Nature ordained pleasure in all actions these two Virtues which go to the composure of a chaste and continent man would be likewise of no use Clemency sweetens Choler and did not this Passion animate Princes to revenge the virtue whereby it is moderated would not deserve praise But if Passions be so much befriended by so many several virtues they are not thereof unthankful for when instructed in their whole they repay them with use and serve them faithfully The best part of Circumspection is composed of Fear which though it be accused to seek out the evil before it happen it prepares us either quietly to undergo it or happily to evade it Hope is serviceable to Fortitude and 't is she that by her Promises doth encourage us to the undertaking of gallant Actions Boldness is Valour 's faithful Companion and all great Conquerors owe the glory of their Generosity to this Passion Choler maintains Justice and animates Judges to punish the Guilty Briefly there is no Passion which is not serviceable to Virtue when they are governed by Reason and those who have so cried them down make us see they never knew their use nor worth The SECOND DISCOURSE What the Nature of Passions is and in what Faculty of the Soul they reside GODS Greatness is so elevated as Man cannot attain to the Knowledge thereof without abasing it and his Unity is so simple as it is not to be conceived unless divided Philosophers gave him different Names to express the diversity of his Perfections and by calling him sometimes Destiny sometimes Nature sometimes Providence they introduced a plurality of Gods and made all men Idolaters The Soul being the Image of God the same Philosophers did likewise divide it and not being able to comprehend the simplicity of its Essence they believed it was corporeal They imagined it had parts as well â—s the Body and though they were more subtle they were not less veritable They multiplied the Cause with its Effects and â—aking her divers Faculties for different Naâ—ures they contrary to the Law of Reason gave divers forms to the same composure But Truth which together with Faith came down upon earth teacheth us that the Soul is but one in its Essence and that it hath undergone several Names only to express the variety of its operations for when it gives life unto the body and when by natural heat which proceeds from the heart as from its Center it preserveth all the â—arts thereof it is called Form when it discerns colours by the Eye and distinguisheth of sound by the Ear Sense When she raiâ—eth her self a little higher and by discoursing infers one Truth by another she is called Understanding When she preserves her thoughts to employ them about her own affairs or that she draws from forth her treasury the Riches which â—she had lock'd therein men stile her Memory when she loveth that which pleaseth her or hates that which nauseates her she is termed Will but all her several Faculties which differing in their employments do notwithstanding agree in their substance make but one Soul and are like so many Rivulets derived from the same Spring-Head Prophane Philosophy arriving at length to the knowledge of this truth makes use of divers comparisons to express her Now she represents the Soul in the Body as an Intelligence in the Heavens the virtue whereof is displayed through all the Spheres thereof Anon they figure her out unto us as a Pilot who guides his Vessel sometimes as a King who governs his State But Christian Philosophy hath been more fortunate when coming even to the original of the soul it hath made us know what effects she produceth in the Body by the very same which God produceth in the world For though this infinite essence depends not upon the world which he hath created and that without interessing his might he may undo his own workmanship yet is he shed abroad in all the parts thereof there is no intermedium which he fills not up He applies himself to all Creatures in their operations and without dividing his unity or weakning his power he gives light with the Sun he burneth with the fire he he refresheth with the water and he brings forth fruit with the trees He is as great on earth as he is in Heaven though his effects do differ his power is alwaies equal and the stars which shine above our heads cost him no more than the grass which we tread under our feet So is the soul dispersed in the body and penetrates all the parts thereof It is as noble in the hand as in the heart and though applying her self to the disposition of the Organs she speaks by the Mouth seeth by the Eyes and heareth by the Ears yet is she but one Spirit in her Essence and in her differing Functions her Unity is not divided nor her Power weakned 'T is true that not finding the same dispositions in every part of the Body she produceth not the same Effects and in this point this Illustrious Captive is infinitely inferiour to God for as he is infinite and was able to make all things out of nothing he can likewise make all things out of every Creature and without any respect to their Inclinations make them serve his Will. So we see he hath used the Fire to sweeten the pains of his Servants that he hath used the Light to blind his Enemies that he hath made the Flouds turn back to give passage to his Friends and that he hath made the Earth open to swallow those that rebell against him But the Soul whose power is limited cannot operate without dependance upon the Organs and though she be spiritual in her Nature yet is she corporeal in her Operations This is that which hath made the Philosophers consider her in three several estates which are so different the one from the other that if in the first she approach near the Dignity of the Angels in the second she is in no better condition than the Beast of the Field and in the last she differs not much from the Nature of Plants for in this acceptation she hath no other employment than to nourish the Body she is in to digest Food to convert it into Bloud and by a strange Metamorphosis to make one and the same Matter thicken into Flesh stiffen into Nerves harden into Bones extend into Branches and lengthen into Grisles she augments her Parts by nourishing them she in time perfects her Workmanship and by her pains brings it to its just Greatness Solicited by Providence she takes care to maintain the World she thinks how to restore what she hath received and to preserve her species produceth the like In this acception her workmanship is not more noble than that of Plants which nourish themselves by the Influences of Heaven grow up by the heat of the Sun and get root downward by their Succors and Moisture In the second estate she becomes sensible and
But howsoever all Philosophers agree that the Soul cannot be happy in a miserable body and that she cannot endue it with life without sharing in the miseries thereof if her noblest part be touched with Joy while the body languisheth with pain that which inanimates it must be sensible thereof to pay interests for the services she gets thence she must be miserable for company Even the Soul of Jesus Christ thrice-happy as it was failed not to be afflicted and a miracle was done in the order of Glory that the society might not be broken which Nature hath put between the Soul and the Body it is then agreed upon that these two parts that compose man cannot be separated in their suffering and that the torment of the one must of necessity be the others punishment they love too well to forsake one another in their afflictions and unless the violence of pain break the chains wherewith they are linked together their miseries must be common I should moreover think that the condition of the Soul is more deplorable than that of the Body for besides that to make her subject to sufferings be to injure her worth and that it is a piece of Injustice to force her to feel evils from which by Nature she is exempted she sentenceth her self to new sufferings and the love which she beareth to her Body obligeth her to resent with sorrow the pains which it endureth she together with it is sensible thereof seeing that she is the Original of Sense and as if this torment were not sufficient she draws another upon her self by compassion and afflicts her self with the Thought of all that which really torments it she makes much of its maladies after she hath shared in the suffering of them she grows sad with the conceit of them and of a single grief makes double Martyrdom true it is that this Faculty hath so much commerce with the Senses as she cannot resent their evils without communicating her pains unto them her trouble disquieteth them and as the sufferings of the Body are cause of the like in the Soul by a Law as just as necessary the pain of the Soul produceth the like of the Body This feeling is in my Opinion true Sadness which is nothing else but a dislike which is formed in the inferior part of the Soul by the fight of Objects which are displeasing to her Very strange are the effects of so Melancholick a Passion for when she is but in a mean she makes them eloquent without Rhetorick she teacheth them Figurative speeches to exaggerate their Discontents and to hear them speak the greatest pains seem to be less than what they suffer but when she is Extream by a clean contrary effect she astonisheth the Spirit she interdicts the use of the Senses she dries up Tears stifles Sighes and making men stupid she affords Poets the liberty of feigning that she changeth them into Rocks when she is of long continuance she frees us from the earth and raiseth us up to Heaven for it is very hard for a man in misery to covet life when it is full of pain and Sorrow and when the Soul hath great conflicts for a Body which doth continualy exercise her patience All men are not so poorly spirited as was that Favorite of Augustus who did so much covet life that Torments could not make him forgo the desire thereof who gloried in his Verses that he would have loved Life amidst Tortures that he would have been a Votary for the prolonging of it upon the Rack and that the cruellest sufferings that might be would have seemed swift to him so as he might therein have found Life I well believe that excess of pain would have made him be of another mind and that he would have confess'd that to die quickly is better than to live long in pain or had he persisted in his first Opinion we should be bound to confess that poorly-spirited men are more wilful than are those that are couragious and that the desire of Glory makes not so great impression in us as the desire of life But to return to my Subject when Grief is violent it loosneth the soul from the Body and causeth the death of the man for Sadness and Joy have this of resemblance in their difference that both of them attempt upon our lives when they are in extreams The heart dilates it self by Joy it opens it self to receive the good which is offer'd tastes it with such excess of pleasure as it faints under the weight thereof and meets with death in the midst of its Happiness It shuts it self up by Sorrow claps to the door upon the evil that besiegeth it and very improvidently delivers it self into the hands of a Domestick enemy to free it self from one that is a stranger for its Violence causeth its anguish and the care he takes to defend it self augments its pain and hastens its death Oft-times also its negligence makes it miserable it suffers it self to be surpriz'd by Sorrow for not having foreseen it and being no longer in a condition to defend it self when Sorrow arriveth it is forced to give way thereunto In fine Sadness makes us weep when it hath seized on our heart it wageth war with our Eyes it evaporateth by Sighes it glides down by Tears and weakens it self in the production thereof for a man that weeps easeth himself and comforts himself whilst he complains he finds somewhat of delight in his lamentations and if they be signs of his sufferings they are likewise the cure thereof As Choler dischargeth it self by Railing Sorrow being more innocent drops away by Tears and abandons the Heart when it gets up into the Face Having seen its effects it remains that we consider what use may be made thereof and in what conditions it may become Innocent or Offensive The FIFTH DISCOURSE Of the bad use of Pain and Sorrow THose who believe that Delight is Virtues most dangerous Enemy will never think that Sorrow can side with Vice and we shall have much ado to perswade them that there be some Sadnesses which are faulty yet we see but few of them that are innocent and most of those that draw tears from us are either unjust or unreasonable for man is become so esseminate that every thing hurts him Sin hath made him so wretched that he numbers the privation of pleasures amongst his pains and thinks he hath just cause to afflict himself when he possesseth not all that he desires the number of his evils is encreased by his abjectedness and he that in the first ages knew no other pain but Sickness and Death now vexeth himself for Disgrace and Poverty The witness of his Conscience is not sufficient for his Virtue and if he have not applause on Earth joyned to the approbation of Heaven he imagineth himself to be infamous the riches of Nature do not satisfie his Desires and though he have all things
part of Moral Philosophy which hath oftest been examined But if I may speak my sense with freedom and if I may be permitted to censure my Masters I am of opinion that there is no point in the whole body of Philosophy that hath been treated of with more ostentation and less of profit for some of them have satisfied themselves with having described passions unto us and in discovering unto us their causes and their effects not teaching us how to govern them so as they may be said to have been more careful in making us know our malady than in applying remedies thereunto Others more blind but more zealous have confounded them with vices and have put no difference between the motions of the sensitive appetite and the misgovernment of the will so as according to them a man cannot be passionate without being criminal Their discourses which ought to be instructions unto virtue have only been invectives against passions They have made the malady greater than it was and their desire of healing it hath only served to make it incurable Others little differing from the last have endeavoured to stifle Passion and not considering that man is indued with a body from the material part whereof the soul is not disingaged they will heighten him to the condition of Angels These last being the Noblest Enemies that Passion ever met withal and who have made use of reason to grapple with her It is fit we lend them an ear that we may answer them and confute their Error before we establish the Truth No man is ignorant how that Pride hath alwaies accompanied the Sect of the Stoicks who that they might raise up man have laboured to abase God and who oft-times have made their Wise-man somewhat more happy than their Iupiter They have given him the upper hand of Fortune and Destiny and will have his happiness to depend wholly upon his Will Virtue is too modest to allow of so unjust praises and Piety will not suffer her to agrandise her self to the prejudice of that Divinity which she adores but the vanity of these insolent Philosophers never appeared more than in the defiance they have given to Passion For as she is the motion of the most inconsiderate part of our Soul Pride hath made them eloquent in their Invectives and Ambition hath furnished them with Reasons which are fairly entertained by such men who are offended that they have a Body and afflicted that they are not Angels They say that rest cannot consist with Passions that it is easier to destroy than to regulate them that such Souldiers must never be made use of as spurn at the Orders of their Commanders and that such are readier to justle reason out of doors than to fight in her behalf That Passions are the sickness of the Soul That the very weakest is not without danger and that health is not wholly recovered when any spice of the Feaver doth remain that that man is in a very sad condition who cannot find his safety save in the loss thereof who cannot be couragious unless cholerick who cannot be advised without some sort of fear and who dares undertake nothing unless egged on thereunto by his desire Briefly they conclude that to be a slave to Passion is to live under tyranny and that a man must renounce his liberty if he obey such insolent Masters These Reasons so eloquently express'd by the Stoicks have as yet framed a wise man only in Idaea Their Admirers have reaped nothing but Confusion after having courted so Proud and so Austere a Virtue they are become ridiculous to all Ages And the wisest amongst them have found that whilst they would go about to make so many Gods the Product hath been so many Idols Seneâ—a himself whom I look upon as the most eloquent and haughtiest Disciple of that proud Sect forced thereunto by the weakness of Nature and the efficacy of Reason hath betrayed his Party and forgoing his own Maximes confesseth that the wise man sometimes feels some Commotions and that though there be in him no true Passions yet hath he the shadows and appearances of them He who is acquainted with the humour of this Philosopher will be satisfied with this Attestate and he who shall well examine the Sense of his Words will find that Saint Augustine had reason to say the Stoicks distered from other Philosophers only in their manner of Speech and that though their Words were more lofty their Conceptions were not so For they blame not all Passions but only their Excess and though they have had a mind to stifle them they never could hope to do it To part the Soul from the Body so to exempt it from these agitations were to overthrow the Fabrick of man As long as this illustrious Prisoner shall be obliged to the same functions as are the souls of irrational Creatures she shall be constrained to entertain Passions And as long as she shall make use of sense in her operations she shall use hope and fear in the practical part of virtue It is no more dishonourable for the soul to fear a danger to hope for good or to strengthen it self against evil than it is to see by the Organs of the Eyes or to hear by those of the Ears the one and the other shares of servitude but both are necessary It is also more easie to rule Passion than the Senses Fear Choler and Love are more capable of Reason than is Hunger Thirst or Sleep Therefore if we shall make the Senses subject to the Empire of Reason we may well submit our Passions thereunto and make our Fear and our Hope praise-worthy as well as our Fasting and Watching meritorious Reason is the proper Utensil of man all other things are bun as strangers to him he may lose them without impoverishing himself and as long as he is master of Reason he may still vaunt himself to be Man Since this is the chief of all that is good we must disperse it through all the parts of man and make even the meanest faculties of our Soul capable thereof doubtlesly it may make for our security if it be well husbanded Hope if well governed doth encourage us to generous and difficult enterprizes Audacity if well guided makes Souldiers invincible In fine our most insolent Passions may be subject to Reason and not to employ them in the course of our life is to render useless one of the most beautiful parts of our Soul Virtue her self would become idle had she no passions either to subdue or regulate And he who shall consider their chief employment will find they have a relation to the managing of our actions Fortitude is made use of to subjugate Fear and this couragious virtue would cease to operate if man did cease to fear We measure our desires and hopes by Moderation and were there no ambitious Passions no man would be moderate in his good successes Temperance and Continency bridle Sensuality and had not
weakned them Art which is not invented so much to perfect nature as to imitate her observes the same Rules and imploys nothing in her workmanship till it be tempered by her industry Painting would not be so cried up had it not found out the secret of reconciling black with white and so pacifie the natural discord of these two colours to compose all others thereof The riders of the great horse have no service from their horses till they have broke them and that they may be useful they must be taught to answer the Bridle and the Spur. Lions were never made use of to draw triumphant Chariots till they were tamed and Elephants bore not Towers upon their backs in fight till they were rid of the savage humour which they brought from the Woods All these examples are documents forthe government of our Passions and Reason ought to imitate nature if she will be advantaged thereby They mus◠〈◊〉 be employed till moderated and he who shall think to make them serviceable to virtue before he hath subjugated them by grace will ingage himself in a perillous design In the state of innocency when they had nothing of unruly in them one might make use of them as they were born they never surprized the will As original Justice was as well shed throughout the body as throughout the soul The senses made no false reports and their advices being uninteressed they were always conformable to the judgment of Reason But now that all things in man are faulty that the Body and the Soul are equally corrupted that the senses are subject to a thousand illusions and that Imagination favours their Disorders we must have great precaution in the use of Passions The first is to consider what troubles their revolt hath caused in our soul and in how many mischiefs these mutiniers have ingaged us when they have only been led on by our eyes or ears 'T is a piece of wisdom to reap advantage by our losses and to become wise at our own cost The justest choler flies out sometimes if not withheld by Reasonâ— though her motion was lawful in its birâ—â— it becomes criminal in the progress thereof It turns a good cause into a bad one for not having consulted with the superiour part of the soul and thinking to punish assight fault it commits a great one Fear hath oft-times astonished us for having only listned to the Senses she maketh us look pale upon a thousand occasions without any just cause and sometimes she hath engaged us in real dangers to make us shun those that were but imaginary As then our Passions have deceived us for our not having ask'd counsel of our Reason we must resolve never to believe them any more till we have examined whether that which they desire or that which they fear be reasonable and whether the understanding which sees further than our eyes cannot discover the vanity of our hopes or fears The second precaution is to oblige Reason to watch alwaies over such subjects as may excite our Passions and to consider their nature and motions to the end that she may never be surprized Harms foreseen hurt but a little and we are but seldom astonished at such accidents against which we are prepared A Pilot who sees a storm coming withdraws into the Haven or if he be too far from it he lanchâ—th into the deep and keeps aloof from Coasts or Rocks A Father who knows that his Children are mortal and that life hath no longer term than what it hath pleased God to give will never take on too much at their loss A Prince who considers that victory depends more upon Fortune than his Wisdom and more on Chances than on the Valour of his Souldiers will easily be comforted though he hath been beaten But we make not use of our understanding methinks if our Passions be out of order Reason ought to be accused thereof for not having foreseen the danger and for not having prepared our senses against their surprizals The third precaution is to study the nature of such Passions as we take in hand to moderate or govern For some must be rudely dealt withal and to reduce them to their duty severity and violence must be made use of others will be flattered and they must be gently dealt withal to make them obedient to Reason Though they be subjects they are not slaves and the understanding which governs them is rather their Father than their Soveraign Others would be cozened and though Virtue be so generous she is tied to accommodate herself to the weakness of Passions and to make use of wiles when force will not prevail Love is of this nature we must divert it not being able to banish it from out of our hearts we must lay before it legitimate Objects and make it virtuous by an innocent cozenage Choler would be flattered and who thinks to oppose this torrent by making a Dam hath but augmented its Fury Fear and Sorrow ought to be rudely dealt withal and of these two Passions the former is so faint-hearted as it is not to be overcome but by force and the second is opinionated as it is not to be brought within rule but by provocation These means being well observed the Affections of our soul may be sweetned These savage Beasts become domestick when they have lost their natural fierceness Reason makes good use of them and Virtue shapes no design which she executes without their mediation The FOURTH DISCOURSE That in what condition soever our passions be they may be governed by Reason THough Nature be so liberal she ceaseth not to be a good housewife and to employ with profit that which she hath abundantly produced all her parts have their use and amongst the infinite number of Creatures which do compose the world there is not any one which hath not its use Those which do us no service contribute to our pleasures the most beautiful and most delightful serve to adorn the world and the very deformed entertain her variety As shadows set off colours ugliness gives a lustre to Beauty and Monsters which are the defect of Nature make her chiefest works and miracles be esteemed There is nothing more pernicious than poison and were not sin barren one would take it for one of its production since it seems to agree with the other to make all men die Yet hath it its use Physick makes Antidotes thereof and there are certain sicknesses which cannot be cured but by prepared poisons use hath turned them into nourishment And if there have been Princes whom poison could not kill Beasts who bear it about in their bodies cannot live without it that which is pernicious to us is so necessary to them as they cannot be berest of it without loss of life This is that which makes all Philosophers grant with Saint Augustine that venom is no evil since it is natural to ScorpÃons and Vipers and that they die when they lose it as we do
above a mortal condition and to put storms and thunder under their feet She boasts to cure them of all their evils and to free them from those vexatious disorders which molest the Souls tranquility all those fair promises have brought forth none effects and these proud billows after having made such noise are turned to foam Certainly we owe thanks to Providence which hath rendered their endeavors vain for if they had made good their words they had deprived us of all those aids which nature hath endowed us withal to make us virtuous and the inferior part of our soul hath remained without either exercise or merit for the passions are the motions thereof they carry her whither she mindeth to go and without loosning her from her body they join her to the Objects which she looks after or keep her aloof from those she desires to shun Joy is her blooming and displaying sorrow is her contraction and pain desire is her seeking and fear her eschewing for when we are merry our soul dilates it self when afflicted she contracts her self when we desire she seems to advance and when we fear she seems to retire insomuch as those who will take the Passions from the soul take away all her motions and under colour of rendring her happy make her unprofitable and unable I know no rational man that would purchase felicity at so dear a rate and I know no true man that would promise it upon so hard a condition For if happiness consist in action and if to be content a man must taste the good which he possesseth there is none but will avow That Passions are necessary to our soul and that joy must perfect the Felicity which desire hath begun Those who side with the Stoicks will tell us peradventure That these Philosophers condemn not such desires as arise from the love of virtue nor the joy that accompanies the fruition thereof but that they blame only those irregular wishes that we make every day for Riches and Honour and that consequently they blame the vain contentment which their accomplishment brings us This answer weakens their Maximes and confirms ours for it admitteth of Passions and only forbids their excess It admits of desires and hopes and only rejects their disorder and to end all in few words It healeth the malady of our affections and doth not destroy their nature But the Stoicks were not so just and their Philosophy had in it so much of severity and so little of reason as it would have a man seek out virtue without wishing for it possess it without relishing it and that being as happy as God himself he should be void of desire hope or joy In brief it had vowed the death of our Passions and yet this proud Sect did not consider that in destroying them they caused the death of all Virtues for they are the seeds thereof and by taking a little pain in trimming and pruning of them they may be made advantageous to us Though man be not born virtuous and that art which teacheth him to become so be as difficult as it is glorious he seemeth notwithstanding to know before he learneth it that his understanding hath the principles of Truth and his will the seeds of Virtue That as science according to the Platonicks is but a remembrance or calling to mind her good habits are but natural inclinations For all his Passions are budding Virtues and if he take a little care to perfect them they become compleat Virtues Is not fear which foresees evil and shunneth it natural wisdom Is not Choler which takes up arms in the behalf of good against the enemy thereof a shadow of Justice Is not Desire which serves us from our selves to join us with somewhat that is better an Image of Charity which takes us from the Earth to raise us up to Heaven What must be added to Boldness to make thereof true Fortitude And what difference is there between Sorrow and Repentance save only that the one is the meer workmanship of Nature and the other the production of Grace but both of them are afflicted with evil and they oft-times mingle their tears to bewail the same sin In fine There are no Passions which may not become Virtues and as they have inclinations to what is good and aversions from what is evil they need but a little Government to make them change Conditions The good Application of a mans Love is sufficient to make all his Passions innocent and without taking so much pain to love aright is only requisite to make us happy in this world Since Virtue faith St. Augustine is the habit of a well governed mind we are but to moderate our Affections that they may be changed into Virtues for when our hatred and our love which are the Spring-heads of all other Passions shall be wisely modestly strongly and justly guided they will become rare Virtues and will be converted into wisdom temperance fortitude and justice Is it not then a barbarous thing to go about to strangle Passions which have such affinity with Virtue and which without much labour may be raised to so noble a Condition Is it not ingratitude to mistake the advantages which we have received from Nature and is it not injustice to give infamous names to these innocent Subjects which being well managed by Reason might merit such glorious Titles 'T is then an indubitable Maxim amongst the Philosophers That Passions are the seed of Virtues and that they have no more noble employment than to arm themselves in their behalf to fight their quarrels and to revenge them of their enemies As mothers are never more couragious than in the defence of their children the affections of our soul are never more vigorous than when they defend their products against Vices This praise puzzles the brains of all the Stoicks And Seneca could not endure that Virtues Army should be composed of souldiers that could mutinie he will not have us employ Passions in her service because some few have been found which have injured her authority Certainly if all Princes were so obdurate as is this Philosopher they would find few souldiers and they must cashier all their troops because formerly they have found some of them unfaithful The negligence of Princes is oft-times cause why the souldiers mutinie and the weakness of Reason is almost alwayes the cause of the revolt of Passions In true Philosophy the soul must be rather accused than the body and the Soveraign rather blamed than the Subjects Who sees not that fear is watchful for virtue that she always mingles her self as a Spy amongst the enemies to find out their designs that all her reports are faithful and that we are for the most part unhappy only for having neglected them who knows not that hope strengthens us and that she encourageth us to the understanding of glorious and difficult designs who doth not confess that Boldness and Choler despise danger suffering hardness and setting
the liberty thereof the world doth yet bemoan this disaster the spoils of this shipwrack are yet seen and the States of Europe are but so many pieces which did compose the Body of that puissant Republique Ambition when confounded with virtue is guilty of more murders than Revenge and Choler though this passion pretend to be generous she is always stained with blood whatsoever delight she takes in pardoning her greatness is grounded upon the ruine of her enemies she is cause of more deaths than she procureth pardons and she is the loss of more innocents than safety of those that are guilty She astonisheth all the world when she is seen in the person of an Alexander And it seems Nature produced him to no other end than to teach us what ambition can do when assisted by fortune He ruined all Princes who would defend their own States he treated those as Enemies who refused to be his Subjects he could not permit an equal in any place through which he passed He complained of the Seas that stopt the current of his victories and wisht for a new world that he might conquer it If his vain-glory caused so many disorders his Choler committed no less ransack and if by the one he revenged himself of his Enemies he rid his hands of his Friends by the other the least suspitions encouraged these passions to revenge one indiscreet word provoked it an honest freedom set it a going and his Choler grew to be so nice as there was as much danger in doing well as in saying ill As he was possessed by all these violences so did he obey them he dipped his hands in the bloud of his Favourites he took upon him the office of a Hangman and that he might taste all the pleasures of revenge he himself would be the Minister thereof and with his own hands kill him who had saved his life But amongst all the cruelties whereunto his Choler oft did perswade him I know none more infamous than that which he exercised upon Innocent Calisthenes his condition was a Sanctuary to him and professing Phylosophy it seemed he ought not fear the fury of Alexander the very fault for which he was condemed was glorious and had it happened in the time of true Religion it would have passed for an eminent virtue for he defended the cause of his gods and was of opinion that Temples could not be built to his Prince without provoking the gods against him he guided himself so dexterously in so ticklish a business as that whilst he preserved the honour of Heaven he flattered Alexanders humour and by an admirable piece of cunning he accorded flattery with piety for if the reasons which Quintus Curtius alledgeth be true he represented unto the Macedonians that since men could not dispose of Crowns they ought not to dispose of Altars that since they made not Kings they ought not go about to make Gods and that when humane vanity would attribute unto it self that power she could not make use thereof till after the death of such as she would Deisie that to receive adoration from men one must keep far from any commerce with them lose his life to purchase a divinity That Alexander was yet necessary to them and that he ought not to mount into the Heavens till he had conquered all the Earth This short Oâ—aâ—ion was able to have obliged the most ambitious of mankind yet did it offend the vain-glory of this Prince and so far provoked his Choler as not many days after he caused this Philosopher to be put to death not allowing him liberty to defend himself This Murder drew upon him the hatred of all Greece and as Parmenio's death had exasperated all the Souldiers this of Calisthenes did much more all the Orators and these men who revenge themselves with their Tongue have spoke so oft of this excess as it is yet dishonour to him that did commit it All the praises that can be given to his gallant actions are darkned by the murder of Calisthenes And that I may make use of Seneca's eloquent words this irregular proceeding is Alexander's everlasting fault which neither his Fortune nor his Valour will ever be able to blot out For if a man shall say he defeated the Persians in three pitcht Battels another will say he slew Calisthenes If men put a valuation upon him for having overcome Darius the most puissant Monarch of the world they will blame him for having killed Calisthenes If men praise him for having carried the Bounds of his Empire to the utmost parts of the East they will add he was guilty of the death of Calisthenes If finally to end his Panegyrick a man shall say he hath stained the glory of as many Princes as preceded him another will reply his fault is greater than his valour and that all his actions of memory are sullied by Calisthenes his Blood This example ought to instruct and teach all Princes that if irregular Passions are maladies in private men they are Plagues and contagious diseases in publick Personages and that if well guided by Reason they may become glorious virtues they may by the tyranny of our senses degenerate into most infamous vices The THIRD DISCOURSE That there are no Passions which may not be changed into Virtues VVE have said in our former discourses that Passions are the seeds of Virtues that by having a care of husbanding them well their effects were very advantageous to us But proceeding on further my intention is in this discourse to teach Christians the secret how they may change them into Virtues and to take from them whatsoever they have of savage or monstrous This Metamorphosis is certainly very hard but not impossible and if we advise with nature she will furnish us with inventions for this wise Mother is continually working of strange alterations Her power never appears to be greater than when she alters the Elements or Metals and when she takes from them their former qualities that she may give them others more excellent and more noble But she observes therein an admirable method which well deserves consideration for though she be all-powerful and that holding the place of God she may act as a Soveraign and do what she pleaseth with the Elements or Metals yet doth she never use violence and she seemeth rather to accommodate her self to their interests than to her own inclinations she observeth their sympathies and worketh no alteration which is not agreeable unto them Thus we see she ratifies air to change it into fire and conduceth water to turn it into earth thus we observe she purifies silver to give it the tincture of Gold and labours whole ages to finish without violence this useful Metamorphosis Now as Morality is an imitation of Nature her chief care ought to be employed in observing the proprieties of our Passions and in converting them into virtues which are not contrary unto them for he that would go about to
rewards and that in the Roman Common-wealth where they gave but an oaken Garland to such souldiers as had mounted a Breach they made them pass the Pikes for having gone out of their Rank or forsaken their Colours that God himself whose government ought to serve for an example to all Princes governed his people with more severity than lenity that he had been constrained to express himself by the voice of Thunder to work obedience to him that he had not preserved his authority by the death of Rebels and that notwithstanding whatever inclination he had to Mercy he was enforced to have recourse to Justice Briefly they say Soveraignty is somewhat hateful that Love and Majesty agree not well together that one cannot rule over men and be beloved that men are so jealous of their liberty as they hate all things that obviate it and that Princes according to the Maxime in the Gospel have no greater enemies than their Subjects Those who take part with love have no less specious reasons and much more true ones for they say that the Soveraign being the Father of his people he is bound to treat them as his Children that fear makes them only Masters of the Body and that love makes them rule over the Heart That such as fear their Masters seek an end of their servitude and that such as love them dream not of recovering their Liberty That such Princes as govern with rigour cannot live securely that of necessity those who cause fear must themselves be subject thereto and that they must fear their peoples revolt who only obey them through constraint That if nothing that is violent be of continuance an Empire which is only grounded upon violence cannot long subsist and to answer the reasons objected unto them they reply that love enters much better into the heart than doth fear that if there be angersom ways to make a man be feared there be innocent Charms to make him be beloved that in generously-minded men recompenses make greater impressions than punishments and that the promises of a Prince more animates his subjects than doth his threats that contempt cannot arise from love since love ariseth from valuation and is always accompanied by respect that the justest Monarchies and not the severest have flourished the most and that if in the Roman Common-wealth punishments exceeded recompenses it was not for that fear made deeper impressions in the souls of men than love but because Vice hath not so much of ugliness as virtue hath of beauty and that it is not necessary to propound honour unto her who finding all her glory within her self is as well satisfied with silence as amidst all acclamations and applause That if God dealt rigorously with his people 't was contrary to his inclination and that his lenity had been greater than his severity because the latter could not purchase him all Iudaea and the former hath submitted unto him the whole world St. Paul represents us with the difference between these two laws often in the holy Scripture the one of which hath made slaves the other hath produced children the one of which hath fortified sin the other hath destroyed the tyranny thereof They add that Soveraignty is not odious since it was consecrated in the person of Jesus Christ who desirous to serve as an example to all Kings on earth never used his power but in order of service to his mercy and never did any miracle unless to help the afflicted In fine that subjects did not repine at the loss of their liberty since that being voluntary they like it that Princes are not the objects of fear since they are the images of God and that some Princes have been found even among Infidels who have been their peoples delight whilst alive and their sorrow when dead Though these answers be so pertinent as they are not be gainsaid yet methinks both the parties may be reconciled and their difference so taken away as that each of them should therein find their advantage for though lenity be to be preferred before rigour and that a State be better grounded upon love than upon fear there are occasions wherein a Prince ought to let his clemency give place to his severity wherein he is obliged to quit the quality of a Father that he may exercise the like of a Judge He ought to govern his humor according to the humor of his Subjects if they be giddy-headed or proud he must use rigour to teach them obedience and fidelity if troublesom and prone to Rebellion he must make examples and by the punishment of a few frighten more if unquiet and desirous of novelty he must punish them by keeping them in continual employment but amidst all these punishments he must not forget that he is the head of his State that his subjects are a part of himself and that he ought to be as sparing in punishing them as a Physitian in cutting off the Arm or Leg of a diseased person If nothing be done in his Kingdom which enforceth him to Rigour if all things be peaceable and if the people under his government have no other motions than his own will he ought to deal gently with them afford them just liberty which may perswade them that they are rather his children than his subjects and that reserving to himself the marks only of Soveraignty he permits them to gather all the fruits thereof In brief he ought not to use Rigor but when Clemency is bootless in his government as well as in the like of God mildness must precede severity and all the world must know that he punisheth not the faulty out of his own inclination but forc'd thereunto by necessity The power of a Prince is sufficiently dreadful by reason of his greatness he need not make it odious by his cruelty One word of theirs terrifies all their subjects the punishment of one guilty person astonisheth all the rest their anger maketh even the innocent to quake and as a Thunderbolt does little harm yet frightens much so great men cannot punish a particular personage without infusing terror throughout their whole Dominions I therefore am of opinion with the wisest Politicians That Soveraignty ought to be tempered with lenity and that being accompanied with all qualities that may make it be feared it ought to seek out all such means as may make it be beloved The FOURTH DISCOURSE What Passions ought to reign in the power of a Prince ONe of the greatest Misfortunes which can befall Religion is the liberty which men take to frame unto themselves such a Divinity as liketh them best In the first age every one adored the workmanship of his own hands and made an Idol unto himself which had its worth from the industry of the Workman or from the excellency of the Materials in pursuit of time as mens spirits grew more refined Poets made the gods sensible and gave them all such affections as
make us faulty or miserable one might see them make love in their Writings fight in Fables and one might observe in them all the chief affections of those that had invented them Philosophers not able to endure so unjust gods formed more rational Deities and proposed unto the people the Idols of their own minds every one figured out unto himself a god according to his own inclinations and gave him what advantages may be imagined Some placed him in idleness and that they might not trouble his rest berest him of the knowledge or government of our affairs some made him so good as that he suffered all faults to go unpunisht and dealt as favourably with the guilty as with the innocent others made him so rigorous as it seemed he had created man only to destroy him and that he found no contentment but in the death of his Subjects this disorder hath passed from Religion into State-government and according to the ages wherein men have lived they have framed unto themselves divers Ideas of Kings personages and have placed in their Princes such perfections only as they were acquainted withal for in the beginning of the world when people preferred the body before the soul they chose such Kings as were of an extraordinary stature and who were as strong as Giants Nay it seemed that God would apply himself to this humor when he gave Saul unto the Israelites for the Scripture sayes He was higher by the head than all his subjects and when the Poets describe unto us their Heroes they never fail in giving them this advantage but when time had taught us that our good resided not in the body men begun to consider the mind of such men as they would make their Kings and cast their eyes upon such as had most of government in them or most of courage they observed their inclinations and knowing what power their inclinations have over their wills they esteemed them no less than Virtues But Opinions do so differ upon this Subject as a man may say that every Politician fancies unto himself a Prince according to his humour and indues him with that Passion which is most agreeable unto himself Some have wished that their Prince had no Passion at all and that being the Image of God he should be raised above the Creatures he should see all the motions of the earth without any alteration oâ— spirit but we know very well that his being in a higher condition than his subjects makes him not be of another nature and that since he is not exempt from the Diseases of the Body he cannot defend himself against the passions of the soul. Others have been of opinion that he ought to have aâ— passions that like unto the Sun and constellations he should be in a perpetual motion and employ all his care and all his thoughts upon the welfare of his State Some have thought that the desire of glory was the most lawful Passion in a King and that since Fortune had endued him with all the goods she could confer upon him he should only labour how to atchieve honour That virtue was only preserved by this desire and that he who valued not reputation could not love Justice that a Prince ought not to endeavour the eternizing of his memory by the pomp of glorious Buildings but by the gallantry of his actions that setting all other things at nought he should only study how to leave a happy memory of his reign after his death That nothing could more further him in this generous design than an insatiable desire of Glory that Riches were the goods of particular men but that glory was the humor of Kings and that he might well hazard all other things to compass it Others less glorious but more rational have thought that fear ought to reign in the soul of Princes and that as their wisdom exceeded their valour the apprehension of danger should in them also surpass the desire of glory for to boot that their fortune is exposed to a thousand mischiefs that the greater it is it runs the greater danger that it is the more brittle by how much the more glorious they are bound to prevent accidents by their watchfulness to withstand storms by their Constancy and to forgo their own happiness to share in the misery of their Subjects All these opinions are upheld by examples for there have been some Kings who have known so well how to moderate their passions as they seemed not to have any they have not been troubled at ill Successes and they would receive the news of a Defeat with the same countenance as the tidings of Victory The quiet of their mind was not altered by the divers functions they were obliged unto they punished faults with the same easiness as they rewarded Virtue and whatever alteration befell their States you should find none in them they seemed to be raised to so high a pitch of perfection as one might say in the weakness of man they had the assurance of a God There have been others whose government hath been no less happy and who have yet been of a quite different disposition for as their Empire was no less dear unto them than were their own bodies no alteration could happen therein which might not be read in their faces good success put them in good humor they were afflicted at unhappy accidents they were touched to the quick even with evils that threatned them from afar off and every thing that befel their State made so strong an impression in them as they seemed to live in two bodies and that having two lives to lose they had two deaths to fear I dare not blame this their restlesness since it was occasioned by an extream love and a body must be unjust to condemn a Prince that makes himself miserable for no other cause but that he may make his Subjects happy Augustus Caesar was of this humor and though he had endeavoured to compass so much constancy as not to be troubled at any thing yet could he not hear of any good or bad success which befel his Common-wealth without witnessing his resentment thereof by his word and actions Varrus his defeat cost him tears and this accident which he was not prepared for made him say such things as I do rather impute to his affection than to his weakness since upon other occasions he had given so good proof of his Courage Their number is great who have laboured after glory and who have had no other Passion but how to acquire honour Nothing seemed difficult unto them which bear with it the face of glory insomuch as by an inevitable misfortune they neglected virtue when in obscurity and put a valuation upon a glorious vice According to their Tenets it was as lawful to overthrow a State as to found one to oppress a Republick as to defend it and to undertake a War against Allies as well as against Enemies They run after glory
birth it beareth the most glorious name for when an inclination is formed in the heart and that a pleasing object doth with delight stir up the Will we call it Love when it sallies forth from it self to join with what it loves we call it Desire when it grows more vigorous and that its strength promiseth good success we call it Hope when it encourageth it self against the difficulties it meets withal we call it Choler when it prepares to fight and seeks out weapons to defeat its enemies and to assist its Allies we call it Boldness But in all these conditions 't is still Love the name which Philosophers have given it in its birth agrees not less with it in his progress and if when but a Child it merit so honourable a title it deserves it better when it is grown greater by Desires and strengthened by Hopes 'T is true that Loves first condition is the rule of all the rest and that as all rivers derive their greatness from their Spring-head all the Passions borrow their strength from this first inclination which is termed Love for as soon as it is taken with the beauty of an object it kindles its desires excites its hopes and carries the fire into all the passions which hold of its Empire 't is in the Will as in a Throne where it gives orders to its subjects 't is in the bottom of the soul as in a strong Hold from whence it inspireth courage into its souldiers 't is like the heart which giveth life to all the members and the power thereof is so great as it cannot be well expressed by any example Kings oft times meet with disobedience in their subjects the most valiant Commanders are sometimes forsaken by their Souldiers and the heart cannot always disperse its spirits throughout all the members of the Body but Love is so absolute in his dominion as he never finds any resistance to his will all the Passions get on foot to execute his commandments and as the motion of the Moon causeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea so doth the motions of Love cause peace or trouble in our soul. Now this Love the nature whereof is so hidden hath divers branches and may be divided into natural and supernatural the latter is that which God disperseth into our wills to make us capable of loving him as our Father and of pretending unto glory as to our inheritance the former is that which Nature hath imprinted in our souls to fasten us to those objects which are delightful to us and this is divided into spiritual and sensible love spiritual love resides in the will and rather deserveth to be stiled a Virtue than a Passion sensible love is in the lower part of the soul and hath so much commerce with the Senses from whence he borrows his name as he always makes impression upon the Body and this it is which is properly termed Passion In fine these two lovers are divided again into two others the one of which is called the love of Friendship the other the love of Interest The first is the more noble and he who is touched therewith respecteth nothing but what may be advantageous to whom he loveth he wisheth him well or procureth what is good for him and having no consideration but honour and his friends content he sacrificeth himself for him and thinks himself happy if he lose his life to assure his friend of his affection This noble Passion is that which hath done all the glorious actions which are observed in History 'T is she that hath filled Tyrants with admiration and who hath made these enemies to Society wish to love and to be beloved judging aright that Soveraigns are better guarded by their friends than by their souldiers and that all their forces were but weak were they not supported by the love of their Subjects The second sort of Love which we term the love of Interest is as common as unjust for the greatest part of affections is grounded upon utility or upon pleasure those who suffer themselves to be carried away thereby have not so much friendship as self-love and if they will speak their minds they will confess that they love themselves in their friends and that they love them not so much for any virtue which they observe in them as for the good they hope to reap by them thus we may see that such like affections last no longer then they are either useful or pleasing and that the same interest which gave them life makes them die they betake themselves to the fortune not to the person and these are commerces which last no longer than they are entertained by hopes of profit or of pleasure Of so many sorts of love which Philosophy hath marked out unto us we will here consider none but that which resides in the inferior part of the soul let it have either virtue or interest for its foundation And since we know the nature thereof we will examine the qualities the first whereof is that it always seeks what is good and never betakes it self to an object which either is not good or appears not so to be for as nature is the workmanship of God she cannot have strayed so much out of the way but that she must preserve some remainder of his first inclinations insomuch as having been destinied to enjoy the Summum bonum she longs after it by an error which may very well be excused she fastens her self to all that hath but the likeness thereof and by an instinct which remains in her though in disorder she suffers her self to be charmed by all things which have in them any thing of beauty or of goodness As if she had found what she seeks after she indiscreetly betakes her self thereunto and by a deplorable misfortune she oft-times takes a falshood for a truth she committeth Idolatry whilst she thinketh to perform actions of Piety and attributing that unto the work which is only due unto the workman she runs into the same error which a lover should do who by a strange malady should forget the Mistress which he vows service to and passionately adore her Picture This fault ought rather to be imputed to man than to his love for love being blind follows his inclination not being able to discern between appearances and truth he loves the good which offers it self unto him that he may not miss of what he looks for he betakes himself to what he finds and is only to blame in being too faithful but man cannot excuse his sin since Reason is his guide and that he may learn by her that all those goods which are touched by the senses or are the objects of the senses are but the shadows of that which he ought to love He must correct his love and keep it from betaking it self to objects which though they be indeed beautiful are not the Soveraign good or Summum bonum which he seeks after When he
sacrilegious person which doth prophane it we must not wonder if Love which is the holiest Passion of our Soul meet with impious persons which corrupt it and who contrary to its own inclination make it serve their designs for love seeks only the Summum bonum she is not without some sort of violence made to love her own particular good which is but the shadow of what she desires to abuse it therefore sin must disorder nature and turn natural love into self-love making the Spring-head of good the original of all our evil For during the state of innocency men had no love save only for good and nature was so well temper'd with grace as that all her inclinations were holy In this happy condition charity and self love were the same thing and a man feared not to injure his neighbour by loving himself but since his disobedience his love changed Nature he who looked upon another mans advantage and his own with the same Eye began to separate them and forgetting what he ought to God he made a god of himself He confounded all the Laws of Innoceney and as if he alone had been in the world he forsook the sweets of Society he took a resolution to rule his affections by his own interests and to love no longer any thing but what was useful and pleasing unto him This mischief like poyson disperst it self throughout the whole fabrick of Nature and Reason cannot defend her self against it without the assistance of Grace The gallantest actions lost their lustre by this irregularity Philosophy by all her precepts could not reform a disorder which was rather in the bottom of Nature than in the Will She put some of her might to fight against this Monster and spying a glimering of light amidst the darkness with which she was blinded she confessed that man did not belong so much to himself as to his Country and that he ought endeavour more the glory of the State than the good of his own family She thought that the love of our neighbour should be formed upon the love of our selves and believed that in willing us to treat them as our selves she had corrected all the abuse of Humane Nature But this malady lying not only in the Understanding her advice was not sufficient to cure it so as she was enforced to confess that there was none could reform man but he that made him Thus shall we find no remedy for our misfortunes but by the assistance of Grace and our desires have had no freedom save since Jesus Christ came into the world to banish self-love from out our souls for his coming had no other motive nor his Doctrine any other end than the ruine of this dreadful Monster He setteth upon it throughout all his Maxims and hardly doth any word proceed from his divine mouth which gives it not a mortal wound He protests he would admit of no Disciples who have not changed their selflove into an holy aversion and that he will not suffer any Subject in his Kingdom who are not ready to lose their lives for the glory of their Soveraign He condemns the excess of riches and the love of honour only for that they nourish this inordinate Passion and he obligeth us to love our enemies only to teach us to hate our selves Mortification and Humility which are the ground-works of his doctrine tend only to destroy this inordinate affection which we bear unto our Souls or our Bodies In fine he hath appointed us charity only to overthrow self-love and he died upon the Cross only to make his enemy die which is the cause of all our quarrels and divisions We ought also to confess that this evil includes all others and that there is no disorder in the world which doth not acknowledge this for its original and I am of opinion that a man cannot only not make a good Christian of one that doth too excessively love himself but I hold that according to the laws of Policy and Morality one cannot make a good man nor a good Statesman of such a man for Justice it absolutely necessary in all manner of conditions and this Virtue cannot subsist with self-love Justice will have a man endued with Reason to prefer the inclinations of the soul before those of the body and that he preserve all the rights of authority to the Soveraign Self-love which leans always towards the flesh will have the slave to govern his Master and that the Body command over the Soul Justice will have a good man not to wish for any thing which exceeds his merit or his birth and she instructeth him that to be happy and innocent he must prescribe bounds to his designs Self-love commands us to follow our own inclinations and to govern our desires only according to our Vanity it flatters our Ambition and to insinuate it self into us it gives us leave to do what we please Justice will have a good Statesman prefer the publick interest before that of his own house that he be ready to lose his wealth and to sacrifice his own person for the preservation of his Country she perswades him that there is no death more glorious than that which is suffered for the defence of a mans Country and that the Horatii and Scaevola's are famous in the Roman History only for having sacrificed themselves to the Glory of their Common-wealth though there be nothing more natural to a man than to love his Children some men have been found whom Justice hath made to lose this affection to preserve the like of good Statesmen who solicited by this Virtue have butcherd those whose fathers they were teaching by so rigorous an example that the love to a mans Country ought to exceed the love to his own flesh and blood A State cannot be happy wherein there 〈◊〉 any doubts made of these Maxims as oft 〈◊〉 the publick interest shall give way unto thâ—â— particular it shall always be near ruine anâ— shall have no less trouble to defend it selâ— against its subjects than against its enemies Self-love this mean while makes a man labour only for his own pleasure or glory 〈◊〉 makes this the end of all his actions anâ— doth so bind man up within himself as 〈◊〉 suffereth him not to consider the publick if he do his Country any service it is in order to his own particular good and wheâ— he seems most busie for the good of thâ— State he wisheth the slavery thereof 〈◊〉 conspires its ruine Marius Scilla do witness these truths Pompey and Caesar haâ—â— made us see how dangerous such Statesmen are who love themselves better than thâ— Common-wealth and who so they maâ— preserve their own power fear not to 〈◊〉 press their Countries liberty In Religion this unjust Passion is 〈◊〉 more fatal and Piety can never agree wiâ—â— Self-love For there is no man that understands any thing who will not affirm thâ— to be godly a man must submit himself 〈◊〉
the will of God That with like submissiâ— we ought to receive punishments and rewards at his hands that we must adore the thunder wherewith he smiteth us and have as great respect unto his Justice as to his Mercy that we must be cruel to our selves to be obedient to him That it iâ— Piety to â—mmolate the innocent to him when he demands them and that as there is no creature which owes not his being to his Power there is none who is not bound to lose it for his Glory Then what man is he who will submit to these truths if he be a slave to self-love and how shall he be faithful to God if he be in love with himself I conclude then that this inordinate affection is the undoing of Families the ruine of States and the loss of Religion that to live in the world a man must denounce war to this common enemy of Society and that imitating the elements which force their inclinations to exclude a vacuum we must use violence upon our desires to overcome a Passion so pernicious to Nature and Grace From this Spring-head of mischief flow three rivers which drown the whole world and which cause a deluge from the which it is very hard to save ones self for from this inordinate love arise three other loves which poyson all souls and which banish all Virtue from the earth The first is the love of Beauty which we term Incontinencie The second is the love of Riches which we call Avarice The third is the love of Glory which we call Ambition These three capital enemies of mans welfare and quiet corrupt all that belongs to him and render him guilty in his soul in his body and in his goods It is hard to say which of these three monsters is hardest to overcome for to boot with their natural forces they have Auxiliaries which they draw from our inclinations or from our habits and which make them so redoubted that they are not to be overcome without a miracle To consider them notwithstanding in themselves Ambition is the most haughty and the strongest Voluptuousness the most mild and soft and Avarice the basest and most opinionated These are fought against by divers means and all Morality is busied in furnishing us with reasons to defend our selves against them The Vanity of Honour hath cured some that have been thereof ambitious For when they come to know that they laboured after a good which happened not to them till after death and that from so many dangerous actions they could only expect to have their sepulchers adorn'd or some commendation in History they have ceased to covet an Idol which rewardeth ill the slaves that serve it and that for a little applause which it promiseth them obligeth them many times to shed their own bloud or that of their neighbour The infamy of the voluptuous the mischiefs which accompany them the displeasures which follow them and the shame which never forsakes them have oft-times cured men to whom sin had left a little reason Age may likewise be a cure for this it is a disorder in nature to find a lascivious old man and it is no less strange to see love under gray hairs than to see those mountains whose heads are covered with snow and whose bowels are full of flames The misery of riches the pain that is taken in accumulating them the care in preserving them the evils which they cause to their owners the ease which they afford to content unjust desires and the sorrow caused by their loss are considerations strong enough to make those contemn them who are not as yet become slaves thereunto But when they shall exercise their tyranny upon the spirits I esteem their malady incurable Age which cures other Passions encreaseth this Covetous men never love riches more than when they are near losing them and as love is then most sensible when it apprehends the absence of the party beloved Avarice is most violent when it apprehendeth the loss of its wealth But without medling with another mans work I shall content my self with saying that to preserve a mans self from all these evils he must endeavour to forgo self-love For as natural love causeth all the passions inordinate love causeth all the Vices and whosoever shall be vigilant in the weakning of this Passion by repentance and charity shall find himself happily freed from Avarice Ambition and Incontinency But to arrive at this high degree of happiness we must remember that in whatsoever condition Providence hath placed us we are not for our selves but for the publick and that we must not love our selves to the prejudice of our Soveraign We are in nature a portion of the Universe in civil life a part of the State in Religion we are the Members of Jesus Christ. In all these conditions self-love must be sacrificed to universal love In nature we must die to give place to those that follow us In the State we must contribute our goods and our bloud for the defence of our Prince and in Religion we must kill the old Adam that Jesus Christ may live in us The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good Vse of Love MOrality considers not so much the goodness of things as the good use of them she neglects natural perfections and puts a valuation only upon their rational employment Metals are indifferent to her nor doth she consider them otherwise than earth whose colour the Sun hath changed But she blames the abuse and commends the good husbanding thereof she is troubled when wicked men abuse them to oppress the innocent to corrupt Judges to violate the Laws and to seduce Women She is well pleased when good men make use thereof to nourish the poor cloath the naked to set Captives at liberty and to succour the miserable There is nothing more glorious than the vivacity wherewithal Nature hath endued men nobly endued 'T is the key which opens unto them the Treasury of Science be it either to acquire them or to distribute them to others 't is that which is acceptable to all companies and 't is a quality which is as soon beloved as seen Yet doth not Morality esteem it otherwise than as it is well husbanded and S. Augustine who acknowledged it for a Grace confesseth it hath been pernicious to him by reason of his ill employment thereof and because he had entertained it amongst his errors Love without all question is the holiest of all our Passions and the greatest advantage which we have received from Nature since by the means thereof we may fasten our selves to good things and make our souls perfect in the love thereof 'T is the spirit of Life the Cement of the whole world an innocent piece of art by which we change condition not changing Nature and we transform our selves into the party whom we love 'T is the truest and purest of all pleasures 't is a shadow of that happiness which the blessed
voluntarily condemned themselves to fearful punishments and who have esteemed all remedies pleasing which could cure so vexatious a malady Banishment is certainly one of the cruellest punishments which Justice hath invented to chastise the guilty it separates us from all we love and seems to be a long Death which leaves us a little life only to make us the more miserable Notwithstanding we have heard of a Mother who chose rather to suffer the rigor of this torment than the violence of Desire and who would accompany her son in his banishment that she might not be necessitated to lament his absence and wish for his return Thus Nature which saw that Desire was an affliction ordained Hope to sweeten it for whilst we are upon the earth we make no wishes whereof our mind doth not promise us the accomplishment these two motions of our soul are only divided in hell where divine Justice hath condemned her enemies to frame Desires void of hope and to languish after a happiness which can never befall them They long after the Summum bonum whatever hatred they conceived against that God which punisheth them they cease not notwithstanding to love him naturally and to wish they might enjoy him though they are not permitted to hope they shall This Desire is cause of all their sufferings and this languishment is a more insufferable torment than the scorching flames than the company of the Devils and than the eternity of their Prison could they be without Desire they should be without anguish and all those other pains which astonish vulgar souls would seem supportable to them were they not adjudged to wish a happiness which they cannot hope for But it is not in Hell only that this Passion is cruel she afflicteth all men upon earth and as she serveth divine Justice as a means wherewithal to punish the guilty she is serviceable unto mercy as an holy piece of cunning wherewithal to exercise the innocent for Gods goodness causeth them to consume in desires they are in a disquiet which cannot end but with their lives they strive to get free from their bodies they call in death into their succour and say with the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Justice employs Desires to revenge her self upon sinners and by a no less severe than rational guidance she gives them over to this Passion to torment them their desires tend only to afflict them and their soul frames unruly wishes which failing of effects leave them in a languishment which lasts as long as doth their life In fine Divinity knowing that this Passion is the cause of all our misfortunes hath thought that she could not describe Happiness better unto us than in teaching us it was the end of all Desires Philosophy would have said that it is the end of all our evils and the beginning of all our good that it makes us forget our miseries by the sweets of her delights but Divinity which very well knows that desires are the most violent punishments which we suffer here below is content to say that happiness was the period thereof that when we should begin to be happy we should cease to wish we must also confess that Desire fastens it self to all the other Passions of our soul and that it either furnisheth them with weapons wherewithal to fight or with strength to afflict us for those Passions which make most havock in our hearts would be either dead or languishing were they not animated with Desire Love is only cruel because it coveteth the presence of what it loveth Hatred gnaws not on our Bowels save only because it desireth revenge Ambition is only angersom because it aspires after Honour Avarice tortures the Avaritious only because it thirsts after riches and all Passions are only insupportable because they are accompanied by Desire which like a contagious Malady is shed abroad throughout all the affections of our Soul to make us miserable If it be thus cruel it is not much less shameful and we are obliged to confess that it is an evidence of our weakness and indigency for we never have recourse to wishes but when our power fails us our desires never do appear but when we cannot effect them they are marks of our impotency as well as of our love it teacheth Kings upon earth that their will exceeds their power and that they would do many things which they cannot I know that desires inheartens them to proud undertakings where difficulty is always mixt with glory I know they excite their courage and that they produce that general heat without which nothing of gallantry is either undertaken or effected but they likewise teach them that there is none but God alone who is able to do what he will that maketh not fruitless wishes and that it appertains to him to change when he pleaseth desires into effects he rather wills than wishes and doth rather resolve events than desire them but amongst Princes their impotency hinders oft-times the execution of their desires they are enforced to make Vows and to implore aid from Heaven when they fail of help on earth poor Alexander seeing his dear Ephestion die could not witness his love unto him but by his desires He who distributed the Crowns of Kings that he had conquered and who made Soveraigns Slaves could not restore health unto his Favourite the vows which he offered up to heaven for his amendment were as much evidences of his impotency as of his sorrow and taught the whole world that Princes wishes witness their weakness They are also publick marks in all men of hidden poverty for every soul that desires is necessitous the soul that desires forgoes her self to seek out in another what she finds missing in her she discovers her misery by making her desires known and teaches the whole world that the felicity which she possesseth is but in appearance since it satisfieth not all her desires Great Tertullian hath therefore worthily exprest the nature of this Passion when he says it is the glory of the thing desired and the shame of him that doth desire for a thing must be lovely to kindle our desires it must have charms which may draw us and perfections which may stay us but for certain likewise the will that doth desire must be indigent and must stand in need of somewhat which makes it seek out a remedy Desire then is the honour of beauty and the shame of the unchaste it is the glory of Riches and the Avaritious mans infamy the praise of dignity and the Ambitious mans blame and as oft as Princes are prone to this Passion it gives us to know that their fortune hath more of glittering in it than of real truth that she gives not all the contentments she promiseth since they are constrained to descend from their Thrones to quit their Palaces and by shameful prosecution to seek out a forreign good which they have
not in themselves The greatest praise which the Holy Scripture gives to God is that whereby they are taught that he is all-sufficient in himself and that possessing all things in the immensity of his Essence he is not tied to wish for any thing nor to forgo his repose to seek for contentment in his creatures the world contributes nothing to his greatness if the worlds place should be supplied by a vacuity and that there were no Angels nor men to know and love him his felicity would be no whit the less intire and all the praises which we now give him add nothing to his glory when we offer sacrifices unto him when we make the earth resound with the noise of his praises when we burn Incense upon his Altars and enrich his Temples with the spoyls of our Houses we are bound to protest that all our Presents are of no use to him that he obligeth us in accepting them and that we offer up nothing to his greatness which we have not received from his liberality Desire is then a mark of indigence and whatsoever creature wisheth declares its poverty But not to dishonour this Passion totally we must confess it is also a proof of our dignity for it extends it self to all things and pretends some right to whatsoever can enter into our imagination it seeketh out effects in the bosom of their Causes perswades it self it may aspire unto whatsoever may be conceived and that it may add unto the number of its riches all the goods which as yet it doth not possess it is humored with whatsoever is possible it is of so great a reach as it embraceth all that fortune promiseth and nothing hath at any time happened to the most fortunate men in the world which it thinks not it may with some sort of Justice expect A Father of the Church hath therefore said that the Apostles forgoing nothing had yet forgone very much since they had forgone their own desires and that despoyling themselves of a Passion which in their greatest poverty gave them a right to all riches they might boast to have forsaken all things for Jesus Christ for the heart of man hath an infinite capacity which can only be filled with the Summum bonum it is always empty till it possess him that made it whatever else of good makes it the more hungry and not being able to satisfie it they irritate the desires thereof but do not appease them hence it is that we cannot bound our desires but that the accomplishment of one begets another and that we run from one object to another to find him out of whom the rest are all but shadows Hence proceed all the unruly desires which gnaw upon the hearts of the greatest Monarchs hence did Alexander's ambition proceed who thought the earth too little and who was offended that his Conquests should be bounded by the limits of the world hence did Croesus his avarice derive who thought himself poor though he were the richest of all the Romans that he passed over hideous Desarts to war against a people whose riches were their sole fault These disorders have no other rise than the capacity of our heart the infinity of our desires which pursuing the good which solicits them and finding none that can satisfie them go always in search for new ones and never prescribes any bounds unto them for though our understandings be not sufficiently enlightned to know the supreme truth in all his extent and that our wills have not force enough to love the Summum bonum as much as he is lovely yet the one and the other of them cease not to have an infinite capacity which all the things of the earth cannot fill a natural truth how elevated soever it be serves but as a step to our understandings whereby to raise us up yet to an higher truth a created good how rare soever it be doth only enlarge our heart and dilate our will to make it capable of what is yet more excelent so do our desires perpetualy change objects they despise such as they formerly valued and advancing still forwards they become at last sensible that nothing can stop them but he that can satisfie them From these three proprieties which we have explained it is easie to observe the effects which our desires produce in us or forth of us for since they separate the soul from the body they cause all these extasies and ravishments which are attributed to the excess of Love since they arise from indigence they oblige us to demand and consequently render us importunate to our friends and since they suppose that our hearts are fathomless we must not wonder if they be not satisfied with all that can be granted them and if after having pursued after so many different objects they grow weary of pursuing and seek for their rest in the Summum bonum who is the end of all lawful desires The SECOND DISCOURSE Of the bad use of Desires THose who would take the people for Judges in this Affair would doubtlesly imagine that there is no more solid nor more harmless pleasure in the world than to see our desires changed into effects since it is the ordinary wish which our friends make for us and certainly if all their wishes were well regulated nothing would be more pleasing nor more useful to us than their accomplishment and we should have reason to think our selves happy if after a long pursuance we should at last accomplish them but as they are almost always unjust their success is oft-times prejudicial to us and for my part I am of Seneca's opinion and hold with him that the greatest part of our friends do innocently wish us ill and make vows in our behalf which are most pernicious to us than the imprecations of our enemies If we will be content we must pray to God that nothing may befall us that is wished unto us our very Parents contribute to our misfortune through an excess of affection and during our infancy they draw down the anger of heaven upon us by the unjustness of their desires so as we must not wonder if when we are further advanced in years so many misfortunes befall us since those that love us best have been the causers of it There are three causes for the irregularity of our desires the first is self-love which not being able to eface out of our Souls the inclination which we have to the Summum bonum doth turn it aside after such good things as are perishable and maketh them to be wish'd for with as much fervencie as if they were eternal for our heart longs always after God though the good desires thereof be weakned they are not quite stifled they betake themselves to what is good sin hath not been able to bereave them of an inclination which is natural unto them but Reason which ought to rule them being clouded with darkness they mistake and
tolerate it and by an unfortunate necessity we must give lodging to a guest we should not be able to love but Nature hath well provided for this and her providence which always watches over her children hath given us a Passion which eschews evil with as much impetuosity as desire seeks after good This keeps at distance from all that can hurt us and following the inclinations of hatred whereof she is either the Daughter or Slave she flies from all objects that displease her and fights to defend it self against her enemies 't is the first succour we have received against evils 't is the first violence the first salley which the concupiscible appetite makes to free us from them Though this Passion be almost alwayes blameless and that she cannot be made criminal but by surprizal yet ceaseth she not to have her ill use and to be every day employ'd against the design of Nature Those therefore that would make use of her are bound to consider whether that which they endevor to eschew be truly so or be but so in appearance and whether opinion which easily seizeth upon the understanding hath not perswaded them unto falshoods instead of truths For it is apparent that of two things that bear the name of evil in the world there is but one of them which may properly be said to deserve it Sin and Punishment are the two most ordinary objects of eschewing and most men do so confound them as we know not which of them is most odious Punishment being more sensible than Sin it is more carefully shunned and there are not many people who do not love rather to be faulty than unfortunate We shun the Plague and seek out sin we keep far from all infected places the bad air whereof may work an alteration in our health and we draw near to evil company which may rob us of our innocency Religion obligeth us not withstanding to believe that Punishments are the effects of Divine Justice that they have Beauties which though austere ought not to be the less pleasing that God honours himself by punishing of his enemies and that he finds as much satisfaction in chastening the guilty as in recompencing the just The greatest Saints have known that our punishments were favours which did no less contribute to the welfare of man than to the glory of his Creator they have confessed that we must adore the arm which hurts us love the wounds because of the arm that made them and teach all the world that Heavens Thunders are just since those who are therewith struck adore them but sin is a true evil which hath nothing in it which is not odious its object is a soveraign good which it offendeth and if in the behalf of the committer the malice thereof be bounded on his behalf against whom it is committed it is infinite Sin violates all the Laws of Nature dishonoureth men and Angels and all the evils which we suffer are the just punishments of its disorders 'T was then for this dreadful evil that we were endued with aversion and this aversion cannot be more justly employed than in keeping us far from a Monster the abode whereof will be hell and death the eternal punishment Next to sin nothing ought to be more carefully eschewed than those that do defend it and who to enlarge the Empire thereof endeavor to make it appear lovely and glorious As Nature is the pure workmanship of God she cannot tolerate sin and that she may banish it from the earth she hath laden it with confusion and fear it dares not appear in full day it hides it self in darkness and seeks out solitary places where it hath none but such as are complices with it for witnesses But its partakers raise it up upon a throne and play all their cunning to win it glory they cover it with the cloak of Virtue and if it hath any thing of affinity with its enemy they strive to make it pass for Virtue They change their names and by one and the same action committing two faults they bereave Virtue of her honour that they may give it to Sin they term Revenge greatness of Courage Ambition a generous Passion Uncleanness an innocent pleasure and consequently they term Humility lowness of Spirit the forgiving of injuries faint-heartedness and continency a savage humor They spread abroad these false maxims they turn evils into contagious diseases and their errors into heresies they seduce simple souls and presenting poyson in Chrystal vessels they make it be swallow'd down by innocent people Those who are most couragious have much ado to defend themselves from them the best wits suffer themselves to be perswaded by their lewd Reasons we are therefore bound to have recourse to the succour that Nature hath given us to excite this Passion which keeps us aloof from what is evil and furnisheth us with forces to fight against it But her chief employment ought to be against Incontinence and the Heavens seem to have given a being to Aversion only to rid our hands of an enemy which cannot be overcome but by Eschewing All Passions come in to the aid of Virtue when she undertakes a war against Vice Choler grows hot in her quarrel Audacity furnisheth her with weapons Hope promiseth her Victory and Joy which always follows generous actions serves instead of Recompense but when she is to set upon Incontinency she dares not employ all these faithful souldiers and knowing very well that the enemy she is to fight withal is as crafty as puissant she fears lest he may seduce them and by his cunning draw them over to his side In truth Choler agrees easily with Love and Lovers quarrels serve only to re-kindle their extinct flames Hope entertains their Affections and Joy oft-times takes its rise from their displeasures so as Virtue can only make use of Eschewing to defend her self and of so many Passions which assist her in her other designs she is only seconded by Eschewing in her combate against Impurity But she thinks her self strong enough if succour'd therewithal and there is no such charming Beauty no so strong inclination nor so dangerous occasion which she doth not promise her self to overcome provided she be accompanied by this faithful Passion She is the cause why Chastity reigns in the world 't is by reason of her wisdom that men do imitate Angels and triumph over evil spirits in the frailty of the flesh But the greatest miracle which she produceth is when being subservient to Charity she separateth us from our selves and when preventing the violence of death she divideth the soul from the body for man hath no greater enemy than himself he is the cause of all his own evils and Christian Religion agrees with the Sect of the Stoicks that man can receive no true displeasure save what he himself procures he is therefore bound to keep at distance from himself and to hold no commerce with his Body
after a defeat by the strength of hope they charge enemies that have beaten them and promise unto themselves that Fortune will grow weary of always favouring one side In fine there is no so unfortunate condition which receives not comfort from this Passion though she be a Cheater she will appear to be faithful and even in her lightness she gives proofs of her constancy for she accompanies her slave ev'n to death she follows Gally-slaves to the Gallies she enters Prison with the Prisoners she goes upon the Scaffold with the guilty and with what bad success soever she may have paid our desires no man can resolve to abandon her But as there is no advantage in the world which is not mingled with some defaults Hope wants not hers and if she flatter men by her sweetness she astonisheth them by the fear which accompanieth it For the good which she purchaseth is absent and difficult the absence thereof disquieteth her and the difficulty astonisheth her She knows very well that what she seeks after is doubtful her very name teacheth her that the event of her undertakings is uncertain and as oft as she considers the dangers that threaten her she grows pale as well as fear she seems to be of the humor of that great Commander who always trembled when he began to give battel as if he apprehended the hazards whereinto his courage was like to throw him she fears her own endeavour and her boldness is the chiefest cause of her fearfulness This Maxime is so true as that a certain Philosopher was of opinion that our apprehensions sprung from our hopes and that to cease to fear we must cease to hope for though these two Passions seem to have a contrariety and that the soul which hopeth is full of assurance yet doth the one of them arise from the other and notwithstanding their ill intelligence they go hand in hand and seldom part they march together as do the prisoners with their Guards who are fastned with the same Chain and almost brought to the same servitude But I wonder not that they have so much affinity since they relate so much one to another and that the one and the other of them is the Passion which holds a man in suspence whom the expectation of what is to come continually disquiets When she hath not this unhappiness and that the knowledge of her strength assures her of good success in what she takes in hand she falls into another extremity and furnisheth our enemies with means to surprize us for she is naturally inconsiderate whatever good advice be given her she hath an eye unto the good which attracts her and considers not the evil which environs her she throws her self indiscreetly into danger and guiding her self only by appearances which deceive her she engageth her liberty to satisfie her inclination Thus we see fishes swallow the hook because 't is covered with some bait thus we see wild beasts give against the toils thinking to find some prey there and Souldiers fall into an Ambush thinking to get some advantage So as Hope is a rash Counsellor which in the obscurity of what 's to come sees only false lights and discovers no apparent good save only to throw us into hidden and real evils Therefore do Polititians always distrust her advices and those great men who govern States do not easily believe a Passion which hath more heat than light and more courage than wisdom But say she should make good all that she promiseth us and that the good fortune which she makes us expect should not be mingled with any displeasure yet should we have reason to complain of her since that in feeding us with what is to come she makes us forget what is past and obligeth us to build our contentment on the the most uncertain part of our life Time which measureth all things hath three differences the Past the Present and the Future the Present is but punctum a point it runs away so fast as there is no staying of it we are tane in a Lie whensoever we speak of it it never understands the beginning and ending of the same discourse when we think to make use of it for a witness or to alledge it for an Example it escapes our hands we find it is no longer Present and that it is already Past. The Future succeeds it but it is so hidden as the wisest men of the world cannot discover the first moments thereof the darkness of it is so thick as that the light of wisdom cannot dissipate it the success of things are shut up in the Abyss thereof and one cannot come to the knowledge of them upon smaller terms than entring into eternity a man must be a Prophet to penetrate its secrets and all is there in respect of us so doubtful and so confused as the days which we destine for triumph are oft-times destin'd for our defeat and we reserve for our Pastime those which Heaven hath ordained for our punishment The time Past is no more it flies us and we flie it our wishes which have somewhat of claim to what is to come pretend none to this they cannot dispose of that which hath no further a being and that soveraign power which all things obey will undertake nothing upon this part of Time save when the said power will new-mould the world and drawing our bodies from out the dust will render unto the present that which the past had taken from it 'T is true our Memory hath some jurisdiction over it she makes use thereof for our comfort she calls back our good days past to recreate us by a harmless piece of art she makes present happiness of our past evils she raises our friends from their graves that we may entertain our selves with them she converseth with the dead without horror and maugre the necessary laws of Time she revives what is past and restores unto us all the contentments which Time hath bereft us of It is likewise that part of our life which Philosophers love best 't is that over which Fortune hath no more power and which cannot be incommodiated by Poverty tormented by Fear nor abused by Hope 'T is a sacred time which accidents dare not touch 't is a treasure which cannot be taken from us and Tyrants who have power over the remainder of our life have none at all over that which is past the Passion thereof is peaceful and let the Destinies do what they please they cannot rob us of a good which we enjoy only by remembrance yet Hope deprives us of these harmless riches and busying her self only about what is to come she hinders us from thinking upon what is past she makes us poor to enrich us she takes from us a certainty to feed us with uncertainty and by an unjust extremity she draws us out of a calm to engage us in a storm I confess that Wisdom and Religion have an eye to what
or after death spring up again But pleasures are sought for with pain and we are oft-times enforced to pay more for them than they are worth Sorrows are sometimes entirely pure and touch us to the quick as they make us incapable of consolation but pleasures are never without some mixture of Sorrow They are always dipt in bitterness and as we see no Roâ—es which are not environed with Prickles we taste no Delights which are not accompanied with Torments but that which makes the misery of our condition evidently appear is that we are much more sensible of Pain than of Pleasure for a slight Malady troubleth all our most solid contentments a Fever is able to make Conquerors forget their Victories and to blot out of their minds all the pomp of their Triumphs Yet is it the truest of all our Passions and if we believe Aristotle it makes the greatest alterations in our Souls the rest subsist only by our imagination and were it not for the intelligence we hold with this Faculty they would make no impression upon our Senses Desires and Hopes are but deceitful good things and he very well knew their nature who termed them the Dreams of Waking men Love and Hatred are the diversions of idle souls Fear is but a shadow and it is hard for the Effect to be true when the Cause is imaginary Boldness and Choler form Monsters to themselves that they may defeat them and we must not wonder if they so easily ingage themselves in the Combat since their enemies weakness assures them of the victory but grief is a real evil which sets upon the Soul and Body both at once and makes two wounds at one blow I know there are some sorrows that wound only the mind and exercise all their might upon the noblest part of man but if they be violent they work upon the body and by a secret contagion the pains of the Mistress become the diseases of the Slave the Chains that bind them together are so streight that all their good and bad estate is shared between them a contented Soul cures her body and a sick body afflicts its soul this noble Captive patiently endures all other incommodities which befall her and provided that her prison be exempted from pain she finds reasons enough to chear up her self with She despises the loss of Riches and bounding her Desires she finds contentment in Poverty she neglects Honour and knowing that it only depends upon Opinion she will not ground her happiness upon so frail a good she passeth by Pleasures and the shame which accompanies them lesseneth the sorrow which their loss brings her as she is not tied to these adventious goods she easily forgoes them and when Fortune hath robbed her of them she thinks her self more at Liberty and thinks her self not the poorer but when the body is assaulted and that it suffers either excessive heat or the injuries of the Season or the rage of Sickness she is constrained to sigh with it and the Cords which fasten them together make their miseries common she apprehends Death though she be Immortal she fears wounds though she be Invulnerable and she resents all the evils suffer'd by the prison which she gives life to though she be Spiritual The Stoicks Philosophy which valueth not a glorious enterprize unless it be impossible would have inderdicted the commerce between the Soul and the Body and in a strange madness hath endeavour'd to separate two parts whereof one and the same whole are compounded she forbad her Disciples the use of Tears and breaking the holiest of all Friendships she would have the Soul to be insensible of the Bodies sufferings and that whilst the Body was burning in the midst of flames the Soul should mount up to Heaven there to contemplate the Beauty of Virtue or the wonders of Nature This Barbarous Philosophy had some Admirers but she never had any true Disciples her Counsels made them despair all that would follow her Maxims suffer'd themselves to be miss-led by Vanity and could not fence themselves against Grief Since the Soul hath contracted so straight a society with the Body she must suffer with it and since she is shed abroad into all the parts thereof she must complain with the mouth weep with the eyes and sigh with the heart-Mercy was never forbidden but by tyrants and this Virtue will be praised as long as there be any that are miserable yet the evils which afflict her are strangers to her and those whom she assists are for the most part to her unknown wherefore then shall we blame the Soul if she have compassion on her own body Wherefore shall we accuse her of Abjectness if she share in the sorrows that assail it and which not being able to hurt her in her own substance set upon her in her Mansion-house and revenge themselves on her in that thing which of all the world she loves best For while she is in the body she seems to renounce her Nobility and that ceasing to be a pure spirit she interesses her self in all the Delights and all the Vexations of her Hoste his health causeth contentment in her and his sickness is grievous to her the most worthy part suffers in the less worthy and by a troublesom necessity the Soul is unhappy in the miseries of her body They say that Magick is so powerful that it hath found out a secret how to torment men in their absence and to make them feel in their own persons all the cruelties which she exerciseth upon their Images these miserable men burn with fire which toucheth nothing but their Picture they feel blows which they do not receive and the distance of place cannot free them from the fury of their enemies Love which is as powerful and not much less cruel than Magick doth this Miracle every day when it joyns two souls together it finds a way to make their sufferings common men cannot offend the one but the other resents it each of them suffers as well in the body which it loves as in that which it inanimates Since Love and Magick work these wonders we must not marvel if Nature having fastned the Soul to the Body do make the miseries common and if by one only wo she makes two Parties miserable the participation of each others Good and Bad is a consequence of their Marriage and the Heavens must do a miracle to give them a Dispensation from this necessity The joy of Martyrs was no meer effect of Reason when they tasted any pleasure amidst their Torments it must needs be Grace that sweetned the rigour thereof and he that in the fiery Furnace changed Flames into pleasing gales of Wind must have turned their Torments into Delights or if he did them not this favour he did them a greater and by making the Soul not sensible of the Bodies sufferings he taught the whole world that he was the Soveraign Lord of Nature
This mean while Leonidas seized upon the streights of Thermopilae and intrenching himself in those mountains resolved to give him battel with three hundred men as he should pass by Hope and Audacity enflamed the heart of this noble Captain and those two Passions enconraged him to an enterprize as difficult as glorious Hope laid before him the glory which he should receive in opposing the common enemy of Greece in preserving the liberties of his Countrey in saving the Temples from being burnt in defending Towns from being pillaged and in keeping the women from the insolence of a victorious Barbarian she forgot not to point out unto him all the honours which the Lacedemonians would give him the Statues which would be erected in memory of his name the praises which should be given him by all the people and the magnifique titles which Historians would give him in their Writings it may be she would flatter him with an impossible Victory and perswade him that a disorder falling out in an Army wherein were many men but few Souldiers he might easily defeat it But Courage fuller of Truth than Hope knew the greatness of the danger and not abusing this Commander laid open before his eyes that though his death were certain he was not to quit the passage which he had taken that there was no need of conquering but of dying and that he should do enough for the welfare of Greece if by losing his life he should make his enemies lose their resolution He gave belief to the advice of this generous Passion he resolved to stand the shock of an Army which he could not stay and invited his souldiers to fight and die at the same time By this example it is easie to judge that Hope considers only the good which doth solicite her and that Andacity respects only the evil that threatens her that the one entertains her self only with the glory which she promiseth to her self and that the other is only taken up with the danger which she withstands that the one feeds her self with an imaginary pleasure and that the other nourisheth her self with real pain 'T is true the latter finds her contentment in her duty and sings triumphantly in the midst of her defeat for though she bear not away the victory over the Persians in the person of Leonidas she carries it sheer away over the fear of death and she is sufficiently contented to have overcome the violentest of all her enemies she is not troubled for being beaten by men provided she may overcome Fortune and good success is to her indifferent so she may vanquish the apprehension of danger If it be permitted to add Fiction to History we shall see the divers motions of those two Passions in the person of Iason The purchase of the golden Fleece is the subject of his journey Hope makes him put to sea and promiseth him fair winds which shall fill his sails and bring him in despite of tempest to the Coast of Colchis she shews him how all Greece have their eys fixt upon him and that she hath no Commander who in this expedition will not fight under his Ensign that in so noble an enterprize profit is joyn'd to glory and that the recompense which he may expect is as rich as honorable but Audacity which cannot flatter lays before him Souldiers which he hath to overcome Monsters to tame and a Serpent which always waketh to surprize yet he accepts of all these conditions and undertakes to assail all these enemies upon confidence of his own forces he is not sure to overcome the Bulls and Serpents which he shall meet withal but he is very well assured to overcome Fear he knows that success depends upon Fortune but he knows also that Boldness depends only upon Courage it sufficeth him to set at naught all these Monsters which present themselves before him under such dreadful visages and without any further recompense thinks himself glorious enough if he can triumph over Fear By these two examples the advantages which Audacity hath over Hope are easily discerned but in their oppositions somewhat of resemblance may be found and the same Causes that make us hope for good seem to make us despise evil for youth which abounds in heat imagines nothing impossible because her vigour gives her assurance she easily engageth her self in difficult and glorious designs good success doth likewise feed this Passion and when Fortune smiles upon Commanders they do not greatly refuse to fight though their forces be inferiour to those of the enemy they perswade themselves that their very name is able to affright them and being accustomed to overcome they cannot fear a misfortune which hath not yet befallen them Power contributes no less than good success to make men bold for when a Prince commands over a great State when every Town furnisheth him with an Army when the Revenues are such as will afford him to entertain them divers years when his neighbours fear him and that he hath no more to do to make them his subjects but to march into the fields he shuns not the undertakings of any war nor ever despairs of Victory But of all things in the world nothing makes a man more bold than innocence for though the enemy that assails him be powerful and that the earth fight in favour of him he imagines that God ought to take his part and that he who protects the innocent being interessed in his Cause is bound to defend him so as he marcheth undauntedly amidst dangers dreads no ill success and expecting help from heaven promiseth unto himself assured Victory The one and the other of these Passions may be mistaken and as they become glorious Virtues when they are guided by Prudence they may degenerate into shameful vices when they suffer themselves to be governed by Indiscretion this is that we will examine in the ensuing Discourses The SECOND DISCOURSE Of the bad use of Audacity or Boldness AUdacity having no other guide than Hope we must not wonder if she undertake enemies which she cannot vanquish and if her desires have for the most part ill success 't is not likely that rash enterprizes should be fortunate and that actions which are not governed by Wisdom should be accompanied by good success Fortune grows weary offavouring the Audacious and having oft-times kept them out of danger wherein they had indiscreetly engaged themselves she forsakes them with some seeming Justice and punishes their Fool-hardiness to remedy the like in others All men are therefore bound to weigh well the Counsels which Hope giveth them and to consider their strength before they follow the motions of Audacity for though they be full of Gallantry and that most souldiers confound them with the motions of Valour they cease not notwithstanding to be fatal and to be dayly the cause of the loss of Armies and ruine of States But to find the Spring-head of this evil we must know that the Passions
reside in the inferior part of the Soul and cannot discourse they only consider their object and by a blind impetuosity they either draw near unto it or keep far from it they do not mark so much as the Circumstances which accompany it and not comparing the difficulties with their strengths they engage themselves indiscreetly in a war or shamefully run away their judgment is so ready as it is almost precipitate for after having listned to what the senses say they advise with their inclination and not expecting orders from Reason they bear away the whole man and enforce him to follow their motions Hence it comes that he oft-times repents him of his designs condemns what he formerly approved and cannot end what he had begun But of all Passions none is more unfortunate than Audacity for she betakes her self to powerful enemies and she grapples with Pain and Death Fighting is her ordinary exercise and she oft-times bathes her self in tears or bloud she is always encompassed with dangers and on what side soever she turns she sees nothing but ghastly images and fearful apparitions this mean while she borrows no aid nor takes no counsel save only of Hope and the same that hurries her into danger is she that counsels her she who sets her on work is she who puts weapons into her hands and who under vain promises engageth her in extream difficulties she also often sees the greatest part of her designs prove abortive and reaps nothing of all her useless endeavours but sorrow for having followed evil counsel oft-times she discourageth her self and seeing that her undertakings do exceed her strength she suffers her self to be astonished by Fear beat down by Despair and consumed by Sadness for these Passions do almost always succeed her and experience teacheth us that those who at the beginning of a fight have been more couragious than men have at the end thereof been found more fearful than Woman The fewel of Boldness soon takes fire but it is as soon extinguished and as the fury of waves turns into foam the violence of the Audacious turns into Fearfulness and for all the confidence they shewed in their designs all that remains unto them is Weaknesses as full of shame as of guilt 'T is true that Choler sometimes sides with Boldness and furnisheth it with new forces when the danger hath made it lose its own but this assistance is not always sure the souldier that engages himself in battel upon her weak succours is in as great danger of losing the victory as he who puts his hope in Despair and is no more assured of conquest than he that fights only because he cannot retire Desperate men have been seen to die with their weapons in their hands and if sometimes they have revenged their deaths they have not always preserv'd their lives Bold men have also often been seen who for being cholerick have not more luckily evaded the danger whereinto they had precipitated themselves Cholers forces are as well limited as are those of Boldness and unless the one and the otherâ— of them be guided by Prudence they oughtâ— not to expect any thing but dreadful consequences that which hath happened upon one occasion will not happen upon many others and the Heavens are not obliged to give the same success to all rash enterprizes Alexanders example ought not to serve for a rule to all Conquerors he lived not long enough to be certainly imitated the fortune which followed him in his youth would peradventure have forsaken him in his age his rashness would not always have been so fortunate and if he had begun his conquest in Europe he might not perhaps have carried them so far as Asia the birth of Rome would have staid the course of his victories and she that shut up Pyrrhus in his dominions would have driven him back into Macedonia For my part I am of Seneca's opinion believe that this Prince had more courage than wisdom and more rashness than courage in effect his fortune did oftner preserve him than his valour and if the Heavens had not made choice of him to punish the pride of the Persians he had been stopt in the first battel he would not take those advantages which the greatest Commanders do commonly make use of when their forces are not equal to those of their enemy he would not set upon Darius his army whilst favoured by the night but with a piece of rashness which deserved more blame than it hath received praises he would tarry till it were day and have thâ— Sun for witness of his victory he thoughâ— he should have stoln a victory if he shoulâ— have won it by night and though Parmenâ— advised him to prefer his Souldiers safetâ— before the glory of Arms he contemneâ— that advice and to shew that he owed aâ— his advantages to Fortune he rejected aâ— the Maxims of Prudence I do also firmlâ— believe that his confidence hath been thâ— undoing of as many Princes as have imitated him and that his guidance is more fatal to Conquerors than rocks and tempesâ— unto Mariners I know very well that Caesae adventur'd much and that he could not undertake the ruine of the Roman Common wealth without having conceived a greaâ— good opinion of his good Fortune whicâ— he was able to guide by Wrath and Virtue and we are bound to acknowledge that 〈◊〉 Victories were no less the workmanship oâ— his Wisdom than of his Fortune he sheweâ— no Audacity but upon such occasions wherâ— advice was useless and he boasted not oâ— his good Fortune but to conjure down thâ— tempests and put confidence in his Pilot Iâ— fine he made use of Hope in all his enterprizes he submitted it to Prudence and taught all Commanders that to be valiant a man must be more wise than rash The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Audacity or Boldness THough Passions be more faulty than iâ—â—ocent and that by reason of the irregularity of our nature they lean more to Vice than Virtue yet with a little help a man may make them virtuous their inclinations are good but their judgments precipitate they always seek for good and withstand evil but this is most commonly with a little too much ardency they imitate such Orators as defend a good Cause with bad Reasons or are like those unfortunate Innocents who when tortured and wanting perseverance confess faults which they never committed for in effect they become guilty through want of Patience and grow vicious by not being able to endure the absence of Good nor presence of Evil. Did not Hope pursue Honours which she cannot compass never would she bring the Ambitious to Despair and did not Boldness engage her self to fight against mischiefs which she cannoâ— overcome she would never be accused oâ— Rashness but the fault is not without remedy for if she will listen to Reason iâ— after having calmed the fury of her first motion she will suffer her self to be