father and of the rest of the family be it neuer so vertuous there must also concurre the goodnesse of his conuersation abroade to make his domesticall familiaritie worke due effect since many times I haue seene it fall out that the haunting of ill company from home hath done a young man much more hurt then all the good instructions or vertuous examples domesticall could do him good So soft and tender are the minds of yong men and apt as was formerly said to be wrought like waxe to vice And this cometh to passe by reasō that the sensitiue part calling youth to delight and diuerting it from the trauell and paine which learning and vertue require is hardly subdued and brought vnder the rule of reason by which it esteemeth it selfe forced when it is barred from that it desireth And if by any exteriour occasion it be pricked forward it fareth as we see it oftentimes do with young hard-headed colts who take the bit in the mouth and run away with the rider carrying him will he nill he whether they list It ought therefore to be none of the least cares of the father to prouide that the forraine conuersation of his son may be such as shall rather help then hinder his care and home-example To which effect it would be very good if it might be possible that the young man were neuer from his fathers side But forasmuch as many occasions draw men to attend other waightier affaires as well publike as priuat wherby they are driuen to haue their minds busied about exterior things and to neglect their childrē who are their owne bowels Therefore is it their parts in such cases to appoint for their children when they are past their childish yeares some learned and honest man of vertuous behauiour to gouerne them and take care of them whose precepts they may so obey as they shall feare to do any thing that may breede reproch or blame vnto them For such things are mortall poison to yong mens minds and not only put them astray from the path that should leade them to vertue but imprint in them also a vitious habit that maketh them vnruly and disobedient to all wholesome admonitions and vertuous actions This man so chosen to haue the charge of youth must be carefull among other things to foresee that his disciples may haue such companions as the Persian Princes had prouided for them to wit equall of age and like of conditions with whom they may be conuersant familiar For such similitude of age and conditions doth cause them to loue and like one another if some barre or impediment fall not betweene them The auncient wise men assigned to youth the Plannet of Mercury for no other cause as I suppose but for that Mercury being as Astronomers say either good or bad according as he is accompanied with another plannet good or euil euen so youth becommeth good or bad as the companies to which it draweth or giueth it selfe And therefore ought not yong men to haue libertie to haunt what companie they list but to be kept vnder the discipline of wise men and trained vp in the companie of others of their age well bred vntill it may be thought or rather found by experience that they be past danger and become fit to guide themselues hauing brought their mind obedient to reason so farre as it cannot any more draw him to any delights but such as are honest and vertuous This delight in vertue and honestie is best induced into a yong mans mind by that true companiō of vertue that breedeth feare to do or say any thing vnseemely or dishonest which companion Socrates sought to make familiar to his scholers when he would tell them how they should endeuour themselues to purchase in their minds prudence into their tongues truth with silence and in their faces bashfulnesse called by the Latins verecundia deriuing it from the reuerence which yong men vse to beare to their elders This we call shamefastnesse and is that honest red colour or blushing which dieth a yong mans cheekes when he supposeth he hath done or said any thing vnseemely or vnfit for a vertuous mind or that may offend his parents or betters a certaine token of a generous mind and well disciplined of which great hope may be conceiued that it will proue godly and vertuous For as a sure and firme friend to honestie and vertue like a watch or guard set for their securitie it is euer wakefull and carefull to keepe all disordinate concupiscences from the mind whereby though of it selfe it be rather an affect then a habit neuerthelesse she induceth such a habite into a yong mans mind that not onely in presence of others he blusheth if he chance to do any thing not commendable but euen of himselfe he is ashamed if being alone he fall into any errour For though some say that two things chiefly keepe youth from euill correction and shame and that chastisement rather then instruction draweth youth to do well yet I for my part neuer think that yong man well bred or trained vp who for feare of punishment abstaineth from doing things shamefull or dishonest punishment being appointed but for them that are euill which made the Poet say For vertues sake good men ill deeds refraine Ill men refraine them but for feare of paine For the wickednesse of men hath caused lawes to be deuised and established for the conseruation of honest and vertuous societie and ciuil life whereunto man is borne which lawes haue appointed penalties for the offenders to the end that for feare thereof as Xenocrates was wont to say men might flie from ill doing as dogs flie harme doing for feare of the whip And because Plato formed his Common-weale of perfect and vertuous men therfore set he downe no lawes in his bookes de Repub. because he supposed the goodnesse of the men to be sufficient for the gouernement thereof without a law either to commaund good order or to punish offenders Neuertheles the same diuine Philosopher considering how the imperfection of mans nature will not suffer any such Common-wealth to be found he wrote also his bookes of lawes to serue for the imperfection of other Common-weales which were composed of men of all sorts good and bad meane or indifferent in which both instruction and punishment were needfull as well to make the euill abstaine from vice as to confirme the good and to reduce those that were indifferent to greater perfection Lawes therefore haue appointed punishments that vertue might be defended and maintained ciuill societie and humane right preserued But young men bred as our author would haue them are by all meanes to be framed such as for vertues sake for feare of reproch for loue and reuerence to honestie and not for feare of punishment to be inflicted on them by the magistrates or their superiours for doing of euill they may accustome themselues neuer to do any thing for which they should neede to blush
complaint of him and others of his disposition that looke to their owne priuate interest and consider onely what they may misse by not hauing a friend in such a place who might stand them in stead and regard no whit the contentment or discontentment of their friend which they are not able to measure as wanting the generall rule by which it ought to be measured according to reason and so consequently frame the measure according to their owne minds vsing their owne iudgements euen as the auncient Greekes were wont to say of the Lesbian rule which being made of lead the work-men would bend and fit to their worke and not frame their worke by a right rule But hauing added to his obiection your owne censure of me whose iudgement and prudence is so wel knowne and so much by me to be respected I can no lesse do then make some further Apologie for my selfe touching that point and open so much of my counsell and purpose in that behalf as I shall thinke needfull to giue you and others that will prefer reason before their opinions sufficient satisfaction And first where you say that my seruice in the place was acceptable vnto you all I cannot but therein acknowledge my good hap rather then impute it to any sufficiencie in my selfe Neither would I in regard of that great courtesie and fauour which I receiued therein haue willingly done any thing whereby I might haue seemed vnthankfull or to haue made so small estimation of so worthy a fauour But my not hauing bin brought vp or vsed to much writing and long standing which of ordinary that office doth require besides the extraordinary occasions which the seruice bringeth forth to trauell to sit vp late and disorder the body had bred such an increase of rheume in me and of infirmities caused therby as I could not without manifest and certaine perill of shortning my dayes haue continued the exercise of that place Whereupon hauing in dutifull sort made knowne the cause of my desire to resigne the office to the Lord Deputy who was in like sort priuy to some other iust occasion I had to further that my resolution it pleased him with his accustomed prudence and fauour towards me to consider and to allow of my request and to grant me his honorable consent to the accomplishmēt of the same Neither can this be rightly termed in me a retiring my selfe from the State or a withdrawing from action to hide my talent For leauing aside the vncertaintie and vaine issue for the most part of those hopes that commonly draw men on into ambitious heauing shouing for dignities and places of credit and commoditie from which to be freed little do men know or beleeue what gaine it is as of things that when they obtaine them not vexe and torment their minds and when they obtaine them do soone glut and weary them What comparison can a man of reason iudgement make betweene them and that contentednes which a well tempered and a moderate mind doth feele in a priuate life employed to the bettering and amending of the principall part which distinguisheth him from brute beasts Surely for my part I confesse frankly vnto you and protest I speake truly I haue found more quietnes and satisfaction in this small time that I haue liued to my selfe and enioyed the conuersation of my bookes when the care of my little building and husbandry hath giuen me that ordinary intermission which it must haue then I did before in all the time that I spent in seruice about the State the toile whereof was farre too high a price for the profit I might make of my place and the expectation which was left me of rising to any better Which neuerthelesse suppose it had bin much greater then euer I conceiued or then you haue seemed to make the same so free am I from ambition or couetise howsoeuer M. Smith would haue me to frame my mind thereto as I am not only content not to flatter my selfe with the shew of good which the best hopes might haue presented vnto me but resolued also to put from me and tread vnder foot whatsoeuer desire or inclination that either nature ill custome or daily example might vrge me vnto or stirre vp within me It is a perillous thing for men of weake braines to stand in high places their heads will so soone be giddie and all cilmbing is subiect to falling Let men of great spirits of high birth and of excellent vertues possesse in Gods name those dignities and preferments which the fauour of the Prince and their sufficiencie may purchase vnto them for it is they that as the Poet sayth Posuêre in montibus vrbem and of whom you might iustly say Grauior est culpa c. For as for me I am one of those of whom the same Poet sayd Habitabant vallibus imis And so I had rather to do still then to forsake my studies which I haue now begunne to renew againe hauing applied my endeuour to lay hold vpon the foretop which Lady Occasion hath offered me to that effect for to any other intent she neuer yet did so much as once shew her selfe to me a farre off much lesse present her selfe to me so neare as I might reach to catch her or fasten my hand in her golden locke I wish my friends therefore rather to allow and giue their consents to this my resolution grounded as I thinke vpon a reasonable consideration and an exact weighing of mine owne abilitie and disposition then to concurre with M. Smith in opinion or with any others that would lay to my charge folly or lacke of iudgement for the same And that generally all men would beleeue the Italian prouerbe which sayth that the foole knoweth better what is good and meet for himselfe then doth the wise man what is fit for another man Not that I would thereby reiect good counsell and friendly aduice which I know well enough how beneficiall a thing it is to all men in matters of doubt and difficultie but my meaning is onely to reserue to a mans owne vnderstāding the iudgement of such particular and priuate determinations as concerne the contentment or discontentment of his mind the circumstances of which perhaps are not meete to be communicated to others The example whereof Paulus Aemilius hath giuen vs with that graue and wise answer he made vnto his friends that wold needs reprehend him for repudiating his wife alledging her many good qualities as her beautie her modestie her nobilitie and other such like when putting forth his leg he shewed them his buskin and sayd You see this buskin is wel and handsomly made of good leather and to your seeming fit enough for my foote and leg yet none of you knoweth I am sure where it doth wring me Euen so my selfe may haply say to any whom my former answer may not fully satisfie that although to their seeming my state and condition was better by holding
Hydra had the same that gaue Hercules so much to do to ouercome her and it is to be maruelled that all yong men are not soone weary of that age which bringeth with it such varietie of imperfections and all contrary to reason and vertue You make vs almost to conceiue an opinion that there can be no Art nor prudence sufficient to deliuer vs from such a multitude of errors that enuiron vs on euery side If there were cause of complaint that youth should be thus described said I yet am not I the man you should complaine of but rather of mine author or of Aristotle who long before described the same euē as he hath done and of Horace in like sort who taking the matter out of Aristotle concluded it in substance much like though in fewer words saying The yong man on whose face no beard yet shewes When first he creepeth out of others charge Delights to haue both horse and hound at will With them to hunt and beate the woods and fields Like waxe to vice is easie to be wrought And sowre to them that tell him of his fault Too late he learnes his profit for to know And in expence aye too too lauish still His heart is high and full of hote desires And soone he loathes that earst he loued deare And truly the nature of a young man is very perillous and vnapt of it selfe to be ruled and directed to any good course partly because of the ignorance accompanying that age and partly for that following the vanities and delights which the worser part of the soule or mind doth set before him he respecteth not that which is honest and vertuous as a thing he neuer knew or tasted And therefore being intent onely to pleasures and delights he considereth not any thing but what is present before him For wanting as is said experience meete to foresee accidents to come he beleeueth much more them that intice him flatter him by praising all he doth then those men that reproue or check him for doing ill or shew him the way to vertue by telling him the truth Neither is there any thing that more setteth a yong man astray from the course of vertue then flattery and specially are yong Princes to take heede thereof about whom are continually flatterers to winne their fauor and by harming them with that subtil engin to purchase to themselues as much gaine profit as they can These who as Aristotle saith bend all their wits to euill with continuall lying and soothing make yong men beleeue that they are excellent in all things aboue course of nature whereunto they simple giuing a readier eare then they should become so blind and foolish that they discerne not their owne good but pricked forward with those false praises apply themselues to that onely which is pleasant and delightfull and become a prey vnto their flatterers who like Parasites affirme all that they heare their master say and denie whatsoeuer he denieth In which respect Diogenes did right well say that flatterers were worse then crowes who feed but on the carcasses of the dead but these iolly companions deuoure the mindes of men aliue making them become as Seneca saith foolish or mad Frō whose conceit Epicarmus varied not much who said that crows pick out the eyes but of dead carcasses but flatterers pick out the eyes of the mind whiles men are yet aliue And to say truly this cursed generation with their leasings and soothing induce such as harken to them and beleeue them to be their own foes and to barre themselues from the attaining of true glory whiles they make them glory in the false praises of wicked flatterers Who to the end they may be the better beleeued when they flatter vse all art possible to shew themselues affectioned though counterfetly to them in whose harts they seeke to poure their poison For they kill in them all seeds of vertue and they take from them the knowledge of themselues and of all truth to which flattery is a most pestilent and mortall enemie And happy might indeed Princes thinke themselues if they had about them men that would frankly and resolutely resist the attempts of flatterers such as was Anaxarcus Eudemonicus about Alexander the Great This Anaxarcus misliking that Alexāder throgh the flattery false praises of such as magnified his acts grew so prowd as he wold needs be esteemed a God seeing on a time his Physition to bring him a potion to ease the griefe of his disease when he was sicke said Is it not a wofull case that the health of our God should consist in a draught of licour and drugs composed by a man Words full wel beseeming the sincere mind of a free harted man As on the other side it was vile adulation which Demades the Athenian vsed who being at an assembly of Councell proposed a decree by which he would haue had Alexander to be reputed for the thirteenth of the great Gods But the people perceiuing his flattering purpose and small reuerence to diuine things condemned him in a fine of an hundred talents If Princes and such as manage States would follow this example and haue an eye to such fellowes there would not be such store of Sycophants as now a dayes there are and the vertues and merites of honest men worthy honour and fauour would be better knowne and regarded then they are and rewards and recompences would be giuen to such men and not to flatterers who seeke to put them besides themselues This I say of such as suffer themselues to be seduced by these charmers but not of wise Princes who giue no more eare to their inchantments then doth the serpent to the charmer because they know that their praises and soothings are but strāgling morsels smeared ouer with hony Philip of Macedon the father of Alexander had a flatterer in his Court called Cisofus or as some say Cleophus who did not onely affirme and deny all that Philip sayd or denied but also on a time when Philip had a sore eye and ware some band or scarfe before it he in like manner came before the King with the like and another time when Philip hauing hurt one of his legs limped vpon it and had clothes wrapped about it the flatterer came likewise with his leg so wrapped and halting into the Court seeking thus not only by his words as other Parasites do but also with his gestures and whole body to transforme the King and put him beside himselfe But although Philip tooke delight in this skim of men yet could they neuer draw him by their charming to incurre those vices which his sonne ranne into who albeit he was of a most noble nature and mind yet did he so much attribute to these bad companions and was so caried away with their flattering praises that he could not endure the truth that Calisthenes told him but miserably slue him spotting with so cruell and barbarous a fact all that
loue of vertue or feare of lawes they could possibly be reclaimed to vertuous life I pray you said Captain Norreis let me interrupt you a little so shall you the better take breath in the meane while I noted not long sithens a saying of your author which me seemed somewhat strange and that is that the substance of the soule should be made perfect by the accidents You say right quoth I but let not that seeme strange vnto you for it ought rather to seeme strange vnto you if it were otherwise because the substance of euery thing is so called by reason that it is subiect vnto accidents neither can there be any accident to which it is proper to be in some subiect but it must fall into some substance and hardly would the substance perhaps be discerned by sense but that the accidents do make it to be knowne Yet hath nature giuen to the substance all that she could giue to enable the same to wit that it might by nature be of it selfe alone hauing no need of any other thing in respect of being and that it should be so necessary to all things else that is not a substance as without it they should be nothing Therefore the nature of the soule is such as the parts thereof haue their vertues and faculties perfect but in that concerneth the directing of them to ciuill life man cannot by nature onely compasse it nor attaine to that end of which we treate Then said Captaine Norreis If it be so as by nature we cannot haue that wherewith we should compasse our felicitie it must belike be in vs contrary to nature And all things contrary to nature being violent and of no continuance I cannot perceiue how this felicitie of ours may stand Sir said I it followeth not that whatsoeuer is not by nature must needs be contrary to nature But most true it is that the meanes to guide vs to this felicitie or our felicity it selfe is in vs not by nature for if it were so all men should naturally be happy and by nature haue the means to purchase the same because all men should of necessitie worke after one sort For things naturall vnlesse they be forced or hindered do alwayes bring foorth the same effects wheresoeuer they be and the powers which nature bestoweth are indifferently dispensed to all alike Which thing is to be vnderstood by the vegetatiue part of the soule which in plants and in creatures sensible attendeth onely by nature without counsell or election to nourish to increase to procreate and to preserue ne ceaseth at any time frō those offices but alwaies produceth like effects in al things that haue life And the sēsible soule euermore giueth the power and vertue of feeling to creatures sensible and neuer altereth her operation nor ceaseth to yeeld the same whiles life endureth except by some strange accident she be forced Seeing therefore the diuersitie of mans will the varietie of his operations and how differently they vse the faculties of the soule we must needes conclude that in respect of ciuill life they work not according to nature But we must not therfore say that their working to purchase their felicitie and the end we speake of is contrary to nature For such things are properly said to be contrary to nature as are violently forced to that which is not naturall and whereunto they haue no aptnesse or disposition at all As for example if a stone which is naturally heauy and therfore coueteth to moue to the center of the earth be cast vpward into the aire by force it is to be said that the motion of that stone so forced vpward is contrary to nature because it hath no instinct or mouing from nature to go vpward and though it were throwne vp ten thousand times so often wold it fal downe again if it were not retained otherwise frō falling And if fire which is light couets to ascend should be forced downeward that force would be contrary to nature and the force ceasing it would by nature ascend again because it hath not any vertue or principle or motion to descend but onely to ascend by which it striueth to come to the place which is proper to it by nature as it is fire and by which it is fire naturally For the elements haue alwayes their essence most perfect when they are nearest to the place assigned them by nature But man being a creature capable of reason and thereby apt to receiue those vertues the seeds whereof nature hath sowne in his mind it cannot be said that the meanes by which he is to be led to so noble an end as his felicitie should be in him contrary to nature For neuer any thing worketh contrary to nature in which is the beginning of that operation that it is to do Why said Captaine Norreis againe since you say that the seeds of vertues are in our minds naturally it seemeth strange to me that they should not bring forth generally in all men their fruite as the seed which is cast into the earth springeth buddeth flowreth and lastly in due seasō yeeldeth fruite according to kind Marry said I and so they do For if mans care and industry be not applied to manure the earth diligently and to weed out the il weeds that spring among the good seed which is sowne they would so choke the same as it would be quite lost And euen so if the seeds of vertue be not holpen with continuall culture and care taken to pul vp the vices which spring therewith and whereof the seeds are naturally as well in our mind as those of vertue they wil ouer-grow and choke them as the weeds of the garden ouer-grow and choke the good herbes planted or sowne therein For so grow vp the disordinate appetites vnreasonable anger ambitions greedie desires of wealth of honour wanton lusts of the flesh and such other affections spoken of before which haue their naturall rootes in those two baser parts of the soule deuoyde of reason And as we see the earth without manuring to bring forth wyld herbs and weeds more plentifully then other good seed which by industry and labor is cast into the same so do those passions affects and appetites of those baser parts of the soule spring and grow vp thicker and faster then the vertues whereby for the more part the fruit of those good seeds of vertue is lost if the mind be not diligently cleaned frō them by the care of others And these ill qualities are in yong men the worse when they suffer themselues to be transported without regard of reason or honestie and their right iudgement to be corrupted and their crooked to preuaile Which crooked iudgement is in effect the cause of all vices and ill affections turnes the braine making them like drunken men much like as coccle doth to them that feed thereupon But this hapneth not vnto that youth which succeedeth a well fashioned childhood such as yesterday was
whē they first admitted it such they continued it without altering the space of ten thousand yeres according to their manner of contemplation hauing a conceit or rather a firme opinion that they could not alter musike but with danger to their State Which opinion the Lacedemonians likewise so embraced that when Timotheus an excellent Musition in Sparta had presumed to adde but one string to the Cyther they banished him out of the citie and territories as a violater of lawes and a corrupter of honest discipline Albeit with Phrine they dealt more mildly who hauing added to the Cyther two cords one sharpe and another graue or flat they onely caused him to take them away againe supposing that seuen strings were enough to temper the sound thereof as a number comprehending all musike and that the increasing therof was but superfluous and harmefull These ancient examples considerations are not sleightly to be passed ouer for though many other occasions of corruption in our age may be assigned yet one of the principall in the iudgement of wise men may wel be imputed to the qualitie of that corrupted musike which is most vsed now a dayes carrying with it nothing but a sensuall delight to the eare without working any good to the mind at all Nay would God it did not greatly hurt and corrupt the mind For as musike well vsed is a great help to moderate the disorderly affections of the minde so being abused it expelleth all manly thoughts from the heart and so effeminateth men that they are little better then women and in women breedeth such lasciuious and wanton thoughts that oftentimes they forget their honestie without which they cannot be worthy the name of women Not that I would hereby inferre that musike generally were to be misliked or vnfit for women also but my meaning is of this wanton and lasciuious kind of musike which is now a dayes most pleasing and resembleth the Lydian of old time which Plato so abhorred as he would not in any sort admit it into his Common-weale lest it should infect the minds of men and women both And from him may we learne what kinde of musike he would haue men to embrace to stirre their mindes vp to vertue and to purge the same from vice and errour Like as also frō Aristotle in his 8. booke of Politikes taken perchance out of the writings of his master But if that auncient kinde of musike framed and composed wholy to grauitie were now knowne and vsed which kinde was then set forth with the learned and graue verses of excellent Poets we should now also see magnificall and high desires stipped vp in the minds of the hearers Which verses contained the praises of excellent and heroicall personages and were vsed to be sung at the tables of great men and Princes to the sound of the Lyra whereby they inflamed the mindes of the hearers to vertue and generous actions For the force of Musike with Poesie is such as is of power to set the followers and louers thereof into the direct way that leadeth them to their felicitie Socrates demaunding of the Oracle of Apollo what he should do to make himselfe happie he was willed to learne Musike whereupon he gaue himselfe forthwith to the studie of Poesie conceiuing with himselfe that verses and Poeticall numbers are the perfectest Musike and that they enter like liuely sparkes into mens minds to kindle in them desires of dignitie greatnesse honor true praise and commendation and to correct whatsoeuer is in them of base and vile affection In auncient time therfore men caused their children to be instructed in Poesie before all other disciplines for that they esteemed good Poets to be the fathers of wisedome and the vndoubted true guides to ciuill life and not without cause For they raise mens thoughts from humble and base things such as the vulgar and common sort delight in and make them bend their endeuours wholy to high yea heauenly things As who so list to attend diligently the excellencie of the Psalmes and Hymnes composed by the Kingly Prophet Dauid and others called the singers of the Hebrew Church shall easily discerne But since our musike is growen now to the fulnes of wantō and lasciuious passions and the words so confusedly mingled with the notes that a man can discerne nothing but the sound and tunes of the voices but sence or sentence he can vnderstand none at all euen as it were sundry birds chanting and chirping vpon the boughes of trees yong men are much better in the iudgement of the wise to abstaine from it altogether then to spend their time about it For as good disciplines are the true and proper nourishment of vertue so are the euill the very poison of the same Then said Captaine Carleil as concerning the difference between the auncient musike and ours in this age I do easily agree with you and wish it were otherwise that we might see now a dayes those wonderfull effects of this excellent Art which are written of it in auncient authors But where you so highly extoll the studie of Poesie you make me not a little to maruel considering how Plato being so learned a man did not onely make small estimation thereof but banished it expresly from his common-weale Let not that seeme strange vnto you said I for Plato condemned not Poesie but onely those Poets that abused so excellent a facultie scribling either wanton toyes or else by foolish imitation taking vpon them to expresse high conceirs which themselues vnderstood not And specially did he reprehend those Poets who in their fictions did ascribe to the Gods such actions as would haue bin vnseemely for the most wanton and vicious men of the world as the adultery of Mars and Venus those of Iupiter with Semele with Europa with Danaë with Calisto and many moe Though some haue vnder such fictions sought to teach morall and maruellous sences which Plato likewise in his second Alcibiades declareth But he blamed not those Poets who frame their verses and compositions to the honor of God and to good examples of modestie and vertue For in his books of Lawes he introduceth Poets to sing Himnes to their Gods and teacheth the maner of their Chori in their sacrifices and to make prayers for the Common-weale Howbeit to say truth though he so do he would not haue it lawfull for euery man to publish any composition that he had made without the allowance and view of some magistrate elected in the citie for that purpose Which magistracy he would haue to be of no fewer in number then fiftie men of grauitie and wisedome of such importance did he hold the compositions of Poets to be Which regard if it were had now a dayes we should not see so many idle and profane toyes spred abroade by some that think the preposterous turning of phrases and making of rime with little reason to be an excellent kinde of writing and fit to breed them fame and reputation
souldiers besides that their peaceable maner of coming freed me from doubt of cesse thanked be God the state of the realme was such as there was no occasion of burthening the subiect with them such had bin the wisedome valour and foresight of our late Lord Deputie not onely in subduing the rebellious subiects but also in ouercoming the forreine enemie whereby the garrison being reduced to a small number and they prouided for by her Maiestie of victual at reasonable rates the poore husbandman might now eate the labors of his owne hands in peace and quietnes without being disquieted or harried by the vnruly souldier We haue said sir Robert Dillon great cause indeed to thanke God of the present state of our country and that the course holden now by our present Lord Deputie doth promise vs a continuance if not a bettering of this our peace and quietnesse My Lord Grey hath plowed and harrowed the rough ground to his hand but you know that he that soweth the seede whereby we hope for haruest according to the goodnesse of that which is cast into the earth and the seasonablenesse of times deserueth no lesse praise then he that manureth the land God of his goodnesse graunt that when he also hath finished his worke he may be pleased to send vs such another Bayly to ouersee and preserue their labours that this poore countrey may by a wel-ordered and setled forme of gouernement and by due and equall administration of iustice beginne to flourish as other Common-weales do To which all saying Amen we directed our course to walke vp the hill where we had bene the day before and sitting downe vpon the little mount awhile to rest the companie that had come from Dublin we arose againe and walked in the greene way talking still of the great hope was conceiued of the quiet of the countrey since the forreine enemie had so bin vanquished and the domesticall conspiracies discouered met withall and the rebels cleane rooted out till one of the seruants came to call vs home to dinner Where finding the table furnished we sate downe and hauing seasoned our fare with pleasant and familiar discourses as soone as the boord was taken vp they sollicited me to fetch my papers that I might proceede to the finishing of my last discourse of the three by me proposed But they being ready at hand in the dining chamber I reached them and layd them before me and began as followeth Hitherto hath bin discoursed of those two ages which may for the causes before specified be wel said to be void of election and without iudgement because of their want of experience For which cause haue they had others assigned to them for guides to leade them to that end which of themselues they were not able to attaine that is their felicitie in this life And now being to speake of that age which succeeds the heate of youth we must a litle touch the varietie of opinions concerning the same Tully saith that a citizen of Rome might be created Consul which was the highest ordinary dignitie in that citie when he was come to the age of 23. yeares Plinie in his Panegyrike saith that it was decreed lege Pompeia that no man might haue any magistracie before he were thirtie yeeres old And Vlpian lege S. Digest treating of honours writeth that vnder the age of 25. yeares no man was capable of any magistracie Among these three opinions the last of the ciuill lawyer holdeth the medium and is therefore the fittest to be followed for then is a young mans mind setled and he is become fit being bred and instructed as hath bin before declared to be at his owne guiding and direction and then doth the ciuill law allow him libertie to make contracts and bargaines for himselfe which before he could not do being in pupillage and vnder a tutor Howbeit our common law cutteth off foure yeeres of those and enableth a yong man at 21. yeeres of age to enter into his land and to be as we terme it out of his wardship Which time being I know not for what respect assigned by our lawes may well be held not so well considered of as that which the ciuill law appointeth if we marke how many of our yong men ouerthrow their estates by reason of their want of experience and of the disordinate appetites which master them all which in those other foure yeares from 21. to 25. do alter to better iudgement and discretion Whereby they are the better able to order their affaires Why said Captain Dawtry I haue knowne and know at this day some young men who at 18. yeeres of age are of sounder iudgement and more setled behauiour then many not of 25. yeeres old onely but of many moe yea then some that are grey-headed with age Of such said I there are to be seene oftentimes as you say some that beyond all expectation and as it were forcing the rules of nature shew themselues stayed in behauiour and discreete in their actions when they are very yong to the shame of many elder men Of which companie I may well of mine owne knowledge and by the consent I thinke of all men name one as a rare example and a wonder of nature and that is sir Philip Sidney who being but seuenteene yeeres of age when he began to trauell and coming to Paris where he was ere long sworne Gentleman of the chamber to the French King was so admired among the grauer sort of Courtiers that when they could at any time haue him in their companie and conuersation they would be very ioyfull and no lesse delighted with his ready witty answers thē astonished to heare him speake the French language so wel and aptly hauing bin so short a while in the countrey So was he likewise esteemed in all places else where he came in his trauell as well in Germanie as in Italie And the iudgement of her Maiestie employing him when he was not yet full 22. yeeres old in Embassage to congratulate with the Emperour that now is his comming to the Empire may serue for a sufficient proofe what excellencie of vnderstanding and what stayednesse was in him at those yeeres Whereby may well be said of him the same that Cicero said of Scipio Africanus to wit that vertue was come faster vpon him then yeeres Which Africanus was chosen Consull being absent in the warres by an vniuersal consent of all the tribes of Rome before he was of age capable to receiue that dignitie by the law But these are rare examples vpon which rules are not to be grounded for Aristotle so long ago said as we do now in our common prouerbe that one swallow makes not summer Among young men there are some discreete sober quicke of wit and ready of discourse who shew themselues ripe of iudgment before their yeeres might seeme to yeeld it them so are there among aged men on the other side some of shallow wit and little