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
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
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
liberty that is in love with Servitude and must hate her self to be willing to be put into the Puissance and governance of another Though the Husband take on him the Grandeur of a Soveraign yet is he not in a more happy condition then his Wife if he sets her Laws he is often constrainâ—d to receive some too and if he lays Commands upon her he is forc'd to be subject to her humors if he would have them fulfilled Pride is natural to that Sex and cannot be suppress'd but by Violence he must either become her Slave or her Tyrant to render her obedient Though her perfections are charming yet to be constantly possest with them they become unattractive and cease to be pleasing when the Man must be forc'd to have no other Entertainment Whatever Beauty he brings into his house he quickly spies some blemish in it her Brisk and Airy humors proves troublesom and he very indifferently looks upon her who before was the object of his felicity Marriage is like old Age all wish to arrive â—o it and as they think that Wisdom is a Label fixt to the number of years so they reckon that Pleasure is the Heritage of Married persons But scarce have they committed Matrimony e'r they condemn their Vows and are mad almost to see them change into Effects and desire to be delivered from a society which is as disadvantagious to them as it is importune and troublesom Now Continence happily frees both Persons from these Miseries and leaving them in a natural condition she assures them against all things that may prejudice their Liberty or Repose It discharges them from the concerned Care of bringing up Children of providing Masters to instruct them of finding them Callings according to their humors and of keeping them in respect after they have left them to themselves None doubts the Pleasure there is in being deprived from so many Disquiets and that a Man may count himself happy who has no Wife to please no Children to bring up nor Family to take care for Some persons have thought that Viduity was a Martyr that the pleasure which preceded it was its torment and it was difficult to abstain from a Delight to which one was accustomed without a great Affliction That a Woman might pass for a Prodigy that is Chaste after Marriage who circumscribes her Affection to the Tomb of her Husband and yields not her self up to the prevalency of her frailty all the while that the blood runs warm in her Veins and her age authorizes a second Alliance In short it seems that Nature is her Tyrant the pleasure she has tasted becomes her Enemy her inclinations exercise the office of Executioners and her most agreeable motions conspire to be her Torment But the reasons that are brought to forbid a second Marriage are but little better then insignificant and Non-sence to give Epicurus satisfaction This Philosopher condemns it in all his Writings and though he believes it may be permitted yet he neither judges it honest or reasonable He can never persuade himself that a Woman had any Affections for her former Husband who ingages her self to another and he accounts her Infamous every time that she proves unfaithful to him He instances to us in beathenish Women who have preferr'd Death to the bonds of Marriage and chosen rather to burn in the Fire then to lose their Liberty a second time 'T is to be ignorant of the miseries of her first condition to aspire at the same again and to be insensible she has ever been unhappy to entertain the Addresses of her new Votaries after she has once been reâ—eased from the grievances of Marriage But peradventure her first Affections have been very Fortunate and she found in the person of her Husband rather an Amorous Gaâ—lant then a Domiâ—eering Master Who then can assure her that he who shall succeed him will have the same passion for her Since that which ought to feed it will be dying dayly her Charms will diminish her Beauty languish and all the Pains she can possibly be at to conserve it have not power enough to keep her from growing Old A Husband looks not upon another's leavings but with Disgust and he without any Regret can see that Face decay of which he has not cropt the Flower If her Marriage has been Unfortunate dares she venture her Person a second time and run the risque of being miserable all the days of her life Surely she must have lost her Sences that is in love with Slavery and purchase the pleasure of a Beast at the expence of her Liberty If Heav'n has given her Children let it be all her care to bring them up and be afraid always to give them an Enemy instead of a cherishing and tender Father and to make a Tyrant succeed her and their lawful Soveraign Let her reckon that those she will have by a second Husband will be continually making a division in her house the former will be still an Eye-sore to them and she 'll often be oblig'd to hate them for fear of being suspected that she has yet a kindness for the Father of them How happy then is the Coelibate Life if compared to Marriage and how redevable are those persons to the goodness of Heaven who are exempt from those Frailties which ingage even the greatest part of Mankind to it For if Virginity be a Grace Continence is a Vertue it is an aspiring to that Sanctity that preferrs the Spirit to the Flesh and to conteâ—n the Inhabitants of the Earth to pursue the intelligences which the Heaâ—'ns are imploy'd in This happiness did seem so considerable in past Ages that Women were seen to defend it at the perill of their Lives who haâ—e been less afraid of the company of Executioners then of that of their Lovers and who have chosen a shameful death rather then fall into their Embraces Marriage is the partage of those who are either Incontinent or Slaves and that person must needs lose his Liberty or his Reason who will ingage himself to it without an unavoidable Necessity The Fourth Discourse That there is a great Glory and Satisfaction in forgiving Injuries VVHat high Opinion soever I have conceived of the Doctrine of Aristotle and what Esteem soever I make of the Judgment of his Disciples I cannot yet be persuaded that the Passions can be profitable to Man and that those which so often make Revolts against Reason can favor the party and side of Vertue For as they have no other guide then Opinion they easily slip into Disorders and following the Counsels of this Fantastical and Hair-brain'd Mistress they almost continually ingage those whom they possess into dangerous Extremities Love even brings us to become Foolish it seduces our Judgment after it has abused our Credulity and overturning the order of Nature it submits us to a Sex that is inferior to us Griefs are the abaters of our Courage and Exasperating the causes of our