"Sir, I think no deficiency will be found in me. If it is not a charge too heavy for my strength, I wish to be a good proficient in rightly writing The ciphers, and know every degree of proceeding That giveth light to the pursuit. But you know that, Though Solomon did at first employ persons altogether Unlearned, and collected all the materials and apparatus For the work, and gathered the workmen some distance from the house,

He did it by God's divine commandment, and by looking
Upon the model whereby God show'd the plot

For their information, the workmen, and the great shoals
Of people were by its means taught the way to proceed,
And were able without the noise of hammer or instrument,
In the fullness of time, to complete the tabernacle
Of God, and to raise and build without agitation,
And in silence the fair houses upon the mount.
For do we not read in the Chronicles and the
Sacred history of the ten tribes, that the savage people,
Working as they did by immediate inspiration of God,
And swelling with the coming of the Holy Spirit,
Performed their tasks and labour without noise, and with
Great judgment and understanding, forgetting their
Appetites of lust, of revenge, of profit, quarrels

And unreclaimed desires, and stood all sociably together,

Listening unto the airs and accords of the harp,

Which, lightly touched by an excellent musician,

Did so sweetly sound in their ears that their passions

Were bridled and dissolved, and by the power of the sweet

music

Passed away, as you may note a wild and wanton heard,

Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,

Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
(Which is the hot condition of their blood)

If they but hear, perchance, a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,

You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze,
Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirits are dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus.

Mark how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid

With pattens of bright gold.

There's not the smallest orb which you behold,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossely close it in, we cannot hear it

Till inspired. Therefore, the poet

Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods

By sounds of music, and therefore they, under the touches

of sweet

Harmony, mute and silent, cut out of stone, marble, or gilt
The images and statues of angels, seraphim and cherubim;
Neatly framed the fabric of the goodly houses,
Raise and erect the stately galleries and rooms

Of commixed wood, stone, and metal; lay the floors of pine,
Build the gates of fir, and with cunning hands

O'er laid the walls with gold and jewels;

Set the images in place, and cast the overflowing
Fountain, the great bathing pool (which they call a sea),
The oracles, the chapter ornaments, which are
O'er-embellished with knaps and flowers of all kinds
Cut in pure gold pomegarnets, lavender, mint, savory,
Marjoram, marigold, gillivors, maiden-heads, carnations,
Lilies, (the flower-d-luce being one), columbine, pinks,
Honeysuckles, roses, sweet satirium, poppies, wild thyme,
Bean flowers, daisies, anemones, tulips, hyacinth-orentalis,
Perywinkles, bullices, and virgin branches of the almond,
Peach, apple, cherry, dammacin and plum tree blossoms and
fruit;

White thorn, ivy, holly, juniper, cypres, yew, pineapple, fir,
Lilac, and oak leaves; strawberries, plums, pears,
Appricotes, berberries, filberts, muskmellons,

Grapes, apples, peaches, wardens, melocotents, nectorines,
Quinces, medlars, jemlings, quadlins, rasps, and the like,
And out of molten gold cast the bowels and vessels ;
Make the bulworks or embosments of rich stone; finely

encompass

The sides with rails, statues and images;

Set fine seats about the grounds of the garden;

Under the leaves of the orange, lemon, and mezeroum trees, Whose blossoms with the flowers of the vines

And honeysuckles perfume the air; line the green alleys With water mints and rosemary, which, being trodden upon And crushed, mingle their sweetness with the damask and

red rose,

Marjoram, violet, pink, and gillivors in the air, and with a
Most excellent and cordial smell, the breath of flowers and
Plants comes and goes like the warbling of music.
For they set all the slope with flowers-whole alleys

Of them, so that the prince may walk under arches,
And between the pretty tufts of fruit trees

And arbours, environed with hedges on either side;
And by whole rows of flowers, which most delightfully
Perfume the air, and find nothing of ill smell, but only
Sweet. And here and there they set a bank for
Jury's great king to lye and play on, while the
Prettiest lass, deckt with compound wreaths

Of Adon's flowers, doth make garlands of the lime tree
Blossoms, to strew him o'er and o'er as he

Sleeps, in the soft stillness of the night, upon the bank.
Pave the bottom of the cisterns, convey the water

To the fountains, which (fed by a waterfall higher than

the

Pool) spouteth or sprinkleth water in fine devices,

Arching in feathers, drinking-glasses, canopies and the like,
And to the pools which are full of fish,

Deliver the water in perpetual motion, by fine spouts,
Making it raise in several formes, and then discharging
It away by bores underground.

But Solomon was inspired with the spirit of the Creator.
I am not, so I must frame these questions to discover
The concordances, and by drawing forth from your honor
The answers, find the way, or like Narcissus

Diving in the deep, I die. But if I drown, it is by
Treading in your footsteps according to my oath
To serve your turn, for I know my major vow lies here.
That I'll obey, indeed I warrant you, and I shall gladly
Try with swift pursuit to advance, and shall study
To be perfect in this, and learn the sculking places,
And obtain the victory. Oh! let us hence.

I stand on sudden haste."

"Wisely and slow.

They stumble that run fast.

Yet, good luck to you.

We are joyful to hear

Of

your readiness to return to work, and our

Strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon your head. Now have we tried your faithful heart enough,

And praise the gods your journey such good success

Hath had. Now be glad. Custom will make pleasant

And easy that which follows. Now the methods of this scheme

Are known, you will have an easy passage, so

Set forth when you please."

"Oh, my lord, it is not easy even to grasp in thought, Much less to express in words."

easy. The way

is much more easy

"It is than you think. It is itself a pastime; the posturn's are so easily opened, As you shall see if in a circle you partake to every one, And leisurely demand an answer by compounding the words, Turning them into new forms. Cast away nothing,

For thus this mode of operation proceeds,

And opens broad roads to the directions; and well examined
Is so simple and well defined, that it gives entrance

To all the secrets of the different letters' construction.
And here we subjoin for the use of your grace

A synopsis of the more general and conspicious things
We have hidden in this collection of works.

We think it right to give a catalogue of the titles
Contained in the history, lest you, for want of warning,
Set to work the wrong way. First: Place after this
The Epistle Dedicatorie; then the third letter is
The description of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth,
Her gifts, her bridal, and her death, the General Curse,
Which is to disguise the story of our own origin,