as hee sayeth that I haue disinherited him and abiected him from my heritage hee beeing begotten of my body hereunto I answere That I haue not disinherited my sonne but I haue disinherited his pleasure to the entent hee shall not enioy my trauell for there can bee nothing more vniust then that the young and vicious sonne should take his pleasure of the swet and droppes of the aged father The sonne replyed to his Father and sayde I confesse I haue offended my Father and also I confesse that I haue liued in pleasures yet if I may speake the truth though I were disobedient and euill my Father ought to beare the blame and if for this cause hee doeth dishenherite mee I thinke hee doth me great iniurie for the father that instructeth not his son in vertue in his youth wrongfully disinheriteth him though he be disobedient in his age The Father againe replyeth and sayeth It is true my sonne that I brought thee vp too wantonly in thy youth but thou knowest well that I haue taught thee sundry times and besides that I did correct thee when thou camest to some discretion And if in thy youth I did not instruct thee in learning it was for that thou in thy tender age diddest want vnderstanding but after that thou hadst age to vnderstand discretion to receyue and strength to exercise it I beganne to punish thee to teache thee and to instruct thee For where no vnderstanding is in the child there in vaine they teach doctrine Since thou art old quoth the sonne and I young since thou art my Father and I thy sonne for that thou hast white hayres on thy beard and I none at all it is but reason that thou be belieued and I condemned For in this world wee see oft times that the small authoritie of the person maketh him to loose his great iustice I graunt thee my Father that when I was a childe thou diddest cause mee to learne to reade but thou wilt not denie that if I did commit any faulte thou wouldst neuer agree I should be punished And hereof it came that thou suffering me to do what I would in my Youth haue bin disobedient to thee euer since in my age And I say vnto thee further that if in this case I haue offended truely mee thinketh thou canst not bee excused for the fathers in the youth of their children ought not onely to teach them to dispute of vertues what vertue is but they ought to inforce thē to be vertuous in deed For it is a good token when Youth before they knowe vices haue been accustomed to practise vertues Both partyes then diligently heard the good Phylosopher Solon Solinon speake these words I giue iudgement that the Father of this childe be not buryed after his death and I commaund that the Sonne because in his youth hee hath not obeyed his Father who is olde should be disinherited whilest the Father liueth from all his substance on such condition that after his death his sonnes should inherite the Heritage and so returne to the heyres of the Sonne and liue of the Father For it were vniust that the innocencie of the Sonne should be condemned for the offence of the Father I do commaund also that all the goods be committed vnto some faithfull person to the end they may giue the Father meat and drinke during his life and to make a graue for the Sonne after his death I haue not without a cause giuen such iudgement the which comprehendeth life and death For the Gods will not that for one pleasure the punishment bee double but that wee chastise and punish the one in the life taking from him his honour and goods and that wee punish others after their death taking from them memorie and buryall Truely the sentence which the Philosopher gaue was very graue and would to GOD wee had him for a iudge of this world presently For I sweare that hee should finde manie Children now a dayes for to disinherite and moe Fathers to punish For I cannot tell which is greater The shame of the children to disobey their Fathers or the negligence of the Fathers in bringing vp their children Sextus Cheronens in the second book of the sayings of the Philosophers declareth that a Citizen of Athens saide vnto Dyogenes the Phylosopher these wordes Tell mee Dyogenes What shall I doe to be in the fauour of the Gods and not in the hatred of men For oft times amongst you Phylosophers I haue hearde say that there is a great difference between that that the gods will and that which men loue Dyogenes answered Thou speakest more then thou oughtest to speake that the Gods will one thing and men another for the Gods are but as a center of mercy and men are but as a denne of malice if thou wilt enioy rest in thy dayes and keepe thy life pure and cleane thou must obserue these three things The first honour thy Gods deuoutely for the man which doeth not serue and honour the Gods in all his enterprises hee shall be vnfortunate The second bee very diligent to bring vp thy children well for the man hath no enemie so troublesome as his owne sonne if hee bee not well brought vp The third thing bee thankefull to thy good benefactors and friends for the Oracle of Apollo sayth that the man who is vnthankefull of all the world shall be abhorred And I tell thee further my friend that of these three things the most profitable though it be more troublesome is for a man to teach and bring vp his children well This therefore was the answere that the Philosopher Diogenes made to the demaund of the Citizen It is great pitty and griefe to see a young childe how the bloud doth stirre him to see how the flesh doth prouoke him to accomplish his desire to see sensuality goe before and he himselfe to come behind to see the malitious World to watch him to see how the Diuell doth tempte him to see how vices binde him and in all that which is spoken to see how the Father is negligent as if hee had no children whereas in deede the olde man by the fewe vertues he hath had in his Youth may easily knowe the infirmityes and vices wherewith his Sonne is incompassed If the expert had neuer beene ignorant if the Fathers had neuer beene children if the vertuous had neuer been vicious if the fine wittes had neuer been deceiued it were no maruell if the Fathers were negligent in teaching their children For the little experience excuseth men of great offences but since thou art my Father and that first thou wert a Sonne since thou art old and hast bin young and besides all this since that pride hath inflamed thee lechery hath burned thee wrath hath wounded thee Negligence hath hindred thee Couetousnes hath blinded thee Glotonie surfetted thee Tell mee cruell Father since so many vices haue reigned in thee why hast thou not an
to come with me from Capua to Rome the selfesame thou hadst to goe with another from Rome to Capua It is an euill thing for vicious â—eâ— to reprooue the vices of others wherein themselues are faulty The cause why I condemn thee to dye is onely for the remembrance of the old Law the which commandeth that no nurse or woman giuing sucke should on paine of death be begotten with childe truly the Law is very iust For honest women do not suffer that in giuing her child sucke at her breast she shold hide another in her entrails These words passed between Gneus Fuluius the Consul and the Ladie Sabina of Capua Howbeit as Plutarche saith in that place the Consull had pitie vpon her and shewed her fauour banishing her vpon condition neuer to returne to Rome againe Cinna Catullus in the fourth booke of the xxij Consulls saith that Caius Fabricius was one of the most notable Consulles that euer was in Rome and was sore afflicted with diseases in his life onely because hee was nourished foure moneths with the milke of a Nurse being great with Childe and for feare of this they locked the nurse with the Childe in the Temple of the Vestall virgines where for the space of iij. yeares they were kept They demaunded the Consul why he did not nourish his children in his house He answered that children being nourished in the house it might bee an occasion that the Nurse should begotteÌ„ with child and so she should destroy the children with her corrupt milke and further giue me occasion to do iustice vpon her person wherefore keeping them so shut vp wee are occasion to preserue their life and also our children from perill Dyodorus Siculus in his librairy and Sextus Cheronensis saith in the life of Marc. Aurelius that in the Isles of Baleares there was a custom that the nurses of young children whether they were their owne or others should be seuered from their Husbands for the space of two yeares And the woman which at that time though it were by her husband were with child though they did not chasten her as an adulteresse yet euery man spake euill of her as of an offender During the time of these two yeares to the ende that the Husband should take no other wife they commanded that hee should take a concubine or that hee should buye a Slaue whose companie hee might vse as his wife for amongst these barbarous hee was honoured most that had two Wiues the one with child and the other not By these Examples aboue recited Princesses and great Ladyes may see what watch care they ought to take in choosing their Nurses that they be honest since of them dependeth not onely the health of their children but also the good fame of their houses The seueÌ„th condition is that Princesses and great ladies ought to see their nurses haue good conditions so that they be not troublesome proud harlots liars malicious nor flatterers for the viper hath not so much poyson as the woman which is euil coÌ„ditioned It little auaileth a man to take wine from a woman to entreate her to eate little and to withdrawe her from her husband if of her owne nature she be hatefull and euill mannered for it is not so great daÌ„ger vnto the child that the nurse be a drunkard or a glutton as it is if she be harmfull malitious If perchaunce the Nurse that nourisheth the child be euil conditioned truly she is euill troubled the house wherin she dwelleth euil coÌ„bred For such one doth importune the Lorde troubleth the Lady putteth in hazard the childe aboue all is not contented with her selfe Finally Fathers for giuing too much libertie to their nurses oft times are the causes of manie practises which they doe wherewith in the ende they are grieued with the death of their childreÌ„ which foloweth Amongst all these which I haue read I say that of the ancient Roman Princes of so good a Father as Drusius Germanicus was neuer came so wicked a son as Caligula was being the iiij Emp of Rome for the Hystoriographers were not satisfied to enrich the praise the excellencies of his Father neyther ceased they to blame and reprehend the infamies of his Sonne And they say that his naughtines proceedeth not of the mother which bare him but of the nurse which gaue him sucke For often times it chaunceth that the tree is green and good when it is planted and afterwardes it becometh drie and withered onely for being carryed into another place Dyon the Greeke in the second book of Caesars saieth that a cursed woman of Campania called Pressilla nourished and gaue suck vnto this wicked child Shee had against all nature of women her breasts as hayrie as the beardes of men and besides that in running a Horse handling her staffe shooting in the Crosse-bowe fewe young men in Rome were to bee compared vnto her It chaunced on a time that as shee was giuing sucke to Caligula for that shee was angrie shee tore in pieces a young child and with the bloud therof annoynted her breasts and so she made Caligula the young Childe to sucke together both bloud and milke The saide Dyon in his booke of the life of the Emperour Caligula saieth that the women of Campania whereof the saide Pressilla was had this custom that wheÌ„ they would giue their Teat to the childe first they did annointe the nipple with the bloud of a hedge-hog to the ende their children might be more fierce and cruell And so was this Caligula for hee was not contented to kill a man onely but also hee sucked the bloud that remained on his Sworde and licked it off with his tongue The excellent Poet Homer meaning to speake plainely of the crueltyes of Pyrrus saide in his Odisse of him such wordes Pyrrus was borne in Greece nourished in Archadie and brought vp with Tygers milke which is a cruell beast as if more plainely he had saide Pyrrus for being borne in Greece was Sage for that hee was brought vp in Archadie he was strong and couragious for to haue sucked Tygars milke he was very proud and cruell Hereof may be gathered that the great Grecian Pyrrus for wanting of good milke was ouercome with euill conditions The selfe same Hystorian Dyon saith in the life of Tiberius that hee was a great Drunkard And the cause hereof was that the Nurse did not onely drinke wine but also she weyned the childe with soppes dipped in Wine And without doubt the cursed Woman had done lesse euill if in the stead of milke she had giuen the child poyson without teaching it to drinke wine wherefore afterwardes he lost his renowne For truely the Romane Empire had lost little if Tiberius had dyed being a childe and it had wonne much if he had neuer knowne what drinking of Wine had meant I haue declared all that which before is mentioned to the intent that Princesses and great Ladyes might
fought together for as Nafica sayde the pleasures that Rome had to see many victories were not so great as the displeasure was which she tooke to see her selfe once ouercome The good Vlpius Traianus gaue battell to king Cebalus wherein Cebalus was not onely ouercome but also taken and afterwardes brought before the Emperor Traianus which sayde vnto him these words Speake Cebalus Why diddest thou rebell against the Romaines since thou knowest that the Romanes are inuincible King Cebalus answered him If the Romans could not bee ouercome how then did I ouercome the Emperour Domitian Traian the Emperour sayde vnto him againe Thou art greatly deceyued King Cebalus to thinke that when thou ouercamest the Emperor thou hadst ouercome the Romanes For when that Romulus founded Rome the Gods ordained that though their Emperour dyed in any battell yet notwithstanding it is not to bee thought that the Empire is ouercome The Historiographers made a great matter of the words that this Vlpius Traianus spake for therin he shewed that the Rom Empire was invincible After that this King Cebalus was dead and that for his deserts hee was depriued as the Emperour Traian was a mercifull Prince so hee prouided that a little child that Cebalus had should bee brought vp in his Palace with intention that if the Child became good they would giue him the Realme which his Father through treason had lost For in Rome there was an auncient Law that all which the Father lost by reason the sonne should recouer by his faithfull acts It chaunced that the good Traian taking his pleasure in the garden of Vulcan saw the sonne of King Cebalus and many other young children of Rome stealing fruit foorth of an Orchard and it is no wonder for the Locustes did not so much harme to the corne as the children do to the fruites when they enter into the Orchards When the Emperour afterwardes demaunded him from whence hee came hee answered from his study hearing Rethorike but indeed hee came from stealing of fruit The Emperour Traian was so angry and displeased that the child was a lyer that he commanded he should vtterly be depriued and made voide of all hope to recouer the Realme of his Father The Emperour Traian was greatly importuned as wel of strange Ambassadours as of his owne countrimen that he would change that cruell sentence For Princes in a fury doe commaund that which when they are patient they doe vndo The Emperour Traian answered them if the Father of this child which was King Cebalus had been a true Prince he had not lost his life neyther his Realme nor had not put mee and the Empire so many times in daunger but since the Father was a lyer and the sonne is not true it were too vniust a thing to render him the Realme For to me it should be great reproach and to our mother Rome as much dishonour that shee being the mother of truth should giue Realmes to children beeing lyers This was it that Vlpius Traian spake vnto the sonne of King Cebalus Marcus Aurelius the 17. Emperour of Rome had two sonnes as before we haue rehearsed the eldest of the which was called Comodus and his father procured greatly to dishen herite him of the Empire for hee would that the second sonne named Verissimus should haue enherited it and hee did not onely determine it but also spake it oft times openly For that thing is with great difficulty dissembled that excessiuely is beloued By chance an olde Senator and friend of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour one day both going out of the Senate house sayde vnto him I maruell at thee most Excellent Prince Why thou doest dishenherite thy sonne which is eldest to make thine Heyre the youngest knowing that they are both thy sonnes and that the gods haue giuen thee no other but them For the good Fathers are bound to chasten their children but they haue not licence to dishenherite them The Emperour Marcus Aurelius answered him If thou wert a Greeke Philosopher as thou ort a Romane Citizen and if thou knowest tke fathers loue towards the child thou wouldest not take pitty on my sonne which vndoeth the Empire but thou shouldest haue compassion on me his Father which doth dishenherite him For the child scarcely knoweth what hee looseth but I that am his Father doe bewayle the dammage which I doe vnto him For in the end there is not in the world so cruell a Father but if his sonne should bee hurt with the pomell of the sword in the hand the Father would feele incontinently the dent of his blade at his heart In this case I sweare vnto thee by the immortall Gods that I do that which I would not doe and I take that from him which I would not take For Anthonius my Lord and Father in law gaue mee the Empire for no other cause but because hee neuer found in mee any lye and for this occasion I doe depriue my sonne from it for that I neuer found in him any truth For it is not meete that the Empire beeing giuen vnto me for that I was true should bee left in heritage to him that is a lyer For in the ende it is better that the sonne doe loose the heritage then the father should loose his renowne By these two examples those which are the tutors and masters of Princes and great Lordes may see how to bee diligent to keepe them from lyes whilest they are yong and it ought to be in such sort that neyther in pastime neyther in earnest answering they should bee suffered to tell a lye For those that for their pleasures were accustomed to lye in their youth will not fayle for their profite to lye in their age Secondarily the Tutours and Masters ought to keepe their Disciples that they bee no gamesters that they doe not accustome themselues in their youth to bee vnthrifts for it is a great token of the decay of the Empire when the Prince in his youth is affectionated to play Experience sheweth vs that to play is a vice as Seneca saieth which hath the property of a raging dogge with whom if a man bee once bitten vnlesse hee hath present remedie forthwith he runneth mad and the disease also continueth with him vncurable vntill the houre of his death Players not without a cause are compared to madde dogges for al those that vse it hurt their conscience loose their honour and consume their substance It chaunceth oft that in that wherein Masters should bee most circumspect they for the most part are most negligent that is to say that vnder the colour of some honest recreation they agree to their Schollers to vse some pastime which if therein bee contained no commendable exercise the children ought not to vse it nor yet the tutors to suffer it for vice is of such a propertie that if a childe in his youth dare play a point it is to bee feared when he commeth to yeares hee
yea and surmount and surpasse many but yet I doe aduise thē not to employ their force but to follow one For often times it chanceth that many which suppose themselues in their life to excell all when they are dead are scarcelie found equall vnto any Though man hath done much and blazed what he can yet in the end he is but one one mind one power one birth one life and one death Then sithence hee is but one let no man presume to know more then one Of all these good Princes which I haue named in the rowle of iustice the last was Marcus Aurelius to the intent that he should weaue his webbe For suppose we reade of many Princes that haue compiled notable things the which are to bee reade and knowne but all that Marcus Aurelius sayde or did is worthy for to be knowne and necessary to bee followed I doe not meane this Prince in his Heathen law but in his vertuous deedes Let vs not stay at his beleefe but let vs embrace the good that hee did For compare many Christians with some of the Heathen and looke how farre we leaue them behind in faith so farre they excell vs in good and vertuous works All the olde Princes in times past had some Philosophers to their familiars as Alexander Aristotle King Darius Herodorus Augustus Pisto Pompeius Plauto Titus Plinie Adrian Secundus Traion Plutarchus Anthonius Apolonius Theodotius Claudinus Seuerus Fabatus Finally I say that Phylosophers then had such aucthoritie in Princes pallaces that children acknowledged them for Fathers and Fathers reuerenced them as masters These Wise and Sage men were aliue in the company of Princes but the good and vertuous Marcus Aurelius whose doctrine is before your Maiesty is not aliue but dead Yet therefore that is no cause why his Doctrine should not bee admitted For it may bee peraduenture that this shall profite vs more which hee wrote with his handes then that which others spake with their tōgus Plutarch sayeth in the time of Alexander the great Aristotle was aliue and Homer was dead But let vs see how hee loued the one and reuerenced the other for of truth he slept alwayes with Homers booke in his hands and waking he read the same with his eyes and alwayes kept the doctrine thereof in his memory and layde when he rested the booke vnder his head The which priuiledge Aristotle had not who at all times could not be heard and much lesse at all seasons be beleeued so that Alexander had Homer for his friend and Aristotle for a master Other of these Philosophers were but simple men but our Marcus Aurelius was both a wise Philosopher and a very valiant Prince and therfore reason would hee should be credited before others For as a prince hee will declare the troubles and as a Philosopher hee will redresse them Take you therefore Puisaunt Prince this wise Philosopher and Noble Emperour for a Teacher in your youth for a Father in your gouernment for a Captaine generall in your Warres for a guide in your iourneyes for a friend in your affayres for an example in your vertues for a Master in your sciences for a pure white in your desires and for equall match in your deedes I will declare vnto you the Life of an other beeing a Heathen and not the life of an other beeing a Christian For looke how much glory this Heathen Prince had in this world beeing good and vertuous so much paines your Maiesty shall haue in the other if you shall bee wicked and vicious Beholde behold most Noble and illustrious Prince the Life of this Emperour and you shal plainly see and perceyue how cleare hee was in his iudgement how vpright hee was in his iustice how circumspect in the course of his life how louing to his friends how patient in his troubles and aduersities how hee dissembled with his enemies how seuere against Tirants how quiet among the quiet how great a friēd vnto the Sage and louer of the simple how aduenturous in his warres and amiable in peace and chiefly and aboue all things how high in wordes and prosound in sentences Many and sundry times I haue beene in doubt with my selfe whether the heauenly and eternall Maiesty which giueth vnto you Princes the Temporall Maiesty for to rule aboue all other in power and authoritie did exempt you that are earthly Princes more from humane fraylety then hee did vs that be but Subiects and at the last I know hee did not For I see euen as you are children of the World so you doe liue according to the World I see euen as you trauell in the Worlde so you can know nothing but things of the world I see because you liue in the Flesh that you are subiect to the miseries of the flesh I see though for a time you doe prolong your life yet at the last you are brought vnto your graue I see your trauel is great and that within your Gates there dwelleth no rest I see you are colde in the winter and hote in the Summer I see that hunger feeleth you and thirst troubleth you I see your friendes forsake you and your enemies assault you I say that you are sadde and do lacke ioy I see that you are sicke and bee not well serued I see you haue much and yet that which you lacke is more What will you see more seeing that Princes dye O noble Princes and great Lords since you must dye and become wormes meate why doe you not in your life time search for good counsell If the Princes and noble men commit an errour no man dare chastice them wherefore they stand in greater need of aduise and counsell For the traueller who is out of his way the more he goeth forward the more hee erreth If the people doe amisse they ought to be punished but if the Prince erre he should be admonished And as the Prince will the people should at his hands haue punishment so it is reason that he at their hands should receyue counsell For as the wealth of the one dependeth on the wealth of the other so truly if the Prince bee vitious the people cannot be vertuous If your Maiesty will punish your people with words commaund them to print this present worke in their hearts And if your people would serue your Highnesse with their aduise let them likewise beseech you to reade ouer this booke For therin the Subiects shall finde how they may amend and you Lords shall see all that you ought to doe whether this present Worke be profitable or no I will not that my pen shall declare but they which do reade it shall iudge For wee Authours take pains to make and translate and others for vs to giue iudgement and sentence From my tender yeares vntill this present time I haue liued in the World occupying my selfe in reading and studying humane and diuine Bookes and although I confesse my debility to bee such that I haue not read so
What is there to see but hath bin seene what to discouer but hath bin discouered what is there to read but hath bin read what to write but hath bin written what is there to knowe but hath bin knowne Now-adayes humaine malice is so experte men so well able and our wittes so subtill that wee want nothing to vnderstand neyther good nor euill And wee vndoe ourselues by seeking that vaine knowledge which is not necessary for our life No man vnder the pretence of ignoraunce can excuse his fault since all men know all men reade and all men learne that which is euident â—n this case as it shall appeare Suppose the Plough-man and the Learned-man do goe to the Law and you shall perceyue the Labourer vnder that simple garment to forge to his Counsellour halfe a dozen of malitious trickes to delude his aduersarie as finely as the other that is learned shall bee able to expound two or three Chapters of this booke If men would employ their knowledge to honesty wisedome patience and mercy it were well but I am sorry they know so much onely for that they subtilly deceiue and by vsury abuse their neighbours and keepe that they haue vniustly gotten and dayly getting more inuenting new trades Finally I say if they haue any knowledge it is not to amend their life but rather to encrease their goods If the deuil could sleep as meÌ„ do he might safely sleepe for whereas he waketh to deceyue vs wee wake to vndo our selues Well suppose that all this heretofore I haue sayde is true Let vs now leaue aside craft and take in hand knowledge The knowledge which we attaine to is small and that which wee should attain to so great that all that wee know is the least part of that wee are ignorant Euen as in things naturall the Elements haue their operations according to the varietie of time so morall Doctrines as the aged haue succeeded and sciences were discouered Truly all fruites come not together but when one fayleth another commeth in season I meane that neyther all the Doctors among the Christians nor all the Philosophers among the Gentiles were concurrant at one time but after the death of one good there came another better The chiefe wisdome which measured all thinges by iustice and dispearseth them according to his bounty will not that at one time they should bee all Wisemen and at another time all simple For it had not beene reason that one should haue had the fruit and the other the leaues The old world that ranne in Saturnes dayes otherwise called the golden world was of a truth much esteemed of them that saw it and greatlie commended of them that wrote of it That is to say it was not guided by the Sages which did guild it but because there was no euill men which did vnguilde it For as the experience of the meane estate and Nobility teacheth vs of one onely person dependeth as well the fame and renowne as the infamy of a whole house and parentage That age was called golden that is to say of gold and this our age is called yron that is to say of iron This difference was not for that gold then was found and now yron nor for that in this our age there is want of them that be sage but because the number of them surmounreth that be at this day malicious I confesse one thing and suppose many will fauour mee in the same Phauorin the Philosopher which was master to Aulus Gelius and his especiall friend saide oft-times that the Phylosophers in olde time were holden in reputation Because there were fewe teachers and many learners We now-adayes see the contrarie For infinite are they which presume to bee Maisters but fewe are they which humble themselues to be Schollers A man may know how little Wise-men are esteemed at this houre by the great veneration that the Phylosophers had in the olde time What a matter is it to see Homer amongst the Grecians Salomon amoÌ„gst the Hebrewes Lycurgus amongst the Lacedemonians Phoromeus also amongst the Greeks Ptolomeus amongst the Egiptians Liuius amongst the Romaines and Cicero likewise amongst the Latines Appolonius amongst the Indyans and Secundus amongst the Assyrians How happie were those Phylosophers to bee as they were in those dayes when the world was so full of simple personnes and so destitute of Sage men that there flocked great numbers out of diuers countreys and straunge Nations not onely to heare their doctrine but also to see theyr persons The glorious Saint Hierome in the prologue to the Byble sayth When Rome was in her prosperitie then wrote Titus Lyuius his deedes yet notwithstanding men came to Rome more to speake with Titus Linius then to see Rome or the high capitol therof Marcus Aurelius writing to his friend Pulio saide these wordes Thou shalt vnderstand my Friende I was not chosen Emperor for the Noble bloud of my predecessors nor for the fauour I had amongst them now present For there were in Rome of greater bloud and Riches then I but the Emperour Adrian my Maister set his eyes vpon mee and the Emperor Anthonie my Father in law chose mee for his Sonne in law for none other cause but for that they saw me a friend of the Sages and an enemie of the ignoraunt Happie was Rome to chuse so wise an Emperour and no lesse happie was he to attaine vnto so great an Empire Not for that hee was heire to his predecessours but for that hee gaue his minde to studie Truely if that Age were then happie to enioy his person no lesse happie shall ours bee now at this present to enjoy his doctrine Salust saith they deserued great glory which did worthie feates and no lesser merited they which wrote them in high stile What had Alexander the great bin if Quintus-Curtius had not written of him what of Vlysses if Homer had not bin borne what had Alcybiades bin if Zenophon had not exalted him what of Cyrus if the phylosopher Chilo had not put his actes in memorie what had been of Pyrrus king of the Epyrotes if Hermicles chronicles were not what had bin of Scipio the great Affricane if it had not bin for the Decades of Titus Liuius what had been of Traian if the renowmed Plutarch had not bin his friend what of Nerua and Anthonius the meeke if Phocion the Greeke had not made mention of them How should wee haue knowne the stoute courage of Caesar and the great prowesse of Pompeius if Lucanus had not written them what of the twelue Caesars if Suetonius Tranquillus had not compyled a booke of their liues And how should we haue knowne the antiquities of the Hebrues if the vpright Ioseph had not beene Who could haue knowne the comming of the Lombardes into Italie if Paulus Dyaconus had not writ it How could we haue knowne the comming in and the going out of the Gothes in Spayne if the curious Roderious had not showed it vnto
Azotes carryed away the Arke full of Relickes vnto their temple in the Cittie of Nazote and set it by Dagon theyr cursed Idoll The most High true God which will not suffer any to be coequall with him in comparison or in anie thing that hee representeth caused this Idol to be shaken thrown downe and broken in pieces no man touching it For our God is of such power that to execute his Iustice he needeth not worldly helpe God not contented thus though the Idoll was broken in pieces but caused those to bee punished likewise which worshipped it in such sort that al the people of Azotes Ascalon Geth Acharon and of Gaza which were fiue auncient and renowmed Citties were plagued both man and woman inwardly with the disease of the Emerodes So that they could not eate sitting nor ride by the wayes on horse-backe And to the end that all men might see that their offences were grieuous for the punishment they receyued by the diuine Iustice he replenished their Houses Places Gardens Seedes and Fields full of Rats And as they had erred in honouring the false Idol and forsaken the true God So hee would chastice them with two Plagues sending them the Emerodes to torment their bodyes and the Rats to destroy their goods For to him that willingly giueth his soule to the diuel it is but a small matter that God against his will depriue him of his goods This then being thus I would now gladly knowe whether of them committed most offence Eyther the Azotes which set the Arke in the Temple which as they thought was the most holiest or the false Christians which with a Sacrilegious boldnesse dare attempt without anie feare of GOD to robbe and pill the Church goods to theyr owne priuate commoditie in this world Truely the Law of the Azotes differed as much frō the Christians as the offence of the one differeth from the other For the Azotes erred not beleeuing that this Arke was the Figure of the True God but we beleeue it and confesse it and without shame cōmit against it infinite vices By this so rare and seuere a sudden punishment mee thinks the Princes great Lords should not only therefore acknowledge the True God but also Reuerence and honour those things which vnto him are dedicated For mans lawes speaking of the reuerence of a Prince doe no lesse condemne him to die that robbeth his house then him which violently layeth hands on his person ¶ The cause why Prince Oza was punished IN the booke which the sonne of Helcana wrote that is the second booke of the Kings and the vi Chapter hee saith That the Arke of Israel with his Relikes which was Manna the rodde and two stones stood in the house of Aminadab which was the next neighbour to the citie of Gibeah the sonne of Esay who at that time was King of the Israelites determined to transpose the Relikes into his Cittie and house For that it seemed to him a great infamy that to a mortal Prince a house should abound for his pleasures to the immortall God there should want a Temple for his reliques The day therefore appointed when they should carrie the Relique of Gibeah to Bethlehem there met thirty thousand Israelites with a great number of Noble men which came with the King besides a greater number of strangers For in such a case those are more which come of their owne pleasure then those which are commaunded Besides all the people they say that all the Nobility of the Realme was there to the end the relique should bee more honoured and his person better accompanied It chanced that as the Lords and people went singing and the King in person dancing the wheele of the Chariot began to fall and go out of the way the which prince Oza seeing by chance set to his hand and his shoulder against it because the Arke where the Relique was should not fall nor breake yet notwithstanding that suddenly and before them all hee fell downe dead Therefore let this punishment be noted for truly it was fearefull and ye ought to thinke that since God for putting his hand to the Chariot to holde it vp stroke him with death that a Prince should not hope seeking the destruction and decay of the Church that God will prolong his life O Princes great Lords and Prelates sith Oza with such diligence lost his life what doe yee hope or looke for sith with such negligence yee destroy and suffer the Church to fall Yet once againe I doe returne to exclaime vpon you O Princes and great Lords sith Prince Oza deserued such punishment because without reuerence hee aduanced himselfe to stay the Arke which fell what punishment ought yee to haue which through malice helpe the Church to fall Why King Balthasar was punished DArius King of the Perses and Medes besieged the auncient City of Babylon in Chaldea whereof Balthasar sonne of Nabuchodonozar the great was King and Lord who was so wicked a child that his father being dead hee caused him to be cut in 300. peeces gaue him to 300. hawkes to be eaten because hee should not reuiue againe to take the goods riches from him which he had left him I know not what father is so foolish that letteth his Son liue in pleasures and afterwards the entralles of the Hauke wherewith the sonne hawked should be the wofull graue of the Father which so many men lamented This Balthasar then beeing so besieged determined one night to make a great feast and banquet to the Lords of his Realme that came to ayde him and in this he did like a valiant and stout Prince to the end the Perses and Medes might see that hee little esteemed their power The noble and high hearts do vse when they are enuironed with many trauels to seeke occasions to inuent pleasures because to their men they may giue greater courage and to their enemies greater feare He declareth of Pirrus King of the Epirotes when hee was besieged very straightly in the City of Tharenta of the Romane Captaine Quintus Dentatus that then hee spake vnto his Captaines in this sort Lordes and friendes bee yee nothing at all abashed since I neuer here before saw ye afraid though the Romans haue compassed our bodies yet we haue besiged their harts For I let you to know that I am of such a complection that the straighter they keepe my body the more my heart is at large And further I say though the Romanes beate downe the walles yet our hearts shall remaine inuincible And though there bee no wall betweene vs yet wee will make them know that the hearts of Greekes are harder to ouercome then the stones of Tarentine are to be beaten downe But returning to King Balthasar The banquet then being ended and the greatest part of the night beeing spent Belthasar the King being very well pleased that the banquet was made to his contentation though he
in my life and for the gifts he sends mee now at my death For one friend can doe more to another then to offer him his person to depart with his proper goods Tell the king thy father that I maruell what hee should meane that I now beeing foure score yeares of age and haue walked all my life time naked in this world should now be laden with vestures and money since I must passe so great a gulfe in the Sea to go out of this world The Egyptians haue a custome to lighten the burden of their Camels when they passe the Desartes of Arabia which is much better then to ouercharge them I meane that he onely passeth without trauell the dangers of the life which banisheth frō him that thought of temporall goods of this world Thirdly thou shalt say to the King thy Father that from hence forth when any man will dye he doe not succour nor helpe him with Money Golde nor Riches but with good and ripe counsell For Golde will make him leaue his life with sorrow and good Counsell will moue him to take his death with patience The fifth king of the Macedonians was called Archelaus who they say to be the grandfather of king Philip father of the great Alexander This king boasteth himselfe to descend from Menelaus King of the Grecians and principall Captaine which was at the destruction of Troy This king Archelaus was a great friend to the Sages and amongst others there was a Poet with him called Euripides who at that time had no lesse glory in his kinde of Poetrie then Archelaus in his king dome being king of Macedonia For now a dayes we esteeme more the Sages for the bookes which they wrote then we do exalt kings for the Realms which they ruled or the battels which they ouercame The familiaritie which Euripides had with the king Archelaus was so great that in the Realme of Macedonie nothing was done but first it was examined by the hands of this Philosopher And as the simple and ignorant would not naturally be subiect to the Sage it chanced that one night Euripides was talking a long time with the King declaring vnto him the ancient Histories and when the poore Poet would depart to goe home to his house his enemies espyed him and let the hungrie dogges flie vpon him the which did not onely teare him in peeces but also eate him euery morsell So that the intrayles of the dogges were the wofull graue of the most miserable Poet. The King Archelaus being certified of this wofull case immediately as soone as they told him was so chafed that almost he was bereft of his senses And hereat maruell not at all For gentle hearts doe alter greatly when they are aduertised of any suddaine mishappe As the loue which the King had to Euripides in his life was much so likewise the sorow which he felt at his death was very great for he shed many teares from his eyes he cut the hairs off his head he rounded his beard hee changed his apparrell which he ware and aboue all he made as solemne a funerall to Euripides as if they had buried Vlisses And not contented with al these things he was neuer merry vntill such time he had done cruell execution of the malefactors for truely the iniury or death which is done vnto him whom wee loue is no other but as a bath and token of our owne good wills After iustice was executed of those homicides and that some of the bones all gnawne of the dogs were buried a Grecian Knight said vnto King Archelaus I let the know excellent king that all Macedonta is offended with thee because that for so small a losse thou hast shewed so great sorrow To whom king Archelaus aunswered Among Sages it is a thing sufficiently often tryed that noble hearts ought not to shew themselues sad for mishaps and sodaine chances for the king being sadde his Realme cannot and though it might it ought not shew it selfe merry I haue heard my father say once that Princes should neuer shed teares vnlesse it were for one of these causes 1 The first the Prince should bewaile the losse danger of his common wealth for the good Prince ought to pardon the iniuries done to his person but to reuenge the least act done to the Common-wealth he ought to hazard himselfe 2 The second the good Prince ought to lament if any man haue touched his honour in any wise for the prince which weepeth not drops of bloud for the things touching his honour deserueth to be buried quicke in his graue 3 The third the good Prince ought to bewayle those which can little and suffer much For the Prince which bewayleth not the calamities of the poore in vaine and without profit liueth on the earth 4 The fourth the good Prince ought to bewayle the glory and prosperity wherein the tyrants are For that Prince which with tyranny of the euill is not displeased with the hearts of the good is vnworthy to bee beloued 5 The fift the good Prince ought to bewayle the death of Wise men For to a Prince there can come no greater losse then when a wise man dyeth in his Common wealth These were the words which the King Archelaus answered the Grecian Knight who reproued him because he had wept for the death of Euirpides the Philosopher The ancient Historiographers can say no more of the estimation which the Philosophers and wise men had as well the Greekes as the Latines but I will tell you one thing worthy of noting It is well knowne through all the world that Scipio the Ethnicke was one of the worthiest that euer was in Rome for by his name and by his occasion Rome got such a memory as shall endure And this was not only for that he conquered Affricke but for the great worthinesse of his person Men ought not to esteeme a little these two giftes in one man that is to say to be happy and aduenturous For many of the Auncients in times past wanne glory by their swords and after lost it by their euill liues The Romane Historiographers say that the first that wrote in Heroicall meeter in the Latine tongue was Ennius the Poet the workes of whom was so esteemed of Scipio the Ethnick that when this aduenturous and so luckie Romane dyed he commaunded in his will and testament that they should hang the image of this Ennius the Poet ouer his graue By that the great Scipio did at his death wee may well coniecture how great a friend he was of Sages in his life since he had rather for his honour see the Statue of Ennius on his graue then the banner wherwith he wonne and conquered Affricke In the time of Pirrus which was King of the Epirotes and great enemy of the Romanes flourished a Philosopher named Cinas borne in Thessaly who as they say was the Disciple of Demosthenes The Historiographers at that time did so much
this coate The poore Poet answered him I let thee know my friend that I cannot tell which is greater thy euill lucke or my greate felicitie The Romane Calphurnius replyed Tell me Cornificius How canst thou call thy selfe happy since thou hast not a loafe of bread to eate nor a gowne to put on thy backe and why sayest thou that I am vnhappy since thou and thy family may be fed with that alone which at my table remayneth To this the poet answered I will that thou know my friend and neighbour that my felicitie is not for that I haue little but for that I desire lesse then I haue And thy euill lucke is not for that thou bast much but for that thou desirest more and doest little esteem that that thou hast And if thou be rich it is for that thou neuer spakest truth and if I he poore it is because I neuer tolde lye For the house that is stuffed with riches is commonly voyd of the truth And I tell thee further that I call my selfe happie because I haue a sister which is the best esteemed in all Italie and thou hast a Wife the most dishonest in all Rome And sith it is so betweene thee and mee I referre it to no mans iudgement but to thine which is better eyther to be poore as I am with honour or else to bee rich as thou art and liue with infamte These wordes passed betweene the Romane Calphurnius and the Poet Cornificius I desire to declare the excellencie of those few auncient women as well Greekes as Latines and Romanes to the intent that Princesses and great Ladyes may knowe that the auncient women were more esteemed for their sciences then for their beauties Therefore the Princesses and great Ladies ought to thinke that if they be womē the other were also in like māner and if they bee fraile the others were also weake If they be marryed the others also had Husbands if they haue theyr willes the others had also what they wanted If they be tender the others were not strong Finally they ought not to excuse themselues saying that women are vnmeete for to learne For a woman hath more abilitie to learne Sciences in the scholes then the Parate hath to speake words in the cage In my opinion Princesses and great Ladyes ought not to esteeme themselues more then another for that they haue fairer hayres then others or for that they are better Apparrelled then another or that they haue more riches then another But they ought therfore to esteeme themselues not for that they can doe more then others To say the trueth the faire and yeallow hayres the rich and braue Apparel the great treasurs the sumptuous Pallaces and strong Buildings these and other like pleasures are not guydes and leaders vnto vertues but rather Spyes and Scowtewatches to vices Oh what an excellent thing were it that the noble Ladyes would esteeme themselues not for that they can doe but for that they knowe For it is more commendations to know how to teach two Philosophers then to haue authority to commaund a hundred knightes It is a shame to write it but it is more pittie to see it that is to say to reade that wee read of the wisedome and worthinesse of the auncient Matrons past and to see as we do see the frailenes of these yong ladies present For they coueted to haue Disciples both learned and experimented and those of this present desire nothing but to haue seruants not only ignorant but deceitfull and wicked And I doe not maruell seeing that which I see that at this present in Court she is of little value least esteemed amōg Ladies which hath fairest Seruants is least entertained of Gentlemen What shall I say more in this matter but that they in times past striued who shold write better and compile the best books and these at this present doe not striue but who shall haue the richest and most sumptuous Apparrell For the Ladyes thinke it a jolyer matter to weare a Gowne of a new fashion then the ancients did to read a lesson of Phylosophie The ancient Ladyes striued which of them was wisest but these of our dayes contend who shal be fairest For at this day the Ladyes would choose rather to haue the face adorned with beautie then the heart endued with wisedome The Auncient Ladyes contended which should bee best able to teach others but these Ladyes now a dayes contend how they may most finely apparrell themselues For in these dayes they giue more honour to a Woman richly Apparrelled then they giue to another with honesty beautified Finally with this word I doe conclude and let him marke that shall reade it that in the olde time women were such that their vertues caused all men to keepe silence and now their vices bee such that they compell all men to speake I will not by this worde any man should be so bold in general to speake euill of all the Ladyes for in this case I sweare that there are not at this day so many good vertuous women in the world but that I haue more enuie at the life they lead in secrete then at all the sciences which the auncient women read in publike Wherefore my pen doth not shew it selfe extreame but to those which onely in sumptuous Apparrell and vaine words doe consume their whole life and to those which in reading a good Booke would not spend one onely houre To proue my intention of that I haue spoken the aboue written sufficeth But to the ende Princesses and great Ladyes may see at the least how much beter it shal be for them to know little then to haue and possesse much and to be able to do more I wil remēber them of that which a Romain woman wrote to her children wherby they shal perceiue how eloquent a woman she was in her sayings and how true a mother in her coūsel For in the end of her letter she perswadeth her children to the trauels of the warre not for any other cause but to auoyde the pleasures of Rome CHAP. XXXI Of the worthinesse of the Lady Cornelia and of a notable Epistle shee wrote to her two sonnes which serued in the warres Tiberius and Caius disswading them from the pleasures of Rome and exhorting them to endure the trauels of warre ANNius Rusticus in the booke of the Antiquities of the Romanes sayeth that in Rome there were fiue principall Iynages that is to say Fabritii Torquatii Brutii Fabit and Cornelii though there were in Rome other new lynages whereof there were many excellent personages yet alwayes these which came of the fiue lynages were kept placed and preferred to the first Offices of the common wealth For Rome honoured those that were present in such sort that it was without the preiudice of those that are gone Amongst those v. linages the Romaines alwayes counted the Cornelii most fortunate that which were so hardy and couragious in fight
the man that desireth perpetuall renon me though hee bee not banished hee ought to absent himselfe from his Natiue countrey My deare childrē I most earnestly desire you that alwayes you accompanie your selues with the good with the most Auncients and with those which are graue and most expert in counsell and with those that haue most seene the world and doe not vnderstand most of the world by those that haue seene most countreys For the ripe councell proceedeth not from the man that hath trauelled in many Countreys but from him that hath selt himselfe in many daungers Since the nature of the Countrey my Children doth knocke with the hāmer at the heart of man I feare that if you come and see your friends and parents you shall alwayes line in care pensiuenes and being pensiue you shall alwayes liue euill contented and you shall not do that which becometh Romane knights to do And you not being valiaunt knights your enemyes shall alwayes reioyce ouer you and your desires shal neuer take effect for of those men which are carefull and heauy proceedeth alwaies seruices vnworthie I desire you heartily and by this present letter I counsell you that you will not in any wise seeke to come to Rome For as I haue saide you shall know few of those that did know you for eyther they are dead or banished poor or sick aged or come to nought sad or euill contented So that sithence you are not able to remedie their griefes it is best you should not come hither to see their troubles For no man cōmeth to Rome but to weepe with the liuing or to sigh for thē that be dead Truly my children I know not what pleasure is in Rome that shold cause any good man to come hither and to forsake Affrike for if there you haue any enemies here you shal want friends If you haue the Sword that pierceth the body we haue the tōgue here that destroyeth the renowme If you be vexed with the Thieues of Affrike wee are wounded with the traytours flatterers and lyars of Italie If you lacke rest we haue here too much trouble Finally seeing that I doe see in Rome and hearing that which I doe heare of Affrike I cōmend your warre and abhorre your peace If you doe greatly esteem that which I haue said esteem much more that which I shall say which is that wee alwayes heare that you are conquerors of the Affricanes and you shall heare alwayes that we are conquered by vices Therefore if am a true mother I had rather see you win a perpetuall memory among strangers then to liue with infamie at home in your countrey Peraduenture with hope that you shallenioy some goods you will offer to take occasion to come to Rome When this thing shall come to your minds remember my Children that your father being aliue had not much and that vnto your Mother beeing a widow many things wanted And remember that your father bequeathed you nothing but weapons and knowe that from mee you shalll enherite nothing but Bookes For I had rather leaue my Children good doctrine whereby they may liue then euill Riches whereby they may perish I am not rich nor I neuer trauelled to bee rich and the cause was that I saw many mens children vndone only through the hope they had to inherit their parents goods and afterward went a hunting after vices For they seldome times do any worthy feates which in theyr Youth inherite great Treasures This thing therefore beeing true as it is indeede I doe not say onely that I would watch and toyle as many do to get riches and treasures but also if I had treasor before I would giue them vnto you I would as the Phylosopher did cast them into the fire For I had rather haue my children poore and vertuous in Affricke then rich and vicious in Rome You knowe very well my Children that there was among the Tharentines a Law well obserued that the Sonnes should not inherit any thing of the fathers but weapons to fight and that the Daughters should inherite the goods for to marry thēselues withall Truely this Law was very iust for the Sonne that hath alwaies respect to the inheritance will not haue to his Father any great confidence For hee ought to bee called a valiant Romain Knight that with his life hath wonne and by his sword hath gotten Riches Since you are in straunge Realmes I pray you heartily that you be eonuersant with the good as good brethren remembring alwayes that you were my children and that I gaue you both sucke of mine owne proper breasts And the day that I shall heare of your disagreement the same day shall be the end of my life For the discord in one city of parents doth more harme then a whole armie of enemies It is good for you my Children to liue in loue and concord together but it is more requisite to keepe you with the Romain knights The which with you and you with them if you doe not loue together in the warres you shall neuer haue the vpper hand of your enemies For in great Armies the discords that arise amongst them do more harme then the enemies do against whom they fight I thinke well my children that you would be very desirous to know of my estate that is to say whether I am in health whether I am sicke whether I am poore whether I am pleased or whether I am discontented In this case I knowe not why you should desire to knowe it since you ought to presuppose that according to the troubles which I haue passed the miseries which with mine eyes I haue seen I am filled with this world For wise men after fifty yeares and vpwardes ought rather to applie theyr mindes how to receyue death then to seeke for pleasures how to prolong life When mans Flesh is weake it alwayes desireth to bee well kept euen vnto the graue And as I am of flesh and Bone so I do feele the troubles of the world as all mortall men doe But for all this doe not thinke that to bee poore or sicke is the greatest miserie neither thinke that to bee whole and rich is the chiefest felicity for there is none other felicitie of the old fathers but for to see their children vertuous In my opinion it is an honor to the coūtry that the fathers haue such children which will take profit with their counsell and contrariwise that the children haue such fathers which can giue it them For the childe is happy that hath a wise father and more happie is the father that hath not a foolish son I doe write oft times vnto you my children but there is a law that none be so hardy to write to men of war in the field except first they inrowle the letters in the Senate Therefore since I write vnto you more letters then they would they do send lesse then I desire Though this law be painefull to
your Bookes full of lawes and the common wealth full of vices Wherefore I sweare vnto you that there are more Thebaines which follow the delitiousnesse of Denis the tyrant then there are vertuous men that follow the lawes of Lycurgus If you Thebaines doe desire greatly to know with what lawes the Lacedemonians doe preserue their Common-wealth I will tell you them all by word and if you will reade them I will shew you them in writing but it shall bee vpon condition that you shall sweare al openly that once a day you shall employ your eyes to reade them and your persons to obserue them for the Prince hath greater honour to see one onely law to be obserued in deed then to ordaine a thousand by writing You ought not to esteeme much to be vertuous in heart nor to enquire of the vertue by the mouth nor to seeke it by labour and trauell of the feet but that which you ought greatly to esteeme is to know what a vertuous law meaneth and that knowne immediately to execute it and afterwards to keepe it For the chiefe vertue is not to doe one vertuous worke but in a swet and trauell to continue in it These therfore were the words that this Philosopher Phetonius sayde to the Thebaines the which as Plato sayeth esteemed more his words that hee spake then they did the Lawes which he brought Truly in mine opinion those of Thebes are to bee praysed and commended and the Philosopher for his word is worthy to be honoured For the ende of those was to search lawes to liue well and the end of the Philosopher was to seeke good meanes for to keepe them in vertue And therefore he thoght it good to shew them and put before their eyes the gibbet and the sword with the other Instruments and torments for the euill do refraine from vice more for feare of punishment then for any desire they haue of amendment I was willing to bring in this history to the end that all curious and vertuous men may see and know how little the Ancients did esteeme the beginning the meane and the end of vertuous works in respect of the perseuerance and preseruation of them Comming therefore to my matter which my penne doth tosse and seeke I aske now presently what it profiteth Princesses and great Ladies that God doe giue them great estates that they be fortunate in marriages that they bee all reuerenced and honoured that they haue great treasures for their inheritances and aboue all that they see their wines great with Childe and that afterward in ioy they see them deliuered that they see their mothers giuing their children sucke and finally they see themselues happy in that they haue found them good nurses health full and honest Truly all this auayleth little if to their children when they are young they doe do not giue masters to instruct them in vertues and they also if they doe not recommend them to good guides to exercise them in feates of Chiualry The Fathers which by sighes penetrate the heauen by praiers importune the liuing God onelie for to haue children ought first to thinke why they will haue children for that iustly to a man may be denied which to an euill end is procured In mine opinion the Father ought to desire to haue a child for that in his age he may sustaine his life in honour and that after his death hee may cause his fame to liue And if a Father desireth not a sonne for this cause at the least he ought to desire him to the end in his age hee may honour his hoary head and that after his death hee may enherite his goods but we see few children do these thinges to their fathers in their age if the fathers haue not taught them in their youth For the fruit doth neuer grow in the haruest vnlesse the tree did beare blosoms in the spring I see oftentimes many Fathers complaine of their children saying that they are disobedient and proude vnto them and they do not consider that they themselues are the cause of all those euils For too much abundance and liberty of youth is no other but a prophesie and manifest token of disobedience in age I know not why Princes and great Lords do toyle oppresse so much scratch to leaue their children great estates and on the other side wee see that in teaching them they are and shewe themselues too negligent for Princes and great Lordes ought to make account that all that which they leaue of their substance to a wicked heyre is vtterly lost The wise men and those which in their consciences are vpright and of their honours carefull ought to bee very diligent to bring vppe their children and chiefly that they consider whether they bee meete to inherite their estates And if perchance the fathers see that their children bee more giuen to folly then to noblenes and wisdome then should I bee ashamed to see a father that is wise trauell all the dayes of his life to leaue much substance to an euill brought vp childe after his death It is a griefe to declare and a monstrous thing to see the cates which the Fathers take to gather riches and the diligence that children haue to spend them And in this case I say the sonne is fortunate for that hee doth enherite and the Father a foole for that he doth bequeath In my opinion Fathers are bound to instruct their children well for two causes the one for that they are nearest to them and also because they ought to be their heyres For truly with great griefe and sorrow I suppose hee doth take his death which leaueth to a foole or an vnthrift the toyle of all his life Hyzearchus the Greeke Hystorian in the booke of his Antiquities Sabellicus in his generall hystory sayeth that a father and a sonne came to complain to the famous Philosopher and ancient Solon Solinon the Sonne complained of the father and the father of the sonne First the sonne informed the quarrell to the Philosopher saying these words I complaine of my Father because hee being rich hath disinherited mee and made me poore and in my steade hath adopted another heyre the which thing my father ought not nor cannot doe for since he gaue me so frayle flesh it is reason hee giue me his goods to maintaine my seeblenes To these wordes answered the father I complaine of my sonne because hee hath not beene as a gentle sonne but rather as a cruell enemie for in all things since hee was borne hee hath beene disobedient to my will wherefore I thought it good to disinherite him before my death I would I were quit of all my substance so that the gods had quit him of his life for the earth is very cruell that swalloweth not the child aliue which to his father is disobedient In that he sayeth I haue adopted another child for mine heyre I confesse it is true and for so much
the house watcheth they let him eate nothing but the broth of chickens they keepe him diligently that hee fall not down the stayres the child asketh nothing but it is giuen him immediately Finally they spend their time in seruing them they wast their riches in giuing thē their delights they occupy their eyes but to behold them and they employ not their hearts but to loue them But I sweare that those Fathers which on this wise doe spend their riches to pamper them shall one day water their eyes to bewaile thē what it is to see the waste that a vaine man maketh in bringing vp his childe specially if hee be a man somewhat aged and that at his desire hath a Childe borne He spendeth so much goods in bringing him vp wantonly whiles he is young that oft times he wanteth to marrie him when hee commeth to Age. And that which worst of all is that that which hee spendeth and employeth he thinketh it well bestowed and thinketh that too much that hee giueth for Gods sake Though the Fathers are very large in spending the mothers very curious and the Nurses full of pleasaunt and the seruaunts very diligent and attentiue yet it followeth not that the children shold be more hole then others For the more they are attended the more they be diseased the more they eate the more they are weake the more they reioyce the worse they prosper the more they waste and spend so much lesse they profit And all this is not without the secrete permission of God For God will not that the clowtes of children be of greater value then the garments of the poore GOD without a great mistery tooke not in hand the custody of the poote and doeth not suffer that the children of the rich men should prosper For the good bringeth vp his childrē with out the preiudice of the Rich and to the profite of the Common-wealth but the Rich bringeth vp his children with the sweate of the poore and to the dammage of the commonwealth Therefore if this thing be true as it is it is but reason that the Wolfe which deuoureth vs do die and the sheepe which clotheth vs doe liue The Fathers oft times for tendernes will not teach nor bring vp theyr children in doctrine saying That as yet hee is too young and that there remaineth time enough for to bee learned and that they haue leisure inough to be taught And further for the more excuse of their errour they affirme that when the child in his youth is chastned hee runneth in daunger of his health But the euill respect which the Fathers haue to theyr Children God suffereth afterwardes that they come to be so slaunderous to the commonwealth so infamous to theyr Parents so disobedient to theyr fathers so euil in their conditions so vnaduised and light in theyr behauiour so vnmeete for knowledge so vncorrigible for discipline so inclined to lyes so enuying the truth that their Fathers would not onely haue punished them with sharpe correction but also they would reioyce to haue them buryed with bitter teares An other thing there is in this matter worthie to bee noted and much more worthyer to bee commended that is that the Fathers and Mothers vnder the colour that their Children should bee somewhat gratious they learne them to speake to bable and to bee great mockers and scoffers the which thing afterwardes redoundeth to the great infamie and dishonour of the Father to the great perill of the Sonne and to the greatest griefe and displeasure of the Mother For the Childe that is brought vp wantonly without doctrine in his youth of necessity must be a foole when he is old If this which I haue said be euill this which I will say is worse that the Fathers and Mothers the Gouernours or Nourses doe teach them to speake dishonest things the which are not lawfull and therfore ought not to be suffered to bee spoken in that tender Age nor the grauitie of the Auncients ought not to listen vnto them For there are no men vnlesse they be shamelesse that will permit their children to be great bablers Those which haue the charge to gouerne good mens Children ought to bee very circumspect that they keepe them in awe feare and subjection and that they ought not to bee contented although the Fathers say they are pleased For the disordinate loue that the Fathers haue to them is the cause that they can not see whether they be mockers or euill brought vp And if it chaunceth as oft times it doth that the Father should come to the Maister to cause him to withdraw correction In this case if the Maister be a wise man hee ought no lesse to reproue and admonish the Father then to correct the sonne And if this did not auayle I counsell him to forsake and leaue his charge For the man of an honest nature after he hath taken any charge in hand will either bring it to passe or else hee will dye in the same I will not denie but that it is reason Noble mens Sonnes bee more gently brought vp handled and honoured then the Sonnes of the Plebeians For more delicately is the palme tree which bringeth forth Dates cherished then the Oake which bringeth forth Akornes wherewith the hogges are fedde Let Princes and great Lordes beware that the pleasures which they gaue their children their Youth bee not so excessiue nor of so long continuance that when they would withdraw them the world had not already festered them For the Children brought vp with too much delicatenes are disobedient to their Fathers and Mothers or else they are sicke in their Bodyes or worse then that they are vicious in their behauiours so that their Fathers should be better to burie them quicke then to bring them vp vicious CHAP. XXXIIII How that Princes and great Lordes ought to be carefull in seeking wise men to bring vp theyr Children Of x. conditions that good Scholemaisters ought to haue WHen He that is without ende gaue beginning to the worlde in this sort he beganne The Sunday hee created Heauen and Earth the Monday he created the Element the Tuesday hee created the Planettes the Wednesday hee created the Sunne and the Moone the Thursday he created the Byrdes in the Ayre and the Fishes in the Sea the Friday hee created Adam and Eue his wife and truely in that hee created and how hee created he shewed himselfe as GOD For as soone as the house was made hee furnished and peopled it with that that was necessarie as he could well doe Omitting therefore the Creator and talking of creatures we see by experience that a Housholder in planting a vine-yarde immediately maketh a hedge to the ende that the beasts doe not spoyle it and eat it vp And when it is well grown he hireth some poore labourer to watche that trauellers do not gather nor eate the grapes therof The rich man that traffiqueth by Sea after hee hath
vndefamed Diadumius the Hystoriographer in the life of Seuerus the xxj Emperour declareth that Apuleius Rufinus who had beene Consull twice and at that time was also Tribune of the people a man who was very aged and likewise of great authoritie throughout Rome came one day to the Emperour Seuerus and saide vnto him in this sort Most inuict Prince alwayes Augustus knowe that I had two children the which I committed to a Maister to bring vp and by chaunce the oldest increasing in yeares and diminishing in vertues fell in loue with a Romaine Ladie the which loue came too late to my knowledge For to such vnfortunate men as I am the disease is alwayes past remedie before the daunger thereof commeth to our knowledge The greatest griefe that herein I feele is that his Maister knewe and concealed the euill and was not onely not a meanes to remedie it but also was the chiefe worker of Adultery betweene them to be committed And my Sonne made him an obligation wherein he bound himselfe if he brought him that Romaine Ladie hee would giue him after my death the house and Heritages which I haue in the gate Salaria and yet heerewith not contented but he and my Sonne together robbed me of much money For loue is costly to him that maintaineth it and alwayes the loues of the Children are chargeable to the Fathers Iudge you now therefore Noble Prince this so haynous and slaunderous cause For it is too much presumption of the subiect to reuenge any iniurie knowing that the Lorde himselfe will reuenge all wrongs When the Emperour Seuerus had vnderstood this so heynous a case as one that was both in name and deede seuere commaunded good inquisition of the matter to be had and that before his presence they should cause to appeare the Father the Sonne and the Maister to the ende eache one should alledge for his own right For in Rome none could bee condemned for any offence vnlesse the plaintife had first declared the fault before his presence and that the accused should haue no time to make his excuse The truth and certaintie vpon due examination then knowne and the Offenders confessing the offences the Emperor Seuerus gaue iudgmēt thus I commaund that this Maister be cast aliue among the beastes of the parke Palatine For it is but meete that Beastes deuoure him which teacheth others to liue like beasts Also I do command that the Sonne be vtterly disinherited of all the goods of his Father and banished the Countrey into the Isles of Baleares and Maiorques For the Childe which from his youth is vicious ought iustly to be banished the Countrey and be disinherited of his Fathers goods This therefore of the Maister and the Sonne was done by the complainte of Apuleius Rufynus O how vnconstant fortune is and how oft not thinking of it the thred of life doth breake I say it because if this Master had not beene couetous the Father had not been depriued of his sonne the childe had not beene banished the mother had not beene defamed the common weale had not beene slaundered the master of wilde beasts had not been deuoured neyther the Emperour had been so cruell against them nor yet theyr names in Histories to their infamies had alwayes continued I doe not speake this without a cause to declare by writing that which the euill doe in the World for wisemen ought more to feare the infamy of the little pen then the slander of the babling tongue For in the end the wicked tongue cannot defame but the liuing but the little penne doth defame them that are that were and that shall be To conclude this my minde is that the Master should endeuour himselfe that his Scholler should bee vertuous and that hee doe not despayre though immediately for his paines hee bee not rewarded For though hee bee not of the creature let him bee assured that hee shall be of the Creator For God is so mercifull that hee often times taking pitty of the swette of those that bee good chasteneth the vnthankefull and taketh vpon him to require their seruices CHAP. XXXVIII Of the determination of the Emperour when he committed his childe to the Tutors which hee had prouided for his education CInna the Historian in the first booke of the times of Comodus declareth that Marcus Aurelius the Emperour chose foureteene Masters learned and wise men to teach his son Comodus of the which he refused fiue not for that they were not wise but for that they were not honest And so hee kept these nine onely which were both learned in the Sciences and also expert in bringing vp the children of the Senators though indeed they were very vnluckie in the bringing vp of the Prince Comodus for this cursed Prince had nine Masters which instructed him but hee had aboue nine thousand vices wich vndid him The Emperour Marcus Aurelius made fiue books of declamations and in the third booke the 6. Chapter vnder the title Adsapientes Pedagogos hee brought in these nine Masters and perswaded them greatly that they should bee diligent and attentiue to teach his sonne Comodus And in this matter hee spake vnto them many and graue sentences the words whereof do follow The matter is manifest in Rome and no lesse published thorow out all Italy what paines I tooke to search out so many Sages to instruct my sonne Comodus the which all being examined I kept onely the wisest and the best and though in very deed I haue done much yet I haue not done so much as I am bound For Princes in doubtfull matters ought not onely to demaund counsell of all the good that be aliue but also to take paine to talke with those which are dead That is to reade the deedes of the good in their writings You were foureteene masters chosen whereof I haue put out fiue so that presently you are but nine if indeede you bee Wise men you shall not bee offended with that I haue done for the griefe of euill things proceedeth of wisdome but the admiration of good things commeth of small experience I doe not deny but the wise men doe feele in them passions as men but in the end there is no arte nor science that doth excuse vs from the miseries of men But that whereat I maruell is how it is possible that a wise man should maruell at any thing in this world For if the wise man should be astonied at euery thing of the world it appeareth that there is little constancy or vertue in him at all Returning therefore to our particular talke I haue taken you to bee masters of my sonne and you see of many I chose a few to the end that with few my sonne should be taught For as it is the Fathers duty to search out good masters so it is the masters duty to be diligent about his Scholler The Nurse of my sonne Comodus gaue him sucke two yeares with her teates at the gate
of Hostia and his mother Faustine other two yeares brought him vp wantonly in Capua Howbeit this was a sufficient excuse I would as a pittiful father if I could giue him correction at the least this twenty yeares For I sweare by the immortall gods that to a Prince that shall bee an enheritor one yeeres punishment is more worth then twentie yeares of vaine pleasure Since the Nurses which giueth the Children sucke knoweth little and since the Mothers that bare them doe loue them much and since the childe peraduenture as yet is but of a weake vnderstanding they are occupyed about the thinges that are present considering that chastisemeÌ„t is much more better for him then pleasure But the wise man which hath vnderstanding ought to thinke of that that is past and by much wisdome to prouide for that which is to come For he cannot be counted wise thaâ—â—â—ely in one thing is carefull 〈…〉 Comodus was borne the last 〈◊〉 of August in a Cittie by Danuby 〈◊〉 shall not forget the day that the Gods gaue him vnto me nor yet this day in the which I commit him vnto you Of greater reason I should remember that day wherein I put him to be taught then the day which I saw him to be borne For the Gods gaue him mee as I gaue him to you mortall since hee is a man but you shall restore him againe vnto me and I likewise him to the Gods as immortall if hee be wise What will you I say more vnto you but if you regarde that any thing at all which I say you will regarde much more this which I will say When the Gods determined that I should haue a childe of my wife and that my woful destenies deserued that I shold haue such a childe truely the Gods made me a man in the spirite and I begote him a beast among the beasts in the flesh But if you will you may make him a God among the Gods by science For Princes winne infamie for being fierce and selfe willed but they get good renowne for beeing wise and pacient I would you should applie this businesse well and therefore it is necessarie that you examine him oft For it is a generall rule that the pretious iewell is little regarded when hee which hath it knoweth not the value thereof I require that you answere mee in this one thing What did I giue vnto my sonne Comodus when the Gods gaue him mee but fraile and mortall flesh by the corruption whereof his life shall end but you shall giue him high doctrine whereby hee shall alwayes deserue perpetuall memory For the good renowne is not gotten by that the weake flesh doth but by that the high vnderstanding imagineth and by that the curious hart executeth O if this tender age knew what I gaue to his weake flesh and if his dull vnderstanding could come to the true wisedome which you may giue him he would call you his right fathers and mee but his steppe father For he is the true Father that giueth vs doctrine to liue and hee is but an vniust stepfather that giueth vs flesh to die Certainely the naturall Fathers of children are but their owne open enemies and cruell stepfathers since we giue them such dull vnderstanding so weake a memory a will so froward life so short flesh so frayle honour so costly health so vncertain riches so troublesome prosperitie so scarce and death so fearefull Finally wee giue them a Nature subiect to infinite alterations and great misfortunes Reason would not you should little regarde that which I commit vnto your iudgement that is to say that you haue the charge of Comodus my sonne For the thing that Princes ought chiefly to foresee is to whome they ought to recommend the gouernement of their children To bee a Master and Tutour of a Prince in the earth is to haue an office of the Gods which are in heauen because hee gouerneth him that ought to gouerne vs he teacheth him that ought to teach vs hee chastneth him that ought to chasten vs. Finally hee commaundeth one that ought to command all What will you that I say more vnto you Truely hee that hath the charge to teach the children of Princes and great Lords is as the Gouernour of the shippe Standard of a Battell a defence of the peovle a guide of the Wayes a father of the Orphanes the hope of Pupils and a Treasurer of all For there is no other true Treasure in the Common wealth but the prince which doth maintaine and keepe it in good peace and perfect iustice I will tell you furthermore to the end you shall esteeme it more that when I doe giue you my sonne to teach I giue you more then if I gaue you all the riches of the Realme For in him that hath the reformation of the Childes life dependeth the fame of the Father after that hee is dead So that the Father hath no greater renowme then to see his Childe leade an honest life I pray the gods that they may bee so mercifull and the fatal destinies so fortunate that if till this time you haue watched to teach the children of others that froÌ„ hence forward you watch to teach this my sonne Comodus which I trust shall be to the comfort of all For the thing which is vniuersally good to all ought for to bee preferred before that which tendeth but to the profite and commodity of some You see my friends that there is a greate difference to teach the children of Princes and to teach the children of the people and the cause hereof is the greatest part of those come to schooles vniuersities to learne to speake but I do not giue you my sonne Comodus to the end you should teach him to speake many words but that you should learne him to doe good works For all the glory of the Princes is that in the workes which he doth he be vpright and in the words that hee speaketh he be very discreet After that the children haue spent many yeares in Schooles after their fathers haue spent much money vpon them if perchance the child can dispute in Greeke or Latine any thing at all though hee bee light and vicious the Father thinketh his goods well imployed for in Rome now a dayes they esteeme an Orator more which can nought but babble then a Philosopher which is vertuous O wofull men that now liue in Rome and much more wofull shall those be which hereafter shall succeede for Rome is no more that Rome which it was wont to be that is to say that the Fathers in olde time sent their children to Schooles and studies to learne them to bee silent and now they send them to learne to speake too much They learned them then to bee sage and temperate and now they learne them to bee dissolute And the worst of all is that the Schooles where the sage and patient were wont to be and from whence issued the good
his tale and the cause of his comming thither in the which hee shewed himselfe no lesse bolde in wordes then hee was in his attire strange and sayd vnto them in this sort O Fathers Conscript and happy people I Mileno a Ploughman dwelling neere vnto the riuer of Danube doe salute you worthy Senators of Rome which are conuented here in this Senate and I beseech the Immortall Gods my tongue this day so to gouerne that I may say that which it conuenient for my Country and that they helpe you others to gouerne well the Common-wealth for without the helpe of God wee can neyther learne the good nor auoyde the euill The fatal Destenies permitting it and our wrathfull Gods forsaking vs our mishappe was such to you others fortune shewed herselfe so fauourable that the proude Captaines of Rome by force of armes tooke our Country of Germany And I say not without a cause that at that time the Gods were displeased with vs for if wee Germaines had appeased our Gods yee Romaines might well haue excused your selues for ouercomming of vs. Great is your glory O Romanes for the victories you haue had and triumphes which of many Realmes you haue conquered but notwithstanding greater shall your infamie bee in the world to come for the cruelties which you haue committed for I let you know if you doe not know it that when the wicked went before the triumphant chariots saying Liue liue inuincible Rome On the other side the poore Captiues went saying in their hearts Iustice iustice My predecessors enhabited by the riuer of Danuby for when the drie earth annoyed them they came to recreat themselues in the fresh water and if perchance the vnconstant water did annoy them then they would return againe to the maine land And as the appetites and conditions of men are variable so there is a time to flye from the land to refresh our selues by the water And time also when we are annoyed with the water to returne againe to the land But how shall I speake Romaines that which I would speake your couetousnesse of taking other mens goods hath beene so extreame and your pride of commaunding strange Counties hath beene so disordinate that neyther the sea can suffice you in the deepenesse thereof neither the land assure vs in the fields of the same Oh how great comfort it is for the troubled men to thinke and bee assured that there are iust Gods the which will doe iustice on the vniust For if the oppressed men thought themselues not assured that the gods would wreake their iniury of their enemies they with their owne handes would destroy themselues The end why I speake this is for so much as I hope in the iust Gods that as you others without reason haue cast vs out of ourhouses so by reason shall others come after vs and cast you others out of Italy Rome both There in my Countrey of Germany we take it for a rule vnfallible that he which by force taketh the good of another by reason ought to lose his own proper right And I hope in the Gods that that which wee haue for a prouerbe in Germany you shall haue for experience here in Rome By the grosse wordes I speake and by the strange apparrell which I weare you may wel imagine that I am some rude villaine or barbarian borne but yet notwithstanding I want not reason to know who is iust and righteous in holding his owne and who is a tyrant in possessing of others For the rude men of my profession though in good stile they cannot declare that which they would vtter yet notwithstanding Wee are not ignorant of that which ought to be allowed for good nor which ought to bee condemned for euill I would say therefore in this case that that which the euill with all their tyranie haue gathered in many daies the Gods shall take from them in one howre and contrariwise all that which the good shall loose in manie yeares the Gods will restore it them in one minute For speaking the truth the euill to prosper in riches is not for that the gods will it but that they doe suffer it and though at this houre wee complaine dissembling wee suffer much but the time shall come that will pay for all Beleeue mee in one thing O Romanes and doubt not therein That of the vnlawfull gaines of the Father followeth after the iust vndoing of their children Many oftentimes doe maruell in my Countrey what the cause is that the gods doe not take from the wicked that which they winne immediately as soone as they winne it and as I thinke the reason hereof is for the dissembling with them by little and little they gather together diuers things and afterwardes when they thinke least thereon it is taken from them all at once for the iust iudgement of the Gods is that since without reason they haue done euill to others others by reason should come in like manner which doe euill vnto them It is vpossible that the valiant and Sage man who in his deeds presumeth to bee wise should take any taste in in any other mans good for if hee did hee would neuer content himselfe with any thing sith hee hath not a conscience in that which is euil gotten I know not Romanes whether you vnderstand me but because you shall vnderstand mee better I say that I maruell and I should rather wonder how the man keeping another mans goods can sleepe or rest one houre sith hee knoweth hee hath done iniury to the gods slaundered his neighbours pleased his enemies lost his friends and endamaged those that hee robbed and worst of all that hee hath put his person in perill And I say that hee hath put his person in perill for the day that any man determineth to take my goods hee will also the same day if hee can take my life It is an odious thing to the Gods and very slaunderous among men that men should haue so much through their fleshly desires vertue bound and the reine of their euill works so much at liberty that another mans misery seemeth to him riches and that his own riches seemeth to himselfe pouerty I care not whether he be Greeke Barbarian Romaine present or absent I say and affirme that he is and shall bee cursed of the Gods and hated of men which without consideration will chaunge his good fame into shame iustice into wrong right into tyranny truth into lyes the certaine for the doubtfull hating his owne proper and sighing for that of other mens Hee that hath his chiefe intention to gather goodes for his children and seeketh not a good name among the renowmed it is iust that such a one doe not only loose the goods which hee hath gathered but also that without good name hee remaine shamefull among the wicked Since you other Romaines naturally are proude and pride doth blinde you you thinke your selues happy that for hauing so much as you
Rome take one thing for a warning that the glory which now is of thee was first of them and the same destructiō that was of them shall hereafter light vpon thee for such is the world For thus goeth the world euen as we presently see the troubles of them that be past so shall those that be to come see ours that be present CHAP. XV. Marcus Aurelius goeth on with his Letter and declareth the order that the Romanes vsed in setting foorth their men of warre and of the outragious villanies which Captaines and Souldiers vse in the warre I Will now declare vnto thee my frend Cernelius the order which wee haue to set foorth men of Warre and thereby thou shalt see the great disorder that is in Rome For in the olde time there was nothing more looked vnto nor more corrected then was the discipline of Warre And for the contrary now a dayes there is nothing so dissolute as are our wen of warre Newes once spred abroad throgh the Empire how the Prince doeth take vpon him any warre immediately diuers opinions engender amongst the people and euery one iudgeth diuersly vpon the warre For as much as one sayeth it is iust and the Prince that taketh it vpon him is iust Others say that it is vniust and that the Prince which beganne it is a tyrant The poore and sedtious persons doe allow it to the end they might goe and take other mens goods by force The rich and patient doe condemne it because they would enioy theyr owne in quiet So that they doe not iustifie or condemne warre according to the zeale of iustice but according to the little or much profite that shall follow them of that enterprise I commād which am a Romane Emperor warre to be proclamed because a City or prouince hath rebelled and that according to their Custome they doe not obserue the ceremonies of Rome First you must vnderstand the Priests must be called to go immediately to pray to the immortal Gods for the Romane people neuer went to shead the bloud of theyr Enemies in warres but first the Priests did shed the tears of their eyes in the Temples Secondly all the sacred Senate doth goe to the Temple of the God Iupiter and there they sware all with a solemne oath that if the enemies against whom they goe do require a new confederation with Rome or demaund pardon of their faults committed that all reuengement laid aside they shal not deny to giue them mercy Thirdly the Consull which is appointed for to bee the Captaine of the warre went to the High Capitoll and there hee maketh a solemn vow to one of the Gods which liketh him best that hee will offer him a certaine Iewell if hee returne victorious of the same Warre and though the Iewell which hee doth promise bee of great value yet all the people are bound for to pay it The fourth is that they set vp in the Temple of Mars the Ensigne of the Eagle which is the auncient Romane Ensigne and that is that all the Romanes take it for commandement that no spectacle nor feast bee celebrated in Rome during the time that their brethren be in the warres The fift A Pretour mounteth vppe to the roppe of the gate of Salaria and there hee bloweth the Trumpet for to muster men of Warre and they bring foorth the Standers and Ensignes to diuide them among the Captaines How fearefull a thing it is to see that so soone as the Captaine is enuironed with the ensigne so soone hath he licence to commit all euills and villanies So that hee taketh it for a brauery to robbe the Countries whereby hee passeth and to deceyue those with whom hee practiseth What liberty Captaines and Gouernours of warre haue to doe euill and to be euill it is very manifest in those whom they lead in their company For the sonnes leaue their fathers the seruants their Lords the Schollers their Masters the Officers their offices the Priests their Temples the amorous their loues and this for none other cause but that vnder the colour of the warre their vices should not bee punished by iustice O my friend Cornelius I know not how I should begin to say that which I will tell thee Thou oughtest to know that after our men of war are gone out of Rome they neyther feare the Gods neyther honour the Temples they reuerence not the Priests they haue no obedience to their Fathers nor shame to the people dread of iustice neyther compassion of their Country nor remember that they are children of Rome and yet very few of them thinke to end theyr life but that all shame layde aside they loue the condemned idlenesse and hate the iust trauell Therefore hearke I will tell thee more thogh it seemeth much that I speake I ensure thee it is but little in respect of that they do for so much as some rob temples others spread rumors these breake the dores and those robbe the Gods Sometimes they take the free sometimes they loose the bond The nights they passe in playes the dayes in blasphemies to day they fight like Lions to morrow they flye like cowards Some rebell against the Captaines and others flie to the enemies Finally for all good they are vnable and for all euill they are meet Therefore to tell thee of their filthinesse I am ashamed to describe them They leaue their owne wiues and take the wiues of others they dishonour the daughters of the good and they beguile the innocent Virgines there is no neighbout but they doe couet neyther hostesse but that they doe force they breake their old wedlocke and yeerely seeke a new marriage so that they do all things what they list and nothing what they ought Doest thou thinke presently my friend Cornelius that there are few euils in Rome fith so many euill women do goe to the warre Heere for their sake men offend the Gods they are traytors to their Countrey they deny their patentage they doe come to extreame pouerty they liue in infamie they robbe the goods of others they waste their owne they neuer haue quiet life neyther remayneth any truth in their mouthes Finally for the loue of them oftentimes war is moued again and many good men lose their liues Let vs leaue the reasons and come to Histories Thou knowest right well that the greatest part of Asia was conquered and gouerned more with the Women Amazones then with any barbarous people That young noble and valiant Porro King of Iudea for want of men and abundance of women was ouercome of the great Alexander Hannibal the terrible Captaine of the Carthagenians was alwayes Lord of Italy vntill hee did permit women to goe to the warre And when he fell in loue with a maden of Capua they saw him immediately turne his shoulders vnto Rome If Scipio the Affricane had not scoured the Romane Armyes of Leacherie the invincible Numantia had neuer bin wonne The captaine Sylla in the
and not of necessity weareth his gowne all to torne his shooes out his points without agglets an euill fauouted girdle his coate rent his hat olde his hose seame rent his cap greasie and his shirt lousie Finally I say that diuers of these misers faine that they haue a great summe to pay and it is for no other thing but for not wearing a good garment What can the couetous doe more then for keeping a penny in his purse hee will go two moneths and not trimme his beard Sithence it is true that these pinch-penies doe behaue their persons so euill do ye thinke they haue their houses any thing the better furnished I say no but you shal see their chambers full of cobwebs the dores out of the hinges the windowes riuen the glasses broken the planches loose the couertures of the house without gutters the stooles broken the beds worme-eaten and chimnies ready to fall so that to harbour a friend or kinsmen of theirs they are constrayned to Lodge him in theyr neighbours house or else to sende to borrow all that they want And passing ouer the garments they weare the housen wherein they dwell let vs see what Tables they keepe For of their Gardens they eate no fruite but that that falleth off the tree of theyr vines but rotten grapes of their sheep the sickest of their Corne the wettest of wine that which hath taken winde of Lard that is yeallow of milke that is turned And finally I say the felicitie that gluttons haue in eating the selfe same haue they in keeping Oh vnhappie are the gluttons and much more the couetous for the tast of one consisteth only in the throate the felicitie of the other consisteth in that he may locke vp in his chest Wee haue now seene how the couetous weare simple apparell keepe a poore Table and dwell in a filthie house and yet they lesse regard those things that touch their honor For if they had their eares as open to heare as they haue their hearts bent at eache houre to gather and heape vp they should heare how they are called mysers vsurers niggards pinchpennies oppressors cruell vnthankefull and vnfortunate Finally I say that in the comon-wealth they are so hated that all men had rather lay hāds vpon their bodyes to kill them then tongues on their renowme to defame them The couetous man is of all other the most vnlucky For if he fall at strife with any he shal find no one friend that will come to visit him in his house but he shal haue a hundred thieues which wil rob him of his goods For to reuenge a couetous enemy a man neede desire nought else but that he liue long for hee is more tormented in his life with his owne couetousnes then he can be otherwise with any pennance If rich men would say vnto me that they doe not reioice to haue faire houses sithēs they haue thē neither of curious apparell since they may weare it nor of daintie meates sithens they may eate them and that that which they doe is not to be couetous but for that they are good Christians In so iust a thing reason would my pen should cease but I am sorry they so little esteem things touching their honour and much lesse the matters touching their conscience If the auaritious say hee keepeth goods to do almes I doe not beleeue it for dayly we see if a poor man aske him alms hee answereth them immediatly God helpe you for hee hath neither purse nor money The couetous vseth this that he neuer giueth almes in his house but fat meat restie bacon rotten cheese hoary bread so that it seemeth rather that they make cleane their house then giue almes to the poore If the couetous man would tell vs that that which they haue is to discharge some debts of their predecessors wherewith they are burdened I say it is a vaine excuse sithens wee see that the willes of their fathers of their mothers and of their grandfathers be not as yet performed neyther will they thinke to performe them which seemeth very true For since the houre that they layde their fathers in the graue they neuer had any thought of their deade Fathers Hee which of pure couetousnesse and misery suffereth himselfe to dye for hunger and colde I thinke hee hath small deuotion for to giue almes and much lesse to doe any man good If the couetous man say vnto vs that that which hee keepeth is for none other cause but for to build a sumptuous Chappell and to leaue of them some memory To this I answere That if such a one doeth it with his owne proper swette and maketh restitution of all the euill that he hath done it shall be sanctified and of all good men commended but if the couetous wil that many liue in great pouerty onely to make a rich tombe God doth not command that neyther dooth the Church admit it for sacrifice done to God with the cries of others is not acceptable If the couetous tell vs that thogh they heape treasures it is not but at their death to distribute it vnto the poore and to be brought honestly to the ground I say that I commend this purpose so his entent bee accordingly performed but I am sorry the couetous man should thinke hereby to merite and that hee should thus discharge the wickednesse of his life for the distribution of a little money after his death I would thinke it more sure that Princes great Lords should spend their goods to marry poore maydens being Orphans in their life then to commaund money to bee dealt after their death For oft times the heyres or their executors the body interred doe little performe the will of the Testator and much lesse obserue the Legacies bequeathed though it be to the vtter vndoing of the poore Orphanes O what guerdon and commendation deserueth he that iustly and truely dischargeth the Legacies of the dead and of the surplus if any be or with their owne releeue the Orphanes and marry the poore maydens keeping them from the vices of the worlde Suppose that a couetous man chanceth to traffique at Medine in Spaine at Lions in France at Lisbone in Portingall at London in England at Antwarpe in Flaunders at Millaine in Lombardy at Florence in Italy at Palermo in Scicill at Prage in Bohemie and at Buda in Hungarie Finally vith his eyes he hath seene all Europe and by traffique he hath knowledge of all Asia Admit now that in euery place he hath gotten goods and that which he hath gotten was not with whole conscience but acording to the companies so hath the offences beene diuers In this case if at the houre of death when the couetous man diuideth his money betweene the children hee might also deuide his offences so that he dispossessing himselfe of the goods might thereby bee free from the offences then it were well But alas it is not so for the wicked children liue triumphing
A poore man esteemeth as much a cloake as the rich man doeth his delicious life Therefore it is a good consequent that if the Rich man take the gowne from the poore the poore man ought to take the life frō the rich Phocion amongst the Greekes was greatly renowmed and this not so much for that hee was sage as for that hee did despise all worldly riches vnto whome when Alexander the great king of Macedonte had sent him an hundred markes of siluer he said vnto those that brought it Why doth Alexander sende this Money vnto me rather then to other Phylosophers of Greece They aunswered him Hee doth send it vnto thee for that thou art the least couetous and most vertuous Then aunswered this Phylosopher Tell Alexander that though he knoweth not what belongeth vnto a Prince yet I knowe well what pertayneth to a Phylosopher For the estate and office of Phylosophers is to despise the treasurs of Princes and the office of Princes is to aske counsell of Phylosophers And further Phocion said You shall say also to Alexander That in that hee hath sent mee hee hath not shewed himselfe a pittyfull Friend but a cruell Enemie for esteeming mee an honest man such as hee thought I was he should haue holpen me to haue been such These wordes were worthie of a wise man It is great pittie to see valiaunt and Noble men to be defamed of couetousnes and onely for to get a fewe goods hee abaseth himselfe to vile offices which appertaine rather to meane persons then to noble men and valiaunt knights Whereof insueth that they liue infamed and all their friēds slandered Declaring further I say that it seemeth great lightnes that a knight should leaue the honorable estate of chiualrie to exercise the handycrafte of Husbandrie and that the Horses should bee chaunged into Oxen the speares to mattockes and the weapons into ploughes Finally they doe desire to toyle in the fields and refuse to fight in the Frontiers Oh how much some Knightes of our time haue degenerated from that their fathers haue bin in times past for their predecessors did aduance themselues of the Infidells which in the the fields they slew and their children brag of their Corne and Sheepe they haue in their grounds Our auncient knights were not wont to sigh but when they saw themselues in great distresse and their successors weepe nowe for that it rayned not in the moneth of May. Their Fathers did striue which of them could furnish most men haue moste weapons and keepe most horses but their children now a dayes contend who hath the finest witte who can heape vp greatest treasours and who can keepe most sheepe The Auncients striued who should keepe most men but these worldlings at this day striue who can haue greatest reuenues Wherefore I say since the one doeth desire as much to haue great Rents as the others did delight to haue many weapons It is as thogh Fathers should take the Sword by the pomell and the children by the scabberd All the good arts are peruerted and the arte of Chiualrie aboue all others is despised And not without cause I called it an art for the ancient philosophers cōsumed a great time to write the lawes that the knights ought to keepe And as now the order of the the Carthaginiās seemeth to bee most streight so in times past the order of Knighthood was the streightest To whom I sweare that if they obserued the order of chiualry as good gentle Knights there remained no time vacant for them in life to bee vitious nor wee should accuse them at theyr death as euil christians The true and not fayned Knight ought not to bee prowde malicious furious a glutton coward prodigall niggard a lyer a blasphemer nor negligent Finally I say that all those ought not to bee iudged as Knights which haue golden spurs vnlesse he hath therewith an honest life O if it pleased the King of Heauen that Princes would now a daies examine as straightly those which haue cure of soules as the Romanes did those which had but charge of armies In old time they neuer dubbed any man Knight vnlesse hee were of noble bloud proper of person moderate in speech exercised in the war couragious of heart happy in armes and honest in life Finally he ought of all to bee beloued for his vertue and of none hated for his vice The Knights in whom these vertues shined bright in Rome had diuers liberties that is to say that they onely might weare rings ride on horsebacke through the streetes they might haue a shield shut the gates at dinner they might drinke in cupps of siluer speake to the Senate and make defyances they might demand the ensigne weare weapons take the charge of Embassage and ward at the gates of Rome The Author hereof is Blondus in the booke De Italia illustrata If Plinie deceyue vs not in an Epistle Plutarch in his Politikes Seneca in a Tragedy and Cicero in his Paradoxes There was nothing wherein the Ancients were more circumspect then in electing of their knights now it is not so but that one hauing money to buy a Lordship immediately he is made Knight it is not to fight against the enemies in the field but more freely to commit vices and oppresse the poore in the towns To the end he may be a good Christian hee ought to thinke vpon Iesus crucified to be a good knight he ought alwayes to behold the armes of his shield the which his Grandfather or great Grandfather wanne For they they shall see that they wanne them not beeing in their houses but in shedding of the bloud of their enemies in the Frontiers CHAP. XXX Of a Letter which the Emperour wrote to Mercurius his neighbour a Marchant of Samia wherein men may learne the daungers of those which traffique by sea and also see the couetousnesse of them that trauell by land MArcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome born in mount Celio wisheth to thee Mercurius his speciall friend health and consolation in the Gods the onely Comforters It seemeth well that we are friends sithens wee doe the works of charity For I vnderstanding here thy mishap immediatly sent a messenger to comfort thee and in hearing my disease thou sendest a friend of thine to visite me Wherefore men may perceiue if thou haddest me in mind I did not forget thee I vnderstand that the messenger that went and the other that came met in Capua the one carried my desire for thee and the other brought thy letter for me And if as diligently thou haddest read mine as I attentiuly haue heard thine thou shouldest thereby plainely know that my heart was as full of sorrow as thy spirite was full of paine I was very glad great thanks I yeeld thee that thou sendest to comfort me in my feuer tertian thy visitation came at the same houre that it left mee But if the Goddes did leaue this fact in my hands
sonne in lawes in maintaining processes in discharging debts in fighing for that is past in bewayling that that is present in dissembling iniuries in hearing woful newes and in other infinite trauels I So that it were much better to haue their eyes shut in the graue thē their hearts and bodies aliue to suffer so much in this miserable life He whom the gods take from this miserable life at the end of fiftie yeeres is quitted from all these miseries of life For after that time hee is not weake but crooked hee goeth not but rowlleth he stumbleth nor but falleth O my Lord Marke knowest thou not that by the same way whereby goeth death death cometh Knowest not thou in like manner that it is 62. yeers that life hath fled from death that there is another time asmuch that death goeth seeking thy life and death going from Illiria where he left a great plague thou departing frō thy pallace ye two haue now met in Hungarie Knowest not thou that where thou leapedst out of thy mothers intrailes to gouerne the land immediately death leaped out of his grauè to seeke thy life Thou hast alwayes presumed not onely to bee honored but also to be honorable if it bee so since thou honouredst the Embassadors of Princes which did send them the more for their profite then for thy seruice why dost thou not honor thy messenger whom the gods send more for thy profite then for their seruices Doest thou not remember well when Vulcan my sonne in law poysoned me more for the couetousnesse of my gods then any desire that hee had of my life thou Lord that diddest come to comfort mee in my chamber and toldst me that the gods were cruell to slay the yong and were pitiful to take the old from this world And thou saidst further these wordes Comfort thee Panutius for if thou wert borne to the now thou drest to liue Since therefore noble Prince that I tell thee that which thou toldst me and counsell thee the same which thou counsellest me I render to thee that which thou hast giuen me Finally of these vines I haue gathered these cluster of grapes CHAP. LII The answer of the Emperour Marcus to Panutius his Secretarie wherein he declareth that he tooke no thought to forsake the world but all his sorow was to leaue behind him an vnhappie child to inherit the Empire PAnutius blessed be the milke which thou hast sucked in Dacia the bread which thou hast eaten in Rome the larning which thou hast learned in Greece and the bringing vppe which thou hast had in my pallace For thou hast serued as a good seruant in life and giuest mee good counsell as a trustie friende at death I command Commodus my son to recompence thy seruice and I beseech the immortall gods that they acquite thy good counsels And not without good cause I charge my son with the one and requrie the gods of the other For the payment of many seruices one man alone may doe but to pay one good counsell it is requisite to haue all the gods The greatest good that a friend can doe to his friend is in great and waightie affaires to giue him good and wholesome counsell And not without cause I say wholesome For commonly it chaunceth that those which thinke with their counsell to remedy vs doe put vs oftentimes in greatest perils All the trauells of life are hard but that of death is the most hard and terrible Al are great but this is the greatest All are perillous but this is most perrillons All in death haue ende except the trauell of death whereof wee know no end that which I say now no men perfectly can know but he which seeth himselfe as I see my selfe now at the point of death Certainly Panutius thou hast spoken vnto mee as a wise man but for that thou knowst not my griefe thou couldst not cure my disease for my sore is not there where thou hast layde the plaister The fistula is not there where thou hast cutte the flesh The opilation is not there where thou hast layd the oyntments There were not the right veines where thou didst let me bloud Thou hast not yet touched the wound which is the cause of all my griefe I meane that thou oughtest to haue entred further with mee to haue knowne my griefe better The sighes which the heart fetcheth I say those which come from the heart let not euerie man think which heareth them that he can immedialy vnderstand them For as men cannot remedie the anguishes of the spirit so the gods likewise would not that they should know the secrets of the heart Without feare or shame many dare say that they know the thought of others wherein they shew themselues to bee more fooles then wise For since there are many things in me wherein I my selfe doubt how can a stranger haue any certaine knowledge therein Thou accusest me Panutius that I feare death greatly the which I deny but to feare it as man I doe confesse For to deny that I feare not death should bee to denie that I am not of flesh We see by experience that the Elephants do feare the Lyon the Beare the Elephant the wolfe the Beare the Lambe the Wolfe the Rat the Cat the Cat the Dog the Dog the man Finally the one and the other do feare for no other thing but for feare that one killeth not the other Then since bruite beasts refuse death the which though they die feare not to fight with the suries nor hope not to rest with the gods so much the more ought we to feare death which die in doubt whether the furies will teare vs in peeces with their torments or the gods will receiue vs in to their houses with ioy Thinkest thou Panutius that I doe not see well my vine is gathered and that it is not hid vnto me that my palace falleth in decay I know well that I haue not but the kernell of the Raison the skin and that I haue not but one sigh of all my life vntill this time There was great difference betweene me and thee now there is no great difference betwixt me and my selfe For about the ensign thou dost place the army In the riuers thou castest thy nets within the parkes thou huntest the buls in the shadow thou takest cold By this I meane that thou talkest so much of death because that thou art sure of thy life O miserable man that I am for in short space of all that is life I haue possessed with mee I shall carrie nothing but onely my winding sheete Alasse how shall I enter into the field not where of fierce beasts I shall bee assaulted but of the hungrie wormes deuoured Alasse I see my selfe in that distresse from whence my fraile flesh cannot escape And if any hope remaine it is in thee O death When I am sicke I would not that hee that is whole should comfort me When
so straunge a Monster amongst the Romaine people Thou oughtst not therefore to maruell Panutius at the nouelties which thou hast seene in mee For in these three dayes that I haue been troubled in my minde and altered in my vnderstanding all these things are offered vnto me and from the bottome of my hart I haue digested them For the carefull men are not blinded but with their owne imaginations All these euill conditions which these Princes had scattred amongst them of whom I haue spoken doe meete together in my Sonne Commodus For if they were young he is young if they were rich hee is rich if they were free he is free if they were bold he is bolde if they were wilde he is wilde if they were euill certainely I doe not thinke that hee is good For wee see manie young Princes which haue beene well brought vp and well taught yet when they haue inherited and come to their Lands they become immediately vicious and dissolute What hope haue wee of those which from their infancie are dissolute and euill enclined Of good wine I haue made oft times strong vivineger but of pure vineger I haue neuer seene good wine This childe keepeth mee betweene the sailes of Feare and the Ancker of hope hoping he shall be good since I haue taught him well and fearing he shall be euill because his mother Faustine hath nourished him euill And that which is the worst that the yong childe of his owne nature is inclined to all euill I am moued to say thus much for that I see his naturall inclination increase and that which was taught him diminish For the which occasion I doubt that after my death my sonne shall returne to that wherin his mother hath nourished him and not to that wherein I haue taught him O how happy had I beene if neuer I had had childe or not to be bounde to leaue him the Empire For I would chuse then among the children of the good Fathers would not be bound to such a one whom the gods haue giuen me One thing I aske thee Panutius whom wouldest thou call most fortunate Vespatian which was naturall father of Domitius or Nerua the adopted father of the good Traiane both those two Vespatian and Nerua were good Princes but of children Domitian was the head of all mischiefe and Traiane was the mirrour of all goodnesse So that Vespatian in that he had children was vnhappy and Nerua in that hee had none was most fortunate One thing I will tell thee Panutius the which by thee considered thou wilt little esteeme life and shalt lose the feare of death I haue liued threescore and two yeares wherein I haue read much hard much seene desired attained possessed suffered and I haue much reioyced my selfe And in the end of all this I see my selfe now to die and I must want my pleasures and my selfe also Of all that I haue had possessed attained and whereof I haue enioied I haue only two things to say paine for that I haue offended the gods and sorrow for the time which I haue wasted in vices There is great difference between the rich and the poore in death and more in life For the poore dieth to iust but if the rich die it is to their treat paine So that the gods take from the one that which he had and putteth the other in possession of that he desired Great care hath the heart to seeke the goods and they passe great troubles to heape vp them together and great diligence must bee had in keeping them and also much wit to encrease them but without comparison it is greater griefe to depart from them O what paine intollerable and griefe it is to the wise man seeing himselfe at the point of death to leaue the sweet of his family the maiestie of his Empire the honour of his present the loue of his friends the payments of his debts the deserts of his seruants and the memory of his predecessors in the power of so euill a childe the which neither deserueth it nor yet will deserue it In the ninth Table of our auncient Lawes are written these words Wee ordaine and commaund that the father which shall be good according to the opinion of all may disherite his sonne who according to the opinion of all is euill The Law said further The childe which hath disobeyed his father robbed any holy Temple iniuried any widdow fled from any battle and committed any treason to a straunger that hee should bee banished from Rome and dsinherited from his fathers goods Truly the law was good thogh by our offences it bee forgotten If my breath faile mee not as it doth faile me for of troth I am greatly pained I would declare vnto thee how many Parthes Medians Egyptians Assirians Caldeans Indians Hebrewes Greekes and Romaines haue left their children poore beeing able to haue left them rich for no other cause but for that they were vitious And to the contrary other beeing poore haue left them rich for that they were vertuous By the immortall gods I sweare vnto thee that when they came from the warre of Parthia and triumphed in Rome and confirmed the Empire to my sonne if then the Senate had not withstood mee I had left Commodus my sonne poore with his vices wold haue made heir of all my Realmes some vertuous man I let thee know Panutius that fiue things oppresse my heart sore to the which I wold rather see remedy my selfe then to command other to remedie it The first for that in my life time I cannot determine the processes that the vertuous widdow Drusia hath with the Senate Because since she is poore and deformed there is no man that will giue her iustice The second because I die not in Rome And this for none other cause thē that which the sound of the trumpet should bee proclaimed that all those which haue any quarrel or debt against me and my family should come thither to be paid or satisfied of their debts and demands The third that as I made foure tyrants to bee put to execution which committed tiranny in Asia and Italy so it greeued mee that I haue not also punished certaine pirates which roued on the seas The fourth for that I haue not caused the temple to bee finished which I did beginne for all the gods For I might haue sayde vnto them after my death that since for all them I haue made one house it were not much that any of them shuld receiue one into his which passe this life in the fauour of the gods and without the hatred of men For dying after this sort men shall susteine our honours and the gods shall prouide for our soules The fifth for that I leaue in life for my onely heire Commodus the Prince yet not so much for the destruction which shall come to my house as for the great dammage which shall succeed in the commonwealth For the true
Princes ought to take the dammages of their persons light and the dammages of the commonwealth for the most grieuous O Panutius let therefore this be the last word which I will say vnto thee that is to say that the greatest good that the gods may giue to the man that is not couetous but vertuous is to giue him good renowme in life and afterwardes a good heire at our death Finally I say that if I haue any thing to do with the gods I require and beseech them that if they should be offended Rome slandered my renowme defamed and my house diminished for that my sonne be of an euill life that they will take from him life before they giue me death CHAP. LIIII Of the words which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius spake vnto his sonne Commodus at the houre of death necessary for all young gentlemen to vnderstand SInce the disease of Marcus Aurelius was so extreme that euery houre of his life he was assaulted with death after he had talked a long time with Panutius his Secretarie he commanded his sonne Commodus to be wakened who as a yong man slept soundly in his bed And being come before his presence all those which were there were moued immediatly with compassion to see the eyes of the father all swollen with weeping and the eyes of the childe closed with ouermuch sleepe They could not waken the childe he was so carelesse and they could not cause the good father sleepe he tooke so great thought All those which were there seeing how the father desired the good life of the sonne and how little the sonne wayed the death of his father had compassion of the olde person and bare hate to the wicked childe Then the good Emperour casting his eyes on high and directing his words to his sonne sayde When thou wert a childe I tolde thy masters how they ought to bring thee vp and after that thou diddest waxe greater I tolde thy Gouernors how they should counsell thee And now I will tell thee how thou with them which are few and they with thee beeing one ought to gouerne and maintaine the Common-wealth If thou esteeme much that which I will say vnto thee my sonne Know thou that I will esteeme much more then thou wilt beleeue me for more easily doe wee olde men suffer your iniuries then yee other young men doe receyue our counsels Wisdome wanteth to you for to beleeue vs yet wee want not boldnesse to dishonour you And that which is worst the aged in Rome were wont to haue a chayre of wisdome sagenesse but now a dayes the young men count it a shame and folly The world at this day is so changed from that it was wont to bee in times past that all haue the audacity to giue counsell and few haue the wisedome to receyue it so that they are a thousand which tell counsels and there is not one that buyeth wisedome I beleeue well my sonne that according to my fatall Destenies and thy euill manners little shall that auayle which I shall tell thee for since thou wouldest not credit these words which I spake vnto thee in my life I am sure that thou wilt little regard them after my death But I doe this more to satisfie my desire and to accomplish that which I owe vnto the Common-wealth then for that I hope for any amendment of thy life For there is no griefe that doth so much hurt a person as when hee himselfe is cause of his owne paine If any man doth mee an iniurie if I lay my hands vpon him or speake iniurious words vnto him my heart is forthwith satisfied but if I doe iniurie to my selfe I am he which wrongeth and am wronged for that I haue none on whom I may reuenge my wrong and I vexe and chase with my selfe If thou my sonne bee euill after that thou hast enherited the Empire my mother Rome wil complaine of the gods which haue giuen thee so many euill inclinations Shee will complaine of Faustine thy mother which hath brought thee vp so wantonly she will complaine of thee which hast no will to resist vice but shee shall haue no cause to complaine of the olde man thy Father who hath not giuen thee good counsels For if thou hadst beleeued that which I tolde thee mē would reioyce to haue thee for theyr Lord and the Gods to vse thee as their Minister I cannot tell my sonne if I bee deceyued but I see thee so depriued of vnderstanding so vncertaine in thy words so dissolute in thy manners so vniust in iustice in that thou desirest so hardy and in thy duty so negligent that if thou change and alter not thy manners men will hate thee and the Gods will forsake thee O if thou knewest my sonne what a thing it is to haue men for their enemies and to be forsaken of the gods by the faith of a good man I sweare vnto thee that thou wouldest not onely hate the Seigniorie of Rome but with thy handes also thou wouldest destroy thy selfe For men which haue not the Gods mercifull and the men friendly doe eate the bread of griefe and drinke the teares of sorrow I am sure thy sorrow is not so great to see the night doth end my life as is that pleasure which thou hast to see that in short space thou shalt bee Emperour of Rome And I do not maruell hereat for where sensuality raigneth reason is banished and constrained to flye Many loue diuers things because of truth they know them not the which if they did know without doubt they would hate them Thogh men loue in mockerie the Gods and men hate vs in earnest In all things wee are so doubtfull and in all our works so disordred that at some time our vnderstanding is dull and loseth the edge and another time it is more sharpe then it is necessary Thereby I meane that the good we will not heare and much lesse wee will learne it but of the euill wee know more then behoueth vs or necessitie requireth I will counsell thee my sonne by words that which in sixtie two years I haue learned by science and experience And since thou art as yet so young it is reason that thou beleeue him which is aged For since wee Princes are the mirrour of all euery man doth behold vs and wee other doe not behold our selues This day or to morrow thou shalt enherite the Romane Empire and thinke that inheriting the same thou shalt bee Lord of the world Yet if thou knewest how many cares and perils commaunding bringeth with it I sweare vnto thee that thou wouldest rather choose to obey all then to command one Thou thinkest my sonne that I leaue thee a great Lord for to leaue thee the Empire which is not so for all they haue neede but of thee and thou alone hast neede of all Thou thinkest I leaue thee much treasure leauing thee the great reuenues of the Empire that which also is
to his owne profite As the gods gaue me long life of these things haue I had great experience wherein I let thee know that for the space of xv yeares I was Consull Senator Censor Pretor Questor Edil and Tribune and after all this I haue beene 18. yeares Emperour of Rome wherein all those which haue spoken most against me touched the profite or damage of another The chief intention of those which follow the Courts of Princes are to procure to augment their houses And if they cannot come to that they seeke to diminish that of another not for that any profite should follow vnto them thereof be it neuer so little but because mans malice is of such condition that it esteemeth the profite of another his owne dammage They ought to haue great compassion of the Prince for the most that follow him serue him not for that they loue him but for the gifts and rewards which they hope to haue of him And this seemeth to be true for the day that Princes shall cease to giue them the selfe same day beginne they for to hate him So that such seruants wee cannot call friends of our persons but couetous of our goods That thou loue my sonne the one aboue the other thou mayest right well but I aduertise thee that thou nor they do make any semblance in such sort that all doe know it for if thou doest otherwise they will murmur at thee will all persecute thee Hee incurreth into no small perill nor hath no little trouble which is aboue all of the Prince beloued and of the people hated For then hee is hated and persecuted of all and yet more damage ensueth vnto him of the enmity of all then doth of the loue of the Prince alone for sometimes the gods permitting it and his behauior deseruing it the prince doth cease to loue him and therewith his enemies beginne to persecute him From the time I knew what meaned to gouerne a Common weale I haue alwayes determined neuer to keepe man in my house one day after I knowe him to bee an enemie to the Common-wealth In the yeare of the Foundation of Rome 649. Lucius Lucullus the Senatour going to the warres against Mythridates by chaunce found a tablet of coppper in the cittie called Trigane the which was at the gate of the king of that Prouince And on the same was engrauen certaine Caldean letters the which in effect saide these words The Prince is not sage who will put in hazzard the state of his Common-wealth for the onely commoditie of one alone For the seruice of one can not auaile against the loue of all The Prince is not sage that for to enrich one alone seeketh to empouerish all For it is a thing intollerable that one doe labour the fields and the other doe gather the fruite The Prince is not iust which will satisfie the couetousnes of one more then the seruices of all For there is mean to pay the seruices of the good and there is no Riches to satisfie the couetousnes of the euill The prince is a foole that despiseth the counsell of all and trusteth in the opinion of one For though there bee in a great Ship but one pilot yet it needeth many mariners Bolde is the Prince which to loue one onely wil be hated of all For noble Princes ought to think it much profite to be beloued and much more displeasure to be hated These were the words which were written in that tablet worthy of eternall memory And I will tell thee further in this case that Lucullus the Senatour sent on the one part that Tablet of copper where these wordes were on the other part the coffers wherein he had brought the riches to the end the Senate should chose one and leaue the other The Senate despising the riches and Treasours chose the Tablet of counsells CHAP. LVI The Emperour followeth his matter and exhorteth his Sonne vnto certaine particular things worthy to be engraued in the hearts of men VNtil now I haue spoken as a father to his Sonne that which toucheth thy profit Now I will tell thee what thou shalt doe after my death for my seruice And if thou wilt bee the true Sonne of thy Father the things which I haue loued in my life shall be of thee esteemed after my death Do not resemble many Children which after theyr Fathers haue closed their Eyes doe remember them no more For in such case though indeede the Fathers be dead and buryed yet they are alwaies liuing to complaine to the Gods of their children Though it seemeth not to be slaunderous yet it is more perilous to contend with the dead then to iniure the liuing And the reason is for that the liuing may reuenge and are for to answere but the dead cannot make aunswer and much lesse they can bee reuenged And in such case the Gods do take their cause in protection and somtimes they execute such cruell punishment of those that liue that rather then they would endure it rhey wish to be dead Thou oughtst to thinke my Sonne that I haue begoten thee I haue nourished thee I haue taught thee I haue trymmed thee I haue chastised thee and I haue exalted thee And for this onely consideration though by death I am absent it is not reason that thou euer forget me For the true and not vnthankefull Childe ought the same day to bury his Father in his tender hart when others haue laide him in the harde graue One of the visible chasticements which the Gods giue to men in this world is that the children obey not their Fathers in their life For the selfe same fathers did not remember their owne fathers after their death Let not young Princes thinke after they haue inherited after they see their Father dead and after they are past correction of their Masters that all things ought to bee done as they themselues will it for it wil not be so For they want the fauour of the gods and haue malediction of their fathers they liue in trouble dye in danger I require nought else of thee my sonne but that such a father as I haue been to thee in my life such a sonne thou be to mee after my death I commend vnto thee my sonne the veneration of the Gods and this chiefly aboue all things for the Prince which maketh account of the gods need not to feare any storm of fortune Loue the gods and thou shalt bee beloued Serue them and thou shalt bee serued Feare them and thou shalt be feared honour them and thou shalt be honoured Doe their commaundements and they will giue thee thy hearts desire for the gods are so good that they doe not onely receiue in account that which we do but also that which we desire to doe I commend vnto thee my sonne the reuerence of the Temples that is to say that they be not in discord that they be cleane and renued that they
to leaue their heyres and successors And therfore I haue appointed euery thing in common among subiects because that during their liues they might haue honestly to maintaine themselues withall and that they should not leauy any thing to dispose by will after their deathes Herodotus sayth also that it was decreede by the Inhabitants of the Isles Baleares that they should suffer none to come into their Country to bring them any golde siluer Iewels or precious stones And this serued them to great profite For by means of this Law for the space of foure hundred yeares that they had great warres with the Romanes the Carthagenians the French and the Spaniards neuer any of these Nations once stirred to goe about to conquere their land being assured that they had neyther golde nor siluer to robbe or conuey from them Promotheus that was the first that gaue Lawes to the Egyptians did not prohibite golde nor siluer in Egypt as those of the Isles Baleares did in theyr territories neyther did he also commaund that all things should be common as Licurgus but also commanded that none in all his Kingdome should be so hardy once to gather any masse or quantitie of golde or siluer together and to hoord it vp And this he did vpon great penalties for as hee sayde Auarice is not shewed in building of fayre houses neyther in hauing rich moueables but in assembling and gathring together great treasure and laying it vp in their coffers And Plutarch in his booke De Consolatione sayth also That if a rich man dyed among the Rhodians leauing behind him one onely sonne and no more suruiuing him they wold not suffer that he should bee sole heyre of all that his Father left but they left him an honest heritage liuing to his state and calling and to marry him well withall and the rest of all his Fathers goods they dissipated among the poore and Orphans The Lydians that neyther were Greekes nor Romanes but right barbarous people had a law in their common weale that euery man should be bound to bring vp his children but not to be at charges in bestowing thē in marriage So that the sonne or daughter that was now of age to marry they gaue them nothing to theyr marriage more then they had gotten with their labour And those that will exactly consider this laudable custome shall finde that it is rather a Law of true Philosophers then a custome of barbarous people Since thereby the children were enforced to labour for their liuing and the parents also were exemted from all manner of couetousnesse or auarice to heape vp gold and siluer and to enrich themselues Numa Pompilius second King of the Romanes and establisher of their Lawes and decrees in the law of the seuen Tables which he made hee left them order onely which way the Romanes might rule their Common-weale in tranquilitie and put in no clause nor chapter that they should make their willes whereby their childrē might inherit their fathers goods And therefore being asked why hee permitted in his lawes euery man to get as much goods as he could and not to dispose them by will nor leaue them to their heyres He aunswered because wee see that albeit there are some children that are vnhappy vicious and abominable yet are there few fathers notwithstanding this that wil depriue and disinherite them of theyr goods at their death onely to leaue them to any other heere and therefore for this cause I haue commanded that all the goods that remaine after the death of the owner of them shold be giuen to the Common-weale as sole heyre and successor of them to the end that if their children should become honest and vertuous they should then bee distributed to them if they were wicked and vnhappy that they should neuer bee owners of them to hurt and offende the good Macrobius in his booke De somno Scipionis sayth that there was in the olde time an old and ancient Law amongst the Tuscans duely obserued and kept and afterwards taken vp of the Romanes that in euerie place where soeuer it were in towne or village within their territories on new-yeares day euerie man should present himselfe before the Iudge or Magistrate of the place hee was in for to giue him account of his manner of life and how hee maintained himselfe and in these examinations they did accustome to punish him that liued idely and with knauery and deceipt maintayned themselues as Minstrels Ruffians Dicers Carders Iuglers Coggers Foyster Coseners of men and filching knaues with other loytering vagabonds and rogues that liue of others swet and toyle without any paine or labour they take vpon them to deserue that they eate I would to God if it were his will that this Tuscan Law were obserued of Christians then we should see how few they be in number that giue them selues to any faculty or science or other trade to liue by their owne trauell and industry and how many infinite a number they bee that liue in idle sort The diuine Plato in his Timee sayeth that although an idle man bee more occasion of many troubles and inconueniences in a Common-weale then a couetous man yet is it not alwayes greater for the idle man and that gladly taketh his ease doth but desire to haue to eate but the couetous man doth not only desire to eate but to bee rich and haue money enough All the eloquence and pleasaunt speech that the Orators studied in their Orations the Lawyers in theyr Law and the famous Philosophers in their doctrine and teaching was for no other cause but to admonish and perswade those of the Common-weale to take very good heed in chusing of their gouernours that they were not couetous and ambitious in the administration of their publike affayres Laertius reciteth also that a Rhodian iesting with Eschines the Philosopher sayde vnto him By the immortall Gods I sweare to thee O Eschines that I pitty thee to see thee so poore to whom he aunswered By the same immortall Gods I sweare to thee againe I haue compassion on thee to see thee so rich Sith riches bring but paine and trouble to get them great care to keepe them displeasur to spend them perill to hoorde them and occasion of great daungers and inconueniences to defend them and that that grieueth me most is that where thou keepest thy treasure fast lockt vp there also thy heart is buried Surely Eschines words seemed rather spoken of a Christian then of a Philosopher In saying that where a mans treasure is there is also his hart For there is no couetous man but dayly hee thinkes vpon his hidde treasure but he neuer calleth to mind his sinnes he hath committed Comparing therefore those things wee haue spoken with those thinges wee will speake I say that it becommeth the fauoured of Princes to know that it is lesse seemely for them to bee couetous then others For the greatnesse of their fauour ought not to bee
Athens hee being not of the age of eightie fiue yeares asked what that old man was and it was answered him that it was one of the Philosophers of Greece who followed vertue and serched to know wherein true Philosophie consisted Whereupon he answered If Xenocrates the Philosopher tell mee that hee being now eightie fiue yeares old goeth to seek vertue in this age I would thou shouldest also tell me what time hee should haue left him to bee vertuous And hee sayde moreouer in those yeares that this Philosopher is of it were more reason we should see him doe vertuous things then at this age to goe and seeke it Truely we may say the very like of our new Courtier that Eudonius sayde of Xenocrates the Philosopher the which if hee did looke for other threescore yeares or threescore and ten to be good what time should remaine for him to proue and shew that goodnesse It is no maruell at all that the olde Courtiers forget their Natiue Countrey and bringing vp their Fathers that begate them their friendes that shewed them fauour and the seruants that serued them but at that I doe not onely wonder at them but also it giueth mee cause to suspect them is that I see they forget themselues So that they neuer know nor consider that they haue to doe till they come afterwardes to be that they would not be If the Courtiers which in Princes Courts haue beene rich noble and in authority would counsell with me or at least beleeue my writing they shold depart from thence in time to haue a long time to consider before of death least death vnawares and suddenly came to take execution of their liues O happy and thrice happy may we call the esteemed Courtier whom God hath giuen so much witte and knowledge to that of himselfe hee do depart from the Court before fortune hath once touched him with dishonour or laid her cruell handes vpon him For I neuer saw Courtier but in the end did complain of the Court and of their ill life that they ledde in Court And yet did I neuer know any person that would leaue it for any scruple of consciēce he had to remain there but peraduenture if any did depart from the court it was for some of these respects or altogether that is to say Eyther that his fauour and credite diminished or that his money fayled him or that some hath done him wrong in the court or that hee was driuen from the court or that he was denyed fauour or that his side faction he helde with had a fall or for that hee was sicke for to gette his health hee went into the Countrey So that they may say hee rather went angrie and displeased with himselfe then hee did to lament his sins If you aske priuately euery Courtier you shall finde none but will say he is discontented with the Court eyther because he is poore or afflicted enuied or ill willed or out of fauour and hee will sweare and resweare againe that he desireth nothing more in the World then to be dismissed of this Courtiers trauell and painefull Life But if afterwards perchance a little winde of fauour be but stirring in the Entrey of his chamber dore it will sodenly blow away all the good and former thoughts from his mind And yet that which makes mee to wonder more at these vnconstant Courtiers and vnstable braines is that I see many build goodly stately houses in their countrey and yet they neyther dwell in them nor keepe hospitality there They graffe and set trees plant fruites and make good Gardens and Orchards and yet neuer goe to enioye them they purchase great Landes and possessions and neuer goe to see them And they haue offices and dignities giuen them in their Countryes but they neuer goe for to exercise them There they haue their friends and parents and yet they neuer goe for to talke with them So they had rather be slaues and drudges in the court then lords rulers in their own countrey we may iustly say that many courtiers are poore in riches strangers in their owne houses and Pilgrimes in their Countrey and banished from all their kindreds So that if wee see the most part of these Courtiers backbite murmure complaine and abhorre these vices they see daily committed in Court I dare assure you that this discontentation and dislyking proceeds not only of those vices and errors then see committed as of the spight and enuie they haue daylie to see their Enemyes growe in fauour and credite with the Prince For they passe little of the vices of Court so they may be in fauour as others are Plutarch in his book De exilio sheweth that there was a Law amongst the Thebanes that after a man was fiftie yeares of age if he fell sicke he should not bee holpen with Physitians For they say that after a man is once arriued vnto that age he should desire to liue no longer but rather to hasten to his iourneys ende By these examples wee may know that infancie is till vii yeares Childhood to xiiii yeares Youth to xxv yeares manhood till xl and Age to three-score-yeares But once passed three-score me thinks it is rather time to make cleane the nettes and to content thēselues with the Fish they haue till now then to go about to put their nets in order againe to fish any more I grant that in the Courts of princes all may be saued yet no man can deny mee but that in princes Courts there are mo occasions to be damned then saued For as Cato the Censor saith The apt occasions bring men a desire to do yll though they be good of themselues And although some do take vpon them and determine to leade a godly and holie life or that they shew themselus ' great hypocrites yet am I assured notwithstanding that they cannot keepe their tongue frō murmuring nor their hart from enuying And the cause hereof proceedeth for that ther are very few that follow the Court long but onely to enter into credit and afterwards to vaxe rich and growe in great authoritie Which cannot bee without bearing a little secret hate and enuy against those that doe passe them in this fauour and authority and without suspect and feare of others which in 〈◊〉 are their equals and companions It were a good counsell for those that haue 〈◊〉 the Court or Princes till they be 〈◊〉 old and gray headed that they should determine and liue the rest of their yeares as good Christians and not to passe them as Courtiers so that though they haue giuen the world a meale yet they should in the end giue the brain to Iesus Christ I know euery man desireth to liue in Princes Courts and yet they promise they will not dye in Court And since it is so mee thinkes it is a great folly and presumption for such men to desire to liue long in such state where they would not dye for all the
ouerthrowne a Chaunge which neuer wearieth a Spye which euer returneth a signe which beguyleth no man a way very straight a Friend that succoureth all necessities a Surgion that immediately healeth and a Renowne which neuer perisheth If thou knewest my Sonne what thing it is to be good thou wouldst be the best of the world For the more vicious a man is so much the more hee is intangled in vices and how much more a man is vertuous so much more to vertues he cleaueth If thou wilt bee vertuous thou shalt doe seruice to the Gods thou shalt giue good renowme to thy predecessours and for thy selfe thou shalt prepare a perpetuall memorie Thou shalt doe pleasures to straungers and get thee fauour of thine owne people Finally the good will honour thee with loue and the euill will serue with feare In the hystories of the warres of the Tarentines I found that renowmed Pyrrus king of the Epyrots did weare in a ring these words written It is too little punishment for a vicious man to take his life from him and it is too small reward for a vertuous man to giue him the seigniorie of all the whole earth Truly these wordes were worthy of such a man What thing can bee begunne of a vertuous man whereof wee hope not to see the end and come to good proofe I am deceyued if I haue not seene in my dayes many men which were base borne vnfitte for sciences voide of vices in the Common welth poore of goods and vnknowne of birth which with all these base conditions haue learned so many vertues that it seemed great rashnesse to beginne them and afterwards for being vertuous onely they haue founde the effects such as they thought it By the immortall Gods I sweare vnto thee and so the God Iupiter take me into his holy house and confirme thee my sonne in mine if I haue not knowne a Gardner and a Porter in Rome which for beeing vertuous were occasion to cast fiue rich Senators out of the Senate And the cause to make the one to gaine and the other to lose was that to the one they would not pay the pots and to the other his apples For at that time more was hee punished which tooke an apple from a poore man then hee which beat downe a rich mans house All this I haue tolde thee my son because vice abaseth the hardy prince and vertue giueth courage to the bashfull From two things I haue alwayes kept my selfe That is to say not to striue against open iustice nor to contend with a vertuous person CHAP. LV. The Emperour Marcus Aurelius followeth his purpose and among other wholesome counsels exhorteth his son to keepe wise and sage men about him for to giue him counsel in al his affayrs HItherto I haue spoken to thee generally but now I wil speake vnto thee particularly and by the immortall gods I coniure thee that thou bee very attentiue to that I will say For talking to thee as an aged Father it is reason thou heare mee as an obedient childe If thou wilt enioy long life obserue well my doctrine For the gods will not condiscend to thy hearts desires vnlesse thou receyue my wholesome counsels The disobedience and vnfaithfulnesse which children haue to their fathers is all their vndoing for oftentimes the gods do pardon the offences that are done vnto them and do not pardon the disobediences which the children bare to their Fathers I doe not require thee my sonne that thou giue mee money since thou art poore I doe not demaund that thou trauell since thou art tender I doe not demaund the reuengement of mine enemies since I haue none I doe not demaund that thou serue me since I dye I doe not demaund the Empire since I leaue it vnto thee Onely I demaund that thou gouerne thy selfe well in the Common wealth that the memory of my house bee not lost through thee If thou esteeme much that I leaue vnto thee so many realms I thinke it better to leaue to thee many good counsels wherewith thou mayest preserue thy selfe sustaine thy person and maintaine thine honour For if thou hast presumption not to profite with my counsell but to trust to thine owne mind before my flesh be eaten with wormes thou shalt be ouercome with thy enemies My sonne I haue beene young light bold vnshamefast proud enuious couetous an adulterer furious a glutton slothfull and ambitious and for that I haue fallen into so great excesses therfore I giue thee such good aduise for that man which in his youth hath beene very worldly from him in age proceedeth ripe counsell That which vntill this time I haue counselled thee that which to my death I will counsell thee I desire that once at the least thou proue it And if it doe thee harme leaue it and if it doe thee good vse it For there is no medicine so bitter that the sicke doth refuse to take if thereby hee thinke hee may bee healed I pray thee I exhort thee and I aduise thee my sonne that thy youth beleeue my age thy ignorance beleeue my knowledge thy sleepe beleeue my watch the dimnesse of thy eyes beleeue the clearenesse of my sight thy imagination beleeue my vertue and thy suspition beleeue my experience For otherwise one day thou shalt see thy selfe in some distresse where small time thou shalt haue to repent and none to finde remedy Thou mayest say vnto me my sonne that since I haue beene young I let thee to bee young and that when thou shalt bee aged thou wilt amend I aunswere thee that if thou wilt liue as young yet at least gouerne thy selfe as olde In a Prince which gouerneth his cōmon wealth well many miseries are dissembled of his person euen as for mighty affayres ripe counsels are necessary so to endure the troubles of the Empire the person needeth some recreation for the bow-string which alwaies is stretched either it lengthneth or it breaketh Whether Princes be young or old there can be nothing more iust then for the recreation of themselues to seeke some honest pastimes And not without a cause I say that they bee honest for sometimes they accompany with so dishonest persons and so vnthrifty that they spend their goods they lose their honour and weary their persons more then if they were occupied in the affaires of the common wealth For thy youth I leaue thee children of great Lords with whom thou maiest passe the time away And not without cause I haue prouided that with thee they haue been brought vp from thy infancy for after thou camest to mans estate inheriting my goods if perchance thou wouldest accompany thy self with yong men thou shouldst find them well learned for thy wars I leaue thee valiant captains though indeed things of war are begunn by wisedome yet in the end the issue falleth out by fortune for stewards of thy treasurs I leaue thee faithful men And not without cause I
say they are faithfull for oftentimes greater are the theeues which are receiuers and treasurers then are they that doe rob among the people I leaue thee my sonne expert and ancient men of whom thou maiest take counsell and with whom thou maiest communicat thy troubles for there can bee fourmed no honest thing in a Prince vnlesse hee hath in his company auncient men for such giue grauitie to his person and authoritie to his pallace To inuent Theaters to sish ponds to chase wilde beasts in the forrests to runne in the fields to let thy haukes flye and to exercise weapons al these things we can denie thee as to a yong man and thou being yong mayest reioice thy selfe in all these Thou oughtest also to haue respect that to ordaine armes inuent warres follow victories accept truces confirm peace raise bruites to make lawes to promote the one and put down the others to punish the euill and first to reward the good the counsell of all these things ought to bee taken of cleare iudgements of persons of experience and of white heads Thinkest thou not that it is possible to passe the time with the yong and to counsell with the old The wife and discreet Princes for all things haue time enough if they know well how to measure it Beware my sonne that they note thee not to vse great extremities for the end and occasion why I speake it is because thou shouldst know if thou knowest not that it is as vndecent a thing for a Prince vnder the colour of granitie to bee ruled and gouerned wholie by olde men as vnder semblance of pastime alwaies to accompanie himselfe with the yong It is no generall rule that all young men are light nor all old men sage And thou must according to my aduise in such case vse it thus if any old man lose the grauity of his age expulse him from thee if thou finde any young men sage despise not their counsell For the Bees doe drawe more honey out of the tender flowers then of the hard leaues I do not condemne the aged nor I doe commend the young but it shall bee well done that alwayes thou choose of both the most vertuous For of truth there is no company in the Worlde so euill ordered but that there is mean to liue with it without any suspition so that if the young are euill with solly the olde are worse through couetousnesse Once againe I returne to aduertise thee my sonne that in no wise thou vse extremitie for if thou beleeue none but young they will corrupt thy manners with lightnesse and if thou beleeue none but the old they will depraue thy iustice through couetousnesse What thing can bee more monstrous then that the prince which commaundeth all should suffer him to be commaunded of one alone Beleeue me sonne in this case that the gouernements of many are seldome times gouerned well by the head of one alone The Prince which hath to rule and gouerne many ought to take the aduise and counsell of many It is a great inconuenience that thou beeing Lord of many Realmes shouldst haue but one gate wherein all doe enter into to doe their businesse with thee For if perchance he which shall be thy familiar be of his owne nature good and be not mine enemy yet I would be afraid of him because hee is a friend of mine enemies And though for hate they doe me no euill yet I am afraide that for the loue of another he will cease to do me good I remember that in the Annalles of Pompeius I found a little booke of memories which the great Pompeius bare about him wherein were many things that he had reade and other good counsels which in diuers parts of the world he had lerned and among other wordes there were these The Gouernour of the Common-wealth which committeth all the gouernment to old men deserueth very little and hee that trusteth all young is light Hee that gouerneth it by himselfe alone is beyond himselfe and he which by himselfe and others doth gouerne it is a wise Prince I know not whether these sentences are of the same Pompeius or that hee gathered them out of some book or that any Philosopher had told him them or some friend of his had giuen him them I meane that I had them written with his hands and truly they deserued to bee written in letters of gold When thy affayres shall bee waighty see thou dispatch them alwayes by counsell For when the affaires be determined by the counsell of many the fault shall be diuided among them all Thou shalt finde it for a truth my sonne that if thou take counsell of many the one will tel the inconuenience the other the perill other the feare the other the damage the other the profite and the other the remedy finally they will so debate thy affayrs that plainly thou shalt know the good and see the danger thereof I aduertise thee my son that when thou takest counsel thou behold with thy eyes the inconuenience as well as the remedies which they shall offer vnto thee for the true counsell consisteth not to tell what they ought to doe but to declare what thereof is like to succeede When thou shalt enterprise my son great and weighty affayres as much oughtest thou to regard the little dammages for to cutte them off in time as the great mishaps to remedy them For oftenttmes it chanceth that for the negligence of taking vp a gutter the whole house falleth to the ground Notwithstanding I tell thee thou take counsell I meane not that thou oughtest to be so curious as for euery trifle to cal thy counsell for there are many thinges of such quality that they would bee immediately put in execution and they doe endammage themselues attending for counsell That which by thine own authority thou mayest dispatch without the dammage of the Common-wealth referre it to no other person and herein thou shalt be iust and shalt doe iustice conformable for considering that thy seruice dependeth onely of them the reward which they ought to haue ought to depend onely on thee I remember that when Marius the Consull came from the warres of Numedia he diuided all the treasure hee brought among his souldiers not putting one jewell into the common Treasurie And when hereof hee was accused for that he had not demaunded licence of the Senat he answered them It is not iust I take counsell with others for to giue recompence to those which haue not taken the opinions of others to serue me Thou shalt find my sonne a kind of men which are very hard of money and exceeding prodigal of counsell There are also diuers lenders which without demaunding them doe offer to giue it With such like men thou shalt haue this counsell neuer looke thou for good counsell at that man whose counsell tendeth to the preiudice of another for he offereth words to thy seruice and trauelleth thy businesse