Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	life_n	live_v	1,552	5	5.7392	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59603	Miscellanea, or, Various discourses upon 1. tragedy, 2. comedy, 3. the Italian & 4. The English comedy, 5. and operas ... together with Epicurus, his Morals / written originally by the Sieur de Saint Euvremont ; and made English by Ferrand Spence ; to which is prefixt a general dissertation introductory to the several tracts, and dedicated to T.M., Esq.; Selections. English. 1686	Saint-Evremond, 1613-1703.; Spence, Ferrand.	1686 (1686)	Wing S304; ESTC R12218	66,243	296

themselves What of all this Why still they are the Slaves of what they as well as you detest and abhor resembling those Grecian Philosophers that were allow'd in an high and mighty strain to talk of such virtues as they never practised A sort of Men there are still behind who indeed are no Philosophers but yet dispute with much acumen and vivacity These Men whom we may call the Prophaners of the Epicurean Pleasure will upon no account allow temperance to be a virtue and loudly declare that happiness depends upon the fancy and imagination There is no staying to contest with unreasonable people And the greatest mischief we can wish them is that they may live according to their own desire Our selves we may barely content with knowing that their opinion is false and horribly ill grounded and that felicity is never but in the desires which temperance brings along with it For it is not only a miserable thing to desire what is not honest But also it is more advantageous not to obtain what we desire than to obtain what we cannot without shame desire Insomuch that we ought to be of the Opinion of that Antient Gentleman who judging of Comitty banish'd from Rome while Manlius was Master of that City esteem'd the condition of that virtuous Exal to be better than that of that bad Citizen But in truth those who study temperance and manage the possession of pleasure so well that they feel not any pain these Men certainly may be termed happy and merit the Title of Sages Most durable as their pleasures as being well regulated and their whole Life being calm and eas●e because it is innocent They are far from pursuing inordinate pleasures Their felicity consisting in a total abstinence from them Nay they go to meet some pa●ns that they may avoid greater And from their only using temperance in the enjoyment of pleasure they leave us to conclude that temperance as well as wisdom tend only to a more quiet poss●ssion of that pleasure which temperance is in quest of Not that it makes the pleasure but it preserves it in us by making us to use it rightly and with Judgment You would peradventure be startled if not troubled at it if prosecuting the examination of Vertues and referring them to Pleasure I aver that fortitude depends on it as well as wisdom temperance that that Vertue which terrasseth Lyons under foot which despises dangers and could without any dread view the ruin of the whole World produces nothing illustrious but what bears a respect to pleasure and proceeds from it as from a source For first of all it must be conceded that neither the labours we undertake nor the pains we support have any thing to provoke our Stomach● if we consider them simply and separate them from other things And that the care and diligence so frequently commended in Life and in Affairs and the force whereof we are now speaking are never pracrtis'd unless it be with some design some cui bono and for some certain cause But we must say that these things were introduc'd for the tranquillity of Life and we follow them only that we may live without care and fear with an intent to deliver as much as possible our Body and Mind from the Maladies and Troubles which might afflict them and safely to enjoy that indolence which is one of the compositum's of Epicurus his pleasure And indeed how would you have a Man live happy when he fears death How would you have that Sicilian find pleasure in the midst of Feasts and Musique when all the while he dreads the fall of that Sword which threatens his Head and Diadem Is it not an extream misery to fall under pains and yet support 'em basely and with weakness Did not this debility of mind formerly make several to loose ' emselves after having lost their relatives and their Country What was it I wonder that occasion'd poetry to Metamorphose Hecuba into a mad Bitch unless it be that the grief which overcame her compell'd her to imitate the fury of that Creature Perhaps if she had withstood her grief or at least had endeavoured to forget the occasions of it they wou'd not have made her to proceed from tears to despair and from desperation to rage Now these are the complaints they put into her mouth and by the representation of the wretched estate she was reduc'd to and of that which she had lost she fosters her mourning Soul upon their Stage and enkindles the flames of that rage which was ready to seize her Vnder the pressure sunk of heavy Fate Alas what can I do in this Estate To what retreat can Hecuba now fly What kind As●lum or what Fort is ●igh Out of bely's jurisdiction here I lie ●ion's high Tower a●d Cit● where the Gods Like Heaven it self did settle their A●●ads Where they themselves with Vows and Offerings came Is now th' insulted prey of the l●wd Grecian flame I 've lost these Treasures Whither can I go W●at hope expe●t or what s●●●l com●ort know Whe● to Me● Altars Sacrifices 〈◊〉 And Deities their bo●y losses 〈◊〉 When ●i●ty is Chaos c. Afterwards she calls to mind the beauty of her edifices and the Riches of Asia to augment both her own grief and that of the Spectators For who can remain unmov'd with her discourses Oh d●●●st Cou●try or my Countre●'s Shade Priam's high House in lowly Ruins laid Oh Templ●s worthy of the Godhead's Eye● Wh●se 〈◊〉 with Godlike Art Men did devise Ive seen your Fan●s and we●lt●y Shrines shine bright With Sta●ry Gemms that cast Catestial Light The Gold the I●ory c. And what Person can avoid being seiz'd with both horrour and pitty when she proceeds in this manner By merciless Flames all this I 've seen devour'd I saw the Aged Pr●am when he pour'd His Royal Soul upon Jove's Heart i● Blood Never so great a Victim it embru'd Dragg'd through the dirt I 've seen my Hector's course Without the Grecian's pitty or remorse And to compleat the sum of Funerals I 've seen his Son thrown ●eadlong from our Walls So that I do not at all wonder that the People of Rome should sigh heretofore when they heard these Verses publickly rehears'd and that I my self in reading them gush'd out into tears Thus their strength and beauty forced me to translate them And tho' perchance I have injured both Yet as in translating them I have imitated the Antients with some latitude I have likewise satisfi'd such persons as do not understand them and have in no sort robb'd others who understand 'em in their original But in what language soever we consider them it is easy to perceive they come from a mind very sorely afflicted and tho' they were stript of their finest Ornaments they contain sufficient seeds of sorrow to create pitty Hecuba indeed hath great occasions to bemoan her condition She had lost her Husband her Son her Empire and her Freedom If