Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	pleasure_n	young_a	youth_n	21	3	7.5893	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68475	Essays vvritten in French by Michael Lord of Montaigne, Knight of the Order of S. Michael, gentleman of the French Kings chamber: done into English, according to the last French edition, by Iohn Florio reader of the Italian tongue vnto the Soueraigne Maiestie of Anna, Queene of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, &c. And one of the gentlemen of hir royall priuie chamber; Essais. English	Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592.; Florio, John, 1553?-1625.; Hole, William, d. 1624, engraver.	1613 (1613)	STC 18042; ESTC S111840	1,002,565	644

apprehension blockish my invention poore and besides I had a marvelous defect in my weake memorie it is therefore no woonder if my father could never bring me to any perfection Secondly as those that in some dangerous sicknesse moved with a kind of hope-full greedie desire of perfect health againe give eare to every Leache or Emperike and follow all counsels the good-man being exceedingly fearefull to commit any oversight in a matter he tooke so to heart suffered himselfe at last to be led away by the common opinion which like vnto the Cranes followeth ever those that go before and yeelded to custome Having those no longer about him that had given him his first directions and which they had brought out of Italie Being but six yeeres old I was sent to the Colledge of Guienne then most flourishing and reputed the best in France where it is impossible to adde any thing to the great care he had both to chuse the best and most sufficient Masters that could be found to reade vnto me as also for all other circumstances pertaining to my education wherein contrary to vsuall customes of Colledges he observed many particular rules But so it is it was ever a Colledge My Latin tongue was forthwith corrupted whereof by reason of discontinuance I afterward lost all manner of vse which new kind of institution stood me in no other stead but that at my first admittance it made me to ouer-skip some of the lower formes and to be placed in the highest For at thirteene yeares of age that I left the Colledge I had read over the whole course of Philosophie as they call it but with so small profit that I can now make no account of it The first taste or feeling I had of bookes was of the pleasure I tooke in reading the fables of Ovids Metamorphosies for being but seaven or eight yeares old I would steale and sequester my selfe from all other delights onely to reade them Forsomuch as the tongue wherein they were written was to me naturall and it was the easiest booke I knew and by reason of the matter therein contained most agreeing with my yoong age For of King Arthur of Lancelot du Lake of Amadis of Huon of Burdeaux and such idle time-consuming and wit-besotting trash of bookes wherein youth doth commonly ammuse it selfe I was not so much as acquainted with their names and to this day know not their bodies nor what they containe So exact was my discipline Wherby I became more carelesse to studie my other prescript lessons And well did it fall out for my purpose that I had to deale with a very discreet Master who out of his judgement could with such dexteritie winke at and second my vntowardlinesse and such other faults that were in me For by that meanes I read-over Virgils Aeneades Terence Plautus and other Italian Comedies allured thereunto by the pleasantnesse of their severall subjects Had he beene so foolishly-severe or so sverely froward as to crosse this course of mine I think verily I had never brought any thing from the Colledge but the hate and contempt of Bookes as doth the greatest part of our Nobilitie Such was his discretion and so warily did he behave himselfe that he saw and would not see hee would foster and encrease my longing suffering me but by stealth and by snatches to glut my selfe with those Bookes holding ever a gentle hand over me concerning other regular studies For the chiefest thing my father required at their hands vnto whose charge he had committed me was a kinde of well-conditioned mildenesse and facilitie of complexion And to say truth mine had no other fault but a certaine dull-languishing and heavie slothfulnesse The danger was not I should do-ill but that I should doe nothing No man did ever suspect I would prove a bad but an vnprofitable man foreseeing in me rather a kind of idlenesse than a voluntary craftinesse I am not so selfe-conceited but I perceive what hath followed The complaints that are daily buzzed in mine eares are these that I am idle colde and negligent in offices of friendship and dutie to my parents and kinsfolkes and touching publike offices that I am over-singular and disdainefull And those that are most iniurious cannot aske wherefore I have taken and why I have not paied but may rather demand why I doe not quit and wherefore I doe not give I would take it as a favour they should wish such effects of supererogation in me But they are vnjust and over-partiall that will goe about to exact that from me which I owe not with more rigor than they will exact from themselves that which they owe wherein if they condemne me they vtterly cancell both the gratifying of the action and the gratitude which thereby would be due to me Whereas the active well-doing should be of more consequence proceeding from my hand in regard I have no passive at all Wherefore I may so much the more freely dispose of my fortune by how much more it is mine and of my selfe that am most mine owne Notwithstanding if I were a great blazoner of mine owne actions I might peradventure barre such reproches and justly vpbraid some that they are not so much offended because I doe not enough as for that I may and it lies in my power to doe much more then I doe Yet my minde ceased not at the same time to have peculiar vnto it selfe well-setled motions true and open judgements concerning the objects which it knew which alone and without any helpe or communication it would digest And amongst other things I verily beleeue it would have proved altogether incapable and vnfit to yeeld vnto force or stoope vnto violence Shall I account or relate this qualitie of my infancie which was a kinde of boldenesse in my lookes and gentle softnesse in my voice and affabilitie in my gestures and a dexteritie in conforming my selfe to the parts I vndertooke for before the age of the Alter ab undecimo tum me vix ceperat annus Yeares had I to make even Scarse two above eleven I have vnde-rgone and represented the chiefest parts in the Latin Tragedies of Buchanan Guerenti and of Muret which in great state were acted and plaid in our colledge of Guienne wherein Andreas Goveanus our Rector principall who as in all other parts belonging to his charge was without comparison the chiefest Rector of France and my selfe without ostentation be it spoken was reputed if not a chiefe master yet a principall Actor in them It is an excercise I rather commend than disalow in yong gentlemen and have seene some of our Princes in imitation of some of former ages both commendably and honestly in their proper persons acte and play some parts in Tragedies It hath heeretofore been esteemed a lawfull exercise and a tollerable profession in men of honor namely in Greece Aristoni tragico actori rem aperit huic genus fortuna honesta erant nec ars quia

that shall tax me with ignorance shall have no great victory at my hands for hardly could I give others reason for my discourses that give none vnto my selfe and am not well satisfied with them He that shall make serch after knowledge let him seeke it where it is there is nothing I professe lesse These are but my fantasies by which I endevour not to make things knowen but myselfe They may haply one day be knowen vnto me or have bin at other times according as fortune hath brought me where they were declared or manifested But I remember them no more And if I be a man of some reading yet I am a man of no remembring I conceive no certainty except it bee to give notice how farre the knowledge I have of it dooth now reach Let no man busie himselfe about the matters but on the fashion I give them Let that which I borrow be survaid and then tell me whether I have made good choice of ornaments to beautifie and set foorth the invention which ever comes from mee For I make others to relate not after mine owne fantasie but as it best falleth out what I can not so well expresse either through vnskill of language or want of judgement I number not my borrowings but I weigh them And if I would have made their number to prevaile I would have had twice as many They are all or almost all of so famous and ancient names that me thinks they sufficiently name themselves without mee If in reasons comparisons and arguments I transplant any into my soile or confound them with mine owne I purposely conceale the Authour thereby to bridle the rashnesse of these hastie censures that are so headlong cast vpon all manner of compositions namely yoong writings of men yet living and in vulgare that admitte all the worlde to talke of them and which seemeth to convince the conception and publike designe alike I will have them to give Plutarch a bobbe vpon mine owne lippes and vex themselves in wronging Seneca in mee My weakenesse must be hidden vnder such great credites I will love him that shall trace or vnfeather me I meane through clearenesse of judgement and by the onely distinction of the force and beautie of my Discourses For my selfe who for want of memorie am ever to seeke how to trie and refine them by the knowledge of their country knowe perfectly by measuring mine owne strength that my soyle is no way capable of some over-pretious flowers that therin I find set and that all the fruites of my encrease could not make it amendes This am I bound to answer-for if I hinder my selfe if there be either vanitie or fault in my Discourses that I perceive not or am not able to discerne if they be shewed me For many faults doe often escape our eyes but the infirmitie of judgement consisteth in not being able to perceive them when another discovereth them vnto vs. Knowledge and truth may be in vs without judgement and we may have judgement without them Yea the acknowledgement of ignorance is one of the best and surest testimonies of judgement that I can finde I have no other Sergeant of band to marshall my rapsodies than fortune And looke how my humours or conceites present them-selves so I shuffle them vp Sometimes they prease out thicke and thee-folde and other times they come out languishing one by one I will have my naturall and ordinarie pace seene as loose and as shuffling as it is As I am so I goe on plodding And besides these are matters that a man may not be ignorant of and rashly and casually to speake of them I would wish to have a more perfect vnderstanding of things but I will not purchase it so deare as it cost My intention is to passe the remainder of my life quietly and not laboriously in rest and not in care There is nothing I will trouble or vex my selfe about no not for Science it selfe what esteeme soever it be-of I doe not search and tosse over Books but for an honester recreation to please and pastime to delight my selfe or if I studie I onely endevour to find out the knowledge that teacheth or handleth the knowledge of my selfe and which may instruct me how to die well and how to live well Has meus ad metas sudet oportet equus My horse must sweating runne That this goale may be wonne If in reading I fortune to meete with any difficult points I fret not my selfe about them but after I have giuen them a charge or two I leave them as I found them Should I earnestly plod vpon them I should loose both time and my selfe for I have a skipping wit What I see not at the first view I shall lesse see it if I opinionate my selfe vpon it I doe nothing without blithnesse and an over obstinate continuation and plodding contention doth dazle dul and weary the same My sight is thereby confounded and diminished I must therefore withdraw-it and at fittes goe to it againe Even as to judge well of the lustre of scarlet we are taught to cast our eyes ouer it in running it over by divers glances sodaine glimpses and reiterated reprisings If one booke seeme tedious vnto me I take another which I follow not with any earnestnes except it be at such houres as I am idle or that I am wearie with doing nothing I am not greatly affected to new books because ancient Authors are in my judgement more full and pithie nor am I much addicted to Greeke books forasmuch as my vnderstanding can well rid his worke with a childish and apprentise intelligence Amongst moderne bookes meerly pleasant I esteeme Bocace his Decameron Rabelais and the kisses of Iohn the second if they may be placed vnder this title worth the paines-taking to reade them As for Amadis and such like trash of writings they had never the credit so much as to allure my youth to delight in them This I will say more either boldly or rashly that this old and heavie-pased mind of mine will no more be pleased with Aristotle or tickled with good Ovid his facilitie and quaint inventions which heretofore have so ravished me they can now adaies scarcely entertaine me I speake my minde freely of all things yea of such as peradventure exceede my sufficiencie and that no-way I hold to be of my jurisdiction What my conceit is of them is also to manifest the proportion of my insight and not the measure of things If at any time I find my selfe distasted of Platoes Axiochus as of a forceles worke due regarde had to such an Author my judgement doth nothing beleeve it selfe It is not so fond-hardy or selfe-conceited as it durst dare to oppose it selfe against the authority of so many other famous ancient judgements which he reputeth his regents and maisters and with whome hee had rather erre He chafeth with and condemneth himselfe either to rely on the superficiall sense being vnable to pierce into

the centre or to view the thing by some falce lustre He is pleased onely to warrant himselfe from trouble and vnrulines As for weaknes he acknowledgeth and ingeniously auoweth the same He thinkes to give a just interpetation to the apparances which his conception presents vnto him but they are shallow and imperfect Most of Aesopes fables have divers senses and severall interpretations Those which Mythologize them chuse some kinde of color well-suting with the fable but for the most part it is no other then the first and superficiall glosse There are others more quicke more sinnowie more essential and more internal into which they could never penetrate and thus thinke I with them But to follow my course I have ever deemed that in Poesie Virgil Lucretius Catullus and Horace doe doubtles by far hold the first ranke and especially Virgil in his Georgiks which I esteeme to be the most accomplished piece of worke of Poesie In comparison of which one may easily discerne that there are some passages in the Aeneidos to which the Author had he lived would no doubt have given some review or correction The fift booke whereof is in my mind the most absolutely perfect I also love Lucan and willingly read him not so much for his stile as for his owne worth and truth of his opinion and judgement As for good Terence I allow the quaintnes and grace of his Latin tongue and judge him wonderfull conceited and apt lively to represent the motions and pashions of the minde and the condition of our manners our actions make me often remember him I can never reade him so often but still I discover some new grace and beautie in him Those that lived about Virgils time complained that some would compare Lucretius vnto him I am of opinion that verily it is an vnequall comparison yet can I hardly assure my selfe in this opinion whensoever I find my selfe entangled in some notable passage of Lucretius If they were moved at this comparison what would they say now of the fond hardie and barbarous stupiditie of those which now adaies compare Ariosto vnto him Nay what would Artosto say of it himselfe O seclum insipiens infac●tum O age that hath no wit And small conceit in it I thinke our ancestors had also more reason to cry out against those that blushed not to equall Plautus vnto Terence who makes more shew to be a Gentleman then Lucretius vnto Virgil. This one thing doth greatly advantage the estimation and preferring of Terence that the father of the Roman eloquence of men of his quality doth so often make mention of him and the censure which the chiefe judge of the Roman Poets giveth of his companion It hath often come vnto my minde how such as in our daies giue themselues to composing of comedes as the Italians who are very happie in them employ three or foure arguments of Terence and Plautus to make vp one of theirs In one onely comedie they will huddle vp five or six of Bocaces tales That which makes them so to charge themselves with matter is the distrust they have of their owne sufficiency and that they are not able to vndergoe so heavie a burthen with their owne strength They are forced to finde a body on which they may rely and leane themselves and wanting matter of their owne wherewith to please vs they will have the story or tale to busie and ammuse vs where as in my Authors it is cleane contrary The elegancies the perfections and ornaments of his manner of speech make vs neglect and loose the longing for his subiect His quaintnesse and grace doe still retaine vs to him He is every where pleasantly conceited Liquidus puroque simillimus amni So clearely-neate so neately-cleare As he a fine-pure Riuer were and doth so replenish our minde with his graces that we forget those of the fable The same consideration drawes me somewhat further I perceive that good and ancient Poets have shunned the affectation and enquest not onely of fantasticall new fangled Spagniolized and Petrarchisticall elevations but also of more sweet and sparing inventions which are the ornament of all the Poeticall workes of succeeding ages Yet is there no competent judge that findeth them wanting in those ancient ones and that doth not much more admire that smoothly equall neatnesse continued sweetnesse and florishing comelinesse of Catullus his Epigrams then all the sharpe quippes and witty girds wherewith Martiall doth whet and embellish the conclusions of his It is the same reason I spake of erewhile as Martiall of himselfe Minus illi ingenio laborandum fuit in cuius locum materia successerat He needed the lesse worke with his wit in place whereof matter came in supply The former without being moved or pricked cause themselves to be heard lowd enough they have matter to laugh at every where and neede not tickle themselves where as these must have forraine helpe according as they have lesse spirit they must have more body They leape on horse-backe because they are not sufficiently strong in their legges to march on foot Even as in our dances those base conditioned men that keepe dancing-schooles because they are vnfit to represent the porte and decency of our nobility endevour to get commendation by dangerous lofty trickes and other strange tumbler-like friskes and motions And some Ladies make a better shew of their countenances in those dances wherein are divers changes cuttings turnings and agitations of the body then in some dances of state and gravity where they neede but simply to tread a natural measure represent an vnaffected cariage and their ordinary grace And as I have also seene some excellent Lourdans or Clownes attired in their ordinary worky-day clothes and with a common homely countenance affoord vs all the pleasure that may be had from their arte Prentises and learners that are not of so high a forme to besmeare their faces to disguise themselves and in motions to counterfeit strange visages and antickes to enduce vs to laughter This my conception is no where better discerned then in the comparison betweene Virgils Aeneidos and Orlando Furios● The first is seene to soare aloft with full-spread wings and with so high and strong a pitch ever following his point the other faintly to hover and flutter from tale to tale and as it were skipping from bough to bough alwaies distrusting his owne wings except it be for some short flight and for feare his strength and breath should faile him to sit downe at every fields-end Excursúsque breves tent at Out-lopes sometimes he doth assay But very short and as he may Loe-here then concerning this kind of subjects what Authors please me best As for my other lesson which somewhat more mixeth profite with pleasure whereby I learne to range my opinions and addresse my conditions the Bookes that serve me thereunto are Plutarke since he spake French and Seneca Both have this excellent commodity for my humour

griefe to faint in heart and strength hee coll●d and e●braced her abou● the necke and heartily entreated hir for the love of him somwhat more patiently to beare this accident and that his houre was come wherein he must sh●w no longer by discourse and disputation but in earnest effect declare the fruite he had reaped by his studie and that vndoubtedly he embraced death not onely without griefe but with exceeding joy Wherefore my deere-deere heart doe not dishonour it by thy teares l●st thou seeme to love thy selfe more than my reputation Asswage thy sorrowes and comfort thy selfe in the knowledge thou hast had of mee and of my actions leading the rest of thy life by the honest occupations to which thou art addicted To whom Paulina having somwhat rouzed hir drooping spirites and by a thrice-noble affection awakened the magnanimitie of her high-setled courage answered thus No Seneca thinke not that in this necessitie I will leave you with out my companie I would not have you imagin that the vertuous examples of your life have not also taught me to die And when shall I be able to doe it or better or more honestly or more to mine owne liking then with your selfe And be resolved I will goe with you and be partaker of your fortune Seneca taking so generous a resolve and glorious a determination of his wife in good part and to free himselfe from the feare he had to leave her after his dea●h to his enemies mercie and crueltie Oh my deare Paulina I had quoth hee perswaded thee what I thought was convenient to leade thy life more happily and doost thou then rather choos● the honour of a glorious death Assuredly I will not envy thee Be the constancie and resolution answerable to our common end but be the beautie and glory greater on thy side That said the vei●es of both their a●mes were cut to the end they might bleede to death but because Senecaes were somwhat shrunken vp through age and abstinence and his bloud could have no speedy course he commaunded the veines of his thighes to be launced And fearing lest the torments he felt might in some sort entender his wifes heart as also to deliver ●imselfe from the affliction which greatly yearned him to see her in so pitteous plight after he had most lovingly taken leave of her he be●ought her to be pleased shee might be caried into the next chamber which was accordingly performed But all those incisions being vnable to make him die he willed Statius Annous his Phisition to give him some poysoned potion which wrought but small effect in him for through the weaknesse and coldenesse of his members it could not come vnto his heart And therefore they caused a warme bath to be prepared wherein they layde him then perceiving his end to approch so long as he had breath hee continued his excellent discourses concerning the subject of the estate wherein he found himselfe which his Secretaries so long as they could heare his voyce collected very diligently whose last words continued long time after in high esteeme and honor amongst the better sort of men as Oracles but they were afterward lost and great pittie it is they never came vnto our handes But when he once beganne to feele the last pangs of death taking some of the water wherein he lay bathing all bloody he therewith washed his head saying I vow this water vnto Iupiter the Deliver●r Nero being advertised of all this fearing lest P●ulinaes death who was one of the best alied Ladies in Rome and to whome hee bare no particular grudge might cause him some reproach sent in all poste haste to have her incisions closed vp againe and if possibly it could be to save her life which hir servants by vnwriting vnto her performed she being more than halfe dead and voyde of any sence And that afterward contrary to her intent shee lived it was very honourable and as be●itted her vertue shewing by the pale ●ew and wanne colour of her face how much of her life shee had wasted by her incisions Loe heere my three true Stories which in my concei●e are as pleasant and as tragicall as any wee devise at our pleasures to please the vulga● sort with al and I wonder that those who invent so many fabulous tales do not rather make choise of infinite excellent and quaint Stories that are found in Books wherein they should have lesse trouble to write them and might doubtlesse proove more pleasing to the hearer and profitable to the Reader And whosoever would vndertake to frame a compleate and well-joynted bodie of them neede neither employe nor adde any thing of his owne vnto it except the ●igaments as the ●oldring of another mettall and by this meanes might compact sundry events of all kindes disposing and diversifying them according as the beauty and lustre of the worke should require And very neere as Ovid hath sowen and contrived his Me●amorphosis with that strange number of divers fables In the last couple this is also worthy consideration that Paulina offreth willingly to leave her life for hir husbands sake that hir husband had also other times quit death for the love of hir There is no great counterpoyze in this exchange for vs but according to his Sto●ke humour I suppose hee perswaded himselfe to have done as much for hir prolo●ging his life for hir availe as if hee had died for hir In one of his letters he writeth to Lucilius after he hath given him to vnderstand how an ague having surprised him in Rome contrary to his wives opinion who would needs have stayed him hee sodainely tooke his Coach to goe vnto a house of his into the Country and how he tolde hir that the ague he had was no bodily fever but of the place and followeth thus At last shee let me goe earnestly recommending my health vntome Now I who knowe how her life lodgeth in mine beginne to provide for my selfe that consequently I may provide for her The priviledge my age hath bestowed on me in making me more constant and more resolute in many things I loose it when-ever I call to minde that in this aged corps there harboureth a yoong woman to whome I bring some profite Since I cannot induce her to love me more couragiously shee induceth me to love my selfe more carefully for something must be l●nt to honest affections and sometimes although occasions vrge vs to the contrary life must be revoked againe yea with torment The soule must bee held fast with ones teeth since the lawe to live in honest men is not to live as long as they please but so long as they ought He who esteemeth not ●is wife or a friend so much ●● that he will not lengthen his life for th●m and will ob●●inately die that man is over-nice and too ●ff●minate The Soule must commaund that vnto her selfe when the vtilitie of our friends requireth it we must sometimes lend our selves vnto our friends and

Origen was dealt with al either to commit idolatry or suffer himself to be Sodomaticaly abused by a filthy Egiptian slave that was presented vnto him he yeilded to the first condition and viciously saith one Therfore should not those women be distasted according to their error who of late protest that they had rather charge their conscience with ten men then one Masse If it bee indiscretion so to divulge ones errors ther is no danger though it come into example and vse For Ariston said that The winds men feare most are those which discouer them We must tuck vp this homely rag that cloaketh our maners They send their conscience to the stewes and keep their countenance in order Even traitors and murtherers obserue the lawes of complements and therto ●ixe their endeuors So that neither can iniustice complaine of inciuility nor malice of indiscretion T 's pitry a bad man is not also a foole a●d that decency should cloake his vice These pargettings belong only to good and sound wals such as deserue to bee whited to bee preserued In fauor of Hugonots who accuse our auricular and priuate confession I confesse my selfe in publike religiously and purely Saint Augustine Origene and Hippocrates haue published their errors of their opinions I likewise of my maners I greedily long to make my selfe known nor care I at what rate so it be truly or to say better I hunger for nothing but I hate mortally to be mistaken by such as shall happen to know my name He that doth all for honor and glory what thinks he to gaine by presenting himselfe to the world in a maske hiding his true being from the peoples knowledge Commend a crook-back for his comely stature hee ought to take it as an iniury if you be a coward and one honoreth you for a valiant man is it of you he speaketh you are taken for another I should like as well to have him glory in the cour●sies and lowtings that are shewed him supposing himselfe to be ring-leader of a troupe when he is the meanest folower of it Archelaus king of Macedon passing throgh a street some body cast water vpon him was aduised by his followers to punish the party yea but quoth he who ever it was he cast not the water vpon me but vpon him he thought I was Socrates to one that told him he was railed vpon and ill spoken of Tush said he there is not such thing in me For my part should one commend me to be an excellent Pilote to be very modest or most chaste I should owe him no thankes Likewise should any man call meetraitour theefe or drunkard I would deeme my selfe but little wronged by him Those who misknow themselues may feed themselues with false approbations but not I who see and search my selfe into my very bowels and know full well what belongs vnto me I am pleased to belesse commended provided I be better knowne I may be esteemed wise for such conditions of wisedome that I account meere follies It vexeth me that my Essayes serue Ladies in liew of common ware and stuffe for their hall this Chapter will preferre me to their cabinet I love their societie some what private their publike familiaritie wants fauor and sauor In farewels we heate aboue ordinary our affections to the things we forgoe I heere take my last leave of this worlds pleasures loe heere our last embraces And now to our theame Why was the acte of generation made so naturall so necessary and so iust seeing we feare to speake of it without shame and exclude it from our serious and regular discourses we pronounce boldly to rob to murther to betray and this we dare not but betweene our teeth Are we to gather by it that the lesse wee breath out in words the more we are allowed to furnish our thoughtes with For words least vsed least writen and least concealed should best be vnderstood and most generally knowne No age no condition are more ignorant of it then of their bread They are imprinted in each one without expressing without voice or figure And the sexe that doth it most is most bound to suppresse it It is an action we have put in the precincts of silence whence to draw it were an offence not to accuse or iudge it Nor dare we beate it but in circumlocution and picture A notable fauor to a criminall offender to be so execrable that justice deeme it injustice to touch and behold him freed and saved by the benefit of this condemnations seuerity It is not herein as in matters of bookes which being once called-in and forbidden become more saleable and publike As for me I will take Aristotle at his word that bashfulnesse is an ornament to youth but a reproach to age These verses are preached in the old schoole a schoole of which I hold more then of the moderne her vertues seeme greater vnto me her vices lesse Deux qui par trop fuiant Venus estriueut Failent aut aut que ceux qui trop la suiuent Who striues ore much Venus to shunne offends Alike with him that wholy hir intends Tu dea tu rerum naturam sola gubernas Nec sine te quisquam dias in luminis oras Exoritur neque fit laetum nec amabile quicquam Goddesse thou rul'st the nature of all things Without thee nothing into this light springs Nothing is louely nothing pleasures brings I know not who could set Pallas and the Muses at oddes with Venus and make them colde and flowe in affecting of love as for me I see no Deities that better sute together nor more endebted one to another Who ever shall goe about to remooue amorous imaginations from the Muses shall depriue them of the best entertainment they have and of the noblest subject of their worke and who shall debarre Cupid the seruice and conuersation of Poesie shall weaken him of his best weapons By this meanes they caste vpon the God of acquaintance of amitie and goodwil and vpon the Goddesses protectresses of humanitie and justice the vice of ingratitude and imputation of churlishnesse I haue not so long beene cashiered from the state and seruice of this God but that my memorie is still acquainted with the force of his worth and valour agnosco veteris vestigia flammae I feele and feeling know How my old flames regrow There commonly remaine some reliques of shiuering and heate after anague Nec mihi d● ficiat●alor hic hyemantibu annis When Winter yeares com-on Let not this heate be gon As drie as sluggish and as vnwieldie as I am I feele yet some warme cinders of my passed heate Qual'● alto Aegeo perche Aquiloneo Noto Cessi che tutto prima il volse et scosse Nons ' accheta ei peró ma il suono ●'l moto Ritien delionde anco agitat●●t grosse As graund Aegean Sea because the voice Of windes doth cease which it before enraged Yet doth not calme but stil retaines the noise And

become more skilfull more ready and more sufficient to confront them surely we bestowe our time well there is nor quaint phrase nor choise worde nor ambiguous figure nor patheticall example nor love-expressing gesture nor alluring posture but they knowe them all better then our bookes It is a cunning bred in their vaines and will never out of the flesh Et mentem Venus ●psa dedit Venus hir selfe assign'de To them both meanes and minde which these skill infusing Schoole-mistrisses nature youth health and opportunitie are ever buzzing in their eares euer whispering in their mindes They neede not learne not take paines about it they beget it with them it is borne Nec tantum niueo gauisa est nulla columbe Compar vel si quid dicitur improbius Oscula mordenti semper decerpererostro Quantum praecipuè multiuola est mulier No pigeons hen or paire or what worse name You list makes with hir Snow-white cock such game With biting bill to catch when she is kist As many minded women when they list Had not this naturall violence of their desires beene somwhat held in awe by feare and honor wherewith they have beene provided we had all beene defamed All the worlds motions bend and yeelde to this coniunction it is a matter euery-where infused and a Centre whereto all lines come all things looke The ordinances of ancient and wise Rome ordained for the seruice and instituted for the behoofe of love are yet to be seene together with the precepts of Socrates to instruct courtizans Nec non libelli Stoici inter sericos Iacere puluillos amant Ev'n Stoicks bookes are pleas'd Amidst silke cushions to be eas'd Zeno among other lawes ordered also the struglings the opening of legges and the actions which happen in the deflowring of a virgin Of what sence was the booke of Sirato the Philosopher of carnall copulation And whereof treated Theophrastus in those he entitled one The Lover the other Of Love Whereof Aristippus in his volume Of ancient deliciousnesse or sports What implied or what imported the ample and lively descriptions in Plato of the loves practised in his daies And the lover of Demetrius Phalereus And Clinias or the forced lover of Heraclides Ponticus And that of Artisthenes of the getting of children or of weddings And the other Of the Master or of the lover And that of Aristo Of amorous exercises Of Cleanthes one of love another of the Art of love The amorous dialogues of Spherus And the filthy intolerable and without blushing not to be vttered table of Iupiter and Iuno written by Chrysippus And his so lascivious fifty Epistles I will omit the writings of some Philosophers who have followed the sect of Epicurus protectresse of all maner of sensualitie and carnall pleasure Fifty severall Deities were in times past allotted to this office And there hath beene a nation found which to allay and coole the lustfull concupiscence of such as came for devotion kept wenches of purpose in their temples to be vsed and it was a point of religion to deale with them before one went to praiers Nimirum propter continentiam incontinentia necessaria est incendiumignibus ex●inguitur Belike we must be incontinent that we may be continent burning is quenched by fire In most places of the world that part of our body was Deified In that same province some flead it to offer and consecrated a peece thereof others offred and consecrated their seed In another the young-men did publikely pierce and in divers places open their yard betweene flesh and skin and thorow the holes put the longest and biggest stickes they could endure and of those stickes made afterward a fire for an offring to their Gods and were esteemed of small vigour and lesse chastitie if by the force of that cruell paine they shewed any dismay Else-where the most sacred magistrate was reverenced and acknowledged by those parts And in divers ceremonies the portraiture thereof was carried and shewed in pompe and state to the honour of sundry Deities The Aegyptian Dames in their Bacchanalian feasts wore a wodden one about their necks exquisitly fashioned as huge and heavie as every one could conveniently beare besides that which the statue of their God represented which in measure exceeded the rest of his body The maried women heere-by with their Coverchefs frame the figure of one vpon their forheads to glory themselves with the enioying they have of it and comming to bee widowes they place it behinde and hide it vnder their quoifes The greatest and wisest matrons of Rome were honoured for offring flowers and garlands to God Priapus And when their Virgins were maried they during the nuptials were made to sit vpon their privities Nor am I sure whether in my time I have not seene a glimps of like devotion What meant that laughtermooving and maids looke-drawing peece our Fathers wore in their breeches yet extant among the Switzers To what end is at this present day the shew of our formall peeces vnder our Gascoine hoses and often which is worse above their naturall greatnesse by falshood and imposture A little thing would make me beleeve that the said kinde of garment was inuented in the best and most vpright ages that the world might not be deceived and all men should yeeld a publike account of their sufficiencie The simplest nations have it yet somewhat resembling the true forme Then was the worke-mans skill instructed how it is to bee made by the measure of the arme or foot That good-meaning man who in my youth thorowout his great citie caused so many faire curious and ancient statues to bee guelded left the sense of seeing might bee corrupted following the advice of that other good ancient man Flagitij principium est nudare inter cives corpora Mongst civill people sinne By baring bodies we beginne should have considered how in the mysteries of the good Goddesse all apparance of man was excluded that he was no whitneerer if he did not also procure both horses and asses and al length nature her selfe to be guelded Omne adeo genus in torris hominumque ferarumque Et genus ●quoreum pecudes pictaeque volucres In furias ignemque ruunt All kindes of things on earth wilde beasts mankinde Field-beasts faire-fethered fowle and fish we finde Into loves fire and fury run by kinde The Gods saith Plato have furnished man with a disobedient skittish and tyrannicall member which like an vntamed furious-beast attempteth by the violence of his appetite to bring all things vnder his becke So have they allotted women another as insulting wilde and fierce in nature like a greedie devouring and rebellious creature who if when hee craveth it hee bee refused nourishment as impatient of delay it enrageth and infusing that rage into their bodies stoppeth their conduicts hindreth their respiration and causeth a thousand kindes of inconveniences vntill sucking vp the fruit of the generall thirst it have largely bedewed and enseeded the

that man is not immoderate in all and every where and hath no other sentence or arrest than that of necessity and impuissance to proceede further The twelfth Chapter Of Phisiognomy ALmost all the opinions we have are taken by authority and vpon credit There is no hurt We cannot chuse worse then by our selves inso weake an age This image of Socrates his discourse which his friends have left vs we only approve it by the reverence of publicke approbation It is not of our owne knowledge they are not according to our vse Might such a man be borne now adayes there are but few would now esteeme him Wee discerne not graces inlie or aright We onely perceive them by a false light set out and pufft vp with arte Such as passe vnder their naturall purity and simplicity doe easily escape so weake and dimme a sight as ours is They have a secret vnperceived and delicate beauty he had neede of a cleere farre-seeing and true-discerning sight that should rightly discover this secret light Is not in genuity according to vs cosin-germaine vnto sottishnesse and a quality of reproach Socrates maketh his soule to moove with a naturall and common motion Thus saith a plaine Country-man and thus a seely Woman Hee never hath other people in his mouth than Coach-makers Ioyners Coblers and Masons They are inductions and similitudes drawen from the most vulgar and knowen actions of men every one vnderstands him Vnder so base a forme wee should never have chosen the noble worthinesse and brightnesse of his admirable conceptions Wee that esteeme all those but meane and vile that learning doth not raise and who have no perceiving of riches except set out in shew and pompe Our World is framed but vnto ostentation Men are puffed vp with winde and moved or handled by bounds as Baloones This man proposeth no vaine fantasies vnto himselfe His end was to store vs with things and furnish vs with precepts which really more substantially and jointly serve our life servare modum finémque tenere Naturámque sequi To keepe a meane to hold the end And natures conduct to attend So was he ever all one alike And raised himselfe to the highest pitch of vigor not by fits but by complexion Or to say better he raised nothing but rather brought downe and reduced all difficulties or sharpenesse to their originall and naturall state and therevnto subdued vigor For in Cato it is manifestly seene to be an out-right proceeding far-above beyond the common By the brave exploites of his life and in his death hee is ever perceived to be mounted vpon his great horses Whereas this man keepes on the ground and with a gentle and ordinary pace treateth of the most profitable discourses and addresseth himselfe both vnto death and to the most thorny and crabbed crosses that may happen vnto the course of humane life It hath indeede fortuned that the worthiest man to be known and for a patterne to be presented to the world he is the man of whom we have most certaine knowledge He hath beene declared and enlightned by the most cleare-seeing men that ever were the testimonies wee have of him are in faithfulnesse and sufficiency most admirable It is a great matter that ever he was able to give such order vnto the pure imaginations of a childe that without altring or wresting them he hath thence produced the fairest effects of our minde He neither represents it rich nor high-raised but found and pure and ever with a blithe and vndefiled health By these vulgar springs and naturall wards by these ordinary and common fantasies sans mooving or without vrging himselfe hee erected not onely the most regular but the highest and most vigorous opinions actions and customes that ever were Hee it is that brought humane wisedome from heaven againe where for a long time it had beene lost to restore it vnto man where her most just and laborious worke is See or heare him pleade before his judges marke with what reasons hee rouzeth his courage to the hazards of warre what arguments fortifie his patience against detraction calumniation tyranny death and against his wives peevish head therein is nothing borrowed from arte or from learning The simplest may there know their meanes and might it is impossible to goe further backe or lower He hath done humane nature a great kindenesse to shew what and how much she can doe of her selfe Wee are every one richer then we imagine but we are taught to borrow and instructed to shift and rather to make vse of others goods and meanes then of our owne There is nothing whereon man can stay or fix himselfe in time of his neede Of voluptuousnesse of riches of pleasure of power hee ever embraceth more then hee can graspe or hold His greedinesse is incapable of moderation The very same I finde to bee in the curiosity of learning and knowledge he cuts out more worke then hee can well make an end of and much more then he neede Extending the profit of learning as farre as his matter Vt omnium rerum sic literarum quoque intemperantia laboramus Wee are sicke of a surfet as of all things so of learning also And Tacitus hath reason to commend Agricolaes mother to have brideled in her sonne an over-burning and earnest desire of learning It is a good being neerely looked vnto that containeth as other humane goods much peculiar vanitie and naturall weakenesse and is very chargeable The acquisition and purchase whereof is much more hazardous then of all other viandes and beverage For whatsoever else wee have bought we carry home insome vessell or other where wee have law to examine it's worth how much and at what time wee are to take-it But Sciences wee cannot sodainely put them into any other vessell then our minde we swallow them in buying them and goe from the marketh either already infected or amended There are some which insteade of nourishing doe but hinder and surcharge vs and other some which vnder colour of curing empoison vs. I have taken pleasure in some place to see men who for devotions sake have made a vow of ignorance as of chastity poverty and penitence It is also a kind of guelding of our inordinate appetites to muzzle this greedinesse which provoketh vs to the study of bookes and deprive the minde of that voluptuous delight which by the opinion of learning doth so tickle vs. And it is richly to accomplish the vow of poverty to joine that of the minde vnto it Wee neede not much learning for to live at ease And Socrates teacheth vs that wee have both it and the way to finde and make vse of it within vs. All our sufficiency that beyond the naturall is wellnigh vaine and superfluous It is much if it charge and trouble vs no more then it steads vs. Paucis opus est literis ad mentem bonam Wee have neede of little learning to have a good minde They are