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
the centre or to view the thing by some falce lustre He is pleased onely to warrant himselfe from trouble and vnrulines As for weaknes he acknowledgeth and ingeniously auoweth the same He thinkes to give a just interpetation to the apparances which his conception presents vnto him but they are shallow and imperfect Most of Aesopes fables have divers senses and severall interpretations Those which Mythologize them chuse some kinde of color well-suting with the fable but for the most part it is no other then the first and superficiall glosse There are others more quicke more sinnowie more essential and more internal into which they could never penetrate and thus thinke I with them But to follow my course I have ever deemed that in Poesie Virgil Lucretius Catullus and Horace doe doubtles by far hold the first ranke and especially Virgil in his Georgiks which I esteeme to be the most accomplished piece of worke of Poesie In comparison of which one may easily discerne that there are some passages in the Aeneidos to which the Author had he lived would no doubt have given some review or correction The fift booke whereof is in my mind the most absolutely perfect I also love Lucan and willingly read him not so much for his stile as for his owne worth and truth of his opinion and judgement As for good Terence I allow the quaintnes and grace of his Latin tongue and judge him wonderfull conceited and apt lively to represent the motions and pashions of the minde and the condition of our manners our actions make me often remember him I can never reade him so often but still I discover some new grace and beautie in him Those that lived about Virgils time complained that some would compare Lucretius vnto him I am of opinion that verily it is an vnequall comparison yet can I hardly assure my selfe in this opinion whensoever I find my selfe entangled in some notable passage of Lucretius If they were moved at this comparison what would they say now of the fond hardie and barbarous stupiditie of those which now adaies compare Ariosto vnto him Nay what would Artosto say of it himselfe O seclum insipiens infacâ—tum O age that hath no wit And small conceit in it I thinke our ancestors had also more reason to cry out against those that blushed not to equall Plautus vnto Terence who makes more shew to be a Gentleman then Lucretius vnto Virgil. This one thing doth greatly advantage the estimation and preferring of Terence that the father of the Roman eloquence of men of his quality doth so often make mention of him and the censure which the chiefe judge of the Roman Poets giveth of his companion It hath often come vnto my minde how such as in our daies giue themselues to composing of comedes as the Italians who are very happie in them employ three or foure arguments of Terence and Plautus to make vp one of theirs In one onely comedie they will huddle vp five or six of Bocaces tales That which makes them so to charge themselves with matter is the distrust they have of their owne sufficiency and that they are not able to vndergoe so heavie a burthen with their owne strength They are forced to finde a body on which they may rely and leane themselves and wanting matter of their owne wherewith to please vs they will have the story or tale to busie and ammuse vs where as in my Authors it is cleane contrary The elegancies the perfections and ornaments of his manner of speech make vs neglect and loose the longing for his subiect His quaintnesse and grace doe still retaine vs to him He is every where pleasantly conceited Liquidus puroque simillimus amni So clearely-neate so neately-cleare As he a fine-pure Riuer were and doth so replenish our minde with his graces that we forget those of the fable The same consideration drawes me somewhat further I perceive that good and ancient Poets have shunned the affectation and enquest not onely of fantasticall new fangled Spagniolized and Petrarchisticall elevations but also of more sweet and sparing inventions which are the ornament of all the Poeticall workes of succeeding ages Yet is there no competent judge that findeth them wanting in those ancient ones and that doth not much more admire that smoothly equall neatnesse continued sweetnesse and florishing comelinesse of Catullus his Epigrams then all the sharpe quippes and witty girds wherewith Martiall doth whet and embellish the conclusions of his It is the same reason I spake of erewhile as Martiall of himselfe Minus illi ingenio laborandum fuit in cuius locum materia successerat He needed the lesse worke with his wit in place whereof matter came in supply The former without being moved or pricked cause themselves to be heard lowd enough they have matter to laugh at every where and neede not tickle themselves where as these must have forraine helpe according as they have lesse spirit they must have more body They leape on horse-backe because they are not sufficiently strong in their legges to march on foot Even as in our dances those base conditioned men that keepe dancing-schooles because they are vnfit to represent the porte and decency of our nobility endevour to get commendation by dangerous lofty trickes and other strange tumbler-like friskes and motions And some Ladies make a better shew of their countenances in those dances wherein are divers changes cuttings turnings and agitations of the body then in some dances of state and gravity where they neede but simply to tread a natural measure represent an vnaffected cariage and their ordinary grace And as I have also seene some excellent Lourdans or Clownes attired in their ordinary worky-day clothes and with a common homely countenance affoord vs all the pleasure that may be had from their arte Prentises and learners that are not of so high a forme to besmeare their faces to disguise themselves and in motions to counterfeit strange visages and antickes to enduce vs to laughter This my conception is no where better discerned then in the comparison betweene Virgils Aeneidos and Orlando Furiosâ— The first is seene to soare aloft with full-spread wings and with so high and strong a pitch ever following his point the other faintly to hover and flutter from tale to tale and as it were skipping from bough to bough alwaies distrusting his owne wings except it be for some short flight and for feare his strength and breath should faile him to sit downe at every fields-end Excursúsque breves tent at Out-lopes sometimes he doth assay But very short and as he may Loe-here then concerning this kind of subjects what Authors please me best As for my other lesson which somewhat more mixeth profite with pleasure whereby I learne to range my opinions and addresse my conditions the Bookes that serve me thereunto are Plutarke since he spake French and Seneca Both have this excellent commodity for my humour
glorious and generous Epicurian voluptuousnesse that makes accompt effeminately to pamper vertue in hir lap and there wantonly to entertaine it allowing it for hir recreation shame reproch agues povertie death and tortures If I presuppose that perfect vertue is knowne by combating sorrow and patiently vnder-going paine by tollerating the fits and agonies of the gout without stirring out of his place if for a necessarie object I appoint hir sharpnesse and difficultie what shall become of that vertue which hath attained so high a degree as it doth not onely despise all maner of paine but rather rejoyceth at-it and when a strong fit of the collike shall assaile-it to cause it selfe to be tickled as that is which the Epicurians have established and whereof divers amongst them have by their actions left most certaine proofes vnto-vs As also others have whom in effect I finde to have exceeded the verie rules of their discipline witnesse Cato the yonger when I see him die tearing and mangling his entrails I cannot simply content my selfe to beleeve that at that time he had his soule wholy exempted from all trouble or free from vexation I cannot imagine he did onely maintaine himselfe in this march or course which the rules of the Stoike sect had ordained vnto him setled without some alteration or motion and impassibilitie There was in my conceit in this mans vertue overmuch cheerefulnesse and youthfulnesse to stay there I verily beleeve he felt a kind of pleasure and sensualitie in so noble an action and that therein he more pleased himselfe then in any other he ever performed in his life Sic abijt è vita vt causam moriendi nactum se esse gauderet So departed he his life that he reioyced to have found an occasion of death I doe so constantly beleeve-it that I make a doubt whether he would have had the occasion of so noble an exploit taken from him And if the goodnesse which induced him to embrace publike commodities more then his owne did not bridle me I should easily fall into this opinion that he thought himselfe greatly beholding vnto fortune to have put his vertue vnto so noble a triall and to have favoured that robber to tread the ancient libertie of his Countrie vnder foote In which action me thinks I read a kinde of vnspeakable joy in his minde and a motion of extraordinarie pleasure joyned to a manlike voluptuousnesse at what time it beheld the worthinesse and considered the generositie and haughtinesse of his enterprise Deliberat a morte ferociâ—r Then most in fiercenesse did he passe When he of death resolved was not vrged or set-on by any hope of glorie as the popular and effeminate judgements have judged For that consideration is over base to touch so generous so haughtie and so constant a heart but for the beautie of the thing it selfe in it selfe which he who managed all the springs and directed all the wards thereof saw much more clearer and in it's perfection then we can doe Philosophie hath done me a pleasure to judge that so honorable an action had been vndecently placed in any other life then in Catoes and that onely vnto his it appertained to make such an end Therefore did he with reason perswade both his sonne and the Senators that accompanied him to provide otherwise for themselves Catoni quum incredibilem natura tribuisset gravitatem eámque ipse perpetua constantia roboravisset sempérque in proposito consilio permansisset moriendum potius quà m tyranni vultus aspiciendus erat Whereas nature had affoorded Cato an incredible gravitie and he had strengthned it by continuall constancie and ever had stood firme in his purposed desseignes rather to die then behold the Tyrants face Each death should be such as the life hath been By dying we become no other then we were I ever interpret a mans death by his life And if a man shall tell me of any one vndanted in apparance joyned vnto a weake life I imagine it to proceed of some weake cause and sutable to his life The ease therefore of his death and the facilitie he had acquired by the vigor of his minde shall we say it ought to abate something of the lustre of his vertue And which of those that have their spirites touched be it-never so little with the true tincture of Philosophie can content himselfe to imagine Socrates onely free from feare and passion in the accident of his imprisonment of his fetters and of his condemnation And who doth not perceive in him not onely constancie and resolution which were ever his ordinarie qualities but also a kinde of I wot not what new contentment and carelesse rejoycing in his last behaviour and discourses By the startling at the pleasure which he feeleth in clawing of his legges after his fetters were taken-off doth he not manifestly declare an equall glee and joy in his soule for being rid of his former incommodities and entring into the knowledge of things to come Cato shall pardon me if he please his death is more tragicall and further extended whereas this in a certaine manner is more faire and glorious Aristippus answered those that bewailed the same when I die I pray the Gods send me such a death A man shall plainly perceive in the minds of these two men and of such as imitate them for I make a question whether ever they could be matched so perfect an habitude vnto vertue that it was even converted into their complexion It is no longer a painfull vertue nor by the ordinances of reason for the maintaining of which their minde must be strengthned It is the verie essence of their soule it is hir naturall and ordinarie habite They have made it such by a long exercise and observing the rules and precepts of Philosophie having lighted vpon a faâ—â—e and rich nature Those vicious passions which breed in vs finde no entrance in them The vigor and constancie of their soules doth suppresse and extinguish all manner of concupisences so soone as they but begin to move Now that it be not more glorious by an vndaunted and divine resolution to hinder the growth of temptations for a man to frame himselfe to vertue so that the verie seeds of vice be cleane rooted out then by maine force to hinder their progresse and having suffred himselfe to be surprised by the first assaults of passions to arme and bandie himselfe to stay their course and to suppresse them And that this second effect be not also much fairer then to be simply stored with a facile and gentle nature and of it selfe distasted and in dislike with licenciousnesse and vice I am perswaded there is no doubt For this third and last manner seemeth in some sort to make a man innocent but not vertuous free from doing ill but not sufficiently apt to doe well Seeing this condition is so neere vnto imperfection and weaknesse that I know not well how to cleare their confines and distinctions The
the Aegyptian Priests taught Solon Athenâ—s tenue coelum ex quo etiam acutiores putantur Aâ—tici crassum Thebis itaque pingues Thebani valentes About Athens is a thin aire whereby those Country-men are esteemed the sharper-â—itted About Thebes the aire is grose and therefore the Thebans were grose and strong of constitution In such manner that as fruites and beasts doe spring vp diverse and different So men are borne either more or lesse warlike martiall just temperate and docile heere subject to wine there to theft and whoredome heere inclined to superstition addicted to mis-believing heere given to liberty there to servitude capable of some one Arte or Science grose-witted or ingenious either obedient or rebellious good or bad according as the inclination of the place beareth where they are seated and being remooved from one soile to another as plants are they take a new complexion which was the cause that Cirus would never permit the Persians to leave their barren rough and craggie Country for to transport themselves into another more gentle more fertile and more plaine saying that fat and delicious countries make men wanton and effeminat and fertile soiles yeeld infertile spirites If sometimes we see one arte to florish or a beliefe and sometimes another by some heauenly influence some ages to produce this or that nature and so to encline mankind to this or that biase mens spirits one while flourishing another while barren even as fields are seene to be what become of all those goodly prerogatives wherwith we still flatter our selves Since a wise man may mistake himselfe yea many men and whole nations and as wee say means nature either in one thing or other hath for many ages together mistaken hirselfe What assurance have we that at any time she leaveth her mistaking and that she continueth not even at this day in hir error Me thinkes amongst other testimonies of our imbecilities this one ought not to be forgotten that by wishing it selfe man cannot yet finde out what he wanteth that not by enjoying our possessing but by imagination and full wishing we can not all agree in one that we most stand in need-of and would best content vs. Let our imagination have free libertie to cut out and sew at her pleasure she cannot so much as desire what is fittest to please and content her quid enim ratione timemus Aut cupimus quid tam dextro pede concipis vt te Conatus non poeniteat votique peracti By reason what doe we feare or desire With such dexteritie what doest aspire But thou eftsoones repentest it Though thy attempt and vow doe hit That is the reason why Socrates never requested the gods to give him any thing but what they knew to be good for him And the publike and private prayer of the Lacedemonians did meerely implie that good and faire things might be granted them remitting the election and choise of them to the discretion of the highest power Coniugium petimus partúmque vxoris at illi Notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit vxor We wish a wife wifes breeding we would know What children shall our wife be sheep or shrow And the Christian beseecheth God that his will may be done least he should fall into that inconvenience which Poets faine of King Midas who requested of the Gods that whatsoever he toucht might be converted into gold his praiers were heard his wine was gold his bread gold the feathers of his bed his shirt and his garments were turned into gold so that he found himselfe overwhelmed in the injoying of his desire and being enrich't with an intollerable commoditie he must now vnpray his prayers Attonitus novitate mali divésque misérque Effugere optat opes quae modó voverat odit Wretched and rich amaz'd at so strange ill His riches he would flie hates his owne will Let me speake of my selfe being yet verie yong I besought fortune above all things that she would make me a knight of the order of Saint Michaell which in those daies was verie rare and the highest tipe of honour the French Nobilitie aymed at She verie kindly granted my request I had it In liew of raising and advancing me from my place for the attaining of it she hath much more graciously entreated me she hath abased and depressed it even vnto my shoulders and vnder Cleobis and Biton Trophonius and Agamedes the two first having besought the Goddesse the two latter their God of some recompence worthie their pietie received death for a reward So much are heavenly opinions different from ours concerning what we have need-of God might grant vs riches honours long life and health but many times to our owne hurt For whatsoever is pleasing to vs is not alwayes healthfull for vs If in liew of former health he send vs death or some worse sicknesse Virga tua baculus tuus ipsa me consolata sunt Thy rod and thy staffe hath comforted me He doth it by the reasons of his providence which more certainly considereth and regardeth what is meet for vs then we our selves can doe and we ought to take it in good part as from a most wise and thrice-friendy-hand si concilium vis Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid Conveniat nobis rebúsque sit vtile nostris Charior est illis homo quám sibi If you will counsell have give the Gods leave To weigh what is most meet we should receive And what for our estate most profit were To them then to himselfe man is more deare For to crave honours and charges of them is to request them to cast you in some battle or play at hazard or some such thing whereof the event is vnknowne to you and the fruit vncertaine There is no combate amongst Philosophers so violent and sharpe as that which ariseth vpon the question of mans chiefe felicitie from which according to Varroes calculation arose two hundred and foure score Sects Qui autem de summo bono dissentit de tota Philosophiae ratione disputat But he that disagrees about the chiefest felicitie cals in question the whole course of Philosophie Tres mihi convivae propè dissentire videntur Poscentes vario multum diversâ—palato Quid dem quid non dem renuis tu quod iubet alter Quod petis id sanè est invisum acidúmque duobus Three guests of mine doe seeme almost at ods to fall Whilst they with divers taste for divers things doe call What should I give What not You wil not what he will What you would to them twaine is hatefull sowre and ill Nature should thus answer their contestations and debates Some say our felicitie consisteth and is in Vertue Others in voluptuousnesse Others in yeelding vnto Nature Some others in learning others in feeling no maner of paine or sorrow Others for a man never to suffer himselfe to be carried away by apparances and to this opinion seemeth this other of
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
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
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