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Seed Thoughts

by Joseph Caryl

There is a work which few men possess, and which we are assured that no man alive ever ventured to read through. It is in two mighty folios, containing together between four thousand and five thousand pages of closely-printed matter, in double column. The grandfathers of our grandfathers liked to write such books, and even liked to read them. With patient diligence the author returned from day to day during half a life to his task, slowly building, brick by brick, the vast monument of his industry, his learning, his fame, and, it may be, sometimes of his folly.All this work is upon the Book of Job, whose patience the author seemed bent on affording the world an opportunity of exemplifying. It is by Joseph Caryl, "sometimes preacher to the honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, and more lately of St. Magnus, near London Bridge." It was published in 1672, " Printed by Samuel Simmons, and to be sold at his house, next door to the Golden Lion, in Aldergate street."This vast work is too volum