this is, but the name of it startled me, and turned aside all resolution towards it; for it was at a place called Sterveling in Cumberland.

Mr. P. Nay. I will tell you more, Master Needham; I thought to have gone up to London, had not our doctor's curate there, one Master Hand-little, told me plainly, that most curates in London lived upon citizens trenchers; and, were it not that they were pitiful and charitable to them, there was no possibility of subsistance; and that, of late, it went harder with them, than before; for ever since the parsons have so enhanced their revenues, the citizens have mainly withdrawn their purses, so that now the curate must live upon his set pittance, or else

starve.

Mr. N. Well, Master Poorest, I do not intend to stay longer in the country, for I will wait here in town upon hopes a while.

Mr. P. Do as you please, but you will find the old proverb true, London lick penny.

Mr. N. I am resolved upon it, though I go to the three-penny ordinary; my reason is, I do hear say, that there are great store of clarks places about London, that are good allowances for scholars, some worth two hundred pounds and upwards per annum; I know some of the parish clarks are worth seven or eight thousand pounds; oh their fees come in sleeping or waking; what think you of the plot? Mr. P. I marry, such places are worth the while, but how should one catch them?

Mr. N. I will assure you, it is a shame, that such mechanicks should live in such state as they do; many of them are as greedy of funerals, as vultures of dead carcases; and they are most of them in an ill name, for exacting most grossly in their fees; hence it is that some of them rule the whole parish, and parson, and all; you shall see them, upon festival-days, as well cloathed as the chiefest citizens; their fingers as full of rings of gold, as an old ale-wife, that has buried four or five husbands; and their necks set as big with a curious ruff, as any the proudest Dons in Spain; oh what pure rich nightcaps they wear, and good beavers! besides all this, they can have their meetings usually in taverns of three or four pounds a sitting, when poor curates must not look into a red lettice, under fear of a general

censure,

Mr. P. Oh strange! I think it was well if curates could turn parish clarks; if it be as you say, it is the better course by far.

Mr. N. Come, come, I tell you, we are bound to look out for ourselves, and I know no more safer course than this, for most of the clarks have trades to live upon beside; but I hope their charter will fail, and then others may come into their places.

Mr. P. What say you, Master Needham, how strong are you, will you go and show me that pretty banqueting-house for curates, I mean the three-penny ordinary, for I can go no higher?

Mr. N. I, I, with all my heart, for I am almost at the same ebb; but let us hope better; things will not always ride in this rack.

Mr. P, Sir, I conceive plainly, that we curates are but as the stalking-horses to the clarks, for they get wealth by our labours,

Mr. N. Are you advised of that? You would say so indeed, should you but see some of their bills, so much for burials, so much for the knell, so much for the grave; for the corpse more, if coffined; more yet, if in such a church-yard; more than that, if in the church; higher yet, if it be in the chancel; beyond all these, if buried with torches, and sermon, and mourning with attendance; but it is put upon the highest strain, if it be a stranger. Besides, for marriages by banes, or by license, for making the certificate; so for churchings, and divers other ways, and nothing to the curate all this while.

Mr. P. Well, I conceive it more than ever I did; but now let us leave off discourse, and fall to our commons. What a pretty modicum I have here? Sure this ordinary-keeper has been some cook or scullion in a college: how dextrously the fellow plays the logician, in dividing the meat? It is an excellent place sure, to learn abstinence by ; I promise you, I will visit this house, as my stock holds out. It is just one degree above dining with Duke Humphry, it is as good as a preservative against surfeits.

Mr. N. Oh, good brother, it is as fine a refreshment as may be; I hold it wonderous good, for here a man shall be sure to rise from his meat, as many others use to sit down to it, with a stomach.

Mr. P. I will tell you one thing, which I had almost forgotten, I was offered the other day to go a voyage to the East-Indies, to be preacher in a ship.

Mr. N. Excellent well, oh refuse it nxt; it is far beyond living a-shore, for ten pounds per annum; I know you will find brave worthy merchants, you cannot want, if you undertake it.

Mr. P. I promise you, I had determined to have gone in one of his Majesty's ships, upon our narrow seas; but, if the voyage be so good, I will away (God willing) next spring.

Mr. N. I will tell you what I intend, if I miss of hopes this way here, to sollicit to be a preacher to a regiment of soldiers, if there be any service this next summer; for we cannot be lower than now we are; I would have given you, Master Poorest, one pint of wine, but ultra posse non est esse*, as you know.

Mr. P. I am as willing to have done the like to yourself, not having seen you so long since, but my purse denies ability.

Mr. N. I must be gone at one of the clock, to meet with a gentleman of the inns of court; well, good brother, God bless us both, and send us better times, and a happy meeting. Farewel.

Rolul Bur you spoke of beaith, how can that be procured by a better way, thus we buys bus in bagiand?

Trac. Yer, very easily; for they have an house, or College of Expe ruus, when day deliver out, yearly, such medicines as they find out by exports; and all such se shall be able to demonstrate any expe med, for the health or wealth of men, are honourably rewarded at the publick chuge, by which a skull i husbandy, physick, and surgery, is most cardiout,

Schol. But this is against physicians.

Trav. In Macaria, the parson of every parish is a good physician, aud doth execute both functions; to wit, cura animarum, & cura corporum*; and they think it as absurd for a divine to be without the skill of physick, as it is to put new wine into old bottles; and the physicians, being true naturalists, may as well become good divines, as the divines do become good physicians.

Schol. But you spoke of the great facility that these men have in their functions, how can that be?

Trav. Very easily; for the divines, by reason that the society of experiments is liable to an action, if they shall deliver out any false receipt, are not troubled to try conclusions, or experiments, but only to consider of the diversity of natures, complexions, and constitutions, which they are to know, for the cure of souls, as well as of bodies.

Schol. I know divers divines in England that are physicians, and therefore I hold well with this report: and I would that all were such, for they have great estimation with the people, and can rule them at their pleasure.

But how cometh the facility of becoming good divines?

Trav. They are all of approved ability in human learning, before they take in hand that function; and then they have such rules, that they need no considerable study to accomplish all knowledge fit for divines, by reason that there is no diversity of opinions amongst them. Schol. How can that be?

Trav. Very easily; for they have a law, that, if any divine shall publish a new opinion to the common people, he shall be accounted a disturber of the publick peace, and shall suffer death for it.

Schol. But that is the way to keep them in error perpetually, if they be once in it.

Trav. You are deceived; for, if any one hath conceived a new opinion, he is allowed every year freely to dispute it before the great council; if he overcome his adversaries, or such as are appointed to be opponents, then it is generally received for truth; if he be overcome, then it is declared to be false.

Schol. It seemeth that they are Christians by your relation of the parochial ministers, but whether are they Protestants or Papists ?

Trav. Their religion consists not in taking notice of several opinions and sects, but is made up of infallible tenets, which may be proved by invincible arguments, and such as will abide the grand test of extreme dispute; by which means none have power to stir up schisms and heresies; neither are any of their opinions ridiculous to those who are of contrary minds.

Schol. But you spoke of great honour, which the governors have in the kingdom of Macaria.

Trac. They must needs receive great honour of the people, by reason that there is no injustice done, or very seldom, perhaps once in an age.

• The care both of souls and bodies.

A DESCRIPTION

OF THE FAMOUS

KINGDOM OF MACARIA;

Shewing its excellent government, wherein the inhabitants live in great prosperity, health, and happiness; the king obeyed, the nobles honoured, and all good men respected; vice punished, and virtue rewarded. An example to other nations.

In a Dialogue between a Scholar and a Traveller.

[From a Quarto, containing fifteen pages, printed at London for Francis Constable, Anuo 1641.]

To the high and honourable Court of Parliament!*

Whereas I am confident, that this honourable court will lay the cornerstone of the world's happiness, before the final recess thereof, I have adventured to cast in my widow's mate into the treasury; not as an instructer, or counsellor, to this honourable assembly, but have delivered my conceptions in a fiction, as a more mannerly way, having for my pattern Sir Thomas Moore, and Sir Francis Bacon, once Lord Chancellor of England; and humbly desire that this honourable assembly will be pleased to make use of any thing therein contained, if it may stand with their pleasures, and to laugh at the rest, as a solace to my mind, being inclined to do good to the publick. So humbly craving leave, that I may take my leave. I rest, this twentyfitth of October, 1641.

Traveller.

WELL met, Sir, your habit professes scholarship; Are you a

graduate?

Scholar. Yes, Sir, I am a Master of Arts.

This was the parliament which met at Westminster on the third of November, 1640, and having chosen Mr. Leuthall their speaker, fell immediately upon their grievances, a ship-money, innovations in religion, &c. To accuse Mr. Secretary Windebank, of being a great promoter of Popery; to vote Archbishop Laud a traitor, and the author of all the troubles in Scotland; to impeach the Lord Strafford of high tr ason, and to declare the Lord Keeper Finch to be a traitor. And instead of driving out the Scots, who had invaded England, with a powerful army, and offered to put themselves under the protection of the Frenching, suffered them to remain in a body, in the North of England, advanced them three hundred thousand pounds, and obliged the king to disband his army, and to leave himself and kingdom to the mercy of those rebes. Hence we may gather the intention of this little treatise, which, composed by way of novel, was designed to intimate a new model of government therein specified, as the properest meaus to reconcile the destructive breach, that then was beginning to appear between the king and his parliament.