Husband is not always in safety in the embraces of his Wife the excess of his loâ—e may render him criminal and it matters little that Marriage authorizes his Liberty since that Intemperence may make him impudent he ought to love her but not to be her Idolater it is fit his approaches be as respectful as they are free and that he pursues in his entertainments the Rules of Moderation and not the motions of Lust and Concupiscence He runs the risque of wounding his Conscience when he is immoderate in his Pleasures and of losing the name of a Husband and taking up that of an Adulterer Shame is neâ—ver seperable from Moderation 't is her Defence as well as her Friend and she is easily turn'd into Stupidity or Impudence when she is depriv'd of her Succour A Civil Behavior makes up a great part of her Glory it inspires in her an Aversion to every thing that offends it and does not suffer her Lovers such pleasures as may oblige them to Repentance So that we must be afraid of Infamy if we would be Temperate and have an horror to do any thing in secret which would shock our Modesty and orderly Deportment As Temperance imitates Prudence in her conduct showing us the good things we ought to choose and the evil things it would become us to avoid She would have our Resolutions firm and not to make any Proposals to our selves but such as we fully purpose to accomplish Many have ingag'd themselves in shameful Pleasures because they flatter their Designs and have made them Unchaste by being desirous to combat with Volupty They have submitted to that they thought to conquer and not fore-seeing the Mischiefs that might befal them they have made of their pretended Slaves their true Lords and Masters Distempers are for the most part the fruits of this Imprudence 't is that which fils Hospitals and discovers there so many reprâ—achful Martyrs and which obliges all Men to detest their viâ—es and have a horror for their Persons Reason is the Directress of Pleasure we must follow her rules to injoy it without Regret and look upon as unlawful for us whatever she condemns or disapproves The privation of Pleasure is often advantagious to us and as there are but few reasonable ones we daiâ—y find great satisfaction in conquering and subduing them From all this Discourse it is easy to conclude that we love Temperance not because she is Austere and in perpetual war with Pleasure but because she is the Tutress of Prudence that cuts off those pleasures that are either Superfluous or Criminal and instructing us how to stand out against them she makes our joyful satisfaction arise from our victory The Second Discourse That Sobriety maintains the health of the Body with Pleasure IF Eating to Excess be not the greatest of Vices it is the most Infamous and Shameful it brings Man to become Bestial it takes away Liberty after it has rob'd him of his Reason and some have justly questioned if that person still deserv'd to bear the name of a Man who has taken upon himself the qualities of Irrational Animals For as he is always bowing down towards the Earth he has no other thoughts but for things below his Belly is the Divinity he â—everes and he counts nothing deserves his diligent search but what will glut and satisfy his sordid desires But that which contents him dishonors him also the excess of his Eating and Drinking renders him Stupid and blinding his Reason equals his condition to that of loathsom Beasts Though these Reproaches are Shameful he nevertheless would have them True and that Man should be more irregular in his Inclinations then the bruit Beasts in their Appetites Those eat not but when they are oppress'd by Hunger nor do they drink but when Heat has caus'd a Drowth in their bodies and all Objects become indifferent to them when they cease to provoke their desires But Man is an unsatiable Monster he is never wearied but perpetually Cramming he is still calling for his Viands though he is but just before sated with them and the Wine he is continually swilling himself with does not so much serve to content his Passion as to sharpen it An Acre of Land is sufficient to nourish many Oxen and those Beasts that are eating most part of the day can find enough in one Field of a small compass to sustain their lives One Wood keeps many Elephants and those heavy lumps of Flesh that have so vast a paunch meet there with Food enough to fill them up But nothing is capable to satisfy Man's Hungry appetite after he has depopulated the Earth forc'd its entrails to afford him Viands and turn'd its Excrements into Nurture he is presently for the Sea penetrates into the Abysms of it and spares nothing of all that Nature has there hid to satisfy and appease his insatiable Gluttony Temperance which Glories in attacquing this Monster instructs us to reform these disorders and not to extend our desires beyond things necessary She would have Nature be our Mistriss in the management of our lives not to set about any thing that she disapproves but let her Conduct be our Instruction and as she rejects those services of Meats that are superfluous we should be contented with her Provision for us She condemns Debauches for they destroy the Health change the Temper and Constitution of the Body and cause disorders in all its parts Impudicity is a thing annexed to this immoderate Feeding those two Vices are never seperated and it is almost a Prodigy to see a Man chaste that is a lover of Good-Cheer Diseases proceed from the inordinacy of Feeding the crudities of the Stomach the pains of the Head and the dizziness of the Brain would be unknown in the world if Feasts and Banquets were not the unhappy causes of them On the contrary Sobriety smothers these Vices in the Cradle it prevents their disorders and is equally the defence of Chastity and the companion of an honest and vertuous Life It keeps the Body in health maintains a good Intelligence between its Members and according to its humors it makes its Passions become obedient and orderly Maladies have only respect to those that live not according to its Rules Grief and Pain is the partage of those that are Intemperate and when Infirmities weaken Man's Body the Gout torturing his Nerves the Feaver filling his Veins with burning fire the Chollick tormenting his Bowels we may justly say that he himself is the cause of all these Evils or that he does derive them from his Ancestors Wine is a gift from Heaven as well as a present from Earth the Poets make it the Parent of Pleasure the enemy of Sadness and an innocent Magician that enlightning their minds serves them as a Guide to discover the Wonders of Nature It s Heat contributes to the conserving of our Health its Spirits animate and enliven our Bodies and moderating the qualities of those Elements of
THE DIVINE EPICURUS OR The Empire of PLEASURE OVER THE VERTUES COMPOS'D By that Most Renown'd PHILOSOPHER Mr. A. Le GRAND AND Rendred into English by Edward Cooke Esq 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrates in Nicocle LONDON Printed by H. Bruges for M. Widdows at the Green-Dragon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1676. Licensed November the 29th 1675. ROGER L'ESTRANGE TO ROBERT COKE OF NORFOLK Esq A Member â—o the Honorable House of COMMONS SIR BEing sensible how prevalent the Censures of Envy and ill Nature are almost over every thing that once becomes publique I thought it my prudent'st Course before hand to provide my self such a shelter as might if not wholly keep off the effects of their Malice at least render them little prejudicial to me Immediately therefore I was carried away by a force of Nature impossible to be resisted to beg leave that I might have your Protection for my Sanctuary being very well assured your Name is Amulet enough against all the despiteful outrages of perverse dispositions And indeed to whom could I with more reason Dedicate a Book composed by that Famous Philosopher Mr. Anthony Le Grand and consequently of a most Elevated dignity then to your self who not only most delights in the vertues of it but at large possesses them Persons of your Quality Sir can very seldome fix their vertue and make it regular the impetuous tumults of a giddy world are so violent upon their sences that they are quickly Hurrican'd out of course by them but the Debauches of an Impious and degenerate Age have no inâ—luence upon your steddy mind You injoy an undisturbed composure notwithstanding all the Attacques of others to divert the Channel and are not like those bodies whose Complexions follow the nature of their Climates for you live in the continual exercise of vertuous Actions amidst those who make it the chiefest of their practise to stifle and oppress them As Heaven has been very prodigal of its bounties to You it has likewise instructed You how to injoy them and You do it in so noble generous and exalted a manner that all Mankind who have heard of Your fame are forced to acknowledge You best deserve them and instead of envying your affluence they have more reason to wish that You may dayly meet with new Accessions Your Greatness has not the power to make You superciliously haughty you receive all addresses with such a familiarity and easiness of Nature that plainly shews 't is Vertue only magnifies you and the qualities you have made natural to you are so excelling that as evil men can find nothing in them to maligne so good men cannot see any thing but what they admire and doate upon Let me then in all humility implore your Patronage of what is so much your own ther 's none will doubt the value of any thing which shall have the happiness of pleasing You and in it I shall not only have my greatest security but shall find also my extreamest Obligations to be all my life SIR Your most Devoted most Humble and most Obedient Servant EDWARD COOKE THE DIVINE EPICURUS Or the Empire of PLEASURE Over the VERTUES The first Treatise of Pleasure The first discourse The Opinion of Epicurus concerning PLEASURE PEace when considered as the Reward of Warr which returns with Uâ—ury the pains and toyl of Conquerors is the desire of all Soverains even the most Barbarous as well as Civilized people give honour to her and none will refuse her Entertainment in their Kingdomes but who are reputed Salvage yea the very Antipodes and opposites of Nature No Nation whatsoever will proclaim a Warr but they propose her to themselves before any Ingagement with their Enemies whose promising results are so large and considerable that they never scruple the hazarding whole States and Kingdomes for her acquest 'T is true there is no affinity betwixt a quiet Repose and a troublesome and bloody Battle nor is it imaginable that a Man should have thoughts of Peace at the very time he is Sacking of Towns dispeopling Provinces committing Murders and laying all places in Ruine and Desolation through which he passes Yet is this the language of all Soverains who say they never begin a Warr but upon the presumption and hopes of Peace nor do they ever labour the subduction of their Enemies but that their first amity and alliance may be more strongly renewed What Peace is in the Politique that is Voluptie or Pleasure in the moral she is the end of all humane actions and when Philosophers do ingage against Vice making use of Virtue to combat with it they propose not to themselves any other happiness then its Enjoyment they account the difficulties of Vertue delightful because of the pleasure she promises to them the hopes of which cause all their resolutions and fidelity and questionlâ—ss they would be disengaged from the cares and troubles of being possest with her were they not transported with her charms and delicacies Epicurus who has openly declared himself as well the defender as lover of Pleasure never had a thought to be injurious unto Virtue when he presented her with it for a companion or a Mrs. For as he observed all our Actions inclined to Pleasure that we had a natural aversion to grief and vexation that the former concluded our desires the latter opposed them he was persuaded that Pleasure was our cheif felicity that we might enjoy it in Nature and that it was an Innocent aspiring to the condition of the gods to share with them in a quality which made them happy His Enemies who either have not had a right conception of his thoughts or have dissembled and put a false gloss upon his designs on purpose to serve for an occasion to oppose them have imagined that he has sided with the Body against the Mind that he has established his felicity in the sence and as if he had rejected the Immortality of the Soul he had jumbled together in a mixt confusion the pleasures of mankind with those of the most infamous beasts From which surmise have proceeded so many bitter invectives against Voluptie that even all their writings are stuff'd with his disorders and that calling of it sometimes the pest of Mankind anon the destroyer and Enemy of Reason they have caused the greatest part of the Philosophers to have a nauseating and horrour for it I acknowledge that that which only respects the body and concludes all its dominion in the sence is dangerous unto Man often debauching his Reason abating his Courage darkning his Judgement and making Virtue to be of no value in his breast when that before hand is possest of the chair If some Philosophers may be credited it is the cause of all disorders in the world and is no less the destruction of whole Estates then it is the Ruin of particular Families 'T is she has so often mingled the poyson with the drink made Subjects Rebels caused Soldiers to keep secret
Vexations they insensibly conduct us to Despair Envy makes us Miserable it gives us our punishment in the prosperity of our Neighbor and by an ingenious Tyranny it makes the cause of our Grief to proceed from the occasion of his Love But of all the motions of our Soul none is more cruel then Revenge it is an Aspick that gnaâ—s our Heart a Fury that bewitches our Spirit and that makes us taste the greatest part of the Poyson we prepare for our Enemies Joy steals softly into our Souls and we think our selves happy when it arrests the violence of our Desires Hope entertains us not but with good things to come and it leaves off Solliciting us to their pursuit when they cease to be further useful or agreeable to us Jealousy and Grief have Charms to draw us if they afflict us they likewise comfort us and know so well how to flatter our Inclinations that we become their Slaves with Pleasure and Contentment But Revenge is always Fell and Cruel it gets possession of our Soul with Violence nor stays it there but with Dispite and Spleen and animated with the Fire that consumes it it thinks of nothing but Murders and Homicides The vertue that keeps Passions from taking root and that represses these indiscrâ—et Sallies which transform themselves so oft into Vices arrests the fury of Vengeance and equally condemns its Insolence and Baseness It teaches us that Offences are but imaginary and we must be very Weak or Proud to be sensible of the Outrages of Impious Persons and though Injuries should be done us and the authors of them should be our professed Enemies yet should we be obliged not to hate them but to stifle in us all thoughts of Revenge Generoâ—ity invites us to Pardon it is a mark of Courage to forget Outrages and to do Voluntarily and out of Kindness what Soveraigns often do by Constraint and Compulsion They never punish an Affront done against their proper Persons without Infamy the Judgment they give upon it dishonors their Puissance and they lose the name of Judges to take that of Culpable when they discend from their Grandeur to revenge themselves of particular Injuries If they are Generous they love their Enemies their Vertue makes them respected and with out any difficulty do they raise them up to publick Charges and Employs after they have treated them like Rebels They judg of their Fidelity by what they have testified to their Adversaries and turning their aversion into Love they recompence their Rebellion and their Infidelity Porus had not obtain'd Alexander's Friendship but by this way and he had not seen his Empire enlarg'd but because he had before opposed his Victory This Conqueror let himself be wholly vanquish'd by his Valour he loâ—'d a Man that had indeavor'd what he could to destroy him and following the motions of his Generosiâ—y he made his Favourite of the most Opiniastre of his Enemies This action we admire in this Conqueror and which has procur'd him so many Elogies in History ought to be the common practice of Christians they should cherish those that persecute them and look upon with the same Eye both Favors and Outrages and deceiving the Sentiments of Nature make the object of their Hatred the subject of their Love The Gospel subsists but by the observance of this Maxim we must forgive to be imitators of the Son of God and do good to his Calumniators if we would hope to have a part in his Glory Faith is unprofitable to us without this Perfection its light serves but for our ruin and if not animated with Charity it is not so much our Guide as our Condemnation But though the Gospel should be unknown in the World and that this God-man who came into it to establish Peace should not have commanded us this Vertue Nature ought to make it familiar to us and to learn us that Revenge is nothing else but the vice of the Cyclops and Charybdes Man naturally is an Enemy to Cruelty he cannot enter into Choller and Rage without doing himself a Violence and he degenerates into Bestial and takes upon him those qualities every time he breaks forth into fury against his Neighbor There is glory in pardoning an Offence when it is Weakness and Cowardize to revenge it This ambition is Commendable and that person may boast that he is above his Enemies who despises their injuries It is true this Perfection is not much relieved and there wants but a mean Vertue to receive with indifference an Outrage coming from the mouth or hand of a Wicked Person But Generosity goes further it would have us do good to those that have hurt us to oblige them to Repentance by our favors and kindness and to make their Malice be the rule of our Liberality Man ought to be a friend to Clemency and to persuade himself that he labors his Happyness when he remits an injury that Pleasure is fix'd to vertuous actions and that none is more solid then that he derives from the love of his Enemies That wise King who is so celebrated in the Scripture for having triumph'd over his Passions and taught Moderation to His Subjects by His own Example was of this opinion when he recommended the life of Ab alom to His Soldiers and forbad them to touch his Person in their re-encounters or in the Battle This Insolent Son after he had abus'd his Power embrued his hands in the blood of his Brother Amnon forced the Pallace Royal and obliged his Father to a shameful flight had yet so much Temerity as to have designs upon his life and to meditate a Parricide to set the Crown upon his own head And yet David did command Joab the Leader of his Army to spare him to have a care of his Life and to put him safe again into his Arms. He had learnt the great Advantage there was to be conquer'd by Mildness that Revenge is always infamous and one cannot be cruel to his enemy without offending his Conscience or Reputation Nature does not oppose this Sentiment but in the minds of those that are weak and cowardly and notwithstanding some difficulties that may be met with they are easy to be overcome by those who are lovers of Vertue and who have prov'd its force and power The Fourth TREATISE OF FORCE The First Discourse Of the Nature of Force IF nothing in the World is more Bloody and Cruel then Victory there is not any thing more Splendid and Glorious All Orators are busied in making its Panegyrick and those persons that are so lavish in their Praises would be very barren and narrow in their Expressions if they had no Battles to relate of no Overthrows to describe nor Triumphs to proclaim Conquerors look upon it as the fruit of their Travels they speak of it as the Master-piece of their Courage and of a good they bring clear away from their Enemies through their Prudence and Conduct Polititians consider it as the