“TO MY CHILDREN”

They who dote on mortall excellencies, when by the inevitable fate of all things fraile, their adored idolls are taken from them, may lett loose the winds of passion to bring in a flood of sorrow; whose ebbing tides carry away the deare memory of what they have lost; and when comfort is assay'd to such mourners, commonly all obiects are remoov'd out of their view, which may with their remembrance renew their griefe; and in time these remedies succeed, when oblivions curtaine is by degrees drawn over the dead face, and things lesse lovely are liked, while they are not viewed together with that which was most excellent: but I that am under a command not to grieve att the common rate of desolate woemen, while I am studying which way to moderate my woe, and if it were possible to augment my love, can for the present find out none more iust to your deare father nor consolatory to myselfe then the preservation of his memory, which I need not guild with such flattring commendations as the hired preachers doe equally give to the truly and titularly honorable; a naked undrest narrative, speaking the simple truth of him, will deck him with more substantiall glorie, then all the panegyricks the best pens could ever consecrate to the vertues of the best men.