Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	reason_n	4,119	5	4.6993	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44583	Advice to a daughter as to religion, husband, house, family and children, behaviour and conversation, friendship, censure, vanity and affectation, pride, diversions : to which is added The character of a trimmer, as to the laws and government, Protestant religion, the papists, forreign affairs / by the late noble M. of H..; Lady's New-Year's gift	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.; Coventry, William, Sir, 1628?-1686.	1699 (1699)	Wing H290; ESTC R9539	80,252	294

worship that as a Goddess which he seeth it only an artificial Shrine moved by Wheels and Springs to delude him Such Women please only like the first Opening of a Scene that hath nothing to recommend it but the being new They may be compared to Flies that have pretty shining Wings for two or three hot Months but the first cold Weather maketh an end of them so the latter Season of these fluttering Creatures is dismal From their nearest Friends they receive a very faint Respect from the rest of the World the utmost degree of contempt Let this Picture supply the place of any other Rules which might be given to prevent your resemblance to it The Deformity of it well considered is Instruction enough from the same reason that the sight of a Drunkard is a better Sermon against that Vice than the best that wasever preach'd upon that Subject PRIDE AFter having said this against Vanity I do not intend to apply the same Censure to Pride well placed and rightly defined It is an ambiguous Word one kind of it is as much a Vertue as the other is a Vice But we are naturally so apt to chuse the worst that it is become dangerous to commend the best side of it A Woman is not to be proud of her fine Gown nor when she hath less Wit than her Neighbours to comfort her self that she hath more Lace Some Ladies put so much weight upon Ornaments that if one could see into their Hearts it would be found that even the Thought of Death is made less heavy to them by the contemplation of their being laid out in State and honourably attended to the Grave One may come a good deal short of such an Extream and yet still be sufficiently Impertinent by setting a wrong Value upon things which ought to be used with more indifference A Lady must not appear sollicitous to ingross Respect to her self but be content with a reasonable Distribution and allow it to others that she may have it returned to her She is not to be troublesomly nice nor distinguish her self by being too delicate as if ordinary things were too course for her this is an unmannerly and an offensive Pride and where it is practised deserveth to be mortified of which it seldom faileth She is not to lean too much upon her Quality much less to despise those who are below it Some make Quality and Idol and then their Reason must fall down and Worship it They would have the World think that no amends can ever be made for the want of a great Title or an ancient Coat of Arms They imagine that with these advantages they stand upon the higher Ground which maketh them look down upon Merit and Vertue as things inferiour to them This mistake is not only senseless but criminal too in putting a greater Price upon that which is a piece of good luck than upon things which are valuable in themselves Laughing is not enough for such a Folly it must be severely whipped as it justly deserves It will be confessed there are frequent Temptations given by pert Vpstarts to be angry and by that to have our Judgments corrupted in these Cases But they are to be resisted and the utmost that is to be allowed is when those of a new Edition will forget themselves so as either to brag of their weak side or to endeavour to hide their Meanness by their Insolence to cure them by a little seasonable Raillery a little Sharpness well placed without dwelling too long upon it These and many other kinds of Pride are to be avoided That which is to be recommended to you is an Emulation to raise your self to a Character by which you may be distinguished an Eagerness for precedence in Vertue and all such other things as may gain you a greater share of the good opinion of the World Esteem to Vertue is like a cherishing Air to Plants and Flowers which maketh them blow and prosper and for that reason it may be allowed to be in some degree the Cause as well as the Reward of it That Pride which leadeth to a good End cannot be a Vice since it is the beginning of a Vertue and to be pleased with just Applause is so far from a Fault that it would be an ill Symptom in a Woman who should not place the greatest part of her Satisfaction in it Humility is no doubt a great Vertue but it ceaseth to be so when it is afraid to scorn an ill thing Against Vice and Folly it is becoming your Sex to be haughty but you must not carry the Contempt of things to Arrogance towards Persons and it must be done with fitting Distinctions else it may be Inconvenient by being unseasonable A Pride that raiseth a little Anger to be out-done in any thing that is good will have so good an Effect that it is very hard to allow it to be a Fault It is no easie matte to carry even between these differing kinds so described but remember that it is safer for a Woman to be thought too proud than too familiar DIVERSIONS THE last thing I shall recommend to you is a wise and a safe method of using Diversions To be too eager in the pursuit of Pleasure whilst you are Young is dangerous to catch at it in riper Years is grasping a shadow it will not be held Besides that by being less natural it groweth to be indecent Diversions are the most properly applied to ease and relieve those who are Oppressed by being too much imployed Those that are Idle have no need of them and yet they above all others give themselves up to them To unbend our Thoughts when they are too much stretched by our Cares is not more natural than it is necessary but to turn our whole Life into a Holy day is not only ridiculous but destroyeth Pleasure instead of promoting it The Mind like the Body is tired by being always in one Posture too serious breaketh and too diverting looseneth it It is Variety that giveth the Relish so that Diversions too frequently repeated grow first to be indifferent and at last tedious Whilst they are well chosen and well timed they are never to be blamed but when they are used to an Excess though very Innocent at first they often grow to be Criminal and never fail to be Impertinent Some Ladies are bespoken for Merry Meetings as Bessus was for Duels They are ingaged in a Circle of Idleness where they turn round for the whole Year without the Interruption of a serious Hour They know all the Players Names and are Intimately acquainted with all the Booths in Bartholomew-Fair No Soldier is more Obedient to the sound of his Captain 's Trumpet than they are to that which summoneth them to a Puppet-Play or a Monster The Spring that bringeth out Flies and Fools maketh them Inhabitants in Hide-Park in the Winter they are an Incumbrance to the Play House and the Balast of the Drawing Room The

from the Religion established Temporal things will have their weight in the World and tho Zeal may prevail for a time and get the better in a Skirmish yet the War ends generally on the side of Flesh and Blood and will do so till Mankind is another thing than it is at present And therefore a wise Papist in cold Blood considering these and many other Circumstances which 't will be worth his pains to see if he can unmuffle himself from the Mask of Infallibility will think it reasonable to set his imprison'd Senses at Liberty and that he has a right to see with his own Eyes hear with his own Ears and judge by his own Reason the consequence of which might probably be that weighing things in a right Scale and seeing them in their true Colours he would distinguish between the merit of suffering for a good Cause and the foolish ostentation of drawing inconveniencies upon himself and therefore will not be unwilling to be convinc'd that our Protestant Creed may make him happy in the other World and the easier in this A few of such wise Proselytes would by their Example draw so many after them that the Party would insensibly melt away and in a little time without any angry word we should come to an Union that all Good Men would have Reason to rejoyce at but we are not to presume upon these Conversions without preparing Men for them by kind and reconciling Arguments nothing is so against our Nature as to believe those can be in the right who are too hard upon us there is a deformity in every thing that doth us hurt it will look scurvily in our Eye while the smart continues and a Man must have an extraordinary Measure of Grace to think well of a Religion that reduces him and his Family to Misery in this respect our Trimmer would consent to the mitigation of such Laws as were made as it 's said King Henry VIII got Queen Elizabeth in a heat against Rome It may be said that even States as well as private Men are subject to Passion a just indignation of a villainous Attempt produces at the same time such Remedies as perhaps are not without some mixture of Revenge and therefore tho time cannot Repeal a Law it may by a Natural Effect soften the Execution of it there is less danger to Rouse a Lyon when at Rest than to awake Laws that were intended to have their time of Sleeping nay more than that in some cases their Natural periods of Life dying of themselves without the Solemnity of being revoked any otherwise than by the common consent of Mankind who do cease to Execute when the Reasons in great Measure fail that first Created and Justifyed the Rigour of such unusual Penalties Our Trimmer is not eager to pick out some places in History against this or any other Party quite contrary is very sollicitous to find out any thing that may be healing and tend to an Agreement but to prescribe the means of this Gentleness so as to make it effectual must come from the only place that can furnish Remedies for this Cure viz. a Parliament in the mean time it is to be wished there may be such a mutual calmness of Mind as that the Protestants might not be so jealous as still to smell the Match that was to blow up the King and both Houses in the Gunpowder Treason or to start at every appearance of Popery as if it were just taking Possession On the other side let not the Papists suffer themselves to be led by any hopes tho never so flattering to a Confidence or Ostentation which must provoke Men to be less kind to them let them use Modesty on their sides and the Protestants Indulgence on theirs and by this means there will be an overlooking of all Venial Faults a tacit connivanee at all things that do not carry Scandal with them and would amount to a kind of Natural Dispensation with the the severe Laws since there would be no more Accusers to be found when the occasions of Anger and Animosity are once remov'd let the Papists in the mean time remember that there is a respect due from all lesser numbers to greater a deference to be paid by an Opinion that is Exploded to one that is Established such a Thought well digested will have an influence upon their Behaviour and produce such a Temper as must win the most eager Adversaries out of their ill Humour to them and give them a Title to all the Favour that may be consistent with the Publick Peace and Security The Trimmer's Opinion in Relation to things abroad THE World is so compos'd that it is hard if not impossible for a Nation not to be a great deal involv'd in the fate of their Neighbours and tho by the felicity of our Scituation we are more Independant than any other People yet we have in all Ages been concern'd for our own sakes in the Revolutions abroad There was a time when England was the over-ballancing Power of Christendom and that either by Inheritance or Conquest the better part of France receiv'd Laws from us after that we being reduc'd into our own Limits France and Spain became the Rivals for the Universal Monarchy and our third Power tho in it self less than either of the other hapned to be Superiour to any of them by that choice we had of throwing the Scales on that side to which we gave our Friendship I do not know whether this Figure did not make us as great as our former Conquest to be a perpetual Umpire of two great contending Powers who gave us all their Courtship and offer'd all their Incense at our Altar whilst the Fate of either Prince seemed to depend upon the Oracles we delivered for the King of England to sit on his Throne as in the Supream Court of Justice to which the two great Monarchs appeal pleading their Cause and expecting their Sentence declaring which side was in the right or at least if we pleas'd which side should have the better of it was a piece of Greatness which was peculiar to us and no wonder if we endeavour to preserve it as we did for a considerable time it being our Safety as well as Glory to maintain it but by a Fatality upon our Councils or by the refin'd Policy of this latter Age we have thought fit to use industry to destroy this mighty Power which we have so long enjoyed and that equality between the Two Monarchs which we might for ever have preserved has been chiefly broken by us whose Interest it was above all others to maintain it when one of them like the overflowing of the Sea had gained more upon the other than our convenience or indeed our safety would allow instead of mending the Banks or making new ones we our selves with our own hands helpt to cut them to invite and make way for a farther Inundation France and Spain have had their several