Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	nature_n	power_n	3,155	5	5.1866	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62729	Euphuia, or The acts, and characters of a good nature. Written by Tho. Tanner G.J.E.	Tanner, Thomas, 1630-1682.	1665 (1665)	Wing T142; ESTC R220783	57,475	118

EUPHUIA OR THE ACTS AND CHARACTERS OF A GOOD NATURE Written By THO. TANNER G.J.E. Nemo repenté fit turpissimus LONDON Printed for John Crook at the Sign of the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1665. Reader HAving well considered of my Friends and acquaintance I find that this piece such as it is being writ by no one patern can deserve no other Patron then its own subject the common Good Nature Neither was it without some reluctancy e're I could be brought to acknowledge it my self being vanquished at last in this That it was the more shame of the two to seem to disown it As if I might not appear in publick as confidently as another Or were afraid to justifie the contents of it since to write for simple vertue not pretending much to wit or Learning is but mean and out of fashion Or in fine as if I would have it thought That it is not worthy of my cognisance for want of accomplishment both of Style and Method having done it indeed in a transitory state as some of my friends know and examined my references since But as it is come to this pass It was at first in my liberty to write what I pleased below the ambition of perpetuity and to communicate with my Friends and it was in theirs afterwards to commend it and in the Stationers from them to run the risque of its popularity And now it is in yours to censure as you think meet which I know the common forms of Apology neither can restrain nor qualify Nor can I be excused on pretense of necessity if that of meer idleness in the making and easiness in the parting with it will not serve Only if you purpose to proceed I am to meet you with this anticipation That I do not account moral vertues to subside or be determined in the Acts of a Good Nature that flow as it were ex tempore and ever bear themselves in the same posture but I suppose them to be vertuous even without and beyond intention not disparageable with imperfection in their kind or distinguishable from the matter or form of higher vertues but rather to be such fundamental rudiments without which no vertue can be grounded or improved such seeds of excellency as cannot be acquired by art of industry and native worth in some that is inimitable unto others If moral vertue had been my Argument I should have founded it in rule and reason and will and the use of Fortune A thing so considerable in it that for that cause of all the lives that have been written rarely can a man find an apt example for his imitation Or in all the Comments apposite words and cases to apply to his occasion So that oftentimes the Learned and well-principled when they come to practise act like other men and are exceeded by meerly prompter spirits Besides that through necessity a man can hardly arrive to acts of generosity or come off with splendor which in some sort of vertue is plainly requisite But in this subject all magnificent pens have gloried mine has only travel'd in the Accedence of Morality And when I found some wit that attireth all vice in the dress of Nature some Politiques that make interest more intrinsecal then the common notions and some Authority slighting all actions not intended and squared to a prescript rule I thought somewhat was of right to be asserted from them and not to let their Natural endowments deprive all other of their Moral Wherein if I may be serious I undertake the cause of all ages and of all particulars since the same that seem to traduce this simple Nature in effect do seek it most exquisitely in their wives and friends and children And so I pass gentle Reader into your power as a person bound by my own principles to be void of interest and ambition Though I know I must be judged like those that have written de contemnendâ gloriâ But what I cannot possibly avoid in a matter of no greater moment I may readily embrace and retire notwithstanding safe in obscurity Euphuia c. § 1. AS the skilful Herbalists when they go on simpling do not make choice of curious gardens for the boundaries of their search but rather choose to traverse the wide World to find the variety of Natures sprinkling So if we seek for strippes and springs of goodly dispositions we must not be confined to noble Cultures but every field and Grove with the wilds and wasts of the Hundred may afford as well as they somewhat worthy of our transplanting or collecting For as Marius pleadeth in excusing the obscurity of his birth that Nature is but one and common unto all so it is here And wherever it is found in greater force or better temper there it is the more generous Why should we stand gazing at the steps and nods of Princes if not to lead us into error and admiration 'T is art whatsoever we observe Nature affordeth nothing else but motion Or why should we only wander in the Common to regard the rude and undisciplin'd Nature is restrained there from play wherein she would affect to shew her gayety through ignorance and want of conversation Or if we still hold our judgments unprejudicated why should we not compare them with the mean while we often see the high born and bred to have but weak and passive spirits and some that sprout up among the stubs to culminate with the Cedars and to gather as they grow the flower of all accomplishments But we are not to travel in extremities We may find the characters of beauty and perfection in a Pastoral as well as in a Tragaedy And therefore we will take all indifferently in our observation though the Great are our only instances and the Mean when they are produced are not known What should we stand to dispute whether vertue be more from Nature or from Discipline since that would only be to argue in the figure of the word We take it not for strength Natural which is equally applicable to good or evil or for any Act according to election which may be only from the dictate of our reason and besides our inclination but we take it for a rectitude of moral dispositions from whence we account a person good and well-conditioned who is so endowed Education may teach us good manners as they are in fashion but it doth not weaken malice but rather helps it to be more artificial Study may amend the Principles restrain the progress of a vice correct the tenor of our Life but it cannot render any one so gracious or so acceptable as a good nature untutored In fine the force of fortune hath no little influence upon our tempers to disguise us from our selves and others Wherefore in enquiring after good Nature we may sooner find our game among the Humanists then among the School-men and put her up with a pack of descriptions than take her in the chace as it were with