no hope of his amendment should rather kill himselfe then by liuing inuite so many others to the like course of life not vnlike to the opinion alreadie recited that it is better one die for a people then that his life should be the occasion of the death of many For Plato aymed euermore at the purging of all cities frō such caterpillers which appeereth manifestly by the pain he would haue inflicted vpon parricides But that it was abhomination to him for a man to kill himselfe he plainely sheweth in his ninth booke of Lawes by the sentence he setteth downe against such men Neuerthelesse this indeed may be found in Plato that vice was so odious vnto him that he would rather haue a man to die then to vndertake any vile vicious action which might breed him perpetuall infamie And Aristotle in this point agreeth with his master though in many he delight to carpe him that a man ought to chuse rather to die then commit any abhominable or grieuous fact or do that which might be for euer reprochful vnto him And Plato his expresse sence of this matter is to be vnderstood in the same dialogue which you first spake of where Socrates is brought to say that the Lord and Ruler of this whole world hauing sent vs into this life we are not to desire to leaue it without his consent and who so doth the contrary offends nature offendeth God And this is the mystery of that precept of Philolaus which forbiddeth a man to cleaue wood in the high way meaning that a man should not seuer or deuide the soule frō the body whiles he was in his way on this earthly pilgrimage but should be content that as God and nature had vnited and tied the soule to the bodie so by them it might be vnloosed againe therefore the Peripatetikes also thought that they which die a violent death cannot be thought to haue ended their dayes according to the course of time and nature And with this my Lord Primate rested satisfied I turned me to Captaine Carleil and sayd Now sir concerning your doubts proposed you may haue perceiued that whatsoeuer destinie be neither it nor the diuine prouidence of Almightie God imposeth any necessitie vpon vs that vertue and vice are in our power vertue growing in vs by the right vse of our free choice and vice by the abuse of the same when through corruption of the iudgement to do that is in apparance good it chuseth the euill and lastly what kind of ignorance is excusable and which not Concerning my demaunds sayd Captaine Carleil I am resolued But since I see our doings proceed from election I would gladly know of you what maner of thing it is for I cannot perceiue whether it be a desire or an anger or an opinion or what I should call it None of all these said I but rather a voluntary deliberation following a mature and aduised counsel which counsell by Plato was termed a diuine thing For election is not made in a moment but when a thing is proposed either to be accepted or refused there must first be a counsell taken respecting both the end of the action and the meanes by which the same is to be compassed so as there is required a time of consultation and therefore it is said that hast is enemie to counsell and that oftentimes repentance followes them that resolue without discussing or debating of matters Next vnto counsell cometh iudgement and after iudgement followeth election and from election issueth the action or the effects that are resolued vpon and accepted as the best And because fortune though she be a cause rather by accident then of her selfe hath no small part in most of our actions the wisest men haue said that counsel is the eye of the mind by helpe whereof men of prudence see how to defend themselues from the blind strokes of fortune and eschuing that which may hurt them take hold of that which is profitable Why then said my Lord Primate it shold seeme that our counsell were wholy in our power But Xenophon is of a contrary opinion for he sayeth that good counsell cometh from the Gods immortall and that their counsels prosper who haue them to be their friends and theirs not who haue them to be their enemies To haue God fauourable vnto vs said I in all our doings is not onely desirable but that it may please him to grant his grace so to be ought all men to craue by humble prayer at his hands But that God is the author of our counsels otherwise then as an vniuersall cause is to be doubted not that the singular gift of the mind and the power thereof to deliberate and consult commeth not from him for the not acknowledging thereof were not onely a grosse ignorance but also an expresse impietie an vnexcusable ingratitude Howbeit since it hath pleased him to bestow vpon vs so great and liberal a gift as the mind we may well beleeue that he will not take from vs the free vse therof For to say that God were the imediate cause of our counsell were as much as to take from vs the vse of reason without which we are not any more men as of late was sayd And therfore besides Aristotles authoritie grounded in that point vpon good reason we find in the Scripture that after God had made man and giuen him by breathing vpon him the spirit of life which is the soule of vnderstanding he left him in the hand of his owne counsell Whereby it appeereth that counsel commeth from our selues and that election is the office of prudence which is called the soule of the mind and the Platonikes call the knowledge of good and euill whereunto it seemed that Tullie agreed when he said that prudence was the science of things desirable or to be eschued which sentence S. Augustine reporteth And Fabius Maximus said that the Gods through prudence and our vertues did grant vs prosperous successes in our affaires as if he should haue said that though God as an vniuersall cause concurred to accomplish our deliberations yet we were to endeuour our selues and to sharpen our wits to consult on the best meanes to compasse our good purposes if we desire to haue his fauour and not to sit idle expecting what will fall out And to end the discourse hereof the auncient Philosophers of the best sort held that the Gods seeing vs employ our vertues and faculties of the mind which hath a resemblāce vnto them well and wisely become our friends and the rather grant vs their helpe and fauour According to which opinion Euripides sayed that the Gods did helpe them that were wise But because we shall haue occasion to speake more largely hereafter of Prudence we will now returne to that which we left long sithens to speake of by the interposing of the doubts moued and that is the knowledge of our selues as the thing that must guide vs to that best and most
without any endeuour of our owne her vertue and operation if food and nourishment faile not is in her ful force chiefly in childhood and as soone as the child is borne stirreth vp the desire of food to the end that by little and little it might gather strength of body to become apt for the vse of the soule whose organ or instrument it is for the accomplishing of the more noble operations meet for man And because the milk of the mother or of the nurse is the first fit food for the infant it were to be wished that it should receiue the same rather from the mother then from any strange woman for in reason the same should be more kindly and natural for the babe then any other In consideration whereof the instructors of ciuill life haue determined and taught that it is the fathers office to teach and instruct the child but the mothers to nourish it For wise men say that Nature hath giuen to women their brests not so much for defence of the hart as because they should nourish their children and that she hath giuē them two paps to the end that they might nourish two if by chance they shold be deliuered of two at once And truly it cannot be but that would much increase both the loue of the mother to the child and likewise that of the child to the mother Neuertheles if it fal out as oftentimes it doth that the mother cannot giue sucke to her child or for other considerations she giue it forth to be nursed to another woman yet is there special regard to be had in getting such a nurse as may be of good complexion and of louing nature and honest conditions that with milke it may also suck a disposition to a vertuous and commendable life By your licence said M. Dormer let me aske you a question whether you thinke that the mind taketh any qualitie from the nutriment of the body for if the mind be diuine me seemeth it is against reason that it should not be of greater power then to receiue corruption from the nutriment of the body You say very well quoth I and here shall you be resolued of that doubt That the mind is a diuine thing cannot be denied And if the vertue of the mind which is reason could be freed from the company of those other two faculties of the soule void of reason in respect of themselues it would doubtlesse remaine still in perfection of one nature and not receiue any vice from that nutriment which yeeldeth matter to the basest facultie of the soule to maintaine and increase the body but euermore practise her proper operations and vertue but because it hapneth too often partly by the ill qualitie of the nutriment and partly for want of care in the education that the part wherein the vegetatiue power lieth getteth ouermuch strength and allured by the delights of the sensible part giueth it selfe wholy to follow the pleasures of the senses the mind being oppressed cannot performe the offices and functions pertaining thereunto And for this cause Plato affirmed that vnhealthfull bodies make the minds weake And the body can neuer be sound or healthfull when it is giuen to follow that baser part of the soule and the lusts and sensualities of the same whereby it forceth the mind preuailing against reason Not but that the mind is neuertheles diuine but because the body being the necessary instrument of the mind when it is wrested and drawne to an ill habit the mind cannot vse it as it would and the light of reason is darkned hindred not through any defect of the mind but onely in respect of the instrument that is become rebellious Euen as if a candle should be put into a close vessell that the light thereof could not appeare for the not yeelding of light should not proceed from the defect of the candle but of the vessell that inclosed the same To the end therefore that the child receiue not any vicious habit by the qualitie of his first food and nourishment wise men haue aduised that the nurse to be chosen for a child should not be base or of vile condition that the child might be the apter to be brought vp to vertue that she be not of strange nation lest she should giue it strange or vnseemely manners vnfit or disagreeable to the customes and conditions of the house or citie wherein it is borne and wherein it is to liue and lastly that she be of good and commendable behauiour to the end that with the milk it may suck good conditions and an honest disposition to vertuous life And because the nurse may be kept in house or suffered to carry the child to her owne dwelling place of the two it is to be wished that the parents should rather keepe her in their owne house to the end that euen from his infancy it might learne to know the father and mother and the rest of the family and take by little and little the fashions and manners of the house For the minds of children whiles they be yong are like to the yong tender slips of trees which a man may bend and straighten as he list and are fashioned to such customes and conditions as may best beseeme them For looke what behauiour they first learne the same they retaine and keepe a long while after Wherefore Phocilides said right well Whiles yet in tender yeares the child doth grow Teach him betimes conditions generous Great is the care then that fathers ought to vse in framing the manners and disposition of their children when they be yong and tender in their owne houses and are yet in their nurses laps Hauing regard not to vse them either ouer-curstly or ouer-fondly for as the first ouer-aweth them maketh them dull and base and vile minded by taking away the generositie of their minds the other bringeth them to be wantons and waiward so as they will neuer be still but euer crying and wrawling for they wote not what For being yet but new in the world and not acquainted with those things the images whereof are presented to them by the senses of hearing and seeing they easily giue themselues to waywardnes and crying when they see any strange sight or images or heare a fearfull sound or noise the rather by reason of the melancholy humor which they bring with them from the mothers womb reason hauing yet little or no force in them and their iudgments being too weak to distinguish good from euill or what is hurtfull from what may do them good not that naturally they be so for that tender age is rather sanguine and aëriall but thorough the remnant of that bloud from which they receiued their nutriment in their mothers belly vnto which their crying the vsuall remedy is the mouing them from place to place the rocking of them in their cradles the dandling of them for such motions do diuert them from those fearfull impressions and make them the
of our maker and the Creator of all things we may plainely discerne that whatsoeuer is here among vs on earth is but smoke and dust and that to be euen glutted with all the good that this life can affoord is but a possession of smoke and a shadow of the true good which is aboue And so knowing that the mind is the true man giuen vnto vs of speciall grace to guide the body we may turne our selues to that happinesse which maketh vs immortal by raising the mind to the height of that heauenly felicitie the sweetnesse and delight whereof is so much greater then that of humane felicitie though without this the other cannot be as the habit of that excellent power of the vertue intellectiue is employed about a more noble obiect then that which the vertue actiue doth intend For it is euermore busied about things eternall and vniuersal and about the contemplation of the most high and gracious God Of this excellent degree of felicitie hath Aristotle spoken in his first and tenth books of Ethikes declaring how it ought to be the finall end of all our operations and hath attributed this excellent kind of faculty to those men only who are properly called Sages or wise men because they by the meanes of actions and of sciences finding that these mortall things are not able to bring a man to full and perfect happinesse do so raise themselues from these baser cogitations as they apply their mind and vnderstanding wholy to the knowledge of diuine essences And such men saith he as haue attained that degree are rather to be esteemed diuine then humane For whiles they liue in contemplation they are not like men liuing among men composed of body and soule but as diuine creatures freed from mortall affections arising from the body and bent onely to that which may purchase the neuer-ending felicitie of the soule which according to Plato and Aristotle is the true man And to this opinion did our Sauiour Christ who is the infallible veritie giue authoritie and confirmation when he said that we ought to haue such care of that soule which is in vs according to the image of God that we should esteeme nothing how great or precious soeuer the world esteemed it at so high a rate as for the purchasing thereof we should hurt or loose the same for his words are What auaileth it a man to gaine all the world and loose his owne soule By this opinion of these two Philosophers we may plainly vnderstand that euen in that darknesse of auncient superstition God had yet giuen such light of reason to the mindes of men to illumine them withall that they saw how through sciences and wisedome they were to seeke the way that should leade them to their perfect felicitie that is to God Almightie himselfe who is such an end as no other end can be supposed beyond him but to him all other ends are directed as to the true and most happie terme bound or limit of all vertues and vertuous actions and of ciuill felicitie it selfe But because that diuine part of the Intellectiue soule which is in vs is to haue consideration not onely of our present state of life but also to that eternitie wherein our immortall mindes made to the likenesse of God are to liue with him eternally Therfore did Aristotle fitly teach that men ought to bend and frame their minds wholy to that true and absolute end for that the minde being diuine it is his proper office to seeke to vnite it selfe to his first principle or beginning which is God Neither hath his diuine Maiestie of his aboundant grace bestowed the vertue intellectiue vpon man to any other end then that he might know it to be his speciall dutie to raise himselfe to him as to the author and free giuer of all goodnesse and as he hath bestowed on him a soule made to his own likenes so he should therewith bend his endeuour to be like him in all his actions as farre as the corruption contracted by the communion of the bodie will permit Which thing the Platonikes considering haue spoken much more largely thereof then Aristotle following therein the steps of their master But some will say that Aristotle spake the lesse thereof thinking that the soule of man euen concerning the vnderstanding was not immortall because it seemeth to them that when the soule hath no more the senses of the bodie to serue her as instruments whereby she vnderstandeth and knoweth she should no longer liue For since nature cannot suffer any thing to be idle in the world and the soule wanting the bodie can haue no operation therefore they thinke it is to be concluded that with the bodie she must needs fall and die for that if she should happen to remaine after she were separated from the bodie yet she should not haue any operation insomuch as hauing the vnderstanding for her proper operatiō and seeing she cannot vnderstand but by the ministery of the senses from which she can haue no helpe when she is loosed from the bodie it followeth that she hath no operation and then must she be idle in nature which is in no sort to be allowed But my author as afore is said doth thinke that these men mistake Aristotle not considering that he speaking as a natural Philosopher of the soule was not to treate thereof but naturally and in so doing was to restraine himselfe within the bounds of nature according to which he is not to consider any forme separate from the matter from which we as all other natural things haue our bodies This Aristotle considering and knowing that as a natural Philosopher he was not to speake of the Intellectiue soule said that vnderstanding being separated from the other powers of the minde as a thing eternall seuered from the corruptible part it appertained not to him to treate thereof in that place where he spake of the soule as she was the actor of the bodie and vsed it as her instrument For he saw wel inough that though the vnderstanding tooke beginning with the bodie because it was the forme thereof yet was it not the actor of the body so as it should vse any member thereof as an instrument but was onely aforme that was to exercise all the other powers of the other soules For it is likewise Aristotles opinion that where the vnderstanding is in things corruptible there hath it also the faculties of all the other soules within it selfe Which thing he shewed more cleerely in his first booke de Partibus Animalium saying that to speake of the Intellectiue soule all that might be sayd was not the office of a naturall Philosopher And this for two reasons The one is that the Intellectiue soule is no actor of the bodie because she hath in her no part of motion either of her selfe or accidentally For she neither increaseth nor diminisheth the bodie she nourisheth it not nor maintaineth it for these are functions appertaining
to the vegetatiue soule shee chaungeth it not nor mooueth it from place to place for that is the office of the sensitiue soule and these be the motions which the bodie can haue from the soule sauing generation and corruption which are changes made in an instant therefore inasmuch as she is intellectiue she is not subiect to the consideration of the naturall Philosopher The other reason is for that the naturall Philosopher considereth not the substances separated from the matter and therefore his office is not to consider the excellencie of the Intellectiue soule which is not the actor of the bodie though she be the forme thereof And therefore Aristotle telleth vs in his second booke of Physikes that the terme or bound of the naturall Philosphers consideration is the Intellectiue soule For albeit he may consider the soule so farre as she moueth and is not moued as he may also the first mouer yet doth he not consider her essence nor the essence of the first mouer for this appertaineth to the Metaphysike who considereth of the substances separated and immortall And hence commeth it that Aristotle treating in his booke of Physikes of nature as she is the beginning of all mouings and of rest when he is come to the first mouer who is immoueable yet moueth all that is moued in the world proceeded not any further to shew his nature vnderstanding right well that the naturall Philosophers office was not to consider any thing that is simply immoueable as well in respect of the whole as of the parts as the first mouer is But let vs without questioning further thereupon hold this for certaine not onely by that which Christian Religion teacheth vs but also by that which Aristotle hath held that our soules are immorall For if it were otherwise we should be of all other creatures that nature produceth the most vnhappie and in vaine should that desire of immortalitie which all men haue be giuen vnto vs. Besides that man as man that is to say as a creature intellectiue should not haue that end which is ordained for him which is contemplatiue felicitie Neither is it to the purpose to say that such felicitie is not attained by morall vertues but by wisedome only or that there be but few so wise as to seek this excellent felicitie and infinite the number of those that thinke but little vpon it for all men are borne apt vnto it if they will apply their minds vnto the same And though among all generations of men there should be but three or foure that bent their endeuour to attaine it they onely were sufficient to proue our intention because it is most certaine that the number of foolish men is infinite who not knowing themselues cannot tell how to vse themselues direct their endeuours to that which is the proper end of man Of whom it is said People on whom night commeth before Sunne-set A wicked generation whose whole life-time flieth from them vnprofitably in such sort as they can scarce perceiue that they haue liued For although there be infinitely more such in this world then of quicke and eleuated spirits yet ought not we to endure that their negligence who know not themselues to be men should preiudice the mindes of such as know what they are and raise their thoughts carefully to diuine things And therefore leauing their opinions that will needs say that Aristole impiously and madly hath held the contrary it shall be best to proceed in our discourse of the felicitie that is to be attained by contemplation I pray you said Captaine Carleil since there is a contrarietie of opinions amōg Philosophers concerning the immortalitie of the soule and that the knowledge therof appertaineth to the better vnderstanding of this contemplatiue felicitie let vs heare if your author giue any furder light thereunto since such good fellowes seeke to cast so darke a mist before our eyes vnder the cloke of Aristotles opinion For albeit you spake somewhat of it yesterday so farre as concerned our maner of learning according to Aristotle yet was it but by the way and not as it concerned this felicitie and if such a matter as this were twise repeated it could not but be profitable to vs though it be somewhat troublesome to you Whereupon I said that which my author was not willing to vndertake you presse me vnto as if you were the same persons and had the same sence that those introduced by him had and therefore since you also will haue it so I am content to close vp this your feast with this last dish notwithstanding that the euening draw on and that to speake thereof at large would aske a long time But knitting vp as well as I can a great volume in a little roome I will deliuer vnto you that which the shortnesse of our time wil permit and pray with mine author his diuine Maiestie who hath giuen vs an immortall soule that he wil vouchsafe vs his grace to say so much and no more of this matter as may be to his glory and to all our comforts Know ye then that these men that out of Aristotles writings gather our intellectiue soule to be mortall take for their foundation and ground this that the soule is the actor of the bodie and vseth it but after the maner before mentioned And to maintaine this their opinion they wrest diuers places of his vntruly and contrary to the mind of this great Philosopher as shall be declared vnto you True it is that while the intellectiue soule is the forme of the body she hath some need of him to vnderstand For without the fantasie we can vnderstand nothing in this life since from the senses the formes of all things are represented vnto vs as yesterday was declared And this did Aristotle meane to teach vs when contrary to the opinion of some former Philosophers he said that sense and vnderstanding was not all one although there be some similitude betweene them And because the essences of things are knowne by their operations according to Aristotle and that the intellectiue soule vnderstandeth which is a spiritual operatiō it followeth that simply of her owne nature she is all spirit and therefore immortall for else to vnderstand would not be her propertie Whereunto also Aristotle agreeth in saying that some parts of the soule are not conioyned to the bodie and therefore are separable and that the vnderstanding and the cōtemplatiue power was another kind of soule and not drawne from the power of matter as the other two are whose operations were ordained for the Intellectiue soule insomuch as she is the forme of the bodie which sheweth plainely that she is eternall and immortall And in the twelfth of his Metaphysikes making a doubt whether any forme remaine after the extinguishing of the matter he sayd doubtfully of the other two that not euery soule but the Intellectiue onely remained And here is to be noted that his opinion was not though some
whereby it is offended and cannot performe his office towards the other but runneth into such inconueniences by reason of his infirmity and for want of reasons direction And whereas Hippocrates saith that they that being sicke in minde and touched with anie corporall disease haue little or no feeling of paine it sheweth plainely that it is as I haue said For if you marke it well this word feele explaneth the whole since feeling is a propertie of the Sensitiue soule and the vnderstanding feeleth not And in like manner are the words of Aristotle to be vnderstood where he saith that such whose flesh is soft are apt to learne and they that are melancholy to be wise For that the Sensitiue vertue taketh more easily the formes or kindes of things in such subiects according to their nature and representeth them to the vnderstāding from whence knowledge and vnderstanding proceedeth as yesterday was sayd And this happeneth not onely in these passions but also in all other alterations as of gladnesse of sorow of hope and of feare with such like which appertaine not to the vnderstanding to which sayd Aristotle who would ascribe such affects might as well say that the vnderstanding layed bricke to build or cast a loome to weaue Why say M. Spencer doth your author meane as some haue not sticked euen in our dayes to affirme that there are in vs two seuerall soules the one sensitiue and mortall and the other Intellectiue and Diuine Nothing lesse said I for that I hold were manifest heresie as well in Philosophie as in Christianitie For Aristotle teacheth vs that the Vegetatiue and Sensitiue soule or their powers were in the soule Intellectiue as the triangle is in the square which could not be if the sensitiue were separated from the Intellectiue And speaking of the varietie of soules and of their powers he sayth that the Sensitiue could not be without the Vegetatiue but that this latter might well be without the former and that all the other vertues of all the three soules are in those creatures that haue reason and vnderstanding It cannot therefore be sayd according to Aristotle that the Sensitiue soule in man is seuered from the Intellectiue And because man participateth as hath bene sayd of all the three faculties of the soules I see not why these fellowes that mention two speake not of all three as well seeing that in man are the operations of all three For if they say that it sufficeth to speake of the Sensitiue by which man is a liuing creature and containeth the Vegetatiue why should they not as well say that the Intellectiue alone includeth both the other and then is there no need of seuering at all By which it may appeere that this frantike opinion gathered from the Assirians is not onely contrary to Aristotle but to reason it selfe For Aristotle saith that all things haue their being from their formes and that in naturall things the more perfect containe the lesse perfect when the lesser is ordained for the more and that therefore onely the Intellectiue soule which containeth within it the natures of both the others is the onely and true forme of man malgre all such dolts as would haue man to be by reason of diuers formes both a brute and a reasonable creature who seeke to set men astray from the right way with such fanaticall deuices Let vs therefore conclude with Aristotle that both the passible and the possible vnderstandings are vertues of the Intellectiue soule insomuch as she is the particular and proper forme of euery man and that as a humane soule she is euerlasting impassible not mingled with the bodie but seuered from the same simple and diuine not drawne from any power of matter but infused into vs from abroade not ingendred by seede which being once freed from the bodie because nature admitteth nothing that is idle is altogether bent and intent to contemplation being then as Philosophers call it actus purus a pure vnderstanding not needing the bodie either as an obiect or as a subiect In consideration whereof Aristotle sayd that man through contemplation became diuine and that the true man which both he and his diuine master agreed to be the minde did enioy thereby not as a mortall man liuing in the world but as a diuine creature that high felicitie to which ciuill felicitie was ordained and attained to wisedome science after the exercise of the morall vertues as meanes to guide and conduct him to the same And not impertinently haue the Platonikes following their master in that point sayd that nature had giuen vs sense not because we should stay thereupon but to the end that thereby might grow in vs imagination from imagination discourse from discourse intelligence and from intelligence gladnesse vnspeakable which might raise vs as diuine and freed from the bands of the flesh to the knowledge of God who is the beginning and the end of all goodnesse towards whom we ought with all endeuour to lift vp our minds as to our chiefe and most perfect good for he onely is our summum bonum For to them it seemed that the man whom contemplation had raised to such a degree of felicitie became all wholy vnderstanding by that light which God imparteth to the spirits that are so purged through the exercise of morall vertues which vertues are termed by Plato the purgers of the mind stirring vp therein a most ardent desire to forsake this mortall bodie and to vnite it selfe with him And this is that contemplation of death which the Philosophie of Plato calleth vs vnto For he that is come to this degree of perfection is as dead to the world and worldly pleasures because he considereth that God is the center of al perfections that about him al our thoughts desires are to be turned employed Such doth God draw vnto himselfe and afterwards maketh them partakers of his ioyes euerlasting giuing them in the meane while a most sweet tast euen in this life of that other life most happie and those exceeding delights beyond which no desire can extend nor yet reach vnto the same So as being full of this excellent felicitie they thinke euery minute of an houre to be a long time that debarreth them from issuing out of this mortall prison to returne into their heauenly countrey where with that vertue which is proper to the soule alone they may among the blessed spirits enioy their maker whose Maiestie and power all the parts of the world declare the heauens the earth the sea the day the night whereat the infernall spirits tremble and shake euen as good men on earth bow downe and worship the same with continuall himnes and praises and in heauen no lesse all the orders and blessed companie of Saints and Angels do the like world without end This loe is as much as mine author hath discoursed vpon this subiect which I haue Englished for my exercise in both languages and haue at your intreaties communicated vnto you I will not say being betrayed by M. Spencer but surely cunningly thrust in to take vp this taske whereby he might shift himselfe from that trouble But howsoeuer it be if it haue liked you as it is I shall thinke my time well spent both in the translating of it at the first and in the relating of it vpon this occasion in this manner For as I sayd before I began that I would not tye my selfe to the strict lawes of an interpreter so haue I in some places omitted here and there haply some sentences without which this our Discourse might be complete enough because they are rather points of subtiller inuestigation then our speech required though the Author therein perhaps aymed at the commendation of a great reader or absolute Philosopher and in the descriptions of some of the morall vertues added somewhat out of others And what hath beene sayd concerning ciuill felicitie by him and deliuered in substance by me I thinke you will allow to be sufficient Since therefore my taske is done and that it groweth late with this onely petition that you will be content to beare with the roughnesse of my speech in reporting that vnto you which in his language our Author hath eloquently set downe I end Here all the companie arose and giuing me great thankes seemed to rest very well satisfied as well with the manner as with the matter at the least so of their courtesie they protested And taking their leaues departed towards the Citie FINIS ERRATA PAge 12. line 17. climbing pag. 16. lin 32 auoyde pag. 68. lin 14. speake of pag. 81. lin 4. meere pag. 82. lin 1. Politikes pag. 95. lin 10. men pag. 109. lin 15. Dioxippus pag. 140. lin 15. leaue out to pag. 143. lin 13. supposing that c pag. 145. lin 6. their marching pag. eadē lin 7. they neuer went pag. 163. lin 17. flow pag. 164. lin 4. determine pag. 168. lin 25. hath man pag. 173. lin 9. Platonikes pag. 199. lin 17. leaue out to pag. ib. lin 18. leaue out vvhich pag. 216. lin 5. make shew of pag. ibid. lin 18. that she be Pag. 238. lin 14. himselfe
that they will proue either good or euill but of such as being commonly heads and ring-leaders of factious and seditious people do make themselues authors of the destruction of noble families and whole cities such as were both the Gracchi in Rome and sundry others in Greece And so it is to be applied to wit that such a man shall rather die then for the sauing of his life a whole citie or people should go to wracke Or otherwise when in time of warre by the ioyning of two armies in battell a great multitude were likly to be slaine it were farre better that one or two or moe in certaine number on each side should fight and hazard their liues in stead of the rest then their whole powers to meet and venter the slaughter of the most part of them As in the beginning of the State of Rome the Horatij and the Curiatij did to keepe from hazard of battell both people which were ready armed and prepared to fight together In like manner may that saying be applied in case a whole citie be in danger of desolation that the death of one man may redeeme the same As by Curtius the same citie of Rome was preserued who with so great courage threw himselfe armed on horsebacke into that pestilent pit which infected the whole citie to the end that by his death he might saue the people from that mortalitie and infection And the same effect but farre more excellently did our Sauiour likewise work who to redeeme mankind from the bands of hell tooke vpon him all our sinnes through which we were become thrals to Satan and for our saluation yeelded himselfe willingly to a most bitter death But as in such cases it is to be allowed that one should die for the people so is it much more to be discommended then I can declare that an infant newly borne should be killed though by defect of nature want of seed or any straine or mischance of the mother or through abundance of ill humors or any other strange accident it be borne imperfect or marked as is said Well said sir Robert Dillon it is true indeed that the law of Lycurgus was too cruell and vniust But Plato in his books de Repub deuised a more mild and reasonable way for he allowed not that such children should be killed as holding it inhumane yet he ordained that they should be brought vp in some place appointed out of the citie and that they should be debarred all possibilite of bearing any rule or magistracie in the Common-wealth For it seemed he thought that through the intemperance and disordinate liuing of the parents children came to be ingendred no lesse deformed and corrupt in mind then in body and therein the excesse of drinking wine to be a principall cause In which respect he forbad as wel to the man as to the woman the vse of wine at such times as they were disposed to attend the generation of children Plato said I must not be left vnanswered neither wil I spare to say by his leaue that his law though it be milder then the other was neuer the more allowable for the causes aboue specified For it is not alwayes true that the imperfections of the body are likewise in the mind or that a faire body hath euermore a faire mind coupled vnto it Haue we not seene men of mis-shapen bodies that haue had diuine minds and others of goodly personages that haue bin very furies of hell as Plato himselfe constrained by the force of truth and dayly experience could not but confesse The good or bad shape of the body therefore must be no rule for vs to bring vp or not to bring vp our children though it be to be esteemed a great grace to be borne with seemely and wel proportioned members and that it is a speciall point of happinesse to haue a faire mind harbored in a comely body because both together beare with them a naturall grace pleasing and gratefull to the eyes of men constraining in a sort the loue of all that behold them which thing Virgil wel vnderstanding when he spake of Eurialus said Gratior pulchro veniens in corpore virtus Adiuuat c. For although vertue of it selfe be louely and to be highly esteemed yet when she is accompanied with the beauty of the bodie she is more amiable whatsoeuer Seneca the Stoicke more seuere then need please to say and with more affection embraced of all them that see her Which thing appeared in Scipio Africanus when he met with Asdrubal his enemy in the presence of king Siphax for as soone as the subtill African had beheld the comely presence and gratefull countenance of Scipio he forthwith conceiued that which afterward fell out to wit that Scipio would draw Siphax to ioyne with the Romanes against the Carthaginians But for all this we are not in any wise to esteeme a person in body mis-shapen or deformed lesse worthy to be nourished or to be admitted to magistracie if he be vertuous then the other that is of gratefull presence For though Aristotle thinke the deformitie of the body to be an impediment to the perfect felicitie of man in respect of exteriour things yet he determineth that it is no hindrance to the course of vertue To conclude therfore this point though children be borne weake crooked mis-shapen or deformed of body they are not therefore to be exposed but as wel to be brought vp and instructed as the other that they may grow and increase in vertue and become worthy of those dignities which are dispensed in their common-weales And me thinketh Socrates that wise man spake very well to his scholers and to this purpose when he aduised them that they should often behold themselues in looking-glasses to the end said he that if you see your faces and bodies comely and beautifull ye may endeuor to set forth and grace the gifts of nature the better by adioyning vertues thereunto and if ye perceiue your selues to be deformed and il-fauoured you may seeke to supply the defects of nature with the ornaments of vertue thereby making your selues no lesse grateful and amiable then they that haue beautiful bodies For it is rather good to see a man of body imperfect and disproportioned endued with vertues then a goodly body to be nought else but a gay vessell filled with vice and wickednes Children are to be bred such as nature giueth them vnto vs and we are to haue patience to abide their proof and to see what their actions will be and if theirs that be of deformed body do proue good and vertuous they are so much the more to be commended as they seemed lesse apt thereunto by their birth And on the contrary side they that being beautifull of body are lewd and vitious deserue to be driuen from the conuersation of ciuil men yea chased out of the world as vnthankful acknowledgers of so great a gift bestowed vpon them and as vnworthy
hath it not one onely part power or facultie or vertue as we may call it but diuers appointed for diuers and sundry offices For we being participant of the nature of all things liuing and those being deuided into three kinds it is necessary that man shold haue some part of euery of those three There is then one base and inferiour kind of life of lesse estimation then the rest and that is the life of trees and plants and of all such things as haue roote in the earth which spring grow bloome and bring forth fruite which fruit Aristotle sayth cometh from them in stead of excrement together with their seed And these trees and plants and such like growing things haue onely life deuoid of feeling though Pythagoras thought otherwise or of any knowledge but by the benefite of nature onely they spring they grow and bringforth fruite and seed for the vse of man and for the maintaining of their kind There is another kind of life lesse imperfect then that which is the same that perfect liuing creatures haue for of that life which is in maner a meane between the life of plants and this of sensible creatures we need not now to speake or if it were we should resemble it to that which Physitions call Embrio and is the creature vnperfect in the wombe whiles it is betweene the forme of seed and of the kind whence it cometh which life of perfect liuing creatures hath in it by nature power to feele and to moue from place to place For we see they stir and feele and haue power to desire those things that are meete for the maintaining of their life and of their nature And by natural inclination and for the increase and continuance of their kinds they couet the ioyning of their bodies to yeeld vnto nature that which of nature they haue receiued that is to ingender the like vnto themselues But this power of the soule cannot vse that force and vertue which naturally it hath if it haue not withall that former part which is proper as is said to plants is called vegetatiue you must giue me leaue to vse new words of Art such as are proper to expresse new conceits though they be yet strange and not denizened in our language because it giueth life and increase to growing things and without it the power of feeling doth vtterly faile Next after this cometh that excellent and diuine part of the soule which bringeth with it the light of reason containing in it the powers faculties or vertues of the other two For it hath that life which proceedeth from plants it hath sense or feeling motion frō place to place proper to the second kind and it hath besides that other part wherby it knoweth vnderstādeth discourseth cōsulteth chuseth and giueth it selfe to operation and to contemplate things naturall and diuine and this part is proper only to man And as by the two other faculties before mentioned we are like to plants and to bruite beasts so by this last we do participate of the diuine nature of God himselfe Wherefore Aristotle said that man was created vpright for no other cause then for that his substance was diuine whose nature and office is to know and vnderstand And truly this gift is giuen vnto vs by the maker and gouernour of all things because we might know our selues to be of a nature most perfect among earthly things and not farre inferiour to the diuine And that we haue receiued so singular a gift from Almightie God for no other cause but onely to the end we might perceiue how all other things that grow and liue on earth are corruptible and do resolue into their first principles or beginnings and cease any more to be as soone as the soule of life departeth from them but that our minds are immortal and incorruptible whereby we may rest assured of an eternall life Since then these three faculties of the soule are in vs it is cleare that as the plants among things that beare life are the most imperfect so that part of the soule is most vnperfect which is proper to their kind but it is so necessary to all other kinds as without it there is no life and with it the rest of the faculties that are ioyned therewith though they be worthier decay and fall And this necessitie of nature that without it she giueth no life maketh the same to be most base and ignoble For among natural things those which are so necessary as without them nothing can be done are alwaies held and reputed the most vnworthy Which thing we may see in that we call Materia prima which though it be in nature before the forme yet because of the necessitie thereof it is esteemed of no nobilitie in comparison of the forme And euen so likewise among the senses that of feeling is held the basest because no perfect liuing creature can be without it nor yet the rest of the senses vnlesse that be present And therefore Aristotle said that the other senses were giuen to man that thereby he might liue the better but the sense of feeling was giuen him because without it he could neither be nor liue Now for so much as life may be without sense because the sensitiue soule is not of such necessitie as is the vegetatiue therefore is that of more nobilitie then this somewhat yet inferiour to the intellectiue which can no more be without the sensitiue then the sensitiue without the vegetatiue And because the intellectiue soule is not of necessitie seruing to any other facultie or power therfore is she as Lady Mistris and Queene ouer all other the powers faculties or vertues of the soul so as there is none proper vnto man but that whereby he may be either good or bad happie or vnhappie and the same is it whereby we vnderstand and make choice rather of one course of life then of another This great gift hath God bestowed vpon vs to shew his great grace and goodnes and for this purpose that as he hath inuited vs through vertue of our vnderstanding to the knowledge of truth and by this knowledge to become like vnto himselfe so we should bend all our study and endeuours thereunto as the end and scope of our life in this world Of which the occasion of this our present speech did first arise Here I pawsing a while as to take breath and withall to order some of the papers the Lord Primate spake saying Hauing treated thus farre of the powers faculties vertues or parts of the soule I thinke it not impertinent to moue a question whether they be in man separate and in seuerall places or whether they be vnited all together and seated in one place This question quoth I is very pertinent to this place and by the author here resolued as a doubt not lightly or easie to be answered First for that there haue not wanted some who would needs haue that these three powers of the
all the arguments which Plato his followers bring to proue this by our desiring of things by seeking them by finding them and by the discerning of them it may suffice to referre you to what Plato hath left of this matter written vnder the person of Socrates in his dialogs intitled Menon and Phoedon and diuers other places And likewise to that which his expositors haue written among whō Plotinus though he be somewhat obscure deserueth the chiefe place as best expressing Plato his sence and meaning But let our knowledge come how it will either by learning anew or by recording what the soule knew before she hauing need howsoeuer it be of the ministery of the senses and seeing it is almost necessary to passe through the same meanes from not knowing to knowledge we shall euer find the like difficulties whether we rememorate or learne anew For without much study great diligence and long trauel are sciences no way to be attained Which thing Socrates who haply was the author of Plato his opinion shewed vs plainely For when the curtizan Theodota scoffing at him said she was of greater skill then he for she had drawne diuers of Socrates scholers from him to her loue where Socrates could draw none of her louers to follow him he answered that he thereat maruelled nothing at all for said he thou leadest them by a plaine smooth way to lust and wantonnesse and I leade them to vertue by a rough and an vneasie path Here Captaine Norreis said Though this controuersie betweene two so great Philosophers be not for ought I see yet decided and that if we should take vpon vs to discerne whose opinion were the better it might be imputed to presumption yet would I for my part be very glad to know what was the reason that induced Plato to say that our soule had the knowledge of all things before it came into the body and I pray you if your author speake any thing thereof that you will therein satisfie my desire Yes marry doth he sir said I and your desire herein sheweth very well the excellencie of your wit and your attention to that which hath bin said and both may serue for a sufficient argument what hope is to be conceiued of a gentleman so inclined and desirous to learne Thus therefore he saith to your question That whereas we according to truth beleeue that our soules are by the diuine power of God incontinently created and infused into our bodies when we beginne to receiue life and sense in our mothers womb Plato contrarily held that they were long before the bodies created and produced in a number certaine by God and that they were as particles descended from the Gods aboue into our bodies and therfore he thought it nothing absurd that they should haue the knowledge of al things that may be knowne For that they being in heauen busied in the contemplation of the diuine nature free from any impediment of the body and that diuine nature containing in it as he said the essentiall Ideas of all things which Ideas according to his opinion were separate and eternall natures remaining in the diuine minde of God to the patterne of which all things created were made they might said he in an instant haue the knowledge of all that could be knowne If this opinion were true said Captaine Norreis happie had it bin for vs that our soules had continued stil after they were sent into our bodies to be of that sort that they had bin in heauen for then should we not haue needed so much labour and paine in seeking that knowledge which before they had so perfectly And being so perfect to what end did he say they were sent into our bodies to become vnperfect His opinion said I was that the soules were created in a certaine number to the end they might informe so many bodies and therfore if they should not haue come into those bodies they should haue failed of the end for which they were created In which bodies the Platonikes say further that they were to exercise themselues and were giuen to the bodies not onely because they should giue them power to moue to see to feele and to do those other operations which are naturall but to the end that they should in that which appertaineth to the mind not suffer vs to be drowsie and lie as it were asleepe but rather to waken and stirre vs vp to the knowledge of those things that are fit for vs to vnderstand and this was the most accomplished operation sayd they that the soule could giue vnto the bodie whiles it was linked thereunto I cannot see said the Lord Primate how this hangeth together For I haue read that these kind of Philosophers held an opinion that our soules all the while they were tied to our bodies did but sleepe and that all which they do or suffer in this life was but as a dreame It is true said I that the Platonikes said so indeed and that was because they knew that whatsoeuer we do in this life is but a dreame in comparison of that our soules shal do in the other world when they shal be loosed from those bands which tie them to our bodies here through which bands they are hindred from the knowledge of those things perfectly which here they learne In regard whereof Carneades Arcesilas and others the authors of the new Accademie said constantly that in this world there was no certaine knowledge of any thing And Nausifanes affirmed that of all those things which here seeme to vs to be we know nothing so certainly as that they were not Vnto which opinion Protagoras also agreed saying that men might dispute of any thing pro contra as if he should say that nothing could be assuredly knowen to vs whiles we are here as our soules shall know them whensoeuer they shall be freed from our bodies and lie no more inwrapped in these mortall shadowes because then they shall be wholy busied in the contemplation of truth neither shal they be deceiued by the senses as in this life they are oftentimes who offer vnto them the images of things vncertainly not through default of the senses but by reason of the meanes whereby they apprehend the formes of things For the sense by his owne nature if he be not deceiued or hindred in receiuing of things sensible comprehendeth them perfectly nay becometh one selfe same thing with them And this is the cause why it is said that our soules sleepe whiles they remaine in this life and that our knowledge here is but as a dreame According to which conceit the inamoured Poet speaking of his Ladie Laura said very properly vpon her death in this sort Thou hast faire Damsell slept but a short sleepe Now wak'd thou art among the heau'nly spirits Where blessed soules interne within their maker Shewing that our life here is but a slumber and seeming to infer that she was now interned or become inward in the
their nature inclineth them whereas we notwithstanding the vse of reason should be like bond-slaues tied to what the necessitie of destinie should bind vs vnto This was the cause why Chrysippus was worthily condemned among all the auncient Philosophers for that he held destinie to be a sempiternal and vneuitable necessitie and order of things which in maner of a chaine was linked orderly in it self so as one succeeded another and were fitly conioyned together By which description of destinie appeereth that he meant to tie all things to necessitie For albeit he affirmed withall that our mind had some working in the matter yet did he put necessitie to be so necessary that there could no way be found whereby our mind might come to haue any part For to say that our mind or will concurred by willing or not willing whatsoeuer destinie drew vs vnto was nought else but a taking away of free choice from our vnderstanding or will since our mind like a bond-slaue was constrained to will or not to will as destinie did inuite it or rather force it And like to this were the opinions of Demetrius of Parmenides and of Heraclitus who subiected all things to necessitie and deserued no lesse to be condemned then Chrysippus Prince of the Stoikes Among which some there were who seeing many things to happen by chance or fortune whereby it appeared that it could not be true that things came by necessitie lest they should denie a thing so manifest to sense they supposed the beginnings and the endings of things to be of necessitie but the meanes and circumstances they yeelded to be subiect to the changes and alterations of fortune And of this opinion was Virgil as some thinke in the conducting of Aeneas into Italie For it should seeme that he departed his country to come into Italie by fatall disposition that he might get Lauinia for his wife but before he could arriue there and winne her he was mightily tossed and turmoyled by fortune which neuerthelesse could neuer crosse him so much but that in the end he obtained his purpose which by destiny was appointed for him But howsoeuer Virgil thought in that point which here need not to be disputed sure I am that he in the greatest part of his excellent Poeme is rather a Platonike then a Stoike Howbeit some Platonikes as I thinke were not farre different in opinion from the Stoikes for they say that fortune with all her force was not able to resist fatall destinie Though Plotinus thought otherwise and indeed much better who answering them that would needs haue the influence of starres to induce necessitie prooued their reasons to be vaine onely by an ordinary thing in dayly experience which is that sundry persons borne vnder one self same constellation are seene neuerthelesse to haue diuers ends and diuers successes which they could not haue if those influences did worke their effects of necessitie And as for Epicures opinion which was that the falling of his motes or Atomi should breed necessitie in our actions he rather laughed at then confuted Yea he was further of opinion that not onely humane prudence and our free election was able to resist the influences of the starres but that also our complexiō our conuersation and change of place might do the like meaning that the good admonitions and faithfull aduice and counsell of friends is sufficient to ouercome destinie and to free our mindes from the necessitie of fatall disposition Wherefore though it be granted that there is a destinie or that the starres and heauens or the order of causes haue power ouer vs to incline or dispose vs more to one thing then to another yet is it not to be allowed that they shall force vs to follow the same inclination or disposition For though the heauens be the vniuersall principle or beginning of all things and by that vniuersalitie as I may call it the beginning of vs also according to naturall Philosophie yet is it not the onely cause of our being and of our nature for to the making man a man must concurre and so restraine this vniuersall cause to a more speciall And as the heauen or the order of higher causes cannot ingender man without a man speaking according to nature so can they do nothing to bind the free election of man without his consent who must voluntarily yeeld himselfe to accomplish that whereunto the heauen or the order of causes doth bend and incline him And if we haue power to master our complexion so as being naturally inclined to lust we may by heed and diligence become continent and being couetous become liberall though Aristotle say that couetise is as incurable a disease of the mind as the Dropsie or Ptisike is to the body what a folly is it to beleeue that we cannot resist the inclinations of the stars which are causes without vs and not the onely causes of our being but haue need of vs if they will bring forth their effects in vs The beginning of all our operation is vndoubtedly in our selues and all those things that haue the beginning of their working in themselues do worke freely and voluntarily And consequently we may by our free choise and voluntarily giue our selues to good or to euill and master the inclination of the heauens the starres or destinie which troubleth so much the braines of some that in despite of nature they will needes make themselues bond being free whom Ptolomie doth fitly reprehend by saying that the wise man ouer-ruleth the starres For well may the heauens or the stars being corporall substances haue some power ouer our bodies but ouer our mindes which are diuine simple and spirituall substances can they haue none for betweene the heauens our minds is no such correspondence that they may against our wils do ought at all in our minds which are wholy free from their influences if any they haue And therefore do the best of the Platonikes say very wel that man must oppose himselfe against his destinie fighting to ouercome the same with golden armes and weapons to wit vertues which is as Plato saith the gold of the mind For he that behaueth himselfe well that is to say ruleth wel his mind or soule which is the true man indeed as we haue formerly shewed shall neuer be abandoned to destinie or fortune against which two powers mans counsell and wisedome resisteth in such sort if he set himself resolutely thereunto as it may wel appeere that he is Lord and master ouer his owne actions Neither without cause did Tully say that fatall destinie was but a name deuised by old wiues who not knowing the causes of things as soone as any thing fell out contrary to their expectation straight imputed it to destinie ioyning thereunto such a necessitie as it must needs forsooth force mans counsell and prudence A thing most false as hath bin declared Is it not said in the Scripture that God created man and left him in the power
and conditiōs Plato saith that beauty beareth the greatest sway in friendship but that is the beauty of the mind which vertue brings forth but if to the beauty of the mind that of the body also be ioyned they both do the sooner and the faster tie together the minds of vertuous men For the exterior beauty of the body prepareth the way to the knowledge of the other inward of the mind which as hath bin sayd is indeed the true man but he that loueth but the body loueth not the man but that which nature hath giuen him for an instrument And if this beauty of the bodie happen to draw any man to loue a foule or dishonest mind that loue cannot be termed rightly friendship but a filthy and loathsome coniunction of two bodies too much frequented by yong men with naughtie women who are not onely vnworthy any loue but ought of all men to be eschued as abhominable and driuen out of all well ordered Common-weales This friendship tieth though with diuers respects children to their parents kinred to kinred the husband to the wife and the minds of men of valour vertue fast together as a thing agreeable to all the qualities which our soule containeth but this friendship betweene men of valour and courage springeth from that faculty of the mind whence cometh reasonable anger the heate whereof stirreth inflameth the mindes of such men to valour and fortitude And though this friendship be good and commendable yet is that more firme permanent which groweth out of the that part of the mind which is garnished with reason and vertuous habits for it bindeth mens minds so fast together and breedeth so firme a consent in them that they become as one in so much as it seemeth that one mind dwelleth in two bodies to guide and rule them Which made Zeno say that his friend was another himself Now albeit we see dayly friendships to be broken off vpon fleight occasions yet is that not to be imputed to any imperfection in the nature of friendship It is maruel said Captain Carleil that friends should so easily break the bonds of friendship if they were so fast knit as you haue sayd the cause whereof were worth the knowing That shall I declare vnto you said I Many apparances of friendship there are which be as farre from true friendship as the painted image of a man is from a man indeed for some are friends for profit some for pleasure and some for other respects which respects failing loue also quaileth and so the foundation of friendship being gone it must needs fall to the ground Others first loue and after beginne to iudge of the person and when they find themselues deceiued in their expectation whatsoeuer it were they vntie the knot of friendship faster then they hasted to knit the same before But if iudgement leade the daunce as it ought to do and that a man chuse to loue another because he esteemeth him worthy for his vertues to be beloued such friendship is sure and firme neuer to be dissolued nay not so much as a mislike can grow betweene such friends For Aristotle holdeth that discord cannot possibly dwell together with friendship All other friendships are subiect to quarrels dissentiōs but especially that which is grounded vpō profit wheras those friends whom vertue coupleth together as they haue but one wil so haue they all things common according to the lawes of Pythagoras Which lawes Plato allowed and Aristotle likewise though in the communion of goods he were contrary to Plato affirming that where all things were common it was not possible that the commonwealth could stand The stedfastnesse of friendship therefore consisteth in the communion and equalitie of minds betweene which neither anger dissention nor ingratitude can grow for true friends prouoke not one another with contention anger or vnthankfulnesse And in regard hereof the opinion of Plato was that pleasantnes and cheerfulnesse was fitter among friends then grauitie or seueritie But I pray you sayd Captaine Norreis tell vs whether this friendship you speake of may be between many or no Sir answered I a man cannot in truth be friend to many at once in this degree of friendship which we are treating of For since the worker of this fast friendship is the likenes of minds and conditions As there is a variety of faces infinite insomuch as it is a very rare thing to find two altogether like the one to the other so falleth it out likewise in minds and the saying is that one mind ruleth two bodies and not mo according to which saying friendship cannot be in perfection betweene many The reason wherof may be that loue and true affection being the most excellent thing among the effects of friendship and things excellent being rare therfore true friendship is so rare as not onely in our age but also in all ages past we find scarce two or three couples of friends to be recorded Neither can a man indeed deuide his loue into many shares without impairing it nor giue like helpe vse like conuersation or do other friendly offices toward many which are needfull and required betweene two fast friends such as we speake of I cannot tell sayd sir Robert Dillon why you make friendship so rare a matter when dayly example sheweth vs that there are many men who haue many friends Let vs consider priuatly or publikely our owne acquaintances and we shall see so many kind offices of friendship stirring as it may be thought the auncient times brought forth men more sauage vnfit for amity or else that our times are happier in that point then theirs I remember yet that I haue read of Epaminondas how he was wont to say that a man shold not come home from the pallace vntill he had purchased some friends The like is written of Scipio the yonger who affirmed that the firmest and most profitable possession that a man could haue in this world was the hauing of many friends Also the Emperour Traian was accustomed to say that he accounted that day lost wherein he had not gotten one friend All this said I is true but many are friends in name who whē they be put to trial proue nothing so And therfore was it said that there were many apparances sorts of friendship which properly are not to be esteemed true friendship but are rather to be termed ciuil beneuolence or publike friendship being a certaine generall loue which the nature of man and the communion of countries breedeth of it selfe And this loue maketh one man courteous gracious and affable to another if he degenerate not from his owne nature which hath framed him sociable it maketh him apt to help and ready to defend and to vse all the offices of humanitie and beneuolence that become him towards all men but specially towards such as either countrey neighbourhood likenesse of exercises or delights or such like things haue vnited and knit together All which breed
out of the world litle respecting any profit which the prudent hath still regard vnto For the wise maÌ„ hath his mind alwaies raised to the conteÌ„plation of sublime things whereby these baser of the earth seeme to him worthy no estimation the rather because he knoweth right well that nature hath need of very little to sustaine her And although Plato say that those men are called wise who by the light of reason know what is profitable not onely for themselues and particular persons but generally for the commonweale he there vseth the name of a wise man according to the coÌ„mon maner of speech and not properly But that you may the better vnderstaÌ„d my authors meaning you must giue me leaue to enlarge a litle the ground of this his distinction You are therfore to consider that there be three seueral things in vs to wit sense and feeling vnderstanding and appetite Of which the first is the beginning of no action properly because it is common to vs with brute beasts who are not said to do any action for that they want iudgement and election The appetite so farre forth as it is obedient to reason either followeth or eschueth things presented thereunto and in this part Counsell hath place and election as hath bin formerly said which election is the inducement to action for thereby we worke either good or euil and it is prouoked by the appetite though reason brideling the concupiscible desire be the minister of good electioÌ„ But the vnderstanding stretcheth furder then so For it trauels about things eternal necessary and so true as they neuer change nor can be any other then as by nature they haue bin framed But it is busied about this truth two manner of wayes for either it seeketh the knowledge of principles from whence true conclusions are drawne or else of principles that be the origâ—ne of things If we consider the vnderstanding according to the first manner it breedeth science in vs which commeth from the knowledge of true principles which are the grounds of true conclusions And in this sort do we know all things naturall and corporall yet eternall and immutable as causes naturall nature her selfe time place the elements heauen the first mouer so farre forth as he is applied to a moueable body for so far forth as he is a simple substance vnmoueable indiuisible free from all change and as he is alone by him selfe infinite neither body nor vertue contained in a bodie the first of all things naturally moued yea before the matter it selfe al other the properties attributed to that simple pure and diuine nature it is a thing not appertaining to the naturall Philosopher to treate of him and generally all other things natural But taking the vnderstanding according to the second way it raiseth vs vp to the knowledge of that diuine power from which all things great and small mortall and immortall haue their beginning and this knowledge is called wisedome which together with vertue we attaine by the meanes of Philosophie the only school-mistris of humane and diuine learning and the true guide to commendable life and vertuous actions being indeed the greatest gift that God giueth to man in this transitory life Now as these vertues before specified direct vs to that perfectest end that man in this world can attaine vnto by his vertuous deeds so doth this habit called wisedome conduct him to a farre more excellent end then this ciuill or politike end And if that which vertue guideth vs vnto be worthy to be called perfect in this world this other which wisedome leadeth vs vnto may well be termed most perfect because this diuine habit addresseth vs to the knowledge of the most pure simple and excellentest nature which is God eternall and immortall the fountaine of all goodnesse and infallible truth the onely and absolute rest and quiet of our soules minds For which cause Plato said that humane things if they were compared to diuine were vnworthy the employing any study in them as being of no price or estimation at all for they are rather shadowes of things then things indeed euermore fleeting and slippery as dayly experience teacheth vs. But being as we are among men and set to liue and conuerse with them ciuilly the ciuill man must not giue himself to contemplation to stay vpon it as wisedome would perswade him vntill he haue first employed his wit and prudence to the good and profit as well of others as of himselfe Giuing them to vnderstand how man is the perfection of all creatures vnder heauen and placed as the center betweene things diuine and mortall and shewing to them how great is the perfection of mans mind make them know how vnworthy vnfit it is for a maÌ„ to suffer those parts that he hath common with brute beasts to master and ouer-rule those by which he is made not much inferiour to diuine creatures and causing them to lift vp their minds to this consideration instruct them so to dispose and rule through vertuous habits those parts which of themselues are rebellious to reason as they may be forced to obey her no otherwise then their Queene and mistris and through Fortitude Temperance Iustice and Prudence with the rest of the vertues that spring from them frame their behauiour and direct all their actions to that end which we haue intituled by the name of ciuill felicitie to wit that perfect action or operation according to vertue in a perfect life whereof hath formerly bin largely discoursed Which felicitie once attained is of that nature that no man which is possessed thereof can become miserable or vnhappie For vice only can reduce man to be miserable and that is euermore banished from felicitie whose conuersation is onely with vertue to whom she is so fast linked and tied in the mind of man that he hath no power to dissolue or seuer the same And this felicitie is not only a degree but euen the very foundation of that other which we may attaine by the meane of wisedome For after we haue once setled and gounded our selues in the morall vertues and done well in respect of our selues and also holpen others as much as we could we may then raise our thoughts to a higher consideration and examining more inwardly our owne estate find that this most excellent gift of vnderstanding hath bin giuen vs to a further end and purpose then this humane felicitie and therfore bend all our wits to a better vse of our selues which is to take the way of that other felicitie so to place our selues not onely aboue the ordinary ranke of men but euen to approch as neere as our frailtie will permit to God himselfe the last end of all our thoughts and actions From this perfect knowledge of our selues we ascend by degrees to such a height as leauing all worldly cares we apply al our studies to the searching of diuine things to the end that by attaining the vnderstanding and knowledge