Cowleys Essays | Page 7

a cold, of which he died within a fortnight. That
was in the year 1667, year also of the death of Jeremy Taylor, and of
the birth of Jonathan Swift.
Abraham Cowley is at his truest in these ESSAYS, written during the
last seven years of his life. Their style is simple, and their thoughts are
pure. They have, for their keynote, the happiness of one who loves true
liberty in quiet possession of himself. When he turns to the Latins, his
translations are all from those lines which would have dwelt most
pleasantly upon a mind that to the last held by the devout wish
expressed by himself in a poem of his early youth--(A Vote, in
"Sylva"):
"Books should, not business, entertain the light, And sleep, as
undisturbed as death, the night. My house a cottage more Than palace,
and should fitting be For all my use, no luxury. My garden, painted o'er
With Nature's hand, not Art's, should pleasures yield, Horace might
envy in his Sabine field."
H. M.

OF LIBERTY.

The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they
have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government; the
liberty of a private man in being master of his own time and actions, as
far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country. Of this
latter only we are here to discourse, and to inquire what estate of life
does best suit us in the possession of it. This liberty of our own actions
is such a fundamental privilege of human nature, that God Himself,
notwithstanding all His infinite power and right over us, permits us to
enjoy it, and that, too, after a forfeiture made by the rebellion of Adam.
He takes so much care for the entire preservation of it to us, that He
suffers neither His providence nor eternal decree to break or infringe it.
Now for our time, the same God, to whom we are but tenants-at-will
for the whole, requires but the seventh part to be paid to Him at as a
small quit-rent, in acknowledgment of His title. It is man only that has
the impudence to demand our whole time, though he neither gave it,
nor can restore it, nor is able to pay any considerable value for the least
part of it. This birthright of mankind above all other creatures some are
forced by hunger to sell, like Esau, for bread and broth; but the greatest
part of men make such a bargain for the delivery up of themselves, as
Thamar did with Judah; instead of a kid, the necessary provisions for
human life, they are contented to do it for rings and bracelets. The great
dealers in this world may be divided into the ambitious, the covetous,
and the voluptuous; and that all these men sell themselves to be slaves--
though to the vulgar it may seem a Stoical paradox--will appear to the
wise so plain and obvious that they will scarce think it deserves the
labour of argumentation. Let us first consider the ambitious; and those,
both in their progress to greatness, and after the attaining of it. There is
nothing truer than what Sallust says: "Dominationis in alios servitium
suum, mercedem dant": They are content to pay so great a price as their
own servitude to purchase the domination over others. The first thing
they must resolve to sacrifice is their whole time; they must never stop,
nor ever turn aside whilst they are in the race of glory; no, not like
Atalanta for golden apples; "Neither indeed can a man stop himself, if
he would, when he is in this, career. Fertur equis auriga neque audit
currus habenas.
Pray let us but consider a little what mean, servile things men do for
this imaginary food. We cannot fetch a greater example of it than from

the chief men of that nation which boasted most of liberty. To what
pitiful baseness did the noblest Romans submit themselves for the
obtaining of a praetorship, or the consular dignity? They put on the
habit of suppliants, and ran about, on foot and in dirt, through all the
tribes to beg voices; they flattered the poorest artisans, and carried a
nomenclator with them, to whisper in their ear every man's name, lest
they should mistake it in their salutations; they shook the hand, and
kissed the cheek of every popular tradesman; they stood all day at
every market in the public places, to show and ingratiate themselves to
the rout; they employed all their friends to solicit for them; they kept
open tables in every street; they distributed wine, and bread, and money,
even to the vilest of the people. En Romanos, rerum Dorninos! Behold
the masters of the world