SR, BESIDES that in sundry other respects I must acknowledge me to proffit by you when ever wee meet, you are often to me, & were yesterday especially, as a good watch man to admonish that the howres of the night passe on (for so I call my life as yet obscure, & unserviceable to mankind) & that the day w^th me is at hand wherin Christ commands all to labour while there is light which because I am psuaded you doe to no other purpose then out of a true desire that god should be honour'd in every one I therfore thinke my selfe bound though unask't, to give you account, as oft as occasion is, of this my tardie moving; according to the præcept of my conscience, w^ch I firmely trust is not w^thout god. Yet now I will not streine for any set apologie, but only referre my selfe to what my mynd shall have at any tyme to declare her selfe at her best ease. yet if you thinke, as you said, that too much love of Learning is in fault, & that I have given up my selfe to dreame away my yeares in the armes of studious retirement, like Endymion w^th the Moone as the tale of Latmos goes, yet consider that if it were no more but the meere love of Learning, whether it proceed from a principle bad, good, or naturall it could not have held out thus Long against so strong opposition on the other side of every kind, for if it be bad why should not all the fond hopes that forward Youth & Vanitie are fledge with together w^th Gaine, pride, & ambition call me forward more powerfully, then a poore regardlesse & unprofitable sin of curiosity should be able to withhold me, wherby a man cutts himselfe off from all action & becomes the most helplesse, pusilanimous & unweapon'd creature in the world, the most unfit and unable to doe that w^ch all mortals most aspire to either to defend & be usefull to his freinds, or to offend his enimies. Or if it be to be thought an naturall pronenesse there is against y^t a much more potent & inbred inclination w^ch about this tyme of a mans life sollicits most, the desire of a house & family of his owne to w^ch nothing is esteemed more helpefull then the early entring into credible employment, & nothing more hindering then this affected solitarinesse and though this were anough yet there is to this another act if not pure, yet of a refined nature no lesse available to dissuade prolonged obscurity, a desire of honour & repute, & immortall fame seated in the brest of every true scholar w^ch all make hast to by the readiest ways of publishing & divulging conceived merits as well those that shall as those that never shall obtaine it, nature therfore would præsently worke the more prævalent way if there were nothing but y^s inferiour bent of her selfe to restraine her. Lastly this Love of Learning as it is y^e pursuit of somthing good, it would sooner follow the more excellent & supreme good knowne & præsented and so be quickly diverted from the emptie & fantastick chase of shadows & notions to the solid good flowing from due & tymely obedience to that co&mtilde;and in the gospell set out by the terrible seasing of him that hid the talent. it is more probable therfore that not the endlesse delight of speculation but this very consideration of that great co&mtilde;andment does not presse forward as soone as may be to undergo but keeps off w^th a sacred reverence & religious advisement how best to undergoe not taking thought of beeing late so it give advantage to be more fit, for those that were latest lost nothing when the maister of the vinyard came to give each one his hire. & heere I am come to a streame head copious enough to disburden it selfe like Nilus at seven mouthes into an ocean, but then I should also run into a reciprocall contradiction of ebbing & flowing at once & doe that w^ch I excuse myselfe for not doing preach & not preach. Yet that you may see that I am something suspicious of my selfe, & doe take notice of a certaine belatednesse in me I am the bolder to send you some of my nightward thoughts some while since (because they com in not altogether unfitly) made up in a Petrarchan stanza. w^ch I told you of

How soon hath Time the suttle theef of Youth
stoln on his wing my three and twentieth yeere
my hasting days fly on w^th full careere
but my late spring no bud or blossome shew'th

Perhapps my semblance might deceave y^e truth
that I to manhood am arriv'd so neere
& inward ripenesse doth much lesse appeare
that some more tymely-happie spirits indu'th

Yet be it lesse or more, or soone or slow,
it shall be still in strictest measure even
to that same lot however meane or high

toward w^ch Tyme leads me, & the will of heaven
all is if I have grace to use it so
as ever in my great task-maisters eye

after y^e stanza

by this I beleeve you may well repent of having made mention at all of this matter, for if I have not all this while won you to this, I have certainly wearied you to it. this therfore alone may be a sufficient reason for me to keepe me as I am least having thus tired you singly, I should deale worse w^th a whole congregation, & spoyle all the patience of a Parish. for I my selfe doe not only see my owne tediousnesse but now grow offended w^th it that has hinderd thus long from co&mtilde;ing to the last & best period of my letter, & that w^ch must now cheifly worke my pardon that I am