to liue among men These how faire soeuer be they children or men that cary one thing in their tongue and another in their heart be they that deserue to be hunted out of all ciuill societie that are ingrate for benefites receiued who hurt or seeke to hurt them that haue done them good and hate them onely because they cannot but know themselues to be bound vnto them These be they that in very truth are crooked mis-shapen and monstrous and might well be condemned to be buried quicke not simple innocent babes who hauing no election can yeeld not tokens either of good or euill against whom to pronounce sentence of death before they haue offended is great iniustice and exceeding crueltie And this loe is the sentence of this author touching the doubt proposed wherein if you rest satisfied I will proceede All the companie assented to the same and then Master Dormer said Now then I pray you let vs heare you declare what this end is whereof you were discoursing when this doubt was proposed and withall we must expect that you shall shew vs and set vs in the way wherein we are to trauel for the attaining thereof and giue vs precepts whereby that perfection may be purchased vnto which all men desirous to become happie in this life direct their actions and their endeuours Of this expectation quoth I you need not feare to be frustrated for here shall you haue enough I assure my selfe to fulfill your desire and therewith perusing my papers I thus followed The end of man in this life is happinesse or felicitie and an end it is called as before was said because all vertuous actions are directed thereunto and because for it chiefly man laboureth and trauelleth in this world But for that this felicitie is found to be of two kinds wherof one is called ciuill and the other contemplatiue you shall vnderstand that the ciuill felicitie is nothing else then a perfect operation of the mind proceeding of excellent vertue in a perfect life and is atchieued by the temper of reason ruling the disordinate affects stirred vp in vs by the vnreasonable parts of the mind as when the time shall serue will be declared and guiding vs by the meane of vertue to happy life The other which is called contemplation or contemplatiue felicitie is likewise an operation of the mind but of that part thereof which is called intellectiue so that those parts which are void of reasō haue no intermedling with the same for he which giueth himselfe to follow this felicitie suppresseth all his passions and abandoning all earthly cares bendeth his studies and his thoughts wholy vnto heauenly things and kindled and inflamed with diuine loue laboureth to enioy that vnspeakable beauty which hath bin the cause so to inflame him and to raise his thoughts to so high a pitch But forasmuch as our purpose is now to intreate onely of the humane precepts and instructions and of that highest good which in this vale of misery may be obtained ye shall vnderstand that the end whereunto man ought to direct all his actions is properly that ciuill felicitie before mentioned which is an inward reward for morall vertues and wherein fortune can chalenge no part or interest at all And this end is so peculiar to reason that not onely vnreasonable creatures can be no partakers thereof but yong children also are excluded from the same For albeit they be naturally capable of reason yet haue they no vse of her through the imperfection of their yong age because this end being to be attained by perfect operations in a perfect life neither of which the child nor the yong man is able to performe it followeth that neither of them can be accounted happie And by the same reason it commeth to passe that though man be the subiect of felicitie yet neither the child nor the yong man may be said properly to be the subiect therof but in power and possibilitie only yet the yong man approcheth nearer thereunto then the child And thus much may suffice for a beginning to satisfie the first part of your demaund Then said Captaine Carleil seeing you haue proposed to vs this end which is the marke as it were whereat all ciuill actions do leuel as at their highest or chiefest good we will now be attentiue to heare the rest and how you will prescribe a man to order his life so as from his childhood and so forward from age to age he may direct his thoughts and studies to the compassing of this good or summum bonum as Philosophers do terme it That shal you also vnderstand quoth I but then must the discourse thereof be drawne from a deeper consideration Those men that haue established lawes for people to be ruled by ought to haue framed some among the rest for the foundation of mans life by which a true and certaine forme of life might be conceiued and such as beginning to leade him from his childhood might haue serued him for a guide vntill he had attained to those riper yeares wherein he might rather haue bin able to instruct others then need to be himselfe instructed For the foundation of honest and vertuous liuing beginneth euen in childhood neither shal he euer be good yong mā that in his childhood is naught nor a wicked yong man lightly proue good when he is old For such as are the principles and beginnings of things such are the proceedings Whereupon the wisest men of the world haue euer thought that the way to haue cities and common-wealths furnished with vertuous and ciuil men consisted in the bringing vp of childrē commendably But among all the lawes of our time there is no one that treateth of any such matter There are orders and lawes both vniuersall and particular how to determine causes of controuersie to end strifes and debates and how to punish malefactors but there is no part in the whole body of the law that setteth downe any order in a thing of so great importance Yet Plato held it of such moment as knowing that the well bringing vp of children was the spring or wel-head of honest life he thought it not sufficient that the fathers onely should take care of nurturing their children but appointed besides publike magistrates in the common-wealth who should attend that matter as a thing most necessary For though man be framed by nature mild and gentle yet if he be not from the beginning diligently instructed and taught he becometh of humane and benigne that he was more fierce and cruell then the most wild and sauage beast of the field Wheras if he be conueniently brought vp and directed to a commendable course of life of benigne and humane that he is he becometh through vertue in a sort diuine And to the end the cause may be the better knowne why so great diligence is needful and requisite you must vnderstand that although our soule be but one in substance and properly our true forme yet
complaint of him and others of his disposition that looke to their owne priuate interest and consider onely what they may misse by not hauing a friend in such a place who might stand them in stead and regard no whit the contentment or discontentment of their friend which they are not able to measure as wanting the generall rule by which it ought to be measured according to reason and so consequently frame the measure according to their owne minds vsing their owne iudgements euen as the auncient Greekes were wont to say of the Lesbian rule which being made of lead the work-men would bend and fit to their worke and not frame their worke by a right rule But hauing added to his obiection your owne censure of me whose iudgement and prudence is so wel knowne and so much by me to be respected I can no lesse do then make some further Apologie for my selfe touching that point and open so much of my counsell and purpose in that behalf as I shall thinke needfull to giue you and others that will prefer reason before their opinions sufficient satisfaction And first where you say that my seruice in the place was acceptable vnto you all I cannot but therein acknowledge my good hap rather then impute it to any sufficiencie in my selfe Neither would I in regard of that great courtesie and fauour which I receiued therein haue willingly done any thing whereby I might haue seemed vnthankfull or to haue made so small estimation of so worthy a fauour But my not hauing bin brought vp or vsed to much writing and long standing which of ordinary that office doth require besides the extraordinary occasions which the seruice bringeth forth to trauell to sit vp late and disorder the body had bred such an increase of rheume in me and of infirmities caused therby as I could not without manifest and certaine perill of shortning my dayes haue continued the exercise of that place Whereupon hauing in dutifull sort made knowne the cause of my desire to resigne the office to the Lord Deputy who was in like sort priuy to some other iust occasion I had to further that my resolution it pleased him with his accustomed prudence and fauour towards me to consider and to allow of my request and to grant me his honorable consent to the accomplishmēt of the same Neither can this be rightly termed in me a retiring my selfe from the State or a withdrawing from action to hide my talent For leauing aside the vncertaintie and vaine issue for the most part of those hopes that commonly draw men on into ambitious heauing shouing for dignities and places of credit and commoditie from which to be freed little do men know or beleeue what gaine it is as of things that when they obtaine them not vexe and torment their minds and when they obtaine them do soone glut and weary them What comparison can a man of reason iudgement make betweene them and that contentednes which a well tempered and a moderate mind doth feele in a priuate life employed to the bettering and amending of the principall part which distinguisheth him from brute beasts Surely for my part I confesse frankly vnto you and protest I speake truly I haue found more quietnes and satisfaction in this small time that I haue liued to my selfe and enioyed the conuersation of my bookes when the care of my little building and husbandry hath giuen me that ordinary intermission which it must haue then I did before in all the time that I spent in seruice about the State the toile whereof was farre too high a price for the profit I might make of my place and the expectation which was left me of rising to any better Which neuerthelesse suppose it had bin much greater then euer I conceiued or then you haue seemed to make the same so free am I from ambition or couetise howsoeuer M. Smith would haue me to frame my mind thereto as I am not only content not to flatter my selfe with the shew of good which the best hopes might haue presented vnto me but resolued also to put from me and tread vnder foot whatsoeuer desire or inclination that either nature ill custome or daily example might vrge me vnto or stirre vp within me It is a perillous thing for men of weake braines to stand in high places their heads will so soone be giddie and all cilmbing is subiect to falling Let men of great spirits of high birth and of excellent vertues possesse in Gods name those dignities and preferments which the fauour of the Prince and their sufficiencie may purchase vnto them for it is they that as the Poet sayth Posuêre in montibus vrbem and of whom you might iustly say Grauior est culpa c. For as for me I am one of those of whom the same Poet sayd Habitabant vallibus imis And so I had rather to do still then to forsake my studies which I haue now begunne to renew againe hauing applied my endeuour to lay hold vpon the foretop which Lady Occasion hath offered me to that effect for to any other intent she neuer yet did so much as once shew her selfe to me a farre off much lesse present her selfe to me so neare as I might reach to catch her or fasten my hand in her golden locke I wish my friends therefore rather to allow and giue their consents to this my resolution grounded as I thinke vpon a reasonable consideration and an exact weighing of mine owne abilitie and disposition then to concurre with M. Smith in opinion or with any others that would lay to my charge folly or lacke of iudgement for the same And that generally all men would beleeue the Italian prouerbe which sayth that the foole knoweth better what is good and meet for himselfe then doth the wise man what is fit for another man Not that I would thereby reiect good counsell and friendly aduice which I know well enough how beneficiall a thing it is to all men in matters of doubt and difficultie but my meaning is onely to reserue to a mans owne vnderstāding the iudgement of such particular and priuate determinations as concerne the contentment or discontentment of his mind the circumstances of which perhaps are not meete to be communicated to others The example whereof Paulus Aemilius hath giuen vs with that graue and wise answer he made vnto his friends that wold needs reprehend him for repudiating his wife alledging her many good qualities as her beautie her modestie her nobilitie and other such like when putting forth his leg he shewed them his buskin and sayd You see this buskin is wel and handsomly made of good leather and to your seeming fit enough for my foote and leg yet none of you knoweth I am sure where it doth wring me Euen so my selfe may haply say to any whom my former answer may not fully satisfie that although to their seeming my state and condition was better by holding
the last to be put in execution And as when it is brought to perfection it beareth the name of effect so is it the cause that moueth all other to bring it to effect And therefore to treate of that end which is now the motion inducing vs to discourse hereupon we must come to the first principles which may be the causes to bring a man to this end In which respect it were needfull for me first to speake of the generation of man since as all seeds bring forth their fruit like to themselues so falleth it out for the most part in men for such as are the father and the mother such are most commonly the children I should likewise declare how he that wil be a commendable father ought to haue a speciall care not of himselfe onely for him we wil suppose to be a man endewed with all the ornaments required for a wel composed body and mind but of the mother also For albeit she receiue the seed of generation from the man yet howsoeuer it be the children when they be once conceiued take their nourishment from the mother and in her wombe vntill the time of their birth whereby we see the children very often to retaine the vices of the mother Also that in regard hereof euery man that intendeth to take a wife ought to be very carefull in the choice of her so that she may not be base of parentage vitious wanton deformed lame or otherwise imperfect or defectiue but well borne vertuous chaste of tall and comely personage and well spoken to the end that of father and mother by kind gentle vertuous modest and comely of shape and proportion like children may betweene them be brought forth For frō wise men hath proceeded that warning to men that such wiues they should chuse as they wished to haue their children And Archidamus King of Sparta was condemned by his citizens to pay a fine for hauing taken to wife a woman of very low stature because said they she is like to bring vs forth no kings but dandiprats Thereby declaring how they accounted no small part of the maiestie of a king to consist in the comely presence and stature of his body and not without cause For it is written that the goodly shew and apparance of a man is the first thing worthy soueraigntie But because in the request made to me I am required to begin onely at his birth I thinke it shall suffice if I declare vnto you in what maner he ought to be nourished and brought vp and instructed till he come to such ripe yeares and iudgement as he may rule himselfe and be his owne guide to direct all his actions to that same end which in all humane things is the last and best Neuertheles before I begin therewith I would haue you to vnderstand that the first gift which the father bestoweth on the son after he is borne is his name by which he is all his life time to be called Which name is to be wished may be decent and fit so as it may seeme the life of the child is marked with a signe or pronostication of good hap and of being framed to the course of vertue for some are of opinion that the name oftentimes presageth the qualities and conditions of the child And therefore they are not to be commended that name their children by the names of brute beasts as in some countries is vsed where the names of Leo of Orso of Astore of Pardo of Cane and such like are in vse as if their desire were that their children should resemble those wild and bruite beasts in their conditions Let men therfore in Gods name be intitled with names meet for men and such as may signifie or carry with them dignitie or rather holinesse and religion and leaue to bruite beasts their owne possesion Then said sir Robert Dillon before you proceed any further I pray you let vs vnderstand whether that point be cleare or no of the nourishing all manner of children For among Lycurgus his lawes there was one whereby it was ordained that such children as were borne vnperfect in any part of their bodies crooked mis-shapen of ill aspect should not onely not be fostered vp but also be throwne downe from the top of a high rocke as creatures condemned by God and nature in their conception and so marked by them to the end that men might know that such if they were through ignorance bred nourished were likely to bring harme and ruine to the houses and common-wealths wherein they should liue Let vs therfore heare your authors opinion concerning that law There is no doubt said I but that such was the opinion of Lycurgus and such his law though cruell and vniust Neuertheles though the felicitie of man be a perfection of all the good gifts of body and mind and he that is so borne cannot indeed be properly termed happie in the highest degree of worldly happines yet much more prudently haue those wise men determined who say that the imperfections of mens bodies which are borne with them are not to be imputed to them as hurtful or shamefull because it is not in their power to auoid them And who is he that can be so hard hearted as to slay an infant so cruelly onely because nature hath shaped him vnperfect in any of his lims The mind of any good man abhorreth to thinke such a thing much more to put it in execution Indeed replied sir Robert Dillon pittie ought alwaies to be before the eyes of al men as a thing natural to them and without which they are vnworthy the name of humanitie yet must not this pittie extend so farre for any particular compassion as thereby to confound the vniuersall order of things The pittie which Hecuba had of Paris as Poets haue taught vs was the cause that Troy was burnt and Priamus with all his worthy family destroyed which things say they had neuer happened if contrary to the directiō of the Gods who by her dreame forewarned her of those euils she had not saued him If then it were true as Lycurgus affirmed that the markes or tokens so brought into the world by children from their mothers wombe should foretell such to be likely to bring ruine or calamitie to their cities or countries were it not better that he that is so brone should rather die in his cradle then be nourished to become the ouerthrow and desolation of a whole people We know that by the opinion of the wisest it is expedient rather one should die to saue a multitude then by sparing his life a number should perish That opinion sayd I is not vnworthy wise men but it is deepely to be considered and their meaning to be looked into for so shall we find no such sense therein as you inferre for those men spake not of children newly borne who are not able either by speech or deed to giue any signe or token whereby it may be gathered
that they will proue either good or euill but of such as being commonly heads and ring-leaders of factious and seditious people do make themselues authors of the destruction of noble families and whole cities such as were both the Gracchi in Rome and sundry others in Greece And so it is to be applied to wit that such a man shall rather die then for the sauing of his life a whole citie or people should go to wracke Or otherwise when in time of warre by the ioyning of two armies in battell a great multitude were likly to be slaine it were farre better that one or two or moe in certaine number on each side should fight and hazard their liues in stead of the rest then their whole powers to meet and venter the slaughter of the most part of them As in the beginning of the State of Rome the Horatij and the Curiatij did to keepe from hazard of battell both people which were ready armed and prepared to fight together In like manner may that saying be applied in case a whole citie be in danger of desolation that the death of one man may redeeme the same As by Curtius the same citie of Rome was preserued who with so great courage threw himselfe armed on horsebacke into that pestilent pit which infected the whole citie to the end that by his death he might saue the people from that mortalitie and infection And the same effect but farre more excellently did our Sauiour likewise work who to redeeme mankind from the bands of hell tooke vpon him all our sinnes through which we were become thrals to Satan and for our saluation yeelded himselfe willingly to a most bitter death But as in such cases it is to be allowed that one should die for the people so is it much more to be discommended then I can declare that an infant newly borne should be killed though by defect of nature want of seed or any straine or mischance of the mother or through abundance of ill humors or any other strange accident it be borne imperfect or marked as is said Well said sir Robert Dillon it is true indeed that the law of Lycurgus was too cruell and vniust But Plato in his books de Repub deuised a more mild and reasonable way for he allowed not that such children should be killed as holding it inhumane yet he ordained that they should be brought vp in some place appointed out of the citie and that they should be debarred all possibilite of bearing any rule or magistracie in the Common-wealth For it seemed he thought that through the intemperance and disordinate liuing of the parents children came to be ingendred no lesse deformed and corrupt in mind then in body and therein the excesse of drinking wine to be a principall cause In which respect he forbad as wel to the man as to the woman the vse of wine at such times as they were disposed to attend the generation of children Plato said I must not be left vnanswered neither wil I spare to say by his leaue that his law though it be milder then the other was neuer the more allowable for the causes aboue specified For it is not alwayes true that the imperfections of the body are likewise in the mind or that a faire body hath euermore a faire mind coupled vnto it Haue we not seene men of mis-shapen bodies that haue had diuine minds and others of goodly personages that haue bin very furies of hell as Plato himselfe constrained by the force of truth and dayly experience could not but confesse The good or bad shape of the body therefore must be no rule for vs to bring vp or not to bring vp our children though it be to be esteemed a great grace to be borne with seemely and wel proportioned members and that it is a speciall point of happinesse to haue a faire mind harbored in a comely body because both together beare with them a naturall grace pleasing and gratefull to the eyes of men constraining in a sort the loue of all that behold them which thing Virgil wel vnderstanding when he spake of Eurialus said Gratior pulchro veniens in corpore virtus Adiuuat c. For although vertue of it selfe be louely and to be highly esteemed yet when she is accompanied with the beauty of the bodie she is more amiable whatsoeuer Seneca the Stoicke more seuere then need please to say and with more affection embraced of all them that see her Which thing appeared in Scipio Africanus when he met with Asdrubal his enemy in the presence of king Siphax for as soone as the subtill African had beheld the comely presence and gratefull countenance of Scipio he forthwith conceiued that which afterward fell out to wit that Scipio would draw Siphax to ioyne with the Romanes against the Carthaginians But for all this we are not in any wise to esteeme a person in body mis-shapen or deformed lesse worthy to be nourished or to be admitted to magistracie if he be vertuous then the other that is of gratefull presence For though Aristotle thinke the deformitie of the body to be an impediment to the perfect felicitie of man in respect of exteriour things yet he determineth that it is no hindrance to the course of vertue To conclude therfore this point though children be borne weake crooked mis-shapen or deformed of body they are not therefore to be exposed but as wel to be brought vp and instructed as the other that they may grow and increase in vertue and become worthy of those dignities which are dispensed in their common-weales And me thinketh Socrates that wise man spake very well to his scholers and to this purpose when he aduised them that they should often behold themselues in looking-glasses to the end said he that if you see your faces and bodies comely and beautifull ye may endeuor to set forth and grace the gifts of nature the better by adioyning vertues thereunto and if ye perceiue your selues to be deformed and il-fauoured you may seeke to supply the defects of nature with the ornaments of vertue thereby making your selues no lesse grateful and amiable then they that haue beautiful bodies For it is rather good to see a man of body imperfect and disproportioned endued with vertues then a goodly body to be nought else but a gay vessell filled with vice and wickednes Children are to be bred such as nature giueth them vnto vs and we are to haue patience to abide their proof and to see what their actions will be and if theirs that be of deformed body do proue good and vertuous they are so much the more to be commended as they seemed lesse apt thereunto by their birth And on the contrary side they that being beautifull of body are lewd and vitious deserue to be driuen from the conuersation of ciuil men yea chased out of the world as vnthankful acknowledgers of so great a gift bestowed vpon them and as vnworthy
their nature inclineth them whereas we notwithstanding the vse of reason should be like bond-slaues tied to what the necessitie of destinie should bind vs vnto This was the cause why Chrysippus was worthily condemned among all the auncient Philosophers for that he held destinie to be a sempiternal and vneuitable necessitie and order of things which in maner of a chaine was linked orderly in it self so as one succeeded another and were fitly conioyned together By which description of destinie appeereth that he meant to tie all things to necessitie For albeit he affirmed withall that our mind had some working in the matter yet did he put necessitie to be so necessary that there could no way be found whereby our mind might come to haue any part For to say that our mind or will concurred by willing or not willing whatsoeuer destinie drew vs vnto was nought else but a taking away of free choice from our vnderstanding or will since our mind like a bond-slaue was constrained to will or not to will as destinie did inuite it or rather force it And like to this were the opinions of Demetrius of Parmenides and of Heraclitus who subiected all things to necessitie and deserued no lesse to be condemned then Chrysippus Prince of the Stoikes Among which some there were who seeing many things to happen by chance or fortune whereby it appeared that it could not be true that things came by necessitie lest they should denie a thing so manifest to sense they supposed the beginnings and the endings of things to be of necessitie but the meanes and circumstances they yeelded to be subiect to the changes and alterations of fortune And of this opinion was Virgil as some thinke in the conducting of Aeneas into Italie For it should seeme that he departed his country to come into Italie by fatall disposition that he might get Lauinia for his wife but before he could arriue there and winne her he was mightily tossed and turmoyled by fortune which neuerthelesse could neuer crosse him so much but that in the end he obtained his purpose which by destiny was appointed for him But howsoeuer Virgil thought in that point which here need not to be disputed sure I am that he in the greatest part of his excellent Poeme is rather a Platonike then a Stoike Howbeit some Platonikes as I thinke were not farre different in opinion from the Stoikes for they say that fortune with all her force was not able to resist fatall destinie Though Plotinus thought otherwise and indeed much better who answering them that would needs haue the influence of starres to induce necessitie prooued their reasons to be vaine onely by an ordinary thing in dayly experience which is that sundry persons borne vnder one self same constellation are seene neuerthelesse to haue diuers ends and diuers successes which they could not haue if those influences did worke their effects of necessitie And as for Epicures opinion which was that the falling of his motes or Atomi should breed necessitie in our actions he rather laughed at then confuted Yea he was further of opinion that not onely humane prudence and our free election was able to resist the influences of the starres but that also our complexiō our conuersation and change of place might do the like meaning that the good admonitions and faithfull aduice and counsell of friends is sufficient to ouercome destinie and to free our mindes from the necessitie of fatall disposition Wherefore though it be granted that there is a destinie or that the starres and heauens or the order of causes haue power ouer vs to incline or dispose vs more to one thing then to another yet is it not to be allowed that they shall force vs to follow the same inclination or disposition For though the heauens be the vniuersall principle or beginning of all things and by that vniuersalitie as I may call it the beginning of vs also according to naturall Philosophie yet is it not the onely cause of our being and of our nature for to the making man a man must concurre and so restraine this vniuersall cause to a more speciall And as the heauen or the order of higher causes cannot ingender man without a man speaking according to nature so can they do nothing to bind the free election of man without his consent who must voluntarily yeeld himselfe to accomplish that whereunto the heauen or the order of causes doth bend and incline him And if we haue power to master our complexion so as being naturally inclined to lust we may by heed and diligence become continent and being couetous become liberall though Aristotle say that couetise is as incurable a disease of the mind as the Dropsie or Ptisike is to the body what a folly is it to beleeue that we cannot resist the inclinations of the stars which are causes without vs and not the onely causes of our being but haue need of vs if they will bring forth their effects in vs The beginning of all our operation is vndoubtedly in our selues and all those things that haue the beginning of their working in themselues do worke freely and voluntarily And consequently we may by our free choise and voluntarily giue our selues to good or to euill and master the inclination of the heauens the starres or destinie which troubleth so much the braines of some that in despite of nature they will needes make themselues bond being free whom Ptolomie doth fitly reprehend by saying that the wise man ouer-ruleth the starres For well may the heauens or the stars being corporall substances haue some power ouer our bodies but ouer our mindes which are diuine simple and spirituall substances can they haue none for betweene the heauens our minds is no such correspondence that they may against our wils do ought at all in our minds which are wholy free from their influences if any they haue And therefore do the best of the Platonikes say very wel that man must oppose himselfe against his destinie fighting to ouercome the same with golden armes and weapons to wit vertues which is as Plato saith the gold of the mind For he that behaueth himselfe well that is to say ruleth wel his mind or soule which is the true man indeed as we haue formerly shewed shall neuer be abandoned to destinie or fortune against which two powers mans counsell and wisedome resisteth in such sort if he set himself resolutely thereunto as it may wel appeere that he is Lord and master ouer his owne actions Neither without cause did Tully say that fatall destinie was but a name deuised by old wiues who not knowing the causes of things as soone as any thing fell out contrary to their expectation straight imputed it to destinie ioyning thereunto such a necessitie as it must needs forsooth force mans counsell and prudence A thing most false as hath bin declared Is it not said in the Scripture that God created man and left him in the power
perfect end the inquiry wherof is the occasion of all this discourse And because we are not of a simple nature but compounded of seuerall qualities and as we may say liues according to that which in our first dayes discourse was declared it is also necessary that these powers faculties of the soule which are in vs and by which we participate of the nature of all things liuing should haue their ends and seuerall goods as I may terme them and that those ends should orderly answer ech to his seuerall power or facultie of the soule though Aristotle thinke otherwise These ends or goods are first profite which respecteth the vegetatiue power next delight or pleasure peculiar to the sensitiue power and lastly honestie proper to the reasonable part or facultie of the soule Wherefore Zeno may wel be thought to haue bin astray when he assigned one onely end or good to nature and the same to be honesty For albeit I cannot nor meane to denie but that honestie is not onely a good but also the greatest good among all those that concurre to our felicitie and without which there can be no vertue yet to say it is the onely good I cannot be perswaded For perusing euery thing that hath life common sense it self sheweth vs that ech kind of life hath his peculiar and seuerall end and good and that honestie is the only proper good of creatures capable of reason and not of other sensible creatures or of plants and vegetables And because it is a greater good and containeth both the other therefore is it more to be prised and valued then they And man being the most perfect creature of the earth is by nature framed to haue a desire and an instinct vnto them all and to seeke to purchase them all three for the perfection of his felicitie in this life Now forasmuch as all these three powers are in vs to the end we may enioy the benefite that redoundeth from them we cannot seuer them one from another if we meane to be happie in this life neither yet ought we so to apply our selues to any one or two of thē lesse proper vnto vs that therefore we forsake or neglect that other which is of most worth and proper to our nature and that is honestie which neuer can be seuered frō vertue For that is it that giueth to vs dignitie and excellency not suffering vs to do any thing vnseemely but stil directing vs in all our actions which proceed from reason For he that stayeth himself only vpon profit or vpon pleasure or vpon them both sheweth plainly that he knoweth not himselfe and therefore suffereth those things that are not proper to his nature to master and ouer-rule him And not knowing himselfe he cannot vse himselfe nor take hold of that which is his proper good and end Thus following through the not knowing of himselfe that which is good to other natures he looseth his owne good and falleth into euill by the desire of profit or disordinate appetite to pleasure The consideration hereof perhaps caused some of the auncient Poets to faine that men were turned into brute beasts and into trees to signifie vnder that fictiō that some proposing to themselues onely profite some onely delight without regard to reason and their owne proper good had lost the excellent shape or forme of men and were transformed into beasts or trees hauing made the most excellent part of man which is the mind and reasonable soule subiect to the basest and sensual parts and pleasures of the bodie And this ignorance concerning the knowledge of a mans selfe is the cause that he cannot tell how to vse himself For these vnreasonable affections do so darken the light of reason that he is as a blind man and giueth himselfe ouer to be guided as one that hath lost the right way to as blinde a guide as himselfe and so wandreth astray which way soeuer his bad guide doth leade him For he hath lost the knowledge of truth which Plato sayeth is the best guide of men to all goodnesse and is comprehended by the mind onely which according to the saying of Epicarmus doth only see heare all the rest of the parts of man being blind and deafe They then which follow profite only liue the basest life of all may well be resembled to flies gnats the most imperfect among liuing creatures or like to the shel-fishes that cleaue to the rockes as these men do to their pelfe and so hauing proposed to themselues the basest end of all others they may worthily be esteemed the basest sort of men Nay in good faith sir said Captaine Dawtry not so for I see them onely honored and esteemed that are rich and I haue knowne and yet know some of very base and abiect condition who being become rich are cherished and welcome in the best companies accepted among honorable personages therefore me thinketh he spake aduisedly that said Honour and friends by riches are acquired But who is poore shall ech where be despised And I remember I haue read that sometime there was a citizen in Rome who was commonly held for a foole and therefore in all companies his words were litle regarded the rather because he was also poore but after that by the death of a rich man to whom he was heire he possessed wealth he grew to be had in great estimation euen in the Senate and his opinion euermore specially required in matters of greatest moment Yea marry said M. Dormer and Aristotle also affirmeth that the end of the father of a families care is the purchasing of riches which being so they are not so sleightly to be regarded as your author sayes Did I not tell you said I that truth being gone the true light and knowledge of things is taken out of the world for it is she only that giueth vs light to know what and of what price all things are And euen as if the Sunne were taken away from the earth there would remaine nought but darknes and blindnesse among men so truth being taken away man is blinded from discerning any thing aright This I say because rich men onely for their wealth are esteemed worthy honour and dignity by such chiefly as want the light of truth which is the vulgar sort whose iudgement is so corrupt and crooked that they cannot discerne what true honor and dignity is For they being weake minded and imperfect admire showes and shadowes being dazeled with the bright glistring of gold and precious stones and cannot distinguish betweene things necessary and superfluous Which ignorance of theirs Byas one of the seuen sages of Greece considering answered one of those base minded fellowes who wold needes perswade him that they were happie that could compasse great wealth My friend quoth he much more happie are they that do not desire the same The iudgement of the wiser sort hath euer bin farre different from this vulgar opinion For they vnderstand that
for those that apply themselues wholy to their pleasures and delights it is to be held that they neither can be accounted happie because forsaking their proper end and good which is honestie they bend themselues to the sensitiue part onely which is common with them to brute beasts Here M. Dormer interrupting me desired that I would stay a while to resolue him of one doubt which my former words had bred in his mind which was that hauing said riches were of small account among wise men and could not make men happie it might seeme that nature had in vaine produced them That followeth not said I of any thing which I haue spoken For I haue not said that they were not necessary for the vse of them for common sence experience and the want of things behouefull to mans life would say the contrary Besides that Aristotle in his tenth booke of Ethikes affirmeth that not onely to the attaining of ciuill felicitie but also for the contemplatiue life these exterior goods are needfull because a man may the better thereby contemplate when want distractetth not his minde though among the Platonikes some say the contrary alledging that men are better disposed to contemplation without them then with them But thus much indeede I said that they are not the true end or good of man nor could yeeld him happinesse of themselues or make him worthy honour And that they that bend their mindes onely to scrape and heape together mucke and pelfe are of all others the basest and vnworthiest yet being vsed as they ought to be for the behoofe and maintenance of mans life and not as an end or the proper good of man I do not only not discommend them but do also esteeme them in their quality so far forth as the infirmity of mans nature hath neede of them whereof since we shall haue occasion to speake more hereafter let vs in Gods name proceed to speake of the life of them that haue subiected their minds to that part of the soule which is wholy bent to sensualitie and delight These men are like vnto brute beasts wanting reason and worse for brute beasts following their naturall instinct and appetite passe not the bonds of nature and though they get no praise thereby yet incurre they not any blame in that behalfe But man who setting reason aside chuseth vaine pleasures as his scope and end and so plungeth his minde in them that reason cannot performe her office and dutie can in no wise escape from exceeding blame and reproch for the same Of which sort of men the Platonikes opinion was that they were so far from being happie as they were not to be reputed among the liuing but the dead not only in respect of the body but of the soule likewise For they held that the soule being drowned in delights might wel be reckoned as dead because beastly delight like an ill weed spreadeth it selfe in mans mind till it ouergrow all goodnesse and so taketh away the vse of reason as it depriueth him of the qualitie proper to man and draweth him into the pure qualitie of vnreasonable creatures which how grieuous and hatefull a thing it is neede not be declared Aristotle resembleth them to wilde young Stiers that must be tamed with the yoke But to shew you how this disordinate or tickling itch of delight proceedeth in this sort it is wheras man is composed of two principall parts the body and the soule or mind the latter to rule and commaund the former to obey and serue They which propose to them their delight and pleasure onely take a cleane contrary course making the body to commaund and rule and the minde to serue and obey And as in a houshold or family al wold go to wrack if the master or father of the family being prudent and carefull should be constrained to obey his sonne or seruant who were foolish and negligent euen so must it of necessitie be in him that by vice maketh his mind subiect to the bodie making it serue onely for the delighting thereof and neglecting that which he should most earnestly study to maintaine and cherish whence cometh as Socrates saith all euill and ruines among men For from these disordinate pleasures which spring from the senses of the body through that power which the facultie of the soule ministreth vnto them do all wicked affections take their beginning as angers furies fond loues hatreds ambitions lustes suspicions ielousies ill speaking backbiting false ioyes and true griefes and finally the consuming of the body and goods and the losse of honor and reputation And oftentimes it is seene that whiles a man spareth nothing so as he may purchase the fulfilling of his appetites how vnruly soeuer they be he looseth by infirmitie or other vnhappie accidents his owne bodie for whose pleasures he so earnestly trauelled For so it is writtē of Epicurus who being growne ful of sicknes through his disordinate life died miserably tormented with pains griefes the like wherof we may daily see in many if we consider their life and end In respect hereof some wise men haue thought that pleasures are not in any wise to be accounted among the goods that are requisite for the attaining of humane felicitie and Antisthenes so hated them that he wished he might rather become mad then to be ouer mastered by his sensuall delight And in very deed they are no otherwise to be esteemed then mad men who set their delights and pleasures before them as their end not caring what they do so as they may compasse the same Plato therfore not without good cause said that pleasure was the baite which allured men to all euil And Architas the Tarentine was of opinion that the pestilence was a lesser euill among men then pleasure of the bodie from whence came trecheries and betraying of countries destructions of common-weales murders rapes adulteries and all other euils euen as from a spring or fountain The cause whereof Pythagoras desiring to find out said that delight first crept into cities then satietie next violence and lastly the ruine and ouerthrow of the Common-wealth And to this opinion Tullie in his first booke of Lawes seemeth to leane where he sayth that this counterfetter of goodnesse and mother of all euils meaning pleasure intruding her selfe into our senses suffered vs not to discerne those goods which are naturall and true goods indeed and cary not with them such a scabbe and itch which pleasure euermore hath about her who finally is the roote of those principall passions from which as from the maine roote all the rest do spring as hope and feare sorrow and gladnesse For we receiue not any pleasure but that some molestation hath opened the way for it into our mindes as no man taketh pleasure to eate vntill the molestation of hunger call him thereunto nor yet to drinke if the annoyance of thirst go not before to shew that the vnnoblest and basest power of the minde must
take them away For the valiant man neuer grieueth at any thing that happeneth in this life to other men Fortitude being a sure shield for humane weaknesse which maketh all the darts of fortune how sharpe soeuer they be to turne point againe without once so much as rasing much lesse entring thereinto There is nothing in the world that ought to be more deere to a man then his children who are his true and liuely images and after a sort the ministers of his immortalitie wherefore the losse of them especially when they are vertuous should of all other things be most grieuous vnto him Neuerthelesse Anaxagoras when newes was brought him that his onely sonne was dead answered the messenger It is no new thing that thou tellest me for I hauing begotten him know right wel that he was mortall So well had Philosophie taught him to beare the freakes of fortune and armed his minde in such sort as it could not be surprised with any sudden passion Our very birth hath death fastened vnto it therefore the Poet sayd right well Whiles borne we are we die so that our ending From our first being taketh his beginning And to conclude touching this vertue we must haue such an habit thereof in our mindes and so accompany the same with Prudence as Fortune either good or bad may not preuaile against vs neuer thinking our victorie ouer her assured vntil we haue cleane daunted and beaten her downe Carneades in this behalfe aduised wel that in time of prosperitie we should forethinke some aduersities and suppose them to be already fallen vpon vs whereby we might be the better prepared in minde to beare them if they came indeed And Zeno when he receiued aduertisement that a shippe wherein he had great wealth was wracked and cast away shewed himself farre from being grieued thereat for he thanked fortune that by taking againe those goods which she had giuen him he had gotten so good an occasion to forsake the care of inriching himself temporally to betake himself wholy to the study of Philosophie Next followeth the vertue of Temperance whose subiect is that power of the soule whence cometh the concupiscible appetite and she is exercised specially about the senses of tasting and feeling but chiefly about the wanton lusts of the flesh for though the tast ill vsed be a cause of intemperance yet is it by the meane of the sense of feeling In which respect it may be said that the disordinate lust of the body that maketh men intemperate is in the sense of feeling not ouer all the body but onely in those parts which serue for those delights And they being most mightie are by temperance to be restrained with the bridle of modestie and kept within due termes For which cause Plato called her the gardien or safe keeper of all humane vertues For she with sober and aduised language telleth vs that nothing is comely that is not honest nor nothing honest that is not comely far from the disordinate appetites perswasion which sayth whatsoeuer pleaseth is lawful and that all is lawful that pleaseth But Temperance with her wholesome aduertisements withdraweth vs from all that is vnfitting or vndecent if we giue eare vnto her Which vndecency or vnfittingnes cometh neither from the senses of seeing nor yet of hearing or smelling For men by delighting beyond measure in the obiects of those senses are not called Intemperate but runne into other lesser defects not needful here to be spoken of But Intemperance groweth principally as we haue said out of the tast and the feeling two senses that make vs most like vnto brute beasts if we suffer our selues to be led by them following our delights as they do for they corrupt mans prudence put his mind astray take away frō him the light of reason which frō other creatures they cannot take I remember that among the Grecians it was reported how vnder the images of Anacarsis a most continent Philosopher was euer written that temperance was to be vsed in the tongue in the belly in the priuie parts thereby giuing vs to vnderstand in which senses principally Temperance should be vsed And though all other creatures haue their exterior senses as well as man yet none take delight in them but accidentally For the hound delighteth not in the sent of the hare but insomuch as he hopeth to feede vpon her nor the wolfe delighteth in the bleating of a Lambe but as he intendeth to deuoure it neither doth the sight of a bullock please the Lion for any respect but that he expecteth to slake his hunger on the carcasse of it All their principall delight is in the tast and in the feeling and because they haue no light of reason but are guided onely by naturall instinct therefore they are not called temperate or intemperate as hauing no free choice which proceedeth from reason onely But men who haue the gift of the mind from God and are capable by their iudgement to discerne and chuse what is good and to eschue what is euill vnles they be misled by their appetite deserue when they chuse that which is iust and reasonable to be called temperate And to such men Plotinus was wont to say that delight of the senses was giuen for a refreshing and lightning of the heauy burthen of cares and troubles which this mortall life bringeth vpon vs. Shewing thereby that such delights are not in themselues euil but onely when they be ill vsed Which thing Aristotle before him signified when he sayd that euery man was not to be called intemperate that sought for some pleasure but that to such only as hunted after dishonest and vnlawfull delights that name was to be applied for honest delights for recreation of the mind are not to be disallowed ioyning therein with Anacarsis who sayd that the continuance of trauell without intermission was a thing impossible wherefore it was requisite for men sometime to sport themselues that they might returne the fresher to their honest labours Whence Ouid tooke his verses saying Long cannot last the labour that doth want An interchangeable repose some-while For it restores the forces languishant And doth refresh the members spent with toile And Cicero the father and light of Romane eloquence sayth that games and sports were permitted for the refreshing of the mind euen as meate and drinke for the restoring of the body especially after the attending of graue and weightie affaires But such as haue made an ill habit and suffered their iudgements to be corrupted making choice of dishonest delights to follow their senses onely are rightly called intemperate because they procure onely the pleasures of the body without regard of the mind And they are so much worse then incontinent men as these feele yet sometimes a remorse of their ill actions and thereby correct themselues whereas the other perseuere in their ill choise if we may properly cal that a choise which proceedeth from a corrupted iudgement and care
frowning countenance making themselues odious in all companies Therefore is this excellent vertue set as a meane to direct men how to vse their words and behauiour in honest and ciuill conuersation that they may be gratefull For thereby they know how to distinguish the degrees and qualities of persons of times of places and by discreete cariage to make themselues welcome euery where without touch of flattery And Affabilitie resembleth very much friendship in the particular actions therof both hauing a purpose to please neuer to displease But betweene them there is this difference that friendship doth all things with a speciall feruent affection interchangeably borne whereas Affabilitie respecteth not the mutual affection but only a desire to be generally acceptable and pleasing to all good men to euery one in their seuerall degrees and qualities and without regard of the conditions before specified In the exercise of which vertue among other obseruations this is one principall neuer to let passe a word out of the mouth before it be considered and examined whether it may offend any man or no. For many men through lack of this consideration haue let slip words that they would afterwards haue redeemed at a high rate but could not whence arise oftentimes great mischiefes as dayly experience sheweth vs. Lastly as the body hath need of rest after trauell so hath the mind ouerwearied with study or affaires need of recreation that it may return the fresher to be busied again And this recreation is best found in certaine pastimes or sports vsed by gentlemen when they meete to be merry together wherein no basenesse or vnseemlinesse is seene and therefore are these sports properly called recreations of the mind But because in such meetings where men come to passe the time together they faile in their conuersation two wayes by excesse the one contrary to the other therefore is the meane which teacheth the tempering of those excesses called the vertue of Vrbanitie a Latine name which in English we cannot better and therefore must giue it passe to be denizened among vs. The one excesse of too much is when men seeke in such assemblies or meetings onely to make the company laugh and so they laugh care not whether the occasion be giuē of any wantō speech or scurrilitie or ouerbitter taunting without respect of persons and if they may breake a iest vpon any man either present or absent they will not forbeare it to shew their wit though it be neuer so much to the shame and ignominie of the partie yea and they will laugh thereat themselues so exceedingly that they will make others of force to laugh at their laughter though they mislike their speech And such men may be iustly termed iesters or knauish fooles specially if to their words they adde gestures and countenances vndecent for ciuill men not sparing also ribald speeches euen in the presence of sober and modest gentlewomen A thing that among honest and vertuous men is most odious whose conuersation ought to be farre from vncleannesse or malice Opposite to these are certaine persons who in all companies neuer let fall any wittie speech themselues or any merry conceit nor yet when they heare them proceed from others will once affoord to grace them with so much as a smile but rather bend the browes thereat or seeme not to know or to conceiue any delight therein behauing themselues like rude clownes which want capacitie to comprehend the substance of a pithy pleasant speech These Aristotle calleth harsh and rustike fellowes Now betweene this rusticity and this foolish iesting is this vertue of Vrbanitie the meane which the Greeks call Eutrapelia and teacheth a man to frame all his speeches in assemblies and meetings where he chaunceth to be for the reuiuing or recreating of his spirits so as they may be sharpe and wittie and yet not bitter or ouerbiting to offend nor yet to taxe or reproue any man so as he may haue iust cause to complaine though to say truth a discreet or wittie iest cannot be much worth or moue men to laugh vnles it haue a certaine deceit or offence intended towards some body who neuerthelesse must not be so pricked as he may haue cause to be grieued thereat but rather be merry at the conceit For since words and gestures are the true tokens commonly of the qualitie of the mind he that in his conuersation causeth not the sweetnes of his mind and the candor of his noblest part to shine through all his actions words and gestures cannot be esteemed a man of worth and vertue He must continually haue great regard to the time place persons and other circumstances according to which he is so to order his pleasant conceits and merry iests not onely to moue meriment and laughter but that withall he may keepe his grauitie dignitie and eschue aboue all things licentious wanton speeches which in no wise become a man that is desirous to beare vp his reputation credit as a ciuill man And thus hauing giuen you a tast of euery of the vertues assigned to wait vpon Magnanimity somewhat more amply then mine author who hath in my opinion a little too briefly touched them in the descriptiō of a magnanimous man I will now returne to his discourse again by which I am come to treate of Iustice the efficacie and power wherof is such that some sages haue held her only to be vertue as if she should containe in her al other vertues and that the rest that are seuerally named should be but as parts of her diuersly intituled in respect of the diuers obiects about which they are exercised It is therefore to be considered that this vertue is to be taken two waies the one when she is generally considered and then is she alone al the vertues in which respect Agesilaus was wont to say that where Iustice was there needed no Fortitude And Antisthenes and Plato likewise were of opinion that he that was iust needed no lawes because this vertue was sufficient to keep him within the cōpasse of liuing wel and vertuously The other way is when she is taken for one of the foure principall vertues and so is she a habit whereby is knowne what is iust and the same is accordingly desired and done This is that incorrupted virgin which the auncients so termed because she is such a friend to bashfulnes and modesty by which men are made worthy reuerence by which they learne the measure of distributions and commutations giuing recompence to vertue as much as it deserueth not by equality of number but by equality of measure to much vertue great reward to meane vertue meaner recompence and this is the Geometrical proportion which Aristotle speaks of For where much desert is though much be giuen and lesse where lesse is deserued and the rewards compared together be vnequall yet as they haue seuerally deserued they are equally rewarded With some example we shall make the thing more plaine