To

The Right Honourable and Virtuous Lady,

FRANCES MANNERS,

Countess of Rutland.

MADAM,—

BY the judicial law of the Jews, if a servant [Exodus xxi. 4.] had children by a wife which was given him by his master, though he himself went forth free in the seventh year, yet his children did remain with his master, as the proper goods of his possession. I ever have been and shall be a servant to that noble family, whence your Honour is extracted. And of late in that house I have been wedded to the pleasant embraces of a private life, the fittest wife and meetest helper that can be provided for a student in troublesome times: and the same hath been bestowed upon me by the bounty of your noble brother, Edward Lord Montague. Wherefore, what issue soever shall result from my mind, by his means most happily married to a retired life, must of due redound to his Honour, as the sole proprietary of my pains during my present condition. Now, this book is my eldest offspring, which, had it been a son, (I mean, had it been a work of masculine beauty and bigness,) it should have waited as a page in dedication to his Honour. But finding it to be of the weaker sex, little in strength, and low in stature, may it be admitted (madam) to attend on your Ladyship, his Honour’s sister.

I need not mind your Ladyship how God hath measured outward happiness unto you by the cubit of the sanctuary, of the largest size, so that one would be perplexed to wish more than what your Ladyship doth enjoy. My prayer to God shall be, that, shining as a pearl of grace here, you may shine as a star in glory hereafter. So resteth,

Your Honour’s,

In all Christian offices,

THOMAS FULLER.

Boughton, January 25, 1646.