condemn'd is almost continually join'd with a Fear that they do not And from hence it comes to pass that when these two contrary Passions meet together in one mind they must needs cause great inequalities and remarkable alterations because if the Desire excites us the Fear again damps us when the one animates us to the speaking of a good Word the other interrupts us and obliges to Silence We may judge from hence how much wrong this Fear does to a good Grace as well as Vanity and Constraint It ordinarily comes to pass that those Women who are always in alarm and every moment fear they shall mistake do almost nothing else but mistake An Extream Apprehension disposes the Mind to Errour as well as the Body to Distemper And to make a right Judgment of this troublesome Passion it seems to me that if we enquire well into the Cause of it we shall find the Education contributing no less to it than Temper and Birth Those that are brought up in Slavery know not how to do any thing with Liberty they dare not look up with that honest assurance which should give a good Grace to their Actions their Thoughts are always mean and whatever good Inclinations they may have yet their Shame and Ignorance hinder them from succeeding in all their Enterprises Those Women that have seen nothing of the World are liable to be astonish'd at small Matters because the constant Distrust which they have of themselves makes them fear and admire every thing For the most part after their Reverences they have no other Complements but those that are used at the ends of Letters They would have found out an excellent Remedy for this if they would but perswade themselves that they ought not so easily to admire things and that if they would give themselves leisure to examine that which at first sight amazes them they would often find after the conversation of an hour's length that what was the Subject of their Admiration ought to cause their disdain But this Resolution is not acquired without Labour It is very Difficult even to the best Wits to have Address without Experience or Readiness without Practice Actions breed a Habit with some difficulty but when the Habit is form'd then that produces the Actions with Ornament and a good Grace Nevertheless when I condemn the rustick Shame I have no Intention herein to recommend Impudence since both of them have Issues and Effects that are unjust forasmuch as the one transports us beyond our Power and what becomes us and the other detains us below them both On the contrary the Modesty that I desire is placed between these two vicious Extreams that it may keep us at a Distance from too good or from too ill an Opinion of our selves The Debauched or Lewd Woman THERE ARE perhaps but few Palaces that resemble the Isle of Chio where it is said the Ladies preserved inviolate the Laws of Chastity and Honour during the space of seven hundred Years I know not whether this was an Effect of their Skill or of their Vertue but be it as it will this was a Chastity of a long Duration and which deserves Admiration and Praise as much as the Corruption of the present Age deserves Reproofs and Punishments It may be this Discourse will not be at all pleasing to those Women to whom I desire it should be useful but if the Vicious are not disposed to receive our Remedies for their Cure at least they must expect to undergo our Affronts for their shame I speak boldly to all for if they be debauch'd I desire not to be in any Favour with them and if they be honest I do not fear that I shall hereby incurr their Hatred The one sort will applaud my Censure and the other will do me honour in not approving my Discourse any more than I do their Life However I shall always lie under this Inconvenience That whatever Horrour I can help any to conceive at this Crime it must be more obscure than injurious in such a matter It is necessary to conceal through Modesty that which Hatred and Truth would require to be publish'd It is herein that this Crime has a great advantage in that while it is worthy of Reproof the Filthiness it self nevertheless serves it for a Defence and one is constrained to spare it more out of shame than pity IT IS VERY TRUE then that the Passion of the debauched does no way deserve the Name of Love it is some other Disease which cannot be cured but by a Miracle and one may well say to the reproach of those that are infected with it what the Poet said of Myrrha that it was not Cupid that enkindled such a Flame in her but rather one of the most inraged Furies This is a Fire from Hell which has for its Smoak a black and dismal Blindness for its gloomy Shine a horrid Scandal and for its Ashes Infamy and Shame And how can their filthy Desire be call'd Love when instead of Election there is nothing in it but a brutal Universality For in loving all to speak properly they do not love any since this is a Fire which mingles with all sorts of Matter even to the burning in the Water I mean it can entertain for its Objects such as are worthy of the greatest horrour and detestation AND NEVERTHELESS though they have the Conscience full of Crimes these are often they who would pass for Saints As the most deform'd have most need of Paint and Disguise so these Debauchees do sometimes seek the most industriously the Appearance of Vertue It is for this Reason they live with so much constraint and that there is nothing equal or natural in their Deportment that they appear this day insolent according to their humour and to morrow carry themselves modestly according to their Dissimulation and Hypocrisie They who say the Vicious resemble the Syrens perhaps do not know all the Mystery of this Comparison One of these Monsters was named Parthenope that is to say Virgin having a smiling Countenance to allure Mariners withal and make them split upon those Rocks that were covered by the Water The most Immodest will sometimes endeavour to appear the most Chast but with all their Disguise they are but infamous Gulphs where none but the Imprudent and the Desperate make Shipwrack They make a show of Candour and ingenuous Freedom to the end they may the better deceive those who are simple enough to believe they do those things only out of Humour or very innocently which they really do with Design to catch some Fool or other thereby They do nevertheless even herein acknowledge the worth of Vertue since they borrow the Appearance of that for the putting off their Vice But herein their Design succeeds ill whatever address they have their Artifice renders them suspected And as we know that is counterfeit Gold which bears too bright a Colour so we may discover their disguised Vertue by it's making
entertain an eternal Sedition within our selves We cannot be happy but by halves our Inclination is upon the rack while our Reason is satisfied It is true that is said of Love that without Inclination it cannot long subsist Without this an Amity has not an entire Satisfaction nor even Confirmation It is a Building without Foundation which needs but a Touch or Blast to throw it down But to finish this Argument with the strongest Proof of all Since Love ceases to live when it ceases to reign and that it cannot divide its Power without losing it That we may sufficiently prove the Love of Inclination to be the most Sovereign and the most Legitimate it is enough to show that it is the most single and that it will never permit that we should love more than one thing As we can have but one Sympathy we cannot love perfectly more than one Object On the contrary as we can seek our Interest in several Persons when we find it not in one alone so this Love of Consideration may be divided it may seek what is profitable in one and what is agreeable and pleasing in another After all if Consideration and Inclination were to dispute before a Wise Judge that he might determine to which of the two Love does most lawfully belong as heretofore the two Mothers pleaded before Solomon for the living Child Inclination would at length have the advantage He would give Love to that since it can endure no Division of it as the other can and because it will possess it or lose it entirely AFTER WE have seen the Reasons which are given to prove that Inclination is the more strong in Amity it is time to examine those which may be brought to show that Election is the more assured and safe in such an important Concern It shall then suffice at the first to make it appear how much Inclination is dangerous to shew how blind it is For as the Dawn precedes the rising of the Sun so Knowledge ought to go before Love and however Sympathy does act without Choice and Light yet that which it does in a Moment causes oftentimes the repentance of the whole Life Election is not so forward nor ready 't is true and also it is not so unfortunate And I think Zeuxis return'd a very prudent Answer to those that reproach'd him for that he was long in finishing his Pieces I says he aâ— a long time in drawing a Picture because what I draw is to endure a long time One may say for a firm Affection that which he said for an excellent Picture It is necessary that a long Experience should precede a true Amity for fear lest a long Regret should follow an Election too lightly made This of Sympathy is an Agreement very suddenly made it often obliges it self without knowing to what Conditions and commonly signs without having look'd upon the Articles The Example of Dido alone sufficiently shews the tragick Effects of this Lightness The Poet had reason to say that her Love was blind and that it consisted of a Fire that had more heat than brightness And in truth I find in this Fable the Infelicity as well as the Blindness of this Love If Dido had an Inclination Aeneas had none at all as she was imprudent he was ungrateful History and Experience afford us Examples enough of this sort and when I make use of Fable I do this for Ornament to my Discourse not to give it greater Strength But to say truth is not this a very weak Reason to perswade a Woman to love me to say that I have a great Inclination for her The same Argument I bring to perswade Love may serve her for the refusal of giving it If I say I follow my Inclination in loving such a Person may not she say she follows hers in not loving me Is not her Aversion as well founded as my Sympathy If I wish that she would renounce her Humour to satisfie mine has not she right to pretend to the same advantage over me In truth I extreamly love what the Poets say of this matter They feign that Cupid has two sorts of Arrows the one of Gold the other of Lead the former gives Love the latter Hatred With the one he inflam'd Apollo with the other he chill'd Daphne Was not the Flight of this Shepherdess altogether as just as the Pursuit of the God If he sought her because of an Inclination to her she shunn'd him because she had an Aversion to him Besides what Assurance have we that any have an Inclination for us what Marks that are sufficiently certain can any give whereby to know it It is true that we may well perceive our own but whereby can we infallibly observe that of others This can only if at all be done by the means of Reason which ought to examine whether that which we take at first for true be not an Illusion or Fiction And to speak rationally of this thing when the Inclination surprises as sometimes it does our Reason so as to make us too easily fall in love with an Object Reason then is found like a Servant interested or corrupted that will engage her Mistress to her Disadvantage The Senâ—â— herein would often debauch the Spirit they are Servants that are traiterous or ignorant and bring false reports to their Master Iâ— it not then a great deal better that we love for the amiable Qualities that we see than for an Inclination that is hidden from us Why should we entertain a Love for which we know neither Cause nor good Reason This is in truth to love by chance here is nothing but Uncertainty There can never be an intire Satisfaction in our Love while we shall be in pain to know whether the Sympathy be equal on both sides We perceive a Wound without knowing the Hand that struck and are enslav'd by invisible Chains And I assure my self that if we would be curious to examine well that which has arrested us we should soon acknowledge our Errour and Imprudence If we did but light up a Lamp as Psyche did perhaps we should find with her that this Love is but a Child who fears to be seen lest we should know and despise his Weakness It is a great unhappiness that we have some Difficulty to undeceive our selves Though the Sentiments which are most natural are not the most reasonable yet as the Earth cherishes best those Weeds that it brings forth of it self more than the Plants that the Gardener sows in it So we seem to entertain more carefully the Affections that come from our natural Corruption than those that proceed from our Reason Nevertheless we ought to consider that as the Physician corrects the Appetite to make it relish what is wholesome nourishment So we ought also if we will be wise to regulate our minds that we may direct our Affections to right Objects We must of necessity treat our selves like sick Persons in this case there is nothing
we ought so much to forbid our selves as that which pleases us most our Inclination is no less deprav'd than their Taste it proceeds from a poison'd Spring it comes not from Nature sound and well but from that which is corrupted I approve mightily the Opinion of them who compare the Amity of Election to the Sun and the Love of Inclination to the Moon for the former is always equal and the latter is commonly unconstant full of Errour and of Spots The Moon of her self has no Brightness Inclination alone has no Conduct It has need to borrow that from Reason And above all after the same manner as the Moon appearing sometimes with the Sun does not make the Day for all that nor contribute any assistance towards the Enlightening of the World so when by good Fortune the Love of Inclination meets with that of Election it ought not to govern us or make it self our Master but on the contrary it ought to borrow all it's Light and Direction from the other But to improve this Comparison a little further I could wish to this purpose that the Ladies would imitate Her whom the Holy Spirit describes in sacred Writ as having the Moon under her Feet and being all over inviron'd and as it were cloathed with the Sun I mean that they ought not utterly to throw away Inclination but to conquer and moderate it that there should be in Love a little of Humour and a great deal of Prudence That Amity has no need of Inclination but in its Birth but has need of Consideration as long as it endures If it be necessary that the one be the Mother of it it is so too that the other be the Nurse and Mistress And in truth Inclination is like an imprudent Mother who loves her Children too well They must be wrested from her Bosom as soon as they are brought forth for fear that in Caressing and Embracing she should stifle them After all this Inclination is nothing else for the most part but a Phantasm the most learned find it difficult to express the Cause or the Nature of it It is so occult and hidden that many not being able to comprehend the Love that it gives Birth to they say it is they know not what which forms it self they know not how and which conquers by they know not what sort of Charms There are some that teach upon the Foundations of Plato's Philosophy That Inclination comes from Remembrance and that our Souls having view'd each other in another World before it seems that this is not the beginning of a Love but the continuance of 〈◊〉 That this is not properly the Birth of an Affection but the awakening of it Insomuch that according to their Opinion our Souls call to mind their former Alliance no otherwise than as two persons that have mutually lov'd heretofore when they see each other again after a long Separation they are surprized at first sight while the Imagination and Memory are at labour to discover and recollect those that touch them There are some others that attribute an Inclination to the Stars and who will have it that the same Cause which produces Flowers in the Bosom of the Earth produces also the Sympathy that is in our Souls Some again ascribe it to the four Qualities that they fansie are mingled in us namely Heat and Cold Dryness and Moisture And others make short Work of it and ascribe it to Destiny But that I may not trouble my self or the Reader with the Opinions of all those that deceive themselves and who seek the Original of the Inclination there where it is not it seems to me that we may philosophize rightly to proceed only from the Love of our selves We love all that which resembles us even to our Pictures we cherish our Image in all things where we see it We love all that which comes from us Fathers for these reasons love their Children Painters their Draughts Artificers their Work It is from hence that we may learn the great danger there is where the Love of Inclination engages us for since we very often love our selves on that side where we are most Imperfect and we embrace even our very shadow like Narcissus It follows from thence that we are in danger to love the Imperfections of others if it happens that they resemble our own If the love of our selves be blind that of Inclination is so likewise this is an Effect that must carry the resemblance of its Cause But if this Love of Inclination were not so dangerous and so full of darkness what need is there of this Sympathy or natural Conformity And why may not Love place it there where it was not Love as well as Death equals all things and makes a likeness where it does not find it In loving as well as dying both Kings and Shepherds find themselves at the same point Herein they are both Men equal in respect of Affection and of Weakness Love is like a Fire which can kindle another any where It does not only transmit it self into the subject it burns but also has power to dispose that to receive it It removes the qualities contrary to its own to put in others It drives the Enemy from the place it lays Siege to before it does render it self Master of it And to say the truth as there are hidden Forms in the Bosom of Matter which natural Agents are able to excite and produce so there are hidden Inclinations in our Souls which Conversation and Familiarity may give birth to There needs no more but to seek well after them and if we find them not at first yet a little time usually produces them How often do we see some Persons that distast us at the first and who nevertheless after a little Conversation do highly please us And others again who ravish us at the first sight and afterwards displease us as much Love may succeed to Aversion as well as Aversion to Love Experience sufficiently shows this and as those Trees that are of different kinds being well grafted do not fail to bring forth Fruit so the Amity that is formed between two Persons of different Humours may not fail to succeed well Plato had some reason to say That Love is a Teacher of Musick for as much as an Affection may breed as well in an inequality of Humours as a harmony may be made up of unequal Voices And indeed what sort of Conformity can we find between the young and the old who yet nevertheless do often mutually Love and Caress each other What proportion or likeness is there between the Loadstone and the Iron If the one drew the other out of Sympathy and Resemblance would not Iron be rather attracted by Iron than by the Stone to which it has a great deal less likeness But to the end that we may the better see how shameful and unjust this Love of Inclination is it is enough to consider that they who love us
and if they hold their peace on many occasions it is not so much to chuse words as to seek them These persons would need take but little pains to become good Disciples of Pythagoras Were it not that while they hold their peace but meerly out of necessity they are not capable to learn how to speak with address They want a School quite contrary to that of Pythagoras where they may study that Readiness which they want they have more need of Medicin than Precept and to cure them it is not only necessary to read Lessons but also to work Miracles As it seems much more easy for the Fire to descend than for the Earth to mount so 't is possible that they who have a ready forward Humour may moderate it by reading and experience But they that have the gross and heavy Souls let them employ themselves in whatever study they will have a great deal of difficulty to render them more lively or more subtle The Birds have Wings that inable them to fly yet they fold them up when they will to refresh themselves And the most transcendent Spirits can do as much as they either for action or repose But when the Melancholy set themselves to animate their faintness they put themselves into the danger of Icarus who was too dull and had not enough of Address to fly upon the Wings of Artifice Their Discourse and their behaviour are altogether unhandsome when they force themselves to express and shew in them a heat that they have not in their nature They resemble those old Men who run when they think only to go or mend their pace but by chance and then they lose their breath all at once after the least effort because they do not wisely accommodate their pace to their weakness Whatever some say in commendation of their Coldness To Imagine that this is of excellent use in business I think a Man had need to be possest with the same humour If they suceed in that it is more the effect of Chance than of Knowledge If the forward Spirits are to be accused for taking Occasions too soon and snatching them before they be ripe the Melancholy are in danger of coming always too late and of staying till they are rotten and if the former do not attend till they present the later think not of them many times but when they are past They are too subject both to Fear and to Despair As they are without heat they are without action and their Icy humour represents all things impossible whether they are what they should avoid or what they should undertake Their Senses are stupified with a Lethargy and cannot be roused but by cutting or burning them They seem to want a resurrection rather than an awakening and are a sort of Sick persons that must be made to die to teach them that they are not dead If they have Judgment to deliberate they have almost no Confidence to resolve and yet have less of Courage to execute This is a Paralytick Vertue that needs to be spur'd upon occasions and remains always Languishing with remedies at hand without being able to make use of them if it be not stir'd up with great endeavour It were indeed too great an offence to believe that there is not a great number of very wise and excellent persons of this temper But also it ought to be allow'd they would be too injurious to Wisdom and Vertue that should make it always musing and reserv'd as if they who have nothing to fear or desire out of themselves ought not at all to shew a smiling Countenance for a Testimony of the satisfaction of their Conscience On the contrary if Serpents breed in Standing Waters so do ill Thoughts enjoy themselves in this muddy Humour And if the Spirit of such persons is fit to invent what is wicked their Face is no less fit to cover it When a Rust is gotten among the Wheels of a Clock there is no more any Rule in the motions or any certainty in the Dial of it And when a profound Melancholy has mingled it self with our Thoughts the Spirit is full of Inquietude and the Visage of Grimaces What Light or what Reason can be expected where a multitude of black Fumes from Melancholy infect the Brain Just as the Demons have sometimes mingled themselves with a Storm to kill the Men or burn the Temples so they often serve themselves of this gloomy Humour to possess the Soul with Superstition Despair or Hypocrisy Cesar well testified what we ought to judge of these Melancholy Humours when he openly declar'd that he fear'd a great deal more those that were Melancholy as Brutus than those that were Merry as Dolabella It ought not to be taken ill if I to describe this Melancholy Humour do say some of those things that it produces that we may the better observe the nature of the Cause in that of the Effects There are then some Hypocondriacks to whom Mirth and innocent freedom are no less displeasing than Day-light to an Owl and as their Visage shews always I know not what of Fatal in it so one cannot chuse but have an Aversion for their sad Mein Nevertheless if their Coldness is only an effect of the Temperament it deserves either Excuse or Compassion But if it proceeds from Artifice it cannot be exempted from Suspicion or Blame So that to examin well the difference that is usual between these two Humours The Modesty of the Native Plainness is all in the Heart that of the Labour'd and endeavour'd Persons is all on the Forehead and the Outside The One in truth are not Good nor the Other Bad but in appearance I grant the Casuists have some reason to say of Sports and Pastimes as the Physitians judge of Mushrooms That the best of them are good for nothing And yet I am not willing so absolutely to decry those pleasures that are indifferent in themselves and which the Intention alone can as well render Good as Bad. St. Elizabeth of Hungary did not refuse sometimes to dance yet nevertheless her Good Humour did not hinder her from being Canonized Those that lay so great restraint upon the Usage of things that are honest are usually very free in the enjoyment of what is forbidden when they can avoid the having a Witness to their Actions And nevertheless it is the Unhappiness of these Times that people live under so much disguise and endeavour that one hardly can laugh without giving occasion of suspicion to weak minds or of slander to those that are wicked as if a chearful humour were a certain sign either of a light Spirit or a small Judgment We ought rather to deride such a Censure than be troubled at it And those Ladies that would preserve their good humour without putting constraints upon themselves out of regard to this Vulgar Error they ought also to forbid themselves as much as may be either desire or regret as being two of the
make Reflections upon their Unsteadiness they would confess that when the Poets invented their Chimera they had a design to draw their Picture since to speak the truth there is as prodigious a variety in their Sentiments as in the feigned Body of this Monster In truth it is just matter of wonder that the same Mind should be capable in so little time of so different Thoughts even to contrariety sometimes If many of these Women had a Painter hired to take every day a Draught of them according to their different Resolutions I assure my self that there would appear every night under their Hands a meer Landskip of a Wilderness We may see some of them that will on this day appear mighty Chast and on the next they are Lewd now they show themselves Covetous and anon Liberal It would be well for them that they could forget this shameful variety and that they were without Memory as well as without Steadiness For the little Memory they have however little it is will make them ashamed of their Judgment I could wish to them that which Epictetus requires in a Wise Man that is That they knew the Art of Regulating their Opinions and of Subjecting them to Reason They would herein have conquer'd many of their Enemies and appeased those Winds which ordinarily cause all the Tempests of their Life But when is it that these Women are more subject to this Ridiculous inequality than when they are elevated with a High Fortune since from that time every one worships their Opinions even the most Extravagant of them and their Imperfections are praised and their very Vices term'd Vertues since also they have then all things so much at their Wish and are sometimes so weary even of Delight that their own Disgust which arises from their being cloy'd causes their Inconstancy Having tired themselves with true Pastimes their sickle Minds busie them with Imaginary ones It is for this Reason that Prosperity and Levity are very often lodged together Let none deceive themselves in this Matter nor think that to render any Steady in their Minds I have a Mind to make them Obstinate It is not always blameable to change there are Seasons wherein this is not contrary to Prudence It is as great a fault altogether to adhere to an Opinion when it is an ill one as to change from that which is good Obstinacy and Inconstancy both are equally contrary to Election because the one is Immoveable when it ought to change and the other changeable when it ought to be fixed That we may be Steady or Constant there is nothing more required than that we persevere in Truth and Equity Besides I know very well that the Minds of the wisest Persons may be moved at the first in some Re-encounters Aulus Gellius says That the Stoicks themselves do not deny but their Wise Man is capable of some change because say they the Emotion is not in our Power but the Consent to it is And to speak in the Terms of their Sect the Visions do not depend upon us but only the Approbations I blame then the Unsteadiness which proceeds from our selves and not at all that which is join'd to the weakness of our Sence and is not in our own Power I HAVE a Mind to discover yet other Causes of the Unevenness of the Mind I suppose then that even knowing Persons may have sometimes their Mind uneven and as it were irresolute because the greatness of their Light does as it were dazle them and make their Election waver and while they look upon the same Object under various Appearances they cannot easily determine themselves but do find some probability as it seems to them even on all sides Nevertheless it must be own'd that this Uncertainty is yet more common to the Ignorant for that while they know not the true Nature of Good or Evil there is more of Hazard than Assurance in their Choice and by so much the more as their Spirit is weak they are unconstant SEE AGAIN a Cause of this of another Kind There are some who have truly some Wit and Knowledge but they have nevertheless also I know not what natural Easiness of Temper that renders them susceptible of all sorts of Opinions Their Spirit has some Light but it has nothing of Force it knows how to propose but has need of Assistance towards the making a good Conclusion There are but too many of this Sort who see the Truth but are not able to follow it Who set sail towards the right Port but every the least Tempest casts them upon another Coast and who suffer themselves to be carried away with a Perswasion as Ships are by the Winds and Stream of the Tides As they are Credulous they are Unsteady AND IN TRUTH may we not see some that have a certain Distrust of their own Sentiments though they are not bad and that cannot go without a Guide though they are not blind Paschalius says that Women ordinarily believe very lightly when they are in great prosperity and that it is from hence that they appear so uneven He brings the Example of Procris in Ovid to show that they very easily believe what they fear or what they desire since she her self was so credulous to the Reports of Slanderers and yielded so readily to the Offers of Cephalus her Husband when he was disguised that she became as lightly Jealous as she was Amorous And in truth those that are in a great Fortune let themselves easily be catch'd with Flattery or moved to Revenge And as there is no injury so small for which they will not insist upon a Satisfaction so there is no praise or Commendation of them so excessive as that they will not receive it It is their constant Misfortune to give Credit to Flatterers and Slanderers LASTLY to find out the more ordinary and dangerous Source of Unevenness we may observe that we shall find none more capable of this than those Women who have no Design or those that have bad ones There are some careless Wretches that do not propose to themselves any end at all who live in I know not what sort of Indifference like those Archers that let fly their Arrows into the Air without aiming at any Mark or as Mariners that should let themselves wander upon the Ocean without steering towards any Port. It cannot be but such must be very unconstant But those that have any ill Design must needs be yet more so because the frequent Remorses that gripe them cause their minds almost every moment to change their Opinion as they do their Faces to change Colour So that to have a steddy constant mind there is nothing more requisite than to keep it Innocent And to this purpose I have a most admirable Rule which I took from a Person very knowing and religious To preserve said he an Equality of Mind in all our Designs and in all our Sentiments without giving our Consciences any Reason ever to reproach us we ought to take care in all our Pretensions that Justice do seek Prudence find Strength revenge and Temperance do possess There ought to be Justice in the Affection Prudence in the Understanding Courage in the Effects and Temperance in the Use The Practice of this excellent Advice would confirm the most unconstant Thoughts and happily determine those that are most true For that none may flatter themselves it must be said that the true Evenness of Mind is inseparably join'd to Purity of Conscience LET US FINISH this Discourse too with that which is of Importance Whatever it is that happens to us that is strange or deadly what need is there that it should mightily trouble us Certainly there would be many more that would endure well and constantly the Evils that befall them if they could represent to themselves that 't is God who tries us and that Patience is a Vertue so lovely that in the Exercise of this Men are apt to think well of ones Actions though they are none of the best There are many more would defend themselves from Sadness if they would but consider that this Passion is no less unprofitable than dangerous If I say they would consider that in the greatest Extremities either there is a Remedy or there is none If there be one why should we not employ all possible means without admitting so great a Trouble of Mind till we see how they shall succeed If there be no Remedy we must resolve to suffer as we must to die since as the one is inevitable according to the Laws of Nature so we see the other to be so according to the Laws of Necessity After all How superfluous is Sorrow and Grief It cannot find again that which is lost nor call to life what is dead it cannot hinder but that Evils will come nor can it cause the good things that are gone away to return And nevertheless as if this fatal Passion could not do us harm enough alone we help it to persecute us There are some that do not put forth the least Endeavour towards the helping of themselves who seek Solitude for fear they should be diverted from their Grief and who fly from Comforters as if they were Murtherers What a Blindness is it to do ones self so much Mischief without any appearances of Advantage If we examine this Case well we shall find that we are not so unhappy in any thing else for the most part as we are in our Grief and Trouble of Mind Or that we are not so truly sad because we are unhappy as we are unhappy in that we are sorrowful and sad FINIS ADVERTISEMENT The ARTS of EMPIRE and Mysteries of State Dis-cabineted in Political and Polemical Aphorisms grounded on Authority and Experience and Illustrated with the Choicest Eâ—â—mples and Historical Observations By the Ever Renowned Knight Sir Walter Raleigh Published by John Milton Esq Printed for Joseph Wats at the Angel in S. Paul's Church-Yard