that which we had prevented her in Amenia's indignation was raised at this confession but she took no other punishment on her that deserved greater but banished her her service for ever but Clotuthe entertained her for her infidelity Amenia was cruelly afflicted that she knew so much of her affaires because she lay open to all her machinations having none now to guard her from her devices for she knew Clotuthe both spiteful and subtil enough to work her mischief and she had some little suspition that she was her corrival though you never intimated so much Clotuthe and Amenia after this knowledge met not in a long time after being segregated to their afflictions and by reason of Clotuthes unwillingnesse to meet Amenia but at last they met one another where Amenia stuck not to tell her of her ill actions but with a great deal of modesty and civility But on the other side Clotuthe falling into great passion uttered words extream misbecoming and soon gave Amenia to know the authoritie she thought she had over her after she had vented her passion against Amenia at their parting she uttered some such words as these that gave Amenia a good cause to feare her complottings No no Amenia said she speaking in answer to the justifications of Amenia against her aspersions do not justifie your self against that which is so apparent you were too carefull of his life not to love him you gave him a charge not to be too forward in battel least you might lose him you car'd not how great the losse be so you lose not Euripeâ—es nor how much dammage your Country receiv'd by the backwardness of his valour so he was not in danger this doth not favour of too much affection Amenia He might as well have wrote to me as to you but he cares not to pay what he owes to civilitie and decency so he payes what he owes to his affection and yours But stay Amenia do not you think the death of Lilibilis disengages you to Mandone he hath promised you to him and though he lives not to perform it you ought this way to exhibit your love to him by performing what heengaged and do you account me your enemy and your foe by endeavouring to finde out your affection to Euripedes and by trying to convince you of your errour when Mandone may claim you for his wife by right by the itterated promise and engagements of your father which ought not to die with him and when you cannot marry Euripedes without great dishonour flatter your self no longer for if you will not be Mandone's by Love and fair means he hath yet power enough to force you notwithstanding the power of Euripedes who is a stranger and not so worthy as Mandone a redoubted Iberian Anger had suscitated a fresh crimson in the cheeks of Amenia and she had answered these speeches had Clotuthe staid to have heard her but finishing her discourse she would not stay for a reply but left Amenia somewhat disturb'd at her words Amenia saw not Clotuthe after that but retiring to her chamber considered her disasters with much weeping In this she continued till a surcharge came which I thought would have been the greatest it was the news of your last overthrow she heard the valour of the General recounted but she could not learn whether he was slaine or no or whether he survived that cruel encounter Truly this consideration more then the losse of her Countrey made her finde new springs of teares which she thought her former grief had wholly exhausted and the Flood-gates of her eyes were hardly wide enough to let forth those torrents which impituously gushed out thereat The next newes she heard did not so much trouble her being fore-seasoned with a greater as otherwise it might have done and it was the approach of our enemies towards Asturica having taken Lancia and our own men who were left to guard it abandoned us to their fury This disaster was hardly considered when a greater befell us by the meanes of Clotuthe who had most maliciously sent for Mandone and given him notice both of the Letter and of your Love to Amenia I was sitting that morning that the Romans entred Asturica with Amenia in great heaviness considering our disasters and what would become of us in that confusion and in a very sad posture were we when Mandone entred the Chamber with two or three more This sudden and unexpected coming of Mandone's so surpriz'd Amenia that she was not able to rise from the seat where she sat which gave him liberty to use all those civilities which he was accustomed to pay her Madam said he Although the gods are resolved to subjugate these Countreys to the Romans for an addition to their glory yet have they had so great a regard to your person that they have sent me for your preservation and for that end only have they preserv'd my life that I might preserve yours in this extremity Our fortunes are alike Madam and I hope our affections are not unequal since by the will and command of both our Parents we were accounted individual if you have lost your father the gods also have taken away mine if you have lost your Countrey I have also lost mine if you have been abandoned by your friends and are in danger to be ruined by your enemies I have run the same fortune and my life is solely given me for your preservation I am come therefore in this very exigent to carry you forth of the jawes of these cruel Romans make not now my endeavours fruitlesse nor sacrifice both our lives to our foes by your delay for our safety consists in a speedy departure the Romans are even at the walls and there is scarce time for these words Amenia by this time had recollected her self and rising at that time from her feat I am not Sir said she lesse daunted then I thought she had been so afraid of death but that I can embrace it joyfully having already tasted too much misery to desire life I had rather be buried in the ruines of my Country than to flye it in its deepest misery and offer this life to the hands of those that have sacrificed the lives of my Country-men slain my friends and taken away the life of my father to be slain by their swords than leave this place I am very sensible of your care of me and render you many thanks for your paines but let me desire you to leave me to my disasters and not engage your self in them nor look that you are obliged to it for me more then any other woman since I am about to leave all the world that all the world may leave their pretensions to me I desire not nor care for safety therefore leave me to receive death the chief object of my desires Madam replyed Mandone suddenly somewhat startled at her resolutions the consideration of your honour ought to festinate your abscession for you cannot continue here
acquainted the more grew our friendship and the more I perceived his good disposition I found him to harbour not a seeming but a true and generous amity desiring rather in deeds than in words to express his generosity I found a great relaxation in his conversation and a sweet engagement in his communication so that being familiarly acquainted with him in some short time he gave me an accompt what he was and of the enterprise he was then going about which because it is delightfull and that you have given your self up to hear these stories of loves follies I shall relate as near as I can to the form he gave it me in And that you may not think it strange that I should after so long time remember these eveniments you must know I had since my retirement collected them into a book which thus imprints them in my mind But thus he began his History Fortune that fickle Goddess made me believe she had changed her nature and caus'd me to accuse those who call'd her inconstant for as if in me only she meant to be immutable she ballanc'd all things with a constant hand neither could I accuse her with the least mutability She made me be born a Prince so bred me up and till of late in all the course of my life gave me no cause to complain But when that I assured my self to be her fortunate darling she precipitated me from the top of her moving wheel and conspiring with love to ruine me turned her smiles into frowns But that you may know went he on how she effected my precipitation I must tell you I am named Bruadenor Prince of the Veneti in Gaul where with a prodigious constancie I had remained till Love first arrested me One evening as I was walking by the side of a grove I had cast my eyes suddenly on an Object which as suddenly surprized me it was a Lady of incomparable beauty without any company who with a sad aspect seem'd to rest her self under the tree's umbrage This sight brought at first a kind of shivering but afterwards a burning into my breast so that I being unacquainted with this disturbance thought the Lady to be of the nature of the Basilisk who delates her poison through the eyes But though I felt my self wounded by my sight yet could I not withdraw my eyes from so lovely an object till I had discovered my self I then rendring her the courtesies which belonged to civility made bold to enquire the cause of that sad and solitary encounter in a place so dangerous and subject to rapines with all offering her my self and castle for her protection She answered me that solitude was consonant to her desires and that she had deserted others to be left alone But I still pressed her to accept of my protection and civility giving her the knowledge of whom I was and using all the perswasive Arguments I was capable of giving which at last wrought upon her for an acceptance Whilst with a softly pace we moved towards my Castle I told her that my desires were great to know who she was not so much out of curiosity as to know if any way the small power I had could render me any way serviceable to her manifesting by many words the great desire I had to de her service She answered me that all the services that could be rendred her could do her no good nothing but death alone was able to help her but she added that hitherto she had found no opportunity though sought to accomplish her desires and that therefore she expected nothing now but a continuation of her miseries This pressed me to a further enquiry to know the cause of this affliction which thus depressed her and though I uttered my inquisitions with many circumlocutions because I would not seem so boldly to intrude yet she perceived my desires and to satisfie me she said thus Lest you should have any sinister opinion of me whereby you may stain my honour in your thoughts I shall freely declare who I am and the occasion of my being unaccompanied although in so doing I shall discover the frailty and almost impudicity of my actions constrained by a passion which some call Love Before she proceeded I beseecht her not to conceive me guilty of such a crime as to think any thing but vertue harbored in so delicate a vessel protesting that my thoughts had not had the least intimation of any thing but what was agreeable to vertue and honour She replyed how that it could not be termed a crime if that I had conceived any maleopinion of her seeing that a just occasion had sprung from her encounter and seeing that I had rendred so great a testification of the purity of my thoughts by my actions she could not without running the hazard of ingratitude suffer me to remain in ignorance concerning her self and as with confidence she had trusted me with her honour so without fear she might relate the preceeding actions of her life After I had given her an assurance of my fidelity both for the one as the other she proceeded thus Love is a passion which differently possesses souls and with a different fire consumes our vitals if harbored in an immaculate breast and reanswered by the object beloved with as pure flames there is no content joy or pleasure like to the scorching influences proceeding from each other whereby they communicate the very essence of their love with as pure breathings as the sacred Deities the thoughts of so great a happiness hath oft times carried me into an extasie what then would be the fruition My desires have been as chast and flames as pure but that naked and blind deity hath fatally crost me which makes me love with so much anxiety and torment For Love not regarded and not meeting with the desired flames feeds on the life of the Lover and it may be hath caused that Simile which compares love to the continual feeding Eagle on the liver of Tityus which renewing makes him suffer continual unsufferable torment so that the preeminency of pain may be ascribed to it We see that those who feel and suffer extream pains to do and speak that which they would not were they not in that pain-forced frency So often-times Lovers through the great vexation and anxiety which they feel through the opposition of their Loves do most extravagant actions and women sometimes vary beyond the pudicity of their sex This I bring as a Prologue for a favorable construction of those actions in my relation which may seem to pass the bounds of womanly pudicity But briefly proceeded she to give you an account of my life it is this My name is Floria and I am the sole daughter of the great Lord of the Santones on the other side of the river Ligeris where till Love oppressed me I lived with as great content as pleasure but it fortuned that I was touched with its dart since which I
this parting will prove satall I cannot but fear I shall never see Euripedes more but let me once more entreat you not to precipitate your self into danger and check the exorbitancy of your courage by your Love and by remembring that I impose it upon you and that I have desir'd to see you return for the encouragement whereof I tell you again my self will endeavour for your happinesse in all things wherein I am not prohibited by the precepts of duty virtue and honour Madam replied I bowing almost to the ground think not but I shall obey your Commands and with more care observe them than those of the Gods themselves and I question not but you can raise me to farre greater happinesses then they can without you You have had so much trial of my obedience that you cannot justly doubt but that I will lose my life a hundred times were it possible sooner than fail in observing them especially when they are so glorious and contribute so much to my own happinesse You need not fear that the power of the Romanâ—s is able to take away this life since you have been pleas'd to conserve it and with it you have given me so great animosity that I need not fear but victory will attend me At the finishing of these words Amenia entring a little Closet faut out a blew Scarse with a very large fair fringe all wrought with Gold and Silver in flowers and other curious work partly wrought by her self and partly by Melanthe bringing it in her hand here Euripedes said she wear this for a remembrance of what you owe me I received it upon my knee with a world of satisfaction Madam said I you are too deeply insculpted on my heart to need any remembrancer and I am too great an observer of your commands to forget them I will receive this as the most glorious of gifts and esteem it above my Life since it comes from the hand of my adored Amenia In receiving it I kissed it and being filled with Raptures I cemented my lips to that fair hand and gave it some most ardent suaviations She permitted it a little but believing I trespassed too much upon her modesty she withdrew it and raising me up Go Euripedes said she and conquer where ever thou comm'st and where it is not lawful for thee with thy Armes use thy Virtue and none can withstand you These words made me blush but I answered Madam I cannot fear to lose the Victory since you have bid me conquer but I shall not glory in all the Victories the Gods can give me or in being a greater Conquerer then Alexander so much as in being your Captive aye there lies my happinesse and there lies my glory After these words I took my leave and I saw some teares drop from Amenia's fair eyes at my deceding which gave me a consolation not to be uttered and that night I spent in the contemplation of my Happinesse where I had spent many in that of my miseries I have been longer than I thought to have been continued Euripedes in the relation of my Amoretta's but the great content I receiv'd in them then hath conserv'd them fresh in my memory to this day though I have pass'd troubles enough since to oblitterate them if I had had no worser successe in the latter than in the former I might not perchance have been so opposite to Love but those Aerumnal Loves far different than the former rectified my reason and made me see with clearer eyes than those of a Lover Love they say is a most noble passion and leads one to most generous actions true if you consider it without that effect of it desire whilst that it interest 's not it self in any thing but solely loveth the obiect because it is lovely truly then it is noble it is free and all actions that it produceth are truly generous but if you take Love as most do though you consider it in those whose Virtues were never blemish't by it yet all those actions they exhibit to the world which may seem most generous and most noble are neverthelesse servile and abject whilst desire as an inseparable accident accompanies their Love and makes those actions of seeming generosity to be but the effects of their own desire and in all they do serve their own ends I do not make mention of those whose Loves carry them to base ends being converted to Lust and to do things odious to them in their right reason you l say that none that are virtuous can be led to such actions whilst that Virtue lasts I confesse they cannot but I believe and know by experience that this passion whereon we treat is able to stifle the motions of Virtue and to insinuate those of Vice and make those persons do that which being clear from this passion they would detest and which could not be attributed to their natures but to the enforcement of their passions Some I know whose Virtues are Eminent do not yield in the least to their passion but overcome it by their Virtue and though they Love they cannot be said to be subjugated by it because it is subordinate to their Virtues I do not speak this without reason and this small digression may be some preparative to what I shall relate for in my first Loves I acted nothing against the precepts of Virtue but afterward whether my passions were more violent or lesse pure they drew me into actions that made me justly hate both my self and that passion which was the cause of them which when you have heard though it may not make you hate a passion so deeply setled in you yet it may excuse my aversion in that it caus'd me to do actions so detestable and unworthy of my self which hath drew thousands of teares from my eyes for some small expiation of my follies But I would not have you think I am an enemie to Love rightly stated for Love is the purest spark of the soul and that which illustrates the whole man and I may truly say that it is the fountain of all good and without it man were not man so the want of it is the chiefest cause of all evil But by this I mean that Love which never introduced any desire but being an emanation of the gods acts it self to that which is most pure and doth most partake of its essence and I cannot call this a passion but a fire taken off from the altar of the Gods communicating nothing but what is most pure and Celestial and making the possessor of it like to the Gods themselves In this our two Geniis find a great matter of Contestation for if the one inspire it or rather the Gods and that seek to preserve it our black Daemon endeavours to subvert it and knowing that it is apt to work upon what is fair and like it self it exhibites beauty and formositie and then stirring up a sensual desire contaminates that lustre and almost
Romans and I can attribute their gaining of that Victorie to nothing else or their good fortune Yet the Romans had little cause to rejoyce for their Victorie being gain'd with so great losse and blood on both sides for the remainders of both could not make up half the number of one party before they met We were not ignorant what was done on each side the Camp for we soon knew we all ranne the like fortune and that the same resistance on every side had caus'd the same internecation I had trouble enough at the losse of this Victory but a new surcharge more afflicted me when I heard that Lilibilis was slain upon the place besides the affection that I bore the man I had some cause to doubt that Amenia would vituperate me for his losse Gurgulonis with his partie put himself into Lancia whilst I made my retreat with mine to the Mountaines I got some to accompanie me and adventured when the Romans were retreated into their Camp to fetch off the body of Lilibilis and first bestowed many teares due to him as being my Entertainer as being the Father of Amenia and as being the valiant and noble Lilibilis Having first I say bestowed these teares upon his dead corpes which had received many wounds I sent it to Asturica to Clotuthe and Amenia and with it this Letter Euripedes to the fair Amenia IF the overflowing of your just teares can permit you to read these lines let them tell you I bewail your losse with the greatest dolor possible can be imagin'd and that I never felt more powerfull affliction for the losse of my own Parents than I do for the losse of the father of Amenia The Gods had been more Just and I more satisfied if I had been presented to you in the place of Lilibilis and that he had remain'd alive for the comfort of Amenia The desire I have to defend this Countrey to the utmost of my power and to revenge the death of Lilibilis but especially that obligation you put upon me at my abcession not wilfully to precipitate my self to death makes me survive so great a losse You may well take off that command for after the receiving so great a losse you cannot be sensible of a lesse and give me leave with those few men that have escaped the last battel to endeavour the revenge of Lilibilis by the shedding the last drop of my own blood I desire not but to die in the Encounter and by that to give you proofs of the affection of Euripedes I gave those men a charge that went with the body of Lilibilis to tell Clotuthe and Amenia that I could not leave those few men the Gods had left me to come to comfort them in their affliction without apparent danger of losing the Countrey and abandoning all to the Enemy and that I preserv'd my life only to do them service Whilst they went with that sorrowfull spectacle to Asturica I gather'd up the scattered forces that were left and retired to the Mountaines which kept us very safe and secure Carisius sent a party after us whilst himself went to beleaguer Lancia Those that follow'd us found that we were resolv'd enough and being gotten among strong Bulwarks we often fallyed forth upon them to their great disadvantage and though they far exceeded us in number yet could they not gain any advantage over us I would have perswaded my men to have hazarded a battel but I could by no meanes bring them to it because the Romans exceeded them They often attempted in vain to enter our holds and to beat us thence but they lost their men without effecting the least against us This made them leave us and retire to Carisius who wanted their help to besiege Lancia where he found notable resistance we fallied out upon their Rear and very much endamag'd them but we were fain to retire to the Rocks again for to secure our selves being so few in number and not able to oppose any considerable body without the help of those Sconces In this part of his relation he was interrupted by the bringing in of Supper and after they had taken that repast Euripedes led Argelois into a Chamber very well furnish'd which he had appointed for his Lodging Argelois desiring him to finish his Relation for that it was not very late and that he had no desire to sleep He as willing to satisfie his guest as might be placed himself between Lonoxia and him and after recollecting himself he proceeded The end of the second Book ELIANA BOOK the third IN this condition we remained sometime resting in those sconces after our labours to ease and refresh our selves whilst I sent out many of the Officers to collect what forces they could throughout the Countrey In this time of vacancy whilst I stay'd for the addition of those forces they could get I had time enough to exercise my immaginations on my Amoretta's and to ruminate very much on those affairs Such thoughts as these eased the trouble I had for Lilibilis death If thought I that Amenia has any inclinations to me and as she has told me her self that if by the laws of duty she were not bound to the contrary she would declare her self more for me and that I should not be so severely dealt withall may not I believe that the caprichious fortune hath not dealt unfavourable in taking away Lilibilis who was the only obstacle of my good Now she has no duty which she alwayes pleaded to fight against her inclinations if she has any to me Now I shall quickly see whether those words proceeded from her heart or only to keep me here for the interest of her Countrey Now her fortune is so hazardous as also Mandone's that it may be she will slie into my arms for protection and be glad to accept that proffer of leaving her Countrey rather then fall into the hands of the Romans whom she deadly hates By and by I should say thus within my self by reflecting upon the goodness of Lilibilis Mean spirited Euripedes thou oughtest not to admit these thoughts to mitigate thy just grief for the good Lilibilis nor is it just for thee to build any hopes by his fall thy love to him which should be built either from his friendship or his virtue should not be lessened by his death as to make thee forget his memory and to flatter thy grief with such hopes What if Lilibilis was the only obstacle of thy happiness he was the father of Amenia and thy friend thou wilt not be so impious as to rejoyce at his death though it enthrone thee in the highest felicitie and to have no other thoughts but to raise him from the grave thou wouldst forgo all whatsomever thou couldst pretend to from thy passion and deny thy self with so much magnanimity for the father of Amenia Thou poorly flatterest thy self to think that necessity will drive Amenia into thy arms no she is not so ignoble as to
or Love proceeding from similitude of qualities or manners or of morall love generall or particular to men or naturall to children or parents all whose causes are indifferent and besides that passion on which I insist and which cannot be without diversity of sex as the other may But the cause of this as generally the chiefe cause of all love is an attractive power which causeth an expansion or emotion of the soule and spirits to an object which she thinks convenient for her and which must be a conception of need or want of the object Now privation it selfe is evill and love being privation and want of an object is therefore evill for the effect of it beeing desire seeks the possession of that object and so makes the love circular to attract that to the soule which she seemes to want Now if we then wanted nothing we should not desire any thing which shewes we are not compleat in our selves and desire being the exhibition of want and the effect of love shews that the foundation it self is evill for that it is grounded on want Then besides if you look upon the outward cause of attraction whether it be beauty or any other exterior quality of the object beloved and the possession of it desired which is alwayes suffulted with hope the very causes themselves being vanity or not worthy objects for the soules egression to or opperation upon that desire and that love cannot be good the causes themselves being not absolutely good but vain and transitory But this by the way the chief thing I proposed was to insist on the effects of this passion which plainly exhibit the evils of it and out of which as from the fountains head all other evill passions have sprung This also we may consider in relation to the body and to the soule First consider this in relation to the body and that must be relatively and as it is joyned with other passions whose motions cause the diversity of motions in the body Through this the body which is as it were the case of the soul is imbued through the conjunction of the soule with the body with pain with languishing with restlesseness and all the senss feel the effects of this passion upon the soul by exposing the body to danger by wounds by torments and oft times by death all which happen through the exuscitation of other passions Now the soule suffers innumerable evills for first all passions as griefe hatred envie wrath malice revenge disdain and divers other particular passions which spring from this love all which falling upon the body agitate it to diversity of motions and without rest causes the soule to a continuall solicitous care of obtaining the object of its desires which if once hope faile then dispair the foretunner of mischiefe carries the soule into wonderful precipitancies and if in its best estate that hope continues it is never without fear jealousie and a soâ—icitrous care of conserving the object of its love so that the soul is under a continuall agitation by those paâ—sions that necessarily accompany love and so cannot enjoy the rest it ought to have But now to leave this kind of Philosphicall discourse let us speake of it morally and let us consider the evill effects it hath produced in the world and then we will define it thus Love is a most fatall plague a most venemous poyson a most ardent and foolish desire and the source and fountaine of all evill Men when once they are entred into this passion quite lose their former natures for this passion contaminates their reaâ—on tyranizeth over their wills makes them subject to the egregious fancies of the object they seek to acquire it deprives them of Jugdment â—â—ills them with all manner of passions which caries them into aâ—l mannâ—â— of preciptation their minds are continually tost to and fro on the wheel of love being stimulated with that Oestrum they are jacted câ—â—â—â—ted agitated versated by this passion and fill'd with exanimation distinction direption and accompanyed with cares feares jealousies false and faint comforts disquiets languishings longings rage and what not that is evill and all but for the acquiring of a little vain pleasure which vanisheth assoon as 't is caught And besides all these folly lust sinne doings turbulent motions and precipitancies wait on lovers And if we should go about to summe up the bad consequences and effects of this passion with the evils it hath caused we should find them innumerable for what disturbances what commotions what hurly burlies what distractions what battalls what slaughtars hath it caused and what rapes what sinnes what polutions what sueds and what murthers hath it committed was it not the cause of the distruction of ancient Troy was it not the cause of the banishing Kings out of Rome Was it not the cause of the abolishing the Decemveri hath it not been the cause of many murders was it not the cause of the wicked and inhumane slaughter of Absyrtus the brother of Medea was it not the losse of Megara when Nisus lost his fatal hair by his daughter Scylla Alas it would be endlesse to recount these things so well known and generall hated and yet this dispicable unprofitable and dangerous passion cannot be shunned but embraced by those who acknowledge the evills of it but yet wilfully maintaine its interests They cannot take example by others nor shun the precipicies they see others fall into before their eyes but that they also must rush into them Neither can I see any good at all that this passion doth produce but on the contrary those that are free from it enjoy all the quiets felicity ease pleasures and freedome which the other are incapable of and which is most miserable of all of free men and unconstrained they become slaves subjects and bound to obey the motions of their owne passion and will of an inconsiderate mistris who it may be is as dispicable in the unblinded eye of another as she is lovely in his Nor let it serve any to excuse it by saying they are forced and cannot decusse it for it is impossible for all men to mastre this passion if they resolve to set their wills to doe it but so long as they account it good and best for them they are not able to overcome it because they doe not seek it truly but cherish and obey every motion that cometh from it But if they were once convinced of the evill of this passion and were resolved to forsake it I make no question of the possibility of their effecting it There may be divers wayes proposed for the decussion or prevention of this evill the chief of which as I suppose is a constant imployment of the mind either in study or armes whereby it may have no time to fall into that which as they say is accquired by a supine and idle life fit to entertaine such a guest and justly sent as a plague from the Gods to such a soule Other
wayes may be taken as they lye convenient to the person but chiefly the diverting of the mind from thoughts which feed the fancie and inflame the soul and a seperation from the object with an intention of the mind on some other thing is the way to acquire a freedome from that slavery I have given you freely my oppinion of this passion I have so well experienced though indeed I enveigh not against it for the detrement I have receiv'd by it but for that it seems to me evill in it selfe and worthy of greater condemnation I know generous Argelios that your generosity will pardon this freedome of speech against that in which you are so interested Argelios seeing he had concluded return'd him an answer thus I will not spake for this passion because I am immerged in it thereby to justifie my self or oppose your gravity but because I think it justifiable therefore I will give you my poor conceptions of it There is scarcely any thing here on the earth that is so pure but that in it there may be found a commixion of drosse nothing so good but in 't there is retained some bad and nothing so convenient but it may have its discommodities We must not be therefore all spiders to extract the poyson and leave the virtue by that means we shall make every thing odious and abhorrible But we must as well denote the good as the evill the benefit as the discomodity of this passion and then you will see the ballance prepond on my side The last night I gave you some touches as I was able on the enormities of this passion which was the only thing that was evill in it But that I may answer so mething to what you have spoken against it since you are pleased to let my weakness exhibit it self I will briefly touch upon what you have said in order and as far as my memory will accommodate me shew that you have only considered the evils and exhorbitancies of this passion against which all those wise men you mention of all ages have declamed but the good it hath and is able to effect you have omitted it is against the irregularities that they have declared and not against the passion it selfe which is neither good nor evill of it selfe yet if it be as you say it effects all evills generally and is therefore to be condemned But I will shew that it is as capable of effecting good as evill and if I grant that evill is most comit monly effected by yet that is the fault of men not of the thing But to answer what you have said I will presuppose that your goodnesse will not be offended at what I shall deliver and that you will think it if I erre to be the weaknesse of my judgement and not the desire of my will and since truth is to be found out by opposition and discussion I hope it will be no peccation to oppose my conceptions to yours First I must deny what you say that this passion is evill of it selfe which is the chiefe and main point For if we conclude so then we must grant that all the passions of the soul are evill of themselves for they were all implanted in man at the same time and they are simply of one nature though different in effect which thing cannot be consentanious with the purity and justice of the Gods who created every thing good for what is evill we acquire it of our selves or have it infused by evill genij so that passions naturally are not evill but are made so by the use or rather the abuse of them Now if you grant as you cannot deny that the Gods created man good and pure what you have said to prove the evilenesse of this passion is to no effect For though this passion be conjoyned with desire which I grant is a token of need or want yet that want is not evill of it selfe for the Gods so created man and made him not alone and of himselfe able to subsist but indigent of some things For if man wanted nothing he were God for not to want is to be a creator therefore that privation you speake of is not evill for to desire which you call the badge of the wanâ— is as natural as to eat and drink and if to want be evill then man is wholly evil for he is made up of indigencies and desires In the next place you say that the objects of our love and desire are not absolutely good so that the causes or foundations being evil or rotten the effects or building cannot be good or found I say as all outward objects or any thing besides the Love and beutitude of the Gods themselves are not absolutely good so are they not absolutely evill but relie on our use or abuse of them For beauty is not evill of it selfe nor any outward accomplishment neither is it evill for us to desire it but the excesse or exorbitancy of desire may make it evill for if we do desire that which we cannot have without detriment to another or wrong to our selves or too much exceed in our desires then it is evill But when we bound them regularly they are not evill but may be used but further desire of it selfe is good for the only scope of it tends to the seeking of good as aversion the eschewing of evill but now if our desires are illuded by our judgements or are guided by our sense and not truly placed by our understandings and will then they are exorbitant and become evill and we oftentimes desire evills not as evils but being illuded in our judgements as good for so they are represented to our understandings and embraced by the will But now to the effects both upon body and soule I believe that I may parallel as much good that they receive by this passion to your evill For as Love and hatred are the Springs from whence all passions slow and receive a mixture of so these evils which you recount stow not soly from them but also those passions or emotions of the soule which we call good such then is joy estimation generosity humility magnanimity hope courage boldnesse pity compassion good-will gratitude lightheartednesse and the like all which serve as much to the comfort of soule and body and those you mention to the discomfort But now to follow you into your morality where you consider the evill effects proceeding from the exorbitancy so I will only ballance and exhibit the good that follows the regularity And first I will give it a contrary definition thus regular Love is a plant sprung from the Gods which sharpens virtue quickens fortitude produceth boldnesse makes smooth the rough makes accute the understanding and opens a passage for all virtues Love in its regularity causes men indeed to forsake their former rough hewen natures and to become humane it is as pollishment to or as a foil to set off the luster of stones to such it makes them
become plyant gentle meek humble indues such as enter its school with loquacity elegant speech quickens their obtuse understandings makes the ignorant to become wonderfull learned by infusion fills the mouth of the rustick with complements causes rare and exquisit inventions helps to wisdome makes the soldier magnanimous the coward valiant the timorous fearlesse furthereth great archivements it also excites bounty liberality patience and fortitude and what indeed cannot the force virtue and power of love doe for it oft times so transports nature that it makes her capable of effecting things that seem impossible and puts such vigor that it will adventure on any difficulties It despiseth all dangers nay seeks to acquire them out of a hight of generosity to free the object beloved It overcomes death not with a foolish precipitancie but out of a setled resolution and joy for the object it delighteth in And though in the way to the end there be many vexations and troubles yet the enjoyment is thereby made more sweet and strengthned the more by it and recompences all troubles with it's deliciousnesse Now to what you alledge concerning the effects of it in the world how wicked and abominable they have been I will grant you that it hath effected more evill than good but this ariseth from the evill and poysenous nature of men and must not be laid upon the passion and though I grant what you inferre concerning its exorbitancy you erre much to think this passion effects nothing good and though I cannot cite so many and notorious examples as you may for the other yet I know there are those worthy of notation and recoâ—dation And againe as it hath been the occasion of much strife so it hath been the cause of much concord amity peace and quietude And is it not the greatest ligament in the world to concord when it joynes either sex in the bands of Hymen unites Kings states Lords and private men who are enemies and opposers of each other and causes them to become friends and in amity Is it not the chiefe effectriss of life when it attains the object of its desire We should never be regular in our lusts if we were not in the bonds of Love for that hinders the fancy from flying to diversity and causes an immoration on an object which it counts worthy of its emotions so that it is the conserver and not the destroyer of government and good order But to conclude I say the only thing to reconcile us is to put that just difference between the passion simply from whence all the good proceedes and the exorbitancy of it whence all the evill proceeds For in a pure soul it is like water in a Christall glass but in a polluted contaminated soul it is like clear water put into a polluted vessel whereby it becomes naught and good for nothing And though I have said it is a thing impossible to love without desire of attaining and enjoying yet in some it is made not the proposed end and doth not altogether partake of that brutality of lust but is of a purer nature not desireing the use of the object but to become one with it to be incorporated with it and not to take any thing from it but to immerge it self in it and very like the true love of friendship wherein is exercised all virtue and where love is of a more celestiall nature though that be not without desire of the good and of the welfare and continual presence of the object and this love to a different sex may participate much of that of friendship though it rarely is so perfect because we desire something to our selves But lastly to the close of your discourse I am not clearly of that opinion which you inferre that this passion may be shun'd or discussed by labour and industry by all I grant that we may become masters of it and regulate it to our wills and that time may slaken it or take it clean away in some the mind exerciseing its functions and in difuseing our love on more generall objects whereby it may be recalled from intention by expansion and I believe that it may be long prevented by meanes but that it may be decussed at pleasure or that we may so prepare our selves as not to be agitated by it I cannot grant For it is so suddenly caused that we have not time to fore-arme our selves for sometimes an exquisite beauty or other object wherein we are surpriz'd with admiration which causes desire which accompanied with hope gaines a possession suddenly sometimes it insensibly slides into the heart when through long conversation with an object natures sympathizing through a similitude of qualities it is fixed in the breast which innate Love growing to maturity and furthered by desire is hard to shake off and almost impossible And as you proposed means for the shaking off of this passion so I say those that are imbued with it though they may not have the power to decusse it yet they may have this power which the Gods in justice leaves them not so absolutely to give over their wills to another as to be ruled by their own passion for we may do the same thing in error and in judgment and it shall be evil in the one and not in the other though it be not evill in the act but in the manner for if we commit any indifferent thing by the guidance of our passion only without the examination of the understanding and ordination of the will it is evil But when we do the same thing out of a clear Judgment that it ought to be so and will it to be so then we do it not out of passion but out of Judgment so that the passion quickens the understanding when it gives it leave to work and leads to precipitancy through obcaecation when it is guided by its own temerity Therefore they must look to all exorbitant motions whatsomever to the regulation of their desires and to the freedom of their will though they have passion for their mistresses and then their virtues will be exercised their graces will be exhibited and their end will be glory Argelois thus ended and Euripides smiling I did not beleive said he you had been so strong in arguments for your passion I thought you could better have deffended it with your sword then by reason but I see there is nothing wanting to your compleatment I will no more differ with you and if it be possible I 'le make my self believe you however I will injure you no longer by keeping you from a happinesse you so much esteem but let me desire you to make my grote happy by your visits so long as you reside so near me for other obligations I remit my self into the armes of your generosity Argelois replyed with his wonted grace and sweetnesse and promising him to visit him as often as his passion and opportunity would give leave they parted Euripides returning to his grot