bodie to move who calleth it Entelechy or perfection mooving of it selfe as cold an invention as any other for he neither speaketh of the essence nor of the beginning nor of the soules nature but onely noteth the effects of it Lactantius Seneca and the better part amongst the Dogmatists have confessed they never vnderstood what it was And after all this rable of opinions Harum sententiarum quae vera sit Deus aliquis viderit Which of these opinions is true let some God looke vnto it saith Cicero I know by my selfe quoth Saint Bernard how God is incomprehensible since I am not able to comprehend the parts of mine owne being Heraclitus who held that every place was full of Soules and Daemons maintained neverthelesse that a man could never goe so far towards the knowledge of the soule as that he could come vnto it so deep and mysterious was hir essence There is no lesse dissention nor disputing about the place where she should be seated Hypocrates and Herophilus place it in the ventricle of the braine Democritus and Aristotle through all the bodie Vt bonasaepe valetudo cùm dicitur esse Corporis non est tamen haec pars vlla valentis As health is of the bodie said to be Yet is no part of him in health we see Epicurus in the stomacke Haec exultat enim pavor ac met us haec loca circùm Laetitiae mulcent For in these places feare doth domineere And neere these places joy keepes merrie cheere The Stoickes within and about the heart Erasistratus joyning the membrane of the Epicranium Empedocles in the bloud as also Moisâ—s which was the cause he forbad the eating of beasts bloud vnto which their soule is commixed Galen thought that every part of the bodie had his soule Sâ—rato hath placed it betweene the two vpper eye-lids Qua facie quidem sit animus aut vbi habitet nec quaerendum quidem est We must not so much as enquire what face the minâ—e beares or where it dwels Saith Cicero I am well pleased to let this man vse his owne words For why should I alter the speech of eloquence it selfe since there is small gaine in stealing matter from his inventions They are both little vsed not verie forcible and little vnknowne But the reason why Chrysippus and those of his Sect will proove the soule to be about the heart is not to be forgotten It is saith he because when we will affirme or sweare any thing we lay our hand vpon the stomacke And when we will pronounce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth my selfe we put downe our chin toward the stomacke This passage ought not to be past-over without noting the vanitie of so great a personage For besides that his considerations are of themselves verie slight the latter prooveth but to the Graecians that they have their soule in that place No humane iudgement is so vigilant or Argos-eied but sometimes shall fall a sleep or sâ—umber What shall we feare to say Behold the Stoickes fathers of humane wisedome who devise that the soule of man overwhelmed with any ruine laboureth and panteth a long time to get out vnable to free hirselfe from that charge even as a Mouse taken in a trap Some are of opinion that the world was made to give a bodie in lieu of punishment vnto the spirits which through their fault were fallen from the puritie wherin they were created The first creation having been incorporeall And that according as they have more or lesse remooved themselves from their spiritualtie so are they more or lesse merilie and Giovially or rudely Saturnally incorporated Whence proceedeth the infinite varietie of so much matter created But the spirit who for his chastizement was invested with the bodie of the Sunne must of necessitie have a verie rare and particular measure of alteration The extreamities of our curious search turne to a glimmering and all to a dazeling As Plutarke saith of the off-spring of Histories that after the manner of Cardes or Maps the vtmost limits of knowne Countries are set downe to be full of thicke marrish grounds stadie forrests desert and vncouth places See heer wherefore the grosest and most Childish dotings are more commonly found in these which treat of highest and furthest matters even confounding overwhelming themselves in their owne curiositie presumption The end and beginning of learning are equally accompted foolish Marke but how Plato takethand raiseth his flight aloft in his Poeticall clouds or cloudie Poesies Behold read in him the gibbrish of the Gods But what dream'd or doted he on when he defined man to be a creature with two feet and without feathers giving them that were disposed to mocke at him a pleasant and scopefull occasion to doe-it For having plucked-off the feathers of a live capon they named him the man of Plato And by what simplicitie did the Epicureans first imagine that the Atomes or Motes which they termed to be bodies having some weight and a naturall mooving downward had framed the world vntill such time as they were advised by their adversaries that by this description it was not possible they should joyne and take hold one of another their fall being so downe-right and perpendicular and every way engendring Parallell lines And therefore was it necessarie they should afterward adde a casuall moving sideling vnto them And moreover to give their Atomes crooked and forked tailes that so they might take hold of any thing and claspe themselves And even then those that pursue them with this other consideration do they not much trouble them If Atomes have by chance formed so many sorts of figures why did they never meet together to frame a house or make a shooe Why should we not likewise believe that an infinit number of greek Letters confusedly scattred in some open place might one day meet and joine together to the contexture of th'Iliads That which is capable of reason saith Zeno is better than that which is not There is nothing better then the world then the world is capable of reason By the same arguing Cotta maketh the world a Mathematician and by this other arguing of Zeno he makes him a Musition and an Organist The whole is more than the part We are capable of Wisedome and we are part of the World Then the World is wise There are infinit like examples seen not only of false but foolish arguments which cannot hold which accuse their authors not so much of ignorance as of folly in the reproches that Philosophers charge one another with about the disagreeings in their opinions and Sects He that should fardle-vp a bundle or huddle of the fooleries of mans wisedome might recount wonders I willingly assemble some as a shew or patterne by some meanes or byase no lesse profitable then the most moderate instructions Let vs by that judge what we are to esteeme of man of his sense and of his reason since in
courtesie O servile custome and importunate manner there every man demeaneth himselfe as hee pleaseth and entertaineth what his thoughts affect whereas I keepe my selfe silent meditating and close without offence to my guests or friends The men whose familiaritie and societie I hunt after are those which are called honest vertuous and sufficient the image of whom doth distaste and divert mee from others It is being rightly taken the rarest of our formes and a forme or fashion chiefly due vnto nature The end or scope of this commerce is principally and simply familiarity conference and frequentation the exercise of mindes without other fruite In our discourses all subiects are alike to mee I care not though they want either waight or depth grace and pertmency are never wanting all therein is tainted with a ripe and constant iudgement and commixt with goodnesse liberty cheerefulnesse and kindnesse It is not onely in the subiect of Lawes and affaires of Princes that our spirit sheweth it's beautie grace and vigor It sheweth them as much in priuate conferences I know my people by their very silence and smyling and peraduenture discover them better at a Table then sitting in serious counsell Hippomacus said hee discerned good Wrestlers but by seeing them march through a Street If learning vouchsafe to step into our talke shee shall not be refused yet must not shee be sterne mastring imperious and importunate as commonly shee is but assistant and docile of hirselfe Therein wee seeke for nothing but recreation and pastime when we shall looke to be instructed taught and resolved we will goe seeke and sue to hir in hir Throne Let hir if shee please keepe from vs at that time for as commodious and pleasing as shee is I presume that for a neede wee could spare hir presence and doe our businesse well-enough without hir Wits well borne soundly bred and exercised in the practise and commerce of men become gracious and plausible of themselves Arte is but the Checke-roule and Register of the Productions vttered and conceites produced by them The company of faire and society of honest women is likewise a sweet commerce for me Namâ—â—s quoque oculos cruditos habemus for wee also have learned eyes If the minde have not so much to solace hir-selfe as in the former the corporall sences whose part is more in the second bring it to a proportion neere vnto the other although in mine opinion not equall But it is a society wherein it behooveth a man somewhat to stand vpon his guard and especially those that are of a strong constitution and whose body can doe much as in mee In my youth I heated my selfe therein and was very violent and endured all the rages and furious assaults which Poets say happen to those who without order or discretion abandon themselves over-loosly and riotously vnto it True it is indeed that the same lash hath since stood me instead of an instruction Quicunque Argolica de classe Capharea fugit Semper ab Euboicis vela retorquet aquis Greeke Sailers that Capharean Rockes did fly From the Euboean Seas their sailes still ply It is folly to fasten all ones thoughts vpon it and with a furious and indiscreet affection to engage himselfe vnto it But on the otherside to meddle with it without loue or bond of affection as Comediants doe to play a common part of age and manners without ought of their owne but bare-conned words is verily a prouision for ones safety and yet but a cowardly one as is that of him who would forgoe his honour his profit or his pleasure for feare of danger for it is certaine that the practisers of such courses cannot hope for any fruite able to moove or satisfie a worthy minde One must very earnestly have desired that whereof he would enioy an absolute delight I meane though fortune should vniustly fauour their intention which often hapneth because there is no woman how deformed and vnhandsome soever but thinkes hir-selfe louely amiable and praise-worthy either for hir age hir haire or gate for there are generally no more faire then foule ones And the Brachmanian maides wanting other commendations by Proclamation for that purpose made shew of their matrimoniall parts vnto the people assembled to see if thereby at least they might get them husbands By consequence there is not one of them but vpon the first oath one maketh to serve her will very easily bee perswaded to thinke well of her selfe Now this common treason and ordinary protestations of men in these daies must needes produce the effects experience already discovereth which is that either they joine together and cast away themselves on themselves to avoid vs or on their side follow also the example wee give them acting their part of the play without passion without care and without love lending themselves to this entercourse Neque affectui suo aut alieno obnoxiae Neither liable to their owne nor other folkes affection Thinking according to Lysias perswasions in Plato they may so much the more profitably and commodiously yeeld vnto vs by how much lesse we love them Wherein it will happen as in Comedies the spectators shall have as much or more pleasure as the Comedians For my part I no more acknowledge Venus without Cupid then a motherhood without an off-spring They are things which enter-lend and enter-owe one another their essence Thus doth this cozening rebound on him that vseth it and as it costs him little so gets he not much by it Those which made Venus a Goddesse have respected that her principall beautie was incorporeall and spirituall But shee whom these kinde of people hunt after is not so much as humane nor also brutall but such as wilde beasts would not have her so filthy and terrestriall We see that imagination enflames them and desire or lust vrgeth them before the body Wee see in one and other sex even in whole heards choise and distinctions in their affections and amongst themselves acquaintances of long continued good-will and liking And even those to whom age denieth bodily strength doe yet bray neigh roare skip and wince for love Before the deed wee see them full of hope and heat and when the body hath plaid his part even tickle and tingle themselves with the sweetnesse of that remembrance some of them swell with pride at parting from it others all weary and glutted ring out songs of glee and triumph Who makes no more of it but to discharge his body of some naturall necessitie hath no cause to trouble others with so curious preparation It is no food for a greedie and clownish hunger As one that would not be accounted better then I am thus much I will display of my youths wanton-errours Not onely for the danger of ones health that followes that game yet could I not avoid two though light and cursorie assaults but also for contempt I have not much beene given to mercenarie and common acquaintances I have coveted to set an
and would neither bee nor seeme to bee other Philosophie contends not against naturall delights so that due measure bee ioined therewith and alloweth the moderation not the shunning of them The efforts of her resistance are employed against strange and bastard or lawlesse ones She saith that the bodyes appetites ought not to be encreased by the minde And wittily aduiseth vs that we should not excite our hunger by sacietie not to stuffe insteed of filling our bellies to auoide all jouissance that may bring vs to want and shunne all meat and drink which may make vs hungry or thirstie As in the seruice of love she appoints vs to take an obiect that onely may satisfie the bodies neede without once moouing the mind which is not there to have any doing but onely to follow and simply to assist the body But have I not reason to thinke that these precepts which in mine opinion are elsewhere somewhat rigorous haue reference vnto a body which doth his office and that a dejected one as a weakned stomacke may be excused if he cherish and sustaine the same by arte and by the entercouse of fantazie to restore it the desires the delights and blithnesse which of it selfe it hath lost May we not say that there is nothing in vs during this earthly prison simply corporall or purely spirituall and that iniuriouslie we dismember a living man that there is reason wee should carrie our selues in the vse of pleasure at least as fauourablie as we doe in the pangs of griefe For example it was vehement even vnto perfection in the soules of Saints by repentance The body had naturally a part therein by the right of their combination and yet might haue but little share in the cause and were not contented that it should simply follow and assist the afflicted soule they haue tormented the body it selfe with conuenient and sharpe punishments to the end that one with the other the body and the soule might a vie plunge man into sorrow so much the more saving by how much the more smarting In like case in corporall pleasures is it not iniustice to quaile and coole the minde and say it must thereunto be entrained as vnto a forced bond or servile necessitie Shee should rather hatch and cherish them and offer and invite it selfe vnto them the charge of swaying rightly belonging to her Even as in my conceit it is her part in her proper delights to inspire and infuse into the body all sense or feeling which his condition may beare and indevour that they may be both sweet and healthy for him For as they say t is good reason that the body follow not his appetites to the mindes preiudice or dammage But why is it not likewise reason that the minde should not follow hers to the bodies danger and hurt I have no other passion that keepes mee in breath What avarice ambition quarels sutes in law or other contentions worke and effect in others who as my selfe have no assigned vacation or certaine leisure love would performe more commodiously It would restore me the vigilancie sobrietie grace and care of my person and assure my countenance against the wrinckled frowns of age those deformed and wretched frownes which else would blemish and deface the same It would reduce me to serious to sound and wise studies whereby I might procure more love and purchase more estimation It would purge my minde from despaire of it selfe and of its vse acquainting the same againe with it selfe It would divert me from thousands of irksome tedious thoughts and melancholie carking cares wherewith the doting idlenesse and crazed condition of our age doth charge and comber vs It would restore and heat though but in a dreame the blood which nature forsaketh It would vphold the drooping chinne and somewhat strengthen or lengthen the shrunken finewes decaied vigour and dulled lives-blithenesse of silly wretched man who gallops apace to his ruine But I am not ignorant how hard a matter it is to attaine to such a commoditie Through weakenesse and long experience our taste is growne more tender more choise and more exquisite We challenge most when we bring least we are most desirous to choose when we least deserve to be accepted And knowing our selves to bee such we are lesse hardy and more distrustfull Nothing can assure vs to be beloved seeing our condition and their quality I am ashamed to be in the companie of this greene blooming and boyling youth Cuius in indomito constantior inguine neruus Quà m noua collibus arbor inhaeret Why should we present our wretchednesse admid this their iollitie Possint vt iuuenes visere feruidi Multo non fine risu Dilapsam in cineres facem That hot young men may goe and see Not without sport and mery glee Their fire-brands turn'd to ashes be They have both strength and reason on their side let vs give them place we have no longer holde fast This bloome of budding beauty loues not to be handled by such nummed and so clomsie hands nor would it be dealt-with by meanes purely materiall or ordinarie stuffe For as that ancient Philosopher answered one that mocked him because hee could not obtaine the fauour of a yongling whom he suingly pursued My friend quoth hee the hooke bites not at such fresh cheese It is a commerce needing relation and mutuall correspondency other pleasures that we receiue may bee requitted by recompences of different nature but this cannot be repaid but with the very same kinde of coyne Verily the pleasure I do others in this sport doth more sweetly tickle my imagination then that is done vnto me Now if no generous minde can receive pleasure where he returneth none it is a base minde that would haue all duty and delights to feed with conference those vnder whose charge hee remaineth There is no beautie nor fauour nor familiarity so exquisite which a gallant minde should desire at this rate Now if women can do vs no good but in pittie I had much rather not to live at all then to live by almes I would I had the priuiledge to demande of them in the same stile I haue heard some begin Italy Fate bene per voi Doe some good for your selfe or after the manner that Cyrus exhorted his souldiers Whosoeuer loveth mee let him follow mee Consort your selfe will some say to me with those of your owne condition whom the company of like fortune will yeelde of more easie accesse Oh sottish and wallowish composition nolo Barbam vellere mortuo leoni I will not pull though not a fearde When he is dead a Lions beard Xenophon vseth for an obiection and accusation against Menon that in his love hee dealt with fading obiects I take more sensuall pleasure by onely viewing the mutuall even proporcioned and delicate commixture of two yong beauties or only to consider the same in mine imagination then if my selfe should be second in a lumpish sad and disproporcioned
surcharge keepeth it low-drooping and faint But it is otherwise for our mind stretcheth the more by how much more it is replenished And in examples of former times the contrary is seene of sufficient men in the managing of publike affaires of great Captaines and notable Counsellers in matters of estate to have been therewithall excellently wise And concerning Philosophers retired from all publike negotiations they have indeed sometimes been vilified by the comike libertie of their times then opinions and demeanors yeelding them ridiculous Will you make them judges of the right of a processe or of the actions of a man They are readie for it They enquire whether there be any life yet remaining whether any motion Whether man be any thing but an Oxe what working or suffering is what strange beasts law and justice are Speake they of the Magistrate or speake they vnto him They do it with an vnreverent and vncivill libertie Heare they a Prince or a King commended Hee is but a shepheard to them as idle as a Swaine busied about milking of his cattell or shearing of his sheepe but yet more rudely Esteeme you any man the greater for possessing two hundred acres of land They scoffe at him as men accustomed to embrace all the world as their possession Do you boast of your Nobilitie because you can blazon your descent of seaven or eight rich Grandfathers They will but little regard you as men that conceive not the vniversall image of nature and how many predecessors every one of vs hath had both rich and poore kings and groomes Greekes and Barbarians And were you lineally descended in the fiftieth degree from Hercules they deeme it a vanitie to vaunt or alleadge this gift of fortune So did the vulgare sort disdaine them as ignorant of the first and common things and as presumptuous and insolent But this Platonicall lustre is far from that which our men stand in need of They were envied as being beyond the common sort as despising publike actions as having proposed vnto themselves a particular and inimitable life aiming and directed at certaine high discourses and from the common vse these are disdained as men beyond the ordinary fashion as incapable of publike charges as leading an vnsociable life and professing base and abject customes after the vulgar kind Odi homines ignavos opera Philosophos sententia I hate men that are fooles in working and Philosophers in speaking As for those Philosophers I say that as they were great in knowledge so were they greater in all action And even as they report of that Syracusan Geometrician who being taken from his bookish contemplation to shew some practise of his skill for the defence of his countrie reared sodainly certain terror-moving engines and shewed effects farre exceeding all mens conceit himselfe notwithstanding disdaining all this his handie-worke supposing he had thereby corrupted the dignitie of his arte his engines and manuall works being but the apprentiships and trials of his skill in sport So they if at any time they have been put to the triall of any action they have been seen to flie so high a pitch and with so loftie a flight that men might apparantly see their minds and spirits were through the intelligence of things become wonderfully rich and great But some perceiving the seat of politike government possessed by vnworthy and incapable men have withdrawne themselves from it And hee who demaunded of Crates how long men should Philosophize received this answere vntill such time as they who have the conduct of our Armies be no longer blockish asses Heraclitus resigned the roialtie vnto his brother And to the Ephesians who reproved him for spending his time in playing with children before the temple hee answered And is it not better to doe so then to governe the publike affaires in your companie Others having their imagination placed beyond fortune and the world found the seat of justice and the thrones of Kings to be but base and vile And Empedocles refused the royaltie which the Agrigentines offered him Thales sometimes accusing the carke and care men tooke about good husbandry and how to grow rich some replied vnto him that he did as the Fox because he could not attaine vnto it himselfe which hearing by way of sport he would needs shew by experience how he could at his pleasure become both thriftie and rich and bending his wits to gaine and profit erected a traffike which within one yeare brought him such riches as the skilfullest in the trade of thriving could hardly in all their life devise how to get the like That which Aristotle reporteth of some who called both him and Anaxagoras and such like men wise and not prudent because they cared not for things more profitable besides I do not verie well digest this nice difference of words that serveth my find-fault people for no excuse and to see the base and needie fortune wherewith they are content we might rather have just cause to pronounce them neither wise nor prudent I quit this first reason and thinke it better to say that this evill proceedeth from the bad course they take to follow sciences and that respecting the manner we are instructed in them it is no wonder if neither Schollers nor Masters howbeit they proove more learned become no whit more sufficient Verily the daily care and continuall charges of our fathers aymeth at nothing so much as to store our heads with knowledge and learning as for judgement and vertue that is never spoken of If a man passe by crie out to our people Oh what a wise man goeth yonder And of another Oh what a good man is yonder He will not faile to cast his eyes and respect toward the former A third crier were needfull to say Oh what blocke-heads are those We are ever readie to aske Hath he any skill in the Greeke and Latine tongue can he write well doth hee write in prose or verse But whether hee be growne better or wiser which should be the chiefest of his drift that is never spoken of we should rather enquire who is better wise then who is more wise We labour and toyle and plod to fill the memorie and leave both vnderstanding and conscience emptie Even as birds flutter and skip from field to field to pecke vp corne or any graine and without tasting the same carrie it in their bils therewith to feed their little ones so do our pedants gleane and picke learning from bookes and never lodge it further then their lips onely to degorge and cast-it to the wind It is strange how fitly sottisnnesse takes hold of mine example Is not that which I doe in the greatest part of this composition all one and selfe same thing I am ever heer and there picking and culling from this and that booke the sentences that please me not to keepe them for I have no store-house to reserve them in but to transport them into this where to say truth they are no
si conversa decebit Whom patience clothes with sutes of double kind I muse if he another way will find Personamque feret non inconcinnus vtramque He not vnfitly may Both parts and persons play Loe-heer my lessons wherein he that acteth them profiteth more then he that but knoweth them whom if you see you heare and if you heare him you see him God forbid saith some bodie in Plato that to Philosophize be to learne many things and to exercise the artes Hanc amplissimam omnium artium bcne vivendi disciplinam vita magis quà m litter is persequuti sunt This discipline of living well which is the amplest of all other artes they followed rather in their lives then in their learning or writing Leo Prince of the Phliasians enquiring of Heraclides Ponticus what arte he professed he answered Sir I professe neither art nor science but I am a Philosopher Some reproved Diogenes that being an ignorant man he did neverthelesse meddle with Philosophie to whom he replied so much the more reason have I and to greater purpose doc I meddle with-it Hegesias praid him vpon a time to reade some booke vnto him You are a merry man said he As you chuse naturall and not painted right and not counterfeit figges to eate why doe you not likewise chuse not the painted and written but the true and naturall exercises He shall not so much repeat as act his lesson In his actions shall he make repetition of the same We must observe whether there be wisedome in his enterprises integritie in his demeanor modestie in his jestures justice in his actions judgement and grace in his speech courage in his sicknesse moderation in his sports temperance in his pleasures order in the government of his house and indifferencie in his taste whether it be flesh fish wine or water or whatsoever he feedeth vpon Qui disciplinam suam non ost entationem scientiae sed legem vitae putet quique obtemperet ipse sibi aecretis pareat Who thinks his learning not an ostentation of knowledge but a law of life and himselfe obayes himselfe and doth what is decreed The true mirror of our discourses is the course of our lives Xeuxidamus answered one that demaunded of him why the Lacedemonians did not draw into a booke the ordinances of prowesse that so their yong men might read them it is saith he because they would rather accustome them to deeds and actions then to bookes and writings Compare at the end of fifteene or sixteene yeares one of these collegiall Latinizers who hath imployed all that while onely in learning how to speake to such a one as I meane The world is nothing but babling and words and I never saw man that doth not rather speake more than he ought then lesse Notwithstanding halfe our age is consumed that way We are kept foure or five yeares learning to vnderstand bare words and to joine them into clauses then as long in proportioning a great bodie extended into foure or five parts and five more at least ere we can succinctly know how to mingle joine interlace them handsomly into a subtil fashion and into one coherent orbe Let-vs leave-it to those whose profession is to doe nothing else Being once on my journey toward Orleans it was my chance to meet vpon that plaine that lieth on this side Clery with two Masters of Arts traveling toward Burdeaux about fiftie paces one from another far-off behind them I descride a troupe of horsemen their Master riding formost who was the Earle of Rochefocault one of my servants enquiring of the first of those Masters of artes what Gentleman he was that followed him supposing my servant had meant his fellow-scholler for he had not yet seen the Earles traine answered pleasantly He is no gentleman Sir but a Gramarian and I am a Logitian Now we that contrariwise seek not to frame a Gramarian nor a Logitian but a compleat gentleman let vs give them leave to mispend their time we have else-where and somewhat else of more import to doe So that our Disciple be well and sufficiently stored with matter words will follow apace and if they will not follow gently he shall hale them-on perforce I heare some excuse themselves that they cannot expresse their meaning and make a semblance that their heads are so full-stuft with many goodly things but for want of eloquence they can neither vtter nor make shew of them It is a meere fopperie And will you know what in my seeming the cause is They are shadows and Chimeraes proceeding of some formelesse conceptions which they cannot distinguish or resolve within and by consequence are not able to produce them in asmuch as they vnderstand not themselves And if you but marke their earnestnesse and how they stammer labour at the point of their deliverie you would deeme that what they go withall is but a conceiving and therefore nothing neere downe-lying and that they doe but licke that imperfect and shapelesse lump of matter As for me I am of opinion and Socrates would have it so that he who hath a cleare and lively imagination in his mind may easilie produce and vtter the same although it be in Bergamask or Welsh and if he be dombe by signes and tokens Vertáque praevisam rem non invita sequentur When matter we fore-know Words voluntarie flow As one said as poetically in his prose Cùm res animum occupavere verba ambiunt When matter hath possest their minds they hunt after words and another Ipsae res verba rapiunt Things themselves will catch and carry words He knowes neither Ablative Conjunctive Substantive nor Gramar no more doth his Lackey nor any Oyster wife about the streets and yet if you have a mind to it he will intertaine you your fill and peradventure stumble as litle and as seldome against the rules of his tongue as the best Master of artes in France He hath no skill in Rhetoricke nor can he with a preface fore-stall and captivate the Gentle Readers good will nor careth he greatly to know it In good sooth all this garish painting is easilie defaced by the lustre of an in-bred and simple truth for these dainties and quaint devises serve but to ammuse the vulgare sort vnapt and incapable to taste the most solide and firme meat as Afer verie plainly declareth in Cornelius Tacitus The Ambassadours of Samos being come to Cleomenes King of Sparta prepared with a long prolixe Oration to stir him vp to war against the tyrant Policrates after he had listned a good while vnto them his answere was Touching your Exordium or beginning I have forgotten it the middle I remember not and for your conclusion I will do nothing in it A fit and to my thinking a verie good answere and the Orators were put to such a shift as they knew not what to replie And what said another the Athenians from out two of their cunning Architects were
no greater than our sight doth judge it Quicquid id est nihilo fortur maiore figurâ Quà m nostris oculis quam cernimus esse videtur What ere it be it in no greater forme doth passe Then to our eyes which it behold it seeming was that the apparances which represent a great body to him that is neare vnto them a much lesser to him that is further from them are both true Nec tamen hic oculis falli concedimus hilum Proinde animi vitium hoc oculis adfingere noli Yet graunt we not in this our eyes deceiv'd or blind Impute not then to eyes this error of the mind and resolutely that there is no deceit in the senses That a man must stand to their mercie and elsewhere seeke reasons to excuse the difference and contradiction we find in them yea invent all other vntruthes and raving conceites so farre come they rather then accuse the causes Timagoras swore that howsoever he winked or turned his eyes he could never perceive the light of the candle to double And that this seeming proceeded from the vice of opinion and not from the instrument Of all absurdities the most absurd amongst the Epicurians is to disavowe the force and effect of the senses Proinde quod in quoque est bis visum tempore verum est Et si non potuit ratio dissolvere causam Cur ea quâ— fuerint iuxtim quadrata procul sint Visa rotunda tamen praestat rationis egent â—m Reddere mendosè causas vtriúsque figurae Quà m manibus manifesta suis emittere quoquam Et violare fidem primam convellere tota Fundamenta quibus nixatur vita salúsque Non modò enim ratio ruat omnis vita quoque ipsa Concidat extemplo nisi crederâ—sâ—nsibus ausis Praecipitésque locos vitare caetera quaesint In genere hoc fugienda Whatby the eies is seene at any time is true Though the cause Reason could not render of the view Why what was square at hand a farre-off seemed round Yet it much better were that wanting reasons ground The causes of both formes we harp-on but not hit Then let slip from our hands things cleare and them omit And violate our first beliefe and rashly rend All those ground-works whereon both life and health depend For not alone all reasons falls life likewise must Faile out of hand vnlesse your senses you dare trust And break-necke places and all other errors shunne From which we in this kinde most carefully should runne This desperate and so little-philosophicall counsell represents no other thing but that humane science cannot be maintained but by vnreasonable fond mad reason yet is it better that man vse it to prevaile yea of all other remedies else how fantasticall soever they be rather then avow his necessarie foolishnes So prejudiciall and disadvantageous a veritie he cannot auoide but senses must necessarily be the soveraigne maisters of his knowledge But they are vncertaine and falsifiable to all circumstances There must a man strike to the vtmost of his power and if his just forces faile him as they are wont to vse and employ obstinacâ—e temeritie and impudencie If that which the Epicurians affirme be true that is to say we have no science if the apparances of the senses be false and that which the Stoicks say if it is also true that the senses apparances are so false as they can produce vs no science We will conclude at the charges of these two great Dogmatist Sects that there is no science Touching the error and vncertaintie of the senses operation a man may store himselfe with as many examples as he pleaseth so ordinarie are the faults and deceits they vse towards vs. And the ecchoing or reporting of a valley the sound of a Trumpet seemeth to sound before vs which cometh a mile behinde vs. Extantésque procul medio de gurgite montes Iidem apparent longe diver si licet Et fugere ad puppim colles campâ—que videntur Quos agimus propter navim vbi in medio nobis equus acer obhaesit Flumine equi corpus transversum ferre videtur Vis in adversum flumen contrudere raptim And hilles which from the maine far-off to kenning stand Appeare all one though they farre distant be at hand And hilles and fields doe seeme vnto our bote to fly Which we drive by our bote as we doe passe thereby When in midst of a streame a stately Horse doth stay The stream's orethwarting seems his body crosse to sway And swiftly gainst the streame to thrust him th' other way To roule a bullet vnder the fore-finger the midlemost being put over-it a man must very much enforce himselfe to affirme there is but one so assuredly doth ouâ— sense present vs two That the senses do often maister our discourse and force it to receive impressions which he knoweth and judgeth to be false it is daily seene I leave the sense of feeling which hath his functions neerer more quicke and substantiall and which by the effect of the griefe or paine it brings to the body doth so often confound and re-enverse all these goodly Stoicall resolutions and enforceth to cry out of the belly-ache him who hath with all resolution established in his minde this Doctrine that the cholâ—ke as every other sicknesle or paine is a thing indifferent wanting power to abate any thing of Soveraigne good or chiefe felicitie wherein the wise man is placed by his owne vertue there is no heart so demisse but the raâ—â—ing sound of a drumme or the clang of a Trumpet will rowze and inflame nor minde so harsh and sterne but the sweetenesse and harmonie of musike will moove and tickle nor any soule so skittish and stubborne that hath not a feeling of some reverence in considering the clowdy vastitie and gloomiâ— canapies of our churches the â—ye-pleasing diversitie of ornaments and orderly order of our ceremonies and hearing the devout and religious sound of our Organs the moderate simphoniall and heaevenly harmonie of our voices Even those that enter into them with an obstinate will and contemning minde have in their heart â— feeling of remorse of chilnesse and horrour that puts them into a certaine diffidence of their former opinions As for me I distrust mine owne strength to heare with a settled minde some of Horace or Catullus versessung with a sufficiently well tuned voice vttered by and proceeding from a faire yong and hart-alluring mouth And Zeno had reason to say that the voice was the flower of beautie Some have gone about to make me believe that a man who most of vs French men know in repeating certaine verses he had made had imposed vpon me that they were not such in writing as in the aire and that mine eyes would judge of them otherwise then mine eares so much credite hath pronunciation to give prise and fashion to those workes that passe her mercie Whereupon Philoxenus was not to
sorte our ancient French leaving the high Countries of Germanie came to possesse Gaule whence they displaced the first Inhabitants Thus grew that infinite confluence of people which afterward vnder Brennus and others over-ranne Italie Thus the Gothes and Vandalles as also the Nations which possesse Greece left their naturall countries to go where they might have more elbow-roome And hardly shall we see two or three corners in the worlde that have not felt the effect of such a remooving alteration The Romanes by such meanes erected their Colonies for perceiving their Cittie to growe over-populous they were wont to discharge it of vnnecessarie people which they sent to inhabite and manure the Countries they had subdued They have also sometimes maintained warre wiâ—h some of their enemies not onely thereby to keepe their men in breath lest Idlenesse the mother of Corruption should cause them some worse inconvenience Et patimur longae pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incumbit We suffer of long peace the soking harmes On vs lies luxury more fierce then armes But also to let the Common-wealth bloud and somewhat to allay the over vehement heat of their youth to lop the sprigs and thin the branches of this over-spreading tree too much abounding in ranknesse and gaillardise To this purpose they maintained a good while war with the Carthaginians In the treaty of Bretigny Edward the third King of England would by no meanes comprehend in that generall peace the controversie of the Dutchie of Britany to the end he might have some way to disburthen himselfe of his men of war and that the multitude of English-men which he had emploied about the warres of France should not returne into England It was one of the reasons induced Philip our King to consent that his sonne Iohn should be sent to warre beyond the seas that so he might carry with him a great number of yong hot-blouds which were amongst his trained military men There are divers now adaies which will speake thus wishing this violent and burning emotion we see and feele amongst vs might be derived to some neighbour war fearing lest those offending humours which at this instant are predominant in our bodie if they be not diverted elsewhere will still maintaine our fever in force and in the end cause our vtter destruction And in truth a forraine warre is nothing so dangerous a disâ—ase as a civill But I will not beleeve that God would favour so vnjust an enterprise to offend and quarrell with others for our commodity Nil mihi tam valdè placeat Rhammusia virgo Quòd temerè invitis suscipiatur heris That fortune likes me not which is constrained By Lords vnwilling rashly entertained Notwithstanding the weaknesse of our condition doth often vrge vs to this necessity to vse bad meanes to a good end Lycurgus the most vertuous and perfect Law-giver that ever was devised this most vnjust fashion to instruct his people vnto temperance by force to make the Helotes which were their servants to be drunke that seeing them so lost and buried in wine the Spartanes might abhor the excesse of that vice Those were also more to be blamed who anciently allowed that criminall offendors what death soever they were condemned vnto should by Phisitians all alive be torne in pieces that so they might naturally see our inward parts and thereby establish a more assured certainty in their arte For if a man must needes erre or debauch himselfe it is more excusable if he doe it for his soules health then for his bodies good As the Romans trained vp and instructed their people to valour and contempt of dangers and death by the outragious spectacles of Gladiators and deadly fighting Fencers who in presence of them all combated mangled sliced and killed one another Quid vesani aliud sibi vult ars impia luds Quid mortes iuvenum quid sanguine pasta voluptas What else meanes that mad arte of impious fense Those yong-mens deaths that blood-fed pleasing sense which custome continued even vntill the time of Theodosius the Emperour Arripe delatam tua dux in tempora famam Quódque patris superest successor laudis habeto Nullus in vrbe cadat cuius sit poena voluptas Iam solis contenta feris infamis arena Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis The fame defer'd to your times entertaine Enherite praise which doth from Sire remaine Let none die to give pleasure by his paine Be shamefull Theaters with beastes content Not in goar'd armes mans slaughter represent Surely it was a wonderfull example and of exceeding benefit for the peoples institution to see dayly one or two hundred yea sometimes a thousand brace of men armed one against another in their presence to cut and hacke one another in pieces with so great constancy of courage that they were never seene to vtter one word of faintnesse or commiseration never to turne their backe nor so much as to shew a motion of demissenesse to avoide their adversaries blowes but rather to extend their neckes to their swords and present themselves vnto their strokes It hath hapned to diverse of them who through many hurts being wounded to death have sent to aske the people whether they were satisfied with their duty before they would lie downe in the place They must not onely fight and die constantly but jocondly in such sort as they were cursed and bitterly scolded at if in receiving their death they were any way seene to strive yea maidnes encited them to it consurgit adictus Et quoties victor ferrum iugulo inserit illa Delicias ait esse suas pectúsque iacentis Virgo modesta iubet converso pollice rumpi The modest maide when wounds are giv'n vpriseth When victors sword the vanquisht throate surpriseth She saith it is hir sport and doth command T'embrue the conquer'd breast by signe of hand The first Romans disposed thus of their criminals But afterward they did so with their innocent servants yea of their free-men which were sold to that purpose yea of Senators and Roman Knights and women also Nunc caput in mortem vendunt fumus arenae Atque hostem sibi quisque parat cùm bella quiescunt They sell mens lives to death and Stages sight When wars doe cease they finde with whom to fight Hos inter fremitus novósque lusus Stat sexus rudis insciúsque ferri Et pugnas capit improbus viriles Amidst these tumults these strange sporting sights That Sex doth sit which knowes not how sword bites And entertaines vnmov'd those manly fights Which I should deeme very strange and incredible if we were not dayly accustomed to see in our wars many thousands of forraine nations for a very small some of mony to engage both their blood and life in quarrels wherein they are nothing interessed The foure and twentieth Chapter Of the Roman greatnesse I Will but speake a word of this infinite argument and slightly glance at it to shew
that ever was troubled with the gowt But let vs somewhat amplifie this chapter and patch it vp with another piece concerning blindnes Plinie reports of one who dreaming in his sleepe that he was blinde awaking the next morning was found to be starke blinde having never had any precedent sickenes The power of imagination may very well further such things as elsewhere I have shewed And Plinie seemeth to be of this opinion but it is more likely that the motions which the body selt inwardly whereof Phisitions may if they please finde out the cause and which tooke away his sight and were the occasion of his dreame Let vs also adde another storie concerning this purpose which Seneca reporteth in his Epistles thou knowest saith he writing vnto Lucilius that Harpaste my wiues foole is left vpon me as an hereditarie charge for by mine owne nature I am an enemie vnto such monsters and if I have a desire to laugh at a foole I neede not seeke one farre I laugh at my selfe This foolish woman hath sodainly lost hir sight I report a sirange thing but yet very true She will not beleeve she is blind and vrgeth hir keeper vncessantly to lead hir saying still my house is very darke What we laugh at in hir I entreat thee to belieeve that the same hâ—pneth to each for vs. No man knoweth himselfe to be covetous or niggardly Even the blind require a guide but wee stray from our selves I am not ambuiâ—us say we but no man can live otherwise at Rome I am not sumptuous but the Cittie requireth great charges It is not my fault if I be collerike If I have not yet set downe a sure course of my life the fault is in youth Let vs not seeke our evill out of vs it is within vs it is rooted in our entrailes And only because we perceive not that we are sick makes our recoverie to proue more difficult If we beginne not betimes to cure our selves when shall we provide for so many sores for so many evils Yet have we a most-sweete and gentle medicine of Philosophie for of others no man feeles the pleasure of them but after his recoverie where as she pleaseth easeth and cureth all at once Lo here what Seneca saith who hath somewhat diverted me from my purpose But there is profit in the exchange The sixe and twentieth Chapter Of Thumbs TAcitus reporteth that amongst certaine barbarous Kings for the confermation of an inviolable bonde or covenant their manner was to joyne their right hands close and hard together with enterlacing their thumbs And when by hard wringing them the blood appeared at their ends they pricked them with some sharpe point and then mutually entersuck't each one the others Phisicions say thumbs are the master-fingers of the hand and that their Latin eEtymologie is derived of Pollere The Graecians cal it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a man would say another hand And it seemeth the Latins likewise take them sometimes in this sense id est for a whole hand Sed nec vocibus excitata blandis Molli pollice nec rogata surgit It will not rise though with sweete words excited Nor with the touch of softest thumb invited In Rome it was heeretofore a signe of favor to wring and kisse the thumbs Fautor vtroque tuum laudabit pollice ludum He that applaudes will praise With both his thumbs thy plaies and of disfavour or disgrace to lift them vp and turne them outward converso pollice vulgi Quemlibet occidunt populariter When people turne their thumbs away The popularly any slay Such as were hurt or maymed in their thumbs were by the Romanes dispensed from going to warre as they who had lost their weapons hold-fast Augustus did confiscate all the goods of a Romane Knight who through malice had cut off the thumbes of two yong children of his thereby to excuse them from going to warre And before him the Senate in the time of the Italian warres had condemned Caius Vatienus to perpetuall prison and confiscated all his goods forsomuch as he had willingly cut off the thumb of his left hand so to exempt himselfe from that voyage Some one whose name I remember not having gained a great victorie by Sea caused all the enemies whom he had vanquished and taken prisoners to have their thumbes cut off thinking thereby to deprive them of all meanes of fighting of rowing or handling their oares The Athenians likewise caused them to be cut off from them of Aegina to take from them the preheminence in the arte of navigation In Lacedaemon masters punished their Schollers by byting their thumbs The seaven and twentieth Chapter Cowardize the Mother of Crueltie I Have often heard it reported that Cowardize is the Mother of Crueltie And have perceived by experience that this malicious sharpnes and inhumane severitie of corage is commonly accompanied with feminine remissenesse I have seene some of the cruelest subject to weep easily and for frivolous causes Alexander the tyrant of Pheres could not endure to see tragedies acted in the Theaters for feare his subjects should see him sob and weepe at the misfortunes of Hecuba and Andromaca he who without remorce or pittie caused daily so many poore people to be most cruelly massacred and barbarously murthered May it be weaknesse of spirit makes them so pliable to all extremities valor whose effect is onely to exercise it selfe against resistance Nec nisi bellantis gaudet cervice iuvenci Nor takes he joy to domineere But on the necke of sturdie steere refraines it selfe in seeing her enemie prostrate to her mercie But pusillanimitie to say that she also is of the feaste since it cannot bee joyned to the first part takes for her share the second which is massacre and blood Murthers after victories are commonly effected by the baser kinde of people and officers that waite vpon the baggage and cariage And the reason we see so many vnheard-of cruelties in popular warres is that this vulgar rascalitie doth martially flesh and enure it selfe to dive in blood vp to the elbowes and mangle a bodie or hacke a carcase lying and groveling at their feete having no manner of feeling of other valor Et Lupus turpes instant morientibus Vrsi Et quaecumque minor nobilitate fera est A Wolfe or filthie Beare the dying man oppresse Or some such beast as in nobilitie is lesse As the Craven Curres which at home or in their Kennels will tugge and bite the skinnes of those wilde beastes which in the fields they durst not so much as barke-at What is it that now adaies makes all our qaurrels mortall And whereas our forefathers had some degree of reuenge we now beginne by the last and at first brunt nothing is spoken of but killing What is it if it be not Cowardise Euery man seeth it is more bravery and disdaine for one to beare his enemie than make an end of him and to keepe him at a bay
all eyes are fixed alwayes to shew himselfe in a good temper but that the chiefest point consisted in providing inwardly and for himselfe and that in mine opinion it was noe discreete parte inwardly to fret which to maintaine that marke and formall outward apparance I feared hee did Choller is incorporated by concealing and smothering the same as Diogenes saide to Demosthenes who fearing to be seene in a Taverne withdrew himselfe into the same The more thou recoylest backe the further thou goest into it I woulde rather perswade a man though somewhat out of season to give his boy a whirret on the eaâ—e then to dissemble this wise sterne or severe countenance to vex and fret his minde And I woulde rather make shew of my passions then smother them to my cost which being vented and exprest become more languishing and weake Better it is to let it's pointe worke outwardly then bend it against our selves Omnia vitia in aperto leviora sunt tunc perniciosissimae quum simulata sanitate subsidunt All vices are then lesse perillous when they lie open to bee seene but then most pernicious when they lurke vnder counterfeited soundnesse I ever warne those of my houshold who by their offices-authoritie may sometimes have occasion to be angry first to husband their anger then not to employ it vpon every slight cause for that empeacheth the effect and worth of it Rash and ordinary brawling is converted to a custome and that 's the reason each man contemnes it That which you employ against a servant for any theeving is not perceiâ—ed because it is the same he hath sundry times sâ—ene you vse against him if hee have not washt a glasse well oâ— misplaced a stoole Secondly that they be not angry in vaine but ever have regard their châ—ding come to his eares with whom they are offended for commonly some will brawle before hee come in their presence and chide a good while after he is gone secum petulans amentia ceâ— tat Madnesse makes with it selfe a fray Which fondly doth the wanton play and wreake their anger against his shadow and make the storme fall where no man is either chastised or interressed but with the rumour of their voice and sometimes with such as cannot doe withall I likewise blame those who being angry will brave and mutime when the partie with whome they are offended is not by These Rodomantados must be employed on such as feare them Mugitus veluti cùm prima in praelia taurus Terrificos â—iet atque ir asci in cornua tentat Arborts obnixus trunco ventósque lacâ—ssit Ictibus sparsa ad pugnam proludit arena As when a furious Bull to his first combate mooves His terror-breeding lowes his horne to anger prooves Striving against a trees trunke and the winde with strokes His preface made to fight with scaâ—tered sand provokes When I chance to be angry it is in the earnestâ—st manner that may be but yet as briefly and as secretly as is possible I loose my selfe in hastinesse and violence but not in trouble So that let me spend all maner of injurious wordes at random and without all heede and never respect to place my points pertinently and where they may doe most hurt For commonly I employ nothing but my tongue My boyes scape better cheape in great matters then in small trifles Slight occasions surprise me and the michiefe is that after you are once falne into the pit it is no matter who thrusts you in you never cease till you come to the bottome The fall presseth hasteneth mooveth and furthereth it selfe In great occasions I am pleased that they are so just that every body expects a reasonable anger to insue I glorify my selfe to deceive their expectation Against these I bandy and prepare my selfe they make me summon vp my wits and threaten to carry me very farre if I would follow them I easily keepe my selfe from falling into them and if I stay for them I am stronge enough to reject the impulsion of this passion what violent cause soever it hath But if it seize vpon and once preoccupate me what vaine cause soever it hath it doth cleane transport me I condition thus with those that may contest with me when you perceve me to be first angry be it right or wrong let me hold-on my course I will do the like to you when ever it shall come to my lot The rage is not engendred but by the concurrencie of cholers which are easily produced one of another and are not borne at one instant Let vs allow every man his course so shall we ever be in peace Oh profitable prescription but of an hard execution I shall some time seeme to be angry for the order and direction of my house without any just emotion Accoding as my age yeeldeth my humours more sharpe or peevish so doe I endevour to oppose my selfe against them and if I can I will hereafter enforce my selfe to be lesse froward and not so teasty As I shall have more excuse and inclination to be so although I have heretofore beene in their number that are least A word more to conclude this Chapter Aristotle saith Choller doth sometimes serve as armes vnto Vertue and Valour It is very likely notwithstanding such as gainesay him answer pleasantly it is a weapon of a new fashion and strange vse For we moove other weapons but this mooveth vs our hand doth not guide it but it directeth our hand it holdeth vs and we hold not it The two and thirtieth Chapter A defence of Seneca and Plutarke THe familiarity I have with these two men and the ayde they affoord me in my olde age and my Booke meerely framed of their spoiles bindeth me to wed and maintaine their honour As for Seneca amongest a thousand petty-Pamphlets those of the pretended reformed religion have published for the defence of their cause which now and then proceede from a good hand and which pitty it is it should not be employed in more serious and better subjects I have heeretofore seene one who to prolong and fill vp the similitude he would finde betweene the governement of our vnfortunate late king Charles the ninth and that of Nero compareth the whilom lord Cardinall of Lorenâ— vnto Seneca their fortunes to have beene both chiefe men in the governement of their Princes and therewithall their manners their conditions and their demeanours wherein in mine opinion hee doth the saide lorde Cardinall great honour for although I bee one of those that highly respect his spirite his woorth his eloquence his zeale toward his religion and the service of his King and his good fortune to have beene borne in an age wherein hee was so new so rare and there withall so necessarie for the common-wealth to have a Cleargie-man of such dignitie and nobilitie sufficient and capable of so weightie a charge yet to confesse the truth I esteeme not his capacitie such nor his vertue so
wholly ingage themselves into them may carry such an order and temper as the storme without offending them may glide over their head Had wee not reason to hope as much of the deceased Bishop of Orleans Lord of Moruillters And I know some who at this present worthilie bestirre themselues in so even a fashion or pleasing a manner that they are likely to continue on foote whatsoeuer iniurious alteration or fall the heavens may prepare against vs. I holde it onely fit for Kings to hee angry with Kings And mocke at those rash spirits who from the brauerie of their harts offer themselues to so vnproportionate quarrels For one vndertaketh not a particular quarrell against a Prince in marching against him openly and couragiously for his honour and according to his dutie If hee love not such a man hee doth better at least hee esteemeth him And the cause of lawes especially and defence of the auncient state hath ever found this priviledge that such as for their owne interest disturbe the same excuse if they honour not their defendors But wee ought not terme duty as now a dayes we do a sower rigour and intestine crabbednesse proceeding of priuate interest and passion nor courage a treacherous and malicious proceeding Their disposition to frowardnesse and mischiefe they entitle zeale That 's not the cause doth heate them t' is their owne interest They kindle a warre not because it is just but because it is warre Why may not a man beare himselfe betweene enemies featly and faithfully Doe it if not altogether with an equall for it may admit different measure at least with a sober affection which may not so much engage you to the one that hee looke for all at your hands Content your selfe with a moderate proportion of their fauour and to glide in troubled waters without fishing in them Th' other manner of offering ones vttermost endeuours to both sides implyeth lesse diseration then conscience What knowes hee to whom you betray another as much your friend as hmselfe but you will doe the like for him when his turne shall come Hee takes you for a villaine that whilst hee heares you and gathers out of you and makes his best vse of your disloyaltie For double fellowes are onely beneficiall in what they bring but we must looke they carry away as little as may be I carry nothing to the one which I may not hauing opportunity say vnto the other the accent only changed a little and report either but indifferent or knowne or common things Noe benefit can induce mee to lye vnto them what is entrusted to my silence I conceale religiously but take as little in trust as I can Princes secrets are a troublesome charge to such as haue nought to doe with them I euer by my good will capitulate with them that they trust mee with very little but let them assuredly trust what I disclose vnto them I alwayes knew more then I wold An open speach opens the way to another and drawes all out euen as Wiue and Loue. Philippides in my minde answered king Lysiâ—â—achus wisely when hee demaunded of him what of his wealth or state hee shoulde empare vnto him Which and what you please quoth hee so it be not your secrets I see euery one mutinie if another conceale the deapth or misterie of the affaires from him wherein he pleaseth to employ him or haue but purloyned any circumstance from him For my part I am content one tell me no more of his businesse then hee will haue mee knowe or deale in nor desire I that my knowledge exceede or straine my word If I must needes bee the instrument of cozinage it shall at least bee with safety of my conscience I will not be esteemed a seruant nor so affectionate nor yet so faithfull that I bee iudged fit to betray any man Who is vnfaithfull to himselfe may bee excused if hee be faithlesse to his Maister But Princes entertaine not men by halfes and despise bounded and condicionall seruice What remedy I freely tell them my limits for a slaue â— must not bee but vnto reason which yet I cannot compasse And they are to blame to exact from a free man the like subiection vnto their seruice and the same obligation which they may from those they haue made and bought and whose fortune dependeth particularly and expresly on theirs The lawes haue deliuered mee from much trouble they haue chosen mee aside to followe and appointed mee a maister to obey all other superioritie and duty ought to bee relatiue vnto that and bee restrained Yet may it not bee concluded that if my affection should otherwise transport mee I would presently afforde my helping hand vnto it Will and desires are a law to themselues actions are to receiue it of publike institutions All these proceedings of mine are some what dissonant from our formes They should produce noe great effects nor holde out long among vs. Innocencie it selfe could not in these times nor negotiate without dissimulation nor trafficke without lying Neither are publike functions of my dyet what my profession requires thereto I furnish in the most priuate manner I can Being a childe I was plunged into them vp to the eares and had good successe but I got loose in good time I have often since shunned medling with them seldome accepted and neuer required euer holding my backe toward ambition but if not rowers who goe forward as it were backeward Yet so as I am lesse beholding to my resolution then to my good fortune that I was not wholly embarked in them For there are courses lesle against my taste and more comfortable to my carriage by which if heere tofore it had called mee to the seruice of the common-wealth and my aduancement vnto credit in the world I know that in following the same I had exceeded the reason of my couceite Those which commonly say against my prosession that what I terme liberty simplicity and plainenesse in my behauiour is arte cunning and subtilty and rather discretion then goodnesse industry then nature good wit then good hap doe mee more honour then shame But truely they make my cunning ouercunning And whosoeuer hath traced mee and nearely looked into my humoures lie loose a good wager if hee confesse not that there is noe rule in their schoole could a midde such crooked pathes and diuerse windings square and raport this naturall motion and maintaine an apparance of liberty and licence so equall and inflexible and that all their attention and wit is not of power to bring them to it The way to trueth is but one and simple that of particular profit and benefit of affaires a man hath in charge double vneven and accidentall I haue often seene these counterset 〈…〉 artificiall liberties in practise but most commonly without successe They sauour of Aesopes Asse who in emulation of the dogge layde his two fore-feete very jocondly vpon his maisters shoulders but looke how many blandishments the pretty dogge
could finde in my heart to runne from one ende of the world to another to searche and purchase one yeare of pleasing and absolute tranquillity I who have no other scope then to live and be mery Drouzie and stupide tranquillitie is sufficiently to bee found for mee but it makes me drouzie and dizzie therefore I am not pleased with it If there bee any body or any good company in the cuntrie in the cittie in France or any where els resident traveiling that likes of my conceites or whose humoures are pleasing to mee they neede but holde vp their hand or whistle in their fiste and I will store them with Essayes of pithe and substance with might and maine Seeing it is the mindes priuiledge to renew and recouer it selfe on olde age I earnestly aduise it to doe it let it bud blossome and flourish if it can as Misle-toe on a dead tree I feare it is a traitor so straightly is she clasped and so hard doth she cling to my body that every hand while she forsakes me to follow hir in hir necessities I flatter hir in private I vrge hir to no purpose in vaine I offer to diuert hir from this combination and bootlesse it is for me to present hir Seneca or Catullus or Ladies or stately dances if hir companion have the chollicke it seemes she also hath it The very powers or faculties that are particulare and proper to hir cannot then rouze themselues they euidently seeme to be en-rheumed there is no blithenesse in hir productions if there be none in the body Our schollers are to blame who searching the causes of our mindes extraordinary fits and motions besides they ascribe some to a diuine fury to love to warre-like fiercenesse to Poesie and to Wine if they haue not also allotted health her share A health youthfull lustie vigorous full â—dle such as heretofore the Aprill of my yeares and security offorded mee by fittes That fire of iocondnesse stirreth vp lively and bright sparckles in our minde beyond our naturall brightnesse and amongst the most working if not the most desperate Enthusiasmes or inspirasions Well it is no wonder if a contrary estate clogge and naile my spirite and drawe from it a contrary effect Ad nullum consurgit opus cum corpore lauguet It to no worke doth rise When body fainting lyes And yet would have me beholden to him for lending as he sayth much lesse to this consent then beareth the ordinary custome of men Let vs at least whilste we have truce chase all euils and expell all difficulties from our societie Dum licet obduct a soluatur fronte senectus With wrinckled wimpled for head let old yeares While we may be rosolu'd to merie cheeres Tetrica sunt amoenanda iocularibus Vnpleasant things and sowre matters should be sweetned and made pleasant with sportefull mixtures I love a lightsome and civill discretion and loathe a roughnesse and austeritie of behauiour suspecting every peevish and wayward countenance Tristemque vultus tetrici arrogantiam Of austere countenance The sad soure arrogance Et habet tristis quoque turba cynaedos Fidlers are often had Mongst people that are sad I easily beleeue Plato who saieth that easie or hard humoures are a great preiudice vnto the mindes goodnesse or badnesse Socrates had a constant countenance but light-some and smyling not frowardly constant as olde Crassus who was neuer seene to laugh Vertue is a pleasant and buxom qualitie Few I know will snarle at the liberty of my writings that haue not more cause to snarle at their thoughts-loosenes I conforme my selfe vnto their courage but I offend their eyes It is a well ordered humour to wrest Platos writings and straine his pretended negotiations with Phedon Dion Stella Archeanassa Non pudeat dicere quod non pudeat sentire Let vs not bee ashamed to speake what wee shame not to thinke I hate a way ward and sad disposition that glideth ouer the pleasures of his life and fastens and feedes on miseries As flyes that cannot cleaue to smooth and sleeke bodies but seaze and holde on rugged and vneuen places Or as Cupping-glasses that affect and suck none but the worst bloud For my part I am resoluted to dare speake whatsoeuer I dare doe And am displeased with thoughts not to be published The worst of my actions or condicions seeme not so vgly vnto me as I finde it both vgly and base not to dare to avouch them Every one is wary in the confession we should be as heedy in the action The bouldnesse offending is somewhat recompensed and restrained by the bouldnesse of confessing he that should be bound to tell all should also bind himto doe nothing which one is forced to conceale God graunt this excesse of my licence drawe men to freedome beyond these cowardly and squeamish vertues sprung from our imperfections and that by the expence of my immoderation I may reduce them vnto reason One must surâ—ay his faultes and study them ere he be able to repeat them Those which hide them from others commonly conceale them also from themselues and esteeme them not sufficiently hidden if themselues see them They withdraw and disguise them from their owne consciences Quare vicia confitetur Quia etiam nunc in illis est somnium narrare vigilantis est Why doth noe man confesse his faults Because hee is yet in them and to declare his dreame is for him that is waking The bodies euils are discerned by their increase And now we finde that to be the gout which we termed the rheume or a bruse The euils of the minde are darkened by their owne force the most infected feeleth them least Therfore is it that they must often a day be handled and violently be opened and rent from out the hollow of our bosome As in the case of good so of bad offices onely confession is sometimes a satisfaction Is there any deformitie in the error which dispenseth vs to confesse the same It is a paine for mee to dissemble so that I refuse to take charge of other mens secrets as wanting hart to disauow my knowledge I cannot conceale it but deny it I cannot without much a do and some trouble To be perfectly secret one must be so by nature not by obligation It is a smal matter to be secret in the Princes seruice if one be not also a liar He that demanded Thales Milesius whether he should solemnly deny his lechery had he come to me I would haue answered him he ought not do it for a lie is in mine opinion worse then lechery Thales aduised him otherwise bidding him sweare therby to warrant the more by the lesse Yet was not his counsell so much the election as multiplication of vice Wherevpon we sometimes vse this by-word that we deale well with a man of conscience when in counterpoise of vice we propose some difficulty vnto him but when he is inclosed between two vices he is put to a hard choise As
ammuse to circumvent and cozen vs. We make our last charge the first we shew our selues right French men ever rash ever headlong Wire-drawing their favours and enstalling them by retaileeach one even vnto miserable old age findes some listes end according to his worth and merite He who hath no jovisance but in enjoying who shootes not but to hit the marke who loues not hunting but for the prey it belongs not to him to entermeddle with our Schoole The more steps and degrees there are the more delight and honour is there on the top We should bee pleased to bee brought vnto it as vnto stately Pallaces by divers porches severall passages long and pleasant Galleries and well contrived turnings This dispensation would in the end redound to our benefite we should stay on it and longer ioue to lie at Racke and Manger for these snatches and away marre the grace of it Take away hope and desire we grow faint in our courses we come but lagging after Our mastery and absolute possession is infinitely to bee feared of them After they have wholy yeelded themselues to the mercy of our faith and constancie they haue hazarded something They are rare and difficult vertues so soone as they are ours we are no longer theirs post quam cupidae mentis satiata libido est Verba nihil metuere nihil periuria curant The lust of greedy minde once satisfied They seare no words nor reke othes falsified And Thrasonides a young Grecian was so religiously amorous of his love that having after much sute gained his mistris hart and favour he was refused to enjoy hir least by that jouissance he might or quench or satisfie or languish that burning flame and restlesse heat wherwith he gloryed and so pleasingly fed himselfe Things farre fetcht and dearly bought are good for Ladyes It is the deare price makes viands sauour the better See but how the forme of salutations which is peculiar vnto our nation doth by it's facilitie bastardize the grace of kisses which Socrates saith to be of that consequence waight and danger to ravish and steale our hearts It is an vnpleasing and iniurious custome vnto Ladies that they must afford their lips to any man that hath but three Lackies following him how vnhandsome and lothsome soeuer he be Câ—â—â—s liuida naribus caninis Dependet glacies rigetque barba Centùm occurrere malo culilingis From whose dog-nosthrils black-blew Ise depends Whose beard frost-hardned stands on bristled ends c. Nor do we our selues gaine much by it for as the world is diuided into foure parts so for foure faire ones we must kisse fistie foule and to a nice or tender stomacke as are those of mine age one ill kisse doth surpay one good In Italy they are passionate and languishing sutors to very common and mercenarie women and thus they defend and excuse themselues saying That euen in enioying there be certaine degrees and that by humble seruices they will endeuour to obtaine that which is the most absolutely perfect They sell but their bodyes their willes cannot be put to sale that is too free and too much it 's owne So say these that it is the will they attempt and they haue reason It is the will one must serue and most solicite I abhor to imagine mine a body voide of affection And me seemeth this frenzie hath some affinitie with that boyes fond humor who for pure love would wantonize with that fayre Image of Venus which Praxiteles had made or of that furious Aegyptian who lusted after a dead womans corpes which he was enbaulming and stitching vp which was the occasion of the lawe that afterwarde was made in Aegypt that the bodies of faire young and nobly borne women should be kept three dayes before they should be delivered into the hands of those who had the charge to provide for their funerals and burials Periander did more miraculoussie who extended his coniugall affection more regular and lawfull vnto the enioying of Melissa his deceased wife Seemes it not to be a lunatique humor in the Moone being otherwise vnable to enjoy Endimion hir fauorite darling to lull him in a sweete slumber for many moneths together and feed hirselfe with the jouislance of a boye that stirred not but in a dreame I say likewise that a man loveth a body without a soule when he loveth a body without his consent and desire All enioyings are not alike There are some hecticke faint and languishing ones A thousand causes besides affection and good will may obtaine vs this graunt of women It is no sufficient testimonie of true affection therein may lurke treason as else-where they sometime goe but faintlie to worke and as they say with one buttocke Tanquam thura merumque parent As though they did dispense Pure Wine and Frankincense Absentem mar more ámue putes Of Marble you would thinke she were Or that she were not present there I knowe some that would rather lend that then their coach and who emparte not themselues but that way you must also marke whether your company pleaseth them for some other respect or for that end onely as of a lustie-strong grome of a Stable as also in what rank and at what rate you are there lodged or valued tibi si datur vni Quo lapide illa diem candidiore notet If it afforded be to thee alone Whereby she counts that day of all dayes one What if she eate your bread with the sauce of a more pleasing imagination Te tenet absentes alios suspirat amores Thee she retaines yet sigheth she For other loves that absent be What have we not seene some in our dayes to have made vse of this action for the execution of a most horrible revenge by that meanes murthering and empoysoning as one did a very honest woman such as know Italie will neuer wonder if for this subiect I seeke for no examples else-where For the said nation may in that point be termed Regent of the world They have commonly more faire women and fewer foule then we but in rate and excellent beauties I thinke we match them The like I judge of their wiâ—â— of the vulgar sort they have evidently many more Blockishnes is without all comparison more rare amongst them but for singular wits and of the highest pitch we are no whit behinde them Were I to extend this comparison I might me thinkes say touching valor that on the other-side it is in regard of them popular and naturall amongst vs but in their hands one may sometimes finde it so compleate and vigorous that it exceedeth all the most forcible examples wee haue of it The mariages of that countrie are in this somewhat defectiue Their custome doth generally impose so severe obseruances and slauish lawes vpon wives that the remotest acquaintance with a stranger is amongst them as capitall as the nearest Which law causeth that all approaches prooue necessarilie substanciall and seeing all commeth
reason why those which trauell by sea doe sometimes feele such quaâ—mes and risings of the stomacke saying that it proceedeth of a kinde of feare hauing found-out some reason by which hee prooveth that feare may cause such an effect My selfe who am much subiect vnto it knowe well that this cause doth nothing concerne me And I know it not by argument but by necessarie experience without alleaging what some haue tolde mee that the like doth often happen vnto beasts namely vnto swine when they are farthest from apprehending any danger and what an acquaintance of mine hath assured mee of himselfe and who is greatly subiect vnto it that twice or thrice in a tempestuous storme being surprised with execeeding feare all manner of desire or inclination to vomit had left him As to that ancient good fellow Peius vexabar quà m vt periculum mihi succurreret I was worse vexed then that danger covld helpe me I never apprehended feare vpon the water nor any where else yet haue I often had â—â—st cause offred me if death it selfe may give it which eyther might trouble or astonie mee It proceedeth sometimes as well from want of iudgement as from lacke of courage All the dangers I haue had have beene when mine eyes were wide-open and my sight cleare sound and perfect For even to feare courage is required It hath sometimes steaded me in respect of others to direct and keepe my flight in order that so it might be if not without feare at least without dismay and astonishment Indeede it was mooued but not amazed nor distracted Vndanted mindes marche further and represent flight not onely temperate setled and sound but also fierce and bolde Report we that which Alcibiades relateth of Socrates his companion in armes I found saith he after the route and discomfiture of our armie both him and Lachez in the last ranke of those that ranne away and with all safetie and leasure considered him for I was mounted vpon an excellent good horse and he on foote and so had we combatted all day I noted first how in respect of Lachez he shewed both discrâ—â—te iudgement and â—ndanted resolution then I obserued the vndismaide brauery of his marche nothing different from his ordinarie pace his looke orderly and constant duly obsâ—â—uing and â—eedily iudging what euer passed round about him sometimes viewing the one and sometimes looking on the other both friendes and enemies with so composed a manner that he seemed to encourage the one and menace the other signifying that whosoever should attempt his life must purchase the same or his blood at a high-valued rate and thus they both saued themselues for men doe not willingly graple with these but follow such as shew or feare or dismay Loe heare the testimonie of that renowâ—ed Captaine who teacheth vs what wee daily finde by experience that there is nothing doth sooner cast vs into dangers then an inconsiderate greedinesse to aâ—â—â—de them Quo timoris minus est eo minus fermè periculi est The lesse feare there is most commonly the lesse danger there is Our people is to blame to say such a one feareth death when it would signifie that he thinkes on it and doth foresee the same Foresight doth equally belong as well to that which concerneth vs in good as touche vs in euill To consider and iudge danger is in some sort not to bee danted at it I doe not finde my selfe sufficiently strong to withstand the blow and violence of this passion of feare or of any other impetuosity were I once therewith vanquished and deterred I could never safely recouer my selfe Hee that should make my minde forgoe hir footing could never bring her vnto her place againe She doth ouer liuely sound and ouer deepely search into hirselfe And therefore neuer suffers the wound which pierced the same to be throughly cured and consolidated It hath beene happy for me that no infirmity could euer yet displace her I oppose and present my selfe in the best warde I have against all charges and assaults that beset mee Thus the first that should beare mee away would make mee vnrecouerable I encounter not two which way soeuer spoile should enter my holde there am I open and remedilesly drowned Epicurus saith that a wise man can neuer passe from one state to its contrary I have some opinion answering his sentence that hee who hath once beene a very foole shall at no time prooue very wise God sends my colde answerable to my clothes and passions answering the meanes I haue to indure them Nature hauing discouered me on one side hath couered me one the other Hauing disarmed me of strength she hath armed me with insensibility and a regular or soft apprehension I cannot long endure and lesse could in my youth to ride either in coach or litter or to go in a boate and both in the Citty and country I hate all manner of riding but a horse-back And can lesse endure a litter then a coach and by the same reason more easily a rough agitation vpon the water whence commonly proceedeth feare then the soft stirring a man shall feele in calme weather By the same easie gentle motion which the oares giue conuaying the boate vnder vs I wot not how I feele both my head intoxicated and my stomacke distempered as I cannot likewise abide a shaking stoole vnder me When as either the saile or the gliding course of the water doth equally carry vs away or that wee are but towed that gently gliding and euen agitation doth no whit distemper or hurte mee It is an interrupted and broken motion that offendes mee and more when it is languishing I am not able to displaye it's forme Phisitions haue taught mee to binde and gird my selfe with a napkin or swath round about the lower part of my belly as a remedy for this accident which as yet I haue not tride being accustomed to wrestle and with stand such defects as are in me and tame them by my selfe Were my memory sufficientlye informed of them I would not thinke my time lost heere to set downe the infinite variety which histories present vnto vs of the vse of coaches in the seruice of warre diuers according to the nations and different according to the ages to my seeming of great effect and necessitye So that it is wondrouslye strange how wee haue lost all true knowledge of them I will onely aleadge this that euen lately in our fathers time the Hungarians did very auailefully bring them into fashion and profitablie set them a worke against the Turkes euery one of them containing a Targattier and a Muskettier with a certaine number of harquebusâ—s or caliuers ready charged and so ranged that they might make good vse of them and all ouer couered with a pauesado after the manner of a Galliotte They made the front of their battaile with three thousand such coaches and after the Cannon had playde caused them to discharge and shoote off volie of smale shotte vppon their
Philosophie Inquisition the progresse Ignorance the end Yea but there is some kinde of ignorance strong and generous that for honor and courage is nothing beholding to knowledge An ignorance which to conceive rightly there is required no lesse learning than to conceive true learning Being yong I saw a law-case which Corras a Counsellor of Tholouse caused to bee printed of a strange accident of two men who presented themselves one for another I remember and I remember nothing else so well that me thought he proved his imposture whom he condemned as guilty so wondrous strange and so far-exceeding both our knowledge and his owne who was judge that I found much boldnes in the sentence which had condemned him to be hanged Let vs receive some forme of sentence that may say The Court vnderstands nothing of it more freely and ingenuously than did the Areopagites who finding themselves vrged and entangled in a case they could not well cleare or determine appointed the parties to come againe and appeare before them a hundred yeares after The witches about my countrie are in hazard of their life vpon the opinion of every new authour that may come to give their dreames a body To apply such examples as the holy word of God offreth vs of such things assured and irrefragable examples and joine them to our moderne events since wee neither see the causes nor meanes of them some other better wit then ours is thereunto required Peradventure it appertaineth to that onely most-mightie testimony to tell vs This here and that there and not this other are of them God must be beleeved and good reason he should be so Yet is there not one amongst vs that will be amazed at his owne narration and he ought necessarily to be astonished at it if he be not out of his wits whether he employ it about others matters or against himselfe I am plaine and homely and take hold on the maine point and on that which is most likely avoiding ancient reproches Maior em fidem homines adhibent ijs quae non intelligunt Cupidine humani ingenij libentius obscura creduntur Men give more credite to things they vndestand not Things obscure are more willingly beleeved through a strange desire of mans wit I see that men will be angry and am forbid to doubt of it vpon paine of execrable injuries A new manner of perswading Mercie for Gods sake My beliefe is not carried away with blowes Let them tyrannize over such as accuse their opinion of falsehood I onely accuse mine of difficulty and boldnesse And equally to them I condemne the opposite affirmation if not so imperiously He that with bravery and by commaundement will establish his discourse declareth his reason to bee weake For a verball and scholasticall altercation that they have as much apparance as their contradictors Videantur sanè non affirmentur modò Indeede let them seeme so they bee not avouched But in effectuall consequence they draw from it these have great ods To kill men there is required a bright shining and cleare light And our life is over reall and essentiall to warrant these supernaturall and fantasticall accidents As for drugges and poisons they are out of my element they are homicides and of the worst kinde In which neverthelesse it is said that one must not alwayes relie vppon the meere confession of those people For they have sometimes beene seene to accuse themselves to have made away men which were both sound and living In these other extravagant accusations I should easily say that it sufficeth what commendations soever he hath a man be believed in such things as are humane but of such as are beyond his conception and of a supernaturall effect hee ought then onely be believed when a supernaturall approbation hath authorized him That priviledge it hath pleased God to give some of our testimonies ought not to bee vilified or slightly communicated Mine eares are full of a thousand such tales Three saw him such a day in the East three saw him the next day in the West at such an houre in such a place and thus and thus attired vâ—â—ily in such a case I could not beleeve my selfe How much more naturall and more likely doe I finde it that two men should lie then one in twelve houres passe with the windes from East to West How much more naturall that our vnderstanding may by the volubility of our loose capring minde be transported from his place then that one of vs should by a strange spirit in flesh and bone be carried vpon a broome through the tunnell of a chimny Let vs who are perpetually tossed too and fro with domesticall and our owne illusions not seeke for forraine and vnknowen illusions I deeme it a matter pardonable not to beleeve a wonder so farreforth at least as one may divert and exclude the verification by no miraculous way And I follow Saint Augustines opinion that a man were better bend towards doubt than encline towards certainetie in matters of difficult triall and daungerous beliefe Some yeares are now past that I travelled through the country of a soveraigne Prince who in favour of mee and to abate my incredulity did mee the grace in his owne presence and in a particular place to make mee see tenne or twelve prisoners of that kinde and amongst others an olde beldam witch a true and perfect forceresse both by her vglines and deformity and such a one as long before was most famous in that profession I sawe both proofes witnesses voluntary confessions and some other insensible markes about this miserable olde woman I enquired and talked with her a long time with the greatest heed and attention I could yet am I not casily carried away by preoccupation In the end and in my conscience I should rather have appointed them Helleborum than Hemlocke Captisque res magis mentibus quà m consceleratis similis visa The matter seemed liker to mindes captivate then guiltie Law hath her owne corrections for such diseases Touching the oppositions and arguments that honest men have made vnto mee both there and often else-where I have found none that tie mee and that admit not alwayes a more likely solution than their conclusions True it is that proofes and reasons grounded vpon the fact and experience I vntie not for indeede they have no end but often cut them as Alexander did his knotte When all is done it is an over-valuing of ones conjectures by them to cause a man to be burned alive It is reported by diverse examples and Praestantius saith of his father that being in a slumber much more deeply then in a full-sound sleepe he dreamed and verily thought himselfe to be a Mare and serued certaine souldiers for a sumpter-horse and was indeede what he imagined to bee If sorcerers dreame thus materially If dreames may sometimes be thus incorporated into effects I cannot possibly believe that our will should therefore be bound to the lawes and justice which
it selfe or penetrates more deepely then doth licentiousnesse Our Armies have no other bond to tie them or other ciment to fasten them then what commeth from strangers It is now a hard matter to frame a body of a compleate constant well-ordred and coherent Army of Frenchmen Oh what shame is it We have no other discipline then what borrowed or auxiliar Souldiers shew vs. As for vs wee are ledâ—on by our owne discretion and not by the commaunders each man followeth his owne humour and hath more to doe within then without It is the commaundement should follow court and yeeld vnto hee onely ought to obey all the rest is free and loose I am pleased to see what remisnesse and pusilanimitie is in ambition and by what steps of abjection and servitude it must arrive vnto it's end But I am displeased to see some debonaire and well-meaning mindes yea such as are capable of iustice dayly corrupted about the managing and commanding of this many-headed confusion Long suffrance begets custome custâ—me consent and imitation We had too-too many infected and ill-borne mindes without corrupting the good the sound and the generous So that if we continue any time it will prove a difficult matter to finde out a man vnto whose skill and sufficiencie the health or recovery of this state may bee committed in trust if fortune shall happily be pleased to restore it vs againe Hunc saltem everso invenâ—m succurrere scclo Ne prohibete Forbid not yet this youth at least To aide this age more then opprest What is become of that antient precept That Souldiers ought more to feare their Generall than their enemie And of that wonderfull examplelesse example That the Romane army having vpon occasion enclosed within her trenches and round-beset an apple-orchard so obedient was shee to her Captaines that the next morning it rose and marched away without entring the same or touching one apple although they were full-ripe and very delicious So that when the owner came he found the full number of his apples I should bee glad that our Youths in steade of the time they employ about lesse profitable peregrinations and lesse honourable apprentishippes would bestow one moyty in seeing and observing the warres that happen on the sea vnder some good Captaine or excellent Commaunder of Malta the other moyty in learning and surveying the discipline of the Turkish armies For it hath many differences and advantages over ours This ensueth that heere our Souldiers become more licentious in expeditions there they proove more circumspect and fearefully wary For small offences and petty larcenies which in times of peace are in the common people punished with whipping or bastonadoes in times of warre are capitall crimes For an egge taken by a Turke without paying hee is by their law to have the full number of fifty stripes with a cudgell For every other thing how sleight soever not necessary for mans feeding even for very trifles they are either thrust through with a sharpe stake which they call Empaling or presently beheaded I have beene amazed reading the story of Selim the cruellest Conqueror that ever was to see at what time hee subdued the Country of Aegypt the beauteous-goodly gardines round about the Citty of Damasco all open and in a conquered Country his maine armie lying encamped round about those gardines were left vntouched and vnspoyled by the handes of his Souldiers onely because they were commaunded to spoyle nothing and â—ad not the watch-word of pillage But is there any malady in a Common-weale that deserveth to bee combated by so mortall drugge No saide Favonius not so much as the vsurpation of the tyrannicall possession of a Common-wealth Plato likewise is not willing one should offer violence to the quiet repose of his-Countrys no not to reforme or cure the same and alloweth not that reformation which disturbeth or hazardeth the whole estate and which is purchased with the blood and ruine of the Cittizens Establishing the office of an honest man in these causes to leaue all there But onely to pray God to lend his extraordinary assisting hand vnto it And seemeth to be offended with Dyon his great friend to have therein proceeded somewhat otherwise I was a Platonist on that side before ever I knew there had beene a Plato in the world And if such a man ought absolutely be banished our commerce and refused our societie hee who for the sincerity of his conscience deserved by meane of divine favour athwart the publique darkenesse and through the generall ignorance of the world wherein hee lived so farre to enter and so deepely to penetrate into chaistian light I doe not thinke that it befitteth vs to be instructed by a Pagan Oh what impiety is it to expect from God no succour simply his and without our co-operation I often doubt whether amongst so many men that meddle with such a matter any hath beene found of so weake an vnderstanding that hath earnestly beene perswaded he proceeded toward reformation by the vtmost of deformations that hee drew toward his salvation by the most expresse causes that wee have of vndoubted damnation that ouerthrowing policy disgracing magistrates abusing lawes vnder whose tuition God hath placed him filling brotherly mindes and loving hearts with malice hatred and murther calling the Divels and furies to his helpe he may bring assistance to the most sacred mildnesse and justice of divine Law Ambition avarice cruelty and revenge have not sufficient proppes and natural impetuousity let vs allure and stirre them vppe by the glorious title of justice and devotion There can no worse estate of things bee imagined than where wickednesse commeth to bee lawfull And with the Magistrates leave to take the cloake of vertue Nihil in speciem fallacius quà m prava religio vbi deorum numen praetenditur sceleribus There is nothing more deceiptfull to shew than corrupt religion when the power of Heaven is made a pretence and cloake for wickednesse The extreame kinde of injustice according to Plato is that that which is vnjust should be held for just The common people suffered therein greatly then not only present losses vndique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris Such revell and tumultuous rout In all the country round about But also succeeding dommages The living were faine to suffer so did such as then were scarse borne They were robbed and pilled and by consequence so was I even of hope spoiling and depriving them of al they had to provide their living for many yeares to come Quae nequeunt secum ferre aut abducere perdunt Et cremat insontes turba scelesta casas Muris nulla fides squallent popularibus agri They wretch-lesse spoyle and spill what draw or drive they may not Guilty rogues to set fire on guilt-lesse houses stay not In wals no trust the field By spoile growes waste and wilde Besides these mischiefes I endured some others I incurred the inconveniences that moderation bringeth in such diseases I was shaven