to those two, I appeale to God to punish me if I have any. As for the queen of Scotts, truly I have no spott of evill meaning to hir; nether do I meane to deale with any tytles to the crown: if she shall intend any evill to the quenes majesty my soverayn, for hir sake I must and will meane to impeach hir; and therin I may be hir unfrend or worse. "Well now, my good lord, your lordship seeth I have made a long digression from my answer; but I trust your lordship can considre what moveth me thus to digress. Surely it behoveth me not only to lyve uprightly, but to avoyd all probable arguments that may be gathered to render me suspected to hir majesty, whom I serve with all dutyfullnes and syncerity; and therfor I gather this, that if it were understood that ther war a communication, or a purpooss of a maryadge betwene your lordshipe's son and my doughter, I am sure ther wold be an avantage sought to incress these formar suspicions, consideryng the yong yeres of our twoo children. As, if the matter war fully agreed betwixt us, the parents, the mariadg cold not take effect; I thynk it best to referr the motion in silence, and yet so to ordre it with ourselves, that whan tyme shall herafter be more convenient, we may (and then also with lesse cause of vayne suspicion) renew it. "And, in the meane tyme, I must confess myself much bounden to your lordship for your goodnes; wishing your lordships son all the good education that may be mete to teach hym to feare God, love your lordship his naturall father, and to know his friends; FA without any curiosety of human lerning, which, without the feare of God, I se doth great hurt to all youth in this tyme and age. "My lord, I pray you bear with my scriblyng, which I thynk your lordship shall hardly reade, and yet I wolde not use my man's hand in such a matter as this is. From Hampton Court, 24 Dec. 1575. "Your lordships most assured at com. Much more of lord Burleigh's correspondence may be met with in Forbes's, and Haynes's, State Papers, &c. &c. The latter publication is specifically taken from the original letters and other authentic memorials left by lord Burleigh, and now remaining at Hatfield-house; which collection has been considerably augmented by the liberality of Mr. Lodge. In the original papers of Mr. Anthony Bacon are several letters of lord Burleigh, from which sundry extracts have been given by Dr. Birch, in his Memoirs of the Reign of Elizabeth. In the Nugæ Antiquæ is a letter of sensible advice from his lordship to Mr. Harington (afterwards sir John), then a student at Cambridge. In the earl of Hardwicke's Miscellaneous State Papers, besides a number of letters addressed to Cecil, there are seven of his own writing, relating to public concerns. One of them shows, in a striking view, the friendly behaviour of lord Burleigh to the earl of Leicester, when that nobleman laboured "See Pref. to his Illustrations of Brit. Hist. ? Vol. i. p. 131, last edit. under the queen's displeasure, and reflects great honour on the old treasurer's memory 9. In the royal library at the Museum is a folio 2 containing maps of England, with memoranda in the hand-writing of lord Burleigh; and I have been favoured 3 with the sight of a small volume printed in 1651, which contains "The Lord Treasurer Burleigh his Advice to Queen Elizabeth, in Matters of Religion and State." This displays the same rigid integrity and political wisdom which uniformly marked the character of this able and upright statesman. Dr. Kippis has reprinted from Peck 4, the ten precepts which lord Burleigh left to his second son Robert Cecil. An edition of the same estimable treatise, published in 1636, comprises "an addition of some short sentences," which cannot be perused by any thoughtful mind without advantage. "Goe as thou wouldst be met; sit as thou wouldest be found; weare thy apparell in a carelesse, yet a decent seeming; for affectednesse in any thing is commendable in nothing and endeavour to be so farre from vaine-glory, that thou strive rather to be in substance without shew, than in shew without substance. : "Strive not to enrich thyself by oppression, usury, or other unlawfull gaine: for, if a little, evill gotten, shall not onely melt away itself, like dew against the sunne; how then shall it haste without stay, when all the whole lumpe is corrupted? "Be industrious and studious in thy youth; knowing, that if by thy labour thou accomplish any thing that is good, the labour passeth, but the good remaineth to thy comfort; if, by the contrary, for thy pleasure thou shalt doe any thing that is evill, the pleasure passeth, but the evill remaineth to thy torment 5. "Corrupt company is more infectious than corrupt air; therefore, be advised in thy choice: for that text of thy selfe which could never so be expounded, thy companion shall, as thy commentarie, lay open to the world. Withall, because we see by experience, that if those that are neither good nor evill, accompany with those that are good, they are transformed into their vertues: if those that are neither good nor evill, consort with those that are evill, they are incorporated to their vice: if the good company with the good, both are made better; if the evill with the evill, both the worse. "Whatsoever good purpose thou intendest at thy death, that doe in thy life; for so doing, it shall be more acceptable to God, and commendable to man. He that gives when he cannot hold, is worthy of thankes when one cannot chuse. 5 Queen Mary penned a very similar passage before her copy - of the Psalms: "If you take labour and payne to doo a vertuous thyng, the labour goeth way and the vertue remaynethe. If through pleasure you do any vicious thyng, the pleasure goeth away and the vice remaynethe." See Ballard, p. 133. "Live vertuously, that thou mayest dye patiently; for who lives most honestly, will dye most willingly. "Be ever diligent in some vocation: for continuall ease as it is most dangerous, is more wearisome than labour; and it is no freedome to live licentiously, nor pleasure to live without some paine. "Indifferent superiority is the safest equality; as the soberest speed is the wisest leisure. "He is worthy to fall that tempts himself; and therefore shun occasion of evill, and thou hast halfe overcome thine enemy. "In all thy attempts, let honesty be thy aym; for he that climbs by privy deceit, shall fall with open reproach and forget not in thy youth to be mindefull of thy end-for though the old man cannot live long, yet the young man may dye quickly. "The waste of time is a dear expence; and he that seeks for means to pass it unprofitably, spurrs a forward horse without reason, to the overthrow of his rider: for whosoever wasteth many years, and purchaseth little knowledge, may be said to have had a long time, but a short life.] This precept accords with Hooker's estimate of Edward the sixth, that "though he died young he lived long, for life is in action." |