AUTHORIS (DE SE) EMBLEMA. |Entásti, fateor, sine vulnere, sæpius, &`me Consultu voluit Vox, sine voce, frequens; Ambivit placido, divinior aura meatu, Et frustrà sancto murmure præmonuit. Surdus eram, mutusque Silex: Tu, (quanta tuorum Curásti, O populi providus usq; tui ! 1 For translation of above by the Editor, see Part IV. of this Volume: also our Memorial-Introduction. The engraved title-page of Silex Scintillans, 1650, containing the Emblem, is reproduced, as above, in our 1. p. copies. G. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FOLLOWING HYMNS.1 HAT this Kingdom hath abounded with those ingenious persons, which in the late notion are termed Wits, is too well known. Many of them having cast away all their fair portion of time, in no better imployments, then a deliberate search, or excogitation of idle words, and a most vain, insatiable desire to be reputed poets; leaving behinde them no other monuments of those excellent abilities conferred upon them, but such as they may with a predecessor of theirs-term parricides, and a soulkilling issue, for that is the Bpaßeîov3 and laureate 2 1 First prefixed to the re-issue of 'Silex Scintillans' in 1655. G. 2 This sounds like one of Greene's phrases. Query-Is it a reminiscence of the following in "A Groat's Worth of Wit"?" and as you would deal with so many parricides, cast them into the fire." 3 = G. prize, in the public games, as a wreath or garland Cf. I Corinthians, ix. 24. G. crown, which idle poems will certainly bring to their unrelenting1 authors. worse. And well it were for them, if those willingly studied and wilfully published vanities could defile no spirits, but their own; but the case is far These vipers survive their parents, and for many ages after-like epidemic diseases-infect whole generations, corrupting always and unhallowing the best-gifted souls and the most capable vessels for whose sanctification and well fare, the glorious Son of God laid down His life, and suffered the pretious blood of His blessed and innocent heart to be poured out. In the mean time it cannot be denyed, but these men are had in remembrance, though we cannot say with any comfort, 'their memorial is blessed'; for, that I may speak no more then the truth-let their passionate worshippers say what they please-all the commendations that can be justly given them will amount to no more then what Prudentius the Christian-sacred poet bestowed upon Symmachus ;3 Os dignum, æterno tinctum quod fulgeat auro, un-repentant. G. 2 Cf. St. Matthew xxvi. 13. G. .3 • Prudentü contra Symmachi orationem, lib. i. 636 &c. : Vanghan gives 'tentat' for 'tentet'. G. Prætulit, & liquidam temeravit crimine vocem. In English thus, A wit most worthy in tryed gold to shine, .... This comparison is nothing odious, and it is as true as it is apposite; for a good wit in a bad subject, is as Solomon said of the fair and foolish woman-'Like a jewel of gold in a swine's snowt,' Prov. xi. 22. Nay, the more acute the author is, there is so much the more danger and death in the work. Where the sun is busie upon a dungehill, the issue is always some unclean vermine. Divers persons of eminent piety and learning-I meddle not with the seditious and schismatical-have, long before my time, taken notice of this malady; for the complaint against vitious verse, even by peaceful and obedient spirits, is of some antiquity in this Kingdom. And yet, as if the evil consequence attending this inveterate error were but |