doth not enrich or empouerish his Common-wealth yet wee cannot deny but that it doth much for the reputation of his person For the vanity and curiosity of garments dooth shew great lightnes of mind According to the variety of ages so ought the diuersity of apparrell to bee which seemeth to be very cleare in that the young maides are attired in one sort the married women of an other sort the widdowes of an other And likewise I would say that the apparrell of children ought to be of one sort those of young men of an other and those of olde men of an other which ought to be more honester then all For men of hoary heades ought not to be adorned with precious garments but with vertuous workes To goe cleanely to bee well apparrelled and to bee well accompanied wee doe not forbidde the olde especially those which are noble and valiant men but to goe fine to go with great traines and to go very curious wee doe not allow Let the old men pardon mee for it is not the office but of yong fooles for the one sheweth honesty and the other lightnesse It is a confusion to tell it but it is greater shame to do it that is to say that many olde men of our time take no smal felicity to put caules on their heads euery man to weare iewels on their necks to lay their caps with agglets of gold to seeke out diuers inuētions of mettall to loade their fingers with rich rings to go perfumed with odoriferous sauors to weare new fashioned apparrell and finally I say that thogh their face be ful of wrinckles they cannot suffer one wrinckle to be in their gowne All the ancient histories accuse Quint. Hortensius the Romane for that euery time when he made himselfe ready hee had a glasse before him and as much space and time had hee to streighten the pleytes of his gowne as a Woman hadde to trimme the haires of her head This Quintus Hortensius being Consull going by chance one day through Rome in a narrow streete met with the other Consull where thorough the streightnes of the passage the pleights of his Gowne were vndone vppon which occasion hee complained vnto the Senate of the other Consull that he had deserued to loose his life The Author of all this is Macrobius in the third book of the Saturnales I can not tell if I be deceyued but we may say that all the curiositie that olde men haue to goe fine well apparrelled and cleane is for no other thing but to shake off Age and to pretende right to youth What a griefe is it to see diuers auncient men the which as ripe Figges do fall and on the other side it is a wonder to see how in theyr age they make themselues young In this case I say would to God wee might see them hate vices and not to complaine of their yeares which they haue I pray and exhort all Princes and great Lordes whome our soueraigne Lord hath permitted to come to age that they doe not despise to bee aged For speaking the truth the man which hath enuie to seeme olde doth delight to liue in the lightnes of youth Also men of honor ought to be very circumspect for so much as after they are become aged they bee not suspected of their friends but that both vnto their friends and foes they be counted faithfull For a Lye in a young mans mouth is esteemed but a lye but in the mouth of an auncient or aged old man it is counted as a haynous blasphemie Noble Princes and great Lordes after they are become aged of one sort they ought to vse themselues to giue and of the other to speake For good Princes ought to sell theyr wordes by weight and giue rewardes without measure The Auncient do oftentimes complaine saying That the young will not bee conuersant with them and truely if there be any faulte therein it is of themselues And the reason is that if sometimes they doe assemble together to passe away the time if the old man set a talking he neuer maketh an ende So that a discrete man had rather goe a dozen miles on foot then to heare an olde man talke three houres If with such efficacie we perswade olde men that they be honest in theyr apparrell for a truth we will not giue them licence to bee dissolute in theyr words since there is a great difference to note some man in his Apparrell or to accuse him to bee malitious or a babler For to weare rich and costly Apparell iniurieth fewe but iniurious words hurt manie Macrobius in his first booke of the dreames of Scipio declareth of a Phylosopher named Crito who liued an hundred and fiue yeares and till fiftie yeares hee was farre out of course But after hee came to be aged he was so well measured in his eating and drinking and so warie in his speeche that they neuer saw him do any thing worthy reprehension nor heard him speake word but was worthie of noting On this condition wee would giue licence to manie that till fiftie yeares they should bee young So that from thenceforth they would be clothed as old men speake as old men and they should esteeme themselues to be olde But I am sorrie that all the Spring time doth passe in flower and afterwardes they fall into the graue as rotten before they finde any time to pull them out The olde doe complaine that the young doe not take their aduise and their excuse herein is that in their words they are too long For if a man doe demaund an olde man his opinion in a case immediately hee will beginne to say that in the life of such and such Kings and Lords of good memory this was done this was prouided so that when a young man asketh them counsel how hee shall be haue himselfe with the liuing the olde man beginneth to declare vnto him the life of those which be dead The reason why the olde men desire to speake so long is that since for their age they cannot see nor go nor eate nor sleepe they would that all the time their members were occupied to doe their duties all that time their tongue should bee occupied to declare of their times past All this being spoken what more is to say I know not but that wee should content our selues that the olde men should haue their flesh as much punished as they haue their tong with talke martyred Though it bee very vile for a young man to speake and slaunder to a young man not to say the truth yet this vice is much more to be abhorred in old Princes and other noble and worshipfull men which ought not onely to thinke it their duty to speake truth but also to punish the enemies thereof For otherwise the noble and valiant Knights should not lose a litle of their authority if a man saw on their heads but white haires and in their mouthes found
a perpetuall memorie What contempt of world what forgetfulnesse of himselfe what stroke of fortune what whippe for the flesh what little regard of life O what bridle for the vertuous O what confusion for those that loue life O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those here haue willingly despised their owne liues it is not to be thought that they dyed to take the goods of others neither yet to thinke that our life should neuer haue end nor our couetousnesse in like manner O glorious people and ten thousand fold happy that the proper sensuality being forsaken haue ouercom the naturall appetite to desire to liue not beleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall Destenies By the way they assaulted fortune they changed life for death they offered the body to death and aboue all haue wonne honour with the Gods not for that they shoulde hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluous of life Archagent a Surgeon of Rome and Anthonius Musus a Physition of the Emperour Augustus and Esculapius father of the Phisicke should get little money in that Countrie Hee that then should haue sent to the barbarous to haue done as the Romanes at that time did that is to say to take sirrops in the mornings pils at night to drinke milke in the morning to annoint themselues with gromeâ—seed to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eate of one thing and to abstaine from many a man ought to thinke that hee which willingly seeketh death will not giue money to lengthen life CHAP. XXII The Emperour concludeth his letter and shewed what perils those olde men liue in which dissolutely like young children passe their dayes and giueth vnto them wholesome counsell for the remedy thereof BVt returning to thee Claude and to thee Claudine me thinketh that these barbarous men beeing fifty yeares of age and you others hauing aboue threescore and tenne it should be iust that sithence you were elder in yeares you were equall in vertue and though as they you wil not accept death patiently yet at the least you ought to amend your euill liues willingly I doe remember that it is many yeares sithens that Fabritius the young sonne of Fabritius the olde had ordayned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told me great inconueniences had happned and sithens that you did me so great a benefite I would now requite you the same with another the like For amongst friends there is no equal benefite then to deceiue the deceyuer I let you know if you do not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are sunke into your heads the nostrels are shut the haires are white the hearing is lost the tongue faultereth the teeth fall the face is wrinkled the feete swolne and the stomacke cold Finally I say that if the graue could speake as vnto his Subiects by iustice he might commaund you to inhabite his house It is great pitty of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorance for then vnto such their eies are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth them to the graue Plato in his booke of the Common wealth sayde that in vaine wee giue good counsels to fond and light young men for youth is without experience of that it knoweth suspitious of that it heareth incredible of that is tolde him despising the counsell of an other and very poore of his own For so much as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the young haue of the good is not so much but the obstination which the olde hath in the euill is more For the mortall Gods many times doe dissemble with a thousand offences commited by ignorance but they neuer forgiue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doe not maruell that you doe forget the gods as you doe which created you and your Fathers which begot you and your parents which haue loued you and your friends which haue honoured you but that which I most maruell at is that you forget your selues For you neuer consider what you ought to bee vntill such time as you bee there where you would not bee and that without power to returne backe againe Awake awake since you are drowned in your dreames open your eyes since you sleepe so much accustome your selues to trauels sithence you are vagabonds learne that which behoueth you since now you are olde I meane that in time conuenient you agree with death before he make execution of life Fifty two yeeres haue I knowne the things of the world and yet I neuer saw a Woman so aged thorough yeares nor old man with members so feeble that for want of strength could not if they list doe good nor yet for the same occasion should leaue to bee euill if they list to be euill It is a maruellous thing to see and worthy to note that all the corporall members of Man waxeth old but the inward hart and the outward tongue For the heart is alwayes giuen to inuent euills and the tongue is alwayes able to tell Lyes Mine opinion is that the pleasaunt Summer beeing past you should prepare your selues for the vntemperate winter which is at hand And if you haue but fewe dayes to continue you should make hast to take vp your lodging I meane that sith you haue passed the dayes of your life with trauell you should prepare your selues against the night of death to be in the hauen of rest Let mockeryes passe as mockeries and accept trueth as truth that is to say that it were a very iust thing and also for your honour necessarie that all shose which in times past haue seen you young and foolish should now in your age see you graue and sage For there is nothing that so much forgetteth the lightnesse and follyes of youth as doth grauity and constancie in Age. When the Knight runneth his carriere they blame him not for that the Horses mane is not finely combed but at the end of his race he shold see his horse amended and looked vnto What greater confusion can be to any person or greater slaunder to our mother Rome then to see that which now a dayes therein we see That is to say that the old which can scarcely creepe through the streetes to beholde the playes and games as young men which search for nought else but onely pompe and vanitie It grieueth mee to speake it but I am much more ashamed to see that the olde Romaines do daylie cause the white haires to be plucked out of their heads because they would not seeme old to make their beard small to seem yong wearing their hosen very close their shyrts open before the gowne of the Senatour embrodered the Romane signe richly enamelled the
doth not weigh vs as we are but as wee desire to bee And let no man say I would and cānot be good for as wee haue the audacitie to commit a faulte so if we list wee may enforce our selues to worke amendes All our vndoing proceedeth of this that wee outwardly make a shewe of vertue but inwardly in the deede wee employ our whole power to vice which is an abuse wherewith all the world is corrupted and deceiued For Heauen is not furnished but with good deedes and hell is not replenished but with Euill-desires I graunt that neyther man nor beast desireth to die but all trauell to the ende they may liue But I aske now this question What doth it auayle a man to desire his life to be prolonged if the same be wicked vngodly and defamed The man that is high-minded proude vnconstant cruell disdainfull enuious full of hatred angry malicious full of wrath couetous a Lyer a Gluton a Blasphemer and in all his doings disordred Why will wee suffer him in the world The life of a poor man that for need stealeth a gowne or any other small trifle is forthwith taken away Why then is hee that disturbeth the whole Common-wealth left aliue Oh would to GOD there were no greater theeues in the world thē those which robbe the temporall goods of the Rich and that wee did not winke continually at them which take away the good renowne as well of the Rich as of the Poore But wee chastise the one and dissemble with the other which is euidently seene how the theefe that stealeth my neighbours gown is hanged forthwith but hee that robbeth mee of my good-name walketh still before my doore The diuine Plato in the first booke of laws saide We ordaine and commaund that hee which vseth not himselfe honestly and hath not his house well-reformed his Riches well gouerned his family well instructed and liueth not in peace with his neighbors that vnto him bee assigned Tutours which shall gouerne him as a Foole and as a vacabonde shall he be expulsed from the people to the intent the common-wealth be not through him infected For there neuer riseth contention or strife in a commonwealth but by such men as are alwayes out of order Truely the diuine Plato had great reason in his sayings for the man that is vicious in his person and doth not trauell in things touching his House nor keepeth his Familie in good order nor liueth quietly in the Commonwealth deserueth to be banished and driuen out of the countrey Truely we see in diuers places mad men tyed and bound fast which if they were at libertie would not doe so much harme as those doe that daylie walke the streetes at their owne willes and sensualitie There is not at this day so great or noble a Lord nor Ladie so delicate but had rather suffer a blow on the head with a stone then a blot in their good-Name with an euilltongue For the wound of the head in a month or two may well bee healed but the blemish of their good-name during life will neuer be remoued Laertius sayth in his booke of the liues of Phylosophers that Dyogenes being asked of one of his neighbours what they were that ordayned theyr Lawes Aunswered in this wise Thou shalt vnderstand my friend that the earnest whole desire of our Fore-fathers and all the intentions of the phylosophers was only to instruct them in their Common-wealth how they ought to speake how to be occupyed how to eate how to sleepe how to treat how to apparrel how to trauell and how to rest And in this consisteth all the wealth of worldly wisedome In deede this Phylosopher in his aunswer touched an excellent point For the Law was made to none other end but only to brydle him that liueth without Reason or Law To men that will liue in rest and without trouble in this life it is requisite and necessarie that they chuse to themselues some kinde and manner of Liuing whereby they may maintaine their house in good-order and conforme their liues vnto the same That estate ought not to be as the folly of the person doth desire nor as may bee most pleasant to the delights of the bodie but as reason teacheth them and God commaundeth them for the surer saluation of theyr soules For the Children of vanitie embrace that onely which the sensuall appetite desireth and reiect that which Reason commaundeth Since the time that Trees were created they alwayes remaining in their first nature vntill this present day doe beare the same leafe and fruite which things are plainly seen in this that the Palme beareth Dates the Fig-tree figs the Nut-tree Nuttes the Peare-tree Peares the Apple-tree Apples the Chestnut-tree chest-nuts the Oke Acornes and to conclude I say all things haue kept their first nature saue onely the Sinnefull-Man which hath fallen by malice The Planettes the Starres the Heauens the Water the Earth the Ayre and the Fire the brute beasts and the Fishes all continue in the same estate wherein they were first created not complaining nor enuying the one the other Man complaineth continually hee is neuer satisfyed and alwayes coueteth to chaunge his estate For the shepheard would be a Husbandman the husbandman a Sqiure the Squire a Knight the Knight a King the King an Emperour c. Therefore I say that fewe is the number of them that seeke amendment of life but infinite are they that trauell to better their estate and to increase their goods The decay of the Common-wealth at this present through all the world is that the drye and withered Okes which haue been nourished vpon the sharpe mountains would now seeme to be daintie Date-trees cherished in the pleasant gardains I meane that those which yesterday could haue bin pleasant with drye Acornes in a poore cottage at home at this day will not eate but of delicate Dishes in other mens houses abrode What estate men ought to take vpon them to keepe their conscience pure and to haue more rest in theyr life a man cannot easily describe For ther is no state in the Church of God but men may therin if they will serue God and profite themselues For there is no kinde of life in the world but the wicked if they perseuer and continue therein may slaunder their persons and also lose their soules Plinie in an Epistle that hee wrote to Fabatus his friend saith There is nothing among mortall men more common and daungerous then to giue place to vaine imaginations wherby a man beleeueth the estate of one to bee much better then the estate of another And hereof it proceedeth that the World doeth blinde men so that they will rather seeke that which is an other mans by trauell and daunger then to enioy their owne with quiet and rest I say the state of Princes is good if they abuse it not I say the state of the people is good if they behaue themselues obediently I say
the state of the rich is good if they will Godly vse it I say the estate of the Religious is good if they be able to profite others I say the estate of the communaltie is good if they will content themselues I say the estate of the poore is good if they haue pacience For it is no merite to suffer troubles if wee haue not pacience therein During the time of this our miserable life we cannot denie but in euery estate there is both trouble danger For then onely our estate shall be perfite when we shall come gloriously in soule and bodie without the feare of death and also when we shall reioyce without daungers in life Returning againe to our purpose Mightie Prince although wee all be of value little wee all haue little we all can attaine little wee all know little we all are able to doe little we all loue but little yet in all this little the state of Princes seemeth some great and high thing For that worldly men say There is no such felicitie in this life as to haue authoritie to cōmaund many and to be bound to obey none But if eyther subiects knew how deere Princes by their power to command or if princes knew how sweet a thing it is to liue in quiet doubtles the subjects would pittie their rulers and the rulers would not enuie their subiects For full fewe are the pleasures which Princes enjoy in respect of the troubles that they endure Since then the estates of Princes is greater then all that hee may do more then all is of more value then all vpholdeth more then all And finally that from thence proceedeth the gouernement of all it is more needefull that the House the Person and the life of a Prince be better gouerned and ordered then all the rest For euen as by the meate-yard the Marchaunt measureth all his wares So by the life whole of the Prince is measured the whole common-weale Many sorrowes endureth the woman in nourishing a way-ward child great trauell taketh a Schoolmaster in teaching an vntoward scholler much paines taketh an Officer in gouerning a multitude ouer-great How great then is the paine and perill wherevnto I offer my selfe in taking vpon mee to order the life of such an one vpon whose life dependeth all the good estate of a Common-weale For Noble Princes and great Lords ought of vs to bee serued and not offended wee ought to exhort them not to vexe them wee ought to encreate them not to rebuke them wee ought to aduise them and not to defame them Finally I say the right simple reckon I that Surgion which with the same plaisters hee layed to a harde heele seeketh to cure the tender Eyes I meane by this comparison that my purpose is not to tell Princes and Noble-men in this booke what they be but to warne them what they ought to bee not to tell them what they do but to aduise them what they ought to doe For that Noble-man which will not amende his life for remorse of his owne conscience Iidoe thinke hee will doe it for the writing of my pen. Paulus Dyaconus the first Hystoriographer in the second booke of his Commentaryes sheweth an antiquitie right worthie to remember and also pleasaunt to read Although indeed to the hinderaunce of my selfe I shall rehearse it It is as of the Henne who by long scraping on the Dung-hill discouereth the knife that shall cut her owne throate Thus was the case Hanniball the most renowmed Prince and captain of Carthage after hee was vanquished by the aduenturous Scipio fled into Asia to king Antiochus a prince then liuing of great vertue who receyued him into his realme tooke him into his protection and right honourably intertayned him in his house And truly king Antiochus did heerein as a pittyfull prince For what can more beautifie the honour of a Prince then to succour Nobilitie in their needefull estate These two Noble Princes vsed diuers exercises to spende the time honourablie and thus they diuided their time Sometime to hunt in the mountains otherwhiles to disporre them in the fields oft to view their Armeys But chiefly they resorted to the Schooles to heare the Phylosophers And truely they did like wise and skilfull men For there is no houre in a day otherwise so well employed as in hearing a wise pleasant tongued man There was at a time in Ephesus a famous Philosopher called Phormio which openly and publikely read and taught the people of the realme And one day as these two Princes came into the Schoole the Philosopher Phormio chaunged the matter whereupon he read and of a sudden began to talke of the meanes and wayes that Princes ought to vse in warre and of the order to bee kept in giuing battell Such so strange and high phrased was the matter which hee talked of that not onely they maruelled which neuer before saw him but euen those also that of long time had daily heard him For herein curious and flourishing wits shew their excellency in that they neuer want fresh matter to entreate vpon Greatly gloried the King Antiochus that this Philosopher in presēce of this strange Prince had so excellently spoken so that strangers might vnderstand he had his realme stored with wise men For couragious and noble Princes esteem nothing so precious as to haue men valiāt to defend their Frontiers and also wise to gouerne their common-weales The Lecture read King Antiochus demaunded of the Prince Hannibal how he liked the talke of the Philosopher Formio to whom Hanibal stoutly answered and in his answer shewed himselfe to bee of that stoutnesse he was the same day when he wan the great battell at Cannas for although noble hearted and couragious Princes lose all their estates and realmes yet they will neuer confesse their harts to be ouerthrowne nor vanquished And these were the words that at that time Hannibal sayde Thou shalt vnderstand K. Antiochus that I haue seene diuers doting old men yet I neuer saw a more dotard foole thē Phormio whom thou callest such a great Philosopher For the greatest kinde of folly is when a man that hath but a little vaine science presumeth to teach not those which haue onely science also such as haue most certaine experience Tell me King Antiochus what hart can brooke with patience or what tongue can suffer with silence to see a silly man as this Philosopher is nourished all his life time in a corner of Greece studying Philosophie to presume as hee hath done to talke before the prince Hannibal of the affayres of warre as though hee had beene eyther Lord of Affrique or Captaine of Rome Certes hee eyther full little knoweth himselfe or else but little esteemeth vs For it appeareth by his vaine wordes hee would seeme to know more in matters of warre by that hee hath read in bookes then doth Hanniball by the sundry great battels which he hath fought in the fields Oh King Antiothus how
farre and how great is the difference betweene the estate of Phylosophers and the state of Captaines betweene the skyll to reade in Schooles and the knowledge to rule an Armey betweene the science that wise men haue in bookes and the experience that the others haue in warre betweene their skill to write with the penne and ours to fight with the Sword betweene one that for his pastime is set round with deskes of bookes and an other in perill of life encompassed with troups of Enemyes For many there are which with great eloquence in blazing deeds don in warres can vse their tongues but fewe are those that at the brunte haue hearts to aduenture their liues This Phylosopher neuer saw man of war in the field neeer saw one Armey of men discomfited by an other neuer heard the terrible Trumpet sound to the horrible cruel slaughter of men neuer saw the Treasons of some nor vnderstood the cowardnes of others neuer saw how few they be that fight nor how many ther are that run away Finally I say as it is seemly for a Phylosopher and a learned man to praise the profite of peace Euen so it is in his mouth a thing vncomely to prate of the perills ' of warre If this Phylosopher hath seene no one thing with his Eyes that hee hath spoken but onely read them in sundry bookes let him recount them to such as haue neyther seene nor read them For warlike feates are better learned in the bloudy fields of Affricke then in the beautifull schooles of Greece Thou knowest right well king Antiochus that for the space of thirty and sixe yeares I had continuall and daungerous warres as well in Italie as in Spayne In which Fortune did not fauour mee as is alwayes her manner to vse those which by great stoutnesse and manhood enterprise things high and of much difficultie a witnesse whereof thou seest mee here who before my beard beganne to growe was serued and now it is hoare I my selfe beginne to serue I sweare vnto thee by the God Mars king Antiochus that if any man did aske mee how hee should vse and behaue himselfe in warre I would not aunswer him one word For they are things which are learned by Experience of deedes and not by prating in words Although Princes beginne warres by justice and followe them with wisedome yet the ende standeth vppon fickle Fortune and not of force nor pollicie Diuerse and sundrie other things Hannibal sayde vnto king Antiochus who so bee desirous to see let him reade in the Apothegmes of Plutarche This example Noble Prince tendeth rather to this end to condemne my boldnesse and not to commend my enterprise saying that the affayres of the common wealth bee as vnknowne to mee as the dangers of the warres were to Phormio Your Maiestie may iustly say vnto me that I being a poor simple man brought vp a great while in a rude Countrey doe greatly presume to describe how so puissant a Prince as your Highnes ought to gouerne himselfe and his Realme For of truth the more ignorant a man is of the troubles and alterations of the world the better he shall be counted in the sight of God The estate of Princes is to haue great traines about them and the estate of religious men is to bee solitary for the seruant of God ought to be alwaies void from vaine thoughts to be euer accompanied with holy meditations The estate of Princes is alwayes vnquiet but the state of the religious is to bee enclosed For otherwise he aboue all others may be called an Apostata That hath his body in the Cell and his heart in the market place To Princes it is necessary to commune and speake with all men but for the religious it is not decent to be cōuersant with the world For solitary men if they do as they ought should occupy their hands in trauel their bodies in fasting their tongue in prayer and their heart in contemplation The estate of Princes for the most part is employed to war but the estate of religious is to desire procure peace For if the Prince would study to passe his bounds and by battell to shed the bloud of his enemies the religious ought to shed teares and pray to God for his sinnes O that it pleased Almighty God as I know what my bounden duty is in my heart so that hee would giue me grace to accomplish the same in my deedes Alas when I ponder with my selfe the weightines of my matter my Pen through slouth and negligence is readie to fall out of my hand and I halfe minded to leaue off mine enterprize My intent is to speake against my selfe in this case For albeit men may know the affaires of Princes by experience yet they shall not know how to speake nor write them but by science Those which ought to counsell princes those which ought to reforme the life of princes and that ought to instruct them ought to haue a cleare iudgement an vpright minde their words aduisedly considered their doctrine wholesome and their life without suspition For who so wil speake of high things hauing no experience of them is like vnto a blinde man that would leade and teach him the way which seeth better then hee himselfe This is the sentence of Xenophon the great which saieth There is nothing harder in this life then to know a wise man And the reason which hee gaue was this That a wise man cannot bee knowne but by another wise man wee may gather by this which Xenophon sayeth That as one wise man cannot be knowne but by another wise man so likewise it is requisite that he should be or haue bin a Prince which should write of the life of a Prince For hee that hath bin a marriner and hath sailed but one yeare on the Sea shall bee able to giue better counsell and aduise then he that hath dwelled ten yeares in the hauen Xenophon wrote a booke touching the institution of princes bringeth in Cambyses the king how hee taught and spake vnto king Cyrus his sonne And he wrote an other book likewise of the Arte of Chiualry and brought in king Philip how he ought to teach his sonne Alexander to fight For the philosophers thought that writing of no authoritie that was not entituled and set foorth vnder the Names of those Princes who had experience of that they wrote Oh if an aged Prince would with his penne if not with word of mouth declare what misfortunes haue happened since the first time hee beganne to raigne how disobedient his subjects haue bin vnto him what griefes his seruants haue wroght against him what vnkindnesse his Friendes haue shewed him what wiles his enemies haue vsed towards him what daunger his person hath escaped what jarres hath bin in his Pallace what faultes they haue layde against him how manie times they haue deceyued straungers Finally what griefes hee hath had by day and what sorrowfull sighs
whereby the good were fauoured and also institutions of grieuous paines wherewith the wicked were punished Although truely I had rather and it were better that the good should loue reason then feare the law I speake of those which leaue to doe euill workes for feare onely of falling into the punishments appoynted for euill doers For although men approue that which they do for the present yet God condemaeth that which they desire Seneca in an epistle hee wrote vnto his friende Lucille saide these wordes Thou writest vnto mee Lucille that those of Scicile haue carryed a great quantitie of Corne into Spaine and into Affrike the which was forbidden by a Romaine law and therefore they haue deserued most grieuous punishment Now because thou art vertuous Thou mayest teache mee to doe well and I that am olde will teach thee to say well and this is because that amongst wise and vertuous men it is enough to say that the Law commaundeth appoynteth and suffereth this thing but in as much as it is agreeing with reason For the crowne of the good is reason and the scourge of the wicked is the law The fourth thing that commonly through the worlde amongst all men was accepted was the Barbers And let no man take this thing in mockery For if they doe reade Plinie in the 59. chapter and the seuenth booke there they shall finde for a Trueth that in those former times the Romaines were in Rome 454. yeares without eyther powling or shauing the hâ—ires off the bearde of anie man Marcus Varro said that Publius 〈◊〉 was the first that brought the barbers from Scicilie to Rome But admit it were so or otherwise yet notwithstanding there was a great contention among the Romaines For they sayd they thought it a rash thing for a man to commit his life vnto the curtesie of another Dyonisius the Syracusian neuer trusted his Beard with any barbor but when his Daughters were very little they clipped his beard with sisers but after they became great hee would not put his trust in them to trimme his beard but hee himselfe did burne it with the shales of nuttes This Dyonisius Syracusan was demaunded why hee would not trust any Barbours with his beard He aunswered Because I know that there bee some which will giue more to the Barbor to take away my life then I will giue to trimme my beard Plinie in the seuenth booke sayeth that the great Scipio called Affrican and the Emperour Augustus were the first that caused them in Rome to shaue their beards And I thinke the end why Plinie spake these things was to exalt these two Princes which had as great courage to suffer the rasours to touch their throats as the one for to fight against Hanniball in Affricke and the other against Sextus Pompeius in Scicilie The fifte thing which commonly throgh the world was accepted were the Dyalls and clockes which the Romains wanted a long time For as Plinie and Marcus Varro say the Romaines were without clockes in Rome for the space of 595. yeares The curious Hystoriographers declare three manner of dyalls that were in old time that is to say Dyalls of the houres Dyalls of the Sunne and Dyalls of the Water The dyall of the Sunne Aneximenides Millesius inuented who was great Animandraes scholler The dyall of the water Scipio Nasica inuented the dyall of houres one of the Schollers of Thales the phylosopher inuented Now of all these Antiquities which were brought into Rome none of them were so acceptable to the Romaines as the Dyalls were whereby they measured the day by the houre For before they could not say we will rise at seuen of the clocke wee will dine at ten we will see one the other at twelue at one wee will doe that wee ought to doe But before they sayde after the Sunne is vp wee wil doe such a thing and before it goe downe wee will do that wee ought to doe The occasion of declaring vnto you these fiue antiquities in this preamble was to no other entent but to call my Booke the Diall of Princes The name of the Booke beeing new as it is may make the learning that is therin greatly to be esteemed God forbid that I should bee so bolde to say they haue been so long time in Spaine without dayes of learning as they were in Rome without the Diall of the Sunne the water and of the houres For that in Spaine haue beene alwaies men well learned in Sciences and very expert in the warres By great reason and of greater occasion the Princes ought to bee commended the knights the people their wits and the fertility of their Countrey but yet to all these goodnesse I haue seen many vnlearned bookes in Spaine which as broken Dials deserue to bee cast into the fire to bee forged anew I doe not speake it without a cause that many bookes deserue to bee broken and burnt For there are so many that without shame and honesty doe set forth bookes of loue of the world at this day as boldlie as if they taught them to despise and speake euill of the world It is pitty to see how many dayes and nights be consumed in reading vaine bookes that is to say Orson and Valentine the Court of Venus and the foure sonnes of Amon and diuers other vaine bookes by whose doctrine I dare boldly say they passe not the time but in perdition for they learne not how they ought to flye vice but rather what way they may with more pleasure embrace it This Diall of Princes is not of sand nor of the Sunne nor of the houres nor of the water but it is the Diall of Life For the other Dials serue to know what houre it is in the night and what houre it is of the day but this sheweth and teacheth vs how wee ought to occupie our minds and how to order our life The property of other Dials is to order things publike but the Nature of this dyal of Princes is to teach vs how to occupie our selues euerie houre and how to amend our life euery moment It little auaileth to keepe the dyalls well and to see thy Subiects dissolutely without any order to range in routes and dayly rayse debate and contention among themselues The End of the generall Prologue THE AVTHOVRS PROLOGVE SPEAKETH PARTICVLARLIE of the Booke called MARCVS AVRELIVS which he translated and dedicated to the Emperour CHARLES the fift THe greatest vanity that I finde in the world is that vaine men are not onely content to be vaine in their life but also procure to leaue a memory of their vanity after their death For it is so thought good vnto vaine and light men which serue the world in vain works that at the houre of death when they perceyue they can do no more and that they can no longer preuaile they offer themselues vnto death which now they see approch vpon them Many of the World are so fleshed in the World that
although it forsaketh them in deedes yet they will not forsake it in their desires And I durst sweare that if the World could grant them perpetuall life they would promise it alwayes to remaine in their customable folly O what a number of vaine men are aliue which haue neyther remembrance of God to serue him nor of his glorie to obey him nor of their conscience to make it cleane but like bruit beasts fellow and runne after their voluptuous pleasures The bruit beast is angry if a man keepe him too much in awe if he bee weary hee taketh his rest hee sleepeth when hee lifteth he eateth and drinketh when hee commeth vnto it and vnlesse hee be compelled hee doth nothing hee taketh no care for the common-wealth for he neither knoweth how to follow reason nor yet how to resist sensuality Therefore if a man at all times should eate when hee desireth reuenge himselfe when he is moued commit adulterie when hee is tempted drinke when he is thirsty sleep when he is drousie wee might more properly call such a one a beast nourished in the mountaines then a man brought vp in the common-wealth For him properly wee may call a mā that gouerneth himselfe like a man that is to say conformable vnto such things as reason willeth not where sensuality leadeth Let vs leaue these vaine men which are aliue and talke of them that bee dead against whom wee dare say that whiles they were in the world they followed the world and liued according to the same It is not to be maruelled at that since they were liuing in the world they were noted of some world point But seeing their vnhappy and wicked life is ended why will they then smell of the vanities of the World in their graues It is a great shame and dishonour for men of noble and stout hearts to see in one moment the end of our life and neuer to see the end of our solly Wee neyther reade heare nor see any thing more common then such men as bee most vnprofitable in the Common wealth and of life most reprobate to take vpon them most honour whiles they liue and to leaue behind them the greatest memory at their death What vanity can bee greater in the world then to esteeme the world which esteemeth no man to make no account of God who so greatly regardeth all men What greater folly can there bee in man then by much trauell to encrease his goods with vaine pleasures to loose his soule It is an olde plague in mans nature that many or the most part of men leaue the amendement of their life farre behind to set their honour the more before Suetonius Tranquillus in the first booke of the Emperours sayth that Iulius Caesar no further then in Spaine in the City of Cales now called Calis saw in the Temple the triumphes of Alexāder the great painted the which when hee had well viewed he sighed maruellous sore and being asked why hee did so hee answered What a wofull case am I in that am now of the age of thirty yeares and Alexander at the same yeeres had subdued the whole world and rested him in Babylon And I being as I am a Romane neuer did yet thing worthy of prayse in my life nor shall leaue any renowne of mee after my death Dion the Grecian in the second booke De audacia sayeth that the noble Drusius the Almaine vsed to visite the graues and tombes of the famous and renowmed which were buryed in Italie and did this alwayes especially at his going to warfare And it was asked why hee did so Hee answered I visit the sepulchers of Scipio and of diuers others which are dead before whom all the Earth trembled when they were aliue For in beholding their prosperous successe I did recouer both strength and stoutnesse He saith furthermore that it encourageth a man to fight against his enemyes remembring hee shall leaue of him a memory in time to come Cicero saith in his Rhethorike and also Plynie maketh mention of the same in an Epistle that there came from Thebes in Egipt a knight to Rome for no other purpose but only to see whether it were true or no that was reported of the notable things of Rome Whom Moecenas demanded what he perceyued of the Romaines and what he thought of Rome He answered The memory of the absent doth more content me then the glory of the present doth satisfie me And the reason of this is The desire which men haue to extoll the liuing to be equall vnto the dead maketh things so straunge in their life that they deserue immortal fame after their death The Romaines reioyced not a little to heare such wordes of a straungers mouth wherby he praised them which were departed and exalted them which yet liued Oh what a thing it is to consider the auncient heathens which neyther feared Hell nor hoped for Heauen and yet by remembrance of weaknes they tooke vnto them strength by cowardnes they were boldened throgh feare they became hardy of dangers they tooke encouragement of enemyes they made friends of pouertie they tooke patience of malice they learned experience Finally I say they denyed their owne willes and followed the'opinions of others only to leaue behind them a memorie with the dead and to haue a little honour with the dead Oh how many are they that trust the vnconstantnesse of Fortune onely to leaue some notable memorie behinde them Let vs call to minde some worthie examples whereby they may see that to be true which I haue spokē What made king Ninus to inuent such warres Queene Semiramis to make such buildings Vlisses the Grecian to sulke so many Seas king Alexander to conquere so many Lands Hercules the Thebane to set vp his Pillars where hee did Caius Casar the Romaine to giue 52. battells at his pleasure Cyrus King of Persia to ouercome both the Asiaes Hanniball the Carthaginian to make so cruell warres against the Romaines Pyrrhus king of the Epirotes to come down into Italie Attila King of the Hunnes to defie all Europe Truely they would not haue taken vpon them such daungerous enterprises onely vpon the wordes of them which were in those dayes present but because we should so esteem them that should come after Seeing then that wee bee men and the children of men it is not a little to bee maruelled at to see the diuersitie betweene the one and the other and what cowardnes there is in the hearts of some and contrarywise what courage in the stomackes of others For we see commonly now-adayes that if there bee tenne of stoute courages which are desirous with honour to dye there are ten thousands cowards which through shamefull pleasures seeke to prolong their life The man that is ambitious thinking him most happie who with much estimation can keepe his renowm and with little care regard his life And on the other side hee that will set by his life
shall haue but in small estimation his renowme The Syrians Assyrians the Thebanes the Chaldees the Greekes the Macedonians the Rhodians the Romaines the Hunnes the Germains and the Frenchmen if such Noble-men as amongst these were most famous had not aduentured their liues by such daungerous Enterprizes they had neuer got such immortall fame as they had done to leaue to their posteritie Sextus Cheronensis in his third book of the valiant deedes of the Romaines saith that the famous captaine Marcus Marcellus which was the first of all men that saw the backe of Hannibal in the field was demaunded of one how he durst enter into battell with such a renowmed captaine as Hanniball was To whom he answered Friend I am a Romaine borne and a Captaine of Rome and I must daily put my life in hazard for my Countreys sake for so I shall make perpetuall my renowme Hee was demaunded againe why hee stroke his enemys with such fiercenes and why hee did so pittifully lament those which were ouercome after the victory gotten in battell Hee aunswered the Captaine which is a Romane and is not iudged to bee a tyrant ought with his owne hand to shed the bloud of his enemies and also to shed the teares of his eyes A captaine Romane ought more to aduance him of his clemency then of his bloudy victory And Marcus Aurelius sayeth further when a Romane captaine shall bee in the field hee hath an eye to his enemies with hope to vanquish thē but after they bee vanquished hee ought to remember they are men that he might haue been ouercome For fortune sheweth her selfe in nothing so common as in the successes of warre Certainely these were words well beseeming such a man and surely wee may boldly say that all those which shall heare or reade such things will commend the wordes which that Romane spake but few are they that indeed would haue done the feates that hee did For there be many that are readie to praise in their wordes that which is good but there are fewe that in their workes desire to followe the same Such hearts are vnquiet and much altered by sight and enuie that they bare towardes their Auncients which throgh manfulnes attained vnto great triumphs and glorie let them remember what daungers and trauells they passed through before they came thereto For there was neuer Captaine that euer triumphed in Rome vnlesse hee had first aduentured his life a thousand times in the field I thinke I am not deceiued in this that I will say That is to say all are desirous to taste of the marrow of Fame-present but none will breake the bone for feare of perill ensuing If Honour could bee bought with desire onely I dare boldly say it would bee more esteemed in these dayes of the poore page then it was in times past of the valiaunt Romaine Scipio For there is not at this day so poore a man but would desire honour aboue all things What a dolefull case is this to see many gentlemen and young Knights become euil disposed vagabonds and loyterers the which hearing tel of any famous battell fought that many of their estate profession haue don valiaunt seates in the same immediately therewith be styrred and set on fire through Enuyes heate So that in the same furie they chaunge their robes into armour and with all speede prepare themselues to warre to exercise the feates of armes And finally like young men without experience make importunate suite and obtain licence and money of their Friends to go vnto the warres But after that they are once out of their Countreys and see themselues in a straunge place their dayes euill and their nights worse At one time they are commaunded to Skyrmishe and at an other time to watch when they haue victualls they want lodging and when the pay day commeth that pay and the next also is eaten and spent With these and other like troubles and discommodities the poore young men are so astonyed especially when they call to minde the goodly wide Hawles so well hanged and trimmed wherein they greatly delighted to passe the time in Summer-season When they remember their great chimneys at home wherby they comforted their old limmes and how they vsed to sit quietly vppon the Sunnie bankes in winter For the remembrance of pleasures past greatly augmenteth the paines present Notwithstanding their Parents and friends had admonished them therof before And now being beaten with their owne follie and feeling these discommodities which they thought not of before they determine to forsake the warres and eache one to returne home vnto his owne againe But where as they asked licence but once to goe forth now they were enforced to aske it ten times before they could come home And the worst is they went forth loden with money returne home loden with vices But the end why these things are spoken is that sage and vertuous men should marke by what trade the euill disposed seeke to gaine which is not gotten by gasing on the windowes but by keeping the frontiers against their enemies not with playing at Tables in the Tauernes but with fighting in the fieldes not trimmed with cloath of gold or silkes but loden with armour and weapons not praunsing their palfreyes but discouering the ambushment not sleeping vntill noon but watching all night not by aduancing him of his apparrell and handsomnesse but for his stout couragiousnes not banqueting his friends but assaulting his enemies though a knight do these things yet he ought to consider that it is vanitie and foolishnesse But seeing the world hath placed honour in such a vaine thing and that they can attaine to it by none other was the young aduenturous Gentlemen ought to employ therunto their strength with stout courage to atchieue to some great acts worthy of renowne For in the end when the warre is iustly begunne and that in defence of their Countrey they ought to reioyce more of him that dyeth in the hands of his enemies then of him which liueth accompanied with vices It is a great shame and dishonour to men of Armes and young Gentelmen being at home to heare the prayse of them which bee in the wars for the young Gentlemen ought not to thinke it honour for him to heare or declare the newes of others but that others should declare the vertuous deedes of him Oh how many are they in the world this day puffed vp with pride and not very wise which still prate of great renowne and yet passe their life with small honesty For our predecessors fought in the field with their lances but young men now a dayes fight at the table with their tongues Admit that all vaine men desire and procure to leaue a memory of their vanitie yet they ought to enterprise such things in their life wherby they might winne a famous renowne and not a perpetuall shame after their death For there are many departed which haue left such memory of their
Emperour at the houre of his death ch 50 531 A continuation of the Secretaries speeches admonishing all men to embrace death willingly vtterly to forsake the world and his alluring vanities c. 51. 534 The answer of the Emperour Marcus to his Secretary Panutiu declaring that he tooke no thought to forsake the world But all his sorrow was to leaue behinde him an vnhappy sonne to enherite the Empire chap. 52 588 The Emperours conclusion of the matter in question shewing that sundry yong Princes by being vicious haue vndone themselues and impouerished their Realmes chap. 53 541 Of the wordes which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius spake to his sonne Commodus at the houre of his death very necessary for all young Gentlemen to vnderstand chap. 54 545 Other wholesome counsels giuen by the Emperour to his sonne and aboue all to keepe wise and learned men about him to assist him with aduise in all his affaires chap. 55 550 The Emperours prosecution still in the same Argument with particular exhortations to his sonne well deseruing to bee engrauen in the hart of men ch 56 554 The good Emperour Marcus Aurelius concludeth both his purpose life And of the last words he spake to his son Commodus and the Table of Counsell he gaue him chap. 57 557 The fourth Booke The Prologue of the worke declaring what one true friend ought to do for another 563 A few precepts and counsels meet to be remembred by all such as are Princes familiars and affected Courtiers 572 The Argument of the Booke entituled The Fauoured Courtier declaring the entent of the whole worke 575 How it is more necessary for the Courtier abiding in Court to be of liuely spirit and audacitie then it is for the Souldier that goeth to serue in the warres c. 1. 592 Of Courtiers brawles quarrels with Harbingers for their ill lodgings c. 2. 592 How the Courtier should entreat his Host or master of the house where hee lodgeth chap. 3 589 What Courtier◠must do to win their Princes fauour chap. 4. 601 What manners and gestures do best become a Courtier when hee speaketh to his Prince ch 5. 607 How a Courtier should behaue himselfe both to know and to visite Noblemen and Gentlemen that are great with the Prince and continuing still in Court Chap. 6 612 What countenance and modesty becommeth a Courtier for his behauiour at the Princes or Noble mans table during the time of his meale ch 7 617 What company the Courtier should keepe and how he ought to apparrel him selfe chap. 8 624 In what manner the Courtier should serue and honour Ladies and Gentlewomen also how to satisfie and please the Vshers and Porters of the Kings house chap. 9 631 Of the great paines and trauels which the Courtier hath being toiled in suites of law And how he is to suffer and carrie himselfe with Iudges chap. 10 637 Of them that are affected in Court admonishing them to bee pacient in their troubles and that they bee not partiall in the affayres of the common wealth chap. 11 644 That Officers and such as are affected in Court should be very diligent carefull in dispatching the Princes affayres Common-wealth Also that in correcting and reforming of Seruants they ought to bee as circumspect and aduised Chap. 12 fol 649 That affected and esteemed Courtyers ought to be warie of beeing prowde and high-minded for lightly they neuer fall but onely by meanes of that detestable vice Chap 13 fol. 659 That it is not fit for Courtyers to be ouer-couetous if they mean to keepe themselues out of many troubles and dangers chap 14 fol. 670 That fauoured Courtyers should not trust ouer-much to their fauour and credit in Court nor to the prosperitie of their liues chap 15 fo 677 An admonition to such as are highly in fauour with Princes to take heede of the worlds deceyts learning both to liue and dye honourably and to leaue the Court before Age ouer take them chapter 16. fol. 684 What continencie ought to be in fauoured courtyers alwayes shunning the company of vnhonest women also to be carefull in the speedie dispatch of suters suing vnto them chap 17 fol. 691 That Nobles and affected of Princes should not exceede in superfluous fare nor bee ouer-sumptuous in their Dyet chapt 18. fol. 698 That courtiers fauored of Princes ought not to be dishonest of their Tongues nor enuious in their wordes chap. 19 fo 709 A comendation of Truth which professed courtyers ought to embrace And in no respect to be found defectiue in the contrarie reporting one thing for an other chap. 20. fo 718 Certaine other Letters written by M. Aurelius Of the huge Monster seene in Scicile in the time of M. Aurelius of the letters he wrote with bloud vpō a gate ch 1. 727 Of that which chaunced vnto Antigonus a cittizen of Rome in the time of Marcus Aurelius chap 2 fol 729 How M. Aurelius sought the wealth of his people how they loued him c. 3. 730 How at the intercession of manie sent by the Empresse the Emperour graunted his daughter Lucilla licence to sport herselfe at the Feasts chap 4 fo 732 Of the sharpe words which M. Aurelius spake to his wife his daughter c 5. 734 A letter sent by the Emperor M. Aurelius to Catullus Censorius concerning the newes then in Rome cha 6 740 M. Aurelius his letter written to the amourous Ladyes of Rome ch 7 747 A letter sent by M. Aurelius to his loue Boemia because shee desired to goe with him to the warres chap. 8 752 The answer of Boemia to the Emperor M. Aurelius expressing the great malice little patience in an euil womā c. 9 755 A letter of M. Aurelius to the Romaine Lady Macrine of whom beholding her at a window he became enamoured declaring what force the beautie of a faire Woman hath in a weake man ch 10 760 An other letter sent by him to the same Macrina expressing the firie flames which soonest consume gentle harts ch 11. 761 A letter sent by him to the lady Lauinia reprouing Loue to be naturall And affirming that the most part of Philosophers and wise-men haue beene ouercome by Loue chap 12 fol 763. The ende of the Table THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE DIALL OF PRINCES WITH the famous Booke of Marcus Aurelius wherein hee entreateth what excellency is in a Prince that is a good Christian and contrariwise what euils doe follow him that is a cruell Tyrant CHAP. I. Here the Author speaketh of the birth and lynage of the wise Philosopher and Emperour Marcus Aurelius And he putteth also at the beginning of this Booke three Chapterss wherein hee entreateth of the discourse of his life for by his Epistles and Doctrine the whole course of this present worke is approued AFter the death of the Emperour Antoninus Pius in the 695. years frō the foundatiō of Rome and in the 173. Olimpiade Fuluius Cato and Cneus Patroclus then being Consuls the fourth
and of the Senate best fauoured to whom they committed the charge of the most cruell and dangerous warres For their strife was not to beare rule and to be in office or to get money but to be in the Frontiers to ouercome their enemies In what estimation these foure Frontiers were wee may easily perceyue by that wee see the most noble Romanes haue passed some part of their youth in those places as Captaines vntill such time that for more weighty affaires they were appointed from thence to som other places For at that time there was no word so grieuous and iniurious to a Citizen as to say Goe thou hast neuer beene brought vp in the wars and to proue the same by examples The great Pompey passed the Winter season in Constantinople The aduenturous Scipio in Colonges the couragious Caesar in Gades and the renowmed Marius in Rhodes And these foure were not only in the Frontiers aforesaid in their youth but there they did such valiant acts that the memory of them remaineth euermore after their death These thinges I haue spoken to proue sith wee finde that Marcus Aurelius father was Captain of one of these 4. Frontiers it followeth that he was a man of singular wisdome and prowesse For as Scipio sayd to his friend Masinissa in Affrike It is not possible for a Romane Captaine to want eyther wisdome or courage for thereunto they were predestined at their birth Wee haue no authenticke authorities that sheweth vs frō whence when or how in what countries and with what persons this captaine passed his youth And the cause is for that the Romane Chroniclers were not accustomed to write the things done by their Princes before they were created but onely the acts of yong men which from their youth had their hearts stoutly bent to great aduentures and in my opinion it was well done For it is greater honour to obtaine an Empire by policy and wisdome then to haue it by discent so that there be no tyranny Suetonius Tranquillus in his first booke of Emperours counteth at large the aduenturous enterprises taken in hand by Iulius Caesar in his yong age and how far vnlikely they were from thought that he should euer obtaine the Romane Empire writing this to shew vnto Princes how earnestly Iulius Caesars heart was bent to win the Romane Monarchy and likewise how wisdom fayled him in behauing himselfe therin A Philosopher of Rome wrote to Phalaris the Tirant which was in Cicilia asking him Why hee possessed the realme so long by tyranny Phalaris answered him againe in another Epistle in these few wordes Thou callest mee tyrant because I haue taken this realme and kept it 32. yeares I graunt then quoth hee that I was a tyrant in vsurping it For no man occupyeth another mans right but by reason he is a tyrant But yet I will not agree to be called a Tyrant sith it is now xxxii yeares since I haue possessed it And though I haue atchieued it by tyranny yet I haue gouerned it by wisdome And I let thee to vnderstand that to take another mans goods it is an easie thing to conquere but a hard thing to keepe an easie thing for to keepe them I ensure thee it is very hard The Emperour Marcus Aurelius married the daughter of Antoninus Pius the 16. Emperour of Rome and she was named Faustina who as sole Heyre had the Empire and so through marriage Marcus Aurelius came to be Emperour This Faustine was not so honest and chast as shee was faire and beautifull Shee had by him two sonnes Commodus and Verissimus Marcus Aurelius triumphed twice once when he ouercame the Parthians and another time when hee conquered the Argonants He was a man very well learned and of a deepe vnderstanding Hee was as excellent both in the Greeke and Latine as hee was in his mothers tongue Hee was very temperate in eating and drinking hee wrote many things full of good learning and sweete sentences He dyed in conquering the realme of Pannonia which is now called Hungarie His death was as much bewayled as his life was desired And hee was loued so deare and entirely in the City of Rome that euery Romane had a statue of him in his house to the end the memory of him among them should neuer decay The which was neuer read that they euer did for any other King or Emperour of Rome no not for Augustus Caesar who was best beloued of all other Emperours of Rome Hee gouerned the Empire for the space of eighteene yeere with vpright iustice and died at the age of 63 yeeres with much honor in the yeere Climatericke which is in the 63. years wherein the life of man runneth in great perill For then are accomplished the nine seuens or the seuen nines Aulus Gelius writeth a Chapter of this matter in the booke De noctibus Atticis Marcus Aurelius was a Prince of life most pure of doctrine most profound and of fortune most happy of all other Princes in the world saue only for Faustine his wife and Commodus his sonne And to the end we may see what Marcus Aurelius was from his infancy I haue put here an Epistle of his which is this CHAP. II. Of a letter which Marcus Aurelius sent to his friend Pulio wherein he declareth the order of his whole life and amongst other things he maketh mention of a thing that happened to a Romane Censor with his Host of Campagnia MAreus Aurelius only Emperour of Rome greeteth thee his old friend Pulio wisheth health to thy person peace to the common-wealth As I was in the Temple of the Vestall Virgins a letter of thine was presented vnto me which was written long before and greatly desired of me but the best therof is that thou writing vnto me briefly desirest that I should write vnto thee at large which is vndecent for the authority of him that is chiefe of the Empire in especiall if such one be couetous for to a Prince there is no greater infamy then to be lauish of words and scant of rewards Thou writest to me of the griefe in thy leg and that thy wound is great and truly the paine thereof troubleth me at my heart and I am right sorry that thou wantest that which is necessary for thy health and that good that I do wish thee For in the end all the trauels of this life may be endured so that the body with diseases be not troubled Thou lettest me vnderstand by thy letters that thou art arriued at Rhodes and requirest me to write vnto thee how I liued in that place when I was yong what time I gaue my minde to study and likewise what the discourse of my life was vntill the time of my being Emperor of Rome In this case truly I maruell at thee not a little that thou shouldest aske me such a question and so much the more that thou didst not consider that I cannot with out great trouble and
to bee borne afore him a burning brand and the Councel an Axe of Armes the Priests a Hatte in manner of a Coyse The Senatours a Crusible on their Armes the Iudges a little Balance the Tribunes Maces the Gouernours a Scepter the Bishoppes Hattes of flowers the Oratours a Booke the Cutler 's a Sword the Goldsmith a pot to melt gold and so forth of all other offices strangers excepted which went al marked after one sort in Rome For they would not agree that a stranger should be apparrelled and marked according to the children of Rome O my friend Pulio it was such a ioy then to behold the Discipline and prosperity of Rome as it is now at this present such a griefe to see the calamitie thereof that by the immortall Gods I sweare to thee and so the God Mars guide my hand in Wars that the man which now is best ordered is not worth so much as the most dissolute person was then For then amongst a thousand they could not find one man vicious in Rome and now amongst twenty thousand they cannot find one vertuous in all Italy I know not why the Gods are so cruell against me and fortune so contrary that this forty yeares I haue done nothing but weepe and lament to see the good men dye and immediately to be forgotten and on the other side to see wicked men liue and to be alwayes in prosperity Vniuersally the noble heart may endure all the troubles of mans life vnlesse it bee to see a good man decay and the wicked to prosper which my heart cannot abide nor yet my tongue dissemble And touching this matter my friend Pulio I will write vnto thee one thing which I found in the booke of the high Capitoll where hee treateth of the time of Marius and Silla which truely is worthy of memory and that is this There was at Rome a custome and a law inuiolable sith the time of Cinna that a Censour expresly commāded by the Senate should goe and visite the Prouinces which were subiect vnto it throughout all Italy and the cause of those visitations was for three things The first to see if any complained of Iustice The second to see in what case the Common-weale stood The third to the end that yearely they should render obedience to Rome O my friend Pulio how thinkest thou If they visited Italie at this present as at that time they suruaied Rome how ful of errours should they finde it And what decay should they see therin thinkest thou Truely as thou knowest they should see the common wealth destroyed Iustice not ministred and moreouer Rome not obeyed and not without iust cause For of right ought that common-wealth to be destroyed which once of all other hath beene the flower and most beautified with vertues and after becommeth most abhominable and defiled with vices The case was such that two years after the wars of Silla and Marius the Censour went yeerly to Nola which is a place in the Prouince of Campania to visite the same Country as the custome was And in those dayes the time and season being very hote and the Prouince quiet not disturbed with warres and perceyuing that none of the people came to him The Censour said to the Host which lodged him Friend I am a Iudge sent from the Senatours of Rome to visite this land Therefore goe thy wayes quickly and call the good men hither which be among the people for I haue to say vnto them from the sacred Senate This Host who peraduenture was wiser then the Romane Iudge although not so rich goeth to the graues of the dead which in that place were buried and spake vnto them with a loude voyce saying O yee good men come away with mee quickly for the Romane Censour calleth you The Iudge perceyuing they came not sent him againe to call them and the Host as he did at the first time so did he now at the second For when he was at the graues with a loud voice he sayd O yee good men come hither for the censour of Rome would talke with you And likewise they were called the third time with the selfe same words And the Censour seeing no body come was maruellous angry and sayde to the Host Sith these good men disdain to come at my commandement and shew their allegiance to the sacred Senate of Rome that were aliue and not those that are dead the Host made answere O thou Romane Iudge if thou wert wise thou wouldest not maruell at that that I haue done For I let thee vnderstand in this our City of Nola all the good men all I say are now dead and lye here buried in these graues Therefore thou hast no cause to maruell nor yet to bee displeased with my aunswere but I rather ought to bee offended with thy demaund willing me to enquire for good men and thou thy selfe dost offend with the euill dayly Wherefore I let thee know if thou bee ignorant thereof if thou wilt speake with any good man thou shalt not finde him in all the whole world vnlesse the dead bee reuiued or except the Goas will make a new creation The Consull Silla was fiue moneths our Captaine in this our City of Nola in Campania sowing the fruit which ye other Romaines gathered that is to say he left children without Fathers Fathers without children daughters without Mothers and Husbands without Wiues Wiues without Husbands Vncles without Nephewes Subiects without Lords Lords without Tenants Gods without Temples Temples without Priestes Mountaines without Heards and fieldes without fruites And the worst of all is that this wicked and cursed Silla dispeopled this our City of good and vertuous men and replenished it with wicked and vitious persons Ruine and decay neuer destroyed the Walles so much neyther the Mothes euer so many garments nor the Worme rotted so much fruit nor yet the Hayle beate downe so much corne as the disorder and vices of Sylla the Romane Consull did harme which hee brought vnto this land of Campania And although the mischiefe and euils that hee did heere to the men were manifold great yet much greater herein was that which he did to their Customes and Manners For in the end the good men which hee beheaded are now at rest with the dead but the vices which hee left vs in this Land there are none but proude and arrogant men that delight to commaund In this land there are none other but enuious men that know nought else but malice In this land there are idle men which doe nothing but loose their time In this land there are none but gluttons which doe nothing but eate In this land there are none but theeues which entend nought else but robberies In this land there are none but rebels that do nothing but stirre sedition And if thou and all the Romanes esteeme these men for good tarry a while I will goe to call them all to thee For if wee should
but without comparison the gods whom they worshipped and inuented were greater in multitude then the Realmes and Prouinces which they conquered and possessed For by that folly the auncient Poets durst affirme in their writings that the Gods of one Nation and Country were mortall enemies vnto the Gods of another Prouince So that the Gods of Troy enuied the Gods of Greece more then the Prince of Greece enuied the Prince of Troy What a strange thing was it to see the Assyrians in what reuerence they worshipped the God Belus The Egyptians the God Apis. The Caldeans the God Assas The Babilonians the deuouring Dragon The Pharaones the statue of gold The Palestines Belzebub The Romans honoured the God Iupiter The Affricans the God Mars The Corinthians the God Apollo The Arabians God Astaroth The Arginians the Sun Those of Acaia the Moone The Cidonians Belphegorn The Amonites Balim The Indians Baccus The Lacedemonians Osiges The Macedonians did sacrifice to Mercurie The Ephesians to their goddesse Diana The Greekes to Iuno The Armenians to Liber The Troians to Vesta The Latines to Februa The Tarentines to Ceres The Rhodians as sayth Apolonius Thianeus worshipped the God Ianus and aboue all things wee ought to maruell at this That they striued oftentimes amongst themselues not so much vpon the possessions and seignories of Realmes as vpon a certaine obstinacie they had to maintaine the Gods of the one to bee of greater power then the others for they thought if their gods were not esteemed that the people should be empouerished vnfortunate and persecuted Pulio in his second booke De dissolatione regionum Orientarum declareth that the first Prouince that rebelled against the Emperour Helius Adrianus which was the fifteenth Emperour of Rome was the land of Palestine against which was sent a Captaine named Iulius Seuerus a man of great courage and very fortunate and aduenturous in Armes This Captaine did not onely finish the warres but hee wrought such an outragious destruction in that land that he besieged 52. Cities and razed them to the ground and burned 680. Villages and slew so many in battell skirmish and by Iustice that amounted to the number of 5000. persons For vnto the proud and cruell Captaines victory can neuer bee glorious vnlesse they water the ground with the bloud of their enemies And furthermore in the Cities and Townes besieged the children olde men and women which dyed through hunger and pestilence were more in number then those which were slaine in the wars For in wars the sword of the enemies lighteth not vpon all but pestilence and famine hath no respect to any After this warre of the Palestines was ended immediately after arose a more crueller betwixt the Alleynes and Armenians For there are many that see the beginning of the troubles and miseries which arise in Realmes but there are few that consider the end and seeke to remedie the same The occasion of this warre was as they came to the feast of the Mount Olimpus they fell in disputations whether of their Gods were better and which of them ought to bee preferred before other Whereof there sprang such contradictions and such mortall hatred that on euery part they were furiously moued to warres and so vnder a colour to maintaine the gods which they honoured both the common wealthes were brought into great pouerty and the people also into great misery The Emperour Helius Adrianus seeing such cruell warres to arise vpon so light occasion sent thither the Captaine aboue named Iulius Seuerus to pacifie the Allaines and Armenians and commaunded him that he should persecute those with warres which would not be ruled by his arbitremēt sentence For those iustly deserue the sword which with no reasonable conditions will condiscend vnto peace But Iulius Seuerus vsed such policy that he made thē good friends and neuer touched them nor came neare them Which thing was no lesse acceptable to the Emperour then profitable to the Realmes For the Captaine which subdueth the Country by entreatie deserueth more honor then he which ouercommeth it by battell The agreement of the peace was made vpon such condition that the Allaines should take for their Gods the Armenian Gods and the Armenians on the contrary the Gods of the Allaines And further when the people should embrace and reconcile themselues to the Senate that then the Gods should kisse the one the other and to be reconciled to the temple The vanity of the Ancients was such and the blindnesse of mortall men so great so subiect were they to diuelish deuises that as easily as the eternall wisedome createth a true man now a dayes so easily then a vain man might haue inuented a false God For the Lacedemonians had this opinion that men had no lesse power to inuent gods then the gods had to create men CHAP. V. How the Philosopher Bruxellus was greatly esteemed amongst the Ancients for his life and the words which hee spake vnto the Romanes at the houre of his death PHarasmaco in his 20 booke De libertate Deorum whereof Cicero maketh mētion in his booke De natura Deorum sayth that when the Gothes tooke Rome and besieged the high Capitoll there came amongst them a Philosopher called Bruxellus the which after the Gothes were repulsed out of Italy remained with Camillus at Rome And because at that time Rome wanted Philosophers this Bruxellus was had in great veneration amongst all the Romanes so that hee was the first stranger of whom being aliue a statue was euer made in the Senate the Romanes vsed to make a statue of the Romanes being aliue but not to strangers till after their death The age of this Bruxellus was 113. whereof 65. hee had been an inhabitant of Rome And among other things they recite 7. notable things of his life 1 The first that in 60. yeeres no mā euer saw him issue out of the wals of Rome For in the olde time the Sages were little esteemed if in their behauiours they were not iust and vpright 2 The second that in 60. yeares no man heard him speake an idle word For the words that are superfluous doe greatly deface the authoritie of the person 3 The third that in all his time they neuer saw him lose one houre of time For in a wise man there is no greater folly then to see him spend a moment of an houre idely 4 The fourth that in all his time hee was neuer detected of any vice And let no man thinke this to bee a small matter For few are they of so long life which are not noted of some infamy after their death The fifth that in all the 60. years he neuer made quarrell nor striued with any man and this thing ought to be no lesse esteemed then the other For truly hee that liueth a long time without offering wrong to another may be called a monster in nature 6 The sixt that in 3. or 4. yeares hee neuer issued out of the
nor to come to so high an estate For those which by vertues deserue great Dignities are but fewe and sewer are those which attaine vnto them though they deserue them But if this matter be iudged according to sensualitie I tell you truely Dame Augusta that I thought not onely to deserue it but also I thought to come vnto it And hereof maruell not for it is an infallible rule Where least desert is often-times there is most presumption You say you esteemed mee for a wise man and that by wisedome I could ouer-come any difficult or disordinate appetite To this I answere that you knewe my wisedome either in mine owne busines or else in other mens affaires If in other mens affaires where it did cost mee nought I was alwayes a louer of iustice For there is no man in the world so euill that doth not desire if it bee without his owne cost to be counted liberall But if you iudge mee Dame Augusta on mine owne businesse giue not too light credit For I will that you know there is no man so iust nor of so cleare a iudgement that doth not shewe himselfe fraile in matters which touch his owne interest You say that men which haue their thoughts high and their Fortunes base liue alwayes a pensiue life Truely it is as you say But in mine opinion as the members of the bodyes are but instruments of the minde so is it necessary for men to haue quicke and sharpe wittes if they will not be negligent For if Alexander Pyrrhus Iulius Caesar Scipio and Hanniball had not beene high minded they had neuer bene as they were so Famous Noble and stoute Princes I let you vnderstand most Noble Princesse that men are not to be esteemed as lost for hauing theyr thoughtes high nor yet for hauing their hearts couragious neither for being hardie and stout but they are vndone because they beginne things through folly pursue them without wisedome and atchieue them without discretion For Noblemen enterprising great things ought not to employ theyr force as their noble heart willeth but as wisedome and reason teacheth You say you maruell why I waste the Treasures without care which Iustinian and you gathered together with great paine Now to this I answere you ought not to maruell if all the Treasours you heaped together of so long time were spent and consumed in one day For there is an ancient Malediction on riches hidden and Treasours buryed which Epimenides casteth out saying these words All the Treasours hoorded vp by the Couetous shall bee wasted by the Prodigall You say Through that I wast in fewe dayes you shall haue neither to giue to waste nor yet to eate at the yeares ende To this I answere most gracious Princesse that if you had beene as ready to relieue the Poore as you and Iustinian were diligent to robbe the rich then you should iustly haue complained and I worthily might well haue had iust cause to repent Till now wee haue not seene but that of the Rich you haue made Poore and notwithstanding this yet you haue not gotten enough to builde an Hospitall for the Poore You say that Princes to resist theyr enemyes had neede of great Treasures To this I answer if Princes be proud greedy and of strange Realmes ambicious it is most certaine that they had need of great substances and Treasours to accomplish and maintaine theyr disordinate appetties For the enae of a tyran nous Princâ—â—s that he careth not whether by hooke or by crooke hee make himselfe rich in his life But if the Prince be or will be a man reposed quiet vertuou patient peaceable and 〈◊〉 couetous of the goods of an other man what need hath he of great treasurs For to speake truly in Princes houses there is more offence in that which aduaunceth then in that which wanteth I will not waste many wordes in answering sith I am much more liberal of deeds then of wordes But to conclude that there is no Prince which in vertuous deedes wasteth so much but if hee will hee may spend much more For in the ende Princes become not poore for spending their goods and Treasours vpon necessaries but for making waste vpon things superfluous And take this word for all that for this hee shall not be the poorer but rather the richer For most certainely it is a generall rule in Christian Religion that God will giue more to his Seruants in one houre then they will waste in 20. yeares Iustinian beeing Emperour 11 yeares who being a Foole and very obstinate in the heresie of the Pelagians dyed to the great offence of the Romaine people whose death was as much desired as his life abhorred For the Tyrannous Prince that maketh many weeping eyes in his life shall cause many reioycing bearts at his death Iustinian being dead Tiberius was elected Emperour who gouerned the Empire through so great wisedome and Iustice that no man was able to reproue him if the Hystories in his time did not deceyue vs. For it seldome happeneth to a Prince to be as he was vpright in Iustice pure in life and cleane in Conscience For fewe are those Princes which of some vices are not noted Paulus Diaconus in his 18. booke of the Romaine Gests declareth a thing both strange and maruellous which besel vnto this Emperour at that time and very worthie to recite at this present And it was that in the Cittie of Constantinople the Romaine Emperours had a Pallace very sumptuous and beseming the authoritie of the Imperiall maiestie which was begun in the time of Constantine the Great and afterwardes as the succession of good and euil Emperors was so were the Buyldings decayed or repayred For it is the deede of a vertuous Prince to abolish vices of the Common-wealth and to make great and sumptuous buildings in his countrey This Emperour Tiberius had spent much of his substance and Treasour for the redeeming of poore captiues to build Hospitals to erect Monasteries to marry and prouide for the Orphares to sucour poore people and widdowes In this and such like hee was so prodigall that it came almost to passe that hee had nothing to eate in his Pallace And truely this was a blessed necessity For Catholike Princes ought to think that wel imployed which in the Seruice of Christ is bestowed And hereof this Emperour was not ashamed but he thought it a great honour and that which onely grieued him was to see the Empresse reioyce so much at his misery For the High and Noble hearts which feele themselnes wounded do not so much esteeme their owne payne as they do to see their enemyes reioyce at theyr griefe God neuer forsooke them that for his sake became poore as appeareth by this It chanced one day that euen as the Emperor Tiberius walked in the middest of his Pallace he saw at his feete a Marble-stone which was in forme of the Crosse of the Redeemer of the world And because it had
the beginning so after the victorie had of their enemies they should shew themselues meeke and pittifull This Dictator Camillus for an other thing hee did was much commended aboue the residue That is to say hee did not onely not consent to robbe the Temples nor dishonour the Gods but hee himselfe with great reuerence tooke the sacred vessels of the Temples and the Gods which were therein especially the Goddesse Iuno and brought them all to Rome For amongst the Auncients there was a Law that the Gods of them which were vanquished should not come by lot to the Captaines being Conquerours therfore hee made in the Mount Auentino a sumptuous Temple wherein hee placed all the Gods together with all the holy Reliques which hee wanne For the greater Triumph the Romans had ouer their enemies so much the better they handled the Gods of the people vanquished Also you ought to know that the Romaines after many victories determined to make a crowne of golde very great rich and to offer it to the God Apollo but sith the common Treasure was poor because there was but little siluer and lesse golde to make that crowne The Romane Matrons defaced theyr Iewels and ouches of golde and siluer to make the Crowne there withall For in Rome there neuer wanted money if it were demanded for the seruice of Gods to repayre Temples or to redeeme Captiues The Senate esteemed the well willing hearts of these women in such sort that they graunted them three things that is say To weare on their heades Garlands of flowers to goe in Chariots to the common places and to goe openly to the feasts of the Gods For the auncient Romanes were so honest that they neuer ware gold on theyr heades neyther went they at any time to the feasts vncouered A man ought not to maruell that the Romanes granted such priuiledges vnto the ancient Matrones of Rome For they vsed neuer to bee obliuious of any benefite receyued but rather gentle with thanks and rewards to recompence the same An other notable thing chanced in Rome which was that the Romanes sent two Tribunes the which were called Caulius and Sergius into the Isle of Delphos with greate presents to offer vnto the God Apollo For as Titus Liuius sayeth Rome yeerely sent a present vnto the God Apollo and Apollo gaue vnto the Romanes counsell And as the Tribunes went out of the way they fell into the hands of pirates and rouers on the sea which tooke them with their treasures and brought them to the Cittie of Liparie But the citizens vnderstanding that those presents were consecrated to the God Apollo did not onely deliuer them all their Treasure againe but also gaue them much more guides therewith to conduct them safely both going and comming from all peril and danger The Romaines beeing aduertised of theyr genltenesse by the messengers which were come safe and aliue did so much reioyce that they ordayned in Rome that the Nobles of Liparie should bee made Senatours of Rome and all the others should be confederates and of aliance vnto them And they caused further that two priests of Liparie should alwayes remaine in the Temple of Iupiter which priuiledge was neuer granted to any other strangers but to them onely For the Romanes had so great zeale and loue to their Gods that in the seruices of the temples they trusted none but those which were natiue ancient of Rome and also were both wise and vertuous When Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were in the warres against the Samnites and Tuscanes and likewise against the Vmbres manie maruellous and terrible signes were seene in Rome which things did not only feare those that sawe them but also those which heard of them Vpon which occasion the Romaines and the Romane Matrones both night and day offered great sacrifices to the gods For they sayd if we can pacifie the wrath of the Gods in Rome we shall neuer need to feare our enemies in the field The thing was this that as the Romane Matrons went visiting the temples to appease the ire of the Gods many senators wiues came to the temple of chastitie to offer sacrifice For in the time of the puissant power of the Romanes the Women did sacrifice in the temples of the Gods At that time Virginea the daughter of Aureus Virgineus the Consul Plebeian the which was forbidden to doe sacrifice for that shee was none of the Senators wiues but a Plebeian as much to say as a Crafts-woman and no Gentlemans-Daughter borne For the Noblewomen were had in so great veneration and so highly esteemed that all the other seemed in respect of them but hand-maydes and slaues The noble Romane Virginea seeing her to be so repulsed and disdained of the other matrones made of her own house a temple to the Goddesse of Chastitie and with much deuotion and reuerence honoured her The which thing being published abroade throughout Rome manie other women came thither to doe Sacrifice likewise For Fortune is so variable that oftentimes those which of pride haue forbidden vs theyr houses come after by humilitie to doe vs seruice at ours For this cause this Virginea the Foundresse was so greatly praysed that the Romaines in her life made her Patrice that is a Noble Romane and after her death caused her Image and statue to be made and set vp in the high Capitoll and about this Image were ingrauen certain Greeke characters the effect whereof was this PATRICE the great this Image doth present That in her life did giue with minde deuout The Gods her house therefore to them went When liuely breath by death was chased out Of all these Hystories aboue-named Titus Liuius maketh mention in his first Decade the second fifth and ninth book and though he declareth them more at large yet this shall suffice for my purpose I haue sought amongst the Gentiles these fewe Examples to reprooue Christian Princes Onely to the ende they might see how studious and seruent our Fathers were in the seruice of their Idols contrariwise how cold and negligent we are to honour and serue our true and liuing God It is a shame to tell how the ancient Romanes with all their hearts did serue the Gods without any vnderstanding and how those which are Christians for the most part serue the true God not in truth but with hypocrisie and dissimulation For the children of this World will take no paines but for to prouoke the pleasures of the body Many wondred for what occasion God did so much for them and they did nothing for God To this may bee answered that if they had known one true God all the sacrifices they had done to their other Gods they would haue done to him onely and as God is iust so hee rewarded them in their temporall prosperities Not for that they did well but for that they desired to doe well For in our diuine Law God doth not regard what wee
resisted if it be not by wise men and graue counsells The sixt was What thing that is wherein men are praised to be negligent and that is in choosing of Friendes Hee answered In one thing onely men haue licence to be negligent Slowly ought thy Friends to bee chosen and they neuer after for any thing ought to be forsaken The seuenth was What is that which the afflicted man doth most desire Byas answered It is the chaunce of Fortune and the thing which the prosperous man doth most abhorre is to thinke that Fortune is somutable For the vnfortunate man hopeth for euery chaunge of Fortune to be made better and the wealthy man feareth through euery change to be depriued of his bouse These were the Questions which the Philosophers demaunded of Byas in the Playes of the Mount Olympus in the 60. Olympiade The Phylosopher Byas liued about 95. yeares and as he drewe neere his death the Prienenses shewing themselues to be maruellous sorrowfull for the losse of such a famous man desired him earnestly to ordayne some lawes whereby they might know how to choose Captaines or some Prince which after him might guide and gouerne the Realme The Phylosopher Byas vnderstanding their honest and iust requests he with his best counsell and aduisement gaue them certaine wholsome Lawes in fewe wordes which followe And of these Lawes the diuine Plato maketh mention in his Booke De Legibus and likewise Aristotle in the booke of Oecenomices The Lawes which BIAS gvue to the Prienenses WEe ordayne and command that no man bee chosen to bee Prince among the people vnlesse hee bee at least forty yeares of age For gouernours ought to be of such age that neyther youth nor small experience should cause them to erre in their affayres nor weakenesse thorow ouermuch age should hinder them from taking paines Wee ordayne and commaund that none bee chosen amongst the Prienenses Gouernour if hee bee not well learned in the Greeke Letters For there is no greater plague in the publike weale then for him to lacke wisedome which gouerneth the same Wee ordayne and commaund that there bee none amongst the Prienenses chosen Gouernour vnlesse hee hath beene brought vp in the warres ten yeares at the least for hee alone doth know how precious a thing peace is which by experience hath felt the extreame miseries of warre Wee ordayne and commaund that if any haue beene noted to bee cruell that hee bee not chosen for Gouernour of the people for that man which is cruell is likely to be a Tyrant Wee ordaine and commaund that if the Gouernor of the Prienenses bee so hardy or dare presume to breake the auncient lawes of the people that in such case hee be depriued from the office of the Gouernour and likewise exiled from the people For there is nothing that destroyeth sooner a publike-Weale then to ordaine new and fond lawes to breake the good auncient Customes Wee ordaine and commaund that the Gouernour of the Prienenses doe worship and honour the Gods and that hee bee a louer of the sacred Temples For otherwise hee that honoureth not God will neuer minister equall iustice vnto men Wee ordaine and command that the Prince of Prienenses bee contented with the warres which his Auncesters left him and that he doe not forget newe matters to inuade any other strange Countries and if perchance he would that no man in this case bee bound neyther with money nor in person to follow or serue him For the God Apollo told mee that that man which wil take another mans goods from him by force shall loose his owne Iustice Wee ordaine and command that the Gouernour of the Prienenses go to pray and worship the Gods twice in the weeke and likewise to visite them in the Temples and if hee doe the contrary he shall not onely bee depriued of the gouernement but also after his death he shall not bee buried For the Prince that honoreth not God in time of his life deserueth not his bones should bee honoured with sepnlture after his death CHAP XXII How God from the beginning punished men by his iustice and especially those Princes that despise his Church and how all wicked Christians are Parishioners of Hell WHen the Eternall Creatour who measureth all the things by his Omnipotency and weigheth them by his effectuall wisedome created all things aswell celestiall as terrestriall visible as inuisible corporate as incorporate not onely promised to the good which serued him but also threatned the euil with plagues which offended him For the iustice and mercy of GOD goe alwayes together to the intent the one should encourage the good and the other threaten the euill This thing seemeth to bee true for that wee haue but one GOD which hath created but one World wherein hee made but one Garden in the which Garden there was but one Fountaine and neere to that Fountaine he appointed onely one man one woman and one Serpent neere vnto which was also one tree only forbidden which is a thing maruellous to speake and no lesse fearefull to see how God did put into the terrestriall Paradise the same day that the creation of the World was finished both a sword and a gybet The gybet was the tree forbidden whereof they did eate Wherefore our Fathers were condemned And the sword was the penishment wherwith wee all as miserable children at this day are beheaded for truely they did eate the bitternesse of theyr fault and we doe feele the griefe of their paine I meane to shew how our God by his power doth rayse vp that which is beaten downe how with his wisedome he guideth those which are blind how by his will hee dissembleth with the euill doers neyther wil I tell how hee through his clemency pardoneth the offences and through his light lightneth the darkenesse nor how through his righteousnesse hee amendeth that which is broken and through his liberality payeth more then wee deserue But I will here declare at large how our omnipotent God through his iustice chastiseth those which walke not in his pathes O Lord God how sure may thy faithfull seruants be for their small seruices to receyue great rewards and contrary the euill ought alwayes to liue in as great feare lest for their hainous offences thou shouldest giue them cruell punishments for though God of his bounty will not leaue any seruice vnrewarded nor of his iustice will omit any euill vnpunished yet for all that wee ought to know that aboue all and more then all hee will rigorously chastice those which maliciously despise the Catholike faith For Christ thinketh himselfe as much iniured of those which persecute his Church as of those that layd handes on his person to put him to death We reade that in times past God shewed sundry grieuous and cruell punishments to diuers high Lords and Princes besides other famous renowned men But rigour had neuer such power in his hand as it had against those which honored
one is deliuered from the torments of his Auarice and besides that hee recouereth friends for his person For riches tormenteth the Auaricious because hee spendeth them not The twelfth they asked him What the Prince should doe to gouerne others hee answered hee ought first to gouerne himselfe and then afterwards to gouerne others For it is vnpossible the Rod should bee right where the shadow is crooked By the occasion of this last answer I did bring in here all these questions to the ende Princes and Rulers might see how that euery one of them is as the rod of Iustice and that the Common-wealth is none other but a shadow of them which in all and for all ought to be right For immediatly it is perceiued in the shadow of the Comon-wealth if the Iustice or life of him which gouerneth bee out of his order Therfore concluding that all I haue spoken before if a Prince would aske mee why he is a Prince I would tell him in one word onely that hee which is the High Prince hath made you a Prince in this world to the ende you shuld be a destroyer of heretikes a father of orphanes a friend of Sages a hater of malicious a scourge of Tyrants a rewarder of good a defender and protector of Churches a plague of the wicked a onely louer and friend of the Commonwealth and aboue all you ought to bee an vpright minister of Iustice beginning first with your owne person and Pallace For in all things amendment is suffered except in Iustice which ought to bee equall betweene the Prince and Common-wealth CHAP. XXXVI What Plutarch the Philosopher was Of the wise words hee spake to Traian the Emperour And how the good Prince is the head of the Publike-weale IN the time of Traiana the Emperour there flourished in his Court a Philosopher named Plutarch a man very pure and of good life wise in science and well esteemed in Rome For Traian the Emperor desired greatly to haue Wise men in his companie and to make notable and sumptuous Buyldings in euery place where he came It was hee which wrote the liues of many noble Greekes and Romanes and aboue all hee made a Booke entituled The doctrine of Princes which hee offered to the Emperour Traian in the which hee sheweth his vertues the zeale which he had to the Common-wealth the highnes of his eloquēce the profoundnes of his knowledge For he was elegant in writing and pleasant in speaking and among all other things which hee wrote in his booke were these words following most worthie to be noted and written in Golden letters And they are such I let thee to know Lord Traian that thou and the Empire are but one mysticall bodie in manner and forme of a liuely bodie For they should and ought to be so correspondent and agreeable that the Emperor should reioyce to haue such subiects and the Empire ought to be gladde to haue such a Lord. And to the ende wee may describe the mysticall bodie which is the Empyre in the forme and shape of a natural man you shall vnderstand that the head which is aboue all is the Prince which commaundeth all the eyes whereby we see are the good men in the Commonwealth whom we followe the eares that heare what wee say are the Subiects which doe what wee commaund them the tongue wherewith we speake are the Sages of whom we heare the lawes and doctrines the hayres which growe on our heads are those which are vexed and gricued and that demaund iustice of the King The handes and armes are the Knights which resist the enemyes the feet which sustaineth the mēbers are the tyllers of the ground which giueth meate to all Estates the hard Bones that sustaineth the feeble and soft Flesh are the Sage men which endure the burden and trauell of the Common-wealth the Hearts which we see not outwardly are the Priuie Councellours Finally the necke that knitteth the bodie with the Head is the loue of the King combined with the whole Realme which make a Common-wealth All the words abouenamed spake Plutarch the great vnto Traian the Emperour And truly the inuention and grace of him proceeded of an high and deepe vnderstanding For the head hath three properties which are very necessary for the gouernor of the Common-wealth The first is that euen as the head is of all other members of the body the highest so the authority of the Prince exceedeth the estates of all others For the Prince onely hath authoritie to commaund and all others are bound to obey Admit there be many that are stout rich and noble men in the Common-wealth yet all ought to knowe and acknowledge seruice to the Lorde of the same For the noble and worthie Princes doe daily ease many of diuers seruices but they will neuer exempt any man from their loyaltie and allegeance Those which are valiant and mighty in a Realme should content themselues with that wherewith the battlements doe vpon a Castle that is to know that they are hier then the rampers wherein men walke on the Wals and lower then the pinnacles which are on the toppe for the wise man of high estate ought not to regard the Prince which is the high pinnacle but ought to looke on the alleis which are the poore comfortlesse I would speake a word and it greeueth me that is whereas great Lords desire in the commonwealth to commaund is like vnto him that holdeth his armes and hands ouer his heade For all that I haue heard and for all that I haue reade and also for all that hath chanced in my time I counsell admonish and warne all those which shall come after this time that if they will enioy their goods if they will liue in safeguard and if they will bee deliuered from tyranny and liue quiet in the Common-wealth that they doe not agree to haue in one Realme aboue one King and one Lord For it is a generall rule where there are many Rulers in a Common-wealth in the end both it and all must perish Wee see by experience that Nature formed vs with many sinewes many bones with much flesh with many fingers and with many teeth and to all this one only body had but one head wherefore though with many estates the Common-wealth is ordayned yet with one Prince alone it ought to bee ruled If it consisted in mens hands to make a Prince they would then also haue the authority to put him down but being true as it is most true indeede that the Prince is constituted by God none but God alone ought to depriue depose him of his estate but thinges that are measured by the diuine iudgment man hath no power with razour to cut them I know not what ambition the mean can haue neither what enuie the lowest can haue nor what pride the highest can haue to command and not to obey since wee are sure that in this mysticall body of the
shee displeased him For they sayde that it was vnpossible for Men and Women to liue long together without much trouble contentions and brawles Dyodorus Siculus sayde one thing where hee speaketh of this matter which as yet I neuer read in any book nor heard of the ancients past which was that amongst the Egiptians there was no difference in Children For they accounted them as legitimate though they were children of slaues For they said that the principall doer of the generation was the Father and not the mother and that therfore the Children which were borne among them tooke only the flesh of the mother but they did inherite their honour and dignitie of the part of the Father Iulius Caesar in his Commentaries saith that in Great Brittaine now called England the Brittons had an vse that one Woman was marryed vnto fiue men the which beastlinesse is not read to haue beene in any Nation of times past For if it bee slaunder for one man to haue diuers Wiues why should it not also bee a slaunderous and shamefull thing for one woman to haue many Husbands The noble and vertuous Women ought to bee marryed for two causes The first is to the end God should giue them children and benediction to whom they may leaue their goods and their memorie The second to the end they should liue euery one in their owne house accompanyed and honoured with their husbands For otherwise I say for a truth that the woman that is not contented and satisfied with her own proper husband will not bee contented nor satisfied with all men in the world Plutarch in his Apothegmes saith that the Cymbres did vse to marrie with their proper and natural daughters the which custome was taken from them by the Consull Marius after that hee did ouercome them in Germanie and that of them he had triumphed at Rome For the Childe which was borne of such Marriage was Sonne of the Daughter of one sole Father and was Sonne and Brother of one onely Mother and they were also Cousins Nephews Brothers of one only Father and mother Truely such custome proceedeth rather of wilde beasts then of reasonable creatures For manie or the more part of brute Beasts after the females haue brought forth males within one yeare after they doo accompany with their dammes which brought them forth Strabo in the situation of the world and Seneca in an Epistle say That the Lydes and the Armenians hadde a custome to send their Daughters to the Riuers and Hauens of the Sea to get their Marriages selling their bodyes to straungers so that those which would Marrie were first forced to sell heyr virginitie The Romaines which in all their affaires and businesses were more Sage and modest then other Nations vsed much circumspection in all their mariages For they kept it as an ancient lawe and vse accustomed that euery Romaine should marrie with one woman and no moe For euen as to keepe two wiues among the Christians is a great charge of conscience so was it deemed amongst the Romaines much infamie Amongst the auncient and renowmed Orators of Rome one was called Metellus Numidicus the which one day making his Oration to the Senate sayd these words Worthie Senatours I let you vnderstand that I haue greatly fludyed what the counsels shuld be that I ought to giue yee touching marriage For the counsel rashand sudden oftentimes is not profitable I doe not perswade you at all to marrie neyther yet doe say that yee shall not marrie but it is true that if ye can liue without a woman yee shall bee free from manie troubles But what shall wee doe O yea Romains since that Nature hath made vs such that to keepe women it is a great trouble and to liue without them it is more danger I dare say if in this case my opinion might bee accepted that it should not bee euill done to resist the lust since it commeth by fits and not to take Wiues which are continuall troubles These were the wordes which Metellus Numidicus spake the which were not very acceptable nor pleasant to the Fathers beeing in the Senate for they would not that hee should haue spoken such wordes against Mariage For there is no estate in this life wherein Fortune sheweth her force more then in this state of Matrimonie A man may proue them in this sort that if the fashions and vsages of the ancients were diuers as concerning ordinance truely there was no lesse contrarietie in theyr contracts and ceremonies Boccace the Florentine in a Booke that he made of the Marriages of the auncients reciteth manie and sundrie customs that they vsed in making the Marriages whereof hee telleth some not for to follow or maintaine them but to reproue and condemne them For the writers did neuer write the vices of some but onely to make the vertues of others more cleerely to be knowne The Cymbres had a custome that when they would Marrie after the marriage was agreed vpon hee that was made sure should pare his nayles and send them to his wife that should bee and she in like sort sent hers vnto him And then when she of him and hee of her had receyued the nayles the one of the other they betooke themselues Marryed for euer and did afterwardes liue together as man and wife The Theutonians had a ceremony that the man that was sure rounded the hayre of her to whome hee was made sure and shee did the like vnto him and when the one suffered the other to doe so immediately they celebrated Marriage The Armenians had a law that the Bridegroom shuld pinch the right eare of the Bride and the Bride should likewise pinche the left eare of the Bride-groome and then they tooke themselues marryed for euer The Elamites had a custome that both parties which were made sure pricked one the others little finger vntill they bledde the which bloud they did sucke naturally this done they were marryed The Numidians vsed that the Bryde-groome and the Bryde should gather together a piece of Earth and with theyr spittle they tempered it and therewith the one annointed the forehead of the other so that the Marriage betweene them was to annoynt the one and the other with a little clay When those of Dace would be marryed the Bride-groome and the Bryde each one of themselues were brought in Charryots the one meeting the other and when they came together the Bryde-groome gaue a newe name to the Bride and shee likewise to him and from that time forwardes they liued as in lawfull Matrimonie When they of Hungarie would marrie the one sent vnto the other a familiar god made of siluer whom they called Lares and when they had receyued the God of each other the marriage was finished and they liued as man and wife The Siconians had a custome and lawe that when they should marrie the one sent to the other a shooe and that receyued of both they agreed
and in this place they talked with him that had businesse and truely it was a great policie for where as the Prince doth not sit the suitor alwaies abridgeth his talke And when the day began to waxe hot he went to the high Capitoll where all the Senate tarryed for him and from thence hee went to the Coliseo where the Ambassadours of the Prouinces were and there remained a great part of the day Afterwards he went to the Chappell of the Vestall Virgins and there he heard euery Nation by it selfe according to the order which was prescribed Hee did eate but one meale in the day and it was very late but he did eate well not of many and diuers sorts of meate but of few and good for the abundance of diuers strange meates breedeth sundry diseases They sawe him once a weeke goe through Rome and if hee went any more it was a wonder at the which time he was alwayes without company both of his owne and also of strangers to the entent all poore men might talke with him of their businesse or complaine of his Officers for it is vnpossible to reforme the Common-wealth if he which ought to remedie it be not informed of the iniuries done in the same He was so gentle in conuersation so pleasant in words so Noble amongst the Great so equall with the least so reasonable in that hee did aske so perfect in that he did worke so patient in iniuries so thankefull of benefites so good to the good and so seuere to the euill that all loued him for being good and all the euill feared him for being iust A man ought not little to esteeme the loue that the people bare to this so good a Prince and Noble Emperour for so much as the Romanes haue been thus that for the felicitie of their estate they offered to their Gods greater Sacrifice then they did in any other Prouinces And Sextus Cheronensis saith that the Romanes offered more Sacrifices to the Gods because they should lengthen the life of the Emperour then they did offer for the profite of the Common-wealth Truely their reason was good for the Prince that leadeth a good life is the heart of the Common-wealth But I doe not maruell that the Emperour was so well willed and beloued of the Romane Empire for he had neuer Porter to his Chamber but the two houres which hee remayned with his wife Faustine All this being past the good Emperour weat into his house into the secretst place hee had according to the counsell of Lucius Seneca the key whereof he alone had in his custodie and neuer trusted any man therewith vntill the houre of his death and then he gaue it to an olde ancient man called Pompeianus saying vnto him these words Thou knowest right well Pompeianus that thou being base I exalted thee to honour thou being poore I gaue thee riches thou being persecuted I drew thee to my Palace I being absent committed my whole honour to thy trust thou being olde I marryed thee with my daughter and doe presently giue thee this Key Behold that in giuing thee it I giue thee my heart and life for I will thou know that death grieueth mee not so much nor the losse of my wife and children as that I cannot carry my Bookes into the graue If the Gods had giuen mee the choyse I had rather choose to be in the graue inuironed with Bookes then to liue accompanied with fooles for if the dead doe read I take them to be aline but if the liuing doe not read I take them to be dead Vnder this key which I giue thee remayneth many Greeke Hebrew Latine and Romame Bookes and aboue all vnder this key remaineth all my paynes swet and trauells all my watchings and laboures where also thou shalt finde Bookes by mee compiled so that though the wormes of the earth doe eate my body yet men shall finde my heart whole amongst these Bookes Once againe I doe require thee and say that thou oughtest not a little to esteeme the key which I giue thee for wise men at the houre of their death alwayes recommend that which they best loue to them which in their liues they haue most loued I doe confesse that in my Studie thou shalt finde many things with mine owne hand written and well ordered and also I confesse that thou shalt finde many things by me left vnperfect In this case I thinke that though thou couldest not write them yet thou shalt worke them well notwithstanding and by these meanes thou shalt get reward of the Gods for working them Consider Pompeian that I haue beene thy Lord I haue beene thy Father-in-law I haue beene thy Father I haue beene thy Aduocate and aboue all that I haue beene thy speciall friend which is most of all for a man ought to esteeme more a faithfull friend then all the Parents of the world Therefore in the faith of that friendshippe I require that thou keepe this in memorie that euen as I haue recommended to others my Wife my Children my Goods and Riches So I doe leaue vnto thee in singuler recommendation my Honour for Princes leaue of themselues no greater memorie then by the good learning that they haue written I haue beene eighteene yeeres Emperour of Rome and it is threescore and three yeeres that I haue remayned in this wofull life during which time I haue ouercome many Battailes I haue slayne many Pyrates I haue exalted many good I haue punished many euill I haue wonne many Realmes and I haue destroyed many Tyrants but what shall I doe wofull man that I am sith all my companions which were witnesses with me of all these worthy feates shall be companions in the graue with the greedy wormes A thousand yeeres hence when those that are now aliue shall then be dead what is hee that shall say I saw Marcus Aurelius triumph ouer the Parthians I saw him make the buildings in Auentino I sawe him well beloued of the people I saw him father of the Orphanes I saw him the scourge of Tyrants Truely if all these things had not beene declared by my Bookes or of my friends the dead would neuer haue risen againe to haue declared them What is it for to see a Prince from the time he is borne vntill the time hee come to dye to see the pouertie he passeth the perills he endureth the euill that hee suffereth the shame that he dissembleth the friendshippe that hee fayneth the teares which hee sheddeth the sighes that hee fetcheth the promises that hee maketh and doth not endure for any other cause the miseries of this life but onely to leaue a memorie of him after his death There is no Prince in the world that desireth not to keepe a good house to keepe a good table to apparell himselfe richly and to pay those that serue him in his house but by this vaine honour they suffer the water to passe through their lippes not drinking thereof As
great Carthage who being of the yeares of 81 dyed in the first yeere of the wars of Punica they demaunded this Philosopher what it was that he knew he answered He knew nothing but to speake well They demaunded him againe what hee learned He answered Hee did learne nothing but to speake well Another time they demaunded him what hee taught Hee answered He taught nothing but to speake well Me thinketh that this good Philosopher in fourescore yeares and one said that he learned nothing but to speake well hee knew nothing but to speake well and that he taught nothing but to speake well And truely hee had reason for the thing which most adorneth mans life is the sweet pleasant tongue to speake well what is it to see two men in one counsell the one talking to the other the one of them hath an euill grace in propounding and the other excellent in speaking Of such there are some that in hearing them talke three houres wee would neyther be troubled nor wearied and of the contrary part there are others so tedious and rude in their speech that as soone as men perceiue they beginne to speake they auoyde the place And therefore in mine opinion there is no greater trouble then to hearken one quarter of an houre a rude man to speake and to be contrary there is no greater pleasure then to heare a discreete man though it were a whole weeke The diuine Plato in the Booke of Lawes sayde that there is nothing whereby a man is known more then by the words he speaketh for of the wordes which we heare him speake we iudge his intention eyther to bee good or euil Laertius in the life of the Phylosopher saieth that a young childe borne at Athens was brought vnto Socrates the great phylosopher being in Athens to the ende he should receyue him into his companie and teach him in his Schoole The yong childe was strange and shamefast and durste not speake before his Maister wherefore the Phylosopher Socrates sayd vnto him Speake friend if thou wilt that I know thee This sentence of Socrates was very profound I pray him that shall reade this writing to pause a while thereat For Socrates will not that a man be known by the gesture he hath but by the good or euill wordes which he speaketh Though eloquence and speaking well to euery man is a cause of augmenting their honour and no diminisher of their goods yet without comparison it shineth much more is most necessary in the Pallaces of Princesses and great Lords for men which haue common offices ought of necessity hearken to his naturall Countrimen and also to speake with strangers Speaking therefore most plainely I say that the Prince ought not to trauell onely to haue eloquence for the honour of his person but also it behoueth him for the Common-wealth For as the Prince is but one and is serued of all so it is vnpossible that hee haue so much as will satisfie and content them all And therefore it is necessary that hee requite some with money and that hee content others with good words For the Noble heart loueth better a gentle worde then a reward or gift with the tong of a rude man Plato Liuius Herodotus Vulpicius Eutropius Diorus Plinie and many other innumerable ancient Historiographers doe not cease to prayse the eloquence of Greeke princes and Latines in their workes Oh how blessed were those times when there were sage Princes and discreete Lordes truely they haue reason to exalt them For many haue obtayned and wonne the royall crownes and scepters of the Empire not so much for the great battels they haue conquered nor for the high bloud and generation from whence they are discended as for the wisedome and eloquence which they had Marcus Aurelius was naturall of Rome borne in Mount Celio hee was poore in patrimony and of base lynage little in fauour left and forsakē of his parents and besides all this onely for being vertuous in this life profound in doctrine and of so high eloquence the Emperour Antonius called Pius gaue him his daughter Faustine for wife who being reproued of many because he gaue his daughter to so poore a Philosopher answered I had rather haue a poore Philosopher then a rich foole Pulio in his seuenth booke of the Romaine lawes sayth that in Rome there was a law very well kept and obserued of the Consels by a custom brought in that the Dictators Censor and Emperors of Rome entred into the Senate once in the weeke at the least and in this place they should giue and render account in what state the common wealth remayned O would to God that at this present this Law were so kept and obserued for there is none who doth minister so good iustice as he which thinketh to giue account of his doings They say that Caligula the fourth Emperour of Rome was not onelie deformed infamous and cruell in his life but also was an Idiot in eloquēce and of an euill vtterance in his communication so that hee among all the Romane Princes was constrained to haue others to speake for him in the Senate This wicked man was so vnfortunate that after his cruell and infamous death they drew him throughout Rome and set vpon his graue this Epitaph Caligula lyeth here in endlesse sleepe That stretcht his raigne vpon the Empires head Vnfitte for rule that could such folly heape And fitte for death where vertue so was dead I Cannot tell why Princes do praise themselues to be strong and hardie to bee well disposed to bee runners to iust well and doe not esteeme to be eloquent since it is true that those gifts doe profite them onely for their life but the eloquence profiteth them not onely for to honour their life but also to augment their renowne For wee doe reade that by that many Princes did pacifie great seditions in the common wealth and besides that they deserued immortall memory Suetonius Tranquillus in the first book of Caesars sayth that the aduenturous Iulius Caesar being as yet but 16. yeares of age when there dyed in Rome an aunt of his called Cornelia at her buriall hee made an Oration in the which hee beeing so young shewed maruellous great eloquence which was so accepted that day in al people that in the end euery man iudged him to bee a valiant Romane Captaine And as Appianus declareth they say that Silla spake these words That which I perceyue of this young man Caius Caesar is that in the boldnesse of his tongue he declareth how valiant he ought to bee in his person Let therefore Princes and great Lordes see how much it may profite them to know to speake well and eloquently For wee see no other thing dayly but that a man of base lynage by his eloquence commeth to be exalted and the other which of linage is nobly borne for want of speaking well and being eloquent is the first that discendeth most vilest of all other
this coate The poore Poet answered him I let thee know my friend that I cannot tell which is greater thy euill lucke or my greate felicitie The Romane Calphurnius replyed Tell me Cornificius How canst thou call thy selfe happy since thou hast not a loafe of bread to eate nor a gowne to put on thy backe and why sayest thou that I am vnhappy since thou and thy family may be fed with that alone which at my table remayneth To this the poet answered I will that thou know my friend and neighbour that my felicitie is not for that I haue little but for that I desire lesse then I haue And thy euill lucke is not for that thou bast much but for that thou desirest more and doest little esteem that that thou hast And if thou be rich it is for that thou neuer spakest truth and if I he poore it is because I neuer tolde lye For the house that is stuffed with riches is commonly voyd of the truth And I tell thee further that I call my selfe happie because I haue a sister which is the best esteemed in all Italie and thou hast a Wife the most dishonest in all Rome And sith it is so betweene thee and mee I referre it to no mans iudgement but to thine which is better eyther to be poore as I am with honour or else to bee rich as thou art and liue with infamte These wordes passed betweene the Romane Calphurnius and the Poet Cornificius I desire to declare the excellencie of those few auncient women as well Greekes as Latines and Romanes to the intent that Princesses and great Ladyes may knowe that the auncient women were more esteemed for their sciences then for their beauties Therefore the Princesses and great Ladies ought to thinke that if they be womē the other were also in like māner and if they bee fraile the others were also weake If they be marryed the others also had Husbands if they haue theyr willes the others had also what they wanted If they be tender the others were not strong Finally they ought not to excuse themselues saying that women are vnmeete for to learne For a woman hath more abilitie to learne Sciences in the scholes then the Parate hath to speake words in the cage In my opinion Princesses and great Ladyes ought not to esteeme themselues more then another for that they haue fairer hayres then others or for that they are better Apparrelled then another or that they haue more riches then another But they ought therfore to esteeme themselues not for that they can doe more then others To say the trueth the faire and yeallow hayres the rich and braue Apparel the great treasurs the sumptuous Pallaces and strong Buildings these and other like pleasures are not guydes and leaders vnto vertues but rather Spyes and Scowtewatches to vices Oh what an excellent thing were it that the noble Ladyes would esteeme themselues not for that they can doe but for that they knowe For it is more commendations to know how to teach two Philosophers then to haue authority to commaund a hundred knightes It is a shame to write it but it is more pittie to see it that is to say to reade that wee read of the wisedome and worthinesse of the auncient Matrons past and to see as we do see the frailenes of these yong ladies present For they coueted to haue Disciples both learned and experimented and those of this present desire nothing but to haue seruants not only ignorant but deceitfull and wicked And I doe not maruell seeing that which I see that at this present in Court she is of little value least esteemed amōg Ladies which hath fairest Seruants is least entertained of Gentlemen What shall I say more in this matter but that they in times past striued who shold write better and compile the best books and these at this present doe not striue but who shall haue the richest and most sumptuous Apparrell For the Ladyes thinke it a jolyer matter to weare a Gowne of a new fashion then the ancients did to read a lesson of Phylosophie The ancient Ladyes striued which of them was wisest but these of our dayes contend who shal be fairest For at this day the Ladyes would choose rather to haue the face adorned with beautie then the heart endued with wisedome The Auncient Ladyes contended which should bee best able to teach others but these Ladyes now a dayes contend how they may most finely apparrell themselues For in these dayes they giue more honour to a Woman richly Apparrelled then they giue to another with honesty beautified Finally with this word I doe conclude and let him marke that shall reade it that in the olde time women were such that their vertues caused all men to keepe silence and now their vices bee such that they compell all men to speake I will not by this worde any man should be so bold in general to speake euill of all the Ladyes for in this case I sweare that there are not at this day so many good vertuous women in the world but that I haue more enuie at the life they lead in secrete then at all the sciences which the auncient women read in publike Wherefore my pen doth not shew it selfe extreame but to those which onely in sumptuous Apparrell and vaine words doe consume their whole life and to those which in reading a good Booke would not spend one onely houre To proue my intention of that I haue spoken the aboue written sufficeth But to the ende Princesses and great Ladyes may see at the least how much beter it shal be for them to know little then to haue and possesse much and to be able to do more I wil remēber them of that which a Romain woman wrote to her children wherby they shal perceiue how eloquent a woman she was in her sayings and how true a mother in her coūsel For in the end of her letter she perswadeth her children to the trauels of the warre not for any other cause but to auoyde the pleasures of Rome CHAP. XXXI Of the worthinesse of the Lady Cornelia and of a notable Epistle shee wrote to her two sonnes which serued in the warres Tiberius and Caius disswading them from the pleasures of Rome and exhorting them to endure the trauels of warre ANNius Rusticus in the booke of the Antiquities of the Romanes sayeth that in Rome there were fiue principall Iynages that is to say Fabritii Torquatii Brutii Fabit and Cornelii though there were in Rome other new lynages whereof there were many excellent personages yet alwayes these which came of the fiue lynages were kept placed and preferred to the first Offices of the common wealth For Rome honoured those that were present in such sort that it was without the preiudice of those that are gone Amongst those v. linages the Romaines alwayes counted the Cornelii most fortunate that which were so hardy and couragious in fight
mothers which haue children yet we must confesse it is profitable for the weale publike For if a man wold write to one in the warre that his family is not well he would forsake the warres to remedy it If a man write vnto him that it is prosperous hee hath then a desire to enioy it Be not displeased my children though all the Letters I doe send vnto you come not to your hands for all that I doe not cease to visite the temples for your owne health nor yet to offer sacrifices for your honor If we doe please the Gods we haue not cause to feare our enemies I say no more in this case my children but but that I beseech the immortall gods that if your liues may profit the Common wealth then they shorten my dayes and lengthen your yeares but if your liues should be to the damage of the Common wealth then those immortall gods I desire that first I may vnderstand the end of your dayes before that the Wormes should eate my flesh For rather then by your euill life the glory of our predecessors should bee blemished it were much better both your liues were ended The grace of the Gods the good renowne amongst men the good fortune of the Romanes the wisedome of the Greekes the blessing of Scipio and of all other your predecessors be alwayes with you my children CHAP. XXXII Of the education and doctrine of children whiles they are young wherein the Author declareth many notable histories AL mortall mē which will trauel and see good fruits of their trauell ought to doe as the chiefe Artificer did the painted world For the man that maketh God the head of his workes it is vnpossible that he should erre in the same That which we beleeue and reade by writing is that the eternal created the world in short space by his might but preserued it a long time by his wisedome Whereof a man may gather that the time to doe a thing is short but the care and thought to preserue it is long Wee see dayly that a valiant captaine assaulteth his enemies but in the end it is God that giueth the victory but let vs aske the Conquerour what trauell it hath beene vnto him or wherein hee hath perceiued most danger that is to say either to obtain the victory of his enemies or else to preserue themselues amongst the enuious and malitious I sweare and affirme that such a knight will sweare that there is no comparison between the one and the other for by the bloudy sword in an houre the victory is obtained but to keep it with reputation the swet of al the life is required Laertius in the book of the life of Phylosophers declareth and Plato also hereof maketh mention in the bookes of his common wealth that those of Thebes vnderstanding that the Lacedemonians had good lawes for the which they were of the Gods fauoured and of men greatly honoured determined to send by common assent and agreement a wise Philosopher the best esteemed amongst them whose name was Phetonius to whom they commaunded that hee should aske the lawes of the Lacedemonians and that he should be very circumspect and warie to see what their rules and customes were Those of Thebes were thē very noble valiant and honest so that their principall end was to come to honour renowne to erect buildings and to make themselues of immortall memory for being vertuous For in building they were very curious and for vertues they had good Phylosophers The Philosopher Phetonius was more then a yeare in the realme of the Lacedemonians beholding at sundry times all thinges therein for simple men doe not note things but onely to satisfie the eyes but the wise mē beholdeth them for to know and vnderstand their secrets After the Philosopher had well and plainely seene and beheld all the things of the Lacedemouians he determined to returne home to Thebes and beeing arriued all the people came to see him and heare him For the vanity of the common people is of such a qualitie that it followeth new inuentions and despiseth auncient Customes All the people therefore gathered together the good Philosopher Phetonius set vp in the middest of the market place a gibbet hote yrons a sword a whippe and fetters for the feet the which thing done the Thebians were no lesse as they thought slaundered then abashed To the which hee spake these wordes You Thebaines sent mee to the Lacedemonians to the entent that I should learne their Lawes and Customs and indeed I haue been there more then a year behelding all things very diligently For wee Philosophers are bounde not onely to note that which is done but also to know why it is done Know yee Thebians that this is the aunswere of my Ambassage That the Lacedemoniant hang vpon this Gibet theeues with this same sword they beheade Traytors with these hote Irons they torment blasphemers and lyers with these roddes they whp vacabonds and with these Irons doe keepe the rebels and the others are for Players and vnthrifts Finally I say that I do not bring you the Lawes written but I bring you the instruments wherewith they are obserued The Thebanes were abashed to see these things and spake vnto him such words Consider Phetonius we haue not sent thee to the Lacedemonians to bring Instruments to take away life but for the good Lawes to gouerne the Common wealth The Philosopher Phetonius reply ed againe and answered Thebains I let you to vnderstand that if you know what wee Philosophers knew yon should see how farre your mindes were from the truth For the Lacedemonians are not so vertuous thorough the lawes which were made of them that bee dead as for the means they haue sought to preserue them that bee aliue For the matters of iustice consists more in execution then in commanding or ordayning Laws are easily ordayned but with difficulty executed for there are a thousand to make them but to put them in execution there is not one Full little is that which men know that are present in respect of that those know which are past But yet according to my little knowledge I proffer to giue as good lawes to you Thebaines as euer were obserued among the Lacedemonians For there is nothing more easie then to know the good and nothing more common then to follow the euill But what profiteth it if one will ordaine and none vnderstand it If there bee that dooth vnderstand them there is none that executeth them If there bee that executeth them there is none that obserueth them If there bee one that obserueth them there is a thousand that reprooueth them For without comparison more are they that murmur and grudge at the good then those which despise and blame the euill You Thebaines are offended because I haue brought such Instruments but I let you know if you will haue neyther gybet nor Sworde to keepe that which shall bee ordained you shall haue
your Bookes full of lawes and the common wealth full of vices Wherefore I sweare vnto you that there are more Thebaines which follow the delitiousnesse of Denis the tyrant then there are vertuous men that follow the lawes of Lycurgus If you Thebaines doe desire greatly to know with what lawes the Lacedemonians doe preserue their Common-wealth I will tell you them all by word and if you will reade them I will shew you them in writing but it shall bee vpon condition that you shall sweare al openly that once a day you shall employ your eyes to reade them and your persons to obserue them for the Prince hath greater honour to see one onely law to be obserued in deed then to ordaine a thousand by writing You ought not to esteeme much to be vertuous in heart nor to enquire of the vertue by the mouth nor to seeke it by labour and trauell of the feet but that which you ought greatly to esteeme is to know what a vertuous law meaneth and that knowne immediately to execute it and afterwards to keepe it For the chiefe vertue is not to doe one vertuous worke but in a swet and trauell to continue in it These therfore were the words that this Philosopher Phetonius sayde to the Thebaines the which as Plato sayeth esteemed more his words that hee spake then they did the Lawes which he brought Truly in mine opinion those of Thebes are to bee praysed and commended and the Philosopher for his word is worthy to be honoured For the ende of those was to search lawes to liue well and the end of the Philosopher was to seeke good meanes for to keepe them in vertue And therefore he thoght it good to shew them and put before their eyes the gibbet and the sword with the other Instruments and torments for the euill do refraine from vice more for feare of punishment then for any desire they haue of amendment I was willing to bring in this history to the end that all curious and vertuous men may see and know how little the Ancients did esteeme the beginning the meane and the end of vertuous works in respect of the perseuerance and preseruation of them Comming therefore to my matter which my penne doth tosse and seeke I aske now presently what it profiteth Princesses and great Ladies that God doe giue them great estates that they be fortunate in marriages that they bee all reuerenced and honoured that they haue great treasures for their inheritances and aboue all that they see their wines great with Childe and that afterward in ioy they see them deliuered that they see their mothers giuing their children sucke and finally they see themselues happy in that they haue found them good nurses health full and honest Truly all this auayleth little if to their children when they are young they doe do not giue masters to instruct them in vertues and they also if they doe not recommend them to good guides to exercise them in feates of Chiualry The Fathers which by sighes penetrate the heauen by praiers importune the liuing God onelie for to haue children ought first to thinke why they will haue children for that iustly to a man may be denied which to an euill end is procured In mine opinion the Father ought to desire to haue a child for that in his age he may sustaine his life in honour and that after his death hee may cause his fame to liue And if a Father desireth not a sonne for this cause at the least he ought to desire him to the end in his age hee may honour his hoary head and that after his death hee may enherite his goods but we see few children do these thinges to their fathers in their age if the fathers haue not taught them in their youth For the fruit doth neuer grow in the haruest vnlesse the tree did beare blosoms in the spring I see oftentimes many Fathers complaine of their children saying that they are disobedient and proude vnto them and they do not consider that they themselues are the cause of all those euils For too much abundance and liberty of youth is no other but a prophesie and manifest token of disobedience in age I know not why Princes and great Lords do toyle oppresse so much scratch to leaue their children great estates and on the other side wee see that in teaching them they are and shewe themselues too negligent for Princes and great Lordes ought to make account that all that which they leaue of their substance to a wicked heyre is vtterly lost The wise men and those which in their consciences are vpright and of their honours carefull ought to bee very diligent to bring vppe their children and chiefly that they consider whether they bee meete to inherite their estates And if perchance the fathers see that their children bee more giuen to folly then to noblenes and wisdome then should I bee ashamed to see a father that is wise trauell all the dayes of his life to leaue much substance to an euill brought vp childe after his death It is a griefe to declare and a monstrous thing to see the cates which the Fathers take to gather riches and the diligence that children haue to spend them And in this case I say the sonne is fortunate for that hee doth enherite and the Father a foole for that he doth bequeath In my opinion Fathers are bound to instruct their children well for two causes the one for that they are nearest to them and also because they ought to be their heyres For truly with great griefe and sorrow I suppose hee doth take his death which leaueth to a foole or an vnthrift the toyle of all his life Hyzearchus the Greeke Hystorian in the booke of his Antiquities Sabellicus in his generall hystory sayeth that a father and a sonne came to complain to the famous Philosopher and ancient Solon Solinon the Sonne complained of the father and the father of the sonne First the sonne informed the quarrell to the Philosopher saying these words I complaine of my Father because hee being rich hath disinherited mee and made me poore and in my steade hath adopted another heyre the which thing my father ought not nor cannot doe for since he gaue me so frayle flesh it is reason hee giue me his goods to maintaine my seeblenes To these wordes answered the father I complaine of my sonne because hee hath not beene as a gentle sonne but rather as a cruell enemie for in all things since hee was borne hee hath beene disobedient to my will wherefore I thought it good to disinherite him before my death I would I were quit of all my substance so that the gods had quit him of his life for the earth is very cruell that swalloweth not the child aliue which to his father is disobedient In that he sayeth I haue adopted another child for mine heyre I confesse it is true and for so much
the warres were between Carthage and Rome the Common wealth of Carthage was very well gouerned and as it beseemed such a noble City but it is an ancient priuiledge of the warre that it killeth the persons consumeth the goods and aboue all engendreth a new passion and misery and in the end destroyeth all good ancient customes The Carthagenians therefore had a custome that the children and especially those which were of honest men should be put in the Temples from three yeeres till twelue and so from twelue till twenty they learned crafts sciences and occupations and from 20. til 25. they instructed thē in the feates of war and at the end of 30. yeares they gaue themselues to marriage for amongst them it was a Law inuiolable that no man should marrie vntill he were thirty yeares of age and the woman 25. And after that they were married the moneth following they ought to present themselues before the Senate and there to choose what kinde of estate they would take vpon them to liue in and what their mindes most desired that is to say if they would serue in the Temples follow the warre or trauell the seas or get their liuing by land or follow their occupation which they had learned And looke what estate or office that day they chose the same they kept and occupyed during their life and truely the law was very good because such change of estates and Offices in the World are occasion that presently so many come to destruction All the excellent and ancient Princes had many great Philosophers for their Masters and this seemeth to be true by this that king Darius had Lichanins the philosopher for his master the great Alexander had Aristotle the Philosopher for his Master King Artaxerces had Pindarus the philosopher for his Master The aduenturous and hardy captaine of the Athenians Palemo had Xenocrates the philosopher for his master Xemaides onely king of the Corinthians had Chilo the philosopher for his Master and tutour to his Children Epamynundus Prince of the Thebanes had for his master and councellour Maruchus the Philosopher Vlysses the Greeke as Homer sayeth had for his master and companion in his trauels Catinus the philosopher Pirrus which was King of the Epirotes and a great defendor of the Tharentines had for his Master and Chronicler Arthemius the philosopher of whom Cicero speaketh ad Atticum that his sword was sharper to fight then his penne ready for to write The great King Ptholomeus Philodelphus was not onely Scholer of the most singular Philosophers of Greece but also after he was King he sent for 72. Philosophers which were Hebrewes Cirus King of the Persians that destroyed the great Babylon had for his Master Pristicus the Philosopher Traian the Emperour had Plutarch for his Master who did not onely teach him in his youth but also wrote him a booke how he ought to gouerne himselfe and his commōwealth By these few examples which I haue expressed and by many other which I omit Princes at this present may see how carefull princes were in times past to giue their children wise and learned men O princes great Lords since you at this present do presume and take vpon you that which your Forefathers did I would that now you would consider who brought them to so high estate who leaueth them eternall memorie for without doubt noble men neuer wan renown for the pleasurs they had in vices but for the trauels they had in vertues Againe I say that Princes in times past were not famous for their stoutnes apt disposition of their bodies nor for discent of noble lynage nor for the possessiō of many Realmes or heaping vp of great treasures but they wanne and obtained immortall renowne for that their Fathers in their youth put them vnder the tuition of wise and learned tutours which taught them good doctrine and when they were of age gaue them good counsellours to gouerne the common-wealth Laertius in the life of the Phylosophers and Bocchas in the Booke of the linage of Gods say thus That among the Phylosophers of Athens there was a custome that no straunge Phylosopher should reade in their Schooles before hee were first examined in naturall and morall Phylosophie For among the Greekes it was an auncient Prouerbe That in the schoole of Athens no vicious man could enter nor idle word be spoken neyther they did consent that any ignorant Phylosopher should come in to reade there Now as by chaunce many phylosophers were come from the Mount Olympus amongst the refidue there was one came to see the philosophers of Athens who was natiue of Thebes a man as afterwardes hee declared himselfe in Morall and naturall phylosophie very well learned And since he desired to remaine in Athens hee was examined and of many and diuers things demanded And amongst the others these following were some of them First they asked him what causeth women to bee so froward since it is true that nature made them shamefaste and created them simple The Phylosopher answered A woman is not froward but because shee hath too much her will and wanteth shame Secondarily they asked him why young men are vndone hee answered because Time aboundeth them for to doe euill and Maisters wanteth to enforce them to doe good Thirdly they asked him why are Wise men deceyued as well as the simple he answered The wise man is neuer deceyued but by him that vseth faire wordes and hath euill conditions Fourthly they asked him of whom men ought most to beware he aunswered That there is to a man no greater enemie then hee which seeth that thing in thee which hee desireth to haue in himselfe Fifthly they asked him why manie princes begunne well and ended euill hee aunswered Princes begin well because their nature is good and they ende euill because no man doth gaine-say them Sixtly they asked him why do princes commit such follyes hee answered Because Flattterers aboundeth that deceyue them and true men are wanting which should serue them Seuenthly they asked him why the Auncients were so sage and men at this present were so simple hee aunswered Because the Auncients did not procure but to knowe and these present doe not trauell but for to haue Eightly they asked him why so manie vices were nourished in the pallaces of princes hee aunswered Because pleasures abound and counsell wanteth The ninth they asked him why the most parte of men liued without rest and fewe without paine he aunswered No man is more without and suffereth more paine then hee that dyeth for the goods of another and little esteemeth his owne The tenth they asked him whereby they might knowe the Common-wealth to bee vndone hee aunswered There is no Common-wealth vndone but onely where the young are light and the old vicious The 11. they asked him wherwith the Common-wealth is maintained he answered The common wealth cānot decay where iustice remaineth for the poore punishment for the tyrants
any misfortune where ripe counsell is euer present It shall seeme vnto those that shall profoundly consider this matter that it is a superfluous thing to treate of these thinges for eyther princes chuse the good or els they chuse the euill If they chuse not good masters they labour in vain to giue them good counsell for the foolish master is lesse capable of couÌ„sell then the dissolute scholler is of wholesome admonition If perchance princes doe make elections of good Masters then those Masters both for themselues and also for others ought to minister good counsels For to giue counsell to the wise man it is eyther a superfluous deed or else it coÌ„meth of a presumptuous man Though it be true that hee which dare giue counsell to the Sage man is presumptuous I say in like manner that the Diamond beeing set in gold loseth not his vertue but rather increaseth in price and value I meane that the wiser a man is so much the more hee ought to desire to know the opinion of another certainely he that doth so cannot erre For to none his owne counsell aboundeth so much but that hee needeth the counsel and opinion of another Though Princes and great Lords do see with their eyes that they haue choseÌ„ good masters tutors to teach their children yet they ought not therefore to be so negligent of themselues but that sometimes they may giue the masters counsell for it may be that the masters be both noble stout that they be ancient sage and moderate but it may be also that in teaching childreÌ„ they are not expert For to masters and tutors of princes it is not so much necessary that sciences do abound as it is shame that experience should want When a rich man letteth out his farme or manor to a farmor he doth not onely consider with himselfe before what rent hee shall pay him but also he couenanteth with him that he shal keepe his grounds well fenced and ditched and his houses well repayred And not contented to receyue the third part of the fruit of his vine but also he goeth twice or thrice in a year to visite it And in seeing it hee hath reason for in the end the one occupieth the goods as a Tenant and the other doth view the ground as chiefe Lord. Then if the father of the family with so great diligence doth recommend the trees and the ground to the Labourer how much more ought the Father to recommend his children to the Masters for the father giuing counsell to the Master is no other but to deliuer his child to the Treasurer of Science Princes and great Lords cannot excuse themselues of an offence if after that they haue chosen a knight or Gentleman for to be Master or els a learned and wise man to be tutour they are so negligent as if they neuer had had children or did remember that their children ought to be theyr Heires certainely this thing should not bee so lightly passed ouer But as a wise man which is carefull of the honour and profite of his child hee ought to bee occupied as well in taking heed to the master as the master ought to be occupied in taking heede to the child For the good fathers ought to know whether the master that he hath chosen can commaund and whether his child will obey One of the noblest Princes among the Ancients was Seuleucus King of the Assyrians and husband of Estrabonica the daughter of Demetrius King of Macedony a Lady for her beauty in all Greece the most renowned of her fame though indeed she was not very fortunate This is an old disease that hapneth alwayes to beutiful women that there be many that desire them and more that slaunder them This King Seuleucus was first married with another woman of whome hee had a sonne called Antigonus ' the which was in loue with the second wife of his Father that is to say with the Queene Estrabonica and was almost dead for loue The which the father vnderstanding married his son with her so that she that was his stepmother was his wife and shee that was a faire wife was a faire daughter and hee which was his Sonne was made his sonne in law and hee which was Father was stepfather The Authour hereof is Plutarch in his liues as Sextus Cheronensis sayeth in the thirde booke of the sayings of the Greekes The king Seuleucus laboured diligently to bring vp his sonne Antigonus wel wherfore he sought him two notable masters the one a Greeke the other a Latine The K Seuleucus herewith not contented prouided secretly by the means of a seruant of his named Parthemius that he should haue no other office in the Pallace but that what the masters taught or did to his sonne Antigonus in the day hee should secretly come and tell him in the night But by the diligence of Parthemius it came to the knowledge of the Tutors that they had ouer-seers for in the ende there is nothing accustomablie but at the last will bee reuealed Since the two Phylosophers knew the secret one day they saide vnto the King Seuleucus these wordes Most mighty Prince Seuleucus since thou hast of trust committed thy Sonne Antigonus into our handes why doest thou appointe thy Seruaunt Parthemius as accuser of our liues If thou accountest vs euill and him good thou shalt shewe vs great fauour if thou wilt discharge vs and committe to him the â—uâ—tion of thy Sonne For wee let thee to knowe that to men of honour it is vntollerable euill to shame them and no dishonour to licence them Thou hast appointed Parthemius to goe and dog vs to see what we do or say openly and afterwards to make relation vnto thee secretly And the worst is that by relation of the simple wee should be condemned beeing Sages For triacle is not so contrary to poyson as ignoraunce is to wisedome And truely most Noble Prince it is a great matter that daily inquisition is made of man for there is no Beard so bare shauen but it wil growe againe I meane that there is no man of so honest a life but if a man make inquisition he may finde wherewithall to detect The K Seuleucus answered them thus Consider my Friendes that I knowe right well that neyther the authoritie of the person nor the good credite of renowme would bee stayned for any other Friende in this world and if the rude men doe it not much lesse ought the Sages to doe it For there is nothing that men trauell for so much in this life as to leaue of them a good renowme after theyr death Since you are Sages and Maisters of my Sonne and likewise counsellers of my house it is not meete that you should with any bee offended For by all good reason hee alone ought to bee esteemed in the Pallaces of Princes that will giue vnto Princes good counsell That which I haue saide to Parthemius was not for the doubt
great estimation For Princes did not vse to be serued at their Tables nor in their chambers with any vnlesse they were of his owne Kinred or auncient Seruants And concerning the other childe which was his companion the Emperour returned againe to his father saying That when hereafter hee should bee more shamefaste hee would receyue him into his seruice And certainely the Emperour had great reason for good graue Princes ought not to be serued with light shamelesse children I would now demaund Fathers which loue their children very well and would they should bee worthy what it auayleth their children to be faire of countenance wel disposed of body liuely of spirit white of skinne to haue yellow hayres to bee eloquent in speech profound in science if with all these graces that nature giueth them they bee too bolde in that they doe and shameles in that they say The Author hereof is Patritius Senensis in the first booke De Rege et regno One of the most fortunate princes was the great Theodosius the which amongst all other vertues had one most singular the which was that hee was neuer serued in his pallace with any young man that was vnshamefast or seditious nor with any olde man which was dishonest for he sayde oft times that Princes shall neuer bee well beloued if they haue about them lyers or slaunderers This good Emperour spake as a man of experience and very sage for if the Councellers and familiars of Princes bee euill taught and vnpatient they offend many and if they bee lyers they deceyue al and if they be dishonest they slaunder the people And these offences bee not so great vnto them that commit them as they bee vnto the Prince which suffereth them The Emperour Theodose had in his palace two Knights the one called Ruffinus and the other Stelliconus by whose prudence and wisedome the Common wealth was ruled and gouerned And as Ignatius Baptista sayeth they two were the Tutours and Gouernours of the children of Theodose whose names were Archadius and Honorius for as Seneca saith When good Princes doe die they ought to bee more carefull to procure Masters and Tutours which shall teach their children then to procure realmes or kingdomes for to enrich them The two Masters Stelliconus and Ruffinus had in the palace of Theodose each of them a sonne the which were maruellous well taught and very shamefast and for the contrary the two Princes Honorius and Arcadius were euill mannered and not very honest And therefore the good Emperour Theodose tooke these children oft times and set them at his Table and contrary hee would not once behold his owne Let no man maruel though a Prince of such a grauity did a thing of so small importance for to say the truth the shamefast children and well taught are but robbers of the hearts of other men Fourthly the Tutors and Masters of Princes ought to take good heed that when the young princes their Schollers waxe great that they giue not themselues ouer to the wicked vice of the flesh so that the sensuality and euill inclination of the wanton child ought to bee remoued by the wisedome of the chaste Master For this cursed flesh is of such condition that if once by wantonnes the wicket be opened death shall sooner approch then the gate shall be shut againe The trees which budde and cast leaues before the time our hope is neuer to eate of their fruit in season I meane that when children haunt the vice of the flesh whiles they be yong there is small hope of goodnesse to bee looked for in them when they be olde And the elder we see them waxe the more wee may be assured of their vices And where wee see that vice encreaseth there wee may affirme that vertue diminisheth Plato in his second booke of laws ordayneth and commaundeth that young men should not marry before they were 25. yeares of age and the young maydens at 20. becaust at that age their fathers abide lesse dangers in begetting them giuing of them life and the children also which are borne haue more strength against the assaults of death Therefore if it bee true as it is true indeed I aske now if to bee married and get children which is the end of marriage the Philosophers doe not suffer vntill such time as they bee men then I say that Masters ought not to suffer their schollers to haunt the vices of the flesh when they bee children In this case the good fathers ought not alone to commit this matter to their Tutors but also thereunto to haue an eye themselus For oft times they will say they haue been at their deuotions in the Temples when in deed they haue offered veneriall sacrifice to the Curtezan The vice of the flesh is of such condition that a man cannot giue himselfe vnto it without grudge of Conscience without hurt of his renowne without losse of his goods without shortning of his life and also without offence to the Common-wealth for oft times men enclined to such vice doe rebell trouble and slaunder the people Seneca satisfied me greatly in the which he writeth in the second booke De Clementia to Nero where hee sayeth these words If I knew the Gods would pardon me and also that men would not hate mee yet I ensure thee for the vilenes therof I would not sinne in the flesh And truly Seneca had reason for Aristotle sayeth That all Beastes after the act of Venerie are sorry but the Cocke alone O Gouernours and Masters of great Princes and Lords by the immortal Gods I sweare which created vs I coniure you and for that you owe to the Nobility I desire you that you will bridle with a sharpe snafle your charge and giue them not the reine to follow vices for if these young children liue they will haue time ynough to search to follow to attaine and also to cast off those yokes for through our frailety this wicked vice of the flesh in euery place in all ages in euery estate and at all times bee it by reason or not is neuer out of season What shall I say to you in this case if the children passe the furiousnes of their youth without the bridle then they bee voyde of the loue of God they follow the trumpet of sensuality after the sound whereof they runne headlong into the yoake and loose that that profiteth to win that which hurteth For in the carnall vices he that hath the least of that which sensuality desireth hath much more therof then reason willeth Considering that the Masters are negligent the children bolde their vnderstandings blinded and seeing that their appetites do accomplish beastly motions I aske now what remayneth to the childe and what contentation hath hee of such filth and naughtinesse Truly since the fleshly and vicious man is ouercome with his appetite of those that escape best I see none other fruit but that their bodies
remaine diseased and their vnderstanding blinded their memory dulled their sense corrupted their will hurted their reason subuerted and their good fame lost and worst of all the flesh remaineth alwayes flesh O how many young men are deceyued thinking that for to satisfie and by once engaging themselues to vices that from that time forwarde they shall cease to bee vicious the which thing not onely doth not profite them but also is very hurtfull vnto them For fire is not quenched with drye wood but with cold water But O God what shall wee doe since that now a dayes the Fathers doe as much esteeme their children for being fine and bolde minions among women as if they were verie profound in science or hardie in feates of Armes and that which is worst they oft times make more of their bastards gotten in adulterie then of their legitimate childe conceiued in matrimony What shall wee say then of mothers Truely I am ashamed for to speake it but they should bee more ashamed to doe it which is because they would not displease their husbands they hide the wickednesse of their children they put the children of their harlots to the Nurse they redeeme their gages they giue them money to play at dice they reconcile them to their fathers when they haue offended they borrow them money to redeeme them when they are indebted Finally they are makers of their bodies and vndoers of their soules I speake this insidently for that the masters would correct the children but the Fathers and mothers forbid them For it little auayleth for one to pricke the horse with the spurre when hee that sitteth vpon him holdeth him back with the bridle Therfore to our matter what shall we do to remedy this ill in the young man which in his flesh is vicious Truely I see no other remedie but with the moist earth to quench the flaming fire and to keepe him from the occasions of vice For in the warre honour by tarrying is obtained but in the vice of the flesh the victory by flying is obtayned The end of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE OF THE DIALL OF PRINCES WITH THE FAMOVS BOOKE OF MARCVS AVRELIVS WHERE HEE entreateth of the vertues which Princes ought to haue as Iustice Peace and Magnificence CHAP. I. How Princes and great Lordes ought to trauell to administer to all equall iustice EGidius Frigulus one of the most famous and renowmed Philosophers of Rome sayde that that betweene two of the Zodaicall signes Leo and Libra is a Virgine named Iustice the which in times past dwelled among men in earth and after that shee was of them neglected shee ascended vp to Heauen This Philosopher would let vs vnderstand that Iustice is so excellent a vertue that she passeth al mens capacitie since shee made heauen her mansion place and could finde no man in the whole earth that wold entertaine her in his house During the time they were chaste gentle pittifull patient embracers of vertue honest and true Iustice remayning in the earth with them but since they are conuerted vnto adulterers tyrants giuen to be proud vnpatient lyers and blasphemers shee determined to forsake them and to ascend vp into heauen So that this Philosopher concluded that for the wickednesse that men commit on earth Iustice hath leapt from them into Heauen Though this seeme to bee a Poeticall fiction yet it comprehendeth in it high and profound doctrine the which seemeth to be very cleare for where wee see iustice there are few theeues few murderers few tirants and few blasphemers Finally I say that in the house or Common wealth where Iustice remaineth a man can not committe vice and much lesse dissemble with the vicious Homer desirous to exalt justice could not tell what to say more but to call Kings the children of the great God Iupiter and that not for that naturalty they haue but for the office of iustice which they minister So that Homer concludeth that a man ought not to call iust Princes other but the children of God The diuiue Plato in the fourth booke of his common-wealth saieth that the chiefest gift God gaue to men is that they being as they be of such vile clay should bee gouerned by justice I would to GOD all those which reade this wryting vnderstoode right well that which Plato said For if men were not indued with reason and gouerned by iustice amongst all beasts none were so vnprofitable Let reason be taken from man wherwith he is indued and iustice whereby he is gouerned then shall men easily perceyue in what sort he will leade his life He cannot fight as the Elephant nor defend himselfe as the Tygre nor he can hunte as the Lyon neither labour as the Oxe and that wherby he should profite as I thinke is that he should eate Beares and Lyons in his life as now he shall be eaten of worms after his death All the Poets that inuented fictions all the Oratours which made Orations all the Philosophers which wrote books all the Sages which left vs their doctrines and all the Princes which instituted Lawes meant nothing else but to perswade vs to think how briefe and vnprofitable this life is and how necessary a thing iustice is therin For the filth and corruption which the bodie hath without the soule the selfe same hath the common-wealth without iustice Wee cannot denye but that the Romaines haue been prowde enuious adulterers shamelesse and ambicious but yet with all these faultes they haue beene great obseruers of iustice So that if God gaue them so manie Triumphs beeing loaden and enuironed with so many vices it was not for the vertues they had but for the great iustice which they did administer Plinie in his second booke saith that Democrites affirmed there were two gods which gouerned the vniuersall world that is to say Reward and Punishment Whereby wee may gather that nothing is more necessarie then true and right iustice For the one rewardeth the good and the other leaueth not vnpunished the euill Saint Austine in the first Booke De Ciuitate Dei saieth these words Iustice taken away what are Realmes but dennes of Theeues Truely hee had great reason For if there were no whips for vagabonds gags for blasphemers fines for periurie fires for heretiques sword for murderers galowes for theeues nor prisons for Rebells we may boldly say there would not bee so many Beasts on the mountains as there would be thieues in the Common-wealth In many things or in the greatest parte of the commonwealth wee see that Bread Wine Corn Fish Wool and other things necessary for the life of the people wanteth but we neuer saw but malicious men in euery place did abound Therefore I sweare vnto you that it were a good bargaine to chaunge all the wicked men in the commonwealth for one onely poore sheepe in the fielde In the Common-wealth wee see nought else but whipping daylie beheading slaying drowning hanging but notwithstanding this
fields then to see my neighbours hourely to lament in the streets For there the cruell beastes do not offend me vnlesse I do assault them but the cursed men though I do serue them yet dayly they vexe mee without doubt it is a maruellous paine to suffer an ouerthrow of fortune but it is a greater torment when one feeleth it without remedy And yet my greatest griefe is when my losse may bee remedied and he which may wil not and he that wil cannot by any means remedy it O cruell Romanes yee feele nothing that we feele specially I that speake it ye shal see how I feele it only to reduce it to memory my tongue wil waxe weary my ioints shiuer my hart trembles and my flesh consumeth What a woful thing is it in my country to see it with my eies to hear with my eares to feele it with my hands Truly the griefes which woful Germany suffers are such so many that I beleeue yet the mercifull gods will haue pitty vpon vs. I desire you not to think slander of my words but I desire you that you would vnderstād wel what I say for you imagining as you presume to be discreet shall see right well the troubles that come to vs from men among men with mē and by the hands of men it is a small matter that we as men do feele them speaking for according to truth and also with liberty if I should declare euery other iust aduertisement which came from the Senate the tirannie which your iudges commit in the miserable Realme one of these two things must ensue eyther the punishment of men or the depriuation of your Officers if I say true One thing onely comforteth me wherof I with other infortunate people haue had experience in that I doe thinke my selfe happy to know that the iust plagues proceede not from the iust Gods but through the iust deserts of wicked men And that our secret fault doeth waken those to the end that they of vs may execute open iustice Of one thing only I am sore troubled because the Gods cannot be contented but for a small fault they punish a good man much and for many faultes they punish euill men nothing at al so that the Gods doe beare with the one and forgiue nothing vnto the other O secret iudgements of God that as I am bound to prayse your workes so likewise if I had licence to condemne them I durst say that ye cause vs to suffer grieuous paines for that yee punish and persecute vs by the hands of such Iudges the which if iustice take place in the World when they chastice vs with their hands they doe not deserue for to haue their heades on their shoulders The cause why now againe I doe exclaime on the immortall Gods is to see that in these 15. dayes I haue beene at Rome I haue seene such deedes done in your Senate that if the least of them had beene done at Danuby the Gallowes and gibbets had beene hanged thicker of theeues then the vineyard is with grapes I am determined to see your doings to speake of your dishonesty in apparrel your little temperance in eating and your disorder in affayres and your pleasures in liuing and on the other side I see that when your prouision arriueth in our Country wee carry into the temples and offer it to the Gods wee put it on their heads so that the one meeting with the other wee accomplish that which is commaunded and accurse those that commaunded And sith therefore my heart hath now seen that which it desireth my mind is at rest in spitting out the poyson which in it abideth If I haue in any thing heere offended with my tong I am ready to make recompēce with my head For in good faith I had rather winne honour in offering my selfe to death then you should haue it in taking from me my life And heere the villaine ended his talke immediately after Marcus Aurelius sayde to those which were aboute him How thinke yee my friendes what kernell of a nut what golde of the mine what corne of straw what rose of bryers what mary of bones and how noble and valiant a man hath he shewed himselfe What reasons so hie what words so well couched what truth so true what sentences so well pronounced and also what open malice hath hee discored By the faith of a good man I sweare as I may bee deliuered from this feuer which I haue I saw this villaine standing boldly a whole houre on his feet and all we beholding the earth as amazed could not answere him one word For indeede the villaine confuted vs with his purpose astonyed vs to see the little regarde he bad of his life The Senate afterwardes beeing all agreede the next day following wee prouided new Iudges for the riuer of Danuby and commaunded the villaine to deliuer vs by writing all that he sayde by mouth to the end it might bee registred in the booke of good saying of strangers which were in the Senate And further it was agreede that the saide villaine for the wise words hee spake should be chosen Senator and of the Free men of Rome he shold bee one and that for euer he should bee sustained with the common treasure For our mother Rome hath alwayes beene praysed and esteemed not onely to acquite the seruices ' which haue beene done vnto her but ' also the good words which were spoken in the Senate CHAP. VI. That Princes and Noble men ought to be very circumspect in choosing Iudges and Officers for therein consisteth the profite of the publike weale ALexander the great as the Historiographers say in his youth vsed hunting very much specially of the mountaines that which is to be marueled at he would not hunt Deare Goates Hares nor Partridges but Tygers Leopardes Elephants Crocodils and Lions So that this mighty Prince did not onely shew the excellency of his courage in conquering proud Princes but also in chasing of cruell sauage beasts Plutarch in his Apothegmes sayeth that the great Alexander had a familiar seruant named Crotherus to whome oftentimes hee spake these wordes I let thee to vnderstand Crotherus That the valiant Princes ought not onely to be vpright in their realm which they gouerne but also to bee circumspect in pastimes which they vse that the authoritie which in the one they haue woune in the other they doe not lose When Alexander spake these words truely hee was of more authority then of yeares But in the ende he gaue this example more to bee followed and commaunded then to bee reproued or blamed I say to be followed not in the hunting that he exercised but in the great courage which hee shewed To the Plebeians and men of discretion it is a little thing that in one matter they shew their might and in other things their small power is known but to princes and great Lords it is a discommendable thing
that in earnest matters any man should accuse them of pride and in things of sport they should count them for light For the Noble and valiant Prince in thinges of importance ought to shew great wisdome and in meane things great stoutenes The case was such that Alexander the Great hunting on the wilde mountaines by chance met with a cruell Lyon and as the good Prince would winne his honor with the Lyon and also the Lyon preserue his owne life they were in griepes the one of the other so fast that both fell to the earth where they striued almost halfe an houre but in the ende the Lyon remayned there dead and the hardy Alexander escaped all bloudy This hunting of Alexander and the Lyon through all Greece was greatly renowmed I say greatly renowned because the Grauers and Painters drew a portrait forthwith in stone-worke of this hunting and the grauers hereof were Lisippus and Leocarcus maruellous grauers of anticke workes which they made of mettall where they liuely set forth Alexander and the Lyon fighting and also a familiar seruant of his named Crotherus being among the dogges beholding them So that the worke seemed not onely to represent an ancient thing but that the Lyon Alexander Crotherus and the dogges seemed also to bee aliue in the same chase When Alexander fought with the Lyon there came an Ambassadour from Sparthes to Macedonie who spake to Alexander these Wordes Would to God Immortall prince That the force you haue vsed with the lyon in the mountain you had employed against some Pr for to be lord of the earth By the words of the Embassadour and the deedes of Alexander may easily bee gathered That as it is comely for Princes to bee honest valiant and stout so to the contrary it is vnseemly for them to be bolde and rash For though Princes of theyr goods be liberall yet of their life they ought not to be prodigall The diuine Plato in the tenth booke of his laws saith that the two renowmed Phylosophers of Thebes whose names were Adon and Clinias fell at variance with themselues to knowe in what thing the Prince is bound to aduenture his life Clinias saide that hee ought to die for any thing touching his honor Adon saide the contrarie That hee should not hazard his life vnlesse it were for matters touching the affaires of the cōmonwealth Plato saith those two philosophers had reason in that they said but admit that occasion to dye should be offered the Prince for the one or the other he ought rather to die for that thing touching iustice then for the thing touching his honor For there is no great differēce to die more for the one then for the other Applying that wee haue spoken to that we will speake I say that we doe not desire nor we will not that Princes and great lords doe destroy themselues with Lions in the chace neither aduenture their persons in the warres nor that they put theyr liues in perill for the cōmon-weale But wee onely require of them that they take some paines and care to prouide for thinges belonging to iustice For it is a more naturall hunting for Princes to hunt out the vices of their commonweales then to hunt the wilde boares in the thicke woods To the end Princes accomplish this which we haue spoken we will not aske them time when they ought to eate sleepe hunt sporte and recreate themselues but that of the 24 houres that bee in the day and night they take it for a pleasure and commodity one houre to talke of iustice The gouernment of the comonweale consisteth not in that they should trauell vntill they sweate and molest their bodyes shead their bloud shorten theyr liues and loose their pastimes but all consisteth in that they should be diligent to foresee the dammages of their common-wealth and likewise to prouide for good mimisters of iustice Wee doe not demaund Princes and great Lordes to giue vs their goods Nor wee forbidde them not to eate to forsake sleepe or sport to hunt or put their liues in daunger but we desire and beseeche them that they would prouide good ministers of iustice for the common-weale First they ought to be very diligent to search them out and afterwards to be more circūspect to examin them For if wee sigh with teares to haue good Princes we ought much more to pray that we haue not euil officers What profiteth it the knight to be nimble and if the horse be not ready What auayleth it the owner of the ship to be sage and expert if the Pilot be a foole and ignorant What profiteth the king to be valiant and stout the captain of the warre to be a coward I meane by this I haue spoken what profiteth it a prince to be honest if those which minister iustice bee dissolute What profiteth it vs that the Prince be true if his Officers be lyers what profiteth it vs that the Pr be sober if his ministers be drūkards what profiteth it that the P be gentle louing if his officers be cruell malicious what profiteth it vs that the Pr be a giuer liberall and an almes-man if the iudge which ministreth justice be a briber and an open Theefe What profiteth it the prince to bee carefull and vertuous if the Iudge bee negligent and vicious Finally I say that it little auayleth that the prince in his house be secretly iust if adioyning to that hee trust a tirant open theefe with the gouernment of the Common-weale Princes and great Lords when they are within their pallaces at pleasure their mindes occupied in high things doe not receyue into theyr secret company but their entire friends Another time they will not but occupie themselues in pastimes and pleasure so that they know not what they haue to amend in their persons and much lesse that which they ought to remedy in their common-weales I will not bee so eager in reprouing neyther so Satyricall in writing that it should seeme I would perswade princes that they liue not according to the highnesse of their estates but according to the life of the religious for if they wil keepe themselues from being tyrants or being outragiously vitious we cannot deny them sometimes to take their pleasures But my intention is not so straightly to commaund Princes to be iust but only to shew them how they are bound to doe iustice Common-wealthes are not lost for that their princes liue in pleasure but because they haue little care of iustice In the end people doe not murmur when the Prince doth recreate his person but when he is too slacke to cause iustice to be executed I would to God that Princes took an account with God in the things of their conscience touching the common wealth as they doe with men touching their rents and reuenues Plutarch in an Epistle hee wrote to Traian the Emperor saith It pleaseth mee very well most puissant prince that the Prince be such
prosperous he loseth his goodes and honour and if he perchauce attaine to that he desired peraduenture his desire was to the damage of the Common-Wealth and then hee ought not to desire it For the desire of one should not hurt the profite of all When God our Lord did create Princes for Princes and people accepted them for their Lordes It is to beleeue that the Gods did neuer commaund such things nor the men would euer haue excepted such if they had thought that Princes wold not haue done that they were bound but rather that whereunto they were inclined For if men follow that wherunto their sensuality enclineth them they alwayes erre therfore if they suffer themselus to be gouerned by reasō they are alwayes sure And besides that Princes shold not take vpon thē warres for the burdening of their consciences the mis-spending of theyr goods and the losse of their honour they ought also to remember the duties that they owe to the Common-wealth the which they are bound to keepe in peace and iustice For wee others need not gouernours to search vs enemyes but good Princes which may defend vs from the wicked The diuine Plato in his 4. booke De Legibus sayth that one demaunded him why hee did exalt the Lydians so much and so much dispraise the Lacedemonians c Plato aunswered If I commend the Lydians it is for that they neuer were occupyed but in tylling the Fielde and if I doe reproue here the Lacedemonians it is because they neuer knew nothing else but to conquere realmes And therfore I say that more happy is that realme where men haue their hands with labouring full of blysters then where their arms in fighting are wounded with Swordes These words which Plato spake are very true and would to GOD that in the gates harts of Princes they were written Plinius in an Epistle sayeth that it was a Prouerbe much vsed amongst the Greekes That hee was king which neuer saw king The like may we say that he onely may enioy peace which neuer knewe what warres meant For simple and innocent though a man bee there is none but will iudge him more happy which occupieth his hand kerchiefe to drye the sweate off his browes then he that breaketh it to wipe the bloud off his head The Princes and great Lords which are louers of warres ought to consider that they doe not only hurt in generall all men but also especially the good and the reason is that although they of their owne wills doe abstaine from Battell doe not spoyle doe not rebell nor slay yet it is necessary for them to endure the iniuryes and to suffer their owne losse and damages For none are meete for the warre but those which little esteeme theyr life and much lesse their consciences If the warre were only with the euill against the euill and to the hurte and hinderance of the euill little should they feele which presume to be good But I am sorrie the good are persecuted the good are robbed and the good are slaine For if it were otherwise as I haue saide the euill against the euill we would take little thought both for the vanquishing of the one and much lesse for the destruction of the other I aske nowe what fame what honour what glorie what victorie or what Riches in that warre can be wonne wherin so many good vertuous and wise men are lost There is such penurie of the good in the world and such neede of them in the common-wealth that if it were in our power we with our tears ought to plucke them out of their graues and giue them life and not to leade them into the Warres as to a shambles to be put to death Plinie in one Epistle and Seneca in another say that when they desired a Romaine Captaine that with his armey he should enter into a great danger whereof great honour should ensue vnto him and little profite to the Commonwealth He made answere For nothing would I enter into that daunger if it were not to giue life to a Romane Citizen For I desire rather to goe enuironned with the good in Rome then to goe loaden with treasures into my Countrey Comparing Prince to Prince and law to law and the Christan with the Pagan without comparison the soule of a Christian ought more to be esteemed thē the life of a Romane For the good Romane obserueth it as a law to dye in the warre but the good christian hath the precept to liue in peace Snetonius Tranquillus in the second Booke of Caesars sayeth That among all the Romane Princes there was no Prince so well beloued nor yet in the warres so fortunate as Augustus was And the reason hereof is because that Prince neuer beganne any war vnles by great occasion he was thereunto prouoked O of how manie princes not Ethnicks but Christians we haue heard and read all contrary to this which is that were of such large conscience that they neuer took vpon them any warre that was iust to whom I swear and promise that since the warre which they in this worlde beganne was vniust the punishment which in another they shall haue is most righteous Xerxes King of the Persians being one day at dinner one brought vnto him verie faire and sauourie figges of the prouince of Athens the which beeing set at the table hee sware by the immortall Gods and by the bones of his predecessors that hee would neuer eate figges of his Countrey but of Athens which were the best of all Greece And that which by words of mouth king Xerxes sweare by valiant deedes with force and shield hee accomplished and went forthwith to conquer Grecia for no other cause but for to fill himselfe with the figges of that Countrey so that hee beganne that warre not only as a light prince but also as a vitious man Titus Liuius sayeth that when the French men did taste of the wine of Italy immediately they put them selues in Armes and went to conquer the Country without hauing any other occasion to make warre against them So that the Frenchmen for the licoriousnesse of the pleasant wines lost the deare bloud of their owne hearts King Antigonus dreamed one night that hee saw King Methridates with a Sithe in his hand who like a Mower did cut all Italy And there fell such feare to Antigonus that hee determined to kill King Methridates so that this wicked prince for crediting a light dreame set all the world in an vprore The Lumbardes being in Pannonia heard say that there was in Italy sweet fruits sauourie flesh odorifetous Wines faire Women good Fish little colde and temperate heate the which newes moued them not onely to desire them but also they tooke weapons to goe conquer Italie So that the Lumbardes came not into Italy to reuenge them of their enemies but to bee there more vicious and riotous The Romanes and the Carthagenians were friendes of long time but after they
of counsel they themselues imagine and other flattrers telleth that thogh they haue much in respect of other princes yet they can doe little Also they say vnto them that if their substaunce bee great their Fame ought to bee greater Further they tell them that the good Prince ought little to esteeme that hee hath inherited of his predecessors in respect of the great deale more hee ought to leaue to his successours Also they tell them that neuer prince left of him any great memory but inuenting some cruell Warre against his enemie Also they tell them that the houre that one is chosen Emperour of Rome hee may boldely conquer the whole earth These vaine reasons being heard of the princes afterwardes as their Fortune is base and their mindes high immediately they defie their enemies they open their Treasures they assemble great armies and in the end of all the Gods suffer that they thinking to tkae an other mans goods they waste and lose their owne Oh Princes I knowe not who doth deceyue yee that you which by peace may be rich and by war wil be poore Oh Princes I know not who doth deceiue you that you which may be loued doe seeke occasions to be hated Oh princes I knowe not who doth beguyle yee that yee which may enioy a sure life doe aduenture your selues to the mutabilitie of Fortune Oh princes I knowe not who doeth deceyue you that you so little esteeme and weigh your owne aboundance and so greatly set by the wants of others Oh princes I know not who doth deceiue you that all hauing need of you you should haue neede of others I let thee to knowe my Cornelius though a prince bee more quicke and carefull then all other his predecessors haue bin in Rome yet it is vnpossible that all things touching warre should succeede vnto him prosperously For in the greatest neede of warres eyther he wanteth money or his subiects do not succour him or time is contrarie vnto him or he findeth perilous pasges hee lacketh Artillerie or the captaines rebell or else succour commeth to his aduersaryes so that hee seeth himselfe so miserable that thoughtes doe more oppresse his heart then the enemies do harme his land Though a prince had no warre but for to suffer men of warre yet he ought to take vpon him no warre I aske thee now my Cornelius what trauell so great to his person or what greater damage to his Realme can his Enemies do then that which his own men of warre doe c The Enemies to doe the worst they can will but robbe our Frontiers but our men of War do robbe the whole countrey The Enemies we dare and may resist but to ours we cannot nor dare not speake The Enemyes the worst they can do is once in a moneth to robbe and runne their wayes but ours daily do robbe and remaine still The Enemyes feare their enemies only but ours doe feare their enemyes and haue no pitie on their friends The enemies the further they goe on the more they diminish but ours the further they goe the more they encrease I know no greater warre that Princes can haue then to haue men of warre in their realmes For as experience doth shew vs before the Gods they are culpable to Princes importunate and to the people troublesome so that they liue to the damage of all and to the profit of none By the God Mars I swear vnto thee my friend Cornelius as hee may direct my hands in the war that I haue more complaints in the Senate of the thefts which my Captaines did in Illyria then of all the enemies of the Romane people Both for that I say and for that I kept secret I am more afraid to create an Ensigne of two hundred men of warre then to giue a cruell battell to thirty thousand men For that battell fortune good or euill forthwith dispacheth but with these I can bee sure no time of all my life Thou wilt say vnto me Cornelius that since I am Emperour of Rome I should remedy this since I know it For that Prince which dissembleth with the fault of another by reason hee will condemne him as if it were his owne To this I answere that I am not mighty enough to remedy it except by my remedy there should spring a greater inconuenience And since thou hast not beene a Prince thou couldest not fall into that I haue nor yet vnderstand that which I say For Princes by their wisdom know many things the which to remedy they haue no power So it hath beene so it is so it shall be so I found it so I keepe it so will I leaue it them so I haue reade it in bookes so haue I seen it with my eyes so haue I heard it of my predecessors And finally I say our Fathers haue inuented it and so will wee their children sustaine it and for this euill wee will leaue it to our heyres I will tell thee one thing and imagine that I erre not therein which is considering the great dammage and little profite which men of warre do bring to our Common wealth I thinke to doe it and to sustaine it eyther it is the folly of men or a scourge giuen of the Gods For there can be nothing more iust then for the Gods to permit that wee feele that in our owne houses which wee cause others in strange houses to lament All those thinges I haue written vnto thee not for that it skileth greatly that I know them but that my heart is at ease for to vtter them For as Alcibiades sayde the chests and the hearts ought alwayes to be open to their friends Panutius my Secretary goeth in my behalfe to visite that Land and I gaue him this Letter to giue thee with two Horses wherewith I doe thinke thou wilt be contented for they are Genets The Weapons and riches which I tooke of the Parthians I haue now diuided notwithstanding I do send thee two Chariots laden with them My wife Faustine greeteth thee and shee sendeth a rich glasse for thy Daughter and a iewell with stones for thy sister No more but I doe beseech the gods to giue thee a good life and me a good death CHAP. XVII An Admonition of the Author to Princes and great Lordes to the entent that the more they grow in yeares the more they are bound to refrayne from vices AVlus Gelius in his booke De noctibus Atticis sayeth that there was an auncient custome among the Romanes to honour and haue in great reuerence aged men And this was so inuiolate a Law amongst them that there was none so noble of bloud and linage neyther so puissant in riches neyther so fortunate in battels that should go before the aged men which were loden with white hayres so that they honoured them as they did the Gods Amongst other the aged men had these preheminences that is to say that in feasts they sate highest in the
them but that God hath forgotten thee and the seas do know thee I pray thee what goest thou to seeke since thou leauest the gouernement of thy house and saylest in Alexandrie Peraduentur thou goest to the gulfe Arpin where the mariners cast in thy lead Take heede Mercury and consider well what thou doest for peraduenture where as thou thinkest for to take from the fish the hard lead thou maiest leaue vnto them thy soft flesh I haue knowne many in Rome which for to recouer one parte of that they haue lost haue lost all that which was left vnto them O my friende Mercury note note Note well this last word whereby thou shalt know what it is that you couetous men doe gape for in this life Thou seekest care for thy selfe enuy for thy neighbours spurs for strangers a baite for theeues troubles for thy body damnation for thy renowne vnquietnesse for thy life annoiance for thy friends and occasion for thy enemies Finally thou serchest maledictions for thy heyres and long sutes for thy children I cannot write any more vnto thee because the Feuer doth so vehemently vexe mee I pray thee pray to the Gods of Samia for me for medicines little profite if the Gods bee angry with vs. My wife Faustine saluteth thee and shee sayeth that shee is sorry for thy losse she sendeth thee a rich iewell for Fabilla thy daughter and I doe send thee a Commission to the end they shall giue thee a ship in recompence of thy leade If thou saylest with it come not by Rhodes for we haue taken it from their Pirates The Gods bee in thy custody and giue mee and Faustine a good life with ours and a good name among straungers I doe not write vnto thee with mine owne hand for that my sicknesse doth not permit it CHAP. XXXII That Princes and Noble men ought to consider the misery of mans Nature and that brute beasts are in som points reason set apart to bee preferred vnto men MIdas the auncient King of Phrygia was in his gouernment a cruell Tyrant and contented not himselfe to play the Tirant in his owne proper Countrey but also maintained Rouers on the Sea and theeues in the land to robbe straungers This King Mydas was well known in the Realmes of the Orient and in such sort that a friend of his of Thebes sayde vnto him these words I let thee to know K. Mydas that all those of thy owne Realme doe hate thee and all the other Realmes of Asia doe feare thee and not for this that thou canst do much but for the crafts and subtilties which thou vsest By reason whereof all strangers and all thine owne haue made a vow to God neuer to laugh during the terme of thy life nor yet to weepe after thy death Plutarch in the booke of Politiques sayeth that when this King Mydas was borne the Ants brought corne into his cradell and into his mouth and when the nurse wold haue taken it from him hee shut his mouth and would not suffer any person to take it from him They beeing all amazed with this strange sight demaunded the Oracle what this betokened who aunswered That the childe should bee maruellous rich and withall exceeding couetous which the Antes did betoken in filling his mouth with corne And afterwards hee woulde not giue them one onely graine and euen so it chaunced that King Mydas was exceeding rich and also very couetous for hee would neuer giue any thing but that which by force was taken from him or by subtiltie robbed In the Schooles of Athens at that time nourished a Philosopher called Sylenus who in letters and purenesse of life was highly renowned And as King Mydas was knowne of many to haue great treasures so this Philosopher Silenus was no lesse noted for despising them This Philosopher Silenus trauelling by the borders of Phrygia was taken by the theeues which robbed the Country and being brought before King Mydas the King sayd vnto him Thou art a Philosopher and I am a King thou art my prisoner I am thy Lord I will that immediately thou tell mee what ransome thou canst giue mee to redeeme thy person for I let thee to know that I am not contented any Philosopher should perish in my Country because you other Philosophers say that you will willingly renounce the goods of the World since you cannot haue it The Philosopher Silenus answered him Mee thinketh King Mydas that thou canst better execute tyranny then to talke of Philosophy for we make no account that our bodies bee taken but that our willes bee at liberty Thy demaund is very simple to demaund ransome of me for my person whether thou takest mee for a Philosopher or no. If I bee not a Philosopher what moueth thee to feare to keepe me in thy Realme for sooner shouldest thou make mee a Tyrant then I thee a Phylosopher If thou â—akstst mee for a Philosopher why doest thou demaund money of mee since thou knowest I am a philosopher I am a Crafts man I am a Poet and also a Musitian so that the time that thou in heaping vp riches hast consumed the selfe same time haue I in learning spent Of a Philosopher to demaund either gold or siluer for ransome of his person is eyther a word in mockerie or else an inuention of tyranny For sithence I was borne in the World riches neuer came into my hands nor after them hath my heart lusted If thou King Mydas wouldest giue mee audience and in the faith of a prince beleeue mee I would tell thee what is the greatest thing and next vnto that the second that the Gods may giue in this life and it may bee that it shall bee so pleasant vnto thee to heare and so profitable for thy life that thou wilt plucke mee from my enemies and I may disswade thee from tirannies When King Mydas heard these words hee gaue him licence to say these two things swearing vnto him to heare him with as much patience as was possible The Philosopher Silenus hauing licence to speake freely taking an instrument in his hands began to play and sing in this wise The Senate of the Gods when they forethought On earthly Wightes to still some royall grace The chiefest gift the heauenly powers had wrought Had beene to sowe his seede in barren place But when by steppes of such diuine constraint They forced man perforce to fixe his line The highest good to helpe his bootelesse plaint Had beene to slyp his race of slender twine For then the tender babes both wante to know The deere delight that life doth after hale And eke the dread that grisly death doth shew Ere Charons bote to Stigian shore doth sayle THese two things the Philosopher proued with so high and naturall reasons that it was a maruellous matter to see with what vehemency Sylenas the Philosopher sang them and with what bitternesse Mydas the Tyrant wept Without doubt the sentences were maruelous
profound which the Philosopher spake and great reason had the king to esteeme it so much For if wee doe prepare our selues to consider whereof wee are and what we shall be that is to say That wee are of earth and that we shall returne to earth We would not cease to weepe nor sigh One of the greatest vanities which I finde among the children of vanity is that they employ themselues to consider the influences of the starres the nature of the Planets the motion of the heauens and they will not coÌ„sider themselues of which consideration they should take some profite For man giuing his mind to thinke on strange things commeth to forget his owne proper Oh if we would consider the corruption whereof wee are made the filth whereof wee are engendred the infinit trauell wherewith we are born the long tediousnes wherewith we are nourished the great necessities and suspitions wherein wee liue and aboue all the perill wherein wee dye I sweare and affirme that in such consideration wee finde a thousand occasions to wish death and not one to desire life The children of vanity are occupyed many yeares in the Schooles to learne Rethorike they exercise themselues in Philosophy they heare Aristotle they learne Homere without booke they study Cicero they are occupied in Xenophon they hearken Titus Liuius they forget not Aulus Gelius and they know Ouid yet for all this I say that we cannot say that the man knoweth little which doth know himselfe Eschines the Philosopher sayde well that it is not the least but the chiefest part of Philosophy to know man and wherefore he was made for if man would deepely consider what man is he should finde more things in him which would moue him for to humble himselfe then to stirre him to be proud If we doe behold it without passion and if we doe examine it with reason I know not what there is in man O miserable and fraile nature of man the which taken by it selfe is little worth and compared with an other thing is much lesse For man seeth in brute beastes many things which hee doth enuy and the beasts doe see much more in men whereon if they had reason they would haue compassion The excellencie of the soule layde aside and the hope which we haue of eternall life if man doe compare the captiuity of men to the liberty of beasts with reason we may see that the beasts doe liue a peaceable life and that which men doe lead is but a long death If we prepare our selues to consider from the time that both man and beast come into this world vntill such time as they both dye and in how many thinges the beasts are better then men with reason we may say that nature like a pittifull mother hath shewed her selfe to beasts and that she doth handle vs an vniust stepmother Let vs beginne therefore to declare more particularly the originall of the one and the beginning of the other and wee shall see how much better the brute beasts are endowed and how the miserable men are disinherited CHAP. XXXIII The Author followeth his purpose and excellently compareth the misery of men with the liberty of beasts WE ought deeply to consider that no wilde nor tame beast is so long before hee come to his shape as the miserable man is who with corruption of bloud and vile matter is nine moneths hid in the wombe of his mother Wee see the beast when shee is great if neede require doth labour all exercises of husbandrie so that shee is as ready to labour when she is great as if shee were empty The contrary hapneth to women which when they are big with child are weary with going trobled to be laid they ride in Chariots through the market places they eate little they brooke not that they haue eaten they hate that which is profitable and loue that which doth them harme Finally a woman with childe is contented with nothing and shee fretteth and vexeth with her selfe Sithence therefore it is truâ—â—hat we are noysome and troubleâ—â—â—e to our mothers when 〈◊〉 beare vs in theyr wombes why doe we not giue them some safe conduct when they are in deliuering O miserable state of maÌ„ since the brute beasts are borne without destroying their mothers but the miserable men before they are born are troublesome and carefull and in the time of their birth are both perillous to themselues and dangerous to their mothers which seemeth to be very manifest for the preparation that man maketh when he wil die the selfe same ought the woman to doe when shee is ready to bee deliuered Wee must also consider that though birdes haue but two feete they can goe moue and runne immediately when it commeth foorth but when man is borne hee cannot goe nor moue and much lesse runne So that a Popingey ought more to bee esteemed which hath no hands then the man which hath both hands and feet That which they do to the little babe is not but a prognostication of that which he ought to suffer in the progresse of his life that is to say That as they are not contented for to put the euill doer in prison but they lode his hands with yrons and set his feete in the stockes so in like manner to the miserable man when hee entreth into the Chaâ—ter of his life immediately they binde both his hands and his feete and lay him in the Cradell So that the innocent babe is first bound and rolled before hee bee embraced or haue sucke of the mother We must note also that the houre wherein the beast is brought foorth though it know not the Sier which begate it at the least it knoweth the damme which brought it forth which is apparant for so much as if the mother haue milke the youngling forthwith doth seeke her teates and if perchaunce the haue no milke they goe afterwards to 〈◊〉 themselues vnder her wings Of the miserable man it is not so but the day that hee is borne he knoweth not the Nurse that giueth him sucke neyther the Father which hath begotten him the mother which hath borne him nor yet the Mid-wife which hath receyued him moreouer hee cannot see with his eies heare with his eares nor iudge with the taste and knoweth neyther what it is to touch or smell so that wee see him to whome the Seigniory ouer all brute beasts and other things that are created partayneth to bee borne the most vnable of all other creatures We must consider also that thogh the beast be neuer so little yet it can seeke for the teates of his mother to sucke or to wander in the fieldes to feede or to scrape the dunghilles to eate or else it goeth to the fountains and riuers to drinke and that he learneth not by the discourse of time or that any other beast hath taught it but as soone as it is borne so soone doth it know what thing is necessarie for
further since both rich and poore doe daylie see the experience hereof And in thigs verie manifest it sufficeth onely for wise men to be put in memorie without wasting any more time to perswade them Now the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had a secretarie verie wise vertuous through whose hands the affaires of the Empire passed And when this secretarie saw his Lord and Master so sicke and almost at the houre of death and that none of his parents or friends durst speake vnto him he plainly determined to doe his dutie wherein hee shewed verie well the profound knowledge hee had in wisedome and the great good wil he bare to his Lord. This Secretary was called Panutius the vertues and life of whom Sextus Cheronensis in the life of Marcus Aurelius declareth CHAP. L. Of the Comfortable words which the Secretary Panutius spake to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius at the houre of his death O My Lord and Master mytongue cannot keepe silence mine eyes cannot refraine from bitter teares nor my heart leaue from fetching sighs nor yet reason can vse his duty For my bloud boyleth my sinews are dried my powers be open my heart doth faint and my spirit is troubled And the occasion of all this is to see that the wholesome counsels which thou giuest to others ether thou canst not or will not take for thy selfe I see thee die my Lord and I die for that I cannot remedy thee For if the gods would haue granted me my request for the lengthning of thy life one day I would giue willingly my whole life Whither the sorrow bee true or fayned it needeth not I declare vnto thee with wordes since thou mayest manifestly discerne it by my countenance For mine eyes with teares are wet and my heart with sighes is very heauie I feele much the want of thy companie I feele much the dammage which of thy death to the whole commonwealth shall ensue I feele much thy sorrowe which in thy pallace shall remaine I feele much for that Rome this day is vndone but that which aboue all things doth most torment my heart is to haue seene thee liue as wise and now to see thee dye as simple Tell me I pray thee my Lord why do men learne the Greeke tongue trauell to vnderstand the Hebrew sweate in the Latine chaunge so many Maisters turne so many bookes and in studie consume so much money and so many yeares if it were not to knowe how to passe life with honor and take death with patience The end why men ought to studie is to learne to liue well For there is no truer science in man then to know how to order his life well What profiteth it me to know much if thereby I take no profite what profiteth me to know straunge Languages if I refrain nor my tongue from other mens matters what profiteth it to studie many bookes if I studie not but to begyule my friendes what profiteth it to know the influence of the starres and the course of the Elements if I cannot keepe my selfe from vices Finally I say that it little auayleth to to bee a master of the Sage if secretly hee bee reported to bee a follower of fooles The chiefe of all Phylosophie consisteth to serue GOD and not to offend men I aske thee most Noble Prince what auaileth it the Pilot to know the Arte of Sayling and after in a Tempest by negligence to perish What auaileth it the valiaunt Captaine to talke much of Warres and afterwards he knoweth not how to giue the Battell What auayleth it the guyde to tell the nearest way and afterwards in the middest to loose himselfe All this which I haue spoken is saide for thee my Lord For what auayleth it that thou beeing in health shouldest sigh for death since now when hee doeth approche thou weepest because thou wouldest not leaue life One of the things wherein the wise man sheweth his wisdome is to know how to loue and how to hate For it is great lightnes I should rather say follie to day to loue him whome yesterday we hated and to morrowe to slaunder him whom this day wee honoured What Prince so high or what Plebeyan so base hath there been or in the world shall euer be the which hath so little as thou regarded life and so highly commended death What things haue I written beeing thy Secretarie with mine owne hand to diuers Prouinces of the world where thou speakest so much good of death that sometimes thou madest mee to hate life What was it to see that letter which thou wrotest vnto the noble Romaine Claudinaes widdowe comforting her of the death of her Husband which dyed in the warres Wherein shee aunswered that she thought her trouble comfort to deserue that thou shouldst write her such a Letter What a pittifull and sundry letter hast thou written to Antigonus on the death of thy childe Verissimus thy sonne so much desired Whose death thou tookest so that thou exceedest the limits of Phylosophie but in the ende with thy princely vertues thou didst qualifie thy woful sorows What Sentences so profound what wordes so well couched didst thou write in that booke intituled The remedy of the sorrowfull the which thou didst send from the warre of Asia to the Senatours of Rome and that was to comfort them after a sore plague And how much profite hath thy doctrine done since with what new kinde of consolation hast thou comforted Helius Fabatus the Sensour when his son was drowned in the riuer where I do remember that when we entred into his house we found him weeping and when wee went from thence wee lest him laughing I doe remember that when thou wentst to visite Gneus Rusticus in his last disease thou didst speake to him so effectuously that with the vehemency of thy words thou madest the teares to runne downe his cheekes And I demanding him the occasions of his lamentations he said The Emperor my Lord hath told me so much euils that I haue won and of so much good that I haue lost that I weepe I weepe not for life which is short but for death which is long The man whom aboue all thou hast loued was Torquatus whom thou didst obey as thy father and seruedst as thy master This thy faithfull friend being readie to die and desiring yet to liue thou sendest to offer sacrifices to the gods not for that they should graunt himselfe but that they should hasten his death Herewith I being astonied thy noblenesse to so satisfie my ignorance sayd vnto mee in secret these wordes Maruell not Panutius to see me offer sacrifices to hasten my friends death and not to prolong his life for there is nothing that the faithfull friend ought so much to desire to true friend as to see him ridde from the trauels of the earth and to enioy the pleasures of heauen Why thinkest thou most noble Prince that I reduce all these things to thy memory but for to
iustice but none do reioyce that they execute it in his house And therfore after the Prince endeth his life the people will take reuenge of those which haue beene ministers thereof It were great infamy to the Empire offence to the gods iniurie to mee vnthankefulnes to thee hauing found the armes of my seruants ready eighteene yeers that thy gates should be shut against them one day Keepe keepe these things my sonne in thy memory and since particularly I doe remember them at my death consider how heartily I loued them in my life CHAP. LVII The good Marcus Aurelius Emperour of Rome endeth his purpose and life And of the last words which he spake to his sonne Commodus and of the table of Counsels which he gaue him WHen the Emperor had ended his particular recommendations vnto his sonne Commodus as the dawning of the day beganne to appeare so his eyes beganne to close his tongue to faulter and his handes to tremble as it doth accustome to those which are at the point of death The Prince perceyuing then little life to remaine commaunded his Secretary Panutius to goe to the coffers of his bookes and to bring one of the coffers before his presence out of the which hee tooke a table of 3. foote of bredth and 2. of length the which was of Eban bordered all about with Vnicorne And it was closed with 2. lids very fine of red wood which they call rasing of a tree where the Phenix as they say breedeth which did grow in Arabia And as there is but one onely Phenix so in the world is there but one onely tree of that sort On the vttermost part of the Table was grauen the god Iupiter and on the other the goddesse Venus and in the other was drawne the god Mars and the goddesse Diana In the vppermost part of the table was carued a Bull and in the nethermost part was drawne a King And they sayde the painter of so famous and renowmed a worke was called Apelles The Emperour taking the Table in his handes casting his eyes vnto his Sonne said these words Thou seest my sonne how from the turmoyles of Fortune I haue escaped and how I into miserable destinies of death do enter where by experience I shall know what shall be after this life I meane not now to blaspheme the Gods but to repent my sinnes But I would willinglie declare why the Gods haue created vs since there is such trouble in life and paine in death Not vnderstanding why the Gods haue vsed so great crueltie with creatures I see it now in that after lxij yeares I haue sayled in the daunger and perill of this life now they commaund mee to land and harbour in the graue of death Now approcheth the houre wherein the band of Matrimonie is loosed the threede of Life vntwined the key doth locke the sleepe is wakened my life doth ende and I goe out of this troublesome paine Remembring mee of that I haue done in my life I desire no more to liue but for that I knowe not whether I am carryed by death I feare and refuse his darts Alas what shall I doe since the Gods tell mee not what I shall do What counsell shall I take of any man since no man will accompanie mee in this iourney Oh what great disceipt Oh what manifest blindnes is this to loue one thing all the dayes of our life and to cary nothing with vs after our death Because I desired to be rich they let me dye poore Because I desired to liue with companie they let me die alone For such shortnes of life I know not what hee is that will haue a house since the narrow graue is our certaine mansion place Belieue mee my sonne that manie things past doe grieue mee sore but with nothing so much I am troubled as to come so late to the knowledge of this life For if I could perfectly belieue this neyther should men haue cause to reproue me neyther yet I now such occasion to lament me Oh how certaine a thing is it that men when they come to the point of death doe promise the Gods that if they prerogue their death they will amend their life but notwithstanding I am sorry that we see them deliuered from death without any manner of amendment of life They haue obtained that which of the Gods they haue desired and haue not performed that which they haue prornised They ought assuredly to thinke that in the sweetest time of their life they shall be constrained to accept death For admit that the punishment of ingrate persons be deferred yet therefore the fault is not pardoned Be thou assured my Sonne that I haue seene ynough hearde selte tasted desired possessed eaten slept spoken and also liued ynough For vices giue as great troubles to those which follow them much as they do great desire to those which neuer proued them I confesse to the immortall Gods that I haue no desire to liue yet I ensure thee I would not die For life is so troublesome that it wearyeth vs and Death is so doubtfull that it feareth vs. If the Gods deferred my death I doubt whether I should reforme my life And if I do not amend my life nor serue the gods better nor profit the commonwealth more and if that euery time I am sick it should grieue mee to dye I say it is much better for mee now to accept death then to wish the lengthening of my life I say the life is so troublesom so fickle so suspicious so vucertaine and so importunate Finally I say it is a life without life that hee is an obstinate foole which so much desireth it Come that that may come for finally notwithstanding that I haue spoken I willingly commit selfe into the hands of the gods since of necessitie I am therunto constrained For it proceedeth not of a little wisedome to receiue that willingly which to doe wee are constrained of necessitie I will not recommend my selfe to the Priests nor cause the Oracles to be visited nor promise any thing to the temples nor offer sacrifices to the gods to the end they should warrant me from death and restore mee to life but I will demaund and require them that if they haue created mee for any good thing I may not lose it for my euill life So wise and sage are the gods in that they say so iust true in that they promise that if they giue vs not that which wee others would it is not for that they will not but because wee deserue it not for wee are so euill and worth so little and we may doe so little that for many good works wee deserue no merite and yet with and euill worke wee be made vnworthy of all Since therefore I haue put my selfe into the hands of the gods let them doe with me what they will for their seruice for in the end the worst that they will do is much better then
those that contrary your opinion Be not proud and seuere vnto those you doe commaund neyther doe any thing without good aduisement and consideration For albeit in Princes Courts euery man doth admire and beholde the excellencie and worthines of the person yet are those alwayes that are most in fauour of the Prince more noted regarded and sooner accused then others 10 If you will not erre in the counselles you shall giue nor fayle in those things you shall enterprise Embrace those that tell you the truth and reiect and hate those whom you know to be Flatterers and dissemblers For you should rather desire to bee admonished of the thing present then to be counselled after the dammage receyued Although wee suppose assuredly that all these things aboue-written are not likely to happen nor yet come euen so to passe as I haue spoken yet if it may please you Syr to remember they are not therefore impossible For spitefull Fortune permitteth oftentimes that the Sayles which in stormie weather the Lightnings and boystrous Tempests could not breake and teare in piecâ—â— are afterwardes vpon a sudden euen in the sweete of the mornings sleepe each man taking his rest leauing the Seas before in quiet calme all to shiuered and torne a sunder He that meaneth to giue another a blowe also the more he draweth backe his arme with greater force hee striketh And euen so neyther more nor lesse sayeth Fortune with those on whom for a time shee smyleth For the longer a man remayneth in her loue and fauor the more cruell and bitter she sheweth herselfe to him in the ende And therefore I would aduise euery wise and Sage person that when Fortune seemeth best of all to fauour him and to doe most for him that then hee should stand most in feare of her and least of all to trust her deceits Therefore Syr nake no small account of this my Booke little though it bee For you know that doubtlesse as experience teacheth vs of greater price and value is a little sparke of a Dyamond then a greater ballast It forceth little that the Booke bee of small or great volume sith the excellencie thereof consisteth not in the number of leaues more or lesse but only in the good and graue sentences that are amply written therein For euery Authour that writeth to make his booke of great price and shew ought to be briefe in his words and sweete and pleasaunt in his matter hee treateth of the better to satisfie the minde of the Reader and also not to growe tedious to the hearer And Syr I speake not without cause that you should not a little esteeme this smal treatise of mine since you are most assured that with time all your things shall haue ende your Friendes shall leaue you your goods shall bee diuided your selfe shall dye your fauour and credit shall diminish and those that succeede you shall forget you you not knowing to whome your Goods and Patrimonie shall come and aboue all you shall not knowe what conditions your heyres and children shall be of But for this I wryte in your royall Historic and Chronicle of your laudable vertues and perfections and for that also I serue you as I doe with this my present worke the memorie of you shall remaine eternized to your Successors for euer Chilo the Phylosopher beeing demanded whether there were anything in the world that Fortune had not power to bring to nought aunswered in this sort Two things only there are which neither Time can consume nor Fortune destroy And that is the renowne of man written in bookes and the veritie that is hidden For though truth for a time lye interred yet it resurgeth againe and receiueth life appearing manifestly to all And euen so in like case the vertues we find written of a man doe cause vs at this present to haue him in as great veneration as those had in his time that best knewe him Reade therefore Syr at times I beseech you these writings of mine albeit I feare me you can scant borrow a moment of Time with leysure once to looke vpon it beeing as I knowe you are alwayes occupyed in affayres of great importance wherin me thinketh you should not so surcharge your selfe but that you might for your commodity and recreation of your spirits reserue some priuate houres to your selfe For sage and wise men should so burden themselues with care of others toyle that they shold not spend one houre of the day at the least at their pleasure to looke on their estate and condition As recounteth Suetonius Tranquillus of Iulius Caesar who notwithstanding his quotidian warres he had neuer let slip one day but that he reade or wrote some thing So that being in his Pauillion in the Campe in the one hand hee held his lance to assault his enemie and in the other the penne he wrote withall with which he wrote his worthy CoÌ„mentaries The resonable man therfore calling to mind the straight account that he must render of himselfe and of the time he hath lost shall alwayes be more carefull that hee lose not his time then he shall be to keepe his treasure For the well imployed time is a meane and helpe to his sal saluation and the euill gotten good a cause of his eternall damnation Moreouer yet what toyle and trauell is it to the body of the man and how much more perill to the liuing soule when hee consumeth his whole dayes and life in worldly broyles and yet seely man hee cannot absent himselfe from that vile drudgery til death doth summon him to yeelde vp his account of his life and doings And now to conclude my Prologue I say this booke is diuided into two parts that is to say in the first tenne Chapters is declared how the new-come Courtier shall behaue himselfe in the Princes Court to winne fauour and credit with the Prince and the surplus of the work treateth when hee hath atchieued to his Princes fauour and acquired the credite of a worthy Courtier how he shall then continue the same to his further aduancement And I doubt not but that the Lords and Gentlemen of Court will take pleasure to reade it and namely such as are Princes familiars and beloued of Court shall most of all reape profite thereby putting the good lessons and aduertisements they finde heretofore written in execution For to the young Courtiers it sheweth them what they haue to do and putteth in remembrance also the olde fauoured Courtyer liuing in his princes grace of that he hath to be circumspect of And finally I conclude Syr that of all the Treasures riches gifts fauours prosperities pleasures seruices greatnesse and power that you haue and possesse in this mortall and transitorie life and by the Faith of a true Christian I sweare vnto you also that you shal carrie no more with you then that onely Time which you haue well and vertuously employed during this your Pilgrimage THE ARGVMENT OF THE BOOKE
and that is without procuring or offering my selfe he Senate of their own Will hath commaunded mee In the eight Table of our auncient laws by these Wordes Wee commaund that in our sacred Senate Charge of iustice bee neuer giuen to him that willinglie offereth him selfe to it but to such as by great deliberation are chosen This is certainely a iust Law for men be now not so vertuous not so louing to the Common wealth that they will forget their own quietnes and rest doing damage to themselues to procure another mans profite There is none so foolish that will leaue his wife children and his owne sweet Countrey to gee into straunge Countries but if hee see himselfe among strange people thinking vnder the colour of iustice to seeke for his owne vtility I say not this without weeping that the Princes with their small study and thought and the Iudges with their couetousnesse haue vndermined and shaken downe the high wals of the policie of Rome O my friend Catullus what wilt thou that I shall say but that our credence so diminisheth our couetousnesse so largely stretcheth our hardinesse so boldneth our shamefastnesse so shamelesse that wee prouide for Iudges to go and rob our neighbours as Captaines against our enemies I let thee to know where as Rome was beloued for chastising the euill now it is as much hated for spoiling the good I doe remember that I reade in the time of Dennis Siracusan that ruleth all Scicill there came an Ambassadour from Rhodes to Rome being of a good age wel learned and valiaunt in armes and right curious to note all things He came to Rome to see the Maiesty of the sacred Senate the height of the high Capitoll enuironed with the Colliset the multitude of Senators the wisedome of the Counsellors the glory of triumphes the correction of the euill the peace of the inhabitants the diuersity of Nations the aboundance of the mantenance the order of the offices And finally seeing that Rome was Rome hee was demaunded how hee thought thereby He answered and sayde O Rome at this present world thou art ful of vertuous and wise men hereafter thou shalt bee furnished with fooles Loe what high and very high words were these Rome was seuen hundred yeares without any house of fooles and now it hath beene three hundred yeares without any wise or vertuous man Looke what I say it is no mockery but of truth if the pittifull Gods now a dayes did raise our predecessors from death to life eyther they would not know vs for their children or else they would attach vs for fooles These be things vsed in Rome but thou sendest no word of that is vsed in Agripine I will write nothing vnto thee to put thee to paine write to me some thing to reioyce me if thy wiâ—e Dimisila chanced well of the flote that came out of Cetin with salt oyle and honey I haue well prouided for her Wilt thou know that Flodius our vncle was cast downe by the rage of his horse and is deceased Laercia and Colliodorus are friendes together by occasion of a marriage I doe sende thee a Gunne I doe pray to the gods to send thee ioy thereof My wife Faustine saluteth thee Recommend mee to Iamiro thy sonne The Gods haue thee in keeping and and sinister fortune bee from me Marcus thy friend to thee Catullus his own CHAP. VII Marcus Aurelius writeth to the amorous Ladies of Rome MArk Orator reading in Rhodes the art of humanity to you amorous Ladies of Rome wisheth health to your persons and amendmeÌ„t of your desired liues It was written to mee that at the Feast of the mother Berecinthia all you being present together made a play of mee in which you layed my life for an example and slaundred my Renowne It is tolde mee that Auilina composed it Lucia Fuluia wrote it and thou Toringua did sing it and you altogether into the Theater did present it You brought mee forth painted in sundry formes with a booke in my hand turned contrary as a fained Philosopher with a long tongue as a bold speaker without measure with a horn in my head as a common Cuckolde with a nettle in my hand as a trembling louer with a banner fallen down as a coward Captaine with my beard halfe shauen as a feminate man with a cloth before my eyes as a condemned foole and yet not content with this another day yee brought mee foorth portracted with another new deuise Yee made a figure of mine with feete of straw the legges of amber the knees of wood the thighes of brasse the belly of horne the armes of pitch the hands of mace the head of yron the eares of an Asse the eyes of a Serpent the heares of rootes â—agged the teeth of a catte the tongue of a Scorpion and the forehead of lead in which was writteÌ„ in two lines these letters M. N. S. N. I. S. V. S. which in my opinion signifieth thus This picture hath not so many mettals as his life hath changes This done yee went to the riuer and tyed it with the head downwarde a whole day and if it had not beene for the good Lady Messelyne I thinke it had beene tyed there till now And now yee amorous Ladies haue written mee a Letter by Fuluius Fabritius which grieued me nothing but as an amorous man from the handes of Ladies I accept it as a mockery And to the end I should haue no leysure to thinke thereon yee sent to demaund a question of me that is if I haue found in my bookes of what for what from whence when for whom and how women were first made Because my condition is for to take mockes for mockes and sith you doe desire it I will shew it vnto you Your friendes and mine haue written to mee but especially your Ambassador Fuluius hath instantly required mee so to doe I am agrieued with nothing and will hold my peace sauing to your letter onely I will make aunswere And sith there hath been none to aske the question I protest to none but to you amorous Ladies of Rome I send my aunswere And if an honest Lady will take the demaund of you it is a token that shee doth enuie the office that yee bee of For of a truth that Lady which sheweth her selfe annoyed with your paine openly from henceforth I condemne her that shee hath some fault in secrete They that bee on the Stage feare not the roaring of the Bull they that bee in the Dungeon feare not the shot of the Canon I will say the woman of good life feareth no mans slaunderous tongue The good Matrons may keepe mee for their perpetuall seruant and the euill for their chiefe enemie I aunswere It is expedient you know of what the first women were made I say that according to the diuersities of Nations that are in the world I find diuers opinions in this case The Egyptians say that when the tiuer Nilus brake and ouerranne the
men are to die Too much merriment in life breedeth woe in death A custome of the Grecians and Romains Wise men do outwardly dissemble inward griefes The custoÌ„e of many widowes There are two things that grieue men at their death The same order that Time keepeth man ought to follow This transitory life not worth the desiring Man neuer happy till death The trauell of death is harder then all the trauell of life The cause why men feare death He giues best counsel to the sorrowfull that is himselfe likewise tormented The occasion why Aurelius tooke his death heauily Children brought vp in liberty wantonnes easily fals into vices It is perillous to be adorned with naturall giftes to want requisite vertues What parents should glory of in their children Many yong vicious princes in Rome The cruell inscription in Coligulaes brooch The cruelty of Nero to his Mother They seldome mend that are vicious in youth The difference betweene the poore and the rich in death Vicious children by an ancient law disinherited Fiue things that oppressed Marcus Aurelius heart The counsell of the Emperour to his sonne Comodus What words cannot doe treason will The sinnes of a populous Cittie not to be numbred As vice intangleth the vicious so vertue cleaneth to the vertuous Disobedience of children is their vndoing Ripe counsell proceedeth from the aged The pastime that Princes should seeke Princes are to accompanie Ancient men All young men are not light nor all olde men sage Princes that rule many must take counsell of many Weighty affayres are to be dispatched by counsell Whose couÌ„sell is to be refused The marks of an vndiscreet prince or ruler It is more perillous to iniure the dead then the liuing The duty of a thankefull child Ministers are to bee honoured of all men A good admonition for children how to vse their stepmothers Women are of a tender condition Princes that doe iustice doe get enemies in the execution thereof The Emperour here concludeth his speech and endeth his life Death altereth all things Deferring of the punishment is not the pardoning of the fault The wisedome of God in disposing his gifts A Table of good counsell The painefull iourney the Philosophers booke to viâ—â—t good â—en The properties of a true friende What Loue is A remarkeable saying of Zenocrates Great eate is to bee had in choosing a friend The saying of Seneca touching frindship Good workes doe maruellously cheare the heart The times past better then the times present A question demaunded by the Emperour Augustus of Virgil and his answere Sinne is not so pleasaot in the committing as it is likesome in the remembraÌ„ce Good counsell for all men especially for Courtiets Christians are in all things to be prefered before all others What the Author or wryter of books should ayme at A wise man reserueth some time for his profite and recreation Leâ—rned men greatly honored in times past The letter of K. Phili to Aristol at the birth of his sonne Alexander The benefite that accreweth by companying with wise men They are oft times most known that least seeke acquaintaÌ„ce No misery comparable to that of the Courtier Why this name Court was adhibited to the Pallace of Princes It is more difficult to bee a Courtier then a religious person Many a Courtier spends his time all The life of aâ— Courtier an open penance The Courtier is abridged of his liberty An honest hart is more greeued to shew his misery then to suffer it The Courtyer subiect to much trouble What epences the Courtier is at The misery that Courtiers are subiect vnto How Courtyers ought to order their expences The trouble courtyers haue with Friends The griefe of thâ— courtyer that caÌ„not pleasure his friend The mishaps of the Court are more then the fauors The Courtier wanteth many things hee would haue Few purchase fauor in the court A speech of Lucullus and may well bee applyed to euery Courtier Courtiers are rather grieued then relieued with the princely pompes of the Court. The particular troubles of theÌ„ which follow the Court. The Ambition of the Courtyers Many rather glory to be right Courtiers tken good Christians The Courtyer of least calling proues most troublesom All Courtiers subiectto the authority of the Harbingers How a courtyer may make the Harbinget his friend How the Harbinger is to appoint his lodgings The Courtier must entrear his host well where hee lyeth â—ow the Courtier may make his host beholden to him It is necessary for Courtiers to keepe quiet seruants The Courtier is to commaund his seruants courteously to aske of his Host all needfull things Too many women about the Court. The care the Courtier ought to haue of his Apparell How the Courtier is to demeane himselfe at his departure from his lodging The troble of him that is in fauour in the court is great Want of audacity hinders good fortunes The reason why fortune rayseth some and throweth down others The course he must take that would bee in his Princes fauour The saying of Dionisius to Plato other Philosophers that came to visite him Backbyting is a kinde of treason especialâ—y against princes The law of A drian the Emperour againest sedicious persons Good seruice demaÌ„ds recompence though the tongue bee silent Things to be eschewed of him that would speake with the King In what sort the Courtier is to demand recompeuce of the prince The Courtier shoulde not be obstinate How princes are to be spoken to if they be in an error How the Courtier must demean himselfe when his Prince sporteth before him Where wise men are best known What disposition should be in a Princes Iester He that will come to fauour in the Court must be acquainted with all the Courtiers in the Court. A Prince hath alwais some fauourite The inconueniences that follow the needles reasoning of that the King allowes Betweene words spokeÌ„ the inteÌ„t with which they were spoken is great difference It is best for the Courtier to bee 〈◊〉 friendshippe with all if can possible There is no man but giues more credit to one then another Wherein true visitation of our betters or friends consisteth The indiscretion of some that are visited The discretion the Courtyer is to vse in his curtesie One gyft in necessitie is better then a thousand words Two things which a maÌ„ should not trust any with A custome wherein the Courtier may lauish hia reputation When a wise man may put himselfe in perill How hee that is biddeÌ„ to a feast may purchase thaÌ„kâ— of the bidder To what ende wee should desire riches Many not 〈◊〉 to serue God as their own bellies How he is welcome that is a common runner to other mens Tables How he is to demeane himself that will visite noble means Table Many loue to haue their cheere and attendance commended Wine tempered with water bringth 2. commodities No man ought to complaine of want at anothers table What talke should bee vsed at the
many was lamented for it was a long time that Rome had neuer heard of so honest and vertuous a Romane wherefore at the petition of all the Romane people and by the commaundement of all the sacred Senate they set on her Tombe these verses The worthy Macrine resteth here in graue Whom wise Torquatus lodg'd in Iunos bed Who reckoned not a happy life to haue So that for aye her honest name was spred BEhold therefore Faustine In my opinion the law was not made to remedie the death of this Noble Romane since she was already dead but to the end that you Princesses should take example of her life and that through all Rome there should bee a memory of her death It is reason since the law was ordayned for those women which are honest that it should be obserued in none but vpon those that are vertuous let the women with childe marke the words of the lawe which commaund them to aske things honest Wherefore I let thee know Faustine that in the seuenth Table of our lawes are written these words We will that where there is corruption of manners the man shall not be bound to obserue their liberties CHAP. XVIII That Princesses and Noble Women ought not to bee ashamed to giue their children sucke with their owne brests ALl Noble men that are of hauty courage watch continually to bring that to effect which they couet and to keepe that which they haue for by slrength one commeth to honour and by wisedome Honour and life are both preserued By these words I meane That she that hath born nine months through trauaile the creature in her wombe with so much paine and that afterwards is deliuered with so great peril and by the grace of God from so many dangers escaped me thinks it is not well that in this point which for the nourishment of the babe is most expedient the Mothers should shew them so negligent for that wanteth no folly that by extreame labour is procured and with much lightnesse afterwards despised The things that women naturally desire are infinite among the which these are foure chiefely The first thing that women desire is to be very fayre for they had rather bee poore and fayre then to be rich and foule The second thing which they desire ◠is to see themselues marryed for vntil such time as the woman doe see her selfe marryed from the bottome of her heart she alwayes sigheth The third thing that women desire is to see themselues great with childe and herein they haue reason for vntill such time as the woman hath had a childe it seemeth that shee taketh him more for a Louer then for a Husband The fourth thing that they desire is to see themselues deliuered and in this case more then all the rest they haue reason for it is great pittie to see in the prime time a young tree loaden with blossomes and afterward the fruit to bee destroyed through the abundance of Caterpillers Then since God sussereth that they are borne fayre that they see themselues marryed that they bee with childe and that they are deliuered why be they so vnkinde as to send them out of their houses to bee nourished in other rude Cottages In my opinion the woman that is vertuous ought as soone as she is deliuered to lift vp her eyes and with her heart to giue God thankes for her fruit for the woman that from her deliuery is escaped ought to acount her selfe as one newly borne The woman likewise seeing her selfe deliuered of her creature ought to giue it sucke with her owne brests for it is a monstrous thing that she that hath brought forth the creature out of her owne proper wombe should giue it to bee nourished of a strange dugge In speaking more plainely it is all one to mee whether she be a Noble woman or a woman of meane condition I say and affirme that GOD hath deliuered her of all her trauaile shee her selfe ought with her owne pappes to nourish and giue sucke to their babes for nature did not onely make women able to beare men but also besides that prouided milke in their brests to nourish their children We haue neither read vntill this present nor seene that any beasts wilde or tame after they had young would commit them to any other to be nourished This which I haue spoken is not so worthy of noting as that which I will speake and it is That many beasts new borne before they open their eyes to know their fathers haue now already taken nourishment in the teates of their mothers and more then that to see some of those little beasts haue tenne little whelpes the which without the ayde of any others nourished them all with the substance of their owne teates and the woman that hath but one childe disdayneth to giue it sucke All that shall reade this writing shall find it true and if they will they may see as I haue seene it by experience that after the she Ape hath had her yonglings she alwaies hath them in her armes so long as they sucke so that ofentimes there is such strife betweene the male the female which of them shall haue the younglings in their armes that the beholders are enforced to part them with bats Let vs leaue the Beasts that are in the Fields and talke of the Birds that are in the nests the which doe lay egges to haue young yet haue they no milke to bring them vp What thing is so strange to see as a small Bird that hath vnder her wings fiue or sixe little naked Birds the which when he hath hatched she hath neither milk to nourish thē nor corne to giue them they haue neyther wings to flye fethers to couer them nor any other thing to defend them yet in all this weakenesse and pouertie their mother forsaketh them not nor committeth them to any other but bringeth them vp all her selfe That which nature prouided for the Swannes is no lesse maruellous in especially when they nourish their young Signets in the water for as much as during the time that they cannot swimme the mothers alwaies in the day are with their yong Signets in theis nests and in the night the fathers carry them vnder their proper wings to refresh them vnto the water It is therefore to be thought since these Swannes so louingly beare their younglings vnder their wings that they would carry them in their armes if they were men and also giue them sucke with their owne brests if they were women Aristotle sayeth in his fift booke De animalibus that the Lyons the Beares the Wolues the Eagles and Griffins and generally all Beasts neuer are were nor shall be seene so fierce nor so cruell as when they haue younglings and this thing seemeth to bee true for at that time we see that many beasts might escape the hunters yet to saue their younglings they turne backe and put their proper liues in
danger Plato saith in his booke of Lawes that the children are neuer so wel beloued of their mothers as when they are nourished with their proper brests that their fathers danceth them on their knees The which thing is true for the first loue in all things is the truest loue I was willing to shew the bringing vp of bruit beasts to shew the women with childe how pittifull parents they are in nourishing their younglings with their owne brests and how cruell Mothers Women are in committing their children to strangers It is a maruellous thing to heare the mothers say that they loue their children and on the contrary side to see how they hate them In this case I cannot tell whether they loue more eyther the childe or the money for I see that they couet greatly to hourd vp riches into their Chests and likewise they desire as much to cast out their children out of their houses There are diuers reasons whereby the mothers ought to bee moued to nourish their children which they bare in ther wombs with their owne proper brests The first reason is that the mother ought to haue respect how the yong babe was borne alone how little hee was how poore delicate naked tender and without vnderstanding and since that the mother brought it forth so weake and feeble it is neither meet nor conuenient that in time of such necessitie shee should forsake it and commit it into the hands of a strange Nurse Let women pardon me whether they bee Ladyes brought vp in pleasures or other of meaner estate accustomed with trauels I force not but I say that those which forsake their children in such extremities are not pittifull mothers but cruell enemies If it bee crueltie not to cloath him that is naked who is more naked then the childe new borne if it bee crueltie not to comfort the sad who is more sad desolate and sorrowfull then the childe which is borne weeping If it be vngentlenes not to succour the poore needy who is more needy or more poore then the innocent childe newly borne that knoweth not as yet neyther to goe nor to speake If it bee crueltie to doe euill to the innocent that cannot speake who is more innocent then the infant that cannot complaine of that which is done vnto him The mother that casteth out of her house the children borne of her owne body how can we beleeue that she will receiue in any other of strangers when the infant is now great when hee is strong when he can speake when he can goe when hee can profite himselfe and get his meate the mother maketh much of him and leadeth him about with her but is little thanke vnto her for then the mother hath more neede of the childe to bee serued then the childe hath of the mother to be cherished If the children were born of the nailes of the fingers of the feete or of the hands it were a small matter though their mothers sent them forth to nourish but I cannot tell what heart can endure to suffer this since the child is borne of their proper intrailes that they do cōmit it to be broght vp into the hands of a stranger Is there peraduenture at this day in the world any Lady that hath so great cōfidence in any of her friends parents or neighbours that she durst trust any of them with the key of her coffer wherin her lewels money and riches lyeth truely I thinke none O vnkind mothers my pen had almost called you cruell stepmothers since you lay vp in your heart the cursed mucke of the ground and send out of your houses that which sprang of your bloud And if women should say vnto mee that they are weake feeble and tender and that now they haue found a good Nurse to this I answere that the Nurse hath smal loue to the child which she nourisheth when she seeth the vngentlenesse of the mother that bare it for truly she alone doth nourish the childe with loue that heeretofore hath borne it with paine The second reason is that it is a thing very iust that women should nourish their children to the ende they may bee like vnto their conditions for otherwise they are no children but are enemies for the childe that doeth not reuerence his mother that bare him cannot enioy a prosperous life Since the intention of the parents in bringing vp their children is for none other purpose but to bee serued of them when they are olde they shall vnderstand that for this purpose there is nothing more necessary then the milke of the proper mother for where the childe sucketh the milke of a stranger it is vnlikely that it should haue the conditions of the mother If a Kid sucke a Sheepe they shall perceiue it shall haue the wooll more faire the nature more gentle then if he had sucked the Goat which hath the wooll more hard and of nature is more wilde wherein the Prouerbe is verified Not from whence thou commest but whereof thou feedest It auayleth a man much to haue a good inclination but it helpeth him much more from his infancy to bee well taught for in the end we profite more with the customes wherewith we liue then we doe by nature from whence we came The third reason is that women ought to nourish their owne children because they should bee whole mothers and not vnperfect for the woman is counted but halfe a mother that beareth it and likewise halfe a mother that nourisheth it but she is the whole mother that both beareth it and nourisheth it After the duetie considered vnto the Father that hath created vs and vnto the Sonne that hath redeemed vs mee thinketh next we owe the greatest dutie vnto the Mother that hath borne vs in her bodie and much more it is that wee should beare vnto her if she had nourished vs with her owne brests for when the good child shall behold his mother hee ought more to loue her because shee nourished him with her milke then because shee hath borne him in her body CHAP. XIX The Authour still perswadeth women to giue their owne children sucke IN the yeere of the foundation of Rome fiue hundred two after the obstinate and cruell warre betweene Rome and Carthage where the renowmed Captaines were Hanibal for the Carthaginians and Scipio for the Romanes Soone after that warre followed the warre of Macedonia against King Philip. The which when it was ended that of Syria began against Antiochus King of Syria for in sixe hundred and thirty yeeres the Romanes had alwaies continuall warres in Asia in Affrick or in Europe The noble Romanes sent the Consull Cornelius Scipio brother to the great Scipio the Affrican for Captaine of that warre And after many battailes Fortune shewed her force in a Citie called Sepila the which is in Asia the great where King Antiochus was ouercome and all his Realme discomfited for trees that haue their roots plucked vp must