TO THE READER.

A

N EMBLEM is but a filent parable: let not the tender eye check, to see the allufion to our bleffed SAVIOUR figured in thefe types. In holy fcripture he is fometimes called a fower, fometimes a fisher, fometimes a physician; and why not presented so, as well to the eye as to the ear? Before the knowledge of letters, GOD was known by Hieroglyphics. And indeed what are the heavens, the earth, nay, every creature, but Hieroglyphics and Emblems of his glory? I have no more to fay: I wish thee as much pleasure in the reading, as I had in writing. Farewell, Reader.

BY

10-27-40 RECOMMENDATORY

41877

2 PREFACE.

N an age of uncommon diffipation and levity,

IN

and in which every expedient is invented, that

can vitiate the mind, and corrupt the heart; the REAL CHRISTIAN and TRUE PATRIOT fhould lofe no opportunity to make an humble and bold attempt to stop the current of vice, which must be attended with the most fatal effects. " Rari quippe "boni:" the good are fcarce and few: but however, it ill becomes them to be idle in the beft caufe ; while thofe of an oppofite character are fo refolute, induftrious, and perfevering, in the worst.

THE pious education of youth is an object of the utmost importance to the fafety, the peace, and profperity of the commonwealth. One of the ftatutes of Henry IV. of France begins thus: "The hap"pinefs of kingdoms and people, and especially of "a chriftian ftate, depends upon the good educa"tion of youth: whereby the minds of the crude "and unfkilful are civilized and fashioned; and "fuch as would otherwife be ufelefs, and of no va"lue, are qualified to difcharge the feveral offices of "the state with ability and fuccefs; by that they

are taught their inviolable duties to God, their parents, and their country, with the refpect and "obedience which they owe to kings and magif66 trates."

WHATEVER can tend to produce fuch happy effects as thefe, and to correct that ftrong inclination to ill which is fo deeply rooted in young people, and which will never want the fanction of example, becomes a public good, and ought to meet with public encouragement. So fays unfeigned zeal for religion, and genuine love for our country.

UPON this prefumption, it is hoped that QUARLES'S EMBLEMS will meet with that reception which the merit and utility of fuch an original work demands: and which is not only calculated to convey the most important leffons of inftruction into youthful minds, but to convey them in the moft pleafant and entertaining manner; by hieroglyphics, or figurative figns and fymbols of divine, facred, and fupernatural things by which mode of communicating knowledge, the fancy is charmed, the invention is exercifed, the mind informed, and the heart improved. Labor ipfe voluptas.”

THE peculiar excellency of this publication, which is now become fo fcarce as with difficulty to be purchased at all; a fair and elegant copy of which is promifed us by the editor at a vaft expence ; is, that it contains a fort of wifdom in which young and old, learned and unlearned, are equally concerned; and without which, the greatest philofopher

is an arrant fool. For, however highly we may esteem human arts and sciences in their proper place, it will ever be true, that "the wifdom of this "world is foolishnefs with God."

VARIOUS and elaborate means are purfued, in order to furnish the minds of our youth with fabulous knowledge, and to fill them with the frivolous tales of heathenifh fcience; the very perfection of which deferves but little, if any praife. And it is, no doubt, a fad proof of univerfal degeneracy, that the Metamorphofes of an Ovid are preferred, in our fchools, to the facred Realities of Mofes and the Prophets; and a young perfon is taught to be as much affected with the recital of the difmal fate of Phaeton's fifters, as by that of Ifaac, or of a greater than' Ifaac, when offered up a Lacrifice to the God of heaven.

LET us, however, hope for better times and better things when every human fcience fhall be made fubfervient to divine; when the invaluable knowledge of the facred writings fhall have its due place and due honor; and when QUARLES'S, EMBLEMS fhall, at leaft, be preferred to the comparative nonfenfe of the Pantheon and Ovid's pitles.

Lower Grofvenor Place.

C. DE COETLOGON.

Το

2 3