likewise in all other things diligent industrious talkative and namely inclined to making of verses and chanting songs as much or rather more than any other passion which can enter into the heart of man THE SIXTH QUESTION Whether king Alexander of Macedonie were a great drinker THere was some speech upon a time as touching king Alexander the Great to this effect That he dranke not so much as sat long at his meat and passed the time away in devising and talking with his friends but Philinus shewed by certeine scroles papers and day-books of the said kings house that they who held that opinion knew not well what they said for that this particular instance was ordinarily and usually found in those records That such a day the king slept all day long upon his liberall drinking of wine yea and other-whiles it appeareth that he slept the morrow after likewise which is the reason that hee was not so forward in venerous matters nor given much to women though otherwise he was hastie quicke and couragious great arguments of an inward heat of bodie and it is to be seene upon record That his flesh yeelded from it and breathed a passing sweet smell insomuch as his shirts and other clothes were full of an aromaticall sent and savour as if they had bene perfumed which seemeth also to be an argument and signe of heat For we see that those be the hottest driest countries which bring foorth cynamon and frankincense according as Theophrastus saith That a sweet odour proceedeth of perfect concoction and digestion of humours namely when by naturall heat all superfluous moisture is quite chased and expelled And by all likelihood this was the principall cause that Callisthenes grew into disgrace and lost the kings favour for that he was unwilling to sup with him in regard that he would impose upon him to drinke so much For it is reported that upon a time the great boule or goblet surnamed Alexanders boule having passed round about the table thorowout untill it came to Callisthenes he refused it and put it backe saying withall I will not drinke in Alexander for to have need of Aesculapius And thus much was said then concerning king Alexanders much wine-bibbing Moreover king Mithridates he who warred against the Romans among other games of prise which hee exhibited ordeined one for those who could drinke best and eat most and by mens saying himselfe performed them both so well that he won the prize in the one and the other for he could eat and drinke more than any man living in his time by occasion whereof he was commonly surnamed Dionysus that is to say Bacchus But as touching the reason of this surname wee say it is an opinion rashly received for when hee was a very infant lying in the cradle the lightning caught the swadling clothes and set them on fire but never touched or hurt his body save onely that there remained a little marke of the fire upon his forehead which notwithstanding the haire did cover that it was not greatly seene so long as he was a childe againe when he was a man growen it chaunced that the lightning pierced into the bed chamber where he lay asleepe and for his owne person it was not so much as singed therewith but it blasted a quiver of arrowes that hung at his bed-side went through it and burnt the arrowes within which as the soothsaiers and wise men out of their learning did intepret signified that one day he should be puissant in archers and light armed men But most men affirme that hee gat his surname of Bacchus or Dionysus in regard of the resemblance and likenesse of such accidents of lightning and blasting as many times befall After these words passed they entred into a speech as touching great drinkers among whom was reckoned also one Heraclides a famous wrestler or champion whom the men of Alexandria in our fathers daies pleasantly called little Hercules This good fellow when he could not meet with a companion able to set foot to his and drinke with him continually used to invite some to breake their fast with him in a morning others to beare him company at dinner some he would bidde to supper and intreat others last of all to sit with him at his collation or banquet after supper now when the first were gone came in the second immediatly then you should have the third succeed them in place and no sooner were they departed but in steps the fourth crew without any interruption and he himselfe sat it out still and making no intermission was able to hold out with all and beare those fower repasts and refections one after another Among those who were familiarly acquainted with Drusus sonne to the emperour Tibetius a physician there was who in drinking would chalenge and defie all the world but observed it was by some that spied and looked neere unto him That to prevent drunkennesse he used to take alwaies five or sixe bitter almonds before every cuppe that he drunke and when he was once debarred of them and not suffered so to doe he was not able to beare his drinke nor resist the least headinesse and strength thereof And verily some there be who say that these almonds have an abstersive propertie to bite to clense and scoure the flesh in such sort as that they will take away the spottes and freckles of the visage by reason of which qualitie when they be taken afore drinke with their bitternesse they fret the pores of the skinne and leave the impression of a certeine biting behinde them by meanes whereof there ensueth a certaine revulsion downward from the head of those vapours which flie up thither and so evaporate away through the said pores But for mine owne part I am of this opinion rather that their bitternesse hath a vertue to dry up and spend humors which is the reason that of all vapours the bitter is most unpleasant and disagreeable to the taste for that indeed as Plato saith consuming moisture as it doth by meanes of the drinesse which it hath it doth unnaturally binde and draw in the little veines of the toong which of themselves be soft and spungeous after the same manner men use to restraine such wounds or ulcers which be moist with medicines or salves composed of bitter drougues according as the poet Homer testisieth in these verses A bitter roote he bruis'd with hands and laid upon the sore To take the anguish cleane away that it might ake no more And so applied when it was all paines were soone allaid The running ulcer dried anon and flux of bloud was staid He said well and truly of that which is in taste bitter That it hath a vertue propertie to drie And it should seeme also that the powders which women strew upon their bodies for to represse diaphoneticall and extraordinarie sweets be by nature bitter and astringent so forcible is their bitternesse to binde and restreine which being so great reason
and Aromaticall perfumes give a pleasant smell unto thred-bare and ragged clothes but contrariwise the rich robe of Anchyses yeelded from under it stincking matter and corrupt blood which as the Poet saith Ran downe by drops upon his cloke Of silke so fine and it did soke Even so with vertue any sort of life and all maner of living is pleasant void of sorow whereas contrariwise vice causeth those things which otherwise seemed great honourable and magnificent to be odious lothsome and unwelcome to those that have them if I say it be mingled therewith according to the testimonie of these vulgar verses This man who whiles he walkes abroad in street Or market place is ever happy thought No sooner sets within his owne house feet Thrice wretched but he is and not for nought His wife as master hath of all the power She bids commands she chides and fights ech hower And yet one may with ease be rid and divorced from such a curst and shrewd wife if he be a man in deed and not a bond-slave but for thine owne vice no meanes will serve to exempt thee from it It is not enough to command it to be gone by sending a little script or bill of divorcement and to thinke thereby to be delivered from troubles and so to live alone in quiet and repose For it cleaveth close within the ribbes it sticketh fast in the very bowels it dwelleth there both night and day It burneth thee yet fire-brand none is seene And hastneth age apace before thou weene A troublesome companion it is upon the way by reason of arrogancy and presumption a costly and sumptuous guest at the table for gluttonie and gourmandise an unpleasant and combersome bedfellow in the night in regard of thoughts cares and jelousies which breake the sleepe or trouble the same with fantasies For whiles men lie asleepe the bodie is at rest and repose but the minde all the while is disquieted and affrighted with fearefull dreames and tumultuous visions by reason of superstitious feare of the gods If that I sleepe when sorrowes me surprise Then fearefull dreames me kill before I rise saith one And euen so do other vices serve men to wit Envie Feare Wrath Wanton love and Vnbridled lust For in the day time vice looking out and composing it selfe somewhat unto others abroad is somewhat ashamed of herselfe and covereth her passions she giveth not herselfe wholly to her motions and perturbations but many times doth strive againe and make resistance but in sleepe being without the danger of lawes and the opinion of the world being farre remooved as it were from feare and shame then it setteth all lusts aworke then it quickeneth and raiseth up all leaudnesse and then it displaieth all lascivious wantonnesse It tempteth as Plato saith a man to have carnall dealing with his owne mother and to eat of forbidden and unlawfull meats there is no villanie that it forbeareth executing so far forth as it is able all abomination and hath the fruition thereof if it be but by illusions and fantasticall dreames which end not in any pleasure nor accomplishment of concupiscence but are powerfull onely to excite stirre and provoke still the fits of secret passions and maladies of a corrupt heart Wherein lieth then the pleasure and delight of sinne if it be so that in no place nor at any time it be void of pensivenesse care and griefe if it never have contentment but alwaies in molestation and trouble without repose As for carnall delights and fleshly pleasures the good complexion and sound constitution of an healthfull bodie giveth thereby meanes place opportunity and breeding But in the soule it is not possible that there should bee engendred anie mirth joy and contentment unlesse the first foundation be laied in peace of conscience and tranquillitie of spirit void of feare and enjoying a setled calme in all assurance and confidence without any shew of tempest toward For otherwise suppose that some hope doe smile upon a man or say that delight tickle a little the same anon is troubled and all the sport is marred by some carefull cogitation breaking forth like as the object and concurrence of one rocke troubleth and overthroweth all though the water and weather both be never so calme Now gather gold and spare not by heapes rake and scrape together masses of silver builde faire gallant and stately walking places replenish all thy house with slaves and a whole citie with debtours unlesse withall thou doe allay the passions of thy minde unlesse thou stay and appease thy insatiable lust and desire unlesse thou free and deliver thy selfe from all feare and carking cares thou dost as much as streine wine or make Ipocras for one that is sicke of a feaver give honie to a cholericke person diseased with the raging motion of choler offer meats and viands to those that be sicke of the stomachicall flux continuall laske ulceration of the guts and bloudy flix who neither take pleasure therein nor are the better but the woorse rather a great deale for them See you not how sicke folkes are offended and their stomacks rise at the most fine costly and deintiest meats that be offred unto them how they spit them forth againe and will none though they be forced upon them And yet afterwards when the bodie is reduced againe into good temperature when pure spirits and good fresh bloud is engendred and when the naturall heate is restored and become familiar and kind then they rise up on their feete to their meat then their stomacks serve to eate full savorly of course bread with cheese or cresses and therein they take great pleasure and contentment The like disposition in the minde doth reason worke Then and never before shalt thou be pleased and at peace with thy selfe when thou hast once learned what is good and honest indeed In povertie thou shalt live deliciously like a king or in a private and quiet state sequestred from civill and publike affaires thou shalt live as well as they who have the conduct of great armies and governe the common-weale When thou hast studied Philosophie and profited therein thou shalt never lead a life in discontentment but shalt learne how to away with any estate and course of life and therein find no small joy harts ease Thy riches thou wilt rejoice in because thou shalt have better meanes to do good unto all men In povertie likewise thou wilt take joy in regard thou shalt have fewer cares to trouble thee Glorie will turne to thy solace when thou shalt see thy selfe so honoured and thy low estate and obscure condition will be no lesse comsort for that thou shalt be safe and secured from envie THAT VERTVE MAY BE TAUGHT AND LEARNED The Summarie PLutarch refuting heere the error of those who are of opinion That by good and diligent instruction a man cannot become the better recommendeth sufficiently the studie of vertue And to proove this assertion of his he
to be afraid much more to do ill than to receive and sustaine harme for asmuch as the one is the cause of the other And this is a civill and generous feare proper and peculiar to a good prince namely to be afraid lest his subjects should ere he be aware take wrong or be hurt any way Much like as dogs that be of gentle kinde Who watchfully about the folds attend In case they once by subtill hearing finde A savage beast approch and thit her tend feare not for themselves but in regard of the cattell which they keepe In like maner Epaminondas when the Thebanes fell dissolutely to drinke and make good cheere at a certeine festivall time himselfe went all alone to survey the armour and wals of the citie saying That he would fast and watch that all the rest might quaffe the while and sleepe with more securitie Cato likewise at Utica proclaimed by sound of trumpet to send away by sea all those who escaped alive upon the overthrow which there hapned and when he had embarqued them all and made his praiers unto the gods to vouchsafe them a bon voiage he returned into his owne lodging and killed himselfe shewing by this example what a prince or commander ought to feare and what he should contemne and despise Contrariwise Clearchus the tyrant of Pontus shutting himselfe within a chest slept there as a serpent within her hole and Aristodemus the tyrant of Argos went up into a hanging chamber aloft which had a trap dore whereupon he caused a little bed or pallet to be set and there he slept and lay with his concubine and harlot which hee kept and when he was gotten up thither the mother of the said concubine came ordinarily to take downe the ladder and brought it thither againe every morning How thinke you did this tyrant tremble for feare when he was in a frequent theater in the palace in the counsell house and court of justice or at a feast considering that he made a prison of his bed chamber To say a verie truth good princes are afraid for their subjects sake but tyrants feare their subjects and therefore as they augment their puissance so doe they encrease their owne feare for the more persons that they commaund and rule over the greater number they stand in dread of for it is neither probable nor seemely as some philosophers affirme That God is invisibly subsistent and mixed within the first and principall matter which suffreth all things receiveth a thousand constreints and adventures yea and is subject to innumerable changes and alterations but hee sitteth in regard of us above and there is resiant continually in a nature alwaies one and ever in the same estate feated upon holy foundations as Plato saith where he infuseth his power and goeth through all working and finishing that which is right according to nature and like as the sunne in heaven the most goodly and beautifull image of him is to be seene by the reflexion of a mirror by those who otherwise can not endure to behold himselfe as he is even so God ordeineth in cities and societies of men another image of his and that is the light of justice and reason accompanying the same which wise and blessed men describe and depaint out of sentences philosophicall conforming and framing themselves to that which is the fairest and most beautifull thing in the world and nothing is there that doth imprint in the soules and spirits of men such a disposition as reason drawne and learned out of philosophie to the end that the same should not befall unto us which king Alexander the great did who having seene in Corinth Diogenes how generous he was esteemed highly and admired the haughtie courage magnanimitie of the man insomuch as he brake foorth into these words Were I not Alexander surely I would be Diogenes which was al one in maner as if he should have said That he was troubled encombred with his wealth riches glory and puissance as impeachments and hinderances of vertue and bare an envious and jealous eie to the homely course cloke of the philosopher to his bagge and wallet as if by them alone Diogenes was invincible and impregnable and not as himselfe by the meanes of armes harnish horses speares and pikes for surely he might with governing himselfe by true philosophicall reason have beene of the disposition and affection of Diogenes and yet continue neverthelesse in the state and fortune of Alexander and so much the rather be Diogenes because he was Alexander as having need against great fortune like a tempest raised with boisterous winds and full of surging waves of a stronger cable and anchor of a greater helme also and a better pilot for in meane persons who are of low estate and whose puissance is small such as private men be follie is harmelesse and sottish though such be yet they doe no great hurt because their might is not answerable thereto like as it falleth out in foolish and vaine dreames there is a certeine griefe I wot not what which troubleth and disordereth the mind being not able to compasse bring about the execution of her desires lusts but where might malice are met together their power addeth folly unto passion affections most true is that speech of Denys the tyrant who was wont to say That the greatest pleasure contentment which he enjoied by his tyranny was this that whatsoever he would was quickly done presently executed according to that verse in Homer No sooner out of mouth the word was gone But presently withall the thing was done A dangerous matter it is for a man to will and desire that which he ought not being not able to performe that which hee willeth and desireth whereas malicious mischiefe making a swife course through the race of puissance and might driveth and thrusteth forward every violent passion to the extremitie making choler and anger to turne to murder love to proove adultery and avarice to growe into confiscation of goods for no sooner is the word spoken but the partie once in suspition is undone for ever and presently upon the least surmise and imputation ensueth death But as the naturall philosophers do hold that the lightning is shot out of the cloud after the clap of thunder like as bloud issueth after the wound is given and incision made and yet the said lightning is seene before for that the eare receiveth the sound or cracke by degrees whereas the eie meeteth at once with the flash even so in these great rulers and commanders punishments oftentimes go before accusations and sentences of condemnation before evident proofes For wrath in such may not long time endure No more than flouke of anchor can assure A ship in storme which taketh slender hold On sand by shore whereof none may be bold unlesse the weight of reason doe represse and keepe downe licentious power whiles a Prince or great Lord doth after the manner of
good and fit a time appeased the tumult and repressed the sedition and insurrection that was like to grow For like as a learned and expert physician after hee hath taken away a great quantitie of corrupt blood from his patient giveth him anon some little nourishment that is good and holsome even so a discreet and well advised ruler of a popular State when he hath put the people by some great matter which tended to their shame and losse will againe by some light gratuitie and pleasure which he is content to graunt cheere and recomfort them yea and allay their moode when they bee readie to whine and complaine And otherwhiles good pollicie it is of purpose to withdraw them from some foolerie unto which without all sense and reason their minde and affection standeth to draw and leade them unto other things that be good and profitable like as Demades his practise was at what time as he had the receit of all the revenues of the citie under his hands for when the people of Athens were fully bent to send foorth certeing gallies for to succour those who had taken armes and rebelled against Alexander the great and to that effect commaunded him to disburse money for the charges hee made this speech unto them My masters there is money ready for you for I have provided so that I purpose to deale among you at this feast of Bacchanales that everie one of you may have halfe a Mua of silver now if you list to employ the fame money to the setting out of a fleet you may doe what pleaseth you with your owne use it or abuse it at your pleasure it is all one to mee by this cunning device having turned them from the rigging and manning of the armado which they purposed to set out and all for feare they should lose the benefit of the foresaid dole or largesse which hee promised and pretended he staied them from offending king Alexander that he had no cause to finde himselfe greeved with them Many such fits and humors are the people given unto both hurtfull and dammageable unto them which it were impossible to breake them of going directly to worke but a man must go about with them by turnings windings compasse them to his mind like as Phocion did upon a time when the Athenians would have had him in al haste to make a road invade the countrey of Boeotia for he caused incontinently proclamation to be made by sound of trumpet That all citizens from fourteene yeeres of age upward unto threescore should shew themselves in armes and follow him upon which proclamation when there arose a great noise and stirre among the elder sort who began to mutine for that he woulde force them at those yeeres to the warres What a strange matter sirs is this quoth he I my selfe am fourescore yeeres of age and you shall have me with you for your captaine By this meanes a politicke governour may put by and breake the ranke of many unseasonable and needlesse embassages namely by joining many of them in commission together and those whom he seeth to be unfit altogether for such voiages thus may he stay the enterprises of going in hand with many great buildings unnecessary and to no purpose in commanding them at such times to contribute money thereto out of their owne purses also hinder the processe of many uncivill and undecent sures namely by assigning one and the same time for apparance in court and for to be emploied in solliciting causes abroad in forren parts for to bring these things about he must draw and associate unto him those principall authors who have drawne out in writing any such bils to be proposed or have incited the people and put those matters in their heads and to them he shall intimate those crosse courses abovesaid for either if they start backe and keepe out of the way they shall seeme themselves to breake that which they proposed or if they accept thereof and be present they shall be sure to take part of the trouble and paines that is imposed upon them Now when there shall be question of any exploit to be done of great consequence and tending much to the good of the State which requireth no small travell industrie and diligence then have a speciall regard and endevour I advise you to chuse those friends of yours who are of most sufficiencie and of greatest authoritie and those among the rest which are of the mildest and best nature for such you may be sure will crosse you least and assist you most so long as they have wit at will and be withall voide of jealousie and contention And heerein it behooveth a man to know wel his owne nature and finding that whereunto he is lesse apt than an other to chuse for his adjuncts those rather whō he perceiveth to be better able to go through with the businesse in hand than such as otherwise be like unto himselfe for so Diomedes being deputed to go in espiall for to view the campe of the enimies chose for his cōpanion the wariest best advised person of all the Greeks let passe the most valiant souldiours By this meanes all actions shall be counterpoised best lesse jealousie and emulation will grow betweene them who are desirous to have their good parts valor seeme indifferent in vertues qualities If you have a cause to plead or be to go in embassage chuse for your companion assistant if you find your selfe not meet to speak some man that is eloquent like as Pelopidas in the like case chose Epaminondas If you thinke your selfe unmeet to enterteine the common people with courtesie affability and of too high and loftie a minde for to debase your selfe and make court unto them as Callicratidas the captaine of the Lacedemonians was take one unto you who is gracious and can skill to court it and give enterteinment If your bodie be weake or feeble and not able to endure much paines have one with you who hath a stronger bodie and who can away with travell as Nicias did Lamachus For this is the reason that Geryones was so woonderfull because that having many legs many armes and many eies yet hee with all them was ruled and governed by one soule But wise governors if they accord and agree well may conferre and lay together not onely their bodies and goods but also their fortunes their credits and their vertues and make use of them all in one affaire in such sort that they shall compasse and execute fully whatsoever they enterprise much better than any other whatsoever and not as the Argonautes did who after they had left Hercules were constrained to have recourse unto the charmes sorceries and enchantments of women for to save themselves and to steale away the golden fleece Certeine temples there be into which whosoever did enter must leave without doores all the gold that they had about them and as for iron they
downeward but dispersed and spread in largenesse and breadth gave libertie for the bodies to shoot up waxe tall and personable yea and made them more faire and beautifull for that the habitudes and complexions which be slender lanke and emptie are more obsequent unto that naturall vertue and facultie which giveth forme and fashion to the limmes whereas those who be corpulent grosse ful and given to much feeding by reason of weight and heavines resist the same They set their minds also to compose and make proper ditties and ballads yea and no lesse studious are they to sing the same having alwaies in these their compositions a certaine pricke or sting as it were to stir up and provoke their courage and stomacke to enspire also into the hearts of the hearers a considerate resolution and an ardent zeale and affection to doe some brave deed the ditties were plaine simple and without all affectation containing in manner nothing else but the praises of those who had lived vertuously and died valiantly in the warres for the defense of Sparta as being of all others most happie as also the blame and reproch of such as for cowardise and faint-heart were affraid to die whom they accounted to live a wretched and miserable life Moreover they stood much upon promises of future prowesse or vanteries of present valour according to the diversitie of their ages who chanted the said songs for alwaies in their solemne and publike feasts three quiers or dances there were one of old folke and the foreburthen of their canticle was this The time was when we gallant weare Youthfull and hardy void of feare Next to it came in place a daunce of men in their best age and full strength who answered them in this wise But we are come to proose and now at best Try who that 〈◊〉 to fight we are now prest And a third followed after of children who chaunted thus And we one day shall be both tall and strong Surpassing far if that we live so long Now their very notes and tunes to the measures and numbers whereto they daunced and marched in battell against their enemies after the sound of the flute were appropriate and sitted to incite their hearts to valour confident securitie and contempt of death for Lycurgus did study and endevor to joyne the exercise practise of militarie discipline with the pleasure of musick to the end that warlike and vehement motions being mingled and delaied with sweet melodie might be tempered with a delectable accord and harmonie and therefore in battels before the charge and first shock of the conflict their king was woont to sacrifice unto the Muses for this entent that the soldiers in fight might have the grace to performe some glorious and memorable exploits But if any man passed one point beyond this ancient musicke they would not endure him insomuch as the Ephori set a fine upon the head of Terpander though otherwise he loved antiquitie well enough and was the best harper in his time yea tooke greatest delight to praise the heroick acts of the renowmed woorthies in times past and more than that they hung up his harp upon a stake or post onely because he had set to it one string more than ordinarie whereby he might varie his voice the better with more sundry notes for they allowed no songs nor sonets but such as were plaine and simple and when Timotheus at the feast Carneia plaied upon the harpe for to winne the prize one of the Ephori taking a skeine or knife in his hand asked him on whether side either above or beneath he would rather have him to cut a two the strings which were more than seven Moreover Lycurgus tooke from them al vaine superstitious feare as touching sepulchers permitting them to burie their dead within the citie and to reare their mounments and tombs round about the temples of their gods he cut off likewise all pollutions of mortuaries and would not give them leave to enterre any thing with the corps but onely to enwrap the same within a winding sheet of red cloth together with olive leaves strewed among and the same indifferently to all bodies no more to one than another semblably he put downe all epitaphes and superscriptions upon graves unlesse it were for such as lost their lives in battell forbidding all mourning and dolefull lamentations Furthermore it was unlawfull for them to make voiages into strange countries for feare they should learne forrein fashions and uncivill maners savouring of no good bringing up and for the same reason Lycurgus banished aliens out of the citie lest if they should thither resort by reason of their confluence they might teach and shew the citizens their vices And as for citizens borne any of them would not suffer their children to be brought up according to the discipline and institution of the citie they might not enjoy the rights and privileges of free burgessie Some say also that Lycurgus ordained If a very alien would yeeld to the observation of his discipline and be ranged under the policie of the State he might enjoy one of those portions which from the beginning was set out and appointed but he was not allowed to sell the same The maner and custome was in Lacedaemon to make use of their neighbours servants even as well as of their owne whensoever they had any businesse or occasion to employ them as also to make bold with their horses and hounds unlesse the owners themselves and masters had present need of them In the countrey also and territorie of Laconia if they stood in need of any thing that was in their neighbours house they would goe boldly and aske no leave to their cupboords presses coffers and such places where the thing was make no more adoo but open them take out and carie away whatsoever they thought good so they made fast and shut againe the roome out of which they had taken ought To warfare they went in red liveries both for that they thought this colour more decent for a man as also because it resembled bloud it strucke the greater feare into those who were not used thereto besides there was good use and profit thereof in this respect that if any of them hapned to be wounded the enemie could not so perceive it because that colour looked so like unto bloud Whensoever they had vanquished their enemies by some stratagem that their captaines used their maner was to sacrifice an oxe unto Mars but if they got a victorie by fine force open manhood they sacrificed a cock by which meanes they occasioned their leaders to be not onely valiant but also politicke warriors Among other praiers that they made unto the gods this was ever one That they might have the power and grace to beare wrongs but the sunme of all their supplications was this That the gods would vouchsafe them honour for wel doing no more They 〈◊〉 the goddesse Venus in her complet armor
us unskilfull as we are and void of art a fantasticall knowledge grounded onely upon some light opinion and conjecture of our owne as if we were right cunning workemen and artisanes for it is not his part who is not studied in the arte of Physick to gesse at the reason and consideration that the physician or chirurgian had why he made incision no sooner in his patient but staied long ere he proceeded thereto or wherfore he bathed him not yesterday but to day semblably it is neither easie nor safe for a mortall man to speake otherwise of the gods than of those who knew well enough the due time and opportunitie to minister a meet and convenient medicine unto vice and sinne and exhibit punishment to every trespasse as an appropriate drouge or confection to cure and heale ech maladie notwithstanding that the same measure and quantitie be not common to all delinquents nor one onely time and the same is alwaies meet therefore Now that the physicke or medicine of the soule which is called Right and Justice is one of the greatest sciences that are Pindarus himselfe besides an infinit number of others beareth witnesse when he calleth the Lord and governour of the world to wit God a most excellent and perfect artificer as being the author and creatour of justice unto whom it appertaineth to define and determine when in what manner and how far foorth it is meet and reasonable to chastice and punish each offender Plato likewise saith That Minos the sonne of Jupiter was in this science the disciple of his father giving us heereby to understand that it is not possible for one to carie himselfe well in the execution of justice nor to judge a right of him that doth as he ought unlesse he have before learned that science and be throughly skilfull therein Furthermore the positive lawes which men have established seeme not alwaies to be grounded upon reason or to sound and accord in all respects with absolute equitie and justice but some of their ordinances be such as in outward appearance may be thought ridiculous and woorthy of mockerie as for example At Lacedaemon the high controllers called Ephori so soone as they be enstalled in their magistracie cause proclamation to be published by sound of trumpet that no man should weare mustaches or nourish the haire on their upper lips also that willingly every man should obey the lawes to the end that they might not be hard or grievous unto them The Romans also when they affranchise any slave and make him free cast upon their bodies a little small rodde or wande likewise when they draw their last wils or testaments institute some for their heires whom it pleaseth them but to others they leave their goods to sell a thing that carieth no sense nor reason with it But yet more absurd and unreasonable is that statute of Solons making wherein it was provided That what citizen soever in a civill sedition ranged not himselfe to a side nor tooke part with one or other faction should be noted with infamie and disabled for being capable of any honorable dignitie In one word a man may alledge an infinit number of absurdities besides contained in the civill lawes who neither knoweth the reason of the lawgiver that wrot them nor the cause why they were set downe If then it be so difficult to conceive and understand the reasons which have mooved men thus to doe is it any marvell that we are ignorant of the cause why God chastiseth one man sooner and another later howbeit this that I have said is not for any pretence of starting backe and running away but rather for to crave leave and pardon to the end that our speech having an eie thereto as unto an haven and place of refuge might be the more hardie with boldnesse to raunge foorth still in probabilities to the matter in doubt and question But I would have you to consider first that according to the saying of Plato God having set himselfe before the eies of the whole world as a perfect pattern and example of all goodnesse doth unto as many as can follow and imitate his divinitie infuse humane vertue which is in some sort conformable and like unto him for the generall nature of this universall world being at the first a confused and disordered Chaos obtained this principle and element for to change to the better and by some conformitie and participation of the Idea of divine vertue to become this beautifull frame of the world And even the verie same man saith moreover That nature hath raised our eie-sight on high and lightned the same that by the view and admiration of those celestiall bodies which moove in heaven our soule might learne to embrace and be accustomed to love that which is beautifull and in good order as also to be an enemie unto irregular and inordinate passions yea and to avoid doing of things rashly and at adventure which in truth is the very source of all vice and sinne for there is nothing in the world wherein a man may have a greater fruition of God than by the example and imitation of his good and decent qualities to become honest and vertuous wherefore if we perceive him to proceed slowly and in tract of time to lay his heavie hand upon the wicked and to punish them it is not for any doubt or feare that he should doe amisse or repent afterward if he chasticed them sooner but by waining us from all beastly violence hastinesse in our punishments to teach us not immediately to flie upon those who have offended us at what time as our bloud is most up and our choler set on a light fire When furious yre in hart so leapes and boiles That wit and reason beare no sway the whiles making haste as it were to satisfie some great hunger or quench exceeding thirst but by imitating his clemencie and his maner of prolonging and making delay to endevor for to execute justice in all order at good leisure and with most carefull regard taking to counsell Time which seldome or never is accompanied with repentance for as Socrates was wont to say Lesse harme and danger there is if a man meet with troubled and muddie water and intemperately take and drinke thereof than whiles his reason is confounded corrupt and full of choler and furious rage to be set altogether upon revenge and runne hastily vpon the punishment of another bodie even one who is of his owne kinde and nature before the same reason be setled againe clensed and fully purified For it is nothing so as Thucydides writeth That vengeance the neerer it is unto the offence the more it is in the owne kind but cleane contrary the farther off it is and longer delaied the better it apprehendeth and judgeth of that which is fit and decent For according as Melanthius saith When anger once dislodged hath the wit Foule worke it makes and outrage doth commit even so reason performeth
hanging which must strangle them for other wise we might aswell say that 〈◊〉 condemned to die suffer no punishment all the whiles they lie in hard and colde yrons nor untill the executioner come and strike the head from the shoulders or that he who by sentence of the judges hath drunke the deadly potion of hemlocke is not punished because he walketh stil and goeth up and downe alive waiting untill his legs become heavie before the generall colde and congelation surprise him and extinguish both sense and vitall spirits in case it were so that we esteeme and call by the name of punishment nothing but the last point and extremity thereof letting passe and making no reckoning at all of the passions feares painfull pangues expectance of death pricks and sorrowes of a penitent conscience wherewith every wicked person is troubled and tormented for this were as much as to say that the fish which hath swallowed downe the hooke is not caught untill we see the said fish cut in pieces or broiled roasted and sodden by the cooke Certes every naughty person is presently become prisoner unto justice so soone as he hath once committed a sinfull act and swallowed the hooke together with the bait of sweetnesse and pleasure which he taketh in leaudnesse and wrongfull doing but when the remorse of conscience imprinted in him doth pricke he feeleth the very torments of hell and can not rest But as in sea the Tuny fish doth swiftly crosse the waves And travers still while tempest lasts so he with anguish raves For this audacious rashnesse and violent insolence proper unto vice is verie puissant forward and readie at hand to the effecting and execution of sinfull acts but afterwards when the passion like unto a winde is laied and beginnes to faile it becommeth weake base and feeble subject to an infinite number of feares and superstitions in such sort as that Stesichorus the Poet seemeth to have devised the dreame of queene Clytemnestra very conformable to the trueth and answerable to our daily experience when he bringeth her in speaking in this maner Me thought I saw a dragon come apace Whose crest aloft on head with bloud was stein'd With that anon there did appeare in place Plisthenides the king who that time reign'd For the visions by night in dreames the fantasticall apparitions in the day time the answers of oracles the prodigious signes from heaven and in one word whatsoever men think to be done immediately by the will and finger of God are woont to strike great troubles and horrors into such persons so affected and whose consciences are burdened with the guilt and privitie of sinne Thus the report goeth of Apollodorus that he dreamed upon a time how he saw himselfe first flaied by the Scythians then cut as small as flesh to the pot and so boiled he thought also that his heart spake softly frō out of the cauldron and uttered these words I am the cause of all these thy evils and againe he imagined in his sleepe that his own daughters all burning on a light flaming fire ran round about him in a circle Semblably Hipparchus the sonne of Pisistratus a little before his death dreamed that Venus out of a certaine viall sprinkled bloud upon his face The familiar friends likewise of king Ptolomaeus surnamed Ceraunos that is to say Lightning thought verily in a dreame that they saw Seleucus accuse and indite him judicially before wilde wolves and greedie geires that were his judges where he dealt and distribued a great quantitie of flesh among his enemies Pausanias also at Bizantium sent for Cleonice a virgin and gentlewoman free borne of a worshipfull house intending perforce to lie with her all night and abuse her body but being halfe a sleepe when she came to his bed he awakened in a fright and suspecting that some enemies were about to surprise him killed her outright whereupon ever after he dreamt ordinarily that he saw her and heard her pronounce this speech To judgement seat approch thou neere I say Wrong dealing is to men most hurtfull ay Now when this vision as it should seeme ceased not to appeere unto him night by night he embarked and sailed into Heraclea to a place where the spirits and ghosts of those that are departed be raised and called up where after he had offered certaine propitiatorie sacrifices and powred foorth funerall effusions which they use to cast upon the tombes of the dead he wrought so effectually that the ghost of Cleonice appeared and then she said unto him that so soone as he was arrived at Lacedaemon he should have repose and an end of all his troubles and so in very truth no sooner was he thither come but he ended his life and died If therefore the soule had no sense after it is departed out of the bodie but commeth to nothing and that death were the finall end and expiration aswell of thankefull recompenses as of painfull punishments a man might say of wicked persons who are quickly punished and die soone after that they have committed any misdeeds that God dealeth very gently and mildly with them For if continuance of time and long life bringeth to wicked persons no other harme yet a man may at leastwise say thus much of them that having knowne by proofe and found by experience that injustice is an unfrutefull barren and thanklesse thing bringing foorth no good thing at all nor ought that deserveth to be esteemed after many travels and much paines taken with it yet the verie feeling and remorse of conscience for their sinnes disquieteth and troubleth the mind and turneth it upside downe Thus we reade of king Lysmachus that being forced through extreame thirst he delivered his owne person and his whole armie into the hands of the Getes and when being their prisoner hee had drunke and quenched his thirst he said thus O what a miseric is this and wretched case of mine that for so short and transitorie a pleasure I have deprived my selfe of so great a kingdome and all my roiall estate True it is that of all things it is an exceeding hard matter to resist the necessitie of a naturall passion but when as a man for covetousnesse of money or desire of glorie authoritie credit among his countrimen and fellow-citizens or for fleshly pleasures falleth to commit a foule wicked and execrable fact and then afterwards in time when as the ardent thirst and furious heat of his passion is past seeing that there abide and continue with him the filthy shamefull and perilous perturbations onely of injustice and sinfulnesse but nothing at all that is profitable necessarie or delightsome is it not very likely and probable that he shall eftsoones and oftentimes recall into this thought and consideration how being seduced and caried away by the meanes of vain-glory or dishonest pleasures things base vile and illiberall he hath perverted and overthrowen the most beautifull and excellent gifts that men have to wit right
voiages or pastimes as they deprive us of our pleasures yea and marre them quite and therefore they who love their delights and pleasures most had least need of any men in the world to neglect their health For many there be who for all they be sicke have meanes to studie philosophy and discourse thereof neither doth their sicknesse greatly hinder them but that they may be generals in the sield to leade armies yea and kings beleeve me to governe whole realmes But of bodily pleasures and fleshly delights some there be which during a maladie will never breed and such as are bred already yeeld but a small joy and short contentment which is proper and naturall unto them and the same not pure and sincere but confused depraved and corrupted with much strange stuffe yea and disguised and blemished as it were with some storme and tempest for the act of Venus is not to any purpose performed upon gourmandise and a full belly but rather when the bodie is calme and the flesh in great tranquillity for that the end of Venus is pleasure like as of eating also and of drinking and health unto pleasures is as much as their faire weather and kinde season which giveth them secure and gentle breeding much like as the calme time in winter affoords the sea-fowles called Alcyones a safe cooving sitting and hatching of their egges Prodicus is commended for this pretie speech That sire was the best sauce and a man may most truely say That health is of all sauces must divine heavenly and pleasant for our viands how delicate soever they be boiled rosted baked or stewed doe no pleasure at all unto us so long as wee are diseased drunken full of surfet or queasie stomacked as they be who are sea-sicke whereas a pure and cleane appetite causeth all things to be sweet pleasant and agreeable unto sound bodies yea and such as they will be ready to snatch at as Homer saith But like as Demades the oratour seeing the Athenians without all reason desirous of armes and warre said unto them That they never treated and agreed of peace but in their blacke robes after the losse of kinsfolke and friends even so wee never remember to keepe a spary and sober diet but when we come to be cauterized or to have cataplasmes and plasters about us we are no sooner fallen to those extremities but then we are ready to condemne our faults calling to minde what errours we have committed in times past for untill then we blame one while the aire as most men doe another while the region or countrey as unsound and unholsome we finde fault that we are out of our native soile and are woonderfull loth to accuse our owne intemperance and disordinate appetites And as king Lisymachus being constreined and enforced within the country of the Getes for very thirst to yeeld himselfe prisoner and al his armie captivate unto his enemies after he had taken a draught of cold water said Good God what a great felicitie have I forgone and lost for a momentarie and transitory pleasure even so we may make use thereof and apply the same unto our selves when wee are sicke saying thus How many delights have we marred quite how many good actions have we fore-let what honest pastimes have we lost and all by our drinking of cold water or bathing unseasonably or else for that we have over-drunke our selves for good fellowship for the bite sting of such thoughts as these toucheth our remēbrance to the quicke in such sort as the scarre remaineth still behind after that we are recovered and maketh us in time of our health more staied circumspect and sober in our diet for a bodie that is exceeding sound and healthy never bringeth foorth vehement desires and disordinate appetites hardly to be tamed or with stood but we ought to make head against them when they beginne to breake soorth and 〈◊〉 out for to enjoy the pleasures which they are affected unto for such lusts some complaine pule and crie for a little as wanton children doe and no sooner is the table taken awaie but they be quiet and still neither finde they fault and make complaint of any wrong or injurie offred unto them but contrariwise they be pure jocund and lightsome not continuing heavie nor readie to heave and cast the next day to an end like as by report captaine Timotheus having upon a time beene at a sober and frugall scholars supper in the academie with Plato said That they who supped with Plato were merry and well appaied the next day after It is reported also that king Alexander the Great when he turned backe those cooks which queene 〈◊〉 sent unto him said That he had about him all the yeere long better of his owne namely for his breakfast or dinner rising betimes and marching before day light and for his supper eating little at dinner I am not ignorant that men otherwhiles are very apt to fall into an ague upon extreme travell upon excessive heats also and colds but like as the odors and sents of 〈◊〉 he weak seeble of themselves whereas if they be mixed with some oile they take force 〈◊〉 even so fulnesse and repletion is the ground which giveth as a man would say bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the outward causes and occasions of maladies and of a great quantity of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humours there is no danger because all such indispositions and crudities are soone 〈◊〉 dissipated and dissolved when some fine or subtill bloud when some pure spirit I 〈◊〉 their motion but where there is a great repletion indeed and abundance of 〈◊〉 as it were a deepe and mirie puddle all troubled and stirred then there arise from 〈◊〉 many maligne accidents such as be dangerous and hard to cure and therefore we are 〈◊〉 to doe like some good masters of ships who never thinke their vessels bee fully fraught and charged throughly and when they have taken in all that ever they can doe nothing else but worke at the pumpe void the sinke and cast out the sea water which is gotten in even so when we have well filled and stuffed our bodies fall to purge and cleanse them with medicines and 〈◊〉 but we ought rather to keepe the bodie alwaies neat nimble and light to the end that if it chaunce otherwise at any time to be pressed and held downe it might be seene above for lightnesse like unto a piece of corke floting aloft upon the water but principally we are to beware of the very 〈◊〉 indispositions which are forerunners of maladies for all diseases walke not as Hesicdus saith in silence and say nothing when they come As whom wise Jupiter hath berest Of voice and toong to them none left But the most part of thē have their vant-curreurs as it were their messengers trumpets namely crudities of stomack wearinesse and heavinesse over all the bodie According to the 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates lassitudes and laborious heavinesse of the bodie comming
truth that whatsoever is more frutefull and apter for generation is also more hot certeine it is that yoong maidens be ripe betimes readier for marriage yea and their flesh pricketh sooner to the act of generation than boies of their age neither is this a small and feeble argument of their heat but for a greater and more pregnant proofe thereof marke how they endure very well any chilling cold and the injurie of winter season for the most part of them lesse quake for cold than men doe and generally need not so many clothes to weare Heereat Florus began to argue against him and said In my conceit these very arguments will serve well to confute the said opinion for to beginne with the last first the reason why they withstand cold better than men is because every thing is lesse offended with the like besides their seed is not apt for generation in regard of their coldnesse but serveth in stead of matter onely and yeeldeth nourishment unto the naturall seed of man Moreover women sooner give over to conceive and cease child-bearing than men to beget children and as for the burning of their dead bodies they catch fire sooner I confesse but that is by reason that commonly they be fatter than men and who knoweth not that fatte and grease is the coldest part of the bodie which is the cause that yoongmen and those that use much bodily exercise are least fatte of all others neither is their monthly sicknesse voidance of bloud a signe of the great quantity and abundance but rather of the corrupt qualitie and badnesse thereof for the crude and unconcocted part of their bloud being superfluous and finding no place to settle and rest nor to gather consistence within the bodie by reason of weaknesse passeth away as being heavy and troubled altogether for default and imbecillitie of heat to overcome it and this appeereth manisestly by this that ordinarily when their monthly sicknesse is upon them they are very chill shake for cold for that the bloud which then is stirred and in motion ready to be discharged out of the bodie is so raw and cold To come now unto the smoothnesse of their skinne and that it is not hairie who would ever say that this were an effect of heat considering that we see the hottest parts of mans bodie to be covered with haire for surely all superfluities and excrements are sent out by heat which also maketh way boring as it were holes through the skinne and opening the passages in the superficies thereof But contrariwise wee may reason that the sliecknesse of womens skinne is occasioned by coldnesse whilch doth constipate and close the pores thereof Now that womens skinne is more fast and close than mens you may learne and understand by them friend Athryilatus who use to lie in bedde with women that annoint their bodies with sweet oiles or odoriferous compositions for even with sleeping in the same bed with them although they came not so neere as to touch the women they finde themselves all perfumed by reason that their owne bodies which be hot rare and open doe draw the said ointments or oiles into them Well by this meanes quoth he this question as touching women hath beene debated pro contrà by opposit arguments right manfully THE FIFTH QUESTION Whether wine be naturally cold of operation But I would now gladly know quoth Florus still whereupon your conjecture and suspicion should arise that wine is cold of nature why And doe you thinke quoth I that this in an opinion of mine Whose then quoth the other I remember quoth I that not of late but long agoe I light upon a discourse of Aristotle as touching this probleme and Epicurus himselfe in his Symposium or banquet hath discussed the question at large the summe of which disputation as I take it is thus much For he saith that wine is not simplie of it selfe hot but that it conteineth in it certeine atomies or indivisible motes causing heat and others likewise that engender cold of which some it casteth off and loseth when it is entred into the bodie others it taketh unto it from the very bodie it selfe wherein it is according as the same petie bodies be of nature and temperature fitted and agreeable unto us in such sort as some when they be drunke with wine are well heat others againe contrariwise be as cold These reasons replied Florus directly bring us by Protagoras into the campe of Pyrrho where we shall meet with nothing but incertitude and be still to seeke and as wise as we were before for plaine it is that in speaking of oile milke honie and likewise of all other things we shall never grow to any particular resolution of them what nature they bee of but still have some evasion or other saying That they become such according as ech of them is mixed and tempered one with another But what be the arguments that your selfe alledge to prove that wine is cold Thus I see well quoth I that there be two of you at once who presse and urge mee to deliver my mind extempore and of a sudden the first reason then that commeth into my head is this which I see ordinarily practised by physicians upon those who have weake stomacks for when they are to corroborate and sortifie that part they perscribe not any thing that is hot but if they give them wine they have present ease and helpe thereby semblablie they represse fluxes of the belly yea and when the bodie runneth all to diaphoreticall sweats which they effect by the meanes of wine no lesse nay much more than by applying snow confirming and strengthening thereby the habit of the bodie which otherwise was ready to melt away and resolve now if it had a nature and facultie to heat it were all one to applie unto the region of the heart as fire unto snow furthermore most physicians do hold that sleepe is procured by cooling and the most part of soporiferous medicines which provoke sleepe be cold as for example Mandragoras and poppie Juice but these I must needs confesse with great force and violence doe compresse and as it were congeale the braine to worke that effect whereas wine cooling the same gently with ease and pleasure represeth and staieth the motion thereof so that the difference onely betweene it and the other is but in degree according to more and lesse Over and besides whatsoever is hot is also generative and apt to ingender seed for howsoever humiditie giveth it an aptitude to run and flow it is spirit by the meanes of heat that endueth it with vigor strength yea and an appetite to generation now they that drinke much wine especially if it be pure of it selfe and not delaied are more dull and slow to the act of generation and the seed which they sow is not effectuall nor of any force and vigor to ingender their medling also and conjunction with women is vaine and doth no
dust IS it not as I said before because wheat is able to overcome more nourishment but barley can not endure much moisture to drench and drowne it Or in this respect that wheat being a stiffe and hard kinde of graine resembling the nature of wood doth sooner come and chit within the ground in case it be well soked and softened with moisture and therefore liketh better of a wet ground whereas the drier soile at the first sowing agreeth better with barley and is more commodious for it being as it is a more loose and spungeous kinde of graine Or because such a temperature of the ground in regard of the heat is more proportionable and lesse hurtfull unto barley being as it is the colder graine Or rather husbandmen are affraid to thrash their wheat upon a dry and sandy floore because of ants for soone will they take to that kind of graine in such a place As for barley they use lesse to beare it because the cornes thereof be hard to be caried and recaried from one place to another they are so bigge 17 What is the cause that fishers chuse the haire of stone-horsetailes rather than of mares to make their angling lines IS it because the male as in all other parts so in haire also is more strong than the female Or rather for that they thinke the haire of mares tailes drenched and wet as it is ever and anon with their staling is more brittle and woorse than the other 18 What is the reason that when the Calamacie fish is seene in the sea it is a signe of a great tempest IS it because all soft and 〈◊〉 fishes are very impatient of colde and of foule-weather they be so bare and naked and have withall their flesh exceeding tender as being covered neither with shell nor thicke skinne ne yet scale but contrariwise having their hardy gristly and bony substance within which is the reason that all such fishes be called Malacia as one would say Soft and tender For which cause naturally they soone foresee a tempest and feele colde comming for that it is offensive unto them and therefore likewise when the Poulpe or Polyp runneth to land and catcheth holde of some little rocks it is a token that there is great winde toward And for the Calamacie he leapeth forth for to avoid the colde and the trouble or agitation of the water in the bottome of the sea for of other soft fishes his flesh is most tender and aptest to be pierced and hurt 19 Why doth the Polyp change his colour IS it according to the opinion of Theophrastus because it is a fearefull and timorous creature by nature and therefore when he is troubled or amazed as his spirit turneth so he altereth withall his colour even as we men do whereupon we say in the common proverbe The coward in view Soone changeth hew Or may this be a good probable conjecture of the change but not sufficient for the resemblance considering that he changeth so as heresembleth the rocks which he setleth upon Unto which propertie Pindarus alluded in these verses His minde doth alter most mutable To Poulpe the sea-fish skin semblable Which changeth hue to echthing sutable To live in all worlds he is pliable And Theognis Put on a minde like Polype fish and learne so to dissemble Which of the rocke whereto it sticks the colour doth resemble Also men usually say such as surpasse others for cunning and cautelous dealing studie and practise this that for to save themselves and not to be seene or knowen of those about them they alwaies will be like unto the poulpe and change their colours that is to say their maners and behaviour Or do they thinke such an one to make use of his colour readily as of a garment to change and put on another whensoever he will Well then the poulpe fish himselfe by his feare may haply give the occasion and beginning of this change and passion but the principall point of the cause consisteth in something els And therefore weigh and consider what Empedocles writeth Wot well all mortall things that be Defluxions havein some degree For there passe away continually many defluxions not onely from living creatures plants earth and sea but also from stones brasse and iron for all things perish and yeeld a smell in that there runneth something alwaies from them and they weare continually insomuch as it is thought that by these defluxions are all attractions and insultations and some suppose their embracings and connexions others their smilings some their impulsions and I wot not what circumplexions and environments to be attributed unto such defluxions and especially from rocks and stones along the sea continually washed and dashed with the waves therebe decisions passe of some parcels and small fragments the which do cleave unto other bodies and cling about those which have their pores more strict and close or els passe thorow such as have the same over rare and open As for the flesh of the Polype it is to see to fistulous and spongeous like unto hony-combs apt to receive all such defluxions and decisions from other bodies when as then he is afraid his winde goeth and commeth and withall shutteth up his bodie and bringeth it together that he may receive and reteine in the superficies of his skin the defluxions that come from that which is next it for the rivels and wrinckles of his soft skin which are knit with feare are in stead of crooke and bending cleies fit to enterteine the defluxions and parcels lighting upon them which scatter not heere and there but gathering upon the skin make the superficies thereof to be of semblable colour And that this is a true cause it may appeare by one great argument namely that neither the Polyp doth resemble in colour all that which is neere unto it not the Chamaeleon the white colour but both the one the other such things onely as the defluxions whereof are proportionate unto their pores and small passages 20 What is the cause that the teares of wilde boares be sweet but of stagges and hinds saltish and unpleasant to the taste HEat and colde are the cause of both for the stagge is colde of nature but the bore exceeding hot and fierie whereupon it is that the one fleeth away the other maketh head and stands to it when he is assaulted and then is it most of all that he sheddeth teares upon a fell heart for when plentie of heat as I said before mounteth up unto his eies His bristles stare and stand upright His ardent eyes like fire are bright and so the humour that distilleth from his eies is sweet Others say that these teares are pressed and wrong out from the bloud being troubled like as whey from milke and of this opinion was Empedocles And forasmuch as the bloud of the wilde bore is blacke and thicke in regard of heat but that of stags and hinds thin and waterish great
them at a very venture For there is a great difference in my judgement betweene saying thus that a thing is hapned which hath bene spoken and a thing is spoken that shall happen for that speech which uttereth things that are not extant conteining in it selfe the fault and error attendeth not by any right the credit and approbation thereof by the accidentall event neither useth it any true and undoubted token of praediction with a certeine foreknowledge that happen it will when it hath bene once foretold considering that infinity is apt to produce all things but he who guesseth well whom the common proverbe pronounceth to be the best divinor For whose conjecture misseth least Him I account the wisard best resembleth him who traceth out and followeth by probabilities as it were by tracts and footings that which is to come But these propheticall Sibils and furious Bacchides have cast at all aventure as it were into a vast ocean without either judgement or conjecture the time yea and have scattered at random the nownes and verbs the words and speeches of passions and accidents of all sorts And albeit some of them fortune so to happen yet is this or that false alike at the present time when it is uttered although haply the same may chance afterwards to fall out truely When Boethus had thus discoursed Serapion replied upon him in this wise Boethus quoth he giveth a good verdict and just sentence of those propositions which are indefinitly and without a certeine subject matter in this maner pronounced If victorie be foretolde unto a Generall he hath vanquished if the destruction of a citie it is overthrowen but whereas there is expressed not onely the thing that shall happen but also the circumstances how when after what sort and wherewith then is not this a bare guesse and conjecture of that which peradventure will be but a praesignification and denouncing peremptorily of such things as without faile shall be as for example that prophesie which concerned the lamenesse of Agesilaus in these words Though proud and haughtie Sparta now and sound of foot thou bee Take heed by halting regiment there come no harme to thee For then shall unexpected plagues thy state long time assaile The deadly waves of fearefull warres against thee shall prevaile Semblably that oracle as touching the Isle which the sea made and discovered about Thera and Therasia as also the prophesie of the warre betweene king Philip and the Romans which ran in these words But when the race of Trojan bloud Phoenicians shall defeat In bloudy fight looke then to see strange sights and wonders great The sea shall from amid the waves yeeld firie tempests strong And flashes thicke of lightning bright with stony stormes among With that an Iland shall appeare that never man yet knew And weaker men in battell set the mightier shall subdue For whereas the Romans in a small time conquered the Carthaginians after they had vanquished Aniball in the field and Philip king of the Macedonians gave battell unto the Aetolians and Romans wherein he had the overthrow also that in the end there arose an Iland out of the deepe sea with huge leames of fire and hideous ghusts a man can not say that all these things hapned and concurred together by fortune and meere chance but the very traine and orderly proceding thereof doth shew a certeine prescience and fore-knowledge Also whereas the Romans were foretolde the time five hundred yeeres before wherein they should have warre with all nations at once the same was fulfilled when they warred against the slaves and fugitives who revolted and rebelled For in all these there is nothing conjecturall and uncerteine nothing blinde and doubtfull that we need infinitly to seeke after fortune therefore whereas many pledges there be of experience giving us assurance of that whcih is finite and determinate shewing the very waqy whereby fatall destinie doth proceed Neither do I thinke any an will say that these things being foretolde with so many circumstances jumped altogether by fortune For what els should hinder but that a man may aswell say ô Boethus that Epicurus wrote not his books of principall opinions and doctrines so much approoved of you but that all the letters thereof were jumbled and hudled together by meere chance and fortune that went to the composing and finishing of that volume Thus discoursing in this maner we went forward still And when in the Corinthian chapell we beheld the date tree of brasse the onely monument there remaining of all the oblations there offered Diogenianus woondred to see the forgges and water-snakes which were wrought artificially by turners hand about the but and root thereof and so did we likewise because neither the Palme tree is moorie plant and loving the waters like as many other trees are neither doe the frogges any way perteine to the Coringthians as a marke or ensigne given in the armes of their city like as the Selinuntians by report offered sometimes in this temple the herbe Smalach or Parsley called Solinum all of gold and the Tenedians an hatcher taken from the Crabfishes bred in their Island neere unto the Promontorie called Asterion for those Crabs onely as it is thought have the figure of an hatchet imprinted upon their shell And verily for Apollo himselfe we suppose that ravens swannes wolves hawks or any other beasts be more acceptable than these Now when Serapion alledged that the workman heereby meant and covertly signified the nouriture and rising of the Sunne out of humors and waters which by exhalation he converteth into such creatures whether it were that he had heard this verse out of Homer Then out of sea arose the Sun And left that goodly lake anon Or seeme the Aegyptians to represent the East or Sun-rising by the picture of a childe sitting upon the plant Lotos Thereat I laughed heartily What meane you thus good sir quoth I to thrust hither the sect of the Stoicks came you indeed to foist slily among our speeches and discourses your exhalations and kindlings of the starres not bringing downe hither the Sunne and the Moone as the Thessalian women doe by their inchantments but making them to spring and arise as from their first originall out of the earth and the waters For Plato verily called mana celestiall plant as rising directly from his root above which is his head But you in the meane time mocke and deride Empedocles for saying that the Sunne occasioned by the reflexion of the heavenly light about the earth His raies with fearlesse visage sends againe Vp to the heavens and there doth brightly shine while your selves make the Sunne terrestriall or a fennish plant ranging him among the waters and the native place of frogs But let vs betake all these matters to the tragicall and strange monstruosities of the Stoicks meane while treat we cursarily and by the way of these accessary and by-works of mechanicall artisans and handicrafts men for surely in many things
and the same denomination like as we doe the sea also for all the parts of the earth are called earth and of the sea likewise but no part of the world is world for that it is composed of divers and different hatures For as touching that inconvenience which some especially feare who spend all matter within one world lest forsooth if there remained any thing without it should trouble the composition and frame thereof by the jurres and resistances that it would make furely there is no such cause why they should feare for when there be many worlds and ech of them particularly having one definit and determinate measure and limit of their substance and matter no part thereof will be without order and good disposition nothing will remaine superfluous as an excrement without to hinder or impeach for that the reason which belongeth to ech world being able to rule and governe the matter that is allotted thereto will not suffer any thing to goe out of course and order and wandring to and fro for to hit and run upon another world nor likewise that from another ought should come for to rush upon it because in nature there is nothing in quantity infinit inordinate nor in motion without reason order But say there should happly be some deflux or effluence that pasleth from one world to another the same is a brotherly sweet and amiable communication and such as very well agreeth to all much like unto the lights of starres and the influences of their temperatures which are the cause that they themselves doe joy in beholding one another with a kinde and favourable aspect yea and yeeld unto the gods which in every starre be many and those good meanes to intertaine and embrace one another most friendly For in all this verily there is nothing impossible nothing fabulous nor contrary unto reason unlesse paradventure some there be who will suspect and feare the reason and sentence of Aristotle as consonant unto nature For if as he saith every body hath a proper and naturall place of the owne by reason thereof necessarily it must be that the earth from all parts should tend toward the midst and the water afterwards upon it serving by meanes of their weight and ponderosity in stead of a foundation to other elements of a lighter substance And therefore quoth he if there were many worlds it would fall out oftentimes that the earth should be found situate above aire and fire and as often under them likewise the aire and fire sometime under otherwhiles in their naturall places and againe in others contrary to their nature Which being impossible as he thinketh it must follow of necessity that there be neither two nor more worlds but one alone to wit this which we visibly 〈◊〉 composed of all sorts of substance and disposed according to nature as is meet and convenient for diversity of bodies But in all this there is more apparent probability than verity indeed For the better proofe heereof consider I pray you my good friend Demetrius that when he saith among simple bodies some bend directly to the midst that is to say downward others from the midst that is to say upward and a third sort move round about the midst and circularly in what respect taketh he the midst Certaine it is not in regard of voidnesse for there is no such thing in nature even by his owne opinion againe according unto those that admit it middle can it have none no more than first or last For these be ends and extremities and that which is infinite must consequently be also without an end But suppose that some one of them should enforce us to admit a middle in that voidnesse impossible it is to conceive and imagine the difference in motions of bodies toward it because there is not in that voidnesse any puissance attractive of bodies nor yet within the same bodies any deliberation or inclination and affection to tend from all sides to this middle But no lesse impossible is it to apprehend that of bodies having no soule any should moove of themselves to an incorporall place and having no difference of situation than it is that the same should draw them or give them any motion or inclination to it It remaineth then that this middle ought to be understood not locally but corporally that is to say not in regard of place but of body For seeing this world is an union or masse compounded of many bodies different and unlike conjoigned together it must needs be that their diversities engender motions discrepant and 〈◊〉 one from the other which appeereth by this that every of these bodies changing substance change their place also withall For the subtilization and rarefaction distributeth round about the matter which ariseth from the midst and ascendeth on high contrariwise condensation and constipation depresseth and driveth it downeward to the middle But of this point we need not discourse any more in this place For what cause soever a man shall suppose to produce such passions and mutations the same shall containe in it a severall world for that each of them hath an earth and sea of the owne each one hath her owne proper middle as also passions and alterations of bodies together with a nature and power which preserveth and 〈◊〉 every one in their place and being For that which is without whether it have nothing at all or else an infinite voidnesse middle can it affoord none as we have said before but there being many worldes each of them hath a proper middle apart in such sort as in every one there shall be motions proper unto bodies some falling downe to the midst others mounting aloft from the midst others mooving round about the midst according as they themselves doe distinguish motions And he who would have that there being many middles weighty bodies from all parts should tend unto one alone may very well be compared unto him who would have the blood of many men to run from all parts into one vaine likewise that all their braines should be contained within one and the same membraine or pannicle supposing it a great inconvenience and absurdity if of naturall bodies all that are solide be not in one and the same place and the rare also in another Absurd is he that thus saith and no lesse foolish were the other who thinketh much and is offended if the whole should have all parts in their order range and situation naturall For it were a very grosse absurdity for a man to say there were a world which had the Moone in it so situate as if a man should carry his braine in his heeles and his heart in the temples of his head but there were no absurdity nor inconvenience if in setting downe many distinct worldes and those separate one from another a man should distinguish with all and separate their parts For in every of them the earth the sea and the skie shall be so placed and
there is I say that bitter almonds should have power to withstand the strength of meere wine considering they drie the body within and will not permit the veines to bee full upon the tention and commotion whereof they say drunkennesse doth proceed and for evident proofe of this there may be a good argument gathered from that which befalleth foxes who having eaten bitter almonds is they drinke not presently upon them die therewith by reason that all their humors suddenly are spent and consumed THE SEVENTH QUESTION What is the cause that old folke take greater delight in pure and strong wine than others THere arose a question about old persons what the reason might be that they loved better to drink wine without water or at the leastwise delaied but a little Some alledged the habit of their bodies being cold and hard to be set into an heat in regard whereof the strength of wine was meet and agreeable to their temperature a reason very common and ready at hand but surely neither sufficient for to bee the cause of such an effect nor yet simply true for the same hapueth to their other sences as being hard to be mooved and affected yea and nothing easie to be stirred for to apprehend the qualities thereto belonging unlesse the same be passing strong and vehement whereof the true cause indeed is this that their temperature being weake dull and feeble loveth to be put in minde by knocking upon and this is the cause that for their taste they delight in such sapours as be biting their smelling likewise standeth even so to odors that be strong for affected it is with more pleasure in such as be not tempered nor delaied as for the sense of touching they feele no great paine of ulcers and sores and if it happen that they be wounded their hurt and harme is not so great the same befalleth to their hearing for their eares be in manner deafe and heereupon it is that musicians as they grow in yeeres and waxe aged straine and raise their voice in singing so much the higher and lowder as if they stirred up the organs of hearing by the vehement force of the sound for looke what is steele to the edge and temper of iron for cutting the same is spirit to the bodie for sense and feeling and when it beginnes once to slacke faile and decay the sense likewise and the instruments thereof become dull heavie and earthly having need of some such quicke thing to pricke it in good earnest as strong wine is THE EIGHTH QUESTION How it comes to passe that olde folke reade better afarre off than neere at hand AGainst those reasons which wee devised and alledged upon the subject matter and point in hand it seemed that there might be opposed the eie-sight for that elder persons for to reade any thing the better remoove the letters farther from their eies and in trueth can not well reade neere at hand which the poet Aeschylus seemeth covertly to implie and shew unto us in these verses Know him thou canst not if neere he stand to thee A good olde scribe thou maist much sooner be And Sophocles more plainly testifieth as much when he writeth of old folke in this wise The voice to them arrives not readily And hardly thorow their eares the way can finde Their eies do see farre off confusedly But neere at hand they all be very blinde If then it be so that the senses of aged persons and the instruments serving thereto are not willingly obeisant to their proper objects unlesse the same be strong and vehement what should the cause be that in reading they can not endure the reverberation of the light from letters if they be neere but setting the booke farther off from their eies they do by that meanes enfeeble as it were that light for that it is spread and dissipate in the aire like as the strength of wine when it is tempered with water To this probleme some answered thus That they remoove books and letters farre from their eie-sight not because they would make the saide light more milde or lesse radiant but contrariwise for that they are desirous to catch and gather more splendor and to fill the meane intervall which is betweene the eie and the letter with lightsome and shining aire Others accorded with those who holde that the eies do send out of them certeine raies for by reason that aswell from the one eie as the other a pyramidal beame doth issue the point whereof is in the sight of the eie and the basis doth comprehend the object that is seene probable it is that both these pyramides goe forward apart one from the other a good space and distance but after they be a great way off and come to encounter one another and be confounded together they make but one entire light and this is the reason that albeit the eies are twaine yet every thing that we see appeareth one and not two for that in trueth the meeting and shining together of those two pyramides in common do make of two sights but one This being presupposed and set downe olde men approching neere to letters comprehend the same more feebly in regard that the pyramidall beames of their eies are not yet joined and met together but ech of them reach to the objects apart but if they be farther off so that the said pyramides may be intermingled they see more perfectly much like to them who with both hands can claspe and hold that which they are not able to do with one alone Then my brother Lamprias opposed himselfe against all this and as one who had not read the booke of Hieronymus but even upon the pregnancy and quickenesse of his wit seemed to render another reason namely That we see by the meanes of certeine images arising from the objects or visible things which at the first be big and for that cause trouble the sight of old folke when they regard them neere and hard-by being indeed but hard and slow of motion but when the said images be advanced and spread farther into the aire and have gained some good distance the grosse and terrestriall parts of them breake and fall downe but the more subtill portions reach as farre as to the eies without any paine or offence unto them and do insinuate and accommodate themselves equally and smoothly into their concavities so that the eies being lesse troubled apprehend and receive them better And even so it is with the odours of flowers which are very sweet to smell unto a good way off whereas if a man come over-neere unto them they yeeld nothing so kinde and pleasant a sent the reason is because that together with the savour there goeth from the flower much earthly matter grosse and thicke which corrupteth and marreth the fragrant sweetnesse of the odour if it be smelled to very neere but in case the same be a prety way off that terrestriall vaparation is dispersed round about and so falleth