unremembred As it were in dispight of fate fantastically besotted with his body though extreamly afflicted and desirous to survive in others memories though with shame And the worst remembrance is more acceptable unto him then none at all Annihilation is an enemy to man not so much in respect of being nothing as of not being what he is VVe shall not peradventure find a subject so unfortunate that would be contented to be changed into another individium no not to exchange his fortune because the changing would be the annihilating of him Yet it seemes harsh that a man should have a recourse to wickednesse to make him remaine in the world to that which is not and to nothing because he would not be so and yet some do it and attaine to it whether it be because some writers willingly set downe any thing that is great or notorious sometimes to raise their stile with the relation sometimes to attract mens attentions with the rumour and with the great motion awake please and raise up the understanding they awake it but violently they raise it but to something which naturally and directly it abhorres they please it but often times corrupt it or whether it proceed from that all men take delight in such kind of relations the most wicked are comforted through the similitude the lesse bad extenuate their badnesse by comparing it the contrariety encreases the good mans merit Great actions though bad do in the matter communicate with good ones and with advantage because they do not find it limited as these last doe and so they deceive and those who think they can give instruction to others by laying them open and blaming them are oftentimes deceived They might doe some good in teaching of morall vertues if vertue as it hath a particular forme to distinguish it from vice had also a particular matter to worke upon Vertues matter is open and manifest vices is for the most part hidden and concealed and he is sometimes deceived in it that operates and he also that almost continually sees the operating One should not peradventure lose his labour in the teaching of morall vertues if there were no meanes to teach their contraries and that one might learne onely by example of imitation and not of shunning and avoyding There being onely one rectitude makes it a secure judge of obliquity It s having latitude makes it a deceitfull judger of rectitude Nature is inclined to evill and evill actions include a certaine acritude in themselves and if they be great and have a prosperous successe cause more to follow then to beware of them and make more emulators then enemies They merit but little of posterity that will relate evill actions causing that to be heard which themselves would unwillingly have seen Many evill things would be thought to have bin impossible to be done did not Historians set them down as done and how much better were it to avoyd falling into them to live deceived then warned Simplicity is a great vertue and ignorance is wisedome True it is that if the knowledge of the will which is done be taken away it makes a man sometimes runne into it but if the manner of doing it be â—â—ncealed it alwayes keepes one innocent There are times wherein bookes would bee cancelled and some men who ought not to be mentioned and seeing it is not in our power to forget them let us at least not mention them The ancient Romans did so but to what purpose was it if writers made mention in their Annals even of those men whom the Senate had cancelled out of its bookes undoing that which the Common-Wealth had done by relating that it had done it Is it not to be admired that those seven brave men which affected fame and renoune by erecting wonders in the world could not attaine to it and he that impiously burned but one of them for that purpose did get it in despight of all Greece which then strove with its uttermost might to have him blotted out of all mens memories A pestilent body leaves a contagious corps behind and though men leave being wicked yet they leave not producing of more and a delict when it is done and past serves yet for an example An infected body often communicates its infirmity but never its health though it be never so exquisitely cured I know not whether it be because that nature in providence drives away the evill from it selfe and thriftily reserves that which is good Or by reason that evill proceeds from any cause and that which is good from a sound and entire one onely The perfect mixt will have what is wholsome unwholsomnesse pâ—oceeds from a corrupt mixt in the first humility bounded by the naturall heat is fixed in the latter it flies unbounded This comes forth with its malignity and being a fumid vapour it takes hold and cleaves too the other retaines what is good and if it doth chance to come forth being a dry exhâ—lation it doth not fasten nor take hold This which befalls the body is also practised in the mind A good fame and renoune resembles rest the bad and great is like motion one is like a cleare and calme streame which though it be deep glides smoothly in its channell the other like a fierce torrent which swell'd and troubled runs violently precipitous with much noise Cur corrupt nature inclines to evill violently forceth it selfe to any good And seeing rest leaves no such impression as motion a cleere smooth streame drawes not with such violence as a troubled rough one and nature defends it selfe from its contrary and followeth its like we need not wonder if good examples seldome cure but evill ones doe for the most partinfect The renoune which remained of Alcibiades the membrance of his Counrry Parents Nurse Tutors when there was not any memory left to posterity of any of his companions no not so much as of their names causeth Plutarch to esteem him to be a man of eminent vertue Of such men I know not whether it bee because all things which belong to a great one are esteemed great or peradventure infamous the Country Parentage and Tutors are much enquired after and sometimes also what influence of the heavens he was borne under Or because wee should conceive that greatnesse is not attained is not the purchase of man himselfe but the gift of the influences of heaven of the nature of such a temperature of the assistance of Tutors and as accidentall not to bee valued in him As if he did not in himselfe include the seed of greatnesse and that to become conspicuous he must be aided by the nature of the soile the influence of the stars the temperature of his Parents and the education of his Tutors as if he were a plant no way excelling another were it not planted in a better earth nourishing by a more industrious hand and hath a more benigne influence of the heavens Man is prone to deprive himselfe of his
cause the person also which gave it to be applauded or whether it be because when any one gives consent to a thing the understanding being rather violently drawn thereunto then perswaded to it by reason he beleeves there is in him that perswades somewhat which is above reason and therefore without any further enquiry he will recommend the issue of that which he had voted not knowing what it was to him that perswaded him to it Yet notwithstanding the Athenians considering Alcibiades to be rash and violent to restraine and mitigate these qualities in him assigned him Nicias a wise and staid subject for a companion Because wise men presuming upon their own wisdome not knowing how little it availes in sublunary things will thereby direct those things also which they have begun through the impulsion and violence of fate Or because we being composed of a nature which being an enemy of simple and unmixt things hath every thing mingled in it cannot be quiet our selves untill wee have produced a mixt But whatsoever be the cause the issue thereof which hath alwayes bin unfortunate should make us not to adhere to any such manner of opinion which is either ill argued upon by the understanding or little favoured by heaven What can bee gotten by it but the depriving our selves of good forsaking that advantage which by each quality several might be obtained The staid and prudent man causes the rash and hare brained to lose that fortune which assists and favours bold men The rash man spoyles the prudent mans councells and advices not suffering them to come to maturity but preventing them with fury and violence The primary qualities of the elements are qualified controuled and corrected by themselves mans qualities remaine entire they are continually justling encountring one another but never joyne nor qualifie themselves The rash man gives an onset the prudent man will not second him One goes as it were with feet of lead to engage himselfe the other flyes into an engagement with wings of fire The prudent man thinkes he shall utterly lose himselfe unlesse he forsake his companion and sometimes goes back when by going on he might have conquered Tacitus relates the vertues and vices of Mutian and Vespasian He doth not say they would have made a good compound being in two severall subjects but if they had been both joyned in one he will have a mixt made by Nature and not by Art where the parts grow neere but doe not unite or at least not mix each holds keeps its inclinations to its proper ends And though the first vertues from which the accidents have their originall be sometimes dashed to pieces yet the last remains intire so that in operating they frame as many characters as they are themselves always different and for the most part contrary The knowledge of the first qualities and ignorance of the second loses both the Physitian and the patient if we did not want this knowledge the medicines which were most mixt would be the best for our body is more mixt then than any other by this means bearing the worldly imperfection to make a difference between it and heavenly perfection for there the most pure and simple are the best and here the most mixed and mingled are excellentest The Athenians not content that they had sent Nicias Alcibiades to the enterprise of of Sicilia doe appoint Varianus also for that service Two contraries had need have a third to the end that if they cannot be united one to another they may be both joyned in him which he may easily attain to if he participate of both their qualities So the aire by meanes of its heat is united to fire by means of its moistness to water water by its coldness unites it selfe to the earth by its moistness to the aire From whence growes the rawly-composed order of this great vniverse But because Varianus was not so but was likewise full of rage boldness this seemed to be rather a putting the enterprise into the hands of temerity than securing it unless that were the way to secure it A prudent man is not sitting to undertake bold attempts which are beyond Reason they are to be atchieved by the hands of a daring fierce man or not at all Prudence hath measure for is actions temerity is unlimited in using it somtimes are performed extravagant unlookt for atchievements He that makes use of it hath an advantage to assault by way of surprize to amaze to disorder to confound binding the understanding either to lose it selfe or take a sudden resolution in a thing which was never discoursed upon It runnes violently upon some inaccessible way and finds it without defence because every one stands armed against Wisdome and lies open to Temerity Therefore wise men for feare of this make a golden bridge for him that flies and Conquerours make a way for them that runne One may erre it is true by temerity but one shall sometimes doe the like through prudence The wise man casts him selfe into the armes of reason the rash man puts himselfe into the hands of Heaven And because things have seldome that end which other men judge hee erres seldomer that hath not discoursed upon affaires then hee that hath judged of the events The understanding is within us imprisoned in the body and intangled amongst the senses Nature is without loose free and not subject to erring The Philosopher defines Temerity to be an act without reason Hee might peradventure be deceived An unfortunate act is out of the bounds of reason but a fortunate one is above it An impulse of nature which alwayes aymes at truth is more available then a motion of the understanding which discourses upon likelihoods and if nature erres it is because one making no difference between our particular nature and the universall beleeves that impulse to be superior to reason which is without any as if the senses and the heauens did move in the same manner Others confiding too much in their owne understanding hold all that to be a defect in the inferior part which is dissonant from the superior as if there were not a supreme which they sometimes doe not know and sometimes oppose erring for the most part by fearing not to erre It is too hard for the one to forget that they have understanding and for the other to discern the impulses of a not erring nature from the provocation of a corrupt one Alcibiades was noted for and accused of impiety as if totally irreligions in some actions he had made a mock of the Gods and had by night cut off the heads of all Mercuries Statues which were set up in divers places of Athens A wise man among the Gentiles wept at the ignorance of his times in which they worshipped so many and such ridiculous Gods And raising himselfe by the power of his understanding to a more sublime Sphere easily penetrated into the knowledge of one onely â—ne A Subject raised
as he was borne But since to not be borne did not lie in his hands nor dying doth not let him hide himselfe to make men beleeve that he is not borne and that he lives as if he were dead Surely if he did know his evill fortune he would withdraw into the woods and if it were knowen to others he would be forced to retreate thither Wee can hardly make our selves beleeve we have it unlesse we make more then one essay but others may easily know that we have it without having experimented it Great Princes Kings and Monarchs in whose hands seemes at first to lie the giving and taking away of their subjects fortune if they did withstand the motions which they inwardly feele they would know the quality of fortune by the inward effect which moves in them And how behove-full would it be to recule and set by unfortunate men ere they were scarce known and to bring fortunate men out into the light they having no need of any other triall but what they feele within themselves of instinct or loathing Fortunate men overcome fortune with following it the unfortunate with yeelding to it How many times doth nature kill a man no diseases assaulting nor engaging him because it doth assault and engage them There aâ—e according to the opinion of learned men certaine venemous humours which remaine a long time in a mans body without hurting it because nature hath laid them aside in some ignoble part farre from the heart and hath not medled with them nor stirred them which humours if she once set upon she is lost And unfortunate man would live secure all the dayes of his life if seeing he cannot any way move fortune he would recule and remove himselfe not comming to triall with her to assault her Man daily calls fortune unconstant and yet learnes not to cease his admiration when he sees her inconstancy If he he doth not know her to be such why doth he give her that attribute and if he doth know it why doth he wonder at it when he sees it inconstant This alwayes accompanies ignorance and doth not admit of providence What is there firme in the world The earth to day brings forth a plant and makes shew as if would raise it up as high as heaven Goe by and come againe that way within a few dayes and you shall see it turned to ashes and quite abandoned as soon as it is perfected Behold a Tree that hath happily brought its fruite to maturity and hath born it all the while it was imperfect and as soone as it is come to perfection suffers it either to wither or rot These things are daily seen and yet no man wonders at such an inconstancy But if we do but think of an Alexander the great extolled and raised up to the skies then when he is at the height left in the hands of an unfortunate death his Monarchie first divided and then destroyed Then we cry out against fortune and call it inconstant If all wordly things are subject to these kinds of motions and changes why doe we ascribe them to fortune more then to any thing else Truely because it hath least part in it and is therein more inconstant because it hath no certainty in its inconstancy wherefore we complaine of its good deeds and our owne ignorance is the cause of our wondring it being not alwayes inconstant but we not knowing when it will be so Men have to this day sought the cause why it comes to passe that subjects raised by fortune are by the same in an instant cast downe and that she shewes her power most adverse there where her favours have bin most conspicuous and no body hath yet bin able to give a just reason for it not so much because they could not give a resolution of the Probleme as because they have not framed nor stated the Probleme right but have laid it falâ—e For many yea very many who have bin raised by fortune have remained so all their life time and it hath followed them to their very graves The reason of this diversity of effects is that which must be sifted out Iupiter and Venus doe not alone influxe fortunes but Mars and Saturne likewise have their influences and with them the fixed starres of the first greatnesse all of them except Spica Virginis defiled with the violent qualities of these malevolent ones The way is different and the manner contrary Some doe raise men are raised by Violence Misfortune Sword Fire Bloud Slaughters and Battailes Some againe by meanes of Sciences Vertues Councells and Prudence are brought mildly up to degrees of eminency Out of the first are framed Tyrants and Generalls of Armyes out of the latter Lawgivers Councellors Princes Priests Each have their Catastrophes according to their nature when once the Aspect turnes from being friendly to be adverse But the dammages and harmes which are influxed by Iupiter and Venus are not Tragicall The change of State is not suddaine and even the death it selfe is milde Saturne and Mars doe every thing violently Looke but upon the seven Kings of Rome in its very first beginning and you shall see them all except Numa Pompilius die violent deaths In them you shall for the most part see the violence of misfortunes involv'd amongst destructions bloud In this the mildnesse of Iupiter Venus Councell Prudencie and Religion Consider many peacefull Princes Legislators Councellors and Priests risen to the very height of happinesse And on the other side many Princes that have bin Warriors Tyrants Generalls of Armies And in these you shall find for the most part Tragick Catastrophes in the other very seldome any violent ones But the infortunate man hath not onely nature and the starres adverse to him but men also whose envy he stirreth up against him through his pride and even God himselfe moving him to wrath with his wickednesse Yet his fortune may wither a little and yet not be quite corrupted he may by his prudency oversway the starres with humility mitigate men and with piety appease God Finally if Alcibiades had not the delight of an unsavoury and continued happinesse he had it of a sharpe and often renewed one The habit of a Wrestler as the wise man said being arrived to the very height of goodnesse cannot be increased but it will perish nor cannot be kept at a stay but it will change nor change without growing worser The remedy is to diminish it that it may be increased againe Even so happinesse being arrived to the height must descend and if you stay till the descent comes accidentally it often turnes to a precipice If it comes by wisdom and foresight it occasions a new delight by rising againe There is no way for one to rise when he is at highest but first he must come downe lower Fortune is favourable when chance carries him downe genâ—ly and it is an eminent understanding which will disposes his will to it There is no great
Youth should grieve at the defects of old age and old men laugh at the ignorance of youth But they are not sorry that a young man wants wisdome but onely that he doth not know it and esteem it because they exceeding in this noble vertue the daughter and onely comfort of old Age they are grieved to see that Talent despised for which onely they can bee respected and reverenced Young men laugh at old men because the deformity which they see present being greater than the griefe moves their imagination stronglier than the future on which oftentimes they doe not think and which they know not whether it will happen or no or hope it will be better What a barbarous thing is a young man Let him that will bee safe from him shun him he walks in unknown wayes and I had almost said like a thing mixt of Man and Beast the degree of the mixture is unknown what he will be is impenetrable sometimes they are like Beasts because they doe not make use of reason sometimes worse because they abuse it The overmuch heat hinders wisdome in youth too much coldnesse extinguishes it in old age sometimes it never comes but man passes from immaturity to rottennesse and when it does come it is alwayes late and lasts but a little It is almost the onely one amongst sublunary things which doth not receive the proportion of Periods a Beginning a Being an Increase and Declining Quintilian wonders why all men being made by Nature to be good few are such I to not wonder at it doe rather consider whence it proceeds that the superior part for the most part is not so and whereas it is made to command it obeyes Peradventure the advantage of yeares is a great cause of it in which our sense doth with ease tyranny over us without meeting with any opposition or let from the soule and because they are the first yeares it takes strong root and being many it frames a habit Then comes Reason in and findes the Tyrant already in possession fortified and rooted It must fight against that which he is and that which he hath done it must subdue the forces of sense overcome the resistance of habit and destroy that Nature to frame a new one But why doe we not at the first as soon as we are born attain to reason Peradventure because we would then presently operate without a guide and wanting experience we should precipitate Learned and wisemen induced by a case which happened in our dayes and being singular and almost monstrous makes no president have believed that a Subject may securely passe over from speculation to practice without any further experience I will here set down my opinion therein with all due respect and reverence to famous Writers of great merit If truth onely wâ—re the object of our understanding and not that also which is like unto it there would be no error And if all things could be demonstrated there would be no opinions the deficiency of the one and super-abundancy of the other ruine the world The understanding despairing of demonstrating the truth gives it selfe over to vanity and goes in quest of opinion and not being able to acquiesce in it he raises himselfe higher and seekes to stirre up admiration through novelty seeing he cannot teach and direct with truth He esteems himselfe to be a brave man in Sciences that makes not the clearest but the hardest argument which though it doth not convince yet it overcomes the understanding as if the ones wisdome consisted in the others ignorance and truth which should be the easiest for the understanding to finde as the center of ponderous things is sought out by difficult obscure things How many things are there daily seen which because we know not how they are nor how they are done doe astonish and breed admiration in us for nothing else but onely because we take the lofâ—iest and most difficult way to understand what they are and how performed And afterward if the Artificer doe divulge it we finde it to be an easie and plaine way we acknowledge the error we cease our admiration and remaine ashamed The like would happen in questions concerning Sciences if truth were discored to us and that God did not hide it from man shewing him this great Fabrick of the World keeping him still in disputes not letting him understand it because he will mortifie him The Politick truth of the future being then ordinarily concealed how shall such an understanding find it which is accustomed to elevate it selfe above the matter to seek extravagant wayes to subtilize distinguish invent and imagine that if it doth not pâ—netrate into it it happens because it doth not raise elevate it self suffâ—ciently Then in our case it finds it self in a lowly gross matter not hard to be attained because the understanding doth not reach unto it but because for the most part it goes beyond it One going from Sciences where he is schollar that followes the opinions of those that went before him and he a master that invents and comming to the politick where Experience is Mistress and he a Master that followes it shall commit as many errors as the things are which he invents despairing of ever warranting or assertâ—ng any thing if he doth not turn from being a Master to be a Schollar forsaking speculation which is an enemy to Experience But above all others he shall seldome prove able in politick affaires that is accustomed to interpret the holy Scripture The difficulty proceeds not onely from the difference of tâ—mes God then making for the most part the secondary causes obedient to merit and now letting them oftentimes runne in favour of injustice but likewise from the difference which is between the Divine and Humane intellect the one infinite the other finite this an accident that a substance The holy Ghost doth not speak a word for one thing alone his sense may be interpreted for any thing that is pious for he meanes it all Hee gives scope of altering thoughts interpret and inlarge the old invent new teach with the doctrine and delight with the variety without prejudice of truth But man doth and saith one thing onely for it and and not alwayes for that which he should doe or say In what case then shall that man finde himselfe who comes from interpreting the Divine meaning which is so large and so good and goeth to interpret that of men which is alwayes short and for the most part evill seeing that in the one he cannot erre without he digresse and in the other men have often erred because they have not digressed I doe not say that discourse is not necâ—ssary for man I exclude it in speculative Sciences and admit it in what belongs to practice snow to be snow ought to be white and so ought a woman to be fair and yet notwithstanding if snow were as a woman it would not be white and if a woman were of the
diminishes it The way to great actions would be lost or they which attempt them would lose themselves without attaning to them if the opposing ones selfe to him that tramples upon him did not not bring blame and infamy along with it and the surmounting of him praise and honour Envy which reigned in us one part of the world more than in Greece sometimes banishing worthy and eminent subjâ—cts sometimes hindering them from attaining to their aimes suffered not that noble and excellent Country to obtaine any great conquests whereas the Roman Common-wealth in a small time attained to the universall Monarchy The Grecian valour was great but inferior to the Italian the Italian wits were eminent but not equall to the Grecian In the one the braine was greater then the heart in the others the heart greater then the braine Where the understanding surmounts valour there is most envy where valour outgoes the understanding most emulation The one vilified seekes by subtilty to bring downe him that is grown up above him the other encouraged by valour seekes to overcome and surmount him Envy saith Aristotle growes from the sirâ—ilitude I say moreover that it growes like a plant from its seed and as man from humane seed The semblable causeth great delight and is not parted from without much distaste unlesse it be done willingly to incâ—ease or at least not to diminish it which will be when it happens to decrease if not really yet in conceit The first effect that it produces meeting with a breast not quite opposite to vertue is Emulation which prickes on the desire to goe forward Not to get away from him who is gone beyond him that which he hath gotten but to attaine himselfe to the getting of the same If he doth not attaine to it he oftentimes proceeds to a desire to have the other want it and then th' emulation becomes envy which if it remaine in him in a short time provokes him to wrest it from him and turnes to rage and hatred And this is a vice proper and peculiar to mans nature Horses and Mules to which are likened the worst of men are not subject to it nor the good Angels to whom the best and most excellent men come neere no nor the Devill himselfe who amongst all bad ones is the worst It is much that one degree onely which distinguishes us from our equall by reason of his or our owne advancing should move the passions of joy or griefe with so much violence and that many degrees when they carry our superior farre up above us or raise our inferior after us doe not produce the same effect Peradventure these though they increase yet they doe not goe out of the latitude of the Spheare The difference is in the more or lesse The motion is an alteration but an equall cannot move to step forward but presently and in an instant he becomes a superior He makes no motion but it is generall no difference but specificall If motion be the cause of joy and griefe and the greatest and most suddaine motion causeth the greatest how should the growing at distance and advancing from equality seeing it must be a sudaine act for defect of latitude and great by reason of the alteration of the species but produce Joy and Griefe in an eminent degree This law was defective in the manner of putting it in execution it was by the peoples particular votes not disgested or considered upon by conference Every one in particular sent Hyperbolus into exile All joyned together were ashamed of it It was not the whole commonalty that exiled him yet was it they who blamed the exiling of him The whole to be more then the parts requires an union if that failes it will not take effect if it divides it corrupts It loseth its name and also its vertue The voyce of this community united is called Gods voyce of each one in particular is like the devills Plinie wonders that such a joyned multitude should daunt an Orator who would speake boldly to any of those men particularly And why doth he not also marvaile that a bundell of rods cannot be bent nor bowed and each severall rod may with ease be broken to pieces Strength is a vertue of union most manifest in the peoples unity which resembles the Divine where it goes with violence to overcome it breakes and shivers whatsoever opposes it when it is bent to judge it strikes terror when united together it powres forth prayers it forceth I had almost said the very heavens Man is affrighted astonished trembles and loses himselfe in the presence of the object which he loves at the Kings feet to whom he bowes at the sight of the people to whom he speaks not for any thing that he sees which is humane but for that is represented to him which is Divine hee discovers in his beloved a beame of Divine beauty in the Assembly of the people Divine unity in the Kings greatnesse Divine Majesty and Ompotency From this manner of voting likewise proceeded that dangerous errour of little Secresie They shewed the blow before they struck whereas that should have preceded swifter than a Thunder-bolt not onely the noyse but even the flash It is too dangerous to startle and affright a subject whom wee may have cause to feare The interessed party be they never so wise and cautelous stands alwayes vigilant and attentive to the dammage which may befall him If too much care be the daughter of Suspition it is the enemy of Truth It troubles the imagination and this being troubled though it doth not make that to be which is not yet it makes it seem to be so And what man is so circumspect that in the passing of moneths I will not say of yeares can be so wary in his actions as that none of them shall give an extreame watchfull man some cause to doubt or mistrust The next degree to watchfulnesse is Suspition and mistrust it would be farre better if it were to trust and beliefe Hee that trusts is bound presently to secure himselfe of the subject And because he gives him not time to move if he is a traytor or to become one if he be not so he commonly attaines very well and hapily to what hee intends Hee that mistrusts before hee can resolve himselfe endeavoureth to finde the truth and let him goe about it as warily as he can when he comes to use the meanes he discovers his intention the subject that perceives it presently finding himselfe lost if hee hath not a truly Christian breast or is not a most subtile Morall Philosopher who to avoyd the stain of finne or note of infamy will rather than become guilty expose himselfe to the danger of dying innocent will hold it a kinde of pusillanimity not to die guilty And if he be a Traytor he will at that very instant discover himselfe if faithful he will become treacherous The former hath the greatest advantage who hath the meanes already
judge the greatest action to bee best Hence it is that the rash and foolehardy man is rather applauded then the valiant the prodigall rather then the liberall The little difference that is between vertue and vice hath also a share in this mistake where vice is accompanied with ambition because that though the subject suffer himselfe to be hurried away by the senses to vices ye he so carrries himselfe therein that amongst the vices now and then shines forth some act not through vertue but through vehemency sometimes of liberality sometimes of magnanimity sometimes of fortitude sometimes of affability And sometimes also in the midst of incontinency a thing which seemes very strange and yet is true he shewes signes of great continency The roote is not really in vertue as if it were not yet utterly extinguished it is in the embers of it heated by the vice of ambition A great vertue is a speciall meanes to have a great vice born withall and pardoned like to a glance of light which it brings along with it and with the splendor makes the judgement to eâ—re there can be no eminent understanding without some parcell of folly It is set downe by wise men for an infallible axiom The reason of it is not easily given There bee understandings which seeme to be great and are rather unbrideled and wild ones They draw men away before they can follow them They run and in a manner flie moved by a heate which doth not onely warme but enflame and set them on fire the Carrier is swift It is a horse which runnes loose and hath not wisedome sitting upon him to governe and guide him This kind of understanding is peradventure one of those which Seneca calls uncontinent and which St Paul desires might be sober Attributes which seem metaphorical and are most proper because that manner of speculation is a note of the manner of operating seeing that the same heate which let loose the reines to the higher part sets the lower also at liberty And as the unbrideled understanding goes where it ought not to goe so the senses set at liberty run whither they will Men who cleerely see the defects of the inferior part and in the superior can discerne nothing but what is great they judge that subject to abound in many vertues and many vices when that is also a vice in him which seemes not to be so Other understandings there be which are so attentive and fixed upon speculation that being wholly set upon it dividing in a manner the soule from the body raise themselves with the former and grow carelesse os the latter and whilest they endeavour to shew the greater part to be man they discover the other to be beast To this ancient Poets had a relation when they represented Satyres their upper parts like men and the lower like goates Whilst the understanding is busie in speculation the senses runne and skip about like goates having none to direct or rule them Meane understandings doe not raise themselves so high as to make such a division and whereas the other are men and beasts these are men-beasts and if they do not attaine to be such eminent subjects they doe not likewise come to be such great beasts Behold whence proceeds the inequality of eminent understandings because that according to Plato they have a parcell of madnesse in them Alcibiades was one of the first sort and so was almost all the Heroes Diogenes and most part of the Philosophers were of the second I know not by what spirit Galen was moved when instead of defending such a mans knowledge he defended his folly and incontinency Alcibiades advises the Athenians to make warre against the Sicilians He had no other reason to doe it but his owne desire of glory and to surpasse his emulator He that suffers himselfe to be overcome by this passion is never quiet nor suffers any one else to be so The appetite of the taste already satisfied with food runnes not to the desiring of new though better and if it doth runne to it it is not nature but intemperancy that perswades it Having received it into the stomack it is satisfied if it remaines there too long it loaths it if it quickly disgests he returnes to desire more The appetite of glory goes likewise to the object although mistaken Scarce is it touched by naturall heate to disgest it but poison-like it stupefies the understanding which scarce discovers it but it loaths it If one should take it away from it when it hath had it but a little while it would againe returne to desiring of it But those things which serve for an object to humane ambition have volatile spirits soaring upon the superficies and not fixed in the substance the understanding quickly takes them out and sodainly consumes them The thing remaines not living but a carkasse which because it remaines is not desired and because a carkasse doth not satisfie seeing that nature for a short time is contented with a little and is not for ever satisfied with an infinite It is a great dammage to not enjoy at all the glory one hath acquired and worse to keepe it but for an instant the one incites to greater things and the other oftentimes hinders from attaining them Unfortunate man that cannot be content with a little â— unlesse novelty trouble the discourse nor with much unlesse raâ—e and fury take it away All is but madnesse whereof the one is bound fast because it lasts the other would be bound if it lasted That which the wisest man in the world cannot doe a mad man sometimes doth it One doth not content himselfe with the state wherein he is the other is contented with that which he hath not because hee is deceived by a fixed desire which doth not set the defect before him he imagines he hath it as he desires and hath not so much free understanding left as to reason upon it how it would be if hee had obtained it and so to refell the deceits of imagination with arguments of reason Nature would shew that worldly happinesse doth not consist in having it but in the manner of considering that he onely hath it who contemplates things in their inside and possesses in that which he gaines the good which caused him to desire it They both erre the mad man with delight the wise man with trouble one in beleeving he hath obtained wherewith to content himselfe the other because he knowes not that hee hath obtained it The Athenians make Alcibiades head of the enterprise which himselfe had set forward and perswaded them to An ordinary way of proceeding both in Common-wealths Principalities because other men will not accept of that charge as another mans business Or peradventure he is judged fittest to be employed in it as having most interest in the good issue of it or as better informed of the meanes to attaine unto it I know not whether those influences which made the counsell acceptable
then that which one being present doth frame of himselfe bearing along with it the greatnesse of the actions without the abjectnesse of the matter Because their object is more pure conceived by meanes of the eare then by meanes of the eye that which is heard then that which is seene For a mans actions represented by fame all at once leave a kind of astonishment whereas the other being seen one by one languish the second being scarce come forth before the other be either dead or mortisied Because the Cittizen discovers the defects in his youthfull age which defects leave behind them if not a wound yet at least a scarre from which thing the stranger is free who onely manifests and discovers himselfe in that which is perfect Because envy hath no place in the former nor admiration in the latter Finally it is peradventure with a truer and more ordinary though a more concealed and deep reason for the naturall instinct of hoping for greater remedy in our affaires from the greater difficulty in attaining to it following therein nature it selfe which hath most concealed and made lesse store of those things which are most precious and given most glory to the hardest atchievements As for example there growes an herbe at our very foot and a man stands close by us the herbes are medicinall and the man able to heale us and defend us Yet wee will seeke for such in remote countries as if all our good consisted rather in the difficulty of obtaining then in the quality of things nature having imprinted in us the genius of despising what is obvious known to beleeve that which is most obscure to hope for that which is most difficult to admire that which is furthest off to make all that is great difficult to us either because it hath made it so or because we make it so to our selves Under a Prince it is not impossible but it seldome happens that a stranger shoud arrive to a chiefe degree of honour unlesse the Prince be a Tyrant or that he should continue there unlesse the Prince become one VVith the losse of life he concludes his being a favorite if he doth not maintaine himselfe in it by multiplying of banishments and slaughters But if the Prince be a Tyrant such a one may often arrive to it because the Tyrant feares the Citizens and the favourite may continue because the other makes him to be feared Finally Tullus through Jealousie Malice and hatred born to Coriolanus his vertue under pretence that hee had not prosecuted his enterprise to the destruction of his country caused him to be murthered by a conspiracy of some who were his adherents A mans Country hath in it a retentive quality for such as are borne in it and an attractive one for such as are travailed out of it This consists in the pleasure and delight which the providence of Nature alwayes communicates to needfull things and also in the aire the temperament the influences in the vertue which the place affoorded to the thing which is placed in it and peradventure in a mans being used and accustomed thereunto as much as in any thing else The efficacy and force of this last being full of contrarieties is hard to understand and unfold Sometime you shall heare the Philosophers say that the understanding dejects and dulls it selfe in a knowen thing and greedily turnes to a new one Sometimes you shall see an opinion laid hold of which will not be left to turne to any other although it be new The sense of tasting is tried with assuefaction and desires change of food The same happinesse in the sense of feeling and likewise in the sense of smelling The sense of seeing will seeme to be glutted with the sight of a thing and another which is not so beautifull will seeme fairer to it because it is new Sometimes a man being accustomed to one manner of cloathing will hardly be brought to another fashion but it will seeme ridiculous to him and sometimes also he will change for it as for a better In morall things one shunnes God a mercy custome that as a vice which another embraces as a vertue It is hard to finde out any thing that will make a man love his own destruction Hence growes the detestation of a contrary though it have novelty to take its part The understanding flies towards it because its object is not onely truth but all truths and as such it turns to it if it findes it contrary it turns from it as false and as from an enemy In fashions of Cloathes the sight will not endure a fashion much discrepant from the wonted and accustomed one and the fashions altering daily the change is not very sensible whereby a man comes to bee fatisfied and perswaded by the novelty without hitting upon unlesse it be in a very long time the contrary which he would abhorre The taste feeds upon food which in the beginning is unlike but in the end semblable the long use of it makes the body like unto it and consequently diminishes the delight seeing the appetite would have the unlike but yet you shall not see it for all this runne to that which is quite and immediatly contrary Assuefaction also likewise makes a great difference in the senses namely where they are meerly spiritall or any way materiall for this helps satiety and diminishes the taste which may manifestly be perceived in the self-same beauty sometimes seen and sometimes enjoyed All the love Nature hath put in man towards his native Countrey cannot hinder him from being drawn out of it either by necessity interest or ambition or any other powerfull motive And truly as for a mans health when all other remedies faile they use change of aire so for an averse Fortune it is good to change the Climate The aire nurses the spirits and with them I had almost sayd changes the understanding because it alters its chiefe Instruments Food causes a new temperament and therewith new behaviours The Climate changes the Influences these the Inclinations and all altered together make an alteration of Fortune Many goe without it because they will not follow it and many because they cannot finde it forsaking sometimes that vocation in which they had it and sometimes not discerning the true place where they might have attained to it Most part are of opinion that travell makes many worthy men I see the effect of it but cannot as yet discern whether it be a cause or a figne and token of their worth A cause if by reason that one seeing himselfe destitute of many meanes is forced to make use of his own vertue which restrained betweene contraries increases the more A signe if to overcome the many allurements of ones native soile and forsake it is required a great spirit a valiant and magnanimous heart whereby a man may come to attaine to eminent glory I believe there are but few so wicked as to become enemies of their Country though
they may be enemies to those who prevaile therein and govern it But seeing the Inhabitants are those who make a Citie and not the Walls he that is an enemy to them seemes if not directly yet indirectly to bee an enemy to his Countrey By this deceit of believing that the hatred which one beares to the Prince or Magistrate that governes or to a predominant faction be hating of the Countrey it selfe or the Citie many forraigne Princes and Common-wealths have suffered themselves to be deceived who should first attentively have cōsidered the causes motives of those who have perswaded them to commence warre against their own Countrey assuring them that whensoever those men have satisfied their own passions they will forsake them Many may bee the causes which move a Countrey-man or Citizen to such disturbances whereof desire of revenge is none of the least when he becomes obliged thereunto by some great matters which do breed hatred all at once as it uses to be against the cruelty avarice and luxury of the Prince when the subjects are prejudiced in their lives goods and reputations If the shame or dammage meet with a stout and valiant spirit it will never be appeased without revenge And it is good fortune when hee findes things in such a condition that hee may accomplish his intention with a conspiracy by killing or expelling the Tyrant which many times may prove to bee rather for the good then hurt of his Countrey As when Brutus expelled the Tarquines for the rape of Lucrece and Lucius Virginius procured the death of Appius Claudius for defiling his daughter For if these mens way be obstructed that they cannot come to worke their revenge themselves they study how to make use of some others power whence come the ruines not onely of Princes but also of whole States and Monarchies So passed the Medes Monarchy to the Persians when Arpagus having no other meanes to revenge himselfe of Astiages did set his Grand-childe against him A Prince may therefore securely take their parts who rise against their own Countrey by reason of an irreconciliable hatred which they beare him that governes Ambition and Interest are likewise principall causes for men to bring in forraigne forces against their own Countrey differing from hatred because they are moved rather for some good to themselves than for any prejudice to others These causes incited many persons in the revolutions of France sometimes to returne to the places whence they had been driven sometimes to obtain dignities sometime to recover those which they had lost If the Countrey also be in Armes the conquest of it will hardly be obtained if they will not have strangers become Lords thereof converting the fruits of the victory to the welfare of the discontented changing but one enemy for another the Princes being so by reason of the estate which they possesse and they become such that conquer it The Guises whilest they thought they might adorne their Temples with the Crown of France never forsooke the Catholick Kings side and as soone as they found the contrary they forsooke him Great are the hopes which discontented persons conceive and their maintainers and those hopes being divers if not contrary and hard to be concealed quickly bring forth distastes They goe on increasing in the discontented these and by the same degrees they abate in the enemy who seekes to appease the discontented with cunning fair promises the busines serving them if for no other end to cause distrusts which bring the subjects out of their resolutions into perplexities Perplexitie breeds suspition suspition new distastes and distastes breaches Where jealousies once take root we must not hope for any proceedings the weakest doe not so much wish for as feare victories and desire rather to obstruct than promote them It sufficeth not that thou promise them that they shall have whatsoever shall be gained if so be it must rest in their courtesie to give it because in matters of State none will trust to mens wills if they be not obliged by force or perswaded by some interest There are some cases in which it is convenient to be content with the losse which is received by the warres and leave all the profit to ones friend As when he settles him into his Countrey with change of forme seeing it may be hoped that his friendship is sincere in him who is so setled because he is to be maintained in it against those who governed formerly True it is that the memory of that benefit and therewithall the sincerity of the friendship will last until such time as they can finde meanes to secure themselves without having need of his assistance Then the least present interest cancels all former obligations it seeming to many that even benefits suffer prescription by the length of time and being once grown old do no longer bind to gratitude The Spanish Monarchy hath more than once had experience of this misfortune yet such a custome ought not to be left off whensoever occasion shall present it selfe Seeing the Polititian ought not to looke after eternity but many times be content with that which profiteth him but for a time and onely for the present so it doe not bring any prejudice for the future along with it To divide a kingdome amongst discontented persons whose power may afterward be feared seemes to secure the firmnesse of of the side and quietnesse of the State but if he meet with subtile and witty subjects that will not be dallied with by fallacies of the present they will know well enough that those who have been able to divide a kingdome when it was entire can subdue it when it is divided Philip the second was blamed because he did not take this course but the wisdome of those of the house of Guise was not easily deceived with slights nor could they be appeased with a part Those eminent and valiant subjects knowing well enough that they could not cancell the name of disturbers of their countries peace with any other name but the name of King There are likewise sometimes such extreamly turbulent braines that without any instigation of hatred wrath interest or ambition have an irregulate desire of troubles and innovations Enemies to whatsoever is alwayes contriving against the present government in behalfe of changes Kingdoms yeeld more such spirits then Common-wealths for he that goes about to prejudice liberty thinkes hee goes against his owne Countrey and hee that seekes to ruine a kingdom imagines he goes against anothers Such a one was that Iulian who brought the Moores into Spain The occasion which he pretended for the rape of his daughter was already past and he did this but onely out of a meere and sudden desire of innovation which made him hasten to it on so fast He that is called in by such kinde of men may be sure he shall not be abandoned nor forsaken Factions are also causes of bringing in strangers into a country whether they strive one
followed Coriolanus as it did Cato either he had returned into Rome victorious and established a better form of Government or being conquered had left a more lasting Government behinde him Cato dies because hee could not make the Citie free Coriolanus because hee would not bring it under subjection If any man wonders that I should compare Coriolanus to Cato let him in the first place and much more admire that Plutarch should compare him to Alcibiades the one was altogether effeminate the other manly The Greek soft and tender with Socrates education savoured of a Schoole The Roman harsh and hardened brought up in the camp was composed of nothing but warre The first was ambitious the last proud One severely flattered the people the other free opposed them Alcibiades framed himselfe to all mens fashions Coriolanus intended to frame every one to his humors One was beautifull eloquent and subtle with his beauty allured with his eloquence perswaded and with his subtilty deceived The other sterne in aspect rough in speech single in heart allured not perswaded not nor did not deceive Alcibiades loses himselfe like a vaine man Coriolanus like a solid In their banishments and in their deaths wherein they seemed to bee most like one another they were contrary They were both exiled it is true but one because he would alter the forme of the Common-wealth the other because hee would not have it altered They were both kill'd I confesse it but Alcibiades for hatred of his vices Coriolanus for envy of his vertues A Table of the chiefe heads discoursed upon in the Life of ALCIBIADES MAns desire is to live in the memorie of posterity chusing rather to survive infamous then to be quire forgotten p. 1. Mens virâ—ous actions ought not to bee recorded in Histories p. 4 Whether vice and vertue proceedes from the Patents inclinations or from the influence of stars or the temperature of the climat in which a child is borne p. 6 Whether by a childs actions one may judge of what his disposition will be when hee comes to be a man 15 Defects many times illustrate the perfections which are in a man 24 Feare the strongest and most prevailing passion 28 Alcibiades embraces learning to soment his Ambition 31 Alcibiades takes away halfe Nicetus his plate 33 The cause why Nicetus takes it patiently 33 Alcibiades contemnes the gifts of the Athenian Nobles and accepts a country fellowes p. 36 The reason thereof 37 Of what nature the reciprocall love was betweene Socrates and Alcibiades 38 An outward beauty argues not inward vertue 40 A young man cannot naturally be wise and in an old man wisedome decayes 45 Whether one may passe immediately from speculation to practise 46 Divines seldome good Polititians 48 Discourse unnecessary in speculative Sciences 49 Experience Mistresse of Policie 51 Great difference betweene being extravagant by election and being such naturally 56 Seldome any griefe but hath some pleasure in it Or any joy without some grief 59 Alcibiades no sooner admitted to the government of the Common-wealth but presently hee salls at odds with Phaeaces and Nicias 61 Emulation and Necessity Gaine and Glory were produced by Nature to keepe men from idlenesse 61 Why mans Emulation never ceases 62 The name of Liberty is commonly misunderstood 65 Whether manifest opposition or supplanting insinuation will soonest ruine a man 66 Open opposition dangerous at first onely 68 Growing powers easily kept from rising but grown hardly brought downe 69 Alcibiades and Nicias being put upon the Ostracisme it falls upon Hyperbosus a most vitious man 71 Inconveniencies of overmuch providence 74 Both the Nobles and the vulgar hate a great man but for different reasons 77 Why the Common-wealth of Athens grew not to such a height as the Roman 77 Ostracisme ill executed 79 The power and efficacie of union 80 Inconveniencies of banishing one great man and leaving another at home 82 Aristotle mistaken in the description of an excellent man 83 Wayes to suppress greatnes 85. yet all vaine 88 Powerfull Subjects must bee punished with death or not at all 88 Ostracisine an absolutely pernitious law 89 Whether he that knowes his own worth hee that knowes it not or a worthless man be most dangerous in a Common-wealth 90 Ingratefulness oftentimes springs from the delaying of gratitude 97 Vices have sometimes appearance of vertues 98 Too much circumspectness sometimes is hurtfull 105 A third may moderate two contraries if he participates of both otherwise not 107 Whether man be most pious in prosperity or in adversity 109 Some are naturally treacherous some become so upon occasion given them 114 Great difference between revenging a wrong and vindicating ones reputation 114 A mans presence continues love and his absence causes it to be forgotten 117 Envy and pusillanimity inseparable 121 Vices suddenly changed into vertues give great cause of suspition 123 A Paradox concerning Luxury and Incontinencie 126 Faults and errors are many times better connived at than reprehended 132 Some natures will gain the love of all sorts of men 133 An advice contrary to likelihood is seldome accepted of 135 Aloibiades takes Selibria by a stratagem 138 A sudden resolution works wonderful effects 139 Nature seldome bestowes valour and sagacity upon one person 142 Policie is an Art by it selfe which no man hath yet rightly learned 144 Cato unapt for Sciences and in what manner 145 An emulous equall carps at his corrivals skill an inferior emulator at his person 146 A fault committed out of malice and wilfulness is not so shamefull as one committed through inability or ignorance 148 Reputation is not lost by degrees but either remaines entire or is quite lost 149 Aloibiades cunning and subtile rather than wise 150 The difference betweene subtiltie and Wisdome 150 Some things laudable in a private man which are disalowed in a pulick person 152 A Generals subtilty different from a Polititians 154 Aloibiades flies to Farnabazus 54 Why he gained the love of all men Ibid In Arts some things are judged by the Senses and some by the understanding 187 Aloibiades had many vertues and many vices 160 He met with a Common wealth which admired his vertues and followed his vices Ibid. His vices overthrew him in his forraign imployments 161 Aloibiades his deaâ—h 162 Man wrastling with Fortune at last is overcome 162 Nothing firm in the world 165 Why some men continue fortunate some not 166 Alcibiades often though not continually forrunate 158 Some caÌ„not suffer the best nor endure the worst 84 Too much care is the daughter of suspition and enemy of truth 81 Compassion is the daughter of Feare 44 Envy takes pleasure in defects 24 Perfect excellency is hated by most men 72 The forbidden thing seems best 64 No man can give that which he is not owner of 9 The desire of worldly glory is wise mens madness and fooles wisdome but beguiles all 93 Modesty moderates envy extinguisheth it not 121 Prudence hath measure for its actions but
remerity is unlimited The free putting a mans life into that mans hands whom he hath wronged is the greatest satisfaction that can be given 108 Temerity is an act without reason 108 There can be no eminent understanding without some parcell of folly 99 A great understanding causeth constancy a weake one obstinacy 145 He that is best if once he begin to be bad becomeâ— the worst 73 It is a great misfortune for a man to have worth and want repute and a far greater to have repute and want woâ—th 149 Peauty and eloquence are unprofitable weapons against wrath or fury 117 Youth should grieve at the defects of old age and old men laugh at the ignorance of youth 44 The Table of the chiefe heads discoursed upon in the Life of CORIOLANVS Coriolanus his defects attributed to want of education p 175 Whether education to Learning Sciences be good for all sorts of men p 176 Why the Romans honoured their Citizens for some brave acts with Oaken Crownes 182 All vices ought to be punished and all vertues rewarded 183 Impuniâ—â—e of offences is sometimes a reward p. 183 The vulgaâ—s reward is money a Noble mans honour 185 How rewards came to be altered 186 The same things are not in esâ—eeme every where 187 Nature desires that most which is most necessary 187 Riches the root of evill 188 Punishments changed by Tyrants 190 In what consists reputation 191 Who are fittest to command 193 Coriolanus rejoyced to have his mother heare of his worthy actions 194 Why anothers joy increases ours 195 Sannieticus King of Egypt 198 Coriolanus deâ—iring to bee chosen Consul by the people puts off his Senatoriall Robes 201 Why he did so 202 To judge of vertue truely wee must see it naked 204 Coriolanus termed proud and impatient and the cause of it 207 The vertue of choller in man 208 How humors in the body and passions in the mind may produce good effects 210 Wherein consists Patience 211 Women subject to impatience as well as men and the cause thereof 213 Why women being wrathfull are not valiant 214 How the common wealth of Rome might have made good use of Coriolanus his imperfections 216 Some defects are tolerable in young men and some vertues improper for them 218 Patience vertually containes all other vertues 222 A mans talents ought to bee imployed in due time 224 It is an unhappinesse for a man of worth to be born under a Tyrant or in a corrupt common wealth 226 The Ostracisine hindered the increase of the Athenian common wealth 227 The fortune of a Kingdome or common wealth may be transferred to another in the person of one man 228 A mans fortune decayes as his vigor 229 Coriolanus flies to the Volsci and is entertained by them 231 Man will give any thing to attaine his ends 231 Sometimes a man seekes to oppresse him whom he hath raised p. 232. and undoe what he himselfe hath done 234 One contrarie cures another if the contrarie bee not mistaken 235 Compassion and envie are the two ordinarie passions of great ones 236 Of favorites 238 Some desire greatnesse for their owne benefit some for the good of the common wealth 242 From different ends proceeds a different working towards them 243 Some love the person some its vertues 244 Mans life a warfare 248 Fortunes wheele cannot be fired 248 A stranger admitted in another common wealth to high degrees is in great danger 255 Every man hath a desire to his owne countrey 255 No man can hate his owne country though hee hate a prevailing party in it 256 Divers causes may provoke a man to bring in strangers to oppresse his native country 259 A man may rashly doe his countrey such a wrong as he cannot afterwards remedy 265 Coriolanus more fit to be compared with Cato then with Albiciades 268 Envie followes Humane glory 249 It is a great fortune to dye when fortune is at the highest 251 How Sejanus gained Tiberius 240 The Translator to the READER HAving this void Page lefâ— I thought good to set down therein this briefe explanation of the word Ostracisme which thou shalt finde in severall places of it The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies shells For the Athenians intended to put it in use the Citizens at the least to the number of six thousand for otherwise it was no lawfull nor full Assembly at a day appointed brought every man a shell whereon was written the name of him whom he would have banished and threw it into a place prepared for that purpose And the Magistrates telling the said shells he whose name was found written upon most of them was proclaimed banished for ten yeares Vale. FINIS Courteous Reader These Bookes following are Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard Various Histories with curious Discourses in Humane Learning c. 1. THe History of the Banished Virgin a Romance translated by I. H. Esq Fol. 2. The History of Polexander Englished by William Brown Gent. Printed for T. W. and are to be sold by Hum. Moseley in Folio 3. Mr James Howells History of Lewis the thirteenth King of France with the life of his Cardinall de Richelieu in Folio 4. Mr Howells Epistolae Hoelianae familiar Letters Domestic and Forren in six Sections Partly Historicall Politicall Philosophicall first Volume with Additions in 8o. 1650. 5. Mr Howells New vollume of Familiar Letters Partly Historicall Politicall Philosophicall the second Volume with many Additions 1650. 6. Mr Howells Third Volume of Additionall Letters of a fresher date never before published in 8o. 1650. 7. Mr Howels Dodona's Grove or the Vocall Forrest in 120. with Additions 1650. 8. Mr Howells Englands Teares for the present Warres in 12o. 1650. 9. Mr Howell Of the Pre-eminence and pedegree of Parliament in 12º 1650. 10. Mr Howells Instruction for Forren Travels in 12o. with divers Additions 1650. 11. Mr. Howels Vote or a Poem Royall presented to His Majesty in 4o. 12. Mr. Howels Angliae Suspiria Lachrimae in 12o. 13. Policy Vnveiled or Maximes of state done into English by the translator of Gusman the Spanish Rogue in 4o. 14. The History of the Inquisition composed by the R. F. Paul Servita the compiler of the History of the Councell of Trent in 4o. 15. Biathanatos a Paradox of Self-Homicide by Dr. Io Donne Deane of St Pauls London in 4o. 16. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi's Romulus and Tarquin Englished by Hen. Earle of Monmouth in 12o. 17. Marques Virgillio Malvezzis David persecuted Englished by Rob. Ashley Gent. in 12o. 18. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi Of the Success and chief events of the Monarchy of Spain in the year 1639. of the Revolt of the Catalonians Englished by Rob. Gentilis 12o. 19. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi's considerations on the lives of Alcibiades and Coriolanus Englished by Robert Gentilis in 12o. 1650. 20. Gracious Privileges granted by the