Friendship, Title page – Dedication
FRIENDSHIP.
To the truly honourable Mrs A.O.
MADAM,
YOu have all the Right in the world to this Trifle; for 'twas firſt penn'd by your Commands, & is now by them made thus more legible: whoſe Name then ſhould it wear but yours, whoſe only Patronage is enough to protect it, could any thing that is yours want Protection?
Nothing but your VVill to have it ſo could have made me come ſo near the Preſſe as to make uſe of an iron pen: for I am certainly aſſured it cannot bear a publick ſcrutiny; nor is there any thing here fitted to the Pallat of the Times, or that will reliſh a ſevere Reader.
My Comfort is it has paſt your Approbation, which is all it asked, and has received no advantage from the Preſſe, but ſecurity from the errours of Tranſcribers, (if any could be found ſo vain:) and this I had ſome Reaſon to be ſolicitous of, having given it ſo many blemiſhes and imperfections, that nothing but one intire Blot could cure.
The few Copies I ſuffered to wear this character, and none of thoſe Voeniall, ſecures me from all but mercifull eyes; and if it were poſsible for me to hear it commended, would ſecure me from vain glory too.
I remember my Lord of Cherbery having ſent divers copies of a Book he printed to ſeverall eminent perſons beyond Sea, and receiving thence as many gratulatory Complements, was told by our excellent Selden, if He would know what people thought of his Book, He ſhould ſuffer it to ly on the Stall, and be ſold by the Stationer for eighteen pence or two ſhillings apiece. Indeed every Book an Authour gives is a Bribe, and the Receivers Teſtimony made thereby rather his Civility then his Judgement.
'Tis an old obſervation, that thoſe Philoſophers who wrote the moſt ſevere Tractates in contempt of glory, ſtill prefixed their names to thoſe Pieces, as loth to loſe the glory of being ſuch Contemners. You, who are the ſevereſt Self-denyer in the world, have taught me another leſſon, & this very Dedication may ſerve for a Teſtimony of that virtue in you, and that deſire of it in me. For upon what other ſcore can you bear with ſo triviall, and (to you at least) ſo uſeleſſe a Piece? Or upon what other account could I wrap my Name in a Diſguiſe, and decline the publick Honour of being known ſo devotedly yours?
How beneficiall any thing in theſe following lines may prove to others I cannot propheſie; to you I am ſure it is very unneceſſary, who have already out-done, and out-liv'd all that hath been, or can be ſaid of Friendſhip.
When I have ſaid that, I need not mention your other Virtues: for in my Notion of Friendſhip they are included. I dare not ſo much as name them here, leaſt you ſhould think me (though You would be the onelyonly Perſon of that opinion) a Flatterer, which I hate as much (if poſſible) as I do Hell, or love Heaven and the VVay thither, which is an Endearment and Ʋnion with Lucaſia, and the being conſtantly and eternally
March 30. 1654. Your moſt devoted, faithfull Palaemon.