part in it at all First Because he only permits to it an Additional and Accidental Being and that not in the quality of Evil neither but as being it self a necessary Expedient for the promoting of Good And Secondly Because even after all these Limitations it depends wholly upon the Choice and Determination of the Soul and can have no being at all without our own Consent and actual Concurrence For which Reason it is that all the Laws both of God and Man suffer such Actions as are done involuntary to go unpunished And indeed all Evil whatsoever is in some Sense an involuntary Misfortune to the Soul for the Soul never chooses Evil considered as Evil but under the Desire and Pretence of some Good as sometimes Riches sometimes Senfual Enjoyments or Honours or Proferments and Greatness Now in such Cases the Mischiefs attending these are either wholly overlooked or else they are lessened and stifled by that prevalency of Passion which bribes and sways the Soul So that there cannot possibly be any such thing in nature as an Absolute Evil when considered in all the Circumstances of it And that which never had any Being may sooner be than that even this Accidental Being in the Soul should be entirely Evil and chosen as such Some perhaps may imagine that God is the Cause of Evil as having given the Soul this Freedom to Virtue or Vice to the ill Management whereof that Evil is owing Now indeed if the Soul 's being indued with a Faculty of acting freely and absolutely be Evil then he who gave this Faculty must be confessed the Cause of Evils But if such a Power be Good a greater and more valuable Good than all the Advantages of the World besides why then should he who hath given us the Good be for so doing charged with the Evil Since therefore that which is most agreeable to our Nature and Reason is also most eligible and desirable what account can be given why any one that is a Man and understands at all wherein the peculiar Excellence of a Man consists should rather wish to be a Plant or any other Irrational Creature than that which God hath made him Though at the same time we must allow that even Plants and other Irrational Beings are Good in their Kind and Capacity that is in a lower Degree and a qualified Sense and in proportion to the Uses they are designed to serve Now if it be in our own power to be Good and Happy and we have the sole Disposal of this Matter so that nothing can possibly bring our Desires or our Aversions under any Compulsion to act as we would not have them or under any Restraint not to act as we would have them such a Free Nature and Absolute Power as this is in my Opinion a Glorious Priviledge a most Magnificent and Royal Prerogative and the Person in whom it is lodged is thereby made a Great a Happy an Arbitrary Prince But if such a Soul contribute to its own Deviations and can choose whether it will so deviate or no where can any Miscarriage of that kind be laid with any tolerable Justice but to the charge of the Soul it self which is the true Original and Cause both of its own Good and of all the Deflexions from it since in and by it such Deflexions first began For the Great Creator who hath thus made it so as to be the Cause of its own Ruin did not absolutely ruin it but only made it capable of being ruined and yet at the same time too utterly incapable of it without her own Consent If therefore this Volition or Consent be an internal Motion of her own she is the sole Cause of her own Sin and Misery Behold therefore the Goodness and the Wisdom of God! For since the Constitution of the World and Order of Nature made a middle sort of Beings necessary that should stand between those that are always above and those that are always below things that should bear a Resemblance and be conformed sometimes to one and sometimes to the other of these Beings and thus make the whole perfect by partaking of and knitting together the distant Extremes Since also this tendency to things below us is but an accidental and additional thing and this Prudence is the very thing capable of Depravation he hath endued this middle sort of Beings with such a Tendency yet so as that it may still remain Untainted and Undepraved if it will do so and that he himself might be clear upon all Accounts and in no degree the Cause of any manner of Evil. These Arguments I have insisted on the more largely not only because they are proper for the explaining what Epictetus have delivered upon this occasion but also in regard they give us a great light into what he tells us afterwards concerning the Nature of Evil. For we might have made very short work of the Case now before us and needed only have given this Answer to all the Objections that when Epictetus advises Men to be well pleased Things should be just as they are he does not intend it of Vice or that which is Evil to the Soul for he could never have said that Men who are pleased with their own or other People's Vices are easie and happy but that we must restrain it to those Accidents that affect our Bodies or our Fortunes For these are things that a Wise and Good Man will be sure to make an Advantage of however they are ordered and the more Cross and Difficult they are the more still will he profit by them And these are the things he means which foolish and ignorant Men wish may be conformable to their own Wishes and Desires and not the Desires and Aversions themselves in which all our Good and Evil consists For they are in our own power just what we please to make them and consequently it were most absurd and foolish to wish they were as we would have them But he advises that we would forbear wishing thus of Things out of our power because this is what we cannot compass by any strength of our own nor would it always prove for our Advantage to do it if we could For we often are passionately desirous of what is pleasant though at the same time it be prejudicial to us and as often decline what is harsh and unpalatable though Providence intend it for Physick and design our mighty Benefit in the application Sickness is a Hindrance to the Body but it does not enfeeble the Mind nor can it obstruct her Freedom unless she please her self And Lameness is a Confinement to the Foot but it can put no Restraint upon the Will nor make that one jot the less Active And the same Consideration is applicable in proportion to every Accident of Humane Life For you will find that though these may prove Obstructions to something else yet they cannot or need not ever be so to you He had told us immediately
sometimes to qualifie it for suffering gallantly wheâ— any Accident gives us an Occasion And this may be accomplish'd these two Ways By getting a right Notion of them and By being well prepared against them which is to be done partly by accustoming the Body to Hardship which indeed is of general use and hath enabled even Ignorant and Ill Men to slight Blows and other Pains which we commonly think intolerable and partly too by fixing the Mind in a provident Forecast and distanâ— Expectation of them And all these Things we may certainly do if we please Now if neither Death nor any of those Things we dread most have any Thing that is formidable in their own Nature it is plain neither they nor the Persons that inslict them are the Cause of our Trouble but we our Selves and our own Opinions bring this upon our Selves When therefore the Mind feels it self perplexed with Grief or Fear or any other Passion the Blame is our own and nothing but our Opinions are accountable for such Disorders None but ignorant and undisciplin'd People tax others with their Misfortunes The Young Proficient blames himself but the Philosophâ—r indeed blames neither others nor himself The Connection of this with what went before is so close that if a Conjunction were added and we â—â—ad it thus For none but ignorant and undisciplin'd People tax others with their Misfortunes it had given a very good Reason why we should never lay our Troubles or Fears or Disorders or any other Calamity we fancy our Selves in to any Thing or any Bodies Charge but our own Since this Way of proceeding he says comes from want of being taught better And then to this Character of the Ignorant and Undisciplin'd he adds that of One who is a Beginner only in Philosophy and one who hath attained to a Mastery in it The Perfect Philosopher never thinks any Thing that befalls him Evil nor charges any Body with being the Occasion of his Misfortunes because he lives up to the Dictates of Nature and Reason and is never disappointed in his Pursuits and Desires nor ever overtaken with his Fears He that is but Raw and unfinish'd does indeed sometimes miss of his Desires and falls into the Mischiefs he would flec from because the brutish Inclinations move too strongly in him at such Times And when this happens the first Elements he learn'd which taught him to distinguish Things In and Out of our Power teach him too That he himself and none but he is the true Cause of all his Disappointments and all his Disasters And the Occasion of them all was his mistaking the Things without us and placing a Man 's proper Good and Evil in them But you will say perhaps Since this Young Philosopher knows That our own proper Good and Evil depends upon our own Power and Choice and the accusing himself implies that he knows thus much how comes it to pass that he takes wrong Measures and renders himself liable to this Blame Probably because the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the first step to be made toward Virtue this being the proper Act of Reason But the brutish Appetites do not always presently submit to Reason nor suffer themselves to be easily reduced and tempered by it and especially where it happens as it does very often that Reason is Negligent and Sluggish and the Irrational Part active and perpetually in Motion by which means the Passions gather Strength and usurp an absolute Dominion This was the Case of her in the Play Remorse and Sense of Guilt draw back my Soul But stronger Passion does her Powers controul With Rage transported I push boldly on And see the Precipice I cannot shun So that for some time it is pretty tolerable if Reason can work upon the Passions and either draw them by Force or charm and win them over some soster way For when this is done then the Knowledge of the Intelligent Part is more clear and instructive and proceeds without any Distraction at all No wonder therefore if Men but little trained in Philosophy make some false Steps while their Passions are not yet totally subdued and their Reason does not operate in its full Strength And when they do so they accuse Themselves only as having admitted that Distinction of Things in and out of our own Power though as yet they seem to have but an imperfect Notion of it But they that are Ignorant and absolutely untaught must needs commit a World of Errors both because of that violent Agitation which their Passions are continually in and of the Ignorance of their rational Part which hath not yet learn'd to distinguish real Good and Evil from what is so in appearance only Nor does it take them off from Brutality not so much as in Thought only By Brutality I mean such low and mean Notions as persuade us that our Body is properly our Selves and our Nature or which is yet worse when we think our Riches so as the Covetous do Now while we continue thus ignorant there are several Accounts to be given for our doing amiss We do it because we think all our Good and Evil consists in Things without us and not being at all sensible what is properly the Happiness or Unhappiness of Humane Nature or whence it proceeds we fall foul upon other People and fancy that they who obstruct or deprive us of those External Advantages we so eagerly pursue or that bring upon us any of the Calamities we would avoid are the real Causes of all our Misery Though in truth neither those External Advantages which we call Good nor those Calamities we call Evil are what we take them for but as Circumstances are sometimes ordered may prove the direct contrary For our Folly in this case is just like that of silly Boys that cannot endure their Masters but think them their worst Enemies and the Cause of a World of Misery but value and love those as their Friends indeed that invite them to Play and Pleasure Thus Epictetus hath given a short but exact Character of these three sorts of Persons The Perfect Philosophers are guilty of no Miscarriages for their Understanding is sufficiently accomplished to direct them and the Irrational Part readily submits to those Directions So that here is nothing but Harmony and Compliance and consequently they have no Body to lay any Misery to the Charge of for indeed they cannot labour under any Thing that is truly and properly Misery They cause none to themselves for this were a Contradiction to the Perfection of their Wisdom and Virtue and nothing else causes them any for they do not suppose any External Causes capable of doing it The Ignorant and Untaught err in both these Respects Neither their Reason nor their Passions are rightly disposed And they lay all their Unhappiness to others upon an Erroneous Imagination that it proceeds from Things without us And indeed it is easie and pleasant and fit for ignorant Wretches to shuffle off
the Rise and Birth of another And by this perpetual Round it is that Matter and Motion have been sustained all this while Now it is obvious to any observing Man that both Nature and Art as was urged heretofore do frequently neglect a part when the detriment of that in particular may conduce to the good of the whole The former does it as often as our Rheums and Ulcerous Humours are thrown off from the Vitals and turned into Sores or Swellings in any of the Extream Parts And Art imitates this Method of Nature as oft as a Limb is seared or lopped off for the preservation of the Body So that upon the whole Matter these Shocks and Corruptions of Bodies deserve rather to be esteemed Good than Evil and the Cause of them the Cause of Good and not Evil Events For those Sublunary Bodies that are Simples suffer no Injury because they are subject to no Decay or Destruction And for the Evil that the Parts seems to undergo this hath been shewn to have more Good than Evil in it both in Simples and Compounds even when considered in it self but if taken with respect to the Benefit which other Creatures reap by it then it is manifestly Good So that the Distempers and Decays of Bodies take them which way you will are not Evil but produce great Good But if any one shall be scrupulous upon this occasion and quarrel with that being called Good which is confessed to be no better than a perverting of the course of Nature let not this Nice Caviller take upon him however to call it Evil in the gross Sense and common Acceptation of the Word by which we understand something utterly repugnant and irreconcileable to Good But let him rather call it a Necessity or Hardship as being not desirable for its own sake but having some tendency and contributing to that which is so For were it simply and absolutely Evil it could never be an Instrument of Good to us Now that which I mean by Necessary though it have not Charms enough of its own to recommend it yet does it deserve to be accounted Good for leading us to that which is Good and that which can become a proper Object of our Choice under any Circumstance is so far forth Good Thus we choose Incisions and Burnings and Amputations nay we are content to pay dear for them and acknowledge our selves obliged both by the Prescription and the painful Operation all which were most ridiculous to be done if we thought these things Evil. And yet I own this is but a Qualified and an Inferior Good not strictly and properly so but only in a Second and Subordinate Sense Yet so that the Creator of these things is by no means the Cause of Evil but of a necessary and meaner Good but a Good still for such we ought to esteem it since it is derived from the same Universal Fountain of Goodness though embased with some Allays and Abatements And thus much I hope may be thought sufficient in Vindication of the Nature and Cause of that Evil which Bodies are concern'd in Nothing indeed can so truly be called Evil as the Lapses and Vices of the Soul of Man and of these too much hath been said before but however we will resume the Discourse upon this Occasion and enquire afresh both into the Nature and the Cause of them And here we shall do well to take notice That the Soul is of a more excellent Nature which dwell in the Regions above us are immutably fixed in Goodness and wholly unacquainted with any Evil. There are also the Souls of Brutes of a Baser alloy than ours and standing in the middle as it were between the Vegetative Souls of Plants and our Rational ones These so far forth as they are Corporeal are liable to that Evil to which Bodies are subject but so far as concerns their Appetites and Inclinations they bear some resemblance to the Humane and the Evil they are in this respect obnoxious to is in proportion the same so that one of these will be sufficiently explained by giving an account of the other Now the Humane Soul is in a middle Station between the Souls above and those below it partakes of the Qualities of both of those more Excellent ones in the Sublimity of its Nature and the Excellence of its Understanding Of the Brutal and inferiour ones by its strict affinity to the Body and Animal Life Of both these it is the common Band by its Vital Union with the Body and by its Habitual Freedom assimilates it self sometimes to the one sort and sometimes to the other of these Natures So long as it dwells above and entertains it self with Noble and Divine Speculations it preserves its Innocence and is fixed in Goodness but when it begins to flag and droop when it sinks down from that blissful Life and grovels in the Filth of the World which by Nature it is equally apt to do then it falls into all manner of Evil. So that its own Voluntary Depression of its self into this Region of Corruption and Mortality is the true Beginning and proper Cause of all its Misery and Mischief For though the Soul be of an Amphibious Disposition yet it is not forced either upwards or downwards but acts purely by an internal Principle of its own and is in perfect Liberty Nor ought this to seem incredible in an Agent which Nature hath made Free since even those Brutes that are Amphibious dwell sometimes in the Water and sometimes upon dry Ground without being determined to either any otherwise than by their own Inclination Now when the Soul debases her self to the World and enters into a near Intimacy with the Corruptible Body and esteems this to be the other consistent part of the Humane Nature then it leads the Life of Brutes and exerts it self in such Operations only as they are capable of It s Intellectual part degenerates into Sense and Imagination and its Affections into Anger and Concupiscence By these the wretched Mortal attains to Knowledge just of the same pitch with that of other Animals such as puts him upon seeking fresh Supplies for a Body that is continually wasting and upon continuing the World by Posterity to fill the place of one that must shortly leave it and upon making the best Provision he can for his own Preservation and Defence in the mean while For these Cares are what no Mortal would have were he not endued with Sensual Faculties and Passions For what Man that is any thing Nice and Considering would endure to spend so many Days and Years upon the support of this Body when the Burden of the whole Matter comes to no more than always filling and always emptying if Sensual Inclinations did not whet his Appetite Or who could undergo the tedious fatigue by which Succession is kept up if vehement Desires did not perpetually kindle new Flames and the prospect of Prosperity make us more easie to be warmed by
the Soul be affected with it or move towards it and the Evil must be disapproved before she flee from it Though indeed the Stoicks have advanced a contrary Method and represented the Affections by which the Soul is carried to or from its Object as if they were antecedent to Desire and Aversion thus considering these Affections as the beginnings and immediate Causes of those Desires and Aversions in the Soul But after all the brutish Inclinations such particularly as Anger and Sensual Appetite are so much of a piece with the Body so closely and manifestly interwoven with the Blood and Animal Spirits that they seem to grow from the particular Complexions and Constitutions of Men. So that these must of necessity derive their Motion from an External Cause in great measure and cannot be perfectly at their own disposal nor under the absolute mastery of the Persons thus desiring c. though they are begun too and proceed Originally from within And not only so but the Rational Soul itself when subdued by the Body and the brutish impulses of Sense does in a great degree degenerate into Machine is violently agitated drawn and managed at pleasure and loses much of its native liberty and power But when it acts in agreement with Nature and Reason it maintains an absolute freedom and moves only by an Internal Principle of its own In a Mind thus regularly disposed it is very easie to discern how much we have in our own Power though in the former instance of a disorderly Mind the case be somewhat intricate and perplexed But however in order to a more exact understanding of the whole Matter both what this Liberty and Power is and what Objects it extends to as also to shew that all the Happiness and Misery of a Man's Life depends upon the use or the abuse of this Liberty I will trace the thing up to its first Cause and examine the whole matter particularly The Sourse and Original of all things is Good for indeed that must needs be both the Cause and Beginning and the End and Consummate Perfection of all in which all Desires Center and to which all things naturally tend Now this Good forms and produces all things out of its own fullness both the most excellent the middle sorâ— and the last and lowest rank of Beings The First and most excellent bear the closest affinity to it self are of a piece with it as it were and express Images of it Thus one Good Being produces many Good Beings one simple and uncompounded Being Independent and Supream produces many other simple Beings like it self one Principle produces many Principles And this One this Simple Being this Principle and this Good are but so many several Names for God who is before all things and the cause of all things Now whatever is First must of necessity be the Purest and most Simple Being for all compounded Things and Numbers are after the Simple and unite in order of Nature and inferior to them in Dignity And all Compounds and Things not Good do desire the Good as something above and better than themselves And whatever is not Self-existent must have received its Being from something else So that the First Principle and Original Cause must have all Absolute and Infinite Power the Excellence of which consists and its Exuberance is seen in the Production of all things from it self and giving to those that resemble its own Perfections the Precedence before others that bear no such Resemblance to it And hence it is that one common Principle produces many Principles many Simple Beings many Goodnesses immediately from it self and its own fulness Thus all Beings which are distinguished from one another by their own peculiar Differences and multiplied into several Species according to the particular Forms and Circumstances in which they differ are yet each of them reducible to one Principle more properly their own All things Beautiful and Lovely for instance of what kind soever that Loveliness and Beauty be or what Object soever it belong to whether Bodies or Souls are yet derived from one common Sourse of Beauty and Gracefulness The case is the same with all manner of Congruities and all Truths and all Principles for these so far forth as they are Principles and Originals to other things do exactly agree and are of the same Nature with that primary Goodness and original Truth and first Principle of all allowing only for some Abatements and taking that Agreement in such Proportions as the capacity of these derived and secondary Causes will admit For the same relation that that first Universal Principle bears to all Beings in general the same does each of these Subordinate Principles bear to the several Species and Individuals contained under it and partaking of the Property peculiar to it For every Species which is distinguished from the rest by a peculiar difference of its own must needs have a tendency to and terminate in its proper Principle from whence one and the same Form is reflected down upon all the particular Kinds and Creatures comprehended under it Thus an Unit is the Foundation of all Numbers and a single Cause is the Original of all Properties in this vast Variety of Beings So that all partial and subordinate Causes do really subsist and are contained in the first and universal one and this not locally or numerically but essentially and virtually as the Parts in the Whole as Generals in a Singular and as Numbers in an Unit. For this indeed is it self All Above and Before All and out of one Principle many Principles grow and in one Common Good many Goodnesses subsist and dwell Nor is this Principle a limited or particular one as for instance a Principle of Beauty or Gracefulness or Goodness or Truth as each of the rest are but simply and universally a Principle or Cause a Principle not only of Species and Beings but even of all other Principles too For the Property of a Principle cannot take its Rise from Particulars and from many but must center at last in an Unit and that One is the great Original of All the first Beginning and Cause of Causes Now the first and immediate Productions of this first Original Good are of the same Kind and Nature with it self They retain their Native Goodness and like that from whence they spring are fixed and unchangeable rooted and confirmed in the same Happiness they stand in need of no additional Good from abroad but are themselves naturally and essentially Good and Happy Now all other Beings whose Descent from that one original Good is more remote and who derive themselves from that First and these Secondary Causes in Conjunction lose that Perfection of being Essentially Good and enjoy what they have by participation only Fixed indeed they are in God's Essential Goodness and therefore he continually communicates it to them But the last and lowest sort which have no power of acting or moving themselves as Bodies for
far dispose of her self as to fix upon either the one or the other of these sorts which yet is done with this Difference that by pursuing the worse her Faculties are enfeebled and debased and by following the better they are exalted and confirmed for the Choice of these is indeed truly and properly Choice And hence we see it often happens that when the Body finds it self low and empty and requires Meat or some other Sustenance the Mind steps in and countermands this Desire with another over-ruling one of Fasting or Abstemiousness and this too taken up possibly upon some Religious Account or in Obedience to some Law or possibly merely in point of Prudence as thinking it better upon its own Account or more conducing to the Health of the Body Now I think no body can say but the Mind in such a Case might if it had so pleased have complied with those first Desires as indeed we sind the Generality of People do upon these Occasions but you see it exerted another opposite Desire and prosecuted that as the greater Good and so more eligible of the two So that Epictetus looking upon the Soul as endued with Reason might upon this Account very justly say that she had it in her Power to qualifie her Desires and to place them upon such or such Objects as she saw Cause The next Objection that tells us The Object of Desire necessarily excites the Soul to a Desire of it must be acknowledg'd to have a great deal of Truth in it but yet not so much as the Persons who urge it imagine For the Object does not move the Soul to Desire forcibly and mechanically but by proposing it self as something fit to be embraced and thus calling forth those Powers of the Soul into Action which Nature hath qualified to meet and to receive it Just as the sensible Object does not infuse the Faculty of Sensation into the Person who receives its Impressions nor draws him by violence to it self but only presents it self to the Eye in such Proportions as are proper for uniting with that Organ of Sense which was ordained by Nature and fitted for that Union And so the Object of Desire presents its Convenience and Fitness to the Soul and this invites such Motions as Nature hath provided proper for this Purpose Thus it must needs be because we see that when desirable Objects offer themselves some People are and others are not affected with them whereas if the Object were enduced with such Efficacy and Power as perfectly to constrain the Person desiring and the Motion of the Mind were necessarily impressed by it it must needs follow that upon such Occasions every one must be affected with it though perhaps not every one in the same Degree And in truth such an Operation upon the Mind would not be Desire but a violent Impulse or forcible Attraction such as we see when one Body is thrust forward or dragged along by another For Desire is a kind of Expansion in the Mind a moving forwards toward the Thing desired without any local Motion in the Person desiring such as we may resemble to a Man's stretching out his Hands to meet or embrace one while the rest of his Body is in no Motion So that Desire is a Motion begun originally and proceeding from within as are also our Opinions and the other Things mentioned here by Epictetus This Motion indeed is sometimes what it ought to be and is duely proportioned to the Nature of the Thing which we desire or conceive of And sometimes it is mistaken and very different from it when we are inclined to something which to us appears very desirable but is really what should rather provoke our Aversion When it shews us a gaudy Out-side to invite our Desire and hath a great deal of hidden Evil within which all the while lies concealed under some Advantage which the Idea of this Object flatters us with Thus the Thief is carried away with an Idea of Gain and Riches as a desirable Thing and this keeps him from considering or having any dread at all of that horrible Evil which lies sheltered under this Gain that defiles his Soul and taints it with Injustice And then as for any Apprehensions of Discovery and Imprisonment and Punishment which are the only Calamities so wicked a Wretch fears the excessive Eagerness of his Desire utterly overlooks and stifles all these for he presently represents to himself what a World of Men do such Things and yet are never found out Now thus much is plainly in our Power to examine this Object of our Desire more nicely and to inform our selves well whether it be a real Good and worth our pursuing or whether it only cheat us with a fair Out-side and counterfeit Appearance of Good as particularly in the Instance of Gain just now mentioned Nay we may go something farther yet for we may correct and regulate our Desires may bring them to fix upon such Objects only as are truly desirable and teach them not to be imposed upon with false Appearances We are told again That our Desires and our Opinions are carried to their proper Object with as invincible a Necessity as a Stone or Clod of Earth is carried downwards and consequently that Nature hath left us nothing in our own Power Nor have we any more reason to conclude that we are free to think or to desire after this or that manner when we see our Assent and Appetite always moved by the Credibility or the Desirableness of their Objects than we have to suppose that a Stone can ascend when we never see it do so Now to this it may be replied that there is a twofold Necessity the one absolutely destructive of Free-Will the other very consistent with it That kind of Necessity which proceeds from any Things without us does indeed take away all Liberty and Choice for no Man can be said to act freely when he is compelled by any other external Cause to do a Thing or to leave it undone But then there is another sort of Necessity from within our Selves which keeps every thing within its due Bounds and obliges each Faculty and Part to act agreeably to its own Nature and original Constitution And this is so far from destroying Free-Will that it rather preserves and supports it For by this means it comes to pass that a Free-Agent can be wrought upon by no other ways but such as are consistent with the Nature of a Free-Agent which is from a Principle of Motion within its self And this Necessity is by no means a Mechanical Necessity because it is not imposed by any Thing from without us but is what the Nature of such an Agent admits and requires what is necessary for its Preservation and for exerting the Operations proper to a Creature endued with such a Faculty as Self-Motion Besides if the Soul can bring it self to such Habits and Dispositions as are Vertuous or Vicious can grow better by
despight of all Dangers and Discouragements is our own Good for it is the Good of our Souls which are truly and properly our selves And this Advantage is considerable enough to be set against many Troubles and Losses and Banishments and Disgraces nay it is sufficient not only to be set against but to over-balance them all because the Good of this does so very much exceed the Evil that seems to be in them For if a Man think himself obliged to choose a Greater Good when attended only with a Less Evil how is it possible that he should be discouraged and uneasie under the expectation of some cross Accidents that sometimes follow upon Vertuous Actions when the Good of these Actions is truly and properly his own but the Evil of those Accidents is only something remote and not His Especially too when this is by no means a superficial and notional Distinction but such a real Difference as his whole Practice and Behaviour shews him sensible of This is the very Reason that Men of Virtue and Wisdom have made it their Glory to choose Good with the greatest Dangers that they have done it chearfully and sacrificed their very Lives for it and accounted their Sufferings upon such an Account matter of the greatest Joy to them So did * This Person was Son to Creon King of Thebes and upon an Answer of the Oracle that a Plague which then infested the City could not be removed till the Race of Cadmus were all extinct He who was the only remainder of that Family slew himself Of the same nature was that Act of Curtius and the Decii so much celebrated by the Roman Poets and Historians Menoeceus particularly and all those other Heroes famed in Story who have voluntarily devoted themselves and died for the Service and Sake of their Country Now Epictetus couches his Advice here under one of the Meanest and most Insignificant Instances that can be partly to illustrate what he says by an Example taken from common Conversation and so to gain the Assent of his Hearers to the truth of what he would infer from it and partly too as himself hath told us before to put his Scholars upon exercising their Virtue in Lesser Trials that so from Trivial Matters they may rise by degrees to others of greater Difficulty and Consequence And the Success of this Method hath been already shewn to depend upon Reasons which need not be repeated here But his Design is also that we should be careful to apply these things to Affairs of Moment in proportion as the Hazards of them are more discouraging and in those Occasions always to take our Measures from the Nature of the thing whether it be what is agreeable to Decency and our Duty and what those Hardships are that usually accompany it And after such Prospect taken to settle our Minds in this Resolution that if the worst happen yet we will bear it with Temper and Moderation For this is the way to maintain the Character of Vertuous and Rational Men this must let us into all the Advantages of doing well and defend us from all that Perplexity that unexpected Events commonly betray Men to For he that is troubled and Discomposed and fancies himself unhappy in what he suffers it is plain either had not sufficiently considered what he went about before he engaged in it or if he did foresee all this then his Disorder is the Effect of Effeminacy and Cowardice which makes him give out and repent his Undertaking And both these Failings are highly Criminal and contrary to the Rules of Nature and Right Reason CHAP. X. That which gives Men Disquiet and makes their Lives Miserable is not the Nature of things as they really are but the Notions and Opinions which they form to themselves concerning them Thus even Death which we look upon as the most perplexing and dreadfu hath in truth nothing of Terror in it For if it had Socrates must needs have feared it as much as we But our Opinion that it is Evil is the only thing that makes it so Therefore whenever we meet with Obstructions and Perplexities or fall into Troubles and Disorders let us be Just and not lay the blame where it is not due but impute it all to our own Selves and our prejudicate Opinions COMMENT WE were told before what Means would be Proper and Effectual for the preserving an Even and Composed Temper of Mind in the midst of all those Hardships that frequently attend our best Actions That this might be accomplished by the Power of Premeditation by representing these Inconveniences as sure to happen and when we had made the worst of it convincing our Selves that such Notions were worth our Undertaking even with all those Incumbrances Now that Rule proceeded upon the Work of our own Minds but there is another here fetch'd from the Nature of the Things themselves and the Consideration of those Difficulties and Dangers that use to give us Disturbance And here he changes his Method and confirms what he says not by some slight and trivial Instances as he did before but by Death the greatest and most confounding one to Humane Nature that can be For if the Argument hold good in this case it must needs be a great deal stronger with regard to all the rest which are by our own Confession less dismal and affrighting To this purpose then he tells us That those Things which we apprehend to be Evil and which for that Reason discompose our Spirits because we think our Selves miserable under them are really neither Evil themselves nor the true Causes of any Evil to us But that all our Troubles and Perplexities are entirely owing to the Opinions which we our Selves have entertained concerning them For proof of this Determination he produces that which of all the Things that we apprehend as Evil is confessedly the greatest and most terrible and shews that even Death nay a violent and untimely Death is yet no Evil The Argument he uses is short indeed but very full and conclusive the Method and Consequence whereof lies thus Whatever is Evil in its own Nature must needs appear so to all Mankind and especially to those whose Apprehensions are most improved and most suitable to the real Nature of Things Thus all Things that are naturally hot or cold or beautiful or the like appear to all People in their right Senses But Death does not appear evil to all People nor are they universally agreed in this Notion of it For Socrates did not think it so He chose to undergo it when it was in his Power to have declined it He endured it with all the Calmness and Composure imaginable He spent that whole Day in which he died with his Friends demonstrating to them the Existence and Immortality of the Soul and the Efficacy of a Philosophical Life in order to Virtue and Reformation From all which Premises this Conclusion evidently follows That Death is not in its own Nature evil
in that all Things that happen are so ordained of God as that Nature and Choice have both their due and as is most beneficial to Mankind every Wise Man certainly will think himself obliged to be well content Things should be just as they are unless you will suppose him to envy the Giving every Thing its Due and the Recovering such as are Distempered and need sharp Remedies he will most sincerely love and honour and adore this Excellent Physician and look upon him as the World 's great and only Benefactor Now that Calamitous Circumstances are a sort of Remedies and that the Administration of proper Physick where the case requires it is good both to the Body and Soul no Body I presume will take upon them to dispute But what course shall we take to perswade Men that this very Distemper it self of Soul or Body this miserable Condition that renders such painsul Applications necessary is Good and not Evil and that the Author of it is not the Cause of Evil to us To this purpose I shall briefly recollect what was observed before That Diseases are not Evil to the Body it self as being by Nature made subject to them and tending to a dissolution of the Compound Resolving each of its Parts and Restoring the Simple Elements to their proper Masses the Releasing them from a strange place where they were kept in Bondage and putting an end to the perpetual Combat of opposite Qualities among them Neither can the Disease of the Body be Evil to the Soul for it hath been already shewn to be its Physick and its Cure And thus Experience often shews it to be But granted that Sickness and Corruption were injurious to one particular Body yet still it appears to be for the advantage of the Soul that owns that Body and to the Constitution of the Universe in general of the Elements of which it is formed and the infinite Râ—volutions of Matter and Motion which are therefore Infinite because the Destroying of one thing becomes the Production of another Well therefore may the wise Governour of all things not value a Creature which was by Nature corruptible and a particular inconsiderable Corruption confined to a single instance when the whole Creation is benefited and the Better Ends are served and the Eternal Revolution of Things are continued and kept up by this means But perhaps you will say though all this should be admitted with regard to the Body yet what shall we account for the Diseases of the Soul The frail and distempered State she is in can neither be for the good of her self that languishes under it nor does it contribute any Advantage to the Creation in common So that the Author and Ordainer of this state must needs be the Cause of Evil to her and he that is content she should be thus deprived and seâ—s and suffers her Sicknesses must needs be an Ill-natur'd Being and therefore as to this particular the Difficulty remains still the same Now in answer to this Scruple I beg leave to refresh your Memory with what was discoursed before concerning the Cause of Evil and Vice to the Soul while we were explaining Epictetus's Distinction between what is and what is not in our own power viz. That the Good and Happiness of the Soul consists in Prudent Regular Desires and Aversions and that the Evil and Misery of it proceeds from such as are Vicious and Exorbitant Now I hope the Desires and Aversions have been sufficiently proved to be in our own Disposal and if so then we our selves are the Cause of our own Vices and Virtues This is the true ground of all that Commendation which is thought due to Good Men that their Happiness and Excellence is the Effect of their own free Choice for which reason the Greeks call Virtue by a Name which bears some Affinity to that which imports Choosing And for the same Reason Wicked Men are Condemned and Reproached because they are such through their own Sloath and Baseness of Soul when it was in their own power to be otherwise But now if these Matters proceeded from any External Causes this Virtue or Vice would be no longer Choice but blind Chance or fatal Necessity And consequently our Evil and Misery can with no colouâ— of Reason and Justice be charged upon Almighty God May we not indeed drive this Argument a great deal farther and urge that even Vice which is properly the Disease of the Soul is not positively and in all respects Evil but is it self in some degree necessary to the very Being of Virtue among Men For as our Bodies if Nature had not made them capable of Sickness and Infirmities could not properly be said at any time to enjoy a state of Health because in truth this would not be Health but a simple and fix'd Disposition above the power of Frailties and Diseases such as the Celestial Beings enjoy So the Virtues proper to Humane Souls such as Temperance and Justice and Prudence and all the rest of that Glorious Catalogue would be no such thing unless the Soul were of such a Nature as is liable to be depraved For at this rate she would be graced not with the Virtues of a Man but with the Perfections of an Angel or a God whose peculiar Excellence it is that they can never be seduced or deviate into Vice But is rooted in the very Nature of Men and Humane Virtues that they may degenerate and be corrupted If then Human Virtues in the Soul and if the Health of the Body though neither of them absolutely Uniform and Inflexible be yet Good and if the Order of Nature required that beside the First Simple and Fix'd Beings others of a Middle and of Inferior Nature should derive themselves from the great Original and common Source of all Good then there was likewise a necessity that there should be Depravations of such good things as are subject to be Depraved which have not any positive and absolute Existence of their own but only a sort of additional one cast in to those that have And in this the exceeding Goodness of God is very remarkable that he hath ordained the Dissolution of the Body which as I said does as necessarily follow upon Matter and Motion as the Shadow attends upon its Substance this Dissolution he hath made even a good thing both with regard to the Bodies so Diseased and Dissolved as they are restored back again to their Primitive Elements and so the Simples out of which they are compounded are renewed and with regard to the Souls that own and use them as they are cured and made better by this Means and also to the Universe in common by reason of that infinite Succession of Changes and Motions which these Dissolutions as I shewed before keep continually on Foot But as for Vice the Evil of the Soul and indeed the only thing which when well considered proves to be Evil of this he utterly acquits himself and hath no
before that the Way to live Easie and Happy was for a Man not to wish that things might be just as he would have them but to be well pleased that they should be just as they are And now he proves the Argument intended to be deduced from thence which is That all outward Misfortunes are to be entertained with Temper and Moderation and not only so but he removes as I conceive an Objection that might be raised against it The Argument it self seems to me to lye thus If those Calamities that happen in our Fortunes or from any External Causes were properly Ours yet even upon this Supposition we ought to suffer them with great Patience and Resignation though they were much more Disastrous than really they are when it is remembred that even these are for our Advantage But if they be not indeed ours but each of them terminates in something else and cannot extend to us then it would be the last degree of Folly to be disturbed at the Misfortunes which are none of our own Sickness he says is a Hindrance to the Body and he says very well that it is a Hindrance only not an Evil. For we have seen already that neither the Diseases nor the Dissolution of the Body is Evil but all that it does is only to put a stop to its Operations as Lameness likewise does which was Epictetus's own Infirmity so that he does not speak to us now in a Formal Speculative way but from his own Practice and Experience Thus Lameness is an Obstruction to the Parts affected and Poverty is so to a Man's Expences and way of Living but neither the one nor the other is so to the Will and the Mind unless they voluntarily submit to be obstructed by it I confess if the Body or the Foot or our Estates were our very Essence and Nature then these Hindrances would be truly and properly ours but since we subsist in none of them none but the Rational Soul only is our selves since our Bodies are no more than Instruments by which we act and our Possessions only Conveniences for ministring to our necessary Occasions and since all our Good and Evil depends upon the Choice of our own Mind and consequently cannot be restrained or obstructed by them it is evident that we our selves are not hindred by these things neither For no outward Accident whatever can put any Confinement upon us but only upon something else something which we are not And therefore we must not suffer our selves to be disordered at these Misfortunes as if they were our own because by this means we shall fall into an Evil that is properly ours upon the account of something that is not so For Discontent and a Disturbance of the Mind are truly our own Evils This I take to be the Force and Connexion of his Argument But besides this he removes at the same time an Objection drawn as the Rhetoricians use to term it Ab Utili from the point of Advantage and Convenience For it may be said upon this Occasion that Sickness and Poverty cannot possibly be for our Benefit for how is it possible that a Diseased Man should perform all the Functions of Nature as he ought or how can we deny that a Man when reduced to extream Poverty is under an absolute Constraint to bend all his Care and Pains to the relief of his Wants and furnishing himself with necessary Supports This Objection now he takes off by shewing that Sickness and Poverty and all Hardships and Inconveniences of that kind put the Will under no Consinement at all and that in this free Principle it is that the very Being of Men consists and all their Good and Evil depends entirely upon it For how is the Sick Man tied up from choosing and desiring such things as are Vertuous and Reasonable and hating and declining the contrary Or what violence can the Extreamest Poverty put upon a Man which shall be able to compel him to act contrary to the principles of Honesty and Honour Were not Diogenes and Crates and Zeno in these Circumstances And did they ever shew themselves more truly Philosophers Did they ever give more Illustrious Proofs of Virtue and Greatness of Soul of Contentment and Satisfaction and even of Abundance in the slenderest Fortune than when they chose to forego their Plenty and thought it Wisdom to exchange that for Want and no Possessions of their own at all And indeed who is there so Blind and Brutish but would be pleased and proud to sustain such a Man in his Necessities and think his Liberality a greater Obligation and Honour to himself than to the Receiver But what need we go so far for Examples of this kind when even Epictetus himself that makes this Declaration was so eminent an instance of it As to his Fortune and Condition he was a Slave Infirm in his Body Lame from a Child and one that was so much exercised with Poverty and made it so much his Choice that his little Cottage at Rome was not thought worth a Lock or a Bolt for alas there was no Temptation within nothing but a course Coverlet and a hard Mattrice upon which he lay And yet this is the very Man that tells us Lameness may obstruct the Feet but the Mind it cannot except we please to let it Thus you see he did not make it his Business as a great many do to say fine things and entertain his Readers with sublime and airy Speculations but made the Experiment himself and speaks from his own Knowledge and Practice And for this Reason his Discourses are the more valuable for they manifest a truly Great Soul in himself and will make the deeper Impression upon all others whose Minds are well disposed CHAP. XIV Vpon every fresh Accident turn your Eyes inward and examine how you are qualified to encounter it If you see any very Beautiful Person you will find Continence to oppose against the Temptation If Labour and Difficulty come in your way you will find a Remedy in Hardiness and Resolution If you lye under the obloquy of an Ill Tongue Patience and Meekness are the proper Fence against it And thus if you do but prepare and use your self by degrees no Accident whatever will be able to surprise or subdue you COMMENT AFter having advanced some strange sublime Notions and required Men to do that which the generality of the World will be sure to think Romantick and Impossible as for Example to slight the Diseases of the Body as no Evil of ours and to be well pleased let our Circumstances be what they will that things should go just as they do never to suffer ones self either to be caught with the Bait of Sensual or Worldly Pleasure or to be dejected with any outward Calamities It is but reasonable that he should apply himself in the next place to shew that these are Transactions not above the Powers of Humane Nature and that he enjoyns us nothing but
never to part Now there is nothing that gives a Man so much disturbance and confusion as the being surprised with any Accident for whatever we have foreseen and made familiar to our Thoughts by long expectation never gives us those violent disturbances And this I take to be sufficiently plain from what we see in Men's Behaviour afterwards for even those that are most intemperate in their Griefs yet within a little while when they come to be used to the being without what they lament the Loss of return to themselves and their Reason again and all is quiet and easie as if no such Misfortune had ever happened Then they can suggest to their own composed Thoughts what at first they could not endure to bear that this is no more than we see daily come to pass that other People are liable to it and have born it as well as they that the Condition of our Nature is Mortal and most absurd it is to suppose any Man can be exempt from the common fate of his Nature that our Friends are only gone a little way before in the beaten Road which all our Fore-Fathers have led and in which we our selves shall very shortly follow them Now if this Separation when a little Time and Custom hath rendred it familiar become so very supportable after the thing hath happened I would fain know what Reason can be alledged why the making such a Separation familiar to us beforehand by frequent Thoughts and perpetual Expectations of it should not enable us to bear it with great evenness of Temper whenever it shall happen For surely the true cause of all our immoderate Concern upon these Occasions is that we do not represent these things to our own Thoughts nor accustom our selves to them so effectually as we might and ought to do And the Reason of this again seems to be that the generality of People have their Minds fastened down to their Fortunes and all their Imaginations formed according to the Model of their present Condition Hence it is that the prosperous Man is always Gay and Big as depending upon the Continuance of his Happiness and never dreaming of any possible Change in his Affairs And thus People that lye under unhappy Circumstances too are as commonly Dispirited and Diffident and can entertain little thought of a Deliverance and better Days But another Cause which contributes to this Fault as much as the former is the unreasonable Fondness of these things which they lament the Loss of so tenderly They perfectly dote upon them while they have them and cannot therefore admit any Thought so uneasie as that of parting with them for no Man alive cares to to dwell long upon Meditations that are troublesom and afflicting to him This Fondness is the thing we should guard our selves against at least cut off all the Excesses of it by reflecting seriously what we are our selves and what that is which we so passionately admire We should consider that it is what we cannot call our own and that though we could yet it is so imperfect a Bliss as to cloy and weary us with long Enjoyment Our Kindness therefore should be reduced and brought within such Proportions as are consistent with Decency and Moderation And in all our Conversation it will be great Prudence to abstain from all Expressions and Discourse and especially from all such Actions in our Behaviour as tend to endear these things the more and serve in truth for no other End than to cherish our own Folly and make our Passions more Exorbitant and Ungovernable CHAP. XXXIV As no Man sets up a Mark with a Design to shoot beside it so neither hath the Maker of the World formed any such real Being as Evil in it COMMENT THE Disputes which are wont to arise concerning the Nature and the Original of Evil by being unskilfully managed have been the Occasions of grievous Impiety towards God and subverted the very Foundations of Vertue and good Manners and perplexed many unwary Persons with several dangerous Scruples and inextricable Difficulties First As to that Opinion which makes Evil a first Principle and will have Two common Principles a Good and a Bad one from whence all things whatsoever derive their Being it is attended with a Thousand prodigious Absurdities For whence should this Power of being a Principle which is one and is imparted to both these Contraries in common whence I say should it come Or how should one and the same Cause give it to them both And how is it possible that these Two should be Contraries unless they be ranked under one common Genus For we must distinguish between Diversity and Contrariety that which is White cannot be termed Contrary to that which is Hot or Cold but Contraries are properly those things that are most distant from one another yet still under the same common Genus White then and Black are Contraries because both bear relation to the Genus of Colour for they are both Colours alike And Hot and Cold are Contraries for they likewise meet under the Genus of Tactile Qualities and this is Reason enough to shew that Contraries cannot possibly be first Principles because there must have been some common Genus antecedent to them or they could not be Contraries and further because one must needs have a Being before many for each of those many Beings must subsist by vertue of its Essence being communicated from that first Being otherwise nothing could ever have been at all Again Some single Original Being there must needs have been which must have been a Foundation for particular Properties and from which those Properties must have been distributed among the many For from the Divine Original Good all Good things whatsoever proceed and in like manner all Truth from the same Divine Fountain of Truth So that though there be several Principles of several Properties yet still these all are comprehended in and resolved into one Principle at last and that not some subordinate and particular one as these are in their own kind only but a Principle from whence all the rest spring one that transcends connects contains them all and communicates to each of them its Causal and Productive Power with such Limitations and Abatements as their respective Natures require So exceeding irrational and absurd it is to think of advancing Two Principles of all things or to suppose it possible that there should be more than one Besides They that will have this Universe to proceed from Two Principles are driven by their own Tenets into a Thousand wild Inconsistencies they tell us one of these Principles is Good and the other Evil they call the Good one God but yet at the same time they do not allow him to be the Universal Cause They cannot worship him as Almighty for indeed they have clipped the Wings of his Omnipotence and are so far from ascribing all Power to him that they divide it into Halves or to speak more properly they give
Forms according to which those Productions and Motions are modelled and proportioned For if the constituent Forms are not in Bodies originally but derived immediately from some free Agent then certainly the Soul is the efficient Cause and assigns to each Body its particular Form Now these Forms in the Soul are exceeding pure and untainted As for example Beauty in the Body of an Animal consists in the Flesh and Skin and Vessels and Blood that make and fill up this Mass Now it does indeed to the best of its power temper and adorn these things but at the same time it is sullied and changed by them and sinks into their Deformity But now this Beauty in the Soul is free from all these Allays and is not only the Image and Representation of Beauty but pure substantial unblemished original Beauty not graceful in one place and not in another but perfectly and all over so From whence it comes to pass that when the Soul contemplates its own or another Soul's Beauty all bodily Graces lose their Charms and appear despicable and deformed in comparison And this instance hints to us the purity of all other original Forms as they are in the Soul Now it is very plain that as there are different Bodies moved by these Souls so there are likewise different sorts of Souls that move them and some of these are celestial and others sublunary For it were an intolerable absurdity to suppose that Bodies less refined and inferiour in Dignity and Duration should have Life and Souls and that those above should want both It is therefore in this case with Souls as with Bodies the heavenly ones are the Causes of the sublunary ones And indeed the Soul is a noble and most excellent Being especially the heavenly one advanced by Nature to the Prerogative of being a Principle though not the First and Highest in the Order of Causes For though the self-moving and self-existent Being is superiour to those whose Motion and Existence is derived from something else yet still even this is capable of being considered in a double Capacity as Active and Passive as a Cause and as an Effect and it is plain that Simples must have been before Compounds and One before Two Again Though this self-moving Agent depend upon no other for its Motion yet Motion it hath and Motion inferrs Mutation not an essential Change indeed but such as respects its Operations And neither are these Motions Local and Corporeal for in that respect it is immovable but Spiritual and peculiar to the Soul such as we call Consideration and Debate and Disâ—erning and Opinion and according as â—he is moved by these motions she impresses corporeal ones upon the Body Now whatever this Change be yet that which is mutable in any kind or proportion must have something besore it absolutely immutable that so those things that are mutable may still be preserved so For all motion and mutation â—oth above and in our lower Regions proceeds from the impression made by the First Cause But since all things undergo such various Changes and great motions are violent How come the heavenly Bodies to continue so much the same in their Constitution their manner of moving the Centre about which they roul their mutual Order and Position And whence is it that though the sublunary ones undergo more visible and frequent Alterations yet still there is a perpetual restitution and constant return to their first Form Thus we observe it plainly in Elements and Seasons and Plants and Animals For though these do not continue to be numerically the same as Celestial Bodies do yet they go round in a Circle till at last they return to the point from whence they set out at first Thus 〈◊〉 is convertâ—d into Air Air condensed into Water Water into Earth and then Earth 〈◊〉 into Fire again So the Year brings us first into Spring then to Summer after that Autuâ—n and at last Winter thaws into Spring again So again Wheat is turned into the Stem then the Blade after that the Ear and so ripe Wheat again So from Man proceeds first the Seminal Principle after that the Formation and Vital Nourishment and this at last comes to be Man again Now I would ask any one since motion is of it self always violent and always tending to Change how it comes to pass that the same Species and the same Course and Constitution of Nature is so exactly preserved Certainly this must needs be the Effect of some Superiour Cause which is it self Immoveable and Immutable and remains for ever in all Points exactly the same For even in mental Motions that Agent which is uncertain in his Motions and acts sometimes with ease and freedom and speed and sometimes slowly and with difficulty must needs have some other mind antecedent to it one whose Essence and whose Operations are always the same that brings all thingsto pass in an instant and at pleasure And no Man need be told how much such a Being as this which is fix'd and unchangeable not only as to his own Nature and Essence but as to his Influence too is more excellent than that which is still in motion and liable to Change though that Motion be from it self alone and Reason will convince us that those Beings which are most Noble and Excellent must needs have had an Existence before those that are indigent and depending Now we shall do well according to this Rule to ascend the whole Scale of Causes in our Thoughts and try whether we are able to find any Principle more Excellent than what is already fix'd upon and if we can do so then to drive that still higher till we come to rest at last in the loftiest and most majestick Notions that we are capable of entertaining and this is a Course we may boldly take nor is there any fear of going too far or overshooting the Mark by conceiving any Ideas too great and above the Dignity of this First Cause For alas the boldest Flights our Minds can aspire to are too low and feeble so far from surmounting that they fall infinitely short of his Divine Perfections This Contemplation upon God as it is the most Excellent so it is the only One in which we are sure not to be guilty of any Excess or an over-valuing the Object And when we have taken all imaginable pains to collect all the Ideas that are Great and Venerable and Holy and Independant and Productive of Good all these Names and all these Persections put together do yet give us but a very poor and impersect Notion of him only he is graciously pleased to pardon and accept these because it is not in the power of humane Nature to admit any higher and better When therefore our Consideration hath carried us from Self-moving Beings up to that which is Immovable and absolutely Immutable always the same in Essence its Power and its Operations fix'd for ever in a vast Eternity out of which Time and all
the Motions that measâ—re it are taken and derive their Being there we may contemplate the Primitive Causes of much greater Antiquity than those we observed in the Self-moving Agent and there we shall see them lie in all their Perfections Immovable Eternal Entire United to each other so as that each should be all by Virtue of this intimate Conjunction and yet the intelâ—ectual Differences between them should remain distinct and unconfused For what account can be given of so many different Forms in the World but only that the Great God and Creator of the World produces these as he thinks fit to separate and distinguish the Causes of them in his own Mind which yet we must not suppose to make such actual and incommunicable differences between the Originals as we observe between the Copies of them here Nor are the Distinctions of the differing sorts of Souls the same with those of Bodies Each of the Eight Heavens we see and the Constellations peculiar to them are a part of the whole Heaven taken together a full and integral Part and yet each hath its Essence and Influences and Operations proper to it self And so likewise the Forms of Sublunary as well as Celestial Bodies that are always the same as that of a Man a Horse a Vine a Fig-tree each of these are perfect and full though not in Individuals as the Heavenly Bodies are yet according to the various Species with which they fill the World and the Essential Differences which distinguish them from one another Just thus it is with those more simple and Intellectual Considerations of which these Forms are compounded such as Essence Motion Repose Identity Beauty Truth Proportion and all those other Metaphysical Qualities belonging to the Composition of Bodies each of which is perfect in its own kind and hath a distinct Form of its own and many Differences peculiar to it self only And if this be the Case in so many Inferiour Beings how much more perfect and entire shall every thing subsist in the great Soul of the World These are the spontaneous Causes of the Bodies here below and all their differences lie united there According to this Pattern all things here are formed but that Pattern abundantly more perfect and pure and exact than any of its Resemblances Much more persect still then are these Divine and Intellectual Forms than any Corporeal ones of which they are the great Originals For these are united not by any mutual Contact or Continuity of Matter or bodily Mixture but by the Coalition of indivisible Forms And this Union being such as still presents the Distinctions between them clear and unconsus'd makes each of them perfect in it self and qualifies it to be the common Principle and Root of all the Forms of its own likeness and kind from the highest to the lowest Now the several distinct Principles of things derive their Causal Power and Dignity from some One Superiour Principle For it is plain that many could not exist without an antecedent Cause For which Reason each of Many is One but not such a One as was before those Many For the One of Many is a part of that Number and is distinguished from the rest by some particular Qualifications which give him a Being a part to himself But the One before Many was the Cause of those Many he comprehended them all within himself existed before them is the Cause of Causes the first Principle of all Principles and the God of Gods for thus all the World by the meer Dictates of Nature have agreed to call and to adore him He is likewise the Supreme and Original Goodness For all Effects have a natural desire and tendency to the respective Properties of their first Cause Now that which all things desire is Good and consequently the first Cause must be the Original and the Supreme Good So likewise he must be the Original and Supreme Power For every Cause hath the highest Power in its own kind and consequently the first Cause of all must needs exceed them all in Power and have all of every kind He must needs be endued with perfect Knowledge too for how can we imagine him ignorant of any thing which himself hath made It is no less evident too from hence that the World and all things were produced by him without any difficulty at all Thus by considering of particulars we are at last arrived to a general Demonstration and from the parts have learnt the whole for indeed we had no other way of coming to the Knowledge of it but by its parts the whole it self is too vast for our Comprehension and our Understandings are so feeble as often to mistake a very small part for the whole And the result of the Argument is this That as all Things and Causes are derived at last from one Cause so they ought to pay all manner of Honour and Adoration to that Cause for this is the Stem and Root of them all and therefore it is not an empty Name only but Similitude in Nature too by which every Cause is allied to this Universal One. For the very Power and Privilege of being Causes and the Honour that is due to them when compared with their Effects is the free Gift of this Supreme Cause to all the inferiour and particular ones Now if any man think it too great an Honour for these lower and limited ones to be called Causes or Principles as well as that original and general one it must be owned in the first place That there is some Colour for this Scruple because this seems to argue an equality of Causal Power But then this may easily be remedied by calling These barely Causes and That the First and Universal Cause And though it be true that each particular Principle is a first and general one with respect to others of less extent and power contained under it as there is one Principle of Gracefulness with regard to the Body another with regard to that of the Mind and a third of Gracefulness in general that comprehends them both yet in Truth and strict Propriety of Speech none is the First Principle but that which hath no other before or above it and so likewise we may and do say by way of Eminence the First and Supreme Cause the First and Supreme God and the First and Supreme Good Moreover we must take notice that this First Cause which is above and before all things cannot possibly have any proper Name and such as may give us an adequate Idea of his Nature For every Name is given for distinction's sake and to express something peculiar but since all distinguishing Properties whatever flow from and are in Him all we can do is to sum up the most valuable Perfections of his Creatures and then ascribe them to Him For this Reason as I hinted at the beginning of this Discourse the Greeks made choice of a name for God derived from the Heavenly Bodies and the swiftness of their
motion And thus we style him Holy and Just and Merciful and Good and Lord and Omnipotent and sometimes take the Confidence to use such Appellations as we think applicable to some of the Sons of men And thus much shall suffice at present for the First of the Three Points before us which pretends to shew That there are First Causes of Things and that GOD is the truly First and Original of them all And though I have pass'd over several Steps that might have been taken in running from Effects to their Causes and would perhaps have made the Demonstration more gradual and compleat yet I must be content to enlarge no farther as being duly sensible that some Persons will think what is already done a great deal too much and that these Excursions are by no means agreeable to my first Design which was to give as compendious an Illustration as I could to this Manual of Epictetus The next Assertion to be proved was That this God governs and disposes all Things by his Providence which though it be I presume largely demonstrated upon several Occasions in the foregoing Chapters shall yet be allowed a particular Consideration in this place For some People are ready enough to acknowledge the Being and the Perfections of God they acquiesce in his Power and Goodness and Wisdom but as for the Affairs of the World these they do not suppose him to regard at all nor be in the least concerned for them as being too little and low and in no degree deserving his Care And indeed the greatest Temptation to this Opinion they frankly own to be ministred by the very unequal Distribution of Things here below and the monstrous Irregularities that the Government of the World seems chargeable withal They observe some exceedingly wicked Men high in Power and Preferments their Estates plentiful and growing their Health sound and uninterrupted and thus they continue a prosperous and pleasant Life to extream old Age go down to their Graves gently and peaceably and frequently leave their Posterity Heirs of their good Fortune and transmit their ill-gotten Wealth to succeeding Generations In the mean while many Persons eminently vertuous and good are miserably oppress'd by the Insolence and Barbarity of those wicked Great Ones and yet for all this Injustice there is no Vengeance that we can observe overtakes the Oppressor nor any Comfort or Reward to support the Sufferer These as was hinted before are the Speculations that give Men the Confidence to dispute against GOD. Some have been so far emboldened by them as to deny his very Being but others in compliance with the universal Consent of Mankind and the natural Intimations we have of Him are content to allow his Nature and Perfections but can by no means allow his Providence and especially when it happens to be their own case and their particular Misfortunes have given an edge to the Objection and made it enter deeper and more sensibly For then they can by no means be persuaded that so great an Inequality can be consistent with Providence or that GOD can interest Himself in the Management of the World and yet do a thing so unworthy his Justice and so contrary to his Nature as to suffer insulting Wickedness to pass unpunished and injured Vertue to perish unredressed Now the first Return I shall make to this Objection shall be in more general terms by desiring the Person who proposes it to answer me to the several Parts of this dis-junctive Argument If there be a God and not a Providence then the Reason must be either want of Knowledge and a due Sense that these Things ought to be his Care or if he knows that they ought and yet does not make them so then this must proceed either from want of Power or want of Will For the want of Power there may be two Causes assigned either that the Burden and Difficulty of Governing the World is so great that GOD is not able punctually to discharge it or else That these are Matters so very mean and inconsiderable that they escape his Notice and are not worth his Care and Observation If the Sufficiency of his Power be granted and the Want of Will be insisted upon this may likewise be imputed to two Reasons Either That he indulges his own Ease and will not take the pains or else as was argued before That these Matters are of so mean Consideration that tho' he could attend to the most minute Circumstances of them if he so pleased yet he does not do it as thinking it more becoming the Greatness of his Majesty to sleight and overlook them This dis-junctive Argument being thus proposed in the general the several Branches of it may be replied to as follows That admitting God to be such a Being as hath been here described perfect in Wisdom and Knowledge absolute and uncontroulable in Power and of Goodness incomprehensible and withal the Original Cause and Author of all Things produced from and by Himself and being so many parcels as it were of his own Divinity it is not possible first he should be ignorant that the Products of his own Nature and the Works of his own Hands require his Care For this were to represent him more insensible than the wildest and most stupid of all brute Beasts since even these express a very tender regard for the Creatures to whom they give Birth and Being It is as absurd every whit to say in the next place That this is a Care too weighty and above his Power and Comprehension For how is it possible to conceive an Effect greater and stronger than the Cause to which it entirely owes its Production And no less so thirdly to alledge That these Matters are neglected because too little and low to fall within his Observation For sure had they been so despicable he would never have created them at all The want of Will is no more occasion of such a Neglect than the want of Power To suppose this Care omitted only for the indulging his own Ease and to avoid the Interruption of his Pleasures would be to six upon him the Infirmities and Passions of Men nay and such as are peculiar to the worst and most profligate of Men too For not only humane Reason but natural instinct infuses an anxious Tenderness into Brutes such as suffers them to decline no pains for the Provision and Support of their Off-spring Nor can we in any reason imagine such want of Will from a Consideration of the Vileness of these Things since nothing certainly is contemptible in His Eyes who created it and whatever he thought worthy the Honour of receiving its Existence from him he cannot think unworthy that of his Protection and Care So that when you have made the most of this Argument that it can possibly bear still every part meets you with some intolerable absurdity and no one of these Considerations nor all of them put together can ever induce a Man who believes that
to be used and commanded us to this purpose That those wants of the Body which are necessary to be supplied so as to render it serviceable to the Soul ought to determine in this point By which means all superfluities are cut off and every thing that tends only to Luxury and vain Pomp. Now he tells us what proportion we ought to be content with and what should be the measure of our Labours and our Desires in the getting an Estate and this he says is the Body too For the end of getting these things is that we may use them so that as far as they are of use to us so far and in such proportions may we desire and endeavour after them and they are only so far useful as they become serviceable to the Body and supply its necessities Consequently then the Body and its wants which determine how far these things are capable of being used do also determine how far they are fit to be desired and what measure of them a Man ought in reason to sit down satisfied with Let us look then at the Foot for instance and see what wants it labours under and what supplies are sufficient for it and when we have done so we shall find that good plain Leather is all it needs A good upper Leather to keep the Foot tight and warm and a stout Sole to defend the Ball of the Foot from being hurt by what it treads upon But now if a Man bear regard to Ornament and Luxury as well as Use and Convenience then nothing less than Gold and Purple and Jewels will serve the turn and one of these Extravagancies only serves to make way for another For it seems the Romans were grown so curious and vain as to wear rich Purple Shooes and Shooes set with precious Stones and these were more exquisite and modish Vanities than gilded ones Now just thus it is in the getting and the spâ—nding an Estate When a Man hath once transgressed those bounds which Nature and Necessity have set him he wanders no body knows whether and is continually adding one foolish Expence to another and one idle whimsie to another till at last he be plunged over Head and Ears in Luxury and Vanity For these were the only Causes of seducing him at first and when once he had broke loose from his measures a thousand imaginary wants presented themselves and every one of these gave him as great a disturbance as if they had been real ones At first he wanted only ten thousand pound then twenty and when he was possess'd of this he wanted forty as much as even he did the first Ten so he would a hundred if he had forty and so to all Eternity for he has now let his Desires loose and these are a boundless Ocean never to be filled Now nothing is more evident than that those Desires which do not keep within the bounds of Use and Convenience do and must needs be infinite and insatiable Not only because this is the last Fence and there is nothing left to stop them afterwards but because we see plainly that when they exceed these things they quickly neglect and disregard them too forget the ends to which they are directed and instead of preserving sometimes destroy the Body Thus we often ruine our Health and distort our Limbs only for Ornament and Fashion and make those very things our Diseases which Nature intended for Remedies against them And possibly upon this account more particularly Epictetus might make choice of a Shooe to illustrate his Argument For this instance is the more emphatical and significant because if we do not take care to fit the Foot but make it bigger than it ought to be for Beauty and Ornament it hinders our going instead of helping us and oftentimes makes us stumble and fall very dangerously So that it is plain the Considerations which relate to our using the things of the World will give us great light into that part of our Duty which relates to the getting of them and the Rules we are to be governed by are in a great measure the same in both Cases And these Chapters too which prescribe to us the Rules and the Duty of Moderation both in using and getting an Estate may in my Opinion be very properly referred to the same common Head of Justice with the former CHAP. LXII When Women are grown up to Fourteen they begin to be courted and caressed then they think that the recommending themselves to the Affections of the Men is the only business they have to attend to and so presently fall to tricking and dressing and practising all the little engaging Arts peculiar to their Sex In these they place all their hopes as they do all their happiness in the success of them But it is fit they should be given to understand that there are other attractives much more powerful than these That the Respect we pay them is not due to their Beauty so much as to their Modesty and Innocence and unaffected Vertue And that these are the true the irresistible Charms such as will make the surest and most lasting Conquests COMMENT SInce he had in the foregoing Discourses allowed his Philosopher to marry it was but reasonable that he should instruct him here what Methods are most proper to be made use of in the choice of a Wife and which are the most necessary and desirable Qualifications for her This therefore he does in short but very significant Observations shewing what a wise Man should chiefly regard and exposing at the same time the mischiefs that the generality of Men fall into by taking wrong measures Most people says he when they are disposed to marry look out for a young and a beautiful Mistress then they cringe and flatter and adore her keep a mighty distance and accost her in the most respectful and submissive Terms imaginable and the end of all this is no other than the Enjoyment of her Person The Women know the meaning of all this well enough and manage themselves accordingly they dress and trick and set of their Persons to the best advantage and these are the Arts they study to recommend themselves by Now in truth though we declaim against this Vanity and Folly in the Sex yet the Men are much more to blame than they For the Original of all this Vanity is from our selves and the Folly is ours when we pay so much respect upon accounts that so little deserve it It is in our power to reform what we condemn and it is our Duty to do it We should shew them that no Beauty hath any Charms but the inward one of the Mind and that a gracefulness in their Manners is much more engaging than that of their Person and Mien That Meekness and Obedience and Modesty are the true and lasting Ornaments For she that has these is qualified as she ought to be for the management and governing of a Family for the bearing and educating
Good Man and desires to distinguish himself by a Life conformable to the best Reason proposes an End agreeable to such a Life and consequently cannot have any pretence to preferr himself before another for any advantages of Eloquence that he hath above him For there is a wide difference between such a one's Eloquence and himself Nor is this the essential Property and Prerogative of his Nature that he should receive his Denomination from it as every Artificer is distinguished by his Profession So that all the boast that can be allowed him in this case comes only to thus much My Language is better than yours And this Instance is what I the rather have chosen to insist upon because I imagine Epictetus his main intention here was to give his Philosopher a check for that superstitious Nicety very common among them of being over-curious and laboured in their Compositions and spending too much time and pains about Words But because this was a tender point that other Instance of the Richer Man's exalting himself is added the better to cover his Design and make the Reproof the softer CHAP. LXVII If any Man bathes too soon do not you presently say He hath done ill in it but only that he did it early If a Man drink a great deal of Wine do not censure him for having done ill but only say That he drinks a great deal For how is it possible for you to know whether he did ill or no unless you were conscious of his Intentions and saw the Grounds he went upon And this Caution which I here advise you is the only way to prevent that common Injury and Inconvenience of determining rashly upon outward appearances and pronouncing peremptorily concerning things that you do not know COMMENT HE would have us proceed in our Judgment of Men's Actions with great accuracy and circumspection Not to be too forward in giving our Opinion of any kind either in praise or dispraise acquitting or condemning of them till we are first well satisfied of the Person 's Intention what Reasons he proceeded upon and what End he directed it to For these are the very Considerations that make an Action formally good or evil and according as these vary they may deserve a very different Interpretation Thus a man may give Blows and do good in it if this be intended to correct a Fault he may give one Sustenance to his prejudice if it be designed to feed his Disease nay matters may be so ordered that Stealing shall be an Act of Justice and Restitution an Injury as if the Object of both be a Mad-man's Sword If then we would deal honestly and fairly we must judge of Actions according to the Circumstances that appear to us and as they are in themselves When we see a man bathe before the usual Hour all we should say of it That he hath done it early without pretending to determine the Quality of the Fact or calling it good or evil till we know what it was that moved him to do so Possibly he was obliged to sit up all Night and wanted this Refreshment to supply his loss of Sleep Now this and the like are very material Considerations for a man's motives and intention quite alter the nature of the thing You ought not then to be too hasty in passing Judgment upon this Bathing out of course for till these things are known the Quality of the Fact does not lie before you nor have you any matter to proceed upon Thus again a man may drink a larger proportion of Wine than ordinary and there may be several Reasons that will justifie him in it the Constitution of his Body or the Season of the Year or the Temperament of the Air may make it necessary And consequently what rash and busie People are apt to condemn when well enquired into proves no more than Duty and Prudence done to satisfie Nature or to support the Spirits in faint sultry Weather or to keep out moist Foggs or pestilential Vapours Now if we do thus as he advises and stop at the Actions themselves without presuming to applaud or to condemn them till we have throughly examined into the Grounds of them and are satisfied of the man's Disposition and Design we decline an Injustice and an Inconvenience which otherwise it is impossible to avoid And that is the knowing one thing and judging another the determining more than we have Evidence for For in both the Instances before us nothing appears but the outward Act and its Circumstances that the Bathing was early that the Wine was much but the Causes of these do not appear upon which depends the moral Good or Evil of the thing and yet the busie World are ever giving their definitive Sentence in this point too And what can be more rash more injurious more absurd than this from what they do see peremptorily to pronounce of what they do not see Now since men's Minds and the secret Springs of their Actions do so very seldom fall within our notice I take Epictetus his Design here to be the dissuading us in general from judging men at all And indeed it is but prudent for our own sakes as well as sit for theirs to be very sparing in this particular that by suspending our Judgment we may not fall under the shame of retracting it afterwards upon better Information And therefore he would not have us over-forward either in our Censures or our Commendations though he levelled this Chapter chiefly no doubt against the Condemning side because the Injury done by rash Censures is generally greater and because the Evil is a great deal more popular for the World is not rash only but ill-natured too they are apt and glad to find Faults and forward sometimes to make them This base practice therefore lay more directly to the Author's purpose which was to instruct us in another Branch of Justice one indeed no less necessary than any of the rest viz. That which concerns our Neighbour's Reputation CHAP. LXVIII Never profess your self a Philosopher nor talk much of Rules and wise Observations among the Ignorant and Vulgar but let your Rules be seen in your Practice Thus when you are at a Publick Entertainment discourse not of Temperance and Moderation to the Company but let your own Example teach it them and remember that Socrates upon all occasions declined Ostentation insomuch that when some Persons in derision came to him and desired him to recommend them to a Philosopher he carried them to some that profess'd themselves such without expressing the least Indignation at the Affront they had put upon him CHAP. LXIX Nay if you happen in Conversation with ignorant and common Men though they start a Discourse concerning some Point in Philosophy do you forbear joining with them in it For when Men are forward to vent their Notions it is a shrewd sign they are not well digested It is possible your Silence may be interpreted Ignorance and that some of the
the greater share by much away from him they call him the Source of Goodness and Spring of Light and yet deny that all things receive Light and Goodness from him Now what horrid Blasphemies what opprobrious Reflections does these Mens Doctrin cast upon the Majesty of God They represent him as a Feeble and a Fearful Being uneasie with continual Apprehensions that Evil will invade his Territories And to ease himself of these Fears and buy off his Enemy contrary to all Justice and Honour and Interest casting some Souls away which are so many Parts and Parcels of himself and never merited by any Offence of theirs to be thus delivered up that by parting with these he may compound for the rest of the Good ones with him Like some General in Distress who when the Enemy attacks him sacrifices one part of his Army to gain an Opportunity of bringing off the other For the Sense of what they say amounts to thus much though it be not express'd in the very same Words Now he that delivered up these Souls or commanded them to be delivered up in this barbarous manner had sure forgot or at least did not duly consider what Miserie 's those wretched Spirits must endure when in the Hands of that Evil Principle For according to them they are Burnt and Fryed and Tormented all manner of ways and this too notwithstanding they were never guilty of any Fault but are still parts of God himself And at last they tell us that if any such Souls happen to Apostatize and Degenerate into Sin they never recover themselves nor from thenceforth are in any possibility of returning to Good but continue inseparably united to Evil for Ever Only here it is fit we take notice what Souls these are and how they thus degenerate for they do not admit their Crimes to be Adultery or Murder or any of the grossest and most slagititious Enormities of a dissolute and wicked Conversation but only the denying of Two Principles an evil and a good one In the mean while this God it seems is left maimed and imperfect by the Loss of so many of his Parts he is stupid and sensless too in their Hypothesis I mean for far be it from me to entertain so irreverent a Thought for he understands nothing at all either of his own Interest or the Nature of Evil If he did what Dread could he be under or how should Evil enter into any part of that Province which Good possesses since their Natures are so very distant and irreconcileable that they cannot run into each other but their Bounds are fix'd and immovable Barriers set between them from all Eternity For this they say too But who in the Name of Wonder set these Bounds and Barriers Did Chance Then it seems they make Chance a Common Principle too Did any other Being that had Authority over both these and prescribed to them as it self thought fit Then it seems That had a Subsistence before They made the World But how could that be done before the Creation For the Division they make is like this upon Earth for they assign the Eastern Western and Northern Regions to Good and reserve only the South for Evil. Afterwards they go on aâ—d fancy that Evil hath five Apartments like so many Dens or Caverns and here they tell us of Woods and all manner of Animals such as frequent both Sea and Land that these are at eternal Wars with one another and though these are said to be immortal as being originally Good yet they pretend at the same time that they are devoured by their Five-formed Monster Now then since these distinct Regions have been set out as you see from the Beginning of the World at least and each assigned and accommodated to its peculiar Inhabitant I would fain be satisfied which way Evil should make an Incursion into Good 's Dominions Or if we should suppose this possible yet could it be done however and still these Two remain contrary to one another May we not as well say that White may be Black and yet retain its Whiteness still and that Light can admit Darkness and still be Light as that perfect Evil can make Approaches to perfect Good and still continue perfect Evil And if this Impossibility be evident and unavoidable what Occasion is there to describe God as they do committing an Act of so much unnecessary Fear and Folly and Injustice as is the casting away Souls to Evil for his own Security and ever since labouring to no purpose for so they will needs have it too to redeem these Souls from Misery A Design never to be effected because as I observ'd before some of them have lapsed and so must abide under the Dominion of Evil to all Eternity And all this they will not allow the Good to have had any Knowledge or Foresight of though with the same Breath they pretend that Evil knew perfectly well what Number of Souls would fall into his Hands and laid his Stratagems accordingly Their Scheme certainly had been much better contrived had they represented the Good Principle as always employed and taken up with the Contemplation of it self and not engaged it in perpetual War with an Enemy never to be vanquished or destroyed For they make Evil to be no less Eternal and Immortal than Good And this indeed is a considerable Objection and a just Reproach to their whole System that Eternal Existence and Incorruptible Duration no Beginning and no End are allowed to Evil as well as Good And when these glorious Attributes are given to that which we cannot but detest what Difference is there left or what can we say more in Honour of that which we cannot but love and admire Let us now proceed if you please to take a short View of the Account they give concerning the Creation of the World Pillars then there are they tell us not like those of the Poet That this vast Globe of Earth and Heav'n sustain for they scorn that any Poetical Fictions or the least fabulous Circumstance should be allowed a Place in their Philosophy but as one of their greatest Masters hath informed us of solid unhewn Stone and twelve Windows one of which is constantly opened every hour But their marvellous Wisdom is not more eminently seen in any one Instance than the Account they pretend to give of Eclipses For they tell us That when in the Framing of the World the Evils that were in Conjunction together gave great Disturbance by their justling and disorderly Motions the Luminaries drew certain Veils before them to shelter them from the ill Influences of that Disorder and that Eclipses are nothing else but the Sun and Moon hiding themselves still behind those Veils upon some extraordinary and threatning Emergencies Then again How odd and unaccountable is it that of so many Heavenly Bodies which give Light to the World they should hold only the two great ones in Veneration and contemn all the rest assigning the