as a remedy found out by her to moderate our discontents for mans life is full of misery and had not the heavens sweetned them by Joy all Passions would end in Grief or in Despair we should be press'd to death under the burden of our misfortunes and losing the hope of vanquishing our enemies we should lose the desire of fighting with them To heighten our courage this wise Mother solicites us by Pleasure and equally mingling it with things that are Difficult and Shameful she obligeth us not to Despise the one nor to Fear the other but whatever Contentment she propounds to us 't is always with this Caution that it shall not be the end but that it shall serve us for a pleasing means to arrive the more contentedly thereat so that we are bound to taste of it with the same reservedness as Travellers look upon the goodly Fields which lie in their way they serve to unweary them they admire their largeness praise their Fertility value their Riches but they stay not to gather in the crop and knowing it is not lawful for them to enjoy them they are contented with such Recreation as thereby they receive which whilst they do they hasten their pace and continue on their journey so earthly Pleasures may well solace us but they are not totally to possess us When Nature intermingled them with our actions she meant them not for our Felicity but our Consolation and she intends not that they should stay us on Earth but that they should raise us to Heaven 'T is brutish to seek for nothing but Delight in Eating and to make that a Contentment which is nothing but a Remedy to love Sleep because it is accompanied with some sweetness and to place the happiness of Life in the Image of Death is to be void of Reason we must take it because it is necessary and thank divine Providence which being more lucky and powerful than Physick hath provided pleasing Remedies for us and cures our maladies without exercising our Patience to court Virtue only for Pleasures sake is to be unjust and not to value her she is too noble to be any thing but our end to seek out any other motive or hope for any other recompense than the possession of her is to injure her Pleasure which acompanies her is only for mean and poor souls which have not courage enough to follow her and her Difficulties she is never more glorious than when most difficult and her faithful lovers never think her more beautiful than when she is crown'd with Thorns yet doth not Nature forbid us to taste this sweetness which accompanieth the searching after her provided we look upon it as a succour to our weakness and that we take not that for a consummated felicity which is given us only for a refreshment this is notwithstanding the fault of all men and so general is this disorder that there is hardly any one who doth not seek after Pleasure and despise Virtue Every one will make his utmost end of a mean which is not honourable save only because necessary and all the world will have that a Passion which Nature hath placed in our Soul only to sweeten our misfortunes should be the height of our felicity men now respect nothing but what delights Glory gives place to pleasure and virtues self by a high injustice hath no more lovers unless she promise them delight insomuch as of all Passions not any one doth more prejudice her than joy doth For Desires are Noble Hopes are Generous Audacity and Choler assail Vice Hatred and Fear defend themselves from it but Joy is of a soft Nature and suffers it self to be corrupted when sollicited by Delights Other Passions are in perpetual motion and being always upon the Speed they never fix themselves so strongly on an Object but they may be staved off but Joy is at rest and making the good which she possesseth her Center she must be fought withal before she will part with it Therefore the Son of God knowing how hard it is to conquer this passion when it is grounded in a Soul forbids us to give it entertainment and counsels us to reserve it for such contentments as never shall have end He distinguisheth his Disciples from those of the world as well by Joy as by Love he employs all his Reasons to perswade us that temporal Joy cannot agree with Joy eternal and that to be happy in Heaven a man must be miserable on Earth he mingles Pain with our Pleasures sows Thorns amongst our Roses and poures Bitterness upon our Delights to make us distaste them He instructeth us that Pleasures are not only fading but painful and that they are not only Unprofitable but Faulty In fine they are the daughters and mothers of Sorrow and all those which promise us the greatest contentment subsist only by the Pain which precedes them Monarchs triumph not till after the victory they had not defeated their enemies had they not fought with them and Joy measureth it self so justly by Sorrow that the beauty of the Triumph depends upon the greatness of the Combat when it hath not been throughly disputed the pleasure is less and the glory is not so splendid Mariners never taste the sweetness of life more than when they have escaped Shipwrack and they are never more sensible of contentment than when after despair of safety a Tempest drives them upon the shore an only Son is never so dear to his Mother as when he hath run great hazards and hath cost her many a Tear she thinks she hath been brought a bed with him as many times as she hath wept for him her joy ariseth from her sorrow and the contentment of enjoying him would not be so great had she not fear'd to have lost him one must be hungry before he take delight in eating and as nothing sets forth Light better than Darkness so there is nothing adds more to Pleasure than the Pain that hath gon before it But out of another consequence as necessary more vexatious pleasure turns to Sorrow and that wherewith we were at first delighted in process of time becomes painful Too long sleep degenerates into a Lethargy the remedy which nature had found out to repair our strength when it is continual ruinates it Excess of meat suffocates the natural heat too violent exercise weakens our vigour and the innocentest Pleasures become Punishments when they are immoderate Temperance might cure us of these disorders if they went no father but experience teacheth us that what passeth for a Pleasure in the world is a Sin before God and that the greatest part of our joys cause sorrow in the Saints A Souldier rejoyceth in the murders he hath committed and men in this corrupt age call that Valour which in more innocent times would have been termed Cruelty A lustful person rejoyceth in having stollen away her that he loves and if he content
the Theatre where two so violent motions were formed should enjoy Peace amidst War In fine Fear and Audacity ended their differences in thy Person thou didst suffer these two affections to possess thy Heart without dividing it whilst thou wert in thine Agony in the Garden thou gavest confidence to thine Apostles and when the thought of death made such havock in thy Soul thou didst encourage Martyrs to the Combat thou preparest Crowns for their Victories and procuring them strength by thy weaknesses thou ordainest them to be the Champions of thy Church Militant But whatever help they received from thy Grace their Victories were never like thine they found more obedience in the World than in themselves and have confessed it cost them less to overcome wild Beasts than to vanquish their own Passions Famous Martyrs have been known who having overcome Lyons could not quell their own choler and have suffered themselves to be born away with Impatience after they had endured Tortures Their Combats were not always followed with good Success they were oft-times in one and the same day both Conquered and Conquerors They gave way to Voluptuousness after they had triumphed over Grief and having had courage enough to be Martyrs they wanted resolution to be continent How often have they wisht for Death that they might be freed from these domestick enemies and to that end sighed and made vows When thy Providence gave them over to their own weakness they despaired of their Salvation finding no support save in thy Goodness they begun all their wrestlings by Prayer and professed that to overcome their Passions they must be animated by thy Spirit and assisted by thy Power Thou art the sole Conqueror that wert never worsted in this War thy Affections never betrayd thy Reason and thy power hath been as absolute in thy Person as in thy Kingdom These Passions of our Soul changed nature in thine by the use thou madest of them they became Virtues Thou conceivedst no love which did not turn it self into Charity thou didst excite no Choler that was not just indignation and thou feltest no pity but it was transformed into Mercy All that in our Nature is Humane was Divine in thine and the unconfused Mixture of two Natures whereof thou art composed made thy passions to be rather Miracles than Virtues Thy Anger served as an Officer to thy Fathers Iustice thy Compassion was the Interpreter of His Mercy and thy Love an earnest of His Good will How happy was that distressed man that drew tears from thine eyes how rich was that poor one whose wants thou didst bewail how puissant was the oppressed whose interests thou maintainedst how innocent was that Offender whose Conversion was wrought by thy Tears and how glorious was the infamous Sinner to whom thou witnessedst thy Love by thy Complaints and Sighs Heaven had a regard to all the motions of thy Soul the eternal Father never denied any thing to thy Tears and his Thunder-bolts never failed to fall upon their heads on whom thy just Anger called for punishment Thy Passions were the Organs of thy Divinity thy Sighs were no less powerful than thy Words and without using either Prayers or Vows the Desires were sufficient to make known thy Will What Admiration did these Motions of thy Soul cause in the Seraphim with what astonishment were those pure Intelligences strucken when they considered that God taking our nature upon him took part of her feelings and no part of her weaknesses That he wept with the wretched without interessing his happiness That he was Angry at those that were injured without troubling his Quiet That with the needy he formed desires without loss of his Abundance And that with Lovers he felt the flames of Love without enduring their Disturbances What a miracle was it to see that Anger should be kindled in thy Soul without trouble thereunto That Pity should wound thy Heart without weakning it That it should be enflamed with Love yet not consumed That it should be eaten up with Sorrow yet not disquieted What can I do less in honour of so many Wonders than to consecrate our Passions unto thee What less submission can I make to thy adored Power than loudly to avouch that there is none but thou who can teach us the use of these Motions And that it appertains only to thy Wisdom to change our Anger into Indignation our Pity into Mercy and our Love into Charity Indeed it is thou alone who canst rule our passions thou art he only who workest our good out of our Evil and of Poysons composest Antidotes Thou knowest men by their Inclinations thou seest without studying them the motions of their hearts and making benefit thereof dost wisely conduct them to thy end Thou employest Fear to take off a covetous man from those perishable Riches which possess him thou makest a holy use of Despair to withdraw from the World a Courtier whose youth had been mis-imployed in the service of some Prince thou makest an admirable use of Disdain to extinguish there with a lovers flames who is enslave by a proud beauty thou employest Choler to disabuse a Souldier whom a dissembling General feeds with vain hopes thou makest excellent use of Grief to cure a sick man who sought for his Souls happiness in his Bodies health and lost the remembrance of Heaven by being to strongly fastened to the Earth In fine thou makest Chains of all our Passions to unite our Wills to thine thou minglest Grace with Nature and makest Angels by the same disorders as they would have been made Devils Sin is the Theatre of thy Power as well as Nothing thou makest thy greatest Works issue out of two Subjects whereof the one is Barren the other Rebellious Out of Nothing thou drawest Existence and out of Sin thou extractest Grace thou findest every thing in its contrary and by an effectual violence which can proceed only from an infinite Power thou compellest Nothing to produce men and sin to make Saints But after these two Miracles which are thy Master-pieces we see not any thing more wonderful than the use which thou art able to make of our Passions for the changing of our Wills thou makest that serve thy designes which did serve thine enemies thou savest men by those Weaknesses which would have been their undoing and bestowing on them a little Divine Love thou turnest all their Passions into Virtues For when once Charity begins to reign in their souls they fear nothing but sin they wish for nothing but Grace Thou art the end of their Desires as thou art the object of their Love They change Condition without changing Nature though they have Passions they commit no more Offences and losing neither Hope nor Despair neither Audacity nor Fear neither Love nor Hatred they are free from all the mischiefs which accompany these Passions when they are Faulty But certainly if thy Mercy appear in well husbanding the inclinations of thy Friends to their
it seemed the hearts of Princes were in the hands oâ— Orators and that Monarchy was become a slave to Eloquence they committed notwithstanding gross faults in their government and by having too oft excited the motions of the souls inferior part they overthrew the Empire of the superior and could not cure the wounds which they had made nor quench the flames which they had kindled For thinking to flatter a Prince in his vanity they made him insolent and whilst they thought to move him to revenge they made him cruel and fierce They could not keep the mediocrity whereof Virtue is composed and desiring to raise up one Passion that they might abase another they gave it so great strength as it was no longer in their power to assubject it to Reason This in my opinion is the misfortune which they run into who that they may be pleasing unto Princes flatter such an inclination as doth tyrannize over them and not considering the evil that may ensue thereon oppose that inclination to all others and by victories make it insolent The contrary way had been the better for since the Passion which they endeâ—ored to raise was most violent they should have employed all the rest to weaken it and have made them all conspire together to bring it low But because eloquence is oft-times interessed she neglects the good of her Auditors and is not troubled though her praises wound their souls so long as she may obtain what she desires Thus did Cicero treat with Caesar and being desirous to save a guilty person whose cause he pleaded he opposed the pride of this Conqueror to his revenge to destroy one Passion which was prejudicial only to one particular man he awakened that which had ruined the Republick and opprest the liberty of Rome Wherein certainly he was to blame and sinn'd against the laws of Eloquence which was not so much invented to perswade men as to make them virtuous and which ought not to endeavour so much to move affections as to re-establish Reason in her Empire Policy seems to have better intentions than Rhetorick for when she excites fear or hope in man by promises or by threats she endeavours the welfare of particulars as the publick quiet if she sometimes punish the faulty by dreadful punishments 't is but in desperate evils and when she hath to no purpose tried all mild means yet I believe she might handle Passions better than she doth and that without violating the respects wdich is due to Soveraignty too easie to gain the hearts of the Subjects by hopes and to reduce them to their duties rather by love than fear This is that which we shall consider in the following Discourse after having concluded in this that all Sciences are defective in the government of Passions that to regulate them well they must implore help from morality that they must consider the precepts she giveth us to overcome enemies which are as opinionate as insolent The THIRD DISCOURSE That Princes win upon their Subjects either by Love or Fear ALl Politicians agree that recompense and punishment are the two pillars which uphold all States and that to the end the people may be peacefully governed their hopes or their fears must be excited by promises or threats to say truth we never yet heard of any Republick or Monarchy which from its beginning did not ordain honours and chastisements for Vice and Virtue He who feared to instruct Vice by forbidding it and to teach subjects paricide by punishing it was forced to have recourse to this common remedy and to propose recompenses and sufferings to men thereby to awaken their hopes or their fears Experience shewed that to gain their good will their Passions must be won upon and that the lower part of their souls must be mastered so to assubject the higher part thereof God himself governs the world by this harmless piece of cunning for though being infinitely more absolute than all Kings he may treat with the soul without the interposition of the senses he rules himself according to mans condition and knowing that they are composed of a Soul and Body he undertakes nothing upon the former but by the means of the latter he renounceth his own rights that he may adapt himself to the weakness of his Creatures and not using the power his Soveraignty affords him he terrifieth them by threats or comforteth them by promises His bare will should serve us for a Law and the knowledge of his intentions oblige us to form whatsoever design notwithstanding he allureth us by proposing a Paradise unto us he terrifieth us in representing us with a Hell and as if he were much interessed in our Souls health or in our damnation he employs all his Graces to purchase our love and to shun our hatred when he treated with the Iews as with his subjects when through his excessive goodness he disdained not to own the quality of their Soveraign when he gave them Laws by the mouth of Moses and when he governed them by the wisdom of their Judges who were but his Images he terrified them many times by his Chastisements and sent plagues and famine into their habitations to reduce them to obedience by fear He many times also promised them to enlarge their Borders to assist them in their Battels and to give them advantage over their enemies to the end that soliciting their hopes by his promises he might by their Passions win their good wills In fine all the world confesseth that Polititians like Orators cannot more violently nor yet with more sweetness win mans consent than by awakening the motions of his Soul and by dexterously insinuating themselves into him by the hopes of Honour or fear of punishment but they do not agree which of these two passions ought to be employed to reduce him the more assuredly to his duty Those who take part with fear say that this passion being by nature servile seems to be the portion of subjects that this their relation cannot be taken from them without taking away their condition and without reducing them into the quality of children or friends they add that it is in the power of the Soveraign to make himself be feared not to make himself be loved that punishments make greater impression upon the souls of such as obey than rewards that love is always voluntary and that fear may be enforced that contempt which is the capital enemy to Monarchy may proceed as well from love as from familiarity that fear can only produce hatred which injureth more the reputation than the power of Kings that since wisdom will have us to chuse the lesser of two evils we must resolve to lose the love of the people to preserve their respect and say with that ancient Author Let him hate me provided that he fear me They confirm all these reasons by examples and make it appear that the most severe Empires have flourished the most that punishments have always exceeded
of euring the Malady they serve only to make it the more contagious But those of Repentance drown sins save sinners and appease Gods just anger for he is so good as he is pacified with a little Sorrow He takes the dislike of of an offence for satisfaction and knowing that we cannot alter things that are past he is contented with our repenting for them As he reads mens hearts and understands the Tears which flow from a real Grief he never denies them pardon and before his Throne it is sufficient for an offender to get absolution if he confess his wickedness At the Tribunal of Judges men oft-times confound Guilt with Innocence they absolve a man who defends his sin by a Falshood and let him but deny a Murder of which there is no proof he forceth the Judg to give sentence on his side but if he yields under the violence of tortures or is surprised in his answers his Tears do not blot out his sins nor will his confession preserve his life In Repentance a man need but acknowledge his Fault and he is sure to obtain pardon for it the Laws thereof are so mild as God forgets all the injuries done unto him provided sinners mingle a little love with their Repentance and that the fear of punishment be not the only motive of their Sorrow Our own Interests do therefore oblige us to defend a Passion which is so advantageous to us and since the hope of our Salvation is grounded upon a Vertue which ows its Birth to Sorrow we ought to uphold her cause and to employ our best Reasons to authorize her who doth help to justifie us Mercy will find no less credit among men than Repentance and as there is none so happy but he may become miserable I perswade my self she will not want Advocates The Stoicks calumnies will not be able to banish her from off the Earth the weaknesses which men impute to her will not stain her glory If Injustice beat down her Altars Piety will erect others to her and if her Temples of Stone and Marble be thrown to the ground men will build up living and reasonable Temples to her They accuse her of being unjust and that she rather considers the Misfortune than the Sin of Offenders they blame her for bestowing Tears on persons that deserve them not and that she would break open prisons that she might confusedly let loose from thence as well the Guilty as the Innocent But whatsoever these inhumane Philosophers say 't is the best employment we can make of Sorrow it is the most sanctified use of Grief it is that feeling of the Soul which is most Universally approved of and men must have proceeded from Rocks or lived amongst Tygers if they condemn so reasonable a Passion She takes her Birth from Misery she imitates her Mother and she is so like unto her as she her self is another Misery She makes her self Master of the Heart by the Eyes and coming forth by the way she entred at she disperseth her self in Tears and evaporates in sighes Though she be accused of Weakness she stirs our desires and interessing us in the afflictions of the miserable she endues us with strength to assist them After she hath witnessed her fellow-feeling of them by her Sorrow she gives them testimony of her power by the Effects and giving out her Orders from the Throne where she is seated she engageth the Eyes to shed Tears for them the Mouth to comfort them and the Hands to relieve them She descends into Dungeons with Prisoners she mounts up to the Scaffold with Malefafactors she assisteth the afflicted with her Counsels she distributes her Goods amongst the Poor and not seeking any other motive than Misery it sufficeth her that a man be unfortunate to take him into her protection All these high endeavours proceed only from Sorrow and were not Grief mingled with Mercy she would not operate with so much Vigor for Self love hath put us so much out of order that divine Providence hath been fain to make us miserable by Pity so to interess us in the Miseries of others did not she touch us we should not seek out a remedy for them neither should we ever dream of curing a malady which were indifferent to us but because Mercy is a sanctified Contagion which makes us sensible of our Neighbours sufferings we ayd him to comfort our selves and we help him at his need to free our selves from the Grief we feel Thus Misery teacheth us Mercy and our own evil teacheth us to cure that of others Who can condemn so just a Resentment and who dares blame a Passion to which we owe our Innocence If the miserable are sacred Persons are the merciful prophane if we respect them whom Fortune hath set upon shall we censure those that assist them if we admire Patience shall we despise Compassion if Misery draw Tears from our Eyes shall not Mercy draw Praises from our Mouths and shall not we adore a Vertue which Iesus Christ hath pleased to consecrate in his own Person Before the Mystery of the Incarnation he had only that mercy which delivers the unfortunate without tasting their Misfortunes which cures the Disease without taking it upon her and which comforts the afflicted without adding to their number He saw our Miseries but had no Feeling of them his goodness making use of his Power succour'd the miserable and was not afflicted with them But since he hath vouchsafed to make himself Man he hath mingled his Tears with ours he hath suffered our Sorrows to wound his Soul and was willing to suffer our Miseries that he might learn Mercy We may then lawfully exercise a Vertue which Iesus Christ hath Practised and may well become miserable without any stain to our Honour since the Son of God in whose Person the least shadow of Defect cannot be found would be sensible of his friends Afflictions and shed Tears to bemoan them before he would work Miracles to relieve them All the Philosophers do also honour this Passion and to exalt her merit which the Stoicks have in vain laboured to debase they give her a glorious Title and admit her into the company of the Vertues they acknowledg she may be serviceable to Reason is all the chances of Life and that provided she agree with Justice a man must be 〈◊〉 not to reverence her when she helps the poor and pardons the guilty From all these Discourses 't is easie to gather that there is no Passion in our Soul which may not profitably be husbanded by Reason and by Grace For to sum up in a few words all which hath been said in this Work Love may be changed into a Holy Friendship and Hatred may become a Just Indignation Doâ—â—â—s moderated are helps to acquite all the Virtues and Eschewing is Chastities chief Defence Hope encourageth 〈◊〉 gallant Actions and Despair diverts us from Rash Enterprizes Fear is 〈…〉 to Wisdom
his Ambition by satisfying his Incontinence the more sins he commits the more pleasures he tastes A Tyrant rejoyceth in his Usurpation and if he reaps Glory by his Injustice he thinks himself more happy than a Lawful Prince A Cholerick man rejoyceth in Revenge though to obey his Passion he hath violated all the Laws of Charity he finds Contentment in his Crime and strangely blind the more faulty he is the more happy he thinks himself So that worldly joy is nothing else but wickedness unpunish'd or a glorious Sin Therefore when this passion becomes once faulty no less than a Miracle is required to restore it to its innocence For though such desires as rise up contrary to the Laws of God are unjust and that there are punishments ordained in his kingdom for the chastisement of irregular thoughts yet are these but begun offences and which have not as yet all their mischief though fond hopes be punishable and entertain our vanity yet are they not always follow'd by effects and oft-times by a fortunate Impotence they do not all the evil which they had promised unto themselves our boldness is fuller of inconsideration than of wickedness and an ill event makes it lose all its Fervour Our Sorrows and our Griefs are not obstinate they are healed by any the least help that is given them and as they are not well pleas'd with themselves they are easily changed to their contraries Our Fears are slitting the evil which caused them being once withdrawn they leave us at liberty and to conclude in a word there is no passion incurable but Joy But since it hath mingled it self with sin and that corrupting all the Faculties of Nature it takes delight in evil Morality hath no remedies more to cure it with 'T is a great disorder when a man glories in his sin and that as the Apostle sayes he draws his Glory from his own Confusion 'T is a deplorable mischief when together with Shame he hath lost Fear and that the punishments ordained by the Laws cannot hold him in to his duty but a strange irregularity is it when his sins have made him blind or that he knows them not save only to defend them but certainly when he takes delight in his sin when he grounds his Felicity upon Injustice and that he thinks himself Happy because he is Sinful this is the height of evil To punish this impiety it is that the Heavens dart forth Thunders The Earth grows barren for the punishment of this horrid disorder when war is kindled in a nation or that the Plague hath dispeopled Cities and turned Kingdoms into desolate places we ought to believe that these Judgments are the punishments of men who place their contentment in their offences and who violating all the Laws of Nature do unjustly mingle Joy with Sin Now because this mischief as great as it is ceaseth not to be common and that it is very hard to taste any innocent pleasure Iesus Christ adviseth us to forsake all the pleasure of the world and henceforth to ground our felicity in Heaven He bids us by the mouth of his Apostle not to open the doors of our hearts save to those pure consolations whereof the Holy Ghost is the Spring-head and arguing out of our own interests he obligeth us to seek only after that Joy which being founded on himself cannot be molested by the injuries of men nor the insolence of Fortune For if any think to place it in our Riches we are bound to fear the Loss thereof if we lodg it in reputation we shall apprehend Calumny and if like Beasts we put it in those infamous delights which slatter the Senses and corrupt the Mind we shall have as many subjects of fear as we shall see Chances that may bereave us of them Therefore following St. Augustines counsel which we cannot suspect since in the slower of his age he had tasted the delights of the world We should take care to lessen all sinful pleasures till such time as they may wholly end by our death and to increase all innocent pleasure till such time as they be perfectly consummated in Glory But you will peradventure say that our Senses are not capable of these holy delights and that Joy which is but a Passion of the Soul cannot raise it self up to such pure contentments that it must have some sensible thing to busie it self about and that whilst it is engaged in the body 't is an unjust thing to propound to it the felicity of Angels This exception is current only among such as think the passions of men to be no nobler than those of Beasts The affinity which they have with Reason makes them capable of all her Benefits when they are illuminated by her Lights they may be set on fire by her Flames When Grace sheddeth her influences into that part of the soul where they reside they labour after Eternity and forestalling the advantages of Glory they elevate the body and communicate unto it Spiritual feelings They make us say with the Prophet My body and my Soul rejoyce in the living God neglecting perishable delights they long after such only as are Eternal The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Grief and Sorrow IF Nature could not extract good out of evil and did not her Providence turn our miseries into Felicities we might with Reason blame her for having made the most troublesome of our Passions the most Common For sadness seems to be Natural to us and Joy a Stranger All the parts of our body may taste Sorrow and Pain and but very few of them are Sensible of pleasure Pains come in throngs and assail us by Troops they agree to afflict us and though they be at discord among themselves they joyn in a confederacy to conspire our undoing but pleasures justle one another when they meet and as if they were jealous of good fortune the one of them destroys the other Our Body is the Stage whereon they fight the miseries thereof arise from their differences and man is never more unhappy than when he is divided by his Delights Griefs continue long and as if nature took pleasure in prolonging our punishment she indues us with strength to undergo them and makes us only so far Couragious or so far patient as may render us so much the more miserable Pleasures especially those of the Body endure but for a moment their death is never far off and when a man will make them of longer durance by art they occasion either torment or loathing But to make good all these reasons and to shew that Grief is more familiar to man than Pleasure we need only consider the deplorable condition of our life where for one vain contentment we meet with a thousand real sorrows For these come uncalled they present themselves of their own proper motion they are linkt one to another and like Hydra's heads they either never die