A DISCOVRSE OF CIVILL LIFE Containing the Ethike part of Morall Philosophie Fit for the instructing of a Gentleman in the course of a vertuous life By LOD BR Virtute summa Caetera Fortunâ ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed for EDVVARD BLOVNT 1606. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HIS SINGVLAR GOOD LORD ROBERT Earle of Salisbury Vicount Cranborne Lord Cecill Baron of Essenden Principall Secretarie to his Maiestie Knight of the most noble order of the Garter c. THis booke treating of the Morall vertues being now to come vnder the censure of the world doth summon me of it self to craue protection from your Lordships honorable fauour as the personage who knowing best their worth may best protect him from the iniury of any that should attempt to carpe the same And my priuate obligations for your manifold fauours among which the great benefite of my libertie and redeeming from a miserable captiuitie euer fresh in my remembrance doth make me hope not onely of your Honors willingnesse to patronize both my selfe and my labour but also that you wil be pleased therein to accept of the humble and deuoted affection wherwith most reuerently I present it vnto your Lordshippe Vouchsafe therefore my most honored good Lord to yeeld me the comfort of so gracious an addition to your former fauors and benefits and to giue to all the yong Gentlemen of England encouragement to embrace willingly that good which they may receiue by reading a booke of so good a subiect the title whereof bearing in front your noble name shall giue them cause to think it worthy to be passed with the approbation of your graue iudgement VVhich being the most desired frute of my endeuour I will acknowledge as none of the least of your great graces and euer rest Your Lordships most bounden and humbly deuoted LOD BRYSKETT TO THE GENTLE and discreet Reader RIght well saith the Wise man that there is nothing new vnder the Sunne and further that there is no end of writing books For howsoeuer in a generalitie the subiect of any knowledge be declared yet the particulars that may be gathered out of the same be so many as new matter may be produced out of the same to write thereof againe so great is the capacitie of mans vnderstanding able to attaine further knowledge then any reading can affoord him And therefore Horace also affirmeth that it is hard to treate of any subiect that hath not bene formerly handled by some other Yet do we see dayly men seeke partly by new additions and partly with ornaments of stile to out-go those that haue gone before them which haply some atchieue but many moe rest farre behind This hath bred the infinitenesse of bookes which hath introduced the distinction of good from bad vsed in best Common-weales to prohibite such as corrupt manners and to giue approbation to the good For that the simpler sort by the former drinke their bane in steed of medicine and in lieu of truth the proper obiect of mans vnderstanding they introduce falshood decked in truths ornaments to delude the vnheedful Reader Whereas on the other side the benefite which we receiue by the reading of good books being exceeding great they deserue commendation that offer their endeuours to the benefiting of others with books of better matter Which hath made me resolue to present vnto thy view this discourse of Morall Philosophie tending to the wel ordering and composing of thy mind that through the knowledge and exercise of the vertues therein expressed thou mayst frame thy selfe the better to attaine to that further perfection which the profession of a Christian requireth and that euerlasting felicitie which assisted with Gods grace neuer refused to them that humbly and sincerely call for the same thou mayst assuredly purchase As my meaning herein is thy good chiefly so let thy fauourable censure thankfully acknowledge my labor and goodwil which may moue me to impart after vnto thee another treating of the Politike part of Morall Philosophie which I haue likewise prepared to follow this if I shall find the fauourable acceptation hereof such as may encourage me thereunto The booke written first for my priuate exercise and meant to be imparted to that honorable personage qui nobis haec otia fecit hath long layne by me as not meaning he being gone to communicate the same to others But partly through the perswasion of friends and partly by a regard not to burie that which might profit many I haue bin drawne to consent to the publishing thereof Gather out of it what good thou canst and whatsoeuer thou mayst find therein vnperfect or defectiue impute charitably to my insufficiencie and weaknesse and let not small faults blemish my trauell and desire to benefite thee But say to thy selfe with that worthy bright light of our age Sir Philip Sidney Let vs loue men for the good is in them and not hate them for their euill Farewell A DISCOVRSE CONTAINING THE ETHICKE PART OF MORALL PHILOSOPHIE FIT TO INstruct a Gentleman in the course of a vertuous life Written to the right Honorable ARTHVR late Lord Grey of Wilton By LOD BRYSKETT WHen it pleased you my good Lord vpon the decease of maister Iohn Chaloner her Maiesties Secretarie of this State which you then gouerned as Lord Deputie of this Realme to make choice of me to supply that place and to recommend me by your honorable letters to that effect I receiued a very sufficient testimonie of your good opinion and fauourable inclination towards me And albeit your intention and desire in that behalfe tooke not effect whether through my vnworthinesse or by the labour and practise of others yet because your testimonie was to me instar multorum Iudicum and because that repulse serued you as an occasion to do me after a greater fauor I haue euermore sithens caried a continual desire to shew my selfe thankfull to your Lordship For when at my humble sute you vouchsafed to graunt me libertie without offence to resigne the office which I had then held seuen yeares as Clerke of this Councell and to withdraw my selfe from that thanklesse toyle to the quietnes of my intermitted studies I must needes confesse I held my selfe more bound vnto you therefore then for all other the benefits which you had bestowed vpon me and all the declarations of honorable affection whereof you had giuen me many testimonies before And therefore being now freed by your Lordships meane from that trouble and disquiet of mind and enioying from your speciall fauour the sweetnesse and contentment of my Muses I haue thought it the fittest meanes I could deuise to shew my thankfulnes to offer to you the first fruites that they haue yeelded me as due vnto you from whom onely I acknowledge so great a good That they will be acceptable vnto you I make no doubt were it but in regard of the true and sincere affection of the giuer who in admiring and reuerencing your vertues giueth place to no
father and of the rest of the family be it neuer so vertuous there must also concurre the goodnesse of his conuersation abroade to make his domesticall familiaritie worke due effect since many times I haue seene it fall out that the haunting of ill company from home hath done a young man much more hurt then all the good instructions or vertuous examples domesticall could do him good So soft and tender are the minds of yong men and apt as was formerly said to be wrought like waxe to vice And this cometh to passe by reasō that the sensitiue part calling youth to delight and diuerting it from the trauell and paine which learning and vertue require is hardly subdued and brought vnder the rule of reason by which it esteemeth it selfe forced when it is barred from that it desireth And if by any exteriour occasion it be pricked forward it fareth as we see it oftentimes do with young hard-headed colts who take the bit in the mouth and run away with the rider carrying him will he nill he whether they list It ought therefore to be none of the least cares of the father to prouide that the forraine conuersation of his son may be such as shall rather help then hinder his care and home-example To which effect it would be very good if it might be possible that the young man were neuer from his fathers side But forasmuch as many occasions draw men to attend other waightier affaires as well publike as priuat wherby they are driuen to haue their minds busied about exterior things and to neglect their childrē who are their owne bowels Therefore is it their parts in such cases to appoint for their children when they are past their childish yeares some learned and honest man of vertuous behauiour to gouerne them and take care of them whose precepts they may so obey as they shall feare to do any thing that may breede reproch or blame vnto them For such things are mortall poison to yong mens minds and not only put them astray from the path that should leade them to vertue but imprint in them also a vitious habit that maketh them vnruly and disobedient to all wholesome admonitions and vertuous actions This man so chosen to haue the charge of youth must be carefull among other things to foresee that his disciples may haue such companions as the Persian Princes had prouided for them to wit equall of age and like of conditions with whom they may be conuersant familiar For such similitude of age and conditions doth cause them to loue and like one another if some barre or impediment fall not betweene them The auncient wise men assigned to youth the Plannet of Mercury for no other cause as I suppose but for that Mercury being as Astronomers say either good or bad according as he is accompanied with another plannet good or euil euen so youth becommeth good or bad as the companies to which it draweth or giueth it selfe And therefore ought not yong men to haue libertie to haunt what companie they list but to be kept vnder the discipline of wise men and trained vp in the companie of others of their age well bred vntill it may be thought or rather found by experience that they be past danger and become fit to guide themselues hauing brought their mind obedient to reason so farre as it cannot any more draw him to any delights but such as are honest and vertuous This delight in vertue and honestie is best induced into a yong mans mind by that true companiō of vertue that breedeth feare to do or say any thing vnseemely or dishonest which companion Socrates sought to make familiar to his scholers when he would tell them how they should endeuour themselues to purchase in their minds prudence into their tongues truth with silence and in their faces bashfulnesse called by the Latins verecundia deriuing it from the reuerence which yong men vse to beare to their elders This we call shamefastnesse and is that honest red colour or blushing which dieth a yong mans cheekes when he supposeth he hath done or said any thing vnseemely or vnfit for a vertuous mind or that may offend his parents or betters a certaine token of a generous mind and well disciplined of which great hope may be conceiued that it will proue godly and vertuous For as a sure and firme friend to honestie and vertue like a watch or guard set for their securitie it is euer wakefull and carefull to keepe all disordinate concupiscences from the mind whereby though of it selfe it be rather an affect then a habit neuerthelesse she induceth such a habite into a yong mans mind that not onely in presence of others he blusheth if he chance to do any thing not commendable but euen of himselfe he is ashamed if being alone he fall into any errour For though some say that two things chiefly keepe youth from euill correction and shame and that chastisement rather then instruction draweth youth to do well yet I for my part neuer think that yong man well bred or trained vp who for feare of punishment abstaineth from doing things shamefull or dishonest punishment being appointed but for them that are euill which made the Poet say For vertues sake good men ill deeds refraine Ill men refraine them but for feare of paine For the wickednesse of men hath caused lawes to be deuised and established for the conseruation of honest and vertuous societie and ciuil life whereunto man is borne which lawes haue appointed penalties for the offenders to the end that for feare thereof as Xenocrates was wont to say men might flie from ill doing as dogs flie harme doing for feare of the whip And because Plato formed his Common-weale of perfect and vertuous men therfore set he downe no lawes in his bookes de Repub. because he supposed the goodnesse of the men to be sufficient for the gouernement thereof without a law either to commaund good order or to punish offenders Neuertheles the same diuine Philosopher considering how the imperfection of mans nature will not suffer any such Common-wealth to be found he wrote also his bookes of lawes to serue for the imperfection of other Common-weales which were composed of men of all sorts good and bad meane or indifferent in which both instruction and punishment were needfull as well to make the euill abstaine from vice as to confirme the good and to reduce those that were indifferent to greater perfection Lawes therefore haue appointed punishments that vertue might be defended and maintained ciuill societie and humane right preserued But young men bred as our author would haue them are by all meanes to be framed such as for vertues sake for feare of reproch for loue and reuerence to honestie and not for feare of punishment to be inflicted on them by the magistrates or their superiours for doing of euill they may accustome themselues neuer to do any thing for which they should neede to blush
no not to themselues alone Which thing they shal the better performe if they vse to forbeare the doing of any thing by themselues which they would be ashamed of if they were in company It is written that among the auncient Romanes one Iulius Drusus Publicola hauing his house seated so as his neighbours might looke into it a certaine Architect offered him for the expence of fiue talents to make it so close as none of his neighbors should looke thereinto or see what he was doing But he made him answer againe that he would rather giue him ten talents to make it so as all the citie might see what he did in his house because he was sure he did nothing within doores whereof he neede be ashamed abroade though euery man should see him For which answer he was highly cōmended True it is that Xenophon esteemeth this blushng to a mans self to be rather temperance then bashfulnes but let it be named how it wil it is surely the propertie of a gentle heart so to do And therefore Petrarke said well Alone whereas I walkt mongs woods and hils I shamed at my selfe for gentle heart Thinkes that enough no other spurre it wils Yet would I not neither that our young man should be more bashfull then were fit as one ouer-awed or doltish not able to consider perils or dangers when they present themselues not yet to loose his boldnesse of spirit For Antipater the sonne of Cassander through the like qualitie cast himselfe away who hauing inuited Demetrius to supper with him at such a time as their friendship was not sure but stood vpon doubtful termes and he being come accordingly when Demetrius afterwards as in requital of his kindnesse inuited Antipater likewise to supper though he knew right well what perill he thrust himselfe into if he went considering the wyly disposition of the said Demetrius yet being ashamed that Demetrius should perceiue him to be so mistrustful would needs go and there was miserably slaine This is a vice named in the Greeke Disopia and which we may in English call vnfruitfull shamefastnesse wherewith we would not wish our yong man should be any way acquainted but onely with that generous bashfulnesse that may serue him for a spurre to vertue and for a bridle from vice But because Plato saith that though bashfulnesse be most properly fit for young men yet that it is also seemly inough for men of al yeares And that Aristotle contrariwise thinketh it not meete for men of riper years to blush it may therefore be doubted to whether of these two great learned mens opinions we should incline For cleering hereof you must vnderstand that the Platonikes say two things among others are specially giuen to for a diuine gift vnto man Bashfulnesse the one and Magnanimitie the other the one to hold vs back from doing of any thing worthy blame reproch the other to put vs forward into the way of praise and vertue whereby we might alwayes be ready to do well onely for vertues sake to the good and benefit of others and to our owne contentment and delight Of which course the end is honour in this world and glory after death But because the force of the Concupiscible appetite is so great and setteth before vs pleasure in so many sundry shapes as it is hard to shun the snares which these two enemies of reason set to intrap vs and that the coldnesse of old age cannot wholy extinguish the feruour of our appetites for my part I think that as in all ages it is fit that Magnanimitie inuite vs to commendable actions so also that we haue neede of shamefastnesse to correct vs whēsoeuer we shal go beyond the boūds or limits of reason in what yeares soeuer and to check vs with the bridle of temperāce For though Aristotle say that shame ought to die red in a mans cheekes but for voluntary actions only yet Plato considering that none but God is perfect without fault and that euery man euen the most vertuous falleth sometimes through humane frailtie thought according to Christianitie that ripenesse of yeares or wisedome should be no hinderance to make them ashamed but rather make them the more bashfull whensoeuer they should find in themselues that they had run into any errour vndecent or vnfitting for men of their yeares and quality Not intending yet thereby that the errors of the ancienter men were to be of that sort that yong mens faults commonly are who through incontinencie runne oftentimes into sin wilfully whereas men of riper yeares erre or ought to erre only through frailty of nature Much better were it indeede for men of yeares not to do any thing of which they might be ashamed if the condition of man would permit it then after they had done it to blush thereat and much more reprochfull is his fault if he offend voluntarily then the young mans But since no man though he haue made a habite in wel-doing can stand so assured of himselfe but that sometime in his life he shal commit some error it is much better in what age soeuer it be that blushing make him know his fault then to passe it ouer impudently without shame And accordingly Saint Ambrose said in his booke of Offices that shamefastnesse was meet for all ages for all times and for all places And for the same cause perhaps haue wise men and religious held that an Angell of heauen assisteth euery man to call him backe from those euils which the ill Angell with his sugred baite of delight and disordinate appetite inticeth him vnto onely for his ruine For they thought that our forces were not able to resist so mighty prouocations As for Plato and Aristotle seemeth they differed in opinion for that the one considered humane nature as it ought to be and the other as it commonly is indeed Which may the better be beleeued because Aristotle in his booke of Rhetorike restrained not this habite of shamefastnesse so precisely to young men but that it may sometimes beseeme an aged mans cheekes also though so farre as grace and wisedome may preuaile it would best beseeme him neuer to do the thing whereof he need be ashamed as before was sayd And the same rule ought young men also to propose to themselues whereby they shall deserue so much the more commendation as the heate of their yeares beareth with them fierie appetites and they the lesse apt to resist so sharpe and so intollerable prickes The way to obserue that rule is to striue in all their actions to master themselues and to profit in vertue whereunto will helpe them chiefly that they endeuour themselues to bridle such desires as they find most to molest them not suffering them to transport them beyond the limits of honestie But because the day goeth away and that to treate particularly of all that might be said concerning the direction of youth to vertue which leadeth him to his felicitie would require more time then is
whē they first admitted it such they continued it without altering the space of ten thousand yeres according to their manner of contemplation hauing a conceit or rather a firme opinion that they could not alter musike but with danger to their State Which opinion the Lacedemonians likewise so embraced that when Timotheus an excellent Musition in Sparta had presumed to adde but one string to the Cyther they banished him out of the citie and territories as a violater of lawes and a corrupter of honest discipline Albeit with Phrine they dealt more mildly who hauing added to the Cyther two cords one sharpe and another graue or flat they onely caused him to take them away againe supposing that seuen strings were enough to temper the sound thereof as a number comprehending all musike and that the increasing therof was but superfluous and harmefull These ancient examples considerations are not sleightly to be passed ouer for though many other occasions of corruption in our age may be assigned yet one of the principall in the iudgement of wise men may wel be imputed to the qualitie of that corrupted musike which is most vsed now a dayes carrying with it nothing but a sensuall delight to the eare without working any good to the mind at all Nay would God it did not greatly hurt and corrupt the mind For as musike well vsed is a great help to moderate the disorderly affections of the minde so being abused it expelleth all manly thoughts from the heart and so effeminateth men that they are little better then women and in women breedeth such lasciuious and wanton thoughts that oftentimes they forget their honestie without which they cannot be worthy the name of women Not that I would hereby inferre that musike generally were to be misliked or vnfit for women also but my meaning is of this wanton and lasciuious kind of musike which is now a dayes most pleasing and resembleth the Lydian of old time which Plato so abhorred as he would not in any sort admit it into his Common-weale lest it should infect the minds of men and women both And from him may we learne what kinde of musike he would haue men to embrace to stirre their mindes vp to vertue and to purge the same from vice and errour Like as also frō Aristotle in his 8. booke of Politikes taken perchance out of the writings of his master But if that auncient kinde of musike framed and composed wholy to grauitie were now knowne and vsed which kinde was then set forth with the learned and graue verses of excellent Poets we should now also see magnificall and high desires stipped vp in the minds of the hearers Which verses contained the praises of excellent and heroicall personages and were vsed to be sung at the tables of great men and Princes to the sound of the Lyra whereby they inflamed the mindes of the hearers to vertue and generous actions For the force of Musike with Poesie is such as is of power to set the followers and louers thereof into the direct way that leadeth them to their felicitie Socrates demaunding of the Oracle of Apollo what he should do to make himselfe happie he was willed to learne Musike whereupon he gaue himselfe forthwith to the studie of Poesie conceiuing with himselfe that verses and Poeticall numbers are the perfectest Musike and that they enter like liuely sparkes into mens minds to kindle in them desires of dignitie greatnesse honor true praise and commendation and to correct whatsoeuer is in them of base and vile affection In auncient time therfore men caused their children to be instructed in Poesie before all other disciplines for that they esteemed good Poets to be the fathers of wisedome and the vndoubted true guides to ciuill life and not without cause For they raise mens thoughts from humble and base things such as the vulgar and common sort delight in and make them bend their endeuours wholy to high yea heauenly things As who so list to attend diligently the excellencie of the Psalmes and Hymnes composed by the Kingly Prophet Dauid and others called the singers of the Hebrew Church shall easily discerne But since our musike is growen now to the fulnes of wantō and lasciuious passions and the words so confusedly mingled with the notes that a man can discerne nothing but the sound and tunes of the voices but sence or sentence he can vnderstand none at all euen as it were sundry birds chanting and chirping vpon the boughes of trees yong men are much better in the iudgement of the wise to abstaine from it altogether then to spend their time about it For as good disciplines are the true and proper nourishment of vertue so are the euill the very poison of the same Then said Captaine Carleil as concerning the difference between the auncient musike and ours in this age I do easily agree with you and wish it were otherwise that we might see now a dayes those wonderfull effects of this excellent Art which are written of it in auncient authors But where you so highly extoll the studie of Poesie you make me not a little to maruel considering how Plato being so learned a man did not onely make small estimation thereof but banished it expresly from his common-weale Let not that seeme strange vnto you said I for Plato condemned not Poesie but onely those Poets that abused so excellent a facultie scribling either wanton toyes or else by foolish imitation taking vpon them to expresse high conceirs which themselues vnderstood not And specially did he reprehend those Poets who in their fictions did ascribe to the Gods such actions as would haue bin vnseemely for the most wanton and vicious men of the world as the adultery of Mars and Venus those of Iupiter with Semele with Europa with Danaë with Calisto and many moe Though some haue vnder such fictions sought to teach morall and maruellous sences which Plato likewise in his second Alcibiades declareth But he blamed not those Poets who frame their verses and compositions to the honor of God and to good examples of modestie and vertue For in his books of Lawes he introduceth Poets to sing Himnes to their Gods and teacheth the maner of their Chori in their sacrifices and to make prayers for the Common-weale Howbeit to say truth though he so do he would not haue it lawfull for euery man to publish any composition that he had made without the allowance and view of some magistrate elected in the citie for that purpose Which magistracy he would haue to be of no fewer in number then fiftie men of grauitie and wisedome of such importance did he hold the compositions of Poets to be Which regard if it were had now a dayes we should not see so many idle and profane toyes spred abroade by some that think the preposterous turning of phrases and making of rime with little reason to be an excellent kinde of writing and fit to breed them fame and reputation