that it is more hidden from the reach Of vulgar eares and is not found among Those sayings that by Epicure are flung Abroad and into common use are grown Which I have both approv'd and made mine own EPIST. XIV I Yield there is in us an in-bred care Of our owne bodies I confesse they are To be preserv'd But though I not denie Indulgence due to them yet slaverie I doe denie For who the body serves Who out of feare for that from reason swerves Too much whose sole regard to that is ti'd He surely will serve many things beside We must dispose our actions not as though We for the body ought to live but so As we without the body cannot live The too much care whereof doe's often give Tormenting feares load 's us with sorrows flings Contempt upon us and reproaches brings Whos'ever his own body too much prizes All other things that honest are dispises Let a strickt care thereof be had yet so That when the duties we to reason owe To honour and fidelity require Le ts not refuse to cast it into fire Yet let us shun as much as in us lies Not onely harmes but incommodities Let us our safety mind and not forbeare A dayly care t' avoid the things we feare Whereof there are three kinds as I suppose Want sicknesses and all the ill that growes From an offended power of which none beates So fiercely on us as what power threats That rayses tumults and a noise does make As for those other which from nature take Their ground want sicknesse filently appeare And with no terrour strike the eye or eare This comes with dreadfull pomp fire sword and chains And savage beasts sent in with horr'id pain 's To humane brests heer may we also looke Upon a prison gibber racke or hooke Stakes through the mouth forc't frō the fundament And members by driv'n horses piece-meale rent The coat with combustible matter noynted And what else cruell-tyrants have appointed 'T is then no wonder if the feare of this Be greatest whose varieties great is And preparation terrible For as A Torturer the sooner brings to passe His purpose when with sundry instruments Of various torments he himselfe presents For they who else with patience would hold out By that dire pomp to yield are brought about So of such things as tame and quell the thought They prevaile most that with most shew are brought Those plagues are no lesse grievous hunger thirst Impostumes bred and in the intrailes burst Feavers that scald the bowells but yet they Are hid from view have nothing to display These like great armies by their equipage And dreadfull sight orecome ere they engage Then let us strive offences to forbeare Sometimes it is the people we must feare And sometimes if a Senate rule the state With the chiefe men we must ingratiate Sometimes we must of all those stand in awe Who of and to the people give the law Thave all these friends is hard it may suffice At least to have them not our enemies A wiseman therefore will not undergoe The anger of great men but shun it so As marriners doe stormes which thou might'st see When thou didst crosse the Sea to Sicilie Rash pilots value not the South-wind's threats Which the Sicilian Sea with fury beats And forces in to whirle-pooles They forbeare The left hand-shore and to the other stere Nearer Carib des where the waters roare But the more warie they inquire before Of men that know the place of tide and wether And shun the place where whirl-winds meet together Heer 's the condition of a wiseman hee Avoyds the place that dangerous may be But with this caution not to have it thought He does avoyd it Safety much is wrought By seeming not to seeke it purposely For we accuse the power that we doe flie Wherefore we must our thoughts to this inure How from the people we may be secure To doe which first le ts shun whats'ever stirs Great emulation 'mong competitors Next let us not be Lords of any thing That to the spoyler may great profit bring How smal's the bodie 's spoyle none will pursue Man's bloud for that meer cause or very few Gain more then hatred moves A thiefe le ts goe An empty traveller A poore man though He be beset is safe From three things then According to the rules of ancient men We must take speciall care our lives t'exempt From hatred and from envy and contempt How this may be wisdome alone will show For ther 's a middle way though hard to know Whereby into contempt wee may not run While we the feare of envy seeke to shun Nor while we would avoyd suspition To make our selves fit to be trod upon Some ' cause they may be fear'd to feare have cause We must be circumspect for either draws An equall danger Let us therefore flie For our own safeguard to Philosophy This not with good men onely but with such As are not wholly bad will grace us much For Oratorie and what else invites The peoples favour have their opposites This which is peacefull and its own worke minds Can nere be scornd but from all science finds A due regard even from the worst that are For wickednesse can never run so far Nor ever against vertue so conspire But that Philosophie will keepe intire It's name and honour alwayes with this tie That it be handled calmly and modestly But what did Cato then phlosophise Calmely and modestly when his advise Oppos'd a civill war when he between Two potent princes arm'd with rage and spleen Did intercede and who when some contended With Caesar some with Pompey both offended It is a question whether it were fit For a wiseman then at the helme to fit What meanst thou Marcus Cato the contest Is not for liberty that was supprest Long since the strife is whether now We shall to Caesar or to Pompey bow What 's this to thee thou hast therein no share We must receive a Prince what need'st thou care Which shall be he the better cannot gaine The conquest he that shall at length be faine To yield may be the worse he cannot be The better that obtaines the victorie I heere on Catoes latter yeares do touch But truely neither were his former such That a wise man might be admitted to That rapine which was like the state t' undoe What else did Cato then but cry aloud Throwing forth empty wordes when in the crowd Of people he was spit on and abus'd And when he to be carry'd forth refus'd They drag'd him from the Senate house at last And after all him into prison cast We 'll shew in time whether a wiseman may Suffer his labour to be cast away In the meane while I bid thee looke upon Those who from publicke businesses have gon To order their own lives and without a we Of power to bring mankind to reasons law A wise man publicke manners never flies Nor drawes the people
Have one whom he in sicknesse may relieve Or from a deadly enemie reprieve Who minds himselfe and for that cause embraces A mutuall friendship he the same disgraces As he began so will he end He chose A friend in whom his trust he might repose In his restraint No sooner shall the chaine Rattle but he is gone This is the vaine Frindship which people temporie call So long he will be welcome as he shall Be profitable And therefore friends flock round 'Bout them who with prosperity abound But leave them who grow poore to sit alone Such friends when trial comes are quickly gone Of this we find examples ev'ry day Some their friends leave for fear and some betray The end with the beginning must agree If any have begun a friend to bee Because 't is needfull or if he suppose That if any fit reward of friendship growes But in it selfe alone 't will not be haâ—d To make him against friendship take reward Why do I seek a friend because that I May then have one with whom I 'de wish to die Or else accompany to banishment Or with mine owne I may his death prevent What thou describ'st not friendship is but trade He that mindes profit will himselfe perswade To look no further Between amity And Lovers passions there 's some sympathy Which we may call mad friendship Yet ther 's none Will love for gain or for ambition Love of it selfe all other things neglecting Allures the minde of men to the affecting Of such a seeming beauty hoping withall That this affection will be mutuall What then can lewd effects of lust agree With a good cause But here thou 't answer mee The question is not whether friendship ought For it owne selfe or something else be sought If for it selfe in ought to be desir'd He may injoy it that can live retir'd Contented with himselfe But how may he Enjoy it as a thing of excellency And must approach it with a minde unshaken With change of Fortune or with lucre taken He deprives friendship of her Majesty That seeks her onely for prosperity A wise man 's with himselfe content But this By some Lucilius perverted is They a wise man too much restrain and think That he into his skin should alwaies shrink We must distinguish and this sense allow A wise man 's with himselfe content but how To live in happiness but not to live For many things must him assistance give In this whereas to that is requisite Only a minde that keeps it selfe upright And contemns fortune The distinction Crysippus makes must here be look't upon A wise man needs not any thing although He stands in need of many But we know On th' other side a fool does nothing want And yet wants all by reason he hath scant The use of any thing A wise man needs Hands eyes and ev'ry other thing that feeds The being of this life A wise man's state Needs nothing For to need does intimate Necessitie and this we must denie That any wise man 's in necessity Though with himselfe he then be satisfi'd Yet he needs friends and many would provide Not that he may get happiness thereby For he without friends can live happily The chief good to no outward help pretends But rests at home and on it selfe depends If of it selfe but any part be sought Out of it selfe 't is ready to be brought To obay Fortune What condition then Of life will that be of a wise man when Committed to some prison he 's berest Of friends or else in some strange Countrey left Or held in a long Voyage or giv'n o're By all is thrown upon some barbarous shore Like that of Jove at the Worlds dissolution When Heav'n and Earth and gods are in confusion Whole Nature ceasing for a time He rests Wholly within himselfe and there invests His cogitations some such thing as this A wise man does He with him still is And therein wrapt As long as he 's permitted To rule his own affaires he 's well acquitted With only himselfe When he thinks fit he marries Brings up his children yet he lives and tarries Still with himselfe though he 'll not live if he Shall alwayes be debard of company No profit of his owne does him invite To friendship but a naturall appetite And as of other things ther 's an innate Sweetnesse so of friendship as we hate A solitary life so we delight In company as nature does incite Man to love man so by a secret kind Of longing we to friendship are inclind And though he be most fervent in his love Rankes his friends with himselfe oft-times above Yet in himselfe he seates his good and sayes As Stilpo ' gainst whom Epicure inveighs In that fore-nam'd Epistle for when he His countrey wife and children found to be Distroy'd and lost he went forth all alone Yet happy still from that destruction And meeting with Demetrius whose Sir-name From the destruction of Cities came And was cal'd Poliorcetes who to bost His cruelty askt if he ought had lost All my things are with me said he Behold A stout and valiant man who thus controld The victory of his foe I have sayd he Lost nothing He compeld his enemie To question his owne conquest I beare hence All that is mine as Justice Temperance Prudence and ev'n the vertue which does make us Count nothing good that ever can forsake us We wonder at some creatures which through fire Doe passe unhurt we may that man admire Much more whose constant vertue him affords A safe and secure passage both through swords Ruine and flames Dost thou not plainely see How much 't is easier to get victory Ore a whole nation than one man alone Such words no lesse than he the Stoiks own Their unhurt goods they carry with the same Courage through cities when th' are in a flame They are contented with themselves and bound Their whole felicitie within that ground But lest thou shouldst conceave that onely we Scatter abroad such glorious speeches He Which so reproves this Stilpo Epicure Hath sent out such to which I would procure Thy approbation though already I Have finished my present diarie Who thinkes not his own goods most large and stable Though he possesse the world is miserable Or if thou 't rather have it thus declard For we must now not words but sence regard Who judges not himselfe to be most blest Would wretched be though he the world possest And that from natures ground such words appeare To be in use the Comicke Poet heare He is not blest is who not understood So by himselfe What though thy state be good If thou conceav'st it ill Or wilt thou say Though he that 's basely covetous perhaps may Say he is happy or he that 's Lord of store Of servants but a servant unto more That his report shall therefore make him so Not what he sayes but what he thinkes we know Is to be waigh'd nor what he thinkes to day
I want yet What is sufficient if I once can get The Sum that I propound in the next place I wholly will Philosophy embrace But that which is to thee a second thought And is defer'd should first of all be sought I will provide sayst thou wherewith to live Thou must learne also an account to give Of thy provision Although something may Hinder thy living well nothing can stay Thy dying well There is no reason why We should be hindred from Philosophy By poverty or more then that by need Nay yet a little further to proceed We must for this to hunger us inure Which men in beseig'd Cities doe endure And what reward do they obtaine for all Their patience but onely not to fall Within the victors power how much more great Is this that makes our freedome so compleat And permanent that we nor men need feare Nor gods and truly we should not forbeare To come to this although we hungry be Armies we know have sufferd penurie And sed on rootes of grasse and things that shame And modestie permit me not to name And all this for a kingdome and to make The wonder more anothers right to take To suffer poverty can any doubt That from his mind he may throw madnesse out We should not therefore first our meanes inlarge Philosophy receaves us without charge But so it is when all things else are gaind Men are content that wisedome be obtaind This they will have to be the last provision Of life or to speake plaine addition But whether thou hast any thing doe thou Forthwith embrace Philosophy for how Appeares it else that th' hast not now too much Or whether thy condition be such That thou hast nothing yet resolve to make That the first thing whereof thou wilt partake But I shall want what necessarie is What necessarie is thou canst not misse For nature with the least things will comply And a wise man on nature will relie But if extreame necessities insist He can the world relinquish when he list And by that meanes no longer need become A burthen to himselfe or troublesome And if he have a little to sustaine Life is content and being not in paine For things beyond necessitie bestows On backe and belly what to them he owes And being sate derides the rich man's wayes And laughing at his course of getting sayes Why do'st thou so defer why dost thou wait For use of mony put out at a rate Or expect profit from a growing trade Or why that blest old man do'st thou perswade To write thee down his heire since thou mayst pitch Upon a nearer way to make thee rich Wisedome exhibits wealth which on all them It does bestow who riches doe contemn But this belongs to others thou hast more Than needfull is looke on the age before And thou art in excesse All times present To evry man what is sufficient I might heere end my Letter but that I Have bred thee ill The Parthian Kings deny Admittance without presents ther 's no shift But at my fare-well I must bring some gift And this to me shall Epicurus lend Many by getting wealth have found no end Of miseries but onely an exchange Nor should this any way to thee seeme strange Since in the mind alone the fault does lie Not in the thing that which made poverty A burthen riches also ircksome made For as a sickman whether he be layd Upon a bed of wood or gold no ease Does find but carry's with him his disease So fares it with a mind that sicke is whether It be in wealth or poverty in either It is unsatisfi'd and its own ill Where ere it be remov'd does carry still EPIST. XVIII DEcember is a month wherein all sorts Of people in the City melt in sports Where luxurie such priviledge obtaines And not gets so publickely the raines As if some ods there should appeare to all 'Tween dayes of worke and Saturne's festivall Whereas there is so little difference made That we may verifie what one hath sayd In former times 't was evident and cleare December was a month but now a yeare Wert thou with me we would confer together What course therein were to be taken whether We should not change at all our former use Or not severely seeming to refuse The peoples custome merrily sit downe At supper with them and throw off our gown But though at festivalls w'have not refus'd To change our cloths a thing but onely usd In times of tumuit and of publicke woe Yet thou at least if I thee rightly know Who take upon me to discerne do'st neither Desire that we should become altogether Like the cap-wearing multitude nor yet Unlike unlesse perhaps we ought to get Such powr ore our minds as not to follow Pleasures even then when all in pleasures wallow It is a certaine signe of a fixt thought When that nor goes to ill nor can be brought This shews we are more resolute and stout To come forth sober from a drunken rout But this more temprate not to be exempted Nor yet with their ill manners to be tempted It is permitted to us that we may Doe the same things although another way For we may keepe a feast without excesse I find in me so great a willingnesse To prove the firmenesse of thy mind that I By the advise of wisemen will applie To thee this counsell Let some time be had Wherein-thou faring coursely and being clad As meanely mayst thus say Behold the thing That is so terrible my mind I 'll bring While I am in prosperity t' abide Hardship and will while fortune smiles provide Against her frownes Soldiers in time of peace Doe exercise their arms and never cease To keep their guards and to make works although They apprehend no danger of a foe They in unnecessary paines proceed To be thereby prepard in times of need That which thou wouldst not feare when it does come Practise before This course is us'd by some Who ev'ry month doe practise povertie And bring themselves even to necessity That they who dayly are therein concernd May never feare what they have often learn'd I would not have thee thinke that I intend By this my admonition to commend To thee a custome practis'd now a dayes To sup alone and in a cottage wayes That luxurie devises to avoid The superfluitie wherewith i'ts cloyd But I would have thee lodge be clad and feed As coursely as thou truely wert in need Three or foure dayes together thus employd And sometimes more the thing will be enjoyd By thee at length as an experiment Which was before but a meere complement Then will thy joy Lucilius be great When fed but with two farthings-worth of meat Thou't find no need of fortun to suffice thee Things needfull she though angrie not denies thee Nor is there cause for thee to thinke therefore That thou do'st much for thou shalt do no more Than many thousand slaves and poore men doe Save onely
that thou art not forc't thereto Nor wilt thou find more difficulty when 'T is alwayes done than when but now and then Let 's exercise though but against a stake And that heereafter Fortune may not take Us unprovided let our constant care Bee to make povertie familiar We more securely riches shall possesse When poverty we know brings no distresse The great voluptuous master Epicure Had certaine times when hunger he would cure Dispitefully to see if his full pleasure Did yet want any thing and in what measure And whether it were worthy to be sought With carefulnesse and with great labour bought For so he saies in certaine Letters sent To Poliaenus when the government Was in Charines where he does much boast His dinner did not a full farthing cost But Metrodor's a whole one who had not So far in that proficiency yet got Then wherefore should this diet not suffise Thy appetite when pleasure therein lies Yea pleasure that will constantly abide And will not often need to be suppli'd For although water and course batter fry'd Or crusts of barley-bread be things deny'd To be delightfull yet it is the height Of pleasure that we can therein delight And bring our selves to that which fortune can Though wicked not deny to any man The food allowd to prisners is more large And men condemnd are not by them whose charge It is to execute so stricktly fed Then what great courage in that mind is bred Which of its one accord to that descends Which they feele not whom th' utmost woe attends This is t'anticipate the stroakes of fortune Wherefore Lucilius let me tree importune Now to begin these men to imitate And to designe some dayes thine owne estate So to neglect that thou maist suffâ—r want With povertie learn to be conversant My friend take courage riches to despise And worthily to God-like honour rise For no man can resemble God but he Who contemnes riches I forbid not thee To possesse wealth but I would have thee beare It so as to possesse it without feare Which thou wilt doe if thou canst be assurd That happinesse without wealth is procurd If thou on riches shalt so cast thine eye As if they were to depart presently But I must now to a conclusion grow But first thou 't bid me pay thee what I owe. I 'll thee assigne to Epicurus he Shall reckon and thy paymaster shall be From extreame anger madnesse does ensue Thou needs must understand this to be true Since thou findst thy condition to be so That thou hast both a servant and a foe This passion workes on all men and does move Not only from malignity but love Not onely from things serious but from small And things of sport Nor is' t materiall From how great cause it comes but in what mind It falls For as no difference we find In what proportion fire is thrown but where For we may cast the greatest without feare On wet or sollid places where as drie And combustible matter suddenly Will feede a sparke into a ruine So My deare Lucilius anger that does goe On in a violence will soone engage It selfe into a mad and franticke rage We then as well for health's sake this must shun As not into intemperance to run EPIST. XIX AS often as I read thy letters I Rejoyce am with good hope fild thereby For they in thy behalfe not onely make A promise to me but doe undertake On then I thee entreat finish thy taske For there is nothing I can better aske Of any friend then for him make request Steale if thou canst from cares if not th' hast best Snatch thy selfe off vve time enough have spent In vanities Let 's be in age content To pack up our commodities Then how Are we to blame w'have livd at sea let 's now Die in the port Yet thou shouldst not protense To get a publicke name by thy recesse Which thou must neither glory in nor hide For I 'll not seeke to draw thee so aside As our of hatefull sulsinesse to keepe No company but in some hole to creepe Let thy retirement then appeare to us But let it not become notorious Such as have yet no course of life begun May live obscure and all acquaintance shun But thou canst not the vigour of thy wit And learned eloquence adorning it Thy noble correspondencies have shown Thee to the open world th' art so well known That though thou shouldst resolve to lie conceald Thy worth by former things will be reveald Thou canst not live in darknesse wonted light Will find thee out where ere thou takst thy flight Without distate of any without blame From thine owne selfe thou quietness maist claime For what shalt thou forsake that thou canst say Is with ill will forsaken Clients they Doe not seek thee but something from thee Friends Friendship was value'd once it now contends For prey Will th'old-man whom thou dost forsake Alter his will the Client him betake T' an other gate no great thing can be bought At a cheape price Take this into thy thought Whether thou find'st they have relinquish'd thee Or some of those things which thy evills be I could have wish'd thou hadst remaind within The bounds of thine own birth and hadst not bin Raisd to that height a quick prosperity Far from a happy life hath placed thee Commands and governments and what depends Thereon and yet more honour thee attends Place after place what wilt thou have at last On what designe will thy vast hopes be cast Ere thou first still thy full desire thou 't gaine That cannot be for as there is a chaine Of causes whereto fate they say is knit So is there of desire and like to it One takes beginning from an others end To such a kind of life thou do'st descend As of it selfe can never come to checke Thy grievances Wherefore withdraw thy necke Worne with the yoake which to cut off is lesse Offensive than to let it still oppresse If thou t' a private life shalt have recourse All things will be much lesse yet will have force To fill abundantly whereas the most Now fetcht with charge from many a distant coast Will not suffice To which hast thou most mind In want t' abound or be in plenty pind Felicity both greedy is and must Be still exposd to others greedy lust As long as thou shalt unsuffys'd abide Others with thee will not be satisfy'd But how sayst thou shall I get off lay hold On any meanes Think with thy selfe how bold And rash for money thou hast often bin How diligent that thou might'st honour win Somthing must be attempted then for rest Or else thy dayly paines to manifest Thy care of this mans businesse now and then To performe civill offices to men Will force thee to grow old in toyle and dwell In miseries to which thou canst not tell Which way with modesty an end to give For what avails it that thy selfe wouldst live