Selected quad for the lemma: child_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
child_n	affair_n	better_a	great_a	44	3	2.1748	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29958	De jure regni apud Scotos, or, A dialogue, concerning the due priviledge of government in the kingdom of Scotland, betwixt George Buchanan and Thomas Maitland by the said George Buchanan ; and translated out of the original Latine into English by Philalethes.; De jure regni apud Scotos. English	Buchanan, George, 1506-1582.; Maitland, Thomas.; Philalethes.	1680 (1680)	Wing B5275; ESTC R19572	73,304	148

purpose in hand nor to stay in explaining or confirming things that are perspicuous and well known M. I think we should do so if you please ask me B. Do you not think that the time hath been when men did dwell in cottages yea and in caves and as strangers did wander to and fro without Lawes or certain dwelling places and did Assemble together as their fond humours did lead them or as some comodity and comon utility did allure them M. for sooth I beleeve that seeing it is consonant to the course and order of nature and is testified by all the histories of all Nations almost for Homer doth describe the representation of such a wilde and barbarous kind of life in Sicily even in the time of the Trojans Their Courts saith he do neither abound with Counciles nor Judges they dwell only in darksome caves and every one of them in high mountains ruleth his own house wife and Children nor is any of them at leisure to communicat his domestick affaires to any other About the same time also Italy is said to be no better civilized as we may easily conjecture from the most fertile regions almost of the whole world how great the solitude and wastness there was in places on this side of Italy B. But whether do you think the vagrant and solitary life or the associations of men civilly incorporat most agreable to nature M. The last without all peradventure which utility the mother almost of justice and equity did first convocat and commanded to give signes or warnings by sound of trumpet and to defend themselves within walls and to shut the gates with one key B. But do you think that utility was the first and main cause of the association of men M. Why not seeing I have heard from the learned that men are born for men B. Uitility indeed to some seems to be very efficacious both in begetting and conserving the publick society of mankind but if I mistake not there is a far more venerable or ancient cause of mens associating and a more antecedaneous sacred bond of their civil community otherwise if every one would have a regard to this own private advantage then surely that very utility would rather dissolve than unite humane society together M. Perhaps that may be true therefore I desire to know what other cause you will assigne B. A certain instinct of nature not only in man but also in the more tamed sort of beasts that although these allurements of utility be not in them yet do they of their own accord flock together with other beasts of their own kind But of these others we have no ground of debate Surely we see this instinct by nature so deeply rooted in man that if any one had the affluence of all things which contribute either for maintaining health or pleasure and delight of the mind yet he will think his life unpleasant without humane converse Yea they who out of a desire of knowledge and an endeavour of investigating the truth have with drawn themselves from the multitude and retired to secret corners could not long endure a perpetual vexation of mind nor if at any time they should remit the same could they live in solitude but very willingly did bring forth to light their very secret studies and as they had laboured for the publick good they did communicat to all the fruit of their ●abour But if there be any man who doth wholly take delight in solitude and flee from converse with men and shun it I judge it doth rather proceed from a distemper of the mind than from any instinct of nature such as we have heard of Tim●n the Athenian and Bellerophon the Corinthian who as the Poet saith was a wandering wretch on the Elean coast eating his own heart and fleeing the very footsteps of men M. I do not in this much dissent from you but there is one word nature here set down by you which I do often use rather out of custom than that I understand it and is by others so variously taken and accommodat to so many things that for the most part I am at a stand to what I may mainly apply it B. Forsooth at present I would have no other thing to be understood thereby than that LIGHT infused by GOD into our Minds for when God formed that Creature more Sacred and capable of a Celestial Mind and which might have dominion over the other creatures he gave not only eyes to his Body whereby he might evite things contrary to his condition and follow after such as might be usefull but also he produced in his Mind a certain LIGHT whereby he might discerne things filthy from honest this Light some call Nature others the Law of Nature for my own part truly I think it is of a Heavenly stamp and I am fully perswaded that Nature doth never say one thing and Wisdom another Moreover God h●th given us a● abridgment of that LAW which might contain the whole in few words viz. that We should love Him with all our Soul and our Neighbours as our selves all the books of Holy Scriptur which treat of ordering our conversation do contain nothing else but an explication of this Law M. You think then that no Orator or Lawyer who might congregat dispersed men hath been the Author of humane society but God only B. It is so indeed and with Cicero I think there is nothing done on earth more acceptable to the great God who rules the World than the associations of men legally united which are called Civil Incorporations whose several parts must be as compactly joyned together as the several members of our Body every one must have their proper function to the end there may be a mutual cooperating for the good of the Whole a mutual propelling of injuries and a foreseeing of advantages and these to be communicat for engaging the benevolence of all amongst themselves M. You do not then make utility but that Divine Law rooted in us from the beginning to be the cause indeed the far more worthy and Divine of the two of mens incorporating in Political Societies B. I mean not indeed that to be the Mother of Equity and Justice as some would have it but rather the handmaid and to be one of the Guards in Cities wel constitute M. Herein I also agree with you B. Now as in our Bodies consisting of contrary Elements there are diseases that is perturbations and some intestine tumults even so there must be of necessity in these greater Bodies that is in Cities which also consist of various yea and for the most part contrary humours or sorts of men and these of different ranks conditions and natures and which is more of such as can not remain one hour together approving the same things And surely such must needs soon dissolve and come to nought if one be not adhibited who as a Physician may quiet such disturbances and by a

prescribed otherwise free that they should conforme their actions and speech to the Prescripts of Lawes and by the sanctions thereof divide rewards and punishments the greatest bonds of holding fast together humane society And lastly even as saith that famous Legislator A King should be a speaking Law and the Law a dumb King M. At first you so highly praised Kings that you made their Majesty almost glorious and sacred but now as if you had repented in so doing I do not know within what strait bonds you shut them up and being thrust into the prison I may say of Lawes you do scarce give them leave to speak And as for my part you have disappoynted me of my exspectation very farre For I exspected that according to the most famous Historians you should have restored the thing which is the most glorious both with God and man into its own splendor either of your own accord or at my desire in the series of your discourse which being spoiled of all ornaments you have brought it into subjection and that Authority which through all the world is the chiefest you having hedged-in round about and made it almost so contemptible as not to be desired by any man in his right witts For what man in his right witts would not rather live as a private man with a mean fortune than being still in action about other mens affaires to be in perpetual trouble and neglecting his own affaires to order the whole course of his life according to other mens rules But if that be the tearmes of Government every where proposed I fear there will be a greater scarcity of Kings found than was of Bishops in the first infancy of our Religion Nor do I much wonder if Kings be regarded according to this plate-forme being but men taken from feeding cattel and from the plough who took upon them that glorious dignity B. Consider I pray you in how great an errour you are who does think that Kings were created by People and Nations not for Justice but for pleasure and does think there can be no honour where wealth and pleasures abound not wherein consider how much you diminish their grandour Now that you may the more easily understand it compare any one King of those you have seen apparelled like a Childs puppet brought forth with a great deale of pride and a great many attendants meerly for vain ostentation the representation whereof you miss in that King whom we describe Compare I say some one of those who were famous of old whose memory doth even yet live flourisheth is renowned to all posterity Indeed they were such as I have now been describing Have you never heard what an old woman petitioning Philip King of Macedon to hear her cause answered him he having said to her he had no leisure to which she replyed then cease said she to be King Have you never heard I say that a king victorious in so many batells and Conqueror of so many nations admonished to do his duty by a poor old wife obeyed acknowledged that it was the duty of kings so to do Compare then this Philip not only with the greatest Kings that are now in Europe but also with all that can be remembred of old you shall surely find none of them comparable to those either for prudence fortitude or activity few equal to them for largeness of dominions If I should enumerat Agesilaus Leonidas and the rest of the Lacedemonian Kings O how great Men were they I shal seem to utter but obsolete examples Yet one saying of a Lacedemonian maid I cannot pass over with silence her name was Gorgo the daughter of Cleomedes she seeing a servant pulling off the stockings of an Asian Ghuest and running to her father cryed out father the Ghuest hath no hands from which speech of that maid you may easily judge of the Lacedemonian discipline and domestick custome of their Kings Now those who proceded out of this rustick but couragous way of life did very great things but those who were bred in the Asiatick way lost by their luxury and sloth the great dominions given them by their Ancestors And that I may lay aside the Ancients Such a one was Pelagius not long ago among the people of Galicia who was the first that weakned the Saracen forces in Spain yet him and all his the grave did inclose yet of him the Spanish Kings are not ashamed accounting it their greatest glory to be descended of him But seeing this place doth call for a more large discourse let us returne from whence we have digressed For I desire to shew you with the first what I promised namely that this forme of government hath not been contrived by me but seemes to have been the same to the most famous men in all ages and I shall briefly shew you the spring from whence I have drawn these things The books of M Tullius Cicero which are intituled of Offices are by common consent of all accounted most praise worthy in the second book thereof these words are set down verbatim It seemes as Horodotus saith that of old well bred Kings were created not amongst the Medes only but also amongst our Ancestors for executing of justice for whilst at first the people were oppressed by those that had greatest wealth they betook themselves to some one who was eminent for vertue who whilst he kept off the weakest from injuries establishing equity he hemmed in the highest with the lowest by equall lawes to both And the reason of making lawes was the same as of the Creation of Kings for it is requisite that justice be alwayes equall for otherwise it were not justice If this they did obtain from one good and just man they were therewith well pleased when that did not occurre lawes were made which by one and the same voice might speak to all alike This then indeed is evident that those were usually chosen to governe of whose justice the people had a great opinion Now this was added that these Rulers or Kings might be accounted prudent there was nothing that men thought they could not obtain from such Rulers I think you see from these words what Cicero judgeth to be the reason of requiring both Kings and lawes I might here commend Zenophon a witness requiring the same no less famous in war-like affairs than in the study of Philosophy but that I know you are so well acquaint with his writings as that you have all his sentences marked I pass at present Plato and Aristotle albeit I am not ignorant how much you have them in estimation For I had rather adduce for confirmation men famous in a midle degree of affaires than out of Schools Far less do I think fit to produce a Stoick King such as by Seneca in Thyestes is described Not so much because that idea of a King is not perfect as because that examples of a good Prince may be rather impressed in the mind than at any

having somewhat mitigated the peoples hatred Which when they have once done they turne back again to their old manners For the fruit which is to follow may easily be known by the sower thereof For he hath the same strength and power to revoke all things at his pleasure and to transferre unto himself the strength of all lawes even as if he would abrogat all lawes But this kind of Tyrants had been perhaps tolerable if without the common destruction of all it could have been taken away even as we do endure some bodily diseases rather than throw our life into the hazard of a doubtsome cure But they who bear rule not for their Countrey 's good but for their own self interests have no regard to the publick utility but to their own pleasure and lust they place the stability of their authority in the peoples weakness and think that a Kingdom is not a procuration concredited to them by God but rather a prey put into their hands Such are not joyned to us by any civil bond or bond of humanity but should be accounted the greatest enemies of God and of all men For all the actions of Kings should aime at the publick safety of their Subjects and not at their own wealth By how much Kings are raised above other men so much should they imitat the celestiall bodies which having no good offices of ours given to them yet do infuse on humane affaires a vital and bountifull vertue of heat and light Yea the very titles wherewith we have honoured Kings if you remember might put them in mind of their munificence M Me thinks I remember namely that they should use a paternal indulgence towards their Subjects committed to them as towards children the care of a Shepherd in procuring their profit as Generals in maintaining their safety as Governours in excellency of vertues and as Emperours commanding those things which might be usefull B. Can he then be called a father who accounts his Subjects slaves or a Shepherd who doth not feed his flock but devoureth them or a Pilot who doth alwayes study to make shipwrack of the goods in his ship and who as they say makes a leck in the very ship wherein he sailes M. By no means B. What is he then who doth not rule for the peoples good but still doth all for himself who doth not strive with good men in vertue but contendeth to exceed the most flagitious wretch in vices who leadeth his subjects into manifest snares M. Indeed such shall not be by me accounted either a generall or Emperour or Governour B. If you then shal see any usurping the name of a King and in no kind of vertue excelling any of the people but inferiour to many therein not fatherly affectionat towards his subjects but rather oppressing them by arrogant domineering and that thinketh the people is concredited to him for his own gain and not for their safeguard Will you imagine that such a man is truely a King albeit he goes vapouring with a great many in guard about him and openly be seen with gorgeous aparrell and make a shew of punishments can he conciliat the people and catch their applause by rewards games pompous shewes and even mad underminings and what ever is thought to be magnificent will you I say account such a man a King M. Not indeed If I would understand my self aright but void of all humane society B. Within what limites do you circumscribe humane society M. Within the very same limites wherein by your preceeding discourse you seemed to include it namely within the hedge of lawes Which whosoever transgress be they Robbers Thieves or Adulteres I see them publickly punished and that to be accounted a just cause of their Punishment because they transgressed the limites of humane society B. What say you of those who would never once enter within these hedges M. I think they should be accounted enemies to God and men and reckoned amongst wolves or some other kind of noisome beasts rather than amongst men which whosoever doth nourish he nourisheth them for his own destruction and others whosoever killeth them doth not only good to himself but to all others But if I had power to make a law I would command which the Romans were wont to do with monsters such kind of men to be carried away into solitary places or to be drowned in the depths of the sea afar from the sight of any land lest by the contagion of their carcases they might infect other men And rewards to the killers of them to be discerned not only by the whole people but by every particula● person as useth to be done to those who have killed wolves or namely that these Spirits beares or apprehended their whelpes For if such a monster should be borne speak with a mans voice have the face of a man likeness of other parts I would have no fellowship with him or if any man divested of humanity should degenerat into such cruelty as he would not meet with other men but for their destruction I think he should be called a man no more than Satyres Apes or bears albeit they should resemble man in countenance gesture and speech B. Now If I mistake not you understand what a King and what a Tyrant the wisest Ancients meant in their writings Will it please you then that we propose some idea of a Tyrant also such as we gave in speaking of a King M. Yes that I do earnestly desire if it be not a trouble to you B. You have not forgot I suppose what by the poets is spoken of the Furies and by our divines of the nature of evill Spirits are enemies of mankind who whilst they are in perpetuall torments yet do rejoice in the torments of men This is indeed the true idea of Tyranny But because this idea can only be discerned in the imagination but not by any of the senses I shall set before you another idea which not only the mind may discerne but the senses also perceive and as it were represented to the very eye Imagine you see a ship tossed by waves in the sea and all the shoares round about not only without haven or harbour but also full of most cruell enemies and the Master of the Ship in contest with the Company and yet to have no other hope of safety than in their fidelity and the same not certain as Knowing well that he puts his life into the hands of a most barbarous kind of men and void of all humanity whom by money he may hold trusty and who for greater gain may be conduced to fight against him Such indeed is that life which Tyrants embrace as happy They are afraid of enemies abroad and of their Subjects at home and not only of their subjects but of their domesticks Kinsfolk brethren wives children and near relations And therefore they have alwayes war either a forrain war with their neighbours civil war with their