Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	wonder_n	wonder_v	wrought_v	26	3	7.3093	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52003	Entertainments of the cours: or, Academical conversations. Held upon the cours at Paris, by a cabal of the principal wits of that court. / Compiled by that eminent and now celebrated author, Monsieur de Marmet, Lord of Valcroissant. And rendered into English by Thomas Saintserf, Gent.; Entretiens du cours. English	Marmet, Melchior de, seigneur de Valcroissant.; St. Serfe, Thomas, Sir, fl. 1668.	1658 (1658)	Wing M701; ESTC R202859	101,018	264

the Academy and every one having made choice of a particular Science Art or Subject he managed it as regularly as he pleased twice a week And by this means we had as many different Lessons as Persons whereof to make our advantage and all the Vertues and Sciences of the Ancients being proposed and laid before us for examples it lookt as if they had left us their Libraries and the exercise of their Heroick actions So that it was impossible but that much or little of all these particular things must stick in the mind and that this variety must sweeten the drinesse of the Precepts and utterly banish the sharpnesse of dispute For it was not there the way to oppose what was said but to hearken with attention and delight and to let the Orator carry the prize he aim'd at in regard that every one spake or wrote upon the matter he had thought fit to elect and ingeniously dispos'd himself to utter nothing but the very cream of what he had been able to gather from it Now the ordinary Subjects were History True and Fabulous Sciences Speculative and Practick the Mathematicks Heraldry the Maps the Horoscopes Travels and merry Tales so that by means of Conversation which is one of the three ways to make a man perfect the other two were put in pfactice without the pains and charge of travel and study For we had all sorts of Books in the heads of our Co-academicks and all the contents thereof in their mouths We travell'd upon the Maps by Geography and we learnt the manners and customes of Countrys and Nations by the Variety of Histories Yea and we had another and better advantage and we were our selves both the Masters and Scholers of the progresses we made in our studies For in regard that all our Notions are imperfect unlesse we produce them and that according to Seneca a good which is not communicated is not pleasing therefore by means of the Discourses and Speeches which we used to make in publick we learnt to write regularly and by frequent exercise we easily acquired a habit of hiding the defects of Nature and making our Artificial qualities seem proper and natural to us So that in a word there was nothing more advantagious and profitable then the exercises of the Academy in regard that all which is requisite to make a man learned eloquent courteous compleasant valiant active dexterous and perfectly compleat in all kinds was there to be learnt How beautiful and delightful is Nature in her diversities and how considerable and adorable is the power of God in the variety of things whereof he hath compos'd the Universe For if variety makes beauty and beauty makes pleasure we may conclude from thence that the variety of matters which we handled was extraordinarily delectable to us and that the Institution of our Academy containing the three points which give life and motion to the great Fabrick of Civil Society we might all easily arive to our desired end which was to be compleat and perfect men without passing through those thorny and craggy difficulties and labours which were prescribed us by divers Sects of Philosophers for so I call their contradictory opinions their Problems their Sophisms and all their odd tricks which cause so many disputes and differences in the Schools for the avoiding whereof all questions and scruples whatsoever which might seem in the least kind contrary to what was pronounc't were absolutely prohibited in our Academy The Counsellor having hearkned to the Baron with attention and admiration said Indeed the method of this Academy deserves to be much esteemed and the particular advantages drawn from the universality of things taught in it highly to be considered for it is of the nature of Indivisible Goods which belong as much in bulk to every one in particular as to all men together nor do I believe there is any false appearance partiality or imposture in it that but that it affords an evident and sensible profit to all Yet will I tell you of another which is no lesse commendable albeit it be like fair faces quite different in all its beauties and seem not to embarass so many Sciences It is that in the Circle of the Assembly every one wonders at some subject and every one takes also by turn the wonders which are proposed to him by the rest For in the first place he must wonder at the Proposition he receives and give the reasons also why he wonders and then he must not wonder and give the reasons likewise why he doth not wonder For example one will say to me Sir I wonder that the Sun which heats the whole world hath no heat in himself To this I must answer that I wonder too and make a handsome discourse to warrant my wonder and from thence by a gentle transition or an imperceptible passage go to the contrary sense and prove with as much eloquence as I can that I do not wonder at it and that there is no cause to wonder That which you say Sir replied the Baron is like the Play of wonders which is used amongst Women at Wakes and other petty Pastimes It may be said the Counsellor that this form of discourse hath been prophan'd in those petty Divertisements and gossipings of Women but I believe not that the Questions amongst them are various or learned or that they know how to handle them handsomely insomuch as for that effect it is needful to have the profundity and universality of the Sciences to handle them regularly and dexterously and to be able to maintain and defend any such argument as may be started by curiosity Now the wonders which are ordinarily moved in this Academy are drawn from Natural Questions from Moral Maxims and from all the most sublime and Speculative curiosities that can fall under a nice and subtle judgement nor is it enought to speak something of them but we must sound the bottome of each of them and stay a good while upon these two parts of the Problem I must confesse said the Baron that this is a handsome order but not so profitable either for the Speakers or Hearers as that of the Academy whereof I told you which comprehended all the Sciences and which had the true and only way to make a man Compleat I remember said the Count that you said that Reading Travel and Conversation make a man Compleat and that all these things were in your Academy But to my apprehension there are other Schools no lesse if not more proper then that which are the Court the Camp and the Houses of great Persons The Camp said the Baron is included in Travel and the Court and the houses of great Persons in Conversation for there is a frequent and continual resort which makes the Conversation both stronger and closer It is true that every body is not fit for the Court and for great mens Houses but if a Country Gentleman at his first coming thither find himselfe

that vertue is every where valued and recompenst and that those Barbarians being more mercenary then we reward it otherwise then we do and make not their extraction like us from a different source and therefore their vertues seem to be in a manner but Scaenical specious and ostentative and ours are essential true and grassed upon Nature for if they prove able to derive any honour from theirs they receive it for the most part from that of the Christians whom they get by the Children of Tribute and whom they style Azamoglans in regard they are the strength of their Militia and are employ'd in the highest offices in consideration of their good qualifications of Nature blood and birth rather then of their breeding which is little lookt after and un-instructed for that they are given to all kinds of insolencies and vices however they grow afterwards to be brave Souldiers And now you see I have said something of what I brought back from my journey to Constantinople to shew you that if such a General of an Army as he is of whom we have spoken had made such glorious Conquests in the East as he hath done for us he would have past through all the degrees of favour as of a Janissary a Sainac a Bashaw and Bellerbeg and have been made Grand Dizir yea and besides the Grand Signors dayly Pay he would have obtain'd all the assignations he had askt upon the Timar But amongst us where an Illustrious Birth and a Supreme Off-spring is considered as August as it is this Lord hath had in favour of his blood the Offices and Employments that is to say the means to work the miracles he hath wrought and in regard all acknowledgements are beneath his Spirit and generosity he is satisfied with a little smoak and rewarded by the tongues of fame much more to his contentment then he would be by the hands of the Financiers and Secretaries of State with all the good of Peru and with all the Brevials of the highest Dignities of the Kingdom Amongst so many illustrious qualities said the Colonel as you have observed in our Hero I will not omit the supreme vertue wherewith he favours his friends yea and even his very enemies too and which I know by experience that he possesses in the highest measure and that his Irascible part hath never been able to surmount it wherein I take much more notice of their good luck who have the benefit of it then of their own deserts and of the influences which come from him then of the subject which makes him lay aside severity and shew himself favourable and merciful I mean his Clemency which is the judge of vengeance and the moderatresse of power when there is question of lessening the punishments which a person of authority may inflict upon such as are under his obedience This vertue said the Counsellor is a gift of piety a sweetnesse of spirit and a delenishment of punishments ordered by the Laws which after it hath banisht the interior distemper it reduces our souls to quiet and makes us spare anothers blood as we do our own for Clemency is of an heroick essence and the defection of that active and unbridled Passion which oppugns it and seems to check it is the most wonderful effect that they who exercise this vertue are able to produce and the victory gotten over it is much more glorious then that which is won by force of arms Here the Marquesse interrupted him saying Sir you put me in mind of an act of this vertue which he exercised some days since at my request in the behalf of an Officer of his Army who had offended him Therefore it was that I spake of it answered Hydaspe because I was present when you begg'd that persons pardon and when the address of your Eloquence easily obtain'd what you desired of a soul already disposed thereto by vertue and for this cause it is that I told you that Clemency favours as well enemies as friends and that we must hold our selves happy when fortune makes us meet with more necessary motions to pardon in them whom we petition then merit in the offenders Not but that your discourse might have wrought the same effect even upon Barbarians because you took him upon a good advantage but that with another you would not have succeeded so soon nor so easily What businesse was that my Lord said the Baron which merited your favour and what was that insolent person who presum'd to displease his General you shall be pleas'd to dispense with me for naming him said the Marquesse and I will only tell you that finding my self in his Chamber with few people about him we began to discourse of the repentance of this Officer who is a friend of mine and in order to the cause of his disgrace whereupon I observed some moderation of spirit and some serenity of countenance in the said Lord and as he was going into his Cabinet to hide his complacency from us and to refuse to answer us some of us offred to follow him which he courteously suffred and then I took my occasion to speak thus to him My Lord where the will governs and conduct depends upon a capriccio of hatred Reason is for the most part turn'd out of door If the solidity of your judgement which makes you accomplish such huge things did not rather consider the good or bad end of actions then the facility you have to undertake you would not speed as you do and you would be deprived of the general applause I would have broken off here but seeing him look mildely upon me and hearken peacefully to me I went on thus Nature and Merit my Lord have furnisht you with authority to act and have given you much independency If your will were not ruled by Reason as it is you being so potent as you are and suffering your self to be carried away by the perswasions of flatterers you would certainly precipitate your self upon some cholerick action the event whereof would obscure the splendour of the bravest atchievements of your life as the death of Calistene blotted out the esteem which men had of the Great Macedonian King I grant my Lord that the person whose pardon I crave deserves it not but rather the effects of your resentment and to be deprived of the chiefest of his felicities which is the hope of appeasing you and escaping death but because he is of a condition unworthy to contest with you and for you to revenge your self on him in an honourable way therefore must the priviledge and power which you have to exterminate him serve you for a bridle to moderate the heat of your vengeance which casts him into repentance and inflicts a thousand deaths upon his soul. Indeed my Lord generous spirits exercise as much clemency towards them whom they have conquered as they do glory for their victory as you have sufficiently experimented and practised in your Triumphs He who hath