prepared and presently comes to a tryall finding the other unprovided wavering and doubtfull between credulity and distrust Whereas the other taken upon a sudden unprovided of meanes and wanting time which he cannot take unlesse hee likewise give it the other is often oppressed before hee bee prepared in preparing himselfe or at least ill prepared To take away and banish one onely was not not a right Cure it rather increased the Disease To take away that humour out of the Body which is not offensive and leave that which is offensive is according to understanding Physicians one of the chiefe causes of malignant Feavers If a Subject in a Citie exalt himselfe above the rest what can bee done better then to give him an opposite And what worse than to remove him from him If hee doth not frame himselfe or Nature give him one let Art bring him in one The Ostracisme banishing one onely did let the other loose made him Lord of the Citie and gave him opportunity to become a Tyrant Two great disasters according to Astrology make one good Fortune Physicians doe not take away the Bilis or Choler where they feare the Dropsie nor the Pituita or Flegmâ— where they feare a Plethora Contraries mingled doe not hurt the Body which they overthrow being divided Whilest Caesar and Pompey both remained in Rome the Common-wealth did not perish The ones going out and the others remaining within ruined it To take away the best was as much as to let the worst loose In this Aristotle himselfe was puzzled hee would not likewise have him to remaine in the Citie where hee cannot place him but as King He sends him into the Woods he compares him to Iove he would not have man worthy to bee his Companion and yet hee makes him a companion of wild beasts Hee was peradventure deceived In describing an excellent man hee seemes to attribute unto him the worst of vices If hee bee ambitious or foolish hee is not excellent if hee bee wise and modest he will shun and refuse not affect the Scepter he will subject himselfe to the Lawes as if he had need of them to Magistrates as inferior to them to obedience as if he were not borne to command It is contradictory to doe ill and be excellent The instance which Aristotle gives of a voyce exceeding the rest in a quire of Musick if he doth not take away discretion from him that hath it the voyce will not take away the harmony from the rest That of one member bigger then another hath nothing to doe with goodnesse but with Monstruosity it is as farre from Excellency in goodnesse as it is neere exceeding badnesse He that gave the humors of the body for an example where if one exceeds the rest though it be a good one yet it diseases the body he mistooke the greatest for the best and tooke the humors for the naturall heat which be it never so great doth not burne nor consume but foment preserve and vivifie He were but a very ignorant Physician that would expell it and so is he a Politician that will banish the best out of a City Some cannot suffer the best nor endure the worst They feare one for their owne sake the oother for the Common-wealth's They envy the former and are ashamed of the latter They seeke after indifferent subjects which may not dishonour the Publicke nor put them in danger and this they cannot attaine unto because nature produces but few such and taking away the best they raise up a worst as out of a mixt if the predomin ant be taken away The Cretans proved it they no sooner had banished the best but they found themselves in the hands of the worst What is the driving of a great man out of the Citie but adding the adherence of strangers to the applause which he hath gained amongst the Citizens Caesar would not give Senators leave to travell long out of Italy when they were once above twenty yeares of age Augustus not out of Rome Tyberius kept them also within the Citie whom he had chosen for Governours of Provinces Politick Writers have blamed the letting of a subject grow great in the Citie more than the banishing of him when he was grown so Aristotle desires a remedy from the Lawes others seek it from Art They keep them idle who haue any signe of great worth they transplant those who have gained great reputation in one place into another If riches gained it him they cause him to spend them if valour in warres they call him home to the Citie if he be reputed of great understanding or rashly valiant they employ the one in affaires which may over-throw him and expose the other to dangers in which he may hazard the losse of himselfe If he attained thereunto by being officious and serviceable they deny him those boones and favours which he asketh And generally upon the least occasion they punish them all most severely But all this hath more outward shew than safety There is neither Law nor Art can hinder the rising off him whom Nature doth even from his birth accompany with such beames of happinesse that either he findes no resistance or forces his way through wheresoever hee meets with it good things prove excellent to him and he can turn bad into good All kind of food serves him for nourishment and each poyson is a remedy to him These kinde of balls the harder they are dashed against the ground they higher the bownd up towards heaven Herod the great by Hireanus his first persecuter of him got the Tetrarchy by the second the Principality by the third he made himselfe Lord of his own native Countrey by the assistance of the Romanes Occasions oftentimes will not permit them to be kept idle If the tumults of Naples had gone forward the Spaniards had determined to send the great Captaine thither again The businesse of Portugal would not suffer the Duke of Alva to be idle though he were in prison And the warres of Germany forced the Militia to be returned in Waldestein's hands Transplanting and changing of place gives way for the gaining of new reputation and doth not diminish the old It had not a vailed Tiberius to have transplanted Germanicus out of the North into the East if his death had not helped him By great expences a man for the most part gains applause want of money doth not endammage a subject that is in credit and few great ones have lost themselves thereby Caesars friends were deceived therein for he then became Lord of the Common-wealth when they thought his debts would have ruined him To call one home from an army to the City is as much as to adde the peoples favour to that of the Souldiours Domitian finding he was not thereby able to deale with Agricola was constrained to make use of poison and Tiberius met with a Subject that would not part from it To put them upon businesses in which they may lose their
of reputation There is a great difference betweene an offence being great at first and its becoming such One findes man cold and free the other heated and engaged neither can hee seem to grow carelesse of it when it is grown up that did not contemne it when it was but small And having already lost the name of prudent by prosecuting of it to that time he wiâ—l gaine the name of Pusillanimous if hee then gives it over A disease which becomes malignant by degrees is more mortall than that which begun so The Prince which wil not bear with his subjects endangers the changing his name of Prince into Tyrant and he that will not beare with strangers endangers his kingdom to become a private man A prince his own patience is not sufficient for the quiet of his kingdome if his officers also be not endued with it in whom it being equally requisite it is farre more difficult A man may easily suffer in his own interests who is impatient in his Lords For the one he hopes to reap glory and profit through his patience and so beares In the other to gaine it from revenge and so he puts forward Hee that offends the Prince before his Officer offends both the Prince and his Officer whereby obliging him to two patiences hee makes the sufferance almost intollerable These imagine that the zeale of their masters reputation moves them to a resentment and oftentimes it is their own arrogancy wherewith they embroyle Princes obliging them to warres into which they are engaged more by others than their own impatiences and this happens oftenest where the States and Dominions are most remote That remotenesse which is most favourable to the Prince for his suffering is contrary to the Officers One doth not see the injuries the other the Prince When Aristotle blames the Lacedemonians for attributing every thing to the vertue of fortitude said that one vertue was not sufficient and if one alone were to be chosen Fortitude was not it He named not that to which he attributed the chiefe honour if he had named it in mine opinion it had bin patience because virtually it containes all other vertues in it as the seed doth both roote fruit and stemme If morall vertues are ordained to good in as much as they keep within the bounds of reason against the violence of passions and when these doe joyne with any vice patience is the onely guide of them who can deny it to hold the first and supreame place amongst them As the Physician cures the diseases of the body so patience corrects the defects of the soule They both worke by removing the obstacles I confesse more like instrumentall then efficient causes But if the Physician bee said to occasion health though it be not he but nature Patience shall likewise be called the productrix of all vertues So that Coriolanus his impatience for we must call him impatient if we will not attribute the name of base to the Senate put him in danger of his life and though his great vertue reverenced by the People was sufficient to free him from death yet by reason that was feared also it was not able to keepe him from banishment One of the greatest and ordinariest errors that crosses the good direction of Politick affaires is that Princes and common-wealths either know not how or through malignity will not in time make use of that valour which fortune hath abundantly bestowed upon some subject of theirs Dominions are increased by the hand and meanes of a subject which is advantagiously valorous and fortunate Whose valour by bringing to passe the most difficultest enterprises findes no obstacle able to resist it all that he sees he conquers Whose fortune meets with no chance but it proves favourable to him all what he does not see is likewise assisting to him Such a man is now and then borne in an estate of so low a degree and himselfe so poore that without ever doing any thing or at least equall or partly worthy his fortune and valour he dies inglorious but seldome without leaving at least some little modell whereby others may as with prospective glasse see what a Colossus they have neglected to build through want of matter That character which in a great statue attracts even the dimmest eyes to behold it in a little one is not seene many times by the most perspicuous sight Sometimes also this man is borne in some conspicuous place and of such a fortune that at the very first flashing of his actions he makes that beame shines out which lies inclosed in his breast But those which rule Kingdomes or governe Common-wealths though they have good intentions yet looking more upon the age then the fortune of the man advancing him by degrees seldome admit him to great affaires where he might have performed some high and specially services till it is too late and hee growen old after he hath tired his fortune in actions of no moment and his declining age hath made him good for little To linger out fortune of a great subject is a great error yet not worthy of any severe punishment Ignorance herein may be excused Carelessenesse endured but hee that hinders it through envy hatred and malice calls Gods wrath upon him and sometimes sees it visibly come Losing himselfe for want of him whom he hath lost Or to prevent his owne ruine bowing to him whom he hath despised Such a man is happy and by him his dominions if he be borne a Prince Most happy if in such a time as enterprises are already set on foot and he able to follow them Or that obstacles be removed in such sort that they may not oblige him to tire his fortune upon them before he goes about them If Henry the Fourth had found the Kingdome of France entire slourishing peaceable within and at wars abroad as he found it divided destroyed unquiet plunged in civill wars what could he not have done with so much fortune and valour he did much indeed yet did he not a whit increase his dominions He wasted himselfe in gayning his owne and when he begun to cast his mind upon other mens both fortune and time failed him If Gustavus King of Sweed could at the very first have employed all his fortune and power in Germany and had not bin intangled in the Muscoviters Polish wars I know not who could have hindred or crossed him from attaining to his vast and unlimited desires If Alexander had bin to begin the wars of Greece not found them almost finished by his father he had never come to be the Great because he would not have had time to settle so great a Monarchy By this meanes those King domes do much increase which successively meet with many warlike valorous fortunate subjects and by this meanes grew up the Turkish Monarchy Assisting of confederates is a great aide to the gaining of conquests the violence of the enemies fortune broken upon them and tired
remerity is unlimited The free putting a mans life into that mans hands whom he hath wronged is the greatest satisfaction that can be given 108 Temerity is an act without reason 108 There can be no eminent understanding without some parcell of folly 99 A great understanding causeth constancy a weake one obstinacy 145 He that is best if once he begin to be bad becomeâ— the worst 73 It is a great misfortune for a man to have worth and want repute and a far greater to have repute and want woâ—th 149 Peauty and eloquence are unprofitable weapons against wrath or fury 117 Youth should grieve at the defects of old age and old men laugh at the ignorance of youth 44 The Table of the chiefe heads discoursed upon in the Life of CORIOLANVS Coriolanus his defects attributed to want of education p 175 Whether education to Learning Sciences be good for all sorts of men p 176 Why the Romans honoured their Citizens for some brave acts with Oaken Crownes 182 All vices ought to be punished and all vertues rewarded 183 Impuniâ—â—e of offences is sometimes a reward p. 183 The vulgaâ—s reward is money a Noble mans honour 185 How rewards came to be altered 186 The same things are not in esâ—eeme every where 187 Nature desires that most which is most necessary 187 Riches the root of evill 188 Punishments changed by Tyrants 190 In what consists reputation 191 Who are fittest to command 193 Coriolanus rejoyced to have his mother heare of his worthy actions 194 Why anothers joy increases ours 195 Sannieticus King of Egypt 198 Coriolanus deâ—iring to bee chosen Consul by the people puts off his Senatoriall Robes 201 Why he did so 202 To judge of vertue truely wee must see it naked 204 Coriolanus termed proud and impatient and the cause of it 207 The vertue of choller in man 208 How humors in the body and passions in the mind may produce good effects 210 Wherein consists Patience 211 Women subject to impatience as well as men and the cause thereof 213 Why women being wrathfull are not valiant 214 How the common wealth of Rome might have made good use of Coriolanus his imperfections 216 Some defects are tolerable in young men and some vertues improper for them 218 Patience vertually containes all other vertues 222 A mans talents ought to bee imployed in due time 224 It is an unhappinesse for a man of worth to be born under a Tyrant or in a corrupt common wealth 226 The Ostracisine hindered the increase of the Athenian common wealth 227 The fortune of a Kingdome or common wealth may be transferred to another in the person of one man 228 A mans fortune decayes as his vigor 229 Coriolanus flies to the Volsci and is entertained by them 231 Man will give any thing to attaine his ends 231 Sometimes a man seekes to oppresse him whom he hath raised p. 232. and undoe what he himselfe hath done 234 One contrarie cures another if the contrarie bee not mistaken 235 Compassion and envie are the two ordinarie passions of great ones 236 Of favorites 238 Some desire greatnesse for their owne benefit some for the good of the common wealth 242 From different ends proceeds a different working towards them 243 Some love the person some its vertues 244 Mans life a warfare 248 Fortunes wheele cannot be fired 248 A stranger admitted in another common wealth to high degrees is in great danger 255 Every man hath a desire to his owne countrey 255 No man can hate his owne country though hee hate a prevailing party in it 256 Divers causes may provoke a man to bring in strangers to oppresse his native country 259 A man may rashly doe his countrey such a wrong as he cannot afterwards remedy 265 Coriolanus more fit to be compared with Cato then with Albiciades 268 Envie followes Humane glory 249 It is a great fortune to dye when fortune is at the highest 251 How Sejanus gained Tiberius 240 The Translator to the READER HAving this void Page lefâ— I thought good to set down therein this briefe explanation of the word Ostracisme which thou shalt finde in severall places of it The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies shells For the Athenians intended to put it in use the Citizens at the least to the number of six thousand for otherwise it was no lawfull nor full Assembly at a day appointed brought every man a shell whereon was written the name of him whom he would have banished and threw it into a place prepared for that purpose And the Magistrates telling the said shells he whose name was found written upon most of them was proclaimed banished for ten yeares Vale. FINIS Courteous Reader These Bookes following are Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard Various Histories with curious Discourses in Humane Learning c. 1. THe History of the Banished Virgin a Romance translated by I. H. Esq Fol. 2. The History of Polexander Englished by William Brown Gent. Printed for T. W. and are to be sold by Hum. Moseley in Folio 3. Mr James Howells History of Lewis the thirteenth King of France with the life of his Cardinall de Richelieu in Folio 4. Mr Howells Epistolae Hoelianae familiar Letters Domestic and Forren in six Sections Partly Historicall Politicall Philosophicall first Volume with Additions in 8o. 1650. 5. Mr Howells New vollume of Familiar Letters Partly Historicall Politicall Philosophicall the second Volume with many Additions 1650. 6. Mr Howells Third Volume of Additionall Letters of a fresher date never before published in 8o. 1650. 7. Mr Howels Dodona's Grove or the Vocall Forrest in 120. with Additions 1650. 8. Mr Howells Englands Teares for the present Warres in 12o. 1650. 9. Mr Howell Of the Pre-eminence and pedegree of Parliament in 12º 1650. 10. Mr Howells Instruction for Forren Travels in 12o. with divers Additions 1650. 11. Mr. Howels Vote or a Poem Royall presented to His Majesty in 4o. 12. Mr. Howels Angliae Suspiria Lachrimae in 12o. 13. Policy Vnveiled or Maximes of state done into English by the translator of Gusman the Spanish Rogue in 4o. 14. The History of the Inquisition composed by the R. F. Paul Servita the compiler of the History of the Councell of Trent in 4o. 15. Biathanatos a Paradox of Self-Homicide by Dr. Io Donne Deane of St Pauls London in 4o. 16. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi's Romulus and Tarquin Englished by Hen. Earle of Monmouth in 12o. 17. Marques Virgillio Malvezzis David persecuted Englished by Rob. Ashley Gent. in 12o. 18. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi Of the Success and chief events of the Monarchy of Spain in the year 1639. of the Revolt of the Catalonians Englished by Rob. Gentilis 12o. 19. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi's considerations on the lives of Alcibiades and Coriolanus Englished by Robert Gentilis in 12o. 1650. 20. Gracious Privileges granted by the
unremembred As it were in dispight of fate fantastically besotted with his body though extreamly afflicted and desirous to survive in others memories though with shame And the worst remembrance is more acceptable unto him then none at all Annihilation is an enemy to man not so much in respect of being nothing as of not being what he is VVe shall not peradventure find a subject so unfortunate that would be contented to be changed into another individium no not to exchange his fortune because the changing would be the annihilating of him Yet it seemes harsh that a man should have a recourse to wickednesse to make him remaine in the world to that which is not and to nothing because he would not be so and yet some do it and attaine to it whether it be because some writers willingly set downe any thing that is great or notorious sometimes to raise their stile with the relation sometimes to attract mens attentions with the rumour and with the great motion awake please and raise up the understanding they awake it but violently they raise it but to something which naturally and directly it abhorres they please it but often times corrupt it or whether it proceed from that all men take delight in such kind of relations the most wicked are comforted through the similitude the lesse bad extenuate their badnesse by comparing it the contrariety encreases the good mans merit Great actions though bad do in the matter communicate with good ones and with advantage because they do not find it limited as these last doe and so they deceive and those who think they can give instruction to others by laying them open and blaming them are oftentimes deceived They might doe some good in teaching of morall vertues if vertue as it hath a particular forme to distinguish it from vice had also a particular matter to worke upon Vertues matter is open and manifest vices is for the most part hidden and concealed and he is sometimes deceived in it that operates and he also that almost continually sees the operating One should not peradventure lose his labour in the teaching of morall vertues if there were no meanes to teach their contraries and that one might learne onely by example of imitation and not of shunning and avoyding There being onely one rectitude makes it a secure judge of obliquity It s having latitude makes it a deceitfull judger of rectitude Nature is inclined to evill and evill actions include a certaine acritude in themselves and if they be great and have a prosperous successe cause more to follow then to beware of them and make more emulators then enemies They merit but little of posterity that will relate evill actions causing that to be heard which themselves would unwillingly have seen Many evill things would be thought to have bin impossible to be done did not Historians set them down as done and how much better were it to avoyd falling into them to live deceived then warned Simplicity is a great vertue and ignorance is wisedome True it is that if the knowledge of the will which is done be taken away it makes a man sometimes runne into it but if the manner of doing it be â—â—ncealed it alwayes keepes one innocent There are times wherein bookes would bee cancelled and some men who ought not to be mentioned and seeing it is not in our power to forget them let us at least not mention them The ancient Romans did so but to what purpose was it if writers made mention in their Annals even of those men whom the Senate had cancelled out of its bookes undoing that which the Common-Wealth had done by relating that it had done it Is it not to be admired that those seven brave men which affected fame and renoune by erecting wonders in the world could not attaine to it and he that impiously burned but one of them for that purpose did get it in despight of all Greece which then strove with its uttermost might to have him blotted out of all mens memories A pestilent body leaves a contagious corps behind and though men leave being wicked yet they leave not producing of more and a delict when it is done and past serves yet for an example An infected body often communicates its infirmity but never its health though it be never so exquisitely cured I know not whether it be because that nature in providence drives away the evill from it selfe and thriftily reserves that which is good Or by reason that evill proceeds from any cause and that which is good from a sound and entire one onely The perfect mixt will have what is wholsome unwholsomnesse pâ—oceeds from a corrupt mixt in the first humility bounded by the naturall heat is fixed in the latter it flies unbounded This comes forth with its malignity and being a fumid vapour it takes hold and cleaves too the other retaines what is good and if it doth chance to come forth being a dry exhâ—lation it doth not fasten nor take hold This which befalls the body is also practised in the mind A good fame and renoune resembles rest the bad and great is like motion one is like a cleare and calme streame which though it be deep glides smoothly in its channell the other like a fierce torrent which swell'd and troubled runs violently precipitous with much noise Cur corrupt nature inclines to evill violently forceth it selfe to any good And seeing rest leaves no such impression as motion a cleere smooth streame drawes not with such violence as a troubled rough one and nature defends it selfe from its contrary and followeth its like we need not wonder if good examples seldome cure but evill ones doe for the most partinfect The renoune which remained of Alcibiades the membrance of his Counrry Parents Nurse Tutors when there was not any memory left to posterity of any of his companions no not so much as of their names causeth Plutarch to esteem him to be a man of eminent vertue Of such men I know not whether it bee because all things which belong to a great one are esteemed great or peradventure infamous the Country Parentage and Tutors are much enquired after and sometimes also what influence of the heavens he was borne under Or because wee should conceive that greatnesse is not attained is not the purchase of man himselfe but the gift of the influences of heaven of the nature of such a temperature of the assistance of Tutors and as accidentall not to bee valued in him As if he did not in himselfe include the seed of greatnesse and that to become conspicuous he must be aided by the nature of the soile the influence of the stars the temperature of his Parents and the education of his Tutors as if he were a plant no way excelling another were it not planted in a better earth nourishing by a more industrious hand and hath a more benigne influence of the heavens Man is prone to deprive himselfe of his
forced and constrained act which hath no merit at all in it becomes free and meritorious And this is or I am deceived a better grounded and more effectuall reason then Seneca's where he intends to prove that a wise man is uncapable of becoming a slave because that working along with the current which runnes with the actions of the understanding and the will hee alwayes freeth himselfe and findes rest in all things Socrates would not be defended his Reason was because hee would dye free and not forced But because men of this constitution and marked with this Noble Character are very rare by an unknowne motion of Nature which in its actions is a longing desire and anxiety to preserve the freedome of will domination is hatred And thence it comes that he who is mightiest either in Citie Senate or Court wounds the eyes of him who comes newly thither with so much force that it imprints thereon a dolorous character If he meets with an unadvised harebrained man he openly opposes him and declares himselfe to be his enemy If with a subtile one he makes himselfe his companion and choaks him under colour of friendship The one is like the Summer heat which gently disperseth the naturall heat with another semblable to it The other like a Winter cold with its contrariety oppresses it The first way is hard to begin well if he presently gets not the upper hand the second to end if he do not attaine at all to it The operation by way of similitude findes lesse resistance because it seeks onely free passage and not the ruine That by contrariety findes a greater because it aimes onely at annihilation And therefore the water is easily overcome by the aire and hardly destroyed by fire Caesar had three great enemies Cato totally opposite Pompey his semblable and Brutus mixt Cato gave him occasion of shame not of feare Pompey went neare to overthrow him Brutus killd him with being semblable to him but could not overthrow him by his being different But if Sylla Pompey Caesar and so many other men of worth and valour happily came to be great by becoming friends to those who were greater How can Alcibiades his way be commended who went about it by opposing them Those Romans found the great ones divided the Athenian agreed and united Where there is partiality or faction it is best to become a friend and an opposite where there is no enemy It is too hard to sight against two or more if they be opposites in Physick Moralitie or in Policie if two unite against him that sets upon them which comes ordinarily to passe makes the issue of the undertaking impossible The want of the chiefe instrument namely discontented persons makes the beginning of the enterprize hard And in such a state of affairs though you make some such yet they doe not long last such because that he who discontents himself with one quickly is contented with another The enmity of great ones makes a man to be esteemed generous and is the true way either to rise or ruine quickly It is difficult to enter into it without losing ones self in the very first steps but if thou get but a little way on thou wilt soon have a companion and find help Every one applauds thee because a new valour causeth as much admiration as a new starre doth gazing Envious men assist him because they are ashamed to yeeld the offended because they seek revenge the discontented satisfaction and all in generall because they unwillingly bow to that great one and being brought under they rejoyce when thy finde one that will not bow to him They take heart from the example and favour him as one that should free them from sordid slavery and abject suffering They are deceived in beleeving that if they make him superiour they can without any resistance bring him againe to an equality But if they were not deceived and did believe they rather change than take away their bondage yet they would assist him They do not much hate neither are there so many discontented at this new valour because it is more innocent Envy is not yet come in and the change of domination is oftentimes judged to be a kind of liberty The passing of the disease from one part to another in a sicke man gives some hope of recovery it shewes that Nature is yet strong and the humour not so stubborn or so strongly knit together but that it may be loosened and extirpated For a subject to attain to be the greatest man in the World in a Citie or in a Court is not so hard a matter as for one to keep himselfe so He that is growing up is helped on he that is growen up is abandoned and left to himselfe and every one becomes an enemy to him that is decaying It is so easie a matter to cut off a rising power in its beginning that if man had not a naturall instinct to help him that is growing up none would become great And it is so hard to bring down him that is gotten up that if nature did not likewise incline man to destroy him greatnesse would still remain in the same place In augmentations men are never quiet untill they have brought the Subject to the highest pitch when they have brought him thither they never rest till they see him decline And when he is declining untill they have ruined him Actions which are done in favour of him that riseth in hatred of him that is risen in damage of him that is falling though they be never so well measured by understanding Politicians yet nature makes them exorbitant and without measure Let the Pilot be never so skilfull the currant of this instinct doth insensibly take off his hand and in the end of his voyage brings him quite to another place then that whither he intended to come ashore The Heaven which is an universall cause Nature which is fruitfull Necessity which binds Practice which teaches Example which perswades men which encourage Envy which provokes frame a contrary to him If the heaven become particular Nature barren the bond suffer violence swiftnesse give not time to Practice difference leave no place for example nor superiority for envy either he stayes or he changes himselfe or dyes stayed changed and kill'd by reserving nature God will not have us to enjoy so much happinesse as we should if the world were all one man's For mens sinnes it is he suffers so many Princes and Common-wealths upon earth It begun when one alone commanded it and will end when it arrives againe where it begun And therefore it necessary that he should lose him selfe that aimes at an universall Monarchy either because he cannot attaine it and so he shall lose himselfe alone or together with the world after he hath attained to it The Emulators and Enviors of Alcibiades and Nicias greatnesse not knowing the hurt they did the Common-wealth desiring by Ostracisme to banish one of them out
oppressed and not inclined If he operates through envy he cloaks it with feare and makes shew of a faint heart to conceale a mâ—licious one and will perswade he followes Nature which obliges one to defend himselfe when he goeth against it in hating that which is good But he doth not hate it before he defames it Envy and a worm resemble one another they close with the best part of a fruit or of a man they stop not before they have corrupted the one really and the other imaginarily and whereas the worme feeds and rests in the corruption envy is fed and tossed up and down by that which is imagined Evill is hated and not envied goodnesse is not hated but envied Rancor is without any reall object it runs towards goodnesse but towards that which is apparent and not the true it sees vertue and valour in him whom it emulates First an equality seemed inglorious to him now inferiority appeares shamefull if it be in a great spirit it still goes on in emulation if it be in a faint heart it embraces envy a vice inseparable from pusillanimity it looks upoÌ„ the honour which the other gets and that which himself loses If he imagines him to be an enemy proud rash and presumptuous he beleeves nothing can give him better content then to overcome him desires nothing more than by advancing his own Trophee to abase and bring him low and employes his vertue and valour in nothing else But if afterward he sees him before his eyes beautifull eloquent valiant affable not boasting of his valour but moderating his vertue and reassume the same posture in which he was by nature set and forsake that which he had fabricated to himself It is impossible for him to retain his hatred because qualities though they be naturall if they meet with a contrary that is greater in its presence they must receive it though the form drive it out altered but not corrupted Modesty moderates envy but doth not extinguish it Misery turnes it into compassion and eminency into amazement That Proposition of the Master that hatred is irreconcilable seems directly opposite to the other proposition That the cause ceasing the effect ceases and yet they are both true Hatred and love peradventure cannot be framed in us without the help of Nature The freedome of will reacheth not thereunto it may overcome it but not destroy it bridle it but not change it whence comes that sometimes we operate with one as though we hated him and yet we love him as though wee loved him and yet we hate him The causes of operations are externall of passions internall The change of qualities changes the operating and that of the substance extinguishes the being And because it is thought that we have two Natures in us one of Flesh and the other of Spirit and both of them in the same individuum the one may love and the other hate because Love and Hatred are not contraries if they meet with two contraries otherwise to love ones Neighbour and hate sinne could not consist together Alcibiades attires and cloathes himselfe with the Lacedemonians vertues and will thereby perswade that hee hath disrobed himselfe of all manner of vices This Metamoâ—phosis though it last not very long is not used but by great understanding onely assaulted by vehement passions of Glory and Feare Rome had at one time two Emperours Otto who was made in the Citie Vitellius who was set up by the Army both of them vicious The one presently forsakes his old and usuall course of life the other followes it still Otto was wont to deny his own affections to promote his interests so that the power of commanding excited and stirred up vertue in him and in Vitellius it increased his defects The former being incontinent and ambitious the latter intemperate and simple Otto adventured to assume the Empire because hee could not live privat Vitellius accepted of it because he knew not how to refuse it and not knowing how to seek after the delight of the understanding abandoned himselfe to that of the senses The Romane Senate was amazed at Otto's forsaking his vices and at his counterfeited vertue The same being done by Alcibiades might have given the Lacedemonians cause of suspition if not of feare seeing they might be sure the vices would returne greater in bulk and more violently through the acrimony which they would acquire by being so long stopped and dissembled Even so it befalls him that thinkes to help a swift running streame which overflowes his medowes without turning it another way only with making the bankes up he may stay it for a while but on a suddaine he turnes it all upon himselfe and whereas before it would gently have overflowed his land it beares down trees by the rootes overthrowes buildings and beats downe all that comes in its way that opposition having gotten together a greater heape of waters and made them more violently sierce Those that restrayning their passions retaine keepe in their smallest and meanest ones if they did goe calmely along with them they might in part vent out their evill genius without expecting the last fury and violence which a feigned vertue being unabled to resist they blindly and furiously are precipitated in it So had Otto done if death had not prevented him and so did Alcibiades wickedly committing adultery with Agis the King of Sparta his wife Agis was not very circumspect seeing he did not perceive that some great end must of necessity be hidden under so great a change which hee ought to beleeve had taken its originall from an unlimited ambition and to mistrust that thereby and through his luxury he would one day get away from him two indivisible things his wife and his kingdome and indeed he got away the one and in all likelihood laid a plot to gain the other seeing he used that meanes to attaine thereunto which others have happily put in practise to doe the like First to make his valour known then to publish the adultery and finally to make shew that he contemned Agis what was it else then to endeavour to gaine his kingdome inviting by this meanes discontented persons to side with him animating and securing them But I know not whether Tacitus did well understand from whence proceeded that feare when he ascribed it to disguised and cloaked vices and falsified vertues Ottoes vices were lust idleÌ„nesse and gormandizing which were indeed to be wished of him yet not to be feared if they had returned to him Uertues though false carry for the most part their corruption within them glistring and shining on the outside as if they were true and pure vertues and are more pernicious to them that make use of them then to those for whose sakes and against whom they are employed And howsoever they doe lesse hurt in this manner feigned then an open impudent shamelesnesse in vices The Senate in mine opinion seeing Otto thus plunged in passions not thinking that he
himselfe from danger And when the Lord intending to punish him propounded three things unto him whether hee would endure seven yeares famine flye three moneths before his enemies or have three days pestilence in the land he chose the last quite against the vertue of fortitude but yet in favour of the publick good judging as St. Ambrose saith his absence would be more hurtfull to the people than the pestilence True it is that when he saw the Angel turn his sword upon the people he cried out that he should turn it against him that was guilty and spare the innocent But this was not fortitude digested by reason it was a violence incited by a tender and valorous nature Saint Ambrose saith That in his choyce hee followed wisdome in his griefe piety I will unfold this question by saying That the Proposition which God made to David was to keep him farre off that which David made to the Angel was to kill him He will not accept of going farre off and desires death because that by his absence the peoples light was put out and they would bee left without a guide in the dark whereas his death had been but a putting out of one light to give way to another The former seemes alwayes to be evill the latter is not alwayes so but many times is turned to a greater good It may also bee said that when David made his first choyce hee grounded it upon a hope hee had that hee he might appease God by Prayer which foundation when he found it prove vain he altered his desire Nothing makes a man better than prudency and nothing keeps him more secure than sagacity This sagacity would be dangerous if it were naturally rooted in the breast of a Generall born there and not acquired For those who are endowed therewith in this manner never goe about to try either force or fortune untill the case be quite desperate and for the most part the time past either to make use of force or adventure ones self upon chance A Generals sagacity is different from a Polititians The one is not good in the Citie wherefore Military men are little available in a Senate The other is pernicious in the field wherefore they send Gown-men Councellors to lose and ruine enterprises In one of these sagacities valour should prevaile in the other sagacity itself must have the upper hand The Polititian ought not betake himselfe to force till sagacity quite fails and the Military man will hardly make use of sagacity whilest he can work with violence Alcibiades hath recourse to Pharnabazus favourite to Artaxerxes King of Persia presently becomes bound to him in a most strict bond of amity He had I know not what of attractive in him which alluring mens mindes bewitched them A lively Spirit from which proceeds activity and abundance of meanes to work by If we seek the celâ—stial causes thereof it proceeds from the constitution of the Planets from the swiftnesse of the motions from Mercury set in his dignities If we seek the elementary causes we will say it proceeds from thesire which producing its nature in the Spirits participateeh his motion unto them from the center to the superficies Therefore in such kinde of people the spirits are perceived at the circumference by the motions of the head and hands and most of all by the splendor of the eyes out of which they send forth sparkles And by reason that no cause if we speak of celestiall ones concurres more in this fabrick than Mercury swift in his dignities therefore it proves most like him They draw him with wings at his feet at his head or his haire The Poets doe not make him loves Courcellor but his Messenger and sometimes his Minister to deceive His Minerall is Mercury which alwayes moves and is like silver but is not silver which deceives the eyes of those that look upon it with iâ—s splendor and ruines them that handle it with its poyson The Alchimists seeing it false because it is moveable seek to take away its motion and fix it Astrologians believe not it hath any happy influence in the understanding though it bee never so forunate They desire not to finde him in his own house and exaltation but rather in Saturns or at least favoured with his presence and beames to cut off his wings with the slowest Planets Sythe When they give him the company of any stars to make him have a happy influence it is of the lesser ones The over-much motion which it gives the spirits in beginning of an action doth not admit of a prosecution of it and the over-much light doth puzzle and resolve them If Philosophers desire a temperament for a great understanding they doe not commend that which is of fire nor that of earth not melancholy noâ— Bilis alone if any Bilis that which is black which is the Astrologers Mercury in the house of Saturn and the Quicksilver fixed by the Alchimists fire The Mercurials with their swiftnesse run over all things with their splendor they see them and because they run they cannot discourse and because their motion is from the center to the circumference they spread and dilate themselves abroad they doe not grow deeper nor take root And having many objects before their eyes they have always some new thing to propose whereby they seem fruitfull yet are but barren bringing forth abortive embrioes if they come to be children they are monstrous ones I beare with Princes sometimes they put themselves into such mens hands in compain comparison of which all others seeeme dull and obtuse Whilst a Melaâ—cholly man gives one reason they will give a thousand If one answer serves not they will give two or three they confound and delight with variety with their engines and inventions they gaine admiration with their words great spirit and effectuall operation as it were a fury they astonish Rethorick Poetrie Musick and other Arts doe consist of I know not what set on the outside the judgment whereof seemes to belong to the senses Energie Number Sweetnesse of voyce and variety of colouring Although they consist of somewhat else which is more internall to apprehend which is required great skill in those Arts and an eminent understanding to judge of it The ignorant man presently runnes to the sense and judges with the eye and eare commending according to his sight and hearing many times that which deserves no commendation and never blaming that which is blame-worthy Apparance deceives him because he fixes himselfe upon the accidents and commands them and not penetrating to the knowledge of the substance he discommends it not because he does not know it Seneca speaks of some Orators whose orations pronounced by themselves seemed excellent and at the very first gained applause but being read and examined were of no worth He confesses they forced his understanding and he commends them not because they deserved it but because they bound him to it The same
delight in being happy it requires a motion the pleasure is in the becomming so and he that oftenest and most times becomes such hath received most pleasure Such a happinesse doth that man attaine unto that humbles himselfe when he is come to the highest degree he enjoyes a perpetuall delight and yet doth not forsake his stand living in a continuall motion He alwayes humbles himselfe and is still raised up But even as Hippocrates was in mine opinion deceived judging it a good habit to be full of bloud so are they also who judge those men happy that are ful of bloud If any man had represented and set before the eyes of Caesar and Alexander the great and others who were then or are now like unto them the way and meanes whereby they had attained to their happinesse hearing nothing but outcries howlings and horrid lamentations seeing nothing but slaughters ruines of Cities desolation of Provinces Inhabited places made desolate fruitfull places barren themselves encompassed with fire dead carkasses and bloud it would surely strike a terror into them What happinesse is that then the cause of which affrights and terrifies even him that hath attained to it FINIS MARQUES VIRGILIO MALVEZZI HIS CORIOLANUS To the most Reverend Father Sforza Pallavicino Of the Society of Jesus Most Reverend Father I Dedicated my Alcibiades to King Philip the fourth I now dedicate Coriolanus to your most reverend Fatherhood What a happinesse do I enjoy to have the greatest Monarch of the world to be my Master And the greatest wit and most sublime understanding to my Nephew If these two lines which adorn my Writings were but graven upon my Tomb-stone they would fully satisfie my ambition namely HERE LIETH THE SERVANT TO KING PHILIP AND UNCLE TO FATHER PALAVICINE The goer by would therein read the happinesse of my birth and the worthinesse of my choyce And how can these my Writings be but secure protected by the greatest worldly power and defended by the greatest learning I beleeve my affinity will not derogate from mine attestation in witnessing that which your workes have manifested to the world I would I had almost said renounce my kindred rather than betray my judgement and leave being an Uncle rather than to not be a Trumpet of the eminency of your understanding and most rarely singular qualities I would beseech your most reverend Paternity to esteeme of that in mee which is none of mine namely your being my Nephew and I in the mean time will glory to have added the Title of Servant to the Character of Vncle So affectionately kissing your hands I rest Your most Reverend Fatherhoods most bounden Servant and most devoted Vncle Virgilio Malvezzi Bononia April 2. 1648. READER I Doe not professe my selfe so considerate as that I could not erre in mine advertisements neither am I so Vnchristian that I would have any mans reputation to suffer being any way touched by my ignorant mistakes I have therefore thought it good to recall two passages in a booke I set forth whilst I lived in Spaine called The Scale Whereof the one tends somewhat to the disparagement of the Duke of Savoy where I related there was a report that hee complied with the King of France in yeilding of Susa upon composition The other was concerning the Governour of the Bush through whose avarice J said the Towne was lost As for the first though I did not report it of mine own head yet it is so farre from truth that I should imagine I did wrong the sincerity Duke Charles used therein if I did not affirme the report to be false raised by some malicious and interessed persons As for the second I have seen the Cardinall Infante his Letters which testified that the Governour was wanting in nothing that belonged to him for the securing and defending of that place Therefore Reader if thou findest any other places in any parts of my books where I have plainly and unjustly touched any mans reputation I intend here to recall it in generall and will be ready to doe it in particular whensoever mine errors shall be made knowen to me And wheresoever the sense is dubious I shall desire to have it favourably interpreted CORIOLANVS CORIOLANVS his eminent vertues which mingled with some defect made it rather greater than equall obliges Plutarch to attribute the cause of the one to the goodnesse of his nature and of the other to the defect of education From the one he inferres that good soile may overcome bad tillage from the other that let the soile be never so good yet if it continually have bad tillage it will bring forth some bad plant The soile is the Minde the tillage Learning which being of a temperate complexion corrects all excesses and cures all contrarieties It raiseth those that are too low humbles them that are too stout where it findes any hard thing it softens it where any soft it hardens it resembling the Sun which with the same beames melts the Ice and hardens the mire This doctrine is so delightfull that it hath been able to attract the eyes which it could not dazzle I have a long time looked upon it with astonishment knowing that by consenting to it I should betray mine understanding and doubting lest by opposing it I should seem to question a truth and by arguing against education which hath commonly been approved of and most of all by the wisest I should be reputed rash and temerary though by right I should be applauded for it But if a good Citizen ought to expose his life to save the publick why should he not also adventure his reputation for the common service This will be also so much the easier because I mean not to direct my shafts against the thing it selfe but against the manner commending with others Education but not that Education which is commonly practised I represent unto my selfe two trees of the same kinde but in severall places one wilde in the forrest yet in good soile the other growing in a Garden amiddest the tendernesses of tillage and husbandry I see the boughes of the latter more beautifull and springing up its fruit fairer and bigger but the boughes ready to break at every blast of wind the fruit rot in a short time and affording but a weak kind of nourishment I see in the former rougher boughes lesser fruit and not so beautifull but the boughes resisting the fury of the North windes and the fruit not easily corrupted and strong for nourishment The roughnesse of the tree of the forrest yeelds I know not what kind of statelinesse so that Majesty added to the horridnesse brings forth a kind of reverence with delight The tendernesse of the other moves delight with its beauty but in such a manner that it doth in some kinde make the beholder grow tender with looking on it The tree of the forrest is like a vigorous sinewy well-limbed man with strong muscles A garden tree resembles a young and tender maiden
followed Coriolanus as it did Cato either he had returned into Rome victorious and established a better form of Government or being conquered had left a more lasting Government behinde him Cato dies because hee could not make the Citie free Coriolanus because hee would not bring it under subjection If any man wonders that I should compare Coriolanus to Cato let him in the first place and much more admire that Plutarch should compare him to Alcibiades the one was altogether effeminate the other manly The Greek soft and tender with Socrates education savoured of a Schoole The Roman harsh and hardened brought up in the camp was composed of nothing but warre The first was ambitious the last proud One severely flattered the people the other free opposed them Alcibiades framed himselfe to all mens fashions Coriolanus intended to frame every one to his humors One was beautifull eloquent and subtle with his beauty allured with his eloquence perswaded and with his subtilty deceived The other sterne in aspect rough in speech single in heart allured not perswaded not nor did not deceive Alcibiades loses himselfe like a vaine man Coriolanus like a solid In their banishments and in their deaths wherein they seemed to bee most like one another they were contrary They were both exiled it is true but one because he would alter the forme of the Common-wealth the other because hee would not have it altered They were both kill'd I confesse it but Alcibiades for hatred of his vices Coriolanus for envy of his vertues A Table of the chiefe heads discoursed upon in the Life of ALCIBIADES MAns desire is to live in the memorie of posterity chusing rather to survive infamous then to be quire forgotten p. 1. Mens virâ—ous actions ought not to bee recorded in Histories p. 4 Whether vice and vertue proceedes from the Patents inclinations or from the influence of stars or the temperature of the climat in which a child is borne p. 6 Whether by a childs actions one may judge of what his disposition will be when hee comes to be a man 15 Defects many times illustrate the perfections which are in a man 24 Feare the strongest and most prevailing passion 28 Alcibiades embraces learning to soment his Ambition 31 Alcibiades takes away halfe Nicetus his plate 33 The cause why Nicetus takes it patiently 33 Alcibiades contemnes the gifts of the Athenian Nobles and accepts a country fellowes p. 36 The reason thereof 37 Of what nature the reciprocall love was betweene Socrates and Alcibiades 38 An outward beauty argues not inward vertue 40 A young man cannot naturally be wise and in an old man wisedome decayes 45 Whether one may passe immediately from speculation to practise 46 Divines seldome good Polititians 48 Discourse unnecessary in speculative Sciences 49 Experience Mistresse of Policie 51 Great difference betweene being extravagant by election and being such naturally 56 Seldome any griefe but hath some pleasure in it Or any joy without some grief 59 Alcibiades no sooner admitted to the government of the Common-wealth but presently hee salls at odds with Phaeaces and Nicias 61 Emulation and Necessity Gaine and Glory were produced by Nature to keepe men from idlenesse 61 Why mans Emulation never ceases 62 The name of Liberty is commonly misunderstood 65 Whether manifest opposition or supplanting insinuation will soonest ruine a man 66 Open opposition dangerous at first onely 68 Growing powers easily kept from rising but grown hardly brought downe 69 Alcibiades and Nicias being put upon the Ostracisme it falls upon Hyperbosus a most vitious man 71 Inconveniencies of overmuch providence 74 Both the Nobles and the vulgar hate a great man but for different reasons 77 Why the Common-wealth of Athens grew not to such a height as the Roman 77 Ostracisme ill executed 79 The power and efficacie of union 80 Inconveniencies of banishing one great man and leaving another at home 82 Aristotle mistaken in the description of an excellent man 83 Wayes to suppress greatnes 85. yet all vaine 88 Powerfull Subjects must bee punished with death or not at all 88 Ostracisine an absolutely pernitious law 89 Whether he that knowes his own worth hee that knowes it not or a worthless man be most dangerous in a Common-wealth 90 Ingratefulness oftentimes springs from the delaying of gratitude 97 Vices have sometimes appearance of vertues 98 Too much circumspectness sometimes is hurtfull 105 A third may moderate two contraries if he participates of both otherwise not 107 Whether man be most pious in prosperity or in adversity 109 Some are naturally treacherous some become so upon occasion given them 114 Great difference between revenging a wrong and vindicating ones reputation 114 A mans presence continues love and his absence causes it to be forgotten 117 Envy and pusillanimity inseparable 121 Vices suddenly changed into vertues give great cause of suspition 123 A Paradox concerning Luxury and Incontinencie 126 Faults and errors are many times better connived at than reprehended 132 Some natures will gain the love of all sorts of men 133 An advice contrary to likelihood is seldome accepted of 135 Aloibiades takes Selibria by a stratagem 138 A sudden resolution works wonderful effects 139 Nature seldome bestowes valour and sagacity upon one person 142 Policie is an Art by it selfe which no man hath yet rightly learned 144 Cato unapt for Sciences and in what manner 145 An emulous equall carps at his corrivals skill an inferior emulator at his person 146 A fault committed out of malice and wilfulness is not so shamefull as one committed through inability or ignorance 148 Reputation is not lost by degrees but either remaines entire or is quite lost 149 Aloibiades cunning and subtile rather than wise 150 The difference betweene subtiltie and Wisdome 150 Some things laudable in a private man which are disalowed in a pulick person 152 A Generals subtilty different from a Polititians 154 Aloibiades flies to Farnabazus 54 Why he gained the love of all men Ibid In Arts some things are judged by the Senses and some by the understanding 187 Aloibiades had many vertues and many vices 160 He met with a Common wealth which admired his vertues and followed his vices Ibid. His vices overthrew him in his forraign imployments 161 Aloibiades his deaâ—h 162 Man wrastling with Fortune at last is overcome 162 Nothing firm in the world 165 Why some men continue fortunate some not 166 Alcibiades often though not continually forrunate 158 Some caÌ„not suffer the best nor endure the worst 84 Too much care is the daughter of suspition and enemy of truth 81 Compassion is the daughter of Feare 44 Envy takes pleasure in defects 24 Perfect excellency is hated by most men 72 The forbidden thing seems best 64 No man can give that which he is not owner of 9 The desire of worldly glory is wise mens madness and fooles wisdome but beguiles all 93 Modesty moderates envy extinguisheth it not 121 Prudence hath measure for its actions but