In my next letter I shall alter your stile; but I shall never whilst I breath alter mine own stile in being Your true and most devoted servant. The Lord Keeper's Letter to the University, in answer of their congratulation at his first coming to that place. To the Renowned University of Cambridge, his dear and reverend Mother. My Lord, I am debtor to you of your letters, and of the time likewise that I have taken to answer them; but as soon as I could choose what to think on, I thought good to let you know, that although you may err much in your valuation of me, yet you shall not be deceived in your assurance; and for the other part also, though the manner be to mend the picture by the life, yet I would be glad to mend the life by the picture, and to become, and be, as you express me to be. Your gratulations shall be no more welcome to me than your business or occasions, which I will attend; and yet not so but that I shall endeavour to prevent them by my care of your good. And so I commend you to God's .goodness. Your most loving and assured friend and son, Gorhambury, April 12, 1617. A Letter of King James, written to his Lordship when he was Lord Chancellor, with his Majesty's own Hand, upon the sending to him his Book of Instauratio Magna, then newly published. My Lord, I have received your letter, and your book; than the which you could not have sent a more acceptable present unto me. How thankful I am for it cannot better be expressed by me than by a firm resolution I have taken; first, to read it thorough with care and attention, though I should steal some hours from my sleep, having otherwise as little spare time to read it as you had to write it. And then, to use the liberty of a true friend in not sparing to ask you the question in any point where I shall stand in doubt; "Nam ejus est explicare cujus est condere ;" as, on the other part, I will willingly give a due commendation to such places as in my opinion shall deserve it. In the meantime, I can with comfort assure you, that you could not have made choice of a subject more befitting your place, and your universal methodic knowledge; and in the general, I have already observed, that you jump with me in taking the mid way between the two extremes; as also in some particulars I have found that you agree fully with my opinion. And so praying God to give your work as good success as your heart can wish, and your labours deserve, I bid you heartily farewell. JAMES REX. October 16, 1620. To my Lord of Essex. My singular good Lord, I may perceive, by my Lord Keeper, that your lordship, as the time served, signified unto him an intention to confer with his lordship at better opportunity; which in regard of your several and weighty occasions I have thought good to put your lordship in remembrance of; that now at his coming to the court it may be executed; desiring your good lordship, nevertheless, not to conceive out of this my diligence in soliciting this matter, that I am either much in appetite or much in hope. For as for appetite, the wators of Parnassus are not like the waters of the spa that give a stomach, but rather they quench appetite and desires; and for hope, how can he hope much that can allege no other reason than the reason of an evil debtor, who will persuade his creditor to lend him new sums, and to enter further in with him to make him satisfy the old? And to her majesty no other reason but the reason of a waterman; I am her first man of those who serve in counsel of law. And so I commit your lordship to God's best preservation. My Lord, To my Lord of Essex. Conceiving that your lordship came now up in the person of a good servant to see your sovereign mistress; which kind of compliments are many times "instar magnorum meritorum;" and therefore that it would be hard for me to find you, I have committed to this poor paper the humble salutations of him that is more yours than any man's; and more yours than any man. To these salutations I add a due and joyful gratulation, confessing that your lordship, in your last conference with me before your journey, spake not in vain, God making it good, that you trusted we should say, " quis putasset?" Which, as it is found true in a happy sense, so I wish you do not find another "quis putasset," in the manner of taking this so great a service; but I hope it is as he said, "rubecula est citò transibit ;" and that your lordship's wisdom and obsequious circumspection and patience will turn all to the best. So referring all to some time that I may attend you, I commit you to God's best preservation. My Lord, To my Lord of Essex. I am glad your lordship hath plunged out of your own business; wherein I must commend your lordship as Xenophon commended the state of his country, which was this: that having chosen the worst form of government of all next cares. others, they governed the best in that kind. "Hoc pace et veniâ tuâ," according to my charter. Now as your lordship is my witness that I would not trouble you whilst your own cause was in hand, (though that I know that the further from the term the better the time was to deal for me) so that being concluded I presume I shall be one of your And having communicated with my brother of some course either to perfit the first, or to make me some other way; or rather, by seeming to make me some other way, to perfit the first, wherewith he agreed to acquaint your lordship; I am desirous, for mine own better satisfaction, to speak with your lordship myself, which I had rather were somewhere else than at court; and as soon as your lordship will assign me to wait on you. And so in, etc. Sir, To Sir Robert Cecil. Your honour knoweth my manner is, though it be not the wisest way, yet taking it for the honestest, to do as Alexander did by his physician in drinking the medicine and delivering the advertisement of suspicion; so I trust on and yet do not smother what I hear. I do assure you, Sir, that by a wise friend of mine, and not factious toward your honour, I was told with asseveration, that your honour was bought by Mr. Coventry for 2000 angels; and that you wrought in a contrary spirit to my lord your father. And he said further, that from your servants, from your lady, from some counsellors that have observed you in my business, he knew you wrought under hand against me. The truth of which tale I do not believe; you know the event will shew, and God will right. But as I reject this report, (though the strangeness of my case might make me credulous,) so I admit a conceit that the last messenger my lord and yourself used, dealt ill with your honours; and that word (speculation) which was in the queen's mouth, rebounded from him as a commendation, for I am not ignorant of those little arts. Therefore, I pray, trust not him again in my matter. This was much to write, but I think my fortune will set me at liberty, who am weary of asserviling myself to every man's charity. Thus I, etc. Sir, To Sir John Stanhope. Your good promises sleep, which it may seem now no time to awake, but that I do not find that any general calendar of observation of time serveth for the court; and besides, if that be done which I hope by this time is done, and that other matter shall be done which we wish may be done, I hope to my poor matter, the one of these great matters may clear the way and the other give the occasion. And though my Lord Treasurer be absent, whose health, nevertheless, will enable him to be sooner at court than is expected; especially if this hard weather (too hard to continue) shall relent; yet we abroad say, his lordship's spirit may be there though his person be away. Once I take for a good ground that her majesty's business ought to keep neither vacation nor holiday either in the execution or in the care and preparation of those whom her majesty calleth and useth; and therefore I would think no time barred from remembering that with such discretion and respect as appertaineth. The conclusion shall be to put you in mind to maintain that which you have kindly begun according to the reliance I have upon the sincerity of your affection and the soundness of your judgement. And so I commend you to God's preservation. To my Lord of Essex. It may please your good Lordship, I am very sorry her majesty should take my motion to |