THE CONFERENCE. 6 1 



VEN. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your dis- 

 course seems to be music, and charms me to an attention. 



PlSC. Why then, Sir, I will take a liberty to tell, or rather 

 to remember you what is said of turtle-doves : first, that 

 they silently plight their troth, and marry ; and that then 

 the survivor scorns, as the Thracian women are said to do, 

 to outlive his or her mate, and this is taken for a truth ; and 

 if the survivor shall ever couple with another, then not only 

 the living but the dead, be it either the he or the she, is 

 denied the name and honour of a true turtle-dove. q u 



And to parallel this land rarity, and teach mankind moral 

 faithfulness, and to condemn those that talk of religion, and 

 yet come short of the moral faith of fish and fowl ; men that 

 violate the law affirmed by St. Paul, Rom. ii. 14, 15, to be 

 writ in their hearts, and which he says shall at the last day 

 condemn and leave them without excuse; I pray hearken to 

 what Du Bartas sings, for the hearing of such conjugal faith- 

 fulness will be music to all chaste ears, and therefore I pray 

 hearken to what Du Bartas sings of the mullet. 



But for chaste love the mullet hath no peer ; 

 For if the fisher hath surprised her pheer [mate], 

 As mad with woe, to shore she followcth, 

 Prest to consort him both in life and death. 



On the contrary, what shall I say of the house cock, which 

 treads any hen, and then, contrary to the swan, the partridge, 

 and pigeon, takes no care to hatch, to feed, or to cherish his 

 own brood, but is senseless, though they perish. 



And it is considerable that the hen, which, because she 

 also takes any cock, expects it not, who is sure the chickens 

 be her own, hath by a moral impression her care and affection 



