Thing we attempt to give an Account of By this Temperament is to be understood the Mixture and Proportion of the Four Prime Qualities Of the Temperament of the Brain Hot and Cold Moist and Dry or rather a Fifth Quality which is as it were a Harmony resulting from a due Conjunction of all these together like that Concord in Sounds which arises from a Friendly Complication of different Notes Now upon that Mixture of the Brain it is that the State and the Operations of the Reasonable Soul depend Only This is Man's great Unhappiness that the Three Faculties Understanding Memory and Imagination do each of them require different nay contrary Temperaments for their Exercise and Perfection The Temperament proper for the Understanding is a Predominance of Dry and this gives us some Account how it comes to pass that Persons far gone in Years are more Intelligent and Judicious than those that are Younger For besides the Advantages which Art and Study and Experience may give them they have a Disposition to it from Nature The Brain as Men grow older purifying it self from Excrementitious Humours and growing dryer every Day For the same Reason in all likelihood Melancholy Persons and those under Affliction and Want and Persons that are fasting it being an Effect of Grief and Fasting to keep the Brain dry may be better disposed to think and qualified to do it to good Purpose as well as some of them are necessitated by their Circumstances to apply themselves to it This is farther observable in Brutes Ants and Bees and Elephants as they are the Dryest so they are the most capable and ingenious of any and those of a moist Constitution the Swine for Instance are Stupid and Senseless Thus again in Men Those of Southerly Countries excel in Wisdom from the Drought of their Brain and their inward Heat being moderated by that of a Violent Sun without which exhales it The Temperament best accommodated to the Memory is Moist and hence it is that Children are more ready and perfect in it than old People hence it is most apt and faithful in a Morning when the Brain hath been well refreshed and throughly moistned by a good Nights Sleep hence also the Inhabitants of the Northern Climates have the strongest Memories for These are under a moister Air by Means of their great Distance from the Sun But this Moisture must not be so mistaken as if I meant that the Temper of the Memory is fluid like Water but rather such a Moisture as we may observe in Air Glew Grease or Oyl something of such a Substance and Continuity of Parts as may both take the Impression easily and keep it a great while as we see Pictures do that are laid in Oyl Colours The Temperament sittest for the Imagination is Hot which makes Distracted Hair-brain'd and Feverish People excel all others in bold and lofty Flights of Fancy Thus Poetry Divination and all that depends upon Imagination were always thought to proceed from a sort of Fury and Inspiration This Faculty is for the same Reason most Vigorous in Youth and the Flower of our Age The Poets accordingly flourished at these Years and Almighty God who even in Supernatural Influences and Effects made great use of Natural Causes and did as little Violence as was possible to a Course of his own Instituting ordered the Matter so that most of the Prophets should do so too The same Reason holds likewise for those Middle Regions and more Moderate Climates between the North and the South where Men are observ'd to excel in those Arts and Sciences which are derived from the Strength and Sprightliness of Fancy Now from this great inequality of these Mixtures and Proportions it frequently happens that a Man may be tolerably well to pass in all these Three Faculties and not arrive at an Excellence in any one of them as also That a Man may be conspicuous and exceeding well Accomplish'd in one of these Respects and yet very Wanting and Despicable in the other Two It is manifest the Temperaments adapted for the Memory and the Understanding are the most Distant and Contrary in the World for what can be more so than Moist and Dry That of the Imagination does not seem so remote from the Rest for Hot will agree well enough with Moist or Dry and is far from being Incompatible with either and yet though these seem so consistent in Nature we see them very seldom reconcil'd in Fact For those who are esteemed most Excellent in Imagination are generally found very Weak both in Point of Memory and Understanding and thought near a Kin to Fools or Mad-Men The Reason whereof may possibly be This. That the Heat which feeds and exalts their Imagination wasts and exhausts that Moisture with which the Memory is assisted and also the finest and most volatile of Those Spirits of which that Dryness Partakes which is serviceable to the Understanding and the Faculty when destitute of these grows flat and heavy So that in Effect This is an Enemy to both the other Temperaments and Experience shews it to be Destructive of them From all that hath been said we may plainly see that the Principal Temperaments which serve But Three of them assist and set the reasonable Soul on working and which distinguish the Excellencies of the Mind according to its Faculties are Three and cannot exceed that Number For Cold which is the Fourth is of no significance at all Hot and Moist and Dry only can contribute to Mens Ingenuity The Other is a sluggish unactive Principle and instead of quickening does only benumb and stupifie the Soul and put a Stop to all its Motions Therefore when in reading some Authors we find them recommending Cold as of use to the Understanding and saying that Men of a Cold Brain such as those of Melancholy Complexions or under the Southern Climes are Prudent Wise Ingenious and the like we must not there understand the Word Cold in its Natural and most received Sense but interpret it of a large Abatement and more moderate Degree of Heat only For nothing can be more opposite to Wisdom and a good Understanding than that Excess of Heat which yet to the bettering of the Imagination and refining the Fancy would be of great Importance And according to the three Temperaments of the Brain there are three corresponding Faculties of the Reasonable Soul But both the One and the Other of these admit of several Degrees and may be variously subdivided and distinguished The Principal Offices to be discharged by the Understanding and the different Qualifications of Men The Faculties Subdivided with regard to it are Three To conclude truly To distinguish nicely and To choose wisely The Sciences that fall properly under this Faculty are School-Divinity The Speculative Part of Physick Logick Natural and Moral Philosophy The Memory hath likewise Three Qualities to be distinguished by For there is One sort of Memory which easily receives Impressions and
the Defect It must be compos'd of a delicate fluid Substance of fine and subtle Parts and these well joyn'd together and all united without any Separation or void Spaces throughout the whole It hath Four small Cavities or Ventricles Three of which lie forward in the middle and are plac'd in a Collateral Line to one another The Fourth lies behind these toward the hinder part of the Head and is single by it self This is the Shop in which the Vital Spirits are first form'd and united in order to the being afterwards converted into Animal Spirits and then convey'd into the Three Cavities that lie forward And these Animal Spirits are the Instruments made use of by the Soul for discharging her several Functions and exercising all her Faculties Those Faculties are likewise Three the Understanding the Memory and the Imagination And these are not exercis'd distinctly and apart nor hath each of them a different Ventricle of the Brain appropriated to it which is all an old and vulgar Errour concerning them but their Operations are alltogether and in common All the Three Faculties exert themselves in all and every of the Three Cavities somewhat like our Bodily Senses which are double and have Two Organs in each of which the same Sense performs all its Operations entire From hence it comes to pass that a Man who is hurt or disabled in Two of these Three Ventricles as one in a Palsie for Instance does yet continue to have the use of all his Three Faculties That is He understands and remembers and forms Idea's still by virtue of that One Cavity which the Disease hath not yet seized upon It is true he does this more weakly and every Operation of every kind is more imperfect than it was formerly because the Strength and Vigour of One is not equal to the united Force of Three But yet it evidently follows from hence that each Faculty hath not its Workhouse in a distinct Apartment and entire to it self alone for then assoon as any of these Ventricles begins to be disabled that Faculty to which it belongs must immediately cease and cou'd never more be exerted in any Degree at all Some Persons have been of Opinion How far the Reasonable Soul is Organical that the Reasonable Soul is not Organical that is that it can act separately and independently and hath no need of any Corporeal Instrument to assist it in the Discharge of its Functions And this Notion they have been more fond of because they imagine it of consequence for proving the Immortality of the Soul Now without engaging in a vast and dark Labyrinth of Dispute about a Matter which we are incapable of knowing perfectly this Question may be brought to a short Issue For if we will but credit our own Eyes and our own Experience every Day gives us Demonstrations which overthrow this Opinion and establish the Contrary It is certain that all Men have not equal Capacities nor do they apprehend things or argue upon them alike but the Disparity is very great and visible between one Man and another It is no less evident that the same Person changes and differs from himself that his Reason is more clear and perfect and strong at one Time and at one Age in one Disposition of Body and in one Circumstance of Fortune and Life than it is in another One Man can do nothing except he have Ease and Leisure another requires Dangers and Difficulties to rouze him and never thinks to purpose till he be prest hard and driven to Extremities A Third finds himself much more capable in Health than in Sickness And a Fourth feels his Mind most vigorous and active then when his Diseases and Weakness have reduc'd his Body lowest The same Man at one Season excels in Judgment and flags in his Fancy so that One Faculty decays in proportion as Another improves Now the most probable Account that can be given for all these Differences and Alterations seems to be a difference in the State and Disposition of the Organs which are to the Soul as Tools to the Artificer Which way but this shall we answer for the strange Effects we see produc'd by Drunkenness by the Bite of a Mad Dog by a high Fever by a Blow upon the Head by the Vapours that rise from the Stomach and annoy the Brain and by several other Accidents which affect any of the Parts thereabouts What Confusions do they make how perfectly stupid and childish and frantick do Men grow upon them lose their Memory quite and feel their Heads turn'd upside down their former Idea's eraced their Judgment destroy'd All the Wisdom of Greece is not able to maintain it self against them and if the Shock be very violent indeed then it does not only disturb and enfeeble but quite drive away the Soul and constrain her to remove out of the Body Now it is plain that these Accidents are purely Corporeal and consequently they cannot affect what is not so they can never fly so high as the exalted and Spiritual Faculties of the Reasonable Soul all that they can do is to vitiate the Organs to put Them out of their Course and intercept the usual Communications and when This is once effected the Soul can no longer act regularly She may command but They cannot obey and if these Organs are sore bruised and distorted very grievously then She and They can no longer subsist together The Lodging is no longer sit to entertain her and she must be gone Now I do by no means see how this Opinion can be guilty of any Prejudice to that of the Immortality of the Soul For first We are not here enquiring what the Soul is but how she operates and what Laws of Action she is bound up to while in Conjunction with a Mortal Body And Secondly The making Use of Corporeal Instruments does by no Means prove the User to be Corporeal or Mortal God without all Question is Immortal and yet God himself does not think it below him to use such and to proportion the Effects and Operations of his Providence to them He produces Men of different Understandings and Parts according to the Constitution of their Parents and the Concurrence of other Natural Causes nay even according to the different Climate and Country and Air they are born in For Greece and Italy have ever been observ'd to produce Men of quicker and clearer Wit than Muscovy and Tartary And as God does in this Case so does the Mind in others It reasons better or worse remembers more or less Faithfully hath a more fruitful or more barren Imagination according as the Organs which are the Corporeal Instruments appointed to serve it upon these Occasions are better or worse disposed to do their Duty Now the Brain is properly the Instrument of the Reasonable Soul and therefore upon the due Temperament of This a great deal must needs indeed the Whole in a manner will depend That therefore shall be the next
were brought on or what Part they were to act * Quidam vivere incipiunt cum desinendum Quidam ante desiverunt quà m inciperent Inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia semper incipit vivere Some says the Philosopher begin to live when they should make an End others cease to live before ever they begun Among the many Mischiefs that Folly brings upon us This is not the least That it is always beginning to live We think of Business and intend to set about it but make no Progress at all nor bring any thing to perfection The World is a Theatre and our present Life in it the Beginning and the End of a Play Description of it our Birth draws the Curtain and our Death shuts it up again T is a Comedy of Errours a constant Succession of Accidents and Adventures a Contexture and Chain of several Miseries linked closely and interwoven within one another nothing but Evil on every side That which passes off and that which approaches and comes into its place and these drive out and push forward each other as the Waves of the Sea do in their Ebbings and Flowings Trouble and Disquiet are always at hand but for Happiness we are cheated with the empty Shadow of it Blindness and Insensibility take up the Beginning of our Lives Labour and Anxious Care the Middle Weakness and Pain the Latter End But Ignorance and Errour reach from the Beginning to the End These are inseparable and keep us Company quite through The Life of Man hath its Inconveniences and Miseries of several sorts Some of them are in Common extending to all Persons and all Times Others are Peculiar and Successive and distinguish'd by the different Parts and Age and particular Seasons and Accidents of Life As Childhood Youth Maturity Man's Estate and Old Age for Each of these hath its distinct Calamities some Embasements and Incumbrances which may be properly call'd its own When Youth and Old Age come to be weigh'd one against the other Youth and Age compar'd it hath been usual to give the Advantage to the Latter And most Authors speak of Age with Honour and Respect as having attain'd to greater degrees of Wisdom more maturity of Judgment more Moderation and Temper All which good Qualities are marvellously cry'd up with a Design to put Youth out of Countenance and to charge upon it the contrary Characters of Vice and Folly Licentiousness and Extravagance But with the leave of those who have thus decided the Controversie I must take Liberty to declare that this Verdict is in my Opinion very unjust For in good truth the Defects and the Vices of Age are More in Number Worse in Quality and less to be resisted or recover'd than those that are peculiar to Youth Years deform our Minds as much as our Bodies bring Wrinkles there as well as in our Faces and turn our Tempers sour and mouldy with long keeping The Soul keeps pace with the Body Both are spent and Both decay till at last we grow so weak so perfectly helpless as in respect of both to verifie that Proverb of Old Men being twice Children Age is a necessary but a strong Disease it loads us insensibly with grievous Imperfections and then contrives to cover the Shame of them with creditable Names What is in effect no other than Moroseness of Humour a peevish dislike of the present Enjoyments and Disability to do as the Man did heretofore passes for Wisdom and Gravity Experience and an Insight into the Vanity of the World But Wisdom is somewhat much more noble than all this comes to and far above making use of such mean Instruments There is a vast difference between growing older and growing wiser between forsaking all Vice and the changing one for another and as it often happens in this Case changing for the Worse Old Age condemns the Pleasures and Gayeties of Youth but how much of this must be allowed to it s not being now able to relish them any longer It is like Esop's Dog hates and despises what it cannot enjoy But This is not to disdain and give over Pleasure it is rather to be disdain'd and given over by it Pleasure is always Airy and Entertaining and these are Persons no longer for its Turn But why should they cast a Reflection upon That which is due to themselves Why shou'd Impotence corrupt their Judgment For this if impartially consulted would tell Young Men that there is Vice in their Pleasures and Old Men that there is Pleasure in Vice And if this were rightly understood and frankly confest Youth would be a great deal the better and Old Age not one whit the worse The Vices more peculiar to Youth are Rashness and Heat Forwardness and an unguarded Conversation Debauchery and all manner of Sensual Excess And these are in some Degree natural to that State the Effects of Warmth and Vigour and the Boylings of a Florid Blood All which as they need and ought to be corrected so they have something to say in their own Excuse But what Apology shall we make for the Ill Qualities that attend Old Age The lightest and least of which are vain Arrogance and Pride a troublesome and peremptory way of Conversing and an engrossing all the Talk to themselves froward and unsociable Humours Superstition and Whimsie Love of Riches when past the use of them sordid Avarice and Fear of Death which generally is not as some have favourably interpreted the Case the effect of a cold Blood and low Spirits and of Courage damp'd by these Natural Causes but it proceeds from long Custom and Acquaintance and a foolish Fondness for the World by which the Old Gentleman hath corrupted his Judgment and hath a greater Tenderness for it than young Men who enjoy more and know less of it Besides these there are Envy and Ill-Nature and Injustice but the most exquisite and ridiculous Folly of all is that Affectation of a severe and grave and wise Character and hoping to gain Respect and Deference by an Austere Look and Scornful Behaviour which indeed does but provoke Laughter and become it self a Jest while it pretends to extort Observance and Fear For the Young Fellows combine together against this formal Austerity which they see put on only for a Disguise and with a design to amuse and affright them into Reverence where real Merit which would engage it is wanting In short The Vices of Old Age are so numerous on the One Hand and the Infirmities of it on the Other and Both together conspire to render it so despicable that the best and most saving Game it can play is to secure Mens Affections and to win them by Methods of Kindness and Affability and Good-Nature For Churlishness and an Imperious Humour and whatever aims at Fear and Dominion are not by any means Weapons fit for These Persons to manage The Affecting so very much Awe does by no means become them and if the thing
whereof the Rational Soul is composed To excel in it is not very necessary except for Three Sorts of People 1. Men of Trade and much Business 2. Those that are extremely Talkative for this is the Store-house from whence they must be furnished with Matter for Discourse and it is naturally more full and fruitful than Invention but he that cannot be supplied from hence must make it up by Stuff of his own forging and 3. Great Lyars for * Mendacem oportet esse Memorem These indeed ought to have good Memories The Want of Memory hath its Conveniences too For this will dispose Men to speak Truth to be Modest and talk no more than their Share and to forget the Faults and Injuries of other People A moderate Proportion of this Faculty will serve ones Turn and answer all the Ends of it very well CHAP. XVI Of Imagination and Opinion THE Power of Imagination is exceeding great This is in Effect the very Thing The Effects of imagination that makes all the Noise in the World Almost all the Clutter and Disturbances we feel or make are owing to it Accordingly it was observ'd before that This is if not the Only yet at least the most active and bustling Faculty of the Soul And in good Truth the Effects of it are Wonderful Unaccountable and almost Incredible For the Influences of Imagination are not confined to the Body or the Mind of that Person alone where it is born and cherished but extend and transfuse themselves far and wide and act very Strongly upon other People It is fitted for all manner of Operations and the most distant and contrary Passions are raised by it It puts the Man into all manner of Forms and the Face into all Colours and Complections Makes Men blush with Shame look Pale with Fear tremble and quake casts them into Fits of Raving and Confusion These tho' strange are yet some of its least Effects and gentle in Comparison of others It checks and enfeebles Men in their hottest Career balks their Pleasures and chills all their Spirits It Marks and deforms nay sometimes kills Embryo's in the Womb hastens Births or causes Abortions Takes away the Speech and ties the Tongue and sometimes enables the Dumb to speak as the Story of Croesus his Son assures us Makes Men Stiff and Motionless benumbs and binds up the Senses stops the Breath These are its Effects upon the Body Then for the Mind It robs Men of their Knowledge and Judgment turns them into Fools and stupid Sots as Gallus Vibius for Instance who having strain'd his Imagination too far in the study and practice of Polly and its Motions is said to have disturb'd his Understanding to that Degree that he turn'd a mere Natural and cou'd never return to sound Judgment and good Sense again It inspires Men with strange Presages of things hidden and future fills them with Enthusiasms and Fancies out of the common Road of Thinking throws them into Extasies and Raptures nay possesses them with the Thoughts and Expectations of Death till at last they die indeed as it did that Malefactor who when his Cap had been pull'd over his Eyes in order to Execution was found stark dead upon the Scassold when they came to uncover him again and read his Pardon In a word A great part of those unusual Operations which create such Amazement in the Vulgar Apparitions and Visions and Witchcrafts are to be attributed to the force of Imagination and what They think done by the power of the Devil or some familiar Spirits for I meddle not here with the Supernatural Operations of God's own Spirit is commonly no more than a strong Fancy either in the Person that does these strange things or of the Spectators that are deluded with them and think they see those Objects which really they do not And the great Care in these Cases is to distinguish wisely between Truth and Falshood and not suffer our Judgments to be captivated with vulgar Errours In this part of the Soul it is that Opinion keeps its Residence which is nothing else but a vain and easie a crude and imperfect Judgment of things taken up upon slight and insufficient grounds too credulous an Assent to the Representations of our outward Senses or common Report which rests in the first Appearances of Things and fixes in the Imaginative Faculty without ever going farther or referring the Matter to the Understanding to be throughly examin'd and digested there and so wrought up and finish'd into solid Reason Till This be done no true Judgment can be made and such as a Man may venture to abide by And accordingly we see the other is mutable and inconstant fleeting and deceitful A very dangerous Guide that makes Head against Reason of which it is only the Image and Shadow and that but an empty and false one neither This is the Source of all our Evils our Confusions and Disorders our Passions and Troubles the most and the worst of them rise out of a prepossest Fancy and heated Imagination So that in truth Madmen and Fools the Ignorant and the Mobb are blindly led by the Nose by it and follow this Leader and betray their Folly in doing so as Wise and Judicious Men distinguish themselves and approve their Prudence in suffering nothing but Reason to guide and govern them That thus it is The World is govern'd by Opinion we see plainly for as hath been observ'd long ago by one of the Ancients It is not the Reality nor the true Nature of Things but the Notion and Opinion Men entertain of them that disquiets and so violently Torments their Souls * Opinione saepius quam Re laboramus plura sunt quae nos terrent quà m quae nos premunt Thus we turn our own Executioners form Evils to our selves which are not and strangely aggravate those that are by frightful Idea's which belong not to them The Truth and Essence of Things never enters our Minds in its true Proportions nor works upon us by its natural Force and Authority for were it thus with us all things that are alike in Themselves wou'd be alike to Us and the same Object wou'd produce the same Affections and Resentments in all Men allowing only some small matter of difference in the Degree of them At this rate all Mankind would be of the same Opinion What is false wou'd be universally rejected and what is true as universally embrac'd for Truth can be but One and the Same and is always equal and consistent with it self But quite contrary We find that the Difference of Opinions is infinite Men do not only vary from but directly contradict one another And there are but very few Instances in which even Men of the best Natural Abilities and most eminent for their Improvements and acquir'd Learning are all of a Mind This shews sufficiently that the Idea's of things are compounded and mixt before we entertain them that we have them at our
Man from any Virtuous or Honourable Designs palls and flats his Relish of Goodness extinguishes the Desire of Reputation and takes away the Disposition of doing Worthily either for himself or for any body else Nay it does not only unqualify him for the doing but for the receiving Good from any other Hand For even the most Prosperous Occurrences are grown insipid or unpleasant to him and every Thing turns Sour upon his Mind as all kinds of Meat do upon distempered Stomachs In short Grief embitters a Man's whole Life and poysons all his Actions It may be considered with respect to the Degrees of it Distinguished and a Difference ought to be made between the Greatness and the Extremity of it as there should also between That which runs into Excess and grows ungovernable altogether from it self and That which is pushed on and aggravated by the Suddenness of an Accident In such a Case Surprise and Consternation alarms seises transports the Man takes away all Motion and Sense stupifies and turns him into a Stone like that wretched Mother Niobe * Diriguit visu in medio calor ossa reliquit Labitur longo vix tandem tempore fatur Her curdled Blood ran backward at the Sight And pale numb'd Limbs a shivering Horror took She stiffens into Statue with the Fright At last her faltering Tongue long Silence broke And in these Cases great Allowance is to be made for Natural Affection upon which account that Painter is admitted to have understood his Business well who when he was to draw Iphigenia going to be Sacrificed represented the several Postures and Countenances of her Mourning Friends and more distant Relations with great Curiosity and Artifice but when he came at last to her Father he cast a Veil over His Face Thus wisely covering that Sorrow which no Pencil could sufficiently express But Grief as it often exceeds the Power of Art and Representation in the Copy so sometimes it is too strong for the Original too grievous to be born and kills the Man outright This finds no Vent But that which is Moderate or indeed that which is very Great wears off by Tract of Time by Diversion and Business and other Avocations of the Mind And that which helps This forward is that it expresses and cases it self by Tears and Sobs and Sighs and sad Complaints all which are some Mitigation to the suffering Party and much more Comfortable than Insensibility and Silence * Curae leves lequuntur ingentes stupent Slight Sorrows find a Vent and Words command The Fierce boil inward Dumb and Stupid stand Directions and Helps against this Evil are given Book III. Chap. 29. CHAP. XXXII Compassion WE mingle Sighs and Tears with those that are in Affliction we feel in some Degree their Misfortunes and take Part in their Pains Whether it be from some secret Sympathies in Nature whereby the Sentiments of one Man are conveyed to and produce the like in another or whether it be from sad Presages by which we are apt to fear that whatever our Neighbours suffer now may happen to be our own Case another Day Now This so far as it is Vicious is the Passion of a Weak Mind A Foolish Pity that proceeds from too much Tenderness and from an Indisposition in the Soul whereby it is apt to be vehemently disordered and fall into great Troubles upon slight Occasions Hence Women and Children are most affected with it and so are the Cruel and Spightful too who as was said before are always Cowardly and fearful For these tho' they know nothing of that Noble and Generous Compassion which is a Virtue yet of this Vicious One they have their Share Such for Instance as express mighty Concern for Villains and Malefactors when they endure the Punishment of the Law and smart for their Faults Now the Effects of such a Pity are very Unjust and so are the Causes of it too for to spare the Guilty is to injure and endanger the Innocent and all that Tenderness proceeds only from superficial Appearances and want of Thought which looks no farther than just the present Circumstances of the Suffering Party without any Regard at all had to the Merits of the Cause and how Reasonable it is that such Punishment should be inflicted upon him Concerning This See more Book III. Chap. 30. Where you have likewise the just Distinction between the Virtuous and Vicious Compassion omitted here to avoid Repetitions CHAP. XXXIII Fear FEAR is the Apprehension of some Evil to come Description of it which stands over us and keeps us perpetually in Awe it fills us full of Anxious Thought and very Officiously runs before to give Notice of the Calamities which Fortune threatens us with We are not speaking at present concerning that Fear of God so highly recommended in Holy Scripture so exceeding Useful and Necessary a Check upon Men's Minds in Order to a Good Life Nor is this Chapter to be understood as if it related at all to that anxious and tender Concern which proceeds from Affection and Duty or such as makes a Part of that Obedience and Respect due from Inferiours of all Sorts to their Superiours But only of that troublesome and tormenting Passion which is the Spawn of Sin and Shame and a disordered Mind For these Terrours entred the World at the same Instant with Guilt and Reproach and are the wretched Off-Spring of the Corruption of our Souls and a secret Familiarity with the Devil It was upon yielding to his wicked Suggestions that our General Ancestor first discovered these misgiving Horrours upon his Conscience I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self Gen. iii. 10. It is a Passion full of Fraud and Malice and The Malice and Tyranny of it indeed can never hurt or gain Advantage over us except when we are cheated and seduced by it It makes use of the Time to come which we can have no manner of Insight into so throwing us into a Place of Darkness and making the same Use of Futurity which Thieves do of the Night which is to compass their Designs undiscover'd and to scare and terrify us much more than the Occasion requires When it hath got us there it puts on a Thousand several Vizors and represents our Misfortunes under the most frightful and gastly Forms imaginable Thus we are cheated again as Children are with Fancies and Bugbears and dread those Evils in variety of Shapes which can have in reality but one Face Evils which have nothing in their own Nature capable of doing us any Hurt and such as would not be Evils to us if we did not call and believe them so It is nothing else but merely the Apprehension we have of things which renders those Accidents Evils that in themselves are no such Matter And This is so Powerful and so Pernicious that it turns our very Good into Evil and from our Prosperity takes Occasion to afflict and make us Miserable How
upon their Heads But if this Yielding proceed from the Surprize and Confusion occasion'd by the over-bearing Power of some Superiour Virtue as the People of Thebes who were quite dispirited when they heard Epaminondas in his Defence reckon up his good Services and noble Exploits and Reproach their base Ingratitude with a becoming Indignation and Alexander when he despised the noble Resolution of Betis who was taken with the City of Gaza of which he was Commander then there is another Account to be given of it The Former of these was Weakness the Second neither the effect of Courage nor Weakness but of Anger and Rage which in Alexander was never subject to any Check nor ever knew any Moderation ADVERTISEMENT THis Author had said in the Preface to his Book that his Design was to write after the manner of the Academick Philosophers who made it their Business o represent each side of the Question in its utmost beauty and Strength without delivering any decisive Opinion in the Case or being bound to stand by either branch of the Controversie An Attentive Reader will easily observe that Monsieur Charron hath thus far maintain'd the Character he propos'd for his Pattern as to make the most of the Arguments that offer'd for his present purpose without precluding himself from putting quite another Face upon the Matter when his Subject requir'd that it should be taken by another Handle Thus you will find him varying concerning the Attaining of Knowledge by Sense and whether This be the Only possible way of Information by comparing Chapter X. and Chapter XIII Sect. 10.11 And in the very Subject of this Chapter and Section how distant is the Reflection he makes here from those others which He and other Philosophers propose to us elsewhere upon the Noble Excellence of Virtue the Largeness of its Scope and Extent it s Independence upon Fortune and Casualties and the mighty Convenience of furnishing something commendable and proper for our Exercise and so making us Happy in every possible Condition of Humane Life This Variety then of Thought is a good warning to avoid what our Author so frequently condemns Too easie a Credulity and taking his Notions upon Trust For we find even those Notions not always the same but accommodated to his present Subject and Design And That Design well attended to and taken along with us will be a very good Guide to our Understanding him aright For Instance He had laid it down in the beginning of this Treatise as a Fundamental Principle That the Ignorance of a Man's Self is the great and most governing Errour of his Life of an Influence so universally pernicious that all his Vices and Misfortunes are owing to it But then This was such an Ignorance as disposed Men to over-value and neglect themselves by covering and quite overlooking the Defects and Disadvantages of Humane Nature and so kept the Patient incurable because insensible of his Disease In order to remedy this Evil it is that Monsieur Charron undertakes to shew Men to Themselves and 't is evident his Design requires that he should shew the worst of them and paint only Those Features and Lines strong which may discover their Deformity and tend to humble and to mortifie them first and then to awaken that Care which can never be vigorously employ'd till they are first con'â—inc'd of the Weakness and Danger of those Circumstances that want it A Philosopher now under these Circumstances is thus far like a Law-giver that it will be Prudence in him to suppose and provide against the Worst and therefore as I wou'd not extenuate the Art or Wisdom of my Author nor do Injury to his Argument so neither can I be just to the Dignity of our Nature and grateful to the Wise and Good Creator of it unless I give my Reader these short and as I conceive necessary Directions in perusing this First Part of the Book First That What is here truly said of some or most Men and was sit to be said in general Terms because the worst Men have most need of such Treatises and so are most concern'd in them must not be so universally apply'd or understood as to be taken for a common Standard and universal Representation of all Mankind without Exception Secondly That in those Vices and Defects which are general we should make a Distinction between such as are essential to Humane Nature and inseparable from its Original Constitution and such as are the effects of Custom and Corruption of either Adam's or our own Sin Thirdly That what we Charge as a Defect be really so and owing to the Cause we ascribe it to These are necessary Cautions for the sake of doing common Justice as well as preventing Mistakes in our Selves It were unreasonable to take our Measures of all Mankind in respect of their Bodies from the Sick or Lame and from the Fools or the Sots every whit as extravagant for their Souls It were a charging God foolishly to ascribe those Impotencies and Evils to Him which have been the Consequences of our Disobedience against Him And it is a most unthankful Aspersion upon the Beauty and Wisdom of his Providence to charge That upon a Defect in Nature Which is really no other than a natural Result of the different Fortunes and Conditions of Men Which is exactly the Case here before us For wherein is the Excellent Wisdom of that Providence more clearly seen than in that useful Variety of Circumstances which Men are placed in And what can more Vindicate the Justice and Goodness of God from any reasonable Exception than This That there are particular Virtues appropriated to every sort of Persons and Accidents and that no Circumstance of Life is possible or supposable but it may be adorned and recommended by Virtues which are seasonable and distinguishing for that very Condition This Variety of Virtues then is far from a Natural Weakness it is not owing to Nature but to Fortune and Providence and is so far from a Disparagement that it is rather an Ornament and Advantage to the World Indeed if Nature have any thing to do in it it is the Nature of Virtue it self for even Almighty God who is Goodness in Perfection yet does not exercise both Justice and Mercy for Instance at once to the same Person and in the same respects And how is Man the worse for not doing things inconsistent and incompatible and what even Almighty God himself does not do The same may be said of the Defects of Justice taken Notice of afterwards at least in some degree Those being the unavoidable Consequences of Multitudes incorporated into Civil Societies and so many Interests nicely interwoven with one another All which I thought it my Duty to hint at thereby to prevent any mean repining or ungrateful Thoughts which such Reflections as These when lavishly spoken or unwarily received might be apt to raise in Men's Minds to the Disquiet of their own Hearts and the Dishonour
with thy Grace and take me for thy own that I who am of my self miserable and poor and naked and blind and weak may be able to do even all things through Christ who strengtheneth me These are proper Addresses upon such an occasion but the properest and most probable method to obtain them that is to incline the Compassion of God and dispose him to gratify such Desires will be strict Moral Honesty and a Conscientious Observation of the Law of Nature to the best of our power For this though it be not an absolutely Meritorious Cause is yet a Conditional one and a good Preparation for the receiving Supernatural Assistances as Matter ready disposed is cloathed with the Form and the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul derived from our Parents lead the way and put all things in readiness for the Accession of the Rational and Intellectual one which proceeds from God Thus Human Wisdom is the Introduction to Divine Philosophy the Handmaid to Religion the Natural and Moral Duties of a Man subservient and Instrumental to the Liberty of a Christian the Light and Favour of the Children of God He who does his best in the matters of Reason and Morality gives God an occasion of exercising his Bounty and bestowing larger and nobler Virtues upon him It being an equitable Method and such as our Blessed Saviour assures us God himself proceeds by to trust that Man with more and greater Talents who hath approved himself diligent and faithful in the good management of less To this purpose are all those Holy Aphorisms Thou hast been faithful in a very little be thou ruler over much God giveth the Holy Spirit to all them that ask him To Him that hath shall be given and He shall have abundance God denies no man Grace who does his utmost God is wanting to no Man in necessary Supplies and the like On the other hand To live in Contradiction and Defiance to Men's Natural Light is to put one's self out of all Capacity of God's Favour and as much as in us lies to make it impossible for Grace to be given us Since He who gives it hath expresly declared upon what Conditions Men are allowed to expect it and if He exceeds those Measures and bestows it upon persons wholly unqualified This is beside the Common Method and an excepted Case from his regular Dispensations This obstinacy and perverseness is expresly mentioned as the Reason why our Saviour refused to preach in some particular places and since the Evangelists St. Cyril St. Chry oslem St. Augustin and other of the Fathers have largely discoursed upon that matter to this purpose By all which it appears evidently that Grace and Nature are not contrary Principles for in the Sense I have all along used the Term in this Chapter Grace is so far from forcing or destroying Nature that it is a gentle and seasonable Relief to it nay it strengthens and crowns and perfects Nature We must not therefore set these two in opposition to each other but join both together and put on the One as the Ornament the Fulness and just Finishing of the Other Both proceed from God though after different manners and therefore we must neither put them at variance nor confound them for want of duly distinguishing them asunder for each hath its proper Springs and peculiar Motions They neither set out together nor operate alike though both came from the same place and lead to the same End at last Nature may be without Grace and when duly followed hath its commendation even then in regard to those Circumstances which admitted of no more Thus it was with the Philosophers and Great Men heretofore Persons whose Proficiency under this First and General Law and their Attainments in all sorts of Moral Virtue may be allowed to excite our Wonder as well as challenge our Praise Such likewise is the Case of all Infidels at this day because the Grace we speak of is a Gospel-Blessing and They who are not under the Evangelical Covenant have no Title to it But Grace cannot be without Nature because This is the Matter for it to work upon for the business of Grace is to reform and perfect and therefore This as necessarily supposes Nature as the raising of a Roof supposes a Foundation to be laid and Walls already carried up The Organist may exercise his Fingers 't is true upon the dumb Keys and make his Hand but the Harmony must come from the Breath or if it could sound yet would it be but like St. Paul's tinkling Cymbal of no worth or significancy at all But all the Air in the World will never make Musick of the Instrument without a Hand to strike the Keys In This I have been the more particular and descended to familiar Comparisons because Some I find have suffered themselves to be led into very gross Mistakes upon the matter Persons who have never conceived a right and worthy Notion of that true Probity and entirely Honest Principle we have been recommending but are blown up with strange Romantick Conceits of Grace which they doubt not to attain and practise eminently well without any regard to Morality and by a Scheme of Pharisaical Accomplishments some easy lazy sormal Performances which carry a great appearance of Sanctity to the World but as for the real Substance and inward Power of Goodness and Integrity they give themselves no trouble at all about it I see great store of these Men in the World every day but alas I can find but very few such as Aristides Phocion Cato Regulus Socrates no Epaminonda's no Scipio's no Strict and Conscientious Professors I mean of stanch and solid Virtue and Philosophical or if you please common Justice and downright Moral Honesty The Reproaches and Complaints so liberally bestowed by our Saviour upon the Pharisees and Hypocrites will never be out of season for the persons obnoxious to these always abound and even those who set up for the Great Censors of Manners the Zealous Railers at Vice and Grave Reformers of the World are not all exempt from this Charge themselves But enough of this I have spoken largely of the Virtue it self now before I close this Chapter I must take leave to add one word concerning the disposition of Mind contrary to it Now Wickedness or Evil Practices and Temper is against Nature it is deformed odious Wickedness and offensive all that can judge and discern must needs detest and loath it which gave occasion for some to say That it is a monstrous Birth the Product of Brutality and Ignorance It does not only provoke the Dislike and Aversion of others but raises the Indignation of a Man 's own Mind who is guilty of it Repentance and Self-condemnation are its certain Consequences It gnaws and corrodes and frets the Soul like an Ulcer in the Flesh makes one restless and uneasy out of Countenance and out of Conceit with himself and is ever busy in contriving and inflicting fresh Torments
Grace at the bottom but by the Figure and all the outward appearances they make they very much resemble the Persons mentioned before who are so immoderately zealous for Religion that they have little or no concern for any thing besides marvellously satisfied with Themselves and merciless Censurers of all the World besides And these are the Men that make all manner of Probity and Good Actions to be a consequent and attendant upon Religion wholly to depend upon and entirely to be devoted to it and so they acknowledge no such thing as Principles of Natural Justice or Probity of Mind and otherwise than they are derived from and moved by the Springs of Considerations purely Religious Now the Matter is far otherwise for Religion is not only after it in Time but more limited and particular in its Extent This is a distinct Virtue and not the Comprehension and Sum of all Virtues and as the Instances of Pharisees and Hypecrites here prove may subsist without Them or that general good Disposition of Mind which we call Probity And so again may They be independent of Religion as the Examples of Philosophers and good Moral Heathens who we cannot say had ever any Religion properly so called shew on the other hand This is also according to the common Schemes of Theology a Moral Virtue a Branch of Justice which we know is one of the Four Cardinal Virtues and teaches us to give to All their Due according to their Quality and respective Claims Now God being Supreme the Maker and Master of the Universe we are bound to pay him the most profound Honour the most humble Obedience the most punctual and diligent Service This now is properly Religion and consequently it is a division under the General Topick of Justice Again These Persons as they mistake the Nature so do they likewise invert the Order of things for they make Religion antecedent to Probity But how can this be since as the Apostle says Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God how I say can That which is the Effect of Revelation and Instruction be the Cause of a Thing originally rooted in Nature born with us and inseparable from us For such is that Law and Light of God kindled in every Man's Breast and interwoven with the Constitution of the whole Species This therefore is plainly disturbing the true Order of these matters and turning them out of all method They would have a Man Virtuous and entirely Good merely for the Prospect of Heaven to allure or the Terrors of Hell to affright and awe him into his Duty But methinks those Expressions carry a very ill sound and speak a mean and vulgar Virtue ' If the Fear of the Divine Vengeance and Everlasting Damnation did not restrain me I would do thus or thus O pitiful cowardly Wretch what Sense what Notion hast thou of thy Duty what Inclinations dost thou cherish all this while what Motives dost thou act upon what Thanks dost thou deserve for all that is done upon such constraint and against thy own Will Thou art not wicked because thou darest not be so for fear of the Rod. Now I would have thee so perfect as not to want the Courage but the Inclination to do amiss I would have thee so resolutely good as not to commit the least Evil though thou wer 't sure never to be chidden never to be called to an account for it Thou playest the part of a Good Man that thou may'st be thanked and rewarded for thy pains I would have thee be really so without any prospect of hire or gain nay though none but thy self should ever be conscious of thy Virtue I would have thee so because the Laws and Dictates of Nature and Reason direct and Command thee to be so For Nature and Reason in this case are but another word for God and These Principles and That Light and the Original Distinctions of Good and Evil are his Will and his Laws issued in a different manner Because the Order and Good Government of the World whereof thou art a part require this at thy hands because thou canst not consent to be otherwise without acting against thy self in contradiction to thy Being to thy Interest to the End of thy Creation And when thou hast thus satisfied thy duty and acted upon these motives never be solicitous for the Event but persevere in Virtue in despight of any Sufferings or Dangers that may threaten thee When I urge This as the best Principle of doing well I do not wholly disallow all others nor utterly condemn that Probity required and cherished by the external motives of Recompence and Punishment as if These were unlawful to be proceeded upon Doubtless they have their Use and Efficacy are very proper for the reducing of Ill Men who must be treated in a more slavish and mercenary way and the Foundations thus laid at first come frequently to noble Improvements But still I call this a poorer and meaner Principle and would have my Wise Man aspire to something sublimer and more worthy his Character For This requires a brighter stronger and more generous Probity than the Common sort of Mankind may be allowed to take up with And even Divines have generally represented such a Piety as Servile Imperfect accommodated to the weaker and more ignorant and fitter for Babes and Beginners than for Strong and Masterly Christians This farther is very certain that the Probity wholly depending upon a Spirit of Zeal and Religion and having no regard to the Principles of Natural Light besides that it must needs be accidental and unequal in its Operations and want that Evenness and Constancy which was there largely shewn to be one of its Properties I add that This is a very dangerous Principle and does frequently pruduce horrid and scandalous effects for it makes all the Rules of Common Honesty subservient to Zeal for Religion and opens a Door for all those execrable Villanies which the dear-bought experience of all Ages hath too sensibly convinced us are capable of being committed under the fair Shew and Colour of Piety And These are really so dreadful and detestable that we have reason to question whether any other occasion or pretence in the World have done more mischief than those false but specious professions of Religion The Cause and Honour of God is indeed the Greatest the Noblest and most worthy our Zeal and if it were not all this in its own nature the abuse of it could never be so fatal as it is For Brave and Valuable things only are subjects for Hypocrisy and what is little and despicable as the right use of it does no great good so the perverting it to wrong purposes can do no mighty harm It is not therefore any Disparagement to Religion but the confess'd Excellency of it above any other Subject whatsoever that the Corruption and false Pretences of it are so pernicious Were it less good the abuse of it must have been
that Observation made to Craesus which one of the Potes hath illustrated thus â‚ Scilicet ultima sempet Expectanda dies homini dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Man must censured be by his Last Hour Whom truly we can never Happy call Before his Death and closing Funeral Sandys 'T is without all dispute a most Excellent Attainment to have learnt how to dye It is the Study of true Wisdom and that in which all its Rules Of knowing how to dye and all its Labours determine He that hath laid out his whole Life upon it hath put it to no ill use and He who among all the rest of his Qualifications is not Master of This hath thrown away all his Time and Pains to no manner of purpose That Man can never Live well who knows not how to Dye well and he hath lived to very good purpose who makes a happy End says Seneca A Man can no more govern and direct his Actions as he ought who does not keep Death in his Eye than an Archer can shoot well who never looks at the Mark. In one word The Art of Dying as becomes us is the Art of Liberty and an Easy Mind the way to get above all Fear and to live in perfect Happiness and Tranquility Without this there is no Pleasure in Life it is impossible indeed there should for who can enjoy That with Peace and Satisfaction which he esteems most valuable and dear and is tormented with perpetual anxious Fear of losing every Moment Now the First and Principal Step toward this is to make it our Care and constant Endeavour that our Vices may dye before us and then our next Care must be to live in constant Readiness and Expectation of dying our selves Who can express the happy Condition of that Man who hath husbanded his Talent and finished the Business of Life before Death approach to interrupt him So that when he comes to dye he hath nothing else to do but to dye no occasion to ask longer time no farther Business for this Body no need of any thing but can walk out of the World pleased and satisfied like a Guest after a full Meal All this I take to be comprehended in the Notion of our being always in a Readiness for Death There remains yet One Qualification more to be attained which is the being Willing as well as Ready for no Man dies well who goes out of the World with such Loathness and Reluctancy that it is mere matter of Constraint and plain he would fain but cannot stay here any longer The several Sentiments and Sorts of Behaviour which Men are capable of with regard to Death Five Sorts of Behaviour with regard to Death may in my Opinion be reduced to these Five that follow 1. They may Fear and Avoid it as the Last and greatest Evil. 2. They may expect and wait for it with great Easiness and Patience and Resignation of Mind as for a Thing which they look upon as Natural Unavoidable and not only Necessary but also Reasonable to be undergone 3. They may despise it as a Matter Indifferent and of no great Concern to them 4. They may wish for it pray for it make toward it as the only Safe Harbour which can give them Rest and Protection from the Troubles of This Life nay as that which will not only be a Deliverance but a Happiness a mighty Advantage as well as a perfect Security 5. They may bring it upon Themselves Now if we examine these Particulars the Second Third and Fourth will appear Commendable and Good the Thoughts and Resentments of a Virtuous and a Judicious Mind though it must be allowed that as they differ from each other so they are expected to move and affect the Man differently according to his present Circumstances For All of them are not commendable equally and at all times But for the First and Last they never are or can be so at all as being the Vicious Extremes of Weakness and Want of Virtue for how different soever the Effects may appear This is the same common Cause of them both I shall enlarge a little and try to illustrate each of these Particulars in this Chapter The First is what no understanding Person hath ever pretended to approve Fear of Death though indeed it be the Practice the Failing I ought to say of almost all the World And what can be a greater Reproach what a more undeniable Evidence of the Weakness of Mankind than that Every body in a manner should be guilty of That which No body dares undertake to defend But on the contrary against Those who labour under this painful Folly in Tenderness for Themselves or are thus concerned upon the account of Others we can never want Plenty of Arguments Among others These following Considerations may perhaps do something toward softning the Approach of our own Death or that of our Friends to us The effect of vain Opinion There is not in the World any Calamity which Mortals have such amazing Notions and live in such constant Terror of as Death and yet it is very evident there is nothing they call a Misfortune dreaded upon such Poor such Insignificant Grounds nay I must revoke those words Dreading and Misfortune too and dare venture to affirm there is not any thing which ought to be received with greater Satisfaction and a more resolved Mind So that we must be forced to confess in despight of all the Sophistry of Flesh and Blood to the contrary that This is a mere Vulgar Error Opinion hath charm'd and captivated all the World for Reason hath no hand at all in it We take it upon trust from the Ignorant and Unthinking Multitude and believe it a very great Evil because They tell us so but when Wisdom assures us that it is a Deliverance and sure Repose from all the Evils that can possibly befall us the only Haven where we can lye safely after the Waves and Storms of a Troublesome Tossing World we turn the deaf Ear and believe not one word she can say Thus much is certain Death when actually present never did any body hurt and none of those many Millions who have made the Experiment and now know what it is have made any Complaints of this nature concerning it If then Death must be called an Evil it hath this to say in its own Vindication That of all the Evils which are or ever were in the World This is the only one that does no body harm and in truth the mighty Dread of it proceeds merely from ghastly and monstrous Ideas which Men's vain Imaginations form of it at a distance There is nothing of Foundation or Reality at the bottom 't is all Opinion and Fancy nay 't is the very Instance in which Opinion pretends most to set up against Reason and attempts to fright us out of our Wits by shewing the hideous Vizor of Death For Reason to
destroy'd or profan'd by the Receiver's Fault If another will needs be wicked and act otherwise than becomes him this can never justifie my ceasing to be good But further The generous and noble Spirit distinguishes it self by Perseverance and triumphs in the Conquest of Ingratitude and Ill-nature when invincible Beneficence hath heaped Coals of Fire upon their Heads melted them down and softned them into good Temper and a better Sense of Things So says the Moralist * Optimi ingentis animi est tamdiu ferre ingratum donec feceris gratum vincit malos pertinax Bonitas A Great Soul bears the ingrateful Man so long till at last he makes him grateful for obstinate and resolute Goodness will conquer the worst of Men. The Last Direction I shall lay down upon this Occasion is That when a thing is given we should let a Man use and enjoy it quietly and not be troublesome and unseasonable with him like some who when they have put one into any Office or Preferment will needs be thrusting in their Oar and execute it for him Or else procure a Man some considerable Advantage and then make over what proportion of the Profits they see sit to themselves Receivers in such Cases ought not to endure the being thus imposed upon and any Resentments or Refusals made upon this Account are by no means the Marks of Ingratitude but a preservation of their own Rights And whatever the Benefactor may have contributed to our Preferment he wipes out the whole Score and acquits us of all our Obligations by these imperious and busie Interpositions The Story is not amiss concerning one of the Popes who being press'd hard by one of the Cardinals to do somewhat inconvenient or perhaps unjust in his Favour and as a Motive which was thought irresistible or at least a Resentment which he look'd upon as reasonable in case of refusal the Cardinal re-minding him that His Interest had been formerly at his Service and his Popedom was owing to it His Holiness very pertinently reply'd If You made me Pope pray let me be so and do not take back again the Authority you gave me After these several Rules for the directing Men in the Exercise of Beneficence it may be seasonable to observe Several sorts of Kindnesses that there are Benefits of several sorts some of them much more acceptable than others and thus some more and others less engaging Those are most welcome that come from the Hand of a Friend and one whom we are strongly dispos'd to love without any such Inducement As on the contrary it is very grievous and grating to be oblig'd by one of whom we have no Opinion and desire of all things not to be indebted to Those are likewise so which proceed from a Person whom we have formerly oblig'd our selves because This is not so much Gratuity as Justice and Payment of Arrears and so draws very little or no new Debt upon us Such again are those done in a time of Necessity and when our Occasions were very urgent These have a mighty Influence they utterly deface all past Injuries and Misunderstandings if any such there were and leave a strong Tie upon a Man's Honour as on the other Hand the denying our Assistance in Cases of Extremity is extremely unkind and wipes out all Remembrances of any former Benefits Such once more are Those that can be easily acknowledged and admit of a suitable Return as on the contrary such as the Receiver is out of all Capacity to requite commonly breed Hatred and a secret Dislike For there is a Pride in most Men that makes them uneasie to be always behind-hand and hence he who is sensible that he can never make amends for all he hath receiv'd every time that he sees his Benefactor fancies himself dogg'd by a Creditor upbraided by a living Witness of his Insufficiency or Ingratitude and these secret Reproaches of his own Mind give great Uneasiness and Discontent for no Bankrupt can bear being twitted with his Poverty Some again there are which the more free and honourable and respectful they are the more burdensom and weighty they are provided the Receiver be a Person of Honour and Principle Such I mean as bind the Consciences and the Wills of Men for they tie a Man up faster keep him more tight and render him more cautious and fearful of failing or forgetfulness A Man is Ten times more a Prisoner when confin'd by his own Word than if he were under Lock and Key It is easier to be bound by Legal and publick Restraints and Forms of Engagements than by the Laws of Honour and Conscience and Two Notaries in this Case are better than One. When a Man says I desire nothing but your Word I depend upon your Honesty such a one indeed shews greater respect But if he be sure of his Man he puts him upon a stricter Obligation and himself upon better Security than Bonds and Judgments A Man who engages nothing but his Word is always in Fear and Constraint and upon his Guard lest he should forfeit or forget it Your Mortgagee and he that is under the power of Legal Forms is deliver'd from that Anxiety and depends upon his Creditor's Instruments which will not sail to refresh his Memory when the Bonds become due Where there is any external Force the Will is always less intent and where the Constraint is less there in proportion the Application of the Will is greater * Quod me Jus cogit vix à Voluntate impetrem What the Law compels me to is very haâ—dly my own Choice for I do not properly choose but submit to it Benefits produce Obligations Of the Obligation and from Obligations again fresh Benefits spring up So that Beneficence is reciprocally the Child and the Parent the Effect and the Cause and there is a twofold Obligation which we may distinguish by an Active and a Passive Obligation Parents and Princes and all Superiours are bound in Duty and by virtue of their Station to procure the Benefit and Advantage of Those whom either the Laws and Order of Nature or the political Constitutions of Government or any other Law relating to their Post have committed to their Inspection and Care And not only so but All in general whether their Character be Publick or not if they have Wealth and Power are by the Law of Nature oblig'd to extend their Help and Bounty towards the Necessitous and Distress'd And this is the first sort of Obligation But then from good Offices thus done whether they be in some regard owing to us as flowing from the Duty incumbent upon the Benefactor by virtue of this former Engagement Or whether they be the effect of pure Choice entirely Grace and nothing of Debt there arises the Second sort of Obligation whereby the Receivers are bound to acknowledge the Kindness and to be thankful for it All this mutual Exchange and propagation of Engagements and good
Excellencies of Vlysses puts this of Skill in retreating into his Characler The Lacedaemonians who pretended to the most obstinate Courage of any Nation in the World yet in that renowned action of Platea gave ground on purpose to break the Persian Troops and disorder them in the pursuit This was an advantage which they had no other way of compassing and the Success answered the wisdom of the Design for they won the Day by this Feint of losing it In a word the most warlike Countrys in the World have given it authority and never thought themselves dishonoured by the Practice Nay even the Stoicks after all their impracticable and romantick Stretches of humane nature are content to allow their wise Man so far as looking Pale and shivering at new and surprising Accidents provided this be only a bodily Affection and that it do not enter so deep or last so long as to give the Soul any part of the Disorder And thus much may suffice to possess us with a true Idea of Fortitude or Courage in general Of the particular Objects and Exercise of Fortitude NOW that we may cut our Work out and lay it in due order it is necessary in the first place that I put my Reader in remembrance that this Virtue undertakes to deal with all that whatever it be which is called Evil according to the most popular and extensive signification of the Word Now this Evil is of two sorts either External or Internal The former is that which assaults us from without and goes by great variety of Names such as Adversity Afflictions Injuries Misfortunes Casualties or unwelcome Accidents The other arises from within and hath its residence in the Soul but it is excited and agitated by the Evil from without Such particularly are those Passions which disturb and discontent us as Fear Grief Anger and the rest of that black disorderly Crew It will be proper for us to speak to each part of this Division fully and distinctly to explain their Operations to provide Men with proper Remedies and sufficient means for the subduing and softening and regulating these Grievances And such are the Arguments and Directions for the Virtue of Fortitude now under our Consideration Consequently then what you are to expect upon this Subject will consist of two parts the one respecting the Calamities and Disastrous Accidents of our Lives the other concerning the Passions which these Accidents provoke and stimulate in our Minds And here my Reader must recollect that the general Directions thought necessary for the bearing good or ill Fortune decently he hath been supplyed with already So that referring him back to the second Book Rock II. Chap. 7. for what regards Prosperity and Adversity in the gross he is only to expect now that we should descend to the particular sorts of Misfortunes and what is â—it to be prescribed for each of them respectively CHAP. XX. Of External Evils WE may consider these External Evils in three several respects First with regard to the causes or occasions of them which shall make the Subject of this Chapter next in their Effects and lastly with regard to what they are in themselves where I shall treat of the several Species of them distinctly And under each of these Heads I will make it my endeavour to lay down such Rules and Directions as may sustain us under and fortifie us against them The Causes or Occasions of these afflicting Accidents which are capable of happening to every one of us may be publick or general when they affect a great many at the same time when whole Kingdoms or Neighbourhoods at least are involved at once such as Pestilence Famine War Tyranny and Oppression And these for the most part are Rods of the divine Vengeance Scourges sent by him to chastise the exorbitant Wickedness of obstinate Men who resuse to be won over by gentler methods of Reformation At least we know not what immediate cause to ascribe them to or else they are private Calamities and such as we are able to trace up to their first Author and Original that is they are inflicted and brought upon us by some other Person And thus both the private and publick Misfortunes are of two forts Now the publick Calamities those I mean which proceed from a general Cause though they do really come home to each single Person yet are they in different respects more or less grievous important and dangerous than the private ones of which we are able to give a distinct and particular account They are more so because they assault us with united force fall on in Troops and with greater violence make a louder noise rage more horribly have a longer and blacker train of ill Consequences attending them are more perplexing and amazing and create greater Disorders and a more general Confusion But then they are less so too in regard of their being thus general and for the numbers which are involved in them together For when a Disaster is common every Man is apt to think his own share of it the less It is some kind of comfort to think that we are not singled out for Examples and for this reason the efficacy of such Corrections is usually the less for every Man takes Sanctuary in the commonness of the Calamity and imputes it to some universal disorder in Nature or to some unusual concurrence of natural Causes and so shelters himself in the Crowd by vain pretences which personal afflictions leave no room for And besides daily experience shews that the Evils brought upon us by other Men gall us more sensibly and go nearer to the Quick and have a greater influence upon our Minds than any of the former sort are wont to do Now all these both of the one and the other sort have several proper Remedies and Considerations to qualifie and render them very supportable to us as particularly these that follow When we have any publick Calamities to encounter it will become us very seriously to reflect whence they come and by whom they are sent That the Cause and Author of them is God an Omnipotent and All-wise Providence whose Pleasure we are subject to and have an absolute and entire dependence upon that he governs and disposes all things and holds those vain Men in derision who hope to burst his Bands asimder and to cast away his Cords from them that we and all the whole Creation are tied by Laws of an invincible necessity and that the strongest Combinations nay the universal joynt strength of the whole World is much too weak to reverse or resist his Will Most certain it is that Providence and Necessity or Destiny when we speak strictly and properly are but one and the same thing There is no essential disserence between them or the Laws upon which they proceed and all they vary in is only as to those different respects which we are used to consider and reason upon them in Now to murmur and repine and torment our selves
and Offences for indeed they are no small advantages which these put into our hands particularly they are capable of turning to very good account two ways with regard to each of the parties concerned in them For first with regard to the person who did the Injury this hath discovered the Man to us we have seen a little more of the World we know such a one two well to trust him another time and have fair warning to avoid him ever after But then Secondly they help us to know our selves too shew us our own infirmities our breaches and blind sides where the Foe may get within us and what we cannot hold out against and this gives us warning to work upon those breaches and put them in a defensible condition against the next attack upon us Let us learn to amend that fault too which occasion'd the abuse that no other Man may have the like provocation to reproach us hereafter This is the true way of defeating the malice of others and doing right to our selves for what nobler Revenge can a Man take upon his Enemies than to turn their injuries and affronts to his own Prout and to learn more Prudence and Conduct and to grow the wiser and better more cautious and inoffensive by being ill used The World at this rate is an excellent School and the more unreasonable Men are the more a Man of good fense and temper may improve himself under their even unjust Corrections CHAP. XXI Of External Evils with regard to their Fruits and Effects HAving thus consider'd the Causes let us now enquire into the effects of our evils and what fruits they produce where again we shall meet with very powerful Antidotes and substantial remedies against them Now these effects are many and great general and particular The general effects are such as concern the good the support the order and improvement of the Universe The World would be quire stified and choak'd up it would Stagnate and putrifie if it were not sometimes stirred and changed and put into a new form by such important and alterative accidents as Plagues and Famines and War and Mortality these are the things that prune and purge it and throw down that product which overburdens the soil and by so doing they preserve the rest and give them elbow-room for were there no such evacuations we should not be able to move and live by one another But then consider the grateful Varieties and Vicissitudes the regular Successions and alternate Changes by which the World is thus adorned and beautified every part of the world finds some convenience by these alterations For from Nations and Men coming to be transplanted by such means the barbarous and wild and savage part of Mankind are polished and civilized Arts and Sciences Learning and Policy are spread wider and communicated to every part of the habitable Earth so that we are to look upon the Universe as one large Plantation where some Trees are removed to a more convenient Soil others are grasted and inoculated others cut down to the root that they make more regular shoots by the loss of superfluous suckers others quite plucked up but all this done in such order by the skillful Cultivater that every thing tends to thâ— profit and beauty of the ground These enlargements of our Thoughts and considerations of Universal advantage ought to content every Wife and good Man and prevent irreverent reflections upon those wonderful works of God which Men are too apt to accuse for barbarous and disorderly or to look upon with amazement as strange and unaccountable It is enough that they are the ordinances of God and nature and ought to satisfie us that how odd soever they may appear with regard to that little spot of ground which is commanded by our own Eye yet they do great and signal service to the whole For would we extend our prospect we should quickly discern that what is lost in one place is gained in another or rather indeed to speak more properly that nothing is lost any where but all conduces to the just variety and convenience of the World in general * Vir sapiens nihil indignetur sibi accidere sciatque illa ipsa quibus laedi videtur ad conservationem universi pertinere ex his esse quae cursum munch officiumque consummant A Wise Man says one will take nothing amiss that happens to him for he will observe that those very things by which his particular Interests seem to suffer are expedient and greatly contribute to the preservation of the whole and that these are the methods by which the course of the World is continued and every part of it brought to its just and necessary perfection The particular and personal effects of these evils are different according to the various tempers and conditions of the Men to whom they happen To the good they are an exercise and trial to those that are fallen a relief and recovery a warning and call to them that go astray and to the obstinately wicked a dispensation of Punishment and Vengeance Of each of these uses I shall say but one word or two very briefly And first these external evils provide the good Men excellent opportunities of exerting and improving their Virtue which would otherwise want matter to work upon and lie idle and undiscerned A good Man under affliction is in the same circumstances with Fencers in their Schools or Mariners in a Storm or Soldiers in an Action or Philosophers in their Academy that is he is upon his proper duty attending the business of his profession and shewing his skill in it for these are the very methods that instruct and enter and sorm and finish him in Virtue that establish him in Constancy and Courage and enable him to conquer and triumph over Fortune and the World They bring him acquainted with himself make him know his own strength by frequent experiments tell him what he may depend upon and promise himself from it nor do they only give him a true representation of his past and present condition but they help to amend it too they encourage and confirm his resolutions of doing well harden and accustom him to suffering fix and determine his mind secure his past conquests and render him invincible for the time to come Whereas on the contrary a long calm of prosperity is exceeding apt to soften and enervate Men's minds and to corrupt them by ease and leisure carelessness and sloth inactivity and long disuse Demetrius for this reason used to say that of all Men living he thought none so truly miserable as those who had never met with disappointments and crosses and trying afflictions and compared their life to the dead sea where there is a perpetual Stagnation and noxious vapours breed and reign for want of winds and a vigorous commotion of the waters to break and disperse and drive them away To Delinquents and inconsiderate Offenders these afflictions are a check and