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William Penn |
William
Penn. (1644–1718). Fruits of Solitude.
Vol. 1, pp. 321-330
(King Charles grants
Penn charter of Pennsylvania, March 4, 1681.)
Penn, true to Quaker
beliefs, came before the king with his hat on. The king overlooked
this and later made him governor of Pennsylvania. A sagacious Penn is
revealed in his writings.
Part I
Ignorance
1. It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into,
and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World
they have lived in.
2. If one went to see Windsor-Castle, or Hampton-Court, it would be
strange not to observe and remember the Situation, the Building, the
Gardens, Fountains, &c. that make up the Beauty and Pleasure of
such a Seat? And yet few People know themselves; No, not their own
Bodies, the Houses of their Minds, the most curious Structure of the
World; a living walking Tabernacle: Nor the World of which it was
made, and out of which it is fed; which would be so much our Benefit,
as well as our Pleasure, to know. We cannot doubt of this when we are
told that the Invisible Things of God are brought to light by the
Things that are seen; and consequently we read our Duty in them as
often as we look upon them, to him that is the Great and Wise Author
of them, if we look as we should do.
3. The World is certainly a great and stately Volume of natural
Things; and may be not improperly styled the Hieroglyphicks of a
better: But, alas! how very few Leaves of it do we seriously turn
over! This ought to be the Subject of the Education of our Youth,
who, at Twenty, when they should be fit for Business, know little or
nothing of it.
Education
4. We are in Pain to make them Scholars, but not
Men! To talk, rather than to know, which is true Canting.
5. The first Thing obvious to Children is what is
sensible; and that we make no Part of their rudiments.
6. We press their Memory too soon, and puzzle,
strain, and load them with Words and Rules; to know Grammer and
Rhetorick, and a strange Tongue or two, that it is ten to one may
never be useful to them; Leaving their natural Genius to Mechanical
and Physical, or natural Knowledge uncultivated and neglected; which
would be of exceeding Use and Pleasure to them through the whole
Course of their Life.
7. To be sure, Languages are not to be despised or
neglected. But Things are still to be preferred.
8. Children had rather be making of Tools and
Instruments of Play; Shaping, Drawing, Framing, and Building, &c.
than getting some Rules of Propriety of Speech by Heart: And those
also would follow with more Judgment, and less Trouble and Time.
9. It were Happy if we studied Nature more in
natural Things; and acted according to Nature; whose rules are few,
plain and most reasonable.
10. Let us begin where she begins, go her Pace,
and close always where she ends, and we cannot miss of being good
Naturalists.
11. The Creation would not be longer a Riddle to
us: The Heavens, Earth, and Waters, with their respective, various
and numerous Inhabitants: Their Productions, Natures, Seasons,
Sympathies and Antipathies; their Use, Benefit and Pleasure, would be
better understood by us: And an eternal Wisdom, Power, Majesty, and
Goodness, very conspicuous to us, thro’ those sensible and passing
Forms: The World wearing the Mark of its Maker, whose Stamp is
everywhere visible, and the Characters very legible to the Children
of Wisdom.
12. And it would go a great way to caution and
direct People in their Use of the World, that they were better
studied and known in the Creation of it.
13. For how could Man find the Confidence to abuse
it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the Face,
in all and every part thereof?
14. Their Ignorance makes them insensible, and
that Insensibility hardy in misusing this noble Creation, that has
the Stamp and Voice of a Deity every where, and in every Thing to the
Observing.
15. It is pity therefore that Books have not been
composed for Youth, by some curious and careful Naturalists, and also
Mechanicks, in the Latin Tongue, to be used in Schools, that they
might learn Things with Words: Things obvious and familiar to them,
and which would make the Tongue easier to be obtained by them.
16. Many able Gardiners and Husbandmen are yet
Ignorant of the Reason of their Calling; as most Artificers are of
the Reason of their own Rules that govern their excellent
Workmanship. But a Naturalist and Mechanick of this sort is Master of
the Reason of both, and might be of the Practice too, if his Industry
kept pace with his Speculation; which were very commendable; and
without which he cannot be said to be a complete Naturalist or
Mechanick.
17.
Finally, if Man be the Index or Epitomy of the World, as Philosophers
tell us, we have only to read our selves well to be learned in it.
But because there is nothing we less regard than the Characters of
the Power that made us, which are so clearly written upon us and the
World he has given us, and can best tell us what we are and should
be, we are even Strangers to our own Genius: The Glass in which we
should see that true instructing and agreeable Variety, which is to
be observed in Nature, to the Admiration of that Wisdom and Adoration
of that Power which made us all.
Pride
18. And yet
we are very apt to be full of our selves, instead of Him that made
what we so much value; and, but for whom we can have no Reason to
value our selves. For we have nothing that we can call our own; no,
not our selves: For we are all but Tenants, and at Will too, of the
great Lord of our selves, and the rest of this great Farm, the World
that we live upon.
19. But
methinks we cannot answer it to our Selves as well as our Maker, that
we should live and die ignorant of our Selves, and thereby of Him and
the Obligations we are under to Him for our Selves.
20. If the
worth of a Gift sets the Obligation, and directs the return of the
Party that receives it; he that is ignorant of it, will be at a loss
to value it and the Giver, for it.
21. Here is
Man in his Ignorance of himself. He knows not how to estimate his
Creator, because he knows not how to value his Creation. If we
consider his Make, and lovely Compositure; the several Stories of his
lovely Structure. His divers Members, their Order, Function and
Dependency: The Instruments of Food, the Vessels of Digestion, the
several Transmutations it passes. And how Nourishment is carried and
diffused throughout the whole Body, by most innate and imperceptible
Passages. How the Animal Spirit is thereby refreshed, and with an
unspeakable Dexterity and Motion sets all Parts at work to feed
themselves. And last of all, how the Rational Soul is seated in the
Animal, as its proper House, as is the Animal in the Body: I say if
this rare Fabrick alone were but considered by us, with all the rest
by which it is fed and comforted, surely Man would have a more
reverent Sense of the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, and of that
Duty he owes to Him for it. But if he would be acquainted with his
own Soul, its noble Faculties, its Union with the Body, its Nature
and End, and the Providences by which the whole Frame of Humanity is
preserved, he would Admire and Adore his Good and Great God. But Man
is become a strange Contradiction to himself; but it is of himself;
Not being by Constitution, but Corruption, such.
22. He
would have others obey him, even his own kind; but he will not obey
God, that is so much above him, and who made him.
23. He will
lose none of his Authority; no, not bate an Ace of it: He is
humorous 1 to his Wife, he beats his Children,
is angry with his Servants, strict with his Neighbors, revenges all
Affronts to Extremity; but, alas, forgets all the while that he is
the Man; and is more in Arrear to God, that is so very patient with
him, than they are to him with whom he is so strict and impatient.
24. He is
curious to wash, dress, and perfume his Body, but careless of his
Soul. The one shall have many Hours, the other not so many Minutes.
This shall have three or four new Suits in a Year, but that must wear
its old Cloaths still.
25. If he
be to receive or see a great Man, how nice and anxious is he that all
things be in order? And with what Respect and Address does he
approach and make his Court? But to God, how dry and formal and
constrained in his Devotion?
26. In his
Prayers he says, Thy Will be done: But means his own: At least acts
so.
27. It is
too frequent to begin with God and end with the World. But He is the
good Man’s Beginning and End; his Alpha and Omega.
Note
1. Capricious
Luxury
28. Such is
now become our Delicacy, that we will not eat ordinary Meat, nor
drink small, pall’d 1 Liquor; we must have the best, and
the best cook’d for our Bodies, while our Souls feed on empty or
corrupted Things.
29. In
short, Man is spending all upon a bare House, and hath little or no
Furniture within to recommend it; which is preferring the Cabinet
before the Jewel, a Lease of seven Years before an Inheritance. So
absurd a thing is Man, after all his proud Pretences to Wit and
Understanding.
Note
1. Stale
Inconsideration
30. The
want of due Consideration is the Cause of all the Unhappiness Man
brings upon himself. For his second Thoughts rarely agree with his
first, which pass not without a considerable Retrenchment or
Correction. And yet that sensible Warning is, too frequently, not
Precaution enough for his future Conduct.
31. Well
may we say our Infelicity is of our selves; since there is nothing we
do that we should not do, but we know it, and yet do it.
Disappointment and Resignation
32. For
Disappointments, that come not by our own Folly, they are the Tryals
or Corrections of Heaven: And it is our own Fault, if they prove not
our Advantage.
33. To
repine at them does not mend the Matter: It is only to grumble at our
Creator. But to see the Hand of God in them, with an humble
submission to his Will, is the Way to turn our Water into Wine, and
engage the greatest Love and Mercy on our side.
34. We must
needs disorder our selves, if we only look at our Losses. But if we
consider how little we deserve what is left, our Passion will cool,
and our Murmurs will turn into Thankfulness.
35. If our
Hairs fall not to the Ground, less do we or our Substance without
God’s Providence.
36. Nor can
we fall below the Arms of God, how low soever it be we fall.
37. For
though our Saviour’s Passion is over, his Compassion is not. That
never fails his humble, sincere Disciples: In him, they find more
than all that they lose in the World.
Murmuring
38. Is it
reasonable to take it ill, that any Body desires of us that which is
their own? All we have is the Almighty’s: And shall not God have
his own when he calls for it?
39.
Discontentedness is not only in such a Case Ingratitude, but
Injustice. For we are both unthankful for the time we had it, and not
honest enough to restore it, if we could keep it.
40. But
it is hard for us to look on things in such a Glass, and at such a
Distance from this low World; and yet it is our Duty, and would be
our Wisdom and our Glory to do so.
Censoriousness
41. We are
apt to be very pert at censuring others, where we will not endure
advice our selves. And nothing shews our Weakness more than to be so
sharp-sighted at spying other Men’s Faults, and so purblind about
our own.
42. When
the Actions of a Neighbor are upon the Stage, we can have all our
Wits about us, are so quick and critical we can split an Hair, and
find out ever Failure and Infirmity: But are without feeling, or have
but very little Sense of our own.
43. Much of
this comes from Ill Nature, as well as from an inordinate Value of
our selves: For we love Rambling better than home, and blaming the
unhappy, rather than covering and relieving them.
44. In such
Occasions some shew their Malice, and are witty upon Misfortunes;
others their Justice, they can reflect a pace: But few or none their
Charity; especially if it be about Money Matters.
45. You
shall see an old Miser come forth with a set Gravity, and so much
Severity against the distressed, to excuse his Purse, that he will,
e’er he has done, put it out of all Question, That Riches is
Righteousness with him. This, says he, is the Fruit of your
Prodigality (as if, poor Man, Covetousness were no Fault) Or, of your
Projects, or grasping after a great Trade: While he himself would
have done the same thing, but that he had not the Courage to venture
so much ready Money out of his own trusty Hands, though it had been
to have brought him back the Indies in return. But the Proverb is
just, Vice should not correct Sin.
46. They
have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is
Cruelty, not Justice.
Bounds of Charity
47. Lend
not beyond thy Ability, nor refuse to lend out of thy Ability;
especially when it will help others more than it can hurt thee.
48. If thy
Debtor be honest and capable, thou hast thy Mony again, if not with
Encrease, with Praise: If he prove insolvent, don’t ruin him to get
that, which it will not ruin thee to lose: For thou art but a
Steward, and another is thy Owner, Master and Judge.
49. The
more merciful Acts thou dost, the more Mercy thou wilt receive; and
if with a charitable Imployment of thy Temporal Riches, thou gainest
eternal Treasure, thy Purchase is infinite: Thou wilt have found the
Art of Multiplying 1 indeed.
Note
1. The term used by the alchemists for increasing the precious
metals.
Frugality or Bounty
50.
Frugality is good if Liberality be join’d with it. The first is
leaving off superfluous Expences; the last bestowing them to the
Benefit of others that need. The first without the last begins
Covetousness; the last without the first begins Prodigality: Both
together make an excellent Temper. Happy the Place where ever that is
found.
51. Were it
universal, we should be Cur’d of two Extreams, Want and Excess: and
the one would supply the other, and so bring both nearer to a Mean;
the just Degree of earthly Happiness.
52. It is a
Reproach to Religion and Government to suffer so much Poverty and
Excess.
53. Were
the Superfluities of a Nation valued, and made a perpetual Tax or
Benevolence, there would be more Alms-houses than Poor; Schools than
Scholars; and enough to spare for Government besides.
54.
Hospitality is good, if the poorer sort are the subjects of our
Bounty; else too near a Superfluity.
Discipline
55. If thou
wouldst he happy and easie in thy Family, above all things observe
Discipline.
56. Every
one in it should know their Duty; and there should be a Time and
Place for every thing; and whatever else is done or omitted, be sure
to begin and end with God.
Industry
57. Love
Labor: For if thou dost not want it for Food, thou mayest for
Physick. It is wholesom for thy Body, and good for thy Mind. It
prevents the Fruits of Idleness, which many times comes of nothing to
do, and leads too many to do what is worse than nothing.
58. A
Garden, an Elaboratory, a Work-house, Improvements and Breeding, are
pleasant and Profitable Diversions to the Idle and Ingenious: For
here they miss Ill Company, and converse with Nature and Art; whose
Variety are equally grateful and instructing; and preserve a good
Constitution of Body and Mind.
Temperance
59. To this
a spare Diet contributes much. Eat therefore to live, and do not live
to eat. That’s like a Man, but this below a Beast.
60. Have
wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in
ordering it.
61. The
Receipts of Cookery are swell’d to a Volume, but a good Stomach
excels them all; to which nothing contributes more than Industry and
Temperance.
62. It is a
cruel Folly to offer up to Ostentation so many Lives of Creatures, as
make up the State of our Treats; as it is a prodigal one to spend
more in Sawce than in Meat.
63. The
Proverb says, That enough is as good as a Feast: But it is certainly
better, if Superfluity be a Fault, which never fails to be at
Festivals.
64. If thou
rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.
65. Rarely
drink but when thou art dry; nor then, between Meals, if it can be
avoided.
66. The
smaller 1 the Drink, the clearer the Head, and
the cooler the Blood; which are great Benefits in Temper and
Business.
67. Strong
Liquors are good at some Times, and in small Proportions; being
better for Physick than Food, for Cordials than common Use.
68. The
most common things are the most useful; which shews both the Wisdom
and Goodness of the great Lord of the Family of the World.
69. What
therefore he has made rare, don’t thou use too commonly: Lest thou
shouldest invert the Use and Order of things; become Wanton and
Voluptuous; and thy Blessings prove a Curse.
70. Let
nothing be lost, said our Saviour. But that is lost that is misused.
71. Neither
urge another to that thou wouldst be unwilling to do thy self, nor do
thy self what looks to thee unseemly, and intemperate in another.
72. All
Excess is ill: But Drunkenness is of the worst Sort. It spoils
Health, dismounts the Mind, and unmans Men: It reveals Secrets, is
Quarrelsome, Lascivious, Impudent, Dangerous and Mad. In fine, he
that is drunk is not a Man: Because he is so long void of Reason,
that distinguishes a Man from a Beast.
Note
1. Weaker
Apparel
73. Excess in Apparel is another costly
Folly. The very Trimming of the vain World would cloath all the naked
one.
74. Chuse thy Cloaths by thine own
Eyes, not another’s. The more plain and simple they are, the
better. Neither unshapely, nor fantastical; and for Use and Decency,
and not for Pride.
75. If thou art clean and warm, it is
sufficient; for more doth but rob the Poor, and please the Wanton.
76. It is said of the true Church, the
King’s Daughter is all glorious within. Let our Care therefore be
of our Minds more than of our Bodies, if we would be of her
Communion.
77. We are told with Truth, that
Meekness and Modesty are the Rich and Charming Attire of the Soul:
And the plainer the Dress, the more Distinctly, and with greater
Lustre, their Beauty shines.
78. It is great Pity such Beauties are
so rare, and those of Jezebel’s Forehead are so common: Whose
Dresses are Incentives to Lust; but Bars instead of Motives, to Love
or Vertue.
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