seemeth Byas or as it pleaseth some Stilpo disagréed not from this argumēt who in flying naked the town of his byrth which conteined both his friends substance y ◠were at one instāt in hazard of burning answered them who willed him more carefully to regard his losse Al those things which be mine I take with me inferring therby that vertue is the onlye ornament and possession of a wise man all other things being but snarles to intangle honestie and to cast vs head-long inso much miserie Of that opinion were many other who beholding our states buffeted by prosperous or aduerse Fortune vtterly condemned the life of man as y ◠which by the vse of worldly things was made the storehouse of many euils The consideration hereof ministred Heraclitus large floodes of teares and clowdes of sighes as vnfained witnesses of his continuall mourning for those miseries wyth which he beheld our liues filled and made lamentable The selfe same caused Democritus to laugh at them and their madnes that thought all other times then those in which they pursued the causes of their short life or infinite trouble lost They both agréeing that our liues be so deluded wyth the world as the vnwarye bird by the Fowlers call or the gréedy Trowt by the sundry coulors of the fethered hooke In all these matters may we behold the true portraits of sorrow layde forth wyth the deceiuable coulors of Anagirus were we not such which by custome lyke as well the reflexions of light as the natural brightnes of the Sun or as children ill learned to forgoe with Esau for Porrage a land that floweth with heauenly foode And although we deserue no better if we respect our own worthynes then a surplus of those euils yet for that they may be seperated by an other trade of life I condemn them as meanes to drawe vs from pietie or by which we are inferior to brute beasts who are farre from those affections with which we be burdened and throwne downe I may appeale in these matters from common opinion to the Citezens of the worlde whose experience knoweth we be no otherwise made of then of Sirenes or pittied then of Crocodils but each way assailed with flatteries and supposed compassions as a people il guided to discern of our aduersaries This duely considered that all things be either naturally our enimies or by our error in vsing them made vnprofitable let vs as men made wise by our owne perril make much of their contrarie by whose benifite we fynde some inclination to honesty or by whose meane we lose not our liues credite and peaceable state but may haue in respect of our securitie therby one countenance with Iuuenals passenger when others hauing their harts heauier then their pursses cursse with the wearie Spainard the titles of Crosses they being turning markes of high wayes farre from the dwelling of men honoring on the other side the wheele and gibbet as signes of rest being placed neare to Townes and Citties The affinitie which hath béene euer betweene nothing and the pouerty of men maketh the one hardly to be discerned from the other in the possession of their owners the effectes of both being the cause of good arts and inuention of some newe matter profitable to the world For the mind being at no time idle or as some will haue it neyther alwayes wel occupied not impeached with forrein causes traueileth to bring forth somwhat of excellent quality and therefore haue I marueiled at the idlenes of those times which had leasure to establishe this saying Pouertie is an enimie to good manners a prouerbe amongst vs the same being necessary for the knowledge of our selues that are by the contrary most insolent and intollerable Dionisius whilst he had the pompe of a King was estéemed of all men tirranius being expelled his realme named for his temperance and wisedome a Phylosopher Alexander of Macedonia being for his dominions wounded wyth the holy flatteries of Iupiter Hamons Preists of a sober Prince became violent as he terriblye expressed in the miserable fortune of his faythfull counceller Clitus and the lamentable state of Persepolis by which such like he brought himself in hatred of his people by whose seruice he passed many hazards of battle which then were had in admiration nowe scarce beléeued of those that haue not traueiled in the diuine Oracles of Daniell and other wrighters touching that matter of good report For such were the disagreements of affections in this Prince that whilst he estéemed the contents of the worlde he excéeded all the great men of his time in losenes of lyfe and extreame crueltie and contrarie wise when he feared nothing and reuerenced the louers therof as he confirmed by visiting Diogenes in hys Tun there was none gained so easily the harts of all men as he being by their whole consents iudged worthy for his magnimitie and temperance vnto whom the world ought only to yéeld his obedience Notwithstanding this opinion receiued by all men of him repaired he as I saide to the straight lodging of Diogenes as vnto him with whom he had neare equalitie in nothing The which this good Phylosopher had in such estimation y ◠he offered therfore dayly supplications to those Images which were erected in the publicke places of Athens for y e memorie of their good Citizens although some hold he obserued this custome to that ende he might more paciently beare the deniall of such necessaries as he sought at the handes of ritch men But how vnprobable their opinion is the conference betweene him being in his Tun and Alexander standing betweene the sun and the mouth therof proueth For after Alexander found that confirmed by his owne experience which he heard reported by others touching the excellency of Diogenes wit and the rare quicknes of his spirite and seeing him with a minde greater then belongeth to a man in aduersitie to contemne both life and other matters of the world he studied according to y e worthines of himselfe to nurrishe those vertues by somewhat that might be agreable to the magnificence of a King and therfore encorraged Diogenes whom he found not stored with any thing in his Tun which serued for all weathers to aske possession or other necessaries But Diogenes who resolutely adicted him selfe to that dwelling which he preferred before the Areopage and Courts of Kings and vnto whom the least matter in the fauour of nothing séemed gréeuous required Alexander in lieu of his offer to remoue his shadow that had entred the mouth of his Tub as that wherewith his lodging was ouer charged y e same being only reserued for him and nothing Esope who painted to vs by Byrdes Fishes Serpents foure footed beasts the forme of an honest and safe lyfe being taken with the enimie and made subiect with fooles to misery was w t other bondmē offered to be sold to Xantus the Phylosopher and being demaunded by Xantus what he could do to
mans sinne and according to this rule that who striketh with the sword shal be stroke with the scabarde a pronounced rewarde of their husbands error Miserable is that course and contrary to the nature of honesty to ascribe to nothing their disloyal parts but so doe they that vnder their owne teste they may be conuinced of many faultes and their condemnation be greater Some others there be by a marueilous indisposition of honestie who although they be garded with mo felicities then diuers ages before them haue tasted courted w e many fauours of hir Maiesty floate notwithstanding ouer the landmarke of due obedience for no other cause if they were well examinied then for nothing a matter not agreing with their impietie which yearely renueth w t Aphrica some monster nursed in their mutinus conferences where being impatient of any season they woulde drawe the gouernments of Princes to the ordinary rule of themselues capitulating their fauorers with special noats of good wil and cancelling the good names of the rest with infamous titles as though that men and not God had the erecting of kingdoms which whilest they frame in the aire with the rebellious Ciclops they vndermine their naturall dwellings and countrye walles thinking to be made no smale fooles in that they be by those meanes knowne to Italie France and Spaine when kings whose secpters be supported with prudence and iustice neuer reckned the executioners of their furye within the Colledge of good men or thought the reward of such mastiues any other then garbage A portion to good for that course which is made miserable in being suspected to them from whom they looke for al fauor and good wil a matter to be reserued by great estates for honest men least their own people by an ill president be drawne from the dutie of good subiects and recompence their Princes error with disobedience the same hapning by the iust iudgements of god which hetherto neuer failed to minister them who haue made themselues stumbling blocks to their neighboures new matter with which they haue béene fearefully intangled to the terrible example of the whole worlde Let them therfore deale vprightly with al men that iudge the earth and not abuse the amitie of vertuous Princes for ouerthrowing a good cause or alienat themselues or peaceable ordinaunces from their willing subiects to the hazard of their whole interests as though their desires were to sée the order in nature troubled and to be the last whose eyes should behold the ruin of all things It were a romth for some idle bodye so looke into the accedents of euery state which hath béen diuersly afflicted for nothing or to péepe into euery dwelling for examining this cause which fathereth many nouelties and such enterprises as are either bloodily executed or performed against the vse of common sence as though those things were lawfull to wise and valiant men which are not permitted ideots or thought naturall for brute beasts In this lowest degrée of reason Xerxes the greatest prince and least wise of his time by an vnspeakeable folly acquited all other of extreame blockishnes for whatsoeuer any dedicated to that Lady or dame he seruilly loued applied this forgetfull king to a plane trée putting theron his Diadem yéelding humbly therto his scepter complaining with such iestures as be eyther dissembled by wise louers or plainely vsed by simple fooles accursing that day and night in which neither Sun or Moone spread on him the shadowe of his beloued boughes which had in such sort bereaued him of iudgement by gathering in the swéete ayre by their softe mouing that his care of the Persian gouermente lay vnder foote more estéeming the compasse of earth which inclosed the roote of their trunck thē his seuerall gouerments and large dominions which in his conceipte were no otherwise beautified then by giuing nurrishment to the same Of like passions may large volumes be written though worthy of no other pen then a black coale or memorie then was by decrée of all Asia left for the burner of Dianas temple And although nothing is absolutly simple innocent harmlesse in it self yet therfore hath all impiety been set abroch duties abrogated vertue suppressed truth put to silence charitie purst which should be currant amongest men by which peruersiō nothing hath found no lesse fauor then the ritch stone by luster of his foile or as the faire mistresse by the company of browning hir mayde It shall be necessary in respecte thereof to obserue a lyke proportion in disciphering y e incomodities of those things we estéeme profitable to that ende we may more apparantly perceiue the good effects which come of nothing as of the least or no enimie of life by whose societie many euils depart which as murderers of peace either drawe vs from the fauour of God or bring vs into the vncertaine liking of the worlde in which there was neuer any but that he was continually foste and made seasicke or suffered extreame wracke of lyfe or other fortunes And although the opinion which we conceiue of this trashe hath a like dominion in vs as white or blacke in other coullors we neuerthelesse gaze theron w e no other admiration danger then Narcissus beheld his beautifull reflexion or chearishe it then as the frozen serpent in the warme bosome of the ideot by meane wherof we render many times a sorrowfull testimonie of our light choise and dangerous affections The knot of this mistery hath closed the best wits for giuing iudgement in this repugnancie in nature vz y ◠whilst euery one desireth a long and peaceable time he yet hunteth after the vse of those things which frowardly abridge y e good course of life It is therfore no maruel though this supernaturall motiue hath béene condemned of them who estéeming al things by their weight fashion haue for their purpose this croked saying Somewhat hath some sauor not weighing consideratly y ◠as by those instrumēts by which we perceiue any pleasure common to man we pertake also a thousand incomodities which flocke without number to crosse the ioyes of life which so withereth wyth any sorrow as though we had dwelt in continuall calamitie and neuer felte other then the passions of extreame misery Compaire the ioyes and sorrowes which grow of corruptable things there wil be sufficient reason minstred to confirme this argument For beginning with the state of mariage from whence the maides of Greece reckned their age who are they that after the death of their beautifull chaste wiues or contrary wise of their ritch and louing husbands that thinke not their time past vanished the present perished and their life following desolate reckning the remembrance of their olde ioyes the mother of their newe sorrowes and lamentable state Or what naturall parent being depriued of good children doth not more lament their losse then he reioyced of their liues which being carefully feared were by so much the lesse
world themselues and boast of nothing as without which they pertake many things with vnreasonable creatures whose natures by vse they put on and are made lyke them in all things their shapes excepted For in that sence also spake the Apostle when he layde before the Corinthians some course of lyfe which he would they vsed as though it were not which argument the beloued Disciple followed wyth no lesse emphasis then the chosen vessell of God forbiding the loue of the world the same being pregnant in it selfe to sequester from our vse all societie of the heauenly traine which is to one purpose as if he had extolled nothing whose praises he might haue more expresly set downe but that he endeuored to bring the same in fauor by dispraise of the contrary as Licurgas comended to his Cittizens sobrietie by shewing them the vncleane behauiour of his drunken bondmen This kinde of teaching hath béene vsed of diuers when without â—iolence they entended to remoue an euill deepely rooted in our affections which are not in weeding their vnnaturall superfluities to be pressed wyth the seuere discipline of ruffe censures least they being made weake by that meane let slip the good séedes of vertue wyth the cornels of our corruption as bodyes losing their retentiue facultie by vehemencie of the purge But to returne where I left touching the contempt and abiect vse of worldly things Petrarck in his tryumphe of death newly speaking in our tongue by an vnlearned traÌ„slator mainteyneth the same argument THe Popes saith he the Kings who coÌ„manded haue the worlde Are naked now misers and needy persons all Now treasures where now honors where and precious stones And Scepters where Crownes Myters purple shewes He wretched is that layes his hope in mortall things But who doth not and if he finde himselfe at length Deceiued tis reason great and answeareth well his act O senceles men so much to traueile what auailes To the auncient Mother great all shall returne at last And hardly shall the mention of your names be found Of a thousand labors not one a profite yeeldes But each of them apparant vanities are knowne Your studies who doth vnderstand can tell me this With mindes inflamde alwayes to domage of your selues What profite ist so many countryes to subdue And nations diuers tributaries make vnknown And after enterprices perillous and vaine With blood to conquer walled Townes and treasure get A way more sweete is found with water and with bread With glasse wood then with ritch orient stone gold By these hurtfull effects dangerous impressions of all things I finde great cause why nothing should be more regarded as wel for that it serueth al humors though by sundry meanes as that also the same is enimie or hauing societie with things hurtfull to man but a good helpe to make him in true godlines like pacient Iob so much commended of God who more then y t rest of men stood beholding therto as vnto his vnseperable friend which only accompanied him into the world remayned with him in his miserable pouerty and sicknes and lastly returned with him to his Sepulcher the gate of his rest and felicitie in which although no man hath in this world a perfection yet draweth he nerest therto either in the prime of life or decreped age therof The first as was said of yong children not caring for the world and therfore happy the other being vnfit for the world and therfore like to be happy For in the latter time of man when all things remaine vnpleasant to him not for that he hateth them but in respect of his want of power which then wareth weake to vse them he maketh of hys necessity a vertue and in lieu of his wonted violences and ouer running the world either restraineth himself to some monastical life or teacheth at home the vse of true fortitude and militarie prudence or if weakened by the dangerous assaults of loue he highly praiseth chastitie reading to hys wife the legend of good women wherby she may more paâ—iently haue fellowship with him in his inuoluntarie abstinence or if in his yong time he alwayes labored in the fields of Neptimus he wareth being olde a maker of Carts for Nauigation meaning to recompence the furious crueltie of his youth with the charitable compassion of his olde age it is for the sequal a matter of no smale consideration to beholde these particions and first the infancy which hauing little or no comunitie with worldly felicities resteth pacified with the abiect things of nature the other being of many parts by some participation it hath w t two faced Ianus a neuter to all things The contempt or societie of the world that hapneth by this necessitie is no way worthy of praise in vs though as Vbi desinit Philosophus incipit medicus it be an externall meane where by we supernaturallye apprehende the heauenly graces that haue no societye with those things for which we enuie mislike or imbrace one another or for which we teare the bowels of the earth or trust our selues to the vnconstant waues or ruffe seas From these dangers of life if any by the deuine prouidence escape they are beyonde all expectation when no other thing is lefte them then a weary confusion mightily succored by that diuine power which til then lyeth aloofe as a strong reliefe for our weake estate To this are the testimonies of the scriptures answerable which witnes the bountious liberality of God to the needy naked miserable and possessors of nothing and his indignation to the mighty and rich whom he pulleth from their seates and sendeth emptie from his presence Furthermore where as the schole men haue this ground that Natura abhorret vacuum which is the natural element or residence of nothing it consequently followeth that she also abhorreth nothing which maketh nothing by so much of greater dignity by how much our nature being peruerse is prone to sinne the only cause of Gods fearefull iudgements and heauie displeasures These are the effects of nature an enimie to the Courte of nothing to kindle on our backs hir bundle of rotten sticks with the consuming fire of Gods wrath I cease not in respect hereof to muse at them before meÌ„tioned that complaine for nothing as Procâ—is being ielous of Aura the same remaining a harmles companion of our life by whose fellowship we may say with Cicero that we be neuer lesse alone then when we be alone and by our experience affirme that we are not any way so safe as when nothing is neere vs which hauing all the parts of trust on which we may confidently repose our selues is to be prefered before any thing in nature whether it be man who for his seuerall perfections is named the little worlde with whome diuers vnresonable creatures to abate his swelling humours are equally matched in many things he claimeth prerogatiue or any other liuing creature which for some perticuler qualitie is noted