Will free from that Sempiternall Motion imagined by the Fatist and so not permit Pravity or Wickedness to escape inculpable X. But what we here say of Fortune doth not in the least import that we ought to ascribe any Divinity thereunto not only as the Vulgar but those Philosophers also who accounting Fortune as some instable Cause though they do not conceive that she doth distribute to men any thing of Good or Evill that may conduce to an happy life do yet think that she doth give occasions of very considerable Goods and Evils All that our words of Fortune imply is only this that as many things are effected by Necessity and Counsell so also by Fortune and therefore that it is the Duty of a Wise man to arm and provide himself against Fortune XI Now seeing that whatever of Goodnesse or Malice there is in Human actions hath dependence upon no other foundation but only this that a man doth those Actions Knowingly and Willingly or Freely therefore is the Mind to be accustomed to this that it may know truly i. e. use Right Reason and Will truly i. e. that the Will be bent to that which is truly Good and averted from what is truly Evill Forasmuch as this Assuefaction doth beget that Disposition in the mind which we have defined Virtue to be as the Assuefaction of it to the Contrary doth beget that disposion which we may justly define Vice to be XII We insist not upon this that that is truly Good which produceth Pleasure as sincere so also without any pain trouble or repentance attending and ensuing thereupon and that truly Evill which produceth pain as sincere so also without any Pleasure or Allubescence to succeed upon it Only we touch upon both that we may discriminate either from what is onely Apparent and Dissembled such as that Good which creating present Pleasure introduceth future pain and trouble and that Evill which procuring pain or trouble in the present drawes on pleasure and content in the future CHAP. VIII Of the Virtues Generally FOrasmuch as Virtue is either Prudence it self or the very Dictamen of Right Reason as we accustom our minds to the constant exercise thereof or is at least regulated by and dependent upon Prudence or the Dictamen of Right Reason from thence it is manifest that to this Latter Kind belongs both that Virtue whereby a man stands affected toward himself and that whereby he is affected toward others since Prudence is that whereby a man is comparated and enabled to Govern not only himself but others also II. That Virtue which relates to Others is commonly called by the name Iustice and that which concerns only a mans-self is vulgarly Distinguished into two branches viz. Temperance and Fortitude But we use to comprehend both under the simple terme of Honesty as when we say that to do an act out of Virtue is no more nor lesse than to do Prudently Honestly Justly and this because they who live soberly and Continently are said to live honestly according to Decorum or as becomes them as they who behave themselves Magnanimously or Bravely are reputed to behave themselves honestly or Becomingly III. Hereupon we as others make Virtue Fourfold viz. Prudence Temperance Fortitude and Iustice. But so as that we oppose not Prudence so much to any affection as to Incogitancy Ignorance Foolishnesse unlesse it be by accident only as any perturbation doth eclipse Reason and make a man do imprudently nor Iustice so much to any Affection as to Malice whereby a man is inclined to Frauds unlesse by accident only in as much as Anger Hate Avarice or some other passion may cause a man to do unjustly aud Temperance we oppose to Cupidity and Fortitude to Fear IV. It appears from hence that what we formerly said viz. that it is sober and well ordered Reason which procures a pleasant or happy life aimed at this that Right Reason doth produce a pleasant or happy life by the means of those Vertues which it ingenerateth and maintaineth Likewise that what we subjoyned as the Reason thereof viz. that Reason doth investigate the true Causes why things are to be elected or Rejected or chaseth away such opinions as might occasion very great Perturbations of mind was intended only to teach that Right Reason is the very same with more Generall Prudence the Principle upon which we ground all our Elections and Avoydances and so a very great Good because the Virtues arising from that Reason or Prudence are able to appease and prevent all Perturbations and this by convincing that no man can live pleasantly or happily but he that lives Prudently Honestly Justly as è converso that to live Prudently Honestly Justly is to live pleasantly or happily V. By this you may perceive the Ground of our Assertion That Happiness and Virtue are Convertible or that the Virtues are Congenite and Essentiall to a happy life so as it is impossible to separate these from that For all other things as being caduce and mortall may be abstracted from germane and constant pleasure but Virtue alone being a perpetuall and immortall Good can never be separated from it VI. From these things we may further understand that all the Virtues are connected together and that by a twofold relation the First because all the other Virtues are conjoyned to and dependent upon their Princess Prudence as the members of the body are conjoyned to the Head or as the streams are conjoyned to the Fountain from which they flow the other because as well Prudence as all the others concurr and unite in the point of a happy life being that a happy life cannot consist without the Virtues nor the Virtues without a happy life VII However though the Virtues be all Connected thus together yet are not they therefore all Equall as some have conceived who contend that all Vices and Faults or Crimes are also Equall For a man may be comparated more to Justice than to Temperance and Temperance may be more perfect in one man than in another as may be exemplified in My self without envy be it spoken who have attained to so high a degree of sobriety that I make a sufficient meal usually for lesse then an half-penny and Metrodorus my Friend and Companion who cannot satisfie himself with altogether so course and spare a diet Besides experience assures that one man is Wiser than another and all that walk in the waies of Virtue have not the like Rewards alottetd to them nor all Delinquents the like Punishments Lastly we appeal to Common sense whether or no they are in the right who make all Virtues and all Vices Equall that he offends as highly who beats his servant without Cause as he who beats his Father that it is all one for to eate a Bean or ones Fathers Head VIII Others there are who condemn and bitterly inveigh against us for affirming that the End of all the Virtues is Pleasure as if we meant that kind
Fear into their Minds the Reason of which was not equally manifest to common heads with that of the punishments expressed and this chiefly by declaring that such who had killed a man by what means or Accident soever should remain Impure and Polluted till they had purged themselves of that blood by solemn Lustrations XIII For the Brutall part of the Soul or that wherein the Affections and Passions have their residence being by wholsom Laws as it were new moulded framed came at length to that Mansuetude and Gentlenesse which now adaies so much flourisheth in the World those Arts of Taming and Civilizing mens minds which were from the beginning invented and practised by those Sages who first ruled the rash multitude being applyed as Soveraign and effectuall Remedies against the violence of their Wild and furious Affections of which this is one chief act among the rest that men should not indiscriminately destroy each other CHAP. XXVIII Between whom Right and Instice is to be exercised THe premisses considered it may with good reason be enquired of us between whom aswell Right the violation of it which is Injury as Iustice and what is opposed unto it Injustice doth properly consist or is to be found and therefore we are to state and explicate the matter by a comparison betwixt Men and other Animals II. As therefore there is no Reason of Right or Injury or Just and Unjust betwixt Animals that could not make a common Agreement not to hurt nor be hurt by mutuall invasion so neither is there between those Nations which either would not or could not enter into a Common Pact and reciprocall Engagement not to hurt each other or to suffer hurt each from other III. For Just or Right the conservation whereof is Justice hath no being at all but in mutuall Society and so Justice is a Good of a Society insomuch as the effect of it is that every single person of the Society may live in security and voyd of that anxiety which the continuall Feare of harm doth create Whence it evidently followes that whatever Animals or whatever men either cannot or wil not make an Association among themselves upon the condition of mutuall safety must want that Good or be reciprocally obliged by no bond of Right or Justice in oder to their living securely and so to them there can remaine no other Reason of security but only this to doe harme to others that they be not harmed themselves IV. As therefore when one of those Bruit Animals among which there hath past no such Agreement or Pact doth hurt another though it may be said that he doth harme or hurt to the other yet it cannot be said that he doth an Injury to the other because he was not bound by any Right Compact or Law not to hurt him exactly so if one man of that Nation among which is no Paction or Society doth hurt another man though it may be said that he doth hurt him yet not that he is Injurious to him or doth him an Injury because he was not obliged by any Compact or Law not to hurt him V. We here speak of Bruit Animals not as if there were any even of those who live in Heards or Companies that are capable of entring into Agreements or Pacts not to harme each other and so might be conceived to be Just if they do not hurt each other and Unjust if they do but only to the end that from thence it may be the better understood that even among Men Justice of it self is nothing insomuch as it is found only in the mutuall Societies according to the amplitude of every Country in which the Inhabitants may conveniently euter into Agreements and Covenants of doing nor receiving any hurt since otherwise and in a man considered as Solitary or out of all Society there can be no Justice at all and what is Justice in one Society of men may be and frequently is in respect of Contrary Pactions and Covenants downright injustice in another VI. But can Iustice intervene betwixt Men and any other Animals Certainly not For if men could make a Covenant with Bruit Animals as they can with other men that they should not Kill nor be indiscreetly Killed by them then indeed might the Reason of Just or Right be founded betwixt them and us insomuch as the end of that covenant would be the Security of both Parties but because it is impossible that Animals void of Reason should be obliged by a Law common betwixt them and us who are endowed with Reason it must also be impossible for us to obtein more assurance of Security from Animals than from things Inanimat so that there is no other way for us to secure our selves from Bruits but only to execute that power of Destroying them which Nature hath given us VII And here perhaps you 'l ask us by the way Why is it that we usually Kill even such Auimals as are weak and innoxious and so ought not to be feared Whereto we answer that most men destroy such Animals out of Intemperance and a certain Savagenesse or Cruelty in their nature as many do out of Immanity or Cruelty commit outrages also upon men living out of their Society though there be no reason why they should fear any harm from them But still it is one thing to offend against the rules of Temperance or any of its subordinate Virtues as Sobriety Lenity or Mansuetude or if you please meer Humanity or Goodnesse of Nature and another thing to violate Iustice which presupposeth certain Laws and Pacts established by mutuall Consent and Obligation VIII Nor can it be truly said what some affirme that we have a power granted to us by Law to destroy any such Animals as can be no way offensive or destructive to Man-kind though to speak freely there is scarce any kind of Living Creatures among all those which we have a power granted us to destroy but being permitted to encrease to infinite multitudes would prove permicious to Mankind however being preserved alive in Competent numbers they are many waies very usefull to our lives IX This may be exemplified in sheep Kine and Bulls Horses c. which being kept alive in a Competent number afford as many necessaries for life but if they were let alone to multiply to excessive numbers certainly they could not but prove very hurtfull if not altogether destructive to us and this partly in respect of their strength partly in respect of their Consuming or Devouring the fruits of the Earth that should serve for our subsistence And for this very cause is it that we are not prohibited to destroy such Animals and reason adviseth us to preserve so many of them alive as may be both usefull to us and easily ruled by us X. For as to Lions Bears Wolves and other Beasts called Wild whether little or great we cannot take such a certain number of them as being preserved may afford us any necessary
with inconsideration and intemperance propose to themselves as the summary of their desires and accomplishment of all their Hopes that meaner Pleasure which depends upon Motion but Wisdom being called to our assistance doth soon reduceall Pleasures to order and Decorum and teacheth us that we are not to look upon any pleasure as the perfection and End of our lives but what Nature her self hath ordained for that End and which can be no other but what we have declared For while Nature is our guide whatever we do must conduce only to this that we may not be pained in body nor perturbed in mind and when we have once attained to that state all the Tempests of our mind cease and all our Hopes and Desires are lost in Fruition and there can be nothing beyond it to which to aspire in order to the Complement of our Happinesse For we then want Pleasure when the absence of it doth produce pain in us but when wee are not pained then doe we want no pleasure VII Hence comes it that the Sum or Height of all Pleasures doth consist only in the Amotion of all pains or in that state which followes upon that Amotion for wherever Pleasure is there can be nothing of pain of Anxiety And hereupon it follows also that the highest Pleasure terminated in the privation of pain may indeed be varied and distinguished but can never be Augmented or Amplified for Nature so long as she hath taken away all pain doth encrease pleasure but all pain being removed she suffers not pleasure to be encreased in Magnitude but only admits some certain Varieties thereof that are not then at all necessary as being such that are not comparated to this that we may not be pained VIII Moreover from hence it appears that those men insult without cause who accuse us not to account this To want all Pain to be somthing consisting in the middle betwixt pain and pleasure but so to confound it with the other member of the Division as to make it not only a Pleasure but even the Highest of all Pleasures For because when we are Exempted from pain we join in that very Exemption and Vacuity from all molestation and every thing wherein we joy is a pleasure as every thing wherewith we are offended is a pain therefore is the privation of all pain by us rightly named a Pleasure For as when Hunger and Thirst are expelled with meat and drink that very Expulsion of the trouble of them doth adferr the Consequution of a pleasure so in every thing else the very Amotion of pain causeth the succession of pleasure IX Hence also may we desume a convincing reply to those who urge against us that there is no Reason why this Middle state of Indolency should be esteemed rather a pleasure than a pain For upon the detraction of pleasure discontent doth not presently ensue unlesse perhaps some pain immediately succeed into the room of that former pleasure but on the contrary we alwaies conceive a joy upon the losse of any pain though none of those pleasures succeed which consist in the delightfull affection of the Sense By which we may clearly understand how great a pleasure it is Not to be in Pain whereof if any man doubt let him ask of those who are infested with those sharp pains of the Gout Toothach or any other Acute disease X. There are also who deride this our opinion Objecting that this pleasure of Indolency is like the condition of a sleeping man and fit only for Slothfull and Unactive spirits But these consider not that this Indolent constitution is so far from being a meer Torpor or sluggishness as that it is the only state wherein we can perform all the actions of life vigorously and cheerfully And as we would not have the life of a wise man to be like a Torrent or rapid River so would we not have it to be like a standing and dead Pool but rather as a cleare stream sliding on in a constant silence and gentlenesse Wherefore we contend that a Wise mans pleasure is not that which is Dul Heavy and Unactive but that which Reason makes Constant Firm and Sprightfull unto him XI But to leave these our Opponents and return to our Theme there are two good things of which our Highest Good or chiefest Felicity doth consist viz. To have the Mind free from pertubation and the Body free from pain and so that these goods be ful and above the capacity of Encrease For how can that which is full be encreased If the Body be immune from all pain what addition can be made to that Indolency If the Mind be constantly serene and Impertubed what Addition can be made to that Tranquillity Nor do those Externall Blandishments of the Sense in any measure augment but only serve to condite and sweeten this state of Highest Felicity for that Consummate Good of Human Nature is contented with only the peace of mind and quiet of body CHAP. VI. Of the means to procure this Felicity NOw seeing that this Tranquillity of mind and Indolency of Body do constitute the chief Felicity of man nothing can more concern us than to consider those things which conduce to the attainment and conservation thereof insomuch as while we have that we have all things and while we want it all we do is to attain it though for the Causes aforesaid we seldom do attain it II. In the first place therefore we are to reason of Felicity no otherwise than of Health it being manifest that that state in which the mind is free from perturrbation and the body from pain is nothing else but the perfect Health of the whole man and naturally consequent thereupon that as in the body so also in the mind those things which produce and conserve Health are the very same with those which either prevent the Generation of Diseases or cure and expell them when they are generated III. As for the Diseases of the Body since the excellent Art of Medicine is ordained as well for the prevention as Cure of them leaving the praescription of both praeservative and Curative remedies to the learned professors of that Art we shall sufficiently discharge our present duty if we admonish you of only two things The one is that we alwaies observe Temperance and live soberly and Continently to the end that we may avert all diseases or at least make them more gentle and more easily curable since for the most part the Harvest of Diseases doth arise from the seeds of Intemperance and Incontinence The other that when we are invaded with Diseases we instantly have recourse to Fortitude that so we may both endure them with Constancy of Mind and not exasperate them by impatience and comfort our selves with this that if our pain be great it must be short if long light IV. And as for the Diseases of the Mind against them Philosophy is provided of Remedies being in that respect justly accounted
erect our determinations Since otherwise all things will be full of indiscreet temerity and confusion and late Repentance will attend upon all his undertakings III. Moreover in case you doe not direct every one of your Actions upon what occasion soever as to this grand scope so also to that very end of Nature which you proposed to your self in the designment of it but turn aside to any other sinister purpose either in the prosecution or avoidance of any Object whatsoeever then certainly shall not the Actions of your life be consentaneous to your discourses but extolling Tranquillity for instance in your words you shall betray your self to be really addicted to multiplicity of business and obnoxious to very much trouble IV. Now that man doth clearly understand the Ends prescribed by Nature in the course of life to be instituted and undertaken who well knows how easily that is procurable which is necessary to life or what is sufficient to the detraction of all that can by indigence cause pain in the Body For from thence he so well knows how to order the whole series of his life as alwaies to be above the want of such things as are full of businesse and Contention and consequently of Chance and Danger V. Hereupon a Wise man hath no reason to be much afraid of Poverty because it is very rare to find a man so poor as to be in want of those things which are necessary to life But in case our Wise man should be reduced to such a low ebb of Fortune as to want things necessary to the sustenance of his life yet will he not with the Cynicks betake himself to the shamefull refuge of Begging but rather undertake the Erudition of some others in Wisdom that so he may both take a course beseeming the dignity of his Prudence and at the same time deservedly accommodate himself with necessaries from those who have abundance VI. And while he is constrained to take this or some other honest and beseeming course that by an acquired confidence of mind he may generously receive those things which happen to him for the instant day he is to have recourse to the Oracle of his own Wisdom and call Philosophy to his relief for we then resign the arbitration of those things that so neerly concern us to an Evill Councellour when we measure and provide against indigence by any other proportion but the simple necessities of Nature and the rules of Philosophy VII Wherefore it behoves a Philosopher to provide for such competent means as may supply his necessities and so long to apply himself to that provision as till his diligent care hath furnished him but so long as any part of them may be spared and his confidence yet remain perfect he is in no case to addict himself to the getting of riches and storing up of provisions VIII In the provision of these things therefore our care is to be proportioned by Philosophy and so in a short time we shall come to know what a Virtue and how great a Good it is to require only what is simple light and very small because what is most sweet and free from trouble in all a mans life depends wholly upon this to be contented with the least i. e. onely so much as sufficeth nature And as for those impediments which the sollicitous hunting after more doth draw upon us when they once discover themselves as soon they must either by the great labour of the body or the difficulty in the very procuring-them or the abduction of the mind from more worthy and advantageous speculations which we ought evermore highly to esteem or the insatisfaction resulting from the fruition of them certainly we shall clearly perceive the same to be altogether fruitless and insufficient to compensate the consequent perturbations IX And whereas we praemonished that every man should before he determines upon what course of life to put himself strictly examine his own Genius and advise with himself concerning the inclination thereof that so he may at length happily devote himself to that which he finds most agreeable to the Destination of it our purpose therein was to intimate that nothing can be more miserable and more inconsistent with tranquillity than for a man to be engaged in that course of life to which Nature made him unfit X. It follows from hence that an Active life is not fit for a slothfull and heavy person nor a slothfull lazy kind of life fit for an active for as idlenesse is quiet and action labour to the one so to the other idlenesse is a labour and action quiet Thus a Souldiers life is unfit for a Timorous and softly man and an umbratile life odious to an impatient and bold man for one cannot endure the heat of War nor the other the cool shadow of peace So that nothing can be more safe or hopefull than for a man to devote himself to that to which he finds no adversnesse or repugnancy in his nature XI Whereunto you may please to add this one rule that every man to the end the state of life which he chooseth may be the more secure and tranquill ought to choose a mean state or such as is neither very eminent nor very abject at least if it be in his own power Because it behoves him to live in a Civill society neither as a Lyon nor as a Gnat lest he be exterminated as the one or ensnared and crushed as the other CHAP. XI Of Prudence Domestick THis sort of Prudence divides it self into Two branches the First concerns a man in the capacity of a Husband and a Father the other as he is a Master of Servants and Possessor of House Goods Lands c. II. Concerning the Former viz. Conjugall and Paternall Prudence let us observe onely what may be inferred from the Praemises touching the Directions of a man in the Election of his course of life Thus if you find your Constitution to be such as that you cannot without the ardors of the flesh live single that you can with patience endure a morose and unquiet Wife and untoward and undutifull Children that you shall not be subject and apt to vex repine and grieve when you shall hear your Children crying and bawling see them groning on the bed of sicknesse or snatcht away by death before you and that you shall not be perplexed and distracted with those Cares and sollicitudes that accompany the provision of all things necessary to a Conjugall state why then indeed it may be convenient for you to take a Wife and beget Children for which you may provide by a Conjugall and Paternall Prudence III. You may presume indeed that your Wife will be sweet and Complacent that your Children will be of ingenious and tractable dispositions that your cares for them will not be great nor many that you have so laid your designs as that you cannot expect any thing but prosperity and good successe and yet you can but presume
into grievous diseases into losses into disgrace and many times into the penalties decreed by the Laws IV. But they who would so enjoy pleasures as that no pains shall ensue thereupon and constantly retain their judgement not to be overcome by Pleasure to the doing of what they know ought not to be done these men acquire the greatest Pleasure by pretermitting Pleasure and frequently suffer some pain to prevent their falling into greater V. And hence is it understood that Temperance is to be desired not because it avoids some Pleasures but because by restraining a man from them it declines Troubles which being avoided he afterwards obtains Greater Pleasures And this in the mean time it so doth as that the action becomes Honest and Decent and we may clearly understand that the same men are Lovers as of Pleasure so also of Decorum yea and that such who esteem and pursue all Virtues do for the most part perform those actions and attain to those Ends as that by them it is made manifest how odious to all men Cruely is and how amiable Goodnesse and Clemency and that those very Pleasures which Evill men most eagerly desire and hunt after do fall into the lapps of onely good men VI. Moreover for as much as among Cupidities about the restraint and Moderation of which Temperance is imployed some are Naturall others vain or meerly opinionative and of the Naturall ones some are Necessary other Not-necessary we omit that of the Necessary ones some pertain simply to Life such is the appetite of meat and drink together with the Pleasure which consists only in Motion and others absolutely to Felicity it self such as that of Indolency and Tranquillity or the stable Pleasure manifest it is that not without good cause we have in our Physiology made Three kinds of Cupidities viz. 1. some that are both Naturall and Necessary 2. others that are Naturall but Not-necessary and 3. others that are neither Naturall nor Necessary but meerly Vain or arising from vain Opinion VII And because we said that those are Naturall and Necessary which cause damage and pain in the body if they be not satisfied it is evident that such Cupidities which inferr no damage nor pain if not satisfied and yet are joyned with earnest and vehement instigations do become such not by any Necessity but by Opinion and though they have their seeds from Nature yet when they run up to Excesse their growth is caused only by the evill but powerfull influence of Opinion which makes men far worse then Beasts since they are not obnoxious to any such diffusion or Excesse and again that such Cupidities may be proved to be not only Not-necessary but also Not-naturall only by this that they import an appetence in Excesse and very hardly or never to be satisfied and are for the most part worthily accounted the Causes of some Harm or other even to Nature VIII Now that we may discourse of the chief sorts of Temperance respectively to the Chief sorts of Cupidities we are to pitch upon 1. Sobriety which stands opposed to Gluttony or the excessive desire of meat and drink 2. Continence which confronts Lust or the unbridled desire of Venus 3. Lenity the adversary to Anger or the desire of Revenge 4. Modesty the contrary to Ambition or the affectation of Honour 5. Moderation the antagonist to Avarice or the Cupidity of Riches and 6. in respect of the affinity betwixt Desire and Hope Mediocrity the mean betwixt Hope and Desperation of the Future CHAP. XIV Of Sobriety opposed to Gluttony IT can hardly be expressed how great Good redounds from Sobriety which reducing a man to a thin simple and spare Diet by happy experience teacheth how little that is which Nature requires and that her Necessities may be abundantly satisfied with slender and easily-provided Aliment such as decocted Barly Fruits Herbs and Fountain-Water II. For these things sufficiently remove the trouble of the body arising from want of sustenance are every where to be had in good plenty and contain the Faculties of dry and moist Aliments Whatever is more than this amounts to Luxury and concerns only the satisfaction of a Cupidity which is neither Necessary nor occasioned by any thing whose defect doth necessarily inferr any the least offence or detriment to Nature but ariseth partly from hence that the want of somwhat after which the exorbitant appetite longeth is imagined reall and born with impatience partly from hence that an absolute Delight or such as is entire and neither accompanied with nor attended on by any trouble is presumed from the satisfaction thereof III. And forasmuch as such things as are commonly provided to our hands abundantly suffice to supply all Natures wants and these Aliments are such as partly for their simplicity partly for their Exiguity are easily providible hence it follows that he who feeds upon flesh hath need of other things to eat with it when he who is satisfied only with Inanimates hath need of but half so much as the other and sustains himself with what is easie in the provision and of small cost and pains in the preparation IV. Now as for the Commodities which redound from Sobriety they are principally Four The First is that it brings and conserves Health by accustoming the body to simple course and spare Diet. For sumptuous Feasts and full meals and various dishes are they which generate exasperate and prolong Crudities Head-aches Rheumes Gouts Fevers and other Diseases not that plain and simple fare which Nature affordeth both as Necessary and wholsom and this not only to other Animals but also to man who yet depraves them by his exorbitancy and corrupts them by such Delilicates as which while he affects he affects only his own Destruction V. Who so is Wise therefore let him alwaies beware of that Dish which his irregular Appetite earnestly covets and pursues and upon which he cannot feed without being afterward convinced that it was gratefull to him only to his own harm Of this sort are all costly fat and luscious meats and therefore the use of Flesh must be rather Hurtfull than Beneficiall to Health of which this may be a very good Argument that since Health is preserved by the same means which restore it when lost and abstinence from flesh is generally prescribed by learned Physicians in most diseases especially acute ones certainly the best way of conserving health must be a spare diet and no Flesh. VI. It is no wonder that the People commonly cry up the use of Flesh as an Aliment highly conducing to Health for they magnifie all things that please the Gust and think that the direct way to Health lies in the wallowing in Pleasures nay even of Venereall pleasures whereof notwithstanding there is none which is beneficiall to any man and that constitution is very rare to which it is not hurtfull at all time VII The Second is this that it makes men ready vivacious and quick in the doing of all
themselves Whom the Poets have feigned and frequently introduced as inflamed with Anger so furiously enraged with Lust and in their Fables we read of not only their Divisions Animosities Discords Warrs Conflicts Wounds Deaths but also their Complaints Laments Imprisonments Coition with Mortalls and Mortall Births of Immortall Parents and other the like Wildnesses from which every man in his right mind doth abhor CHAP. XII Of Lenity opposed to Anger ANother species of Temperance is Lenity Mansuetude or Mildnesse comprehending also Clemency and Pitty or Commiseration This is so excellent an Antidote against the malignity of Anger or the Desire of Revenge that it is worthily esteemed a most laudable Virtue forasmuch as Anger if high and excessive is a perfect Madnesse for the time For in a fit of anger the mind is inflamed the light of reason eclipsed the blood boyls with choler the eyes sparkle with fire the breast distended and ready to burst with rage the teeth gnasht the voice interrupted the hairs stand on end the face glowing with heat and distorted with menacing postures becoms horrid truculent and frightfull so that all the frame or oeconomy of Nature seems wholly subverted and the mind as well to have lost the command of it self as to have forgotten all decency and Decorum but then comes Lenity and that recomposeth all again becalms the mind and keeps it in such a becoming temper as that it is neither moved in it self nor suffers any passionate eruption or salley of the spirits and blood forth into the members that may cause any the least indecorum II. But forasmuch as anger is commonly kindled and blown into a flame by the opinion of some injury received and no man doth an injury to an other but upon the score of either Hatred or Envy or Despite and Contempt how can it be that a Wise man should so bear an injury as to deport himself with Lenity and sweetnesse toward him who offer'd him that injury Why truly only by committing himself to the Government of right Reason by which we have already declared he is to fortifie himself against the blows of Fortune For he accounts an injury among Casualties or things of meer Chance and well knows that it is not in his power to make other men just honest and superior to the transports of unruly passions and therefore he is as little moved by wrongs done him by men as by the incommodities or losses sustained by misfortune and generally by any other event occasioned by things beyond his power of ordering controlment III. He is not moved for example by those extream Heats and Colds of different seasons or tempests because he knows the Nature of such seasons to be such as he cannot alter Nor is he moved by injuries which petulant dishonest and malevolent men do him because it is from the depravity of their nature that they do them and it is not in his power to amend that depravity and make them do otherwise Again he conceives it not to be Congruous to Reason and Wisdom to adde one Evill to another i. e. to the harme arising to him from Causes without him to superadd a greater harm from Causes within him namely to raise a perturbation in his mind by opinion or because an other man would afflict his mind with vexation and anxiety thereupon to be so foolish as by admitting and fomenting that vexation to prosper that design and gratifie the evill intention of his Enemy IV. Fit it is we confesse that a Wise man should so far look to his Good Name and be carefull of his Reputation as not to lye open to Contempt and Scorn seeing there are some Pleasures that arise to a man from a Good Fame and the esteem from thence resulting as on the contrary there are some Troubles that arise from Contempt and the Consequents thereof but yet is he not to be tender of his Good Name so much for the Revenging of injuries or offending of those that do them as for living well and innocently and giving no man a just cause or occasion of Contumely and Malediction For thus to do is wholly in his own power not to hinder an other from discharging the malignity of his Nature upon him V. Hereupon in case a person who hath though without cause conceived an anger against you and declared himself your Adversary shall demand any thing of you upon praetext of expiation or satisfaction you are not to refuse to give it him provided what he demand be Lawfull Honourable and conducible to your certain security from his rage because he differs not from an angry invading Dog and so is to be appeased with a morsell Neverthelesse nothing is either more honourable or more safe than to confront his malice with Innocence of life and the security of your own Conscience and for the rest to declare your self to be above his injuries VI. Moreover it may come to passe that a wise man may be sued at Law brought to the Bar and there in the face of the whole Court suffer not only injuries but grosse calumnies false accusations yea and receive condemnation and yet he ought stil to remember that though it be in his power to live uprightly and Virtuously yet it is not in his power not to fall into the hands of such as may shew themselves Envious malignant and unjust toward him nor to hinder them from accusing him contrary to all right and equity or himself from receiving a sentence from unrighteous Judges It becomes him not therefore to be angry with either his Accusers or the Witnesses or the Judges but trusting in a good Conscience still to keep up his Lenity and Tranquillity at the highest and accounting himself far above this infortune to entertain it without fear or trouble and deport himself toward his Iudges with constant courage and serene boldnesse VII Now there is not why any man should Object that what we here advise concerning Lenity is repugnant to what we formerly said of the Wise mans Chastising of his offending Servants Because we there limited this Castigation only to Refractary obstinately Perverse and disobedient Servants and manifest it is that punishment ought to be inflicted as wel upon the delinquents in a private Family as in a State or Common-wealth and as the Prince or Magistrate doth punish the Crimes of Subjects without anger at their Persons so likewise may the Master of a Family punish the offences of his Servants not only with Lenity but Good will also to their persons VIII We add that a Wise man is not only to bear injuries from others with Lenity nor only to pardon the faults of his Servants with mildnesse and sweetnesse but even with kindness to encourage and gratulate such as Repent of and resolve to reform their evill waies For since the first degree of Reformation is the Knowledge of ones Fault therefore is this Gratulation and Encouragement to be given to
and Becomingly II. That this Virtue also is to be embraced in order to Pleasure may be inferred from hence that neither the undergoing of great labours nor the suffering of great pains are things inviting and desireable in themselves as likewise is not Patience nor Assiduity nor Watchings nor Industry it self which is so highly commended nay nor Fortitude but the reason why we commend and pursue them is to the End we may live without Care and Fear and so free both body and mind as much as possible from all molestation III. For as by the Fear of Death for example the quiet of life is wholly perturbed and as to yeeld to pains and endure them with a dejected and weak mind is a great misery and by that basenesse and weaknesse of Spirit many have uttterly lost their Parents Friends Country and most themselves so on the other side doth a strong and sublime mind make a man free from all Care and Anguish insomuch as it contemns Death upon this account that all who suffer it are in the same case as before they were in being and is fortified against all Pains as being assured that the greatest pains are soon determined by Death that small pains have many intervalls of quiet that mean pains are not above our patience that if they be tolerable they are to be endured with constancy which much mitigates them and if intolerable he is quietly to depart the world as a Theatre that doth not please him IV. Now from these considerations it is plain that Timidity and unmanlinesse are not to be dispraised nor Fortitude and Patience to be praised for their own sakes but those are Rejected because they induce Pain and these Embraced because they produce Pleasure V. And as for what we said of the Efficacy of Fortitude both against Fear and all things that are wont to cause it the intent of it is that we may understand that they are the very same Evills which torment when they are present and are feared when expected as future and consequently that we learn not to fear those Evills which we either feign to our selves or any waies apprehend as to come and with Constancy and Patience to endure those that are present VI. Now among such Evills as we Imagine to our selves but are not really Future the chiefest are those which we fear either from the Gods as if they were Evill themselves or could be the Authors of any Evill to us or from Death as if that were evill in it self or brought us to some eternall Evill after it and among such Evills as are in possibility and may come and do somtimes come and affect us with pain and trouble they are all such as inferr either Pain upon the Body or Discontent upon the Mind VII Those which produce Pain are Diseases Scourgings Fire Sword c. and those which induce Discontent are External Evills and either Publique of which sort are Tyranny Warrs destruction of ones Country Pestilence Famine and the like or Private of which sort are Servitude Banishment Imprisonment Infamy Losse of Friends Wife Children Estate c. VIII Now the difference betwixt all these things on the one part and pain and discontent on the other is this that Pain and Discontent are absolute evills in themselves the others are evills onely Respectively or as they may be the Causes of pain and discontent nor is there any reason why they should be avoided unlesse in that respect only IX Upon the Chief of these Causes of fear we shall touch and in order as they are here enumerated In the mean time be pleased to observe that Fortitude is a Disposition of the mind not ingenerate by Nature but acquired by long consulting with Reason For Fortitude is very much different from Audacity Ferocity inconsiderate Temerity which is found even in the Bruit Animals and being proper to man and to such men onely as act according to Prudence and the advice of right Reason is not to be measured by the hot Temperament aud strength of the Body but by the firmnesse of the Mind constantly adhaering to an honest intention or purpose CHAP. XXI Of Fortitude opposed to the Fear of the Gods IN the first place it seems convenient that we discusse a certain Twofold Fear much transcending all others forasmuch as if any thing hath produced the Supreme Pleasure and that which is proper to the Mind doubtlesse it hath been the Expunction of all such Opinions as have impressed the greatest Fears upon the Mind For such is the condition of miserable Mortalls that they are generally led not by sound opinions but by some certain Affection void of Reason and so not defining Evill by reality but imagination they render themselves obnoxious to and frequently suffer as high perturbations from such things as they only Imagine to themselves as if they were Reall II. And that which is the Ground of the Greatest Fear and consequently of the Greatest Perturbation to men is this that conceiving there are certain Blissfull and Immortall Natures which they call Gods in the World they do yet think them to have such Wills such Passions such Operations as are plainly repugnant to those Attributes of Beatitude and Immortality such are perpetuall sollicitude Imployments Fits of Anger and Kindnesse and hereupon they infer that Losses and Afflictions are by way of punishment derived to Evill men and Protection and Benefits by way of reward and encouragement derived to Good men from the Gods For Men being nursed up in their own i. e. Human affections imagine and admit Gods in most things like themselves and what they find incorrespondent to their own inclinations and passions the very same they conclude to be incompetent to the Deities III. Hereupon it cannot be exprest how great unhappinesse Mankind hath drawn upon it self by ascribing such attributes to the Gods as resemble those of Human nature and especially those of Anger and Vindictivenesse in respect whereof mens minds being made low and abject as if the Gods perpetually threatned to call them to a severe account for their actions and to inflict punishment upon them you shal scarcely find a man who is not appaled and strook with terror at every clap of Thunder at every Earth-quake at every high wind at every storm at Sea and the like naturall occurrents IV. But so are not Those who being educated in the school of Reason have learned that the Gods live in perptuall security and Tranquillity and that their Blisfull Nature is so far removed from us and our Affairs as that they can neither be Pleased nor Displeased at our actions And unfeignedly if they were touched with Anger at our misdeeds or heard the prayers of men the whole race of man would soon be destroyed there being not an hour wherein Millions of men do not imprecate mischief and destruction each to other V. Be very Cautious therefore that when you have conceived God to be an Immortall and Blissfull Nature or
of that sadnesse the Fathers mind would be strook with a sense of the losse of his Son in the same moment wherein he was slain and in like manner he that hath suffered Detraction from his honour or been robbed of his Goods and Cattell would in the same instant receive intelligence of his losse from the secret Regret impressed upon his mind III. To the production of Discontent therefore in the mind it is absolutely necessary that Opinion not Nature intervene betwixt the supposed Evill and the Mind However that you may be the more confirmed in this truth be pleased to observe this If a man have an opinion that such a one is his true Son who was indeed begotten by another man and again believe that such a one is not his Son though himself be the right Father of him let it be told him that He whom he accounts not to be his true Son but really is so is Dead and he shall never be moved at the sad tidings but let him hear of the death of the other whom he took for his true Son but really was not so and he shall instantly be moved at the news and suddainly break forth into sorrow and laments And this not from any Naturall Instinct or Sentiments Paternall but only from the delusive suggestions of Opinion that the one who was his Son was not so and that the other who was not his Son was so IV. Hence is it a perspicuous Truth that those things for which the mind becomes male-content and contristate are not Real Evills to us forasmuch as they are without the orbe of our Nature and can never touch us immediatly or of themselves but by the mediation of our own Opinion And this was the ground of our former Assertion that it is Reason alone which makes life happy and pleasant by expelling all such false Conceptions or Opinions as may any way occasion perturbation of mind For it is Discontent alone that perturbs the mind and wholly subverts the Tranquillity and so the jucundity thereof V. But how can Reason expell all such erroneous Opinions after they have once taken possession of the Mind Why truly only by teaching the Wise man to arm his mind against the blows of Fortune For those very Externall things which perswaded by opinion we conceive to be Good and for the losse of which we conceive such Discontent of mind are also justly called the Goods of Fortune because they are not reeally our own but may be possessed or taken away as Fortnue pleaseth VI. This the Wise man well knowing accounts such Goods no more his own than other mens and doth never so possesse them as not to be willing and ready at any time to part with them For he hath divested his mind of that opinion which would perswade him that they are reall Goods that they are his own that they are permanent and inamissible and put on that right opinion which assures him that they are neither really Good nor absolutely his own nor inamissible but transitory and subject to be blown away from him by every gust of adverse Fortune And hereupon He foresees what to do in case he should be deprived of them that is not to cruciate himself with vain sorrow and fruitless Discontent but to take it quietly and contentedly that Fortune haâ—h redemanded what she did not give but only lend him VII Certainly to those who account it an Evill to be deprived of these Externall Goods it cannot but prove of grievous consequence that Praemeditation should encrease those Evils which it might very much have diminished at least if not wholly praevented For by this they come to be discontented not only at present infortunes but also at such as they apprehend are likely to befall them but perhaps may never befall them and so every Evill is troubâ—esom not only when it comes but when it is only expected though it never come Doubtlesse it is most vain and foolish in a man to run inâ—o a voluntary misery and he that doth so shall alwaies be Discontented either by receiving or thinking of Evill for who so alwaies thinks that some Evill or Adversity may befall him this very thought doth prove an Eternall Evill to him VIII And as for the Wise man in case it happen that by being long accustomed to the possession and use of the Goods of Fortune he hath not totally expunged out of his Mind that Opinion that they are reall Goods and wholly his own and so some little of Fortune intervene and give him a blow that may put him to some small Regret and Discontent in this case he is for the Alleviation of that his Discontent to have recourse to those two things formerly prescribed by us as the most potent remedies for the mitigation of Pain in the body viz. Avocation of his thoughts from his losse and the Causes of it and Revocation of them to those things which he knows to be Gratefull and Pleasant to his Mind IX For the Mind of a Wise man is instructed to conform to the Laws of Reason and precisely follow the conduct thereof and Reason forbids him to fix his cogitations upon those things which may advance and foment his discontent by that means helps him to abstract his thoughts from all regret and convert them upon Goods either to come or formerly enjoyed and especially such as he hath frequently found to be delightfull X. And what though sad and importune thoughts are apt frequently to recurre yet is he still to insist upon that Avocation and Revocation of his Mind because the mind by continuall Diversion to other objects is brought by little and little to wear out and deface the Characters of sorrow imprinted upon it by a misfortune nor indeed doth Time conduce to the cure of Discontent by any other way but ony by exhibiting various occasions of Divertisement by which the mind being by degrees taken off from the Cause of its trouble is brought at length to almost an absolute forgetfullnesse thereof CHAP. XXV Of Iustice in Generall THus far of that part of Honesty which concerns Ones-self we are now come to the other that relates also to others and belongs to a man as living in a Civill Society and that is Iustice. For most certain it is thaâ— Justice is as it were the common Tye or Ligament which hoâ—ds men together in peace and without which no Society can subsist insomuch as it is a Virtue which gives to every one his Due and provides that Injury be done to none II. What we have formerly said of the Foundation and Benefits of the other Virtues hitherto handled doth exactly correspond also to this Virtue for as we have taught that Prudence Temperance and Fortitude are inseparably conjoyned to Pleasure so may wee affirm the very same of Justice which doth not only never cause Harm to any man but on the contrary alwaies preserve and nourish somthing that may calm and