it were odious contrary to nature which requires time in her actions And for the same reason wee see that the people submit themselues willingly vnder the obedience of a Prince who holds the scepter of his Ancestors and is come to the Crowne by the right of succession but when they seeke to giue them a new maister which is not issued from the extraction of their Kings they cannot endure him but easily shake off the yoake whereunto they haue not bene accustomed And in like manner no man is grieued to respect them that are descended from ancient Nobility but they can hardly yeeld honor to those whose nobility is but newly discouered The reasoÌ„ is for that men beleeue that the ancient Nobility being in possession of this glory no man should repine to yeeld him that which time hath gotten him which is a right in a manner equall to that which nature giues for that the things which we enioy by a long continuance of yeares seeme to be gotten and held as it were inpropriety not by the indulgence of men but by the bounty of nature And withall that which hath continued so long hath a greater affinity with the truth whose lasting is eternall then that which is but newly sprung vp within few dayes But there is one thing that filles our soules with Indignation when as wee see any one enioye those goods which haue no coherence with his quallity As when to the great reproach of piety wee see a Knight a Captaine a Souldier or any other making profession of armes to hold bishopprickes to enioy Abbeys and to possesse other dignities of the Church we hold this much more vnworthy then if they gaue the charge of Campe-maisters and of Colonels of foote or horse to religious men or Bishops Or if they made a singing man or Clarke of the Kings Chappell Generall of his armies Finally we hold it a thing very vnworthy to see a yong man inferior in all kind of qualities to a reuerent old man contest with him of merit and glory especially when it falles out betwixt men of the same profession betwixt whom this inequalitie is remarkeable And admit they be not men of the same profession yet we hold it an vnworthy thing that one who is inferior in all poynts to another should contest against him As if a Musitian would equall himselfe to a President or Counsellor of the Court remembring not that the charges of Iustice are farre more honorable then the profession of Musicke this would make all men to tremble which know what difference there is betwixt gold lead They which easily conceiue indignation are first of all men indowed with some eminent quality who see themselues reiected from dignities and offices or which see men altogether vnworthy aduanced to the same honours whereunto they haue attayned by their vertue For doubtlesse it is no iust thing to place so vnequall persons in the same ranke Moreouer vertuous soules and adorned with bounty haue a great disdaine to see good men depriued of the iust reward of their vertue and the wicked raised to honours which they could not hope for The cause is for that those soules haue their iudgement pure and can esteeme things according to their weight and value And therefore they abhorre vice and haue vertue in singular recommendation Againe they that loue honors and charges are subiect to indignation especially when as they aspire to those places which are held by vnworthy persons In like manner they that haue a good opinion of themselues and â—ho beleeue they deserue â—ore then all the world besides are subiect to the motions of indignation when as any one enters into comparison with them Whereas contrariwise seruile soules men borne in barbarisme and grosse spirits are not transported with any thing hauing nothing in them that may quicken this passion Yet there are some which do rather referre the motions of ambitious presumptuous men to meere enuy then to a iust indignation For that indignation being a commendable passion which proceeds from the feeling of vertue it cannot subsist with the vanity and arrogancy which accompany those men but it must bee another passion which kindles in their soules this kind of despight Of Enuy and Emulation CHAP. 4. AS Crocodiles haue their breeding and liue in the goodliest and richest riuer in the world and as other venemous beasts are commonly found among the most exquisite and sweetest flowers whose grace and beauty they pollute and corrupt so Enuy which is a venemous and maligne Passion doth commonly assaile the most vertuous men and such as haue attained to the greatest honor glory in the world Wherefore one of the most famous Captaines of antiquity being yet in the flower of his age was wont to say that he knew hee had done nothing that was generous or commendable for that he did not find any man that did Enuy him which shewes that there can bee nothing imagined in this world more vniust or more wicked then this infamous Passion which seekes her owne torment and finds her punishment in the glory and contentments of another It is also the reason why men are ashamed to confesse openly that they are troubled with this Passion And being conuicted they labour to palliate their error yea they had rather accuse themselues of all other imperfections then to iustifie this And therefore they giue it other names excusing themselues that it is not Enuy but hatred feare or choller which transports them the which is a silent confession they make that of all the infirmities of the soule they should most dissemble it least they expose themselues to a visible shame and disgrace But before we blame it we must first know it with her nature and properties Enuy then is a griefe which is framed in our soules by reason of the prosperities which we see happen to our equalls or such as be like vnto vs not that wee expect to reape any fruite by our Passion but for that wee cannot endure the glory of another man without Griefe It riseth first betwixt equalls or such as are alike that is to say betwixt those of the same blood of the same age of the same profession of the same wealth and betwixt those that aspire to the same honors So as we see kinsmen Enuy their kinsmen and are grieued at the increase of their fortunes Young men also cannot suffer with griefe that they of their age should be aduanced before them In like manner Philosophers are iealous of the glory of Philosophers and Painters Enuy the reputation of Painters great Commanders in the warre cannot behold but with impatiency the tryumphes of their companions rich men in like manner crosse the rising of such as are their equalls and finally they that affect the same offices do what they can to keepe backe their companions The reason is for that Enuy being alwaies accompanied with a certaine competition and contention which riseth betwixt those that
soule as the enuy wee beare to them that are fortunate discouers a wicked dispositioÌ„ wherfore we disseÌ„â—ble not the Hatred we beare to such as wee know are wicked whereas wee disguise all we can the enuy we conceiue against them that are happy Againe Enuy kindling in our hearts by the great prosperity of another when as they decline and that we see them ouerthrowne by some notable accident of misfortune it relents and is by little and little quenched yea it is most certaine that enuious men are glad to haue some cause of pitty whereas Hatred and enmities neuer ceasâ—e for all the calamities which befall their enemies but when they are once framed and fixed to any one they neuer abandon him neither in good nor bad fortune Moreouer Hatreds and enmities are sometimes cured and quenched by letting the party that is tormented with this passioÌ„ know that he to whoÌ„ he wisheth euill hath not done him any wrong or that he hath changed his inclinatioÌ„ is become a good vertuous maÌ„ moreouer that he hath done him some kind of pleasure in occasions which haue bin offered to oblige him But althogh you perswade a man that hee hath not receiued any wrong from him that is happy and fortunate yet it doth not quench his enuy and in stead of suppressing it with this consideration that he is a good man and that hee hath indeauoured to doe him fauours yet he will shew it the more and let the world see that he can neither indure his prosperity nor his benefits for that the one proceeds from the good fortune which doth accompany him and the other is an effect of his vertue which are two recommendable things coÌ„sequently subiect to Enuy Lastly these two Passions differ in regard of the diuerse ends which they propound vnto themselues for Enuy hath that in particular that shee doth not alwayes cause vs to wish great miseries to those we enuy for wee see it dayly by experience that there are some which enuy their own kinsmeÌ„ or friends yet they would be loth to see any great misery befall them or an affliction which might tend to their ruine contenting themselues to crosse their prosperities and to hinder the lustre and glory of their fortunes But Hatred passeth further still watching for an occasion to ruine his enemy and is neuer satisfied with his miseries vntill they haue brought him to the period of his downefall So as shee induceth vs to procure irremediable mischiefs and extreame calamities to those whom shee pursues with obstinacy Wee must now seeke the source and fountaine of Hatred and shew what the causes be that frames it As she consists in the auersion of things which are contrary to our senses it may spring from three causes principally that is to say from choler from reproches or slanders and from the crosses or discommodities which wee receiue As for the first an Ancient had reason to say that hatred is an inueterate or rooted choler not that time doth change one of these passions into another for the Philosophers will neuer confesse that one kinde may passe into the nature of another but for that choler hauing exasperated our courage if wee entertaine long the forme of an offence which doth gall vs in the end wee lay aside choler and beginne to hate him against whom our wrath was kindled So as choler is not of the Essence of hatred but many times the cause As for the second it is certain that nothing doth more excite our Hatred then slanders reproches the which may euen trouble the wisest and most vertuous for wee haue seene great Personages who had as it were renounced all feeling of the other Passions yeelde o the griefe of detraction and haue suffered themselues to haue beene so caried away with griefe of minde as they haue fallen into a generall disdaine of all the world and to abhorre all Mankind by reason of the fury of such as had defamed them So as slander is like to a huge waue which wrests the helme out of the Marriners hand for that she troubles the most vertuous and makes theÌ„ to giue way to the griefs of Hatred Besides if they which slander vs giue vs other crosses and are the cause of some notable preiudice as if they accuse vs before the Magistrate if they bring vs in questioÌ„ of our liues if they cause vs to lose our goods if they persecute our kinsmen if they torment our friends all these causes together frame a deepe Hatred in our soules the which retaine for euer the forme of these bloody iniuries vnlesse they make some great and solemne satisfaction Finally the reasons why choler detraction and crosses or discommodities ingender Hatred is for that all these things tending to the destruction of the being or honour of men they are so many subiects and spurres of Hatred against those that procure them those displeasures Yet Hatred is not framed in our hearts by these causes onely but there are other particular motiues from whence it may proceed as when we see our selues deceiued in our trust and of the good opinion we had of men to whom we were tied by affection Wherefore an Ancient had reason to say that Hatred is commonly framed in our soules by our bad elections for that wee loue before we know and before wee haue tried the merit and fidelity of those to whom we will trust so rich a treasure as friendship We are too easily perswaded that they are vertuous and worthy of all fauour and confidence and in the meane time wee finde them treacherous and vnworthy so as wee fall into such a disdaine and do so abhorre them as we cannot inindure to heare them spoken of Finally to draw to a head the causes of this Passion wee hate vgly and deformed things as the monsters and scorners of nature and arte and those which are filthy troublesome and importune for that wee esteeme them as enemies to our senses and content As for those which are subiect to the motions of this Passion wee obserue that faint and base mindes are sooner mooued then generous spirits The reason is for that Cowards feare euery thing so as their hatred is inflamed against all such as they thinke may hurt them bee it in their person in their goods or in regard of their friends Hence it growes that great men which haue no courage are commonly cruell as we haue monstrous examples in Nero Caligula and other effeminate Princes whose rage no murthers could satisfie And for the same reason they that haue offended a great Personage who hath meanes to reuenge himselfe hate him irreconciliably which makes them to desire his death to see themselues freed from feare Whence groweth that famous saying He that offends neuer pardons The proud and enuious are also subiect to the motions of Hatred The first for that they thinke they are not honored as they should be and the last for that all the prosperities
some are pleasing as soone as they apply themselues vnto them and others growe pleasing by custome as for example they that giue theÌ„selues to the exercise of hunting although it bee somewhat violent yet they receiue a singular content for that they must fight against sauage beasts and aspire to get the victory And according to that which wee haue said that victory breeds delight it is easie to iudge why the exercises of schooles disputations among learned men and the pleading of Lawyers at the barre giue a content to them that imploy themselues the reason is for that in these exercises there is also an image of victory which presents it selfe vnto our eyes Glory in like manner is in the rancke of those things which causeth delight and Pleasure for that it consists in a certaine opinion to be more eminent and more excellent then other men by reason of the esteeme the world makes of vs for euery man imagines himselfe to bee such as others esteeme him especially if they bee men which he holds to be ful of truth Wherein wee giue more credite to neighbours then to those which are remote who can haue no exact knowledge of our merit And wee referre more to out fellow Citizens to our household seruants and to our familiar friends then vnto strangers yea wee yeelde more to them that liue then to posterity we esteem more the iudgement of wise men then of them that want wit and we preferre the testimony of many before the applause of some few particulars for that it seemes they whom we preferre for the aboue mentioned reasons are better informed of the truth and more to bee credited in their dispositions Wherefore wee are better satisfied and contented to bee in reputation with them then with the rest of the world for no man cares to be honored by such as are contemptible and not regarded Wherefore if we hide our selues from Infants or beasts it is not for any fear of shame we haue of them seeing wee know they are without iudgment and cannot dishonor vs. It is also a sweete thing to haue a friend seeing that the very action of Loue what obiects soeuer she propounds vnto her selfe is wonderfully pleasing For no man loues wine who takes not delight to drinke it No man delights in Armes which takes no pleasure in the exercise no man loues Philosophy which is not pleased to discourse thereof In like manner no man loues another but hee takes pleasure in his friendship And moreouer it is a sweet thing to see himselfe beloued for it is as it were a presage that hee is indued with qualities which makes a man louely and to be esteemed by such as haue any feeling of reason Also euery man thinks he is beloued for the loue of himselfe The which puffes him vp and makes him more glorious by consequence fuller of content For the same reason it is a sweete thing to excite admiration of vs in the hearts of men for that the honor they yeeld vs maks vs to haue a good conceit of our selues which fills vs with ioy and Pleasure In regard whereof flatterers charme our mindes for that these kinde of people offer themselues vnder a shew of friendship and admirers of our vertues Moreouer it is a sweete thing to doe an action often that pleaseth vs for that custome makes things easie vnto vs consequently pleasing Change is also delightfull vnto vs for that it is as it were an imitation of nature which is pleased in variety in the diuersity of things for that which persists alwayes in one sort frames an importune custome in its subiect which continuing too long comes to corrupt Whereâ—ore it was wisely said that alterations and changes make all things more sweete and pleasant to our senses So as they also which come againe by interualls and respits are more pleasing vnto vs as the returne of the Spring after the sharpenesse of winter and the arriuall of our friend after along voyage for that these things are not onely done with a change which causeth delight but also for that they happen rarely and not at all times nor in all seasons Moreouer it is a great content to behold things which giue vs a subiect of admiration for the wonder which they stirre vp in our soules inflames vs and makes vs desire to know them and the cause of our admiration But wee cannot learne any thing of that wee desire to know but with extreame pleasure seeing it is as it were to mount vp to the highest degree of our nature and to eleuate it to her perfection wherefore this admiration causeth ioy Againe they be things full of sweetnesse and Pleasure to impart and to receiue benefits for that in receiuing you obtaine that which men desire and by giuing you shew your selfe to haue that which others want and that you exceede them therein the which we see with delight as a marke of our excellency And as to do good is a sweet thing it followes that it is pleasing to ease the misery of another to draw him out of captiuity and to change the face of his fortune by making him happy who was formerly miserable And for that any thing that breedes admiration in our soules and giues vs any subiect to learne is followed with pleasure it therefore happens that whatsoeuer consists in imitation brings contentment as painting caruing and Poesy which are all professions whose exercises are pleasing although the things which they imitate be not alwayes delightfull As for example the painter leaues not to please himselfe in his Art although he drawes the portraict of a Moore Nor the Caruer to content himselfe in his work althogh he cut a Chimera or that he fashioÌ„ a monster nor a Poet forbeares not to take delight in his verses althogh they bee made vpon a Mushrome a Sparrow a flea or some such ridiculous subiect for that which stirres vp pleasure in the spirit of man is not the obiect which hath propounded it selfe but the knowledge and iudgement hee makes to haue so well exprest this obiect as his industry approcheth neere the truth and is a liuely Image For that this perfect resemblance betwixt the Image and the Originall teacheth him some thing which hee knew not before and withall it makes him see his industry and his labour whereby he enters into admiration of his worke and pleaseth himselfe to beholde the perfection of his Arte. For the same reason the euents of things not hoped for nor expected and the care to bee freed from those wherein there are great dangers are accompanied with ioy for that they happen not without amazement In the meane time for that we haue said that what is coÌ„formable to the inclinations of nature is pleasing we see that the things which are tied by any bond of Nature that haue any affinity one with another as those which are of one kinde or which haue any other naturall conformity are delighted
seeme to threaten him he goes couragiously to encounter them whereas when he is surprized by feare he faints and abandons himselfe vnto the misfortune his despaire rising from the difficulties which he apprehends in the good which he should hope for But to haue full knowledge of this subiect and of the whole matter we must in the end of this chapter shew how despaire is contrary to hope and seek the reason why it may sometimes make men valiant and to winne great victories First of all you must remember what wee haue formerly sayd that among the Passions of the soule they obserue two kinds of opposition The first is found among those that haue contrary things for obiects and that is onely a-among the passions of the Concupiscible part as for example betwixt Loue and Hatred whereof the one regards the good and the other the euill The second is obserued betwixt those that in truth regard the same obiect but with diuerse considerations and that is found among the Irascible passions whereof the one seekes the good and the other flies it by reason of the difficulty which doth inuiron it As for example Courage and Feare do both regard an imminent danger which presents it selfe to the imagination but courage lookes vppon it to encounter and vanquish it and feare regards it to auoyd it and flye from it if it be in her power After this manner then despaire is contrary to hope for that the obiect of hope which is a good difficult to obtaine drawes vs of the one side that is to say so farre as wee doe imagine a power to obtaine it But it doth reiect vs on the other side as when we apprehend that wee haue no meanes to enioy it for this apprehension daunts our resolution or that as Aristotle teacheth the impossibility which wee imagine in things makes vs to giue ouer their pursuit Wherefore in this consideration despaire is quite contrary to hope But some one may say How comes it that many times in warre despaire makes men valiant and giues them great victories as well as Hope for that it is not the custom of nature to produce the like effects from contrary causes To which we answer that when in the midst of despaire men resolue to fight valiantly as we reade of the English in the plaines of Poictiers where they tooke one of our Kings prisoner it happens for that they haue not lost all hope for they that see no apparence of safety by flying and apprehend that it cannot preserue them from falling into their enemies hands but will purchase them eternall shame with their miserie losing all hope of that side they resume new courage and resolue to sell their liues dearely and to reuenge their deaths gloriously Wherefore great Captaines haue alwaies held opinion that enemies should not bee thrust into despaire beeing put to flight but rather make them a bridge of gold to giue them meanes to passe riuers lest that finding themselues staied and despairing of all safety they should take more courage and generously reuenge their first basenesse by a cruell slaughter of their enemies Of Choler CHAP. 1. OF all the passions of the soule there is not any one that takes such deepe root or extends her branches farther then Choler wherof neither age condition people nor nation are fully exempt There are whole Countries which liuing vnder a sharp rough climate are not acquainted with pleasures There are others who contenting themselues with those benefits which nature presents vnto them are not enflamed with any ambition Some there be to whom misery is familiar as they fear not any accidents of fortune But there is not any ouer whom Choler doth not exercise her power and shew the excesse of her rage Yea she enflames whole kingdomes and Empires whereas the other passions doe onely trouble and agitate priuate persons Wee haue neuer seene a whole Nation surprized with the loue of one woman It was neuer foūd that a whole City hath beene transported with a desire to heape vp treasure Ambition doth puffe vp but certaine spirits But we see Cities Prouinces and whole States enflamed with Choler and transported by this fury with a publicke conspiracy of great small young and olde men and children Magistrates and multitude we see Commonalties whom this fury hath incensed runne all to Armes to reuenge a disgrace or a wrong which they pretend hath beene done them Wee haue also seene great and powerfull Armies which haue bene the terror of the world ruine themselues by this fury which hath thrust them into mutiny against their Commanders Wherefore if there be any passion which is pernicious vnto man-kind it is this which seemes neither to haue bounds nor limits nor any shew of reason It shall bee therefore fit to know the nature properties and effects thereof to the end wee may finde out some remedy to diuert the miseries which shee brings into the world Let vs begin by the Definition which giues a full light of the Essence of the thing and makes vs to know perfectly Choler is an ardent passion which vpon the apparence there is to be able to reuenge our selues incites vs to a feeling of a contempt and sensible iniury which we beleeue hath been vniustly done either to our selues or to those we loue Whereby it appeares first that Choler is accompanied with a heate which is framed and ingendred in vs for that this passion enflames the blood and spirits which are about the heart by meanes of the gall which in this heat exhales it selfe and ascends vnto the braine where it troubles our imagination This heate differs from that which proceedes from loue for that the heate which is found in loue tending to the thing beloued to vnite it selfe with it is mixt with a certaine sweetenesse so as the Philosophers compare it to the moderate heate of the ayre or blood Wherefore we say that sanguine complexions are most capable of loue that the bounty of the liuer wheras the blood is framed induceth to loue But the heate of Choler is boyling full of bitternesse and accompanied with sharpenes which tends to the destruction of the obiect which it pursues and is properly like to the heate of a great fire or to adust choler extraordinarily mooued which consumes the subiect whereunto it is fixed and therefore the Philosophers maintaine that it proceedes from the gall It appeares also by the Definition of Choler that she hath alwayes for obiect the particular persons which haue wronged vs. Wherein she differs from hatred which extends to a multitude of men As for example wee detest all murtherers all theeues all poysoners and all slanderers euen as wee abhorre all serpents vipers and venemous beasts And therefore it is not sufficient to satisfie our Choler that he that hath done vs wrong fall into some disaster which might suffice to giue satisfaction to our hatred But moreouer to giue vs full contentment hee must know that
Iouiall for that their age hath cooled the blood and made an impression of melancholy which loues seuerity As for vigorous and perfect men such as are betwixt these two ages they participate of both their humours yet they prune of◠that which proceedes both in youth and age Wherefore they obserue a mediocrity in all things so as they are neither too audacious nor too timerous but they hold a meane neither trusting in all the world nor distrusting euery thing but they examin al affaires by the rules of wisdom truth And in like manner they are neither miserable nor prodigall but measure their expences by the lawes of their power by honesty And in like maner they obserue this mediocrity in the other motions of the Irascible and Concupiscible powers Their valour is tempered and their temperance is accompanied with courage wherein they participate both with young and old For yong men are valiant but without moderation and old men are temperate but full of apprehension and feare And to say in a word all the good qualities which are found diuided both in young and olde are as it were vnited and tied together in a middle age which containes it selfe within the bounds of his temper and naturall inclination And as for those which haue any excesse or superfluity either in youth or age a man that is in this middle age checks them and cuts them off reducing them to the point of vertue and honesty We must now see what the Passions of men be in regard of their fortunes that is to say wee must know the Passions of Noblemen of Rich and of the powerfull of the Earth namely of Kings and Princes Noblemen haue this particular Passion to desire honors vehemently For as all men naturally wish to encrease the goods they enioy Noblemen seeing themselues rich in glory and full of honor desire to augment their treasure to the end they may not seeme to plant their triumphes vpon that which their Predecessors haue left them But as they haue giuen them light by their glory so they desire to transferre the same beames of brightnesse to their posterity and commonly Noblemen hold it a generous vanity not to continue in the same ranke with those which haue beene equal to their Ancestors yea many times they contemne them Wherefore they desire to adde some thing to the ornaments of their birth and to haue a subiect to recommend themselues aboue others For in truth the trophees of Families are sometimes so ancient and so worn with time as it is an easie thing to surmise any thing Wherefore generous spirits should preserue that which nature and their birth giues them otherwise if they degenerate it is a famous spectacle of infamy reproach As in truth there are some which degenerating from the magnanimity of their fathers make vs to see thicke clouds in the midst of their shining glory as it was said of the sonne of Great Scipio This misery happens to Families as to fieldes where corne and fruites grow for whilest the soile is good it yeelds good fruites and rich haruests but growing barren it yeeldes nothing that is pure and excellent So good Families continuing in their vigor produce worthy plants for a time But this generous vigor decaying by little and little they yeelde not such braue and valiant men as formerly they did In this Realme alone how many great and worthy Families whose names are so many starres and so many flowers which beautifie our ancient Histories are extinct and lost Or if there remaine any Reliques they rest vnknowne Finally when as Nobility comes to degenerate it giues vs monsters of fury for he that is puft vp with the glory of his Ancestors and will stray from their vertues imagineth that hee cannot make better shew of the splendour of his birth then by the insolencies and violencies which accompany their actions Whereof wee haue seene prodigious examples in the carriages of the descendants of Dionysius the Tyrant and Alcibiades And it is a misery in humane things that as good trees grow wild and sauage either for want of pruning and manuring or for that the soyle is not fauourable So great Families lose the glory of those that were their founders And as Philosophers affirme that there is no worse corruption then that which growes from things soueraignly excellent as we finde in the corruption of perfumes so it happens that Families full of magnanimity and courage degenerate into dull and stupid spirits as wee haue seene in the posterities of Symon Berides and Socrates forbearing to speake of our owne age As for the Passions of rich men they are knowne to all the world for that euery man sees that these menare proud insolent and outragious For feeling themselues supported by their wealth they imagine that all things are in their power For that riches through the couetousnesse of men set as it were a price of all other things which they may buy Rich men are also voluptuous effeminate and full of ostentation and vanity that makes them to glory of their treasure they are voluptuous and effeminate by reason of the cōtinuall delights wherein they plunge themselues they are vaine and glory of their wealth for that their thoughts are perpetually imployed in the imagination of their aboundance whereof they are rather slaues and Idolaters then true possessors and masters And moreouer they imagine that all the world loues what they loue Wherein they are not much deceiued for that infinite numbers of persons haue neede of the assistance of riches Wherefore a Philosopher beeing demaunded by a Princesse whether it were better to be rich or wise he answered that it was better to be rich for said hee wee commonly see wise men at rich mens gates to beg their fauours Rich men also haue commonly this vanity that they hold themselues worthy of great imploymēts because they are rich in regard wherof they thinke it reasonable they shold command others And to speake in a word the riches of a happy man destitute of wisedome discouers his inclination But there is great difference betwixt the Passions of those that are newly raised to great fortunes such as haue enioyed them long And we must not doubt but that they that haue newly gotten their wealth are more vicious and more insolent then such as haue enioyed it from their Ancestors for they enter into their riches as into a new possession in the which they are altogether ignorant As for the crimes which either of them commit they sauour more of insolency incontinency then of malice for commonly they are polluted with adulteries and doe outrage to such as resist their desires It rests now to speake of Princes Kings and the great men of the earth whose Passions also are well knowne for that they much resemble those of rich men yet wee must confesse that they haue sometimes bin more moderat and more milde for great men are commonly more iealous of their honour and more generous then the rich for that they are imployed in greater actions and haue a more eminent glory to preserue Wherefore they are contented to mainetaine their dignity not caring for any affected grauity for that dignity giues a greater splendour vnto men And therefore they shew themselues temperate and hold a mediocrity for that dignity is sweete and grauity is reuerend Finally when they once breake out they commit no small mischiefes For that commonly the effects are proportionable to their causes and finding themselues armed and powerfull they execute their Passions violently and doe vnspeakeable wrongs like vnto great riuers which breaking forth spoyle the haruest and ruine the labourers hope Whereunto we may adde that prosperity doth also make them more insolent for that seeing thēselues powerful in means and fortunate in their dessignes they grow proud and liue without any consideration of vertue or vice by reason of the fauours of Fortune which blind their eyes And yet there are some good natures who in steed of growing proud or forgetting themselues in the height of their fortune become more temperate more religious and more fearing God for that they acknowledge their greatnesse as a guift and fauour of his prouidence to the which for this consideration they are more affectionate and more deuout then other men considering the great benefits they haue receiued FINIS
A Table of Humane Passions With their Causes and Effects Written by the Reuerend Father in God F. N. Coeffeteau Bishop of Dardania Councellor to the French King in his Councels of Estate Suffragane and Administrator generall of the Bishopricke of Metz. Translated into English by Edw Grimeston Sergiant at Armes LONDON Printed by Nicholas Okes. 1621 â—â—easure Paine Hope Feare TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE GEORGE Marquesse of Buckingham High Admirall of England c. MOST worthy to be most honored Lord All outward honors and accomplishments of height already most abundantly blessedly adorning you I thrice humbly submit to your Lordship in as much as this little Volume may containe as ample meanes to all inward addition and illustration In teaching all Manly and Lordly gouerment of those invvard Passions and perturbations that are euermore excited by outvvard Pleasures and all their storme-rockt soothings of security and licence For no more doth the Sun and Wind exhale and blovv vppe pasttemper Vapors and Tempests then the graces and amplifications of Kings cause aestures vprores of affection and Passion Yet is there not any more sencible variety of medicine and cure for all bodily wounds and maladies then there are intelligible and reasonable repressions and setlings of all the vnquiet and raging ouerflowes of our Spirits and minds Neither is there any so deadly danger layd open in the one as abides hid in the other For as that tempest is more dangerous that suffers not a ship to repaire to her hauen then that which sustaines not shee should sayle at all So most difficult are the minds stormes that let a man to containe himselfe nor suffer him to quiet and settle his disturbed reason And therefore all men floting on the high-going seas of Fortune if destitute of Pylots Cables and Anchors and moued only with tumultuous and vnbounded errors in vncertaine and dangerous courses may for a time perhaps in safety and pleasure enioy and extend them But at length as t' were suddainly rauisht by the neckes they are driuen helplesly headlong on the more horrible ship-wrackes Since then your Lordships disposition to all goodnesse is in nature most sweete most flexible vouchsafe eare a little to artificiall and experimenc't aduices that may rectifie accomplish and establish you in all the heights of your honors Wherein my humble and poore endeauors obtaining their desired ends I shall holde my selfe happy and rest in all seruiceable deuotion Your Lordships euermore most submissiuely vowed Ed Grimeston Of Humane Passions The Preface AS Prouident Nature hath prescribed certaine ends to all the Creatures of this Vniuerse whom She hath clothed with certaine qualities and allurements fit to inflame them with their Loue So there is not any one in this world but doth endeuor by all meanes to attaine vnto those ends which are propounded As the Sunne hauing bin placed in the firmament to contribute to the birth and preseruation of Beasts and Plants runnes continually from one Hemisphere to the other to poure out the beames of his influence and light ouer all So after his example there is not any other cause in all this great World but is carefull to seeke and pursue her end according to the motions which Nature hath ingrafted But to make them câ—peable it was necessary that the same Nature which hath prescrib'd them their ends should also giue them as it were two wings to raise them vp That is to say it was needefull she should impart vnto them the knowledge and ingrafâ— in them the inclination and desire to pursue them Desire alone were not sufficient for that is fashiâ—ned in the Appetite which is a blind power and requires some light to guide and conduct it in its motions Euen as they say the Whale which hath a weake and heauy sight hath need of a guide to conduct it through the waues of the Sea lest that this great and weighty masse which she drawes after her should strike against some rocke and be crusht in peeces Neither were knowledge alone sufficient for that it proceedes from a faculty which being borne to giue light doth necessarily presuppose another power which doth receiue the beames of her light and as we may say suffers it selfe to be guided by that light As for example to cause the King being incited by the glory of his Ancestors or induced by the greatnesse of his courage to vndertake the sacke of Constantinople or to replâ—nt the Crossâ— in Palestina it were not sufficient that he knew where Constantinople stood or in what part of the world Palestina were but besides all this it were needfull that with this knowledge the heat and ardor to carry him to so glorious a Conquest should breede a desire As in old time to thrust on Alexander to vndertake the voyage of Persia or of the Indies it was not onely requisite this Prince should haue some knowledge of that stâ—tely Empire and of those rich Prouinces But it was also necessary his generosity should beget in him a passion and will to conquer them So as no man imbraceth any designe whatsoeuer vntill that knowledge be vnited with desire and desire ioyned vnto knowledge In this manner then if things knewe their ends and did not desire them or if they desired them without the knowledge they could not be drawne to endeuor to get them For as much as through the want of those helps they should be in danger to labor in vaine and to lose all the paines of their pursuites So as to effect it they had neede of knowledge and desire The proofes hereof are seene in all the Creatures which make a part of this Vniuersall world For leauing apart the Angels of heauen whose actions show sufficiently that their substance is indued with an vnderstanding full of knowledge and a will capable to frame diuers desires if we will fixe our eyes vpon visible nature we shall find that there is not any Creature not onely among those that haue life but euen among those that haue no soules in the motions and course of whose actions this truth doth not appeare and demonstrate it selfe plainely It is true that in things which are insensible and without life it is not necessary that the knowledge of their ends should remaine in themselues as the desires and inclinations to attaine vnto them do reside but it sufficeth that they bee guided and conducted by a cause conioyned to their actions And to returne to our last example as it was necessary to draw Alexander to vndertake the voyage of Asia and the Indies he should haue knowledge of the Prouinces yet he might borrow this knowledge from those which had seene them and obserued them euen as blind men who led by their guides go where their affaires do call them euen so although that naturall things which of themselues are not indued with any knowledge besides the inclination which they haue vnto their end haue yet some need to know it to the end they may
affect it and seeke it yet hauing a desire it imports not whether the knowledge be precisely in themselues or that some other cause supplies this defect and insinuates it selfe into this action to guide it The reason whereof is that although they be depriued of knowledge yet it hinders not the force of their motions for that they are vnited to that great intelligence which knoweth all things and cannot erre in her knowledge but guides all the naturall causes to their ends by her wise prouidence But these things haue alwayes neede of knowledge and desire to put them into action although that in regard of knowledge it is not absolutely necessary it reside in them but it sufficeth that it be imparted vnto them by the influence and assistance of a more eminent cause As for those which haue life it may be plainly obserued in the course of their liues But we must remember that the soule being the forme of liuing thinges and naturall formes hauing this in particular that the more Noble containes the perfection of that which is lesse Noble as a quadrangle comprehendes with a certaine eminency all that enters into the composition of a Triangle and as the formes of beasts containe the formes of the Elements It followes that there beeing three degrees of Soules that is to say that which giues life which is the lesse perfect that which giues sense which is the second ranke and the Reasonable which is the noblest of all this Reasonable soule which is peculiar onely to Man containes all the powers and perfections of the other and can effect as much as all the rest together By reason whereof man hath a Vegetatiue soule which is common with plants he hath the sensitiue which he hath common with bruit heasts But he alone is in possession of the Reasonable soule whereby he hath nothing common with the rest of the Creatures After this either of these soules hath a number of powers befitting the operations which must arise The powers of the Vegetatiue soule are principally those which nourish which contribute to the growing and increase and which serue to Generation And those haue other powers for instruments to their actions as the power to draw the power to retaine the power to expell the excrements the power to disgest the nourishment and others which Philosophers assigne vnto them Moreouer there is a power which is as it were the Queene of all the rest to whose command and conduct they referre all their actions And that is the power of the naturall Appetite the which as wee haue sayd is one of those two things necessary to accomplish the actions of Nature According vnto these Lawes we see that the power we call Attractiue drawes the nourishment vnto her for that the Naturall Appetite doth presse and command her and in like manner the power which they call Expulsiue doth cast forth and expell those things which the same Natural Appetite doth abhorre and so of the other Powers which are ordained to diuerse ends But for that the Appetite which is blind and voyde of all Knowledge is not sufficient in Vegetatiue things to exercise their action but withall it is requisite that they be accompanied with Knowledge it therfore happens that the Vegetatiue soule being not so Noble that among all her powers there is not any one indued with Knowledge the vniuersall Nature which prouides for all supplies this defect and conducts by her Light the inclination of Vegetatiue substances to their ends and by the same meanes guides all the other powers which follow her motions in their actions So as Nature knowing the substance fitting and proper for the Nourishment shewes it and instructs the Naturall Appetite and ordaines that it shal bee drawne and disgested and conuerted into Nourishment for the preseruation of the Vegetable Indiuidue and the like may bee sayd of the other actions wherein doubtlesse liuings things diffâ—r not much from those that haue no life And we must not obiect that Plants seeme to bee indued with Knowledge for that they can distinguish a Iuicâ— which is proper for them from that which is pernitious the which seemes to bee a marke of Knowledge for although there were Pilosophers which did aâ—tribute vnto Plants a feeling of things which they sayd was lesse pure and lesse actiue then that of Creatâ—â—es Yet it is most certaine that the Nature of the Vegetatiue soule is too earthly to bee fit for the functions of the Sences which require othâ—â— Organs then those of the Plants And therefore although they draw vnto them good Iuice and reiect the bad it proceeds not from any Knowledge wherewith they are indued but from their Naturall vertues and properties guided by that Soueraigne Intelligence which disperseth her care ouer al the Creatures how base and abiect soeuer And it is also by her motion that the same Plants fly their Contraries as the Vine shunnes the Bay tree and that they shew such grace beauty in their workes as we see in the Spring time So as all these things bind vs not to beleeue that they are indued with Knowledge But let vs returne to our discourse and leauing the Vegetatiue soule ascend a degree higher and come to the Sensitiue This as the more Noble hath in her selfe the possession of Knowledge and hath no need to borrow it like vnto the Vegetatiue soule 〈◊〉 things without Life Moreouer shee hath three kinds of Powers that is to say the faâ—ulty to know the faculty to desire and the mouing power Bâ— the mouing power I vnderâ—stand that which executes the motion from one place to another as it is commanded and ordained by the faculty where the Desire is framed after that it is enlightened and guided by Knowledge The Knowing powers are of two sorts that is to say the Exterior and the Interior The Exterior are the fiue sences of Nature as Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting Touching the which as messengers 〈◊〉 to the Interior powers induâ—d with Knowledge whatsoeâ—er we can comprehend and desire These Exterior powers 〈◊〉 the sences answers in some â—â—rt to the bodies of the Vniâ—erse whereof they comprehend 〈◊〉 Colours the Sounds the â—melles the Sauors the Cold â—â—e Heat and the other naturall qualities wherewith they are clothed The Interior powers capable of Knowledge are three whereof the first is the Common sence the which is called by that name for that it is as it were the Center to which doe flow the formes which are sent vnto it from the other sences So as from the Eyes it receiues the formes of Colours which they haue seene From the Hearing the formes of Sounds which haue toucht the Eare from Smelling the formes of Sauors which it hath sented from the Tongue the forme of Sweetnesse or Bitternesse which it hath tasted and from the body the formes oâ— those things which fall vnder the sence of Touching And 〈◊〉 not oâ—ely receiues the formeâ— which the other sences send vnâ—to it but it
straÌ„ge accidents in man As for exaÌ„ple a furious anger drawing the heate violently from the heart to those parts which are most remote froÌ„ the Center of life and by the same meanes inflaming choler which by her naturall lightnes mounts vp to the braine may depriue maÌ„ of the vse of reason make him furious and mad In like manner an extraordinary feare drawing the spirits and heate forcibly to the heart whereas she meanes to fortifie her selfe against her enemy may quench the natural heate and suffocate the man shame may doe the like whereof we haue prodigious examples in histories which testifie that great personages haue died with shame and griefe for that they could not find the knot or expound certaine riddles or difficult questions which had beene propounded vnto them yea they say that great ornament and Gemme of Phylosophy Aristotle died with griefe for that he could not finde the cause of the flowing and ebbing of Eurypus Whereby it appeares that the heart which is thus opprest by Passions when they are violent is the seate of both the powers of the sensitiue appetite that is to say of the Irascible and Concupiscible And whereas they obiect to the contrary that Choller resides in the Gall inferring thereby that the Irascible power should reside there also It is easily answered for that the Choller which remaines in the Gall is not the reason for the which Anger is inflamed but for that it is a hot and dry humor the which are fit qualities to produce that effect The like may be sayd of Loue and that the aboundance of bloud doth not make men more inclined to the Passions of loue forthat the Concupiscible power resides in the liuer which is the place where the blood takes his forme but for that they which are of a sanguine complexion haue a hot and moist temperature which is proper to that passion And as for ioy wee cannot conclude that it resides in the Spleene for that it being infirme many are opprest with melancholly for the reason why melancholly doth torment them which are troubled with the Spleene is not for that ioy resides there but for that adust choller preuailing causeth a troublesome and importune heauines Yet we will not so restraine these two powers within the bounds and extent of the heart but wee will confesse that although they haue their chiefe residence there yet they disperse themselues through the whole creature whereof wee haue good proofe in Lizards which being cut in peeces feele paine in all the parts where they are offended For the last of our obseruations vpon the subiect of passions it remaines to shew whether of the concupiscible and irascible powers bee the more noble and excellent some giue the preheminence to the concupiscible for that it is destined to serue the soule and to make it enioy the obiects of her passions The which made Aristotle to say that beasts put themselues into choller and fight for their desires But this reason doth nothing abase the Irascible power but contrariwise it shewes how much it is more excellent then the Concupiscible For as those souldiers are most valiant which maintaine the shocke of a battaile and defend the weaker euen so by consequence the Irascible power must haue more generosity then the concupiscible seeing she is ordained by nature for her defence And as the noblest vertues are formed in the most excellent powers so we see that force or valour which resides in the Irascible is a more worthy and more commendable vertue then temperance which hath her seat in the Concupiscible We finde also that it is more shamefull not to bridle the motions of the Concupiscible then those of the Irascible for that these are lesse offensiue to reason In regard whereof we blame them more which abandon themselues to pleasure and voluptuousnes then those which are subiect to motions of choller Of the Number of Passions CHAP. 2. AS they that haue treated of the Nature of the Winds haue written diuersly some setting foure others eight some eleauen and some two and thirty to the which they assigne diuers points in the horizon So the Philosophers which discourse of the PassioÌ„s of the Soule agree not of the number some naming more some lesse Yea there was an Ancient affirmed that as there are many Passions whereof we know the names so there are an infinite number which we know not Wherefore hee compared man to one of the monsters of antiquity which they represent vnto vs composed of the members and formes of diuers creatures for that his Cupidities and Passions are so prodigious and so many in number as they are able to amaze any one that shall iudiciously consider of the multitude and diuersity First of all there were some which haue beleeued that as there were foure chiefe winds which excite diuers stormes be it at land or sea so there are foure principall Passions which trouble our Soules and which stir vp diuers tempests by their irregular motions that is to say Pleasure Paine Hope Feare and in truth these foure haue as it were the Empiry ouer all the rest which propound themselues as the obiects of their motions for whatsoeuer men do either they feare or desire or afflict themselues or are contented which be the effects of these Passions Others will haue onely two that is to say Pleasure and Paine and some assigne but one and that is Loue to the which they refer all the rest as to their center and roote Others haue multiplied them and haue made twelue and some eleauen Amidst this diuersity of opinions that is the trâ—est which is receiued at this day and imbraced by all those that make an exact profession of Philosophy that is to say that there are eleauen primitiue and generall Passions whereof all the rest are but as it were budds and branches These generall Passions are Loue Hatred Desire Flight Pleasure Paine Feare Courage Hope Despaire and Choller And thus the Philosophers finde out the number Of Passions say they some regard the good or euill absolutely and simply considered And these belong to the Concupiscible power Others regard the good or euill accompanied with some difficulty and they appertaine vnto the irascible those of the Concupiscible power are six in number whereof three haue for their obiects the good that is to say Loue Desire and Pleasure and the other three haue for their obiect the euil that is to say Hatred Flight and Paine for presently that the obiect which hath the forme of good offers it selfe vnto the Concupiscible power shee presently feeles herselfe surprized and Loue is framed If this obiect bee present she receiues Pleasure and Delight if it bee absent she is toucht with a Desire to enioy it And in like manner as soone as the obiect presents it selfe vnto the selfe same power vnder the shew of euill it doth presently stirre vp a hatred contrary to loue and if during this horror it bee
their Authority by the terror of Armes and the terror of punishment yea they haue alwayes detested the furious words of him that said I care not to be hated so I may bee feared It were good among bruit beasts but men must be managed and gouerned by mildenesse And they willingly embrace such as they may trust and whose power is not fearefull vnto them Behold the persons to whom the Loue of men doth commonly extend In the meane time the true means to purchase Loue is to bind those whose friendship we affect by all sorts of benefites and good offices And to this end they must do good before it be demanded or that they bee forced to discouer their wants vnto vs for that were to put them on the racke to make them confesse our magnificence bounty Moreouer he must be carefull neuer to reproach the fauours which hee hath done them nor proclaime them to others with a vanity which seems to turne to their contempt He that obserues this mean in the benefits and fauours which hee bestowes seemes to haue propounded vnto himselfe the onely good of him whom he hath bound without any other particular interest In regard whereof he is also bound to acknowledge and Loue his freedome and bounty Of the Effects of Loue. CHAP. 4. AS the Ancient Romanes obseruing of the one side the conquests victories triumphes and glory which Caesar by his valour had purchased to their Empire and on the other side weighing the ruines miseries massacres and slaughters which he had caused in their Estate they were wont to say that it was difficult to iudge whether his birth had bene more fortunate or fatall to their Common wealth Euen so it is hard to say whether that Loue causeth more good or euill in the world It is true when as this Passion containes it selfe within the bounds of honesty it is a liuely spring and fountaine of all good things in the life of men It is also true that the author of nature hath ingrafted in vs the first motions and beames and it is true that it is borne with vs that it increaseth with vs that it doth alwayes accompany vs so as it cannot subsist without vs nor we Loue without it It is an immutable law which men haue not â—â—â—nd out lawgiuers haue not prescribed neither doth it depend vpon the examples or customes of nations but was grauen as we may say by the hands of nature in our Soules But when like a wild and vntamed beast it exceedes the bounds of reason there is no misery which it brings not into the world nor any disorder which it causeth not in our liues It is as it were a fatall source from whence flow all kinds of horror vncleanenes adulteries incests sacriledges quarrells warres treasons murders parricides cruelties and violences besides the particular torments it giues vnto the soules of such as giue themselues to be surprized filling them with enuies iealousies cares melancholies terrors yea and madnesse drawing them many times to despaire and to do things whereat heauen and earth blush and are ashamed wherein it is the more to bee feared for that as the first heauen by his motion doth violently draw whatsoeuer is beneath it so Loue prescribes a law to our other desires to all our other Passions so as we may tearme it the key and beginning of our thoâ—ghts of our words of our actions and of whatsoeuer wee do in this life So it makes the first impression in our soules where it excites the desire of that which we resolue to pursue then it fortifies this desire by hope which inflames vs to the pursuite of that we desire and if there appeare any obstacle it imbraceth Choller and hath no rest vntill it hath vanquished and surmounted all lets wherein she settles her coÌ„tentment rest And as the thunder breakes whatsoeuer resists it so this furious Passion being once inflamed striues to ouerthrow whatsoeuer opposes it selfe against her rage and violence Yet as the winds fill the sailes of Pyrats shippes but are not the cause of the murthers and thefts which they commit at sea But all these miseries proceed from the bad inclination and couetousnesse of these infamous Pyrats So although that Loue bee an assistant in many villanies which men commit yet it proceedes not from the malice of this Passion which contrariwise is framed to bring all good to the society of men but it growes from the liberty and excesse of men who peruert the vse of all things and conuert the causes of their felicity into instruments of their misery Let vs then see what bee the proper effects of Loue not staying at those which rise from the meere malice of men We will reduce them to three or foure heads the explanation whereof will giue sufficient light to the rest of the subiect The first effect they attribute to Loue is that it hath an vniting vertue by meanes whereof it causeth him that loueth to aspire to vnite himselfe to the thing beloued whereunto we may refer the fable of Androgenes where of Plato doth so much triumph but we must swallow so many fopperies before wee shall come to the mysteries of this fiction as it were better to passe it ouer in silence then to spend time to explicate it So it is that prophane and vnchast Loue seekes the vnion of bodies which is found euen among brute beasts and for this reason may be called brutish if it bee not sought with an honest intent by a lawfull marriage But chast and honest Loue seekes the vnion of affections and wills and exceeds not that which is decent and vertuous They which loue sayd Aristophanes would passionately desire to be traÌ„sformed chaÌ„ged one into another of two bodies to become one But for that this transformation cannot be without the destruction of their being they striue to recompence this defect by a ciuil and honest vnion which teÌ„ds not to the ruine of their nature but contents their affections that is to say they conuerse continually together entertaine their Passions and are as little absent as may bee one from another Moreouer they haue the same thoughts the same desires the same affections the same wils the same delights the same distastes seeme to be but one soule in two bodies So as that which is pleasing to him that loueth is in like manner to the party beloued what he affects the other imbraceth and what hee reiects the other flies and doth abhorre So as their willes being thus strictly vnited all their actions and carriages conspire to the same end and propound vnto themselues the same obiect For when as we haue graft the sience of one tree vpoÌ„ another stocke the fruits which grow follow the nature of the graft and sauor nothing of the stocke so the will of the louer being transported into that of the party beloued takes the tincture and doth not any thing but what is conformeable to
his desires and intentions But whence comes the power which this Passion hath thus to vnite the subiects where it worketh This cannot well bee explicated without the aide of Philosophy First of all Loue say the Philosophers is a desire to enioy the good wee propound vnto our selues as proper for our content and capable to make vs in some sort better by the fruition But this enioying participation cannot bee effected but by vniting the obiect to our affection which is the same good we propound vnto our selues wherefore it is of the Essence of Loue that it produceth this vnion Hence it proceeds that the presence of the party beloued is so deare and pretious vnto vs and that we feele our selues filled with content when as we may enioy him to entertaine our thoughts to taste the sweetnesse of his company and to discouer our Passions whereas his absence and separation giues vs a thousand torments and afflicts vs with a thousand sorrowes and discontents which wee would redeeme with our liues Wherefore when as death doth take violently from vs those whom wee loue dearely and by this meanes hath condemned vs as it were to a perpetuall absence we striue to ease our griefe and sweeten our losse by transporting our selues often to the places where we were accustomed to see theÌ„ representing vnto our selues their portracts and images reading ouer their letters stil handling al the gages and monuments they left vs of their affection Sometimes the same gages and the same momuments of their affection displease vs and wee do so abhorre them as wee cannot indure to see them nor handle them but this growes from the griefe of their absence for that we then represent them as infallible signes of our losse which they figure vnto vs as irreparable by reason whereof their pictures fill vs with bitternes But on the other side when as the same things seeme vnto vs to supply the presence wee Loue them dearely and cannot bee weary to entertaine our selues with those thoughts And if amidst all this we can inuent any thing that may serue to preserue the memory more liuely in our soules wee imbrace the inuention and are wonderfully pleased with this art Wherein doubtlesse Artimesia Queene of Caria shewed an act of wonderfull Passion towards her husband Mausolus For death hauing taken him away this desolate Princesse not knowing how to pull the thornes of her sorrow out ofher soule she caused his body to be reduced to ashes and mingled them in her drinke meaning to make her body a liuing tombe whereas the reliques of her deare husband might rest from whom shee could not endure to liue separated The most subtile Philosophers giue a second reason of this vnion which ariseth froÌ„ Loue. Loue say they hath her feate in the Will they doe not consider it as a Passion onely which riseth in the sences but also as a quality which in the end becomes spirituall but there is this difference betwixt the vnderstanding and Will the vnderstanding goes not out of it selfe to ioyne with his obiect but rather he drawes the obiect vnto him whereof the Image is framed to produce his action like vnto a seale which prints its forme in the waxe But the Will being toucht with the Loue of her obiect suffers it selfe to bee drawne to his Image and going out of it selfe vnites it selfe vnto him to take his forme like vnto the waxe which receiues impressions of the seale So as by this reason Loue is thoght to cause the vnion of him that loueth with the party beloued for that his will rauished by his loue hath no other Passion but to see her self vnited vnto her But these meditations are too nice for our subiect The second effect they attribute to Loue and which is as it were a branch and bud of the first is that it causeth the soule of him that loues to bee more where it loues then where it liues and that reciprocally the soule of the party beloued is more with the louer then with his owne body The reason is for that the soules of such as loue are perpetually attentiue to coÌ„template the image of that they loue and haue no other thoght nor greater pleasure then that they receiue by this sweete entertainment By reason whereof the soule making shew of a more exact presence where it doth most frequently worke it followes thereby that it is more with the party beloued then in its owne body But let vs heare the opinion of the Platonicians vpon this point The soule say they which is toucht to the quicke with Loue dying in iâ—s owne body findes life in that it loues And when this Loue is reciprocall it dies but once wheras it reuiues twice For he that loues dyes truly when as Loue makes him neglect and forget the causes of his life to thinke wholly vppon the party beloued but hee recouers his life doubly when as he sees himselfe imbraced and entertained by the party beloued and that he finds in his armes his deer Image which hee preserues more carefully then his own life Who will not then say they hold this death happy which is recompenced by two such sweete liues But this discourse of the Platonicians presupposeth an equall correspoÌ„dency in Loue without the which they maintaine that this Passion is full of despaire leaues nothing in our soules but importune and troublesome thornes Wherfore the Ancients said that to make Loue grow shee had neede of a brother But wee haue treated sufficiently of this Subiect They attribute other effects to Loue that is to say languishings extasies and amazements but that Loue must bee very violent which doth produce them And moreouer wee may consider these extasies and rauishâ—ments which may happen in a violent Loue after two sorts First we may obserue them as a true alienation of the sences which ariseth for that the spirit and will of him that loueth being wholy imployed in the contemplation and enioying of the thing beloued suffereth himselfe to bee so transported with this content as the soule remaines as it were quencht and without motion The which may also proceed from a more powerfull cause that is to say either from God or from euill spirits which somtimes stirre vp these rauishments and extraordinary extasies Secondly we may consider these extasies rauishments as a kind of madnes which transports them that Loue and makes them to commit many follies wherefore an Ancient sayd that Iupiter himselfe could not be wise and loue at one instant These extasies and rauishments produce sometimes prodigious effects in their soules that are afflicted with this Passion For that his soule that loues intirely is perpetually imployâ—ed in the contemplation of the party beloued and hath no other thoughts but of his merit the heate abandoning the parts and retiring into the braine leaues the whole body in great distemperature which corrupting and consuming the whole bloud makes the face grow pale wanne causeth
their soules fight for her honor and hold it a punishment to offend her But these are not the effects of Iealousie which contrariwise violates the honour which is due to the party beloued and by a prodigious manner to blind the world will haue her fauour by wronging her treading her merits vnder foote We must then put a difference betwixt a respectiue feare which always doth accompany those that loue perfectly and Iealousie which is neuer found but with an imperfect passion which cannot iudge of the perfections of the party beloued They which know that these things are diuerse and as remote one from another as the earth is from heauen wil easily passe on this side and yeelde that Iealousie is neither competible with Loue nor is any signe thereof Yet if wee shall yeelde any thing to the opinion of the Vulgar we may freely confesse that Iealousie in truth is a signe of Loue but as the feuer is an argument of life It is vnquestionable that a feuer is a signe of life seeing the dead are not susceptible of this bad quality But as a feuer shewing that there are some reliques of life in the patient that is tormented accompanies him to his graue so Iealousie is I know not what signe of Loue seeing they which loue not cannot haue any Iealousie But it is certaine that if wee expell it not it will in the end ruine Loue like vnto a thicke smoake which smothers the brightest flame This is all we can yeelde vnto the Vulgar so as according to this opinion which we haue held the most probable Iealousie is to Loue as thicke mists are to flowers haile to haruest stormes to fruites and poison to our liues Of Hatred or Enmity CHAP. 1. AS the Lawes of Loue and Hatred are directly contrary by that which wee haue spoken of Loue it will be easie to iudge wherein Hatred consists and how farre her effects extends Hatred then is An auersion and horror which man hath of all that seemes contrary to his good or preiudiciall to his contentment Or else Hatred is an horror which the appetite hath of that which seemes pernicious vnto it so as the sheepe hate the wolfe as the enemy and persecuter of his life But wee must heere obserue that as all that is befitting Nature is put in the rancke of good so on the other side whatsoeuer is opposite vnto it must be placed in the rancke of euill Wherfore as the good is the obiect of Loue so the euill is the obiect of Hatred To vnderstand this we must remember that whether it be in the minde or in the body there is a befitting estate and as it were a naturall harmony which makes vs to abhorre that which may dissolue this consort This harmony considered in the body is no other thing then the good constitution by meanes whereof we enioy a perfect health the which being impayred our nature receiues pain as when we indure great hunger and thirst or when as wee receiue any hurt or wound As for the soule this same harmony may bee considered first in the senses as well externall as internall cōsist in the proportiō they haue with their obiects which is such as they hate whatsoeuer puls them away or which diuerts them by any kinde of violence As for example the eyes hate darkenesse and obscurity and our imagination is terrified and troubled by the fearefull apprehensions of dreames which it frameth during our rest This same harmony considered in reason either it regards the simple knowledge of the truth which our vnderstanding conceiues with pleasure or the vse and execution of things which depend on wisedome which wee doe with content In regard of the first our spirit is enemy to lying although at some times it takes delight in the art wherewith they colour a thing to giue it some shewe of truth So as the wisest are delighted in the reading and report of fables when as the intention hath any grace And as for the second there is such diuersity of iudgements in humaine actions which are as it were the Element of prudence as it is a thing in a manner incredible for hardly shall you see two persons which haue the same feeling and apprehension of affaires in regard whereof this life is full of Hatred and factions which grow from these diuerse opinions As for that which concernes the will her harmony consists in the proportion Loue which she beares to the good which makes her detest and abhorre whatsoeuer presents it selfe vnto her vnder the shew of euill as pernicious and hurtfull to her content and rest And therefore the harmony of the sensitiue appetite consisting in the familiarity and concurrence it hath with the good of the sences it doth abhorre and beares an irreconciliable hatred to whatsoeuer shall offend them hence it comes that wee so much abhorre whippes tortures punishmēts hunger thirst wounds such like which tend to the destruction of our being This Passion was ingraft in vs by nature to the end that at the first approach at the first taste and imagination of euill wee may retire our selues and flie it lest wee runne into ruine This kind of hatred then is proper to the concupiscible which is offended at diuerse things yea at small things and many times at those which haue no subiect of offence for you shall see some which cannot suffer the presence of certaine creatures others cannot endure the sight of certaine fruites though otherwise they be exceeding pleasant Finally there is no creature so fantasticke in his Appetite nor so sudden in the motions of Hatred and distastes of things which present themselues vnto his senses as man who not able to endure any thing makes himselfe insupportable in a like manner to all creatures but principally to his like But to giue more light to this discourse we wil obserue that there are diuerse sorts of Hatred and Enmities which may bee referred to foure chiefe heads for there is a natural Hatred and a brutish Hatred a melancholy Hatred and a humaine Hatred The naturall Hatred takes her beginning from a certaine antipathy and contrariety of nature which is found in creatures the which as it were abhorre one another and cannot frequent or conuerse together although the subiect of this Hatred appeare not and that shewes it selfe more in the effect then in the cause whereof wee haue prodigious examples in nature in plants in beasts and in men Brutish Hatred is rather a rage then a Passion for that it seekes a furious destruction of that it hates and to see the last relliques consumed so as it is more fitting for rauening wolues or for monsters then for men Such is the Hatred of those who not satisfied to haue slaine their enemies make their bodies to feele their fury practizing a thousand cruelties vpon their carcasses and making them to suffer after death all the indignities their rage can deuise This detestable Hatred sometimes passeth
Porphyrie Marble Amber Câ—ystal Iuory Flowers tapistries Diamonds Rubies all other things where the eye discouers the wonders of nature and the Art of man are the obiects of an innocent pleasure if we could vse them moderately But wee suffer our selues to bee transported with so furious a Desire and we seeke them with such an inraged heate as it is rather a madnesse then a Desire An Ancient said That nothing had more distasted him from loue and the Passion of all those things then to see the stately Triumphs of Rome where they exposed to the sight all the gold and siluer of that great City to serue for an ornament and carried the Pictures Images Armes plate pretious stones Treasure Tapistry and the Mooueables of vanquished Kings the spoyles of their rich Prouinces to encrease their glory And his reason was for that said he all this pompe all this lustre all this glory and this abundance of treasure was seen in one day and then vanished So as in a short time our eyes might behold all the pride not only of Rome but of the world This was to make a man wise by sights whereas others become mad There are other pleasures of the eyes which pollute by the excesse of our cupidities and by the disorder of our desires as when our eyes not content to behold the beauty of a woman conceiue an vnchaste desire Besides these diuers pleasures of the eyes there are others of smelling hearing and feeling wherein wee obserue as little measure as in the rest Perfumes are exquisite presents of Nature but our effeminate delicacy hath made the vse infamous and shamefull Musick consorts and the sweetnesse of Instruments were things which wee might vse honestly without offence but we haue conuerted all into Luxury which prophanes the vse And amidst all this abundance neither doe our eyes satisfie their Desires by so many obiects which they behold neither doe our eares finde their heate quenched nor our other senses their passions by whatsoeuer offers it selfe to their desires The other pleasures wherunto man is addicted as play combats huntings exercises companies and whatsoeuer he doth to ease the cares of this life cannot satisfie nor giue any full contentment to man but amidst all these roses hee stil meets with some thornes and seekes dayly after newe contentment so insatiable are his Desires The same Cupidities also vary according to the ages complexions and humours of those which are toucht with this Passion Yong men are passionate after play and women and exceede in these pleasures The sicke wish for health as the souereigne good of his life old men desire good wine and good fare which seemes to make them liue againe to adde new vigor to their bodies Princes and generous spirits breath nothing but glory tryumphs and trophies which serue to aduance them beyond the ordinary of men They which are of a sanguine and hot complexion haue a Passion fit for all things and they pursue them with great heate but it lasts not long and is like a fire of straw inconstancy change accompanying them still in their pursuites Whereas they that are of a cold constitution haue no great desires by reason of the heauinesse of their humors But they are obstinate in their pursuits and can hardly bee diuerted from the obiect whereunto they are tied They which haue the least feeling of the motions of Desire are such as haue no apprehensioÌ„ of the discoÌ„modities and miseries of this life as they that are young great spirits men ouertaken with wine and finally all such as haue much blood and heate gathered together about the heart As in like manner they are not much transported which haue neuer felt any vrgent necessity For as feare and distrustes increase Desire to prouide all things necessary for the preseruation of this life they which haue tasted of crosses apprehending to fall into their first miseries do Desire infinite things to fortifie themselues against all accidents supposing still that nothing can secure them sufficiently They also which haue little blood about their hearts that but luke-warme haue naturally cares and ardent desires to gather for that they feare to see themselues fall into want and pouerty and the importune care they haue to preuent this misery afflicts their soules and tortures their minds Hence it comes that we often see men who haue bene prodigall and very profuse in their youth so change their inclinations as when they come to age there can be nothing noted in them but base couetousnes in all their actions whereas on the other side wee commonly see that wine and Loue make couetous men bountifull Finally when we haue gotten with much paine the goods which we enioy wee shew more vehemency to keepe them The which may arise from two causes either for that we feare to fall againe into the necessity in which we haue bene and apprehend to see our selues forced to take new paines and to vndergo new toyles to recouer our estates Or else for that the things which we haue gotten with sweat and danger are more deare vnto vs then those which come without labour and paine So we see a young Heire which comes to a great Estate by the death of his father will bountifully bestow his gold and siluer and dissipate within few dayes what his miserable father had bene long a gathering and which he had not gotten but with infinite torments both of body and mind Whereas a Merchant who hath tried the dangers of traffique who hath grown pale a thousand times at Sea during his voyages who hath seene himselfe often neere death and ready to fall into the hands of Pyrates or theeues will not thrust his hand rashly into his coffers nor distribute his mony but with great stayednesse and wonderfull discretion which may make him to bee held base and couetous Doubtlesse wee haue seene in our times the most generous Prince of the world who shewed no such magnificence in the bestowing of his excessiue treasures as the glory of his birth and the splendor of his other actions seemed to require So as many had a conceite that he feared to fall into his first necessities but doubtlesse his good husbandry was far better then our profusions Wee haue spoken sufficiently of this Passion of Desire the which hauing in a manner all things common with Loue it shall not need any longer Treaty nor more words to explaine it As for the Passion which is contrary vnto it as it hath no name although it bee the same which makes vs abhorre and fly that which wee thinke is hurtfull to our nature so it is not needfull to seeke out the conditions and particularities seeing they are in a manner the same which we haue obserued vppon the subiect of Hatred Moreouer that from the nature of Desire we may gather what that of horror is seeing that one contrary deciphers another Of Pleasure or Delight CHAP. 1. AS this great Fabricke of
sayd hee Physitians may cure madnes by purging the braine with Helleborum whereas Pleasures depriue man of his iudgement without hope of remedy for his infirmity But for that there are Pleasures not only of the mind but of the body and senses which are meerely innocent as the Pleasure we receiue by Pictures Perfumes honest exercises and other things which bring a chast content it shall bee conuenient to know what the causes and obiects bee to the end wee may of our selues iudge which are lawfull and which are interdicted and to bee abhorred First then things necessary for preseruation of our nature as drinking and eating are pleasing vnto man and the which he vseth with a delight which moderation and temperance make innocent Secondly men take a singular delight in things to the which they haue beene long framed and accustomed for that custome is as it were another nature considering that the things whereunto wee haue bene accustomed and whereof there is framed a long habite by continuall exercise haue a great affinity with those of nature Thirdly the things which are conformable to our nature and disposition are pleasing for that they force vs not in any sort but insinuate sweetely into our senses Whereas on the other side whatsoeuer brings any constraint vexeth vs as studies serious affaires disputations and such like are importune and troublesome for that they constraine and force our inclinations vnlesse that custome hath taken away the bitternes Whereas their contrary please vs as rest sleepe play cessation from labour sights and such like in which wee finde not any constraint Fourthly whatsoeuer flatters our desires giues vs ioy and Pleasure for that these kinds of Cupidities are properly the desires of things which we imagine are pleasing and rauish our senses For whatsoeuer flatters our senses and delights our imagination causeth Pleasure and content So euery kind of good bee it that which is present or past or to come doth giue a content by the presence or by the imagination for that it delights our senses and is pleasing to our fancy which is a delicate power easily toucht with the sweeetnesse of her obiect how small soeuer Wherefore they that remember the good things which they haue tasted and those which they hope for in future hauing these things imprinted in their fancy feele a ioy Whereby it appeares plainely that all Pleasure and Delight consists either in the feeling of things present or in the remembrance of things past or in the hope of those which are to come For we taste and feele the present we remember those that are past and we hope for the future And doubtlesse the things which are grauen in our memory please vs much not only those which were sweete in the action but euen those which we haue tasted with some bitternesse especially when as the paines and toiles we haue indured are ended to our profite honor which made an Ancientto say that it was a sweete thing to remember trauailes past So souldiers glory of their dangers past and relate with singular content the wounds they haue receiued in combatts They which haue escaped dangers at Sea or made great and desperate voyages by land haue the same content to relate the hazards and fortunes which they haue runne and surmounted The reason of this ioy and the cause of this content is for that it is a sweete thing to be freed from a mischiefe especially when it hath giuen vs great afflictions and apprehensions But as for that which regards things which depend of hope all those things whose presence and enioying we imagine will bee pleasing or profitable and which will cause vs no kind of discontent excite Pleasure in our senses be it when we remember them or when wee hope for them So as whatsoeuer we imagine as a good which may befall vs is pleasing vnto our thoughts By reason whereof as wee will shew hereafter we feele a content in choller for that no man is angry but with hope to bee reuenged the which hee reputs for a great good Wherefore Homer made Achilles to say that choller disperst it selfe in a great courage more sweetely then hony For as much then as what we remember or hope for as a thing pleasing and sweete vnto our thoughts excites ioy in our hearts therefore most of the desires of men are accompanied with some Pleasure and delight For when as they remember how they haue plaied or when as they imagine after what manner they hope to play they feele a sensible content and a new ioy which represents vnto them the image of the true enioying As it happens to those which haue drunke with delight during a burning Feuer for they haue a certaine kind of ioy when as they remember to haue so drunke or when as they promise vnto themselues to drinke againe after the same manner So they that are tormented with Loue be it that they speake of the party beloued bee it that they write or make verses of that subiect they feele a wonderfull content for that in all those things they conceiue that whom they loue is before their eyes as in their thoughts Wherefore they hold it for a certaine signe of Loue when as any one afflicts himselfe for the absence of another and when he takes Pleasure in the teares and complaints of their separation And it is certaine that euen in cares and vexation there is also a content in the teares and sighes wee powre forth for the absence of that wee loue There is doubtlesse a griefe for that we see not the party wee Loue but there is also a sweetnesse for that her image presents it selfe vnto our thoughts and sets before vs all the motions gestures actions speeches smiles grace sport and whatsoeuer wee haue obserued in her when shee was truely present Reuenge also as wee haue formerly toucht is a sweete thing the which doth well appeare by her contrary for if wee see that wee cannot reuenge the iniury which hath beene done vs and which hath inflamed our Choller wee feele a wonderfull discontent whereas wee are transported with ioy when as wee hope and see some appearance of reuenge Moreouer it doth much content and giue a singular pleasure not onely to the ambitious but indifferently to al sorts of persons to vanquish and surmount those against whom they haue any contention or dispute for in this concurrence it seemes they dispute of the excellency and superiority and that it is as it were adiudged to him that obtaines the victory and all men liuing bee they great meane or base desire though some more ardently and others with lesse Passion to excell and surmount others By this reason we finde there is pleasure in sports in which there is any cōtention as at Chesse Tennis Cards and Dice and likewise in more serious exercises where there is any dexterity to obtaine the victory as in fighting at barriers running at the Ring and Tilt or such like Wherof
a violent Passion of the Soule entertained by some sensible discontent Or else Griefe is a torment of the mind and body Or againe Griefe is a Passion of the mind afflicted by some kind of euill which presents it selfe Or to describe it more particularly Griefe is a Passion of the Soule which riseth from a discontent she receiueth from obiects contrary to her inclinations which present themselues vnto the senses and afflict them But wee must obserue that there are two kinds of Griefe The one which resides in the sensuall Appetite and the other hath his seate in the rationall This last which afflicts the minde is properly called heauines and differs from the other for that a sensible Griefe is alwayes accompanied with a visible alteration and change of the body which is moued whereas the Griefe of the mind hath not alwayes an agitation of the body but most commonly containes it selfe within the bounds of the power where it is framed in regard whereof it is sometimes attributed to God and the Angells These two kinds of Griefe differ also one from another for that the cause of the sensible Griefe resides in the body which suffers some violent impression that alters it But the cause of the intellectuall Griefe resides in the rationall part and in the mind which represents vnto it selfe the euill which she receiues from the obiects which present themselues vnto her thought They differ againe for that the apprehension and knowledge which the exterior senses haue of things they do only regard the present obiects which make an actuall impression in them but the vnderstanding not only conceiues things present but euen those that are past and which may happen or fall vnder the imagination of man Hence it comes that corporeall Griefe which followeth the apprehension which present things make in the senses growes onely from the presence of obiects contrary to their inclinations Whereas the Griefe of the mind following the knowledge of the vnderstanding may grow from obiects that are present past or to come and from those which man doth presuppose may succeed vnto him So as the noblest powers of our soule and those which are the richest ornaments of our nature as the vnderstanding imagination and memory helpe to increase our paines and to augment our afflictions As if the presence of heauen which giues vs some prerogatiue ouer beastes should make vs more miserable For the most sauage beastes flie dangers when as they present themselues vnto their eyes But being escaped they remaine quiet and assured whereas we not only torment our selues for the euill which doth oppresse vs but euen for which is not yet happened But you must vnderstand that to speake properly Griefe which is one of the Passions of the soule is that which is framed in the sensitiue appetite with a visible alteration of the body which is agitated and moued exteriorly by the euill or paine which it suffers So as the cause doth reside in the body which receiues some kind of outrage But the motion of Griefe is alwayes framed in the soule for that the body is not capable but by the presence of the soule Wee must also remember that as to excite Pleasure in our senses the pleasing obiect must not only be vnited but also knowne and perceiued by the senses as we haue formerly obserued so to cause Griefe the afflicting obiect must touch our senses so as by the impâ—â—ssion it makes thâ—y must pâ—rcâ—iue at it 〈◊〉 painefull For it is certaine that as there is no good but that which is sensibly present can cause Pleasure to the senses so there is not any but a present euill can procure a sensible Griefe But vnder the obiect of Griefe we comprehend not only the euill which afflicts vs but also the good which we haue lost For euen as the weight of bodies causeth that not only they haue an inclination to rest in the center but also is the cause that they are neuer farre remote without suffering a visible violence in their nature So men are naturally carried not only to Loue but with a sensible Griefe of their losse So the couetous man torments himselfe for the losse of his wealth The voluptuous is grieued to see an end of the obiects of his content The mother afflicts her selfe for her only son we see many who after good cheare great feasts and dancings hauing spent the time in all kind of Pleasures suddenly grow heauy and pensiue and yet can giue no reason of this sudden change which proceeds only from the disquietnesse of our minds which grieues at contentments past and afflicts it selfe the which makes him heauy and this heauinesse conuerts into melancholy which augments his anguish and torments him without any other forme of euill that presents it selfe vnto his senses As for the causes of griefe and Heauinesse being consisidered in regard of their subiects where they incounter we obserue three For first of all our Cupidities and Desires do many times cause great vexation and discontents as when any one is surprized with the Loue of a pleasing obiect if they hinder the enioying or but only delay the possession they are so many thornes of Griefe which pierce his soule For as the hope to obtaine the possession causeth Pleasure and Delight so the despaire to attaine vnto that we passionatly desire giues cruell afflictions and insupportable torments Moreouer the Loue wee beare to the preseruation of our beiâ—g doth oftentimes cause sorrow and 〈…〉 for that we apprehend the destruction euen as wee see all creatures afflict theÌ„selues for that which offends them and are very carefull to shelter their bodies from all outrage Wherefore wee may say that Griefe is no other thing but an apprehension and feeling of the destruction of our good which makes vs impatient Thirdly the soule helpes to afflict herselfe whether that melancholy workes this effect or that the continuall afflictions oppresse her in such sort as she doth nothing but sigh vnder the burthen of sorrow and like vnto a bad Pilot which abandons his ship to the waues and storme shee suffers her selfe to be so ouercome with Griefe as she augments her owne paine and increaseth her misery For we often see men who in the middest of their afflictions and discontents do nothing but sigh and powre forth teares and will not yeeld themselues capable of any kind of consolation But although wee shew our selues more sensible of the Griefe of the senses then that of the mind yet it is most certaine that the interior Griefes which afflict the soule are much greater then the exterior paines which torture the body For that the apprehension of the mind and imagination is much more powerfull and more noble then that of the senses and especially then that of feeling which hath the greatest share in corporeall paines For proofe whereof wee see great courages to auoyd inferior Griefe expose themselues voluntarily to the exterior paines of torments and punishments
those fearefull things which present themselues vnto the imagination of man This confidence may grow from the opinion wee haue that the euill which treatneth vs is far from vs or from our beleefe that if it should present it selfe we should bee able to surmount it As when a Citty hath a conceit that no man will attempt any thing against the peace of her Cittizens and if they should they were able to repell the iniury and to endure the attempts of their enemies this beleefe makes them hardy and assured Secondly it may grow for that although wee finde our selues weake and vnable to resist our enemies yet wee beleeue that wee shall bee powerfully assisted by our Allies with whose ayde wee hold our selues inuincible As for example although the Duke of Saiwy bee not able of himselfe to resist the Armes of Spaine yet being fortified with the alliance of this Crowne hee doth not apprehend them neither is hee affraid to incense them knowing that the assistance of the Christian King protects him of that side Thirdly this confidence may grow for that wee beleeue wee haue neither receiued nor done iniury to any man which should make vs apprehend reuenge And againe for that we thinke wee haue no enemies or else that they are so feeble and weake as they cannot annoy vs. It may also grow in regard that they who haue power to hurt vs are our friends and liue in good correspondency with vs and haue assisted vs in our occurrents as for our part we haue endeauored to bind theÌ„ vnto vs by al occasions which haue bene offered So the Allies of great Kings feare not their power although it be fearefull to the rest of the world By this meanes wee find that there are diuerse sorts of persons which are full of Hardinesse and assurance First they are hardy which imagine that all things shall succeed happily in regard of their former felicities So Alexander vndertaking the conquest of India apprehended nothing by reason of the happy victories and tryumphes which he had gotten ouer the Persians So Caesar being ouertaken with a cruel storme and in a small barke feared nothing but to confirme the resolution of his Pilot whom the storme had amazed he wisht him not to feare seeing hee carried Caesar and his fortunes Secondly they are hardy who hauing beene ingaged in great dangers haue yet escaped for they imagine that good Fortune which hath beene so fauorable vnto them in so many other occasions full of despaire will not abandon them in that present danger Finally men are not troubled in dangers for two reasons either for want of experience or for the hope they haue to be speedily releeued As for example they that go by sea hauing neuer seene the horror of tempests imagine that the maisters and such as guide the ship are expert in their facultie and that they will easily preserue them from shipwracke so as they are not amazed although the stormes and waues seeme to threaten them their death Thirdly men are full of assurance when as they see such as equall them not or do not exceed them in power make no demonstration of feare conceyting that they are assured they haue more cause to continue constant Men not only hold them inferior vnto them whom they haue exceeded but also such as cannot enter into comparison with them or at the least are not more powâ—rfull then those whom they haue vanquished Againe men are full of Courage and resolution when as they see themselues furnished with all those things which may make theÌ„ feareful to their enemies Among the which we put store of coyne disposition of body greatnesse of minde extent of Empire support of friends the power of Armies and a great prouision of all that is necessary for the maintenance of a war Moreouer men hold themselues assured when they haue not offended any man or when such as they haue offended are not able to reuenge the iniurie And withall men are much assured when as they thinke that God is fauorable and assistant in their designes Wherefore in old time great Captaines of war were not wont to giue battaile before they had sacrificed vnto their gods and had seene in the intrailes of their sacrifices some happy presage of diuine assistance For the same occasion they consulted with Oracles attended the answers and were carefull to obserue the signes which were seene before the battaile so that sometimes the flying of an Eagle hath assured Armies that were amazed But without all these signes and presages men thinke that God is fauourable when as they thinke they fight for a good cause As when they haue taken Armes for religion for the seruice of their Prince for the maintenance of his Crowne and for their Countrey yea when as they imagine that the reuenge they pursue is iust and that they haue beene vnworthily abused The reason is for that Choler which is alwayes enflamed by the iniury receiued and not by that which wee doe vnto others makes men hardy perswading themselues that God assists them that are wronged and vniustly persecuted Lastly they that begin a warre are commonly hardy especially when they haue a conceit that the action will succeed and that the euent will answer the expectation As for the constitution of the body which may contribute to the Hardinesse and resolution of man It is certaine that such as haue much blood and spirits and which abound in heate are most commonly hardy and valiant For they haue great mindes and full of generosity which makes them to coÌ„temne dangers And if in the middest of hazards some part of the blood retires inwardly yet the better part keepes her seate and remaines firme and constant so as they neuer grow pale nor tremble like to other men But if before they fight the appreheÌ„sioÌ„ of daÌ„ger makes any impression in their soules they recouer themselues suddainely and expell the feare which would surprize them And for the same reason they which are full of wine may become more hardy not that this defect of it self doth contribute any thing to the greatnesse of Courage but for that wine enflames the blood by accident makes men valiant and withall they that are ouertaken with wine haue their reason captiuated and their iudgement troubled so as they cannot consider duely of the greatnesse of perill but imagine that all dangers are inferior to their force and resistance In the meane time we obserue that many which shew a great Hardinesse and courage to cast themselues into danger as soone as they finde themselues engaged are often amazed as we see in those that go valiaÌ„tly to a charge but finding resistance they turne their backs to the enemy where of wee can giue no other reason but that they are not valiant by iudgment but by the bounty of nature So as apprehending not the greatnesse of the danger before they enter but imagining that they shall vanquish whatsoeuer opposeth it selfe against them when
as they finde resistance which they did not expect they are amazed at the strangenesse of this accident and their hearts grow cold and relent in such sort as sometimes they flye before their enemies But the contrary happens to those that are truely valiant for when as they gouerne their courages by wisedome and measure their forces attempting nothing aboue their strength or against reason there is no sudden accident that may befall them that can trouble them in any action of Armes whereas commonly they finde lesse resistance then they expected before they entred the fight so as their resolution is alwayes fortified and neuer decayes And then propounding honor only before their eyes the feare of the losse of life cannot amaze them but their vertue surmounting all accidents it causeth them notwithstanding all hazzards to persist couragiously in that which they haue gloriously begunne Yea commonly they shew themselues more cold in the beginning then at the ending for that it is not the Passion that doth animate them but it is iudgement which doth act in their courages By reason whereof in the beginning of the actioÌ„ they are more cold are not enflamed but with fighting But it hath bin obserued in many valiant men which had their hearts all couered with haire whereof wee haue a famous example in that couragious Lacedemonian Leonidas who with fiue hundred men kept the streight of Thermopiles against that huge Army of Xerxes who had the courage and resolution to passe through the midst of his armed souldiers to wrest the Diadeâ—e from his head For when as after his death the King of Persia amazed at so great a resolution had caused him to bee opened his heart was found all couered with haire Some it may be would put this among the prodigies or rather among the scornes of Nature but the reason is easie to bee giuen for they that are extraordinarily valiant haue an exceeding heat which drawes from their heart a fume of excrements which thickens and is conuerted into haire the which is a marke of their courage and a signe of valour CHAP. 1. Of Feare or Dread ALTHOVGH it seems that feare is a dead Passion that it shold not make any great impressions in our soules nor cause any strange alterations in the world yet as there bee certaine starres which beeing in a manner continaully hidden haue notwithstanding very maligne and pernicious influences so although shee seeme not to bee so actiue as the rest and remaines as it were couered hidden yet she doth cause strange accidents in the life of man for that shee hath sometimes ruined powerfull Armies brought Kingdomes and States into dangers and ouerthrowne the fortunes of priuate persons Wherefore wee haue seene great Commanders in warre who troubled by some sinister and vnexpected accident in a day of battaile haue had recourse to vowes and prayers and haue promised to build temples to Feare and palenesse to diuert the ruine that threatned them if the amazement spread ouer the whole Army had not beene as it were miraculously dispersed Wherefore seeing that Feare doth produce such powerfull changes in the affaires of men and withall that this life is dayly threatned with infinite miseries which giue vs still cause to feare wee must see wherein shee consists how shee is framed and in what soules she doth reside Feare then is no other thing but A griefe and distresse of the soule troubled by the imagination of some approaching Euill wherewith man is threatned without any apparence to be able to auoyd it easily although it tend to the destruction of his being or cause him some strange calamity in the course of his life It is first of all a griefe and a distresse for that as pleasures fill the senses with delight and ioy so the imagination of an infallible euill which cannot bee auoyded fills vs with griefe and heauinesse But secondly the causes of this griefe are not alwayes solid nor true but many times they are vaine and imaginary for that wee doe frame or rather forge to our selues the miseries whereof the apprehension afflicts our mindes and torments our senses The which made an Ancient say that there are more things which amaze vs then that presse vs and that most commonly opinion and apprehension doth vs more harme then the thing it selfe Wherein doubtlesse the condition of man is lamentable for that as if he were not inuironed by a sufficient nuÌ„ber of true miseries he forgets others which are not in nature to encrease his miseries For wee see daily that although there appeare no presages nor any signes of a calamity that doth threaten vs yet our minds do frame false imaginations and vaine feares which many times are the causes of our ruine There are some things which torment vs more then they should do others trouble vs before the time and some afflict vs without cause or subiect for that we either increase our griefes and paines or we forge them our selues or else wee run before them and anticipate them And whereas wee should striue against these iealousies and false opinions which cause them wee suffer our selues to be vanquished resembling therein certaine Soldiers who being amazed at a little dust raisd by a flocke of sheepe turned their backes as if the enemy had beene at their heeles These vaine feares may sometimes grow from the ignorance of things which they imagine to bee of bad presage although they bee meere effects of nature which they should obserue without trembling as we haue many times seene an Eclipse of the Sun or of the Moone which haue their naturall causes trouble whole Armies and terrifie their Commanders Thirdly wee must obserue that to cause Feare the euill that doth threaten vs must not bee present but to come for that when it is present it is no more a Feare but a meere heauinesse And then the euill which wee doubt must bee full of horror and threaten vs with the losse of life or some other great preiudice For things of small weight are not capable to make any impression of Feare at the least if there remaine any sparke of generosity in our hearts Yea all kind of calamities how great so euer are not able to cause Feare if it be not accompanied with a certaine horror which amazeth the sences As for example men apprehend not to become vniust or wicked although they be things more to bee feared then all the miseries of this life But the nature of vice is such as the horror of her presence is not sensible vnto vs for that shee seemes not to destroy our being nor to cause in vs any great alterations that should afflict vs. Moreouer to bee terrified with any euill it must bee as it were hanging ouer our heads and threaten vs with a ruine at hand for when as we imagine that it is farre from vs how fearefull soeuer the forme be yet we are not amazed Euen so although that death bee the most horrid
fearefull thing that may fall into the thought of men yet for that euery man presumes it is not ready to seaze vpon him we do not apprehend it as we ought but wee suffer it to come and prepare not our selues There rests now to see what things wee haue iust cause to apprehend An Ancient makes three sorts that is to say pouerty diseases the outrages of the mighty The two first that is to say pouerty and diseases make the least shew but the outrages of the mighty present themselues vnto our sences with much bruite and terrifie our eyes and eares For euen as an executioner is the morâ— fearefull when he brings forth diuerse instruments to torture torment the patient so as many times they which would haue endured their punishment patiently are dismayed seeing so many deaths at one instant before their eyes euen so among the calamities which oppresse our spirits those cause most terrour which march with the greatest shew for that they represent vnto our thoughts irons fire chaines prisons gibbets wheeles and whatsoeuer is most horrible and fearefull in this life But let vs heare Aristotle who also sets three kinds of things which giue vs apprehension and feare In the first rancke he puts those which tend infallibly to the destruction of our being For this reason we do iustly feare thunder and lightning for that the life of man is full of the examples of such as haue bene miserably burnt We Feare in like manner great inundations and deluges of water which are the cauâ—es of so many ruines vpon earth For the same reason being in Forrests and deserts wee apprehend the encounter of sauage beasts which are enemies to the life of man And for the same subiect wee apprehend to fal into the hands of those whom we thinke we haue offended In the second rancke of fearefull things he puts those which cause pinching vexations and griefes as the losse of our kinsfolkes and friends banishment imprisonment and other punishments In the third hee placeth those which are as it were the signes and presages of these kind of miseries Not that these signes of themselues cause vs any preiudice but for that they are as it were the forerunners of the danger into which wee feare to fall The which makes kings and Princes apprehend the rising and apparition of Comets for that they haue beene perswaded they are foretellings of the death of great men These signes which amaze vs may bee reduced to foure heads which are found in the course of this life and in the affaires of the world For we are accustomed to Feare the wrath and hatred of those which haue power to bee reuenged for that their wrath and hatred is as it were an infallible signe of our ruine seeing that hauing power to vndo vs there is no question but by a disease commune to all men they will be naturally inclined to reuenge But secondly wee apprehend our enemies more when they are not stayed by some honest Feare of Iustice or some other respect but are ready to tread all diuine and humaine lawes vnder foote to satisfie their reuenge For men which haue thus renounced all the feelings of vertue wanting no power hauing a wicked inclination are alwayes ready to do euill and apprehend not to shew their valorous disposition So we haue great reasoÌ„ to Feare such as in the liberty of crimes find themselues aboue the lawes and cannot bee punished by any man As for example Tyrants which haue seazed vpon Estates Empires are much to be feared for that hauing force power to oppresse whom they please there is no doubt but they will speedily put it in execution for that these sauage spirits knowing that those whom they haue made subiect to their Empire hauing iust cause to hate them haue no other dessigne but to take from them al meanes to hurt theÌ„ by weakning them and terrifying them with the Feare of punishments They are also to be feared not only for that they haue power but also for that to settle their Empire they are inclined to commit all outrages and violence It is true on the other side that the same Tyrants should apprehend the fury of the people who do but seeke occasions to roote them out and to abate their power Wherefore wee see the life of these plagues of mankind is ful of Iealousies and distrusts which torment them day and night more cruelly then those which they make their miserable subiects to suffer who grone vnder the burthen of their Tyranny For although they bee inuironed with their guards that they haue powerful alliances that they command great Armies and haue strong townes Forts at their command yet nothing can assure their consciences but they are in perpetuall terrour which makes their condition like to that of sauage beasts which flye all the world and all men abhorre them Thirdly we haue cause to feare resolute men who make profession of honour when we haue offended them for that beeing sensible of iniuries it is certaine their courage will carry them to reuenge Lastly wee should apprehend those which haue iust cause to feare vs at the least if they haue power to hurt vs. For beeing in continuall apprehension lest wee should attempt something against their liues they had rather preuent vs then suffer vs to surprize them From hence it followes that there are diuers persons whose enterprises we should feare and haue a speciall care of First wee should feare those to whom we haue imparted some great and important secret which beeing reuealed may bee the cause of our ruine for the weakenesse of mans minde is such as it may bee they will either be corrupted or induced by promises to discouer vs or the feare to bee found confederates if the matter should be reuealed they will seeke to iustifie themselues in accusing vs and ruine vs to saue themselues Secondly we should apprehend such as haue power to huâ—t vs for that commonly the will followes the power and they will easily take liberty to effect that which is in their power Thirdly wee should dread such as we haue offended or that thinke wee haue wronged them beeing likely that they will not leaue this iniurie vnreuenged but will endeauour to take reuenge when occasion shall be offered Fourthly wee should feare those which haue wronged vs and which are subiect to feare vs for that doubting lest wee should apprehend the iniury wee haue receiued and hauing forces at command it is likely they would free themselues of this feare by preuenting vs as we haue formerly said Fifthly we shold distrust those which dispute or contend with vs for honour or for any good thing which wee cannot enioy ioyntly together For to take away this obstacle in their pursuites it is to be presumed that they wil attempt something against vs. Sixthly wee should dread such as are fearefull to greater personages then our selues For that if they may strike a
are offered vs and that men of greater age more vnable more tender and of another quality then our selues accept them freely for that this refusall is a signe of our effeminacy Moreouer wee blush to receiue benefites and fauours continually from the same person and wee cannot without some Shame reproach them we haue bound vnto vs by our fauours for that it is a signe of great basenesse Finally we are ashamed when as we attribute praises vnto our selues which are not due vnto vs or that we brag vnseasonably or challenge the glory of goodly actions which other men haue ended for that it is a note of our arrogancy and vanity So al vices and all the marks of vices make an impression of shame in all those which are infected with them Secondly we are ashamed to see our selues destitute of all honest qualities which recommend all our equalls generally or at the least most of them As for example it is a great shame not to bee adorned with valour wisedome knowledge modesty and other excellent parts which shine commonly in those of our profession of our age of our blood or of our quality So Caesar seeing himselfe two and thirty yeers old and hauing made no shew of the greatnesse of his courage nor done any great exployt hee grew ashamed and began to weepe beholding the Image of Alexander who seemed to reproach him All these defects are full of Shame and infamy especially when as they proceede from our negligence which shewes that we haue no cause to accuse any man but to blame our selues Thirdly men blush when as they are forced to do or suffer things which are vnworthy either of their condition or of the nature of man As for example if they would force a man of quality to do seruices vnworthy of his rancke this fills him with Shame and he cannot endure it but with great griefe and distaste yea we reade in Histories of generous spirits who in the middest of their captiuity remembring that they were borne free had rather precipitate themselues and chuse a voluntary death then bee forced to do seruices vnworthy of their births And therefore Nero should die for Shame to commit that excesse which he did with the scumme of the people vpon the Altars and in the publique places of Rome But what graue or serious thing can wee attend from that infamous monster who hath dishonored mankinde with his impudencies In like manner it is a matter which causeth extraordinary Shame in men of note and quality when by the iniuries of Fortune or by their own basenes they see themselues reduced to that extreamity as to suffer indignities and outrages which blemish their first lustre and glory As those kings who hauing lost battailes seene their Estates ruined spoyled to crowne their miseries were led in triumph to Rome to serue as a spectacle to that world of people and to be the Images and shewes of humane misery and of the inconstancy of the world Wherefore they branded them with infamous basenes which did prostitute themselues to this Shame either through couetousnesse or for want of courage Contrariwise according to the custome of the time when as Christian religion had not yet dispersed the vanity of Pagan errors nor conuerted reproches into exercises of patience they obserued great beames of generosity in a woman borne to pleasures and bred vp in the middest of all delights For that being in the power of her enemy shee chose rather to kill her selfe by the biting of Aspicks then to bee led in shew to serue as a fatall ornament to his tryumph But generally it is a very shamefull thing in all conditions to do or to suffer things full of indignitie and reproch yet we must set a difference betwixt those that suffer them by their owne basenesse and such as endure them by a violent constraint For they that suffer them by their owne basenesse are infamous for that they expose thēselues volūtarily to those affronts But wee must againe set a difference betwixt those that suffer them by constraint For either they resolue though timerousnesse and by an apprension which should not fall into a constant soule and then it is a signe of their weaknesse Or else for that they cannot resist being forced by such as are become maisters of their persons and then it is rather an effect of their misfortune then a signe of their basenes As wee see in those that suffer some indignity by them that are more powerfull But for that Shame riseth from a beleefe which wee haue to bee wounded in our reputation the which wee measure according to the iudgement esteeme which men make of vs it falls out many times that we are ashamed of the disgraces we suffer in the presence of persons which we respect much and whose blame and censure we apprehend In which ranke wee put those which haue in their power the good chances whereunto we aspire and of whom depends the honour or contentment which wee affect with Passion As for example a souldier will bee much more ashamed to haue fled from the enemy in the view of his Captaine then to haue committed this basenesse in his absence and a Louer will endure an iniury done him in the presence of his best beloued more impatiently then all the affronts that can bee done elsewhere For the same reason our Shame increaseth when as wee receiue any reproach before vertuous persons and such as are held to be iust As when they are wisemen or reuerent old men that accuse vs for that wee thinke men will easily giue credit to what they say of vs. Wee are also ashamed if any infamous thing befall vs in the presence of our equalls and of such which are as it were emulators and riualls of what wee pursue for that contending with them of honor it is a wonderfull griefe vnto vs to see this breach made in our reputation in their presence And generally wee are ashamed of that which is done in the sight of men which obserue it or which haue a malicious disposition which interpret all actions sinisterly For wee conceiue that if they do not pardon innocence they will not spare vs. Shame in like manner shewes it selfe in the presence of such which are adorned with vertues contrary to the defects which appeare in our actions especially if they bee seuere men who are not accustomed to pardon or excuse the errors which they see committed As the Romans were ashamed to do any vnworthy act before Cato both for that he was a seuere censor of the actions of the Cittizens as also for that he pardoned no man It troubles vs also to see our selues reproued scorned by ordinary Iesters and by such as make profession to shew themselues in Theaters for that wee conceiue it is a testimony that we are publikely defamed or at the least wee feare that these people to the eternall infamy of our name will teare our reputation
our soules by the truth alone of things but also by the vaine imaginations which wee frame in our selues Wherefore although they bee without experience without resolution and without great meanes to effect what they haue propounded yet they do promise much vnto themselues and Hope for all And although that loue be the fountaine of all the Passions of the soule yet Hope may be the cause that we loue any one For Hope may propound vnto it selfe two things that is to say the good which wee hope for and the meanes to obtaine it Wherefore an obiect of good presenting it selfe vnto vs which wee are not able to attaine vnto but by the assistance of some other for this reason Hope doth also regard those that assist vs and make the thing easie Seeing then that Hope regards the obiects which wee propound vnto our selues vndoubtedly loue is the root and cause of Hope for that we hope not for any thing but that wherewith wee are in loue and whereunto we haue tied our affections desiring passionately to enioy it But for that hope regards him which doth open to vs the meanes and makes the thing possible loue is a bud of hope seeing that we loue him for that we hope to attaine vnto our desires by his assistance So as the first impression which the obiect wee pursue makes in our soules is an effect of the loue wee beare it conceiuing it to bee a good fit for vs. But the consideration of the meanes to attaine vnto it which comes from others makes a second impression in vs and induceth vs to loue him that doth procure it representing him vnto vs as profitable vnto our dessigne and therefore worthy to be beloued Touching that which concernes the effects of hope we will not make any particular discourse but content our selues to say that as the North Star is the marriners guide who looke continually vpon her light to assure their nauigation so Hope is that which inflames vs to all the difficult actions wee vndertake And as the brightnes of this Star doth fill them with ioy that saile by sea but when as it shines not they are dismaide feare hourely to perish by the violence of some storme or to see their ship split vpon some rocke So whilest wee haue any remander of hope our soules are content but if it bee quite vanished we hold out selues miserable and begin to neglect and forget our selues The first effect of Hope is that it breeds a singular contēt in vs which makes our pursuites pleasing Wherefore all the Philosophers concurre in this Maxime that hope fortifies our resolutions and makes them more prompt in their actions The which is for two reasons The first for that she hath for her obiect a good hard to bee obtained But the apprehension of the difficulty which presents it selfe in the pursuite of the good whereunto wee doe aspire doth vsually make vs gather our forces together to vanquish all obstacles and to attaine vnto it notwithstanding all the difficulties that may bee encountered And therefore wee imploy more care and diligence by meanes whereof wee attaine more easily to the end of our dessignes Secondly Hope breeds this pleasure and sweetnes whereof wee haue spoken which makes vs more actiue and more ready to pursue that which we desire for that we behold nothing painful wherin we take deligh◠Wee must then remember here what we haue spoken elsewhere that Hope is a sweete imagination which we frame in our selues of a good whereunto wee aspire And that this imagination begetts in our soules a second contentment for that it is accompanied with this beleefe that wee may attaine vnto it Wherefore as pleasure makes all actions delightfull vnto men so the content we receiue from our hopes according vnto the Philosophers makes vs to pursue with more heate and lesse paine that which wee haue once conceiued in our thoughts This ioy which proceeds from a certaine hope we haue of enioying deriuing from the soule disperseth it selfe into all the members of man the which do ioyfully receiue the impressions of the mouing faculty yeelding vpon this occasion a more prompt obedience to execute the commandements of the Irascible the which of the one side is inflamed with desire to incounter vanquish whatsoeuer opposeth it selfe against her and on the other she is sweetly entertained in this resolution by the pleasure which imaginatiō giues her representing that shee may vanquish all these obstacles and be victorious in this combate and in the end obtaine the good whereunto she aspires But particularly this ioy falles about the heart which sends it backe againe and makes it ascend vnto the eies and countenance Wherefore we reade in their faces that are full of good hope the contentment which their imagination giues them In regard of the ioy and cōtentment which hope giues vs wee do easily deuoure all the toyles and paines which present themselues in our pursuites especially when the good which we pursue is endued with some excellent perfection which makes vs to esteeme it greatly or to loue it ardently As for example at the seege of Troy the Grecians were not discouraged with the tediousnesse of the time nor with the toyles and dangers of warre for that they imagined the beauty of Hellen deserued their long labor to restore her to her husband and to reuenge the reproach and infamy of Greece So Iacob being passionately in loue with faire Rachell hee patiently endured the rigors of her father the toyles of his seruice and the afflictions of his mind for that he liued daily in hope of this in comparable beauty And therefore Hope hath so great power in humane affaires in which there is found some kinde of difficulty The laborer would not expose himselfe so freely to the rigor of the aire nor endure with such patience the iniuries of times in tilling his land if hee did not promise vnto himselfe a rich haruest for the fruit of his labour the souldier would not cast himselfe into dangers he would not mount vp to breaches nor thrust himselfe into the fury of combates if the expectance of glory or hope of booty did not animate his courage The Merchant would not passe through rockes fires waues and stormes running from Sea to Sea and from Port to Port if hee did not promise vnto himselfe great wealth in recompence of his voyages and trauailes Yea Alexander himselfe going to the warre of Asia where hee should expose himselfe to a thousand dangers protested that he was wholly thrust on by Hope to enioy all the glory and treasures of the East by subduing those Barbarians So as hope is as it were the soule of goodliest actions making vs to surmount all the difficulties and obstacles which might hinder the execution by the mollifying of our resolutions Yea it is certaine that Courage hath alwayes beene held an effect of good hope for when as man hopes to surmount those fearefull things which
no kind of goodnesse from vs for if hee did hope to reape any profit by our friendship hee would seeke it and cherish it by all good offices and not take that liberty to discontent vs. So as hauing so many testimonies of contempt and of the little esteeme hee makes of vs we thinke wee haue iust cause to bee moued and to reuenge our selues of him But when as this contempt proceeds to outrages and that any one without cause seekes to blemish our reputation by scandalous reports made in companies Then our Choler hath no bounds but is inflamed beyond measure and makes vs burne with desire to reuenge so great an affront In like manner he who without prouocation doth vs wrong both by word and deed and who dissembles not his bad disposition but doth publish it in all places makes shew that hee doth wonderfully contemne vs. For as he is not ignorant that so sensible an iniury deserues reuēge seeing that he makes no difficulty to doe it but in despight defames vs in all companies where he comes hee shewes plainely how basely he esteemes vs and that hee thinkes wee are either too faint-hearted to vndertake or to weake to execute the reuenge which so sensible an affront deserues In the meane time we suppose that hee which hath wronged vs in this manner doth it for his pleasure hauing not giuen him any apparent subiect of discontent for if it were to repell a former iniury which hee had receiued from vs it were no more a contempt or an outrage but a reuenge which he would take of vs. But you must not wonder at that which we haue said that there are some people which take a delight to commit outrages and the reason is for that naturally men cannot endure that any one should exceede them in those things wherein they take delight yea they desire to excell those whom they thinke are competitors with them in that which they vndertake Wherefore if they encounter any one that is able to oppose himselfe against thē they contend with him and vpon the first occasion doe him some affront to the end they may shewe how much they exceede him in power And therefore yong men and such as are rich and powerfull doe most commonly fall into this excesse For young men and such as haue their blood hot and boyling are wonderfully ready to commit insolencies and as if they wanted better imployments they busie thēselues to doe harme yea vnto those which haue not offended them Whereof wee haue great and notable examples in the life of Alcibiades who scandalized the whole City of Athens by the insolency of his actions Rich men in like manner and such as are powerfull are full of this vaine ambition to seem great by the outrages they doe to their inferiours imagining that this insolency is a marke of their greatnesse For they presuppose that they are farre aduanced aboue those whom they dare so visibly wrong And therefore they take a certaine kinde of content to do them some affront which is also the ordinary end that they propound vnto themselues which take a delight to wrong others Finally we must remember that men are commonly moued to Choler when as they see themselues contemned in any of those manners which we haue related And if we shall seeke the cause in the Center wee shall finde that the reason is for that men desire passionately to see themselues honoured and they beleeue that such as are inferior vnto them bee it in nobility power vertue or any other eminent quality are bound to yeeld them all sorts of duty and respect Rich men also will bee reuerenced and respected by the poorer sort who are inferior vnto them in the goods of fortune And hee that is indowed with singular eloquence desires that such as haue not attained to the like perfection should acknowledge the aduantage he hath ouer them In like manner men of authority and command will haue such as are subiect to their gouernement honour them with their seruice And if their inferiours faile to yeeld them the honor which they think is due vnto them they cannot endure this iniury but fall into rage which makes them to seeke all occasions to punish this contempt And therefore it was truly said That the indignation of a King is great and fearefull for that when as a great king is incensed against any one that is not of his quality although he temper and moderate his choler for a time yet hee smothers it in his brest and is neuer satisfied vntill hee hath made him feele the effects of his power that durst presume to offend him Wherefore an Ancient said that Choler encountering with a great power was like a thunder-bolt which breakes in peeces whatsoeuer stands in its way But not onely Kings but euery priuate person is impatient to see himselfe contemned by those which are his inferiours And to speake truth there is nothing but the wisedome of God and the Law of Iesus Christ that can pull out of our soules this feeling of a contempt or of an iniurie receiued vnworthily For a conclusion of this chapter we will obserue that Philosophers make three kindes of Choler and that as among serpents there are Aspickes Vipers and Dragons whose poyson encreaseth daily so they hold opinion that of these diuerse kindes of Choler some are accompanied with more violence and shew more fire then the rest For there is a kinde of Choler whose motions are sudden and prompt and which enflame vpon the first occasions and the first obiects which present themselues Aristotle calls those that are subiect to this passion sudden actiue cholerick and adust for that this suddennesse to bee mooued riseth from the abundance of adust choler or from the gall But as it is kindled suddenly so it is quencht with little paine like vnto the waues of the Sea which rise and breake at the same instant There is another kind of Choler which takes roote and is fashioned in the soule by a long continuance of time during the which man doth represent vnto himselfe the forme of that party which hath wronged him and preserues the memory of the iniury he hath receiued Aristotle tearmes these men sharpe bitter and secret Such was the choler of Achilles which the death o◠so many braue Princes slaine at the siege of Troy during his despight could hardly mollifie There is a third kinde although it differs not much from the second the which doth wholly transport men torments them perpetually and neuer giues them any rest vntill they haue satisfied their reuenge Aristotle calls those that are agitated-with this frenzy violent outragious and insupportable The first is found in the best dispositions but the two other are signes of bad inclinations To conclude there is not any one of them but we should auoyde and flie from as a poyson which kills charity which should shine in all the motions and actions of Christians And if we are at