likewise under it all other profane authors out of which a minde that is not corrupt may gather profit so they be handled wisely and used with discretion To which effect Plutarch delivereth in this treatise good precepts And after he hath shewed generally that in Poesie there is delight and danger withall he refuteth briefly those who flatly condemne it Then as he proceedeth to advertise that this ground and foundation is to be laide namely that poëts are liers he describeth what their fictions be how they ought to be considered and what the scope and marke is whereat Poë sie doth aime and shoot After wards he adviseth to weigh ponder well the intention of Poëts unto which they addresse accommodate their verses to beware of their repugnanits and contradictions and to the ende that we be not so soone damnified by any dangerous points which they deliver one after another to oppose against them the opinions and counsels of other persons of better marke Which done he addeth moreover and saith That the sentences intermingled here and there in Poëts do reply sufficiently against the evill doctrine that they may seeme to teach elsewhere also in taking heed to the diverse significations of words to be rid and freed from great encumbrances and difficulties discoursing moreover how a man may make use of their descriptions of vices and vertues also of the words and deeds of those personages whom they bring in searching unto the reasons and causes of such speeches and discourses thereout to draw in the end a deeper sense and higher meaning reaching even to Morall philosophie and the gentle framing of the minde unto the love of vertue And for that there be some hard and difficult places which like unto forked waies may leave the mindes of the Readers doubtfull and in suspense he sheweth that it is an easie matter to apply the same well and that withall a man may reforme those sentences ill placed and accommodate them to many things And in conclusion framing this discourse to his principall intention hetreateth how the praises and dispraises which Poëts attribute unto persons are to be considered and that we ought to confirme all that which we finde good in such authors by testimonies taken out of Philosophie the onely scope whereunto yoong men must tend in reading of Poëts READING AND HEARING of Poemes and Poets THat which the Poet Philoxenus said of flesh that the sweetest is that which is least flesh of fish likewise that the most favorie is that which is least fish let us O Marcus Sedatus leave to be decided and judged by those who as Cato said had their palats more quicke and sensible than their hearts But that yoong men take more pleasure in those Philosophicall discourses which favour least of Philosophie and seeme rather spoken in mirth than in earnest and are more willing to give care thereto and suffer themselves more easily to be led and directed thereby is a thing to us notorious and evident For we see that in reading not onely Aesops fables and the fictions of Poets but also the booke of Heraclides entituled Abaris and that of Ariston named Lycas wherein the opinions of Philosophers as touching the soule are mingled with tales and feigned narrations devised for pleasure they be ravished as one would say with great contentment and delight And therefore such youthes ought not onely to keepe their bodies sober and temperate in the pleasures of meate and drinke but also much more to accustome their minds to a moderate delight in those things which they heare and read using the same temperately as a pleasant and delectable sauce to give a better and more favorie taste to that which is healthfull holsome and profitable therein For neither those gates that be shut in a city do guard the same and secure it for being forced and won if there be but one standing open to receive and let in the enimies nor the temperance and continencie in the pleasures of other senses preserve a yoong man for being corrupted and perverted if for want of forecast and heed taking he give himselfe to the pleasure onely of the care But for that the hearing approcheth neerer to the proper seat of reason and understanding which is the braine so much the more hurt it doth unto him that receiveth delectation thereby if it be neglected and not better heed taken thereto Now forasmuch haply as it is neither possible nor profitable to restraine from the reading and hearing of Poemes such yoong men as are of the age either of my soone Soclarus or of your Cleander let us I praie you have a carefull eie unto them as standing more in need of a guide now to direct them in their readings then they did in times past to stay and dade them when they learned to go This is the reason that me thought in dutie I was bound to send unto you in writing that which not long since I discoursed of by mouth as touching the writings of Poets to the end that you may reade it your selfe and if you find that the reasons therein delivered be of no lesse vertue efficacie than the stones called Amethysts which some take before and hang about their necks to keepe them from drunkennesse as they sit at bankets drinking wine merily you may impart and communicate the same to your sonne Cleander to preoccupate and prevent his nature which being not dull and heavie in any thing but every way quicke lively and pregnant is more apt and easie to be led by such allurements In Polypes head there is to be had One thing that good is and another as bad for that the flesh thereof is pleasant and favorie enough in taste to him that feedeth thereupon but as they say it causeth troublesome dreames in the sleepe and imprinteth in the fantasie strange and monstrous visions Semblablie there is in Poesie much delectation and pleasure enough to entertaine and feed the understanding and spirit of a yoong man yet neverthelesse hee shall meet with that there which will trouble and cary away his minde into errours if his hearing be not well guided and conducted by sage direction For verie well and fitly it may be said not onely of the land of Aegypt but also of Poetrie Mixed drugs plentie as well good as bad Med'cines and poisons are there to be had which it bringeth foorth and yeeldeth to as many as converse therein Likewise Therein sweet loue and wantonnesse with dalliance you shall finde And sugred words which do beguile the best and wisest minde For that which is so deceitfull and dangerous therein toucheth not at all those that be witlesse sots fooles and grosse of conceit Like as Simonides answered upon a time to one who demanded of him Why he did not beguile and circumvent the Thessalians aswell as all other Greeks Because quoth he they are too sottish for me to deale withall and so rude that I can not skill of deceiving them
his actions wholly to the humor of another is never simple uniforme nor like himselfe but variable and changing alwaies from one forme to another much like as water which is powred out of one vessel into another even as it runneth forth taketh the forme and fashion of that vessell which receiveth it And herein he is cleane contrarie to the ape for the ape as it should seeme thinking to counterfeit man by turning hopping and dauncing as he doth is quickly caught but the flatterer whiles he doth imitate and counterfeit others doth entice and draw them as it were with a pipe or call into his net and so beguileth them And this he doeth not alwaies after one maner for with one he daunceth and singeth with another he wil seeme to wrestle or otherwise to exercise the bodie in feats of activitie if he chance to meet with a man that loveth to hunt and to keepe hounds him he will follow hard at heeles setting out a throat as loud in a maner as Hippolytus in the Tragedie Phoedra crying So ho this is my joy and onely good With crie to lure with tooting horne to winde By leave of gods to bring into the wood My hounds to rouse and chase the dapple Hinde And yet hath he nothing to do at all with the wilde beasts of the forrest but it is the hunter himselfe whom hee laieth for to take within his net and toile And say that hee light upon a yoong man that is a student given to learning then you shall see him also as deepe poring upon his booke and alwaies in his Studie you shall have him let his beard grow downe to his foot like a grave Philosopher who but he then in his side thred-bare students cloake after the Greeke fashion as if he had no care of himselfe nor joy of any thing els in the world not a word then in mouth but of the Numbers Orthangles and Triangles of Plato If peradventure there fall into his hands an idle do-nothing who is rich withall and a good fellow one that loveth to eat and drinke and make good cheere That wily Fox Vlysses tho His ragged garments will off do off goes then his bare and overworne studying gowne his beard he causeth to be cut shorne as neere as a new mowen field in harvest when all the corne is gone no talke then but of flagons bottels pots and cooling pans to keepe the wine cold nothing now but merie conceits to moove laughter in everie walking place and gallerie of pleasure Now hee letteth flie srumpes and scoffes against schollers and such as studie philosophie Thus by report it fell out upon a time at Syracusa For when Plato thither arrived and Denys all on a sodaine was set upon a furious fit of love to Philosophie his palace and whole court was full of dust and sand by reason of the great recourse thither of Students in Geometrie who did nothing but draw figures therein But no sooner had Plato incurred his displeasure and was out of favor no sooner had Denys the tyrant bidden Philosophie farewell given himselfe againe to belly-cheere to wine vanities wantonnesse and all loosenesse of life but all at once it seemed the whole court was transformed likewise as it were by the sorcerie and enchantment of Cyrces into hatred and detestation of good letters so as they forgat all goodnesse and betooke themselves to folly and sottishnesse To this purpose it were not amisse for to alledge as testimonies the fashions and acts of some notorious flatterers such I meane as have governed Common-welths and affected popularitie Among whom the greatest of all other was Alcibiades who all the while he was at Athens used to scoffe and had a good grace in merrie conceits pleasant jests he kept great horses and lived in jollitie most gallantly with the love and favor of all men when he sojourned in Sparta he went alwaies shaven to the bare skin in an overworne cloke or else the same very course and never washed his bodie but in cold water Afterwards being in Thrace he became a soldior and would carrouse and drinke lustily with the best He came no sooner to Tisaphernes in Asia but he gave himselfe to voluptuousnes and pleasure to riot wantonnes and superfluous delights Thus throughout the whole course of his life he wan the love of all men by framing himselfe to their humors and fashions wheresoever he came Such were not Epaminondas and Agesilaus For albeit they conversed with many sorts of people travailed divers cities and saw sundry fashions and maners of strange nations yet they never changed their behavior they were the same men still reteining evermore a decent port which became them in their apparel speech diet and their whole cariage and demeanor Plato likewise was no changeling but the same man at Syracuasa that he was in the Academie or College at Athens and looke what his cariage was before Dion the same it was and no other in Denys his court But that man may very easily finde out the variable changes of a flatterer as of the fish called the Pourcuttle who will but straine a little and take the paines to play the dissembler himselfe making shew as if he likewise were transformed into divers and sundry fashions namely in misliking the course of his former life and sodainly seeming to embrace those things which he rejected before whether it be in diet action or speech For then he shall soone see the flatterer also to be inconstant and not a man of himselfe taking love or hatred to this or that joying or greeving at a thing upon any affection of his owne that leadeth him thereto for that he receiveth alwaies as a mirrour the images of the passions motions and and lives of other men If you chance to blame one of your friends before him what will he say by and by Ah well You have found him out I see now at last though it were long since I wis I liked him not long a great while ago Contrariwise if your minde alter so that you happen to fall a praising of him againe Very well done will he say and binde it with an oth I con you thanke for that I am very glad for the mans sake and I beleeve no lesse of him Do you breake with him about the alteration of your life and beare him in hand that you meane to take another course as for example to give over State affaires to betake your selfe to a more private and quiet life Yea marie quoth he and then you do well it is more than high time so to do For long since we should have beene disburdened of these troubles so full of envie and perill Make him beleeve once that you will change your copie and that you are about to shake off this idle life and to betake your selfe unto the Common-weale both to rule and also to speake in publike place you shall have him to sooth you up and second
which is full of ripe understanding of considerate wisedome and of good directions and plots well and surely laied In which persons the white head and gray beard which some laugh and make good game at the crow-foot about the eies the furrowes in the forehead the rivels and wrinckles in the face besides appearing beare witnesse of long experience and adde unto them a reputation and authoritie which helpe much to perswade and to draw the minds of the hearers unto their will and purpose For to speake truely youth is made as it were to follow and obey but age to guide and command and that citie or State is preserved wherein the sage counsels of the elders and the martiall prowesse of the yonger beare sway together And for this cause highly and woonderfully are these verses following praised in Homer and namely in the first place Then to begin a goodly sort of ancient captaines bold Assembled he in Nestors ship a counsell there to hold upon the same reason also that counsel of the wisest and principall men assistant unto the kings of Lacedaemon for the better government of the State the oracle of Apollo Pythius first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Elders and Lycurgus afterwards directly and plainly tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Old men and even at this very day the counsell of Estate in Rome is named a Senate that is to say an assembly of ancient persons And like as the law and custome time out of minde hath allowed unto Kings and Princes the diademe that is to say a roiall band or frontlet the crowne also to stand upon their heads as honourable mots ensignes of their regall dignitie and sovereigne authoritie even so hath nature given unto olde men the white head and hoarie beard as honourable tokens of their right to command and of their preeminence above others And for mine owne part I verily thinke that this nowne in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a prize or reward of honour as also the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as to honour continue still in use as respective to the honour due unto olde men who in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for that they bathe in hot waters or sleepe in softer beds but because in cities well and wisely governed they be ranged with kings for their prudence the proper and perfect goodnesse whereof as of some tree which yeeldeth winter fruit which is not ripe before the latter end of the yeere nature bringeth forth late and hardly in olde age and therefore there was not one of those martiall and brave couragious captaines of the Greeks who found fault with that great king of kings Agamemnon for making such a praier as this unto the gods That of the Grecian host which stood of many woorthie men Such counsellers as Nestor was they would vouchsafe him ten but they all agreed with him and by their silence confessed That not onely in policie and civill government but also in warre olde age carrieth a mightie great stroke for according as the ancient proverbe beareth witnesse One head that knowes full wisely for to reed Out goesten hands and maketh better speed One advice likewise and sentence grounded upon reason and delivered with perswasive grace effecteth the greatest and bravest exploits in a whole State Well say that olde age hath many difficulties and discommodities attending upon it yet is not the same therefore to be rejected for the absolute rule of a king being the greatest and most perfect estate of all governments in the world hath exceeding many cares travels and troubles insomuch as it is written of king Seleucus that he would often-times say if the people wist how laborious and painfull it were to reade and write onely so many letters as he did they would not deine to take up his diademe if they found it throwen in their very way as they goe And Philip being at the point to pitch his campe in a faire ground when he was advertised that the place would not affoord forage for his labouring beasts O Hercules quoth he what a life is this of ours that we must live forsooth and care to serve the necessitie of our asses Why then belike it were high time to perswade a king when he is aged for to lay downe his diademe to cast off his robes of purple to clad himselfe in simple array to take a crooked staffe in hand and so to go and live in the countrey for feare lest if he with his gray haires raigned stil he should seeme to do many superfluous and impertinent things and to direct matters out of season Now if it were unseemely and a meere indignitie to deale with Agesilaus with Numa and Darius all kings and monarchs after this sort unmeet likewise it is that we should remove and displace Solon out of the counsell of Areopagus or depose Cato from his place in the Romane Senate because of their olde age Why should we then goe about to perswade such an one as Pericles to give over and resigne his government in a popular State for over besides there were no sense at all that if one have leapt and mounted into the tribunall seat or chaire of estate in his yoong yeeres and afterwards discharged upon the people common-wealth those his violent passions of ambition and other furious fits when ripe age is now come which is woont to bring with it discretion and much wisdome gathered by experience to abandon and put away as it were his lawfull wife the government which hee hath so long time abused The foxe in Aesops fables would not suffer the urchin to take off the tiques that were setled upon her bodie For if quoth she thou take away these that be already full there will come other hungry ones in their place and even so if a State rejected evermore from administration of the common-wealth those governours that begin once to be olde it must needs be quickly full of a sort of yoong rulers that be hungrie and thirstie both after glory but altogether void of politike wit and reason to governe for how can it otherwise be and where should they get knowledge if they have not bene disciples to learne nor spectatours to follow and imitate some ancient magistrate that manageth state affaires The Cards at sea which shew the feat of sailing and ruling ships can not make good sea-men or skilfull pilots if they have not beene themselves many times at the stearne in the poope to see the maner of it and the conflicts against the waves the winds the blacke stormes and darke tempests What time in great perplexitie The mariner doth wish to see Castor and Pollux twins full bright Presaging safetie with their light How then possibly can a yoong man governe and direct a citie well perswade the people aright deliver wise counsel in the Senate having but read one little booke treating of pollicy or haply
with meat before them thereby to drive those in their messe and who were set at the table from eating with them and by that meanes to engorge themselves and fill their bellies alone with the best viands served up Semblably they who are excessively and out of all measure ambitious before others as their concurrents and corrivals blame and dispraise glorie and honour to the end that they alone without any competitours might enjoy the same And heerein they doe like unto mariners sitting at the oare in a bote or gally for howsoever their eie is toward the poupe yet they labour to set the prow forward in that the flowing of the water by reciprocation caused by the stroke of the oares comming forcibly backe upon the poupe might helpe to drive forward the vessell even so they that deliver such rules and precepts whiles they make semblant to flie from glory pursue it as fast as they can for otherwise if it were not so what need had he whosoever he was to give out such a speech what meant he else to write it and when he had written it to publish the same unto posteritie If I say he meant to be unknowne to men living in his time who desired to be knowne unto those that came after him But let us come to the thing it selfe How can it chuse but be simply naught Live so hidden quoth he that no man may perceive that ever you lived as if he had said Take heed you be not knowne for a digger up of sepulchres a defacer of the tombs monuments of the dead But contrariwise a foule dishonest thing it is to live in such sort as that you should be willing that we al know not the maner thereof Yet would I for my part say cleane contrary Hide not thy life how ever thou do and if thou hast lived badly make thy selfe knowne bewiser repent amend if thou be endued with vertue hide it not neither be thou an unprofitable member if vicious continue not obstinate there but yeeld to correction admit the cure of thy vice or rather at leastwise sir make a distinction define who it is to whom you give this precept If he be ignorant unlearned wicked or foolish then it is as much as if you said thus Hide thy feaver cloke cover thy phrēsie let not the physician take notice of thee goe and put thy selfe into some darke corner where no person may have a sight of thee or of thy maladies and passions go thy way aside with all thy naughtinesse sicke as thou art of an incurable and mortall disease cover thy spight and envie hide thy superstition suppresse and conceale as it were the disorderly beatings of thine arteries take heed be afraid how you let your pulse be felt or bewray your selfe to those who have the meanes are able to admonish correct and heale you But long ago in the old world our ancestors were wont to take in hand and cure openly in publike place those that were diseased in body in those daies everie one who had met with any good medicine or knowne a remedie whereof he had the proofe either in himselfe being sicke or in another cured thereby would reveale and communicate the same unto another that stood in need thereof and thus they say The skil of Physick arising first and growing by experience became in time a noble and excellent science And even so requisit it is and necessarie to discover and lay open unto all men lives that be diseased and the infirmities of the soule to touch and handle them and by considering the inclinations of every man to say thus unto one Subject thou art to anger take heed thereof unto another Thou art given to jealousie and emulation beware of it doe thus and thus to a third Art thou amorous and full of love I have beene so my selfe otherwhiles but I repent me thereof But now a daies it is cleane contrarie in denying in cloaking covering and hiding men thrust and drive their vices inwardly and more deepely still into their secret bowels Now if they be men of woorth and vertuous whom thou counsellest to hide themselves that the world may take no knowledge of them it is all one as to say unto Epaminondas Take no charge of the conduct of an army or to Lycurgus Amuse not your head about making lawes and to Thrasibulus Kill no tyrants to Pythagoras Keepe no schoole nor teach in any wise to Socrates See you dispute not nor hold any discourses of philosophie and to your selfe Epicurus first of all Write not to your friends in Asia enroll and gather no soldiors out of Aegypt have no commerce nor negotiate with them do not protect and defend as it were with a guard from villanie and violence the yoong gentlemen of Lampsacum send not your books abroad to all men and women alike thereby to shew your learning finally ordeine nothing about your sepulture To what tended your publicke tables what meant those assemblies that you made of your familiar friends and faire yoong boies to what purpose were there so many thousands of verses written and composed so painfully by you in the honour of Metrodorus Aristobulus Chaeredemus to the end that after death they should not be forgotten Was all this because you would ratifie and establish vertue by oblivion arts by doing nothing philosophy by silence and felicitie by forgetfulnesse Will you needs bereave mans life of knowledge as if you would take away light from a feast to the end that mē might not know that you your followers do all for pleasure upon pleasure then good reason you have to give counsell saie unto your selfe Live unknowne Certes if I had a minde to leade my life with Haedia the harlot or to keepe ordinarily about me the strumpet Leontium to detest all honestie to repose all my delight and joy in the tickling pleasures of the flesh and in wanton lusts these ends verilie would require to be hidden in darknesse and covered with the shadow of the night these be the things that would be forgotten and not once knowne But if a man in the science of naturall philosophie delight in hymnes and canticles to praise God his justice and providence or in morallknowledge to set out and commend the law humane societie and the politike government of common-weale and therein regard honour and honestie not profit and commodity what reason have you to advise him for to live obscurely Is it because he should teach none by good precept is it for that no man should have a zealous love to vertue or affect honestie by his example If Themistocles had never bene knowne to the Athenians Greece had not given Xerxes the foile and repulse likewise if Camillus had beene unknowne to the Romanes peradventure by this time Rome had beene no city at all had not Dion knowne Plato Sicilie should not have beene delivered from tyrannie But this
of the one or the other **** When Aristophon was now so aged that he could not take paines nor attend to set out the solemne dances and shewes for which he was chosen commislarie and overseer he gave over his place and Demosthenes in his roome was substituted the master of the said dances and for that in the open theater as he was busie in his office about setting out and ordering the dances Medias the Anagyrasian gave him a box of the eare with his fist he sued him in an actiō of batterie howbeit he gave over his sute for the sum of three thousand drachmes of silver which Midias paied him This is reported of him that being a yoong man he 〈◊〉 himselfe apart into a certeine cave where he gave himselfe unto his booke having caused his head to be shaven the halfe of it because he might not goe abroad to be seene and so leave his booke also that he lay upon a very streight and narrow bed for that he would the sooner 〈◊〉 and with more ease and there he exercised and forced himselfe to frame his speech better but for that he had an ill grace with him ever as he spake to shake and shrinke up his shoulder he remedied that by sticking up a broch or spit or as some say a dagger to the floore over head that for feare of pricking his shoulder he might forget this evill custome that he had in his gesture and according as he profited and proceeded forward in the art he caused a mirrour to be made just as bigge as himselfe before which he used to declame that thereby he might observe the evill gestures or ilfavoured faces that he made when he spake and learne to reforme and a mend them also he used otherwhiles to goe downe to the water side to the haven Phalerium for to exercise himselfe in declaming even where the surging waves of the sea did beat upon the banks to the end that he might at no time after be troubled nor put out and driven to an 〈◊〉 with the noise and clamour of the people when hee should speake before them but for that naturally hee was short-winded and his breath commonly failed him hee 〈◊〉 upon Neoptolemus a famous actour or stage-plaier tenne thousand drachmes of silver to teach him for to pronounce long periods and sentences with one breath and not taking his winde betweene When he began to enter into the management of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 State finding that the citizens were divided into two factions the one siding and taking part with king Philip the other speaking and pleading still for their liberties and freedom he chose to joine with that which was opposite in all their dooings unto Philip and all his 〈◊〉 time he continued countelling and perswading the people to succour those who were in danger to fall under the hands of Philip communicating his counsels in the administration 〈◊〉 State affaires devising evermore with Hyperides Nausicles Polyeuctus and 〈◊〉 and therefore he drew into league confederacy with the men of Athens the Thebanes 〈◊〉 Corryceans Corinthians Boeotians and many others besides One day he chanced to be out and his memorie to faile him so that he was histed at by the people in a great assembly of the citie for which disgrace he was out of heart and ill appaid insomuch as in great 〈◊〉 he went home to his house where by the way Eunomus the Thriasian being now an ancient man met with him who cheered up Demosthenes and comforted him all that he could out most of all Andronicus the stage-plaier who said unto him That his orations were as good as possibly might be only he was wanting somwhat in action thereupon rehearsed certaine places out of his oration which he had delivered in that frequent assembly unto whom Demosthenes gave good eare and credit whereupon he betooke himselfe unto Andronicus insomuch as afterwards when he was demaunded the question which was the first point of eloquence he answered Action which the second he made answer Action and which was the third he said Action still Another time he put himselfe foorth to speak in open audience of a great assembly and was likewise whistled at and driven lusty out of countenance for speaking some words that savoured too much of youthfulnesse so that he was flouted by the comicall poets Antiphanes and Timocles who used to twit him with these tearmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say By the earth by the fountaines by rivers flouds and streames For having sworne in this maner before the people hee raised a stirre and hurli-burly among them He tooke his oath another time by the name of Asclepius which hee sounded aloft with accent in the second syllable and although he did this upon errour in Prosodia yet hee mainteined and proved that he had pronounced the word aright for that Aesculapius was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a milde and gracious god and for this maner of swearing he was oftentimes troubled but after he had frequented the schoole of Eubulades the Milesian and a Logicien he corrected and amended all Being one day at the solemnitie of the Olympian games and hearing Lamachus the Terinaean how he rehearsed an encomiasticall oration in the praise of king Philip and of Alexander his sonne namely how they invaded and over-ran the Thebans and Olynthians he came forward and standing close unto him on the contrary side alledging testimonies out of auncient poets importing the commendation of Thebans and Olynthians both for the brave exploits by them atchieved which when Lamachus heard hee gave over and would not speake a word more but slipt away as soone as hee could out of the assemblie King Philip himselfe would say unto them who related unto him the cautions and orations that he made against him Certes I beleeve verily that if I had heard him with mine owne eares pleading in this wise I should have given the man my voice and chosen him captaine to make warre upon my selfe And much to the same purpose the said Philip was wont to liken the orations of Demoshenes unto souldiers for the warlike force that appeared in them but the speeches of Isocrates he compared to fensers or sword-plaiers for the delightfull shew and flourish that they made Being now thirtie seven yeeres old counting from Dexitheus to Callimachus in the time of whose provostship the Olynthians by their embassage required aid of the Athenians for that they were fore plagued with the warre that king Philip levied against them he perswaded the people to send them succour but in the yeere following wherein Plato changed this life king Philip utterly destroied the Olynthians Xenophon also the disciple of Socrates had a knowledge of Demosthenes either in his prime when hee began to rise and grow up or else in the very floure and best of his time for Xenophon wrote his Chronicles as touching the acts and deeds of the Greeks and specially of those
the swallowes teach their yoong ones to turne their tailes so as they may meut out of their nests Moreover why say we not that one tree is more ignorant or untaught than another like as we hold and that truely that a sheepe is more dull of capacitie than a dogge or that this herbe is more fearefull than that like as we affirme very well that a stagge is more timorous or rather lesse valourous than a lion and as in things which are unmooveable we never say that one is more slow than another nor among such things as yeeld no sound at all that this hath a smaller or bigger voice than that Semblably it is never said that there is lesse witte more dulnesse and greater intemperance in such or such things unlesse it be in that kinde whereof all by nature are endued with the gift of reason and of prudence in some measure which puissance and facultie being given to some more and to others lesse is that which maketh all the difference that we see Yea mary but there is no comparison will some man say betweene men and beasts so infinitly surpasseth he them in finenesse of witte in justice and equity beseeming civill societie that it is wonderfull And even so my good friend there be many which in biggenesse and strength of bodie in swiftnesse of feet in quicknesse of eie-sight and subtility of hearing out-goe all the men in the world and leave them farre behinde and yet for all this wee are not to inferre and conclude that man is blinde that he is impotent of hand and foot or otherwise deafe neither hath nature deprived us altogether of bigge armes and bodies or of strength both in the one and the other although in comparison of the elephant and the camell our force and bulke of body is nothing after the same maner may we speake of beasts if their discours and understanding be more grosse if their witte be more dull than ours it followeth not thereupon that they have neither reason nor naturall witte for without all question both they have feeble though they be and troubled like as an eie is otherwhiles weake dimme and muddy and were it not that I certeinly expect and that among our yoong men who are studious learned and verie well seene in the books of our auncient writers that they will alledge an infinit number of examples the one from the land and the other out of the sea I could not conteine my selfe but recite and alledge heere before you an innumerable sort of proofes and arguments as well of the naturall subtilty of beasts as of their docility which the beautifull and famous city of Rome hath affourded unto us to draw and lade up aboundantly by whole scuppets and buckets full as they say from the stately theaters of their emperours and the princely games exhibited there But let us leave this matter fresh and entire for those yoong men thereby to embelish their discourses and set out their eloquence meane while I would gladly examine and consider one point with you now that we are at leasure For I suppose that in every part naturall power or facultie of our bodie there doth befall some proper defect some maime or maladie as namely in the eie blindnesse in the legge lamenesse in the tongue stutting and stammering and that which is proper to one member is not incident unto another for wee use not to say that a thing is become blinde which never had power by nature to see nor lame which was not ordeined to goe neither was there ever man who would say that a thing stammered which never had tongue or muffled and wharled which naturally yeeldeth no voice at all and even so we cannot to speake properly and truely tearme that foolish furious or enraged which by course of nature is not capable of understanding discourse and reason for impossible it is that a part may be said to be interessed affected or prejudiced in a thing which never had an aptitude or naturall power that might receive diminution privation mutilation or otherwise some infirmitie and yet I doubt not but you have otherwhiles seene dogges runne madde and for mine owne part I have knowen horses enraged and there be moreover who affirme that kine and other beefes will be horne-wood yea and foxes as well as dogges but the example of dogges whereof no man makes doubt may suffice to proove and beare witnesse that this kinde of beast hath reason and understanding and therefore not in small measure to bee contemned but when it chanceth that it is troubled and confounded then comes upom them that disease which is called rage and madnesse for at such a time we cannot perceive in them that either their sight or their hearing is altered but like as he that should give out of a man who is overcharged with a melancholike humour or given to rave and go beside himselfe that his understanding is not transported and out of order that his discourse of reason is not out of the way nor his braines broken or memorie corrupt were very absurd for that the ordinary custome and behaviour of such foolish and bestraught persons sufficiently convinceth that they are past themselves and have lost the discourse of reason even so whosoever thinketh that mad dogges suffer any other passion than a confusion and perturbation of that part in them which before time was woont to imagine discourse and remember in such sort that when they be thus surprised with rage they are so foolish and 〈◊〉 follish as they know not their best friends who were woont to make much of them but flie those places of their feeding and bringing up which they used most to haunt to converse in do not so much as discerne but oversee that which is presented plaine before them this man I say seemeth obstinately to strive against the truth and not to comprehend that which daily experience doth shew SOCLARUS Certes your conjecture in mine opinion is very good and you are in the right but the Stoicks and Peripateticks stifly stand against all this and impugne it with tooth and naile saying That justice cannot have any other breeding and beginning and that impossible it is to maintaine that there is any justice in the world if it be confessed that all beasts are any waies capable of reason for that necessarie it is either that we do injurie in not sparing them or in case we make no use of them for our food that impossible it were for us to live or else our life should remaine destitute of such things as well it may not misse and be without In summe that we were to live in some sort a savage and beastlike life if wee should reject the profits and commodities which they affoord For I passe by infinit thousands and millions of the Troglodyts and Nomades that know no other feeding but of flesh only and nothing else but as for us who seeme to leade a mild
and wisely therefore did the Law-giver of the Thurians when he gave order and forbad expressely That no citizen should be taxed noted by name or scoffed at upon the Stage in any Comedie save onely adulterers and these busie persons For surely adulterie may be compared well to a kinde of curiositie searching into the pleasures of another seeking I say and enquiring into those matters which are kept secret and concealed from the view of the whole world And as for curiositie it seemeth to be a resolution or loosenes like a palsie or corruption a detection of secrets and laying them naked For it is an ordinarie thing with those who be inquisitive and desirous of many newes for to be blabs also of their tongues and to be pratling abroad which is the reason that Pythagor as injoyned yoong men five yeeres silence which he called Echemychia Abstinence from all speech or holding of their tongue Moreover it can not otherwise be chosen but that foule and cursed language also should accompany curiosity for looke what thing soever busie bodies heare willingly the same they love to tell and blurt out as quickly and such things as with desire and care they gather from one they utter to another with joy Whereupon it commeth to passe that over and above other inconveniences which this vice ministreth unto them that are given to it an impediment it is to their owne appetite For as they desire to know much so every man observeth them is beware of them and endevoureth to conceale all from them Neither are they willing to doe any thing in their sight nor delighted to speak ought in their hearing but if there be any question in hand to be debated or businesse to be considered and consulted of all men are content to put off the conclusion and resolution unto another time namely untill the curious and busie person be out of the way And say that whiles men are in sad and secret conference or about some serious businesse there chance one of these busie bodies to come in place presently all is husht and every thing is remooved aside and hidden no otherwise than folke are woont to set out of the way victuals where a cat doth haunt or when they see her ready to run by insomuch as many times those things which other men may both heare and see safely the same may not be done or said before them onely Therefore also it followeth by good consequence that a busie and curious person is commonly so farre out of credit that no man is willing to trust him for any thing in such sort that we commit our letters missive and signe manuell sooner to our servants and meere strangers than to our friends and familiars if we perceive them given to this humor of much medling But that woorthy knight Bellerophontes was so farre from this that he would not breake open those letters which he caried though they were written against himselfe but forbare to touch the Kings epistle no lesse than he abstained from the Queen his wife even by one and the same vertue of Continence For surely curiosity is a kinde of incontinency aswel as is adultery and this moreover it hath besides that joined there is with it much folly and extreame want of wit For were it not a part thinke you of exceeding blockish senselessenesse yea and madnesse in the highest degree to passe by so many women that be common and every where to be had and then to make meanes with great cost and expense to some one kept under locke and key and besides sumptuous notwithstanding it fall out many times that such an one is as ill-favored as she is foule Semblably and even the same do our curious folke they omit and cast behinde them many faire and goodly sights to beholde many excellent lectures woorth the hearing many disputations discourses honest exercises and pastimes but in other mens letters they keepe a puddering they open and reade them they stand like eavesdroppers under their neighbours walles hearkening what is done or said within they are readie to intrude themselves to listen what whispering there is betweene servants of the house what secret talke there is among seely women when they be in some odde corner and as many times they are by this meanes not free from danger so alwaies they meet with shame and infamie And therefore very expedient it were for such curious folke if they would shift off and put by this vice of theirs eftsoones to call to mind as much as they can what they have either knowen or heard by such inquisition for if as Simonides was woont to say that when hee came after some time betweene to open his desks and coffers he found one which was appointed for gifts and rewards alwaies full the other ordeined for thanks and the graces void and empty so a man after a good time past set open the store-house of curiosity and looke into it what is therein and see it toppe full of many unprofitable vaine and unpleasant things peradventure the very outward sight and face thereof will discontent and offend him appearing in every respect so lovelesse and toyish as it is Goe to then if one should set in hand to turne over leafe by leafe the books of ancient writers and when he hath picked forth and gathered out the woorst make one volume of all together to wit of those headlesse and unperfect verses of Homer which haply beginne with a short fyllable and therefore be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the solaecismes and incongruities which be found in Tragedies or of the undecent and intemperate speeches which Archilochus framed against women wherby he defamed and shamed himselfe were he not I pray you woorthy of this Tragicall curse A Foule ill take thee thou lewd wretch that lovest to collect The faults of mortall men now dead the living to infect but to let these maledictions alone certes this treasuring and scoring up by him of other mens errors and misdeeds is both unseemly and also unprofitable much like unto that city which Philip built of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and incorrigible persons that were in his time calling it Poneropolis when he had so done And therefore these curious meddlers in collecting and gathering together on all sides the errours imperfections defaults and solaecismes as I may so say not of verses or Poëmes but of other mens lives make of their memorie a most unpleasant Archive or Register and uncivile Record which they ever carie about them And like as at Rome some there be who never cast eie toward any fine pietures or goodly statures no nor so much as make any account to cheapen beautifull boies and faire wenches which there stand to be sold but rather go up and downe the market where monsters in nature are to be bought seeking and learning out where be any that want legs whose armes and elbowes turne the contrary way like unto
he have not wisedome withall There was one that cavilled upon a time with Captaine Iphicrates and by way of reproch minding to proove that he was of no reckoning demaunded what he was For quoth he you are not a man at armes nor archer nor yet targuetier I am not indeed I confesse quoth Iphicrates but I am he who commaund all these and employ them as occasion serveth even so wisedome is neither gold nor silver it is not glorie or riches it is not health it is not strength it is not beautie what is it then Surely even that which can skill how to use all these and by means whereof each of these things is pleasant honorable and profitable and contrariwise without which they are displeasant hurtfull and dangerous working his destruction and dishonor who possesseth them And therefore right good counsell gave Prometheus in Hesiodus to his brother Epimetheus in this one point Receive no gifts at any time which heavenly Iove shall send But see thou do refuse them all and backe againe them send Meaning thereby these outward goods of fortunes gift as if he would have said Goe not about to play upon a Flute if thou have no knowledge in Musicke nor to reade if thou know never a letter in the booke mount not on horsebacke unlesse thou canst tell how to sit him and ride and even so he advised him thereby not to seeke for office and place of government in common-weale wanting wit as he did nor to lay for riches so long as he bare a covetous minde and wist not how to be liberall nor to marrie a wife for to bee his maister and to lead him by the nose for not onely wealth and prosperitie hapning above desert unto unadvised folke giveth occasion as Demosthenes said unto them for to commit many follies but also wordly happines beyond all reason and demerit causeth such as are not wise to become unhappie and miserable in the end OF ENVIE AND HATRED The Summarie IN this briefe Treatise concerning Envie and Hatred Plutarch after he hath shewed in generall tearmes that they be two different vices and declared withal the properties of the one and the other prooveth this difference by diversreasons and arguments ranged in their order he discovereth the nature of envious persons and malicious and sheweth by a proper similitude that the greatest personages in the world be secured from the clawes and pawes of envious persons and yet for al that cease not to have many enemies And verily it seemeth that the Author began this little worke especially for to beat downe envie and that the infamie thereof might so much more appeere in comparing andmatching it with another detestable vice the which notwithstanding he saith is lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than it OF ENVIE AND HATRED IT seemeth at the first sight that there is no difference betweene envie and hatred but that they be both one For vice to speake in generall having as it were many hookes or crotchets by meanes thereof as it stirreth to and fro it yeeldeth unto those passions which hang thereto many occasions and opportunities to catch holde one of another and so to be knit and enterlaced one within the other and the same verily like unto diseases of the body have a sympathie and fellow-feeling one of anothers distemperature and inflammation for thus it commeth to passe that a malicious and spightfull man is as much grieved and offended at the prosperitie of another as the envious person and so we holde that benevolence and good-will is opposite unto them both for that it is an affection of a man wishing good unto his neighbour and envie in this respect resembleth hatred for that they have both a will and intention quite contrary unto love but forasmuch as no things like to the same and the resemblances betweene them be not so effectuall to make them all one as the differences to distinguish them asunder let us search and examine the said differences beginning at the very source and originall of these passions Hatred then is ingendred and ariseth in our heart upon an imagination and deepe apprehension that we conceive of him whom we hate that either he is naught wicked in general to every man or els intending mischiefe particularly unto our selves for commonly it falleth out that those who thinke they have received some injurie at such an ones hand are disposed to hate him yea and those whom otherwise they know to be maliciously bent and wont to hurt others although they have not wronged them yet they hate and can not abide to looke upon them with patience whereas ordinarily they beare envie unto such onely as seeme to prosper and to live in better state than their neighbours by which reckoning it should seeme that envie is a thing indefinite much like unto the disease of the eies Ophthalmia which is offended with the brightnesse of any light whatsoever whereas hatred is determinate being alwaies grounded upon some certeine subject matters respective to it selfe and on them it worketh Secondly our hatred doeth extend even to brute beasts for some you shall have who naturally abhorre and can not abide to see cats nor the flies cantharides nor todes nor yet snakes and any such serpents As for Germanicus Caesar he could not of all things abide either to see a cocke or to heare him crow The Sages of Persia called their Magi killed all their mice and rats aswell for that themselves could not away with them but detested them as also because the god forsooth whom they worshipped had them in horror And in trueth all the Arabians and Aethiopians generally holde them abominable But envie properly is betweene man and man neither is there any likelihood at all that there should be imprinted envie in savage creatures one against another because they have not this imagination and apprehension that another is either fortunate or unfortunate neither be they touched with any sense of honour or dishonour which is the thing that principally and most of all other giveth an edge and whetteth on envie whereas it is evident that they hate one another they beare malice and mainteine enmitic nay they go to warre as against those that be disloiall treacherous and such as are not to be trusted for in this wife doe eagles warre with dragons crowes with owles and the little nonner or tit-mouse fighteth with the linnet insomuch as by report the very bloud of them after they be killed will not mingle together and that which is more if you seeme to mixe them they will separate and run apart againe one from the other and by all likelihood the hatred that the lion hath to the cocke and the elephant also unto an hogge proceedeth from feare for lightly that which creatures naturally feare the same they also hate so that herein also a man may assigne and note the difference betweene envie and hatred for that the nature of beasts is capable of the one but not
notwithstanding that they do reape commoditie find favour at their hands who prosper more than they yet they grieve and vexe thereat envying them still both for their good mind to benefit them and for their might and abilitie to performe the same for that the one proceedeth from vertue and the other from an happie estate both which are good things We may therefore conclude that envie is a passion farre different from hatred since it is so that wherewith the one is appeased and mollified the other is made more exasperate and greevous But let us consider a little in the end the scope and intention aswel of the one as the other Certes the man that is malicious purposeth fully to do him a mischiefe whom he hateth so that this passion is defined to be a disposition and forward will to spie out an occasion opportunitie to wait another a shrewd turne but surely this is not in envie for many there be who have an envious eie to their kinsfolke and companions whom they would not for all the good in the world see either to perish or to fall into any greevous calamitie onely they are greeved to see them in such prosperitie and would impeach what they can their power and ecclypse the brightnesse of their glorie mary they would not procure nor desire their utter overthrow nor any distresses remedilesse or extreame miseries but it would content and suffice them to take downe their height and as it were the upmost garret or turret of an high house which overlooketh them HOW A MAN MAY RECEIVE PROFIT BY HIS ENEMIES The Summarie AMong the dangerous effects of envie and hatred this is not the least nor one of the last that they shoot as it were from within our adversaries for to slide and enter into us and take possession in our hearts making us beleeve that we shall impeach one evill by another which is as much as to desire to cleanse one or dure by a new and to quench a great fire by putting into it plentie of oile As for hatred it hath another effect nothing lesse pernictous in that it maketh us blinde and causeth us that we can not tell at which end of turning to take our enemies nor know our selves how to reenter into the way of vertue Plutarch willing to cut off such effects by the helpe of morall Philosophie taketh occasion to begin this discourse with a sentence of Xenophon and prooveth in the first place by divers similitudes That a man may take profit by his enemies and this he laieth abroad in particulars shewing that their ambushes and inquisitions serve us in very great stead After this he teacheth us the true way how to be revenged of those that hate us and what we ought to consider in blaming another Now for asmuch as our life is subject to many injuries and calumniations he instructeth us a man may turne all to his owne commoditie which done he presenteth foure remedies and expedient meanes against their standerous language and how we should confound our enemies The first is To conteine our owne tongues without rendring evill for evill the second is To doe them good to love and praise their vertues the third To out-goe them in well doing and the last To provide that vertue remaine alwaies on our side in such sort that if our enemies be vicious yet we persist in doing good and if they cary some shew and apparence of goodnesse we endevour to be indeed and without all comparison better than they HOW A MAN MAY RECEIVE profit by his enemies I See that you have chosen by your selfe ô Cornelius Pulcher the meetest course that may be in the government of common-wealth wherein having a principall regard unto the weale-publike you shew your selfe most gracious and courteous in private to all those that have accesse and repaire unto you Now forasmuch as a man may well finde some countrey in the world wherein there is no venimous beast as it is written of Candie but the management and administration of State affaires was never knowen yet to this day cleere from envie jealousie emulation and contention passions of all other most apt to engender and breed enmities unto which it is subject for that if there were nothing els even amity friendship it selfe is enough to entangle and encomber us with enmities which wise Chilon the Sage knowing well enough demanded upon a time of one who vaunted that he had no enemies whether he had not a friend In regard hereof a man of State and policie in mine opinon among many other things wherein he ought to be well studied should also thorowly know what belongeth to the having of enemies and give good eare unto the saying of Xenophon namely That a man of wit and understanding is to make his profit and benefit by his enemies And therefore having gathered into a pretie Treatise that which came into my minde of late to discourse and dispute upon this matter I have sent unto you written and penned in the very same tearmes as they were delivered having this eie and regard as much as possible I could not to repeat any thing of that which heretofore I had written touching the politike precepts of governing the weale publike for that I see that you have that booke often in your hand Our fore-fathers in the olde world contented themselves in this That they might not be wounded or hurt by strange and savage beasts brought from forren countreys and this was the end of all those combats that they had against such wilde beasts but those who came after have learned moreover how to make use of them not onely take order to keepe themselves from receiving any harme or dammage by them but that which more is have the skill to draw some commoditie from them feeding of their flesh clothing their bodies with their wooll and haire curing and healing their maladies with their gall rennet arming themselves with their hides and skinnes insomuch as now from henceforth it is to be feared and not without good cause lest if beasts should faile and that there were none to be found of men their life should become brutish poore needie and savage And since it is so that whereas other men thinke it sufficient not to be offended or wronged by their enemies Xenophon writeth That the wise reape commodity by their adversaries we have no reason to derogate any thing from his credit but to beleeve him in so saying yea and we ought to search for the method art to attaine and reach unto that benefit as many of us at least-wise as can not possibly live in this world without enemies The husbandman is not able with all his skill to make all sort of trees to cast off their wilde nature and become gentle and domesticall The hunter can not with all his cunning make tame and tractable all the savage beasts of the forrest and therefore they have sought and devised other meanes and
lawes and shame sweet and gracious Bacchus as if these two deities gave you not sufficient whereupon you might live what are you not abashed to mingle at your tables pleasant frutes with bloudie murder You call lions and libards savage beasts meane while your selves are stained with bloudshed giving no place to them in crueltie for where as they doe worie and kill other beasts it is for verie necessitie and need of sood but you doe it sor daintie fare for when wee have slaine either lions or wolves in defence of our selves we eat them not but let them lie But they be the innocent the harmelesse the gentle and tame creatures which have neither teeth to bite nor pricke to sting withall which we take and kill although nature seemeth to have created them onely for beautie and delight Much like as if a man seeing Nilus overflowing his banks and filling all the countrey about with running water which is generative and frutefull would not praise with admiration the propertie of that river causing to spring and grow so many faire and goodly fruits and the same so necessarie for mans life but if he chance to espie a crocodill swimming or an aspick creeping and gliding downe or some venemous flie hurtfull and noisome beasts all blameth the said river upon that occasion and saith that they be causes sufficient that of necessitie he must complaine of the thing Or verily when one seeing this land and champian countrey overspred with good and beautifull frutes charged also and replenished with eares of corne should perceive casting his eie over those pleasant corne sields here there an eare of darnel choke-ervil or some such unhappie weed among should thereupon forbeare to reape and carie in the said corne and forgoe the benefit of a plentifull harvest find fault therewith Semblably standeth the case when one seeth the plea of an oratour in anie cause or action who with a full and forcible streame of eloquence endevoureth to save his client out of the danger of death or otherwise to proove and verisie the charges and imputations of certaine crimes this oration I say or eloquent speech of his running not simplie and nakedly but carrying with it many and sundrie affections of all sorts which he imprinteth in the minds and hearts of the hearers or judges which being many also and those divers and different he is to turne to bend and change or othewise to dulce appease and staie if he I say should anon passe over and not consider the principall issue and maine point of the cause and busie himselfe in gathering out some by-speeches besides the purpose or haply some phrases improper and impertinent which the oration of some advocate with the flowing course thereof hath caried downe with it lighting thereupon and falling with the rest of his speech But we are nothing mooved either with the faire and beautifull colour or the sweet and tunable voice or the quicknesse and subtiltie of spirit or the reat and cleane life or the vivacitie of wit and understanding of these poore seelly creatures and for a little peece of flesh we take away their life we bereave them of the sunne and of light cutting short that race of life which nature had limited and prefixed for them and more than so those lamentable and trembling voice which they utter for feare we suppose to be inarticulate or unsignificant sounds and nothing lesse than pitifull praiers supplications pleas justifications of these poore innocent creatures who in their language everie one of them crie in this manner If thou be forced upon necessitie I beseech thee not to save my life but if disordinate lust moove thee thereto spare me in case thou hast a mind simply to eat on my flesh kill me but if it be for that thou wouldest feed more delicately hold thy hand and let me live O monstrous crueltie It is an horrible sight to see the table of rich men onely stand served and furnished with viands set out by cooks and victuallers that dresse the flesh of dead bodies but most horrible it is to see the same taken up for that the reliques and broken meats remaining be farre more than that which is eaten To what purpose then were those silly beasts slaine Now there be others who making spare of the viands served to the table will in no hand that they should be cut or sliced sparing them when as they be nothing els but bare flesh whereas they spared them not whiles they were living beasts But forasmuch as we have heard that the same men hold and say That nature hath directed them to the eating of flesh it is plaine and evident that this cannot accord with mans nature And first and formost this appeereth by the very fabrick and composition of his bodie for it resembleth none of those creatures whom nature hath made for to feed on flesh considering they have neither hooked bil no hauke-pointed tallans they have no sharpe and rough teeth nor stomack so strong or so hot breath and spirit as to be able to concoct and digest the heany masse of raw flesh And if there were naught else to be alledged nature her-selfe by the broadnesse and united equallity of our teeth by our small mouth our soft toong the imbecillitie of naturall heat and spirits serving for concoction sheweth sufficiently that she approoveth not of mans usage to eat flesh but dissavoreth and disclaimeth the same And if you obstinately maintaine and defend that nature hath made you for to eat such viands then that which you minde to eat first kill your selfe even your owne selfe I say without using any blade knife bat club axe or hatchet And even as beares lions and woolves slay a beast according as they meane to eat it even so kill thou a beefe by the bit of thy teeth slay me a swine with the helpe of thy mouth and iawes teare in peeces a lambe or an hare with thy nailes and when thou hast so done eat it up while it is alive like as beasts doe but if thou staiest untill they be dead ere thou eate them and art abashed to chase with thy teeth the life that presently is in the flesh which thou eatest why doest thou against nature eat that which had life and yet when it is deprived of life and fully dead there is no man hath the heart to eat the same as it is but they cause it to be boiled to be rosted they alter it with fire and many drogues and spices changing disguising and quenching as it were the horror of the murder with a thousand devices of seasoning to the end that the sense of tasting being beguiled and deceived by a number of sweet sauces and pleasant conditure might admit and receive that which it abhorreth and is contrary unto it Certes it was a pretie conceit which was reported by a Laconian who having bought in his Inne or hostelrie a little fish gave it as it
which happened afterward and cary more light and perspicuitie with them declare and testifie sufficiently the love and indulgence of Fortune For mine owne part I count this for one singular favor of hers to wit the death of Alexander the Great a prince of incomparable courage and spirit invincible who being lifted up by many great prosperities glorious conquests and happy victories lanced himselfe in maner of a starre volant in the aire leaping out of the East into the West and beginning not to shoot the flaming beames and flashing raies of his armour as farre as into Italie having for a pretense and colourable cause of this enterprise and expedition of his the death of his kinsman Alexander the Milossian who together with his army was by the Brutians and Lucanians neere unto the citie Pandaesia put to the sword and cut in pieces although in trueth that which caried him thus against all nations was nothing els but a desire of glory and sovereignty having proposed this unto himselfe upon a spirit of zeale and emulation to surpasse the acts of Bacchus and Hercules and to go with his armie beyond the bounds of their voiages and expeditions Moreover he had heard say that he should find the force and valour of the Romans to be as it were a gad of steele to give edge unto the sword of Italie and he knew well enough by the generall voice and report abroad in the world which was brought unto him that famous warriours they were and of greatest renowme as being exercised and hardened like stout champions in warres and combats innumerable And verily as I do weene A bloudy fight there would have beene if the undanted and unconquered hearts of the Romans had encountred in the field with the invincible armies of the Macedonians for surely the citizens of Rome were no fewer at that time in number by just computation than a hundred and thirty thousand fighting men able all to beare armes and hardy withall Who expert were on horsebacke for to fight And when they saw their time on foot to light The rest of this discourse is lost wherein we misse the reasons and arguments that Vertue alledgeth for herselfe in her plea. THE MORALS OR MISCELLANE WORKS OF PLUTARCH The second Tome THE SYMPOSIAQVES OR TABLE-QUESTIONS The first Booke The Summarie 1 WHether we may discourse of learning or philosophie at the table 2 Whether the master of the feast ought himselfe to place his guests or suffer them to sit and take their places at their owne discretion 3 What is the cause that the place at the boord called Consular is held to be most honourable 4 What maner of person the Symposiarchor master of the feast ought to be 5 What is meant by this usuall speech Love teacheth us poetrie or musicke 6 Whether Alexander the Great were a great drinker 7 How it is that old folke commonly love to drinke meere wine undelaied 8 What is the cause that elder persons reade better afarre-off than hard-by 9 What might the reason be that clothes are washed better in fresh potable water than in sea water 10 Why at Athens the dance of the tribe or linage Aeantis is never adjudged to the last place THE SYMPOSIAQUES OR Table-questions THE FIRST QUESTION Whether we may discourse of learning and philosophie at the table SOme there be sir Sossius Senerio who say that this ancient proverbe in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At banquet wine or any fest I hate a well remembring guest was meant of hosteliers or rulers at feasts who ordinarily are odious troublesome uncivill saucy and imperious at the table For the Dorians who in old time inhabited Italie as it should seeme were wont to call such an one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Others againe be of opinion that this proverbe admonisheth and teacheth us to forget all that hath beene done and said at the boord and among our cuppes when we have beene mery together Heereupon it is that in our countrey men commonly say That both oblivion and also the palmar or the plant Ferula that is to say Fenel-giant be consecrated unto Bacchus which giveth us to understand that the errours and faults which passe at the table are either not to be remembred at all or els deserve to be chasticed gently as children are But seeing you also are of the same minde that Euripides was namely That howsoever Bad things and filthie to forget Indeed is counted wisdome great yet the oblivion generally of all that is spoken at the boord and when we drinke wine is not only repugnant to this vulgar saying That the table makes many a friend but also hath divers of the most renowmed and excellent philosophers to beare witnesse to the contrary to wit Plato Xenophon Aristotle Speusippus Epicurus Prytanis Hieronymus and Dion the Academique who all have thought and reputed it a thing woorth their travell to put downe in writing the talke that had bene held at meat drinke in their presence And for that you have thought it meet that I also should collect and gather together the principall and most memorable points of learned discourses which have passed sundry times and in divers places both here and there I meane aswell at Rome among you as also with us in Greece when we were eating and drinking together among our friends I setled my selfe unto it willingly and having sent unto you three books heretofore conteining every one of them ten questions I will shortly send you the rest if I may perceive that these which you have already were not altogether thought unlearned impertinent and without good grace The first question then which I have set abroad is this Whether it be a seemly and decent thing to philosophize that is to say To speake and treat of matters of learning at the table for you may remember very well that this question being moved upon a time at Athens after supper Whether it were befitting those who are come to make good cheere for to enter into speech or mainteine discourse as touching philosophicall matters or no and if it were How far-forth it might be allowed and within what bounds it ought to be limited Ariston one of the company there present What quoth he and are there any persons indeed tell me for the love of God who denie philosophers and learned men a roome at the boord Yea mary are there my good friend quoth I againe who not onely doe so but also in good earnest and great gravitie after their ironicall maner give out and say That philosophie which is as it were the mistresse of the house ought not to be heard speaking at the boord where men are met to make merry who commend also the maner of the Persians for good and wise who never would seeme to drinke wine merily and untill they were drunke nor yet to daunce with their wedded wives but in the company of their concubines for semblably they would have us at our feasts
there is I say that bitter almonds should have power to withstand the strength of meere wine considering they drie the body within and will not permit the veines to bee full upon the tention and commotion whereof they say drunkennesse doth proceed and for evident proofe of this there may be a good argument gathered from that which befalleth foxes who having eaten bitter almonds is they drinke not presently upon them die therewith by reason that all their humors suddenly are spent and consumed THE SEVENTH QUESTION What is the cause that old folke take greater delight in pure and strong wine than others THere arose a question about old persons what the reason might be that they loved better to drink wine without water or at the leastwise delaied but a little Some alledged the habit of their bodies being cold and hard to be set into an heat in regard whereof the strength of wine was meet and agreeable to their temperature a reason very common and ready at hand but surely neither sufficient for to bee the cause of such an effect nor yet simply true for the same hapueth to their other sences as being hard to be mooved and affected yea and nothing easie to be stirred for to apprehend the qualities thereto belonging unlesse the same be passing strong and vehement whereof the true cause indeed is this that their temperature being weake dull and feeble loveth to be put in minde by knocking upon and this is the cause that for their taste they delight in such sapours as be biting their smelling likewise standeth even so to odors that be strong for affected it is with more pleasure in such as be not tempered nor delaied as for the sense of touching they feele no great paine of ulcers and sores and if it happen that they be wounded their hurt and harme is not so great the same befalleth to their hearing for their eares be in manner deafe and heereupon it is that musicians as they grow in yeeres and waxe aged straine and raise their voice in singing so much the higher and lowder as if they stirred up the organs of hearing by the vehement force of the sound for looke what is steele to the edge and temper of iron for cutting the same is spirit to the bodie for sense and feeling and when it beginnes once to slacke faile and decay the sense likewise and the instruments thereof become dull heavie and earthly having need of some such quicke thing to pricke it in good earnest as strong wine is THE EIGHTH QUESTION How it comes to passe that olde folke reade better afarre off than neere at hand AGainst those reasons which wee devised and alledged upon the subject matter and point in hand it seemed that there might be opposed the eie-sight for that elder persons for to reade any thing the better remoove the letters farther from their eies and in trueth can not well reade neere at hand which the poet Aeschylus seemeth covertly to implie and shew unto us in these verses Know him thou canst not if neere he stand to thee A good olde scribe thou maist much sooner be And Sophocles more plainly testifieth as much when he writeth of old folke in this wise The voice to them arrives not readily And hardly thorow their eares the way can finde Their eies do see farre off confusedly But neere at hand they all be very blinde If then it be so that the senses of aged persons and the instruments serving thereto are not willingly obeisant to their proper objects unlesse the same be strong and vehement what should the cause be that in reading they can not endure the reverberation of the light from letters if they be neere but setting the booke farther off from their eies they do by that meanes enfeeble as it were that light for that it is spread and dissipate in the aire like as the strength of wine when it is tempered with water To this probleme some answered thus That they remoove books and letters farre from their eie-sight not because they would make the saide light more milde or lesse radiant but contrariwise for that they are desirous to catch and gather more splendor and to fill the meane intervall which is betweene the eie and the letter with lightsome and shining aire Others accorded with those who holde that the eies do send out of them certeine raies for by reason that aswell from the one eie as the other a pyramidal beame doth issue the point whereof is in the sight of the eie and the basis doth comprehend the object that is seene probable it is that both these pyramides goe forward apart one from the other a good space and distance but after they be a great way off and come to encounter one another and be confounded together they make but one entire light and this is the reason that albeit the eies are twaine yet every thing that we see appeareth one and not two for that in trueth the meeting and shining together of those two pyramides in common do make of two sights but one This being presupposed and set downe olde men approching neere to letters comprehend the same more feebly in regard that the pyramidall beames of their eies are not yet joined and met together but ech of them reach to the objects apart but if they be farther off so that the said pyramides may be intermingled they see more perfectly much like to them who with both hands can claspe and hold that which they are not able to do with one alone Then my brother Lamprias opposed himselfe against all this and as one who had not read the booke of Hieronymus but even upon the pregnancy and quickenesse of his wit seemed to render another reason namely That we see by the meanes of certeine images arising from the objects or visible things which at the first be big and for that cause trouble the sight of old folke when they regard them neere and hard-by being indeed but hard and slow of motion but when the said images be advanced and spread farther into the aire and have gained some good distance the grosse and terrestriall parts of them breake and fall downe but the more subtill portions reach as farre as to the eies without any paine or offence unto them and do insinuate and accommodate themselves equally and smoothly into their concavities so that the eies being lesse troubled apprehend and receive them better And even so it is with the odours of flowers which are very sweet to smell unto a good way off whereas if a man come over-neere unto them they yeeld nothing so kinde and pleasant a sent the reason is because that together with the savour there goeth from the flower much earthly matter grosse and thicke which corrupteth and marreth the fragrant sweetnesse of the odour if it be smelled to very neere but in case the same be a prety way off that terrestriall vaparation is dispersed round about and so falleth
good at all by reason that their seed is cold and feeble furthermore all the accidents and passions which colde worketh doe befall unto those that be drunke for they tremble and shake they are heavie and dull of motion and looke pale the spirit in their joints and members is unquiet and mooveth disorderly their tongues falter stut and be double last of all their sinewes in the extremities of the bodie are drawen up in maner of a crampe and benummed yea and in many drunkennesso endeth in a dead palsie or generall resolution of all parts namely after that the wine hath utterly extinguished and mortified their naturall heat Physicians also are woont to cure these symptones and inconveniences procured by excessive drinke and surset by laying the patients presently in bedde and covering them well with clothes for to bring them to an heat the next morrow they put them into the baine or hot-house and rub them wel with oile they nourish them with meats which do not trouble the masse of the body and thus by this cherrishing they gently fetch againe and recover the heat which wine had dissipated and driven out of the bodie And forasmuch as quoth I in things apparent and evident to the eie we search for the like faculties which lie hidden and secret how can we doubt what drunkennesse is and with what it may be compared for according as I have before said drunken folke resemble for all the world old men and therefore it is that great drunkards soone wax old many of them become bald before their time and grow to be grey and hoarie ere they be aged all which accidents seeme to surprize a man for defect of heat Moreover vineger in some sort resembleth the nature and propertie of wine now of all things that are powerfull to quench there is none so repugnant and contrarie to fire as vineger is and nothing so much as it by the excessive coldnesse that it hath overcommeth and represseth a flame Againe we see how physicians use those fruits to coole withall which of all others be most vinous or represent the liquor of wine as for example pomgranates and other orchard apples As for honie do they not mix the substance thereof with raine-water and snow for to make thereof a kinde of wine by reason that the cold doth convert the sweetnesse for the affinitie that is betweene them into austeritie when it is predominant and more puissant what should I say more have not our ancients in olde time among serpents dedicated the dragon and of all plants consecrated Ivie to Bacchus for this cause that they be both of a certeine colde and congealing nature Now if any doe object for proofe that wine is hot how for them that have drunke the juice of hemlocke the sovereigne remedie and counterpoise of all other is to take a great draught of strong wine upon it I will replie to the contrary and turne the same argument upon them namely that wine and the juice of hemlocke mingled together is a poison incurable presently killeth those who drinke it remedilesse So that there is no more reason to prove it hot for resisting hemlocke than colde for helping the operation of it or els we must say that it is not coldnesse whereby hemlocke killeth those that drinke it so presently but rather some other hidden qualitie and propertie that it hath THE SIXTH QUESTION Of the convenient time for a man to know his wife carnally CErteine yoong men who were new students and had lately tasted of the learning conteined in ancient books were ready to teare Epicurus in pieces and inveighed mightily against him as an impudent person for proposing and moving speech which was neither seemly nor necessarie in his symposium or banquet as touching the time of meddling with a woman for that an ancient man well stept in yeres as he was should make mention begin talke of venerous matters and namely at a banquet where many yoong men were in place to particularize and make question in this sort Whether it were better for a man to have the use of his wife before supper or after seemed to proceed from a lascivious minde and incontinent in the highest degree Against which some there were who alledged the example of Xenophon who after his supper or banquet brought his guests not on foot but on horse-backe riding a gallop away home to lie with their wives But Zopyrus the physician who was very well seene and conversant in the books of Epicurus said That they had not read diligently and with advisement his booke called Symposium that is to say The banquet For he tooke not this question quoth he to treat of at the beginning as a theame or subject matter expresly chosen and of purpose whereto all their talke should be directed and in nothing els to be determined and ended but having caused those yoong men to rise from the table for to walke after supper he entred into a discourse for to induce them to continence and temperance and to withdraw them from dissolute lust of the flesh as being at all times a thing dangerous and ready to plunge a man into mischiefe but yet more hurtfull unto those who use it upon a full stomacke after they have eat and drunke well and made good cheere at some great feast And if quoth Zopyrus he had taken for the principall subject the discourse of this point is it pertinent and beseeming a philosopher not to treat and consider at all of the time and houre proper and meet for men to embrace their espoused wives or much better so to doe in due season and with discretion and is it I pray you not discommendable to dispute thereof elswhere and at other times and altogether dishonest to handle that question at the table or at a feast for mine owne part I thinke cleane contrary namely that we may with good reason reprove and blame a philosopher who openly in the day time should dispute in publicke schooles of this matter before all commers and in the hearing of all sorts of people but at the table where there is a standing cup set before familiars and friends and where other-whiles it is expedient to vary and change our talke which otherwise would be but lewke warme or starke colde for all the wine how can it be unseemely or dishonest either to speake or heare ought that is holsome and good for men as touching the lawfull company with their wives in the secret of marriage for mine owne part I protest unto you I could wish with all my heart that those Partitions of Zeno had beene couched in some booke entituled Abanquet or pleasant treatise rather than bestowed as they are in a composition so grave and serious as are the books of policie and government of State The yoong men at these words were cut over the thumbs and being abashed held their tongues and sat them downe quietly Now when others of the company
side it lieth lowest of all things in the world and by occasion thereof resteth unmooveable hauing no cause why it should encline more to one part than to another but yet some places of her because of their raritie do jogge and shake EPICURUS keepeth his old tune saying it may well be that the earth being shogged and as it were rocked and beaten by the aire underneath which is grosse and of the nature of water therefore mooveth and quaketh As also it may be quoth he that being holow and full of holes in the parts below it is forced to tremble and shake by the aire that is gotten within the caves and concavities and there enclosed CHAP. XVI Of the Sea how it was made and commeth to be bitter ANAXIMANDER affirmeth that the Sea is a residue remaining of the primitive humidity whereof the Sunne hauing burnt up and consumed a great part the rest behind he altered and turned from the naturall kind by his excessive ardent heat ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the said first humiditie being diffused and spred abroad in manner of a poole or great meere was burnt by the motion of the sunne about it and when the oileous substance thereof was exhaled and consumed the rest setled below and turned into a brackish and bitter-saltnesse which is the Sea EMPEDOCLES saith that the Sea is the sweat of the earth enchafed by the sunne being bathed and washed all over aloft ANTISTON thinketh it to be the sweat of heat the moisture whereof which was within being by much seething and boiling sent out becommeth salt a thing ordinary in all sweats METRODORUS supposeth the Sea to be that moisture which running thorough the earth reteined some part of the densitie thereof like as that which passeth through ashes The disciples of PLATO imagine that so much of the elementarie water which is congealed of the aire by refrigeration is sweet and fresh but whatsoever did evaporate by burning and inflammation became salt CHAP. XVII Of the Tides to wit the ebbing and flowing of the sea what is the cause thereof ARISTOTLE and HERACLITUS affirme that it is the sunne which doth it as who stirreth raiseth and carieth about with him the most part of the windes which comming to blow upon the Ocean cause the Atlanticke sea to swell and so make the flux or high water but when the same are allaied and cleane downe the sea falleth low and so causeth a reflux and ebbe or low water PYTHEAS of Marseils referreth the cause of Flowing to the full moone and of Ebbing to the moone in the wane PLATO attributeth all to a certeine rising of the waters saying There is such an elevation that through the mouth of a cave carieth the Ebbe and Flow to and fro by the meanes whereof the seas doe rise and flow contrarily TIMAEUS alledgeth the cause hereof to be the rivers which falling from the mountaines in Gaule enter into the Atlantique sea which by their violent corruptions driving before them the water of the sea cause the Flow and by their ceasing and returne backe by times the Ebbe SELEUCUS the Mathematician who affirmed also that the earth mooved saith that the motion thereof is opposit and contrary to that of the moone also that the winde being driven to and fro by these two contrary revolutions bloweth and beateth upon the Atlanticke ocean troubleth the sea also and no marvell according as it is disquieted it selfe CHAP. XVIII Of the round circle called Halo THis Halo is made after this manner betweene the body of the moone or any other starre and our eie-sight there gathereth a grosse and mistie aire by which aire anon our sight commeth to be reflected and diffused and afterwards the same incurreth upon the said starre according to the exterior circumference thereof and thereupon appeereth a circle round about the starre which being there seene is called Halo for that it seemeth that the apparent impression is close unto that upon which our sight so enlarged as is before said doth fall THE FOURTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving runne through the generall parts of the world I will now passe unto the particulars CHAP. I. Of the rising and inundation of Nilus THALES thinketh that the anniversarie windes called Etcsiae blowing directly against Aegypt cause the water of Nilus to swell for that the sea being driven by these windes entreth within the mouth of the said river and hindereth it that it cannot discharge it selfe freely into the sea but is repulsed backward EUTHYMENES of Marseils supposeth that this river is filled with the water of the ocean and the great sea lying without the continent which he imagineth to be fresh and sweet ANAXAGORAS saith that this hapneth by the snowe in Aethiopia which melteth in summer and is congealed and frozen in winter DEMOCRITUS is of opinion that it is long of the snowe in the north parts which about the aestival solstice and returne of the sunne being dissolved and dilated breedeth vapors and of them be engendred clouds which being driven by the Etesian windes into Aethiopia and Aegypt toward the south cause great and violent raines wherewith both lakes and the river also Nilus be filled HERODOTUS the Historian writeth that this river hath as much water from his sources and springs in winter as in summer but to us it seemeth lesse in winter because the sunne being then neerer unto Aegypt causeth the said water to evaporate EPHORUS the Historiographer reporteth that all Aegypt doth resolve and runne at it were wholly into swet in summer time whereunto Arabia and Libya doe conferre and contribute also their waters for that the earth there is light and sandy EUDOXUS saith that the priests of Aegypt assigne the cause hereof to the great raines and the Antiperistasis or contrarie occurse of seasons for that when it is Summer with us who inhabit within the Zone toward the Summer Tropicke it is Winter with those who dwell in the opposit Zone under the Winter Tropicke whereupon saith he proceedeth this great inundation of waters breaking downe unto the river Nilus CHAP. II. Of the Soule THALES was the first that defined the Soule to be a nature moving alwaies or having motion of it selfe PYTHAGORAS saith it is a certeine number moving it selfe and this number he taketh for intelligence or understanding PLATO supposeth it to be an intellectuall substance mooving it selfe and that according to harmonicall number ARISTOTLE is of opinion that it is the first Entelechia or primitive act of a naturall and organicall bodie having life potentially DICEARCHUS thinketh it to be the harmonie and concordance of the foure elements ASCLEPIADES the Physician defineth it to be an exercise in common of all the senses together CHAP. III. Whether the Soule be a body and what is the substance of it ALl these Philsosophers before rehearsed suppose that the Soule is incorporall that of the owne nature it mooveth and is a spirituall substance and the action of a
life with which words Porsena was so affrighted that he made peace with the Romans according as Aristides the Milesian writeth in the third booke of his storie 3 The Argives and the Lacedaemonians being at war one with another about the possession of the countrey Thyreatis the Amphictyones gave sentence that they should put it to a battell and looke whether side wan the field to them should the land in question appertaine The Lacedaemonians therefore chose for their captaine Othryades and the Argives Thersander when the battell was done there remained two onely alive of the Argives to wit Agenor and Chromius who caried tidings to the citie of victorie Meane while when all was quiet Othryades not fully dead but having some little life remaining in him bearing himselfe and leaning upon the trunchions of broken lances caught up the targets and shields of the dead and gathered them together and having erected a trophee he wrote thereupon with his owne blood To Jupiter Victor and guardian of Trophees Now when as both those parties maintained still the controversie about the land the Amphictyones went in person to the place to be eie-judges of the thing and adjudged the victorie on the Lacedaemonians side this writeth Chrysermus in the third booke of the Peloponnesiack historie The Romans levying warre against the Samnites chose for their chiefe commander Posthumius Albinus who being surprised by an ambush within a streight betweene two mountains called Furcae Caudinae a verie narrow passe lost three of his Legions and being himselfe deadly wounded fell and lay for dead howbeit about midnight taking breath was quick againe and somewhat revived he arose tooke the targets from his enemies bodies that lay dead in the place and erected a trophee and drenching his hand in their blood wrote in this manner The Romans to Jupiter Victor guardian of Trophees against the Samnites but Marius surnamed Gurges that is to say the glutton being sent thither as generall captaine and viewing upon the verie place the said trophee so erected I take this gladly quoth he for a signe and presage of good fortune and thereupon gave battell unto his enemies and won the victorie tooke their king prisoner and sent him to Rome according as Aristides writeth in his third booke of the Italian historie 4 The Persians entred Greece with a puissant armie of 500000. men against whom Leonidas was sent by the Lacedaemonians with a band of three hundred to guard the streights of Thermophylae and impeach his passage in which place as they were merie at their meat and taking their refection the whole maine power of the Barbarians came upon them Leonidas seeing his enemies advancing forward spake unto his owne men and said Sit still sirs and make an end of your dinner hardly so as you may take your suppers in another world so he charged upon the Barbarians and notwithstanding he had many a dart sticking in his bodie yet he made a lane through the presse of the enemies untill he came to the verie person of Xerxes from whom he tooke the diademe that was upon his head and so died in the place The Barbarians king caused his bodie to be opened when he was dead and his heart to be taken forth which was found to be all over-growne with haire as writeth Aristides in the first booke of the Persian historie The Romans warring against the Cathaginians sent a companie of three hundred men under the leading of a captaine named Fabius Maximus who bad his enemies battell and lost all his men himselfe being wounded to death charged upon Anniball with such violence that he tooke from him the regali diademe or frontall that he had about his head and so died upon it as writeth Aristides the Milesian 5 In the citie of Celaenae in Phrygia the earth opened and clave a sunder so as there remained a mightie chinke with a huge quantitie of water issuing thereout which caried away and drew into the bottomlesse pit thereof a number of houses with all the persons great and small within them Now Midas the king was advertised by an oracle that if he cast within the said pit the most precious thing that he had both sides would close up againe and the earth meet and be firme ground So he caused to be throwen into it a great quantitie of gold and silver but all would do no good Then Anchurus his son thinking with himselfe that there was nothing so pretious as the life soule of man after he had lovingly embraced his father and bid him farwel and with all taken his leave of his wife Timothea mounted on horseback and cast himselfe horse and all into the said chinke And behold the earth immediatly closed up whereupon Midas made a golden altar of Jupiter Idaeus touching it only with his hand This altar about that time when as the said breach or chink of earth was became a stone but after a certaine prefixed time passed it is seene all gold this writeth Callisthenes in his second booke of Transformations The river Tybris running through the mids of the market place at Rome for the anger of Jupiter Tarsius caused an exceeding great chinke within the ground which swallowed up many dwelling houses Now the oracle rendred this answere unto the Romans that this stould cease in case they flang into the breach some costly and precious thing and when they had cast into it both gold and silver but all in vaine Curtius a right noble young gentleman of the citie pondering well the words of the oracle and considering with himselfe that the life of man was more pretious than gold cast himselfe on horseback into the said chinke and so delivered his citizens and countrimen from their calamitie this hath Aristides recorded in fortieth booke of Italian histories 6 Amphtaraus was one of the princes and leaders that accompanied Pollynices and when one day they were feasting merily together an eagle soaring over his head chanced to catch up his javelin and carrie it up aloft in the aire which afterwards when she had let fall againe stucke fast in the ground and became a lawrell The morrow after as they joined battell in that verie place 〈◊〉 with his chariot was swallowed up within the earth and there standeth now the citie Harma so called of the chariot as Trismachus reporteth in the third booke of his Foundations During the warres which the Romans waged against Pyrrhus king of the Epirotes Paulus Acmylius was promised by the oracle that he should have the victorie if he would set up an altar in that verie place where he should see one gentleman of qualitie and good marke to be swallowed up alive in the earth together with his chariot Three daies after Valerius Conatus when in a dreame he thoght that he saw himselfe adorned with his priestly vestments for skilfull he was in the art of divination led forth the armie and after he had slaine many of his enemies was devouted quick
in pursuit after him for which victorie all other Romanes made great joy only his owne sister Horatia shewed herselfe nothing well pleased herewith for that to one of the other side she was betrothed in marriage for which he made no more ado but stabbed his sister to the heart this is reported by Aristides the Milesian in his Annales of Italy 17 In the citie Ilium when the fire had taken the temple of Minerva one of the inhabitants named Ilus ranne thither and caught the little image of Minerva named Palladium which was supposed to have fallen from heaven and therewith lost his sight because it was not lawfull that the said image should be seene by any man howbeit afterwards when he had appeased the wrath of the said goddesse he recovered his eie sight againe as writeth Dercyllus in the first book of Foundations Metellus a noble man of Rome as he went toward a certaine house of pleasure that hee had neere unto the citie was slaied in the way by certaine ravens that slapped and beat him with their wings at which ominous accident being astonied and presaging some evill to be toward him he returned to Rome and seeing the temple of the goddesse Vesta on fire he ran thither and tooke away the petie image of Pallas named Palladium and so likewise suddenly sell blind howbeit afterwards being reconciled unto her he got this sight againe this is the report of Aristides in his Chronicles 18 The Thracians warring against the Athenians were directed by an oracle which promised them victorie in case they saved the person of Codrus king of Athens but he disguising himselfe in the habit of a poore labourer and carrying a bill in his hand went into the campe of the enemies and killed one where likewise he was killed by another and so the Athenians obtained victorie as Socrates writeth in the second booke of Thracian affaires Publius Decius a Romane making warre against the Albanes dreamed in the night and saw a vision which promised him that if himselfe died he should adde much to the puissance of the Romans whereupon he charged upon his enemies where they were thickest arranged and when he had killed a number of them was himselfe slaine Decius also his sonne in the warre against the Gaules by that meanes saved the Romans as saith Aristides the Milesian 19 Cyanttpus a Siracusian borne sacrificed upon a time unto all other gods but unto Bacchus whereat the god being offended haunted him with drunckennesse so as in a darke corner he deflowred forcibly his owne daughter named Cyane but in the time that he dealt with her she tooke away the ring off his finger and gave it unto her nourse to keepe for to testifie another day who it was that thus abused her Afterwards the pestilence raigned fore in those parts and Apollo gave answere by oracle that they were to offer in sacrifice unto the gods that turned away calamities a godlesse and incestuous person all others wist not whom the oracle meant but Cyane knowing full well the will of Apollo tooke her father by the haire and drew him perforce to the altar and when she had caused himto be killed sacrificed her selfe after upon him as writeth Dositheus in the third booke of the Chronicles of Cicily Whiles the feast of Bacchus called Bacchanalia was celebrated at Rome there was one Aruntius who never in all his life had drunke wine but water onely and alwaies despised the power of god Bacchus who to be revenged of him caused him one time be so drunke that he forced his owne daughter Medullina abused her bodie carnally who having knowledge by his ring who it was that did the deed and taking to her a greater heart than one of her age made her father one day drunke and after she had adorned his head with garlands chaplets of flowers led him to aplace called the altar of Thunder where with many teares she sacrificed him who had surprised her takē away her virginity as writeth Aristides the Milesian in his third booke of Italian Chronicles 20 Erechiheus warring upon Eumolpus was advertised that he should win the victorie if before he went into the field he sacrificed his owne daughter unto the gods who when he had imparted this mater unto his wife Praxithea he offered his daughter in sacrifice before the battell hereof Euripides maketh mention in his tragoedie Erechtheus Marius maintaining warre against the Cimbrians and finding himselfe too weake saw a vision in his sleepe that promised him victory if before he went to battell he did sacrifice his daughter named Calpurnis who setting the good of the weale publicke and the regard of his countrimen before the naturall affection to his owne blood did accordingly and wan the field and even at this day two altars there be in Germanie which at the verie time and hower that this sacrifice was offered yeeld the sound of trumpets as Dorotheus reporteth in the third booke of the Annales of Italy 21 Cyanippus a Thessalian borne used ordinarily to go on hunting his wife a young gentle woman intertained this fancie of jealousie in her head that the reason why he went forth so often and staied so long in the forrest was because he had the companie of some other woman whom beloved whereupon she determined with her selfe to lie in espiall one day therefore she followed and traced Cyanippus and at length lay close within a certaine thicket of the forrest waiting and expecting what would fall out and come of it It chanced that the leaves and branches of the shrubs about her stirred the hounds imagining that there was some wild beast within seised upon her and so tare in pieces this young dame that loved her husband so well as if she had beene a savage beast Cyanippus then seeing before his eies that which he never would have imagined or thought in his mind for verie griefe of heart killed himselfe as Parthenius the Poet hath left in writing In Sybaris a citie of Italy there was sometime a young gentleman named Aemilius who being a beautifull person and one who loved passing well the game of hunting his wife who was young also thought him to be enamoured of another ladie and therefore got her selfe close within a thicket and chanced to stirre the boughes of the shrubs and bushes about her The hounds thereupon that ranged and hunted thereabout light upon her and tare her body in pieces which when her husband saw he killed himselfe upon her as Clytonimus reporteth in his second booke of the Sybaritick historie 22 Smyrna the daughter of Cinyras having displeased and angred Venus became enamored of her owne father and declared the vehement heat of her love unto her nourse She therefore by a wily device went to worke with her master and bare him in hand that there was a faire damosell a neighbours daughter that was in love with him but abashed and ashamed to come unto him openly or to be
named Florentia her Calphurnius a Romane deflowred whereupon he commaunded the yoong maid-childe which she bare to be cast into the sea but the souldiour who had the charge so to doe tooke compassion of her and chose rather to sell her unto a merchant and it fortuned so that the ship of a certeine merchant arrived in Italy where Calphurinus bought her and of her body begat Contruscus 28 Aeolus king of Tuskan had by his wife Amphithea six daughters and as many sonnes of whom Macareus the yoongest for very love defloured one of his sisters who when the time came brought foorth a child when this came once to light her father sent unto her a sword and she acknowledging the fault which she had committed killed her-selfe therewith and so did afterwards her brother Macareus as Sostratus reporteth in the second booke of the Tuscan storie Papyrius Volucer having espoused Julia Pulchra had by her six daughters and as many sonnes the eldest of whom named Papyrius Romanus was enamoured of Canulia one of his sisters so as she was by him with childe which when the father understood hee sent unto her likewise a sword wherewith she made away her-selfe and Romanus also did as much thus Chrisippus relateth in the first booke of the Italian Chronicles 29 Aristonymus the Ephesian sonne of Demostratus hated women but most unnaturally he had to doe with a she asse which when time came brought foorth a most beautifull maide childe surnamed Onoscelis as Aristotle writeth in the second booke of his Paradoxes or strange accidents Fulvius Stellus was at warre with all women but yet he dealt most beastly with a mare and she bare unto him after a time a faire daughter named Hippona and this is the goddesse forsooth that hath the charge and overseeing of horses and mares as Agesilaus hath set downe in the third booke of Italian affaires 30 The Sardians warred upon a time against the Smyrneans encamped before the walles of their city giving them to understand by their embassadors that raise their siege they would not unlesse they sent unto them their wives to lie withall the Smyrneans being driven to this extremity were at the point to doe that which the enemies demaunded of them but a certeine waiting maiden there was a faire and welfavoured damosell who ranne unto her master Philarchus and said unto him that he must not faile but in any case chuse out the fairest wenches that were maide-servants in all the citie to dresse them like unto citizens wives and free borne women and so to send them unto their enemies in stead of their mistresses which was effected accordingly and when the Sardians were wearied with dealing with these wenehes the Smyrneans issued foorth surprized and spoiled them whereupon it commeth that even at this day in the citie of Smyrna there is a solemne feast named Eleutheria upon which day the maide-servants weare the apparell of their mistresses which be free women as saith Dositheus in the third booke of Lydian chronicles Antepomarus king of the Gaules when he made warre upon the Romans gave it out flatly and said that he would never dislodge and breake up his campe before they sent unto them their wives for to have their pleasure of them but they by the counsell of a certeine chamber maide sent unto them their maid-servants the Barbarians medled so long with them that they were tired and fell sound asleepe in the end then Rhetana for that was her name who gave the said counsell tooke a branch of a wilde figge tree and mounting up to the toppe of a rampier wall gave a signall thereby to the Consuls who sallied foorth and defeated them whereupon there is a feastivall day of chambermaids for so saith Aristides the Milesian in the first booke of the Italian historie 31 When the Athenians made warre upon Eumolpus and were at some default of victuals Pyrander who had the charge of the munition was treasurer of the State for to make spare of the provision diminished the ordinary measure and cut men short of their allowances the inhabitants suspecting him to be a traitor to his country in so dooing stoned him to death as Callistratus testifieth in the third booke of the Thracian history The Romans warring upon the Gaules and having not sufficient store of victuals Cinna abridged the people of their ordinary measure of corne the Romans suspecting therupon that he made way thereby to be king stoned him likewise to death witnesse Aristides in his third booke of Italian histories 32 During the Peloponnesiack warre Pisistratus the Orchomenian hated the nobles and affected men of base and low degree whereupon the Senators complotted and resolved among them selves to kill him in the Counsell house where they cut him in pieces and every one put a gobbet of him in his bosome and when they had so done they scraped and clensed the floore where his blood was shed The common people having some suspition of the matter rushed into the Senat house but Tlesimachus the kings youngest sonne who was privy to the foresaid conspiracie withdrew the multitude from the common place of assembly and assured them that he saw his father Pisistratus carying a more stately majesty in his countenance than any mortal man ascending up with great celerity the top of mount Pisaeus as Theophilus recordeth in the second of his Peloponnesiackes In regard of the warrs so neere unto the city of Rome the Roman Senat cut the people short of their allowances in corne whereat Romulus being not well pleased allowed it them a gaine rebuked yea and chastised many of the great men who thereupon banded against him and in the middest of the Senat house made him away among them cut him in pieces and bestowed on every man a slice of him in his bosome Whereupon the people ran immediatly with fire in their hands to the Senat house minding to burne them all within but Proculus a noble man of the city assured them that he saw Romulus upon a certeine high mountaine and that he was bigger than any man living and become a very god The Romans beleeved his words such authority the man caried with him and so retired back as Aristobulus writeth in the third booke of his Italian Chronicles 33 Pelops the sonne of Tantalus and Eurianassa wedded Hippodamia who bare unto him Atreus and Thyestes but of the Nimph Danais a concubine he begat Chrysippus whom he loved better than any of his legitimate sonnes him Laius the Theban being inamoured stole away by force and being attached and intercepted by Atreus and Thyestes obteined the good grace and favour of Pelops to enjoy him for his love sake Howbeit Hippodamia perswaded her two sonnes Atreus and Thyestes to kill him as if she knew that he aspired to the kingdome of their father which they refusing to doe she her selfe imploied her owne hands to perpetrate this detestable fact for one night as Layus lay sound asleepe she
honoured and worshipped among the Samnites His wife Fabta had committed adulterie with a faire and well favoured yoong man named Petronius Valentinus and afterwards treacherously killed her husband Now had Fabia his daughter saved her brother Fabricianus being a verie little one out of danger and sent him away secretly to be nourished and brought up This youth when he came to age killed both his mother and the adulterer also for which act ofhis acquit he was by the doome of the Senate as Dositheus delivereth the storie in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 38 Busiris the sonne of Neptune and Anippe daughter of Nilus under the colour of pretended hospitalitie and courteous receiving of strangers used to sacrifice all passengers but divine justice met with him in the end and revenged their death for Hercules set upon him and killed him with his club as Agathon the Samian hath written Hercules as he drave before him thorow Italy Geryons kine was lodged by king Faunus the sonne of Mercurie who used to sacrifice all strangers and guests to his father but when hee meant to do so unto Hercules was himselfe by him slaine as writeth Dercyllus in the third booke of the Italian histories 39 Phalaris the tyrant of the Agrigentines a mercilesse prince was wont to torment put to exquisite paine such as passed by or came unto him and Perillus who by his profession was a skilfull brasse-founder had framed an heyfer of brasse which he gave unto this king that hee might burne quicke in it the said strangers And verily in this one thing did this tyrant shew himselfe just for that he caused the artificer himself to be put into it and the said heyfer seemed to low whiles he was burning within as it is written in the third booke of Causes In Aegesta a citie of Sicilie there was sometime a cruell tyrant named Aemilius Censorinus whose manner was to reward with rich gifts those who could invent new kinds of engines to put men to torture so there was one named Aruntius Paterculus who had devised and forged a brasen horse and presented it unto the foresaid tyrant that he might put into it whom he would And in truth the first act of justice that ever he did was this that the partie himselfe even the maker of it gave the first hansell thereof that he might make triall of that torment himselfe which he had devised for others Him also hee apprehended afterwards and caused to bee throwen downe headlong from the hill Tarpeius It should seeme also that such princes as reigned with violence were called of him Aemylii for so Aristides reporteth in the fourth booke of Italian Chronicles 40 Euenus the son of Mars Sterope tooke to wife Alcippe daughter of Oenomaus who bare unto him a daughter named Marpissa whom he minded to keepe a virgin still but Aphareus seeing her carried her away from a daunce and fled upon it The father made suce after but not able to recover her for verie anguish of mind he cast himselfe into the river of Lycormas and thereby was immortalized as saith Dositheus in the fourth booke of his Italian historie Anius king of the Tuskans having a faire daughter named Salia looked straightly unto her that she should continue a maiden but Cathetus one of his nobles seeing this damosell upon a time as she disported herselfe was enamoured of her and not able to suppresse the furious passion of his love ravished her and brought her to Rome The father pursued after but seeing that he could not overtake them threw himselfe into the river called in those daies Pareüsuis and afterwards of his name Anio Now the said Cathetus lay with Salia and of her bodie begat Salius and Latinus from whom are discended the noblest families of that countrey as Aristides the Milesian and Alexander Polyhistor write in the third booke of the Italian historie 41 Egestratus an Ephesian borne having murdered one of his kinfmen fled into the citie Delphi and demaunded of Apollo in what place he should dwell who made him this answere that he was to inhabit there whereas he saw the peasants of the countrey dauncing and crowned with chaplets of olive branches Being arrived therefore at a certaine place in Asia where he found the rurall people crowned with garlands of olive leaves and dauncing even there hee founded a citie which he called Elaeus as Pythocles the Samian writeth in the third booke of his Georgicks Telegonus the sonne of Vlysses by Circe being sent for to seeke his father was advised by the oracle to build a citie there where he should find the rusticall people and husbandmen of the countrey crowned with chaplets and dauncing together when he was arrived therefore at a certaine coast of Italie seeing the peasants adorned with boughes branches of the wild olive tree passing the time merily and dauncing together he built a citie which upon that occurrent he named Prinesta and afterwards the Romans altering the letters a little called it Preneste as Aristotle hath written in the third booke of the Italian historie THE LIVES OF THE TEN ORATOVRS The Summarie IN these lives compendiously descibed Plutarch sheweth in part the government of the Athenian common-weale which flourished by the meanes of many learned persons in the number of whom we are to reckon those under written namely Antipho Andocides Lysias Isocrates Isaeus Aeschines Lycurgus Demosthenes Hyperides and Dinarchus but on the other side he discovereth sufficiently the indiscretion of cretaine oratours how it hath engendred much confusion ruined the most part of such personages themselves and finally overthrowen the publick estate which he seemeth expresly to have noted and observed to the end that every one might see how dangerous in the managemēt of State affaires he is who hath no good parts in him but onely a fine and nimble tongue His meaning therefore is that lively vertue indeed should be joined unto eloquence meane while we observe also the lightnesse vanitie and ingratitude of the Athenian people in many places and in the divers complexions of these ten men here depainted evident it is how much availeth in any person good in struction from his infancie and how powerfull good teachers be for to frame and fashion tender minds unto high matters and important to the weale publicke In perusing and passing through this treatise a man may take knowledge of many points of the ancient popular government which serve verie well to the better understanding of the Greeke historie and namely of that which concerneth Athens As also by the recompenses both demanded and also decreed in the behalfe of vertuous men we may perceive and see among the imperfections of a people which had the soveraigntie in their hands some moderation from time to time which ought to make us magnifie the wisedome and providence of God who amid so great darkneffe hath maintained so long as his good pleasure was so many States and governours in Greece which
which begin three tragoedies of Euripides 1 King Danaus who fiftie daughters had 2 Pelops the sonne of Tantalus when he to Pisa came 3 Cadmus whilom the citie Sidon left He lived 98 yeeres or as some say a full hundred could not endure for to see Greece fower times brought into servitude the yeere before he died or as some write fower yeeres before he wrote his Panathenaick oration as for his Panegyrik oration he was in penning it tenne yeeres and by the report of some fifteene which he is thought to have translated and borrowed out of Gorgias the Leontine and Lysias and the oration concerning the counterchange of goods he wrote when he was fourescore yeeres old twaine but his Philippike oration he set downe a little before his death when he was farre stepped in yeeres he adopted for his sonne Aphareus the yoongest of the three children of Plathane his wife the daughter of Hippias the oratour and professed Rhetorician He was of good wealth as well for that he called duely for money of his scholars as also because he received of Nicocles king of Cypres who was the sonne of Euagoras the summe of twenty talents of silver for one oration which hee dedicated unto him by occasion of this riches he became envied and was thrice chosen and enjoined to be the captaine of a galley and to defray the charges thereof for the two first times he feigning himselfe to be sicke was excused by the meanes of his sonne but at the third time he rose up and tooke the charge wherein he spent no small summe of money There was a father who talking with him about his sonne whom he kept at schoole said That he sent with him no other to be his guide and governour but a slave of his owne unto whom Isocrates answered Goe your waies then for one slave you shall have twaine Hee entred into contention for the prize at the solemne games which queene Artemisia exhibited at the funerals and tombe of her husband Mausolus but this enchomiasticall oration of his which he made in the praise of him is not extant another oration he penned in the praise of Helena as also a third in the commendation of the counsell Areopagus Some write that he died by absteining nine daies together from all meat others report but fower even at the time that the publike obsequies were solemnized for them who lost their lives in the battell at Chaeronea His adopted sonne Aphareus composed likewise certeine orations enterred hee was together with all his linage and those of his bloud neere unto a place called Cynosarges upon a banke or knap of a little hill on the left hand where were bestowed the sonne and father Theodorus their mother also and her sister Anaco aunt unto the oratour his adopted sonne likewise Aphareus together with his cousen germain Socrates sonne to the a foresaid aunt Anaco Isocrates mothers sister his brother Theodorus who bare the name of his father his nephewes or children of his adopted sonne Aphareus and his naturall Theodorus moreover his wife Plathane mother to his adopted sonne Aphareus upon all these bodies there were six tables or tombs erected of stone which are not to be seene as this day but there stood upon the tombe of Isocrates himselfe a mightie great ramme engraven to the height of thirtie cubits upon which there was a syren or mere-maid seven cubits high to signifie under a figure his milde nature and eloquent stile there was besides neere unto him a table conteining certaine poets and his owne schole-masters among whom was Gorgias looking upon an astrologicall sphaere and Isocrates himselfe standing close unto him furthermore there is erected a brasen image of his in Eleusin before the entrie of the gallery Stoa which Timotheus the sonne of Caron caused to be made bearing this epi gram or inscription Timotheus upon a loving minde And for to honour mutuall kindnesses This image of Isocrates his friende Erected hath unto the goddesses This statue was the handi-worke of Leochares There goe under his name threescore orations of which five and twentie are his indeed according to the judgement of Dionysius but as Cecilius saith eight and twentie all the rest are falsly attributed unto him So farre was he off from ostentation and so little regard had hee to put foorth himselfe and shew his sufficiencie that when upon a time there came three unto him of purpose to heare him declame and discourse he kept two of them with him and the third he sent away willing him to returne the next morrow For now quoth he I have a full theater in mine auditorie He was wont to say also unto his scholars and familiars That himselfe taught his art for ten pounds of silver but hee would give unto him that could put into him audacity and teach him good utterance ten thousand When one demanded of him it was possible that he should make other men sufficient orators seeing himselfe was nothing eloquent Why not quoth he seeing that whet-stones which can not cut at all make iron and steele sharpe enough and able to cut Some say that he composed certeine books as touching the art of rhetorick but others are of opinion that it was not by any method but exercise onely that he made his scholars good oratours this is certeine that he never demanded any mony of naturall citizens borne for their teaching His maner was to bid his scholars to be present at the great assemblies of the citie and to relate unto him what they heard there spoken and delivered He was wonderfull heavy and sorrowfull out of measure for the death of Socrates so as the morrow after he mourned put on blacke for him Againe unto one who asked him what was Rhetorick he answered It is the art of making great matters of small small things of great Being invited one day to Nicocreon the tyrant of Cypres as he sat at the table those that were present requested him to discourse of some theame but he answered thus For such matters wherein I have skill the time will not now serve and in those things that sit the time I am nothing skilfull Seeing upon a time Sophocles the tragicall poet following wantonly and hunting with his eie a yoong faire boy he said O Sophocles an honest man ought to conteine not his hands onely but his eies also When Ephorus of Cunes went from his schoole non proficiens and able to doe nothing by reason whereof his father Demophilus sent him againe with a second salary or minervall Isocrates smiled thereat and merily called him Diphoros that is to say bringing his money twice so hee tooke great paines with the man and would himselfe prompt him and give him matter and invention for his declamatorie exercise Inclined he was and naturally given unto the pleasures of wanton love in regard whereof he used to lie upon a thinne and hard short mattresse and to have the pillow and bolster under his
part of politike government like as Demades was woont to say That the dole of mony distributed by the poll to the citizens in the theaters for to see the plaies was the very glew of the popular State And tell me what conjunction is that which will make of many propositions one by couching and knitting them together as the marble doth unite the iron that is cast and melted with it by the fire and yet I trow no man will say that the marble for all that is part of the iron or so to be called Howbeit such things verily as enter into a composition and which be liquefied together with the drogues mingled therewith are wont after a sort to doe and suffer reciprocally from the ingredients But as for these conjunctions there be who deny that they doe unite any one thing saying That this maner of speaking with conjunctions is no other but a certeine enumeration as if a man should reckon in order all our magistrates or count the daies of a moneth Moreover of all other parts of speech it is very evident that the Pronoune is a kinde of Noune not onely in this respect that it is declmed with cases as the Noune is but also for that some of them being pronounced and uttered of things and persons determinate doe make a most proper demonstration of them accordant to their nature neither can I see how he who hath expresly named Socrates hath declared his person more than hee who said This man heere To come now unto that which they tearme a Participle surely it is a very medly and mixture of a Noune and a Verbe and not a part of speech subsisting alone of it selfe no more than those Nounes or names which are common to Masculine and Feminine and these Participles are raunged with them both with Nounes in respect of their cases and with Verbes in regard oftenses and verily the logicians call such tearmes reflected as for example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say wiisely foreseeing is a reflexion of a wise foreseer and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say minding sobriety is a reflexion of a sober minded person that is to say as if they had the nature and power of Nounes and appellations As touching Prepositions a man may liken them very well to pennaches crests or such like ornaments above morions or head attires or else to bases predstals and footsteps under statues and pillers forasmuch as they are not so much parts of speech as busie and conversant about them but see I pray you whether they may not be compared to truncheons pieces and fragments of words like as those who when they write a running hand in haste doe not alwaies make out the letters full but use pricks minims and dashes For these two Verbes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be both of them manifest clippings of the full and compleat words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof the one signifieth to enter in the other to goe foorth Likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a plaine abbreviation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be borne or have being before Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to sit downe or cause one to sit downe Semblable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men are disposed to say for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to fling stones and to digge through walles when they are disposed to make haste to speake short And therefore a man may well say that every one of these excepting Noune and Verbe doe some good in our speech and helpe well in a sentence but for all that they cannot be called either elements of speech for there is none but the Noune and the Verbe as it hath beene said before that maketh this composition conteining verity and falsity which some tearme proposition others axiome and 〈◊〉 nameth speech or oration A COMMENTARIE OF THE CREATION OF THE SOULE WHICH PLATO DESCRIBETH IN HIS BOOKE TIM AE US The Summarie AMong those discourses which may exercise the wittes and busie the braines of most curious spirits those of Plato may be raunged which in divers places of his dialogues but especially in his Timaeus he hath delivered and namely where he treateth of nature metaphysically intermingling with a certeine deepe and profound maner of doctrine as a man may perceive by his writings his resolutions as I may say irresolute proceeding all from the ignorance of the sacred story and the true sense of Moyses As for example that which he saith as touching the soule of the world an absurd and fantasticall opinion if it be not handled and expounded aright Our authour being minded in this treatise to dispute philosophically upon the creation of the said soule runneth thorow numbers tones tunes and harmonies aswell terrestriall as celestiall for to declare the meaning of Plato but with such brevitie in many places that a man had need to reade with both his eies and to have his minde wholly intentive and amused upon his words for the under standing of him Meanewhile this would be considered seeing that in such matters we have God be thanked sufficient to resolve us in the word of God and the good books of the doctours of the church all this present discourse should be read as comming out of the hands of a man walking in darknesse and to speake in one word of one blinde himselfe and following a blinde guide to the end that in stead of highly admiring these subtilties of Plato as some in these daies doe whose heads are not staied and well setled we might know that the higher that man in his wisdome mounteth with his pen farre from Gods schoole the lesse he is to be received and accepted of A COMMENTARIE OF THE creation of the soule which Plato describeth in his booke Timaeus The father to his two sonnes AUTOBULUS and PLUTARCH Greeting FOrasmuch as ye are of this minde that whatsoever I have heere and there said and written in divers places by way of exposition touching that which I supposed in mine opinion Plato held thought and understood concerning the soule ought to be reduced brought together into one and that I should doe well to declare the same at large in a speciall 〈◊〉 apart by it selfe because it is not a matter which otherwise is easie to be handled and managed as also for that seeming as it doth somewhat contrary to most of the Platonique philosophers themselves in which regard it had need to be well mollified I will therefore in the first place set downe the very text of Plato in his owne proper tearmes word for word as I finde them written in his booke entituled Timaeus Of that indivisible substance which alwaies continueth about the same things as also of that which is divisible by many bodies he composed a third kinde of
alwaies are by lot created or otherwise to such places captaines and commanders who are elected by the suffrages and voices of citizens and as if those were to be held good lawes which Clisthenes Lycurgus Solon made and yet the same men they avow and maintaine to have bene witlesse fooles and leawd persons Thus you see how albeit they administer the common weale yet they be repugnant to their owne doctrine In like maner Antipater in his booke of the dissention betweene Cleanthes and Chrysippus reporteth that Zeno and Cleanthes would never be made citizens of Athens for feare forsooth lest they might be thought to offer injurie to their owne country Now if they herein did well let Chrysippus goe and say wee nothing of him that he did amisse in causing himselfe to be enrolled and immatriculated in the number of Athenian citizens for I will not stand much upon this point onely this I holde that there is a strange and woonderfull repugnance in their deeds and actions who reserve still the bare names of their native countries and yet bereave the same of their very persons and their lives conversing so farre off in forraine lands much like as if a man who hath cast off and put a way his lawfull wedded wife should dwell live and lie ordinary with another as his concubin yea and beget children of her body and yet will in no wise espouse her and contract marriage with her lest forsooth he might seeme to doe wrong and injurie to the former Furthermore Chrysippus in his treatise that he made of Rhetoricke writing thus that a wise man will in such sort plead make orations to the people and deale in state matters as if riches reputation and health were simply good things testifieth hereby and confesseth that his precepts and resolutions induce men not to goe forth of doores nor to intermedle in politicke and civill affaires and so by consequence that their doctrines and precepts cannot sort well with practise nor be agreeable unto the actions of this life Moreover this is one of Zenoes quodlibets or positions that we ought not to build temples to the honour of the gods for that a temple is no such holy thing nor so highly to be esteemed considering it is the workemanship of masons carpenters and other artificers neither can any worke of such artisans be prised at any woorth And yet even they who avow and approve this as a wise speech of his are themselves professed in the religious mysteries of those churches they mount up to the castle and frequent there the sacred temple of Minerva they adore the shrines and images of the gods they adorne the temples with chaplets and guarlands notwithstanding they be the workes of masons carpenters and such like mechanicall persons And will these men seeme indeed to reproove the Epicureans as contrary to themselves who denying that the gods be occupied or imploied in the government of the world yet offer sacrifice unto them when as they checke and refute themselves much more in sacrificing unto the gods within their temples and upon their altars which they maintaine that they ought not to stand at all nor once to have bene built Zeno putteth downe admitteth many vertues according to their several differences like as Plato doth to wit prudence fortitude temperance justice saying that they be all in very deed and in nature inseparable nor distinct a sunder howbeit in reason divers and different one from another And againe when he would seeme to define them severally one after another he saith That fortitude is prudence in the execution of matters justice is prudence in the distribution of things c. as if there were no more but one sole vertue which according to divers relations unto affaires and actions seemeth to differ and admit distinction So you see that not Zeno alone seemeth to be repugnant unto himselfe in these matters but Chrysippus also who reprooveth Ariston for saying that all vertues are nothing else but the divers habitudes and relations of one and the same and yet defendeth Zeno when he defineth ech vertue in this wise by it selfe As for Clearches in his commentaries of nature having set this downe that the vigour and firmitude of things is the illision and smiting of fire which if it be in the soule so sufficient that it is able to performe the duties presented unto it is called strength and power he annexeth afterward these words And this very power and strength quoth he when as it is emploied in such objects where in a man is to persist and which he ought to conteine is called Continency if in things to be endured and supported then it is named Fortitude if in estimation of worthinesse and desert beareth the denomination of Justice if in choises or refusals it carieth the name of Temperance Against him who was the authour of this sentence For beare thy sentence for to passe and judgement see thou stay Untill such time as thou hast heard what parties both can say Zeno alledged such a reason as this on the contrary side Whether the plaintife who spake in the first place hath plainly proved his cause or no there is no need at all to heare the second for the matter is at an end already and the question determined or whether he hath not proved it all is one for it is even the same case whether he that is cited be so stubburne as not to appeare for to be heard or if he appeare doe nothing els but cavill and wrangle so that proove he or proove he not his cause needlesse it is to heare the second plead And yet even he who made this Dilemma and wrote against the books of Policie and common wealth that Plato composed taught his scholars how to affoile and avoid such Sophisticall arguments yea and exhorted them to learne Logicke with all diligence as being the art which sheweth them how to performe the same Howbeit a man might come upon him by way of objection in this maner Certes Plato hath either proved or els not proved those points which he handled in his Politicks but whether he did or no there was no necessitie at all to write against him as you did for it was altogether vaine needlesse and superfluous And even the same may be said of Sophisticall arguments and cavillations Chrysippus is of opinion that yong scholars and students should first learne those arts which concerne speech as Grammar Logicke and Rhetoricke in the second place morall sciences in the third naturall philosophie and after all these in the last place to heare the doctrine as touching religion and the gods which being delivered by him in many passages of his writings it shall be sufficient to alledge that onely which he hath written thus word for word in the third booke of his Lives First and formost quoth he it seemeth unto mee according to the doctrine of our ancients that of Philosophicall speculations there be three kinds
ready to drop into her grave then it makes no matter but it is all one to praise an honest man 〈◊〉 for one thing as another Moreover in his second booke of Friendship whenas he giveth a precept that we ought not to dissolve amities for every fault or defect he userh these very tearmes For there be faults quoth he which we must overpasse quite and make no stay at them others there be againe whereat we should a little stand and take offence and others besides which require more chastisement but some there are which we must thinke 〈◊〉 to breake friendship for ever And more than all this in the same booke he saith that we ought to converse and be acquainted with some more and with others lesse according as they be our friends more or lesse which difference and diversitie extendeth very far insomuch as some are worthy of such an amitie others of a greater some deserve thus much trust and confidence others more than it and so it is in other matters semblable And what other is his drift in all these places but to put a great difference betweene those things for which friendships are engendred And yet in his booke of Honestie to shew that there is nothing good but that which is honest he delivereth these words A good thing is eligible and to be desired that which is eligible and desirable is also acceptable that which is acceptable is likewise commendable and that which is commendable is honest withall Againe a good thing is joious and acceptable joious is venerable and venerable is honest But these speeches are repugnant to himselfe for be it that all that is good were laudable and then chastly to forbeare for to touch an olde riveled woman were a commendable thing or say that every good thing were neither venerable nor joious and acceptable yet his reason falleth to the ground for how can it be that others should be thought frivolous and absurd in praising any for such things and himselfe not worthy to be mocked and laughed at for taking joy and pleasing himselfe in such ridiculous toies as these Thus you see how he sheweth himselfe in most part of his writings and yet in his disputations which he holdeth against others he is much more carelesse to be contrary and repugnant to himselfe for in his treatise which he made as touching exhortation reproving Plato for saying that it was not expedient for him to live at all who is not taught nor knoweth not how to live he writeth in these very tearmes This speech of his quoth he is both contradictory repugnant to it selfe and besides hath no force nor efficacy at all to exhort for first and formost in shewing us that it were expedient for us not to live at all and giving us at it were counsell to die he exhorteth us to any thing rather than to the practise of studie of philolosophie because it is not possible for a man to philosophize unlesse he live nether can he become wise survive he never so long if he lead an evill and ignorant life And a little after hee saith farther That it is as meet and convenient also even for leawd and wicked persons to remaine alive But I care not much to set downe his very words First of all like as vertue barely in it selfe considered hath nothing in it for which we should desire to live even so vice hath as little for which we ought to leave this life What need we now turne over other books of Chrysippus and drip leafe by leafe to proove how contrary and repugnant he is to himselfe for even in these which now we cite and alledge he commeth out otherwhiles with this saying of Antisthenes for which he commendeth him namely that a man is to be provided either of wit to understand or else of a with to under-hang himselfe as also this other verse of Tyrtaus The bounds of vertue first come nie Or else make choise before to die And what other meaning is there of these words but this that it is more expedient for foolish and lewd persons to be out of the world than to live and in one passage seeming to correct Theognis He should not quoth he have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A man from poverty to flie O Cyrnus ought himselfe to cast Headlong from rocks most steepe and hie Or into sea as deepe and vast But rather thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aman from sinne and vice to flie c. What other things else seemeth he to doe than to condemne and scrape out of other mens writings the same things propositions and sentences which himselfe hath inserted in his own books For he reprooveth Plato when he prooveth and sheweth that it is better not to live at all than to lead a life in wickednesse or ignorance and in one breath hee giveth counsell to Theognis to set downe in his poesie That a man ought to fling himselfe downe headlong into the deepe sea or to breake his necke from some high rocke for to avoid sinne and wickednesse And praising as hee did Antisthenes for sending fooles and witlesse folke to an halter wherewith to hang themselves he blamed him neverthelesse who said that vice was not a sufficient cause wherefore we should shorten our lives Moreover in those books against Plato himselfe concerning justice he leapeth directly at the very first into a discourse as touching the gods and saith That Cephalus did not divert men well from evill dooing by the feare of the gods affirming moreover that the discourse which he made as touching divine vengeance might easily be infringed and refuted for that of it selfe it ministreth many arguments and probable reasons on the contrary side as if the same resembled for all the world the fabulous tales of Acco and Alphito wherewith women are woont to scarre their little children and to keepe them from doing shrewd turnes Thus deriding traducing and backbiting Plato hee praiseth elsewhere and in many places else alledgeth these verses out of Euripides Well well though some this doctrine doe deride Be sure in heaven with other gods beside Sits Jupiter the deeds of men who see And will in time revenged surely bee Semblably in the first booke of Justice when he had alledged these verses heere out of Hesiodus Then Saturnes sonne god Jupiter great plagues from heaven did send Even dearth and death both which of all the people made an end he saith that the gods proceed in this wise to the end that when the wicked be thus punished others also advertised and taught by their example might beware how they commit the like or at leastwise sinne lesse What should I say moreover how in this treatise of Justice having affirmed that those who hold pleasure to be good but not the soveraigne end of good may in some sort withall preserve mainteine justice for so much he hath put downe in these very termes For haply admitting pleasure
hit upon the woorse in these places the casuall inclination of the minde to the first object and the putting of the matter to the hazard of a lot is nothing else but to bring in a choise of things indifferent without any cause In the third booke of Logique having premised thus much that Plato Aristotle and their successours and disciples even as farre as to Polemon and Straton had bestowed great study and travelled much therein but above all others Socrates with this addition that a man would wish with so many and such noble personages to erre for company he commeth in afterwards with these words If they had quoth he treated and discoursed hereof cursarily or by the way a man haply might laugh at this place well enough but since that they have so seriously and exactly disputed of Logique as if it were one of the greatest faculties and most necessarie sciences it is not like that they were so grosly deceived being men throughout all the parts of philosophy so singular as we repute them to be How is it then may a man reply and say that you neverrest baying and barking at these so woorthy and excellent personages and convincing them as you suppose to have erred For there is no likelihood that they writing so diligently and exactly as they have done of Logique should of the principles and elements of the end of good things of Justice and the gods write carelessely and after a loose maner howsoever you are disposed to 〈◊〉 their treatises and discourses blinde repugnant to themselves and stuffed with an infinit 〈◊〉 of faults and errors In one place he denieth that the vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a joy to see evill happen unto another hath any being or reall subsistence For that quoth he no good man was ever knowen to rejoice at the harme of another but in his second booke as touching Good having declared what Envie is namely a griefe for another mans well fare because men are desirous to detract and debase their neighbours to the end they might be superiours themselves he addeth afterwards the joy for another mans harme and that in these words Annexed thereunto quoth he is the joy for another mans harme because men are desirous that their neighbours about them should be brought low for the like causes but when they decline and turne to other naturall affections there is engendred Pity and Mercie In which words it appeareth that he ordaineth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a thing really subsistent as well as envie and pittie which notwithstanding elsewhere he said had no being at all in the world no more than the hatred of wickednesse or the desire of filthy lucre Having in many places affirmed that men are never a whit more happie for long continuance of felicity but that they be still as happy who enjoy felicity but one minute of an 〈◊〉 in as many other places againe he avoucheth the contrary saying that a man should not so much as put forth his finger for a transitory and momentany prudence which endureth but a while passeth away like unto the flash and leame of a lightening But it shal suffice to relate the very words which he hath written in his sixth booke of morall questions as touching this matter for when he had premised thus much that every good thing doth not cause equall joy nor all vertuous duties like vantery he commeth after with these words For if a man is to have prudence one moment of time or the last daie onely of his life he should not so much as hold up or stretch out his finger for a prudence that lasteth so small a while although no man is said to be the more blessed for long continuance of happinesse neither is eternall beatitude more expetible or desirable than that which passeth away within a minute of an houre Now if he had thought that prudence were a good thing bringing forth blessednesse as Epicurus did a man could have found fault with nothing else but the absurdity onely of so strange an opinion and paradox But seeing that prudence is no other thing than beatitude of it selfe and even very felicity how can it be avoided that herein there should not be a contradiction and repugnancy of speech namely to say that transitory happinesse is as eligible and as much to be desired as that which is perpetuall and to hold that the felicity of one moment is worth naught He affirmeth that vertues doe follow and accompany one another not onely in this respect that he who hath one hath likewise all the rest but also in this that he who worketh by one worketh with all according to the other neither saith he is any man perfect unlesse he be possessed of all vertues Howbeit in the sixt booke of morall questions Chrysippus saith that neither a good and honest man doth alwaies beare himselfe valiantly nor a naughty man behave himselfe cowardly for that as certeine objects be presented into mens fantasies it behooveth one man to persevere and persist in his judgements and another to forsake and relinquish the same for probable he saith it is that even the wicked man is not alwaies lascivious Now in case it be so that to be a valiant man is as much as to shew valour and to be a coward the same that to use cowardise they speake contraries who affirme that a naughty person practising one vice worketh by all together and that a valiant man useth not alwaies valour nor a dastard cowardise He denieth Rhetorique to be an art as touching the ornament dispose and order of an oration pronounced and besides in the first booke he hath thus written And in mine opinion requisit it is to have not onely a regard of an honest decent simple adorning of words but also a care of proper gestures actions pauses and staies of the voice as also a meet conformation of the countenance and the hands Being as you see thus exquisit and curious in this passage yet in the same booke cleare contrary having spoken of the collision of vowels and hitting one of them upon another We are not only quoth he to neglect this and to thinke of that which is of greater moment and importance but also to let passe certeine obscurities and defects solaecismes also and incongruities of which many others would be ashamed Now one while to permit and allow such exquisit curiosity in the orderly dispose of a manstongue even as far as to the decent setting of the countenance and gesture of the hands and another while not to bash at the committing of grosse incongruities defects and obscurities is the property of a man who cares not what he saith but speakes whatsoever comes in his head Over and besides in his naturall positions treating of those things which require the view of the eie and experience after he had given warning that we should go warily to worke and not rashly yeeld our assent
out of water having earth under it there ex haleth aire which aire comming to be subtilized the fire is produced and environeth it round about as for the stars they are set on fire out of these together with the sunne what is more contrary than to be set on fire and to be cooled what more opposite to subtilization and rarefaction than inspissation and condensation the one maketh water and earth of fire and aire the other turneth that which is moist and terrestriall into fire and aire And yet in one place he maketh kindling of fire and in another refrigeration to bee the cause of quickning and giving soule unto a thing for when the said firing and inflammation comes generall throughout then it liveth and is become an annimall creature but after it commeth to be quenched and thickned it turneth into water and earth and so into a corporall substance In the first booke of Providence he writeth thus For the world being throughout on fire presently it is with all the soule and governour of it selfe but when it is turned into moisture and the soule left within it and is after a sort converted into a soule and body so as it seemeth compounded of them both then the case is altered In which text he affirmeth plainly that the very inanimat parts of the world by exustion and inflammation turne and change into the soule thereof and contrariwise by extinction the soule is relaxed and moistned againe and so returneth into a corporall nature Heereupon I inferre that he is very absurd one while to make of senselesse things animat and living by way of refrigeration and another while to transmure the most part of the soule of the world into insensible and inanimat things But over and above all this the discourse which he maketh as touching the generation of the soule conteineth a proofe demonstration contrary to his owne opinion for he saith That the soule is engendred after that the infant is gone out of the mothers wombe for that the spirit then is transformed by refrigeration even as the temper is gotten of steele Now to prove that the soule is engendred and that after the birth of the infant hee bringeth this for a principall argument Because children become like unto their parents in behaviour and naturall inclination wherein the contrariety that he delivereth is so evident as that a man may see it by the very eie for it is not possible that the soule which is engendred after birth should be framed to the maners and disposition of the parents before nativity or else we must say and fall out it will that the soule before it was in esse was already like unto a soule which is all one as that it was by similitude and resemblance and yet was not because as yet it had not a reall substance Now if any one doe say that it ariseth from the temperature and complexion of the bodies that this similitude is imprinted in them howbeit when the soules are once engendred they become changed he shall overthrow the argument and proofe whereby it is shewed that the soule was engendred for heereupon it would follow that the soule although it were ingenerable when it entreth from without into the body is changed by the temperature of the like Chrysippus sometime saith that the aire is light that it mounteth upward on high and otherwhiles for it againe that it is neither heavy nor light To prove this see what he saith in his second booke of Motion namely that fire having in it no ponderosity at all ascendeth aloft semblably the aire and as the water is more conformable to the earth so the aire doth rather resemble the fire But in his booke entituled Naturall arts he bendeth to the contrary opinion to wit that the aire hath neither ponderosity nor lightnesse of it selfe He affirmeth that the aire by nature is darke and for that cause by consequence it is also the primitive cold and that tenebrosity or darknesse is directly opposite unto light and cleerenesse and the coldnesse thereof to the heat of fire Mooving this discourse in the first booke of his Naturall questions contrary to all this in his treatise of Habitudes he saith That these habitudes be nothing else but aires For that bodies quoth he be 〈◊〉 by them and the cause why every body conteined by any habitude is such as it is is the continent aire which in iron is called hardnesse in stone spissitude or thicknesse in silver whitenesse in which words there is great contrariety and as much false absurditie for if this aire remaine the same still as it is in the owne nature how commeth blacke in that which is not white to be called whitenesse softnesse in that which is not hard to be named hardnesse or rare in that which is not solide and massie to be called solidity But in case it be said that by mixture therein it is altered and so becommeth semblable how then can it be an habitude a faculty power or cause of these effects whereby it selfe is brought under and subdued for that were to suffer rather than to doe and this alteration is not of a nature conteining but of a languishing impotencie whereby it loseth all the properties and qualities of the owne and yet in every place they hold that matter of it selfe idle and without motion is subject and exposed to the receit of qualities which qualities are spirits and those powers of the aire which into what parts soever of the matter they get and insinuate themselves doe give a forme and imprint a figure into them But how can they mainteine this supposing as they do the aire to be such as they say it is for if it be an habitude and power it will conforme and shape unto it selfe every body so as it will make the same both blacke and soft but if by being mixed and contempered with them it take formes contrary unto those which it hath by nature it followeth then that it is the matter of matter and neither the habitude cause nor power thereof Chrysippus hath written often times that without the world there is an infinit voidnesse and that this infinitie hath neither beginning middle nor end And this is the principall reason whereby they resute that motion downward of the 〈◊〉 by themselves which Epicurus hath brought in for in that which is infinit there are no locall differences whereby a man may understand or specifie either high or low But in the fourth booke of Things possible he supposeth a certeine middle space and meane place betweene wherein he saith the world is founded The very text where he affirmeth this runneth in these words And therefore we must say of the world that it is corruptible and although it be very hard to proove it yet me thinks rather it should be so than otherwise Neverthelesse this maketh much to the inducing of us to beleeve that it hath a certeine incorruptibility if I may
so say namely the occupation or taking up of the middle place wherein it standeth because it is in the mids for if it were thought otherwise to be founded it were altogether necessarie that some corruption should take holde of it And againe a little after for even so in some sort hath that essence bene ordeined from all eternity to occupie the middle region being presently at the very first such as if not by another maner yet by attaining this place it is eternall and subject to no corruption These words conteine one manifest repugnance and visible contrariety considering that in them he admitteth and alloweth in that which is infinit a middle place But there is a second also which as it is more darke and obscure so it implieth also a more monstrous absurditie than the other for supposing that the world can not continue incorruptible if it were seated and founded in any other place of the infinitie than in the mids it appeareth manifestly that he feared if the parts of the substance did not moove and tend toward the mids there would ensue a dissolution corruption of the world But this would he never have feared if he had not thought that bodies naturally from all sides tend to the middes not of the substance but of the place that conteineth the substance where of he had spoken in many places that it was a thing impossible and against nature for that within voidnesse there is no difference by which bodies can be said to move more one way than another and that the construction of the world is cause of the motion to the center as also that all things from every side do bend to the mids But to see this more plainly it may suffice to alledge the very text in his second booke of Motion for when he had delivered thus much That the world is a perfect body and the parts of the world not perfect because they are respective to the whole and not of themselves Having also discoursed as touching the motion thereof for that it was apt and fitted by nature to moove it selfe in all parts for to conteine and preserve and not to breake dissolve and burne it selfe he saith afterwards But the universall world tending and mooving to the same point and the parts thereof having the same motion from the nature of the body like it is that this first motion is naturally proper to all bodies namely to encline toward the mids of the world considering that the world mooveth so in regard of it selfe and the parts likewise in that they be the parts of the whole How now my goodfriend may some one say what accident is befallen unto you that you should forget to pronounce these words withall That the world in case it had not fortuned for to settle in the mids must needs have bene subject to corruption and dissolution For if it be proper and naturall to the world to tend alwaies to the same middle as also to addresse the parts thereof from all sides thereto into what place soever of the voidnesse it be carried and transported certes thus 〈◊〉 and embracing as it were it selfe as it doth it must needs continue incorruptible immortall and past all danger of fracture or dissolution for to such things as be broken bruised dissipated and dissolved this is incident by the division and dissolution of their parts when ech one runneth and retireth into their proper and naturall place out of that which is against their owne nature But you sir supposing that if the world were seated in any other place of voidnesse but in the mids there would follow a totall ruine and corruption thereof giving out also as much and therefore imagining a middle in that where naturally there can be none to wit in that which is infinit have verily quit cleane and fled from these tensions cohaerences and inclinations as having in them no assured meanes for to mainteine and holde the world together and attributed all the cause of the eternall maintenance and preservation thereof unto the occupation of a place And yet as if you tooke pleasure to argue and convince yourselfe you adjoine to the premisses thus much In what sort every severall part moveth as it is cohaerent to the rest of the body it stands with good reason that after the same maner it should moove by it selfe alone yea if for disputation sake we imagine and suppose it to be in some void part of this world and like as being kept in and enclosed on every side it would move toward the mids so it would continue in this same motion although by way of disputation we should admit that all on a sudden there should appeare some vacuity and void place round about it And is it so indeed that every part what ever it be compassed about with voidnesse forgoeth not her naturall inclination to move tend to the mids and should the world it selfe unlesse some fortune blind chance had not prepared for it a place in the mids have lost that vigor power which conteineth and holdeth all together so some parts of the substance of it moove one way and some another Now surely heerein there be many other maine contrarieties repugnant even to natural reason but this particularly among the rest encountreth the doctrine of God divine providence to wit that in attributing unto them the least and smallest causes that be he taketh from them the most principall and greatest of all other For what greater power can there be than the maintenance and preservation of this universall world or to cause the substance united together in all parts to cohaere unto it selfe But this according to the opinion of Chrysippus hapneth by meere hazzard and chance for if the occupation of a place is the cause of worlds incorruption and eternity and the same chanced by fortune we must inferre there upon that the safety of all things dependeth upon hazzard and adventure and not upon fatall destiny and divine providence As for his doctrine disputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of things possible which Chrysippus hath delivered directly agaisnt that of fatall destiny how can it chuse but be repugnant to it selfe for if that be not possible according to the opiniō of Diodorus which either is or shall be true but whatsoever is susceptible naturally of a power to be although the same never come into act or esse is to be counted possible there will be a number of things possible which never shal have being by destiny invincible inexpugnable surmoūting al things And therefore either this doctrine overthroweth al the force and puissance of destiny or if it be admitted as Chrysippus would have it that which potentially may be wil fal out oftentimes to be impossible whatsoever is true shall be also necessary as being comprised contained by the greatest and most powerfull necessity of all others and whatsoever is false impossible as
principally in two severall Treatises of the former tome perceived how Plutarch is quite contrary unto the Epicureans and namely in one of those Treatises he dealeth with a certaine booke which he now expresly refuteth where Colotes endevoured to proove that a man can not possibly live well according to the opinions of other Philosophers Plutarch sheweth on the contrarie side that impossible it is to leade a joifull life after the doctrine of Epicurus and that it is accompanied with overweening impudency and slanderous calumniation And not contenting himselfe thus to have confuted them of purpose once or twice he setteth upon them in this discourse and particularly he copeth with Colotes whose slouth filthinesse and impiette he heere describeth The summe of all which declamation is this That these Epicureans are not any way worthy the name of Philosophers who contrariwise tread and trample under foot all the parts of true Philosophie discovering in their writings aswell as thorowout all their lives meere beastly brutalitie But all that is delivered in this Treatise may be reduced well to two principall points The one conteineth a defence or excuse of the doctrine taught by Democritus Empedocles Parmenides Socrates and other ancient Philosophers standered by Colotes who extolled farre above them the traditions and precepts of his master The other discovereth divers absurdities and strange opinions of the Epicureans even by their owne testimonies whom Plutarch refelleth soundly handling in this disputation many articles of Philosophie Naturall Morall and Supernaturall and particularly of the Senses of Nature of the Atomes of the Universall world of the Knowledge of man of the Opinion of the Academicks of the Apprehensions faculties passions and affections of the soule of the certeintie of things sensible of the falsitie and trueth of imaginations of the use of Lawes of the profit of Philosophie of the sovereigne good of religion and of other such matters the principles whereof the Epicureans abolished bringing in paradoxes woonderfull strange for to shuffle things confusedly and make all uncerteine All which is marked particularly in the traine and course of the authours owne words and therefore needlesse it is to specifie thereof any more because I would avoid tantologies unnecessary repetitions True it is that in certeine refutations Plutarch is not so firme as were to be desired but that may be imputed to his ignorance of the true God As for the rest it may suffice serve to know the misery wretchednes of the Epicureans and that other Philosophers had many good parts and delivered many beautifull speeches whereof all vertuous persons may reape and gather great fruit in applying and referring the same to their right use And for to close up all he maketh a comparison betweene true Philosophers and the Epicureans proving in very many places that Colotes and his fellowes like himselfe are people not onely unprofitable but also most pernicious and so by consequence unworthy to live in the world AGAINST COLOTES THE Epicurean COlotes whom Epicurus was wont ô Saturninus to call by way of slattering diminution Colatar as and Colatarius composed and put forth a little booke which he entituled That there could be no life at all according to the opinions of other Philosophers and dedicated the said booke unto king Ptolemaeus Now what came into my minde to speake against this Colotes I suppose you would take pleasure to reade the same in writing being as you are a man who loveth elegancie and all honest things especially such as concerne the knowledge of antiquity besides esteemeth it the most prince like exercise and roiall study to beare in minde and have alwaies in hand as much as possibly may be the discourses of auncient Sages Whereas therefore of late this booke was in reading one of our familiar friends one whom you know well enough Aristodemus by name an Aegian borne a man exceeding passionate and of all the Academicks a most sranticke sectary of Plato although hee carie not the ferula like unto the madde supposts of Plato I wot not how contrary to his usuall maner was very patient and silent all the while giving care most civilly even to the very end But so soone as the lecture was done Goe to now my masters quoth he whom were we best to cause for to arise and fight with this fellow in the quarrell and defence of Philosophers For I am not of Nestors minde neither doe I greatly praise him for that when there was to be chosen the most valiant warrior of those nine hardy knights who were presented to enter into combat with Hector hand to hand committed the election unto fortune and put all to the lot But you see also quoth I that even he referred himselfe to be ordered by the lot to the end that the choise might passe according to the dispose and ordinance of the wisest man The lot out of the helmet then did fall Of Ajax whom themselves wisht most of all And yet if you command me to make election How can I ever put out of mind Divine Ulysses a prince so kind Consider therefore and be well advised how you may be able to refell this man Then Aristodedemus But you know full well quoth he what Plato sometime did who being offended with his boy that waited upon him would not himselfe swindge him but caused Speusippus to doe so much for him saying withall That he was in a fit of choler And even so I say as much to you Take the man to you I pray and entreat him at your pleasure for my selfe am very angry with him Now when all the rest of the company were instant with me and praied me to take this charge in hand Well I see quoth I that I must speake seeing you will needs have it so but I am affraid lest I may seeme my selfe to be more earnestly bent against this booke than it deserveth in the defence and maintenance of Socrates against the incivility rudenesse scurrility and insolence of this man who presenteth as one would say unto him hay as if he were a beast and demaundeth how he may put meat into his mouth and not into his care whereas haply the best way were to laugh onely at him for such railing especially considering the mildnesse and gentle grace of Socrates in such cases Howbeit in regard of the whole host beside of other Greeke Philosophers namely Democritus Plato Empedocles Parmenides and Melissus who by him are foully reviled it were not onely a shame to be tongue tied and keepe silence but also meere sacriledge and impiety to remit any jot or forbeare to speake freely to the utmost in their behalfe being such as have advanced philosophy to that honour and reputation which it hath And verily our parents together with the gods have given us our life but to live well we suppose and that truely that it commeth from the philosophers by the meanes of that doctrine which we have received from them as
the tyrant Demylus and having no good successe therein but missing of his purpose maintained the doctrine of Parmenides to be pure and fine golde tried in the fire from all base mettal shewing by the effect that a magnanimous man is to feare nothing but turpitude and dishonour and that they be children and women or else effeminate and heartlesse men like women who are affraid of dolor and paine for having bitten off his tongue with his owne teeth he spit it in the tyrants face But out of the schoole of Epicurus and of those who follow his rules and doctrines I doe not aske what tyrant killer there was or valiant man and victorious in feats of armes what lawgiver what counsellour what king or governour of state either died or suffred torture for the upholding of right and justice but onely which of all these Sages did ever so much as imbarke and make a voiage by sea in his countries service and for the good thereof which of them went in embassage or disbursed any mony thereabout or where is there extant upon record any civill action of yours in matter of government And yet because that Metrodorus went downe one day from the city as far as to the haven Pyraeaeum tooke a journey of five or six miles to aide Mythra the Syrian one of the king of Persias traine and court who had bene arrested and taken prisoner he wrot unto all the friends that he had in the world of this exploit of his and this doubty voiage Epicurus hath magnified exalted in many of his letters What a doe would they have made then if they had done such an act as Aristotle did who reedified the city of his nativity Stagira which had bene destroied by king Philip or as Theophrastus who twice delivered and freed his native city being held and oppressed by tyrants Should not thinke you the the river Nilus have sooner given over to beare the popyr reed than they bene weary of discribing their brave deeds And is not this a grievous matter and a great indignity that of so many sects of Philosophers that have bene they onely in maner enjoy the good things and benefits that are in cities without contributing any thing of their owne unto them There are not any Poets Tragedians or Comedians but they have endevoured to doe or say alwaies some good thing or other for the defence of lawes and policie but these here if peradventure they write ought write of policie that we should not intermeddle at all in the civill government of state of Rhetoricke that we should not plead any causes eloquently at the barre of Roialty that we should avoid the conversing and living in kings courts neither doe they name at any time those great persons who manage affaires of common weale but by way of mockerie for to debase and abolish their glorie As for example of Epaminondas they say that he had indeed some good thing onely in name and word but the same was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say as little as might be for that is the very terme that it pleaseth them to use Moreover they name him heart of yron demaunding why he marched up and downe through out all Peloponnesus with his armie as he did and sat not rather quiet at home in his owne house with a dainty chaplet upon his head given wholly to make good chere and to sleepe with his belly full in a whole skin But me thinks I should not for any thing omit in this place to rehearse what Metrodorus hath written in his booke of philosophy wherein abjuring all dealing in government of state he saith thus Some there be of these wisemen quoth he who being full of vanity and arrogancy had so deepe an insight into the businesse thereof that in treating of the rules of good life and of vertue they suffer themselves to be carried away with the very same desires that Lycurgus and 〈◊〉 fell into What was this vanity indeed and the aboundance of vanity and pride to set the city of Athens free to reduce Sparta to good policy and the government of holsome lawes that yong men should doe nothing licenciously nor get children upon curtisans and harlots and that riches wanton delicacie intemperance loosenesse dissolution should beare no sway nor have the commaund in cities but law onely and justice for these were the desires of Solon And thus Metrodorus by way of scorne and contumelious reproch addeth thus much more for a conclusion to the rest And therefore quoth he it is well beseeming a gentleman to laugh a good and right heartly at all other men but especially at these Solones and Lycurgi But verily such an one were not a gentleman Metrodorus nor well borne but servile base unruly and dissolute and who deserved to be scurged not with the whip which is for free borne persons but with that whip Astragalote where with the maner was to whip and chastice those gelded sacrificers called Gally when they did amisse in the cerimonies and sacrifices of Cylote the great mother of the gods Now that they warred not against the lawgivers but the very lawes themselves a man may heare and learne of Epicurus for in his questions he demaundeth of himselfe whether a wise man being assured that no man ever should know would doe and commit any thing that the law forbiddeth and he maketh an answere which is not full nor an open plaine and simple affirmation saying doe it I will marry confesse it and be knowen thereof I will not Againe writing as I suppose unto Idomeneus he admonisheth him not to subject and enthrall his life unto lawes and the opinions and reputations of men unlesse it be in this regard onely that otherwise there is prepared odious whipping chere and that neere at hand If then it be so that they who abolish lawes governments and policies do withall subvert and overthrow mans life if Metrodorus and Epicurus doe no lesse withdrawing and averting their friends and followers from dealing in publicke affaires and spitefully hating those who doe meddle therein miscalling and railing at the chiefe and wisest lawgivers that ever were yea and willing them to contemne the lawes so that they keepe themselves out of the feare of the whip and danger of punnishment I cannot see that Colotes hath in any thing so much belied others and raised false imputations against them as he hath indeed and truely accused the doctrine and opinions of Epicurus OF LOVE The Summarie THis Dialogue is more dangerous to be read by yoong men than any other Treatise of Plutarch for that there be certeine glaunces heere and there against honest marriage to upholde indirectly and under hana the cursed and 〈◊〉 filthinesse covertly couched under the name of the Love of yoong boyes But minds guarded and armed with true chastitie and the feare of God may see evidently in this discourse the miserable estate of the world in that there be found
wise Convey unto me that Musicall wench of thine that sings so daintily and receive for her ten talents which I send by this bearer let me have her I say unlesse thou thy selfe be in love with her When Antipatrides another of his minions came in a maske on a time to his house accompanied with a prety girle that plaied upon the psaltery sung passing well Alexander taking great delight contentment in the said damosell demanded of Antipatrides whether he were not himselfe enamoured of her And when he answered Yes verily and that exceeding much A mischiefe on thee quoth he leud varlet as thou art and the divell take thee but the wench he absteined from and would not so much as touch her But marke moreover besides of what power even in martiall feats of armes Love is Love I say which is not as saith Euripides Of nature slow dull fickle inconstant Nor in soft cheeks of maidens resiant For a man that is possessed secretly in his heart with Love needeth not the assistance of Mars when he is to encounter with his enemies in the field but having a god of his owne within him and presuming of his presence Most prest he is and resolute to passe through fire and seas The blasts of most tempestuous windes he cares not to appease And all for his friends sake and according as he commandeth him And verily of those children aswell sonnes as daughters of lady 〈◊〉 who in a Tragoedie of Sophocles are represented to be shot with arrowes and so killed one there was who called for no other to helpe and 〈◊〉 her at the point of death but onely her paramor in this wise Oh that some god my Love would send My life to save and me defend Ye all know I am sure doe ye not how and wherefore Cleomachus the Thessalian died in combat Not I for my part quoth Pemptides but gladly would I heare and learne of you And it is a storie quoth my father worth the hearing and the knowledge There came to aide the Chalcidians at what time as there was hot warre in Thessalie against the Eretrians this Cleomachus now the Chalcidians seemed to be strong enough in their footmen but much adoe they had and thought it was a difficult piece of service to breake the cavallerie of their enemies and to repell them So they requested Cleomachus their allie and confederate a brave knight and of great courage to give the first charge and to enter upon the said men of armes With that he asked the youth whom he loved most entirely and who was there present whether he would beholde this enterprise and see the conflict and when the yong man answered Yea and withall kindly kissing and embracing him set the helmet upon his head Cleomachus much more hardy and fuller of spirit than before assembled about him a troupe of the most valourous hosemen of all the Thessalians advanced forward right gallantly and with great resolution set upon the enemies in such sort as at the very first encounter he brake the front disarraied the men of armes and in the end put them to flight Which discomfiture when their infanterie saw they also fled and so the Chalcidians woon the field and archieved a noble victorie Howbeit Cleomachus himselfe was there slaine and the Chalcidians shew his sepulchre and monument in their Market place upon which there standeth even at this day a mighty pillar erected And whereas the Chalcidians before-time held this paederastie or love of yoong boies an in famous thing they of all other Greeks ever after affected and honoured it most But Aristotle writeth that Cleomachus indeed lost his life after he had vanquished the Eretrians in battell but as for him who was thus kissed by his lover he saith that he was of Chalcis in Thrace sent for to aide those of Chalcis in 〈◊〉 and hereupon it commeth that the Chalcidians use to chant such a caroll as this Sweet boies faire impes extract from noble race Endued besides with youth and beauties grace Envie not men of armes and bolde courage Fruition of your prime and flowring age For here aswell of Love and kinde affection As of prowesse we all do make profession The lover was named Anton and the boy whom he loved Philistus as Dionysius the Poet writeth in his booke of Causes And in our city of Thebes ô Pemptides did not one Ardetas give unto a youth whom he loved a complet armour the day that he was enrolled souldier with the inscription of Ardetas his owne name And as for Pammenes an amorous man and one well experienced in love matters he changed and altered the ordinance in battell of our footmen heavily armed reprooving Homer as one that had no skill nor experience of love for ranging the Achaeans by their tribes and wards and not putting in array the lover close unto him whom he loveth for this indeed had beene the right ordinance which Homer describeth in these words The Morians set so close and shield to shield So iointly touch'd that one the other held And this is the onely battalion and armie invincible For men otherwhiles in danger abandon those of their tribe their kindred also and such as be allied unto them yea and beleeve me they forsake their owne fathers and children but never was there enemie seene that could passe through and make way of evasion betweene the lover and his darling considering that such many times shew their adventerous resolution in a bravery and how little reckoning they make of life unto them being in no distresse nor requiring so much at their hands Thus Thero the Thessalian laying and clapping his left hand to a wall drew forth his sword with the right and cut off his owne thumbe before one whom he loved and challenged his corrivall to doe as much if his heart would serve him Another chanced in fight to fall groveling upon his face and when his enemie lifted up his sword to give him a mortall wound he requested him to stay his hand a while untill he could turne his body that his friend whom he loved might not see him wounded in his backe part And therefore we may see that not onely the most martiall and warlicke nations are most given to Love to wit the Boeotians Lacedaemonians and Candiots but also divers renowmed princes and captaines of olde time as namely Meleager Achilles Aristomenes Cimon Epaminondas And as for the last named he had two yong men whom he deerely loved Asopicus and Zephiodorus who also died with him in the field at Mantinea and was likewise interred neere unto him And when Asopicus became hereupon more terrible unto his enemies and most resolute Euchnanus the Amphyssian who first made head against him resisted his furie and smote him had heroique honors done unto him by the Phocaeans To come now unto Hercules hard it were to reckon and number his loves they were so many But among others men honour and worship to
forme and of matter being brought to perfection is procreated this Quinarie or number of five Now if it be true as some do hold that Unitie it selfe is quadrat and foure-square as being that which is the power of it selfe and determineth in it selfe then five being thus compounded of the two first quadrat numbers ought so much the rather to be esteemed so noble and excellent as none can be comparable unto it And yet there is one excellency behind that passeth all those which went before But I feare me quoth I lest if the same be uttered it would debase in some sort the honor of our Plato like as himselfe said the honour and authority of Anaxagor as was depressed and put downe by the name of the Moone who attributed unto himselfe the first invention of the Moones illuminations by the Sunne whereas it was a very ancient opinion long before he was borne How say you hath he not said thus much in his Dialogue entituled Cratylus Yes verily answered Eustrophus but I see not the like consequence for all that But you know quoth I that in his booke entituled The Sophister he setteth downe five most principall beginnings of all things to wit That which is The same The other Motion the fourth and Rest for the fift Moreover in his Dialogue Philebus he bringeth in another kinde of partition and division of these principles where he saith That one is Infinite another Finite or the end and of the mixture of these twaine is made and accomplished all generation as for the cause whereby they are mixed he putteth it for the fourth kinde but leaveth to our conjecture the fift by the meanes whereof that which is composed and mixed is redivided and separate againe And for mine owne part I suppose verily that these principles be the figures and images as it were of those before to wit of That which is The thing engendred of Motion Infinite of Rest the End or Finit of The same the Cause that mixeth of The other the Cause that doth separate But say they be divers principles and not the same yet howsoever it be there are alwaies still five kinds five differences of the said principles Some of them before Plato being of the same opinion or having heard so much of another consecrated two E. E. unto the god of this temple as a very signe to symbolize that number which comprehendeth all And peradventure having heard also that Good appeareth in five kinds whereof the first is Meane or Measure the second Symmetrie or Proportion the third Under standing the fourth The Sciences Arts and True Opinions which are in the soule the fifth Pure and Syncere Pleasure without mixture of any trouble and paine they staied there reciting this verse out of Orpheus But at the sixth age cease your song It booteth not to chaunt so long After these discourses passed betweene us Yet one briefe word more quoth he will I say unto Nicander and those about him For sing I will To men of skill The sixth day of the moneth when you lead the Prophetesse Pythia into some hal named Prytanium the first casting of lots among you of three tendeth to five for she casteth three and you two how say you is it not so Yes verily quoth Nicander but the cause heereof we dare not reveale and declare unto others Well then quoth I smiling thereat untill such time as god permitteth us after we are become holy and consecrate for to know the trueth thereof meane while let that also be added unto the praises which have bene alledged in the recommendation of the number Five Thus ended the discourse as touching the commendations attributed unto the number of five by the Arithmeticians and Mathematicians as far as I can remember or call to mind And Ammonius as he was a man who bestowed not the worst and least part of his time in Mathematicke Philosophy tooke no small pleasure in the hearing of such discourses and said Needlesse it is and to no purpose to stand much upon the precise and exact confutation of that which these yong men heere have alledged unlesse it be that every number will affoord you also sufficient matter and argument of praise if you will but take the paines to looke into them for to say nothing of others a whole day would not be enough to expresse in words all the vertues and properties of the sacred number Seven dedicated to Apollo And moreover we shall seeme to pronounce against the Sages and wisemen that they fight both against common law received and all antiquity of time if disseizing the number of seven of that preeminence whereof it is in possession they should consecrate Five unto Apollo as more meet and beseeming for him And therefore mine opinion is that this writing EI signifieth neither number nor order nor conjunction nor any other defective particle but is an entier salutation of it selfe and a compellation of the God which together with the very utterance and pronuntiation of the word induceth the speaker to think of the greatnesse power of him who seemeth to salute and greet every one of us when we come hither with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy selfe which signifieth no lesse than if he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say All haile or god save you and we again to render the like answer him EI that is to say Thou art yeelding unto him not a false but a true appellation and title which onely and to him alone appertaineth namely that he is For in very trueth and to speake as it is we who are mortall men have no part at all of being indeed because that all humane nature being ever in the midst betweene generation and corruption giveth but an obscure apparence a darke shadow a weake and uncertaine opinion of it selfe And if paradventure you bend your minde and cogitation for to comprehend a substance and essence thereof you shal doe as much good as if you would cluch water in your hand with a bent fist for the more you seeme to gripe and presse together that which of the owne nature is fluid and runneth out so much the more shall you leese of that which you will claspe and hold and even so all things being subject to alteration and to passe from one change unto another reason seeking for a reall subsistence is deceived as not able to apprehend any thing subsistant in trueth and permanent for that every thing tendeth to a being before it is or beginneth to die so soone as it is engendred For as Her 〈◊〉 was wont to say a man cannot possibly enter twice into one and the same river no more is he able to finde any mortall substance twice in one and the same estate Such is the suddenesse and celerity of change that no sooner is it dissipated but it gathereth againe anon or rather indeed not againe nor anon but at once it both subsisteth and also
what they be 〈◊〉 Wine liberally taken what effects it worketh 194.10 Wine how it killeth the vine 1013 20 Wine how hot and how it is colde 1112.10.20 Wine how students should use 621.10 Wine the best drinke ib. Wine what effects it worketh 681 20.763.50 it discovereth the 〈◊〉 of the heart 681.40 Wine a singular medicine that Wine is cold 683.40 689.30 Wine new See Must. Wine whether it should runne through a streiner before it be drunke 736.20 Wine called at the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the name of Lees. 736.40 varietie of Wines soone causeth drunkennesse 700.50 Wine best in the middes of the vessels 747.30 Wine why poured forth at Rome before the temple of Venus 866.30 Wine hurt with winde and aire 747.50 Wine the foundation of government and counsell in Greece 762.1 Wine in Greeke why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 762.50 Wine and the vine came of giants bloud spilled upon the ground 1289.40 Wine is talkative 763.1 Wine worketh boldnesse and confidence 763.40 Wine causeth a selfe conceit and opinion of wisedome 763.1 Wine new at what time of the yccre first tasted or set abroach 785.1 Wine sparily drunke by the Aegyptian kings 1289.40 that Wine is cold 688.1 a Wing compared to God 1021.40 Winter how it is caused 829.40 Wisdome and fortune produce like effects 628.20 the wise man of the Stoicks described 1055.50 Wisdome what it is 233.1 to be preferred before all worldly things 1288.1 Wool more pliable if it be gently handled 658.30 Wolves whelpe al in twelve daies 1015.20 Women not soone drunke and the reason thereof 687.10 their temperature moist ib. Women whether they be colder or hotter than men 688.1 that Women be hotter ib. 10 one Womans body put to tenne dead mens bodies in a funerall fire 688.20 that Women be colder than men 688.30 Women why they conceive not at all times 843.20 a Woman beareth five children at the most at one birth 850.50 Women why they weare white at funerals in Rome 859.30 a prety tale of a talkative Woman 198.30 Women can keepe no secret counsell 199.30 Women are best adorned with vertue and literature 325.10 20 Womens vertuous deeds 482.20 Women publickely praised at Rome 483.10 Women of Salmatica their vertuous act 489.50 a Woman of Galatias love to Toredorix 502.50 Wooden dogge among the Locrians 892.50 Wood-pecker a birde why so much esteemed at Rome 857.10 Wood-pecker feed Romulus and Remus 857.10 consecrated to Mars wherefore ib. 20 Words filthy are to be avoided by children 11.50 a Word occasion of much mischiefe 242.20 Words compared with deeds 402 40 Words the lightest things in the world 668.40.196.10 Words have wings 198.10 World of what principles it was composed 1305.50 World how it was made 808.20 in the World foure regiments 1219.30 World one 808.50 how Plato prooveth it 809.1.1335.30 more Worlds than one 1335.50 World not incorruptible 809.10 Worlds infinite 809.10 infinity of Worlds condemned 1332.30.1334.20 World round 809.30 Worlds in number five 1335.20 World why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 818.1 Worlds whether one or infinite 818.10 Worlds not one nor five but 183. 1334.30 World and Whole not both one 818.10 World and the parts thereof compared to a mans body 1168 World what it is 646.10 Worlds in number five how prooved 1339.10 World what forme or figure it hath 818.20 World whether it be animate or endued with soule 818.30 Worlds five which they be 1359.1 whether it be corruptile or eternall 818.40 World whereof it is nourished 818.50 Worlds five proportionate to the five senses 1359.10 Worlds fabricke at which element it began 819.10 Worlds fabricke in what order it was framed 819.30 World why it copeth or bendeth 819.50 the World to come hath joies for good men 603.20 Worlds sides right left 820.20 the Worlds conflagration 1328.10 World created by god 1032.40 the Worlds generall conflagration held by the Stoicks 1090.30 Worship of brute beasts excused 1327.50 Wrathfulnesse what it is 119.50 Wrestling whether it were the most ancient Gymnike exercise 672.30 X XAnthians plagued by the meanes of Bellerophontes 489.40 Xanthians negotiate in the name of their mothers and beare their names 489.50 Xenocrates his aurelets or bolsters for the eares 52.20 Xenocrates a scholar hard to learne 63. 1. his opinion as touching the soule of the world 1031.10 he directed Alexander the great in the government of the king dome 1128.30 Xenocrite her vertuous deed 505 30. she conspireth the death of Aristodemus the tyrta 506.30 Xenophanes his saying of the Aegyptian Osiris 1149.10 Xenophon reporteth his owne acts 372.10 Xenophon the Philosopher beloved of king Agesilaus 448.30 how he tooke the death of his sonne 529.30 Xenophon called Nycteris 930.20 he penneth the history of himselfe 982.10 Xerxes menaceth Athos 121.40 he died for sorrow that his owne sonnes were at deadly discord 176.50 Xerxes and Ariamenes bretheren how they strove for the crowne 186.40 how they were agreed 187.1.10 Xerxes his pollicie to keepe downe rebellious mutinous subjects 403.40 his apophthegmes ib. his clemency unto two Lacedaemonians 474.1 Xerxes his barbarous cruelty unto rich Pythes 507.20 Xuthus 895.20 Y YEere why it is called the age of man 1328.20 of Jupiter 826.20 of the Sunne ib. of Mercury and Venus ib. of the moone ib. the Yeere or revolution of Saturne 826.20 the great Yeere 826.20 Yeeres dedicated to Jupiter 876.1 Yeugh tree shade how hurtfull 684.40 Yoong men are to be governed with greater care than children 14.40 to what vices they be subject 14.30.40 Yoong men how they sleepe at Lacedaemon 475. 40. how they demeaned themselves to their elders at Lacedaemon 476.1 Yoong lads permitted to steale at Lacedaemon 476.20 Yoong folke drunke resemble olde men 687.50 Youth ought not to be over-bold nor yet too fearefull 8.40 how they should read the bookes of Sages 9.50 Youth is to obey 391.20 Youth brought up hardly at Lacedaemon 476.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it fignifieth in composition 726.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 726.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 760.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Nosegaies 684.30 Yron why it is not vocall and resonant 770.30 Z ZAleucus his 〈◊〉 highly reputed among the Locrians 306.10 Zarates the maister of Pythagoras 1031.20 Zeipetus king of the 〈◊〉 903.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say To live 991. 20 Zeno his opinion of vertue 65.1 he lost all that he had 148.40 Zeno traineth his scholars to the hearing of the musicke of instruments 67.20 Zeno the disciple of Parmenides undertooke to kill the 〈◊〉 Demytus 1128.30 Zeno bitoff his own tongue 196.30 contrary to himselfe 1058.50 Zeno the Cittiaean honored by Antigonus the yonger 416.1 Zeno his valorous resolution 1128.30 his opinion as touching the principles of all things 808.20 his answere to the Persian embassadour as touching taciturnity 194.30 Zephiodorus a minion of Epaminondas 1146.10 Zephyrus what wind 693.40.789.30 Zovs hath many significations 〈◊〉 Zeuxidamus his apophthegmes 457.50 Zodiak circle
that 〈◊〉 able to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must 〈◊〉 for peace 〈◊〉 * Some reade thus said unto Laevinus that Pyrrhus and not the Epuotes had over come the Romanes * Or named 〈◊〉 as some reade Balia a town 〈◊〉 Spaine * Captaines are to direct Souldiers to obey and exccute * or pounds * Great prosperitie is to be suspected to abate our pride therefore God doth delay it with some crosses z No man chastiseth wise men so much as themselves z Honour attends upon vertue and is the reward thereof b Selfe doe selfe have c It is good to lie off and temporize when enemies are 〈◊〉 d Enmities ought not to be immortall c An example of singular justice * or Camertes * The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Noting that by condition he was a slaue * Or gold g It is a 〈◊〉 to see the 〈◊〉 overthrow of such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 houses h A man of honour can not be too carefull for to quit him well in his calling and vocation * Or thus I have upon the 〈◊〉 come what 〈◊〉 of it * i. 20. 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 * i. 〈◊〉 * Or read thus it is either bald or a three according to some Greeke copies a b d e A good man rejoiceth no in the victory obteined in civill wars f Signifying that hee was 〈◊〉 his head out of temper g He that hath done the injarie is to make amends * or 〈◊〉 h High wals be a fortesse for women i A man ought to grieve more for 〈◊〉 sinne than for be ing exiled * or 〈◊〉 * or 〈◊〉 * A lover of your fellow citizens * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * Or prospe 〈◊〉 * Some reade thus Were compelled of necessitie to be captaines or kings 〈◊〉 of Spartanes and Lacontans whose names are not expressed * Otherwise thus We go forth to 〈◊〉 hons but hares we hunt in their harborroughs * 〈◊〉 Some interpret cleane countrary reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 to allure duty gently handle or adorne the 〈◊〉 These 〈◊〉 be unperfect and it seemeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in translating this first verse read it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * the due judgement * Called 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which some interpret Having a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which some interpret Having a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * That is to say Divine * Or Lesbius * Or Argeus * It seemeth that somewhat is here wanting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the baike who would say the root of a barke but Phleos as Theophraslus reporteth is an herbe growing plenteously in the lake Orchomenus in Paeotia and therefore well enough knowen to Plutarch I take it to be Red-mace or Cats-taile * I see not how this that is included within these marks agreeth with this place or matter in hand I suppose therefore it is inserted heere without judgement taken out of some other booke * Or rather 〈◊〉 * To wit in 〈◊〉 both the one and the other * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which some 〈◊〉 the braines of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this bird 〈◊〉 so rare as that it is thought for a 〈◊〉 thing I see not how this propertie should be observed in the braines thereof * To Aius 〈◊〉 as som thinke to the goddesse 〈◊〉 as O others * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * All this is to be understood of Pompeius Magnus * Some were called in Latine Reges 〈◊〉 * Some thinke they were so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say by the 〈◊〉 for that they were plaine and easie * Or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Sacrisicers The Preface * Graid medium * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which soundeth all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath a faire disserent sense reade according to the former it signisieth musicke after the later it betokeneth vomiting This equivocation in Greeke carrieth that grace with it which I can not so aptly expresse in English * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say naturall How ever it be you must understand it of wanton love which is neither naturall nor harmonicall For this Athencdorus was noted for incest with one of his daughters * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * That is to say if a fish be eaten in common it is not knowen how much one hath eaten of it more than his sellowes by the bones lying upon his trencher * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the sould others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is silence * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Latine 〈◊〉 seemeth to reade * Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drowfinesse * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benummednesse * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wine * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the French translation * The Yewgh tree as I take it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Sec 〈◊〉 in the end of his Symposium or banquet * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 as some interpret it * I suppose Homer used the words in a farre other sense by Moschions leave be it spoken who was a better physician than a grammarian as it should seeme * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wine * That is to say The 〈◊〉 killing * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie beanes * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it were not a stargeon it was some delicate fish * See the blindnesse and 〈◊〉 of there pagans who for want of the true light out of holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on still in duknesse caried with the wings onely of humane wit and 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some take it for parsley 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take it 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and in truth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to both * For so he interpreteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Some take it for the Lariot * That is to say bunger and famine it seemeth by that which followeth that they put poverty also before Bulimos in opposition to health * p. for b. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Untrue * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate this place thus Swalloweth downe her rennet when she is taken reading the Greeke as it should seeme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose neither of them both sound but
patrons and advocates of so detestable a cause such I meane as in this booke are brought in under the persons of Protogenes and Pisias Meane while they may perceive likewise in the combot of matrimoniall love against unnaturall Poederastie not to be named that honestie hath alwaies meanes sufficient to defend it selfe for being vanquished yea and in the end to go away with the victorie Now this Treatise may be comprised in foure principall points of which the first after a briefe Preface wherein Autobulus being requested to rehearse unto his companions certeine reports which before time hee had heard Plutarch his father to deliver as touching Love entreth into the discourse conteineth the historie of Ismenodora enamoured upon a yoong man named Bacchon whereupon arose some difference and dispute of which Plutarch and those of his companie were chosen arbitratours Thereupon Protogenes seconded by Pisias and this is the second point setting himselfe against Ismenodora disgraceth and discrediteth the whole sex of woman kinde and praiseth openly enough the love of males But Daphnaeus answereth them so fully home and pertinently to the purpose that he discovereth and detecteth all their filthinesse and confuteth them as be hoovefull it was shewing the commodities and true pleasure of conjugall love In this defence assisted he is by Plutarch who prooveth that neither the great wealth nor the forward affection of a woman to a man causeth the mariage with her to be culpable or woorthy to be blamed by divers examples declaring that many women even of base condition have beene the occasion of great evils and calamities But as he was minded to continue this discourse newes came how Bacchon was caught up and brought into the house of Ismenodora which made Protogenes and Pisias to dislodge insomuch as their departure gave entrie into the third and principall point concerning Love what it is what be the parts the causes the sundry effects and fruits thereof admirable in all sorts of persons in altering them so as they become quite changed and others than they were before which is confirmed by many notable examples and similitudes In the last point Plutarch discourseth upon this argument and that by the Philosophy of Plato and the Aegyptians conferring the same with the doctrine of other Philosophers and Poets Then having expresly and flatly condemned Paederastie as a most 〈◊〉 and abhominable thing and adjoined certaine excellent advertisements for the entertening of love in wedlocke betweene husband and wife of which he relateth one proper example his speech endeth by occasion of a messenger who came in place and drew them all away to the wedding of Ismenodora and Bacchon beforesaid OF LOVE FLAVIANUS IT was at Helicon ô Autobulus was it not that those discourses were held as touching Love which you purpose to relate unto us at this present upon our request and intreaty whether it be that you have put them downe in writing or beare them well in remembrance considering that you have so often required and demanded them of your father AUTOEULUS Yes verily in Helicon it was ô Flavianus among the Muses at what time as the Thespians solemnized the feast of Cupid for they celebrate certeine games of prise every five yeeres in the honour of Love as well as of the Muses and that with great pompe and magnificence FLAVIANUS And wot you what it is that we all here that are come to heare you will request at your hands AUTOBULUS No verily but I shall know it when you have tolde me FLAVIANUS Mary this it is That you would now in this rehersall of yours lay aside all by-matters and needlesse preambles as touching the descriptions of faire medowes pleasant shades of the crawling and winding Ivie of rils issuing from fountaines running round about and such like common places that many love to insert desirous to counterfeit and imitate the description of the river Ilissus of the Chast-tree and the fine greene grasse and prety herbs growing daintily upon the ground rising up alittle with a gentle assent and all after the example of Plato in the beginning of his Dialogue Phaedrus with more curiositie iwis and affectation than grace and elegancie AUTOBULUS What needs this narration of ours my good friend Flavianus any such Prooeme or 〈◊〉 for the occasion from whence arose and proceeded these discourses requireth onely an affectionate audience and calleth for a convenient place as it were a stage and scaffold for to relate the action for otherwise of all things els requisit in a Comedie or Enterlude there wanteth nothing onely let us make our praiers unto the Muses Mother Ladie Memorie for to be propice unto us and to vouchsafe her assistance that we may not misse but deliver the whole narration My father long time before I was borne having newly espoused my mother by occasion of a certeine difference and variance that fell out betweene his parents and hers tooke a journey to Thespiae with a full purpose to sacrifice unto Cupid the god of Love and to the feast hee had up with him my mother also for that 〈◊〉 principally apperteined unto her to performe both the praier the sacrifice So there accompanied him from his house certeine of his most familiar friends Now when he was come to Thespiae he found Daphnaeus the sonne of Archidamus and Lysander who was in love with Simons daughter a man who of all her woers was best welcome unto her and most accepted Soclarus also the sonne of Aristion who was come from Tithora there was besides Protogenes of Tarsos and Zeuxippus the Lacedaemonian both of them his olde friends and good hosts who had given him kinde enterteinment and my father said moreover that there were many of the best men in 〈◊〉 there who were of his acquaintance Thus as it should seeme they abode for two or three daies in the citie enterteining one another gently at their leasure with discourses of learning one while in the common empaled parke of exercises where they youth used to wrestle and otherwhiles in the Theaters and Shew-places keeping companie together But afterwards for to avoid the troublesome contentions of Minstrels and Musicians where it appeared that all would go by favour such labouring there was before hand for voices they dislodged from thence for the most part of them as out of an enemies countrey and retired themselves to Helicon and there sojourned and lodged among the Muses where the morrow morning after they were thither come arrived and repaired unto them Anthemion and Pisias two noble gentlemen allied both and affectionate unto Barchon surnamed The Faire and at some variance one with another by reason of I wot not what jealousie in regard of the affection they bare unto him For there was in the city of Thespiae a certeine Dame named Ismenodora descended of a noble house and rich withall yea and of wise and honest carriage besides in all her life for continued shee had no small time in widowhood without blame