Page images
PDF
EPUB

TABLE-TALK.

PART II. ENGLISH.

TABLE-TALK.

SELDENIANA.

[John Selden, the learned author of this collection, was born in 1584. After distinguishing himself at College, he became a member of the Inner Temple; and though he seldom appeared at the Bar, was soon in eminent practice as a Chamber Counsel. Into the political events of his life, it is impossible to enter; his literary labours were principally of a legal and antiquarian nature. Of these, his Dissertation on the Norman Conquest, his History of Tithes, and his Mare Clausum, written in reply to the treatise of Grotius, entitled Mare Liberum, are the most distinguished. The Seldeniana are marked by much of the discursive scholarship, the boldness and occasional coarseness of expression which characterised the man. He died in 1654.1

[blocks in formation]

1. CHRISTMAS Succeeds the Saturnalia; the same time, the same number of holidays; then the master waited upon the servant, like the lord of misrule.

2. Our meats and our sports (much of them) have relation to church-works. The coffin of our Christmas pies, in shape long, is in imitation of the cratch; our choosing kings and queens, on Twelfth-night, hath reference to the three kings: so, likewise, our eating of fritters, whipping of tops, roasting of herrings, Jack of Lents, &c; they

were all in imitation of church-works, emblems of martyrdom. Our tansies, at Easter, have reference to the bitter herbs; though, at the same time, it was always the fashion for a man to have a gammon of bacon, to show himself to be no Jew.

II. CONSCIENCE.

1. He that hath a scrupulous conscience, is like a horse that is not well weighed; he starts at every bird that flies out of the hedge.

2. A knowing man will do that which a tenderconscience-man dares not do, by reason of his ignorance; the other knows there is no hurt: as a child is afraid to go into the dark, when a man is not, because he knows there is no danger.

3. If we once come to leave that outloose, as to pretend conscience against law, who knows what inconvenience may follow? for thus, suppose an Anabaptist comes and takes my horse; I sue him: he tells me he did according to his conscience; his conscience tells him all things are common amongst the saints; what is mine is his; therefore you do ill to make such a law,-If any man takes another's horse, he shall be hanged: What can I say to this man? He does according to his conscience. Why is he not as honest a man as he that pretends a ceremony established by law is against his conscience? Generally to pretend conscience against law is dangerous; in some cases haply wo

may.

4. Some men make it a case of conscience, whether a man may have a pigeon-house, because his pigeons eat other folks corn. But there is no

such thing as conscience in the business; the matter is, whether he be a man of such quality, that the state allows him to have a dove-house: if so,

there is an end of the business; his pigeons have a right to eat where they please themselves. III. CONTRACTS.

1. If our fathers have lost their liberty, why may not we labour to regain it? Ans. We must lock to the contract; if that be rightly made, we must stand to it; if we once grant we may recede from contracts upon any inconveniency that may afterwards happen, we shall have no bargain kept. If I sell you a horse, and do not like my bargain, I will have my horse again.

2. Keep your contracts: so far a divine goes; but how to make our contracts is left to ourselves; and as we agree upon the conveying of this house, or that land, so it must be : if you offer me a bundred pounds for my glove, I tell you what my glove is, a plain glove-pretend no virtue in itthe glove is my own. I profess not to sell gloves, and we agree for a hundred pounds. I do not know why I may not with a safe conscience take it. The want of that common obvious distinction of jus præceptivum and jus permissivum, does much trouble men.

3. Lady Kent articled with Sir Edward Herbert, that he should come to her when she sent for him, and stay with her as long as she would have him; to which he set his hand: then he articled with her, that he should go away when he pleased, and stay away as long as he pleased; to which she set her hand. This is the epitome of all the contracts in the world, betwixt man and man, betwixt prince and subject; they keep them as long as they like them, and no longer.

[blocks in formation]

To preach long, loud, and damnation, is the

« PreviousContinue »