of it and to meddle withall let us forbeare therefore to slander and blame the good gifts of the gods and goe we rather another way to worke for the inquisition of the cause unto which the very name of the season and of these windie and vaine dreames doth lead us for this time is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the fall of the leafe to wit the end of Autumne when by reason of cold and drinesse trees shedde their leaves unlesse it bee some which are hot and fatty by nature as the olive the lawrell and the date trees or very moist as the ivie and myrtle for such as these their temperature helpeth others not by reason that this glutinous humour which holdeth the leaves upon the tree continueth not becaue that their naturall humiditie is congealed with cold or else dried up being so feeble and little withall to flourish therefore to grow and to be fresh in plants and much more in living creatures commeth of moisture and heat and contrariwise cold drinesse are deadly enemies therefore Homer very properly is wont to call men who are fresh and lusty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say moist and succulent as also to joy and be merry he expresseth by the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be hot contrariwise that which is dolorous and fearefull he tearmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say stiffe starke for cold a bodie that is dead he tearmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without moisture as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a verie anotomy dried in the smoake or against the sunne which are two words devised to traduce note their extreme drinesse moreover bloud which is the thing within us of principall strength vertue is both hot and moist but old age is destitute bothof the one and the other now it seemeth that the later end of Autumne is the very age of the yere having performed his revolutiō for as yet the moisture is not come but the heat is gone already or at leastwise very feeble that which is a great signe of cold drinesse this season causeth bodies to be disposed unto diseases This being laid sor a ground necessary it is that the soule should have a sympathy fellow seeling of the indispositions of the bodie that when the spirits be incrassate thickned and the powre and facultie of divination or foreseeing future things must needs be dimmed and dulled much like as a mirrour or looking glasse overcast with some thicke mist no marvell therefore if it send and transmit nothing in phantasie and imaginations that is plaine expresse articulate evident and significant so long as it is rough and unpolished not smooth and resplendent THE NINTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-DISCOURSES The Summarie or principall chapters thereof 1 OF verses which have beene cited and alledged fitly in good season or otherwise 2 What is the cause that the letter Alpha or A standeth first in the alphabet or A b c. 3 In what proportion hath beene composed and or deined the number of vowels and semi-vowels 4 Whether hand it was of Venus that Diomedes wounded 5 What was the reason of Plato when hee said that the soule of Ajax came in the 20. place to the lot 6 What is covertly signified by the fable wherein Neptune is feigned to be vanquished and why the Athenians put out of their kalender the second day of August 7 What is the cause that the accords in musicke are divided into a ternarie 8 Wherein differ the intervals melodious and accordants in musicke 9 What is it that maketh accord or symphonie and what is the reason that when a man striketh two strings accordant together the melodie is more base 10 How it commeth to passe that the ecliptick revolutions of sunne and moone being in number equal yet the moone is seene to be oftner ecclipsed than the sunne 11 That we continue not alwaies one and the same for that our substance evermore passeth still away 12 Whether is more probable of the twaine that the starres be in number evenor od 13 A question of contrary lawes and convenants drawen out of the third booke of the Rhapsodie of Homers Ilias 14 Of the number of the Muses certeine discourses and reasons not after a vulgar and common maner delivered 15 That there be three parts of dauncing motion gesture and shew and what each of these is also what communitie there is betweene the art of poetrie and the skill in dauncing THE NINTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-discourses The Proëme THis ninth booke of Symposiaques ô Sossius Senecio conteineth the discourses held at Athens during the festivall solemnities of the Muses for that this number of nine foreth and agreeth well with the said Muses Now if the number of question handled in this booke surmount the ordinarie Decade of the former books you are nothing to marvell thereat because we ought to render unto the Muses all that apperteineth unto the Muses without taking away or deteining ought from them no more than from holy sacrifices considering that we owe unto them many things besides and the same more beautifull than this THE FIRST QUESTION Of verses cited and pronounced in season and to good purpose or otherwise AMmonius being captaine of the citie of Athens was desirous in favour of Diogenius to take view and knowledge how the yoong men profited who were students in Grammer Geometrie Rhetoricke and Musicke whereupon he invited to supper the most famous regents and masters that were thorowout the whole citie There met also with them and were present many other learned and studious persons in great frequencie yea and in maner all his friends and familiars As for Achilles verily at the funerall games and solemnities of Patroclus he bad onely those to sup with him who had fought hand to hand in single combat to the utterance with this intent as it is said that if haply there had bene any choler or heat of revenge inkindled and inflamed betweene these men whiles they were in armes they should now lay downe and quit the same meeting thus at one feast eating and drinking together at one table but it hapned cleane contrary at this time unto Ammonius for the jealousie contention and emulation of these schoolemen and masters of art aforesaid became the hotter and grew to the heighth amid their cups for by this time they fell to argue yea and to challenge and defie one another reasoning and disputing without all order or judgement whereupon at the first he commanded the musician Eraton to sing unto the harpe who began his song in this wise out of the works of Hesiodus Of quarell and contention There were as then more sorts than one for which I commended him in that he knew how to applie the dittie of his song so well unto the present time which gave occasion afterwards
division of the earth 15 The zones or climates of the earth how many and how great they be 16 Of earth quakes 17 Of the sea how it is concret and how it comes to be bitter 18 How come the tides that is to say the ebbing and flowing of the seas 19 Of the circle called Halo Chapters of the fourth Booke 1 Of the rising of Nilus 2 Of the soule 3 Whether the soule be corporall and what is her substance 4 The parts of the soule 5 Which is the mistresse or principall part of the soule and wherein it doth consist 6 Of the soules motion 7 Of the soules immortalitie 8 Of the senses and sensible things 9 Whether the senses and imaginations be true 10 How many senses there be 11 How sense and notion is performed as also how reason is ingendred according to disposition 12 What difference there is betweene imagination imaginable and imagined 13 Of sight and how we doe see 14 Of the reflexions or resemblances in mirrors 15 Whether darknesse be visible 16 Of hearing 17 Of smelling 18 Of tasting 19 Of the voice 20 Whether the voice be incorporall and how commeth the resonance called eccho 21 How it is that the soule hath sense and what is the principal predomināt part therof 22 Of respiration 23 Of the passions of the body and whether the soule have a fellow-feeling with it of paine Chapters of the fift Booke 1 Of divination or 〈◊〉 of future things 2 How dreames 〈◊〉 3 What is the substance of naturall seed 4 Whether naturall seed be a body 5 Whether femals as well as males doe yeeld naturall seed 6 After what maner conceptions are 7 How males and females are engendred 8 How monsters are ingendred 9 What is the reason that a woman accompanying often times carnally with a man doth not 〈◊〉 10 How twinnes both two and three at once be occasioned 11 How commeth the resemblance of parents 12 What is the cause that infants be like to some other and not to the parents 13 How women proove barren and men unable to ingender 14 What is the reason that mules be barren 15 Whether the fruit within the wombe is to be accounted a living creature or no. 16 How such fruits be nourished within the wombe 17 What part is first accomplished in the wombe 18 How it commeth to passe that infants borne at seven moneths end doe live and are livelike 19 Of the generation of living creatures how they be ingendred and whether they be corruptible 20 How many kindes there be of living creatures whether they all have sense and use of reason 21 In what time living creatures receive forme within the mothers wombe 22 Of what elements is every generall part in us composed 23 How commeth sleepe and death whether it is of soule or bodie 24 When and how a man beginneth to come unto his perfection 25 Whether it is soule or bodie that either sleepeth or dieth 26 How plants come to grow and whether they be living creatures 27 Of nourishment and growth 28 From whence proceed appetites lusts and pleasures in living creatures 29 How the feaver is ingendred and whether it be an accessarie or symptome to another disease 30 Of health sicknesse and olde age THE FIRST BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme BEing minded to write of naturall philosophie we thinke it necessary in the first place and before all things els to set downe the whole disputation of Philosophie by way of division to the end that we may know which is naturall and what part it is of the whole Now the Stoicks say that sapience or wisdom is the science of all things aswell divine as humane and that Philosophie is the profession and exercise of the art expedient thereto which is the onely supreame and sovereigne vertue and the same divided into three most generall vertues to wit Naturall Morall and Verball by reason whereof Philosophie also admitteth a three-folde distribution to wit into Naturall Morall Rationall or Verball the Naturall part is that when as we enquire and dispute of the world and the things conteined therein Morall is occupied in intreating of the good and ill that concerneth mans life Rationall or Verball handleth that which perteineth unto the discourse of reason and to speech which also is named Logique or Dialelectique that is to say Disputative But Aristotle and Theophrastus with the Peripateticks in maner all divide Philosophie in this maner namely into Contemplative and Active For necessarie it is say they that a man to atteine unto perfection should be a spectatour of all things that are and an actour of such things as be seemely and decent and may the better be understood by these examples The question is demanded whether the Sunne be a living creature according as it seemeth to the sight to be or no He that searcheth and enquireth into the trueth of this question is altogether therein speculative for he seeketh no farther than the contemplation of that which is semblably if the demand be made whether the world is infinit or if there be any thing without the pourprise of the world for all these questions be meere contemplative But on the other side mooved it may be How a man ought to live how he should governe his children how he is to beare rule and office of State and lastly in what maner lawes are to be ordeined and made for all these are sought into in regard of action and a man conversant therein is altogether active and practique CHAP. I. What is Nature SInce then our intent and purpose is to consider and treat of Naturall philosophie I thinke it needfull to shew first what is Nature for absurd it were to enterprise a discourse of Naturall things and meane-while to be ignorant of Nature and the power thereof Nature then according to the opinion of Aristotle is the beginning of motion and rest in that thing wherein it is properly and principally not by accident for all things to be seene which are done neither by fortune nor by necessitie and are not divine nor have any such efficient cause be called Naturall as having a proper and peculiar nature of their owne as the earth fire water aire plants and living creatures Moreover those other things which we do see ordinarily engendered as raine haile lightning presteres winds and such like for all these have a certeine beginning and every one of them was not so for ever and from all eternitie but did proceed from some originall likewise living creatures and plants have a beginning of their motion and this first principle is Nature the beginning not of motion onely but also of rest and quiet for whatsoever hath had a beginning of motion the same also may have an end and for this cause Nature is the beginning aswell of rest as of moving CHAP. II. What difference there is betweene a principle and an element ARistotle and Plato are of opinion that there is a
enter into little businesse in the world be both alike commendable parts and the properties of civill and 〈◊〉 persons And in maner the same speeches or very like thereto he hath delivered in the third booke of such things as be expetible and to be chosen for themselves in these termes For in truth quoth he it seemeth that the quiet life should be without danger and in perfect security which few or none of the vulgar sort are able to comprehend and understand Wherein first and formost it is evident that he commeth very neere to the errour of Epicurus who in the government of the world disavoweth divine providence for that he would have God to rest in repose idle and not emploied in any thing And yet Chrysippus himselfe in his first booke of Lives saith That a wise man willingly will take a kingdome upon him yea and thinke to make his gaine and profit thereby and if he be not able to reigne himselfe yet he will at leastwise converse and live with a king yea goe foorth with him to warre like as Hydanthyrsus the Scythian did and Leucon of Pontus But I will set downe his owne words that we may see whether like as of the treble and base strings there ariseth a consonance of an eight so there be an accord in the life of a man who hath chosen to live quietly without doing ought or at leastwise to intermeddle in few affaires yea and yet afterwards accompanieth the Scythians riding on horsebacke and manageth the affaires of the kings of Bosphorus upon any occasion of need that may be presented For as touching this point quoth he that a wise man will go into warlike expeditions with princes live and converse with them we will consider againe thereof heereafter being as it is a thing that as some upon the like arguments imagine not so we for the semblable reasons admit and allow And a little after Not onely with those who have proceeded well in the knowledge of vertue and beene sufficiently instituted and trained up in good maners as were Hydanthyrsus and Leucon abovesaid Some there be who blame Calisthenes for that he passed over the seas to king Alexander into his campe in hope to reedifie the city Olynthus as Artstotle caused the city Stagyra to be repaired who highly commend Ephorus Xenocrates and Menedemus who rejected Alexander But Chrysippus driveth his wise man by the head forward for his gaine and profit as farre as to the city Panticapaeum and the deserts of Scythia And that this is I say for his gaine profit he shewed before by setting downe three principall meanes beseeming a wise man for to practise and seeke his gaine by the first by a kingdome and the beneficence of kings the second by his friends and the third besides these by teaching literature and yet in many places he wearieth us with citing this verse of Euripides For what need mortall men take paine Onely for things in number twaine But in his books of Nature he saith That a wise man if he have lost the greatest riches that may be esteemeth the losse no more than if it were but a single denier of silver or one grey groat Howbeit him whom he hath there so highly extolled and pussed up with glory heere hee taketh downe and abaseth as much even to make him a meere mercenary pedante and one that is faine to teach a schoole for he would have him to demaund and exact his salary sometime before hand of his scholar when he enters into his schoole and otherwhile after a certeine prefixed time of his schooling is come and gone And this quoth hee is the honester and more civill way of the twaine but the other is the furer namely to make him pay his mony aforehand for that delay and giving attendance is subject to receive wrong and susteine losse and thus much he uttereth in these very termes Those teachers that be of the wiser sort cal for their schoolage and minervals of their scholars not all after one maner but diversly a number of them according as the present occasion requireth who promise not to make them wise men and that within a yeere but undertake to doe what lies in them within a set time agreed upon betweene them And soone after speaking of his wise man He will quoth he know the best time when to demaund his pension to wit whether incontinently upon the entrance of his scholar as the most part do or to give day and set downe a certeine time which maner of dealing is more subject to receive injurie howsoever it may seeme more honest and civill And how can a wise man tell me now be a despiser of money in case hee make a contract and bargaine at a price to receive money for delivering vertue or if he doe not deliver it yet require his salary neverthelesse as if he he had performed his part fully Either how can he be greater than to susteine a losse and damage if it be so that he stand so strictly upon this point and be so warie that he receive no wrong by the paiment of his wages For surely no man is said to bee injuried who is not hurt nor endamaged and therefore how ever otherwise he hath flatly denied that a wise man could receive warning yet in this booke he saith that this maner of dealing is exposed to losse and damage In his booke of Common-wealth he affirmeth that his citizens will never doe any thing for pleasure no nor addresse and prepare themselves therefore praising highly Euripides for these verses What need men but for two things onely swinke Bread for to eat and water shere to drinke And soone after he proceedeth forward and praiseth Diogenes for abusing himselfe by forcing his nature to passe from him in the open street and saying withall to those that stood by Oh that I could chase hunger as well from my belly What reason then is there in the selfesame bookes to commend him for rejecting pleasure and withall for defiling his owne body as hee did so beastly in the sight of the whole world and that for a little filthy pleasure In his books of Nature having written that nature had produced and brought foorth many living creatures for beauty onely as delighting and taking pleasure in such lovely varietie and therewith having adjoined moreover a most strange and absurd speech namely that the peacocke was made for his tailes sake and in regard of the beauty thereof cleane contrary to himselfe in his books of Common-wealth he reprooveth very sharpely those who keepe peacocks and nightingals as if he would make lawes quite contrary to that soveraigne law-giver of the world deriding nature for taking delight and employing as it were her study in bringing foorth such creatures unto which a wise man wil give no place in his city and common-wealth For how can it otherwise be but monstrous and absurd for to finde fault with those who nourish such creatures
dishonest what is just and generally what to choise and what to refuse how we ought to beare our selves towards the gods and towards our parents what our demeanour should bee with our elders what regard we are to have of lawes what our cariage must be to strangers to superiours how we are to converse with our friends In what sort we ought to demeane our selves towards our children and wives and finally what behaviour it beseemeth us to snew unto our servants and familie For as much as our duetie is to worship and adore the gods to honour our parents to reverence our ancients to obey the lawes to give place unto our superiors and betters to love our friends to use our wives chastely and with moderation to be and affectionate to our children and not to be ouragious with our servants nor to tyrannize over them But the principall and chiefe of all is this not to shew our selves over joious and merrie in prosperitie nor yet exceeding heavie and sad in adversitie not in pleasures and delight dissolute nor in anger furious and transported or rather transformed into brutish beasts by choler And these I esteeme to be the foveraigne fruits that are to be gathered and gotten by Philosophie For to carrie a generous and noble heart in prosperitie is the part of a brave minded man to live without envie and malice is the signe of a good and tractible nature to overcom pleasures by the guidance of reason is the act of wise and sage men and to bridle and restraine choler is a mastry that every one cannot skill of But the height of perfection in my judgement those onely attaine unto who are able to joine and intermingle the politicke government of weale publike with the profession and studie of Philosophie For by this meanes I suppose they may enjoy two of the best things in the world to wit the profit of the common weale by managing State affaires and their owne good living so as they doc in tranquilitie and repose of mind by the meanes of Philosophie For whereas there be amongst men three sorts of life namely Active Contemplative and Voluptuous this last named being dissolute loose and thrall to pleasure is bruitish beastly base and vile The contemplative wanting the active is unprofitable and the active not participating with the speculation of Philosophie committeth many absurde conormities and wanteth ornaments to grace and beautifie it In which regard men must endevour and aslay as much as lieth in them both to deale in government of the State and also to give their mindes to the studie of Philosophie so farre foorth as they have time and publike affaires will permit Thus governed in times past noble Pericles thus ruled Archytas the Tarentine thus Dion the Syracusian and Epaminondas of Thebes swaied the State where they lived and both of them aswell the one as the other conversed familiarly with Plato As touching the Institution of children in good literature needlesse I suppose it is to write any more This onely will I adde unto the rest that hath beene said which I suppose to be expedient or rather necessarie namely that they make no small account of the workes and bookes of the ancient Sages and Philosophers but diligentlie collect and gather them together so as they do it after the maner of good husbandmen For as they doe make provision of such tooles as pertaine to Agriculture and husbandrie not onely to keepe them in their possession but also to use them accordingly so this reckoning ought to be made that the instruments and furniture of knowledge and learning bee good bookes if they be read and perused For from thence as from a fountaine they may be sure to maintaine the same And here we are not to forget the diligence that is to be imployed in the bodily exercise of children but to remember that they bee sent into the schooles of those masters who make profession of such feats there to be trained and exercised sufficiently aswell for the streight and decent grouth as for the abilitie and strength of their bodies For the fast knitting and strong complexion of the bodie in children is a good foundation to make them another day decent and personable old men And like as in time of a calme faire season they that are at sea ought to make provision of necessarie meanes to withstand foule weather and a tempest even so verie meete it is that tender age be furnishd with temperance sobrietie and continencie and even betimes reserve and lay up such voyage provision for the better sustenance of old age Howbeit in such order ought this labour and travell of children to be dispensed that their bodies be not exhaust and dried up and so by that meanes they themselves be overwearied and made either unmeet or unwilling to follow their booke afresh and take their learning For as Plato said very well Sleepe and lassitude be enemies to learning But why do I stand hereupon so much being in comparison so small a matter Proceed I will therefore and make haste to that which is of greatest importance and passeth all the rest that hath beene said before For this I say that youth ought to be trained to militarie feats namely in launcing darts and javelins in drawing a bow and shooting arrowes in chasing also and hunting wilde beasts Forasmuch as all the goods of those who are vanquished in fight be exposed as a prey and bootie to the conquerours neither are they fit for warfarre and to beare armes whose bodies having beene daintily brought up in the shade and within house are corpulent and of a soft and delicate constitution The leane and dry the raw bone soldiour fierce Who train'd hath beene in armes and warlike toile In field wholerankes of enemies will pierce And in the lists all his concurrents foile But what may some men say unto me Sir you have made promise to give us examples and precepts concerning the education of all children free borne and of honest parentage and now me thinkes you neglect the education of commoners and poore mens children and deliver no instructions but such as are for gentlemen and be sutable to the rich and wealthie onely To which objection it is no hard matter to make answere For mine owne part my desire especially is that this instruction of mine might serve all but in case there be some who for want of meanes cannot make that use and profit which I could wish let them lay the waight upon fortune and not blame him who hath given them his advise and counsell in these points And yet for poore men thus much will I say Let them endevour and straine themselves to the utmost of their power to bring up their children in the best manner and if they cannot reach unto that yet must they aime thereat and come as neere as their abilitie will give them leave I have beene willing to insert these points by the way into this present
that authour is of such are all one in effect with the opinions and discourses of Plato in his dialogue Gorgias and in his books of Common weale to wit that more dangerous it is to doe wrong that to suffer injurie and more damage commeth by giving than by receiving an abuse Also to this verse of Aeschylus Be of good cheere Excessive paine Can not endure nor long remaine When wofull bale is at the highest Then blessed boot be sure is nighest we must say that they be the very same with that divulged sentence so often repeated by Epicurus and so highly admired by his followers namely That as great paines are not durable so long griefs are tolerable And as the former member of this sentence was evidently expressed by Acschylus so the other is a consequent thereof and implied therein For if a griefe that is fore and vehement endureth not surely that which continueth can not be violent or intolerable Semblably this sentence of Thespis the Poet in verse Thou seest how Iove all other gods for this doth farre excell Because that lies he doth abhorre and pride of heart expell He is not wont to laugh and scorne to frumpe he doth disdaine He onely can not skill of lusts and pleasures which be vaine is varied by Plato in prose when he saith that the divine power is seated farre from pleasure and paine As for these verses of Barchylides We holde it true and ever will maintaine That glory sound and vertue doth endure Great wealth and store we take to be but vaine And may befall to vile men and impure As also these of Euripides to the like sense Sage temperance I holde we ought to honour most in heart For with good men it doth remaine and never will depart As also these When honour and worldly wealth you have To furnish your selves with vertue take care Without her if riches you get and save Though blessed you seeme unhappy you are Containe they not an evident proofe and demonstration of that which the Philosophers teach as touching riches and externall goods which without vertue profit not those at all who are possessed of them And verily thus to reduce and fitly to accommodate the sentences of Poets unto the precepts and principles delivered by Philosophers will soone dissever Poetrie from fables and plucke from it the masque wherewith it is disguised it will give I say unto them an esfectuall power that being profitably spoken they may be thought serious and perswasive yea and besides will make an overture and way unto the minde of a yoong ladde that it may encline the rather to Philosophicall reasons and discourses namely when he having gotten some smatch and taste alreadie thereof and being not voide altogether of hearing good things he shall not come altogether without judgement replenished onely with foolish conceits and opinions which he hath evermore heard from his mothers and nurses mouth yea and otherwhiles beleeve me from his father tutour and schoole-master who will not sticke in his hearing to repute for blessed and happie yea and with great reverence to give the worship to those who are rich but as for death paine and labour to stand in feare and horror thereof and contrariwise to make no reckoning and account of vertue but to despise the same and thinke it as good as nothing without earthly riches and authoritie Certes when yoong men shal come thus rawly and untrained to heare the divisions reasons arguments of Philosophers flat contrary to such opinions they will at first be much astonied troubled disquieted in their minds and no more able to admit of the same and to reduce such doctrine than they who having a long time bene pent in and kept in darke can abide the glittering raies of the Sun shine unlesse they were acquainted before by little little with some false and bastard light not altogether so lively and cleere as it And even so I say yoong men must be accustomed beforehand yea and from the very first day to the light of the trueth entermingled somewhat with fables among that they may the better endure the full light and sight of the cleere trueth without any paine and offence at all For when they have either heard or read before in Poemes these sentences Lament we ought for infants at their birth Entring a world of eares that they shall have Whereas the dead we should with joy and mirth Accompanie and bring them so to grave Also Of worldly thing we need no more but twaine For bread to eat the earth doth yeeld us graine And for to quench our thirst the river cleere Affords us drinke the water faire and sheere Likewise O tyrannie so lov'd and in request With barbarous but hatefull to therest Lastly The highest pitchos mans felicitie To feele the least part of adversitie Lesse troubled they are grieved in spirit when they shall heare in the Philosophers schooles That we are to make no account of death as a thing touching us That the Riches of nature are definite limited That felicitie and soveraigne happines of man lieth not in great summes of money ne yet in the pride of managing State affaires nor in dignities and great authority but in a quiet life free from paine and sorrow in moderating all passions and in a disposition of the minde kept within the compasse of Nature To conclude in regard hereof as also for other reasons before alleaged A yoong man had neede to be well guided and directed in reading of Poets to the end that he may be sent to the studie of Philosophie not forestalled with sinister surmises but rather sufficiently instructed before and prepared yea and made friendly and familiar thereto by the meanes of Poetrie OF HEARING The Summarie BY good right this present discourse was ranged next unto the former twaine For seeing we are not borne into this world learned but before we can speake our selves sensibly or any thing to reason we ought to have heard men who are able to deliver their minds with judgement to the ende that by thier aide and helpe we may be better framed and fitted to the way of vertue requisite it is that after the imbibition of good nourture in childhood and some libertie and license given to travelin the the writings of Poets according to the rules above declared Yoong men that are students should advance forward and mount up into higher schooles Now for that in the time when this Author Plutarch lived be sides many good bookes there were a great number of professours in the liberall sciences and namely in those rites into which Barbarisme crept afterwards he proposeth and setteth downe those precepts now which they are to follow and observe that goe to heare publike lectures orations and disputations thereby to know how to behave themselves there which traning haply may reach to al that which we shal heare spoken elsewhere and is materiall to make us more learned and better mannered
and wisely therefore did the Law-giver of the Thurians when he gave order and forbad expressely That no citizen should be taxed noted by name or scoffed at upon the Stage in any Comedie save onely adulterers and these busie persons For surely adulterie may be compared well to a kinde of curiositie searching into the pleasures of another seeking I say and enquiring into those matters which are kept secret and concealed from the view of the whole world And as for curiositie it seemeth to be a resolution or loosenes like a palsie or corruption a detection of secrets and laying them naked For it is an ordinarie thing with those who be inquisitive and desirous of many newes for to be blabs also of their tongues and to be pratling abroad which is the reason that Pythagor as injoyned yoong men five yeeres silence which he called Echemychia Abstinence from all speech or holding of their tongue Moreover it can not otherwise be chosen but that foule and cursed language also should accompany curiosity for looke what thing soever busie bodies heare willingly the same they love to tell and blurt out as quickly and such things as with desire and care they gather from one they utter to another with joy Whereupon it commeth to passe that over and above other inconveniences which this vice ministreth unto them that are given to it an impediment it is to their owne appetite For as they desire to know much so every man observeth them is beware of them and endevoureth to conceale all from them Neither are they willing to doe any thing in their sight nor delighted to speak ought in their hearing but if there be any question in hand to be debated or businesse to be considered and consulted of all men are content to put off the conclusion and resolution unto another time namely untill the curious and busie person be out of the way And say that whiles men are in sad and secret conference or about some serious businesse there chance one of these busie bodies to come in place presently all is husht and every thing is remooved aside and hidden no otherwise than folke are woont to set out of the way victuals where a cat doth haunt or when they see her ready to run by insomuch as many times those things which other men may both heare and see safely the same may not be done or said before them onely Therefore also it followeth by good consequence that a busie and curious person is commonly so farre out of credit that no man is willing to trust him for any thing in such sort that we commit our letters missive and signe manuell sooner to our servants and meere strangers than to our friends and familiars if we perceive them given to this humor of much medling But that woorthy knight Bellerophontes was so farre from this that he would not breake open those letters which he caried though they were written against himselfe but forbare to touch the Kings epistle no lesse than he abstained from the Queen his wife even by one and the same vertue of Continence For surely curiosity is a kinde of incontinency aswel as is adultery and this moreover it hath besides that joined there is with it much folly and extreame want of wit For were it not a part thinke you of exceeding blockish senselessenesse yea and madnesse in the highest degree to passe by so many women that be common and every where to be had and then to make meanes with great cost and expense to some one kept under locke and key and besides sumptuous notwithstanding it fall out many times that such an one is as ill-favored as she is foule Semblably and even the same do our curious folke they omit and cast behinde them many faire and goodly sights to beholde many excellent lectures woorth the hearing many disputations discourses honest exercises and pastimes but in other mens letters they keepe a puddering they open and reade them they stand like eavesdroppers under their neighbours walles hearkening what is done or said within they are readie to intrude themselves to listen what whispering there is betweene servants of the house what secret talke there is among seely women when they be in some odde corner and as many times they are by this meanes not free from danger so alwaies they meet with shame and infamie And therefore very expedient it were for such curious folke if they would shift off and put by this vice of theirs eftsoones to call to mind as much as they can what they have either knowen or heard by such inquisition for if as Simonides was woont to say that when hee came after some time betweene to open his desks and coffers he found one which was appointed for gifts and rewards alwaies full the other ordeined for thanks and the graces void and empty so a man after a good time past set open the store-house of curiosity and looke into it what is therein and see it toppe full of many unprofitable vaine and unpleasant things peradventure the very outward sight and face thereof will discontent and offend him appearing in every respect so lovelesse and toyish as it is Goe to then if one should set in hand to turne over leafe by leafe the books of ancient writers and when he hath picked forth and gathered out the woorst make one volume of all together to wit of those headlesse and unperfect verses of Homer which haply beginne with a short fyllable and therefore be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the solaecismes and incongruities which be found in Tragedies or of the undecent and intemperate speeches which Archilochus framed against women wherby he defamed and shamed himselfe were he not I pray you woorthy of this Tragicall curse A Foule ill take thee thou lewd wretch that lovest to collect The faults of mortall men now dead the living to infect but to let these maledictions alone certes this treasuring and scoring up by him of other mens errors and misdeeds is both unseemly and also unprofitable much like unto that city which Philip built of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and incorrigible persons that were in his time calling it Poneropolis when he had so done And therefore these curious meddlers in collecting and gathering together on all sides the errours imperfections defaults and solaecismes as I may so say not of verses or Poëmes but of other mens lives make of their memorie a most unpleasant Archive or Register and uncivile Record which they ever carie about them And like as at Rome some there be who never cast eie toward any fine pietures or goodly statures no nor so much as make any account to cheapen beautifull boies and faire wenches which there stand to be sold but rather go up and downe the market where monsters in nature are to be bought seeking and learning out where be any that want legs whose armes and elbowes turne the contrary way like unto
than out For like as Sophocles said merrily upon a time by way of derision That he would first cut off the haughtie and stately invention of Aeschylus and then abridge his affected curious and artificiall disposition and in the third place change the maner and forme of his elocution which is most excellent and fullest of sweet affections even so the students in Philosophie when they shall perceive that they passe from orations exquisitly penned and framed for ostentation in frequent and solemne assemblies unto morall speeches and those that touch the quicke aswell the milde and gentle motions as the hote and violent passions of the minde then begin they indeed to lay downe all pride and vanity and profit truely in the schoole of Philosophie Consider then not onely in reading the works of Philosophers or in hearing their lectures first and formost whether thou art not more attentive to the words than to the matter or whether thou be not carried with a greater affection to those who deliver a more subtill and curious composition of sentences than such as comprise profitable commodious substantiall fleshy matters if I may so say but also in perusing Poemes or taking in hand any history observe well and take heed that there escape thee not any one good sentence tending properly to the reformation of maners or the alleviation of passions for like as according to 〈◊〉 the bee setteth upon flowers for to sucke out of it the yellow honie whereas others love onely their colour or pleasant sent and neither care nor seeke for any thing els thereout even so when other men be conversant in Poemes for pleasure onely and pastime thou finding and gathering somewhat out thereof woorth the noting shalt seeme at the first sight to have some knowledge already thereof by a certeine custome and acquaintance with it and a love taken unto it as a good thing and familiar unto thee As for those that reade the books of Plato and Xenophon in no other regard but for the beautie of their gallant stile seeking for nought els but for the purity of speech and the very naturall Atticke language as if they went to gather the thin dew or tender mosse or downe of herbs What will you say of such but that they love physicke drugs which have either a lovely colour or a pleasant smell onely but otherwise the medicinable vertues thereof and properties either to purge the bodie or mitigate any paine they neither desire to know nor are willing to use Moreover such as are proceeded farther yet profited more have the skill and knowledge how to reape fruit not onely out of words spoken or books written but also to receive profit out of all sights spectacles and what things soever they see gathering from thence whatsoever is fit and commodious for their purpose as it is reported of Aeschylus and other such as he For Aeschylus being upon a time at the Isthmian games beheld the fight of the sword-fencers that fought at sharpe and when one of the said champions had received a grievous wound whereupon the whole theater set up a crie he jogging one that was by him named Ion of Chios See you not quoth he what use and exercise is able to do the partie himselfe that is hurt saith never a word but the lookers on crie out Brasides chanced among drie figs to light upon a sillie mouse that bit him by the finger and when he had shaken her off and let her goe said thus to himselfe See how there is nothing so little and so feeble but it is able to make shift and save it life if it dare onely defend it selfe Diogenes when he saw one make meanes to drinke out of the ball of his hand cast away the dish or cuppe that hee carried in his budget Loe how attentive taking heed and continuall exercise maketh men ready and apt to marke observe and learne from all things that make any way for their good And this they may the rather doe when the joine wordes and deedes together not onely in that sort as Thucidides speaketh of by meditating and exercising themselves with the experience of present perils but also against pleasures quarrels and altercations in judgements about defences of causes and magistracies as making proofe thereby of the opinions that they holde or rather by carriage of themselves teaching others what opinions they are to holde For such as yet bee learners and notwithstanding that intermeddle in affaires like pragmaticall persons spying how they may catch any thing out of philosophie and goe therewith incontinently in maner of juglers with their boxe either into the common place and market or into the schoole which young men frequent or els to princes tables there to set them abroad we are not to thinke them philosophers no more than those to be physicians who only fell medicinable spices drugs or compound confections or to speake more properly such a sophister or counterfeit philosopher as this resembleth the bird that Homer describeth which forsooth so soone as he hath gotten any thing carieth it to his scholars as the said bird doth in her mouth convey meat to her naked young ones that cannot flie And so himselfe he doth beguile And thereby take much harme the while converting and distributing naught of all that which he hath gotten to his owne nourishment nor so much as concocting and digesting the same and therefore we ought of necessitie to regard and consider well whether we use any discourse and place our words so that for our selves they may do good and in regard of others make no shew of vaine-glorie nor ambitious desire to be knowne abroad but onely of an intention rather to heare or els to teach But principally we are to observe whether our wrangling humour and desire to be cavilling about questions disputable be allaied in us or no as also whether we have yet given over to devise reasons and arguments to assaile others like as champions armed with hurlebats of tough leather about their armes and bals in their hands to annoy their concurrents taking more pleasure and delight to fell and astonish with one rap our adversarie and so to lay him along on the earth than to learne or teach him for surely modestie mildenesse and courtesie in this kinde will doe well and when a man is not willing to enter into any conference or disputation with a purpose to put downe and vanquish another nor to breake out into fits of choler not having evicted his adversarie to be readie as they say to tread and trample him under foot nor to seeme displeased and discontent if himselfe have the foile and be put to the woorst be all good signes of one that hath sufficiently profited And this shewed Aristippus very well upon a time when he was so hardly pressed and overlaid in a certaine disputation that he knew not what answer to make presently unto his adversarie a jolly bold and audacious sophister but
gratifie and do pleasure unto the people and that upon a vaine ambition and desire of popular favour and many times wee receive no other fruit of all our cost and labour but ingratitude Now he that is once enwrapped in debt remaineth a debtour still all the daies of his life and he fareth like to an horse who after he hath once received the bit into his mouth changeth his rider eftsoones and is neuer unridden but one or other is alwaies on his backe No way and meanes there is to avoid from thence and to recover those faire pastures and pleasant medowes out of which those indebted persons are turned but they wander astray to and fro like to those cursed fiends and maligne spirits whom Empedocles writeth to have bene driven by the gods out of heaven For such the heavenly power first chas'd downe to the sea beneath The sea againe up to the earth did cast them by and by Then after wards the earth them did unto the beames bequeath Of restlesse sunne and they at last sent them to starrie sky Thus fall they into the hands of usurers or bankers one after another now of a Corinthian then of a Patrian and after of an Athenian so long untill when all of them have had a fling at him he become in the end wasted eaten out consumed with usurie upon usurie for like as he that is stepped into a quavemire must either at first get forth of it or els continue still there and not remove at all out of one place for he that striveth turneth and windeth every way not only doth wet and drench his bodie but mireth it all over and beraieth himselfe more than he was at first with filthy durt even so they that do nothing but change one banke for another making a transcript of their name out of one usurers booke into anothers loading their shoulders eftsoones with new and fresh usuries become alwaies overcharged more and more and they resemble for all the world those persons who are diseased with the cholericke passion or flux who will not admit of any perfect cure to purge it at once but continually taking away a certeine portion of the humor make roome for more more still to gather and ingender in the place for even so these are not willing to be ridde and cleansed at once but with dolour griefe and anguish pay usurie euery season and quarter of the yeere and no sooner have they discharged one but another distilleth and runneth downe after it which gathereth to an head and so by that meanes they are grieved with the heart-ache and paine of the head whereas it behooved that they should make quicke dispatch and give order to be cleere and free once for all for now I direct my speech unto those of the better sort who have wherewith above their fellowes and yet be nicer than they should be and those commonly come in with such like words and excuses as these How then would you have mee unfurnished of slaves and servants to live without fire without an house and abiding place which is all one as if hee that were in a dropsie and swollen as bigge as a tunne should say unto a physician What will you doe would you have me to be leane lanke spare bodied and emptie and why not or what shouldest not thou be contented to be so thou maiest recover thy health and be whole againe and even so may it be said unto thee Better it were for to be without slaves than to be a slave thy selfe and to remaine without heritage and possessions that thou maiest not be possesed by another Hearken a little to the talke that was betweene two geires or voltures as the tale goes when one of them disgorged so strongly that he said withall I thinke verily that I shall cast up my very bowels the other being by answered in this wise What harme wil come of thy vomiting so long as thou shalt not cast up thine owne entrails but those onely of some dead prey which we tare and devoured together but the other day semblably every one that is indebted selleth not his own land nor his owne house but indeed the usurers house land of whom he hath taken money for interest considering that by the law the debter hath made him lord of him and all Yea marie will he say anon but my father hath left me this peece of land for mine inheritance I wot well and beleeve it so hath thy father left unto thee freedome good name and reputation whereof thou oughtest to make much more account than of land and living He that begat thee made thy hand and thy foot and yet if it chance that one of them be mortified he will give a good fee or a reward to a chirurgian for to cut it off Ladie Calypso clad Ulysses with a vesture and robe senting sweet like baulme yeelding an odor of a body immortall which she presented unto him as a gift and memoriall of the love that she bare unto him and this he did weare for her sake but after that he suffred shipwracke and was readie to sinke being hardly able to flote above water by reason that the said robe was all drenched and so heavie that it held him downe he did it off and threw it away and then girding his naked brest underneath with a certeine broad fillet or swadling band he saved himselfe by swimming and recovered the bank now when he was past this danger and seemed to be landed he seemed to want neither raiment nor nutriment and what say you to this may not this be counted a verie tempest when as the usurer after a certeine time shall come to assaile the poore debtors and ay unto them Paie Which word once said therewith the clouds above He gathereth thicke and sea with waves doth moove For why the winds anon at once from east From south from west do blow and give no rest And what be these windes and waves even usuries upon usuries puffing blowing and rolling one after another and he that is overwhelmed therewith kept under with their heavy weight is not able to swim foorth and escape but in the end is driven downe and sinketh to the verie bottome where he is drowned and perished together with his friends who entred into bonds and became sureties and pledges for him Crates the philosopher of Thebes therefore did very well who being in daunger and debt to no man onely wearied with the cares and troubles of house-keeping and the pensive thoughts how to hold his owne left all and gave over his estate and patrimonie which amounted to the value of eight talents tooke himselfe to his bagge and wallet to his simple robe and cloke of course cloth and fled into the sanctuarie and liberties of Philosophie and povertie As for Anaxagoras he forsooke his faire lands and plenteous pastures but what need I to alledge these examples considering that Philoxenus the musician being sent
most pleasant for the thing it selfe is plaine and evident to all the world To saie nothing of Homers testimonie who speaking of sleepe writeth thus Most sweetly doth a man sleepe in his bed When least he wakes and 〈◊〉 most to be dead The same he iterateth in many places and namely once in this wise With pleasant sleepe she there did meet Deaths brother germain you may weet And againe Death and sleepe are sister and brother Both twinnes resembling one another Where by the way he lively declareth their similitude and calling them twins for that brothers and sisters twinnes for the most part be very like and in another place besides he calleth death a brasen sleepe giving us thereby to understand how sencelesse death is neither seemeth he unelegantly and besides the purpose whosoever he was to have expressed as much in this verse when he said That sleepes who doth them well advise Of death are pettie mysteries And in very deed sleepe doth represent as it were a preamble inducement or first profession toward death in like manner also the cynick philosopher Diogenes said very wisely to this point for being surpressed and overtaken with a dead sleepe a little before he yeelded up the ghost when the physician wakened him and demaunded what extraordinary symptome or grievous accident was befallen unto him None quoth he onely one brother is come before another to wit sleepe before death and thus much of the first resemblance Now if death be like unto a farre journey or long pilgrimage yet even so there is no evill at all therein but rather good which is cleane contrary for to be in servitude no longer unto the flesh nor enthralled to the passions thereof which seizing upon the soule doe empeach the same and fill it with all follies and mortall vanities is no doubt a great blessednesse and felicitie for as Plato saith The body bringeth upon us an infinit number of troubles and hinderances about the necessarie maintenance of it selfe and in case there be any maladies besides they divert and turne us cleane away from the inquisition and contemplation of the truth and in stead thereof pester and stuffe us full of wanton loves of lusts feares foolish fansies imaginations and vanities of all sorts insomuch as it is most true which is commonly saide That from the bodie there commeth no goodnesse nor wisedome at all For what else bringeth upon us warres seditions battels and fights but the bodie and the greedie appetites and lusts proceeding from it for to say a truth from whence arise all warres but from the covetous desire of money and having more goods neither are we driven to purchase and gather still but onely for to enterteine the bodie and serve the turne thereof and whiles we are amused emploied thereabout we have no time to studie Philosophie finally which is the woorst and very extremitie of all in case we find some leasure to follow our booke and enter into the studie and contemplation of things this body of ours at al times in every place is ready to interrupt and put us out it troubleth it empeacheth and so disquieteth us that impossible it is to attaine unto the perfect sight and knowledge of the truth whereby it is apparent and manifest that if ever we would cleerely and purely know any thing we ought to be sequestred and delivered from this bodie and by the eies onely of the mind contemplate view things as they be then shall we have that which we desire and wish then shall we attaine to that which we say we love to wit wisedome even when we are dead as reason teacheth us and not so long as we remaine alive for if it cannot be that together with the bodie we should know any thing purely one of these two things must of necessitie ensue that either never at all or else after death we should attaine unto that knowledge for then and not before the soule shall be apart and separate from the bodie and during our life time so much neerer shall we be unto this knowledge by how much lesse we participate with the body and have little or nothing to doe therewith no more than very necessitie doth require nor be filed with the corrupt nature thereof but pure and neat from all such contagion untill such time as God himselfe free us quite from it and then being fully cleered and delivered from all fleshly and bodily follies we shall converse with them and such like pure intelligences seeing evidently of our selves all that which is pure and sincere to wit truth it selfe for unlawfull it is and not allowable that a pure thing should be infected or once touched by that which is impure and therefore say that death seeme to translate men into some other place yet is it nothing ill in that respect but good rather as Plato hath very well prooved by demōstration in which regard Socrates in my conceit spake most heavenly divinely unto the judges when he said My lords to be affraid of death is nothing else but to seeme wise when a man is nothing lesse it is as much as to make semblance of knowing that which he is most ignorant of for who wotteth certainly what is death or whetherit be the greatest felicitie that may happen to a man yet men doe feare and dread it as if they knew for certaintie that it is the greatest evill in the world To these sage sentences he accordeth well who said thus Let no man stand in doubt and feare of death Since from all travels it him delivereth and not from travels only but also from the greatest miseries in the world whereto it seemeth that the verie gods themselves give testimonie for we reade that many men in recompense of their religion and devotion have received death as a singular gift and favour of the gods But to avoid tedious prolixitie I will forbeare to write of others and content my selfe with making mention of those onely who are most renowmed and voiced by every mans mouth and in the first place rehearse I will the historie of those two yoong gentlemen of 〈◊〉 namely Cleobis and Biton of whom there goeth this report That their mother being priestresse to Juno when the time was come that shee should present herselfe in the temple and the mules that were to draw her coatch thither not in readinesse but making stay behinde they seeing her driven to that exigent and fearing lest the houre should passe under-went themselves the yoke and drew their mother in the coatch to the said temple she being much pleased and taking exceeding joy to see so great pietie and kindnesse in her children praied unto the goddesse that she would vouchsafe to give them the best gift that could befall to man and they the same night following being gone to bedde for to sleepe never rose againe for that the goddesse sent unto them death as the onely recompense and reward of their godlinesse
with meat before them thereby to drive those in their messe and who were set at the table from eating with them and by that meanes to engorge themselves and fill their bellies alone with the best viands served up Semblably they who are excessively and out of all measure ambitious before others as their concurrents and corrivals blame and dispraise glorie and honour to the end that they alone without any competitours might enjoy the same And heerein they doe like unto mariners sitting at the oare in a bote or gally for howsoever their eie is toward the poupe yet they labour to set the prow forward in that the flowing of the water by reciprocation caused by the stroke of the oares comming forcibly backe upon the poupe might helpe to drive forward the vessell even so they that deliver such rules and precepts whiles they make semblant to flie from glory pursue it as fast as they can for otherwise if it were not so what need had he whosoever he was to give out such a speech what meant he else to write it and when he had written it to publish the same unto posteritie If I say he meant to be unknowne to men living in his time who desired to be knowne unto those that came after him But let us come to the thing it selfe How can it chuse but be simply naught Live so hidden quoth he that no man may perceive that ever you lived as if he had said Take heed you be not knowne for a digger up of sepulchres a defacer of the tombs monuments of the dead But contrariwise a foule dishonest thing it is to live in such sort as that you should be willing that we al know not the maner thereof Yet would I for my part say cleane contrary Hide not thy life how ever thou do and if thou hast lived badly make thy selfe knowne bewiser repent amend if thou be endued with vertue hide it not neither be thou an unprofitable member if vicious continue not obstinate there but yeeld to correction admit the cure of thy vice or rather at leastwise sir make a distinction define who it is to whom you give this precept If he be ignorant unlearned wicked or foolish then it is as much as if you said thus Hide thy feaver cloke cover thy phrēsie let not the physician take notice of thee goe and put thy selfe into some darke corner where no person may have a sight of thee or of thy maladies and passions go thy way aside with all thy naughtinesse sicke as thou art of an incurable and mortall disease cover thy spight and envie hide thy superstition suppresse and conceale as it were the disorderly beatings of thine arteries take heed be afraid how you let your pulse be felt or bewray your selfe to those who have the meanes are able to admonish correct and heale you But long ago in the old world our ancestors were wont to take in hand and cure openly in publike place those that were diseased in body in those daies everie one who had met with any good medicine or knowne a remedie whereof he had the proofe either in himselfe being sicke or in another cured thereby would reveale and communicate the same unto another that stood in need thereof and thus they say The skil of Physick arising first and growing by experience became in time a noble and excellent science And even so requisit it is and necessarie to discover and lay open unto all men lives that be diseased and the infirmities of the soule to touch and handle them and by considering the inclinations of every man to say thus unto one Subject thou art to anger take heed thereof unto another Thou art given to jealousie and emulation beware of it doe thus and thus to a third Art thou amorous and full of love I have beene so my selfe otherwhiles but I repent me thereof But now a daies it is cleane contrarie in denying in cloaking covering and hiding men thrust and drive their vices inwardly and more deepely still into their secret bowels Now if they be men of woorth and vertuous whom thou counsellest to hide themselves that the world may take no knowledge of them it is all one as to say unto Epaminondas Take no charge of the conduct of an army or to Lycurgus Amuse not your head about making lawes and to Thrasibulus Kill no tyrants to Pythagoras Keepe no schoole nor teach in any wise to Socrates See you dispute not nor hold any discourses of philosophie and to your selfe Epicurus first of all Write not to your friends in Asia enroll and gather no soldiors out of Aegypt have no commerce nor negotiate with them do not protect and defend as it were with a guard from villanie and violence the yoong gentlemen of Lampsacum send not your books abroad to all men and women alike thereby to shew your learning finally ordeine nothing about your sepulture To what tended your publicke tables what meant those assemblies that you made of your familiar friends and faire yoong boies to what purpose were there so many thousands of verses written and composed so painfully by you in the honour of Metrodorus Aristobulus Chaeredemus to the end that after death they should not be forgotten Was all this because you would ratifie and establish vertue by oblivion arts by doing nothing philosophy by silence and felicitie by forgetfulnesse Will you needs bereave mans life of knowledge as if you would take away light from a feast to the end that mē might not know that you your followers do all for pleasure upon pleasure then good reason you have to give counsell saie unto your selfe Live unknowne Certes if I had a minde to leade my life with Haedia the harlot or to keepe ordinarily about me the strumpet Leontium to detest all honestie to repose all my delight and joy in the tickling pleasures of the flesh and in wanton lusts these ends verilie would require to be hidden in darknesse and covered with the shadow of the night these be the things that would be forgotten and not once knowne But if a man in the science of naturall philosophie delight in hymnes and canticles to praise God his justice and providence or in morallknowledge to set out and commend the law humane societie and the politike government of common-weale and therein regard honour and honestie not profit and commodity what reason have you to advise him for to live obscurely Is it because he should teach none by good precept is it for that no man should have a zealous love to vertue or affect honestie by his example If Themistocles had never bene knowne to the Athenians Greece had not given Xerxes the foile and repulse likewise if Camillus had beene unknowne to the Romanes peradventure by this time Rome had beene no city at all had not Dion knowne Plato Sicilie should not have beene delivered from tyrannie But this
exerciese like as mariners and sailers doe at sea And contrariwise immediately after sports pleasures betaketh it selfe to the eager pursute of gaine to the management of great affaires giving no time and space of rest to nature to enjoy repose and quiet tranquillitie wherof it hath need but setteth it out of frame and distempereth it mightily by reason of this inequalitie But wise and discreet persons are verie wary and carefull in this behalfe never presenting such pleasures to their bodies when they be out-wearied with labour and travell for need thereof they have none at all and besides they doe not regard nor thinke upon them having their mindes continually intentive upon the honestie and decency of the action or thing whereabout they are dulling or dimming as well the joy as the earnest solicitude and care of their minde by the meanes of other desires and appetites as it is written of Epaminondas that he should say in game and meriment of a certaine valiant man who about the time of the Leuctrique warre died of sicknesse in his bedde O Hercules how had this man any leasure to die amidde so many important affaires even so it may be said truly and in good earnest of a great personage who hath in his hand the managing of some weightie affaires in matter of government or treatise of philosophie How should such a man as he have time either to be drunken or to surfeit with gluttonie or given himselfe to fleshly pleasures of the body But wise men indeed when they be freed from important matters of action can finde a time to rest and repose their bodies discharging them of needlesse and unprofitable travels but much more of superfluous and unnecessarie pleasures flying and shunning them as enemies and contrarie to nature I remember that upon a time I heard how Tiberius Caesar was wont to say That a man being once above three-score yeres of age deserveth to be mocked and derided if he put forth his hand unto the physician for to have his pulse felt For mine owne part I take this speech of his to bee somewhat too proud and insolent but me thinks this should be true That every man ought to know the particularities and properties of his owne pulse for there bee many diversities and differences in each one of us also that it behooveth no man to be ignorant in the severall complexion of his owne bodie as well in heat as in drinesse also to be skilfull what things be good for him and what be hurtfull when he useth them for he that would learne these particularities of any other than of himselfe or goeth to a physician to know of him whether he be better in health in summer time than in winter or whether hee stand better affected in taking dry things rather than moist also whether naturally he have a strong pulse or a weake a quicke or a slow surely hath no sense or feeling of himselfe but is as it were deafe and blinde a stranger he is dwelling in a borrowed body and none of his owne for such points as those are good to be knowen and easie to be learned for that we may make proofe thereof every hower as having the body with us continually Also meet it is among meats and drinks to know those rather which be good and holsome for the stomack than such as be pleasant to the tooth and to have experience of that which doth the stomacke good more than of that which is offensive thereto as also of those things that do not trouble and hinder concoction than which content and tickle the taste For to demand of a physician what is easie of digestion and what not what doth loose and what bindeth the belly me thinks is no lesse shamefull than to aske him what is sweet what bitter what sowre tart or austere But now we shall have many folke that know well how to find fault with their cooks and dressers of meat for seasoning their broths or making sauce to their viands being able to discerne which is sweeter than it ought to be which is over-tart or too much salted and yet they themselves are not able to say whether that which is put into the bodie and united therewith be light or no and whether it be harmlesse not offensive or profitable Hereupon it is that their pottage misseth not often the right seasoning whereas contrariwise for want of well seasoning their owne selves but daily faulting therein they make much worke for physicians for they esteeme not that pottage best which is the sweetest but they mingle therewith many sharpe juices and sowre herbs to make it somewhat tart withall but contrariwise they send into the bodie all maner of sweet and pleasant things even untill it cry Ho partly being ignorant and in part not calling to minde and remembrance that nature adjoineth alwaies unto things that be good and holsome a pleasure not mingled with displeasure and repentance Moreover we are likewise to remember and beare in minde all those things that be fit and agreeable to the bodie or contrariwise in the changes of the seasons in the yere in the qualities and properties of the aire and other circumstances to know how to accommodat and apply our diet accordingly for as touching all the offences proceeding from nigardise avarice and pinching which the common sort doe incurre about the painfull inning and laborious bestowing or laying up of their corne and fruits who by their long watchings by their running and trudging to and fro discover and bewray what is within the bodie rotten faulty ulcerous we are not to feare that such accidents will befall to learned persons or students ne yet to States-men and polititians unto whom principally I have addressed this discourse but they ought to beware and eschue another kinde of more eager covetousnesse and illiberall nigardise in matter of studie and literature forcing them to neglect and not regard their owne poore bodies which often times being so travelled and outwearied that they can doe them no more service yet they spare them never the more nor give them leave to be refreshed and gather up their crummes againe but force that which is fraile and mortall to labour a vie with the soule which is immortall that I say which is earthly to hold out with the spirit that is heavenly Well the ox said unto the camell his fellow-servant who would not ease him a little of his burden Thou wilt not helpe me now to beare somewhat of my charge but shortly thou shalt carie all that I carie and me besides which fell out so indeed when the ox died under his burden semblably it hapneth to the soule which will not allow the sillie bodie wearied and tired some little time of rest and repose for soone after comes a fever head-ach dizzinesse of the braine with a dimnesse of the sight which will compell her to lay aside all books to abandon all good letters disputations and
the best sauce in the world and as for salt Homer called it divine and most men gave it the name of the Graces for that being mingled or otherwise taken with most of our meates it gives a kinde of grace and commendeth them as pleasant and agreeable to the stomacke But to say a truth the most divine sauce of a table or a supper is the presence of a friend a familiar and one whom a man knoweth well not so much for that he eateth and drinketh with us but rather because as he is partaker of our speeches so he doth participate his owne unto us especially if in such reciprocall talke there be any good discourses and those which be profitable fit and pertinent to the purpose for much babling indeed and lavish speech that many men use at the boord and in their cuppes bewraieth their vaine folly driving them oftentimes into inconsiderate and passionate fits and to perverse lewdnesse and therefore no lesse requisite it is and needfull to make choise of speeches than of friends to be admitted to our table and in this case we ought both to thinke and also to say contrary unto the auncient Lacedaemonians who when they received any yoong man or stranger into their guild-halles called phiditia where they used to dine and suppe in publicke together would shew unto them the dores of the place and say Out at these there never goeth word but we acquainting our selves with good words and pertinent speeches at the table in our discourses are willing and content that the same should go forth all and be set abroad to all persons whatsoever for that the matters and arguments of our talke are void of lascivious wantonnesse without backbiting flaundering malice and illiberall scurrilitie not beseeming men of good education as a man may well judge by these examples following in the Decade of this seventh booke THE FIRST QUESTION Against those who reproove Plato for saying That our drinke passeth by the lungs IT hapned one day in summer time that one of the company where I was at supper came out with this verse of Alcaus which every man hath readily in his mouth and pronounced it with a loud voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Now drinke and wet thy lungs with wine For why the hot Dogge-starre doth shine No marvell quoth Nicias then a physician of the city Nicopolis if a poet as Alcaeus was were ignorant in that which Plato a great philosopher knew not and yet Alcaus in some sort may be borne out in saying so and relieved in this wise namely that the lungs being so neere as they are unto the stomacke enjoy the benefit of the liquid drinke and therefor it was not improperly said That they be wette and soked therewith but this famous philosopher by expresse words hath left in writing that our drinke directly passeth for the most part thorow the lungs so that he hath given us no meanes of any probabilitie in the world to excuse and defend him would we never so faine so grosse is his errour and ignorance so palpable for in the first place considering it is necessary that the drie nourishment should be mingled with the liquid plaine it is that there ought to be one common vessell which is the stomacke for to receive them both together to the end that it might transmit and send into the bellie and panch beneath the meat well soaked and made soft besides seeing that the lungs be smooth and every way compact and solide how is it possible that if a man drinke a supping or grewell wherein there is a little meale or flowre it should get thorow and not stay there for this is the doubt that Erasistratus objected very well against Plato Moreover this philosopher having considered most parts of the bodie and searched by reason wherefore they were made and being desirous to know as became a man of his profession for what use nature had framed every one he might have thought thus much That the wezill of the throat otherwise called Epiglottis was not made for nothing and to no purpose but ordeined for this that when we swallow any food it might keepe downe and close the conduit of the winde-pipe for feare that nothing might fall that way upon the lights which part no doubt is woonderfully troubled tormented and torne as it were with the cough when any little thing is gotten thither where the breath doth passe to and fro Now this wezill abovesaid being placed just in the middes and indifferent to serve both passages when we speake doth shut the mouth of that conduit or wezand that leadeth to the stomacke and as we either eat or drinke falleth likewise upon the winde-pipe that goeth to the lungs keeping that passage pure and cleere for the winde and breath to go and come at ease by way of respiration Furthermore thus much we know by experience That those who take their drinke leasurely letting it go downe by little and little have moister bellies than those who powre their liquor downe at once for by this meanes the drinke is caried directly into the bladder passing away apace and with violence making no stay whereas otherwise it resteth longer with the meat which it soaketh gently and is better mingled and incorporate into it but wee should never see the one or the other if at the first our drinke and meat went apart and had their severall waies by themselves when wee swallow them downe for wee conjoine our meat and drinke together sending them both one after another to the end that the liquor might serve in stead of a waggon according as Erasistratus was woont to say for to carrie and convey the meat and the nourishment into all parts After that Nicias had made this discourse Protogenes the Grammarian added moreover and seconded him in this wise saying That the poet Homer first of all other saw well enough and observed that the stomacke was the proper receptacle and vessell to receive our food as the winde-pipe which they called in olde time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to admit the winde and the breath and hereupon it came that they used to call those who had big and loud voices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say wide-throated meaning by the throat the winde-pipe and not the gullet wezand or gorge and therefore when he had said of Achilles charging Hector with his launce Heran him through his gorge at first A speeding wound and deadly thrust A little after he added and said His winde-pipe yet he went beside And did not it in twaine divide He meaneth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper instrument of the voice and conduit of the breath which he cut not quite in sunder as he did the other named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the wezand or gullet Upon these words all was husht for a time untill Florus tooke upon him to speake in the
by occasion of the augmentation of the Moones flame which regularly and by order is lightned by little and little untill it represent unto us the full face of the Moone and againe doth diminish and wane in proportion untill the conjunction at what time it is altogether extinct PLATO ARISTOTLE the STOICKS and MATHEMATICINAS do all with one accord say that the occultations of the Moone every moneth are occasioned by reason that she falleth in conjunction with the sunne by whose brightnesse she becommeth dimme and darkned but the Ecclipses of the Moone be caused when the commeth within the shadow of the earth situate directly betweene both Starres rather for that the Moone is altogether obstructed therewith CHAP. XXX Of the Moones apparition and why she seemeth to be earthly THe PYTHAGOREANS affirme that the Moone appeereth terrestriall for that she is inhabited round about like as the earth wherein we are and peopled as it were with the greatest living creatures and the fairest plants and those creatures within her be fifteene times stronger and more puissant than those with us and the same yeeld foorth no excrements and the day there is in that proportion so much longer ANAXAGORAS saith that the inequalitie which is seene in the face of the Moone proceedeth from the coagmentation of cold and terrestrity mixed together for that there is a certaine tenebrositie medled with the fierie nature thereof whereupon this starre is said to be Pseudophores that it to say to have a false light The STOICKS are of opinion that by reason of the diversitie of her substance the composition of her bodie is not subject to corruption CHAP. XXXI The distance betweene Sunne and Moone EMPEDOCLES thinketh that the Moone is twice as far off from the Sunne as she is from the earth The MATHEMATICIANS say that the distance is eighteene times as much ERATOSTHENES giveth out the Sunne is from the earth 408. thousand stadia ten times told and the Moone from the earth 78. thousand stadia ten times multiplied CHAP. XXXII Of the yeeres And how much the yeere of every Planet conteineth the great yeere THe revolution or yeeere of Saturne comprehendeth thirtie common yeres Of Jupiter twelve of Mars two of the Sunne twelve moneths those of Mercurie and Venus be all one for their course is equall of the Moone thirtie daies for this we count a perfect moneth to wit from the apparition to the conjunction As for the great yeere some say it compriseth eight yeeres others ninteen and others againe sixtie wanting one HERACLITUS saith it consisteth of 80000. solare yeeres DIOGENES of 365. yeeres such as Heraclitus speaketh of and others of 7777. THE THIRD BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving summarily and after a cursorie manner treated in the former bookes of coelestiall bodies and resting in the confines thereof which is the Moone I will addresse my selfe in this third booke to discourse of Meteores that is to say of such impressions as be engendred in the aire above to wit betweene the circle of the Moone and the situation of the earth the which men hold generally to be in stead of the prick or center in that compasse of the universall Globe And heereat will I beginne CHAP. I. Of the Milke way or white circle Galaxia THis Galaxia is a cloudie or mistie circle appearing alwaies in the skie and called it is the Milke way of the white colour which it doth represent Of the Pythagoreans some say it is the inflammation or burning out of some starre remooved and falling out of his proper place which hath burnt round about all the way as it passed from the verie time of Phaethon his conflagration Others hold that in old time the race and course of the Sun was that way Some are of opinion that it is a specularie apparition only occasioned by the reflexion of the Sun-beames against the cope of heaven even as we observe it to fall out betweene the rainbow and thicke clouds METRODORUS affirmeth it to be caused by the passage of the Sunne for that this is the solare circle PARMENIDES is of opinion that the mixture of that which is thicke with the rare or thin engendreth this milkie colour ANAXAGORAS saith that the shadow of the earth resteth upon this part of heaven at what time as the Sunne being undemeath the earth doth not illuminate all throughout DEMOCRITUS is perswaded that it is the resplendent light of many small starres and those close together shining one upon another and so occasioned by their spissitude and astriction ARISTOTLE would have it to be an inflamation of a drie exhalation the same being great in quantitie and continued and so there is an hairy kind of fire under the skie and beneath the planets 〈◊〉 supposeth it to be a consistence of fire more cleere and subtile than a starre and yet thicker than a splendeur or shining light CHAP. II. Of Comets or Blazing starres of Starres seeming to shoot and fall as also of fierie beames appearing in the aire SOme of Pythagoras scholars affirme that a Comet is a starre of the number of those which appeare not alwaies but at certaine prefixed seasons after some periodicall revolutions do arise Others affirme it to be the reflexion of our sight against the Sunne after the manner of those resemblances which shew in mirrours or looking glasses ANAXAGORAS and DEMOCRITUS say that it is a concurse of two starres or more meeting with their lights together ARISTOTLE is of opinion that it is a consistence of a drie exhalation enflamed STRATO saith that it is the light of a starre enwrapped within a thick cloud as we see it ordinarily in our lamps and burning lights HERACLIDES of PONTUS holdeth it to be a cloud heaved and elevated on high and the same illuminated by some high light also and the like reason giveth he of the bearded blazing star called Pagonias Others like as all the 〈◊〉 affirme that the beame the columne and such other meteors or impressions are made after the same manner by divers cōfigurations of clouds in the aire EPIGENES supposeth a Comet to be an elevation of spirit or wind mixed with an earthly substance and set on fire BOETHUS imagineth it to be an apparition of the aire let loose as it were and spred at large DIOGENES is perswaded that Comets be starres ANAXAGORAS saith that the starres which are said to shoot be as it were sparckles falling from the elementarie fire which is the cause that they are quenched and gone out so quickly METRODORUS supposeth that when the Sunne striketh violently upon a cloud the beames or raies thereof do sparkle and so cause this shooting of starres as they tearme it XENOPHANES would beare us in hand that all such Meteors and Impressions as these be constitutions or motions of clouds enflamed CHAP. III. Of thunders lightnings flashes presters or fierie blastes and tempstuous whirlwinds ANAXIMANDER supposeth that all these come by wind for when it hapneth that
life with which words Porsena was so affrighted that he made peace with the Romans according as Aristides the Milesian writeth in the third booke of his storie 3 The Argives and the Lacedaemonians being at war one with another about the possession of the countrey Thyreatis the Amphictyones gave sentence that they should put it to a battell and looke whether side wan the field to them should the land in question appertaine The Lacedaemonians therefore chose for their captaine Othryades and the Argives Thersander when the battell was done there remained two onely alive of the Argives to wit Agenor and Chromius who caried tidings to the citie of victorie Meane while when all was quiet Othryades not fully dead but having some little life remaining in him bearing himselfe and leaning upon the trunchions of broken lances caught up the targets and shields of the dead and gathered them together and having erected a trophee he wrote thereupon with his owne blood To Jupiter Victor and guardian of Trophees Now when as both those parties maintained still the controversie about the land the Amphictyones went in person to the place to be eie-judges of the thing and adjudged the victorie on the Lacedaemonians side this writeth Chrysermus in the third booke of the Peloponnesiack historie The Romans levying warre against the Samnites chose for their chiefe commander Posthumius Albinus who being surprised by an ambush within a streight betweene two mountains called Furcae Caudinae a verie narrow passe lost three of his Legions and being himselfe deadly wounded fell and lay for dead howbeit about midnight taking breath was quick againe and somewhat revived he arose tooke the targets from his enemies bodies that lay dead in the place and erected a trophee and drenching his hand in their blood wrote in this manner The Romans to Jupiter Victor guardian of Trophees against the Samnites but Marius surnamed Gurges that is to say the glutton being sent thither as generall captaine and viewing upon the verie place the said trophee so erected I take this gladly quoth he for a signe and presage of good fortune and thereupon gave battell unto his enemies and won the victorie tooke their king prisoner and sent him to Rome according as Aristides writeth in his third booke of the Italian historie 4 The Persians entred Greece with a puissant armie of 500000. men against whom Leonidas was sent by the Lacedaemonians with a band of three hundred to guard the streights of Thermophylae and impeach his passage in which place as they were merie at their meat and taking their refection the whole maine power of the Barbarians came upon them Leonidas seeing his enemies advancing forward spake unto his owne men and said Sit still sirs and make an end of your dinner hardly so as you may take your suppers in another world so he charged upon the Barbarians and notwithstanding he had many a dart sticking in his bodie yet he made a lane through the presse of the enemies untill he came to the verie person of Xerxes from whom he tooke the diademe that was upon his head and so died in the place The Barbarians king caused his bodie to be opened when he was dead and his heart to be taken forth which was found to be all over-growne with haire as writeth Aristides in the first booke of the Persian historie The Romans warring against the Cathaginians sent a companie of three hundred men under the leading of a captaine named Fabius Maximus who bad his enemies battell and lost all his men himselfe being wounded to death charged upon Anniball with such violence that he tooke from him the regali diademe or frontall that he had about his head and so died upon it as writeth Aristides the Milesian 5 In the citie of Celaenae in Phrygia the earth opened and clave a sunder so as there remained a mightie chinke with a huge quantitie of water issuing thereout which caried away and drew into the bottomlesse pit thereof a number of houses with all the persons great and small within them Now Midas the king was advertised by an oracle that if he cast within the said pit the most precious thing that he had both sides would close up againe and the earth meet and be firme ground So he caused to be throwen into it a great quantitie of gold and silver but all would do no good Then Anchurus his son thinking with himselfe that there was nothing so pretious as the life soule of man after he had lovingly embraced his father and bid him farwel and with all taken his leave of his wife Timothea mounted on horseback and cast himselfe horse and all into the said chinke And behold the earth immediatly closed up whereupon Midas made a golden altar of Jupiter Idaeus touching it only with his hand This altar about that time when as the said breach or chink of earth was became a stone but after a certaine prefixed time passed it is seene all gold this writeth Callisthenes in his second booke of Transformations The river Tybris running through the mids of the market place at Rome for the anger of Jupiter Tarsius caused an exceeding great chinke within the ground which swallowed up many dwelling houses Now the oracle rendred this answere unto the Romans that this stould cease in case they flang into the breach some costly and precious thing and when they had cast into it both gold and silver but all in vaine Curtius a right noble young gentleman of the citie pondering well the words of the oracle and considering with himselfe that the life of man was more pretious than gold cast himselfe on horseback into the said chinke and so delivered his citizens and countrimen from their calamitie this hath Aristides recorded in fortieth booke of Italian histories 6 Amphtaraus was one of the princes and leaders that accompanied Pollynices and when one day they were feasting merily together an eagle soaring over his head chanced to catch up his javelin and carrie it up aloft in the aire which afterwards when she had let fall againe stucke fast in the ground and became a lawrell The morrow after as they joined battell in that verie place 〈◊〉 with his chariot was swallowed up within the earth and there standeth now the citie Harma so called of the chariot as Trismachus reporteth in the third booke of his Foundations During the warres which the Romans waged against Pyrrhus king of the Epirotes Paulus Acmylius was promised by the oracle that he should have the victorie if he would set up an altar in that verie place where he should see one gentleman of qualitie and good marke to be swallowed up alive in the earth together with his chariot Three daies after Valerius Conatus when in a dreame he thoght that he saw himselfe adorned with his priestly vestments for skilfull he was in the art of divination led forth the armie and after he had slaine many of his enemies was devouted quick
warred against the Lacedaemonians and when the time was come that magistrates should be elected at Thebes himselfe in person repaired thither having given order and commandement in the meane while unto his sonne Stesimbrotus in no wise to fight with the enemie The Lacedaemonians having intelligence given them that the father was absent reproched and reviled this yoong gentleman and called him coward wherewith he was so galled that he fell into a great fit of choler and forgetting the charge that his father had laid upon him gave the enemies battell and atchieved the victorie His father upon his returne was highly offended with his sonne for transgressing his will and commandement and after he had set a victorious crown upon his head caused it to be strooken off as Ctesiphon recordeth in the third booke of the Boeotian histories The Romanes during the time that they maintained warre against the Samnites chose for their general captain Manlius surnamed Imperious who returning upon a time from the camp to Rome for to be present at the election of Consuls straightly charged his son not to fight with the enemies in his absence The Samnites hereof advertised provoked the yoong gentleman with most spitefull and villanous tearmes reproching him likewise with cowardise which he not able to endure was so farre mooved in the end that he gave them battel and defeated them but Manlius his father when he was returned cut him shorter by the head for it as testifieth Aristides the Milesian 13 Hercules being denied marriage with the Ladie Iole tooke the repulse so neere to heart that he forced and sacked the citie Oechalia But Iole flung herselfe headlong downe from the wall into the trench under it howbeit so it fortuned that the winde taking hold of her garments as she fell bare her up so as in the fall shee caught no harme as witnesseth Nicias of Malea The Romans whiles they warred upon the Tuskans chose for their commander Valerius Torquatus who having a sight of Clusia their kings daughter fancied her and demanded her of him in marriage but being denied and rejected he wan the citie and put it to the saccage The ladie Clusia flung herselfe downe from an high tower but through the providence of Venus her habillements were so heaved up with the winde that they brake the fall and albeit shee light upon the ground shee escaped alive Then the captaine before named forced her and abused her bodie in regard of which dishonour and vilanie offered unto her by a generall decree of all the Romanes confined he was into the Isle of Corsica which lieth against Italy as witnesseth Theophilus in the third booke of his Italian historie 14 The Carthaginians and Sicilians being entred into league banded themselves against the Romanes and prepared with their joint forces to warre upon them whereupon Metellus was chosen captaine who having offered sacrifice unto all other gods and goddesses left out onely the goddesse Vesta who thereupon raised a contrarie winde to blow against him in his voiage Then Caius Julius the soothsayer said unto him that the winde would lie in case before he embarked and set saile he offered in sacrifice his owne daughter unto Vesta Metellus being driven to this hard exigent was constrained to bring foorth his daughter to be sacrificed but the goddesse taking pitie of him her in stead of the maiden substituted a yoong heyfer and carried the virgin to Lavintum where she made her a religious priestresse of the Dragon which they worship and have in great reverence within that citie as writeth Pythocles in his third booke of Italian affaires In like manner is the case of Iphigenia which hapned in Aulis a citie of Boeotia reported by Meryllus in the third booke of Boeotian Chronicles 15 Brennus a king of the Galatians or Gallo-Greekes as he forraied and spoiled Asia came at length to Ephesus where he fell in love with a yoong damosell a commoners daughter who promised to lie with him yea and to betray the citie unto him upon condition that he would give unto her carquanets bracelets and other jewels of gold wherewith ladies are woont to adorne and set out themselves Then Brennus requested those about his person to cast into the lap of this covetons wench all the golden jewels which they had which they did in such quantitie that the maiden was overwhelmed under them quick pressed to death with their waight as Clitipho writeth in the first booke of the Galatian historie Tarpeia a virgin and yoong gentlewoman of a good house having the keeping of the Capitoll during the time that the Romanes warred against the Albanes promised unto their king Tatius for to give him entrance into the castle of mount Tarpeius if in recompence of her good service he would bestow upon her such bracelets rings and carquanets as the Sabine dames used to weare when they trimmed up themselves in best manner which when the Sabines understood they heaped upon her so many that they buried her quick underneath them according as Aristides the Milesian reporteth in his Italian historie 16 The inhabitants of Tegea and Phenea two cities maintained a lingring warre one against the other so long until they concluded in the end to determine all quarrels and controversies by the combat of three brethren twinnes of either side And the men of Tegea put soorth into the field for their part the sonnes of one of their citizens named Reximachus and those of Phinea for themselves the sonnes of Damostratus When these champions were advanced foorth into the plaine to performe their devoir it fortuned that two of Reximachus his sonnes were killed outright in the place and the third whose name was Critolaus wrought such a stratagem with his three concurrents that he overcame them all for making semblance as though he fled he turned suddenly back slew them one after another as he espied his advātage when they were singled and severed asunder in their chase after him At his returne home with this glorious victorie all his citizens did congratulate and rejoice with him onely his owne sister named Demodice was nothing glad therefore because one of the brethren whom he had slaine was espoused unto her whose name was Demoticus Critolaus taking great indignation hereat killed her out of hand The mother to them both sued him for this murder and required justice howbeit hee was acquit of all actions and enditements framed against him as writeth Demaratus in the second booke of Arcadian acts The Romans and the Albanes having warred a long time together chose for their champions to decide all quarrels three brethren twinnes both of the one side and the other For the Albanes were three Curiatii and for the Romans as many Horain The combate was no sooner begun but those of Alba laid two of their adversaries dead in the dust the third helping himselfe with a feigned flight killed the other three one after the other as they were divided asunder
in pursuit after him for which victorie all other Romanes made great joy only his owne sister Horatia shewed herselfe nothing well pleased herewith for that to one of the other side she was betrothed in marriage for which he made no more ado but stabbed his sister to the heart this is reported by Aristides the Milesian in his Annales of Italy 17 In the citie Ilium when the fire had taken the temple of Minerva one of the inhabitants named Ilus ranne thither and caught the little image of Minerva named Palladium which was supposed to have fallen from heaven and therewith lost his sight because it was not lawfull that the said image should be seene by any man howbeit afterwards when he had appeased the wrath of the said goddesse he recovered his eie sight againe as writeth Dercyllus in the first book of Foundations Metellus a noble man of Rome as he went toward a certaine house of pleasure that hee had neere unto the citie was slaied in the way by certaine ravens that slapped and beat him with their wings at which ominous accident being astonied and presaging some evill to be toward him he returned to Rome and seeing the temple of the goddesse Vesta on fire he ran thither and tooke away the petie image of Pallas named Palladium and so likewise suddenly sell blind howbeit afterwards being reconciled unto her he got this sight againe this is the report of Aristides in his Chronicles 18 The Thracians warring against the Athenians were directed by an oracle which promised them victorie in case they saved the person of Codrus king of Athens but he disguising himselfe in the habit of a poore labourer and carrying a bill in his hand went into the campe of the enemies and killed one where likewise he was killed by another and so the Athenians obtained victorie as Socrates writeth in the second booke of Thracian affaires Publius Decius a Romane making warre against the Albanes dreamed in the night and saw a vision which promised him that if himselfe died he should adde much to the puissance of the Romans whereupon he charged upon his enemies where they were thickest arranged and when he had killed a number of them was himselfe slaine Decius also his sonne in the warre against the Gaules by that meanes saved the Romans as saith Aristides the Milesian 19 Cyanttpus a Siracusian borne sacrificed upon a time unto all other gods but unto Bacchus whereat the god being offended haunted him with drunckennesse so as in a darke corner he deflowred forcibly his owne daughter named Cyane but in the time that he dealt with her she tooke away the ring off his finger and gave it unto her nourse to keepe for to testifie another day who it was that thus abused her Afterwards the pestilence raigned fore in those parts and Apollo gave answere by oracle that they were to offer in sacrifice unto the gods that turned away calamities a godlesse and incestuous person all others wist not whom the oracle meant but Cyane knowing full well the will of Apollo tooke her father by the haire and drew him perforce to the altar and when she had caused himto be killed sacrificed her selfe after upon him as writeth Dositheus in the third booke of the Chronicles of Cicily Whiles the feast of Bacchus called Bacchanalia was celebrated at Rome there was one Aruntius who never in all his life had drunke wine but water onely and alwaies despised the power of god Bacchus who to be revenged of him caused him one time be so drunke that he forced his owne daughter Medullina abused her bodie carnally who having knowledge by his ring who it was that did the deed and taking to her a greater heart than one of her age made her father one day drunke and after she had adorned his head with garlands chaplets of flowers led him to aplace called the altar of Thunder where with many teares she sacrificed him who had surprised her takē away her virginity as writeth Aristides the Milesian in his third booke of Italian Chronicles 20 Erechiheus warring upon Eumolpus was advertised that he should win the victorie if before he went into the field he sacrificed his owne daughter unto the gods who when he had imparted this mater unto his wife Praxithea he offered his daughter in sacrifice before the battell hereof Euripides maketh mention in his tragoedie Erechtheus Marius maintaining warre against the Cimbrians and finding himselfe too weake saw a vision in his sleepe that promised him victory if before he went to battell he did sacrifice his daughter named Calpurnis who setting the good of the weale publicke and the regard of his countrimen before the naturall affection to his owne blood did accordingly and wan the field and even at this day two altars there be in Germanie which at the verie time and hower that this sacrifice was offered yeeld the sound of trumpets as Dorotheus reporteth in the third booke of the Annales of Italy 21 Cyanippus a Thessalian borne used ordinarily to go on hunting his wife a young gentle woman intertained this fancie of jealousie in her head that the reason why he went forth so often and staied so long in the forrest was because he had the companie of some other woman whom beloved whereupon she determined with her selfe to lie in espiall one day therefore she followed and traced Cyanippus and at length lay close within a certaine thicket of the forrest waiting and expecting what would fall out and come of it It chanced that the leaves and branches of the shrubs about her stirred the hounds imagining that there was some wild beast within seised upon her and so tare in pieces this young dame that loved her husband so well as if she had beene a savage beast Cyanippus then seeing before his eies that which he never would have imagined or thought in his mind for verie griefe of heart killed himselfe as Parthenius the Poet hath left in writing In Sybaris a citie of Italy there was sometime a young gentleman named Aemilius who being a beautifull person and one who loved passing well the game of hunting his wife who was young also thought him to be enamoured of another ladie and therefore got her selfe close within a thicket and chanced to stirre the boughes of the shrubs and bushes about her The hounds thereupon that ranged and hunted thereabout light upon her and tare her body in pieces which when her husband saw he killed himselfe upon her as Clytonimus reporteth in his second booke of the Sybaritick historie 22 Smyrna the daughter of Cinyras having displeased and angred Venus became enamored of her owne father and declared the vehement heat of her love unto her nourse She therefore by a wily device went to worke with her master and bare him in hand that there was a faire damosell a neighbours daughter that was in love with him but abashed and ashamed to come unto him openly or to be
drew forth his sword and when she had wounded Chrisippus as he slept she left the sword sticking in the wound thus was Laius suspected for the deed because of his sword but the youth being now halfe dead discharged and acquit him and revealed the whole truth of the matter whereupon Pelops caused the dead body to be enterred but Hippodamia he banished as Dositheus recordethin his booke Pelopidae Hebius Tolieix having espoused a wife named Nuceria had by her two children but of an infranchised bond woman he begat a son named Phemius Firmus a childe of excellent beauty whom he loved more deerely than the children by his lawfull wife Nuceria detesting this base son of his solicited her own children to murder him which when they having the feare of God before there eyes refused to do she enterprised to execute the deed her selfe And in truth she drew forth the sword of one of the squires of the body in the night season and with it gave him a deadly wound as he lay fast asleepe the foresaid squire was suspected and called in question for this act for that his sword was there found but the childe himselfe discovered the truth his father then commanded his body to be buried but his wife he banished as Dositheus recordeth in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 34 Theseus being in very truth the naturall sonne of Neptune had a sonne by Hippolite a princesse of the Amazones whose name was Hippolytus but afterwards maried againe and brought into the house a stepmother named Phaedra the daughter of Minos who falling in love with her sonne-inlaw Hippolitus sent her nourse for to sollicite him but he giving no eare unto her left Athens and went to Troezen where he gave his minde to hunting But the wicked and unchaste woman seeing her selfe frustrate and disapointed of her will wrot shrewd letters unto her husband against this honest and chaste yong gentleman informing him of many lies and when she had so done strangled her selfe with an halter and so ended her daies Theseus giving credit unto her letters besought his father Neptune of the three requests whereof he had the choise this one namely to worke the death of Hippolytus Neptune to satisfie his mind sent out unto Hippolytus as he rode along the sea slde a monstrous bull who so affrighted his coatch horses that they overthrew Hippolytus and so he was crushed to death Comminius Super the Laurentine having a sonne by the nimph Aegeria named Comminius espoused afterwards Gidica and brought into his house a stepmother who became likewise amorous of her son-in law and when she saw that she could not speed of her desire she hanged her selfe and left behind her certaine letters devised against him containing many untruths Comminius the father having read these slanderous imputations within the said letters and beleeving that which his jealous head had once conceived called upon Neptune who presented unto Commintus his sonne as he rode in his chariot a hideous bull which set his steeds in such a fright that they fell a flinging and so haled the young man that they dismembred and killed him as Dositheus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian historie 35 When the pestilence raigned in Lacedaemon the oracle of Apollo delivered this answer That the mortalitie would cease in case they sacrificed yeerly a young virgin of noble blood Now whē it fortuned that the lot one yeere fell upō Helena so that she was led forth all prepared and set out readie to be killed there was an eagle came flying downe caught up the sword which lay there and caried it to cerraine droves of beasts where she laid it upon an heyfer whereupon ever after they forbare to sacrifice any more virgins as Aristodemus reporteth in the third Collect of fables The plague was sore in Falerij the contagion thereof being verie great there was given out an oracle That the said affliction would stay and give over if they sacrificed yeerly a yong maiden unto Juno and this superstition continuing alwaies still Valeria Luperca was by lot called to this sacrifice now when the sword was readie drawen there was an eagle came downe out of the aire and caried it away and upon the altar where the fire was burning laid a wand having at one end in maner of a little mallet as for the sword she laid upon a young heyfer feeding by the temple side which when the young damsell perceived after she had sacrificed the said heyfer and taken up the mallet she went from house to house and gentl knocking therewith all those that lay sicke raised them up and said to everie one Be whole and receive health whereupon it commeth that even at this day this mysterie is still performed and observed as Aristides hath reported in the 919. book of his Italian histories 36 Phylonome the daughter of Nyctimus and Arcadia hunted with Diana whom Mars disguised like a shepherd got with child She having brought foorth two twinnes for feare of her father threw them into the river Erymanthus but they by the providēce of the gods were caried downe the streame without harme or danger and at length the current of the water cast them upon an hollow oake growing up on the banke side whereas a she woolfe having newly kennelled had her den This woolfe turned out her whelps into the river and gave sucke unto the two twins above said which when a shepherd named Tyliphus once perceived and had a sight of he tooke up the little infants and caused them to be nourished as his owne children calling the one Lycastus and the other Parrhasius who successively reigned in the realme of Arcadia Amulius bearing himselfe insolently and violently like a tyrant to his brother Numitor first killed his sonne Aenitus as they were hunting then his daughter Sylvia he cloistred up as a religious nunne to serve Juno She conceived by Mars and when shee was delivered of two twins confessed the truth unto the tyrant who standing in feare of them caused them both to be cast into the river Tybris where they were carried downe the water unto one place whereas a shee woolfe had newly kennelled with her yoong ones and verily her owne whelps shee abandoned and cast into the river but the babes shee suckled Then Faustus the shepherd chauncing to espie them tooke them up and nourished as his owne calling the one Remus and the other Romulus and these were the founders of Rome citie according to Artstides the Milesian in his Italian histories 37 After the destruction of Troy Agamemnon together with Cassandra was murdred but Orestes who had beene reared and brought up with Strophius was revenged of those murderers of his father as Pyrander saith in his fourth booke of the Peloponnesian historie Fabius Fabricianus descended lineally from that great Fabius Maximus after he had wonne and sacked Tuxium the capitall citie of the Samnites sent unto Rome the image of Venus Victoresse which was so highly
honoured and worshipped among the Samnites His wife Fabta had committed adulterie with a faire and well favoured yoong man named Petronius Valentinus and afterwards treacherously killed her husband Now had Fabia his daughter saved her brother Fabricianus being a verie little one out of danger and sent him away secretly to be nourished and brought up This youth when he came to age killed both his mother and the adulterer also for which act ofhis acquit he was by the doome of the Senate as Dositheus delivereth the storie in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 38 Busiris the sonne of Neptune and Anippe daughter of Nilus under the colour of pretended hospitalitie and courteous receiving of strangers used to sacrifice all passengers but divine justice met with him in the end and revenged their death for Hercules set upon him and killed him with his club as Agathon the Samian hath written Hercules as he drave before him thorow Italy Geryons kine was lodged by king Faunus the sonne of Mercurie who used to sacrifice all strangers and guests to his father but when hee meant to do so unto Hercules was himselfe by him slaine as writeth Dercyllus in the third booke of the Italian histories 39 Phalaris the tyrant of the Agrigentines a mercilesse prince was wont to torment put to exquisite paine such as passed by or came unto him and Perillus who by his profession was a skilfull brasse-founder had framed an heyfer of brasse which he gave unto this king that hee might burne quicke in it the said strangers And verily in this one thing did this tyrant shew himselfe just for that he caused the artificer himself to be put into it and the said heyfer seemed to low whiles he was burning within as it is written in the third booke of Causes In Aegesta a citie of Sicilie there was sometime a cruell tyrant named Aemilius Censorinus whose manner was to reward with rich gifts those who could invent new kinds of engines to put men to torture so there was one named Aruntius Paterculus who had devised and forged a brasen horse and presented it unto the foresaid tyrant that he might put into it whom he would And in truth the first act of justice that ever he did was this that the partie himselfe even the maker of it gave the first hansell thereof that he might make triall of that torment himselfe which he had devised for others Him also hee apprehended afterwards and caused to bee throwen downe headlong from the hill Tarpeius It should seeme also that such princes as reigned with violence were called of him Aemylii for so Aristides reporteth in the fourth booke of Italian Chronicles 40 Euenus the son of Mars Sterope tooke to wife Alcippe daughter of Oenomaus who bare unto him a daughter named Marpissa whom he minded to keepe a virgin still but Aphareus seeing her carried her away from a daunce and fled upon it The father made suce after but not able to recover her for verie anguish of mind he cast himselfe into the river of Lycormas and thereby was immortalized as saith Dositheus in the fourth booke of his Italian historie Anius king of the Tuskans having a faire daughter named Salia looked straightly unto her that she should continue a maiden but Cathetus one of his nobles seeing this damosell upon a time as she disported herselfe was enamoured of her and not able to suppresse the furious passion of his love ravished her and brought her to Rome The father pursued after but seeing that he could not overtake them threw himselfe into the river called in those daies Pareüsuis and afterwards of his name Anio Now the said Cathetus lay with Salia and of her bodie begat Salius and Latinus from whom are discended the noblest families of that countrey as Aristides the Milesian and Alexander Polyhistor write in the third booke of the Italian historie 41 Egestratus an Ephesian borne having murdered one of his kinfmen fled into the citie Delphi and demaunded of Apollo in what place he should dwell who made him this answere that he was to inhabit there whereas he saw the peasants of the countrey dauncing and crowned with chaplets of olive branches Being arrived therefore at a certaine place in Asia where he found the rurall people crowned with garlands of olive leaves and dauncing even there hee founded a citie which he called Elaeus as Pythocles the Samian writeth in the third booke of his Georgicks Telegonus the sonne of Vlysses by Circe being sent for to seeke his father was advised by the oracle to build a citie there where he should find the rusticall people and husbandmen of the countrey crowned with chaplets and dauncing together when he was arrived therefore at a certaine coast of Italie seeing the peasants adorned with boughes branches of the wild olive tree passing the time merily and dauncing together he built a citie which upon that occurrent he named Prinesta and afterwards the Romans altering the letters a little called it Preneste as Aristotle hath written in the third booke of the Italian historie THE LIVES OF THE TEN ORATOVRS The Summarie IN these lives compendiously descibed Plutarch sheweth in part the government of the Athenian common-weale which flourished by the meanes of many learned persons in the number of whom we are to reckon those under written namely Antipho Andocides Lysias Isocrates Isaeus Aeschines Lycurgus Demosthenes Hyperides and Dinarchus but on the other side he discovereth sufficiently the indiscretion of cretaine oratours how it hath engendred much confusion ruined the most part of such personages themselves and finally overthrowen the publick estate which he seemeth expresly to have noted and observed to the end that every one might see how dangerous in the managemēt of State affaires he is who hath no good parts in him but onely a fine and nimble tongue His meaning therefore is that lively vertue indeed should be joined unto eloquence meane while we observe also the lightnesse vanitie and ingratitude of the Athenian people in many places and in the divers complexions of these ten men here depainted evident it is how much availeth in any person good in struction from his infancie and how powerfull good teachers be for to frame and fashion tender minds unto high matters and important to the weale publicke In perusing and passing through this treatise a man may take knowledge of many points of the ancient popular government which serve verie well to the better understanding of the Greeke historie and namely of that which concerneth Athens As also by the recompenses both demanded and also decreed in the behalfe of vertuous men we may perceive and see among the imperfections of a people which had the soveraigntie in their hands some moderation from time to time which ought to make us magnifie the wisedome and providence of God who amid so great darkneffe hath maintained so long as his good pleasure was so many States and governours in Greece which
wit the skill of measures then afterwards to Astrologie which is the knowledge of the stars in the highest place above all the rest setteth Harmonicae which is the skill of sounds and accords for the subject of Geometrie is this when as to quantity in generall there is adjoined magnitude in length bredth of Stereometrie when to the magnitude of length and bredth there is added depth or profunditie Likewise the proper subject of Astrology is this when to the solid magnitude there cōmeth motion The subject of harmony or musick when to a bodie moving there is adjoined sound or voice If we subtract then and take away from moving bodies voice from solid bodies motion from superficies depth and profundity and from quantities magnitude we shall come by this time to the intelligible Ideae which have no difference among them in regard of one and sole thing for unitie maketh no number unlesse it come once to touch binarie or two which is infinite but in this wise having produced a number it proceedeth to points and pricks from pricks to lines and so forth from lines to superficies from superficies to profundities from thence to bodies and so forward to the qualities of bodies subject to passions and alrerations Moreover of intellectuall things there is no other judge but the understanding or the mind for cogitation or intelligence is no other thing but the understanding so long as it is applied unto Mathematicals wherein things intellectuall appeare as within mirrours whereas for the knowledge of bodies by reason of their great number nature hath given unto us five powers and faculties of severall and different senses for to judge withall and yet sufficient they are not to discover all objects for many there be of them so small that they can not be perceived by the senses And like as although every one of us being composed of soule and bodie yet that principall part which is our spirit and understanding is a very small thing hidden and inclosed within a great masse of flesh even so very like it is that there is the same proportion within the universall world betweene things sensible and intellectuall for the intellectuall are the beginning of corporall now that which proceedeth from a beginning is alwaies in number more and in magnitude greater than the said beginning But on the contrary a man may reason thus and say First and formost that in comparing sensible and corporall things with intellectuall we doe in some sort make mortall things equall with devine for God is to be reckened among intellectuals Now this is to be granted that the content is alwaies lesse then the continent but the nature of the universall world within the intellectuall comprehendeth the sensible For God having set the soule in the midst hath spred and stretched it through all within and yet without forth hath covered all bodies with it As for the soule it is invisible yea and inperceptible to all the naturall senses according as he hath written in his booke of lawes and therefore every one of us is corruptible but the world shall never perish for that in each of us that which is mortall and subject to dissolution containeth within it the power which is vitall but in the world it is cleane contrary for the principall puissance and nature which is ever after one sort immutable and doth alwaies preserve the corporall part which it containeth and imbraceth within it selfe Besides in a bodily nature and corporall a thing is called individuall and importible for the smallnesse therof to wit when it is so little that it cannot be devided but in the spirituall and incorporall it is so called for the simplicity sincerity purity thereof as being exempt from all multiplicity diversity for otherwise folly it were to cast a guesse at spirituall things by corporal Furthermore the very present time which we call Now is said to be inpartible and indivisible howbeit instant together it is every where neither is their any part of this habitable world without it but all passions all actions all corruptions generations throughout the world are comprised in this very present Now. Now the onely instrument to judge of things intellectuall is the understanding like as the eie of light which for simplicity is uniforme every way like unto it selfe but bodies having many diversities differences are comprehended by divers instruments judged some by this and others by that And yet some there be who unwoorthily disesteeme and contemne the intellectuall puissance and spirituall which is in us for in truth being goodly and great it surmounteth every sensible thing and reacheth up as farre as to the gods But that which of all others is most himselfe in his booke entituled Symposium teaching how to use love and love matters in withdrawing the soule from the affection of beauties corporall and applying the same to those which are intellectuall exhorteth us not to subject and inthrall our selves into the lovely beauty of any body nor of one study and science but by erecting and lifting up our mindes aloft from such base objects to turne unto that vast ocean indeed of pulcritude and beauty which is vertue 3 How commeth it to passe that considering he affirmeth evermore the soule to be more ancient than the body as the very cause of the generation of it and the beginning likewise thereof yea contrariwise he saith that the soule was never without the bodie nor the understanding without the soule and that of necessitie the soule must be within the bodie and the understanding in the soule for it seemeth that heere in there is some contradiction namely that the body both is and is not in case it be true that it is together with the soule and yet neverthelesse ingendred by the soule IS it because that is true which we oftentimes doe say namely that the soule without understanding and the body without forme have alwaies beene together neither the one nor the other had ever commensment of being nor beginning of generation but when the soule came to have participation of understanding and of harmonie and became to be wise by the meanes of consonance and accord then caused she mutation in matter and being more powerfull and strong in her owne motions drew and turned into her the motions of the other and even so the bodies of the world had the first generation from the soule whereby it was shaped and made uniforme For the soule of her selfe brought not foorth the nature of a body nor created it of nothing but of a body without all order and forme whatsoever he made it orderly and very obeisant as if one said that the force of a seed or kernell is alwaies with the bodie but yet neverthelesse the body of the sig tree or olive tree is engendred of the seed or kernell he should not speake contrarieties for the very body it selfe being mooved and altered by the seed
springeth and groweth to be such semblably the matter void of forme and indeterminate having once bene shapen by the soule which was within received such a forme and disposition 4 What is the reason that whereas there be bodies and figures some consisting of right lines and others of circular he hath taken for the foundation and beginning of those which stand of right lines the triangle Isosceles with two equall sides and scalenum with three sides all unequall Of which the triangle with two even legs composed the cube or square bodie which is the element and principle of the earth and the triangle with three unequall legs made the pyramidall body as also octaedron with eight faces and cosaedron with twenty faces whereof the first is the element and seed of fire the second of aire and the third of water and yet he hath over passed quite all bodies and figures circular notwithstanding that he made mention of the sphaericall figure or round body when he said that every one of those figures above named is apt to divide a globe or sphaericall body into equall parts IS it as some doe imagine and suppose because he attributed the Dodecaedron that is to say the body with twelve faces unto the globe or round sphaere in saying that God made use of this forme and figure in the framing of the world for in regard of the multitude of elements and bluntnesse of angles it is farthest off from direct and right lines whereby it is flexible and by stretching foorth round in maner of a ball made of twelve pieces of leather it approcheth neerest unto roundnesse and in that regard is of greatest capacitie for it conteined twenty angles solid and every one of them is comprized and environed within three flatte obtuse or blunt angles considering that every of them is composed of one right and fift part moreover compact it is and composed of twelve pentagones that is to say bodies with five angles having their angles and sides equall of which every one of thirty principall triangles with three unequall legges by reason whereof it seemeth that he followed the degrees of the Zodiacke and the daies of the yeere together in that division of their parts so equal and just in number Or may not this be the reason that by nature the right goeth before the round or rather to speake more truely that a circular line seemeth to be some vicious passion or faulty qualitie of the right for we use ordinarily to say that the right line doth bow or bend and a circle is drawen and described by the center and the distance from it to the circumference which is the verie place of the right line by which it is measured out for the circumference is on every side equally distant from the center Moreover the Conus which is a round pyramys and the Cylindre which is as it were a round columne or pillar of equall compasse are both made of figures with direct lines the one to wit the Conus by a triangle whereof one side remaineth firme and the other with the base goeth round about it the Cylindre when the same befalleth to a parallell Moreover that which is lesse commeth neerest unto the beginning and resembleth it most but the least and simplest of all lines is the right for of the round line that part which is within doth crooke and curbe hollow the other without doth bumpe and bunch Over and besides numbers are before figures for unity is before a pricke seeing that a pricke is in position and situation an unity but an unity is triangular for that every number triangular eight times repeated or multiplied by addition of an unity becommeth quadrangular and the same also befalleth to unity and therefore a triangle is before a circle which being so the right line goeth before the circular Moreover an element is never divided into that which is composed of it but contrariwise every thing else is divided and resolved into the owne elements whereof it doth consist If then the triangle is not resolved into any thing circular but contrariwise two diametres crossing one another part a circle just into fower parts then we must needs inferre the figure consisting of right lines went before those which are circular now that the right line goeth first and the circular doth succeed and follow after Plato himselfe hath shewed by demonstration namely when hee saith that the earth is composed of many cubes or square solid bodies whereof every one is enclosed and conteined with right lined superfices in such maner disposed as yet the whole body and masse of the earth seemeth round like a globe so that we need not to make any proper element thereof round if it be so that bodies with right lines conjoined and set in some sort one to another bringeth forth this forme Over and besides the direct line be it little or be it great keepeth alwaies the same rectitude whereas contrariwise we see the circumferences of circles if they be small are more coping bending and contracted in their outward curvature conrrariwise if they be great they are more extent lax and spred insomuch as they that stand by the outward circumference of circles lying upon a flat superfices touch the same underneath partly by a pricke if they be smal and in part by a line if they be large so as a man may very well conjecture that many right lines joined one to another taile to taile by piece-meale produce the circumference of a circle But consider whether there be none of these our circular or sphaericall figures exquisitely and exactly perfect but in regard of the extentions and circumtentions of right lines or by reason of the exilitie and smalnesse of the parts there can be perceived no difference and thereupon there sheweth a circular and round figure And therefore it is that there is not a bodie heere that by by nature doth moove circularly but all according to the right line so that the round and sphericall figure is not the element of a sensible body but of the soule and understanding unto which he attributeth likewise the circular motion as belonging unto them naturally 5 In what sense and meaning delivered he this speech in his booke entituled Phaedrus that the nature of a wing where by that which is heavy and ponderous is caried up aloft of all other things that belong unto a body hath a certeine communion and participation with God IS it because he discourseth there of love and love is occupied about the beauty of the body and this beauty for the resemblance that it hath to divinity doth moove the minde and excite the reminiscence thereof Or rather are we to take it simply without curious searching farther into any mystery thereof namely that the soule being within the body hath many faculties powers whereof that which is the discourse of reason and understanding doth participate with the deitie which hee not unproperly and impertinently tearmeth a
as touching the generation or creation of the world and of the soule thereof as if the same had not bene from all eternity nor had time out of minde their essence whereof we have particularly spoken a part else where and for this present suffice it shall to say by the way that the arguing and contestation which Plato confesseth himselfe to have used with more vehemencie than his age would well beare against Atheists the same I say they confound and shufflle up or to speake more truely abolish altogether For if it be so that the world be eternall and was never created the reason of Plato falleth to the ground namely that the soule being more ancient than the bodie and the cause and principall author of all motion and mutation the chiefe governour also and head Architect as he himselfe hath said is placed and bestowed therein But what and where of the soule is and how it is said and to be understood that it is more ancient than the body and before it in time the progresse of our discourse hereafter shall declare for this point being either unknowen or not well understood brings great difficulty as I thinke in the well conceiving and hinderance in beleeving the opinion of the trueth In the first place therefore I will shew what mine owne conceit is proving and fortifying my sentence and withall mollifying the same because at the first sight it seemeth a strange paradox with as probable reasons as I can devise which done both this interpretation and proofe also of mine I will lay unto the words of the text out of Plato and reconcile the one unto the other For thus in mine opinion stands the case This world quoth Heraclitus there was never any god or man that made as if in so saying he feared that if we disavow God for creatour we must of necessitie confesse that man was the architect and maker thereof But much better it were therefore that we subscribe unto Plato and both say and sing aloud that the world was created by God for as the one is the goodliest piece of worke that ever was made so the other the most excellent workman and greatest cause that is Now the substance and matter whereof it was created was never made or engendred but was for ever time out of minde and from all eternitie subject unto the workman for to dispose and order it yea and to make as like as possible was to himselfe For of nothing and that which had no being there could not possibly be made ought but of that which was notwell made nor as it ought to bee there may be made somewhat that is good to wit an house a garment or an image and statue But before the creation of the world there was nothing but a chaos that is to say all things in confusion and disorder and yet was not the same without a bodie without motion or without soule howbeit that bodie which it had was without forme and consistence and that mooving that it had was altogether rash without reason and understanding which was no other but a disorder of the soule not guided by reason For God created not that bodie which was incorporall nor a soule which was inanimate like as we say that the musician maketh not a voice nor the dancer motion but the one maketh the voice sweet accordant and harmonious and the other the motion to keepe measure time and compasse with a good grace And even so God created not that palpable soliditie of a bodie nor that moving and imaginative puissance of the soule but finding these two principles the one darke and obscure the other turbulent foolish and senselesse both imperfect disordered and indeterminate he so digested and disposed them that he composed of them the most goodly beautifull and absolute living creature that is The substance then of the bodie which is a certeine nature that he calleth susceptible of all things the very seat the nourse also of all things engendred is no other thing than this But as touching the substance of the soule he tearmeth it in his booke entituled Philebus Infinitie that is to say the privation of all number and proportion having in it neither end limit nor measure neither excesse nor defect neither similitude nor dissimilitude And that which hee delivereth in Timaeus namely that it is mingled with the indivisible nature is become divisible in bodies we must not understand this to be either multitude in unities or length and breadth in points or pricks which things agree unto bodies and belong rather to bodies than to soules but that mooving principle disordinate indefinite and mooving of it selfe which hee calleth in manie places Necessitie the same in his books of lawes hee tearmeth directly a disorderly soule wicked and evill doing This is the soule simply and of it selfe it is so called which afterwards was made to participate understanding and discourse of reason yea wife proportion to the end that it might become the soule of the world Semblably this materiall principle capable of all had in it a certeine magnitude distance and place beauty forme proportionate figure and measure it had none but all these it gat afterwards to the end that being thus digested and brought into decent order it might affoord the bodies and organs of the earth the sea the heavens the starres the plants and living creatures of all sorts But as for them who attribute give that which he calleth in Timaeus necessitie and in his treatise Philebus infinity and immensity of excesse defect of too much and too little unto matter and not unto the soule how are they able to maintaine that it is the cause of evill considering that he supposeth alwaies that the said matter is without forme or figure whatsoever destitute of all qualities and faculties proper unto it comparing it unto those oiles which having no smell of their owne perfumers use in the composition of their odors and precious ointments for impossible it is that Plato should suppose the thing which of it selfe is idle without active qualitie without mooving and inclination to any thing to be the cause and beginning of evill or name it an infinity wicked evill doing not likewise a necessitie which in many things repugneth against God as being rebellious and refusing to obey him for as touching that necessitie which overthroweth heaven as he saith in his Politiques and turneth it cleane contrary that inbred concupiscence and confusion of the first and auncient nature wherein there was no order at all before it was ranged to that beautifull disposition of the world as now it is how came it among things if the subject which is matter was without all qualities and void of that efficacie which is in causes and considering that the Creatour himselfe being of his owne nature all good desired as much as might be to make all things like unto himselfe for a third besides these two principles there is
none And if we will bring evill into the world without a precedent cause principle to beget it we shall run and fall into the difficult perplexities of the Stoicks for of those two principles which are it cannot be that either the good or that which is altogether without forme and quality whatsoever should give being or beginning to that which is naught Neither hath Plato done as some that came after him who for want of seeing and understanding a third principle and cause betweene God and matter have runne on end and tumbled into the most absurd and falsest reasons that is devising forsooth I wot not how that the nature of evill should come without forth casually and by accident or rather of the owne accord forasmuch as they will not graunt unto Epicurus that the least atome that is should turne never so little or decline a side saying that he bringeth in a rash and inconsiderate motion without any cause precedent whereas they themselves the meane-while affirme that sin vice wickednesse and ten thousand other deformities and imperfections of the body come by consequence without any cause efficient in the principles But Plato saith not so for he ridding matter from al different quality and remooving farre from God all cause of evill thus hath hee written as touching the world in his Politiques The world quoth he received al good things from the first author who created it but what evill thing soever there is what wickednesse what injustice in heaven the same it selfe hath from the exterior habitude which was before and the same it doth transmit give to the creatures beneath And a little after he proceedeth thus In tract of time quoth he as oblivion tooke holde and set sure footing the passion and imperfection of the old disorder came in place and got the upper hand more and more and great danger there is least growing to dissolution it be plunged againe into the vast gulfe and bottomlesse pit of confused dissimilitude But dissimilitude there can be none in matter by reason that it is without qualitie and void of all difference whereof Eudemus among others being ignorant mocked Plato for not putting that to be the cause source and first originall of evill things which in many places he calleth mother and nurse for Plato indeed tearmeth matter mother and nurse but he saith likewise That the cause of evill is the motive puissance resiant in the said matter which is in bodies become divisible to wit a reasonlesse and disorderly motion howbeit for all that not without soule which plainly and expresly in his books of lawes he tearmeth a soule contrary and repugnant to that which is the cause of all good for that the soule may well be the cause and principle of motion but understanding is the cause of order and harmony in motion for God made not the matter idle but hath kept it from being any any more 〈◊〉 troubled with a foolish and rash cause neither hath he given unto nature the beginnings and principles of mutations and passions but being as it was enwrapped and enfolded with all sorts of passions and inordinate mutations hee cleered it of all enormities disorders and errors whatsoever using as proper instruments to bring about all this numbers measures and proportions the effect whereof is not to give unto things by mooving and mutation the passions and differences of the other and of diversitie but rather to make them infallible firme and stable yea and like unto those things which are alwaies of one sort and evermore resemble themselves This is in my judgement the minde and sentence of Plato whereof my principall proofe and argument is this that by this interpretation is salved that contrariety which men say and seemeth indeed to be in his writings for a man would not attribute unto a drunken sophister much lesse than unto Plato so great unconstance and repugnance of words as to affirme one and the same nature to be created and uncreated and namely in his booke entituled Phaedrus that the soule is eternall and uncreated but in Timaeus that it was created and engendied Now as touching those words of his in the treatise Phaedrus they are well neere in every mans mouth verie rife whereby he prooveth that the soule can not perish because it was never engendred and semblably he prooveth that generation it had none because it mooveth it selfe Againe in the booke entituled Timaeus God quoth he hath not made the soule to be yoonger than the body according as now in this place we purpose to say that it commeth after it for never would he have permitted that the elder being coupled and linked with the yoonger should be commaunded by it But we standing much I wot not how upon inconsiderate rashnesse and vanity use to speake in some sort accordingly for certaine it is that God hath with the bodie joined the soule as precedent both in creation and also in power and vertue like as the dame or mistresse with her subject for to rule and commaund Againe when he had said that the soule being turned upon her selfe began to live a wise and eternall life The body of the heaven quoth he was made visible but the soule invisible participating the discourse of reason and of harmony engendred by the best of things intellectuall and eternall being likewise it selfe the best of things engendred and temporall Where it is to be noted that in this place expresly calling God the best of all eternall things and the soule the best of things created and temporall by this most evident antithesis and contrariety he taketh from the soule that eternity which is without beginning and procreation And what other solution or reconciliation is there of these contradictions but that which himself giveth to those who are willing to receive it for he pronounceth that soule to be ingenerable and not procreated which mooved all things rashly and disorderly before the constitution of the world but contrariwise he calleth that procreated and engendred which Godframed and composed of the first and of a parmanent eternall and perfect good substance namely by creating it wise and well ordered and by putting and conferring even from himselfe unto sense understanding and order unto motion which when he had thus made he ordained and appointed it to be the governor and regent of the whole world And even after the same maner he pronounceth that the body of the world is in one sort eternall to wit not created nor engendred and after another sort both created and engendred For when he saith that whatsoever is visible was never at rest but mooved rashly and without all order and that God tooke the same disposed and ranged it in good order as also when he saith that the fowre generall elements fire water earth and aire before the whole world was of them framed and ordered decently made a woonderfull trouble trembling as it were in the matter and were mightily shaken by
ready to drop into her grave then it makes no matter but it is all one to praise an honest man 〈◊〉 for one thing as another Moreover in his second booke of Friendship whenas he giveth a precept that we ought not to dissolve amities for every fault or defect he userh these very tearmes For there be faults quoth he which we must overpasse quite and make no stay at them others there be againe whereat we should a little stand and take offence and others besides which require more chastisement but some there are which we must thinke 〈◊〉 to breake friendship for ever And more than all this in the same booke he saith that we ought to converse and be acquainted with some more and with others lesse according as they be our friends more or lesse which difference and diversitie extendeth very far insomuch as some are worthy of such an amitie others of a greater some deserve thus much trust and confidence others more than it and so it is in other matters semblable And what other is his drift in all these places but to put a great difference betweene those things for which friendships are engendred And yet in his booke of Honestie to shew that there is nothing good but that which is honest he delivereth these words A good thing is eligible and to be desired that which is eligible and desirable is also acceptable that which is acceptable is likewise commendable and that which is commendable is honest withall Againe a good thing is joious and acceptable joious is venerable and venerable is honest But these speeches are repugnant to himselfe for be it that all that is good were laudable and then chastly to forbeare for to touch an olde riveled woman were a commendable thing or say that every good thing were neither venerable nor joious and acceptable yet his reason falleth to the ground for how can it be that others should be thought frivolous and absurd in praising any for such things and himselfe not worthy to be mocked and laughed at for taking joy and pleasing himselfe in such ridiculous toies as these Thus you see how he sheweth himselfe in most part of his writings and yet in his disputations which he holdeth against others he is much more carelesse to be contrary and repugnant to himselfe for in his treatise which he made as touching exhortation reproving Plato for saying that it was not expedient for him to live at all who is not taught nor knoweth not how to live he writeth in these very tearmes This speech of his quoth he is both contradictory repugnant to it selfe and besides hath no force nor efficacy at all to exhort for first and formost in shewing us that it were expedient for us not to live at all and giving us at it were counsell to die he exhorteth us to any thing rather than to the practise of studie of philolosophie because it is not possible for a man to philosophize unlesse he live nether can he become wise survive he never so long if he lead an evill and ignorant life And a little after hee saith farther That it is as meet and convenient also even for leawd and wicked persons to remaine alive But I care not much to set downe his very words First of all like as vertue barely in it selfe considered hath nothing in it for which we should desire to live even so vice hath as little for which we ought to leave this life What need we now turne over other books of Chrysippus and drip leafe by leafe to proove how contrary and repugnant he is to himselfe for even in these which now we cite and alledge he commeth out otherwhiles with this saying of Antisthenes for which he commendeth him namely that a man is to be provided either of wit to understand or else of a with to under-hang himselfe as also this other verse of Tyrtaus The bounds of vertue first come nie Or else make choise before to die And what other meaning is there of these words but this that it is more expedient for foolish and lewd persons to be out of the world than to live and in one passage seeming to correct Theognis He should not quoth he have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A man from poverty to flie O Cyrnus ought himselfe to cast Headlong from rocks most steepe and hie Or into sea as deepe and vast But rather thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aman from sinne and vice to flie c. What other things else seemeth he to doe than to condemne and scrape out of other mens writings the same things propositions and sentences which himselfe hath inserted in his own books For he reprooveth Plato when he prooveth and sheweth that it is better not to live at all than to lead a life in wickednesse or ignorance and in one breath hee giveth counsell to Theognis to set downe in his poesie That a man ought to fling himselfe downe headlong into the deepe sea or to breake his necke from some high rocke for to avoid sinne and wickednesse And praising as hee did Antisthenes for sending fooles and witlesse folke to an halter wherewith to hang themselves he blamed him neverthelesse who said that vice was not a sufficient cause wherefore we should shorten our lives Moreover in those books against Plato himselfe concerning justice he leapeth directly at the very first into a discourse as touching the gods and saith That Cephalus did not divert men well from evill dooing by the feare of the gods affirming moreover that the discourse which he made as touching divine vengeance might easily be infringed and refuted for that of it selfe it ministreth many arguments and probable reasons on the contrary side as if the same resembled for all the world the fabulous tales of Acco and Alphito wherewith women are woont to scarre their little children and to keepe them from doing shrewd turnes Thus deriding traducing and backbiting Plato hee praiseth elsewhere and in many places else alledgeth these verses out of Euripides Well well though some this doctrine doe deride Be sure in heaven with other gods beside Sits Jupiter the deeds of men who see And will in time revenged surely bee Semblably in the first booke of Justice when he had alledged these verses heere out of Hesiodus Then Saturnes sonne god Jupiter great plagues from heaven did send Even dearth and death both which of all the people made an end he saith that the gods proceed in this wise to the end that when the wicked be thus punished others also advertised and taught by their example might beware how they commit the like or at leastwise sinne lesse What should I say moreover how in this treatise of Justice having affirmed that those who hold pleasure to be good but not the soveraigne end of good may in some sort withall preserve mainteine justice for so much he hath put downe in these very termes For haply admitting pleasure
out of water having earth under it there ex haleth aire which aire comming to be subtilized the fire is produced and environeth it round about as for the stars they are set on fire out of these together with the sunne what is more contrary than to be set on fire and to be cooled what more opposite to subtilization and rarefaction than inspissation and condensation the one maketh water and earth of fire and aire the other turneth that which is moist and terrestriall into fire and aire And yet in one place he maketh kindling of fire and in another refrigeration to bee the cause of quickning and giving soule unto a thing for when the said firing and inflammation comes generall throughout then it liveth and is become an annimall creature but after it commeth to be quenched and thickned it turneth into water and earth and so into a corporall substance In the first booke of Providence he writeth thus For the world being throughout on fire presently it is with all the soule and governour of it selfe but when it is turned into moisture and the soule left within it and is after a sort converted into a soule and body so as it seemeth compounded of them both then the case is altered In which text he affirmeth plainly that the very inanimat parts of the world by exustion and inflammation turne and change into the soule thereof and contrariwise by extinction the soule is relaxed and moistned againe and so returneth into a corporall nature Heereupon I inferre that he is very absurd one while to make of senselesse things animat and living by way of refrigeration and another while to transmure the most part of the soule of the world into insensible and inanimat things But over and above all this the discourse which he maketh as touching the generation of the soule conteineth a proofe demonstration contrary to his owne opinion for he saith That the soule is engendred after that the infant is gone out of the mothers wombe for that the spirit then is transformed by refrigeration even as the temper is gotten of steele Now to prove that the soule is engendred and that after the birth of the infant hee bringeth this for a principall argument Because children become like unto their parents in behaviour and naturall inclination wherein the contrariety that he delivereth is so evident as that a man may see it by the very eie for it is not possible that the soule which is engendred after birth should be framed to the maners and disposition of the parents before nativity or else we must say and fall out it will that the soule before it was in esse was already like unto a soule which is all one as that it was by similitude and resemblance and yet was not because as yet it had not a reall substance Now if any one doe say that it ariseth from the temperature and complexion of the bodies that this similitude is imprinted in them howbeit when the soules are once engendred they become changed he shall overthrow the argument and proofe whereby it is shewed that the soule was engendred for heereupon it would follow that the soule although it were ingenerable when it entreth from without into the body is changed by the temperature of the like Chrysippus sometime saith that the aire is light that it mounteth upward on high and otherwhiles for it againe that it is neither heavy nor light To prove this see what he saith in his second booke of Motion namely that fire having in it no ponderosity at all ascendeth aloft semblably the aire and as the water is more conformable to the earth so the aire doth rather resemble the fire But in his booke entituled Naturall arts he bendeth to the contrary opinion to wit that the aire hath neither ponderosity nor lightnesse of it selfe He affirmeth that the aire by nature is darke and for that cause by consequence it is also the primitive cold and that tenebrosity or darknesse is directly opposite unto light and cleerenesse and the coldnesse thereof to the heat of fire Mooving this discourse in the first booke of his Naturall questions contrary to all this in his treatise of Habitudes he saith That these habitudes be nothing else but aires For that bodies quoth he be 〈◊〉 by them and the cause why every body conteined by any habitude is such as it is is the continent aire which in iron is called hardnesse in stone spissitude or thicknesse in silver whitenesse in which words there is great contrariety and as much false absurditie for if this aire remaine the same still as it is in the owne nature how commeth blacke in that which is not white to be called whitenesse softnesse in that which is not hard to be named hardnesse or rare in that which is not solide and massie to be called solidity But in case it be said that by mixture therein it is altered and so becommeth semblable how then can it be an habitude a faculty power or cause of these effects whereby it selfe is brought under and subdued for that were to suffer rather than to doe and this alteration is not of a nature conteining but of a languishing impotencie whereby it loseth all the properties and qualities of the owne and yet in every place they hold that matter of it selfe idle and without motion is subject and exposed to the receit of qualities which qualities are spirits and those powers of the aire which into what parts soever of the matter they get and insinuate themselves doe give a forme and imprint a figure into them But how can they mainteine this supposing as they do the aire to be such as they say it is for if it be an habitude and power it will conforme and shape unto it selfe every body so as it will make the same both blacke and soft but if by being mixed and contempered with them it take formes contrary unto those which it hath by nature it followeth then that it is the matter of matter and neither the habitude cause nor power thereof Chrysippus hath written often times that without the world there is an infinit voidnesse and that this infinitie hath neither beginning middle nor end And this is the principall reason whereby they resute that motion downward of the 〈◊〉 by themselves which Epicurus hath brought in for in that which is infinit there are no locall differences whereby a man may understand or specifie either high or low But in the fourth booke of Things possible he supposeth a certeine middle space and meane place betweene wherein he saith the world is founded The very text where he affirmeth this runneth in these words And therefore we must say of the world that it is corruptible and although it be very hard to proove it yet me thinks rather it should be so than otherwise Neverthelesse this maketh much to the inducing of us to beleeve that it hath a certeine incorruptibility if I may
a confused mixture of all qualities together like unto a wind-instrument composed for all kinds of melodious musicke But they confesse that all their rules are lost and their judgement quite gone if they admit any object in some sort pure and syncere and allow not ech one thing to be many See moreover in this place what discourse and disputation Polyaenus held with Epicurus in his banquet as touching the heat of wine For when he demanded in this maner How now Epicurus say you not that wine doth heat one made answere That he affirmed not universally that wine did cause heat and a little after For it seemeth that wine is not universally a heater but rather that such a quantitie of wine may be said to enchafe and set such an one in heat And then adjoining the cause he alledgeth the concurrences compressions and dispersions of the Atomes the commixtions and conjunctions of others when the wine commeth to be mingled with the body and then he addeth this conclusion And therefore generally we are not to say that wine doth heat but so much wine may well heat such a nature and so disposed whereas another nature it cooleth in such and such a quantity For in such a masse there be those natures and complexions of which cold if need were may be composed and being joined with others as occasion serveth may cause a vertue refrigerative And hereupō it is that some are deceived saying that wine uniuersally is hot and others againe affirming it to be universally colde He then who saith that the multitude and most part of men do erre in holding that to be simplie hot which doth heat and that likewise to be cold which doth coole is deceived himselfe if he thinketh not that it followeth by good consequence upon that which hee hath said that one thing is more such than such And afterwards he inferreth this speech that many times wine entring into the body bringeth with it neither a calefactive nor a refrigerative vertue but that when the masse of the body is moved and stirred so as there is a transposition made of the parts then the Atomes which are effective of heat concurre together one while into one place and through their multitude set the body into an heat and inflamation but another while by dispersing and severing themselves asunder inferre coldnesse Moreover he dissembleth not but that he is proceeded thus farre as to say that whereas wee take things to be and doe call them bitter sweet purgative soporiferous and lightsome none of them all have any entier quality or perfect property to produce such effects nor to be active more than passive all while they be in the body but that they be susceptible of sundry temperatures and differences For even Epicurus himselfe in his second booke against Theophrastus in saying that colours are not naturall unto bodies but are engendred according to certeine situations and positions respective to the eie-sight of man saith by this reason that a bodie is no more destitute of colour than coloured And a little before word for word he writeth thus But over and beside all this I know not how a man may say that these bodies which be in the darke have any colour at all and yet oftentimes when the aire a like darke is spred round about some there be who can distinguish the diversity of colours others perceive nothing at all by reason of their feeble dim-sight Againe when we goe into a darke house we see not at our first entrance any colours but after we have beene there a pretie while we perceive them well enough And therefore we are to say that ech body is not rather coloured than not coloured If then colour be a relative and hath being in regard of some other things white also is a relative and blew likewise if these then sweet and bitter semblably so that a man may truely affirme of every quality that it is not more such than not such For to those who are so disposed a thing shall be such and to them that are not so affected not such So that Colotes doeth all to dash and beray both himselfe and his master also with the same mire and dirt wherein he saith those doe sticke who hold that things are not more such than such What then doth this egregious clerke heerein onely shew himselfe according to the old proverbe Aleech professing others for to cure Whiles he himselfe is full of sores impure No verily but much more yet in his second reprehension he chaseth ere he is aware Epicurus together with Democritus out of this life for he giveth out that Democritus said The atomes are unto the senses by a certeine law and ordinance colour by the said law sweet and by the same law bitter Also that he who useth this reason and holdeth this opinion knoweth not himselfe if he be a man nor whether he be dead or alive To contradict these speeches I wot not well how but thus much I say that this is as much inseparable from the sentences and doctrine of Epicurus as figure and weight by their saying from the Atomes for what saith Democritus That there be substances in number infinite which are called Atomes because they cannot be divided howbeit different without qualitie and impassible which doe moove and are caried dispersed to and fro in the infinit voidnesse which when they approch one another or concur and meet together or else be enterlaced enfolded one about another then appeereth of these thus heaped and hudled together one thing water another fire another a plant and another a man That all these be Atomes still termed by him 〈◊〉 and nothing else For there can be no generation of that which is not no more than that which once was can become nothing by reason that these Atomes are so firme and solid that they can neither change nor alter not suffer And therefore neither can there be colour made of those things which have no colour nor nature or soule of such as be without quality and are impassible Whereupon Democritus is to be blamed in that he confesseth not those things that be accident unto principles but supposeth those to be principles whereto these happen For he should not have put downe principles immutable or at leastwise when he had supposed them to be such not to see withall that therewith the generation and breeding of all qualities perisheth And to denie an absurdity when one seeth it is impudence in the highest degree As for Epicurus he saith verily that he supposeth the same principles that Democritus doth but he saith not that colour sweet white and other qualities are by law and ordinance Now if he confesse not that he saith which neverthelesse he said it is no other but an old custome of his that which he is woont to doe For much like it is to this that he will seeme to take away divine providence and yet hee saith that he
passion who either upon pitie surprising them or joy presented unto them might immediately slide as it were and fall into a melodious and singing voice insomuch as their feasts were full of verses and love songs yea and their books and compositions amatorious and savoring of the like And when Euripides said Love makes men Poets market it when you will Although before in verse they had no skill He meaneth not that love putteth Poetrie or Musicke into a man in whom there was none before but wakeneth stirreth and enchafeth that which before was drowsie idle and cold Or else my good frend let us say that now a daies there is not an amorous person and one that skilleth of love but all love is extinct and perished because there is no man as Pindarus saith Who now in pleasant vaine Poeticall His songs and ditties doeth addresse Which just in rhime and meeter fall To praise his faire and sweet mistresse But this is untrue and absurd for many loves there be that stirre and moove a man though they meet not with such minds as naturally are disposed and forward to Musicke or Poetrie and well may these loves be without pipes without harpes violes lutes and stringed instruments and yet no lesse talkative nor ardent than those in old time Againe it were a shame and without all conscience to say that the Academie with all the quire and company of Socrates and Plato were void of amorous affection whose amatorious discourses are at this day extant to be read although they left no Poems behinde them And is it not all one to say that there was never any woman but Sappho in love nor had the gift of prophesie save onely Sibylla and Aristonice or such as published their vaticinations and prophesies in verse For vertue as Chaeremon was woont to say is mingled and tempered with the maners of those that drinke it And this Enthusiasme or spirit of prophesie like unto the ravishment of love maketh use of that sufficiencie and facultie which it findeth ready in the subject and mooveth ech one of them that are inspired therewith according to the measure of their naturall disposition and yet as we consider God and his providence we shall see that the change is ever to the better For the use of speech resembleth properly the permutation and woorth of money which is good and allowable so long as it is used and knowen being currant more or lesse and valued diversly as the times require Now the time was when the very marke and stampe as it were of our speech was currant and approoved in meeter verses songs and sonets Forasmuch as then all historie all doctrine of Philosophie all affection and to be briefe all matter that required a more grave and stately voice they brought to Poetry and Musicke For now onely few men hardly and with much a doe give eare and understand but then all indifferently heard yet and take great pleasure to heare those that sung The rurall ploughman with his hine The fowler with his nets and line as Pindarus saith but also most men for the great aptitude they had unto Poetrie when they would admonish and make remonstrances did it by the meanes of harpe lute and song withall if they ment to rebuke chastise exhort and incite they performed it by tales fables and proverbes Moreover their hymnes to the honour and praise of the gods their praiers and vowes their balads for joy of victory they made in meeter and musicall rhime some upon a dexterity of wit others by use and practise And therefore neither did Apollo envie this ornament and pleasant grace unto the skill of divination neither banished he from this three-footed table of the oracle the Muse so highly honored but rather brought it in and stirred it up as affecting and loving Poeticall wittes yea and himselfe ministred and infused certeine imaginations helping to put forward the loftie and learned kinde of language as being much prized and esteemed But afterwards as the life of men together with their fortunes and natures came to be changed thrist and utilitie which remooveth all superfluity tooke away the golden lusts and foretops of perukes the spangled coifes caules and attires it cast off the fine and deinty robes calld Xystides it clipped and cut away the bush of haire growing too long it unbuckled and unlaced the trim buskins acquainting men with good reason to glory in thriftinesse and frugalitie against superfluous and sumptuous delicacies yea and to honour simplicitie and modesty rather than vaine pompe and affected curiositie And even so the maner of mens speech changing also and laying aside all glorious shew the order of writing an historie therewithall presently came downe as one would say from the stately chariot of versification to prose and went a foot and by the meanes especially of this fashion of writing and speaking at liberty and not being tied to measures true stories come to be distinguished from lying fables and Philosophie embracing perspicuity of stile which was apt to teach and instruct rather than that which by tropes and figures amused and amased mens braines And then Apollo repressed Pythia that she should not any more call her fellow citizens Pyricaos that is to say burning fires nor the Spartanes Ophioboros that is to say devourers of serpents nor men Oreanas nor river Orempotas and so by cutting off from her prophesies verses and strange termes circumlocutions and obscuritie he taught and inured her to speake unto those who resorted to the oracles as lawes do talke with cities as kings devise and commune with their people and subjects and as scholars give eare unto their schoole-masters framing and applying his maner of speech and language so as it might be full of sense and perswasive grace for this lesson we ought to learne and know that as Sophocles saith God to the wise in heavenly things is ay a light some guide But fooles so briefely he doth teach that they goe alwaies wide And together with plainnesse and diluciditie beliefe was so turned and altered changing together with other things that beforetime whatsoever was not ordinary nor common but extravagant or obscurely and covertly spoken the vulgar sort drawing it into an opinion of some holinesse hidden underneath was astonied thereat and held it venerable but afterwards desirous to learne and understand things cleerely and easily and not with masks of disguised words they began to finde fault with Poesie wherein oracles were clad not onely for that it was contrary and repugnant to the easie intelligence of the truth as mingling the darknesse and shadow of obscurity with the sentence but also for that they had prophesies already in suspicion saying that metaphors aenigmaticall and covert words yea and the ambiguitles which Poetry useth were but shifts retracts and evasions to hide and cover all whensoever the events fell not out accordingly And many you may heare to report that there be certeine Poeticall persons practised in versifying
resembleth an heart and the leafe a tongue For of all those things which naturally are in man there is nothing more divine than the tongue and speech as touching the gods principally neither in any thing commeth he neerer unto beatitude and therefore I advise and require every man who repaireth hither and commeth downe to this Oracle to entertaine holy thoughts in his heart and to utter seemly words with his tongue whereas the common sort of people in their publicke feasts and solemne processions doe many ridiculous things notwithstanding they proclaime and pronounce formally by the voice of the Crier and Bedil in the beginning of such solemnities to keepe silence or speake none but good words and yet afterwards they cease not but to give out most blasphemous speeches and to thinke as basely of the gods How then shall men behave and demeane themselves in those heavy and mournefull sacrifices from whence all 〈◊〉 and laughter is banished if it be not lawfull either to omit any thing of the accustomed and usuall ceremonies or to confound and mingle the opinions of the gods with absurd and false suspicions The Greeks doe many semblable things unto the Aepyptians even in maner at the very same time For at Athens in the seast called Thesmophoria to the honor of Ceres the women doe fast sitting upon the ground And the Boeotians make a rifling and remooving of the houses of Achaea naming this feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say odious as if Ceres were in heavinesse and sorrow for the descent of her daughter 〈◊〉 into hell and this is that moneth wherein the starres called Pleiades appeare and when the husbandmen begin to sow which the Aegyptians name Athyr the Athenians Pyanepsion and the Boeotians Damatrios as one would say Cerealis And Theopompus writeth that the people inhabiting westward doe both thinke and also call the Winter Saturne the Summer Venus and the Spring Proserpina and that of Saturne and Venus all things be engendred The Phrygians also imagining that God sleepeth all Winter and lieth awake in Summer thereupon celebrate in the one season the feast of lying in bed and sleeping in the other of experrection or waking and that with much drinking belly chere But the Paphlagonians say that he is bound and kept in ward as a prisoner during Winter in the Spring inlarged againe and set at liberty when he beginneth to stir and move Now the very time giveth us occasion to suspect that the heavy countenance 〈◊〉 which they shew is because the fruits of the earth be thē hidden which fruits our ancients in times past never thought to be gods but the profitable and necessary gifts of the gods availing much to live civilly and not after a savage and beastly maner But at what time of the yeere as they saw the fruits from the trees to fall and saile at once and those which themselves had sowen with much adoe by little and little opening and cleaving the earth with their owne hands and so covering and hilling the same without any assured hope what would betide thereupon and whether the same would come to any proofe and perfection or no they did many things like unto those that commit dead bodies to the earth and mourne therefore Moreover like as we say that he who buieth the bookes of Plato buieth Plato and who is the actour of Menandres comedies is said to act and play Menander Semblably they did not spare and forbeare to give the names of the celestiall gods unto their gifts and inventions honouring the same with all reverence for the use and need they had of them But they who come after taking this grosely and foolishly and upon ignorance unskilfully returning upon the gods the accidents of their fruits not onely called their presence and fruition the nativity of the gods and their absence or want of them the death and departure of the gods but also beleeved so much and were perswaded fully so In such wife as they have filled themselves with many absurd leaud and confused opinions of the said gods And yet verily the error and absurdity of their opinions they had evidently before their eies presented by Xenophanes the 〈◊〉 or other Philosophers after him who admonished the Aegyptians that if they 〈◊〉 them gods they should not lament for them and if they mourned they should not take them for gods as also that it was a rediculous mockery in their lamentations to pray unto them for to produce new fruits and bring them unto perfection for them to the end that they might be consumed againe lamented for But the case stands not so for they bewaile the Fruits that are gone and spent but they pray unto the gods the authors and givers thereof that they would vouchsafe to bestow upon them new and make them grow in supply of those which were 〈◊〉 lost Right well therefore was it said of the Philosophers that those who have not learned to heare and take words aright receive also and use the things themselves amisse as for example the Greeks who were not taught nor accustomed to call the statues of brasse and stone or painted images the statues and images made to the honor of the gods but the gods themselves and afterwards were so bolde as to say that Lachares despoiled and stripped Minerva out of her clothes and that Dionysius the tyrant polled Apollo who had a perruke or bush of golden haire also that Jupiter Capitolinus during the civill warres was burnt and consumed with fire And thus they see not how in so doing they draw admit false and erroneons opinions which follow upon such maner of speeches And herein the Aegyptians of all other nations have faulted most about the beasts which they honor worship For the Greeks verily in this point both beleeve and also speake well saying that the dove is a bird sacred unto Venus the dragon to Minerva the raven or crow to Apollo and the dog to Diana according to that which Euripides said The goddesse Diana shining by night In a dogs portraict will take much delight But the Aegyptians at least wise the common sort of them worshipping and honoring these very beasts as if they were gods themselves have not onely pestered with laughter and ridiculous mockery their Leiturgie and divine service for ignorance and folly in this case is the least sinne of all others but also there is crept into the midst of men a strong opinion which hath so farre possessed the simple and weaker sort as that it bringeth them to mere superstition And as for such as be of more quicke and witty capacity and who besides are more audacious those it driveth headlong into beastly cogitations and Athisticall discourses And therefore I hold it not amisse cursarily and by the way to annexe hereto such things as cary some probability and likelihood with them For to say that the gods for feare of Typhon were turned into these creatures
governour of all moisture 1301.40 Bactrians desire to have their dead bodies devoured by birds of the aire 299.50 Baines and stouphes 612.1 in old time very temperate 783.30 the occasion of many diseases 783.30 Balance not to be passed over 15.10 Ballachrades 903.30 Bal what it signifieth in the Aegyptian language 1319.1 Banishment of Bulimus 738.20 Banishment how to be made tolerable 275.1.10 no marke of infamie 278.20 seemeth to be condemned by Euripides ib. 30 Banished persons we are all in this world 281.20 Banquet of the seven Sages 326.30 Barbarians and Greeks compared 39.40 Barbell the fish honoured 976.40 Barbers be commonly praters 200.40 a pratling Barber checked k. Archelaus 408.10 Barber to K. 〈◊〉 crucified for his 〈◊〉 tongue 200.30 Barbers shops dry bankets 721.20 a Barber handled in his kinde for his 〈◊〉 tongue 201.1 Barly likes well in sandy ground 1008.10.20 Barrennesse in women how occasioned 844.20 Evill Bashfulnesse cause of much 〈◊〉 danger 165.10.20.30 over-much Bashfulnesse how to be avoided 164.30 Bashfulnesse 163.10 of two sorts 72.1 Bashfulnesse to be avoided in diet 613.1 Bathing in cold water upon exercise 620.20 Bathing in hot water ib. 30. Bathing and 〈◊〉 before meat 612.20 Bathyllion 759.10 Battus the sonne of Arcesilaus 504.30 Battus a buffon or 〈◊〉 775.10 Battus surnamed Daemon 504.20 Battus 1199.20 Beanes absteined from 15.20 Beare a subtill beast 965.10 why they are saide to have a sweet hand 1010.50 why they gnaw not the 〈◊〉 1012.30 tender over their yoong 218.20 a Bearded comet 827.20 Beasts haue taught us Physicke al the parts thereof 967.60 Beasts capable of vertue 564.50 docible apt to learne arts 570.1 able to teach ib. 10. we ought to have pittie of them 575.30 brute Beasts teach parents naturall kindnesse 217.218 Beasts braines in old time rejected 783.10 they cure themselves by Physicke 1012.1 Beasts of land their properties 958.50 what beasts will be mad 955.20 beasts not sacrificed without their owne consent 779.20 skilful in Arithmetick 968.20 kind to their yong 218.10 beasts wilde what use men make of them 237.40 of land or water whether have more use of reason 951. 30. beasts have use of reason 954.955 how to be used without injurie 956.40 how they came first to be killed 779.10 whether they feed more simply than we 702.1 whether more healthfull than men 702.1 Beauty the blossome of vertue 1153.10 beauty of what worth 6.50 beauty of woman called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 728.50 beauty without vertue not 〈◊〉 47.1 Beboeon 1370.40 Bebon ib. Bed of maried folke 〈◊〉 many quarrels betweene them 322 20. bed-clothes to bee shuffled when we be newly risen 777.40 Bees of Candie how witty they be 959. 50. bees cannot abide smoke 1014.30 they sting unchaste persons ib. 40. the bee a wise creature 218.1 The Beetill flie what it signisieth 〈◊〉 1291.30 why honoured by the Aegyptians 1316.30 Beer a counterfeit wine 685.40 Begged flesh what is ment by it 891.50 Bellerophontes continent everie way 739.30 Bellerophontes commended for his continence 42.30.139.30 he slew Chimarchus 489.10 not rewarded by Iobates ib. Belestre 1137.1 The Bellies of dead men how they be served by the Aegyptians 576.40 of belly belly cheere pro contra 339.340 belly pleasures most esteemed by lipicurus and Metrodorus 595. 10. belly hath no cares 620.40 Bepolitanus strangely escaped execution 502.40 Berronice the good wife of 〈◊〉 1111.40 〈◊〉 detected for killing his father 545.30 Bias his answer to a pratling fellow 194.20 his answer to king Amasis 327.10 his apophthegme 456.1 his apophthegme touching the most dangerous beast 47.30 Binarie number 807.10 Binarie number or Two called contention 1317.30 Bion his answere to Theognis 28.20 his apophthegme 254. 50. his saying of Philosophie 9.1 〈◊〉 hath divers significations 29.20 Birds why they have no wezill flap 745.10 birds how they drinke 745.10 skilfull in divination 968.40 taught to imitate mans mans voice 966.30 Biton and Cleobis rewarded with death 518.10 See Cleobis Bitternesse what effects it worketh 656.10 a 〈◊〉 of his toong how he was served by K. Seleucus 200.20 Blacknesse commeth of water 997. 10 Blacke potage at Lacedaemon 475. 20 Bladder answereth to the winde-pipe like as the guts to the wezand 745.20 Blames properly imputed for vice 47.30 Blasing 〈◊〉 827.10 The Blessed state of good folke departed 530.50 Bletonesians sacrificed a man 878.10 Blushing face better than pale 38 50 Bocchoris a k. of AEgypt 164.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 898.40 Bodily health by two arts preserved 9.10 Body fitter to entertaine paine than pleasure 583.10 body feeble no hinderance to aged rulers 389.40 bodies what they be 813. bodies smallest 813.50 body cause of all vices and calamities 517.30 body may well have an action against the soule 625.1 much injuried by the soule ib. Boeotarchie 367.10 Boeotians good trencher men 669 10. noted for gluttony 575.1 Boeotians reproched for hating good letters 1203.50 Boldnesse in children and youth 8.40 Bona a goddesse at Rome 856.50 Books of Philosophers to be read by yoong men 9.50 Boreas what winde 829.30 Bottiaeans 898.30 their virgins song ib. Brasidas his saying of a silly mouse 251.20 Brasidas his apophthegmes 423. 30.456.1 his death and commendation ib. 10 A Brason spike keepeth dead bodies from putrefaction 697.50 Brasse swords or speares wounde with lesse hurt 698.1 Brasse why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 698.1 why it is so resonant 770.10 Brasse of Corinth 1187.1 Bread a present remedie for fainting 739.1 Brennus king of the Gallogreeks 910.40 Brethren how they are to divide their patrimonie 180.40 one brother ought not to steale his fathers heart from another 179 30. they are to excuse one another to their parents 179.50 how they should cary themselves in regard of age 184.185 Briareus a giant the same that Ogygius 1180.20 Bride lifted over the threshold of her husbands dore 860.30 bridegrome commeth first to his bride without a light 872.10 20. bride why she eateth a quince before she enter into the bed-chamber 872.20 brides haire parted with a javelin 879. 50 Brimstone why called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 705.30 Brison a famous runner 154.30 Brotherly amity a strange thing 174.20 Brutus surprised with the hunger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 738.50 his gracious thankefulnesse to the 〈◊〉 739.1 Decim Brutus why he sacrificed to the dead in December 862. 10 Brutus beheadeth his owne sonnes 909.50 The Bryer bush 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 892. 50 Bubulci the name at Rome how it came 865.10 Bucephalus K. Alexanders horse 963.50 how he was woont to ride him 396.20 Buggery in brute beasts not known 568.30 Building costly forbidden by Lycurgus 577.30.880.1 Bulb roote 704.20 Buls and beares how they prepare to fight 959.1 Buls affraied of red clothes tied to figge-trees become tame 323. 741.30 Bulla what ornament or jewell 40. why worne by Romaines children 883.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fainting
Ephyppus 899.20 Ephort by whom brought into Sparta 294. 1. graced by the Kings 371.20 Epiali what fevers 160.50 Enterring of other things with the dead corps 602.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is 953.1 Epicharmus rebuked king Hiere too sharpely 108.1 Epicranis 834.40 Epicureans enemies to policie rhetoricke and royall government 1129.1 Epicurus honored by his favorites and sectaries 597.1 Epicures given wholy to pleasures 582.1 Epicures life confuted 582.1 Epicurus his favorites his consolatory reasons in perils 601.1 he mainteineth the mortality of the soule 600.20 601.10 Epicurus his vanity 60.50 woonderfully respected and loved of his brethren 185.30 Epicurus a Democratian 1111.20 collauded by his favorites 1119.20 his opinion as touching the principles of the world 807.30 his opinion of the gods 812.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what use it hath 743.40 Epimenides 338.50 Epimenides how long he slept 384 10 Epimetheus 31.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the surname of Diana 902.40 Epitedeius the Sycophant first put to death at Athens 578.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an image representing K. Alexander the great 1275.40 Epitherzes his narration as touching the great Pan. 1331.40 Epithets that Empedocles useth be most proper and significant 726.30 Epithymodeipni who they be 775.10 Epitritos what proportion 1036.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1070.50 Epopticon what part of Philosophie 1318.10 Erato how emploied 779.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 779.20 Erebus 1000.10 Erechtheus sacrificed his owne daughter 912.10 Eretrians wives rost flesh against the sunne 897.40 Ergane who she is 232.10.352.50 the surname of Minerva 692.30 Erinnys 557.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who they be 744.1 Ervill why called Catharter 902.20 Eryngium the herbe what vertue it hath 290.10.20 being held in the hand staieth goats for going 746.10 Eryxo her vertuous act 504.20 Eteocles his saying as touching a kingdome 614.10 Etesiae what winds 829.30 Ethos 543.10 Euboean brasse the best 1345.40 Euboedas his apophthegme 557.10 Eubulus a good 〈◊〉 366.20 Eubulus the surname of Bacchus 762.20 Eucarpos a surname of Venus 323.10 Euchnamus the Amphissian 1146.10 Euclides how he repressed his brothers anger 50. loth to fall out with his brother 130.30.187 ib. Eucteus and Eulaeus the minions of K. Persius 110.40 Eudamidas his Apophthegmes 425.20.557.10 Eudorus as touching the soule of the world 1031.40 Eudoxus studious in Astronomy 590.1 Euemerus the Atheist 810.50 1296.20 Euergetes a fit attribute for princes 307.1 Euergetae a surname of some princes 1278.40 Euippe 346.10 Eumaeus kept a good house 750.10 Eumenes reported to be dead 416 30. his milde behaviour to his brother Attalus ib. 188.10.20 his stratageme by secrecy 197.40 Eumertis See Cleobuline Eumolpus instituted the sacred ceremonies at Eleusis 280.30 Eunomia 630.1 Eunostus 900.30 murdred by the brethren of Ochna 900.40 Evocation of tutelar gods out of their places 871.1 Eupathies what they be 74.20 Euphranor and Parrhasius painters compared 982.30 Euphranor his notable picture of the battel at Mantinea 982.40 Euphrone a name of the night 762.20 the reason therof 141.50 Euripides his day of death and birth observed 766. 1. his speech to a foolish and ignorant fellow 61. 10. taxed for Atheisme 811.1 he forsooke Athens his native city 277.20 Euryclees 1327.1 Eurycratidas his Apophthegmes 457.50 Eurydice a noble and vertuous ladie 17.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1182.50 Eutelidas bewitched by himselfe 724.40 Euterpe what she is allotted to 795.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hesiodus what it is 747.1 Euthynous died suddenly 518.30 Eutoria her daughters twaine defloured by Saturne 909.10 Eutropion king Antigonus his cooke highly advanced 13.40 Euxine sea why so replenished with fishes 976.1 Euxynthetus and Leucomantis 1152.20 Exercise of body fit for health 619 1.10 meet for students 619.10 Exercise of body for youth 10.1 after meat 622.40 Expedition or quicke execution 296,40 Experience what it is better than the book for government 836.10 392.40 of Exile or banishment 270 Extremities in all changes are naught 625.20 Ey of the master feeds the steed 11 30 Ey-sight how it is performed 657.30.40 Ey-biting and the reason thereof 723.30.40 Ey-sight the sourse and beginning of love 723.40 F FAbia committed 〈◊〉 with Petronius Valentius 917.1 she killeth her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fabius Maximus his pollicie in wearying Annibal by 〈◊〉 429.10 his apophthegmes 429.1 his courteous usage of an amorous souldiour otherwise valiant ib. 30. his death 907.50 he despised scoffes and frumps ib. 10 Fabius 〈◊〉 the sonne of Fabia killeth her mother and the adulterer 917.1 Fable of the foxe and the leopard 313.10 the Fable of the ox and the camel 629.50 Themistocles his Fable of the feast and the morrow 633.10 C. Fabricius his apophthegme 428 30. his contempi of money ib. 40 he misliked treason even against his enemies ib. 50 Faculty in the soule what it is 67.40 Faeciales what priest 871.20 Faire meanes to be used with children 10.40 Fame or rumour had a temple at Rome 〈◊〉 Fasting long why it procureth rather thirst than hunger 730.30 who Fast long feed more slowlie 658.30 Fatall destiny how to be understood 1048.40 Fathers love their daughters better than their sonnes their folly in chusing governours and teachers for their children 5.40 taxed for their negligance in this behalfe 6.10 they ought not to be austere unto their children 16.20 their care in chosing wives for their sonnes 16.40 they are to give good example to their children 321.50 16.50 Fatnes occasioned by cold 688.40 Faunus sacrificeth guest strangers 917.10 killed by Hercules ib. Feare of God how to be limited 598.40 Feare 15.1 what passion it is 26.1 Feare compared with other passions 261.1 why it is named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. of Feasts what is the end 652.40 Philosophy not to be banished from Feasts 764.10 Festivall daies at Athens or martiall victories 987.10 Feasts have two presidents hunger and Bacchus 722.40 Feasts ought to make new friendes 699.30 a Feast of what proportion for number of guests it should be 720.30.40 at a Feast consideration would be had of roome and sitting at ease 721.10 a Feast master what person he ought to be 651.10 Februarie 873.1 Februarie the moneth what it signifieth 872.50 the twelfth and last moneth of the yeere 856.20 Feeding a part or in common whether is more commendable 678.20 Feeding without fulnesse 619.1 Femals whether they send foorth seed in the act of generation 842.10 how they are begotten ib. 30 Fenestella a gate 635.20 Fenestra a gate at Rome 863.1 Ferula stalke why put into the hands of drunken folke 762.40 Ferula consecrated to Bacchus 642.1 Fever what it is 849.20 an accessary or symptome of other diseases 849.30 Figs why sweet and the trce bitter 727.20 the sacred Figtree at Athens 749 30 Figtree juice hot 741.40 it crudleth milke ib. Figtree never bloweth ib. never smitten with lightning 727. 20 Figtree Ruminales 632.40 Figtree leafe what it signifieth 1301.50 Figure what it is 814.1 Figure of the elements ib. Fish 〈◊〉 best for sickly and