pg 126Self-Conversation.^a

To Converse wel with our Selves is a¹ thing not les Important then Neglected. For Certinly we ouht to be as much concern'd in the Knowledg of our selves, as we ar in it's object: & he wil hardly deserve the Esteem of a Wise-man, that must always travel out of himself for a Companion; & want Company whensoever he is without it. Tho, we see most men, (even of those² we mistake for Wise) tho so curius & inquisitive in all other things that nothing can scape their Knowledg, yet be ignorant of themselves. Like many of our inquisitive Busy-bodys that have all their Neibors Bisnes at their Finger's Ends, but ar (meer) Strangers to their own. Now the Practice of this Self-conversation wil we regulate by these (4) (ensuing) Directions.

1. The first shal be, To improve to the best advantage all spare times of Entertaining our Selves. There ar a thousand little Intervals of Leisure, which give us an Opportunity of Meditation; & which because they ar usually short, & have not certin Dates, either of Beginning or Continuance³, most men, as thinking them not long enuf to perfect any thing in neglect to lay hold of: tho to any that wil but take the Pains to try, it will appeare; that all these Intervals ‹being› sum'd up, their frequency will make them amount to a very large Portion of our Life/ Time/ & that to improve them will be⁴ vastly more advantagius then is commonly imagin'd. And sure those that consider that the hihest Mountain is but an accumulation of Atomes, & the Ocean ‹itself› but a Confluence of Drops: wil not⁵ judg these snatches of Leisure so inconsiderable. But the thing that occasions their contemning, is, that men think them too short to go thorogh with any thing in: but that Difficulty miht be easily removed by fitting the Subject of one's Thouhts to the Mesure & other Circumstances of the permitted time. I use to employ these Interludes of Leisure either in making occasional Meditations or ‹short› Ejaculations; or in Resolving upon somthing to be don, or in Observing & reflecting upon som late⁶ remarkable thing; ‹lest it shud scape› or in ‹my memory›⁷ framing Models or Ideas of som future Study or Treatise; or lastly in repeating⁸ or calling to mind som half-forgotten thing; which is my Employment ‹only› when my Dulnes or troublednes of thouhts unfits me for any other.

2. The second shal be By⁹ a diligent Scrutiny & Observation to take an Exact Survey of your Self & your Condition;¹⁰ as, Your V[irtue]s & Abilitys, pg 127Relations, Imperfections, & the like. without which, not knoing your Companion, you wil reape the les Deliht & Profit from his Convers. Delphos was never so oraculous as when it adviz'd us to kno our selves. For Self knoldg, besides the hih advantages it afford[s] us in order to Policy is no les /fol. 291v/ Necessary to a Good man then Anatomy to a Fisitian or the Knoledg of his Cannon to a Gunner: for as a Shoomaker wil never fit exactly that foot whereof he knos not the Measure & Dimensions: no more can a Man fit that Mind with Precepts, whose Nature he ignores: & certinly to ‹presume to› give Lawes to a People of whose Condition & Inclinations he is utterly ignorant, is not les ridiculous in a Legislator, then to think to regulate a Mind to which one is a Stranger, is to a Man.^*

3. The Third is, To observe much & bring what thou observest hom to thy self by Application; To examin thy own Actions frequently & seriously; & to do nothing of any importance, whereof thou canst not give thy self (at least) a Probable Reason: ‹the riht Practice of› which last advice wud afford¹¹ Benefits, whose greatnes› wud puzzle hyperbolys ‹themselves› to express.^†

4. The Fourth¹² shal be, To retreat oftentimes within thy self, & there entertain thy selfe with Delihtful & Profitable Meditations; but so that by an Rational Method they be directed to the Thing they aim at.^‡13

To make a man put a Bridle upon his Thouhts, & seek Company in ‹the› being Alone, is a Thing I confesse at first of no little Difficulty to many;^§ but a short Apprentice-ship wil make us fiht a¹⁴ ravishing Deliht in the Prosecution & Discovery of hidden Truth, & (in case of Weariness of that) in letting the thouhts walk aboad & expatiate themselves over¹⁵ the ‹whole› Variety of things; (provided they¹⁶ be neither Idle/ foolish nor sinful) & at last confess, that our Thouhts can hardly find out a more¹⁷ Pleasant & advantagious Employment then the Contemplation & Entert[ainment]s / conve[rsation]/ of themselves. But then these Thouhts must be moulded in a Method that must¹⁸ give them the fittest shapes to reach the Ends they ar Design'd to. How fruitfull ar our Thoughts ‹when aplyd to any particular Subject› may easily appeare by those Plays & Romances, of our Modern Witts, that build so admirable Superstructions upon so sliht foundations: /subjects/ & how useles/ vain/ or hurtful they ar without a Method, may appear, as wel by the same Examples, as the Strang Extravangancy of those Castles in the Aire, men built when they lay no restraint upon their thouhts; like rich¹⁹ soyles, that if left uncultivated, shoot out all in Stems & Blades, & not at al in Eares. pg 128This true Method of Thouhts is not yet to be found amongst all those needles Volumes with which our Paper-dawbers/²⁰ botters/ inkwasters/ have clogd the Pres, tho I shud think far more useful then they. I made an Essay upon it; but expect a ful Discourse from an excellent Divine who is no les vers't in the Practice than skild in the Theory of so²¹ admirable an Art.^a To the Publication of these Discourses I shall refer the Reader: & conclude this with telling him, that since men's thouhts ‹dispose of›²² their Actions, those that wil allow of no Method in Thouhts, are like the Flatterers/ favorites/ of Tyrants that wud have them that give the Law to all others, admit of none/ be it without it/ themselves.