Contulit haud furto melior sed fortibus armis His Heart disdain'd to strike Orodes dead Or unseen basely wound him as he fled But gaining first his Front wheels round and there Bravely oppos'd himself to his Career And fighting Man to Man would let him see His Valour scorn'd both Odds and Policy CHAP. VII That the Intention is Judge of our Actions 'T is a Saying That Death discharges us of all our Obligations However I know some who have taken it in another Sence Henry the Seventh King of England articled with Don Philip Son to Maximilian the Emperour and Father to the Emperour Charles the Fifth when he had him upon English Ground that the said Philip should deliver up the Duke of Suffolk of the White Rose his mortal Enemy who was fled into the Low Countries into his Hands which Philip not knowing how to evade it accordingly promis'd to do but upon condition nevertheless that Henry should attempt nothing against the Life of the said Duke which during his own Life he perform'd but coming to die in his last Will commanded his Son to put him to Death immediately after his Decease And lately in the Tragedy that the Duke of Alva presented to us in the Persons of the two Counts Egmont and Horne at Brussels there were very remarkable Passages and one amongst the rest that the said Count Egmont upon the security of whose Word and Faith Count Horne had come and surrendred himself to the Duke of Alva earnestly entreated that he might first mount the Scaffold to the end that Death might disinage him from the Obligation he had pass'd to the other In which Case methinks Death did not acquit the former of his Promise and the second was satisfied in the good Intention of the other even though he had not died with him for we cannot be oblig'd beyond what we are able to perform by reason that the Effects and Intentions of what we promise are not at all in our Power and that indeed we are Masters of nothing but the Will in which by necessity all the Rules and whole Duty of Mankind is founded and establish'd And therefore Count â—gmont conceiving his Soul and will bound and indepted to his Promise although he had not the Power to make it good had doubtless been absolv'd of his Duty even though he had outliv'd the other but the King of England willfully and premeditately breaking his Faith was no more to be excus'd for deferring the Execution of his Infidelity till after his Death than Herodotus his Mason who having inviolably during the time of his Life kept the Secret of the treasure of the King of Aegypt his Master at his Death discover'd it to his Children I have taken notice of several in my time who convinc'd by their Consciences of unjustly detaining the Goods of another have endeavour'd to make amends by their Will and afther their Decease but they had as good do nothing as delude themselves both in taking so much time in so pressing an Affair and also in going about to repair an Injury with so little Demonstration of Resentment and Concern They owe over and above something of their own and by how much their Payment is more strict and incommodious to themselves by so much is their Restitution more perfect just and meritorious for Penitency requires Penance but they yet do worse than these who reserve the Declaration of a mortal Animofity against their Neighbour to the last Gasp having conceal'd it all the time of their Lives before wherein they declare to have little regard of their own Honour whilst they irritate the Party offended against their Memory and less to their Conscience not having the Power even out of Respect to Death it self to make their Malice die with them but extending the Life of their Hatred even beyond their own Unjust Judges who deferr Judgment to a time wherein they can have no Knowledge of the Cause For my part I shall take Care if I can that my Death discover nothing that my Life has not first openly manifested and publickly declar'd CHAP. VIII Of Idleness AS we see some Grounds that have long lain idle and untill'd when grown rank and fertile by rest to abound with and spend their Vertue in the Product of innumerable sorts of Weeds and wild Herbs that are unprofitable and of no wholesome use and that to make them perform their true Office we are to culvitate and prepare them for such Seeds as are proper for our Service And as we see Women that without the Knowledge of Men do sometimes of themselves bring forth inanimate and formless Lumps of Flesh but that to cause a natural and perfect Generation they are to be husbanded with another kind of Seed even so it is with Wits which if not applyed to some certain Study that may fix and restrain them run into a thousand Extravagancies and are eternally roving here and there in the inextricable Labyrinth of restless Imagination Aenâ—id l. 8. Sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis Sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine Lunae Omnia pervolitat latè loca jamque sub auras Erigitur summique ferit laquearia tecti Like as the quivering Reflection Of Fountain Waters when the Morning Sun Darts on the Bason or the Moon 's pale Beam Gives Light and Colour to the Captive Stream Whips with fantastick motion round the place And Walls and Roof strikes with its trembling Rays In which wild and irregular Agitation there is no Folly nor idle Fancy they do not light upon Hor. de Arte Poetica velut aegri somnia vanae Finguntur species Like Sick mens Dreams that from a troubled Brain Phantasms create ridiculous and vain The Soul that has no establish'd Limit to circumscribe it loses it self as the Epigrammatist says Martial lib. 7. Epig. 72. Quisquis ubique habitat maxime nusquam habitat He that lives every where does no where live When I lately retir'd my self to my own House with a Resolution as much as possibly I could to avoid all manner of Concern in Affair and to spends in privacy and repose the little remainder of time I have to Live I fansi'd I could not more oblige my mind than to suffer it at full leisure to entertain and divert it self which I also now hop'd it might the better be entrusted to do as being by Time and Observation become more settled and mature but I find Lucan l. 4. variam semper dant otia mentem Even in the most retir'd Estate Leasure it self does various Thoughts create that quite contrary it is like a Horse that has broke from his Rider who voluntarily runs into a much more violent Career than any Horseman would put him to and creates me so many Chimaera's and fantastick Monsters one upon another without Order or Design that the better at leisure to contemplate their Strangeness and Absurdity I have begun to commit them to Writing hoping
be to man than what I have already design'd him If you had not Death to ease you of your Pains and Cares you would eternally curse me for having depriv'd you of the Benefit of Dying I have 't is true mixt a little Bitterness with it to the end that seeing of what Conveniency and Use it is you might not too greedily and indiscreetly seek and embrace it and that you might be so establish'd in this Moderation as neither to nauseate Life nor have an Antipathy for dying which I have decreed you shall once do I have temper'd the one and the other betwixt Pleasure and Pain and t was I that first taught Thales the most eminent of all your Sages that to Live and to Die were indifferent which made him very wisely answer him who ask'd him Why then did he not die because says he it is indifferent The Elements of Water Earth Fire and Air and the other Parts of this Creation of thine are no more the Instruments of thy Life than they are of thy Death Why dost thou fear thy last day it contributes no more to thy dissolution than every one of the rest The last Step is not the cause of lassitude it does but confess it Every Day travels towards Death the last only arrives at it These are the good Lessons our Mother Nature teaches I have often consider'd with my self whence it should proceed that in War the Image of Death whether we look upon it as to our own particular danger or that of another should without Comparison appear less dreadful than at home in our own Houses for if it were not so it would be an Army of whining Milk-sops and that being still in all Places the same there should be notwithstanding much more Assurance in Peasants and the meaner sort of People than others of better Quality and Education and I do verily believe that it is those terrible Ceremonies and Preparations wherewith we set it out that more terrifie us than the thing it self a new quite contrary way of living the Cries of Mothers Wives and Children the Visits of astonish'd and afflicted Friends the Attendance of pale and blubber'd Servants a dark Room set round with hurning Tapers our Beds environed with Physicians and Divines in sum nothing but Ghostliness and Horror round about us render it so formidable that a Man almost fansies himself dead and buried already Children are afraid even of those they love best and are best acquainted with when disguised in a Vizor and so are we the Vizor must be removed as well from Things as Persons which being taken away we shall find nothing underneath but the very same Death that a mean Servant or a poor Chamber-maid died a day or two ago without any manner of Apprehension or Concern Happy therefore is the Death that deprives us of the leisure to prepare things requisite for this unnecessary Pomp a Pomp that only renders that more terrible which ought not to be fear'd and that no Man upon Earth can possibly avoid CHAP. XX. Of the Force of imagination FOrtis imaginatio generat casum Axion Scholast A strong Imagination begets Accident say the School-men I am one of those who are most sensible of the Power of Imagination Every one is justled but some are overthrown by it It has a very great Impression upon me and I make it my Business to avoid wanting force to resist it I could live by the sole help of heathful and jolly Company The very sight of anothers Pain does materially work upon me and I naturally usurp the Sense of a third Person to share with him in his Torment A perpetual Cough in another tickles my Lungs and Throat I more unwillingly visit the sick I love and am by Duty interested to look after than those I care not for and from whom I have no expectation I take possession of the Disease I am concern'd at and lay it too much to heart and do not at all wonder that Fancy should distribute Fevers and sometimes kill such as allow too much Scope and are too willing to entertain it Simon Thomas was a great Physician of his time I remember that hapning one day at Tholouze to meet him at a rich old Fellows House who was troubled with naughty Lungs and discoursing with his Patient about the method of his Cure he told him that one thing which would be very conducing to it was to give me such Occasion to be pleased with his Company that I might come often to see him by which means and by fixing his Eyes upon the Freshness of my Complexion and his Imagination upon the Sprightliest and Vigour that glowed in my Youth and possessing all his Senses with the flourishing Age wherein I then was his Habit of Body might peradventure be amended but he forgot to say that mine at the same time might be made worse Gallus Vibius so long cudgell'd his Brains to find out the Essence and Motions of Folly till by the Inquisition in the end he went directly out of his Wits and to such a Degree that he could never after recover his Judgment and he might brag that he was become a Fool by too much Wisdom Some there are who thorough Fear prevent the Hangman like him whose Eyes being unbound to have his Pardon read to him was found stark dead upon the Scaffold by the Stroak of Imagination Imagination occasions Diseases and Death We start tremble turn pale and blush as we are variously mov'd by Imagination and being a-bed feel our Bodies agitated with its Power to that degree as even sometimes to Expire And boyling Youth when fast asleep grows so warm with Fancy as in a Dream to satisfie amorous Desires Lucret. l. 4. Ut quasi transactis saepe omnibus rebus profundant Fluminis ingentes fluctus vestemque cruentent Who fansie gulling Lyes his enflam'd Mind Lays his Loves Tribute there where not design'd Although it be no new thing to see Horns grown in a Night on the Fore-head of one that had none when he went to Bed notwithstanding what besell Cyppus a noble Roman is very râ—â—merable who having one day been a very deligâ—â—d Spectator of a Bull-baiting and having all the night dreamt that he had Horns on his Head did by the Force of Imagination really cause them to grow there Passion made the Son of Croesus to speak who was born dumb by that means supplying him with so necessary a Faculty which Nature had deny'd him And Antiochus sell into a Fever enflam'd with the Beauty of Stratonissa too deeply imprinted in his Soul Pliny pretends to have seen Lucius Cressitius who from a Woman was turn'd into a Man upon her very Wedding day Pontanus and others report the like Metamorphoses that in these latter days have hapned in Italy and through the vehement Desire of him and his Mother Ovid. Vota puer sâ—lvit quae foemina voverat Iphis. Iphis a Boy the Vow desray'd That he had
Action that ever the Day beheld and I will contrive a Hundred plausible Drifts and Ends to obscure it God knows whoever will stretch them out to the full what diversity of Images our internal Wills do suffer under they do not so Maliciously play the Censurers as they do it Ignorantly and Rudely in all their Detractions The same pains and licence that others take to Blemish and Bespatter these illustrious Names I would willingly undergo to lend them a shoulder to raise them higher These rare Images and that are cull'd out by the consent of the wisest Men of all Ages for the Worlds Example I should endeavour to Honour anew as far as my Invention would permit in all the Circumstances of favourable Interpretation And we are to believe that the force of our Invention is infinitely short of their Merit 'T is the Duty of good Men to Pourtray Vertues as Beautiful as they can and there would be no Indecency in the Case should our Passion a little Transport us in favour of so Sacred a Form What these People do to the contrary they either do out of Malice or by the Vice of confining their Belief to their own Capacity or which I am more inclin'd to think for not having their sight strong clear and elevated enough to conceive the splendour of Vertue in her Native Purity As Plutarch complains that in his time some Attributed the cause of the Younger Cato's Death to his Fear of Caesar at which he seems very Angry and with good reason and by that a Man may guess how much more he would have been offended with those who have Attributed it to Ambitious Senceless People He would rather have perform'd a handsome just and generous Action and to have had Ignominy for his Reward than for Glory That Man was in truth a Pattern that Nature chose out to shew to what height Humane Vertue and Constancy could arrive but I am not capable of handling so Noble an Argument and shall therefore only set five Latin Poets together by the Ears who has done best in the praise of Cato and inclusively for their own too Now a Man well Read in Poetry will think the two first in comparison of the others a little Flat and Languishing the Third more Vigorous but overthrown by the Extravagancy of his own force He will then think that there will be yet room for one or two Gradations of Invention to come to the Fourth but coming to mount the pitch of that he will lift up his Hands for admiration the last the first by some space but a space that he will swear is not to be fill'd up by any Humane Wit he will be astonish'd he will not know where he is These are Wonders We have more Poets than Judges and Interpreters of Poetry It is easier to Write an indifferent Poem than to understand a good one There is indeed a certain low and moderate sort of Poetry that a Man may well enough judge by certain Rules of Art but the true supream and divine Poesie is equally above all Rules and Reason And whoever discerns the Beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a Flash of Lightning This is a sort of Poesie that does not exercise but ravishes and overwhelms our Judgment The Fury that possesses him who is able to penetrate into it wounds yet a Third Man by hearing him repeat it Like a Loadstone that not only attracts the Needle but also infuses into it the Vertue to attract others And it is more evidently Eminent upon our Theatres that the Sacred Inspiration of the Muses having first stirr'd up the Poet to Anger Sorrow Hatred and out of himself to whatever they will does moreover by the Poet possess the Actor and by the Actor consecutively all the Spectators So much do our Passions hang and depend upon one another Poetry has ever had that power over me from a Child to Transpierce and Transport me But this quick resentment that is Natural to me has been variously handled by Variety of Forms not so much higher and lower for they were ever the highest of every kind as differing in Colour First a Gay and Spritely Fluency afterwards a Lofty and Penetrating Subtilty and lastly a Mature and Constant Force Their Names will better express them Ovid Lucan Virgil. But our Poets are beginning their Career Mart. lib. 6. Epig. 32. Sit Cato dum vivit fama vel Caesare Major Let Cato's Fame Whilst he shall Live Eclipse great Caesar's Name Says one Manil Et invictum devicta Morte Catonem And Cato fell Death being overcome invincible Says the Second And the Third speaking of the Civil Wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey Lucan l. 1. Victrix causa Diis placuit sed Victa Catoni Heaven approves The Conquering Cause the Conquer'd Cato loves And the Fourth upon the Praises of Caesar Hor. Car. lib. 2. Od. 1. Et cuncta terrarum subjecta Praeter atrocem animum Catonis And Conquer'd all where e're his Eagle flew But Cato's Mind that nothing could subdue And the Master of the Quire after having set forth all the great Names of the greatest Romans ends thus Aeneid l. 8 His dantem jura Catonem Great Cato giving Laws to all the rest CHAP. XXXVII That we Laugh and Cry for the same thing WHen we Read in History that Antigonus was very much displeas'd with his Son for presenting him the Head of King Pyrrhus his Enemy but newly Slain Fighting against him and that seeing it he wept That Rene Duke of Lorraine also Lamented the Death of Charles Duke of Burgundy whom he had himself Defeated and appear'd in Mourning at his Funeral And that in the Battel of Auroy which Count Monfort obtain'd over Charles de Blois his Concurrent for the Dutchy of Brittany the Conquerour meeting the Dead Body of his Enemy was very much Afflicted at his Death we must not presently Cry out Petrarcha Et cosi auen che l' animo ciascuna Sua Passion sotto el contrario manto Ricopre con la vista hor ' chiara hor ' bruna That every one whether of Joy or Woe The Passion of their Mind can palliate so As when most Griev'd to shew a Count'nance clear And Melancholick when best pleas'd t' appear When Pompey's Head was presented to Caesar the Histories tell us that he turn'd away his Face as from a sad and unpleasing Object There had been so long an intelligence and Society betwixt them in the management of the Publick Affairs so great a Community of Fortunes so many mutual Offices and so near an Alliance that this Countenance of his ought not to suffer under any Misinterpretation or to be suspected for either False or Counterfeit as this other seems to believe Lucret. lib. 9. Tutumque putavit Iam bonus esse socer lacrymas non sonte cadentes Effudit gemitusque expressit pectore laeto Non
Manly Ornament The Sages tell us that as to what concerns Knowledge there is nothing but Philosophy and to what concerns effects nothing but vertue that is generally proper to all Degrees and to all orders There is something like this in these two other Philosophers for they also promise Eternity to the Letters they Write to their Friends but 't is after another manner and by accommodating themselves for a good end to the vanity of another for they Write to them that if the concern of making themselves known to future Ages and the Thirst of Glory do yet detain them in the management of publick affairs and make them fear the Solitude and Retirement to which they would persuade them let them never trouble themselves more about it forasmuch as they shall have Credit enough with Posterity to assure them that were there nothing else but the very Letters thus Writ to them those Letters will render their names as known and famous as their own publick actions themselves could do And besides this difference these are not Idle and empty Letters that contain nothing but a fine Gingle of well chosen Words and fine Couch'd Phrases but rather repleat and abounding with Grave and Learn'd Discourses by which a Man may render himself not more Eloquent but more Wise and that instruct us not to speak but to do well A way with that Eloquence that so enchants us with its Harmony that we should more Study it than things Unless you will allow that of Cicero to be of so Supream a perfection as to form a compleat Body of it self And of him I shall further add one Story we read of him to this purpose wherein his nature will much more manifestly be laid open to us He was to make an Oration in publick and found himself a little straitned in time to fit his Words to his Mouth as he had a mind to do when Eros one of his Slaves brought him word that the audience was deferr'd till the next Day at which he was so ravish'd with Joy that he enfranchis'd him for the good news Upon this Subject of Letters I will add this more to what has been already said that it is a kind of Writing wherein my Friends think I can do something and I am willing to confess I should rather have chose to publish my Whimsies that way than any other had I had to whom to Write but I wanted such a settled Corrsepondency as I once had to attract me to it to raise my Fancy and maintain the rest against me For to Traffick with the Wind as some others have done and to Forge vain Names to direct my Letters to in a serious subject I could never do it but in a Dream being a sworn Enemy to all manner of falsification I should have been more diligent and more confidently secure had I had a Judicious and Indulgent Friend to whom to address than thus to expose my self to various judgments of a whole People and I am deceiv'd if I had not succeeded better I have naturally a Comick and familiar Stile but it is a peculiar one and not proper for Publick business but like the Language I speak too Compact Irregular Abrupt and Singular and as to Letters of Ceremony that have no other substance than a fine contexture of courteous and obliging Words I am wholly to seek I have neither faculty nor relish for those tedious offers of Service and Affection I am not good natur'd to that degree and should not forgive my self should I offer more than I intend which is very remote from the present practice for there never was so abject and servile prostitution of tenders of Life Soul Devotion Adoration Vassal Slave and I cannot tell what as now all which expressions are so commonly and so indifferently Posted to and fro by every one and to every one that when they would profess a greater and more respective inclination upon more just occasions they have not where-withal to express it I hate all air of Flattery to Death which is the cause that I naturally fall into a Shy Rough and Crude way of speaking that to such as do not know me may seem a little to relish of disdain I Honour those most to whom I shew the least Honour and Respect and where my Soul moves with the greatest Cheerfulness I easily forget the Ceremonies of Look and Gesture I offer my self Faintly and Bluntly to them whose I effectually am and tender my self the least to him to whom I am the most devoted Methinks they should read it in my Heart and that my expression would but injure the Love I have conceived within To Welcome take Leave give Thanks Accost offer my Service and such verbal Formalities as the Laws of our modern civility enjoyn I know no Man so stupidly unprovided of Language as my self And have never been employ'd in Writing Letters of Favour and Recommendation that he in whose behalf it was did not think my mediation Cold and Imperfect The Italians are great Printers of Letters I do believe I have at least an hundred several Volumes of them of all which those of Hannibal Caro seem to me to be the best If all the Paper I have Scribled to the Ladies all the time when my Hand was really prompted by my Passion were now in being there might Peradventure be found a Page worthy to be communicated to our young enamorato's that are Besotted with that Fury I always Write my Letters Post and so precipitously that though I Write an intolerable ill Hand I rather choose to do it my self than to imploy another for I can find none able to follow me and never transcribe any but have accustomed the great ones that know me to endure my Blots and Dashes and upon Paper without Fold or Margent Those that cost me the most Pains are the worst of mine when I once begin to draw it in by Head and Shoulders 't is a sign that I am not there I fall too without premeditation or design the first word begets the second and so to the end of the Chapter The Letters of this Age consist more in fine Foldings and Prefaces than matter whereas I had rather Write two Letters than Close and Fold up one and always assign that employment to some other as also when the business of my Letter is dispatch'd I would with all my heart transferr it to another Hand to add those long Harangues Offers and Prayers that we place at the Bottom and should be glad that some new custom would discharge us of that unnecessary trouble as also of superscribing them with a long Ribble-row of Qualities and Titles which for fear of mistakes I have several times given over Writing aâ—d especially to Men of the long Robe There are so many innovations of Offices that 't is hard to place so many Titles of Honour in their proper and due order which also being so dearly bought they are neither to be
this Nature being wholly referr'd to the absolute Sovereignty of their own Conduct neither do they simply execute only but also to their own Discretion and Wisdom form and model their Master's Pleasure and I have in my time known Men of command who have been check'd for having rather obeyed the express Words of the King's Letters than the necessity of the Affairs they had in hand Men of Understanding do yet to this day condemn the Custom of the Kings of Persia to give their Lieutenants and Agents so little Rein that upon the least arising Difficulties they must evermore have Recourse to their further Commands this delay in so vast an extent of Dominion having often very much prejudic'd their Affairs And Crassus writing to a Man whose Profession it was best to understand those things and pre-acquainting him to what use this Mast was design'd did he not seem to consult his Advice and in a manner invite him to interpose his better Judgment CHAP. XVII Of Fear Virg. Aen. l. 2. Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit I was amaz'd struck Speechless and my Hair On end upon my Head did wildly stare I Am not so good a Naturalist as to discern by what secret Springs Fear has its motion in us but I am wise enough to know that it is a strong Passion and such a one that the Physicians say there is no other what ever that sooner disthrones our Judgments from its proper Seat which is so true that I my self have seen very many become frantick thorough Fear and even in those of the best settled Temper it is most certain that it begets a terrible Astonishment and Confusion during the Fit I omit the Vulgar sort to whom it one while represents their Great-Grandsires risen out of their Graves in their Shrowds another while Hob-Goblins Spectres and Chimaera's but even amongst Souldiers a sort of men over whom of all others it ought to have the least Power how often has it converted Flocks of Sheep into armed Squadrons Reeds and Bull-rushes into Pikes and Launces Friends into Enemies and the French White into the Red Crosses of Spain When Mounsieur de Bourbon took the City of Rome an Ensign who was upon the Guard at the Bourg St. Pierre was seiz'd with such a Fright upon the first Alarm that he threw himself out at a Breach with his Colun upon his Shoulder and can directly upon the Enemy thinking he had retreated toward the inward Defences of the City and with much ado seeing Mounsieur de Bourbon's People who thought it had been a Sally upon them draw up to receive him at last came to himself and saw his Error and then facing about he retreated full speed through the same Breach by which he had gone out but not till he had first blindly advanc'd above three hundred Paces into the open Field It did not however fall out so well with Captain Iulius his Ensign at the time when St. Paul was taken from us by the Count de Burâ—â— and Monsieur du Reu for he being so astonish'd with Fear as to throw himself and his Fellows out at a Skyt-gate was immediately cut to pieces by the Enemy and in the same Siege it was a very memorable Fear that so seiz'd contracted and froze up the Heart of a young Gentleman that he sunk down stone dead in the Breach without any manner of Wound or Hurt at all The like Madness does sometimes push on a whole Multitude for in one of the Encounters that Gâ—rmanicus had with the Germans two great Parties were so amaz'd with Fear that they ran two opposite ways the one and the other to the same place from which either of them had fled before Sometimes it adds Wings to the Heels as in the two first and sometimes nails them to the Ground and fetters them from moving as we read of the Emperour Theophilus who in a Battel he lost against the Agarens was so astonish'd and stupified that he had no Power to fly Quint. Curt. l. 3. adeo pavor etiam auxilia formidat so much does Fear dread even the means of Safety till such time as Manuel one of the principal Commanders of his Army having jogg'd and shak'd him so as to rouse him out of his Trance said to him Sir if you will not follow me I will kill you for it is better you should lose your Life than by being taken to lose your Empire But Fear does then manifest its utmost Power and Effect when it throws us upon a valiant Despair having before depriv'd us of all sense both of Duty and Honour In the first pitch'd Battel the Romans lost against Hannibal under the Consul Sempronius a Body of ten thousand Foot that had taken a Fright seeing no other Escape for their Cowardice went and threw themselves head-long upon the great Battalion of the Enemies which also with wonderful force and fury they chargâ—d thorough and thorough and routed with a very great slaughter of the Carthaginians by that means purchasing an ignominious flight at the same price they might have done a glorious Victory The thing in the World I am most afraid of is Fear and with good reason that Passion alone in the trouble of it exceeding all other Accidents What affliction could be greater or more just than that of Pompeâ—'s Followers and Friends who in his Ship were Spectators of that horrid and inhumane murther Yet so it was that the Fear of the Egyptian Vessels they saw coming to board them possess'd them with so great a Fear that it is observ'd they thought of nothing but calling upon the Mariners to make haste and by force of Oars to escape away till being arriv'd at Tyre and deliver'd from the apprehension of further danger they then had leisure to turn their thoughts to the loss of their Captain and to give vent to those tears and lamentations that the other more prevalent Passion had till then suspended Tum pavor sapientiam omnem mihi ex animo expectorat My Mind with great and sudden fear opprest Was for the time of Judgment dispossess'd Such as have been well bang'd in some Skirmish may yet all wounded and bloody as they are be brought on again the next day to charge but such as have once conceiv'd a good sound Fear of the Enemy will never be made so much as to look him in the Face Such as are in immediate Fear of losing their Estates of Banishment or of Slavery live in perpetual Anguish and lose all Appetite and Repose whereas such as are actually poor Slaves and Exiles oft-times live as merrily as Men in a better Condition and so many People who impatient of the perpetual Alarms of Fear have hang'd and drown'd themselves give us sufficiently to understand that it is more importunate and insupportable than Death it self The Greeks acknowledge another kind of Fear exceeding any we have spoke of yet a Passion that surprises us without any visible
Cause by an impulse from Heaven so that whole Armies and Nations have been struck with it Such a one was that which brought so wonderful a Desolation upon Carthage where nothing was to be heard but Voices and Outcries of Fear where the Inhabitants were seen to sally out of their Houses as to an Alarm and there to charge wound and kill one another as if they had been Enemies come to surprize their City All things were in strange Disorder and Fury till with Prayers and Sacrifices they had appeas'd their Gods and this is that they call a Panick Terror CHAP. XVIII That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death Ouid. Met. l. 3. scilicet ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Mens last days still to be expected are E're we of them our Judgments do declare Nor can't of any one be rightly said That he is happy till he first be dead EVery one is acquainted with the Story of King Croesus to this purpose who being taken Prisoner by Cyrus and by him condemn'd to die as he was going to Execution cry'd out O Solon Solon which being presently reported to Cyrus and he sending to enquire of him what it meant Croesus gave him to understand that he now found the Advertisement Solon had formerly given him true to his Cost which was That men however Fortune may smile upon them could never be said to be happy till they had been seen to pass over the last day of their Lives by reason of the uncertainty and mutability of Humane things which upon very light and trivial occasions are subject to be totally chang'd into a quite contrary condition And therefore it was that Agesilâ—us made answer to one that was saying what a happy young man the King of Persâ—â— was to come so young to so mighty a Kingdom 'T is true said he but neither was Priam unhappy at his years In a short time of Kings of Macedon Successors to that mighty Alâ—xander were made Joyneâ—â— and Scriveners at Rome of a Tyrant of Sicily a Pedant at Corinth of a Conquerour of one half of the World and General of so many Armies a miserable Suppliant to the rascally Officers of a King of Aegypt So much the prolongation of five or Six Months of Life cost the Great and Noble Pâ—mpey and no longer 〈◊〉 than our Fathers daâ—s Ludovico Forza the tenth Duke of Millan whom all Italy had so long truckled under was seen to die a wretched Prisoner at Loches but not till he had lived ten Years in Captivity which was the worst part of his Fortune The fairest of all Queens Mary Qu. of Scots Widow to the greatest King in Europe did she not come to die by the hand of an Executioner Unworthy and barbarous Cruelty and a thousand more Examples there are of the same kind for it seems that as Storms and Tempests have a Malice to the proud and overtow'ring heights of our lofty Buildings there are also Spirits above that are envious of the Grandeurs here below Lucret. l. 5. Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros Fasces saevasque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur By which it does appear a Power unseen Rome's awful Fasces and her Axes keen Spurns under foot and plainly does despise Of humane Power the vain Formalities And it should seem also that Fortune sometimes lies in wait to surprize the last Hour of our Lives to shew the Power she has in a Moment to overthrow what she was so many Years in building making us cry out with Laberius Macrob. l. 2. c. 2. Nimirum hac die una plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit I have livâ—d longer by this one day than I ought to have done And in this Sence this good Advice of Solon may reasonably be taken but he being a Philosopher with which sort of Men the Favours and Disgraces of Fortune stand for nothing either to the making a Man happy or unhappy and with home Grandeurs and Powers Accidents of Quality are upon the Matter indifferent I am apt to think that he had some farther Aim and that his meaning was that the very Felicity of Life it self which depends upon the Tranquility and Contentment of a well-descended Spirit and the Resolution and Assurance of a well-order'd Soul ought never to be attributed to any Man till he has first been seen to play the last and doubtless the hardest act of his Part because there may be Disguise and Dissimulation in all the rest where these fine Philosophical Discourses are only put on and where Accidents do not touch us to the Quick they give us leasure to maintain the same sober Gravity but in this last Scene of Death there is no more counterfeiting we must speak plain and must discover what there is of pure and clean in the bottom Lucret. l. 3. Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur persona manet res Then that at last Truth issues from the Heart The Vizor's gone we act our own true part Wherefore at this last all the other Actions of our Life ought to be tryed and sifted 'T is the Master-day 't is the day that is judge of all the rest 'T is the Day says one of the Ancients that ought to judge of all my foregoing Years To Death do I refer the Eisay of the Fruit of all my Studies We shall then see whether my Discourses came only from my Mouth or from my Heart I have seen many by their Death give a good or an ill Repute to their whole Life Scipio the Father-in-law of Pompey the great in dying well wip'd away the ill Opinion that till then every one had conceiv'd of him Epaminondas being ask'd which of the three he had in greatest esteem Chabrias Iphicrates or himself You must first see us die said he before that Question can be resolv'd and in truth he would infinitely wrong that great Man who would weigh him without the Honour and Grandeur of his End God Almighty has order'd all things as it has best pleas'd him But I have in my time seen three of the most execrable Persons that ever I knew in all manner of abominable living and the most infamous to boot who all dyed a very regular Death and in all Circumstances compos'd even to Perfection There are brave and fortunate Deaths I have seen Death cut the Thread of the Progress of a prodigious Advancement and in the height and Flower of its encrease of a certain Person with so glorious an end that in my Opinion his Ambitious and generous Designs had nothing in them so high and great as their Interruption and he arriv'd without compleating his course at the Place to which his Ambition pretended with greater Glory than he could himself either hope or desire and anticipated