nihil tale apud Graecos pudori est ea deformaebat He imparts the matter to Ariston a Player of tragedies whose progenie and fortune were both honest nor did his profession disgrace them because no such matter is a disparagement amongst the Graecians And I have ever accused them of impertinencie that condemne and disalow such kindes of recreations and blamed those of injustice that refuse good and honest Comedians or as we call them Players to enter our good townes and grudge the common people such publike sports Politike and wel-ordered commonwealths endevor rather carefully to vnite and assemble their Citizens together as in serious offices of devotion so in honest exercises of recreation Common societie and loving friendship is thereby cherished and increased And besides they cannot have more formall and regular pastimes allowed them then such as are acted and represented in open view of all and in the presence of the magistrates themselves And if I might beare sway I would thinke it reasonable that Princes should sometimes at their proper charges gratifie the common people with them as an argument of a fatherly affection and loving goodnesse towards them and that in populous and frequented cities there should be Theatres places appointed for such spectacles as a diverting of worse inconveniences and secret actions But to come to my intended purpose there is no better way then to allure the affection and to entice the appetite otherwise a man shall breede but asses laden with Bookes With jerkes of roddes they have their satchels full of learning given them to keepe Which to do well one must not onely harbor in him-selfe but wed and mary the same with his minde The six and twentieth Chapter It is follie to referre Truth or Falsehood to our sufficiencie IT is not peradventure without reason that we ascribe the facilitie of beleeving and easines of perswasion vnto simplâ— câ—tie and ignorance For me semeth to have learn theretofore that beliefe was as it were an impression conceiued in our minde and according as the same was found either more soft or of leue resistance it was easier to imprint any thing therein Venecesse est lancem in libra poâ—deribus impositis deprimi sic animum perspicuis cedere As it is necessarie a scale must goe downe the ballaâ—â—c when weights are put into it so must a minde yeelde to things that are manifest Forasmuch therefore as the minde being most emptie and without counterpoize so much the more easily doth it yeeld vnder the burthen of the first perswasion And that 's the reason why children those of the common sort women and sickefolks are so subject to be nâ—is-led and so easie to swallow gudgeons Yet on the other side it is a sottish presumption to disdaine and condemn that for false which vnto vs seemeth to beare no shew of likelihood or truth which is an ordinarie fault in those who perswade themselves to be of more sufficiencâ—e than the vulgar sort So was I sometimes wont to doe and if I heard any body speake either of ghosts walking of foretelling future things of enchantments of witchcrafts or any other thing reported which I could not well conceive or that was beyond my reach Somnia terrores magicos miracula sagas Nocturnos lemures portentáque Thessali Dreames magike terrors witches vncouth-wonders Night-walking sprites Thessalian conjur'd thunders I could not but feele a kinde of compassion to see the poore and seely people abused with such follies And now I perceive that I was as much to be moaned my-selfe Not that experience hath since made me to discerne any thing beyond my former opinions yet was not my curiositie the cause of it but reason hath taught me that so resolutely to condemne a thing for false and impossible is to assume vnto himselfe the advantage to have the bounds and limits of Gods will and of the power of our common mother Nature tied to his sleeue And that there is no greater folly in the world then to reduce them to the measure of our capacitie and bounds of our sufficiencie If we terme those things monsters or miracles to which our reason cannot attaine how many such doe daily present themselves vnto our sight Let vs consider through what clowdes and how blinde-folde we are led to the knowledge of most things that passe our hands verily we shall finde it is rather custome than science that remooveth the strangenesse of them from-vs iam nemo fessus saturúsque videnâ—i Suspicere in caeli dignatur lucida templa Now no man tir'd with glut of contemplation Deignes to have heav'ns bright Church in admiration And that those things were they newly presented vnto vs wee should doubtlesse deeme them as much or more vnlikely and incredible then any other si nunc primùm mortalibus adsint Ex improviso ceu sint obiecta repentè Nil magis his rebus poterat mirabile dici Aut minus antè quod auderent fore credere gentes If now first on a sudden they were here Mongst mortal men object to eie or care Nothing than these things would more wondrous bee Or that men durst lesse thinke ever to see He who had never seene a river before the first he saw he thought it to be the Ocean and things that are the greatest in our knowledge we judge them to be the extreamest that nature worketh in that kinde Scilicet fluvius qui non est maximus ei est Qui non antè aliquem maior em vidit ingens Arbor homóque videtur omnia de genere omni Maxima quae vidit quisque haec ingentia fingit A streame none of the greatest may so seeme To him that never saw a greater streame Trees men seeme huge and all things of all sorts The greatest one hath seene he huge reports Consuetudine oculorum assuescunt animi neque admirantur neque requirunt rationes carum rerum quas semper vident Mindes are acquainted by custâ—me of their eies nor doe they admire or enquire the reason of those things which they continually behold The noveltie of things doth more incite vs to search-out the causes than their greatnesse we must judge of this infinit power of nature with more reverence and with more acknowledgement of our owne ignorance and weakenesse How many things of small likelihood are there witnessed by men woorthie of credit whereof if we cannot be perswaded we should at least leave them insuspence For to deeme them impossible is by rash presumption to presume and know how farre possibilitie reacheth If a man did well vnderstand what difference there is betweene impossibilitie and that which is vnwonted and betweene that which is against the course of nature and the common opinion of men in not beleeving rashly and in not disbeleeving easily the rule of Nothing too-much commanded by Chilon should be observed When we finde in Froysard that the Earle of Foix being in Bearn had knowledge of the
one face and sometimes of another for such as looke neere vnto it Those who reconcile Lawyers ought first to have reconciled them every one vnto himselfe Plato hath in my seeming loved this manner of Philosophying Dialogue wise in good earnest that therby he might more decently place in sundry moutâ—es the diversity and variation of his owne conceites Diversly to treat of matters is as good and better as to treate them conformably that is to say more copiously and more profitably Let vs take example by our selves Definite sentences make the last period of dogmaticall and resolving speech yet see we that those which our Parlaments present vnto our people as the most exemplare and fittest to nourish in them the reverence they owe vnto this dignitie especialy by reason of the sufficiencie of those persons which exercise the same taking their glory not by the conclusion which to them is dayly and is common to al judges as much as the debating of diverse and agitations of contrary reasonings of law causes will admit And the largest scope for reprehensions of some Philosophers against others draweth contradictions and diversities with it wherein every one of them findeth himselfe so entangled either by intent to shew the wavering of mans minde aboue all matters or ignorantly forced by the volubilitie and incomprehensiblenesse of all matters What meaneth this burdon In a slippery and gliding place let vs suspend our beliefe For as Euripides saith Les oeuures de Dieu en diverses Facons nous donnent des traverses Gods workes doe travers our imaginations And crosse our workes in divers different fashions Like vnto that which Empedocles was wont often to scatter amongst his bookes as moved by a divine furie and forced by truth No no we feele nothing we see nothing all things are hid from vs There is not one that we may establish how and what it is But returning to this holy word Cogitationes mortalium timidae incertae adinventiones nostrae providentiae The thoughts of mortal men are feareful our devices and foresights are vncertaine It must not be thought strange if men disparing of the goale have yet taken pleasure in the chase of it studie being in it selfe a pleasing occupation yea so pleasing that amid sensualities the Stoikes forbid also that which comes from the exercise of the minde and require a bridle to it and finde intemperance in over much knowledge Democritus having at his table eaten some figges that tasted of honny began presently in his minde to seeke out whence this vnusuall sweetnes in them might proceede and to be resolved rose from the board to view the place where those figges had beene gathered His maide servant noting this alteration in her master smilingly saide vnto him that hee should no more busie himselfe about it the reason was she had laide them in a vessell where honny had beene whereat he seemed to be wroth in that shee had deprived him of the occasion of his intended search and robbed his curiositie of matter to worke vpon Away quoth he vnto her thou hast much offended mee yet will I not omit to finde out the cause as if it were naturally so Who perhaps would not have missed to finde some likely or true reason for a false and supposed effect This storie of a famous and great Philosopher dooth evidently represent vnto vs this studious passion which so dooth ammuse vs in pursuite of things of whose obtaining wee dispaire Plutarke reporteth a like example of one who would not bee resolved of what hee doubted because hee would not loose the pleasure hee had in seeking it As another that would not have his Phisitian remove the thirst hee felt in his ague because hee would not loose the pleasure he tooke in quenching the same with drinking Sâ—tius est supervacua discere quà m nihil It is better to learne more then wee neede then nothing at all Even as in all feeding pleasure is alwayes alone and single and all wee take that is pleasant is not ever nourishing and wholesome So likewise what our minde drawes from learning leaveth not to be voluptuous although it neither nourish nor be wholesome Note what their saying is The consideration of nature is a foode proper for our mindes it raiseth and puffeth vs vp it makes vs by the comparison of heavenly and high things to disdaine base and low matters the search of hidden and great causes is very pleasant yea vnto him that attaines nought but thereverence and feare to iudge of them These are the very words of their profession The vaine image of this crazed curiositie is more manifestly seene in this other example which they for honour-sake have so often in their mouths Eudoxus wished and praid to the Gods that he might once view the Sunne neere at hand to comprehend his forme his greatnesse and his beautie on condition he might immediately be burnt and consumed by it Thus with the price of his owne life would he attaine a Science whereof both vse and possession shall therewith bee taken from him and for so sudden and fleeting knowledge loose and forgoe all the knowledges he either now hath or ever hereafter may have I can not easily be perswaded that Epicurus Plato or Pithagoras have sold vs their Atomes their Ideas and their Numbers for ready payment They were overwise to establish their articles of faith vpon things so vncertaine and disputable But in this obscuritie and ignorance of the world each of these notable men hath endevoured to bring some kinde of shew or image of light and have busied their mindes about inventions that might at least have a pleasing and wilâ—e apparance provided notwithstanding it were false it might be maintained against contrary oppositions Vnicuiquae ista pro ingento finguntur non ex Scientiae vâ— These things are conceited by every man as his wit serves not as his knowledge stretches and reaches An ancient Philosopher being blamed for professing that Philosophie whereof in his judgement hee made no esteeme answered that that was true Philosophizing They have gone about to consider all to ballance all and have found that it was an occupation fitting the naturall curiositie which is in vs. Some things they have written for the behoofe of common societie as their religions And for this consideration was it reasonable that they would not throughly vnfold common opinions that so they might not breede trouble in the obedience of lawes and customes of their countries Plato treateth this mysterie in a very manifest kinde of sport For where he writeth according to himselfe he prescribeth nothing for certaintie When he institutes a Law giuer he borroweth a very swaying and avouching kinde of stile Wherein he boldly entermingleth his most fantasticall opinions as profitable to perswade the common sorte as ridiculous to perswade himselfe Knowing how apt we are to receive all impressions and chiefly the most wicked and enormous And therefore is he very carefull
Diuers events from one selfe same counsell I Ames Amiot great Almoner of France did once tell me this storie to the honour of one of our Princes And so he was indeed by very good tokens albeit by ofspring he were a stranger that during our first troubles at the siege of Roane the said Prince being advertised by the Queene-mother of a conspiracie and enterprise that should be attempted against his life and by letters particularly informed him of the partie that should performe it who was a gentle-man of Anâ—ow or Manse and who to that purpose did ordinarily frequent the said Princes court he never imparted that secret or communicated that warning to any man but the next morrow walking vpon Saint Catherins hill whence our batterie played against the towne for it was at what time we laid siege to Roane with the said Lord great Almoner and another Bishop by his side he chanced to descrie the said gentleman whom the Queene-mother had described vnto him and caused him to be called who being come before his presence said thus vnto him perceaving him alreadie to waxe pale and tremble at the alarums of his conscience Maister such a one I am fully perswaded you fore-imagine what I will charge you with and your countenance doth plainly show it you can conceale nothing from me for I am so well instructed of your businesse that would you goe about to hide it you should but marre all you have perfect knowledge of this and this thing which were the chiefest props and devises of the secretest drifts of his complot and conspiracie faile not therefore as you tender your life to confesse the trueth of all your purpose When the silly man saw himselfe so surprized and convicted for the whole matter had beene discovered vnto the Queene by one of the complices he had no other way but to lift vp his handes and begge for grace and mercie at the Princes handes at whose feete he would have prostrated himselfe but that he would not let him thus following his discourse Come hither my friend said he Did I ever doe you any displeasure Have I ever through any particular hatred wronged or offended any friend of yours It is not yet three weekes since I knew you what reason might move you to conspire and enterprise my death The Gentleman with a faint-trembling voyce and selfe-accusing looke answered him that no particular occasion had ever moved him to that but the interest of the generall cause of his faction and that some of them had perswaded him that to roote out and in what maner soever to make away so great an enemy of their religion would be an execution full of pietie and a worke of supererogation Then said the Prince I will shew you how much the religion which I professe is more milde than that whereof you make profession yours hath perswaded you to kill me without hearing me having never been offended by me and mine commaundes me to pardon you convicted as you are that you would so treacherously and without cause have killed me Goe your way withdraw your selfe let mee never see you heere againe and if you be wise hence-forward in your enterprises take bonester men for your counsellers than those of your religion The Emperour Augustus being in Gaule received certaine advertisement of a conspiracie that L. Cinna complotted against him whereof he purposed to be avenged and for that purpose sent to all his friends against the next morrow for advise and counsell but passed the fore-going night with great anxietie and vnrest considering that following his intent he should bring a yong Gentleman well borne of a noble house and great Pompeyes nephew to his death which perplexitie produced divers strange discourses and consideration in him What said he vnto himselfe Shall it ever bee reported that I doe live in feare and suffer mine enemie to walke at his pleasure and libertie Shall he then goe free that hath attempted and resolved to deprive me of my life which both by sea and land I have saved from so many civill warres and from so many battels And now that I have established an vniversall peace in the world shall he be absolved and goe vnpunished that hath not only determined to murther but to sacrifice me For the complot of the conspiracie was to murther him when he should be at sacrifice After that having taken some rest with himselfe he with a lowder voice beganne to exclaime and cry out against himselfe saying Why livest thou if the lives of so many depend on thy death Shall thy vengeance and cruelties never have an end Is thy life of that worth as it may counter vaile the sundry mischiefes that are like to ensue if it be preserved Livia his wife being in bed with him perceiving his agonie and hearing his speeches said thus vnto him And may not womens counsels be admitted Doe as Physitians are woont who when their ordinarie receipts will not worke have recourse to the contrarie Hitherto thou couldest never doe any good with severitie Lepidus hath followed Savidienus Murena Lepidus Coepio Murena Egnatius Scoepio beginne now to proove what good lenitie and clemencie will doe thee Cinna is convicted pardon him To annoy or hurt thee now he is not able and thou shalt thereby encrease thy glory Augustus seemed very glad to have found an Advocate of his humour and having thanked his wife and countermaunded his friends whom he had summoned to the Counsell commaunded Cinna to be brought before him alone Then sending all men out of his chamber and a chaire prepared for Cinna to sit in he thus bespake him First Cinna I require to have gentle audience and that thou wilt not interrupt my speech which ended I will give thee time and leasure to answer me Thou knowest oh Cinna that when I had taken thee prisoner in mine enemies campe who wast not only become but borne my foe I saved thee then put thee in quiet possession of thy goods and at last have so enriched thee and placed thee in so high a degree that even the conquerours are become envious over the conquered The Priestes office which thou beggedst at my hands I freely bestowed on thee having first refused the same to others whose fathers and friendes had in many battels shead their bloud for me After all which benefites and that I had in dutie tied thee so fast vnto me thou hast notwithstanding vndertaken to kill me To whom Cinna replied crying alowde That he had never so much as conceived so wicked a thought much lesse entertained the same Oh Cinna this is not according to thy promise answered then Augustus which was that thou wouldest not interrupt me What I say is true thou hast vndertaken to murther me in such a place on such a day in such a company and in such manner and seeing him so amazed in heart and by his evidence strucken dombe moved thereunto not by the condition of his promise but by the guilt
thou breake it if thou canst not otherwise vntie the same There is no man so base minded that loveth not rather to fall once then ever to remaine in feare of falling I should have deemed this counsel agreeing with the Stoickes â—udenes But it is more strange it should be borrowed of Epicurus who to that purpose writeth this consonant vnto Idomeneus Yet thinke I to have noted some such like thing amongst our owne people but with christian moderation Saint Hilarie Bishop of Poitiers a famous enemie of the Arrian heresie being in Syria was advertised that Abra his onely daughter whom hee had left athome with her mother was by the greatest Lords of the countrie solicited and sued vnto for marriage as a damosell very well brought vp faire rich and in the prime of her age he writ vnto her as we see that she should remoove her affections from all the pleasures and advantages might be presented her for in his voyage he had found a greater and worthier match or husband of far higher power and magnificence who should present and endowe hir with roabes and jewels of vnvaluable price His purpose was to make hir loose the appetite and vse of worldly pleasures and wholie to wed hir vnto God To which deeming his daughters death the shortest and most assured way he never ceased by vowes prayers and orisons humbly to beseech God to take her out of this world and to call her to his mercie as it came to passe for â—â—ee deceased soone after his returne whereof he shewed manifest tokens of singular gladnesse This man seemeth to endeere himselfe above others in that at first â—ight he addresseth himselfe to this meane which they never embrace but subsidiarily and sithence it is towards his onely daughter But I will omit the successe of this storie although it be not to my purpose Saint Hilaries wife having vnderstood by him how her daughters death succeeded with his intent and will and how much more happy it was for hir to be dislodged from out this world then still to abide therein conceived so lively an apprehension of the eternall and heavenly blessednesse that with importunate instancie she solicited her husband to do as much for her And God at their earnest entreatie and joynt-joynt-common prayers having soone after taken her vnto himselfe it was a death embraced with singular and mutuall contentment to both The three and thirtieth Chapter That fortune is oftentimes met withall in pursuite of reason THe inconstancie of Fortunes diverse wavering is the cause shee should present vs with all sortes of visages Is there any action of justice more manifest then this Caesar Borâ—â—â— Duke of Valâ—ntinoâ—s having resolved to poison Adrian Cardinall of Cornetto with whom Pope Alexander the â—â—xt his father and he were to sup that night in Vaticane sent certaine bottles of empoysoned wine before and gave his Butler great charge to have a special care of it The Pope comming thither before his sonne and calling for some drinke the butler supposing the Wine had been so carefully commended vnto him for the goodnesse of it immediately presented some vnto the Pope who whilest he was drinking his sonne came in and never imagining his bottles had beene toucht tooke the cup and pledged his father so that the Pope died presently and the sonne after he had long time beene tormented with sicknesse recovered to another woorse fortune It somtimes seemeth that when we least think on her shee is pleased to sporte with vs. The Lord of Estree the guidon to the Lord of Vandâ—sme and the Lord of Liques Lieutenant to the Duke of Ascot both servants to the Lord of Founguesellâ—s sister albeit of contrarie factions as it happneth among neighboring bordurers the Lord of Liques got her to wife But even vpon his wedding day and which is woorse before his going to bed the bridegroome desiring to breake a staffe in favour of his new Bride and Mistris went out to skirmish neere to Saint Omer where the Lord of Estree being the stronger tooke him prisoner and to endeare his advantage the Lady her selfe was faine Coniâ—gis antâ—â—â—actanâ—vi dimittere collum Quà m veniens vna atque altera rursus hyems Noctibus in longis auidum saturasset amorem Her new feeres necke for'st was she to forgoe Ere winters one and two returning sloe In long nights had ful-fil'd Her love so eager wil'd in courtesie to sue vnto him for the deliverie of his prisoner which he granted the French Nobilitie never refusing Ladies any kindnesse Seemeth she not to be a right artist Constantine the sonne of Hâ—len â—ounded the Empire of Constantinople and so many ages after Constantinâ— the sonne of Hâ—len ended the same She is sometimes pleased to envie our miracles we hold an opinion that King Clovis besieging Aâ—goulesme the wals by a divine favour â—eâ—l of themselves And Bouchet borroweth of some author that King Robert beleagring a Citie and having secretly stolne away from the siege to Orleans there to solemnize the feasts of Saint Aignan as he was in his earnest devotion vpon a certaine passage of the Masse the walles of the towne besieged without any batterie fell flat to the ground She did altogether contrarie in our warres of Millane For Captaine Rensâ— beleagring the Citie of Eronna for vs and having caused a forcible mine to be wrought vnder a great curtine of the walles by force whereof it being violently flowne vp from out the ground did notwithstanding whole and vnbroken fall so right into his foundation againe that the besieged found no inconvenience at all by it She sometimes playeth the Phisitian Iason Therius being vtterly forsaken of all Phisitians by reason of an impostume he had'm his breast and desirous to be rid of it though it were by death as one of the forlorne hope rusht into a battel amongst the thickest throâ—g of his enemies where he was so rightly wounded acrosse the bodie that his impostume brake and he was cured Did shee not exceed the Painter Protogenes in the skill of his trade who having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog and in all parts over-tired to his content but being vnable as he desired hvely to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth vexed against his owne worke took his spunge and moist as it was with divers colours thrâ—â—â—t at the picture with purpose to blot and deface all hee had done fortune did so fitly and rightly carrie the same toward the dogs chaps that there it perfectly finished what his arte could never attaine vnto Doth she not sometimes addresse and correct our counsels Isahell Queene of England being to repasse from Zeland into her kingdome with an armie in favour of her sonne against her husband had vtterly beene cast away had she come vnto the Port intended being there expected by her enemies But fortune against her will brought her to another place where shee safely landed And that ancient fellow who hurling a stone
colde although their senses were yet whole Alexander saw a nation where in winter they burie their fruite-bearing trees vnder the ground to defend them from the frost a thing also vsed amongst some of our neighbours Touching the subject of apparell the King of Mexico was wont to change and shift his clothes foure times a day and never wore them againe employing his leavings and cast-sutes for his continuall liberalities and rewardes as also neither pot nor dish nor any implement of his kitchin or table were twice brought before him The six and thirtieth Chapter Of Cato the yonger IAm not possessed with this common errour to judge of others according to what I am my selfe I am easie to beleeve things differing from my selfe Though I be engaged to one forme I do not tie the world vnto it as every man doth And I beleeve and conceive a thousand maners of life contrary to the common sorte I more easily admit and receive difference then resemblance in vs. I discharge as much as a man will another being of my conditions and principles and simply consider of it in my selfe without relation framing it vpon it's owne modell Though my selfe be not continent yet do I sincerely commend and allow the continencie of the Capuchines and Theatines and highly praise their course of life I doe by imagination insinuate my selfe into their place and by how much more they be other then my selfe so much the more doe I loue and honour them I would gladly haue every man iudged apart and not be drawne my selfe in consequence by others examples My weakenesse doth no way alter the opinions I should have of the force and vigor of those that deserve it Sunt qui nihil suadent quà m quod se imitari posse confidunt There bee such as advise to nothing but what they trust themselves can imitate Crawling on the face of the earth I cease not to marke even into the clouds the inimitable height of some heroicke mindes It is much for me to have a formall and prescript iudgement if the effects be not so and at least to maintaine the chiefe part exempted from corruption It is something to have a good minde when my forces faile me The age we live in at least our climate is so dull and leaden that not onely the execution but the very imagination of vertue is farre to seeke and seemes to be no other thing than a Colledge supposition and a gibrish-word virtutem verba putant vt Lucum ligna Vertue seemes wordes to these As trees are wood or woods are tree Quam vereri dâ—berent etiam si percipere non possent Which yet they should reverence though they could not reach vnto It is an eare-ring or pendent to hang in a cabinet or at the tongues end as well as at an eare for an ornament There are no more vertuous actions knowne those that beare a shew of vertue have no essence of it for profit glorie custome feare and other like strange causes direct vs to produce them Iustice valour integritie which we then exercise may by others consideration and by the countenance they publikely beare be termed so but with the true workeman it is no vertue at all There is another end proposed another efficient cause Vertue alloweth of nothing but what is done by her and for hir alone In that great battell at Potidaea which the Graecians vnder Pausanias gained of Mardonius and the Persians the victors following their custome comming to share the glorie and prise of the victory betweene them ascribed the pre-excellencie of valor in that conflict to the Spartane nation The Spartanes imparciall judges of vertue when they came to decide to what particular man of their countrie the honor to have done best in that day shuld of right belong they found that Aristodemus had most couragiously engaged and hazarded himselfe Yet gave him not the prise of honour of it because his vertue had beene thereunto incited by an earnest desire to purge himselfe from the reproch and infamie which hee had incurred in the action at Thermopyles and from all daring ambition to die couragiouslie thereby to warrant his former imputation Our judgements are yet sicke and follow the depravations of our customes I see the greatest part of our spirits to affect wit and to shew themselves ingenious by obscuring and detracting from the glorie of famous and generall ancient actions giving them some base and malicious interpretation fondly and enviously charging them with vaine causes and frivolous occasions A subtill invention no doubt Let any man present me with the most excellent and blamelesse action and I will oppose it with fiftie vicious and bad intentions all which shall carrie a face of likeli-hood God knowes to him that will extend them what diversitie of images our internall will doth suffer They doe not so maliciously as grosely and rudely endeuour to be ingenious with all their railing and detraction The same paine a man taketh to detract from these noble famous names and the verie same libertie would I as willingly take to lend them my shoulders to extoll and magnifie them I would endevour to charge these rare and choise-figures selected by the consent of wise men for the worlds example as much and as high as my invention would give me leaue with honour in a plausible interpretation and favourable circumstance And a man must thinke that the diligent labours of our invention are farre beyond their merit It is the part of honest minded men to pourtray vertue as faire as possible faire may be A thing which would no whit be mis-seeming or vndecent if passion should transport vs to the favour and pursuite of so sacred formes what these doe contrarie they either doe it through malice or knaverie with purpose to reduce and sute their beliefe to their capacitie where of I lately spake or rather as I thinke because their sight is not of sufficient power or clearnes nor addressed to conceive or apprehend the farre-shining brightnes of vertue in naturall and genuine purity As Plutarke saith that in his time some imputed the cause of Cato the yongers death to the feare he had conceived of Cesar whereat he hath some reason to be moved by which a man may iudge how much more he would have beene offended with those that have ascribed the same vnto ambition Oh foolish people Hee would no doubt have performed a faire action so generous and so iust rather with ignominie then for glorie This man was truely a patterne whom nature chose to shew how farre humane vertue may reach and mans constancie attaine-vnto But my purpose is not here to treate this rich argument I will onely confront together the sayings of five Latin Poets vpon Catoes commendacions and for the interest of Cato and by incidencie for theirs also Now ought a gentleman well-bred in respect of others finde the two former somewhat languishing The third more vigorous but suppressed by the
extravagancie of force He will iudge there were yet place for one or two degrees of invention to reach vnto the fourth in consideration of which he will through admiration ioyne handes for the last yet first in some degree and space but which space he will sweare can by no humane spirit be filled-vp he wil be much amazed he will be much amated Loe here are wonders we haue more Poets than iudges and interpreters of poesie It is an easier matter to frame it then to knowe-it Being base and humble it may be iudged by the precepts and art of it But the good loftie the supreme divine is beyond rules and aboue reason Whosoeuer discerneth hir beauty with a constant quicke-seeing and setled looke he can no more see and comprehend the same then the splendor of a lightning flash It hath no community with our iudgement but ransacketh and ravisheth the same The furie which prickes and moves him that can penetrate hir doth also stricke and wound a third man if he heare-it either handled or recited as the Adamant stone drawes not only a needle but infuseth some of hir faculty in the same to drawe others And it is more apparently seene in theaters that the sacred inspiration of the Muses having first stirred vp the Poet with a kinde of agitation vnto choler vnto griefe vnto hatred yea and beyond him self whether and how soever they please doth also by the Poet strike enter into the Actor and consequently by the Actor a whole auditorie or multitude It is the ligament of our sences depending one of another Even from my infancie Poesie hath had the vertue to transpierce and transport me But that lively and feeling-mouing that is naturally in me hath diversly beene handled by the diversitie of formes not so much higher or lower for they were ever the highest in every kind as different in colour First a blithe and ingenious fluidity then a quaint-witie and loftie conceit To conclude a ripe and constant force Ovid Lucan and Virgill will better declare it But here our Gallants are in their full cariere Sit Cato dum viuit sanè vel Caesare maior Let Cato Junior while he doth live greater than Caesar be Saith one inuictum devictâ morte Catonem Cato vnconquered death being vanquished Saith another And the third speaking of the civill warres betweene Caesar and Pompey Victrix causa dijs placuit sed victa Catoni The cause that overcame with Gods was greater But the cause overcome pleasd Cato better And the fourth vpon Caesars commendations Et cuncta terrarum subacta Praeter atrocem animum Catonis Of all the earth all parts inthralled Catoes minde onely vnappalled And the hartes-master after he hath enstalled the names of the greatest Romanes in his picture endeth thus his dantem iura Catonem Chiefe justice Cato doe decree Lawes that for righteous soules should be The seven and thirtieth Chapter How we weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing WHen we reade in Histories that Antigonus was highly displeased with his sonne at what time he presented vnto him the head of King Pirrhus his enemie slaine but a little before in fight against him which he no sooner saw but hee burst foorth a weeping And that Renate Duke of Loraine wept for the death of Charles Duke of Burgundie whom hee had eftsoones discomfired and was as an assistant mourner at his funeralles And that in the battel of Auroy which the Earle of Montfort had gained against the faction of Charles de Blois for the Dutchie of Britanie the victorious conqueror met with the bodie of his enemie deceased mourned very grievously for him a man must not suddenly exclaime Ecosi auvien ' che l'animo ciaseuna Sua passion sotto contrarie manto Ricuopre con la vista hor chiara hor bruna So happens it the minde covers each passion Vnder a cloake of colours opposite To sight now cleare now darke in divers fashion When Caesar was presented with Pompeis head Histories report that he turn'd his looks aside as from a ghastly and vnpleasing spectacle There hath beene so long a correspondencie and societie in the managing of publike affaires mutually betweene them such a communitie of fortunes so many reciprocall offices and bondes of alliance that a man cannot think his countenance to have beene forced false and wâ—ly as this other supposeth tutúmque putauit I am bonus esse socer lacrymas non sponte cadentes Effudit gemitúsque expressit pectore laeto Now to be kinde indeed he did not doubt Father in lawe teares which came hardly out He shed and grones exprest From inward pleased brest For certainly howbeit the greatest number of our actions bee but masked and painted over with dissimulation and that it may sometimes be true Haredis fletus sub persona risus est The weeping of an heire is laughing vnder a visard or disguise Yet must a man consider by judging of his accidents how our mindes are often agitated by divers passions For as they say there is a certaine assembly of divers humors in our bodies whereof she is soveraigne mistris who most ordinarily according to our complexions doth command vs so in our minde although it containe severall motions that agitate the same yet must one chiefly be predominant But it is not with so full an advantage but for the volubilitie and supplenesse of our minde the weakest may by occasion reobtaine the place againe and when their turne commeth make a new charge whence we see not onely children who simplie and naturally follow nature often to weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing but none of vs all can vaunt himselfe what wished for or pleasant voyage soever he vndertake but that taking leave of his family and friends he shall feele a chilling and panting of the heart and if he shed not teares at least he puts his foote in the stirrop with a sad and heavie cheere And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of yong virgines yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgo their mothers to betake them to their husbands whatsoever this good fellow say Est ne nouis nuptis odio Venus únnê parentum Frustrantur falsis gaudia lacrymulis Vbertim thalami quas intra limina fundunt Non it a me diui veragemunt uiverint Doe yoong Birdes hate indeed fresh Venus toyes Or with false teares delude their parents joyes Which in their chambers they powre out amaine So helpe me God they do not true complaine So is it not strange to mourne for him dead whom a man by no meanes would have alive againe When I chide my boy I doe it with the best heart I have They are true and not fained imprecations but that fit past over let him have need of me I will gladly doe him all the good I can and by and by I turne ouer another leafe If I chance to call one knaue or asse my
of favour or commendatorie but he for whom they were judged them drie barren and faint The Italians are great Printers of Epistles where of I thinke I have a hundred severall Volumes I deeme those of Hanniball Caro to be the best If all the paper I have heeretofore scribled for Ladies were extant at what time my hand was truly transported by my passion a man should haply find some page worthy to be communicated vnto idle and fond-doting youth embabuinized with this furie I ever write my letters in post-hast and so rashly-head long that howbeit I write intolerablie ill I had rather write with mine owne hand than imploy another for I find none that can follow me and I never copie them over againe I have accustomed those great persons that know me to endure blots blurs dashes and botches in my letters and a sheete without folding or margine Those that cost me either most labour or studie are they that are least worth When I once begin to traile them it is a signe my mind is not vpon them I commonly begin without project the first word begets the second Our moderne letters are more fraught with borders and prefaces than with matter as I had rather write two then fold and make vp one which charge I commonly resigne to others So likewise when the matter is ended I would willingly give another the charge to adde these long orations offers praiers and imprecations which we place at the end of them and wish hartily some new fashion would discharge vs of them As also to superscribe them with a legend of qualities titles and callings wherein lest I might have tripped I have often times omitted writing especially to men of Iustice Lawyers and Financiers So many innovations of offices so difficult a dispensation and ordinance of divers names and titles of honour which being so dearely bought can neither be exchanged or forgotten without offence I likewise find-it gracelesse and idly-fond to charge the front and inscription of the many bookes and pamphlets which we daily cause to be imprinted with them The fortieth Chapter That the taste of goods or evils doth greatly depend on the opinion we have of them MEn saith an ancient Greeke sentence are tormented by the opinions they have of things and not by things themselves It were a great conquest for the ease of our miserable humane condition if any man could establish every where this true proposition For if evils have no entrance into-vs but by our judgement it seemeth that it lieth in our power either to contemne or turne them to our good If things yeeld themselves vnto our mercie why should we not have the fruition of them or applie them to our advantage If that which we call evill torment be neither torment nor evill but that our fancie only gives it that quatie it is in vs to change-it and having the choice of it if none compell-vs we are verie fooles to bandie for that partie which is irkesome vnto vs and to give infirmities indigence and contempt a sharpe and ill taste if we may give them a good And if fortune simplie affoord-vs the matter it lieth in vs to give-it the forme Now that that which we terme evill is not so of it selfe or at least such as it is that it depends of vs to give-it another taste and another countenance for all comes to one let vs see whether it can be maintained If the originall-being of those things we feare had the credite of it's owne authoritie to lodge it selfe in vs alike and semblable would it lodge in all For men be all of one kind and except the most or least they are furnished with like meanes to judge and instruments to conceive But the diversitie of opinions which we have of those things doth evidently shew that but by composition they never enter into-vs Some one peradventure doth lodge them in himselfe as they are in essence but a thousand others give them a new being and a contrarie We accompt of death of povertie and of sorrow as of our chiefest parts Now death which some of all horrible things call the most horrible who knowes not how others call it the onely haven of this lives-torments the soveraigne good of nature the onely staâ—e of our libertie and the readie and common receit of our evils And as some doe fearefully-trembling and senslesly-affrighted expect her comming others endure it more easilie then life And one complaineth of her facilitie Mors vt inam pavidos vitae subducere nolles Sed virtus to sola daret O death I would thou would'st let cowards live That resolv'd valour might thee only give But let vs leave these glorious minds Theodorus answered Lysimachus who threatned to kill him Thou shalt doe a great exploit to come to the strength of a Cantharides The greatest number of Philosophers are found to have either by designe prevented or hastned and furthered their deaths How many popular persons are seen brought vnto death and not to a simple death but entermixt with shame sometimes with grievous torments to embrace it with such an vndaunted assurance some through stubborne wilfulnesse other-some through a naturall simplicitie in whom is nothing seene changed from their ordinarie condition setling their domesticall affaires recommending themselves vnto their friends preaching singing and entertaining the people yea and sometimes vttering words of â—esting and laughter and drinking to their acquaintance as well as Socrates One who was ledde to the gallowes desired it might not be thorow such a street for feare a Merchant should set a Serâ—ant on his backe for an old debt Another wished the hang-man not to touch his throat lest hee should make him swowne with laughing because hee was so ticklish Another answered his confessour who promised him he should suppe that night with our Saviour in heaven Goe thither your selfe to supper for I vse to fast a nights Another vpon the Gibbet calling for drinke and the hang-man drinking first said hee would not drinke after him for feare hee should take the poxe of him Everie man hath heard the tale of the Piccard who being vpon the ladder ready to be throwen downe there was a wench presented vnto him with this offer as in some cases our law doth sometimes tolerate that if hee would marry her his life should be saued who after he had a while beheld her perceving that she halted said hastily Away away good bang-man make an end of thy busines she limps The like is reported of a man in Denmarke who being adiudged to haue his head cut off and being vpon the scaffold had the like condition offered him but refused it because the wench offered him was jaw-falne long cheâ—kt and sharpe-nosed A yoong ladde at Tholous being accused of hereâ—ie in all points touching his beleefe referred himselfe wholly to his Masters faith a yong scholar that was in prison with him and rather chose to die than hee would be
vpon gaine plurality and company of children is an easefull furtherance of husbandry They are as many new implements to thrive and instruments to grow rich I was married at thirty yeeres of age and commend the opinion of thirty-five which is said to be Aristotles Plato would have no man married before thirty and hath good reason to scoffe at them that will defer it till after fifty-five and then marry and condemneth their breed as vnworthy of life and sustenance Thales appointed the best limites who by his mother being instantly vrged to marry whilest he was yong answered that it was not yet time and when he came to be old he said it was no more time A man must refuse opportunity to every importunate action The ancient Gaules deemed it a thamefull reproach to have the acquaintance of a woman before the age of twenty yeares and did especially recommend vnto men that sought to be trained vp in warres the carefull preseruation of their maiden-head vntill they were of good yeeres forsomuch as by loosing it in youth courages are thereby much weakened and greatly empaired and by copulation with women diverted from all vertuous action Mahor cogiunto à giâ— vinetta sposa Lieto hemat de'figlâ— era invilito Ne gli affetti di padre di marito But now conjoyn'd to a fresh-springing spouse Ioy'd in his children he was thought abased In passions twixt a Sire and husband placed Muleasses King of Thunes he whom the Emperour Charles the fifth restored vnto his owne state againe was wont to vpbraid his fathers memorie for so dissolutely-frequenting of women terming him a sloven effeminate and a lustfull engenderer of children The Greeke storie doth note Iecus the Tarentine Chryso Astylus Diopomus and others who to keepe their bodies tough and strong for the service of the Olympicke courses wrestlings and such bodily exercises they did as long as they were possessed with that care heedefully abstaine from all venerian actes and thouching of women In a certaine country of the Spanish Indies no man was suffered to take a wife before he were fortie yeares olde and women might marry at tenne yeares of age There is no reason neither is it convenient that a Gentleman of five and thirtie yeares should give place to his sonne that is but twenty For then is the father as seemely and may aswell appeare and set himselfe forward in all manner of voyages of warres aswell by land as sea and doe his Prince as good service in court or else where as his sonne He hath neede of all his parts and ought truly to impart them but so that he forget not himselfe for others And to such may justly that answere serve which fathers have commonly in their mouthes I will not put off my clothes before I be readie to goe to bed But a father over-burthend with yeares and crazed through sickenesse and by reason of weakenesse and want of health barred from the common societie of men doth both wrong himselfe injure his idely and to no vse to hoorde vp and keepe close a great heape of riches and deale of pelfe He is in state good enough if he be wise to have a desire to put off his clothes to goe to bed I will not say to his spirt but to a good warme night gowne As for other pompe and trash whereof hee hath no longer vse or neede hee ought willingly to distribute and bestow them amongst those to whom by naturall decree they ought to belong It is reason he should have the vse and bequeath the fruition of them since nature doth also deprive him of them otherwise without doubt there is both envy and malice stirring The worthiest action that ever the Emperour Charles the fifth performed was this in imitation of some ancients of his quality that he had the discretion to know that reason commanded vs to strip or shift our selves when our cloathes trouble and are too heavie for vs and that it is high time to goe to bed when our legges faile vs. He resigned his meanes his greatnesse and Kingdome to his Sonne at what time he found his former vndanted resolution to decay and force to conduct his aslaires to droope in himselfe together with the glory he had thereby acquired Solue senescentem mature seâ—â—s equum ne Peccet ad extremum ridendus ilia ducat If you be wise the horse growne old be times cast off Least he at last fall lame soulter and breed a skoffe This fault for a man not to be able to know himselfe betimes and not to feele the impuissance and extreame alteration that age doth naturally bring both to the body and the minde which in mine opinion is equall if the minde have but one halfe hath lost the reputation of the most part of the greatest men in the world I have in my daies both seene and famâ—liarly knowen some men of great authority whom a man might easily descerne to be strangely fallen from that ancient sufficiency which I know by the reputation they had thereby attained vnto in their best yeares I could willingly for their honors sake have wisâ—t them at home about their owne businesse discharged from all negotiations of the common-wealth and employments of war that were no longer fit for them I have sometimes been familiar in a Gentlemans house who was both an old man and a widdower yet lusty of his age This man had many daughters â—ariageable and a sonne growne to mans state and readie to appeare in the world a thing that drew on and was the cause of great charges and many visitations wherein he tooke but little pleasure not onely for the continuall care hee had to save but more by reason of his age hee had betaken him-selfe to a manner of life farre different from ours I chanced one day to tell him somewhat boldly as my custome is that it would better beseeme him to give vs place and resigne his chiefe house to his son for he had no other mannor-house conveniently well furnished and quietly retire himselfe to some farme of his where no man might trouble him or disturbe his rest since he could not otherwise avoide our importunitie seeing the condition of his children who afterward followed my counsell and found great ease by it It is not to be said that they have any thing given them by such a way of obligation which a man may not recall againe I that am readie to play such a part would give over vnto them the full possession of my house and enjoying of my goods but with such libertie and limited condition as if they should give me occasion I might repent my selfe of my gift and revoke my deede I would leave the vse and fruition of all vnto them the rather because it were no longer fit for me to weald the same And touching the disposing of all matters in grosse I would reserve what I pleased vnto my selfe Having ever judged that it must be a great contentment
that the knowledge I seeke in them is there so scatteringly and loosely handled that whosoever readeth them is not tied to plod long vpon them whereof I am vncapable And so are Plutarkes little workes and Senecaes Epistles which are the best and most profitable partes of their writings It is no great matter to draw mee to them and I leave them where I list For they succeed not and depend not one of another Both jumpe and suite together in most true and profitable opinions And fortune brought them both into the world in one age Both were Tutors vnto two Roman Emperours Both were strangers and came from farre Countries both rich and mighty in the common-wealth and in credite with their masters Their instruction is the prime and creame of Philosophie and presented with a plaine vnaffected and pertinent fashion Plutarke is more vniforme and constant Seneca more waving and diverse This doth labour force and extend himselfe to arme and strengthen vertue against weaknesse feare and vitious desires the other seemeth nothing so much to feare their force or attempt and in a maner scorneth to hasten or change his pace about them and to put himselfe vpon his guarde Plutarkes opinions are Platonicall gentle and accommodable vnto civill societie Senacaes Stoicall and Epicurian further from common vse but in my conceit more proper particular and more solide It appeareth in Seneca that he somewhat inclineth and yeeldeth to the tyrannie of the Emperors which were in his daies for I verily beleeve it is with a forced judgement he condemneth the cause of those noblie-minded murtherers of Caesar Plutarke is every where free and open-hearted Seneca full-fraught with points and sallies Plutarke stuft with matters The former doth moove and enflame you more the latter content please and pay you better This doth guide you the other drive you on As for Cicero of all his works those that treat of Philosophie namely morall are they which best serve my turne and square with my intent But boldly to confesse the trueth For Since the bars of impudencie were broken downe all curbing is taken away his maner of writing seemeth verie tedious vnto me as doth all such-like stuffe For his prefaces definitions divisions and Etymologies consume the greatest part of his Works whatsoever quicke wittie and pithie conceit is in him is surcharged and confounded by those his long and far-fetcht preambles If I bestow but one houre in reading him which is much for me and let me call to minde what substance or juice I have drawne from him for the most part I find nothing but winde ostentation in him for he is not yet come to the arguments which make for his purpose and reasons that properly concerne the knot or pith I seek-after These Logicall and Aristotelian ordinances are not availfull for me who onely endevour to become more wise and sufficient and not more wittie or eloquent I would have one begin with the last point I vnderstand sufficiently what death and voluptuousnesse are let not a man busie himselfe to anatomize them At the first reading of a Booke I seeke for good and solide reasons that may instruct me how to sustaine their assaults It is nether gramaticall subtilties nor logicall quiddities nor the wittie contexture of choise words or arguments and syllogismes that will serve my turne I like those discourses that give the first charge to the strongest part of the doubt his are but flourishes and languish every where They are good for Schooles at the barre or for Orators and Preachers where we may slumber and though we wake a quarter of an houre after we may find and trace him soone enough Such a maner of speech is fit for those Iudges that a man would corrupt by hooke or crooke by right or wrong or for children and the common people vnto whom a man must tell all and see what the event will be I would not have a man go about and labour by circumlocutions to induce and win me to attention and that as our Herolds or Criers do they shall ring out their words Now heare me now listen or â—oâ—yes The Romanes in their Religion were wont to say Hoc age which in ours we say Sursum corda There are so many lost words for me I come readie prepared from my house I need no allurement nor sawce my stomacke is good enough to digest raw meat And whereas with these preparatives and flourishes or preambles they thinke to sharpen my taste or stir my stomacke they cloy and make it wallowish Shall the priviledge of times excuse me from this sacrilegious boldnesse to deeme Platoes Dialogismes to be as languishing by over-filling and stuffing his matter And to bewaile the time that a man who had so many thousands of things to vtter spends about so many so long so vaine and idle interloquutions and preparatives My ignorance shall better excuse me in that I see nothing in the beautie of his language I generally enquire after Bookes that vse sciences and not after such as institute them The two first and Plinie with others of their ranke have no Hoc age in them they will have to doe with men that have forewarned themselves or if they have it is a materiall and substantiall Hoc age and that hath his bodie apart I likewise love to read the Epistles and ad Atticum not onely because they containe a most ample instruction of the Historie and affaires of his times but much more because in them I descrie his private humours For as I have said elsewhere I am wonderfull curious to discover and know the minde the soule the genuine disposition and naturall judgement of my Authors A man ought to judge their sufficiencie and not their customes nor them by the shew of their writings Which they set forth on this worlds Theatre I have sorrowed a thousand times that ever we lost the booke that Brutus writ of Virtue Oh it is a goodly thing to learne the Theorike of such as vnderstand the practise well But forsomuch as the Sermon is one thing and the Preacher an other I love as much to see Brutus in Plutarke as in himselfe I would rather make choise to know certainly what talke he had in his Tent with some of his familiar friends the night fore-going the battell then the speach he made the morrow after to his Armie and what he did in his chamber or closet then what in the Senate or market place As for Cicero I am of the common judgement that besides learning there was no exquisite excellencie in him He was a good Citizen of an honest-gentle nature as are commonly fat and burly men for so was he But to speake truely of him full of ambitious vanitie and remisse nicenesse And I know not well how to excuse him in that he deemed his Poesie worthy to be published It is no great imperfection to make bad verses but it is an imperfection in him that he never perceived
how vnworthy they were of the glorie of his name Concerning his eloquence it is beyond all comparison and I verily beleeve that none shall ever equall it Cicero the yoonger who resembled his father in nothing but in name commaunding in Asia chanced one day to have many strangers at his board and amongst others one Castius sitting at the lower end as the maner is to thrust-in at great mens tables Cicero inquired of one of his men what he was who told him his name but he dreaming on other matters and having forgotten what answere his man made him asked him his name twice or thrice more the servant because he would not be troubled to tell him one thing so often and by some circumstance make him to know him better It is said he the same Castius to whom some have told you that in respect of his owne maketh no accompt of your fathers eloquence Cicero being suddainly mooved commaunded the said poore Castius to be presently taken from the table and well whipt in his presence Lo-heere an vncivill and barbarous host Even amongst those which all things considered have deemed his eloquence matchlesse and incomparable others there have been who have not spared to note some faults in it As great Brutus said that it was an eloquence broken halting and disjoynted fractam elumbem Incoherent and sinnowlesse Those Orators that lived about his age reprooved also in him the curious care he had of a certaine long cadence at the end of his clauses and noted these words Esse videatur which he so often vseth As for me I rather like a cadence that falleth shorter cut like I am bikes yet doth he sometimes confound his numbers but it is seldome I have especially observed this one place Ego verò me minus diu senem esse mallem quà m esse seuem antequam essem But I had rather not be an old man so long as I might be than to be old before I should be Historians are my right hand for they are pleasant and easie and therewithall the man with whom I desire generally to be acquainted may more lively and perfectly be discovered in them than in any other composition the varietie and truth of his inward conditions in grosse and by retale the diversitie of the meanes of his collection and composing and of the accidents that threaten him Now those that write of mens lives forasmuch as they ammuse and busie themselves more about counsels than events more about that which commeth from within than that which appeareth outward they are fittest for me And that 's the reason why Plutarke above all in that kind doth best please me Indeed I am not a little grieved that we have not a dozen of Laerâ—ij or that he is not more knowne or better vnderstood for I am no lesse curious to know the fortunes and lives of these great masters of the world than to vnderstand the diversitie of their decrees and conceits In this kind of studie of Historie a man must without distinction tosse and turne over all sorts of Authors both old and new both French and others if he will learne the things they so diversly treat-of But me thinks that Caesar above all doth singularly deserve to be studied not onely for the vnderstanding of the Historie as of himselfe so much perfection and excellencie is there in him more than in others although Salust be reckoned one of the number Verily I read that Author with a little more reverence and respect than commonly men reade profane and humane Workes sometimes considering him by his actions and wonders of his greatnesse and other times waighing the puritie and inimitable polishing and elegancie of his tongue which as Cicero saith hath not onely exceeded all Historians but happly Cicero himselfe with such sinceritie in his judgement Speaking of his enemies that except the false colours wherewith he goeth about to cloake his bad cause and the corruption and filthinesse of his pestilent ambition I am perswaded there is nothing in him to be found fault-with and that he hath been over-sparing to speake of himselfe for so many notable and great things could never be executed by him vnlesse he had put more of his owne vnto them than he setteth downe I love those Historians that are either verie simple or most excellent The simple who have nothing of their owne to adde vnto the storie and have but the care and diligence to collect whatsoever come vnto their knowledge and sincerely and faithfully to register all things without choice or culling by the naked truth leave our judgement more entire and better satisfied Such amongst others for example sake plaine and well-meaning Froisard who in his enter prize hath marched with so free and genuine a puritie that having committed some oversight he is neither ashamed to acknowledge nor afraide to correct the same wheresoever he hath either notice or warning of it and who representeth vnto vs the diversitie of the newes then currant and the different reports that were made vnto him The subject of an historie should be naked bare and formelesse each man according to his capacitie or vnderstanding may reap commoditie out of it The curious and most excellent have the sufficiencie to cull and chuse that which is worthie to be knowne and may select of two relations that which is most likely of the condition of Princes and of their humors therby they conclude their counsels and attribute convenient words vnto them they have reason to assume authoritie vnto them to direct and shapen our beliefe vnto theirs But truely that belongs not to many Such as are betweene both which is the most common fashion it is they that spoile all they will needs chew our meat for vs and take vpon them a law to judge and by consequence to square and encline the storie according to their fantasie for where the judgement bendeth one way a man cannot chuse but wrest and turne his narration that way They vndertake to chuse things worthy to be knowne and now and then conceal either a word or a secret action from vs which would much better instruct vs omitting such things as they vnderstand not as incredible and happily such matters as they know not how to declare either in good Latin or tollerable French Let them boldly enstall their eloquence and discourse Let them censure at their pleasure but let them also give vs leave to judge after them And let them neither alter nor dispence by their abridgements and choise any thing belonging to the substance of the matter but let them rather send it pure and entire with all hir dimensions vnto vs. Most commonly as chiefly in our age this charge of writing histories is committed vnto base ignorant and mechanicall kind of people only for this consideration that they can speak well as if we sought to learne the Grammer of them and they have some reason being only hyred to that end and publishing nothing
the diversities wherewith they are moved I plainely perceive we lend nothing vnto devotion but the offices that flatter our passions There is no hostilitie so excellent as that which is absolutly Christian Our zeale worketh wonders when ever it secondeth our inclination toward hatred crueltie ambition avarice detraction or rebellion Towards goodnes benignitie or temperance it goeth but slowly and against the haire except miraculously some rare complexion leade him vnto it it neither runnes nor flieth to it Our religion was ordained to root out vices but it shrowdeth fostreth and provoketh them As commonly wee say We must not make a foole of God Did wee believe in him I say not through faith but with a simple beliefe yea I speake it to our confusion did we but believe and know him as wee doe another storie or as one of our companions we should then love him aboue all other things by reason of the infinite goodnes and vnspeakable beauty that is and shines in him Had he but the same place in our affections that riches pleasures glory and our friends have The best of vs doth not so much feare to wrong him as he doth to injurie his neighbour his kinsman or his maister Is there so simple a minde who on the one side having before him the obiect of one of our vicious pleasures and on the other to his full viewe perfect knowledge and assured perswasion the state of an immortall glorie that would enter into contention of one for the other And if we often refuse it through meere contempt for what drawes vsto blaspheming vnlesse it be at all adventures the desire itselfe of the offence The Philosopher Antisthenes when he was initiated in the mysteries of Orpheus the priest saying vnto him that such as vowed themselves to that religion should after death receive eternall and perfect felicities replied if thou believe-it why dost thou not die thy self Diogenes more roughly as his manner was and further from our purpose answered the priest who perswaded him to be one of his order that so he might come vnto and attaine the happinesse of the other world Wilt thou have me believe that those famous men Agesilaus and Epaminondas shall be miserable and that thou who art but an asse and dost nothing of any worth shalt be happy because thou art a Priest Did we but receive these large promises of everlasting blessednes with like authoritie as we do a philosophicall discourse we should not then have death in that horror as we have Non iamse moriens dissolvi conquereretur Sed magis ire foras vestemque relinquere vt anâ—uis Gauderet praelonga senex aut cornua cervus He would not now complaine to be dissolved dying But rather more rejoice that now he is forth-flying Or as a Snake his coate out-worne Or as old Harts doth cast his horne I will be dissolved should we say and be with Iesus Christ. The forcible power of Platoes discourse of the immortality of the soule provoked diverse of his Schollers vnto death that so they might more speedily enjoy the hopes he told them of All which is a most evident token that we receive our religion but according to our fashion and by our owne hands and no otherwise than other religions are received We are placed in the country where it was in vse where we regard hir antiquity or the authority of those who have maintained hir where we feare the menaces wherewith she threatneth all mis-beleevers or follow hir promises The considerations ought to be applied and employed to our beleefe but as Subsidiaries they be humane bondes Another Country other Testimonies equall promises alike menaces mighe semblably imprint a cleane contrary religion in vs weare christians by the same title as we are either Perigordins or Germans And as Plato saith There are â—ew so confirmed in Atheisme but some great danger will bring vnto the knowledge of Gods divine power The parte doth not touch or concernea good Christian It is for mortall and worldly religions to be received by a humane convoy What faith is that like to be which cowardice of heart doth plant and weaknesse establish in vs A goodly faith that believes that which it beleeveth onely because it wanteth the courage not to beleeve the same A vicious passion as that of inconstancie and astonishment is can it possibly ground any regular production in our mindes or soules They establish saith he by the reason of their judgement that whatsoever is reported of hell or of after-comming paines is but a fiction but the occasions to make triall of it offering it selfe at what time age or sickenes doth sommon them to death the errour of the same through the horrour of their future condition doth then replenish them with an other kinde of beleefe And because such impressions make mens hearts fearefull hee by his lawes inhibiteth all instruction of such threats and the perswasion that any evill may come vnto man from the Gods except for his greater good and for a medicinable effect whensoever he falleth into-it The report of Bion that being infected with the Athiesmes of Theodorus he had for along time made but a mockerie of religious men but when death did once seize vpon him he yeelded vnto the extreamest superstions As if the Gods would either be remooved or come againe according to Bions businesse Plato and these examples conclude that wee are brought to beleeve in God either by reason or by compulsion Atheisme being a proposition as vnnaturall and monstrous as it is harde and vneasie to be established in any mans minde how insolent and vnruly soever hee may be Many have beene seene to have conceived either through vanitie or fiercenesse strange and seld-knowne opinions as if they would become reformers of the world by affecting a profession onely in countenaunce who though they be sufficiently foolish yet are they not powerfull enough to ground or settle it in their consciences Yet will not such leave to list-vp their joyned hands to heaven give them but a sâ—occado on their breast and when feare shall have supprest or sickenesse vanquished this licentious fervour of a wavering minde then will they suffer themselves gently to be reclaimed and discreetly to be perswaded to give credite vnto true beliefe and publike examples A decree seriously digested is one thing and these shallow and superficiall impressions another which bred by the dissolutnesse of a loose spirit do rashly and vncertainely floate vp and downe the fantasie of a man Oh men most braine-sicke and miserable that endevour to be worse than they can The errour of Paganisme and the ignorance of our sacred trueth was the cause of this great soules-fall but onely great in worldly greatnes also in this next abuse which is that children and olde men are found to be more susceptible or capable of religion as if it were bredde and had her credite from our imbecilitie The bond which should binde our iudgement tie our
without any teaching to be vnderstoode nay which is more it is a language common and publike to all whereby it followeth seeing the varietie and severall vse it hath from others that this must rather be deemed the proper and peculiar speech of humane nature I omit that which necessitie in time of neede doth particularly instruct and sodainely teach such as neede it and the alphabets vpon fingers and grammars by jestures and the sciences which are onely exercised and expressed by them and the nations Plinie reporteth to have no other speech An Ambassador of the Citie of Abdera after he had talked a long time vnto Agis King of Sparta said thus vnto him O King what answere wilt thou that I beare backe vnto our citizens Thus answered he that I have suffered thee to speake all thou wouldest and as long as thou pleasedst without ever speaking one word Is not this a kinde of speaking silence and easie to be vnderstoode And as for other matters what sufficiencie is there in vs that we must not acknowledge from the industrie and labors of beasts Can there be a more formall and better ordred policie divided into so severall charges and offices more constantly entertained and better maintained then that of Bees Shall we imagine their so orderly disposing of their actions and mannaging of their vacations have so proporcioned and formall a conduct without discourse reason and forecast His quidam signis atque haec exempla sequuti Esse apibus partem divinae mentis haustus Aethereos dixere Some by these signes by these examples moved Said that in Bees there is and may be proved Some taste of heav'nly kinde Part of celestiall minde The Swallows which at the approch of spring-time we see to prie to search and ferret all the corners of our houses is it without judgement they seeke or without discretion they chuse from out a thousand places that which is fittest for them to build their nests and lodgeing And in that pretie-cunning contexture and admirable framing of their houses would birds rather fit themselves with a round then a square figure with an obtuse then a right angle except they knew both the commodities and effects of them Would they suppose you first take water and then clay vnlesse they guessed that the hardnes of the one is softned by the moistnes of the other Would they floore their palace with mosse or downe except they fore-saw that the tender parts of their yong-ons shall thereby lie more soft and easie Would they shroud and shelter themselves from stormie weather and builde their cabbins toward the East vnlesse they knew the different conditions of windes and considered that some are more healthfull and safe for them then some others Why doth the Spider spin hir artificiall webbe thicke in one place and thin in another And now vseth one and then another knot except she had an imaginarie kinde of deliberation fore-thought and conclusion We perceive by the greater part of their workes what excellencie beasts have over-vs and how weake our-arte and short our cunning-is if we goe about to imitate them We see notwithstanding even in our grosest workes what faculties we employ in them and how our minde employeth the vttermost of hir skill and forces in them why should we not thinke as much of them Wherefore doe we attribute the workes which excell what ever we can performe either by nature or by arte vnto a kinde of vnknowen naturall and servill inclination Wherein vnawars we give them a great advantage over-vs to inferre that nature led by a certaine loving kindnes leadeth and accompanieth them as it were by the hand vnto all the actions and commodities of their life and that she forsaketh and leaveth vs to the hazard of fortune And by arte to quest and finde-out those things that are behoâ—uefull and necessarie for our preservation and therewithall denieth vs the meanes to attaine by any institution and contention of spirit to the naturall sufficiencie of brute beasts So that their brutish stupiditie doth in all commodities exceede whatsoever our divine intelligence can effect Verely by this accoumpt we might have just cause and great reason to terme hir a most injust and partiall stepdame But there is no such thing our policy is not so deformed and disordered Nature hath generally imbraced all hir creatures And there is not any but she hath amply stored with all necessary meanes for the preservation of their being For the daily plaints which I often heare men make when the licence of their conceits doth somtimes raise them above the clouds and then head-long tumbling them downe even to the Antipodes exclayming that man is the onely forsaken and out cast creature naked on the bare earth fast bound and swathed having nothing to cover and arme himself withall but the spoile of others whereas Nature hath clad and mantled all other creatures some with shels some with huskes with â—â—ndes with haire with wooll with stings with bristles with hides with mosse with fethers with skales with fleâ—ces and with â—â—ke according as their quality might neede or their condition require And hath fenced and aâ—â—ed them with clawes with nailes with talents with hoofes with teeth with stings and with hornes both to assaile others and to defend themselves And hath more-over instructed them in every thing fit and requisit for them as to swim to runne to creepe to flie to roare to bellow and to sing where as man onely Oh silly-wretched man can neither goe nor speake nor shift nor feed himselefe vnlesse it be to whine and weepe onely except he be taught Tum porro puer vt saevis proiectus ab vndis Navita nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni Vitali auxilio cùm primùm in luminis oras Nexibus ex alvo matris natura profudit Vagitúque locum lugubri complet vt aequum est Cui tantùm in vita restet transire malorum At variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque Nec crepitacula eis opus est nec cuiquam adhibenda est Alma nutricis blanda atque infracta loquela Nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli Denique non armis opus est non moenibus altis Queis sua tutentur quando omnibus omnia large Tellus ipsaparit natur à que daedalarerum An infant like a shipwracke ship-boy cast from seas Lies naked on the ground and speechlesse wanting all The helpes of vitall spirit when nature with small ease Of throw's to see first light from hir wombe lets him fall Then as is meete with morn'full cries he fils the place For whom so many ils remaine in his lives race But divers heards of tame and wilde beasts foreward spring Nor neede they rattles nor of Nurces cockring-kinde The flattering broken speech their lulluby neede sing Nor seeke they divers coates as divers seasons binde Lastly no armour neede they nor high-reared wall Whereby to guard their owne since all things vnto all
lesson no more is the surcharge and relishing which we adde vnto our letcherous appetites neque illa Magno prognatum deposcit consule cunnum These strange lustfull longings which the ignorance of good and a false opinion have possest vs with are in number so infinite that in a maner they expell all those which are naturall even as if there were so many strangers in a City that should either banisn and expel all the naturall inhabitants thereof or vtterly suppresse their ancient power and authority and absolutely vsurping the same take possession of it Brute beasts are much more regulate then we and with more moderation containe themselves within the compasse which nature hath prescribed them yet not so exactly but that they have some coherency with our riotous licenciousnesse And even as there have beene found certaine furious longings and vnnaturall desires which have provoked men vnto the love of beastes so have diverse times some of them beene drawne to love vs and are possessed with monstrous affections from one kind to another witnesse the Elephant that in the love of an hearb-wife in the city of Alexandria was corivall with Aristophanes the Grammarian who in all offices pertayning to an earnest woer and passionate suter yeelded nothing vnto him For walking thorow the Fruite-market he would here and there snatch vp some with his truncke and carry them vnto hir as neere as might be he would never loose the sight of hir and now and then over hir band put his truncke into hir bosome and feele hir breasts They also report of a Dragon that was exceedingly in love with a yong maiden and of a Goose in the City of Asope which dearely loved a yong childe also of a Ramme that belonged to the Musitian Glausia Doe we not daily see Munkies ragingly in love with women and furiously to pursue them And certaine other beastes given to love the males of their owne sex Oppianus and others report some examples to shew the reverence and manifest the awe some beasts in their marriages beare vnto their kindred but experience makes vs often see the contrary nec habetur turpe iuvencae Ferre patrem tergo fit equo sua filia coniux Quà sque creavit init pecudes caper ipsaque cuius Semine concepta est ex illo concipit ales To beare hir Sire the Heifer shameth not The Horse takes his owne Fillies maiden-head The Goate gets them with yong whom he begot Birds breed by them by whom themselves were bred Touching a subtil pranke and witty tricke is there any so famous as that of Thales the Philosophers Mule which laden with salt passing through a River chanced to stumble so that the sacks she carried were all wet and perceiving the salt because the water had melted it to grow lighter ceased not assoone as she came neere any water together with hir loade to plunge hirselfe therein vntill hir master being aware of hir craft commanded hir to be laden with wooll which being wet became heavier the Mule finding hirselfe deceived vsed hir former policy no more There are many of them that lively represent the visage of our avarice who with a greedy kinde of desire endevour to surprise whatsoever comes within their reach and though they reape no commodity nor have any vse of it to hide the same very curiously As for husbandry they exceede vs not only in fore-sight to spare and gather together for times to come but have also many parts of the skill belonging there vnto As the Ants when they perceive their corne to grow mustie and graine to be sowre for feare it should rot and putrifie spread the same abroad before their neastes that so it may aire and drie But the caution they vse in gnawing and prevention they imploy in paring their graines of wheate is beyond all imagination of mans wit Because wheat doth not alwaies keepe drie nor wholesome but moisten melt and dissolve into a kinde of whey namely when it beginneth to bud fearing it should turne to seede and loose the nature of a store-house for their sustenance they part and gnawe-off the end whereat it wonts to bud As for warre which is the greatest and most glorious of all humane actions I would faine know if we will vse it for an argument of some prerogative or otherwise for a testimonie of our imbecilitie and imperfection as in truth the science wee vse to defeate and kill one another to spoile and vtterly to overthrow our owne kinde it seemeth it hath not much to make it selfe to be wished-for in beastes that have it not quando leoni Fortioreripuit vitam leo quo nemore vnquam Expiravit aper maioris dentibus apri When hath a greater Lion damnifide A lions life in what wood ever di'de A bore by tusks and gore Of any greater bore Yet are not they altogether exempted from it witnesse the furious encounters of Bees and the hostile enterprises of the Princes and Leaders of the two contrary Armies saepe duobus Regibus incessit magno discordia motu Continuoque animos vulgi trepidantia bello Corda licet longè praesciscere Oft-times twixt two no great Kings great dissention With much adoe doth set them at contention The vulgare mindes strait may you see from farre And hearts that tremble at the thought of warre I nevr marke this divine description but mee thinkes I reade humane foolishnesse and wordly vanitie painted in it For these motions of warre which out of their horror and astonishent breed this tempest of cries and clang of sounds in vs Fulgur vbi ad caelumse tollit totaque circum Aere renidescit tellus subterque virum vi Excitur pedibus sonitus clamoreque montes Icti reiectant voces ad sider a mundi Where lightning raiseth it selfe to the skies The earth shines round with armour soundes doe rise By mens force vnder feere wounded with noyse The hilles to heav'n reverberate their voyce This horror-causing aray of so many thousands of armed men so great furie earnest fervor and vndaunted courage it would make one laugh to see by how many vaine occasions it is raised and set on fire and by what light meanes it is againe suppressed and extinct Paridis propter narratur amorem Graeâ—ta Barbariediro collisa duello For Paris lustfull love as Stories tell All Greece to direfull warre with Asia fell The hatred of one man a spight a pleasure a familiar suspect or a jealousie causes which ought not to moove two scolding fish-wives to scratch one another is the soule and motive of all this hurly-burly Shall we beleeve them that are the principall authors and causes therof Let vs but hearken vnto the greatest and most victitorious Emperour and the mightiest that ever was how pleasantly he laughs and wittily he plaies at so many battells and bloody fights hazarded both by sea and land at the blood and lives of five hundred thousand soules which followed his fortune and
being Wherfore we must conclude that onely God is not according to any measure of time but according to an immoovable and immutable eternity not measured by time nor subiect to any declination before whom nothing is nor nothing shall be after nor more now nor more recent but one really being which by one onely Now or Present filleth the Ever and there is nothing that truly is but the alone Without saying he hath beene or he shall be without beginning and sans ending To this so religious conclusion of a heathen man I will onely adde this word taken from a testimony of the same condition for an end of this long and period of this tedious discourse which might well furnish me with endlesse matter Oh what a vile and abiect thing is man saith he vnlesse he raise himselfe aboue humanity Observe here a notable speech and a profitable desire but likewise absurd For to make the handful greater than the hand and the embraced greater then the arme and to hope to straddle more than our legs length is impossible and monstious nor that man should mount over and above himselfe or humanity for he cannot see but with his owne eies nor take hold but with his owne armes He shall raise himselfe vp if it please God extraordinarily to lend him his helping hand He may elevate himselfe by forsaking and renouncing his owne meanes and suffering himselfe to be elevated and raised by meere heavenly meanes It is for our Christian faith not for his Stoicke vertue to pretend or aspire to this divine Metamorphosis or miraculous transmutation The thirteenth Chapter Of iudging of others death WHen we judge of others assurance or boldnesse in death which without all peradventure is the most remarkeable action of humane life great heed is to be taken of one thing which is that a man will hardly beleeve he is come to that point Few men die with a resolution that it is their last houre And no where doth hopes deceit ammuse vs more She never ceaseth to ring in our eares that others have beene sicker and yet have not died the cause is not so desperate as it is taken and if the worst happen God hath done greater wonders The reason is that we make to much account of our selves It seemeth that the generality of things doth in some sort suffer for our annullation and takes compassion of our state Forsomuch as our sight being altered represents vnto it selfe things alike and we imagine that things faile it as it doth to them As they who travell by Sea to whom mountaines fields townes heaven and earth seene to goe the same motion and keepe the same course they doe Provehimur portu terraeque vrbésque recedunt We sayling launch from harbour and Behinde our backee leave townes leave land Who ever saw old age that commended not times past and blamed not the present charging the world and mens customes with hir misery and lowring discontent Iámque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Et cùm tempor a temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis laudat fortunas saepe parentis Et crepat antiquum genus vt pietate repletum The gray-beard Plow-man sighes shaking his hoary head Compares times that are now with times past heretofore Praises the fortunes of his father long since dead And crakes of ancient men whose honesty was more We entertaine and carry all with vs Whence it followeth that we deeme our death to be some great matter and which passeth not so easily nor without a solemne consultation of the Starres Tot circa vâ—um caput tumultuantes Deos. So many Gods keeping a stirre about one mans life And so much the more we thinke it by how much more we praise our selves What Should so much learning and knowledge be lost with so great dommage without the Destinies particular care A soule so rare and exemplar costs it no more to be killed then a popular and vnprofitable soule This life that covereth so many others of whom so many other lives depend that for his vse possesseth so great a part of the world and filleth so many places is it displaced as that which holdeth by it's owne simple string No one of vs thinkes it sufficient to be but one Thence came those words of Caesar to his pilot more proudly swolne then the Sea that threatned him Italiam si caelo authore recusas Mepete sola tibi causa haec est iusta timoris Vectorem non nosse tuum perrumpe procellas Tutelâ secure maie If Italie thou do refuse with heav'n thy guide Turne thee to me to thee only just cause of feare Is that thy passinger thou know'st not stormie tide Breake through secure by guard of me whom thou dost beare And these credit iam digna pericula Caesar Fatis esse suis tantúsque evertere dixit Mesuperis labor est parvâ qâ—em puppe sedentem Tam magno petiere mari Cesar doth now beleeve those dangers worthie are Of his set fate and saies doe Gods take so much paine Me to vndoe whom they thus to assault prepare Set in so small a skiffe in such a surging maine And this common foppery that Phoebus for one whole yeare bare mourning weedes on his forehead for the death of him Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam Cùm caput obscurá nitidum ferrugine texit The Snnne did pittie take of Rome when Caesar dide When he his radiant head in obscure rust did hide And a thousand such wherewith the world suffers it selfe to be so easily conicatcht deeming that our owne interests disturbe heaven and his infinitie is moved at our least actions Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est vt nostro fato mortalis sit ille quoque siderum fulgor There is no such societie betweene heaven and vs that by our destinie the shining of the starres should be mort all as we are And to judge a resolution and constancie in him who though he be in manifest danger dooth not yet beleeve it it is no reason And it sufficeth not that he die in that ward vnlesse he have directly and for that purpose put himselfe into it It hapneth that most men set a sterne countenance on the matter looke big and speake stoutly thereby to acquire reputation which if they chance to live they hope to enjoy Of all I have seene die fortune hath disposed their countenances but not their desseignes And of those which in ancient times have put themselves to death the choise is great whether it were a sodaine death or a death having time and leasure That cruell Romane Emperor said of his prisoners that he would make them feele death And if any fortuned to kill himselfe in prison That fellow hath escaped me would he say He would extend and linger death and cause it be felt by torments Vidimus toto quamuis in corpore caese Nil animae let hale datum morémque nefandae Durum
advanced in his dominions And was exceedingly grieved that for want of a litle longer life and a substitute to manage the Warre and affaires or so troubled a state he was enforced to seeke a bloody and hazardous battell having another pure and vndoubted victory in hand He notwithstanding managed the continuance of his sicknes so miraculously that he consumed his enemy diverted him from his Sea-Fleete and Maritime places he helde along the Coaste of Affricke even vntill the last day of his life which by designe he reserved and emploied for so great and renowmed a fight He ranged his battell in a round on ev'ry side besieging the Portugals army which bending round and comming to close did not onely hinder them in the conflict which through the valour of that yong-assailant King was very furious since they were to turne their faces on all sides but also hindred them from running away after the rowte And finding all issewes seized and all passages closed they were constrained to turne vpon themselves coacervantúrque non solum caede sed etiam fugâ— They fall on heapes not only by slaughter but by flight And so pel-mell to heape one on anothers neck preparing a most murthrous and compleat victory to the Conquerours When he was even dying hee caused himselfe to be carryed and haled where-ever neede called for him and passing along the files hee exhorted the Captaines and animated the Souldiers one after another And seeing one wing of the fight to have the worst and in some danger no man could hold him but he would needs with his naked-sword in hand get on hors-backe striving by all possible meanes to enter the throng his men holding him some by the Bridle some by the Gowne and some by the Stirrops This toyle and straining of himselfe made an end of that litle remainder of his life Then was he laid on his bed But comming to himselfe again starting vp as out of a swowne each other faculty failing him he gave them warning to conceale his death which was the necessariest commandement he could give his servaunts lest the souldiers hearing of his death might fal into dispaire and so yeelded the Ghost holding his fore-fingers vpon his mouth an ordinary signall to impose silence What man ever lived so long and so neere death Who ever died so vpright and vndaunted The extreamest degree and most naturall couragiously to manage death is to see or front the same not only without amazement but without care the course of life continuing free even in death As Cato who ammuzed himselfe to studie and sleepe having a violent and bloudy death present in his hart and as it were holding it in his hand The two and twentieth Chapter Of running Posts or Curriers I Have beene none of the weakest in this exercise which is proper vnto men of my stature well-trust short and tough but now I have given it over It toyles vs over-much to holde out long I was even-now reading how King Cyrus that he might more speedily receave newes from all parts of his Empire which was of exceeding great length would needs have it tried how farre a horse could in a day goe out-right without baiting at which distance hee caused Stations to be set and men to have fresh horses ready for al such as came to him And some report this swift kinde of running answereth the flight of Cranes Caesar saith that Luâ—ius Vibulus Rufus making haste to bring Pompey an advertisement rode day and night and to make more speed shifted many horses And himselfe as Suetonius writeth would vpon an hyred coache runne a hundred miles a day And sure he was a rancke-runner for where any river hindred his way he swam it over and never went out of his way to seeke for a bridge or foarde Tib erius Nero going to visite his brother Drusus who lay sicke in Germanie having three coaches in his companie ranne two hundred miles in foure and twenty hours In the Romane warres against King Antiochus Titus Sempronius Gracchus saiâ—h Titus Livius per dispositos equos propè incredibili celeritae ab Amphisa tertio dic Pellam pervenit By horse laide poste with incredible speede within three dayes he past from Amphisa to Pella And viewing the place it seemeth they were set Stations for Postes and not newly appointed for that race The inuention of Cecinna in sending newes to those of his house had much more speede he carried certaine swallowes with him and having occasion to send newes home he let them flie toward their nests first marking them with some colour proper to signifie what he meant as before he had agreed vpon with his friends In the Theatres of Rome the houshold Masters carried Pigeons in their bosomes vnder whose wings they fastened letters when they would send any word home which were also taught to bring back an answer D. Brutus vsed some being besieged in Mutina and otherselfe-where In Peru they went poste vpon mens backes who tooke their Masters vpon their shoulders sitting vpon certaine beares or chaires with such agilitie that in full running speede the first porters without any stay cast their loade vpon others who vpon the way waited for them and so they to others I vnderstand that the Valachians which are messengers vnto the great Turk vse extreame diligence in their businesse forasmuch as they have authoritie to dis-mount the first passenger they meete vpon the high-way and give him their tyred Horse And bicause they shall not be weary they are wont to swathe themselves hard about the bodie with a broade Swathe or Seare cloath as diverse others doe with vs I could never finde ease or good by it The three and twentieth Chapter Of bad meanes emploied to a good end THere is a woonderfull relation and correspondencie found in this vniversall pollicie of Natures workes which manifestly sheweth it is neither casuall nor directed by diverse masters The infirmities and conditions of our bodies are likewise seene in states and goverments Kingdomes and Commowealths as well as we are borne florish and fade through age We are subject vnto a repleatnesse of humours hurtfull and vnprofitable yea be it of good humours for even Phisitians feare that and because there is nothing constant in vs they say that perfection of health over joyfull and strong must by arte be abated and diminished lest our nature vnable to settle it selfe in any certaine place and for hir amendment to ascend higher should over-violently recoile backe into disorder and therefore they prescrib vnto Wrestlers purging and phlebotomie to substract that superabundance of health from them or of bad which is the ordinarie cause of sickenesse Of such like repletion are States often seene to be sicke and diverse purgations are wont to be vsed to purge them As wee have seene some to dismisse a great number of families chiefly to disburthen the Countrey which else where goe to seeke where they may at others charge seare themselves In this
obscuritie procured him Smyrna Rhodos Colophon Salamis Chios Argos Athenae Rhodes Salamis Colophon Chios Argos Smyrna with Athens The other is Alexander the great For who shall consider his age wherein hee beganne his enterprises the small meanes he had to ground so glorious a desseigne vpon the authoritie he attained unto in his infancie amongst the greatest Commaunders and most experienced Captaines in the world by whom he was followed the extraordinarie favour wherwith fortune embraced him and seconded so many of his haughtie-dangerous exploites which I may in a manner call rash or fond-hardie Impellens quicquid sibi summapetenti Obstaret gaudensque viam fecisse ruina While he shot at the high'st all that might stay He for'st and joy de with ruine to make way That eminent greatnesse to have at the age of thirtie yeares passed victorious through all the habitable earth and but with halfe the life of a man to have attained the vtmost endevour of humane nature so that you cannot imagine his continuance lawfull and the lasting of his increase in fortune and progresse in vertue even vnto a just terme of age but you must suppose something above man to have caused so many Royal branches to â—ssue from out the loines of his Souldiers leaving the world after his death to be shared betweene foure succesâ—ours onely Captaines of his Armie whose succeeders have so long time since continued and descendents maintained that large possession So infinite rare and excellent vertues that were in him as justice temperance liberalitie integritie in words love toward his and humanitie toward the conquered For in truth his maners seeme to admit no just cause of reproach indeed some of his particular rare and extraordinary actions may in some fort be taxed For it is impossible to conduct so great and direct so violent motions with the strict rules of justice Such men ought to be judged in grose by the mistris end of their actions The ruine of Thebes the murther of Menander and of Ephestions Phisitian the maslacre of so many Persian prisoners at once of a troupe of Indian Souldiers not without some prejudice vnto his word and promise and of the Cosseyans and their little children are escapes somewhat hard to be excused For concerning Clitus the fault was expiated beyond it's merite and that action as much as any other witnesseth the integritie and cheerefulnes of his complexion and that it was a complexion in it selfe excellently formed to goodnesse And it was wittily saide of one that he had vertues by nature and vices by accident Concerning the point that he was somewhat to lavish a boaster and over-impatient to heare himselfe ill-spoken-of and touching those mangers armes and bits which He caused to be scattered in India respecting his age and the prosperitie of his fortune they are in my conceit pardonable in him He that shall also consider his many military vertues as diligence foresight patience discipline policie magnanimitie resolution and good fortune wherein though Haâ—â—balls authority had not taught it vs he hath been the first and chief of men the rare beauties matchlesse features and incomparable conditions of his person beyond all comparison and wonder-breeding his carriage demeanor and venerable behaviour in a face so yoong so vermâ—ill and heart-enflaming Qualis vbi Occani perfusus Lucifer vnda Quenâ— Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes Extulit os sacrum caelo tenebrá squere solvit As when the day starre washt in Ocean-streames Which Venus most of all the starres esteemes Shewes sacred ligh tshakes darkenesse-off with beames The excellencie of his wit knowledge and capacitie the continuance and greatnesse of his glorie vnspotted vntainted pure and free from all blame or envie insomuch as long aftet his death it was religiously beleived of many that the medalls or brooches representing his person brought good lucke vnto such as wore or had them about them And that more Kings and Princes have written his gestes and actions then any other historians of what qualitie soever have registred the gests or collected the actions of any other King or Prince that ever was And that even at this day the Mahometists who contemne all other histories by speciall priviledge allow receive and onely honour his All which premises duely considered together hee shall confesse I have had good reason to preferre him before Caesar himselfe who alone might have made me doubt of my choise And it must needes bee granted that in his exploites there was more of his owne but more of fortunes in Alexanders atchievements They have both had many things mutually alike and Caesar happily some greater They were two quicke and devouring fires or two swift and surrounding streames able to ravage the world by sundrie wayes Et velut immissi diversis partibus ignes Arentem in silvam virgulta sonantia lauro Aut vbi decursu rapido de montibus altis Dant sonitum spumosi amnes in aequora currunt Quisque suum populatus iter As when on divers sides fire is applied To crackling bay-shrubs or to woods Sunne dried Or as when foaming streames from mountaines hie With downe-fall swift resound and to sea flie Each-one doth havocâ—e-out his way thereby But grant Caesars ambition were more moderate it is so vnhappy in that it met with this vile subject of the subversion of his countrie and vniversall empairing of the world that all parts imparcially collected and put together in the balance I must necessarily bend to Alexanders side The third and in my judgement most excellent man is Epaminondas Of glorie he hath not so much as some and is farre short of diverse which well considered is no substantiall part of the thing of resolution and true valour not of that which is set-on by ambition but of that which wisedome and reason may settle in a well disposed minde hee had as much as may be imagined or wished for Hee hath in mine opinion made as great triall of his vertues as ever did Alexander or Caesar for although his exploites of warre bee not so frequent and so high-raised yet being throughly considered they are as weightie as resolute as constant yea and as authenticall a testimonie of hardines and militarie sufficiencie as any mans else The Graecians without any contradiction affoorded him the honour to entitle him the chiefe and first man among themselves and to be the first and chiefe man of Greece is without all question to bee chiefe and first man of the world Touching his knowledge and worth this ancient judgement doth yet remaine amongst vs that never was man who know so much nor never man that spake lesse then he For he was by Sect a Pythagorian and what he spake no man ever spake better An excellent and most perswasive Orator was hee And concerning his manners and conscience therein hee farre outwent all that ever medled with managing affaires For in this one part which ought especially to bee noted
in what plight the poore patient findeth himselfe If we could but be assured when they mistake themselves their phisicke would do vs no harme although not profit vs It were a reasonable composition for a man to hazard himselfe to get some good so hee endangered not himselfe to loose by it Aesope reporteth this storie that one who had bought a Moore-slave supposing his blacke hew had come vnto him by some strange accident or ill vsage of his former Maister with great diligence caused him to bee medicined with divers bathes and sundry potions It fortuned the Moore did no whiâ— mend or change his swarthie complexion but lost his former health How often commeth it to passe and how many times see we physitions charge one another with their pacients death I remember a popular sickenesse which some yeares since greatly troubled the Townes about me very mortall and dangerovs the rage whereof being over-past which had carried away an infinite number of persons One of the most famous physitions in all the country published a booke concerning that disease wherein hee adviseth himselfe that they had done amisse to vse phlâ—botomie and confesseth it had beene one of the principall causes of so great an inconvenience Moreover their Authors holde that there is no kinde of Physicke but hath some hurtfull part in it And â—â— those that fâ—t ouâ— turne doe in some sort harme vs what must those doe which are given vs to no purpose and out of season As for me if nothing else belonged thereunto I deeme it a matter very dangerous and of great prejudice for him who loathes the taste or abhorres the smell of a potion to swallow it at so vnconvenient houres and so much against his heart And I thinke it much dâ—stempereth a sicke man namely in a season he hath so much neede of rest Besides consider but the occasions on which they ordinarily ground the cause of our sickenesses they are so light and delicate as thence I argue That a very small error in compounding of their Drugges may occasion vs muâ—h deâ—riment Now if the mistaking in a Physition be dangerous it is very ill for vs for it is hard if he fall not often into it He hath neede of many parts divers considerations and severall circumstances to proportion his desseigne iustly He ought to know the sicke mans complexion his temper his humours his inclinations his actions his thoughts and his imaginations He must be assured of externall circumstances of the nature of the place the condition of the aire the quality of the weather the situation of the Planets and their influences In sickenesse he ought to be acquainted with the causes with the signes with the affections and criticall daies In drugges â—â— should vnderstand their weight their vertue and their operation the country the figure the age the dispensation In all these parts he must know how to proportion and referre them one vnto another thereby to begeâ— a perfect Symmetrie or due proportion of each part wherein if he misse never so little or if amongst so many wheeles and severall motions the least be out of tune or temper it is enough to marre all God knowes how hard the knowledge of most of these parts is As for example how shall he finde out the proper signe of the disease every malady being capable of an infinite number of signes How many debates doubts and controversies have they amongst themselves about the interpretations of Vrine Otherwise whence should that continuall altâ—â—â—ation come we see amongst them about the knowledge of the disease How should we excuse this fault wherein they fall so often to take a Martin for a Fox In those diseases I have had so they admitted any difficulty I could never yet finde three agreeing in onâ— opinion I more willingly note examples that concerne my selfe A Gentleman in Paris was not long since cut off the stone by the appointment of Phisitions in whose bladder they found no more stone then in his hand Where also a Bishop who was my very good friend had by his Phisitions beene earnestly solâ—cited to be cut and my selfe because they were of his counsell vpon their words aided to perswade him to it who being deceased and opened it was found he had no infirmity but in his reines They are lesse excusable in this dâ—sease forsomuch as it is in some sort palpable Whereby I judge the arte of Chirurgery much more certaine For it seeth and handlâ—th what it doth and therein is lesse conjecture and divination Whereas Phisitions have no speculum matricis to discover our braine our â—ungs and our lâ—ver vnto them The very promises of phisicke are incredible For being to provide for divers and contrary accidents which often trouble vs together and with a kinde of necessary relation one vnto another as the heate of the liver and the cold of the stomake they will perswade vs that with their ingredients this one shall warme the stomacke and this other coole the liver the one hath charge to goe directly to the reynes yea even to the bladder without enstalling his operation any where else and by reason of it's secret propriety keeping his force and vertue all that long way and so full of stops or lets vntill it come to the place to whose seruice it is destinated Another shall drie the braine and another moisten the lungs Of all this hotch-pot having composed a mixture or potion is it not a kinde of raving to hope their severall vertues shall devide and seperate themselves from out such a confusion or câ—mmixture to run to so diverse charges I should greatly feare they would loose or change theâ—r tickets and trouble their quarters And who can imagine that in this liquid confusion these faculties be not corrupted confounded and alter one another What that the execution of this ordenance depends from another officer to whose trust and mercy we must once moreforsake our lives As we have doublet and hose-makers to make our clothes and are so much the better fitted in as much as each medleth with his owne trade and such have their occupation more strictly limited then a Tailer that will make all And as for our necessary foode some of our great Lords for their more commodity and ease have severall cookes as some only to dresse boyled meates and some to roste others to bake whereas if one Cooke alone would supply all three in generall he could never doe it so exactly In like sort for the curing of all diseases the Aegyptians had reason to reject this generall mysterie of Physitians and to sunder this profession for every maladie allotting each part of the body his distinct workman For every particular part was thereby more properly attended and lesse confusedly governed and for so much as they regarded but the same especially Our Physitians never remember that he who will provide for all provideth for nothing and that the totall and summarie policie of this little world is vnto
they be liberall Therefore is it but of small commendation in respect of other royall vertues And the only as said the tyrant Dionyfius that agreed and squared well with tyrannie it selfe I would rather teach him the verse of the ancient labourer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not whole sackes but by the hand A man should sow his seed i' the land That whosoever will reape any commoditie by it must sow with his hand and not powre out of the sacke that corne must be discreetly scattered and not lavishly dispersed And that being to give or to say better to pay and restore to such a multitude of people according as they have deserved he ought to be a loyall faithfull and advised distributer thereof If the liberalitie of a Prince be without heedy discretion and measure I would rather have him covetous and sparing Princely vertue seemeth to consist most in iustice And of all parts of justice that doth best and most belong to Kings which accompanieth liberalitie For they have it particularly reserved to their charge whereas all other justice they happily exercise the same by the intermission of others Immoderate bountie is a weake meane to acquire them good will for it reiecteth more people then it obtaineth Quo in plures vsus sis minus in multos vti possis Quid autem est stultius quà m quod libenter facias curare vt id diutius facere non possis The more you have vsed it to many the lesse may you vse it to many more And what is more fond then what you willingly would doe to provide you can no longer doe it And if it be emploied without respect of merit it shameth him that receiveth the same and is received without grace Some Tyrants have beene sacrificed to the peoples hatred by the very hands of those whom they had rashly preferred and wrongfully advanced such kinde of men meaning to assure the possession of goods vnlawfully and indirectly gotten if they shew to hold in contempt and hatred him from whom they held them and in that combine themselves vnto the vulgar iudgement and common opinion The subiects of a Prince rashly excessive in his gifts become impudently excessive in begging they adhere not vnto reason but vnto example Verily we have often iust cause to blush for our impudencie We are over-paid according to justice when the recompence equalleth our service for doe we not owe a kinde of naturall dutie to our Princes If he beare our charge he doth over-much it sufficeth if hee assist it the over-plus is called a benefit which cannot be exacted for the very name of liberalitie implieth libertie After our fashion we have never done what is received is no more reckoned of only future liberalitie is loved Wherefore the more a Prince doth exhaust himselfe in giving the more friends he impoverisheth How should he satisfie intemperate desires which increase according as they are replenished Who so hath his mind on taking hath it no more on what he hath taken Covetousnesse hath nothing so proper as to be vngratefull The example of Cyrus shall not ill fit this place for the behoofe of our kings of these daies as a touch-stone to know whether their gifts be well or ill emploied and make them perceive how much more happilie that Emperour did wound and oppresse them then they doe Whereby they are afterward forced to exact and borrow of their vnknowen subiects and rather of such as they have wronged and aggrieved then of those they have enriched and done good vnto and receive no aids where any thing is gratitude except the name Craesus vpbraâ—ded him with his lavish bountie and calculated what his treasure would amount vnto if he were more sparing and close-handed A desire surprised him to iustifie his liberalitie and dispatching letters over all parts of his dominions to such great men of his estate whom hee had particularly advanced intreated every one to assist him with as much money as they could for an vrgent necessitie of his and presently to send it him by declaration when all these count-bookes or notes were brought him each of his friends supposing that it sufficed not to offer him no more then they had received of his bounteous liberalitie but adding much of their owne vnto it it was found that the said summe amounted vnto much more then the niggardly sparing of Croesus Whereupon Cyrus said I am no lesse greedy of riches then other Princes but am rather a better husband of them You see with what small venture I have purchased the vnvaluable treasure of so many friends and how much more faithfull treasurers they are to mee then mercenarie men would be without obligation and without affection and my exchequer or treasurie better placed then in paltery coafers by which I draw vpon mee the hate the envie and the contempt of other Princes The ancient Emperours were wont to draw some excuse for the superfluitie of their sports and publike shewes for so much as their authoritie did in some sort depend at least in apparance from the will of the Roman people which from all ages was accustomed to be flattered by such kindes of spectables and excesse But they were particular-ones who had bred this custome to gratifie their con-citizens and fellowes especially with their purse by such profusion and magnificence It was cleane altered when the masters and chiefe rulers came once to imitate the same Pecuniarum translatio à iustis dominis ad alienos non debet liberalis videri The passing of money from right owners to strangers should not seeme liberalitie Philip because his sonne endevoured by gifts to purchase the good will of the Macedonians by a letter seemed to be displeased and chid him in this manner What Wouldest thou have thy subiects to account thee for their purse-bearer and not repute thee for their King Wilt thou frequent and practise them Then doe it with the benefits of thy vertue not with those of thy coafers Yet was it a goodly thing to cause a great quantity of great trees all branchie and greene to be farre brought and planted in plots yeelding nothing but drie gravell representing a wilde shady forest divided in due seemely proportion And the first day to put into the same a thousand Estriges a thousand Stagges a thousand wilde Boares and a thousand Buckes yeelding them over to be hunted and killed by the common people the next morrow in the presence of all the assembly to cause a hundred great Lions a hundred Leopards and three hundred huge Beares to be baited and tugg'd in peeces and for the third day in bloodie manner and good earnest to make three hundred couple of Gladiators or Fencers to combat and murder one another as did the Emperour Probus It was also a goodly shew to see those wondrous huge Amphitheaters all enchased with rich marble on the out side curiously wrought with carved statues and all the inner side glittering with precious and
waight which in nature are somthing els then nothing And who wadeth not so far into them to auoide the vice of superstition falleth happily into the blame of wilfulnesse The contradictions then of judgements doe neither offend nor moove but awaken and exercise me Wee commonly shunne correction whereas we should rather seeke and present our selves vnto it chiefly when it commeth by the way of conference and not of regency At every opposition wee consider not whether it be iust but be it right or wrong how we may avoide it In steede of reaching our armes we stretch forth our clawes vnto it I should endure to be rudely handled and checked by my friends though they should call me foole coxcombe or say I raved I love a man that doth stoutly expresse himselfe amongst honest and worthy men and whose wordes answer his thoughts We should fortifie and harden our hearing against the tendernesse of the cerimonious sound of wordes I love a friendly society and a virile and constant familiarity An amitie which in the earnestnesse and vigor of it's commerce flattereth it selfe as love in bitings and bloody scratchings It is not sufficiently generous or vigorous except it bee contentious and quarelous If she be civilised and a skilfull artiste if it feare a shocke or free encounter and have hir starting hoales or forced by-wayes Neque enim disputari sine reprehersione potest Disputation cannot be held without reprehension When I am impugned or contraried then is mine attention and not mine anger stirred vp I advance my selfe toward him that doth gainesay and instruct me The cause of truth ought to be the common cause both to one and other What can he answer The passion of choller hath already wounded his iudgement trouble before reason hath seazed vpon it It were both profitable and necessary that the determining of our disputations might be decided by way of wagers and that there were a materiall marke of our losses that we might better remember and make more accoumpt of it and that my boy might say vnto me Sir if you call to minde your contestation your ignorance and your selfe-wilfulnesse at severall times cost you a hundred crownes the last yeare I feast I cherrish and I embrace truth where and in whom soever I finde it and willingly and merily yeeld my selfe vnto hir as soone as I see but hir approach though it bee a farre-off I lay downe my weapons and yeeld my selfe vanquished And alwayes provided one persist not or proceede therein with an over imperious stiffnesse or commanding surlinesse I am well pleased to be reprooved And I often accomodate my selfe vnto my accusers more by reason of civilitie then by occasion of amendment loving by the facilitie of yeelding to gratifie and foster their liberty to teach or advertise mee It is notwithstanding no easie matter to draw men of my times vnto it They have not the courage to correct because they want the hart to endure correction And ever speake with dissimulation in presence one of another I take so great a pleasure to bee judged and knowne that it is indifferent to me in whether of the two formes I be so Mine owne imagination doth so often contradict and condemne it selfe that if another doe it all is one vnto me especially seeing I give his reprehension no other aucthoritie then I list But I shall breake a straw or fall at ods with him that keepes himselfe so alost as I know some that will fret and chafe if their opinions be not believed and who take it as an iniury yea and fall out with their best friends if they will not follow it And that Socrates ever smiling made a collection of such contradictions as were opposed to his discourse one might say his force was cause of it and that the advantage being assuredly to fall on his side he tooke them as a subject of a new victory Neverthelesse we see on the contrary that nothing doth so nicely yeeld our sence vnto it as the opinion of preheminence and disdaine of the adversary And that by reason it rather befits the weakest to accept of oppositions in good part which restore and repaire him Verily I seeke more the conversation of such as curbe me then of those that feare me It is an vnsavory and hurtfull pleasure to have to doe with men who admire and give vs place Antisthenes commanded his children never to bee boholding vnto or thanke any that should command them I feele my selfe more lustie and cranke for the victory I gaine over my selfe when in the heate or fury of the combate I perceive to bend and fall vnder the power of my adversaries reason then I am pleased with the victory I obtaine of him by his weakenesse To conclude I receave all blowes and allow all attaints given directly how weake soever but am very impacient at such as are strucken at randan and without order I care but little for the matter and with me opinions are all one and the victory of the subject in a manner in different I shall quietly contest a whole day if the conduct of the controvesie be followed with order and decorum It is not force nor subtiltie that I so much require as forme and order The forme and order dayly seene in the altercations of Shepheards or contentions of shop-prentise-boyes but never amongst vs If they part or give one another over it is with incivility and so doe we But their wrangling their brawling and impacience cannot make them to forgoe or forget their theame Their discourse holdes on his course If they prevent one another if they stay not for at least they vnderstand one another A man doth ever answere sufficiently well for mee if hee answere what I say But when the disputation is confounded and orderlesse I quit the matter and betake me to the forme with spight and indiscretion and embrace a kinde of debating teasty headlong malicious and imperious whereat I afterward blush It is impossible to treate quietly and dispute orderly with a foole My judgement is not onely corrupted vnder the hand of so imperious a maister but my conscience also Our disputations ought to be forbidden and punished as other verball crimes What vice raise they not and heape vp together beeing ever swayed and commaunded by choller First wee enter into enmity with the reasons and then with the men Wee learne not to dispute except it be to contradict and every man contradicting and being contradicted it commonly followeth that the fruit of disputing is to loose and to disanull the trueth So Plato in his common wealth forbiddeth foolish vnapt and base-minded spirits to vndertake that exercise To what purpose goe you about to quest or enquire that which is with him who hath neither good pace nor proceeding of woorth No man wrongs the subject when he quits the same for want of meanes to treat or mannage it I meane not a scholasticall and artist meane but intend a naturall meane
from a present evill is no perfect cure except there be a generall amendment of condition The end of a skilfull Chirurgion is not to mortifie the bad flesh it is but the beginning and addressing of his cure he aimeth further that is to make the naturall to grow againe and reduce the partie to his due being and qualitie Whoever proposeth onely to remoove what gnaweth him shall be to seeke for good doth not necessarily succeed evill another yea a worse evill may succeed it As it hapned vnto Cesars murderers who brought the common-wealth to so distresfull a plunge that they repented themselves they ever medled with the same The like hath since fortuned to divers yea in our daies The French that live in my times know very well what to speake of such matters All violent changes and great alterations disorder distemper and shake a state very much He that should rightly respect a sound recovery or absolute cure and before al other things thorowly consult about it might happily grow slaoke in the businesse and beware how he set his hand vnto it Pacuvius Calavius corrected the vice of this manner of proceeding by a notable example His fellow Citizens had mutined against their magistrates He being a man of eminent authoritie in the City of Capua found one day the means to shut vp the Senate in the Guildhall or Palace then calling the people together in the market place told them That the day was now come wherein with full and vnresisted libertie they might take vengeance of the tyrants that had so long and so many waies oppressed them all which he had now at his mercy alone and vnarmed His opinion was that orderly by lots they should be drawen out one after another which done they might particularly dispose of every one and whatsoever should be decreed of them should immediately be executed vpon the place provided they should therewithall presently advise and resolve to nominate and establish some honest and vndetected man to supply the roome of the condemned lest their Citie should remaine void of due officers To which they granted and heard no sooner the name of a Senatour read but a loud exclamation of a generall discontent was raised against him which Pacuvius perceiving hee requested silence and thus bespake them My countrey-men I see very well that man must be cut off hee is a pernicious and wicked member but let vs have another sound-good man in his place and whom would you name for that purpose This vnexpected speech bred a distracted silence each one finding himselfe to seeke and much confounded in the choise Yet one who was the boldest-impudent amongst them nominated one whom he thought fittest who was no sooner heard but a generall consent of voices louder then the first followed all refusing him as one taxed with a hundred imperfections lawfull causes and iust obiections vtterly to reject him These contradicting humours growing more violent and hot every one following his private grudge or affection there ensued a farre greater confusion and hurly-burly in drawing of the second and third Senatour and in naming and choosing their successours about which they could never agree As much disorder and more consusion about the election as mutuall consent and agreement about the demission and displacing About which tumultuous trouble when they had long and to no end laboured and wearied themselves they began some heere some there to scatter and steale away from the assemblie every one with this resolution in his minde that the oldest and best knowen evill is ever more tolerable then a fresh and vnexperienced mischiefe By seeing our selves piteously tossed in continuall agitation for what have we not done Eheu cicatricum sceleris pudet Fratrumque quid nos dur a refugimus Aetas quid intactum nefasti Liquimus vnde manus iuventus Metu Deorum continuit quibus Pepercit aris Alas for shame of wickednesse and scarres Of brother-country-men in civill warres We of this hardned world what doe we shunne What have we execrable left vndone To set their hand whereto hath youth not dared For feare of Gods what altars hath it spared I am not very sudden in resolving or concluding ipsa si velit salus Servare prorsus non potest hanc familiam This familie if safetie would Keepe safe I doe not thinke it could Yet are wee not peradventure come vnto our last period The preservation of states is a thing in all likelihood exceeding our vnderstanding A civill policie as Plato saith is a mighty and puissant matter and of very hard and difficult dissolution it often endureth against mortall and intestine diseases yea against the iniury of vniust lawes against tyrannie against the ignorance and debordement of Magistrates and against the licentiousnesse and sedition of the people In all our fortunes we compare our selves to that which is above vs and looke toward those that are better Let vs measure our selves by that which is beneath vs there is no creature so miserably wretched but findes a thousand examples to comfort himselfe withall It is our fault that we more vnwillingly behold what is above vs then willingly what is beneath vs And Solon said that should a man heape vp in one masse all evils together there is none that would not rather chuse to carry backe with him such evils as he alreadie hath then come to a lawfull division with other men of that chaos of evils and take his allotted share of them Our Common-wealth is much crazed and out of tune Yet have divers others beene more dangerously sicke and have not died The Gods play at hand-ball with vs and tosse vs vp and downe on all hands Enimverò Dij nos homines quasi pilas habent The Gods perdie doe reckon and racket vs men as their tennis-balles The destinies have fatally ordained the state of Rome for an exemplar patterne of what they can doe in this kinde It containeth in it selfe all formes and fortunes that concerne a state whatsoever order trouble good or bad fortune may in any sort effect in it What man may iustly despaire of his condition seeing the agitations troubles alterations turmoiles and motions wherewith it was tossed to and fro and which it endured If the extension of rule and far-spreading domination be the perfect health of a state of which opinion I am not in any wise and Isocrates doth greatly please me who instructeth Nicocles not to enuie those Princes who haue large dominations but such as can well maintaine and orderly preserue those that haue beene hereditarily escheated vnto them that of Rome was neuer so sound as when it was most sicke and distempered The worste of it's forme was to it the most fortunate A man can hardly distinguish or know the image of any policy vnder the first Emperors it was the most horrible and turbulent confusion that could be conceaued which notwithstanding it endured and therein continued preseruing not a Monarchie bounded in
not much acquainted Of mighty men and much lesse tainted Princes give mee sufficiently if they take nothing from me and doe me much good if they doe me no hurt it is all I require of them Oh how much am I beholding to God forsomuch as it hath pleased him that whatsoever I enioy I have immediately received the same from his grace that he hath particularly reserved all my debt vnto himselfe I most instantly beseech his sacred mercy that I may never owe any man so much as one essentiall God-a-mercie Oh thrise fortunate libertie that hath brought me so farre May it end successefully I endevour to have no manner of need of any man In me omnis spes est mihi All my hope for all my helpe is my selfe It is a thing that every man may effect in himselfe but they more easily whom God hath protected and sheltred from naturall and vrgent necessities Indeed it is both lamentable and dangerous to depend of others Our selves which is the safest and most lawfull refuge are not very sure vnder our selves I have nothing that is mine owne but my selfe yet is the possession thereof partly defective and borrowed I manure my selfe both in courage which is the stronger and also in fortune that if all things else should forsake me I might finde something wherewith to please and satisfie my selfe Eleus Hippias did not onely store himselfe with learning that in time of need hee might ioifully withdraw himselfe amongst the Muses and be sequestred from all other company nor onely with the knowledge of Philosophie to teach his minde to be contented with her and when his chance should so dispose of him manfully to passe over such incommodities as exteriorlie might come vnto him But moreover he was so curious in learning to dresse his meat to notte his haire to make his clothes breeches and shoes that as much as could possibly be he might wholly relie trust to himselfe be freed from all sorraine helpe A man doth more freely and more blithely enioy borrowed goods when it is not a bounden iovissance and constrained through neede and that a man hath in his will the power and in his fortune the meanes to live without them I know my selfe well But it is very hard for mee to imagine any liberalitie of another body so pure towards me or suppose any hospitalitie so free so hartie and genuine as would not seeme affected tyrranicall disgraced and attended on by reproach if so were that necessitie had forced and tied me vnto it As to give is an ambicious qualitie and of prerogative so is taking a qualitie of submission Witnes the injurious and pickthanke refusall that Baiazeth made of the presents which Themir had sent him And those which in the behalfe of Soliman the Emperor were sent to the Emperour of Calicut did so vex him at the hart that hee did not onely vtterly reject and scornfully refuse them saying that neither himselfe nor his predecessors before him were accustomed to take any thing and that their office was rather to give but besides he caused the Ambassadors to that end sent vnto him to be cast into a deepe dungeon When Thetis saith Aristotle flattereth Iupiter when the Lacedemonians flatter the Athenians they doe not thereby intend to put them in minde of the good they have done them which is ever hatefull but of the benefits they have received of them Those I see familiarly to employ and make vse of all men to begge and borrow of all men and engage themselves to all men would doubtlesse never doe it knew they as I doe or tasted they as I have done the sweete content of a pure and vndepending libertie and if therewithall as a wiseman ought they did duly ponder what it is for a man to engage himselfe into such an obligation or libertie depriving bond It may happily be paide sometimes But it can never be vtterly dissolved It is a cruell bondage to him that loveth throughly and by all meanes to have the free scope of his libertie Such as are best and most acquainted with mee know whether ever they saw any man living lesse soliciting lesse craving lesse inportuning or lesse begging then I am or that lesse employeth or chargeth others which if I be and that beyond all moderne example it is no great wonder sithence so many parts of my humours or manners contribute thereunto As a naturall kinde of stubbornesse an impatience to be denied a contraction of my desires and desseignes and an insufficiencie or vntowardlinesse in all manner of affaires but aboue all my most fauoured qualities lethall sloathfulnesse and a genuine liberty By all which meanes I have framed an habite mortally to hate to be behoulding to any creature els or to depend of other then vnto and of my selfe True it is that before I employ the beneficence or liberalitie of an other in any light or waighty occasion small or vrgent neede soever I doe to the vtmost power employ all that ever I am able to auoide and forbeare it My friends doe strangelie importune and molest me when they solicite and vrge mee to entreate a third man And I deeme it a matter of no lesse charge and imputation to disingage him that is endebted vnto mee by making vse of him then to engage my selfe vnto him that oweth mee nothing Both which conditions being removed let them not looke for any combersome negotious and carefull matter at my hands for I have denounced open warre vnto all manner of carke and care I am commodiously easie and ready in times of any bodies necessitie And I have also more avoyded to receave then sought to giue which as Aristotle saith is also more facile My fortune hath afforded me small meanes to benefit others and that little she hath bestowed on me the same hath shee also meanely and indifferently placed Had shee made mee to bee so borne that I might have kept some ranke amongst men I would then have beene ambicious in procuring to bee beloved but never to bee feared or admired Shall I expresse it more insolentlie I would have had as much regarde vnto pleasing as vnto profiting Cyrus doth most wiselye and by the mouth of an excellent Captaine and also a better Philosopher esteeme his bountie and prise his good deedes farre beyonde his valour and aboue his warlike conquests And Scipio the elder wheresoever hee seeketh to prevaile and set forth himselfe rateth his debonairitie and valueth his humanitie above his courage and beyond his victories and hath ever this glorious saying in his mouth That hee hath left his enemies as much cause to love him as his friends I will therefore say that if a man must thus owe any thing it ought to bee vnder a more lawfull title then that whereof I speake to which the law of this miserable warre dooth engage me and not of so great a debt as that of my totall preservation and whole estate which dooth vnreparablie over-whelme
vicissitude doth now and then en-earnest my minde toward one and then toward another I am not ignorant how true amitie hath armes long enough to embrace to claspe and hold from one corner of the world Vnto another namely in this where is a continuall communication of offices that cause the obligation and revive the remembrance thereof The Stoickes say that there is so great an affinitie and mutuall relation betweene wise men that he who dineth in France feedeth his companion in Aegypt and if one of them doe but hold vp his finger where ever it bee all the wise men dispersed vpon the habitable land feele a kinde of aid thereby IoVissance and possession appertaine chiefly Vnto imagination It embraceth more earnestly and vncessantly what she goeth to fetch then what wee touch Summon and count all your daily ammusements and you shall finde you are then furthest and most absent from your friend when hee is present with you His assistance releaseth your attention and giveth your thoughts libertie at all times and vpon every occasion to absent themselves If I be at Rome or any where else I hold I survay and governe my house and the commodities which I have left about and in it I even see my walles my trees my grasse and my rents to stand to grow to decay and to diminish within an inch or two of that I should doe when I am at home Ante oculos errat domus errat forma locorum My house is still before mine eies There still the forme of places lies If we but onely enioy what we touch farewell our crownes when they are in our coafers and adiew to our children when they are abroad or a hunting we would have them neerer In the garden is it farre off within halfe a daies iourney What within ten leagues is it farre or neere If it be neere what is eleven twelve or thirteene and so step by step Verily that woman who can prescribe vnto her husband how many steps end that which is neere and which step in number begins the distance she counts farre I am of opinion that she stay him betweene both excludat iurgïa finis Let the conclusion Exclude confusion Vtor permisso caudaeque pilos vt equinae Paulatim vello demo vnum demo etiam vnum Dum cadat elusus ratione ruentis acervi Ivse the grant and plucke by one and one The horse-taile haires till when the bush is gone I leave the Iade a curtall taile or none And let them boldly call for Philophie to helpe them To whom some might reproach since she neither discerneth the one nor other end of the joynt betweene the ouermuch and the little the long and the short the light and the heauie the neare and the farre since she neither knowes the beginning nor ending thereof that she doth very vncertainly judge of the middle Rerum natur a nullam nobis dedit cognitionem finium Nature hath affoorded vs no knowledge of hir endes Are they not yet wives and friendes of the deceased that are not at the end of this but in the other world wee embrace both those that haue beene and those which are not yet not onely the absent We did not condition when wee were maried continually to keepe our selues close hugging one another as some I wot not what little creatures doe we see daily or as those bewitched people of Karenti in a kinde of dogged manner And a woman should not haue hir eyes so greedily or so dotingly fixed on hir husbands fore-part that if neede shall require she may not view his hinder-partes But might not the saying of that cunning Painter who could so excellently set foorth their humours and pourtray their conditions fitly bee placed heere liuely to represent the cause of their complaints Vxor si cesses aut te amare cogitat Aut tete amari aut potare aut animo obsequi Et tibi bene esse soli cum sibi sit malè If you be slow your wife thinkes that in loue you are Or are belov'd or drinke or all for pleasure care And that you onely fare-well when she ill doth fare Or might it be that opposition and contradiction doe naturally entertaine and of themselves nourish them and that they are sufficiently accomodated provided they disturbe and incommode you In truly-perfect friendship wherein I presume to have some skill and well-grounded experience I give my selfe more vnto my friend than I draw him vnto me I doe not onely rather love to doe him good then he should doe any to me but also that he should rather doe good vnto himselfe then vnto me For then doth he me most good when he doth it to himselfe And if absence be either pleasing or beneficiall vnto him it is to me much more pleasing then his presence and that may not properly be termed absence where meanes and waies may be found to enter-advertise one another I have heeretofore made good vse and reaped commoditie by our absence and distance Wee better replenished the benefit and extended further the possession of life by being divided and farre-asunder He lived he reioiced and he saw for mee and I for him as fully as if he had beene present Being together one partie was idle We confounded one another The separation of the place made the conjunction of our mindes and willes the richer This insatiate and greedie desire of corporall presence doth somewhat accuse the weakenesse in the iovissance of soules Concerning age which some allege against me it is cleane contrary It is for youth to subject and bondage it selfe to common opinions and by force to constraine it selfe for others It may fit the turne of both the people and it selfe Wee have but overmuch to doe with our selves alone According as naturall commodities faile vs let vs sustaine our selves by artificiall meanes It is injustice to excuse youth in following her pleasures and forbid age to devise and seeke them When I was yong I concealed my wanton and covered my youthfull passions with wit and now being aged I endevour to passe the sadde and incident to yeeres with sport and debauches Yet doe Platoes lawes forbid men to travell abroad before they are forty or fifty yeeres of age that so their travell may sort more profitable and proove more instructive I should more willingly consent to this other second article of the said lawes which forbiddeth men to wander abroad after they are once threescore Of which age few that travell farre-journies returne home againe What care I for that I vndertake it not either to returne or to perfect the same I onely vndertake it to be in motion So long as the motion pleaseth me and I walke that I may walke Those runne not that runne after a Benefice or after a Hare But they runne that runne at barriers and to exercise their running My deâ—scigne is every where divisible it is not grounded on great hopes each day makes an end of it
Even so is my lifes voiage directed Yet have I seene divers farre-countries where I would have beene glad to have beene staied Why not If Chrysippus Diogenes Cleanthes Antipater and Zeno with so many other wise men of that roughly-severe and severely-strict Sect forsooke their Countries without iust cause to bee offended with them onely to enioy another aire Truly the greatest griefe of my peregrinations is that I cannot have a firme resolution to establish my abiding where I would And that I must ever resolve with my selfe to returne for to accommodate my selfe vnto common humours If I should feare to die in any other place then where I was borne if I thought I should die lesse at my ease farre from mine owne people I would hardly goe out of France nay I should scarcely goe out of mine owne parish without feeling some dismay I feele death ever pinching me by the throat or pulling me by the backe But I am of another mould to me it is ever one and at all times the same Neverthelesse if I were to chuse I thinke it should rather be on horsebacke than in a bed from my home and farre from my friends There is more hartssorrow than comfort in taking ones last farewell of his friends I doe easily forget or neglect these duties or complements of our common or civill courtesie For of Offices appertaining to vnaffected amitie the same is the most displeasing and offensive And I should as willingly forget to give a body that great adiew or eternall farewell If a body reape any commoditie by this assistance hee also findes infinite inconveniences in it I have seene divers die most piteously compassed and beset round with their friends and servants Such multitudes and thronging of people doth stifle them It is against reason and a testimony of smal affection and little care they have of you should die at rest One offendeth your eies another molesteth your eares the third v exeth your mouth You have neither sense nor limme or parte of your body but is tormented and grieved Your hart is ready to burst for pittie to heare your friends moanes and complaints and to rive asunder with spite to heare peradventure some of their wailings and moans that are but fained and counterfet If a man have ever had a milde or tender nature being weake and ready to die he must then necessarily have it more tender and relenting It is most requisite that in so vrgent a necessitie one have a gentle hand and fitly applied to his sences to scratch him where he itcheth or else he ought not be clawed at all If wee must needs have the helpe of a Midwife to bring vs into this world there is reason we should also have the aiding-hand of a wise man to deliver vs out of the same Such a one and there with all a true friend should a man before-hand purchase very deare only for the service of such an occasion I am not yet come to that disdainfull vigor which so fortifieth it selfe that at such times nothing aideth nor nothing troubleth I flie a lower pitch I seeke to squat my selfe and steale from that passage not by feare but by Art My intent is not in such an action to make either triall or shew of my constancie Wherefore Because then shall the right and interest I have in reputation cease I am content with a death vnited in it selfe quiet and solitarie wholly mine convenient to my retired and private life Cleane contrary to the Roman superstition where hee was judged vnhappie that died without speaking and had not his neerest friends to close his eies I have much adoe to comfort my selfe without being troubled to comfort others cares and vexations â—now in my minde without needing circumstances to bring me new and sufficient matter to entertaine my selfe without borrowing any This share belongs not to the part of societie It is the act of one man alone Let vs live laugh and be merry amongst our friends but die and yeeld vp the ghost amongst strangers and such as wee know not Hee who hath money in his purse shall ever finde some ready to turne his head make his bedde rubbe his feet attend him and that will trouble and importune him no longer than hee list and will ever shew him an indifferent and well-composed countenance and without grumbling or grudging give a man leave to doe what he please and complaine as he list I daily endevour by discourse to shake off this childish humour and inhumane conceit which causeth that by our griefes and paines we ever desire to moove our friends to compassion and sorrow for vs and with a kinde of sympathie to condole our miseries and passions We endeare our inconveniences beyond measure to extract teares from them And the constancie we so much commend in all others vndauntedly to endure all evill fortunes we accuse and vpbraid to our neerest allies when they molest vs we are not contented they should have a sensible feeling of our calamities if they doe not also afflict themselves for them A man should as much as he can set foorth and extend his joy but to the vtmost of his power suppresse and abridge his sorrow He that will causelesly be moaned and sans reason deserveth not to be pitied when he shall have cause and reason for it To be ever complaining and alwaies moaning is the way never to be moaned and seldome to be pitied and so often to seeme over-passionately-pitifull is the meane to make no man feelingly-ruthfull towards others He that makes himselfe dead being alive is subiect to be accounted alive when he is dying I have seene some take pepper in the nose forsomuch as they were told that they had a cheerefull countenance that they looked well that they had a temperate pulse to force laughter because some betraied their recoverie and hate their health because it was not regreetable And which is more they were no women I for the most represent my infirmities such as they are And shunne such words as are of evill presage and avoid composed exclamations If not glee and mirth at least an orderlysetled countenance of the by-standers and assistants is sufficiently-convenient to a wise and discreet sicke-man who though he see himselfe in a contrary state he will not picke a quarrell with health He is pleased to behold the same sound and strong in others and at least for company-sake to enjoy his part of it Though he feele and finde himselfe to faint and sinke downe he doth not altogether reject the conceits and imaginations of life nor doth he avoid common entertainments I will studie sicknesse when I am in health when it comes it will really enough make her impression without the helpe of my imagination We deliberately prepare our selves before hand for any voiage we vndertake and therein are resolved the houre is set when we will take horse and we give it to our company in whose favour we extend it I
effects hee then attends the event with quietnesse Verily I have seene in him at one instant a great carelesnesse and liberty both in his actions and countenance Even in important and difficult affaires I finde him more magnanimous and capable in bad then in good fortune His losses are to him more glorious than his victories and his mourning than his triumphs Consider how in meere vaine and frivolous actions as at chesse tennis and such like sports this earnest and violent engaging with an ambicious desire to winne doth presently cast both minde and limmes into disorder and indiscretion Wherein a man doth both dazle his sight and distemper his whole body Hee who demeaneth himselfe with most moderation both in winning and loosing is ever necrest vnto himselfe and hath his wits best about him The lesse hee is mooved or passionate in play the more safely doth he governe the same and to his greater advantage We hindet the mindes seazure and holdfast by giving her so many things to seize vpon Some wee should onely present vnto her others fasten vpon hir and others incorporate into hir Shee may see and feele all things but must onely feede on hir selfe And bee instructed in that which properly concerneth hir and which meerely belongeth to her essence and substance The lawes of nature teach vs what is iust and fit for vs. After the wise-men have told vs that according to nature no man is indigent or wanteth and that each-one is poore but in his owne opinion they also distinguish subtilly the desires proceeding from Nature from such as grow from the disorders of our fantasie Those whose end may be discerned are meerely hers and such as flie before vs and whose end we cannot attaine are properly ours Want of goods may easily be cured but the poverty of the minde is incurable Nam si quod satis est homini id satis esse potesset Hoc sat erat nunc quum hoc non est qui credimus porro Divitias vllas animum mi explere potesse If it might be enough that is enough for man This were enough since it is not how thinke we can Now any riches fill My minde and greedy will Socrates seeing great store of riches jewells and pretious stuffe carried in pompe through his Citty Oh how many things quoth he doe not I desire Metrodorus lived daily with the weight of twelve ounces of foode Epicurus with lesse Metrocles in winter lay with sheepe and in summer in the Cloisters of Churches Sufficit ad id natura quod poscit Nature is sufficient for that which it requires Cleanthes lived by his handes and boasted that if Cleanthes would he could nourish another Cleanthes If that which Nature doth exactly and originally require at our handes for the preservation of our being is over little as in truth what it is and how good cheape our life may be maintained cannot better bee knowne or expressed than by this consideration That it is so little and for the smalnesse thereof it is out of Fortunes reach and she can take no hold of it let vs dispense something els vnto ourselves and call the custome and condition of every one of vs by the name of Nature Let vs taxe and stint and feede our selves according to that measure let vs extend both our appurtenances and reckonings therevnto For so farre me seemes we have some excuse Custome is a second Nature and no lesse powerfull What is wanting to custome I hold it a defect And I had well nigh as leefe one should deprive mee of my life as refraine or much abridge me of the state wherein I have lived so long I am no more vpon termes of any great alteration nor to thrust my selfe into a new and vn-vsuall course no not toward augmentation it is no longer time to become other or bee transformed And as I should complaine if any great adventure should now befall me and grieve it came not in time that I might have enjoyed the same Quo mihi fortuna si non concedit ur vti Whereto should I have much If I to vse it grutch I should likewise bee grieved at any inward purchase I were better in a manner never than so late to become an honest man and well practised to live when one hath no longer life I who am ready to depart this World could easily be induced to resigne the share of wisedome I have learn't concerning the Worlds commerce to any other man new-come into the world It is even as good as Mustard after dinner What neede have I of that good which I cannot enioy Whereto serveth knowledge if one have no head It is an injury and disgrace of Fortune to offer vs those presents which forsomuch as they faile vs when we should most neede them fill vs with a just spite Guide me no more I can go no longer Of so many dismembrings that Sufficiency hath patience sufficeth vs. Give the capacity of an excellent treble to a Singer that hath his lungs rotten of eloquence to an Hermit confined into the Deserts of Arabia There needes no Arte to further a fall The end findes it selfe in the finishing of every worke My world is at an end my forme is expired I am wholly of the time past And am bound to authorize the same and thereto conforme my issue I will say this by way of example that the eclipsing or abridging of tenne dayes which the Pope hath lately caused hath taken me so low that I can hardly recover my selfe I follow the yeares wherein we were wont to compt otherwise So long and antient a custome doth challenge and recall me to it againe I am thereby enforced to be somewhat an hereticke Incapable of innovation though corrective My imagination maâ—gre my teeth runnes still tenne dayes before or tenne behinde and whispers in mine â—ares This rule toucheth those which are to come If health it selfe so sweetely-pleasing comes to me but by fittes it is rather to give me cause of griefe then possession of it selfe I have no where left mee to retire it Time forsakes mee without which nothing is enjoyed How small accompt should I make of these great elective dignities I see in the world and which are onely given to men ready to leave the world wherein they regard not so much how duely they shall discharge them as how little they shall exercise them from the beginning they looke to the end To conclude I am ready to finish this man not to make another By long custome this forme is changed into substance and Fortune into Nature I say therefore that amongst vs feeble creatures each one is excusable to compt that his owne which is comprehended vnder measure And yet all beyond these limites is nothing but confusion It is the largest extension we can grant our rights The more wee amplifie our neede and possession the more we engage our selves to the crosses of fortune and adversities The cariere of our
frowning countenance nor regardeth the inconstancy of their will Who hatcheth not his children or huggeth not honours with a slavish propension nor leaves to live commodiously having once lost them Who doth good namely for his owne satisfaction nor is much vexed to see men censure of his actions against his merite A quarter of an ownce of patience provideth for such inconveniences I finde ease in this receit redeeming my selfe in the beginning as good cheape as I can By which meanes I perceive my selfe to have escaped much trouble and manifold difficulties With very little force I stay these first motions of my perturbations And I abandon the subject which beginnes to molest me and before it transport mee Hee that stops not the loose shall hardly stay the course He that cannot shut the dore against them shall never expell them being entred He that cannot attaine an end in the beginning shall not come to an end of the conclusion Nor shall hee endure the fall that could not endure the starts of it Etenim ipsae se impellunt vbi semel à ratione discessum est ipsáque sibi imbecillit as indulget in altumque provehitur imprudens nec reperit locum consistendi For they drive themselves headlong when once they are parted and past reason and weakenesse soothes it selfe and vnawares is carried into the deepe nor can it finde a place to tarry in I feele betimes the low windes which are forerunners of the storme buzze in mine eares and sound and trie mee within câ—â— flamina prima Cùm deprensa frâ—munt sylvis câ—ca volutant Murmura venturos nautis prodentia ventos As first blasts in the woods perceiv'd to goe Whistle and darkely speake in murmurs low Foretelling Marriners what windes will grow How often have I done my selfe an apparant injustice to avoide the danger I should fall into by receiving the same happily worse from the judges after a world of troubles and of foule and vile practises more enemies to my naturall disposition then fire or torment Convenit a litibus quantum licet nescso an paulo plus etiam quam licet abhorrentem esse Est enim non moâ—â— liberale paululum non nunquam de suo iure decedere sed interdum etiam fructuosum As much as wee may and it may be more then we may we should abhorre brabling and lawing for it is not onely an ingenious part but sometimes profitable also at sometimes to yeeld a little of our right If we were wise indeede wee should rejoyce and glory as I heard once a yonggentleman borne of a very great house very wittily and vnfainedly rejoyce with all men that his mother had lost her sute as if it had beene a cough an ague or any other yrksome burthen The fauours which fortune might have given mee as aliances and acquaintances with such as have Soveraigne authority in those things I have in my conscience done much instantly to evoide imploying them to others prejudice and not over-value my rights above their worth To conclude I have so much prevailed by my endevours in a good houre I may speake it that I am yet a virgin for any sutes in law which have notwithstanding not omitted gently to offer mee their service and vnder pretence of lawfull titles insinuate themselves into my allowance would I but have given eare vnto them And as a pure maiden from quarrels I have without important offence either passive or active lingred out a long life and never heard worse than mine owne name A rare grace of heaven Our greatest agitations have strange springs and ridiculous causes What ruine did our last Duke of Burgundie runne into for the quarrell of a cart-load of sheepes-skinnes And was not the graving of a seale the chiefe cause of the most horrible breach and topsie-turvy that ever this worlds-frame endured For Pompey and Casar are but the new buddings and continuation of two others And I have seene in my time the wisest heads of this realme assembled with great ceremonie and publike charge about treaties and agreements the true deciding wherof depended in the meane while absolutely and soveraignely of the will and consultations held in some Ladies pate or cabinet and of the inclination of some sillie woman Poets have most judiciously look't into this who but for an apple have set all Greece and Asia on fire and sword See why that man doth hazzard both his honor and life on the fortune of his rapier and dagger let him tell you whence the cause of that contention ariseth he can not without blushing so vaine and so frivolous is the occasion To embarke him there needes but little advisement but being once-in all parts doe worke Then are greater provisions required more difficult and important How farre more easie is it not to enter than to get forth We must proceed contrary to the brier which produceth a long and straight stalke at the first springing but after as tired and out of breath it makes many and thicke knots as if they were pawses shewing to have no more that vigor and constancie Wee should rather begin gently and leasurely and keepe our strength and breath for the perfection of the worke We direct affaires in the beginning and holde them at our mercie but being once vndertaken they guide and transport vs and we must follow them Yet may it not be sayd that this counsell hath freed me from all difficulties and that I have not beene often troubled to controle and bridle my passions which are not alwayes governed according to the measure of occasions whose entrances are often sharpe and violent So is it that thence may be reaped good fruit and profit Except for those who in well doing are not satisfied with any benefit if their reputation be in question For in truth such an effect is not compted of but by every one to himselfe You are thereby better satisfied but not more esteemed having reformed your selfe before you come into action or the matter was in sight yet not in this onely but in all other duties of life their course which aime at honour is diverse from that which they propound vnto themselves that follow order and reason I finde some that inconsiderately and furiously thrust themselves into the listes and growe slacke in the course As Plutarke saith that Such as by the vice of bashfulnesse are soft and tractable to graunt whatsoever is demaunded are afterward as prone and facile to recant and breake their word In like manner he that enters lightly into a quarrel is subject to leave it as lightly The same difficultie which keeps me from embracing the same should encite me being once mooved and therein engaged to continue resolute It is an ill custome Being once embarked one must either goe-on or sinke Attempt coldly sayed Byas but pursue hotly For want of judgement our harts faile vs Which is also lesse tolerable Most agreements of our moderne quarrels are shamefull and
But yet I doe it vpon condition that to the first that brings mee home againe and enquireth for the bare and simple truth at my hands I sodainely give over my hold and without exaggeration emphasis or amplification I yeeld both my selfe and it vnto him A lively earnest and ready speech as mine is easie transported vnto hyperboles There is nothing whereunto men are ordinarily more prone then to give way to their opinions Where ever vsuall meanes faile vs wee adde commandement force fire and sword It is not without some ill fortune to come to that passe that the multitude of believers in a throng where fooles doe in number so farre exceede the wise should bee the best touch-stone of truth Quasi verò quidquam sit tam valdè quà m nilsapere vulgare Sanitatis patrocinium est insanientium turba As though any thing were so common as to have no wit The multitude of them that are mad is a defence for them that are in their wits It is a hard matter for a man to resolve his judgement against common opinions The first perswasion taken from the very subject seizeth on the simple whence vnder th' authority of the number and antiquity of testimonies it extends it selfe on the wiser sort As for me in a matter which I could not believe being reported by one I should never credite the same though affirmed by a hundred And I judge not opinions by yeares It is not long since one of our Princes in whom the gowt had spoiled a gentle disposition and blithe composition suffered himselfe so farre to bee perswaded or mis-led by the report made vnto him of the wondrous deedes of a Priest who by way of charmes spells and gestures cured all diseases that hee vndertooke a long-tedious jonrny to finde him out and by the vertue of his apprehension did so perswade and for certaine houres so â—ull his legs asleepe that for a while hee brought them to doe him that service which for a long time they had forgotten Had fortune heaped five or six like accidents one in the necke of another they had doubtlesse beene able to bring this miracle into nature Whereas afterward there was so much simplicity and so little skill found in the architect of these workes that he was deemed vnworthy of any punishment As likewise should bee done with most such-like things were they throughly knowen in their nature Miramur ex intervallo fallentia Wee wonder at those things that deceive vs by distance Our sight doth in such sort often represent vs a farre-off with strange images which vanish in approaching neerer Nnnquam ad liquidum fama perducitur Fame is never brought to be cleare It is a wonder to see how from many vaine beginnings and frivolous causes so famous impressions doe ordinarily arise and ensue Even that hindereth the information of them For whilst a man endevoureth to finde out causes forcible and weighty ends and worthy so great a name hee looseth the true and essentiall They are so little that they escape our sight And verily a right wise heedy and subtile inquisitor is required in such questings imparciall and not preoccupated All these miracles and strange events are vntill this day hidden from me I have seene no such monster or more expresse wonder in this world then my selfe With time and custome a man doth acquaint and enure him selfe to all strangenesse But the more I frequent and know my selfe the more my deformity astonieth me and the lesse I vnderstand my selfe The chiefest priviledge to produce and advance such accidents is reserved vnto fortune Travelling yesterday thorough a village within two leagues of my house I found the place yet warme of a miracle that was but newly failed and discovered wherewith all the country thereabout had for many months beene ammused and abused and diverse bordering Provinces began to listen vnto it and severall troupes of all qualities ceased not thicke and threefold to flocke thither A yong man of that towne vndertooke one night in his owne house never dreaming of any knavery to counterfeit the voice of a spirit or ghost but onely for sport to make himselfe merry for that present which succeeding better then he had imagined to make the jest extend further and himselfe the merrier he made a country-maiden acquainted with his devise who because she was both seely and harmelesse consented to beesecret and to second him In the end they got another and were now three all of one age and like sufficiency and from private spirit-talking they beganne with hideous voices to cry and roare aloud and in and about churches hiding themselves vnder the chiefe Altar speaking but by night forbidding any light to bee set vp From speeches tending the worldes subversion and threatning of the day of judgement which are the subjects by whose authority and abusive reverence imposture and illusion is more easily lurked they proceeded to certaine visions and strange gestures so foolish and ridiculous that ther is scarse any thing more grosse and absurd vsed among Children in their childish sports Suppose I pray you that fortune would have seconded this harmelesse devise or jugling tricke Who knoweth how farre it would have extended and to what it would have growen The poore seely three Divels are now in prison and may happily e're long pay deere for their common sottishnesse and I wot not whether some cheverell judge or other will bee avenged of them for his It is manifestly seene in this which now is discovered as also in divers other things of like quality exceeding our knowledge I am of opinion that we vphold our judgement as well to reject as to receive Many abuses are engendered in the World or to speake more boldly all the abuses of the World are engendered vpon this that we are taught to feare to make profession of our ignorance and are bound to accept and allow all that wee cannot refute Wee speake of all things by precepts and resolution The Stile of Rome did beare that even the same that a witnes deposed because he had seene it with his owne eyes and that which a Iudge ordained of his most assured knowledge was conceived in this form of speech It seemeth so vnto me I am drawen to hate likely things when men goe about to set them downe as infallible I love these wordes or phrases which mollifie and moderate the temerity of our propositions It may be Peradventure In some sort Some It is saide I thinke and such like And had I beene to instruct children I would so often have put this manner of answering in their mouth enquiring and not resolving What meanes it I vnderstand it not It may well bee Is it true that they should rather have kept the forme of learners vntill three score yeeres of age than present themselves Doctors at ten as many doe Whosoever will be cured of ignorance must confesse the same Iris is the daughter of Thaumantis Admiration is the ground of all
it selfe or penetrates more deepely then doth licentiousnesse Our Armies have no other bond to tie them or other ciment to fasten them then what commeth from strangers It is now a hard matter to frame a body of a compleate constant well-ordred and coherent Army of Frenchmen Oh what shame is it We have no other discipline then what borrowed or auxiliar Souldiers shew vs. As for vs wee are ledâ—on by our owne discretion and not by the commaunders each man followeth his owne humour and hath more to doe within then without It is the commaundement should follow court and yeeld vnto hee onely ought to obey all the rest is free and loose I am pleased to see what remisnesse and pusilanimitie is in ambition and by what steps of abjection and servitude it must arrive vnto it's end But I am displeased to see some debonaire and well-meaning mindes yea such as are capable of iustice dayly corrupted about the managing and commanding of this many-headed confusion Long suffrance begets custome custâ—me consent and imitation We had too-too many infected and ill-borne mindes without corrupting the good the sound and the generous So that if we continue any time it will prove a difficult matter to finde out a man vnto whose skill and sufficiencie the health or recovery of this state may bee committed in trust if fortune shall happily be pleased to restore it vs againe Hunc saltem everso invenâ—m succurrere scclo Ne prohibete Forbid not yet this youth at least To aide this age more then opprest What is become of that antient precept That Souldiers ought more to feare their Generall than their enemie And of that wonderfull examplelesse example That the Romane army having vpon occasion enclosed within her trenches and round-beset an apple-orchard so obedient was shee to her Captaines that the next morning it rose and marched away without entring the same or touching one apple although they were full-ripe and very delicious So that when the owner came he found the full number of his apples I should bee glad that our Youths in steade of the time they employ about lesse profitable peregrinations and lesse honourable apprentishippes would bestow one moyty in seeing and observing the warres that happen on the sea vnder some good Captaine or excellent Commaunder of Malta the other moyty in learning and surveying the discipline of the Turkish armies For it hath many differences and advantages over ours This ensueth that heere our Souldiers become more licentious in expeditions there they proove more circumspect and fearefully wary For small offences and petty larcenies which in times of peace are in the common people punished with whipping or bastonadoes in times of warre are capitall crimes For an egge taken by a Turke without paying hee is by their law to have the full number of fifty stripes with a cudgell For every other thing how sleight soever not necessary for mans feeding even for very trifles they are either thrust through with a sharpe stake which they call Empaling or presently beheaded I have beene amazed reading the story of Selim the cruellest Conqueror that ever was to see at what time hee subdued the Country of Aegypt the beauteous-goodly gardines round about the Citty of Damasco all open and in a conquered Country his maine armie lying encamped round about those gardines were left vntouched and vnspoyled by the handes of his Souldiers onely because they were commaunded to spoyle nothing and â—ad not the watch-word of pillage But is there any malady in a Common-weale that deserveth to bee combated by so mortall drugge No saide Favonius not so much as the vsurpation of the tyrannicall possession of a Common-wealth Plato likewise is not willing one should offer violence to the quiet repose of his-Countrys no not to reforme or cure the same and alloweth not that reformation which disturbeth or hazardeth the whole estate and which is purchased with the blood and ruine of the Cittizens Establishing the office of an honest man in these causes to leaue all there But onely to pray God to lend his extraordinary assisting hand vnto it And seemeth to be offended with Dyon his great friend to have therein proceeded somewhat otherwise I was a Platonist on that side before ever I knew there had beene a Plato in the world And if such a man ought absolutely be banished our commerce and refused our societie hee who for the sincerity of his conscience deserved by meane of divine favour athwart the publique darkenesse and through the generall ignorance of the world wherein hee lived so farre to enter and so deepely to penetrate into chaistian light I doe not thinke that it befitteth vs to be instructed by a Pagan Oh what impiety is it to expect from God no succour simply his and without our co-operation I often doubt whether amongst so many men that meddle with such a matter any hath beene found of so weake an vnderstanding that hath earnestly beene perswaded he proceeded toward reformation by the vtmost of deformations that hee drew toward his salvation by the most expresse causes that wee have of vndoubted damnation that ouerthrowing policy disgracing magistrates abusing lawes vnder whose tuition God hath placed him filling brotherly mindes and loving hearts with malice hatred and murther calling the Divels and furies to his helpe he may bring assistance to the most sacred mildnesse and justice of divine Law Ambition avarice cruelty and revenge have not sufficient proppes and natural impetuousity let vs allure and stirre them vppe by the glorious title of justice and devotion There can no worse estate of things bee imagined than where wickednesse commeth to bee lawfull And with the Magistrates leave to take the cloake of vertue Nihil in speciem fallacius quà m prava religio vbi deorum numen praetenditur sceleribus There is nothing more deceiptfull to shew than corrupt religion when the power of Heaven is made a pretence and cloake for wickednesse The extreame kinde of injustice according to Plato is that that which is vnjust should be held for just The common people suffered therein greatly then not only present losses vndique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris Such revell and tumultuous rout In all the country round about But also succeeding dommages The living were faine to suffer so did such as then were scarse borne They were robbed and pilled and by consequence so was I even of hope spoiling and depriving them of al they had to provide their living for many yeares to come Quae nequeunt secum ferre aut abducere perdunt Et cremat insontes turba scelesta casas Muris nulla fides squallent popularibus agri They wretch-lesse spoyle and spill what draw or drive they may not Guilty rogues to set fire on guilt-lesse houses stay not In wals no trust the field By spoile growes waste and wilde Besides these mischiefes I endured some others I incurred the inconveniences that moderation bringeth in such diseases I was shaven
on all handes To the Chibelin I was a Guelf to Guelf a Ghibelin Some one of my Poets expresseth as much but I wot not where it is The situation of my house and the acquaintance of such as dwelt round about me presented me with one visage my life and actions with another No formall accusations were made of it for there was nothing to take hold of I never opposed my selfe against the lawes and who had called me in question should have lost by the bargaine They were mute suspicions that ranne vnder hand which never want apparance in so confused a hurly-burly no more than lacke of envious or foolish wittes I commonly affoord ayde vnto injurious presumption that fortune scattereth against me by a fashion I never had to avoid justifying excusing or interpreting my selfe deeming it to be a putting of my conscience to compromise to pleade for hir Perspicuitas enim argumentatione elevatur For the cleering of a cause is lessened by the arguing And as if every man saw into mee as cleare as I doe my selfe in lieu of withdrawing I advance my selfe to the accusation and rather endeare it by an erronious and scoffing confession except I flatly hold my peace as of a thing vnworthy any answer But such as take it for an over-proud confidence doe not much lesse disesteeme and hate me for it than such as take it for weakenesse of an indefensible cause Namely the great with whom want of submission is the extreame fault Rude to all justice that is knowen or felt not demisse humble or suppliant I have often stumbled against that piller So it is that by the harmes which befell mee an ambicious man would have hanged himselfe and so would a covetons churle I have no care at all to acquire or get Sit mihi quod nunc est etiam minus vt mihi vivam Quod superest aevi si quid superesse volent dij Let me have that I have or lesse so I may live Vnto my selfe the rest if any rest God give But losses that come vnto me by others injury be in larceny or violence pinch mee in a manner as one sicke and tortured with avarice An offence causeth vndoubtedly more griefe and sharpenesse than a losse A thousand severall kindes of mischiefes fell vpon mee one in the necke of another I should more stoutly have endured them had they come all at once I bethought my selfe amongst my friendes to whom I might commit a needy a defective and vnfortunate olde age But after I had surveyed them all and cast mine eyes every where I found my selfe bare and far to seeke For one to sowse himselfe downe headlong and from so great a height hee should heedily forecast that it may be in the armes of a solide stedfast vigorous and fortunate affection They are rare if there be any In the end I perceived the best and safest way was to trust both my selfe and my necessity vnto my selfe And if it should happen to be but meanly and faintly in Fortunes grace I might more effectually recommend my selfe vnto mine owne favour more closely fasten and more neerely looke vnto my selfe In all things men relie vpon strange props to spare their owne onely certaine and onely powerfull know they but how to arme themselves with them Every man runneth out and vnto what is to come because no man is yet come into himselfe And I resolved that they were profitable inconveniences forsomuch as when reason will not serve we must first warne vntoward Scholars with the rod as with fire and violence of wedges we bring a crooked peece of wood to be straight It is long since I call to keepe my selfe vnto my selfe and live sequestred from alience and strange things notwithstanding I daily start out and cast mine eyes aside Inclination a great mans favourable word a kind looke doth tempt me God he knowes whether there bee penury of them now-adayes and what sense they beare I likewise without frowning listen to the subornings framed to drawe mee to some towne of merchandise or city of trafficke and so coldly defend my selfe that it seemes I should rather endure to be overcome than not Now to a spirit so indocile blowes are required and this vessell that of it selfe is so ready to warpe to vnhoope to escape and fall in peeces must be closed hooped and strongly knockt with an adze Secondly that this accident served me as an exercitation to prepare my selfe for worse if worse might happen if I who both by the benefite of fortune and condition of my maners hoped to be of the last should by this tempest be one of the first surprised Instructing my selfe betimes to force my life and frame it for a new state True-perfect liberty is for one to be able to doe and worke all things vpon himselfe Potentissimus est qui se habet in potestate Hee is of most power that keepes himselfe in his owne power In ordinary and peacefull times a man prepares himselfe for common and moderate accidents but in this confusion wherein wee have beene these thirty yeeres every French man be it in generall or in particular doth hourely see himselfe vpon the point of his fortunes over-throw and downefall By so much more ought each one have his courage stored and his minde fraughted with more strong and vigorous provisions Let vs thanke Fortune that hath not made vs live in an effeminate idle and languishing age Some whom other meanes could never bring vnto it shall make themselves famous by their misfortunes As I reade not much in Histories these confusions of other states without regret that I could not better them present So doth my curiosity make me somwhat please my selfe with mine eies to see this notable spectacle of our publike death her symptomes and formes And since I could not hinder the same I am content to bee appointed as an assistant vnto it and thereby instruct my selfe Yet seeke we evidently to know in shadowes and vnderstand by fabulous representations vpon Theaters to shew of the tragicke revolutions of humane fortune It is not with out compassion of that wee heare but wee please our selves to rowze vp our displeasure by the rarenesse of these pitifull events Nothing tickles that pincheth not And good Historians avoid calme narrations as a dead water or mort-mere to retreeve seditions finde out warres whereto they know we call them I doubt whether I may lawfully avow at how base a rate of my lifes rest and tranquillity I have past it more than halfe in the ruine of my Country In accidents that touch mee not in my freehold I purchase patience very cheape and to complaine to my selfe I respect not so much what is taken from mee as what is left me both within and without There is comfort in sometimes eschewing one and sometimes another of the evills that one in the necke of another surprise vs and elsewhere strike vs round about As matters of publike interrests
diverse in force they must be directed to their good according to themselves and by divers waies Quò me cumque rapit tempestas deferor hospes Where I am whirld by winde and wether I guest-like straight am carried thether I never saw meane paisant of my neighbours enter into cogitation or care with what assurance or countenance hee should passe this last houre Nature teacheth him never to muze on death but when he dieth And then hath hee a better grace in it than Aristotle whom death perplexed doubly both by her selfe and by so long a premeditation Therefore was it Caesars opinion that The least premeditated death was the happiest and the easâ—est Plus dolet quà m necesse est qui ante dolet quà m necesse est He grieves more than he need That grieves before he neede The sharpenesse of this imagination proceedes from our curiosity Thus we ever hinder our selves desiring to fore-runne and sway naturall prescriptions It is but for Doctors being in health to fare the worse by it and to frowne and startle at the image of death The vulgar sort have neither neede of remedy nor comfort but when the shocke or stroke commeth And justly considers no more of it than hee seeleth And is it not as we say that the vulgares stupidity and want of apprâ—hension affoorde them this patience in private evils and this deepe carelesnes of sinister future accidents That their mind being more grosse dull and blockish is lesse penetrable and agitable In Gods name if it be so let vs hence forth keepe a schoole of brutality It is the vtmost fruit that Sciences promise vnto vs to which she so gently bringeth her disciples We shall not want good teachers interpreters of naturall simplicity Socrates shall be one For as neare as I remember he speaketh in this sence vnto the Iudges that determine of his life I feare me my maisters saith hee that if I intreate you not to make me die I shall confirme the evidence of my accusers which is That I professe to have more vnderstanding than others as having some knowledge more secret and hidde of things both above and beneath vs. I know I have neither frequented nor knowen death nor have I seene any body that hath either felt or tried her qualities to instruct me in them Those who feare her presuppose to know As for me I neither know who or what shee is nor what they doe in the other worlde Death may peradventure be a thing indifferent happily a thing desirable Yet is it to bee beleeved that if it be a transmigration from one place to another there is some amendement in going to live with so many worthy famous persons that are deceased and be exempted from having any more to doe with wicked and corrupted Iudges If it be a consummation of ones being it is also an amendement and entrance into a long and quiet night Wee finde nothing so sweete in life as a quiet rest and gentle sleepe and without dreames The things I know to be wicked as to wrong or offend ones neighbour and to disobey his superiour be he God or man I carefully shâ—nne them Such as I know not whether they bee good or bad I cannot feare them If I goe to my death and leave you alive the Gods onely see whether you or I shall prosper best And therefore for my regarde you shall dispose of it as it shall best please you But according to my fashion which is to counsell good and profitable things this I say that for your owne conscience you shall doe best to free and discharge mee except you see further into mine owne cause than my selfe And iudging according to my former actions both publike and private according to my intentions and to the profit that so many of our Cittizens both yoong and olde draw daily from my conversation and the fruit all you reape by me you cannot more iustly or duely discharge your selves toward my desertes than by appointing my poverty considered that I may live and at the common charge bee kept in the Brytanâ—o which for much lesse reasons I have often seene you freely graunt to others Impute it not to obstinacy or disdaine in mee nor takâ— it in ill part that I according to custome proceede not by way of inâ—râ—atie and moove you to commiseration I have both friends and kinsfolkes being not as Homer saith begotten of a blocke or stone no more than other men capable to present themselves humbly suing with teares and mourning and I have three desolate wailing children to moove you to pittie But I should make your Cittie ashamed of the age I am in and in that reputation of wisedome as now I stand in prevention to yeeld vnto so base and abiect countenances What would the worlde say of other Athenians I have ever admonished such as have heard me speake never to purchase or redeeme their life by any dishonest or vnlawfull act And in my countries warres both at Amphipolis at Potidea at Delia and others in which I have beene I have shewen by effects how farre I was from warranting my safety by my shame Moreover I should interest your duty and preiudice your calling and perswade you to feule vnlan full things for not my prayers but the pure and â—olide reasons of iustice should perswade you You have swâ—rne to the Gods so to maintaine your selves Not to beleeve there were any might seeme I would suspect recriminate or retorte the fault vpon you And my selfe should witnesse against my selfe not to beleeve in them as I ought distructing their conduct and not meerely remitting my affaires into their handes I wholly trust and relâ—e on them and certainely holde that in this they will dispose as it shall bee nocetest for you and fittest for me Honest men that neither live nor are dead have no cause at all to feare the Gods Is not this a childish pleading of an inimaginable courage and in what necessity employed Verily it was reason hee should preferre it before that which the great Orator Lysiaâ— had set downe in writing for him excellency fashioned in a judiciary Stile but vnworthie of so noble a criminall Should a man have heard an humbly-suing voice out of Socrates his mouth Would that prowde vertue have failed in the best of her shew And would his rich and powerfull nature have committed her defence vnto arte and in her highest Essay renounced vnto trueth and sinceritie the ornaments of his speech to adorne and decke himselfe with the embellishment of the figures and fictions of a fore-lern'nt Oration Hee did most wisely and according to himselfe not to corrupt the tenure of an incorruptible life so sacred an image of humane forme to prolong his decrepitude for one yeere and wrong the immortall memory of so glorious an end He ought his life not to himselfe but to the worlds example Had it not beene a publike losse if he had finished the same in some idle base
women and to children As a voluntary Souldier or adventurous knight you enter the lists the bands or particular hazards according as your selfe judge of their successes or importance and you see when your life may therein be excusably employed pulchrúmque morisuccurrit in armis And nobly it doth come in minde To die in armes may honor finde Basely to feare common dangers that concerneso numberlesse a multitude and not to dare whatso many sortes of men dare yea whole nations together is onely incident to base craven and milke-sop-hearts Company and good fellowship doth harten and encourage children If some chance to exceede and outgoe you in knowledge in experience in grace in strength in fortune you have third and collateral causes to blame and take hold-of but to yeeld to them in constancie of minde and resolution of courage you have none but yourselfe to find fault with Death is much more abiect languishing grisly and painefull in a downe-bed then in a field-combate and agues catarres or apoplexies as painefull and mortall as an harquebusado He that should be made vndantedly to beare the accidents of common life should not neede to bumbast his courage to become a man at armes Vivere mi Lucilli milis are est Friend mine to live is to goe onwarre-fare I can not remember that ever I was scabbed yet is itching one of natures sweetest gratifications and as readie at hand But repentance doth over-importunately attend on it I exercise the same in mine eares and by fits which within doe often itch I was borne with all my senses sound almost in perfection My stomake is commodiously good and so is my head both which together with my winde maintaine them selves athwart my agues I have outlived that age to which some nations have not without some reason prescribed for a just end vnto life that they allowed not a man to exceede the same I have notwithstanding some remyses or intermissions yet though vnconstant and short so sound and neate that there is little difference betweene them and the health and indolencie of my youth I speake not of youthly vigor and chearefull blithnesse there is noreason they should follow mee beyond their limites Non haec amplius est liminis aut aquae Coelestis patiens latus These sides cannot still sustaine Lying without dores showring raine My visage and eyes doe presently discover me Thence beginne all my changes and somewhat sharper then they are in effect I often moove my friends to pitty ere I feele the cause of it My looking glasse doth not amaze me for even in my youth it hath diverse times befalne me so to put-on a duskie looke a wanne colour a troubled behaviour and of ill presage without any great accident so that Phisitions perceiving no inward cause to answer this outward alteration ascribed the same to the secret minde or some concealed passion which inwardly gnawed and consumed mee They were deceived were my body directly by mee as is my minde we should march a little more at our ease I had it then not onely exempted from all trouble but also full of satisfaction and blithenesse as it is most commonly partly by it's owne complexion and partly by it's owne desseigne Nec vitiant art us aegrae contagia mentis Nor doth sicke mindes infection Pollute strong joynts complexion I am of opinion that this her temperature hath often raised my body from his fallings he is often suppressed whereas she if not lasciviously wanton at least in quiet and reposed estate I had a quartan ague which held me foure or five moneths and had altogether disvisaged and altered my countenance yet my minde held ever out not onely peaceably but pleasantly So I feele no paine ot smarte weaknesse and languishing doe not greatly perplex me I see divers corporall defailances the only naming of which breede a kind of horror and which I would feare lesse then a thousand passions and agitations of the mind which I see in vse I resolve to runne no more it sufficeth me to goe-on faire and softly nor doe I complaine of their naturall decadence or empairing that possesseth me Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus Who wonders a swolne throate to see In those about the Alpes that be No more then I grieve that my continuance is not as long and sound as that of an oske I have no cause to finde fault with my imagination I have in my life had very few thoughts or cares that have so much as interrupted the course of my sleepe except of desire to awaken without dismay or afflicting me I seldome dreame and when I doe it is of extravagant things and chymeras commonly produced of pleasant conceits rather ridiculous then sorrowfull And thinke it true that dreames are the true interpretors of our inclinations but great skill is required to sort and vnderstand them Res quae in vit a vsurpant homines cogitant curant vident Quaeque agunt vigilantes agitánt que ea sicut insomno accidunt Minus mirandum est It is no wonder if the things which we Care-for vse thinke doe oft or waking see Vnto vs sleeping represented be Plato saith moreover that is the office of wisedome to draw divining instructions from them against future times Wherein I see nothing but the wonderfull experience that Socrates Xenophon and Aristotle relate of them men of vnreproovable authority Histories reporte that the inhabitants of the Atlantique Iles never dreame who feede on nothing that hath beene slaine Which I adde because it is peradventure the occasion the dreame not Pythagoras ordained therefore a certaine methode of feeding that dreames might bee sorted of some purpose Mine are tender and cause no agitation of body or expression of voice in mee I have in my dayes seene many strangely stirred with them Theon the Philosopher walked in dreaming and Pericles his boy went vpon the tiles and top of houses I stand not much on nice choice of meates at the table and commonly beginne with the first and neerest dish and leape not willingly from one taste to another Multitude of dishes and varietie of services displease mee as much as any other throng I am easily pleased with few messes and hate the opinion of Favorinus that at a banquet you must have that dish whereon you feede hungerly taken from you and ever have a new one set in the place And that it is a niggardly supper if all the guests be not glutted with pinions and rumps of divers kindes of fowle and that onely the daintie bird heccafico or snapfig deserveth to bee eaten whole at one morsell I feede much vpon salte cates and love to have my bread somewhat fresh And mine own Baker makes none other for my bord against the fashion of my countrie In my youth my overseers had much adoe to reforme the refusall I made of such meats as youth doth commonly love best as sweete-meates confets and marchpanes My Tutor was wont