Since I cannot in the way of gratefulness express unto your lordship, as
I would, those hearty sentiments I have of your goodness to me; I will
at the last endeavour, in the way of duty and observance, to let you see
how the little needle of my soul is throughly touched at the great
loadstone of yours, and followeth suddenly and strongly, which way
soever you beckon it. In this occasion, the magnetic motion was
impatient to have the book in my hands that your lordship gave so
advantageous a character of; whereupon I sent presently (as late as it
was) to Paul's church-yard for this favourite of yours, _Religio
Medici_: which after awhile found me in a condition fit to receive a
blessing by a visit from any of such masterpieces, as you look upon with
gracious eyes; for I was newly gotten into my bed. This good-natured
creature I could easily persuade to be my bedfellow, and to wake with me
as long as I had any edge to entertain myself with the delights I sucked
from so noble a conversation. And truly, my lord, I closed not my eyes
till I had enriched myself with, or at least exactly surveyed all the
treasures that are lapped up in the folds of those few sheets. To return
only a general commendation of this curious piece, or at large to admire
the author's spirit and smartness, were too perfunctory an account, and
too slight a one, to so discerning and steady an eye as yours, after so
particular and encharged a summons to read heedfully this discourse. I
will therefore presume to blot a sheet or two of paper with my
reflections upon sundry passages.--SIR K. DIGBY (Letter to Edward, Earl
of Dorset).