Subjects WHEN a Prince proceeds to Punishment it must be either to Vindicate Himself or Others It is a hard matter to Govern Himself in his Own Case If a Man should Advise him not to be Credulous but to examine Matters and Indulge the Innocent this is rather a point of Justice than of Clemency But in Case that he be Manifestly Injur'd I would have him Forgive where he may Safely do it and be Tender even where he cannot Forgive But far more Exorable in his Own Case however than in Anothers 'T is nothing to be free of Another Man's Purse and 't is as Little to be Merciful in Another Man's Cause He is the Great Man that Masters his Passion where he is stung himself and Pardons when he might Destroy The end of Punishment is either to Comfort the Party Injur'd or to Secure him for the Future A Princes Fortune is above the need of such a Comfort and his Power is too Eminent to seek an Advance of Reputation by doing a Private Man a Mischief This I speak in Case of an Affront from those that are Below us But he that of an Equal has made any Man his Inferior has his Revenge in the bringing of him Down A Prince has been kill'd by a Servant destroy'd by a Serpent but whosoever preserves a Man must be Greater than the Person that he preserves With Citizens Strangers and People of Low Condition a Prince is not to Contend for they are Beneath him He may spare some out of Good Will and Others as he would do some little Creatures that a Man cannot touch without fouling his Fingers But for those that are to be Pardon'd or expos'd to Publick Punishment he may use Mercy as he sees Occasion and a Generous Mind can never want Inducements or Motives to it And whether it be Age or Sex High or Low Nothing comes amiss TO pass now to the Vindication of Others there must be had a regard either to the Amendment of the Person Punish'd or the making of Others better for fear of Punishment or the taking the Offender out of the way for the security of Others An Amendment may be procur'd by a Small Punishment for he lives more Carefully that has something yet to Lose It is a kind of Impunity to be Incapable of a further Punishment The Corruptions of a City are best Cur'd by Few and Sparing Severities for the Multitude of Offenders creates a Custome of Offending and Company Authorizes a Crime and there is more good to be done upon a Dissolute Age by Patience than by Rigor Provided that it pass not for an Approbation of Ill Manners but only as an Unwillingness to proceed to Extremities Under a Merciful Prince a Man will be asham'd to offend because a Punishment that is inflicted by a Gentle Governor seems to fall heavier and with more Reproch And it is Remarkable also that Those Sins are Often Committed which are very often Punish'd Caligula in five years Condemn'd more people to the Sack than ever were before him and there were fewer Parricides Before That Law against them than After For our Ancestors did wisely presume that the Crime would never be Committed till by a Law for Punishing it they found that it might be done Parricides began with the Law against them and the Punishment instructed Men in the Crime Where there are few Punishments Innocency is indulg'd as a Publick Good and it is a dangerous thing to shew a City how strong it is in Delinquents There is a certain Contumacy in the Nature of Man that makes him Oppose Difficulties We are better to Follow than to Drive as a Generous Horse rides best with an Easie Bitt People Obey willingly where they are Commanded kindly When Burrhus the Prefect was to Sentence Two Malefactors he brought the Warrant to Nero to sign who after a long Reluctancy came to 't at last with this Exclamation I would I could not Write A Speech that deserv'd the whole World for an Auditory but all Princes especially and that the hearts of all the Subjects would conform to the Likeness of their Masters As the Head is Well or Ill so is the Mind Dull or Merry What 's the Difference betwixt a King and a Tyrant but a Diversity of Will under one and the same Power the One Destroyes for his Pleasure the Other upon Necessity A Distinction rather in Fact than in Name A Gracious Prince is Arm'd as well as a Tyrant but 't is for the Defence of his People and not for the Ruin of them No King can ever have Faithful Servants that accustomes them to Tortures and Executions The very Guilty themselves do not lead so Anxious a Life as the Persecuters for they are not only affraid of Justice both Divine and Humane but it is Dangerous for them to mend their Manners so that when they are once in they must continue to be Wicked upon Necessity An Universal Hatred unites in a Popular Rage A Temperate Fear may be kept in Order but when it comes once to be Continual and Sharp it provokes people to Extremities and Transports them to Desperate Resolutions as Wild Beasts when they are prest upon the Toyl turn back and Assault the very Pursuers A Turbulent Government is a Perpetual trouble both to Prince and People and he that is a Terror to all Others is not without Terror also himself Frequent Punishments and Revenges may Suppress the Hatred of a Few but then it stirs up the Detestation of All. So that there 's no destroying One Enemy without making Many It is good to Master the Will of being Cruel even while there may be Cause for it and Matter to Work upon AUGUSTUS was a Gracious Prince when he had the Power in his own hand but in the Triumviracy he made use of his Sword and had his Friends ready Arm'd to set upon Anthony during That Dispute But he behav'd himself afterwards at another rate for when he was betwixt forty and fifty years of Age he was told that Cinna was of a Plot to Murther him with the Time Place and Manner of the Design and This from one of the Confederates Upon This he resolv'd upon a Revenge and sent for several of his Friends to Advise upon 't The thought of it kept him waking to consider that there was the Life of a young Nobleman in the Case the Nephew of Pompey and a Person otherwise Innocent He was off and on several times whether he should put him to Death or not What sayes he shall I live in Trouble and in danger my self and the Contriver of my Death walk Free and Secure Will nothing serve him but That Life which Providence has preserv'd in so many Civill Wars in so many Battels both by Sea and Land and Now in the State of an Universal Peace too and not a simple Murther neither but a Sacrifice for I am to be assaulted at the very Altar And shall the Contriver of
when I was once in I could not lay it down again till I had gone through with it At Present I shall only tell you that I am exceedingly pleas'd with the Choice of the Subject but I am Transported with the Spirit and Gentleness of it You shall hear farther from me upon a Second Reading and you need not fear the hearing of the Truth for your Goodness leaves a Man no place for flattery I find you still to be one and the same Man which is a great Matter and only proper to a Wise Man for fools are Various One while Thrifty and Grave Another while Profuse and Vain Happy is the Man that sets himself Right at first and cntinues so to the End All Fools we say are Mad Men though they are not all of them in Bedâ—…am We find some at the Bar some upon the Bench and not a few even in the Senate it self One Mans Folly is sad Anothers Wanton and a Third's is Busie and Impertinent A Wise man carries all his Treasure within himself What Fortune Gives she may Take but he leaves nothing at her Mercy He Stands Firm and keeps his Ground against all Misfortunes without so much as Changing Countenance He is Free Inviolable Unshaken Proof against all Accidents and not only Invincible but Inflexible So long as he cannot Lose any thing of his own he never troubles himself for what 's Anothers He is a Friend to Providence and will not murmur at any thing that comes to pass by Gods Appointment He is not only Resolute but Generous and Good Natur'd and ready to lay down his Life in a Good Cause and for the Publick Safety to Sacrifice his Own He does not so much consider the Pleasure of his Life as the Need that the World has of him And he is not so Nice neither as to be weary of his Life while he may either serve his Wife or his Friends Nor is it all that his Life is Profitable to Them but it is likewise Delightful to Himself and carries its own Reward for What can be more Comfortable than to be so Dear to Another as for that very Reason to become Dearer to Himself If he Loses a Child he is Pensive he is Compassionate to the Sick and only Troubled when he sees Men wallowing in Infamy and Vice Whereas on the Other side you shall see nothing but Restlessness One Man Hankering after his Neighbors Wife Another in Pain about his Own A Third in Grief for a Repulse Another aâ—… much out of humor for his Success If He loses an Estate he parts with it as a thing that was only Adventitious Or if it was of his own acquiring he computes the Possession and Loss and sayes thus to himself I shall live as well afterward as I did before Our Houses sayes he may be Burnt or Rob'd Our Lands taken from us and we can call nothing our Own that is under the Dominion of Fortune It is a Foolish Avarice that restrains all things to a Propriety and believes nothing to be a Man 's Own that 's Publick Whereas a Wise Man judges Nothing so much his Own as That wherein Mankind is allow'd a share It is not with the Blessings of Providence as it is with a Dole where every Man receives so much a Head but every Man there has All. That which we Eat and either Give or Receive with the Hand may be broken into Parts But Peace and Freedome of Mind are not to be Divided He that has First cast off the Empire of Fortune needs not fear that of Great Men for they are but Fortunes Hands nor was any man ever broken by Adversity that was not first betray'd by Prosperity But VVhat signifies Philosophy you 'll say if there be a Faâ—…e If we be Govern'd by Fortune or some over-ruling Power For Certaintiâ—… are Unchangeable and there 's no Providing against Uncertainties If what I shall Do and Resolve be already Determin'd VVhat use of Philosophy Yes great Use for taking all this for granted Philosophy Instructs and Advises us to obey God and to follow him Willingly to oppose Fortune Resolutely and to Bear all Accidents Fate is an Irrevocable an Invincible and an Unchangable Decree a Necessity of all Things and Actions according to Eternal Appointment Like the Course of a River it moves forward without Contradiction or Delay in an Irresistable Flux where one Wave pushes on another He knows little of God that Imagines it may be Controll'd There is no Changing of the Purpose even of a Wise Man For he sees beforehand what will be best for the Future How much more Unchangeable then is the Allmighty to whom all Futurity is alwayes Present To what end then is it if Fate be Inexorable to offer up Prayers and Sacrifices any further than to relieve the Scruples and the VVeaknesses of Sickly Minds My Answer is First That the Gods take no Delight in the Sacrifices of Beasts or in the Images of Gold and Silver but in a Pious and Obedient Will And Secondly That by Prayers and Sacrifices Dangers and Afflictions may be sometimes Remov'd sometimes Lessen'd other whiles Deferr'd and all this without any Offence to the Power or Necessity of Fate There are some things which Providence has left so far in Suspence that they seem to be in a manner Conditional in such sort that even Appearing Evils may upon our Prayers and Supplications be turn'd into Goods Which is so far from being against Fate that it is even a Part of Fate it self You will say That either This shall come to Pass or not If the Former It will be the same thing if we do not Pray And if the Other it will be the same thing if we do To this I must Reply That the Proposition is False for want of the Middle Exception betwixt the One and the Other This will be say I that is if there shall any Prayers Interpose in the Case But then do they Object on the Other side That this very thing also is Necessary for it is likewise determin'd by Fate either that we shall Pray or not What if I should now grant you that there is a Fate also even in our very Prayers A Determination that we shall Pray and that therefore we shall Pray It is Decreed that a Man shall be Eloquent But upon Condition that he apply himself to Letters By the same Fate it is Decreed that he shall so apply himself and that therefore he shall learn Such a Man shall be Rich if he betake himself to Navigation But the same Fate that promises him a great Estate appoints also that he shall Sail and therefore he puts to Sea It is the same Case in Expiations A Man shall Avoid Dangers if he can by his Prayers avoid the threatnings of Divine Vengeance But this is Part of his Fate also that he shall so do and therefore he does it These Arguments are made use of to Prove that there is nothing left
which although conferr'd upon one Man may yet work upon others as a Sum of Money may be given to a poor Man for his own sake which in the Consequence proves the Relief of his whole Family but still the immediate Receiver is the Debtor for it for the Question is not To whom it comes afterward to be transferr'd but Who is the Principal and upon whom it was first bestow'd My Son's Life is as dear to me as my own and in saving him you preserve me too In this Case I will acknowledge my self Oblig'd to you that is to say in my Son's Name for in my own and in strictness I am not but I am content to make my self a Voluntary Debtor What if he had borrow'd Money My paying of it does not at all make it my Debt It would put me to the blush perhaps to have him taken in Bed with another Mans Wife but that does not make me an Adulterer 'T is a wonderful Delight and Satisfaction that I receive in his Safety but still this Good is not a Benefit A Man may be the better for an Animal a Plant a Stone but there must be a Will and Intention to make it an Obligation You save the Son without so much as knowing the Father Nay without so much as thinking of him and perhaps you would have done the same thing even if you had hated him But without any farther Altercation of Dialogue the Conclusion is this if you meant him the Kindness he is answerable for it and I may enjoy the fruit of it without being Oblig'd by 't But if it was done for My Sake then am I accomptable Or howsoever upon any Occasion I am ready to do you all the Kind Offices imaginable not as the Return of a Benefit but as the Earnest of a Friendship which you are not to challenge neither but to entertain as an Act of Honor and of Justice rather than of Gratitude If a Man find the Body of my dead Father in a Desart and give it Burial if he did it as to my Father I am beholden to him but if the Body was Unknown to him and that he would have done the same thing for any other Body I am no further concern'd in it than as a Piece of Publick Humanity THERE are moreover some Cases wherein an Unworthy Person may be oblig'd for the sake of others and the sottish Extract of an antient Nobility may be preferr'd before a better Man that is but of yesterdayes standing And it is but reasonable to pay a Reverence even to the Memory of eminent Virtues He that is not Illustrious in Himself may yet be reputed so in the Right of his Ancestors And there is a gratitude to be Entail'd upon the Off-spring of famous Progenitors Was it not for the Fathers sake that Ciâ—…ero the Son was made Consul And was it not the Eminence of one Pompey that rais'd and dignify'd the rest of his Family How came Caligula to be the Emperor of the World a Man so Cruel that he spilt Blood as greedily as if he were to drink it the Empire was not given to Himself but to his Father Germanicus A braver Man deserved that for him which he could never have challenged upon his own Merit What was it that preferr'd Fabius Persicus whose very Mouth was the Uncleanest part about him What was it but the 300 of that Family that so generously oppos'd the Enemy for the safety of the Common-wealth NAY Providence it self is gracious to the Wicked Posterity of an Honorable Race The Counsels of Heaven are guided by VVisdom Mercy and Justice Some Men are made Kings for their proper Virtues without any respect to their Predecessors Others for their Ancestors sakes whose Virtues though neglected in their Lives come to be afterward rewarded in their Issue And it is but Equity that our Gratitude should extend as far as the Influence of their Heroical Actions and Examples CHAP. XII The Benefactor must have no By-Ends WE come now to the main point of the Matter in Question that is to say Whether or no it be a thing desirable in it self the Giving and Receiving of Benefits There is a Sect of Philosophers that accompts nothing Valuable but what is Profitable and so makes all Virtue Mercenary An Unmanly Mistake to imagine that the Hope of Gain or Fear of Loss should make a Man either the more or the less Honest. As who should say What shall I Get by 't and I 'll be an honest Man Whereas on the Contrary Honesty is a thing in it self to be purchas'd at any rate It is not for a Body to say It will be a Charge a Hazzard I shall give Offence c. My Business is to do what I ought to do All other Considerations are forreign to the Office Whensoever my duty calls me 't is my part to attend without Scrupulizing upon Forms or Difficulties Shall I see an honest Man oppressed at the Barr and not assist him for fear of a Court-Faction Or not second him upon the High-way against Thieves for fear of a Broken-head And chuse rather to sit still the quiet Spectator of Fraud and Violence Why will Men be Just Temperate Generous Brave but because it carries along with it Fame and a good Conscience And for the same Reason and no other to apply it to the Subject in hand let a Man also be Bountiful The School of Epicurus I 'm sure will never swallow this Doctrine That Effeminate Tribe of Lazy and Voluptuous Philosophers They 'll tell you that Virtue is but the Servant and Vassail of Pleasure No says Epicurus I am not for Pleasure neither without Virtue But Why then for Pleasure say I before Virtue Not that the Stress of the Controversie lies upon the Order only for the Power of it as well as the Dignity is now under debate It is the Office of Virtue to Superintend to Lead and to Govern But the parts you have assign'd it are to Submit to Follow and to be under Command But this you 'll say is nothing to the purpose so long as both sides are agreed that there can be no Happiness without Virtue Take away That sayes Epicurus and I 'm as little a Friend to Pleasure as you The Pinch in short is this Whether Virtue it self be the Supreme Good or only the Cause of it It is not the inverting of the Order that will clear this Point though 't is a very preposterous Error to set that first which should be last It does not half so much offend me the Ranging of Pleasure before Virtue as the very Comparing of them and the bringing of two Opposites and profess'd Enemies into any sort of Competition The Drift of this Discourse is to support the Cause of Benefits and to prove that it is a Mean and Dishonourable thing to Give for any other End than for Giving-sake He that Gives for Gain Profit or any By-End destroyes the very
desperate Debtor and e'en let him alone in his Ingratitude without making him my Enemy for no Necessity shall ever make me spend time in wrangling with any Man upon that point ASSIDUITY of Obliging Strikes upon the Conscience as well as the Memory and pursues an Ungrateful Man till he becomes Grateful If one good Office will not do 't try a Second and then a Third No Man can be so thankless but either Shame Occasion or Example will at some time or other prevail upon him The very Beasts themselves even Lions and Tigers are gain'd by good usage beside that one Obligation does naturally draw on another and a Man would not willingly leave his own Work imperfect I have help'd him thus far and I 'll e'en go through with it now So that over and above the delight and the virtue of Obliging one good turn is a Shooing-horn to another This of all Hints is perhaps the most effectual as well as the most Generous IN some Cases it must be carry'd more home as in that of Iulius Caesar who as he was hearing of a Cause the Defendant finding himself pinch'd Sir sayes he Do not you remember a Strain you got in your Ancle when you Commanded in Spain and that a Soldier lent you his Cloak for a Cushion upon the top of a Craggy Rock under the shade of a little Tree in the heat of the day I remember it perfectly well sayes Caesar and that when I was ready to choke with Thirst an honest Fellow fetch'd me a draught of Water in his Helmet But that Man and that Helmet sayes the Soldier Does Caesar think that he could now know them again if he saw them The Man perchance I might sayes Caesar somewhat offended but not the Helmet but What 's this Story to my Business You are none of the Man Pardon me Sir sayes the Soldier I am that very Man but Caesar may well forget me for I have been Trepann'd since and lost an Eye at the Battel of Munda where that Helmet too had the honour to be cleft with a Spanish Blade Caesar took it as it was intended and it was an Honorable and a Prudent way of refreshing his Memory But this would not have gone down so well with Tiberius for when an Old Acquaintance of his began his Address to him with You Remember Caesar. No sayes Caesar cutting him short I do not Remember what I WAS. Now with him it was better to be Forgotten then Remembred for an Old Friend was as bad as an Informer It is a Common thing for Men to hate the Authors of their Preferment as the Witnesses of their Mean Original THERE are some People well enough dispos'd to be Grateful but they cannot hit upon 't without a Prompter they are a little like School-boyes that have Treacherous Memories 't is but helping them here and there with a word when they stick and they 'le go through with their Lesson they must be taught to be Thankful and 't is a fair step if we can but bring them to be willing and only offer at it Some Benefits we have neglected some we are not willing to remember He is is Ungrateful that Disownes an Obligation and so is he that Dissembles it or to his Power does not Requite it but the worst of all is he that forgets it Conscience or Occasion may revive the rest but here the very Memory of it is lost Those Eyes that cannot endure the light are weak but those are stark blind that cannot see it I do not love to hear People say Alass poor Man he has forgotten it As if that were the Excuse of Ingratitude which is the very cause of it For if he were not Ungrateful he would not be Forgetful and lay that out of the way which should be alwayes uppermost and in sight He that thinks as he ought to do of requiting a Benefit is in no danger of forgetting it There are indeed some Benefits so great that they can never slip the Memory but those which are less in value and more in number do commonly scape us We are apt enough to acknowledge That such a Man has been the Making of us so long as we are in possession of the advantage he has brought us but new Appetites deface old Kindnesses and we carry our Prospect forward to something more without considering what we have obtain'd already All that is past we give for lost so that we are only intent upon the future When a Benefit is once out of Sight or out of Use 't is buried IT is the Freak of many people they cannot do a good Office but they are presently boasting of it Drunk or Sober and about it goes into all Companies what wonderful things they have done for this Man and what for t'other A foolish and a dangerous vanity of a doubtful Friend to make a certain Enemy For these Reproches and Contempts will set every Bodies Tongue a Walking and People will conclude that these things would never be if there were not something very extraordinary in the Bottom on 't When it comes to that once there is not any Calumny but fastens more or less nor any falshood so incredible but in some part or other of it shall pass for a Truth Our great Mistake is this we are still inclin'd to make the most of what we Give and the least of what we Receive whereas we should do the clean contrary It might have been more but he had a great many to oblige It was as much as he could well spare he 'll make it up some other time c. Nay we should be so far from making publication of our Bounties as not to hear them so much as mention'd without sweetening the matter As Alass I owe him a great deal more than that comes to If it were in my Power to serve him I should be very glad on 't And this too not with the Figure of a Complement but with all Humanity and Truth There was a Man of Quality that in the Triumviral Proscription was sav'd by one of Caesars Friends who would be still twitting him with it who it was that preserv'd him and telling him over and over You had gone to Pot Friend but for me Pray'e sayes the Proscribed let me hear no more of this or e'en leave me as you found me I am thankful enough of my self to acknowledge That I owe you my life but 't is Death to have it rung in my Ears perpetually as a Reproach It looks as if you had only sav'd me to carry me about for a spectacle I would fain forget the Misfortune that I was once a Prisoner without being led in Triumph every day of my Life OH the Pride and Folly of a great Fortune that turns Benefits into Injuries That delights in Excesses and disgraces every thing it does Who would receive any thing from it upon these termes The higher it raises us the more sordid
as who should say Well since you will needs have it so I am content to take it Some again so carelesly as if they hardly knew of any such thing whereas we should rather aggravate the matter You cannot Imagine how many you have oblig'd in this Act there never was so great so kind so seasonable a Courtesie Furnius never gain'd so much upon Augustus as by a Speech upon the getting of his Fathers Pardon for siding with Anthony This Grace sayes he is the only Injury that ever Caesar did me for it has put me upon a necessity of Living and Dying Ungrateful 'T is safer to affront some people than to oblige them for the better a Man deserves the worse they 'll speak of him as if the professing of open hatred to their Benefactors were an Argument that they lie under no Obligation Some people are so sour and ill-natur'd that they take it for an Affront to have an Obligation or a Return offer'd them to the discouragement both of Bounty and of Gratitude together The not doing and the not receiving of Benefits are equally a Mistake He that refuses a new one seems to be offended at an old one and yet sometimes I would neither return a Benefit no nor so much as receive it if I might CHAP. XVII Of Gratitude HE that Preaches Gratitude pleads the Cause both of God and Man for without it we can neither be Sociable nor Religious There is a strange delight in the very purpose and Contemplation of it as well as in the Action when I can say to my self I love my Benefactor What is there in this World that I would not do to oblige and serve him Where I have not the Means of a Requital the very Meditation of it is sufficient A Man is nevertheless an Artist for not having his Tools about him or a Musician because he wants his Fiddle Nor is he the less brave because his hands are bound or the worse Pilot for being upon dry Ground If I have only a Will to be Grateful I am so Let me be upon the Wheele or under the hand of the Executioner Let me be burnt Limb by Limb and my whole Body dropping in the Flames a Good Conscience supports me in all Extremes Nay it is comfortable even in Death it self For when we come to approach that point What care do we take to summon and call to mind all our Benefactors and the Good Offices they have done us that we may leave the World fair and set our Minds in Order Without Gratitude we can neither have Security Peace nor Reputation And it is not therefore the less desirable because it draws many Adventitious Benefits along with it Suppose the Sun the Moon and the Stars had no other Business then only to pass over our heads without any effect upon our Minds or Bodies without any regard to our Health Fruits or Seasons a Man could hardly lift up his Eyes toward the Heavens without wonder and veneration to see so many Millions of Radiant Lights and to observe their Courses and Revolutions even without any respect to the Common good of the Universe But when we come to consider that Providence and Nature are still at Work when we Sleep with the admirable Force and Operation of their Influences and Motions we cannot then but acknowledge their Ornament to be the least part of their value and that they are more to be esteem'd for their Virtue than for their Splendor Their main End and Use is matter of Life and Necessity though they may seem to us more considerable for their Majesty and Beauty And so it is with Gratitude we love it rather for Secondary Ends then for it Self NO Man can be Grateful without Contemning those things that put the Common People out of their Wits We must go into Banishment Lay down our Lives Begger and expose our selves to Reproaches Nay it is often seen that Loyalty suffers the Punishment due to Rebellion and that Treason receives the Rewards of Fidelity As the Benefits of it are many and great so are the hazards which is the Case more or less of all other Virtues and it were hard if this above the rest should be both painful and fruitless So that though we may go currently on with it in smooth way we must yet prepare and resolve if need be to force our passage to 't even if the way were cover'd with Thornes and Serpents and fall back fall edge we must be Grateful still Grateful for the Virtue sake and Grateful over and above upon the point of Interest for it preserves old Friends and gains new ones It is not our business to fish for one Benefit with another and by bestowing a little to get more or to oblige for any sort of Expedience but because I ought to do it and because I love it and that to such a degree that if I could not be Grateful without appearing the contrary if I could not return a Benefit without being suspected of doing an Injury in despite of Infamy it self I would yet be Grateful No Man is greater in my esteem than he that ventures the Fame to preserve the Conscience of an honest Man the one is but Imaginary the other Solid and Inestimable I cannot call him Grateful who in the instant of returning one Benefit has his Eye upon another He that is Grateful for Profit or Fear is like a Woman that is honest only upon the Score of Reputation AS Gratitude is a Necessary and a Glorious so is it also an Obvious a Cheap and an Easie Virtue So Obvious that wheresoever there is a Life there is a place for it So Cheap that the Covetous Man may be Grateful without Expense and so Easie that the Sluggard may be so likewise without Labour And yet it is not without its Niceties too for there may be a Time a Place or Occasion wherein I ought not to return a Benefit Nay wherein I may better disown it than deliver it LET it be understood by the way that 't is one thing to be Grateful for a good Office and another thing to Return it the Good Will is enough in one Case being as much as the one side demands and the other promises but the Effect is requisite in the other The Physitian that has done his best is acquitted though the Patient dies and so is the Advocate though the Clyent may lose his Cause The General of an Army though the Battel be lost is yet worthy of Commendation if he has discharg'd all the parts of a prudent Commander In this Case the one acquits himself though the other be never the better for 't He is a Grateful Man that is alwayes willing and ready and he that seeks for all means and occasions of requiting a Benefit though without attaining his end does a great deal more than the Man that without any trouble makes an immediate Return Suppose my Friend a Prisoner and that
a few Inches one of another but they are as near every where else too only we do not take so much notice of it What have we to do with Frivolous and Captious Questions and Impertinent Niceties Let us rather study how to deliver our selves from Sadness Fear and the burthen of all our Secret Lusts Let us pass over all our most Solemn Levities and make haste to a Good Life which is a thing that Presses us Shall a Man that goes for a Midwife stand gaping upon a Post to see what Play to day or when his house is on Fire stay the Curling of a Perriwig before he calls for help Our Houses are on fire our Country invaded our Goods taken away our Children in danger and I might add to these the Calamities of Earthquakes Shipwracks and what ever else is most terrible Is this a time for us now to be playing fast and loose with Idle Questions which are in effect but so many unprofitable Riddles Our Duty is The Cure of the Mind rather than the Delight on 't but we have onely the Words of Wisdom without the Works and turn Philosophy into a Pleasure that was given for a Remedy What can be more ridiculous then for a Man to neglect his Manners and Compose his Stile We are Sick and Ulcerous and must be Lanâ—…'d and Scarify'd and every Man has as much Business within himself as a Physitian in a Common Pestilence Misfortunes in fine cannot be avoided but they may be sweetened if not overcome and our Lives may be made happy by Philosophy CHAP. V. The Force of Precepts THERE seems to be so near an Affinity betwixt Wisdome Philosophy and Good Counsels that it is rather Matter of Curiosity then of Profit to divide them Philosophy being only a Limited Wisdom and Good Counsels a Communication of that Wisdom for the Good of Others as well as of our Selves and to Posterity as well as to the Present The Wisdom of the Antients as to the Government of Life was no more than certain Precepts what to do and what not and Men were much Better in that Simplicity for as they came to be more Learned they grew less Careful of being Good That plain and Open Virtue is now turn'd into a dark and Intricate Science and we are taught to Dispute rather than to Live So long as Wickedness was simple simple Remedies also were sufficient against it But now it has taken Root and spread we must make use of stronger THERE are some Dispositions that embrace Good things as soon as they hear them but they will still need quickening by Admonition and Precept We are Rash and Forward in some Cases and Dull in others and there is no Repressing of the One humor or Raising of the Other but by removing the Causes of them which are in one Word False Admiration and False Fear Every Man knows his Duty to his Country to his Friends to his Guests and yet when he is call'd upon to Draw his Sword for the One or to Labour for the Other he finds himself distracted betwixt his Apprehensions and his Delights He knows well enough the Injury he does his Wife in the keeping of a Wench and yet his Lust over-rules him So that 't is not enough to Give Good Advice unless we can Take away that which hinders the Benefit of it If a Man does what he Ought to do he 'll never do it Constantly or Equally without knowing Why he does it And if it be only Chance or Custome he that does well by Chance may do Ill so too And further A Precept may direct us what we Ought to do and yet fall short in the Manner of Doing it An Expensive Entertainment may in One Case be Extravagance or Gluttony and yet a Point of Honor and Discretion in Another Tiberius Caesar had a huge Mullet presented him which he sent to the Market to be sold And now sayes he my Masters to some Company with him you shall see that either Apicius or Octavius will be the Chapman for this Fish Octavius beat the Price and gave about 30 l. Sterling for 't Now there was a great difference betwixt Octavius that bought it for his Luxury and the Other that purchas'd it for a Compliment to Tiberius Precepts are idle if we be not first taught what Opinion we are to have of the Matter in Question Whether it be Poverty Riches Disgrace Sickness Banishment c. Let us therefore examine them one by one not what they are Call'd but what in Truth they Are. And so for the Virtues 'T is to no purpose to set a high esteem upon Prudence Fortitude Temperance Iustice if we do not first know what Virtue is whether One or More or if he that has One has All or how they differ PRECEPTS are of great Weight and a few Useful ones at hand do more toward a Happy Life than whole Volumes of Cautions that we know not where to find These Solitary Precepts should be our daily Meditation for they are the Rules by which we ought to square our Lives When they are contracted into Sentences they strike the Affections whereas Admonition is only blowing of the Coal it moves the vigour of the Mind and Excites Virtue We have the Thing already but we know not where it lies It is by Precepts that the Understanding is Nourish'd and Augmented the Offices of Prudence and Justice are Guided by them and they lead us to the Execution of our Duties A Precept deliver'd in Verse has a much greater Effect than in Prose and those very People that never think they have enough let them but hear a sharp Sentence against Avarice How will they clap and admire it and bid open Defyance to Money So soon as we find the Affections struck we must follow the Blow not wish Syllogisms or Quirks of Wit but with plain and weighty Reason and we must do it with Kindness too and Respect for there goes a Blessing along with Counsels and Discourses that are bent wholly upon the Good of the Hearer And those are still the most Efficacious that take Reason along with them and tell us as well why we are to do this or that as what we are to do For some Understandings are weak and need an Instructer to expound to them what is Good and what is Evil. It is a great Virtue to Love to Give and to follow Good Counsel if it does not Lead us to Honesty it does at least Prompt us to 't As several Parts make up but one Harmony and the most agreeable Musick arises from Discords so should a VVise Man gather many Arts many Precepts and the Examples of many Ages to enform his own Life Our Fore-Fathers have left us in Charge to avoid three things Hatred Envy and Contempt now it is hard to avoid Envy and not incurr Contempt for in taking too much Care not to usurp upon others we become many times lyable to be trampled
every honest Man may bestow upon himself The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind tossed up and down and Persecuted with Punishments Violences and Diseases but the Mind it self is Sacred and Eternal and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impressions PROVIDED that we look to our Consciences no matter for Opinion Let me Deserve Well though I Hear Ill. The Common People take Stomach and Audacity for the Marks of Magnanimity and Honor and if a Man be Soft and Modest they look upon him as an easie Fop but when they come once to observe the Dignity of his Mind in the Equality and Firmness of his Actions and that his External Quiet is founded upon an Internal Peace the very same People have him in Esteem and Admiration For there is no Man but Approves of Virtue though but few Pursue it we see where it is but we dare not venture to come at it And the Reason is we over-value that which we must quit to obtain it A good Conscience fears no Witnesses but a Guilty Conscience is sollicitous even in solitude If we do nothing but what is Honest let all the World know it but if otherwise What does it signifie to have no body else know it so long as I know it my self Miserable is he that slights that Witness Wickedness 't is true may scape the Law but not the Conscience For a Private Conviction is the First and the Greatest Punishment of Offenders so that Sin plagues it self and the Fear of Vengeance pursues even those that scape the stroke of it It were ill for Good Men that Iniquity may so easily evade the Law the Judge and the Execution if Nature had not set up Torments and Gibbets in the Consciences of Transgressors He that is Guilty lives in perpetual Terror and while he expects to be punish'd he punishes himself and whosoever Deserves it Expects it What if he be not Detected He is still in Apprehension yet that he may be so His sleeps are Painful and never Secure and he cannot speak of another Mans Wickedness without thinking of his own whereas a good Conscience is a Continual Feast Those are the only Certain and Profitable Delights which arise from the Conscience of a well-Acted Life No matter for Noise Abroad so long as we are Quiet Within but if our Passions be Seditious that 's enough to keep us Waking without any other Tumult It is not the Posture of the Body or the Composure of the Bed that will give rest to an Uneasie Mind There is an Impatient sloth that may be rouz'd by Action and the Vices of Lazyness must be Cur'd by Business True Happiness is not to be found in the Excesses of Wine or of Women nor in the Largest Prodigalities of Fortune What she has given me she may take away but she shall not Tear it from me and so long as it does not grow to me I can part with it without pain He that would perfectly know himself let him set aside his Mony his Fortune his Dignity and examine himself Naked without being put to learn from others the Knowledge of himself IT is dangerous for a Man too suddenly or too easily to believe himself Wherefore let us Examine Watch Observe and Inspect our own hearts for we our selves are our own greatest Flatterers We should every Night call our selves to an Accompt What Infirmity have I Master'd to day What Passion Oppos'd What Temptation resisted What Virtue Acquir'd Our Vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the Shrift Oh the Blessed sleep that follows such a Diary Oh the Tranquillity Liberty and Greatness of that Mind that is a Spy upon it Self and a private Censor of its own Manners It is my Custome sayes our Author every Night so soon as the Candle is out to run over all the VVords and Actions of the past day and I let nothing scape me for VVhy should I fear the Sight of my own Errors when I can Admonish and Forgive my self I was a little too hot in such a Dispute my Opinion might have been as well spar'd for it gave Offence and did no good at all The thing was true but all truths are not to be spoken at all times I would I had held my tongue for there 's no contending either with Fools or our Superiors I have done Ill but it shall be so no more If every Man would but thus look into himself it would be the better for us all What can be more Reasonable than this Daily Review of a Life that we cannot warrant for a Moment Our Fate is set and the first breath we draw is only the first Motion toward our last One Cause depends upon another and the Course of all things Publick and Private is but a long connexion of Providential Appointments There is a great variety in our Lives but all tends to the same Issue Nature may use her own Bodies as she pleases but a Good Man has this Consolation that nothing perishes which he can call his own 'T is a great Comfort that we are only condemn'd to the same Fate with the Universe the Heavens themselves are Mortal as well as our Bodies Nature has made us Passive and to Suffer is our Lot While we are in Flesh every Man has his Chain and his Clog only it is looser and lighter to one Man than to another and he is more at ease that takes it up and Carries it than he that Drags it We are Born to Lose and to Perish to Hope and to Fear to Vex our selves and others and there is no Antidote against a Common Calamity but Virtue For the Foundation of true Ioy is in the Conscience CHAP. VII A Good Man can never be Miserable nor a Wicked Man Happy THERE is not in the Scale of Nature a more Inseparable Connexion of Cause and Effect than in the Case of Happiness and Virtue Nor any thing that more naturally produces the One or more Necessarily presupposes the Other For What is it to be Happy but for a Man to content himself with his Lot in a Chearful and Quiet Resignation to the Appointments of God All the Actions of our Lives ought to be Govern'd with a respect to Good and Evil And it is only Reason that distinguishes by which Reason we are in such manner Influenc'd as if a Ray of the Divinity were dipt in a Mortal Body and that 's the Perfection of Mankind 'T is true we have not the Eyes of Eagles or the Sagacity of Hounds Nor if we had could we pretend to value our selves upon any thing which we have in Common with Brutes What are we the better for that which is Forreign to us and may be given and taken away As the Beams of the Sun irradiate the Earth and yet Remain where they were so is it in some proportion with a Holy Mind that Illustrates all our Actions and yet adheres to its Original Why
makes Poverty Grievous to us For it is a very small matter that does our Business and when we have provided against Cold Hunger and Thirst all the Rest is but Vanity and Excess And there 's no need of Expence upon Forreign Delicacies or the Artifices of the Kitchin What is he the worse for Poverty that despises these things Nay Is he not rather the better for it because he is not able to go to the Price of them For he is kept sound whether he will or no And that which a Man Cannot do looks many times as if he would not WHEN I look back into the Moderation of past Ages it makes me asham'd to Discourse as if Poverty had need of any Consolation For we are now come to that degree of Intemperance that a fair Patrimony is too little for a Meal Homer had but One Servant Plato Three and Zeno the Master of the Masculine Sect of Stoicks had none at all The Daughters of Scipio had their Portions out of the Common Treasury for their Father left them not worth a Penny How Happy were their Husbands that had the People of Rome for their Father-in-Law Shall any Man now Contemn Poverty after these Eminent Examples which are sufficient not only to Justifie but to Recommend it Upon Diogenes's only Servant's running away from him he was told where he was and perswaded to fetch him back again What sayes he can Manes live without Diogenes and not Diogenes without Manes And so let him go The Piety and Moderation of Scipio has made his Memory more Venerable than his Armes and more yet after he left his Country than while he defended it For matters were come to that pass that either Scipio must be Injurious to Rome or Rome to Scipio Course Bread and Water to a Temperate Man is as good as a Feast and the very Herbs of the Field yield a Nourishment to Man as well as to Beasts It was not by Choice Meats and Perfumes that our Forefathers recommended themselves but by Virtuous Actions and the Sweat of Honest Military and of Manly Labours WHILE Nature lay in Common and all her Benefits were promiscuously enjoy'd What could be happier than that state of Mankind when People liv'd without either Avarice or Envy What could be Richer then when there was not a Poor Man to be found in the World So soon as this Impartial Bounty of Providence came to be restrain'd by Covetousness and that Particulars appropriated That to themselves which was intended for All then did Poverty creep into the World when some Men by desiring more than came to their share lost their Title to the Rest. A loss never to be repair'd for though we may come Yet to get Much we once had All. The Fruits of the Earth were in those dayes divided among the Inhabitants of it without either Want or Excess So long as Men contented themselves with their Lot there was no Violence no Engrossing or Hiding of those Benefits for Particular Advantages which were appointed for the Community but every Man had as much Care for his Neighbor as for Himself No Arms or Bloodshed no War but with wilde Beasts But under the Protection of a Wood or a Cave they spent their dayes without Cares and their nights without Grones Their Innocence was their Security and their Protection There were as yet no Beds of State no Ornaments of Pearl or Embrodery nor any of those Remorses that attend them but the Heavens were their Canopy and the Glories of them their Spectacle The Motions of the Orbs the Courses of the Stars and the wonderful order of Providence was their Contemplation There was no fear of the House falling or the Russling of a Rat behind the Arras they had no Palaces then like Cities but they had open Ayr and Breathing-Room Crystal Fountains Refreshing Shades the Meadows drest up in their Native Beauty and such Cottages as were according to Nature and wherein they liv'd contentedly without fear either of Losing or of Falling These people liv'd without either Sollicitude or Fraud and yet I must call them rather Happy than Wise. That Men were generally better before they were corrupted then after I make no doubt and I am apt to believe that they were both Stronger and Hardier too but their Wits were not yet come to Maturity for Nature does not give Virtue and it is a kind of Art to become Good They had not as yet torn up the Bowels of the Earth for Gold Silver or Precious Stones and so far were they from killing any Man as we do for a Spectacle that they were not as yet come to it either in Fear or Anger nay they spar'd the very Fishes But after all This they were Innocent because they were Ignorant and there 's a great difference betwixt not Knowing how to offend and not being Willing to do it They had in that rude Life certain Images and Resemblances of Virtue but yet they fell short of Virtue it self which comes only by Institution Learning and Study as it is perfected by Practice It is indeed the End for which we were born but yet it did not come into the World with us and in the best of Men before they are instructed we find rather the Matter and the Seeds of Virtue than the Virtue it self It is the wonderful Benignity of Nature that has laid open to us all things that may do us Good and only hidden those things from us that may hurt us as if she durst not Trust us with Gold and Silver or with Iron which is the Instrument of War and Contention for the other It is we our selves that have drawn out of the Earth both the Causes and the Instruments of our Dangers And we are so vain as to set the highest esteem upon those things to which Nature has assign'd the lowest place What can be more Course and Rude in the Mine than these precious Metalls or more Slavish and Dirty than the People that Dig and Work them And yet they defile our Minds more than our Bodies and make the Possessor fouler than the Artificer of them Rich Men in fine are only the Greater Slaves Both the One and the Other wants a great deal HAPPY is that Man that Eats only for b Hunger and Drinks only for Thirst that stands upon his own Legs and lives by Reason not by Example and provides for Use and Necessity not for Ostentation and Pomp. Let us Curb our Appetites encourage Virtue and rather be beholden to our Selves for Riches than to Fortune who when a Man draws himself into a narrow compass has the least Mark at him Let my Bed be plain and Clean and my Cloths so too my Meat without much Expence or many Wayters and neither a burthen to my Purse nor to my Body nor to go out the same way it came in That which is too little for Luxury is abundantly enough for Nature The end of Eating and Drinking
is Satiety Now What matters it though One Eats and Drinks more and Another Less so long as the One is not a hungry nor the Other a thirst Epicurus that limits Pleasure to Nature as the Stoicks do Virtue is undoubtedly in the Right and those that Cite him to authorise their Voluptuousness do exceedingly mistake him and only seek a Good Authority for an Evil Cause For their Pleasures of Sloth Gluttony and Lust have no Affinity at all with his Precepts or Meaning 'T is true that at first sight his Philosophy seems Effeminate but he that looks nearer him will find him to be a very Brave Man only in a Womanish Dress 'T IS a Common Objection I know That these Philosophers do not Live at the rate that they Talk for they can flatter their Superiors Gather Estates and be as much concern'd at the Loss of Fortune or of Friends as other people As sensible of Reproches as Luxurious in their Eating and Drinking their Furniture their Houses as Magnificent in their Plate Servants and Officers as Profuse and Curious in their Gardens c. Well! And what of all This or if it were twenty times More 'T is some degree of Virtue for a Man to Condemn himself and if he cannot come up to the Best to be yet better than the Worst and if he cannot wholly Subdue his Appetites however to Check and Diminish them If I do not Live as I Preach take notice that I do not speak of my Self but of Virtue nor am I so much offended with Other Mens Vices as with my Own All this was objected to Plato Epicurus Zeno Nor is any Virtue so Sacred as to scape Malevolence The Cinique Demetrius was a great Instance of Severity and Mortification and one that Impos'd upon himself neither to Possess any thing nor so much as to Ask it and yet he had this Scom put upon him that his Profession was Poverty not Virtue Plato is blam'd for Asking Mony Aristotle for Receiving it Democritus for Neglecting it Epicurus for Consuming it How happy were we if we could but come to Imitate these Mens Vices for if we knew our Own Condition we should find work enough at Home But we are like People that are making Merry at a Play or a Tavern when our own houses are on fire and yet we know nothing on 't Nay Cato himself was said to be a Drunkard but Drunkenness it self shall sooner be prov'd to be no Crime than Cato Dishonest They that demolish Temples and overturn Altars shew their Good Will though they can do the Gods no hurt and so it fares with those that invade the Reputation of Great Men. If the Professors of Virtue be as the World calls them Avaritious Libidinous Ambitious What are they then that have a detestation for the very Name of it But Malicious Natures do not want Wit to abuse Honester Men than themselves It is the Practice of the Multitude to bark at Eminent Men as little Dogs do at Strangers for they look upon Other Mens Virtues as the Upbraiding of their Own Wickedness We should do well to commend those that are Good if not let us pass them Over but however let us spare our selves for beside the Blaspheming of Virtue our Rage is to no purpose But to return now to my Text. WE are ready enough to limit Others but loth to put Bounds and Restraint upon our selves though we know that many times a Greater Evil is Cur'd by a Less and the Mind that will not be brought to Virtue by Precept comes to it frequently by Necessity Let us try a little to Eate upon a Joynt-Stool to serve our selves to Live within Compass and accommodate our Cloths to the End they were made for Occasional Experiments of our Moderation give us the best Proof of our Firmness and Virtue A well-govern'd Appetite is a great part of Liberty and it is a Blessed Lot that since no Man can have all things that he would have we may all of us forbear desiring what we have not It is the Office of Temperance to Overrule us in our Pleasures Some she Rejects Others she Qualifies and Keeps within Bounds Oh! the Delights of Rest when a Man comes to be Weary and of Meat when he is heartily Hungry I have learn'd sayes our Author by one Journey how many things we have that are superfluous and how easily they may be spar'd for when we are without them upon Necessity we do not so much as feel the want of them This is the Second Blessed Day sayes he that my Friend and I have Travell'd together One Waggon carries our selves and our Servants My Mattress lies upon the Ground and I upon That Our Diet answerable to our Lodging and never without our Figs and our Table-Books The Muletier without Shooes and the Mules only prove themselves to be Alive by their walking In this Equipage I am not willing I perceive to own my self but as often as we happen into better Company I presently fall a blushing which shews that I am not yet confirm'd in those things which I Approve and Commend I am not yet come to Own my Frugality for he that 's Asham'd to be seen in a Mean Condition would be proud of a splendid one I value my self upon what Passengers think of me and Tacitely renounce my Principles whereas I should rather lift up my Voice to be heard by Mankind and tell them You are all Mad your Minds are set upon supersluities and you value no Man for his Virtues I came one Night weary home and threw my self upon the Bed with this Consideration about me There is nothing Ill that is Well Taken My Baker tells me he has no Bread but sayes he I may get some of your Tenants though I fear 't is not Good No matter said I for I 'll stay till it be Better that is to say till my stomach will be glad of worse It is Discretion sometimes to practice Temperance and wont our selves to a Little for there are many Difficulties both of Time and Place that may Force us upon it When we come to the Matter of Patrimony How strictly do we examine what every Man is Worth before wee 'll trust him with a Penny Such a Man we cry has a great Estate but it is shrewdly incumber'd a very Fair House but 't was built with borrow'd Money a Numerous Family but he does not keep Touch with his Creditors if his Debts were paid he would not be worth a Groat Why do we not take the same Course in other things and examine what every Man is worth 'T is not enough to have a Long Train of Attendants Vast Possessions or an Incredible Treasure in Money and Jewels a Man may be Poor for all this There 's only this difference at Best One Man borrows of the Usurer and the Other of Fortune What signifies the Carving or the Guilding of the Chariot Is the Master ever the better for 't WE
How Miserable is that Man in Himself who when he has employ'd his Power in Rapines and Cruelty upon Others is yet more Unhappy in himself He stands in Fear both of his Domesticks and of Strangers the Faith of his Friends and the Piety of his Children and flies to Actual Violence to secure him from the Violence he Fears When he comes to look about him and to consider what he Has done what he Must and what he is About to do what with the Wickedness and with the Torments of his Conscience many times he Fears Death Oftner he wishes for 't and lives more Odious to himself than to his Subjects whereas on the Contrary he that takes a Care of the Publick though of One Part more perhaps than of Another yet there is not Any Part of it but he looks upon as Part of Himself His Mind is Tender and Gentle and even where Punishment is Necessary and Profitable he comes to it Unwillingly and without any Rancor or Enmity in his heart Let the Authority in fine be what it will Clemency becomes it and the Greater the Power the greater is the Glory of it It is a truly Royal Virtue for a Prince to deliver his People from Other Mens Anger and not to Oppress them with his Own The End SENECA'S MORALS The Third and Last Part. Digested into XXVIII EPISTLES By ROGER L'ESTRANGE LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Henry Brome at the Gun in S t Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXVIII THE Contents Epist. I. CErtain General Directions for the Government of the Voice as in speaking Soft or Loud Quick or Slow The Speech is the Index of the Mind Pag. 1. Epist. II. Of Stiles Compositions and the Choice of Words That 's the Best way of Writing and Speaking which is Free and Natural Advice concerning Reading p. 6. Epist. III. Against all sorts of Affectation in Discourse Phantastical Studies Impertinent and Unprofitable Subtilties Mans Business is Virtue not Words p. 16. Epist. IV. Business and want of Newes are no Excuse among Friends for not Writing Wise Men are the better for one another How far Wisdom may be advanc'd by Precept p. 26. Epist. V. Seneca gives an Accompt of Himself his Studies and of his Inclinations With many Excellent Reflections upon the Duties and the Errors of Humane Life p. 37. Epist. VI. The Blessings of a Virtuous Retirement How we come to the Knowledge of Virtue A Distinction betwixt Good and Honest. A Wise Man Contents himself with his Lot p. 49. Epist. VII Of Impertinent Studies and Impertinent Men. Philosophers the Best Companions p. 60. Epist. VIII Against Singularity of Manners and Behaviour p. 67. Epist. IX The Blessings of a Vigorous Mind in a Decay'd Body With some Pertinent Reflections of Seneca upon his Own Age. p. 72. Epist. X. Custome is a Great Matter either in Good or Ill. We should check our Passions Betimes Involuntary Motions are Invincible p. 78. Epist. XI We are Divided in our Selves and Confound Good and Evil. p. 84. Epist. XII We are mov'd at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them p. 92. Epist. XIII Every Man is the Artisicer of his Own Fortune Of Justice and Injustice p. 97. Epist. XIV Of Trust in Friendship Prayer and Bodily Exercise p. 102. Epist. XV. The Danger of Flattery and in what Cases a Man may be allow'd to Commend Himself p. 108. Epist. XVI A General Dissolution of Manners With a Censure of Corrupt Magistrates p. 114. Epist. XVII The Original of All Men is the Same And Virtue is the Only Nobility There is a Tenderness due to Servants p. 121. Epist. XVIII We are Juster to Men than to God Of Life and Death Of Good and Evil. p. 127. Epist. XIX Of True Courage p. 137. Epist. XX. 'T is Never too Late to Learn The Advantages of a Private Life and the Slavery of a Publick The Ends of Punishment p. 143. Epist. XXI The Two Blessings of Life are a Sound Body and a Quiet Mind The Extravagance of the Roman Luxury The Moderation and Simplicity of Former Times p. 152. Epist. XXII Man is Compounded of Soul and Body And has Naturally a Civil War within Himself The Difference betwixt a Life of Virtue and a Life of Pleasure p. 161. Epist. XXIII We abuse Gods Blessings and turn them into Mischiefs Meditations upon the Horrors of Earthquakes and Consolations against them Death is the same thing which way soever it comes Only we are more mov'd by Accidents that we are not us'd to p. 167. Epist. XXIV A Discourse of Gods Providence in the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and in the Prosperity of the Wicked p. 178. Epist. XXV A Wise and a Good Man is Proof against all Accidents Of Fate p. 189. Epist. XXVI All things are Produced out of Cause and Matter Of Providence A Brave Man is a Match for Fortune p. 197. Epist. XXVII Some Traditions of the Antients concerning Thunder and Lightning with the Authors Contemplations Thereupon p. 204. Epist. XXVIII A Contemplation of Heaven and Heavenly Things Of God and of the Soul p. 211. Epistles EPIST. I. Certain General Directions for the Government of the Voice as in speaking Soft or Loud Quick or Slow The Speech is the Index of the Mind YOu say well that in Speaking the very Ordering of the Voice to say nothing of the Actions Countenances and other Circumstances that accompany it is a Consideration worthy of a Wise Man There are that prescribe Certain Modes of Rising and Falling Nay if you will be govern'd by Them you shall not speak a word move a step or eat a Bit but by a Rule And these perhaps are too Critical Do not understand me yet as if I made no Difference betwixt entring upon a Discourse Loud or Soft for the Affections do Naturally Rise by Degrees and in all Disputes or Pleadings whether Publick or Private a Man should properly Begin with Modesty and Temper and so Advance by little and little if need be into Clamor and Vociferation And as the Voice Rises by Degrees let it fall so too not Snapping off upon a sudden but Abating as upon Moderation The other is Unmannerly and Rude He that has a Precipitate speech is commonly violent in his Manners Beside that there is in it much of Vanity and Emptyness and no Man takes satisfaction in a Flux of Words without Choice where the Noise is more than the Value Fabian was a Man Eminent both for his Life and Learning and no less for his Eloquence His Speech was rather Easie and Sliding than Quick Which he accompted to be not only Lyable to many Errors but to a Suspicion of Immodesty Nay let a Man have Words never so much at Will he will no more speak Fast than he will Run for fear his Tongue should go before his Wit The Speech of a Philosopher should be like his Life Compos'd without Pressing or Stumbling which is fitter for a Mountebank than a
Condition Upon these Thoughts I betake my self to my Philosophy and then methinks I am not well unless I put my self into some Publick Employment Not for the Honor or the Profit of it but only to place my self in a Station where I may be serviceable to my Country and to my Friends But when I come on the other side to consider the Uneasiness the Abuses and the Loss of Time that attends Publick Affairs I get me home again as fast as I can and take up a Resolution of spending the Remainder of my dayes within the Privacy of my own Walls How great a madness is it to set our hearts upon Trifles especially to the neglect of the most serious Offices of our Lives and the most important End of our Being How Miserable as well as Short is their Life that Compass with great Labor what they Possess with Greater and Hold with Anxiety what they Acquire with Trouble But we are govern'd in all things by Opinion and every thing is to us as we Believe it What is Poverty but a Privative and not intended of what a Man Has but of that which he has Not The great Subject of Humane Calamities is Mony Take all the Rest together as Death Sickness Fear Desire Pain Labor and those which proceed from Mony exceed them all 'T is a Wonderful Folly that of Tumblers Rope-Dancers Divers and what pains they take and what hazards they run for an Inconsiderable Gain And yet we have not Patience for the Thousandth Part of that trouble though it would put us into the Possession of an everlasting Quiet Epicurus for Experiment sake confin'd himself to a narrower Allowance than that of the Severest Prisons to the most Capital Offenders and found himself at Ease too in a stricter Diet than any Man in the Worst Condition needs to Fear This was to prevent Fortune and to Frustrate the Worst which she can do We should never know any thing to be Superfluous but by the Want of it How many things do we provide only because Others have them and for fashion sake Caligula offer'd Demetrius 5000 Crowns who rejected them with a Smile as who should say It was so little it did him no honor the refusing of it Nothing less sayes he than the Offer of his whole Empire could have been a Temptation to have try'd the Firmness of my Virtue By this Contempt of Riches is intended only the Fearless Possession of them And the way to attain That is to perswade our selves that we may live Happily without them How many of those things which Reason formerly told us were Superfluous and Mimical do we now find to be so by Experience But we are misled by the Counterfeit of Good on the One hand and the Suspicion of Evil on the Other Not that Riches are an Efficient Cause of Mischief but they are a Precedent Cause by way of Irritation and Attraction For they have so near a Resemblance of Good that most People take them to be Good Nay Virtue it self is also a Precedent Cause of Evil as many are Envy'd for their Wisdom or for their Justice Which does not arise from the thing it self but from the Irreprovable power of Virtue that forces all Men to Admire and to Love it That is not Good that is More Advantageous to us but That which is Only so EPIST. VI. The Blessings of a Virtuous Retirement How we come to the Knowledge of Virtue A Distinction betwixt Good and Honest. A Wise Man Contents himself with his Lot THere is no Opportunity of Enquiring Where you are What you do and What Company you keep that scapes me And I am well enough pleas'd that I can hear nothing concerning you for it shews that you live Retir'd Not but that I durst trust you with the wide World too But however it is not easie such a General Conversation Nor is it absolutely safe neither for though it could not Corrupt you it would yet Hinder you Now wheresoever you are know that I am with you and you are so to Live as if I both heard and saw you Your Letters are really Blessings to me and the sense of your Emprovements relieves me even under the Consideration of my own decay Remember that as I am Old so are you Mortal Be true to your Self and Examine your self whether you be of the same Mind to day that you were yesterday for That 's a Sign of Perfect Wisdom And yet give me leave to tell you that though Change of Mind be a Token of Imperfection it is the Business of my Age to Unwill One day that which I Will'd Another And let me recommend it to your Practice too in many Cases for the Abatement of our Appetites and of our Errors is the best Entertainment of Mankind It is for Young Men to Gather Knowledge and for Old Men to Use it And assure your self that no Man gives a fairer Accompt of his time than he that makes it his daily Study to make himself Better If you be in Health and think it worth your while to become the Master of your Self it is my Desire and my Advice that you apply your self to Wisdom with your whole Heart and judge of your Emprovement not by what you Speak or by what you Write but by the firmness of your Mind and the Government of your Passions What Extremities have some Men endur'd in Sieges even for the Ambition and Interest of other People And Shall not a Man venture the Crossing of an Intemperate Lust for the Conquest of himself You do very well to betake your self to a Private Life and better yet in keeping of that Privacy Private For otherwise your Retreat would look like Ostentation The greatest Actions of our Lives are those that we do in a Recess from Business Beside that there are some Governments and Employments that a Man would not have any thing to do withall And then it is to be consider'd that Publick Offices and Commissions are commonly bought with our Mony Whereas the great Blessings of Leisure and Privacy cost us Nothing Contemplation is undoubtedly the best Entertainment of Peace and only a Shorter Cut to Heaven it Self Over and above that Business makes us Troublesome to Others and unquiet to our Selves For the End of One Appetite or Design is the Beginning of Another To say nothing of the Expence of Time in Vexatious Attendances and the Danger of Competitors Such a Man perhaps has more Friends at Court than I have a larger Train a Fairer Estate more profitable Offices and more Illustrious Titles But What do I care to be overcome by Men in Some Cases so long as Fortune is overcome by Me in All These Considerations should have been Earlyer for 't is too late in the Article of Death to Project the Happiness of Life And yet there is no Age better Adapted to Virtue than that which comes by many Experiments and long Sufferings to the Knowledge of it For our Lusts
is a Frantick Error that Fears where it should Love and Rudely Invades where it should Reverentially Worship Death it self is no Evil at all but the Common Benefit and Right of Nature There is a great Difference betwixt those things which are Good in Common Opinion and those which are so in Truth and Effect The Former have the Name of Good things but not the Propriety They may Befall us but they do not Stick to us And they may be taken away without either Pain to us or Diminution We may Use them but not Trust in them For they are Only Deposited and they must and will Forsake us The only Treasure is That which Fortune has no Power over And the Greater it is the Less Envy it carries along with it Let our Vices Die before us and let us Discharge our Selves of our Dear-bought Pleasures that hurt us as well Past as to Come for they are follow'd with Repentance as well as our Sins There 's neither Substance in them nor Truth for a Man can never be weary of Truth but there 's a Satiety in Error The Former is alwayes the same but the Latter is Various and if a Man looks near it he may see through it Beside that the Possessions of a Wise Man are Maintain'd with Ease He has no need of Embassadors Armies and Castles but like God himself he does his Business without either Noise or Tumult Nay there is something so Venerable and Sacred in Virtue that if we do but meet with any thing like it the very Counterfeit Pleases us By the help of Philosophy the Soul gives the slip to the Body and Refreshes itself in Heaven Pleasures at best are Short-Liv'd but the Delights of Virtue are Secure and Perpetual Only we must Watch Labor and attend it our selves For 't is a Business not to be done by a Deputy Nor is it properly a Virtue to be a little better than the Worst Will any Man boast of his Eyes because they tell him that the Sun shines Neither is he presently a Good Man that thinks Ill of the Bad. For Wicked Men do That too and 't is perhaps the Greatest punishment of Sin the Displeasure that it gives to the Author of it The saddest Case of all is when we become Enamour'd of our Ruine and make Wickedness our Study When Vice has got a Reputation and when the Dissolute have lost the Only Good thing they had in their Excesses the Shame of Offending And yet the Lewedest part of our Corruptions is in Private which if any body had look'd on we should never have Committed Wherefore let us bear in our Minds the Idea of some great Person for whom we have an Awful Respect and his Authority will even Consecrate the very Secrets of our Souls and make us not only mend our Manners and purifie our very Thoughts but in good time render us Exemplary to Others and Venerable to our Selves If Scipio or Laelius were but in our Eye we should not dare to Transgress Why do we not make our selves then such persons as in whose Presence we dare not offend EPIST. XII We are Moved at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them THe whole Subject of Natural Philosophy falls under these Three Heads the Heavens the Air and the Earth The First Treats of the Nature of the Stars their Form and Magnitude The Substance of the Heavens whether Solid or not and whether they move of Themselves or be moved by any thing Else whether the Stars be Below them or fixed in their Orbs In what manner the Sun divides the Seasons of the Year and the like The Second Part Enquires into the Reason of things betwixt the Heavens and the Earth as Clouds Rain Snow Thunder and whatsoever the Air either Does or Suffers The Third handles matters that have a regard to the Earth as the difference of Soils Minerals Metalls Plants Groves c. But these are Considerations wholly forreign to our Purpose in the Nature of them though they may be of very Proper and Pertinent Application There is not any Man so Brutal and so Groveling upon the Earth but his Soul is rouz'd and carry'd up to higher Matters and Thoughts upon the Appearance of any New Light from Heaven What can be more worthy of Admiration than the Sun and the Stars in their Courses and Glory And yet so long as Nature goes on in her Ordinary way there 's no body takes Notice of them But when any thing falls out beyond Expectation and Custome what a Gazing Pointing and Questioning is there presently about it The People gather together and are at their Wits End not so much at the Importance of the Matter as at the Novelty Every Meteor sets People agog to know the Meaning of it and what it Portends and whether it be a Star or a Prodigy So that it is worth the while to enquire into the Nature and Philosophy of these Lights though not the business of this Place that by discovering the Reason we may overcome the Apprehension of them There are many things which we know to Be and yet we know nothing at all of what they Are. Is it not the Mind that Moves us and Restreins us But What that Ruling Power is we do no more understand than Where it is One will have it to be a Spirit Another will have it to be a Divine Power Some only a Subtile Ayr Others an Incorporeal Being and some again will have it to be only Blood and Heat Nay so far is the Mind from a Perfect understanding of Other things that it is still in search of it Self It is not long since we came to find out the Causes of Eclipses And farther Experience will bring more things to Light which are as yet in the Dark But one Age is not sufficient for so many Discoveries It must be the Work of Successions and Posterity and the time will come when we shall wonder that Mankind should be so long Ignorant of things that lay so open and so easie to be made Known Truth is offer'd to all But we must yet content our selves with what 's already found and leave some Truths to be retriv'd by After Ages The Exact truth of things is only known to God but it is yet Lawful for us to Enquire and to Conjecture though not with too much Confidence Nor yet alltogether without Hope In the First place however let us Learn things Necessary and if we have any time to spare we may apply it to Superfluities Why do we trouble our selves about things which Possibly May Happen and peradventure Not Let us rather provide against those Dangers that Watch us and lie in wait for us To suffer Shipwrack or to be Crush'd with the Ruin of a House these are great Misfortunes but they Seldom Happen The Deadly and the hourly danger that threatens Humane Life is from One Man to Another Other Calamities do Commonly give us Some Warning
or Disswaded as they saw Occasion Their Prudence Provided for their Peoâ—…le their Courage Kept them Safe from Dangers their Bounty both Supply'd and Adorn'd their Subjects It was a Duty Then to Command not a Government No Man in those Dayes had either a Mind to do an Injury or a Cause for 't He that commanded well was Well Obey'd And the worst Menace the Governors could then make to the Disobedient was to Forsake them But with the corruption of Times Tyranny crept in and the World began to have Need of Laws and those Laws were made by Wise Men too as Solon and Licurgus who Learn'd their Trade in the School of Pythagoras EPIST. XXII Man is Compounded of Soul and Body And has Naturally a Civil War within Himself The Difference betwixt a Life of Virtue and a Life of Pleasure THere is not so Disproportionate a Mixture in any Creature as that is in Man of Soul and Body There is Intemperance joyn'd with Divinity Folly with Severity Sloth with Activity and Uncleanness with Purity But a Good Sword is never the worse for an Ill Scabbard We are mov'd more by Imaginary Fears than Truths for Truth has a Certainty and Foundation but in the other we are expos'd to the License and Conjecture of a Distracted Mind and our Enemies are not more Imperious than our Pleasures We set our Hearts upon Transitory things as if they Themselves were Everlasting or Wee on the other side to Possess them for Ever Why do we not rather advance our Thoughts to things that are Eternal and contemplate the Heavenly Original of all Beings Why do we not by the Divinity of Reason triumph over the weaknesses of Flesh and Blood It is by Providence that the World is preserv'd and not from any Virtue in the Matter of it for the World is as Mortal as we are Only the Allmighty Wisdome carries it safe through all the Motions of Corruption And so by Prudence Humane Life it self may be prolong'd if we will but stint our selves in those Pleasures that bring the greater part of us untimely to our End Our Passions are nothing else but Certain Disallowable Motions of the Mind Sudden and Eager which by Frequency and Neglect turn to a Disease as a Distillation brings us first to a Cough and then to a Pthisique We are carry'd Up to the Heavens and Down again into the Deep by Turns so long as we are govern'd by our Affections and not by Virtue Passion and Reason are a kind of Civil War within us and as the one or the other has Dominion we are either Good or Bad. So that it should be our Care that the worst Mixture may not prevaile And they are link'd like the Chain of Causes and Effects one to another Betwixt violent Passions and a Fluctuation or Wambling of the Mind there is such a Difference as betwixt the Agitation of a Storm and the Nauseous Sickness of a Calm And they have all of them their Symptomes too as well as our Bodily Distempers They that are troubled with the Falling Sickness know when the Fit is a Coming by the Cold of the Extremeâ—… Parts the Dazling of the Eye the failing of the Memory the Trembling of the Nerves and the Giddiness of the Head So that every Man knows his own Disease and should provide against it Anger Love Sadness Fear may be read in the Countenance And so may the Virtues too Fortitude makes the Eye Vigorous Prudence makes it Intent Reverence shews it self in Modesty Joy in Serenity and Truth in Openness and Simplicity There are Sown the Seeds of Divine things in Mortal Bodies If the Mind be well Cultivated the Fruit answers the Original and if not all runs into Weeds We are all of us Sick of Curable Diseases and it costs us more to be Miserable than would make us perfectly Happy Consider the Peaceable State of Clemency and the Turbulence of Anger the Softness and Quiet of Modesty and the Restlessness of Lust. How Cheap and easie to us is the Service of Virtue and how Dear we pay for our Vices The Sovereign Good of Man is a Mind that Subjects all things to it self and is it self subject to Nothing His Pleasures are Modest Severe and Reserv'd and rather the Sawce or the Diversion of Life than the Entertainment of it It may be some Question whether such a Man goes to Heaven or Heaven comes to Him For a Good Man is Influenc'd by God himself and has a kind of Divinity within him What if one Good Man Lives in Pleasure and Plenty and another in Want and Misery 't is no Virtue to contemn Superfluities but Necessities And they are both of them Equally Good though under several Circumstances and in Different Stations Cato the Censor wag'd War with the Manners of Rome Scipio with the Enemies Nay bating the very Conscience of Virtue Who is there that upon Sober Thoughts would not be an Honest Man even for the Reputation of it Virtue you shall find in the Temple in the Field or upon the Walls cover'd with Dust and Blood in the Defence of the Publick Pleasures you shall find Sneaking in the Stews Sweating-Houses Powder'd and Painted c. Not that Pleasures are wholly to be Disclaim'd but to be used with Moderation and to be made Subservient to Virtue Good Manners allwayes please us but VVickedness is Restless and perpetually Changing not for the Better but for Variety VVe are torn to pieces betwixt Hopes and Fears by which Means Providence which is the greatest Blessing of Heaven is turn'd into a Mischief VVild Beasts when they see their Dangers fly from them and when they have scap'd them they are Quiet but wretched Man is equally tormented both with things Past and to Come For the Memory brings back the Anxiety of our Past Fears and our Fore-sight Anticipates the Future VVhereas the Present makes no Man Miserable If we Fear all things that are Possible we live without any Bounds to our Miseries EPIST. XXIII We abuse Gods Blessings and turn them into Mischiefs Meditations upon the Horrors of Earthquakes and Consolations against them Death is the same thing which way soever it comes Only we are more mov'd by Accidents that we are not us'd to THere is nothing so Profitable but it may be Perverted to our Injury Without the Use of the Winds how should we do for Commerce Beside that they keep the Ayr Sweet and Healthful and bring seasonable Rains upon the Earth It was never the Intent of Providence that they should be Employ'd for War and Devastation and yet that 's a great Part of the Use we make of them pursuing one Hazard through another We expose our selves to Tempests and to Death without so much as the Hope of a Sepulchre And all this might be Born too if we only ran these Risques in order to Peace But when we have scap'd so many Rocks and Flats Thunder and Storms What 's the Fruit of all our Labor
little but it is of Force enough to bring us to our Last End Nay so far should we be from dreading an Eminent Fate more than a Vulgar that on the Contrary since Dye we must we should rather Rejoyce in the Breathing of our Last under a more Glorious Circumstance What if the Ground stand still within its bounds and without any Violence I shall have it over me at Last and 't is all one to me whether I be laid under That or That layes it Self over me But it is a Terrible thing for the Earth to gape and swallow a Man up into a Profound Abyss And what then Is Death any Easier Above Ground What cause have I of Complaint if Nature will do me the honor to Cover me with a Part of her Self Since we must Fall there is a Dignity in the very Manner of it when the World it self is Shock'd for Company Not that I would wish for a Publick Calamity but it is some Satisfaction in my Death that I see the World also to be Mortal Neither are we to take these Extraordinary Revolutions for Divine Judgments as if such Motions of the Heavens and of the Earth were the Denouncings of the VVrath of the Allmighty but they have their Ordinate and their Natural Causes Such as in Proportion we have in our own Bodies and while they seem to Act a Violence they Suffer it But yet for want of knowing the Causes of things they are Dreadful to us and the more so because they happen but seldome But why are we commonly more Afraid of that which we are not Us'd to Because we look upon Nature with our Eyes not with our Reason Rather Computing what she Usually Does than what she is Able to do And we are Punish'd for this Negligence by taking those things to which we are not VVonted to be New and Prodigious The Eclipses of the Sun and Moon Blazing Stars and Meteors while we Admire them we Fear them and since we Fear them because we do not Understand them it is worth our while to Study them that we may no longer Fear them VVhy should I fear a Man a Beast an Arrow or a Lance when I am expos'd to the Encounter of Greater Dangers We are Assaulted by the Nobler parts of Nature it self by the Heavens by the Seas and the Land Our Business is therefore to Defy Death whether Extraordinary or Common No matter for the Menaces of it so long as it Asks no more of us than Age it self will take from us and every petty Accident that befalls us He that Contemns Death What does he Care for either Fire or Water the very Dissolution of the Universe or if the Earth should Open Under him and shew him all the Secrets of the Infernal Pit He would look Down without Trouble In the Place that we are all of us to go to there are no Earthquakes or Thunder-Claps no Tempestuous Seas Neither War nor Pestilence Is it a Small Matter Why do we fear it then Is it a Great Matter Let it rather once fall upon us then always hang over us Why should I dread my Own End when I know that an End I must have and that all Created things are Limited EPIST. XXIV A Discourse of Gods Providence in the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and in the Prosperity of the Wicked YOu are troubled I perceive that your Servant is run away from you but I do not hear yet that you are either Robb'd or Strangl'd or Poyson'd or Betray'd or Accus'd by him So that you have scap'd well in Comparison with your Fellows And Why should you complain then especially under the Protection of so gracious a Providence as suffers no Man to be miserable but by his own Fault Nor is this a Subject worthy of a wise Mans Consideration Adversity indeed is a terrible thing in Sound and Opinion and that 's all Some Men are Banish'd and strip'd of their Estates Others again are Poor in Plenty which is the basest sort of Beggery Some are overborn by a Popular Tumult that breaks out like a Tempest even in the highest security of a Calm Or like a Thunder-Clap that frights all that are near it There is but One Struck perhaps but the Fear extends to all and affects those that May Suffer as well as those that Doe As in the Discharge of a Piece only with Powder 'T is not the Stroke but the Crack that frights the Birds Adversity I 'll grant you is not a thing to be wish'd no more than War but if it be my Lot to be Torn with the Stone Broken upon the Wheel or to receive Wounds or Maims It shall be my Prayer that I may bear my Fortune as becomes a Wise and an Honest Man We do not Pray for Tortures but for Patience nor for War but for Generosity and Courage in all the Extremities of War if it happens Afflictions are but the Exercise of Virtue and an Honest Man is out of his Element when he is Idle It must be Practice and Patience that Perfects it Do we not see see how one Wrestler provokes another And if he find him not to be his Match he will call for some Body to help him that may put him to all his strength It is a Common Argument against the Justice of Providence in the matter of Reward and Punishment the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and the Prosperity of the Wicked But it is an easie matter to vindicate the Cause of the Gods There are many things that we call Evil which turn very often to the Advantage of those that suffer them or at least for the Common Good whereof Providence has the greater Care And further they either befall those that bear them willingly or those that deserve them by their Impatience under them And Lastly they come by Divine Appointment and to those that are Good Men even for that very Reason because they are Good Nor is there any thing more Ordinary than for that which we fear'd as a Calamity to prove the Foundation of our Happiness How many are there in the World that enjoy all things to their Own Wish whom God never thought worthy of a Tryal If it might be imagin'd that the Allmighty should take off his Thought from the Care of his Whole Work What more Glorious Spectacle could he reflect upon than a Valiant Man Struggling with Adverse Fortune Or Cato's Standing Upright and Unmov'd under the Shock of a Publick Ruin Let the Whole World sayes he fall into one hand and let Caesar encompass me with his Legions by Land his Shipping at Sea and his Guards at the Gates Cato will yet cut out his way and with That Weapon that was untainted even in the Civil VVar give himself that Liberty which Fate deny'd to his Country Set upon the great VVork then and deliver thy self from the Clog of thy Humanity Juba and Petreius have already done the good office One for the Other
to our Will but that we are all Over-Rul'd by Fatalities When we come to handle that Matter we shall shew the Consistency of Free-Will with Fate having already made it appear that notwithstanding the Certain order of Fate Judgments may be Averted by Prayers and Supplications And without any Repugnancy to Fate for they are part even of the Law of Fate it self You will say Perhaps VVhat am I the better for the Priest or the Prophet for whether he bidâ—… me Sacrifice or no I lye under the necessity of doing it Yes in this I am the better for it as he is the Minister of Fate We may as well say that it is Matter of Fate that we are in Health and yet we are indebted for it to the Physitian because the Benefit of that Fate is convey'd to us by his Hand EPIST. XXVI All things are Produced out of Cause and Matter Of Providence A Brave Man is a Match for Fortune I Had yesterday but the one Half of it to my Self My Distemper took up the Morning the Afternoon was my Own My First Tryal was how far I could endure Reading and when I saw I could bear That I fell to Writing and pitch'd upon a Subject Difficult enough for it requir'd great Intention but yet I was resolv'd not to be Overcome Some of my Friends coming in told me that I did Ill and took me off So that from Writing we pass'd into Discourse and made you the Judge of the Matter in Question The Stoicks you know will have all things to be Produc'd out of 〈◊〉 and Matter The Matter is Dull and 〈◊〉 sive Susceptible of any thing but 〈◊〉 Capable of Doing any thing it Selâ—… 〈◊〉 Cause is that Power that Formâ—… 〈◊〉 Matter this or that way at Pleasure Some thing there must be of which every thing is Made and then there must be a Workman to Form every thing All Art is but an Imitation of Nature and that which I speak in General of the World holds in the Case of every Particular Person As for Example The Matter of a Statue is the Wood the Stone or the Marble the Statuary shapes it and is the Cause of it Aristotle assigns Four Causes to every thing The Material which is the Sine quâ non or That without which It could not be The Efficient as the VVorkman The Formal as That which is stamp'd upon all Operations and the Final which is the Design of the whole VVork Now to explain This. The First Cause of the Statue for the Purpose is the Copper For it had never been made if there had not been something to work upon The Second is the Artificer for if he had not understood his Art it had never Succeeded The Third Cause is the Form For it could never properly have been the Statue of such or such a Person if such a Resemblance had not been put upon it The Fourth Cause is the End of making it without which it had never been made As Money if it were made for Sale Glory if the Workman made it for his Credit or Religion if he design'd the Bestowing of it upon a Temple Plato adds a Fifth which he calls the Idea or the Exemplar by which the Workman draws his Copy And he makes God to be full of these Figures which he represents to be Inexhaustible Unchangable and Immortal Now upon the whole Matter give us your Opinion To me it seems that here are either too many Causes assign'd or too few and they might as well have Introduc'd Time and Place as some of the rest Either Clear the Matter in Question or deal Plainly and tell us that you cannot And so let us return to those Cases wherein all Mankind is agreed the Reforming of our Lives and the Regulation of our Manners For these Subtilties are but time lost Let us search our selves in the first Place and afterward the World There 's no great Hurt in passing over those things which we are never the better for when we know and it is so order'd by Providence that there is no great difficulty in Learning or Acquiring those things which may make us either Happier or Better Beside that whatsoever is Hurtful to us we have drawn out of the very Bowels of the Earth Every Man knows without Telling that this Wonderful Fabrick of the Universe is not without a Governor and that a Constant Order cannot be the Work of Chance For the Parts would then fall foul one upon another The Motions of the Stars and their Influences are Acted by the Command of an Eternal Decree It is by the Dictate of an Allmighty Power that the Heavy Body of the Earth hangs in Ballance Whence comes the Revolution of Seasons and the Flux of Rivers The wonderful virtue of the smallest Seeds as an Oak to arise from an Acorn To say nothing of those things that seem to be most Irregular and Uncertain as Clouds Rain Thunder the Eruptions of Fire out of Mountains Earthquakes and those Tumultuary Motions in the Lower Region of the Air which have their Ordinate Causes And so have those things too which appear to us more Admirable because less Frequent As Scalding Fountains and New Islands started out of the Sea Or What shall we say of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Ocean the Constant Times and Measures of the Tides according to the Changes of the Moon that Influences moist Bodies But this needs not For it is not that we Doubt of Providence but Complain of it And it were a good Office to Reconcile Mankind to the Gods who are undoubtedly Best to the Best It is against Nature that Good should hurt Good A Good Man is not onely the Friend of God but the very Image the Disciple and the Imitator of him and the true Child of his Heavenly Father He is true to himself and Acts with Constancy and Resolution Scipio by a Cross Wind being forc'd into the Power of his Enemies cast himself upon the Point of his Sword and as the People were enquiring what was become of the General The General sayes Scipio is very well and so he expir'd What is it for a Man to Fall if we consider the End beyond which no Man Can Fall We must repair to Wisdom for Armes against Fortune for it were unreasonable for her to furnish Armes against her self A Gallant Man is Fortunes Match His Courage Provokes and Despises those terrible Appearances that would otherwise Enslave us A Wise Man is out of the Reach of Fortune but not Free from the Malice of it and all Attempts upon him are no more than Xerxes his Arrows they may darken the Day but they cannot Strike the Sun There is nothing so Holy as to be Priviledg'd from Sacrilege But to Strike and not to Wound is Anger Lost and he is Invulnerable that is Struck and not Hurt His Resolution is try'd the Waves may dash themselves upon a Rock but not Break it Temples may be Profan'd and
Temple or approach the Altar we compose our Looks and our Actions to all the Decencies of Humility and Respect How much more then does it concern us when we treat of Heavenly things To deal candidly and not to let one Syllable pass our Lips that may Savor of Confidence Rashness or Ignorance Truth lies deep and must be fetch'd up at Leisure How many Mysteries are there which God hath placed our of our â—…ight and which are only to be reach'd by Thought and Contemplation The Notions of the Divinity are Profound and Obscure or else perhaps we see them without understanding them But the Divine Majesty is only Accessible to the Mind What This is without which Nothing is we are not able to Determine And when we have guessed at some Sparks of it the greatest part lies yet conceal'd from us How many Creatures have we now in this Age that never were known to us before And How many more will the next Age know more than we do And many yet will be still reserv'd for Aâ—…ter times The very Rites of Religion are at this day a Secret and unknown to many People Nay the very thing that we most eagerly pursue we are not yet arriv'd at That is to say a Perfection in Wickedness Vice is still upon the Emprovement Luxury Immodesty and a Prostitute Dissolution of Manners finds still new Matter to work upon Our Men are grown Effeminate in their Habits in their Motions and in their Ornaments even to the Degree of Whorishness There 's no body minds Philosophy but for want of a Comedy perhaps or in foul weather when there is nothing else to be done Postscript BEfore I take my Last Leave of Seneca I will here discharge my Conscience as if I were upon my Last Leave with the Whole VVorld I have been so Iust both to the Reader and to the Author that I have neither Left out any thing in the Original which I thought the One might be the Better for nor Added any thing of my Own to make the Other Fare the Worse I have done in This Volume of Epistles as a good Husband does with his Cold Meat They are only a Hache made up of the Fragments that remain'd of the Two Former Parts which I could not well dispose of into any Other Form or so Properly Publish under any Other Title Let me not yet be understood to Impose This Piece upon the Publick as an Abstract of Seneca's Epistles any more than I did the Other for the Abstracts of his Benefits and Happy Life It is in works of This Nature as it is in Cordial Waters we Taste all the Ingredients without being able to Separate This from That but still we find the Virtue of every Plant in every Drop To return to my Allegory Books and Dishes have This Common Fate there was never any One of Either of them that pleas'd All Palates And in Truth it is a Thing as little to be Wish'd for as Expected For an Universal Applause is at least Two Thirds of a Scandal So that though I deliver up these Papers to the Press I Invite no Man to the Reading of them And whosoever Reads and Repents it is his Own Fault To Conclude as I made this Composition Principally for my Self so it agrees exceedingly Well with My Constitution and yet if any Man has a Mind to take part with me he has Free Leave and Welcome But let him Carry This Consideration along with him That He 's a very Unmannerly Guest that presses upon another Bodies Table and then Quarrels with his Dinner The End Divin Instit. Lib. 1. Cap. 4. Cap. 7. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Lib. 5. Cap. 9. Lib. 6. Cap. 17. Lib. 6. Cap. 14. Lib. 6. Cap. 25. De Civ Del. Lib. 6. Cap. 10. De Irâ Lib 3. Ep. 96. Annal. Lib. 15. Cap. 14. a Benefits Necessary Profitable and Delightful b Benefits Absolute and Vulgar a How far a Son may Oblige a Father b A Servant may oblige his Master a All Benefits are good b The Good Will must be accompanyed with Iudgment a The Choice of the Person is a Main Point a A Benefit is a Common Tye betwixt Giver and Receiver b A Benefit must be suited to the Condition of the Receiver c An Acceptable Present d Let the Present be singular a Give Frankly b Give Chearfully c Accompany Good Deeds with good Words d Some Favours in Publick others in Private a We value the Thing the Labour or Attendance b A â—…eresit follâ—…w'd with an Iniury c The Case of a Conditional Redemption d Obligations Common and Personal e Oblâ—…gations upon Necessity a A Wise Friend is the Noblest of Presents a An unworthy Person may be oblig'd for the sake of those that are more worthy b Providence it self is gracious to the Wicked Posterity of an Honorable Race a Give only for Giving sake b The Epicureans deny a Providence the Stoicks assert it c God and Nature are one and the same Power d The Divine Bounty expects no Return e All Men detest Ingratitude and love the contrary a Diverse sorts of Ingratitude b Perseverance in Obliging c In some cases a Man may be minded of a Benefit d Some People would be Grateful if they had a Prompter e There must be no upbraiding of Benefits f Some Bounties are bestowed with Insolence g In what Case a Man may be reminded of a Benefit a How to oblige an Ungrateful Man b The Case of an Obligation from one that afterwards betrayes his Country c Providence is gracious even to the Wicked d A Wicked Man is Incapable of a Benefit a Obligations must be follow'd without Upbraiding or Repining b We must persevere in doing good c There should be no delay in the doing of a Benefit a The Receiver has the harder Game to Play b A Benefit refus'd for the Person c A Pythagorean Scruple d A forced Benefit e Keep a Grateful Mind f We should be chearful but not Importune in the Returning of Benefits g There must be no Pride either in the conferring or in the Receiving of Benefits a We must be grateful in despite of all Oppositions b Gratitude is an Obvious a Cheap and an easie Virtue c 'T is one thing to be Grateful for a Benefit and another thing to return it f A Man may be over-Grateful as well as over-righteous a We must not do an ill thing that good may come of it a We are all Ungrateful b Causes of Ingratitude c Not to return Good for Good is Inhumane but Evil for Good is Diabolical d There are Ungrateful Governments as well as Ungrateful Men. a There neither is nor can be any Law against Ingratitude a a a True Happiness a a a Wisdome What it is b A Wise Man does his duty in all Conditions c c c Right Reason is the Perfection of Humane