to many children would like Gavel-kind lands in few generations become nothing or to say it by communication is errour in Divinity for to communicate the ability of communicating whole essence with any but God is utter blasphemy And if thou hit thy Fathers nature and inclination he also had his Fathers and so climbing up all comes of one man and have one nature all shall imbrace one course but that cannot bee therefore our complexions and whole bodies wee inherit from Parents our inclinations and minds follow that For our minde is heavy in our bodies afflictions and rejoyceth in our bodies pleasure how then shall this nature governe us that is governed by the worst part of us Nature though oft chased away it will retuâ—ne 't is true but those good motions and inspirations which be our guides must bee â—ooed courted and welcomed or else they abandon us And that old Axiome nihil invita c. must not be said thou shalt but thou wilt doe nothing against Nature so unwilling he notes us to curbe our naturall appetites Wee call our bastards alwayes our naturall issue and we define a Foole by nothing so ordinary as by the name of naturall And that poore knowledge whereby we conceive what raine is what wind what thunder wee call Metaphysicke supernaturall such small things such no things doe we allow to our pliant Natures apprehension Lastly by following her we lose the pleasant and lawfull commodities of this life for wee shall drinke water and eate rootes and those not sweet and delicate as now by Mans art and industry they are made we shall lose all the necessities of societies lawes arts and sciences which are all the workemanship of Man yea we shall lack the last best refuge of misery death â— because no death is naturall for if yee will not dare to call all death violent though I see not why sicknesses be not violences yet causes of all deaths proceed of the defect of that which nature made perfect and would preserve and therefore all against nature IX That only Cowards dare dye EXtreames are equally removed from the meane so that headlong desperatenesse asmuch offends true valour as backward Cowardice of which sort I reckon justly all un-inforced deaths When will your valiant man dye of necessity so Cowards suffer what cannot be avoided and to runne into death unimportun'd is to runne into the first condemned desperatenesse Will he dye when he is rich and happy then by living he may doe more good and in afflictions and miseries death is the chosen refuge of Cowards Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest But it is taught and practised among our Gallants that rather than our reputations suffer any mâ—ime or we any misery wee shall offer our brests to the Cannons mouth yea to our swords points And this seemes a very brave and a very climbing which is a Cowardly earthly and indeed a very groveling spirit Why doe they chaine these slaves to the Gallyes but that they thrust their deaths and would at every loose leape into the sea Why doe they take weapons from condemned men but to barre them of that ease which Cowards affect a speedy death Truely this life is a tempest and a warfare and he which dares dye to escape the anguish of it seems to mee but so valiant as hee which dares hang himselfe lest hee be prest to the warres I have seene one in that extremity of melancholy which was then become madnesse to make his owne breath an Instrument to stay his breath and labour to choake himselfeâ— but alas he was mad And we knew another that languished under the oppression of a poore disgrace so much that hee tooke more paines to dye then would have served to have nourished life and spirit enough to have out-lived his disgrace What Foole will call this Cowardlinesse Valour or this Basenesse Humility And lastly of these men which dye the Allegoricall death of entring into Religion how few are found fit for any shew of valiancy but onely a soft and supple metall made onely foâ— Cowardly solitarinesse X. That a Wise Man is knowne by much laughing RIde si sapis ô puella ride If thou beest wise laugh for since the powers of discourse reason and laughter bee equally proper unto Man onely why shall not hee be onely most wise which hath most use of laughing aswell as he which hath most of reasoning and discoursing I alwaies did and shall understand that Adage Per risum multum possis cognoscere stultum That by much laughing thou maist know there is a foole not that the laughers are fooles but that among them there is some foole at whom wisemâ—n laugh which moved Erasmus to put this as his first Argument in the mouth of his Folly that shee made Beholders laugh for fooles are the most laughed at and laugh the least themselves of any And Nature saw this faculty to bee so necessary in man that shee hath beene content that by more causes we should be importuned to laugh then to the exercise of any other power for things in themselves utterly contraâ—y beget this effect for wee laugh both at witty and absurd things At both which sorts I have seen Men laugh so long and so earnestly that at last they have wept that they could laugh no more And therfore the Poet having described the quietnesse of a wise retired man saith in one what wâ—â—ave said before in many lines Quid facit Canius tuus ridet We have received that even the extremity of laughing yea of weeping also hath beene accounted wisedome And that Democritus and Heraclitus the lovers of these Extremes have been called lovers of wisedome Now among our wisemen I doubt not but many would be found who would laugh at Heraclitus weeping none which weepe at Democritus laughing At the hearing of Comedies or other witty reports I have noted some which not understanding â—ests c. have yet chosen this as the best meanes to seeme wise and understandiug to laugh when their Companions laugh and I have presumed them ignorant whom I have seene unmoved A foole if he come into a Princes Court and see a gay man leaning at the wall so glistering and so painted in many colours that he is hardly discerned from one of the pictures in the Arras hanging his body like an Iron-bound-chest girt in and thicke ribb'd with broad gold laces may and commonly doth envy him But alas shall a wiseman which may not onely not envy but not pitty this monster do nothing Yes let him laugh And if one of these hot cholerike firebrands which nourish themselves by quarrelling and kindling others spit upon a foole one sparke of disgrace he like a that â—hâ— house quickly burning may bee angry but the wiseman as cold as the Salamander may not onely not be angry with him but not be sorry for him therefore let him laugh so he shall be knowne a Man because he can laugh a wise
Man that hee knowes at what to laughâ— and a valiant Man that he dares laugh for he that laughs is justly reputed more wise then at whom it is laughed And hence I thinke proceeds that which in these later formall times I have much noted that now when our superstitious civility of manners is become a mutuall tickling flattery of one another almost every man affecteth an humour of jesting and is content to be deâ—ect and to deforme himselfe yea become foole to no other end that I can spie but to give his wise Companion occasion to laugh and to shew themselves in promptnesse of laughing is so great in wisemen that I thinke all wisemen if any wiseman do reade this Paradox will laugh both at it and me XI That the gifts of the Body are better then those of the Minde I Say againe that the body makes the minde not that it created it a minde but formes it a good or a bad mind and this minde may be confounded with soule without any violence or injustice to Reason or Philosophy then the soule it seemes is enabled by our body not this by it My Body licenseth my soule to see the Worlds beauties through mine eyes to heare pleasant things through mine eares and affords it apt Organs for the conveiance of all perceivable delâ—ght But alas my soule cannot make any part that is not of it selfe disposed to see or heare though without doubt she be as able and as willing to see behind as before Now if my soule would say that shee enables any part to taste these pleasures but is her selfe onely delighted with those rich sweetnesses which her inâ—ard eyes and senses apprehend shee should dissemble for I see her often solaced with beauties which shee sees through mine eyes and with musicke which through mine eares she heares This perfection then my body hath that it can impart to my minde all his pleasures and my minde hath still many that she can neither â—each my indisposed part her faculties nor to the best espoused parts shew â—t beauty of Angels of Musicke of Spheres whereof she boasts the contemplation Are chastity temperance and fortitude gifts of the mind I appeale to Physitians whether the cause of these be not in the body health is the gift of the body and patience in sickenesse the gift of the minde then who will say that patience is as good a happinesse as health when wee must be extremely miserable to purchase this happinesse And for nourishing of civill societies and mutuall love amongst men which is our chiefe end while wee are men I say this beauty presence and proportion of the body hath a more masculine force in begetting this love then the vertues of the minde for it strikes us suddenly and possesseth us immoderately when to know those vertues requires some Iudgement in him which shall discerne a long time and conversation betweene them And even at last how much of our faith and beleefe shall we be driven to bestow to assure our selves that these vertues are not counterfeited for it is the same to be and seeme vertuous because that he that hath no vertue can dissemble none but he which hath a little may gild and enamell yea and transforme much vice into vertue For allow a man to be discreet and flexible to complaints which are great vertuous gifts of the minde this discretion will be to him the soule Elixir of all vertues so that touched with this even pride shal be made humility and Cowardice honourable and wise valour But in things seene there is not this danger for the body which thou lovest and esteemest faire is faire certainely if it bee not faire in perfection yet it is faire in the same degree that thy Iudgement is good And in a faire body I doe seldome suspect a disproportioned minde and as seldome hope for a good in a deformed When I see a goodly house I assure my selfe of a worthy possessour from a ruinous weather-beaten building I turn away because it seems either stuffed with varlets as a Prison or handled by an unworthy and negligent tenant that so suffers the waste thereof And truely the gifts of Fortune which are riches are onely handmaids yea Pandars of the bodies pleasure with their service we nourish health and preserve dainty and wee buy delights so that vertue which must be loved for it selfe and respects no further end is indeed nothing And riches whose end is the good of the body cannot be so perfectly good as the end whereto it levels CERTAINE PROBLEMES WRITTEN BY I. DONNE THE PROBLEMES I. Why have Bastards bâ—st Fortune II Why Puritans make long Sâ—rmons III. Why did the Devill reserve Iesuites till these laâ—ter dayes IV. Why is there more variety of Green then of any other colour V. Why doe Young Lay-men so much study Divinity VI Why hath the common Opinion afforded Women Soules VII Why are the Fairest falsest VIIIâ— Why Venus star only doth cast a shadow IX Why is Venus Starre Multinominous called both Hesperus and Vesper X. Why are new Officers least oppressing PROBLEMES I. Why have Bastards best Fortune BEcause Fortune herselfe is a Whore but such are not most indulgent to their issue the old naturall reason but those meetings in stolne love are most vehement and so contribute more spirit then the easie and lawfull might governe me but that now I see Mistresses are become domeâ—tike and in ordinary and they and wives waite but by turnes and agree aswell as they had lived in the Arke The old Morall reason that Bastards inherit wickednesse from their Parents and so are iâ— a better way to preferment by having a stocke before-hand then those that build all their fortune upon the poore and weake stocke of Originall sinne might prevaile with me but that since wee are fallen into such times as now the world might spare the Divell because she could be bad enough without him I see men scorne to be wicked by example or to bee beholding to others for their damnation It seems reasonable that since Lawes rob them of succession in civill benefits they should have something else equivalent As Nature which is Lawes patterne having denyed Women Constancy to one hath provided them with cunning to allure many and so Bastaâ—ds de jure should have better wits and experience But besides that by experience we see many fooles amongst them wee should take from them one of their chiefest helpes to preferment and we should deny them to be fools and that which is onely left that Wâ—men chuse worthier men then their husbands is false de facto â— either then it must bee that the Church having removed them from all place in the publike Service of God they have better meanes then others to be wicked and so fortunate Or else because the two greatest powers in this world the Divell and Princes concurre to their greatnesse â— the one giving bastardy the other legitimation As nature frames and
conserves great bodies of contraries Or the cause is because they abound most at Court which is the forge where fortunes are made or at least the shop where thâ—y be sold. II. Why Puritanes make long Sermons IT needs not for perspicuousnesse for God knowes they are plain enough nor doe all of them use Sem-briefe-Accents for some of them have crotchets enough It may bee they intend not to rise like glorious Tapers and Torches but like Thinne-wretched-sicke-watching-Candles which languish and are in a Divine Consumption from the first minute yea in their snuffe and stink when others are in their more profitable glory I have thought sometimes that out of conscience they allow long measure to course ware And sometimes that usurping in that place a liberty to speak freely of Kings they would raigne as long as they could But now I thinke they doe it out of a zealous imagination that It is their duty to preach â—n till their Auditory wake III. Why did the Divel reserve Iesuites till these latter dayes DID he know that our Age would deny the Devils possessing and therfore provided by these to possesse men and kingdomes Or to end the disputation of Schoolemen why the Divell could not make lice in Egypt and whether those things hee presented there might be true hath he sent us a true and reall plague worse than those ten Or in ostentation of the greatnesse of his Kingdome which even division cannot shake doth he send us these which disagree with all the rest Or knowing that our times should discover the Indies and abolish their Idolatry doth he send these to give them another for it Or peradventure they have beene in the Roman Church these thousand yeeres though we have called them by other names IV. Why is there more variety of Green then of other Colours IT is because it is the figure of Youth wherâ—n nature wuld provide as many green as youth hath affections and so present a Sea-green for profuse masters in voyages a Grasse-green for sudden new men enobled fâ—om Graâ—â—ers and a Goose-greene for such Polititians as pretend to preserve the Capitol Or â—lse Prophetically foreseeing an age wherein they shall all hunt And for such as misdemeane themselves a Willow-greene For Magistrates must aswell have Fasces born before them to chastize the small offences as Secures to cut off the great V. Why doe young Lay-men so much study Divinity IS it because others tending busily Churches preferment neglect study Or had the Church of Rome sâ—ut up all our wayes till the Lutherans broke downe their uttermost stubborne doores and the Calvinists picked their inwardest and subtlest lockes Surely the Devill cannot be such a Foole to hope that he shall make this study contemptible by making it common Nor that as the Dwellers by the River Origus are said by drawing infinite ditches to sprinkle their barren Country to have exhausted and intercepted their maine channell and so lost their more profitable course to the sea so we by providing every ones selfe divinity enough for his own use should neglect our Teachers and Fathers Hee cannot hope for better heresies then hee hath had nor was his Kingdome ever so much advanced by debating Religion though with some aspersions of Error as by a dull and stupid security in which many grose things are swallowed Possible out of such an ambition as we have now to speake plainely and fellow-like with Lords and Kings wee thinke also to acquaint our selves with Gods secrets Or perchance when we study it by mingling humane respects It is not Divinity VI. Why hath the common Opinion afforded Women Soules IT is agreed that wee have not so much from them as any part of either our mortall soules of sense or growth and we deny soules to others equal to them in all but in speech for which they are beholding to their bodily instruments For perchance an Oxes heart or a Goates or a Foxes or a Serpents would speake just so if it were in the breast and could move that tongue and jawes Have they so many advantages and meanes to hurt us for ever their loving destroyed us that we dare not displease them but give them what they will And so when some call them Angels some Goddesses and the Pâ—lpulian Heretikes made them Bishops wee descend so much with the streame to allow them soules Or doe we somewhat in this dignifying of them flatter Princes and great Personages that are so much governed by them Or do we in that easinesse and prodigality wherein we daily lose our owne soules to we care not whom so labour to perswade our selves that sith a woman hath a soule a soule is no great matter Or doe wee lend them soules but for use since they for our sakes give their soules againe and their bodies to boote Or perchance because the Deuill who is all soule doth most mischiefe and for convenience and proportion because they would come neerer him wee allow them some soules and so as the Romanes naturalized some Provinces in revenge and made them Romans onely for the burthen of the Common-wealth so we have given women soules onely to make them capable of damnation VII Why are the Fairest Falsest I Meane not of false Alchimy Beauty for then the question should be inverted Why are the Falsest Fairest It is not onely because they are much solicited and sought for so is gold yet it is not so common and this suite to them should teach them their value and make them more reserved Nor is it because the delicatest blood hath the best spirits for what is that to the flesh perchance such constitutions have the best wits and there is no proportionable subject for Womens wit but deceipt doth the minde so follow the temperature of the body that because those complexions are aptest to change the mind is therefore so Or as Bells of the purest metall retaine their tinkling and sound largest so the memory of the last pleasâ—re lasts longer in these and disposeth them to the next But sure it is not in the complexion for those that doe but thinke themselves faire are presently inclined to this multiplicity of loves which being but faire in conceipt are false in deed and so perchance when they are borne to this beauty or have made it or have dream'd it they easily beleeve all addresses and applications of every man out of a sense of their owne worthinesse to bee directed to them which others lesse worthy in their owne thoughts apprehend not or discredit But I thinke the true reason is that being like gold in many properties as that all snatch at them but the worst possesse them that they care not how deepe we dig for them and that by the Law o◠〈◊〉 Occupandi conceditur they would be like also in this that as Gold to make it selfe of use admits allay so they that they may bee tractable mutable and currant have to their allay Falshood VIII Why Venus-starre onely doth