[In the following unsigned introduction to a nineteenth-century edition of the Resolves, the critic praises Felltham's work, stressing its value for “improving our understanding, and strengthening our virtue.”]

Of the numerous works of sterling merit which, after enjoying a long season of popularity, have sunk into comparative forgetfulness, none is more deserving of revival, or more sure to obtain, eventually, a permanent place in the literature of England, than the Resolves of Owen Felltham.

Though entitled Resolves, because at the conclusion of each article, the author forms some resolution, founded upon his own precepts, the volume consists of two hundred, or a “double century,” of Essays on the most important objects of life, exhibiting a profound knowledge of the human heart, and inculcating, in nervous, and often eloquent language, pure morality, warm benevolence, and natural, fervent, and practical piety.

In the opinion of a competent critic,¹ the Resolves bear

a frequent resemblance in manner, and still more in matter, to the Essays of Lord Bacon; like whom, Felltham often brings the imagination of the poet, to aid the wisdom of the philosopher; and contain more solid maxims, as much piety, and far better writing, than in most of the pulpit lectures now current among us.

Of Felltham's personal history very little is known. He was the second son of Thomas Felltham, of Mutford in Suffolk (the descendant of an ancient family in Norfolk, who died at Babram, in Cambridgeshire, in 1631, aged 62), by his wife Mary, daughter of John Ufflete, of Somerleyton, in Suffolk.

According to a pedigree in the Harleian MS. 5861, he married a daughter of the ancient family of Clopton, of Rendlehall, in that county; but it may be inferred, that his wife died before him, and that he did not leave any children, as he bequeathed all his property to his nephews and nieces. On the 4th of May, 1667, he made his Will, which was dated at Great Billing, in Northamptonshire, where his patron, the Earl of Thomond, had a mansion; and probably died shortly before the 22nd of April, 1668, on which day his will was proved. That document is extremely characteristic of the author of the Resolves, and will be found in a subsequent page.

In a letter addressed to “Lord C. J. R.²,” he says, he had been “put upon a trial for vindicating the right of the ancient inheritance of my family, gained from me by a verdict last assizes,” and that fact perhaps affords a clue to some particulars of his life, which his biographers may follow with advantage.

Felltham does not seem to have been a member of either University, which would agree with the observation in his preface, that he did not “profess himself a scholar,” had he not said, in explanation of this expression, on its being quoted to his disparagement, “a scholar's life was not my profession, for I have lived in such a course as my books have been my delight, but not my trade, though perhaps I could wish they had.” It has been surmised that he lived in the family of the Earl of Thomond, as gentleman of the horse, or secretary; and in the dedication of the later editions of the Resolves, to the Countess Dowager of Thomond, he remarks, that “most of them were composed under the coverture of your roof, and so born subjects under your dominion.”

The following epitaph, which he wrote for himself, entitled, “Quod in sepulchrum volui,” seems to have been the one alluded to in his Will, which, with several passages in his writings, prove that he was a Royalist; and it is extraordinary, that a man of such talents, a gentleman by birth, and moving in good society, should not have been more frequently mentioned by his contemporaries:—

Postquam vidisset rotantem mundum,
          Imaque summis supernatantia,
Prosperum Tyrio scelus imbutum,
Dum virtus sordidâ squallet in aulâ,
          Securique cervicem præbuit;
          Injusta tamen hominum
          In justissima disponente Deo;
          Dum redux Cæsar nubila pellit,
Gloriamque gentis tollit in altum;
          Tandem evadens terris,
Exuvias hic reliquit Felltham.

It is remarkable that great part of a work, showing so thorough an acquaintance with the world, should have been written when the author was only eighteen. In the address to the reader, prefixed to the eighth edition, printed in 1661, he says:—

The reader may please to be informed, that the latter part of these ‘Resolves,’ formerly printed as the First Century, the author, upon their perusal, could not himself be satisfied with them. For, however all seemed to pass current, and did arise to several impressions, yet, being written when he was but eighteen, they appeared to him to have too many young weaknesses to be still continued to the world, though not for the honesty, yet in the composure of them. If any shall alledge their general acceptation, that to him is no prevailing argument, for the multitude, though they be the most in number, are the worst and most partial judges; and that hath made him, in this impression, to give them a new frame and various composition, by altering many, leaving out some, and of others new; that now upon the matter they quite are other things, and that they, and the rest which shall be found in this volume are now published, hath the same reason which at first was given: they are not written so much to please others, as to gratify and profit himself; nor does he plead the importunity of friends for the publication of them. If they be worthy of the common view, they need not that apology: if they be not, he should have but showed that he had been abused, as well by his friends as himself.

So far, however, from the alterations having improved the volume, they are generally considered to have deprived it of much of its raciness and originality; and the present edition has therefore been printed from that of 1631. Felltham's explanation of his motives for writing those Essays imparts additional interest to them:—

What I aim at in it, I confess hath most respect to myself; that I might, out of my own school, take a lesson which should serve me for my whole pilgrimage; and, if I should wander, my own items might set me in Heaven's direct way again. We do not … “run into crimes, that from our own mouth have had sentence of condemnation. That I might curb my own wild passions, I have writ these; and if thou findest a line may mend thee, I shall think I have divulged it to purpose. Read all, and use thy mind's liberty; how thy suffrage falls, I weigh not; for it was not so much to please others as to profit myself.

The first edition, a small duodecimo of three hundred and twenty-seven pages, with an engraved title, is printed without a date. It contains what in the subsequent impressions formed the Second Century of Resolves, and is dedicated to Lady Dorothy Crane, daughter of Lord Hobart.³ The second and third editions, both in quarto, appeared in 1628; the fourth, entitled Resolves,a double Century, dedicated to Lord Coventry, the Lord Keeper, but with a separate title-page, and a dedication to Lady Dorothy Crane of the second hundred Resolves, was published in 1631; the fifth, in 1634; the sixth, in 1636; and the seventh, in 1647. The eighth edition, printed in folio, after the Restoration in 1661, was materially altered; and he added various poems of little merit, under the title of Lusoria, some papers on theological subjects, copies of several letters, and a satirical account of the Low Countries. The ninth edition appeared in 1670; the tenth in 1677; the eleventh in 1696; and the twelfth in 1709. After that time the work seems to have lost much of its popularity; but Mr. James Cumming, having accidentally met with a copy, he was so impressed with its beauties, as to publish an edition in 1806, which has since been reprinted. Instead, however, of adopting the text of any previous edition, unjustifiable liberties were taken with the original. Though, in the opinion of the poet Randolph, as well as in that of most candid persons, the Resolves do not contain one line

To dye maid's or matron's cheek in red,

Mr. Cumming, and a learned friend to whom he refers, thought they had discovered “indelicate expressions, allusions, and conceits;” and not satisfied with removing them, he omitted such chapters as he considered of less value than the rest; made various other curtailments, changed the titles of some of the essays, and occasionally even ventured to alter the language, because the words were obsolete and the phrases quaint! Against these violations of the soundest canons of editorship, more especially in the case of such a writer as Felltham, no protest can be too strong; and, to use the words of the critic before alluded to,

For our parts, we confess, that we cannot so easily consent to part with the little quaintnesses of style, which to our minds convey a greater charm than more polished diction, and believing, as we do, in the soundness of Hume's celebrated distinction between ancient liberty and modern licentiousness, we are content to pardon all the pruriencies we have yet discovered in Owen Felltham's Resolves; which, it is added, “we lay aside as we part from our dearest friends, in the hope of frequently returning to them.

It can scarcely be necessary to observe, that Mr. Cumming's plan of editing the Resolves has been eschewed; and as the fourth edition has been strictly followed (except in the orthography), the public are now presented with the only genuine text that has appeared for nearly a century and a half, of a work that cannot be read without improving our understanding, and strengthening our virtue; and which (to use Felltham's felicitous expression, in speaking of a wise man) displays “a knowing and a practical judgment, that can direct us in the maze of life—in the bustle of the world—in the twitches and twirls of fate.”

Notes

1. Vide Retrospective Review, vol. x.

2. Apparently Sir Thomas Richardson, who was Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from 1626 to 1631, and Lord Chief Justice of England from 1631 to 1635.

3. The only copy known is in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Bliss.