well also to keepe from them such schoole-fellowes as be unhappie and given to doe shrowd turnes for such as they are enough to corrupt and marre the best natures in the world All these rules and lessons which hitherto I have delivered do concerne honestie vertue and profit but those that now remaine behinde pertaine rather to humanity and are more agreeable to mans nature For in no case would I have fathers to be verie hard sharpe and rigorous to their children but I could rather wish and desire that they winke at some faults of a yoong man yea and pardon the same when they espie them remembring that they themselves were sometimes yoong For like as Physitians mingling and tempering otherwhiles some sweetejuice or liquid with bitter drugs and medicines have devised that pleasure and delight should be the meanes and way to do their patients good Even so fathers ought to delay their eager reprehensions and cutting rebukes with kindnesse and clemencie one while letting the bridle loose and giving head a little to the youthfull desires of their children another while againe reigning them short and holding them in as hard but above all with patience gently to beare with their faults But if so be fathers cannot otherwise doe but be soone angrie then they must assoone have done and be quickly pacified For I had rather that a father should be hastie with his children so he be appeased anon then show to anger and as hard to be pleased againe For when a father is so hard harted that he will not be reconciled but carieth still in minde the offence that is done it is a great signe that he hateth his children And I hold it good that fathers somtime take not knowlege of their childrens faults and in this case make some use of hard hearing and dimme sight which old age ordinarily bringeth with it as if by reason of these infirmities they neither saw somewhat when they see well ynough nor heard that which they heare plainely We beare with the faults of friends what strange matter is it then to tolerate the imperfections of our owne children Many a time when our servants have overdrunke themselves surfeited therwith we search not too narrowly into them nor rebuke them sharply therefore keepe thy sonne one while short be franke another while and give him money to spend freely Thou hast beene highly offended and angrie with him once pardon him another time for it Hath he practised secretly with any one of thy houshold servants and beguiled thee Dissemble the matter and bridle thine yre Hath he beene at one of thy farmes met with a good yoke of oxen made money therof Commeth he in the morning to do his dutie and bid thee good morrow belching sowre and smelling strongly of wine which the day before he drunke at the taverne with companions like himselfe seeme to know nothing Senteth he of sweete perfumes and costly pomanders Hold thy peace and say nothing These are the means to tame and breake a wilde and coltish youth True it is that such as naturally be subject to wantonnesse or carnall lust and will not be reclaimed from it not give eare to those that rebuke them ought to have wives of their owne and to be yoked in marriage for surely this is the best and surest meanes to bridle those affections and to keepe them in order And when fathers are resolved upon this point what wives are they to seeke for them Surely those that are neither in blood much more noble nor in state farre wealthier than they For an old said saw it is and a wise Take a wife according to thy selfe As for those that wed women farre higher in degree or much wealthier than themselves I cannot say they be husbands unto their wives but rather slaves unto their wives goods I have yet a few short lessons to annexe unto those above rehearsed which when I have set downe I will conclude and knit up these precepts of mine Above all things fathers are to take heed that they neither commit any grosse fault nor omit any one part of their owne dutie to the end they may be as lively examples to their owne children who looking into their life as into a cleere mirrour may by the precedents by them given forbeare to do or speake any thing that is unseemely and dishonest For such fathers who reproove their children for those parts which they play themselves see not how under the name of their children they condemne their owne selves But surely all those generally who are ill livers have not the heart to rebuke so much as their owne servants much lesse dare they finde fault with their children And that which is woorst of all in living ill themselves they teach and counsell their servants and children to do the same For looke where old folke be shamelesse there must yoong people of necessitie be most graceles and impudent Endevour therfore we ought for the resormation of our children to do our selves all that our dutie requireth and heerein to imitate that noble Ladie Eurydice who being a Slavonian borne and most barbarous yet for the instruction of her owne children she tooke paines to learne good letters when she was well stept in yeeres And how kinde a mother she was to her children this Epigram which she her selfe made and dedicated to the Muses doth sufficiently testifie and declare This Cupid here of honest love a true Memoriall is Which whilom Dame Eurydice of Hierapolis To Muses nine did dedicate where by in soule and mind Conceiv'd she was in later daies and brought foorth fruit in kind For when her children were well growen good ancient Lady shee And carefull mother tooke the paines to learne the A. B. C. And in good letters did so far proceed that in the end She taught them those sage lessons which they might comprehend But now to conclude this Treatise To be able to observe and keepe all these precepts and rules together which I have before set downe is a thing haply that I may wish for rather than give advise and exhort unto Howbeit to affect and follow the greater part of them although it require a rare felicitie and singular diligence yet it is a thing that man by nature is capable of and may attaine unto HOW A YOONG MAN OVGHT TO HEARE POETS AND HOW HE MAY TAKE PROFIT BY READING POEMES The Summarie FOrasmuch as yoong students are ordinarily allured as with a baite by reading of poets in such sort as willingly they employ their time therein considering that Poësie hath I wot not what Sympathie with the first heats of this age therefore by good right this present discourse is placed next unto the former And albeit it to speake properly it pertaineth unto those onely who read ancient Poëts as well Greeke as Latin to take heede and beware how they take an impression of dangerous opinions in regard either of religion or manners yet a man may comprehend
The like and in a maner the same both did and suffered another named Theocritus the Sophister save that the punishment which he abid was much more grievous For when King Alexander the Great had by his letters missive given commandement that the Greekes should provide Robes of purple against his returne because upon his comming home he minded to celebrate a solemne sacrifice unto the Gods in token of thanksgiving for that he had atchieved a victorie over the Barbarians by reason of which commaundement the States and cities of Greece were enjoyned to contribute money by the poll Then this Theocritus I have ever to this day quoth he doubted what Homer meant by this word Purple death but now I know full well that this is the Purple death which he speaketh of By which words he incurred the high displeasure of King Alexander and made him his heavie friend ever after The same Theocritus another time procured to himselfe the deadly harted of Antigonus King of the Macedonians by reproching him in way of mockerie with his deformity and defect for that he had but one eie For the King having advaunced Eutropion his Master Cooke to aplace of high calling and commaund thought him a meete man to be sent unto Theocritus as well to give account unto him as also to take account of him reciprocally Eutropion gave him to understand so much from the King and about this businesse repaired often unto him In the end I know well quoth Theocritus thou wilt never have done untill thou have made a dish of meate of me and serve me up raw to the table before this Cyclops to be eaten twitting the King with his one eie and Eutropion with his cookerie But Eutropion came upon him againe presently and said Thou shalt be then without a head first For I will make thee pay for thy prating and foolish toong and with that he went immediately to the King and reported what he had said who made no more adoe but sent his writ and caused his head to be smitten off Over and besides all these precepts before rehearsed children ought to be inured from their very infancie in one thing which is most holy and beseeming religious education and that is to speake the truth For surely lying is a base and servile vice detestable and hatefull among all men and not pardonable so much as to meane slaves such as haue little or no good in them Now as touching all that which I have delivered and advised hitherto which concerneth the honest behaviour modestie and temperance of yoong children I have delivered the same franckly resolutely and making no doubt thereof Mary for one point which now I am to touch and handle I am not so well resolved but much distracted in my mind hanging to and fro as it were in aequall balance and know not which way to incline whether to the one side or to another Insomuch as I am in great perplexitie and feare neither wote I whether I were better to go forward and utter it or to turne backe and hold my peace And yet I will take heart and boldly declare what it is The question to be debated is this Whether we ought to permit those that love young boies to converse with them and haunt their companie or contrariwise keepe them away and debar them that they neither come neere nor have any speech with them For when I behold consider the austere nature severitie of some fathers who for feare that their sonnes should be abused wil in no wise abide that those who love them should in any sort keepe cōpanie or talke with them but thinke it intolerable I am affraid either to bring up such an order or to approove mainteine the same But when on the other side I propound before mine eies the examples of Socrates Plato Xenophon Aeschines Cebes and all the suit and sort of those woorthy men in times past who allowed the maner of loving yoong boies and by that meanes brought such youthes to learne good sciences to skill of government State matters and to frame their maners to the rule and square of vertue I am turned quite and altogither of another minde yea and inclined wholly to imitate and follow those great personages who have the testimonie of the Poet Euripides on their side saying in one place after this maner All loves do not the flesh grossly respect One love there is which doth the soule affect With justice bewtified and aequitie With innocence likewise and chastitie Neither ought we to overpasse one faying of Plato which he delivereth betweene mirth and good earnest in this wise Good reason it is quoth he that they who have done woorthy service and atchieved great prowesse and victory in a battaile be priviledged to kill whom it pleaseth them among their captives And for those who desire nothing but the bewty and fresh floure of the bodie mine opinion is they should be put backe kept away but such in one word as love of the bewrie of the minde are to be chosen admitted unto them Also I hold that such kind love is to be avoided and forbidden which they practise in Thebes and Elis as also that which in Candy they call Ravishment but that which is used in Athens and Lacedaemon we ought to receive and allow even in young and faire boies Howbeit concerning this matter every man may for me opine what he thinketh good and do as he seeth cause and can finde in his heart Moreover having sufficiently treated of the good nourture and modest behaviour of children I purpose to proceed unto the age of yoong men but first I will speake my mind 〈◊〉 once for all as touching one point For many a time I have complained of those who have brought up divers ill customes this above the rest namely to provide for their children whiles they be very yoong and little masters teachers and governors but after they are growen once to some yeeres they give them head and suffer them to be caried away with the violent heat of youth whereas contrariwise it were meet and needfull to have a more carefull eie unto them and to hold a streighter hand over them at that time than during their infancie and childhood For who knoweth not that the faults of yoong children are but small light and easie to be amended as for example some shrewdnesse and little disobedience to their tutors and governors or haply some negligence and default in not giving eare to their teachers and not doing as their Maisters appoint them But contrariwise the offences that yonkers commit are many times outragious and heinous as gourmandise and surfeting robbing of their fathers dice plaie in masks and mummeries excesse in feasting banqueting quaffing and carousing 〈◊〉 love of yoong maidens adulteries committed upon maried wives thereby the overthrow of houses and confusion of families In regard of which enormities it behooved parents to represse and bridle
of hearing and to commend deafenesse but to admonish and exhort them so long to forbeare the hearing of evill words and to take heed untill other good sayings enterteined and nourished there in long continuance of time by Philosophie had seized the place and were well setled in that part which is most easie to be mooved and perswaded by speech where being once lodged they might as good sentinels and guards preserve and defend the same Bias verily that auncient Sage being commanded by king Amasis to send ento him the best and woorst piece of a beast killed for sacrifice plucked foorth the tongue onely and sent it him giving him thus much thereby to understand That speech is the cause both of most good and also of greatest harme Many there be also who ordinarily when they kisse little children both touch their eares withall and also bid them do the like insinuating thus much covertly by way of mirth and sport That they are to love those who profit them and doe them good by their eares For this is certeine and evident that a yoong man deprived and debarred of hearing being able to taste and conceive reason will not onely become barren altogether of fruit and put out not so much as any buds and flowers at all which may give some hope of vertue but also contrariwise will soone turne to vice and send foorth of his corrupt minde many wilde and savage shoots like as a ground neglected and untilled beareth nothing but briers brambles and hurtfull weeds For the motions and inclinations unto pleasures and the sinister conceits and suspitions of paines and travels which are no strangers to us iwis entring in directly from without foorth by themselves or els let in by evill suggestions but inbred with us and the naturall sources of infinite vices and maladies if a man suffer to run on end with the raines at large whither by nature they would go and not cut them off by sage remonstrances or divert them another way and thereby reforme the default of nature surely there were not upon the face of the earth any wilde beast but would be more tame and gentle than man Forasmuch as therefore the sence of hearing bringeth unto yoong men so great profit and no lesse perill with it I suppose it were well done if a man would eftsoones both devise with himselfe and also discourse with others as touching the order and maner of hearing Forasmuch as we doe see most men in this point to offend and erre in that they exercise themselves in speaking before they were used to heare supposing that good speech requireth akinde of discipline meditation and practise ere it be learned as for hearing though men use it without any art it makes no matter how yet they may receive profit thereby as they thinke And verily albeit at Tennis play they that practise the feat thereof learne to take the ball as it commeth and also to strike and send it from them againe both at once Yet in the use of speech it is otherwise for to receive it well goeth before the utterance and deliverie thereof like as conception and retention of the seed doeth praeceed birth of the infant It is said That the egges laid by fowles called Wind-egges as they proceed of imperfect and false conceptions so they are the rudiments and beginnings of such fruits as never will quicken and have life even so The speeches that yoong men let fall such I meane as never knew how to heare nor were wont to receive profit by hearing are nothing els indeed but very winde and as the Poet saith Words vaine obscure and foolish every one Which under clouds soone vanish and be gone Certes if they would powre out any liquor out of one vessell into another they are wont to encline and turne downe the mouth of the one so as the said liquor may passe into the receptorie without shedding any part thereof least in stead of an infusion indeed there be an effusion onely and spilling of the same and yet thesemen cannot learne to be attentive and give good care unto others so as nothing do escape them which is well and profitably delivered But here is the greatest folly and most ridiculous that if they meet with one who can relate the order of a feast or great dinner discourse from point to point of a solemne shew or pompe tella tale of some dreame or make report of a quarrell and brablement betweene him and another they harken with great silence bid him say on and will not misse every circumstance Let another man draw them apart to teach them some good and profitable lesson to exhort them to their dutie to admonish and tell them of a fault to reproove them wherein they did amisse or to appease their moode when they be in choler they can not abide and indure him for either the will set in hand to argue and refute him by arguments contending and contesting against that which hath beene said if they be able so to doe or if they finde themselves too weake they slinke away and run thither where they may heare some other vaine and foolish discourses desirous to fill their eares like naughtie and rotten vessels with any thing rather then that which is good and necessarie They that would keepe and order horses well teach them to have a good mouth to reine light and to obey the bit even so they that bring up children as they ought make them obsequent and obeisant to reason by teaching them to heare much and speake little For Spintharus praising Epaminondas upon a time gave out thus much of him That he could hardly meet with another man who knew more than hee and spake lesse And it is commonly said that nature herselfe hath given to each us but one tongue and two eares because we ought to heare more than we speake Now as Silence and Taciturnitie is everie where and at all times a singular and sure ornament of a yoong man so especially if when hee heareth another man to speake he interrupt and trouble him not nor baie and barke as it were at every worde but although he do not very well like of his speech yet hath patience and forbeareth giving him leave to make an end and when he hath finished his speech setteth not upon him presently nor beginneth out of hand to confute him but suffereth him to pause a while and as Aeschines saith giveth him some time to breath and bethinke himselfe to see if haply he thinke it good to adde any more to that which hath beene delivered already or change somewhat or els retract and unsay something Whereas they that by and by cut a man off with contradictions and neither heare nor are well heard themselves but are ever replying upon other whiles they speake observe no decorum nor grace at all but shew a very undecent and unseemely behavior But he that is accustomed to heare patiently and with a modest and
Typhon but simply whatsoever in such things is out of measure extraordinary either in excesse or defect we ought to attribute it unto Typhon contrariwise all that is well disposed ordered good and profitable we must beleeve it to be the worke verily of Isis but the image example and reason of Osiris which if we honour and adore in this sort we shall not sinne or do amisse and that which more is we shall remoove and stay the unbeliefe and doubtfull scrupulosity of Eudoxus who asked the reason why Ceres had no charge and superintendance over Love matters but all that care lay upon Isis and why Bacchus could neither make the river Nilus to swell and overflow nor governe and rule the dead for if we should alledge one generall and common reason for all we deeme these gods to have beene ordeined for the portion and dispensation of good things and whatsoever in nature is good and beautifull it is by the grace and meanes of these deities whiles the one yeeldeth the first principles and the other receiveth and distributeth the same by which meanes we shall be able to satisfie the multitude and meet with those mechanicall and odious fellowes whether they delight in the change variety of the aire according to the seasons of the yere or in the procreation of fruits or in seednesse and tillings appropriating and applying therto what hath beene delivered of these gods wherein they take pleasure saying that Osiris is interred when the seed is covered in the ground that he reviveth and riseth againe to light when it beginneth to spurt And hereupon it is said that Isis when she perceiveth herselfe to be conceived and with childe hangeth about her necke a preservative the sixth day of the moneth 〈◊〉 and is delivered of Harpocrates about the Solstice of Winter being as yet unperfect and come to no maturity in the prime of the first flowers and buds which is the reason that they offer unto her the first fruits of Lentils new sprung and solemnize the feast and 〈◊〉 of her childbirth and lying in after the Aequinox of the Spring for when the vulgar sort heare this they rest therein take contentment and beleeve it straightwaies drawing a probability for beleefe out of ordinary things which are daily ready at hand And verily heerein there is no inconvenience if first and for most they make these gods common and not proper and peculiar unto the Aegyptians neither comprise Nilus onely and the land which Nilus watereth under these names nor in naming their Meeres Lakes and Lotes and the nativity of their gods deprive all other men of those great gods among whom there is neither Nilus nor Butus nor Memphis yet neverthelesse acknowledge and have in reverence the goddesse Isis and other gods about her of whom they have learned not long since to name some with the Aegyptian appellations but time out of minde they knew their vertue and power in regard whereof they have honoured and adored them Secondly which is a farre greater matter to the end they should take heed and be affraied lest ere they be aware they dissolve and dissipate these divine powers in rivers winds sowing plowing and other passions and alterations of the earth as they do who holde that Bacchus is wine Vulcan the flame of fire and Proserpina as Cleanthes said in one place the spirit that bloweth and pierceth thorow the fruits of the earth A Poet there was who writing of reapers and mowers said What time yoong men their hands to Ceres put And her with hooks and sithes by piecemeale cut And in no respect differ they from those who thinke the sailes cables cordage and anchor are the pilot or that the thred and yarne the warpe and woose be the weaver or that the goblet and potion cup the Ptisane or the Mede and honied water is the Physician But verily in so doing they imprint absurd and blasphemous opinions of the gods tending to Atheisme and impiety attributing the names of gods unto natures and things senselesse livelesse and corruptible which of necessity men use as the need them and can not chuse but marre and destroy the same For we must in no wise thinke that these very things be gods for nothing can be a god which hath no soule and is subject to man and under his hand but thereby we know that they be gods who give us them to use and for to be perdurable and sufficient not these in one place and those in another neither Barbarians nor Greeks neither Meridionall nor Septentrionall but like as the Sunne and Moone the heaven earth and sea are common unto all but yet in divers places called by sundry names even so of one and the same intelligence that ordereth the whole world of the same providence which dispenseth and governeth all of the ministeriall powers subordinate over all sundry honors and appellations according to the diversity of lawes have beene appointed And the priests and religious professed in such ceremonies use mysteries and sacraments some obscure others more plaine and evident to traine our understanding to the knowledge of the Deity howbeit not without perill and danger for that some missing the right way are fallen into superstition and others avoiding superstition as it were a bogge or quavemire have run before they could take heed upon the rocke of impiety And therefore it behoveth us in this case especially to be inducted by the direction of Philosophy which may guide us in these holy contemplations that we may woorthily and religiously thinke of every thing said and done to the end that it befall not unto us as unto Theodorus who said that the doctrine which he tendered and reached out with the right hand some of his scholars received and tooke with the left even so by taking in a wrong sense and otherwise than is meet and convenient that which the lawes have ordeined touching feasts and sacrifices we grosly offend For that all things ought to have a reference unto reason a man may see and know by themselves for celebrating a feast unto Mercurie the nineteenth day of the first moneth they eat hony and figges saying withall this Mot Sweet is the trueth As to that Phylactery or preservative which they faine Isis to weare when she is with childe by interpretation it signifieth A true voice As for Harpocrates we must not imagine him to be some yoong god and not come to ripe yeeres nor yet a man but that he is the superintendant and reformer of mens language as touching the gods being yet new unperfect and not distinct nor articulate which is the reason that he holdeth a seale-ring before his mouth as a signe and marke of taciturnity and silence Also in the moneth Mesori they present unto him certeine kindes of Pulse saying withall The tongue is Fortune The tongue is Daemon Now of all plants which Aegypt bringeth foorth they consecrate the Peach tree unto him especially because the sruit
priestresse or prophetisse who pronounced the answeres at the oracle of Apollo Pythius at Delphos who tooke that name of Python there slaine by him and lying putrified or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say To aske and demand for the resort of people thither to be resolved by him of their doubts Pythick or Pythian games were celebrated to the honour of Apollo Pythius neere the city Delphos with greate solemnity instituted first by Diomedes and yeerely renewed Q QUintus A fore name to divers Romanes Quaternary the number of Foure called likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so highly celebrated by the Pythagoreans comprising in it the proportion Epitritos whereof ariseth the musicall harmonie Diatessaron for it containeth three and the third part of three also Diplasion because it comprehendeth two duple whence ariseth the musicke diapason and Disdiapason being dubled which is an Eight the perfect harmony according to the proverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also in that it containeth all numbers within it for one two three and foure arise to Ten beyond which we cannot ascend but by repetition of former numbers Quaestors inferior officers in Rome in maner of Treasurers whose charge was to receive and lay out the cities mony and revenewes of state of which sort there were Urbani for the city it selfe Provinciales for the provinces and Castrenses for the campe and their warres Quinquertium named in Greeke Pentathlon Five exercises or feats of activity among the greeks practised at their solemne games namely launcing the dart throwing the coit running a race wrestling and leaping See Pancratium R RAdicall moisture Is the substantiall humidity in living bodies which is so united with naturall heat that the one maintaineth the other and both preserve life To Rarifie that is to say To make more subtile light and thin Rectdivation Is a relapse or falling backe into a sicknesse which was in the way of recovery and commonly is more dangerous than the former Recidiva pejor radice Regents Professours in the liberall sciences and in Philosophi a tearme usuall in the Universities Reverberation that is to say A smiting or driving backe Rhapsodie A 〈◊〉 together or conjoining of those Poems and verses especially heroicke or hexametre which before were loose and scattered such as were those of Homer when they were reduced into one entier body of Ilias and Odyssca Those Poets also who recite or pronounce such verses were tearmed Rhapsodi Rivals and Corrivals Counter-suiters or those who make love together unto one and the same woman To Ruminate that is to say To ponder and consider or revolve a thing in the minde a borrowed speech from beasts that chew the cudde S SAtyri Woodwoses or monstrous creatures with tailes yet resembling in some sort partly men women in part goats given much to venery and lasciviousnesse whereupon they had that name also to scurrill frumping and jibing for which they were also called Sileni especially when they grew aged supposed by the rurall heardmen to be the fairies or gods I would not else of the woods Satyrae or Satyrs were certaine Poems received in place of Comoedia vetus detesting and reprooving the misdemeanours of people and their vices at first by way of myrth and jest not sharpely and after a biting maner to the shame disgrace or hurt of any person such were they that Horace composed howbeit they grew afterward to more diracity and licentiousnesse noting in broad tearmes without respect all leaudnesse and sparing no degree as those were of Juvenales and Persius penning Latine poets onely handled this argument both in the one sort and the other Scammonie A medicinable plant and the juice thereof issuing out of the roote when it is wounded or cut it purgeth yellow choler strongly The same juice or liquor being concrete or thickned and withall corrected is called Dacrydium as one would say the teares destilling from the roote and is the same which the unlearned Apothecaries call Diagridium as if forsooth it were some compound like their Diaphaenicon Scelet The dead body of a man artificially dried or tanned for to be kept and seene a long time It is taken also for a dead carcasse of man or woman represented with the bones onely and ligaments Scepticke philosophers Who descended from Pyrrho so called for that they would consider of all matters in question but determine of none and in this respect they were more precise than the Academicks Scolia Were certeine songs and carols sung at feasts Scrutinie A search and properly a perusing of suffrages or voices at elections or judiciall courts for the triallor passing of any cause Secundine The skinne that enwrappeth the childe or yoong thing in the wombe in women the after-birth or later-birth in beasts the heame Senarie The number of sixe also a kinde of verse See Iambus Septimane A weeke or seven-night Also what soever falleth out upon the seventh daie moneth yeere c. as Septimanae foeturae in Arnobius for children borne at the seventh moneth after conception and Septimanae 〈◊〉 Agues returning with their fits every seventh day Serg. Sergius Forenames to certeine families in Rome Serv. Servius  Sex Sextus  Sesquialteral A proportion by which is ment that which conteineth the whole and halfe againe as 6. to 4. 12. to 8. It is also named Hemiolios Sesqui-tertian A proportion whereby is understood as much as comprehendeth the whole and one third part as 12. to 9. and the same is called 〈◊〉 Sesqui-octave That which compriseth the whole and one 8 part as 9 to 8 18 to 16 in Greeke Eptogdoos or Epogdoos Soloecisme Incongruity of speech or defect in the purity thereof It arose of those who being Athenians borne and dwelling in Soli a city in 〈◊〉 spake not pure Attick but mixt with the Solians language Solstice The Sunne-steed which is twice in the yeere in Iune December when the Sunne seemeth to stand for a while at the very point of the Tropicks either going from us or comming toward us as if hee returned from the end of his race North and South Sp. Spurius A forename to some Romanes Spasmes that is to say Crampes or painfull pluckings of the muskles and sinewes See Convulsions And Spasmaticke full of such or given thereto Sphaeres The circles or globs of the seven planets as also the compasse of the heaven above all Spissitude Thicknesse or dimnesse Spondaeus An hymne sung at sacrifices and libations Also a metricall foot in verse consisting of two long syllables whereof principally such hymnes or songs were composed Stadium A race or space of ground conteining 625. foote whereof eight make a mile consisting of a thousand paces which are five thousand foot reckoning five foot for a pace for so much commonly a man taketh at once in his pace that is to say in his stepping forward and remooving one foot before another Stoicks Certeine Philosophers whose first master
THE PHILOSOPHIE commonlie called THE MORALS WRITTEN BY the learned Philosopher PLUTARCH of Chaeronea Translated out of Greeke into English and conferred with the Latine translations and the French by PHILEMON HOLLAND of Coventrie Doctor in Physicke Whereunto are annexed the Summaries necessary to be read before every Treatise AT LONDON Printed by Arnold Hatfield 1603 TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE IAMES BY THE Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. IN this generall joy of affectionate and loyall subjects testified by their frequent confluence from all parts longing for nothing so much as the full fruition of that beautiful starre which lately upon the shutting in of the evening with us after our long Summers day immediatly by his radiant beames mainteined still a twilight from the North and within some few houres appeared bright shining above our Horizon suffering neither the dark night and confused Chaos of Anarchie to overspred and subvert nor the turbulent tempests and bloudy broiles of factious sidings to trouble and pervert our State I also for my part could not stay behinde but in testimony of semblable love and allegeance shew my selfe and withall most humbly present unto your Highnesse This Philosophie of PLUTARCH which being first naturally bred in Greece then transplanted in Italie France and other regions of the continent after sundry Nativities if I may so speake reserved not without some divine providence unto these daies is now in this our Iland newly come to light ready both to congratulate your Majesties first entrie upon the inheritance of these Kingdomes and desirous also to enjoy the benefit of that happy Horoscope and fortunate Ascendent under which it was borne even the favourable aspect of your gracious countenance by vertue whereof it may not onely be marked to long life feeble otherwise of it selfe but also yeeld pleasure with profit to the English nation Vouchsafe therefore my deere Lord and dread Soveraine to accept that now at my hands whole entire which in part Trajanus the best Romaine Emperour that ever was received sometime from the first Authour and Stock-father himselfe Protect the same in English habit whom in French attire Amiot dedicated to the late most Christian King and deigne unto her no lesse favour and grace than her yoonger sister to wit the History or Parallele Lives hath already obtained which being transported out of France into England by that woorthy Knight Sir Thomas North our countryman was patronized by our late Soveraigne Lady of famous memory Elizabet And the rather for that considering the prerogative of birth-right and the same accompanied with more variety and depth of knowledge I may be bold to pronounce as much in her commendation as the Poet wrote of Iupiter in comparison of his brother Neptune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These regards albeit they were sufficient motives in themselves to induce me for to attempt none other patronage than the Name of my Liege Lord so gracious nor so submit my labours to the censure of any person before a King so judicious yet was I more animated to enterprise the same by the former experience that I had of a Princes benignity in that behalfe what time as I consecrated my English Translation of the Romane Historie written by Titus Livius unto the immortall memory of the said Noble and renowmed Queene Now seeing that with her Realmes and Dominions the best parts and gifts that were in her be likewise haereditarily descended upon your roiall person and the same multiplied in greater measure proportionable to the dignity of sex the addition of scepters and diademes and the weighty charge of so puissant and populous an Empire it were in me a grosse absurdity if not meere impiety to make any doubt of that excellent vertue of all others whereby Princes come neerest unto the Nature of God whose Majesty heere upon earth they represent To say nothing how the world hath taken knowledge already as well by your vertuous life and politicke regiment hitherto as also by the prudent and religious designements delivered in those sage and learned Compositions of your Highnesse penning That your blessed intention is to holde on the same course still not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a point that the Indian Potentate Porus required of Alexander the Great but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the singular note that our present Author set upon all the actions of the said mighty Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Since then both these attributes concurre in your Noble person just cause have we in all devout thankefulnesse to acknowledge the goodnesse of the Almighty who from heaven above hath sent us so wise a Prince under whose reigne we if ever any Nation under the Sunne may assuredly expect that felicity and happinesse which the divine Philosopher Plato so much recommendeth and in due reverence unto your Majesty with one heart and voice both sing and say Hîc ames dici Pater atque Princeps Serus in coelum redeas tuoque Laetus intersis populo Britannûm Prime Monarcha Your Majesties most humble and obedient subject Philémon Holland A CATALOGUE CONTEINING the Titles of every Treatise in order thorow the whole worke with a direction to the page where any one of them beginneth 1 OF the Nouriture and Education of Children 1 2 How a yoong man ought to heare Poets and how he may take profit by reading Poëms 17 3 Of Hearing 51 4 Of Morall vertue 64 5 Of Vertue and Vice 78 6 That Vertue may be taught and learned 80 7 How a man may discerne a flatterer from a friend 83 8 How to Bridle Anger 117 9 Of Curiositie 133 10 Of the Tranquillitie and contentment of Mind 144 11 Of unseemly and naughty Bashfulnesse 162 12 Of Brotherly Love 173 13 Of Intemperate speech or Garrulitie 191 14 Of Avarice or Covetousnesse 208 15 Of the naturall love or kindnesse of Parents to their children 216 16 Of the Pluralitie of Friends 223 17 Of Fortune 229 18 Of Envie and Hatred 233 19 How a man may receive profit by his enemies 236 20 How a man may perceive his owne proceeding and going forward in Vertue 245 21 Of Superstition 258 22 Of Exile or Banishment 269 23 That we ought not to take up money upon Usurie 282 24 That a Philosopher ought to converse especially with princes and great Rulers and with them to discourse 288 25 How a man may praise himselfe without incurring envie or blame 300 26 What passions and maladies be wrose those of the soule or those of the body 312 27 Precepts of Wedlocke 315 28 The banquet of the seven Sages 325 29 Instructions for them that manage affaires of State 346 30 Whether an aged man ought to manage publike affaires 382 31 The Apophthegmes or Notable Sayings of Kings Princes and great Captaines 401 32 Laconicke Apophthegmes or the notable sayings of Lacedaemonians 445 33 The Apophthegmes
that is to say the notable sayings and answers of Lacedaemonian Dames 479 34 The vertuous deeds of Women 482 35 A Consolatorie oration sent nnto APOLLONIUS upon the death of his sonne 509 36 A Consolatorie letter or discourse sent unto his owne Wife as touching the death of her and his daughter 533 37 How it commeth that the divine Justice differreth otherwhiles the punishment of wicked persons 538 38 That Brute beasts have discourse of reason in maner of a Dialogue named Gryllus 561 39 Whether it be lawfull to eate flesh or no the former oration or treatise 571 Of eating flesh the second Declamation 576 40 That a man cannot live pleasantly according to the doctrine of EPICURUS 580 41 Whether this common Mot be well said LIVE HIDDEN or So LIVE as no man may know thou livest 605 42 Rules and precepts of health in maner of a Dialogue 609 43 Of the Romans fortune 627 44 The Symposiacks or table Questions The first booke 641 Of Symposiacks the second booke 661 Of Symposiacks the third booke 680 Of Symposiacks the fourth booke 698 Of Symposiacks the fift booke 713 Of Symposiacks the sixt booke 729 Of Symposiacks the seventh booke 742 Of Symposiacks the eight booke 764 Of Symposiacks the ninth booke 785 45 The opinions of Philosophers 802 Of Philosophers opinions the first booke 804 Of Philosophers opinions the second booke 817 Of Philosophers opinions the third booke 826 Of Philosophers opinions the fourth booke 833 Of Philosophers opinions the fift booke 841 46 Romane Questions 850 47 Demaunds or questions as touching Greeke affaires 888 48 The Parallels or a briefe Collation of Romane narrations with the semblable reported of the Greeks 906 49 The Lives of the ten Oratours 918 50 Narrations of Love 944 51 Whether creatures be more wise they of the land or those of the water 949 52 Whether the Athenians were more renowmed for Martiall Armes or good Letters 981 53 Whether of the twaine is more profitable Fire or Water 989 54 Of the Primitive or first Cold. 992 55 Naturall Questions 1002 56 Platonique Questions 1016 57 A commentary of the Creation of the soule which PLATO desoribeth in his booke Timaeus 1030 58 Of fatall Necessitie 1048 59 A Compendious Review or Discourse That the Stoicks deliver more strange opinions than doe the Poëts 1055 60 The Contradictions of Stoicke Philosophers 1057 61 Of Common Conceptions against the Stoicks 1081 62 Against COLOTES the Epicurean 1109 63 Of Love 1130 64 Of the Face appearing within the Roundle of the Moone 1159 65 Why the prophetesse PYTHIA giveth no answer now from the Oracle in verse or Meeter 1185 66 Of the Daemon or familiar spirit of SOCRATES 1202 67 Of the Malice of HERODOTUS 1227 68 Of Musicke 1248 69 Of the Fortune or vertue of king ALEXANDER the first Oration 1263 Of the Fortune or vertue of K. ALEXANDER the second Oration 1272 70 Of Is is and OSIRIS 1286 71 Of the Oracles that have Ceased to give answere 1320 72 What signifieth this word EI engraven over the Dore of APOLLOES Temple in the City of DELPHI 1351 OF THE NOVRITVRE AND EDVCATION OF CHILDREN The Summarie THe very title of this Treatise discovereth sufficiently the intention of the authour and whosoever he was that reduced these Morals and mixt works of his into one entire volume was well advised and had great reason to range this present Discourse in the first and formost place For unlesse our minds be framed unto vertue from our infancie impossible it is that we should performe any woorthy act so long as we live Now albeit Plutarch as a meere Pagane hath both in this booke and also in others ensuing where he treateth of vertues and vices left out the chiefe and principall thing to wit The Law of God and his Trueth wherein he was altogether ignorant yet neverthelesse these excellent precepts by him deliuered like raies which proceed from the light of nature remaining still in the spirit and soule of man aswell to leaue sinners inexcusable as to shew how happie they be who are guided by the heauenly light of holy Scripture are able to commence action against those who make profession in word how they embrace the true and souereigne Good but in deed and effect do annihilate as much as lieth in them the power and efficacie thereof Moreover in this Treatise he proveth first of all That the generation of infants ought in no wise to be defamed with the blot either of adulterie or drunkennesse Then he entreth into a discourse of their education and after he hath shewed that Nature Reason Vsage ought to concurre in their instruction he teacheth how by whom they should be nurtured brought up and taught where he reproveth sharply the slouth ignorance and avarice of some fathers And the better to declare the extelleneie of these benefits namely goodinstruction knowledge and vertue which the studie of philosophie doth promise and teach he compareth the same with all the greatest goods of the world and so consequently setteth downe what vices especially they are to shun and avoid who would be capable of sincere and true literature But before he proceedeth further he describeth and limiteth how farforth children well borne and of good parentage should be urged and forced by compulsion disciphering briefly the praises of morall philosophie and concluding withall That the man is blessed who is both helpfull to his neighbour as it becommeth and also good unto himselfe All these points aboverehearsed when he hath enriched and embelished with similitudes examples apophihegmes and such like ornaments he propoundeth diuers rules pertinent to the Institution of yoong children which done he passeth from tender child-hood to youthfull age shewing what gouernment there ought to be of yoong men farre from whom he banisheth and chaseth flatterers especially and for a finall conclusion discourseth of the kinde behauior of fathers and the good example that they are to giue unto their children THE EDVCATION OF CHILDREN FOrasmuch as we are to consider what may be sayd as touching the education of children free borne and descended from gentle blood how and by what discipline they may become honest and vertuous we shall perhaps treat hereof the better if we begin at their very generation and nativitie First and formost therefore I would advise those who desire to be the fathers of such children as may live another day in honour and reputation among men not to match themselves and meddle with light women common courtisans I meane or private concubines For a reproch this is that followeth a man all the dayes of his life and a shamefull staine which by no meanes can be fetched out if haply he be not come of a good father or good mother neither is there any one thing that presenteth it selfe more readily unto his adversaries and sooner is in their mouth when they are disposed to checke taunt and revile than to twit him with such parentage In which
faint and weake which is not brought to great strength and perfection in the end by continual travell and ordinary exercises Are there any horses in the world which if they be well handled and broken while they are colts will not proove gentle in the end and suffer themselves easily to be mounted and manned Contrariwise let them remaine untamed in their youth strong-headed stiffenecked and unruly will they be alwaies after and never fit for service And why should we marvell at these and such like matters considering that many of the most savage and cruell beasts that be are made gentle and familiar yea and brought to hand by labour and paines taken about them Well said therefore that Thessalian whosoever he was who being demaunded which Thessalians of all others were most dull and softest of spirit Answered thus Even they that have given over warfare But what need we to stand longet upon this point For certaine it is that out manners and conditions are qualities imprinted in us by tract and continuance of time and whosoever saith that Morall vertues are gotten by custome in my conceit speaketh not amisse but to very great purpose And therefore with one example and no more produced by Lycurgus as touching this matter I will knit up and conclude my discourse thereof Lycurgus him I meane who established the lawes of the Lacedaemonians tooke two whelpes of one licter and comming both from the same sire and damme Those he caused to be nourished and brought up diversly and unlike one to the other that as the one prooved a greedie and ravenous curre and full of shrewd turnes so the other was given to hunting and minded nothing but to quest and follow the game Now upon a certaine day afterwards when the Lacedaemonians were met together in a frequent assembly he spake unto them in this manner My Masters citizens of Lacedaemon Of what importance to engender vertue in the hart of man custome nourture discipline and education is I will presently shew unto you by an evident demonstration and with that he brought foorth in the sight of them all those two whelpes and set directly before them a great platter of sops in broth and therewith let loose also a live hare but behold one of them followed immediately after the hare but the other ranne straight to slap in the platter aforesaid The Lacedaemonians wist not what to make of this nor to what purpose he shewed unto them these two dogs before said untill he brake out into this speech These two dogs quoth he had one damme and 〈◊〉 same sire but being bred and brought up diversly See how the one is become a greedy gut and the other a kinde hound And thus much may serve as touching custome and diversitie of education It were meete now in the next place to treat of the feeding and nourishing of infants newly borne I hold it therefore convenient that mothers reare their babes and suckle them with their owne breasts For feede them they will with greater affection with more care and diligence as loving them inwardly and as the proverbe saith from their tender nailes whereas milch nources and fostermothers carie not so kinde a hart unto their nourcelings but rather a fained and counterfet affection as being mercenarie and loving them indeed for hire onely and reward Furthermore even nature her selfe is sufficient to proove that mothers ought to suckle and nourish those whom they have borne and brought into the world For to this end hath she given to every living creature that bringeth foorth yoong the foode of milke and in great wisedome the divine providence hath furnished a woman with two teats for this purpose that if happily she should be delivered of two twinnes at once she might have likewise two fountaines of milke to yeeld nourishment for them both Moreover by this meanes more kinde and loving they will be unto their children and verily not without great reason For this fellowship in feeding together is a bond that knitteth or rather a wrest that straineth and stretcheth benevolence to the utmost The experience whereof we may see even in the very brute and wilde beasts which hardly are parted from their companie with whom they have beene nourished but still they lowe and mowe after them Mothers therefore as I have said ought especially to endevour and do their best for to be nources of their owne children if it be possible But in case they cannot by reason either of some bodily infirmitie and indisposition that way for so it may fall out or that they have a desire and do make hast to be with childe againe and to have more children then a carefull eie and good regard would be had not to entertaine those for nources and governesses that come next to hand but to make choise of the very best and most honest that they can come by and namely for faire conditions and good behavior to choose Greekish women before any other For like as the members and limmes of little infants so soone as ever they be borne are of nccessitie to be formed and fashioned that afterwards they may grow straight and not crooked even so at the very first their harts and manners ought to be framed and set in order For this first age of childhood is moist and soft apt to receive any impression whiles the heart is tender every lesson may be soone instilled into it and quickly will take hold whereas hard things are not so easie to be wrought and made soft And as signets or seales will quickly set a print upon soft wax so the tender hearts of yoong children take readily the impression of whatsoever is taught them In which regard Plato that heavenly and divine Philosopher seemeth unto me to have given a wise admonition for nources when he warned them not to tell foolish tales nor to use vaine speeches inconsiderately in the hearing of yoong infants for feare least at the first their minds might apprehend folly and conceive corrupt opinions Semblably the Poët Phocylides seemeth to deliver sage counsaile in this behalfe when he saith A child of yoong and tender age Ought to be taught things good and sage Neither is this precept in any wise to be forgotten or passed by That other children also who are either to attend upon them whiles they be nourced and brought up or to beare them companie and be fedde together with them be chosen such as above all things are well mannered and of good conditions Then that they speake the Greeke toong naturally and pronounce the same most plainely and distinctly for feare least if they sort with such feeres as either in language are barbarous or in behaviour leawd and ungratious they catch infection from them and be stained with their vices For such old sawes and proverbes as these are not so rise without good reason If thou converse and cohebite with a lame creaple thou wilt soone learne to limpe and halt thy selfe Now when
children be growen to that age wherin they are to be committed unto the charge of Tutors Schoolemasters and governors then parents ought to have an especial care of their state namely under whom they set them to be trained up least for want of good providence and foresight they betray them into the hands of some vile slaves base barbarians vaine and light-headed persons For most absurd and ridiculous is the practise of many men in this point who if they have any servants more vertuous or better disposed than others some of them they appoint to husbandry and tillage of their ground others they make Masters of their ships They employ them I say either in merchandise to be their factours or as stewards of their house to receive and pay all or else to be banquers and so they trust them with the exchaunging and turning of their monies But if they meete with one slave among the rest that useth to be cupshotten given to gluttony belly cheere or otherwise is untoward for any good service him they set over their children to bring them up Whereas indeed a governour over youth should be wel given of a right good nature himselfe such an one as Phoenix was who had the breeding and education of Achilles The principal point therfore and most important of all that hitherto hath bene alledged is this That choise men be sought out for to be teachers masters of our children who live in good name and without challenge whose cariage and behaviour is blameles who for their knowledge experience of the world are the best that may be found For surely the source roote of all goodnes and honesty is the good education and training up of our children in their tender age And like as good husbandmen and gardeners are woont to pitch props stakes close unto their yong plants to stay them up and keepe them streight even so discreete and wise teachers plant good precepts and holesome instructions round about their yoong schollers to the end that thereby their manners may bud foorth commendably and be framed to the rule of vertue But contrariwise you shall have some fathers now adaies that deserve no better than to be spit at in their very faces who either upon ignorance or for want of experience before any triall made of those masters who are to have the conduct and charge of their children commit them hand over head to the tuition of lewd persons and such as beare shew and make profession of that which they are not Neither were this absurditie altogether so grosse and ridiculous if so be they faulted herein of meere simplicitie default of foreknowledge But here is the heights of their folly and errour that themselves knowing otherwhiles the insufficiencie yea and the naughtines of some such Masters better than they doe who advertise them thereof yet for all that they commit their children unto them partly being overcome by the slatterie of claw-backes and partly willing to gratifie some friends upon their kinde and earnest entreatie Wherein they do much like for all the world to him who lying verie sicke in bodie for to content and satisfie a friend leaveth an expert and learned physition who was able to cure him and entertaineth another blind leech who for want of skill and experience quickly killeth him or else unto one who being at sea forgoeth an excellent pilot whom he knoweth to be very skilfull and for the love of a friend maketh choise of another that is most insufficient O Iupiter and all the gods in Heaven Is it possible that a man bearing the name of a father should make more account of a friends request than of the good education of his owne children Which considered had not that ancient Philosopher Crates 〈◊〉 you just occasion to say oftentimes that if possibly he might he would willingly mount to the highest place of the citie and there crie out aloud in this manner What meane you my Masters and whether runne you headlong carking and caring all that ever you can to gather goods and rake riches together as you do whiles in the mean time you make little or no reckoning at all of your children unto whom you are to leave all your wealth To which exclamation of his I may adde thus much moreover and say That such fathers are like unto him that hath great regard of his shoe but taketh no heed unto his foor And verily a man shall see many of these fathers who upon a covetous minde and a cold affection toward their owne children are growen to this passe that for to spare their purse and ease themselves of charge chuse men of no woorth to teach them which is as much as to seeke a good market where they may buy ignorance cheapest Certes Aristippus said verie well to this purpose when upon a time he pretily mocked such a father who had neither wit nor understanding and jibed pleasantly with him in this maner For when he demaunded of him how much he would take for the training up and teaching of his sonne He answered An hundred crownes A hundred crownes quoth the father by Hercules I sweare you aske too much out of the way For with a hundred crownes I could buy a good slave True quoth Aristippus againe Lay out this hundred crownes so you may have twaine your sonne for one and him whom you buy for the other And is not this a follie of all foliies that nourses should use their yoong infants to take meate and feed themselves with the right hand yea and rebuke them if haply they put foorth their left and not to forecast and give order that they may learne civility and heare sage holesom instructions But what befalleth afterward to these good fathers when they have first noursed their children badly then taught them as lewdly Mary I will tell you When these children of theirs are growne to mans estate and will not abide to heare of living orderly and as it becommeth honest men but contrariwise fall headlong into outragious courses and give themselves wholy to sensuality and servile pleasures Then such fathers all repent for their negligence past in taking no better order for their education but all too late considering no good ensueth thereupon but contrariwise the lewd prancks which they commit daily augment their griefe of heart and cause them to languish in sorrow For some of them they see to keepe companie with flatterers parasites and smell feasts the lewdest basest and most cursed wretches of all other who serve for nothing but to corrupt spoile and marre youth Others to captivate and spend themselves upon harlots queanes and common strumpets proud and sumptuous in expence the entertainment of whom is infinitly costly Many of them consume all in delicate fare and feeding a daintie and fine tooth Many of them fall to dice and with mumming and masking hazard all they have And divers of them againe entangle themselves
sight neither seemely nor decent Some painters you shall have to delight in painting of strange foolish and absurd actions as for example Timomachus represented in a table the picture of Medea killing her owne children Theon painted Orestes murthering his owne mother Parrhasius described with his pensill the counterfeit race and madnesse of Vlisses and Charephanes purtrayed the wanton dalliance and dealing of men and women together unseemely With which arguments and such like a yoong man is to be made acquainted that he may learne thereby how the thing it selfe is not praise woorthie where of he seeth the expresse resemblance but the art and cunning of the workeman who could so artificially draw the same to the life Semblably for asmuch as Poësie representeth many times by way of imitation filthie actions leaud affections and vicious manners it is the part of a yoong man to know thus much That the thing which is admired therein and found to be singular he ought not either to receive as true or proove as good but to praise it so far foorth onely as it is befitting the person or appropriate to the subject matter For like as when we heare the grunting of a swine the creaking of a cart wheele the whistling noise of the winde or the roaring of the sea we take no pleasure therein but are troubled and discontented but contrariwise if a merie fellow or jester can pretily counterfeit the same as one Parmeno could grunt like a swine and Theodorus creake like the said wheeles we are delighted therewith Also as we shun a diseased person and a Lazar full of filthy ulcers as an unpleasant and hideous spectacle to beholde but when we looke upon Philactetes purtraied by Aristophon and queene Iocasta by Stlanian namely how they be described to pine away and ready to yeeld up the ghost we receive no small contentment thereby even so a yoong man when hee shall reade what the ridiculous jester Thersites or the amorous and wanton spoiler of maiden Sisyphus or the beastly bawd Betrochus is brought in by Poets to say or doe let him be advertised and instructed to praise the art and sufficiencie of the Poet who knew how to paint the same so lively and naturally but withall to blame reject and detest the acts and conditions which are thus represented For there is a great difference betweene resembling a thing well and a thing that is simply good for when I say Well I meane aptly decently and properly and so acts filthie and dishonest are fit and beseeming for lewd and unhonest persons For the shoes of that lame creple Demonides which he prayed to God might serve his feet that had stollen them from him were in themselves misshapen and ilfavoured howbeit proper and fit for him As for this speech If lawes of right and equitie In any case may broken be What man alive would not begin To do all wrong a crowne to win And this Put on the face I thee advise Of him that is just and right wise But see no deeds thou do for let Whereby thou must some profit get Also Vnlesse I may may talent gaine As clere as gift I am in paine Likewise How shall I live or take repose In case this talent I do lose Nay sleepe I will and feare no bell Nor torments there but thinke all well What wrong I do what plots I set My silver talent for to get Wicked words they be all and most false howbeit beseeming such as Eteocles and Ixion were and becomming well an olde Vsurer If therefore wee would aduertise yoong men that Poets write thus not as if they praised and allowed such speeches but as they know full well that they be lewd and naughtie so they do attribute them unto as wicked and godlesse persons they should never take harme by any evill impressions from Poets but contrariwise the prejudicate opinion insinuated first of such such a man will presently breed a suspition both of word and deed to be bad as spoken and done by a bad and vicious person Such an example is that of Paris in Homer who flying out of the battell went presently to bed unto faire Helena For seeing that the Poet reporteth of no man els but only of this unchast adulterous Paris that he lay with his wife in the day time it is an evident proofe that he reputed and judged such incontinencie to be reprochfull and therefore made report thereof to his blame and shame both In these cases also it would be well considered whether the Poët himselfe do not give some plaine demonstrations emplying thus much that he misliketh such speeches and is offended therewith as Menander did in the Prologue of that Comedie which he entituled Thais O ladie Muse now belpe me to endite Of this so bolde and unshame faced queane Yet beautifull who also hath a sprite Perswasive and with words can carie cleane The wrongs that she unto her lovers all Doth offer whom she shutteth out of dores And yet for gifts she still of them doth call And picks their purse which is the cast of whores She none doth love and yet she semblance makes That die she will poore heart for all their sakes And verily in this kinde Homer among all other Poëts doth excell and useth such advertisements with best discretion for it is ordinarie with him both to premise some reprehension and blame of evill speeches and also to recommend the good And for an instance heereof in this wise he giveth commendation of a good speech And then anon this speech right commendable He spake which was both sweet and profitable Againe Approching then he stood unto him nere And stated him soone with words that gentle were Semblably on the other side reprooving bad and lewd speeches he in a maner doth protest that he himselfe misliketh of them and therewith denounceth likewise and doth intimate unto the readers thus much in effect That they should make no use thereof nor take regard otherwise than of wicked things and dangerous examples as namely when he purposed to describe the rude and grosse termes that Agamemon gave unto the Priest of Apollo when he abused him unreverently he premised this before This nothing pleased Atreus sonne K. Agamemnon hight But him he badly did intreat and use with all despight By this word Badly he meaneth rudely proudly disdainfully without regard of dutie or decencie As for Achilles he attributeth unto him these rash and outragious speeches Thou drunken sot and dogs-face that thou art Thou courage hast no more then fearfull Hart. But he inferred withall his owne judgement as touching those words in this maner Achilles then sir Peleus sonne still boiling in his blood Gave Agamemnon words againe unseemely and not good For it is not like that any thing could be well and decently spoken proceeding from such anger and bitter choler he observeth the same not in words onely but also in deeds For thus he saith No sooner had he spoke
souldiers to fight when the Poet estsoones inferreth these and such like speeches Fy fy for shame ô Lycians you are now light of foote To runne away thus as you do iwis it will not boote Also A conflict sharpe is toward Sirs wherefore let every one Set shame and just revenge in sight else all I doubt is gone By which words the Poet seemeth to ascribe fortitude vnto shamefastnesse and modestie For that those who are bashfull and ashamed to commit filthinesse are able likewise not onely to overcome voluptuous pleasures but also to undergoe all daungerous adventures By occasion whereof Timotheus also in his Poeme entituled Persa was mooved not unaptly to encourage the Greekes fight saying thus Have honest shame in reverence and honour her I you advise She helpeth Prowesse and from hence the victorie doth oft arise AEschylus also reputeth it a point of wisedome not to be vaine glorious nor desirous to be seene of the multitude ne yet to be lifted up with the puffes of popular praise when he describeth Amphiaraus in this wise He seeketh not to seeme the very best But for to be the best in word and deed He sowed hath within his woorthy brest In furrow deepe all good and vertuous seed Which yeeld both leafe fruit in season due I meane sage counsel join'd with honor true For the part it is of a wise man and of good conceit to stand upon his owne botome that is to say to rest in himselfe and to thinke highly of his owne resolutions and courses as the verie best Thus you see how all good things being reduced unto prudence there is no kinde of vertue but it commeth to a man afterwards and is acquired by learning and discipline Moreover like as Bees have this propertie by nature to finde and sucke the mildest and best honie out of the sharpest and most eager flowers yea and from among the roughest and most prickly thornes even so children and yoong men if they be well nourtuted and orderly inured in the reading of Poemes will learne after a sort to draw alwaies some holesome and profitable doctrine or other even out of those places which moove suspition of lewd and absurd sense At the first sight Agamemnon may seeme suspected of avarice and briberie in that he exempted from warfare that rich man in regard of the faire mare Aetha he gave unto him as a gift and gratuitie That unto Troy that stately towne he might not with him go To serve in armes but stay at home and rest there far from wo Where he might live in solace much enjoying all his owne For Iupiter in measure great had wealth on him bestowen Howbeit as Aristotle saith he did very well in preferring a good mare before a man no better than he was For I assure you a coward hartlesse man flowing in abundance of riches wallowing in pleasures and delight and thereby made effeminate is not in prise comparable either to a dog or an asse Semblaby it may seeme that Thetis did exceeding badly to incite her sonne to pleasures and to put him in minde of the fleshly delights of Venus But even there the continencie of Achilles is woorthie to be considered who notwithstanding that he had beene enamoured of Briseis and saw that she was returned againe unto him yea and knew that he had not long to live but that his end was neere yet neither made he haste to enjoy his pleasures while he might nor as many men use to do bewailed the death of his friend sitting idlely the while doing nothing at all and neglecting the duties of his calling but as in sorrow and griefe of heart he forbare his delights and pleasures so in action and conduct of his regiment he shewed himselfe a martiall and valorous man In like manner Archilochus is not commended for this that being to mourne and lament for the losse of his brother in law who married his sister and was perished in the sea he would seeme to conquer his sorow with drinking wine making good cheere yet neverthelesse he alleageth a cause of his doing so which carrieth some apparence of reason in these words For neither can my plaints and teares restore his life and heale Ne yet my mirth and pleasant sports will harme him euer a deale And if he were of this minde and had reason to thinke that in following his delights meriments pastimes and bankets he could not empaire the state of his brother departed how should our present condition be the worse and our affaires go backward by the studie and practise of Philosophie by managing the government of publike weale by frequenting the cōmon hall and courts of pleas by going downe to the Academie and schooles of learning or by following Agriculture and husbandrie And therefore the corrections of some poeticall verses by changing certaine words which practise Cleanthes and Antisthenes were woont to use are not amisse For one of them upon a time when the Athenians in full Theatre tooke offense and made a great stirre at this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What filthy thing can be that breedeth shame Vnlesse they thinke it so that use the same quieted all the trouble presently by changing it and pronouncing another in this wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A filthie thing is soule and filthie still Thinke it or thinke it not That doth not skill As for Cleanthes when he read these verses as touching riches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among good frends for to be slow and spend upon your selfe Your sickly body to preserve thus use your worldly pelfe He altered them in this manner and wrote thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you may it to harlots give and pampring much your selfe A crasit body overthrow abusing worldly pelfe Semblaby Zeno reading these verses of Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who once in court of Tyrant serve become His slaves anone though free they thither come turned the same and wrote this againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His slave ywis he cannot bec If he at first came thither free But you must not understand that he meaneth here by a free man one that is timorous but fearelesse magnanimous whose heart is not easie to be danted What should hinder us then but that we also by such suggestions and corrections as these may reclaime and withdraw yoong men from the woorse to the better Whereas therefore we shall meete with these verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The thing that men are for to wish and most desire is this That when they shoote at their delights the arrow may not mis. Not so but rather thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That when they aime at their profit The arrow may be sure to hit For to reach into those things which a man ought not to desire yea and to obtaine and have the same is pitifull and
or debarre shooting for that we may overshoot and misse the marke or to condemne hearing of musicke because a discord or jarre is offensive to the eare For like as in sounds musicke maketh an accord and harmonie not by taking away the loud and base notes And in our bodies Physicke procureth health not by destroying heat and cold but by a certaine temperature and mixture of them both in good proportion Even so it fareth in the soule of man wherein reason hath the predominance and victorie namely when by the power thereof the passions perturbations and motions are reduced into a kind of moderation and mediocritie For no doubt excessive sorrow and heavines immeasurable joy and gladnesse in the soule may be aptly compared to a swelling and inflammation in the body but neither joy nor sorrow simply in it selfe And therefore Homer in this wise sentence of his Aman of woorth doth never colour change Exce ssive feare in him is verie strange doth not abolish feare altogether but the extremitie thereof to the end that a man should not thinke that either valour is desperate follie or confidence audacious temeritie And therefore in pleasures and delights we ought likewise to cut off immoderate lust as also in taking punishment extreme hatred of malefactours He that can do so shall be reputed in the one not indolent but temperate and in the other not bitter and cruell but just and righteous Whereas let passions be rid cleane away if that were possible to be done our reason will be found in many things more dull and idle like as the pilot and master of a ship hath little to do if the winde be laid and no gale at all stirring And verily as it should seeme wise Law-makers seeing this well enough have with great policie given occasion in cities and common-wealths of Ambition and Emulation among citizens one with another and in the field against enemies devised to excite the courage of souldiours and to whet their ire and manhood by sound of trumpets fifes diums and other instruments For not onely in Poetrie as Plato saith verie well he that is inspired and as it were ravished with the divine instinct of the Muses wil make a rediculous foole of him who otherwise is an excellent Poët and his crafts-master as having learned the exquisite knowledge of the art but also in battels the heat of courage set on fire with a certaine divine inspiration is invincible and cannot be withstood This is that martiall furie which as Homer saith the gods do infuse or inspire rather into warlike men Thus having said he did in spire The Princes heart with might andire And againe One god or other surely doth him assist Else faring thus he never could persist As if to the discourse of reason they had adjoined passion as a pricke to incite and a chariot to set it forward Certes even these verie Stoicks with whom now we argue and who seeme to reject all passions we may see oftentimes how they stirre up yoong men with praises and as often rebuke them with sharpe admonitions and severe reprehensions Whereof there must needs ensue of the one part pleasure and of the other part displeasure For surely checkes and fault-findings strike a certaine repentance and shame of which two the former is comprised under sorrow and the latter under feare and these be the meanes that they use principally to chastice and correct withall Which was the reason that Diogenes upon a time when he heard Plato so highly praised and extolled And what great and woorthy matter quoth he finde you in that man who having been a Philosopher so long taught the precepts thereof hath not in all this time greeved and wounded the heart of any one person For surely the Mathematicall sciences a man cannot so properly call the eares or handles of Philosophie to use the words of Xenocrates as he may affirme that these affections of yoong men to wit bashfulnesse desire repentance pleasure and paine are their handles whereof reason and law together taking hold by a discreet apt and holesome touch bring a yoong man speedily and effectually into the right way And therefore the Lacedaemonian schoolemaster and governour of children said verie well when he professed that he would bring to passe that the child whom he tooke into his tuition should joy in honest things and grieve in those that were fould and dishonest Then which there cannot possibly be named a more woorthy or commendable end of the liberall education and bringing up of a yoong youth well descended OF VERTVE AND VICE The Summarie IN this little treatise adjoyned aptly unto the former the Author prooveth that outward and corruptible things be not they that set the soule in repose but reason well ruled and governed And after that he hath depainted the miserable estate of wicked and sinfull persons troubled and tormented with their passions both night and day he prooveth by proper and apt similitudes that philosophie together with the love of vertue bringeth true contentment and happinesse indeed unto a man OF VERTVE AND VICE IT seemeth and commonly it is thought that they be the garments which do heat a man and yet of themselves they neither doe heat nor bring any heat with them for take any of them apart by it selfe you shall finde it colde which is the reason that men being verie hote and in a fit of a fever love often to change their clothes for to coole and refresh their bodies But the trueth is this Looke what heat a man doth yeeld from himselfe the clothes or garments that cover the body do keepe in the same and unite close together and being thus included and held in suffer it not to evapotate breathe out and vanish away The same errour in the state of this life hath deceived many man who imagine that if they may dwell in stately and gorgeous great houses be attended upon with a number of servants retaine a sort of slaves and can gather together huge summes of golde and silver then they shall live in joy and pleasure wheteas in verie sooth the sweete and joifull life proceedeth not from any thing without But contrariwise when a man hath those goodly things about him it is himselfe that addeth a pleasure and grace unto them even from his owne nature and civill behaviour composed by morall vertue within him which is the very fountaine and lively spring of all good contentment For if the fire do alwaies burne out light More stately is the house and faire in sight Semblably riches are more acceptable glorie hath the better and more shining lustre yea and authoritie carieth the greater grace if the inward joy of the soule be joined therewith For surely men doe endure povertie exile and banishment out of their owne countries yea and beare the burden of olde age willingly and with more ease according as their maners be milde and the minde disposed to meeknesse And like as sweet odours
withall when it is received they have a power and facultie by a milde heat of the naturall spirits within them and with a delicate and foeminine tendernesse to concoct digest change and convert it into another nature and qualitie for that the paps have within them naturally the like temperature and disposition answerable unto it now these teats which spout out milke from the cocks of a conduct are so framed and disposed that it floweth not foorth all at once neither do they send it away suddenly but nature hath so placed the dug that as it endeth one way in a spongeous kinde of flesh full of small pipes and made of purpose to transmit the milke and let it distill gently by many little pores and secret passages so it yeeldeth a nipple in maner of a faucet very fit and ready for the little babes mouth about which to nuzzle and nudgell with it prety lips it taketh pleasure and loveth to be tugging and lugging of it but to no purpose and without any fruit or profit at all had nature provided such tooles and instruments for to engender and bring foorth a childe to no end I say had she taken so good order used so great industry diligence and forecast if withall she had not imprinted in the heart of mothers a woonderfull love and affection yea and an extraordinarie care over the fruit of their wombe when it is borne into the world for Of creatures all which breath and walke upon the earth in sight None is there wretched more than man new borne into this light And whosoever saith thus of a yoong infant newly comming forth of the mothers wombe maketh no lie at all but speaketh trueth for nothing is there so imperfect so indigent and poore so naked so deformed so foule and impure than is man to see to presently upon his birth considering that to him in maner alone nature hath not given so much as a cleane passage and way into this light so furred he is all over polluted with blood so ful of filth and ordure when he entreth into the world resembling rather a creature fresh killed slaine than newly borne that no bodie is willing to touch to take up to handle dandle kisse and clip it but such as by nature are lead to love it and therefore whereas in all other living creatures nature hath provided that their udders and paps should be set beneath under their bellies in a woman onely she hath seated them aloft in her breasts as a very proper and convenient place where shee may more readily kisse embrace coll and huggle her babe while it sucketh willing thereby to let us understand that the end of breeding bearing and rearing children is not gaine and profit but pure love and meere affection Now if you would see this more plainly proved unto you propose if you please and call to remembrance the women and men both in the olde world whose hap was either first to beare children or to see an infant newly borne there was no law then to command and compell them to nourish and bring up their yoong babes no hope at all of reciprocall pleasure or thanks at their hands that indured them no expectance of reward and recompense another day to be paied from them as due debt for their care paines and cost about them nay if you goe to that I might say rather That mothers had some reason to deale hardly with their yoong infants and to beare in minde the injuries that they have done them in that they endured such dangers and so great paines for them As namely when the painfull throwes as sharpe as any dart In travell pinch a woman neere and pierce her to the hart Which midwives Iunoes daughtersthen do put her to poore wretch With many a pang when with their hand they make her body stretch But our women say It was never Homerus surely who wrote this but Homeris rather that is to say some Poetresse or woman of his poeticall veine who had bene herselfe at such a busines and felt the dolourous pangs of child-birth or els was even then in labour and upon the point to be delivered feeling a mixture of bitter and sharpe throwes in her backe belly and flanks when shee powred out these verses but yet for all the sorow and deare bargaine that a mother hath of it this kinde and naturall love doth still so bend incline and leade her that notwithstanding she be in a heat still upon her travell full of paines and after-throwes panting trembling and shaking for very anguish yet she neglecteth not her sweet babe nor windeth or shrinketh away from it but she turneth toward it she maketh to it she smileth and laugheth upon it she taketh it into her armes she hugleth it in her bosome and kisseth it full kindly neither all this whiles gathereth she any fruits of pleasure or profit but painfully God wot and carefully She laps it then in raggs full soft With swadling bands shewraps it oft By turnes she cooles and keeps it warme Loth is she that it should take harme And thus aswell by night as day Paives after paines she taketh ay Now tell me I pray you what reward recompense and profit do women reape for all this trouble and painfull hand about their little ones None at all surely for the present and as little in future expectance another day considering their hopes are so farre off and the same so uncertaine The husbandman that diggeth and laboureth about his vine at the Acquinox in the Spring presseth grapes out of it and maketh his vintage at the Aequinox of the Autumne He that soweth his corne when the starres called Pleiades doe couch and goe downe reapeth and hath his harvest afterwards when they rise and appeare againe kine calve mares foale hennes hatch and soone after there commeth profit of their calves their colts and their chickens but the rearing and education of a man is laborious his growth is very slow and late and whereas long it is ere he commeth to proofe and make any shew of vertue commonly most fathers die before that day Neocles lived not to see the noble victorie before Salanus that Themistocles his sonue atchived neither saw Miltiades the happie day wherein Cimon his sonne won the fielde at the famous battell neere the river Eurynidon Xantippus was not so happy as to heare Pericles his sonne out of the pulpit preaching and making orations to the people neither was it the good fortune of Ariston to be at any of his sonne Platoes lectures and disputations in Philosophie the fathers of Euripides and Sophocles two renowmed Poets never knew of the victories which they obteined for pronouncing and rehearsing their tragedies in open theater they might heare them peradventure when they were little ones to stammer to lispe to spel and put syllables together or to speake broken Greeke and that was all But ordinary it is that men live to see heare and know when
disposition and condition of an Atheist to be happie as the state of freedome and libertie but now the Atheist hath no sparke at all of superstition whereas the superstitious person is in will and affection a meere Atheist howbeit weaker than to beleeve and shew in opinion that of the gods which he would and is in his minde Moreover the Atheist in no wise giveth any cause or ministreth occasion that superstition should arise but superstition not onely was the first beginning of impietie and Atheisme but also when it is sprung up and growne doth patronise and excuse it although not truely and honestly yet not without some colourable pretence for the Sages and wise men in times past grew not into this opinion that the world was wholly voide of a divine power and deitie because they beheld and considered any thing to be found fault withall in the heaven some negligence and disorder to be marked some confusion to be observed in the starres in the times and seasons of the yeere in the revolutions thereof in the course and motions of the sunne round about the earth which is the cause of night and day or in the nouriture and food of beasts or in the yeerely generation and increase of the fruits upon the earth but the ridiculous works and deeds of superstition their passions woorthy to be mocked and laughed at their words their motions and gestures their charmes forceries enchantments and magicall illusions their runnings up and downe their beating of drums tabours their impure purifications their filthy castimonies and beastly sanctifications their barbarous and unlawfull corrections and chastisements their inhumane and shamefull indignities practized even in temples these things I say gave occasion first unto some for to say that better it were there had bene no gods at all than to admit such for gods who received and approoved these abuses yea and tooke pleasure therein or that they should be so outragious proud and injurious so base and pinching so easie to fall into choler upon a small cause and so heard to be pleased againe Had it not beene farre better for those Gaules Scythians or Tartarians in old time to have had no thought no imagination no mention at all delivered unto them in histories of gods than to thinke there were gods delighting in the bloudshed of men and to beleeve that the most holie and accomplished sacrifice and service of the gods was to cut mens throates and to spill their bloud and had it not beene more expedient for the Carthaginians by having at the first for their law-givers either Critias or Diagoras to have beene perswaded that there was neither God in heaven nor divell in hell than to sacrifice so as they did to Saturne who not as Empedocles said reprooving and taxing those that killed living creatures in sacrifice The sire lists up his deere belooved son Who first some other forme and shape did take He doth him slay and sacrifice anon And therewith vowes and foolish praiers doth make but witting and knowing killed their owne children indeed for sacrifice and looke who had no issue of their owne would buie poore mens children as if they were lambes young calves or kiddes for the saide purpose At which sacrifice the mother that bare them in her wombe would stand by without any shew at all of being mooved without weeping or sighing for pittie and compassions for otherwise if shee either fetched a sigh or shed ateare shee must loose the price of her childe and yet notwithstanding suffer it to be slaine and sacrificed Moreover before and all about the image or idoll to which the sacrifice was made the place resounded and rung againe with the noise of flutes and hautboies with the sound also of drums and timbrels to the end that the pitifull crie of the poore infants should not be heard Now if any Tryphones or other such like giants having chased and driven out the gods should usurpe the empire of the world and rule over us what other facrifices would they delight in or what offrings else and service besides could they require at mens hands Antestries the wife of the great Monarch 〈◊〉 buried quicke in the ground twelve persons and offred them for the prolonging of her owne life unto Pluto which god as Plato saith was named Pluto Dis and Hades for that being full of humanitie unto mankind wise and rich besides he was able to enterraine the soules of men with perswasive speeches and reasonable remonstrances Xenophanes the Naturalist seeing the Egyptians at their solemne feasts knocking their breasts and lamenting pitiously admonished them verie fitly in this wise My good friends if these quoth he be gods whom you honor thus lament not for them and if they be men sacrifice not unto them But there is nothing in the world so full of errors no maladie of the minde so passionate and mingled with more contrarie and repugnant opinions as this of superstition in regard whereof we ought to shunne and avoide the same but not as many who whiles they seeke to eschue the assaults of theeves by the high way side or the invasion of wilde beasts out of the forcst or the danger of fire are so transported and caried away with feare that they looke not about them nor see what they doe or whither they goe and by that meanes light upon by-waies or rather places having no way at all but in stead thereof bottomlesse pits and gulfes or else steepe downe-fals most perilous even so there be divers that seeking to avoid superstition fall headlong upon the cragged rocke of perverse and stif-necked Impietie and Atheisme leaping over true religion which is feated just in the mids betweene both OF EXILE OR BANISHMENT The Summarie THere is not a man how well soever framed to the world and setled therein who can promise unto himselfe any peaceable and assured state throughout the course of his whole life but according as it seemeth good to the clernall and wise providence of the Almightie which governeth all things to chaslise our faults or to try our constancy in faith he ought in time of a calme to prepare himselfe for a tempest and not to attend the mids of a danger before he provide for his safetie but betimes and long before to fortifie and furnish himselfe with that whereof he may have necd another day in all occurences and accidents whatsoever Our Authour therefore in this Treatise writing to comfort and encourage one of his friends cast downe with anguish occasioned by his banishment sheweth throughout all his discourse that vertue it is which maketh us happie in everie place and that there is nothing but vice that can hurt and endamage us Now as touching his particularising of this point in the first place he treateth what kinde of friends we have need of in our affliction and how we ought then to serve our turnes with them and in regard of exile mone particularly he adjoineth this advertisment
be applied outwardly to avoide envie if a man be forced to speake of himselfe other meanes there are besides inhaerent after a sort even in them who be in this wise praised and such Cato made use of when he said that he was envied because he neglected his owne affairs and sat up watching whole nights for the good and safetie of his countrey Like to which is this speech What wisedome thinke you was in me who cleane exempt from care From charge and travell like some one who in the armie were A plaine and common souldiour might enjoy within the host My fortune with the wisest of them all that meddle most as also this other I doubt and feare that of my labours past The thanke is gone end caried with a blast And yet those paines that now presented be A fresh reject unneth I will from me For men ordinarily beare envie unto those who seeme to acquire glory gratis without any cost and to come by vertue easily like as if they purchased house or land for a little or nothing whereas seldome or never they envie such as have bought the same very deare with many travels and great dangers And forasmuch as we ought in praising of our selves to effect not only this that we offend not the hearers thereby nor procure their envie but endevour also to profit them and doe them good as if we seemed not to aime at our selfe-praise but to shoot at some other thing in so doing consider first and formost when a man is in a veine of praising himselfe whether he may do it by way of exhortation to kindle a zeale and exercise a kinde of emulation and strive for glory in the hearers after the example of Nestor who in recounting his owne prowesse and valiant service encouraged Patroclus and the other nine gallants and brave knights to enter combat and single fight with Hector for an exhortation which hath word and deed to meet together carrying with it example with a familiar zeale and imitation is wonderfull quicke and lively it pricketh provoketh and stirreth exceedingly and together with a resolute courage and ardent affection it carieth with it the hope of compassing things very accessible and in no wise impossible and therefore of the three renowmed daunces and quites in Lacedaemon one which consisted of olde men chaunted thus The ume was when we gallants were Youthfull and hardie void of feare another of children sung in this wise And we one day shall be both tall and strong And farre surpasse if that we live so long the third namely of yong men had this dittie But we are come to proofe and now at best Trie who that will to fight we are now prest wherein the law-giver who instituted these dances did wisely and politikely to propose unto yong men such familiar examples and at hand even by those things that were done and executed Yet neverthelesse it were not amisse otherwhiles to vaunt and to speake highly and magnifically of ones selfe for to daunt beat downe represse and keepe as it were under hand a bragging and audacious fellow like as Nestor himselfe did againe in another place Conversed have I in my daies with men of better deed Than you iwis and yet'disdaine they never would my reed Semblably said Aristotle unto king Alexander That lawfull it was and beseeming not onely for those to have an haughtie minde who had many subjects under them at their commaund but such also as held true opinions as touching the gods And verily these points are commodious for us otherwhiles even in regard of our enemies foes and evill willers according to that verse in Homer Children they are of wretched sires and borne to misadventure Whose lucke it is my force of armes in battell to encounter Agesilaus also having speech upon a time as touching the King of Persia who usually was called the Great Monarch And wherein quoth he is that king greater than my selfe if he bee not more just and righteous Epaminondas likewise replied upon the Lacedaemonians who had framed a long accusation against the Thebans Well it is quoth he and a good turne that we yet have made you give over your accustomed short speech Thus much of those rules which concerne either our private and particular evill willers or our publike enemies As for our friends and fellow-citizens we may likewise by using fitly in time and place and as the case requireth haughty language not onely take downe and cause those to vaile bonet who are over-proude and audacious but also on the other side raise up and encourage such as be dismaied astonied and beyond measure timorous For Cyrus also in the mids of battell and dangers of warre was woont to speake bravely but else-where not And Antigonus the yoonger or second of that name who otherwise was in words sober modest and nothing proude yet in a battell at sea which he fought neere the isle Cos when one of his friends about him said a little before the medley began See you not sir how many more ships our enemies have than wee Why quoth he for how many ships doest thou reckon me And it should seeme that Homer was of the same minde and meant so much when he feigneth that Ulysses seeing his people affrighted with the hideous noise and fearfull tempest that issued out of the gulfe Charybdis called to their remembrance his subtill engine and singular valour in saying thus unto them My friends and mates this accident is not so dangerous As when that monstrous Cyclops he a giant furious Us turn'd and courst with mightie force about his hollow cave Yet thence we chac'd him by my wit advice and prowesse brave For this manner of praising proceedeth not from a glozing vaine-glorious oratour not a vanting Sophister nor from one that seeketh applause and clapping of hands but beseemeth a personage who pawneth unto his friends as a gage of assurance and confidence his owne vertue and sufficiency For a matter this is of great importance consequence tending to safetie in dangerous times to wit the opinion reputation and affiance that we may have of a man in authoritie and the experienced prowesse of a captaine Now albeit I have sufficiently shewed before that it is neither convenient nor seemely for a man of State and honour to oppose himselfe against the glorie and praise of another yet neverthelesse when the case so standeth that a false and perverse commendation doth bring hurt and damage and by example inferreth a dangerous imitation of evill things together with a wicked purpose and leawd intention in matters of great moment it were not amisse to repulse the same backe or rather to divert and turne away the hearer unto better things and open unto him the difference for in mine advice a man may well take content and delight to see that men abstaine willingly from vice when they perceive it to be blamed and reprooved but in lieu of condemning it if they heare it
with great magnificence and state this corps being espied floating toward them you may wel thinke caused all the company there to marvell not a little who thereupon ranne all to the shore and taking knowledge that it was the corps of Hesiodus because it seemed fresh killed they laid all other businesse apart with all speed sent about and made inquisition of this murther by reason of the great renowme and name that went of Hesiodus and this they followed with such diligence that quickly they found out the murtherers whom after they were apprehended they threw alive headlong presently into the sea drowned them and razed their house Now was the corps of Hesiodus enterred neere unto the said Nemeium howbeit few strangers there be that know of this his sepulcher for concealed of purpose it is by reason of the Orchonenians who made search for it by report and were desirous by the appointment of certaine oracles to take up his reliques and burie them in their countrey If then the Dolphins be so kind and lovingly affected to the dead much more probable it is that they be willing and readie to helpe those who are alive especially if they be drawen and allured by the sound of the pipes fluits or other harmonie for who is there of us all that knoweth not how these creatures are delighted in song following and swimming along those vessels where they heare musicke as taking great pleasure in the songs and musicall instrument of those passengers who do sing or play in a faire and calme season also they are not a little pleased to see yoong children swimming they joy and strive to be doussing badling diving together with them and therefore provided it is by an unwritten law as touching their securitie that they should not be hurt by vertue whereof none doe fish for them no nor doe them any harme unlesse haply when they chance to be taken in any nets they hinder the taking of other fishes or otherwise hurt them and then beaten they are and corrected gently for it like as little children who have done amisse and made a fault And here I call to minde what I have heard recounted for certaintie of the inhabitants of Lesbos that in times past within their countrey there was a yoong maiden saved by a Dolphin from perill of being drowned in the sea but for that Pittacus should know this much better it were more reason that he himselfe reported it True it is indeed quoth Pitracus the tale is verie notorious and related by many For there was an answere given by oracle to those founders who first peopled Lesbos that when in failing upon the sea they arrived at a rock called Messogaean that is to say Mediterranean they should cast into the sea for Neptune a bull but for dame Amphitrite and the Nymphs Nereides a virgin alive Now seven principall conductors kings there were of that company which were to inhabit there and Echelaus made the eight expresly named by the oracle for the planting of a colony and he as yet a batcheler unmaried Now when the other seven who had daughters mariageable yet unwedded cast lots among themselves whose daughter should be offered as is before said it fell out so that the lot light upon the daughter of Smintheus her therfore they arraied with rich robes adorned with costly jewels of gold for that purpose and being come to the place appointed after they had made their praiers and oraisons accordingly as in such a case and were now at the verie point to throw her into the sea a certaine yoong man one of the passengers in the ship of a gentle nature and good disposition as it appeared whose name was Enalus being enamoured of the said yong damosell entred presently into a resolution to succor her in this extremitie although hee saw well that it was in manner unpossible and embracing her fast about the middle he cast himselfe and her together into the sea and even then there ran a rumor although without any certaine ground or author howbeit beleeved by many of the armie that both of them were caried to land and saved alive but afterwards by report the said Enalus was seen in the isle Lesbos who made relation that he and shee both were mounted upon dolphins backes and so carried safe to the firme land without any danger I could rehearse other strange narrations belonging hereto more marvellous than these able as well to ravish with admiration as to affect with delectation the minds of any that shall heare them but hard it is to averre them all for true and to bring proofe thereof namely That when there arose a mightie huge billow of water about the island like a rocke so as no men durst approch nere unto the sea Enalus only came thither and a number of Polype fishes or poulpes followed after and accompanied him to the temple of Neptune where the biggest of them brought unto Enalus a stone which he tooke and dedicated there in memoriall of this miracle which stone we call Ei to this day But in summe quoth he if a man knew well the difference betweene impossible and unusuall and could distinguish betweene that which is contrarie to the order or course of nature and the common opinion of men in not beleeving too rashly nor discrediting a thing too easily he might observe wel from time to time your rule ô Chilon Nothing overmuch which you ordeine to be kept After him spake Anacharsis saying That is not to be wondered at that the goodliest and greatest matters in the world were done by the will and providence of God considering that according to the good and wise opinion of Thales there is in all the chiefe and principall parts there of a certeine soule for as the organ and instrument of the soule is the body so the instrument of God is the soule and like as the body hath many motions of the owne but the greater part of them and namely those which are most noble proceed from the soule even so the soule likewise doth worke some of her operations by her owne instince but in others she yeeldeth herselfe to be ordered turned managed and directed by God as it pleaseth him to use her being indeed of all instruments the most meet and handsome for it were a very strange and absurd thing that wind water clouds raine should be Gods instruments by meanes wherof he nourisheth and mainteineth many creatures and whereby he destroieth and overthroweth as many and that he should use the ministerie of no living creatures in any worke of his Reason it is yet and probable that seeing such creatures depend wholy upon the puissance and omnipotencie of God that they should serve al his motions yea and obey his wils and second his purposes more than bowes are accommodate to the Scythians and harpes or hautboies to the Greekes After this speech the poet Chersias made mention of many others who had
commeth to a feast or a rude traveller who seeketh for lodging when it is darke night for even so thou wouldest remoove not to a place nor to a region but to a life whereof thou hast no proofe and triall As for this sentence and verse of Simonides The city can instruct a man true it is if it be meant of them who have sufficient time to be taught and to learne any science which is not gotten but hardly and with much ado after great studie long travell continuall exercise and practise provided also that it meet with a nature painfull and laborious patient and able to undergo all adversities of fortune These reasons a man may seeme very well and to the purpose to alledge against those who begin when they be well stricken in yeeres to deale in publike affaires of the State And yet we see the contrary how men of great wisedome and judgement divert children and yoong men from the government of common-weale who also have the testimonie of the lawes on their side by ordinance whereof at Athens the publicke Crier or Bedle calleth and summoneth to the pulpit or place of audience not such as yoong Alcibiades or Pytheas for to stand up first and speake before the assemblie of the people but those that be above fiftie yeeres of age and such they exhort both to make orations and also to deliver their minds and counsell what is most expedient to be done And Cato being accused when he was fourescore yeeres olde and upward in pleading of his own cause thus answered for himselfe It is an harder matter my masters quoth he for a man to render an account of his life and to justifie the same before other men than those with whom he hath lived And no man there is but he will confesse that the acts which Caesar Augustus atchieved a little before his death in defaiting Antonius were much more roiall and profitable to the weale-publicke than any others that ever hee performed all his life-time before and himselfe in restraining and reforming secretly by good customes and ordinances the dissolute riots of yoong men and namely when they mutined said no more but thus unto them Listen yoong men and heare an olde man speake whom olde men gave eare unto when he was but yoong The government also of Pericles was at the height and of greatest power and authoritie in his olde age at what time as he perswaded the Athenians to enter upon the Peloponesiacke warre but when they would needs in all haste and out of season set forward with their power to encounter with threescore thousand men all armed and well appointed who forraied and wasted their territorie he withstood them and hindered their dessigned enterprise and that in maner by holding sure the armour of the people out of their hands and as one would say by keeping the gates of the citie fast locked and sealed up But as touching that which Xenophon hath written of Agesilaus it is worthy to be delivered word for word as he setteth it downe in these tearmes What youth quoth he was ever so gallant but his age surpassed it what man was there ever in the flower and very best of all his time more dread and terrible to his enemies than Agesilaus was in the very latter end of his daies whose death at any time was more joyfull to enemies than that of Agesilaus although he was very olde when he died what was he that emboldened allies and confederates making them assured and confident if Agesilaus did not notwithstanding he was now at the very pits brincke and had in maner one foot already in his grave what yoong man was ever more missed among his friends and lamented more bitterly when he was dead than Agesilaus how olde so ever he was when he departed this life The long time that these noble personages lived was no impediment unto them in atchieving such noble and honourable services but we in these daies play the delicate wantons in government of cities where there is neither tyrannie to suppresse nor warre to conduct nor siege to be raised and being secured from troubles of warre we sit still with one hand in another being roubled onely with civill debates among citizens and some emulations which for the most part are voided and brought to an end by vertue of the lawes and justice onely with words Wee forbeare I say and draw backe from dealing in these publicke affaires for feare confessing our selves herein to be more cowardly and false-hearted I will not say than the ancient captaines and governours of the people in olde time but even worse than Poets Sophisters and Plaiers in Tragedies and Comedies of those daies If it be true as it is that Simonides in his olde age wan the prize for enditing ditties and setting songs in quires and dances according to the epigram made of him which testifieth no lesse in the last verses thereof running in this maner Fourescore yeeres olde was Simonides The Poet and sonne of Treoprepes Whom for his carrols and musicall vaine The prize he won and honour did gaine It is reported also of Sophocles that when he was accused judicially for dotage by his owne children who laied to his charge that he was become a childe againe unfitting for governing his house and had need therefore of a guardian being convented before the judges he rehearsed in open court the entrance of the chorus belonging to the Tragedie of his entituled Oedipus in Colono which beginneth in this wise Wel-come stranger at thy entrie To villages best of this countrie Renowmed for good steeds in fight The tribe of faire Colonus hight Where nightingale doth oft resort Her dolefull moanes for to report Amid greene bowers which she doth haunt Her sundrie notes and laies to chaunt With voice so shrill as in no ground Elswhere her songs so much resound c. And for that this canticle or sonet wonderfully pleased the judges and the rest of the company they all arose from the bench went out of the Court and accompanied him home to his house with great acclamations for joy and clapping of hands in his honour as they would have done in their departure from the Theater where the Tragedie had bene lively acted indeed Also it is confessed for certeine that an epigram also was made of Sophocles to this effect When Sophocles this sonnet wrote To grace and honour Herodote His daies of life by just account To fiftie five yeeres did amount Philemon and Alexis both comicall Poets chanced to be arrested and surprised with death even as they plaied their Comedie upon the stage for the prize and were about to be crowned with garlands for the victorie As for Paulus or Polus the actour of Tragedies Eratosthenes and Philochorus do report That when he was threescore yeeres olde and ten he acted eight Tragedies within the space of foure daies a little before his death Is it not then a right great shame that olde men
written an exercise or declamation in the Schoole Lyceum touching that argument unlesse besides he have stood close unto the reines or hard by the helme many a time by marking both citie rulers and martiall captaines how they have but beene put to their trial and according to the sundry experiences and accidents of fortunes enclining now to the one side and then to the other after many dangers and great affaires have gotten sufficient knowledge and instruction before hand I can not see how it can be but if there were no other thing at all besides yet surely an ancient man is to manage still the affaires of State and it were but to traine and teach the yoonger that be to come up after him for like as they who teach children musick or to reade do themselves Sol fa sing the note they finger strike the key or string they reade spell the letters before them all to shew how they should do even so the ancient politician doth frame and direct a yoong man not onely by reading unto him by discoursing and advertising him without foorth but also in the very managing and administration of affaires fashioning forming and casting him as it were lively in a mold as well by operation and example as by words and precepts For he that is schooled and exercised herein not in the schooles of the Sophisters that can speake in number measure as in the wrestling hall where the body is annointed with a cōposition of oyle waxe together against exercises performed without any danger at all but as it were at the verie publike games indeed in the view of the whole world such as the Olympicks and Pythicks were he I say followeth the tracts and footsteps of his master and teacher as saith Simonides As suckling foale that keepes just pace And runnes with dam in everie place Thus did Aristides under Calisthenes Cimon under Aristides Phocion under Chabrias Cato under Fabius Maximus Pompeius under Sylla and Polybius under Philopaemen For all these personages when they were yoong drew neere and joined themselves with others that were ancient and having taken root close by them grew up together with them in their actions and administrations whereby they got experience and were inured to the managing of the State with honour and reputation Aeschines the Academique Philosopher when certaine envious sophisters of his time charged him and said That he made a semblance and shew that he had beene the disciple and hearer of Carneades whereas he never was I say unto you quoth he that I heard the man when as his speech abandoning the bruit applause and tumultuous noise of the people by reason of his old age was shut up close and housed as it were for to do good more familiarly in private conference And even so it is with the government of an aged person when as not onely his words but also his deeds be farre remote from affected pompe in outward shewes and all vaine glorie Much like as is reported of the blacke Storke called Ibis who by that time that she is become old hath exhaled and breathed foorth all that strong and stinking savour which she had and beginneth to yeeld a sweet and arromaticall smel even so there is no counsell nor opinion in old men vaine turbulent or inconstant but all grave quiet and setled And therefore in any wise as I said before if it were but for yoong mens sake onely and no more elder persons are to weld the affaires of State to the end that as Plato speaking of wine mingled with water said that it was to make the furious god wise by chastising him with another that was sober and temperate the staid wisedome of old age tempered with youth swelling and boiling before the people and transported with the greedy desire of honour and with ambition might cut off that which is furious raging and over violent But over and besides all that hath beene said before they who thinke that to be employed in the managing of publike affaires is all one as to saile for trafficke or to go foorth to warre in some expedition are much deceived for both navigation also war men undertake for a certaine end and no sooner have they attained thereto but they cease but the managing of State affaires is not a commission or office pretending or intending any profit and commoditie for the scope that it shooteth at but it is the life and profession of a living creature which is gentle tame civill and sociable borne to live so long as it pleaseth nature civilly honestly and for the publike good of humane societie This is the reason that of a man it should be said that he still is occupied in such affaires of common-weale and not that he hath beene so employed like as to be true and not to have beene true to be just and not to have beene just to love his countrey and citizens and not to have loved them is his dutie and profession For even nature her selfe directeth us hereto and singeth this lesson in our eares I speake to those who are not altogether corrupted and marred with sloth and idlenesse Thy father thee a man hath once begat To profit men alwaies in this or that Againe Let us not cease nor any end finde To do all good unto mankinde As touching them who pretend and alledge for excuse feeblenesse or impotencie they do accuse sicknesse the maimed indisposition of the bodie rather than age For you shall see many yoong men sicke feeble and as many old folke lusty strong so we are not to remoove aged persons simply from the adminstration of the common-weale but the impotent onely and unsufficient nor to call unto that vocation yong men but such as be able to undergo the charge for Aridaeus was yong enough and Antigonus in yeeres and yet this man as olde as he was went within a little of conquering all Asia but the other had never but the bare name onely of a King like as in a dumbe-shew upon a stage making a countenance onely with a guard of partizans and halberds about him without speaking one word and so he was a ridiculous pageant and laughing stocke among his nobles and peeres who were alwaies his rulers and led him as they list And even as he who would perswade Prodicus the Sophister or Philetas the poet yong men both howbeit leane feeble sickly and for the most part of their time bed-ridden for to meddle with government of State were a very foole and senselesse asse so hee were no whit better who should debarre such old men as Phocion as Masanissa the African or Cato the Romane from exercising publike magistracie in citie or taking the charge of a Lord Generall in the sield for Phocion one day when the Athenians all in the haste would needs have gone forth to warre at an unseasonable time commaunded by proclamation that as many as were not above threescore
boord onely without worke of any other tooles or instruments at all unto whom he answered Because our citizens should be moderate in all things that they bring into their houses and have no furniture therein that might set other mens teeth on water or which other men do so much affect From this custome by report it came that king Leotychides the first of that name being at supper in a friends house of his when he saw the roofe over his head richly seeled with embowed arch-worke demanded of his host whether the trees in that countrey grew square or no When he was asked why he forbad to make warre often against the same enemies For feare quoth he that being forced estsoones to stand upon their owne guard and put themselves in defence they should in the end become well experienced in the warres in which regard Agesilaus afterwards was greatly blamed for being the cause by his continuall expeditions and invasions into Boeotia that the Thebans were equall in armes unto the Lacedaemonians Another asked also of him why he enjoined maidens marriageable to exercise their bodies in running wrestling pitching the barre flinging coits and lancing of darts For this purpose quoth he that the first rooting of their children which they are to breed taking fast and sure holde in able bodies wel set and strongly knit might spring and thrive the better within them and they also themselves being more firme and vigorous beare children afterward the better be prepared and exercised as it were to endure the paines and travels of child-birth easily and stoutly over and besides if need required be able to fight in defence of themselves their children and countrey Some there were who found fault with the custome that he brought in that the maidens of the city at certeine festivall daies should dance naked in solemne shewes and pomps that were set demanding the cause thereof to whom hee rendred this reason That they performing the same exercises which men do might be no lesse enabled than they either in strength and health of body or in vertue and generosity of minde and by that meanes checke and despise the opinion that the vulgar sort had of them And from hence it came that Gorgo the wife of Leonidas as we finde written when a certeine dame and ladie of a forren countrey said unto her There be no other women but you Laconian wives that have men at command answered in this wise For why we onely are the women that beare men Moreover he debarted and kept those men who remained unmarried from the sight of those shewes where the yoong virgins aforesaid danced naked and that which more is set upon them the note of infamie in depriving them expresly of that honour and service which yonger solke are bound to yeeld unto their elders in which doing he had a great foresight and providence to move his citizens to marriage and for to beget children by occasion whereof there was never any man yet who misliked and complained of that which was said unto Dercillidas by way of reproch though otherwise he was a right good and valiant captaine for when he came upon a time into a place one of the yonger sort there was who would not deigne to rise up unto him nor give him any reverence and this reason he gave Because quoth he as yet you have not begotten a childe to rise up and doe his duety likewise to me Another asked of him wherefore he had ordeined that daughters should be married without a dowrie or portion given with them Because quoth he for default of marriage-money none of them might stay long ere they were wedded nor be hearkened after for their goods but that every man regarding onely the maners and conditioins of a yoong damosell might make choise of her whom he meaneth to espouse for her vertue onely which is the reason also that he banished out of Sparta all maner of painting trimming and artificiall embelishments to procure a superficiall beauty and complexion Having also prefixed and set downe a certeine time within the which aswell maidens as yoong men might marrie one would needs know of him why he limited forth such a definite terme unto whom he answered Because their children might be strong and lustie as being begotten and conceived of such persons as be already come to their full growth Some woondered why hee would not allow that the new married bridegrome should lie with his espouse but expresly gave order that the most part of the day hee should converse with his companions yea and all the nights long but whensoever hee went to keepe company with his new wedded wife it should be secretly and with great heed and care that hee be not surprized or found with her This quoth he is done to this end that they may be alwaies more strong and in better plight of body also that by not enjoying their delights and pleasures to the full their love might be ever fresh and their infants betweene them more hardie and stout furthermore hee remooved out of the citie all precious and sweete persumes saying That they were no better than the verie marring and corruption of the good naturall oile the art also of dying and tincture which he said was nothing else but the slatterie of the senses to be briefe he made the citie Sparta inaccessible as I may say for all jewelers and fine workmen who professe to set out and adorne the body giving out that such by their lewd artificiall devices do deprave and marre the good arts and mysteries in deed In those daies the honestie and pudicitie of dames was such and so far off were they from that tractable facilitie and easie accesse unto their love which was afterwards that adulterie among them was held for an unpossible and uncredible thing And to this pupose may well be remembred the narration of one Geradatas an ancient Spartane of whom a stranger asked the question What punishment adulterers were to suffer in the citie of Sparta for that he saw Lycurgus had set downe no expresse law in that behalfe Why quoth he there is no adulterie among us but when the other replied againe Yea but what and if there were even the same answere made Geradatas and none other For how quoth he can there be an adulterer in Sparta wherein all riches all superfluous delights and dainties all outward trickings and embelishings of the bodie are despised and dishonoured and where shame of doing ill honestie reverence and obeisance to superiors carrie away all the credit and authoritie One put himselfe forward and was in hand with him to set up and establish the popular State of government in Sparta unto whom hee answered Begin it thy selfe first within thine owne house And unto another who demaunded of him why he ordained the sacrifices in Lacedaemon so simple and of smal cost To the end quoth he that we should never cease and give over to worship and honour the gods
whom he had in his hands Because quoth he it is better to obey a captaine than to kill an enemie There was a Laconian tooke the foile in wrestling at the Olympicke games and when one cried aloud Thy concurrent is better than thou Laconian Better quoth he not so but in deed he can skil better than I of supplanting and tripping THE CVSTOMES AND ORDINANCES AMONG THE LACED AEMONIANS THE manner and custome was at Lacedaemon that when they entred into their publicke halles where they tooke their meats and meales together the eldest man of the whole companie should shew the doores unto everie one as they came and say unto them At these doores there goeth not forth so much as one word The most exquisite dish among them was a messe of broth which they called Blacke-pottage insomuch as when that was served up to the table the elder folke would not care for any flesh meats but leave all them same for the yoonger sort And as it is reported Denys the Tyrant of Sicily for this purpose bought a cooke from Lacedamon and commaunded him to make him such pottage and spare for no cost but after he had a little tasted thereof he found it so bad that he cast up all that he had taken of it but his cooke said unto him Sir if you would finde the goodnesse of this broth you must be exercised first after the Lacedaemonian manner all watred and be well washed in the river Eurotas Now after the Laconians have eat drunk soberly at these ordinaries they returne home to their houses without torch or any light before them for it is not lawfull for any man at Lacedaemon to go either from thence or to any place else with a light carried before him in the night because they should bee accustomed to keepe their way and goe confidently without feare all night long in the darke without any light at all To write and reade they learned for necessitie onely as for all other forrein sciences and literature they banished them quite out of their coasts like as they did all strangers and aliens and in verie truth their whole studie was to learne how to obey their superiours to endure patiently all travels to vanquish in fight or to die for it in the place All the yeere long they went in one single gaberdine without coat at all under it and ordinarily they were foule and sullied as those who used not the stouphes baines ne yet annointed themselves for the most part Their boies and yoong men commonly slept together in one dorter by bands and troupes upon pallets and course beds which they themselves gathered breaking and tearing with their owne hands without any edged toole the heads of canes and reeds which grew along the bankes of the river Eurotas and in winter time they strewed and mingled among a certaine kind of Thistle downe which they call Lycophanes for they are of opinion that such stuffe hath in it I wot not what which doth heat them It was lawfull and permitted among them to love yoong boies for their good minds and vertuous natures but to abuse their persons wantonly and fleshly was reputed a most infamous thing as if such were lovers of the bodie and not of the minde in such sort as whosoever was accused and attaint thereof became noted with infamie and shame followed him wheresoever he went all his life time The custome was that elder folke when and wheresoever they met with yoonger should demaund whither and whereabout they went yea and checke and chide them if they were to seeke of a good answere or if they went about to devise colourable excuses and whosoever he was that did not reproove him that did a fault in his presence incurred the same reprehension and blame as he did who transgressed yea and if he chafed and shewed himselfe discontented when he was reprooved he sustained reproch disgrace and discredit thereby If peradventure one were surprised and taken tardie in some fault he must be brought to a certaine altar within the citie and there forced to go round about it singing a song made of purpose for his owne reproofe and conteining naught else but the blame and accusation of himselfe Moreover yoong folke were not onely to honor their owne fathers and to be obedient unto them but also to shew reverence unto all other elder persons namely in yeelding them the better hand in turning out of their way when they met them and giving them the wall in rising up from their seats before them when they came in place and in standing still when they passed by and therefore everie man had a certaine hand of government and dispose not onely as in other cities over their owne children their proper servants and goods but also they had a regard of their neighbours children servants and goods as wel as if they had beene their owne they made use also of them as of things common to the end that to each one everie thing might be as it were his owne in proprietie Whereupon if it fortuned that a child having beene chastised by another man went to complaine therof to his owne father it was a shame for the said father if he gave him not his payment againe for by the ordinarie course of discipline in that countrey they were assured that their neighbors would impose nothing upon their children but that which was good and honest Yoong lads were used to filtch and steale whatsoever they could come by for their food and victuals yea and they learned from their verie infancie to forelay and lie pretily in ambush for to surprise those who were asleepe stood not well upon their guards but say that one were taken in the maner when he stealeth this was his punishment namely to be whipped and to fast from meat expresly therefore and of very purpose they were allowed verie little to eate to the end that they might be driven upon verie extreame necessitie to make shifts and expose themselves venturously into any danger yea and to devise alwaies some cunning cast or other to steale more cleanly but generally the reason and effect of this their straight diet was that they should long before accustome their bodies never to be full but able to endure hunger for that in deed they were of opinion that they should be the meeter for souldiarie if they could take paines and travell without food yea and that it was a good meanes to be more continent sober and thriftie if they were taught inured to continue a long time smal cost expense to be briefe perswaded they were That to abstaine eating of flesh or fish dressed in the kitchin or to feed savorly of bread or any other viands that came next to hand made mens bodies more healthy caused them to burnish and grow up for that the naturall spirits not pressed nor over-charged with a great quantitie of meat and so by that meanes not kept and depressed
honestly Right excellent also are those verses of Euripides as touching them who endure long maladies I hate all those by meat and drink Who to prolong their daies doe think By Magick arte and sorcery The course of death who turne awry Where as they should be glad and faine When as they see it is but vaine Of earth to live upon the face For yoongers then to quit the place As for Merope in pronouncing these manlike and magnanimous words she mooveth the whole theater to this consideration of her speeches when she saith I am not th' onely mother left Who of faire children am bereft Nor yet a widow am I alone Who my deere husband have for gone For others infinite there bee Who have felt like calamitiee Unto this a man may very aptly adjoine these verses also What is become of that magnificence Where is king Craesus with his opulence Or Xerxes he whose monstrous worke it was By bridge the firth of Hellespont to pas To Pluto now they are for ever gon To houses of most deepe oblivion Their goods and their wealth together with their bodies are perished howbeit beleeve me some will say many are mooved perforce to weepe and lament when they see a yoong person die before due time and yet I assure you this hastie and untimely death admitteth so readie consolation that even the meanest and most vulgar comicall poets have seene into the thing and devised good meanes and effectuall reasons of comfort for consider what one of them saith in this case to him that mourned and lamented for the unripe and unseasonable death of a friend of his in these words If thou hadst knowne for certaine that thy friend Who now is dead should have beene blesse day Throughout that course of life which was behind In case the gods had staid his dying day His death had beene vntimely I would say But if long life should bring him greefes incurable To him haply was death than now more favorable Seeing then uncertaine it is whether the issue and end of this life will be expedient unto a man and whether he shall be delivered and excused thereby from greater evils or no we ought not to take ones death so heavilie as if we had utterly lost all those things which we hoped for and promised our selves by his life to enjoy and therefore me thinks that Amphiaraus in a certaine tragedy of a poet did not impertinently and without good purpose comfort the mother of Archemorus who tooke it to the heart and grieved excessively that her sonne a yoong infant died so long before the ordmarie time for thus he saith unto her No man there is of womans body born But in his dates much travell he doth beare Children some die the parents long beforn And are by them enterred then they reare And get yoong babes for those that buried were Lastly themselves into the graves doe fall This is the course this is the end of all Yet men for them doe weepe and sorrow make Whose bodies they on biere to earth doe send Although in truth a way direct they take As eares of corne full ripe which downward bend As some begin so others make an end Why should men grieve and sigh at natures lore What must shall be thinke it not hard therefore In summe every man ought both in meditation within himselfe and in earnest discourse also with others to hold this for certaine that the longest life is not best but rather the most vertuous for neither he that plaieth most upon a lute or citterne is commended for the cunnigest musician no more than he who pleadeth longest is held the most eloquent orator nor he that sitteth continually at the helme is praised for the best pilot but they that doe best deserve the greatest commendation for we are not to measure goodnesse by the length of time but by vertue by convenient proportion and measure of all words and deeds for this is that amiable beautie which is esteemed happie in this world and pleasing to the gods which is the reason that the poets have left unto us in writing that the most excellent worthies or demie gods and such as by their saying were begotten by gods changed this their mortal life and departed before they were old for even he Who was of mightie Jupiter and Phaebus loved best Permitted was not long to live and in old age to rest For this we alwaies see that ordinarily the maturitie of yeeres and the same well emploied is preferred before old age and long life for thus we repute those trees and plants best which in least time beare most frute as also those living creatures which in little space yeeld greatest profit and commodity to mans life furthermore little difference you shall finde betweene short time and long in comparison of eternitie for that a thousand yea and ten thousand yeeres according to Simonides are no more than a very prick or rather the smallest indivisible portion of a prick in respect of that which is infinit We reade in histories that there be certaine living creatures about the land of Pontus whose life is comprised within the compasse of one day for in the morning they are bred by noone they are in their vigor and at best and in the evening they be old and end their lives would not these creatures thinke you if they had the soule of man and that use of reason which we have feele the very same passions that we doe if the like accidents befell unto them certes those that died before noone would minister occasion of mourning and weeping but such as continued all day long should be reputed happy Well our life should be measured by vertue and not by continuance of time so that we are to esteem such exclamations as these foolish and full of vanitie Oh great pittie that he was taken waie so yoong it ought not to have beene that he should die yet and who is he that dare say This or that ought But many things else have beene are and shall be done heereafter which some man might say ought not to have been done howbeit come we are not into this life for to prescribe lawes but rather to obey those lawes which are decreed and set down already by the gods who governe the world and the ordinances of destinie and divine providence But to proceed those who so much deplore lament the dead do they it for love of thēselves or for their sake who are departed if in regard of their own selves for that they find how they are deprived of some pleasure or profit or els disappointed of support in their old age which they hoped to receive by those who are departed surely this were but a small occasion no honest pretence of lamentation for that it seemeth they bewaile not the dead persons but the losse of those cōmodities which they expected from them but in case they grieve in the behalf of those that
before you were acquainted therewith have ordained mine owne sonnes to be judges namely for Asia two Minos and Rhadamanthus and one for Europe to wit Aeacus These therefore after they be dead shall sit in judgement within a meddow at a quarrefour or crosse-way whereof the one leadeth to the fortunate isles the other to hell Rhadamanthus shall determine of them in Asia Aeacus of those in Europe and as for Minos I wil grant unto him a preeminence in judgement above the rest in case there happen some matter unknowen to one of the other two and escape their censure he may upon weighing and examining their opinions give his definitive sentence and so it shall be determined by a most sincere and just doome whether way each one shall goe This is that O Callicles which I have heard and beleeve to be most true whereout I gather this conclusion in the end that death is no other thing than the separation of the soule from the body Thus you see ô Apollonius my most deere friend what I have collected with great care and diligence to compose for you sake a consolatorie oration or discourse which I take to be most necessarie for you as well to asswage and rid away your present griefe to appease likewise and cause to cease this heavinesse and mourning that you make which of all things is most unpleasant and troublesome as also to comprise within it that praise and honour which me thought I owed as due unto the memoriall of your sonne Apollonius of all others exceedingly beloved of the gods which honour in my conceit is a thing most convenient and acceptable unto those who by happie memorie and everlasting glorie are consecrated to immortalitie You shall doe your part therefore and verie wisely if you obey those reasons which are therein conteined you shall gratifie your sonne likewise and doe him a great pleasure in case you take up in time and returne from this vaine affliction wherewith you punish and undoe both bodie and mind unto your accustomed ordinarie and naturall course of life for like as whiles he lived with us he was nothing well appaied and tooke no contentment to see either father or mother sadde and desolate even so now when he converseth and so laceth himselfe in all joy with the gods doubtlesse he cannot like well of this state wherein you are Therefore plucke up your heart and take courage like a man of woorth of magnanimitie and one that loveth his children well release your selfe first and then the mother of the yoong gentleman together with his kinsfolke and friends from this kind of miserie and take to a more quiet peaceable maner of life which will be both to your sonne departed and to all of us who have regard of your person as it becommeth us more agreeable A CONSOLOTARIE LETTER OR DISCOURSE SENT UNTO HIS OWNE WIFE AS TOUCHING THE DEATH OF HER AND HIS DAUGHTER The Summarie PLutarch being from home and farre absent received newes concerning the death of a little daughter of his a girle about two yeeres old named Timoxene a childe of a gentle nature and of great hope but fearing that his wife would apprehend such a lesse too neere unto her heart he comforteth her in this letter and by giving testimonie unto her of vertue and constancie 〈◊〉 at the death of other children of hers more forward in age than she was he exhorteth her likewise to patience and moderation in this newe occurrence and triall of hers condemning by sundry reasons the excessive sorrow and unwoorthy fashion of many fond mothers 〈◊〉 withall the inconveniences that such excessive heavinesse draweth after it Then continuing his consolation of her he declareth with what eie we ought to regard infants and children aswell before as during and after life how happie they be who can content themselves and rest in the will and pleasure of God that the blessings past ought to dulce and mitigate the calamities present to stay us also that we proceed not to that degree and height of infortunitie as to make account onely of the misadventures and discommodities hapning in this our life Which done he answereth to certeine objections which his wife might propose and set on foot and therewith delivereth his owne advice as touching the incorruption and immortalitie of mans soule after he had made a medly of divers opinions which the ancient Philosophers held as touching that point and in the end concludeth That it is better and more expedient to die betimes than late which position of his he confirmeth by an ordinance precisely observed in his owne countrey which expresly for bad to mourne and lament for those who departed this life in their childhood A CONSOLATORIE LETTER or Discourse sent unto his owne wife as touching the death of her and his daughter PLUTARCH unto his wife Greeting THe messenger whom you sent of purpose to bring me word as touching the death of our little daughter went out of his way as I suppose and so missed of me as he journeyed toward Athens howbeit when I was arrived at Tanagra I heard that she had changed this life Now as concerning the funerals and enterring of her I am verily perswaded that you have already taken sufficient order so as that the thing is not to doe and I pray God that you have performed that duetie in such sort that neither for the present not the time to come it worke you any grievance displeasure but if haply you have put off any such complements which you were willing enough of your selfe to accomplish untill you knew my minde and pleasure thinking that in so doing you should with better will and more patiently beare this adverse accident then I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie and superstition and yet I must needs say you are as little given that way as any woman that I know this onely I would admonish you deare heart that in this case you shew both in regard of your selfe and also of me a constancie and tranquillitie of minde for mine owne part I conceive and measure in mine owne heart this losse according to the nature and greatnesse thereof and so I esteeme of it accordingly but if I should finde that you tooke it impatiently this would be much more grievous unto me and wound my heart more than the 〈◊〉 it selfe that causeth it and yet am not I begotten and borne either of an oake or a rocke whereof you can beare me good witnesse knowing that wee both together have reard many of our children at home in house even with our owne hands and how I loved this girle most tenderly both for that you were very desirous after foure sonnes one after another in a row to beare a daughter as also for that in regard of that fancie I tooke occasion to give her your name now besides that naturall fatherly affection which men cōmonly have toward little babes there was one
the generositie of a vertuous dame and behold the kindnesse of a mother toward her children whereas you shall see many other mothers to receive their yoong babes at the hands of their nurses to dandle play withall forsooth in mirth pastime but afterwards the same women if their infants chance to die give themselves over to al vain mourning bootlesse sorow which proceedeth not doubtlesse from good will indeed for surely heartie affectin is reasonable honest and considerate but rather from a foolish opinion mingled with a little naturall kindnesse and this is it that engendreth savage furious implacable sorowes And verily Aesope as it should seeme was not ignorant heereof for he reporteth this narration That when Jupiter made a dole or distribution of honours among the gods and goddesses Sorrow came afterwards and made sute likewise to be honored and so he bestowed upon her teares plaints and lamentations 〈◊〉 for them onely who are willing thereto and ready to give her intertainment And I assure you this they commonly doe at the very beginning for everie one of his owne accord bringeth in and admitteth sorrow unto him who after she is once entertained and in processe of time well setled so that she is become domesticall and familiar will not be driven out of dores nor be gone if a man would never so faine and therefore resistance must be made against her even at the verie gate neither ought we to abandon our hold and quit the fort renting our garments tearing or shearing our haires or doing other such things as ordinarily happen every day causing a man to be confused shamefull and discouraged making his heart base abject and shut up that he cannot enlarge it but remaine poore and timorous bringing him to this passe that he dare not be merrie supposing it altogether unlawfull to laugh to come abroad and see the sunne light to converse with men or to eate or drinke in companie into such a captivitie is he brought through sorrow and melancholie upon this inconvenience after it hath once gotten head there followeth the neglect of the bodie no care of annointing or bathing and generally a retchlessenesse and contempt of all things belonging to this life whereas contrariwise and by good reason when the mind is sicke or amisse it should be helped and sustained by the strength of an able and cheerefull body for a great part of the soules griefe is allaied and the edge thereof as it were dulled when the bodie is fresh and disposed to alacritie like as the waves of the sea be laid even during a calme and faire weather but contrariwise if by reason that the bodie be evill entreated and not regarded with good diet and choise keeping it become dried rough and hard in such sort as from it there breathe no sweet and comfortable exhalations unto the soule but all smoakie and bitter vapors of dolour griefe and sadnesse annoy her then is it no easie matter for men be they never so willing and desirous to recover themselves but that their soules being thus seized upon by so grievous passions will be afflicted and tormented stil. But that which is most dangerous and dreadfull in this case I never feared in your behalfe to 〈◊〉 That foolish women should come visit you and then fall a weeping lamenting and crying with you a thing I may say to you that is enough to whet sorrow and awaken it if it were asleepe not suffring it either by it selfe or by meanes of helpe and succour from another to passe fade vanish away for I know verie well what adoe you had into what a conflict you entred about the sister of Theon when you would have assisted her resisted other women who came into her with great cries loud lamentations as if they brought fire with them in al haste to maintaine encrease that which was kindled already True it is indeed that when a friends or neighbors house is seene on fire every man runneth as fast as he can to helpe for to quench the same but when they see their soules burning in griefe and sorrow they contrariwise bring more fewel matter stil to augment or keepe the said fire also if a man be diseased in his eies he is not permitted to handle or touch them with his hands especially if they be bloud-shotten and possessed with any inflammation whereas he who sits mourning and sorrowing at home in his house offereth and presenteth himselfe to the first commer and to every one that is willing to irritate 〈◊〉 and provoke his passion as it were a floud or streame that is let out and set a running insomuch as where before the grievance did but itch or smart a little it now beginnes to shoot to ake to be fell and angrie so that it becommeth a great and dangerous maladie in the end but I am verily perswaded I say that you know how to preserve your selfe from these extremities Now over and besides endevour to reduce and call againe to mind the time when as we had not this daughter namely when she was as yet unborne how we had no cause then to complaine of fortune then see you joine as it were with one tenon this present with that which is past setting the case as if we were returned againe to the same state wherein we were before for it will appeere my good wife that we are discontented that ever she was borne in case we make shew that we were in better condition before her birth than afterwards not that I wish we should abolish out of our remembrance the two yeeres space between her nativitie and decease but rather count and reckon it among other our pleasures and blessings as during which time we had the fruition of joy mirth and pastime and not to esteeme that good which was but little and endured a small while our great infortunitie nor yet seeme unthankfull to fortune for the favour which she hath done unto us because she added not thereto that length of life which we hoped and expected Certes to rest contented alwaies with the gods to thinke and speake of them reverently as it becommeth not to complaine of fortune but to take in good woorth whatsoever it pleaseth her to send bringeth evermore a faire and pleasant frute but he who in these cases putteth out of his remembrance the good things that he hath transporting and turning his thoughts and cogitations from obscure and troublesome occurrents unto those which be cleere and resplendent if he doe not by this meanes utterly extinguish his sorrow yet at leastwise by mingling and tempring it with the contrary he shall be able to diminish or else make it more feeble for like as a sweet odor and fragrant ointment delighteth and refresheth alwaies the sense of smelling amd besides is a remedie against stinding savours even so the cogitagion of these benefits which men have otherwise received serveth as a most necessarie and
present succour in time of adversitie unto as many as refuse not to remember and call to minde their joies passed and who never at all for any accident whatsoever complaine of fortune which we ought not to doe in reason and honestie unlesse we would seeme to accuse and blame this life which we enjoy for some crosse or accident as if we cast away a booke if it have but one blur or blot in it being otherwise written throughout most cleane and faire for you have heard it oftentimes said that the beatitude of those who are departed dependeth upon the right and sound discourses of our understanding and the same tending to one constant disposition as also that the chaunges and alterations of fortune beare no great sway to inferre much declination or casualitie in our life but if we also as the common sort must be ruled and governed by externall things without us if we reckon and count the chaunces and casualties of fortune and admit for judges of or felicitie our miserie the base and vulgar sort of people yet take you no heed to those teares plaints and moanes that men or women make who come to visit you at this present who also upon a foolish custome as it were of course have them ready at command for every one but rather consider this with your selfe how happie you are reputed even by those who come unto you who would gladly and with all their hearts be like unto you in regard of those children whom you have the house and family which you keepe the life that you leade for it were an evill thing to see others desire to be in your estate and condition for all the sorrow which now afflicteth us and your selfe in the meane time complaining and taking in ill part the same and not to be so happy and blessed as to find and feele even by this crosse that now pincheth you for the losse of one infaut what joy you should take and how thankefull you ought to be for those who remaine alive with you for heerein you should resemble very well those Criticks who collect and gather together all the lame and defective verses of Homer which are but few in number and in the meane time passe over an infinite sort of others which were by him most excellently made In this maner I say you did if you would search narrowly and examine every particular mishap in this life and finde fault therewith but all good blessings in grose let go by and never once respect the same which to do were much like unto the practise of those covetous misers worldings and peni-fathers who 〈◊〉 and care punish both bodie and minde untill they have gathered a great deale of good together and then enjoy no benefit or use thereof but if they chance to forgo any of it they keepe a piteous wailing and wofull lamentation Now if haply you have compassion and pitie of the poore girle in that she went out of this world a maiden unmarried and before that she bare any children you ought rather on the contrarie side to rejoice and take delight in your selfe above others for that you have not failed of these blessings nor bene disappointed either of the one or the other for who would holde and mainteine that these things should be great to those who be deprived of them and but small to them who have and enjoy the same As for the childe who doubtlesse is gone into a place where she feeleth no paine surely she requireth not at our hands that we should afflict grieve our selves for her sake for what harme is there befallen unto us by her if she her selfe now feele no hurt And as for the losses of great things indeed surely they yeeld no sense at all of dolor when they are come once to this point that there is no more need of them or care made for thē But verily thy daughter Timoxena is bereft not of great matters but of small things for in trueth she had no knowledge at all but of such neither delighted she in any but in such seeing then that she had no perceivance nor thought of those things how can she properly and truely be said to be deprived thereof Moreover as touching that which you heard of others who are woont to perswade many of the vulgar sort saying That the soule once separate from the bodie is dissolved and feeleth no paine or dolor at all I am assured that you yeeld no credit and beliefe to such positions aswell in regard of those reasons and instructions which you have received by tradition from our ancestors as also of those sacred and symbolical mysteries of Bacchus which we know wel enough who are of that religious confraternitie and professed therein Being grounded therefore in this principle and holding it firmely for an undoubted trueth That our soule is incorruptible and immortall you are to thinke that it fareth with it as it doth with little birds that are caught by the fowler alive and came into mens hands for if it have bene kept and nourished daintily a long time within the bodie so that it be inured to be gentle and familiar unto this life to wit by the management of sundry affaires and long custome it returneth thither againe and reentreth a second time after many generations into the bodie it never taketh rest nor ceaseth but is inwrapped within the affections of the flesh and entangled with the adventures of the world and calamities incident to our nature for I would not have you to thinke that olde age is to be blamed and reproched for riuels and wrinckles nor in regard of hoarie white haires ne yet for the imbecillitie and feeblenesse of the body but the worst and most odious thing in it is this That it causeth the soule to take corruption by the remembrance of those things whereof it had experience whiles it staied therein and was too much addicted and affectionate unto it whereby it bendeth and boweth yea and reteineth that forme or figure which it tooke of the bodie by being so long devoted thereto whereas that which is taken away in youth pretendeth a better estate and condition as being framed to a gentler habit more soft tractable and lesse compact putting on now a naturall rectitude much like as fire which being quenched if it be kindled againe burneth out and recovereth vigor incontinently which is the cause that it is farre better Betimes to yeeld up vitall breath And soone to passe the gates of death before that the soule have taken too deepe an imbibition or liking of terrene things here below and ere it be made soft and tender with the love of the bodie and as it were by certeine medicines and forcible charmes united and incorporate into it The trueth hereof may appeate yet better by the fashions and ancient customes of this countrey for our citizens when their children die yong neither offer mortuaries nor performe any sacrifices
to let go the resemblance of an hereditarie vice which beginneth to bud and sprout in a yoong man to stay and suffer it I say to grow on still burgen and spread into all affections untill it appeare in the view of the whole world for as Pindarus saith The foolish heart doth bring forth from within Her hidden fruit corrupt and full of sin And thinke you not that in this point God is wiser than the Poet Hesiodus who admonisheth us and giveth counsell in this wise No children get if thou be newly come From dolefull grave or heavie funerall But spare not when thou art returned home From solemne feast of Gods celestiall as if he would induce men to beget their children when they be jocund fresh and mery for that the generation of them received the impression not of vertue and vice onely but also of joy sadnesse all other qualities howbeit this is not a worke of humane wisdome as Hesiodus supposeth but of God himselfe to discern foreknow perfectly either the conformities or the diversities of mens natures drawen from their progenitors before such time as they breake forth into some great enormities whereby their passions affections be discovered what they are for the yong whelps of beares wolves apes such like creatures shew presently their naturall inclination even whiles they be very yong because it is not disguised or masked with any thing but the nature of man casting it selfe and setling upon maners customes opinions lawes concealeth often times the ill that it hath but doth imitate counterfeit that which is good and honest in such sort as it may be thought either to have done away cleane all the staine blemish imperfection of vices inbred with it or els to have hidden it a long time being covered with the vaile of craft subtiltie so as we are not able or at leastwise have much adoe to perceive their malice by the sting bit pricke of every several vice And to say a truth herein are we mightily deceived that we thinke men are become unjust then only and not before when they do injurie or dissolute when they play some insolent and loose part cowardly minded when they run out of the field as if a man should have the cōceit that the sting in a scorpion was then bred not before when he gave the first pricke or the poison in vipers was ingendred then only when they bit or stung which surely were great simplicitie and meere childishnesse for a wicked person becommeth not then such an one even when he appeareth so and not before but hee hath the rudiments and beginnings of vice and naughtinesse imprinted in himselfe but hee sheweth and useth the same when he hath meanes fit occasion good opportunitie and might answerable to his minde like as the thiefe spieth his time to robbe and the tyrant to violate and breake the lawes But God who is not ignorant of the nature and inclination of every one as who searcheth more into the secrets of the heart and minde than into the body never waiteth and staieth untill violence beperformed by strength of hand impudencie bewraied by malepart speech or intemperance and wantonnesse perpetrated by the naturall members and privie parts ere he punish for he is not revenged of an unrighteous man for any harme and wrong that he hath received by him nor angry with a thiefe or robber for any forcible violence which he hath done unto him ne yet hateth an adulterer because he hath suffered abuse or injurie by his meanes but many times he chastiseth by way of medicine a person that committeth adulterie a covetous wretch and a breaker of the lawes whereby otherwhiles he riddeth them of their vice and preventeth in them as it were the falling sicknesse before the sit surprise them Wee were erewhile offended and displeased that wicked persons were over-late and too slowly punished and now discontented we are complaine for that God doth represse chastise the evill habit and vicious disposition of some before the act committed never considering and knowing that full often a future mischiefe is worse and more to be feared than the present and that which is secret and hidden more dangerous than that which is open and apparent Neither are we able to comprehend and conceive by reason the causes wherefore it is better otherwhiles to tolerate and suffer some persons to be quiet who have offanded and transgressed already and to prevent or stay others before they have executed that which they intend like as in very trueth wee know not the reason why medicines and physicall drogues being not meet for some who are sicke be good and holsome for others though they are not actually diseased yet haply in a more dangerous estate than the former Hereupon it is that the gods turne not upon the children and posterity all the faults of their fathers and ancestours for if it happen that of a bad father there descend a good sonne like as a sickly and crasie man may beget a sound strong and healthfull childe such an one is exempt from the paine and punishment of the whole house and race as being translated out of a vicious familie and adopted into another but that a yoong sonne who shall conforme himselfe to the hereditarie vice of his parents is liable to the punishment of their sinfull life aswell as he his bound to pay their debts by right of succession and inheritance For Antigonus was not punished for the sinnes of his father Demetrius nor to speake of leaud persons Phileus for Augeas ne yet Nestor for Neleus his sake who albeit they were descended from most wicked fathers yet they prooved themselves right honest but all such as whose nature loved embraced and practised that which came unto them by descent and parentage in those I say divine justice is wont to persecute and punish that which resembleth vice and sinne for like as the werts blacke moales spots and freckles of fathers not appearing at all upon their owne childrens skinne begin afterwards to put foorth and shew themselves in their nephews to wit the children of their sonnes and daughters And there was a Grecian woman who having brought foorth a blacke infant and being troubled therefore and judicially accused for adultrie as if shee had beene conceived by a blacke-moore shee pleaded and was found to have beene hereselfe descended from an Aethiopian in the fourth degree remooved As also it is knowen for certaine that of the children of Python the Nisibian who was descended from the race and line of those old Spartans who were the first lords and founders of Thebes the yoongest and he that died not long since had upon his body the print and forme of a speare the very true and naturall marke of that auncient line so long and after the revolution of so many yeeres there sprang and came up againe as it were out of the deepe this resemblance of the stocke
out of his belly they that saw the maner of it tooke up a great cry incontinently for feare of the poore boy but the elephant set him downe softly againe upon the ground in the very place where he caught him up and doing him no hurt at all passed by judging it a sufficient chasticement for so little a childe that he was onely put in a fright Thus much of tame and trained elephants As for those which are savage and live in the wilde fields at their liberty woonderfull things be reported of them and namely as touching their passage over rivers for the yoongest and least of them all exposing himselfe to hazard for the rest leadeth the way and wadeth first thorough the other seeing him landed upon the banke 〈◊〉 other side make this account that if the least and lowest of their heard be tall enough to surmount the depth of the chanell they which are bigger and higher have no cause to feare any thing but that they also may get over in safety And since I am fallen into this argument and proceeded so farre into it me thinks I should not for get one example of Reinard for the affinitie and conformity it hath with this device last rehearsed Those who have invented fabulous tales make report that during the great deluge Deucalion used to let foorth a dove out of the arke to know what weather it was like to be abroad for if she returned soone againe she brought newes of tempest and raine but if she flew cleane away and came no more backe she shewed thereby that it was calme and faire weather But true it is that the Thracians even at this day when they purpose to passe over a river frozen all over with ice take a fox with them for their guide to sound the way before them whether the ice be strong enough and able to beare the fox goes gently before and laieth his eare close to the ice and if by the noise of the water running underneath and comming unto his eare he guesseth that the ice is not thicke nor frozen deepe but thinne and weake he maketh a stay and returneth if a man will let him contrariwise if hee perceive by his eare no noise at all of water running under the ice he passeth forward confidently Surely we cannot say that this is onely an exquisite quicknesse in the sense of hearing without any discourse of reason but without all question a kinde of syllogisme or reasoning by consequence drawen from that naturall sence in this sort that which soundeth stirreth that which stirreth is not frozen or congealed what is not congealed must needs be liquid and whatsoever is liquid yeeldeth and is not able to hold ergo c. The Logicians holde that the hound meeting with a quarreferrie or crosse way divided into many paths useth a kinde of argumentation or reasoning which is called a disjunct proceeding from the enumeration of many parts in this maner discourseth with himselfe It must needs be that the beast in chase passed by one of these three waies but this way it went not nor yet that way therefore it can not chuse but this way he tooke for the sent of the nosethrils yeelded him no other intelligence than of the premisses and it was the discourse of reason which gave him to understand the necessitie of the consequence or conclusion inserted upon the said premisses and suppositions Howbeit the dogge hath need of no such testimonie of Logicians for false it is and counterfeit because it is the smell it selfe and sent of the nose which by the tract of the foot and the fluxion of the odour comming from the beast sheweth him which way it fled bidding farewell to these propositions either disjunct or junct neither careth it for that enumeration of parts but by many other effects passions functions offices and actions which proceed neither from sense of seeing nor of smelling but onely from intelligence and discourse of reason by which they are evidently performed a man may sufficiently perceive and comprehend what is the nature of a dogge whose continencie obedience sagacitie patience and paines-taking in chase if I should now discourse upon I should but make my selfe ridiculous unto you who see the same daily and have experience and practise thereof continually But this one example will I alledge unto you namely that during the civill warres at Rome when a Romane citizen was murdered the murderers could never cut off his head untill they environed his dogge round and stabbed him to death who guarded his masters bodie and fought most siercely for him King Pyrrhus as he travelled by the way met with a dogge who kept the dead corps of his master lately slaine and understanding by the inhabitants of the place that he had continued three daies already and never stirred from thence nor yet eat or drunke ought he commanded the bodie to be interred ledde the dogge away with him and made much of him certaine daies after there hapned a muster or generall revew to be made of his souldiers who shewed themselves and passed before the king sitting in his chaire of estate and having the said dog hard by him who never quetched nor stirred all the whiles untill he had a sight of those persons who murdered his master upon whom he ranne immediatly baying and barking at them with open mouth and in great anger eftsoones running backe and making toward Pyrrhus insomuch as not onely the king but all those who were about his person entred into great suspition that those parties were they who had killed his master whereupon they were apprehended put in prison and judicially brought to their answere upon the point and together with other presumptions and light evidences inserred against them they were so hardly urged that they confessed the fact 〈◊〉 suffered punishment accordingly The like by report did the dogge of learned Hesiodus who detected the sonnes of Ganyctor the Naupactian of murder committed upon the person of his master But that which our fathers saw themselves with their owne eies whiles they were students at Athens is more evident than all that hath beene said already And this it was A certaine fellow had by stealth entred into the temple of Aesculapius stollen from thence the fairest and goodliest jewels both of gold and silver among the oblations there which were most portable and thinking that he was not espied by any creature made means to get away againe secretly The dog which kept the said temple and was named Capparus did his best to barke and bay but seeing none of the sextanes and wardens of the church to come for all that pursued the church-robber as he fled away and notwithstanding that he flung stones at him yet gave not he over his pursute but traced him hard at heels al the night When day light was come he would not approch neere unto him but kept aloofe followed him with his eie and never lost the sight of him and
departed once from thence it should joine thereto againe or become a part thereof I cannot see how it is possible *********** 32 Why doth the date tree onely of all others arise archwise and bend upward when a weight is laide thereupon WHether may it not be that the fire and spiritual power which it hath and is predominant in it being once provoked and as it were angred putteth foorth it selfe so much the more and mounteth upward Or because the poise or weight aforesaid forcing the boughes suddenly oppresseth and keepeth downe the airie substance which they have and driveth all of it inward but the same afterwards having resumed strength againe maketh head afresh and more egerly withstandeth the weight Or lastly the softer and more tender branches not able to susteine the violence at first so soone as the burden resteth quiet by little and little lift up themselves and make a shew as if they rose up against it 33 What is the reason that pit-water is lesse nutritive than either that which ariseth out of springs or falleth downe from heaven IS it because it is more colde and withall hath lesse aire in it Or for that it conteineth much salt therein by reason of such store of earth mingled therewith now it is well knowen that salt above all other things causeth leannesse Or because standing as it doeth still and not exercised with running and stirring it getteth a certaine malignant quality which is hurtfull and offensive to all living creatures drinking thereof for by occasion of that hurtfull qualitie neither is it well concocted nor yet can it feed or nourish anything And verily the same is the very cause that all dead waters of pooles and meares be unholsome for that they cannot digest and dispatch those harmefull qualities which they borrow of the evill propertie either of aire or of earth 34 Why is the west wind held commonly to be of all other the swiftest according to this verse of Homer Let us likewise bestir our feet As fast as westerne winds do fleet IS it not thinke you because this winde is woont to blow when the skie is very well 〈◊〉 and the aire exceeding cleere and without all clouds for the thicknesse and impuritie of the aire doth not I may say to you a little impeach and interrupt the course of the winds Or rather because the sunne with his beames striking through a cold winde is the cause that it passeth the faster away for whatsoever is drawen in by the refrigerative force of the windes the same if it be overcome by heat as his enemie we must thinke is driven and set forward both farther and also with greater celeritie 35 What should be the cause that bees cannot abide smoake WHether is it because the pores and passages of their vitall spirits be exceeding streight and if it chance that smoke be gotten into them and there kept in and intercepted it is enough to stop the poore bees breath yea and to strangle them quite Or is it not the acrimony and bitternesse thinke you of the smoke in cause for bees are delighted with sweet things and in very trueth they have no other nourishment and therefore no marvell if they detest and abhorre smoke as a thing for the bitternesse most adverse and contrary unto them and therefore hony masters when they make a smoke for to drive away bees are woont to burne bitter herbes as hemlock centaury c. 36 What might be the reason that bees will sooner sting those who newly before have committed whoredome IS it not because it is a creature that woonderfully delighteth in puritie cleanlinesse and elegancie and withall she hath a marvellous quicke sense of smelling because therefore such uncleane dealings betweene man and woman in regard of fleshly and beastly lust immoderately performed are wont to leave behind in the parties much filthinesse and impurity the bees both sooner finde them out and also conceive the greater hatred against them heereupon it is that in Theocritus the shepherd after a merry and pleasant maner sendeth Venus away into Anchises to be well stung with bees for her adultery as appeereth by these verses Now go thy wate to Ida mount go to Anchises now Where mightie okes where banks along of square Cypirus grow Where hives and hollow truncks of trees with hony sweet abound Where all the place with humming noise of busie bees resound And Pindarus Thou painfull bee thou pretie creature Who hony-combs six-angled as they be With feet doest frame false Rhoecus and impure With sting hast prickt for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 What is the cause that dogges follow after a stone that is throwen at them and biteth it letting the man alone who flang it IS it because he can apprehend nothing by imagination nor call a thing to minde which are gifts and vertues proper to man alone and therefore seeing he can not discerne nor conceive the partie indeed that offered him injurie he supposeth that to be his enemie which seemeth in his eie to threaten him and of it he goes about to be revenged Or thinking the stone whiles it runnes along the ground to be some wilde beast according to his nature he intendeth to catch it first but afterwards when he seeth himselfe deceived and put besides his reckoning he setteth upon the man Or rather doth he not hate the stone and man both alike but pursueth that onely which is next unto him 38 What is the reason that at a certeine time of the yeere shee woolves doe all whelpe within the compasse of twelve daies ANtipater in his booke conteining the historie of living creatures affirmeth that shee woolves exclude foorth their yoong ones about the time that mast-trees doe shed their blossomes for upon the taste thereof their wombs open but if there be none of such blowmes to be had then their yoong die within the bodie and never come to light He saith moreover that those countries which bring not foorth oaks and mast are never troubled nor spoiled with wolves Some there be who attribute all this to a tale that goes of Latona who being with childe and finding no abiding place of rest and safetie by reason of Juno for the space of twelve daies during which time the went to Delos being transmuted by Jupiter into a wolfe obteined at his hands that all wolves for ever after might within that time be delivered of their yoong 39 How commeth it that water seeming white aloft sheweth to be blacke in the bottome IS it for that depth is the mother of darkenesse as being that which doth dimme and marre the Sunne beames before they can descend so low as it as for the uppermost superficies of the water because it is immediatly affected by the Sunne it must needs receive the white brightnesse of the light the which Empedocles verily approveth in these verses Ariver in the bottome seemes by shade of colour blacke The like is seene in caves and holes by depth where light
reproch or touch notwithstanding shee was yoong and therewith beautifull This fresh widow whiles she treated of a mariage to be made betweene Bacchon a yoong gentleman a neighbours childe whose mother was a very familiar friend of hers a certeine yoong maiden a kinswoman of her owne by often talking with him and frequenting his company much fell herselfe in some fancie with the yoong man Thus both hearing and speaking much good and many kinde speeches of him and seeing besides a number of other gentlemen and persons of good woorth to be enamoured upon him by little and little she also fell to bee in hot love with the youth howbeit with a full intention and resolution to doe nothing that should be dishonest or unbeseeming her place parentage reputation but to be wedded unto Bacchon lawfully in the open sight of the world and so to live with him in the estate of wedlocke As the thing it selfe seemed at the first very strange so the mother of the yoong man of one side doubted and suspected the greatnesse of her state and the nobility magnificence of her house linage as not meet correspondent to his cōdition for to be a lover or to be matched there and on the other side some of his companions who used to ride forth a hunting with him considering that the yoong age of Bacchon was not answerable to the yeeres of Ismenodora buzzed many doubts in his head and frighted him from her what they could saying That she might be his mother and that one of her age was not for him and thus by their jesting and scoffing they hindered the mariage more than they who laboured in good earnest to breake it for hee began to enter into himselfe and considering that he was yet a beardlesse youth and scarcely undergrowen he was abashed and ashamed to mary a widow Howbeit in the end shaking off all others he referred himselfe to Anthemion and Pisias for to tell him their minds upon the point and to advise him for his best Now was Anthemion his cousen german one of good yeeres and elder than himselfe farre and Pisias of all those that made love unto him most austere and therefore he both withstood the mariage and also checked Anthemion as one who abandoned and betraied the yoong man unto Ismenodora Contrariwise Anthemion charged Pisias and said he did not well who being otherwise an honest man yet heerein imitated leawd lovers for that he went about to put his friend beside a good bargaine who now might be sped with so great a mariage out offo worshipfull an house and wealthy besides to the end that he might have the pleasure to see him a long time stripped naked in the wrestling place fresh still and smooth and not having touched a woman But because they should not by arguing thus one against another grow by little and little into heat of choler they chose for umpiers and judges of this their controversie my father and those who were of his company and thither they came assistant also there were unto them other of their friends Daphnaeus to the one and Protogenes to the other as if they had beene provided of set purpose to plead a cause As for Protogenes who sided with Pisias he inveighed verily with open mouth against dame Ismenodora whereupon Daphnaeus O Hercules quoth he what are we not to expect and what thing in the world may not happen in case it be so that Protogenes is ready heere to give defiance and make warre against love who all his life both in earnest and in game hath beene wholy in love and all for love which hath caused him to forget his booke and to forget his naturall countrey not as Laius did who was but five daies journey distant for that love of his was slow and heavy and kept still upon the land whereas your Cupid Protogenes With his light wings displaied and spred Hath over seafull swiftly fled from out of Cilicia to Athens to see faire boies and to converse and goe up and downe with them for to say a trueth the chiefe cause why Protogenes made a voiage out of his owne countrey and became a traveller was at the first this and no other Heere at the company tooke up a laughter and Protogenes Thinke you quoth he that I warre not against love and not rather stande in the defence of love against lascivious wantonnesse and violent intemperance which by most shamefull acts and filthy passions would perforce chalenge and breake into the fairest most honest and venerable names that be Why quoth Daphnaeus then do you terme mariage and the secret of mariage to wit the lawfull conjunction of man and wife most vile and dishonest actions than which there can be no knot nor linke in the world more sacred and holy This bond in trueth of wedlocke quoth Protogenes as it is necessary for generation is by good right praised by Polititians and law-givers who recommend the same highly unto the people and common multitude but to speake of true love indeed there is no jot or part therof in the societie and felowship of women neither doe I thinke that you and such as your selves whose affections stand to wives or maidens do love them no more than a flie loveth milke or a bee the hony combe as caters and cookes who keepe foules in mue and feed calves and other such beasts fatte in darke places and yet for all that they love them not But like as nature leadeth and conducteth our appetite moderately and as much as is sufficient to bread and other viands but the excesse thereof which maketh the naturall appetite to be a vicious passion is called gourmandise and pampering of the flesh even so there is naturally in men and women both a desire to enjoy the mutuall pleasure one of another whereas the impetuous lust which commeth with a kinde of force and violence so as it hardly can be held in is not fitly called love neither deserveth it that name For love if it seise upon a yoong kinde and gentle heart endeth by amity in vertue whereas of these affections and lusts afterwomen if they have successe and speed never so well there followeth in the end the fruit of some pleasure the fruition and enjoying of youth and a beautifull body and that is all And thus much testified Aristippus who when one went about to make him have a distaste and mislike of Lais the curtisan saying that she loved him not made this answer I suppose quoth he that neither good wine nor delicate fish loveth me but yet quoth he I take pleasure and delight in drinking the one and eating the other For surely the end of desire and appetite is pleasure and the fruition of it But love if it have once lost the hope and expectation of amity and kindnesse will not continue nor cherish and make much for beauty sake that which is irksome and odious be it neverso gallant and in
unamiable For the conjunction of man and woman without the affection of love like as hunger and thirst which tend to nothing else but satiety and fulnesse endeth in nought that is good lovely and commendable but the goddesse Venus putting away all lothsome satiety of pleasure by the meanes of love engendred amitie and friendship yea and temperature of two in one And herereupon it is that Parmentdes verily affirmeth love to be the most ancient worke of Venus writing thus in his booke intituled Cosmogenia that is to say the creation of the world And at the first she framed love Before all other gods above But Hesiodus seemeth in mine opinion more physically to have made love more ancient than any other whatsoever to the end that all the rest by it might breed and take beginning If then we bereave this love of the due honours ordained for it certes those which belong to Venus will not keepe their place any longer Neither can it be truely said that some men may wrong and reproch love and forbeare withall to doe injurie unto Venus For even from one and the same stage we doe here these imputations first upon love Love idle is it selfe and in good troth Possesseth such like persons given to sloth And then againe upon Venus Venus my children hath not this onely name Of Venus or of Cypris for the same Answere right well to many an attribute And surname which men unto her impute For hellshe is and also violence That never ends but aie doth recommence And furious rage yong folke for to incense Like as of the other gods there is not one almost that can avoid the approbrious tongue of unlettered rusticity and ignorance For do but consider and observe god Mars who as it were in an Caldaean and Astronomicall table standeth in a place diametrally opposit unto love 〈◊〉 I say what great honours men have yeelded unto him and contrariwise what reprochfull termes they give him againe Mars is starke blinde and seeth not faire dames but like wilde bore By turning all things up side downe works mischeife evermore Homer calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say imbrued with blood and polluted with murders likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say variable and leaping from one side to another As for Chrysippus by ety mologizing and deriving this gods name fastneth upon him a criminous accusation saying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so he is named in Greeke cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to murder and destroy giving thereby occasion unto some to thinke that the facultie and power in us prone to warre fight debate quarrell anger and fell stomacke is called 〈◊〉 that is to say Mars Like as others also will say that concupiscence in us is termed Venus our gift of speaking Mercurie skill in arts and sciences Muses and prudence Minerva See you not how deepe a pit and downefall of Atheisme and impietie is ready to receive and swallow us up in case we range and distribute the gods according to the passions powers faculties and vertues that be in us I see it very well quoth Pemptides but neither standeth it with pietie and religion to make gods to be passions nor yet contrariwise to beleeue that passions be gods How thinke you then quoth my father is Mars a god or a passion of ours Pemptides answered That he thought him to be a god ruling and ordering that part of our soule wherein is seated animositie anger and manly courage What Pemptides cried out my father then hath that turbulent warring overthwart and quarrelling part in us a deitie to be president over it and shall this that breedeth amity societie and peace be without a divine power to governe it Is there indeed a martiall and warlike god of armes called thereupon Stratius and Enyalius who hath the superintendance and presidence of mutuall murders wherein men kill and bekilled of armour weapons arrowes darts and other shot of assaults and scaling walles of saccage pillage and booties Is there never a god to be a witnesse guide director and coadjutour of nuptiall affection and matrimoniall love which endeth in unitie concord and fellowship There is a god of the woods and forests named Agroteros who doth aide assist and encourage hunters in chasing and crying after the roe-bucke the wilde goat the hare and the hart and they who lie in secret wait for to intercept woolves and beares in pitfalles and to catch them with snares make their praiers to Aristaeus Who first as I have heard men say Did grinnes and snares for wilde beasts lay And Hercules when he bent his bowe and was ready to shoot at a bird called upon another god and as Aeschylus reporteth Phoebus the hunter directed by-and-by His arrow straight as it in aire did fly And shall the man who 〈◊〉 after the fairest game in the world even to catch friendship and amitie have no god nor demi-god no angell to helpe to favorise and speed his enterprise and good endevours For mine owne part my friend Daphnaeus I take not man to be a more base plant or viler tree than is the oake the mulberie tree or the vine which Homer honoureth with the name of Hemeris considering that in his time and season he hath a powerfull instinct to bud and put foorth most pleasantly even the beauty both of body and minde Then quoth Daphnaeus who ever was there before God that thought or said the contrary Who answered my father mary even all they verily who being of opinion that the carefull industrie of plowing sowing and planting apperteineth unto the gods For certaine Nymphs they have hight Driades Whose life they say is equall with the trees And as Pindar us writeth God Bacchus who the pure resplendent light Of Autumne is and with his kinde influence Doth nourish trees and cause to graw upright And fructifie at length in affluence Yet for all this are not perswaded that the nouriture and growth of children and yong folke who in their prime and flour of age are framed and shaped to singular beauty and feature of personage belongeth to any one of the gods or demy gods Neither by their saying any deitie or divine power hath the care charge of man that as he groweth he should shoot up streight and arise directly to vertue and that his naturall indument and generous ingenuity should be perverted daunted and quelled either for default of a carefull tutour and directour or through the leawd and corrupt behaviour of bad company about him And verily were it not a shamefull indignity and ingratitude thus to say and in this behalfe to drive God as it were from that bounty and benignity of his to mankinde which being defused spred and dispersed over all is defectious in no part no not in those necessary actions and occasions where of some have their end more needfull iwis many times than lovely or beautifull to see to As for
from it daily is highly to be reckoned and accounted of and therefore neither can the Delphians be noted for follie in that they terme Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a chariot by reason of this yoke-fellowship nor Homer in calling this conjunction of man and wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say amity and friendship Solon likewise is deemed by this to have beene an excellent law-giver and most expert in that which concerneth mariage when he decreed expresly that the husband should thrice in a moneth at the least embrace his wife and company in bed with her not for carnall pleasures sake I assure you but like as cities and states use after a certeine time betweene to renew their leagues and confederacies one with another so he would have that the alliance of mariage should eftsooones be enterteined anew by such solace and delectation after jarres which otherwhiles arise and breed by some bone cast betweene Yea but there be many enormious and furious parts will some one say that are plaied by such as are in love with women And be there not more I pray by those that are enamoured upon boies do but marke him who uttereth these passionate words So often as these eies of mine behold That beardlesse youth that smooth and lovely boy I faint and fall then wish I him to hold Within mine armes and so to die with joy And that on tombe were set where I do lie An Epigram mine end to testifie But as there is a furious passion in some men doting upon women so there is as raging an affection in others toward boies but neither the one nor the other is love Well most absurd it were to say that women are not endued with other vertues for what need we to speake of their temperance and chastity of their prudence fidelity and justice considering that even fortitude it selfe constant confidence and resolution yea and magnaminity is in many of them very evident Now to holde that being by nature not indisposed unto other vertues they are untoward for amitie onely and frendship which is an imputation laid upon them is altogether beside all reason For well knowen it is that they be loving to their children and husbands and this their naturall affection is like unto a fertile field or battell soile capable of amitie not unapt for perswasion nor destitute of the Graces And like as Poesie having sitted unto speech song meeter and thime as pleasant spices to aromatize and season the same by meanes whereof that profitable instruction which it yeeldeth is more attractive and effectuall as also the danger therein more inevitable Even so nature having endued a woman with an amiable cast and aspect of the eie with sweet speech and a beautifull countenance hath given unto her great meanes if she be lascivious and wanton with her pleasure to decive a man and if she be chaste and honest to gaine the good will and favour of her husband Plato gave counsell unto Xenocrates an excellent Philosopher and a woorthy personage otherwise howbeit in his behavior exceeding soure and austere to sacrifice unto the Graces and even so a man might advise a good matron and sober dame to offer sacrifice unto Love for his propitious favour unto mariage and his residence with her and that her husband by her kind loving demeanour unto him may keepe home and not seeke abroad to some other and so be forced in the end to breake out into such speeches as these out of the Comoedie Wretch that I am and man unhappy I So good a wife to quit with injury For in wedlocke to love is a better and greater thing by farre than to be loved for it keepeth folke from falling into many faults slips or to say more truly it averteth them from all those inconveniences which may corrupt marre ruinate a mariage as for those passionate affections which in the beginning of matrimoniall love moove fittes somewhat poinant and biting let me entreat you good friend Zeuxippus not to feare for any exulceration or smart itch that they have although to say a trueth it were no great harme if haply by some little wound you come to be incorporate and united to an honest woman like as trees that by incision are engraffed and grow one within another for when all is said is not the beginning of conception a kinde of exulceration neither can there be a mixture of two things into one unlesse they mutually suffer one of the other be reciprocally affected And verily the Mathematical rudiments which children be taught at the beginning trouble them even as Philosophie also at the first is harsh unto yong men but like as this unpleasantnesse continueth not alwaies with thē no more doeth that mordacity sticke still among lovers And it seemeth that Love at the first resembleth the mixture of two liquors which when they begin to incorporate together boile and worke one with another for even so Love seemeth to make a certaine confused tract and ebullition but after a while that the same be once setled and throughly clensed it bringeth unto Lovers a most firme and assured habit and there is properly that mixtion and temperature which is called universall and thorough the whole whereas the love of other friends conversing and living together may be very well compared to the mixtion which is made by these touching and interlacings of atomes which Epicurus speaketh of and the same is subject to ruptures separations and startings a sunder neither can it possibly make that union which matrimoniall love and mutuall conjunction doeth for neither doe there arise from any other Loves greater pleasures nor commodities more continually one from another ne yet is the benefit and good of any other friendship so honorable or expetible as When man and wife keepe house with one accord And lovingly agree at bed and bord Especially when the law warranteth it and the bond of procreation common betweene them is assistant thereto And verily nature sheweth that the gods themselves have need of such love for thus the Poets say that the heaven loveth the earth and the Naturalists hold that the Sunne likewise is in love with the Moone which every moneth is in conjunction with him by whom also she conceiveth In briefe must it not follow necessarily that the earth which is the mother and breeder of men of living creatures and all plants shall perish and be wholly extinct when love which is ardent desire and instinct inspired from god shall abandon the matter and the matter likewise shall cease to lust and seeke after the principle and cause of her conception But to the end that we may not range too farre nor use any superfluous and nugatory words your selfe doe know that these paederasties are of all other most uncertaine and such as use them are wont to scoffe much thereat and say that the amitie of such boies is in manner of an egge divided
stranger followed after a man of a good and ingenious countenance to see to and who carried in his visage great mildnesse and humanity besides went in his apparel very gravely and decently Now when he had taken his place and was set downe close unto Simmias and my brother next unto me and all the rest as every one thought good after silence made Simmias addressing his speech unto my brother Go to now Epaminondas quoth he what stranger is this from whence commeth he and what may be his name for this is the ordinary beginning and usuall entrance to farther knowledge and acquaintance His name quoth my brother is Theanor ô Simmias a man borne in the city Croton one of them who in those parts professe Philosophy and 〈◊〉 not the glory of great Pythagoras but is come hither from out of Italy a long journey to confirme by good works his good doctrine and profession But you Epaminondas your selfe quoth the stranger then hinder me from doing of all good deeds the best For if it be an honest thing for a man to doe good unto his friends dishonest it cannot be to receive good at their hands for in thanks there is as much need of a receiver as of a giver being a thing composed of them both and tending to a vertuous worke and he that receiveth not a good turne as a tennis ball fairely sent unto him disgraceth it much suffring it to fall short and light upon the ground For what marke is there that a man shooteth at which he is so glad to hit and so sory to misse as this that one worthy of a benefit good turne he either hath it accordingly or faileth thereof unworthily And yet in this comparison he that there in shooting at the marke which standeth still and misseth it is in fault but heere he who refuseth and flieth from it is he that doth wrong and injury unto the grace of a benifit which by his refusall it cannot attaine to that which it tendeth unto As for the causes of this my voiage hither I have already shewed unto you and desirous I am to rehearse them againe unto these gentlemen heere present that they may be judges in my behalfe against you When the colledges and societies of the Pythagorean Philosophers planted in every city of our country were expelled by the strong hand of the seditious faction of the Cyclonians when those who kept still together were assembled and held a counsell in the city of Metapontine the seditious set the house on fire on every side where they were met and burnt them altogether except Philolaus and Lysis who being yet yong active and able of body put the fire by and escaped through it And Phylolaus being retired into the countrey of the Laconians saved himselfe among his friends who began already to rally themselves and grow to an head yea and to have the upper hand of the said Cyclonians As for Lysis long it was ere any man knew what was become of him untill such time as Gorgias the Leontine being sailed backe againe out of Greece into Sicelie brought certeine newes unto Arcesus that he had spoken with Lysis and that he made his abode in the city of Thehes Whereupon Arcesus minded incontinently to embarke and take the sea so desirous he was to see the man but finding himselfe for feeblenesse and age together very unable to persorme such a voiage he tooke order expresly upon his death bed with his friends to bring him over alive if it were possible into Italie or at leastwise if haply he were dead before to convey his bones and reliques over But the warres seditions troubles and tyrannies that came betweene and were in the way expeached those friends that they could not during his life accomplish this charge that he had laied upon them but after that the spirit or ghost of Lysis now departed appearing visibly unto us gave intelligence of his death and when report was made unto us by them who knew the certeine trueth how liberally he was enterteined and kept with you ô Polymnis and namely in a poore house where he was held and reputed as one of the children and in his old age richly mainteined and so died in blessed estate I being a yoong man was sent alone from many others of the ancient sort who have store of money and be willing to bestow the same upon you who want it in recompense of that great favor and gracious friendship of yours extended to him As for Lysis worshipfully he was enterred by you and bestowed in an honourable sepulchre but yet more honourable for him will be that courtesie which by way of recompense is given to his friend by other friends of his and kinsfolke Whiles the stranger spake thus the teares trickled downe my fathers cheeks and he wept a good while for the remembrance of Lysis But my brother smiling upon me as his maner was How shall we do now Caphisias quoth he shall we cast off and abandon our poverty for money and so say no more but keepe silence In no wise quoth I let us not quit and forsake our olde friend and so good a fostresse of yoong folke but defend you it for your turne it is now to speake And yet I quoth he my father feare not that our house is pregnable for money unlesse it be in regard onely of Caphisias who may seeme to have some need of a faire robe to shew himselfe brave and gallant unto those that make love unto him who are in number so many as also of plenty of viands and food to the end that he may endure the toile and travell of bodily exercises and combats which he must abide in the wrestling schooles But seeing this other heere of whom I had more distrust doth not abandon povertie nor reseth out the hereditary indigence of his father house as a tincture and unseemly slaine but although he be yet a yoong man reputeth himselfe gaily set out and adorned with srugality taking a pride therein and resting contented with his present fortunes Wherein should we any more employ out gold and silver if we had it and what use are we to make of it What would you have us to gild our armor and cover our shields as Nicias the Athenian did with purple and gold intermingled therewith And shall we buy for you father a faire mantle of the fine rich cloth of Miletus and for my mother a trim coat of scarlet coloured with purple For surely we will never abuse this present in pampering our bellie feasting our selves and making more sumptuous cheere than ordinary by receiving riches into our house as a costly and chargeable guest Fie upon that my sonne quoth my father God forbid I should ever see such a change in mine house Why quoth he againe we will not sit stil in the house keeping riches with watch and ward idle for so the benefit were not beneficiall but without all grace and
how they should worship and serve God Afterwards he travelled thorowout the world reducing the whole earth to civility by force of armes least of all but winning and gaining the most nations by effectuall remonstrances sweet perswasion couched in songs and with all maner of Musicke whereupon the Greeks were of opinion that he and Bacchus were both one Furthermore the tale goes that in the absence of Osiris Typhon stirred not nor made any commotion for that Isis gave good order to the contrary and was of sufficient power to prevent and withstand all innovations but when he was returned Tyyhon complotted a conspiracy against him having drawen into his confederacy seventy two complices besides a certeine queene of Aethiopia who likewise combined with him and her name was Aso. Now when he had secretly taken the just measure and proportion of Osiris body he caused a coffer or hutch to be made of the same length and that most curiously and artificially wrought and set out to the eie he tooke order that it should be brought into the hall where he made a great feast unto the whole company Every man tooke great pleasure with admiration to beholde such a singular exquisit piece of worke and Typhon in a meriment stood up and promised that he would bestow it upon him whose body was meet fit for it hereupon all the company one after another assaied whose body would fit it but it was not found proportionate nor of a just size to any of all the rest at length Osiris gat up into it and laied him there along with that the conspiratours ran to it and let downe the lidde and cover thereof upon him and partly with nailes and partly with melted lead which they powred aloft they made it sure enough and when they had so done caried it forth to the river side and let it downe into the sea at the verie mouth of Nilus named Taniticus which is the reason that the said mouth is even to this day odious and execrable among the Aegyptians insomuch as they call it Cataphyston that is to say Abominable or to be spit at Over and besides it is said that this fell out to be done upon the seventeenth day of the moneth named Athyr during which moneth the Sunne entreth into the signe Scorpius and in the eight and twentieth yeere of Osiris reigne howbeit others affirme that he lived in deed but reigned not so long Now the first that had an inckling and intelligence of this hainous act were the Panes and Satyres inhabiting about Chennis who began to whisper one unto another to talke thereof which is the reason that all sudden tumults and troubles of the multitude and common people be called Panique affrights Moreover it followeth on in the tale that Isis being advertised hereof immediatly cut off one of the tresses of her haire and put on mourning weeds in that place which now is called the city Coptus in remembrance thereof howsoever others say that this word Coptos betokeneth Privation for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke signifieth as much as to deprive In this dolefull habit she wandred up and downe in great perplexity to heare tidings of Osiris and whomsoever she met withall she failed not to enquire of them and she missed not so much as little children playing together but asked them whether they had seene any such coffer at length she light of those children who had seene it indeed and they directed her to the mouth of the river Nilus where the complices and associats of Typhon had let the said vessell into the sea And ever since that time the Aegyptians are of opinion that yoong children have the gift of revealing secrets and they take all their words which they passe in play and sport as offes and presages but especially within the temples what matter soever it be that they prattle of Moreover when Isis understood that Osiris fell in love with her sister Nephthys thinking she was Isis and so carnally companied with her and withall found a good token thereof to wit a chaplet or garland of Melilot which he had left with Nephthe she went for to seeke her babe for presently upon the birth of the infant for feare of Typhon she hid it and when with much adoe and with great paines taken Isis had found it by the meanes of certeine hounds which brought her to the place where he was she reared and brought it up in such sort as when he came to some bignesse he became her guide and squire named Anubis who also is said to keepe the gods like as dogs guard men After this she heard newes of the foresaid coffer and namely that the waves of the sea had by tides cast it upon the coast of Byblus where by a billow of water it was gently brought close to the foot of a shrubbe or plant called Erice now this Erice or Tamarix in a small time grew so faire and spread forth so large and big branches withall that it compassed enclosed and covered the said coffer all over so as it could not be seene The king of Byblus wondring to see this plant so big caused the branches to be lopped off that covered the foresaid coffin not seene and of the truncke or body thereof made a pillar to sustaine the roofe of his house whereof Isis by report being advertised by a certaine divine spirit or winde of flying fame came to Byblus where she sat her downe by a certeine fountaine all heavie and in distresse pitiously weeping to herselfe neither spake she a word unto any creature onely the Queenes waiting maids and women that came by she faluted and made much of plaiting and broiding the 〈◊〉 of their haire most exquisitly and casting from her into them a marvellous sweet and pleasant sent issuing from her body whiles she dressed them The queene perceiving her women thus curiously and trimly set out had an earnest desire to see this stranger aswell for that she yeelded such an odoriferous smell from her body as because she was so skilfull in dressing their heads so she sent for the woman and being growen into some familiar acquaintance with her made her the nourse and governesse of her yoong sonne now the kings name himselfe was 〈◊〉 and the queenes Astarte or rather Saofis or as some will have it Nemanous which is as much to say in the Greeke tongue as Athenais And the speech goes that Isis suckled and nourished this infant by putting her finger in stead of the brest-head or nipple into the mouth thereof also that in the night season she burnt all away that was mortall of his body and in the end was herselfe metamorphized and turned into a swallow flying and lamenting after a moaning maner about the pillar aforesaid untill such time as the queene observing this and crying out when she saw the body of her child on a light fire bereaved it of immortality Then Isis being discovered
the base to the female and the Hypotinusa to the issue of them both And verily Osiris representeth the beginning and principle Isis that which receiveth and Horus the compound of both For the number of three is the first odde and perfect the quaternarie is the first square or quadrate number composed of the first even number which is two and five resembleth partly the father and in part the mother as consisting both of two and three And it should seeme also that the very name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the universall world was derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say five and so in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in old time signified as much as to number and that which more is five being multiplied in it selfe maketh a quadrat number to wit twentie five which is just as many letters as the Aegyptians have in their alphabet and so many yeeres Apis also lived And as for Horus they used to call him Kaimin which is as much to say as seene for that this word is sensible and visible Isis likewise is sometime called Mouth otherwhiles Athyri or Methyer And by the first of these names they signifie a Mother by the second the faire house of Horus like as Plato termeth it to be the place capable of generation the third is compounded of Full and the cause for Matter is full of the world as being maried and keeping companie with the first principle which is good pure and beautifully adorned It should seeme haply also that the Poet Hesiodus when he saith that all things at the first were Chaos Earth Tartarus and Love groundeth upon no other principles than those which are signified by these names meaning by the Earth Isis by Love Osiris and by Tartarus Typhon as we have made demonstration For by Chaos it seemes that he would understand some place receptacle of the world Moreover in some sort these matters require the fable of Plato which in his booke entituled Symposium Socrates inferred namely wherein he setteth downe the generation of Love saying that Penia that is to say povertie desirous to have children went and lay with Poros that is to say riches and slept with him by whom she conceived with childe and brought foorth Love who naturally is long and variable and begotten of a father who is good wife and al-sufficient and of a mother who is poore needy and for want desirous of another and evermore seeking and following after it For the foresaid Poros is no other but the first thing amiable desireable perfect and sufficient As for Penia it is matter which of it selfe is evermore bare and needy wanting that which is good whereby at length she is conceived with childe after whom she hath a longing desire and evermore ready to receive somewhat of him Now Horus engendred betweene them which is the world is not eternall nor impassible nor incorruptible but being evermore in generation he endevoreth by vicissitude of mutations and by periodicall passion to continue alwaies yoong as if he should never die and perish But of such fables as these we must make use not as of reasons altogether really subsisting but so as we take out of ech of them that which is meet and convenient to our purpose When as therefore we say Matter we are not to rely upon the opinions of some Philosophers and to thinke it for to be a bodie without soule without qualitie continuing in it selfe idle and without all action whatsoever for we call oile the matter of a perfume or ointment and gold the matter of an image or statue which notwithstanding is not voide of all similitude and even so we say that the very soule and understanding of a man is the matter of vertue and of science which we give unto reason for to bring into order and adorne And some there were who affirmed the minde or understanding to be the proper place of formes and as it were the expresse mould of intelligible things like as there be Naturalists who hold that the seed of a woman hath not the power of a principle serving to the generation of man but standeth in stead of matter and nourishment onely according unto whom we also being grounded heerein are to thinke that this goddesse having the fruition of the first and chiefe god and conversing with him continually for the love of those good things vertues which are in him is nothing adverse unto him but loveth him as her true spouse and lawfull husband and like as we say that an honest wife who enjoieth ordinarily the company of her husband loveth him neverthelesse but hath still a minde unto him even so giveth not she over to be enamoured upon him although she be continually where he is and replenished with his principall and most sincere parts But when and where as Typhon in the end thrusteth himselfe betweene and setteth upon the extreme parts then and there she seemeth to be sadde and heavy and thereupon is said to mourne and lament yea and to seeke up certeine reliques and pieces of Osiris and ever as she can sinde any she receiveth and arraieth them with all diligence and as they are ready to perish and corrupt she carefully tendeth and keepeth them close like as againe she produceth and bringeth foorth other things to light of her selfe For the reasons the Idaeae and the influences of God which are in heaven and among the starres doe there continue and remaine but those which be disseminate among the sensible and passible bodies in the earth and in the sea diffused in the plants and living creatures the same dying and being buried doe many times revive and rise againe fresh by the meanes of generations And heereupon the fable saith thus much more that Typhon cohabiteth and lieth with Nephthys and that Osiris also by stealth and secretly keepeth company with her for the corruptive and destroying power doeth principally possesse the extreme parts of that matter which they name Nephthys and death and the generative preserving vertue conferreth into it little seed the same weake and feeble as being marred and destroied by Typhon unlesse it be so much as Isis gathereth up saveth which she also norisheth mainteineth But in one word to speake more generally he is stil better as Plato Aristotle are of opinion for the naturall puissance to engender to preserve moveth toward him as to a subsistance and being whereas that force of killing destroying moveth behind toward non subsistence which is the reason that they call the one Isis that is to say a motion animate and wise as if the word were derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to move by a certeine science and reason for a barbarous word it is not But like as the generall name of all gods and goddesses to wit Theos is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of visible and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Nisus 893.20 Abyrtacae 703.50 Academiques 1122.30 Acca Larentia one a courtisane and another the nourse of Romulus Remus 862.30 Acca Larentia honored at Rome 862.20.30 Acca Larentia surnamed Fabula how she came renowmed 862.30 Inheritresse to Taruntius 863.1 made Rome her heire ib. Acco and Alphito 1065.1 Acephati verses in Homer 140.20 Acesander a Lybian Chronicler 716.30 Acheron what it signifieth 515.50 Achilles well seene in Physicke 34.30 729.50 Praiseth himselfe without blame 304.50 commended for avoiding occasions of anger 40.50 his continencie 43.30 charged by Vlysses for sitting idlely in Scytos 46.1 of an implacable nature 720.10 noted for anger 〈◊〉 24.26 he loved not wine-bibbing 720.20 whom he invited to the funerall feast of Patroclus 786.40 noted for his fell nature 106.40 his discretion betweene Menelaus and Antilochus 648.30 he kept an hungrie table 750.1 he digested his choler by Musicke 1261.40 noted for a wanton Catamite 568.30 killed by Paris 793.50 Achillium 899.1 Achrades wilde peares 903.40 Acidusa 901.20 Acratisma that is to say a breakfast whereof it is derived 775.20 Acratisma and Ariston supposed to be both one 775.30 Acroames or Ear-sports which be allowed at supper time 758.30 Acron the Physician how he cured the plague 1319.1 Acrotatus his Apophthegmes 453.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who they be 604.20 Actaeon the sonne of Melissus a most beautifull youth his pitifull death 945.30 945.40 Action all in all in Eloquence 932.1 Actus the dogge of one Pyrrhus 963.40 Active life 9.40 Ada Queene of Caria 596.20 Ades what it signifieth 608.30 1000.10 Adiaphora 69.1 Adimantus a noble captaine debased by Herodotus 1243.30.40 what names Adimantus gave unto his children 1244.20 Adipsa 339.1 Admetus 1146 Admirable things not to be discredited 723.1 Admiration of other men in a meane 55.20 to Admire nothing Niladmirari 59 Adonis thought to be Bacchus 711.40 Adrastia 557.40 1050.20 Adrastia and Atropos whereof derived 1080.30 Adrastus reviled by Alcmaeon 240.30 he requiteth Alcmaeon ib. Adulterie of Mars and Venus in Homer what it signifieth 25.10 Adulterie strange in Sparta 465.10 Aeacium a priviledged place 933.50 Aeacus a judge of the dead 532.20 Aeantis a tribe at Athens 659.40 never adjudged to the 〈◊〉 place 659.50 highly praised 660.20 whereof it tooke the name ib. 40 Aegeria the nymph 633.30 Aegipan 913.1 Aegipans whence they come 568.50 Aegles wings consume other feathers 723.20 Aegon how he came to be king of the Argives 1281.1 Aegyptians neither sowe nor eat beanes 777.20 Aegyptian priestes absteine from salt 728.1 and sish 778.30 Aegyptian kings how chosen 1290.40 Aegypt in old time Sea 1303.40 Aemylij who they were called 917.30 Aemilius a tyrant 916.40 Aemilius Censorinus a bloudie prince 917.20 Aemilius killeth himselfe 912.30 Aeneas at sacrifice covered his head 854.1 Aeneans their wandering their voiage 891.50 896.10.20 Aeolies who they be 899.30 Aequality which is commendable 768.1 Aequality 679.30 Aequality of sinnes held by Stoiks 74.40 Aequinoctiall circle 820.40 Aeschines the oratour his parentage 926.40 Aeschines the oratour first acted tragoedies 926.50 his emploiments in State affaires 927.1 banished 927.10 his oration against Ctesiphon ib. 20. his saying to the Rhodians as touching Demosthenes ib. his schole at Rhodes ib. his death ib. his orations ib. 30. he endited Timarchus ib. 40. his education and first rising 927.30.40 Aescre what fiend or Daemon 157.30 Aeschylus wrote his tragoedies being well heat with wine 763.40 his speech of a champion at the Isthmicke games 39.10 his tragoedies conceived by the insluence of Bacchus ib. entombed in a strange countrey 277.20 Aesculapius the patron of 〈◊〉 997.20 his temple why without the citie of Rome 881.1 Aesops fox and the urchin 392.20 Aesope with his tale 330.30 his fable of the dog 338.20 Aesope executed by the Delphians 549.10 his death revengeà and expiated ib. 20. Aesops hen and the cat 188.50 Aesops dogs and the skins 1091.20 Aethe a faire mare 43.20.565.40 Aether the skie 819.10 In Aethiopia they live not long 849.50 Aetna full of flowers 1011.10 Affabilitie commendeth children and yoong folke 12.1 commendable in rulers 378.30 Affections not to be cleane rooted out 76.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what day it was 785.1 Agamedes Trophonius built the temple at Delphi 1518.20 Agamemnon clogged with cares 147.50 Agamemnon noted for Paederastie 568.30 Agamemnon murdered treacherously 812.1 noted in Homer for pride 24.10 Agamemnon his person how compounded 1284.1 Agamestor how he behaved himselfe at a mery meeting 653.10 Aganide skilfull in Astronomie 324.40 Agathocles his Apophthegmes 407.40 being of base parentage he came to be a great Monarch 307.40 his patience 126.1 Agave enraged 314.1 Aged rulers ought to be mild unto yoonger persons growing up under them 398.10 Aged rulers paterns to yoonger 392.40 Age of man what it is 1328.1 Agenor his sacred grove 903.30 Agenorides an ancient Physician 683.40 Agesicles his apophthegms 444.1 Agesilaus the brother of Themistocles his valour and resolution 906.40.50 K. Agesilaus fined for giving presents to the Senatours of Sparta newly created 179.20 he avoided the occasions of wantonnesse 41. 10. his lamenesse 1191.20 of whom he desired to be commended 92. 30. his Apophthegmes 424. 10. he would have no statues made for him after his death ib. 50. commended in his olde age by Xenophon 385.1 Agesilaus the Great his Apophthegmes 444.10 Agesilaus noted for partialitie 445.50 his sober diet 446.10 his continencie 445. 20. his sufferance of paine and travell 446.10 his temperance ib. 30 his faithfull love to his countrey 450. 1. his tendernesse over his children ib. his not able stratageme 451.10 he served under K. Nectanebas in Aegypt 451.20 his death ib. 30. his letter for a friend to the perverting of justice 360.10 too much addicted to his friends 359.50 K. Agesipolis his Apophthegms 451.40 Agesipolis the sonne of Pausanias his Apophthegmes 451.50 Agias given to bellie cheere 679.20 Agis a worthy prince 400.30 his Apophthegmes 423.40 Agis the yonger his Apophthegms 425.1 Agis the sonne of Archidamus his Apophthegmes 452.1 Agis the yonger his apophthegms 452.50 Agis the last king of the Lacedaemonians his apophthegmes 453.1 his death ib. Agis the Argive a cunning flatterer about K. Alexander the Great 98.20 Aglaonice well seene in Astrologie how she deluded the wives of Thessalie 1329.10 Agrioma a feast 899.40 Agronia 765.30 Agroteros 1141.20 Agrotera a surname of Diana 1235.20 Agrypina talkative 206.30 Ajax Telamonius how he came in the twentieth place to the lotterie 790.50 his feare compared with that of Dolon 74.50 Aigos Potamoi 1189.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what place 821.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 788.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth in some Poets 29.40 Ainautae who they be 897.50 Aire how made 808.40 the primitive colde 995.40 Aire or Spirit the beginning of all things 806.1 why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 995.50 Aire the very body and substance of voice 771.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth in Homer 737.1 Aix 891.10 Al what parts it hath
governour of all moisture 1301.40 Bactrians desire to have their dead bodies devoured by birds of the aire 299.50 Baines and stouphes 612.1 in old time very temperate 783.30 the occasion of many diseases 783.30 Balance not to be passed over 15.10 Ballachrades 903.30 Bal what it signifieth in the Aegyptian language 1319.1 Banishment of Bulimus 738.20 Banishment how to be made tolerable 275.1.10 no marke of infamie 278.20 seemeth to be condemned by Euripides ib. 30 Banished persons we are all in this world 281.20 Banquet of the seven Sages 326.30 Barbarians and Greeks compared 39.40 Barbell the fish honoured 976.40 Barbers be commonly praters 200.40 a pratling Barber checked k. Archelaus 408.10 Barber to K. 〈◊〉 crucified for his 〈◊〉 tongue 200.30 Barbers shops dry bankets 721.20 a Barber handled in his kinde for his 〈◊〉 tongue 201.1 Barly likes well in sandy ground 1008.10.20 Barrennesse in women how occasioned 844.20 Evill Bashfulnesse cause of much 〈◊〉 danger 165.10.20.30 over-much Bashfulnesse how to be avoided 164.30 Bashfulnesse 163.10 of two sorts 72.1 Bashfulnesse to be avoided in diet 613.1 Bathing in cold water upon exercise 620.20 Bathing in hot water ib. 30. Bathing and 〈◊〉 before meat 612.20 Bathyllion 759.10 Battus the sonne of Arcesilaus 504.30 Battus a buffon or 〈◊〉 775.10 Battus surnamed Daemon 504.20 Battus 1199.20 Beanes absteined from 15.20 Beare a subtill beast 965.10 why they are saide to have a sweet hand 1010.50 why they gnaw not the 〈◊〉 1012.30 tender over their yoong 218.20 a Bearded comet 827.20 Beasts haue taught us Physicke al the parts thereof 967.60 Beasts capable of vertue 564.50 docible apt to learne arts 570.1 able to teach ib. 10. we ought to have pittie of them 575.30 brute Beasts teach parents naturall kindnesse 217.218 Beasts braines in old time rejected 783.10 they cure themselves by Physicke 1012.1 Beasts of land their properties 958.50 what beasts will be mad 955.20 beasts not sacrificed without their owne consent 779.20 skilful in Arithmetick 968.20 kind to their yong 218.10 beasts wilde what use men make of them 237.40 of land or water whether have more use of reason 951. 30. beasts have use of reason 954.955 how to be used without injurie 956.40 how they came first to be killed 779.10 whether they feed more simply than we 702.1 whether more healthfull than men 702.1 Beauty the blossome of vertue 1153.10 beauty of what worth 6.50 beauty of woman called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 728.50 beauty without vertue not 〈◊〉 47.1 Beboeon 1370.40 Bebon ib. Bed of maried folke 〈◊〉 many quarrels betweene them 322 20. bed-clothes to bee shuffled when we be newly risen 777.40 Bees of Candie how witty they be 959. 50. bees cannot abide smoke 1014.30 they sting unchaste persons ib. 40. the bee a wise creature 218.1 The Beetill flie what it signisieth 〈◊〉 1291.30 why honoured by the Aegyptians 1316.30 Beer a counterfeit wine 685.40 Begged flesh what is ment by it 891.50 Bellerophontes continent everie way 739.30 Bellerophontes commended for his continence 42.30.139.30 he slew Chimarchus 489.10 not rewarded by Iobates ib. Belestre 1137.1 The Bellies of dead men how they be served by the Aegyptians 576.40 of belly belly cheere pro contra 339.340 belly pleasures most esteemed by lipicurus and Metrodorus 595. 10. belly hath no cares 620.40 Bepolitanus strangely escaped execution 502.40 Berronice the good wife of 〈◊〉 1111.40 〈◊〉 detected for killing his father 545.30 Bias his answer to a pratling fellow 194.20 his answer to king Amasis 327.10 his apophthegme 456.1 his apophthegme touching the most dangerous beast 47.30 Binarie number 807.10 Binarie number or Two called contention 1317.30 Bion his answere to Theognis 28.20 his apophthegme 254. 50. his saying of Philosophie 9.1 〈◊〉 hath divers significations 29.20 Birds why they have no wezill flap 745.10 birds how they drinke 745.10 skilfull in divination 968.40 taught to imitate mans mans voice 966.30 Biton and Cleobis rewarded with death 518.10 See Cleobis Bitternesse what effects it worketh 656.10 a 〈◊〉 of his toong how he was served by K. Seleucus 200.20 Blacknesse commeth of water 997. 10 Blacke potage at Lacedaemon 475. 20 Bladder answereth to the winde-pipe like as the guts to the wezand 745.20 Blames properly imputed for vice 47.30 Blasing 〈◊〉 827.10 The Blessed state of good folke departed 530.50 Bletonesians sacrificed a man 878.10 Blushing face better than pale 38 50 Bocchoris a k. of AEgypt 164.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 898.40 Bodily health by two arts preserved 9.10 Body fitter to entertaine paine than pleasure 583.10 body feeble no hinderance to aged rulers 389.40 bodies what they be 813. bodies smallest 813.50 body cause of all vices and calamities 517.30 body may well have an action against the soule 625.1 much injuried by the soule ib. Boeotarchie 367.10 Boeotians good trencher men 669 10. noted for gluttony 575.1 Boeotians reproched for hating good letters 1203.50 Boldnesse in children and youth 8.40 Bona a goddesse at Rome 856.50 Books of Philosophers to be read by yoong men 9.50 Boreas what winde 829.30 Bottiaeans 898.30 their virgins song ib. Brasidas his saying of a silly mouse 251.20 Brasidas his apophthegmes 423. 30.456.1 his death and commendation ib. 10 A Brason spike keepeth dead bodies from putrefaction 697.50 Brasse swords or speares wounde with lesse hurt 698.1 Brasse why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 698.1 why it is so resonant 770.10 Brasse of Corinth 1187.1 Bread a present remedie for fainting 739.1 Brennus king of the Gallogreeks 910.40 Brethren how they are to divide their patrimonie 180.40 one brother ought not to steale his fathers heart from another 179 30. they are to excuse one another to their parents 179.50 how they should cary themselves in regard of age 184.185 Briareus a giant the same that Ogygius 1180.20 Bride lifted over the threshold of her husbands dore 860.30 bridegrome commeth first to his bride without a light 872.10 20. bride why she eateth a quince before she enter into the bed-chamber 872.20 brides haire parted with a javelin 879. 50 Brimstone why called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 705.30 Brison a famous runner 154.30 Brotherly amity a strange thing 174.20 Brutus surprised with the hunger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 738.50 his gracious thankefulnesse to the 〈◊〉 739.1 Decim Brutus why he sacrificed to the dead in December 862. 10 Brutus beheadeth his owne sonnes 909.50 The Bryer bush 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 892. 50 Bubulci the name at Rome how it came 865.10 Bucephalus K. Alexanders horse 963.50 how he was woont to ride him 396.20 Buggery in brute beasts not known 568.30 Building costly forbidden by Lycurgus 577.30.880.1 Bulb roote 704.20 Buls and beares how they prepare to fight 959.1 Buls affraied of red clothes tied to figge-trees become tame 323. 741.30 Bulla what ornament or jewell 40. why worne by Romaines children 883.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fainting
her daughters their wofull end 948.40 Democritus studious in searching the causes of things 660. 〈◊〉 Democritus commended 1128.1 his opinion as touching dreames 784.20 his opinion as touching Atomes 807. 40. what he thought of God 812.1 Democritus a brave captaine et sea 1242. 〈◊〉 Demodorus an ancient Musician 1249.40 Demonides his shoes 23.10 Demosthenes the oratour never dranke wine 792.50 he loved not to speak unpremeditate 355 10. his parentage education and life 930.50 he called judicially to account his tutors or Guardian 931.10 he sued Midias in an action of battery 931.20 his painfull studie ib. how he corrected his evill gestures ib. 30. his defects in nature ib. 40. his exercise of declaiming by the seaside ib. he sided against the faction of K. Philip. 931.40 encouraged by Eunomus and Andronicus ib. 50. his speech of Action in eloquence 932.1 flowted by Comicall Poets for his broad othes in pleading 932.1 he mainteineth the pronouncing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the accent over the second syllable 932.10 Demosthenes dashed Lamachus out of countenance 932.20 commended by K. Philip for his eloquence 932.20 his kindnesse unto Aeschines 932.40 disgraced at his first comming to the barre 398.20 accused and quit ib. his timorousnesse ib. 50. his Motor device upon his targuet ib. not blamed in his orations for praising himself 304.50.305.1 his imploiment and good service in the Common weale 933.1 his honours that he obteined ib. 10. noted for bribery and corruption ib. 20. condemned and banished ib. recalled home by a publique decree ib. 30. he flieth and taketh Sanctuary ib. 40. his answer as touching premeditate speech 8.1 his statue with his owne Epigram 934. 10. his death ib. his issue ib. 30. honours done unto him after death ib. 40. he first made an oration with a sword by his side 934.30 his orations ib. 50. surnamed Batalus for his riotous life ib. scoffed at by Diogenes the Cynicke 935.1 his tale of the asse and the shadow 935. 10. his apophthegme to Polus the great actour 935.20 he studied his orations much ib. 30. how he tooke the death of his only daughter 529.40 Denary or Ten the perfection of numbers 806.40 Deniall of unjust and unlawfull requests 170.20 Denys the Tyrant 296.40 Denys of Sicily abused by slatterers 93.40 how he served a minstrell 56.1 Denys the tyrants wife and children cruelly abused by the Italians 377.1 his cruelty to Philoxenus the Poet. 1274.1 Denys the elder could not abide idlenesse 394.30 how he named his three daughters 1278.30 his witty apophthegmes 406.10 the yoonger his apophthegmes 407.20 his apophthegme 1268.50 his base nigardise to an excellent Musician 1273.30 his proud vain-glory 1278.20 Dercillidas his apophthegmes 456.30 Deris what Daemon 157.30 Destinies three 797.40 Destiny or fatall necessitie 816.40 what it is 817.1 substance thereof what it is ib. 50 Deucalion his deluge 961.50 Dexicreon a cousening Mount-banke or Merchant venturer 904.1 Diagoras of Melos 810.40 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of two sorts 758.40 whether they ought to be rehearsed at supper time 759.50 Dianaes temple at Rome why men do not enter into 851.10 Diana but one 796.20 the same that the Moone 697.20 her attributes given by Timotheus 28.10 her temple within the Aventine hill why beautified with Cowes hornes 851.20 Diana Chalceoecos 455.10 surnamed Dictynna 978.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how defined 953.1 Diapason what symphonie in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente what symphony in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diaphantus his apophthegme 2.30 Diatessaron what symphony in Musicke 1035.50 Diatessaron in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diatonique Musicke 796.40 Diatrion in tempering wine and water 695.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 736.50 〈◊〉 the citie perished 1190.20 Dice 295.20.557.50 Dictamnus the herbe medicinable 968.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.20 Diesis 1037.40 Diet exquisit condemned 617.40 620.20 Diet for sicke persons 611.40 Diet for men in health 612.10 Diet physicke taught us by brute beasts 969.10 Differring of punishmēt 540.1.10 Digestion of meats how hindered 701.1.10 Diligence supplieth the defect of nature 3.20 the power thereof ib. 30 Dinaea what Daemon 157.30 Dinarchus the orator his life and acts 937.30 his voluntary extle ib. 50 Dino a great captaine 901.30 Dinomenes what oracle he received as touching his sonnes 1197 20 Diogenes smote the master for the scholars misbehaviour 81.40 his free speech to K. Philip. 111.10 Diogenes the Sinopian a Philosopher abandoned the world 249.20 Diogenes compared himselfe with the great king of Persia. 250.1 Diogenes the Cynicke his apophthegme unto a boy drunken 250 Diogenes his patience 128.20 his speech to a yoonker within a Taverne 254.30 Diogenes the Cynicke his answer as touching his banishment 273 20. he contemned slavery 299.20 Diogenes master to Antisthenes 666.1 Diogenes rebuketh Sophocles about the mysteries of Ceres 28.10 his apophthegme as touching revenge of an enemie 28.1 concerning fleshly pleasure 6.30 his silthy wantonnes 1069.1 his franke speech to K. Philip 279.10 Diognetus sansieth Polycrite 497.1 Dion how he tooke the death of his owne sonne 525.40 through foolish bashfulnesse came to his death 165. 30. his apophthegmes 408.1 Dionysius See Denys Dionysus Eleutherios 885.1 Dioscuri two starres 822.10 Dioxippus rebuked by Diogenes for his wandering and wanton eie 141.20 his opinion as touching the passage of our meats and drinks 745.1 Dis diapason 1037.30 Discontentednesse in Alexander the great 147.40 Discourse of reason what it is 839 40 Diseases of a strange maner 782.40 Diseases of the body which be worst 313.30 Diseases of the soule woorse than those of the body 313.10 Diseases have their avantcurriers or forerunners 616.20 Diseases how they arise 781.10 Diseases new how they come 781.20 Diseases which were first 782.1 a Dish of sowes paps 613.50 Disme or tenth of goods why offered to Hercules 855.50 Disputation what maner of exercise 619.30 Disputation after meales 622.50 Distances betweene sunne moone and the earth 1165.30 Dithyrambs what verses songs 1358.10 they sort well with Bacchus 1358.10 Diversitie 65.40 Divine what things be called 728 20.30 Divine knowledge or doctrine of the gods seven folde 810.10 Divine providence what it is 1052 50 Divine providence denied by the Epicureans 598.1 Divine service most delectable ib. 40 Divine power author of no ill nor subject thereto 600.1 Divination of many kinds 841.10 Divination ascribed to Bacchus 1764.10 Divination by dreames 784.10 Divination dented by the Epicureans 598.1 Docana what images they were 174.1 Doctrine and life ought to go together 1057.40 Dodecaedron 1020.40.819.20 Dogs sacrificed by the Greeks in all expiations 873.1 odious unto Hercules 880.30 not allowed to come into the castle of Athens 886. 50. esteemed no cleane creatures 887.10 sacrificed to infernall gods and to Mars 887.20 Sea Dogs how kind they be to their yoong ones 218.20.976.40 Dog how subtill he is 959.40 Dogs their admirable qualities 962.20 a Dog discovereth the murderer of his master ib. 30 a Dog detecteth the murder of Hesiodus ib. 40 Dogs gentle and couragious withall 964.10
an Indian Dog of rare 〈◊〉 964.10 a Dog counterfeited a part in a play 967.30 Dogs crucified at Rome 638.30 a Dog saluted as king in AEthiopia 1087.40 a Dog resembleth Anubis 1305.10 a Dog why so much honoured in AEgypt 1305.20 Dogs why they pursue the stone that is throwen at the. 1015.10 a Dog why he resembleth Mercurie 1291.40 Dolphins loving to mankind 344.30.751.20.979.1.10 delighted in Musicke ib. Dolphins spared by fishers 344.30 a Dolphin saved a maidens life 344.40 a Dolphin the armes that Vlysses bare in his shield 980.20 Dolphins how affectionate to a boy of Jasos 979.40 Dolphin how crafty he is and hard to be caught 972.10 Dolphins in continuall motion 974.1 C. Domitius his apophthegme 431.30 he overthrew K. Antiochus ib. Dorian Musicke commended by Plato 1253.40 Dorians pray to have an ill hey harvest 1008.10 Doryxenus who it is 893.30 Cocke Doves squash their hennes egges 954.20 Dragon consecrated to Bacchus 699.20 A Dragon enamoured of a yong damosell 966.10 who never Dreamed in all their life time 1349.50 Dreames to be considered in case of health 618.10 Dreames how they come 841.30 how to be regarded 255.10 Dreames in Autumne little to be regarded 784. 1. the reason thereof ib. how to be observed in the progresse of vertue 255.10 Drinke whether it passe through our lungs 743.20 the wagon of our meat 743.50 Drinkes which are to be taken heed of 613.30 Drinking leisurely moistneth the belly 743.50 Drinke five or three but not foure 695.20 Dromoclides a great states man in Athens 348 40 Drunkenesse what persons it soonest assaileth 652.10 Drunckenesse is dotage 765.20 Faults committed in Drunkenesse doubly punished 336.50 Halfe Drunke more brainsicke than those who be thorow drunke 694.20 Drunkenesse most to blame for intemperate speech 194.10 how defined 194.40 soone bringeth age 690.10 Dryades what Nymphs 1141.30 Duality the authour of disorder and of even numbers 1341.1 Duplicity of the soule 65.40 Dying is a kinde of staining or infection 774.40 Dysopia what it is 163.20 E EAres give passage to vertue for to enter into yong mens mindes 52.10 Eare delights are dangerous 18.40 Eare-sports how to be used 〈◊〉 10. when to be used at a feast 761.30 Eares of children and yong 〈◊〉 how to be desended 52.10 Earely eating condemned in olde time 775.30 Earth whether it be the element of colde 999.40 Earth called Estia or Vesta wherefore 1002.1 Earth by god not alwaies placed below 649.1 Earth whether but one or twaine 829.50 Earth what prerogative it hath 1345.30 what it is 830. 1. what forme it hath 830. 10 the situation thereof 830.10 why it bendeth southerly 830.30 Earth whether it moove or 〈◊〉 830.40 Earthquakes how occasioned 831.20 Earth corrupteth waters 〈◊〉 it causeth diversity of waters 774.40 Earth for the most part not inhabited 1177.40.50 Echemythia 139.10 Echeneis a fish 676.10 the reason how she staieth a ship 676.50 Echo how it is caused 839.20 In Eclipses of the moone why they rung basons 1183.20 Eclipses of the Sunne 1171.20.30 Eclipses why more of the Moone then of Sunne 1172. 10. of eclipses the cause 1172.10 Education of what power it is 4.10.6.40 Eeles comming to hand 970.1 Eeles bred without generation of male or female 672.10 Egge or henne whether was before 669.50 Egges resemble the principles of all things 670.50 The Egge whereof came Castor and Pollux 671.20 E. signifieth the number five 1354 30 EI. written upon the temple at Delphi what it signifieth 1353 30.1354 EI. an gold in brasse and in wood 1354.30 EI. a stone 345.20 EI. as much as 〈◊〉 EI. of what force it is in logicke 1355. why E. is preferred before other letters 1356.40 Eight resembleth the female 884.20 Eight the first cubicke number 884.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both the fruit and the tree of the olive 32.1 Elaeus the city whereof it tooke the name 917.40 Elaphebolia a feast when instituted 485.10.699.50 Elasiae who they be 895.40 Electra concubine to Deiotarus with the privity and permission of his wife 50.40 Elegie whose invention 1257.10 Elements 4. 994.40 which be elements 805.10.808.1 Elements before elements 813.50 Eleon 901.10.20 Elephants how they be prepared for fight 959.1 Elephants docible 961.10 their wit patience and mildenesse 961.30 Elephant of king Porus how dutifull unto him 963.40 Elephants witty and loving to their fellowes 965.40 devout and religious ib. 50. full of love and amorous they can abide no white garments 323.40 Elephantiasis a disease not long knowen 780.30 Eleutherae 899.50 Eleutheria what feast 914.40 Elians why excluded frō the Isthmick games at Corinth 1194.40 Elieus the father of Eunostus 900.40 Ellebor root clenseth malancholie 659.10 Ellebor 91.50 Elops the onely fish swimming downe the streame and winde 973.50 Eloquence becommeth old men 391.10 in princes most necessary 352.10 Elpenor 899.20 Elpenor his ghost 791.40 Elpisticke Philosophers 709.1 Elysius the father of Euthynous 518.30 Elysian field in the moone 1183.30 Emerepes his apophthegme 557.1 Empona her rare love to her husband 1157.1158 cruelly put to death by Vespasian ib. Empusa 598.30 Empedocles his opinion touching the first principles 807.50 how he averted a pestilence 134.10 a good common wealths man 1128.10 Emulation that is good 256.50 Enalus enamoured of a virgin destined for sacrifice 345.1 Encnisma what it is 895.50 Encyclia what sciences 9.1 Endrome the name of a canticle 1256.40 Endimatia what dance 1251.30 Engastrinythi what they be 1327 1 In England or great Brittaine why folke live long 849.50 by Enimies men may take profit 237.20.30.50 of Enimies how to be revenged 239.30 Enneaterides 891.1 Entelechia 805.30.808.10 No enterring the reliques of triumphant persons within the city of Rome 876.50 Enthusiasme 1344.20 Enthusiasmus 654.40 of sundry sorts 1142. 50. what kinde of fury 1142.40 Envy 1070.50 Envy a cause of mens discontent 156.1.10 Envy among brethren 183.10 how it may be avoided 184.1.10.20 Envy and hatred differ 234.1 Envy what it is 234.20 Envious men be pitifull 235.50 Envy hurtfull especially to scholars and hearers 53.50 Envy of divers sorts 53.50.54.1 Envious eie hath power to bewitch 724.20 Envy whome it assaileth most 388.20 compared to smoake ib. 30 how it is to be quenched 389.1 Envy not excusable in old age 399 10. in yong persons it hath many pretenses 399.10 Enyalius what god 154.50.1141.10 Epacrii a faction in Athens 1149 10 Epact daies 1292.10 Epaenetus his apophthegme 557.1 Epaminondas beheadeth his owne sonne 910.1 Epaminondas his commendation 53.20 Epaminondas accused of a capitall crime 477.40 his plea. ib. his death 428.1 Epaminondas the nickename of a talkative fellow 207.20 Epaminondas had a grace in denying his friends requests 361.10 how carefull for the Thebans 295.40.50 he retorted a reprochfull scoffe upon Calistratus 363.50 his valiant exploit 400 10. his magnanimity 303 20. his apophthegmes 425.40 he could not abide fat and corpulent soldiers ib. his sobriety and frugality ib. 50. debased by the Epicureans 1129.10 his apophthegme 625.50 admired in commending himselfe 303.10 Epaphus 1302.20
what they be 〈◊〉 Wine liberally taken what effects it worketh 194.10 Wine how it killeth the vine 1013 20 Wine how hot and how it is colde 1112.10.20 Wine how students should use 621.10 Wine the best drinke ib. Wine what effects it worketh 681 20.763.50 it discovereth the 〈◊〉 of the heart 681.40 Wine a singular medicine that Wine is cold 683.40 689.30 Wine new See Must. Wine whether it should runne through a streiner before it be drunke 736.20 Wine called at the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the name of Lees. 736.40 varietie of Wines soone causeth drunkennesse 700.50 Wine best in the middes of the vessels 747.30 Wine why poured forth at Rome before the temple of Venus 866.30 Wine hurt with winde and aire 747.50 Wine the foundation of government and counsell in Greece 762.1 Wine in Greeke why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 762.50 Wine and the vine came of giants bloud spilled upon the ground 1289.40 Wine is talkative 763.1 Wine worketh boldnesse and confidence 763.40 Wine causeth a selfe conceit and opinion of wisedome 763.1 Wine new at what time of the yccre first tasted or set abroach 785.1 Wine sparily drunke by the Aegyptian kings 1289.40 that Wine is cold 688.1 a Wing compared to God 1021.40 Winter how it is caused 829.40 Wisdome and fortune produce like effects 628.20 the wise man of the Stoicks described 1055.50 Wisdome what it is 233.1 to be preferred before all worldly things 1288.1 Wool more pliable if it be gently handled 658.30 Wolves whelpe al in twelve daies 1015.20 Women not soone drunke and the reason thereof 687.10 their temperature moist ib. Women whether they be colder or hotter than men 688.1 that Women be hotter ib. 10 one Womans body put to tenne dead mens bodies in a funerall fire 688.20 that Women be colder than men 688.30 Women why they conceive not at all times 843.20 a Woman beareth five children at the most at one birth 850.50 Women why they weare white at funerals in Rome 859.30 a prety tale of a talkative Woman 198.30 Women can keepe no secret counsell 199.30 Women are best adorned with vertue and literature 325.10 20 Womens vertuous deeds 482.20 Women publickely praised at Rome 483.10 Women of Salmatica their vertuous act 489.50 a Woman of Galatias love to Toredorix 502.50 Wooden dogge among the Locrians 892.50 Wood-pecker a birde why so much esteemed at Rome 857.10 Wood-pecker feed Romulus and Remus 857.10 consecrated to Mars wherefore ib. 20 Words filthy are to be avoided by children 11.50 a Word occasion of much mischiefe 242.20 Words compared with deeds 402 40 Words the lightest things in the world 668.40.196.10 Words have wings 198.10 World of what principles it was composed 1305.50 World how it was made 808.20 in the World foure regiments 1219.30 World one 808.50 how Plato prooveth it 809.1.1335.30 more Worlds than one 1335.50 World not incorruptible 809.10 Worlds infinite 809.10 infinity of Worlds condemned 1332.30.1334.20 World round 809.30 Worlds in number five 1335.20 World why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 818.1 Worlds whether one or infinite 818.10 Worlds not one nor five but 183. 1334.30 World and Whole not both one 818.10 World and the parts thereof compared to a mans body 1168 World what it is 646.10 Worlds in number five how prooved 1339.10 World what forme or figure it hath 818.20 World whether it be animate or endued with soule 818.30 Worlds five which they be 1359.1 whether it be corruptile or eternall 818.40 World whereof it is nourished 818.50 Worlds five proportionate to the five senses 1359.10 Worlds fabricke at which element it began 819.10 Worlds fabricke in what order it was framed 819.30 World why it copeth or bendeth 819.50 the World to come hath joies for good men 603.20 Worlds sides right left 820.20 the Worlds conflagration 1328.10 World created by god 1032.40 the Worlds generall conflagration held by the Stoicks 1090.30 Worship of brute beasts excused 1327.50 Wrathfulnesse what it is 119.50 Wrestling whether it were the most ancient Gymnike exercise 672.30 X XAnthians plagued by the meanes of Bellerophontes 489.40 Xanthians negotiate in the name of their mothers and beare their names 489.50 Xenocrates his aurelets or bolsters for the eares 52.20 Xenocrates a scholar hard to learne 63. 1. his opinion as touching the soule of the world 1031.10 he directed Alexander the great in the government of the king dome 1128.30 Xenocrite her vertuous deed 505 30. she conspireth the death of Aristodemus the tyrta 506.30 Xenophanes his saying of the Aegyptian Osiris 1149.10 Xenophon reporteth his owne acts 372.10 Xenophon the Philosopher beloved of king Agesilaus 448.30 how he tooke the death of his sonne 529.30 Xenophon called Nycteris 930.20 he penneth the history of himselfe 982.10 Xerxes menaceth Athos 121.40 he died for sorrow that his owne sonnes were at deadly discord 176.50 Xerxes and Ariamenes bretheren how they strove for the crowne 186.40 how they were agreed 187.1.10 Xerxes his pollicie to keepe downe rebellious mutinous subjects 403.40 his apophthegmes ib. his clemency unto two Lacedaemonians 474.1 Xerxes his barbarous cruelty unto rich Pythes 507.20 Xuthus 895.20 Y YEere why it is called the age of man 1328.20 of Jupiter 826.20 of the Sunne ib. of Mercury and Venus ib. of the moone ib. the Yeere or revolution of Saturne 826.20 the great Yeere 826.20 Yeeres dedicated to Jupiter 876.1 Yeugh tree shade how hurtfull 684.40 Yoong men are to be governed with greater care than children 14.40 to what vices they be subject 14.30.40 Yoong men how they sleepe at Lacedaemon 475. 40. how they demeaned themselves to their elders at Lacedaemon 476.1 Yoong lads permitted to steale at Lacedaemon 476.20 Yoong folke drunke resemble olde men 687.50 Youth ought not to be over-bold nor yet too fearefull 8.40 how they should read the bookes of Sages 9.50 Youth is to obey 391.20 Youth brought up hardly at Lacedaemon 476.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it fignifieth in composition 726.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 726.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 760.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Nosegaies 684.30 Yron why it is not vocall and resonant 770.30 Z ZAleucus his 〈◊〉 highly reputed among the Locrians 306.10 Zarates the maister of Pythagoras 1031.20 Zeipetus king of the 〈◊〉 903.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say To live 991. 20 Zeno his opinion of vertue 65.1 he lost all that he had 148.40 Zeno traineth his scholars to the hearing of the musicke of instruments 67.20 Zeno the disciple of Parmenides undertooke to kill the 〈◊〉 Demytus 1128.30 Zeno bitoff his own tongue 196.30 contrary to himselfe 1058.50 Zeno the Cittiaean honored by Antigonus the yonger 416.1 Zeno his valorous resolution 1128.30 his opinion as touching the principles of all things 808.20 his answere to the Persian embassadour as touching taciturnity 194.30 Zephiodorus a minion of Epaminondas 1146.10 Zephyrus what wind 693.40.789.30 Zovs hath many significations 〈◊〉 Zeuxidamus his apophthegmes 457.50 Zodiak circle