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A13909
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The treasure of tranquillity. Or A manuall of morall discourses tending to the tranquillity of minde. Translated out of French by I.M. Master of Arts.
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Maxwell, James, b. 1581.
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1611
(1611)
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STC 24209; ESTC S119825
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49,917
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194
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THE TREASVRE Of Tranquillity OR A MANVALL OF Morall Discourses tending to the Tranquillity of Minde Translated out of French by T. M. Master of Arts. LONDON Printed by NICHOLAS OKES for SAMVEL RAND and are to be sold at his Shop neere Holborne Bridge 1611. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE IOHN LORD RAMSEY Vicount of HADINGTON The most valorous Rescuer of our King And to the right Noble and vertuous Lady ELIZABETH Vicountesse of HADINTON his wife Honours increase Right Honourable BEHOLD I bring vnto your Honours this English Treasure of tranquility of minde It is a treasure and therefore worthy of you who in the iudgement of all those that full know your worth are worthy of the best Treasure that either Nature or Arte honour or wealth are able to yeeld and howsoeuer it be but a small one for how shall a meane man giue any great gift and euen so small that easily ye may hold it in one of your hands in which regard I confesse it is but too vnworthy of your greatnesse yet my wish is that it may serue for a testimony howsoeuer small of that no small affection and obseruancie which vnto your Honours I doe beare till at what time some greater token of my duty appeare and come forth into the light vnder the lustre of your honourable name This little Manual doth intreat of such morall meanes as may further a man to the attaining of true Tranquillity the which the Poets haue painted out for the pretiousnesse thereof vnder the names of Nectar and Ambrosia the dilicious bread and drinke of their gods Thereby giuing vs to vnderstand that the vertue and efficacy thereof is such that it is no lesse able to make men like vnto God by felicity then were Circes sensual cuppes to transforme men into swine by carnall voluptie In it one shall see how a man may best fortifie himselfe against the violent flashings of his affections and the vnreasonable and vnseasonable vproares of his passions and how he may attaine vnto the conquering of the same and to the knowing of himselfe In it may likewise be seene how and in what manner a man must carry himselfe about callings charges and employments both before and after his vndertaking of them how to order the whole important actions of his life It will shew a man how to foresee by prouidence and foresight all kinde of changes and chances that vsually do occurre and how to comport our selues in them and to keep a correspondency with them by carrying our selues patiently in aduersity and moderately in prosperity Lastly in it a man may learne how to correct or couer humors how to make choice of friends and how to make vse both of other folkes fortunes and his owne All which instructions and directions therein mentioned in the most briefe and bright manner may serue very much for the attaining of this foresaid Tranquility The learned Bishop Don Antonio Gueuara in his Castiliane discourse dedicated to the King of Portugall touching the miseries and vanities of the Court thinketh it a matter almost impossible for a Courtier to attaine thereunto so long as he followeth the Court in regard of the manifold vexations of minde which there doe arise because of couetousnesse contention emulation and ambition which commonly at Court are so rife the which graue Bishops iudgement if it be true then truely Courtiers stand in much more neede of such furtherances of true Tranquility as this is then do other men and yet I dare perswade my selfe that your Lordships owne selfe doth stand in much lesse neede of such morall helpes then many other doe For ye are so farre from couetousnesse which morall Writers do commonly call the cankerworme of Courtiers that your bounty and liberality is euery where knowne and deseruedly spoken of and so free from ambition the Burriour of Courtiers that your modesty and moderation is to euery one more then manifest The rising and exaltation of men is vsually subiect to enuy but it is your Lordship good fortune that no man enuieth your good fortune yea rather men wonder how that it is not much more fauourable then it is considering the greatnesse of your extraordinary desert and your vnmatched moderation in this your Lordships present preferment In reuoluing and reading the Chronicles of our Countrie written by our learned Hector Boece and by our famous Lesly Bishop of Rosse the ornament of our Ile I find that the ancient name of Ramsey hath in former times afoorded diuers famous and King-fauoured personages your Lordships Ancestors and honourable kinsmen which haue done acceptable seruice to their Countrie and Kings Such a one was sir Alexander Ramsey of Dalehouse Knight who in King Dauid Bruces time was a most vertuous wight and according to the signification of his name in Greeke proued another Greeke-alexander euen a most strong helper of men For hee is recorded to haue bene the most worthy Chiefetaine of those dayes and so renowmed for his prowesse that euery Noble man was faine to haue his sonne or kins-man to serue vnder him Such a one likewise was Sir William Ramsey preferred in the said Kings time to be Earle of Fife and Sir Iohn Ramsey maister houshold to King Iames the third and his greatest minion and fauourite preferred to be Earle Bothwell These and such others no doubt but that they deserued well each of them in his place but all Albion yea all Europe knoweth that your desert is of a farre more notable kind God who giueth deliuerance vnto Kings and rescueth Dauid his seruant from the hurtful sword did vse you as an instrument for the rescuing of our Soueraigne vpon Mars his day and in that towne and place where once Cunedagius King of Britaines builded a Temple vnto Mars The two too martially and mortally affected men on their Mars-day and in their Mars-towne would haue to their bloody Idol Mars sacrificed the heart-bloud of their King But God in heauen who is the true Mars euen the God of Hostes and the most mighty rescuer of Kings on earth kept his seruants heart in his hand by your happy hand preuented the spilling of his bloud yea more hee made themselues the bloudy sacrifice and you the sacrificer On the fift of August they thought to haue made our Augustus to tast of death and to guste of the graue But God turned the day of our Augustus danger into a day of deliuerance for him and of destruction for his enemies and as the Lord made it a day of preseruation vnto our King so hath he made it a day of gratulation and thankes-giuing vnto the Lord for that his vnspeakeable fauour The same is likewise the Calender day of commemoration of the most godly and deuout King Saint Oswald who was a King ful of piety towards God and of pitty towards the poore as Galfride Malmesbury Polychronicon and venerable Beda do write And who King Iames-like was an vniting King euen of the two diuided Kingdomes of
measure of your honouring of God shall God make you to be honoured of man it is an easie thing for the great King of hearts to open yet a wider doore in our Salomons large heart to let you in and when he hath once opened the doore it is as easie a thing for him to shut it so fast that ye shall neuer go out of it for he that hath the key of Dauid which openeth and no man shutteth shutteth and no man openeth hath also the key of our Dauids heart in his hand and hee openeth or shutteth the same when and to whom it pleaseth him Your L s surname was one of those that did fauor the right of Edgar Etheling in England to the English crown at the Conquest and therefore was forced to slie with Edgar into Scotland as our renowned Leslie Bishop of Rosse and Hector Boece with others do write And in Scotland it was endowed with lands liuings Lordships decored with Titles of honour in the persons of diuers of your L s honorable ancestors kinsmen as I shew in some particulars mentioned aboue though not in all And now againe it is come into England whence once it did spring to reuiue now after the Concord the ancient honor which it had before the Conquest in your Lordships noble person that euen as God hath made you the instrument of much honour and credite vnto both countries by the meanes of your vertue and rescuing hand so may yee beare or reape the fruite of honour in both Countries But least I seeme to some to speake too much heere I stay wishing vnto your Lordship and your worthy Lady for your stay the fulnesse of Gods grace according to the signification of your two christen vnited names together with the highest step and top of stable honour and so I rest Your Honours right deuoted to all humble duties IAMES MAXVVELL The Contents of this present Booke DISCOVRSE I. HOw we must prepare our selues against the assaults and onsets of our passions DISCOVR 2. Of the choice of callings charges and affaires DISC. 3. Of prouidence and foresight DISC. 4. Of each mans vocation and calling DISC. 5. Of a mans ruling and ordering his life DISC. 6. Of the diuersity of actions DISC. 7. Of the choice of friends DISC. 8. Of dissembling and disguising of humors DISC. 9. Of Vanitie DISC. 10. Of prosperity DISC. 11. Of comparing of our fortune with that of others DISC. 12. Of aduersity DISC. 13. Of sadnesse and sorrow DISC. 14. Of the afflictions of good men DISC. 15. Of other mens faults and imperfections DISC. 16. Of iniuries indignities and wrongs DISC. 17. Of pouerty DISC. 18. Of death our last discourse and our last debt Errata PAg. 4. for tried read had pag. 26. for euer read euen 34. for euer read neuer pag. 86. for continuance read continence pag. 92. for cānot read can pag. 104. for wretchlesly read retchlesly pag. 130. for mighty visions read nightly visions pag. 140. for misteeme read misken pag. 150. for to iue read to liue pag. 153. for the fore read to the fore pag. Ibid. for riotous read with riotous Such faults as are in the pointing the diligent Reader will easily espy and as I hope courteously excuse A Manuall of Morall Discourses tending to Tranquility of Minde DISCOVRSE 1. How we must prepare our selues against the assaults and onsets of our passions CONsidering that our happines on earth doth hang next after the knowledge of Christ vpon our actions and that the soule is as it were the Fountaine and wel-spring thereof our chiefe care if we desire to liue an happy life should be to make the better part of vs quiet and calm endeauoring by al meanes that it be not troubled nor diseased by vulgar popular opiniōs as being things much contrary to the excellent nature thereof There are two times the one of prosperity the other of aduersity wherein the soule is wont to bee vexed and tossed with the passions of the inferiour part as with so many violent and impetuous winds And therefore we must herein imitate the Mariners which before they loose off from the port doe furnish themselues with all things necessary and needfull for resisting of the tempest and storme so must wee prouide our selues aforehand of such sound and substantiall discourse as may anker stay the minde against the push of our passions when as they like so many surging waues do nil we will wee fling themselues aboard into our boate and euen as Xenophon did exhort his fellow Cittizens to sacrifice vnto God in the time of prosperity to the end they might finde him the more ready and fauourable when as they should inuoke him in their aduersity So should we doe and withall at our first leasure wee must contract acquaintance with rectified reason to the end that when wee shall stand in need of her aide and asistance she may come running to vs at our call as knowing vs by our voyce and hauing already an affectionate earnest desire for our defence The discourse of rectified reason is the maister and daunter of all peeuish and peruerse affections or passions For when as we haue once taken good notice of them by an earnest examination and tryall made and tryed touching the same and that wee haue ripely and aduisedly weighed both what power they haue ouer vs and what Empire wee hold ouer them They are not thereafter so fierce and furious in our behalfe but are more easily and with much lesse adoe appeased and pacified They therein not a little resembling our little dogges which will barke vncessantly at such as they are wont to see but by and by are quieted as soone as they heare the voyce of such as they know The wise haue compared the commandement of the minde aboue this sensuall and terrestriall part of the soule out of which our passions doe spring vnto the office of a Rider who teaching and training his horse and sitting within the saddle manageth and turneth him at his will But small credit should the Rider receiue that should bring to the Tourneyment or Tilte a yong horse which had neuer before borne the bit nor galloped in the round But hee must needs in the first place breake him by conuenient discipline before he vse him in any errand or action of importance In like manner before we put our backes vnder the burthen of any businesse or expose our selues vnto the publicke view of the world we must endeauour to breake and bring vnder this wild vnbacked part of the soule and make it as it were to bite vpon the bit by bringing it to learne the lawes and measures whereby it must be managed and maistered in all occasions and at all occurrences in the meane time we must not forget to enhearten and encourage it by acquainting it with the pleasure and contentement wherewith is accompanied the issue and end of all worthy and vertuous actions Meditation and