In Hunting only he spends a little Time, not so much for Pleasure, as for Health; for when he finds his Body fall away, and his Spirits flag by continual sitting for many Days together, he chooses one Day to refresh himself with the freer Air in the open Field; and in Summer very early in the Morning, and in Winter some Hours before Sun-rising, what Weather soever it be, he goes Abroad to Hunting, and sometimes he does so in the Afternoon; for I remember when I attended him at Dinner, I heard him say, _I have done my Duty this Day; I have dispatched all Business that are on the File; I may now spend the rest of the Day for the Health of my Body_. Thus he returns late at Night from the Death of a Boar, Stag, or Bear, and betakes his wearied Limbs to rest, without Eating or Drinking. Let no Man then upbraid us with the want of _Trajans_, _Varus_’s, and _Theodosius_’s; those Miracles of the Ancients in our Days: I dare take my Oath, that there is more true Vertue in our Emperor, than there was in all of them put together. But the Admiration of so great a Man transports me: ’Tis not my Design to speak of his Merits, they would make up a Volume rather than an Epistle; besides, they require an Ingenuity far exceeding mine; and, therefore, my Aim was only to give you some Hints, _That you may know what a Master I serv’d_. I close all with this public Prayer, _That he may return late to Heaven, whose vertuous and holy Presence alleviates the Miseries of our Age_. As to the _Greek Books_ which you enquire after, and the Rarities, and the wild Beasts of a strange Kind, which you hear I have brought back, they are hardly worth mentioning: Among them, there is one _Ichneumon_ very gentle, which is known for its deadly Quarrels with the _Crocodile_ and the _Asp_. I had also a _Weesel_ of that kind they call an _Ermine_, very beautiful; but I lost it on the Way. I have many brave Horses, such as no Man ever brought from thence before, and six She-Camels. I brought back no Shrubs nor Herbs, but in Painting, which I left to the Care of _Matthiolus_, with some other Things, many Years ago. I sent him Tapestry and Linnen after the _Babylonian_ Fashion, with Swords, Bows, and other Trappings: I have also many other Things made of Horses-hides, curiously wrought after the _Turkish_ Fashion, or rather I may say, I had them; for in so great an Assembly of principal Men and Women at _Francfort_, one beg’d one Thing, and another another; so that I have but a small Matter left. The rest of my Gifts was well bestowed; but I am very sorry that I was lavish of one Balsam, because Physicians call the Truth of it in question, as not answering all the Marks that _Pliny_ gives of it: Whether it be that the Virtue of those ancient Plants from whence it flows, be weakned by Age, or from any other Cause; this I know for certain, that it trickles down from Shrubs in the _Mattarcan Gardens_ near _Cairo_.