The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 27

_Let not loose the Reins unto thy Pa.s.sions in this world: he that represseth them shall become a true Solomon in the Faith._

_Amuse not thy self to adore Riches, nor to build great Houses and Palaces._

_The end of what thou shall build is but ruine._

_Pamper not thy Body with delicacies and dainties; it may come to pa.s.s one day that this Body may be in h.e.l.l._

_Imagine not that he who findeth Riches findeth Happiness; he that findeth Happiness is he that findeth G.o.d._

_All who prostrating themselves in humility shall this day believe in_ Vele,[264] _if they were Poor shall be Rich, and if Rich shall become Kings._

[264] Vele _the Founder of the Convent_.

After the Sermon ended which was made upon a Verse in the Alcoran containing much Morality, the _Deruices_ in a Gallery apart sung this Hymn, accompanied with Instrumental Musick, which so affected the Ears of Monsieur _du Loyr_, that he would not omit to set it down, together with the Musical Notes, to be found in his first Letter unto Monsieur _Bouliau_, Prior of _Magny_.

Excuse my brevity: I can say but little where I understand but little.

_I am_, etc.

OF ROPALIC or Gradual Verses, Etc.

_Mens mea sublimes rationes praemeditatur._

TRACT VII

SIR,

Though I may justly allow a good intention in this Poem presented unto you, yet I must needs confess, I have no affection for it; as being utterly averse from all affectation in Poetry, which either restrains the phancy, or fetters the invention to any strict disposure of words. A poem of this nature is to be found in _Ausonius_ beginning thus,

_Spes Deus aeternae stationis conciliator._

These are Verses _Ropalici_ or _Clavales_, arising gradually like the Knots in a ??p??? or Clubb; named also _Fistulares_ by _Priscia.n.u.s_, as _Elias Vinetus_[265] hath noted. They consist properly of five words, each thereof encreasing by one syllable. They admit not of a _Spondee_ in the fifth place, nor can a Golden or Silver Verse be made this way.

They run smoothly both in Latin and Greek, and some are scatteringly to be found in _Homer_; as,

? ??a? ?t?e?d? ?????e??? ????da???,

_Libere dicam sed in aurem, ego versibus hujusmodi Ropalicis, longo syrmate protractis, Ceraunium affigo._

[265] El Vinet. _in_ Auson.

He that affecteth such restrained Poetry, may peruse the Long Poem of _Hugbaldus_ the Monk, wherein every word beginneth with a C penned in the praise of _Calvities_ or Baldness, to the honour of _Carolus Calvus_ King of _France_,

_Carmina clarisonae calvis cantate Camaenae._

The rest may be seen at large in the _adversaria_ of _Barthius_: or if he delighteth in odd contrived phancies may he please himself with _Antistrophes_, _Counterpetories_, _Retrogrades_, _Rebusses_, _Leonine_ Verses, etc. to be found in _Sieur des Accords_. But these and the like are to be look'd upon, not pursued, odd works might be made by such ways; and for your recreation I propose these few lines unto you,

_Arcu paratur quod arcui sufficit._

_Misellorum clamoribus accurrere non tam humanum quam sulphureum est._

_Asino teratur quae Asino teritur._

_Ne Asphodelos comedas, phnices manduca._

_Clum aliquid potest, sed quae mira praestat Papilio est._

Not to put you unto endless amus.e.m.e.nt, the Key hereof is the h.o.m.onomy of the Greek made use of in the Latin words, which rendreth all plain. More aenigmatical and dark expressions might be made if any one would speak or compose them out of the numerical Characters or characteristical Numbers set down by _Robertus de Fluctibus_.[266]

[266] _Tract 2. Part lib. 1._

As for your question concerning the contrary expressions of the Italian and Spaniards in their common affirmative answers, the Spaniard answering _cy Sennor_, the Italian _Signior cy_, you must be content with this Distich,

_Why saith the Italian Signior cy, the Spaniard cy Sennor?

Because the one puts that behind, the other puts before._

And because you are so happy in some Translations, I pray return me these two verses in English,

_Occidit heu tandem multos quae occidit amantes, Et cinis est hodie quae fuit ignis heri._

My occasions make me to take off my Pen. I am, _etc._

OF LANGUAGES

And particularly of the Saxon Tongue.

TRACT VIII

SIR,

The last Discourse we had of the Saxon Tongue recalled to my mind some forgotten considerations. Though the Earth were widely peopled before the Flood, (as many learned men conceive) yet whether after a large dispersion, and the s.p.a.ce of sixteen hundred years, men maintained so uniform a Language in all parts, as to be strictly of one Tongue, and readily to understand each other, may very well be doubted. For though the World preserved in the Family of _Noah_ before the confusion of Tongues might be said to be of one Lip, yet even permitted to themselves their humours, inventions, necessities, and new objects, without the miracle of Confusion at first, in so long a tract of time, there had probably been a Babel. For whether _America_ were first peopled by one or several Nations, yet cannot that number of different planting Nations, answer the multiplicity of their present different Languages, of no affinity unto each other; and even in their Northern Nations and incommunicating Angles, their Languages are widely differing. A native Interpreter brought from _California_ proved of no use unto the Spaniards upon the neighbour Sh.o.r.e. From _Chiapa_, to _Guatemala_, _S.

Salvador_, _Honduras_, there are at least eighteen several languages; and so numerous are they both in the Peruvian and Mexican Regions, that the great Princes are fain to have one common Language, which besides their vernaculous and Mother Tongues, may serve for commerce between them.

And since the confusion of Tongues at first fell onely upon those which were present in _Sinaar_ at the work of _Babel_, whether the primitive Language from _Noah_ were onely preserved in the Family of _Heber_, and not also in divers others, which might be absent at the same, whether all came away and many might not be left behind in their first Plantations about the foot of the Hills, whereabout the Ark rested and _Noah_ became an Husbandman, is not absurdly doubted.

For so the primitive Tongue might in time branch out into several parts of _Europe_ and _Asia_, and thereby the first or Hebrew Tongue which seems to be ingredient into so many Languages, might have larger originals and grounds of its communication and traduction than from the Family of _Abraham_, the Country of _Canaan_ and words contained in the Bible which come short of the full of that Language. And this would become more probable from the Septuagint or Greek Chronology strenuously a.s.serted by _Vossius_; for making five hundred years between the Deluge and the days of _Peleg_, there ariseth a large lat.i.tude of multiplication and dispersion of People into several parts, before the descent of that Body which followed _Nimrod_ unto _Sinaar_ from the East.

They who derive the bulk of European Tongues from the Scythian and the Greek, though they may speak probably in many points, yet must needs allow vast difference or corruptions from so few originals, which however might be tolerably made out in the old Saxon, yet hath time much confounded the clearer derivations. And as the knowledge thereof now stands in reference unto our selves, I find many words totally lost, divers of harsh sound disused or refined in the p.r.o.nunciation, and many words we have also in common use not to be found in that Tongue, or venially derivable from any other from whence we have largely borrowed, and yet so much still remaineth with us that it maketh the gross of our Language.

The religious obligation unto the Hebrew Language hath so notably continued the same, that it might still be understood by _Abraham_, whereas by the _Mazorite_ Points and Chaldee Character the old Letter stands so transformed, that if _Moses_ were alive again, he must be taught to reade his own Law.