spheres; ever remembering that to pry into the actions or interests of other men, not under our charge, may minister to pride, to tyranny, to uncharitableness, to trouble, but can never consist with modesty; unless where duty, or the mere intentions of charity and relation, do warrant it.

4. Never listen at the doors or windows: for besides that it contains in it danger and a snare, it is also an invading my neighbour's privacy, and a laying that open, which he therefore enclosed, that it might not be open. Never ask, what he carries covered so curiously; for it is enough, that it is covered curiously. Hither also is reducible, that we never open letters without public authority, or reasonable presumed leave, or great necessity, or charity.

Every man hath in his own life sins enough, in his own mind trouble enough, in his own fortune evils enough, and in performance of his offices, failings more than enough, to entertain his own inquiry: so that curiosity after the affairs of others cannot be without envy and an evil mind. What is it to me, if my neighbour's grandfather were a Syrian, or his grandmother illegitimate; or that another is indebted five thousand pounds, or whether his wife be expensive? But commonly curious persons, or (as the apostle's phrase is) busy-bodies," are not solicitous or inquisitive into the beauty and order of a well-governed family, or after the virtues of an excellent person; but if there be any thing, for which men keep locks and bars and porters, things that blush to see the light, and either are shameful in manners, or private in nature, these things are their care and their business. But if great things will satisfy our inquiry, the course of the sun and moon, the spots in their faces, the firmament of heaven, and the supposed orbs, the ebbing and flowing of the sea, are work enough for us: or if this be not, let him tell me, whether the number of the stars be even or odd, and when they began to be so; since some ages have discovered new stars which the former knew not, but might have seen if they had been where now they are fixed. If these be too troublesome, search lower, and tell me, why this turf this year brings forth a daisy, and the next year a plantain; why the apple bears his seed in his heart, and wheat bears it in his head : Ecclus. vii. 21. Ne occhi in lettera, ne mano in tasca, ne orecchi in secreti

altrui.

let him tell. why a graft, taking nourishment from a crabstock, shall have a fruit more noble than its nurse and parent: let him say, why the best of oil is at the top, the best of wine in the middle, and the best of honey at the bottom, otherwise than it is in some liquors, that are thinner, and in some, that are thicker. But these things are not such as please busy-bodies; they must feed upon tragedies, and stories of misfortunes, and crimes; and yet tell them ancient stories of the ravishment of chaste maidens, or the debauchment of nations, or the extreme poverty of learned persons, or the persecutions of the old saints, or the changes of government, and sad accidents happening in royal families amongst the Arsacidæ, the Cæsars, the Ptolemies, these were enough to scratch the itch of knowing sad stories; bnt unless you tell them something sad and new, something that is done within the bounds of their own knowledge or relation, it seems tedious and unsatisfying; which shews plainly, it is an evil spirit: envy and idleness married together, and begot curiosity. Therefore Plutarch rarely well compares curious and inquisitive ears to the execrable gates of cities, out of which only malefactors and hangmen and tragedies pass, nothing that is chaste or holy. If a physician should go from house to house unsent for, and inquire what woman hath a cancer in her bowels, or what man hath a fistula in his colic-gut, though he could pretend to cure it, he would be almost as unwelcome as the disease itself: and therefore it is inhuman, to inquire after crimes and disasters without pretence of amending them, but only to discover them. We are not angry with searchers and publicans, when they look only on public merchandise; but when they break open trunks, and pierce vessels, and unrip packs, and open sealed letters.

Curiosity is the direct incontinency of the spirit; and adultery itself, in its principle, is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after, and envying of another man's enclosed pleasures; and there have been many, who refused fairer objects, that they might ravish an enclosed woman from her retirement and single possessor. But these inquisitions are seldom without danger, never without baseness: they are neither just nor honest, nor delightful, and very often useless to the curious inquirer. For men stand upon their guards against them, as they secure their meat against

harpies and cats, laying all their counsels and secrets out of their way; or as men clap their garments close about them, when the searching and saucy winds would discover their nakedness; as knowing, that what men willingly hear, they do willingly speak of. Knock therefore at the door, before you enter upon your neighbour's privacy; and remember, that there is no difference between entering into his house, and looking into it.

Acts of Modesty as it is opposed to Boldness *.

1. Let us always bear about us such impressions of reverence and fear of God as to tremble at his voice, to express our apprehensions of his greatness in all great accidents, in popular judgments, loud thunders, tempests, earthquakes; not only for fear of being smitten ourselves, or that we are concerned in the accident, but also that we may humble ourselves before his Almightiness, and express that infinite distance between his infiniteness and our weaknesses, at such times especially, when he gives such visible arguments of it. He that is merry and airy at shore, when he sees a sad and a loud tempest on the sea; or dances briskly, when God thunders from heaven, regards not, when God speaks to all the world, but is possessed with a firm immodesty.

2. Be reverent, modest, and reserved, in the presence of thy betters, giving to all according to their quality their titles of honour, keeping distance, speaking little, answering pertinently, not interposing without leave or reason, not answering to a question propounded to another; and ever present to thy superiors the fairest side of thy discourse, of thy temper, of thy ceremony, as being ashamed to serve excellent persons with unhandsome intercourse.

3. Never lie before a king, or a great person, nor stand in a lie, when thou art accused; nor offer to justify, what is indeed a fault; but modestly be ashamed of it, ask pardon, and make amends .

* Αἰσχύνη.

Quem Deus tegit verecundiæ pallio, hujus maculas hominibus non ostendit. Maimon. Can. Eth.

Πρῶτον ἀγαθῶν ἀναμάρτητον, δεύτερον δ ̓ αἰσχύναι. Meliss.

Obstare primum est velle, nec labi viâ;

Pudor est şecundus, nosse peccandi modum. - Senec. Hip. 140

4. Never boast of thy sin, but at least lay a veil upon thy nakedness and shame *, and put thine hand before thine eyes, that thou mayest have this beginning of repentance, to believe thy sin to be thy shame. For he that blushes not at his crime, but adds shamelessness to his shame, hath no instrument left to restore him to the hopes of virtue.

5. Be not confident and affirmative in an uncertain matter, but report things modestly and temperately, according to the degree of that persuasion, which is, or ought to be, begotten in thee by the efficacy of the authority, or the reason inducing thee.

6. Pretend not to more knowledge than thou hast, but be content to seem ignorant where thou art so, lest thou beest either brought to shame, or retirest into shamelessness".

Acts of Modesty as it is opposed to Indecency3.

1. In your prayers, in churches, and places of religion, use reverent postures, great attention, grave ceremony, the lowest gestures of humility, remembering that we speak to God, in our reverence to whom we cannot possibly exceed; but that the expression of this reverence be according to law or custom, and the example of the most prudent and pious persons that is, let it be the best in its kind, to the best of

essences.

2. In all public meetings, private addresses, in discourses, in journeys, use those forms of salutation, reverence, and decency, which the custom prescribes; and is usual amongst the most sober persons; giving honour to whom honour belongeth, taking place of none of thy betters, and in all cases of question concerning civil precedency giving it to any one that will take it, if it be only thy own right that is in question. 3. Observe the proportion of affections in all meetings and to all persons: be not merry at a funeral, nor sad upon a festival; but rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

4. Abstain from wanton and dissolute laughter, petulant and uncomely jests, loud talking, jeering, and all such ac

A Chione saltem, vel ab Helide disce pudorem ;

Abscondunt spurcas hæc monumenta lupas. — Mart. 1. i. Ep. 35.

2 Ecclus. iii. 25.

• Κοσμιότης, εὐταξία οι εὐπρέπεια.

tions, which in civil account are called indecencies and incivilities.

5. Towards your parents use all modesty of duty and humble carriage; towards them and all your kindred, be severe in the modesties of chastity; ever fearing, lest the freedoms of natural kindness should enlarge into any neighbourhood of unhandsomeness. For all incestuous mixtures, and all circumstances and degrees towards it, are the highest violations of modesty in the world: for therefore incest is grown to be so high a crime, especially in the last periods of the world, because it breaks that reverence which the consent of all nations and the severity of human laws hath enjoined towards our parents and nearest kindred, in imitation of that law which God gave to the Jews in prosecution of modesty in this instance.

6. Be a curious observer of all those things which are of good report, and are parts of public honesty. For public fame, and the sentence of prudent and public persons, is the measure of good and evil in things indifferent: and charity requires us to comply with those fancies and affections, which are agreeable to nature, or the analogy of virtue, or public laws, or old customs. It is against modesty for a woman to marry a second husband, as long as she bears a burden by the first; or to admit a second love, while her funeral tears are not wiped from her cheeks. It is against public honesty to do some lawful actions of privacy in public theatres, and therefore in such cases retirement is a duty of modesty.

7. Be grave, decent, and modest, in thy clothing and ornament: never let it be above thy condition, not always equal to it, never light or amorous, never discovering a nakedness through a thin veil, which thou pretendest to hide, never to lay a snare for a soul; but remember what becomes a Christian, professing holiness, chastity, and the discipline of the holy Jesus: and the first effect of this let your servants feel by your gentleness and aptness to be pleased with their usual diligence, and ordinary conduct. For the man or

b Philip, iv. 8.

At meretrix abigit testem veloque serâque ;

Raraque Summoni fornice rima patet.. Mart. i. 53.

a Tuta sit ornatrix: odi quæ sauciat ora

Unguibus, et raptâ brachia figit acu.

Devovet, et tangit Dominæ caput illa, simulque

Plorat ad invisas sanguinolenta comas. - . Ovid. A. A. 3. 238.