to be the visible Cause of all the happy Events of Human Life 'T is our Ignorance says a certain Poet which makes us imagine that blind Chance governs all Human Affairs 'T is our mistake ô Fortune that has plac'd Thee in Heaven which has made us believe that thy capricious Decrees regulate our Actions Whâ—re Prudence Reigns no Deity From that same Breast can absent be Prudence deprives thee of thy Power and destroys thee of thy Divinity 't is she alone that has the power to make us happy and her Laws alone observ'd or violated are the causes of our Good or Evil Destiny Nothing so clearly shews us the ridiculous vanity of men as that same pleasure which they take to be undeceiv'd from popular Opinions and yet at the same time they are undeceiv'd to deceive themselves after another manner For certainly 't is a great absurdity to refer all Events to a Cause so irregular and blind as Fortune But on the other side it is as great an error to look upon Prudence as the insallible source of our Happiness and the prosperity of Families Common-wealths and Empires as we shall shew in due place To make it therefore evidenâ— That the good Opinion which Men have of Prudence is ill grounded we need no more then to examin the Nature of Men without prejudice and consider that it is always full of distrust timorousness and uncertainty which proceeds from the obscurity and inconstancy of the matter For she has to do with Men whose Hearts are impenetrable and who are continually subject to change thro the lightness of their humour thro the succession of their passions and the diversity of their interests So that as Heraclitus assur'd us that he could have no natural Knowledg because the Object of the Sciences ought to be constant but that Nature was in a perpetual motion still gliding along like a stream where we can never consider the water because it passes away before we can well look upon it so we may affirm in like manner that Prudence can assure her self of nothing seeing that Man is never in the same posture but varies in his Disposition and Affections thro an infinite number of Causes both internal and external I admire with the rest of the world the ways that Aristotle has discover'd to facilitate perswasion by rousing the pasons that are predominant in men In a word it frequently happens that Submissions will move the most inhuman and cruel to Pity and Compassion that with Menaces we force the Timorous to yeild and that with Money we obtain our desires from persons uninteressed But I cannot see how Prudence can safely make use of these no more then upon the Avarice of one in whom desire of Revenge upon his Enemy may be more powerful at the very time that I promise my self to corrupt him with the offer of a large Sum. But a Person of vast Natural parts who is of great experience and who is otherways Learned and compleatly read in History Shall not he act with security Yes if he meet with subjects and occasions altogether like to those which he has seen or observ'd in History But it is as rarely possible to meet with this Resemblance as to find out two Men of the same Complexion and Features 'T is no true Consequence in Physic that a Medicine that has been given with success to that Choleric person will cure another For Choler says Galen is not only different from all other Humours but varies also from it self And this difficulty to encounter subjects and occasions altogether alike is the reason that Prudence and Physic are much indebted to Hazard and that Prudent Men and wise and wary Physitians proceed with so much caution and take so much care before they determine How did uncertainties fill the Soul of Alexander with restless trouble and inquietude the Night before the Battel of Arbela So that we cannot imagine a greater confusion at Sea between contending Surges and mountainous Billows when agitated by tempestuous Winds then in the Breast and Soul of Alexander where so many various thoughts and passions at that time strugled together It is clear then that Human Prudence is erroneous and uncertain and that there is no secure reliance upon it for any true success or prosperity But it is not enough to have shewn that it is unprositable we must also prove it to be hurtful Which is a Truth we may be easily convinc'd of after we have freed our selves of all manner of prejudice if then we do but examine whether Prudence does not frequently do much mischief with her circumspection her scruples and her cautions How many has she not perplex'd How many grand Affairs has she not caus'd to miscarry How many Families has she not undone How many great Fortunes have been made how many Treaties have been advantageously concluded how many Victories won contrary to the Rules of Prudence The Battel which Alexander won not far from the Banks of Granicus which made way for all his succeeding Renown was it not lookt upon by the Romans as a piece of Rashness that deserv'd to be severely punish'd And that River which as I may so say was the Cradle of his Glory might it not as well have prov'd his Tomb It is impossible for us to have other perswasions then these when we remember that the Enterprize of Lucullus against Tigranes attended with Victory and the Defeat of an hundred thousand men was nevertheless both censur'd and blam'd at Rome when we remember I say that the Equity of that grave and judicious People did not think it a thing fit to applaud the daring Temerity of the General of an Army because it had prosper'd nor to approve a Success that had advanc'd the Glory of the Empire since it was from a Cause that might have been its Ruin If you would see an Example of a Battel lost thro the Councels of Military Prudence and after all the care imaginable taken to secure the Victory cast but an eye upon the Battel of Poitiers and there behold King John inexorable and haughtily refusing to the Prince of Wales the Peace which he sought with so much earnestness and upon Conditions so advantageous Doubtless the Assurances which the King then had of Victory were both probable and rational For he found himself at the Head of four and fifty thousand Men accompanied with his four Sons the Duke of Orleans his Brother two Marshals of France five and twenty Dukes Counts and Great Lords and all the Nobility of France yet notwithstanding all this Force he was defeated and taken Prisoner by the Prince so weak at that time that he had scarce Ten thousand fighting men in the Field and those so ill provided with Victuals that they had but for one day a scant remainder left and so far advanced into the heart of the Kingdom that to all outward appearance it was impossible for him to retreat The Battels thus gain'd and lost
and Handsomness imaginable Must not also he be a great Master of his Resentments who favours those that have caus'd him to waste the best part of his Estate through their quarrelsome and litigious vexations when after the loss of their suit so unjustly commenc'd it lies in his power to ruine ' em Lastly we must acknowledge that we have need of a great deal of good Nature to pardon a Person that has offer'd us a bloody Affront when his Misfortune delivers him into our power and that we have an easy opportunity to revenge our selves And that which advances the Power of Generosity upon all occasions is this that besides that the Power of Revenge is so sweet that it is a difficult thing for a Man to surmount its Temptations and generally all those Advantages that he obtains against those that have adventured to contend with him so swell his Heart that he has much ado to govern it We cannot deny but that the force of Generosity is highly extraordinary But thence it does not follow that it is a vertuous Force For as St. Austin says There are two sorts of strong Men that divide all Mankind the one sort is of such who are strong through the vehemence of their desires The other sort that is to say True Christians are strong through the greatness of their Charity There is nothing that they will not venture for the Love of God There is nothing which the others will not dare or are not capable to act for the Love of themselves and to gratify their Passions To them they are beholding for all their force and Strength and it is their Ambition that empowers 'em to vanquish their Revenge For how sweet soever pleasure of Revenge may be an ambitious Person that loves Glory finds the Honour which he seeks in a Generous proceeding much more sweet than his Revenge Reason also joyns with his Ambition and shews him that Revenge how pleasing soever it is but a Transitory Delight where the Reputation which he acquires by his Generosity remains to perpetuity The Generosity of Prime Ministers and such as are in Authority proceeds from their Interest and therefore when they apprehend that a person of Merit or high Quality is obstructed being their professed Enemy and perplex'd in his Affairs they presently use all their diligence to help him out of his trouble on purpose to gain his good Will and fix him to their Interests And upon the same score they are more officious many times to gratify their greatest Enemies than their most faithful and zealous Friends Again our Natural Malignity is the most usual cause of our Generosity For in serving those that have cross'd our Designs we do but heap as it were so many Coals of Fire upon their Heads that is to say we do 'em kindness for no other end but only to make 'em asham'd that ever they did us any injury and to render 'em the more inexcusable if they persevere in their Malice towards us The Spirit of Revenge may be reckon'd for a piece of this Malignity For we believe that if a Person to whom we have been frequently serviceable comes to fail in the Obligations which he owes us he will disband himself and revenge the injustice done us much better than we can do our selves The Generosity of Victors toward the Vanquish'd is either vain or politic which makes us wonder that Historians should extoll the kindness which Alexander shewed to the Mother Wife and Daughter of Darius for Actions really Generous For besides that their Sex and Quality in some measure obliged him to those Civilities and that he could not have done otherwise without a great stain to his Reputation he was so desperately in Love with Honour that his Soul not being satisfy'd with what he had gain'd by his Victories he labours incessantly to augment his Civilities besides that he took care as much as in him lay to alleviate the misfortunes of those Captive Princes to prevent their Hatred against him that was the Author of all their Miseries He had also a particular aim so far to recover the good Opinion of Darius and the Royal Family as to believe that since their evil destiny had depriv'd 'em of the former Luster and subjected 'em under his Dominion they could not have fall'n into better hands And we find that Alexander obtained the Honor which he desired by the Prayer of Darius to the Gods That if they were fully resolved in their displeasure to take from his Family the Diadem of Persia they would set it upon Alexander's Head to recompence the Vertue of so good and generous a Prince The same Honor he receiv'd from Sisygambis the Queen This Soveraignty said She is so soft and gentle that the Remembrance of my past Felicity does no way render me uneasie in the Condition of my present Fortune Nor was it out of any desire to revenge the death of Darius or out of any hatred of the Treason that he so severely punish'd that horrid Assassination committed by Bâ—ssus since it was his Perfidiousness how execrable soever that put Alexander in the possession of the greatest Empire in the World But it was for his Honour and his Interests sake that he reveng'd the Death of Darius but chiefly for the sake of his Interest For he put Bessus to death to prevent the Conspiracy of his own Commanders against him And this is no more than the Advice which Darius sent him some few Minutes before he expir'd that it would be no less Profitable than Honourable for him to prosecute his Revenge upon that execrable Parricide Bessus as owing that Example to the World and for that it was the common Cause of all Kings Less does it deserve the name of Generosity when seeing Darius lying all along dead in his Chariot he cover'd his Body with his upper Garment and bitterly bewail'd the Misfortune of so Great a King for coming to an end so unsuitable to his high Dignity For it was no Sentiment of Generosity that made him bewail the evil destiny of his Enemy for that Darius was none of Alexander's Enemy but Alexander was Darius's and had invaded his Empire So that it was Alexander himself who was the real Subject of his own Lamentations who reflecting upon himself in the Person of Darius saw himself abandon'd by his own People assâ—ssiâ—ated by his best Friends and over-whâ—lm'd with those dire Misfortunes that usually attend great Prosperities Among these sorts of People who esteem as Generous all those Sentiments wherein there appears something of Grandeur of Mind as the Contempt of Mony and vain Honours some there are that vilifie this sort of Generosity Fore-seeing that almost all the World run after the Favour of Great Personages and court their Kindness not only with a restless credulity but after a sordid and misbeseeming manner they steer a quite con-contrary course They refuse all attendance upon those Great Men to desire any Kindness at their
yet cannot forbear their juvenile Gallantries In a word 't is my opinion that neither Age nor Exhortation nor Promises nor Punishments that can correct our wicked Inclinations when they are natural for then theâ— withstand all things except the God of Nature That which perswades people to the conâ—â—ary is this because they believe that when the inclinations are wearied or repuls'd for a time they are quite destroy'd Which is the reason that some erroneously mistake Cruelty tyr'd for true Clemency Augustus said Seneca who after so many Murthers and Proscriptions gave Cinna his Life did that act of Clemency that people might believe him Merciful For my part I know not how to call that person Merciful who is weary of being Cruel Others imagine that persons who leave the Court are cur'd of Ambition when it may be only the discontents of Repulses and Disappointments Others applaud for his Liberality a man that is profuse in his Expences not knowing that his Vanity restrains and curbs his Avarice Moreover many people are deceiv'd when they perswade themselves that a man has not the same Inclinations when they see his Inclinations do not tend to the same object not considering for example that Avarice is the reason that we addict our selves to Gaming and that we leave it off Besides these reasons to prove the error of that opinion that men change their Inclinations and of Mild become Cruel there is one much more considerable that is that most people acknowledg nothing to be Cruelty but that natural Cruelty which produced those Monsters of Men every day drunk with Human Blood such as Herod Nero and Domitian and for that they do not perceive that Ambition is Furious and Cruel and that men possess'd with that Fury are always ready to commit all manner of Excesses and Violences upon all those they believe to be obstacles to their designs So that let an Ambitious man be never so Mild so soon as he has conceiv'd a design to make his Name famous to Eternity tho it cost him that immortal Glory which he proposes to himself and to obtain it there is a necessity of Extirpating whole Nations he makes no scruple of such Inhumanities And this is the reason that great Conquerors such as Alexander and Julius Caesar never make it a matter of Conscience to use Sword or Poyson for the destruction of whatever persons stand in their way Nevertheless it did not behove the Historians to say as they do that if Alexander and Caesar were guilty of Actions so Cruel and contrary to their natural Goodness it was an argument that their Manners and Inclinations were chang'd because at the same time that they shew'd themselves most Cruel they also shew'd several acts of Clemency But if we would judg rationally of those persons and understand to what principle we ought to refer their different Conduct we must make a recollection of all the Actions of their Lives For then we shall see that they were persons that burn'd with an eager Ambition to acquire a more then ordinary Renown or to obtain the Soveraign Power and were so master'd by the interest of their Ambition that they did whatever their Ambition requir'd So that when their Ambition thought it proper to pardon their greatest Enemies how cruel soever they naturally were they pardon'd without any trouble If their interest or ambition requir'd them to cut the Throats of their best Friends they condescended with the same ease So that they were cruel at the same time that they dispens'd their Favours because they were as ready to put to Death those they had pardon'd if â—â—e condition of their Affairs requir'd it Whence it is easie to conclude that the Clâ—mency of Alexander Augustus and Caesar so highly applauded was only Policy Nor is there any farther Question to be made of this when we consider that Alexander's first Behaviour in Asia was courteous and generous as being then requisite to make himself belov'd by the principal Officers of his Army and the persons of Quality that follow'd him Besides that it was also a snare which he laid for the people which he design'd to subdue On the contrary his behaviour towards his latter end was rigorous and inhuman thro his mistrust and jealousie of his most faithful Servants and best Friends whom he put to Death with so much ingratitude and cruelty The same may be said of Caesar and Augustus For Augustus in his latter years shew'd himself Merciful to try whether his Clemency would succeed better then his Cruelty and be a means to qualifie the Hatred which the people had of his Tyranny As for Caesar every one knows that at the same time that he receiv'd Cicero and several other considerable persons that gave a lustre to his Party with so much lenity and mildness he Banish'd and put to Death all that would not bend their knees before him and implore his Mercy with submissions altogether adject and unseemly Plutareh relates that Sylla took the same course and that when he massacred seven thousand of the Roman Citizens he carefully preserv'd those that were his devoted Slaves The same Author adds that the same person had no respect to the Quality of the Crimes but that he pardoned all that favour'd his proceedings or whom he hop'd to gain to his party and punished with Death the slightest Offences of those that were not byâ—ss'd by his Interests Such was the Disposition of these Victors and Emperors sometimes Mild sometimes Cruel and sometimes both together employing both their Vertues and their Vices and making use of whatever may be serviceable to increase their Empires The Clemency of Nero at his first advancement to the Empire was the effect of a refin'd and singular Policy For he knew so exactly how to restrain and conceal the savage Barbarity of his Natural Disposition and to appear soft and good natur'd that during the first five years of his Reign his Subjects could not but applaud his Lenity and Indulgence while he deservedly Glory'd that in all that time he had not shed one drop of Blood through the whole extent of his Empire Domitian imitated Him in his Clemency to the end that like him he might afterwards fly out into all manner of Cruelty In a word the Clemency of these two Tyrants was feign'd and concerted artificial and deceitful And we say that it was a sly trick like that of some Beasts that suffer people to come near and handle 'em that they may the more easily devour the people so deluded within their reach The good Humour of Princes is frequently the cause of their Clemency whether that good Humour proceed from the Disposition of their Bodies or from some secret satisfaction of their desires and passions For as often as we are pleased our selves we have an Inclination to please others and to grant 'em what they desire and what they earnestly request When Clemency is too frequent and customary with a Prince it is so