Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	young_a	youth_n	29	3	7.9675	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51723	Considerations upon the lives of Alcibiades and Coriolanus by Marques Virgilio Malvezzi, one of the supreme councell of warre, to his Catholick Majestie ; dedicated to the King, his master ; englished by Robert Gentilis, gent.; Considerationi con occasione d'alcuni luoghi delle vite d'Alcibiade et di Coriolano. English	Malvezzi, Virgilio, marchese, 1595-1653.; Gentilis, Robert.	1650 (1650)	Wing M356; ESTC R12183	129,318	301

so infallible in man who operates by election as in beasts who work according to nature and that you can hardly so know beauty as to distinguish the Masculine from the seminine That which proceeds from the facility which nature finds in working with the humid and that which it finds in operating with the temperate That which hath its influence from Venus and that which hath it from Sol and Iupiter The one is seen to incline the inferiour part to condescend to embracements The other makes prudent addes Majesty and respect and brings up the superiour part to a chaste desire of heavenly beauty The one belongs to the feeling the other to the mind The first false the other a true mark of a wise mind If Socrates did consider what Alcibiades was he might quickly know from what fountaine his beauty was derived Some one attributed so much to this beauty which we terme Masculine and which being perfect is a sign of a most exquisitely tempered body that he affirmed that if any such were and once being did endure it would make the subject thereof most calme and happy its senses perfect its understanding eminent its passions moderate and without repining obedient to reason I never did grant it any superiority in Sciences once I condescended to yeeld it in morall actions Now I deny it in all and will grant it no superiority but in those vertues only which serve for the body the appetitive the attractive the concoctive the retentive and the expulsive To speculation the body is a burthen and opposes it self to the working of it The stronger it is the more it withstands and it is strongest when it is most temperate In a dry leane withered body which is almost no body at all you shall find passions almost quite extinguished the understanding in a manner Angelicall a perfect operation and most excellent speculation In bruite beasts the case is different because the reason is likewise so They have need of the bodyes assistance if they will operate well man needs none but onely not to be hindred by it In beasts the stronger it is the more it helps in men when it is weakest it hinders least But be it how it will me thinkes S●crates did not deserve much commendations in this manner of arguing For if from the beauty of the creature which is never perfect neither in man nor woman but in all frail and fading we argue concerning the creatures beauty we shall judge Fidias and Apelles beauties farre to exc●ed the divine when we set before our eyes their statues and pictures drawen with excellent lines and colou●s and of a more lastīng substance then our selves You will s●y these have no soule Then we m●st not ascend to the contemplation of God from lineaments and colours but from the soule The body you'● say is the shadow of the mind and soule I deny it and will alwayes hold internall beauty which consists in the miraculous framing organizing of this bodily fabrick equally composed by the Almighty in all men to be a more fit and secure ladder for man to climbe up with his understanding towards his Creator than the externall which differing in each one consists in three or foure lineaments and a few colours I will say that Galen tooke a better way then Socrates though each of them proceeded according to his owne art The one being a Physician attributed unto the use of the parts the chiefe praise for the knowledge of Gods greatnesse The other a Sculptor forgetting that he was a Philosopher also attributed it to the lineaments The Angell saith a wise man is the shadow of God the soule the Angels the body the soules And then he wonders that seeing neither Go● nor the Angell busie themselves upon the consideration of their shadow to their owne prejudice the soule should forget and lose it selfe in loving and following its shadow But it is not true because this is not the true shadow He had argued much better if he had gone on by degrees thus The Angell is God●s shadow Man the Angel's the Beast man's and Plant●s the Beasts Those who fall in love with lineaments and colours in relation to the soule where that is corrupt frame a true case more deplorable then the fabulous tale of Narcissus He was enamoured of his owne shadow they of another mans in one there was a true and reall beauty of body in the other a false supposed one of the mind Plato in a place calls Socrates a hunter as if he went investigating Gods beauty by meanes of that of Alcibiades He knew he had erred if that beauty was joyned with a deformity of the soule and to cover Socrates his defect he feigned vertue in Alcibiades bearing greater affection to his Master then to truth He cals him bonae indolis in whose life there is nothing constantly to be found but uncleannesse What then Shall we blame Socrates and tax him with dishonesty Farre be it from us Hee loved Alcibiades and Alcibiades him with a chaste and sincere love both drawn thereunto by the harmonious proportion of defect and superabundancy Socrates had a most beautifull minde a leane dry squalid body bairy bald and melancholy Alcibiades a most beautifull body a lascivious dishonest intemperate ambitious minde The old man with his eyes enjoyed the young ones beauty he by the eare participated of the old mans vertue A wonderfull exchange more pleasing in Socrates and more profitable in Alcibiades and in both equally honest Alcibiades gives Hipponicus a box on the eare to make sport and a jest amongst his companions yet those which write of Ridiculousnesse exclude pain out of it Peradventure it ought not to be excluded when the person is more ridiculous than the act painfull as we daily see it practised in Jesters a box on the eare is sensible in a child in elder yeares it doth not pain Nature because it will not take away the vigor of the punishment where it hath not given a spirit sensible of resentment hath given a tender flesh to feel it and where an obtuse sense of the pain an apprehensive feeling of the disgrace The blow of the box is not so sensible to an old man as his person is ridiculous to a young one there being oftentimes an apparent deformity seen in them without any apparent pain Alcibiades could not have m●de a jest of the blow nor framed mirth out of it had he not first drawn it from the person But if according to the Philosophers opinion Compassion be the daughter of Feare by reason of that which may in like manner befall us how can the young man laugh at the old and not rather compassionate him And if seeing a defect in another which we have not our selves is a cause of comfort rather than griefe in us whence groweth our pleasure in speaking and hearing others evill spoken of And And how ought old men bee grieved at the follies they see in young men

prepared and presently comes to a tryall finding the other unprovided wavering and doubtfull between credulity and distrust Whereas the other taken upon a sudden unprovided of meanes and wanting time which he cannot take unlesse hee likewise give it the other is often oppressed before hee bee prepared in preparing himselfe or at least ill prepared To take away and banish one onely was not not a right Cure it rather increased the Disease To take away that humour out of the Body which is not offensive and leave that which is offensive is according to understanding Physicians one of the chiefe causes of malignant Feavers If a Subject in a Citie exalt himselfe above the rest what can bee done better then to give him an opposite And what worse than to remove him from him If hee doth not frame himselfe or Nature give him one let Art bring him in one The Ostracisme banishing one onely did let the other loose made him Lord of the Citie and gave him opportunity to become a Tyrant Two great disasters according to Astrology make one good Fortune Physicians doe not take away the Bilis or Choler where they feare the Dropsie nor the Pituita or Flegm● where they feare a Plethora Contraries mingled doe not hurt the Body which they overthrow being divided Whilest Caesar and Pompey both remained in Rome the Common-wealth did not perish The ones going out and the others remaining within ruined it To take away the best was as much as to let the worst loose In this Aristotle himselfe was puzzled hee would not likewise have him to remaine in the Citie where hee cannot place him but as King He sends him into the Woods he compares him to Iove he would not have man worthy to bee his Companion and yet hee makes him a companion of wild beasts Hee was peradventure deceived In describing an excellent man hee seemes to attribute unto him the worst of vices If hee bee ambitious or foolish hee is not excellent if hee bee wise and modest he will shun and refuse not affect the Scepter he will subject himselfe to the Lawes as if he had need of them to Magistrates as inferior to them to obedience as if he were not borne to command It is contradictory to doe ill and be excellent The instance which Aristotle gives of a voyce exceeding the rest in a quire of Musick if he doth not take away discretion from him that hath it the voyce will not take away the harmony from the rest That of one member bigger then another hath nothing to doe with goodnesse but with Monstruosity it is as farre from Excellency in goodnesse as it is neere exceeding badnesse He that gave the humors of the body for an example where if one exceeds the rest though it be a good one yet it diseases the body he mistooke the greatest for the best and tooke the humors for the naturall heat which be it never so great doth not burne nor consume but foment preserve and vivifie He were but a very ignorant Physician that would expell it and so is he a Politician that will banish the best out of a City Some cannot suffer the best nor endure the worst They feare one for their owne sake the oother for the Common-wealth's They envy the former and are ashamed of the latter They seeke after indifferent subjects which may not dishonour the Publicke nor put them in danger and this they cannot attaine unto because nature produces but few such and taking away the best they raise up a worst as out of a mixt if the predomin ant be taken away The Cretans proved it they no sooner had banished the best but they found themselves in the hands of the worst What is the driving of a great man out of the Citie but adding the adherence of strangers to the applause which he hath gained amongst the Citizens Caesar would not give Senators leave to travell long out of Italy when they were once above twenty yeares of age Augustus not out of Rome Tyberius kept them also within the Citie whom he had chosen for Governours of Provinces Politick Writers have blamed the letting of a subject grow great in the Citie more than the banishing of him when he was grown so Aristotle desires a remedy from the Lawes others seek it from Art They keep them idle who haue any signe of great worth they transplant those who have gained great reputation in one place into another If riches gained it him they cause him to spend them if valour in warres they call him home to the Citie if he be reputed of great understanding or rashly valiant they employ the one in affaires which may over-throw him and expose the other to dangers in which he may hazard the losse of himselfe If he attained thereunto by being officious and serviceable they deny him those boones and favours which he asketh And generally upon the least occasion they punish them all most severely But all this hath more outward shew than safety There is neither Law nor Art can hinder the rising off him whom Nature doth even from his birth accompany with such beames of happinesse that either he findes no resistance or forces his way through wheresoever hee meets with it good things prove excellent to him and he can turn bad into good All kind of food serves him for nourishment and each poyson is a remedy to him These kinde of balls the harder they are dashed against the ground they higher the bownd up towards heaven Herod the great by Hireanus his first persecuter of him got the Tetrarchy by the second the Principality by the third he made himselfe Lord of his own native Countrey by the assistance of the Romanes Occasions oftentimes will not permit them to be kept idle If the tumults of Naples had gone forward the Spaniards had determined to send the great Captaine thither again The businesse of Portugal would not suffer the Duke of Alva to be idle though he were in prison And the warres of Germany forced the Militia to be returned in Waldestein's hands Transplanting and changing of place gives way for the gaining of new reputation and doth not diminish the old It had not a vailed Tiberius to have transplanted Germanicus out of the North into the East if his death had not helped him By great expences a man for the most part gains applause want of money doth not endammage a subject that is in credit and few great ones have lost themselves thereby Caesars friends were deceived therein for he then became Lord of the Common-wealth when they thought his debts would have ruined him To call one home from an army to the City is as much as to adde the peoples favour to that of the Souldiours Domitian finding he was not thereby able to deale with Agricola was constrained to make use of poison and Tiberius met with a Subject that would not part from it To put them upon businesses in which they may lose their

Youth should grieve at the defects of old age and old men laugh at the ignorance of youth But they are not sorry that a young man wants wisdome but onely that he doth not know it and esteem it because they exceeding in this noble vertue the daughter and onely comfort of old Age they are grieved to see that Talent despised for which onely they can bee respected and reverenced Young men laugh at old men because the deformity which they see present being greater than the griefe moves their imagination stronglier than the future on which oftentimes they doe not think and which they know not whether it will happen or no or hope it will be better What a barbarous thing is a young man Let him that will bee safe from him shun him he walks in unknown wayes and I had almost said like a thing mixt of Man and Beast the degree of the mixture is unknown what he will be is impenetrable sometimes they are like Beasts because they doe not make use of reason sometimes worse because they abuse it The overmuch heat hinders wisdome in youth too much coldnesse extinguishes it in old age sometimes it never comes but man passes from immaturity to rottennesse and when it does come it is alwayes late and lasts but a little It is almost the onely one amongst sublunary things which doth not receive the proportion of Periods a Beginning a Being an Increase and Declining Quintilian wonders why all men being made by Nature to be good few are such I to not wonder at it doe rather consider whence it proceeds that the superior part for the most part is not so and whereas it is made to command it obeyes Peradventure the advantage of yeares is a great cause of it in which our sense doth with ease tyranny over us without meeting with any opposition or let from the soule and because they are the first yeares it takes strong root and being many it frames a habit Then comes Reason in and findes the Tyrant already in possession fortified and rooted It must fight against that which he is and that which he hath done it must subdue the forces of sense overcome the resistance of habit and destroy that Nature to frame a new one But why doe we not at the first as soon as we are born attain to reason Peradventure because we would then presently operate without a guide and wanting experience we should precipitate Learned and wisemen induced by a case which happened in our dayes and being singular and almost monstrous makes no president have believed that a Subject may securely passe over from speculation to practice without any further experience I will here set down my opinion therein with all due respect and reverence to famous Writers of great merit If truth onely w●re the object of our understanding and not that also which is like unto it there would be no error And if all things could be demonstrated there would be no opinions the deficiency of the one and super-abundancy of the other ruine the world The understanding despairing of demonstrating the truth gives it selfe over to vanity and goes in quest of opinion and not being able to acquiesce in it he raises himselfe higher and seekes to stirre up admiration through novelty seeing he cannot teach and direct with truth He esteems himselfe to be a brave man in Sciences that makes not the clearest but the hardest argument which though it doth not convince yet it overcomes the understanding as if the ones wisdome consisted in the others ignorance and truth which should be the easiest for the understanding to finde as the center of ponderous things is sought out by difficult obscure things How many things are there daily seen which because we know not how they are nor how they are done doe astonish and breed admiration in us for nothing else but onely because we take the lof●iest and most difficult way to understand what they are and how performed And afterward if the Artificer doe divulge it we finde it to be an easie and plaine way we acknowledge the error we cease our admiration and remaine ashamed The like would happen in questions concerning Sciences if truth were discored to us and that God did not hide it from man shewing him this great Fabrick of the World keeping him still in disputes not letting him understand it because he will mortifie him The Politick truth of the future being then ordinarily concealed how shall such an understanding find it which is accustomed to elevate it selfe above the matter to seek extravagant wayes to subtilize distinguish invent and imagine that if it doth not p●netrate into it it happens because it doth not raise elevate it self suff●ciently Then in our case it finds it self in a lowly gross matter not hard to be attained because the understanding doth not reach unto it but because for the most part it goes beyond it One going from Sciences where he is schollar that followes the opinions of those that went before him and he a master that invents and comming to the politick where Experience is Mistress and he a Master that followes it shall commit as many errors as the things are which he invents despairing of ever warranting or assert●ng any thing if he doth not turn from being a Master to be a Schollar forsaking speculation which is an enemy to Experience But above all others he shall seldome prove able in politick affaires that is accustomed to interpret the holy Scripture The difficulty proceeds not onely from the difference of t●mes God then making for the most part the secondary causes obedient to merit and now letting them oftentimes runne in favour of injustice but likewise from the difference which is between the Divine and Humane intellect the one infinite the other finite this an accident that a substance The holy Ghost doth not speak a word for one thing alone his sense may be interpreted for any thing that is pious for he meanes it all Hee gives scope of altering thoughts interpret and inlarge the old invent new teach with the doctrine and delight with the variety without prejudice of truth But man doth and saith one thing onely for it and and not alwayes for that which he should doe or say In what case then shall that man finde himselfe who comes from interpreting the Divine meaning which is so large and so good and goeth to interpret that of men which is alwayes short and for the most part evill seeing that in the one he cannot erre without he digresse and in the other men have often erred because they have not digressed I doe not say that discourse is not nec●ssary for man I exclude it in speculative Sciences and admit it in what belongs to practice snow to be snow ought to be white and so ought a woman to be fair and yet notwithstanding if snow were as a woman it would not be white and if a woman were of the