Personis sed contrà And the Christian Faith will sufficiently clear its own Divine Original if we will but give it free Course and suffer it to draw us to a Resemblance of that Excellence which first Inspired and taught it Book II. Chap. XI Sect. 10. According to the Custom of the Egyptians c. The Meaning of this Custom is very often misunderstood and misapplied For whereas the Bringing this Death's head in to the Company at Publick Entertainments is frequently look'd upon as done with a design to check the Excesses of Mirth with this Melancholy but never Unseasonable Reflection Both Herodotus in his Euterpe and Plutarch in his Tract de Isid Osiride give a quite different Account of the Matter and report it to have been done for the heightning of their Jollity by considering that their Time was but short and therefore they ought to make the best of it This Emblem in effect speaking that Maxim of the Epicure Let us Eat and Drink for to morrow we dye Book II. Chap. XI Sect. 18. Page 289. Although the Answers to these Pretences usually alledged in favour of Self-murder be in a great measure taken off in the latter part of the Section and the Determination at last be sound and good yet in regard those Returns are general and do not reach every Particular I will so far trespass upon the Reader 's Patience as to run over this part of the Argument Period by Period as fresh Matter arises and observe to him what hath been or may very reasonably be replied upon each of the Excuses produced here for I rather call them Excuses than Justifications to give Countenance to that Unnatural Act of Self-murder First It is urged that there are great Examples for it in all Story and of Persons of all Persuasions particularly those of Razias and the Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus among the Jews and Pelagia and Sophronia among the Christians the Former drowning her self to escape the Rudeness of the Soldiers the Latter stabbing her self to get free from the Lust of Maxentius Now here in the first place I observe by the way That Example in General is a very insufficient and deceitful Rule nor can we always make any sure Conclusions of the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of a Fact by the Relation given of it Because many times the Thing is commended with regard to One Part or Circumstance and yet not thereby justified as to all the rest This I say when there is a Commendation positively added to it but many if not most are barely related and left for Us to interpret without any Character at all fixed upon them Nay I add farther that the Circumstances of Person Time and several others of the like nature are so infinitely different that as it is exceeding hard for Us who are not perfectly acquainted with the Reasons and Motives upon which others act to pass an exact and true Judgment upon their Actions so is it much more difficult to find Instances where Their Circumstances and Ours shall agree so nicely and in every Particular that we shall deserve just the same Commendation or Blame which they did by imitating their Proceedings Thus much was not amiss to be hinted concerning the Fallacy of Examples in general and how very unfit they are to be made a Rule for the Behaviour of other People I shall now touch briefly upon each of the Particulars above-mentioned As for That of Razias It is indeed delivered after such a manner as seems to carry a Commendation with it but this is only a Commendation of his Valour and Heroick Greatness of Soul not of the Virtue of the Action or any thing which might render it Imitable by others St Augustine's Reflection upon it is Dictum est quod elegerit nobiliter mori Cap. xxiii contra 2. Epist Gaudent meliùs vellet humiliter sic enim utiliter Illis autem verbis historia Gentium laudare consuevit sed viros forte hujus seculi non Martyres Christi His Character says he is That he chose to dye Nobly it had been much better if the Commendation had been that he chose to dye Modestly and Humbly for This had been a profitable way of Dying But those are Pompous Terms usual in Prophane Story such as are counted an Honour to the Men of this World but not to Martyrs for Christ The Account in the Maccabecs expresses his resolute Detestation of Idolatry and that is commendable but certainly had he been taken and suffered Torments and Death under Nicanor his Praise had been much more just and his Character clear and indisputable For even Persecution it self is not a Reason sufficient for our making this Escape according to that of St. Jerome in his Comment upon Jonah Non est nostrum Mortem arriperc sed illatam ab alijs libenter excipere Under in persecutionibus non licet propriâ perire manu It is not our business to bring death upon our selves 2 Mac. xiv 37 c. but to receive it willingly when inflicted by Others and for this Reason even the Case of Persecution will not warrant a Man's dying by his own hand But in truth Razias his Case as the Historian describes it was none of this for his Account at the 42d Verse is very Remarkable He fell upon his sword chusing rather to dye manfully than to come into the hands of the wicked to be abused otherwise than beseemed his Noble Birth So that Razias at this rate was what the World vainly calls a Man of Honour and his Life was sacrificed to that Principle Had he done this Act to avoid offending God it had had a fairer Pretence at least though neither would That have excused it but to kill himself for fear of Indignities and Affronts not fit for a Man of his Quality to submit to this was far from a Religious Principle and we cannot wonder that the Commendation it receives hath given so strong a Prejudice to the Church against the Book of Maccabees as not to admit it into their Canon of Scripture I add too upon this occasion that some have thought this whole matter a Fiction Spanhem de Author Lib. Apocryph in Disp Theol. V. 41. 43. 44. 45. 46. and I confess the Circumstances are very Odd and Romantick That a Man should fall upon his Sword first then leap down from a Wall into the midst of his Enemies That they should make way for him where he fell among the thickest of them that he should rise up again in anger but withal in such a Condition that his blood gushed out like Spouts of Water and his Wounds were very grievous but he ran through the midst of the throng notwithstanding and standing upon a steep rock When his blood was now quite gone he pluck'd out his bowels took them in both his hands cast them upon the Crowd and yet for all this his Senses it seems were not lost at the last Gasp but
OF WISDOM THREE BOOKS Written Originally in French BY THE Sieur de CHARRON With an Account of the AUTHOR Made English By GEORGE STANHOPE D. D. late Fellow of King's-College in Cambridge from the best Edition Corrected and enlarged by the Author a little before his Death LONDON Prinâ—ed for M. Gillyflower M. Bentley H. Bonwick J. Tonson W. Freeman T. Goodwin M. Wotton J. Walthoe S. Manship and R. Parker 1697. THE Sieur de CHARRON's Three Books of WISEDOM Made English London Printed for Mat Gillyflower M Bentley H. Bonwick J. Tonson W. Free man T. Goodwin M. Wotton J. Walthoe S. Manship and R. Parker TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM Lord Dartmouth My Lord IT is now near Two Years since I was desired to employ some of my leisure Hours in considering this Book and putting it into a Condition of becoming somewhat more useful and acceptable than it may without any suspicion of Vanity be said the former Translation could pretend to be A little Time spent in the Perusal satisfy'd me that there was Matter in it not unworthy my Pains and such as it was great Pity Men should want the Knowledge of who understand not the Original And as unreasonable did it seem that others should be discouraged from enquiring into this Author by the Misfortunes which naturally attend even the best Undertakings of this Nature when Time and Improvements of Language have given another Turn to Writing and created a Disrelish for every thing which is not suitable to the Genius of the present Age. The greatest Difficulty which lay upon me was that of finding Opportunities in the midst of those more important Cares of my Profession which neither This nor any other Attempt or Consideration however commendable or beneficial in it self must prevail with me to neglect But here I found even my Duty assisting for That requiring part of my Attendance in a Place of somewhat more Retirement and Ease than where Your Lordship's Father was pleased to fix me I made use of those Advantages to this purpose and finished much the greatest part of the following Book in a way of Diversion as it were and unbending from severer Studies and a more Laborious Station The particular Liberty taken by this Author is a Qualification which the present Generation at least in our Parts of the World will certainly be fond of But it happened to have the same Effect upon Him sometimes which we are not much to wonder if we find very frequent in those of less Judgment and that is over-straining Points of Dispute by affecting to say all which either the Case will bear or which any other Person hath said before This gave Occasion for my interposing sometimes with an Advertisement and that I hope in such a manner as may not have injur'd the Author while it designs the Benefit and Security of my Reader One thing only I cannot forbear adding upon this Occasion that in the midst of all his Free-Thinking he constantly expresses a due and absolute Deference for Revelation and Divine Truths And This indeed was by no means the Effect of his Profession but of his Judgment for Your Lordship is too discerning not to know that as a little and superficial Knowledge in Physick makes Men Quacks so it is not the Abundance but the Defect of Reason and good Sense which makes them Infidels and Scepticks in Religion How little the Sieur de Charron suffer'd his Thoughts to be under the Bondage of any private Respects will be sufficiently evident to any considering Reader from sundry Instances Particularly from what he hath deliver'd upon the Subject of Government in his Third Book In which tho' some Moot Points may seem a little uncouth to Us of this Nation yet if we reflect upon the Constitution under which he liv'd we shall rather have occasion to wonder at his admitting so few reserv'd Cases than mentioning so many Besides that even those mention'd would be of no mighty ill Consequence if always confin'd to those Conditions and Occasions which He hath temper'd and restrain'd them with But passing from the Mysteries of State and pressing unusual Emergencies to the Ordinary Measures of a Publick Administration there is somewhat of an Air so full of Ingenuity and such regard had to the Great Ends for which Government was instituted as a very gentle Application would think an Encomium upon the English Constitution and a sort of Prophetick Satyr upon the late Oppressions of a People to whom he stood nearly related Upon the whole Matter My Lord I have Reason to hope This may prove not only a Book of Good Entertainment but Great Benefit to Persons who have the Capacity and will give themselves the Pains to consider it Were it not so I should not have thought it worth my Trouble and should yet much less have presumed to make an Offer of it to Your Lordship I can with good Confidence say that no Man is better qualified to be a Master of the Subject it treats of The particular and intimate Knowledge of Your Abilities which my being Honour'd with the Care of Your Lordship at the University gave me would bear me out in delivering more upon this Occasion than Your Modesty will permit And indeed the General Opinion of all that have the Honour of Your Lordships Acquaintance saves You that Decency and hath prevented me in this Point The Manly Sense and Wonderful Penetration which appear'd very early in You have given me many pleasing Reflections and I am sure are Foundation sufficient for making Your Lordship a Greater Ornament and Honour to Your Family than even that Nobility which You have by Descent But I must beg leave My Lord to put you in mind that besides Your Own Your Lordship hath a mighty Stock of Honour and Esteem to set out upon deriv'd from the Memory of a Father than whom Few if Any of his Condition are more universally loved and admir'd I say loved my Lord for This as a more rare so is it a more valuable Tribute than that of Honour to Persons of Quality and in Great Offices For where so much is paid to the Station we can make very little Judgment what is sincere and what is the Effect of Formality or Fear or Interest But in His Lordship's Case there was something so Distinguishing in all the Respects paid to Him as plainly shew'd a particular Regard to his Person and that the outward Testimonies were not Things of Course but that he had engag'd the very Hearts of Those who paid them I will not so far seem to distrust Your Lordship's Acceptance of this Address as to make the least Apology for it You will interpret it I doubt not as a Testimony of the Honour I have for You and a Desire to publish my having it to the World And Your Lordship will do me the Justice too to believe that were it in my Power to give any other Evidence of This than such an open Declaration nothing should
Creech A Man cannot wrong his Innocence more than thus to stake his Conscience upon every slight Provocation and refer his Honesty to the Arbitration of all Companies he comes into †Perspicuitas argumentatione elevatur When Things are plain of themselves a set Argument does but perplex and confound them Socrates upon his Tryal would not submit to be vindicated either by Himself or by any Other and rather chose to die Silently than accept the Assistance of that Eminent Pleader Lysias in his Defence But the Other Weakness is just opposite to This when a Man of Courage gives himself no Trouble nor takes the least Pains about his own Justification tho' the Charge upon him have gain'd Ground and prepossest many when he despises the Accusation and the Persons that lay it as not worth his Answer or Notice and thinks it would be a Disparagement and a Reflection to engage with them This indeed hath been the Practice of some great and generous Spirits of scipio especially who several times weathered his Point thus with marvellous Constancy and Firmness of Soul But a great many Persons disapprove this Method and take offence at it for they think it proceeds from Haughtiness and Disdain too great a Value of Themselves and want of due Regard for other People That the depending too much upon one's Own Innocence and not submitting to remove Jealousies is ill Treatment Or else this obstinate Silence and Contempt they interpret Consciousness of Guilt Distrust of Justice and want of Ability to justifie one's self effectually Miserable Condition of Mankind in the mean while that when they are suspected and accused have no possible way of giving entire Satisfaction but whether they speak or whether they sit still and hold their Peace whether they do or do not take care to defend their Names from Reproach and sure to incur the Imputation of Weakness and Cowardice We think it a Mark of Courage and advise Men not to be Sollicitous in making Excuses and when they take our Advice we are such Fools to Resent it and complain that they do not think Us worth excusing Themselves to Another Evidence of Weakness is the enslaving our selves to any particular Manner and affecting to be distinguished by some uncommon way of Living This is a vile Effeminacy Niceness and Affectation a Niceness most unbecoming a Man of Honour it renders us ridiculous and disagreeable in Conversation and is highly injurious to our Selves by softening our Minds and making us tender and delicate and unfit to struggle with any Accident which may constrain us to change our Course of Life Besides it is a Reproach not to dare to do or endure what the rest of the Company do Such People are fit for no Place but an Alcove or a Dressing-Room The best Fashion when all is done is to be Negligent and Complying and Hardy if need be to dare and be able to do any thing but to use this Power in such things only as are innocent and good A Man does well to know and observe Rules but not to Enslave himself to them Another Vulgar Folly there is and a very general one Consulting of Books which comes under this Head of Weakness T is the running after foreign Examples in Authors being fond of Quotations allowing no Testimony to have Weight or Credit except it be in Print nor any thing to be True but what is Old and in Books According to this Rule the Press may give Reputation to the greatest Follies Whereas in truth every Day presents us with fresh Instances of Things in no degree inferiour to those more celebrated ones of Antiquity And if we had but the Wit and the Judgment to make good Reflections upon These to cull and collect carefully such as are for our Purpose to examine them curiously and discover all their Beauties the Improvement would be wonderful And every Age would be equal to any of the past the Transactions whereof we so zealously study and admire and to be plain we study and admire them for no other Reason so much as that they have Antiquity and Authors to recommend them This again is an Evidence of Weakness That Men are capable of nothing Extremes except in moderate Proportions Extremes of any kind are what they cannot bear If they are very small and make a despicable Figure we despise and disdain them as not worth our Consideration If they be exceeding great and glorious we are afraid of them admire and take offence at them The Former of these Remarks concerns Men of great Quality and great Judgment The Second is more generally true of meaner Attainments and Circumstances in the World This appears very plain too in our Hearing and Sight Sudden Accident when we are struck all on the sudden with some unexpected and surprizing Accident which seizes our Spirits before we know where we are The Amazements of this kind are sometimes so great as to deprive us of our Speech of our Senses so Virgil describes the thing * Diriguit visu in medio calor ossa reliquit Labitur longo vix tandem tempore fatur Virg. Aen. III. Her curdled Blood runs backward at the sight And pale numb'd Limbs a sudden Trembling shook She stiffens into Statue with the Fright Swoons and at last long Silence hardly broke nay sometimes Life it self hath gone too And This whether the Event were prosperous as that Roman Lady who dy'd for Joy to see her Son safe return'd out of a beaten Army and the Examples of Sophocles and Dionysius the Tyrant Tessifie or whether it be unhappy as Diodorus dy'd upon the Spot for Shame that he was baffled in a Dispute One Instance more I will add which discovers it self Two ways in direct opposition to one another Some Persons are vanquish'd into Mercy by Tears and Submissions and earnest Entreaties and are offended at Firmness and Courage as if this were Sullenness and Obstinacy and Pride Others Acknowledgments and Prayers and Complaints make no manner of Impression upon but Constancy and Resolution wins them The Former of these proceeds no doubt from Weakness and accordingly we find it more incident and common to Mean and Effeminate and Vulgar Souls But the Second it is not so easie to give an account of and yet this Temper is incident to Men of all Conditions One would think it an Argument of a brave and generous Spirit to be wrought upon by Virtue and a generous Manly Behaviour and so no doubt it is if This be done out of a due Veneration for Virtue as Scanderbeg receiv'd a Soldier into Favour for the gallant and obstinate Defence he made against him and as Pompey the whole City of the Mammertines out of the regard he had to Zeno who was one of their Body And as the Emperour Conrade forgave the Duke of Bavaria and the rest of them that were besieged with him for the Bravery of the Women who convey'd them away
they allow of no Intermission but if the Difficulties are occasion'd by the principal Persons in the Family they fret and gall and wrankle inward and scarce admit of any Rest or Remedy The Best Method of rendring this Care easie and effectual is To procure some faithful Servants in whose Honesty we can have entire Confidence and Security To buy in Provisions in their proper Seasons and wait for the best Markets To prevent all unnecessary Waste which is the Province proper to the Mistress of the House To make Necessity and Cleanliness and Order our first Care and when These are served if our Circumstances will extend farther then to provide for Plenty and Shew and Niceness a gentile Appearance and every Thing fashionable in it's Kind To regulate our Expences by cutting off our Superfluous Charge yet so as to have a Regard to Decency and Convenience and grudge Nothing which either Necessity or Duty call for from us One Shilling saved with these Limitations will do us more Credit than Ten idly squandered away But to the avoiding Profuseness we should also add the other commendable Quality of good Contrivance for it is a Mark of great Address when we can make our Peny go a great Way and appear Handsomely with little Charge But above all things a Man must be sure to keep within Compass and sute his way of Living to his present Circumstances For the most probable Prospects are still but Futurities and as such they must needs be uncertain so that there cannot be a more ridiculous Folly than to spend high in Confidence of Reversions and distant Expectations A Master's Eye must be every where and if either He or the Mistress be ignorant and unexperienced in Business they must take Care to conceal this Infirmity and pretend at least to understand all that belongs to them But especially they must never appear Negligent or Remiss but put on an Air of Diligence and Concern however For if once the Servants get a Notion of their being Careless how their Affairs are managed they will not fail to take their Advantage and in a short Time leave them little or nothing to take Care of CHAP. XIV The Duty of Parents and Children THE Duty of Parents and Children is Reciprocal and Natural on both sides Thus far they both agree But if the Obligation be somewhat stricter on the Child's Part that Difference is compensated by being more Ancient on the Parents side For Parents are the Authors and first Cause and of the Two of much greater Consequence to the Publick The Peopling the World with Good Men and Good Patriots is their Work the Educacation and Instruction of Youth is the only Method of effecting it so that here the first Seeds of Political Societies and Institutions are first laid And of the Two Inconveniencies That is much less which the State suffers from the Disobedience and Ingratitude of Children toward their Parents than from the Remisness and Neglect Parents are guilty of toward their Children Hence in the Lacedoemonian and some other very wise Governments there were Mulcts and other Penalties inflicted upon Parents when their Children prov'd Perverse and Ill-tempered And Plato declared he knew no one Instance that needed a Man's Care more or deserved it better than the endeavouring to make a good Son And Crates in great Wrath expostulated thus with his Country-men To what Purpose is all this Pains to heap up great Estates while it is no part of your Concern what manner of Heirs you leave them to This is like a Man's being Nice of his Shooe and Negligent of his Foot What should a Man do with Riches who hath not the Sense nor the Hert to make a good Use of them This is like an embroidered Saddle and sumptuous Furniture upon a Jaded Horse Parents indeed are doubly obliged to the Performance of this Duty In Kindness to themselves as they are their own Offspring and in Regard to the Publick because these young Suckers are the Hopes of the Tree the promising Shoots upon the thriving and kindly cultivating whereof the Strength and Succession of the Body Politick depends So that this is killing Two Birds with One Stone serving one 's own private Interest and promoting the Welfare and Honour of one's Country at the same time Now this Duty consists of Four Parts each of which succeed in order to the other and these are proportion'd to the Four Advantages which Children ought to receive from their Parents in their proper Seasons Life and Nourishment Instruction and partaking of the Advantages of Life with them The First respects the Time of a Child's Existence till his Birth inclusively The Second his Infancy The Third his Youth and the Last his riper Age. Concerning the First of These I shall only say that though it be very little attended to yet is it of mighty Consequence and of strict Obligation For no Man who hath any the least Insight into Nature can be ignorant how hereditary Constitutions and Complexions are And therefore we may be good or ill Parents even before our Children are born And I am sure among other Inducements to the care of Health and a regular Way of living This ought not to be the least that Those who derive their Being from us do depend upon this Care for a great part of their Happiness For by what hath been largely discoursed in the first Book it may plainly appear that the Capacity and Turn of Men's Minds and the Soundness and Vigour of their Bodies are in great Measure owing to a Parents good Constitution And certainly To Men of any Conscience it should be an Eternal Sting and Reproach to reflect what Rottenness and Diseases they entail upon their Posterity by abandoning themselves to Lewdness and Debauchery how dearly those Innocents pay for their Ancestor's Excesses and what a Barbarity it is to send poor Wretches into the World to languith out a Life of Misery and Pain and suffer for Sins which they never committed So Necessary so Important a Virtue is Temperance to Successions and Families as well as to Mens own Persons So Mischievous is Vice and so Subtilly does it propagate its dismal Effects even to those that are yet unborn The Second of these Heads I leave to Physicians and Nurses and having thus briefly dispatch'd the Two First because somewhat foreign to our present Design and necessary to be mention'd only for the rendring this Division compleat I shall proceed to the Third which concerns the Instructing of them and is a Subject more worthy our serious Consideration So soon as the Child begins to move his Soul and the Faculties of That as well as the Organs of his Body shew that he is a Rational and not only a Living Creature Great Application should be used to form him well at first And this Care may be allowed to take Place about Four or Five Years Old for by that time The Memory and Imagination and some little Strokes
of Europe this is the only way to make a Noise in the World Reputation and Riches are not to be got without it So that the Persons we now speak of make a Trade of Learning and sink it into a Mercenary Pedantick Sordid Mechanical Thing A Commodity bought dear to be sold again dearer at second Hand These Hucksters are past all Cure and it is not worth while to give our selves any Trouble about them Not but that our Men of Mode are some of them as Extravagantly Foolish in the other Extreme who esteem Learning an ungentile Thing and somewhat too Pedantick and Mean for Quality and esteem a Man the less for being a Scholar This is but another Proof of their Folly and Emptiness and Want of all Sense of Virtue and Honour which their Ignorance Impertinence sauntring Lives and vain Fopperies give us such abundant Demonstrations of every Day But now for the Instruction of those Others Learning and Wisdom compar'd that give us some Hopes of Recovery and for the discovering where their Mistake lies we must shew Two Things First That there is a Real Difference between Learning and Wisdom and that the Latter is infinitely to be preferred before any the most exquisite and exalted Degree of the Former Secondly That they do not always go together nay that most commonly they obstruct each other insomuch that your Men of nice Learning are not often eminent for Wisdom nor your Truly wise Men deep Learned There are I confess some Exceptions to this last Observation but it were heartily to be wished there were more of them They that are so are Men of Great and Noble Souls of which Antiquity furnishes some Instances but the more Modern Times are very barren of them In order to the doing this Argument Right we must first know what Learning and Wisdom are Now Learning is a vast Collection of other Peoples Excellencies a Stock laid in with Labour and long Trouble of all that we have seen and heard and read in Books the Sayings and Actions of Great and Good Men who have lived in all Ages and Nations The Repository or Magazine where this Provision is treasured up is the Memory He who is provided by Nature with a good Memory hath no body to blame but himself if he be not a Scholar for he hath the Means in his own Hands Wisdom is a calm and regular Government of the Soul That Man is Wise who observes true Measures and a due Decorum in his Thoughts and Opinions and Desires his Words and Actions and Deportment In short Wisdom is the Rule and Standard of the Soul and he that uses this Rule aright that is The Man of Judgment and Discretion that sees and discerns judges and esteems Things according to their Nature and Intrinsick Value who places each in its just Order and Degree is the Person we would have every one attempt to be And how Reasonable that Advice is will quickly appear by observing how far the greater Excellence of the Two this of Wisdom is Learning however Valuable in it self is yet but a poor and barren Accomplishment in Comparison of Wisdom For it is not only unnecessary being what Two Parts in Three of Mankind make a very good Shift without but the Usefulness of is but small and there are but a very few Instances comparatively to which that Usefulness extends It contributes nothing at all to Life for how many do we see of all Qualities and Conditions High and Low Rich and Poor that pass their Time in great Ease and Pleasure without knowing any thing at all of the Matter There are a great many other Things more Serviceable both to Men's private Happiness and to Human Society in General Honour and Reputation Noble Birth and Quality and yet even These are far from being absolutely necessary The most they can pretend to is the being Ornaments and Conveniences and additional Advantages It contributes Nothing to any Natural Operations the most ignorant Man in this Respect is upon the Level with the greatest Clerk For Nature is of her self a sufficient Mistress and deals to every one the Knowledge needful for supporting her own Occasions Nor does it in any Degree assist a Man's Probity no body is one whit the Honester or Juster for it rather indeed it hinders and corrupts the Integrity of the Mind by teaching Men to be Subtle and to distinguish all Plain-dealing quite away Look into the Characters of Excellent Persons in History and you shall find most amongst them of moderate and very indifferent Attainments Witness Old Rome which in the Days of her Ignorance was renowned for Justice and Honour but when Learning and Eloquence got the Ascendent the Fame of her Virtue was in its Declension and in Proportion as Mens Wits grew more Subtle and Refin'd Innocence and Simplicity fell into Decay and Contempt Sects and Heresies Errours and Atheism it self have ever been set on foot and propagated by Persons of Artifice and Learning The primitive Source of our Misery and Ruine and that first Temptation of the Devil which inveigled and undid Mankind was an unseasonable and intemperate Desire of Knowledge Ye shall be as Gods discerning between Good and Evil was that fatal Expectation which deprest our first Parents and made them less than Man The more Men employed their Wits in Study the more plausible and consequently the more dangerous Notions they started which made St. Paul bid his Colossians beware that they were not seduced by Philosophy and vain Deceit And one of the Learnedest Men that ever liv'd speaks but very meanly of it as a Thing Vain and Unprofitable Hurtful and Troublesom such as was never to be enjoyed without many grievous Incumbrances since he that increaseth Knowledge must unavoidably increase Sorrow at the same Time In a Word Learning it is confest may Civilize and refine us but it cannot moralize us we may be more courteous and conversable and accomplished but we cannot be one jot the Holier the Juster more Temperate or more Charitable for it Nay Fourthly it does us no Service neither in the sweetning of our Lives or abating our Resentments for any of the Afflictions that embitter them It rather sets a Sharper Edge upon our Calamities and raises our Sense of them to be more quick and tender Accordingly we see that Children and plain ignorant People who measure their Misfortunes only by what they feel at present and neither anticipate and give them an Imaginary Being nor revive and as it were raise them from the Dead again by melancholy Reflections get over their Sufferings much more easily and support themselves under them with much greater Temper and Moderation than your quaint and refined and more thinking Men. Ignorance is in some Degree a good Remedy a strong Amulet against Misfortunes and our Friends it is very manifest are of that Opinion when they beg of us to forget and not to think of them For what is this but to drive us
curb to hold them in and prevent the wild and furious sallies of vice unrestrained or else a rebuke and chastisement the rod of an Affectionate but Provoked Father to reduce and reclaim them that they may be more considerate and mindful of their duty hereafter and abandon utterly those courses which have cost them so much smart and pain Thus it is with our minds as with our bodies and the health of both is consulted by the same applications These sufferings are like the breathing of a Vein and seasonable Physick sometimes made use of as preservatives to prevent the gathering of ill humours and divert them another way at other times as correctives and restoratives to purge the corrupted mass and carry off a disease already formed To the Obstinate and Incorrigible they are a Punishment and Plague a Sickle to cut those down speedily whose Iniquities are ripe for destruction or else to make them more lingring and languishing spectacles of vengeance And thus you may plainly discern very excellent and necessary effects of the troubles Men are used so bitterly to complain of such as may abundantly convince us how erroneous that opinion is which looks upon such dispensations as evils and ought to prevad upon us to entertain them with Patience and a becoming temper of mind to take them in good part as the instances and operations of the divine justice and not only so but to welcome them gladly as the useful instruments and sure pledges of the tenderness and love and careful providence of God and especially using our utmost diligence to benefit under them and to answer the intention of that wise and kind being in whose disposal all these things are and who distributes them according to his own good pleasure and as they may be most suitable to every Man's occasions ADVERTISEMENT Of External Evils considered in themselves particularly ALl these Evils which are many in number and various in their kinds are so many privations of some contrary good for so much indeed is implyed in the very name and nature of evil Consequently the general heads of evil must answer and be equal to the several heads or species of good Now these may very properly be reduced to seven Sickness and Pain for these being Bodily indispositions I join them together as one Captivity Banishment Want Disgrace Loss of Friends and Death The good things we are deprived of in the forementioned Circumstanc's every one sees very plainly to be Health Liberty our Native Countrey Wealth Honour Friends and Life each of which we have had occasion to treat of at large in the foregoing parts of this Treatise All therefore that remains to be done at present is to prescribe such Antidotes against these as are proper to them respectively and that very briefly and plainly without any nice or formal Reasoning upon the Case CHAP. XXII Of Sickness and Pain IT hath been observed in the beginning of this Treatise Book 1. Chap. 6. that Pain is the greatest and in good truth the only evil attending this Mortal Body of ours the most sensible the most insupportable that which is least to be cured least to be dealt with or asswaged by consideration But still though this be not altogether so capable of advice as most other afflictions yet some Remedies there are drawn from Reason Justice advantage and usefulness imitation and resemblance of great persons celebrated for their illustrious Virtue and that branch of it which consists of Patience and these such as they are I shall just propound to my Reader 's Consideration First then the enduring what is tedious and troublesome is a necessary incumbrance of life and charged in common upon all living creatures upon Mankind most evidently and especially And it is by no means reasonable that providence should work a Miracle for our sakes and exempt us only How absurd is it therefore to fret and perplex our selves because that hath hapned to one Man in particular which might and may happen every moment to every Man without exception Nay it is not only general and common but natural too We are born to it and cannot in any equity and justice hope to be exempted for indeed should we cease to be subject to it we must cease to be Men. Whatever is a fixt and irreversible Law of our Creation ought to be entertained with meekness and moderation For we entred into life upon these terms and the conditions of humanity expresly indented for are old Age and Infirmities Decays and Diseases Anguish and Pain There is no possibility of avoiding these things and what we can never get clear of it will be our best Wisdom to settle a resolution of making the best of and to learn how we may go through with it * Confide summus non habet tempus dolor Si gravis brevis si longus levis If the pain be long it is but moderate and consequently very supportable and a Wise Man will be ashamed to complain of any thing less than extremities If it be violent and exceeding acute it is but short and we should not repine or be driven to impatience for a suffering which is quickly over And yet this must of necessity be the case for nature cannot sustain it self under the continuance of extream Torture There must be an end either of that or of the Patient in a little time and which of these two soever be the conclusion of it as to the suffering part the matter comes all to one and therefore let this give us courage and comfort Consider again that these sufferings can go no deeper than the Body we are not injured our very selves every real injury takes off from the excellence and perfection of the thing but now Sickness and Pain are so far from derogating from and doing any real prejudice to us that on the contrary they furnish matter and put occasions in our way for a more noble exercising of Virtue than any that we owe to Ease and perfect Health And surely where there is more occasion of praise and Virtue there cannot be less good If the Body be what the Philosophers usually call the instrument of the mind why should any one complain for this instrument being applied to its proper use and worn out in the service of its proper master The Body was made on purpose to serve the Soul but if every inconvenience which befalls the Body shall disorder and afflict the mind the order of nature is quite inverted and the Soul from thenceforth becomes a servant to the Body Would you not think that man unreasonably querulous and childish who should cry and roar and take on heavily because some thorn in the hedge as he passed by or some unwary passenger had spoiled or torn his Clothes A poor broker who was to make Money of the Suit might be allowed some concern upon such an occasion but a Gentleman and one of substance and condition would make a jest of it and
Years together converted and establish'd many He never took any Degree or Title in Divinity but satisfy'd himself with deserving and being capable of the Highest and had therefore no other Title or Character but That of Priest only He never saw Paris in Seventeen or Eighteen Years and then resolv'd to come and end his days there but being a great lover of Retirement he had obliged himself by Vow to become a Carthusian and was absolved of it about the end of the Year 1588. He went from Bourdeaux coming by Xaintes and Anger 's where he made several learned Sermons and arriv'd at Paris at the time the States were conven'd at Blois Then he presented himself to the Prior of the Carthusians one John Michel a Person of great Piety who since dy'd Prior-General of the great Carthusian Monastery in Dauphiné To Him he communicated his Intention but it was not accepted by reason of his Age which was not less than Seven or Eight and Forty And all the most pressing Intreaties he could use were ineffectual for the Excuse was still this That That Order required all the Vigour of Youth to support its Austerities Hereupon he addrest himself to the Provincial of the Celestines in Paris but there too with the same Success and upon the same Reasons alledged for repulsing him Thus after having done his utmost to fulfil his Vow and himself not being in any degree accessory to its not taking effect he was assured by Faber Dean of the Sorbon Tyrius a Scotch Jesuite and Feuardent a Franciscan all very learned and able Divines that there lay no manner of Obligation upon him from that Vow But that he might with a very safe and good Conscience continue in the World as a Secular and was at large and at his own Disposal without any need of entring into any other Religious Order Hereupon in the Year 1589. he returned back by Anger 's where he preached the whole Lent to the great Admiration and Benefit of the People From thence he went back again to Bourdeaux where he contracted a very intimate Acquaintance and Friendship with Monsieur Michel de Montagne Knight of the Order of the King and Author of the Book so well known by the Title of Montagne's Essays For him Monsieur Charron had a very great Esteem and did from him receive all possible Testimonies of a reciprocal Affection For among other things Monsieur Montagne order'd by his last Will that in regard he left no Issue-Male of his own Monsieur Charron should after his decease be entituled to bear the Coat of Arms plain and as they belong'd to his Noble Family The Troublesome Times detaining Monsieur Charron at Bourdeaux from the Year 1589. to that of 1593. he composed his Book called Les Trois Veritez The Three Truths and published it in 1594. but without his Name to it This was received with great Applause of Learned Men and they printed it after the Bourdeaux Copy two or three times at Paris and afterwards at Brussels in Flanders under the Sham-Name of Benedict Valiant Advocate of the Holy Faith because the Third Part of that Book contains a Defence of the Faith in answer to a little Tract concerning the Church written formerly by the Sieur Plessis de Mornay The Publication of this Book brought him into the Acquaintance of Monsieur Antony d' Ebrard de S. Sulpice Bishop and Count of Caors who upon perusing and liking the Book sent for Monsieur Charron tho' he had never seen him before made him his Vicar-General and Canon-Theologal in his Church which he accepted and there he put out the Second Edition with his own Name to it in 1595. enlarging it also with a Reply to an Answer printed at Rochelle and written against what he called his Third Truth While he was at Caors the King was pleased to summon him to the General Assembly of all the Clergy of France held the same Year 1595. Hither he came in the Quality of a Deputy and was chosen first Secretary to the Assembly As he was in this Attendance an Invitation was sent him to preach at St. Eustache's Church the most populous Parish in the whole City of Paris which he did upon All-Saints-Day 1595 and two Days after As also the Six Sundays in Lent 1596. In 1599 he returned to Caors and in that Year and 1600. he composed Eight Discourses upon the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as many others upon the Knowledge and Providence of God the Redemption of the World the Communion of Saints And likewise his Books of Wisdom While he was thus employing himself and enjoying that Retirement at Caors my Lord John Chemin Bishop of Condom presented him with the Chantership in his Church to draw him over into that Diocess But having at the same time an Offer from M. Miron Bishop of Angiers and being courted by Him to reside at Anjou this was most agreeable to his Inclination The making a determinate Resolution was a Work of Time for his Affection and Convenience drawing several Ways kept the Balance long in suspense Anjou he looked upon as the sweetest Dwelling the most delightful Retreat that France could give him but that Province being then embroyl'd in Civil Wars for Bretany was not then reduced and so like to make a very troublesome Neighbour Condom carry'd the Point It happen'd too that the Theologal Chair at Condom was just then void and this being tendred him by the same Bishop he accepted that and resolved to set up his Staff there To this purpose he bought a House which he built new and furnished to his own Fancy and Convenience resolving to give himself all the Ease and Diversion he could and make the best of his growing Years the Infirmities whereof would be soften'd at least by good Humour and a pretty Dwelling After he was setled at Condom he printed those Christian Discourses mention'd just now which were Sixteen in all and also his Books of Wisdom at Bourdeaux in the Year 1601. which gave him a great Reputation and made his Character generally known So that Monsieur Charron began from that time to be reckon'd among the Glories and topping Wits of France Particularly Messieur Claude Dormy Bishop of Bologne by the Sea and Prior of St. Martin's in the Fields at Paris wrote him several Letters upon that occasion expressing the great Esteem he had for Him and his Writings and as a Testimony of his Value and Opinion of him offer'd him the Theologal's Place in his Church These Letters made Monsieur Charron desirous to see Paris once more that so he might contract a Personal Acquaintance with and express his Acknowledgments for the Favours of this great Prelate and at the same time in hope to get an Opportunity of reprinting his Books and Discourses with the Addition of some new Tracts For indeed the Impression at Bourdeaux he thought wanted correcting and upon a Review was not at all to his Satisfaction In pursuance of this Design
are still but more enraging as Seneca observes In such Cases * Pertinaciores nos facit iniquitas irae quasi argumentum sit justè irascendi graviter irasci the Unreasonableness of our Passion makes us so much more obstinate and unpersuadable as if the being very Angry and Implacable were the best Argument that the Ground of our Anger is Just The Example of Piso upon this Occasion is well worth our Observation and the Story is generally known He who was in other Respects Eminent for Virtue and Goodness yet once in Heat of Passion pat Three Persons to Death Unjustly and strain'd the Law to bring them in Guilty only because there had been one proved not Guilty whom he by a former Sentence had adjudged Guilty Anger is likewise exasperated by Silence and Coldness because such Indisserence speaks Scorn and Neglect and when Men see their Resentments make no Impression they look upon themselves to be slighted and affronted This is very usual with Women who oftentimes put themselves into a Passion purely for the Sake of putting other People into one too And when they see that a Man does not condescend to be Angry and refuse to heap on more Fewel they take all imaginable Pains to cherish and blow up their own Fire and grow perfectly Outragious So Wild and Savage a Beast is Anger so Fierce and Intractable that neither Vindications nor Submissions neither Excusing nor Acknowledging neither Speaking nor holding one's Peace can do any Goood upon it No soul Means can tame no fair ones win it over or make it Gentle The Injustice of this Passion is farther Evident in that it always takes upon it self to be both Party and Judge in the same Cause in that it expects all manner of People that hear or know any thing of the Matter should take its Part and justify its Proceedings and takes it mortally Ill nay flies in the very Faces of all that either stand Neuter or in any Degree seem to think it in the Wrong II. A Second Effect of this Passion is Headiness and Obstinacy Rashness and Inconsideration It drives us forward and thrusts us down Head-long into unspeakable Mischiefs and very often draws upon our own Heads the very Calamities we are endeavouring to avoid by being Angry the very same Sufferings or many times worse than those which We in the bitterness of our Malice and Revenge are so eager to inflict upon others and thas while it punishes an Enemy it tortures and execates it self This Passion is no ill Resemblance of Great Rains which crush indeed and batter what ever they fall upon but in the same Fall break themselves to Pieces Anger is so eagerly bent upon the Hurt and Destruction of others that it sights out of all Guard and takes no manner of Care to avoid or ward off its own Death It draws us in and hampers us in a Thousand Inconveniences puts us upon speaking and doing many things that are Base and Unworthy such as by no means become us and what we cannot but be at least we ought to be most heartily Ashamed of To be short it transports Men to those Excesses of Extravagance and Rage that they know not what they do ensnares them in the most Injurious the most Scandalous Actions hurries them into Mischief incapable of any Reparation Murders and Bloodshed Treachery and Villany Poisonings and secret Assassinations Things that leave long and lasting Remorse behind and such as they cannot but have very afflicting Remembrance of ever after Alexander the Great was a remarkable Instance of this Kind and â—ythageras used to say that where Anger ended there Repentance always began This Passion is never to be convinced of Folly it is Big and always well Satisfied with its own Discretion and Justice flatters and pleases it self with a Notion that the Man does well and wisely to be Angry clears it self from all manner of Blame and lays the whole Fault upon some ill or indiscreet Thing done that gave the Provocation But supposing another guilty of Injustice it will not therefore follow that my Anger is guilty of none Suppose I receive Injury from another Hand will my paying back the same or a greater Wrong take off what I suffer Will it make me any real Amends or bring any true Profit to me that another Suffers as well as I The Truth is Anger hath too much of Obstinacy and Hair-brain'd Giddiness ever to do any Good It pretends to cure one Evil with another and when we turn over an Offence to be corrected by this Passion it is no better than setting Vice to chastise and punish it self Reason which ought always to bear the Sword and exercise the Supreme Authority in our Breasts does not desire any such Hot-Headed Officers to Execute her Commands as do things upon their own Head without waiting for Orders Reason like Nature works easily and gradually is sedate and slow and whatever is Violent is equally Foreign and contrary to both But you will say What must Virtue then be so Tame and soft as to see the Insolencies of Vice Triumphant without any Degree of Indignation and Concern Must she be so bound up as not to take the Liberty of being Angry nor dare to make any Opposition against unreasonable and wicked Men To this I answer Virtue hath its Freedoms but they are such as are Just it takes it desires none that are unsit or unbecoming It hath Courage too but this Courage must not be employed against it self Nor must another Man 's Ill be converted to its Prejudice and Disturbance A wise Man is as much obliged to bear the Vices of Naughty People without Passion as he is to see their Prosperity without Envy The Indiscretion of rash and heady Men must be endured with the same Patience and Pity that a Good Physician exercises toward his Patients when they are under the Ravings of a Fever There is not any one Instance of Wisdom more Commendable in it self nor more useful to the General Good of the World than that of being able to bear with the Follies and Extravagances of other People For if we do not so the Consequence will be that we shall fall into the same Extravagances and by not supporting Their Follies we make them our Own What hath been spoken here at large of Anger in particular is in great Measure Applicable to the Passions that follow such as Hatred and Envy and Revenge for these are the same in Substance and at the Bottom They are Anger too but they are somewhat otherwise modified appearing in different Forms and cloath'd with different Circumstances Proper Advice and Remedies against this Pastion will be treated of Book III. Chap. 31. CHAP. XXVI Hatred HAtred is a very odd Passion It gives us a great deal of unaccountable Vexation contrary to all the Reason in the World And yet What is there more Torturing and Insupportable than this Resentment By It we put our selves perfectly under the
reducing himself to that Innocence Simplicity Liberty Meekness and Gentleness of Temper which Nature had originally implante both in Us and Them And which in Brutes is still very conspicuous but in Us is decay'd chang'd and utterly corrupted by our Industrious Wickedness and Artisicial Depravations thus debauching and abusing the particular Prerogative we pretend to and rendring our selves more vile than the Beasts by means of that very Understanding and Judgment which sets us so far above them Hence sure it is that God intending to shame us into Vertue sends us to School in Scripture and bids us grow wiser by the Example of these Creatures The Crane the Stork and the Swallow the Serpent Jer. viii 7. Mat. x. 16. Prov vi 6. Isa i. 3. and the Dove the Ant and the Ox and the Ass and sundry others are recommended as Teachers to us And after all To take down our Vanity upon this Occasion we ought to remember that there is some sort of Correspondence some mutual Relations and Duties arising from thence if upon no other account yet by reason of their being made by the same Hand belonging to the same Master and making a part of the same Family with our selves And this single Reflection ought to prevail with us to use our Advantages over them modestly tenderly and conscientiously and not to treat them with Cruelty and Contempt For as Justice is a Debt from us to all Men so Kindness and Beneficence and Mercy must needs be due to all Creatures whatsoever that are in any Condition of receiving benefit by us ADVERTISEMENT OUR Author in the midst of his great Care to slate this Comparison so as might be most mortifying to the Vanity of Mankind hath yet found himself oblig'd to acknowledge that the Reason of Men is so much brighteâ— and more noble in its Operations and Effects than any thing discoverable in the Brute part of the Creation that I might have let this Chapter pass without any Censure had it not been for two or three Sentences which seem obnoxious to very ill Construction Such as a sort of Men are in Our Age but too fond of embracing who at the same time that they are vain enough to imagine that neither the Nature nor the Revelations of God himself can have any thing in them above their Reason are yet so sordid and degenerate as to be content that Beasts should be thought endu'd with the same Souls and to be mov'd with the same Principles of Reason with themselves An Opinion which is the rather entertain'd for the sake of a certain Consequence that recommends it with regard to a Future State for it seems they can be satisfy'd with the Portion of Brutes now provided they may but partake in it hereafter And what Favour this Notion might find from these Passages That Brutes and Men both have the same Reason tho' not in the same Degree and that some Men excel others much more than some Men again excel Beasts I was doubtful and therefore look'd upon my self concerned in pursuance of my Proposals at the Beginning of this Book to offer these following Considerations to my Reader First That in the Operations of the Reasonable Soul a great deal depends upon the Organs and Disposition of that Body to which it is joyned and as hath been already explain'd at large more especially upon the Brain Now since Anatomists have not been able to observe any very remarkable Differences between the Contexture of the Humane Brain and that of Brutes we are not to think it strange if there appear some small Resemblances in some particular Actions of Men and Beasts tho' these do not proceed from the same Principle of Motion but owe their Similitude to that of the Body and Medium put into those Motions Secondly That the Impressions of external Objects have very strong Effects upon the Imagination and Memory and these assisted by Custom and Imitation and Example will perform many wonderful things which yet are not the Operations of Reason properly so called Of this kind it is easie to observe great Number of Instances in Them who either by means of their Infancy have not yet attain'd to the use of Reason or Them who by some Natural Defects never have it at all or Others who by some accidental Disturbance have lost it In all which Cases not during the lucid Intervals only or when the Powers of the Mind seem a little to be awakened but even in the most profound Ignorance or most raging Madness Those which are frequently distinguished by the Sensitive Faculties of the Soul put forth sometimes a marvellous Efficacy and Vigour And that These are moved entirely by material and sensible Objects and act as necessarily as any other Parts of Matter whatsoever hath been the Opinion of many new Philosophers some of whom imagine that all the Operations of this kind are as capable of being resolved by Principles of Mechanism those Operations I mean of Imagination and Memory and Custom as any other Affections and Motions of common Matter How just this Conclusion is I do not pretend to determine for They themselves seem to confess it insufficient when they call in to their Assistance another Principle which is Thirdly That of Instinct By which is meant a strong Tendency and Natural Impulse discernible in these Creatures to certain necessary and useful Actions Something of a Principle implanted in them by their wise Creator to qualisie them for their own Preservation and the answering the Ends of his good Providence in Making them And this appears so early as to be plainly antecedent to either Memory or Fancy and yet is so constant too and always the same in the same Circumstances and Occasions as neither to depend upon Causes so mutable as the Impressions of outward Objects nor a Principle so capricious as the Choice of such a Mind perfectly free feels in its Deliberations And as Instruments put together by a skilful Hand perform many Operations so astonishing that a Man unexperienc'd in the Art cou'd not possibly imagine such Materials capable of them so these Philosophers conceive that Almighty God in his infinite Wisdom hath so disposed the Sensitive Parts of the Soul that They by their wonderful Structure shall be adapted to most amazing Effects and possessed with some Original Propensions and Impulses independent from and antecedent to the Impressions of Matter or the power of Institution and Custom which in the needful and most profitable Actions of Life serve these Animals for Fundamental Principles and bear some kind of Affinity to the first common Notions in the Rational and Intelligent Mind And upon these Impulses joyn'd to those other Advantages mention'd before the whole Oeconomy of Brutes and even those Actions which seem most exquisite and admirable in any of them have by the Modern Mechanick Philosophers been generally thought to depend Concerning which tho' almost every System treat in some measure yet I believe my Reader whether
Occasions argues want of Affection and sincere Friendship This is not only Misery but an exceeding Vanity too and as common as it is vain 12. The bearing a very great regard to those Actions which require a great deal of bustle and stir in the doing and make a Noise in the World and to slight and undervalue all that are done in a still sedate and obscure manner As if no Effects could ever follow upon such a dull heavy way of proceeding but all Men were asleep and did nothing that do it not with Hurry and Clutter In short All those vain Preferences which Men give to Art above Nature are likewise of this kind for One of These works with Labour and Observation the Other easily quiet and unseen And thus whatever is swell'd and blown up by Industry and Invention that which cracks about our Ears and strikes strongly upon our Senses and all this is Artificial we respect and value highly infinitely above That which is mild and gentle and simple and uniform and common for such are the Products of Nature The former of These awakens us into Attention the latter advances silently and leaves or lays us asleep 13. The putting unfair and perverse Interpretations upon the good Actions of Others and when the Thing is well in it self attributing it to base or trifling or wicked Causes or Occasions So did They whom Plutarch is angry with for pretending that the Death of Cato the Younger proceeded from no other Principle than his Fear of Caesar And some Others yet more senselesly charg'd it upon Ambition This is a most infallible Symptom of a sick Judgment a Disease that proceeds either from Wickedness at home and a general Corruption of the Will and Manners disposing Men to pervert every Thing to the worst Sense or else from Uneasiness and Envy against Persons that are better than Themselves or else from a Mis-giving Quality within which reduces all their Belief to the Compass and Size of their own Abilities so measuring others by their own Standard believing Every one as bad as they know Themselves to be and absolutely incapable of doing things better or proposing nobler Ends in their Actions than their own usually are Or perhaps as probable an Account of this as any of the former may be a Natural Weakness and Littleness of Soul which like tender Eyes cannot bear to look at so strong and clear a Light as that which Virtue sheds when Pure and in its native Beauties Nor is it amiss here to take notice of a Practice exceeding common which is Men's affecting to shew the Nicety of their Judgment and the Smartness of their Wit in finding Faults suppressing extenuating disguising Circumstances setting Things in their worst Light and eclipsing the Glory of the bravest Actions In all which one would wonder they should suppose any thing worth valuing themselves upon since it is manifest all Dexterity of this kind is a much greater Demonstration of their Ill-Nature than it can be of their Parts and as it is the Vilest and most Disingenuous so is it the Easiest and most Vulgar way of Wit in the World 14. Another which seems to be a very convincing Testimony of the Misery of Humane Minds tho' somewhat more nice and out of the way of common Observation is That the Soul in its calm and sound and composed Estate can rise no higher than the perception of those Objects and the performance of such Operations as are Common and Natural and of a moderate Size But in order to the raising it up to such as are Divine and Supernatural such as admit Men into the Secrets of Heaven it is distemper'd and violently agitated either by vehement Impulses Extasies and Enthusiasms or by Trances and deep Sleeps This I gather not only from the Tripods and Oracles of the Heathen Pythia but from the authentick Accounts given us of Revelations and the extraordinary Manifestations God was pleased to make of Himself to Prophets and Holy Men in Scripture Such as Abraham and Ezekiel and Daniel and others in the Old Testament and St. Peter and St. Paul in the New All which Instances seem to argue that the only Natural ways of attaining to these extraordinary Communications are by Transport and Sleep by Visions and Dreams So that our Mind it seems is never so Wise as when it is out of its Senses nor ever so truly Awake as in Sleep It arrives best at its Journey 's End by leaving the Common Road and takes the Noblest and most successful Flights when it s own Faculties appear most depressed as if it were necessary to Lose it self for the Finding somewhat better and more lofty and to be Miserable in order to its being Happy This seems most Natural Advert because we are assured it was most usual not that there was an impossibility of other Methods but that these were best adapted to Humane Infirmities And therefore it is worth observing upon this Occasion what Truth Himself mentions as a Prerogative by which Moses was distinguished from other Prophets In that God talked with him Face to Face as a Man talketh to his Friend Deut. xii that is Easily and Familiarly without any of those vehement Commotions of Body or extatick Raptures of Soul which the rest of Mankind us'd to feel upon such Occasions And this proves both that the Other Method was so ordinary as to justifie our Author's Observation and yet that there was no utter Incapacity for this freer way in Humane Nature which deserved this additional Remark upon it for God who is absolute Master of Nature can reveal himself in what manner he sees sit 15. Lastly Can any greater Desect or Misery be imagin'd incident to the Minds of Men than the Neglect and Disesteem of their best and most useful Faculty And yet This is almost every one's Case while we extol Memory and Imagination and are fond of excelling in These but let the Judgment lie idle and unimprov'd no Care taken to employ it nor any account at all made of it Do but look abroad a little and you will soon be convinced of what I say For what are all the neat Harangues the learned Treatises the quaint Discourses the celebrated Sermons and Books with which the World is so mightily taken What in a Word are all the Productions of this fruitful Age the Works of some few Great Men only excepted but common Places and Quotations tack'd and sil'd up together a Collection of other Men's Labours put into a new Method with some few Strokes and Illustrations and so naturaliz'd and made all our Own And what can we make of this but a work of Memory the Excellency of a School-Boy and That which requires very little Brains or Trouble as to all that part which we pick up from Authors and find ready cut to our Hands And the Work of Imagination for those little Graces and Garnitures which make up the much less part added by our Selves This
Instance is applicable to all Here mention'd which are owing to the Love of our Selves and comparing our own Case with that of other People T is pleasant when the Seas are rough to stand And view another's Danger safe at Land Not ' cause he 's troubl'd but 't is sweet to see Those Cares and Fears from which our Selves are free Mr. Creech And sure there is a great difference between Malignity and Self-Love between Tenderness for our own Safety and a Malicious Joy in Calamities and Dangers In a Word To give you a true Representation of the greatness of our Misery 〈◊〉 of Spiritual Miscries I only add That the World abounds with Three sorts of Men which out-do all the rest both in Number and Reputation and those are The Superstitious The Formal and The Pedantick These tho' they are concern'd in different Matters move by different Springs and act upon different Stages for the Three principal Topicks are Religion Common Conversation and Learning and each of These is the Field appropriated to each of these Persons Religion to the Superstitious Common Conversation and the Dealings of Humane Life to the Formal and Learning to the Pedants But These I say tho' engag'd in Matters so distant are yet all cast in the same Mould and agree in their general Qualities and Characters That they are all weak and mean Souls extremely defective either in Natural or Acquir'd Abilities incapable or ignorant Men of dangerous Opinions sick Judgments nay sick of a Disease that scarce ever admits of a Recovery For all the Pains and Trouble you give your self to instruct these Men better is but so much Time and Labour lost upon them They are so much in the Wrong and so highly conceited that none who differ from them can be in the Right that no good is ever to be done If you will take Their Judgments none are comparable to themselves for Virtue or for Wisdom Obstinacy and Self-sufficiency which every where hath too great an Ascendent reigns Absolute here and is in its proper Kingdom Whoever hath once drunk in the Infection of these Evils there are little or no Hopes left of ever making him a sound Man again For what is there more exquisitely foolish what more stiff and inflexible than these Fellows They are secur'd by a double Barrier from the Conquests of Reason and Persuasion First by their Weakness and Natural Incapacity which disables them from seeing the Strength of Arguments and Reproofs and then by a false Confidence in their own Excellencies above the rest of the World which makes them despise all Others as their Inferiours unable to advise and unfit to reform Those who are already so much wiser and better than They. As for the Superstitious The Superstitious See Book II. Chap. 5. they are highly Injurious to God and dangerous Enemies to True Religion They disguise themselves with a Mask of Piety and Zeal and Reverence and Love for God and this Jest they carry so far as to teaze and torment themselves with Austerities and Sufferings that were never requir'd at their Hands And what is to be done with such infatuated Wretches as These who imagine that those voluntary Afflictions are highly meritorious that the Almighty is indebated to them and much oblig'd by Works which he never commanded and that all the rest ought to be released in consideration of These Tell them they take things by the wrong Handle that they stretch and pervert and misunderstand the Scriptures and lay Burdens upon themselves more and heavier than God ever laid Their Answer is that They intend well and that Intention they doubt not will Save them that what they do is from a Principle of Piety and Devotion and cannot want Merit and Acceptance upon that Account Besides there is something of Interest in all this which you can never prevail with them to part with for what Gain is to be proposed in Prospect what Satisfaction to be receiv'd in Present which can make them amends for the mighty Expectations and Raptures of that fond Notion that by this means God becomes Their Debtor and they merit at His Hands The Formalists are a sort of People entirely devoted of Form Formalists and Shew and Outside and These think themselves at liberty to indulge their Passions and gratifie any though never so unlawful Desires without Check and Controul provided they do not offend against the Letter of the Law nor omit any of those external Observances which are required in their Behaviour and lookt upon as the Rules of Living Here you shall see an old griping Jew that hath brought God knows how many Families to Beggery and Ruine but he hath done no hurt in all this For he never asked for more than his Own at least what he thought so and if upon these Demands Arrests and Suits and Prisons have ensu'd yet he only suffer'd the Law to take its Course and who can blame this honest Man for coming by his Right in the way of Justice But O Good God! how many good things are neglected and how many wicked and barbarous things done under the pretence of Forms and the Protection of the Laws Nothing can be truer than that Extremity of Right is Extremity of Wrong He that makes This the Rule of all his Proceedings and allows himself to take the Advantage of the Law upon every occasion is so far from an honest Man that he is one of the most dangerous Knaves Such Reason was there for that Saying us'd to this purpose God deliver us from the Formalists By Pedants I mean a sort of prating Fellows who first tumble over Books with great Pains and Study and afterwards let fly in all Companies and vend all they have pick'd up in their Reading with as much Impertinence and Ostentation and all this too to turn a Penny and promote their Interest or their Credit by it There are not in the World a Pack of more little Mercenary Wretches more unfit for Business and yet at the same time more forward and presuming and conceited of Themselves Hence perhaps it is that in all Countries and all Languages Pedant and Scholar are Terms of Ridicule and Reproach To do a thing aukwardly is to do it like a Scholar To behave one's self like a Clown and be ignorant of the World is to be a mere Scholar Such Scholars I mean as These I am now treating of for these Reflections do not concern Learned Men in general but such superficial Pretenders to it as are only walking and living Nomenclatures that have a Memory stuff'd full of Other Men's Knowledge but none at all of their Own Their Judgment their Will and their Consciences are not one whit improved by it They are never the wiser nor more prudent never the more dextrous in Business nor the more honest and virtuous for all the Schemes and Institutions they have run thro' They can repeat These but they have not digested them are Masiers
upon and under them beginning at Those which are Private and Domestick are mentioned here with no other Design than to give a distinct View of the several States and Conditions of Men It being the Intention of this Present Book only to Know Man in all his Capacities And therefore a great Part of what might be expected upon the Head of Power and Subjection the Reader must be content to wait for till we come to the Third and last Part of this Treatise Where under the Head of Justice these several Chapters and Capacities will come under our Consideration again and the several Duties and Virtues required upon their Account will be specisied and explained But before we enter upon any of them in particular it may not be amiss to premise somewhat briefly concerning Command and Obedience in general These being the Reciprocal Exercises of the Relations here mentioned The Two Foundations and principal Causes of all that Variety of Circumstances in which Mankind have been already described CHAP. XLV Of Command and Obedience THese as I said are the Ground-work upon which all Humane Society is built And the many different Conditions Professions and Relations that go to making it up do all arise from and depend upon Them These Two are Relative Terms they mutually Regard Produce Preserve and Support each other and are equally necessary in all Companies and Communities of Men but are notwithslanding liable to Envy and Opposition Misrepresentation and Complaint All which are the Natural and Constant Effects even of That without which we are not able to Subsist The discontented Populace would reduce their Sovereign to the Condition of a Car-Man The Ambition of Monarchs would represent him greater than a God In Command is imply'd Dignity Dissiculty These Two commonly go together Goodness Ability and all the Characters and Qualities of Grandeur The Command it self that is The Sufficiency the Courage the Authority and other Qualifications of it are deriv'd from above and the Gift of God * Imperium non â—iâ—i divino fato datur Rom. xiii 1. Empire and Dominion are bestowed by the Divine Appointment and There is no Power but of God says the Apostle to the same Purpose From whence it was that Plato said God did not place some Men over others that is not Mere Men and such as were of the Common Sort and Vulgar Qualisications but the Persons whom he set apart and exalted for Government were such as exceeded others were more sinished eminent for some singular Virtue and distinguishing Gift of Heaven in short were somewhat more than Men and such as former Ages gave the Title of Heroes to Obedience is a Matter of Benesit and Advantage of Ease and Necessity The Obeying well is of the Two more conducive to the Publick Peace and Safety than the Commanding wisely and the Consequences of withstanding and refusing the Commands of our Superiours or the complying with them Imperfectly and Negligently are much more Dangerous and Destructive than Ill and Improper Commands Themselves are or want of Skill to Govern Just as in the Case of a Married Life the Husband and Wife are equally obliged to Constancy of Affection and Fidelity to the Bed and the Words in which they Solemnly engage for This are the very Same for both Parties the same Ceremonies and Formalities to signifie and confirm it but yet the Consequences are by no means equal but the Mischiefs of Disloyalty are incomparably More and Greater in an Adulterous Wife than an Adulterous Husband So likewise Commanding and Obeying are equally Duties and necessary in all manner of Societies which unite Men to one another but yet the Disobedience of the Subject draws much greater Inconveniences after it than the Unskillfulness or the real Faults of the Governour Several States and Kingdoms have held out a long Course and been reasonably Prosperous and Flourishing under not only Ignorant but very Wicked Princes and Magistrates by the mere Force of the Unity and Compliance and ready Obedience of the Subjects Which agrees well with the Answer made by a Wise Man to that Question How it came to pass that the Republick of Sparta was so remarkably Flourishing and Whether it proceeded from the Wisdom and good Conduct of their Governours Nay said he I impute it not to their Princes Commanding well but to the Subjects Obeying well But when the People break their Yoak or throw it off and refuse Obedience there is no Remedy but such a State must be ruin'd and fall to the Ground CHAP. XLVI Of Marriage NOtwithslanding the State of Marriage be antecedent to any other of the greatest Antiquity and the highest Importance The very Foundation and Fountain of all Humane Society for Families first and then Commonwealths spring out of it according to that Observation of Cicero The First Union and nearest Relation is between Man and Wife This is the Beginning of Cities the Nursery and first Plantation of all Publick Communities yet it hath had the Ill-Fortune to be disesteem'd and run down by several Persons of considerable Wit and Character who have traduc'd it as a Condition beneath Men of Understanding and drawn up several formal Objections against it in particular These that follow * Prima Societas in Conjugio est quod principium Urbis seminarium Reipublicae Cic. de Offic. Lib. 1. First of all They tell you the Covenants and Obligations they enter into by it Objections against Marriage are unreasonable and unjust we may call it a Band of Union but it is no better than the Chains and Fetters of a Captive For What Consinement can be more insupportable than That by which a Man stakes himself down and becomes a Slave as long as he lives to Care and Trouble and the Humours of another Person For this is the Consequence if the Couple are unsuccessful and unsuitable in their Tempers That there is no Remedy but a Man must stand by his Bargain be it never so bad and continue wretched without any other possible Cure but Death Now what can be more contrary to Equity and Justice than that the Folly of one half Hour should poyson the whole Term of all his Years to come That a Mistake in one's Choice or perhaps a Trick by which he was Trapann'd into this Condition but to be sure an act of Obedience many times to the Commands of a Parent or Complyance with the Advice of a Friend a submitting one's Own Judgment and Inclination to the Pleasure and Disposal of Others What Reason say They is there that any of these Things shou'd engage a Man to perpetual Misery and Torment Were not the other Noose about the Neck the wiser Choice of the Two and to end one's Days and Troubles immediately by leaping headlong from some Rock into the Sea than thus to launch out into an Eternity of Pains to have a Hell upon Earth and always live and lie by a Storm of Jealousie and Ill-nature of Rage and Madness
vis abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros fasces saevasque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi haberi videtur Lucret. Lib. 5. And hence we fancy unseen Powers in Things Whose Force and Will such strange Confusion brings And spurns and overthrows our greatest Kings Creech To summ up all in a Word The Condition of Sovereign Princes is above all Others incumbred with Difficulties and exposed to Dangers Their Life provided it be Innocent and Virtuous is infinitely laborious and full of Cares If it be Wicked it is then the Plague and Scourge of the World hated and cursed by all Mankind and whether it be the One or the Other it is beset with inexpressible Hazards For the greater any Governour is the less he can be secure the less he can trust to Himself and yet the more need he hath to be secure and not to trust Others but Himself And this may satisfie us how it comes to pass that the being betray'd and abus'd is a thing very natural and easie to happen a common and almost inseparable Consequence of Government and Sovereign Power Of the Duty of Princes see Book III. Chap. 16. CHAP. L. Of Magistrates THere are great Differences and several Degrees of Magistrates with regard both to the Honour and the Power that belongs to them For These are the two considerable Points to be observ'd in distinguishing them and they are entirely independent upon one another They may be and often are each of them single and alone Sometimes Those Persons who are in the most honourable Posts have yet no great Matter of Authority or Power lodg'd in their Hands as the King's Council Privy-Counsellors in some Governments and Secretaries of State Some have but One of these two Qualifications others have Both and all have them in different Degrees but those are properly and in strict speaking Magistrates in whom both Honour and Power meet together Magistrates are in a middle Station and stand between the Prince and Private Men subordinate to the One but superiour to the Other They carry Justice home and hand it down from above but of this they being only the Ministers and Instruments can have no manner of Power inherent in Themselves when the Prince Himself who is the Fountain of Law and Justice is present As Rivers lose their Name and their Force when they have emptied and incorporated their Waters into the Sea and as Stars disappear at the Approach of the Sun so all the Authority of Magistrates in the Presence of the Sovereign whose Deputies and Vicegerents They are is either totally suspended or upon sufferance only And the Case is the same if we descend a little lower and compare the Commissions of Subalterns and inferiour Officers with Those in a higher and more general Jurisdiction Those that are in the same Commission are all upon the Level there is no Power or Superiority There over one another all that they can do is to consult together and be assisting to each other by concurrence or else to obstruct and restrain each other by opposing what is doing and preventing its being done All Magistrates judge condemn and command either according to the Form and express Letter of the Law and then the Decisions they give and the Sentences they pronounce are nothing else but a putting the Law in execution or else they proceed upon Rules of Equity and reasonable Consideration and then this is call'd the Duty of the Magistrate Magistrates cannot alter their own Decrees nor correct the Judgment they have given without express Permission of the Sovereign upon Penalty of being adjudged Falsifiers of the Publick Records They may indeed revoke their own Orders or they may suspend the Execution of them for some time as they shall see Occasion But when once a Cause is brought to an Issue and Sentence given upon a full and fair Hearing they have no Power to retract that Judgment nor to mend or try it over again without fresh Matter require it Of the Duty of Magistrates See Book III. Chap. 17. CHAP. LI. Lawgivers and Teachers IT is a Practice very usual with some Philosophers and Teachers to prescribe such Laws and Rules as are above the Proportions of Virtue and what the Condition of Humane Nature will suffer very few if any at all to come up to They draw the Images much bigger and more beautiful than the Life or else set us such Patterns of Difficult and Austere Virtue as are impossible for us to equal and so discourage many and render the Attempt it self Dangeous and of ill Consequence to some These are merely the Painter's Fancy like Plato's Republick Sir Thomas More 's Utopia Cicero's Orator or Horace his Poet. Noble Characters indeed and a Collection of acknowledged Excellencies in Speculation but such as the World wants living Instances of The Best and most perfect Law-giver who in marvelous Condescension was pleased himself to be sensible of our Infirmities hath shewed great Tenderness and Compassion for them and wisely consider'd what Humane Nature would bear He hath suited all Things so well to the Capacities of Mankind that those Words of His are True even in this Respect also My Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Now where these Powers are not duly consulted the Laws are first of all Unjust for some Proportion ought to be observ'd between the Command and the Obedience the Duty imposed and the Ability to discharge it I do not say These Commands should not exceed what is usually done but what is possible to be done for what Vanity and Folly is it to oblige People to be always in a Fault and to cut out more Work than can ever be finished Accordingly we may frequently observe that these rigid Stretchers of Laws are the First that expose them to publick Scorn by their own Neglect and like the Pharisees of old lay heavy Burdens upon others which they themselves will not so much as touch with one of their Fingers These Examples are but too obvious in all Professions This is the Way of the World Men direct one Thing and practise another and That not always through Defect or Corruption of Manners but sometimes even out of Judgment and Principle too Another Fault too frequent is That many Persons are exceeding Scrupulous and Nice in Matters which are merely Circumstantial or free and indifferent in their own Nature even above what they express themselves in some of the most necessary and substantial Branches of their Duty such as the Laws of God or the Light of Nature have bound upon them This is much such another Extravagance as lending to other People while we neglect to pay our own Debts A Pharisaical Ostentation which our Heavenly Master so severely exposes the Jewish Elders for and is at the Bottom no better than Hypocrise a mocking of God and Miserable deluding of their own Souls Seneca indeed hath said something concerning the Impracticableness of some Duties which if rightly observ'd is of
Reward of a Man's performing commendably that which is his proper Business to do Thus we find Reason and Common Sense determine us in publick Theatres which are but so many Images in little of this Great Theatre of the Universe The Condition and Splendor of the Character is not enquired into nor weighs at all with our Judgments but He who upon the Stage plays the Part of a Servant or Bussoon if he do it well and to the Life meets with as much Applause as if he had represented a General or an Emperour And he that cannot work in Gold if he shew the Perfection of his Art and carve the Postures and Proportions well in Copper or in Plaister is reputed a good Statuary because this Excellence depends not upon the Fineness or Value of the Materials but in the Skill shewed upon them But yet it seems more reasonable to think that Honour is an Advantage for something more Noble and Sublime than Ordinary and that no Actions but such only which have Difficulty or Danger in them can make just Pretensions to it Those that are but just what they ought to be such as our respective Stations require and proceeding from a Sense of Obligation and Duty cannot aspire to so great Worth nor put in for so ample a Reward a Reward which is disparaged by being made Common or Ordinary and not suited to all Degrees of Persons and Performances Thus every virtuous and chaste Wife and every Man of Integrity and good Conduct is not therefore a Person of Honour For there must go more than Probity to the denominating them so there must be Pains and Difficulty and Danger nay and some will tell you there must be somewhat of general Good and Advantage to the Publick to justifie that Character in its full and true Extent Let a Man's Actions be never so Good never so Useful if they be private and the Advantage redound to himself alone another sort of Payment belongs to them They will have the Approbation of his own Conscience they will procure the Love and Favour and good Word of his Neighbours and Acquaintance they will ensure his Safety and put him under the Protection of the Law but except the Influence and Advantage of them be large and diffusive they cannot come up to Honour for Honour is a publick Thing and implyes more of Dignity and comprehends Splendor and Noise Admiration and Common Fame in the Nature and Notion of it Others add farther that an Honourable Action must not be a part of our Duty but perfectly free and supererogating for if Men were obliged to it all â—retension to Honour is lost The Desire of Honour and Glory and a Sollicitous seeking the Approbation and good Opinion of Others is a very vicious violent and powerful Passion The Inordinacy whereof hath been sufficiently explained and proved already in the Chapter concerning Ambition Chap. xxii But as Bad as it is in it self it does great Service to the Publick For it restrains Mens Extravangancies and keeps them within the Bounds of Decency and Duty it awakens their sleeping Powers shakes off Sloth and kindles in them generous Desires inspires great Thoughts and Glorious Actions Not that it is much for their Credit to be acted and invigorated by so corrupt a Principle but rather a Testimony and strong Evidence of the Weakness and Poverty of our Nature and Condition who are thus forced to use and accept clipt and counterfeit Money in Payment when Standard and true Sterling cannot be had But for the Determining precisely in what Cases and how far this Passion is excusable and where it is to blame and must be rejected and disallow'd and for the making it manifest Book III. In the Virtue of Temperance Ch. XLII that Honour is not the proper Recompence of Virtue I must refer you to those Distinctions and Discourses upon it which will occur hereafter Of the Marks of Honour there is great Variety but the most desirable and charming are Those where there are no Mixtures of private Gain and Interest such as nothing can be drawn out of nor any Share lie in Common for the Advantage of a Vicious Man or of such low and inferiour People as shall pretend to serve the Publick by mean and dishonourable Offices The less of Advantage they bring with them the more Valuable they are And accordingly we find the Ancients infinitely fond of and with all their Industry and Pains aspiring after those which had nothing else to recommend them but purely their being Marks of Distinction and Characteristical Notes of Honour and Virtue Of this Nature in the several Republicks of old were the Garlands of Laurel and Oaken-Leaves and so are the particular Bearings in Coats of Arms at this Day added to the former Charges of the Field upon some special piece of Service distinct Habits and Robes the Prerogative of some Sirname as Africanus to Scipio and the like Precedence and Place in publick Assemblies and Orders of Knighthood It may also fall out that when a Man's Deserts are Notorious and Celebrated it shall be more for his Honour not to have these Ensigns and Marks than to have them And therefore Cato said well that it would make more for the Glory of his Name and Virtues that People should ask why the City had not erected a Statue to his Memory in the Forum than that they should enquire why they had done it CHAP. LXI Of Learning LEarning is without all Dispute a Noble and Beautiful Ornament an Instrument of exceeding use when in the Hands of one that hath the Skill to use it aright But what Place and Proportion it deserves in our Esteem is a Matter not so generally agreed upon And here as in all Cases of the like Nature Men fall into Extremes and are to blame in both Some in overvaluing and Others in disparaging and undervaluing it Some run it up to that Extravagant Height that they will not allow any other Advantage to come near or be thought comparable to it They look upon it as the Supreme Happiness a Ray and Efflux of the Divinity they hunt after it with Eagerness and insatiable Appetite with vast expence and indefatigable Labour and Pains and are content to part with Ease and Health and every Thing in exchange for it Others as much diminish and despise it treat Those with Scorn who make it their Business and Profession And when we have observed this of either side I suppose my Reader will make no Difficulty to allow that a Moderation between both is best most safe most just and reasonable I for my own part were I to execute the Herald's Office in this Dispute should think that Place is without all question due to Integrity and Prudence to Health and Wisdom and Virtue nay See Book III. ch 14. I should not scruple to give precedence to Skill and Dexterity in Business But then for Dignity and Noble Descent and Military Valour I
disability is Fear and Phlegm Coldness and Listlessness There is oftentimes not the least of Real Conviction or any Principle of Conscience in it And sure a feeble Body is a very unfit Conveyance to carry us to God and drive us to Repentance and our Duty For true Repentance is somewhat very different from all this it is a particular Gift of God by which we grow wise in good earnest a Remorse which checks our hottest Career even in the midst of Springhtliness and Courage and this is what must be created and cherished in us not by the want of opportunities or of power to use them not by the weakness of a Body broken and worn out and grown unserviceable to Vice any longer but by the Strength of Reason and Thought and the better consideration of a Resolute and Vigorous Mind For nothing more argues Greatness of Soul than the Correcting our former Follies and Steadiness in a new Course of Life notwithstanding all the Difficulties and Discouragements of an entire Reformation Now One fruit of true Repentance is a frank and conscientious Confession of one's Faults Of Confessing and Excusing Faults This is usually the Sign the Consequence and in some Cases so necessary a Qualification that all Professions of Penitence without it are Hypocritical and vain It is with the Mind in these Respects as with our Bodies For as in Bodily Distempers there are two sorts of Remedies made use of One that make a perfect Cure by going to the very Root and removing the Cause of the Disease Another which only sooth the Patient consult his present Ease and are properly termed Quieting Medicines and as in this case that former Application is much more painful but withal more powerful and effectual and better for the person than the latter So likewise in the Wounds and Sicknesses of the Soul the true Remedy is of a searching and a cleansing quality and This is such an Acknowledgment of our Faults as is full of Seriousness and Shame a being content to take the Scandal and the Folly of them upon our selves But there is another deceitful Remedy which only covers and disguises them its design is not to heal so much as to conceal the Disease and this consists in Extenuations and Excuses from whence we commonly say That Wickedness makes it self a Garment to cover its own Shame This is a Remedy invented by the Author of Evil himself and it answers the Malice of his Nature and his purposes by rendring the Party so much the worse and obstructing the Methods of his Recovery Such were the Shifts and Shufflings such the Covering of their Nakedness which the First Transgressors made the Fig-leaves and the Excuses were both alike and made the Matter but so much the worse while they laboured to mend it We should therefore by all means learn to accuse our selves and get that necessary Conquest over our Pride and Self-love as frankly and fully to confess the very worst of our Thoughts and Actions and not allow our selves in any reserves of this kind For besides that this would beget a brave and generous Openness of Soul it would likewise be a wonderful Check and effectual Preservative against all such Actions and Thoughts as are not fit to be publickly known and what a Man would be ashamed of if they were so For He that obliges himself to tell all he does will be sure to take care not to do any thing which shall need to be concealed But alas the Common Practice of this naughty World is the direct contrary to the Advice I am giving Every Man is discreet and modest and secret in the Confessing but bold and free from all restraint in the Committing part For as indeed the Confidence and Hardiness of the Crime would be very much curbed and abated so likewise would it be in some measure compensated by an equal frankness and hardiness in the accusing of our Selves and acknowledging what we have done amiss For whatever Indecency there may be in doing an ill thing not to dare to confess our selves in the wrong is ten thousand times more odious and base To this purpose we may observe that there are several Instances of Persons eminent for Piety and Learning such as St. Augustin Origen Hippocrates and the like who have taken pains to disabuse the World and to publish Books wherein they confess and retract their own Mistakes and erroneous Opinions and well were it if People could be brought to such a Degree of Sincerity as to do the same in point of Morals and Misbehaviour Whereas now they oftentimes incur a greater Guilt by endeavouring to hide and smother a less for a publick premeditated Lye seems to Carry some Aggravations along with it which render it more abominable and more Vicious than some other Facts committed in secret though these be such as in their own Nature are apt to raise a greater Abhorrence and Detestation in us All This does but inflame the Reckoning it either makes the first Fault worse or adds a fresh one to it and in either case the Guilt of the Man is not abated but increased and whether we count this Increase by way of Addition or of Multiplication the Matter comes all to one CHAP. IV. The Second Fundamental Point of Wisdom The Fixing to one's self a particular End and then chalking out some determinate Track or Course of Life which may be proper for leading us to that End AFter having spoken so largely concerning this first Fundamental Point the Real and Hearty Sincerity upon which Wisdom must be built we are now led to say some small matter of the Second Predisposition which is also necessary in order to living prudently and well And That is the Pitching upon and Drawing out to one's self some determinate Method or Course of Life that we may not live at large and at random but betake our selves to some particular sort of Business or Profession which may be proper and convenient for us My meaning is such as a Man 's own Temper and Natural Disposition qualifies him for and applies it self chearfully to with this Caution only that while we follow our own Nature in particular there be a constant Regard had to the Dictates of Human Nature in general which is and ought to be the Great the General the Governing Mistress of us all as you were told in the last Chapter For Wisdom is a gentle and regular Management of our Soul that moves and acts in due measure and proportion and consists in a constant Evenness of Life and Consistency of Behaviour It must then of necessity be a matter of very great momment This no eaâ—â— matter to manage our selves well in making this Choice with regard to which People behave themselves very differently and act with great confusion and perplexity by reason of the great variety of Considerations and Motives which they are influenced with and These many times such as interfere and confound one another
this Little or to express the thing in terms every whit as true though more acceptable A moderate Proportion and Sufficiency of Mind is the thing that brings Wisdom and Satisfaction This is what will content a Wise Man and keep him always in a State of Ease and Tranquillity Upon the full Conviction of this Truth it is that I have chosen for my Motto those two significant words Paix Peu Quiet and a Little A Fool thinks nothing enough he is sickle and irresolute knows not what he would have nor when to have done and consequently can never be contented because he never knows what would satisfy him Such a Man is well enough represented by the Story Plutarch tells of the Moon which came to her Mother and begged she would give her some New Cloaths that would sit her but received this Answer That such a Garment was impossible to be made for she was sometimes very Big and at other times very Little and continually Increasing or Decreasing and how then could she expect to be sitted with a Garment which must always be the same when her own Body was so changeable that its Bulk was never two days together the same 2. The next Point is That our Desires and Pleasures be Natural and this in truth carries great Affinity and Resemblance to the former For we cannot but observe that there are Two sorts of Pleasures Some of which are Natural and These are Just and Lawful They have a foundation in our very Temper and Frame and are imparted not to Men only but are exactly the same in Brutes These Appetites and the Gratifications of them are short and bounded in a narrow compass it is an easy matter to see to the End of them Now with regard to such no Man is or can be poor because all Circumstances and all Places furnish enough to satisfy these Inclinations For Nature is Regular and Abstemious a very little contents her and not only so but she is very well provided too and puts into every Man's hand as much as will suffice to support him Thus Seneca observes * Parabile est quod Natura desiderat expositum Ad manum est quod sat est That the Sustenance Nature requires is always ready and any-where to be had and it is very easy to come at enough for the supply of our Necessities For that which Nature requires for the preservation of its Being is in reality as much as we need and sure we ought to acknowledge it a particular Happiness and a special Favour that Those things which we stand in need of for the support of Life as they must be had or we perish so they are easy to be had and no body need perish for want of them and that the matter is so contrived that whatever is hard to be obtained we can be without it and suffer no great Prejudice If we lay aside Fancy and Passion and follow Nature and Necessity we are always rich and always safe for these will direct us to such pursuits as all the malice of Fortune cannot defeat To this sort of Desires we may add too those others which regard the Customs of the Age and Place we live in and the Circumstances and Quality of our Persons and Fortunes For I can easily allow that They should be comprehended under this Head too though it must be confess'd that they do not come up to the same degree of Necessity with the former If we will speak strictly and consider things according to their utmost rigour These are neither Natural nor Necessary but if they be not absolutely so yet they follow close in order and are next to Those that are They do indeed exceed the bounds of Nature which hath done her part when she maintains us in Any Condition but yet we are not tied to all that Exactness but are permitted to enlarge our Desires farther and may without any breach of Virtue desire a Competency in proportion to the Rank Providence hath placed us in We may I say desire and endeavour this fairly and reasonably but yet with this Reserve that it is against Justice and Reason both to murmur and be discontented if we be disappointed in our Hopes or deprived of the Possession of it For These are Additional Advantages and the Effect of Bounty all that Nature hath bound her self to is the Subsistence of our Persons and we have no Right to depend upon more But we must not omit to observe that there are as I hinted before another sort of Pleasures and Desires which we may truly call Unnatural because they are quite beside and beyond the Bounds already mentioned With These Nature hath nothing at all to do she knows them not They are of a Bastard Race Fancy and Opinion give them birth Art and Industry Cherish and Improve them They are superfluous and studied Follies and must not be allowed so mild a Term as Appetites but are most truly and in the worst sense of the word Passions I know not well indeed what Title to distinguish them by they are so fantastical that it is not easy to find a Name for them but call them if you will Lustings Longings Any thing that expresses the Whimsy and Impatience of a wild and wanton Mind These we have therefore spoken to already when in the First Book we treated of the Passions at large all that is necessary to be added here concerning them is only That the Greatest part of what Men call Desires are such as These and that They are the proper source of that Misery and Fretfulness we see Mankind so generally disquieted by and That a Wise man will think himself concerned to distinguish his Virtue in no one Instance more than in keeping himself absolutely and entirely clear from any Vanities of this kind 3. See Book III. Ch. 40. The Third Qualification requisite upon these Occasions is That all our Pleasures and Desires be Moderate by which I mean that they should be guilty of no Excess in any respect whatsoever Now This is a Rule of a very large Extent and capable of being parcelled out into a great many subdivisions but I think All of them may be reduced to these Two That neither first our Neighbour nor secondly our Selves suffer by them When I mention other People's Sufferings I design by it that we should indulge our Selves in nothing that may any way give any person disquiet by scandalizing him or ministring just cause of Resentment nothing that may contribute to his loss or prejudice by hurting his Person Estate or Reputation By Our Own suffering I mean that we should have all due regard to our Health our Leisure our Business and particularly the Offices of our Calling and Capacity our Honour and above all our Duty And He that is content with being subject to these Restraints and takes care not to break in upon any of the forementioned Boundaries I admit to be such a one as exercises what
Satisfaction and breaking Prison So far therefore as this Desire is consistent with Patience and Resignation to the Divine Will so far it is truly Magnanimous and Commendable and no farther To that Question What Law does this offend against it is easy to answer Against the Laws of God and of Nature against the Condition of Mankind against our Duty to the Publick against the Sixth Commandment in particular which no more argues us Guiltless when we Kill our Selves because chiefly designed to restrain us from Killing Others than it can be proved from the Seventh that we do not Sin against our own Bodies when we Invade another's Bed The Love of our selves is proposed as the standard of our Love to others and the Rule must be supposed as perfect at least as the thing to be regulated by it If there be no Prohibition against this in express words it was because none was thought needful and sure it is no excuse to say That no Law is violated in Terms When the Case was such as needed no Law As to the other part of the Argument That Men may dispose of themselves as they please and a willing Person can receive no Injury it supposes an Absolute Right to dispose of our selves such as no Creature hath with respect to God and Providence and no Man can have with regard to the several Relations and Dependencies in which he is engaged And if so little can be said for this Horrid Fact when the most favourable Cases are put How detestable and impious must it needs be when Disgrace or Poverty Disappointments and Crosses Raging Passions and Repining at Providence prevail with Men to commit it For these are such Motives as no body ever undertook to justify and the Stoicks themselves who went the farthest in this matter yet stopp'd short of these and to speak the Truth even wavered in all the rest A more full account whereof I refer my Reader for to Lipsii Manuduc ad Stoic Philosoph Lib. III. Cap. XXIII XXIV and for a larger discussion of this whole matter to Spanhem Disput Theolog. De Lib. Apocryph Authoritate Disp XIII XIV and Bishop Taylor 1. De Civ Cap XXVI Ductor Dubitant Book III. Chap. 2. Rule 3. From all which compared St. Augustin's determination I doubt not will seem most reasonable His exceptis quos vel Lex justa vel ipse Fons Justitiae Deus jubet occidi quisquis Hominem vel seipsum vel quemlibet occiderit Homicidij crimine innectitur Those only excepted whom either a just Law or God himself who is the Fountain of all Justice shall command to put to Death whosoever shall kill any Person be it himself or any other Man he becomes thereby guilty of Murther and is Answerable for his Blood Of WISDOM The Third BOOK In which Particular Rules are laid down and Directions for the several Parts and Offices of Wisdom branched out under Four General Heads as they have relation and are reducible to the Four Cardinal Virtues The PREFACE OVR Design in this Last Part of the present Treatise being to give the Reader the most particular Instructions we can possibly and so to follow and compleat the General Rules of Wisdom touched upon in the Book foregoing the most Convenient and Methodical way of proceeding seemed to me to range all I have to say under the Four great Moral Virtues of Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance Since these are of a comprehension so large that it is almost impossible to instance in any Duty of Morality or Practical Religion which is not directly contained or may very fairly be reduced within the compass of them Prudence supplies the place of a Director and Governor it instructs Vs in other Virtues and is the Guide of our Life and all the Actions of it though indeed it be more peculiarly concerned in matters of Dealing and good Conduct and its strict proper Notion is Dexterity in the Management of Business Now as This regards Actions so Justice which is the next is chiefly concerned about Persons for the Province of Justice is to render to every Man his due Fortitude and Temperance have respect to the Events of Human Life the Prosperous and Adverse such as move our Passions and are matter of Joy or Grief of Pleasure or Pain to us Now it is plain that these Three Persons and Actions and Contingencies extend to all the parts of Human Life and our Condition and Dealings in the World cannot possibly oblige us to be conversant with or employ'd about any thing whatsoever which is not comprehended under One or Other of these Considerations CHAP. I. Of Prudence in general THere is great Reason It s Excellence why Prudence should have the first and most honourable place alotted to it because it is really the Queen of Virtues the general Superintendent that presides over and gives directions to all the Rest Where this is wanting there can be no such thing as Goodness or Beauty Propriety or Decency It is the very Salt of Life the Lustre and Ornament of all our Actions That which recommends them to the Eye and gives them that Seasoning and Relish which is necessary 'T is the Square and Rule by which all our Affairs ought to be measured and adjusted and in one Word This is the Art of Acting and Living as the Science of Physick is the Art of Health Prudence consists in the Knowledge and the Choice of those things Definition which it concerns us to desire or to decline It is a just and true Valuation first and then a picking and culling out the best It is the Eye that sees every thing and conducts our Motions and Steps accordingly The Parts or Offices of it are Three and these all naturally consequent and in order after one another The First is Consulting and Deliberating well the Second Judging and Resolving well the Third Managing and Executing those Resolutions well It is very deservedly esteemed an Universal Virtue 'T is Universal because of a Comprehension so general so vast that all manner of Actions and Accidents belonging to Humane Life are within its Extent and Jurisdiction and This not only considering them in the gross but each of them singly and in particular So that This is as infinite as all those Individuals put together You cannot wonder if the next Property I assign to it be that of Difficult Difficult the infinite Compass I have already mentioned must needs make it so For Particulars as they cannot be positively numbred so they cannot be fully understood It is a standing Rule * Si quae siniri non possâ—nt extra sapiâ—ntiam sunt That whatever is infinite exceeds the Bounds of Wisdom But that which adds yet more to the Hardship is the great Uncertainty and Inconstancy of Human Affairs which is still rendred more intricate and unaccountable by the inexpressible Variety of Accidents Circumstances Appurtenances Dependencies and Consequences the Difference of Times and
Learning Let us next enquire whether we can find Learning destitute of Wisdom and the Instances of this Part are no less obvious and numerous than the other Do but take notice of great part of the Men who make Learning their Study and Profession whose Heads are full of Aristotle and Cicero the Philosophers and the School-Men Are there any People in the World more aukward and uncouth in Business Is it not a common Proverb when we see a Man Odd and Clumsie to say He is a mere Scholar One would almost think that they had pored away their Senses and that excess of Knowledge had stunn'd and stupify'd them How many are there who would have made excellent Persons had they not sunk and dwindled into Pedantry and had been wiser Men if they had traded upon their own Natural Stock and never sat down to Books at all and how many of their own Brethren do we see who never had that Education and prove much shrewder Men and better Contrivers more quick and expert in all manner of Business Take one of your Nice Disputants or quaint Rhetoricians bring him into a debate at the next Corporation where any Matter of Government or Civil Interest is under Deliberation put him upon speaking to the Point and he shall Blush and Tremble turn Pale and Cough and Hem But it is Odds if he say any Thing to the Purpose At last perhaps you shall have a formal Harangue some Definitions of Aristotle or Quotations out of Tully with an Ergo at the End of them And yet at the same Meeting you shall have a dull plodding Alderman that chalks up all his Acounts behind the Door and can neither write nor read and yet this Fellow by seeing and knowing the World shall out of his own Observation and Experience come to better Resolutions and propose more feasible and proper Expedients than the subtilest and most refin'd Student of them all Were Matters indeed so managed that Men turned their Speculation into Practice and took Care to apply their Reading to the Purposes of Human Life the Advantage of Learning would be unspeakable and we see how illustriously such Persons shine in the World And therefore what I have said upon this Occasion is not to be stretched to the Prejudice of Learning in general but only to such a false Opinion of it as depends upon This alone for the most eligible and Only Qualification of the Mind of Man and so rests upon it and buries it in Inactivity This the foregoing Instances shew is frequently done and a very vulgar Error and consequently they prove the Point for the Illustration of which alone they are produced and that is That this Distinction between Wisdom and Learning is not Imaginary but grounded upon a real Differece and that in Fact these Two do not always go Hand in Hand nor meet in the same Person This I design to make appear more fully in the following Paragraphs of this Chapter for I have already promised not to content my self with urging bare matter of Fact but likewise to enter into the Reason of the Thing An Enquiry which I am the more Zealous and look upon my self obliged to satisfie that so I may prevent any Offence being taken at the former Reflection and cut off any Suspicious which some might be provoked to entertain concerning me as if I were an Enemy to Learning and thought it Insignificant and Despicable There is I confess ground sufficient for this Question why Wisdom and Learning should not go together for it is a very odd Case and seems foreign to the Reason of the Thing that a Man should not be very much the Wiser for being a better Scholar since Learning and Study is without Controversie the ready Road and a most Excellent Instrument and Preparation to Wisdom Take any Two Men equal in all other Respects let the One be a Man of Letters the Other not so 'T is plain He who hath employed his Time in Study ought to be a great deal Wiser than the other and it will be expected from him that he should prove so For he hath all the Advantages that the Unletter'd Man hath a Natural Capacity Reason and Understanding and he hath a great deal more besides too the Additional Improvements of Reading which have furnish'd him with the Examples Directions Discourses and Determinations of the Greatest Men that ever were in the World Must not this Person then be Wiser more Apprehensive and Judicious of a more exalted Virtue and greater Address than the other who is altogether destitute of such Helps Since he hath the same Stock to set up with and all these foreign Assistances acquired and transported to him from all the Quarters of the Universe besides Since as one says very truly The Natural Advantages when joyn'd and strengthened by the Accidental make a Noble and Complete Composition And yet in despight of all our Reasonings to the contrary Experience and undeniable Matter of Fact give us Ten thousand Instances of it's being otherwise Now the true Reason and satisfactory Answer to this Doubt stands really thus That the Methods of Instruction are not well ordered Books and Places of Publick Education furnish Men with admirable Matter but they do not imbibe and use it as they should do Hence it is that vast Improvements in Knowledge turn to so very slender Account They are Poor in the midst of Plenty and like Tantalus in the Fable starved with the Meat at their Mouths When they apply themselves to Reading the Thing they principally aim at is to learn Words more than Things or at least they content themselves with a very slight and superficial Knowledge of Things and He is reputed the best Scholar who hath made the largest Collections and cramm'd his Memory fullest Thus they are I earned but not with any Care of polishing their Minds and forming their Judgments or growing practically Wise Like a Man that puts his Bread in his Pocket and not in his Stomach and if he go on Thus he may be famish'd for want of Sustenance notwithstanding both Pockets are full Thus they continue Fools with a vast Treasure of Wisdom in their Brains They study for Entertainment or Ostentation or Gain or Applause and not for their own true Benefit and the becoming Useful to the World They are living Repertories and Common-place Books and would be rare Compilers of Precedents and Reports Cicero they tell you or Aristotle or Plato say Thus and Thus but all this while They say not one Tittle of their own Observation They are guilty of Two great Faults One is that they do not apply what they read to themselves nor make it their own by Meditation Reflection and Use so that all this while they have not advanc'd one Step in Virtue nor are One whit more Prudent more Resolute and Confirm'd in Goodness and thus their Scholarship is never digested and incorporated with the Soul but swims and floats about in the Brain
Proverb That he who never asks Questions will never be a Wise Man that is If a Man's Mind be not kept stirring it will rust and mould and nothing but constant Use and Exercise can cleanse and brighten it Now whatever of this Kind falls under his Consideration should be managed to the best Advantage applyed and brought home to himself discoursed and advised upon with others and that whether it be somewhat already past to discover what Defects there were and which were the false Steps in it or whether it be somewhat future that he may govern himself regularly be warned of any Hazards and Dangers that attend what he goes about and prevent Miscarriages and Inconvenience by growing wise in Time Children should never be left to their own idle Fancies to dare and trifle alone For their Age and Capacity not being of it self able to furnish Noble Matter of Thought will certainly dwindle into Vanity and feed upon Impertinencies and Whimsies of a Size with their Imaginations They should therefore be kept in constant Employment to exercise and give them a Manly Way of thinking and particularly to beget and excite this inquisitive Humor and eager Appetite of Knowledge which will be sure to keep their Souls always awake and busie and by inspiring them with a Noble Emulation be Eternally putting forward to fresh and larger Attainments And this Curiosity if qualified as I have here described it will neither be Vain and Fruitless in it self nor Troublesome or Unmannerly to any they converse with Thirdly Another necessary Care in the Instructing of Children is To frame and mould their Minds after the Model of Universal Nature taking the World at large for our Pattern to make the Universe their Book and whatever Subject lies before them to draw it in sull Proportion and represent the several Opinions and Customs which do or ever have prevailed with regard to it The Greatest and most Excellent Persons have always had the freest and most enlarged Souls For this indeed strengthens and confirms the Mind delivers it from Wonder and Surprise and fixes it in Reason and Resolution which is the highest Point of Wisdom This Particular and the Benefits of it as well as the Absurdity and great Uneasinesses of the Contrary hath been so largely insisted upon heretofore See Book II. Ch. 2. that I shall omit what might be said more upon it here adding only this Observation That such a large and universal Spirit must be the Business and Acquest of early Application and Diligence in the Master before the Prepossessions of his Native Country and Customs have taken too fast Hold upon his Scholar and when he is ripe for Travelling and Conversation that which will contribute most to the perfecting him in this Disposition is going abroad conferring much with Foreigners or if that cannot be yet informing himself at Home by reading such Books as give Account of Travels into remote Parts of the World and contain the Histories of all Nations Lastly Children ought to be taught betimes not to swallow things at a venture nor receive any Opinions upon Trust and the bare Authority of the Person who delivers them but to seek and expect all the Evidence that can be had before they yield their Assent The contrary Easiness of Mind is to suffer one's self to be led about hood-winked to renounce the Use of Reason quite and submit to the Condition of Brutes whose Business is only to know their Driver and go as they are directed Let every Thing therefore be fairly propounded let the Arguments on each Side be stated and set in their true Light and then let him choose as Judgment shall determine him If he be at a Loss which Side he should incline to let him deliberate longer and doubt on such a distrust and uncertainty of Mind is an excellent Sign more Safe more Promising than a rash Confidence which resolves Right or Wrong and thinks it self always sure though it can give no reason why The Perplexities and Dilemmas of a cautious and considerate Person are much to be preferred before even the true Determinations that are made in a Heat and by Chance But then as the Youth should be taught always to practise upon his own Judgment so should he learn likewise to have a Modest Diffidence of his Abilities and when any Difficulty interposes or the Resolution is of great Consequence to consult those who are proper to be advised with and never venture to come to a peremptory Determination merely upon the Strength of his own reasoning For As the being able to examine and compare Things is One Argument of Sufficiency so is the calling in Help Another and the refusing to rest upon one's own single Opinion is no Reflexion upon our Wisdom No Disparagement to what we think alone but rather the quite contrary Next after the Soul of Children Parents are obliged to take Care of their Bodies Advice for the Body and this is not to be deferr'd any more than the other It hath no distinct and separate Seasons but must go along with the Former and only differs in This that tho' we ought to express a constant Care and Concern for both yet we are not obliged to have that Concern equal for both But since Nature hath united these Two into One and the same Person we must contribute to the Good of each by our joynt Endeavours Now the Care of the Body will be most profitably Exprest not in the Indulging its Appetites or treating it tenderly as the Generality of those who pretend to resined Education do but by utterly abandoning all Softness and effeminate Nicety in Cloths and Lodging Meat and Drink to give it plain and hearty Nourishment a simple and wholesome Diet considering the Convenience of Health and Digestion more than the Pleasures and Delicacy of the Palate To support it in a Condition of Strength capable of supporting Labour and Hardship and accordingly inure it to Heat and Cold Wind and Weather That so the Muscles and Nerves as well as the Soul may be fortified for Toil and by That for Pain For the Custom of the Former hardens us against the Latter In a Word to keep the Body Vigorous and Fresh and the Appetite and Constitution indifferent to all forts of Meats and Tasts For the several Parts of this Advice are by no Means so insignificant as they may seem It were enough to say that they conduce mightily to the preserving and confirming our Health but That is not all for the Benefit extends beyond our own Persons and the Publick is the better for them as they enable and qualifie Men for the enduring Fatigues and so fit them for Business and the Service of their Country It is now Time to apply our selves to the Third Branch of this Duty Directions for Manâ—ners which contains a Parents Carey of his Childrens Manners in which Soul and Body both are very highly concern'd Now this Care consists of Two
like seed for a plentiful and joyful harvest at the general Resurrection the considence in the promises of him who cannot lye These inspired the noble Army of Martyrs and these are able to support all their followers who have a title to the same expectations and are heirs through hope to the same Kingdom And all the Stoical Philosophy put together cannnot minister the hundredth part of that Consolation which those two short Sentences of S. Paul do No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Heb. 12.11 Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby And We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved 2 Cor. 5.1 we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens CHAP. XXIII Of Captivity or Imprisonment THis Affliction is very inconsiderable in comparison of the former and the conquest of it will prove exceeding easie to them upon whom the prescriptions against Sickness and Pain have found their desired effect For Men in those circumstances have the addition of this misfortune confined to their houses their Beds tied to a Rack and loaded with fetters and this very consinement is a part of their complaint though the least part But however we will say one word or two of it Now what is it that Captivity or Confinement imprisons The Body that which is it self the cover and the Prison of the Soul but the Mind continues at large and at its own disposal in despight of all the World How can it indeed be sensible of any inconvenience from a Prison since even there it ranges abroad as freely as gaily takes as noble as sublime as distant slights if not much more so than it does in other circumstances The Locks and Bars and Walls of a Prison are much too remote to have any power of fastening it down or shutting it in they must needs be so since even the Body it self which touches upon is linked to and hangs like a Clog fastened to it is not able to keep it down or six it to any determinate place And that Man will make a jest of all these artisicial and wretched these slight and childish enclosures who hath learnt how to preserve his native liberty and to use the privilege and prerogative of his condition which is to be confined no where no not even in this World Thus Tertullian derides the cruelty of the Persecutors and animates his Brethren by relling that a * Christianus etiam extra carcerem saeculo renunciavit in Carcere etiam carceri nihil interest ubi siris in saeculo qui extra sacalam estis Auseramus carceris nomen secessam vocemus â—â—si corpus includitur caro detinetur omnia Spiritui patent totum hominem animus circumfert quo vult transfert Christian even when out of Prison had shaken hands with the World that he desied and was above it and that when under Confinement the case was the same with his Gael too What mighty matter is it in what part of the World you are whose principle it is not to be of the World Let us change that name of so ill a sound and instead of a Prison call it a retreat where when you are shut up the slesh may be kept to a narrow room but all doors are open to the Spirit all places free to the Mind this carries the whole Man along with it and leads him abroad whithersoever it will Prisons have given very kind entertainment to several valuable and holy and great Men to some a Gaol hath been a refuge from destruction and the Walls of it so many fortifications and entrenchments against that ruine which had certainly been the consequence of liberty nay some have chosen these places that there they might enjoy a more perfect liberty and be farther from the noise and clutter and confusion of the World He that is under Look and Key is so much safer and better guarded And a Man had better live thus than be crampt and constrained by those Fetters and hand-cuffs which the World is full of such as the places of publick business and concourse the Palaces of Princes the conversation of great Men the tumult and hurry of Trade the vexation and expence of Law-suits the envy and ill-nature the peevishness and passions of common Men will be continually clapping upon us * Si recogiâ—emus iâ—sum magls mundum carcerem esse exisse nos è carcere quam in carcerem introisse intelligemus Majores tenebras habet mundus quae hominum praecordia excaecant graviores caâ—enas induit quae ipsas animas coustringunt pejores immunditias expirant libidines hominum plures postremo reos coutinet universum genus hominum If we do but reflect says the same Author again that the World it self is no better than a Prison we shall imagine our selves rather let out of a Gaol than put into one The darkness by which the World blinds Man's minds is thicker and grosser the chains by which it clogs and binds their affeclions heavier the silth and stanch of Men's lewdness and beastly conversation more offensive and the Criminals in it more numerous for such in truth are all Mankind There have been several instances of persons who by the benefit of a Prison have been preserved from the malice of their eâ—emies and escaped great miseries and dangers Some have made it a studious retirement composed Books there or laid a foundation of great vertue and much learning so that the uneasiness of the flesh hath been a gain to the spirit and the confinement of the body was well laid out in a purchase so valnable as the enlargement of the mind Some have been disgerged as it were by a Prison thrown up when it could keep them no longer and the next step they made hath been into some very eminent dignity as high as this World could set them this remark the Psalmist hath left us of the wonderful dispensations of providence Psal 113. He taketh the simple out of the dust and lifteth the needy off from the dunghill That he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people And he indeed who was an Israelite might well make this reflection since even among his own Ancestors they had so eminent an instance as Jeseph of the mighty alteration we are now speaking of But others have been advanced yet higher exhaled as it were and drawn up into Heaven from thence But thus much is certain that there can be no such thing as perpetual Imprisonment general Gaol-deliveries are unalterably established an Article of the Law of Nature for no Prison ever yet took in a Man whom it did not shortly after let out again CHAP. XXIV Of Exile or Banishment EXile is in reality no more than changing our Dwelling and this hath nothing of substantial Evil in it If we are afflicted upon the account our
of Reason begin to dawn and display themselves It is not to be imagined of what consequence these first Tinctures and Impressions are to the following part of Life and what wonderful Efficacy and Influence they have even to the changing and conquering Nature it self For Education is frequently observed to be Stronger than Natural Disposition either for the bettering or corrupting of the Man Lycurgus made People sensible of this by taking Two Whelps of the same Litter which he had brought up different Ways and in the Presence of a great Company setting before them Broth and a young Leveret The Dog which had been brought up tenderly and within Doors fell to the Broth but the Other which had been used to range and hunt neglected his Meat and pursued his Game Now that which renders such Instructions so marvellously powerful is that they are taken in very easily and as hardly lost again For that which comes first takes absolute Possession and carries all the Authority you can desire there being no Antecedent Notions to dispute the Title or call the Truth of it in Question While therefore the Soul is fresh and clear a fair and perfect Blank flexible and tender there can be no Difficulty in making it what you please for this Condition disposes it to receive any manner of Impression and to be moulded into any manner of Form Now the laying these first Foundations is no such trivial Matter as is generally believed rather indeed the Difficulty of doing it well is proportionable to the Importance of its being done so Nay not of private only but publick and general Importance which makes me think the Complaint of Aristotle and Plutarch most just though there is little or no Care taken to redress it when they cryed out Loudly against the Education of Children being left entirely to the Mercy and Disposal of Parents as a most notorious deplorable and destructive Injury to the State For why should This rest wholly upon Persons who are so often found to be Careless or Ignorant or Indiscreet and by no Means sit to govern themselves Why should not the Publick concern themselves in the Thing and order some better Care to be taken of it rather than suffer what they Daily do by sitting still and seeing their own Ruin Lacedamon and Crete are almost the only Constitutions where the disciplining of Children hath been prescribed by National Laws And Sparta was indeed the best School in the World which made Agesilaus persuade Xenophon to send his Children thither because there they would be sure to be instructed in the Best and Noblest Science that of Governing and of Obeying well and because this was the Work-house where they made admirable Law-givers Generals Civil Magistrates and Private Subjects They seem'd indeed to be more intent upon the Instruction of Youth and to lay greater Stress upon it than upon any other Thing whatsoever Insomuch that when Antipater demanded Fifty Children for Hostages they Reply'd That they did not care to part with any at that Age and had much rather give him twice as many grown Men. Now before I enter upon this Subject particularly permit me by the way to give one Advertisement which seems to carry somewhat of Weight in it Many People take a great deal of Pains to find out the Inclinations of their Children what sort of Business they are â—it for But alas This at those Years is somewhat so very tender so much in the Dark and so very uncertain that Parents after having as they imagine pitch'd right and been at a World of Pains and Charge find themselves miserably Mistaken And therefore without troubling our selves about these dim Prognosticks and depending upon the very weak and slender Conjectures capable of being drawn from the Motions of Minds so very Young the best course will be to possess them with such Instructions as may be universally Good and of general Use at first and when they are seasoned well with these That will prove a most excellent Preparation for their taking to any particular Employment afterwards Thus you build upon a sure Bottom and perfect them presently in that which must be the constant and daily Business of their Lives and this first Tincture like the Ground of a Picture fits them for the receiving any other Colours To proceed now on to the Matter it self which may very conveniently be reduced to three Heads The Forming of the Mind Managing the Body and Regulating of the Manners But I must once more beg my Reader 's Pardon for another Digression if it deserve to be thought so since before I proceed to consider these Particulars it seems to me highly Expedient to lay down some General Rules relating to this Matter which may direct us how to proceed with Discretion and Success The first of these Directions is To keep this little White Soul from the Contagion and Corruption so universal among Men that it may contract no Blemish no Taint at its first coming abroad into the World In order hereunto strict Centry must be kep at the Doors I mean the Eyes and especially the Ears must be diligently guarded that no unclean Thing get Admittance there Now This is done by taking Care of those that are about the Child and not suffering any even of his Relations to come near him whose Conversation is so lavish and dissolute that we have Reason to fear they may convey any ill Idea's into him though never so little never so secretly For One single Word One distant Hint is sufficient to do more Mischief in a Child than a great deal of Pains will be able to root out or retrieve again Upon this Account it was that Plato would never endure that Children should be left to Servants or entertained with their Stories For if they talk nothing worse yet the best we can expect from them is idle Tales and ridiculous Fictions which take such deep Root in this tender Soil that I verily believe a very great Part of the Vulgar Errours and Idle Prejudices most Men are possest with is owing to the Giants and Hobgoblins and the rest of that ridiculous Stuff which they were kept in awe or diverted with in their very Infancy The Second Direction concerns the Persons to be entrusted with this Child what they are what Discourse they have with him what Books they put into his Hands As to the Persons themselves They should be Men of Honesty and Virtue of a good Temper and winning Behaviour Men whose Heads lie well and eminent rather for Wisdom than Learning They must also keep a good Correspondence together and perfectly understand each other's Method for fear while they take contrary Ways as if one would gain upon his Charge by Fear and another by Flattery they should happen to cross and hinder one another confound the Child perplex the Design and be perpetually doing and undoing The Books and the Discourse intended for his Entertainment should by no Means be such as
treat of mean and tristing frivolous and idle Subjects but Great and Serious and Noble such as may help to enrich his Understanding to direct his Opinions to regulate his Manners and Affections Such particularly as set before him Human Nature as it really is descry the secret Springs and inward Movements of the Soul that so he may not mistake the World but be well acquainted with him self and other People Such as may teach him which are the proper Objects of his Fear and Love and Desire how he ought to be affected with Regard to all external Things What Passion what Virtue is And how he shall discern the Difference between Ambition and Avarice between Servitude and Subjection between Liberty and Licentiousness And suffer not your self to be diverted from such early Attempts by a ridiculous Pretence of the Child's Incapacity for Matters of so important a Nature for assure your self he will swallow and digest these as easily as those of another and more ludicrous Kind There is not one jot more of Capacity or Apprehension required to the Understanding all the illustrious Examples of Valerius Maximus than there is to the knowing the Fears of Guy of Wurwick or Amadis of Gaul The Greek and Roman History which is the Noblest and most Useful Dearning in the World is every whit as entertaining as easie to be comprehended as any Romance of the same Bulk A Child that can tell how many Cocks and Hens run about his Mother's Yard and can count and distinguish his Uncles and Cousins what should hinder him from remembring with the same ease the seven Kings of Rome and the Twelve Caesars There is indeed a great Difference between several Sciences And the Faculties of Children have their proper Seasons but then this makes no Difference between the different Parts of the same Science and Exercises of the same Faculty and no Man will ever be able to prove that one Matter of Fact is easie and another difficult or impossible to be attained but especially that the False and Fictitious Inventions are accommodated to the Capacity of Children and that True and Serious Narratives are above and unfit for them This looks as if God had made our Minds only capable of being deceived and given them a strange Alacrity in Lyes and Fables But the Matter is much otherwise For the main Business is to manage the Capacity of a Child well and if this be done the Improvement will quickly shew the Vanity of trifling with Children and distrusting their Abilities for greater and better Things The Third Admonition to this purpose is that these Tutors and Governors would behave themselves as becomes them towards their Charge Not putting on always solemn and austere Looks or treating them with Harshness and Severity but with Methods that are gentle and engaging good Humour and a cheerful Countenance I cannot here but condemn without more ado that general Custom of beating whipping scolding and storming at Children and keeping them in all that Terror and Subjection which is usual in some great Schools For This is really a most unreasonable Thing of pernicious Consequence and as indecent as it would be in a Judge to fall into violent Passions with Criminals at the Bar or a Physician to fall foul upon his Patients and call them all to naught How Prejudicial must this needs be in the Effect how contrary to the Design of Education which is to make them in love with Virtue betimes to sweeten their Tempers and train them in Virtue and Knowledge and Decency of Behaviour Now this Imperious and rough Treatment gives them a Prejudice to Instruction makes them hate and be afraid of it fills them with Horrour and Indignation and Rage tempts them to be Desperate and Head-strong damps their Spirits and depresses their Courage Till at last by being used like Slaves they degenerate entirely into cowardly and slavish Dispositions The Holy Ghost himself hath given us fair Warning of this Mischievous Consequence when he commands by St. Paul Coloss iii. 21. that Parents should not provoke their Children to Wrath lest they be discouraged This is the ready way to make them good for Nothing they curse their Teacher and hate the Government they are under If they do what they are bidden it is only because Your Eye is upon them and they dare not do otherwise not with any Cheerfulness or Satisfaction or because they are acted by any Noble and Generous Principle If they have been tardy in their Duty they take Sanctuary in the vilest Methods to save themselves from Punishment Lyes and Equivocations and shuffling Excuses Trembling and Tears of Madness and Despair Playing Truant and Running away from School all which are Refuges infinitely worse than the Fault they were guilty of before * Dum id rescitum iri credit tantisper cavet Si sperat fore clam rursum ad ingenium redit Ille quem Beneficio adjungas ex animo facit Studet par referre praesens absensque idem erit Terent. Adelph He that 's compell'd by Threats to do his Duty Will be wary no longer than you 've an Eye over him But when he sees he shan't be found out He 'll even follow his own Inclinations But he that 's govern'd by Love obeys most cheerfully Strives to make due returns and is the same Present or Absent Now I would have Children used with greater Easiness and Freedom bred as becomes Men and Gentlemen argued into their Duty by fair and mild Remonstrances and possest with Principles of Honour and Modesty and Shame to do amiss The Former of these Affections would prove a Spur and mighty Incitement to Goodness and the Latter a Curb and powerful Restraint to disengage them from Vice and work in them a just Abhorrence and Detestation of Evil. There seems to me to be somwhat so mean and servile in Severity and rigorous Constraint that it can never be reconciled with Honour and true Freedom of Mind We should therefore exalt rather and ennoble their Affections with Ingenuity of Temper and Behaviour and the Love of Virtue winning upon their Minds with setting before them it's Desirableness and displaying all it's Charms and attracting Beauties * Pudore Liberalitate Liberos retinere Satius esse credo quà m metu Hoc Patrium est potius consuefacere filium Suâ Sponte rectè facere quà m alieno metu Hoc Pater ac Dominus interest hoc qui nequit Fateatur se nescire imperare Liberis 'T was always my Opinion that 't is much better To keep Children in Order by Shame and Generosity Of Inclination than by Fear This is a Father's part to use his Child So as his own Choice rather than Constraint Should put him upon doing well Here lies the Difference between a Father and a Master And he that acts otherwise let him confess That he understands not at all the Art Of managing Children Blows are for Beasts which are incapable of hearing Reason and Rage