despero etiamnum servari potest sed si cito porrigatur illi manus Est quidem periculum ne porrigentem trahat Magna in illo ingenii vis sed tendentis in pravum Faciet quod solet advocabit illas facetias quae risum evocare lugentibus possunt in se primum deinde in nos jocabitur c. Christians have greater arguments against this Drollery that it grieves Gods holy spirit and is contrary to that seriousnes and consideration requisite to Religion That there is nothing so sacred or prudent which by the petulancy of wit may not be made ridiculous consequently contemtible fit to be neglected and abolished Virgil we have seen publicly and even the holy Writings we heard to have been travesty by those who spare neither their Souls nor reputation to prove themselves Buffoons and shew their abilities and ingenuity in folly And this indeed is the great engine charged against heaven the only and trusty weapon wherewith dirty potsheards Disciples of Julian the Apostate Porphirius Epicurus and the rest of that brutish heard bark and grin against a Deity When all true reason and sober consideration as well as the other Creatures justify their Maker yea when even the Dogs revenged him upon Lucian the great Professor of scurrility and scoffing as well as Epicurism and irreligion But besides this disposition proceeds from a laschety and levity unbefitting any person of quality and emploiment and increaseth the same inclinations both in the Droller and the Auditors For as a wit used to versifying is ready to put all its thoughts into rime or a Mathematician is presently reducing all his fancies to somewhat in those Sciences every one casting his thoughts into that mold whereunto they are accustomed So do Drolls reject all serious notions and accept and fix upon the light and emty And therefore we see that when such persons aim at any thing grave and serious it misbecometh them as done out of order and season Thus doth mirth pleasingly by little and little steal away the judgment rendring it vain studious of and delighting in that which wise men avoid laughter And these men whilst they think to fool others become themselves really what others are in their imagination 3. IN Discourse concerning other persons familiar amongst Women Back-biting and calumny is most frequent because all men had rather hear evil of another then good Perhaps thinking thereby to justify their own faultiness at best indulging their self-love which is grounded upon a too high estimation of themselves and too low of others This evil speaking is very frequently used by many who pretend to extraordinary Godliness whose bitings are also more dangerous and venemous with those persons who mistake their formality for seriousnes and their gravity for reality in Religion But even in ordinary conversation men are wont also to defame their neighbours open-fac'd without any ceremony design or remorse From both these sorts of people especially the former turn away as much as you can but be sure to be none of them nor partake with them in their calumniations Consider what you say of others others say of you Before you calumniate think am not I the same or as bad Take heed of doing that which may hurt but cannot do good for 't is madness to make enemies without cause and it is better to suppress then vent and satisfy a piece of wit or a foolish passion The great rule is Nothing but truth before the face and nothing but good behind the back Beware also of censuring Nations Conditions or States of Men as well as particular persons for there is no Nation or condition wherein are not many good and none so good wherein are not many bad 'T is also a great honor and wisdom to pass by the back-bitings of others against your self Charles the 7th of France demanded of one much emploied by him and on whom he had bestowed many favors what thing in the world could alienate his mind from and bring him in dislike with his Prince the Gentleman answer'd An affront This person seems to have bin very sensible indeed but whether his discretion had merited the favor of his Prince I much doubt Certainly the behavior of Antigonus was much more generous who when one told him that such a one affronted him answered it may be so but I will not be affronted Augustus advised Tiberius not to be offended with peoples speaking ill of them it sufficeth saith he that we can secure our selves from their doing us harm When one said he was a Tyrant he answered were I so he durst not have said it To one calling him Dwarf well said he then I will get higher shoes P. Bernard when one bid him get out like a dirty Priest replied you are mistaken I came in a Coach And truly since all these evil tongues are conquered by silence one would think the victory easy did not experience shew us that the great remedy against bursting is giving vent There is no reason that the effect which may proceed from divers causes should be attributed to one v. g. an action of seeming disrespect may either come from an intention to affront from negligence from having some other busines in his thoughts c. interpret not therefore such actions as affronts and the rather because it is our duty to take every thing by the best handle 4. THE most innocent grateful and universal Discourse is telling Stories and modern rather then ancient Some are so well stocked with this trade as to be able to answer any question or parallel any case by a Story which is if well done a very great perfection of eloquence and judgment And in telling Stories avoid too often said he and said I hear you me mark me c. be perfect also that you need not recant stammer or repeat things said before be not tedious in impertinent circumstances nor make your own glory the chiefest concern Tell no lye in your discourse especially not Gasconades and improbable Rhodomontades wherein some out of weaknes and lowness of spirit and parts take as much pleasure as others in drinking when not thirsty and think they then overwit the company Be not hyperbolical and extravagant especially in praising and dispraising for the wit takes away the credit whereas the end of speech was first to make us understood then beleived And if you be convinced of an error for truths sake acknowledg it and change your opinion for this ingenuity is greater because rarer And remember that One chance falling out as the Astrologues prognosticate gets them reputation and their thousand lyes are not taken notice of but to a wise man one lye doth more disgrace then thousand truths can recover When news comes from an uncertain Author tho probable and expected yet suspend your beleif because men easily report what they desire or expect but rather give heed to certain extravagant and unexpected Relations as unlikelier to be invented And when you
regular understanding As Democritus seeing Protagoras when a youth to bind up a fagot orderly and to the best advantage conceived him fit to be a Scholar AND Cimabue rationally conceived great hopes of Giotto Bondone when being a poor boy and keeping his Fathers sheep he saw him designing one of them upon a brick Afterwards he became the restorer of that whole art and the famousest man of his age A child that delights in tormenting and vexing either Beasts or Men as the daughter of Caligula that let her nails grow to scratch her companions and play-fellows is of an evil perfidious and bestial nature DELIGHTING in gallantry commonly portends lowness and weakness of spirit as have those Women who have nothing but their outside to entitle them to humanity But slovenliness if it proceed from negligence i. e. if he be careless in other things especially of concernment is a very ill sign ad morem discincti vivere Nattae But if from particular neglect of delicateness as too low and mean 't is a good sign cave tibi à male cincto puero A sign of timorousness and effeminacy is to indulge divers fancies and to pretend to see imaginations and spectra things which valiant men are seldom troubled withal as also to pretend antipathy to divers sorts of meats c. and timorousness is the prologue to craft and dissimulation Unseasonable gravity many times indicates slowness to sciences negligence and weak memory Quickness of wit is in danger to usher in pride contemt abuse of others and neglect of study Acuteness and sagacity is often accompanied with anger and precipitiousness Such also if Students are apt to fall into needless curiosities factions and heresies For they search not to the bottom but having principles think to work out the rest by the dexterity of their wit Vain-gloriousness is alwaies subject to flatterers Distinguish between softness and meekness the more soft the less understanding the more meek the greater generosity and nobleness of spirit a soft man hath no anger or gall a meek man bridles and masters it Huffing and swaggering like bottled drink commonly shews want of spirit for it is but froth that makes that noise and presently such become vapid and distastful 10. WE must take heed of thinking any of these imperfections or faults incurable because according to a natural inclination or if a child be not exactly such a one as we would have him that he must be treated as the Brachmans did their children whose indoles they disliked abandon them in the Woods to the wild Beasts or as the Inhabitants of Madagascar who expose all their children born upon a Friday Turpiter desperatur quicquid fieri potest saith Quintilian Illud desperandum est posse nos casu bonam mentem influere laborandum est ut verum dicam ne labor quidem magnus est si modo animum formare incipimus antequam durescat pravitas ejus Sed nec indurata despero Nihil est quod non expugnet pertinax opera intenta ac diligens cura Sen. ep 50. Let the industrious and skilful Educator make many trials and divers experiments as Physicians do before they give a determinate prognostic Now of cures some are general As 1. to make them know their infirmity and that it is an infirmity and 2. that they be willing to be cured For it is not as in corporeal diseases when the body is necessitated by connexion of causes to undergo and suffer the malady incumbent But here the Soul is in its own power subject to it self only and its own will and that directed by the understanding Wherefore the first step to a cure is to convince by reason that they do ill i. e. to acknowledge their disease the desire to have it cured follows naturally So that it is in the power of reason to rule absolutely over the affections and dispositions of the Soul But because reason sometimes is misled or obstinately mistaken Almighty God hath given us his holy Religion and his spirit to govern reason also and render every thought obedient to Faith So that in Religion lies the universal and never failing remedy of all the evils of the Soul But many times particular and topical ones are also to be applied A child when he begins to go refuseth immediately to be assisted So when the will begins to follow its own choice it then also begins to scorn a guide the appetite of liberty being stronger then that of security Great industry therefore and discretion is requisite to turn it the best way endeavouring as Physicians to introduce the contrary of what is amiss and supply what is defective to coerce and discountenance the bold and impertinent to encourage the soft and modest severe to the merry cheerful to the melancholic Waken the taciturn with questions and silence the loquacious with baffling fallacies Bridle the too forward and eager and spur up the lazy and slothful 11. SOME there are who are lazy and unindustrious to study yet very active and sprightly in bodily exercises these many times are fitter for other emploiments then learning Others are to all purposes slow and sawntring and these are to be cured with bodily labor First make them play run leap c. afterwards bring them to study For there seems to be a moisture clogging their spirit which must be first shaken of for if they be indulged they will become more sleepy even till chang'd into dormice Then never let them want work yet not much at a time but be careful that what you command them be sedulously performed There are also who are pettish peevish hard to please and are alwaies lean maigre and consumtive which proceeds from a sharp thin humor easily exasperated and to such a degree as may be very prejudicial It is best therefore to deal with those gently and smoothly the default being more in the body then the mind and not put them upon crabbed intricate vexatious or intentive studies nor be too rigorous in exacting an account of them It would be worth labor to try whether such medicines as dulcify the blood would not profit them Like to these are they who seem rough harsh regardless of civility and not easily mingling conversation These if not such in extremity when mellowed by experience prove better then the complaisant and amicable Keep this sour disposition to study virtue and knowledge and tho he grumble and repine be content so as he doth his work and he is in less danger of temtation becomes more solidly virtuous and lasts much the longer As the wine which pleaseth in the Cuve must be drunk in the must They are also fitter for friendship then the compliant for these are equal to all and the greatest interest can be gain'd in them is but civility the other chuse their company and fix upon the best This sourness proceeds ordinarily from a brisker and fiercer spirit not willing to go in the ordinary routte nor
age is shorter then theirs This observation is of importance to many purposes v. g. virtue and vice wisdom and folly are but good and bad prosperous and adverse in the seed When we read in Histories the great changes of Government we much wonder at them and are apt to pitty the sufferers But Providence hath so ordered that great alterations ordinarily happen by little and little so that both reason and nature either accomodate to them or have time to escape and provide other waies He that entreth into danger without considering it is a beast he only is valiant who knowing the danger embraceth it cheerfully whether out of necessity or honor Yea tho he knows and supposeth that all dangers have not their effects but that some are prevented by industry some by courage and prudence and some fortune and the course of things Gods Providence casts of Dealing with Merchants and men of busines and virtue cut of ceremonies and declare the busines at length rather then too-short for this is apt to raise mistakes besides a man is not alwaies in disposition or ability to fathom the depth of an affair with a short cord When you have extorted from a person what he obstinately denied you need not doubt but at the same time also to obtain another he would not willingly grant For when a man is forced as it were to let go his hold of what he most firmly grasped he unbends his hand and abandons whatever it contained Commota semel excussa mens à stabilitate suâ ei servit à quo impellitur Thus the Parliament proposed to the King together with the bill of attainder of the Earl of Strafford which he was formerly resolved not to grant a bill for perpetuating the Parliament which tho of far greater consequence he scrupled not Deser as long as you can the doing of a thing against your mind rather then give a positive denial for accidents many times divert the design and deliver you from that strait wherein a refusal may deeplier engage you Never dispatch an evil and difficult busines so absolutely but that if possible you leave place to undertake and introduce it again Time and opportunity alter many things and make that pass smoothly which formerly would have bin refused had not your dexterity left open the door for a new treaty All men naturally avoid persons inquisitive into other mens affairs for such commonly are lavish of their intelligence and thereby breed quarrels and spread animosities besides that themselves are apt to envy and malign others that being the concern which breeds their inquisitivenes The reason why things conform not to the general desire and expectation of the World is because they who give beginning and ending to busines are but few and many are those who desire and expect He is often to blame who neglects a present good for fear of a future evil except it be nigh at hand and in a manner certain So is he who strives to avoid all difficulties for more things affright then hurt us And there are many changes in this World Di cosa nasce cosa And in judgments of the future we see wise men frequently mistaken Poor meanpeople and wranglers c. conclude not any treaty nor offer all they mean to give till they be forced i. e. till they see the treaty ready to break up and they think that they get a considerable advantage by such restines and importunity as indeed they do if they deal with ingenuous persons So petty Tradesmen love to call their customers back Since grateful and virtuous persons are so rare value the service of such as are joined with you in the same interest or danger and you may more reasonably expect to be assisted by him that hopes to get by you then by him who hath already received favors from you And remember that a Crown in your purse doth you more honor then ten spent When in consultations there are contrariety of opinions seldom is the best chosen and the more persons argue the further they are from agreeing the love of their own opinion insinuating it self by little and little with their reason Wherefore sometimes the most importunate prevails sometimes he that finds out a medium not that this expedient is alwaies the best but that persons in heat of dispute cannot easily pass over or fully consent to a contrary Thrust not your self to be Moderator or Umpire in Controversies till required and then 't is better to exaggerate the mischeifs of disagreement then benefits of concord for fear is stronger then love Many are wont alwaies to take the Adversaries part But it is a very hard thing to reconcile men at first their passions being high and animosities great But after they are reasonably wearied with Law or other inconveniences 't is not difficult to find out a medium which may save both their honors which is that both commonly desire A worthy Gentleman being to reconcile two persons first made them swear both to stand to his determination and 2ly that neither of them should reveal upon what terms they were reconciled Every man is more apt to love cherish and trust in him on whom he hath already bestowed most courtesies esteeming him as his creature This is the cause of the great love of Parents toward their Children and he that loveth and doth favors obligeth and submitteth himself to the receiver so that for fear of losing what he hath already bestowed he must bestow more Wherefore if you seek the favor of a great person accept courtesies from him and not from others He that would perswade great men let him first begin with the weakest by probable arguments good words and humble carriage he shall obtain their friendship and by their Authority tho but fools draw in the wiser Mean wits alwaies distrust subtil arguments and Logical heads and great men for the most part are of an inartificial understanding and therefore by seemingly naked truth and plainness are brought to your opinion In great Councils and meetings there are alwaies some leading men whom if you gain your business is done Amongst Multitudes one adversary can do more harm then many friends can do good There are some who are children even in mature age and of them a man must not say they are 40. years old therefore they will do as men of 40. years old But concerning those and all such Heteroclites look at their present customs and menagery of their private affairs For if you see an aged man vehement suddain in his resolutions following the impetus of his passions hold that man for a child not moved with reason unconstant to day resolving without consideration and in the same manner reversing it to morrow Nothing is well done or said in passion tho there may be just cause of being passionate but less or more all passion according to the degree of it hinders reason and deliberation But beware instead of passion you fall not