Patriarcha/Letter

by Robert Filmer

The COPY

OF A

LETTER

Written by the Late Learned

Dr. PETER HEYLYN, to Sir Edward Fylmer, Son of the Worthy Author, concerning this Book and his other Political Discourses.

SIR,

HOW great a Loss I had in the death of my most dear and honoured Friend, your deceased Father, no man is able to conjecture; but he that hath suffered in the like. So affable was his Conversation, his Discourse so rational, his Judgment so exact in most parts of Learning; and his Affections to the Church so exemplary in him, that I never enjoyed a greater Felicity in the company of any Man living, than I did in his. In which Respects I may affirm both with Safety and Modesty, that we did not only take Sweet Counsel together; but walked in the House of God as Friends: I must needs say, I was prepared for that great Blow, by the Loss of my Preferment in the Church of Westminster, which gave me the Opportunity of so dear and beloved a Neighbourhood; so that I lost him partly before he died, which made the Misery the more supportable, when I was deprived of him for altogether. But I was never more sensible of the Infelicity, than I am at this present, in reference to that Satisfaction, which I am sure he could have given the Gentleman whom I am to deal with: His eminent Abilities in these Political Disputes, exemplified in his Judicious Observations upon Aristotles Politiques; as also in some passages on Grotius, Hunton, Hobbs, and other of our late Discoursers about Forms of Government, declare abundantly how fit a Man he might have been to have dealt in this cause, which I would not willingly should be betrayed by unskilful handling: And had he pleased to have suffered his Excellent Discourse called Patriarcha to appear in Publick, it would have given such satisfaction to all our great Masters in the Schools of Politie, that all other Tractates in that kind, had been found unnecessary.

Vide Certamen Epistolare. 386.