giue rules to the good that they might know how to liue peaceably regularly one with another as to represse the audacity of those vnbridled spirits who in despight of discipline and reason doe thrust themselues into all kinds of outrage and disorder from which bad cause notwithstanding according to the old rule a good effect is produced Ex malis moribus bonae leges oriuntur But the particular introducements of Lawes arise either from a pressing necessity or a foreseeing and prouisionall carefulnes of those that make them these proceed from prouidence the other from some sence of euill The impulsiue causes in the making of prouisionall Lawes are either loue of their Coūtry or desire of glory or affectation of popularity or somtimes particular interest and priuat respect for it often happens that a priuate good may haue connexion with the publike And the sence of ill decaying either by the encrease of it or a seeming to bee destitute of remedy is the cause that where Lawes are once forced out of the sense of mischiefe inconuenience they be for the most part grieuous and immoderate as on the other side such as reason prouidence do produce are many times more specious then vsefull In the first take away the spur and sense of ill and it makes men in the constitution of Lawes to bee carelesse and vnwary and in the other if there bee not continued a strong and constant affection they commonly faint in the execution of them But in the meane time there is no doubt that there are certaine fountaines of naturall Iustice and equity out of which hath beene taken deriued that infinite variety of Lawes which seuerall people haue apted to themselues and as seuerall veines and currents of water haue seuerall qualities and tasts in respect of the nature of that ground and soyle thorow which they flow and run so these Lawes and the vertue of them which bee fetched frō an originall fountaine receiue a new kinde of application and tincture in respect of the scituation of the Country the genius and nature of the people the fashion and forme of publike actions diuers accidents of the time and sundry other occurrences I will not stand to repeat And in the making of Lawes wise men haue alwayes had these things in consideration First the Common-good and benefit for which they intend them and that requires that they should be both iust and profitable now no law can bee profitable nor yet iust which is made for priuat particular respects not for the publik good 2. The persons to whom they be to be applyed that for the executiō application of them they be such as may be possible to be obserued apt for the customs places time where when they be to be vsed 3. The present course of the State what Lawes there haue beene vsually receiued by what speciall ones it hath beene conserued and by what new ones it may be assured for one kinde of care is not fit for all places and Countreys But Lawes when they are once made ought very rarely to be chāged to which purpose the ancient position of wise men is not vnworthy the obseruing that nothing is to bee changed in the Lawes of a Common-wealth which hath a long time by these Lawes preserued it self in good state gouerment as Isiodor ' wel noteth after a Law is once made we ought not to iudge of it but according to it And yet in these two cases the alteration of Lawes may turne to the better 1. When by the changing of it the Law is made more perfect more cleere more positiue more profitable 2. When the condition of subiects gouernment is changed there of necessity the Law must vary according to the difference diuersity of the times and persons for change variatiō of Lawes are either by occasion of entertaining forraigne customes or some internall deficiences or excesses according to the alteration of time One of these is so far from innouation that it is altogether necessary but that is not introducing of Lawes by way of imitation of other people it argues a desire of change rather then any cause that is materiall But on the other side old and ancient customes in respect of their very antiquity doe induce a kinde of harshnesse and breed saciety for the wilfull retaining of a custome against the present reason of the time is altogether vnequall This is to be vnderstood of temporary Lawes made and applyed to new and seuerall accidents For the fundamentall lawes vpon which the fabricke of a common-wealth and people be grounded and built they in no case will admit innouation neither are the other sort to bee lightly altered but where the present custome of the time finde them impertinent and the State thinks them vnvseful To illustrate in the same times sometimes we see Lawes mutable fit to be so such as are made in time of warre peace doth extinguish and so on the contrary agreeing with Liuie speaking to this purpose Quae in pace latae sunt plerunque bellum abrogat quae in bello pax vt in nauis administratione alia in secunda alia in aduersa tempestate vsui sunt And although change of Lawes be sometimes necessary it ought notwithstanding to bee done with a great deale of caution but yet it must be confessed that time of all things is the greatest innouator and therefore wilfully to prescribe the continuance of an old Law in respect of antiquity the face of the world and affaires being changed is indeed an introducemēt of nouelty for the pressure of the vse of it vrging and setting it only forth with the grace of antiquity if notwithstanding it bee opposite or incongruous to the present times gouernment makes that old Law if practised to fall and bee conuerted into a new and vnreasonable custome Now for my iudgement concerning the vse of Lawes I thinke this that as the vse of much Physicke and diuers Physicions argue the aboundance of humours and diseases so the multiplicity number of Lawes be manifest signes of a diseased distempered Common-wealth And therefore to follow the similitude as in diseases new experiments be dangerous where those that be ancient and approued may serue so new Lawes bee needlesse when the maladies of the Republique may be cured by the old for it is a thing both vnequall and vniust to insnare the people with multitude of Lawes Law and Reason are twinnes the absence of one is the deformity of the other being in a kinde conuertibilia and inseparable That common reason we haue ingrafted inour natures is a Law directing what we are to doe forbidding the contrary according to Cicero Eadem ratio cum est in hominis mente confirmata confecta lex est For Law is nothing but reason dilated and applyed vpon seuerall occasions and accidents the comprehension of reason and Law as of publike enormities and necessities
World to send ouer by whole bundles into England which some particular friends of theirs that know no more of forraigne busines then their letters infuse into them by this means are made to beleeue that the senders are serious intelligent and graue and so they looke too when they come home but that 's all And better vse I know not which way to put them to then as a signe for those things they outwardly yet vnhandsomly imitate That little which they speake or thinke or doe smels of State For to get but the name of an employment abroad they will engage themselues their friends and fortunes That is the vttermost of their Ambition But that small reputation which report gaue them heere their owne presence at their returne doth vtterly make to vanish And by this meanes which no other way could euer bring to their knowledge they finde the fruit of their ostentation and those vaine imaginations which before possessed them And thus much briefly of an affected Statist Now to other sorts It 's Affectation in one though naturally an elegant Speaker not to descend a little to the capacitie of such as he conferres withall For to some Country Husbandmen one were as good speake Latine as good English To vse in discoursing of an ordinary subiect words of a high sounding and Tragicke straine is as vnseemelie as walking on stilts where one may as well goe in slippers Likewise Rusticitie in speech and base popular phrases in themselues shew want of education but affected discouer folly to boote Old Antique words such as haue beene dead buried and rotten in the time of our Great Grand-fathers would become the ghost of Chaucer on a Stage but not a man of the present time Likewise New words like a new Coyne will not easily be receiued till both their weight and stampe haue beene examined To which may be referred the saying of Pomponius Marcellus who finding fault with some thing that was said in an Oration of Tyberius Caesars Atteius Capito contrarily affirmed that if it were not now Latine yet it would bee heereafter That is not so saith Marcellus for though Caesar can giue naturalization in the City of Rome to men yet he cannot doe so to words For they can neuer be admitted till Custome haue allowed them That must bee referred to publike vsance not to Caesars power There bee others that delight in figures and their words fall in one after another like sequents which they bring in in spight both of perspicuitie and sence And commonly where a speech is all figures you shall finde the matter a meere Cypher Like to these are such as out of a poore Ambition to obtaine the grace of some good and decent word or Metaphore will not sticke so they may get it into their writing to write that which before they neuer intended nor is perhaps to the purpose or to alter the whole frame of their discourse And for the most part such words as they are sought with much paine so they are placed at little ease and trouble either the matter or the method or the stile for want of elbow roome The worst Affectation of all other is to affect horrible oathes in speech which some doe thinking them ornamēts or signes of a great spirit as indeede they are signes of such a spirit as they would be frighted to see appeare Or telling of wonders and Miracles whereby expecting to beget admiration they carry away the reputation of liers Lastly there is a sort of people that as in all things they loue singularity so in this that they will subscribe to no word that sauours not of the Catechisme accounting naturall and good Speech as Ethnicke and vnsanctified But this were better called Hypocrisie then Affectation Of Detraction IT is the tongue both of Enuy and Arrogance which two though they differ in their nature yet concerning the good name of another they speak both one language equally striuing to diminish or takeaway the reward of their Vertue which is Reputation and Honour This and Charity be directly Antipodes The glory of the one is to couer of the other to discouer infirmities Charity interprets all things to the best the other in the worst sense the whole respects of the first are to do good to others but in the Detractor all things are referred to himselfe Many other dissimilitudes might be found but these suffice to shew how contrary they be which at the first view sets but an ill glosse vpon Detraction when it is opposite to Charitie From Contumelie it is no otherwise distinguished then as a thiefe on the way from him that picks your purse or priuily filches your goods in your absence The first is more violent but the second more frequent and more damnifying It hath little force where vertue is eminent For there Imputation is reuerberated and made to returne on the Author who deprauing the fame of a man of knowne desert workes no other effect in his hearers then an opinion of his owne priuate malignity like a tempestuous Sea beating against a firme Rocke which though it shew much fury workes no dammage The Detractor to anie laudable atchieuement will be sure to finde out wrong causes and to good things wrong names as if a man be liberall hee is prodigall if parsimonious couetous if magnificent ambitious if courteous then hee is of a weake and seruile spirit if graue then proud if considerate in danger then a Coward if valorous rash if silent cunning if a discourser then one that loues to heare himselfe talke When Iohn Baptist came neither eating nor drinking they said hee had a Deuill and when our Sauiour came eating and drinking they said Behold a Glutton and a wine-bibber And so forward that there is almost nothing that a man can bee or doe which a Detractor wil not peruert Though to praise any thing be against his stomake yet hee will magnifie Fortune when shee hath any hand in an enterprise that Vertue to which he giues the name of the confining Vice may the lesse appeare They are the very moths that corrupt and canker in euery Common wealth how they worke and weare and eate into euery mans good name experience witnesseth They bee of a poysonous quality deuourers of mens reputations and therfore aptly described by the Psalmist Their throate is an open Sepulcher with their tongues haue they deceiued the poyson of Asps is vnder their lips A Sepulchre indeede for mens fames and good reports are in a manner buried in those graues their deceitfull tongues are the instruments and the poyson vnder their lips the materialls by which so much mischiefe is wrought And wheras men that bereaue vs of our liues do rarely passe without the encoūter of some or other condigne punishment shall these that depriue vs of that which is inestimably dearer passe vnpunished No. For we see that publike Iustice doth often meete with Libellers Defamers and there is no Cōmon-wealth or Kingdom in
can giue you none for it except you will take this for one I will because I will which is an absurd womanish and childish Iustification and an argument of so smal force that it is a shame to vse it And this is that depriues most enterprises of good successe but alwaies howsoeuer be the euent the enterpriser of commendation For good euents depending ordinarily vpon good counsell they seldome chance without it when they doe it is by fortune whence can arise no glory to the doer but must wholly be attributed to some chance And if any crosse accident interpose it selfe this takes away all excuse For as it is seemly in no man after a chance to say I did not thinke so it is inexcusable in him when the cause is his refusing of good counsell or hearing and neglecting it following none but his owne Like a bad Logician it layes the conclusion downe first and seeks the premises inducements after or as a worse Iudge decrees at home and after heares the parties at the Barre A man so conceited of himselfe can bee no companion in deliberatiues but rather precipitates them and is altogether of a nature vnfit for businesse as comming with preiudicate opinions so vsurping vpon our reason that we will heare none from any else And therefore if this violence and selfe-conceit be so dangerous in a Councellor it is farre more in a Iudge For in the first there is equalitie of voyces and a man cannot so easily sway But in a Iudge if the will resolue before with a kinde of settled opinion notwithstanding any thing that can be vrged to the contrary by the Councell at the Barre I see no vse of pleading farther then to draw the Iudges inclination and for formality It takes away also from a man both his sight and his guide and yet hastens his pace which must needs cause precipitation Whereas receiuing of good counsell is to one both a light and a guide and a staffe and assures him more then the wall and the watch doth a City A Selfe-will'd person most commonly stops his eares to aduice as to an enchantment and when hee is content to heare it which is seldome hee doth it either as onely for custome bringing with him a resolution what to doe whatsoeuer shall be said and knowing that strong and euident reason hath in it selfe a kinde of violence hee therefore armes himselfe against it with obstinacy or else admits of counsell out of a desire to act his owne deuices as Xerxes who began a speech to his Councell with this That hee called them together not to aske their opinions but to haue their confirmation of his Two things make this disease seeme incureable The first is that it keepes out the Physician that should open such passages as being stopt hinder recourse from the will to the iudgement For hee that will admit a friend freely to giue him counsell and to shew him the true causes of this vice might easily auoid it The second is because the poyson of flattery is his ordinary food and few dare oppose the violence of his Appetite Yet on the contrary me thinks in time a Selfe-willed person should bee cured and become very wise because no sort of men doe more often or more deepely repent or buy their repentance more dearely then they doe Yet such if they come to amendment are beholding for it more to their enemies then friends for they punish them for their follies and by seeking aduantages teach them to seeke defences for their safety and flye to counsell But as for friends they be not likely to haue them many nor wise for who hauing iewels of that price as wisedome and ability to giue counsell will be content to remaine and conuerse where hee dare not vtter them or they bee not at all set by For as there can be no greater contentment to a wise man then to haue his counsell made vse of so there is no greater scorne and vexation then to haue it neglected This vice proceeds from two causes which are first Arrogance and next a debility of the mind possessed with an earnest desire to some pleasure or appearing contentment The first cause works vpon stiffe and seuere natures the latter in women and men of soft and effeminated affections The first maketh the vnderstanding by preiudging vnfit to discerne of good aduice the latter disableth the will to follow it The first makes it more dangerous The second more incurable Yet betwixt Selfe-will and Affection a man must distinguish as much as betwixt a setled resolution and a wish as one many times desires prohibited things may bee lawfull though hee approues them not to bee so and so followes not but bridles his inclination Besides notwithstanding all this I hold it better for any man that hath a mediocrity of iudgement to be wedded to his owne will then to the will of any one man besides the danger being equall of both sides for as the aduenture is great wholly to depend vpon our own wills so inconstancie is farre worse when a man will bevaried and disposed with diuers or single opinions It is better to subiect our selues to our owne appetites with little reason then to another mans with lesse The meane is neither to resolue without apparance of reason nor to be altred vnlesse with better neither to bee subiect to the will of another nor too peremptory in our owne It is the Counsell of diuers and wise men amongst whom a mans selfe should bee of the Quorum that most easily conducteth our actions to their desired ends Of Masters and Seruants THis part of Oeconomicall Iurisdiction is in abstract a representation of a more publike Gouernment To be vnexperienced in the first argues much disability for the latter Hee that cannot rule his owne familie is much more incapable to gouerne a multitude In this description I accept not Seruants as bound nor Masters as absolute but take them in those degrees as with vs they be generally receiued where there is left to both an equall libertie and free election And as a Seruant is bound in obedience to his Master which is the part hee must act so a Masters power is limited that hee cannot impose vpon him dishonest employments nor exact a strict performance of his seruant in any action of that sort Wherefore where commands be lawfull obedience is due otherwise not In your choyce first the occasion is to bee knowne next the man For to affect extraordinary multitudes expresseth ostentation If your owne knowledge acquaint you not with a seruant for your vse then venter vpon anothers recommendation but cautelously First know his integrity and next his iudgement lest out of his affection he preferre one for his preferment and not for your vse or that through ignorance he presume one to be fit that is a mere stranger to such employments as your occasions require And to take a man of his own word is the worst of
vnderstād such an habitation as impliesa retirednes from the presse busines and imploymēt either of city or court the distance and that course of life secluding them from those kind of troubles how a man of qualitie is to behaue and direct himselfe in this way shall be my first enquiry To make liuing in the Country a veyle or shadow for base and sordid sparing becomes not the thought of such a man as I propose whom I name not as driuen to liue there for necessity neerenesse but for honourable and vertuous endeuours Amongst which his first should bee to expresse freedome and Hospitality in his house and bountifull liberality towards his poorer neighbours these be the true ornamēts of a Country house-keeper an honourable custome so peculiar to our Nation that that way we haue out-gone all others and howsoeuer of late it hath been declining and decaying yet it is worthy of renouation being so great a stay to the Country such a releefe to the poore so honourable for themselues and exemplary for posterity the very knot which contracts society conuersation a receptacle for ones friends and children which be the chiefest solaces of a mans life and the surest way to make a man be loued of those that know and esteemed by all that heare of him To set downe a particular rate and order in keeping of such a house is not now my purpose that it ought to be gouerned regularly and religiously none doubts and not replete with those confused disorders riots which some licentious prodigall dispositions haue allowed That makes it rather a snare and inuitation to nourish lewd and base affections then to bee either a stay or releefe to the Country where they liue Next vnder pretence of this noble and free life for a man to take too much vpon him expressing Arrogancy and Pride to those below him in his owne opinion creating in himselfe that greatnesse and power which is not his due squaring his actions by his will not reason forcing to his ends by the way of greatnesse and authority not equity and Iustice awing his neighbours with his countenance and power turning law into affection and reason to appetite these should be none of the ends in a noble and good nature when he chooseth a country life but contrarily a purpose to expresse such moderation and modesty in all his actions that he may be vsefull not oppressing seruiceable not burthensome loued not feared in the Country where he liues And hauing heere and thus setled him his life must not be wholly reserued to his owne quiet and particular pleasures but in that place wherevnto he is called and destined to liue to apply himselfe and seruice for the common and publike good which in such a life as this will principally consist in these particulars The disordered and vnruly life of those vnder his authority command setting aside those outrages of Murder Theft and the like which the law punisheth and imposeth also a duty vpon his vigilancy he ought besides not only to suppresse but preuent all bold contemptuous behauiour of one neighbour towards another all seedes of seditions and quarrels and such common means as in the Country vsually prouoke them Generally also all manner of distemper in the Country ought to be qualified by his iudgement and discretion a◠in the better sort if any faction or emulation arise then the vertue of his authority must appeare in equall moderation Wherin he is chiefly to take heed that when factions be sided his Greatnesse vphold not one faction to the decay and ruine of the other but contrarily to euen and compound them in mutuall amity and agreement Againe in this place he is not only to preuent il but to do good and that first by his example in equally bearing part of the burthē in country seruices with the rest of the gentlemen though in quality below and in akind depending vpon him this not onely in the priuate execution of his dutie place but also in the sollemne and publike meetings for distribution of Iustice which will bee a verie great encouragement and inuitation to awake others diligence as also an excellent restraint of partialitie and fauour in the seuerall votes of the rest which oftentimes respect persons more then causes or spleen then truth this good will follow the endeuours of so great a man if he carry himselfe euenly and without priuate ends in the businesses of the Country otherwise the mischiefe will bee more dangerous in awing the Country then the benefit necessary in gouerning it but if he be of a condition prepared with integrity then to declare his ability in Country seruices I doe not say alwayes to engrosse them will make the rest more wary in their steps and diligent in the vprightnesse of their endeuours But allow his carriage neuer so cleare if it bee either affected or smell of ostentation so that one may discerne either of them to bee the spurre of his endeuours his labour is lost will bee imputed to him for vain-glory and put vpon the account of his disgrace But yet the censure of this must not be left to the vngouerned tongues of the ignorant multitude and enuious people but to men of quality indifferencie and discretion The next means of doing good in the Country wherein mens endeuours should neuer slacke nor their labours seeme troublesome to themselues is in composing of differences and discontents betwixt one neighbour or friend and another it is the principall act of Charitie by this they not onely doe but preserue it This is the proper work of a superiour power mens passions will not be so much misgouerned nor reason blinded before them as betwixt themselues or more low arbitrators It is impossible for men to be competent iudges in their owne causes their affections will encline and iudgments leane to their particular pretensions This peruersenesse is it that brings men so often to the hazzard of censures and suites which may bee manifested in the still continuance of their peeuishnesse for the murmure remaines when the cause is sentenced which is the ground of an ill Prouerbe that Losers may lawfully complaine And this misery of imputation is it which Iudges are forced to suffer wherein in doing iustly for that I admit impartiall iudgements will bee so farre from finding fault that they loue their integrity for a Iudge is to sentence according to the merit of the cause and not to arbitrate in respect of collaterall circumstances But I will no farther digresse It is the best worke wherein a man in the Country can employ himselfe to bee a Peace-maker and ender of controuersies it confirmes friendship expells malice auoids needlesse and extrauagant expences shuts the gate against those bad instruments that moue and stir suits to make their liuing vpon that prey expedites causes and makes a more indifferent and satisfactory end then the Iudge in his place can doe This common good
succeedes so worthy an endeuour And why it is not more commonly practised I rather impute it to the vnwillingnesse of interposers thē a common peruersnesse in the parties interessed to submit their differences to an vpright and vnpartiall neighbour which his own actions if conuersant in this kinde will sufficiently assure and I see not such difficulty but it may bee possible this way to giue satisfaction to both sides But if eithers mistrust cause them not to yeeld to so easie and quicke an end the merit of his endeuours and good will cannot bee taken away And if it fall out that the busines be of such a nature as may iudicially afterwards come before him let not the parties ielousie before in referring it wrest or wry his iudgement in the least degree to preiudice I will enlarge this no farther these particulars last touched being onely in the power of men of degree and authority and heere ends my first enquiry how a Noble man in the Country ought to carry and gouerne himselfe I now descend to take a short view of the more peculiar delights and healthfull conueniences incident to them that liue in the Country then in any other place All field delights as Hunting Riding and Hawking commendable if vsed with moderation are properly belonging onely to this life and certainly they greatly inable and actiue mens bodies making the difficulty of enduring labour and other accidents that in times of warre a man may be subiect vnto more easie then any other preparatiue or imitable practice that I know The vnseasonablenesse of the times early and late and so the vncertainty of the weather heates and cold and wet of dyet little or none or course and at houres vnlimited and not set assured also ready in his horsmanship by so often occasions of practice which is no small aduantage So paralelling these with the chances and necessities in time of seruice the often vsing of these exercises will make the labour lesse difficill and hard when necessity of employment shall require it and the body more agill and healthfull free from those infirmities that rest idlenesse and full feeding doe bring men into This is the good that followes the vse of these exercises setting aside the delight which drawes most men to follow and entertaine them which surely though not alwayes discerned by wise men yet may by good reason be proued to be delightfull If I should breathe the country ayre and digresse into the commendatiō of it in respect of health from that cause I thinke the whole Colledge of Physicions would subscribe to my opinion for without doubt it is freed from those noysome vapours and consequently infections which thronged and populous Cities doe produce And this dayly practice makes manifest for in those Countries where towne-dwelling is most frequented yet euery Summer the better sort retyre onely for the freedome and libertie of the ayre to their Palaces and Villaes as they terme them which shewes there is a necessarie and impulsiue cause for their health that driues them thither And heere with vs those that be most in loue with the towne in Summer euer fly into the Country and the generall reason of it must onely be to change a bad ayre for a good wherein though the Country doth alwayes predominate yet in Summer the ayre of the Citie is so farre from good that it is neither tolerable nor indifferent And being now in a meditation of health to say truth the helpes and furtherances of it are much more appropriate to a Country then a Citie life which I will but touch without robbing the Poets at this time by falling into the praise and pleasures of Gardens Riuers Fountaines Woods places of privacy and retyrednesse or the like of most of which though all Cities haue a shew yet it is but forced and counterfet in respect of them in the country which is the proper element for those delights But to return to my consideration of health the Country is the place most free frō that easy sedentary life which men in Cities be forced to entertaine there all exercises for the health and agilitie of the body bee in dayly practice as Riding Shooting Bowling Walking Hunting Hawking and the like which though some towne-liuers sometimes make hard shift to practise yet there there be so many other diuersions that there are very few liuing in townes who can either take or finde opportunities for that purpose which must needs greatly decay and disable both a mans health and strength Of this argument much more might bee said but I purposely auoid it and indeede would haue left it out but that I was forced to it in completing the description for feare of falling from my Title But I now hasten to other obseruations and first of those aduantages and benefits a man gaines by liuing in the country A man in the Country is retired out of the crowd and noise of factions and emulations dependencies and neck-breaking of one another which Court and Town do too often yeeld and though a man in his owne inclination bee free from and not busie yet if present can hardly be a neuter or if he be one will yet scarcely be thought so and suspected of either side for affection to the other But take him allowed for a neutrall hee then commonly is so farre from the affection of the sides that they both turne his enemies because he is neither of their friends These straites by being away and by liuing in the Country men often escape from Next he is free from those tempestuous winds of businesses and multiplicitie of vexations wherewith many haue beene tossed the calme of the Country being void of those stormes and troubled waues that commonly accompanie a towne or Court life where mens desires and ambitions so abound that they bee alwayes in hopes and proiections wherein many times they doe so outstraine ouer-graspe that in reaching too high they ouerreach themselues in seeking a new fortune lose their old and so conuert their substance into pretensions their certainty into nothing Againe no man can expect to liue in the same or equall reputation out of the Country and his owne dwelling In Towne or Court he is as it were in a throng wanting elbow roome there bee so many his equals and superiors aboue him both in place and merit that he is reckoned for number not weight one of the troope rather for shew then vse Those Nations therefore who affect this place out of vaine-glory and pride to shew themselues and get opinion if they compare their estimation heere with their reputation at home they will finde cause quickly to change their minde and place to goe thither where they shall be sure to finde that which they so affectedly desire and that is to their owne Country aske but Northerne men or Welshmen they will sweare to you this is true Besides I beleeue if it went to voices most would opine that the stabilitie
of a Country fortune were lesse subiect to declination and the cataracts of aduersitie then that whose onely foundation is built vpon the present fauour of the time They who raise their estates aboue the Hauen they striue for is a Countrey fortune that is the end of their ambition When a man therefore hath that which the Courtier onely aymes at why should hee fix himselfe in that spheare vpon purpose to looke after those things which hee hath alreadie If that be not his end and no other iust cause can bee alledged I cannot free him from the imputations of lightnesse and vanitie who besides the neglecting of that good he may doe at home offends first against his owne estate and next against the Crowne and state of the Kingdome in seeking reliefe there for that which he hath vainely and inconsiderately spent when neither his own abilities nor fauour of the Prince haue forced the necessitie of his attendance And writing now as well to honest as wise men if through their owne infirmities they finde themselues subiect to the temptations of high and ambitious desires and desire to abate them there is no such correctiue as a retyred country life For though in it selfe good and great places where they meete with men that be fit for them may out of honest ends and for good purposes bee both desired and kept yet when these be only wished for the greatnesse and dignitie of the place it is an inordinate and vnruly passion and ought to be suppressed If a man therefore in his owne arraignment finde himselfe guiltie of such thoughts and withall bee not ignorant of his owne inabilities let him auoid those occasions that may renue his desires Moreouer a man that liues in the Country is more out of the way and lesse obuious to the malice and enuy of busie and rauenous men such as build vp their owne fortunes vpon others decayes curious inquisitors into mens liues and false interpreters of their actions by that way to lay a ground for ruining them and so rayse a step to their owne aduancement And though a Country Life do not totally conceale a man from these that be so quick-sighted yet he that takes that course makes them seeke farther off and they often goe not downe when they finde worke neerer home And lastly this kinde of life giues a man more free houres for reading writing and meditation then the publike towne-liuers can possibly allow themselues their time in the Country being neither so taken away nor distracted as vnauoidably in towne it must often be both by seuerall occasions to which their owne wils inuite them and also by often bestowing themselues and time vpon others out of affection and respect which accidents of diuertion doe more rarely happen in the Country men being there more free masters both of their houres and disposing of them then they can be in the other place Many more aduantages might be found but it sufficeth me if I haue said enough though not all But seuerall formes and actions of our Morall life haue as well their disaduantages as commoditie and so hath this wherefore to deale and distribute my opinion equally my now search must be to set downe the disaduantageous inconueniences that accompany a Country Life As in the choise and reading of good Bookes principally consists the enabling and aduancement of a mans knowledge and learning yet if it be not mixed with the conuersation of discreet able and vnderstanding men they can make little vse of their reading either for themselues or the Commonwealth where they liue There is not a more common Prouerb then this That the greatest Clerkes bee not alwayes the wisest men and reason for it being a very vneuen rule to square all actions and consultations onely by booke precedents Time hath so many changes alterations and such varietie of occasions and opportunities interuening and mingled that it is impossible to goe new wayes in the old paths so that though reading doe furnish and direct a mans iudgement yet it doth not wholly gouerne it Therefore the necessitie of knowing the present time and men wherein we liue is so great that it is the principall guide of our actions and reading but supplementall Now this knowledge which is obtained by conuersation and acquaintance must bee sought where it is and that is in Cities and Courts where generally the most refined and iudicious men be likeliest to be found and as reading formes a iudgement so conference must perfect it or else it will be lame It must then follow that a meere Country life if men looke as well to the enriching of their minds as fortune is not the way to purchase abilitie and iudgement for it both secludes vs from the knowledge of the Court and gouernment there and also eclipseth from our acquaintance the Great men and guiders of the State which any man who desires to store his vnderstanding will finde to be as necessarie to be looked vpon and turned ouer often as the most vsefull bookes And this will appeare if any occasion or necessitie of businesse force them thither for they will be then so to seeke and imperfect so incongruous in their behauior and discourse that they scarce know how to doe their businesse nor they that they goe to what they would haue And in this negotiating such cannot possibly guide themselues by their owne iudgements but must submit to the direction of others who many times for want of iudgement be ill chosen or for want of honestie be worse aduisers So that if any occasion happen it is vnpossible for Great men alwaies to want them they be by this long absence both vnknowing vnknowne and vnable to dispatch their owne businesses when they happen Besides if a man by his experience and reading haue gotten much sufficiencie and abilitie in the knowledge of affaires then a totall sequestration in the Country doth not onely hinder him of that preferment and honor which in all likelihood he may arriue too but robs the State and Common-wealth where he liues of an able and fit minister to doe it seruice Wheras if a man in his own iudgement findes that hee may be vsefull and that his first looke is at his Countries seruice in that case the wilfull retyring and obscuring of a mans selfe must needs be accounted a fault for wee are not borne for our selues and to please onely our owne fancies but to serue the publike in that kinde and in those places we be thought most fit for So then as it is ill for men that know their owne strength voluntarily to conceale and hide it it is also certain that continuall absence from the face of the world causeth an impossibilitie in men though of neuer so good wits to haue capacitie iudgement or experience to vndergoe the charge of any publike employment either at home or abroad if they should be called thereunto which forceth the state oftentimes to fix their greatest places vpon
men low and meanely descended and though their industry can neuer bee sufficiently commended who wanting those meanes that in all likelihood the nobler degrees might haue had and haue notwithstanding made themselues more vsefull and able for their Countries seruice yet it cannot but be interpreted as a disgrace and must reflect vpon the ill education and weakenesse of knowledge in our Gentry and Nobilitie who mee thinkes for that onely respect should striue that as they precede others in degree birth so at least to equalize them in sufficiencie and iudgement Moreouer the great trade and commerce of the world is in giuing and receiuing of good turnes I meane amongst men of equall condition But a Country Life absolutely solitarie makes a man neither capable to receiue nor of abilitie to doe one and so they runne out their dayes vnprofitably both to themselues and all men beside as if they neither had friends nor were friend to any which is a hard condition for a man to liue in Also it cannot be denyed but that a mans long absence from the Court and Towne makes him a stranger to all passages and alterations of the world both at home and abroad for a man there will get that by conuersation hee will neuer learne either by Letters or report Who knowes not that wise men to their friends will say that which they will neuer write to them Besides if a man hold correspondency abroad hee is tyed to the Towne being very hard to keepe it and liue in the Country Those therefore that thus desire to informe and enrich themselues must either liue where it is to bee gotten or else be content with lesse knowledge then other men haue And so for the necessities and conueniences that may induce a man to liue in towne for the present these shall serue Now in a word still supposing as I begunne the man that should either liue or not liue in the Country to be of qualitie and degree I will giue my opinion how and in what manner he must dispose himselfe and then end In the forming of this sentence I will be very short but first lay this foundation that no man is or ought to be so absolutely master of himselfe as to take the liberty of electing that course of life which onely his owne will and inclination gouernes and desires but to follow and direct himselfe in that way which his owne abilities and Countries seruice make and thinke him fit to be disposed vnto it being one principall end of a mans being in this world to be seruiceable in one kinde or other to that Kingdome or Commonwealth where he liues I will therefore first select those whom necessitie and conuenience seclude from a Country Life who are such as be in the place of necessarie attendance about a King or Prince or such as finding their presence there well esteemed of doe for the encrease and continuation of their fauour at Court giue their attendance but that obseruance then ought to proceede rather out of respect and dutie then particular and priuate ends for he is very vnworthy of a Princes fauour which is freely bestowed if in his loue and hearty affection hee truely and reciprocally returne not the best of his seruice Others also that sit at the Helme and haue the charge of great affaires and guiding in the State are bound to continuall residence and so such as bee appointed to any iudiciall places and Magistracie or any other office that forceth their presence in towne or if a man haue any tedious businesse or suite that calleth them vp and requires there their frequent attendance And lastly it is conuenient for such to liue about the Towne and Court who haue neither settled state nor calling in the Country because a man that hath there nothing to do and little to liue on can hardly be tyed to a worse place whilest in the meane time liuing abroad they make better vse of their time by conuersation and knowing of men as well as bookes by that way to inable their sufficiencie for any employment publike or priuate in Towne or the Country that the state and their owne indeuours may in time aduance them vnto And so these excepted I thinke that notwithstanding the conueniences allurements and aduantages which cause most men to be so much in loue with liuing about the Towne and Court the Country to bee the proper spheare for all of qualitie besides In that place they may doe most good as well by their gouernment and direction as hospitality and house-keeping For men of equall rankes can not altogether bee of equall employment in that they must submit to the choise and opinion of the Prince and State and goe on in that path that they direct them And though it be true that the greatest businesse of the State is commonly directed and concluded aboue yet most they there consult vpon is for the common good and that is the good of the Country which then ought not to be abandoned and left naked Once allow but that libertie there are few Noblemen or Gentlemen there of qualitie who will not pick an occasiō to liue out of their country Those therefore whose seruices be found to be of vse and necessity there and haue no other calling to diuert them are bound not to relinquish that confidence and trust which the State hath reposed in them But yet it seemes very hard so strictly to confine and imprison a man of ranke and qualitie and truely in my opinion I cannot thinke it to be either reasonable or conuenient for by that meanes their former endeuours would bee lost experience abated therefore I mitigate thus Their settled houses and family must needs bee in the Country but for to make themselues altogether strangers from the Court and Towne is too strict and withall not very safe for such men to lose their friends and acquaintance at Court for the keeping of home Though a man bee not tyed to a continual attendance yet he is to some and if he be but now then there his estimation and respect will bee rather more then lesse when hee comes but seldome So I conclude such a man should neither be a Plebeian nor Citizen more in the Country sometimes at Court mixed together but as the Frenchmen doe allay their drinke three parts water to one of Wine Of Religion THere was neuer yet Nation or people either Ciuill or Barbarous that accounted not a Prescript or Law for a kinde of diuine thing and such vnruly and vntamed desires as would not be restrained by that bridle haue beene euer esteemed worthily to suffer such punishments whether Corporall Pecuniary or Capitall as the lawes haue inflicted If the lawes then of men doe deserue and indeede worthily such reuerence without doubt that Law which a mans Maker layes vpon him doth beyond the degrees of comparison merit a farre higher valuation the particulars whereof be diuers but the generall head that
Augustus his time till by the preuailing of flattery they were deterred Also vnder Monarchs so long as their deeds be such as they can bee content to heare of againe the Historiographer hath encouragement to follow the truth in his writings but when they be otherwise men must dissemble if they will please and must please if they will haue their writings passe vnsuppressed Therefore the knowne Law of History which is Ne quid falsi dicere audeat neque vere non audeat that a man should not dare to say a falsitie nor not dare to speake the truth must needs be abrogated where Flatterie hath admittance For there it is more needfull to haue regard to the acceptance then to the substance of our writings And hereby Flattery in time commeth to weare out and consume the able writers in a Kingdome Tiberij Caijque Claudij ac Neronis res florentibê° ipsis ob metum falsae postquam occiderant recentibus odijs coÌ„positae sunt The occurrences of Tiberius Caius and Claudius and Nero whilest themselues flourished were for feare and after they were dead out of fresh hatred falsely written It is the condition of most men hauing been restrained from moderate libertie in any thing whatsoeuer when that restraint is taken away to become immoderate in the same For their desires swell and gather strength at the stoppe which when it is remoued they runne more violently then if they had neuer beene hindred at all Hence it is that hee which flattreth during the danger slandereth when it is past when the truth lyeth betwixt both so that the same men that would before for feare most haue blanched are they that when they may doe it safely will most detract And from hence it is that the latter end of Augustus together with the reignes of the foure here named had not as then found a faithfull relator Inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto extrematradere mox Tiberij Principatum caetera sine ira studio quorum causas procul habeo My purpose therefore is to deliuer to posteritie a few and those the last things of Augustus and then the principalitie of Tiberius and the rest without spleene and partialitie the causes whereof are farre from me The defects aboue mentioned and want of a true History of these last times caused the Author to take this taske in hand wherein to auoid the suspition of the same faults hee hath before taxed in others he putteth in to our consideration that the causes both of spleene and affection are farre from him These causes must bee either feare or hope of future good or euill or else some benefit or iniury formerly receiued which euery writer of History should doe well to shew himselfe voyd of if he can because most men measuring others by themselues are apt to think that all men will not onely in this but in all their actions more respect what conduceth to the aduancing of their owne ends then of truth and the good of others Thus much of the digression now followeth the History it selfe Postquam Bruto Cassio caesis nulla iam publica arma After that Brutus and Cassius being slaine the Commonwealth was no longer in armes Though Cremutius that called Brutus and Cassius the last of the Romans writing it in a time which would not permit a man so much as to looke backe at the former state of the Commonwealth was perhaps worthily punished yet this may be truely said of them that they were the last Champions of the Roman libertie For after them no man euer bore Armes for Recuperation of that gouernment What an aduancement then was it for Augustus that these were slaine For now the Commonwealth relinquished her liberty and confessed her selfe subdued So that his strongest aduersarie yeelding hee might the easilier deale with the next Pompeius apud Siciliam oppressus Pompey defeated in Sicily This Sextus Pompeius being the reliques of the Pompeian faction was defeated neere Sicily by Agrippa the Lieutenant of Augustus in such manner as of 350. sayle hee fled away onely with 17. So that this was another step to the quiet establishing of his Empire The first Ciuill warre was betweene the Caesarean faction on one side and Pompey with the Republique on the other and Caesar preuailed The next will bee a subdiuision of the Caesareans that Augustus standing on one part and Antony on the other the authoritie may at length settle in the indiuiduall person of Augustus who hitherto hath had to doe against the faction of the Commonwealth and Pompey in the warres against Brutus and Cassius and against Sextus Pompeius How hee will now diuide from himselfe the other heads of his owne faction is next to follow Exuto Lepido interfecto Antonio Lepidus being put out and Antony slaine Lepidus if hee had remained in the Trium virate might haue hindred the contention of the other two by keeping them in doubt to whether part hee would encline Wherefore as if they desired to try the mastery betweene themselues they won Lepidus whose authoritie was least of the three to dismisse the Legions that were vnder his command and to lay downe his office That done the desire of soueraigne rule would admit no longer friendship in the other two so they fell to warres and Augustus following it with all his power brought Antony who was already vanquished with effeminate passions and had his heart chained to the delight of a woman quickly to destruction and himselfe remained sole heyre of all their claimes and interests Ne Iulianis quidem partibus nisi Caesar dux reliquus There remained not another Commander no not in the faction of Iulius but onely Augustus Caesar This faction did not diuide as long as Brutus and Cassius were aliue for then they had soon come to nothing and the vertue of Brutus might haue had as good fortune for the maintenance of libertie as that of his ancestor But when they had made vse one of another to aduance both of their hopes then they parted and contended who should bee the sole gainer Which happening to Augustus hee had afterwards no more to doe but onely to keepe what hee had gotten which hee might easily doe For first hee was alone and when a mans power is singular and his intentions are onely of his owne free election hee is then most likely to reduce them into act Companions in such affaires can seldome be content that all counsailes nay almost that any should tend to the others profit so constant is euery man to his owne ends This Augustus foresaw when he secluded from him those two that were equall in authoritie and power with himselfe Antony by force and Lepidus by deceit And now hauing power ouer the bodies of the people he goes about to obtaine it ouer their minds and wils which is both the noblest and surest command of all other Posito Triumviri nomine Laying away the name of a Triumvir Hee had three
nature vnapt to bend And againe in the proscriptions these onely were they that were aymed at whereas the lesse violent aduersaries found safety in contempt The Proscription here spoken of being that of the Triumviri where the heads of the factions ioyning abandoned and as it were sacrificed their old friends to this new friendship it could not be that almost any stout and dangerous man of what faction so euer should bee left aliue And it may bee it was no lesse aduantageous to the designes of Augustus that some of his own faction were slaine then was the slaughter of those that tooke part with Anthony and Lepidus For they might haue expected for the requitall of their seruice to haue been paid with participation of his authority which hee might not suffer or else haue growne auerse and haue plucked him downe though they had with his fal crushed themselues to death But Augustus was now rid of those stubborne companions Caeteri nobilium quanto quis seruitio promptior opibus et honoribus extollerentur ac nouis ex rebus aucti tuta et praesentia quam vetera periculosa mallent The rest of the Nobility as any one of them was most ready to serue so hee was exalted to wealth and honour and being enriched by the change liked rather the present State of things and that which was safe then the former and that which was dangerous It is both iustice and good policy to reward with preferments those that yeeld their obedience readily and willingly for it stirreth emulation in men to exceed each other in diligence And on the contrary to heape benefits on the sullen and auerse out of hope to win their affection is vniust and preiudiciall For first they shall lose one benefit after another through vaine hope of winning them and not losing the thanks of their first benefit and then also others will learne and thinke it wisdome to bee auerse and stubborne by their example Also those that were rewarded for their seruice must needs striue to maintaine the present State and helpe to keepe off the Ciuill warres For times of tranquillity bee alwayes best for the rich men In warres and trouble they pay for all and in desolation their losse is greatest For Ciuill warre is commodious for none but desperate vnthrifts that they may cut their Creditors throats without feare of the gallowes men against whom the Law and the sword of Iustice maketh a fearfull warre in time of peace But the rich and such as were in loue with titles of honour found more ease and contentment heere then they could expect in the Ciuill warre and did accept the present with securitie rather then striue for the old with danger Neque Prouinciae illum statum rerum abnuebant suspecto Senatus populique imperio ob certamina potentum auaritiam magistratuū inualido legum auxilio quae vi ambitu postremo pecunia turbabantur Neither did the prouinces dislike this state of things for they mistrusted the gouernment of the Senate and people because of the contention of great men and couetousnesse of the Magistrates for the ayd of the Lawes was weake being infringed by force canuassing and lastly by mony The Romane State did not consist in the magnitude of that one City of Rome or in the extent of Italy alone but in the multitude greatnesse of Prouinces that were subiect vnto it And therefore it much concerned the surety of Augustus his gouernment to haue also them content with this alteration which they were for two causes First a Popular State if the great men growe once too mighty for the lawes is to the Prouinces not as one but many tyrants so that not knowing to which faction to adhere they procure the enimitie alwayes of some and sometimes of all and become subiect to the rapine of whosoeuer first seazeth it and to be the prize of their contention At home they are commanded by contrary factions contrary Acts so that they can neither obey nor disobey without offence but are hurried and haled somtimes to this faction and sometimes to that Those that were deputed to do iustice amongst them must not administer the same according to the Law but according to the humour of him whom himselfe followeth which may bee now one and anon fortune changing another At Rome if they sued for any thing though they could all bee content their sute should passe for the matter it selfe yet the furtherance that one faction should giue it would stirre vp contradiction in the other and so crosse it Therefore it is better for a Prouince to bee subiect to one though an euill master then to a potent if factious Republique Next they found couetousnesse in the Magistrates For when they expected that hauing truth and equity on their sides their causes and sutes should not goe amisse they found contrarily that by that their iudgements were not ballanced but that they distributed iustice rather by weight then measure That purse that was heauiest that bribe that was greatest carried the cause Iustice was not seene but felt a good bribe was their best Aduocate Such in those times were the Magistrates and Iudges Euery thing was carried by might ambition and corruption He that was not ambitious was neglected and he that was not corrupt was esteemed vndiscreete In this time the Prouinces would haue beene cōtent with a Monarchy or tyrannie rather then to be troubled with so different and ill humours of diuers men But there may also be couetousnesse in Magistrates when one hath the soueraignty being a fault of the person and not of the forme of the gouernment Indeed there may bee bribing in such a State but in a factious and diuided Commonwealth it cannot bee otherwise For where the State is vnited the Magistrates will haue some respect vnto that but being diuided euery one is for himselfe and must looke to strengthen and enrich himselfe by any meanes how ill soeuer For faction hath no strength but from Iniustice and Rapine One remedy there is for such an inconuenience and that is if the Lawes bee strengthned with authoritie which also wanted in the former times For force friends and mony ouerthrew their validitie For what Law was so strong that the force of Cinna Sylla Marius Iulius Caesar and others in their times could not haue broken thorow Nothing is more prouerbiall then that Lawes are like Spiders webs onely to hold the smaller Flyes Then fauour and friendship made way euen for the weake men to breake thorow And lastly money gaue the easiest passage of all Wherefore the Prouinces conceiuing better hope of the rule of Augustus could not dislike but were rather glad of the alteration Thus farre the acquist and assurance of the Monarchy to Augustus now his wayes to perpetuate the same and deriue it to posterity are to be considered Augustus subsidia dominationi Claudiū Marcellum sororis filium admodum adolescentem Pontificatu curuli Aedilitate extulit
and make him Colleague of the Empire and partaker of the authority of Tribune which was authority equall to his owne for the present and then to cause the armies to yeeld him their respect and acknowledge him for their next Lord. These fauours Liuia had beene long solliciting for by insinuation detraction deceit and whatsoeuer Art else is requisite to the supplanting of a Riuall in a Princes affectioÌ„ But now the way was so cleere by reason of the Emperours age fit to be wrought on and the rudenesse of Agrippa that shee durst openly moue Augustus to dis-inherit his owne issue and preferre hers But the fauour that Liuia shewed to Augustus children besides the suspition of causing the death of two of them was cleane contrary Nam senem Augustum adeo deuinxerat vti nepotem vnicum Agrippam Posthumum in Insulam Planasiam proijceret For she had so tyed vnto her Augustus who was now an old man that hee confined his onely Grand-sonne Agrippa Posthumus into the Iland Planasia I haue not found so great a defect in Augustê° his iudgemeÌ„t in al his former actions as in this so farre to follow her will as to banish and confine his owne bloud for the aduancement of hers But as Tacitus saith hee was now growne old and so the weakenesse that accompanieth old age may excuse that fault which in his younger and more mature iudgement peraduenture hee would neuer haue committed It was hard for him being now in yeeres to want the comfort of his Wife to liue with her and not to haue her pleased intolerable and against the dignity of an Emperour and to extinguish her ambition impossible So that if he had seene her drifts vnlesse they had broken out into some violent actions hee must in a manner haue beene forced to dissemble it For it is contrary to the dignitie of a Prince to take notice of that fault which he is not able to amend But hee saw them not for what cannot the craft of some wiues through opportunitie continuall flatterie and arguments framed with all the Art that can be vsed worke vpon the weake iudgement of an old man The place of Agrippa's exile being a small and vninhabited Iland where hee was rather imprisoned then banished was in a manner a sure argument that hee should not long out-liue his Grandfather for as the feare of Augustus kept him now aliue so the feare of his owne Title would make Tiberius neuer let him escape out of his fingers Rudem sane bonarum artium robore corporis stolidè ferocem nullius tamen flagitij CompertuÌ„ Ignorant to say the truth of good Arts and bearing himselfe foolishly fierce of his strength of body but not detected of any crime These are the causes for which Agrippa was put by the right of his succession and wanted the respect which was otherwise due vnto his birth Hee had not good education That vvas the summe of all his faults And in a State which might freely elect their Prince the same had beene a iust cause to passe by him For it is a great misfortune to a people to come vnder the gouernment of such a one as knowes not how to gouerne himselfe For where it is said hee was vnfurnished of good Arts it is not ment of letters though that also be good in a Prince and of ornaments the chiefe for hee may want these rather then iudgement valour or goodnesse of nature But the Art that hee is principally taxed to want seemeth to haue beene the Art of conforming to times places and persons and consisteth much in a temperate conuersation and ability vpon iust cause to containe and dissemble his passions and purposes and this was then thought the chiefe Art of gouernment And whereas he is said to be vndetected of any crime that made not much for the matter in hand for though he might proue no ill man hee might bee neuerthelesse an ill gouernour But Agrippa's defects were not the sole cause of his dis-inheriting though they were the sole iustification of it when it was done The hope of succession notwithstanding the care of the Emperour being reduced by the Art of Liuia to one only man Augustus againe takes order for the bringing in of one more At hercule Germanicum Druso ortuÌ„ octo apud RhenuÌ„ legionibus imposuit adscirique per adoptionem à Tiberio iussit quamquam esset in domo Tiberij Filius iuuenis sed quo pluribus munimentis insisteret But yet hee made Germanicus the sonne of Drusus Commander of eight Legions vpon the Rhine and commanded Tiberius to adopt him although Tiberius had a young sonne of his own but this he did to haue the more supports Augustus is still of this iudgement that the succession ought not to depend on the life of one man and therefore wil haue more props to establish it But as the aduancing of Tiberius was thought to bee the ruine of Caius and Lucius so now the making of Tiberius to adopt Germanicus might haue proued the ruine of Tiberius if the Ambition of Germanicus had beene answerable to his power For Augustus put eight Legions into his hand the which afterwards would not only haue beene ready to haue giuen him the Empire but also went about to put it vpon him by force Therefore if a Prince raise many to the hope of reigning he ought to prouide against the emulation ambition and mutuall iealousies that ordinarily arise thereof For else he shall hardly bring any of them to the fruition or if one then all the rest to vntimely ends Augustus here gaue Liuia indeed no occasion to worke against this last choise of his being one of her owne Grand-children but yet to command Tiberius who had a sonne of his owne to adopt another must needs breed a hart-burning in him because he knew by himselfe how much rather men desire to possesse then expect such authoritie And fearing therefore that Germanicus might beare the same minde he afterwards as is thought tooke a course to bring him to his end wherby may be perceiued in what danger an honest man standeth being neere vnto one that is ambitious either before or behinde him whose nature is to destroy before him out of hope and behinde him out of feare After that Augustus had mastered quieted taken order for the succession of the Empire the Author sheweth next the state of the present times And first for matter of warres abroad Bellum ea tempestate nulluÌ„ nisi aduersus Germanos supererat abolendae magis infamiae ob amissum cum Quinctilio Varo exercitum quam cupiditate proferendi Imperij aut dignum ob praemium There remained at that time no warre sauing against the Germans and that rather to wipe off the disgrace for the losse of the Army with Quintilius Varus then out of any desire to enlarge the Empire or hope of worthy recompence Warres are necessary onely where they are iust and iust onely in case of defence First
their own worth consequently often changeth their manners into the worse but especially that it encreaseth their pride insolence As for his educatioÌ„ in a house of souerainty that might put into the heads of these censuring subiects thus much for certainly they liked neuer a iot the better of Tiberiê° for hauing bin brought vp in so high a Schoole of soueraignty as the house of Augustus First that what seeds soeuer of haughtines and pride were in him hereditary and which he possessed by vertue of his bloud were now also through long custome sprung vp wanted but the season of reigning to bring forth their vnpleasant fruit Secondly that hauing by experience vnder so learned a master in the Art of gouernment beene taught how to hold them vnder as much as himselfe should please they could not looke for any remissenesse to proceede from want of knowledge how to keepe them low and consequently were sure to find his gouernment euery way vneasie Neijs quideÌ„ annis quibê° Rhodi specie secessê° exulem egerit aliquid quam iram simulationem secretas libidines meditatum Neither those yeeres that he liued vnder colour of retiremeÌ„t in exile at Rhodes did he meditate anything but wrath dissimulation secret lust It is reported of Tiberius that at the first hee trauelled voluntarily to Rhodes but being there he was coÌ„manded to stay Howsoeuer it was he obtained the fairename of retirement to couer the ignominy of banishment A man would perhaps thinke that aduersity should rather quench or at least asswage those passions which haue their life especially from great prosperity as wrath dissimulation lust And so it doth when the aduersitie is so great that the hope is lost of reducing their meditations into act But otherwise it worketh a cleane contrary effect For wheras anger commonly dyeth where reuenge is despaired of dissembling is laid aside where the labor of it is vain imaginations of lust diminish where they can neuer be accoÌ„plished wheÌ„ aduersity is but such as they expect to ouercom it often falleth out that the hope which nourisheth such imaginations is enflamed thereby and men please their vicious fancies for the present with the coÌ„ceit of what they wil execute with effect hereafter when they shal haue the power This was the case of Tiberius and a cause of feare ceÌ„sure in those that were to liue in subiectioÌ„ vnder him Accedere matrem muliebri impotentiâ seruienduÌ„ foeminae duobê° insuper adolescentibê° qui Remp. interim premant quandoque distrahant That besides this there was his mother offeminine impotence that they were to serue a woman two yong men that would for the present oppresse the Commonwealth might hereafter rend it Next to the person of Tiberius they considered in him those of his Family that would also looke for seruice and obedience at their hands namely his Mother two sonnes Germanicus by adoption and his owne naturall sonne and thought them no small grieuance to the Commonwealth For it is a hard matter to serue and please well one Master but to please two or more when there is or may be betwixt them competition or iealousie leauing out that one of them is a woman is altogether impossible The cause hereof is not because the diligence and dexterity of a man cannot suffice for the quantity of seruice but because the quality of it will not permit for the seruice that the one will expect from you is most times this That you displease the other And this proceeds from the emulatioÌ„ of those that are in the way to autority that ofteÌ„ labor not so much to outrunne each other in the course as they do to trip vp one anothers heeles And the same emulation when they once draw neere the races end makes them snatch at the prize and fall to violence and warre and to distract and draw the CoÌ„monwealth into faction and sedition FINIS A DISCOVRSE OF ROME A DISCOVRSE OF ROME IN the sight of any place there bee two especial Obiects Antiquitie and Greatnesse both which none can sooner challenge then Rome in the very beginning noted for Soueraignty The continuance of which in such diuersity of gouernments as Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Emperors cannot but shew a diuine power for otherwise so many changes might in all likelihood haue bred confusion and so consequently suppressed their rising to so great an Empire which as the last so it may be truely stiled the greatest that yet the world euer knew or heard of obtained onely by the valour of this one Citie no Commander and for a long time no Souldier that came not out from thence So that it may bee said the people of this one place made themselues masters of the rest Wherevpon they might haue iust cause to esteeme Orbem in vrbe the world confined in their Citie In the height of whose Imperiality which was in Augustus raigne Christ came into the world This as then the chiefe Commandresse of the whole was the place where holinesse and religion aymed to haue their principall plantation where during the time of the infidelity of the Emperours till Constantine the great who was the first that maintained the faith it is infinite to comprehend the tyrannizing ouer Christians the martyrdomes they endured so many that it is hard to name any who sealed not his faith with his bloud But now Constantine was conuerted to see the ill effects so good a cause produced cannot but breed admiration For the Ambition of the Bishops of Rome made this their first step to greatnesse and subuersion of the Empire How grounded vpon this donation I cannot imagine nor I thinke they yet well defend but this was the true Originall by which in succession of time the Empire was translated The zeale of this and some succeeding Emperours was so well taken hold of by the Prelates of Rome that by degrees they assumed more authority to themselues then was due the other in a manner before they were aware losing all at Rome but the title From which pretended power the Popes now take to themselues supremacie in all causes through all Kingdomes in the world and those which were before their superiours to bee as it were subiect and created by them that were their creatures Which shewes a great contrariety to the pretended arguments of Romanists for superiority and rather may bee returned vpon them that this their greatnesse hath more risen by encroachment then right Why therefore Princes haue beene so blinded with their pretences for greatnesse I cannot tell wherevnto to attribute it except to the fate of this place that hath euer beene or aymed to bee the Mistris of the world First by their wisedome and power and then vnder colour of Religion and Saint Peters Keyes And now to the description of Rome as I saw it In which I will neither goe beyond mine owne knowledge and fly to the reports of others nor yet so strictly
Flattery is not so much affected as forced yet surely an honest mind would be loth to subiect it selfe to so base a trade And these great men that haue so inured thēselues to to be pleased with the applause of Flatterers in all their actithough neuer so bad can hardly weane themselues from that habit custome hath so wrought it into them and notwithstanding sometimes vpon better thoughts considerations they oppose themselues against it yet that hath not long cōtinuance but for the most part it returnes againe with greater force Vnde saepe exclusa nouissime recipitur Wherfore the danger is the greater at the first to giue way to this humour which is so hardly repelled Now if the danger of this be so great and the auoiding of it so necessary for all sorts of men then no doubt but women as the weaker vessels had need to be very careful and circumspect of giuing entertainment or hearkening to any of this condition For besides the generall danger which is common to them with all others more particularly it doth often precipitate them into worse straits For there is not an easier or more ordinary way to corrupt subdue their affections then by this meanes with entertaining feeding them with the commendation of their person beauty behauiour comlinesse discourse or the like being generally of their own natural inclination so full of vanity desirous of praise That which I haue hitherto written of the danger of Flatterie is when it is seuerally applyed to particulars there remaines one other sort which I cannot omit and that is the popular man that insinuates and windes himselfe into the loue of the multitude by pleasing and praysing them in all their desires and by application of himselfe vnto their humours The end of which obseruance must needs bee to strengthen himselfe in their good opinions by that meanes hoping that in any designe of his against the Prince or State they would second his attempts This is the common end of affected Popularity and that thousands of examples can iustifie If there bee any other inducement it must bee referred to a vaine glory I will onely instance two or three examples of the dangerous effects of this popular Flatterie The change of gouernment amongst the Romanes proceeded from the fauour and grace that Caesar had obtained amongst the soldiers and so the way was made plaine and easie to him for the subuersion of that state and making of himselfe absolute Monarch And so in all or most of the changes of the succeeding Emperaurs popularity with the multitude was the way by which they entred In our owne Stories H. Bullinbrooke whom Richard the second did well enough foresee was cūning in the Art of winning the hearts of the people and so sought meanes by his banishment to preuent the danger yet vpon his returne hee was so strengthened by that meanes that without all colour of right he acquired the Kingdome and assured it to himselfe by the death of the former King So now this point I wil conclude with one Story of the Bible and will onely relate the words of the text The way which Absolon proposed to himselfe in the treason against his father was to make himselfe popular by flattering of the people Marke but the Story 2. Sam. 15. 2. 3 4 5 6. 2. And Absolon rose vp early and stood hard by the entring in of the gate and euery man that had any matters came to the King for iudgment him did Absolon call vnto him and say Of what City art thou And he answered Thy seruant is of the tribes of Israel 3. Then Absolon said vnto him See thy matters are good and righteous but there is no man deputed of the King to heare thee 4. Absolon said moreouer O that I were made Iudge in the Land that euery man which hath any matter or controuersie might come to me that I might doe him Iustice 5. And when any man came neere vnto him and did him obeysance hee put forth his hand and tooke him and kissed him 6. And in this manner did Absolon to all Israel that came to the King for iudgement So Absolon stole the hearts of the men of Israel The steps of this popular Flattery I thinke cannot bee more punctually described then in this narratiue You finde his diligēce He rose vp early his purposed shewing himselfe to the multitude He stood hard by c. his affability And euery man that had his finding fault with the present gouernment Thy matters are good and righteous but a promising of redresse if power were transferred to himselfe Oh that I were A shew of extraordinary respect and loue to the people And when any man came neere And this course hee tooke not with any particular but applyed himselfe to all the people And in this manner did Absolon to all Israel And so it came to passe saith the text that hee stole the hearts of the men of Israel Thus hauing discoursed of the deformitie of this vice dangerous consequence of it both applyed to particulars and to multitudes I will descend from this point and giue you some rules and directions how to auoid so great a danger so dangerous an enemie Knowing the ill effects which proceed frō so dangerous a cause a man would thinke reason sufficient to auoid the occasions of being surprised with the false and deceitfull baits of Flatterers but experience daily shewes so great a weaknesse in our natures that wee are apt to fall in loue with our prayses though farre from our merit and giuen but for priuate respects Seeing therefore in this case wee cannot be too surely fortified it will bee necessary to adde some cautions to strengthen our resolutions in the auoiding of so great a mischiefe And the first must be not onely a professed but an inward auersenesse from giuing encouragement to any to thinke they may any way possibly euer hope to catch vs in this snare For if wee bee found to haue an open eare the disease is so catching that it wil be hardly auoided There are few resolutions so constant that can auoid the mischiefe if they admit the discourse of Flatterers The first temptations therefore must be suppressed which if we doe not in time will so encrease that when we would we cannot For if we be content to haue men thinke well of and praise vs for those things which in our owne cōsciences we doe not deserue wee shall in time bee so besotted as to thinke our selues worthy of those prayses so vniustly layd vpon vs by these impostors who as Salomon saith Pro. ch 20. v. 19. Goe about as slanderers and discouer secrets therefore meddle not with them that flatter with their lips And this may be a second reason to auoid the insinuation of Flatterers in respect of these two abhorred crimes of standering and disclosing of secrets Againe as their cunning so our care in auoiding them should encrease for they bee come to