cast him down into the horrid abyss of sorrow and misery Who cannot but admire at the audacious confidence of Man in the resistance of his Lord to whom all other creatures Heaven Earth Sea Stars Planets all the Elements Beasts Angels Devils obey The end of the First Book Heraclitus Christianus OR THE MAN OF SORROW THE SECOND BOOK CHAP I. Of Man's misery in his conception in the Womb. WE have compared Man in this our first Book with those creatures whom we call irrational and therein shewed That he ought to be so far from glorying in and exalting himself in respect of his excellency and dignity that he hath the greatest arguments imaginable every thing considered to the contrary Having therefore laid this slight foundation and drawn some rude lines of human misery it remains now to go on forward in the continuation of our tragical discourse of Mans life First Insisting on his generation and production and so proceeding till we have at last brought him to his Grave which is the end and period of all things In the first place considering the matter of his generation which what is it but corruption and putrefaction as also the place of his birth which is nothing else but a vile and loathsom Prison How long is he in the womb of his Mother without form or resemblance to any thing save an insensible mass of flesh For when the Matrix hath taken in and retained the two seeds and warmed them by its natural heat there is concreted a little thin skin like unto that which we see is on the top of an Egg and after some days the spirit and blood mingling together they begin to boil so that there riseth up Three little Bladders as the bubbles which rise up in a troubled water which are the places where are formed the three most noble parts of thiâ— lofty Animal the Liver the Heart and the Brain which is the most excellent part of the work it being the seat of all the functions the true fountain of sence and magnificent palace of understanding and memory the true arch and support as it were of Reason Most wonderful also will it appear to us if we consider likewise particularly the creation of all the other parts the manner and fashion of their formation and how the Infant being in the womb of its Mother beginneth to Urine through the passage of the Navel the Urine running in a little membrance separate from the Child ordained by nature to this office having not as yet the ejections by the fundament by reason that it receiveth not its nourishment by the mouth the ventricle or stomach also not as yet performing its office so that not any thing is transported to the entrails being for Six days as Milk the Nine following Blood the other Twelve Flesh and the Eighteen following the spirit of Life and Motion is infused There 's scarce any heart though never so hard and stony which is not moved and ravished as it were with great admiration and astonishment considering a thing so strange and wonderful But what we have now said is but little in comparison of those things which follow For who marvelleth not considering the manner of the Infants being nourished in the womb seeing he receiveth nothing by his mouth his nature is also so frail and tender that if the Mother hath but the least shock or disaster or scenteth but the snuff of a Candle her fruit dieth immediately CHAP. II. Of Mans miserable birth and entrance into the World AFter having been long nourished as before mentioned and being now formed and grown bigger and having need of greater sustenance he setteth himself with great impetuosity to search for more which is the cause he so moveth himself that he breaketh the Fibers wherewith he hath been all this while retained so that the Matrix feeling it self concerned will no longer sustain him but forceth it self to put him out wherefore it openeth and by that opening the Child feeling the Air enter pursueth it and draweth more and more to the Orifice of the Matrix and entreth into the light of this World not without great and violent dolours and hurt to his tender body but during the Nine months time how much pain and sorrow doth he cause to his Mother that bears him not to take notice of some who whilst they are big with Child lose their appetite and are desirous to eat of human flesh so that we read in History That their poor Husbands have been constrained to fly and absent themselves others have desired to eat Ashes burning Coals or other things like thereunto according to the corrupt and depraved humours abounding in their bodies moreover what anguish and sorrow have their Mothers to bring them into the World in what danger are they when they are in Travel Some their Arms come out first of all some the Feet others the Knees some double but that which is most cruel and which we cannot apprehend without horror They are forced sometimes instead of the Midwives to call the Surgeon to dismember the infant and tear it in pieces sometimes the Mother must be cut open alive and anatomiz'd that they may come at the Child Some Children are born so prodigious and deformed that they resemble not Men but Monsters some are born with Two Heads some with Four Leggs as hath been known in Paris and at the time when I was making this Book Polydorus writeth That before Marcellus was chased by Hannibal that a Woman brought forth a Child having the Head of an Elephant another having four feet as a Beast The modern Histories make mention of a Roman Courtizan that was brought to Bed of a Child who was half a Dog They who have writ the Histories of the Indies do assure us That even at this present there are found them there who are half men and half Beasts occasioned by the execrable bruitishness of their Parents others are born blind others deaf others mute others more infirm and defective in their members for which their Friends are sorry their Mothers infamous and their Fathers shamed so that if we consider attentively all the misery of our Nativity we shall find the ancient saying true That we are conceived in uncleanness born and brought into the World with pain and sorrow and nourished and brought up with anguish and labour CHAP. III. Mans misery considered in the nurture of his Infancy HEre then is the first Act of the Tragedy of human Life during the time of his imprisonment in his Mothers Womb and being now got out of his maternal dungeon let us contemplate a little what he is being on the Earth And what is he else but like to a poor worm creeping thereon With what Garment is he covered making his magnificent entrance into the Palace of this World but Blood wherewith he is all over besmeared which is no other than the representation of sin which in the Scripture is signified unto us by Blood O
his living that all men might know that he lived by his labour and not by the sweat and pains of other men for which Reason the Consul had born before him his Rods and Axes the Priest a Hat or Chaplet in manner of a Coif the Tribune a Mace the Gladiator a Sword the Taylor his Shears the Smith a Hammer the Orator and Rhetorician a Book they suffering not that those that were Masters of the Sciences should be the Disciples and Scholars of vices So that Mar. Aurel. making mention of the ancient diligence and industry of the Romans writeth That they set themselves with so great earnestness to their labour that a person in all Rome could not be found so much at leasure as to carry Letters two or three days journey though of never so great importance Which considered may not a little reflect upon those which make profession of Christianity for if all the idle and useless persons were chased and banished out of our Cities the remainder would be a very small and inconsiderable number And if we would consider all things whatsoever which God hath created we shall find no one but Man who remaineth in idleness For by how much the more the things that are created are excellent and perfect the more is there given to them of labour and travel you see the Sun how 't is never free from continual and perpetual motion as also the Moon how greatly unacquainted with stops and stayings The fire can never be without some kind of operation the Air flies continually whirling from one side to the other the Waters Fountains and Rivers flow and are in perpetual agitation the earth is never at rest but is always busied in producing one thing or other wherefore laying all things before our consideration we shall find that nature never ceaseth her operation Finally there 's no plague more pernicious to the publick than idleness for its inventions and broodings are scarce any thing else than vice and wickedness so that we ought to esteem idle persons far worse than the bruit Beasts whose hides serveth us for Shoes their flesh for Meat their force and strength to cultivate the earth but the idle person serveth for nothing but to offend God and scandalize the innocent and eat the bread which other men have sweated for We may therefore apprehend by what hath been forementioned how liberally nature hath favoured other creatures and hath been as it were prodigal in their behalf so that men are constrained when they consider the indulgences of nature to other Animals in their regular way of living to follow and imitate them in many things But what Murderer can there be though never so great an affronter of Nature and desirous of human Blood that will not moderate his desire of mischief and malevolency when he considers that there is no Animal though never so fierce and furious that will kill his own Kind What Child can there be so ungrateful towards his Parents who will not be moved to gratitude when he seeth the little Storks feeding their ancient and decrepit Parents in acknowledgment of the benefits that they have received from them Aelian reports a matter not a little admirable That their Young are so tender of them that if provision is not at hand to relieve them then they strain and enforce themselves to vomit and cast up that which they had eaten the day before lest they should perish with hunger and with this they sustain them till they have gotten supplies from abroad Where is the Father who is so cruel and unnatural or the Mother so estranged from humanity that dares to murder their off-spring or be guilty of the least unkindness if they call to mind the Dolphins zeal for the preservation of their young who if it come to pass that any of them are taken by Fishers follow them continually even to the very last extremity and will rather suffer themselves to be taken The which is not only peculiar to the Dolphin but also to another Fish called Glaucus who though not so sociable and familiar with men as the other nevertheless he hath such great affection for his young that whensoever he seeth any that may seem affrightful he taketh them up into his mouth swallowing them down alive and when the peril and fear is over he disgorges them whole into the water which is indeed a thing almost incredible that his love should be so great to his young that he should force his Nature and endure any pain rather than they should be prejudiced Who is he that will not bear contentedly the irksomness of poverty if he considers the nature of a Fish called Polypus who feeling himself urged with hunger and seeing that food is wanting to him eateth the ends of his Finns and Curtails knowing in time that they will grow again Where is the Man so pusillanimous and fearful who is not in some measure comforted against the fear of Death when it presents it self to him when he hath considered the sweet singing of Swans and that when their end approaches though they are without hopes or thought of living again There is no Father can be so cruel barbarous or unnatural to defraud some of his Children to advantage the others if he hath taken notice of the order which the little Swallow observeth in the nourishing of his brood who as saith Aelian in his Greek History of Animals keepeth exactly to the rules of distributive justice and because she cannot bring all at once she goes divers times to her feeding and violateth not in the leastwise the right of Primogeniture for he that is first born is first fed the Second the second rank and so consequently the others which was the cause that an Indian Philosopher named Diphilus after having contemplated the manner and order of this little Bird and others cryed out That Nature had engraven in them as it were certain laws and formularies for the assistance of men in the conduct of their lives Is there any Man so stupid and blockish that encreaseth not his knowledg by considering the prudence of the despised Cuckoo who being sensible by instinct of Nature of his infirmity and excessive frigidity so that he cannot hatch his eggs watcheth and at last spieth an occasion that he may lay them in other Birds Nests first breaking theirs that were there before Which manner of the Cuckoo Eulgentius observing said That he was not unworthy in some things to be imitated by those Fathers who have many Children and by reason of their poverty cannot bring them up themselves they would do well to place them out in others Houses whereby they may get an honest subsistence What Servant is there so dull and sloathful that is not a little moved when he considereth the noble generosity of the Warr-horse who is so courageous that he had rather dye than leave his Master in danger so that he hath such a brisk kind of sprightfulness that is
Sin of whom was punished by his Children who were so irregular that one of them violated his own natural Sister Tamar and conspired the death of his own Father and drove him out of his Kingdom For the Rule of the ancient Philosophers has always proved true that man committeth many faults in this world the punishment of which God reserveth in the other but this sin of not well Educating our Children he usually punisheth in this for the Father in begetting his Sons gives them nothing but mortality and weakness but by good Education Fame and everlasting Renown We will conclude then that if the Children have been in great peril and misery oftentimes by the corrupt milk of their Nurses yet nevertheless the danger is double in respect of them who ought to instruct them for as much as that the nutriment of the body is of far less consequence than that of the mind But seeing that we have not as yet mentioned Plato who hath Divinely Philosophiz'd on Human Calamities and so lively represented the miseries of this life that many of his Disciples reading his Books have cast themselves down headlong from the tops of Rocks and Mountains into Rivers that so cutting the thread of their Calamitous life they might have the enjoyments of the next This great Philosopher Plato in a Dialogue that he hath made concerning Death and contempt of this life introduceth Socrates who deduceth by an admirable Eloquence the miseries and frailties of Human condition as followeth Knowest thou not saith He that Human life is nothing but a peregrination which the wise perform and pass in joy singing with gladness when that by necessity they approach unto the end of it Dost thou not well know that man consisteth of spirit which is enclosed in his body as in a Tabernacle which Nature has bestowed upon him not without great vexation and though she does bequeath some small benefits to us yet are they nevertheless hid and of a short durance and consumed in sorrow and trouble by reason of which the soul resenting the dolour cometh to desire the Coelestial Habitation and wisheth for the Fruition of heavenly pleasures Consider that the going out of this world is no other thing than a mutation and exchange of evil for good and what evil saith He and misery doth not man endure from his birth to his Sepulchre What kind of sorrow is there that he hath not experienced be it of heat of cold of torments in his body as also of his mind What other messenger or more certain forerunner can he have of his misery than his tears sighings and groanings But after he hath born so many evils and come to the 7th year of his age he must have Guardians and Tutors for his instruction in Learning moreover growing and coming into his youth he had need of Correctors who with rigor must observe his actions to tame and accustom him to labour CHAP. V. Of the Misery attending the state of Manhood HIS youth being past over hair begins to cover his chin and then he grows man and then is the time that he entreth into greater anxiety and vexation of spirit he must then frequent publick places keep up a conversation in company if he be of a Noble and Illustrious Extraction he is forced to undertake a thousand warlike stratagems and enterprises and expose himself to an infinite of perils and hazard his life and spill his blood that he may dye in the bed of honour or else he shall be looked on as of a cowardly mean and dastardly spirit If he be of a low condition and ordinary Fortune and be called to the exercise of mechanick Arts that hindreth him not from enduring a thousand vexations infinite labour and travel as well of body as mind he must work night and day must sweat blood and water for to get that which is necessary for the maintenance and suppor of his life and what labour or diligence soever he useth he can scarcely procure himself that which is necessary It is not therefore without cause that Marc. Aurel. considering the miserable condition of Human life was accustomed to say I thought in my self whether there could be found any State any Age any Land any Kingdom in which there could be found a man who durst vaunt that he never tasted in his life what was adverse Fortune this would be such a monster that both the living and dead would have desire to see him and then he concludes in the end I have found my reckoning saith he that he that was yesterday rich is to day poor he that was yesterday whole is to day sick he that laugh'd yesterday to day I saw cry he that I saw yesterday in prosperity I saw to day in adversity he that I saw yesterday amongst the living I see him now amongst the dead CHAP. IV. Mans Misery more particularly considered and first of the miserable life of Mariners REturn we then to our Subject deducing things in particular and who is he among men who hath betaken himself to any State or Trade and way of living that has not at last complained and been weary of it And that this may more evidently appear consider we the principal states in particular Begin we then at them who swim on the water and who gain their livings on the Sea and in how many perils are they night and day What is their habitation but a nasty and stinking prison the same is their diet What are their garments but as it were a Sponge of water They are always as vagabonds and in continual exile without any rest agitated by the Winds Rain Hail Snow at the mercy of Pyrats and Rovers Rocks and Tempests in continual hazard of being intomb'd in the bellies of fishes Wherefore Byas that Sage Grecian Philosopher knew not whether he should reckon these sort of people amongst the Terrestrial creatures or Aquatils and doubted whether he ought to number them amongst the living or the dead And another called Anacharsis said That they were no farther distant from the dead than the breadth of two or three fingers as much as the timber contained in thickness upon which they swam CHAP. VII Of the Misery attending the life of Husbandmen AND if the manner of living of Mariners seemeth terrible to us what greater sweetness think we to find in Agriculture and Rustical labour which at first look seemeth sweet happy quiet simple and innocent and that which many Patriarchs and Prophets have chosen as that in which there was the least of fraud and cousenage and that for which many Roman Emperours have forsaken their Palaces Theatres and other Pompous and Resplendant Edifices that they may retire themselves into the fields and cultivate their Lands with their hands and enjoy that innocent pleasure which they imagined might be found in a Country life but to them who would consider every thing more exactly it will appear that these Roses are not without their thorns and
it with her Winding-sheet half sewed about her CHAP. III. Of the Miseries which Mankind have suffered by Famine and many other Plagues WHEN our God is angry with us for our sins he usually punisheth us in this World with Sickness Wars Fires and Famines all which the last excepted we have to our sorrow I wish I could say to our amendment in these our days experimented and that so severely that former Ages cannot parallel it Let us fear therefore and not only so but deprecate and avert Gods anger by our Repentance lest that we feel likewise the effects of those menaces which he by his Prophets in Holy Writ hath threatned us When he saith That he will make the Heavens as Brass and the Earth as Iron that is to say barren and fruitless And for this cause our Lord declaring to his Disciples the evils that should come to pass after having foretold That Nation should rise up against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom He immediately addeth as if one depended on the other That there should be great Pestilences and Famines throughout the Regions of the Earth After Totillus had besieged Rome they of the City fell into such scarcity and want of Provision that having nothing left them they began to eat all sorts of Animals as Horses Dogs Cats Rats and Mice and all other manner of Vermin and in the end one another A thing certainly most dreadful that when the Justice of God presseth us we are reduced to such necessity that we spare not our own Kind nor the Mothers their own Children which happened likewise in the ruine of Jerusalem as Eusebius noteth in his Ecclesiastical History When Grand Scipio besieged the great City of Numantia having taken from them all means of provision they were reduced to such Extremity that they went every day to chase after the Romans as the Hunter doth after the prey and eat the Flesh and drunk the Blood of those they took as ordinarily then as at other times a quarter of Veal or Mutton and so spared none for as soon as ever he was taken he was kill'd skin'd pull'd in pieces and sold in the Shambles so that he was worth more being dead than living and Ransom'd There is mention'd in the Holy Scripture a Famine which was in Samaria in the time of Elisha which I think surpassed the precedent for there was so great a dearth and scarcity of provision that the head of an Ass was sold for four score pieces of Silver and the fourth part of the measure of Pigeons dung five pieces and when all was consum'd the Mothers eat their own Children so that a poor Woman of that City formed her Complaint to the King of Israel seeing him on the Wall That her Neighbour would not observe the Contract and Agreement betwixt them For we have saith she dressed and eaten my Son and she hides and conceals hers And when the King heard this which the Woman had said his heart had like to burst and split with sorrow and he began to rent his Garments and cloathe himself with Sackcloth Josephus in 3d ch 7 Book of the Wars of the Jews relateth a story like the precedent where he saith That there was a Rich and noble Woman when Jerusalem was besieg'd who had gâ—t together the rest of the great Riches which she had in a certain house of the City and lived frugally on that little which she had left but the Soldiers in a short time took all from her so that as soon as ever she had begged a morsel of meat for her sustenance they devour'd it so that in the end she finding her self pressed with hunger and bereaven of Victuals and Counsel she began to arm her self contrary to the Laws of Nature and looking on her little Child which she suckled and held in her Arms she thus cryed out O unhappy Infant and more unhappy Mother what shall I now do with thee 't is come to that pass that if I should save thy life thou wilt remain in the perpetual servitude of the Romans Come then my Child be thou as food unto thy Mother and terror to the Soldiers who have left me nothing and to the Ages to come a memorial of horror and pity and after she had spoke these words she kill'd it and put it on the Spit and roasted it eating the half of it and setting up the rest Immediately after she had acted this deplorable Tragedy the Soldiers returned again to her who smelling the savour of the roasted meat began to threaten her with death if she shewed them not where her food was but she being resolute in her rage and seeking nothing but how she might accompany her Son in death without being the least astonished said to them Hold your peace my Friends I have not been unjust to you having saved you exactly your part and ending these words she produced the Child on the Table at which the Soldiers were so amazed and confounded that they stood as mute and vanquish'd but she on the contrary with a furious and undaunted look said What my Friends 't is my Child 't is my doing why feed you not I am glutted already Are you more scrupulous than the Mother that bore it Disdain you the meats which I have us'd before you and will now shew you by eating the same the great distress you have drove me to But they who could not suffer or endure so piteous a spectacle fled away and left her alone with the other part of her Child which was in short all the remainder which they had left her See the History of Josephus the very place which I have the rather transcribed Verbatim for what was contained in it But because there are some who are never moved by reading Histories and ancient Examples unless they experience it in their own Age and see it with their Eyes and touch it as it were with their Fingers I would therefore now shew that our God spareth us no more than the Ancients when he 's angry with us for our sins as shall be amply manifest by the History which follows written by Paradin a man of great Industry in that which concerneth History in his Treatise of the memorable matters of our time where he saith That the Kingdom of France was so greatly afficted that it was thought that all was reduced to the last end and period For during the space of five whole years which began in 1528 the Season was in such indisposition and disorder that the four Elements left their natural courses and shewed themselves confus'd perverted and preposterous the Spring beginning in Autumn that in the Spring the Summer in Winter the Winter in Summer but above all the Summer had the dominion over the rest and quite against its nature so that in the heart of Winter viz. in December January and February when the Earth expected its repose and ripening by Frost and cold there was so great and vehement a heat