You husband my time thriftily, when you command me to write by such a
messenger, as can tell you more then I can write, for so he doth not onely
carry the Letter, but is the Letter. But that the naming of some things,
may give you occasion to ask him farther, and him to open himself unto
you, give me leave to tell you, that the now Spa. Embassadour proceeds in
the old pace, the King hath departed from his ordinary way so farre, as to
appoint 9 of the Councell to treat with him; but when they came to any
approaches, he answered, that he brought onely Commission to propose
certain things, which he was ready to doe, but he had no instructions to
treat, but expected them upon an other return from his Master. So that
there is no treaty for the marriage begun yet: for I know you have heard
_Olivarez_ his free acknowledgement, that til the Prince came, there was
no thoght of it. The King in his gests of this progress, hath determined
it, not as heretofore, at _Windsor_, but at _Farnham_ during pleasure: so
he is within a journey of _Southampton_; and even that circumstance adds
to some other reasons, that he expects the Prince this Summer, and that
Sir _W. Crofts_, in his last dispatches, enlarged the Prince in his
liberty, from his Father, to come away, if he would. Amongst all the
irregularities of this age, to me this is as strange as any, That this
year there is no peace, and yet no sword drawn in the world; & it is a
lost conjecture to think which way any of the Armies will bend. Here it is
imagined, that _Yukendorfe_ and _Gabor_ (for, for any concurrence of love,
it is but a dream) may so farre distresse _Bohemia_, as that _Tilly_ must
be recalled thither; and that if he be, _Brunswikes_ way is open into
_Baviere_, where he may recompense great losses, whilest _Mansfield_ and
_Gonzales_, and his Excellency and _Spinola_, keep the ballance even in
their parts, by looking upon another. This noble friend of yours is in his
last minute, in this Town; and I am going into the Coach with my Lo. to
_Hanworth_. If I might have forborn the sealing the rest till my return
from thence, you might have heard something more from
_Your very true poor friend and humble
servant in Chr. Jes._ J. Donne.
_No straitnesse makes me forget my service to your daughters: If my Bell
were tolling, I should pray for them, and though my Letter be sealing, I
leave not out my wishes, that their fortunes may second their goodnesse.
Amen._
[xxx.]
_To Sir_ H. G.
_SIR_,
This _Tuesday_ morning, which hath brought me to _London_, presents me
with all your Letters. Me thought it was a rent day, I mean such as yours,
and not as mine; and yet such too, when I considered how much I ought you
for them, how good a mother, how fertill and abundant the understanding
is, if she have a good father; and how well friendship performs that
office. For that which is denied in other generations is done in this of
yours: for here is superfetation, childe upon childe, and that which is
more strange twins at a latter conception. If in my second religion,
friendship, I had a conscience, either _errantem_ to mistake good and bad
and indifferent, or _opinantem_ to be ravished by others opinions or
examples, or _dubiam_ to adhere to neither part, or _scrupulosam_ to
incline to one, but upon reasons light in themselves, or indiscussed in
me, (which are almost all the diseases of conscience) I might mistake your
often, long, and busie Letters, and fear you did but intreat me to have
mercy upon you and spare you; for you know our Court took the resolution,
that it was the best way to dispatch the French Prince back again quickly,
to receive him solemnly, ceremoniously, and expensively, when he hoped a
domestique and durable entertainment. I never meant to excell you in
weight nor price, but in number and bulk I thought I might, because he may
cast up a greater summe who hath but forty small monies, then he with
twenty Portuguesses. The memory of friends, (I mean onely for Letters)
neither enters ordinarily into busied men, because they are never emploied
within, nor into men of pleasure, because they are never at home. For
these wishes therefore which you won out of your pleasure and recreation,
you were as excusable to me if you writ seldome, as Sir _H. Wotton_ is,
under the oppression of businesse, or the necessity of seeming so; or more
then he, because I hope you have both pleasure and businesse: onely to me,
who have neither, this omission were sinne; for though writing be not of
the precepts of friendship, but of the counsels, yet, as in some cases to
some men counsels become precepts, and though not immediately from God,
yet very roundly and quickly from his Church, (as selling and dividing
goods in the first time, continence in the Romane Church, and order and
decencie in ours) so to me who can do nothing else, it seems to binde my
conscience to write; and it is sinne to doe against the conscience, though
that erre. Yet no mans Letters might be better wanted then mine, since my
whole Letter is nothing else but a confession that I should and would
write. I owed you a Letter in verse before by mine own promise, and now
that you think that you have hedged in that debt by a greater by your
Letter in verse, I think it now most seasonable and fashionable for me to
break. At least, to write presently, were to accuse my self of not having
read yours so often as such a Letter deserves from you to me. To make my
debt greater (for such is the desire of all, who cannot or mean not to
pay) I pray read these two problemes: for such light flashes as these have
been my hawkings in my sorry [Surrey?] journies. I accompany them with
another ragge of verses, worthy of that name for the smalnesse, and age,
for it hath long lien among my other papers, and laughs at them that have
adventured to you: for I think till now you saw it not, and neither you,
nor it should repent it. Sir, if I were any thing, my love to you might
multiply it, and dignifie it: But infinite nothings are but one such; yet
since even Chymera's have some name and titles, I am also
_Yours._
[xxxi.]
_To your selfe._