tion must be more costly than ordinary, or it answers not expectation.

5. And therefore never invite any great man to your house to an entertainment, for possibly his ordinary meals are as good as your feast or better, and then you shall be laughed at for your parsimony, and if you go to exceed you shall be laughed at for your prodigality: however your purse shall suffer beyond what it is well able to bear.

6 Never receive any kindness from any man, either superior or equal, which you are not able to repay without great charge and detriment to yourself for then you are in very great danger to be made his slave or his enemy; and many times great kindnesses from great men, are but preambles to some great kindness to be done to them, and if they are disappointed therein they become the most bitter enemies. I have oftentimes known when extraordinary respect and favours or kindness are shewn from great men to their inferiors, that within a little time after, a message hath been sent, or desire made to be bound for him, or to sell him such a parcel of land that lies convenient for him, or to do him such piece of service, as is either unseemly or dangerous; and this the man that received the

kindness is either so taken or molified by the kindness received, that he must perform that which is requested, or if he be so hardy as to deny it, the great man becomes his great enemy. Therefore be wary how you receive great kindnesses from great men, least they be attended with an expectation of such services from you, as are either unfit, or unsafe, or inconvenient to be performed by you.

7. It is an excellent rule of Sir Francis Bacon to his son, that if there be occasion for an inferior to make a present to his superior, that it be not too costly, nor such as is in danger to be quickly forgotten; but the present to be small, and such as may have continuance and always in view, as some slight picture, or a staff, or a book: but never present a judge with any thing of what kind soever; for if he be wise and just, he will suspect your business and reject your present as a bribe; and if he be unjust and receive your present, you may be overcome by your adversary, and so loose your gift and your cause too: and bribery is a base offence both in the giver and the taker.

And thus much shall serve touching your civil deportment to your inferiors, equals, and superiors.

CHAPTER XXII.

Concerning Single Life and Marriage.

I COME now to the consideration of one of the greatest concerns of your lives, and upon which depends the great happiness or unhappiness of your whole lives in relation to this world.

It is a business that is accompanied with so many ingredients and circumstances, that it is very difficult to prescribe unto you any certain rules. But I shall set down those directions which seem to me the most prudent, and such as may prevent many inconveniences in the future state of your lives. 1. Keep yourselves unmarried till such a convenient age as may be seasonable for this change of your condition; for I have seldom seen too early marriage of children to be successful. Those that are married too young, and before they come to such a discretion as to understand themselves, or attain some settledness of mind, most times repent of their choice, and seldom love one another long. I would not willingly, without extreme urgent

necessities, have a young man to marry before one-and-twenty years old, nor a young woman before seventeen; for about these ages they begin to understand themselves, and to have some steadiness and settledness of mind.

2. As I would not have you marry too soon, so I would not have you stay too long, if you have a good opportunity to place yourselves in fitting marriages; for a woman staying too long loseth part of her portion, namely, her youth and beauty; and a man staying too long, if he have children after, dies, and leaves them to the care of others, before he can see the breeding of them up.

3. Whatever you do, keep yourselves truly chaste in your single life, and bring your virginity to your first marriage bed. It is a cursed fashion of this age, among young men especially, to live loosely, and wantonly, and unchastely, until their marriage; at least the mischiefs whereof are these; 1. Many times they bring a diseased and infirm body, laden with the effects of the sins of their youth, to their marriage-beds, whereby many times both are destroyed. Or, 2. Although it may be the lot of honest people to be childless, or to have weak and sickly children, yet it commonly happens

that those that in their youth lead dishonest and intemperate lives, have either no children, or if they have, they are weak and sickly; and the diseases and infirmities contracted by the intemperance and disorder of the parents, are derived unto the innocent children. 3. It is ordinarily seen, that those that have accustomed themselves to a dishonest wanton course of life in their youth, continue the same after their marriage, and seldom content themselves with their marriagebed, or love their wives or their husbands, but continue as extravagant as before. 4. Again, such extravagant courses of a young man or woman before their marriage can never be concealed from the other parties, or their friends; but it will be discovered, and then it makes great differences between the married persons and their friends, and upon the least difference happening between them, the former looseness or lightness is resented and objected, which makes small differences incurable, and still leaves a jealousy and suspicion in the injured parties for the future, which is not easily removed. 5. Though a loose and unchaste life before your marriage is not so great an injury and offence as after, yet it is highly displeasing to God, and a real injury to her whom you make your wife;