There is in the Bodleian and the Lambeth Libraries, a copy of the second edition, which bears the date of 1628.* It contains a second century, with the motto, "Ne te quæsiveris extra ;" and it is addressed to "The right honorable Thomas, Lord Keeper of the great seal of England, &c." The third edition was also published in 1628; so that it is to be presumed the work must originally have appeared not long before that period. This last mentioned edition has the motto, "Et sic demulceo vitam;" and it was continued in all the subsequent ones. In the eighth edition, and those which afterwards appeared, both centuries are dedicated "to the right honorable my most honored Lady Mary Countess Dowager of Thomond." The centuries were transposed in the fourth edition; and this order was preserved in all the later ones.t It is a circumstance which ought not to be passed over without notice, that one of the centuries of the Resolves, was written when Felltham was at the boyish age of eighteen. In his address "To the *The editor of this volume has now in his possession a copy of this very rare edition. The following list of the editions of the Resolves is given by Mr. Cumming, of which the present editor has seen the 2d, 8th, 9th, and 10th. Reader," prefixed to the eighth and following e tions, he says, "the Reader may please to be formed, that the latter part of these Resolves, f merly, printed as the first century, the author them, upon their perusal, could not himself be sat fied with them. For however all seemed to p current, and did arise to several impressions, being written when he was but eighteen, they peared to him to have too many young weaknesses, be still continued to the world, though not for the ho esty, yet in the composure of them." We ma therefore, consider Felltham to have furnished a ve rare and extraordinary instance of early genius, gacity, and cultivated knowledge. His motives for writing the Resolves, and for gi ing them to the world, are as virtuous as they mu be interesting to the moralist, but particularly t Christian moralist. The Resolves themselves al throw a broad and strong light on the personal cha acter, habits, and dispositions of the writer. Spea ing of this work in one of his old prefaces, "To th Peruser," he says, "What I aim at in it, I confes hath most respect to myself; that I might, out of n own school, take a lesson which should serve me f my whole pilgrimage: and if I should wander, m own items might set me in heaven's direct wa again. We do not so readily run into crimes, th from our own mouth have had sentence of conden nation." Again, in the same preface, he says, "Th I might curb my own wild passions, I have wr these and if thou findest a line to mend thee, I sha think I have divulged it to purpose. Read all an use thy mind's liberty;-how thy suffrage falls, I weigh not; for it was not so much to please others, as to profit myself." And in the preface to the later editions, he further observes, "Sure it is, the invitation he had to write and publish them were not so much to please others, or to show any thing he had could be capable of the name of parts; but to give the world some account how he spent his vacant hours, and that by passing the press (they becoming, in a manner ubiquitaries) they might every where be as boundaries, to hold him within the limits of prudence, honor, and virtue." Conformably with this view, it will be seen, that the topics which he handles come home to every man's business and bosom, and that it is the immediate tendency of the work, to instruct the minds and to improve the hearts of men in general; and what gives no small effect to these good purposes, the argument of each chapter is concluded by a direct and personal application of it to himself, and through him to his readers, in the form of a Resolve or Resolution. To the eighth and subsequent impressions of the Resolves, are appended some other productions of Felltham. The first of these productions is a dissertation on the scriptural text: "All is vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is nothing of value under the sun;" taken from Ecclesiastes ii. 11.; the next, some practical reflections on the text: "Another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come;" from St. Luke xiv. 20. They both possess considerable merit. XX LIFE AND WRITINGS OF OWEN FELLTHAM. These are followed by "Lusoria," or occasional "Pieces," consisting of poetry; "A Brief Character of the Low Countries under the States, written long since, being three weeks' observation of the virtues and vices of the inhabitants;" and "A Taste of some Letters." Speaking of these performances in his Preface to the Reader, our author observes, "The poems, the Character, and some of the letters, he looks upon as sports, that rather improve a man, by preserving him from worse, than by bringing otherwise any considerable profit. As they were his own recreations, so he wishes they may prove to others." |