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
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
and demonstration thereof It remaineth therefore that it is long either of weakenesse or smalnesse that it is not perceived when they who have it present feele it not nor have any knowledge thereof Moreover it were very absurd to say that the eie sight should perceive and discerne things that be but whitish a little or middle colours betweene and not bee able to see those that be exceeding white in the highest degree or that the sense of feeling should apprehend that which is meanly hot or warme and yet have no sense at all of such things as be excecding hot But there is more absurdity in this that a man should comprehend that which meanly and commonly is according to nature to wit health or the good plight of the body and be ignorant againe of vertue when it is present considering withall that they hold it to be principally and in highest degree accordant to nature for how can it otherwise be but against common sense to conceive well enough the difference betweene health and sicknesse and to be ignorant of that distinction which is betweene wisedome and follie but to thinke the one to be present when it is gone and when a man hath the other not to know so much that he hath it Now forasmuch as after that one advanced and proceeded forward as farre as may be he is changed into felicity and vertue one of these two must of necessitie follow that either this estate of progresse and profit is neither vice nor infelicity or else that there is no great difference and distance betweene vice and vertue but that the diversitie of good things and evill is very small and unperceptible by the sense for otherwise men could not be ignorant when they had the one or the other or thinke they had the one for the other so long then as they depart not from any contrariety of sentences but will allow affirme and put downe all things whatsoever to wit That they who profit and proceed are still fooles and wicked that they who are become wise and good know not so much themselves but are ignorant thereof that there is a great difference betweene wisedome and folly Thinke you that they shew a woonderfull constance and uniformity in the maintenance of their sentences and doctrines Well if in their doctrine they goe against common sense and are repugnant to themselves certes in their life in their negotiations and affaires they doe much more for pronouncing flatly that those who be not wise are all indifferently and alike wicked unjust disloiall faithlesse and foolish and yet forsoorth some of them they abhorre and will not abide but be ready to spit at them others they will not vouchsafe so much as to salute if they meet with them upon the way and some againe they will credit with their monies nominate and elect by their voices to be magistrates yea and bestow their daughters upon them in mariage Now in case they hold such strange and extravagant positions in sport and game let them plucke downe their browes and not make so many surrowes as they doe in their foreheads but if in earnest and as grave Philosophers surely I must needs tell them that it is against common notions to reproove blame and raile upon all men alike in words and yet to use some of them in deeds as honest persons others hardly to intreat as most wicked and for example to admire Chrysippus in the highest degree make a god of him but to mocke and scorne Alexinus although they thinke the men to be fooles alike and not one more or lesse foolish than the other True it is say they and needs it must be so But like as he who is but a cubit under the top of the water is no lesse strangled and drowned than he who lies five hundred fathom deepe in the bottom of the sea even so they that be come within a little of vertue are no lesse in vice still than those who are agreat way off and as blinde folke be blinde still although haply they shall recover their eie-sight shortly after even so they that have wel proceeded and gone forward continue fooles still and sinfull untill such time as they have fully attained to vertue but contrary to all this that they who profit in the schoole of vertue resemble not those who are starke blinde but such rather as see not clerely nor are like unto those who be drowned but unto them that swimme yea and approch neere unto the haven they themselves do beare witnesse by their deeds and in the whole practise of their life for otherwise they would not have used them for their counsellors captaines and lawgivers as blinde men do guides for to lead them by the hands neither would they have praised and imitated their deeds acts sayings and lives of some as they did if they had seene them all drowned alike and suffocated with folly and wickednesse But letting that goe by consider these Stoicks that you may woonder the more at them in this behalfe that by their owne examples they are not taught to quit and abandon these wise men who are ignorant of themselves and who neither know nor perceive that they cease to be stifled and strangled any longer and begin to see the light and being risen aloft and gotten above vice and sinne take their winde and breath againe Also it is against common sense that for a man furnished with all good things and who wanteth nothing of perfect blisse and happinesse it should be meet and befitting to make himselfe away and depart voluntarily out of this life yea and more than so that he who neither presently hath nor ever shall have any good thing but contrariwise is continually haunted and persecuted with all horrible calamities miseries and mishaps that can be should not thinke it fit and covenient for himselfe to leave and for sake this life unlesse some of those things which they hold be indifferent be presented and doe befall unto him Well these be the goodly rules and trim lawes in the Stoicks schoole and verily many of their wise men they cause indeed to go out of this life bearing them in hand that they shall be more blessed and happie although by their saying a wise man is rich fortunate blessed happy every way sure and secured from all danger contrariwise a foole and leawd man is able to say of himselfe Of wteked parts to say I dare be hold So full I am that unneth I can hold And yet forsooth they thinke it meet and seemely for such as these to remaine alive but for those to forgo this life And good cause why quoth Chrysippus for we are not to measure our life by good things or evill but by such as are according to nature See how these Philosophers mainteine ordinary custome and teach according to common notions Say you so good sit ought not he who maketh profession of looking into the estate of life and
otherwise than the hasty and cholericke fits of our neighbors the peevish and froward dispositions of our familiar acquaintance and some shrewd demeanors of our servants in that they go about with which me thinks you also troubling and disquieting your selfe as much as with any thing else like unto those Physicians of whom Sophocles thus writeth Who bitter choler clense and scoure With Drugs as bitter and as soure do unseemely and not iwis for the credite of your person thus to chafe and fret at their passions and imperfections beyond all reason and shew your selfe as passionate as they For surely the affaires and negotiations wherewith you are put in trust and which be managed by your direction are not executed ordinarily by the ministerie of such persons whose dealings be plaine simple and direct as instruments most meet and fit for such a purpose but for the most part by crooked rough and crabbed pieces To reforme and amend these enormities I would not have you thinke that it is either your worke and dutie or an enterprise otherwise easily performed But if you making use of these being such by nature as the Chirurgians do of tooth-drawing pincers and those instruments wherewith they doe bring the edges of a wound together will shew you selfe milde moderate and tractable in every respect according as the present occasion will give leave surely you shall not receive so much discontentment and displeasure at the untoward and unhappie dealings of others as joy in the conscience of your owne good disposition as making this account that such ministers of yours do but their kind like as dogs when they barke But if you feed and cherish this pusillanimitie and weaknesse of yours as other follies you shall be sure to heape up many troubles and follies of other men ere you be aware which will be ready to fall and run as into some low ground and hollow trench unto that weakenesse of yours For what should I say that some Philosophers reproove the pittie and commiseration which we have for them that are in distresse miserie acknowledging that it is a good and charitable deed to helpe and succour such as be in calamitie but not commending that condolence and fellow-feeling with our neighbours as if we yeelded with them unto Fortune And more than so the same Philosophers will not permit and give us leave in case we be subject to some vice and ill disposed for to be seene and knowen for to grieve and sorrow therefore but rather to correct and amend what is amisse without any shew at all of sad cheere and heavinesse which being so consider then how little reason and small cause we have nay how absurd it were that we should suffer our selves to be troubled vexed and angry in case all those who commerce and converse with us deale not so well and kindly as they should But above all things my good friend Paccius let us see to this that our selfe love deceive and seduce us not let us beware I say that we do not so much shew an hatred and detestation of wickednesse and sinne in generall as bewray some private and particular regard of our owne in that we seeme so to abhorre and dread the naughtinesse of those that have to do with us For to be exceeding much mooved and beyond all measure affectionate at some time to such and such affaires to covet I say and pursue the same over-hotly and otherwise than is meete and beseeming or contrariwise to loth despise and abhor the same must needs breed discontentments suspitions and offences in those persons by whom we seeme either to have beene prevented disappointed of some things or to have runne and fallen too soone upon other But he that is used to carie himselfe cheerefully and with moderation in his affaires fall out as they will and can frame to their events he will soone learne to negotiate and converse with any man in all dexteritie and gentle behaviour Well then let us set in hand againe to discourse of those matters which we have intermitted for a while for like as in a feaver all things that we taste seeme at the first bitter and unsavorie but when we see others take without any shew and signification of dislike the same which we spit out then we blame no more either meats or drinks but lay the fault upon our disease even so when we perceive that other men have entred upon and gone through the same affaires with great alacritie and without any paine at all whereof we complained and made much adoe let us for shame cease to find fault and bee offended so much at the things And therefore if at any time there shall befall unto us some adverse and crooked accident against our wils it will be very good for the working of our contentment in minde not to passe over but to regard such things as at other times have hapned to our minds and as we could wish them but to conferre them together and by a good medly of them both to darken and dor the worst with laying the better to But now whereas we are wont when our eies be dazzeled and offended with beholding that which is too bright glittering we refresh comfort our sight againe with looking upon pleasant colours of flowers and greene grasse herein contrariwise wee direct our mindes and cogitations upon heavie and dolorous objects and violently force our thoughts to be amuzed upon the remembrance of calamities and adverse fortunes plucking them perforce as it were from the consideration of better And heere in this place me thinks I may very fitly applie that sentence to our present purpose which was said to a busie and curious person Ah spitefull minde and most envious hart Why others faults do'st thou so quickly spie With eagles sight but in thine owne thou art Starke blinde or else do'st winke with howlets eie Even so good sir How is it that you regard and advise so wistly your owne miserie and calamitie making it alwaies apparent and fresh in remembrance but upon your present prosperitie you set not minde And like as ventoses cupping glasses or boxes draw the must corrupt humors to them out of the flesh even so you gather against your selfe the worst things you have being no better than the merchant of Chios who when he sold to others a great quantity of the best wine sought up and downe tasting every vessell untill he met with that for his owne dinner which began to sowre and was little better than starke naught This man had a servant who ranne away and being demaunded what his man had done unto him for which hee should shew him a paire of heeles Because quoth hee when hee had plentie of that which was good he would needes secke for naught And most men verily are of the same nature who passing by good and desireable things which be as a man would say the pleasant and potable liquors that they have betake
things unjust are constreined afterwards to beare both shame and blame at their hands who justly call them to their answer and accuse them woorthily and whiles they feare some light checke or private rebuke many times they are faine to incurre and susteine open disgrace and reproch for being abashed to denie a friend who craveth to borrow money as being loth to say they have none within a while after with shame enough they blush when they shal be convinced to have had none and having promised to assist and stand to some who have suit in law by that meanes are forced to contend with others and afterwards being ashamed thereof are driven to hide their heads and flie out of the way Also there be many whom this foolish modestie hath caused to enter into some disadvantageous promise as touching the mariage either of daughter or sister and being entangled therewith have beene constreined afterwards upon change of minde to breake their word and faile in their promise as for him who said in old time that all the inhabitants of Asia served as slaves unto one man for that they knew not how to pronounce one onely negative syllable that is No he spake not in earnest but by way of bourd and was disposed to jest but surely these bashfull persons may if they list without one word spoken by knitting and bending their browes onely or nodding downward to the ground avoid and escape many offices and absurd inconveniences which often-times they do unwillingly and onely upon importunitie For as Euripides said very well Wise men do know how things to take And of silence an answere to make And haply we have more cause to take that course with such as be senselesse and unreasonable for to those who be honest sensible and of more humanitie we need not feare to make excuse and satisfie them by word of mouth And for this purpose it were not amisse to be furnished with many answers and notable apothegmes of great and famous persons in times past and to have them ready at hand to allege against such importunate impudent fellows Such was that saying of Phocion to Antipater You can not have me to be your friend and a flatterer to likewise the answere which he made unto the Athenians who were earnest with him to contribute and give somewhat toward the charges of solemnizing a great feast and withall applauded and clapped their hands It were a shame quoth he that I should give any thing over and above unto you and not to pay that which I owe to him yonder pointing therewith to Callicles the usurer for as Thucydides said It is no shame to confesse and acknowledge povertie but more shamefull it is indeed not to avoid and eschew it But he who by reason of a faint feeble and delicate heart dare not for foolish shame answere thus unto one that demaundeth to borrow money My friend I have in house or purse No silver white for to disburse and then suffreth to passe out of his mouth a promise as it were an earnest pennie or pawne of assurance Is tied by foot with fetters not of brasse Nor yron wronght but shame and cannot passe But Perseus when he lent foorth a summe of money to one of his familiar friends and acquaintance went into the open market place to passe the contract at the very banke or table of exchangers and usurers being mindfull of that rule and precept of the Poet Hesiodus which teacheth us in these words How ever thou laugh with brother more or lesse With him make no contract without witnesse now when his friend marveiled hereat and said How now Perseus so formally and according to law Yea quoth he because I would receive my money againe of you friendly not require it by course and suit of law For many there be who at the first upon a kinde of foolish modestie are abashed to call for assurance securitie but afterward be forced to proceed by order of law so make their friends their enemies Againe Cato sending commendatory letters unto Denis the Tyrant in the behalfe and favour of one Helicona Cyzicena as of a kind modest and courteous person subscribed in maner of a post-date under his letter thus That which you read above take it as written in the commendation of a man that is to say of a living creature by nature mutable Contrariwise Xenocrates although he were otherwise in his behaviour austere yet being overcome and yeelding to a kind of foolish modestie of his owne recommended in his letters unto Polysperchon a man of no worth or qualitie as it prooved afterwards by the sequell Now when as that Macedonian Lord bade the partie welcome and friendly gave him his hand and withall used some words of course and complement demaunding whether he had neede of ought and bidding him call for what he would he made no more adoo but craved a whole talent of silver at his hands which Polysperchon caused presently indeed to be weighed out unto him but he dispatched his letters withall unto Xenocrates to this effect That from thencefoorth he should be more circumspect and consider better whom he recommended unto him and verily herein onely was the error of Xenocrates for that he knew not the man for whom he wrote but we oftentimes knowing well enough that they be leawd and naughtie persons yet are verie forward with our commendatorie letters yea and that which more is our purse is open unto them we are ready to put money into their hands to our owne binderance and damage not with any pleasure that we take nor upon affection unto them as they do who bestow their silver upon courtesanes pleasants and slatterers to gratifie them but as displeased and discontented with their impudencie which overturneth our reason upside downe and forceth us to do against our owne judgement in such sort that if ever there were cause besides we may by good reason say unto these bold and shamelesse beggers that thus take vantage of our bashfulnesse I see that I must for your sake Leawd courses ever undertake namely in bearing false witnesse in pronouncing wrong judgement in giving my voice at any election for an unworthie and unmeet person or in putting my money into his hands whom I know unsufficient and who will never repay it And therefore of all passions this leawd and excessive modestie is that which is accompanied presently with repentance and hath it not following afterwards as the rest for at the verie instant when we give away our money we grieve when we beare such witnesse we blush when we assist them and set to our helping hand we incurre infamie and if wee furnish them not with that which they require wee are convinced as though we were not able And forasmuch as our weaknesse is such that we cannot denie them simply that which they would have we undertake and promise many times unto those who do importune ly upon us uncessantly
their children fall to gaming revelling masking and banquetting to drunkennesse wanton whooring love and such like misdemeanors So as in these regards this one Mot of Euenus in an Epigram of his deserveth to be praised and remembred See bow great paines all fathers undergo What daily griefes their chieldren put them to And yet for all this fathers cease not still to nourish and bring up children and such most of al who stand least in need of their children another day for a meere mockery it were and a ridiculous thing if a man should suppose that rich wealthy men do sacrifice unto the gods and make great joy at the nativitie and birth of their children because that one day they shall feede and susteine them in their old age and interre them after they be dead unlesse perhaps it may be said they rejoice thus and be so glad to have and bring up children for that otherwise they should leave none heires behind them as who would say it were so hard a matter to finde out and meet with those that would be willing to inherite the lands and goods of strangers Certes the sands of the sea the little motes in the sunne raised of dust the feathers of birds together with their variable notes be not so many in number as there be men that gape after heritages and be ready to succeed others in their livings Danaus who as they say was the father of 50. daughters if his fortune had beene to be childlesse I doubt not but he should have had more heires than so to have parted his goods and stare among them and those verily after another sort than the heires of his owne body For children yeeld their parents no thanks at all for being their inheritours neither in regard thereof do they any service dutie or honour unto them for why they expect and looke for the inheritance as a thing due and of right belonging unto them but contrariwise you heare how those strangers that hang and hunt about a man who hath no children much like to those in the comaedies singing this song O sir no wight shall do you any harme I will revenge your wrongs and quarrels ay Hold heare three-halfe-pence good to keepe you warme Purse it drinke it sing wo and care away As for that which Euripides saith These worldly goods procure men friends to chuse And credit most who then will them refuse It is not simply and generally true unlesse it be to those as have no children for such indeed are sure to be invited and feasted by the rich lords and rulers will make court and be serviceable to such for them great oratours and advocates will plead at the bar without fee and give their counsell gratis How mightie is a rich man with each one So long as his next heire is knowne to none where as you shall see many in the world who before time having a number of friends and honour enough and no sooner had a little childe borne unto them but they lost all their friends credit and reputation at once so that by this reckoning the having of children maketh nothing at all to the authoritie of their parents so that in regard thereof it is not that they doe so love their children but surely the cause of this their kindnesse and affection proceedeth altogether from nature and appeereth no lesse in mankind than in wilde beasts Howbeit otherwhiles this naturall love aswell as many other good qualities in men are blemished and obscured by occasion of vice that buddeth up afterwards like as we see wilde briers bushes and brambles to spring up and grow among good and kind seeds for otherwise we might as well collect and say that men love not themselves because many cut their owne throates or wilfully fall down headlong from steepe rocks and high places For Oedipus With bloudy hand his owne eie-lids did force And plucked out his eies upon remorce Hegesias disputing and discoursing upon a time of abstinence caused many of his auditours and scholars to pine themselves to death Such accidents of many sorts there be Permitted by the gods we daily see But al of them like as those other passions and maladies of the mind before named transport a man out of his owne nature and put him beside himselfe so as they testifie against themselves that this is true and that they do amisse heerein for if a sow having farrowed a little pigge devoure it when she hath done or a bitch chance to teare in peeces a puppie or whelpe of her own litter presently men are amazed at the sight thereof and woonderfully affrighted whereupon they sacrifice unto the gods certaine expiatorie sacrifices for to divert the sinister praesages thereof as taking it to a prodigious woonder as confessing thereby that it is a propertie given to all living creatures even by the instinct and institution of nature To love foster and cherrish the fruit of their owne bodies so farre is it from them to destroy the same And yet notwithstanding her corruption and depravation in this behalfe Like as in mines the gold although it be mixed with much clay and furred all over with earth shineth glittereth thorow the same and is to be seene afarre off even so nature amid the most depravate maners and corrupt passions that we have sheweth a certeine love and tender affection to little ones To conclude wheras the poore many times make no care at all to nourish and reare up their children it is for nothing els but because they feare left having not so good bringing up nor so civill education as they ought they should proove servile in behavior untaught unmanerly rude and void of all good parts and judging as they do povertie to be the extremity of all miseries that can befall to man their heart will not serve them to leave unto their children this hereditarie calamity as a most grievous and dangerous disease OF THE PLVRALITY OF FRIENDS The Summarie IN certeine discourses going before it appeareth what a benefit and good thing friendship is And now Plutarch addeth thereto a certaine correction very necessary in regard of our nature which is given alwaies to bend unto extremities and not able long to holde the golden-meane Like as therefore it bewraieth a miserable wretched and cursed mind to be desirous for to leade a life without acquaintance and familiarity with any person even so to make friends as they say hand over head and upon every occasion is peradventure unpossible but surely not expedient Our authour therefore willing to reforme this disordinate affection that is in many who because they would have a number of friends often-times have not one assured sheweth that it is farre better for a man to get one fast and faithfull friend than a great multitude of whom he can not make any certaine account propounding as aremedie for this covetous minde of entertaining such a plurality of friends the examples of those who are contented
aids upon a sudden but from the Celtiberians who for to succour him demaunded two hundred talents now the other Romane captaines would not yeeld that hee should make promise unto those barbarous nations of this money for their hire and sallarie but Cato said They were much deceived and out of the way for if we winne quoth he we shall be able to pay them not of our owne but of our enemies goods if we lose the day there will be none left either to be paied or to call for pay Having woon more townes in Spaine than he had beene daies there according as he said himselfe he reserved of all that spoile and pillage for his owne use no more than he did eat and drinke but hee divided and dealt to every one of his souldiers a pound weight of silver saying That it were better that many should returne home out of warre with silver in their purses than a few with golde for that rulers and captaines ought not to grow rich themselves by their provinces and places of government in any thing but in honour and glorie In that expedition or voiage of his hee had with him in his traine five of his owne servitours of whom one there was who bought three prisoners taken in warre but when he knew that his master had intelligence thereof before that ever he came in his sight he hung and strangled himselfe Scipio surnamed Africanus praied him to favour the causes of the banished and fugitive Achoeans and to be good unto them namely that they might be recalled and restored againe to their owne countrey but he made semblance as though hee tooke no great heed and regard to such affaires and when hee saw that the matter was followed hotly in the Senate and that there grew much speech and debate about it he stood up and said Here is a great stirre indeed and as though we had nothing els to do we sit here spend all the long day disputing about these old gray-beard Greeks and all forsooth to know whether they shal be caried forth to their buriall by our porters and coresbearers heere or by those there Posthumius Albius wrote certeine histories in Greeke in the Preface and Proeme whereof he praied the readers and hearers to pardon him if he had committed any soloecisme or incongruitie in that language but Cato by way of a mocke scoffed at him and said That he deserved indeed to be pardoned for writing false Greeke in case that by the ordinance and commandement of the high commission of the Amphyctiones who were the chiefe Estates of all Greece he had bene compelled against his will to enterprise and goe in hand with the said histories SCIPIO the yoonger in foure and fiftie yeeres for so long he lived neither bought nor solde nor yet built and it is for certaine reported that in so great an house and substance as his might seeme to be there was never found but three and thirtie pound weight of silver plate and two of golde notwithstanding the city of Great Carthage was in his hand and he had enriched his souldiers more than ever any captaine did before him Observing well the precept which Polybius gave he hardly without much ado would not returne out of the market place before he had assaied to make in some sort one new friend and familiar or other of those whom he met withall Being but yet yoong he was of such reputation for his valour and wisedome that Cato the elder being demanded his opinion as touching others that were in the campe before Carthage among whom he was one delivered this commendation of him Right wise and sage indeed alone is he The rest to him but slitting shadowes be whereupon after his returne to Rome from the campe they that remained behinde called for him againe not so much by way of gratification and to do him a pleasure but because they hoped by his meanes more speedily and with greater facilitie to win Carthage now when he was entred to the very walles and yet the Carthaginians fought from the castle Polybius gave coūsel to scatter in the sea betweene which was not very deepe betweene his campe and the said castle certaine colthrops of yron or els planks beset with naile points to overcast and spread the shallow shelves with sticking upon them for feare lest that the enemies passing that arme or firth of the sea might come to assaile their rampars but he said It was a meere mockery considering that they had already gained the walles and were within the citie of their enemies to make meanes not to sight with them Finding the citie full of statues and painted tables which were brought out of Sicilie he made proclamation that the Sicilians from al their cities should come for to owne and cary away whatsoever had bene theirs but of all the pillage he would not allow any one either slave or newly affranchised of his owne traine to seize upon nor so much as buy ought notwithstanding that there was driving and carying away otherwise on all hands The greatest and most familiar friend that he had Laelius sued to be consull of Rome him he favoured and set forward his sute in all that hee could by which occasion hee demanded of one Pompeius who was thought to make labour for the same dignitie whether it were true that hee was a competitor or no now it was supposed that this Pompeius was a minstrels sonne that used to play on the flute who made answere againe that he stood not for the consulship and that which was more hee promised to assist Laelius and to get all the voices that hee could for him thus while they beleeved his words and expected his helping hand they were deceived in the end for they were given to understand for certeine that this Pompieus was in the common hall labouring hard for himselfe going about unto every citizen one after another requesting their voices in his owne behalfe whereat when all others tooke stomacke and were offended Scipio laughed apace and said We are even well enough served for our great follie thus to stay and wait all this whiles upon a fluter and piper as if we had bene to pray and invocate not men but the gods Appius Claudius was in election and concurrence against him for the office of cenfourship saying in a braverie That he used to salute all the Romans by name and by surname upon his owne knowledge of them without the helpe of a prompter whereas Scipio scarse knew one of them all Thou saiest trueth quoth Scipio for I have alwaies beene carefull not to know many but rather not to be unknowen of any He gave counsell unto the Romane citizens at what time as they warred against the Celtiberians for to send both him and his competirour together into the campe in qualitie either of lieutenants or of colonels over a thousand foot to the end that they might have the testimonie of other captaines and
the generositie of a vertuous dame and behold the kindnesse of a mother toward her children whereas you shall see many other mothers to receive their yoong babes at the hands of their nurses to dandle play withall forsooth in mirth pastime but afterwards the same women if their infants chance to die give themselves over to al vain mourning bootlesse sorow which proceedeth not doubtlesse from good will indeed for surely heartie affectin is reasonable honest and considerate but rather from a foolish opinion mingled with a little naturall kindnesse and this is it that engendreth savage furious implacable sorowes And verily Aesope as it should seeme was not ignorant heereof for he reporteth this narration That when Jupiter made a dole or distribution of honours among the gods and goddesses Sorrow came afterwards and made sute likewise to be honored and so he bestowed upon her teares plaints and lamentations 〈◊〉 for them onely who are willing thereto and ready to give her intertainment And I assure you this they commonly doe at the very beginning for everie one of his owne accord bringeth in and admitteth sorrow unto him who after she is once entertained and in processe of time well setled so that she is become domesticall and familiar will not be driven out of dores nor be gone if a man would never so faine and therefore resistance must be made against her even at the verie gate neither ought we to abandon our hold and quit the fort renting our garments tearing or shearing our haires or doing other such things as ordinarily happen every day causing a man to be confused shamefull and discouraged making his heart base abject and shut up that he cannot enlarge it but remaine poore and timorous bringing him to this passe that he dare not be merrie supposing it altogether unlawfull to laugh to come abroad and see the sunne light to converse with men or to eate or drinke in companie into such a captivitie is he brought through sorrow and melancholie upon this inconvenience after it hath once gotten head there followeth the neglect of the bodie no care of annointing or bathing and generally a retchlessenesse and contempt of all things belonging to this life whereas contrariwise and by good reason when the mind is sicke or amisse it should be helped and sustained by the strength of an able and cheerefull body for a great part of the soules griefe is allaied and the edge thereof as it were dulled when the bodie is fresh and disposed to alacritie like as the waves of the sea be laid even during a calme and faire weather but contrariwise if by reason that the bodie be evill entreated and not regarded with good diet and choise keeping it become dried rough and hard in such sort as from it there breathe no sweet and comfortable exhalations unto the soule but all smoakie and bitter vapors of dolour griefe and sadnesse annoy her then is it no easie matter for men be they never so willing and desirous to recover themselves but that their soules being thus seized upon by so grievous passions will be afflicted and tormented stil. But that which is most dangerous and dreadfull in this case I never feared in your behalfe to 〈◊〉 That foolish women should come visit you and then fall a weeping lamenting and crying with you a thing I may say to you that is enough to whet sorrow and awaken it if it were asleepe not suffring it either by it selfe or by meanes of helpe and succour from another to passe fade vanish away for I know verie well what adoe you had into what a conflict you entred about the sister of Theon when you would have assisted her resisted other women who came into her with great cries loud lamentations as if they brought fire with them in al haste to maintaine encrease that which was kindled already True it is indeed that when a friends or neighbors house is seene on fire every man runneth as fast as he can to helpe for to quench the same but when they see their soules burning in griefe and sorrow they contrariwise bring more fewel matter stil to augment or keepe the said fire also if a man be diseased in his eies he is not permitted to handle or touch them with his hands especially if they be bloud-shotten and possessed with any inflammation whereas he who sits mourning and sorrowing at home in his house offereth and presenteth himselfe to the first commer and to every one that is willing to irritate 〈◊〉 and provoke his passion as it were a floud or streame that is let out and set a running insomuch as where before the grievance did but itch or smart a little it now beginnes to shoot to ake to be fell and angrie so that it becommeth a great and dangerous maladie in the end but I am verily perswaded I say that you know how to preserve your selfe from these extremities Now over and besides endevour to reduce and call againe to mind the time when as we had not this daughter namely when she was as yet unborne how we had no cause then to complaine of fortune then see you joine as it were with one tenon this present with that which is past setting the case as if we were returned againe to the same state wherein we were before for it will appeere my good wife that we are discontented that ever she was borne in case we make shew that we were in better condition before her birth than afterwards not that I wish we should abolish out of our remembrance the two yeeres space between her nativitie and decease but rather count and reckon it among other our pleasures and blessings as during which time we had the fruition of joy mirth and pastime and not to esteeme that good which was but little and endured a small while our great infortunitie nor yet seeme unthankfull to fortune for the favour which she hath done unto us because she added not thereto that length of life which we hoped and expected Certes to rest contented alwaies with the gods to thinke and speake of them reverently as it becommeth not to complaine of fortune but to take in good woorth whatsoever it pleaseth her to send bringeth evermore a faire and pleasant frute but he who in these cases putteth out of his remembrance the good things that he hath transporting and turning his thoughts and cogitations from obscure and troublesome occurrents unto those which be cleere and resplendent if he doe not by this meanes utterly extinguish his sorrow yet at leastwise by mingling and tempring it with the contrary he shall be able to diminish or else make it more feeble for like as a sweet odor and fragrant ointment delighteth and refresheth alwaies the sense of smelling amd besides is a remedie against stinding savours even so the cogitagion of these benefits which men have otherwise received serveth as a most necessarie and
lawes and shame sweet and gracious Bacchus as if these two deities gave you not sufficient whereupon you might live what are you not abashed to mingle at your tables pleasant frutes with bloudie murder You call lions and libards savage beasts meane while your selves are stained with bloudshed giving no place to them in crueltie for where as they doe worie and kill other beasts it is for verie necessitie and need of sood but you doe it sor daintie fare for when wee have slaine either lions or wolves in defence of our selves we eat them not but let them lie But they be the innocent the harmelesse the gentle and tame creatures which have neither teeth to bite nor pricke to sting withall which we take and kill although nature seemeth to have created them onely for beautie and delight Much like as if a man seeing Nilus overflowing his banks and filling all the countrey about with running water which is generative and frutefull would not praise with admiration the propertie of that river causing to spring and grow so many faire and goodly fruits and the same so necessarie for mans life but if he chance to espie a crocodill swimming or an aspick creeping and gliding downe or some venemous flie hurtfull and noisome beasts all blameth the said river upon that occasion and saith that they be causes sufficient that of necessitie he must complaine of the thing Or verily when one seeing this land and champian countrey overspred with good and beautifull frutes charged also and replenished with eares of corne should perceive casting his eie over those pleasant corne sields here there an eare of darnel choke-ervil or some such unhappie weed among should thereupon forbeare to reape and carie in the said corne and forgoe the benefit of a plentifull harvest find fault therewith Semblably standeth the case when one seeth the plea of an oratour in anie cause or action who with a full and forcible streame of eloquence endevoureth to save his client out of the danger of death or otherwise to proove and verisie the charges and imputations of certaine crimes this oration I say or eloquent speech of his running not simplie and nakedly but carrying with it many and sundrie affections of all sorts which he imprinteth in the minds and hearts of the hearers or judges which being many also and those divers and different he is to turne to bend and change or othewise to dulce appease and staie if he I say should anon passe over and not consider the principall issue and maine point of the cause and busie himselfe in gathering out some by-speeches besides the purpose or haply some phrases improper and impertinent which the oration of some advocate with the flowing course thereof hath caried downe with it lighting thereupon and falling with the rest of his speech But we are nothing mooved either with the faire and beautifull colour or the sweet and tunable voice or the quicknesse and subtiltie of spirit or the reat and cleane life or the vivacitie of wit and understanding of these poore seelly creatures and for a little peece of flesh we take away their life we bereave them of the sunne and of light cutting short that race of life which nature had limited and prefixed for them and more than so those lamentable and trembling voice which they utter for feare we suppose to be inarticulate or unsignificant sounds and nothing lesse than pitifull praiers supplications pleas justifications of these poore innocent creatures who in their language everie one of them crie in this manner If thou be forced upon necessitie I beseech thee not to save my life but if disordinate lust moove thee thereto spare me in case thou hast a mind simply to eat on my flesh kill me but if it be for that thou wouldest feed more delicately hold thy hand and let me live O monstrous crueltie It is an horrible sight to see the table of rich men onely stand served and furnished with viands set out by cooks and victuallers that dresse the flesh of dead bodies but most horrible it is to see the same taken up for that the reliques and broken meats remaining be farre more than that which is eaten To what purpose then were those silly beasts slaine Now there be others who making spare of the viands served to the table will in no hand that they should be cut or sliced sparing them when as they be nothing els but bare flesh whereas they spared them not whiles they were living beasts But forasmuch as we have heard that the same men hold and say That nature hath directed them to the eating of flesh it is plaine and evident that this cannot accord with mans nature And first and formost this appeereth by the very fabrick and composition of his bodie for it resembleth none of those creatures whom nature hath made for to feed on flesh considering they have neither hooked bil no hauke-pointed tallans they have no sharpe and rough teeth nor stomack so strong or so hot breath and spirit as to be able to concoct and digest the heany masse of raw flesh And if there were naught else to be alledged nature her-selfe by the broadnesse and united equallity of our teeth by our small mouth our soft toong the imbecillitie of naturall heat and spirits serving for concoction sheweth sufficiently that she approoveth not of mans usage to eat flesh but dissavoreth and disclaimeth the same And if you obstinately maintaine and defend that nature hath made you for to eat such viands then that which you minde to eat first kill your selfe even your owne selfe I say without using any blade knife bat club axe or hatchet And even as beares lions and woolves slay a beast according as they meane to eat it even so kill thou a beefe by the bit of thy teeth slay me a swine with the helpe of thy mouth and iawes teare in peeces a lambe or an hare with thy nailes and when thou hast so done eat it up while it is alive like as beasts doe but if thou staiest untill they be dead ere thou eate them and art abashed to chase with thy teeth the life that presently is in the flesh which thou eatest why doest thou against nature eat that which had life and yet when it is deprived of life and fully dead there is no man hath the heart to eat the same as it is but they cause it to be boiled to be rosted they alter it with fire and many drogues and spices changing disguising and quenching as it were the horror of the murder with a thousand devices of seasoning to the end that the sense of tasting being beguiled and deceived by a number of sweet sauces and pleasant conditure might admit and receive that which it abhorreth and is contrary unto it Certes it was a pretie conceit which was reported by a Laconian who having bought in his Inne or hostelrie a little fish gave it as it
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
will than to rubbe or besmeare it with oile like as bees also by that meanes are soone destroied so it is therefore that all those trees which have beene named are of a fattie substance and have a soft and uncteous nature insomuch as there distilleth and droppeth from them pitch and rosin and if a man make a gash or incision in any of them they yeeld from within a certeine bloudie liquor or gumme yea and there issueth from the tortch staves made of them an oileous humour which shineth againe because they are so fattie unguinous This is the reason why they will not joine and be concorporate with other trees no more than oile it selfe be mingled with other liquors When Philo had done with his speech Crato added thus much moreover That in his opinion the nature of their rinde or barke made somewhat for the said matter for the same being thinne and drie withall yeeldeth neither a sure seat socket as it were to the impes or buds which there dies to rest in nor meanes to get sappe and nutriment for to incorporate them like as all those plants which have barks verie tender moist and soft whereby the graffes may be clasped united and soddered with those parts that be under the said barke Then Soclarus himselfe said That whosoever made these reasons was in the right and not deceived in his opinion to thinke it necessarie that the thing which is to receive another nature should be pliable and easie to follow every way to the end that suffring it selfe to be tamed and over-come it might become of like nature and turne the owne proper nutriment into that which is set and graffed in it Thus you see how before wee sow or plant we eare and turne the earth making it gentle soft and supple that being in this manner wrought to our hand and made tractable it may be more willing to apply it selfe for to embrace in her bosome whatsoever is either sowen or planted for contrariwise a ground which is rough stubborne and tough hardly will admit alteration these trees therefore consisting of a light kinde of wood because they are unapt to be changed and overcome will admit no concorporation with others And moreover quoth hee evident it is that the stocke in respect of that which is set and graffed into it ought to have the nature of a ground which is tilled now it is well knowen that the earth must be of a female constitution apt to conceive and beare which is the cause that we make choise of those trees for our stocks to graffe upon which are most frutefull like as we chuse good milch women that have plenty of milke in their brests to be nurses for other children besides their owne who we put unto them but we see plainly that the cypresse tree the sapin and all such like be either barren altogether or else beare very little frute and like as men and women both who are exceeding corpulent grosse and fatte are for the most part unable either to get or beare children for spending all their nourishment as they doe in feeding the body they convert no superfluitie thereof into genetall seed even so these trees employing all the substance of their nouriture to fatten as it were themselves grow indeed to be very thicke and great but either they beare no frute at all or if they doe the same is very small and long ere it come to maturitie and perfection no marvell therefore that a stranger will not breede or grow there whereas the owne naturall issue thriveth but badly THE SEVENTH QUESTION Of the stay-ship fish Echeneis CHaeremonianus the Trallien upon a time when divers and sundry small fishes of all sorts were set before us shewed unto us one with a long head and the same sharpe pointed and told us that it resembled very much the stay-ship fish called thereupon in Greeke Echeneis and he reported moreover that he had seene the said fish as he sailed upon the Sicilian sea and marvelled not a little at the naturall force and propertie that it had so sensiblie in some sort to stay and hinder the course of a shippe under saile untill such time as the marriner who had the government of the prow or foredecke espied it sticking close to the outside of the ship upon the relation of this strange occurrent some there were in place at that time who laughed at Chaeremonianus for that this tale and fiction devised for the nonce to make folke merry and which was incredible went currant with him and was taken for good paiment againe others there were who spake very much in the defence of the hidden properties and secret antipathies or contrarieties in nature There you should have heard many other strange passions and accidents to wit that an elephant being enraged and starke mad becommeth appeased immediatly upon the sight of a ram also that if a man hold a branch or twig of a beech tree close unto a viper and touch her therewith never so little she will presently stay and stirre no farther likewise that a wilde bull how wood and furious soever he be will stand gently and be quiet in case he be tied to a fig-tree semblably that amber doth remoove and draw unto it all things that be drie and light withall save onely the herbe basill and whatsoever is besmeered with oile Item that the Magnet or Lode-stone will no more draw iron when it is rubbed over with garlicke the proofe and experience of which effects is well knowen but the causes thereof difficult if not impossible to be found out But I for my part said That this was rather a shift and evasion to avoid a direct answere unto the question propounded than the allegation of a true cause pertinent thereto for we daily see that there be many events and accidents concurring reputed for causes and yet be none as for example if one should say or beleeve that the blowming of the withie called Chast-tree causeth grapes to ripen because there is a common word in every mans mouth Loe how the chast-trees now do flower And grapes wax ripe even at one hower or that by reason of the fungous matter seene to gather about the candle-snuffes or lamp-weeks the aire is troubled and the skie overcast or that the hooking inwardly of the nailes upon the fingers is the cause and not an accident of the ulcer of the lungs or some noble part within which breedeth a consumption Like as therefore every one of these particulars alledged is a consequent of divers accidents proceeding all from the same causes even so I am of this mind quoth I that one and the same cause staieth the shippe and draweth the little fish Echeneis to sticke unto the side thereof for so long as the ship is drie or not overcharged with moisture soaking into it it with great reason that the keele glideth more smoothly away by reason of the lightnesse thereof and cutteth merrily
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
〈◊〉 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
a singular good grace his pregnant wit and quicke conceit ministreth unto him matter to contradict and to propose doubts howbeit the same is not bitter and odious in his propositions nor leavened with any overthwart frowardnesse and perverse stubburnesse in his answers in such sort as a man having beene but a little acquainted with him would soone say of him Certes a lewd man and a bad He never for his father had For you know well I suppose Diogenianus the best man one of them in the world BASILOCLES I know him not my selfe Philinus howbeit many there be who report as much of this yong man But upon what occasion or cause began your discourse and disputation PHILINUS Those who were our guides conversant and exercised in the reading of histories rehearsed and read from one end to the other all those compositions which they had written without any regard of that which we requested them namely to epitomize and abridge those narrations and most part of the Epigrams As for the stranger he tooke much pleasure to see and view those faire statues so many in number and so artificially wrought But he admired most of all the fresh brightnesse of the brasse being such as shewed no filth nor rust that it had gathered but caried the glosse and resplendent hew of azur so as he seemed to be ravished and astonied when he beheld the statues of the amirals and captaines at sea for at them he began as representing naturally in their tincture and colour as they stood sea men and sailers in the very maine deepe sea Whereupon Had the ancient workmen quoth he a certaine mixture by themselves and a temper of their brasse that might give such a tincture to their works for as touching the Corinthian brasse which is so much renowmed it is thought generally and so given out that it was by meere adventure and chaunce that it tooke this goodly colour and not by any art by occasion that the fire caught an house wherein there was laid up some little gold and silver but a great quantitie of brasse which mettals being melted together so confused one with another the whole masse thereof was stil called brasse because there was more thereof in it than of the other mettals Then Theon We have heard quoth he another reason more subtile than this namely that when a certeine brasse founder or coppersmith in Corinth had met with a casket or coffer wherein was good store of golde fearing lest hee should be discovered and this treasure found in his hands he clipped it by little and little melted and mixed it gently with his brasse which tooke thereupon such an excellent and woonderfull temperature that he solde the pieces of worke thereof made passing deere in regard of their dainty colour and lovely beauty which every man set much by and esteemed But both this and the other is but a lying tale for by all likelihood this Corinthian brasse was a certeine mixture and temperature of mettals so prepared by art like as at this day artisans by tempring gold and silver together make thereof a certeine singular and exquisite pale yellow by it selfe howbeit in mine eie the same is but a wanne and sickly colour and a corrupt hue without any beautie in the world What other cause then might there be quoth Diogenianus as you thinke that this brasse heere hath such a tincture To whom Theon made this answere Considering quoth he that of these primative elements and most naturall bodies that are and ever shall be to wit fire aire water and earth there is not one which approcheth or toucheth these brasse works but aire onely it must of necessitie be that it is the aire which doeth the deed and by reason of this aire lying alwaies close upon them and never parting therefro commeth this difference that they have from all others Or rather this is a thing notoriously knowen of old even before Theognis was borne as said the comicall Poet. But would you know by what speciall propertie and vertue the aire should by touching set such a colour upon brasse Yes very faine answered Diogenianus Certes so would I to my sonne quoth Theon let us therefore search into the thing both together in common and first of all if you please what is the cause that oile filleth it full of rust more than all other liquor whatsoever for surely it cannot be truely said that oile of it selfe setteth the said rust upon it considering it is pure and neat not polluted with any filth when it commeth to it No verily quoth the yoong man and there seemeth to be some other cause else beside the oile for the rust meeting with oile which is subtile pure and transparent appeareth most evidently whereas in all other liquors it maketh no shew nor is seene at all Well said my sonne quoth Theon and like a Philosopher but consider if you thinke so good of that reason which Aristotle alledgeth Mary that I will quoth he againe Why then I will tell it you quoth Theon Aristotle saith that the rust of brasse lighting upon other liquors pierceth insensibly and is dispersed through them being of a rare substance and unequall parts not abiding close together but by reason of the compact and fast soliditie of oile the said rust is kept in and abideth thrust and united together Now then if we also of our selves were able to presuppose such a thing we should not altogether want some meanes to charme as it were and allay somewhat this doubt of ours And when we had allowed very well of his speech and requested him to say on and prosecute the same he said That the aire in the citie of Delphos was thicke fast strong and vehement withall by reason of the reflexion and repercussion of the mountaines round about it and besides mordicative as witnesseth the speedie concoction of meat that it causeth Now this aire by reason of the subtilty and incisive qualitie thereof piercing into the brasse and cutting it forceth out of it a deale of rust and skaleth as it were much terrestrial substance from it the which it restreineth afterwards and keepeth in for that the densitie and thicknesse of the aire giveth it no issue thus this rust being staied remaining still gathering also a substance by occasion of the quantity thereof putteth foorth this floure as it were of colour and there within the superficies contracteth a resplendent and shining hew This reason of his we approoved very well but the stranger said that one of those suppositions alone was sufficient to make good the reason For that subtility quoth he seemeth to be somewhat contrary unto the spissitude and thicknesse supposed in the aire and therefore it is not necessarie to make any supposall thereof for brasse of it selfe as it waxeth old in tract of time exhaleth and putteth foorth this rust which the thicknesse of the aire comming upon keepeth in and doeth so incrassate as that through the
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
children be growen to that age wherin they are to be committed unto the charge of Tutors Schoolemasters and governors then parents ought to have an especial care of their state namely under whom they set them to be trained up least for want of good providence and foresight they betray them into the hands of some vile slaves base barbarians vaine and light-headed persons For most absurd and ridiculous is the practise of many men in this point who if they have any servants more vertuous or better disposed than others some of them they appoint to husbandry and tillage of their ground others they make Masters of their ships They employ them I say either in merchandise to be their factours or as stewards of their house to receive and pay all or else to be banquers and so they trust them with the exchaunging and turning of their monies But if they meete with one slave among the rest that useth to be cupshotten given to gluttony belly cheere or otherwise is untoward for any good service him they set over their children to bring them up Whereas indeed a governour over youth should be wel given of a right good nature himselfe such an one as Phoenix was who had the breeding and education of Achilles The principal point therfore and most important of all that hitherto hath bene alledged is this That choise men be sought out for to be teachers masters of our children who live in good name and without challenge whose cariage and behaviour is blameles who for their knowledge experience of the world are the best that may be found For surely the source roote of all goodnes and honesty is the good education and training up of our children in their tender age And like as good husbandmen and gardeners are woont to pitch props stakes close unto their yong plants to stay them up and keepe them streight even so discreete and wise teachers plant good precepts and holesome instructions round about their yoong schollers to the end that thereby their manners may bud foorth commendably and be framed to the rule of vertue But contrariwise you shall have some fathers now adaies that deserve no better than to be spit at in their very faces who either upon ignorance or for want of experience before any triall made of those masters who are to have the conduct and charge of their children commit them hand over head to the tuition of lewd persons and such as beare shew and make profession of that which they are not Neither were this absurditie altogether so grosse and ridiculous if so be they faulted herein of meere simplicitie default of foreknowledge But here is the heights of their folly and errour that themselves knowing otherwhiles the insufficiencie yea and the naughtines of some such Masters better than they doe who advertise them thereof yet for all that they commit their children unto them partly being overcome by the slatterie of claw-backes and partly willing to gratifie some friends upon their kinde and earnest entreatie Wherein they do much like for all the world to him who lying verie sicke in bodie for to content and satisfie a friend leaveth an expert and learned physition who was able to cure him and entertaineth another blind leech who for want of skill and experience quickly killeth him or else unto one who being at sea forgoeth an excellent pilot whom he knoweth to be very skilfull and for the love of a friend maketh choise of another that is most insufficient O Iupiter and all the gods in Heaven Is it possible that a man bearing the name of a father should make more account of a friends request than of the good education of his owne children Which considered had not that ancient Philosopher Crates 〈◊〉 you just occasion to say oftentimes that if possibly he might he would willingly mount to the highest place of the citie and there crie out aloud in this manner What meane you my Masters and whether runne you headlong carking and caring all that ever you can to gather goods and rake riches together as you do whiles in the mean time you make little or no reckoning at all of your children unto whom you are to leave all your wealth To which exclamation of his I may adde thus much moreover and say That such fathers are like unto him that hath great regard of his shoe but taketh no heed unto his foor And verily a man shall see many of these fathers who upon a covetous minde and a cold affection toward their owne children are growen to this passe that for to spare their purse and ease themselves of charge chuse men of no woorth to teach them which is as much as to seeke a good market where they may buy ignorance cheapest Certes Aristippus said verie well to this purpose when upon a time he pretily mocked such a father who had neither wit nor understanding and jibed pleasantly with him in this maner For when he demaunded of him how much he would take for the training up and teaching of his sonne He answered An hundred crownes A hundred crownes quoth the father by Hercules I sweare you aske too much out of the way For with a hundred crownes I could buy a good slave True quoth Aristippus againe Lay out this hundred crownes so you may have twaine your sonne for one and him whom you buy for the other And is not this a follie of all foliies that nourses should use their yoong infants to take meate and feed themselves with the right hand yea and rebuke them if haply they put foorth their left and not to forecast and give order that they may learne civility and heare sage holesom instructions But what befalleth afterward to these good fathers when they have first noursed their children badly then taught them as lewdly Mary I will tell you When these children of theirs are growne to mans estate and will not abide to heare of living orderly and as it becommeth honest men but contrariwise fall headlong into outragious courses and give themselves wholy to sensuality and servile pleasures Then such fathers all repent for their negligence past in taking no better order for their education but all too late considering no good ensueth thereupon but contrariwise the lewd prancks which they commit daily augment their griefe of heart and cause them to languish in sorrow For some of them they see to keepe companie with flatterers parasites and smell feasts the lewdest basest and most cursed wretches of all other who serve for nothing but to corrupt spoile and marre youth Others to captivate and spend themselves upon harlots queanes and common strumpets proud and sumptuous in expence the entertainment of whom is infinitly costly Many of them consume all in delicate fare and feeding a daintie and fine tooth Many of them fall to dice and with mumming and masking hazard all they have And divers of them againe entangle themselves
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
a sort to minister unto them some honest and colourable pretenses to excuse and justifie their facts and when a man seeth them do amisse by reason of some woorse cause indeed to lay the fault upon another occasion that is more tolerable As Hector when he said unto Paris Unhappie man alas you do not well To beare in brest a heart so fell As if his brothers retire out of battell and refusall to combat with Menclaus had not beene a meere flight and running away but verie anger and a curst slomake Likewise Nestor unto Agamemnon But you gave place unto your haughty mind And feed those fits which come to you by kind For in mine advice a more milde reprehension is this than to have said This was injuriously done of you or this was a shamefull and vilanous part of yours As also to say unto one You could not tel what you did you thought not of it or you were altogether ignorant what would come thereof is better and more civill than bluntly to charge him and say This was a meere wrong and a wicked act of yours Also thus Do not contest and quarrell in this wise with your brother is lesse offensive than to say Deale not thus enviously and spitefully against your brother Likewise it were a more gentle manner of reproofe to say unto a man Avoid this woman that spoileth and abuseth you than thus Give over this woman spoile and abuse her no more Thus you see what meanes are to be used in this libertie of speech when a friend would cure a maladie But for to prevent the same there would be practised a cleane contrarie course for when it behooveth to avert and turne our friends from cominitting a fault whereto they are prone and enclined or to withstand some violent and disordinat passion which carrieth them a cleane contrarie way or when we are desirous to incite and stirre them forward unto good things being of themselves slow and backward when I say we would give an edge unto them who are otherwise dull and heat them being could we ought to transferre the thing or act in hand to some absurd causes and those that be unseemely and undecent Thus Ulysses pricked on Achilles in a certaine Tragedie of Sophocles when he said thus unto him It is not for a supper Achilles that you are so angrie but For that you have already seene The wals of Troy your fearfull teene And when upon these words Achilles tooke greater indignation and chafed more and more saying that he would not saile forward but be gone backe againe he came upon him a second time with this rejoynder I wote well why you gladly would depart T is not because at checks or taunts you chafe But Hector is not far he kils your hart For dread of him to stay it is not safe By this meanes when we scar a valiant and hardy man with the opinion of cowardise an honest chaste and civill person with the note of being reputed loose incontinent also a liberall and sumptuous Magnifico with the feare to be accounted a niggard or a mechanicall micher we do mightily incite them to wel doing and chase them from bad waies And like as when a thing is done and past and where there is no remedie there should be borne a modest and temperate hand in such sort that in our libertie of speech we seeme to shew more commiseration pittie and fellow-griefe of minde for the fault of a friend than eager reprehension so contrariwise where it stands upon this point that should not fault where I say our drift is to fight against the motion of his passions there we ought to be vehement inexorable and never to give over nor yeeld one jot unto them And this is the very time when we are to shew that love of ours and good will which is constant setled and sure and to use our true libertie of speech to the full For to reproove faults already committed we see it is an ordinary thing among arrant enimies To which purpose said Diogenes very well That a man who would be an honest man ought to have either very good friends or most shrewd and bitter enimies for as they do teach and instruct so these are ready to finde fault and reproove Now far better it is for one to abstaine from evill doing in beleeving and following the sound counsell of his friends than to repent afterwards of ill doing when he seeth himselfe blamed and accused by his enimies And therefore if it were for nothing els but this great discretion and circumspection would be used in making remonstrances speaking freely unto friends and so much the rather by how much it is the greater and stronger remedie that friendship can use and hath more need to be used in time and place convenient and more wisely to be tempered with a meane and mediocrity Now forasmuch as I have said sundry times already that all reprehensions whatsoever are dolorous unto him that receiveth them we ought in this case to imitate good Physicians and Chirurgians for when they have made incision or cut any member they leave not the place in paine and toment still but use certeine fomentations and lenitive infusions to mitigate the anguish No more do they that after a civill maner have chid or rebuked run away presently so soone as they have bitten and pricked the partie but by changing their maner of speech entertaine their friends thus galled and wounded with other more mild and pleasant discourses to aswage their griefe and refresh their hart againe that is cast downe and discomforted and I may well compare them to these cutters and carvers of images who after they have rought hewen and scabbled over certeine peeces of stone for to make their statures of do polish and smooth them faire yea and give them a lightsome lustre But if a man be stung and nipped once or touched to the quicke by some objurgatorie reprehension and so left rough uneven disquieted swelling and pussing for anger he is ever after hardly quieted or reclaimed and no consolation will serve the turne to appease and comfort him againe And therefore they who reproove admonish their friends ought to observe this rule above all others Not to forsake them immediately when they have so done nor to breake off their conference sodainly or to conclude their speech with any word that might greeve and provoke them OF MEEKENES OR HOW A MAN SHOVLD REFRAINE CHOLER A TREATISE IN MANER of a Dialogue The persons that be the Speakers SYLLA and FUNDANUS The Summarie of the Dialogue AFter we are taught how to discerne a flatterer from a friend it seemeth that this Treatise as touching Mildnesse and how we ought to bridle Anger was set heere in his proper place For like as we may soone erre grosly in choise of those whom we are willing and well content to have about us and in that respect are to be circum spect and
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
every thing appeereth greater than it is through anger And therefore at these and such like faults we should winke for the time and make as though we sawthem not and yet thinke upon them neverthelesse and beare them in minde But afterwards when the storme is well overblowen we are with out passion do not suspect our selves then we may do well to consider thereof and then if upon mature deliberation when our mind is staied and our senses setled the thing appeere to be naught we are to hate and abhor it and in no wise either to for-let and put of or altogether to omit and forbeare correction like as they refuse meats who have no stomacke nor appetite to eat For certeinly it is not a thing so much to be blamed for to punish one in anger as not to punish when anger is past and alaied and so to be retchlesse and desolute doing as idle mariners who so long as the sea is calme and the weather faire loiter within the harbor or haven but afterwards when a tempest is up spread sailes and put themselves into danger For even so we condemning and neglecting the remissenesse and calmnesse of reason in case of punishment make haste to execute the same during the heat of choler which no doubt is a blustring and turbulent winde As for meat he calleth for it in deed and taketh it naturally who is a hungrie but surely he executeth punishment best who neither hungreth nor thirsteth after it neither hath he need to use choler as a sauce or deintie dish for to get him a stomacke and appetite to correct but even when he is farthest off from desire of revenge then of necessitie he is to make use of reason and wisdome to direct him for we ought not to do as Aristotle writeth in his time the maner was in Tuskane To whip servants with sound of flutes and hautboies namely to make a sport and pastime of punishing men and to solace our selves with their punishment for pleasures sake and then afterwards when we have done repent us of it for as the one is brutish and beastlike so the other is as womanish and unmanly but without griefe and pleasure both at what time as reason and judgement is in force we ought to let justice take punishment and leave none occasion at all for choler to get advantage But peradvenure some one will say that this is not properly the way to remedie or cure anger but rather a putting by or precaution that we should not commit any of those faults which ordinarily follow that passion Unto whom I answere thus That the swelling of the Spleene is not the cause but a symptome or accident of a fever howbeit if the said humour be fallen and the paine mitigated the feaver also will be much eased according as Hieronymus saith Also when I consider by what meanes choler is engendred I see that one falleth into it upon this cause another upon that but in all of them it seemeth this generall opinion there is that they thinke themselves to be despised and naught set by And therefore we ought to meet with such as seeme to defend and mainteine themselves as being angry for just cause and to cure them after this maner namely by diverting and remooving from them as far as ever we can all suspicion of contempt and contumacie in those that have offended them and mooved their anger in laying the fault upon inconsiderate follie necessitie sicknesse infirmitie and miserie as Sophocles did in these verses For those my Lords whose state is in destresse Have not their spirits and wits as heretofore As fortune frownes they waxen ever lesse Nay gone are quite though fresh they were before And Agamemnon albeit he laid the taking away of Briseis from Achilles upon Ate that is to say some fatall infortunitie yet He willing was and prest him to content And unto him rich gifts for to present For to beseech and intreat are signes of a man that despiseth not and when the partie who hath given offence becometh humble and lowly he remooveth all the opinion that might be conceived of contempt But he that is in a fit of choler must not attend and waite until he see that but rather helpe himselfe with the answer of Diogenes These fellowes here said one unto him do deride thee Diogenes but I quoth he againe do not finde that I am derided even so ought a man who is angry not to be perswaded that he is contemned of another but rather that himselfe hath just cause to contemne him and to thinke that the fault committed did proced of infirmitie error heady-rashnesse sloth and idlenesse a base and illiberall minde age or youth And as for our servants and friends we must by all meanes quit them hereof or pardon them at leastwise For surely they cannot be thought to contemne us in regard that they thinke us unable to be revenged or men of no execution if we went about it but it is either by reason of our remissenes and mildnesse or else of our love and affection that we seeme to be smally regarded by them whiles our servants presume of our tractable nature easie to be pacified and our friends of our exceeding love that cannot be soone shaken off But now we are provoked to anger not onely against our wives or servitors and friends as being contemned by them but also many times in our choler we fall upon In-keepers Mariners and Muliters when they be drunke supposing that they despise us And that which more is we are offended with dogs when they bay or barke at us and with asses if they chance to fling out and kicke us Like unto him who lifted up his hand to strike and beat him that did drive an asse and when the man cried that he was an Athenian But thou I am sure art no Athenian quoth he to the asse and laid upon the poore beast as hard as he could and gave him many a blow with his cudgell But that which chiefly causeth us to be angrie and breedeth a continuall disposition thereto in our minds causing us so often to breake out into fits of choler which by little and little was ingendred and gathered there before is the love of our owne selves and a kinde of froward surlinesse hardly to be pleased together with a certaine daintinesse and delicacie which all concurring in one breed and bring foorth a swarme as it were of bees or rather a waspes neast in us And therefore there cannot be a better meanes for to carrie our selves mildly and kindly towards our wives our servants familiars and friends than a contented minde and a singlenesse or simplicitie of heart when a man resteth satisfied with whatsoever is present at hand and requireth neither things superfluous nor exquisite But he that never is content With rost or sod but cooke is shent How ever he be serv d I meane With more with lesse or in a meane He is not
way were shut up Howbeit most true it is that those who for the most part occupie their understanding have least use of their senses which is the reason that in olde time they both builded the temples of the Muses that is to say houses ordained for students which they named Musaea as farre as they could from cities and great townes and also called the night Euphrone as one would say friend to sage advice and counsell as supposing that quiet rest repose and stilnes from all disturbance make verie much for contemplation and invention of those things that we studie and seeke for Moreover no harder matter is it nor of greater difficultie than the rest when in the open market place or common hall men are at high words reproching reviling one another not to approch and come neere unto them Also if there be any great concurse and running of people together upon some occasion not to stirre at all but sit still or if thou art not able to containe and rule thy selfe to rise up and goe thy waies For surely gaine thou shalt no good at all by intermedling with such busie and troublesome persons but contrariwise much fruit maist thou reape by turning away such curiositie in repressing the same and constraining it by use and custome to obey reason Having made this good entrance beginning to proceed now unto farther and stronger exercise it were verie good whensoever there is any play exhibited upon the Stage in a frequent Theater where there is assembled a great audicnce to heare and see some woorthie matter for to passe by it and to put backe thy friends who sollicite thee to goe thither with them for to see either one daunce excellent well or to act a Comedie nor so much as to turne backe when thou hearest some great shout and outcrie either from out of the race or the grand-cirque where the horse-running is held for the prize For like as Socrates gave counsell to forbeare those meates which provoke men to eate when they are not hungrie and those drinkes which incite folke to drinke when they have no thirst even so we ought to avoide and beware how we either see or heare any thing whatsoever which may either draw or hold us thereto when there is no need at all thereof The noble Prince Cyrus would not so much as see faire Ladie Panthea and when Araspes one of his courtiours and minions made report unto him that she was a woman of incomparable beautie and therefore woorthie to be looked on Nay rather quoth he for that cause I ought to forbeare the sight of her for if by your perswasion I should yeeld to goe and see her it may peradventure fall out so that she her selfe might tempt and induce me againe to repaire unto her even then haply when I shall not have such leasure yea and sit by her and keepe her company neglecting in the meane time the weghtie affaires of the State In like manner Alexander the Great would not come within the sight of King Dartus his wife notwithstanding that she was reported unto him for to be a most gallant and beautifull Ladie Her mother an auncient Dame and elderly matrone he did not sticke to visite but the yoong gentlewoman her daughter fresh faire and yoong he could not be brought so much as once to see As for us we can cast a wanton eie secretly into the coatches and horse-litters of wives and women as they ride we can looke out of our windowes and hang with our bodies halfe foorth to take the full view of them as they passe by and all this while we thinke that we commit no fault suffering our curious eie and wandring minde to slide and run to everie thing Moreover it is meet and expedient for the exercise of justice otherwhiles to omit that which well and justly might be done to the end that by that meanes a man may acquaint himselfe to keepe farre off from doing or taking any thing unjustly Like as it maketh much for temperance and chastitie to abstaine otherwhiles from the use of a mans owne wife that thereby he might be never mooved to lust after the wife of his neighbour taking this course likewise against curiosity strive and endevour sometimes to make semblance as though thou didst neither heare nor see those things that properly concerne thy selfe And if a man come and bring thee a tale of matters concerning thine owne housholde let it passe and put it over yea and those words which seeme to have beene spoken as touching thine owne person cast them behinde and give no eare thereto For default of this discretion it was the inquisitive curiosity of King Oedipus which intangled and enwrapped him in exceeding great calamities and miseries for when he would needs know who himselfe was as if he had beene not a Corinthian but a stranger and would needs goe therefore to the Oracle for to be resolved he met with Laius his owne father by the way whom he slew and so espoused his owne mother by whose meanes he came to be King of Thebes and even then when he seemed to be a most happy man he could not so stay but proceeded further to enquire concerning himselfe notwithstanding his wife did what she possibly could disswade him from it but the more earnest she was with him that way the more instant was he with an old man who was privie to all using all meanes to enforce him for to bewray that secret at length when the thing it selfe was so pregnant that it brought him into farther suspicion and withall when the said old man cried out in this maner Alas how am I at the point perforce To utter that which will cause remorse the king surprised still with his humor of curiositie notwithstanding he was vexed at the verie heart answered And I likewise for my part am as neere To beare as much but yet I must it heare So bitter-sweet is that itching-smart humor of curiositie like unto an ulcer or sore which the more it is rubbed and scratched the more it bleedeth and bloodieth it selfe Howbeit he that is delivered from this disease and besides of nature milde and gentle so long as he is ignorant and knoweth not any evill accident may thus say O blessed Saint when evils are past and gone How sage and wise art thou oblivion And therefore we must by little and little accustome our selves to this that when there be anie letters brought unto us we do not open them presently and in great haste as many do who if their hands be not quicke enough to doe the feat set their teeth to and gnaw in sunder the threds that sewed them up fast Also if there be a messenger comming toward us from a place with any tidings that we run not to meere him nor so much as once rise and stir for the matter and if a friend come unto thee saying I have some newes to tell you of yea mary
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
this maner Be perjured for me beare false witnesse for my sake or pronounce an unjust sentence for the love of me After the same maner we ought to be prepared and provided before-hand against those that be instant to borrow mony of us namely if we have bene used to deny them in matters that neither be of great moment nor hard to be refused There was one upon a time who being of this mind that there was nothing so honest as to crave and receive begged of Archelaus the king of Macedonie as he sate at supper the cup of golde whereout he drunke himselfe the king called unto his page that waited at his trencher and commanded him to give the said cup unto Euripides who sat at the boord and withall casting his eie wistly upon the party who craved it As for you sir quoth he worthy you are for your asking to go without but Euripides deserveth to have though he do not crave A woorthy speech importing thus much that the judgement of reason ought to be the best master and guide to direct us in our gifts and free liberalitie and not bashfulnesse and shame to denie But wee contrariwise neglecting and despising many times those that be honest and modest persons yea our very familiar friends who have need of our helpe and seeme to request the same are ready to bestow our bounty upon such as incessantly importune us with their impudent craving not for any affection that we have to pleasure them but because we can not finde in our heart to say them nay Thus did king Antigonus the elder to Bias after he had beene a long time an importunate begger Give this Bias quoth he a talent for me thinks he will have it perforce and yet this Antigonus of all princes and kings that ever were had the best grace and most dexterity to put by and shift off such unreasonable beggers for when a beggerly Cynicall Philosopher craved once at his hands a drachme It is not for a king quoth he to give a drachme Why then quoth the other againe give me a talent Neither is it meet quoth the king for a Cynick to receive a talent Diogenes as he walked otherwiles along the Ceranicum that is a street in Athens where stood erected the statues of worthy personages would aske almes of those images and when some marvelled at him therefore I do it quoth he to learne how to take a repulse and deniall Semblably we ought first to be trained in small matters and to exercise our selves in denying slight requests unto such as would seeme to demand and have at our hands that which is not fit and requisite to the end that we may not be to seeke for an answere when we would denie them in matters of greater importance for as Demosthenes was woont to say He who hath spent and bestowed that which he had otherwise than he should will never employ those things which he hath not as he ought if peradventure he should be furnished againe therewith And looke how often we doe faile and be wanting in honest things and yet abound in superfluities it is a signe that we are in a great fault and many waies shame groweth to us by that meanes Moreover so it is that this excessive bashfulnesse is not onely a bad and undiscreet steward to lay out and disperse our money but also to dispose of our serious affaires and those of great consequence wherein it will not admit the advice and counsell that reason giveth for oftentimes it falleth out that when we be sicke we send not for the best and most expert Physicians in respect of some friend whom we favour and reverence so as we are loth to doe otherwise than he would advise us likewise wee chuse for masters and teachers of our children not those alwaies who are best and meetest but such as make sute and meanes unto us for to be enterteined yea and many times when we have a cause to be tried in the law we choose not alwaies the most sufficient expert Advocates or Barristers for our counsel to plead for us but for to gratifie a sonne of some familiar friend or kinsman of our owne we commit the cause to him for to practise and learne to plead in court to our great cost and losse To conclude we may see manie of those that make profession of Philosophy to wit Epicureans Stoicks and others how they follow this or that sect not upon their owne judgement and election but for that they were importuned by some of their kinsfolke or friends thereto whom they were loth to denie Come on then let us long before be exercised against such grosse faults in vulgar smal common occasions of this life as for example let us breake our selves from using either a barber to trim us or a painter to draw our picture for to satisfie the appetite of our foolish shamefacednesse from lodging also in some bad Inne or Hostelrie where there is a better neere at hand because haply our hoast the goodman of the house hath oftentimes saluted us kindely but rather make we a custome of it although there be but small difference and ods betweene one and another alwaies to chuse the better and like as the Pythagoreans observed evermore 〈◊〉 not to crosse the right legge with the left neither to take an odde number for an even though otherwise all things else were equall and indifferent even so are we to draw this into an ordinarie practise that when we celebrate any solemne sacrifice or make a wedding dinner or some great feast we invite not him who is woont with reverence to give us the gentle greeting and good morrow or who seeing us a great way off useth to runne unto us rather than him whom we know to be an honest man and a well-willer of ours for whosoever is thus inured and exercised long before shall be hardly caught and surprised nay rather he shall never be once assailed and set upon in weightie matters And thus much may suffice as touching exercise and custome Moreover to come unto other profitable instructions which we have gathered for this purpose the principall in mine advise is this which sheweth teacheth us that all the passions and maladies of the minde be ordinarily accompanied with those inconveniences which we would seeme to avoid by their meanes as for example ambition and desire of honor hath commonly attending upon it dishonor paine usually followeth the love of pleasures labour and travell ensueth upon ease and delicacie repulse overthrowes and condemnations are the ends that ensue daily upon those that are given to be litigious contentious and desirous to cast foile and conquer others semblably it hapneth unto excessive bashfulnesse which seeming to flie and shun the smoke of blame casteth it selfe into the very fire and flame of infamie For those who be abashed to gaine-say and denie them who importune them unreasonably and will take no nay in
to aske at my hands and not in such as be necessarie and requisite If it be so I say see that you be not like unto him that praiseth a pompe and solemne shew of plaies and games more than life indeed which standeth upon things necessary The procession and solemnitie of the Bacchanales which was exhibited in our countrey was woont in old time to be performed after a plaine and homely manner merily and with great joy You should have seene there one carying a little barrell of wine another a branch of a vine tree after him comes one drawing and plucking after him a goate then followeth another with a basket of dried figs and last of all one that bare in shew Phallus that is to say the resemblance of the genitall member of a man but now adaies all these ceremonies are despised neglected and in maner not at all to be seene such a traine there is of those that carie vessels of gold and silver so many sumptuous and costly robes such stately chariots richly set out are driven drawen with brave steeds most gallantly dight besides the pageants dumbe-shewes and maskes that they hide and obscure the auncient and true pompe according to the first institution and even so it is in riches the things that be necessarie and serve for use and profit are overwhelmed and covered with needlesse toies and superfluous vanities I assure you the most part of us be like unto young Telemachus who for want of knowledge and experience or rather indeed for default of judgement and discretion when hee beheld Nestors house furnished with beds tables hangings tapistrie apparell and well provided also of sweete and pleasant wines never reckoned the master of the house happie for having so good provision of such necessarie and profitable things but being in Menelaus his house and seeing there store of Ivorie gold and silver and the mettall Electrum he was ravished and in an ecstasie with admiration thereof and brake out in these words Like unto this the pallace all within I judge to be Of Jupiter that mightie god who dwels in azure skie How rich how faire how infinite are all things which I see My heart as I do them behold is ravish't woonder ouslie But Socrates or Diogenes would have said thus rather How many wretched things are here how needlesse all and vaine When I them view I laugh thereat of them I am not faine And what saiest thou foolish and vaine sot as thou art Where as thou shouldest have taken from thy verie wife her purple her jewels and gaudie ornaments to the end that shee might no more long for such superfluitie nor runne a nodding after forrein vanities farre fetcht and deere bought doest thou conrrariwise embellish and adorne thy house like a theatre scaffold and stage to make a goodly sight for those that come into the Shew-place Loe wherein lieth the felicitie and happines that riches bringeth making a trim shew before those who gaze upon them and to testifie and report to others what they have seene set this aside that they be not shewed to all the world there is nothing at all therein to reckon But it is not so with temperance with philosophie with the true knowledge of the gods so farre foorth as is meete and behoovefull to be knowen for these are the same still and all one although everie man attaine not thereto but all others be ignorant thereof This pietie I say and religion hath alwaies a great light of her owne and resplendant beames proper to it selfe wherewith it doth shine in the soule evermore accompanied with a certaine joy that never ceaseth to take contentment in her owne good within whether any one see it or no whether it bee unknowen to gods and men or no it skilleth not Of this kinde and nature is vertue indeed and trueth the beautie also of the Mathematicall sciences to wit Geometrie and Astrologie unto which who will thinke that the gorgeous trappings and capparisons the brooches collars and carkans of riches are any waies comparable which to say a truth are no better than jewels and ornaments good to trim yoong brides and set out maidens for to be seene and looked at For riches if no man doe regard behold and set their eies on them to say a trueth is a blinde thing of it selfe and sendeth no light at all nor raies from it for certainely say That a rich man dine and sup privately alone or with his wife and some inward and familiar friends he troubleth not himselfe about furnishing of his table with many services daintiedishes and festivall fare he stands not so much upon his golden cups and goblets but useth those things that be ordinarie which goe about everie daie and come next hand as well vessell as viands his wife sits by his side and beares him companie not decked and hung with jewels and spangles of gold not arraied in purple but in plaine attire and simply clad but when he makes a feast that is to say sets out a theater wherein the pompes and shewes are to meet and make a jangling noise together when the plaies are to be represented of his riches and the solemne traine therof to be brought in place then comes abroad his brave furniture indeed then he fetcheth out of the ship his faire chaufers and goodly pots then bringeth hee foorth his rich three-footed tables then come abroad the lampes candlesticks and branches of silver the lights are disposed in order about the cups the cup-bearers skinkers and tasters are changed all places are newly dight and covered all things are then stirred and remooved that saw no sunne long before the silver plate the golden vessels and those that be set and enriched with pretious stones to conclude now there is no shew els but of riches at such a time they confesse themselves and will be knowen wealthy But all this while whether a rich man suppe alone or make a feast temperance is away and true contentment OF THE NATVRALL LOVE OR KINDNES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN The Summarie WIsely said one whosoever it was That to banish amitie and friendship from among men were as great hurt to the societie of mankinde as to deprive them of the light and heat of the Sunne which being verified and found true in the whole course of this life and in the maintenance of all estates not without great cause Nature hath cast and sprinkled the seed thereof in the generation and nourishment of a race and linage whereof she giveth evident testimonies in brute beasts the better to moove and incite us to our duety That we may see therefore this pretious seed and graine of amitie how it doth flower and fructifie in the world we must begin at the love and naturall kindnesse of fathers and mothers to their children for if this be well kept and mainteined there proceed from it an infinite number of contentments which do much asswage and ease the inconveniences
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
a trim man indeed as thou art doest waile weepe and lament that thou drinkest not thy selfe drunke as those doe yonder nor lie in soft and delicate beds richly set out with gay and costly furniture Now when such temptations and distractions as these be returne not often but the rule and discourse of reason presently riseth up against them maketh head turneth upon them suddenly againe as it were in the chace and pursued in the route by enemies and so quickly discomfiteth and dispatcheth the anxietie and dispaire of the minde then a man may be assured that he hath profited indeed in the schoole of Philosophie and is well setled and confirmed therein But forasmuch as the occasions which doe thus shake men that are given to Philosophie yea and otherwhiles plucke them a contrarie way doe not onely proceed from themselves by reason of their owne infirmitie and so gather strength but the sad and serious counsels also of friends together with the reproofes and contradictorie assaults made upon them by adversaries betweene good earnest and game doe mollifie their tender hearts and make them to bow bend and yeeld which otherwhiles have beene able in the end to drive some altogether from Philosophie who were well entred therein It may be thought no small signe of good proceeding if one can endure the same meekly without being mooved with such temptations or any waies troubled and pinched when hee shall heare the names and surnames of such and such companions and equals otherwise of his who are come to great credit and wealth in Princes courts or be advanced by mariages matching with wives who brought them good dowries portions or who are wont to go into the common Hall of a citie attended upon and accompanied with a traine and troup of the multitude either to attaine unto some place of government or to plead some notable cause of great consequence for he that is not disquieted astonied or overcome with such assaults certaine it is and we may be bold to conclude that he is arrested as it were and held sure as he ought to be by Philosophie For it is not possible for any to cease affecting and loving those things which the multitude doth so highly honor and adore unlesse they be such as admire nothing else in the world but vertue For to brave it out to contest and make head against men is a thing incident unto some by occasion of choler unto others by reason of folly but to contemne and despise that which others esteeme with admiration no man is able to performe without a great measure of true and resolute magnanimitie In which respect such persons comparing their state with others magnifie themselves as Solon did in these words Many a wicked man is rich And good men there be many poore But we will not exchange with sich Nor give our goodnes for their store For vertue ay is 〈◊〉 Whereas riches be 〈◊〉 And Diogenes compared his peregrination and flitting from the city of Corinth to Athens and againe his removing from Thebes to Corinth unto the progresses and changes of abode that the great king of Persia was wont to make who in the Spring season held his Court at Susis in Winter kept house at Babylon and during Summer passed the time and sojourned in Media 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hearing upon a time the said king of Persia to be named The great king And why quoth he is he greater than my selfe unlesse it be that he is more just and righteous And 〈◊〉 writing unto Antipater as touching Alexander the great said That it became not him onely to vaunt much and glorifie himselfe for that his dominions were so great but also any man els hath no lesse cause who is instructed in the true knowledge of the gods And Zeno seeing Theoplird stus in great admiration because he had many scholars Indeed quoth he his auditory or quite is greater than mine but mine accordeth better and makes sweeter harmonie than his When as therefore thou hast so grounded and established in thine heart that affection unto vertue which is able to encounter and stand against all externall things when thou hast voided out of thy soule all envies jealousies and what affections soever are woont either to tickle or to fret or otherwise to depresse and cast downe the minds of many that have begunne to professe philosophie this may serve for a great argument and token that thou art well advanced forward and hast profited much neither is it a small signe thereof if thou perceive thy language to be changed from that it was wont to be for all those who are newly entred into the schoole of philosophie to speake generally affect a kinde of speech or stile which aimeth at glory and vaine ostentation some you shall heare crowing aloud like cocks and mounting up aloft by reason of their levity and haughty humour unto the sublimitie and splendor of physicall things or secrets in nature others take pleasure after the maner of wanton whelps as Plato saith in tugging and tearing evermore whatsoever they can catch or light upon they love to be doing with litigious questions they goe directly to darke problemes and sophisticall subtilties and most of them being once plunged in the quillits quidities of Logicke make that as it were a means or preparative to flesh themselves for Sophistrie mary there be who goe all about collecting and gathering together sententious sawes and histories of ancient times and as Anacharsis was wont to say That he knew no other use that the Greeks had of their coined pieces of mony but to tell and number them or els to cast account and reckon therewith even so do they nothing els but count and measure their notable sentences and sayings without drawing any profit or commodity out of them and the same befalleth unto them which one of Platoes familiars applied unto his scholars by way of allusion to a speech of Atiphanes this Antiphanes was wont to say in merriment That there was a city in the world whereas the words so soone as ever they were out of the mouth and pronounced became frozen in the aire by reason of the coldnesse of the place and so when the heat of Summer came to thaw and melt the same the inhabitants might heare the talke which had bene uttered and delivered in Winter even so quoth he it is with many of those who come to heare Plato when they be yoong for whatsoever he speaketh and readeth unto them it is very long ere they understand the same and hardly when they are become olde men and even after the same sort it fareth with them abovesaid who stand thus affected universally unto Philosophie untill their judgement being well setled and growen to sound resolution begin to apprehend those things which may deepely imprint in the minde a morall affection and passion of love yea and to search and trace those speeches whereof the tracts as Aesope was woont to say leade rather in
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
with other to people possesse a new colonie in Stcilie and having befallen to his lot a goodly house and living to it enioying I say for his part a good portion wherewith he might have lived in fulnesse and plentie when he sawe once that delights pleasures and idlenesse without any exercise at all of good letters reigned in those parts Par die quoth he these goods heere shall never spoile and undoe me but I will rather I trow make a hand and havocke of them leaving therefore unto others his portion that fell unto him by lot he tooke sea againe sailed away to Athens Contrariwise those that be in debt are evermore sued in the law become tributaries very slaves bearing and induring all indignities like unto those varlets that digge in silver mines nourishing and mainteining as Phineus did the ravenous winged harpies for surely these usurers alwaies flie upon them and be ready to snatch and carie away their very foode and sustenance neither have they patience to stay and attend times and seasons for they buie up their debtors corne before it be ripe for the harvest they make their markets of oile before the olives fall from the tree and likewise of wine For I wil have it at this price quoth the usurer withal the debter giveth him presently a bill of his hand for such a bargaine meane while the grapes hang still upon the vine waiting for the moneth of September when the star Arcturus riseth and sheweth the time of vintage THAT A PHILOSOPHER OUGHT TO CONVERSE ESPECIALLY WITH PRINCES AND GREAT RVLERS AND WITH THEM TO DISCOVRSE The Summarie IF there be any in the world who have need of good companie they are Princes and great Lords for that their affaires being of such consequence as everie man knoweth the feeblenes of bodie and insufficiencie of spirit not able to furnish them throughly great reason they have to see by the eies and to worke with the hands of others Now in this case three sorts of men there be who fault verie much In the first place Princes and Rulers themselves who in stead of drawing and training neere unto their persons such as can aide and assist them give accesser rather unto flatterers and other like pestilent members who are ready to corrupt and ruinate their estates Secondly those whose number at all times hath beene verie small Whom we call Philosophers that is to say men of authoritie wise sage learned friends to vertue lovers of the good of Princes and their subjects who being of great power and able to doe much yet notwithstanding recule and draw backe or being advanced to high place have not alwaies that respect and consideration nor such courage as appertaineth suffering themselves otherwhiles to be carried away to the entertainment and maintenance of the greatest opinion and mingling a little too much of worldly wisedome with the apprehension of their true duty whereof their conscience being lightned in sundry sorts advertiseth thē sufficiently The last and those as pernicious execrable as the thought of man is not able to devise and comprehend be the enemies of vertue to wit ignorant teachers and profane schoolemasters professors mockers scorners jesters slatterers in sum all the ministers of vanities and filthie pleasures who do insinuate and intrude themselves by most leawd and wicked means into the service of Princes and in recompence of the honor and rich gifts which they receive at their hands doe deceive and undoe their simple lords and masters according as an infinite number of examples in Histories doe verifie and give evidence unto us Plutarch therefore in consideration of these inconvenicnes is desirous in this treatise to encourage those who wish that all things were well and in good order and exhorteth them to approch neere unto Princes But forasmuch as ignorance and leawdnes causeth men to become shamelesse whereas wisedome and honestie maketh us modest and considerate in all our actions he sheweth in the first place that it is no point of ambition for a wise and learned man to joine himselfe unto Grand segniories to sort with them but that it is their duety so to do considering that such receive honor pleasure and profit by him And this he prooveth by reasons similitudes examples al singular and notable Afterwards he condemneth those who enter into Princes courts onely because they would be great and powerfull shewing that wise men indeed do aime cleane at another marke And for the last point of all he treateth of the contentment which they receive who by their service to one alone helpe by that meanes an infinite number of others who remaine bound and obliged unto them for so great a benefit THAT A PHILOSOPHER OUGHT to converse especially with Princes and great Rulers and with them to discourse TO embrace a common love to finde out accept intertaine and maintaine that amitie which may be profitable and commodious to many in particular and yet to more in generall is the part of honest men politike wise and affectionate to the publike good and not as some thinke of those that be ambitious and vaine-glorious But contrariwise he is to be reputed vaine-glorious or rather timorous and wanting courage who doth shunne and is afraid to heare himselfe called a follower waiter and servitor to those that are in highest place For what saith one of these personages who having need to be cured is desirous to learne and to bee acquainted with some Philosopher O that I were Simon the Souter or Dionysius the Pedante in stead of Pericles or Cato that a Philosopher might discourse and dispute with me that he might sit by my side as Socrates did sometime by those And verily Ariston of Chios being reprooved and blamed by the Sophisters in his time for that he used to devise and discourse with all those that were disposed to heare him I could wish quoth he in my heart that the verie beasts themselves were able to give eare and understand those discourses that do excite and moove unto vertue Doe we then avoide the meanes and occasions to converse and conferre familiarly with great personages and mightie men as if they were wilde and savage persons The doctrine of Philosophy is not like unto an imager who casteth dumbe and deafe idole statues without any sense onely for to stand upon a base as Pindarus was woont to say but is willing to make whatsoever it toucheth active operative and lively it imprinteth therein affections and motions judgements also inciting and leading to things unprofitable intentions desirous of all honestie haughtie courage also and magnanimitie joined with meeknesse resolution and assurance by meanes of which good parts men of State policie are more readie and forward to converse and devise with persons of great puissance and authoritie and not without good cause for an honest and gentle physician will take alwaies more pleasure to heale an eie that seeth for many and which doth guard and
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
favors at his hands ceased not to backbite and slander him made them this answer What thinke you will they doe then if I should worke them a shrewd turne semblablie when make-bate women shall come twatling and say How doth your husband misuse you loving him and making so much of him as you doe in all dutie and loialty your answere must be What will become of me then if I should begin to hate him and doe him injurie 36 A certeine master there was upon a time who espied a slave of his that was long before runne away and when he had set his eie upon him ranne apace for to take hold of him the poore slave fled still and gat at length a mil-house over his head That 's happie quoth the master to himselfe I would not wish to meet with him in a better place even so a woman who upon jealousie is upon the point to be divorced and depart from her husband and being ill appaid in her mind for being driven to this hard exigent should thus speake unto herselfe What is it that my concurrent who is the cause of this my jealousie can wish in her heart to content her better than to see me do this whereabout I am namely to vexe and torment my selfe thus as I do to be so far out and in such tearmes with my husband abandoning his house and forsaking our mariage bed 37 The Athenians observe and celebrate three seasons of sacred seednesse in the yeere the first in the isle Scyros in memoriall of the first invention of tillage and sowing in that countrey the second in a place called Raria and the third under their owne citie walles which they call Buzygion in remembrance of yoking oxen to the plough but the nuptiall tillage as I may so say which is imploied for issue and procreation of children and to mainteine our race and posterity is the most sacred of all other and ought to be observed with all holinesse And therefore Sophocles well and wisely gave this attribute unto Cytherea or Venus when hee named her Eucarpos that is Fertile or Fruitfull in which regard man and wife lawfully joined in matrimonie are to use the same religiously and with all precisenesse absteining wholly from all incestuous illegitimate and forbidden conjunctions and not plowing or sowing there whereas they are not willing to reape or if it chance that there come up any fruit they are ashamed thereof and willing to hide and conceale it 38 Gorgias the oratour in a great assembly at the Olympian games made a solemne oration to the Greeks who were met there from all parts exhorting them to live in peace unitie and concord one with another at which speech of his one Melanthius there present This man quoth he telleth us a tale of unitie and exhorteth us all to concord here in publike who can not perswade in his private house at home himselfe his owne wife her chamber-maid to agree and live peaceably together being but three in all and no more for it should seeme that Gorgias cast a fancie to the said wench and his wife was jealous of her and therefore his house and familie ought to be in good order who will busie himselfe and intermeddle in ordering of publike affaires or composing of matters among friends for commonly it falleth out that the faults which we commit against our wives be more divulged abroad in the world than the misdemeanours of our wives 39 Cats are much offended they say with the odour and sent of sweet perfumes insomuch as they will runne mad therewith if it chance likewise that a woman can not away with such perfumes but that her braines be thereby troubled and ready to overturne her husband were of a very strange nature and should deale hardly with her in case he would not forbeare to use sweet ointments or strong senting odours but for a little pleasure of his owne to suffer her for to fall into so great inconvenience and to neglect her contentment Now if it be so that such accidents of brain-sicknesse happen unto women not when their busbands be perfumed but when they are given to keepe queanes and love harlots it were meere injustice in them for a small pleasure of their owne to offend and disquiet their wives and not to doe so much for their sake as those who come among bees who for that purpose will not touch their owne wives for the time because bees as it is said hate such and are ready to sting them above all others but cary so bad a minde with them as to come and lie by their owne wives side being polluted and defiled with the filthie companie of other strumpets 40 They that have the government of elephants never put on white raiment when they come about them no more do they weare red clothes who approch neere unto bulles for that these beasts before named are afraid of such colours especially and grow fierce and wood therewith It is said moreover that tygers when they heare the sound of drummes or tabours about them become enraged and in a furious madnesse all to teare themselves Seeing it is so therefore that there be some men who can not abide but are highly displeased to see their wives in their scarlet purple robes and others againe who can not away with the sound of cymbals or tabours what harme is it if their wives wil forbeare both the one and the other for feare of provoking and offending their husbands and live with them without unquiet brawles and janglings in all repose and patience 41 A certeine yong woman when king Philip plucked and haled her unto him against her will Hand off good sir quoth she and let me goe all cats be gray in the darke and when the candle is out all women are alike It is not amisse to say so I confesse unto dissolute persons and adulterers but an honest married dame ought especially when the light is gone not to be all one with other common naughty packs but even then when as her body can not be seene to let her chastitie honestie and pure love to her husband appeare most that it may be well seene that she keepeth herselfe for him alone 42 Plato exhorted elder folke to behave themselves more modestly before yong persons than any other that so they might learne also to reverence their elders and be respecteous of them for where olde people be shamelesse it is not possible to imprint any shame or grace in the yonger Now ought an husband evermore to cary in remembrance this precept To have none in the world in better respect and more reverence than his owne wife forasmuch as the bed-chamber is unto her a schoole-house either of chastity and pudicity or els of loosenesse and incontinence for the husband that followeth those pleasures himselfe which he debarreth his wife of doth as much as bid his wife to fight with those enemies unto whom he hath already yeelded
for sacrifice commanding that hee should take out of it the best and woorst piece thereof and so to send the said flesh unto him hee therefore well and wisely plucked foorth the tongue and sent it unto him for which hee was by good right well praised highly esteemed and held in great admiration It was not therefore onely quoth Niloxenus that hee came to so great a name but also for that hee refused not the amitie of princes and kings as you doe for Amasis admired many more things in you and namely among others when you tooke the measure of the height of the Pyramis in Egypt he woondered exceedingly and made high account of your conceit for that without any great hand-labour and the same requiring no instrument at all by setting up a staffe onely plumbe upright at the very point and end of the shadow which the said Pyramis cast and by two Triangles which the beames of the sunne caused you made demonstration that what proportion there was betweene the length of both shadowes to wit of the Pyramis and the staffe the same was betweene the height of the one and the other But as I said before you were accused unto the same king Amasis for bearing no good will unto kings and their estate which was the cause of your disgrace and disfavour with him besides there were brought unto him and presented many slanderous speeches and contumelious answers of yours as touching tyrants as for example when Molpagoras a great lord of Ionia demaunded upon a time of you what strange thing you had in your time seene you answered A tyrant living to be an old man Againe at a certeine banket there being some speech mooved as touching beasts which was the worst and did most harme you made answer that Of wilde beasts a tyrant and of tame beasts a flatterer was most dangerous for I may tell you Kings howsoever they say that they differ from tyrāts yet take they no pleasure at such Apophthegmes as those That answer quoth Thales againe was none of mine but Pittacus it was who made it one day in scoffing merilie to Myrsilus for mine one part I doe not so much mervaile at an aged tyrant as I doe woonder to see an olde pilot howbeit as touching this transposition and taking one for another I am of the same minde and am willing to say as that yoong man did who flung a stone at a dogge and missing the dog hit his owne stepmother and felled her withall whereat It makes no matter quoth he for even so the stone hath not light amisse For and in truth I my selfe alwaies esteemed Solon a right wise man for that he refused to be the tyrant of his owne country and even so Pittacus if he had never come to take upon him a monarchie would not have delivered this speech How hard a thing is it to bee a good man And it should seeme that Periander being seized upon as a man would say by the same tyranny as an hereditarie disease from his father did not amisse to endevour what he could to free himselfe and get out of it by conversing with the best men and frequenting their companie as hee hath done to this day and training unto him the societie of Sages and philosophers and being ruled and advised by them not approoving nor admitting the perilous and unhappie counsell of my country-man Thrasibulus perswading him to cut the chief men shorter by the heads For a tyrant who chooseth to command and rule slaves and vassailes rather than free men indeed nothing differeth from the husbandman who had leifer gather locusts and catch foules than reape and bring in good graine of wheat and barley for these soveraigne dominions and principalities bring with them this onely good thing in stead and recompence of many evils to wit a kind of honor and glorie if men be so happie as in ruling over good men they be better themselves and in commaunding great persons become greater themselves as for such as in their government and place of command aime at nothing but their securitie without respect of honour and honestie deserve to be set over a number of sheepe horses or beasts and not of men but this good gentleman stranger heere hath I wot not how cast us upon such discourses which are nothing convenient for our present purpose omitting both to speake and also to demaund those matters that befit better those who goe to a 〈◊〉 for thinke you not that the guest who is bidden ought not to goe prepared as well as the very master himselfe is to make preparation For the Sybarites as it should seeme solemnly invite their dames to their feasts seeme to bid them a whole yeere before of purpose that they might have time enough to trim themselves at their good leasure with rich aray and jewels of gold against they goe to a feast and for mine owne part I assure you of this mind I am that the right preparative of one who is to go unto a great dinner as he should would require a longer time than so by how much harder it is to find fit and decent ornament for the manners of the minde than to provide for the superfluous needlesse and unprofitable setting out of the bodie for a wise man who hath wit and understanding goeth not to a feast carying with him his body as a vessell to be filled but he goes thither with an intention to passe the time either in serious discourses or pleasant and mery talke to speake I say and heare according as the time shal give occasion to the companie if they meane with joy and mirth to converse together one with another A man that is come to a feast may if he like not a dish of meat or if it be naught refuse it or if the wine be not good have recourse unto the nymphes but a troublesome guest a talkative busi-bodie and an unmannerly or untaught neighbour sitting at the boord marreth all the grace of the viands be they otherwise never so deinty he corrupteth the wine yea and all the sweetnesse of the musicke how melodious so ever it be Neither may a man when he list vomit and cast up readily againe this trouble and vexation once received but in some a mutuall discontentment and offence taken at the table one with another sticketh by them and continueth as long as they have a day to live insomuch as they cannot endure the enterview one of another againe but like an old surfeit arisen of wrong done or of anger conceived by drinking wine the spight remaineth feltering corrupting in the stomacke and never will be digested In mine opinion therefore did Chilon very well and wisely who being invited as it were yesterday to a feast would never promise to come before he knew what other guests he should meet with there even everie one of them for this was his saying That a man must endure will he nill he if he be once
importing a generall striking out of all debts and a cancelling of bonds he imparted this desseigne and purpose of his to some of his friens who did him a shrewd turne and most unjustly wrought him much mischiefe for upon this inkling given unto them they made haste to take up and borrow all the money they could as farre as their credite would extend not long after when this edict or proclamation aforesaid concerning the annulling of all debts was come foorth and brought to light these frends of his were found to have purchased goodly houses and faire lands with the monies which they had levied Thus Solon was charged with the imputation of doing this wrong together with them when as himselfe indeede was wronged and abnused by them Agesilaus also shewed himselfe in the occasions and sutes of his frends most weake and feeble minded more iwis than in any thing else resembling the horse Pegasus in Euripides Who shrunke full low and yeelded what he could His backe to mount more than the rider would and helping his familiar frends in all their distresses more affectionatly and willingly than was meet and reason for whensoever they were called into question in justice for any transgressions he would seeme to be privie and partie with them in the same Thus hee saved one Phaebidas who was accused to have surprised secretly the castle of Thebes called Ladmia without commission and warrant alledging in his defence that such enterprises ought to be executed by his owne proper motive without attending any other commandement Moreover he wrought so with his countenance and favour that one Ephodrias who was attaint for an unlawfull and heinous act and namely for entring by force and armes with a power into the countrey of Attica what time as the Athenians were allied and confederate in amitie with the Lacedaemonians escaped judgement and was found unguiltie which he did being wrought thereto and mollified as it were by the amourous praiers of his sonne Likewise there is a missive of his found and goeth abroad to be seene which he wrote unto a certaine great lord or potentate in these tearmes If Nicias have not trespassed deliver him for justice sake if he have transgressed deliver him for my sake but howsoever it be deliver him and let him go But Phocion contrariwise would not so much as assist in judgement Charillus his own sonne in law who had married his daughter when he was called into question and indited for corruption taking money of Harpalis but left him and departed saying In all causes just and reasonable I have made you my allie and wil imbrace your affinitie in other cases you shall pardon me Timoleon also the Corinthian after that he dealt what possibly he could with his brother by remonstrance by praiers and intreaty to reclaime and disswade him from being a tyrant seeing that he could doe no good on him turned the edge of his sword against him and joined with those that murdered him in the end for a magistrate ought to friend a man and stand with him not onely with this gage as farre as to the altar that is to say untill it come to the point of being forsworne for him according as Pericles one day answered to a friend of his but also thus farre forth onely as not to doe for his sake any thing contrary to the lawes against right or prejudicial to the common-weale which rule being neglected and not precisely observed is the cause that bringeth great losse and ruine to a state as may appeare by the example of Phoebidas and Sphodrias who being not punished according to their deserts were not the least causes that brought upon Sparta the unfortunate warre and battell at Leuctrae True it is that the office of a good ruler and administratour of the weale-publicke doth not require precisely and force us to use everity and to punish every slight and small trespasse of our friends but it permitteth us after we have looked to the main-chance and secured the State then as it were of a surplussage to succour our friends to assist and helpe them in their affaires and take part with them Moreover there be certeine favours which may be done without envie and offence as namely to stand with a friend rather than another for the getting of a good office to bring into his hand some honourable commission or an easie and kinde ambaslage as namely to be sent unto a prince or potentate in the behalfe of a city or State onely to salute him and doe him honour or to give intelligence unto another city of important matters in regard of amity league and mutual societie or in case there fall out some businesse of trouble difficulty and great importance when a magistrate hath taken upon himselfe first the principall charge thereof he may chuse unto him for his adjunct or assistant in the commission some especiall frend as Diomedes did in Homer To chuse mine owne companion since that you will me let ulysses that renowmed knight how can I then forget Ulysses likewise as kindly rendreth unto him the like praise againe These coursers brave concerning which of me you do demand O aged fire arrived heere of late from Thracian land Are hither come and there were bred their lord them lost in fight Whom valiant Diomedes slew by force of armes outright And twelve friends more and doughtie knights as ever horse did ride Were with him slaine for companie and lay dead by his side This modest kinde of yeelding and submission to gratifie and pleasure friends is no lesse honourable to the praisers than to the parties praised whereas contrariwise arrogancie and selfe-love as Plato saith dwelleth with solitudes which is as much to say as it is forsaken and abandoned of all the world Furthermore in these honest favors and kinde courtesies which we may bestow upon some frends we ought to associate other frends besides that they may be in some sort interessed therein also and to admonish those who receive such pleasures at our hands for to praise and thanke them yea and to take themselves beholden unto them as having bene the cause of their preferment and those who counselled and perswaded thereto but if peradventure they moove us in any undecent dishonest and unreasonable sutes we must flatly denie them howbeit not after a rude bitter churlish sort but mildly and gently by way of remonstrance and to comfort them withall shewing unto them that such requests were not beseeming their good reputation and the opinion of their vertue And this could Epaminondas do of all men in the world best and shift them off after the cleanliest maner for when hee refused at the instant sute of Pelopidas to deliver out of prison a certeine Tavernor and within a while after let the same partie goe at libertie at the request of his lemon or harlot whom he loved he said unto him Pelopidas such graces and favours as these we are to grant unto
or discord a good magistrate ought to bring them into tune and good accord againe by gently setting up and letting downe as a skilfull Musician would doe by the strings of his instrument and not in anger to come upon those that are delinquents roughly and after an outragious maner even to their detriment and disgrace but after a more milde and civill sort as Homer speaketh in one place Certes faire friend I would have held That others for your wit you had exceld As also in another You know if that you list iwis To tell a better tale than this Yea and when they shall either say or do that which is good and convenient not to shew himselfe to grieve and grudge at their credit and reputation which they win thereby nor to be sparie in affoording them honourable words to their commendation and advantage for in so doing thus much will be gained that the blame which shall be laied upon them another time when they deserve it will be better taken and more credit given to it and besides by how much more we shall exalt their vertues so much the more we may beat downe and depresse their vices when they do amisse by making comparison of them both and shewing how much the one is more worthy and beseeming than the other for mine owne part I holde it meet and good that a man of government should give testimony in the behalfe of his adversaries in righteous just causes also assist and helpe them out of troubles in case they be brought into question by some leawd sycophants yea and discredit and disable the imputations charged upon them namely when he seeth that such matters for which they are molested be farre from their intention and meaning Thus Nero a cruell tyrant though he was a little before he put Thraseas to death whom he hated and feared most of all men in the world notwithstanding one laied to his charge before him that he had given a wrong dome or unjust sentence I would quoth he that I could be assured that Thraseas loved me so well as I am sure he a is most upright and just Judge Neither were it amisse for the astonishing daunting of others who be of a naughty nature when they doe commit any grosse faults to make mention other-whiles of some adversarie of theirs who is of a more modest behaviour and civill carriage by saying Such an one I warrant you would never have said or done thus Moreover it were not impertinent to put some who doe offend in minde of their fathers and ancestours that have bene good and honest like as Homer did A sonne iwis sir Tydeus left behinde Unlike himselfe and much growen out of kinde And Appius Claudius being the concurrent to Scipio Africanus when they stood both for one magistracie said unto him as he met him in the street O Paulus Aemilius how deeply wouldest thou sigh for griefe and sorow in case thou wert advertised that one Philonicus a Publicane or Banker and no better accompanied and guarded thy sonne thorow the city going downe toward the assembly of Cornices for to be chosen Censour This maner of reprehension as it admonisheth the offender so it doth honour unto the admonisher Nestor likewise in a Tragedie of Sophocles answereth as politickly unto Ajax when he reproched him saying I blame not you sir Ajax for your speech Naught though it be your words are nothing liech Semblably Cato who had contested against Pompey for that being combined and in league with Julius Caesar he assaulted and forced the citie of Rome when as afterwards they were growen to open warre one against the other opined and gave his advice to conferre the charge and regiment of the common-weale upon Pompeius saying withall That they who could doe most mischiefe were the sittest men to stay the same for thus a blame or reproose mingled with a praise and commendation especially if the same grow to no opprobrious tearmes but be contained within the compasse of a franke and free remonstrance working not a spightfull stomacke but a remorse of conscience and repentance seemeth kinde and dutifull whereas despiteousreproches are never seemely and decent in the mouth of a magistrate and man of honour Marke the opprobrious termes and taunts that Demosthenes let flie against Aeschines those also that Aeschenes gave him likewise the bitter frumps which Hyperides wrote against Demades and see if Solon ever delivered such or if there came the like out of the mouth of Pericles of Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian or of Pittacus the Lesbian and as for Demosthenes he forbare such sharpe and cutting tearmes otherwise and never used them but in pleading against some criminall causes for his orations against Philip are cleere and voide of all nips flouts and scoffes whatsoever and in truth such maner of dealing diffameth the speaker more than those against whom they bee spoken they bring confusion in all affaires they trouble assemblies both in counsell house and also in common hall In which regard Phocion yeelding upon a time to one that was given to raile brake off his oration held his peace for a while and came downe but after the other with much a doo held his tongue and gave over his foule language he mounted up into the place of audience againe and going on in his former speech which was interrupted and discontinued said thus Now that I have already my masters spoken sufficiently of horsemen men of armes and soldiours heavily armed at all peeces it remaineth to discourse of light footemen and targuatiers nimbly appointed But forasmuch as this is an hard matter unto many to beare with such broad language and to conteine and oftentimes these taunting scoffers meete with their matches and have their mouthes stopped and are put to silence by some pretie replies I would wish that the same were short pithie and delivered in very fewe words not shewing any heate of anger and choler but a kinde of sweete mildenesse after the maner of a grave laughter yet withall somewhat tart and biting and such ordinarily be those that are returned fitly in the same kinde against them that first began for like as those darts which are recharged upon them that flung them first seeme to be driven with good will and sent backe againe with great force and firme strength of him who was stroken with them even so it seemeth that a sharpe and biting speech retorted against him who first spake it commeth forceable and with a power of wit and understanding from the partie who received it such was the replie of Epaminondas unto Callistratus who reproched and upbraided the Thebanes and Argives with the parents of Oedipus and Orestes for that the one being borne in Thebes slew his owne father and the other at Argos killed his mother true indeed quoth Epaminondas and therefore we banished them out of our cities but you receive them into yours Semb able was the answer of Antalcidas a Lacedaemonian unto an
shall be thought an adversarie because you are not ready to offend either part but indifferent to both in aiding as well the one as the other and envie shall you incur none as bearing part in their miserie in case you seeme to have a fellow-feeling and compassion equally with them all but the best way were to provide and forecast that they never breake out to tearmes of open sedition and this you are to thinke for to be the principall point and the height of all pollicie and civill government for evident it is and you may easily see that of those greatest blessings which cities can desire to wit peace libertie and freedome plentie and fertilitie multitude of people and unitie and concord as touching peace cities have no great need in these daies of wise governors for to procure or mainteine the same for that all wars both against the Greekes and also the Barbarians are chased away and gone out of sight as for libertie the people hath as much as it pleaseth their sovereignes and princes to give them and peradventure if they had more it would be woorse for them for the fertility of the earth and the abundance of all fruits the kind disposition and temperature of all seasons of the yeere That mothers in due time their babes into the world may beare Resembling in all points their sires to wit their fathers deare and that children so borne may live and be live-like every good and wise men wil crave at Gods hands in the behalfe of his owne fellow citizens Now there remaineth for a States-man and politike governour of all those works proposed one onely and that is nothing inferiour to the rest of the blessings above-named to wit the unitie and concord of citizens that alwaies dwell together and the banishing out of a citie of all quarrels all jarres and malice as the maner is in composing the differences and debates of friends namely by dealing first with those parties which seeme to be most offended and to have taken the greatest wrong in seeming to be injuried as well as they and to have no lesse cause of displeasure and discontent than they afterwards by little and little to seeke for to pacifie and appease them by declaring and giving them to understand that they who can be content to strike saile a little do ordinarily go beyond those who thinke to gaine all by force surmount them I say not onely in mildenesse and good nature but also in courage and magnanimitie who in yeelding and giving place a little in small matters are masters in the end and conquerors in the best and greatest which done his part is to make remonstrance both particularly to every one and generally to them all declaring unto them the feeble and weake estate of Greece and that it is very expedient for men of sound and good judgment to enjoy the fruit and benefit which they may have in this weakenesse and imbecilitie of theirs living in peace and concord one with another as they doe considering that fortune hath not left them in the midst any prize to winne or to strive for For what glorie what authoritie what power or preeminence will remaine unto them that haply should have the better hand in the end be masters over their adversaries but a proconfull with one commandement of his will be able to overthrow it and transport it unto the other side as often and whensoever it pleaseth him but say that it should continue stil yet is it not woorth all this labour and travell about it But like as scare-fires many times begin not at stately temples and publike edifices but they may come by some candle in a private and little house which was neglected or not well looked unto and so fell downe and tooke hold thereof or haply straw or rushes and such like stuffe might catch fire and suddenly flame and so thereupon might ensue much losse and a publike wasting of many faire buildings even so it is not alwaies by meanes of contention and variance about affaires of State that seditions in cities be kindled but many times braules and riots arising upon particular causes and so proceeding to a publike tumult and quarrell have beene the overthrow and utter subversion of a whole citie In regard whereof it perteineth unto a politike man as much as any one thing els to foresee and prevent or else to remedy the same to see I say that such dissentions do not arise at al or if they be on foot to keep them down from growing farther and taking head or at leastwise that they touch not the State but rest still among whom it began considering this with himselfe giving others to understand that private debates are in the end causes of publike and small of great when they be neglected at first and no convenient remedies used at the verie beginining Like as by report the greatest civill dissention that ever hapned in the citie of Delphos arose by the meanes of one Crates whose daughter Orgilaus the sonne of Phalis was at the point to wed now it hapned by meere chance that the cup out of which they were to make an essay or effusion of wine in the honour of the gods first and then afterwards to drinke one to another according to the nuptiall ceremonies of that place broke into peeces of it selfe which Orgilaus taking to be an evill presage forsooke his espoused bride and went away with his father without finishing the complements of marriage Some few daies after when they were sacrificing to the gods Crates conveied covertly or underhand a certaine vessell of gold one of those which were sacred and dedicated to the temple unto them and so made no more adoo but caused Orgilaus and his brother as manifell church-robbers to be pitched downe headlong from the top of the rocke at Delphos without any judgement or forme and processe of law yea and more than that killed some of their kinsfolke and friends notwithstanding they entreated hard and pleaded the liberties and immunitie of Minervaes temple surnamed Provident into which they were fled and there tooke sanctuarie And thus after divers such murders committed the Delphians in the end put Crates to death and those his complices who were the authors of this sedition and of the money and goods of these excommunicate persons for so they were called seazed upon by way of confiscation they built those chapples which stand beneath the citie At Syracusae also of two yoong men who were verie familiarly acquainted together the one being to travell abroad out of his countrey left in the custodie of the other a concubine that he had to keepe untill his returne home againe but he in the absence of his friend abused her bodie but when his companion upon his returne home knew thereof he wrought so that for to crie quittance with him he lay with his wife and made him cuckold this matter came to hearing at the counsell table of the
knowledge A begger upon a time craved almes of a Laconian who answered him thus But if I should give thee any thing thou wouldest make an occupation of it and beg still so much the more for verily whosoever he was that first bestowed almes upon thee was the cause of this villanous life which thou leadest now and hath made thee so vagrant and idle as thou art Another Laconian seeing a collectour going about and gathering mens devotions for the gods said thus I will now make no more reckoning of the gods so long as they be poorer than my selfe A certeine Spartan having taken an adulterer in bed with his wife a foule and ilfavoured woman Wretched man that thou art quoth he what necessitie hath driven thee to this Another having heard an oratour making long periods and drawing out his sentence in length Now by Castor and Pollux what a valiant man his here how he rolleth and roundly turneth his tongue about and all to no purpose A traveller passing thorow Lacedaemon marked among other things what great honour and reverence yoong folke did to their elders I perceive quoth he there is no place to Sparta for an olde man to live in A Spartan was upon a time asked the question what maner of Poet Tyrtaeus was A good Poet beleeve me quoth he to whet and sharpen the courages of yoong men to warre Another having very badde and diseased eies would needs goe to warfare and when others said unto him Wilt thou go indeed in that case as thou art in what deed thinkest thou to do there Why quoth he if I do no other good els I wil be sure to dull the brightnesse of mine enemies sword Buris and Spertis two Lacedaemonians voluntarily departed out of their countrey and went to Xerxes king of Persia offering themselves to suffer that paine and punishment which the Lacedaemonians had deserved by the sentence of the oracle of the gods for killing those heralds which the king had sent unto them who being come before him were desirous that he should put them to death in what maner he would himselfe for to acquit the Lacedaemonians the king wondering at this resolution of theirs not onely pardoned the fault but earnestly requested them to stay with him promising them liberall enterteinment And how can we say they live here abandoning our native soile our lawes and those kinde of men for whose sake to die we have so willingly undertaken this long voiage and when a great captaine under the king named Jndarnes intreated them stil very instantly assuring them upon his word that they should be kindly used and in equall degree of credit and honour with those who were in highest favour with the king and most advanced by him they said unto him It seemeth unto us sir that you full little know what is liberty and freedome for he that wist what a jewell it were if he be in his right wits would not change the same for the whole realme of Persia. A certeine Laconian as he way-fared came unto a place where there dwelt an olde friend and host of his who the first day of purpose avoided him and was out of the way because he was not minded to lodge him but the morrow after when he had either hired or borowed faire bedding coverings and carpets received him very stately but this Laconian mounting up to his beds trampled and stamped the faire and rich coverlets under his feet saying withall I beshrew these fine beds and trim furniture for they were the cause that yesternight I had not so much as a mat to lie upon when I should sleepe and take my rest Another of them being arrived at the city of Athens and seeing there the Athenians going up and downe the city some crying salt-fish to sell others flesh and such like viands some like publicanes sitting at the receit of custome other professing the trade of keeping brothel-houses and exercising many such vile and base occupations esteeming nothing at all foule and dishonest after he was returned home into his owne countrey when his neighbours and fellow-citizens asked him what newes at Athens and how all things stood there Passing well quoth he and it is the best place that ever I came in which he spake by way of mockerie and derision every thing there is good and honest giving them to understand that all meanes of gaine and lucre were held lawful honest at Athens and nothing there was counted villanous and dishonest Another Laconian being asked a question answered No and when the party who mooved the question said Thou liest the Laconian replied againe and said See what a foole thou art to aske me that which thou knowest well enough thy selfe Certeine Laconians were sent upon a time ambassadours to Lygdamis the tyrant who put them off from day to day and hasted with them so as he gave them no audience at the last it was tolde them that hee was at all times weake and ill at ease and not in case to be conferred with the ambassadours there upon said unto him who brought this word unto them Tell him from us that we are not come to wrestle but to parle onely with him A certeine priest inducted a Laconian into the orders and ceremonies of some holy religion but before that he would fully receive and admit him he demanded of him what was the most grievous sinne that ever he committed and which lay heaviest upon his conscience The gods know that best quoth the Laconian but when the priest pressed hard upon him and was very importunate protesting that there was no remedie but he must needs utter and confesse it Unto whom quoth the Laconian must I tell it unto you or to the God whom you serve unto God quoth the other Why then turne you behinde me quoth hee or retire aside out of hearing Another Laconian chanced in the night to goe over a church-yard by a tombe or monument and imagined that he saw a spirit standing before him whereupon he advanced forward directly upon it with his javelin and as he ran full upon it and as he thought strake thorow it he said withall Whither fliest thou from me ghost that thou art now twise dead Another having vowed to fling himselfe headlong from the high Promontorie Leucas downe into the sea mounted up the top thereof but when hee saw what an huge downfall it was he gently came downe againe on his feet now when one twitted and reproched him therefore I wist not quoth he that this vow of mine had need of another greater than it Another Laconian there was who in a battell and hot medley being fully minded to kill his enemie who was under him and to that purpose had lifted up his sword backe to give him a deadly wound so soone as ever hee heard the trumpet sound the retreat presently stated his hand and would no more follow his stroake now when one asked him why he slew not his enemie
and yet consideratly waiting the time and opportunitie of revenge on the other side Synorix followed his sute verie earnestly soliciting and intreating 〈◊〉 nately neither seemed he to alledge vaine and frivolous reasons but such as carried some colourable pretense of honestie namely that he had alwaies shewed himselfe a man of more valor worth than Sinatus and whereas he took away his life induced he was thereto for the 〈◊〉 love that hee bare to Camma and not mooved thereto by any malice otherwise This yoong dame at the first seemed to denie him but yet her denials were not verie churlish and such as he might take for his finall answer for daily by little and little she made semblant that she relented and inclined unto him for that divers kinsfolk and friends also of hers joined with him to second his sute who for to gratifie and doe pleasure unto Synorix a man of the greatest credit and authoritie in his countrey perswaded yea forced her to yeeld unto this match To be short in the end she gave her consent Synorix was sent for to come unto her where she kept her resiance that in the presence of the said goddesse the contract of marriage might passe the espousals be solemnized when he was come she received and welcomed him with an amiable and gracious countenance lead him unto the very altar of Diana where rehgiously with great ceremonie she powred forth before the goddesse a little of a potion which shee had prepared out of a boule the one part thereof she drunke herselfe the other she gave unto Synorix for to drinke now this potion was mead mingled with ranke poison when she saw that he had taken his draught she fetching a loud and evident groane doing reverence also unto the goddesse I protest and call thee to witnesse quoth she most powerfull and honourable goddesse that I have not survived Sinatus for any other cause in the world but onely to see this day neither have I had any joie of my life all this while that I have lived since but onely in regard of hope that one day I might be revenged of his death which seeing that now I have effected I go most gladly and joifully unto that sweet husband of mine and as for thee most accursed wicked wretch in the world give order to thy kinsfolke and friends in stead of a nuptiall bed to provide a grave for thy burial the Galatian hearing these words and beginning withal to feele the operation of the poison and how it wrought troubled him within his bowels and all parts of his body mounted presently his chariot hoping that by the jogging and agitation thereof he might vomit and cast up the poison but immediately he alighted againe and put himselfe into an easie litter but did he what he could dead he was that very evening as for Camma she continued all the night languishing and when she heard for certaintie that he was deceased she also with joy and mirth departed out of this world STRATONICE THe selfesame province of Galatia affoorded two other dames woorthy of eternall memorie to wit Stratonice the wife of king Deiotarus and Chiomara the wife of Ortiagon as for Stratonice she knowing that the king her husband was desirous to have children lawfully begotten for to leave to be his successors inheritors of the crowne and yet could have none by her praied and intreated him to trie another woman and beget a childe of her body yea and permitted that it should be put unto her and she would take it upon her as her owne Deiotarus woondered much at this resolution of hers and was content to doe all things according to her mind wherupon she chose among other captives taken prisoner in the warres a proper faire maiden named Electra whom she brought into Deiotarus bed chamber shut them in both together and all the children which this concubine bare unto him his wife reared and brought up with as kinde an affection and as princelike as if she had borne them herselfe CHIOMARA AT what time as the Romans under the conduct of Cn. Scipio defaited the Galatians that inhabit in Asia it befell that Chiomara the wife of Ortiagon was taken prisoner with other Galatian women the captaine whose captive she was made use of his fortune did like a soldier and abused her bodie who as he was a man given unto his fleshly pleasure so he looked also as much or rather more unto his profit and filthie lucre but so it fell out that overtaken he was and entrapped by his owne avarice for being promised by the woman a good round quantitie of gold for to deliver her out of thraldome and set her at libertie he brought her to the place which she had appointed for to render her and set her free which was at a certeine banke by the river side where the Galatians should passe over tender him the said monie and receive Chiomara but she winked with her eie thereby gave a signall to one of her own companie for to kill the said Romane captaine at what time as he should take his leave of her with a kisse and friendly farewell which the partie did with his sword at one stroke fetched off his head the head she herselfe tooke up and wrapped it in the lap of her gowne before and so gat her away apace homeward when she was come to her husbands house downe she cast his head at his feet whereat he being astonied Ah my sweet wife quoth he it is a good thing to keepe faithfull promise True quoth she but it is better that but one man alive should have my companie Polybius writeth of the same woman that himselfe talked with her afterwards in the citie of Sardis and that he found her then to be a woman of an high minde and of woonderfull deepe wit But since I am fallen to the mention of the Galatians I will rehearse yet one story more of them A WOMAN OF PERGAMUS KIng Mithridates sent upon a time for threescore of the principall lords of Galatia to repaire unto him upon trust and safe-conduct as friends into the citie Pergamus whom being come at his request he enterteined with proud imperious speeches whereat they al took great scorn and indignation insomuch as one of them named Toredorix a strong tal man of his hands besides woonderfull couragious Tetrarch of the Tossepians country undertooke this one day enterprise to set upon Mithridates at what time as he sat in judgement gave audience from the tribunal seat in the publike place of exercise and both him and seat together to tumble downe headlong into the pit underneath but it fortuned that the king that day came not abroad as his maner was up into that place of open exercise but commanded al those Galatian lords to come and speake with him at his house Toredorix exhorted them to be bold and confident and when they were
miseries more greevous whereby it is apparent that he who comforteth another whose heart is afslicted with sorrow and anguish giving him to understand that his infortunitie is common to more besides him by laying before his face the semblable accidents which have befallen to others changeth in him the sense and opinion of his owne greevance and imprinteth in him a certeine setled perswasion that his misfortune is nothing so great as he deemed it to be before Aeschylus likewise seemeth with very great reason to reproove those who imagine that death is naught saying in this wise How wrongfully have men death in disdaine Of many evils the remedie soveraigne For in imitation of him right well said he whosoever was the authour of this sentence Come death to cure my painfull malady The onely leech that bringeth remeay For hell is th' haven for worlds calamity And harbour sure in all extremity And verily a great matter it is to be able for to say boldly and with confidence How can he be a slave justlie Who careth not at all to die As also If death me helpe in my hard plight No spirits nor ghosts shall me affright For what hurt is there in death and what is it that should so trouble and molest us when we die A strange case this is I can not see how it commeth to passe that being so well knowen so ordinarily familiar naturall unto us as it is yet it should seeme so painfull dolorous unto us For what wonder is it if that be slit or cut which naturally is given to cleave if that melt which is apt to be molten if that burne which is subject to take fire or if that perish rot which by nature is corruptible and when is it that death is not in our selves for according as Heraclitus saith quicke and dead is all one to awake and to sleepe is the same in yoong and olde there is no difference considering that these things turne one into another and as one passeth the other commeth in place much after the maner of an imager or potter who of one masse of clay is able to give the forme and shape of living creatures and to turne the same into a rude lumpe as it was before he can fashion it againe at his pleasure and confound all together as he list thus it lieth in his power to do and undoe to make and marre as often as he will one after another uncessantly semblably nature of the selfe-same matter framed in times past our ancestours and grandsires and consequently afterwards brought foorth our fathers then she made us and in processe of time will of us ingender others and so proceed still to father posteritie in such sort that as the current as it were of our generation will never stay so the streame also of our corruption will run on still and be perpetuall whether it be the river Acheron or Cocitus as the Poets call them whereof the one signifieth privation of joy the other be tokeneth lamentation And even so that first and principall cause which made us to live and see the light of the sunne the same bringeth us to death and to the darkenesse of hell And hereof we may see an evident demonstration and resemblance by the very aire that compasseth us round about which in alternative course and by turnes representeth unto us the day and afterwards the night it induceth us to a similitude of life and death of waking and sleeping and therefore by good right is life called a fatall debt which we must duely satisfie and be acquit of for our forefathers entred into it first and we are to repay it willingly without grumbling sighing and groaning whensoever the creditour calleth for it unlesse we would be reputed unthankfull and unjust And verily I beleeve that nature seeing the uncertainty and shortnesse of our life would that the end thereof and the prefixed houre of death should be hidden from us for that shee knew it good expedient for us so to be for if it had bene fore-knowen of us some no doubt would have languished and fallen away before with griefe and sorrow dead they would have bene before their death came Consider now the troubles and sorrowes of this life how many cares and crosses it is subject unto certes if wee went about to reckon and number them wee would condemne it as most unhappie yea we would verifie and approove that strong opinion which some have held That it were farre better for a man to die than to live and therefore said the Poet Simonides Full feeble is all humane puissance Vaine is our care and painfull vigilance Mans life is even a short passage Paine upon paine is his arrivage And then comes death that spareth none So fierce so cruell without pardone Over our heads it doth depend And threats alike those that doe spend Their yeeres in vertue and goodnesse As in all sinne and wickednesse Likewise Pindarus For blessing one which men obtaine The gods ordaine them curses twaine And those they can not wisely beare Fooles as they be and will not heare Or thus They can not reach to life immortall Nor yet endure that which is mortall And Sophocles Of mortall men when one is dead Doth thine heart groane and eie teares shead Not knowing once what future gaine May come to him devoid of paine As for Euripides thus he saith In all thy knowledge canst thou find The true condition of mankinde I thinke well No For whence should come Such knowledge deepe to all or some Give eare and thou shalt learne of me The skill thereof in veritie All men ordain'd are once to die The debt is due and paied must be But no man know's if morow next Unto his daies shall be annext And whither fortune bend's her way Who can fore-see and justly say If it be so then that the condition of mans life is such indeed as these great clearks have delivered and described unto us is it not more reason to repute them blessed and happy who are freed from that servitude which they were subject to therein than to deplore and lament their estate as the most part of men doe through follie and ignorance Wise Socrates said that death resembled for all the world either a most deepe and sound sleepe or a voiage farre remote into forraine parts in which a man is long absent from his native countrey or else thirdly an utter abolition and finall dissolution both of soule and bodie Now take which of these three you will according to him there is no harme at all in death for thus he discoursed through them well and beginning at the first in this wise he reasoneth If death quoth he be a kinde of sleepe and those that sleepe feele no ill we must needs confesse likewise that the dead have no sense at all of harme neither is it necessarie to goe in hand to proove that the deepest sleepe is also the sweetest and
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
no insolencie some delight or disport profitable and procure laughter not accompanied with wanton reproofe and scornefull reproch but such as carieth a grace and pleasure with it for this is it wherein most part of feasts suffer shipwracke namely when they are misgoverned or not ordered as they ought to be But the part it is of a wise and prudent man to know how to avoid enmity and anger in the market-place gotten by avarice in the publicke halles of bodily exercises by contention and emulation in bearing offices and suing for them by ambition and vain-glory and last of all in feasts and banquets by such plaies and pastimes THE FIFTH QUESTION What is meant by this common proverbe Love teacheth musicke and poetrie THe question was mooved one day in Sossius Sesnerius house after certeine verses of Sappho were chanted how this saying of Euripides should be understood Love teacheth musicke marke when you will Tough one before thereof had no skill considering that the poet Philoxenus reporteth how Cyclops Polyphemus the giant cured his love by the sweet tongued muses Whereupon it was alledged that Love is of great power to moove a man for to be bold hardy and adventurous yea and ministreth a readinesse to attempt all novelties according as Plato named it the enterpriser of all things for it maketh him talkative and full of words who before was silent it causeth the bashfull and modest person to court it and put himselfe forward in all maner of service it is the meanes that an idle carelesse lubber and a negligent becommeth diligent and industrious and that which a man would most marvell at a miching hard-head and mechanicall penifather if he fall once to love doth relent and waxe soft as iron in the fire and so prooveth more liberall courteous and kinde than ever before so that this pleasant and merry proverbe seemeth not to be altogether ridiculous impertinent namely that Loves purse is tied knit up with a leeke or porret blade Moreover it was there spoken That Love resembled drunkennesse for that the one aswell as the other doth set folke in a heat it maketh them cheerfull merry and jocund and when as men be come once to that they fall soone to sing to rime and make verses And it is said that the poet Aeschylus composed his tragedies when he had well drunken and was heat with wine I had a grandfather also my selfe named Lamprias who seemed alwaies more learned witty and fuller of inventions yea and to surpasse himselfe in that kinde when he had taken his cups liberally and he was wont to say That at such a time he was like unto incense which being set on fire rendereth the sweet odour that it hath Moreover they that take exceeding great pleasure to see their loves are no lesse affected with joy when they do praise them than in looking upon them for love as it is in every thing a great pratler and full of words so especially and most of all in praises insomuch as lovers would willingly perswade others to that wherein they are themselves perswaded first namely that they love nothing but that which is perfect in goodnesse and beautie and others they would have to be witnesses with them of it This was it that induced the Lydian king Candaules to draw and traine Giges into his bed-chamber for to see the beautie of his wife naked for why such are willing to have the restimonie of others Loe what the reason is that if they write the praises of that which they love they embelish and adorne the same with verses songs and meeter like as images with golde to the end that the said praises might be heard more willingly and remembred better by more people for if they bestow a fighting-cocke an horse or any other thing whatsoever upon those whom they love their minde is principally that this their present should be faire and beautifull in it selfe afterwards that it be most gallantly and in best maner set out but above all in case they be disposed to flatter them in words or writings their chiefe care is that the same run roundly and pleasantly that they be also glorious and beautified with fine figures such as is ordinarily the stile of poets Then Sossius approving well of these reasons said moreover That it were well if some would take in hand to draw and gather arguments out of that which Theophrastus left in writing as touching musicke For long it is not quoth he since I read over that booke wherein he delivereth thus much after a divine maner That three principall causes or roots there be of musicke to wit paine or griefe pleasure or joy and the ravishment of the spirit of which three every one doth bend and turne the voice a little out of the ordinary tune for griefs and sorrowes usually bring with them moanes and plaints which quickly run into song which is the reason that we see oratours in the perorations or conclusions of their speeches the actours also in tragedies when they come to make their dolefull lamentations bring their voices downe gently to a kinde of melodie and by little and little tune them as it were thereto Also the great and vehement joies of the minde do lift up all the body of them especially who are any thing lightsome by nature yea and provoke the same to leape skip and clappe their hands observing a kinde of motion according to number and measure if they can not dance And otherwise in furious sort Like frantike folke they do disport They shake they wag they set out throat And send out many a foolish note according as Pindarus saith But in case they be somewhat more grave and staied than others when they finde themselves moved with such a passion of joy they let their voice onely go at liberty speaking aloud and singing sonnets But above all the ravishment of the spirit or that divine inspiration which is called Enthusiasmus casteth bodie mind voice and all far beyond the ordinary habit which is the cause that the furious and raging priests of Bacchus called Bacchae use rime meeter those also who by a propheticall spirit give answeres by oracle deliver the same in verse and few persons shall a man see starke mad but among their raving speeches they sing and say some verses This being so if you would now display love and view it well being unfolded and laied open abroad hardly shall you meet with another passion which hath either sharper dolours or joies more violent or greater exstasies and ravishments of the spirit lying as it were in a trance so that a man may discover in amorous persons a soule much like unto that city which Sophocles describeth Full of songs and incense sweet Of sighs and groanes in every street No marvell is it therefore nor a strange thing if love conteining comprehending in it selfe all those primitive causes of musicke to wit dolour joy and ravishment of spirit be
away but the pure and hot part thereof continueth behinde and pierceth forward still by reason of the subtiltie that it hath untill it be presented unto the nostrils But we receiving and admitting the principle of Plato affirme hold That there passeth from the eies an illuminate spirit which intermingleth it selfe with the cleerenesse and light that is about the bodies of visible objects by which meanes there ariseth an united composition from them twaine according in every point one with another but concorporate they be by measure and proportion for neither the one nor the orher ought to perish as being surmounted by his fellow but of twaine contempered together in just proportion there is made one puissance and meane facultie betweene Seeing then that the thing which passeth thorow the eie-sight of those persons who be farre stept in yeeres be it some fluxion lightsome spirit or bright beame call it what you will is in them weake and feeble there can not be a mixture and composition of it with the shining aire abroad but rather an extinction and suffocation unlesse they remove the letters a pretie way off from their eies and by that meanes temper and resolve the exceeding brightnesse of the light so as the same hit not upon their sight so long as it is too radiant and resplendant but measured and proportioned to the feeblenesse of their eies This also is the cause of that which befalleth to those living creatures which see best in the darke and feed themselves by night for their eie sight being naturally weake is offuscate and darkened by the great light of the day for that such weak raies proceeding from so tender a source or fountaine will not well sort agree with so strong and forcible light but their eies do send forth beames sufficient and proportionable to be mingled with a light more dim and duskish like as the light of a starre in the night season appeareth best and thus being incorporate with it it is cooperative to the performance of sense THE NINTH QUESTION What is the cause that clothes be better washed in fresh water than that of the sea THeon the grammarian upon a time when wee were feasted by Metrius Florus demaunded of Themistocles the philosopher how it came to passe that Chrysippus having made mention in many places of strange positions and paradoxes which seemed to goe against all reason as for example That salt fish or powdred flesh if it bee watered or washed in sea water becommeth more sweet also fleeces of wooll are lesse pliable if they bee plucked forcibly than if they be gently handled toosed and drawen in sunder Item that they who have fasted long chew their meat and eat more slowly at first than after they have eaten a little rendreth no reason of the one nor the other Unto whom Themistocles answered That Chrysippus proposed them by the way onely and as it were for example sake to advertise and admonish us for that we are ever ready to beleeve even without all reason any thing that carieth with it some small likelihood and probability and contrariwise to discredit that which at the first sight seemeth unlikely But what reason I pray you quoth he my good friend have you to search enquire into these matters For if you be so contemplative and inquisitive in finding out the causes of naturall things you need not to goe farre from that which belongeth to your profession but tel me why Homer bringeth in Nausicaa washing her clothes in the river not in the sea which was so neere unto her notwithstanding that salt sea water being hotter more transparent abstersive than fresh water of the river seemeth by all apparance better for to wash withall As touching this probleme quoth Theon long since hath Aristotle resolved it referring all to the terrestrity of the sea for that in sea water there is mingled much earthlie substance which causeth it to be so salt by reason whereof it beareth them up better who swim therein also it carieth a greater and heavier burden than fresh water the which yeeldeth and giveth way as it is more subtile lighter and feebler as being more simple and pure in which regard it pierceth sooner and by this penetrative facultie it scoureth and clenseth awaie all staines and spottes better than sea water and thinke you not that this reason of Aristotle carieth great apparence of truth Yes verily quoth I there is apparence and probabilitie indeed thereof but no truth at all for this I see ordinarily that the maner is to incrassate fresh water with ashes or gravel stones or if there be none to be had even with very dust as if the roughnesse of terrestriall substaunce were more meet and apt to clense all filthinesse which simple and cleere water cannot doe so well by reason of the thinne subtiltie thereof and because it is very weake and therefore it is not well and truely said that the thicknesse of the sea water hindreth his effect But the true cause is for that it is penetrant and piercing for this acrimonie doth unbinde and open the small pores and so draweth foorth the ordure outwardly whereas contrariwise that which is grosse and thicke is never good and meet for to wash withall but rather it maketh spots steines now is the sea fattie and oileous which may be a principal cause why it is not good to wash withall and that sea water is uncteous Aristotle himselfe beareth witnesse for even salt it selfe hath a certeine fattinesse and unctuosity in it by reason whereof it causeth those lampes to burne more cleere wherein it is put yea and sea water if it be sprinkled or dropped upon the flame will likewise be of a light fire and burne withall neither is there any water that burneth so much as that of the sea and in this regard I am of opinion that it is of all other water hottest howbeit there may bee another reason yeelded for considering that the end and consummation of washing is to drie those things wee hold most neat and cleane which are driest and therefore the moisture that doth wash must goe away together with the ordure like as the root of Ellebore is sent out of the body with the melancholike humour as for the humiditie which is sweet and fresh by reason of the lightnesse thereof the sunne draweth it up very quickly whereas the saltnesse of sea water sticketh fast to the small pores by reason of the asperitie thereof is hard to be dried Then Theon This that you say quoth he is nothing but very false for Aristotle in the same booke affirmeth that those who wash in the sea are sooner dry than they that wash in fresh water if they stand in the sunne He saith so indeed quoth I but I thought that you would sooner beleeve Homer who holdeth the contrarie For Ulysses after he had suffred shipwracke mette with ladie Nausicaa All terrible and fearefull to be seene For
well knowen in manner to all the world and none there is but his eares resound againe with this that in the honorable funerals of Patroclus the same order of combats was precisely observed and the poet keeping the same order still and never missing it hath brought in Achilles speaking unto good Nestor in this manner Heere father old I give to thee This gift of meere gratuitee For now with fist thou maist not fight To wrestle still thou hast no might Thou canst no more the javelin launce Nor in the race thy selfe advaunce And anon he inferreth the aged grey-beard answering with along traine of words as the maner is of these old folke after this sort The time was when at buffet fight the prize I wonne in field And with my first made Clitomede sir Oenops sonne to yeeld Ancaeus the Pleuronien in wrestling gave me place And Iphiclus by foot-manship I overranne in race Afterwards in another place he speaketh of Ulysses challenging the Phaeocians to combat in this wise At buffets dry with good hard clutched fist At wrestling or at running if you list But of Alcinous making a kinde of excuse and in sort condemning himselfe in these words At buffets hard we fight not well Ne yet in wrestling doe excell But swift of foot and light we are And runne a course with you we dare Thus you may see his order he changeth not upon any occasion or occurrence presented neither rashly and as it came into his head now in one sort and then in another but folowing from point to point as it were by a certeine rule and prescript what was the use in those daies and what was done then he keepeth himselfe to the same method according as they likewise observe still in the said auncient order After that my brother had finished his speech I said That in mine advice he had spoken very well and truely to the point but yet for all that I could not conceive the reason of the said order and some other were there present who thought it unlikely and were not perswaded that in case of combat and atchieving feats of activitie for victorie either fighting with fists or wrestling should goe before running and therefore they requested me to search farther into the matter and to fetch the reason thereof from the verie original whereupon I set in hand presently and extempore spake to this effect That I thought all these combats to be the very representations and exercise of warfare for proofe whereof the custome was and is at this day after that these combats be performed to bring into the place a foot-man in complet harneis and armed at all pieces as it were to witnesse that this is the end whereunto tend all these exercises of the body the contentions also and aemulations for to gaine the prize and the priviledge graunted unto the victours when they returned with triumph to those cities where they were borne namely to make some breach in the walles and to throw downe some part thereof the mystery and meaning whereof is thus much that the walles of a citie serve in small stead if there be no men in it who are able to fight and know how to winne the victorie In Lacedaemon they that once had gained the prize at these sacred and crowned games by a speciall priviledge of honour were allowed a certeine place in the battell to be raunged neere unto the kings person and there to fight and of all living creatures there is none but the horse onely that can obteine the crowne in such games for that he alone of all beasts is by nature framed and by discipline trained to accompany men in battels and with them to fight now if this be true and to the purpose We observe moreover quoth I that the first and principall worke of those who fight in the field is to strike the enemie and to ward his blowes the second is when they be come to close and to grapple with hand-gripes to thrust and assay how to overturne and lay one another under-foot which by report was the vauntage that our countrimen being well practised in the feat of wrestling had over the Spartans at the battel of Leuctres whereby they overthrew them bare them to the ground this also was the causethat Aeschylus the poet in one place speaking of a valiant warrior nameth him A wrestler stout and tried in field To fight it out with sword and shield And Sophocles in one of his tragedies speaking likewise of the Trojanes reporteth thus much of them in these tearmes They love great horses for to sit as valiant men at armes Bowes borned at both ends they bend and draw with strength of armes They fight so close they catch such hold and gripe fast with hands twaine That in their wresiling all their shields resound and ring againe The third is this when all is done either to flie and runne away apace if they be vanquished or else to follow hard in chase if they be conquerors By good right therefore the fight with fists goeth first wrestling followeth in the second place and running commeth in the last for that buffetting representeth the charging of the enemie and the avoiding of his recharge wrestling may be compared with the violent buckling and conflict pel-mell in the medly and by running they learne how to pursue or to escape by good footmanship THE SIXTH QUESTION Why the pine sapine or pitch tree and such other as yeela rosin will not abide to be grassed in the scutchion or by way of inoculation SOclarus feasting us upon a time within his orchards which were well watered and environed all about with the river Cephisus shewed unto us trees carying armes and braunches of sundry sorts after a very strange manner and all by the meanes of a kinde of grassing in the budde called inoculation for there saw wee olive boughes growing out of lentiske or mastick trees pomgranats out of myrtles oakes there were which put foorth faire pirries or peare-trees and plane-trees that admitted and adopted apple trees figge-trees also which were grafted with mulbery impes and coins other mixtures there were besides of wilde plants so ramed and made gentle that they bare frute whereupon some other of the guests began to jest and be merry with Soclarus saying That he nourished certeine kinds of beasts more monstrous than the fabulous Sphinges or Chimaeraes of the poets But Craton proposed this question What the cause might be that those trees onely which be oileous and full of rosin admit not any such mixtures and compositions For never shall you see pine tree that beareth the nuts cypres tree pitch tree or sapine to mainteine or feede the graffe of a tree different in kinde Then Philo there is quoth he one maxime or principle held among the learned and the same confirmed by the experience of husbandmen That oile is an enemie to all plants and there is not a readier way to kill what tree soever a man
drunkennesse nor as an enemie to wine who directly calleth wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and surnameth himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereupon but in mine opinion like as they who love wine if they cannot meet with the liquor of the grape use a counterfet wine or barley broth called beere ale or els a certeine drinke made of apples named cydres or els date-wines even so he that gladly would in winter season weare a chaplet of vine branches seeing it altogether naked and bare of leaves is glad of the Ivie that resembleth it for the body or wood thereof is likewise writhed and crooked and never groweth upright but shutteth out heere and there to and fro at a venture the soft fattie leaves also after the same maner grow dispersed about the branches without all order besides all this the very berries of the Ivie growing thick clustered together like unto greene grapes when they begin to turne doe represent the native forme of the vine and yet albeit the same yeeldeth some helpe and remedie against drunkennesse we say it is by occasion of heat in opening the pores and small passages in the body for to let out the fumes of wine and suffer them to evaporate and breathe forth or rather by her heat helpeth to concoct and digest it that for your sake good Tryphon Bacchus may still continue a physician At these words Tryphon staied a while and made no answere as thinking with himselfe and studying how to reply upon him But Eraton calling earnestly upon every one of us that were of the yoonger sort spurned us forward to aide and assist Tryphon our advocate and the patton of our flower-chaplets or els to plucke them from our heads and weare them no longer And Ammonius assured us for his part that if any one of us would take upon him to answere he would not recharge againe nor come upon him with a rejoinder Then Tryphon himselfe moved us to say somewhat to the question WHereupon I began to speake and said That it belonged not to me but rather unto Tryphon for to proove that Ivie was colde considering that he used it much in physicke to coole and binde as being an astringent medicine but as touching that which ere-while was alledged namely that the Ivie berie doth inebriat if it be steeped in wine it is no found to be true and the accident which it worketh in those who drinke it in that maner can not well be called drunkennesse but rather an alienation of the mind and trouble of the spirit like to that effect which henbane worketh many other plants which mightily disquiet the braine and transport our senses and understanding As for the tortuositie of the bodie and branches it maketh nothing to the purpose and point in hand for the works and effects against nature can not 〈◊〉 from faculties and powers naturall and pieces of wood do twine and bend crooked because fire being neere unto them draweth and drieth up forcibly all the native and kindly humour where as the inward and naturall heat would rather ferment enterteine and augment it But consider better upon the matter and marke rather whether this writhed-bunching forme of the Ivie wood as it groweth and the basenesse bearing still downward and tending to the ground be not an argument rather of weaknesse and bewray the coldnesse of the bodie being glad as it were to make many rests and staies like unto a pilgrim or wayfaring traveller who for wearinesse and faintnesse sitteth him downe and reposeth himselfe many times in his way and ever and anon riseth againe and beginneth to set forward in regard of which feeblenesse the Ivie hath alwaies need of some prop or other to stay it selfe by to take hold of to claspe about and to cling unto being not able of her owne power to rise for want of naturall heat whose nature is to mount aloft As touching Snow that it thaweth and passeth away so soone the cause is the moisture and softnesse of the Ivie leafe for so wee see that water dispatcheth and dissolveth presently the laxitie and spongeous raritie thereof being as it is nothing els but a gathering and heaping of a number of small bubbles couched thrust together and hereof it commeth that in over-moist places sobbed and soaked with water snow melteth assoone as in places exposed to the sun Now for that it hath leaves alwaies upon it and the same as Empedocles saith firme and fast this proceedeth not of heat no more than the fall and shedding of leaves every yeere is occasioned by colde And this appeareth by the myrtle tree and the herbe Adiantum that is to say Maidenhaire which being not hot plants but colde are alwaies leaved and greene withall and therefore some are of opinion that the holding of the leaves is to be ascribed to an equality of temperature but Empedocles over and besides attributeth it to a certeine proportion of the pores thorow which the sap and nourishment doth passe and pierce qually into the leaves in such fort as it runneth sufficiently for to mainteine them which is not so in those trees which lose their leaves by reason of the laxitie or largenesse of the said pores and holes above and the straightnesse of them beneath whereby as these doe not send any nourishment at all so the other can hold and reteine none but that little which they received they let goe all at once like as we may observe in certeine canals or trenches devised for to water gardens and orchards if they be not proportionable and equall for where they be well watred and have continuall nourishment and the same in competent proportion there the trees hold their owne and remaine firme alwaies greene and never die But the Ivie tree planted in Babylon would never grow and refused there to live Certes it was well done of her and she shewed great generositie that being as she was a devoted vassaile to the god of Boeotia and living as it were at his table she would not goe out of her owne countrey to dwell among those Barbarians shee followed not the steps of king Alexander who entred alliance and made his abode with those strange and forren nations but avoided their acquaintance all that ever she could and withstood that transmigration from her native place but the cause thereof was not heat but colde rather because shee could not endure the temperature of the aire so contrary to her owne for that which is semblable and familiar never killeth any thing but receiveth nourisheth and beareth it like as drie ground the herbe thyme how hot soever the soile be Now for the province about Babylon they say the aire in all that tract is so soultrie hot so stuffing so grosse and apt to stifle and stop the breath that many inhabitants of the wealthier sort cause certeine bits or bagges of leather to be filled with water upon which as upon featherbeds they lie to sleepe and coole their
thus punished **** The end of this discourse is wanting as also the discussing and deciding of the other five questions proposed in the forefront of this fourth booke THE FIFTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR TABLE-QUESTIONS The Contents or Summarie 1 WHerefore we willingly heare and see them who counterfeit those that be either angry or sorowfull but such as be wroth or heavie inded we love not either to heare or see 2 That there was an ancient game of prize performed in Poetrie 3 Why the Pitch-tree is consecrated to Neptune and Bacchus also that in the beginning men used to crowne with brances of the said tree those who wan the prize at Isthmicke solemnitie of sacred games afterwards with a garland of smallach and now againe they begin to take up the crowning of them with Pitch-tree 4 What is the meaning of these words in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5 Of those that invite many to supper 6 What is the cause of sitting pent and with streight roome at the beginning of supper but at large afterward toward the end 7 Of those who are said to eie-bite or to bewitch 8 What is the reason that the poet called an Apple-tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why Empedocles named Apples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9 What is the reason that a Fig-tree being it selfe in taste most sharpe and biting bringeth foorth a fruit exceeding sweet 10 Who are they that are said in the common proverbe to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE FIFTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or table-questions The Proëme WHat your opinion is at this present ô Sossius Sinecio as touching the pleasures of the soule and bodie I wot not For that now many a mountaine high And shady forest stand betweene The roaring seas likewise do lie So as to part us barres they beene for you seemed not greatly long agoe to approove and allow their sentence who holde That there is nothing properly and particularly delightsome nothing pleasant unto the soule nothing at all that it desireth or joieth in of it selfe but that it liveth onely according to the life of the bodie laughing as it were and sporting with it in the pleasant affections thereof and contrariwise mourning at the heavie passions afflicting it as if the soule were no other thing but a very matter apt to take the impression of sundry formes or a mirror to receive the images and resemblances of those objects which are presented unto the flesh and body for as by many reasons a man may easily refute the blind and illiberall falsitie of this opinion so by this especially that after the table is taken away and supper done men of learning and knowledge incontinently fall to discourse and devise together as it were at a banquet delighting and solacing one another with pleasant talke wherein the bodie hath no part at all unlesse it be very little and a farre off which experience beareth witnesse that this is the provision of daintie cates and delicate pleasures laid up peculiarly for the soule and that these be the onely delights indeed of the minde whereas those other be but bastards and strangers infected with the societie of the bodie like as therefore nurses whiles they give pappes and panades unto their little babes have some small pleasure in feeding them by tasting the same in their owne mouthes before but after they have filled their infants bellies and brought them a sleepe so as they crie no more then they goe themselves to their owne refection meet for them they eate and drinke and make good cheere even so the soule doth participate with the desires and appetites of the bodie in manner of a nurse attending upon it serving it and framing herselfe in some sort to do it pleasure and satisfie the necessities thereof but after that the body is sufficiently served laied at rest and repose then being delivered of her obsequious service and businesse about the bodie she betaketh herselfe from thenceforward unto her owne pleasures and delights making her repast and taking her solace in discourses of learning in good letters in sciences and histories and in seeking to heare somewhat and know more still of that which is singular What should a man say any more of this considering and seeing as he doth that even base mechanicall and unlettered fellowes after supper ordinarily withdraw their minds and employ the same upon other pleasures and recreations farre remooved from the body proposing darke riddles aenigmaticall questions and intricate propositions of names comprised under notes of certeine numbers hardly to be assoiled or gessed at and after all this come in banquets which make way unto plaiers jesters counterfet pleasants giving roome to Menander and the actours of his comedies all which sports and pastimes are not devised for to ease and take away any paine of the body ne yet to procure some gentle motion and kinde contentment in the flesh but onely for that the speculative and studious part of the minde which naturally is in every one of us doth demaund call for some particular pleasure and recreation of her owne when wee are once discharged of the businesse and offices whereabout we are emploied for the body THE FIRST QUESTION What is the cause that willingly we heare and see those who counterfet them that be angrie or sorrowfull but love not to heare or see the parties themselves in those passions OF such matters there passed many discourses when you were present with us at Athens at what time as the comedian actor Strato flourished for hee was then in so great name and reputation that there was no talke but of him But one time above the rest wee were invited and feasted by Boëthus the Epicurean and with us there supped many more of that sect now after supper the fresh remembrance of the comedie which we had seene acted gave occasion unto us being students and lovers of learning to fall into a discourse and question about the cause why we cannot abide but are greatly discōtented to heare the voices of those who are angrie sorrowful timorous or affrighted and contrariwise what the reason is that they who counterfet these passions and represent their words their jestures and behaviour doe much delight and please us And verily all in manner there in place opined the same and were in one song for they gave this reason and said Inasmuch as he who counterfeiteth those pastimes is better than he who suffereth them indeed in regard that he who is not affected himselfe excelleth the other we knowing so much take pleasure and are delighted but I albeit that I set foot as men say in the daunce of another said thus much That we being naturally framed for to discourse by reason and to love things that savour of wit and be artificially done affect and esteeme those who have a dexteritie therein if a thing succeed accordingly for like as the Bee delighting in sweetnesse flieth from flower to flower seeking busily
words of mine that I meant to alledge old testimonies and to cite stale and triviall examples for proofe of the cause to wit the funerals of Oeolycus the Thessalian and of Amphidamas the Chalcidian at which Homer and Hesiodus made verses one against another for the victorie as stories make mention but casting by and rejecting all these evidences so much tossed and divnlged already by Grammarians and namely the funerall obsequies and honours done to Patroclus in Homer where they read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say launcers of darts but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say makers of orations and eloquent oratours as if Achilles had proposed rewards and prizes for orations leaving I say these matters I affirmed That when Acastus celebrated the funerals for his father Pelias he exhibited a combat of poets for the best game wherein Sibylla went away with the victory Hereat many stood up and opposed themselves against me demanding a reall caution at my hands for to make good that which I had averred for that it seemed unto them a very strange narration and incredible but as good hap was I called to remembrance that I had read so much in the Chronicle of Lybia cōpiled by Acesander where the story is put downe And this booke quoth I is not in every mans hand to reade howbeit I thinke verily that the most of you have beene carefull to peruse those records which Polemon the Athenian a diligent writer and a learned antiquarie who hath not beene idle and sleepie in seeking out the antiquities and singularities of Greece hath set downe in writing as concerning the treasures of the city Delphos for there you shal find written that in the treasurie of the Sicyonians there was a golden booke given and dedicated by Aristomache the poetresse of Erythraea after she had obteined the victorie gotten the garland at the solemnitie of the Isthmicke games Neither have you any reason quoth I to esteeme Olympia and the games thereof with such admiration above the rest as if it were another fatall desteny immutable and which can not be changed nor admit alteration in the plaies there exhibited as for the Pythian solemnitie three or foure extraordinarie games it had respective unto good letters and the Muses adjoined and admitted to the rest the Gymnicke exercises and combats performed by men naked as they were at first ordeined so they continued for the most part still and hold on at this day but at the Olympian games all save onely running in the race were taken up afterwards and counted as accessories likewise there have bene many of them which at first were instituted since put downe and abolished namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an exercise and feat of activitie when the concurrent mounted on horsebacke in the mids of his course leapeth downe to the ground taketh his horse by the bridle and runneth on foot with him a full gallop as also another called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a course with a chariot drawen by two mules moreover there is taken away now the coronet ordeined for children that atchieved the victorie in Pentathlus that is to say five severall feats to be short much innovation change and altering there hath beene in this festivall solemnitie from the first institution but I feare me that you will call upon me againe for new pledges and cautions to proove and justifie my words if I should say that in olde time at Pisae there were combats of sword-fencers fighting at the sharpe to the uttrance man to man where they that were vanquished or yeelded themselves died for it and if my memorie failed mee that I could not bring out mine author and name him unto you I doubt you would laugh and make a game of mee as if I had overdrunke my selfe and taken one cup to many THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that the pitch-tree is held consecrated unto Neptune and Bacchus And that in the beginning the victours at the Isthmian games were crowned with a garland of pine-tree branches but afterwards with a chaplet of smallage or parsley and now of late with the foresaid pitch-tree THere was a question propounded upon a time Why the manner was to crowne those with pine or pitch-tree branches who gained the prize at the Isthmick games For so it was that during the said festivall solemnity Lucanius the high priest made a supper at Corinth at his owne house and feasted us where Praxiteles the geometrician a great discourser told us a poeticall tale and namely that the body of Melicerta was found cast up driven upon the body of a pine-tree by the sea at a full tide for that there was a place not farre from Megara named Cales Dromos that is to say the race of the faire lady whereas the Megarians doe report that dame Ino carrying her yoong babe within her armes ranne and cast her-selfe headlong into the sea But it is a common received opinion quoth he that the pine is apropriat for the making of coronets in the honour of Neptune whereupon when as Lucanius the high-priest added moreover and said That the said tree being consecrated unto Bacchus it was no marvell nor absurditie if it were dedicared also to the honour of Melicerta Occasion was taken to search into the cause wherefore the auncients in old time held the said tree sacred unto Bacchus and Neptune both For mine owne part I saw no incongruitie therein for that these two gods be the lords and rulers over one genetall principle or element to wit humidity or moisture considering also that they generally in manner all sacrifice unto Neptune under the surname 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say protectour of plants and unto Bacchus likewise by the name or addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the president over trees and yet it may be said that the pine more particularly apperteineth not to Neptune not as Apollodorus is of opinion because it is a tree that loveth to grow by the sea-side or for that it delighteth in the windes as the sea doth for some there be of this minde but especially in this regard that it affoordeth good timber and other stuffe for building of ships for both it and also other trees which for their affinitie may goe for her sisters to wit pitch-trees larike-trees and cone-trees furnish us with their wood most proper to flote upon the sea and with their rosin also and pitch to calke and calfret without which composition be the joints never so good and close they are to no purpose in the sea as for Bacchus they consecrated the pitch-tree unto him for that pitch doth give a pleasant seasoning unto wine for looke where these trees doe naturally grow the vine there by report yeeldeth pleasant wine which Theophrastus imputeth to the heat of the soile for commonly the pitch tree groweth in places of marle or white clay which by nature
who are feeble and faint by this Bulimia not for that such have need of sustenance for let it be never so little that they take they are revived and refreshed thereby but because it fetcheth the spirits againe and recalleth the power and strength of nature that was going away Now that this Bulimos or Bulimia is a faintnesse of the heart and no hunger at all appeereth evidently by an accident that we observe in those draught beasts whereof we spake before subject to this infirmitie for the smell of figges and apples worketh not in them any defect or want of nourishment but causeth rather a gnawing in the mouth of the maw a plucking I say and contention in the brim of the stomacke As for me on the otherside although I thought these reasons indifferently well alledged yet I was of opinion that if I went another way to worke and argued from a contrarie principle I could mainteine a probabilitie and uphold that all this might proceed rather by way of condensation than rarefaction for the spirit of breath that passeth from the snowe in manner of subtile aire is the most cutting edge and finest decision or scale comming from the concretion of that meteor or congealed substance which I wot not bow is of so keene and piercing a nature that it will strike thorough not flesh onely but vessels also of silver and brasse for we see that they are not able to conteine and hold snowe in them but when it commeth to melt it consumeth away and covereth the outside of such vessels glazed over with a most subtill moisture as cleere as I se which no doubt the said spirit breath aire or edge call it what you will left behinde it when it passed through those insensible pores of the said vessels this spirit then thus penetrative and quicke as a flame when it smiteth upon their bodies who goe in snowe seemeth to scorch and sindge the superficiall outside of the skinne in cutting and making way thorough into the flesh in manner of fire whereupon ensueth a great rarefaction of the body by meanes whereof the inward heat flying foorth meeteth with the cold spirit or aire without in the superficies which doth extinguish and quench it quite and thereby yeeldeth a kinde of small sweat or dew standing with drops upon the outside and so the naturall strength of the bodie is resolved and consumed now if a man at such a time stirre not but rest still there is not much naturall heat of the bodie that passeth thus away but when motion by walking or otherwise doth quickly turne the nutriment of the bodie into heat and withall the said heat flieth outward thorough the skinne thus rarefied how can it otherwise be but all at once there should ensue a great ecclipse as it were and generall defect of the naturall powers And that true it is that the same doth not alwaies close knit and binde together the bodie but otherwise melt and rarefie the same it appeereth manifestly by this experience that in sharpe and nipping winters many times plates or plummets of leade are knowen to sweat and melt this observation also that many do fall into this infirmitie called Bulimia who are not hungrie doth argue rather a defluxion and dilatation than a constipation of the bodie which no doubt in Winter is rarefied by that subtiltie of the spirit whereof I spake and especially when travell and stirring doth sharpen and subtiliat the heat whithin the body for being thus made thin and wearied besides it flieth forth in great abundance and so is dispersed thorowout the body As for those figs and apples it is like that they do exhale and evaporate such a spirit as doth subtiliate and dissipate the naturall heat of labouring beasts that carrie them for it standeth by good reason in nature that as some be revived and resreshed with one thing and some with another so contrariwise some things do dissipate the spirits in one and others in another THE NINTH QUESTION Why the poet Homer to other liquors giveth proper epithites and attributes and oile onely he calleth moist THere was a great question also another time What might the reason be that there being so many liquors as there are the poet Homer is wont to adorne every one of thē with their severall and proper epithits and namely to call milke white hony yellow and wine red but oile alone he ordinarily noteth by an accident common unto them all and tearmeth it moist to which this answere was made That as a thing is named Most sweet which is altogether sweet and Most white which is altogether white now you must understand that a thing is said to be such and such altogether when there is nothing mixed with it of a contrary nature even so we are to call that Moist which hath not one jot of drinesse mingled among and such a qualitie doth properly agree unto oile for first and formost the polished smoothnesse that it hath doth shew that the parts thereof be all uniforme and even thorowout and feele it wheresoever you will you shall finde it equall in every respect and one part accordeth with another so as the whole agreeth to withstand both mixture and colde besides to the eie sight it yeeldeth a most pure and cleere mirror to behold the face in for why there is no roughnesse nor ruggednesse in it to dissipate the reflexion of the light but by reason of the humiditie or moisture thereof all the light how little soever it be doth rebound and returne againe upon the sight whereas contrariwise milke alone of all other liquors sendeth backe none of these images and resemblances like as a mirror or looking-glasse doth for that it hath a great deale of terrestriall substance in it moreover of all liquid matters oile onely maketh the least noise when it is stirred or shaken for that it is so moist thorowout whereas in other liquors the parts which be hard and earthy in running flowing and moving do encounter smite and hit one another and so consequently make a noise by reason of their weight and soliditie and that which more is it remaineth simple of it selfe without admitting any mixture or composition with any other liquor whatsoever for that it is so firme compact or fast and good reason for it hath no wandering holes here and there betweene terrene and hard parts which might receive any other substance within moreover all the parts of oile for that they be so like one unto the other in a continued union do joine passing well together however they will not sort with other liquors and by reason of this tenuitie and continuitie when oile doth froth or fome it suffereth no winde or spirit to enter in furthermore this humiditie of oile is the cause that it feedeth and noutisheth fire for mainteined it is with nothing that is not moist and this is the onely liquor that may be burned as we may see evidently in the wood which
that a stone hath beene ingendred in the paunch or guts and yet good reason it were that moisture there should congeale or gather to a stone as it doth within the bladder if true it were that all our drinke descended into the belly and the guts by passing through the stomacke onely but it seemeth that the stomacke incontinently when we begin to drinke sucketh and draweth out of that liquor which passeth along by it in the wezill pipe as much onely as is needfull and requisit for it to mollifie and to convert into a nutritive pap or juice the solid meat and so it leaveth no liquid excrement at all whereas the lungs so soone as they have distributed both spirit and liquor from thence unto those parts that have need thereof expell and send out the rest into the bladder Well to conclude more likelihood there is of truth by farre in this than in the other and yet peradventure the truth in deed of these matters lieth hidden still and incomprehensible in regard whereof it is not meet to proceed so rashly and insolently to pronounce sentence against a man who as well for his owne sufficiency as the singular opinion of the world is reputed the prince and chiefe of al philosophers especially in so uncerteine a thing as this and in defence whereof there may bee so many reasons collected out of the readings and writings of Plato THE SECOND QUESTION What is meant in Plato by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why those seeds which in sowing light upon oxe hornes become hard and not easie to be concoted THere hath beene alwaies much question and controversie about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who or what is so called for certeine it is that seeds falling upon ox hornes according to the common opinion yeeld frute hard and not easily concocted whereupon by waie of Metaphor a stubborne and stiffe-necked person men use to tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as touching the cause why such graine or seeds hitting against the hornes of an ox should come to be so untoward And many times refused I have yea and denied my friends to search into the thing the rather for that Theophrastus hath rendred so darke and obscure a reason raunging it among many other examples which he hath gathered and put downe in writing of strange and wonderfull effects whereof the cause is hard to be found namely That an henne after that she hath laid an egge turneth round about and with a festure or straw seemeth to purifie and halow her-selfe and the egge also that the sea-calfe or seale consumeth the pine and yet swalloweth it not downe semblably that stagges hide their hornes within the ground and burie them likewise that if one goat hold the herbe Eryngium that is to say sea-holly in his mouth all the rest of the flocke will stand still Among these miraculous effects Theophrastus I say hath put downe the seeds falling upon the hornes of an ox a thing knowen for certeine to be so but whereof the cause is most difficult if not impossible to be delivered But at a supper in the citie Delphi as I sat one day certeine of my familiar friends came upon me in this maner that seeing not onely according to the common saying From bellie full best counsell doth arise And surest plots men in that case devise but also we are more ready with our questions and lesse to seeke for answeres when as wine is in our heads causing us to be forward in the one and resolute in the other they would request me therefore to say somewhat unto the foresaid matter in question howbeit I held off still as being well backed with no bad advocates who tooke my part and were ready to defend my cause and by name Euthydemus my colleague or companion with me in the sacerdotall dignitie and Patrocleas my sonne in law who brought foorth and alledged many such things observed aswell in agriculture as by hunters of which sort is that which is practised by those who take upon them skill in the foresight and prevention of haile namely that it may be averted and turned aside by the bloud of a mould-warpe or linnen ragges stained with the monethly purgations of women Item that if a man take the figs of a wilde fig-tree and tie them to a tame fig-tree of the orchard it is a meanes that the fruit of the said fig-tree shall not fall but tarrie on and ripen kindly also that stags weepe salt teares but wilde bores shed sweet drops from their eies when they be taken For if you will set in hand to seeke out the cause hereof quoth Euthydemus then presently you must render a reason also of smallach and cumin of which the former if it be troden under foot and trampled on in the comming up men have an opinion it will grow and prosper the better and as for the other they sow it with curses and all the fowlest words that can be devised and so it will spring and thrive best Tush quoth Florus these be but toies and ridiculous mockeries to make sport with but as touching the cause of the other matters above specified I would not have you to reject the inquisition thereof as if it were incomprehensible Well quoth I now I have found a medicine and remedie which if you do use you shall bring this man with reason to our opinion that you also your selfe may solve some of these questions propounded It seemeth unto me therefore that it is colde that causeth this rebellious hardnesse aswell in wheat and other corne as also in pulse namely by pressing and driving in their solid substance untill it be hard againe for heat maketh things soft and easie to be dissolved and therefore they do not well and truely in alledging against Homer this versicle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The yeere not field Doth beare and yeeld For surely those fields and grounds which are by nature hot if the aire withall affoord a kinde and seasonable temperature of the weather bring forth more tender fruits and therefore such corne or seed which presently and directly from the husbandmans hands lighteth upon the ground entring into it and there covered finde the benefit both of the heat and moisture of the soile whereby they soone spurt and come up whereas those which as they be cast do hit upon the hornes of the beasts they meet not with that direct positure or rectitude called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Hesiodus commendeth for the best but falling downe I wot not how and missing of their right place seem rather to have bene flung at a venture than orderly sowen therfore the cold comming upon them either marreth and killeth them outright or els lighting upon their naked husks causeth them to bring fruit that proveth hard and churlish as drie as chips and such as will not be made tender sidow without they
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
unto Ammonius of this argument namely to discourse of verses in season and to good purpose pronounced saying That herein there appeared not onely a good grace but also ensued otherwhiles great commoditie thereof And presently every mans mouth was full of that Rhapsodian poet who at the marriage of king Ptolemaus when he espoused his owne sister and was thought herein to commit a strange and unlawfull act began his song with these verses out of Homer Great Jupiter to Juno then did call His sister deere and wedded wife withall as also another who being to sing after supper before king Demetrius at what time as he sent unto him his sonne philip being as yet a very infant came readily forth with these verses This childe see that you well bring up in vertuous discipline As fits the race of Hercules and eke a sonne of mine Anaxarchus likewise when Alexander at supper time flung apples at him arose from the boord reharsing this verse out of Euripides Some god one day in veritie By mortall hand shall wounded be But most excellently of all others a Corinthian lad who being led away prisoner as the citie was forced and lost when Mummius taking a survey of those children who were free borne commanded as many of them as had any knowledge in literature for to write before him wrate extempore these verses Thrice and foure times those Greeks were blest I say Whose hap it was to die before this day And by report Mummius tooke such ruth and compassion heereat that he shed teares and for this youthes sake set at libertie as many as were of his kinred and alliance There was remembred also the wife of Theodorus the tragedian who when the time drew neere that such poets and actours were to strive for the best game would not suffer him to lie with her but after he was returned home from the theater where he had gotten the victorie and gained the prize when he came toward her she kissed and welcomed him home with these verses O noble sonne of Agamemnon now To do with me your will good leave have you Semblably some there were in place who heereupon inferred many other verses as unfitly alledged and altogether out of season for that it was not thought amisse or unprofitalbe both to know the same and to beware thereby and namely that which is reported concerning Pompeius Magnus when he returned from a great expedition and warlike voiage unto whom his little daughter was presented by her schoolemaster and for to shew unto him how she had profited in learning when a booke was brought unto her the said schoolemaster opened it and turned to this place for her to reade which beginneth thus From warre thou art returned safe and sound Would God thou hadst bene there 〈◊〉 on ground Also when uncerteine newes without any head or author was brought unto Cassius Longinus that his sonne was dead in a strange countrey so as he could neither know the trueth nor yet do away the doubtfull suspition therefore there came an ancient senatour to visit him and said What Longinus will you not contemne and neglect this vaine bruit and headlesse rumor raised no doubt by some malicious person as if you neither had knowen nor read this sentence No publicke fame nor vox popli Was ever knowen in vaine to die As for him who when a Grammarian in the isle of Rhodes called for a theame to varie upon and to shew thereby his learning before the people in a frequent theater gave him this verse Avaunt out of this isle I do thee reed Most wicked wreth that lives and that with speed it is hard to say whether he did it of purpose contumeliously to deride this poore Grammapion or committed an errour against his will But to conclude this discourse of verses inserted aptly and otherwise alledged did very pretily appease the stirre and tumult among the regents and masters of art abovesaid THE SECOND QUESTION AND THE THIRD What is the cause why Alpha or A was raunged first of all other letters as also what proportion the number of vowels and semi-vowels hath beene composed and ordeined WHereas the use and custome was at Athens during the foresaid feasts in the honour of the Muses that lots should be carried round about the city and they that chaunced by drawing to be matched together propound one unto another questions of learning Ammonius fearing lest some professours of one and the same art should be committed in opposition together tooke this order and ordeined that without any lottery at all a Geometrician might propose a question unto a Grammarian the Rhetorician unto a Musician and so reciprocally answere them againe by turnes Heereupon Hermias the Geometrician put foorth first unto Protogenes the Grammarian a question urging him to tell the cause why A was set formost of all the letters who rendred unto him a reason which goeth for currant in the schooles For this is certeine quoth he that vowels may claime by a most just title the place before all consonants whether they be mute or semi-vowels and seeing that of vowels some be long others short and a third sort doubtfull and as they say of a double time these of the last kinde ought by good right to be esteemed of greater woorth and puissance than the rest and of them that is to have and hold the place of a capitainnesse which in composition and making of a diphthong goeth alwaies before the other two and never commeth behinde and that is Alpha which nether secondeth Jöta or Upsilon so as that it will in such composition yeeld or helpe to make one syllable of those twaine but in a kinde of anger and indignation leape backe againe unto her proper place contrariwise set Alpha with whether you will of the other two so as she may goe before she will accord very well and both together will make one entire sillable as we may see in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an infinit number of others thus in these three respects shee hath the victorie and carieth the prize like unto those champions who are winners in Quinquectium or the five severall games for she hath the vantage above the multitude of other letters in that she is a vowell above vowels because she hath two times as being one while long and anotherwhile short andeven of these double timed vowels she hath the preeminence by reason that she standeth alwaies before and never followeth or commeth behinde others When Protogenes had made an end of his speech Ammonius called unto me by name and said How now Plutarch wil not you aid Cadmus being as you are a Boeotian as he was for it is said that he placed Alpha before all other letters for that Alpha in the Phaenician language signifieth a beefe reputed amōng them not in the second or third place according to Hesiodus but even the very first and principall of necessarie
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
seemeth unto me that these stomacks differ in nothing from them who holding out their clutched fists play at handy dandy aske whether they hold in their close hand even or odde Then Protogenes arose and calling unto me by name What aile we quoth he and what is come unto us that we suffer these Rhetoricians and oratours thus to brave it out and to mocke others being demaunded nothing in the meane time nor put to it for to contribute their skot and part unto this conference and these discourses unlesse peradventure they will come in with this plea that they have no part of this table talke in drinking wine as being those who admire and folow Demosthenes who in all his life time never dranke wine This is not the cause quoth I but the reason is because we have spurred them no questions but if you have no better thing to aske I will propose unto them a case of repugnancie in contrarie lawes or conditions and the same drawen out of Homer THE THIRTEENTH QUESTION A question as touching repugnant lawes taken out of the third Rhapsodie or booke of Homers Ilias ANd what is that case demaunded he againe I will tell you quoth I and withall propose it unto these here and therefore let them give attentive eare Alexander Paris in the third booke of Homers Ilias giveth defiance to Menelaus and chalengeth him to a single fight with certaine conditions protesting in this maner Let us betweene both armies meet without My selfe I meane and Menelaus stout To try in single fight upon this plaine To which of us by right shall appertaine Dame Helene with her goods For looke who shall Make good his ground and quit himselfe withall So bravely that the victorie he gaine Have he her-selfe and jewels in domaine Hector againe publishing unto all and declaring as well to Greeks as Trojanes the same chalenge and defiance of his brother Paris useth in maner the verie same words saying His meaning is that Greeks and Trojanes all Besides should for the time surcease and quite Lay downe all armes upon the ground withall Whiles he and Menelaus hardy knight For Helen faire and all her jewels fight And he that shall the better hand obteine With him both lady shall and goods remaine Now when Menelaus had accepted of these conditions and both sides were sworne to the articles accorded Agamemnon to ratifie the same by his roiall assent spake in this wise If Alexander in plaine fight shall Menelaus kill Dame Helene he may leade away and her goods at his will But say that Menelaus brave doe Alexander stay The woman then and what she hath let him 〈◊〉 have away Now for that Menelaus vanquished Paris indeed but yet berest him not of his life either side had good plea to defend their cause opposite unto their enemies for the Greeks pretended a right claime unto Helena for that Paris was overcome and the Trojanes impleaded and denied to redeliver her because he was not left dead in the place how shall this case then be decided and judged aright in so great a difference and contrarietie Certes it belongeth not to Philosophers nor Grammarians alone but it is for Rhetoricians also to determine heereof who are both learned in Grammar and good letters and withall well seene in Philosophie as you be Then Sospis gave his opinion and said That the cause and plea of the defendant chalenged was farre better and stronger as having the law directly on his side for the assailant and chalenger himselfe denounced under what conditions the combat should be performed which seeing the defendant accepted of and yeelded unto it lieth not in their power any more to adde ought thereto for the condition comprised in the chalenge caried no words implying slaughter or death of any side but the victory of the one and the discomfiture of the other and that with very great reason for by right the lady belonged to the better man and more valiant and the more valorous man is he who vanquisheth for otherwise it falleth out many times that valiant and hardie men are slaine by very cowards as afterwards Achilles himselfe chaunced to be killed by Paris with the shot of an arrow neither will any man I trow say that Achilles thus slaine was the lesse valiant or call this the victorie but rather the good fortune of Paris unjustly dealt whose happe it was to shoot so right whereas on the other side 〈◊〉 was vanquished by Achilles before he was slaine for that he would not abide his comming but for feare abandoned his ground and fled for he 〈◊〉 refuseth combat and runneth away is in plaine tearmes vanquished hath no excuse to palliate or cloake his defeature but flatly confesseth his enemie to be his better And therefore Irus comming at first to Helena for to give her intelligence of this combat saith unto her They will in combat fight it out with long speares now for thee And looke who winnes the victory his wife thou nam'd shalt be And afterwards Jupiter himselfe adjudged the prize of victorie unto Menelaus in these words Now 〈◊〉 it is the champion bold sir Menelaus hight Hath quit himselfe a man and wonne the prize in single fight For it were a tidiculous mockerie to say That Paris had cōquered Achilles because he stood behind a farre off with the shot of an arrow wounded him in the foote who never was ware of him nor so much as looked for any such thing that now when he refused combat distrusted himselfe ran out of the field like a coward to shroud hide himselfe within the bosome betweene the armes of a woman being as a man would say disarmed and despoiled of his weapons even whiles he was alive his concurrent should not deserve to carie away the victorie shewing himselfe the conquerour in open field even according to the conditions offred by Paris the chalenger Then Glaucus taking the matter in hand impleaded and argued against him thus First quoth he in all edicts decrees lawes covenants and contracts the last are reputed alwaies of greater validitie and doe stand more firme than the former but the second covenants and the last were they which were declared and published by Agamemnon in which was comprised expresly death for the end of the combat and not the discomfiture or yeelding of the partie conquered moreover the former capitulation of covenants passed onely by parole bare words but the other which followed after was sealed confirmed with an oath yea a curse and execration was set therupon for whosoever should transgresse the same neither was it approoved ratified by one man alone but by the whole army together in such sort as this latter paction and covenant ought properly and by right to be so called whereas the former was nothing else but the intimation of a chalenge and defiance given in testimonie whereof Priamus also after the articles of combat were sworne unto departed
calling one Atropos another Lachesis and a third Clotho for as touching the motions and revolutions of the eight heavenly Sphaeres hee hath attributed as presidents unto them so many Syrenes in number and not Muses Then Menephylus the Peripateticke comming in with his speech There is quoth hee some reason and probabilitie in the Delphians saying but surely the opinion of Plato is absurd in that unto those divine and eternall revolutions of the heavens he hath assigned in stead of Muses the Syrenes which are daemons or powers not verie kinde and good nor beneficiall either leaving out as he doth the Muses altogether or els calling them by the names of the Destinies and saying they be the daughters of Necessitie for surely Necessitie is a rude thing and violent whereas Perswasion is gentle and gracious by the meanes of Muses amiable taming what it will and in my minde Detesteth more the duritie And force of hard necessitie than doth that grace and Venus of Empedocles That is true indeed quoth Ammonius it abhorreth that violent and involuntarie cause which is in our selves enforcing us to doe against our evils but the necessitie which is among the gods is nothing intollerable nor violent nor hard to be obeied or perswaded but to the wicked no more than the law of a citie that unto good men is the best thing that is which they cannot pervert or transgresse not because it is impossible for them so to do but for that they are not willing to change the same Moreover as touching those Syrenes of Homer there is no reason that the fable of them should affright us for after an aenigmaticall and covert sort even he signifieth very well unto us that the power of their song and musicke is neither inhumane nor pernicious or mortall but such as imprinteth in the soules which depart from hence thither as also to such as wander in that other world after death a vehement affection to divine and celestiall things together with a certeine forgetfulnesse of those that be mortall and earthly deteining and enchanting them as it were with a pleasure that they give unto them in such sort as by reason of the joy which they receive from them they follow after and turne about with them now of this harmonie there is a little echo or obscure resonance commeth hither unto us by the meanes of certeine discourses which calleth unto our soule and putteth into her minde such things as then and there are whereof the greatest part is enclosed and stopped up with the abstructions of the flesh and passions that are not sincere howbeit our soule by reason of the generositie wherewith it is endued doth understand yea and remember the same being ravished with so vehement an affection thereof that her passion may be compared properly unto most ardent and furious fits of love whiles she still affecteth and desireth to enjoy but is not able for all that to loosen and free her-selfe from the bodie howbeit I doe not accord and hold with him altogether in these matters but it seemeth unto me that Plato as he hath somewhat strangely in this place called the axes and poles of the world and heavens by the names of spindels rocks and distaves yea tearmed the starres wherves so to the Muses also he hath given an extraordinarie denomination of Syrens as if they related and expounded unto the soules and ghosts beneath divine and celestiall things like as Ulysses in Sophocles saith that the Syrenes were come The daughters who of Phorcis were That doth of hell the lawes declare As for the Muses they be assigned unto the eight heavenly sphaeres and one hath for her portion the place and region next to the earth those then which have the presidences charge of the revolution of those eight sphaeres do keepe preserve and mainteine the harmony and consonance aswell betweene the wandering planets and fixed starres as also of themselves one to another and that one which hath the superintendence of that space betweene the moone and the earth and converseth with mortall and temporall thinges bringeth in and infuseth among them by the meanes of her speech and song so farre forth as they be capable by nature and apt to receive the same the perswasive facultie of the Graces of musicall measures and harmonie which facultie is very cooperative with civile policie and humane societie in dulsing and apeasing that which is turbulent extravagant and wandering in us reducing it gently into the right way from blind by-pathes and errors and there setleth it but according to Pyndarus Whom Iupiter from heaven above Vouchsafeth not his gracious love Amaz'd they be and flie for feare When they the voice of Muses heare Whereto when Ammonius had given acclamation alluding as his maner was unto the verse of Xenophanes in this wise These things doe cary good credence And to the trueth have reference and withall mooved us every one to opine and deliver his advice I my selfe after some little pause and silence began thus to say That as Plato himselfe by the etymologie of names as it were by traces thought to finde out the properties and powers of the gods even so let us likewise place in heaven over celestial things one of the Muses which seemeth of the heaven to to be called Urania Certes it standeth to great reason that these heavenly bodies require not much variety of governmēt for that they have but one simple cause which is nature but whereas there be many errors many enormities trespasses thither we must transfer those eight one for to correct one sort of faults and disorders and another for to amende reforme another and for that of our life one part is bestowed in serious grave affaires and another in sport game throughout the whole course thereof it hath need of a moderate temperature musicall consent that which in us is grave serious shall be ruled and conducted by Calliope Clio and Thalia being our guides in the skill and speculation as touching gods and goddesses as for the other Muses their office and charge is to support and hold up that which is inclined and prone to pleasure plaie and disport not to suffer it through weaknesse and imbecillity to runne headlong into loosnesse and bestiality but to keepe in represse and hold it in good and decent order with dauncing singing and playing such as hath their measures and is tempered with harmonie reason and proportion For mine owne part considering that Plato admitteth and setteth downe in every one two principles and causes of all our actions the one inbred and naturall to wit a desire and inclination to pleasures the other comming from without foorth to wit an opinion which covereth the best insomuch as the one he calleth sometime Reason and the other Passion and seeing that either of these againe admitteth distinct differences I see certainly that both of them require a great government and in verie
division of the earth 15 The zones or climates of the earth how many and how great they be 16 Of earth quakes 17 Of the sea how it is concret and how it comes to be bitter 18 How come the tides that is to say the ebbing and flowing of the seas 19 Of the circle called Halo Chapters of the fourth Booke 1 Of the rising of Nilus 2 Of the soule 3 Whether the soule be corporall and what is her substance 4 The parts of the soule 5 Which is the mistresse or principall part of the soule and wherein it doth consist 6 Of the soules motion 7 Of the soules immortalitie 8 Of the senses and sensible things 9 Whether the senses and imaginations be true 10 How many senses there be 11 How sense and notion is performed as also how reason is ingendred according to disposition 12 What difference there is betweene imagination imaginable and imagined 13 Of sight and how we doe see 14 Of the reflexions or resemblances in mirrors 15 Whether darknesse be visible 16 Of hearing 17 Of smelling 18 Of tasting 19 Of the voice 20 Whether the voice be incorporall and how commeth the resonance called eccho 21 How it is that the soule hath sense and what is the principal predomināt part therof 22 Of respiration 23 Of the passions of the body and whether the soule have a fellow-feeling with it of paine Chapters of the fift Booke 1 Of divination or 〈◊〉 of future things 2 How dreames 〈◊〉 3 What is the substance of naturall seed 4 Whether naturall seed be a body 5 Whether femals as well as males doe yeeld naturall seed 6 After what maner conceptions are 7 How males and females are engendred 8 How monsters are ingendred 9 What is the reason that a woman accompanying often times carnally with a man doth not 〈◊〉 10 How twinnes both two and three at once be occasioned 11 How commeth the resemblance of parents 12 What is the cause that infants be like to some other and not to the parents 13 How women proove barren and men unable to ingender 14 What is the reason that mules be barren 15 Whether the fruit within the wombe is to be accounted a living creature or no. 16 How such fruits be nourished within the wombe 17 What part is first accomplished in the wombe 18 How it commeth to passe that infants borne at seven moneths end doe live and are livelike 19 Of the generation of living creatures how they be ingendred and whether they be corruptible 20 How many kindes there be of living creatures whether they all have sense and use of reason 21 In what time living creatures receive forme within the mothers wombe 22 Of what elements is every generall part in us composed 23 How commeth sleepe and death whether it is of soule or bodie 24 When and how a man beginneth to come unto his perfection 25 Whether it is soule or bodie that either sleepeth or dieth 26 How plants come to grow and whether they be living creatures 27 Of nourishment and growth 28 From whence proceed appetites lusts and pleasures in living creatures 29 How the feaver is ingendred and whether it be an accessarie or symptome to another disease 30 Of health sicknesse and olde age THE FIRST BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme BEing minded to write of naturall philosophie we thinke it necessary in the first place and before all things els to set downe the whole disputation of Philosophie by way of division to the end that we may know which is naturall and what part it is of the whole Now the Stoicks say that sapience or wisdom is the science of all things aswell divine as humane and that Philosophie is the profession and exercise of the art expedient thereto which is the onely supreame and sovereigne vertue and the same divided into three most generall vertues to wit Naturall Morall and Verball by reason whereof Philosophie also admitteth a three-folde distribution to wit into Naturall Morall Rationall or Verball the Naturall part is that when as we enquire and dispute of the world and the things conteined therein Morall is occupied in intreating of the good and ill that concerneth mans life Rationall or Verball handleth that which perteineth unto the discourse of reason and to speech which also is named Logique or Dialelectique that is to say Disputative But Aristotle and Theophrastus with the Peripateticks in maner all divide Philosophie in this maner namely into Contemplative and Active For necessarie it is say they that a man to atteine unto perfection should be a spectatour of all things that are and an actour of such things as be seemely and decent and may the better be understood by these examples The question is demanded whether the Sunne be a living creature according as it seemeth to the sight to be or no He that searcheth and enquireth into the trueth of this question is altogether therein speculative for he seeketh no farther than the contemplation of that which is semblably if the demand be made whether the world is infinit or if there be any thing without the pourprise of the world for all these questions be meere contemplative But on the other side mooved it may be How a man ought to live how he should governe his children how he is to beare rule and office of State and lastly in what maner lawes are to be ordeined and made for all these are sought into in regard of action and a man conversant therein is altogether active and practique CHAP. I. What is Nature SInce then our intent and purpose is to consider and treat of Naturall philosophie I thinke it needfull to shew first what is Nature for absurd it were to enterprise a discourse of Naturall things and meane-while to be ignorant of Nature and the power thereof Nature then according to the opinion of Aristotle is the beginning of motion and rest in that thing wherein it is properly and principally not by accident for all things to be seene which are done neither by fortune nor by necessitie and are not divine nor have any such efficient cause be called Naturall as having a proper and peculiar nature of their owne as the earth fire water aire plants and living creatures Moreover those other things which we do see ordinarily engendered as raine haile lightning presteres winds and such like for all these have a certeine beginning and every one of them was not so for ever and from all eternitie but did proceed from some originall likewise living creatures and plants have a beginning of their motion and this first principle is Nature the beginning not of motion onely but also of rest and quiet for whatsoever hath had a beginning of motion the same also may have an end and for this cause Nature is the beginning aswell of rest as of moving CHAP. II. What difference there is betweene a principle and an element ARistotle and Plato are of opinion that there is a
it is conceived inclosed within a thicke cloud then by reason of the subtiltie and lightnesse thereof it breaketh forth with violence and the rupture of the cloud maketh a cracke and the divulsion or cleaving by reason of the blacknesse of the cloud causeth a shining light METRODORUS saith when a wind chanceth to be enclosed within a cloud gathered thick and close together the said wind by bursting of the cloud maketh a noise and by the stroke and breach it shineth but by the quicke motion catching heat of the Sunne it shooteth forth lightning but if the said lightning be weake it turneth into a Prester or burning blase ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that when ardent heat falleth upon cold that is to say when a portion of celestial fire lighteth upon the airie substance by the cracking noise therof is caused thunder by the colour against the blacknesse of the cloud a flashing beame by the plentie and greatnesse of the light that which we call lightning and in case the fire be more grosse and corpulent there ariseth of it a whirlwind but if the same be of a cloudie nature it engendreth a burning blast called Prester The STOICKS hold thunder to be a combat and smiting together of clouds that a flashing beame is a fire or inflammation proceeding from their attrition that lighning is a more violent flashing and Prester lesse forcible ARISTOTLE supposeth that all these meteores come likewise of a dry exhalation which being gotten enclosed within a moist cloud seeketh meanes and striveth forcibly to get foorth now by attrition and breaking together it causeth the clap of thunder by inflammation of the drie substance a flashing beame but Presters Typhons that is to say burning blasts and whirlwindes according as the store of matter is more or lesse which the one and the other draweth to it but if the same be hotter you shall see Prester if thicker looke for Typhon CHAP. IIII. Of Clouds Raine Snowe and Haile ANAXIMENES saith that clouds are engendred when the aire is most thicke which if they coagulate still more and more there is expressed from them a shewer of raine but in case this matter as it falleth doe congeale it turneth to be 〈◊〉 but say it meet with a colde moist wind and be surprized therewith it prooveth haile METRODORUS supposeth that clouds be composed of a waterish evaporation Epicurus of meere vapours also that as well the drops of raine as haile-stones become round by the long way of their descent CHAP. V. Of the Rainbow AMong those meteors or impressions engendred in the aire some there be which have a true substance indeed as raine and haile others againe have no more but a bare apparence without any reall subsistence much like as when we are within a ship we imagine that the continent and firme land doth moove and among those which are in apparence onely we must range the Rainbow PLATO saith that men derive the genealogie of it from Thaumas as one would say from wonder because they marvelled much to see it according as Homer sheweth in this verse Like as when mightie Jupiter the purple rainbow bends Thereby to mort all men from heaven a wondrous token sends Which either tempests terrible or wofull warre pretends And hereupon it is that some have made thereof a fabulous device and given out that she having a bulles head drinketh up the rivers But how is this Rainbow ingendred and how commeth it so to appeare Certes we see by lines either direct and streight or crooked or els rebated and broken which though they be obscure and appeare not evidently yet are perceived by cogitation and discourse of reason as being bodilesse Now by rightlines we beholde things some in the aire and others thorow transparent stones and hornes for that all these consist of very subtile parts by crooked and curbed lines wee looke within the water for our eie-sight doth bend and turne againe perforce by reason that the matter of the water is more thicke which is the cause that we see the mariners oare in the sea a farre off as it were crooked The third maner of seeing is by refraction and so we beholde objects in mirrours and of this sort is the Rainbow for we must consider and understand that a moist vapour being lifted up aloft is converted into a cloud and then within a while by little and little into small dew-drops whenas therfore the Sun descendeth Westward it can not chuse but every Rainbow must needs appere opposit unto it in the contrary part of the sky and whē our sight falleth upon those drops it is rebated and beaten backe and by that meanes there is presented unto it a Rainbow now those drops are not of the forme and figure of a bow but represent a colour onely and verily the first and principall hew that this bow hath is a light and bright red the second a deepe vermillion or purple the third blue and greene let us consider then whether the said red colour appeare not because the brightnesse of the Sunne beating upon the cloud and the sincere light thereof reflected driven back maketh a ruddy or light red hew but the second part more obscure and rebating the said splendor through those 〈◊〉 drops causeth a purple tincture which is as it were an abatement of red and then as it becommeth more muddie still darkning that which distinguisheth the sight it turneth into a greene and this is a thing which may be proved by experience for if a man take water directly against the Sunne beames in his mouth and spit the same forward in such sort as the drops receive a repercussion against the said raies of the Sunne he shall finde that it will make as it were a Rainbow The like befalleth unto them that are bleere-eied when they looke upon a lampe or burning light ANAXIMENES supposeth that the Rainbow is occasioned by the Sunshining full against a grosse thicke and blacke cloud in such sort as his beames be not able to pierce and strike thorow by reason that they turne againe upon it and become condensate ANAXAGORAS holdeth the Rainbow to be the refraction or repercussion of the Sunnes round light against a thicke cloud which ought alwaies to be opposit full against him in maner of a mirrour by which reason in nature it is said that there appeare two Sunnes in the countrey of 〈◊〉 METRODORUS saith when the Sunne shineth thorow clouds the cloud seemeth blue but the light looketh red CHAP. VI. Of Water-galles or streaks like rods somewhat resembling Rainbowes THese rods and opposit apparitions of Sunnes which are seene otherwhiles in the skie happen through the temperature of a subject matter and illumination namely when clouds are seene not in their naturall and proper colour but by another caused by a divers irradiation and in all these the like passions fall out both naturally and also are purchased by accident CHAP. VII Of Winds ANAXIMANDER is of
their registers IS it for that Saturne himselfe was a stranger in Italy and therefore all strangers are welcome unto him Or may not this question besolved by the reading of histories for in old time these Questors or publick Treasurers were wont to send unto embassadors certeine presents which were called Lautia and if it fortuned that such embassadors were sicke they tooke the charge of them for their cure and if they chanced to die they enterred them likewise at the cities charges But now in respect of the great resort of embassadors from out of all countries they have cut off this expense howbeit the auncient custome yet remaineth namely to present themselves to the said officers of the treasure and to be registred in their booke 44 Why it is not lawfull for Jupiters priest to sweare IS it because an oth ministred unto free borne men is as it were the racke and torture tendred unto them for certeine it is that the soule as well as the bodie of the priest ought to continue free and not be forced by any torture whatsoever Or for that it is not meet to distrust or discredit him in small matters who is beleeved in great and divine things Or rather because every oth endeth with the detestation and malediction of perjurie and considering that all maledictions be odious and abominable therefore it is not thought good that any other priests whatsoever should curse or pronounce any malediction and in this respect was the priestresse of Minerva in Athens highly commended for that she would never curse 〈◊〉 notwithstanding the people commanded her so to doe For I am quoth she ordeined a priestresse to pray for men and not to curse them Or last of all was it because the perill of perjurie would reach in common to the whole common wealth if a wicked godlesse and forsworne person should have the charge and superintendance of the praiers vowes and sacrifices made in the behalfe of the citie 45 What is the reason that upon the festivall day in the honour of Venus which solemnitie they call Veneralia they use to powre foorth a great quantitie of wine out of the temple of Venus IS it as some say upon this occasion that Mezentius sometime captaine generall of the Tuscans sent certeine embassadors unto Aeneas with commission to offer peace unto him upon this condition that he might receive all the wine of that yeeres vintage But when Aeneas refused so to doe Mezentius for to encourage his souldiers the Tuskans to fight manfully promised to bestow wine upon them when he had woon the field but Aeneas understanding of this promise of his consecrated and dedicated all the said wine unto the gods and in trueth when he had obteined the victorie all the wine of that yeere when it was gotten and gathered together he powred forth before the temple of Venus Or what if one should say that this doth symbolize thus much That men ought to be sober upon festivall daies and not to celebrate such solemnities with drunkennesse as if the gods take more pleasure to see them shed wine upon the ground than to powre overmuch thereof downe their throats 46 What is the cause that in ancient time they kept the temple of the goddesse Horta open alwaies WHether was it as Antistius Labeo hath left in writing for that seeing Hortart in the Latine tongue signifieth to incite and exhort they thought that the goddesse called Horta which stirreth and provoketh men unto the enterprise and execution of good exploits ought to be evermore in action not to make delaies not to be shut up and locked within dores ne yet to sit still and do nothing Or rather because as they name her now a daies Hora with the former syllable long who is a certeine industrious vigilant and busie goddesse carefull in many things therefore being as she is so circumspect and so watchfull they thought she should be never idle nor rechlesse of mens affaires Or els this name Hora as many others besides is a meere Greeke word and signifieth a deitie or divine power that hath an eie to overlooke to view and controll all things and therefore since she never sleepeth nor laieth her eies together but is alwaies broad awake therefore her church or chapel was alwaies standing open But if it be so as Labeo saith that this word Hora is rightly derived of the Greeke verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to incite or provoke consider better whether this word Orator also that is to say one who stirrith up 〈◊〉 encourageth and adviseth the people as a prompt and ready counseller be not derived likewise in the same sort and not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say praier and supplication as some would have it 47 Wherefore founded Romulus the temple of Vulcane without the citie of Rome IS it for the jealousie which as fables do report Vulcane had of Mars because of his wife Venus and so Romulus being reputed the sonne of Mars would not vouchsafe him to inhabit and dwell in the same citie with him or is this a meere foolerie and senselesse conceit But this temple was built at the first to be a chamber and parlour of privie counsell for him and Tatius who reigned with him to the end that meeting and sitting there in consultation together with the Senatours in a place remote from all troubles and hinderances they might deliberate as touching the affaires of State with ease and quietnesse Or rather because Rome from the very first foundation was subject to fire by casualtie hee thought good to honour this god of fire in some sort but yet to place him without the walles of the citie 48 What is the reason that upon their festivall day called Consualia they adorned with garlands of flowers aswell their asses as horses and gave them rest and repose for the time IS it for that this solemnitie was holden in the honour of Neptune surnamed Equestris that is to say the horseman and the asse hath his part of this joyfull feast for the horses sake Or because that after navigation and transporting of commodities by sea was now found out and shewed to the world there grew by that meanes in some sort better rest and more case to poore labouring beasts of draught and carriage 49 How commeth it to passe that those who stood for any office and magistracie were woont by anold custome as Cato hath written to present themselves unto the people in a single robe or loose gowne without any coat at all under it WAs it for feare lest they should carrie under their robes any money in their bosomes for to corrupt bribe and buy as it were the voices and suffrages of the people Or was it because they deemed men woorthy to beare publicke office and to governe not by their birth and parentage by their wealth and riches ne yet by their shew and
capitulations and covenants of peace after mid-day Or rather this may be because it is not possible to set downe 〈◊〉 the beginning and end of the day by the rising and setting of the sunne for if we do as the vulgar sort who distinguish day and night by the sight and view of eie taking the day then to begin when the sunne ariseth and the night likewise to begin when the sunne is gone downe and hidden under our horizon we shall never have the just Acquinox that is to say the day and night equall for even that verie night which we shall esteeme most equall to the day will proove shorter than the day by as much as the body or bignesse of the sunne 〈◊〉 Againe if we doe as the Mathematicians who to remedie this absurditie and 〈◊〉 set downe the confines and limits of day and night at the verie instant point when the 〈◊〉 seemeth to touch the circle of the horizon with his center this were to overthrow all evidence for fall out it will that while there is a great part of the sunnes light yet under the earth although the sunne do shine upon us we will not confesse that it is day but say that it is night still Seeing then it is so hard a matter to make the beginning of day and night at the rising or going downe of the sunne for the absurdities abovesaid it remaineth that of necessitie we take the beginning of the day to be when the sunne is in the mids of the heaven above head or under our feet that is to say either noon-tide or mid-night But of twaine better it is to begin when he is in the middle point under us which is just midnight for that he 〈◊〉 then toward us into the East whereas contrariwise after mid-day he goeth from us Westward 85 What was the cause that in times past they would not suffer their wives either to grinde corne or to lay their hands to dresse meat in the kitchin WAs it in memoriall of that accord and league which they made with the Sabines for after that they had ravished carried away their daughters there arose sharpe warres betweene them but peace ensued thereupon in the end in the capitulations whereof this one article was expresly set downe that the Roman husband might not force his wife either to turne the querne for to grinde corne nor to exercise any point of cookerie 86 Why did not the Romans marie in the moneth of May IS it for that it commeth betweene Aprill and June whereof the one is consecrated unto Venus and the other to Juno who are both of them the goddesses which have the care and charge of wedding and marriages and therefore thinke it good either to go somewhat before or else to stay a while after Or it may be that in this moneth they celebrate the greatest expiatorie sacrifice of all others in the yeere for even at this day they fling from off the bridge into the river the images and pourtraitures of men whereas in old time they threw downe men themselves alive And this is the reason of the custome now a daies that the priestresse of Juno named Flamina should be alwaies sad and heavie as it were a mourner and never wash nor dresse and trim her selfe Or what and if we say it is because many of the Latine nations offered oblations unto the dead in this moneth and peradventure they do so because in this verie moneth they worship Mercurie and in truth it beareth the name of Maja Mercuries mother But may it not be rather for that as some do say this moneth taketh that name of Majores that isto say ancients like as June is termed so of Juniores that is to say yonkers Now this is certaine that youth is much meeter for to contract marriage than 〈◊〉 age like as Euripides saith verie well As for old age it Venus bids farewell And with old folke Venus is not pleasdwell The Romans therefore maried not in May but staied for June which immediately followeth after May. 87 What is the reason that they divide and part the haire of the new brides head with the point of a javelin IS not this a verie signe that the first wives whom the Romans espoused were compelled to mariage and conquered by force and armes Or are not theinwives hereby given to understand that they are espoused to husbands martiall men and soldiers and therefore they should lay away all delicate wanton and costly imbelishment of the bodie and acquaint themselves with simple and plaine attire like as Lycurgus for the same reason would that the dores windowes and roofes of houses should be framed with the saw and the axe onely without use of any other toole or instrument intending thereby to chase out of the common-weale all curiositie and wastfull superfluitie Or doth not this parting of the haires give covertly to understand a division and separation as if mariage the bond of wedlock were not to be broken but by the sword and warlike force Or may not this signifie thus much that they referred the most part of ceremonies concerning mariage unto Juno now it is plaine that the javelin is consecrated unto Juno insomuch as most part of her images and statues are portraied resting and leaning upon a launce or javelin And for this cause the goddesse is surnamed Quiritis for they called in old time a speare Quiris upon which occasion Mars also as they say is named Quiris 88 What is the reason that the monie emploied upon plaies and publike shewes is called among them Lucar MAy it not well be that there were many groves about the citie consecrated unto the gods which they named 〈◊〉 the revenues whereof they bestowed upon the setting forth of such solemnities 89 Why call they Quirinalia the Feast of fooles WHether is it because as Juba writeth they attribute this day unto those who knew not their owne linage and tribe or unto such as have not sacrificed as others have done according to their tribes at the feast called Fornacalia Were it that they were hindred by other affaires or had occasion to be forth of the citie or were altogether ignorant and therefore this day was assigned for them to performe the said feast 90 What is the cause that when they sacrifice unto Hercules they name no other God but him nor suffer a dog to be seene within the purprise and 〈◊〉 of the place where the sacrifice is celebrated according as Varro hath left in writing IS not this the reason of naming no god in their sacrifice for that they esteeme him but a demigod and some there be who hold that whiles he lived heere upon the earth Evander erected an altar unto him and offered sacrifice thereupon Now of all other beasts he could worst abide a dog and hated him most for this creature put him to more trouble all his life time than any other witnesse hereof the three headed dog Cerberus
reckoning which they made of this life yet when himselfe was very old upon occasion that one asked him how he did answered I doe even as an aged man having above 90. yeeres upon my backe may do and who thinketh death to be the greatest misery in the world and how waxed he thus old certes not by filing and sharpening the edge of his sword not by grinding and whetting the point of his speares head not with scouring forbishing his head-piece or morion not with bearing armes in the field not by rowing in the gallies but forsooth with couching knitting and gluing as it were together rhetoricall tropes and figures to wit his antitheta consisting of contraries his Parisa standing upon equall weight and measure of syllables his homooptata precisely observing the like termination and falling even of his clauses polishing smoothing and perusing his periods and sentences not with the rough hammer and pickax but with the file and plainer most exactly No marvell then if the man could not abide the rustling of harneis and clattering of armour no marvell I say if hee feared the shocke and encounter of two armies who was afraid that one vowell should runne upon another and led he should pronounce a clause or number of a sentence which wanted one poore syllable for the very morrow after that Miltiades had wonne that field upon the plaines of Marathon he returned with his victorious armie into the citie of Athens and Pericles having vanquished and subdued the Samians within the space of nine moneths gloried more than Agamemnon did who had much adoe to winne Troie at the tenth yeeres end whereas Isocrates spent the time well neere of three Olympiades in penning one oration which hee called Panegiricus notwithstanding all that long time he never served in the warres nor went in any embassage he built no city nor was sent out as a captaine of a galley and warre-ship and yet that verie time brought foorth infinit warres But during the space that Timotheus delivered the islle Eubaea out of bondage all the while that Chabrias warred at sea about the island Naxos and Iphicrates defeited and hewed in pieces one whole regiment of the Lacedaemonians neere the port of Lechaeum and in which time the people of Athens having enfranchised all cities endued Greece throughout with the same libertie of giving voices in the generall assemblie of the States as they had themselves hee sat at home in his house poring at his booke seeking out proper phrases and choise words for the said oration of his in which space Pericles raised great porches and the goodly temple Hecatompedes and yet the comicall poet Cratinus scoffing even at this Pericles for that he went but slowly about his works speaketh thus as touching his wal halfe done and halfe vndone In words long since our Pericles hath rear'd us up a wall But in effect and very deed he doth nothing at all Consider now I pray you a little the base minde of this great professour of rhetoricke who spent the ninth part of his life in composing of one onely oration but were it meet and reasonable to compare the orations of Demosthenes as he was an oratour with the martiall exploits of Demosthenes being a captaine namely that which he made against the considerate folly of Conon with the trophees which himselfe erected before Pylos or that which hee wrote against Amathusius as concerning slaves with his woorthy service whereby hee brought the Lacedaemonians to be slaves neither in this respect for that he composed one oration for the graunting of free bourgesie to those who were newly come to inhabit Athens therefore he deserved as much honour as Alcibiades did who combined the Mantineans and Elians in one league to be associates with the Athenians against the Lacedaemonians and yet this must needs be confessed that his publicke orations deserved this praise that in his Philippiques he inciteth the Athenians to take armes and commendeth the enterprise of Leptiues WHETHER OF THE TWAINE IS MORE PROFITABLE FIRE OR WATER The Summarie IN this Academicke declamation Plutarch in the first places alledgeth the reasons which attribute more profit unto water Secondly he proposeth those that are in favor of the fire Whereunto bee seemeth the rather to encline although hee resolveth not wherein he followeth his owne maner of philosophizing upon naturall causes namely not to dispute either for or against one thing leaving unto the reader his owne libertie to settle unto that which he shall see to be more probable WHETHER OF THE TWAINE is more profitable Fire or Water THe water is of all things best And golde like fire is in request Thus said the poet Pindarus whereby it appeareth evidently that he gives the second place unto fire And with him accordeth Hesiodus when he saith Chaos was the formost thing In all the world that had being For this is certeine that the most part of ancient philosophers called water by the name of Chaos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say for that it followeth so easily But if we should stand onely upon testimonies about this question the proofe would be caried equally on both sides for that there be in maner as many who thinke fire to be the primitive element and principle of all things and the very seed which as of it selfe it produceth all things so it receiveth likewise all into it selfe in that universall conflagration of the world But leaving the testimonies of men let us consider apart the reasons of the one and the other and see to whether side they will rather draw us First therefore to begin withall may not this be laied for a ground that a thing is to be judged more profitable whereof we have at all times and continually need and that in more quantitie than another as being a toole or necessarie instrument and as it were a friend at all seasons and every houre and such as a man would say presenteth it selfe evermore to doe us service As for fire certeinly it is not alwaies commodious unto us nay contrariwise it otherwhiles doth molest and trouble us and in that regard we withdraw our selves farre from it whereas water serveth our turnes both in Winter and Summer when wee are sicke and when wee are whole by night and by day neither is there any time or season wherein a man standeth in no need of it And this is the reason that they call the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without juice or wanting moisture and so by consequence deprived of life Moreover without fire a man hath oft continued a long time but without water never And withall that which hath bene from the first beginning and creation of man is more profitable than that which was invented afterwards And there is no question but that nature hath given us the one to wit water for our necessarie use but the other I meane fire either fortune or
certaine power which causeth it to swell as it were and have an appetite to engender For other cause there can 〈◊〉 none rendred why rocks clifts and mountaines be barren and drie but this that they have either no fire at all or else participate 〈◊〉 little the nature thereof in summe so farre off is water from being of it selfe sufficient for the owne preservation or generation of other things that without the aide of fire it is the cause of the owne ruine and destruction For heat it is that keepeth water in good estate and preserveth it in her nature and proper substance like as it doth all things besides and looke where fire is away or wanteth there water doth corrupt and putrifie in such sort as the ruine and destruction of water is the default of heat as we may evidently see in pools marishes and standing waters or wheresoever water is kept within pits and holes without issue for such waters in the end become putrified and stinke againe because they have no motion which having this propertie to 〈◊〉 up the naturall heat which is in everie thing keepeth those waters better which have a current and runne apace in that this motion preserveth that kind heat which they have And hereupon it is that To live in Greeke is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigfieth to boile How then can it otherwise be that of two things it should not be more profitable which giveth being and essence to the other like as fire doth unto water Furthermore that thing the utter departure whereof is the cause that a creature dieth is the more profitable for this is certaine and manifest that the same without which a thing cannot bee hath given the cause of being unto the same when it was with it For we do see that in dead things there is a moisture neither are they dried up altogether for otherwise moist bodies would not putrifie considering that putrefaction is the turning of that which is drie to be moist or rather the corruption of humours in the flesh and death is nothing else but an utter defect and extinction of heat and therefore dead things be extreme cold insomuch as if a man should set unto them the very edge of rasours they are enough to dull the same through excessive cold And we may see plainely that in the verie bodies of living creatures those parts which participate least of the nature of fire are more senselesse than any other as bones and haire and such as be farthest remooved from the heart and in manner all the difference that is betweene great and small creatures proceedeth from the presence of fire more or lesse for humiditie simply it is not that bringeth forth plants and fruits but warme humiditie is it that doth the deed whereas cold waters be either barren altogether or not verie fruitful and fertill and yet if water were of the owne nature fructuous it must needs follow that it selfe alone and at all times should be able to produce fruit whereas we see it is cleane contrarie namely that it is rather hurtfull to fruits And now to reason from another head and go another way to worke to make use of fire as it is fire need wee have not of water nay it 〈◊〉 rather for it quencheth and 〈◊〉 it out cleane on the other side many 〈◊〉 be who cannot tell what to doe with water without fire for being made hot it is more profitable and otherwise in the owne kinde hurtfull Of two things therefore that which can do good of it selfe without need of the others helpe is better and more profitable Moreover water yeeldeth commodity but after one sort onely to wit by touching as when we feele it or wash and bathe with it whereas fire serveth all the five senses doth them good for it is felt both neere at hand and also seene afarre of so that among other meanes that it hath of profiting no man may account the multiplicity of the uses that it affoordeth for that a man should be at any time without fire it is impossible nay he cannot have his first generation without it and yet there is a difference in this kinde as in all other things The very sea it selfe is made more 〈◊〉 by heat so as it doth heat more by the agitation and current that it hath than any other waters for of it selfe otherwise it differeth not Also for such as have no need of outward fire we may not say that they stand in need of none at all but the reason is because they have plenty and store of naturall heat within them so that in this very point the commodity of fire ought to be esteemed the more And as for water it is never in that good state but some need it hath of helpe without whereas the exellencie of fire is such as it is content with it selfe and requireth not the aid of the other Like as therefore that captaine is to be reputed more excellent who knowes to order and furnish a citie so as it hath no need of forren allies so we are to thinke that among elements that is the woorthier which may often times consist without the succour and aide of another And even as much may be said of living creatures which have least need of others helpe And yet haply it may be replied contrariwise that the thing is more profitable which we use alone by it selfe namely when by discourse of reason we are able to chuse the better For what is more commodious and profitable to men than reason and yet there is none at all in brute beasts And what followeth heereupon Shall we inferre therefore that it is lesse profitable as invented by the providence of a better nature which is god But since we are fallen into this argument What is more profitable to mans life than arts but there is no art which fire devised not or at least wise doth not maintaine And heereupon it is that we make 〈◊〉 the prince and master of all arts Furthermore whereas the time and space of life is very short that is given unto man as short as it is yet sleepe as Ariston saith like unto a false baily or publicane taketh the halfe thereof for it selfe True it is that a man may lie awake and not sleepe all night long but I may aswell say that his waking would serve him in small stead were it not that fire presented unto him the commodities of the day and put a difference betweene the darkenesse of the night and the light of the day If then there be nothing more profitable unto man than life why should we not judge fire to be the best thing in the world since it doth augment and multiply our life Over and besides that of which the five senses participate most is more profitable but evident it is that there is not one of the said senses maketh use of the nature of water
apart and by it selfe unlesse some aire or fire be tempered with it whereas every sense findeth benefit of fire as of a vivificant power and quickening vertue and principally our sight above the rest which is the quickest of all the senses in the bodie as being the very flame of fire a thing that conformeth us in our faith and beliefe of the gods and as Plato saith by the meanes of our sight we are able to conforme our soule to the motions of celestiall bodies OF THE PRIMITIVE OR FIRST COLD The Summarie WE have heere another declaration of Plutarch wherein he examineth and discusseth after the maner of the Academicke philosophers without deciding or determining any thing a naturall question as touching Primitive colde And in the very first entrie thereof refuteth those who are of opinion that this first colde is the privation of heat shewing on the contrary side that it is meere opposite unto heat as one substance to another and not as privation unto habitude Then proceedeth he to dispute of the essence nature and fountaine of this colde for the cleering of which point he examineth at large three opinions the first of the Stoicks who attribute the primitive colde unto aire the second of Empedocles and Chrysippus who ascribe the cause thereof unto water Unto all their reasons and arguments he maketh answer and inclineth to a third opinion namely that earth is that primitive colde Which position he confirmeth by divers arguments yet resolveth he not but leaveth it to the discretion of Phavorinus unto whom he writeth for to conferre all the reasons of the one part and the other without resting in any particular opinion supposing that to suspend and hold his judgement in matters obscure and uncertaine is the wiser part of a philosopher than to yeeld and grant his consent either to one part or the other Wherein we may see that in regard of naturall philosophie our authour was of the Academicks sect but as touching the morall part we have seene before and specially in divers treatises of the former 〈◊〉 that he followeth of all the ancient philosophers those who were least impure and corrupt such I meane as in all their discourses had no other light to direct them but Nature OF THE PRIMITIVE OR first colde IS there then Ô Phavorinus a certaine primitive power and substance of cold like as fire is of heat by the presence and participation whereof ech one of the other things is said to be cold or rather are we to hold and say that cold is the privation of heat like as darknes of light and station of mooving and namely considering that cold is stationarie and heat motive and the cooling of things which were hot is not done by the entrance of any cold power but by the departure of heat for as soone as it is once gone that which remaineth is altogether cooled and the verie vapour and steim which seething waters doe yeeld passeth away together with the heat which is the reason that refrigeration diminisheth the quantitie therof in as much as it chaseth that heat which was without the entrance of any other thing into the place Or rather may not this opinion be suspected first and formost for that it overthroweth and taketh away many powers and puissances as if they were not qualities and habitudes really subsisting but onely the privations and extinctions of qualities and habitudes as for example heavinesse of lightnesse hardnesse of softnesse blacke of white bitter of sweete and so of other semblable things according as ech one is in puissance contrarie unto an other and not as privation is opposite unto habit Moreover for as much as everie privation is idle and wholy without action as blindnesse deafnesse silence and death for that these bee the departures of formes and the abolitions of substances and not certaine natures nor reall substances apart by themselves We see that cold after it be entred and imprinted as it were within the bodie breedeth no fewer nor lesse accidents alterations than doth heat considering that many things become stiffe and congealed by cold many things I say are staied retained and thickened by the meanes thereof which consistence and stabilitie unapt to stirre and hard to bee moved is not therefore idle but it is weightie and firme having a force and power to arrest and to hold in And therefore privation is a defect and departure of a contrarie power whereas many things be cooled although they have plentie of heat within and some things there be which cold doth constraine and constipate so much the more as it findeth them hotter like as we may observe in iron red hot when by quenching it becommeth the harder And the stoicke philosophers doe hold that the naturall spirits enclosed within the bodies of yoong infants lying in the wombe by the cold of the ambient aire environing them about is hardened as it were and refined and so changing the nature becommeth a soule But this is a nice point and verie disputable yet considering that we see cold to be the efficient cause of many other effects there is no reason to thinke that it is a privation Furthermore privation is not capable of more or lesse for so of twaine that see not at all the one is not more blind than the other and of two who cannot speake one is not more dombe than another neither of twaine who live not is one more dead than the other but among cold things we may well admit more lesse overmuch and not overmuch and generally intensions and remissions like as in those things that are hot and therefore ech matter according as it suffreth more or lesse by contrarie 〈◊〉 produceth of it selfe some substances cold and hot more or lesse than others for mixture and composition there can be none of habitude with privation neither is there any power which receiveth or admitteth the contrary unto it to bring a privation nor ever maketh it her companion but yeeldeth and giveth place unto it But contrariwise cold continueth very well as it is mixed with heat unto a certeine degree like as blacke with white colours base notes with small and shrill sweet savours with tart austere and by this association mixture accord of colours sounds drogues savours and tasts there are produced many compositions exceeding pleasant and delectable for the opposition which is betweene habitude and privation is alwaies a oddes and enmity without any meanes of reconciliation considering that the essence and 〈◊〉 of the one is the destruction of the other whereas that fight which is occasioned by contrary powers if it meet with fit time and season serveth oftentimes in good stead unto arts and to nature much more as well in other productions and procreations as in changes and alterations of the aire for in the orderly governance and rule whereof God who dispenseth and disposeth them is called Harmonicall and Musicall not in regard that he maketh a
extremity of colde were as starke and stiffe as pieces of wood insomuch as they brake and rent into 〈◊〉 so soone as they went about to stretch them out To say yet more excessive colde causeth the sinewes to be so stiffe as hardly they will bend the tongue likewise so 〈◊〉 that it will not stirre or utter any voice congealing the moist soft and 〈◊〉 parts of the body which being 〈◊〉 by daily experience they proceed to gather this consequence Every power and facultie which getteth the maistrie is woont to turne and convert into it selfe that over which it is predominant whatsoever is overcome by heat becommeth fire that which is conquered by spirit or winde changeth into aire what falleth into water if it get not foorth againe dissolveth and in the end runneth to water Then must it needs follow that such things as are exceeding colde degenerate into that primitive colde whereof we speake now excessive colde is first and the greatest alteration that can be devised by colde is when a thing is congealed made an ice which congelation altereth the nature of the thing so much that in the end it becommeth as hard as a stone namely when the cold is so predominant as well all the moisture of it is congealed as the heat that it had driven out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is that the earth toward her center and in the bottom thereof is frozen altogether and in maner nothing else but ice for that the excessive colde which never will yeeld and 〈◊〉 there dwelleth and 〈◊〉 continually as being thrust and driven into that corner farthest off from the elementary fire As touching those rocks cragges and cliffes which we see to appeere out of the earth Empedocles is of opinion that they were there set driven up susteined supported by the violence of a certeine boiling and swelling fire within the bowels of the earth but it should seeme rather that those things out of which all the heat is evaporate and slowen away be congealed and conglaciat so hard by the meanes of colde and this is the cause that such cragges be named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say congealed toward the head and toppe whereof a man shall see in them many places blacke againe namely whereas the heat flew out when the time was so as to see to one would imagine that they had heeretofore beene burnt for the nature of colde is to congeale all things but some more others lesle but above all those in which it is naturally at the first inhaerent for like as the property of fire is to alleviate it cannot otherwise be but the hotter that a thing is the more light also it is and so the nature of moisture is to soften insomuch as the moister any thing is the softer also it is found to be semblably given it is to colde to astringe and congeale it followeth therefore of necessity that whatsoever is most astrict and congealed as is the earth is likewise the coldest and looke what is colde in the highest degree the same must be principally and naturally that colde whereof we are in question And thereupon we must conclude that the earth is 〈◊〉 by nature colde and also that primitive colde a thing apparent and evident to our very sense for dirt and clay is colder than water and when a man would quickly suffocate and put out a fire he throweth earth upon it Blacke-smithes also and such as forge iron when they see it redde hot and at the point to melt they strew upon it small powder or grit of marble or other stones that have fallen from them when they were squared and wrought for to keepe it from resolving too much and to coole the excessive heat the very dust also that is used to bee throwen upon the bodies of wrestlers doth coole them and represse their sweats Moreover to speake of the commodity that causeth us every 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 and change our lodgings what is the meaning of it winter maketh us to seeke for high lofts and such chambers as be 〈◊〉 from the earth contrariwise summer bringeth us downe to the halles and parlours beneath driving us to seeke retiring roomes and willingly we love to live in vaults within the bosome of the earth doe we not thus thinke you directed by the instinct of nature to seeke out acknowledge that which is naturally the primitive colde and therefore when winter comes we lay for houses and habitations neere the sea side that is to say we flie from the earth as much as we can because of colde and we compasse ourselves with the aire of the sea for that it is hot contrariwise in summer time by reason of immoderate heat we covet mediterranean places farther within the land and farre remooved from the sea not for that the aire of it selfe is colde but because it seemeth to spring and budde as it were out of the primitive colde and to have a tincture as I may so say after the maner of iron from the power which is in the earth and verily among running waters those that arise out of rocks and descend from mountaines are evermore coldest but if 〈◊〉 and pittes such as be deepest yeeld the coldest waters for by reason of their profunditie the aire from without is not mingled with these and the others passe thorough pure and sincere earth without the mixture of aire among As for example such is the water neere the cape of Taenarus which they call Styx destilling by little and little out of the rocke and so gathered unto an head which water is so extreeme colde that there is no vessell in the world will holde it but onely that which is made of an asses hoofe for put it into any other it cleaveth and breaketh it Moreover we heare physicians say that to speake generally all kinds of earth do restraine and coole and they reckon unto us a number of minerals drawen out of entrails of the earth which in the use of physicke yeeld unto them an astringent and binding power for the very element it selfe from whence they come is nothing incisive nor hath the vertue for to stirre and extenuate it is not active and quicke not emollitive nor apt to spread but firme steadfast and permanent as a square cube or die and not to be removed whereupon being massie and ponderous as it is the colde also thereof having a power to condensate constipate and to expresse forth all humors 〈◊〉 by the asperity and inequalitie of the parts shakings horrors and quakings in our bodies and if it prevaile more and be predominant so that the heat be driven out quite and extinct it imprinteth an habitude of congealation and dead stupefaction And hereupon it is that the earth either will not burne at all or els hardly and by little and little whereas the aire manytimes of it selfe sendeth forth flaming fire it shooteth and floweth yea and seemeth as inflamed to lighten and flash
or distaste that which they feed upon Or because that like as they who boile sea water rid it from that salt brackish and biting qualitie that it hath so in those that are hot by nature the salt savour is dulled and mortified by heat Or rather for that a savour or smacke according as Plato saith is a water or juice passing thorow the stem or stalke of a plant but we see that the sea water rūning as thorow a streiner loseth the saltnesse being the terrestriall and grossest part that is in it And hereupon it is that when as men digge along by the sea side they meet with springs of fresh and potable water And many there be who draw out of the very sea fresh water and good to be drunke namely when it hath 〈◊〉 thorow certeine vessels of wax by reason that the terrestriall and saltish parts thereof be streined out In one word cley or marle also yea and the carrying of sea water in long conduct pipes causeth the same when it is so streined to be potable for that there are kept still in them the terrestriall parts and are not suffered to passe thorow Which being so very probable it is that plants neither receive from without forth any salt savour nor if haply any such qualitie breed in them doe they transfuse the same into their fruits for that the conducts of their pores being very small and streight there can not be transmitted thorow them any grosse or terrestriall substance Or els we must say that saltnesse is in some sort a kinde of bitternesse according as Homer signifieth in these verses Bitter salt-water at mouth he cast againe And all therewith his head did drop amaine And Plato affirmeth that both the one and the other savour is abstersive and liquefactive but the saltish lesse of the twaine as that which is not rough and so it will seeme that bitter differeth from salt in excesse of drinesse for that the salt savour is also a great drier 6 What is the cause that if folke use ordinarily and continually to goe among yong trees or shrubs full of deaw those parts of their bodies which do touch the twigs of the said plants are wont to have a scurfe or mange rise upon their skin IS it as Laet us saith for that the deaw by the subtiltie thereof doth fret and pierce the skin Or rather because like as the blast and mil-deaw is incident to those 〈◊〉 or plants that take wet and be drenched even so when the smoothe and tender superficiall parts of the skinne be fretted scarified and dissolved a little with the deaw there ariseth a certeine humour and filleth the fretted place with a smart and angry scurfe for lighting upon those parts which have but little bloud such as be the smalles of the legs and the feet it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superficies of them Now that there is in deaw a certeine inordinate qualitie it appeareth by this that it maketh those who are grosse and corpulent to be leaner and more spare of bodie witnesse our women who are given to be fat and would be fine who gather deaw with linnen clothes or els with locks or fleeces of wooll thinking therewith to take downe and spend their fogginesse and make themselves more gant and slender 7 What is the cause that barges and other vessels in Winter time go more slowly upon the rivers than at other seasons but they do not so upon the sea WHat say you to this May it not be for that the aire of rivers being alwaies grosse and heavy in Winter is more inspissate by reason of the circumstant cold and so is an hindrance to the course of ships Or haply this accident is to be imputed to the water of rivers rather than to the aire about them for colde driving in and restraining the water maketh it more heavy and grosse as we may perceive in water houre-glasses for the water runneth out of them more leasurely and slowly in winter then in summer And Theophrastus writeth that in Thracia neere unto the mount called Pangaeon there is a fountaine the water whereof is twice as much heavie in winter than it is in summer waigh it in one the same vessell full That the thicknesse of water maketh a vessell to passe more sluggishly it may appeare by this that the barges of the river carry greater fraights by farre in winter than in summer because the water being thicke is stronger and able to beare more As for the sea water it cannot be made more thicke in winter by reason of the owne heat which is the cause that it congealeth not and if it gather any thickening it seemeth to be very slender and little 8 What is the reason that we observe all other waters if they be mooved and troubled are the colder but the sea the more surging and waving the hotter it is IS it because if there be any heat in other waters the same is a stranger unto it and comming from without and so the motion and agitation thereof doth dissipate and drive the same forth againe but that heat of the sea which is proper and naturall to it the windes doe stirre up and augment That the sea is naturally hot may evidently be proved by this that it is so transparent and shining as also for that it is not ordinarily frozen heavy though it be and terrestriall 9 What should be the cause that in winter the sea water is lesse bitter and brackish in taste FOr so by report writeth Dionysus the great convaier of conduicts who in a treatise of that argument saith that the bitternesse of the sea water is not without some sweetnesse seeing that the sea receiveth so many and so great rivers for admit that the sunne doe draw up that which is fresh and potable out of it because it is light and subtill that is but from the upper part onely and withall it doth more in Summer than in any other season by reason that in Winter his beames are not so strong to strike for that his heat likewise is but saint and feeble and so a good portion of the sweetnesse remaining behinde doth delay that excessive bitternesse and brackishnesse like a medicine that it hath And the same befalleth unto river waters and all other that be potable for even such in Summer time become worse and more offensive to the raste than in Winter by how much the heat of the sunne doth resolve and dissipate the light and sweet parts thereof but in Winter it runneth alwaies new and fresh whereof the sea cannot chuse but have a good part as well because it is evermore in motion as also for that the rivers running into it be great and impart their fresh water unto it 10 What is the reason that men are wont to powre sea water into their wine vessels among the wine And the common report goeth that there were sometime certeine mariners and fisher-men who brought with them
an oracle commanding to plunge and dip Bacchus in the sea And such as dwell farre from the sea insteed of sea water put in baked plaster of Zacynthus IS it to this end that the heat thereof should helpe to resist the colde that it take not away the heart of the wine Or rather cleane contrary doth it not weaken the headinesse of wine by extinguishing the power and strength thereof Or it may be that seeing wine is much subiect to alteration and will quickly turne the terrestriall matter which is cast into it having a naturall property to restraine to binde and to stoppe doth in some sort condensate and stay the waterish and spirituall substance of it Now the salt together with the sea water comming to subtiliate and consume that which is superfluous and naught in the wine and not the proper substance thereof keepeth it so as it will not suffer any strong evill smell or corruption to be ingendred therin Besides all the grosse and terrestriall parts of the wine sticking and cleaving to that which setleth to the bottom and being drawen downward with it maketh a residence of the lees and dregges and by consequence leaveth the rest more cleere pure and neat 11 What is the cause that those who saile upon the sea are more sicke in the stomacke than they that saile upon rivers yea though 〈◊〉 weather be faire and the water calme IS it for that of all the senses smelling and of all passions feare causeth men most to be stomacke sicke for so soone as the apprehension of any perrill seiseth upon a man he trembleth and quaketh for feare his haire stareth and standeth upright yea and his belly groweth to be loose Wheras there is none of all this that troubleth those who saile or row upon the river for why the smell is aquainted with all fresh and potable water neither is the sailing so perillous whereas upon the sea men are offended with strange and unusuall smelles yea and be estsoones affraid how faire soever the season be not trusting upon that which they see present but misdoubting that which may fall out And therefore little or nothing serveth the calme without when the minde within is tossed troubled and vexed partly with feare and in part with distrust drawing the body into the fellowship of like passions and perturbations 12 What is the reason that if the sea be sprinckled aloft with oile there is to be seene a cleere transparence together with a calme and tranquility within WHether is it as Aristotle saith because the winde gliding and glauncing over oile which is smooth and even hath no power to stirre it or to make any agitation Or this reason may well carie with it some probability as touching the outward part and upmost superficies of the sea but seeing that they also by report who plunge and dive to the bottome thereof holding oile within their mouthes if they spurt the same foorth when they are in the bottome have a light all about them and are able to see cleerely in the deepe a man cannot attribute the cause thereof unto the gliding over of the wind See therefore if it may not rather be for that the oile by the solidity and thicknesse that it hath doth drive before it cut and open the sea water first being terrestriall and unequall which after being returned and drawen together againe into it selfe there be left still in the mids betweene certeine little holes which yeeld unto the eies a through-light and transparence Or rather is it for that the aire mingled within the sea is by reason of heat naturally lightsome and perspicuous but when it is troubled and stirred becommeth unequall and shadowy when as the oile therefore by meanes of solidity commeth to pollish and smooth the said inequalitie it resumeth againe the owne plainnesse and perspicuity 13 What is the reason that fisher mens nets doe rot in Winter rather than in Summer notwithstanding that all other things putrifie more in Summer than in Winter IS it because as 〈◊〉 supposeth the heat then beset round about with the circumstant colde giveth place thereto and therefore causeth the bottome of the sea as well as of the earth to be the hotter which is the reason that spring waters be warmer yea and both lakes and rivers doe reike and smoake more in Winter than in Summer because the heat is kept downe and driven to the bottome by the colde which is predominant over it Or rather are we to say that the nets rot not at all but whensoever they be stiffe congealed with colde which drieth them up soone broken afterwards they are with the violence of the waves and so seeme as if they were rotten and putrified indeed for in more danger they are in colde and frosty weather and like as strings and sinewes over-stretched doe breake seeing especially that the sea in Winter most commonly is troubled which is the reason that they use to restreine and thicken them with certeine tinctures for feare they should be overmuch relaxed and resolved for otherwise if it were not for that doubt being not so died and besmeared all over they would sooner deceive fishes because they could not perceive them so soone for that the colour naturally of the lines and threds resembling the aire is very meet to deceive within the sea 14 What is the reason that the 〈◊〉 pray for to have ill inning of their hey IS not this the cause because hey is not well inned wet or having taken a showre for mowen downe it is not dry but while it is greene and full of sappe and if it take wet withall it rotteth incontinently and is marred whereas contrariwise if standing corne be moistened with raine a little before harvest it taketh much good against hot southerne windes which will not suffer the corne to gather and knit in the eare but cause it to be loose that it cannot eare well by meanes of heat were it not by the drenching and watering of the ground the moisture did coole and mollifie the earth 15 What is the reason that a fat strong and heavy clay ground beareth wheat best but contrariwise alight and sandy soile is better for barley MAy not this be a reason that of all corne that which is more strong and solide requireth larger food and the weaker lesse and more slender nourishment now it is well knowen that barley is a more feeble and hollow graine than wheat is in which regard it will not abide and beare plentifull nouriture and strong An argument and testimonie hereof we may have of that kinde of wheat which is called three-moneth wheat for that in drier grounds it liketh better and commeth up in greater plenty the reason is because it is not so firme and solid as others and therefore requireth lesse nutriment in regard whereof also it commeth sooner to ripenesse and perfection 16 How commeth this common prover be Sow wheat in durt and barley in
either by experience or some casuall occasion IS it then the smel that mooveth them to seeke these remedies and like as the hony combes by the odor stirre up the bee and the flesh of dead carions the vultures drawing and alluring them a farre of so the craifishes invite unto them swine origan the tortoise and pismires the beare by certaine sents and fluxions which are accommodate and familiar unto them without any sense leading them thereto by discourse of reason and teaching them what is good and profitable Or rather be they the temperatures of the bodies disposed unto sicknesse that bring unto these creatures such appetites engendring divers ceremonies sweetnesses or other strange unusuall qualities as we 〈◊〉 it ordinary in great bellied women who during the time that they go with childe fall to eat grit earth with greedinesse in so much as expert phisitians fore-know by the sundry appetites of their patients whether they shall live or die for so 〈◊〉 the phisitian doth report that in the beginning of the Pneumonie or inflamation of the lungs one patient of his longing for to eate onions escaped that maladie and another whose appetite stood to figgs died for it of the same disease for that the appetites follow the temperatures and the temperatures are proportionate to the diseases It standeth therefore to great reason that beasts likewise such as are not surprised with mortall 〈◊〉 nor sicke to death have that disposition and temperature whereby their appetites doe moove and provoke each one to that which is good and holsome yea and expedient to the cure of their sicknesse 27 What is the cause that must or new wine cotinueth sweet a long time in case the vessell wherein it is kept be colde round about it IS it because the alteration of this sweet savour into the naturall taste of wine is the very concoction of the wine and colde hindereth the said concoction which proceedeth from heat Or contrariwise because the proper joice and naturall savour of the grape is sweet for we say that then the grape beginneth to ripen when it waxeth sweet Now colde not suffring new wine to exhale but keeping the kinde heat thereof within preserveth the said sweetnesse still And this is the very cause that those who make their vintage in a rainy constitution of the weather doe finde that their new wine wil not worke so wel in the vault because that such ebullition proceedeth of heat and the colde doth restraine and refresh the said heat 28 What is the cause that of all savage beasts the beare doth never lightly gnaw the net and toile with her teeth whereas wolves and foxes use ordinarily to eate the same IS it for that her teeth grow farre within her mouth in such sort that she cannot get within the cords of the nets having besides so great and thicke lippes betweene that they hinder her for catching hold with her said fangs Or rather because she having more force in her fore-feet which she useth in stead of hands therewith she doth teare and breake the cords or else having use both of her pawes and also of her month she imploieth those to the bursting of the nets and with her teeth fighteth and maketh her part good against the hunters Besides the tumbling and rolling of her body that she doth practise serveth her in as good stead as any thing else And therefore seeing her selfe in danger to be taken within the 〈◊〉 many times casteth her selfe round upon her head and indevoureth that way to escape rather than either by pawes or fangs to burst the toile 29 What is the reason that we woonder not to see any sources or springs of colde water like as we doe of hot notwithstanding it is evident that as heat is the cause of these so is colde of the other FOr we must not say as some holde opinion that heat indeed is an habitude of it selfe but colde nothing else but the privation of heat for it were in truth more woonderfull how that which hath no subsistance should be the cause of that which hath a beeing But it seemeth that nature would have us to woonder heereat onely for the rare sight heereof and because it is not often seene therefore we should enquire for some secret cause and demand how that may be which is but seldome observed But seest thou this starry firmament So high above and in 〈◊〉 vast In bosom moist of water element The earth beneath how it encloseth fast How many strange and woonderfull sights doth it represent unto us in the night season and what beauty sheweth it unto us in the day time and the common people woonder at the nature of these things ** As also at the rainebowes and the divers tinctures formes and pictures of the clouds appeering by day and how they be adorned with sundry shapes breaking out of them in maner of bubbles 30 What is the cause that when vines or other yoong plants which be ranke of leaves and otherwise fruitlesse are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IS it because that goats in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are exceding fat be lesse apt to engender and hardly for their fatnesse can leape the females For generative seed is the superfluous excrement of that nourishment which is conglutinate to the substantiall parts of the body Now when as any living creature or plant is in very good plight and growen grosse it is an evident signe that the nouriture is imploied and spent altogether in the maintenance of it selfe leaving no excrement at all or the same very small and not good for generation 31 What is the reason that if a vine be sprinkled and drenched with wine especially that which came of the owne grape it drieth and withereth away IS there not the same reason heereof as of the baldnesse in great drinkers when as the wine by meanes of heat causeth the moisture to evaporate which should feed the haire of their head Or is it not rather because the very liquor of wine commeth in some sort of putrefaction according to the verses of Empedocles When in vine-wood the water 〈◊〉 It turnes to wine whiles under barke it lies When as then a vine commeth to be wet with wine outwardly it is as much as if fire were put into it which doth corrupt the naturall temperature of that humour which should nourish it Or rather pure wine being of an astringent nature soketh and 〈◊〉 to the very root where shutting up and enclosing the pores it empeacheth the entrance of that sap by vertue whereof the vine is woont to bud burgen and flourish that it can not runne to the stocke Or may it not be it is cleane contrary to the nature of a vine that the liquor which once went out of it should returne againe into it for a liquor or humour whiles it is within the plant in the nature of a sap may well have power to feed the same but that being
departed once from thence it should joine thereto againe or become a part thereof I cannot see how it is possible *********** 32 Why doth the date tree onely of all others arise archwise and bend upward when a weight is laide thereupon WHether may it not be that the fire and spiritual power which it hath and is predominant in it being once provoked and as it were angred putteth foorth it selfe so much the more and mounteth upward Or because the poise or weight aforesaid forcing the boughes suddenly oppresseth and keepeth downe the airie substance which they have and driveth all of it inward but the same afterwards having resumed strength againe maketh head afresh and more egerly withstandeth the weight Or lastly the softer and more tender branches not able to susteine the violence at first so soone as the burden resteth quiet by little and little lift up themselves and make a shew as if they rose up against it 33 What is the reason that pit-water is lesse nutritive than either that which ariseth out of springs or falleth downe from heaven IS it because it is more colde and withall hath lesse aire in it Or for that it conteineth much salt therein by reason of such store of earth mingled therewith now it is well knowen that salt above all other things causeth leannesse Or because standing as it doeth still and not exercised with running and stirring it getteth a certaine malignant quality which is hurtfull and offensive to all living creatures drinking thereof for by occasion of that hurtfull qualitie neither is it well concocted nor yet can it feed or nourish anything And verily the same is the very cause that all dead waters of pooles and meares be unholsome for that they cannot digest and dispatch those harmefull qualities which they borrow of the evill propertie either of aire or of earth 34 Why is the west wind held commonly to be of all other the swiftest according to this verse of Homer Let us likewise bestir our feet As fast as westerne winds do fleet IS it not thinke you because this winde is woont to blow when the skie is very well 〈◊〉 and the aire exceeding cleere and without all clouds for the thicknesse and impuritie of the aire doth not I may say to you a little impeach and interrupt the course of the winds Or rather because the sunne with his beames striking through a cold winde is the cause that it passeth the faster away for whatsoever is drawen in by the refrigerative force of the windes the same if it be overcome by heat as his enemie we must thinke is driven and set forward both farther and also with greater celeritie 35 What should be the cause that bees cannot abide smoake WHether is it because the pores and passages of their vitall spirits be exceeding streight and if it chance that smoke be gotten into them and there kept in and intercepted it is enough to stop the poore bees breath yea and to strangle them quite Or is it not the acrimony and bitternesse thinke you of the smoke in cause for bees are delighted with sweet things and in very trueth they have no other nourishment and therefore no marvell if they detest and abhorre smoke as a thing for the bitternesse most adverse and contrary unto them and therefore hony masters when they make a smoke for to drive away bees are woont to burne bitter herbes as hemlock centaury c. 36 What might be the reason that bees will sooner sting those who newly before have committed whoredome IS it not because it is a creature that woonderfully delighteth in puritie cleanlinesse and elegancie and withall she hath a marvellous quicke sense of smelling because therefore such uncleane dealings betweene man and woman in regard of fleshly and beastly lust immoderately performed are wont to leave behind in the parties much filthinesse and impurity the bees both sooner finde them out and also conceive the greater hatred against them heereupon it is that in Theocritus the shepherd after a merry and pleasant maner sendeth Venus away into Anchises to be well stung with bees for her adultery as appeereth by these verses Now go thy wate to Ida mount go to Anchises now Where mightie okes where banks along of square Cypirus grow Where hives and hollow truncks of trees with hony sweet abound Where all the place with humming noise of busie bees resound And Pindarus Thou painfull bee thou pretie creature Who hony-combs six-angled as they be With feet doest frame false Rhoecus and impure With sting hast prickt for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 What is the cause that dogges follow after a stone that is throwen at them and biteth it letting the man alone who flang it IS it because he can apprehend nothing by imagination nor call a thing to minde which are gifts and vertues proper to man alone and therefore seeing he can not discerne nor conceive the partie indeed that offered him injurie he supposeth that to be his enemie which seemeth in his eie to threaten him and of it he goes about to be revenged Or thinking the stone whiles it runnes along the ground to be some wilde beast according to his nature he intendeth to catch it first but afterwards when he seeth himselfe deceived and put besides his reckoning he setteth upon the man Or rather doth he not hate the stone and man both alike but pursueth that onely which is next unto him 38 What is the reason that at a certeine time of the yeere shee woolves doe all whelpe within the compasse of twelve daies ANtipater in his booke conteining the historie of living creatures affirmeth that shee woolves exclude foorth their yoong ones about the time that mast-trees doe shed their blossomes for upon the taste thereof their wombs open but if there be none of such blowmes to be had then their yoong die within the bodie and never come to light He saith moreover that those countries which bring not foorth oaks and mast are never troubled nor spoiled with wolves Some there be who attribute all this to a tale that goes of Latona who being with childe and finding no abiding place of rest and safetie by reason of Juno for the space of twelve daies during which time the went to Delos being transmuted by Jupiter into a wolfe obteined at his hands that all wolves for ever after might within that time be delivered of their yoong 39 How commeth it that water seeming white aloft sheweth to be blacke in the bottome IS it for that depth is the mother of darkenesse as being that which doth dimme and marre the Sunne beames before they can descend so low as it as for the uppermost superficies of the water because it is immediatly affected by the Sunne it must needs receive the white brightnesse of the light the which Empedocles verily approveth in these verses Ariver in the bottome seemes by shade of colour blacke The like is seene in caves and holes by depth where light
wing because it lifteth up the soule from things base and mortall unto the consideration of heavenly and celestiall matters 6 How is it that Plato in some places saith the Anteperistasis of motion that is to say the circumstant contrariety debarring a body to moove in regard that there is no voidnesse or vaculty in nature is the cause of those effects which we see in physicians ventoses and cupping glasses of swallowing downe our viands of throwing of 〈◊〉 waights of the course and conveiance of waters of the fall of lightenings of the attraction that amber maketh of the drawing of the lodestone and of the accord and consonance of voices For it seemeth against all reason to yeeld one onely cause for so many effects so divers and so different in kinde First as touching the respiration in living creatures by the anteperistasis of the aire he hath elsewhere sufficiently declared but of the other effects which seeme as he saith to be miracles and woonders in nature and are nothing for that they be nought else but bodies reciprocally and by alternative course driving one another out of place round about and mutually succeeding in their roomes he hath left for to be discussed by us how each of them particularly is done FIrst and formost for ventoses and cupping glasses thus it is The aire that is contained within the ventose stricking as it doth into the flesh being inflamed with heat and being now more fine and subtil than the holes of the brasse box or glasse whereof the ventose is made getteth forth not into a void place for that is impossible but into that other aire which is round about the said ventose without forth and driveth the same from it and that forceth other before it and thus as it were from hand to hand whiles the one giveth place and the other driveth continually and so entreth into the vacant place which the first left it commeth at length to fall upon the flesh which the ventose sticketh fast unto and by heating and inchasing it expresseth the humor that is within into the ventose or cupping vessell The swallowing of our victuals is after the same maner for the cavities as well of the mouth as of the stomacke be alwaies full of aire when as then the meat is driven within the passage or gullet of the throat partly by the tongue and partly by the glandulous parts or kernelles called tonsells and the muscles which now are stretched the aire being pressed and strained by the said meat followeth it hard as it giveth place and sticking close it is a meanes to helpe for to drive it downeward Semblably the waighty things that be flung as bigge stones and such like cut the aire and divide it by reason that they were sent out and levelled with a violent force then the aire all about behind according to the nature thereof which is to follow where a place is lest vacant and to fill it up pursueth the masle or waight aforesaid that is lanced or discharged forcibly and setteth forward the motion thereof The shooting and ejaculation of lightening is much what after the maner of these waights throwen in maner aforesaid for being enflamed and set on a light fire it flasheth out of a cloud by the violence of a stroke into the aire which being once open and broken givith place unto it and then closing up together above it driveth it downe forcibly against the owne nature As for amber we must not thinke that it draweth any thing to it of that which is presented before it no more than doth the lode stone neither that any thing comming nere to the one or the other leapeth thereupon But first as touching the said stone it sendeth from it I wot not what strong and flatuous fluxions by which the aire next adjoining giving backe driveth that which is before it and the same turning round and reentring againe into the void place doth 〈◊〉 from it and withall carry with it the yron to the stone And for amber it hath likewise a certeine flagrant and flatulent spirit which when the out-side thereof is rubbed it putteth forth by reason that the pores thereof are by that meanes opened And verily that which issueth out of it worketh in some measure the like effect that the Magnet or lode-stone did and drawen there are unto it such matters neere at hand as be most light and dry by reason that the substance comming thereof is but slender and weake neither is it selfe strong nor hath sufficient waight and force for to chase and drive before it a great deale of aire by means whereof it might overcome greater things as the lode-stone doth But how is it that this aire driveth and sendeth before it neither wood nor stone but yron onely and so bringeth it to the Magnet This is a doubt and dificulty that much troubleth all those who suppose that this meeting and cleaving of two bodies together is either by the attraction of the stone or by the naturall motion of the yron Yron is neither so hollow and spungeous as is wood nor so fast and close as is gold or stone but it hath small holes passages and rough aspecties which in regard of the unequality are well proportionate and fortable to the aire in such wise as it runneth not easily through but hath certaine staies by the way to catch hold of so as it may stand steady and take such sure footing as to be able to force and drive before it the yron untill it have brought it to kisse the lode-stone And thus much for the causes and reasons that may be rendred of these effects As considering the running of water above ground by what maner of compression and coarctation roud about it should be performed it is not so easy either to be perceived or declared But thus much we are to learne that for waters of lakes which stirre not but continue alwaies in one place it is because the aire spred all about and keeping them in on every side mooveth not nor leaveth unto them any vacant place For even so the upper face of the water as well in lakes as in the sea riseth up into waves and billowes according to the agitation of the aire for the water still followeth the motion of the aire and floweth or is troubled with it by reason of the inequalities For the stroke of the aire downeward maketh the hollow dent of the wave but as the same is driven upward it causeth the swelling and surging tumor of the wave untill such time as all the place above containing the water be setled and laied for then the waves also doe cease and the water likewise is still and quiet But now for the course of waters which glide and run continually above the face of the ground the cause thereof is because they alwaies follow hard after the aire that giveth way and yet are chased by those behinde by compression and driving forward and so
they who reproove this are ignorant that the same is the Idea of such things as be alwaies of one sort and the other the Idea of those that change Also that the effect of this is evermore to divide separate and alter that which it toucheth and in a word to make many of one but the effect of that is to conjoine and unite by similitude many things thereby into one forme and puissance Thus you see what be the powers and faculties of the soule of this universality which entring into the fraile mortall and passible instruments of bodies however they be in themselves incorruptible impatible and the same yet in them now appecreth more the forme of an indeterminate duality but that forme of the simple unitie sheweth it selfe more obscurely as deepely setled within howbeit for all that hardly shall one see and perceive in a man either passion altogether void of reason or motion without understanding wherein there is no lust no ambition no joy or griefe and therefore some philosophers there be who would have the perturbations of the mind to be reasons as if forsooth all disire sorow and anger were judgements Others also doe hold that all vertues be passions for in 〈◊〉 say they there is foure intemperance pleasure injustice lucre Howbeit the soule being both contemplative and also active at once as it doth contemplate universal thing so it practiseth particulars seeming to conceive the one by intelligence and to perceive the other by sense common reason meeting alwaies the same in the other and likewise the other in the same endevoureth verily to sever by divers bonds and partitions one from many and the indivisible from the divisible but it can not bring it so about as to be purely in the one or the other for that the principles be so enterlaced one within another and hudled pell-mell together In which regard God hath appointed a certeine receptacle for the same and the other of a divisible and indivisible substance to the end that in diversity there should be order for this was as much as to be engendred Seeing that without this the same should have had no diversitie and consequently no motion nor generation neither should the other have had order and so by consequence also neither consistence nor generation for if it should happen to the same to be divers from the other and againe to the other to be all one with the same such a communion and participation would bring foorth of it selfe nothing generative but require some third matter to receive them and to be digested and disposed by them And this is that which God ordeined and composed first in defining and limiting the infinity of nature mooving about bodies by the firme steadinesse of things intellectuall And like as there is one kinde of brutish voice not articulate nor distinct and therefore not significant whereas speech consisteth in voice that giveth to understand what is in the minde and as harmony doeth consist of many sounds and intervals the sound being simple and the same but the intervall a difference and diversitie of sounds which when they be mixed and tempered together make song and melody Even so the passible part of the soule was infinit unstable and disordinate but afterwards became determinate when tearmes and limits were set to it and a certeine forme expelled to that divisible and variable diversity of motion Thus having conceived and comprised the same and the other by the similitudes and dissimilitudes of numbers making accord of difference thereof the life of the universall world became wise and prudent the harmony consonant and reason drawing with her 〈◊〉 tempered with grace and perswasion which the common sort call fatall destiny Empedocles named concord and discord together Heraclitus the opposite tension and harmony of the world as of a bow or harpe wherein both ends bend one against another Parmemdes light and darknesse Anaxagoras understanding and infinitie Zoroastes God and the devill tearming the one Oromasdes and the other Arimanius But Euripides did not well to use the disjunctive for the copulative in this verse Jupiter natures necessity Or humane minde whether he be For in truth that puissance which pierceth and reacheth through all things is both necessitie and also a minde And this is it which the Aegyptians would covertly give us to understand under the vaile of their mysticall fables that when Horus was condemned and dismembred his spirit and bloud was given and awarded to his father but his flesh and grease to his mother But of the soule there is nothing that remaineth pure and sincere nothing unmixt and apart from others for as Her aclitus was woont to say Hidden harmony is better than the apparant for that therein God who tempered it hath bestowed secretly and concealed differences and diversities and yet there appeereth in the unreasonable part turbulent perturbations in the reasonable setled order in senses necessitie and constreint in the understanding full power and entier libertie but the terminant and defining power loveth the universall and indivisible by reason of their conjunctions and consanguinity Contrariwise the dividing puissance enclineth and cleaveth to particulars by the divisible The totall universalitie joieth in a setled order by the meanes of the same and againe so farre foorth as need is in a mutation by the meanes of the other but the difference of inclinations to honesty or dishonesty to pleasure or displeasure the ravishments and transportations of the spirit in amorous persons the combats in them of honour against voluptuous wantonnesse doe evidently shew and nothing so much the commixion of the nature divine and impassible with the mortall and passible part in bodily things of which himselfe calleth the one the concupiscence of pleasure ingenerate and inbred in us the other an opinion induced from without desirous of the soveraigne good for the soule of it selfe produceth and yeeldeth passibility but the participation of understanding commeth to it without foorth 〈◊〉 by the best principle and cause which is God so the very nature of heaven is not exempt from this double societie and communion but that a man may see how otherwhiles it doth encline and bend another way by the revolution of the the same which is more predominant and so doth governe the world and a portion of time will come like as it hath beene often heeretofore when as the wisedome thereof shall be dulled and dazeled yea and laid asleepe being filled with the oblivion of that which is meet and decent for it and that which from the beginnings is familiar and conformable to the body shall draw weigh downe and turne backe the way and course of the whole universality on the right hand but breake and undoe the forme thereof quite it shall not be able but reduce it againe to the better and have a regard unto the first pattern of God who helpeth the endevours thereof and is ready to reforme and direct the same Thus it is
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
changing their minde should determine to hurt afflict plague destroy and crush us quite they could not bring us to a woorse state and condition than wherein we are already according as Chrysippus saith That mans life can not be brought to a lower ebbe nor be in woorse plight and case than now it is insomuch as if it had a tongue and voice to speake it would pronounce these words of Hercules Of miseries to say I dare be bold So full I am that more I can not hold And what assertions or sentences may a man possibly finde more contrary and repugnant one against another than those of Chrysippus as touching both gods and men when he saith That the gods are most provident over men and carefull for their best and men notwithstanding are in as wofull state as they may be Certeine Pythagoreans there are who blame him much for that in his booke of Justice he hath written of dunghill cocks that they were made and created profitable for mans use For quoth he they awaken us out of our sleepe and raise us to our worke they hunt kill and devoure scorpions with their fighting they animate us to battell imprinting in our hearts an ardent desire to shew valour and yet eat them we must for feare that there grow upon us more pullaine than we know what otherwise to do withall And so farre foorth mocketh he and scorneth those who finde fault with him for delivering such sentences that he writeth thus in his third booke of the Gods as touching Jupiter the Saviour Creatour and Father of justice law equity and peace And like as cities quoth he and great townes when they be over full of people deduct and send from thence certeine colonies and begin to make warre upon some other nations even so God sendeth the causes that breed plague and mortalitie to which purpose he citeth the testimony of Euripides and other authours who write that the Trojan warre was raised by the gods for to discharge and disburden the world of so great a multitude of men wherewith it was replenished As for all other evident absurdities delivered in these speeches I let passe for my purpose is not to search into all that which they have said or written amisse but onely into their contradictions and contrarieties to themselves But consider I pray you how Chrysippus hath alwaics attributed unto the gods the goodliest names and most plausible termes that can be devised but contrariwise most savage cruell inhumane barbarous and Galatian deeds For such generall mortalities and carnages of men as the Trojan warre first brought and afterwards the Median and Peloponnesiacke warres are nothing like unto colonies that cities send forth to people and inhabit other places unlesse haply one would say That such multitudes of men that die by warre and pestilence know of some cities founded for them in hell and under the ground to be inhabited But Chrysippus maketh God like unto Deiotarus the king of Galatia who having many sonnes and minding to leave his realme and roiall estate unto one of them and no more made away killed all the rest besides him to the end that he being left alone might be great and mightie like as if one should prune and cut away all the branches of a vine that the maine stocke might thrive and prosper the better and yet the cutter of the vine disbrancheth it when the shoots be yoong small and tender and we also take away from a bitch many of her whelps when they be so yoong as that they can not yet see for to spare the damme whereas 〈◊〉 who hath not onely suffered and permitted men to grow unto their perfect age but 〈◊〉 given them himselfe their nativitie and growth punisheth them and plagueth them afterwards devising sundry meanes and preparing many occasions of their death and destruction when as indeed he should rather have not given unto them the causes and principles of their generation and birth Howbeit this is but a small matter in comparison and more grievous is that which I will now say for there are no warres bred among men but by occasion of some notable vice seeing the cause of one is fleshly pleasure of another avarice and of a third ambition and desire of rule And therefore if God be the authour of warres he is by consequence the cause of wickednesse and doth provoke excite and pervert men and yet himselfe in his treatise of judgement yea and his second booke of the Gods writeth that it stands to no sense and reason that God should be the cause of any wicked and dishonest things For like as the lawes are never the cause of breaking and violating the lawes no more are gods of impietie so that there is no likelihood at all that they should move and cause men to commit any foule and dishonest fact Now what can there be more dishonest than to procure and raise some to worke the ruine and perdition of others and yet Chrysippus saith that God ministreth the occasions and beginnings thereof Yea but he contrariwise will one say commendeth Euripides for saying thus If Gods do ought that lewd and filthy is They are no more accounted Gods iwis And againe Soone said that is Mens faults t' excuse Nothing more ready than Gods t' accuse as if forsooth we did any thing els now but compare his words and sentences together that be opposit and meere contrary one unto another And yet this sentence which now is heere commended to wit Soone said that is c. we may alledge against Chrysippus not once nor twice nor thrice but ten thousand times For first in his treatise of Nature having likened the eternity of motion to a drench or potion made confusedly of many herbs and spices troubling and turning all things that be engendred some after one sort and some after another thus he saith Seeing it is so that the government and administration of the universall world proceedeth in this sort necessary it is that according to it we be disposed in that maner as we are whether it be that we are diseased against our owne nature maimed or disinembred Grammarians or Musicians And againe soone after according to this reason we may say the like of our vertue or vice and generally of the knowledge or ignorance of arts as I have already said Also within a little after cutting off all doubt and ambiguity There is no particular thing not the very least that is which can otherwise happen than according to common nature and the reason thereof now that common nature and the reason of it is fatall destinie divine providence and Jupiter there is not one search even as farre as to the Antipodes but he knoweth for this sentence is very rife in their mouthes And as for this verse of Homer And as ech thing thus came to passe The will of Jove fulfilled was he saith that well and rightly he referred all to destiny and the universall nature of
so say namely the occupation or taking up of the middle place wherein it standeth because it is in the mids for if it were thought otherwise to be founded it were altogether necessarie that some corruption should take holde of it And againe a little after for even so in some sort hath that essence bene ordeined from all eternity to occupie the middle region being presently at the very first such as if not by another maner yet by attaining this place it is eternall and subject to no corruption These words conteine one manifest repugnance and visible contrariety considering that in them he admitteth and alloweth in that which is infinit a middle place But there is a second also which as it is more darke and obscure so it implieth also a more monstrous absurditie than the other for supposing that the world can not continue incorruptible if it were seated and founded in any other place of the infinitie than in the mids it appeareth manifestly that he feared if the parts of the substance did not moove and tend toward the mids there would ensue a dissolution corruption of the world But this would he never have feared if he had not thought that bodies naturally from all sides tend to the middes not of the substance but of the place that conteineth the substance where of he had spoken in many places that it was a thing impossible and against nature for that within voidnesse there is no difference by which bodies can be said to move more one way than another and that the construction of the world is cause of the motion to the center as also that all things from every side do bend to the mids But to see this more plainly it may suffice to alledge the very text in his second booke of Motion for when he had delivered thus much That the world is a perfect body and the parts of the world not perfect because they are respective to the whole and not of themselves Having also discoursed as touching the motion thereof for that it was apt and fitted by nature to moove it selfe in all parts for to conteine and preserve and not to breake dissolve and burne it selfe he saith afterwards But the universall world tending and mooving to the same point and the parts thereof having the same motion from the nature of the body like it is that this first motion is naturally proper to all bodies namely to encline toward the mids of the world considering that the world mooveth so in regard of it selfe and the parts likewise in that they be the parts of the whole How now my goodfriend may some one say what accident is befallen unto you that you should forget to pronounce these words withall That the world in case it had not fortuned for to settle in the mids must needs have bene subject to corruption and dissolution For if it be proper and naturall to the world to tend alwaies to the same middle as also to addresse the parts thereof from all sides thereto into what place soever of the voidnesse it be carried and transported certes thus 〈◊〉 and embracing as it were it selfe as it doth it must needs continue incorruptible immortall and past all danger of fracture or dissolution for to such things as be broken bruised dissipated and dissolved this is incident by the division and dissolution of their parts when ech one runneth and retireth into their proper and naturall place out of that which is against their owne nature But you sir supposing that if the world were seated in any other place of voidnesse but in the mids there would follow a totall ruine and corruption thereof giving out also as much and therefore imagining a middle in that where naturally there can be none to wit in that which is infinit have verily quit cleane and fled from these tensions cohaerences and inclinations as having in them no assured meanes for to mainteine and holde the world together and attributed all the cause of the eternall maintenance and preservation thereof unto the occupation of a place And yet as if you tooke pleasure to argue and convince yourselfe you adjoine to the premisses thus much In what sort every severall part moveth as it is cohaerent to the rest of the body it stands with good reason that after the same maner it should moove by it selfe alone yea if for disputation sake we imagine and suppose it to be in some void part of this world and like as being kept in and enclosed on every side it would move toward the mids so it would continue in this same motion although by way of disputation we should admit that all on a sudden there should appeare some vacuity and void place round about it And is it so indeed that every part what ever it be compassed about with voidnesse forgoeth not her naturall inclination to move tend to the mids and should the world it selfe unlesse some fortune blind chance had not prepared for it a place in the mids have lost that vigor power which conteineth and holdeth all together so some parts of the substance of it moove one way and some another Now surely heerein there be many other maine contrarieties repugnant even to natural reason but this particularly among the rest encountreth the doctrine of God divine providence to wit that in attributing unto them the least and smallest causes that be he taketh from them the most principall and greatest of all other For what greater power can there be than the maintenance and preservation of this universall world or to cause the substance united together in all parts to cohaere unto it selfe But this according to the opinion of Chrysippus hapneth by meere hazzard and chance for if the occupation of a place is the cause of worlds incorruption and eternity and the same chanced by fortune we must inferre there upon that the safety of all things dependeth upon hazzard and adventure and not upon fatall destiny and divine providence As for his doctrine disputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of things possible which Chrysippus hath delivered directly agaisnt that of fatall destiny how can it chuse but be repugnant to it selfe for if that be not possible according to the opiniō of Diodorus which either is or shall be true but whatsoever is susceptible naturally of a power to be although the same never come into act or esse is to be counted possible there will be a number of things possible which never shal have being by destiny invincible inexpugnable surmoūting al things And therefore either this doctrine overthroweth al the force and puissance of destiny or if it be admitted as Chrysippus would have it that which potentially may be wil fal out oftentimes to be impossible whatsoever is true shall be also necessary as being comprised contained by the greatest and most powerfull necessity of all others and whatsoever is false impossible as
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
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
comprehendeth a masse likewise round but lesse and hereupon it commeth that in eclipses of the Moone the circumscription of the blacke or darkenesse from the cleere and light have alwaies their sections round for the approchments and applications of a round bodie in what part soever whether it give or receive those sections by reason of the similitude doe alwaies keepe a round forme and be circular Now to the second argument You know well I suppose that the first part eclipsed or darkened in the Moone is that which regardeth the east and contrariwise in the Sunne that which looketh toward the west for the shaddow of the earth goeth from east to west but contrariwise the Sunne and Moone from west eastward The experience of the apparitions giveth us the visible knowledge of these things and many words there need not to make the demonstration hereof plaine and evident to be understood by which suppositions is confirmed the cause of the eclipse For in as much as the Sunne is eclipsed when he is overtaken and the Moone by meeting with that which maketh her eclipse by all likelihood nay rather necessarily the one is caught behinde the other surprised before for that the obstruction inumbration beginneth on that side on which that commeth first that maketh the said inumbration Now the Moone lighteth upon the Sunne from the west as striving with him in course and hastning after him but the shaddow of the earth commeth from the east as having a contrary motion The third reason is taken from the time and greatnesse of the eclipses of the Moone For when she is eclipsed on high and farre from the earth she continueth but a little while in defect or want of light but when she suffereth the same default being low and nere unto the earth she is much oppressed and slowly getteth she foorth of the shade thereof and yet when she is low she moveth most swiftly and being aloft as slowly But the cause is in the difference of the shaddow which toward the bottome or base is broader as are the Cones or Pyramides so it groweth smaller and smaller taper-wise untill at the top it endeth in asharpe point And hereupon it cōmeth that the Moone being low and so falling within the shadow is compassed with greater circles of the shadow so passeth through the very bottome of it that which is most darke but being on high by reason of the narrow compasse of the shadow being as it were in a small puddle of mire she is but a little sullied or beraied therewith so quickely getteth forth of it Here I passe by the accidents and effects that have their particular causes For we daily see that the fire out of a shady place appeareth shineth the rather either by reason of the thickenesse of the darke aire which admitteth no efluxions nor diffusions of the vertue of the fire keeping in and containing within it selfe the substance thereof or rather if this be a passion of the sense like as hot things nere unto cold are felt to be more hot and pleasures presently upon paines found more vehement even so things cleere appeare better when they are laid neere unto those that be darke by meanes of different passions which doe streine the imagination but the former conjecture seemeth to bee more probable for in the Sunne-shine the whole nature of fire not onely leeseth his brightnesse but also in giving place unto it becommeth more dull and unwilling to burne for that the heat of the Sunne doth scatter and dissipate the force thereof If then it were true that the Moone had in it a feeble and dimme or duskish fire as being a muddy starre as the Stoicks saie it is reason it were and meet that it should not suffer any one of those accidents but contrary al which now we see it to suffer namely to be seene at that time when as it is hidden and againe to be hidden what time as she sheweth herselfe that is to say to be covered all the rest of the time being darkned by the aire environing it and to shine out againe for six moneths and afterwards for five moneths be hidden entring within the shadow of the earth For of 465. revolutions of ecclipsed full Moones 404. are of six moneths and the rest of five It must needs be then during this time the Moone should appeare shining in the shadow but contrariwise we see that in the shadow ecclipsed she is and looseth her light which she recovereth againe afterwards when she is escaped and gotten foorth of the said shadow yea and appeareth often in the day time so that it is rather any thing else than a firie body and resembling a starre Lucius had no sooner thus said but Pharnaces Apollonides came running both together to set upon him and to confute his speech and then Pharnaces assisted by Apollonides there present Why this quoth he is that which principally prooveth the Moone to be a starre and to stand much upon fire namely that in ecclipses she is not wholly darkned and not at all to be seene but sheweth through the shade a certeine colour resembling a coale of fire and the same fearefull to see to which is the very naturall and proper hue of her owne As for Apollonides he made instance and opposition as touching the word shadow for that quoth he Mathematicians by that terme use alwaies to call the place which is not illumined but the heaven admitteth no shadow Whereto I made answer that this instance of his was alledged rather against the word contentiously than against the thing Physically or Mathematically for the place which is darkned and obstructed by the opposition of the earth if a man will not call a shadow but a place voide or deprived of light yet be it what it will whensoever the Moone is there you must of necessitie confesse that she becommeth obscure and darkned and in one word I say it is a very absurd folly to hold that the shadow of the earth reacheth not to that place from whence the shadow the Moone falling upon our sight heere upon the earth causeth the ecclipse of the Sunne And now will I come againe to you Pharnaces For that burnt colour like a coale in the Moone which you say is proper unto her agreeth very well to a body that hath thicknesse and depth neither use there to remaine in bodies which be rare any marke or token of a flame nor a coale can possibly be made of a body which is not solide able to receive deepe within it the heat of fire and the blacknesse of smoake as Homer himselfe sheweth very well in one place by these words When flower of fire was gon and flowen away And flame extinct the coales he did forth lay For the coale seemeth not properly to be fire but a bodie firie and altered by fire remaining still in a solid masse or substance which hath taken as it were deepe root
whereas flames are but the setting on fire and fluxions of some nutriment or matter which is of a rare substance and by reason of feeblenesse is quickely resolved and consumed In so much as there were not another argument so evident to prove that the Moone is solid and terrestriall as this if the proper colour therof resemble a coale of fire But it is not so my Pharnaces for in her eclipse she changeth diversly her colours which Mathematicians in regard of time and place determinatly distinguish in this sort If she be eclipsed in the West she appeareth exceeding blacke for three houres and an halfe if in the middle of the heaven she sheweth this light reddish or bay colour resembling sire and after seven houres and an halfe there ariseth a rednesse indeed Finally when this eclipse 〈◊〉 in the cast and toward the Sunne rising she taketh a blew or grayish colour which is the cause that the Poets and namely Empedocles calleth her Glaucopis Considering then that they see manifestly how the Moone changeth into so many colours in the shaddow they doe very ill to attribute unto her this colour onely of a burning or live coale which intrueth a man may say to be lesse proper unto her than any other and rather to be some little suffusion and 〈◊〉 of light appearing and shining through a shaddow and that her proper and naturall colour is blacke and earthly For seeing that here below whereas the lakes and rivers which receive the Sunne beames and by that meanes seeme in their superficies to be some time reddish and otherwhiles of a violet colour the shaddowy places adjoining take the same colours and are illuminated starting backe by reason of reflexions divers rebated splendures What wonder is it if a great river as it were or flux of shadow falling upon a celestiall sea as a man would say of a light not firm stedy quiet but stirred with inumerable starres walking over it and besides which admitteth divers mixtures and mutations doth take from the Moone the impression of sundry colours and send the same hither unto us For it cannot be avowed that a starre of fire should appeare through a shaddow either blacke blew or violet but hils plaines and seas are seene to have many and sundry resemblances of colours by reflexion of the Sunne running upon them which are the very tincttures that a brightnesse mingled with shaddowes and mists as it were with painters drugges and colours bringeth upon them which tinctures Homer went about to expresse in some sort and to name when one while he calleth the sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of a violet colour or deepered as wine and otherwhile the waves purple in one place the sea blew greene or grey and the colour white as for the tinctures and colours appearing upon the earth diversly he 〈◊〉 let them passe as I suppose for that they be in number infinit So it is not like that the Moone should have but one plaine and even superficies in maner of the sea but rather resemble naturally of all things especially the earth whereof olde Socrates in Plato seemeth to fable whether it were that under covert words and oenigmatically he ment this here of the Moone or spake of some other For it is neither incredible nor wonderfull if the Moone in it having no corruption nor muddinesse but the fruition of 〈◊〉 light from heaven and being full of heat not of furious and burning fire but of such as is milde and harmelesse hath also within her faire places and marvellous pleasant mountaines also resplendant like bright flaming fire purple tinctures or zones gold and silver likewise good store not dispersed heere and there in the bottome thereof but arising up to the upper face of the said planes in great aboundance or else spred over the hils and mountaines even and smooth Now say that the sight of all these things commeth unto us through a shaddow and that after divers and sundry sorts by reason of the variable and different mutation of the circumstant aire yet looseth not the Moone for all that the venerable opinion that goeth of her and the reputation of her divinity being esteemed among men a celestiall earth or rather a feculent and troubled fire as the Stoicks would have it and standing much upon lees or dreggish matter For the very fire it selfe hath barbarian honers done unto it among the Medes and Assyrians who for very feare serve and adore such things as be noisome and hurtful hallowing consecrating the same above those things which are of themselves good and honorable As for the name of the earth there is not a Greeke but he holdeth it right worshipfull sacred and venerable in so much as it is an ancient costome received throughout all Greece to honour it as much as any other god whatsoever And far is it from us men to thinke that the Moone which we take to be a celestiall earth as a dead body without soule or spirit and altogether void of such things which we ought to offer as first fruits to the gods For both by law we yeeld recompence and thankes giving unto it for those good things which we have received and by nature we adore the same which we acknowledge to be the most excellent for vertue and right honourable for puissance and therefore we thinke it no 〈◊〉 at all to suppose the Moone to be earth To come now unto the face that appeareth therein like as this earth upon which we walke hath many sinuosities and valleis even so as probable it is that the said heavenly earth lieth open with great deepe caves and wide chinks or ruptures and those conteining either water or obscure aire to the bottome thereof the light of the Sunne is not able to pierce and reach but there falleth and sendeth to us hither a certeine divided reflexion Then Apollonides Now I beseech you good sir even by the Moone herselfe thinke you it is possible that there should be shadowes of caves gulfes and chinkes there and that the same should be discovered by our sight heere or doe you not make reckoning of that which may come thereof What is that quoth I Mary I will tell you quoth he and albeit you are not ignorant thereof yet may you give me the hearing The Diameter of the Moone according to that bignesse which appeareth unto us in the meane and ordinary distances is twelve singers bredth long and every one of those blacke and 〈◊〉 shadowy streaks therein is more than halfe a finger that is to say above the foure an twentieth part of the said Diameter Now if we suppose the whole circumference of the Moone to be thirtie thousand stadia and according to that supposition the Diameter to be ten thousand every one of those obscure and shadowy marks within her will not be lesse than five hundreth Stadia or thereabout Consider then first whether it
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
as also by the apparence of one and the same visage in divers and sundry mirours flat hollow curbed or embowed round outwardly which represent an infinit variety But there is neither mirror that sheweth and expresseth the face better nor instrument of nature more supple obsequent and pliable that is the Moone howbeit receiving form the Sunne a light and firy illumination she sendeth not the same backe unto us but mingled with somewhat of her owne whereby it changeth the colour and hath a power or facultie far different for no heat at all there is in it and as for the light so weake and feeble it is that it faileth before it commeth unto us And this I suppose to be the meaning of Heraclitus when he saith that the lord unot whom belongeth the oracle at Delphos doth neither speake nor conceale but signifie onely and give signe Adde now to this which is so well said and conceived and make this application that the god who is heere useth Pythia the prophetesse for sight and hearing like as the Sunne useth the Moone He sheweth future things by a mortall body and a soule which cannot rest and lie stil as being not able to shew her selfe immooveable and quiet to him who stirreth and mooveth her but is troubled still more and more by the motions agitations and passions of her owne and which are in her selfe for like as the turnings of bodies which together with a circular motion fall downward are not firme and strong but turning as they do round by force and tending downward by nature there is made of them both a certaine turbulent and irregular circumgiration Even so the ravishment of the spirit called Enthusiasmus is a mixture of two motions when the minde is moved in the one by inspiration and in the other naturally For considering that of bodies which have no soule and of themselves continue alwaies in one estate quiet a man cannot make use not moove them perforce otherwise than the quality of their nature will beare nor move a cylindre like a bal or in maner of a square cube nor a lute or harpe according as he doth a pipe no more than a trumpet after the order of a cithern or stringed instrument ne yet any thing else otherwise than either by art or nature each of them is sit to be used How is it possible then to handle and manage that which is animate which mooveth of it selfe is indued with will and inclination capable also of reason but according to the precedent habitude puissance and nature As for example to move one musically who is altogether ignorant and an enemie of musicke or grammatically him who skilleth not of grammer and knoweth not a letter of the booke or eloquently and thetorically one who hath neither skill nor practise at all in orations Certes I cannot see or say how And herein Homer also beareth witnesse with me who albeit he supposeth thus much that nothing to speake of in the whole world is performed and effected by any cause unlesse God be at one end thereof yet will not he make God to use all persons indifferently in every thing but each one according to the sufficiency that he hath by art or nature To prove this see you not quoth he my frend Diogenianus that when Minerva would perswade the Achaeans to any thing she calleth for Ulysses when she is minded to trouble and marre the treaty of peace she seeketh out Pandarus when she is disposed to discomfit and put to flight the Trojans she addresseth her selfe and goeth to Diomedes for of these three the last was a valiant man of person and a brave warrior the second a good archer but yet a foolish and brainsicke man the first right eloquent and wise withall for Homer was not of the same minde with Pandarus if so be it were Pandarus who made this verse If God so will in sea thou maist well saile Upon an hurdle or a wicker fraile But well he knew that powers and natures be destined to divers effects according as ech one hath different motions notwithstanding that which mooveth them all be but one Like as therefore that facultie which moveth a living creature naturally going on foot can not make it to flie nor him who stutteth and stammereth to speake readily ne yet him to crie bigge and aloud who hath a small and slender voice which was the reason as I take it that when Battus was come to Rome they sent him into Afrike there to plant a colonie and people a citie for howsoever he had a stutting and stammering tongue and was otherwise of a small voice yet a princely minde he caried a politike head he had of his owne and was a man of wisedome government even so impossible it is that Pythia should have the knowledge to speake here elegantly learnedly for notwithstanding that she were wel borne and legitimate as any other had lived honestly and discreetly yet being brought up in the house of poore husbandmen she descendeth into the place of the oracle bringing with her no art learned in schoole nor any experience whatsoever But as Xenophon thinketh that a yoong bride when she is brought to her husbands house ought to be such an one as hath not seene much and heard as little semblably Pythia being ignorant and unexpert in maner of all things and a very virgin indeed as touching her minde and soule commeth to converse with Apollo And we verily are of opinion that God for to signifie future things useth Herons Wrens Ravens Crowes and other birds speaking after their maner neither will we have soothsaiers and prophets being as they are the messengers and heralds of God to expound and declare their predictions in plaine and intelligible words but wee would that the voice and dialect of the prophetesse Pythia resembling the speech of a Chorus in a tragedie from a scaffold should pronounce her answers not in simple plaine and triviall termes without any grace to set them out but with Poeticall magnificence of high and stately verses disguised as it were with metaphors and figurative phrases yea and that which more is with found of flute and hautboies what answere make you then as touching the old oracles Surely not one alone but many First the ancient Pythiae as hath beene said already uttered and pronounced most of them in prose secondly that time affoorded those complexions and temperatures of bodie which had a propense and forward inclination to Poesie whereto there were joined incontinently the alacritie desires affections and dispositions of the soule in such sort a they were ever prest and ready neither wanted they ought but some little beginning from without to set them on worke and to stirre the imagination and conception whereby there might directly be drawen unto that which was meet and proper for them not onely Astrologers and Philosophers as Philinus saith but also such as were well soaked with wine and shaken with some
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
to be a goddesse craved the pillar of wood which she cut downe with facility and tooke from underneath the truncke of the Tamarix or Erice which she anointed with perfumed oile and enwrapped within a linnen cloth and gave it to the kings for to be kept whereof it commeth that the Byblians even at this day reverence this piece of wood which lieth confecrate within the temple of Isis. Furthermore it is said that in the end she light upon the coffer over which she wept and lamented so much that the yongest of the kings sonnes died for very pity of her but she herselfe accompanied with the eldest of them together with the coffer embarked tooke sea departed But when the river Phaedrus turned the wind somwhat roughly about the dawning of the day Isis was so much displeased and angry that she dried it quite And so soone as she came unto a solitary place where she was by herselfe alone she opened the coffer where finding the corps of Osiris she laid her face close to his embraced it and wept Herewith came the child softly behinde and espied what she was doing whom when she perceived she looked backe casting an untoward eie and beheld him with such an angry aspect that the poore infant not able to endure so terrible a looke died upon it Some say it was not so but that he fell into the sea in maner aforesaid and was honored for the goddesse sake and that he is the same whom the Aegyptians chaunt at their feasts under the name of Maneros But others give out that this child was named Palestinus and that the city Pelusium was built in remembrance of him by the goddesse Isis and so tooke the name after him and how this Maneros whom they so celebrate in their songs was the first inventour of musicke Howbeit others there are againe who affirme that this was the name of no person but a kinde of dialect or language proper and agreeable unto those who drinke and banquet together as if a man should say In good houre and happily may this or that come For the Aegyptians were wont ordinarily to use this terme Maneros in such a sense like as no doubt the drie sceletos or dead corps of a man which they used to carie about and shew in a bierre or coffin at the table was not the representation or memoriall of this accident which befell unto Osiris as some doe imagine but served as an admonition to put the guests in minde to be merry and take their pleasure and joy in those things that were present for that soone after they should be like unto it This I say was the reason that it was brought in at their feasts and mery meetings Furthermore when Isis was gone to see her sonne Horus who was fostered and brought up in the city Butus and had laid the foresaid coffer with Osiris body out of the way Typhon fortuned as he hunted in a cleere moone-shine night to meet with it and taking knowledge of the body cut it into foureteene peeces and flung them heere and there one from another which when Isis understood she searched for them in a bote or punt made of papyr reed all over the moores and marishes whereof it comes that the Crocodiles never hurt those who saile or row in vessels made of that plant whether it be that they are affraid of it or reverence it for this goddesse sake I know not And thus you may know the reason why there be found many sepulchres of Osiris in the country of Aegypt for ever as she found any peece of him she caused a tombe to be made for it others say no but that she made many images of him which she left in every city as if she had bestowed among them his very body indeed to the end that in many places he might be honored and that if happly Typhon when he sought for the true sepulcher of Osiris having vanquished and overcome Horus many of them being reported and shewed he might not know which was it and so give over seeking farther Over and besides the report goes that Isis found all other parts of Osiris body but onely his privy member for that it was immediately cast into a river and the fishes named Lepidotus Phagrus and Oxyrynchus devoured it for which cause Isis detesteth them above all other fishes but in sted of that natural part she made a counterfet one called Phallus which she consecrated and in the honor thereof the Aegyptians hold a solemne feast After all this it followeth in the fable that Osiris being returned out of the infernall parts appeared unto Horus for to exercise instruct and traine him against the battell of whom he demanded what he thought to be the most beautifull thing in the world who answered To be revenged of the wrong and injury which had bene done to a mans parents Secondly what beast he thought most profitable to goe into the field withall unto whom Horus should make answere The horse whereat Osiris marvelled and asked him why he named the horse and not the lion rather Because quoth Horus the lion serveth him in good sted who stands upon his owne guard and defense onely and hath need of aid but the horse is good to defait the enimy quite to follow him in chace and take him prisoner When Osiris heard him say so he tooke great pleasure and contentment heerein judging heereby that his sonne was sufficiently appointed and prepared to give battell unto his enimies And verily it is said that among many that daily revolted from Typhon and sided with Horus even the very concubine of Typhon named Thueris was one who came to him and when a certaine serpent followed after and pursued her the same was cut in peeces by the guard about Horus in remembrance whereof at this very day they bring forth a certaine cord which likewise they chop in peeces Well they say the battell continued many daies but in the end Horus had the victory As also that Isis having Typhon prisoner fast bound in her hands killed him not but loosed him and let him goe which Horus not able to endure with patience laid violent hands upon his mother and plucked from her head the roiall ornament that she had thereon in sted whereof Mercury set one a morion made in maner of a cowes head Then Typhon called Horus judicially into question charging him that he was a bastard but by the helpe of Mercury who pleaded his cause he was judged by the gods legitimate who also in two other battel 's vanquished Typhon And more than all this the tale saith that Isis after death was with child by Osiris by whom she had Helitomenus and Harpocrates who wanted his nether parts Thus you see what be in maner all the principall points of this fable setting aside and excepting those which are most execrable to wit the dismembring of Horus and the beheading of Isis. Now that if any there be
for the matter and by the meanes of the said humidity was mixed with those things that were apt for generation Another branch there is yet growing to this fable namely that one Apopis brother to the Sunne warred against Jupiter that Osiris aided Jupiter and helped him to defait his enemie in regard of which merit he adopted him for his sonne and named him Dionysus that is to say Bacchus Now the Muthology of this fable as it evidently appeareth accordeth covertly with the trueth of Nature for the Aegyptians call the winde Jupiter unto which nothing is more contrary than siccity and that which is firy and that is not the Sunne although some consanguinity it hath unto it but moisture comming to extinguish the extremity of that drinesse fortifieth and augmenteth those vapors which nourish the wind and keepe it in force Moreover the Greeks consecrate the Ivie unto Bacchus and the same is named among the Aegyptians Chenosiris which word as they say signifieth in the Aegyptian tongue the plant of Osiris at leastwise Ariston who enrolled a colonie of the Athenians affirmeth that he light upon an epistle of Anaxarchus wherein he found as much as also that Bacchus was the sonne of a water nymph Naias Other Aegyptians also there be who hold that Bacchus was the sonne of Isis and that he was not called Osiris but Arsaphes in the letter Alpha which word signifieth prowesse or valour And thus much giveth Hermaeus to understand in his first booke of Aegyptian acts where he saith also that Osiris by interpretation is as much as stout or mightie Heere I forbeare to alledge Mnasaes who referreth and ascribeth unto Epaphus Bacchus Osiris and Sarapis I overpasse Anticlides likewise who affirmeth that Isis was the daughter of Prometheus and married unto Bacchus For the very particular properties that we have said were in their feasts and sacrifices yeeld a more cleere evidence and proose than any allegations of witnesses whatsoever Also they hold that among the starres the dogge or Sirius was consecrate unto Isis the which starre draweth the water And they honour the lion with whose heads and having the mouth gaping and wide open they adorne the dores and gates of their temples for that the river Nilus riseth So soone as in the circle Zodiake The Sunne and Leo signe encounter make And as they both hold and affirme Nilus to be the effluence of Osiris even so they are of opinion that the body of Isis is the earth or land of Aegypt and yet not all of it but so much as Nilus oversloweth and by commixtion maketh fertile and fruitfull of which conjunction they say that Orus was engendred which is nothing else but the temperature and disposition of the aire nourishing and maintaining all things They say also that this Orus was nourished within the mores neere unto the citie Butus by the goddesse Latona for that the earth being well drenched and watered bringeth foorth and nourisheth vapors which overcome extinguish and represse nothing so much great siccitie and drinesse Furthermore they call the marches and borders of the land the confines also of the coasts which touch the sea Nephthys and this is the reason why they name Nephthys Teleutaea that is to say finall or last and say that she was married unto Typhon And when Nilus breaketh out and overrunneth his banks so as he approcheth these borders this they call the unlawfull conjunction or adultery of Osiris with Nephthys the which is knowen by certeine plants growing there among which is the Melilot by the seed whereof saith the tale when it was shedde and left behinde began Typhon to perceive the wrong that was done unto him in his mariage And heere upon they say that Orus was the legitimate sonne of Iris but Anubis was borne by Nephthys in bastardie And verily in the succession of kings they record Nephthys maried unto Typhon to have beene at first barren Now if this be not meant of a woman but of a goddesse they understand under these aenigmaticall speeches a land altogether barren and unfruitfull by reason of hardnesse and stiffe soliditie The lying in wait of Typhon to surprise Osiris his usurped rule and tyranny is nothing els but the force of drinesse which was very mightie which dissipated also and spent all that humiditie that both engendreth and also encreaseth Nilus to that heigth As for that 〈◊〉 of Aethiopia who came to aid assist him she betokeneth the Southerly winds comming from Aethiopia for when these have the upper hand of the Etesian windes which blow from the North and drive the cloulds into Aethiopia and so hinders those showers and gluts of 〈◊〉 which power out of the clouds and make the river Nilus to swell then Typhon that is to say drouth is said to winne the better and to burne up all and so having gotten the mastery cleane of Nilus who by reason of his weaknesse and feeblenesse is driven in and forced to retire a contrary way he chaseth him poore and low into the sea For whereas the fable saith that Osiris was shut fast within an arke or coffer there is no other thing signified thereby but this departure backe of the water and the hiding thereof within the sea which is the cause also that they say Osiris went out of sight in the moneth Athyr and was no more seene at what time as when all the Etesian windes are laid and given over to blow Nilus 〈◊〉 into his chanell leaving the land discovered and bare And now by this time as the night groweth longer the darknesse encreaseth like as the force of the light doth diminish and is impaired and then the priests among many other ceremonies testifying their sadnesse and heavie cheere bring foorth and shew a beese with golden hornes whom they cover all over with a fine vaile of blacke silke thereby to represent the heavy dole and mourning of the goddesse for Osiris for thus they thinke that the said beefe is the image of Osiris and the vestment of blacke aforesaid testifying the earth doth signifie Isis and this shew exhibit they foure daies together to wit from the seventh unto the tenth following And why Foure things there be for which they make demonstration of griefe sorrow the first is the river Nilus for that he seemeth to retire and faile the second are the North-windes which now are husht and still by reason of the Southern winds that gaine the mastrie over them the third is the day for that now it waxeth shorter than the night and last of all the discovering and nakednesse of the earth together with the devesting of trees which at the very same time begin to shed and lose their leaves After this upon the ninteenth day at night they goe downe to the sea side and then the priests revested in their sacred Stoles and habits carie foorth with them a consecrated chest wherein there is a vessell of gold into which they take and powre fresh and
〈◊〉 that his debt did grow unto him by the interest for use Furthermore because ever and anon the same Homer attributeth unto the night the epither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Quicke and sharpe you Grammarians are much affected to this word saying He understandeth thereby that the shadow of the earth being round groweth point-wise or sharp at the end in maner of a cone or pyramis And what is he who standing upon this point that small things may not be the proofes and signes of greater matters will approove this argument in Physicke namely that when there is a multitude of spiders seene it doeth prognosticate a pestilent Summer or in the Spring season when the leaves of the olive tree resemble the crowes-feet Who I say will ever abide to take the measure of the Sunnes body by clepsydres or water-dials with a gallon or pinte of water or that a tyle-formed tablet making a sharpe angle by the plumbe enclining upon a plaine superficies should shew the just measure of the elevation of pole from the Horizon which alwaies is to be seene in our Hemisphaere Loe what the priests and prophets in those parts may alledge and say And therefore we ought to produce some other reasons against them in case we would mainteine the course of the Sunne to be constant and unvariable as we hold heere in these countries And not of the Sunne onely cried out with a loud voice Ammonius the Philosopher who was then in place but also of the whole heaven which by this reckoning commeth in question For if it be granted that the yeeres decrease the race of the Sunne which he runneth betweene the one Tropique and the other must of necessity be cut shorter and that it taketh not up so great a part of the Horizon as the Mathematicians set downe but that it becommeth shorter and lesse according as the Southern or Meridionall parts be contracted and gather alwaies toward the Septentrionall and Northerne Whereupon it will ensue that our Summer will be shorter and the temperature of the aire by consequence colder by reason that the Sunne turneth more inwardly and describeth greater paralelles or equidistant circles than those be about the Tropicks at the longest and shortest daies of the yeere Moreover this would follow heereupon that the Gnomons in the dials at Syene in Aegypt will be no more shadowlesse at the Summer Tropicke or Solstice and many of the fixed starres will runne under one another some also of them wil be forced for want of roome to runne one upon another and be hudled pell-mell together And if they shall say that when other starres hold their owne and keepe their ordinary courses the Sunne onely observeth no order in his motions they cannot alledge any cause that should so much as hasten his motion alone among so many others as there be but they shall trouble and disquiet most of those things which are seene evidently above and namely those generally which happen unto the Moone in regard of the Sunne So that we shal have no need of those who observe the measures of oile for to proove the diversitie of the yeeres because the ecclipses both of the Moone and Sun will sufficiently shew if there be any at all for that the Sun shall many times meet with the Moone and the Moone reciprocally fall as often within the shadow of the earth so as we shall need no more to display and discover the vanity and falsitie of this reason Yea but I my selfe quoth Cleombrotus have seene the said measure of oile for they shewed many of them unto me and that of this present yeere when I was with them appeered to be much lesse than those in yeeres past So that Ammonius made answer in this wise And how is it that other men who adore the inextinguible fires who keepe and preserve the same religiously for the space of an infinit number of yeeres one after another could not as well perceive and observe so much And say that a man should admit this report of yours to be true as touching the measures of the oile were it not much better to ascribe the cause thereof unto some coldnesse or moisture of the aire or rather contrariwise to some drinesse and heat by reason whereof the fire in the lampe being enfeebled is not able to spend so much nutriment and therefore hath no need thereof For I have heard it many times affirmed by some That in Winter the fire burneth much better as being more stronger more fortified by reason that the heat thereof is drawen in more united and driven closer by the exterior colde whereas great heats and droughts doe weaken the strength thereof so as it becommeth faint loose and rawe without any great vehemencie and vigour nay if a man kindle it against the Sunne-shine the operation of it is lesse hardly catcheth it hold of the wood or fewell and more slowly consumeth it the same But most of all a man may lay the cause upon the oile it selfe for it goeth not against reason to say that in old time the oile was of lesse nutriment and stood more upon the waterish substance than now it doth as pressed out of olives which grew upon yoong trees but afterwards being better concocted and riper in the fruit comming of plants more perfect and fully growen in the same quantity was more effectuall and able longer to nourish and mainteine the fire Thus you see how a man may salve and save that supposition of the Ammonian priests although it seeme very strange and woonderfully extravagant After that Ammonius had finished his speech Nay rather quoth I Cleombrotus I beseech you tell us somewhat of the oracle for there hath gone a great name time out of minde of the deity resident there but now it seemeth that the reputation thereof is cleane gone And when Cleombrotus made no answer heereto but held downe his head and cast his eies upon the ground There is no neede quoth Demetrius to demaund or make any question of the oracles there when as we see the oracles in these parts to faile or rather indeed all save one or two brought to nothing This rather would be enquired into what the cause should be that generally they all doe cease For to what purpose should we speake of others considering that Boeotia it selfe which heeretofore in old time resounded and rung againe with oracles now is quite voide of them as if the springs and fountaines were dried up and a great siccitie and drought of oracles had come over the whole land For there is not at this day goe throughout all Boeotia unlesse it be onely in Lebadia one place where a man may would he never so faine draw any divination what need soever he hath of any oracle for all other parts are either mute or altogether desolate and forlorne And yet in the time of the Medes warre the oracle of Ptous Apollo was in great request and that of Amphiaraus
also powre forth our praiers unto them for to have their answere from the Oracles and to what purpose I pray you if it be true that our owne soules bring with them a propheticall facultie and vertue of divination and the cause which doth excite and actuate the same be some temperature of the aire or rather of winde What meanes then the sacred institutions and creations of these religious prophetesses ordained for the pronouncing of answeres And what is the reason that they give no answere at all unlesse the host or sacrifice to be killed tremble all over even from the very feet and shake whiles the libaments effusions of halowed liquors be powred upon it For it is not enough to wag the head as other beasts doe which are slaine for sacrifice but this quaking panting and shivering must be throughout all the parts of the body and that with a trembling noise For if this be wanting they say the Oracle giveth no answere neither doe they so much as bring in the religious priestesse Pythia And yet it were probable that they should both doe and thinke thus who attribute the greatest part of this propheticall inspiration either to God or Daemon But according as you say there is no reason or likelihood therof for the exhalation that ariseth out of the ground whether the beast tremble or no will alwaies if it be present cause a ravishment and transportation of the spirit and evermore dispose the soule alike not onely of Pythia but also of any body else that first commeth or is presented And thereupon it followeth that a meere folly it is to employ one silly woman in the Oracle and to put her to it poore soule to be a votary and live a pure maiden all the daies of her life sequestred from the company of man And as for that Coretas whom the Delphians name to have beene the first that chancing to fall into this chinke or crevasse of the ground gave the hansell of the vertue and property of the place in mine opinion he differed nothing at all from other goteheards or shepheards nor excelled them one whit at least wise if this be a truth that is reported of him and not a meere fable and vaine fiction as I suppose it is no better And verily when I consider and discourse in my selfe how many good things this Oracle hath beene cause of unto the Greeks as well in their warres and martiall affaires as in the foundations of cities in the distresses of famine and pestilence me thinkes it were a very indignity and unworthy part to attribute the invention and originall thereof unto meere fortune and chance and not unto God and divine providence But upon this point I would gladly ô Lamprias quoth he have you to dispute and discourse a little how say you Philippus may it please you to have patience the while Most willingly quoth Philippus for my part and so much I may be bold also to promise in the behalfe of all the company for I see well that the question by you proposed hath moved them all And as for my selfe quoth I ô Philippus it hath not onely moved but also abashed and dismaied me for that in this so notable assembly and conference of so many worthy parsonages I may seeme above mine age in bearing my selfe and taking pride in the probability of my wordes to overthrow or to call into question any of those things which truely have beene delivered or religiously beleeved as touching God and divine matters But satisfie you I will and in the defence of my selfe produce for my witnesse and advocate both Plato For this Philosopher reprooved old Anaxagoras in that being to much addicted to naturall causes and entangled with them following also and pursuing alwaies that which necessarily is effected in the passions and affections of naturall bodies he overpassed the finall and efficient causes for which and by which thinges are done and those are indeed the better causes and principles of greater importance whereas himselfe either before or else most of all other Philosophers hath prosecuted them both attributing unto God the beginning of all things wrought by reason and not depriving in the meane while the matter of those causes which are necessary unto the worke done but acknowledging heerein that the adorning and dispose of all this world sensible dependeth not upon one simple cause alone as being pure and uncompound but was engendred and tooke essence when matter was coupled and conjoined with reason That this is so doe but consider first the workes wrought by the hand of Artisans as for example not to goe farther for the matter that same foot heere and basis so much renowmed of the standing cup among other ornaments and oblations of this temple which Herodotus called Hypocreteridion this hath for the materiall cause verily fire iron the mollefying by the meanes of fire and the tincture or dipping in water without which this peece of worke could not possibly have bene wrought But the more principall cause and mistresse indeed which mooved all this and did worke by all these was art and reason applied unto the worke And verily we see that over such peeces whether they be pictures or other representations of things the name of the artificer and workeman is written as for example This picture Polygnotus drew of Troy won long beforne Who father had Aglaophon and was in Thasos borne And verily he it was indeed as you see who painted the destruction of Troy but without colours ground confused and mingled one with another impossible had it beene for him to have exhibited such a picture so faire and beautifull to the eie as it is If then some one come now and will needs medle with the materiall cause searching into the alterations and mutations thereof particularizing of Sinopre mixed with Ochre or Cerusse with blacke doth he impaire or diminish the glory of the painter 〈◊〉 He also who discourseth how iron is hardned and by what meanes mollified and how being made soft and tender in the fire it yeeldeth and obaieth them who by beating and knocking drive it out in length and bredth and afterwards being dipped and plunged into fresh waters still by the actuall coldnesse of the said water for that the fire heats had softened and rarefied it before it is thrust close together and condensate by meanes whereof it getteth that stiffe compact and hard temper of steele which Homer calleth the very force of iron reserveth he for the workeman any thing lesse heereby in the principall cause and operation of his worke I suppose he doth not For some there be who make proofe and triall of Physicke drogues and yet I trow they condemne not thereby the skill of Physicke like as Plato also himselfe when he saith That we doe see because the light of our eie is mixed with the cleerenesse of the Sunne and heare by the percussion and beating of the aire doth not deny that we have the
appeare many visions and fansies of all sorts in our sleeps otherwhiles againe we are free from all such illusions and rest in great quietnesse and tranquillitie We our selves know this Cleon here of Daulia who all his life time and many yeeres he lived never as he said himselfe dreamed nor saw any vision in his sleepe and of those in former times we have heard as much reported of Thrasymedes the Hoereian The cause whereof was the temperature of the bodie whereas contrariwise it is seene that the complexion of melancholicke persons is apt to dreame much and subject to many illusions in the night although it seemeth their dreames and visions be more regular and fall out truer than others for that such persons touching their imaginative faculty with one fansie or other it can not chuse but they meet with the truth otherwhiles much like as when a man shoots many shafts it goeth hard if he hit not the marke with one When as therefore the imaginative part and the propheticall faculty is well disposed and sutable with the temperature of the exhalation as it were with some medicinable potion then of necessitie there must be engendred within the bodies of Prophets an Enthusiasme or divine furie contrariwise when there is no such proportionate disposition there can be no propheticall inspiration or if there be it is fanaticall unseasonable violent and troublesome as we know how of late it befel to that Pythias or Prophetesse who is newly departed For there being many pilgrims and strangers come from forren parts to consult with the Oracle it is said that the host or beast to be sacrificed did endure the first libaments and liquors that were powred upon it never stirring there at nor once quetching for the matter but after that the Priests and Sacrificers powred still and never gave over to cast liquor on beyond all measure at length after great laving and drenching of it hardly and with much adoe it yeelded and trembled a little But what hapned hereupon to the Prophetesse or Pythias aforesaid Went she did indeed downe into the cave or hole against her will as they said and with no alacrity at all but incontinently when she was come up againe at the very first words and answers that she pronounced it was well knowen by the horsenesse of her voice that she could not endure the violence of possession being replenished with a maligne and mute spirit much like unto a ship caried away under full sailes with a blustering gale of wind Insomuch as in the end being exceedingly troubled and with a fearefull and hideous crie making haste to get out she flung herselfe downe and fell upon the earth so that not onely the foresaid pilgrims fled for feare but Nicander also the High-priest and other Sacrificers and religious ministers that were present Who notwithstanding afterwards taking heart unto them and entring againe into the place tooke her up lying still in an extasie besides herselfe and in very trueth she lived not many daies after And therefore it is that the said Pythias keepeth her bodie pure and cleane from the company of man and forbidden she is to converse or have commerce al her life time with any stranger Also before they come to the Oracle they observe certeine signes for that they thinke it is knowen unto the God when her bodie is prepared and disposed to receive without danger of her person this Enthusiasme For the force and vertue of this exhalation doth not move and incite all sorts of persons nor the same alwaies after one maner nor yet as much at one time as at another but giveth onely a beginning and setteth to as it were a match to kindle it as we have said before even unto those onely who are prepared and framed aforehand to suffer and receive this alteration Now this exhalation without all question is divine and celestiall howbeit for all that not such as may not faile and cease not incorruptible not subject to age and decay nor able to last and endure for ever and under it all things suffer violence which are betweene the earth and the moone according to our doctrine however others there be who affirme that those things also which are above are not able to resist it but being wearied an eternall and infinite time are quickely changed and renewed as one would say by a second birth regeneration But of these matters quoth I advise you I would and my selfe also estsoones to call to minde and consider often this discourse for that they be points exposed to many reprehensions and sundry objections may be alledged against them All which the time will not suffer us now to prosecute at large and therefore let us put them off unto another opportunity together with the doubts and questions which Philippus moved as touching Apollo and the Sunne WHAT SIGNIFIETH THIS WORD EI ENGRAVEN OVER THE DORE OF APOLLOES TEMPLE IN THE CITIE OF DELPHI The Summarie AMong infinite testimonies of the fury of maligne spirits and evill angels who having beene created at first good kept not their originall but fell from the degree and state of happinesse wherein continue by the grace and favour of God the good angels who minister and attend upon those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation and everlasting life these may bereckoned for the chiefe and principall that such reprobate spirits and accursed fiends endevour practise by all meanes possible to make themselves to be adored by men and fame would they be set in the throne of him who having imprisoned and tied them fast in a deepe dungeon with the chaine of darknesse reserveth them to the judgement of that great day of doome And so farre proceeded they in pride and presumption as to cause themselves to be stiled by the name of God yea and to be adorned with those titles which are due and apperteine unto the Aeternall their soveraigne judge Their devices and artificiall meanes to bring this about be woonderfull and of exceeding variety according as the infinit numbers of idols warming in all parts and so many strange and uncouth superstitions wherewith the world hath beene diffamed unto this present day doe testifie and give evident proofe But if there be any place in the whole earth wherein Satanhath actually hewed his furious rage against God and man it is Greece and above all in that renowmed temple of Delphi which was the common seat upon which this cursed enemy hath received the homages of an infinit number of people of all sorts and qualities under the colour and pretence of resolving their doubtfull questions Heere then especially presumed he and was so bold as to take upon him the name of God and for to reach thereto hath set out and garnished his Oracles with ambiguous speeches short and sententious intermingling some trueths among lies even as it pleased the just judge of the world to let the reines loose unto this notorious seducer and to give him
priestresse or prophetisse who pronounced the answeres at the oracle of Apollo Pythius at Delphos who tooke that name of Python there slaine by him and lying putrified or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say To aske and demand for the resort of people thither to be resolved by him of their doubts Pythick or Pythian games were celebrated to the honour of Apollo Pythius neere the city Delphos with greate solemnity instituted first by Diomedes and yeerely renewed Q QUintus A fore name to divers Romanes Quaternary the number of Foure called likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so highly celebrated by the Pythagoreans comprising in it the proportion Epitritos whereof ariseth the musicall harmonie Diatessaron for it containeth three and the third part of three also Diplasion because it comprehendeth two duple whence ariseth the musicke diapason and Disdiapason being dubled which is an Eight the perfect harmony according to the proverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also in that it containeth all numbers within it for one two three and foure arise to Ten beyond which we cannot ascend but by repetition of former numbers Quaestors inferior officers in Rome in maner of Treasurers whose charge was to receive and lay out the cities mony and revenewes of state of which sort there were Urbani for the city it selfe Provinciales for the provinces and Castrenses for the campe and their warres Quinquertium named in Greeke Pentathlon Five exercises or feats of activity among the greeks practised at their solemne games namely launcing the dart throwing the coit running a race wrestling and leaping See Pancratium R RAdicall moisture Is the substantiall humidity in living bodies which is so united with naturall heat that the one maintaineth the other and both preserve life To Rarifie that is to say To make more subtile light and thin Rectdivation Is a relapse or falling backe into a sicknesse which was in the way of recovery and commonly is more dangerous than the former Recidiva pejor radice Regents Professours in the liberall sciences and in Philosophi a tearme usuall in the Universities Reverberation that is to say A smiting or driving backe Rhapsodie A 〈◊〉 together or conjoining of those Poems and verses especially heroicke or hexametre which before were loose and scattered such as were those of Homer when they were reduced into one entier body of Ilias and Odyssca Those Poets also who recite or pronounce such verses were tearmed Rhapsodi Rivals and Corrivals Counter-suiters or those who make love together unto one and the same woman To Ruminate that is to say To ponder and consider or revolve a thing in the minde a borrowed speech from beasts that chew the cudde S SAtyri Woodwoses or monstrous creatures with tailes yet resembling in some sort partly men women in part goats given much to venery and lasciviousnesse whereupon they had that name also to scurrill frumping and jibing for which they were also called Sileni especially when they grew aged supposed by the rurall heardmen to be the fairies or gods I would not else of the woods Satyrae or Satyrs were certaine Poems received in place of Comoedia vetus detesting and reprooving the misdemeanours of people and their vices at first by way of myrth and jest not sharpely and after a biting maner to the shame disgrace or hurt of any person such were they that Horace composed howbeit they grew afterward to more diracity and licentiousnesse noting in broad tearmes without respect all leaudnesse and sparing no degree as those were of Juvenales and Persius penning Latine poets onely handled this argument both in the one sort and the other Scammonie A medicinable plant and the juice thereof issuing out of the roote when it is wounded or cut it purgeth yellow choler strongly The same juice or liquor being concrete or thickned and withall corrected is called Dacrydium as one would say the teares destilling from the roote and is the same which the unlearned Apothecaries call Diagridium as if forsooth it were some compound like their Diaphaenicon Scelet The dead body of a man artificially dried or tanned for to be kept and seene a long time It is taken also for a dead carcasse of man or woman represented with the bones onely and ligaments Scepticke philosophers Who descended from Pyrrho so called for that they would consider of all matters in question but determine of none and in this respect they were more precise than the Academicks Scolia Were certeine songs and carols sung at feasts Scrutinie A search and properly a perusing of suffrages or voices at elections or judiciall courts for the triallor passing of any cause Secundine The skinne that enwrappeth the childe or yoong thing in the wombe in women the after-birth or later-birth in beasts the heame Senarie The number of sixe also a kinde of verse See Iambus Septimane A weeke or seven-night Also what soever falleth out upon the seventh daie moneth yeere c. as Septimanae foeturae in Arnobius for children borne at the seventh moneth after conception and Septimanae 〈◊〉 Agues returning with their fits every seventh day Serg. Sergius Forenames to certeine families in Rome Serv. Servius  Sex Sextus  Sesquialteral A proportion by which is ment that which conteineth the whole and halfe againe as 6. to 4. 12. to 8. It is also named Hemiolios Sesqui-tertian A proportion whereby is understood as much as comprehendeth the whole and one third part as 12. to 9. and the same is called 〈◊〉 Sesqui-octave That which compriseth the whole and one 8 part as 9 to 8 18 to 16 in Greeke Eptogdoos or Epogdoos Soloecisme Incongruity of speech or defect in the purity thereof It arose of those who being Athenians borne and dwelling in Soli a city in 〈◊〉 spake not pure Attick but mixt with the Solians language Solstice The Sunne-steed which is twice in the yeere in Iune December when the Sunne seemeth to stand for a while at the very point of the Tropicks either going from us or comming toward us as if hee returned from the end of his race North and South Sp. Spurius A forename to some Romanes Spasmes that is to say Crampes or painfull pluckings of the muskles and sinewes See Convulsions And Spasmaticke full of such or given thereto Sphaeres The circles or globs of the seven planets as also the compasse of the heaven above all Spissitude Thicknesse or dimnesse Spondaeus An hymne sung at sacrifices and libations Also a metricall foot in verse consisting of two long syllables whereof principally such hymnes or songs were composed Stadium A race or space of ground conteining 625. foote whereof eight make a mile consisting of a thousand paces which are five thousand foot reckoning five foot for a pace for so much commonly a man taketh at once in his pace that is to say in his stepping forward and remooving one foot before another Stoicks Certeine Philosophers whose first master
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
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