet find fault with the Shooe; and that without blame, while he goe not ultra crepidam.
Your Lordſhip, ſometimes, in this Divine Treatiſe, for fear of Dazling our Eyes, hath left us in a Want of Light. Naked Truth, which your Lordſhip had the happineſſe to Behold, is propoſed to us Cloathed, and Guilded (rather then Painted) in a moſt curious Dreſſe indeed, yet ſuch as hides the Body; the Beauty whereof being ſo well worth beholding, we had rather have ſeene her (as your Lordſhip did) without her gowne, without her crowne, the better to have diſcerned her true Proportion. Rhetoricall Embeliſhments being the ſame ſometimes in a Philoſophicall Diſcourſe, that varniſh on a faire Picture, which helps to ſet it off, but withall hides it, and preſents it more Gloſſy but leſſe Diſtinct. For what the Orator uſeth to Illuſtrate, that the Philoſopher finds to Obſcure.
And thus much perhaps, if no more, may be gained by the enſuing diſcourſe, that your Lordſhip taking occaſion from thence, may afford more Light to that which divers deſire better to underſtand, and Vnmask ſo Faire a Face. (At leaſt thoſe who have once ſeene her Naked, may take the paines to Vndreſſe her.) And perhaps having taken a ſecond view, through this a more thick Perſpective of not ſo high raiſed a Fancy, may give us a more Diſtinct Delineation of what its owne Dazling Brightneſſe preſented at firſt more confuſed.
I hope I ſhall need no large Apology to obtaine Acceptance, at leaſt a Pardon from ſo Noble a Lord, (to whom, I am told, nothing can be more gratefull, and who promiſeth the faireſt anſwer,) if I Accept the Challenge: which it's like your Lordſhip would Performe, (if at leaſt Encounters of another nature would give way to thoſe of the Penne.) If I be demanded therefore of what I doe, Why at all? I reply, Becauſe, in your Lordſhips name, invited: If why ſo late? I have nothing to reply but this, Qui ſerò dat, diu noluit. What was at firſt, in a few dayes, written to a private Friend, having lien ſo long in your Lordſhips hands, is a ſufficient teſtimony that I made no haſte to publiſh it.
I have but one requeſt to make, and kiſſe your Lordſhips hand, that you would vouchſafe, if I have done well, to Accept, if otherwiſe, to Pardon
Your Lordſhips moſt humble Servant, IOHN WALLIS.
To the Worſhipfull, and my Worthy Friend, Henry Darley Eſquire.
Worthy Sir,
THe Sad news of ſo Unhappy a Loſſe as his Lordſhips Death, forceth me to give an account of what might elſe ſeeme a Soloeciſme. The book was newly finiſhed in the preſſe, before his Lordſhips death, and expected only to be firſt preſented to his Noble Hands, before it was preſented to the World; to whome it was then a going, when that unhappy news ſtopped it, and ſome copies were gone abroad. I have ſuppreſſed it ſince, to adde that which you ſee adjoyned; in teſtimony of mine own ſadneſſe for ſo great a Loſſe. Which yet cannot be ſo fully expreſſed by a private penne, as by the common Tears of all thoſe to whome Religion is deare. A ſad loſſe it was, had it been in the Beſt times, to looſe ſo many excellent Accompliſhments in one Noble Breaſt; but Now moſt Unhappy, when there is ſo much work and ſo few hands; in which, I am confident, None was guided by a more ſingle Eye, with leſſe Obliquity to collaterall aimes. Vnhappy then was that accident, that deprived us of one ſo well worthy to live;
Vnhappy hand! by one ſad ſtroke who ſhot
Religion, Learning, Piety, what not?
Sir, The Treatiſe penned long ſince at your requeſt, had once paſſed in another Character through Yours to his Lordſhips Hand, not then intended to be made publique, nor directed to any other then your own eye; what entertainment it then found (ſuch Candour and Nobleneſſe dwelt in that Breaſt) You know as well as I: And now, being oft ſolicited, as well by you as others, It was a ſecond time Advancing, ambitious again to be made happy by the ſame Hand; (and indeed I had been extreamly injurious to His Candour, if I ſhould have ſeemed to decline His Eye and present it to another, who taking liberty ſometime to diſſent from Others, did with the ſame freedome allow others to diſſent from Him, willing to accept of any Aſſiſtance in the ſearch of Truth;) but being there prevented, it is fain to Retreat, and fall back to the ſame hand where it firſt lodged, as being, next after his Lordſhip, due to you; from
Your humble Servant J. W. March. 11. 1642