Reflections upon Ireland (Petty 1660)/1
SIR,
ALthough I have a long while wanted the happiness of your Society and Assistance, (such as I enjoyed at Paris) yet I have several times heard from you by Mr J.C. whose newes of your thriving condition hath been very gratefull to mee, because (as the world reports) such a condition is very gratefull to your self; though otherwise, and as to my own apprehensions of you, I am not much tickled with it: For Disturbances (the inseparable counterpoises of such a State) are (if I have not forgotten you) not very suitable to your nature.
I must needs confesse, I could have heartily wished you had never wandered out of those waies, whereunto God and Nature seemed to have set and directed you, having advanced you in them by as many Signal Successes as any other person within my knowledge. For how many of all those, about sixty ingenious persons (who were in the year 1644. Students with us in the Netherlands) did within nine years study (like your self) worthily take the highest degrees in our Faculty? even at home in Oxford, (an University seldom prodigal of those Honors) purchasing them (and much credit besides) with extraordinary Exercises both in the Theory and Practice of our Art; and such, whereby you approved the sufficiency of your Head, Hand, and Tongue unto the world: and all this, notwithstanding the many Excursions you made within that small space unto Studies of other natures, even so farr as to have given the world some demonstration of your good proficiency in them likewise.
Moreover, which of all those our Fellow-students did withall, within the same space, arrive to be chosen Publick Professor in one of the most troublesom pieces of our whole Faculty? (as you were of Anatomy in Oxford) not by favor or interest, but as best deserving it, and as having been the first Planter of that Practice in that place, and was afterwards with so much ease and concurrence entertained Chief Physician to three Chief Governors of a Nation, in continual succession, as you were, to the Lord Lambert, Lord Fleetwood, and Lord Henry Cromwell; never falling from that dignity, till the whole Government fell with you. I say, I could wish you had not turned aside into those by Pathes, which you have since found so exceeding thorny; and this I wish not only for your own sake, but for my own also: for I must declare to the whole world, That your dexterity in making Experiments, and that other your more happy and particular genius for designing what Experiments to make, in order to maintain or refute any Proposition, as also your way of making good use and benefit even by all miscarriages with your handsom coherent reasonings and inferences upon them all, were to mee more pleasant than if you had found out[1] Mines of Silver, richer then those of Potosi, and had made mee your Partner in them.
Besides, although you have gotten as much justly, as many say you have done injuriously, all of it will not make the Commonwealth of Learning a gainer by that your devious traffick; nor, I fear, your self, when you shall please to compute and cast up every thing by no better than your own Arithmetick. This I say perhaps by randome and by guesse; but why may not I by these Speculations and at a distance, measure your affairs as well as the Sea? which (I remember) you taught mee to do in the deepest place without a Line, and as well as Astronomers do the remotest Orbs and Stars, themselves standing here below upon the earth.
Really (Sir) it is not altogether for want of other Employment, that I busie my self about you, and about calculating the event of your troubles, but out of my dear respects and care for you; for if
Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt,[2]
why should I think you (whom I knew in three several Countries of a gentle and pleasant temper, and of an inoffensive carriage) to be now become savage, barbarous, and an enemy of Mankinde? for such some say you are, and that by the Air of a Countrey which indureth no venome: They say that
—Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes, Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.[3]
I have hitherto esteemed you of such integrity, as hath made mee cry out with the Poet,
Musa mihi causas memora quo milite Læso
Insignem probitate virum tot adire labores.[4]
And pray let mee know what you have gotten by all those Frauds and Rapines for which you are esteemed a Beast of Prey, and for which your Adversaries avow the denying you of Law, the knocking you on the head, coming behinde you, or taking you asleep, to be all very fair? Who thought that when you and I studied Metamorphoses and the several species of Madness, that your self should become the Example of a Lycanthropia? and that you should be transformed from a Man into such a Wolf, which not only a whole Parish or Hundred, but a whole Nation and Army make their business to destroy; insomuch as that men should shut up their Shops till they had dispatch't you, as the Londoners did till Glocester was relieved? What sowre humor hath made you so ravenous? that whole Countries will not now feed you, whom I have seen sumptuously treated with a piece of Pain de la Reine, a Bunch of Grapes and a Draught of St. Geniveuse's Well: You once cryed up Mathematicks, and Bread for rich Cheer, and you were frugal in your Food to be prodigal in your expence upon Projects. I reminde you perhaps too freely of these old Transactions: if your Land-Lordship be offended with it, I shall begin to suspect you of Pride; whereof, if you be considerably guilty, I shall the lesse wonder, that you take injurious courses to foment and uphold it: if things be so,
—Quantum mutaris ab illo?[5]
Moreover, as great and massy Fabricks may be ruined by their own weight; for
Suis & ipsa Roma viribus ruit.[7]
So you also may be by the too much scrupulous impartiality, and not sufficient respect of persons you have used; or perhaps the brightness of your too much vertue and merit (for there is a certain too-muchness, which made the Prudent Monk say, Praesto Officium taliter qualiter) may have dazled your Spectators blinde, so as to see none of it: Your clearness from Crimes, may make the guilty Vulgus hate you for a Monster, because much unlike themselves; For when the Rabble see or hear of any wonderfull piece of Art, or other Excellency, they say it was by the help of the Divel. And Christ himself was to be killed, because hee did the works that no man did; I say I will have a Charity for you as long as I can. Nevertheless, if some have turned all gray-haired in a night, and, (if as wee have seen) sudden, often, and great Changes have been made in a State, why not in you? And if Angels fell from Heaven, why may not you warp from that most desirable frame and temper wherein you were once known by?
Your very affectionate
Servant and old Friend
M. H.
SIR,
I Have received your letter, which shewes to mee, like a Starr in a dark stormy night; viz. not only a Sign of fairer weather, but a mark of direction in the soul: Wherefore, as I have received it gladly, so I shall also answer it largely, and perhaps with a more ample account of my Condition than you expected or desire.
I hope you will not require from mee much method or politeness; for if oppression make a wise man mad, you may well pardon both confusion and rudeness in mee, whose Brain as it is naturally not of the firmest fabrick, so it hath been accidentally shaken into an incapacity of such performance.
The perclose of your desires (to speak like a Land Measurer) and prayer of your Petition (to talk like the Clerk of the Councel) is to know the causes and manner of my Tribulation, the occasion of the Aspersions cast upon mee, with the root of that envy and seeds of that malice which afflict mee, &c. Unto all which I will return you a particular accompt, having first dispatcht a point or two of your Letter, independent (as I think) from any of your other Enquiries.
You wish I had never wandered out of the study of Medicine, with those other Mathematical, Mechanical, and Natural Exercises, in which I was once a Busie-body; because you think that all I have done since I first began so to ramble, will neither so well commend my name to posterity, nor render me so pleasant a Companion to your self at our next meeting, nor yield so much benefit to the Common-wealth, or (as you paradoxically insinuate) so much pecuniary profit to myself, upon a due balance of the whole Accompt.
Truly, Sir, I cannot but commend your Judgment herein, and admire how upon so slight a knowledg of my affairs, you could conclude so certainly. For what you say is too true; and were it believed by my Enemies, I might perhaps be lesse annoyed with their envy. Now although it concerns mee to propagate such a belief, as a fit Anodyne to asswage the many Spleens swelling against mee; yet I being ashamed to be wholly without some excuse for so conspicuous an Error, (as my diversion upon the Survey, and my other consequent undertakings was) I must let the world think otherwise, as part of that excuse which I must yet make more compleat, by acquainting you with some other reasons of that Action, as viz.
1. I thought the whole work would have been over (as on my part it was) in about two years time, so as to have proved rather an unbending than a breaking of that Bow, wherewith I aimed at natural Knowledges.2. I thought that the measuring of as much Land-line by the Chain and Needle, as would have neer four times begirt the whole Earth in its greatest Circle, and to have such an Admeasurement remain upon Record, and that to have performed such a Service (being useful to all Mankinde) for a Victorious Army, the first that ever totally subdued Ireland, would have been as great an Honour as any other Atchievement I could make in so much time; and the rather, because I should thereby convince many worthy Persons, that what they were told to be above seven years work, might (to their great accommodation) be dispatcht in one; and that the same Noble Army might not be abused by an absurd and insignificant way of Surveying then carrying on by Mr Worsly. I say absurd, in these following particulars.
1. There was paid for Admeasurement twelve times pro ratâ more than ever was given before; viz. such rates as whereby a man of a moneths study might earn neer ten pounds a day with his own hands.
2. The manner of Admeasurement was such, as no man could examine whether 't were well or ill performed.
3. The said Ameasurement, though bought at a dear rate, and exactly administred, was, as to its end and use, but a mere vitiation of the Countries estimate, which might be had for nothing, and no waies correspondent to either of the waies of Survey, which the Law required.
4. The manner of the Admeasurers payment was such, as by how much the more paines they took, by so much the lesse wages they had.
5. In the administration thereof, there was neither due tryal of Artists or Instruments; neither good Instructions before-hand, nor Examination afterwards. The Bonds taken for performance, were but the pictures of Obligations; which, though they are notoriously broken, hee the said Mr Worsly never knew how to sue.
6. The Knack of paying only for Measuring of profitable Land, and yet causing unprofitable to be admeasured, (which the Law for unknown reasons required not) begat infinite jealousies and discontents in the Army; So that the only true Art and Excellency which that Pretender expressed in this whole business, was so to frame Committees of conceited sciolous persons, intermixing some of Credit and Bulk amongst them, as whereby hee might screen himself in case of miscarriage; and when things were ill grounded at home, to put the finishing and upshot of them into the hands of others a great waies off.
For a short proof of all which, 't is well known, that all the Geometrical Surveys that ever passed through his hand, have since been done over again by the conduct of others. And the charge of what hee did (being many thousand pounds) became as meerly thrown away.
3. I thought, that besides the ordinary reward agreed mee, I should have received monumental thanks; not considering, that too great merit is more often paid with Envie, than with condign Rewards.
4. I thought by attempting new difficulties to have stretcht my own capacity and intellect, the which (like Leather on a Last) is not only formed and fashioned, but much extended by such Employments.
5. I hoped hereby to enlarge my Trade of Experiments from Bodies to Mindes, from the motions of the one, to the manners of the other, thereby to have understood passions as well as fermentations, and consequently to have been as pleasant a Companion to my ingenious friends, as if such an intermission from Physicks had never been: For you see, Sir, how by this means, I have gotten the occasion of practising upon my own Morals, that is, to learn, how with silence and smiles to elude the sharpest Provocations, and without troublesome Menstruums to digest the toughest Injuries that ever a poor man was crammed with.
Now, as for the matter of my pecuniary gain, I say, that what my Estate in Lands revenue, and otherwise, is, I do not well know, much of my Land being doubtfull and incumbred; for which my Adversaries hinder as yet, my having Reprizals.
2. Though I know what Rents I should have, yet how farr the Encouragements which my Adversaries give my Tenants to pay none will prevail to that purpose, I know not.
And lastly, the frequent frights and disheartnings wherewith I have been for these three or four years distracted, hath been the cause why my other Estate is there, where perhaps I shall never meet it. So that my Estate being thus uncertain, I cannot tell what I have got or lost by my aforementioned Diversion. Wherefore I can only say, that, if I had trusted to my Faculty of Physick only for the advancement of my Fortune, that my Estate might have been as followeth; viz.
In the year 1649. I proceeded Doctor in Physick; after the charge whereof, and my admission into the Colledg of London, I had left about sixty pounds: from that time, till about August 1652. by my Practice, Fellowship at Gresham and at Brazen-Nose Colledg, and by my Anatomy Lecture at Oxford, I had made that 60 l. to be neer 500 l. From August 1652. when I went for Ireland, to December 1654, (when I began the Survey and other publick Entanglements) with one hundred pounds advance mony, and with 365 l. per annum of well paid Salary, as also with the proceed of my Practice among the Chief, in the chief City of a Nation, I made my said 500 l. above 1600 l. If these be not real Truths, they are at least very probable Lyes, and such as very many will swear they believe. Now the interest of this 1600 l. for a year in Ireland, could not be less than 200 l. which with 550 l. (for another years Salary and Practice, viz. untill the Lands were set out in October 1655.) would have encreased my said Stock to 2350 l. With 2000 l. whereof, I could have bought 8000 l. in Debentures, which would have then purchased me about 15000. acres of Land, viz. as much as I am now accused to have: These 15000. acres could not yield mee lesse than at two shillings per acre 1500 l. per annum, especially receiving the Rents of May day preceding. This years Rent, with 550 l. for my Salary and Practice, &c. till Dec. 1656. would have bought mee even then (Debentures growing dearer) 6000 l. in Debentures, whereof the 5⁄7 then paid, would have been about 4000 l. neat; for which I must have had about 8000. acres more, being as much almost, as I conceive is due to mee. The Rent for 15000. acres and 8000. acres for three yeares, could not have been lesse than 7000 l. which, with the same three years Salary, viz. 1650 l. would have been near 9000 l. Estate in mony, above the above-mentioned 2500 l. per annum in Lands. The which, whether it be more or lesse then what I now have, I leave to all the world to examine and judge.
Now, least this should be called reckoning Chickens before they be hatcht, I promise at all times to present a List of forty persons, whose Negotiations have been pro ratâ more profitable then what is here set forth. Besides (without vanity, be it spoken) if universal favor with all the Grandees and their Ministers would have reacht this profit, I was not in any danger of failing: For before I dealt in Surveys, and Distributions, and other disobliging Trinkets, I referr you to all that knew mee (Annis 1652, —53 —54, and part of —55, and who knew the state of Ireland in those years) to give you satisfaction herein. Neither can any man alledg one cause of my coming short of the above-phancyed encrease; but I can finde him two probabilities for my exceeding the same.
You see, Sir, what an Estate I might have gotten, without ever having medled with the Surveys, much lesse with the more fatal distribution of the Lands after they were surveyed, and without medling with the Clerkship of the Councel, or being Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant. All which, if I had been so happy as to have declined, then had I preserved an universal favor and interest with all men, instead of the odium and persecution I now endure. For then also, whilst I only practised Physick, no Sect or Faction was jealous of mee; whereas since, every one of them, thought even my thoughtlesse Musings were plottings against their Interest: Then I acted as a Proceptor and Director to the greatest and best persons, whereas now I have been a constant Drudge and Slave possibly to the worst; the most part whereof were not capable to value my Services: Then I spent even my time of Labour itself in choice Company and Conversations; since I have been tyed all the day long to a stake, to be baited for the most part by irrational Creatures: Then my spare hours were spent on new and curious Speculations; since I have had no spare hours at all, nor scarce time to eat or sleep, or to make reflections upon my own Miseries, or to think how to get out of them: Then no man maligned mee for supplanting him; since all my Competitors, for the places I acted in, hated mee more or lesse according to their respective judgment and honesty, some mortally, having been the uncessant Plotters of my ruine: Then I had improved in my skill in Physick, and in my reputation for it; now I seem am as one, that hath lost both, nor will the world think my Brains so uncrased with my sufferings as to be capable of a recovery: Then I had stood immoveable, in all the many late turnings and revolutions of the State; now liable to a new Torture by every new Powers: Then I had been free to have improved my Estate in the most open and advantagious manner; now I am forced to keep all in Holes and under hatches, for fear my Improvements should be a bait to my Enemies: then I had been acceptable in my Treaties and Bargains; whereas now, I am by some reputed a Bugbear and Goblin, and chiefly by those from whom most may be gotten, who are exceeding shie; many men foolishly thinking all my thoughts to be designs, and all my designs machinaments of fraud; so as every action I attempt is watched by an Argus, every mistake counted a studied Crime, and accordingly punished or prosecuted; no disaster which befalls mee pitied, and, which is worst, no end appearing to this said condition, then which (as by this parallel you have seen) nothing can be more miserable: So that I have been, by medling with the first publick business, like that unhappy Bird, which, setting one foot upon the Lime-twig, inviscates the other, by vain endeavour to get the first clear, and then it's Wings, Beak, &c. till at length it have no means left to free it self at all.
- ↑ Vid. Explic.
- ↑ They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea (Horace) (Wikisource editor).
- ↑ A faithfull study of the liberal arts refines the manners and corrects their harshness (Ovid.) (Wikisource editor).
- ↑ Free interpretation of Vergil. (Wikisource editor)
- ↑ How changed from what he once was (Vergil) (Wikisource editor).
- ↑ The greatest right is the greatest injury (Cicero) (Wikisource ed.)
- ↑ And Rome through her own strength is tottering (Horace) (Wikisource ed.)