sober countenance better conceiveth and reteineth the good things uttered and withall hath more leasure to marke observe and discerne that which is either unprofitable or false He sheweth himselfe besides to be a lover of the trueth and is not taken for a litigious quareller a rash wrangler or abitterbrawler And therefore some there be who not unaptly say That we ought no lesse but rather more to void out of the minds of yoong men that presumption and foolish opinion which they have of their owne selves than to rid and exclude the winde and aire out of leather bagges or bladders wherewith they are puft and blowen up if we meane to infuse and put any good thing into them for otherwise if they be still full of that swelling winde of arrogancie and overweening of themselves they will never receive and admit any goodnesse Moreover envie accompanied with a maligne eie and ill will is good in no action whatsoever where it is present but as it is an impediment and hinderance to all honest causes so it is the woorst counsellor and assistant that he can have who would be an auditor making all those things that be profitable and for his benefit to seeme odious unpleasant harsh to the eare and hardly admitted for that the nature of envious persons is to take more pleasure in any thing else than in that which is well spoken And verily whosoever repineth and is vexed at the heart to see others rich beautifull or in authoritie is onely envious for greeved he is at the welfare of others but he that taketh discontentment in hearing a wise and sententious speech is offended with the good of his owne selfe for like as the light is a benefit to them that see even so is speech unto the hearers if they will embrace and entertaine the same As for those kinds of envie which arise in regard of other things there be some naughtie passions and vitious conditions of the minde besides that breed and ingender them but that maner of envie which is conceived against them that speake excellently well springeth from a certeine important desire of vaine glorie and unjust ambition which will not suffer him that is so indisposed to give eare and attend unto the words spoken but troubleth disquieteth and distracteth the minde and understanding both to consider at one instant his owne state and sufficiencie whether it be inferior to the conceit and eloquence of the speaker and also to regard and looke upon the countenance of other hearers whether they take contentment and are in admiration of him that maketh the speech yea and withall is happly he be praifed the same minde is woonderfully galled and amazed angrie and ready to fall out with all that be present in case they approove his speech with applanse Herewith it letteth slip also and rejecteth the matter and good sayings that were delivered already for that the remembrance thereof is unsaverie and unpleasant and still he is disquieted and wotteth not what to do hearing out the rest with feare and trembling list haply they should be better than the former never so desirous that the speakers should hasten to an end and have done as when they discourse and speake best Now when the Sermon is ended and the auditorie dissolved what doth this envious spirit then not ruminate be you sure nor consider of the reason and matter delivered but he stirreth the affections and opinions striaghtwaies and gathereth voice as it were in a scrutinie of the audience If he meet with any that give out good words to the praise of the Preacher them hee avoideth and fleeth from as if he were in a furious fit of madnesse hapneth he upon such as finde fault and be ready to misconstrue and prevert the words that were spoken to the woorst sense these are they whom hee loveth a life to them he runneth and with them hee sorteth and keepeth companie But say that he finde none of that disposition so as he can not wrest any words to a wrong construction then he falleth to make comparisons and to set against him others yoonger than he who of the same theame have discoursed better with more plausible utterance and greater sorce of eloquence he never ceaseth nor giveth over corrupting misinterpreting and disgracing the whole speech untill he have made the same altogether unprofitable and without any edificat at all to his owne selfe It behooveth therefore that he who desireth to heare take truce for the time with ambition to the end that hee may give eare with patience and mildnesse unto him that maketh an oration or sermon and cary himselfe no otherwise than if he were admitted to some sacred and festival banket or an invited guest to the first frmits of a solemne sacrifice praising his eloquence when he hath spoken well and sufficiently to the piint in any matter accepting favourably and in best part his good will to deliver and communicate to others such things as he knew and to perswade his hearers with those reasons and motives which had induced and perswade himselfe Neither must our auditours make this reckoning and conclusion That whatsoever hath beene singularly well delivered by the speaker ought to be ascribed to chance and fortune as if he hada let fall his words at aventuer but impute the same to his diligence labour and art yea and he ought to imitate the same with a kinde of zeale and admiration But whereas he hath faulted and done amisse it is the part of an hearer to bend his minde and consider well and circumspectly what might the cause and occision be of such errour For like as accoding to Xenophon good houshoulders know how to make profit and use aswell of their enemies as their friends even so they that be vigilant and attentive hearers take good not onely by them that speake well but by those also that misse and faile of their purpose for barren triviall and stale invention improper vaine and unsignificant words forced and follish figures abrupt fond and unseemly breakings foorth with joy to some praise and such like impertinences or defects which often times besall unto them that speake in publike place are sooner espied by us that are hearers than observed by themselves who are the speakers And therefore we are to transferre the inquisition and correction of any such fault from them to our selves by examining whether we also may not fault like wise before we be aware For there is nothing in the world more easie than for a man to blame and reprehend his neighbour but such a reprehension verily is vaine and unprofitable unlesse it have a reference to correct and amend the like errours in himselfe In which regard every one ought to be ready in this case according to the advertisement of Plato to say into himselfe Am not I also such an one or doe not I the semblable otherwhiles For even as we see our owne eies shining within the ball or apple or
sophisters so that according to their doctrine we are to make this definition of sovereigne good even the avoidance of evill for how can one lodge any joy or place the said good but onely there from whence paine and evil hath beene dislodged remooved To the same effect writeth Epicurus also to wit That the nature of a good thing is ingendred and ariseth from the eschuing shunning of evill as also that it proceedeth from the remembrance cogitation and joy which one conceiveth in that such a thing hapned unto him For surely it is an inestimable and incomparable pleasure by his saying to wit the knowledge alone that one hath escaped some notable hurt or great danger And this quoth he is certainly the nature and essence of the soveraigne good if thou wilt directly apply thy selfe thereto as it is meet and then anon rest and stay therein without wandering to and fro heere and there prating and babling I wot not what concerning the definition of the said sovereigne good O the great felicitie and goodly pleasure which these men enjoy rejoicing as they doe in this that they endure none evill feele no paine nor suffer sorow Have they not thinke you great cause to glorifie to say as they doe calling themselves immortal and gods fellowes Have they not reason for these their grandeurs and exceeding sublimites of their blessings to cry out with open mouth as if they were possessed with the frantike furie of Bacchus priests to breake foorth into lowd exclamation for joy that surpassing all other men in wisedome and quicknesse of wit they onely have found out the sovereigne celestiall and divine good and that which hath no mixture at all of evill So that now their beatitude and felicitie is nothing inferior to that of swine and sheepe in that they repose true happinesse in the good and sufficient estate of the flesh principally and of the soule likewise in regard of the flesh of hogges I say and sheepe for to speake of other beasts which are of a more civill gentle and gallant nature the height and perfection of their good standeth not upon the avoiding of evil considering that when they are full and have stored their crawes some fall to singing and crowing others to swimming some give themselves to flie others to counterfeit all kinds of notes and sounds disporting for joy of heart and the pleasure that they take they use to plaie together they make pastime they hoppe leape skippe and daunce one with another she wing thereby that after they have escaped some evill nature inciteth and stirreth them to seeke forward and looke after that which is good or rather indeed that they reject and cast from them all that which is dolorous and contrary to their nature as if it stood in their way and hindred them in the pursute of that which is better more proper natural unto them for that which is necessarie is not straight waies simplie good but surely the thing that in truth is desirable and woorthie to be chosen above the rest is situate farther and reacheth beyond the avoidance of evill I meane that which is indeed pleasant and familiar to nature as Plato said who forbad expresly to call or once to esteeme the deliverance of paine and sorrow either pleasure or joy but to take them as it were for the rude Sciographie or first draught of a painter or a mixture of that which is proper and strange familiar and unnaturall like as of blacke and white But some there be who mounting from the bottom to the mids for want of knowledge what is the lowest and the middle take the middle for the top and the highest pitch as Epicurus Metrodorus have done who defined the essential nature and substance of the soveraigne good to be the deliverance and riddance from evill contenting themselves with the joy of slaves and captives who are enlarged and delivered out of prison or eased of their irons who take it to be a great pleasure done unto them in case they be gently washed bathed and annointed after their whipping-cheere and when their flesh hath beene torne with scourges meane-while they have no taste at all or knowledge of pure true and liberal joyes indeed such as be sincere cleane and not blemished with any scarres or cicatrices for those they never saw nor came where they grew for say that the scurfe scabbe and manginesse of the flesh say that the bleerednesse or gummy watering of rheumatike eies be troublesome infirmities and such as nature cannot away withall it followeth not heereupon that the scraping and scratching of the skinne or the rubbing and clensing of the eies should bee such woonderfull matters as to bee counted felicities neither if we admit that the superstitious feare of the gods and the grievous anguish and trouble arising from that which is reported of the divels in hell be evill we are not to inferre by and by that to be exempt and delivered there fro is happinesse felicitie and that which is to be so greatly wished and desired certes the assigne a very straight roome and narrow place for their joy wherein to turne to walke too rome and tumble at ease so farre foorth onely as not to be terrified or dismaied with the apprehension of the paines and torments described in hell the onely thing that they desire Lo how their opinion which so farre passeth the common sort of people setteth downe for the finall end of theri singular wisedome a thing which it seemeth the very brute beasts hate even of thēselves for as touching that firme constitution and indolence of the body it makes no matter whether of it selfe or by nature it be void of paine and sicknesse no more in the tranquillitie and repose of the soule skilleth it much where by the owne industrie or benefit of nature it be delivered from feare and terror and yet verily a man may well say and with great reason that the disposition is more firme and strong which naturally admitteth nothing to trouble and torment it than that which with judgement and by the light and guidance of learning doth avoid it But set the case that the one were as effectuall and powerfull as the other then verily it will appeere at leastwise that in this behalfe they have no advantage and preeminence above brute beasts to wit in that they feele no anguish nor trouble of spirit for those things which are reported either of the divels in hel or the gods in heaven nor feare at all paines and torments expecting when they shall have an end That this is true Epicurus verily himselfe hath put downe in writing If quoth he the suspicious and imaginations of the meteores and impressions which both are and doe appeare in the aire and skie above did not trouble us nor yet those of death and the pangs thereof we should have no need at all to have recourse unto the naturall causes of all those things no more
delights and pleasures as in travels and paines yea and generally in every action enterprising nothing assuredly and with confidence whereas we ought to deale by our body as with the saile of ship that is to say neither to draw it in keepe it down too straight in time of calme faire 〈◊〉 nor to spred and let it out over slacke and negligently when there is presented some 〈◊〉 of a tempest but as occasion shall require to spare it and give some ease and remission that afterwards it may be fresh and lightsome as hath beene said already and not to slacke the time and stay untill we sensibly feele crudities laskes inflamations or contrariwise stupidities and mortifications of members by which signes being as it were messengers and ushers going before a feaver which is hard at the dore hardly wil some be so much moved as to keepe in and restraine themselves no not when the very accesse and fit is readie to surprise them but rather long before to be provident and to prevent a tempest So soone as from some rocke we finde The puffing gales of northern winde For absurd it is and to no purpose to give such carefull heed unto the crying wide throates of crowes or to the craing and cackling of hennes or to swine when in a rage they tosse and fling straw about them as Democritus saith thereby to gather presages prognostications of wind raine and stormes and in the meane time not to observe the motions troubles and fiering indispositions of our bodie nor prevent the same ne yet to gather undoubted signes of a tempest ready to rise and grow even out thereof And therefore we ought not onely to have an eie unto the bodie for meat and drinke and for bodily exercises in observing whether we fall unto them more lazily and unwillingly than our manner was before time or contrariwise whether our hunger and thirst be more than ordinary but also wee are to suspect and feare if our sleeps be not milde and continued but broken interrupted we must besides regard our very dreames namely whether they be strange and unusuall for if there be represented extraordinarie fansies and imaginations they testifie and shew a repletion of grosse viscuous or slimy humours and a great perturbation of the spirits within Otherwhiles also it hapneth that the motions of the soule it selfe doe fore-signifie unto us that the body is in some neere danger of disease for many times men are surprised with timorous fittes of melancholy and heartlesse distrusts without any reason or evident cause the which suddenly extinguish all their hopes you shall have some upon every small occasion apt to fall into cholerick passions of anger they become eager and hastie troubled pensive and offended with a little thing insomuch as they will be ready to weepe and runne all to teares yea and languish for griefe and sorrow And all this commeth when evill vapours sowre and bitter fumes ingendred within doe arise and steeme up and so as Plato saith be intermingled in the waies and passages of the soule Those persons therefore who are subject to such things ought to thinke and consider with themselves that if there be no spirituall cause thereof it cannot chuse but some corporall matter had need either of evacution alteration or suppression Expedient also it is and very profitable for us when we visit our friends that be sicke to enquire diligently the causes of their maladies not upon a cavilling curiosity or vaine ostentation to dispute sophistically and discourse thereof only or to make a shew of our eloquence in talking of the instances the insults the intercidences communities of diseases and all to shew what books we have read that we know the words tearmes of physick but to make search and enquirie in good earnest and not slightly or by the way as touching these slight common and vulgar points namely whether the sicke partie be full or emptie whether he overtravelled himselfe before or no and whether he slept well or ill but principally what diet he kept and what order of life he followed when he fell for examples sake into the ague then according as Plato was woont to say unto himselfe whensoever he returned from hearing and seeing the faults that other men committed Am not I also such an one so you must compose and frame your selfe to learne by the harmes and errours of neighbours about you for to looke well unto your owne health and by calling them to mind to be so wary provident that you fall not into the same inconveniences and forced to keepe your bed and there extol commend health wishing desiring when it is too late for to enjoy so pretious a treasure but rather seeing another to have caught a disease to marke and consider well yea and to enterteine this deepe impression in your heart how deere the said health ought to be unto us how carefull we should be to preserve and chary to spare the same Moreover it would not be amisse for a man afterwards to compare his owne life with that of the foresaid patient for if it fall out so that notwithstanding we have used over-liberall diet both in drinks and meats or laboured extreamly or otherwise committed errour in any excesse and disorder our bodies minister unto nature no suspition nor threaten any signe of sicknesse toward yet ought we neverthelesse to take heed and prevent the harme that may ensue namely if we have committed any disorder in the pleasures of Venus and love-delights or otherwise bene over-travelled to repose our selves and take our quiet rest after drunkennesse or carrowsing wine round for good fellowship to make amends and recompense with drinking as much colde water for a time but especially upon a surfeit taken with eating heavie and grosse meats and namely of flesh or els feeding upon sundry and divers dishes to fast or use a sparie diet so as there be left no superfluitie in the bodie for even these things as of themselves alone if there were no more be enough to breed diseases so unto other causes they adde matter and minister more strength Full wisely therefore was it said by our ancients in old time that for to mainteine our health these three points were most expedient To feed without satietie To labour with alacritie and To preserve and make spare of naturall seed For surely lascivious intemperance in venerie of all things most decaieth and enfeebleth the strength of that naturall heat whereby our meat and food which we receive is concocted and so consequently is the cause of many excrements and superfluities engendred whereupon corrupt humours are engendered and gathered within the body To begin therefore to speake againe of every of these points let us consider first the exercises meet and agreeable to students or men of learning for like as he who first said That he wrot nothing of Teeth to those that inhabited the sea coasts taught them in so
Memphis when it is just at the full commeth to foureteene cubits correspondent to the full Moone They holde moreover Apis to be the lively image of Osiris and that he is ingendred and bred at what time as the generative light descendeth from the Moone and toucheth the Cow desirous of the male and therefore Apis resembleth the formes of the Moone having many white spots obscured and darkened with the shadowes of blacke And this is the reason why they solemnize a feast in the new Moone of the moneth Phamenoth which they call The ingresse or entrance of Osiris to the Moone and this is the beginning of the Spring season and thus they put the power of Osiris in the Moone They say also that Isis which is no other thing but generation lieth with him and so they name the Moone Mother of the world saying that she is a double nature male and female female in that she doth conceive and is replenished by the Sunne and male in this regard that she sendeth forth and sprinkleth in the aire the seeds and principles of generation for that the drie distemperature and corruption of Typhon is not alwaies superior but often times vanquished by generation and howsoever tied it be and bound yet it riseth fresh againe and fighteth against Orus who is nothing els but the terrestriall world which is not altogether free from corruption nor yet exempt from generation Others there be who would have all this fiction covertly to represent no other thing but the ecclipses for the Moone is ecclipsed when she is at the full directly opposite to the Sunne and commeth to fall upon the shadow of the earth like as they say Osiris was put into the chest or coffer above said On the other side she seemeth to hide and darken the light of the Sunne upon certeine thirtieth daies but yet doth not wholly abolish the Sunne no more than Isis doth kill Typhon but when Nephthys bringeth forth Anubis Isis putteth herselfe in place for Nephthys is that which is under the earth and unseene but Isis that which is above and appeareth unto us and the circle named Horizon which is common to them both and parteth the two hemisphaeres is named Anubis and in forme resembleth a dogge for why a dogge seeth aswell by night as by day so that it should seeme that Anubis among the Aegyptians hath the like power that Proserpina among the Greeks being both terrestriall and coelestiall Others there be who thinke that Anubis is Saturne and because he is conceived with all things and bringeth them foorth which in Greeke the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth therefore he is surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Adogge So that there is some hidden and mysticall secret in it that causeth some even still to reverence and adore A dogge for the time was when more worship was done unto it in Aegypt than to any other beast but after that Cambyses had killed Apis cut him in pieces and flung the same heere and there no other creature would 〈◊〉 neere to taste thereof save the dogge onely whereupon he lost that prerogative and preeminence to be more honoured than other beasts Others there are who would have the shadow of the earth which causeth the Moone to be ecclipsed when she entreth into it to be named Typhon And therefore me thinks it were not amisse to say that in particular there is not any one of these expositions and interpretations perfect by it selfe and right but all of them together cary some good cōstruction for it is neither drought alone nor winde nor sea ne yet darknesse but all that is noisome and hurtfull whatsoever and which hath a speciall part to hurt and destroy is called Typhon Nether must we put the principles of the whole world into bodies that have no life and soule as Democritus and Epicurus doe nor yet set downe for the workman and framer of the first matter a certeine reason and providence without quality as do the Stoicks such a thing as hath a subsistence before and above all and commandeth all for impossible it is that one sole cause good or bad should be the beginning of all things together for God is not the cause of any evill and the coagmentation of the world bendeth contrary waies like as the composition of a lute or bow as Heraclitus saith and according to Euripides Nothings can be by themselves good or bad That things do well a mixture must be had And therefore this opinion so very auncient is descended from Theologians and Law-givers unto Poets and Philosophers the certeine author and beginning whereof is not yet knowen howbeit so firmely grounded in the perswasion and beliefe of men that hard it is to suppresse or abolish the same so commonly divulged not onely in conferences disputations and ordinary speeches abroad but also in the sacrifices and divine ceremonies of gods service in many places as well among the Barbarians as Greeks to wit that neither this world floteth and waveth at aventure without the government of providence and reason nor reason onely it is that guideth directeth and holdeth it as it were with certeine helmes or bits of obeisance but manie things there be confused and mixed good and bad together or to speake more plainely there is nothing heere beneath that nature produceth and bringeth foorth which of it selfe is pure and simple neither is there one drawer of two tunnes to disperse and distribute abroad the affaires of this world like as a taverner or vintner doeth his wines or other liquors brewing and tempering one with another But this life is conducted by two principles and powers adverse one unto another for the one leadeth us to the right hand directly the other contrariwise turneth us aside and putteth us backe and so this life is mixt and the verie world it selfe if not all throughout yet at leastwise this beneath about the earth and under the Moone is unequall variable and subject to all mutations that possibly may be For if nothing there is that can be without a precedent cause and that which of it selfe is good can never minister cause of evill necessarie it is that nature hath some peculiar cause and beginning by itselfe of good aswell as of bad And of this opinion are the most part of the ancients and those of the wisest sort For some thinke there be two gods as it were of a contrary mystery profession the one author of all good things and the other of bad Others there be who call the better of them god and the other Daemon that is to say divell as Zoroastres the Magician did who by report was five thousand yeeres before the warre of Troy This Zoroastres I say named the good god Oromazes and the other Arimanius Moreover the gave out that the one resembled light more than any sensible thing else whatsoever the other darknesse and ignorance also that there is one in the middes betweene them
named Mithres and heereupon it is that the Persians call an intercessor or mediator Mithres He teacheth us also to sacrifice unto the one of them for petition of good things and for thankesgiving but to the other for to divert and turne away sinister and evill accidents To which purpose they used to stampe in a morter a certeine herbe which they call Omomi calling upon Pluto and the darknesse then temper they it with the bloud of a woolfe which they have killed in sacrifice this done they carie it away and throw it into a darke corner where the Sunne never shineth For this conceit they have that of herbes and plants some appertaine unto the good god and others to the evill daemon or divell Semblably of living creatures dogs birds and land urchins belong to their good god but those of the water to the evill fiend And for this cause they repute those very happie who can kill the greatest number of them Howbeit these Sages and wise men report many fabulous things of the gods as for example that Oromazes is engendred of the cleerest and purest light and Arimanius of deepe darknesse also that they warre one upon another And the former of these created sixe other gods the first of Benevolence the second of Verity the third of good discipline and publike Law and of the rest behinde one of Wisedome another of Riches and the sixth which also is the last the maker of joy for good and honest deeds But the later produceth as many other in number concurrents as it were and of adverse operation to the former above named Afterwards when Oromazes had augmented and amplified himselfe three times he remooved as farre from the Sunne as the Sunne is distant from the earth adoring and embelishing the heaven with starres and one starre above the rest he ordeined to be the guide mistresse and overseer of them all to wit Sirius that is to say the Dogge-starre Then after he had made foure and twentie other gods he enclosed them all with in an egge But the other brought foorth by Arimanius who were also in equall number never ceased untill they had pierced and made a hole unto the said smooth and polished egge and so after that evill things became mingled pel-mell with good But there will a time come predestined fatally when this Arimanius who brings into the world plague and famine shall of necessitie be rooted out and utterly destroied for ever even by them and the earth shall become plaine even and uniforme neither shall there be any other but one life and one common-wealth of men all happie and speaking one and the same language Theopompus also writeth that according to the wise Magi these two gods must for three thousand yeeres conquer one after another and for three thousand yeeres be conquered againe by turnes and then for the space of another three thousand yeeres levie mutuall warres and fight battels one against the other whiles the one shall subvert and overthrow that which the other hath set up untill in the end Pluto shall faint give over and perish then shall men be all in happie estate they shall need no more food nor cast any shadow from them and that god who hath wrought and effected all this shall repose himselfe and rest in quiet not long I say for a god but a moderate time as one would say for a man taking his sleepe and rest And thus much as touching the fable devised by the Magi. But the Chaldaeans affirme that of the gods whom they call Planets or wandring starres two there be that are beneficiall and dooers of good two againe mischievous and workers of evill and three which are of a meane nature and common As for the opinion of the Greeks concerning this point there is no man I suppose ignorant thereof namely that there be two portions or parts of the world the one good allotted unto Jupiter Olympius that is to say Celestiall another bad appertaining to Pluto infernall They fable moreover and feigne that the goddesse Harmonia that is to say Accord was engendred of Mars and Venus of whom the one is cruell grim and quarrellous the other milde lovely and generative Now consider the Philosophers themselves how they agree heerein For Heraclitus directly and disertly nameth warre the Father King and Lord of all the world saying that Homer when he wisheth and praieth Both out of heaven and earth to banish warre That god and men no more might be at jarre wist not how ere he was aware he cursed the generation and production of all things which indeed have their essence and being by the fight and antipathie in nature He was ignorant that the Sunne would not passe the bounds and limits appointed unto him for otherwise the furies and cursed tongues which are the ministresses and coadjutresses of justice would finde him out As for Empedocles he saith that the beginning and principle which worketh good is love and amity yea and otherwhiles is called Harmonie by Merops but the cause of evill Malice hatred cankred spight Quarrell debate and bloudy fight Come now to the Pythagoreans they demonstrate and specifie the same by many names for they call the good principle One finite permanent or quiet straight or direct odde quadrat or square right and lightsome but the bad twaine infinite moving crooked even longer one way than another unequall left and darke as if these were the fountaines of generation Anaxagoras calleth them the minde or understanding and infinity Aristotle termeth the one forme the other privation And Plato under darke and covert termes hiding his opinion in many places calleth the former of these two contrary principles The Same and the later The other But in the bookes of his lawes which he wrote when he was now well stept in yeeres he giveth them no more any obscure and ambiguous names neither describeth he them symbolically and by aenigmaticall and intricate names but in proper and plaine termes he saith that this worke is not moved and managed by one sole cause but haply by many or at leastwise no fewer than twaine where of the one is the creatour and worker of good the other opposite unto it and operative of contrary effects He leaveth also and alloweth a third cause betweene which is neither without soule nor reasonlesse ne yet unmoovable of it selfe as some thinke but adjacent and adherent to the other twaine howbeit enclining alwaies to the better as having a desire and appetite thereto which it pursueth and followeth as that which heereafter we will deliver shall shew more manifestly which treatise shall reconcile the Aegyptian Theologie with the Greeks Philosophy and reduce them to a very good concordance for that the generation composition and constitution of this world is mingled of contrary powers howbeit the same not of equall force for the better is predominant but impossible it is that the evill should utterly perish and be abolished so deepely is it imprinted
the word but presently he ment To worthy Hector much disgrace whose body up he hent He stript and spoiled it full soone and then hard by the bed Of sir Patrochus he it laid and groveling there it spred He useth also fitly to the purpose pretie reprehensions after things be done delivering his own sentence as it were by way of a voice given touching that which was either done or said a little before As for example after the narration of the adultery betweene Mars and Venus he reporteth that the gods spake in this sort Lewd Acts do never better speed Lo how the slow and lame Can overtake him him who for strength and swiftnes hath the name And in another place upon the audatious presumption and proud vaunting of Hector thus he saith These words he spake in braverie and swelling pride of heart But Lady Iuno was displeas'd and tooke them in ill part Likewise as touching the arrow that Pandarus shot No sooner Pallas said the word but foolish minded man He was perswaded and therewith streight waies to shoote began And these be the sententious speeches opinions of Poets by them expresly uttered which any man may soone find easily discerme if he will but take heed give regard unto them But yet over besides these testimonies they furnish us also with other instructions by their owne deeds For thus it is reported of Euripides that when upō a time some reviled Ixion reproched him by the termes of Godlesse Wicked Accursed he answered True indeed quoth he and therefore I would not suffer him to be brought frō the Stage before I had set him fast upon the wheele broken both his armes legs True it is that this kinde of Doctrine in Homer is after a sort mute not delivered in plaine expresse termes but if a man will cōsider more neerely even those fables fictions in him which are most blamed found fault withall there may be found therein a profitable instruction covert speculation And yet some there be who wrest writhe forcibly the said fables another way by their Allegories for so they call in these daies those speeches wherein one thing is spoken another ment whereas in times past they were termed Hypponaeae for the hidden meaning couched under them whereby they would make us beleeve that the fiction as touching the adulterie of Mars Venus signifieth thus much That when the Planet of Mars is in conjunction with that of Venus in some Horoscopes and Nativities such persons then borne shall bee enclined to adulteries but if the Sun do then arise passe and overtake them then such adulteries are in danger to be discovered and the parties to be taken in the very act Now as touching Iuno how she embellisheth and adorneth herselfe before Iupiter as also the fiction and sorcerie about the needle worke girdle and Tissue which she borowed of Venus they would have it to signifie a certaine purging and cleering of the aire as it approcheth neere to the fire as if the Poet himselfe gave not the interpretation and exposition of such doubts For in the tale of the adulterie of Venus he meaneth nothing els but to teach them that gave eare thereto how wanton musicke lascivious songs and speeches grounded upon evill arguments and conteining naughtie matters corrupt our maners induce us to a luxurious loose and effeminate life and cause men to be subject unto pleasures delights sensualitie and lust and given over to the love of women as also To chaunge eft soones their beds of costly price Their rich array hote baines and ech device And therefore the same Homer bringeth in Vlysses commanding the Musician who sung to the Harpe in this wise Digresse good sir from such lewd songs and ballads vaine as these Sing rather of the Trojan horse you shall us therein please Giving us thereby a good instruction that Minstrels Musitians and Poets should receive the matter and argument of their compositions from wise men sober sage and vertuous And as touching that fable of Iuno he sheweth how the love favor and acquaintance which women win of men by charmes sorceries and enchantments with fraud and deceit is a thing not onely transitorie and of small continuance unsure and whereof a man hath soone enough and is quickly weary but also that which many times turneth to hatred anger and enmitie so soone as the present pleasure is once past For thus threatneth Iupiter and saith Thou shalt then know that wanton love and daliance in bed Whereby thou earst hast me deceived shall serve thee in small sted For the shew and representation of wicked deeds if there be propounded withall the shame and losse which befalleth unto them that have committed the same doth no hurt at all but rather much good unto the hearers As for Philosophers verily they use examples taken out of histories to admonish and instruct the readers even by such things as be at hand and either are or have beene really so but Poets do in deed the same and in effect howbeit they devise and invent matter of their owne heads they feigne fables I say fitting their purpose Certes like as Melanthius said betweene bord and good earnest that the citie of Athens stood upright on foote and was preserved by meanes of the division discorde and trouble which was among or atours and Politicians for that all the citizens leaned not altogither to a side nor bare levelly upon one and the same wall and so by reason of the variance which reigned among the States men there was evermore some one counterpoise or other weighing even against that which endamaged the common-weale even so the contradictions that are found in the writings of Poets which draw the assent and beleefe of the readers reciprocally to and fro and leave matters ambiguous and doubtfull are a cause that they be not of so great moment and weight as to endamage or endaunger much When as therefore we meet with such repugnant places among them which being laid neere togither do implie evident contrarieties we ought to encline to the safer side and favor the better part As namely in these verses The Gods in many things my sonne Have men decerved and them undone But contrariwise what saith the sonne againe Sir that 's soone said mens fautt ' excuse Nothing more ready than Gods t' accuse Likewise in one place In store of gold thou should'st have joy And count all knowledge but a toy But elsewhere Absurdit is in goods to flow And no good thing besides to know Moreover when we read How then should I die For Gods cause die We must be ready with this What else for love of God I judge We ought no service for to grudge These and such like diversities of doubtfull sentences are soone assoiled and dissolved in case as I have before said we direct the judgement of yoong men to adhere unto the better part But say we light upon
to stand upon our guard so we have no lesse cause to consider how we should converse among our neighbours Now of all those vices andimperfections which defame mans life and cause the race course thereof to be difficult wondrous painfull to passe anger is one of those which are to be ranged in the first ranke in such sort that it booteth not to be provided of good friends if this furious humor get the mastery over us like as contrariwise flatterers such other pestilent plagues have not so easie entrance into us nor such ready meanes to be possessed of us so long as we be accōpanied with a certaine wise and prudent mildnesse In this discourse then our authour doing the part of an expers Physician laboureth to purge our mindes from all choler and would traine them to modestie and humanitie so farre foorth as Philosophie morall is able to performe And for to atraine unto so great a benefit he sheweth in the first place that we ought to procure our friends for to observe and marke our imperfections that by long continuance of time we may accustome our selves to holde in our judgement by the bit of reason After certaine proper similitudes serving for this purpose and a description of the mconventences and harmes that come by wrath he prooveth that it is an easie matter to restraine and represse the same to which purpose be setteth downe divers meanes upon which he discourseth after his usuall maner that is to say with reasons and inductions enriched with notable similitudes and examples afterwards having spoken of the time and maner of chastising and correcting those who are under our power and governance he proposeth aswell certaine remedies to cure choler as preservatives to keepe us from relapse into it againe Which done he representet hire lively as in a painted able to the end that those who suffer themselves to be surprised therewith may be abashed and ashamed of their unhappy state and therewith he giveth five not able advertisements for to attaine thereto which be as it were preservatives by meanes whereof we should not feele our selves attaint any more with this maladie OF MEEKENES OR HOW A man should refraine choler A TREATISE IN MANNER of a Dialogue SYLLA IT seemeth unto me ô Fundanus that painters doe verie well and wisely to view and consider their workes often and by times betweene before they thinke them finished and let them go out of their hands for that by setting them so out of their sight and then afterwards having recourse thither againe to judge thereof they make their eies as it were new judges to spie and discerne the least fault that is which continuall looking thereupon and the ordinarie view of one and the same thing doth cover and hide from them But forasmuch as it is not possible that a man should depart from himselfe for a time and after a certaine space returne againe not that he should breake interrupt and discontinue his understanding and sense within which is the cause that each man is a worse judge of himselfe than of others A second meanes and remedie therefore in this case would be used namely to review his friends sundrie times and eftsoones likewise to yeeld himselfe to be seene and beheld by them not so much to know thereby whether he aged apace and grow soone old or whether the constitution of his bodie be better or worse than it was before as to survey and consider his manners and behaviour to wit whether time hath added any good thing or taken away ought that is bad and naught For mine owne part this being now the second yeere since I came first to this citie of Rome and the fifth month of mine acquaintance with you I thinke it no great woonder that considering your towardnes and the dexteritie of your nature those good parts which were alreadie in you have gotten so great an addition and be so much increased as they are but when I see how that vehement inclination and ardent motion of yours to anger whereunto by nature you were given is by the guidance of reason become so milde so gentle and tractable it commeth into my minde to say thereunto that which I read in Homer O what a woondrous change is here Much milder are you than you were And verily this gentlenes and meekenes of yours is not turned into a certaine sloth and generall dissolution of your vigour but like as a peece of ground well tilled lieth light and even and besides more hollow than before which maketh much for the fertilitie thereof even so your nature hath gotten in stead of that violent disposition and sudden propension unto choler a certaine equalitie and profunditie serving greatly to the management of affaires whereby also it appeereth plainely that it is not long of the decaying strength of the bodie by reason of declining age neither yet of the owne accord that your hastinesse and cholericke passion is thus faded but rather by meanes of good reasons and instructions well cured And yet verily for unto you I will be bold to say the truth at the first I suspected and could not well beleeve Eros our familiar friend when he made this report of you unto me as doubting that he was readie to give this testimonie of you in regard of affection and good will bearing me in hand of those things which were not indeed in you but ought to be in good and honest men and yet as you know well ynough he is not such a man as for favour of any person and for to please can be easily perswaded and brought to say otherwise than he thinketh But now as he is freed and acquit from the crime of bearing false witnesse so you since this journey and travell upon the way affoordeth you good leasure will I doubt not at my request declare and recount unto us the order how you did this cure upon your selfe and namely what medicines and remedies you used to make that cholericke nature of yours so gentle so tractable so soft and supple so obeisant I say and subject wholy to the rule of reason FUNDANUS But why do you not your selfe ô Sylla my deerest and most affectionate friend take heed that for the amitie and good will which you beare unto me you be not deceived and see one thing in me for another As for Eros who for his owne part hath not alwaies his anger stedfastly staied with the cable and anchor of Homers Peisa that is obedient and abiding firme in one place but otherwhiles much mooved and out of quiet for the hatred that he hath of vice and vicious men it may verie wel be and like it is that unto him I seeme more milde and gentle than before like as we see in changing and altering the notes of prick-song or the Gam-ut in musicke certaine Netae or notes which are the base in one 8. being compared which other Netae morelow and base become Hypatae that is
deciding and judging causes because to authority it addeth violence and insolency nor in the teaching and instruction of our children for it maketh them desperate and haters of learning nor in prosperity for it encreaseth the envy and grudge of men ne yet in adversity because it taketh away pitty and compassion when they who are fallen into any misfortune shew themselves testie froward and quarellous to those who come to moane and mourne with them This did Priamus as we reade in Homer Avant quoth he you chiding guests you odious mates be gone Have you no sorrowes of your owne but you come me to moane On the other side faire conditions and milde behaviour yeeldeth succour and helpe in some cases composeth and ordereth matters aright in others dulceth and alaieth that which is tart and sowre and in one word by reason of that kinde meeke and gentle quality it overcommeth anger and all waiward testinesse whatsoever Thus it is reported of Euclides in a quarrell or variance betweene him and his brother For when his brother had contested and said unto him I would I might die if be not revenged of thee he inferred againe Nay let me die for it if I perswade thee not otherwise before I have done by which one word he presently woon his brothers heart so that he changed his mind and they parted friends Polemon likewise at a certaine time when one who loved precious stones was sicke for faire costly rings such like curious jewels did raile at him outragiously answered not a word againe but looked very wistly upon one of the signets that the other had and well considered the fashion and workemanship thereof which when the party perceived taking as it should seeme no small contentment and being very well pleased that he so porused his jewell Not so Polemon quoth he againe but looke upon it thus betweene you and the light and then you will thinke it much more beautifull Aristippus fell out upon a time I know not how with Aeschines and was in a great choler and fit of anger How now Aristippus quoth one who heard him so high at such hot words where is your amity friendship all this while Mary asleepe quoth he but I wil waken it anon With that he stept close to Atschines and said Thinke you me so unhappy every way and incurable that I deserved not one admonishment at your hands No marvell quoth Aeschines againe if thought you who for naturall wit in all things els excel me to see better in this case also than I what is meet and expedient to be done For true it is that the Poet saith The boare so wilde whose necke with hristles strong Is thicke beset the tender hand and soft Of woman nice yea and of infant yong By stroking faire shall bend and turne full oft Much sooner farre and that with greater case Than wrestlers strong with all their force and peise And we our selves can skill how to tame wilde beasts we know how to make yoong woolves gentle yea and lions whelps other-whiles we cary about with us in our armes but see how we againe afterwards in a raging fit of choler be ready to fling from us and cast out of our sight our owne children our friends and familiars and all our houshold servants our fellow citizens and neighbours we let loose our ire like some savage and furious beast and this rage of ours we disguise and cloke forsooth with a colourable and false name calling it Hatred of vice But heerein I suppose we doe no otherwise than in the rest of our passions and diseases of the minde tearming one Providence and forecast another Liberalitie and a third Pietie and religion and yet for all these pretenses of goodly names we can not be cured of the vices which they palliate to wit Timorousnesse Prodigalitie and Superstition And verily like as our naturall seed as Zeno said is a certeine mixture and composition derived and extracted from all the powers and faculties of the soule even so in mine opinion a man may say that choler is a miscellane feed as it were and a dregge made of all the passions of the mind for plucked it is from paine pleasure and insolent violence Of envie it hath this qualitie to joy in the harmes of other men it standeth much upon murder but woorse it is simply than murder for the wrathfull person striveth and laboureth not to defend and save himselfe from taking harme but so he may mischiefe and overthrow another he careth not to come by a hurt and shrewd turne himselfe It holdeth likewise of concupiscence and lust and taketh of it the worse and more unpleasant part in case it be as it is indeed a desire and appetite to greeve vexe and harme another And therefore when we approch and come neere to the houses of luxurious and riotous persons we heare betimes in the morning a minstrel-wench sounding and playing the Morrow-watch by breake of day we see the muddy-grounds and dregs as one was wont to say of the wine to wit the vomits of those who cast up their stomacks we behold the peeces and fragments of broken garlands and chaplets and at the dore we finde the lackies and pages of them who are within drunken and heavie in the head with tipling strong wine But the signes that tell where hastie cholericke and angry persons dwell appeere in the faces of their servants in the marks and wales remaining after their whipping and in their clogs yrons and fetters about their feete For in the houses of hastie and angrie men a man shall never heare but one kind of musicke that is to say the heavie note of wailing grones and piteous plaints whiles either the stewards within are whipped and scourged or the maidens racked put to torture in such sort that you would pitie to see the dolors paines of yre which she suffreth in those things that she lusteth after taketh pleasure in And yet as many of us as happen to be truly justly surprised with choler oftentimes for the harted detestation that we have of vices ought to cut off that which is excessive therein and beyond measure together with our over-light beleefe and credulitie of reports concerning such as converse with us For this is one of the causes that most of all doth engender and augment choler when either he whom we tooke for an honest man prooveth dishonest and is detected for some naughtinesse or whom we reputed our friend is fallen into some quarrell and variance with us as for my selfe you know my nature and disposition what small occasions make me both to love men effectually and also to trust them confidently and therefore just as it falleth out with them who go over a false floore where the ground is not fast but hollow under their feete where I leane most and put my greatest trust for the love that I beare there I offend most and soonest catch
good I have done or what have I misdone Where have I slipt what duty begun is left by me undone But now according as fables make report that Lamia the Witch whiles she is at home is starke blind doth nothing but sing having her eies shut up close within a little boxe but when she meanes to go abroad she takes them foorth and setteth them in their right place and seeth well enough with them even so every one of us when we go foorth set unto that evill meaning and intention which we have to others an eie to looke into them and that is curiosity and overmuch medling but in our owne errors faults and trespasses we stumble and faile through ignorance as having neither eies to see nor light about them whereby they may be seene And therefore it is that a busie fellow and curious medler doth more good to his enimies than to himself for their faults he discovereth bringeth to light to them he sheweth what they ought to beware of and what they are to amend but all this while he overseeth or rather seeth not the most things that are done at home so deeply amused he is and busie in spying what is amisse abroad Howbeit wise Ulysses would not abide to speake and confer with his owne mother before he had enquired of the Prophet those things for which he went downe into hel and when hee had once heard them then he turned to his mother and other women also asking what was Tyro what was Chloris and for what was the occasion and cause that Eperaste came by her death Who knit her necke within a deadly string And so from beame of lofty house did hing But we quite contrary sitting still in supine idlenesse and ignorance neglecting and never regarding that which concerneth our selves goe to search into the genealogie and pedigrees of others and we can tell readily that our neighbours grandfather was no better than a base and servile Syrian that his nourse came out of barbarous Thracia that such an one is in debt and oweth three talents and is behinde hand besides and in arrerages for non-paiment of interest for the use thereof Inquisitive also we are in such matters as these From whence came such a mans wife what it was that such a one and such a one spake when they were alone together in an odde corner Socrates was cleane of another quality he would goe up and downe enquiring and casting about what were the reasons wherewith Pythagoras perswaded men to his opinion Aristippus likewise at the solemnitie of the Olympian games falling into the companie of Ischomachus asked of him what were the perswasions that Socrates used to yong folk wherby they became so affectionate unto him and after he had received from him some small seeds as it were and a few samples of those reasons arguments he was so mooved and passionate therewith that presently his body fell away he looked pale poore and leane untill he having failed to Athens in this woonderfull thirst and ardent heat had drunke his fill at the fountaine and well-head it selfe knowen the man heard his discourses and learned his Philosophie the summe and effect whereof was this That a man should first know his owne maladies and then the meanes to be cured and delivered of them But some there be who of all things can not abide to see their owne life as being unto them the most unpleasant sight of all others neither love they to bend and turne their reason as a light to their owne selves but their minde being full of all sorts of evill fearing and ready to quake for to beholde what things are within leapeth foorth as one would say out of doores and goeth wandring to and fro searching into the deeds and words of other men and by this meanes feedeth and fatteth as it were her owne malicious naughtinesse For like as a hen many times having meat enough within house set before her loveth to go into some corner and there keepeth a pecking and scraping of the ground To finde perhaps one seely barley corne As she was woont on doung hill heertoforne even so these busie Polypragmons passing by those ordinary speeches and matters which are exposed and open for every man not regarding I say the reports and narrations which are free for ech one to discourse of and which neither any man hath to doe to forbid and warne them for to aske and enquire of nor will be displeased if peradventure hee should be demanded and asked the question of them goe up and downe in the meane time to gather and learne all the secret and hidden evils of every house Certes a prety answere it was of an Aegyptian and pertinent to the purpose who when one asked him what it was that he caried covered all over and so enwrapped within a cloth Mary quoth he covered it is even for this cause that thou shouldest not know what it is And thou likewise that art so busie why doest thou intermeddle in that which is concealed Be sure that if there were no evill therein kept close it should not be And verily it is not the maner and custome for any body to enter boldly into the house of another man without knocking at the doore for which purpose we use Porters in these daies whereas in olde time there were rings and hammers which served the turne and by rapping at the gates gave warning to those within to the end that no stranger might meet the mistresse at unawares in the hall or mids of the house or come suddenly upon a virgin or yong damosell her daughter and find her out of her chamber or take some of the servants a beating or the wenches and chambermaids chiding and scoulding aloud whereas a busie fellow loveth a-life to step secretly into a house for to see and heare such disorders and you shall never know him willingly to come and see an honest house and well governed though one should call and pray him never so faire but ready he is to discover and set abroad in the view of the whole world such things for which we use locks keies bolts barres portals and gate-houses Those windes saith Ariston are we most troubled and offended with which drive open our cloaks and garments that cover us or blow and whiske them over our heads but busie Polypragmons doth lay abroad and display not the cloaks of their neighbours nor their coats but discovereth their walles setteth wide open their doores and like a winde pierceth creepeth and entreth so farre as to the tender bodied and soft skinned maiden searching and inquiring in every bacchinall in all dauncings wakes and night feasts for some matter to raise slanders of her And as one Cleon was noted by an olde Comicall Poet upon the State Whose hands were both in Aetolie But heart and minde in Clopidie Even so the spirit of a curious and busie person is at one time in the stately palaces of rich
of an honest man which both for the present and also all the rest of our life may leave in our soule the cicatrice or skar of repentance sorrow and heavinesse In conclusion to the end that we should not commit those deeds in haste which afterwards we may repent at leasure he sheweth that we ought to have before our eies the hurts and inconveniences caused before by evil bashfulnesse that the consideration thereof might keepe us from falling into fresh and new faultes OF UNSEEMELY AND naughtie bashfulnesse AMong those plants which the earth bringeth foorth some there are which not onely by their owne nature bee wilde and savage and withall bearing no fruit at all but that which woorse is in their growth doe hurt unto good seeds and fruitfull plants and yet skilful gardiners and husbandmen judge them to be arguments and signes not of bad ground but rather of a kinde and fat soile semblaby the passions and affections of the minde simply and in themselves are not good howbeit they spring as buds and flowers from a towardly nature and such as gently can yeeld it selfe to be wrought framed and brought into order by reason In this kinde I may raunge that which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as a foolish and rusticall shamefastnes no evill signe in it selfe howbeit the cause and occasion of evill and naughtinesse For they that be given to bash and shame over-much and when they should not commit many times the same faults that they doe who are shamelesse and impudent heere onely is the difference that they when they trespasse and do amisse are displeased with themselves and grieve for the matter where as these take delight pleasure therin for he that is gracelesse and past shame hath no sense or feeling of griefe when he hath committed any foule or dishonest act contrariwise whosoever be apt to bash be ashamed quickly are soone moved troubled anon even at those things which seeme onely dishonest although they be not indeed Now lest the equivocation of the word might breed any doubt I meane by Dysopia immoderate bashfulnesse whereby one blusheth for shame exceedingly and for every thing whereupon such an one is called in Greeke Dysopetus for that his visage and countenance together with his mind changeth falleth and is cast downe for like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is defined to be a sacred heavinesse which causeth a downe-looke even so that shame and dismaiednesse which maketh us that we dare not looke a man in the face as we should and when we ought the call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hereupon it was that the great Oratour Demosthenes said of an impudent fellow that he had in his eies not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. harlots playing pretily upon the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both the round apple in the eies and also a maiden or virgine but contrariwise the over-bashfull person whom wee speake of sheweth in his countenance a minde too soft delicate and effeminate and yet he flattereth himselfe therein and calleth that fault wherein the impudent person surpasseth him Shamefastnesse Now Cato was woont to say That he loved to see yoong folke rather to blush than to looke pale as having good reason to acquaint and teach youth to dread shame and reproch more than blame and reproofe yea and suspition or obloquie rather than perill or danger Howbeit we must abridge cut off the excesse and over-much which is in such timidity and feare of reproch for that often-times it commeth to passe in some who dreading no lesse to heare ill and be accused than to be chastised or punished for false hearts are frighted from doing their duty and in no wise can abide to have an hard word spoken of them But as we are not to neglect these that are so tender nor ought to feed them in their feeblenesse of heart so againe we must not praise their disposition who are stiffe and inflexible such as the Poët describeth when he saith Who fearelesse is and basheth not all men fast to beholde In whom appeares the dogged force of Anaxarchus bolde but we ought to compound a good mixture and temperate medley of both extremities which may take away this excessive obstinacie which is impudence and that immoderate modestie which is meere childishnesse and imbecilitie True it is that the cure of these two maladies is difficult neither can this excesse both in the one and the other be cut off without danger For like as the skilfull husbandman when he would rid the ground of some wilde bushes and fruitlesse plants he laieth at them mainely with his grubbing hooke or mattocke untill he have fetched them up by the roote or else sets fire unto them and so burneth them but when he comes to proine or cut a vine an appletree or an olive he carrieth his hand lightly for feare of wounding any of the sound wood in fetching off the superfluous and ranke branches and so kill the heart thereof even so the Philosopher entending to plucke out of the mind of a yoong man either envie an unkind and savage plant which hardly or unneth at all may be made gentle and brought to any good use or the unseasonable and excessive greedines of gathering good or dissolute and disordinate lust he never feareth at all in the cutting thereof to draw blood to presse and pierce hard to the bottom yea and to make a large wound and deepe skarre But when he setteth to the keene edge of remonstrance and speech to the tender and delicate part of the soule for to cut away that which is excessive or overmuch to wit wherein is feated this unmeasurable and sheepish bashfulnesse he hath a great care and regard lest ere he be aware he cut away therewith that ingenuous and honest shamefastnesse that is so good and commendable For we see that even nourses themselves when they thinke to wipe away the filth of their little infants and to make them cleane if they rub any thing hard otherwhiles fetch off the skin withall make the flesh raw and put them to paine And therefore we must take heed that in seeking by all meanes to do out this excessive bashfulnesse utterly in yoong people we make them not brasen faced such as care not what is said unto them and blush thereat no more than a blackdog and in one word standing stiffe in any thing that they do but rather we ought to doe as they who demolish and pull downe the dwelling houses that be neere unto the temples of the gods who for feare of touching any thing that is holy or sacred suffer those ends of the edifices and buildings to stand still which are next and joined close thereto yea and those they underprop and stay up that they should not fall downe of themselves even so I say beware and feare we must
even those things that we are not able to cōpasse make good as namely our commendatorie letters for to finde favour in princes courts to be mediators for them unto great rulers and governors and to talke with them about their causes as being neither willing nor so hardie as thus to say The king knoweth not us hee regardeth others more and you were better go to such and such After this manner when Lysander had offended king Agesilaus and incurred his heavy displeasure and yet was thought woorthie to be chiefe in credit above all those that were about him in regard of the great opinion and reputation that men had of him for his noble acts he never bashed to repell and put backe those suters that came unto him making excuse and bidding them to go unto others and assay them who were in greater credit with the king than himselfe For it is no shame not to be able to effect all things but for a man to be driven upon a foolish modestie to enterprise such matters as he is neither able to compasse nor meet to mannage besides that it is shamefull I hold it also a right great corrosive to the heart But now to goe unto another principle we ought willingly and with a ready heart to doe pleasure unto those that request at our hands such things as be meet and reasonable not as forced thereto by a rusticall feare of shame but as yeelding unto reason and equity Contrariwise if their demaunds be hurtfull absurd and without all reason we ought evermore to have the saying of Zeno in readinesse who meeting with a yoong man one of his acquaintance walking close under the towne wall secretly as if he would not be seene asked of him the cause of his being there and understanding by him that it was because he would avoide one of his friends who had beene earnest with him to beare false witnes in his behalfe What saist thou quoth Zeno sot that thou art Was thy friend so bold and shamelesseto require that of thee which is unreasonable unjust and hurtfull unto thee And darest thou not stand against him in that which is just and honest For whosoever he was that said A crooked wedge is fit to cleave a knotted knurry tree It well be seemes against leawd folke with lewdnesse arm'd to be teacheth us an ill lesson to learne to be naught our selves when we would be revenged of naughtinesse But such as repulse those who impudently and with a shamelesse face doe molest and trouble them not suffering themselves to be overcome with shamefacednesse but rather shame to graunt unto shamelesse beggers those things that be shameful are wise men and well advised doing herein that which is right and just Now as touching those importunate and shamelesse persons who otherwise are but obscure base and of no woorth it is of no great matter to resist them when they be troublesome unto us And some there be who make no more ado but shift them off with laughter or a skoffe like as Theocritus served twaine who would seeme to borrow of him his rubber or currying combe in the verie baine of which two the one was a meere stranger unto him the other he knew well enough for a notorious theefe I know not you quoth he to the one and to the other I know what you are well enough and so he sent them both away with a meere frumpe Lysimache the priestresse of Minerva in Athens surnamed Polias that is the patronesse of the citie when certaine Muletters who brought sacrifices unto the temple called unto her for to powre them out drinke freely No quoth she my good friends I may not do so for feare you will make a custome of it Antigonus had under him in his retinue a yoong gentleman whose father in times past had bene a good warriour and lead a band or company of souldiours but himselfe was a very coward and of no service and when he sued unto him in regard of his birth to be advanced unto the place of his father late deceased Yoong man quoth he my maner is to recompense and honour the prowesse and manhood of my souldiours and not their good parentage But if the party who assaileth our modesty be a noble man of might and authority and such kinde of persons of all other will most hardly endure a repulse and be put off with a deniall or excuse and namely in the case of giving sentence or award in a matter of judgement or in a voice at the election of magistrates preadventure it may be thought neither easie nor necessarie to doe that which Cato sometimes did being then but of yoong yeeres unto Catulus now this Catulus was a man of exceeding great authoritie among the Romans and for that time bare the Censureship who came unto Cato then Lord high treasurer of Rome that yeere as a mediatour and intercessour for one who had bene condemned before by Cato in a round fine pressing and importuning him so hard with earnest praier and entreaty that in the end Cato seeing how urgent and unreasonable he was and not able to endure him any longer was forced to say thus unto him You would thinke it a foule disgrace and shame for you Catulus Censour as you are since you will not receive an answere and be gone if my serjeants and officers here should take you by the head and shoulders and send you away with that Catulus being abashed and ashamed departed in great anger and discontentment But consider rather and see whether the answere of Agesilaus and that which Themistocles made were not more modest and savoured of greater humanity for Agesilaus when his own father willed him to give sentence in a certain cause that was brought before him against all right and directly contrary to the lawes Father quoth he your selfe have taught me from my very child-hood to obey the lawes I will be therfore obedient still to your good precepts and passe no judgement against law As for Themistocles when as Simontdes seemed to request of him some what which was unjust and unlawfull Neither were you Simonides quoth he a good Poet if you should not keepe time and number in your song nor I a good Magistrate if I should judge against the law And yet as Plato was woont to say it is not for want of due proportion betweene the necke and body of the lute that one citie is at variance with another citie and friends fall out and be at difference doing what mischiefe they can one to another and suffering the like againe but for this rather that they offend and faile in that which concerneth law and justice Howbeit you shall have some who themselves observing the precise rules most exactly according to art in Musicke in Grammaticall orthographie and in the Poeticall quantitie of syllables and measures of feet can be in hand with others and request them to neglect and forget that which they ought to do in the
dead whereas if he could have held his tongue a little while longer and mastered himselfe when the king afterwards had better fortune and recovered his greatnesse and puissance he should in my conceit have gotten more thanks at his hands and beene better rewarded for keeping silence than for all the courtesie and hospitalitie that he shewed And yet this fellow had in some sort a colourable excuse for this intemperate tongue of his to wit his owne hopes and the good will that he bare unto the king but the most part of these pratlers vndo themselves without any cause or pretense at all of reason like as it befell unto Denys the tyrants barbar for when upon a time there were some talking in his shop as touching his tyrannicall government and estate how assured it was and as hard to be ruined or overthrowen as it is to breake the Diamond the said barbar laughing thereat I marvell quoth he that you should say so of Denys who is so often under my hands and at whose throat in a maner every day I holde my rasor these words were soone carried to the tyrant Denys who faire crucified this barbar and hanged him for his foolish words And to say a trueth all the sort of these barbars be commonly busie fellowes with their tongue and no marvell for lightly the greatest praters and idlest persons in a countrey frequent the barbars shop and sit in his chaire where they keepe such chat that it can not be but by hearing them prate so customably his tongue also must walke with them And therefore king Archelaus answered very pleasantly unto a barbar of his that was a man of no few words who when he had cast his linnen cloth about his shoulders said unto him Sir may it please your Highnesse to tell me how I shall cut or shave you Mary quoth he holding thy tongue and saying not a word A barbar it was who first reported in the city of Athens the newes of that great discomsiture and overthrow which the Athenians received in Sicily for keeping his shop as he did in that end of the suburbs called Pyraeum he had no sooner heard the said unlucky newes of a certaine slave who fled from thence out of the field when it was lost but leaving shop and all at sixe and seven ran directly into the city and never rested to bring the said tidings and whiles they were fresh and fire-new For feare some els might all the honour win And he teo late or second should come in Now upon the broching of these unwelcome tidings a man may well thinke and not without good cause that there was a great stirre within the city insomuch as the people assembled together into the Market place or Common hall and search was made for the authour of this rumour hereupon the said barbar was haled and brought before the bodie of the people and examined who knew not so much as the name of the partie of whom hee heard this newes But well assured I am quoth he that one said so mary who it was or what his name might be I can not tell Thus it was taken for an headlesse tale and the whole Theatre or Assembly was so moved to anger that they cried out with one voice Away with the villaine have the varlet to the racke set the knave upon the wheele he it is onely that hath made all on his owne singers ends this hath he and none but he devised for who els hath heard it or who besides him hath beleeved it Well the wheele was brought and upon it was the barbar stretched meane while and even as the poore wretch was hoised thereupon beholde there arrived and came to the citie those who brought certaine newes in deed of the said defeature even they who made a shift to escape out of that infortunate field then brake up the assembly and every man departed and retired home to his owne house for to bewaile his owne private losse and calamity leaving the silly barbar lying along bound to the wheele and racked out to the length and there remained he untill it was very late in the evening at what time he was let loose and no sooner was he at liberty but he must needs enquire newes of the executioner namely what they heard abroad of the Generall himselfe Nicias and in what sort he was slaine So inexpugnable and incorrigible a vice is this gotten by custome of much talke that a man can not leave it though he were going to the gallowes nor keepe in those tidings which no man is willing to heare for certes like as they who have drunke bitter potions or unsavory medicines can not away with the very cups where in they were even so they that bring evill and heavie tidings are ordinarily hated and detested of those unto whom they report the same And therefore Sophocles the Poet hath verie finely distinguished upon this point in these verses MESSENGER Is it your heart or els your eare That this offends which you do heare CREON. And why do'st thou search my disease To know what griefe doth me displease MESSENGER His deeds I see offend your heart But my words cause your eares to smart Well then those who tell us any wofull newes be as odious as they who worke our wo and yet for all that there is no restreint and brideling of an untemperate tongue that is given to walke and overreach It fortuned one day at Lacedaemon that the temple of Iuno called there Chalciaecos was robbed and within it was found a certeine emptie flagon or stone bottle for wine great running there was and concourse of the people thither and men could not tell what to make of that flagon at last one of them that stood by My masters quoth he if you will give me leave I shall tell you what my conceit is of that flagon for my minde gives me saith he that these church-robbers who projected to execute so perilous an enterprise had first drunke the juice of hemlocke before they entred into the action and afterwards brought wine with them in this bottle to the end that if they were not surprised nor taken in the maner they might save their lives by drinking each of them a good draught of meere wine the nature and vertue whereof as you know well enough is to quench as it were and dissolve the vigour and strength of that poison and so goe their waies safe enough but if it chance that they were taken in the deed doing then they might by meanes of that hemlocke which they had drunke die an easie death and without any great paine and torment before that they were put to torture by the magistrate He had no sooner delivered this speech but the whole companie who heard his words thought verily that such a contrived devise and so deepe a reach as this never came from one that suspected such a matter but rather knew that it was so indeed whereupon they
no person so much as to him who would blame and finde fault with another for feare lest such men in speaking to others what they would heare that againe which they would not For it happeneth ordinarily as Sophocles saith That such an one Who lets his tongue runne foolishly In noting others bitterly Shall heare himselfe unwillingly The words he gave so wilfully Lo what commoditie and profit ensueth upon reproching an enemie Neither commeth there lesse good and aduantage unto a man by being reproched by another and hearing himselfe reviled by his enemies and therefore it was well and truely saide of Antisthenes that such men as would be saved and become honest another day ought of necessitie to have either good friends or most spitefull and bitter enemies for as they with their kind remonstrances and admonitions so these with their reprochfull tearmes were like to reforme their sinfull life But forasmuch as amity and friendship now adaies speaketh with a small and low voice when faults should freely be reprooved and is very audible and full of words in flattering altogether mute and dumbe in rebukes and chastisements but what temaineth now but that we should heare the truth from the mouth of our enemies much like unto Telephus who for default of a physician that was a friend to cure him was forced to commit his wound or ulcer to the iron head of his enemies speare for to be healed and even so those that have no well willers that dare freely reprove their faults must perforce endure with patience the stinging tongue of their enemie and evill willer in chastising and rebuking their vices not regarding so much the intent and meaning of the ill speaker as the thing it selfe and the matter that helpeaketh and looke how he who enterprised the killing of Prometheus the Thessallan ran him so deepe with his sword into the impostume or swelling botch which he had about him that he let foorth the corruption and saved his life by the breaking and issue thereof even so for all the world it falleth out many times that a reprochfull speech delivered in anger or upon evill will is the cause of healing some maladie of the soule either hidden or unknowne altogether or else neglected but the most part of those who are in this maner reproched never consider whether the vice wherewith they are touched be in them or no but they looke rather if they can finde some other vice to object unto him who hath thus chalenged them and much like unto wrestlers they never wipe away their owne dust that is to say the reproches that be fastned upon themselves and wherewith they be defamed but they bestrew one another with dust and afterwards trip up one anothers heeles and tumble downe one upon another wekering in the same and soiling one another therewith whereas indeed it behooved rather that a man when he findeth himselfe tainted by his enemie to endevour for to do away that vice wherewith he is noted and defamed much rather than to fetch out any spot or steine out of his garment which hath beene shewed him and although there be charged upon us some slanderous imputation that is not true yet neverthelesse we are to search into the occasion whereupon such an opprobrious speech might arise and proceed yea and take heed we must and feare lest ere we be aware we commit the like or come neere unto that which hath beene objected unto us Thus for example sake Lacydes king of the Argives for that hee did weare his haire curiously set in maner of a perruke and because his gate or maner of going seemed more delicate and nice than ordinary grew into an ill name and obloquy of effeminate wantomesse And Pompetus the great could not avoid the like suspicion because he used otherwhiles to scratch his head with one finger onely and yet otherwise he was so farre from feminine wantonnesse and incontinence as any man in the world Crassus was accused for to have had carnall companie with one of the religious nuns or votaries of Vesta for that being desirous to purchase of her a faire peece of land and house of pleasure which she had he resorted oftentimes privately unto her spake with her apart and perhaps made court unto her for to have her good wil in that respect onely Posthumia likewise another vestall virgin for that she was given much to laugh upon a small occasion and withall would not sticke to enterteine talke with men more boldly peradventure than became a maiden of her profession was so deepely suspected of incontinence that she was brought judicially into question about it howbe it found unguilty and acquit she was but when Spurius Minutius the high-priest for the time being assoiled her and pronounced the sentence of her absolution minding to dismisse her of the court he gave her a gentle admonition by the way that from thence forward she should forbeare to use any words lesse modest chaste then the cariage of her life was Themistocles likewise notwithstanding he was most innocent indeed was called into question for treason because he interteined amitie with Pausanias sent and wrote oftentimes unto him and so by that meanes gave suspicion that he minded to betray all Greece When as therefore thou art charged with a false crimination by thine enemie thou must not neglect it and make smal account thereof because it is not true but rather looke about thee and examine what hath beene done or said either by thee or anie one of those who affect and love thee or converse with thee sounding and tending any way to that imputation which might give occasion or likelihood thereof and carefully to beware and avoid the same for if by adverse and heavy fortune whereunto others have inconsiderately fallen they are deerely taught what is good for them as Merope saith in one tragedie Fortune hath taken for her salarie My deerest goods of which I am berest But me she taught by that great miserie For to be wise and so she hath me left What should let or hinder us but that we may learne by a master that costeth us nought not taketh nothing for his teaching even our enemie to profit and learne somewhat that we knew not before for an enemie perceiveth and findeth in us many things more than a friend by reason that as Plato saith That which loveth is alwaies blinde in the thing that is loved whereas he who hateth us besides that he is very curious and inquisitive into our imperfections he is not meale mouthed as they say nor will spare to speake but is ready enough to divulge and blase all abroad King Hiero chanced upon a time being at words with one of his enemies to be tolde in reprochfull maner by him of his stinking breath whereupon being somewhat dismaied in himselfe he was no sooner returned home to his owne house but be chid his wife How comes this to passe quoth he what say you to it how
hard hearing have no sense at all of musicke and are nothing mooved and affected therewith a great infortunitie this was of blind Tiresias that hee could not see his children and friends but much more unfortunate and unhappie were Athamas and Agave who seeing their children thought they saw lions and stags And no doubt when Hercules fell to be enraged and mad better it had beene and more expedient for him that he had not seene nor knowne his owne children than so to deale with those who were most deere unto him and whom he loved more than all the world besies as if they had beene his mortall enemies Thinke you not then that there is the same difference betweene the passions of Atheists and superstitious folke Atheists have no sight nor knowledge of the gods at all and the superstitious thinke there are gods though they be perswaded of them amisse Atheists neglect them altogether as if they were not but the superstitious esteeme that to bee terrible which is gracious amiable cruell and tyranlike which is kind and fatherlike hurtful and damageable unto us which is most carefull of our good and profit rough rigorous savage and fell of nature which is void of choler and without passion And hereupon it is that they beleeve-brasse founders cutters in stone imagers gravers and workers in waxe who shape represent unto them gods with bodies to the likenesse of mortall men for such they imagine them to be such they adorne adore and worship whiles in the meane time they despise philosophers and grave personages of State and government who do teach and shew that the majestie of God is accompanied with bountie magnanimitie love and carefull regard of our good So that as in the one sort we may perceive a certeine sencelesse stupiditie and want of beleife in those causes from whence proceed all goodness so in the other we may observe a distrustfull doubt and feare of those which cannot otherwise be than profitable and gracious In sum impietie and Atheisme is nothing else but a meere want of feeling and sense of a deitie or divine power for default of understanding and knowing the soveraigne good and superstition is a heape of divers passions suspecting and supposing that which is good by nature to bee bad for superstitious persons feare the gods and yet they have recourse unto them they flatter them and yet blaspheme and reproch them they pray unto them and yet complaine of them A common thing this is unto all men not to be alwaies fortunate whereas the gods are void of sicknesse not subject to old age neither taste they of labour or paine at any time and as Pindarus saith Escape they do the passage of the first Of roaring Acheron and live alway in mirth But the passions and affaires of men be intermedled with divers accidents and adventures which run as well one way as another Now consider with me first and formost the Atheist in those things which happen against his minde and learne his disposition and affection in such occurrences if in other respects he be a temperate and modest man beare he will his fortune patiently without saying a word seeke for aide he will and comfort by what meanes he can but if he be of nature violent and take his misfortune impatiently then he directeth and opposeth all his plaints and lamentations against fortune and casualtie then he crieth out that there is nothing in the world governed either by justice or with providence but that all the affaires of man run confusedly headlong to destruction but the fashion of the superstitious is otherwise for let there never so small an accident or mishap befal unto him he sits him downe sorrowing and thereto he multiplieth and addeth other great and greevous afflictions such as hardly be remooved he imagineth sundry frights feares suspicions and troublesome terrors giving himselfe to all kinde of wailing groaning and dolefull lamentation for he accuseth not any man fortune occasion or his owne selfe but he blameth God as the cause of all giving out in plaine termes that from thence it is that there falleth and runneth over him such a celestiall influence of all calamitie and misery contesting in this wise that an unhappie or unluckie man he is not but one hated of the gods woorthily punished and afflicted yea and suffring all deservedly by that divine power and providence now if the godlesse Atheist be sicke he discourseth with himselfe and calleth to minde his repletions and full feedings his surfeiting upon drinking wine his disorders in diet his immoderate travell paines taken yea and his unusuall and absurd change of aire from that which was familiar unto that which is strange and unnatuturall moreover if it chance that he have offended in any matter of government touching the State incurred disgrace and an evill opinion of the people and country wherein he liveth or beene falsly accused and slandered before the prince or sovereigne ruler he goeth no farther than to himselfe and those about him imputing the cause of all thereto and to nothing els and thus he reasoneth Where have I beene what good have I done and what have I not done Where have I slipt what dutie begun is left by me undone whereas the superstitious person will thinke and say that everie disease and infirmitie of his bodie all his losses the death of his children his evill successe and infortunitie in managing civill affaires of State and his repulses and disgraces are so many plagues inflicted upon him by the ire of the gods and the verie assaults of the divine justice insomuch as he dare not go about to seeke for helpe and succour nor avert his owne calamitie he will not presume to seeke for remedie nor oppose himselfe against the invasion of adverse fortune for feare forsooth lest hee might seeme to fight against the gods or to resist their power and will when they punish him thus when he lieth sicke in bed he driveth his physician out of the chamber when he is come to visit him when he is in sorrow he shutteth and locketh his doore upon the Philosopher that commeth to comfort him and give him good counsell Let me alone will he say and give me leave to suffer punishment as I have deserved wicked and profane creature that I am accursed hated of all the gods demi-gods and saints in heaven Whereas if a man who doth not beleeve nor is perswaded that there is a God be otherwise in exceeding griefe and sorrow it is an ordinarie thing with him to wipe away the teares as they gush out of his eies and trickle downe the cheekes to cause his haire to be cut and to take away his mourning weed As for a superstitious person how shoud one speake unto him or which way succour and helpe him without the doores he sits clad in sackloth or else girded about his loines with patched clothes and tattered rags oftentimes he will welter and wallow in the
powreth not she downe with great violence stormes of haile-stones out of the clouds upon the fertile corne-fields was it not vice and malice that stirred up Melitus Anytus and Callixenus to be sycophants and false accusers is it not she that bereaveth folke of their goods empeacheth and disableth men for being commanders and leaders of armies and all to make them unhappie nay she it is that maketh them rich and plentifull she heapeth upon them heritages and possessions she accompanieth them at sea she is alwaies close unto them and neer at hand she causeth them to consume and pine with lusts and desires she enflameth and setteth them on fire with choler and anger she troubleth their minds with vaine superstitions and draweth them away after the lusts of their eies HOW A MAN MAY PRAISE HIMSELFE WITHOUT INCURRING ENVIE AND BLAME The Summarie IMpossible it is during the time that we sojorne in this life that our spirit which knoweth not how to be still and at rest should not stirre and moove the tongue to speakeof the actions either of other men or of our owne whereby we cannot choose but incurre marvellous daungers of flatterie slander or els of selfe-praise insomuch as not without good cause that man hath beene called perfect who knoweth well to moderate this little member which is at it were the bit and bridle of the whole bodie of man and the verie helme and sterne of that ship or vessell in which we row and hull to and fro in the sea of this world Requisite it is therefore that morall philosophie should speake to the end that it may teach us for to speake We have seene before in many discourses the dutie of everie one towards his neighbours as well in words as in deeds but in this treatise Plutarch sheweth the cariage of a man towards himselfe and above all in that may which is most slipperie to wit in the question of our owne praises then after hee hath laide this for a ground and foundation That it is an unseemely thing for a man to make himselfe seeme great by vaine babble and alledged the reasons wherefore he setteth downe one generall exception to wit that a vertuous man may praise himselfe in certeine cases annd occurrences the which after he hath taxed the ambition of those who set up a note of their owne praises to be chaunted aloud by others he particularizeth upon these points to wit if he be driven to answer unto some false slaunderer if a man be in any distresse and adversitie or if he be blamed for the best deeds that he hath done After this he enterlaceth certeine advertisements or corrections to wit that a man ought to mingle his owne praises with those of other men that he ascribe not the whole honor of a woorthy deed to his own selfe that he utter only those things which be chiefe and principall and stand upon that which is most commendable and that he give a certeine luster thereto by the foile of confessing his owne imperfections which done he proceedeth to declare what kinde of men they ought to bee who are allowed to praise themselves to what this praise ought to be referred and have respect and wherefore they should enter into it moreover at what time and for what occasion he ought to make head unto a third who would do sufficiently and for a finall conclusion he proposeth an excellent meanes to avoid the troubles and inconveniences that might arise from importunate praise willing that the partie who speaketh of his owne good parts should flie all ambition not please himselfe in rehearsing and recitall of his owne exploits take heed how in selfe-praising hee feigne praises and neverthelesse in blaming his neighbour to be content for to be praised of another without putting himselfe betweene and speaking in his owne behalfe In summe since there is nothing so odious as to see and heare a man speake exceeding much of himselfe he concludeth that in no wise a man ought so to do unlesse there accrew therby great profit and commoditie to the hearers HOW A MAN MAY PRAISE himselfe without incurring envie and blame TO speake much of ones selfe in praise either what he is in person or of what valour and power among others there is no man friend Herculanus but by word of mouth will professe it is most odious and unbeseeming a person well borne and of good bringing up but in very deed few there be who can take heed and beware of falling into the inconvenience and enormitie thereof no not even those who otherwise do blame and condemne the same as for Euripides when he saith If words were costly men among for to be bought and sold No man to praise and magnifie himselfe would be so bold But now since that each one may take out of the aire so large As much as will his minde suffice without his cost and charge Well pleas'd are all men of themselves to speake what comes in thought As well untruth as what is true for speech them 〈◊〉 nought doth use a most odious and importune vanterie especially in this that he would seeme to interlace amongst the passionate accidents and affaires of Tragicall matters the speech of a mans selfe which is not befitting nor pertinent unto the subject argument semblably Pindarus having said in one place To brag and vaunt unseasonably Sound 's much of 〈◊〉 and vain-folly ceaseth not neverthelesse to magnifie his owne sufficiencie in the gift of poetrie as being in trueth worthy of right great praise as no man can denie But those who are crowned with garlands in those sacred plaies and games are declared victours and conquerours by the voice of others who thereby ease them of that odious displeasure that selfe-praise carrieth with it And in very deed our heart riseth against that vaine glory of Timotheus in that he wrote himselfe as touching the victorie which he atchieved against Phrynis Oh happy man thou Timotheus at what time as the herald proclamed with a loud voice these words Timotheus the Milesian hath conquered Ionocamptes that sonne of Carbo for surely this carrieth with it no grace at all but is a meere absurditie and against all good fashion for a man to be the trumpeter of his owne victorie for true it is according to Xenophon That the most pleasant voice that a man can heare is his owne praise delivered by another but the most odious thing unto others is a man commending himselfe for first and formost we esteeme them to be impudent who praise themselves considering that they ought rather to blush and be ashamed even when others fall to praise them in their presence secondly we repute them unjust herein for that they give and attribute that to themselves which they should receive at the hands of others thirdly either if we keepe silence when we heare one to praise himselfe it seemeth we are discontented or do beare envie unto him or if we feare that compelled we are
services and sacrifices be acceptable which a woman will seeme to celebrate by stealth and without the knowledge and privitie of her husband 18 Plato writeth that the citie is blessed and happie wherein a man shall never heare these words This is mine and This is not mine for that the inhabitants thereof have all things there especially if they be of any woorth and importance as neere as possibly they can common among them but these words ought rather to be banished out of the state of matrimonie unlesse it be as the Physicians holde that the blowes or woundes which are given on the left side of the body are felt on the right even so a wife ought to have a fellow-feeling by way of sympathie and compassion of her husbands calamities and the husband of his wives much more to the end that like as those knots are much more fast and strong when the ends of the cords are knit and interlaced one within another even so the bond of marriage is more firme and sure when both parties the one aswell as the other bring with them a mutuall affection and reciprocall benevolence whereby the fellowship and communion betweene them is mainteined jointly by them both for nature herselfe hath made a mixture of us of two bodies to the end that by taking part of one and part of another and mixing all together she might make that which commeth thereof common to both in such sort as neither of the twaine can discerne and distinguish what is proper to the one or peculiar to the other This communion of goods especially ought principally to be among those who are linked in wedlocke for that they should put in common and have all their havorie incorporate into one substance in such wise as they repute not this part proper to one and that part peculiar to another but the whole proper to themselves and nothing to another and like as in one cuppe where there is more water than wine yet we say neverthelesse that the whole is wine even so the goods and the house ought to beare the name of the husband although peradventure the wife brought with her the bigger portion 19 Helene was covetous and Paris lascivious contrariwise Ulysses was reputed wise and Penelope chaste and therefore the mariage of these last named was blessed happie and beloved but the conjunction of those two before infortunate bringing upon the Greeks and Barbarians both a whole Iliad that is to say an infinite masse of miseries and calamities 20 A gentleman of Rome who espoused an honest rich faire and yoong ladie put her away and was divorced from her whereupon being reprooved and sharply rebuked by all his friends he put forth his foot unto them and shewed them his shoo What finde you quoth he in this shoo of mine amisse new it is and faire to see to howbeit there is not one of you all knoweth where it wringeth me but I wot well where the fault is and feele the inconvenience thereof A wife therefore is not to stand so much upon her goods and the dowrie shee brings nor in the nobilitie of her race and parentage ne yet in her beautie as in those points which touch her husband most and come neerest to his heart namely her conversation and fellowship her maners her carrage demeanor in all respects so disposed that they be all not harsh nor troublesome from day to day unto her husband but pleasant lovely obsequious and agreeable to his humor for like as Physicians feare those feavers which are engendred of secret and hidden causes within the bodie gathering in long continuance of time by little and little more than such as proceed from evident and apparent causes without even so there fall out otherwhiles petie jarres daily and continuall quarels betweene man and wife which they see and know full little that be abroad and these they be which breed separation and cause them to part sooner than any thing els these marre the pleasure of their cohabitation more than any other cause whatsoever 21 King Philip was enamoured upon a certaine Thessalian woman who was supposed and charged by her sorceries and charmes to have enchanted him to love her whereupon queene Olympias his wife wrought so that she got the woman into her hands now when she had well viewed her person and considered her beautifull visage her amiable favour her comely grace and how her speech shewed well that she was a woman of some noble house and had good bringing up Out upon these standerous surmises quoth she and false imputations for I see well that the charmes and sorceries which thou usest are in thy selfe In like maner we must thinke that an espoused and legitimate wife is as one would say a fort inexpugnable namely such an one as in her selfe reposing and placing all these things to wit her dowrie nobilitie charmes and love-drinks yea and the very tissue or girdle of Venus by her study and endevour by her gentle behavior her good grace and vertue is able to win the affectionate love of her husband for ever 22 Another time the same queene Olympias hearing that a certaine yoong gentleman of the Court had married a ladie who though she were faire and well-favoured yet had not altogether the best name This man quoth shee hath no wit at all in his head for otherwise hee would never have married according to the counsell and appetite of his eies only And in trueth we ought not to goe about for to contract marriage by the eie or the fingers as some doe who count with their fingers how much money or what goods a wife bringeth with her never casting and making computation of her demeanour and conditions whether she be so well qualified as that they may have a good life with her 23 Socrates was woont to counsell yoong men who used to see their faces and looke upon themselves in mirrours if they were foule or ill-favoured to correct that deformitie by vertue if they were faire not to soile and staine their beautie with vice semblably it were very well that the mistresse of an house having in her hand a looking glasse should say thus unto her selfe if she be foule and deformed What a one should I be if I nought or leawd withall if faire and well-favoured How highly shall I be esteemed if I be honest and wise besides for if an hard-favoured woman be loved for her faire and gentle conditions she hath more honor thereby than if she wan love by beautie onely 24 The tyrant of Sicily Dionysius sent upon a time unto the daughters of Lysander certeine rich robes costly wreathes and precious jewels as presents but Lysander would not receive these gifts saying These presents would bring more shame than honour to my daughters And the Poet Sophocles before Lysanders time wrote to the like effect in these verses This will ô wretch to thee none honour bring But may be thought a foule and shamefull
our paramours and concubines and not unto such great captaines as your selfe But Cato after a more surly and boislerous sort in the like case answered unto Catulus one of his inward and most familiar friends This Catulus being Censour mooved Cato who then was but Questour or Treasurer that for his sake he would dismisse and set free one of his clerks of the Finances under him against whom he had commensed sute and entred processe in law That were a great shame in deed quoth he for you who are the Censour that is to say the corrector and reformer of our maners and who ought to schoole and instruct us that be of the yonger sort thus to be put out of your course by our under officers and ministers for he might well enough have denied to condescend unto his request in deed and effect without such sharpe and biting words and namely by giving him to understand that this displeasure that he did him in refusing to doe the thing was against his will and that he could neither will nor chuse being forced thereto by justice and the law Over and besides a man in government hath good meanes with honesty and honor to helpe his poore friends that they may advantage themselves and reape benefit by him from the common-wealth Thus did Themistocles after the battell at Marathon for seeing one of them that lay dead in the field to have hanging at his necke chaines and collars with other bracelets of gold about his armes passed by and would not seeme for his owne part to meddle with them but turning backe to a familiar friend of his one of his folowers Here quoth he off with these ornaments and take them to your selfe for you are not yet come to be such an one as Themistocles Moreover the affaires and occurrences daily incident in the world doe present vnto a magistrate and great ruler such like occasions whereby he may be able to benefit and entich his friends for all men cannot be wealthy nor like to you ô Menemachus Give then unto one friend a good and just cause to plead unto and defend which he may gaine well by and fill his purse unto another recommend the affaires and businesse of some great and rich personage who hath neede of a man that knoweth how to manage and order the same better than himselfe for another harken out where there is a good bargaine to be made as namely in the undertaking of some publicke worke or helpe him to the taking of a good farme at a reasonable rent whereby he may be a gainer Epaminondas would do more than thus for upon a time he sent one of his friends who was but poore unto a rich burgesse of Thebes to demaund a whole talent of money freely to be given unto him and to say that Epammondas commanded him to deliver so much The burgesse woondring at such a message came unto Epaminondas to know the cause why hee should part with a talent of silver unto him mary quoth he this is the reason The man whom I sent is honest but poore and you by robbing the common-wealth are become rich And by report of Xenophon Agesilaus tooke no smal joy glory in this that he had enriched his friends whiles himselfe made no account at all of money But forasmuch according to the saying of Simonides as all larks ought to have a cap or crest upon the head so every government of State bringeth with it enmities envies and litigious jealousies this is a point wherein a man of estate and affaires ought to be well enformed and instructed To begin therefore to treat of this argument many there be who highly praise Themistocles and Aristides for that whensoever they were to goe out of the territorie of Attica either in embassage or to manage warres together they had no sooner their charge and commission but they presently laid downe all the quarrels and enmitie betweene even in the very confines and frontiers of their countrey and afterwards when they were returned tooke up and enterteined them againe Some also there are who be wonderfull well pleased with the practise and fashion of Cretinas the Magnesian This Cretinas had for his concurrent an adversary in the government of State a noble man of the same citie named Hermias who although he were not very rich yet ambitious he was and caried a brave and hautie minde Cretinas in the time of the warre that Mithridates made for the conquest of Asia seeing the citie in danger went unto the said Hermias and made an offer unto him to take the charge of captaine generall for the defence of the citie and in the meane while himselfe would go foorth to retire to some other place or otherwise if he thought better that himselfe should take upon him the charge of the warre then he would depart out of the citie into the countrey for the time for feare lest if they taried both behinde and hindered one another as they were woont to doe by their ambitious minds they should vndoo the state of the citie This motion liked Hermias very well who confessing that Cretinas was a more expert warrior than himselfe departed with his wife and children out of the citie Now Cretinas made meanes to send him out before with a convoy putting into his hands his owne money as being more profitable to them who were without their houses and fled abroad than to such as lay besieged within the citie which being at the point to be lost was by this meanes preserved beyond al hope and expectation for if this be a noble and generous speech proceeding from a magnanimous hart to say thus with a loud voice My children well I loue but of my hart My native soile by farre hath greater part Why should not they have this speech readier in their mouthes to say unto every one I hate this or that man and willing I would be to doe him a displeasure but my native countrey I love so much the more For not to desire to be at variance and debate still with an enimie in such causes as for which we ought to abandon and cast off our friend were the part of a most fell savage and barbarous nature yet did Phocion and Cato better in mine opinion who enterteined not any enmitie with their citizens in regard of difference and variance betweene them about bearing rule and government but became implacable and irreconcilable onely in publike causes when question was of abandoning or hurting the weale publike for otherwise in private matters they caried themselves kindly enough without any ranckor or malice even toward them against whom they had contested in open place as touching the State for we ought not to esteeme or repute any citizen an enimie unlesse such an one be bred amongst them as Aristion or Nabis or Catiline who are to be reckoned botches rather and pestilent maladies of a citie than citizens for all others if haply they be at a jarre
cost but if he wrought or practised any losle or displeasure unto them he would be his enemie When the Argives were entred into league and amitie with the Thebans those of Athens sent their ambassadours into Arcadie to assay if they could draw the Arcadians to side with them So these ambassadours began to charge and accuse unto them aswell the Argives as the Thebans insomuch as Callistratus the oratour who was their speaker upbraided both cities and hit them in the teeth with Orestes and Oedipus then Epaminondas who sat in this assembly of councell rose up and said We confesse indeed my masters that in times past there was in our citie one parricide who killed his owne father like as another in Argos who murdered his owne mother but when we had chased and banished them for committing these facts the Athenians received them both And when the Spartans had charged the Thebans with many great and grievous imputations Why my masters of Sparta quoth Epaminondas these Thebans if they have done nothing els yet thus much they have effected that you have forgotten your maner of short speech and using few words The Athenians had contracted alliance and amitie with Alexander the tyrant of Pheres in Thessalie a mortall enemie of the Thebans and who promised to the Athenians for to serve them flesh in the market at halfe an obolus a pound weight And wee quoth Epaminondas will furnish the Athenians with wood enough for nothing to roast and seethe the said flesh for if they begin busily to intermeddle more than we like of we will fell and cut downe all the trees growing in that countrey Knowing well enought that the Boeotians were lost for idlenesse he determined and advised to keepe them continually in exercise of armes now when the time approched for the election of governors and that they were minded to chuse him their Boeotarches that is to say the ruler of Boeotia Be well advised my masters quoth he what ye do whiles it lieth in your hands for if you elect me your captaine generall make this reckoning that to warre you shall He was wont to call the countrey of Boeotia because it lieth plaine and open the stage and scaffold of warre saying that it was impossible for the inhabitants to keepe and hold it so long as they had not one hand within their shield and the other on their sword Chabrias the captaine of the Athenians having put to foile and defaited some few Thebans about Corinth who for heat of fight had run disbanded and out of aray made a bravado for which exploit as if he had won some great field he caused a tropheae to be erected in memoriall of this victorie whereas Epaminondas scoffed and said That hee should not have set up a trophaeum there but rather an hecatesium that is to say the statue of Proserpina for that in times past it was an ordinary thing to set up the image of Proserpina in maner of a crosse at the first carrefour or meeting of crosse waies which was found nere unto the gate of a city When one brought him word that the Athenians had sent an armie into Peloponesus bravely set out and appointed with new armour Now surely quoth he Antigenidas wil weepe and sigh when he knoweth once that Tellis hath gotten him new flutes and pipes to play upon now this Tellis was a bad minstrell and Antigenidas an excellent musician He perceived upon a time that his esquire or shield-bearer had received a good piece of money for the ransome of a prisoner which was in his hands whereupon he said unto him Give me my shield but goe thou thy waies and buy thee a taverne or victualling house wherein thou maiest leade the rest of thy life for I see well that thou wilt no more expose thy selfe to the dangers of warre as before-time since thou art now become one of these rich and happie men of the world He was once demanded the question whom he reputed to be the best captaine himselfe Chabrias or Iphicrates his answere was It is hard to judge so long as we all be alive At his returne out of of the countrey of Laconia hee was judicially accused for a capitall crime together with other captaines joined in commission with him for holding their charge longer by foure moneths than the lawes allowed as for his companions and collegues above-said hee willed them to derive all the fault from themselves and lay it upon him as if he had forced them so to doe but in his owne defence he pleaded thus Albeit I can not deliver better words than I have performed deeds yet if I be compelled as I see I am to say somewhat for my selfe before the judges I request thus much at their handes that if they be determined to put me to death they would cōmand to be engraven upon the square columne or pillar of my sepulchre my condēnation and the cause therof to the end that all the Greekes might know how Epaminondas was condemned to die for that hee had forced the Thebans against willes to waste and burne the countrey of Laconia which in five hundred yeeres before had never bene forraied nor spoiled also that hee had repeopled the citie of Messene two hundred and thirtie yeeres after it had bene destroied and left desert by the Lacedemonians Item that he had reunited concorporated and brought into one league all the States and cities of Arcadie and last of all that he had recovered and restored unto the Greeks their libertie for all these acts have bene atchieved by us in this voiage the judges when they heard this speech of his rose from the bench and went out of the court laughing heartily neither would they so much as receive the voices or verdicts to be given up against him After the last battell that ever he sought wherin he was wounded to death being brought into his tent he called first for Diophantis and after him for Iolidas but when he heard that they were both slaine hee advised the Thebans to compound and grow to an agreement with their enemies as if they had not one captaine more that knew how to leade them to the warres and in trueth the event did verifie his words and bare witnesse with him that he knew his citizens best of any man PELOPIDAS joint captaine with Epaminondas in the charge of Baeotia when his friends found fault with his neglect in one thing right necessary to wit the gathering of a masse of money together Money indeed quoth he is necessary but for such an one as this Nicomedes here shewing a poore cripple maimed lame and impotent in hand and foot When he departed from Thebes upon a time to a battell his wife praied him to have a regard unto his owne safetie This is quoth he an advertisement fit for others as for a captaine who hath the place of command he is to be put in minde for to save those under his
reason rule and stand for finall pay And to knit up in few words Trophimus Of this discourse the summe I reason thus A man you are that is as much to say A creature more prompt and subject ay To sudden change and from the pitch of blis To lie in pit where bale and sorow is Than others all and not unwoorthily For why most weake by his owne nature he Will needs himselfe in highest matters wrap Above his reach secure of after-clap And then anon he falling from on high Beares downe with him all good things that were nigh But as for you the goods which heere to fore O Trophimus you lost exceeded not no more Than those mishaps which you this day susteane Excessive be but keepe with in a meane Hence foorth therefore you ought to beare the rest Indifferently and you shall finde it best Howbeit although the condition and estate of mens affaires stand in these tearmes yet some there be who for want of sound judgement and good discretion are growen to that blockish stupiditie or vaine overweening of themselves that after they be once a little raised up and advanced either in regard of excessive wealth and store of gold and silver under their hands or by reason of some great offer or for other presidence and preeminence of high place which they hold in the common-weale or else by occasion of honours and glorious titles which they have acquired doe menace wrong and insult over their inferiors never considering the uncertaintie and inconstance of mutable fortune nor how quickly that which was aloft may be flung downe and contrariwise how soone that which lieth below on the ground may be extolled and lifted up on high by the sudden mutations and changes of fortune to seeke for any certaintie therefore in that which is by nature uncertaine and variable is the part of those that judge not aright of things For as the wheele doth turne one part we see Of folly high and low in course to bee But to attaine unto this tranquillitie of spirit void of all griefe and anguish the most soveraigne powerfull and effectuall medicine is reason and by the meanes thereof a prepared estate and resolution against all the changes and alterations of this life neither is it sufficient for a man onely to acknowledge himselfe to be by nature borne mortall but also that he is allotted unto a mortall and transitorie life and tied as it were unto such affaires as soone doe change from their present estate unto the contrarie for this also is most certaine that as mens bodies be mortall and fraile so their fortunes also their passions and affections be flitting and momentanie yea and in one word all that belongeth unto them is transitorie which it is not possible for him to avoid and escape who is himselfe by nature mortall but as Pindarus said With massie weights of strong necessitie Of hell so darke to bottome forc'd are we Verie well therefore said Demetrius Phalereus whereas Euripides the Poet wrote thus No worldly wealth is firme and sure But for a day it doth endure Also How small things may our state quite overthrow It falleth out as every man doth know That even one day is able downe to cast Some things from height and others raise as fast All the rest quoth he was excellently by him written but farre better it had bene if he had named not one day but the minute moment and very point of an houre For earthly fruits and mortall mens estate Turne round about in one and selfe same rate Some live waxe strong and prosper day by day Whiles others are cast downe and fade away And Pindarus in another place What is it for to be but one Nay what is it to be just none And verily a man is made To be the dreame even of a shade hath declared the vanitie of mans life by using an Hyperbole or excessive maner of an over-reaching speech both passing-wittily and also to the purpose most significantly For what is there more weake feeble than a shadow but to come in with the fantasticall dreame of a shadow surely it is not possible that any other man should expresse the thing that he meant more lively in fitter tearmes And verily Crantor in good correspondence hereunto when he comforteth Hippocles for the untimely death of his children useth these words among the rest These are the rules quoth he that all the schoole thorowout of ancient Philosophie doth deliver and teach wherein if there be any point besides that we can not admit and approove yet this at leastwise is most undoubted true that mans life is exceeding laborious and painfull for say that in the owne nature it be not such so it is that by our owne selves it is brought to that corruption besides this uncerteine fortune haunteth and attendeth upon us afarre off and even from our very cradle and swadling bands yea and ever since our first entrance into this life accompanieth us for no good in the world To say nothing how in all things whatsoever that breed and budde there is evermore some portion more or lesse of naughtinesse inbred and mingled therewith for the very naturall seed which at the first when it is at best is mortall doth participate this primitive cause whereupon proceed the untoward inclination and disposition of the minde maladies cares and sorrowes and from thence there creepe and grow upon us all those fatall calamities that befall to mortall men But what is the reason that we are digressed hitherto forsooth to this end that we may know that it is no newes for any man to taste of miseries and calamities but rather that we are all subject to the same for as Theophrastus saith fortune never aimeth or levelleth at any certeine marke but shooteth at randon taking much pleasure and being very powerfull to turne a man out of that which he hath painfully gotten before and to overthrow a supposed and reputed felicity with all regard of any fore-set and prefixed time to worke this 〈◊〉 These reasons and many other such like every one of us may easily consider and ponder within himselfe yea besides lay thereto the sage speeches which he is ay to heare and learne of ancient and wise men among whom the chiefe and principall is that heavenly and divine Poet Homer who saith thus More weake than man there is no creature That from the earth receiveth nouriture So long as limmes with strength he can advance And whiles the gods do lend him puissance He thinks no harme will ever him befall He casts no doubt but hopes to outgoe all But let them once from heaven some sorrowes send Maugre the smart he heares unto the end Also Such minds have men who here on earth do live As Jupiter from heaven doth daily give And in another place Why aske you of my bloud and parentage Sir Tydeus sonne a knight magnanimous To leaves of trees much like is mans linage
Leaves some blowen downe by minde outragious Lie shed on ground and others numerous Bud fresh in wood when pleasant spring doth call Mens houses so some rise and others fall Now that this similitude or comparison of tree-leaves fitly expressed and represented the transitorie vanitie of mans life it appeareth evidently by those verses which he wrote in another place You would not say that I were wise if I did armour take To fight with you in wretched mens behalfe and for their sake Who much resemble leaves at first faire in their fresh verdure So long as they of earthly fruits do feed for nouriture And afterward be like to them withred and dead againe When humour radicall is spent and no strength doth remaine Simonides the Lyricall Poet when as Pausanias king of Lacedaemon bearing himselfe high and vaunting of his brave exploits bad him upon a time by way of mockery to give unto him some sage precept good advertisement knowing ful well the pride over-weening spirit of the said prince counselled him onely to call to minde and remember That he was but a man Philip likewise king of Macedon hearing newes in one and the same day of three severall happie successes the first That he had woon the prize at the great running of chariots drawen with horses in the solemnitie of the Olympicke games the second How his lieutenant generall Parmenio had defaited the Dardanians in battell and the third That his wife Olympias was delivered safe of a jolly sonne lifted up his hands toward heaven and said O fortune I beseech thee to send unto me in counterchange some moderate adversitie as knowing full well that she bare spight and envie alwaies to great felicities Semblably Theramenes one of the thirty tyrants of Athens at what time as the house wherein he supped with many others fell downe and he alone escaped safe out of that dangerous ruine when all others reputed him an happie man cried out with a loud voice O fortune for what occasion of misfortune reservest thou me and verily within few daies after it hapned that his owne companions in government cast him in prison and after much torture put him to death Moreover it seemeth unto me that the poet Homer deserveth singular praise in this matter of consolation when hee bringeth in Ahilles speaking of king Priamus being come unto him for to raunsome and redeeme the corps of his sonne Hector in this wise Come on theresore and heere sit downe by me upon this throne Let be all plaints for beare we thus to weepe to sigh and grone And though our griefe of heart be much let us the same represse For why no teares will ought prevaile nor helpe us in distresse To live in paines and sorrowes great men areprede stinate By gods above and they alone dwell ay in blessed state Exempt from cares and discontents for in the entrie-sill Of Jove his house in heaven aloft two tunnes are standing still Whereout he doth among men deale such gifts as they containe In one good blessings are bestowed in th' other curse and paine Now be to whom great Jupiter vouchsafes of both to give Sometime in joy and otherwhiles in heavinesse shall live But if a man be onely from that cursed vessell sped With shame with want and penurie he is full ill be sted He shall be sure upon the earth to wander and to flray In much disgrace with God and man untill his dying day The poet who came after him both in order of time and also in credit and reputation Hesiodus although he taketh upon himselfe the honour to have beene a disciple of the Muses having as well as the other included the miseries and calamities of mankind within one tun writeth that Pandora in opening it set them abroad in great quantitie and spred them over all lands and seas saying in this maner No sooner then this woman tooke the great lid from the tun With both her hands but all abroad she scattered anon A world of plagues and miseries thus mischiefes manifold She wrought thereby to mortall men on earth both yoong and old Hope onely did reniaine behinde and slew not all abroad But underneath the upmost brim and edge it still abode For why before it could get foorth the lid she clapt to fast When other evils infinite were slowen from first to last Full was the earth of sundrie plagues full was the sea likewise Diseases then and maladies from day to day did rise Among mankind and those by night doe walke and crecpe by stealth All sodainly without cause knowen and doe impeach mans health Uncald they come in silence deepe they make not any noise For Jupiter in wisedome great bereft them all of voice To these sayings and sentences the comicall poet according well as touching those who torment themselves by occasion of such misfortunes when they happen writeth thus If teares could cure and heale all our disease Or weeping slay at once our paine and griefe We would our gold exchange for teares to ease Our maladies and so procure reliefe But Master now teares with them beare no sway Nor ought prevaile for weepe we or weepe not They hold their course and still keepe on their way So that we see by plaints nothing is got What gaine we then nought sir yet give me eare Griefe brings foorth teares as trees their frute doe beare And Dyctis when he comforted Danaë who sorrowed overmuch for the death of her sonne spake unto her in this maner Thinke you that Pluto doth your teares regard And will for sighes and grones your sonne back send No no cease you to sob and weepe so hard Your neighbours case marke rather and intend Harts ease will come if that you call to minde How many men have died in dungeon deepe Or waxen old bereft of children kind Or princely state and port who could not keepe But fell to basedegree consider this And make right use it will you helpe iwis He giveth her counsell to consider the examples of those who have beene more or lesse unfortunate then herselfe as if the comparing of their condition might serve her turne very well the better to endure her owne calamitie And heereto may a man very pertinently draw and applie the saying of Socrates who was of opinion that if we laid foorth all our adversities and misfortunes in one cōmon heape with this condition that each one should carrie out of it an equal portion most men would wish and be glad to take up their owne and goe away with all The poet Antimachus also used the like induction after that his wife whom he loved so entirely was departed for whereas her name was Lyde he for his owne consolation in that sorrow of his composed an Elegie or lamentable dittie which he called Lyde wherein he collected all the calamities and misfortunes which hapued in old time to great princes and kings making his owne dolour and griefe the lesse by comparing it with other
Pindarus also writeth as touching Agamedes Trophonius That after they had built the temple of Apollo in Delphos they demanded of that god their hire and reward who promised to pay them fully at the seven-nights end meane while he bade them be merie and make good cheere who did as he enjoined them so upon the seventh night following they tooke their sleepe but the next morning they were found dead in bed Moreover it is reported that when Pindarus himselfe gave order unto the commissioners that were sent from the State of Boeotia unto the oracle of Apollo for to demand what was best for man this answere was returned from the prophetisse That he who enjoined them that errand was not ignorant thereof in case the historie of Agamedes and Trophonius whereof he was author were true but if he were disposed to make further triall he should himselfe see shortly an evident proofe thereof Pindarus when he heard this answer began to thinke of death and to prepare himselfe to die and in trueth within a little while after changed his life The like narration is related of one Euthynous an Italian who was sonne to Elysius of Terinae for vertue wealth and reputation a principall man in that citie namely that he died suddenlie without any apparent cause that could be given thereof his father Elysius incontinently thereupon began to grow into some doubt as any other man besides would have done whether it might not be that he died of poison for that he was the onely childe he had and heire apparant to all his riches and not knowing otherwise how to sound the trueth hee sent out to a certeine oracle which used to give answere by the conjuration and calling forth of spirits or ghosts of men departed where after he had performed sacrifices and other ceremoniall devotions according as the law required he laied him downe to sleepe in the place where he dreamed and saw this vision There appeared unto him as he thought his owne father whom when he saw he discoursed unto him what had fortuned his sonne requesting and beseeching him to be assistant with him to finde out the trueth and the cause indeed of his so sudden death his father then should answere thus And even therefore am I come hither here therefore receive at this mans hands that certificate which I have brought unto thee for thereby shalt thou know all the cause of thy griefe and sorrow now the partie whom his father shewed and presented unto him was a yoong man that followed after him who for all the world in stature and yeeres resembled his sonne Euthynous who being demanded by him what he was made this answere I am the ghost or angell of your sonne and with that offered unto him a little scrowle or letter which when Elysius had unfolded he found written within it these three verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be done into English thus Elysius thou foolish man aske living Sages read Euthynous by fatall course of 〈◊〉 is dead For longer life would neither him nor parents stand in stead And thus much may suffice you both as touching the ancient histories written of this matter and also of the second point of the foresaid question But to come unto the third branch of Socrates his conjecture admit it were true that death is the utter abolition and destruction aswell of soule as body yet even so it cannot be reckoned simply ill for by that reckoning there should follow a privation of all sense and a generall deliverance from paine anxietie and angush and like as there commeth no good thereby even so no harme at all can ensue upon it forasmuch as good and evill have no being but in that thing onely which hath essence and subsislence and the same reason there is of the one as of the other so as in that which is not but utterly becommeth void anulled and taken quite out of the world there can not be imagined either the one or the other Now this is certeine that by this reason the dead returne to the same estate and condition wherein they were before their nativitie like as therefore when we were unborne we had no sense at all of good or evill no more shall we have after our departure out of this life and as those things which preceded our time nothing concerned us so whatsoever hapneth after our death shall touch us as little No paine feele they that out of world be gone To die and not be borne I holde all one For the same state and condition is after death which was before birth And do you thinke that there is any difference betweene Never to have bene and To cease from being surely they differ no more than either an house or a garment in respect of us and our use thereof after the one is ruined or fallen downe and the other all rent and torne from that benefit which we had by them before they were begun to be built or made and if you say there is no difference in them in these regards as little there is be you sure between our estate after death and our condition before our nativitie a very pretie and elegant speech therefore it was of Arcesilaus the philosopher when he said This death quoth he which every man tearmeth evill hath one peculiar propertie by it selfe of all other things that be accounted ill in that when it is present it never harmeth any man onely whiles it is absent and in expectance it hurteth folke And in very truth many men through their folly and weakenesse and upon certaine slanderous calumniations and false surmises conceived against death suffer themselves to die because sorsooth they would not die Very well therefore and aptly wrot the poet Epicharmus in these words That which was knit and joined fast Is loosed and dissolv'd at last Each thing returnes into the same Earth into earth from whence it came The spirit up to heaven anon Wherefore what harme heerein just none And as for that which Cresphontes in one place of Euripides speaking of Hercules said If under globe of earth with those he dwell Who being none have left laid once in grave A man of him might say and that right well That puissance and strength he none can have By altering it a little in the end you may thus inferre If under globe of earth with those he dwell Who being none have left laid once in grave A man of him might say and that right well That sense at all of paine he can none have A generous and noble saying also was that of the Lacedaemonians Now are we in our gallant prime Before as others had their time And after us shall others floure But we shall never see that houre As also this Now dead are they who never thought That life or death were simply ought But all their care was for to dy And live as they should
to let go the resemblance of an hereditarie vice which beginneth to bud and sprout in a yoong man to stay and suffer it I say to grow on still burgen and spread into all affections untill it appeare in the view of the whole world for as Pindarus saith The foolish heart doth bring forth from within Her hidden fruit corrupt and full of sin And thinke you not that in this point God is wiser than the Poet Hesiodus who admonisheth us and giveth counsell in this wise No children get if thou be newly come From dolefull grave or heavie funerall But spare not when thou art returned home From solemne feast of Gods celestiall as if he would induce men to beget their children when they be jocund fresh and mery for that the generation of them received the impression not of vertue and vice onely but also of joy sadnesse all other qualities howbeit this is not a worke of humane wisdome as Hesiodus supposeth but of God himselfe to discern foreknow perfectly either the conformities or the diversities of mens natures drawen from their progenitors before such time as they breake forth into some great enormities whereby their passions affections be discovered what they are for the yong whelps of beares wolves apes such like creatures shew presently their naturall inclination even whiles they be very yong because it is not disguised or masked with any thing but the nature of man casting it selfe and setling upon maners customes opinions lawes concealeth often times the ill that it hath but doth imitate counterfeit that which is good and honest in such sort as it may be thought either to have done away cleane all the staine blemish imperfection of vices inbred with it or els to have hidden it a long time being covered with the vaile of craft subtiltie so as we are not able or at leastwise have much adoe to perceive their malice by the sting bit pricke of every several vice And to say a truth herein are we mightily deceived that we thinke men are become unjust then only and not before when they do injurie or dissolute when they play some insolent and loose part cowardly minded when they run out of the field as if a man should have the cōceit that the sting in a scorpion was then bred not before when he gave the first pricke or the poison in vipers was ingendred then only when they bit or stung which surely were great simplicitie and meere childishnesse for a wicked person becommeth not then such an one even when he appeareth so and not before but hee hath the rudiments and beginnings of vice and naughtinesse imprinted in himselfe but hee sheweth and useth the same when he hath meanes fit occasion good opportunitie and might answerable to his minde like as the thiefe spieth his time to robbe and the tyrant to violate and breake the lawes But God who is not ignorant of the nature and inclination of every one as who searcheth more into the secrets of the heart and minde than into the body never waiteth and staieth untill violence beperformed by strength of hand impudencie bewraied by malepart speech or intemperance and wantonnesse perpetrated by the naturall members and privie parts ere he punish for he is not revenged of an unrighteous man for any harme and wrong that he hath received by him nor angry with a thiefe or robber for any forcible violence which he hath done unto him ne yet hateth an adulterer because he hath suffered abuse or injurie by his meanes but many times he chastiseth by way of medicine a person that committeth adulterie a covetous wretch and a breaker of the lawes whereby otherwhiles he riddeth them of their vice and preventeth in them as it were the falling sicknesse before the sit surprise them Wee were erewhile offended and displeased that wicked persons were over-late and too slowly punished and now discontented we are complaine for that God doth represse chastise the evill habit and vicious disposition of some before the act committed never considering and knowing that full often a future mischiefe is worse and more to be feared than the present and that which is secret and hidden more dangerous than that which is open and apparent Neither are we able to comprehend and conceive by reason the causes wherefore it is better otherwhiles to tolerate and suffer some persons to be quiet who have offanded and transgressed already and to prevent or stay others before they have executed that which they intend like as in very trueth wee know not the reason why medicines and physicall drogues being not meet for some who are sicke be good and holsome for others though they are not actually diseased yet haply in a more dangerous estate than the former Hereupon it is that the gods turne not upon the children and posterity all the faults of their fathers and ancestours for if it happen that of a bad father there descend a good sonne like as a sickly and crasie man may beget a sound strong and healthfull childe such an one is exempt from the paine and punishment of the whole house and race as being translated out of a vicious familie and adopted into another but that a yoong sonne who shall conforme himselfe to the hereditarie vice of his parents is liable to the punishment of their sinfull life aswell as he his bound to pay their debts by right of succession and inheritance For Antigonus was not punished for the sinnes of his father Demetrius nor to speake of leaud persons Phileus for Augeas ne yet Nestor for Neleus his sake who albeit they were descended from most wicked fathers yet they prooved themselves right honest but all such as whose nature loved embraced and practised that which came unto them by descent and parentage in those I say divine justice is wont to persecute and punish that which resembleth vice and sinne for like as the werts blacke moales spots and freckles of fathers not appearing at all upon their owne childrens skinne begin afterwards to put foorth and shew themselves in their nephews to wit the children of their sonnes and daughters And there was a Grecian woman who having brought foorth a blacke infant and being troubled therefore and judicially accused for adultrie as if shee had beene conceived by a blacke-moore shee pleaded and was found to have beene hereselfe descended from an Aethiopian in the fourth degree remooved As also it is knowen for certaine that of the children of Python the Nisibian who was descended from the race and line of those old Spartans who were the first lords and founders of Thebes the yoongest and he that died not long since had upon his body the print and forme of a speare the very true and naturall marke of that auncient line so long and after the revolution of so many yeeres there sprang and came up againe as it were out of the deepe this resemblance of the stocke
more savory than those of the yeeres past do by consequence provoke those that use to fee upon them for to eat better THE THIRD QUESTION Whether was before The hen or the egge THis long time I absteined from eating egges by reason of a certeine dreame which I had being desirous to make that experience in an egge which is made in an heart by occasion of a vision which hath evidently appeard unto me many times in my sleepe And heereupon when I was one day at a feast which Sossius Senecio made unto us the companie conceived an opinion or suspition of me that there were entred into my head the fantasies and superstitions of Orpheus Pythagoras and that I abhorred to eat an egge like as many do forbeare the heart and the braine of a living creature for that I beleeved it to be the principle and fountaine of generation insomuch as Alexander the Epicurean by way of a jest and to move laughter alledged these verses I count all one to make of * beanes our meat As if the heads of parents we did eat As who would say that the Epicureans by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say beanes meant aemgmatically and covertly egges because that the breeding of yoong or conception in Greeke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if there were no difference at all but they thought it all one to eat egges and the living creatures which lay them Now if I had alledged my dreame unto them for my defence as the very cause of mine abstinence certes mine answere would have seemed more absurd and ridiculous than the dreame it selfe especially to this Epicurean and therefore I stood not greatly upon excusing my selfe unto the said Alexander playing upon me so merrily but suffered him to feed and mainteine that opinion conceived of me for surely a pleasant man he was honest civill and well learned Howbeit he tooke occasion heereupon to set on foot that doubtfull question of the egge and the bird which had busied and amuzed the heads so much of great naturallists and searchers into the causes of naturall works and namely to know whether of the twaine was before Whereat Sylla our familiar friend said That with this little question of the henne and the egge as with a small lever screw or such like engine we shaked the great frame and weightie fabricke of the generation of the whole world and therefore willed him to surcease and proceed no farther to speake thereof But when Alexander laughed at it and made no more reckoning of it than of a ridiculous question of no importance nor consequence at all depending thereof my sonne in law Firmus began in this wise I must heere borrow quoth he the indivisible elements of Epicurus and make use of those motes or attomi of his for it be true which he supposeth and laieth for a ground That small principles should assoord beginning to great bodies it soundeth by all likelihood to great reason that the egge was before the henne for as farre foorth as by our senses we are able to judge it is more simple whereas the henne is a body mixt and compounded and to speake in generalitie the principle or element is ever first the seed is a principle and the egge full of seed and lesse than the chicke or living creature that is hatched of it for like as the progresse and proceeding unto vertue is of a middle nature betweene the first disposition and the finall habit and perfection thereof even so it should seeme that the egge is a certeine processe and advancement forward of nature tending to make a living creature of the seed disposed thereto moreover as in a beast or such a living creature it is commonly said and received that the arteries and veines bee formed first semblablie good reason there is to hold that the egge was before the bird as the continent before the thing conteined within for so it is with very arts which make the first draught of their works grosly without forme fashion but afterwards give distinct sigure and shape to every part thereof according to that which Polycletus the famous imager was woont to saie That their workemanship in potterie was then most difficult and hard when the claie and the finger naile mette together that is to say when the worke was at the point to be finished and therfore it standeth well to good reason that the matter yeelding and obeying but slowly unto nature at the beginning when she mooveth and frameth by little and little produceth at the first rude lumpes and masses not as yet brought into shape and fashion such as egges be but as the same grow to receive the impression of some forme there is afterwards wrought out and framed a living creature within for like as there is engendred first a grub which in time growing hard by reason of drinesse cleaveth and openeth in the end and putteth foorth another little winged flie which we call Nympha before it is a perfect bee after the same manner the egge heere is the first subsistent matter of generation for necessarie it is that in every change and transmutation that must precede and have a being first which is to be altered and turned into another see you not how cankers or catterpillers are bred in trees and wormes in wood either by the putrefaction or concoction of humiditie and will any man deny that the said moisture went before and that by order of nature that which ingendreth is more auncient than that which is ingendred for as Plato saith The matter in all things that breed serveth in stead of mother nource and that is to be counted the matter whereof the thing is composed consisteth which is bred And now for that which remaineth quoth he and therewith he laughed I will sing unto those that be skilfull and of understanding one holy and sacred sentence taken out of the deepe secrets of Orpheus which not onely importeth thus much that the egge was before the henne but also attributeth and adjudgeth unto it the right of eldership and prioriry of all things in the world as for the rest let them remaine unspoken of in silence as Herodotus saith for that they be exceeding divine and mysticall this onely will I speake by the way That the world conteining as it doeth so many sorts and sundry kinds of living creatures there is not in manner one I dare well say exempt from being ingendred of an egge for the egge bringeth foorth birds and foules that flie fishes an infinit number that swimme land creatures as lizards such as live both on land water as crocodiles those that be two footed as the bird such as are footlesse as the serpent and last of all them which have many feet as the unwinged locust Not without great reason therefore is it consecrated to the sacred ceremonies and mysteries of Bacchus as representing that nature which produceth and comprehendeth in it selfe
this measure or proportion Epitritos may fit some grave and wise senatours sitting in parliament or the Archoures in the counsell chamber Prytaneum for to dispatch waightie affaires of great consequence and it may beseeme well enough some logicians that pull up their browes when they are busie in reducing unfolding and altering their Syllogismes for surely it is a mixture or temperature sober and weake enough as for the other twaine that medley which carieth the proportion of two for one bringeth in that turbulent tone of the Acrothoraces before said to wit of such as are somewhat cup-shotten and halfe drunke Which stirs the strings and cords of secret hart That mooved should not be but rest apart For it neither suffereth a man to bee fully sober nor yet to drench himselfe so deepe in wine that hee bee altogether witlesse and past his sense but the other standing upon the proportion of two to three is of all others the most musicall accord causing a man to sleepe peaceablie and to forget all cares resembling that good and fertile corne-field which Hesiodus speaketh of That doth from man all eares and curses drive And children cause to rest to feed and thrive It appeaseth and stilleth all proud violent and disordred passions within our heart inducing in the stead of them a peaceable calme and tranquillitie These speeches of Ariston no man there would crosse or contradict for that it was well knowen he spake merily but I willed him to take the cup in hand and as if he held the harpe or lute to tune and set the same to that accord and consonance which he so highly praised and thought so good Then came a boy close unto him and powred out strong wine which he refused saying and that with a laughter That his musicke consisted in reason and speculation and not in the practise of the instrument But my father added thus much to that which had beene said That as hee thought the auncient poets also had to great reason feigned that whereas Jupiter had two nurses to wit Ida and Adrastia Juno one namely Euboea Apollo likewise twaine that is to say Alethia and Corythalia Bacchus had many more for that he was suckled and nursed by many nymphes because this god forsooth had need of more measures of water signified by the nymphs to make him more tame gentle wittie and wise THE TENTH QUESTION What is the reason that any killed flesh will be naught and corrupt sooner under the raies of the moone than in the sunne Enthydemus of Sunium feasted us upon a time at his house and set before us a wilde bore of such bignesse that all wee at the table woondred thereat but he told us that there was another brought unto him farre greater mary naught it was and corrupted in the cariage by the beames of the moone-shine whereof he made great doubt and question how it should come to passe for that he could not conceive nor see any reason but that the sunne should rather corrupt flesh being as it was farre hotter than the moone Then Satyrus This is not the thing quoth he whereat a man should marvell much in this case but rather at that which hunters practise for when they have strucken downe either a wilde bore or a stagge and are to send it farre into the citie they use to drive a spike or great naile of brasse into the body as a preservative against putrefaction Now when supper was done Enthydemus calling to minde his former question was in hand withall againe and set it now on foot And then Moschion the physician shewed unto them that the putrefaction of flesh was a kinde of eliquation and running all to moisture for that corruption bringeth it unto a certeine humiditie so as whatsoever is sappie corrupted becommeth more moist than it was before Now it is well knowen quoth he that all heat which is mild and gentle doth stirre dilate and spred the humours in the flesh but contrariwise if the same be ardent fierie and burning it doth attenuate and restreine them by which appeereth evidently the cause of that which is in question for the moone gently warming bodies doth by consequence moisten the same whereas the sunne by his extreme heat catcheth up and consumeth rather that humiditie which was in them unto which Archilocus the poet alludeth like a naturall philosopher when he said I hope the dogge starre Sirius In firie heat so furious With raies most ardent will them smite And numbers of them dry up quite And Homer more plainly spake of Hector over whose body lying along dead Apollo quoth he displaied and spred a darke and shadowy cloud For feare lest that the scorching beames of sunne aloft in skie Should on his corps have power the flesh andnerves to parch and dry Contrariwise that the moone casteth weaker and more feebler raies the poet 〈◊〉 sheweth saying The grapes doe finde no helpe by thee to ripen on the vine And never change their colour blacke that they might make good wine These words thus passed And then all the rest quoth I is very well said I approove thereof but that al the matter should lie in the quantity of heat more or lesse cōsidering the season I see not how it should stand for this we find that the sunne doth heat lesse in winter corrupteth more in summer whereas we should see contrary effects if putrefactions were occasioned by the imbecillity of heat but now it is far otherwise for the more that the suns heat is augmented the sooner doth it putrifie corrupt any flesh killed and therefore we may as wel inferre that it is not for default of heat nor by any imbecillitie thereof that the moone causeth dead bodies to putrifie but we are to referre that effect to some secret propertie of the influence proceeding from her for that all kinds of heat have but one qualitie and the same differing onely in degree according to more or lesse that the very fire also hath many divers faculties and those not resembling one another appeareth by daily ordinary experiences for gold-smiths melt and worke their gold with the flame of light straw and chaffe physicians doe gently warme as it were in Balneo those drougues and medicines which they are to boile together most all with a fire made of vine cuttings for the melting working blowing and forming of glasse it seemeth that a fire made of Tamarix is more meet than of any other matter whatsoever the heat caused by olive-tree wood serveth well in drie stouphs or hot houses and disposeth mens bodies to sweat but the same is most hurtfull to baines and baths for if it bee burned under a furnace it hurteth the boord-floores and seelings it marreth also the verie foundations and ground-workes whereupon it commeth that Aediles for the State such as have any skill and understanding when they let to ferme the publicke baines unto Publicans and Fermers except ordinarily olive-tree wood forbidding expresly
pores be open for that the spirit hath forsaken and abandoned them which is the cause likewise that voices odors and savours passe through them unheard and unsmelled for why that which should resist and in resistance suffer and take impression meeteth not with those objects that are presented unto it and least of all when they pierce with such swiftnesse and subtilitie as the fire of lightning doth for that which of it selfe is lesse firme strong for to resist offensive things nature doth desend fortifie and furnish with remedies against that which offendeth by putting before them hard and solide munitions but looke what things bee of incomparable force and invincible they lesse offend and hurt that which yeeldeth than that which maketh head and resistance adde moreover heereunto that they who lie a sleepe are lesse affraid affrighted or astonied by occasion whereof and of nothing else many have died onely I say for feare of death without any harme at all done unto them and this is the very cause that shepheards teach their sheepe to runne and gather round together into a troupe when it thundreth for that they which are dispersed and scattered a sunder for very feare take harme and cast their yoong ones in time of thunder yea and an infinit number have beene knowen to lie dead on the ground by reason of thunder without any marke or stroke wound scorch or burne seene upon them whose life and soule for very feare hath flowen out of their bodies like a birde out of a cage for according as Euripides saith The very blast of some great thunder-clap Hath many a one strucke stone-dead with a flap And forasmuch as otherwise the sense of hearing is of all others most subject to suffer violent passions and the fearefull frights occasioned by sounds and noises worke greatest troubles in the minde against it the privation of sense is a sure bulwarke and rampar to a man that lieth asleepe where as they who are awake be many times killed with feare of the thing before it commeth for a fright to say a trueth knitting closing and compressing the body fast giveth more strength a great deale to the stroake when it comes for that it findeth more resistance THE THIRD QUESTION Why at a wedding or bride-supper men use to invite more guests than at other times AT the wedding of my sonne Autobulus ô Sossius Senecio one who came frō Chaeronea was with us to solemnize the feast a great nūber there were besides of other honorable personages which gave unto him occasion for to demand this question What the cause might be that ordinarily we invite more guests to such a marriage supper than to any other feast considering that even those law-givers who impugned most the superfluitie and riot of feasts have precisely expresly set downe the number of those persons whom they would have to be bidden guests to a wedding For of the ancient philosophers quoth he the man that treated of this argument and the cause thereof to wit Hecataeus of Abdera hath written nothing in my judgement worth ought not to the purpose for thus he saith That they who marry wives bid many persons to their wedding to the end that many may take knowledge and beare witnesse that being free borne and of free condition they take wives likewise of like free birth and condition For the comicall poets cleane contrary mocke and laugh at those who make proud and sumptuous feasts at their marriage setting out the same with great pompe and magnificence as if that were no sure bond nor linke to be trusted unto wherewith they would seeme to knit wedlocke like as Menander said to one who willed the bridegrome to make a strong rempar all about of pots pannes and platters When that is done on every side What is all this to your new bride But lest we might not seeme to finde fault with others at our pleasure for that we have nothing of our owne to say which is the easiest matter in the world I shewed first and formost that there was no occasion of feasting so publike nor so much divulged and celebrated as marriage for say that we sacrifice unto the gods or feast a friend for his farewell when he is to goe a long voiage or enterteine a traveller and stranger that passeth by our house or commeth of purpose to visit us we may do all without the privitie of kinsefolke friends but a nuptiall feast where the wedding-song and caroll of 〈◊〉 is chanted aloud where the torches are to be seene lightburning where the hautboies and pipes play merrily and resound where as Homer saith the very women and maidens stand woondering at their doores to see and heare is notoriously knowen and proclaimed to the whole world in regard whereof because there is none ignorant of these espousals and festivall solemnities men being ashamed to leave out any invite generally all their kinsefolke familiar friends and acquaintance as whom in some sort it doth concerne and who have an interest in the thing When we all had approoved this Theon taking in hand the question Surely all this quoth he may goe for currant for it carrieth great probabilitie therewith but you may adde moreover if you please thus much That these marriage feasts are not onely for friends but also for kinsefolke and allies for that a whole kindred race and generation come to have another new alliance to be incorporated into them and that which more is when two houses in this wise be joined together both he who receiveth the woman thinketh that hee ought to enterteine and feast the kindred and friends of him that giveth her and he who giveth her likewise taketh himselfe bound to doe as much reciprocally by the knisefolke and friends of the receiver whereby the feast and number of them who are bidden groweth double Now forasmuch as many marriage complements and to say a trueth the most part in maner all are performed at weddings by women surely where the goodwives be great reason there is that of necessitie their husbands also should be welcome for their sakes and so thereby the companie still doth increase THE FOURTH QUESTION Whether the viands which the sea affoordeth be more delicate than those of the land GAlepsus a town in Euboea where there be baths naturally of hot waters is a proper seat and place fitted by nature for sundry honest pleasures beautified with many faire houses and lodgings in such sort as it is reputed the publike hostelrie of all Greece and albeit there be great game there of hunting and hawking and woonderfull plentie aswell of fowle as other venison yet is the market no lesse served from the sea nor their tables lesse furnished 〈◊〉 daintie fish for that indeed along the coast the sea is very deepe and the water faire nourishing an infinit number of excellent fishes This towne flourisheth more in the mids of Spring than at any other season of the yeere for much concourse
of their bodies as they sit for that ordinarily men sit to their meat directly at their full breadth groveling forward and put their right hands streight foorth upon the table but after they have well supped they turne themselves more to a side sit edge-wise taking up no place now according to the superficies of the body not sitting as a man would say by the squire but rather by the line and the plumb like as therefore the cockal bones occupie lesse roome when they fall upon one of their sides than if they be couched 〈◊〉 even so every one of us at the first sitteth bending forward and fronteth the table with his mouth and eies directly upon it but afterwards hee chaungeth that forme from front to flanke and turneth sidelong to the boord Many there were who ascribed the reason of this to the yeelding of the couch or bed whereon men sit at their meat for being pressed downe with sitting is stretched broader and wider like as our shooes with wearing and going in them grow more slacke and easie for us by little and little untill in the end they be so large that we may turne our feet in them Then the good old man spake merrily and said That one and the same feast had alwaies two presidents and governors different one from another at the beginning hunger which cannot skill of keeping any good order toward the end Bacchus and him all men know very well and confesse to have beene a very sufficient captaine and an excellent leader of an armie like as therefore Epaminondas when as other captaines by their ignorance and unskilfulnesse had brought the armie of the Thebanes into a place so narrow that all was thrust together and the ranks and files came one upon another and crushed themselves tooke upon him the place of a commaunder and not onely delivered it out of those streights but also reduced it into good order of battell even so god Bacchus surnamed Lyaeus and Choreus that is to say a deliverer and master of daunces finding us at the beginning of supper thrusting one another and having no elbow roome by reason of hunger that throumbleth us together like a sort of dogges bringeth us againe into a decent order whereby wee sit at ease and libertie enough like good fellowes THE SEVENTH QUESTION Of those who are said to bewitch with their eie THere grew some question upon a time at the table as touching those who are reported to be eie-biters or to bewitch with their eies and when others in maner all passed it over with laughing as a frivolous and ridiculous thing Metrius Florus who had invited us to his house tooke the matter in hand and said That the effects or events rather which daily we doe observe do make marvellous much to the brute and voice that goeth of the thing but 〈◊〉 want of yeelding a good reason thereof and setting downe the true cause the report many times of such matters wanteth credit But unjustly quoth he and wrongfully in mine opinion for an infinit number there be of other matters that have a reall essence and are notoriously knowen to be so although we are ignorant of their cause and in one word whosoever seeketh in each thing for a probable reason overthroweth miracles and woonders in all for where wee faile to give reason of a cause there begin we to doubt make question that is as much to say as to play the philosophers so as we may inferre consequently They that discredit things admirable do in some sort take away and abolish all philosophie but we ought quoth he in such things as these to search Why they are so by reason and learne That they are so by historie and relation for histories do report unto us many narrations of like examples Thus we know that there be men who by looking wistly and with fixed eies upon little infants doe hurt them most of all for that the habit and temperature of their bodies which is moist tender and weake soone receiveth alteration by them and changeth to the woorse whereas lesse subject they be to such accidents when their bodies are better knit more strong and 〈◊〉 And yet Philarchus writeth in his historie of a certeine nation and people inhabiting the realme of Pontus in times past called Thybiens who were by that meanes pestiferous and deadly not onely to yoong babes but also to men growen for looke how many either their eie their breath or their speech could reach unto they were sure to fall sicke and pine away and this harme was felt and perceived as it should seeme by merchants who resorted into those parts and brought from thence slaves to be solde But as for these the example peradventure is not so strange and wonderfull because the touching contagion and familiar conversing together may yeeld a manifest reason and cause of such accidents and like as the wings of other fowles if they be laied together with those of the eagle perish consume and come to nothing for that the plume and downe of the feathers fall off and putrifie even so there is no reason to the contrary but that the touching of a man should be partly good profitable and in part hurtful and prejudiciall mary that folke should take harme by being seene onely and looked on is an accident which as I said before we know to be but for that the cause thereof is so difficult hard to be hunted out the report of it is incredible Howbeit quoth I then you wind the cause already you have met in some sort I say with the tracts and footing thereof and are in the very way of finding it out being come already to those defluxions that passe from bodies for the sent the the voice the speech and breath be certeine defluxions and streames as it were flowing from the bodies of living creatures yea and certeine parcels thereof which move and affect the senses when as they suffer by the same lighting and falling upon them and much more probable it is that such defluxions proceed from the bodies of living creatures by the meanes of heat motion namely when they be enchafed and stirred as also that the vitall spirits then doe beat strongly and the pulses worke apace whereby the body being shaken casteth from it continually certeine defluxions as is before said and great likelihood there is also that the same should passe from the eies more than from any other conduit of the bodie for the sight being a sense very swift active and nimble doth send forth and disperse from it a wonderfull fierie puissance together with a spirit that carrieth and directeth it in such sort that a man by the meanes of this eie-sight both suffereth and doth many notable effects yea and receiveth by the objects which he seeth no small pleasures or displeasures for love one of the greatest and most vehement passions of the minde hath the source and originall beginning at
be steeped in some liquor as having not bene covered but with their owne bare coats for this you may observe ordinarily in stones that those parts and sides which lie covered deeper within the ground as if they were of the nature of plants be more frim and tender as being preserved by heat than those outward faces which lie ebbe or above the earth and therefore skilfull masons digge deeper into the ground for stones which they meane to square worke and cut as being melowed by the heat of the earth whereas those which lie bare aloft and exposed to the aire by reason of the cold prove hard and not easie to be wrought or put to any use in building semblably even corne if it continue long in the open aire and cocked upon the stacks or threshing floores is more hard and rebellious than that which is soone taken away and laid up in garners yea and oftentimes the very winde which bloweth whiles it is fanned or winnowed maketh it more tough and stubburne and all by reason of cold whereof the experience by report is to be seene about Philippi a citie in Macedonie where the remedie is to let corne lie in the chaffe and therefore you must not thinke it strange if you heare husbandmen report that of two lands or ridges running directly one by the side of another the one should yeeld corne tough and hard the other soft and tender and that which more is beanes lying in one cod some be of one sort and some of another according as they have felt more or lesse either of cold or of winde THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that the mids of wine the top of oile and the bottome of honie is best MY wives father Alexion one day laughed at Hesiodus for giving counsell to drinke wine lustilie when the vessell is either newly pierced or runneth low but to forbeare when it is halfe drawen his words are these When tierce is full or when it draweth low Drinke hard but spare to mids when it doth grow For that the wine there is most excellent For who knoweth not quoth he that wine is best in the middle oile in the top and honie in the bottome of the vessel but Hesiodus forsooth adviseth us to let the mids alone and to stay untill it change to the woorse and be sowre namely when it runneth low and little is left in the vessell Which words being passed the companie there present bad Hesiodus farewell and betooke themselves into searching out the cause of this difference and diversitie in these liquors And first as touching the reason of honie we were not very much troubled about it because there is none in maner but knoweth that a thing the more rare or hollow the substance of it is the lighter it is said to be as also that solid massie and compact things by reason of their weight do settle downward in such sort that although you turne a vessell up-side-downe yet within a while after each part returneth into the owne place againe the heavie sinks downe the light flotes above and even so there wanted no arguments to yeeld a sound reason for the wine also for first and formost the vertue and strength of wine which is the heat thereof by good right gathereth about the middes of the vessell and keepeth that part of all others best then the bottome for the vicinitie unto the lees is naught lastly the upper region for that it is next to the aire is likewise corrupt for this we all know that the winde or the aire is most dangerous unto wine for that it altereth the nature thereof and therefore we use to set wine vessels within the ground yea and to stop and cover them with all care and diligence that the least aire in the world come not to the wine and that which more is wine will nothing so soone corrupt when the vessels be full as when it hath beene much drawen and groweth low for the aire entreth in apace proportionably to the place that is void the wine the taketh winde thereby and so much the sooner chaungeth whereas if the vessels be full the wine is able to mainteine it selfe not admitting from without much of that which is adverse unto it or can hurt it greatly But the consideration of oile put us not to a little debate in arguing One of the companie said That the bottome of oile was the woorst because it was troubled and muddy with the leis or mother thereof and as for that which is above he said It was nothing better than the rest but seemed onely so because it was farthest remooved from that which might hurt it Others attributed the cause unto the soliditie thereof in which regard it will not well be mingled or incorporate with any other liquor unlesse it be broken or divided by force and violence for so compact it is that it will not admit the very aire to enter in it or to be mingled with it but keepeth it selfe a part and rejecteth it by reason of the fine smoothnesse and contenuitie of all the parts so that lesse altered it is by the aire as being not predominant over it neverthelesse it seemeth that Aristotle doth contradict and gainsay this reason who had observed as he saith himselfe that the oile is sweeter more odoriferous and in all respects better which is kept in vessels not filled up to the brim and afterwards ascribeth the cause of this meliority or betternesse unto the aire For that saith he there entereth more aire into a vessell that is halfe emptie and hath the more power Then I wot not well said I but what and if in regard of one and the same facultie and power the aire bettereth oile and impaireth the goodnesse of wine for we know that age is hurtfull to oile and good for wine which age the aire taketh from oile because that which is cooled continueth still yoong and fresh contrariwise that which is pent in and stuffed up as having no aire soone ageth and waxeth old great apparence there is therefore of truth that the aire approching neere unto oile and touching the superficies thereof keepeth it fresh and yoong still And this is the reason that of wine the upmost part is woorst but of oile the best because that age worketh in that a very good disposition but in this as badde THE FOURTH QUESTION What was the reason that the auncient Romans were very precise not to suffer the table to be cleane voided and all taken away or the lampe and candle to be put out FLorus a great lover of antiquitie would never abide that a table should be taken away emptie but alwaies lest some meat or other standing upon it And I know full well quoth he that both my father and my grandfather before him not onely observed this most carefully but also would not in any case permit the lampe after supper to be put out because for sparing of oile and that thereby
and taught that the affirmative doth conteine of connexed propositions one hundred thousand and besides one thousand fortie and nine but the negative of the same propositions comprehendeth three hundred and ten thousand with a surplusage of nine hundred fiftie and two and Xenocrates hath set downe that the number of syllables which the letters in the alphabet being coupled and combined together do affoord amount to the number of one hundred millions and two hundred thousand over why should it therefore bee thought strange and wonderfull that our body having in it so many faculties and gathering still daily by that which it eateth and drinketh so many different qualities considering withall that it useth motions and mutations which keepe not one time nor the same order alwaies the complications and mixtures of so many things together bring evermore new and unusuall kinds of maladies such as Thucydides wrot was the pestilence at Athens conjecturing that this was no ordinarie and usuall maladie by this especially for that the beasts of prey which otherwise did eat of flesh would not touch a dead bodie those also who fell sicke about the red sea as Agathircides maketh report were afflicted with strange symptomes and accidents which no man had ever read or seene and among others that there crawled from them certeine vermin like small serpents which did eat the calves of their legs and the brawnes of their armes and looke whensoever a man thought to touch them in they would againe and winding about the muskles of the flesh ingendered inflammations and impostumes with intolerable paine This pestilent disease no man ever knew before neither was it ever seene since by others but by them alone like as many other such accidents for there was a man who having beene a long time tormented with the disurie or difficultie of his urine delivered in the end by his yard a barley straw knotted as it was with joints and we know a friend and guest of ours a yoong man who together with a great quantitie of naturall seed cast foorth a little hairie worme or vermin with many feet and therewith it ranne very swiftly Aristotle writeth also that the nourse of one Timon of Cilicia retired her selfe for two moneths space every yeere and lurked in a certeine cave all the while without drinke or meat or giving any other apparence of life but onely that shee tooke her breath certes recorded it is in the Melonian books that it is a certeine signe of the liver diseased when the sicke partie is verie busie in spying seeking and chasing the mice and rats about the house a thing that now a daies is not seene let us not marvell therefore if a thing be now engendred that never was seene before and the same afterward cease as if it had never beene for the cause lieth in the nature of the bodie which sometime taketh one temperature and one while another but if Diogemanus bring in a new aire and a strange water let him alone seeing he is so disposed and yet we know well that the followers of Democritus both say and write that by the worlds which perish without this and by the straunge bodies which from that infinitie of worlds runne into this there arise many times the beginnings of plageu and pestilence yea and of other extraordinarie accidents we will passe over likewise the particular corruptions which happen in divers countries either by earthquakes excessive droughts extreme heats and unusuall raines with which it cannot be chosen but that both winds and rivers which arise out of the earth must needs be likewise infected diseased and altered but howsoever those causes wee let goe by yet omit we must not what great alterations and changes be in our bodies occasioned by our meats and viands and other diet and usage of our selves for many things which before time were not wont to hee tasted or eaten are become now most pleasant dainties as for example the drinke made of honie and wine as also the delicate dish of a farrowing swines shape or wombe as for the braine of a beast it is said that in old time they were wont to reject and cast it from them yea and so much to detest and abhorre it that they would not abide to heare one to name it and for the cucumber the melon or pompion the pomeeitron and pepper I know many old folke at this day that cannot away with their taste credible it is therefore that our bodies receive a woonderfull change and strange alteration by such things in their temperature acquiring by little and little a divers qualitie and superfluitie of excrements farre different from those before semblably wee are to beleeve that the change of order in our viands maketh much heereto for the services at the boord which in times past were called the cold tables to wit of oisters sea-urchings greene sallads of raw lettuce such other herbs be as it were the light forerunners of the feast as transferred now by Plato from the rereward to the forefront and have the first place whereas besore in old time they came in last a great matter there is also in those beavers or fore-drinkings called Propomata for our ancients would not drinke so much as water before they did eat and now a daies when as men are otherwise fasting have eat nothing they will be in maner drunke after they have well drenched their bodies they begin to fall unto their meats and whiles they be yet boiling they put into the stomacke those things that bee attenuant incisive and sharpe for to provoke and stirre up the appetite and still fill themselves up full with other viands but none of all this hath more power to make mutation in our bodies nor to breed new maladies than the varietie of sundry fashions of bathing of flesh for first formost it is made soft liquid and fluid as iron is by the fire and afterwards it receiveth the temper and tincture of hard sleele by cold water so that me thinks if any one of those who lived a little before us should see the dore of our stouphes and baines open he might say thus Heere into runneth Acheron And fire-like burning Phlegethon Whereas in our forefathers daies they used their bathes and hot-houses so milde so kinde and temperate that king Alexander the Great being in a fever lay and slept within them yea the Gaules wives bringing thither their pots of pottage and other viands did eat even there with their children who bathed together with them but it seemeth in these daies that those who are within the stouphes and baines be like unto those that are raging madde and barke as dogs they puffe and blow like fed swine they lay about them and tosse every way the aire that they draw in as it were mingled with fire water suffereth no piece nor corner of the body in quiet and rest it shaketh tosseth and remooveth out of place the least indivisible parcell
a little troubled at this chalenge but after he had paused and thought upon the matter a while in the end he spake to this effect It is an ordinary thing quoth he with Plato to play with us many times merrily by certeine devised names that hee useth but whensoever hee inserteth some fable in any treatise of the soule he doth it right soberly and hath a deepe meaning and profound sense therein for the intelligent nature of heaven he calleth a Chariot volant to wit the harmonicall motion and revolution of the world and heere in this place whereof we are now in question to wit in the end of the tenth booke of his Common-wealth he bringeth in a messenger from hell to relate newes of that which he had there himselfe seene and calleth him by the name of Era a Pamphylian borne and the sonne of Armonius giving us covertly by an aenigmaticall conveiance thus much to understand That our soules are engendred by harmonie and so joined to our bodies but when they be disjoined and separate from them they runne together all into aire from every side and so returne againe from thence unto second generations what should hinder then but this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was put downe by him not to shew a truth whereof he spake but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a probable speech and conjecturall fiction or else a thing spoken as it should seeme to a dead bodie and so uttered vainly and at a venture in the aire for Plato alwaies toucheth three causes as being the philosopher who either first knew or principally understood how fatall destiny is mingled with fortune and againe how our freewill is woont to bee joined with either of them or is complicate with both and now in this place before cited hee sheweth excellently well what power each of these causes hath in our humane affaires attributing the choice and election of our life unto free will for vertue and vice be free and at the commaund of no lord and tying to the necessitie of fatall destinie a religious life to God-ward in them who have made a good choise and contrariwise in those who have made a choise of the woorst but the cadences or chaunces of lots which being cast at a venture and lighting heere and there without order befall to every one of us bring in fortune and preoccupate or prevent much of that which is ours by the sundry educations or governments of common-weale wherein it hapneth each of us to live for this I would have every one of you to consider whether it bee not meere folly and without all reason to seeke for a cause of that which is done by fortune and casually for if lot should seeme to come by reason there were to be imputed no more to fortune or adventure but all to some fatall destinie or providence Whiles Lamprias delivered this speech Marcus the Grammarian seemed to count and number I wot not what upon his fingers to himselfe apart but when he had made an end the said Marcus named aloud all those soules or spirits which are called out in Homers Necya Among which quoth he the ghost onely of Elpenor wandering still in the middle confines is not reckoned with those beneath in another world for that his bodie as yet is not interred and committed to the earth as for the soule of Tiresias also it seemeth not to bee numbred with the rest To whom now dead Proserpina above the rest did give This gift alone right wise to be although he did not live as also the power to speake with the living and to understand their state and affaires even before he had drunke the bloud of sacrificed beasts If then quoth hee ô Lamprias you subtract these two and count the rest you shall finde that the soule of Ajax was just the twentieth of those which presented themselves to Ulysses and heereto alluded Plato as it should seeme by way of mirth joining his fable together with that evocation of spirits otherwise called Necyra in Homers Odyssea THE SIXTH QUESTION What is covertly meant by the fable wherein Neptune is feigned to have beene vanquished as also why the Athenians take out the second day of the moneth August NOw when the whole company were growen to a certeine uprore Menephyllus a Peripateticke philosopher calling unto Hylas by name You see quoth he now that this question was not propounded by way of mockerie and contumelious flouting but you my good friend leaving this froward and mal-contented Ajax whose name as Sophocles saith is ominous and of ill presage betake your selfe unto Neptune and side with him a while who is wont to recount unto us himselfe how he hath beene oftentimes overcome to wit in this city by Minerva at Delphi by Apollo in Argos by Juno in Aegina by Jupiter and in Naxus by Bacchus and yet in all his repulses disfavors and infortunities he bare himselfe alwaies mild and gentle carying no ranckor or malice in his heart for proofe heereof there is even in this city a temple common to him and Minerva in which there standeth also an altar dedicated to Oblivion Then Hylas who seemed by this time more pleasantly disposed But you have forgotten quoth he ô Menephyllus that we have abolished the second day of the moneth August not in regard of the moone but because it was thought to be the day upon which Neptune and Minerva pleaded for the scignorie of this territorie of Attica Now I assure you quoth Lamprias Neptune was every way much more civill and reasonable than Thrasibulus in case being not a winner as the other but a loser he could forget all grudge and malice A great breach and defect there is in the Greeke originall wherein wanteth the farther handling of this question as also 5. questions entier following and a part of the 6. to wit 7 Why the accords in musicke are devided into three 8 Wherein differ the intervals or spaces melodious from those that be accordant 9 What cause is it that maketh accord and what is the reason that when one toucheth two strings accordant together the melody is ascribed to the base 10 What is the cause that the eclipticke revolutions of sunne and moone being in number equall yet we see the moone oftner ecclipsed than the sunne 11 That we continue not alwaies one and the same in regard of the daily deflux of our substance 12 Whether of the twaine is more probable that the number of starres is even or odde Of this twelfth question thus much remaineth as followeth Lysander was wont to say That children are to be deceived with cockall bones but men with othes Then Glaucias I have heard quoth he that this speech was used against Polycrates the tyrant but it may be that it was spoken also to others But whereby do you demaund this of me Because verily quoth Sospis I see that children snatch at such bones the Academiques catch at words for it
just and neither more nor fewer you will be so good will you not as to yeeld us a reason for I suppose you are well studied in this point being as you are so well affected unto them and so much adorned by their graces And what great learning quoth Herodes againe should there be in that for every man hath in his mouth the number of nine and there is not a woman but singeth thereof and is able to say that as it is the first square arising from the first odde number so it is unevenly odde it selfe as being divided into three odde numbers equall one to the other Now surely quoth Ammontus and therewith smiled this is manfully done of you and stoutly remembred but why do you not adde thereto thus much more for a corollary and over-measure that it is a number composed of the two first cubes considering that it is made of an unitie and an octonaric and after another maner likewise of composition it standeth of two triangled numbers to wit a senarie and a ternarie where of both the one and the other is a perfect number but what is the reason that this novenarie or number of nine agreeth better unto the Muses than to any other gods or goddesses for nine Muses we have but not nine Cereses nor nine 〈◊〉 nor yet nine Dianaes you are not I trow perswaded that the cause hereof is because the name of their mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conteineth just so many letters Herodes laughed heartily heereat and after some time of pause and silence Ammonius sollicited us to take the matter in hand and search the cause thereof With that my brother beganne and said Our ancients in olde time knew of no more than three Muses but to proove so much by way of demonstration before this company where there be so many wise men and learned clerks were a meere uncivill and rusticall part savouring of vanitie and ostentation but I assure you the reason of this number was not as some affirme the three kinds of musicke or melodie to wit Diatonique Chromatique and Harmonique nor by occasion of the three termes or bounds which make the intervals in an octave or eight of musicke harmonicall to wit Nete Mese and Hypate that is to say the Treble the Meane and the Base and yet verily the Delphians so called the Muses wherein they did amisse in my judgement to restraine that generall name of them all to one science or rather to one part of a science to wit the harmonie of musicke but our ancients knowing well that all arts and sciences which are practised performed by reason and speech are reduced to three principall kinds Philosophicall Rhetoricall and Mathematicall reputed them to be the gifts and beneficiall graces of three deities or divine powers which they called Muses 〈◊〉 afterwards and about the time wherein Hesiodus lived when the faculties of these generall sciences were better revealed and discovered they perceived that 〈◊〉 of them had three differences and so they subdivided them into three subalternall sorts namely the Mathematicks into Arithmaticke Musicke and Geometrie Philosophy into Logicke Ethicke or Morall and Physicke or Naturall as for Rhetoricke it had at the beginning for the first part Demonstrative which was imploied in praises for the second Deliberative occupied in consultations and for the third Judiciall used in pleas and judgements of all which faculties they thought there was not so much as one that was invented or could be learned without some gods or Muses that is to say without the conduct and favour of some superiour puissance and therefore they did not devise and make so many Muses but acknowledged and found that so many there were like as therefore the number of nine is divided into three ternaries and every one of them subdivided into as many unites even so the rectitude of reason in the precellent knowledge of the trueth is one puissance and the same common but ech of these three kinds is subdivided into three other and every of them hath their severall Muse for to dispose and adorne particularly one of these faculties for I doe not thinke that in this division poets and astrologers can of right complaine of us for leaving out their sciences knowing as they do aswell as we can tell them that Astrologie is contributed unto Geometrie Poetrie to Musicke Upon this speech Tryphon the physician brake out into these words But what meane you I pray you and how hath our poore art offended you that it is excluded thus out of the temple and societie of the Muses Then 〈◊〉 of Melitus added moreover and said Nay you have provoked many of us besides to complaine upon our discontentment in the same behalfe for we that are gardeners and husbandmen imploied in agriculture challenge a right and propertie in lady 〈◊〉 ascribing unto her the care and charge of plants and seeds that they may come up grow flower increase and be preserved But herein quoth I you doe the man manifest wrong for you have Ceres for your patronesse furnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for giving us so many gifts to wit the fruits of the earth yea and Bacchus may goe for a patron in this respect who as Pindar us saith Taking the charge of trees that grow Doth cause them for to bud and blow The verdure fresh and beautie pure Of lovely fruits he doth procure And we know besides that physicians have Aestulapius for their president and tutelar god who ordinarily also use Apollo as he is surnamed Paean that is to say the appeaser of all paines and maladies but never as he is Musegetes that is to say the prince and guide of the Muses True it is indeed that according to Homer All mortall men of gods have need That they in their affaires may speed Howbeit all men require not the helpe of all gods But I woonder much at this that Lamprias should either forget or be ignorant of that common saying of the Delphians who give out That among them the Mules beare not the name either of sounds and notes or of strings but whereas the whole world is divided into three principall parts or regions where of the first is of those natures which be fixed and not erraticall the second of such as are wandering and the third of bodies under the sphaere of the moone these are every one distinctly digested composed and ordered by harmonic all proportions and each of them as they say hath a Muse to their keeper and president to wit the first or highest region Hypate the last or lowest Nete as for Mese which is in the middle betweene she doth both comprehend and also turne about mortall things as much as it is possible considering they come after with divine and immortall yea and earthly natures with heavenly and celestiall according as Plato himselfe after a covert aenigmaticall maner hath given us to understand under the names of the three Destinies
first borne IS it for that as some say Servius being by chance borne of a maid-servant and a captive had Fortune so favourable unto him that he reigned nobly and gloriously king at Rome For most Romans are of this opinion Or rather because Fortune gave unto the city of Rome her first originall and beginning of so mightie an empire Or lieth not herein some deeper cause which we are to fetch out of the secrets of Nature and Philosophie namely that Fortune is the principle of all things insomuch as Nature consisteth by Fortune namely when to some things concurring casually and by chance there is some order and dispose adjoined 107 What is the reason that the Romans call those who act comedies and other theatricall plaies Histriones IS it for that cause which as Claudius Rufus hath left in writing for he reporteth that many yeeres ago and namely in those daies when Cajus Sulpitius and Licinius Stolo were Consuls there raigned a great pestilence at Rome such a mortalitie as consumed all the stage plaiers indifferently one with another Whereupon at their instant praier and request there repaired out of Tuscane to Rome many excellent and singular actours in this kinde among whom he who was of greatest reputation and had caried the name longest in all theaters for his rare gift and dexteritie that way was called Hister of whose name all other afterwards were tearmed Histriones 108 Why espoused not the Romans in mariage those women who were neere of kin unto them WAs it because they were desirous to amplifie and encrease their alliances and acquire more kinsfolke by giving their daughters in mariage to others and by taking to wife others than their owne kinred Or for that they feared in such wedlock the jarres and quarrels of those who be of kin which are able to extinguish and abolish even the verie lawes and rights of nature Or else seeing as they did how women by reason of their weaknesse and infirmitie stand in need of many helpers they would not have men to contract mariage nor dwell in one house with those who were neere in blood to them to the end that if the husband should offer wrong and injurie to his wife her kinsfolke might succour and assist her 109 Why is it not lawfull for Jupiters priest whom they name Flamen Dialis to handle or once touch meale or leaven FOr meale is it not be because it is an unperfect and raw kind of nourishment for neither continueth it the same that it was to wit wheat c. nor is that yet which it should be namely bread but hath lost that nature which it had before of seed and withall hath not gotten the use of food and nourishment And hereupon it is that the poet calleth meale by a Metaphor or borrowed speech Mylephaton which is as much to say as killed and marred by the mill in grinding and as for leaven both it selfe is engendred of a 〈◊〉 corruption of meale and also corrupteth in a maner the whole lumpe of dough wherin it is mixed for the said dough becommeth lesse firme and fast than it was before it hangeth not together and in one word the leaven of the paste seemeth to be a verie putrifaction and tottennesse thereof And verely if there be too much of the leaven put to the dough it maketh it so sharpe and soure that it cannot be eaten and in verie truth spoileth the meale quite 110 Wherefore is the said priest likewise forbidden to touch raw flesh IS it by this custome to withdraw him farre from eating of raw things Or is it for the same cause that he abhorreth and detesteth meale for neither is it any more a living animall nor come yet to be meat for by boiling and rosting it groweth to such an alteration as changeth the verie forme thereof whereas raw flesh and newly killed is neither pure and impolluted to the eie but hideous to see to and besides it hath I wot not what resemblance to an ougly sore or filthie ulcer 111 What is the reason that the Romans have expresly commaunded the same priest or Flamen of Jupiter not onely to touch a dogge or a goat but not so much as to name either of them TO speake of the Goat first is it not for detestation of his excessive lust and lecherie and besides for his ranke and filthie savour or because they are afraid of him as of a diseased creature and subject to maladies for surely there seemeth not to be a beast in the world so much given to the falling sicknesse as it is nor infecteth so soone those that either eate of the flesh or once touch it when it is surprised with this evill The cause whereof some say to be the streightnesse of those conduits and passages by which the spirits go and come which oftentimes happen to be intercepted and stopped And this they conjecture by the small and slender voice that this beast hath the better to confirme the same we do see ordinarily that men likewise who be subject to this malady grow in the end to have such a voice as in some fort resembleth the 〈◊〉 of goats Now for the Dog true it is haply that he is not so lecherous nor smelleth altogether so strong and so ranke as doth the Goat and yet some there be who say that a Dog might not be permitted to come within the castle of Athens nor to enter into the Isle of Delos because forsooth he lineth bitches openly in the sight of everie man as if bulls boares and stalions had their secret chambers to do their kind with females and did not leape and cover them in the broad field and open yard without being abashed at the matter But ignorant they are of the true cause indeed which is for that a Dog is by nature fell and 〈◊〉 given to arre and warre upon a verie small occasion in which respect men banish them from sanctuaries holy churches and priviledged places giving thereby unto poore afflicted suppliants free accesse unto them for their safe and sure refuge And even so verie probable it is that this Flamen or priest of Jupiter whom they would have to be as an holy sacred and living image for to flie unto should be accessible and easie to be approched unto by humble futers and such as stand in need of him without any thing in the way to empeach to put backe or to 〈◊〉 them which was the cause that he had a little bed or pallet made for him in the verie porch or entrie of his house and that servant or slave who could find meanes to come and fall downe at his feet and lay hold on his knees was for that day freed from the whip and past danger of all other punishment say he were a prisoner with irons and bolts at his feet that could make shift to approch neere unto this priest he was let loose and his gives and fetters were throwen out of the house not
bright as golde This is the fish which I doe sacred holde but many take it for the elops for rare he is to be found and hard to be taken howbeit manie times he is seene about the coast of Pamphylia and whensoever the fishers can meet with any of them and bring them home both they themselves weare chaplets of flowers for joy and also they crowne and adorne their barques with garlands yea and at their arrivall they are received with much shouting and clapping of hands but the most part are of opinion that the anthios beforesaid is he which they call the sacred fish and so is he held to be for that wheresoever he is there may no hurtfull nor ravening monster be found there insomuch as the Divers plunge downe into the sea for spunges boldly in those coasts where these be yea and other fishes both spawne and reare their yoong frie safely there as having him for their pledge and warrant of all safety and security as in a priviledged place The cause hereof is hardly to be rendred whether it be that such hurtfull fishes upon a secret antipathie in nature doe avoid him as elephants a swine and lions a cocke or that there be some marks signes of those coasts which are clere of such harmfull monsters which he knoweth well and observeth being a fish quicke of wit and as good of memorie Common it is to all females for to have a naturall care and providence for their yong but in fishes the males generally are so respective that way and so farre off from devouring the seed of their owne kinde that they continue neere unto the spawne that the females have cast and keepe the same as Aristotle hath left in writing Some milters there be that follow after the spawners and sprinkle them a little about the taile otherwise the spawne or frie will not be faire and great but remaine unperfect and come to no growth This property particularly by themselves have the phycides that they build their nests with the sea weeds or reits covering and defending therewith their spawne and frie against the waves of the sea Dog-fishes give not place in any sort to the most tame and gentle beasts in the world for kinde love and naturall affection to their yoong for first they engender spawne and after that a quicke frie and that not without but within nourishing and carrying the same within their owne bodies after a kind of second generation but when they are growen to any bignesse they put them foorth and teach them how to swim hard by them and afterwards receive them by the mouth into their bodie which serveth in stead of a place of abode of nourishment and of refuge untill such time as they be so big that they can shift for themselves Moreover the provident care of the tortoise in the generation nourishment and preservation of yer yoong is woonderfull for out she goeth of the sea and laieth her egges or casteth her spawne upon the banke side but being not able to cove or sit upon them nor to remaine herselfe upon the land out of the sea any long time she bestoweth them in the gravell and afterwards covereth them with the lightest and finest sand that she can get when she hath thus hidden them surely some say that with her feet she draweth raies or lines or els imprinteth certeine pricks which may serve for privy marks to herselfe to finde out the place againe others affirme that the male turneth the females upon the backe and so leaveth the print of their shell within the same but that which is more admirable she observeth just the fortieth day for in so many daies the egges come to their maturity and be hatched and then returneth she to the place where knowing her owne treasure by the seale she openeth it with great joy and pleasure as no man doth his casket of jewels or cabinet where his golde lieth The crocodiles deale much after this maner in all other points but at what marks they aime in chusing or finding out the place where they breed no mortall man is able to imagine or give a reason whereupon it is commonly said that the foreknowledge of this beast in that respect proceedeth not from any discourse of reason but of some supernaturall divination for going neither farther nor neerer than just to that gage and heigth where Nilus the river for that yeere will rise and cover the earth there laieth she her egges so that when the paisant or countrey man chanceth by fortune to hit upen a crocodiles nest himselfe knoweth and telleth his neighbours how high the river will overflow that Summer following so just doth she measure the place that will be drowned with water that herselfe may be sure not to be drenched while she sitteth and coveth furthermore when her yoong bee newly hatched if she see any one of them so soone as ever it is out of the shell not to catch with the mouth one thing or other comming next in the way be it flie pismire gnat earth-worme straw or grasse the damme taketh it betweene her teeth teareth it and killeth it presently but such as give some proofe of animositie audacitie and execution those she loveth those she cherisheth and maketh much of bestowing her love as the wisest men judge it meet and reasonable according to reason and discretion and not with blinde affection The sea-calves likewise bring forth their yoong on the dry land but within a while after they traine them to the sea give them a taste of the salt water then quickly bring them back againe thus practise they with them by little and little many times together untill they have gotten more heart and begin of themselves to delight for to live within the sea Frogs about their breeding time cal one to another by a certaine amorous note or nuptiall tune called properly Ololugon And when the male hath by this meanes entised and allured the female to him they attend and waite together for the night and why In the water they cannot possibly engender and upon the land they fear to do it in the day time dark night is no sooner come but boldly they go foorth of the water and then without feare they claspe and embrace one another Moreover against a showre of raine their crooking voice such as it is you shall heare more cleere and shrill than ordinarie which is a most infallible signe of raine But oh sweet Neptune what a foule fault and grosse errour was I like to have committed how absurd and ridiculous should I have made my selfe if being amused and busied to speake of these sea-calves and frogs I had forgotten and overpassed the wisest creature and that which the gods love best of all those that do frequent and hant the sea for what musicke of the nightingale is comparable to that of the halcyon what artificiall building of the swallowes and martinets what entier amitie love of
none And if we will bring evill into the world without a precedent cause principle to beget it we shall run and fall into the difficult perplexities of the Stoicks for of those two principles which are it cannot be that either the good or that which is altogether without forme and quality whatsoever should give being or beginning to that which is naught Neither hath Plato done as some that came after him who for want of seeing and understanding a third principle and cause betweene God and matter have runne on end and tumbled into the most absurd and falsest reasons that is devising forsooth I wot not how that the nature of evill should come without forth casually and by accident or rather of the owne accord forasmuch as they will not graunt unto Epicurus that the least atome that is should turne never so little or decline a side saying that he bringeth in a rash and inconsiderate motion without any cause precedent whereas they themselves the meane-while affirme that sin vice wickednesse and ten thousand other deformities and imperfections of the body come by consequence without any cause efficient in the principles But Plato saith not so for he ridding matter from al different quality and remooving farre from God all cause of evill thus hath hee written as touching the world in his Politiques The world quoth he received al good things from the first author who created it but what evill thing soever there is what wickednesse what injustice in heaven the same it selfe hath from the exterior habitude which was before and the same it doth transmit give to the creatures beneath And a little after he proceedeth thus In tract of time quoth he as oblivion tooke holde and set sure footing the passion and imperfection of the old disorder came in place and got the upper hand more and more and great danger there is least growing to dissolution it be plunged againe into the vast gulfe and bottomlesse pit of confused dissimilitude But dissimilitude there can be none in matter by reason that it is without qualitie and void of all difference whereof Eudemus among others being ignorant mocked Plato for not putting that to be the cause source and first originall of evill things which in many places he calleth mother and nurse for Plato indeed tearmeth matter mother and nurse but he saith likewise That the cause of evill is the motive puissance resiant in the said matter which is in bodies become divisible to wit a reasonlesse and disorderly motion howbeit for all that not without soule which plainly and expresly in his books of lawes he tearmeth a soule contrary and repugnant to that which is the cause of all good for that the soule may well be the cause and principle of motion but understanding is the cause of order and harmony in motion for God made not the matter idle but hath kept it from being any any more 〈◊〉 troubled with a foolish and rash cause neither hath he given unto nature the beginnings and principles of mutations and passions but being as it was enwrapped and enfolded with all sorts of passions and inordinate mutations hee cleered it of all enormities disorders and errors whatsoever using as proper instruments to bring about all this numbers measures and proportions the effect whereof is not to give unto things by mooving and mutation the passions and differences of the other and of diversitie but rather to make them infallible firme and stable yea and like unto those things which are alwaies of one sort and evermore resemble themselves This is in my judgement the minde and sentence of Plato whereof my principall proofe and argument is this that by this interpretation is salved that contrariety which men say and seemeth indeed to be in his writings for a man would not attribute unto a drunken sophister much lesse than unto Plato so great unconstance and repugnance of words as to affirme one and the same nature to be created and uncreated and namely in his booke entituled Phaedrus that the soule is eternall and uncreated but in Timaeus that it was created and engendied Now as touching those words of his in the treatise Phaedrus they are well neere in every mans mouth verie rife whereby he prooveth that the soule can not perish because it was never engendred and semblably he prooveth that generation it had none because it mooveth it selfe Againe in the booke entituled Timaeus God quoth he hath not made the soule to be yoonger than the body according as now in this place we purpose to say that it commeth after it for never would he have permitted that the elder being coupled and linked with the yoonger should be commaunded by it But we standing much I wot not how upon inconsiderate rashnesse and vanity use to speake in some sort accordingly for certaine it is that God hath with the bodie joined the soule as precedent both in creation and also in power and vertue like as the dame or mistresse with her subject for to rule and commaund Againe when he had said that the soule being turned upon her selfe began to live a wise and eternall life The body of the heaven quoth he was made visible but the soule invisible participating the discourse of reason and of harmony engendred by the best of things intellectuall and eternall being likewise it selfe the best of things engendred and temporall Where it is to be noted that in this place expresly calling God the best of all eternall things and the soule the best of things created and temporall by this most evident antithesis and contrariety he taketh from the soule that eternity which is without beginning and procreation And what other solution or reconciliation is there of these contradictions but that which himself giveth to those who are willing to receive it for he pronounceth that soule to be ingenerable and not procreated which mooved all things rashly and disorderly before the constitution of the world but contrariwise he calleth that procreated and engendred which Godframed and composed of the first and of a parmanent eternall and perfect good substance namely by creating it wise and well ordered and by putting and conferring even from himselfe unto sense understanding and order unto motion which when he had thus made he ordained and appointed it to be the governor and regent of the whole world And even after the same maner he pronounceth that the body of the world is in one sort eternall to wit not created nor engendred and after another sort both created and engendred For when he saith that whatsoever is visible was never at rest but mooved rashly and without all order and that God tooke the same disposed and ranged it in good order as also when he saith that the fowre generall elements fire water earth and aire before the whole world was of them framed and ordered decently made a woonderfull trouble trembling as it were in the matter and were mightily shaken by
pliable shewed very well that he held it for a singular vertue to be sociable and to know how to sort and agree with others like as the same Pindar us himselfe When God did call he gave attendance And never bragd of all his valiance meaning and signifying Cadmus The olde Theologians and Divines who of all Philosophers are most ancient have put into the hands of of the images of the gods musicall instruments minding nothing lesse thereby than to make this god or that a minstrell either to play on lute or to sound the flute but because they thought there was no greater piece of worke than accord and harmonicall symphonic could beseeme the gods Like as therefore hee that would seeke for sesquitertian sesquialterall or double proportions of Musicke in the necke or bridge in the belly or backe of a lute or in the pegs and pinnes thereof were a ridiculous foole for howsoever these parts ought to have a symmetrie and proportion one to another in regard of length and thicknesse yet the harmonie where of we speake is to be considered in the sounds onely Even so probable it is and standeth with great reason that the bodies of the starres the distances and intervals of sphaeres the celeritie also of their courses and revolutions should be proportionate one unto the other yea and unto the whole world as instruments of musicke well set and tuned albeit the just quantitie of the measure be unknowen unto But this we are to thinke that the principall effect and efficacie of these numbers and proportions which that great and sovereigne Creatour used is the consonance accord and agreement of the soule in it selfe with which she being endowed she hath replenished both the heaven it selfe when she was setled thereupon with an infinite number of good things and also disposed and ordeined all things upon the earth by seasons by changes and mutations tempered and measured most excellently well and with surpassing wisdome aswell for the production and generation of all things as for the preservation and safety of them when they were created and made AN EPITOME OR BREVIARIE of a Treatise as touching the creation of the Soule according to Plato in Timaeus THis Treatise entituled Of the creation of the soule as it is described in the booke of of Plato named Timaeus declareth all that Plato and the Platoniques have written of that argument and inferreth certeine proportions and similitudes Geometricall which he supposeth pertinent to the speculation and intelligence of the nature of the soule as also certeine Musical and Arithmeticall Theoremes His meaning and saying is that the first matter was brought into forme and shape by the soule Hee attributeth to the universall world a soule and likewise to every living creature a soule of the owne by it selfe which ruleth and governeth it He bringeth in the said soule in some sort not engendred and yet after a sort subject to generation But hee affirmeth that eternall matter to have bene formed by God that evill and vice is an impe springing from the said matter To the end quoth he that it might never come into mans thought That God was the authour or cause of evill All the rest of this Breviarie is word for word in the Treatise it selfe therefore may be well spared in this place and not rehearsed a second time OF FATALL NECESSITY This little Treatise is so pitiously torne maimed and dismembred thorowout that a man may sooner divine and guesse thereat as I have done than translate it I beseech the readers therefore to holde me excused in case I neither please my selfe nor content them in that which I have written ENdevour I will and addresse my selfe to write unto you most deere and loving friend Piso as plainly and compendiously as possible I can mine opinion as touching Fatall destinie for to satisfie your request albeit you know full well how wary and precise I am in my writing First and formost therefore thus much you must understand That this terme of Fatall destinie is spoken and understood two maner of waies the one as it is an action and the other as it is a substance In the first place Plato hath figuratively drawen it forth under a type described it as an action both in his diologue entituled Phaedrus in these words It is an Adrastian law or inevitable ordinance which alwaies followeth and accompanieth God And also in his treatise called Timaeus after this maner The lawes which God hath pronounced and published to the immortall soules in the procreation of the universall world Likewise in his books of Common-wealth he saith That Fatall necessitie is the reason and speech of Lachesis the daughter of Necessitie By which places he giveth us to understand not tragically but after a theologicall maner what his minde and opinion is Now if a man taking the said places already cited quoted would expound the same more familiarly in other words he may declare the former descriptiō in Phaedrus after this sort namely that Fatall destinie is a divine reason or sentence intransgressible and inevitable proceeding from a cause that cannot be diverted nor impeached And according to that which he delivereth in Timaeus it is a law consequently ensuing upon the nature and creation of the world by the rule whereof all things passe and are dispenced that be done For this is it that Lachesis worketh effecteth who is in trueth the daughter of Necessity as we have both alreadie said also shall better understand by that which we are to deliver hereafter in this and other treatises at our leasure Thus you see what Destinie is as it goeth for an action but being taken for a substance it seemeth to be the universall soule of the whole world and admitteth a tripartite division The first Destiny is that which erreth not the second seemeth to erre and the third is under heaven conversant about the earth of which three the highest is called Clotho that next under it is named Atropos and the lowest Lachesis and she receiveth the influences of her two celestiall sisters transmitting and fastening the same upon terrestriall things which are under her governmēt Thus have we shewed summarily what is to be thought said as touching Destiny being taken as a substance namely What it is what parts it hath after what sort it is how it is ordeined and in what maner it standeth both in respect of it selfe and also in regard of us but as concerning the particularities of all these points there is another fable in the Politiques of Plato which covertly in some sort giveth us intelligence thereof and the same have we assaied to explane unfolde unto you as wel as possibly we can But to returne unto our Destiny as it is an action let us discourse thereof forasmuch as many questions naturall morall and rationall depend thereupon Now for that we have in some sort sufficiently defined already what it is we are to consider consequently
remaineth now that we should treat of Fortune and casuall adventure and of whatsoever besides that requireth discourse and consideration First this is certeine that Fortune is a kinde of cause but among causes some are of themselves others by accident as for example of an house or ship the proper causes and of themselves be the Mason Carpenter or Shipwright but by accident the Musician and Geometrician yea and whatsoever incident to the mason carpenter or shipwright either in regard of body or minde or outward things whereby it appeereth that the essentiall cause which is by it selfe must needs be determinate certeine in one whereas the accidentall causes are not alwaies one and the same but infinit and indeterminate for many accidents in number infinit and in nature different one from another may be together in one and the same subject This cause then by accident when it is found not onely in such things which are done for some end but also in those wherein our election and will taketh place is called fortune as namely to find treasure when a man diggeth a hole or grave to plant a tree in or to do and suffer any extraordinary thing in flying pursuing or otherwise going and marching or onely in retiring provided alwaies that he doeth it not to that end which ensueth thereupon but upon some other intention And heereupon it is that some of the anncient philosophers have defined fortune to be a cause unknowen and not foreseene by mans reason But according to the Platoniques who come neerer unto it in reason it is defined thus Fortune is an accidentall cause in those things that are done for some end and which are in our election and afterwards they adjoine moreover not foreseene nor knowen by the discourse of humane reason although that which is rare and strange by the same meanes appeareth also in this kinde of cause by accident But what this is if it appeere not manifestly by the oppositions and contradictory disputations yet at leastwise it will be declared most evidently by that which is writtē in a treatise of Plato entituled Phaedon where these words are found What Have you not heard how in what maner the judgement passed Yes iwis For one there was who came and told us of it whereat we marvelled very much that seeing the sentence of judgement was pronounced long before he died a good while after And what might be the cause thereof Ô Phaedon Surely there hapned unto him Ô Echecrates a certeine fortune For it chanced that the day before the judgement the prow of the galley which the Athenians sent to isle Delos was crowned In which words it is to be noted that by this tearme There hapned you must not understand There was but rather it so befell upon a concourse and meeting of many causes together one after another For the priest adorned the ship with coronets for another end and intention and not for the love of Socrates yea and the judges had condemned him also for some other cause but the event it selfe was so strange admirable as if it had hapned by some providence or by an humane creature or rather indeed by some superior nature And thus much may suffice as touching fortune and the definition thereof as also that necessarily it ought to subsist together with some one contingent thing of those which are meant to some end whereupon it tooke the name yea and there must be some subject before of such things which are in us and in our election But casuall adventure reacheth and extendeth farther than fortune for it compriseth both it and also many other things which may chance aswell one way as another and according as the very etymologie and derivation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sheweth it is that which hapneth for and in stead of another namely when that which was ordinary sell not out but another thing in lieu thereof as namely when it chanceth to be colde weather in the Dog daies for sometimes it falleth out to be then colde and not without cause In summe like as that which is in us and arbitrary is part of contingent even so is fortune a part of casuall or accidental adventure and both these events are conjunct and dependant one of another to wit casual adventure hangeth upon contingent and fortune upon that which is in us and arbitrarie and yet not simply and in generall but of that onely which is in our election according as hath beene before said And hereupon it is that this casuall adventure is common aswell to things which have no life as to those which are animate whereas fortune is proper to man onely who is able to performe voluntarie actions An argument whereof is this that to be fortunate happie and blessed are thought to be all one for blessed happinesse is a kinde of well doing and to doe well properly belongeth to a man and him that is perfect Thus you see what things are comprised within fatall destiny namely contingent possible election that which is within us fortune casuall accident or chance adventure together with their circumstant adjuncts signified by these words haply peradventure or perchance howbeit we are not to inferre that because they be conteined within destinie therefore they be fatall It remaineth now to discourse of divine providence considering that it selfe comprehendeth fatall destinie This supreame and first providence therefore is the intelligence and will of the sovereigne god doing good unto all that is in the world whereby all divine things universally and thorowout have bene most excellently and wisely ordeined and disposed The second providence is the intelligence and will of the second gods who have their course thorow the heaven by which temporall and mortall things are ingendred regularly and in order as also whatsoever perteineth to the preservation and continuance of every kinde of thing The third by all probabilitie and likelihood may well be called the providence and prospicience of the Daemonds or angels as many as be placed and ordeined about the earth as superintendents for to observe marke and governe mens actions Now albeit there be seene this threefolde providence yet properly and principally that first and supreame is named Providence so as we may be bolde and never doubt to say howsoever herein we seeme to contradict some Philosophers That all things are done by fatall destinie and by providence but not likewise by nature howbeit some by providence and that after divers sorts these by one and those by another yea and some also by fatall destinie As for fatall destinie it is altogether by providence but providence in no wise by fatall destinie where by the way this is to be noted that in this present place I understand the principall and sovereigne providence Now whatsoever is done by another be it what it will is evermore after that which causeth or maketh it even as that which is erected by law is after the law
like as what is done by nature must needs succeed and come after nature Semblably what is done by fatall destiny is after fatall destiny of necessity must be more new moderne and therfore the supreme providence is the ancientest of all excepting him alone whose intelligence it is or wil or both twaine together to wit the sovereigne authour creatour maker and father of all things And for what cause is it saith Timaeus that he hath made framed this fabricke of the world for that he is all good and in him being all good there can not be imprinted or engendred any envie but seeing he is altogether void and free from it his will was that as much as possibly might be all things should resemble himselfe He then who shall receive and admit this for the most principall and and proper originall of the generation and creation of the world such as wise men have delivered unto us by writing is in the right way and doeth very well For God willing that all things should be good and nothing at all to his power evill tooke all that was visible restlesse as it was and mooving still rashly confusedly irregularly and without order which he brought out of confusion and ranged into order judging this to be every way farre better than the other for neither it was nor is convenient and meet for him who is himselfe right good to make any thing that should not be most excellent and beautifull Thus therefore we are to esteeme that providence I meane that which is principall and soveraigne hath constituted and ordeined these things first and then in order such as ensue and depend thereof even as farre as to the soules of men Afterwards having thus created the universall world hee ordeined eight sphaeres answering in number to so many principall starres and distributed to every one of them a severall soule all which he set ech one as it were within a chariot over the nature of the whole shewing unto them the lawes and ordinances of Fatall destiny *** What is he then who will not beleeve that by these words he plainly sheweth and declareth Fatall destiny and the same to be as one would say a tribunall yea a politicke constitution of civill lawes meet and agreeable to the soules of men whereof afterwards he rendreth a reason And as touching the second providence he doeth after a sort expresly signifie the same in these words saying Having therefore prescribed all these lawes unto them to the end that if afterwards there should be any default he might be exempted from all cause of evill he spred and sowed some upon the earth others about the moone and some againe upon other organs and instruments of time after which distribution he gave commandement and charge to the yoong gods for to frame and create mortall bodies as also to make up and finish that which remained and was wanting in mans soule and when they had made perfect all that was adhaerent and consequent thereto then to rule and governe after the best and wisest maner possible this mortall creature to the end that it selfe should not be the cause of the owne evils and miseries for in these words where it is said That he might be exempt and not the cause of any evill ensuing afterwards he sheweth cleerely and evidently to every one the cause of Fatall destiny The order also and office of these petie-gods declareth unto us the second providence yea and it seemeth that in some sort it toucheth by the way the third providence in case it be so that for this purpose these lawes and ordinances were established because he might not be blamed or accused as the author of any evill in any one afterwards for God himselfe being cleere exempt from all evill neither hath need of lawes nor requireth any Fatall destiny but ech one of these petie-gods led and haled by the providence of him who hath engendred them doth their owne devoir and office belonging unto them That this is true and the very minde and opinion of Plato appeereth manifestly in my conceit by the testimonie of those words which are reported by the law-giver in his books of lawes in this maner If there were any man quoth he so by nature sufficient or by divine fortune so happily borne that he could be able to comprehend this he should require no lawes to command him for no law there is nor ordinance of more woorth and puissance than is knowledge and science neither can he possibly be a servile slave or subject to any who is truely and indeed free by nature but he ought to command all For mine owne part thus I understand and interpret the sentence of Plato For whereas there is a triple providence the first as that which hath engendred Fatall destiny in some sort comprehendeth it the second being engendred with it is likewise wholly comprised in it the third engendred after Fatal destiny is comprised under it in that maner as That which is in us and fortune as we have already said for those whom the assistance of the power of our Daemon doth aid according as Socrates saith expoūding unto Theages what is the inevitable ordinance of Adrastia these I say are those whom you understand well enough for they grow and come forward quickly with speed so as where it is said that a Daemon or angell doth favour any it must be referred to the third providence but that suddenly they grow and come to proofe it is by the power of Fatall destiny And to be short it is very plaine and evident that even this also is a kinde of destiny And peradventure it may seeme much more probable that even the second providence is comprehended under destiny yea and in summe all things whatsoever be made or done considering that destiny according to the substance thereof hath bene rightly divided by us into three parts And verily that speech as touching the chaine and concatenation comprehendeth the revolutions of the heavens in the number and raunge of those things which happen by supposition but verily of these points I will not debate much to wit whether we are to call them Hapning by supposition or rather conjunct unto destiny considering that the precedent cause and commander of destiny it selfe is also fatall And thus to speake summarily and by way of abridgement is our opinion but the contrary sentence unto this ordeineth all things to be not onely under destiny but also according to destiny and by it Now all things accord unto the other and that which accordeth to another the same must be gran-to be the other according then to this opinion contingent is said to be the first that which is in us the second fortune the third accident or casuall chance and adventure the fourth together with all that dependeth thereupon to wit praise blame and those of the same kinde the fifth and last of all may bee said to be the praiers unto the
susceptible of folly But wherefore should any man be offended and scandalized hereat if hee call to mind that which this philosopher wrote in his second booke of Nature where he avoucheth That vice was not made without some good use and profit for the whole world But it will be better to recite this doctrine even in his owne words to the end that you may know in what place they range vice and what speech they make thereof who accuse Xenocrates and Speusippus for that they reputed not health to be an indifferent thing nor riches unprofitable As for vice quoth he it is limited in regard of other accidents beside for it is also in some sort according to nature and if I may so say it is not altogether unprofitable in respect of the whole for otherwise there would not be any good and therefore it may be inferred that there is no good among the gods in as much as they can have none evil neither when at any time Jupiter having resolved the whole matter into himselfe shall become one shall take away all other differences wil there be any more good considering there will be no evill to be found But true it is that in a daunce or quier there wil be an accord measure although there be none in it that singeth out of tune maketh a discord as also health in mans body albeit no part thereof were pained or diseased but vertue without vice can have no generation And like as in some medicinable confections there is required the poyson of a viper or such like serpent and the gall of the beast Hvaena even so there is another kind of necessarie convenience betweene the wickednesse of Melitus and the justice of Socrates betweene the dissolute demeanor of Cleon and the honest 〈◊〉 of Pericles And what meanes could Jupiter have made to bring foorth Hercules and Lycurgus into the world if he had not withall made Sardanapalus and Phalaris for us And it is a great marvell if they 〈◊〉 not also that the Phthisicke or ulcer of the lungs was sent among men for their good plight of bodie and the gout for swift footmanship and Achilles had not worne long haire unlesse Thersites had beene bald For what difference is there betweene those that alledge these doting fooleries or rave so absurdlie and such as say that loosenesse of life and whoredome were not unprofitable for continence and jniustice for justice So that we had need to pray unto the gods that there might be alwaies sinne and wickednes False leasing smooth and glosing tongue Deceitfull traines and fraud among in case when these be gone vertue depart and perish withal But will you see now and behold the most elegant devise and pleasantest invention of his For like as Comoedies quoth he carrie otherwhiles ridiculous Epigrams or inscriptors which considered by themselves are nothing woorth how be it they give a certaine grace to the whole Poeme even so a man may well blame and detest vice in it selfe but in regard of others it is not unprofitable And first to say that vice was made by the divine providence even as a lewd Epigram composed by the expresse will of the Poet surpasseth all imagination of absurditie for if this were true how can the gods be the givers of good things rather than of evill or how can wickednes any more be enemie to the gods or hated by them or what shall we have to say and answere to such blasphemous sentences of the Poets sounding so ill in religious eares as these God once dispos'd some house to overthrow Twixt men some cause and seeds of strife doth sow Againe Which of the gods twixt them did kindle fire Thus to contest in termes of wrath andire Moreover a foolish and leawd epigram doth embelish and adorne the Comedie serving to that end for which it was composed by the Poet namely to please the spectatours and to make them laugh But Jupiter whom we surnamed Paternall Fatherly Supreame Sovereigne Just Righteous and according to Pindarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the best and most perfect artisan making this world as he hath done not like unto some great Comedie or Enterlude full of varietie skill and wittie devices but in maner of a city common to gods and men for to inhabit together with justice and vertue in one accord and happily what need had he to this most holy and venerable end of theeves robbers murderers homicides parricides and tyrans for surely vice and wickednesse was not the entry of some morisque-dance or ridiculous eare-sport carrying a delectable grace with it and pleasing to God neither was it set unto the affaires of men for recreation and pastime to make them sport or to move laughter being a thing that carrieth not so much as a shadow nor representeth the dreame of that concord and convenience with nature which is so highly celebrated and commended Furthermore the said lewd epigram is but a small part of the Poeme and occupieth a very little roome in a Comedie neither do such ridiculous compositions abound overmuch in a play nor corrupt and marre the pleasant grace of such matters as seeme to have beene well and pretily devised whereas all humane affaires are full thorowout of vice and mans life even from the very first beginning and entire as it were of the prologue unto the finall conclusion of all and epilogue yea and to the very plaudite being disordinate degenerate full of perturbation and confusion and having no one part thereof pure and unblamable as these men say is the most filthy unpleasant and odious enterlude of all others that can be exhibited And therefore gladly would I demaund and learne of them in what respect was vice made profitable to this universall world for I suppose he will not say it was for divine and celestiall things because it were a mere reciculous mockery to affirme that unlesse there were bred and remained among men vice malice avarice and lesing or unlesse we robbed pilled and spoiled unlesse we slandered and murdered one another the sun would not run his ordinary course nor the heaven keepe the set seasons and usuall revolutions of time 〈◊〉 yet the earth seated in the midst and center of the world yeeld the causes of winde and raine It remaineth then that vice sin was profitably engendred for us and for our affaires and haply this is it which they themselves would seeme to say And are we indeed the better in health for being sinfull or have we thereby more plenty and aboundance of things necessary availeth our wickednesse ought to make us more beawtifull and better favoured or serveth it us in any stead to make us more strong and able of body They answere No. But is this a silent name onely and a cretaine blinde opinion and weening of these night-walking Sophisters and not like indeed unto vice which is conspicuous enough exposed to the view of the
〈◊〉 that is to say the protectour of plants another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the president of physicke and divination meane while neither is health simply good nor generation ne yet fertilitie of the ground and abundance of fruits but indifferent yea and unprofitable to those who have them The third point of the comon conception of the gods is that they differ in nothing so much from men as in felicity and vertue but according to Chrysippus they are in this respect nothing superior to men for he holdeth that for vertue Jupiter is no better than Dion also that Jupiter Dion being both of them wise doe equally and reciprocally helpe one another for this is the good that the gods doe unto men and men likewise unto the gods namely when they proove wise and prudent and not otherwise So that if a man be no lesse vertuous he is not lesse happy insomuch as he is equall unto Jupiter the saviour in felicitie though otherwise infortunate and who for grievous maladies and dolorous dismembring of his body is forced to make himselfe away and leave his life provided alwaies that he be a wise man Howbeit such an one there neither is nor ever hath bene living upon the earth whereas contrariwise infinit thousands and millions there are and have beene of miserable men and extreme infortunate under the rule and dominion of Jupiter the government administration wherof is most excellent And what can there be more against common sense than to say that Jupiter governing and dispensing all things passing well yet we should be exceeding miserable If therefore which unlawfull is once to speake Jupiter would no longer be a saviour nor a deliverer nor a protectour and surnamed thereupon Soter Lysius and Alexicacos but cleane contrary unto these goodly and beautifull denominations there can not possibly be added any more goodnesse to things that be either in number or magnitude as they say whereas all men live in the extremitie of miserie and wickednesse considering that neither vice can admit no augmentation nor misery addition and yet this is not the woorst nor greatest absurdity but mightily angry and offended they are with Menander for speaking as he did thus bravely in open theater I hold good things exceeding meane degree The greatest cause of humane miserie For this say they is against the common conception of men meane while themselves make God who is good and goodnesse it selfe to be the author of evils for matter could not verily produce any evill of it selfe being as it is without all qualities and all those differences and varieties which it hath it received of that which moved and formed it to wit reason within which giveth it a forme and shape for that it is not made to moove and shape it selfe And therefore it cannot otherwise be but that evill if it come by nothing should proceed and have being from that which is not or if it come by some mooving cause the same must be God For if they thinke that Jupiter hath no power of his owne parts nor useth ech one according to his owne proper reason they speake against common sense and doe imagine a certeine animall whereof many parts are not obeisant to his will but use their owne private actions and operations whereunto the whole never gave incitation nor began in them any motion For among those creatures which have life and soule there is none so ill framed and composed as that against the will thereof either the feet should goe forward or the tongue speake or the horne push and strike or the teeth bite whereof God of necessity must endure abide the most part if against his will evill men being parts of himselfe doe lie doe circumvent and beguile others commit burglary breake open houses to rob their neighbors or kill one another And if according as Chrysippus saith it is not possible that the least part should be have it selfe otherwise than it pleaseth Jupiter and that every living thing doeth rest stay and moove according as he leadeth manageth turneth staieth and disposeth it Now well I wot this voice of his Sounds worse and more mischcivous is For more tolerable it were by a great deale to say that ten thousand parts through the impotencie and feeblenesse of Jupiter committed many absurdities perforce even against his nature and will than to avouch that there is no intemperance no deceit and wickednesse where of Jupiter is not the cause Moreover seeing that the world by their saying is a city and the Sarres citizens if it be so there must be also tribes and magistracies yea and plaine it is that the Sunne must be a Senatour yea the evenning starre some provost major or governor of the city And I wot not wel whether he who taketh in hand to confute such things can broch and set abroad other greater absurdities in naturall matters than those doe who deliver and pronounce these doctrines Is not this a position against common sense to affirme that the seed should be greater and more than that which is engendred of it For we see verily that nature in all living creatures and plants even those that be of a wilde and savage kinde taketh very small and slender matters such as hardly can be seene for the beginning the generation of most great and huge bodies For not onely of a graine or corne of wheat it produceth a stalke with an eare and of a little grape stone it bringeth forth a vine tree but also of a pepin kernill akorne or bery escaped and fallen by chance from a bird as if of some sparkle it kindled and set on fire generation it sendeth forth the stocke of some bush or thorne or else a tall and mighty body of an oake a date or pine tree And hereupon it is that genetall seed is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the enfolding and wrapping together of a great masse into a small quantity also nature taketh the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the inflation and defusion of proportions and numbers which are opened loosened under it And againe the fire which they say is the seed of the world after that generall conflagration shall change into the owne seed the world which from a smaller body and little masse is extended into a great inflation and defusion yea and moreover occupieth an infinite space of voidnesse which it filleth by his augmentation but as it is engendered that huge greatnesse retireth and setleth anon by reason that the matter is contracted and gathered into it selfe upon the generation We may heare them dispute and reade many of their books and discourses wherein they argue and crie out aloud against the Academicks for confounding all things with their Aparalaxies that is to say indistinguible identities
to it but appetition immediatly presenteth it selfe which is nothing else but amotion and incitation of the minde Now for that there must be a sense as it were of these things and the same consisting of flesh and blood the same pleasure and delight likewise will appeare good And therefore it will semblably seeme good unto him who holdeth off his assent for surely he hath senses and is made of flesh blood and bone and so soone as he hath apprehended the imagination of good he hath an appetite and desire thereto doing all that ever he can not to misse it nor leese the fruition thereof but as much as is possible to cleave and adhere continually to that which is proper unto him as being driven and drawen thereto by Naturall and not Geometricall constraints For these goodly pleasant gentle and tickling motions of the flesh be of themselves without any other teacher attractive enough as they themselves forget not to say and are able to draw and traine him whosoever he be that will not confesse nor be knowen but stoutly denieth that he is made soft and pliable by them But paradventure you will aske me how it comes to passe that one of these that are so retentive and deinty of their assent climeth not up some hill but to the baine or hot house or when hee riseth and purposeth to goe into the market place why hee runneth not his head against a post or the wall but taketh his way directly to the dore And aske you me this question indeed you that holde all fenses to bee infallible the apprehensions also and imaginations to bee certaine and true Forsooth it is because the baine seemeth unto him a baine and not a mountaine the dore also appeareth to be a dore and not the wall And so is it to be said likewise of such otherthings everie one For the doctrine delivered as touching this cohibition of assent doth not pervert the sense nor worke in it by strange passions and motions any such change and alteration as may trouble the imaginative faculty Onely it taketh away and subverteth opinions but useth all other things according to their nature But impossible it is not to yeeld consent unto apparent evidences For to denie those things which wee are verily perswaded of and doe beleeve is more absurd than neither to deny nor affirme any thing at al. Who be they then that deny such things as they beleeve and goe against things evident even they who overthrow divination and denie that there is any government by divine providence they who say that neither the 〈◊〉 animall nor the moone which all men honour and adore to which they make their praiers and offer sacrifice As for you doe yee not anull that which is apparent to the whole world to wit that naturally infants yong ones are conteined within their mothers and dams and that betweene paine and pleasure there is no meane even against the sense and experience of all men saying that not to be in paine is to have pleasure and not to do is to suffer as also not to joy is to be sorowfull But to let passe all the rest what is more evident and so fully believed generally than this that those who have their braines troubled and their wits distracted or otherwise sicke of melancholicke diseases weene they see and heare those things which they neither heare nor see namely when their understanding comes to be in such sort affected and transported as to breake out into these speeches These women here in habit blacke yclad hold in their hands To dart at me and burne mine eies torches and firy brands Also Loe how she in her armes doth beare My mother deare who did me reare These verily and a number besides of other illusions more strange and tragicall than these resembling the prodigious monsters that Empedocles describeth like anticks which they make sport and laugh at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say With crooked shanks and winding seet resembling rammes in pace In bodie made like ox or cow like man before in face And all other sorts of monstrous shapes and strange natures mixed together all in one fetched from troublesome dreames and alienations of the minde But these men say that none of all this is any deception or errour of the sight or vaine apparition but be all true imaginations of bodies and figures which passe to and fro out of the inconstant aire about them Tell me now what thing is so impossible in nature that we need to doubt if it be possible to beleeve these For such things as never any conceited maske-maker or deviser of visards any inventive potter glasse-maker or curious painter and drawer of woonderfull shapes durst joine together either to deceive the beholders or to make them sport for their pastime these men supposing verily and in good earnest that they be really subsistent and that which more is affirming all firme and constant beliefe all certitude of judgement and of trueth to be quite gone for ever if such things have not their subsistence these men I say be they which involve all in obscuritie and darknesse who overthrow all apparence and bring into our judgement feare and terrour into our actions doubtfull suspition in case our ordinary and usuall actions and such affaires of ours which are dayly ready at hand be caried in the same imagination beleefe and perswasion that these enormious absurd and extravagant fansies for the equalitie which they suppose in all plucketh away more credit from things ordinary than it addeth unto such as be uncouth and unusuall which is the cause that we know Philosophers not a few more willing to avouch that no imagination is true than that all be true without exception and who distrust all men whom they had not conversed withall all things which they had not tried generally all speeches which they had not heard rather than beleeve so much as one of these imaginations and illusions which madde and franticke folke fanaticall persons possessed with a furious spirit or dreamers in their sleeps doe apprehend Seeing then some imaginations we may utterly abolish and others not lawfull it is to reteine our assent and doubt of things whether they be or no if there were no other cause els but this discordant which is sufficient to worke in us suspition of things as having nothing assured and certeine but all incertitude and perturbation As for the dissensions and differences about the infinite number of worlds the nature of the Atomes being indivisible bodies and their declinations to a side although they trouble and disquiet many men yet this comfort there is and consolation that in all this there is nothing neere at hand to touch us but rather every one of these questions be farre remote and beyond our senses wheras this distrust and diffidence this perturbation and ignorance about sensible things and imaginations presented to our eies our eares and
it were of a yong man himselfe who hath wit at wil to colour and excuse himselfe in that escaping out of the armes of his other lovers he is fallen into the hands of a faire yoong and wealthie Ladie Never say so quoth Anthemion nor interteine such an opinion of Bacchon for say that he were not of a simple nature as he is and plaine in all his dealings yet would he never have concealed so much from me considering that he hath made me privie to all his secrets and knoweth full well that in these matters I was of all other most ready to second and set forward the sute of Ismenodora But a hard matter it is to withstand not anger as Heraclitus saith but love for whatsoever it be that it would have compasse the same it will though it be with the perill of life though it cost both goods and reputation For setting this thing aside was there ever in all our citie a woman more wise sober and modest than Ismenodora when was there ever heard abroad of her any evill report and when went there so much as a light suspition of any unhonest act out of that house Certes we must thinke and say that she seemes to have beene surprised with some divine instinct supernaturall and above humane reason Then laughed Pemptides You say even true quoth he there is a certeine great maladie of the bodie which thereupon they call sacred is there any marvell then that the greatest and most furious passion of the minde some do terme sacred and divine But it seemes unto me that it fares with you here as I saw it did sometime with two neighbours in Aegypt who argued debated one with another upon this point that whereas there was presented before them in the way as they went a serpent creeping on the ground they were resolved both of them that it presaged good was a luckie signe but either of them tooke challenged it to himselfe for even so when I see that some of you draw love into mens chambers and others into womens cabinets as a divine and singular good thing I nothing wonder thereat considering that this passion is growen to such power and is so highly honoured that even those who ought to clip the wings thereof and chace it from them of all sides those be they that magnifie and 〈◊〉 it most And verily hitherto have I held my peace as touching this matter in question for that I saw the debate and controversie was about a private cause rather than any publicke matter but now that I see how Pisias is departed I would gladly heare and know of you whereat they aimed and tended who first affirmed that Love was a God When Pemptides had propounded this question as my father addressed himselfe and began to make his answere there came another messenger in place whom Ismenodora had sent from the citie for to bring Anthemion with him for that the trouble and tumult in maner of a sedition grew more and more within the towne by occasion that the two masters of the publicke exercises were at some difference one with another whiles the one was of this minde that Bacchon was to be redemanded and delivered the other againe thought that they were to deale no farther in the matter So Anthemion arose incontinently and went his way with all speed and diligence possible and then my father calling to Pemptides by name and directing his speech unto him You seeme Pemptides quoth he in my conceit to touch a very 〈◊〉 and nice point or rather indeed to stirre a string that would not be stirred to wit the opinion and 〈◊〉 that we have as touching the gods in that you call for a reason and demonstration of them in particular For the ancient faith and beleefe received from our ancients in the country where we are borne is sufficient than which there can not be said or imagined a more evident argument For never was this knowledge found By wit of man or sense profound But this tradition being the base and foundation common to all pietie and religion if the certitude and credit thereof received from hand to hand be shaken and mooved in one onely point it becommeth suspected and doubtfull in all the rest You have heard no doubt how Euripides was coursed and troubled for the beginning of his Tragoedie Menalippe in this maner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jupiter whose name I know By heare-say onely and no mo And verily he had a great confidence in this Tragoedie being as it should seeme magnificently and with exquisit elegancie penned but for the tumultuous murmuring of the people 〈◊〉 changed the foresaid verses as now they stand written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God Jupiter which name in veritie Doth sort full well to his 〈◊〉 And what difference is there by our words and disputation betweene calling the opinion which we 〈◊〉 of Jupiter and of 〈◊〉 into question and making doubt of Cupid or Love For it is not now of late and never before that this God begins to call for altars or to challenge sacrifices neither is he a stranger come among us from some barbarous superstition like as certeine Attae and I wot not what Adonides and Adonaei brought in by the meanes of some halfe-men or mungrell Hermaphrodites and odde women and thus being closely crept in hath met with certeine honours and worships farre unmeet for him in such sort as he may well be accused of bastardice and under a false title to have beene enrolled in the catalogue of the gods for my good friend when you heare Empedocles saying thus And equall to the rest in length and bredth was Amitie But see in 〈◊〉 thou it beholde not with deceitfull eie you must understand him that he writeth thus of Love for that this God is not visible but apprehended onely by opinion and beleefe among other Gods which are most ancient Now if of all them in particular you seeke for a proofe and demonstration laying your hands upon echtemple and making a sophisticall triall by every altar you shall find nothing void and free from calumniation and envious slander for not to go farre off marke but these verses But Venus uneth can I see How great a goddesse she should be Of Cupid she the mother is And she alone that Love doth give Whose children we you wot wel this Are all who on the earth do live And verily Empedocles called her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say fertile or giving life Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say fruitfull both of them using most fit and pertinent attributes Howbeit this great and admirable worke to wit Generation is wrought principally and directly by Venus but collaterally and as an accessary by Love which if love be present is pleasant acceptable contrariwise if love be away and not assistent thereto surely the act thereof remaineth altogether not expetible dishonorable without grace and
from it daily is highly to be reckoned and accounted of and therefore neither can the Delphians be noted for follie in that they terme Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a chariot by reason of this yoke-fellowship nor Homer in calling this conjunction of man and wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say amity and friendship Solon likewise is deemed by this to have beene an excellent law-giver and most expert in that which concerneth mariage when he decreed expresly that the husband should thrice in a moneth at the least embrace his wife and company in bed with her not for carnall pleasures sake I assure you but like as cities and states use after a certeine time betweene to renew their leagues and confederacies one with another so he would have that the alliance of mariage should eftsooones be enterteined anew by such solace and delectation after jarres which otherwhiles arise and breed by some bone cast betweene Yea but there be many enormious and furious parts will some one say that are plaied by such as are in love with women And be there not more I pray by those that are enamoured upon boies do but marke him who uttereth these passionate words So often as these eies of mine behold That beardlesse youth that smooth and lovely boy I faint and fall then wish I him to hold Within mine armes and so to die with joy And that on tombe were set where I do lie An Epigram mine end to testifie But as there is a furious passion in some men doting upon women so there is as raging an affection in others toward boies but neither the one nor the other is love Well most absurd it were to say that women are not endued with other vertues for what need we to speake of their temperance and chastity of their prudence fidelity and justice considering that even fortitude it selfe constant confidence and resolution yea and magnaminity is in many of them very evident Now to holde that being by nature not indisposed unto other vertues they are untoward for amitie onely and frendship which is an imputation laid upon them is altogether beside all reason For well knowen it is that they be loving to their children and husbands and this their naturall affection is like unto a fertile field or battell soile capable of amitie not unapt for perswasion nor destitute of the Graces And like as Poesie having sitted unto speech song meeter and thime as pleasant spices to aromatize and season the same by meanes whereof that profitable instruction which it yeeldeth is more attractive and effectuall as also the danger therein more inevitable Even so nature having endued a woman with an amiable cast and aspect of the eie with sweet speech and a beautifull countenance hath given unto her great meanes if she be lascivious and wanton with her pleasure to decive a man and if she be chaste and honest to gaine the good will and favour of her husband Plato gave counsell unto Xenocrates an excellent Philosopher and a woorthy personage otherwise howbeit in his behavior exceeding soure and austere to sacrifice unto the Graces and even so a man might advise a good matron and sober dame to offer sacrifice unto Love for his propitious favour unto mariage and his residence with her and that her husband by her kind loving demeanour unto him may keepe home and not seeke abroad to some other and so be forced in the end to breake out into such speeches as these out of the Comoedie Wretch that I am and man unhappy I So good a wife to quit with injury For in wedlocke to love is a better and greater thing by farre than to be loved for it keepeth folke from falling into many faults slips or to say more truly it averteth them from all those inconveniences which may corrupt marre ruinate a mariage as for those passionate affections which in the beginning of matrimoniall love moove fittes somewhat poinant and biting let me entreat you good friend Zeuxippus not to feare for any exulceration or smart itch that they have although to say a trueth it were no great harme if haply by some little wound you come to be incorporate and united to an honest woman like as trees that by incision are engraffed and grow one within another for when all is said is not the beginning of conception a kinde of exulceration neither can there be a mixture of two things into one unlesse they mutually suffer one of the other be reciprocally affected And verily the Mathematical rudiments which children be taught at the beginning trouble them even as Philosophie also at the first is harsh unto yong men but like as this unpleasantnesse continueth not alwaies with thē no more doeth that mordacity sticke still among lovers And it seemeth that Love at the first resembleth the mixture of two liquors which when they begin to incorporate together boile and worke one with another for even so Love seemeth to make a certaine confused tract and ebullition but after a while that the same be once setled and throughly clensed it bringeth unto Lovers a most firme and assured habit and there is properly that mixtion and temperature which is called universall and thorough the whole whereas the love of other friends conversing and living together may be very well compared to the mixtion which is made by these touching and interlacings of atomes which Epicurus speaketh of and the same is subject to ruptures separations and startings a sunder neither can it possibly make that union which matrimoniall love and mutuall conjunction doeth for neither doe there arise from any other Loves greater pleasures nor commodities more continually one from another ne yet is the benefit and good of any other friendship so honorable or expetible as When man and wife keepe house with one accord And lovingly agree at bed and bord Especially when the law warranteth it and the bond of procreation common betweene them is assistant thereto And verily nature sheweth that the gods themselves have need of such love for thus the Poets say that the heaven loveth the earth and the Naturalists hold that the Sunne likewise is in love with the Moone which every moneth is in conjunction with him by whom also she conceiveth In briefe must it not follow necessarily that the earth which is the mother and breeder of men of living creatures and all plants shall perish and be wholly extinct when love which is ardent desire and instinct inspired from god shall abandon the matter and the matter likewise shall cease to lust and seeke after the principle and cause of her conception But to the end that we may not range too farre nor use any superfluous and nugatory words your selfe doe know that these paederasties are of all other most uncertaine and such as use them are wont to scoffe much thereat and say that the amitie of such boies is in manner of an egge divided
and comprehend another that the rainebow which compasseth the other without forth yeeldeth dim colours and not sufficiently distinct expressed because the outward cloud being farther remote from our sight maketh not a strong and forcible reflexion And what needs there any more to be said considering that the very light of the Sunne returned and sent backe by the Moone 〈◊〉 all the heat and of his brightnesse there commeth unto us with much adoe but a small remnant and a portion very little and feeble Is it possible then that our sight running the same race there should any percell or residue thereof reach from the Moone backe againe to the Sunne For mine owne part I thinke not Consider also I beseech you quoth I even your owne selves that if our eiesight were affected and disposed alike by the water and by the Moone it could not otherwise be but that the Moone should represent unto us the images of the earth of trees of plants of men and of starres as well as water doth and all other kinds of mirrors Now if there be no such reflexion of our eie sight 〈◊〉 the Moone as to bring backe unto us those images either for the feeblenesse of it or the rugged innequallity of her superficies let us never require that it should leape backe as far as to the Sun Thus have we reported as much as our memory would carrie away whatsoever was there delivered Now is it time to desire Sylla or rather to require exact of him to make his narration for that admitted he was to here this discourse upon such a condition And therefore if you thinke so good let us give over walking and sitting downe here upon these seates make him a sedentarie audience All the companie liked well of this motion And when we had taken our places Theon thus began Certes I am desirous quoth he and none of you all more to heare what shall be said But before I would be very glad to understand somewhat of those who are said to dwell in the Moone not whether there be any persons there inhabiting but whether it be possible that any should inhabit there For if this cannot be then it were mere folly and beside all reason to say that the Moone is earth otherwise it would be thought to have beene created in vaine and to no end as bearing no fruits nor affoording no habitation no place for nativity no food or nourishment for any men or women in regard of which cause and for which ends we 〈◊〉 hold that this earth wherein we live as Plato saith was made and created even to be our nourse and keeper making the day and night distinct one from another For you see and know that of this matter many things have beene said aswell merily and by way of laughter as 〈◊〉 and in good earnest For of those who inhabit the Moone some are said to hang by the heads under it as if they were so many 〈◊〉 others contrariwise who dwell upon it are tied fast like a sort of 〈◊〉 and turned about with such a violence that they are in danger to be slung and shaken out And verily she moveth not after one single motion but three maner of waies whereupon the Poets call her other while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Trivia performing her course together according to length bredth and depth in the Zodiak Of which motions the first is called A direct revolution the second An oblique winding or wheeling in and out and the third the Mathematicians call I wote not how An inequalitie and yet they see that she hath no motion at all even and uniforme nor certeine in all her monthly circuits and reversions No marvell therefore considering the impetuositie of these motions if there fell a lion sometimes out of her into Peloponnesus nay rather we are to wonder why we see not every day a thousand sals of men women yea and as many beasts shaken out from thence and flung downe headlong with their heeles upward For it were a meere mockerie to dispute and stand upon their habitation there if they neither can breed nor abide there For considering that the 〈◊〉 and Troglodytes over whose heads the Sunne standeth directly one moment onely of the day in the time of the Solstices and then presently retireth hardly escape burning by reason of the excessive siccitie of the circumstant aire how possibly can the men in the Moone endure 12 Summers every yere when the Sunne once a moneth is just in their Zenith and setleth plumbe over head when she is at the full As for winds clouds and raines without which the plants of the earth can neither come up nor be preserved it passeth all imagination that there should be any there the aire is so subtile drie and hote especially seeing that even here beneath the highest mountaines doe admit or feele the hard and bitter Winters from yeere to yeere but the aire about them being pure and cleere and without any agitation whatsoever by reason of the subtilitie and lightnesse avoideth all that thicknesse and concretion which is among us unlesse haply we will say that like as Minerva instilled and dropped into Achilles mouth some Nectar and Ambrosia when he received no other food so the Moone who both is called and is indeed Minerva nourisheth men there bringeth foorth daily for them Ambrosia according as olde Pherecides was wont to say that the very gods also were sedde and nourished For as touching that Indian root which as Megasthenes saith certeine people of India who neither eat nor drinke nor have so much as mouthes whereupon they be called Astomi do burne and make to smoake with the odor and perfume whereof they live how can they come by any such there considering the Moone is never watered nor refreshed with raine When 〈◊〉 had thus said You have quoth I very properly and sweetly handled this point you have I say by this mery conceited jest laied smooth and even those bent and knit browes the austerity I meane of this whole discourse which hath given us heart and encouraged us to make answere for that if we faile and come short we looke not for streight examination nor feare any sharpe and grievous punishment For to say a trueth they who take most offence at these matters rejecting and discrediting the same are not so great adversaries unto those who are most perswaded thereof but such as will not after a milde and gentle sort consider that which is possible and probable First and formost therefore this I say that suppose there were no men at all inhabiting the Moone it doth not necessarily follow therefore that she was made for nothing and to no purpose for we see that even this earth here is not thorowout inhabited nor tilled in all parts nay there is but a little portion thereof habitable like unto certeine promontories or 〈◊〉 arising out of the deepe sea for to breed in gender and bring forth
they be very engenious and witty mary in every plot they cannot avoid the note of bald devices affected curiositie in their inventions Like as therefore he that painted Apollo with a rocke upon his head signified thereby the day-breake the time a little before sunne rising even so a man may say that these frogs doe symbolize and betoken the season of the Spring at what time as the Sunne begins to rule over the aire and to discusse the winter at least waies if we must according to your opinion understand the Sunne and Apollo to be both one god and not twaine Why quoth Serapion are you of another minde and doe you thinke the Sunne to be one Apollo another Yes mary doe I quoth he as well as that the Sunne and Moone do differ Yea and more than so for the Moone doth not often nor from all the world hide the Sunne whereas the Sunne hath made all men together for to be ignorant of Apollo diverting the minde and cogitation by the meanes of the sense and turning it from that which is unto that which appeareth onely Then Seripion demanded of those Historians our guides and conductors what was the reason that the forsaid cell or chappell was not intitled by the name of Cypselus who dedicated it but called the Corinthians chappel And when they held their peace because as I take it they knew not the cause I began to laugh thereat And why should we thinke quoth I that these men knew or remembered any thing more being astonied and amased as they were to heare you fable and talke of the meteors or impressions in the aire For even themselves we heard before relating that after the tyranny of Cypselus was put downe and overthrowen the Corinthians were desirous to have the inscirption as well of the golden statue at Pisa as of this cell or treasure house for to runne in the name of their whole city And verily the Delphians gave and granted them so much according to their due desert But for that the Elians envied them that priviledge therefore the Corinthians passed a publicke decree by vertue whereof they excluded them from the solemnity of the Isthmian games And heereof it came that never after that any champion out of the territorie of Elis was knowen to shew himselfe to doe his devoir at those Isthmicke games And the massacre of the Molionides which Hercules committed about the city of Cleonae was not the cause as some doe thinke why the Elians were debarred from thence for contrariwise it had belonged to them for to exclude and put by others if for this they had incurred the displeasure of the Corinthians And thus much said I for my part Now when we were come as far as to the hall of the Acanthians and of Brasidas our discoursing Historians and expositours shewed us the place where sometimes stood the obelisks of iron which Rhodopis the famous courtisan had dedicated Whereat Diogenianus was in a great chafe and brake out into these words Now surely quoth he the same city to their shame be it spoken hath allowed unto a common strumpet a place whether to bring and where to bestow the tenth part of that salarie which she got by the use of her body and unjustly put to death Aesope her fellow servant True quoth Serapion but are you so much offended hereat cast up your eie and looke aloft behold among the statues of brave captaines and glorious kings the image of Mnesarete all of beaten gold which Crates saith was dedicated and set up for a Trophae of the Greeks lasciviousnesse The yong gentleman seeing it Yea but it was of Phryne that Crates spake so You say true quoth Serapion for her proper name indeed was Mnesarete but surnamed she was Phryne in meriment because she looked pale or yellow like unto a kinde of frogge named in Greeke Phryne And thus many times surnames doe drowne and suppresse other names For thus the mother of king Alexander the great who had for her name at first Pollyxene came afterwards to be as they say surnamed Myrtale Olympias and Stratonice And the Corinthian lady Eumetis men call unto this day after her fathers name Cleobuline and Herophile of the city Erythre she who had the gift of divination and could skill of prophesie was afterwards in processe of time surnamed Sibylla And you have heard Grammarians say that even Leda her selfe was named Mnesinoe and Orestes Achaeus But how thinke you quoth he casting his eie upon Theon to answere this accusation as touching Phryne Then he smiling againe In such sort quoth he as I will charge and accuse you for busying your selfe in blaming thus the light faults of the Greeks For like as Socrates reprooved this in Calltas that gave defiance onely to sweet perfumes or pretious odors for he liked well enough to see the daunces and gesiculations of yong boies and could abide the sight of kissing of pleasants buffons and jesters to make folke laugh so me thinks that you would chase and exclude out of the temple one poore silly woman who used the beauty of her owne body haply not so honestly as she might and in the meane time you can abide to see god Apollo environed round about with the first fruits with the tenth and other oblations arising from murders warres and pillage and all his temple throughout hanged with the spoiles and booties gotten from the Greeks yea and are neither angry nor take pity when you reade over such goodly oblations and ornaments these most shamefull inscriptions and titles Brasidas and the Acanthians of the Athenian spoiles the Athenians of the Corinthians the Phocaeans of the Thesalians the Oraneates of the Sicyonians and the Amphyctions of the Phocaeans But peradventure it was Praxiteles alone who was offensive unto Crates for that he had set up a monument there of his owne sweet heart which he had made for the love of her whereas Crates contrariwise should have commended him in that among these golden images of kings and princes he had placed a courtisan in gold reproching thereby and condemning riches as having in it nothing to be admired and nothing venerable for it well beseemeth kings and great rulers to present Apollo and the gods with such ornaments and oblations as might testifie their owne justice their temperance and magnanimity and not make shew of their golden store and abundance of superfluous delicates whereof they have their part commonly who have lived most shamefully But you alledge not this example of Croesus quoth another of our historians directours who caused a statue in gold to be made set up here of his woman-baker which he did not for any proud and insolent ostentation of his riches in this temple but upon an honest just occasion for the report goeth that Alyattes the father of this Croesus espoused a second wife by whom he had other children whom hereared and brought up This lady then purposing secretly to take
as require a short simple and plaine answere were the part of an ambitious and vainglorious Sophister who tooke a pride in the elegant composing of oracles Over and besides Pythia of her selfe is of a gentle and generous nature and when she descendeth thither and converseth with the god she hath more regard of trueth than of glory neither paseth she whether men praise or dispraise her And better iwis it were for us if we also were likewise affected But we now in a great agony as it were fearefull perplexity lest the place should leese the reputation which it hath had for the space of three thousand yeeres and doubting that some would abandon it and cease to frequent it as if it were the schoole of a Sophister who feared to lose his credit and to be despised devise apologies in defence thereof faining causes and reasons of things which we neither know nor is beseeming us for to learne and all to appease and perswade him who complaineth and seemeth to finde fault whereas we should rather shake him off and let him goe For with him first It will be worst who hath such an opinion of this our God as that he approved and esteemed these ancient sentences of the Sages written at the entrance of the temple Know thy selfe Too much of nothing principally for their brevity as containing under few words a pithy sentence well and closely couched and as a man would say beaten soundly togehter with the hammer but reproved and blamed moderne oracles for delivering most part of their answeres briefely succinctly simply and directly And verily such notable Apophthegmes and sayings of the ancient Sages resemble rivers that runne through a narrow streight where the water is pent and kept in so close that a man cannot see through it and even so unneth or hardly may the bottom of their sense be sounded But if you consider what is written or said by them who endevour to search unto the very bottom what every one of these sentences doth comprehend you shall finde that hardly a man shall meet with orations longer then they Now the dialect or speech of Pythia is such as the Mathematicians define a straight and direct line namely the shortest that may be betweene two points and even so it bendeth not it crookeneth not it maketh no circle it carieth no double sense and ambiguity but goeth straight to the trueth and say it be subject to censure and examination and dangerous to be misconstured and beleeved amisse yet to this day it hath never given advantage whereby it might be convinced of untrueth but in the meane time it hath furnished all this temple full of rich gifts presents and oblations not onely of Greeke nations but also of barbarous people as also adorned it with the beautiful buildings and magnificent fabricks of the amphictyons For you see in some sort many buildings adjoined which were not before and as many repaired and restored to their ancient perfection which were either fallen to decay and ruined by continuance of time or else lay confusedly out of order And like as we see that neere unto great trees that spred much and prosper well other smaller plants and shrubs grow and thrive even so together with the city of Delphos Pylaea flourisheth as being fed and maintained by the abundance and affluenee which ariseth from hence in such sort as it beginneth to have the forme and shew of solemne sacrifices of stately meetings and sacred waters such as in a thousand yeeres before it could never get the like As for those that inhabited about Galaxion in Baeotia they found and felt the gracious presence and favour of our God by the great plenty and store of milke For From all their ewes thicke milke did spin As water fresh from lively spring Their tubs and tunnes with milke therein Brim full they all home fast did bring No barrels bottels pailes of wood But full of milke in houses stood But to us he giveth better markes and more evident tokens and apparent signes of his presence and favour than these be having brought our countrey as it were from drinesse and penurie from desert waste wildernesse wherein it was before to be now rich and plentiful frequented and peopled yea and to be in that honor and reputation wherein we see it at this day to flourish Certes I love my selfe much better for that I was so well affected as to put to my helping hand in this businesse together with Polycrates and Petraeus Yea and him also I love in my heart who was the first author unto us of this government and policy and who tooke the paines and endevoured to set on foot and establish most part of these things But impossible it was that in so small a time there should be seene so great and so evident a mutation by any industry of man whatsoever if God himselfe had not bene assistant to sanctifie and honour this oracle But like as in those times past some men there were who found fault with the ambiguity obliquity and obscurity of oracles so there be in these daies others who like sycophants cavill at the overmuch simplicitie of them whose humorous passion is injurious and exceeding foolish For even as little children take more joy and pleasure to see rainbowes haloes or garlands about the Sunne Moone c. yea and comets or blasing starres than they do to behold the Sunne himselfe or the Moone so these persons desire to have aenigmaticall and darke speeches obscure allegories and wrested metaphors which are all reflexions of divination upon the fansie and apprehension of our mortall conceit And if they understand not sufficiently the cause of this change and alteration they go their waies and are ready to condemne the God and not either us or themselves who are not able by discourse of reason to reach unto the counsell and intention of the said gods OF THE DAEMON OR FAMILIAR SPIRIT OF SOCRATES A Treatise in maner of a Dialogue The Summarie THe The bans having lost their freedome and liberty by the violent proceedings of Archias Leontidas and other tyrants who banished a great number of good citizens and men of woorth in which roll and catalogue Pelopidas was one as appeareth in the storie of his life wherein Plutarch writeth of all this matter at large it fell out at last that the exiled persons tooke heart drew to an head and wrought so as they reentred the city of Thebes slew the tyrants and displaced the garrison of the Spartans Which done they dispatched their ambassages to other States and Common wealths of Greece for to justifie this their action and namely among the rest they sent Caphisias to Athens who being there at the request of Archidamus a personage of great authoritie related and reported the returne of the banished men the surprising of the tyrants and the restoring of the citie to their ancient franchises and that with discourses woonderfull patheticall and such as
close glade than such as are spred more at large I thinke therefore that I shall doe very well first to describe generally and as it were in grosse the tracts and marks as it were of a narration which is not pure sincere and friendly but spightfull and malicious for to apply the same afterwards to ech point that we shall examine and see whether they doe agree fitly thereto First and formost therefore he that useth the most odious nownes and verbs when there be others at hand more milde and gentle for to expresse things done as for example whereas he might say that Nicias was very ceremonious and somewhat supersticiously given reporteth that he was fanaticall and chuseth rather to chalenge Cleon for rash audacitie and furious madnesse than for light and vaine speech surely he carieth not a good and gentle minde but taketh pleasure to make a narration in the woorst maner Secondly when there is some vice otherwise in a man which apperteineth not unto the history and yet the writer catcheth hold thereof and will needs thrust it into the narration of those affaires which require it not drawing his historie from the matter fetching a compasse about after an extravagant maner and all to bring in either the infortunitie or unhappy accident or else some absurd and shamefull act of a man it is very evident that such an one delighteth in reprochfull and evill language And therefore contrariwise Thucydides howsoever Cleon committed an infinite number of grosse and foule faults yet he never traduced him openly for them in his writings And as touching the busie oratour Hyperbolus he glanced at him onely by the way terming him a naughtie man and so let him goe Philistus likewise passed over all the outrages and wrongs many though they were of Dionysius the tyrant which he offered unto the barbarous nations so long as they were not interlaced among the affaires of the Greeks For the digressions excursions of an history are allowed principally for some fables or antiquities Moreover he who amōg the praises of some great personages thrusteth in some matter tending to reproch blame seemeth to incurre the malediction of the tragicall Poet Cursed be thou that lov'st a roll to have Of mens mishaps who now lie dead in grave Furthermore that which is equipollent and reciprocall thereto every man knoweth that the leaving out and passing over quite of some good qualitie or laudable fact seemeth not to be a thing reprehensible and subject to account though done it were maliciously and the same were left out in some such place as perteined well to the traine of the historie for to commend a man coldly and after an unwilling maner savoreth no more of civilitie than to blame him affectionately and besides that it is nothing more civill it smelleth haply more of malice and of the twaine is woorse The fourth signe of a malicious nature in an historian in my account is this when one and the same thing is interpreted or reported two waies or more to encline unto the harder construction For permitted it is unto Sophisters and Rhetoricians either for to gaine their see or to winne the name and reputation of eloquence otherwhiles to take in hand for to defend and adorne the woorse cause because they imprint not deepely any credit or beliefe of that which they deliver and they themselves doe not deny that they undertake to proove things incredible even against the common opinion of men But he that composeth an historie doeth his part and devoir if he writeth that which he knoweth to be true but of matters doubtfull obscure and uncerteine those which are better seeme to be reported more truely alwaies than the worse And many there be who omit quite and overpasse the worse as for example Ephorus having said as touching Themistocles that he was privy to the treason that Pausamas plotted and practised and what he treated with the lieutenants of the king of Persia Howbeit he consented not quoth he nor never could be induced to take part with him of those hopes whereto he did sollicite him And Thucydides left this matter wholly out of his storie as not acknowledging it to be true Againe in matters confessed to have beene done but yet not knowen for what cause and upon what intention he that guesseth and casteth his conjecture in the woorse part is naught and maliciously minded and thus did the comicall Poets who gave out that Pericles kindled the Peloponnesian warre for the love the of courtisan Aspasia or else for Phidias sake and not rather upon an high minde and contention to take downe the pride of the Peloponnesians in no wise to give place unto the Lacedaemonians For of arts approoved and laudable affaires he that supposeth and setteth downe a leud and naughty cause and by calumniations draweth men into extravagant suspicions of the hidden and secret intention of him who performed the act which he is not able to reproove or blame openly as they who report of Alexander the tyrants death which dame Thebe his wife contrived that it was not a deed of magnanimity nor upon the hatred of wickednesse and vice but proceeding from the passionate jealousie of a woman as also those who say that Cato Uttcensis killed himselfe fearing lest Caesar would execute him shamefully these I say are envious and spightfull in the highest degree Semblably an historicall narration smelleth of malice according as the maner of a worke or act done is related as if it be put downe in writing that it was by the meanes rather of money and corruption than of vertue valour that some great exploit was performed as some there were who did not sticke to say as much of Philip or else that it was executed without any travel and danger as others gave out of Alexander the Great also not by forecast and wisedome but by the favour of fortune like as the enviour and ill willer of Timotheus who in painted tables represented the pourtrature of divers cities and townes that of themselves fell within the compasse of his net and toile when he lay fast asleepe evident it is that it is that it tendeth to the empairing of the glorie beautie and greatnesse of those acts when they take from them the magnanimity vertue and diligence of the authors and give out they were not done and executed by themselves Over and besides those who professedly and directly speake evill of one incurre the imputation of quarrellers rash-headed and furious persons in case they keepe not within a meane but such as doe it after an oblique maner as if they discharged bullets or shot arrowes at one side from some blinde corner charging surmises and suspicions and then to turne behinde and shift off all by saying they doe not beleeve any such thing which they desire most of all to be beleeved howsoever they disclame all malice and evill will over and besides their cancred nature they are steined with the
used her not according to law of marriage of nature Thus you see what confused variations contradictions and repugnances there be in that imputation and suspicion of the Alcmaeonidae but in sounding out the praises of Callias the sonne of Phenippus with whom he joineth his sonne Hipponicus who by the report of Herodotus himselfe was in his time the richest man in all Athens he confesseth plainly that for to insinuate himselfe into the favor of Hipponicus and to flatter him without any reason or cause in the world arising out of the matter of the story he brought Callias All the world knowes that the Argives refused not to enter into that generall confederacy and association of the Greeks requiring onely that they might not be ever at the Lacedaemonians command nor forced to follow them who were the greatest enemies those who of all men living hated them most when it would not otherwise be he rendereth a most malicious and spightfull cause and reason thereof writing thus When they saw quoth he that the Greeks would needs comprise them in that league knowing full well that the Lacedaemonians would not impart unto them any prerogative to command they seemed to demand the communion thereof to the end that they might have some colourable occasion and excuse to remaine quiet and fit still which he saith that Artaxerxes long after remembred unto the embassadors of the Argives who came unto him at Susa and gave this testimonie unto them That he thought there was not a city in all Greece friended him more than Argos But soone after as his accustomed maner is seeming to retract all and cleanly to cover the matter he comes in with these words Howbeit as touching this point I know nothing of certeinty but this I wot wel all men have their faults and I doe not beleeve that the Argives have caried themselves woorst of all others but howsoever quoth he I am bound to say that which is commonly received yet I beleeve not all and let this stand thorowout the whole course of mine historie For this also is given out abroad That they were the Argives who sollicited and sent for the king of Persia to levie warre upon all Greece because they were not able in armes to make head against the Lacedaemonians and cared not what became of them to avoid the present discontentment and griefe wherein they were And may not a man very well returne that upon himselfe which he reporteth to be spoken by an Aethiopian as touching the sweet odours and rich purple of the Persians Deceitfull are the Persian ointments deceitfull are their habilliments For even so a man may very well say of him Deceitfull are the phrases deceitfull are the figures of Herodotus his speeches So intricate and tortuous so winding quite throughhout As nothing sound is therein found but all turn 's round about And like as painters make their light colours more apparent and eminent by the shadowes that they put about them even so Herodotus by seeming to denie that which he affirmeth doth enforce and amplifie his calumniations so much the more and by ambiguities and doubtfull speeches maketh suspicions the deeper But if the Argives would not enter into the common league with all other Greeks but held off and stood out upon a jelousie of sovereigne command or emulation of vertue and valour against the Lacedaemonians no man will say the contrary but that they greatly dishonoured the memorie of their progenitour Hercules and disgraced the nobilitie of their race For better it had beene and more beseeming for the Siphnians and Cithnians the inhabitants of two little Isles to have defended the libertie of Greece than by striving thus with the Spartans and contesting about the prerogative of command to shift off and avoid so many combats and so honourable pieces of service And if they were the Argives who called the king of Persia into Greece because their sword was not so sharpe as the Lacedaemonians was and for that they could not make their part good with them what is the reason that when the said king was arrived in Greece they shewed not themselves openly to band with the Medes and Persians And if they were unwilling to be seene in the field and campe with the Barbarian king why did they not when they staied behinde at home invade the territory of the Laconians why entred they not againe upon the Thurians countrey or by some other meanes prevented impeached the Lacedaemonians for in so doing they had beene able greatly to have endamaged the Greeks namely by hindring them from comming into the field at Plateae with so puissant a power of armed footmen But the Athenians verily in this service he highly extolleth and setteth out with glorious titles naming them The saviours of Greece which had beene well done of him and justly if he had not intermingled with these praises many blames and reprochfull termes Howbeit now when he saith that the Lacedaemonians were abandoned of the other Greeks and neverthelesse thus forsaken and left alone having undertaken many woorthy exploits died honourably in the field foreseeing that the Greekes favouring the Medes complotted and combined with king Xerxes is it not evident heereby that he gave not out those goodly words directly to praise the Athenians but rather that he commended them to the end that he would condemne and defame all other Greeks For who can now be angrie and offended with him for reviling and reproching in such vile and bitter termes the Thebans and Phoceans continually as he doth considering that he condemneth of treason which never was but as he guesseth himselfe might have so fallen out even those who were exposed to all perils of death for the liberties of Greece And as for the Lacedaemonians themselves he putteth a doubt into our heads Whether they died manfully in fight or rather yeelded making slight arguments God wot and frivolous conjectures to impaire their honour in comparison of others that fought at Thermopylae Moreover in relating the overthrow and shipwracke which hapned to the king of Persias fleet wherein a mighty and infinit masse of money and money worth was cast away Aminocles a Magnesian citizen quoth he and sonne of Cretines was mightily enriched for he met with infinit treasure aswell in coine as in plate both of silver and gold But he could not passe over so much as this and let it go without some biting nip savouring of malice For this man quoth he who otherwise before-time was but poore and needy by these windfalles and unexpected cheats became very wealthy but there befell unto him also an unhappy accident which troubled him and disgraced his other good fortune for that he killed his owne sonne For who seeth not that he inserteth in his historie these golden words of wrecks and of great treasure found floating or cast upon the sands by the tides of the sea of very purpose to make a fit roume and a convenient
have the perfect and absolute power of the proprietie according to which the affection of the measures that are made are seene for this is the office and part of the artificer And manifest it is that the voice of the composition called Systema is one thing and the melodie or song which is framed in the said composition another which to teach and whereof to treat perteineth not to the facultie of the Harmonicke kinde Thus much also we are to say as touching Rhythme for no Rhythme will ever come to have in it the power of perfect proprietie for that alwaies which is said to be proper is in regard and reference to the affection wherof we affirme the cause to be either composition or mixtion or els both together like as with Olympus the Enharmonian kinde is put in the Phrygian tune and Paeon mixed with Epibatos for this affection of the beginning hath it ingendred and brought forth in the song of Minerva For when the melody and rhythme or measure was artificially set to the number or rhythme alone cunningly transmuted so as a Trochaeus was put in stead of a Paeon Hereof came the Harmonicke kinde of Olympus to be composed Yet neverthelesse when both the Enharmonicke kinde and the Phrygian tune remaine and beside these the whole composition also the affection received a great alteration for that which is called Harmonie in the song of Minerva is farre different from the affection which is in common use and experience If he then who is expert and skilfull in Musicke had withall the facultie to judge certeine it is that such an one would be a perfect workman and a passing good master in Musicke For he who is skilfull in the Dorique musicke and knoweth not how to judge and discerne the proprietie he shall never know what he doth nor be able to keepe so much as the affection considering there is some doubt as touching the judgement of Dorian melodies and tunes whether they apperteine to the subject matter of Harmonie or no as some Dorians are of opinion The like reason there is of all the Rhythmike skill for he who knoweth Paeon shall not incontinently know the property of the use thereof forasmuch as there is some doubt as concerning the making of Paeonik rhythmes to wit whether the Rhythmetique matter is able to judge with distinct knowledge of them or whether as some say it doe not extend so farre Of necessitie therefore it foloweth that there must be two knowledges at the least in him who would make distinction and be able to judge betweene that which is proper and that which is strange the one of maners and affections for which all composition is made the other of the parts and members of which the composition doth consist Thus much therefore may suffice to shew that neither the Harmonique nor the Rhythmicke nor any one of these faculties of Musicke which is named particular can be sufficient of it selfe alone to judge of the affection or to discerne of other qualities Whereas therefore Hermosmenian which is as one would say the decent and elegant temperature of voices and sounds is divided into three kinds which be equall in the magnitudes of compositions in puissances of sounds and likewise of Tetrachords our ancients have treated but of one for those who went before us never considered either of Chroma or Diatonos but onely of Enharmonios and that onely in a magnitude of a composition called Diapason for of the Chroma they were at some variance and difference but they all in maner did accord to say that there was no more but this Harmonie alone And therefore he shall never understand that which perteineth unto the treatise of Harmonie who hath proceeded so farre as to this onely knowledge but apparent it is that be ought to follow both other particular sciences and also the totall body of Musicke yea the mixtions and compositions of the parts for he that is onely Harmonicall is confined within one kinde and no more To speake therefore generally and once for all it behooveth that both outward sense and inward understanding concurre to the judgement of the parts in Musicke Neither is one to prevent runne before another as the senses doe which are more forward and hastie than their fellowes nor to lagge behinde and follow after as those senses doe which are slowe and heavy of motion And yet otherwhile in some senses it falleth out upon a naturall inaequallitie which they have that both happen at once to wit they draw backe and hast forward together wee must therefore cut off these extremities from the sense if we would have it runne jointly with the understanding for necessarie it is that there be alwaies three things at the least meet together in sense of hearing to wit the sound the time and the syllable or letter And come to passe it will that by the going of the sound will be knowen the proportionable continuitie called Hermosmenon by the gate of time the Rhythme and by the passing and proceeding of the syllable or letter the dittie Now when they march altogether there must needs be an incursion of the sense This also is evident that the sense not being able to distinguish and discerne every one of these three things and accompany them severally impossible it is that it should know or judge that which is well or amisse in ech of them particularly First and foremost therefore we are to take knowledge of the coherence and continuation for necessarie it is that there should be in the facultie and power of judging a certaine continuall order for as much as good and bad be not determinately in such sounds times letters or syllables severed one from the other but in the continued suit and conherence of them for there is a certeine mixture or parts which cannot be conjoined in usage And thus much may suffice for the consequence After this we are to consider that men sufficient otherwise and skilfull masters in Musicke are not by and by able to judge for impossible it is to be a perfect Musician and a judge withall of those which seeme to be the parts of totall Musicke as the science and skill of instruments likewise of song as also of the exercise of the senses I meane that which tendeth to the intelligence knowledge of the well proportioned Hermosmenon and of Rhythme Over and besides of the Rhythmick and Harmonique treatise and of the speculation touching the stroke and the dittie and what other soever there are besides But what the causes should be that it is not possible for one to be a Critick and able to judge by meanes of these things by themselves let us endevour to search and know First by this supposall That of those things which are proposed unto us for to be judged of some be perfect others imperfect Perfect for example every Poeticall worke that is either chaunted or plaied upon the pipe or sounded on the
or casket the holy doctrine of the gods pure and clensed from all superstition and affected curiositie who also of that opinion which is held of the gods declare some things which are obscure darke others also which be cleere and lightsome like as be those which are reported as touching their holy and religious habit And therefore whereas the religious priests of Isis after they be dead are thus clad with these holy habiliments it is a marke and signe witnessing unto us that this sacred doctrine is with them and that they be departed out of this world into another and carie nothing with them but it for neither to weare a long beard nor to put on a frize rugge and course gabardine dame Clea makes a Philosopher no more doth the surplice and linnen vestment or shaving an Isiaque priest But he indeed is a priest of Isis who after he hath seene and received by law and custome those things which are shewed and practised in the religious ceremonies about these gods searcheth and diligently enquireth by the meanes of this holy doctrine and discourse of reason into the trueth of the said ceremonies For very few there be who among them who understand and know the cause of this ceremony which is of all other the smallest and yet most commonly observed namely why the Isiaque priests shave their heads and weare no haire upon them as also wherefore they goe in vestments of Line And some of them there be who care not at all for any knowledge of such matters yet others say they forbeare to put on any garments of wooll like as they doe to cat the flesh of those sheepe which caric the said wooll upon a reverence they beare unto them semblably that they cause their heads to be shaven in token of dole and sorrow likewise that they weare surplices and vestments of linnen in regard of the colour that the flower of line or flaxe beareth which resembleth properly that celestiall azure skie that environeth the whole world But to say a trueth there is but one cause indeed of all for lawfull it is not for a man who is pure and cleane to touch any thing as Plato saith which is impure and uncleane Now it is well knowen that all the superfluities and excrements of our food and nourishment be foule and impure and of such be engendred and grow wooll haire shagge and nailes and therefore a meere ridiculous mockerie it were if when in their expiatorie sanctifications and divine services they cast off their haire being shaven and made smooth all their bodies over they should then be clad and arraied with the superfluous excrements of beasts for we must thinke that Hesiodus the Poet when he writeth thus At feast of gods and sacredmeriment Take heed with knife thy nailes thou do not pare To cut I say that dry dead excrement From lively flesh of fingers five beware teacheth us that we ought first to be cleansed and purified then to solemnise festivall holidaies and not at the very time of celebration and performance of holie rites and divine service to use such clensing and ridding away of superfluous excrements Now the herbe Line groweth out of the earth which is immortall bringeth foorth a frute good to be eaten and furnisheth us wherewith to make a simple plaine and slender vestment which sitteth light upon his backe that weareth it is meet for all seasons of the yeere and of all others as men say least breedeth lice or vermine whereof I am to discourse else where Now these Isiaque priests so much abhorre the nature and generation of all superfluities and excrements that they not onely refuse to eate most part of pulse and of flesh meats mutton and porke for that sheepe and swine breed much excrement but also upon their daies of sanctification and expiatorie solemnities they will not allow any salt to be eaten with their viands among many other reasons because it whetteth the appetite and giveth an edge to our stomacke provoking us to eate and drinke more liberally for to say as Aristagoras did That salt was by them reputed uncleane because when it is congealed and growen hard many little animals or living creatures which were caught within it die withall is a very foolerie Furthermore it is said that the Aegyptian priests have a certeine pit or well apart out of which they water their bull or beefe Apis and be very precise in any wise not to let him drinke of Nilus not for that they thinke the water of that river uncleane in regard of the crocodiles which are in it as some be of opinion for contrariwise there is nothing so much honored among the Aegyptians as the river Nilus but it seemeth that the water of Nilus doth fatten exceeding much and breed flesh over fast and they would not in any case that their Apis should be fat or themselves grosse and corpulent but that their soules might be clothed with light nimble and delicate bodies so as the divine part in them should not be oppressed or weighed downe by the force and ponderositie of that which is mortall In Heliopolis which is the citie of the Sunne those who serve and minister unto their god never bring wine into the temple as thinking it not convenient in the day time to drinke in the sight of their lord and king otherwise the priests drinke thereof but sparily and besides many purgations and expiations they have wherein they absteine wholly from wine and during those daies they give themselves wholly to their studies and meditations learning and teaching holy things even their very kings are not allowed to drinke wine their fill but are stinted to the gage of a certeine measure according as it is prescribed in their holy writings and those kings also were priests as Hecataeus writeth And they began to drinke it after the daies of king Psammetichus for before his time they dranke it not at all neither made they libaments thereof unto their gods supposing it not acceptable unto them for they tooke it to be the verie bloud of those giants which in times past warred against the gods of whom after they were slaine when their bloud was mixed with the earth the vine tree sprang and this is the cause say they why those who be drunke lose the use of their wit reason as being full of the bloud of their progenitours Now that the Aegyptian priests both hold and affirme thus much Eudoxus hath delivered in the second booke of his Geographie As concerning fishes of the sea they doe not every one of them absteine from all indifferently but some forbeare one kind some another as for example the Oxyrynchites will eate of none that is taken with an hooke for adoring as they doe a fish named Oxyrynchos they are in doubt and feare lest the hooke should be uncleane if haply the said fish swallowed it downe with the baite The Sienites will not touch the fish Phagrus For it should
power for to deceive and abuse the world as also by certeine notable sayings as these Know thy selfe Nothing too much and such like he hath kept bound unto him persons of highest spirit and greatest conceit causing them to thinke that in delivering so goodly precepts for the rule and direction of this life it must needs be the true friend of mankinde yea and the very heavenly wisdome that spake by these Oracles But his audacious pride together with most intolerable impudence hath appeared in the inscription of this bareword E I upon the porch of the temple of Apollo in Delphi in that he pretended title and claimed thereby according to the last interpretation thereof in this present discourse to put himselfe in the place of the eternall God who onely Is and giveth Being unto all things And that which worse is the blindnesse was so horrible even of the wisest Sages that this opinion hath beene seated in their heads whiles this tyrant possessed them in such sort as they tooke pleasure to suffer themselves so to be cousened by him But hereby good cause have we to praise our God who hath discovered and laid open to us such impostures and maketh his majestie knowen unto us by his word to be the onely true and eternall deitie in adoring and worshipping whom we may safely and truely say E I that is to say Thou art as contrariwise the deceitfull wiles and illusions of satan and his complices do declare how fearefull and horrible the judgement of God is upon such rebellious spirits Now if some over-busie and curious head will heere dispute and reason against the justice of him who is the disposer of all things and enterprise to controule that eternall wisedome which governeth the world for having mercy upon such as it pleaseth him and suffering to fall from so excellent an estate the Apostatate and disobodient angels and yet permitting them to have such a powerfull hand over the most part of Adams children we answer in one word Man what art thou that thus wilt plead against God shall the thing formed say unto him who formed it Why hast thou made me so Hath not the potter full power to make of the same masse of earth or clay one vessell for honor and another for dishonor The judgements of God are unsearchable they have neither bottom nor brinke the riches of his wisdome and knowledge are inscrutable and beyond all computation his waies are hidden and impossible to be found out If then there be any place in the consideration of the secrets of God where we ought to be retentive warie and discret it is in this where every man hath just occasion to thinke upon this not able lesson and advertisement Not to presume for to know over and above that which he should but to be wise unto sobrietie and that no man ought to be pussed up with pride but rather to feare Moreover as touching the contents of this discourse the author having used an honest and decent Presace saith in generall That by this present inscription Apollo intended to make himselfe knowen and to incite every man to inquire into time But heere in the enemie of mankind sheweth his audacity and boldnesse sufficiently as also how he deludeth and mocketh his slaves in that after he had deprived them of right and sound judgement he stirreth them up to know who he is which is as much as if one should plucke out the eies and cut in twaine the ham-strings of a traveller or watfaring man and then bid him seeke out his way and goe onward on his journey Now he brings in foure divers personages delivering their minds as touching this Mot EI. Lamprias opining in the first place thinketh that the first and principall wise Sages of Greece devised it for that they would be knowen and discerned from others Ammonius secondly referreth and applieth it to the Wishes and Questions of those who resort unto the Oracle Theon the third attributeth this 〈◊〉 unto Logicke and doth all that possibly he can to mainteine his opinion 〈◊〉 the Mathematician speaking in the fourth place and seconded by Plutarch Philosophizeth at large upon the number of 5. represented by the letter E he discourseth and runneth through all the Mathematikes and divers parts of Philosophy and all to approove and make good his conceit but his 〈◊〉 and end is to shew under the mysticall sense of numbers the perfection of his Apollo which he draweth and fetcheth also from the consideration of his titles epithets and attributes But Ammonius gathering together their voices and closing or stopping up the disputation seemeth to hit the marke prooving by most strong and learned reasons that Apollo would by this word instruct pilgims how they ought to salute and call him to wit in saying thus E 〈◊〉 that is to say Thou art he which is opposite unto that salutation which this false god usurping the name of the true Jehovah or alwaies Existent greeteth men with in setting just before their eies in the entrie and forefront of his temple these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Know thy selfe Having enriched this with two evident proofes the one taken from the uncerteine condition of creatures the other from the firmitude and true estate or being of the Creator he exhorteth his fellowes to list up themselves to the contemplation of the essence of God and to honour the Sunne his expresse image Which done herefuteth certeine contrary opinions and after a new confirmation of his discourse he endeth where he first began to wit that the knowledge of God and our selves are opposite in such sort as yet neverthelesse they must meet and concurre in us But all the application of this discourse unto Apollo whom you must take for the very divell in no wise is fit and agreeable And heerein a man may see better yet what madnesse and folly is the wisdome of man and in how thicke and palpable darknesse they goe groping with their hands before them who are no otherwise guided than by the discourse of their owne reason Which teacheth us once againe to adore the secrets of God to recognize and apprehend his mercies in the matter of our salvation to dread also his justice which sheweth it selfe in the deplorable and piteous blindnesse of so many nations even from the time that sinne first entred into the world unto this present day WHAT SIGNIFIETH THIS word EI engraven over the dore of Apolloes temple in the city of Delphi I Light of late in my reading friend Sarapion upon certeine pretie Iambique verses not unelegantly endited which Dicaearchus supposeth that the Poet Euripides delivered unto king Archelaus to this effect No gifts will I to you present Since poore I am and wealth you have Lest I for folly of you be shent Or by such giving seeme to crave For he who of that little meanes which he hath bestoweth some small present upon them that are rich and possesse much
of the antecedent and the 〈◊〉 of the proceeding and finishing of things as also of the coherence and bringing together of both ends and extremes of the conference of one to another what habitude Correspondence or difference there is betweene and this is it whereof all demonstrations take their chiefe originall and beginning Now since it is so that all Philosophie whatsoever consisteth in the knowledge of the trueth and the light which cleereth the trueth is demonstration and the beginning of demonstration is the coherence and knitting of propositions together by good right that power which maketh and mainteineth this was dedicated and consecrated by the Sages and wise men unto this god who above all others loveth the trueth Againe this god is a Divinor and Prophet but the arte of Divining is as touching future things by the meanes of such as are either present or past For as nothing is done or made without cause so there is nothing foreknowen without a precedent reason but forasmuch as all that is dependeth and followeth upon that which hath beene and consequently all that shall be hath a stint and dependance of that which is by a certeine continuitie which proceedeth from the beginning to the end he who hath the skill to see into causes and by naturall reason how to compose and joine them together knoweth and is able to discourse What things are now what shall heereafter come As also what are past both all and some according as Homer saith who very well and wisely setteth in the first place the present then the future and that which is past For of the present dependeth all Syllogisme and reasoning and that by the vertue efficacie of a conjunction for that if this thing be such a thing went before and conversìm if this be that shall be For all the artificiall feat and skill of discourse and argument is the knowledge of consequence as hath beene said already but it is the sense that giveth anticipation unto the discourse of reason And therefore although haply it may seeme to stand little with decent honesty yet I will not be affraid to affirme that this reason properly is the Tripode or three footed table as one would say and Oracle of trueth namely when the disputer supposeth a consequence upon that which was premised and went before and then afterwards assuming that which is extant and subsistent commeth in the end to induce and inferre a finall conclusion of his demonstration Now if it be so that Apollo Pythius as the report goeth loveth musicke and be delighted in the singing of swans and sound of lute and harpe what marvell is it then if for the affection that he beareth unto logicke he likewise embrace and love that part of speech which he seeth Philosophers most willingly and oftenest to use Hercules before that he had loosed the bonds wherewith Prometheus was tied and having not as yet conferred and talked with Chiron and Atlans two great Sophisters and professours of disputation but being a yong man still and a plaine Boeotian abolished all logicke at first and scoffed at this little Mot E I but soone after seemed as if he would plucke away by force the three footed table of Apollo yea and contest with the god about the art of divining for that together with age and processe of time he proceeded so farre as that he became by that meanes a most skilfull prophet and as subtile and excellent a logician When Theon had made an end of this speech Eustrophus the Athenian as I take it directed his wordes unto us said See you not how valiantly Theon defendeth the art of logicke hath in maner gotten on the lions skin of Hercules It is not therfore decent that we who in one word referre all affaires all natures and principles joinctly together as well of divine as of humane things into number and making it the author master and ruler even of such matters as simply are most faire and precious should sitte still and say never a word but rather for our part offer the fruits of the Mathematicks unto god Apollo For we say and affirme that this letter E of it selfe neither in puissance nor in forme ne yet in name pronounciation hath any thing in it above other letters how be it we thinke that preferred it hath beene before all the rest in this regard that it is a charracter and marke of the number five which is in all things of greatest vertue and validity and is named Pemptas Whereupon our Sages and great clerks in times past when they would expresse the verbe to number used Pempazein as one would say to count and reckon by fives And verily Eustrophus in saying thus addressed his speech unto me not merily but in good earnest for that I was very affectionate and much addicted then unto the Mathematicks but yet so as in all things I observed and kept still the old rule To much of nothing as being a schollar of the Academie schoole I answered therefore that Eustrophus had solved passing well the difficulty of the question by this number For seeing it is so quoth I that number in generality is divided into even and odde Unity is in power and efficacy common to them both in such sort as being put unto the even it maketh it odde and likewise added to the odde causeth the same to be even Now the beginning and ground of even numbers is Two and of odde Three is the first of which being joined together is engēdred Five which by good right is highly honored as being the first compound of the first simple numbers where upon it is worthily named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Mariage because the even number hath some resemblance to the female and the odde a reference to the male For in the sections divisions of numbers into equal parts the even is altogether cleane parted and severed asunder leaving a certaine void space betweene the parts as a beginning of capacity apt to receive somewhat more contrariwise in the odde number if a man doe as much by it and cut it into two numbers there remaineth alwaies somewhat in the midst betweene fit for subdivision yea and generation of new numbers whereby it appeareth that more generative it is than the other And whensoever it commeth to be mixed with the other it carieth the preeminence and is master alwaies but never mastered For what mixture soever you make of them twaine you shal never come thereby to an even number but mix and compose them as often and in what maner you will there shall arise alwaies thereof an odde number And that which more is both the one and the other added to it selfe or compounded with it selfe sheweth the difference that is betweene them For never shall you see an even number joined with another that is even to produce an odde for it goeth not out of his proper nature as having not the power to
forme and of matter being brought to perfection is procreated this Quinarie or number of five Now if it be true as some do hold that Unitie it selfe is quadrat and foure-square as being that which is the power of it selfe and determineth in it selfe then five being thus compounded of the two first quadrat numbers ought so much the rather to be esteemed so noble and excellent as none can be comparable unto it And yet there is one excellency behind that passeth all those which went before But I feare me quoth I lest if the same be uttered it would debase in some sort the honor of our Plato like as himselfe said the honour and authority of Anaxagor as was depressed and put downe by the name of the Moone who attributed unto himselfe the first invention of the Moones illuminations by the Sunne whereas it was a very ancient opinion long before he was borne How say you hath he not said thus much in his Dialogue entituled Cratylus Yes verily answered Eustrophus but I see not the like consequence for all that But you know quoth I that in his booke entituled The Sophister he setteth downe five most principall beginnings of all things to wit That which is The same The other Motion the fourth and Rest for the fift Moreover in his Dialogue Philebus he bringeth in another kinde of partition and division of these principles where he saith That one is Infinite another Finite or the end and of the mixture of these twaine is made and accomplished all generation as for the cause whereby they are mixed he putteth it for the fourth kinde but leaveth to our conjecture the fift by the meanes whereof that which is composed and mixed is redivided and separate againe And for mine owne part I suppose verily that these principles be the figures and images as it were of those before to wit of That which is The thing engendred of Motion Infinite of Rest the End or Finit of The same the Cause that mixeth of The other the Cause that doth separate But say they be divers principles and not the same yet howsoever it be there are alwaies still five kinds five differences of the said principles Some of them before Plato being of the same opinion or having heard so much of another consecrated two E. E. unto the god of this temple as a very signe to symbolize that number which comprehendeth all And peradventure having heard also that Good appeareth in five kinds whereof the first is Meane or Measure the second Symmetrie or Proportion the third Under standing the fourth The Sciences Arts and True Opinions which are in the soule the fifth Pure and Syncere Pleasure without mixture of any trouble and paine they staied there reciting this verse out of Orpheus But at the sixth age cease your song It booteth not to chaunt so long After these discourses passed betweene us Yet one briefe word more quoth he will I say unto Nicander and those about him For sing I will To men of skill The sixth day of the moneth when you lead the Prophetesse Pythia into some hal named Prytanium the first casting of lots among you of three tendeth to five for she casteth three and you two how say you is it not so Yes verily quoth Nicander but the cause heereof we dare not reveale and declare unto others Well then quoth I smiling thereat untill such time as god permitteth us after we are become holy and consecrate for to know the trueth thereof meane while let that also be added unto the praises which have bene alledged in the recommendation of the number Five Thus ended the discourse as touching the commendations attributed unto the number of five by the Arithmeticians and Mathematicians as far as I can remember or call to mind And Ammonius as he was a man who bestowed not the worst and least part of his time in Mathematicke Philosophy tooke no small pleasure in the hearing of such discourses and said Needlesse it is and to no purpose to stand much upon the precise and exact confutation of that which these yong men heere have alledged unlesse it be that every number will affoord you also sufficient matter and argument of praise if you will but take the paines to looke into them for to say nothing of others a whole day would not be enough to expresse in words all the vertues and properties of the sacred number Seven dedicated to Apollo And moreover we shall seeme to pronounce against the Sages and wisemen that they fight both against common law received and all antiquity of time if disseizing the number of seven of that preeminence whereof it is in possession they should consecrate Five unto Apollo as more meet and beseeming for him And therefore mine opinion is that this writing EI signifieth neither number nor order nor conjunction nor any other defective particle but is an entier salutation of it selfe and a compellation of the God which together with the very utterance and pronuntiation of the word induceth the speaker to think of the greatnesse power of him who seemeth to salute and greet every one of us when we come hither with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy selfe which signifieth no lesse than if he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say All haile or god save you and we again to render the like answer him EI that is to say Thou art yeelding unto him not a false but a true appellation and title which onely and to him alone appertaineth namely that he is For in very trueth and to speake as it is we who are mortall men have no part at all of being indeed because that all humane nature being ever in the midst betweene generation and corruption giveth but an obscure apparence a darke shadow a weake and uncertaine opinion of it selfe And if paradventure you bend your minde and cogitation for to comprehend a substance and essence thereof you shal doe as much good as if you would cluch water in your hand with a bent fist for the more you seeme to gripe and presse together that which of the owne nature is fluid and runneth out so much the more shall you leese of that which you will claspe and hold and even so all things being subject to alteration and to passe from one change unto another reason seeking for a reall subsistence is deceived as not able to apprehend any thing subsistant in trueth and permanent for that every thing tendeth to a being before it is or beginneth to die so soone as it is engendred For as Her 〈◊〉 was wont to say a man cannot possibly enter twice into one and the same river no more is he able to finde any mortall substance twice in one and the same estate Such is the suddenesse and celerity of change that no sooner is it dissipated but it gathereth againe anon or rather indeed not againe nor anon but at once it both subsisteth and also
governour of all moisture 1301.40 Bactrians desire to have their dead bodies devoured by birds of the aire 299.50 Baines and stouphes 612.1 in old time very temperate 783.30 the occasion of many diseases 783.30 Balance not to be passed over 15.10 Ballachrades 903.30 Bal what it signifieth in the Aegyptian language 1319.1 Banishment of Bulimus 738.20 Banishment how to be made tolerable 275.1.10 no marke of infamie 278.20 seemeth to be condemned by Euripides ib. 30 Banished persons we are all in this world 281.20 Banquet of the seven Sages 326.30 Barbarians and Greeks compared 39.40 Barbell the fish honoured 976.40 Barbers be commonly praters 200.40 a pratling Barber checked k. Archelaus 408.10 Barber to K. 〈◊〉 crucified for his 〈◊〉 tongue 200.30 Barbers shops dry bankets 721.20 a Barber handled in his kinde for his 〈◊〉 tongue 201.1 Barly likes well in sandy ground 1008.10.20 Barrennesse in women how occasioned 844.20 Evill Bashfulnesse cause of much 〈◊〉 danger 165.10.20.30 over-much Bashfulnesse how to be avoided 164.30 Bashfulnesse 163.10 of two sorts 72.1 Bashfulnesse to be avoided in diet 613.1 Bathing in cold water upon exercise 620.20 Bathing in hot water ib. 30. Bathing and 〈◊〉 before meat 612.20 Bathyllion 759.10 Battus the sonne of Arcesilaus 504.30 Battus a buffon or 〈◊〉 775.10 Battus surnamed Daemon 504.20 Battus 1199.20 Beanes absteined from 15.20 Beare a subtill beast 965.10 why they are saide to have a sweet hand 1010.50 why they gnaw not the 〈◊〉 1012.30 tender over their yoong 218.20 a Bearded comet 827.20 Beasts haue taught us Physicke al the parts thereof 967.60 Beasts capable of vertue 564.50 docible apt to learne arts 570.1 able to teach ib. 10. we ought to have pittie of them 575.30 brute Beasts teach parents naturall kindnesse 217.218 Beasts braines in old time rejected 783.10 they cure themselves by Physicke 1012.1 Beasts of land their properties 958.50 what beasts will be mad 955.20 beasts not sacrificed without their owne consent 779.20 skilful in Arithmetick 968.20 kind to their yong 218.10 beasts wilde what use men make of them 237.40 of land or water whether have more use of reason 951. 30. beasts have use of reason 954.955 how to be used without injurie 956.40 how they came first to be killed 779.10 whether they feed more simply than we 702.1 whether more healthfull than men 702.1 Beauty the blossome of vertue 1153.10 beauty of what worth 6.50 beauty of woman called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 728.50 beauty without vertue not 〈◊〉 47.1 Beboeon 1370.40 Bebon ib. Bed of maried folke 〈◊〉 many quarrels betweene them 322 20. bed-clothes to bee shuffled when we be newly risen 777.40 Bees of Candie how witty they be 959. 50. bees cannot abide smoke 1014.30 they sting unchaste persons ib. 40. the bee a wise creature 218.1 The Beetill flie what it signisieth 〈◊〉 1291.30 why honoured by the Aegyptians 1316.30 Beer a counterfeit wine 685.40 Begged flesh what is ment by it 891.50 Bellerophontes continent everie way 739.30 Bellerophontes commended for his continence 42.30.139.30 he slew Chimarchus 489.10 not rewarded by Iobates ib. Belestre 1137.1 The Bellies of dead men how they be served by the Aegyptians 576.40 of belly belly cheere pro contra 339.340 belly pleasures most esteemed by lipicurus and Metrodorus 595. 10. belly hath no cares 620.40 Bepolitanus strangely escaped execution 502.40 Berronice the good wife of 〈◊〉 1111.40 〈◊〉 detected for killing his father 545.30 Bias his answer to a pratling fellow 194.20 his answer to king Amasis 327.10 his apophthegme 456.1 his apophthegme touching the most dangerous beast 47.30 Binarie number 807.10 Binarie number or Two called contention 1317.30 Bion his answere to Theognis 28.20 his apophthegme 254. 50. his saying of Philosophie 9.1 〈◊〉 hath divers significations 29.20 Birds why they have no wezill flap 745.10 birds how they drinke 745.10 skilfull in divination 968.40 taught to imitate mans mans voice 966.30 Biton and Cleobis rewarded with death 518.10 See Cleobis Bitternesse what effects it worketh 656.10 a 〈◊〉 of his toong how he was served by K. Seleucus 200.20 Blacknesse commeth of water 997. 10 Blacke potage at Lacedaemon 475. 20 Bladder answereth to the winde-pipe like as the guts to the wezand 745.20 Blames properly imputed for vice 47.30 Blasing 〈◊〉 827.10 The Blessed state of good folke departed 530.50 Bletonesians sacrificed a man 878.10 Blushing face better than pale 38 50 Bocchoris a k. of AEgypt 164.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 898.40 Bodily health by two arts preserved 9.10 Body fitter to entertaine paine than pleasure 583.10 body feeble no hinderance to aged rulers 389.40 bodies what they be 813. bodies smallest 813.50 body cause of all vices and calamities 517.30 body may well have an action against the soule 625.1 much injuried by the soule ib. Boeotarchie 367.10 Boeotians good trencher men 669 10. noted for gluttony 575.1 Boeotians reproched for hating good letters 1203.50 Boldnesse in children and youth 8.40 Bona a goddesse at Rome 856.50 Books of Philosophers to be read by yoong men 9.50 Boreas what winde 829.30 Bottiaeans 898.30 their virgins song ib. Brasidas his saying of a silly mouse 251.20 Brasidas his apophthegmes 423. 30.456.1 his death and commendation ib. 10 A Brason spike keepeth dead bodies from putrefaction 697.50 Brasse swords or speares wounde with lesse hurt 698.1 Brasse why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 698.1 why it is so resonant 770.10 Brasse of Corinth 1187.1 Bread a present remedie for fainting 739.1 Brennus king of the Gallogreeks 910.40 Brethren how they are to divide their patrimonie 180.40 one brother ought not to steale his fathers heart from another 179 30. they are to excuse one another to their parents 179.50 how they should cary themselves in regard of age 184.185 Briareus a giant the same that Ogygius 1180.20 Bride lifted over the threshold of her husbands dore 860.30 bridegrome commeth first to his bride without a light 872.10 20. bride why she eateth a quince before she enter into the bed-chamber 872.20 brides haire parted with a javelin 879. 50 Brimstone why called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 705.30 Brison a famous runner 154.30 Brotherly amity a strange thing 174.20 Brutus surprised with the hunger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 738.50 his gracious thankefulnesse to the 〈◊〉 739.1 Decim Brutus why he sacrificed to the dead in December 862. 10 Brutus beheadeth his owne sonnes 909.50 The Bryer bush 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 892. 50 Bubulci the name at Rome how it came 865.10 Bucephalus K. Alexanders horse 963.50 how he was woont to ride him 396.20 Buggery in brute beasts not known 568.30 Building costly forbidden by Lycurgus 577.30.880.1 Bulb roote 704.20 Buls and beares how they prepare to fight 959.1 Buls affraied of red clothes tied to figge-trees become tame 323. 741.30 Bulla what ornament or jewell 40. why worne by Romaines children 883.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fainting
a token of mortalitie 766.30 Geometricall proportion allowed in Lacedaemon by Lycurgus 767.50 Geometrie commended 767.10 in what subjects or objects it is occupied 767.20.30 Geomori who they were 904.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Honour why so termed in Greeke 391.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why old men be so called 391.30 Geryones or Geryon a wonderfull giant 374.20 Gidica her villany 916. 10. she hangeth her selfe ib. Glasse with what heat it is best melted and wrought 697.1 Glaucia with childe by Deimachus 901.10 Glaucia a riveret of her name ib. 20 Glancopis why the Moone is called so 1174.1 Glaucus his foolish bargaine with Diomedes 1087.20 Lucius Glauco lost both his hands 906.40 Glory of what account it is 6.50 Glosses 28.50 Glottae 1311.40 Gluttons abroad spary at home 614.30 Gnathaenium the name of an harlot 1144.1 Gnatho a smell feast 754.40 Gnatho the Sicilian a glutton 606.30 Go we to Athens 898.30 Goats very subject to the falling sicknesse 886.40 Goats rivers a place so called 922.10 Goats of Candie cured by Dictamnus 569.40 Goats commending their pasturage and feeding 702.10 a Goat fancied Glauce 966.30 God how he is called Father and Creatour 766.30 God 768.50 Gods and Goddesses how they differ 766.40.50 how God is said by Plato to practise Geometrie continually 767 10. how he framed the world 768.10 God manageth great affaires onely 364.40 Gods nature what it is according to Plutarch 263.40 God seemeth to deferre punishment for causes to him best knowen 541 God immortall 1099.1 God is not Philornis but Philanthropos 1221.10 God not the authour of euill 1033.50 God described by Antipater 1076 10 Gods which were begotten which not 1076.20 God what he is 808.10.809.20 notion of God how it came 809.20 God his nature described 1335.50 Gods worship in three sorts 810.10 Gods the Sunne and Moone why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 810.20 Gods good and profitable 810.20 Gods bad and hurtfull ib. Gods fabulous 810.30 what God is Sundry opinions of Philosophers 812 God the father and maker of all things 1018.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 953.10 Goldsmiths with what fire they melt work their gold 699.1 Gold why it maketh no good sound 770.10 Good or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 868.40 Good or bad things simply 1084.40 to Good men what epithets and additions Homer giveth 1297.10 a Goose in love with a boy 966.30 Geese silent as the flie over the mount Taurus 202.10 Geese of Cilicia how witty they are 959.50 Geese saved the Capitoll of Rome 638. 20. carried in a shew at Rome 638. 30. how they restraine their owne gagling ib. Gorgias 〈◊〉 the great Rhetorician 919. 20. his apophthegme of Tragoedies 985.10 Gorgias could not keepe his owne house in peace 323.20 Gorgo the wife of Leonidas a stout dame 464.30 her apophthegme ib. Gorgo the daughter of Cleomenes her apophthegmes 479.40 Gorgon and Asander 1152.20 Governours of youth how to be chosen 5.10 Government politicke the best 940 50 of Governments the exorbitations 941.30 C. Gracchus 348. 50. by what device he did moderate his voice in pleading 122.10 Graces why placed with Venus and Mercury 316. 10. their names 292.1 Grammar what art it is 1249.1 Grashoppers sacred and musicall 777.10 Greece in Plutarchs time fallen to a low ebbe 1326.1 〈◊〉 and Galatians buried quicke by the Romans 878.40 Greekes what opinion they have of the gods 1306.40 Greekes compared with the Aegyptians in matters of religion 1315.10 Guests ought to sort well together 722.1 Guests sit close at first but more at large toward the end 722.20 Guests invited ought to be of acquaintance 755.40 Guests invited coming last to a feast 775.20 A Guest ought to come prepared to a feast 328.10 Guests how to be placed at a feast 646.20 how to be pleased at the table 648.20 allowed their chaplets of flowres 680 20 Whether it be commendable for Guests to weare garlands 682.10 Of Guests a multitude to be avoided at a feast 721.20 The guide a fish 975.30 Gurmandise in men taxed by Gryllus 669.10 Gifts none betweene wife and husband 853.1 No gifts from sonne in law or father in law 853.20 Gymnasia the overthrew of Greece 864.20 Gymnopaedia what daunce 1251 30 Gymnosophists 1270.30 Gyrtias her apophthegmes 480.1 H HAbitude in the soule what it is 67.40 Hades and Dionysius both one 1298.40 Haile how it commeth 828. 10 how it may be averted 746.30 Haire long commended and commanded by Lycurgus 422.40 Haire long commended 423.10 Halo the circle how it is made 832.40 Halcyones sea-birds see Alciones 633.50 Hamedriades why so called 1327 50 Hamoxocylistae a family in Megara 905.40 Hands alwaies warme holsome and good for health 611.40 Hands most artificious instruments 174.40 Hanno banished for ruling a lion 349.50 Happinesse diversly taken by Poets and philosophers 32.30 Happinesse not to be measured by time 1333.1 Hares how crafty they are 965.1 The Hare why not eaten among the lewes 111.10 Hares of exquisit sense 711.10 Hares and asses alike ib. Harma the name of a city 908.20 Harmatios what tune or song 1251.1 Harmonia what goddesse 1306 50 Harmonie what Daemon 157.40 Harmonicke musicke 976.40 Harmonice 1019.1 Harmony commended 1255.30 Harpalus endevoured to have Ivy grow about Babylon 685.20 An Harpe or lute going about the table 645.10 Harpe familiar at feasts 760.20 Harpocrates the sonne of Osiris by Isis wanteth his nether parts 1295.1 Harpocrates his portracture 1313.50 Harts or Stagges age 1327.30 Hatred how engendred 234.20 it differeth from envie 234.1 Hauke symbolizeth god 1300.20 Hauke symbolizeth Osiris 1308.10 Hautboies and slute 760.30 commended at feasts ib. Romanes worshipped the gods with their Heads covered but men bare headed 853.50 Health what it is 849.30 Health of what price 6.50 Health the best sauce 615.20 by what meanes mainteined 618.50 Health and pleasure agree well together 702.1 Health how it is accounted of diversly 75.20 Heart not to be eaten 15.20 Heat naturall mainteined most by moisture 730 Heat putrifieth things 774.10 Heats by fire of divers kindes and sundry operations 697.1 Heaven how the Aegyptians pourtray 1291.30 Heaven how made 808.30 Heaven beautifull 809 Heaven what substance it hath 830. into how many circles divided 820.40 Heare much and say little 53.20 Hearing how to be emploied 18.40 presenteth the greatest passions to the minde 52.10 ought to goe before speech 52.50 Hearers how they should be qualified 53.20 c. they ought to sequester envy and ambition 53.50 how they should behave them selves in praising the speaker 58.40 Hebius Tolieix 915.40 Hecates gulfe in the Moone 1183 30 Hecatompedon a temple of Minerva in Athens 963.20 Hecatomphonia 341.10 Hector noted for presumption 24.40 Hegesias caused his scholars to pine themselves 223.1 Hegesippus surnamed Crobylus his apophthegme 420.40 Helbia a vestall nunne smitten with lightning 878.20 Helena escaped sacrificing 916.10 how in Homer she spiceth her cups 644.1 Helepolis an engine of battery 415.30 Heliope what Daemon 157.30 Helitomenus 1295.1 Hellanicus a
than those dumbe beasts who enterteine no evill suspicions or surmises of the gods nor any opinions to torment them as touching that which shall befall unto them after death for they neither beleeve and know not so much as once think of any harme at all in such things Furthermore if in the opinion that they holde of the gods they had reserved and left a place for divine providence beleeving that thereby the world was governed they might have beene thought wise men as they are to have gone beyond brute beasts for the atteinting of a pleasant and joifull life in regard of their good hopes but seeing all their doctrine as touching the gods tendeth to this end namely to feare no god and otherwise to be fearelesse and carelesse altogether I am perswaded verily that this is more firmely setled in those having no sense and knowledge at all of God than in these who say they know God but have not learned to acknowledge him for a punishing God and one that can punish and doe harme for those are not delivered from superstition and why they never fell into it neither have they laied away that fearefull conceit and opinion of the gods and no marvell for they never had any such the same may be said as touching hell and the infernall spirits for neither the one nor the other have any hope to receive good from thence marie suspect feare and doubt what shall betide them after death those must needs lesse who have no fore-conceit at all of death than they in whom this perswasion is imprinted beforehand that death concerneth us not and yet thus farre forth it toucheth them in that they discourse dispute and consider thereupon whereas brute beasts are altogether freed from the thought and care of such things as doe nothing perteine unto them true it is that they shunne stroaks wounds and slaughter and thus much I say of death they feare which also even to these men is dreadfull and terrible Thus you see what good things wisdome by their owne saying hath furnished them withall but let us now take a sight and survey of those which they exclude themselves sro and are deprived of As touching those diffusions of the soule when it dilateth and spreadeth it selfe over the flesh and for the pleasure that the flesh feeleth if the same be small or meane there is no great matter therein nor that which is of any consequence to speake of but if they passe mediocritie then besides that they be vaine deceitfull and uncerteine they are found to be combersome and odious such as a man ought rather to tearme not spiritual joies and delights of the soule but rather sensuall and grosse pleasures of the bodie fawning flattering and smiling upon the soule to draw and entice her to the participation of such vanities as for such contentments of the minde which deserve indeed and are woorthy to be called joies and delights they be purified cleane from the contrarie they have no mixture at all of troublesome motions no sting that pricketh them nor repentance that followeth them but their pleasure is spirituall proper and naturall to the soule neither is the good therein borowed abroad and brought in from without nor absurd and void of reason but most agreeable and sorting thereto proceeding from that part of the mind which is given unto contemplation of the trueth and desirous of knowledge or at leastwise from that which applieth it selfe to doe and execute great and honourable things now the delights and joies aswell of the one as the other hee that went about to number and would straine and force himselfe to discourse how great and excellent they be he were never able to make an end but in briefe and few words to helpe our memorie a little as touching this point Histories minister an infinit number of goodly and notable examples which yeeld unto us a singular delight and recreation to passe the time away never breeding in us a tedious satietie but leaving alwaies the appetite that our soule hath to the trueth insatiable and desirous still of more pleasure and contentment in regard whereof untrueths and very lies therein delivered are not without their grace for even in fables and sictions poeticall although we give no credit unto them there is some effectuall force to delight and perswade for thinke I pray you with your selfe with what heat of delight and affection we reade the booke of Plato entituled Atlanticus or the last books of Homers Ilias consider also with what griefe of heart wee misse and want the residue of the tale behinde as if we were kept out of some beautifull temples or faire theaters shut fast against us for surely the knowledge of trueth in all things is so lovely and amiable that it seemeth our life and very being dependeth most upon knowledge and learning whereas the most unpleasant odious and horrible things in death be oblivion ignorance and darknesse which is the reason I assure you that all men in a maner sight and warre against those who would bereave the dead of all sense giving us thereby to understand that they do measure the whole life the being also and joy of man by the sense onely and knowledge of his minde in such sort that even those very things that are odious and offensive otherwise we heare other whiles with pleasure and often times it falleth out that though men be troubled with the thing they heare so as the water standeth in their eies and they be readie to weepe and crie out for griefe yet they desire those that relate the same to say on and speake all as for example Oedipus in Sophocles THE MESSENGER Alas my lord I see that now I shall Relate the thing which is the worst of all OEDIPUS Woe is me likewise to heare it I am prest There is no helpe say on and tell the rest But peradventure this may be a current and streame of intemperat pleasure and delight proceeding from a curiositie of the minde and will too forward to heare and know all things yea and to offer violence unto the judgement and discourse of reason howbeit when as a narration or historie conteining in it no hurtfull and offensive matter besides the subject argument which consisteth of brave adventures and worthy exploits is penned and couched in a sweet stile with a grace and powerfull force of eloquence such as is the historie of Herodotus as touching the Greeke affaires or of Xenophon concerning the Persian acts as also that which Homer with an heavenly spirit hath endited and delivered in his verses or Eudoxus in his peregrinations and description of the world or Aristotle in his treatise of the founding of cities and governments of State or Aristoxenus who hath left in writing the lives of famous and renowmed persons in such I say there is not onely much delight and contentment but also there ensueth thereupon no displeasure nor repentance And what man is he who
as touching the generation or creation of the world and of the soule thereof as if the same had not bene from all eternity nor had time out of minde their essence whereof we have particularly spoken a part else where and for this present suffice it shall to say by the way that the arguing and contestation which Plato confesseth himselfe to have used with more vehemencie than his age would well beare against Atheists the same I say they confound and shufflle up or to speake more truely abolish altogether For if it be so that the world be eternall and was never created the reason of Plato falleth to the ground namely that the soule being more ancient than the bodie and the cause and principall author of all motion and mutation the chiefe governour also and head Architect as he himselfe hath said is placed and bestowed therein But what and where of the soule is and how it is said and to be understood that it is more ancient than the body and before it in time the progresse of our discourse hereafter shall declare for this point being either unknowen or not well understood brings great difficulty as I thinke in the well conceiving and hinderance in beleeving the opinion of the trueth In the first place therefore I will shew what mine owne conceit is proving and fortifying my sentence and withall mollifying the same because at the first sight it seemeth a strange paradox with as probable reasons as I can devise which done both this interpretation and proofe also of mine I will lay unto the words of the text out of Plato and reconcile the one unto the other For thus in mine opinion stands the case This world quoth Heraclitus there was never any god or man that made as if in so saying he feared that if we disavow God for creatour we must of necessitie confesse that man was the architect and maker thereof But much better it were therefore that we subscribe unto Plato and both say and sing aloud that the world was created by God for as the one is the goodliest piece of worke that ever was made so the other the most excellent workman and greatest cause that is Now the substance and matter whereof it was created was never made or engendred but was for ever time out of minde and from all eternitie subject unto the workman for to dispose and order it yea and to make as like as possible was to himselfe For of nothing and that which had no being there could not possibly be made ought but of that which was notwell made nor as it ought to bee there may be made somewhat that is good to wit an house a garment or an image and statue But before the creation of the world there was nothing but a chaos that is to say all things in confusion and disorder and yet was not the same without a bodie without motion or without soule howbeit that bodie which it had was without forme and consistence and that mooving that it had was altogether rash without reason and understanding which was no other but a disorder of the soule not guided by reason For God created not that bodie which was incorporall nor a soule which was inanimate like as we say that the musician maketh not a voice nor the dancer motion but the one maketh the voice sweet accordant and harmonious and the other the motion to keepe measure time and compasse with a good grace And even so God created not that palpable soliditie of a bodie nor that moving and imaginative puissance of the soule but finding these two principles the one darke and obscure the other turbulent foolish and senselesse both imperfect disordered and indeterminate he so digested and disposed them that he composed of them the most goodly beautifull and absolute living creature that is The substance then of the bodie which is a certeine nature that he calleth susceptible of all things the very seat the nourse also of all things engendred is no other thing than this But as touching the substance of the soule he tearmeth it in his booke entituled Philebus Infinitie that is to say the privation of all number and proportion having in it neither end limit nor measure neither excesse nor defect neither similitude nor dissimilitude And that which hee delivereth in Timaeus namely that it is mingled with the indivisible nature is become divisible in bodies we must not understand this to be either multitude in unities or length and breadth in points or pricks which things agree unto bodies and belong rather to bodies than to soules but that mooving principle disordinate indefinite and mooving of it selfe which hee calleth in manie places Necessitie the same in his books of lawes hee tearmeth directly a disorderly soule wicked and evill doing This is the soule simply and of it selfe it is so called which afterwards was made to participate understanding and discourse of reason yea wife proportion to the end that it might become the soule of the world Semblably this materiall principle capable of all had in it a certeine magnitude distance and place beauty forme proportionate figure and measure it had none but all these it gat afterwards to the end that being thus digested and brought into decent order it might affoord the bodies and organs of the earth the sea the heavens the starres the plants and living creatures of all sorts But as for them who attribute give that which he calleth in Timaeus necessitie and in his treatise Philebus infinity and immensity of excesse defect of too much and too little unto matter and not unto the soule how are they able to maintaine that it is the cause of evill considering that he supposeth alwaies that the said matter is without forme or figure whatsoever destitute of all qualities and faculties proper unto it comparing it unto those oiles which having no smell of their owne perfumers use in the composition of their odors and precious ointments for impossible it is that Plato should suppose the thing which of it selfe is idle without active qualitie without mooving and inclination to any thing to be the cause and beginning of evill or name it an infinity wicked evill doing not likewise a necessitie which in many things repugneth against God as being rebellious and refusing to obey him for as touching that necessitie which overthroweth heaven as he saith in his Politiques and turneth it cleane contrary that inbred concupiscence and confusion of the first and auncient nature wherein there was no order at all before it was ranged to that beautifull disposition of the world as now it is how came it among things if the subject which is matter was without all qualities and void of that efficacie which is in causes and considering that the Creatour himselfe being of his owne nature all good desired as much as might be to make all things like unto himselfe for a third besides these two principles there is