the knowledge of a certain Herb proper for their Cure There is no Sense that has not a mighty Dominion and that does not by it's power introduce an infinite number of Knowledges If we were defective in the intelligence of sounds of Musick and of the Voice it would cause an inimaginable confusion in all the rest of our Science For besides what appertains to the proper effect of every Sense how many Arguments Consequences and Conclusions do we draw to other things by comparing one Sense with another Let an Understanding Man imagine humane Nature originally produc'd without the Sense of Seeing and consider what Ignorance and Trouble such a Defect would bring upon him what a Darkness and Blindness in the Soul he will then see by that of how great Importance to the knowledge of Truth the privation of such another Sense or of two or three should we be so depriv'd would be We have form'd a Truth by the Consultation and Concurrence of our five Senses but peradventure we should have the consent and contribution of eight or ten to make a certain discovery of our own Being The Sects that controvert the Knowledge of man do it principally by the incertainty and weakness of our Senses For since all Knowledge is by their means and mediation convey'd unto us if they fail in their report if they corrupt or alter what they bring us from without if the Light which by them creeps into the Soul be obscur'd in the passage we have nothing else to hold by From this extream difficulty all these fancies proceed that every subject has all we there find in it self That it has nothing in it of what we think we there find and that of the Epicureans that the Sun is no bigger than 't is judg'd by our sight to be Quicquid id est nihilo fertur majore figura Quà m nostris oculis quam cernimus esse videtur But be it what it will in our esteems It is no bigger than to us it seems That the apparences which represent a Body great to him that is near and less to him that is more remote are both true Nec tamen hic oculis falli concedimus hilum Proinde animi vitium hoc oculis adsingere noli Yet that the Eye 's deluded we deny Charge not the Soul's fault therefore on the eye and resolutely that there is no deceit in the Senses that we are to lye at their Mercy and seek elsewhere Reasons to salve and excuse the Difference and Contradictions we there find even to the inventing of Lyes and other slams if it come to that rather than accuse the Senses Timagoras vow'd that by pressing or turning his Eye he could never perceive the light of the Candle to double and that the seeming so proceeded from the Vice of Opinion and not from the Instrument The most absurd of all the Epicureans Absurdities is in denying the force and effect of the Senses Proinde quod in quoque est his visum tempore verum est Et si non potuit ratio dissolvere causam Cur ea quae fuerint juxtim quadrata procul sint Visa rotunda tamen praestat rationis egentem Reddere mendose causas utriusque figurae Quam manibus manifesta suis emittere quoquam Et violare fidem primam convellere tota Fundamenta quibus nixatur vita salusque Non modo enim ratio ruat omnis vita quoque ipsa Concidat extemplo nisi credere sensibus ausis Praecipitesque locos vitare caetera quae sint In genere hoc fugienda Whatever and whenever seen is true And if our Reason can't the Knot undoe Why things seem to be square when very near And at a greater distance round appear 'T is better yet for him that 's at a pause To give of either Figure a false cause Than to permit things manifest to go Out of his Hands to give the lye unto His first belief and the Foundations rend On which all Life and Safety do depend For not alone Reason but Life and all Together will with sudden Ruin fall Unless we dare our Senses trust to miss The danger of a dreadful precipice And other such like Dangers that with Care And Wariness to be evaded are This so desperate and unphilosophical Advice expresses only this that humane Knowledge cannot support it self but by Reason that is unreasonable foolish and mad but that it is yet better that man to set a greater value upon himself make use of any other Remedy how fantastick soever than to confess his necessary Ignorance a truth so disadvantageous to him He cannot avoid owning that the Senses are the sovereign Lords of his Knowledge but they are uncertain and falsifiable in all Circumstances 'T is there that he is to fight it out to the last and if his just Forces fail him as they do to supply that Defect with Obstinacy Temerity and Impudence In case that what the Epicureans say be true viz. That we have no Knowledge if the Senses apparences be false and if that also be true which the Stoicks say That the apparences of the Senses are so false that they can furnish us with no manner of Knowledge We shall conclude to the Disadvantage of these two great Dogmatical Sects that there is no Science at all As to what concerns the Error and uncertainty of the Operation of the Senses every one may furnish himself with as many examples as he pleases so ordinary are the Faults and Tricks they put upon us In the Eccho of a Valley the sound of the Trumpet seems to meet us which comes from a place behind Extantesque procul medio de gurgite montes Idem apparent longè diversi licet Et fugere ad puppim colles campique videntur Quos agimus propter Navim And Rocks i' th Seas that proudly raise their Head Tho far disjoyn'd tho Royal Navies spread Their Sails between yet if from distance shown They seem an Island all combin'd in one Thus Ships though driven by a prosperous Gale Seem fixt to Saylors those seem under Sail That ride at Anchor safe and all admire As they row by to see the Rocks retire Vbi in medio nobis equus acer obhaesit Flumine equi corpus transversum ferre videtur Vis in adversum Flumen contrudere raptim Thus when in rapid Streams my Horse hath stood And I look'd downward on the rowling Flood Though he stood still I thought he did divide The headlong Streams strive against the Tide And all things seem'd to move on every side Like a Musket Bullet under the Fore-finger the middle Finger being lap'd over it which feels so like two that a Man will have much ado to persuade himself there is but one the end of the two Fingers feeling each of them one at the same time For that the Senses are very often Masters of our Reason and constrain it to receive Impressions which it
Society of all Studies Exercises and Commands both Military and Civil in the Common-Wealth and the Philosopher Antisthenes took away all distinction betwixt their Virtue and ours It is much more easie to accuse one Sex than to excuse the other 'T is according to the Proverb Ill may Vice correct Sin CHAP. VI. Of Coaches IT is very easie to make it appear that great Authors when they write of Causes do not only make use of those they think to be the true Causes indeed but also of those they believe are not so provided their Works may be illustrated with the Beauty of Invention They speak true and usefully enough if it be ingeniously We cannot make our selves sure of the supream Cause and therefore clutter a great many together to see if it may not accidentally be amongst them namque unam dicere causam Non satis est verum plures unde una tamen sit And thus my Muse a store of Causes brings For here as in a thousand other things Though by one single Cause th' effect is done Yet since 't is hid a thousand must be shown That we may surely hit that single one Will you ask me whence the Customs of blessing those that Sneeze we break Wind three several ways that which sallies from below is too filthy that which breaks out from the Mouth carries with it some reproach of having eaten too much the third Eruption is Sneezing which because it proceeds from the Head and is without offence we give it this civil Reception Do not laugh at this distinction for they say 't is Aristotle's I think I have read in Plutarch which of all the Authors I ever convers'd with is he who has best mixt Art with Nature and Judgment with Knowledge giving a Reason for the rising of the Stomach in those that are at Sea that it is occasion'd by fear having found out some reason by which he proves that fear may produce such an Effect I who am very subject to vomit know very well that that Cause concerns not me and know it not by Argument but by necessary Experience without instancing what has been often told me that the same thing oft happens in Beasts especially Hogs when out of all apprehension of danger and what an Acquaintance of mine has told me of himself that being very subject to it the Disposition to vomit has three or four times gone off him being very much afraid in a violent Storm as it hapned to that ancient Pejus vexabar quam ut periculum mihi succurreret I was too much troubled for my danger to relieve me I was never afraid upon the Water nor indeed in any other peril and I have had enow before my eyes that have been just enough if death be one so as to be astonish'd and to lose my Judgment Fear springs sometimes as well from want of Judgment as from want of Courage All the dangers I have been in I have look'd upon without winking with an open sound and intire Sight and besides a man must have courage to fear It has formerly served me better than some others so to order my retreat that it was if not without fear nevertheless without affright and astonishment It was stirr'd indeed but not amazed nor stupified Great Souls go yet much farther and represent flights not only sound and temperate but moreover fierce Let us make a Relation of that which Alcibiades reports of Socrates his fellow in Arms I found him says he after the rout of our Army him and Lachez in the rear of those that fled and considered him at my leisure and in security for I was mounted upon a good Horse and he on foot and had so fought I took notice in the first place how much Judgment and Resolution he shew'd in comparison of Lachez and then the bravery of his march nothing different from his ordinary gate his sight firm and regular considering and judging what pass'd about him looking one while upon those and then upon others Friends and Enemies after such a manner as incourag'd the one and signified to the others that he would sell his life dear to any one should attempt to take it from him and so they came off for People are not willing to attack such kind of men but pursue those they see are in a Fright This is the Testimony of this great Captain which teaches us what we every day see that nothing so much throws us into dangers as an inconsiderate eagerness of getting our selves clear of them Quo timoris minus est eo minus ferme pericula est When there is least fear there is for the most part least danger Our People are too blame to say that such a one is afraid of Death when he expresses that he thinks of it and fore-sees it Fore-sight is equally convenient in what concerns us whether good or ill To consider and judge of the danger is in some sort the reverse to being astonish'd I do not find my self strong enough to sustain the force and impetuosity of this Passion of Fear nor of any other vehement Passion whatever If I was once conquered and beaten down I should never rise again very sound Whoever should once make my Soul lose her footing would never set it upright again she retasts and researches her self too profoundly and too much to the quick and therefore would never let the wound she had receiv'd heal and cicatrize It has been well for me that never any sickness has yet discompos'd it At every charge made upon me I make my utmost opposition and best defence by which means the first that should rout me would make me for ever rallying again I have no after game to play On which side soever the inundation breaks my banks I lye open and am drown'd without remedy Epicurus says that a wise Man can never become a Fool and I have an Opinion reverse to this Sentence which is that who has once been a very Fool will never after be very wise God grant me Cold according to my cloth and Passions proportionable to the means I have to withstand them Nature having laid me open on the one side has cover'd me on the other having disarm'd me of strength she has arm'd me with insensibility and an apprehension that is either regular or dull Now I cannot long endure and when I was young much less endur'd either Coach Litter or Boat and hate all other riding but on Horseback both in the City and Countrey But I can worse endure a Litter than a Coach and by the same reason better a rude Agitation upon the Water from whence fear is produc'd than the motions of a Calm At the little jerks of Oars stealing the Vessel from under us I find I know not how both my Head and my Stomach disorder'd neither can I endure to sit upon a tottering Stool When the Sail or the Current carries us equally or that we are tow'd
now talking of Cold and French-men us'd to wear variety of Colours not I my self for I seldome wear other than Black or White in Imitation of my Father let us add another Story of Captain Martin du Bellay who affirms that in the Voyage of Luxenbourg he saw so great Frosts that the Ammunition Wine was cut with Hatchets and Wedges was deliver'd out to the Souldiers by Weight and that they carried it away in Baskets and Ovid Nudaque consistunt formam servantia teste Vina nec hausta meri sed data frusta bibunt The Wine Stript of its Cask retains the Figure still Nor do they Draughts but Crusts of Bacchus swill At the Mouth of the Lake Maeotis the Frosts are so very sharp that in the very same place where Methridates his Lieutenant had Fought the Enemy dry-foot and given them a notable Defeat the Summer following he obtain'd over them a Famous Naval Victory The Romans Fought at a very great disadvantage in the Engagement they had with the Carthaginians near Placentia by reason that they went on to Charge with their Blood fix'd and their Limbs Numm'd with Cold whereas Hannibal had caus'd great Fires to be dispers'd quite through his Camp to warm his Souldiers and Oil to be distributed amongst them to the end that Anointing themselves they might render their Nerves more Supple and Active and fortifie the Pores against the violence of the Air and Freezing Wind that Rag'd in that Season The Retreat the Greeks made from Babylon into their own Country is Famous for the Difficulties and Calamities they had to overcome Of which this was one that being Encounter'd in the Mountains of Armenia with a horrible Storm of Snow they lost all knowledg of the Country and of the ways and being driven up were a Day and a Night without Eating or Drinking most of their Cattel Died many of themselves Starv'd Dead several struck Blind with the driving and the glittering of the Snow many of them Maim'd in their Fingers and Toes and many Stiff and Motionless with the extremity of the Cold who had yet their Understanding entire Alexander saw a Nation where they Bury their Fruit-Trees in Winter to defend them from being destroy'd by the Frost and we also may see the same But concerning Cloaths the King of Mexico chang'd four times a Day his Apparel and never put them on more employing those he left off in his continual Liberalities and Rewards as also neither Pot Dish nor other Utensil of his Kitchen or Table was ever serv'd in Twice GHAP. XXXVI Of Cato the Younger I am not guilty of the Common Errour of judging another by my self I easily believe that in anothers Humour that is contrary to my own and though I find my self engag'd to one certain Form I do not obliged others to it as many do but believe and apprehend a Thousand ways of Living and contrary to most Men more easily admit of Difference than Uniformity amongst us I as frankly as any one would have me discharge a Man from my Humours and Principles and consider him according to his own particular Model Though I am not Continent my self I nevertheless sincerely Love and approve the Continency of the Capuchins and other Religious Orders and highly commend their way of Living I insinuate my self by imagination into their Place and Love and Honour them the more for being other than I am I very much desire that we may be Censur'd every Man by himself and would not be drawn into the consequence of common Examples My Weakness does nothing alter the Esteem I ought to have of the force and vigour of those who deserve it Sunt qui nihil suadent quam quid se imitari posse confidunt There are who perswade nothing but what they believe they can imitate themselves Crawling upon the Slime of the Earth I do not for all that cease to Observe up in the Clouds the inimitable height of some Heroick Souls 't is a great deal for me to have my Judgment regular and right if the effects cannot be so and to maintain this Soveraign part at least free from Corruption 't is something to have my Will right and good where my Legs fail me This Age wherein we Live in our part of the World at least is grown so stupid that not only Exercise but the very Imagination of Vertue is defective and seems to be no other but College-Fashion Virtutem verba putant ut Lucum ligna Words finely couch'd these Men for Vertue take As if each Wood a Sacred Grove could make Quam vereri deberent etiam si precipere non possent Which they ought to Reverence though they cannot Comprehend 'T is a Gewgaw to hang in a Cabinet or at the end of the Tongue as on the tip of the Ear for Ornament only There is no more Vertuous Actions extant and those Actions that carry a shew of Vertue have yet nothing of its Essence by reason that Profit Glory Fear and Custom and other such like foreign Causes put us in the way to produce them Our Justice also Valour and good Offices may then be call'd so too in respect to others and according to the face they appear with to the Publick but in the doer it can by no means be Vertue because there is another end propos'd another moving cause Now Vertue owns nothing to be hers but what is done by her self and for her self alone In that great Battel of Potidaea that the Greeks under the Command of Pausanias obtain'd against Mardonius and the Persians the Conquerours according to their Custom coming to divide amongst them the Glory of the Exploit they attributed to the Spartan Nation the Preheminence of Valour in this Engagement The Spartans great Judges of Vertue when they came to determine to what particular Man of their Nation the Honour was due of having the best Behav'd himself upon this occasion found that Aristodemus had of all others hazarded his Person with the greatest Bravery but did not however allow him any Prize or Reward by reason that his Vertue had been incited by a desire to clear his Reputation from the Reproach of his Miscarriage at the Business of Thermypole and with a desire to Die Bravely to wipe off that former Blemish Our Judgments are yet sick and Obey the Humour of our deprav'd Manners I Observe most of the Wits of these Times pretend to Ingenuity by endeavouring to blemish and to darken the Glory of the Bravest and most Generous Actions of former Ages putting one Vile Interpretation or another upon them and forging and supposing vain Causes and Motives for those Noble things they did A mighty subtilty indeed Give me the greatest and most unblemish'd Action that ever the Day beheld and I will contrive a Hundred plausible Drifts and Ends to obscure it God knows who ever will stretch them out to the full what diversity of Images our Internal Wills do suffer under they
could not miscarry since he knew so well how to command 'T is rather answered he because the people know so well how to obey As Women succeeding to Peerages had notwithstanding their sex the priviledge to assist and give in their Votes in the Causes that appertained to the jurisdiction of Peers So the Ecclesiastical Peers notwithstanding their profession were obliged to assist our Kings in their Wars not only with their friends and servants but in their own persons As the Bishop of Beauvais did who being with Philip Augustus at the Battel of Bouvines had a notable share in that action but he did not think it fit for him to participate in the Fruit and Glory of that violent and Bloody Trade He with his own Hand reduc'd several of the Enemy that day to his mercy whom he delivered to the first Gentleman he met either to kill or receive them to Quarter referring the execution to another hand As also did William Earl of Salisbury to Messire Jean de Nesle with a like subtlety of conscience to the other we named before he would Kill but not wound him and for that reason ever fought with a Mace And a certain person of my time being reproacht by the King that he had laid hands on a Priest stiffly and positively deny'd he had done any such thing the meaning of which was he had cudgell'd and kick'd him CHAP. XLII Of the Inequality amongst us PLutarch says somewhere that he does not find so great a difference betwixt Beast and Beast as he does betwixt Man and Man Which is said in reference to the internal Qualities and Perfections of the Soul And in truth I find according to my poor Judgment so vast a distance betwixt Epaminondas and some that I know who are yet Men of common sense that I could willingly enhance upon Plutarch and say that there is more difference betwixt such and such a Man than there is betwixt such a Man and such a Beast Hem vir viro quid praestat How much alass One Man another doth surpass And that there are as many and innumerable degrees of Wits as there are Cubits betwixt this and Heaven But as touching the Estimate of Men 't is strange that our selves excepted no other Creature is esteem'd beyond its proper Qualities we commend a Horse for his Strength and sureness of Foot Volucrem Sic laudamus equum facili cui plurima palma Fervet exultat rauco victoria circo So we commend the Horse for being fleet Who many Palms by Breath and Speed does get And which the Trumpets in the Circle grace With their hoarse Levets for his well run Race and not for his Rich Caparisons a Greyhound for his share of Heels not for his fine Collar a Hawk for her Wing not for her Gests and Bells Why in like manner do we not value a Man for what is properly his own He has a great Train a beautiful Palace so much Credit so many Thousand Pounds a Year and all these are about him but not in him You will not buy a Pig in a Poke if you cheapen a Horse you will see him stript of his Housing-cloaths you will see him naked and open to your Eye or if he be Cloath'd as they anciently were wont to present them to Princes to Sell 't is only on the less important parts that you may not so much consider the beaty of his Colour or the breadth of his Crupper as principally to examine his Limbs Eyes and Feet which are the Members of greatest use Regibus hic mos est ubi equos mercantur opertos Juspiciunt ne si facies ut saepe decora Molli fulta pede est emptorem inducat hiantem Quod pulchrae clunes breve quod caput ardua cervix When Kings Steeds Cloath'd as 't is their manner Buy They straight examine very Curiously Lest a short Head a thin and well rais'd Crest A broad spread Buttock and an ample Chest Should all be propt with an old beaten Hoof To gull the Buyer when they come to proof Why in giving your Estimate of a Man do you Prize him wrapt and muffled up in Cloaths He then discovers nothing to you but such parts as are not in the least his own and conceals those by which alone one may rightly judg of his Value 'T is the price of the Blade that you enquire into and not of the Scabbard You would not peradventure bid a Farthing for him if you saw him stripp'd You are to judg him by himself and not by what he wears And as one of the Ancients very pleasantly said do you know why you repute him Tall You reckon withal the heighth of his Chepines whereas the Pedestal is no part of the Statue Measure him him without his Stilts let him lay aside his Revenues and his Titles let him present himself in his Shirt then examine if his Body be sound and spritely active and dispos'd to perform its Functions What Soul has he Is it Beautiful capable and happily provided of all her Faculties Is she Rich of what is her own or of what she has Borrowed Has Fortune no hand in the Affair Can she without winking stand the lightning of Swords is she indifferent whether her Life expire by the Mouth or through the Throat Is she Settled Even and Content This is what is to be examin'd and by that you are to judg of the vast differences betwixt Man and Man Is he Sapiens sibique imperiosus Quem neque pauperies neque mors neque vincula terrent Responsare cupidinibus contemnere honores Fortis in seipso totus teres atque rotundus Externi ne quid valeat per laeve morari In quem manta ruit semper fortuna Wife and commanding o're his Appetite One whom nor Want nor Death nor Bonds can Fright To check his Lusts and Honours scorn so stout And in himself so round and clear throughout That no External thing can stop his course And on whom Fortune vainly tries her force such a Man is rais'd Five Hundred Fathoms above Kingdoms and Dutchies he is an Absolute Monarch in and to himself Sapens Pol ipse fingit fortunam sibi The Wise Man his own Fortune makes What remains for him to Covet or Desire Nonne videmus Nil aliud sibi naturam latrare nisi ut quoi Corpore sejunctus dolor absit mente fruatur Jucundo sensu cura semotus metuque We see that Nature to no more aspires Nor to her self a greater good requires Than that whose Body is from Dolours free He should his Mind with more Serenity And a more pleasing Sense enjoy quite clear From those two grand Disturbers Grief and Fear Compare with such a one the common Rabble of Mankind stupid and mean Spirited Servile Instable and continually floating with the Tempest of various Passions that tosses and tumbles them to and fro and all depending upon others and you will find a greater distance
the persecutor of the Law of God having sent his Souldiers to seize upon the good old man Razis sirnam'd in honor of his vertue the Father of the Jews the good man seeing no other remedy his Gates burnt down and the Enemies ready to seize him choosing rather to dye generously than to fall into the hands of his wicked adversaries and suffer himself to be cruelly butcher'd by them contrary to the honor of his ranck and quality he stabb'd himself with his own sword but the blow for hast not having been given home he ran and threw himself from the top of a wall headlong among them who separating themselves and making room he pitcht directly upon his head Notwithstanding which feeling yet in himself some remains of life he renu'd his courage and starting up upon his feet all bloody and wounded as he was and making his way through the Crowd through one of his wounds drew out his bowells which tearing and pulling to pieces with both his hands he threw amongst his pursuers all the while attesting and invoking the Divine vengeance upon them for their cruelty and injustice Of violences offer'd to the conscience that against the chastity of woman is in my opinion most to be evaded for as much as there is a certain pleasure naturally mixt with it and for that reason the dissent cannot therein be sufficiently perfect and entire so that the violence seems to bee mix't with a little consent of the forc't party The Ecclesiastical History has several examples of devout persons who have embrac't death to secure them from the outrages prepar'd by Tyrants against their Religion and honor Pelagia and Sophronia both Canoniz'd the first of these precipitated herself with her mother and sisters into the river to avoid being forc't by some Souldiers and the last also kill'd herself to evade being ravish't by the Emperor Maxentius It may peradventure be an honor to us in future Ages that a learned Author of this present time and a Parisian takes a great deal of pains to persuade the Ladies of our age rather to take any other course than to enter into the horrid meditation of such a despaire I am sorry he had never heard that he might have inserted it amongst his others stories the saying of a woman which was told me at Tholouze who had past thorough the handling of some Souldiers God be prais'd said she that once at least in my life I have had my fill without sin I must confess these cruelties are very unworthy the French sweetness and good nature and also God be thanked the air is very well purg'd of it since this good advice 't is enough that they say no in doing it according to the Rule of the good Marot History is every where full of such as after a thousand ways have for death exchanged a painful and irksome Life Lucius Arruntius kill'd himself to fly he said both the future and the past Granius Silvanus and Statius Proximus after having been pardoned by Nero kill'â— themselves either disdaining to live by the favour of so Wicked a man or that they might not be troubled at some other time to obtain 〈◊〉 second Pardon considering the proclivity and faculties of his Nature to suspect and credit accusations against worthy men Spargapize's the 〈◊〉 of Queen Tomyris being a Prisoner of War 〈◊〉 Cyrus made use of the first favour Cyrus shew'â— him in commanding him to be unbound to kill himself having pretended to no other beâ—nefit of liberty but only to be reveng'd of himselâ— for the disgrace of being taken Bogez Governor in Eion for King Xerxes being beseigeâ—â— by the Athenian Arms under the conduct 〈◊〉 Cimon refused the conditions offered that 〈◊〉 might safe return into Asia with all his wealthâ— impatient to survive the loss of a place his Masteâ— had given him to keep wherefore having defended the City to the last extremity nothinâ— being left to eat he first threw all the Gold and what ever else the Enemy could make bootâ— of into the River Strymon and after causing 〈◊〉 great pile to be set on fire and the throats 〈◊〉 all the Women Children Concubines and Serâ—vants to be cut he threw their Bodies into thâ— fire and at last leapt into it himself Ninacheâ—tuen an Indian Lord so soon as he heard thâ— first whisper of the Portugal Vice-Roy's determiâ—nation to dispossess him without any apparent cause of the Command in Malaca to transâ—fer it to the King of Campar he took this resoâ—lution with himself He caus'd a scaffold more long than broad to be erected supported by Columns royally adorn'd with tapestry and strewd with flowers and abundance of perfumes All which being thus prepar'd in a Robe of cloth of Gold set full of Jewels of great value he came out into the street and mounted the Steps to the Scaffold at one corner of which he had a pile lighted of Aromatick wood Every body ran to the novelty to see to what end these unusual preparations were made When Ninachetuen with a manly but discontented countenance began to remonstrate how much he had oblig'd the Portuguese Nation and with how unspotted fidelity he had carried himself in his Charge that having so often with his sword in his hand manifested in the behalf of others that honor was much more dear to him than life he was not to abandon the concern of it for himself that Fortune denying him all means of opposing the affront was design'd to be put upon him his courage at least enjoyn'd him to free himself from the sence of it and not to serve for a fable to the People nor for a tryumph to Men less deserving than himself which having said he leapt into the Fire Sextilia the wife of Scaurus and Praxea the wife of Labeo to encourage their husbands to evade the dangers that prest upon them wherein they had no other share than meer conjugal affection voluntarily expos'd their own lives to serve them in this extream necessity for company and example What they did for their husbands Cocceius Nerva did for his Country with less utility though with equal affection This great Lawyer flourishing in health riches reputation and favour with the Emperor had no other cause to kill himself but the sole compassion of the miserable Estate of the Roman Republick Nothing can be added to the nicety of the death of the wife of Fulvius a familiar favourite of Augustus Augustus having discover'd that he had vented an important secret he had intrusted him withal one morning that he came to make his Court receiv'd him very coldly and lookt frowningly upon him He returns home full of despaire where he sorrowfully told his wife that being fall'n into this misfortune he was resolv'd to kill himself To which she roundly replied 't is but reason you should seeing that having so often experimented the incontinency of my tongue you could not learn nor take warning but let me kill my self first and without
himself something mis-reported a Mistake occasioned either by reason he could not have his Eye in all parts of his Army at once and had given Credit to some particular Person who had not deliver'd him a very true Account or else for not having had too perfect notice given him by his Lieutenants of what they had done in his Absence By which we may see whether the Inquisition after Truth be not very delicate when a Man cannot believe the Report of a Battle from the Knowledge of him who there commanded nor from the Soldiers who were engaged in it unless after the Method of a Judiciary Information the Witnesses be confronted and the Challenges received upon the Proof of the Punctillio's of every Accident In good earnest the Knowledge we have of our own private Affairs is much more obscure But that has been sufficiently handled by Bodin and according to my own Sentiment A little to relieve the weakness of my Memory so extream that it has hapned to me more than once to take Books again into my hand for new and unseen that I had carefully read over a few Years before and scribled with my Notes I have taken a Custom of late to fix at the end of every Book that is of those I never intended to read again the Time when I made an end on 't and the Judgment I had made of it to the end that that might at least represent to me the Air and general Idea I had conceiv'd of the Author in reading it and I will here transcribe some of those Annotations I writ this some ten Years ago in my Guicciardin of what Language soever my Books speak to me in I always speak to them in my own He is a diligent Historiographer and from whom in my Opinion a Man may learn the truth of the Affairs of his time as exactly as from any other in the most of which he was himself also a personal Actor and in honourable Command 'T is not to be imagined that he should have disguised any thing either upon the account of Hatred Favour or Vanity of which the liberal Censures he passes upon the Great Ones and particularly those by whom he was advanced and employed in Commands of great Trust and Honour as Pope Clement the Seventh give ample Testimony As to that part which he thinks himself the best at namely his Digressions and Discourses he has indeed very good ones and enrich'd with fine Expressions but he is too fond of them for to leave nothing unsaid having a Subject so plain ample and almost infinite he degenerates into Pedantry and relishes a little of the Scholasting Prattle I have also observed this in him That of so many Souls and so many Effects so many Motives and so many Counsels as he judges of he never attributes any one to Vertue Religion or Conscience as if all those were utterly extinct in the World And of all the Actions how brave in outward shew soever they appear in themselves he always throws the Cause and Motive upon some vicious Occasion or some prospect of Profit It is impossible to imagine but that amongst such an infinite number of Actions as he makes mention of there must be some one produced by the way of Reason No Corruption could so universally have infected Men that some one would not have escaped the Contagion Which makes me suspect that his own Taste was vicious from whence it might happen that he judged other Men by himself In my Philip de Comines there is this written You will here find the Language sweet and delightful of a native Simplicity the Narration pure and wherein the Veracity of the Author does evidently shine free from Vanity when speaking of himself and from Affection or Envy when speaking of others His Discourses and Exhortations more accompanied with Zeal and Truth than with any exquisite Sufficiency and throughout with Authority and Gravity which speak him a Man of Extraction and nourished up in great Affairs Upon the Memoirs of Monsieur du Bellay I find this 'T is always pleasant to read things writ by those that have experimented how they ought to be carried on but withal it cannot be denyed but there is a manifest Decadence in these two Lords from the freedom and liberty of Writing that shines in the ancient Historians Such as the Sire de Jovin-ville a Domestick to St. Louis Eginard Chancellor to Charlemain and of latter date in Philip de Commines This here is rather an Apology for King Francis against the Emperor Charles the Fifth than a History I will not believe that they have falsified any thing as to Matter of Fact but they make a common practice of wresting the Judgment of Events very often contrary to Reason to our advantage and of omitting whatsoever is nice to be handled in the Life of their Master witness the Relation of Messieurs de Montmorency and de Brion which were here omitted nay so much as the very name of Madam d'Estampes is not here to to be found Secret Actions an Historian may conceal but to pass over in silence what all the World knows and things that have drawn after them publick Consequences is an inexcusable defect In fine Whoever has a mind to have a perfect Knowledge of King Francis amd the Revolutions of his Reign let him seek it elsewhere if my Advice may prevail The only profit a Man can reap from hence is from the particular Narrative of Battles and other Exploits of War wherein these Gentlemen were personally engaged some Words and private Actions of the Princes of their time and the Practices and Negotiations carried on by the Seigneur de Langcay where indeed there are every where things worthy to be known and Discourses above the vulgar Strain CHAP. XI Of Cruelty I Fancy Vertue to be something else and something more noble than good Nature and the meer Propension to Goodness that we are born into the World withall Well dispos'd and well descended Souls pursue indeed the same Methods and represent the same Face that Vertue it self does But the word Vertue imports I know not what more great and active than meerly for a Man to suffer himself by a happy Disposition to be gently and quietly drawn to the Rule of Reason He who by a natural Sweetness and Facility should despise Injuries receiv'd would doubtless do a very great and a very laudable thing but he who provoked and nettled to the Quick by an Offence should fortifie himself with the Arms of Reason against the furious Appetite of Revenge and after a great Conflict master his own Passion would doubtless do a great deal more The first would do well and the latter vertuously one Action might be called Bounty and the other Vertue for methinks the very name of Vertue presupposes Difficulty and Contention and 't is for this reason perhaps that we call God Good Mighty Liberal and Just but we do not give
of every novel Argument nor abandon it to all the Rhetorick in the World We should withstand the fury of these Waves with an immote and unyielding Constancy Illisos fluctus rupes ut vasta refundit Et varias circùm latrantes dissipat undas Mcle sua As a vast Rock repels the rowling Tides That foam and bark about her Marble Sides From the Strong Mole If we were but touch'd with this Ray of Divinity it would appear throughout not only our Words but our Works also would carry its Brightness and Lustre whatever proceeded from us would be seen illuminated with this noble Light We ought to be ashamed that in all the Human Sects there never was any of the Faction what Difficulty and strange Novelty soever his Doctrine impos'd upon him that did not in some measure conform his Life and Deportments to it whereas so Divine and Heavenly an Institution does only distinguish Christians by the Name Will you see the Proof of this Compare our Manners to those of a Mahometan or Pagan you will still find that we fall very short whereas out of regard to the Reputation and Advantage of our Religion we ought to shine in Vertue and that it should be said of us Are they so Just so Charitable so Good Then they are Christians All other Signs are common to all Religions Hope Trust Events Ceremonies Penance and Martyrs The peculiar Mark of our Truth ought to be our Vertue as it is also the most heavenly and difficult and the most Worthy Product of Truth For this our good St. Lewis was in the right when the King of the Tartars who was become Christian designed to come to Lyons to kiss the Pope's Feet and there to be an Eye-witness of the Sanctity he hoped to find in our Manners immediately to divert him from his purpose for fear lest our inordinate way of Living should on the contrary put him out of conceit with so holy a Belief And yet it hapned quite otherwise since to this other who going to Rome to the same End and there seeing the Dissolution of the Prelates and people of that time settled himself so much the more firmly in our Religion considering how great the Force and Divinity of it must necessarily be that could maintain its Dignity and Splendor amongst so much Corruption and in so Vicious Hands If we had but one single Grain of Faith we should remove Mountains from their places says the Sacred Word our Actions that would then be directed and accompanied by the Divinity would not be mearly Human they would have in them something of Miraculous as well as our Belief Brevis est institutio vitae honestae beataeque si credas Some impose upon the World that they believe that which they do not others more in Number make themselves believe that they believe not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe We think it strange if in the Civil War which at this time disorders our State we see Events float and vary after a common and ordinary manner which is because we bring nothing to it but our own Justice which is in one Party is only there for Ornament and Palliation it is indeed pretended but 't is not there received settled and espous'd It is there as in the Mouth of an Advocat not as in the Heart and Affection of the Party God owes his extraordinary Assistance to Faith and Religion but not to our Passions Men there are the Conductors and therein serve themselves of Religion which ought to be quite contrary Observe if it be not by our own Hands that we guide and train it and draw it like Wax into so many contrary Figures from a Rule in it self so direct and firm When and where was this manifest than in France in our days They who have taken it on the Left-hand they who have taken it on the Right they who call it black they who call it white a like employ it to their Violent and Ambitious Designs conduct it with a Progress so conform in Ryot and Injustice that they render the Diversity they pretended in their Opinions in a thing whereon the Conduct and Rule of our Life depends doubtful and hard to believe Can a Man see even from the same School and Discipline Manners more united and more the same Do but observe with what horrid Impudence we toss Divine Arguments to and fro and how irreligiously we have both rejected and retaken them according as Fortune has shifted our Places in these Intestine Storms This so solemn Proposition Whether it be Lawful for a Subject to Rebel and take up Arms against his Prince for the Defence of his Religion Do you remember in whose Mouths the last year the Affirmative of it was the Prop of one Party and the Negative the Pillar of another And hearken now from what Quarter comes the Vote and Instruction of both the one and the other and if Arms makes less noise and rattle for this Cause than for that We condemn those to the Fire who say That Truth must be made to bear the Yoak of our Necessity and how much more does France than say it Let us confess the Truth whoever should draw out the Army lawfully rais'd by the Kings Authority those who take up Arms out of pure Zeal to Religion and also those who only do it to protect the Laws of their Country or for the Service of their Prince could hardly out of both these put together make one compleat Company of Gens-d'armes Whence does this proceed that there are so few to be found who have maintained the same Will and the same Progress in our Civil Commotions and that we see them one while move but a Foot-pace and another run Full-speed And the same Men one while endamage our Affairs by their violent Heat and Austerity and another by their Coldness Gentleness and Slowness but that they are pushed on by particular and causal Considerations according to the Variety whereof they move I evidently perceive that we do not willingly afford Devotion any other Offices but those that best suit with our own Passions There is no Hostility so admirable as the Christian. Our Zeal performs Wonders when it seconds our Inclinations to Hatred Cruelty Ambition Avarice Detraction and Rebellion But when it moves against the Hair towards Bounty Benignity and Temperance unless by Miracle some rare and vertuous Disposition prompt us to it we stir neither hand nor foot Our Religion is intended to extirpate Vices Whereas it skreens nourishes and incites them We must not mock God If we did believe in him I do not say by Faith but with a simple belief that is to say and I speak it to our great shame if we did believe him as we do any other History or as we would do one of our Companions we should love him above all other things for the infinite Bounty and Beauty that shines in him at least he
of the Holy Ghost do so clearly and lively express that which I would maintain that I should need no other proof against Men who would with all Humility and Obedience submit to his Authority But these will be whipt at their own Expence and will not suffer that a Man oppose their Reason but by it self Let us then for once consider a Man alone without foreign Assistance arm'd only with his own proper Arms and unfurnished of the Divine Grace and Wisdom which is all his Honour Strength and the Foundation of his Being Let us see what certainty he has in this fine Equipage Let him make me understand by the force of his Reason upon what Foundations he has built those great Advantages he thinks he has over other Creatures Who has made him believe that this admirable Motion of the Celestial Arch the Eternal Light of those Tapers that roll over his Head the wonderful Motions of that infinite Ocean should be established and continue so many Ages for his Service and Convenience Can any thing be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched Creature who is not so much as Master of himself but subject to the Injuries of all things should call himself Master and Emperour of the World of which he has not power to know the least part much less to command the whole And this Priviledge which he attributes to himself of being the only Creature in this vast Fabrick that has the Understanding to discover the Beauty and the Parts of it the only one who can return thanks to the Architect and keep account of the Revenues and Disbursements of the World Who I wonder seal'd him this Patent Let us see his Commission for this great Employment Was it granted in favour of the Wise only Few people will be concerned in it Are Fools and Wicked persons worthy so extraordinary a Favour And being the worst part of the World to be preferred before the rest Shall we believe Cicero Quorum igitur causa quis dixerit effectum esse mundum Eorum cilicet animantium quae ratione utuntur Hi sunt Dii Homines quibus profectò nihil est melius For whose sake shall we therefore conclude that the World was made For theirs who have the use of Reason These are Gods and Men than whom certainly nothing can be better We can never sufficiently decry the Impudence of this Conjunction But wretched Creature what has he in himself worthy of such an Advantage To consider the incorruptible Existency of the Celestial Bodies their Beauty Magnitude and continual Revolution by so exact a Rule Cum suspicimus magna Caelestia mundi Templa super stellisque micantibus Aethera fixum Et venit in mentem Lunae Solisque viarum When we above the Heavn'ly Arch behold And the vast Roof studded with Stars of Gold And call to mind the Courses that the Sun And Moon in their alternate Office run To consider the Dominion and Influence those Bodies have not only over our Lives and Fortunes Facta etenim vitas hominum suspendit ab astris Men's Lives and Actions on the Stars depend But even over our Inclinations our Thoughts and Wills which they govern incite and agitate at the Mercy of their Influences Speculataque longè Deprendit tacitis dominantia legibus astra Et totum alterna mundum ratione moveri Fatorùmque vices certis discernere signis Contemplating the Stars he find thaa they Rule by a secret and a silent sway And that th' ennamel'd Sphears which rule above Do ever by alternate Causes move And studying these he also can forsee By certain Signs the turns of Destiny To see that there is not so much as a Man no not a King exempt from this Dominion but that Monarchies Empires and all this lower World follow the Brawl of these Celestial Motions Quantaque quà m parvi faciant discrimina motus Tantum est hoc regnum quod Regibus imperat ipsis How great a change each little motion brings So great the Kingdom is that governs Kings If our Vertue our Vices our Knowledge and this very Discourse we are upon of the power of the Stars and the Comparison we are making betwixt them and us proceed as our Reason supposes from their Favour Furit alter amore Et pontum tranare potest vertere Trojam Alterius sors est scribendis legibus apta Ecce patrem nati perimunt natósque parentes Mutuáque armati coeunt in vulnera fratres Non nostrum hoc bellum est coguntur tanta movere Inque suas ferri paenas lacerandà que membra One Mad in Love may cross the Raging Seas T'oreturn proud Ilium's lofty Palaces Another's Fate inclines him more by far To spend his time at the litigious Bar. Sons kill their Fathers Father kill their Sons And one arm'd Brother 'gainst another runs This War 's not theirs but Fates that spurs them on To shed the Blood which shed they must bemoan If we derive this little Portion of Reason we have from the Bounty of Heaven how is it possible that Reason should ever make us equal to it How subject its Essence and Conditions to our Knowledge Whatever we see in that Body does astonish us quae molitio quae ferramenta qui vectes quae machinae qui ministri tanti operis fuerunt What Contrivance what Tools what Timber what Engines were employed about so stupendious a Work Why do we deprive it of Soul of Life and Discourse Have we discovered in it any immote or insensible Stupidity we who have no Commerce with the Heavens but by Obedience Shall we say that we have discovered in no other Creature but Man the use of a reasonable Soul What have we seen any thing like the Sun Does he cease to be because we have seen nothing like him And do his Motions cease because there are no other like them If what we have not seen is not our Knowledge is wonderfully contracted Quae sunt tantae animi angustiae How narrow are our Vnderstandings Are they not Dreams of Human Vanity to make the Moon a Celestial Earth There to fancy Mountains and Vales as Anaxagoras did There to fix Habitations and Human Abodes and plant Colonies for our convenience as Plato and Plutarch have done Of our Earth to make a beautiful and resplendent Star Inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda hoc est caligo mentium Nec tantùm necessitas errandi sed errorum amor Corruptibile corpus aggravat animam deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem Amongst the other inconveniencies of Mortality this is one to have the Vnderstanding clouded and not only a Necessity of Erring but a Love of Error The corruptible Body stupifies the Soul and the Earthly Habition dulls the Faculties of the imagination Presumption is our Natural and Original Disease The most wretched and frail of all Creatures is Man and withal the Proudest He feels and sees himself lodg'd here
Trouble so that I throw out all sorts of injurious words at random and without choice and never consider pertinently to dart my Language where I think it will deepest wound for I commonly make use of no other Weapon in my Anger than my Tongue My Servants have a better bargain of me in great Occasions than in little the little ones surprize me and the mischief on 't is that when you are once upon the Precipice 't is no matter who gave you the push for you always go to the bottom the fall urges moves and makes haste of it self In great Occasions this satisfies me that they are so just every one expects a warrantable Indignation and then I glorifie my self in deceiving their Expectation against these I fortifie and prepare my self they disturb my Head and threaten to transport me very far should I follow them I can easily contain my self from entring into one of these Passions and am strong enough when I expect them to repell their Violence be the Cause never so great but if a Passion once prepossess and seize me it carries me away be it never so small which makes me indent with those who may contend me when you see me first moved let me alone right or wrong I 'll do the same for you The storm is only begot by a concurrence of Anger 's which easily spring from one another and are not born together Let every one have his own way and we shall be always at Peace A profitable Advice but hard to execute Sometimes also it falls out that I put on a seeming Anger for the better governing of my House without any real Emotion As Age renders my Humours more sharp I study to oppose them and will if I can order it so that for the Future I may be so much the less peevish and hard to please as I have more excuse and inclination to be so although I have heretofore been reckoned amongst those that have the greatest Patience A Word more to conclude this Chapter Aristotle says that Anger sometimes serves for Arms to Virtue and Valour 'T is likely it may be so nevertheless they who contradict him pleasantly Answer that 't is a Weapon of novel Use for we move all other Arms this moves us our Hands guide it not 't is it that guides our Hands it holds us we hold not it CHAP. XXXII Defence of Seneca and Plutarch THE familiarity I have had with these two Authors and the assistance they have lent to my Age and Book wholly compil'd of what I have borrowed from them obliges me to espouse their Quarrel and to stand up for their Honour As to Seneca amongst a million of little Pamphlets that those of the Reformed Religion disperse abroad for the defence of their Cause and which sometimes proceeds from so good a Hand that 't is pitty his Pen is not employ'd in a better Subject I have formerly seen one that to make up the Parallel he would fain find out betwixt the Government of our late poor King Charles the Ninth and that of Nero compares the late Cardinal of Lorrain with Seneca their Fortunes to have both of them been the prime Ministers in the Goverment of their Princes and their Manners Conditions and Deportments to have been very near alike Wherein in my Opinion he does the said Cardinal a very great Honour for though I am one of those who have a very great esteem for his Wit Eloquence and Zeal to Religion and the Service of his King and think it was a happiness in an Age wherein he was so new so rare and also so necessary for the Publick to have an Ecclesiastical Person of so high Birth and Dignity and so sufficient and capable of his Place yet to confess the Truth I do not think his Capacity by many degrees near to the other nor his Virtue either so clean entire or steady as that of Seneca Now the Book whereof I speak to bring about his design gives a very injurious Description of Seneca having borrowed his Reproaches from Dion the Historian whose Testimony I do not at all believe For besides that he is inconstant who after having call'd Seneca one while very wise and again a mortal enemy to Nero's Vices makes him elsewhere Avaricious an Usurer Ambitious Effeminate Voluptuous and a false Pretender to Philosophy his own Virtue does appear so lively and vigorous in his Writings and his Vindication is so clear from any of these imputations of Riches and any extraordinary expensive way of living that I cannot believe any Testimony to the contrary And besides it is much more reasonable to believe the Roman Historians in such things than Greeks and Strangers Now Tacitus and the rest speak very honourably both of his Life and Death and represent him to us a very excellent and virtuous Person in all things and I will alledge no other Reproach against Dion's Report but this which I cannot avoid namely that he has so sickly a Judgment in the Roman Affairs that he dares to maintain Julius Caesars Cause against Pompey and that of Anthony against Cicero Let us now come to Plutarch John Bodinus is a good Author of our times and a Writer of much greater Judgment than the rout of Scriblers of his Age and that deserves to be carefully read and consider'd I find him though a little bold in this passage of his Method of History where he accuses Plutarch not only of ignorance wherein I would have let him alone for that is above my reprehension but that he oft writes things incredible and absolutely fabulous which are his own Words If he had simply said that he had deliver'd things otherwise than they really are it had been no great reproach for what we have not seen we are forc'd to receive from other hands and take upon trust and I see he purposely sometimes variously relates the same Story as the Judgment of the three best Captains that ever were given by Hannibal 't is one way in the Life of Flaminius and another in that of Pyrrhus But to charge him with having taken incredible and impossible things for current pay is to accuse the most judicious Author in the World of want of Judgment And this is his Example as says he when he relates that a Lacedemonian Boy suffer'd his Bowels to be torn out by a Fox-cub he had stoln and kept it still conceal'd under his Coat till he fell down dead rather than he would discover his theft I find in this first place this Example ill chosen forasmuch as it is very hard to limit the Power of the Faculties of the Soul whereas we have better Authority to limit and know the force of the bodily Limbs and therefore if I had been as he I should rather have chosen an Example of this second sort and there are that are less credible and amongst others that which he relates of Pyrrhus that all wounded as he was he struck
eternally be bent And fix'd upon Subjects discontent I gently decline it and turn away my Eyes from the stormy and frowning Sky I have before me which thanks be to God I consider without Fear but not without Meditation and Debate And amuse my self in the remembrance of my better years Animus quod perdidit optat Atque in praeterita se totus imagine versat The Mind what it has lost wishes to have And on things past eternally does rave Let Infancy look forward and Age backward Is not this the signification of Janus his double Face Let Years hale me along if they will but it shall be backward As long as my Eyes can discern the pleasant Season expir'd I shall now and then turn them that way Though it escape from my Blood and Veins I shall not however root the Image of it out of my Memory hoc est Vivere bis Vita posse priore fui 'T is to live twice to him who can obtain Of thought t' enjoy his former Life again Plato ordains that old men should be present at the Exercises Dances and Sports of young People that they may rejoyce in others for the Activity and Beauty of Body which is no more in themselves and call to mind the Grace and Comeliness of that flourishing Age And will that in these Recreations the Honour of the prize should be given to that young man who has most diverted the Company I was formerly wont to mark cloudy and gloomy days for extraordinary those are now my ordinary ones the extraordinary are the clear and bright I am ready to leap out of my Skin for Joy as for an unwonted favour when nothing ails me Let me tickle my self presently after I cannot force a poor smile from this wretched Body of mine I am only merry in conceit by artifice to divert the melancholly of Age but doubtless it requires another Remedy â—han the Efficacy of a Dream A weak contest of Art against Nature 'T is great folly to lengthen and anticipate humane Inconveniencies as every one does I had rather be a less while old than to be old before I am really so I seize on even the least occcasions of Pleasure I can meet I know very well by hear-say several sorts of prudent Pleasures that are effectually so and glorious to boot but Opinion has not power enough over me to give me an Appetite to them I covet not so much to have them magnanimous magnifick and lofty as I do to have them sweet facile and ready A Natura discedimus Populo nos damus nullius rei bono auctori We depart from Nature and give our selves to the People who understand nothing My Philosophy is in Action in natural and present Practice very little in Fancy What if I have a Mind to play at Cob-nut or to whip a Top Non ponebat enim Rumores ante Salutem He was too wise Idle Reports before his Health to prize Pleasure is a Quality of very little Ambition it thinks it self rich enough of it self without any addition of Repute and is best pleas'd where most obscure A young man should be whipt who pretends to a Palate in Wine and Sawces there was nothing which at that Age I less valued or knew now I begin to learn I am very muâ—h asham'd on 't but what should I do I am more asham'd and vex'd at the Occasions that put me upon 't 'T is for us to doat and trifle away the time and for Young-men to stand upon their Reputation and the Punctilio's of Honour they are going towards the World and the Worlds Opinion we are retiring from it Sibi Arma sibi Equos sibi Hastas sibi Clavam sibi Pilam sibi Nationes Cursus habent nobis senibus ex lusionibus multis talos relinquant tesseras Let them reserve to themselves Arms Horses Spears Clubs Tennis Swimming and Races and of their numerous Sports and Exercises leave to us old Men the diversion of Cards and Dice The Laws themselves send us home to our Lodgings I can do no less in favour of this wretched Condition into which my Age has thrown me than furnish it with Toys to play withall as they do Children and we also become such Both Wisdom and Folly will have enough to do to support and relieve me by alternate Offices in this Calamity of Age. Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem Short follies mix with Counsels wise I accordingly avoid the lightest Punctures and those that formerly would not have rippled the Skin do now pierce me through and through My habit of Body is now so naturally declining to Evil In fragili corpore odiosa omnis offensio est To a decrepid Body all offence is hatefull Mensque pati durum sustinet aegra nihil And a sick Mind nothing that 's hard endures I have ever been tender in matters of offence I am much more tender now and open throughout Et minime vires frangere quassa valent And little force will break what 's crack'd before My Judgment restrains me from kicking against and murmuring at the inconveniencies that Nature orders me to endure but it does not take away my Feeling I who have no other thing in my prospect but to live and be merry would run from one end of the World to the other to seek out one good Year of pleasant and jocund Tranquility A melancholick and dull Tranquility is I confess enough for me but it benumns stupifies and besots me I am not contented with it If there be any Person any knot of good Company in Countrey or City in France or elsewhere Resident or in Motion who can like my Humour and whose Humours I can like let them but whistle and I will run to furnish them with Essays of Flesh and Bone Seeing it is the priviledge of the Mind to rescue it self from old Age I advise mine to it with all the power I have let it in the interim continue green and flourish if it can like Mistletoe upon a dead Tree But I fear 't is a Traytor it has contracted so strict a Fraternity with the Body that it leaves me at every turn to follow that in its need I wheedle and deal with it apart in vain I try to much purpose to wean it from this Correspondence to much effect quote to it Seneca and Catullus and represent to it beautiful Ladies and Royal Masques if its Companion have the Stone it seems to have it too Even the Faculties that are most peculiarly and properly its own cannot then perform their Functions but manifestly appear stupified and asleep there is no spriteliness in its Productions if there be not at the same time an equal Proportion in the Body too Our Masters are too blame that in searching out the causes of the extraordinary emotions of the Soul besides attributing it to a Divine Extasie Love Martial Fierceness Poesie and Wine they have not also attributed a
the late te◠days diminution of the Pope have taken me 〈◊〉 low that I cannot well recover my self I follow the years wherein we kept another kind of account so antient and so long a Custom challenges and calls me back to it so that I am constrain'd to be a kind of Heretick in that point impatient of any though corrective Innovation My Imagination in spite of my Teeth always pushes me ten days forward or backward and is ever murmuring in my Ears This Rule concerns those who are to begin to be If Health it self as sweet as it is returns to me by fits 't is rather to give me cause of regret than possession of it I have no place left to keep it in Time leaves me without which nothing can be possess'd Oh what little account should I make of those great elective Dignities that I see in such esteem in the World that are never conferr'd but upon men who are taking leave of it wherein they do not so much regard how well he will discharge his trust as how short his Administration will be from the very Entry they look at the exit To conclude I am ready to finish this man and not to rebuild another By long usance this Form is in me turn'd into Substance and Fortune into Nature I say therefore that every one of us feeble Creatures is excusable in thinking that his own which is compris'd under this measure but withall beyond these limits 't is nothing but Confusion 't is the largest extent we can grant to our own claim The more Business we create our selves and the more we amplifie our Possessions so much more do we expose our selves to the Blows and Adversities of Fortune The career of our desires ought to be circumscrib'd and restrain'd to a short limit of near and contiguous Conveniencies and ought moreover to perform their Course not in a right line that ends elsewhere but in a Circle of which the two points by a short wheel meet and terminate in our selves Actions that are carried on without this Reflection a near and essential Reflection I mean such as those of ambitious and avaricious men and many more who run point blanck and whose career always carries them before themselves such Actions I say are erroneous and sickly most of our Business is Farce Mundus universus exercet Histrioniam We must play our part well but withall as the part of a borrow'd Person we must not make real Essence of a Vizor and outward apparence nor of a strange Person our own we cannot distinguish the Skin from the Shirt 't is enough to meal the Face without mealing the Breast I see some who transform and transubstantiate themselves into as many new Shapes and new Beings as they undertake Employments and who prelate themselves even to the Heart and Liver and carry their state along with them even to the Close-stool I cannot make them distinguish the Salutations are made to them from those are made to their Commission their Train or their Mule Tantum se Fortunae permittunt etiam ut Naturam didiscant They so much give themselves up to Fortune as even to forget their Nature They swell and puff up their Souls and their natural way of speaking according to the height of their Place The Mayor of Bordeaux and Montaigne have ever been two by very manifest separation To be an Advocate or a Treasurer a man must not be ignorant of the Knavery of such Callings and yet ought not to refuse to take the Calling upon him 't is the usance of his Country and there is Money to be got by it a man must live by the World and make his best of it such as it is But the Judgment of an Emperour ought to be above his Empire and the seeing and considering of it as of a foreign accident and he ought to know how to enjoy himself apart from it and to communicate himself as James and Peter to himself at least I cannot engage my self so deep and so intire when my Will gives me to any one 't is not with so violent an Obligation that my Judgment is infected with it In the present Broils of this Kingdom my Interest has not made me forget my self nor the laudable Qualities of some of our Adversaries nor those that are reproachable in those of our Party They adore all of their own side for my part I do not so much as excuse most things in those of mine A good Speech has never the worse grace for being made against me The knot of the controversie excepted I have always kept my self in equanimity and pure indifference Neque extra necessitates belli praecipuum odium gero And have no express hatred beyond the Necessity of War For which I am pleased with my self and the more because I see others commonly fail on the contrary side Such as extend their anger and hatred beyond the dispute in question as most men do shew that they spring from some other occasion and particular cause like one who being cur'd of an Vlcer has yet a remaining Fever by which it appears that the Vlcer had another more conceal'd beginning which is that they are not concern'd in the common cause because it is wounding to the State and common Interest but are only netled by Reason of their private and particular Concern This is the true Reason why they are so particularly animated and to a degree so beyond Justice and publick Reason Non tam omnia universi quam ea quae ad quemque pertinent singuli carpebant Every one was not so much angry against things in general as against those that particularly concern'd themselves I would have matters go well on our side but if they do not I shall not run mad I am heartily for the right party but I do not affect to be taken notice of for an especial Enemy to others and beyond the general quarrel I am a mortal Enemy to this vicious form of censure He is of the League because he admires the Duke of Guise He is astonish'd at the King of Navarrs Valour and Diligence and therefore he is a Hugonot He finds such and such Faults in the Kings Manners and Conduct and therefore he is seditious in his Heart And would not grant to a Magistrate himself that he did well in condemning a Book because it had plac'd a Heretick amongst the best Poets of the Time Shall we not dare to say of a Thief that he has a handsom Leg If a Woman be a Strumpet must it needs follow that she has a stinking Breath Did they in the wisest Ages revoke the proud title of Capitolinus they had before conferr'd upon Marcus Manlius as being the Conservator of Religion and the publick Liberty Did they therefore damn the Memory of his Liberality his Feats of Arms and Military Recompence granted to his Virtue because he afterwards aspir'd to the Sovereignty to the Prejudice of the Laws of his
Country If they take a hatred against an Advocate he will not be allow'd the next day to be eloquent I have elsewhere spoke of the Zeal that push'd on worthy men to the like Faults For my part I can say such a one does this thing ill and another thing virtuously and well They will likewise that in the Prognosticks or Sinister Events of Affairs every one should in his Party be blind or a Block-head and that our Perswasion and Judgment should be subservient not to Truth but to the project of our desires I should rather incline towards the other extream so much I fear being suborn'd by my desire To which may be added that I am a little tenderly distrustful of things that I wish I have in my time seen wonders in the indiscreet and prodigious facility of People in suffering their hopes and belief to be led and govern'd which way has best pleas'd and serv'd their Leaders above an hundred mistakes one upon another and above Dreams and Phantasms I no more wonder at those who have been blinded and seduc'd by the â—ooleries of Apollonius and Mahomet Their Sence and Understanding is absolutely taken away by their Passion their Discretion has no more any other choice than that which smiles upon them and relieves their Cause I had principally observ'd this in the beginning of our intestine Distempers thâ—â— other which is sprung since in imitating has surpass'd it by which I am satisfied that it is a quality inseparable from popular Errors After the first that rouls Opinions drive on one another like Waves with the Wind. A man is not a member of the Body if it be in his Power to forsake it and if he do not roul the common way but doubtless they wrong the just side when they go about to assist it with Fraud I have ever been against that Practice They are only fit to work upon weak heads for the found there are surer and more honest ways to keep up their Courages and to excuse adverse Accidents Heaven never saw a greater Animosity than that betwixt Caesar and Pompey nor â—ver shall and yet I observe methinks in those brave Souls a great moderation towards one another It was a jealousie of Honour and Command which did not transport them to a furious and indiscreet hatred and that was though hatred without Malignity and Detraction In their briskest and hoâ—test Encounters and Exploits upon one another I discover some remains of respect and good will and am therefore of Opinion that had it been possible each of them would rather have done his Business without the ruine of the other than with it Take notice how much otherwise Matters went with Marius and Sylla We must not precipitate our selves so head-long after our Affections and Interest As when I was young I oppos'd my self to the progress of Love which I perceiv'd to advance too fast upon me and had a care lest it should at last become so pleasing as to force captivate and wholly reduce me to his Mercy so I do the same upon all other Occasions where my Will is running on with too warm an Appetite I lean opposite to the side it inclines to as I find it going to plunge and make it self drunk with its own wine I evade nourishing its Pleasure so far that I cannot recover it without infinite loss Souls that through their own Stupidity only discern things by halves have this happiness that they smart least with hurtful things 'T is a spiritual Leprosie that has some show of Health and such a Health as Philosophy does not altogether contemn but yet we have no Reason to call it Wisdom as we often do And after this manner some one anciently mock'd Diogenes who in the depth of Winter and stark naked went hugging an Image of Snow for a Tryal of his Patience this other meeting him in this Equipage Art thou now very cold said he not at all reply'd Diogenes Why then said the other What great and exemplary thing can'st thou think thou do'st in imbracing that Snow A man to take a true measure of Constancy must necessarily know what suffering is but Souls that are to meet with adverse Events and the Injuries of Fortune in their depth and sharpness that are to weigh and taste them according to their natural weight and sharpness let such shew their skill in avoiding the Causes and diverting the Blow What did King Cotys do He pay'd liberally for the rich and beautiful Vessel that had been presented him but being it was exceeding brittle he immediately broke it betimes to prevent so easie a matter of displeasure against his Servants In like manner I have willingly avoided all confusion in my Affairs and never coveted to have my estate contiguous to those of my Relation and such with whom I coveted a strict Friendship whence Matters of Unkindness and falling out do oft proceed I have formerly lov'd Cards and Dice but have long since left them off only for this Reason that though I carried my losses as handsomly as another I was not well satisfied and quiet within Let a man of Honour who ought to be sensible of the Lye and who is not to take a scurvy excuse for Satisfaction avoid Occasions of dispute I shun melancholick and sour natur'd men as I would do the Plague And in Matters I cannot talk of without Emotion and Concern I never meddle if not compell'd by my Duty Melius non incipient quam desinent A man had better never to have begun than to desist The surest way therefore is to prepare a mans self before hand for Occasions I know very well that some wise men have taken another way and have not fear'd to grapple and engage to the utmost upon several Subjects Such are confident of their own Strength under which they protect themselves in all ill Successes making their Patience wrestle and contend with disaster velut rupes vastum quae prodit in aequor Obvia ventorum furiis expostaque ponto Vim cunctam atque minas perfert coelique marisque Ipsa immota manens He as a Rock amongst vast Billows stood Scorning loud Winds and raging of the Flood And fixt remaining all the force defies Mustred from threatning Seas and thundring Skies Let us never attempt these Examples we shall never come up to them They set themselves resolutely and without trouble to behold the ruine of their Country to which all the good they can contrive or perform is due This is too much and too rude for our common Souls to undergo Cato indeed gave up the noblest Life that ever was upon this account but it is for us meaner spirited men to fly from the storm as far as we can we ought to make provision of Resentment not of Patience and evade the Blows we cannot put by Zeno seeing Chremonidez a young man whom he lov'd draw near to sit down by him suddenly start up and Cleanthes demanding of
What have our Legislators got by culling out a hundred thousand particular Cases and for those by having added a hundred thousand Laws This number holds no manner of proportion with the infinite diversity of humane Actions the multiplication of our Inventions will never arrive at the variety of Exampleâ— Add to them a hundred times as many more it will not nevertheless ever happen that of events to come there shall any one fall out that in this great number of millions of events so chosen and recorded shall jump with any one to which it can be so exactly coupled and compar'd that there will not remain some Circumstances and Diversity which will require a variety of Judgment There is little relation betwixt our Actions that are in perpetual mutation and fixt and immobile Laws the most to be desir'd are those that are the most rare the most simple and general and I am further of Opinion that we were better to have none at all than to have them in so prodigious number as we have Nature always gives them better and more pure than those are we make our selves witness the Picture of the Golden-Age and the sâ—â—ate wherein we see Nations live who have no other Some there are who for their only Judge takes the first passer by that travels along their Mountains to determine their Cause And others who on their Market day choose out some one amongst them upon the place to decide all their Controversies What danger would there be that the wisest should so determine ours according to occurrences and by sight without obligation of Example and Consequence Every Shooe to his own Foot King Ferdinand sent Colonies to the Indies and wisely provided that they should not carry along with them any Students of the Long-Robe for fear lest Suits should get footing in that new World as being a Science in its own Nature the Mother of altercation and decision judging with Plato that Lawyers and Physicians are the Pests of a Country Whence does it come to pass that our common Languages so easie for all other uses become obscure and are intelligible in Wills and Contracts And that he who so clearly expresses himself whatever he speaks or writes cannot find in this any way of declaring himself that does not fall into doubt and contradiction If it be not that these Princes of that Art applying themselves with a peculiar attention to invent and cull out hard words and contrive artificial Clauses have so weigh'd every Syllable and so thoroughly sifted every sort of quirk that they are now confounded and intangled in the infinity of Figures and so many minute Divisions that they can no more fall into any Rule or prescription nor any certain intelligence Confusum est quidquid usque in pulvere in sectum est Whatever is beaten into Powder is confus'd As you have Children trying to bring a mass of Quick-silver to a certain number of parts the more they press and work it and endeavour to reduce it to their own will the more they irritate the liberty of this generous Metal it mocks and evades their endeavour and sparkles it self into so many separate Bodies as frustrates all account so is it here for in subdividing these subtilties we teach men to increase their doubts they pull us into a way of stretching and diversifying difficulties they lengthen and disperse them In sowing and retailing of Questions they make the World to fructifie and increase in uncertainties and disputes As the Earth is made fertile by being crumbled and husbanded deep Difficultatem facit Doctrina Doctrine begets Difficulty We doubted of Vlpian and are now more perplex'd with Bartolus and Baldus We should put out the trace of this innumerable diversity of Opinions not adorn our selves with it and fill Posterity with Crotchets I know not what to say to it but Experience makes it manifest that so many interpretations dissipate Truth and break it Aristotle writ to be understood which if he could not be much less will another that is not so good at it and a third than he who express'd his own Thoughts We open the matter and spill it in pouring out Of one Subject we make a thousand and in multiplying and subdividing them fall again into the infinity of Atoms of Epicurus Never did two men make the same Judgment of the same thing and 't is impossible to find two Opinions exactly alike not only in several men but in the same men at diverse hours I oft find matter of doubt of things which the Commentary disdains to take notice of I am most apt to stumble in an even Country like some Horses that I have known who make most trips in the smoothest way Who will not say that Glosses augment Doubts and Ignorance since there 's no one Book to be found either Humane or Divine which the World busies it self about the Difficulties of which are clear'd by Interpretation The hundredth Commentator still referrs you to the next more knotty and perplext than he When were we ever agreed amongst our selves that a Book had enow and that there was now no more to be said This is most apparent in the Law We give the Authority of Law to infinite Doctors infinite Arrests and as many Interpretations Yet do we find any end of the need of interpreting Is there for all that any progress or advancement towards Peace or do we stand in need of any fewer Advocates and Judges than when this great Mass of Law was yet in its first Infancy We on the contrary darken and bury all Intelligence We can no more discover it but at the mercy of so many fences and barriers Men do not know the natural Disease of the Mind it does nothing but ferret and enquire and is eternally wheeling jugling and perplexing it self and like Silk-worms suffocates it self with its own Web. Mus in pice A Mouse in a pitch Barrel It thinks it discovers at a great distance I know not what glimps of light and imaginary Truth but whilst running to it so many Difficulties Hindrances and new Inquisitions crosses its way that it loses its way and is made drunk with the motion Not much unlike Aesops Dogs that seeing something like a dead Body floating in the Sea and not being able to approach it attempted to drink the Water to lay the passage dry and so drown'd themselves To which what one Crates said of the Writings of Heraclitus falls pat enough that they required a Reader who could swim well that the depth and weight of his Doctrine might not overwhelm and choak him 'T is nothing but particular weakness that makes us content our selves with what others or our selves have found out in this choice of Knowledge one of better understanding would not rest so content there is always room for one to succeed nay even for our selves and every where else throughout there is no end of our Inquisitions our end is in the other World 'T is a
but generally I give way and accommodate my self as much as any one to necessity Sleeping has taken up a great part of my Life and I yet continue at the Age I now am to sleep eight or nine hours together I wean my self to my advantage from this propension to sloth and am evidently the better for so doing I find the change a little hard indeed but in three days 't is over and see but few that live with less Sleep when need requires and that more constantly exercise themselves nor to whom long Journeys are less troublesome My Body is capable of a firm but not of a violent or sudden Agitation I evade of late all violent exercises and such as make me sweat wherein my Limbs grow weary before they are hot I can stand a whole day together and am never weary of walking But from my Youth I never lov'd to Ride upon Pavements On foot I go up to the Breech in dirt and little Fellows as I am are subject in the Streets to be Elbow'd and Justled for want of Presence and Stature and I have ever lov'd to repose my self whether sitting or lying with my Heels as high or higher than my Seat There is no profession is more pleasant than the military a profession both noble in its execution for Valour is the strongest proudest and most generous of all Vertues and noble in its cause There is no Utility either more Universal or more Just than the protection of the Peace and grandeur of a mans Country The company of so many Noble Young and Active men delights you the ordinary sight of so many Tragick Spectacles the liberty of this Conversation without Art with a Masculine and unceremonious way of living pleases you the variety of a Thousand several Actions the encouraging Harmony of Martial Musick that ravishes and inflames both your Ears and Souls the Honour of this exercise nay even the sufferings and difficulties of War which Plato so little esteems that he makes Women and Children share in it in his Republick are delightful to you You put your selves voluntarily upon particular Exploits and hazards according as you judge of their lustre and importance and see when even life it self is excusably employed Pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis And we conceive it brave to die in Arms. To fear common dangers that concern so great a multitude of men not to dare to do what so many sorts of Souls and a whole people do is for a heart that is low and mean beyond all measure Company encourages so much as Children If others excell you in Knowledge in Gracefulness in Strength or Fortune you have third causes to blame for that but to give place to them in stability of mind you can blame no one for that but your self Death is more Abject more Languishing and Painful in Bed than in Battel and Fevers and Catharrs as Painful and Mortal as a Musquet-shott And whoever has fortified himself valiantly to bear the accidents of common life would not need to raise his courage to be a Souldier Vivere mi Lucilli militare est To live my Lucillus is to make War I do not remember that I ever had the Itch and yet scratching is one of natures sweetest gratifications and nearest at hand but the smart follows too near I use it most in my Ears which are often apt to Itch. I came into the World with all my Senses intire even to perfection My Stomach is commodiously good as also is my Head and my Breath and for the most part uphold themselves so in the height of Fevers I have past the age to which some Nations not without reason have prescrib'd so just a term of Life that they would not suffer men to exceed it and yet I have some intermissions though short and inconstant so clean and sound as are little inferiour to the Health and Indolency of my Youth I do not speak of Vigour and Spriteliness 't is not reason that it should follow me beyond its limits Non hoc amplius est liminis aut aquae Coelestis patiens latus My sides no longer can sustain The hardships of the Wind and Rain My Face and Eyes presently discover me All my alterations begin there and appear worse than they really are My Friends oft pity me before I feel the cause in my self My Looking-glass does not fright me for even in my Youth it has befaln me more than once to have a scurvy complexion and of ill Prognostick without any great consequence insomuch that the Physicians not finding any cause within answerable to that outward alteration attributed it to the mind and some secret passion that tormented me within but they were deceiv'd If my Body would govern it self as well according to my Rule as my Mind does we should move a little more at our ease My mind was then not only free from Trouble but moreover full of Joy and Satisfaction as it commonly is half by Complexion and half by its own Design Nec vitiant artus aegrae contagia mentis I never yet could find That e're my Body suffer'd by my mind I am of the opinion that this temperature of my Soul has oft rais'd my Body from its lapses It is oft deprest and if the other be not brisk and gay 't is at least quiet and at rest I had a Quartan Ague four or five months that had made me look miserably ill my mind was always if not calm yet pleasant if the pain be without me the weakness and langour do not much afflict me I see several corporal faintings that beget a horrour in me but to name which yet I should less fear than a thousand passions and agitations of mind that I see in use I resolve no more to run 't is enough that I crawl along and no more complain of the natural decadency that I feel in my self Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus than I regret that my duration shall not be as long and entire as that of an Oak I have no reason to complain of my imagination for I have had few thoughts in my Life which have so much as broke my sleep if not those of desire which have awak'd without afflicting me I dream but seldom and then of Chimera's and fantastick things commonly produc'd from pleasant thoughts and rather ridiculous than sad and believe it to be true that dreams are the true Interpreters of our inclinations but there is art requir'd to sort and understand them Res quae in vita usurpant homines cogitant curant vident Quaeque agunt vigilantes agitantque ea sicut in fomno accidunt minus nimirum est 'T is no wonder if what men practice think care for see and do when waking should also run in their Heads and disturb them when they are asleep Plato moreover says that 't is the office of Prudence to draw instructions of Divination of future things from