ether to restrain it. So is it not in China. For the Chinese sail
where they will, or can; which showeth, that their law of keeping out
strangers is a law of pusillanimity and fear. But this restraint of ours
hath one only exception, which is admirable; preserving the good which
cometh by communicating with strangers, and avoiding the hurt: and I
will now open it to you. And here I shall seem a little to digress, but
you will by-and-by find it pertinent. Ye shall understand, my dear
friends, that amongst the excellent acts of that king, one above all
hath the pre-eminence. It was the erection and institution of an order,
or society, which we call Salomon's House; the noblest foundation, as we
think, that ever was upon the earth, and the lantern of this kingdom. It
is dedicated to the study of the works and creatures of God. Some think
it beareth the founder's name a little corrupted, as if it should be
Solomon's House. But the records write it as it is spoken. So as I take
it to be denominate of the king of the Hebrews, which is famous with
you, and no strangers to us; for we have some parts of his works which
with you are lost; namely, that natural history which he wrote of all
plants, from the cedar of Libanus to the moss that groweth out of the
wall; and of all things that have life and motion. This maketh me think
that our king finding himself to symbolize, in many things, with that
king of the Hebrews, which lived many years before him, honoured him
with the title of this foundation. And I am the rather induced to be of
this opinion, for that I find in ancient records, this order or society
is sometimes called Solomon's House, and sometimes the College of the
Six Days' Works; whereby I am satisfied that our excellent king had
learned from the Hebrews that God had created the world, and all that
therein is, within six days: and therefore he instituted that house, for
the finding out of the true nature of all things, whereby God might have
the more glory in the workmanship of them, and men the more fruit in
their use of them, did give it also that second name. But now to come to
our present purpose. When the king had forbidden to all his people
navigation into any part that was not under his crown, he made
nevertheless this ordinance; that every twelve years there should be
set forth out of this kingdom, two ships, appointed to several voyages;
that in either of these ships there should be a mission of three of the
fel