Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	condition_n	former_a	great_a	33	3	2.1248	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42895	Plato's demon, or, The state-physician unmaskt being a discourse in answer to a book call'd Plato redivivus / by Thomas Goddard, Esq.	Goddard, Thomas.	1684 (1684)	Wing G917; ESTC R22474	130,910	398

Jure proprietatis or In patrimonio imperantis that is properly or in Property or in chief or how else you please to render these Words in English Which Grotius in the same Chapter explains by a Jus regendi non aliunde pendens A Right of Government not depending upon any other humane Authority whatsoever Mer. But Sir since you have founded Empire upon a Supreme Right of Government or Power over Men how comes it to pass that we find a Right of Power and Priviledges and Government too so founded in the Possession of several Lands that the Possession of those Lands alone gives a Man several Rights and Prerogatives For example amongst us 't is said That whosoever hath the Right and Possession of the Barony of Burgaveny besides some others becomes thereby a Baron of England and enjoys those Priviledges which belong to it In France I have heard say That nothing is more common than for Men to receive their Titles according to their Lands whether Count Baron Marquess and so forth Is it not plain then That the Right of Command or Power which is Empire may be founded upon Property according to our Author's Interpretation that is the Possession of Lands Trav. I agree to what you have urg'd that is to say That several Priviledges and Right of Power are annexed to several Lordships or Terres Nobles that they have thereby haute basse Justice and their Jurisdiction extends to Life and Death Nay more in several parts of Italy and particularly in Lombardy there are several Imperial Feuds which Grotius seems to call Regna Feudalia which have almost as great Prerogatives as some other Kingdoms have They make Laws raise Taxes and mint Money as other greater Kingdoms do And yet all this makes little for our Author's Aphorism as by him interpreted Mer. The Reason if you please Trav. Because all those little Lordships or Principalities whether they were instituted at first by the Goths and Vandals or Lombards or granted afterwards by several later Emperours and Kings or both as is most probable yet they did and still do at this day depend upon a Superiour Power and pay Homage and Fealty for those Priviledges which they enjoy which is much different from Empire or a Sovereign Right of Power And yet even in this Case this subordinate Power is so far from being founded upon the Possession of all the Land belonging to the Feud which is our Author's Proposition that very often their Liberties depend only upon the old Walls of a ruinated Castie and a very inconsiderable Number of Acres which represent the whole Feud or Mannor the rest of the Land having been sold away and become the Property of others some small Rent only or Acknowledgment being reserv'd And after this manner the Supreme Power may as well tye Priviledges to a Post and grant the Possessor of that Post such Royalties as the Proprietor of such a Castle or Land Which is very far from proving that the Possession of Lands doth thereby originally create a Sovereign Right of Power Mer. Cousin I have heard and read too I think that the Sea hath formerly eaten up a considerable part of your ancient Patrimony and from thence it may be you are no Friend to Lands But for my part I will stand up for Land as long as I can and must therefore ask you Why those Rents or Acknowledgments were reserv'd if not to testifie that they came originally from the Lord and that thereby he still keeps up a kind of Sovereign Right to the Lands themselves knowing well enough that his Power according to our Author is founded upon them Trav. This yet signifies nothing for although the Reservation of these Rents or Services do preserve the Memory of the Benefactor and continue the Respect due from the Tenant yet this is personal only and hath no Relation to the publick Right of Power or Government For when this Rent was not reserv'd yet whosoever lives within the Jurisdiction of such a Fewd or Mannor is always subject to him who enjoys the Lordship So in England Services and Quit-Rents have been generally receiv'd and paid untill the late King and his present Majesty were pleas'd to dispose of them But to believe that this hath lessened his Sovereign Right of Government is a Fancy that sure cannot enter into the Head of any sober Man But let us put a plain Case Suppose the Kingdom of England were at any time obtain'd by absolute Conquest as I conceive it was more than once and that such Conquest gives the Conquerour a Sovereign Right not only to our real and personal Estates which we find to have been wholly in the hands of some of our Kings but also over our Liberties and Lives as may be fully seen in Grotius de Jur. B. P. Now Sir supposing a People in this Condition and having nothing of their own submit themselves and all they have to the Mercy of the Conquerour as the Carthaginians did to the Romans you will grant I imagine that this Conquerour is an Emperour to all Intents having an absolute Right of Power over the People and their Land also Mer. Yes certainly as long as he keeps himself and People in that Condition there cannot want any thing to make him an absolute Monarch Trav. But we will farther suppose That our Conquerour being of a more noble and more humane Temper than it may be our Author would have been orders diligent Inquisition to be made into the Value of his conquer'd Lands Which being done and enter'd into a Register such as we call Doomsday Book the Conquerour divides most of these Lands between the Conquerours and the Conquered some he returns to their former Owners upon certain Conditions or Services others he changeth To his Noblemen and Favourites he grants great Titles and Priviledges to the Gentry less and to the vulgar or common sort some small Possessions which with a little Labour and Diligence will enable them to live easily and peaceably the rest of their days All these become an Inheritance to themselves and their Heirs according to their several Tenures which the Conquerours have generally created and which we call Property These Sir being thus established and the Lands of the Kingdom setled after this manner the Conquerour or King himself reserves it may be a small part which we call Crown Lands and in Consideration of his Right of Conquest and those Benefits which he hath bestowed upon his People in granting them their Liberties Lives and Lands he continueth to himself the Power of making and abolishing Laws according as he shall think most fit and proper for the Peace Honour and Safety of his Government He creates Magistrates for the due Execution of these Laws who in his stead and by his Authority have a Power to judge between his Subjects and in some Cases between his Subjects and himself or his Attorney Besides these he retains the sole Power of making Peace and War of

to embrace Shadows than retain Substances I have endeavoured to distinguish Both unmask our Republican Daemon shew no less his horrid Claws than his Cloven-feet I should now make some excuse that this Answer comes so late into the World but I have a sufficient Witness that I had never seen the Book call'd Plato Redivivus before I received it at Paris about May last from My Lord Preston His Majesties Envoy Extraordinary in the French Court To his Lordship I owe the first motion and encouragement of answering it you the advantage if any be and satisfaction of the Answer Next I must inform you that I meddle little with the Law-part which is now and then to be met withal in Our Author not only because it hath been sufficiently answer'd already but besides if there be any breach of the Law or Government by any Person whatsoever the Courts of Justice are open which are the proper places for Law matters and when Plato shall think fit to shew himself and legally accuse both himself and such other of the Kings Subjects who may have been deceived by him will receive a more full ample satisfaction than I durst pretend to give them The historical and rational part I endeavour to answer as plainly as my judgment and little time would permit which I have done also by way of Dialogue that I might in all things comply with Our Authors method as far as is reasonable Many impertinencies I have passed by to avoid tediousness Those faults in this Discourse which shall not be found malicious I hope the Reader will excuse small mistakes may be easily rectified And as to the whole if the Reader shall please to examine it as impartially as it is writ sincerely I persuade my self that he will find nothing misbecoming an Honest Man and a Loyal Subject Farewell PLATO'S Daemon OR The State-Physician unmaskt BEING A Discourse in Answer to a Book call'd Plato Redivivus The Argument An English Gentleman lately return'd from France and Italy where he had spent several years is invited by a very considerable Merchant and his near Kinsman to his Country House where discoursing of many things with great liberty the Merchant accidentally opens a Book call'd Plato Redivivus which the Traveller had brought down with him into the Country This becomes a new subject of Discourse and both deliver their opinions concerning it with great freedom as follows First Discourse Merchant GOod morrow Cousin What up and ready too so early How do you like our Old English Country Air Traveller Very well Sir and indeed the pleasantness of this situation with those many delights which appear round about it are sufficient to raise any Man from his Bed especially one who hath been so long a stranger to the happinesses of a Country retirement and who loves them so much as I do Mer. I rather feared that notwithstanding our best endeavours here your time would pass tediously away for having seen all France and Italy which they call the Garden of Europe I apprehended that the best part of England would have appeared no better to you then an uncultivated Desert Trav. No nor yet shall Lumbardy nor Capua which is the Garden of Italy be ever preferr'd by me before our own blest happy soil Mer. I am glad to find you so good an Englishman the rather because we may now hope to keep you henceforward in a place which it seems you like so well Trav. Believe me Tutto il mondo è pa●se All Countries are in this alike that they have their conveniences and inconveniences their particular delights and their particular wants And when we shall have made a just estimate of all the Kingdoms in Europe I know none which for pleasure and profit ought to be preferr'd justly before our own Mer. Sir I was always satisfied with my own Countrey and the little encouragement you give me to exchange it for any other confirms me now so much in my Opinion that I am resolv'd never to cross the Seas except some greater Business than I can foresee should necessitate me Trav. I have now spent somewhat more than Eight years as you know Cousin out of England The first time I went abroad I only learnt my Exercises and made those Tours of France and Italy which generally other Gentlemen use to do I could then have told you who was the best Dancing Master of Paris where liv'd the most fashionable Taylor the airiest Perriwig-maker and such like In Italy where the best Wines and what Curiosities were particular to every City But having almost lost the bon goust as they say or rellish for those youthful pleasures since I went last abroad I have made other remarks and grown more sullen possibly than I ought to be can tell you now of the pride and libertinage of the French Noblesse the impertinence coquetry and debauchery of the Gentry the misery of the Commonalty the extream poverty of most and slavery of all In Italy the restraint of their Wives and Women the jealousie of Husbands and their general vindicative humour At Venice the insupportable insolence of their Nobili Venetiani and triumphant Vice At Genoua the scandalous Mechanick Traffick and notorious Avarice o● their Grandees insomuch that they starve even a Jew in his own Trade Their frequent assassinations pride and ill manners The dull Bigotry of Florence and hard impositions upon Subjects The formalities of Rome the lost Vertue and Courage and natural Cowardize and Poltronery of the degenerated Romans the insolence of the Commonalty del regna as they call it or Kingdom of Naples the Robberies of their Banditti the great Titles and small Estates of the Nobility the hereditary risses or quarrels of the Piedmontesi and those of Monferat and from their ill administration of Justice their eternal Processes And to conclude add to this the arbitrary Government exercis'd generally all over Italy and the heavy impositions upon their Subjects greater than they ought to bear Now Cousin with all I have said compare the extream happiness of the English Nation The Riches of the Commonalty insomuch that some have thought it to be the greatest part of our disease The vast trade and prosperous condition of our Merchants The Hospitality Wealth and Modesty of our Gentry The high quality and true worth of our Nobility their uncorrupted Loyalty to their Prince and unaffected kindness for the People But above all let us reflect seriously upon the most happy security and liberty of our Persons and Estates which all strangers are forc't both to admire and envy Our freedom and exemption from all manner of Taxes and Impositions but such as we our selves shall consent to And not to be too tedious upon a subject which is so large let us truly consider and at the same time bless God Almighty for our just Laws and impartial execution of them for the admirable equal Constitution of our Government where the Prince hath so great