work demands: and which is not only calculated to convey the most important lessons of instruction into youthful minds, but to convey them in the most pleasant and entertaining manner; by hieroglyphics, or figurative signs and symbols of divine, sacred, and supernatural things by which mode of communicating knowledge, the fancy is charmed, the invention is exercised, the mind informed, and the heart improved. The peculiar excellency of this Piece (a fair and elegant copy of which is now printed) is, that it contains a sort of wisdom in which young and old, learned and unlearned, are equally concerned; and without which, the greatest philosopher is an arrant fool. For, however highly we may esteem human arts and sciences in their proper place, it will ever be true, that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God," Various and elaborate means are pursued, in order to furnish the minds of our youth with fabulous knowledge, and to fill them with the frivolous tales of heathenish science; the very perfection of which deserves but little, if any praise. And it is, no doubt, a sad proof of universal degeneracy, that the Metamorphoses of an Ovid are preferred, in our schools, to the sacred Realities of Moses and the Prophets and that a young person is taught to be as much affected with the recital of the dismal fate of Phaeton's sisters, as by that of Isaac, or of a greater than Isaac, when offersd up a sacrifice to the God of Heaven. Let ns, however, hope for better times and better things: when every human science shall be made subservient to divine; when the invaluable knowledge of the sacrd writings shall have its due place and due honour; and when QUARLES' EMBLEMS shall, at least be preferred to the comparative nonsense of the Pantheon and Ovid's Epistles. THE EDITOR. Recom SIR, Recommendations of the Work. AS you have requested my opinion, relative to the expediency of re-publishing Quarles's Emblems, and the School of the Heart; it is incumbent on me, tó acquaint you, that, as an humble individual, I most sincerely vote for a new and correct edition of those excellent books.-The former was of much spiritual use to me, at an early period of life and I still consider it, as a very ingenious and valuable treasury of christian experience.-The latter I have, lately, perused and am strongly persuaded, that the re-printing it may answer many advantageous purposes to the church of CHRIST. Be particular careful, to give neat and beautiful impressions of the numerous and expressive cuts, which illustrate each respective article. I would advise you, to keep, strictly to the designs of the original plates; and not to vary from them, in a single instance: but the execution of them, as they stand in the old editions, calls -In emblematic works, much; for improvement.depends on the elegancy of the engravings, which, if wellfinished, speak an ocular language, singularly emphatic, and universally intelligible. The eye, very frequently informs the understanding, and affects the heart; when the most labored efforts of vocal rhetoric, fail. Segnius Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, With an earnest desire and hope, that your intended undertaking will be owned and blest of GOD, to the establishment of his people in knowledge, and to their growth in holiness and comfort; I remain, SIR, Your sincere well-wisher, AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. New-street, Jan. 3, 1777. To the serious part of the Christian World. IT is matter of pleasing surprize to find that such books as Quarles's Emblems, and the School of the Heart, should be so much called for as to incline any Printer to venture on a new edition; I really imagined that the rage for romances, novels and plays, had intirely extinguished all taste for such productions as these now presented to the public. Quarles Quarles was a man of spiritual wit and imagination, in the reign of King Charles I. a time when poetic genius in the religious world had not been cultivated; Spencer and Shakespeare were then the only men that deserved the name of poets, and these were far enough from the knowledge and taste of the people called Puritans ; so that I think Quarles may be stiled the first, as Herbert was the second divine poet of the English nation. In the productions of this excellent man, there is nothing to please the taste of modern critics; his uncommon turns of thought, the quaintness of his poetic style; but, above all, the depth of evangelic favour, the ardent piety, and the rich experience of the heart, can be relished by none but those who, in the highest sense of the word, deserve the name of true christians; to such as these, the following work will be acceptable and delightful; and by them," and the serious part of their families, it will not be deemed impertinent in me to recommend this work to their attention. Northampton, Jan. 8, 1777. JOHN RYLAND. SIR, FRANCIS QUARLES's Emblems and the School of the Heart, are works which have been so generally known and well received, for more than a century past, that BY fathers back'd, by holy writ led on, Thou shew'st a way to heav'n by HELICON : Blest soul, that here embark'st: thou sail'st apace, Let this suffice to licence thee the press: I must no more, nor could the truth say less. Sic approbavit RIC. LOVE, Procan. Cant. Tot Flores QUARLES, quot Paradisus habet Lectori benè male-volo. Qui legit ex Horto hôc Flores, Qui carpit, uterque Nam velut é VIOLIS sibi fugit Aranea virus: Sic rosas, facis esse ROSAS, dum, Zoile, rodis : 1634. EDW. BENLOWES. |