280 LETTERS FROM BIRCH* 



To Isaac Casaubon.* 



Cum ex literis, quas ad dominum Carew misisti, cognos- 

 cam scripta mea a te probari, et mihi de judicio tuo gratu- 

 latus sum, et tibi, quam ea res mihi fuerit voluptati, scri- 

 bendum existimavi. Atque illud etiam de me recte augu- 

 raris, me scientias ex latebris in lucem extrahere vehementer 

 cupere. Neque enim multum interest ea per otium scribi, 

 quae per otium legantur ; sed plane vitam, et res humanas, 

 et medias earum turbas, per contemplationes sanas et veras 

 instructiores esse volo. Quanta autem in hoc genere aggre- 

 diar, et quam parvis prsesidiis, postmodum fortasse rescisces. 

 Etiam tu pariter gratissimum mihi facies, si quse in animo 

 habes atque moliris et agitas, mihi nota esse velis. Nam 

 conjunctionem animorum et studiorum plus facere ad 

 amicitias judico, quam civiles necessitates et occasionum 

 officia. Equidem existimo neminem unquam magis vere 

 potuisse dicere de sese, quam me ipsum, illud quod habet 

 psalmus, multum incola fait anima mea. Itaque magis 

 videor cum antiquis versari, quam cum his, quibuscum 

 vivo. Quid ni etiam possim cum absentibus potius versari, 

 quam cum iis, qui prsesto sunt ; et magis electione in ami- 

 citiis uti, quam occasionibus de more submitti ? Verum ad 

 institutum revertor ego ; si qua in re amicitia mea tibi aut 

 tuis usui aut ornamento esse possit, tibi operam meam 

 bonam atque navam polliceor. Itaque salutem tibi dicit 



Amicus tuus, &c. 



Indorsed To Casaubon. 



The beginning of a letter immediately after my Lord 

 Treasurer s f decease.;}; 



It may please your Majesty, 



If I shall seem in these few lines to write majora quam 

 profortuna, it may please your majesty to take it to be an 

 effect, not of presumption but of affection. For of the one 

 I was never noted ; and for the other I could never shew 

 it hitherto to the full, being as a hawk tied to another s 

 fist, that might sometimes bait and proffer, but could never 

 fly. And therefore if, as it was said to one that spoke 



* This letter appears to have been written after Sir George Carew, mentioned 

 in it, returned from his embassy in France, in October, 1609 ; and before the 

 arrival of Casaubon in England, in October, 1610. 



t Robert Earl of Salisbury, who died 24th of May, 1612. 



$ The draught of this imperfect letter is written chiefly in Greek characters, 



