and make him Colleague of the Empire and partaker of the authority of Tribune which was authority equall to his owne for the present and then to cause the armies to yeeld him their respect and acknowledge him for their next Lord. These fauours Liuia had beene long solliciting for by insinuation detraction deceit and whatsoeuer Art else is requisite to the supplanting of a Riuall in a Princes affectioÌ„ But now the way was so cleere by reason of the Emperours age fit to be wrought on and the rudenesse of Agrippa that shee durst openly moue Augustus to dis-inherit his owne issue and preferre hers But the fauour that Liuia shewed to Augustus children besides the suspition of causing the death of two of them was cleane contrary Nam senem Augustum adeo deuinxerat vti nepotem vnicum Agrippam Posthumum in Insulam Planasiam proijceret For she had so tyed vnto her Augustus who was now an old man that hee confined his onely Grand-sonne Agrippa Posthumus into the Iland Planasia I haue not found so great a defect in Augustê° his iudgemeÌ„t in al his former actions as in this so farre to follow her will as to banish and confine his owne bloud for the aduancement of hers But as Tacitus saith hee was now growne old and so the weakenesse that accompanieth old age may excuse that fault which in his younger and more mature iudgement peraduenture hee would neuer haue committed It was hard for him being now in yeeres to want the comfort of his Wife to liue with her and not to haue her pleased intolerable and against the dignity of an Emperour and to extinguish her ambition impossible So that if he had seene her drifts vnlesse they had broken out into some violent actions hee must in a manner haue beene forced to dissemble it For it is contrary to the dignitie of a Prince to take notice of that fault which he is not able to amend But hee saw them not for what cannot the craft of some wiues through opportunitie continuall flatterie and arguments framed with all the Art that can be vsed worke vpon the weake iudgement of an old man The place of Agrippa's exile being a small and vninhabited Iland where hee was rather imprisoned then banished was in a manner a sure argument that hee should not long out-liue his Grandfather for as the feare of Augustus kept him now aliue so the feare of his owne Title would make Tiberius neuer let him escape out of his fingers Rudem sane bonarum artium robore corporis stolidè ferocem nullius tamen flagitij CompertuÌ„ Ignorant to say the truth of good Arts and bearing himselfe foolishly fierce of his strength of body but not detected of any crime These are the causes for which Agrippa was put by the right of his succession and wanted the respect which was otherwise due vnto his birth Hee had not good education That vvas the summe of all his faults And in a State which might freely elect their Prince the same had beene a iust cause to passe by him For it is a great misfortune to a people to come vnder the gouernment of such a one as knowes not how to gouerne himselfe For where it is said hee was vnfurnished of good Arts it is not ment of letters though that also be good in a Prince and of ornaments the chiefe for hee may want these rather then iudgement valour or goodnesse of nature But the Art that hee is principally taxed to want seemeth to haue beene the Art of conforming to times places and persons and consisteth much in a temperate conuersation and ability vpon iust cause to containe and dissemble his passions and purposes and this was then thought the chiefe Art of gouernment And whereas he is said to be vndetected of any crime that made not much for the matter in hand for though he might proue no ill man hee might bee neuerthelesse an ill gouernour But Agrippa's defects were not the sole cause of his dis-inheriting though they were the sole iustification of it when it was done The hope of succession notwithstanding the care of the Emperour being reduced by the Art of Liuia to one only man Augustus againe takes order for the bringing in of one more At hercule Germanicum Druso ortuÌ„ octo apud RhenuÌ„ legionibus imposuit adscirique per adoptionem à Tiberio iussit quamquam esset in domo Tiberij Filius iuuenis sed quo pluribus munimentis insisteret But yet hee made Germanicus the sonne of Drusus Commander of eight Legions vpon the Rhine and commanded Tiberius to adopt him although Tiberius had a young sonne of his own but this he did to haue the more supports Augustus is still of this iudgement that the succession ought not to depend on the life of one man and therefore wil haue more props to establish it But as the aduancing of Tiberius was thought to bee the ruine of Caius and Lucius so now the making of Tiberius to adopt Germanicus might haue proued the ruine of Tiberius if the Ambition of Germanicus had beene answerable to his power For Augustus put eight Legions into his hand the which afterwards would not only haue beene ready to haue giuen him the Empire but also went about to put it vpon him by force Therefore if a Prince raise many to the hope of reigning he ought to prouide against the emulation ambition and mutuall iealousies that ordinarily arise thereof For else he shall hardly bring any of them to the fruition or if one then all the rest to vntimely ends Augustus here gaue Liuia indeed no occasion to worke against this last choise of his being one of her owne Grand-children but yet to command Tiberius who had a sonne of his owne to adopt another must needs breed a hart-burning in him because he knew by himselfe how much rather men desire to possesse then expect such authoritie And fearing therefore that Germanicus might beare the same minde he afterwards as is thought tooke a course to bring him to his end wherby may be perceiued in what danger an honest man standeth being neere vnto one that is ambitious either before or behinde him whose nature is to destroy before him out of hope and behinde him out of feare After that Augustus had mastered quieted taken order for the succession of the Empire the Author sheweth next the state of the present times And first for matter of warres abroad Bellum ea tempestate nulluÌ„ nisi aduersus Germanos supererat abolendae magis infamiae ob amissum cum Quinctilio Varo exercitum quam cupiditate proferendi Imperij aut dignum ob praemium There remained at that time no warre sauing against the Germans and that rather to wipe off the disgrace for the losse of the Army with Quintilius Varus then out of any desire to enlarge the Empire or hope of worthy recompence Warres are necessary onely where they are iust and iust onely in case of defence First
against those meanes the which God hath appointed for the preseruation of life but I esteeme them only as helps and not causes of continuance All men in this life be subordinately gouerned we are naturally bodies and liue not by miracle but sustentation so that it is as ill to auoid those helpes as to trust to them It is a strange but vulgar error for men to say counsell or temper would haue preuented such a mans death might they not consider the seuerall sudden and strange accidents that leade to this end that there bee not more men then wayes that conduct to this condition Children die before Parents strong before weake sound before sickly which as often happen by small vnobserued chances as great diseases as a man goes well to bed and is smothered before morning is well at the beginning of a meale and dead before the end now in a serious discourse and dead in the midst of a word He that 's a friend to day proues a murtherer to morrow a pillow may stifle smoke may suffocate a Fly may choke This if it were to be illustrated by examples would plainely shew that there is no action nor instrument so small or vnobserued that is not master of our life Therefore to esteeme life aboue the price or to feare death beyond the rate be alike euill No man can bee in loue with this world that is not in some doubt of the next He that respects life expects little beyond death But then it may be demanded Are those the best men that be most weary of this life and therefore hasten death with their owne hands Certainely no. For euery act in that kinde shewes that it was not in respect they hated to liue but because of want feare punishment ignominie and diuers other causes that these examples do dayly publish and are notoriously knowne Man is created by God therefore not to be his own executioner but to wait for the time and expect the houre of his Call A mans Peregrination in this life should be employed but as a harbinger for Death nay rather life for whilst we liue we die but liue not till death Yet good men may in a sort religiously feare death in respect of the cause of it For the wages of sinne is death In respect of not knowing the place of our being after death wee our selues being altogether vnmeriting these and the like considerations may iustly make death seeme terrible But to goe on How can a man think himselfe happy in this world without the expectatiō of a better If a man enioy that his heart can wish if hee know not want haue plenty in abundance these things may sometimes make him glory in himselfe and in a kinde of scornefull pitie to commiserate those that be below him yet the consideration of Death and the little while hee hath to enioy these temporary happinesses turnes all his pleasures into melancholy his sweetnesse to gall This is the happiest condition that the happiest man can haue that thinkes there is no happinesse beyond this life But if you view other men and see what cares what hazzards what iealousies what sicknesse and what miseries they endure in all kindes onely to preserue and please themselues in this short troublesome dangerous suspitious and wearisome life you would think them rather dreames then substances fictions then men But so liue as neither the pleasures of this world may possesse nor the miseries confound you Boast of nothing in your selfe but that you are a liuely representation or Image of your Creator which you deforme if you look to earth or those things which bee below The benefits which God hath heere bestowed vpon you vse according to his direction but not contrarie to his command and feare not but welcome death as beeing the end of your vnhappinesse and beginning of your ioy Many men without the knowledge of Religion haue excellently expressed their contempt of Death but that may bee reduced some of these causes peraduenture they had a kinde of vncertaine opinion that some greater happinesse followed then accompanied this life or in respect of the dayly examples of their mortalitie custome extinguished feare or lastly to perpetuate their memories or publish their fame to succeeding ages haue for the liberation of their Country or Friends or Honour voluntarily exposed themselues to a certaine and present death There be few lingring diseases or sudden paines that be not more sensible and painfull then Death and the recouerie frō them is but as a short reprieue Therefore I see little reason why a man that liues wel should feare death much more then sicknesse Of a Country Life TO write of a Country Life in what respects it is necessary or vnfit for all degrees of men would too much lengthen this part in the resolution of sundry questions which I now doe purposely auoid I onely intending to write in the praise or discommendation of it so farre as it hath relation to men of great qualitie and estates So that in this description I banish all that may referre to any other kinde and rankes of men either for their vse or necessity of liuing in the Country This kinde of life hath beene more familiar with vs then other Nations so that we haue in a kinde appropriated it to our selues more Southernly people as rarely vsing the country for retirement or variety or ayre as our Country Nobility and Gentry were anciently vpon extraordinarie businesses driuen to the towne But different people haue seuerall formes of liuing and behauiour that which is necessarie in one place is ridiculous and pernicious in another In these cases therefore wee must not guide our selues by precedent It is as easie to introduce one common language and reuerse the confusion of tongues as to paralell all men in one kinde and fashion of life Rigidly to keepe vnseemly customes because we receiue them from antiquity and ancestors no man will defend Time as it hath a qualitie in some cases to degeneratè and corrupt so in others it hath to clense but to alter so good a custome as this whereof we haue had so long experience and benefit vpon pretence only of imitation appeares in my iudgement to be altogether void of reason And yet this taking it for a generall question I will at this time neither dispute nor resolue either by the numerousnesse of ancient precedents and example or force of reason and argument onely as the case stands with vs in the particular conclude That it is neither good nor safe to innouate or alter old and approued customes But as in the choyce of any indifferent action mens affections and fancies predominate and gouerne they haue equall power and worke the same effect in the election either of this or any other kinde of life but what reasons in this should induce vs either to the one or other that which fals accidētally by the way passing I will touch By a Country Life I do
nature vnapt to bend And againe in the proscriptions these onely were they that were aymed at whereas the lesse violent aduersaries found safety in contempt The Proscription here spoken of being that of the Triumviri where the heads of the factions ioyning abandoned and as it were sacrificed their old friends to this new friendship it could not be that almost any stout and dangerous man of what faction so euer should bee left aliue And it may bee it was no lesse aduantageous to the designes of Augustus that some of his own faction were slaine then was the slaughter of those that tooke part with Anthony and Lepidus For they might haue expected for the requitall of their seruice to haue been paid with participation of his authority which hee might not suffer or else haue growne auerse and haue plucked him downe though they had with his fal crushed themselues to death But Augustus was now rid of those stubborne companions Caeteri nobilium quanto quis seruitio promptior opibus et honoribus extollerentur ac nouis ex rebus aucti tuta et praesentia quam vetera periculosa mallent The rest of the Nobility as any one of them was most ready to serue so hee was exalted to wealth and honour and being enriched by the change liked rather the present State of things and that which was safe then the former and that which was dangerous It is both iustice and good policy to reward with preferments those that yeeld their obedience readily and willingly for it stirreth emulation in men to exceed each other in diligence And on the contrary to heape benefits on the sullen and auerse out of hope to win their affection is vniust and preiudiciall For first they shall lose one benefit after another through vaine hope of winning them and not losing the thanks of their first benefit and then also others will learne and thinke it wisdome to bee auerse and stubborne by their example Also those that were rewarded for their seruice must needs striue to maintaine the present State and helpe to keepe off the Ciuill warres For times of tranquillity bee alwayes best for the rich men In warres and trouble they pay for all and in desolation their losse is greatest For Ciuill warre is commodious for none but desperate vnthrifts that they may cut their Creditors throats without feare of the gallowes men against whom the Law and the sword of Iustice maketh a fearfull warre in time of peace But the rich and such as were in loue with titles of honour found more ease and contentment heere then they could expect in the Ciuill warre and did accept the present with securitie rather then striue for the old with danger Neque Prouinciae illum statum rerum abnuebant suspecto Senatus populique imperio ob certamina potentum auaritiam magistratuū inualido legum auxilio quae vi ambitu postremo pecunia turbabantur Neither did the prouinces dislike this state of things for they mistrusted the gouernment of the Senate and people because of the contention of great men and couetousnesse of the Magistrates for the ayd of the Lawes was weake being infringed by force canuassing and lastly by mony The Romane State did not consist in the magnitude of that one City of Rome or in the extent of Italy alone but in the multitude greatnesse of Prouinces that were subiect vnto it And therefore it much concerned the surety of Augustus his gouernment to haue also them content with this alteration which they were for two causes First a Popular State if the great men growe once too mighty for the lawes is to the Prouinces not as one but many tyrants so that not knowing to which faction to adhere they procure the enimitie alwayes of some and sometimes of all and become subiect to the rapine of whosoeuer first seazeth it and to be the prize of their contention At home they are commanded by contrary factions contrary Acts so that they can neither obey nor disobey without offence but are hurried and haled somtimes to this faction and sometimes to that Those that were deputed to do iustice amongst them must not administer the same according to the Law but according to the humour of him whom himselfe followeth which may bee now one and anon fortune changing another At Rome if they sued for any thing though they could all bee content their sute should passe for the matter it selfe yet the furtherance that one faction should giue it would stirre vp contradiction in the other and so crosse it Therefore it is better for a Prouince to bee subiect to one though an euill master then to a potent if factious Republique Next they found couetousnesse in the Magistrates For when they expected that hauing truth and equity on their sides their causes and sutes should not goe amisse they found contrarily that by that their iudgements were not ballanced but that they distributed iustice rather by weight then measure That purse that was heauiest that bribe that was greatest carried the cause Iustice was not seene but felt a good bribe was their best Aduocate Such in those times were the Magistrates and Iudges Euery thing was carried by might ambition and corruption He that was not ambitious was neglected and he that was not corrupt was esteemed vndiscreete In this time the Prouinces would haue beene cōtent with a Monarchy or tyrannie rather then to be troubled with so different and ill humours of diuers men But there may also be couetousnesse in Magistrates when one hath the soueraignty being a fault of the person and not of the forme of the gouernment Indeed there may bee bribing in such a State but in a factious and diuided Commonwealth it cannot bee otherwise For where the State is vnited the Magistrates will haue some respect vnto that but being diuided euery one is for himselfe and must looke to strengthen and enrich himselfe by any meanes how ill soeuer For faction hath no strength but from Iniustice and Rapine One remedy there is for such an inconuenience and that is if the Lawes bee strengthned with authoritie which also wanted in the former times For force friends and mony ouerthrew their validitie For what Law was so strong that the force of Cinna Sylla Marius Iulius Caesar and others in their times could not haue broken thorow Nothing is more prouerbiall then that Lawes are like Spiders webs onely to hold the smaller Flyes Then fauour and friendship made way euen for the weake men to breake thorow And lastly money gaue the easiest passage of all Wherefore the Prouinces conceiuing better hope of the rule of Augustus could not dislike but were rather glad of the alteration Thus farre the acquist and assurance of the Monarchy to Augustus now his wayes to perpetuate the same and deriue it to posterity are to be considered Augustus subsidia dominationi Claudiū Marcellum sororis filium admodum adolescentem Pontificatu curuli Aedilitate extulit
their own worth consequently often changeth their manners into the worse but especially that it encreaseth their pride insolence As for his educatioÌ„ in a house of souerainty that might put into the heads of these censuring subiects thus much for certainly they liked neuer a iot the better of Tiberiê° for hauing bin brought vp in so high a Schoole of soueraignty as the house of Augustus First that what seeds soeuer of haughtines and pride were in him hereditary and which he possessed by vertue of his bloud were now also through long custome sprung vp wanted but the season of reigning to bring forth their vnpleasant fruit Secondly that hauing by experience vnder so learned a master in the Art of gouernment beene taught how to hold them vnder as much as himselfe should please they could not looke for any remissenesse to proceede from want of knowledge how to keepe them low and consequently were sure to find his gouernment euery way vneasie Neijs quideÌ„ annis quibê° Rhodi specie secessê° exulem egerit aliquid quam iram simulationem secretas libidines meditatum Neither those yeeres that he liued vnder colour of retiremeÌ„t in exile at Rhodes did he meditate anything but wrath dissimulation secret lust It is reported of Tiberius that at the first hee trauelled voluntarily to Rhodes but being there he was coÌ„manded to stay Howsoeuer it was he obtained the fairename of retirement to couer the ignominy of banishment A man would perhaps thinke that aduersity should rather quench or at least asswage those passions which haue their life especially from great prosperity as wrath dissimulation lust And so it doth when the aduersitie is so great that the hope is lost of reducing their meditations into act But otherwise it worketh a cleane contrary effect For wheras anger commonly dyeth where reuenge is despaired of dissembling is laid aside where the labor of it is vain imaginations of lust diminish where they can neuer be accoÌ„plished wheÌ„ aduersity is but such as they expect to ouercom it often falleth out that the hope which nourisheth such imaginations is enflamed thereby and men please their vicious fancies for the present with the coÌ„ceit of what they wil execute with effect hereafter when they shal haue the power This was the case of Tiberius and a cause of feare ceÌ„sure in those that were to liue in subiectioÌ„ vnder him Accedere matrem muliebri impotentiâ seruienduÌ„ foeminae duobê° insuper adolescentibê° qui Remp. interim premant quandoque distrahant That besides this there was his mother offeminine impotence that they were to serue a woman two yong men that would for the present oppresse the Commonwealth might hereafter rend it Next to the person of Tiberius they considered in him those of his Family that would also looke for seruice and obedience at their hands namely his Mother two sonnes Germanicus by adoption and his owne naturall sonne and thought them no small grieuance to the Commonwealth For it is a hard matter to serue and please well one Master but to please two or more when there is or may be betwixt them competition or iealousie leauing out that one of them is a woman is altogether impossible The cause hereof is not because the diligence and dexterity of a man cannot suffice for the quantity of seruice but because the quality of it will not permit for the seruice that the one will expect from you is most times this That you displease the other And this proceeds from the emulatioÌ„ of those that are in the way to autority that ofteÌ„ labor not so much to outrunne each other in the course as they do to trip vp one anothers heeles And the same emulation when they once draw neere the races end makes them snatch at the prize and fall to violence and warre and to distract and draw the CoÌ„monwealth into faction and sedition FINIS A DISCOVRSE OF ROME A DISCOVRSE OF ROME IN the sight of any place there bee two especial Obiects Antiquitie and Greatnesse both which none can sooner challenge then Rome in the very beginning noted for Soueraignty The continuance of which in such diuersity of gouernments as Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Emperors cannot but shew a diuine power for otherwise so many changes might in all likelihood haue bred confusion and so consequently suppressed their rising to so great an Empire which as the last so it may be truely stiled the greatest that yet the world euer knew or heard of obtained onely by the valour of this one Citie no Commander and for a long time no Souldier that came not out from thence So that it may bee said the people of this one place made themselues masters of the rest Wherevpon they might haue iust cause to esteeme Orbem in vrbe the world confined in their Citie In the height of whose Imperiality which was in Augustus raigne Christ came into the world This as then the chiefe Commandresse of the whole was the place where holinesse and religion aymed to haue their principall plantation where during the time of the infidelity of the Emperours till Constantine the great who was the first that maintained the faith it is infinite to comprehend the tyrannizing ouer Christians the martyrdomes they endured so many that it is hard to name any who sealed not his faith with his bloud But now Constantine was conuerted to see the ill effects so good a cause produced cannot but breed admiration For the Ambition of the Bishops of Rome made this their first step to greatnesse and subuersion of the Empire How grounded vpon this donation I cannot imagine nor I thinke they yet well defend but this was the true Originall by which in succession of time the Empire was translated The zeale of this and some succeeding Emperours was so well taken hold of by the Prelates of Rome that by degrees they assumed more authority to themselues then was due the other in a manner before they were aware losing all at Rome but the title From which pretended power the Popes now take to themselues supremacie in all causes through all Kingdomes in the world and those which were before their superiours to bee as it were subiect and created by them that were their creatures Which shewes a great contrariety to the pretended arguments of Romanists for superiority and rather may bee returned vpon them that this their greatnesse hath more risen by encroachment then right Why therefore Princes haue beene so blinded with their pretences for greatnesse I cannot tell wherevnto to attribute it except to the fate of this place that hath euer beene or aymed to bee the Mistris of the world First by their wisedome and power and then vnder colour of Religion and Saint Peters Keyes And now to the description of Rome as I saw it In which I will neither goe beyond mine owne knowledge and fly to the reports of others nor yet so strictly
Apothegmes yet in all other worth and desert Hee is so puft vp that to men in estate beneath him for feare of contempt which howsoeuer he cannot auoid hee will neuer speake familiarly seldome any way as if there could be no greater disparagement then not to obserue the distance which he holds to bee betwixt them Which being to the meanest sort vnpleasing causeth him to want not only the respect hee looketh for as due but euen that if any bee so that is due indeed Hee commonly commiserates his equalls for their weakenesses and loues to teach rather then learne the thing hee knowes not Giue him but such a handle and hee will bee sure to hold it till one be weary and will instruct with such confidence that though he produce no reason a man must beleeue him on his word or hee 'le be angry If hee write or speake a discourse of any length he cannot forbeare but hee must make knowne somewhat of his owne custome or humor or life With I was this or did this or like this or thus am or was wont belike supposing that all men would be glad to make him the patterne of their life and actions As hee is distastfull to so he distasteth all men for according to his owne estimate he must needs hold himselfe vnder-valued euen by those that prize him aboue his iust worth then which nothing more vexes him For though when himselfe detracts he thinkes the detracted ought to beare it as a righteous censure yet if another be but sleepy in his discourse or when hee talkes be taken from him with any businesse hee is presently grieued thereat as a high neglect If hee reade anothers writings hee findes somewhat to correct but nothing to prayse and so in their actions Himselfe being in his owne Iudgement beyond censure If hee meete with one of his owne nature there 's presently warres and it will appeare that he detests himselfe in the person of his enemy more then another can do him in his owne But meeting with modesty hee deuoures it makes it his prey and nourisheth his Arrogance with such food for whatsoeuer the one shall in modesty lay from himselfe the other will take and yet thinke too little But it is best when hee encounters a cunning Flatterer for such a one will spurre him on and blow his folly vp to madnesse and set him out to the laughter of them hee most contemned Or as the Foxe serued the Crow make him to let fall the meate from his mouth with attempting to sing Or put him forward to seeke an emploiment which hee not knowing his owne strength will bee alwayes ready to take vpon him and so ruine him For such a one will not feare to vndergoe what hee does not vnderstand All which be the fittest traps for this Vice Some are Arrogant as one may say indirectly and will extoll such a man in such a faculty as the hearers allow him to be better in then the party so by him praised But it comes all to one purpose for the face of Arrogance howsoeuer painted is not without deformitie Yet I would not wish a man to bee so much affrighted with it as to start to the contrary vice Pusillanimitie For a man should not derogate from himselfe there beeing too many ready enough for that office at least to beleeue him as one that best knowes what hee most wants And certainely hee that doth Sentence himselfe hath no colour for an Appeale nor person to appeale vnto vnlesse it be from his words to his deedes which need then to bee very remarkeable Howsoeuer he must acknowledge it to bee great folly to haue denyed that ability in himselfe which hee desires to haue made knowne But such men bee seldome found that say not of themselues full as much as they can doe Of Ambition IT is an vnlimited desire neuer satisfied A continuall proiecting without stop An vndefatigable search of those things wee wish for though want not No contentment in a present state though fortunate and prosperous An Ambitious man is in a kinde of continuall perambulation or perpetuall courting of aduancement not respecting the meanes Bribery Flattery Humility Popularitie seeming Seueritie or Austerenesse Any of which so they conferre and conduce to his owne ends whether for Titles or Preeminence or Estimation shall bee disguises good enough for the present occasion The Scripture saith Quise exaltat humiliabitur Whosoeuer exalts himselfe shall be humbled Not hee that is worthily exalted by others and whose merits bee the cause of his rising but he that will Ambitiously exalt himselfe hee shall bee abased That disposition which is naturally infected with this Leprosie which is a spreading disease can not foresee the ineuitable dangers and euents that be incident therevnto Phauorinus speaking of these kinde of men said they were eyther ridiculous or hatefull or miserable Aspiring ambitiously to places beyond their worth makes them scorned obtaining hated and missing of their hopes wretched If the current of their Ambition bee once stopped like an impetuous torrent it beates and breakes the bankes growes dangerous and many times causes inundations Therfore Princes respects if they be fixed vpon such natures are tyed not only to a continuation but an addition of fauors for the least surcease makes declination in seruice So that these dispositions should bee auoyded if discouered sequestred from imployment as pernicious and incendiary Ambition was the first temptation by which the Diuell wrought vpon our first Parents to encite them to a desire of knowing good and euill equally with God It is a strange insinuating affection for whosoeuer is once therewith possessed neither Reason nor Impediment nor Impossibility can stay his extrauagant desires For though Nabuchadnezzar enioyed all greatnesse possibly incident to man yet his Ambition stopt not he would be worshipped as God It was not Vertue nor Reason that counselled Sylla and Marius Pompey and Caesar to enterprise their domestique warres but a disordinate loue of flattering Ambition being in their owne opinions not great enough which caused the ruine both of themselues Countrey And as this was theirs so it is the generall and principall motiue to all seditious and trecherous attempts But these men whilst they tosse all bee themselues most shaken and inwardly feele the torture of this pernicious fury wherewith they haue offended others Therefore it is Apocrypha to thinke that any man can become truely happy by the way of an other mans misfortune if for his owne particular hee be the contriuer When Ambition seazeth vpon a man peraduenture his first ayme will be but vpon designes within his reach or fit for his capacity which if obtained is the way to conduct him to higher cogitations and so by degrees from step to step the more Ambition is fed the more appetite it hath It is in a kinde the Ape or imitater of Charity saith a Father for Charity endures all things for Eternall Ambition for Transitory happinesse That
succeedes so worthy an endeuour And why it is not more commonly practised I rather impute it to the vnwillingnesse of interposers thē a common peruersnesse in the parties interessed to submit their differences to an vpright and vnpartiall neighbour which his own actions if conuersant in this kinde will sufficiently assure and I see not such difficulty but it may bee possible this way to giue satisfaction to both sides But if eithers mistrust cause them not to yeeld to so easie and quicke an end the merit of his endeuours and good will cannot bee taken away And if it fall out that the busines be of such a nature as may iudicially afterwards come before him let not the parties ielousie before in referring it wrest or wry his iudgement in the least degree to preiudice I will enlarge this no farther these particulars last touched being onely in the power of men of degree and authority and heere ends my first enquiry how a Noble man in the Country ought to carry and gouerne himselfe I now descend to take a short view of the more peculiar delights and healthfull conueniences incident to them that liue in the Country then in any other place All field delights as Hunting Riding and Hawking commendable if vsed with moderation are properly belonging onely to this life and certainly they greatly inable and actiue mens bodies making the difficulty of enduring labour and other accidents that in times of warre a man may be subiect vnto more easie then any other preparatiue or imitable practice that I know The vnseasonablenesse of the times early and late and so the vncertainty of the weather heates and cold and wet of dyet little or none or course and at houres vnlimited and not set assured also ready in his horsmanship by so often occasions of practice which is no small aduantage So paralelling these with the chances and necessities in time of seruice the often vsing of these exercises will make the labour lesse difficill and hard when necessity of employment shall require it and the body more agill and healthfull free from those infirmities that rest idlenesse and full feeding doe bring men into This is the good that followes the vse of these exercises setting aside the delight which drawes most men to follow and entertaine them which surely though not alwayes discerned by wise men yet may by good reason be proued to be delightfull If I should breathe the country ayre and digresse into the commendatiō of it in respect of health from that cause I thinke the whole Colledge of Physicions would subscribe to my opinion for without doubt it is freed from those noysome vapours and consequently infections which thronged and populous Cities doe produce And this dayly practice makes manifest for in those Countries where towne-dwelling is most frequented yet euery Summer the better sort retyre onely for the freedome and libertie of the ayre to their Palaces and Villaes as they terme them which shewes there is a necessarie and impulsiue cause for their health that driues them thither And heere with vs those that be most in loue with the towne in Summer euer fly into the Country and the generall reason of it must onely be to change a bad ayre for a good wherein though the Country doth alwayes predominate yet in Summer the ayre of the Citie is so farre from good that it is neither tolerable nor indifferent And being now in a meditation of health to say truth the helpes and furtherances of it are much more appropriate to a Country then a Citie life which I will but touch without robbing the Poets at this time by falling into the praise and pleasures of Gardens Riuers Fountaines Woods places of privacy and retyrednesse or the like of most of which though all Cities haue a shew yet it is but forced and counterfet in respect of them in the country which is the proper element for those delights But to return to my consideration of health the Country is the place most free frō that easy sedentary life which men in Cities be forced to entertaine there all exercises for the health and agilitie of the body bee in dayly practice as Riding Shooting Bowling Walking Hunting Hawking and the like which though some towne-liuers sometimes make hard shift to practise yet there there be so many other diuersions that there are very few liuing in townes who can either take or finde opportunities for that purpose which must needs greatly decay and disable both a mans health and strength Of this argument much more might bee said but I purposely auoid it and indeede would haue left it out but that I was forced to it in completing the description for feare of falling from my Title But I now hasten to other obseruations and first of those aduantages and benefits a man gaines by liuing in the country A man in the Country is retired out of the crowd and noise of factions and emulations dependencies and neck-breaking of one another which Court and Town do too often yeeld and though a man in his owne inclination bee free from and not busie yet if present can hardly be a neuter or if he be one will yet scarcely be thought so and suspected of either side for affection to the other But take him allowed for a neutrall hee then commonly is so farre from the affection of the sides that they both turne his enemies because he is neither of their friends These straites by being away and by liuing in the Country men often escape from Next he is free from those tempestuous winds of businesses and multiplicitie of vexations wherewith many haue beene tossed the calme of the Country being void of those stormes and troubled waues that commonly accompanie a towne or Court life where mens desires and ambitions so abound that they bee alwayes in hopes and proiections wherein many times they doe so outstraine ouer-graspe that in reaching too high they ouerreach themselues in seeking a new fortune lose their old and so conuert their substance into pretensions their certainty into nothing Againe no man can expect to liue in the same or equall reputation out of the Country and his owne dwelling In Towne or Court he is as it were in a throng wanting elbow roome there bee so many his equals and superiors aboue him both in place and merit that he is reckoned for number not weight one of the troope rather for shew then vse Those Nations therefore who affect this place out of vaine-glory and pride to shew themselues and get opinion if they compare their estimation heere with their reputation at home they will finde cause quickly to change their minde and place to goe thither where they shall be sure to finde that which they so affectedly desire and that is to their owne Country aske but Northerne men or Welshmen they will sweare to you this is true Besides I beleeue if it went to voices most would opine that the stabilitie
tye my selfe to a bare description but that I may vpon the occasions of those particulars I saw set downe my obseruations and the conceits I then had which consist first in the situation Secondly the Ethnicke Antiquities Thirdly the Christian Monuments Fourthly the moderne Buildings Gardens Fountaines c. Fiftly the Colledges Churches and Religious Houses Sixtly the present strength of the City and Pope with the description of his and the Cardinalls Magnificence And lastly the safety and danger for an English man to trauell to Rome If you obserue the situation it stands in a place that could neither afford pleasure nor profit to the dwellers other then that which is forced Though not so seated as it may bee said to stand in the Appenine yet amongst those Mountaines All the Country about is so barren except some little neere the City which is by labour brought to fertility that the wildest Forrest of England may be esteemed good ground in respect of this In some places heereabout I saw where corne had beene gathered but by the stubble might perceiue had beene so thinne that a man would thinke one stalke had beene afraid of another The wayes thereabout both comming downe the Appenine to Rome and from thence toward Naples so vnpassable for a Coach that a man may think himselfe well blest if hee breake not his necke from horsebacke The sight of this so miserable a Country wonderfully distracted my thoughts to thinke how the inhabitants of so wilde a place could euer come to such a greatnesse And from thence proceeded these cogitations First that ease and delicacie of life is the bane of noble actions and wise counsels A man that is delighted and whose affections bee taken with the place wherein hee liues is most commonly vnapt or vnwilling to bee drawne to any change and so consequently vnfit for any enterprise that may either aduance his owne honour or the good of his Country Any actions that reach farther then their owne priuate contents in their estimation bee needlesse and vnprofitable Labours And it hath many times happened that whilst men liue in this Lethargie that Countries Cities their owne fortunes and all haue beene lost through their negligence Againe a life of pleasure doth so besot and benumme the sences and so farre effeminate the spirits of men that though they bee naturally prone to an actiue life yet custome hath brought them to such a habit that they apprehend not any thing farther then the compasse of their owne affections thinke nothing beyond their present enioyments A strange Epicurean opinion that men who were borne to haue dominion ouer all creatures should be now subiect to them and vnder their rule A meere inuersion of the prime ordinance From this consideration I declined to the contrary that a place of hardnesse and a life exercised in actions of valour and not idlenesse hath euer produced the brauest men arriued at the greatest fortune Let but the Romane Story be a mirrour to you in this kind you shall hardly I thinke finde in the first times any enterprize of great worth that the cause of it might not be drawne from this head For their first pouerty being men brought to this place by fortune and rather by forced then desired election not knowing where else to settle in despight of want their ambitions put them forward first to encroach vpon their neighbours and then as their fortunes were enlarged to goe on in actions of greater consequence and more difficulty Being a race of such men as could not confine and limit themselues to one place but successiuely from father to sonne you shall scarce reade of any that was not either a man of action or direction though some peraduenture naturally vnapt for the one yet exquisite in the other and abilitie to giue counsell is at least not inferiour to the former To prepare a man fit for both nothing so much preuailes as a hard and weary life such an agitation as will not permit idlenesse nor the minde to settle too much vpon priuate ends which being so could neuer be aptly applyed for Publique Besides a continuall working of the mind which in an actiue spirit will still grow and labour in production of good effects if it should be suffered to rest would soone degenerate For if a man giue ouer himselfe to an easefull life the sharpnesse of his sences will be dulled and grow retyred applying himselfe to his owne contents and then can neuer haue sufficiency nor will to preuaile for the publique once being confined to his own particular interest and looking no further Many men are naturally giuen to such a life and some by accident fall into it but certainly their memory dyes with them for no man is borne onely for himselfe This is so well knowne that I will not seeke farther to illustrate it A third consideration that came into my minde at the sight of the place was to wonder at a sort of men but either ignorant or malicious who from the spirit of detraction thinke to calumniate the valours and vertues of men in disgracing their Country for barrennesse for pouerty or the like These men if they had euer seene this place and known the story would neuer haue imagined this a good argument Cannot vertue and pouertie be together cannot an vnfruitfull Country yeeld men full of worthinesse and Valour a strange marke of an enuious disposition to taxe the mens vertues for the vnpleasantnesse of the soyle as if vertue and plenty could not bee seuered or that of necessity a hard Country must produce soft and ignoble spirits but if they would truely looke into themselues they could not choose but see a wonderfull imperfection and ignorance who iudge vertue by means and men by places If Noble and worthy Spirits had consisted in these outward respects the men of this place would haue beene wonderfull ignominious but you may plainely see by the example of them that a poore and hard life a desolate and almost vninhabitable place brought forth such men and they performed such actions as in this age we are most of vs so much degenerate we can hardly heare of without incredulitie So I wil leaue the place it selfe and speake of the Country about it Not farre distant from the Citie is the Mediterranean Sea and the principall Port now is Ciuita vecchia where since the Church hath had dominion the Nauy is very small and chiefely consists of Gallies But certainly this was a great helpe in the time of the ancient Romanes as well to encrease their dominion as to fortifie themselues against forraine inuasions for by this meanes men were more easily and with lesse charge transported to those parts of Africa and Greece where they made great conquests which otherwise could neuer haue been compassed and they themselues much strengthened against all enemies that could come from those parts seeing it a matter of great difficultie to surprize or take any place that hath so
giue rules to the good that they might know how to liue peaceably regularly one with another as to represse the audacity of those vnbridled spirits who in despight of discipline and reason doe thrust themselues into all kinds of outrage and disorder from which bad cause notwithstanding according to the old rule a good effect is produced Ex malis moribus bonae leges oriuntur But the particular introducements of Lawes arise either from a pressing necessity or a foreseeing and prouisionall carefulnes of those that make them these proceed from prouidence the other from some sence of euill The impulsiue causes in the making of prouisionall Lawes are either loue of their Coūtry or desire of glory or affectation of popularity or somtimes particular interest and priuat respect for it often happens that a priuate good may haue connexion with the publike And the sence of ill decaying either by the encrease of it or a seeming to bee destitute of remedy is the cause that where Lawes are once forced out of the sense of mischiefe inconuenience they be for the most part grieuous and immoderate as on the other side such as reason prouidence do produce are many times more specious then vsefull In the first take away the spur and sense of ill and it makes men in the constitution of Lawes to bee carelesse and vnwary and in the other if there bee not continued a strong and constant affection they commonly faint in the execution of them But in the meane time there is no doubt that there are certaine fountaines of naturall Iustice and equity out of which hath beene taken deriued that infinite variety of Lawes which seuerall people haue apted to themselues and as seuerall veines and currents of water haue seuerall qualities and tasts in respect of the nature of that ground and soyle thorow which they flow and run so these Lawes and the vertue of them which bee fetched frō an originall fountaine receiue a new kinde of application and tincture in respect of the scituation of the Country the genius and nature of the people the fashion and forme of publike actions diuers accidents of the time and sundry other occurrences I will not stand to repeat And in the making of Lawes wise men haue alwayes had these things in consideration First the Common-good and benefit for which they intend them and that requires that they should be both iust and profitable now no law can bee profitable nor yet iust which is made for priuat particular respects not for the publik good 2. The persons to whom they be to be applyed that for the executiō application of them they be such as may be possible to be obserued apt for the customs places time where when they be to be vsed 3. The present course of the State what Lawes there haue beene vsually receiued by what speciall ones it hath beene conserued and by what new ones it may be assured for one kinde of care is not fit for all places and Countreys But Lawes when they are once made ought very rarely to be chāged to which purpose the ancient position of wise men is not vnworthy the obseruing that nothing is to bee changed in the Lawes of a Common-wealth which hath a long time by these Lawes preserued it self in good state gouerment as Isiodor ' wel noteth after a Law is once made we ought not to iudge of it but according to it And yet in these two cases the alteration of Lawes may turne to the better 1. When by the changing of it the Law is made more perfect more cleere more positiue more profitable 2. When the condition of subiects gouernment is changed there of necessity the Law must vary according to the difference diuersity of the times and persons for change variatiō of Lawes are either by occasion of entertaining forraigne customes or some internall deficiences or excesses according to the alteration of time One of these is so far from innouation that it is altogether necessary but that is not introducing of Lawes by way of imitation of other people it argues a desire of change rather then any cause that is materiall But on the other side old and ancient customes in respect of their very antiquity doe induce a kinde of harshnesse and breed saciety for the wilfull retaining of a custome against the present reason of the time is altogether vnequall This is to be vnderstood of temporary Lawes made and applyed to new and seuerall accidents For the fundamentall lawes vpon which the fabricke of a common-wealth and people be grounded and built they in no case will admit innouation neither are the other sort to bee lightly altered but where the present custome of the time finde them impertinent and the State thinks them vnvseful To illustrate in the same times sometimes we see Lawes mutable fit to be so such as are made in time of warre peace doth extinguish and so on the contrary agreeing with Liuie speaking to this purpose Quae in pace latae sunt plerunque bellum abrogat quae in bello pax vt in nauis administratione alia in secunda alia in aduersa tempestate vsui sunt And although change of Lawes be sometimes necessary it ought notwithstanding to bee done with a great deale of caution but yet it must be confessed that time of all things is the greatest innouator and therefore wilfully to prescribe the continuance of an old Law in respect of antiquity the face of the world and affaires being changed is indeed an introducemēt of nouelty for the pressure of the vse of it vrging and setting it only forth with the grace of antiquity if notwithstanding it bee opposite or incongruous to the present times gouernment makes that old Law if practised to fall and bee conuerted into a new and vnreasonable custome Now for my iudgement concerning the vse of Lawes I thinke this that as the vse of much Physicke and diuers Physicions argue the aboundance of humours and diseases so the multiplicity number of Lawes be manifest signes of a diseased distempered Common-wealth And therefore to follow the similitude as in diseases new experiments be dangerous where those that be ancient and approued may serue so new Lawes bee needlesse when the maladies of the Republique may be cured by the old for it is a thing both vnequall and vniust to insnare the people with multitude of Lawes Law and Reason are twinnes the absence of one is the deformity of the other being in a kinde conuertibilia and inseparable That common reason we haue ingrafted inour natures is a Law directing what we are to doe forbidding the contrary according to Cicero Eadem ratio cum est in hominis mente confirmata confecta lex est For Law is nothing but reason dilated and applyed vpon seuerall occasions and accidents the comprehension of reason and Law as of publike enormities and necessities