murdred in the senate-house Cato Brutus Cassius Antonius were slain by their owne hands Cleopatra the last Queene of Alexandria was strong to death with an Aspe Cicero twice banished and his head and hand cut off with which he had written his Philippicks Mark Varro proscribed Nigidius exiled So many horrible things came to passe at that time that the verie remembrance of them striketh feare and horrour into me THE FALL OF THE POWER Learning and Eloquence of the Romaines THE Romaines then which for a time had meruailously profited liuing in libertie after that by the factions into which they were fallen they were brought into seruitude vnder the rule of one Monarch they waxed worse and worse by little and little decreasing the exercise of Armes and studies of learning And howbeit by the vertue of some good Princes the Empire seemed in some sort to rise againe yet was it the more brought low and afflicted afterwards by the loosnes of others the honour and venerable excellencie of this soueraine dignitie being transferred from the auncient families of Rome to strangers of all nations yea euen to certaine base and vicious persons who came to it by force and by corruption of whom the most part were slaine by the greedie souldiers which had created them and others were ouerthrowen by themselues Which disorders continued till such time as the Empire fatally approching to his end was abandoned for a pray to the barbarous Nations For these Emperours vnaduisedly thinking to fortifie themselues by the mercenarie and auxiliarie armes of strangers whom they sent for to their succour and seruice weakning the proper and naturall forces of the Empire which their auncestours had vsed in the getting of it they drew ere they were ware of it many of the Northren nations into the countries lands and seigniories of their obedience Moreouer by transporting the principal forces and riches from Rome to Bizantium diuiding of the Empire into the East and West they weakned much In such sort that the West was first distroied and then at length also the East which remayning vnited might haue long and almost perpetually resisted all inuasions Then was lost the puritie and elegancie of the Latine tongue the Italians leauing to speak Latin and in like maner the disciplines written therin came to contempt and ignorance and all liberall and Mechanicall arts were corrupted as is easie to iudge by the workes of this time yet remayning of diuers sorts And although in this mingling there fell out great things and strange meruailes yet met they not with men to gather them diligently and to write them worthely but they whole remained either buried in the darknesse of ignorance or wrapped vp in confusion or depraued by barbarisme which endured in Europe about a thousand yeares But howbeit that common weales haue their naturall conuersions fatall periods and prefixed times of continuance It seemeth notwithstanding that the chiefe cause of the ruine of the Romain Empire ought to be attributed to CONSTANTINE surnamed the great who transported the seate thereof out of Italy where it was begon and growen vp chaunged the fourme of gouernement in which it had bin maintained sithence Augustus time casserd the Pretorian souldiours made the fees hereditary which the men of armes before possessed onely for a time or during their life at most created newe Magistrates and ordained newe Lawes altering in a little time all the auncient forme of gouernement For Dioclesian being dead Maximian Maxencius and Licinius slaine who had bin all Emperours at the same time with Constantius associated by them when this CONSTANTINE the sonne of this Constancius and his successour in the Empire sawe himselfe alone peaceable Monarch he bethought him for the perpetuating of his memory and celebrating of it the more to build vpon the straight of the sea and the farthest part of Europe next vnto Asia in the place where Byzantium stood before a great citie equall in all things vnto Rome which he beautified with the same priuileges liberties dignities and honors To the end that by the force thereof the Empire toward the East might bee vpheld against the Persians whose power at that time was great and terrrible as in the west it was maintained against the Germains by the meanes of auncient Rome He would that these two cities should be reputed as one and that the citizens of th one as of the other should in like maner be chosen Consuls of whom th one should be resident here and thother there He ordained that there should be foure prefectures of the pretorie or Courts of soueraigne authority next vnto the imperiall by which all the affaires of the Empire should be ordered two for the west of Italy and of Fraunce two for the East of Ilyrian and of the Orient And in liew of the fifteene legions ordained by Augustus and intertained by his successours for defence of the Empire on the Riuers of the Rhene and of Danubius he there built certaine Castles and Fortresses putting in them but weake garrisons yet thinking neuerthelesse that they woulde bee strong enough to stop the courses of the Northren nations which he tooke to be altogither ouercome by the great victories which he had obtained ouer them Wherin he was greatly deceiued for as much as these barbarous people seeing the frontiers of the Empire weake and euill garded stayed not long from winning them entering into the prouinces of the Empire which they ouerran and inuaded miserably namely the Ostrogoths and Lombardes of Italie the Visigoths Aquitaine and Spaine the Frenchmen and Burguignons the countrey of Gaules the Vandales Bethicke and Africke Finally Rome which was called before the head and light of the worlde and subduer of countries was besieged taken spoyled and destroyed many times Which euils according to the saying of Ezechiel came out of the North which hath alwaies bin so fertile of men that not onely it hath filled with inhabitantes the wast wildernesses and huge Forestes of that quarter but also hath accustomed to cast out innumerable people which haue possessed Asia and Europe ouerthrowing the auncient estates to establish new But I retourne to the Empire which THEODOSIVS the first of that name held last entierly both in the East and West afterwards deuided it between his two sonnes HONORIVS and ARCADIVS vnder whom began the foresaid afflictions by the disloyalty and blinded ambition of Ruffinus and Stilicon their gouernours THEODOSIVS the second son of Arcadius was the last that may truely be called Emperour of the west vntill Charlemaigne Whiles Martian and Valentinian raigned GENSERICVS the Vandale who had intelligence with ATTILA king of the Hunnes made him come out of Pannonia into Gaulewith fiue hundred thousand men where he was fought with by the Romains Goths and Frenchmen It is not red that there were euer two greater armies any where opposed one against the other nor which fought more obstinately in such sort that there were slaine a hundred and fourescore
world and haue maliciously inuented many lies of his pretended excellencie heretofore rehearsed to th end to make him more admirable and to draw the more people to his beleefe THE POWER OF THE ARABIANS or Saracens compared to the Romain Macedonian Persian Parthian Assyrtan and Egiptian PLinie speaking of the Arabians saith that they were not inferiour to any people of the world They receiuing the law of Mahomet who was of their nation were called Saracens who in little time after they had receiued this Religion atchieued great conquests subdued many Regions tooke and ruinated Townes wasted countries ouerthrew kingdoms and namely the Romain Empire in the East But as they increased sodainly in dominions so they entred into partialities and diuided themselues vnder two Caliphes whereof the one was established at Bagdet in Assyria commaunding ouer all the East thother in Egipt who conquered all the rest of Barbarie with Spaine Being come to such and so great power albeit they were all of one religion or little different because they called one another Schismaticks yet had they not one Empire aunswering to one soueraigne Monarch and resident in the capitall Citie of the state as had the Assyrians Persians Parthians and Romains but being diuided into many Lords and euil agreeing they fought the one against thother which was the cause that made them diminish as soone as they were growen vp For the first Turks comming out of the North East parts of Asia on the differents of the two Caliphes they took Persia from them and possessed the Caliphat of Bagdet with the better part of the lesser Asia becomming Mahometists But the Latin Christians vnder Godfrey of Bouillon and the Corasmians ouercame these Turks then the Latins Corasmians being ouercome the Tartarians issued from the same quarter wherehence the Turks came before who in an instant ouerran a great part of the North of the East and of the South then drawing toward the West they ouercame the Ruthenians Lithuanians Polaques and pierced euen into Hungary Austrich and Germanie which if they had bin or were vnited would make an incomparable power But they are diuided by hordes of the Procopians Zauoglans Nogacians and Corasmians the one being gouerned by kings and the other by common weales A COMPARISON OF THE ARABIAN or Sarasen Learning with the Greeke Egiptian Chaldaick Persian and Romain or Latin AS the learning of the Greekes and Romaines augmented with their power so did that of the Arabians or Saracens And when they were the most mightie of the world then they became most learned especially in the demonstratiue sciences Amongst whom Auicenna Albumasar Gebber and Auerrois got the first praise Auicen hath bin the most vniuersall of them all being eminent in philosophie in the Mathematics in their Theologie in the Arabian poesie who writing also in Physick hath verie well handled according to the iudgement of the most learned in this art the signes and causes of diseases accomodating vnto them many remedies not vnderstood nor practised by the Greeks and Italians Auerrois hath learnedly expounded all Aristotle Abumasar vnderstood perfectly al the celestial motions and their effects hauing inuented the great coniunctions and many other goodly things which remained vnknowen vntill his time Gebber a verie expert Mathematician hath found faults in the demonstrations of Prolomey his Almagests And others in diuers sciences haue inuented many new things or reformed those that were inuented before both Persians Syrians Egiptians Africans and Spaniards writing in Arabian which possessed the schooles of the West before the restitution of the Greek and Latin Which I thought good to speak of by the way that it might be knowen that all learning is not comprised in these two languages that the Arabian ought not to be dispised which comprehendeth a good part They got such reputation in the Mathematicks that Alphonsus king of Castile going about to make his Astronomical tables had his principal recourse to them because that only they at that season could teach and restore such sciences to whom he made great presents to the value of fower hundred thousand Crownes Imitating therein the liberalitie of Alexander who disbursed the like summe to haue the natures of liuing creatures truely represented by Aristotle But the Caliphes seeing that the people too much giuen to Philosophie to the Mathematicks cared but little for their Law they founded Colleges for the intertainment of teachers and learners of their Alcoran and in some vniuersities they changed the Lectures of philosophie into those of their Law ordaining that whosoeuer from thence forward would studie the Alcoran should in no sort giue himselfe to Philosophie which hath made the exercises of the sciences to waxe cold in some places but not thorough out because that at this day there are found in Persia most learned Philosophers Astrologers A COMPARISON OF THE ARABIAN tongue with the Greek Latin and Hebrew WHen the Greeks and Romains were in their greatest prosperitie and rulers ouer many Countries they spred these two tongues with their dominions much people learned to speak thē either to please them therwith or to negociate with them then the Christian religion seruing it self with them hath preserued dispersed thē into diuers coūtries yet were they neuer vnderstood in so many places as the Arabian is now the which is common to almost all the inhabitants of Asia Africk a third part of Europe the affairs of the Alcoran being treated therin which is followed by th one half of the world or more and all sciences Euen as we vse Latin in these parts separated from the vulgar tongues and not vnderstood but by such as haue learned it in schooles It resembleth the Hebrew Chaldaick and Syriack in this that it is written as they are from the right hand to the left with points in steed of vowels and hath many words common with them and the phrase somewhat neere them but peculiar letters to it selfe wherin it is much different from the Greek and Latin which are written from the left hand to the right The end of the eigth Booke THE SEQVELE OF THE RELIGION and power of the Mahometists as of the first Turkes Corasmians Tartarians of the Souldan of the Ottoman and of the Sophy Where there is mention made of the great Cham of Catay of the King of Narsingue of the Moscouite and of Presbiter Iohn as hauing all begun or growen vp about that time albeit they haue other Religions The ninth Booke ON the different which was between the Caliphes The TVRKS comming out of the Northeast of Scythia went into Asia about the hundreth yeare of the Algier of Mahomet and after they had a long time wandered they staied in Persia whither they came being called by the Persians against the Arabians and others of the new Religion which oppressed them But finding at their comming the kingdom of Persia vanquished aswell by armes as by religion and seeing it was not possible for them
imitantia fulmen Corripiunt Vulcane tuum dum Theutonas armas Inuentum dum tela Jouis mortalibus affers Nec mora signantes certam sibi quisque volucrem Inclusam salicum cineris sulphúrque nitrumque Materiam accendunt seruata in veste fauilla Fomite correpta diffusa repente furit vis Ignea circumsepta simulque cita obice rupto Intrusam impellit glandem volat illa per auras Stridula exanimes passim per prata iacebant Deiectae volucres magno micat ignibus aer Cum tonitru quo sylua omnis ripaeque recuruae Et percussa imo sonuerunt aequora fundo This age hath brough forth many great and notable inuentions on which notwithstanding I will not stand because they are rather accessarie to the auncient things then exceeding the vnderstanding of our forfathers all antiquitie hauing not any thing to compare vnto these three But amongst the meruailes of our age there haue bin manifested new and strange maladies vnknowen of the Auncients and not treated of by any Greek Arabian or Romain Phisitian as if there were not enough alreadie dispersed ouer the world to the number of three hundred and more without speaking of the inconueniencies hapning euery day by the excesses which men do vse Moreouer there are risen Sects in many Countries which haue much troubled the publicke peace and cooled the mutuall charitie of men Whereof some more curious will attribute the cause to the celestiall motions For as we haue obserued in times past in the notable mutations of mankind where nature hath showed her greatest forces that extreme euill and wickednes hath met with excellent vertue and extraordinarie calamities haue accompanied great felicitie so could not one imagin any kind of vnhappinesse or â—ice which is not found in this age so happie in the restitution of good learning and restoring of sciences Neither is there any amongst all men either Christians or barbarous Nations but hath suffered much No part of the habitable earth no person is exempted from affections which increase from day to day and are too much knowen to our damage and confusion Euery where the publike estates haue â—in afflicted changed or destroied and euery where the Religion troubled with heresies Not only all Europe but also the farthest regions of Asia and Africk the inhabitants of the new found lands and of the East and West Indies being innumerable in multitude and dispersed into infinite places haue bin troubled with foreine and ciuile warres long continued wherehence hath followed the excessiue price of all things with often famines and pestilences We must think that God being angrie with men sendeth such calamities generally and particularly to correct our vices and to bring vs to a greater knowledge and reuerence of him For there was neuer in the world more wickednes more impietie or more disloialtie Deuocion is quenched simplicitie and innocencie mocked at and there remayneth but a shadow of Iustice. All is turned vpside downe nothing goeth as it ought But the most notable aduersities and prosperities of this age are elegantly represented by Fracastorius in these goodly Verses Credo equidem quaedam nobis diuinitus esse Inuenta ignaros fatis ducentibus ipsis Nam quanquam fera tempestas iniqua fuerunt Sydera non tamen omnino praesentia diuûm Abfuit à nobis placidi clementia coeli Si morbum insolitum si dura tristia bella Vidimus sparsos dominorum caede penates Oppidaque incensasque vrbes subuersáque regna Et templa captis temerata altaria sacris Elumina deiectas si perrumpentia ripas Euertere sata medijs nemora eruta in vndis Et pecora domini correptaque rura natarunt Obseditque inimica ipsas penuria terras Haec eadem tamen haec aetas quod fata negarunt Antiquis totum potuit sulcare carinis Id pelagi immensum quod circuit Amphitrite Nec visum satis extremo ex Atlante repostos Hesperidum penetrare sinus praxumque sub Arcto Inspectare alia praeruptaque littora rapti Atque Arabo aduehere Carmano ex aequore merces Aurorae sed itum in populos Titanidis vsque est Supta Indum Gangémque supra qua terminus olim Calygare noti orbis erat superata Cyambe Et dites Ebeno foelices macere syluae Denique à nostro diuersum gentibus orbem Diuersum coelo clarum maioribus astris Remigio audaci aâ—â—igimus ducentibus dijs The end of the tenth Booke A COMPARISON OF THIS AGE with the most famous former Ages to know wherein it is superiour inferiour or equall vnto them and first touching the warfare of these dayes with the auncient Greek and Romain The Eleuenth Booke THE excellencie of this age being briefly declared we will hence forward compare it with the most famous of the former in matter of Armes Artillerie Captaines Armies Battailes Sieges Empires and other States voiages by sea and by land discoueries of Countries riches maners and sciences to know wherein it is superiour or inferiour or equall vnto them beginning with the comparison of the warfare of these daies with the auncient Greeke and Romaine It is said that CYAXARES king of the Medians was the first that distributed the men of warre of Asia into Bandes Squadrons and Companies and ordayned that the horsemen and footmen should haue their quarters apart and should no more march confusedly as they were wont to do The ROMAINS accounting more of their Infanterie then of their Caualerie and founding on it all the desseignes of their power diuided their footmen into those that were heauily and such as were lightly armed whom they called Velites vnder which word were vnderstood all such as vsed slings darts and bowes the greatest part of whom as Polybius saith were armed with a caske and to couer themselues had a shield or target on their arme and fought without keeping any rank or order a good way from the heaule or maine armie The men that were heauily armed had a salade which couered their head and came downe as far as their shoulders There bodie was armed with cuirasses which with the tases couered their â—highes as far as their knees They had moreouer their leggs and their armes couered with greues and vantbrasses and caried also a shield of fower foote long and two and a halfe broad which had a circle or plate of yron aboue to sustaine the blowes the better and to keepe it from cleauing and an other plate of yron vnderneath which kept the shield from being wasted and worne with leaning it on the ground which might be compared to a pauois prouided that the pauois had in the verie midst thereof a bosse of yron well set on and close ioyned as their shieldes had the better thereby to endure the blowes and strokes which should fall thereon Besides they had a sword girt on their left side and on their right side a short dagger They had a dart in their hand
the Sciences doing that for Posteritie which Antiquitie hath done for vs to the end that Learning be not lost but from day to day may receiue some increase OF THE VARIETY OF THINGS The first Booke INtending to represent according to my ability the interchangeable course and alteration of all things in the worlde together with the causes of the principall chaunges and varieties to be perceiued as well in the superiour as in the inferiour part thereof sithence the time that the first memory of man began euen to this present I most humbly acknowledge the diuine prouidēce of God to be aboue all beleeuing assuredly that God almighty maker and gouernour of this great worke so excellent in beauty so admirable in varietie and so singular in continuance to whome I pray to aydeme in this so high so long so difficult an enterprise hytherto neuer attempted of any is carefull of all affaires happening therein euen to the least contayning in himselfe the beginning the end and the meanes of them all and pursuing the order which he hath giuen to the world from the beginning in creating it will that it be tempered by alternatiue chaunges and maintayned by contraries his eternall essence remayning alwaies one and vnchangeable First of all then the heauen notwithstanding it hath receyued of God the maker thereof many excellencies amongst other creatures beyng round and hauing throughout his extremities or vtmost partes distant or remoued from the middle or inmost parte which is the most perfect figure and most like vnto it selfe on which he hath also bestowed conuenient circular motion exempted from the wandring and inconstancie of others turning it by the same and in the same and to him selfe wherein he doth perseuer yet neuerthelesse since it hath a body it can not wholy warrant or preserue it selfe from alteration chaunge The Auncients made eight spheres in it of the firmament and of the seauen Planets but since haue beene obserued the ninth and the tenth our later Astrologers affirming that the tenth doth turne round about the world in 24. houres goyng by the right side from East to West and by this so swift and impetous motion doth force and cary with it all the other inferiour spheres and doth make them make the same turne in the selfe same space of time although that their proper motions be contrary vnto it drawing on the left side from West to East namely the ninth being the slowest in 49. thousand yeares The eighth to haue two th one of 36. thousand yeres thother of seuen thousand The sphere of Saturne in 30. yeres of Iupiter in 12 of Mars in two of the Sunne Venus Mercury in one yere of the Moone in 28. daies Time also was made with heauen and with the starrs so that hauing had the selfe same beginning they shall also haue the same end when the world shall be dissolued returning into their auncient Chaos and former darknes For the daies moneths yeres and ages which were not before that the heauen and the starres were created incontinently began with them and number was distinguished and obserued by their course That is the entercourse of daies and nights by the daily motion of the firmament The moneth after that the Moone hath gone ouer her whole circle and attained to the sunne The ordinarie yere when the sunne hath accomplished his course The great yere when the seauen Planets and thother fixed starrs returne to their first places representing the same nature which was at the beginning The liues of all things and the prefixed time of their continuance being determined by lesser or greater numbers according to the disposition of the matter whereof they are made springing growing florishing diminishing perishing in certainetimes and by vnequall spaces being reduced to the selfe same end euery one seeling his corruption to be the cause of another generation Insomuch that it seemed vnto Plato that the world was nourished by the consumption and decay of it selfe producing alwaies new creatures vnto the old and raising vp of others like vnto them in the places of those that were perished without suffering the kinds to faile or surcease which by this meanes do alwaies remaine as it were immortall But howbeit the world is round and hath not in it either high or low considering that the place which is in the midst ought not to be termed high or low nor that which compasseth about be called the midst neither hath in it any part differing from the other if regard be had vnto the midst and euery other opposite thing notwithstanding in respect of our selues we say that it hath high low right and left That Pole which we see being termed low according to Aristotle thother which is hidden from vs high And the East whence the first motion proceedeth is the right side The West is the left whence commeth a motion contrary to the former Then the Astrologers and Philosophers affirme that from the superiour part of the world there discendeth a certaine vertue accompained with light and heat which some of them do call the spirit or soule of the world others say it is nature which mingleth it selfe with the masse of this great body penetrating quickening norishing and moderating al these variable thinges vnder the Moone which being of such efficacy beginneth first with the fire and the aire which being moued by the celestial mouings doe afterwardes moue the water and the earth and consequently the natures compounded of these fower Elements as wel men beasts birds and fishes as plants trees herbes and mettals That there is the first mouing whereof do depend all other inferious motions and al essence whatsoeuer That there hence do proceede diuers temperatures of bodies inclinations of mindes manners of men properties of nations vices and vertues health and sicknes force and feeblenes shortnes and length of life mortality riches and pouertie prosperitie and aduersity That there hence al estates and sects do take their beginnings their course continuance and their ends In briefe that al this inferiour world doth obey the superiour is gouerned by it Especially that all humaine affaires do depend thereon and yet are to be preuented by deeds not that such effects doe necessarily come to passe and inuiolably by a fatall Law but that they may be auoided by wisedome or turned from vs by diuine praiers or augmented or diminished or moderated by nurture custome and instruction First that the Sunne lightning all thinges with his beames doth giue euident proofe therof who rising and setting maketh the day and the night by comming towards vs and going from vs causeth the yeres continually to be renewed and by the obliquity or crookednes of the Zodiacke with the helpe of the twelue signes which are in it doth distinguishe by his Solstices and Equinoxes the fower seasons of the sommer and winter of the spring and haruest In the which consisteth the vicissitude of life and death and the change of all thinges
aboundance of oliues that was to come wherin he might haue gained much showing that it were easy for Philosophers to enriche themselues if they would but it is not their study and profession And Plato in his Theaetetus telleth that as he beheld the starres and looked vpwards he fell into a diche whereof he was reprehended by his maide who was pleasant and witty that he woulde endeuour to know what was in heauen being ignorant of that which was in earth and before his feete DEMOCRITVS is called by Seneca in the seuenth of his naturall questions the most subtill of the auncients and in his booke of the shortnes of life he reckoneth him amongst the chiefe and most excellent masters of the sciences Cicero in his first Booke of the ends of good and euill calleth him a man learned and perfect in Geometrie and recommendeth his stile or maner of writing vnto Brutus in his Oratour saying that albeit it be estraunged from verse yet because it is eleuated and enriched with most cleare lights of words that it seemeth rather to be a poeme then the verses of Comick Poets Plinie telleth howe that hee and Pythagoras trauailed into Persia Arabia Egypt and Ethiopia to the end to learne Magicke and that they two were the first that did celebrate it in these parts And in an other place it is manifest saith hee that DEMOCRITVS a wise man otherwise profitable vnto life hath erred through too much desire which he had to be helpful vnto mē And in his vij Book he promised saith he to reuiue others which hath not raised vp himselfe He was so exceedingly giuen to cōtemplation that his citizens the Abderites counted him franticke and sent for Hippocrates to heale him who when he came to Abdera found him only wise amongst them all Seneca writing of the diuine prouidence saith that he abandoned riches thinking them to be burden som to a good wit Some say that willingly with a burning glasse he depriued himselfe of his sight that he might see more clerly with his vnderstanding Tully in his fifth Tusculane DEMOCRITVS saith he hauing lost the sight of his eies could not discerne white black but wel could he the good and euil iust and vniust honest and dishonest profitable and vnprofitable And could liue wel and happely without the sight of colours but not without the knowledge of things This mā thought the sight of the mind to be hindred by the sight of the eies And as others did not see oft-times that which was before their feet so he wandered throughout al infinity without consisting in any extremity Plutarch in his treatise of curiosity affirmeth it to be false Seneca in his second Booke of Anger saith that HERACLITVS going out of his house and seeing about him so many liuing euil or rather dying in euil he had pity of them all and wept on the contrary DEMOCRITVS was neuer seene but laughing HIPPOCRATES had his honor to haue bin the first that did write perspicuously of Physick of the rules therof Plutarch witnesseth of him that hauing written touching the seames or ioinings of mans head in Anatomy and afterwards finding that he had failed in somwhat he did publickly declare his fault for feare lest others might fall into the like errour Saint Augustin after him hath bin the only man that hath publickly corrected himselfe by setting forth his retractations Others are commonly so ouergon with glory and so opinatiue that they had rather dye then yeld in any thing EMPEDOCLES the Agrigentine a famous natural Philosopher wrote in verse vj books of the knowledg of nature wherof Aristotle maketh often mētion especially in his Poetry where he saith that Homer Empedocles had nothing one like thother but their verses and that the one is a right Poet and thother ought rather to be called a naturall Philosopher then a Poet. And in his Metaphysicks speaking of him and of Anaxagoras he witnesseth that Anaxagoras was superior in age to Empedocles but inferior to him in works And he saith in his problemes that he was of melancholick cōplexion Plinie saith that he trauailed far to learne Magick as did Pithagoras Democritus And Horace in his art of Poetry that being desirous to leaue an opinion of himselfe that he was a God and was vanished secretly out of the sight of men he cast himselfe into the burning and smoking hole of the hil Etna and that this deed was afterwardes discouered by one of his slippers which being made of bras was cast vp by the vehemency of the fire and wind ANAXAGORAS a Clazomenian gentleman became a very excellent Philosopher and was called by those of his time Nous which signifieth the minde or vnderstanding were it for admiration which they had of his knowledge and vnderstanding which appeared to be great especially in naturall Philosophy or els because he was the first which added the intelligence vnto the matter and appointed vnto naturall things for their beginning and first cause of their distinction and ordinance the intelligence Plinie writeth of him that by knowledge of the starres hee foretolde that within certaine daies after there would fall a stone from heauen which happened in the parts of Thrace in the day time He was the first that published books written by him and liued in the time of Democritus In auncient time in Greece they which did write first of diuine celestial naturall morall politicke and military matters were the Poets and they were commonly Priests Theologians Musicians Astrologians and Physicians as Linus Musaeus Orpheus and Amphion LINVS the sonne of Apollo and of Terpsichore being very skilfull in Musick was the master of Hercules of Tamyras and of Orpheus They say that he brought the knowledge thereof out of Phenicia into Greece as did Atlas the Astrology out of Lybia Museus was reputed as a Prophet hauing deliuered many Cerimonies to the Grecians of whom Virgill giueth a very honourable testimony in the sixth Booke of his Aneids calling him an excellent Poet in great perfection and making him to seeme in the Elysian fields the most eminent amongst all the men of honour and learning that were there which haue had a memorable name in all ages ORPHEVS and AMPHION were such excellent musicions that they were said by their sweete Songes to moue trees and stones to stop the course of riuers and to tame the fiercenes of wild beasts ORPHEVS first instituted in Greece the Initiatiōs of the Gods the purgation of sinnes remedies of diseases by charmes and Inchauntmentes and meanes to appease the wrath of the Gods They say that of him and of Zoroaster as fathers and authors came al the ancient wisedome Iamblicus affirmeth that Pythagoras followed Orpheus his diuinity as a paterne on the which he framed formed his Philosophy which is more that the words of Pythagoras had not bin esteemed holy or sacred but for being deriued from the precept of Orpheus That from thence came the secret doctrine
more pleasant in such sort that one woulde thinke that he obtained that which he intreateth by force And albeit by his vehemencie he transporteth the Iudge yet seemeth he not to be drawne himselfe but to followe of his owne accorde Moreouer there is such authority in whatsoeuer he saith that it seemeth a shame to gainsay him not bringing with him the diligence of an aduocate but the testimonie of a witnes or of a Iudge all these things notwithstanding flowing from him without constraint or labour amongst the which each of them striuing particularly yet with great difficultie excelleth each other And there appeareth in his speach a happie facilitie goodly to heare Wherfore he was not without cause accounted by those of his time to raigne in iudgements and hath gotten amongst posteritie the name not of a man but of eloquence Plinie giueth such testimonie of him But what errour were it for me saith he to omit thee M. Tullie or what excellent praise shall I giue thee but euen that which hath bin bestowed on thee by the common voice and vniuersall suffrage of all the people of this nation in taking out of all thy life the works onely of thy Consulship when you spake the Tribunes refused the law Agrarie that is to say their foode and sustenance When you perswaded they pardoned Roseius the authour of the law Theatral When you perored and pleaded it was permitted vnto the children of banished persons to seeke for honours and magistracies Catiline flyeth from thy wisdome Thou hast proscribed and banished Mark Anthony I salute thee the first that hath bin called the father of the Countrie the first that hath deserued in a gowne the triumph of the Crowne of lawrell by speaking well parent of the Latine language and elegancie and as Cesar the Dictator was wont to say of thee hauing the prerogatiue of all triumphes for asmuch as it is more to haue aduaunced the bounds of the Romain learning then of the Empire The same Plinie writeth thus of M. VARRO The statue of him alone whiles he liued was placed by Asinius Pollio in the librarie which he first of all others erected of the spoiles gotten of the enemies which I esteeme no lesse glorie proceeding of a principall Oratour and Citizen in that multitude of good witts that then was and giuing this crowne to him alone then when Pompey the great gaue him the nauale Crowne for hauing wel behaued himselfe in the warre against the pirates where he was his Lieutenant Cicero dedicating to him his first Academick saith Thou hast declared the age of the Countrie the descriptions of time the rights of holy things and of Priests the discipline of peace and of warre the situation of Countries and places the names kinds offices and causes of all both diuine and humane affaires bringing great light to our Poets and generally to Latine words and letters and hast in many places begun Philosophie enough to awaken men though little to teach them And in his second Philippick M. Varro saith he would that this place should be the house of his studies what matters were handeled therein and what written The rights of the people of Rome the monuments of the auncestours the reason and doctrine of all wisdome And writing vnto him in his Epistles he saith I haue alwayes esteemed you a great personage especially that in these troubles are almost alone in quiet and receiue the fruites of learning which are great considering and treating of things the vtilitie and delectation whereof ought to be preferred before all the actions and pleasures of theis others Surely I account this abode which you make at Tusculum to be the true life and would willingly leaue all riches to all men that it might be permitted me without any hinderance to liue after this maner Lactantius dareth to affirme that there was neuer any more learned amongst the Greeks and Latins S. Augustine calleth him the sharpest of all men and without doubt the most learned who hath read so many things that it is a wonder he had any leasure to write of ought and yet hath written so much that it is scarce credible that any one could read it all for he wrote CCCCXC books Also who hath more curiously searched out this then Marcus Varro or more learnedly found it or more attentiuely considered it or more subtilly distinguished it or written more diligently and fully of it who albeit he be not so sweete in speach aboundeth notwithstanding aswell in knowledge and sentences as in all doctrine which we call secular and they liberall he can aswell teach the studious of things as Cicero delight the curious of words Cicero in his booke of the world giueth such testimonie of P. NIGIDIVS This personage was adorned with all liberall arts and a diligent searcher of things which were hidden and folded vp in nature And I account thus of him that after the noble Pythagorians whose discipline was in a maner extinct hauing florished many yeares in Italie and Sicilie he hath renewed it The same Cicero saith of SERVIVS SVLPITIVS a Lawier his admirable incredible and almost diuine knowledge in exposition of the lawes and declaration of right and equitie shall not be forgotten If all those which euer in this Citie had vnderstanding of the Lawes were assembled together in one place yet were they not comparable to Seruius Sulpitius for he was not so well seen in law as in Iustice wherefore he referred alwaies to facilitie and equitie the deeds proceeding of the rule of right and of the Ciuile Law And did not take so much paines to set downe the actions and pleadings of causes as to take away the doubts of matters and difficulties of controuersies The same Cicero of GALLVS AQVILIVS an other Lawier I say one could not to much esteeme the aucthoritie of such a man whose wisdome the people of Rome hath knowen in taking heed to himselfe and not in deceauing of others Who did neuer seuer the reason of Law from Equitie who so many yeares hath readily imployed his wit labour and fidelitie for the good of the people of Rome who is so iust and so good that he seemeth to be a Lawier by nature and not by discipline so learned and prudent that he seemeth to be not onely a naturall knowledge but also a certain goodnesse of the ciuile Law whose vnderstanding is so good and such his fidelitie that whatsoeuer is drawen from thence is found to be pure and cleere Before this time the Latine Poesie was rude which was then polished and brought to perfection especially by VERGIL whom Quintilian witnesseth among all the Heroicke poets both Greeks and Latins to haue come neerest vnto Homer in whom notwithstanding he acknowledgeth that there was more of nature These are the most notable personages that florished then both in armes and learning But IESVS CHRIST defaced all their excellencie who in the raign of Augustus discending out of Heauen here on earth and clothing
himselfe with the shape of a man was borne of the Virgin and came forth of her wombe both visible Man and God inuisible promised by the Law and the Prophets the master of trueth and cleanser of Idolatrie correctour of malice and renewer of our depraued nature to th end to restore such as beleeued in him to their auncient puritie and innocencie corrupted by the forfaiture of the first man He gaue sight to the blind speach to the dumbe straight going to the lame healed incurable diseases cast out euill spirits fedd with fiue loaues and two fishes fiue thousand persons turned water into wine went safely on the waters as on the land commaunded the sea the winds and the tempests raised the dead to life and liued himselfe againe after he had bin wrongfully crucified and killed by the Iewes By which miracles he shewed himselfe to be the sonne of God establishing his Church and christian Religion in steed of the Mosaical and Pagan Which hath alreadie endured more then fifteene hundred yeares and shall neuer haue end hath passed alreadie to the Antipodes and hath bin manifested to the East and West Indians yea euen amongst the sauages lately discouered towards the South which before were vnknowen to all antiquitie and among the farthest people of the North by meanes of the Sueuians and Moscouites In somuch that at this day we may affirme that his word hath bin heard in all parts of the habitable earth as he had ordained vnto his Disciples enduing them with the grace of the holy Spirite and power to do miracles as he had done before and with the gift of tongues with perseuerance pacience and constancie against all torments and persecutions A thing indeed admirable and the like whereof neuer hapned to any King Law-maker or Philosopher Grecian or Barbarian who contented themselues to set downe and cause to be receiued in their countrie and language the institutions and Lawes which they esteemed good and profitable But Iesus Christ not as a mortall man seruing himselfe with poore fishermen for his Disciples whom he would haue from that time forward to bee fishers of men hath manifested his Gospell by them thorough out the whole world and before all people inioyning them to shew from him the true way of saluation and of beleeuing in GOD the Creatour of all thinges Such was the progresse and aduauncement which they made in their ministerie that in a little time they induced the Nations by their preaching to leaue their auncient idolatries and to receiue Christ as GOD they established schooles and auditories of the Christian doctrine and then were Temples buylt to the Apostles and Martyrs in the most famous Cities of the world at Rome Alexandria and Antioche thorough out Egipt and Lybia Europe and Asia Beginning then when the Romain power was come to his soueraign greatnes and glorie vnder Augustus the peaceable ruler of innumerable Nations when the kingdom of Egipt was extinguished which had endured almost time out of mind and the nation of the Iewes brought vnder bondage and subdued and the Lordships of the Syrians Cappadocians Macedonians Bythinians Grecians Illyrians Africans Spaniards and Gaules were vnder the Romaine Seigniorie which we must think did so fall out by the diuine prouidence of God to the end to make the same worke the more easie which otherwise must needes haue bin verie difficult if all these Nations had remained in diuision and discord But by meanes of the vnion of them vnder one great Monarchie they accomplished with lesse feare and danger their proposed enterprise God preparing them their way and brideling the harts of the superstitious by the terrour of that most mightie Empire Cornelius Tacitus writeth that such had bin the perswasion of men that it was contained in the auncient learning of the Priests that about this time the East should preuaile and that such as came out of Iewrie should raigne which was verified in the spirituall raigne of Iesus Christ whose Ghospell doctrine and religion hath bin preached thorough out the world God then seeing malice infinitely increased and the worshipping of false Gods dispersed thorough all the whole world in such sort that his name was alreadie almost out of the memorie of men and that the Iewes themselues to whom onely his diuine mysteries had bin reuealed and promises made of his holy alliance giuen ouer to vaine superstitions hauing left the true Religion whereunto they refused to returne being reprehended and admonished by the Prophets at this time ordained for the redemption he sent his sonne the Prince of the Angells vnto men to thend to diuert them from wicked and vaine worships and to induce them to know and to reuerence the true God bringing back their soules from folie vnto wisdom from iniquitie to iustice and from impietie to a right beleefe Such and so notable at this time was the mutation both in gouernment and in Religion BVT as the Romains were climed to the top of humane power and wisdome by labour industrie so were they straightwaies corrupted by riches and ouermuch libertie degenerating from the former integritie prowesse learning and eloquence Whereof I can not render any better reason then by their owne authours men of good credit and aucthoritie To thend saith Seneca that ye may vnderstand how much the witts of men do euery day decay and by I know not what iniquitie of nature and procliuitie vnto vice eloquence is gon backe All whatsoeuer the Romain eloquence hath to oppose vnto proud Greece it florished in the time of Cicero All the good wits which brought any light vnto our studies were borne then Sithence that time it hath alwaies impaired either by the loosenes of the time which is most pernitious vnto good wits or that the reward which was proposed for so goodly a thing being lost all the trauaile and paines hath bin bestowed on dishonest exercises or els by some destinie whose enuious law is perpetuall ouer all things so that being come to the highest they returne to the lowest faster then they went vp The good wits of slouthfull youth doe languish and do not applie themselues to any honest exercise Slouth and negligence and dexteritie in things that are pernitious which is worse then either sleepe or negligence haue possessed their mindes The delight of singing and dauncing holdeth the effeminate and of dressing their haire and fitting their speach vnto womanish daliances and exceeding of women in corporal delicacies and tricking themselues with vncleane cleanlynes which is the brauerie of our youth Who is there among the yong folkes ingenious or studious enough or rather man enough Being softned and effeminated they remaine of necessitie as when they were first borne corrupting the chastitie of others and negligent of their owne The Gods will not suffer so much euill as that eloquence should come to such people which I would neuer so much admire if she did not make choise of the minds on which she bestowed her selfe Cornelius
thereon it wil bee founde by true reason of Cosmography that they neuer possessed the twelfth part of the earth ZENON the first authour of the secte of the Stoickes ymagined an vniuersall forme of gouernement tending to this that all men should not liue by townes peoples and nations being separated by particular lawes rightes and customes but that they should account themselues fellow citizens and that there was but one sorte of life as there is but one world no otherwise then as if it were but one flocke feeding vnder one shepheard in common pastures PLATO also wished that there were on earth but one king as there is in heauen but one God to th end that the humaine gouernement might therein resemble the diuine which Lord of the world as a true shepheard of mankind should loue al men indifferently as his naturall subiectes maintayning them with good maners lawes iudgements and assured entercourse both by sea and lande so great a prince not bearing enuy to any person and hauing no occasion to enlarge his frontiers by ambition which would be the cause of ceasing so many enmities warres slaughters spoiles and robberies happening amongst men through the pluralitie and dissentions of gouernements Which matters being by them grauely and magnificently propounded are much more easie to bee wished then effected considering the diuersity of tongues dissimilitude of maners and customes varietie of sects and vanity of opinions that raigne amongest men and make them to lose that loue which is wished amongest them hindering the establishing of one vniuersall common wealth of all and consequently a Monarchie of people so much differing in estimation of diuine and humaine right and the religion and seruice of God One man alone can not possesse all the earth the greatest part of it being drowned by the sea and in some places where it is vncouered of waters being vnhabitable thorough excessiue heate or cold And if he should possesse it hee would straight forget himselfe in so great authoritie and libertie and become proud beyond measure waxing tyrannicall and insupportable as it happened to Cambyses to Nero to Sesostris to Attila to Tamberlan and to Alexander the great who thorough extreeme ouerweening would be accounted and called the sonne of God and for his insolencie was poisoned by his most familiar friends and as it happened to OCTAVIAN AVGVSTVS who suffered Temples to be consecrated to him and diuine honours to be giuen him in his life time Considering also that there is a certaine measure and proportion of greatnes in Townes Cities and States euen as in liuing creatures plantes and instruments which when it exceedeth loseth his nature and vse As it befell vnto this ROMAINE EMPIRE which being clymed vp to an incomparable greatnesse and inestimable wealth did fall est soones into great calamities and was finally ouerthrowen as others had bin before it which we wil compare togither setting downe their similitudes and differences A COMPARISON OF THE ROMAIN Empire with the Assyrian Median Persian Macedonian and Parthian AMongest the great auncient kingdomes the ASSYRIAN was excellent in nobility mighty in armes large in compasse of land and in continuance admirable which being augmented by Belus Ninus and Semiramis and enlarged by the spacious countries of Asia was the first that amongest all other Empires which it farre exceeded obtayned the name of an established Monarchie and for the space of a thousand three hundred and threescore yeres vnder thirtie eight kinges florished greatly After followed that of the MEDES which vnder nine kings continued CClxj yeres well gouerned in peace and warre Then raigned the PERSIANS who hauing added Egypt vnto their dominion and increased their strength and riches when they had prospered two hundred and thirtie yeres they lost their state vnder Darius their fourteenth king From that time forwarde the MACEDONIANS by the successe and conduct of Alexander obtained the rule ouer Asia which they lost one hundred and twenty yeres after giuing occasion by their ciuill dissentions to the Parthians in the East and to the Romaines in the West to increase and grow great Then the Romaines towardes the West seasing the Macedonian Seigniorie which though it were great indeed yet was but weake by the diuision of the princes who had parted it betweene them established the greatest and fairest Empire that euer was For if all the famous Monarckes amongest the straungers bee compared vnto the Romaine Emperours there will not bee founde any amongest them that haue done greater thinges either in peace or warre or that haue more enlarged their Empire and longer maintained it The AssyriaÌ„s went not out of Asia The Medians endured only cclx yeres the Persians hauing ouercome the Medes obtained almost al Asia but when they assailed Europe they little preuailed And the Persians being ouerthrowen the Macedonian Empire was greater then al the former but it endured but a whiles For incontinently after the death of Alexander being deuided into many Lordships it was easily supplanted by the Romaines And although it were very â—arge yet it went not into spacious Africk sauing where it reacheth vnto Egypt neither possessed all Europe being bounded on the north with the countrey of Thrace and towards the West with the Adriaticke sea But the ROMAIN EMPIRE extended into Europe Asia and Africk from the Orcades and Thule on the one side Spaine and Mauritania on the other euen to the hill Caucasus and the riuer Euphrates and the higher Ethiopia trauersing the countrey of Egypt and of Arabia euen to the East sea being the first and only which to this present hath made the East and West his limits and hath endured longer then any other excepting the Assyrian Touching the PARTHIAN which was at the same time when the Romain opposed against it being encreased with the ruines of the Macedonian in the East as the Romain was also in the west albeit it was very great and terrible vnto all the East as comprehending eighteene kingdomes betweene the Caspian and the red sea and being far stretched out towarde the Indies and famous by many ouerthrowes which it had giuen to the Romaines as namely by the death of Crassus and shameful retreat of Antonius yet obtained it but one part of Asia and receaued some kings from Rome which being begon by Arsaces endured only cccclxiij yeres vnder twenty and seanâ—n kings And the second PERSIAN also was of no greater circuit which was set vp by the Persian Artaxerxes hauing ouercome in three battailes and in the end slaine Artabanus the last king of the Parthians and ended cccxiij yeres after it was restored being ouerthrowen vnder Hormisdas the xxviij king by the Arabians THE BIRTH OF ROME AND CONTI nuance thereof compared to the foure Ages of mans life AS the Astrologers say that cities haue their reuolutions and prefixed times of continuance which is knowen by the situation of starres at the day of their natiuities For this cause Tarucius a Romaine in the time of Cicero and of
Mark Varro being a friend to them both and a great Philosopher and Mathematician after the manner of the Chaldees by the cunning of Astrologicall calculation cast the natiuity of Rome from the day wherein Romulus first began it which was the ninth of Aprill betweene two and three of the clocke in a pastorall feast called Palilia and rehearsing her passed aduentures foretold those that were to come The same Varro a very learned man and one who read the Romaine histories as much as any Romain that euer was writeth that the continuance of Rome was foreseene and knowen by the twelue Vultures which at the foundation thereof flew ouer Romulus namely that it should be of twelue hundred yeres euery vulture signifying an age or a hundred yeres and that in his time be had heard of one Vectius Augur that Rome should attaine to twelue hundred yeares seeing it had escapeâ— one hundred and twentie in which te 〈…〉 it was taken spoyled and destroyed many and sundry times The times of the continuance therof were diuided into ages after the similitude of mans life wherof the first which is called infancy or childhood weâ— vnder Romulus who founded it and brought it vp The puerilitie or boytâ—ie vnder the other Kings who augmented and instructed it in good manners customes lawes and disciplines But being growen vp vnder Tarquine it would no longer endure the yoâ—â— of subiection vnder proude domination and from that time forwarde chose rather to be obedient vnto lawes then vnto Kings Then the striplings age being ended in the ende of the Punicke warre and the strength more setled it entered into the age of manhood for hauing distroyed Carthage which of long time had bin her enemie she stretched out her seigniory by land and by sea into many countries till such time as wanting matter of foraine warre shee abused her strength employing it to her owne destruction Then was her first olde age when being afflicted with ciuile warres and oppâ—â—ssed with inwarde euils she fell againe into a Monarchy and came to another childhood or infancie And remained in vigour till the time of Traian of the Antonines and of Theodosius the first and then became aged vnder Honorius and Arcadius and the 471. yeares after that the Monarchie had begunne in Augustus it finished in Augustulus being vtterly lost in respect of Italy A COMPARISON OF ROME with Babylon and Constantinople TO this purpose it is obsermed that ROME and BABYLON had almost a like beginning increase continuance and ending such affaires being disposed by the ineffable mysteries and profound iudgements of God and not happening casually or by humaine power In such sort that vnder a like disposition of time BABILON fell and ROME arose Thone suffered the Lordship of strangers and thother despised that of her owne citizens Thone as it were dying left the heritage and the other growing acknowledged her selfe heire And then when the Empire of the East died the Empire of the west was borne And as BABYLON eleuen hundred threescore and foure yeres after it was built was by Arbaces the Median dispoiled of her kingdome and depriued of her king In like maner ROME after she had as many yeres endured was assailed and taken by Alaricus king of the Gothes After this maner was the beginning of BABILON and ROME alike their power alike their greatnes alike their time alike their good and euil alike their downefal alike and alike their destructioÌ„ We may say as much of CONSTANTINOPLE the heire of them both which about xj hundred sixtie and foure yeres after it was built by Constantine who called it new Rome was taken spoiled and depriued of the Greeke Empire and of her Emperour by Mahomâ—â— king of the Turkes wherein hath bin obserued a singular me 〈…〉 that as it was built by Constantine the sonne of Helen so it was also conquered by the Turkes vnder another Constantine the sonne of Helene A COMPARISON OF THE ROMAIN common wealth with the Lacedemonian and Carthaginian AS a Common wealth which is well ordained to endure a long time ought not to be single or of one kinde onely but must also haue the vertues and properties of others assembled in hit to th end that nothing therein be vnduely or vnproportionably increased which may make it to fal into the euill that is next it and consequently come to ruine for this cause Lycurgus instituting the LACEDEMONIAN common wealth mingled therein a Monarchie Aristocratie Democratie so conueniently that it remained almost seuen yeres in the same maner retayning still the integritie of his first institution In the which the king the Ephori and the Senate had their preheminences and powers in such sort intermingled and balanced togither that one could not well discerne vnder what kind of gouernment it was established The CARTHAGINIAN common wealth was thus ordained from the beginning It had kings the Aristocratie â—e power of Senatours and the commons hauing also their preheminence in things appertaining to them In such sort that as touching the assembling of the three estates it resembled the Lacedemoniâ—n Also the ROMAIN had these three estates so equally and conueniently tempered that one could not say whether it were an entier Aristocratie or a Democratie or a Monarchie Considering the power of the Consuls one would haue iudged it Monarchical and â—oial regarding that of the Senators Aristocratical and respecting that of the people Democratical But the Seigniory being seized on by the Emperours they first tooke from the people the authoritie of medling in publicke affaires and transported it to the Senate then reduced that of the people and of the Senate to their absolute power The Lacedemonian was sufficient onely to conserue their owne and to keepe their libertie but insufficient to augment and to enlarge their Empire wherein the Romain was most excellent For the Lacedemonians assaying to conquer the principalitie of Greece they sodanly put their liberty in danger where the Romains after they had brought Italy vnder their obedience subdued in a little time a great part of the world being abondantly furnished with all preparations requisite for such an enterprise Touching the Carthanginian then when it began to haue wars with the Romain it was in declining and the Romain in his vigour seeing that all common weales haue a certaine augmentation and vigour and afterwardes a diminution For Rome florished then especially in order of gouernment The people in Carthage had vsurped to much authoritie in the Counsails At Rome the Senate conducted the greatest part of the affaires which prospered the more for being gouerned by the wisest and by such conduct they finally ouercame the Carthaginians Besides that the Italians are of a more excellent nature then the Lybians both in shape of body and in hardinesse of courage and that the Romains were serued by their owne nation which were taught to war with the best discipline in the world The Carthaginians vsed none but straungers and mercenaries putting all
one and thother is absolute in his kind and that they two may be compared with the Auncients deseruing verie well to be taken for good example and admired as notable relicks of antiquitie Fracastorius giueth such testimonie of PONTANVS Vidimus et Vatem egregium cui pulchra canenti Parthenope Placidusque cauo Sebethas ab antro Plauserunt vmbraeque sacri manesque Maronis Qui magnos stellarum ortus cantauit hortos Hesperidum caelique omnes variabilis oras SYNCERVS VIDA and FRACASTORIVS haue likewise deserued much in the Latine Poesie PETRARCH and ARIOSTO in the Italian RONSARD and BELLAY in the French GEORGIVS AGRICOLA a Germain hath so wel acquited himself in serching the nature of Mettals as Aristotle Theophrastus Plinie and other Auncients seeme to haue vnderstood nothing in comparison of him The Earle IOHN of MIRANDVLA was the honour of his age and might well haue bin compared to all the Egiptian Chaldean Persian Greek Romain and Arabian antiquitie if he had liued But it is now time to make an end of this discourse by which is euidently showen the vicissitude in all humane affaires armes learning languages arts estates lawes and maners and how they cease not to arise and fall amending or empairing by turnes And if the memorie and knowledge of that which is past be the instruction of the present and aduertisement for that which is to come it is to be feared least the power wisedome sciences bookes industrie workmanshipps and knowledges of the world being come to so great excellencie doe fall againe as they haue done in times past and come to decay by confusion succeeding after this order and perfection rudenesse after ciuisitie ignorance after knowledge and barbarousnes after elegancie I foresee alreadie in my mind many strange Nations differing in fashions colours and habites rushing into Europe as did in old time the Gothes Hunnes Lombardes Vandales and Saracens which will distroy our Townes Cities Castles Palaces and Temples will change the maners lawes languages and religion burne the Libraries spoiling whatsoeuer good things they shall find in these Countries inuaded by them to the end to abolish the honour and vertue thereof I foresee warres arising in all Countries both ciuile and foreine factions and diuisions springing which will profane both diuine and humane whatsoeuer famines and pestilences threatning mortall men the order of nature the rules of the celestiall motions and the agreement of the elements breaking off deluges and inundations comming on the one side and excessiue heates and violent earthquakes on the other and the world drawing towards an end bringing with it a confusion of all thinges and reducing them againe to their auncient and former Chaos But howbeit theis things proceed after the opinion of the Naturalists from the fatall law of the world and haue their natural causes yet notwithstanding the euents of them do principally depend on the pronidence of God who is aboue nature and who alone doth know the prefixed time wherein theis things shall come to passe Wherefore men of good mindes ought not to be amazed or astonished therewith but rather to take courage vnto them trauailing carefully euery one in that vocation whereunto he is called to th end to preserue to their power so manie goodly things lately inuented or restored whose losse would be almost irrepairable and to deliuer them ouer to such as come after vs as we haue receiued them of our auncestours and namely GOOD LETTERS as long as it shall please God that they endure Whom we will pray to preserue from indignitie such as make profession of them worthily that they may perseuere in this honest studie amending the Arts and clearing of the trueth to his praise honour and glorie For this occasion the better to encourage them shal be added an Inquisition on that common saying of men wherby they haue alwaies maintained and do maintaine that nothing can be said which hath not bin said heretofore that thereby they may vnderstand that the trueth is not wholy discouered nor all the learning taken vp by our forefathers The end of the eleuenth Booke WHETHER IT BE TRVE OR NO that there can be nothing said which hath not bin said before And that we must by our owne Inuentions augment the Doctrine of the Auncients not contenting our selues only with Translations Expositions Corrections and Abridgements of their Writings The Twelfth and Last Booke THE beginnings of the Artes haue bin small and the greatest difficultie was in the first inuenting of them then by the industrie of the learned they were by little and little augmented Correcting such thinges as were euill obserued and supplying such as were omitted but yet without making any thing entierly absolute wherevnto there might nothing be added Nothing is begon and ended at one time but by succession of time things are increased amended and become better polished Almost all the Artes haue bin inuented by Vse and Experience and afterwardes gathered and made by obseruation and reason and then consequently reduced into better forme and more certain by Diuisions Definitions Argumentations and Demonstrations by generall precepts and rules drawen from nature not from opinion and tending to the same ende not by staying and resting on that which men had formerly done said or written nor by only imitating of them after the maner of slouthfull and cowardly persons but by the adding of somewhat of their owne by some that came after according as the matters from time to time discouered and cleared themselues the honour commonly remayning to the last commers as the most exquisite and accomplished By whose example we ought to trauaile courageously with hope to make our selues better then them aspiring continually to perfection which as yet is not seene any where considering that there remayne more thinges to be sought out then are alreadie inuented and founde And let vs not be so simple as to attribute so much vnto the Auncients that wee beleeue that they haue knowen all and said all without leauing anything to be said by those that should come after them They haue not bin so arrogant as to looke that none should meddle or deale with those matters which they had handeled But on the contrarie considering the difficultie of knowledge and the weaknes of mans vnderstanding they haue exhorted others to trauaile therein speaking rather to stir them vp and prouoke them thereunto then to keepe them back or stay them from writing Let vs not thinke that nature hath giuen them all her good gifts that she might be barren in time to come but that as she hath in times past brought foorth certaine notable personages who haue manifested many of her secrets so she can againe bring foorth such as by the influence of heauen and a singular inclination by liuelynes of vnderstanding and perseuerance of labour shall attaine thither whither long experience diligent obseruation and subtilitie of reason haue not pierced till this present She is the same that she was in the
thousands of men thorough out Greece and Asia as hunters fowlers fauconers fishers and all those which had charge of parkes pooles or birdhouses to bring him beasts and liuing creatures or to make faithfull report of their natures He gaue to the Philosopher Anaxarchus to set vp his Schoole a hundred talents and to Xenocrates a man of great account fiftie He did singularly admire the Poesie of Homer which he had alwaies at night vnder his beds-head with his dagger and accounted much of philosophie wherein he had bin instructed by the said Aristotle esteeming no lesse to surmount others in the knowledge of good and excellent arts then in power and force of armes Wherefore he desired aboue all that his deedes might be recommended to posteritie by worthy writers as in like maner he would not be pourtraied but by Apelles neither haue his statue made but by Lysippus which were two the most excellent workmen that Greece euer bare th one of them a Painter and the other a Statuarie There is yet to be seen at this day in the Citie of Alexandria in Egipt a little house in maner of a church and therein a sepulture much honoured and visited by the Mahometans because they affirme that there do rest the bones of Alexander the great prophet and king according as they are taught by their Alcoran insomuch that many strangers go thither out of Regions far distant to visite this sepulture leauing in this place great offerings A COMPARISON OF THE LEAR ning of the Greekes vnto that of the Egiptians Chaldees Persians Indians and others PLato in his Timaeus saith that the Countrie of Greece by reason of the temperature of all the seasons of the yeare did bring forth wisemen and in the fourth of his Common wealth that the Grecians by the situation of their countrie were naturally giuen to the studie of wisdom attributing in his Menexemus this propertie principally to the territorie of Athens which he vpholdeth to be most apt for the breeding of good arts as in trueth there haue bin more Grecians and namely Athenians learned and eloquent then of all the other Nations of Europe Yet so is it that the same authour in his Epinomides acknowledgeth that the sciences came first from the Barbarians to the Grecians but that they amended and bettered whatsoeuer they receiued of others And Solon in the beginning of the said Timaeus confesseth that the Grecians vnderstood nothing of antiquitie in respect of the Egiptians And affirmeth that by one of their Priestes it was reproched vnto him that the Grecians were alwaies children that there was none in Greece that was old in as much as they were all yong of vnderstanding without hauing any opinion taken from antiquitie nor any hoarie and aged science Iosephus against Appion the Grammarian meaning to shew that we ought not amongst the Greeks to seek for the knowledge of antiquitie but amongst the Egiptians and Chaldees whose Priests were carefull to write histories saith that he meruaileth at those which attributed all to the Greekes therin it being most certain that the Greecians came into the world not onely after it was come to his full groweth but euen when it was waxing old and that all their inuentions maners lawes arts townes and cities are but new Herodotus affirmeth that Diuination and Geometrie were brought out of Egipt into Greece and that the Greekes learned of the Babylonians the eleuation of the Pole the vse of the quadrant and the diuision of the day into howers Moreouer that the Egiptians found out the diuision of the yeare diuided it into twelue Monethes by the knowledge which they had of the starres where in it seemeth to him that they behaued themselues better then the Grecians for asmuch as the Greekes to place the time that was super-abundant were constrained from three yeares to three to put betweene them an odd moneth And on the contrarie the Egiptians allowed thirtie daies to euery moneth adioining to each yeare fiue daies ouer and aboue in such sort that the reuolution of the time came alwaies to one point and was found good Herodotus also writeth in his fifth booke that the Phenicians which came with Cadmus to inhabite Beotia brought with them many arts learnings planting there the knowledge of letters which the Greekes had not before And confesseth that all the Phenicians vsed them before the Grecians but that sithence by succession of time the sound of the said letters was changed together with the words The learned men which went out of Greece into Egipt to learne their Lawes and sciences were Orpheus Musaeus Mélampus Homer Lycurgus and after them Solon Plato Pythagoras Eudoxus Democritus and Inopis which learned in Egipt all that made them worthy of admiration For Orpheus brought therehence the hymnes of the Gods the festiuals the punishments and rewards of the dead the vse of statues In like maner Licurgus Plato and Solon brought to their common weales many lawes and constitutions which they had taken from the Egiptians Also Pythagoras learned in the holie writings of Egipt Geometrie and Arithmetick◠together with the transmutation of soules from bodie to bodie And Democritus in fiue yeares which he spent there vnderstood many secrets of Astrologie Likewise Inopis hauing long frequented with the Priestes and Astrologers of Egipt brought into Greece the knowledge of whatsoeuer the sunne doth and the course of the other starres of the Zodiack and of many other such things A COMPARISON OF THE PHILO sophers of Greece with the Chaldees of Babylon and the Priests of Egipt THe Priests of Egipt and the Chaldees of Assyria from their childhood were brought vp and instructed by their parents in the sciences the care of all other things being laied apart and they became by means hereof verie learned aswell for that they were so instructed and taught from their yong yeares as also because they continued and perseuered long therein But the Greekes did otherwise for commonly they gaue not themselues to philophie vntill they were of good yeares and did not studie it long but turned by and by to things of profit And there were few of them that would bestow their time in philosophie till they vnderstood it well but went to other exercises to get gaine And they were not accustomed to follow that science wherunto their fathers were giuen but studied at their pleasure and without constraint many seueral sciences But the strangers and Barbarians continued alwaies their first exercises And the Greeks often changing their opinion for their profit and disputing one against an other of the greatest sciences made their disciples so vncertain that they were forced to faile and to remaine all their life time in doubt without hauing certaine knowledge of any thing which was the cause of so many sects and opinions rising amongst them the one contrarie and repugnant to the other A COMPARISON OF THE GRECIANS with the Persians Indians and the Nomades of Syria and Arabia THe Persians
in old time contended with the Greekes in matter of armes and of learning who surmounted the elegancie of the Greek tongue by subtil breuitie of speech being most ingenious to vnderstand al subtilities and conueiances of talke and readie to aunswere to arguments proposed vnto them in discoursing conueniently of great affaires wherof they gaue pertinent resolutions without difficultie or delaie They vsed also wise prouerbs and profound riddels not that they vnderstood the subtilities of Chrisippus or of Aristotle or that they had learned this knowledge of Socrates or Plato or Demosthenes for they neither studied Philosophie nor Rhetorick but they did it by the naturall goodnes of their mother wit and sharp vnderstanding wherein the Indians were taken to be better then the Persians And the Nomades of Syria and Arabia verie apt and exquisite to find out the trueth and to refute falshood who euen at this time without hauing giuen themselues to learning do speake verie sufficiently of Astrologie alleaging verie apparant reasons of their sayings which they haue vnderstood by long obseruation and deliuer them from the father to the sonne successiuely and augment them continually THE ELOQVENCE Of the Greekes ELoquence was borne in Athens where also it was fostered and bred and brought vp to his perfection In somuch that in that Citie were seen at onetime ten excellent Oratours of whom Demosthenes appeared to be the best As touching strangers they vsed not any Rhetoricke to circumuent the Iudges or to turne them from the trueth but decided the causes by the bills or writings of the plaintife and defendant who might make their replication or reioinder without disguysing the deeds with faire words or cloaking the trueth with affections And when it was needfull to deliberate in counsaile of state on publike affaires they speak their opinions in few not holding or troubling the assemblie with affected and tedious words THE GREEKE POESIE THere is no Nation which hath had more sorts of Poesie nor more or better Poets then Greece For besides the Heroicks which haue written of diuers matters of warres of naturall philosophie Astrologie Physick Bucolicks and Georgicks there hath bin a great companie of Tragicks Gomicks Elegiacks Lyricks Iambicks Dithyrambicks and Epigrammatists such as elswhere haue not bin found the like saue amongst the Romains and Italians who wrote after imitation of them Of whom shall be spoken hereafter in comparing them together THE GRECIAN HISTORIE IT is naturall to all Nations to seeke out their antiquities and to preserue the memorie of publike affaires by reason wherof there are histories found euery where But whereas others haue contented themselues with bare Annals or Chronicles discribing simply the times persons places affaires the Grecians haue added therunto the ornaments of eloquēce Especially Herodotus and Thucydides hauing surpassed all others that euer medled with writing of histories except peraduenture they oppose vnto them Salust and Liuie of the Latines who after them haue worthely acquited themselues in this kind of writing THE NOBILITIE OF AVNCI ent Greece THe Greekes in old time and namely the Lacedemonians and Corinthians accounted the Artisans base as we haue said heretofore and onely those noble which exercised armes Herodotus doubteth whether they tooke this custome of the Egiptians seeing the Thracians Scythians Persians Lydians and almost all the Barbarians vsed the same The Egiptians endeuoured to proue that the Athenians were discended of a Colony of Scytes a people of the countrie of Egipt as is told in the Timaeus of Plato and rehearsed by Diodorus the Sicilian because that in the townes of Greece the people was diuided into three parts according to the custome of Egipt For the first order of the citie was of the nobles who being giuen aboue all others to the sciences were the more esteemed being therein like to the Priests of Egipt The second was of those to whom lands had bin diuided and assigned to th end they might the better giue themselues to armes for defence of their Countrie like vnto those of Egipt who were inuested with fees and which did wage the souldiers for the warres at their charges The third order was of the meaner sort of people and of Artisans who being giuen altogether to Mechanicall arts furnished many necessarie workes for the whole Communaltie THE ARTISANS AND WORKES of the Grecians THe Artisans of Greece were no lesse excellent in their workes then the learned in their professions and many of them did write of their misteries of whom the most famous in diuers arts haue bin before recited Neuertheles Herodotus in his second booke speaking of the Labyrinth of Egipt and of the Pyramides saith that if any one would make comparison of the buildings fortresses works which were then in Greece he should find that they were all of lesse labour and expence then this labyrinth And albeit the Temple of Ephesus and that of Samos deserued to be reckoned of yet the Pyramides exceeded tongue and pen considering that one of them was equall to all the buildings of the Greekes and yet notwithstanding the Labyrinth surmounted the Pyramides But that the artificial poole of Meris neer vnto which it was seated yelded yet greater meruails Moreouer Diodorus the Sicilian affirmeth that the best cutters caruers of Images that were in Greece learned their measures and dimensions of the Egyptians who amongst al other nations did not measure the composition of statues by the eie but did them by compas to th end that the statue might be made of many and diuers stones gathered into one body obseruing the measures proportions A thing in deed worthy of admiration namely that many Artisans in diuers places should so well agree in one measure that one onely Image entier and perfect should be made by them being separated one from another somtimes of twenty somtimes of forty stones The end of the fifth Booke OF THE POWER WARFARE LEAR ning Eloquence Poesie and other excellence of the Romains The Sixth Booke WE will now come to the ROMAINS who in their time obtained the excellence in armes in learning and in all workmanships But euen as after the going of Xerxes into Greece which put the Grecians in the greatest feare that euer they were the war hauing had an other end then was expected they not onely found themselues out of danger but also got great glory thereby growing meruailously from that time forward in all felicity riches and excellency of all arts So the Romains after the second Punick warr and voiage of Hanibal into Italy which troubled them much remayning there sixteene yeres with a mighty army in which time he wan many battails on them and came euen to the gates of Rome where he might also haue entered if he had knowen how to vse the victory the Romains then being brought to the greatest extremity that euer they were being vanquished by the Carthaginians and seeming to haue giuen ouer the glory of armes vnto them yet this long and cruel