dispatched his letters unto thē to this effect To know whether they would receive him into their city or no they wrote backe againe in faire great capitall letters within a sheet of paper no more but O Y that is to say No so sent it unto him but he that would make answer to the former question of Socrates a little more civilly and courteously would say thus He is not within sir for he is gone to the banke or exchange to give yet a somwhat better measure he might perhaps adde moreover say He looketh there for cerreine strangers and friends of his But a vaine prating fellow and one that loves many words especially if his hap hath beene to read the booke of Antimachus the Colophonian wil make answer to the demand afore said in this wise He is not within sir gone he is to the Burse or Exchange for there he expecteth certeine strangers out of Ionia of whom and in whose behalfe Alcibiades wrote unto him who now maketh his abode within the citie of Miletus sojourneth with Tissaphernes one of the lieutenants generall of the great King of Persia who before time was in league with the Lacedaemonians stood their friend and sent them aid but not for the love of Alcibiades he is turned from them and is sided with the Athenians for Alcibtades being desirous to returne into his owne country hath prevailed so much that hee hath altered Tissaphernes his minde and drawen him away from our part and thus shall you have him rehearse in good earnest the whole eight booke in maner of Thucydides his story untill he have overwhelmed a man with a multitude of narrations and made him beleeve that in Miletus there is some great sedition that it is ready to be lost and Alcibiades to be banished a second time Herein then ought a man principally to set his foote and stay his overmuch language so as the center and circumference of the answer be that which he who maketh the demaund desireth and hath need to know Carneades before he had any great name disputed one day in the publike schooles and place appointed for exercise Unto whom the master or president of the place sent before hand and gave him warning to moderate his voice for hee spake naturally exceeding big and loud so as the schooles rung againe therewith Give men then quoth he a gage and measure for my voice upon whom the said master replied thus not unproperly Let him that disputeth with thee be the measure and rule to moderate thy voice by even so a man may in this case say The measure that hee ought to keepe who answereth is the very will and minde of him that proposeth the question Moreover like as Socrates forbad those meats which drew men on to eare when they are not hungry and likewise those drinkes which caused them to drinke who are not a thirst even so should a man who is given to much prattle be afraid of those discourses wherein he delighteth most and which he is woont to use and take greatest pleasure in and in case hee perceive them to run willingly upon him for to withstand the same and not give them interteinment As for example martiall men and warriours love to discourse and tell of battels which is the reason that the Poët Homer bringeth in Nestor eftsoones recounting his owne prowesse and feats of armes and ordinarie it is with thē who in iudiciall trials have had the upper hand of their adversaries or who beyond the hope and opinion of everie man have obteined grace and favour with kings and princes to be subject unto this maladie that evermore followeth them namely to report and recount eftsoones the maner how they came in place after what sort they were brought in the order of their pleading how they argued the case how they convinced their accusers overthrew their adversaries last of all how they were praised and commended for to say a truth joy and mirth is much more talkative than that olde Agryppina which the Poets doe feigne and devise in their comaedies for it rouseth and stirreth up it reneweth and refresheth it selfe ever anon with many discourses and narrations whereupon ready they are to fall into such speeches upon every light and colourable occasion for not onely is it true which the common proverbe saith Looke where a man doth feele his paine and griefe His hand will soone be there to yeeld reliefe but also joy and contentment draweth unto it the voice it leadeth the tongue alwaies about with it and is evermore willing to be remembred and related Thus we see that amorous lovers passe the greater part of their time in rehearsing certeine words which may renew the remembrance of their loves insomuch that if they cannot meet with one person or other to relate the same unto they will devise and talke of them with such things as have neither sense nor life like as we read of one who brake foorth into these words O datnty bed most sweet and pleasant couch ô blessed lamp ô happie candle light No lesse than God doth Bacchus you avouch nay God you are the mightiest in her sight And verily a busie prater is altogether as one would say a white line or strake in regard of all words to wit without discretion he speaketh indifferently of all matters howbeit if he be affected more to some than to others he ought to take heed thereof and absteine from them he is I say to withdraw and writhe him els from thence for that by reason of the contentment which he may therein take and the pleasure that he receiveth thereby they may lead him wide carie him every while very farre out of the way the same inclination to overshoot themselves in prating they finde also when they discourse of those matters wherein they suppose themselves to have better experience and a more excellent habit than others such an one I say being a selfe lover and ambitious withall Most part of all the day in this doth spend Himselfe to passe and others to transcend As for example in histories if he hath read much in artificiall stile and couching of his words he that is a Grammarian in relation of strange reports and newes who hath bene a great traueller and wandred through many forren countries hereof therefore great heed would bee taken for garrulitie being therein fleshed and baited willingly runneth to the old and usuall haunt like as every beast seeketh out the ordinary and accustomed pasture And in this point was the young prince Cyrus of a woonderfull and excellent nature who would never chalenge his play-fellowes and consorts in age unto any exercise wherein he knew himselfe to be superior and to surpasse but alwaies to such feats wherein he was lesse practised than they which he did aswell because he would not grieve their hearts in winning the prize from them as also for that he would profit thereby and learne
flocked round about and hemmed him in and on everie side each one had a saying unto him And what art thou quoth one From whence art thou saith another Here comes one and asketh who knew him there sets upon him another saying And how commest thou by the light of all this that thou hast delivered to be short they handeled the matter so well that they forced him to bewray himselfe in the end and to confesse that he was one of them that committed the sacriledge Were not they also who murdered the Poët Ibycus discovered and taken after the same manner It hapned that the said murderers were set at a Theatre to behold the plaies and pastimes which were exhibited and seeing a flight of Cranes over their heads they whispered one to another Loe these be they that will revenge the death of Ibycus Now had not Ibycus beene a long time before seene and much search was made after him because he was out of the way and missed whereupon they that sate next unto these men over-hearing those words of theirs and well noting the speech went directly to the Magistrastes and Iustices to give intelligence and information of their words Then were they attached and examined and thus being convicted suffered punishment in the end not by the meanes of those Cranes that they talked of but surely by their owne blab-tongues as if some hellish furie had forced them to disclose that murder which they had committed For like as in our bodies the members diseased and in paine draw humours continually unto them and all the corruption of the parts neere unto them flow thither even so the tongue of a babling fellow being never without an Inflammtion and a seaverous pulse draweth alwaies and gathereth to it one secret and hidden thing or other In which regard it ought to be well fensed with a rampar and the bulwarke of reason should evermore be set against it which like unto a barre may stay and stop that overflowing and inconstant lubricitie which it hath that we be not more undiscreet and foolish beasts than geese are who when they be to take a flight into Cilicia over the mountaine Taurus which is full of eagels take up everie one in their bill a good big stone which serveth them in stead of a locke or bridle to restraine their gagling by which devise they may passe all night long without any noise and not be heard at all or descried by the said eagles Now if one should demaund and aske of me what person of all others is most mischievous and dangerous I beleeve very well there is no man would name any other but a traitour And yet Euthycrates as saith Demosthenes for his treason covered his owne house with a rouse made of timber that he had out of Macedonie Philocrates also lived richly and gallant of that great masse of gold and silver which he had of King Philip for betraying his countrey and therewith furnished himselfe with brave harlots gallant concubines and daintie fishes Euphor bius also and Philagrus who betraied Eretria were endowed by the King with faire lands and possessions but a pratler is a trasitor voluntarie and for nothing he demaundeth no hire at all neither looketh he to be solicited but offereth himselfe and his service nor betraieth unto the enemies either horses or walles but revealeth hidden secrets and 〈◊〉 speeches which are to bee concealed whether it be in ju iciall matters of law or in seditious discords or in managing of State affaires it makes no matter and no man conneth him thankes nay he will thinke himselfe beholden to others if they will vouchsafe to give him audience And therefore that which is commonly said to a prodigal person who foolishly mis-spendeth and vainely wasteth his substance he cares not how to gratifie every man Thou art not liberal this is no courtesie a vice it is rather that thou art disposed unto thus to take pleasure in nothing but giving and giving still The same rebuke and reprehension serveth verie fitly for a babler Thou art no friend nor well-willer of mine thus to come and discover these things unto me this is thy fault and a disease which thou art sicke of that lovest to be clattering and hast no mind but of chatting Now would I have the Reader to thinke that I write not all this so much to accuse and blame the vice and maladie of garrulitie as to cure and heale the same For by judgement and exercise we surmount and overcome the vices and passions of the minde but judgement that is to say knowledge must go before for no man accustometh himselfe to void and as it were to weed them out of the soule unlesse he hate and detest them first Now then and never before begin we to take an hatred to vices when by the light of reason we consider and weigh the shame and losse that commeth unto us by them as for example we know and see that these great praters whiles they desire to win love gaine hatred thinking to do a pleasure they displease looking to be well esteemed are mocked and derided they lay for lucre and get nothing they hurt their friends aide their enemies and undoe themselves So then let this be the first receit and medicine for to cure this maladie even the consideration and reckoning up of the shamefull infamies and painfull inconveniences that proceed and ensue thereof The second remedy is to take a survey of the contrary that is to say to heare alwaies to remember and have ready at hand the praises and commendations of silence the majestie I say the mysticall gravitie and holinesse of taciturnitie to represent alwaies unto our minde and understanding how much more admired how much more loved and how farre wiser they are reputed who speake roundly at once and in few words their minde pithily who in a short and compendious speech comprehend more good matter and substance a great deale than these great talkers whose tongues are unbrideled and run at randon Those I say be they whom Plato so highly esteemeth comparing them to skilfull and well practised Archers and Darters who have the feat of shooting arrowes and launcing darts for they know how and when to speake graciously and bitterly soundly pithily and compactly And verily wise Lycurgus framed and exercised his citizens immedialy from their child-hood by keeping them downe at the first with silence to this short and sententious kinde of speech whereby they spake alwaies compendiously and knit up much in a little For like as they of Biskay or Celtiberia do make their steele of yron by enterring it and letting it lie first within the ground and then by purging and refining it from the grosse terrene and earthly substance that it hath even so the Laconians speech hath no outward barke as a man would say or crust upon it but when all the superfluitie there of is taken away it is steeled as it were and tempered yea and
to no greater cost and expences but rather easeth him of some charges for that it abridgeth all curiosity of daintie viands exquisite cates costly perfumes precious ointments confitures and march-pains brought from forreine and farre countries yea and fine and delicate wines wherewith Periander being served daily at his ordinary according to the magnificence of his princely estate riches affaires and occasions yet at such a time he tooke a glorie among these Sages and wise men in sobrietie frugalitie and slender provision for not in other things onely he cut-off and concealed all superfluitie and needlesse furniture which was usuall in his house-keeping but also in his wives attire and ornaments whom hee shewed to his friends and guests nothing costly arraied nor keeping state but meanely set out and adorned Now when the tables were taken away and that Melissa had given and dealt chaplets of flowers unto us round about wee rendred thanks and said grace unto the gods in powring out unto them devoutly a little wine and the minstrell-woman having sung a while after our grace and according to our vowes departed out of the roome Then Ardalus calling unto Anacharsis by name demanded of him whether among the Scythians there were any such singing women minstrell wenches that could play upon wind instruments unto which demaund he answered extempore and without studying for the matter No quoth he nor so much as vines and as Ardalus replied againe But yet there are some gods among them are there not Yes iwis quoth he that there be and those who understand the speech and language of men but yet the Scythians are not of the same mind that the Greeks who although they thinke themselves to speake more freely and elegantly than the Scythians yet they hold opinion that the gods take more pleasure to heare the sound of bones and wood whereof their flutes and hautboies are made than the voice of man But my good friend quoth Aesope then what would you say if you knew what thse pipe-makers do nowe a daies who cast away the bones of young hind-calves and fawnes and choose before them asses bones saying forsooth that they make a better sound whereupon Cleobuline made one of her aenigmes or riddles touching a Phrygian flute Of braying asse Did force the eare Of mightie stag when he dead was with sound so cleare with hornes to brag The long shanke-bone Upright anone As hard as stone in such sort that it is a wonder how an asse which is otherwise a most blockish and absurd beast of any other most remote from all sweet harmonie of musicke should yeeld a bone so slicke so smooth and proper to make thereof a most musicall instrument Certes quoth Niloxenus then this is the reason that the inhabitants of the city Busiris reproch al us of Naucratia for that we likewise have already taken two asse-bones for the making of our pipes and as for them it is not lawfull to heare so much as the sound of a trumpet because it somewhat doth resemble the braying of an asse and you all know that the asse is infamous and odious with the Aegyptians because of Typhon Upon this every man held his peace for a while and when Pertander perceived that Niloxenus had a good minde to speake but yet durst not begin or broach any speech My masters quoth he I doe like very well of the custome of cities and head-magistrates in that they give audience and dispatch unto all strangers before their owne citizens and therefore me thinks it were well that for a time both you we forbeare our speeches which are so familiar and as it were native and home-borne among us in our owne countrey to give accesse and audience as it were in a solemne counsell and assembly of estate unto those questions and demaunds which our good friend heere hath brought out of Aegypt and namely such as are mooved from the king to Bias and Bias I doubt not will confer with you about the same Then Bias seconding this motion of his And in what place quoth he or with what companie would a man wish rather for to hazard and trie his skill than in this for to make answers accordingly and give solutions if he be put unto it and need require especially seeing that the king himselfe hath given expresse commandement that in proposing this question he should first begin within afterwards go round about the rest present the same unto you all Heerupon Niloxenus delivered unto him the kings letter desiring him to breake it open and to reade the same with an audible and loud voice before all the companie Now the substance or tenor of the said letter ran in this forme Amasis the king of the Aegyptians unto Bias the wisest Sage of all the Greekes sendeth greeting So it is that the king of the Aethiopians is entred into contestation and contention with me as touching wisedome and being in all other propositions put downe by me and found my inferior in the end after all he hath imposed upon me a commandement very strange woonderfull and hard to be performed willing me forsooth to drinke up the whole sea Now if I may compasse the solution of this riddle and darke question I shall gaine thereby many townes villages cities of his but in case I cannot assoile the same I must yeeld unto him al my cities within the country Elephantine These are therfore to request you that after you have well considered of the premisses you sende backe unto me Niloxenus incontinently with the interpretation thereof And if either your selfe or any of your citizens and country-men have occasion to use me in your affaires and occasions be sure you shall no faile of me wherein I may stead you Farewell This letter being read Bias made no long stay but after some little pause and meditation with himselfe he rounded Clcobulus it the care who sat close unto him And then what is that you say my friend of Naucratia will your master and lord king Amasis who commandeth so great a multitude of men and possesseth so large so faire and plentifull a countrey drinke all the sea for to get thereby I wot not what poore townes and villages of no importance Then Niloxenus laughing at the matter I pray you quoth he consider upon the point what is possible to be done even as you will your selfe Mary then quoth he let him send word vnto the Aethiopian king and enjoine him to stay the course of all rivers that discharge themselves into the sea untill he have drunke up in the meane time all the water in the sea that is now at this present for of that onely his demand and commandement is to be understood and not of the sea that shall be hereafter These words were no sooner spoken but Niloxenus tooke so great a contentment therein that he could not holde but needs he must embrace and kisse him immediatly for it yea and all the rest commended and
square and when he answered No but they grew round How then quoth he if they had growen naturally foure cornered would you have made them round He was asked the question upon a time how farre forth the marches and confines of Lacedaemon did extend then he shaking a javelin which he held in his hand Even as farre quoth he as this is able to goe One demaunded of him why the citie of Sparta was not walled about See you not quoth he the walles of the Lacedaemonians and therewith shewed him the citizens armed Another asked him the like question and he made him this answer That cities ought not to be fortified with stones with wood and timber but with the prowesse and valiance of the inhabitants He used ordinarily to admonish his friends not to seeke for to be rich in money but in valour and vertue And whensoever he would have a worke to be finished or service to be performed speedily by his soldiers his maner was to begin himselfe first to lay hand unto it in the face of all He stood upon this and would glorie in it that he travelled as much as any man in his company but he vaunted of this that he could rule and command himselfe more than in being a king Unto one who woondering to see a Lacedaemonian maimed and lame go to war said unto the partie Thou shouldest yet at leastwise have called for an horse to serve upon Knowest not thou quoth he that in warre we have no need of those that will flie away but of such as will make good and keepe their ground It was demaunded of him how he wonne so great honour and reputation In despising death quoth hee And being likewise asked why the Spattanes used the sound of flutes when they fought To the end said he that when in battell they march according to the measures it may be knowen who be valiant and who be cowards One there was who reputed the King of Persia happie for that he attained verie yoong to so high and puissant a State Why so quoth he for Priamus at his age was not unhappie nor infortunate Having conquered the greater part of Asia he purposed with himselfe to make warre upon the king himselfe as well for to breake his long repose as also to hinder him otherwise and stop his course who minded with money to bribe and corrupt the governors of the Greeke-cities and the oratours that lead the people but amid this deseigne and deliberation of his he was called home by the Ephori by reason of a dangerous warre raised by the Greeke-States against the citie of Sparta and that by meanes of great summes of money which the king of Persia had sent thither by occasion whereof forced he was to depart out of Asia saying That a good prince ought to suffer himselfe to be commaunded by the lawes and he left behinde him much sorrow and a longing desire after him among the Greek-inhabitants in Asia after his departure and for that on the Persian pieces of coine there was stamped or imprinted the image of an archer he said when he brake up his campe that the king of Persia had chased him out of Asia with thirtie thousand archers for so many golden Dariques had beene carried by one Timocrates unto Thebes and Athens which were divided among the oratours and governors of those two cities by meanes whereof they were sollicited and stirred to begin warre upon the Spartanes so hee wrote a letter missive unto the Ephori the tenor whereof was this Agesilaus unto the Ephori greeting We have subdued the greatest part of Asia and driven the Barbarians from thence also in Ionîa we have made many armours but since you commaund me to repaire home by a day appointed Know yee that I will follow hard after this letter or peradventure prevent it for the authority of command which I have I hold not for my selfe but for my native countrey and cōfederates and then in truth doth a magistrate rule according to right justice when he obeieth the lawes of his countrey the Ephori or such like as be in place of government within the city Having crossed the straights of Hellespont he entred into the countrey of Thrace where he requested of no prince nor State of the Barbarians passage but sent unto every one of them demāding whether he should passe as through the land of friends or enemies And verily all others received him friendly and accompained him honorably as he journeyed through their countries onely those whom they call Troadians unto them as the report goeth Xerxes himselfe gave presents to have leave for to passe demaunded of him for licence of quiet passage a hundred talents of silver and as many women but Agesilaus after a scoffing manner asked those who brought this message And why doe not they themselves come with you for to receive the money and women so he led his armie forward but in the way he encountred them well appointed gave them battell overthrew them and put many of them to the sword which done he marched farther And of the Macedonian king he demaunded the same question as before who made him this answer That he would consult thereupon Let him consult quoth he what he will meane while we will march on the king wondring at his hardinesse stood in great feare of him and sent him word to passe in peaceable and friendly maner The Thessalians at the same time were confederate with his enemies whereupon he forraied and spoiled their countries as he went and sent to the citie of Larissa two friends of his Xenocles and Scytha to sound them see if they could practise effectually for to draw them to the league and amity of the Lacedaemonians but those of Larissa arrested those agents and kept them in prison whereupon all the rest taking great indignation were of this minde that Agesilaus could doe no lesse but presently encampe himselfe and beleaguer the citie Larissa round about but hee saide that for to conquer all Thessalie he would not leese one of those twaine so upon composition and agreement he recovered and got them againe Being given to understand that there was a battell fought neere to Corinth in which very few Lacedaemonians were slaine but of Athenians Argives Corinthians and their allies a great number he was not once seene to have taken any joy or contentment at the newes of the victorie but sighed deepely from the bottome of his heart saying Alas for unhappie Greece who hath herselfe destroied so many men of her owne as had beene sufficient in one battell to have defeated all the Barbarians at once But when the Pharsalians came to set upon the taile of his armie in his march and to doe them mischiefe and damage with a force of five hundred horse he charged and overthrew them for which luckie hand he caused a Trophe to be erected under the mountaines called Narthacii and this victorie of all others pleased
in all of the Lceadaemonians As many quoth he as are enough to chase and drive away wicked persons In passing a long the wals of Corinth when he saw them so high so wel built and so large in extent What maner of women quoth he be they that inhabit within To a great master of Rhetorick who praising his owne skill profession chaunced to conclude with these words When all is done there is nothing so puissant as the speech of man Why then be like quoth he so long as you hold your peace you are of no worth The Argives having bin once already beaten defaited returned neverthelesse into the field shewed themselves in a bravado more gallantly than before and prest for a new battell and when therupon he saw his auxiliaries and confederates to be some what troubled and frighted Be of good cheere quoth he my masters and friends for if we who have given them the foile be affraid what thinke you are they themselves A certaine embassador from the citie Abdera came to Sparta who made a long speech as touching his message and after he had done and held his toong a little he demaunded at last a dispatch and said unto him Sir what answer would you that I should carry backe to our citizens You shall say unto them quoth Agis that I have suffred you to speake all that you would and as long as you list and that I lent you mine eare all the while without giving you one word againe Some there were who commended the Eliens for most just men and precise in observing the solemnitie of the Olympick games And is that so great a matter and such a wonder quoth he if in five yeeres space they exercise justice one day Some buzzed into his eares that those of the other roiall house envied him Then quoth he doe they suffer a double paine for first and formost their owne evils will vexe and trouble themselves then in the second place the good things in me and my friends will torment them Some one there was of advice that he should give way and passage to his enemies when they were put to flight Yea but marke this quoth he if we set not upon them who runne away for cowardise how shall we fight against them that staie and make good their ground by valour One there was who propounded a meanes for the maintenance of the Greekes libertie which no doubt was a generous and magnanimous course howbeit very hard to execute unto whō he answered thus My good friend your words require great store of money and much strength When another said that king Philip would watch them well enough that they should not set foote within other parts of Greece My friend quoth he it shall content us to remaine and continue in our owne countrey There was another embassador from the city Perinthus came to Lacedaemon who having likewise made a long oration in the end demaunded of Agis what answer he should deliver backe to the Perinthians Mary what other but this quoth he that thou couldest hardly finde the way to make an end of speaking and I held my peace all the while He went upon a time sole embassador to king Philip who said unto him You are an embassador alone indeed True quoth he and good enough to one alone as you are An auncient citizen of Sparta said unto him one day being himselfe aged also and far stept in yeeres Since that the old lawes and customes went every day to mine and were neglected seeing also that others farre woorse were brought in and stood in their place all in the end would be naught and runne to confusion unto whom he answered merilie thus Then is it at it should be and the world goes well enough if it be so as you say for I remember when I was a little boy I heard my father say that every thing then was turned upside downe and that in his remembraunce all wentkim kam and he also would report of his father that he had seene as much in his daies no marvell therefore if things grow woorse and woorse more woonder it were if they should one while be better and another while continue still in the same plight Being asked on a time how a man might continue free all his life time he answered By despising death AGIS the yoonger when Demades the oratour said unto him That the Lacedaemonians swords were so short that these juglers and those that plaied legerdemain could swallow them downe all once made him this answere As short as they be the Lacedaemonians can reach their enemies with them wel enough A certaine leud fellow and a troublesome never linned asking him who was the best man in all Sparta Mary quoth Agis even he who is unlikest thy selfe AGIS the last king of the Lacedaemonians being forelaid and surprised by treachery so that he was condemned by the Ephori to die as he was ledde without forme of law and justice to the place of execution for to be strangled with a rope perceiving one of his servants and ministers to shed teares said thus unto him Weepe not for my death for in dying thus unjustly and against the order of law I am in better case than those that put me to death and having said these words he willingly put his necke within the halter ACROTATUS when as his owne father and mother requested his helping hand for to effect a thing contrarie to reason and justice staied their sute for a time but seeing that they importuned him still and were very instant with him in the end said unto them So long as I was under your hands I had no knowledge nor sence at all of justice but after that you had betaken me to the common-weale to my countrey and to the lawes thereof and by that meanes informed and instructed me in what you could in righteousnesse and honestie I will endevour and straine my selfe to follow the said instruction and not you and for that I know full well that you would have me doe that which is good and considering that those things be best both for a private person and much more for him who is in authoritie and a chiefe magistrate which are just sure I will doe what you would have me and refuse that which you say unto me ALCAMENES the sonne of Teleclus when one would needs know of him by what meanes a man might preserve a kingdome best made this answer Even by making no account at all of lucre and gaine Another demanded of him wherefore he would never accept nor receive the gifts of the Messenians Forsooth quoth he because if I had taken thē I should never have had peace with the lawes And when a third person said That he marvelled much how he could live so straight and neere to himselfe considering he had wherewith and enough It is quoth he a commendable thing when a man having sufficient and plentie can neverthelesse live within
knowledge A begger upon a time craved almes of a Laconian who answered him thus But if I should give thee any thing thou wouldest make an occupation of it and beg still so much the more for verily whosoever he was that first bestowed almes upon thee was the cause of this villanous life which thou leadest now and hath made thee so vagrant and idle as thou art Another Laconian seeing a collectour going about and gathering mens devotions for the gods said thus I will now make no more reckoning of the gods so long as they be poorer than my selfe A certeine Spartan having taken an adulterer in bed with his wife a foule and ilfavoured woman Wretched man that thou art quoth he what necessitie hath driven thee to this Another having heard an oratour making long periods and drawing out his sentence in length Now by Castor and Pollux what a valiant man his here how he rolleth and roundly turneth his tongue about and all to no purpose A traveller passing thorow Lacedaemon marked among other things what great honour and reverence yoong folke did to their elders I perceive quoth he there is no place to Sparta for an olde man to live in A Spartan was upon a time asked the question what maner of Poet Tyrtaeus was A good Poet beleeve me quoth he to whet and sharpen the courages of yoong men to warre Another having very badde and diseased eies would needs goe to warfare and when others said unto him Wilt thou go indeed in that case as thou art in what deed thinkest thou to do there Why quoth he if I do no other good els I wil be sure to dull the brightnesse of mine enemies sword Buris and Spertis two Lacedaemonians voluntarily departed out of their countrey and went to Xerxes king of Persia offering themselves to suffer that paine and punishment which the Lacedaemonians had deserved by the sentence of the oracle of the gods for killing those heralds which the king had sent unto them who being come before him were desirous that he should put them to death in what maner he would himselfe for to acquit the Lacedaemonians the king wondering at this resolution of theirs not onely pardoned the fault but earnestly requested them to stay with him promising them liberall enterteinment And how can we say they live here abandoning our native soile our lawes and those kinde of men for whose sake to die we have so willingly undertaken this long voiage and when a great captaine under the king named Jndarnes intreated them stil very instantly assuring them upon his word that they should be kindly used and in equall degree of credit and honour with those who were in highest favour with the king and most advanced by him they said unto him It seemeth unto us sir that you full little know what is liberty and freedome for he that wist what a jewell it were if he be in his right wits would not change the same for the whole realme of Persia. A certeine Laconian as he way-fared came unto a place where there dwelt an olde friend and host of his who the first day of purpose avoided him and was out of the way because he was not minded to lodge him but the morrow after when he had either hired or borowed faire bedding coverings and carpets received him very stately but this Laconian mounting up to his beds trampled and stamped the faire and rich coverlets under his feet saying withall I beshrew these fine beds and trim furniture for they were the cause that yesternight I had not so much as a mat to lie upon when I should sleepe and take my rest Another of them being arrived at the city of Athens and seeing there the Athenians going up and downe the city some crying salt-fish to sell others flesh and such like viands some like publicanes sitting at the receit of custome other professing the trade of keeping brothel-houses and exercising many such vile and base occupations esteeming nothing at all foule and dishonest after he was returned home into his owne countrey when his neighbours and fellow-citizens asked him what newes at Athens and how all things stood there Passing well quoth he and it is the best place that ever I came in which he spake by way of mockerie and derision every thing there is good and honest giving them to understand that all meanes of gaine and lucre were held lawful honest at Athens and nothing there was counted villanous and dishonest Another Laconian being asked a question answered No and when the party who mooved the question said Thou liest the Laconian replied againe and said See what a foole thou art to aske me that which thou knowest well enough thy selfe Certeine Laconians were sent upon a time ambassadours to Lygdamis the tyrant who put them off from day to day and hasted with them so as he gave them no audience at the last it was tolde them that hee was at all times weake and ill at ease and not in case to be conferred with the ambassadours there upon said unto him who brought this word unto them Tell him from us that we are not come to wrestle but to parle onely with him A certeine priest inducted a Laconian into the orders and ceremonies of some holy religion but before that he would fully receive and admit him he demanded of him what was the most grievous sinne that ever he committed and which lay heaviest upon his conscience The gods know that best quoth the Laconian but when the priest pressed hard upon him and was very importunate protesting that there was no remedie but he must needs utter and confesse it Unto whom quoth the Laconian must I tell it unto you or to the God whom you serve unto God quoth the other Why then turne you behinde me quoth hee or retire aside out of hearing Another Laconian chanced in the night to goe over a church-yard by a tombe or monument and imagined that he saw a spirit standing before him whereupon he advanced forward directly upon it with his javelin and as he ran full upon it and as he thought strake thorow it he said withall Whither fliest thou from me ghost that thou art now twise dead Another having vowed to fling himselfe headlong from the high Promontorie Leucas downe into the sea mounted up the top thereof but when hee saw what an huge downfall it was he gently came downe againe on his feet now when one twitted and reproched him therefore I wist not quoth he that this vow of mine had need of another greater than it Another Laconian there was who in a battell and hot medley being fully minded to kill his enemie who was under him and to that purpose had lifted up his sword backe to give him a deadly wound so soone as ever hee heard the trumpet sound the retreat presently stated his hand and would no more follow his stroake now when one asked him why he slew not his enemie
Aristonicus among others who in a certeine battell running in to rescue and succour him fought manfully and there was slaine and fell dead at his foot Alexander heereupon caused his statue to be made in brasse and to be set up in the temple of Apollo Pythius holding a lute in the one hand and a launce in the other In so doing he not onely honored the man but also Musicke as being an art which breedeth animositie in mens hearts filling those with a certeine ravishment of spirit and couragious heart to fight valiantly who are naturally framed and bred up to action for even himselfe one day when Antigenides sounded the battell with his flute and singing thereto a militarie song called Harmation was thereat so much mooved and set in such an heat by his warlike tune that he started out of the place where he sat and caught up the armes that hung up thereby ready to brandish them and to fight bearing witnesse thereby to the Spartans chaunting thus Sweetly to play on Lute and Harpe To sing thereto as pleasantly Beseemeth those that love at sharpe To fight it out right valiantly There lived also in the time of Alexander Apelles the Painter and Lysippus the Imager the former of these two painted Alexander holding a thunderbolt in his hand but so exquisitely to the life and so like unto himselfe that it was a common saying Of two Alexanders the one king Philips sonne was invincible the other of Apelles drawing was inimitable As for Lysippus when he had cast the first image of Alexander with his face up toward heaven expressing thereby the very countenance of Alexander who was woont so to looke and withall to turne his necke somewhat at one side there comes me one and setteth over it this epigram alluding very pretily to the said portraicture This image heere that stands in brasse all bright The portraict is of Alexander right Up toward heaven he both his eies doth cast And unto Jove seemes thus to speake at last Thou Jupiter in heav'n maist well be bold Mine is the earth by conquest I it hold And therefore Alexander gave commandement that no other brasse founder should cast his image but only Lysippus for he alone it was as it should seeme that had the feat to represent his naturall disposition in brasse and to expresse his vertue answerable to the lineaments and proportion of his shape As for others howsoever they might be thought to resemble the bending of his necke the cheerefull cast amiable volubility of his quicke eie yet could they never observe and keepe that virilitie of visage and lion-like looke of his In the ranke of other rare workmen may be ranged a famous Architect named Stasicrates who would not seeme to busie himselfe in making any thing that was either gallant pleasant or delectable and gracious to the eie but intended some great matter and such a piece of worke and of that argument as would require no lesse then the riches and treasure of a king to furnish and set foorth This fellow comes up to Alexander being in the high countries and provinces of his dominion where before him he found fault with all his images as well painted and engraven as cast and pourtraied any way saying they were the hand-works of base minded and mechanicall artificers But I quoth he if it may please your majestie know how and doe intend to found and establish the similitude of your roiall person in a matter that is living and immortall grounded upon eternall roots the weight and ponderositie whereof is immooveable and can not be shaken For the mountaine Athos quoth he in Thracia whereas it is greatest and riseth to a most conspicuous height where the broad plaines and high tops are proportionate to it selfe every waie having in it members lims joints distances and intervals resembling for all the world the forme of mans body may be wrought and framed so as it would serve verie well both to be called and to be indeed the statue of Alexander and worthy his Greatnesse the foote and base whereof shall touch the sea in one of the hands comprehending and holding a great citie peopled and inhabited by an infinit number of men and in the right a runing river with a perpetuall current which it powreth as it were out of a great pot into the sea as for all these petty images and puppets made of gold brasse and ivorie these wodden tables with pictures away with them all as little paltrey portracts which may be bought and sold theefe-stollen and melted defaced and marred Alexander having heard the man speake highly praised him as admiring his hautie minde his bold courage the conceit of his extraordinary invention Good fellow quoth he let Athos alone and permit it to stand a Gods name in the place where it doth and never alter the forme of it it sufficeth that it is the monument of the outragious pride insolent vanitie and folly of one king already and as for me the mountaine Caucasus the hilles Emodi the river Tanais and the Caspian sea shall be the images and statues to represent my acts But set the case I pray you that such a piece of worke had beene made finished as this great architect talked of is there any man thinke you seeing it in that forme disposition and fashion that would thinke it grew so by chance adventure No I warrant you What say we now to his image called Ceraunophoros that is to say the thunder-boltbeare what say we to another named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say leaning upon a launce Can not the greatnesse majestie of such a statue be performed by fortune without the artificial hand of man howsoever it conferre and allow thereto great store of gold brasse ivorie and all maner of rich precious matter and shall we thinke it then possible that a great personage nay rather the greatest that ever the world saw was made perfected by fortune without vertue and that it was fortune onely who made for him that provision of armes of money of men cities and horses all which things bring perill to those that know not how to use them well and neither honour and credit nor puissance but rather argue their seeblenesse and impuissance For Antisthenes said very well and truely that we should wish unto our enemies all the good things in the world save onely valour and fortitude for by that meanes they be not theirs who are in present possession of them but become theirs who are the conquerors And this is the reason men say that nature hath set upon the head of an Hart for his defence the most heartlesse and cowardly beast that is woonderfull hornes for bignesse and most dangerous by reason of their sharpe and branching knagges teaching us by this example that bodily strength and armour serveth them in no stead who have not the courage and resolution to stand their ground and fight it out And even
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
dead whereas if he could have held his tongue a little while longer and mastered himselfe when the king afterwards had better fortune and recovered his greatnesse and puissance he should in my conceit have gotten more thanks at his hands and beene better rewarded for keeping silence than for all the courtesie and hospitalitie that he shewed And yet this fellow had in some sort a colourable excuse for this intemperate tongue of his to wit his owne hopes and the good will that he bare unto the king but the most part of these pratlers vndo themselves without any cause or pretense at all of reason like as it befell unto Denys the tyrants barbar for when upon a time there were some talking in his shop as touching his tyrannicall government and estate how assured it was and as hard to be ruined or overthrowen as it is to breake the Diamond the said barbar laughing thereat I marvell quoth he that you should say so of Denys who is so often under my hands and at whose throat in a maner every day I holde my rasor these words were soone carried to the tyrant Denys who faire crucified this barbar and hanged him for his foolish words And to say a trueth all the sort of these barbars be commonly busie fellowes with their tongue and no marvell for lightly the greatest praters and idlest persons in a countrey frequent the barbars shop and sit in his chaire where they keepe such chat that it can not be but by hearing them prate so customably his tongue also must walke with them And therefore king Archelaus answered very pleasantly unto a barbar of his that was a man of no few words who when he had cast his linnen cloth about his shoulders said unto him Sir may it please your Highnesse to tell me how I shall cut or shave you Mary quoth he holding thy tongue and saying not a word A barbar it was who first reported in the city of Athens the newes of that great discomsiture and overthrow which the Athenians received in Sicily for keeping his shop as he did in that end of the suburbs called Pyraeum he had no sooner heard the said unlucky newes of a certaine slave who fled from thence out of the field when it was lost but leaving shop and all at sixe and seven ran directly into the city and never rested to bring the said tidings and whiles they were fresh and fire-new For feare some els might all the honour win And he teo late or second should come in Now upon the broching of these unwelcome tidings a man may well thinke and not without good cause that there was a great stirre within the city insomuch as the people assembled together into the Market place or Common hall and search was made for the authour of this rumour hereupon the said barbar was haled and brought before the bodie of the people and examined who knew not so much as the name of the partie of whom hee heard this newes But well assured I am quoth he that one said so mary who it was or what his name might be I can not tell Thus it was taken for an headlesse tale and the whole Theatre or Assembly was so moved to anger that they cried out with one voice Away with the villaine have the varlet to the racke set the knave upon the wheele he it is onely that hath made all on his owne singers ends this hath he and none but he devised for who els hath heard it or who besides him hath beleeved it Well the wheele was brought and upon it was the barbar stretched meane while and even as the poore wretch was hoised thereupon beholde there arrived and came to the citie those who brought certaine newes in deed of the said defeature even they who made a shift to escape out of that infortunate field then brake up the assembly and every man departed and retired home to his owne house for to bewaile his owne private losse and calamity leaving the silly barbar lying along bound to the wheele and racked out to the length and there remained he untill it was very late in the evening at what time he was let loose and no sooner was he at liberty but he must needs enquire newes of the executioner namely what they heard abroad of the Generall himselfe Nicias and in what sort he was slaine So inexpugnable and incorrigible a vice is this gotten by custome of much talke that a man can not leave it though he were going to the gallowes nor keepe in those tidings which no man is willing to heare for certes like as they who have drunke bitter potions or unsavory medicines can not away with the very cups where in they were even so they that bring evill and heavie tidings are ordinarily hated and detested of those unto whom they report the same And therefore Sophocles the Poet hath verie finely distinguished upon this point in these verses MESSENGER Is it your heart or els your eare That this offends which you do heare CREON. And why do'st thou search my disease To know what griefe doth me displease MESSENGER His deeds I see offend your heart But my words cause your eares to smart Well then those who tell us any wofull newes be as odious as they who worke our wo and yet for all that there is no restreint and brideling of an untemperate tongue that is given to walke and overreach It fortuned one day at Lacedaemon that the temple of Iuno called there Chalciaecos was robbed and within it was found a certeine emptie flagon or stone bottle for wine great running there was and concourse of the people thither and men could not tell what to make of that flagon at last one of them that stood by My masters quoth he if you will give me leave I shall tell you what my conceit is of that flagon for my minde gives me saith he that these church-robbers who projected to execute so perilous an enterprise had first drunke the juice of hemlocke before they entred into the action and afterwards brought wine with them in this bottle to the end that if they were not surprised nor taken in the maner they might save their lives by drinking each of them a good draught of meere wine the nature and vertue whereof as you know well enough is to quench as it were and dissolve the vigour and strength of that poison and so goe their waies safe enough but if it chance that they were taken in the deed doing then they might by meanes of that hemlocke which they had drunke die an easie death and without any great paine and torment before that they were put to torture by the magistrate He had no sooner delivered this speech but the whole companie who heard his words thought verily that such a contrived devise and so deepe a reach as this never came from one that suspected such a matter but rather knew that it was so indeed whereupon they
of their transmigration named thereupon Metageitnion yea and do celebrate a festivall holiday and sacrifice which in memoriall of that remooving they call Metagetnia for that this passage of theirs into another neighbourhood they received and interteined right willingly with joy and much contentment I suppose you wil never say so Now tell me what part of this earth habitable or rather of the whole globe and compasse thereof can be said farre distant or remote one from the other seeing that the Mathematicians are able to proove and make demonstration by reason that the whole in comparison and respect of heaven or the firmament is no more than a very pricke which hath no dimension at al But we like unto pismires driven out of our hole or in maner of bees dispossessed of our hive are cast downe and discomforted by and by and take our selves to be foreiners and strangers for that we know not how to esteeme and make all things our owne familiar and proper unto us as they be And yet we laugh at the folly of him who said That the moone at Athens was better than at Corinth being in the meane while after a sort in the same error of judgement as if when we are gon a journey from the place of our habitation we should mistake the earth the sea the aire and the skie as if they were others and farre different from those which we are accustomed unto for Nature hath permitted us to goe and walke through the world loose and at libertie but we for our parts imprison our selves and we may thanke our selves that we are pent up in straight roomes that we be housed and kept within wals thus of our owne accord we leape into close and narrow places and notwithstanding that we do thus by our selves yet we mocke the Persian Kings for that if it be true which is reported of them the drinke all of the water onely of the river Choaspes by which meanes they make all the continent besides waterlesse for any good they have by it whereas even we also when we travell and remoove into other countries have a longing desire after the river Cephisus or Eurotas yea and a minde unto the mountaine Taigetus or the hill Pernassus whereby upon a most vaine and foolish opinion all the world besides is not onely void of water but also like a desert without citie and altogether inhabitable unto us Contrariwise certaine Egyptians by occasion of some wrath and excessive 〈◊〉 of their King minding to remoove into Ethiopia when as their kinsfolke and friends requested them to turne backe againe and not to forsake their wives and children after a shamelesse manner shewing unto them their genitall members answered them That they would neither want wives nor children so long as they carried those about them But surely a man may avouch more honestlie and with greater modestie and gravitie that hee who in what place soever feeleth no want or misse of those things which be necessarie for this life cannot complaine and say That he is there out of his owne countrey without citie without his owne house and habitation or a stranger at all so as he onely have as he ought his eie and understanding bent hereunto for to stay and governe him in maner of a sure anchor that he may be able to make benefit and use of any haven or harborough whatsover he arriveth unto For when a man hath lost his goods it is not so easie a matter to recover them soone againe but surely everie citie is straight waies as good a native countrey unto him who knoweth and hath learned how to use it to him I say who hath such rootes as will live be nourished and grow in every place and by any meanes 〈◊〉 Themistocles was furnished with and such as Demetrius the Phalerian was not without who being banished from Athens became a principall person in the court of King Ptolomoeus in Alexandria where he not onely himselfe lived in great abundance of all things but also sent unto the Athenians from thence rich gifts and presents As for Themistocles living in the estate of a Prince through the bountifull allowance and liberalitie of the King of Persia he was woont by report to say unto his wife and children We had beene utterly undone for ever if we had not beene undone And therefore Diogenes surnamed the Dog when one brought him word and said the Sinopians have condemned thee to be exiled out of the kingdome of Pontus And I quoth he have confined them within the countrey of Pontus with this charge That they shall never passe the atmost bonds Of Euxine sea that hems them with her stronds Stratonius being in the Isle Seriphos which was a verie little one demaunded of his host for what crimes the punishment of exile was ordained in that countrey and when he heard and understood by him that they used to banish such as were convicted of falshood and untrueth Why then quoth he againe hast not thou committed some false and leawd act to the ende that thou mightest depart out of this straight place and be enlarged whereas one Comicall Poet said A man might gather and make a vintage as it were of figs with slings and foison of all commodities might be had which an Iland wanted For if one would weigh and consider the trueth indeed setting aside all vaine opinion and foolish conceits he that is affected unto one citie alone is a verie pilgrim and stranger in all others for it seemeth nether meete honest nor reasonable that a man should abandon his owne for to inhabite those of others Sparta is fallen to thy lot saith the proverbe adorne and honor it for so thou art bound to doe be it that it is of small or no account say that it is seated in an unholesome aire and subject to many 〈◊〉 or be plagued with civill dissentions or otherwise troubled with turbulent affaires But whosoever he be whom fortune hath deprived of his owne native countrey certes she hath graunted and allowed him to make choice of that which may please and content him And verily the precept of the Pythagoreans serveth to right good stead in this case to be practised Choose say they the best life use and custome will make it pleasant enough unto thee To this purpose also it may bee wisely and with great profit said Make choice of the best and most pleasant citie time will cause it to be thy native countrey and such a native countrey as shall not distract and trouble thee with any businesse nor impose upon thee these and such like exactions Make paiment and contribute to this levie of money Goe in embassage to Rome Receive such a captaine or ruler into thine house or take such a charge upon thee at thine owne expenses Now he that calleth these things to remembrance if he have any wit in his head and be not overblind every way in his owne opinion and selfe-conceit will wish and
out of minde those that inhabite here Were borne in place and so remain'd alive All cities else and nations at one word With aliens peopled be who like to men At table play or else upon chesse-boord Remooved have and leapt some now some then If women we may be allow'd to grace Our native soile and with proude words exalt Presume we dare to say that in this place A temperate aire we have without default Where neither heat nor cold excessive is If ought there be that noble Greece doth yeeld Or Asia rich of best commodities And daintiest fruits by river or by field We have it here in foison plentifull To hunt to catch to reape to crop and pull And yet even he who hath set such goodly praises upon his native countrey left the same went into Macedonia and there lived in the court of King Archelam You have heard likewise I suppose this little Epigram in verse Enterred and entombed lieth here Euphorians sonne the Poet Aeschylus In Athens towne though borne sometime he were To Gelas neere in corne so plenteous For he also abandoned his owne countrey and went to dwell in Sicilie like as Simonides did before him And whereas this title or inscription is commonly read This is the Historie written by Herodotus the Halicarnassean many there be who correct it and write in this maner Herodotus the Thurian for that he remooved out of the countrey wherein he was borne became an inhabitant among the Thurians and enjoied the freedome of that colonie As for that heavenly and divine spirit in the knowledge of Muses and Poetrie Homerus who with woondrous pen Set foorth the battels Phrygien what was it that caused so many cities to debate about the place of his nativitie chalenging everie one unto themselves but onely this that hee seemed not to praise and extoll any one citie above the rest Moreover to Jupiter surnamed Hospitall know we not that there be many those right great honors done Now if any one shall say unto me that these personages were all of them ambitious aspiring to great honor and glorie doe no more but have recourse unto the Sages and those wise schooles and learned colledges of Athens call to minde and consider the renowmed clerkes and famous Philosophers either in Lycaeum or the Academie go to the gallerie Stoa the learned schoole Palladium or the Musicke-schoole Odeum If you affect love and admire above all other the fect of the Peripateticks Aristotle the prince thereof was borne in Stagira a citie of Macedonia Theophrastus in Eressus Strato came from Lampsacus Glycon from Troas Ariston from Chios and Critolaus from Phaselus If your minde stand more to praise the Stoickes cleanthes was of Assos Zeno was a Citiean Chrysippus came from Soli Diogenes from Babylon and Antipater from Tharsus and Archidamus being an Athenian borne went to dwell among the Parthians and left behind him at Babylon in succession the Stoicke discipline and Philosophie Who was it that chased and drave these men out of their native countries certes none but even of their owne accord and voluntary motion they sought all abroad for their contentment and repose which hardly or not at all can they enjoy at home in their owne houses who are in any authoritie and reputation so that as they have taught us verie well out of their bookes other good sciences which they professed so this one point of living in quietnes and rest they have shewed unto us by practise and example And even in these daies also the most renowmed and approoved clerkes yea and greatest men of marke and name live in strange countries farre remote from their owne habitations not transported by others but of themselves remooving thither not banished sent away and confined but willing to flie and avoide the troublesome affaires negotiations and businesse which their native countries amuse them with That this is true it may appeere by the most approoved excellent and commendable workes and compositions which ancient writers have left unto posteritie for the absolute finishing whereof it seemeth that the Muses used the helpe and meanes of their exile Thus Thucydides the Athenian penned the warre betweene the Peloponnesians and the Athenians whiles he was in Thracia and namely neere unto a place called the Forest of the Fosse Xenophon compiled his storie at Scillos in Elea Philip wrate in Epirus Timaeus who was borne at Taurominum in Sictlie became a writer in Athens Androtion the Athenian at Megarae and Bachilides the Poet in Peloponnesus who all and many others besides being banished out of their countries were never discouraged nor cast downe but shewed the vivacitie and vigor of their good spirits and tooke their exile at fortunes hands as a good maintenance and provision of their journey by meanes whereof they live in same and renowne now after their death whereas on the other side there remaineth no memoriall at all of those by whose factions and sidings they were driven out and exiled And therefore he deserveth to be well mocked who thinketh that banishment carrieth with it some note of infamie and reproch as necessarily adherent thereto For what say you to this Is Diogenes to be counted infamous whom when King Alexander saw sitting in the sunne he approched neere and standing by him demaunded whether he stood in need of any thing or no he had no other answere from him but this that he had need of nothing else but that he should stand alittle out of the sunne-shine and not shadow him as he did whereupon Alexander woondring at his magnanimitie and haughtie courage said presently unto those friends that were about him If I were not Alexander I would be Diogenes And was Camillus disgraced any way for being banished out of Rome considering that even at this daie he is reputed and taken for the second founder thereof Neither lost Themistocles the glorie which he had woon among the Greekes by his exile but rather acquired thereto great honor estimation with the Barbarians And no man is there so base minded and carelesse of honor and credit but he would choose rather to be Themistocles banished as he was than Leobates his accuser and the cause of his banishment yea and to be Cicero who was exiled than Clodius who chased him out of Rome or Timotheus who was constrained to abandon and forsake his native countrey than Aristophon who endited him and caused him to leave the same But for that the authoritie of Euripides who seemeth mightily to defame and condemne banishment mooveth many men let us consider what be his severall questions and answeres to this point IOCASTA How then is it a great calamitie To loose the place of our nativitie POLYNICES The greatest crosse I hold it is doubtlesse And more indeed than my tongue can expresse IOCASTA The manner would I gladly understand And what doth grieve man shut from native land POLYNICES This one thing first the sorest griefe must be That of their speech they
we better warriours be In these daies than our fathers were by many a degree If we call to minde and remember the precedent words a little before Thou sonne of noble Tydëus a wise and hardy knight How is it that thy heart doth pant for feare when thou shouldst fight Why do'st thou cast thine eie about and looke on everie side How thou maist out of battell scape and dar'st not field abide for it was not Sthenelus himselfe unto whom this sharpe and bitter speech was addressed but he replied thus in the behalfe of his friend whom he had thus reproched and therefore so just a cause and so fit an occasion gave him libertie to speake thus bravely and boldly of himselfe As for the citizens of Rome they were offended displeased much with Cicero praising himselfe so much as he did and namely relating so often the woorthie deeds by him done against Catiline but contrariwise when Scipio said before them all in a publike assembly That it was not meet and seemely for them to sit as judges upon Scipio considering that by his meanes they were growen to that grandence as to judge all the world they put chaplets of flowers upon their heads and in this wise adorned mounted up together with him into the temple of the Capitoll for to sacrifice and render thankes unto Jupiter and good reason both of the one and the other for Cicero rehearsed his owne praise-worthy deeds so many times without any need enforcing him thereto onely to glorifie himselfe but the present perill wherein the other stood freed him from all hatred and envie notwithstanding he spake in his owne praise Moreover this vanterie and glorious boasting of a mans selfe is not befitting those onely who are accused or in trouble and danger of the law but to as many also as be in adversitie rather than in prosperitie for that it seemeth that these reach and catch as it were at glorie and take pleasure and joy therein onely to gratifie and content therein their owne ambitious humor whereas the other by reason of the qualitie of the time being farre from all suspition of vaine glorie and ambition doe plucke up and erect themselves upright against fortune sustaining and upholding what they can the generositie of their minds avoiding as much as lieth in them that base conceit to be thought for to beg commiseration and crave pittie as if they would be moaned for their misadventures and thereby bewray their abject hearts For like as we take them for fooles and vaine-glorious fellowes who as they walke ordinarily lift up themselves and beare their heads and neckes aloft but contrariwise we praise and commend those who erect their bodies and do all they can to put foorth themselves either in fight at sharpe or in buffeting with fists even so a man who being overthrowen by adverse fortune raiseth himselfe up againe upon his feet and addresseth his whole might to make head Like as the champion doth arise Upon his hands to winne a prise and in stead of shewing himselfe humble suppliant and pittifull by glorious words maketh a shew of braverie and haughtie courage seemeth not thereby proude and presumptuous but contrariwise great magnanimous and invincible Thus in one place the poet Homer depainteth Patroclus modest and nothing at all subject to envie when he had done any exploit fortunately and with valour but at his death when he was ready to yeeld the ghost he described him to speake bravely in this wise If twentie such with all their might Had met with me in open fight c. And Phocion who otherwise was alwaies meeke and modest after that he saw himselfe condemned gave all the world to understand his magnanimitie as in many other things so especially in this point that he said unto one of those that were to suffer death with him who made a pitious moane and great lamentation How now man what is that thou saiest doth it not thee good at the heart to thinke that thou shalt die with Phocion And verily no lesse but rather much more it is permitted to a man of State who is injuriously dealt withall for to speake somewhat frankly of himselfe namely unto those who seeme to be oblivious and unthankfull Thus Achilles at other times rendred the glorie of fortunate successe in his affaires to the heavenly power of God and spake modestly in this maner That Jupiter would give us power and strength Troy citie strongly wall'd to winne at length But otherwise when indignities were offred unto him and he unjustly wronged and abused he sang another note and displaied his tongue at large in anger breaking out into these haughtie and brave words With ships of mine well man'd with souldiours brave By force of armes twelve cities wonne I have Also For why approch they dare not neere to me The brightnes of my morion for to see For libertie of franke speech being a part of justification and defence in law is allowed to use great words for plea. And verily Themistocles according to this rule who all the while that hee performed the exploits of noble service in his owne countrey never did or said ought that savoured of odious pride yet when he once saw that the Athenians were full of him and that they made account of him no more forbare not to say unto them thus What meane you my masters of Athens thus to disdaine be wearie of those at whose hands you receive so oftentimes benefits In time of storme and tempest you flie to them for refuge and shroud your selves in their protection as under the harbor and covert of a spreading tree no sooner is the storme overblowne and the weather faire againe but you are ready to give a twitch at them and every one to pull and breake a branch thereof as you passe by Thus you see how these men perceiving themselves otherwise injuried in their discontentment sticke not to rehearse their service and good deeds past and cast them in their teeth who are forgetfull thereof But he that is blamed and suffreth a reproch for things well done is altogether for to be excused and unblameable in case he set in hand to praise his owne deeds forasmuch as he seemeth nor to reproch and upbraid any but to answere onely in his own defence to justifie himselfe Certes this it was that gave unto Demosthenes an honest and laudable libertie to speake for his owne behoofe and he avoided thereby all tedious satietie of his owne praises which he used throughout that whole oration entituled Of the crowne wherein he gloried and vaunted of that which was imputed unto him as reprochable to wit the embassages in which he went and the decrees which he had enacted as touching the warre Moreover not farre from these points above rehearsed the reversing of an objection by way of Antithesis may be placed and carieth with it a good grace to wit when the defendant doth proove and shew that the contrary
him in cure but if peradventure he tumble and tosse in his bedde fling and cast off his clothes by reason that his bodie is tormented with some grievous hot fit no sooner stirreth he never so little but one or other that standeth or sitteth by to tend him is ready to say gently unto him Poore soule be quiet feare none ill Deare heart in bed see thou lie still he staieth and keepeth him downe that he shall not start and leape out of his bed but contrariwise those that be surprised with the passions of the soule at such a time be most busie then they be least in repose and quiet for their violent motions be the causes moving their actions and their passions are the vehement fits of such motions this is the cause that they will not let the soule to be at rest but even then when as a man hath most need of patience silence and quiet retrait they draw him most of all abroad into the open aire then are discovered soonest his cholerike passions his opinionative and contentious humors his wanton love and his grievous sorrowes enforcing him to commit many enormities against the lawes and to speake many words unseasonably and not befitting the time Like as therefore much more perillous is the tempest at sea which impeacheth and putteth backe a ship that it can not come into the harbour to ride at anchor than that which will not suffer it to get out of the haven and make saile in open sea even so those tempestuous passions of the soule are more dangerous which will not permit to be at rest nor to settle his discourse of reason once troubled but overturneth it upside downe as being disfurnished of pilots and cables not well balllaised in the storme wandring to and fro without a guide and steeresmen carried mauger into rash and dangerous courses so long untill in the end it falleth into some shipwracke and where it overthroweth the whole life in such sort that in regard of these reasons and others semblable I conclude that woorse it is to be soule-sicke than diseased in bodie for the bodies being sicke suffer onely but the soules if they be sicke both suffer and doe also amisse To proove this what neede we further to particularize and alledge for examples many other passions considering that the occasion of this present time is sufficient to admonish us thereof and to refresh our memorie See you not this great multitude and preasse of people thrusting and thronging here about the Tribunall and common place of the citie they are not all assembled hither to sacrifice unto the Tutelar gods Protectors of their native countrey nor to participate in common the same religion and sacred ceremonies of divine service they are not all met heere together for to offer an oblation unto Jupiter Astraeus out of the first fruits of Lydia and to celebrate and solemnize in the honor of Bacchus during these holy nights his festivall revils with daunses masks and mummeries accustomed but like as by yeerly accesse and anniversarie revolutions the forcible vigor of the pestilence returneth for to irritate and provoke all Asia so they resort hither to entertaine their suits and processes in law to follow their pleas and a world here is of affaires like to many brookes and riverers which run all at once into one channell and maine streame so they are met in the same place which is pestered and filled with an infinite multitude of people to hurt themselves and others From what fevers or colde ague-fits proceed these effects from what tensions or remissions augmentations or diminutions from what distemperature of heat or overspreading of cold humours comes all this If you aske of everie severall cause here in suite as if they were men and able to answere you from whence it arose how it grew and whereupon it came and first began you shall finde that one matter was engendred by some wilfull and proud anger another proceeded from a troublesome and litigious spirit and a third was caused by some unjust desire and unlawfull lust THE PRECEPTS OF WEDLOCKE The Summarie WE have heere a mixture and medley of rules for married folke who in the persons of Pollianus and Eurydice are taught their mutuall duety upon which argument needlesse it is to discourse at large considering that the whole matter is set out particularly and tendeth to this point That both at the beginning in the sequell also and continuation of mariage man and wife ought to assist support and love one another with a single heart and affection farre remooved from disdainfull pride violence vanitie and fill hinesse the which is specified and comprised in 45. articles howbeit in such sort that there be some of those precepts which savour of the corruption of those times bewraying the insufficiency of humane wisedome unlesse it be lightened with Gods truth We see also in this Treatise more particular advertisements appropriate to both parties touching their devoir as well at home as abroad and all enriched with notable similitudes and excellent examples In summe if these precepts following be well weighed and practised they are able to make mans life much more easie and commodious than it is But Plutarch sheweth sufficiently by the thirtieth rule how hard a matter it is to reteine each one in their severall dutie and that in manner all doe regard and looke upon things with another eie than they ought How ever it be those persons whom vertue hath linked and joined together in matrimonie may finde here whereby to profit and so much the more for that they have one lesson which naturall equitie and conscience putteth them in minde of everie day if they will enter never so little into themselves which being joined with the commandements of the heavenly wisedome it can not be but husband and wife shall live in contentment and blessed estate THE PRECEPTS OF WEDLOCKE PLUTARCH to POLLIANUS and EURYDICE sendeth greeting AFter the accustomed ceremoniall linke of marriage in this countrie which the Priestresse of Ceres hath put upon you in coupling you both together in one bed-chamber I suppose that this discourse of mine comming as it doth to favorize and second this bond and conjunction of yours in furnishing you with good lessons and wise nuptiall advertisements will not be unprofitable but sound verie fitting and comformable to the customarie wedding song observed in these parts The musicians among other tunes that they had with the haut-boies used one kind of note which they called Hippotharos which is asmuch to say as Leape-mare having this opinion that it stirred and provoked stallions to cover mares But of many beautifull and good discourses which philosophie affoordeth unto us one there is which deserveth no lesse to be esteemed than any other by which shee seeming to enchant and charme those who are come together to live all the daies of their life in mutuall societie maketh them to be more buxome kinde tractable and pliable one to
himselfe prisoner 43 Moreover as touching the love and desire to go trim and to decke and adorne the body I would wish you ô Eurydice to endevor for to call to your remembrance those rules which you have read in the treatise that Timoxenus wrote unto Aristilla concerning that argument And as for you ô Pollianus never thinke that your wife will absteine from such curiosity and lay away those delights and superfluities so long as she perceiveth that you despise not nor reject the like vanity in other things but that you take pleasure both to see and have your cuppes and goblets gilt your cabinets curiously and costly painted your mules and horses set out with rich caparisons sumptuous trappings and costly furniture for an hard matter it is to chase away and banish such delicate superfluities out of the nurcery and womens chamber so long as they see the same to reigne in the mens parlour and where they have to do 44 Furthermore you Pollianus being now of ripe yeres to studie those sciences which are grounded upon reason and proceed by undoubted demonstration adorne from hence forward your maners by frequenting the company of such persons and conversing with them who may serve you in good stead and farther you that way and as for your wife see you doe the part of a studious and industrious Bee in gathering for her and to her hand from all parts good things which you thinke may benefit profit her likewise bring the same home with you impart them unto her devise and commune with her about them apart and by that meanes make familiar and pleasant unto her the best bookes and the best discourses that you can meet with all For why to her you are in stead of sire and brother kind A mother deere from henceforth now to her she must you find like as in Homer Andromache said of her husband Hector And verily in mine opinion it were no lesse honorable for a man to heare his wife say thus unto him My husband you are my teacher my regent my master and instructor in Philosophie and in the knowledge of the most divine and excellent literature for these sciences and liberall arts do above all other things divert and withdraw the minds of women from other unwoorthie and unseemely exercises A matron or dame who hath studied Geometrie will be ashamed to make profession of dauncing the measures and she that is alreadie enchanted and charmed as it were with the singular discourses of Plato and Xenophon will never like of the charmed and enchantments of witches and forcerers and if any enchantresse should come unto her and make promise to draw downe the moone from heaven she would mocke those women and laugh at their grosse ignorance who suffer themselves to be perswaded for to beleeve the same as having learned somewhat in Astrologie and heard that Aganice the daughter of Hegetor a great Lord in Thesalia knowing the reason of the ecclipses of the moone when she is at the full and observing the verie time when the bodie of the moone will meet right with the shadow of the earth abused other women of that countrey and made them beleeve that it was herselfe who fetched downe the moon out of the skie 45 It was never heard yet that a woman by course of nature should conceive and bring foorth a childe of her selfe alone without the companie of man marie some there be who have beene knowen to gather in their wombe a rude masse or lumpe without the true forme of a reasonable creature resembling rather a piece of flesh engendred and growing to a consistence by meanes of some corruption which some call a Mole Great heed therefore would be taken that the like befall not to the soule and mind of women for if they receive not from others the seeds of good matters and instructions that is to say if their husbands helpe them not to conceive good doctrine and sound knowledge they will of themselves fall a breeding and be delivered of many strange conceits absurd opinions and extravagant passions But mine advice unto you Eurydice is to be studious alwaies in the notable sayings and sentences morall of sage wise and approoved men have alwaies in your mouth the good words which heretofore when you were a yoong maiden you heard and learned of us to the end that you may be a joy to your husband and be praised and commended by other women when they shall see you so honorably adorned and beautified without any cost bestowed upon brooches tablets and jewels for you can not possibly come by the precious pearles of this or that rich and wealthie woman nor have the silken gownes and velvet robes of such a Ladie of a strange countrey for to array or trim your selfe withall but you must buy them at an exceeding high and deere price but the ornaments and attire of Theano of Cleobuline of Gorgo the wife of king Leonidas of Timoclea the sister of Theagenes of Clodia the ancient Romane Ladie of dame Cornelia the sister of Scipio and of other Ladies and gentlewomen so much renowmed and bruited heretofore for their rare vertues you may have gratis freely and without a penie cost wherewith if you decke and adorne your selfe you shall live both happily and also with honor and glorie For if Sappho for her sufficiency in Poetrie and the skill that she had in verstfying stucke not to write thus to a certaine rich and wealthie dame in her time All dead thoushalt one day entombed be There shall remaine of thee no memorie For that no part of roses came to thee That flower upon the mountaine Pierie Why shouldest not thou thinke better of thy selfe and take more joy and contentment in thine heart considering thou hast thy part not onely of the roses and flowers but also of the fruits which the Muses bring foorth and yeeld to those who love good letters and highly esteeme of Philosophie THE BANQVET OF THE SEVEN SAGES The Summarie WHether it were that the persons named in this discourse following were at a banquet in deed and there discoursed of such matters as are here by Plutarch handled or that himselfe had collected and gathered the Apophthegmes and histories of his time or how soever it was we may see by this present Treatise what was the custome of Sages and wise men in ancient time at their feasts namely to invite one another courteously to solace themselves and make merrie hartily without many ceremonies and complements to shew sincers amitie and without excessive cost and expense to keepe good cheere after a plaine open and simple manner The principall part of which meetings and frequentings of the table being emploied in devising dadly and with setled minde both during their repast and a prettie while after of matters honest pleasant and tending to good instruction and edification as this booke and the Symposiakes or Table-discourses whereof we shall see more hereafter do plainly shew This manner
which followeth in your letters missive and make use of these personages heere assembled whiles they bee all in place together Now truely quoth Niloxenus in my conceit that demaund of the Aethiopian a man may well and properly say to bee nothing else but if I may use the wordes of Archilochus a tewed or bruised whip but King Amasis your host in proposing of such questions is more gentle and civil for hee propounded unto him these demands to bee answered What thing in the whole world is eldest or most ancient What is the fairest What the greatest What most wise What most common Over and besides What most profitable What is most hurtfull What most puissant and What most easie What quoth Periander did the Aethiopian prince answere to these demands assoile them all Will you see quoth Niloxenus then what answers he made and after you have heard his answers be you judge whether he satisfied them or no for the king my master hath proceeded therin so sincerely that he would not for any thing in the world be justly thought to cavill and carpe like a sycophant at the answers of another and yet his care and endevour is not to faile in reprooving that wherein one hath erred and is deceived but I will from point to point recite unto you his answers What is most ancient Time quoth he What most wise Trueth What most beautifull The light What most common Death What most profitable God What most hurtfull The Divell What most mightie Fortune What most easie The thing that pleaseth When these answers were read ô Nicharchus they all remained silent for a time and then Thales asked of Niloxenus whether King Amasis approoved these solutions or no Niloxenus answered that some of them he allowed but with others of them he rested not well contented And yet quoth Thales againe there is not one of them all but deserveth great reprehension for they doe everie one bewray much error and grosse ignorance and to begin withall How can it be held and maintained that Time should be the eldest thing that is considering that one part thereof is passed already another present and a third yet to come for the future time which is to follow us can not choose but by all reason be esteemed yoonger than all men or all things which are present Againe to thinke that veritie were wisedome in my judgement is as much as if a man should say that the eie and the light is all one Furthermore if he reputed the light to be a faire thing as no doubt it is how happeneth it that he forgat the sunne Moreover as touching his answers of God and the devils they are verie audacious and dangerous But concerning Fortune there is no probalitie or likelihood of trueth therein for if she were so powerfull and puissant as he saith how commeth it about that she turneth and changeth so easily as she doth Neither is death the commonest thing in the world for common it is not to the living But because it shall not be thought that we can skill of naught but reprooving and correcting others let us conferre a little our particular opinions and sentences in this behalfe with his and if Niloxenus thinke so good I am content to offer my selfe first to answere unto these demaunds beforesaid one after another Now will I therfore declare unto you Nicharchus in order the interrogatories and answers according as they were propounded and delivered What is most ancient God quoth Thales for he never had beginning nor nativitie What is greatest Place for as the world containeth all things else so place containeth it What is fairest The world And why because whatsoever is disposed in lively order is a part thereof What is wisest Time for it hath found all things alreadie devised and will finde out all inventions hereafter What is most common Hope for it remaineth still with them who have nothing else What most profitable Vertue in that it maketh all things commodious according as they be used What is most hurtfull Vice for it marreth all good things besides wheresoever it is What is most mightie Necessitie for that onely is invincible What is most easie That which agreeth to nature for even pleasures many times we do abandon and forsake Now when all the companie had approoved and commended highly the answers of Thales These be questions in deed quoth Cleodemus unto Niloxenus meet for kings and princes both to propose and also to assoile as for that barbarous king of Aethiopia who enjoined king Amasis to drinke up the sea deserveth as short an answere as that was which Pittacus made to king Alyattes who when he demaunded somwhat of the Lesbians by his arrogant and proud letters had no other answere returned him from Pittacus but this That he should eate oinions and hot bread upon which words Periander inferred and said I assure you Cleodemus it hath bene the maner in old time among the ancient Greeks to propose one unto another such questions as these For we have heard by report that in times past the most skilfull and excellent Poets which were in those daies met at the funerals and obsequies of Amphidamas within the citie of Cholcis Now had this Amphidamus beene a man of great honour in government of the common-weale in his country who having put the Eretrians to much trouble in those wars which they waged against those of Cholcis in the quarrell of Lilantes hapned to leese his life at the last in a battell And for that the curious verses which the said poets provided and brought to be scanned of were intricate and hard to be judged of by those who were chosen as judges of the doubtfull victorie and besides the glorie of two renowmed concurrents Homer and Hesiodus held the judges in great perplexitie and shame to give their sentences as touching two so famous personages they grewe to suchas these questions in the end and propounded one unto another as Lesches saith after this maner Now helpe me Muse for to endite what things have never beene Nor hencefoorth whiles the world endures for ever shall be seene unto which demand Hesiodus answered readily and extempore in this wise When steeds to win the prize with sound of feet shall runne amaine And at the tombe of Jupiter their chariots breake in twaine For which cause especially it is reported he was so highly admired that thereby he 〈◊〉 the tre-feet of gold And what difference quoth Cleodemus is there betweene these questions and the riddles put foorth by Eumetis which haply are no more unseemely for her to devise in sport and mirth and when she hath as it were twisted them to propose unto 〈◊〉 like herselfe than for other women to delight for their pastime to busie their heads in and working girdles of tissue or knitting net-worke coifes and cawles but certeinly that men of wisedome and understanding should make any account thereof were very ridiculous and a meere mockerie At
our paramours and concubines and not unto such great captaines as your selfe But Cato after a more surly and boislerous sort in the like case answered unto Catulus one of his inward and most familiar friends This Catulus being Censour mooved Cato who then was but Questour or Treasurer that for his sake he would dismisse and set free one of his clerks of the Finances under him against whom he had commensed sute and entred processe in law That were a great shame in deed quoth he for you who are the Censour that is to say the corrector and reformer of our maners and who ought to schoole and instruct us that be of the yonger sort thus to be put out of your course by our under officers and ministers for he might well enough have denied to condescend unto his request in deed and effect without such sharpe and biting words and namely by giving him to understand that this displeasure that he did him in refusing to doe the thing was against his will and that he could neither will nor chuse being forced thereto by justice and the law Over and besides a man in government hath good meanes with honesty and honor to helpe his poore friends that they may advantage themselves and reape benefit by him from the common-wealth Thus did Themistocles after the battell at Marathon for seeing one of them that lay dead in the field to have hanging at his necke chaines and collars with other bracelets of gold about his armes passed by and would not seeme for his owne part to meddle with them but turning backe to a familiar friend of his one of his folowers Here quoth he off with these ornaments and take them to your selfe for you are not yet come to be such an one as Themistocles Moreover the affaires and occurrences daily incident in the world doe present vnto a magistrate and great ruler such like occasions whereby he may be able to benefit and entich his friends for all men cannot be wealthy nor like to you ô Menemachus Give then unto one friend a good and just cause to plead unto and defend which he may gaine well by and fill his purse unto another recommend the affaires and businesse of some great and rich personage who hath neede of a man that knoweth how to manage and order the same better than himselfe for another harken out where there is a good bargaine to be made as namely in the undertaking of some publicke worke or helpe him to the taking of a good farme at a reasonable rent whereby he may be a gainer Epaminondas would do more than thus for upon a time he sent one of his friends who was but poore unto a rich burgesse of Thebes to demaund a whole talent of money freely to be given unto him and to say that Epammondas commanded him to deliver so much The burgesse woondring at such a message came unto Epaminondas to know the cause why hee should part with a talent of silver unto him mary quoth he this is the reason The man whom I sent is honest but poore and you by robbing the common-wealth are become rich And by report of Xenophon Agesilaus tooke no smal joy glory in this that he had enriched his friends whiles himselfe made no account at all of money But forasmuch according to the saying of Simonides as all larks ought to have a cap or crest upon the head so every government of State bringeth with it enmities envies and litigious jealousies this is a point wherein a man of estate and affaires ought to be well enformed and instructed To begin therefore to treat of this argument many there be who highly praise Themistocles and Aristides for that whensoever they were to goe out of the territorie of Attica either in embassage or to manage warres together they had no sooner their charge and commission but they presently laid downe all the quarrels and enmitie betweene even in the very confines and frontiers of their countrey and afterwards when they were returned tooke up and enterteined them againe Some also there are who be wonderfull well pleased with the practise and fashion of Cretinas the Magnesian This Cretinas had for his concurrent an adversary in the government of State a noble man of the same citie named Hermias who although he were not very rich yet ambitious he was and caried a brave and hautie minde Cretinas in the time of the warre that Mithridates made for the conquest of Asia seeing the citie in danger went unto the said Hermias and made an offer unto him to take the charge of captaine generall for the defence of the citie and in the meane while himselfe would go foorth to retire to some other place or otherwise if he thought better that himselfe should take upon him the charge of the warre then he would depart out of the citie into the countrey for the time for feare lest if they taried both behinde and hindered one another as they were woont to doe by their ambitious minds they should vndoo the state of the citie This motion liked Hermias very well who confessing that Cretinas was a more expert warrior than himselfe departed with his wife and children out of the citie Now Cretinas made meanes to send him out before with a convoy putting into his hands his owne money as being more profitable to them who were without their houses and fled abroad than to such as lay besieged within the citie which being at the point to be lost was by this meanes preserved beyond al hope and expectation for if this be a noble and generous speech proceeding from a magnanimous hart to say thus with a loud voice My children well I loue but of my hart My native soile by farre hath greater part Why should not they have this speech readier in their mouthes to say unto every one I hate this or that man and willing I would be to doe him a displeasure but my native countrey I love so much the more For not to desire to be at variance and debate still with an enimie in such causes as for which we ought to abandon and cast off our friend were the part of a most fell savage and barbarous nature yet did Phocion and Cato better in mine opinion who enterteined not any enmitie with their citizens in regard of difference and variance betweene them about bearing rule and government but became implacable and irreconcilable onely in publike causes when question was of abandoning or hurting the weale publike for otherwise in private matters they caried themselves kindly enough without any ranckor or malice even toward them against whom they had contested in open place as touching the State for we ought not to esteeme or repute any citizen an enimie unlesse such an one be bred amongst them as Aristion or Nabis or Catiline who are to be reckoned botches rather and pestilent maladies of a citie than citizens for all others if haply they be at a jarre
that Cassander reedified Thebes and how when intelligence came of the cruell execution and bloody massacre committed in Argos wherein the Argives caused to be put to death 1500. of their owne citizens they caused in a solemne procession and generall assembly of the whole citie an expiatorie sacrifice to be carried about that it might please the gods to avert and turne away such cruell thoughts from the harts of the Athenians semblaby how at what time as there was a generall search made throughout the citie in everie house for those who banded with Harpalus they passed by one house onely of a man newly married and would not suffer it to be searched For in these precedents such like they might well enough in these daies imitate and resemble their ancient forefathers But as for the battell of Marathon the field fought neere the river Eurynedon and the noble fight at Plateae with other such examples which doe nothing else but blow and puffe up a multitude with vanitie they should leave such stories for the schooles of Sophisters and masters of Rhetorike Well we ought not in our severall governments to have a due regard onely to mainteine our selves and our cities so wisely that our sovereignes have no occasion to complaine but we must take order also to have one great Seigniour or other who hath most authoritie at Rome and in the court of the emperour to be our fast and speciall frend who may serve us in steed of a rampier to backe us and to defend all our actions and proceedings in the government of our countries for such lords and great men of Rome stand ordinarily passing well affected to those affaires which their dependants and favorits doe follow and the fruit which may be reaped by the amitie and favour of such grand-Seigniours it were not good and honest to convert into the advancement and enriching of our selves and our particular private frends but to imploy the same as Polybius did sometime and Panaetius who by the meanes of the good grace of Scipio wherein they stood did benefit and advantage their countrey exceeding much in which number may be ranged Arius for when Caesar Augustus had forced the citie Alexandria he entred into it holding Arius by the hand and devising with him alone of all his other friends what was to be done more afterwards when the Alexandrians looked for no other but sackage and all extremities and yet besought him to pardon them I pardon you quoth he and receive you into my grace and favour first in regard of the nobilitie and beautie of your city secondly for Alexander the great his sake the founder thereof and thirdly for the love of this my friend Arius your citizen May a man with any reason compare with this gracious favour the most large and gainfull commissions of ruling and governing provinces which many make so great suit for at the court and that with such abject servitude and base subjection that some of them have even waxen old in giving attendance thereabout at other mens gates leaving in the meane while their owne home affaires at sixe and seven were it not well to correct and amend a little the sentence in Euripides singing and saying it thus If it bee honest and lawfull to watch and make court at the gates of another and to be subject to the sute of some great Seigniour surely most commendable and behoovefull it were so to doe for the love and benefit of a mans country in all other cases to seeke and embrace amities under just and equall conditions Moreover a governour in yeelding and reducing his country unto the obedience of mightie sovereignes abroad ought to take good heed that he bring it not into servile subjection lest when it is once tied by the legge he suffer it to be bound also by the necke for some there be who reporting all things both little and great unto these potentates make this their servitude reprochable or to speake more truely they deprive their country of all policie and forme of government making it so fearefull timorous and fit for no authoritie and command at all and like as they who use themselves to live so physically that they can neither dine nor suppe nor yet bath without their physitian have not so much benefit of health as nature it selfe doth affoord them even so those cities and States which for every decree and resolution of their counsell for all grace and favour yea and for the smallest administration of publike affaires must needs adjoigne the consent judgement and good liking of those Seigniours and good masters of theirs they even compell the said great lords to be more powerfull and absolute over them than they would themselves The causes hereof commonly be these to wit the avarice jealousie and emulation of the chiefe and principall citizens in a State for that being desirous otherwhiles to oppresse and keepe under those who be their inferiors they constraine them to abandon their owne cities or else being at some debate and difference with other citizens their equals and unwilling to take the foile one at anothers hand in their owne citie they have recourse unto other superior lords and so bring in forreiners who are their betters Heereupon it commeth to passe that Senate people judiciall courts and all that little authoritie and power which they had is utterly lost A good governour therefore ought to remedy this mischiefe by appeasing such burgesses as be private and meane citizens by equalitie and those who are great and mightie by reciprocall yeelding one to another and so by this course to keepe all affaires within the compasse of the citie to compose all quarrels and determine all controversies at home curing and healing such inconveniences as secret maladies of a common-wealth with a civill and politicke medicine that is to say to chuse rather for his owne part for to be vanquished and overthrowen among fellow-citizens than to vanquish win the victorie by forren power not to offer wrong unto his natural country and be a cause to overthrow the rights and priviledges thereof as for all others he is to beseech them yea and to perswade with them particularly one by another by good reasons and demonslrances of how manie calamities peevish obstinacie is the cause and now because they would not ech one in his turne course frame and accommodate themselves at home to their fellow-citizens who manie times be of one minde and linage to their neighbours and companions in charges and offices and that with honour and good favour they are come to this passe as to detect and lay open the secret dissentions and debates of their owne citie at the gates of their advocates and to put their causes into the hands of pragmaticall lawyers at Rome with no lesse shame and ignominie than losse and damage Physicians are wont when they cannot expell and fully exclude out of the bodie inwardlie some kinde of maladies to turne and
citie and one of the ancient Senatours mooved the rest that both twaine should be banished out of the citie before there arose further mischiefe and lest the citie by occasion of their deadly fewd should be filled with parts taking of both sides and so be in danger of utter destruction which when he could not perswade and bring to passe the people grew into an open sedition and after many miserable calamities ruinated and overthrew a most excellent State government You haue heard I am sure of domesticall examples and namely the enmitie of Pardalus and Tyrrhenus who went within a verie little of overthrowing the citie of Sardis and upon small and private causes had brought the same into civill war and open rebellion by their factioins and particular quarrels And therefore a man of government ought alwaies to be watchfull and vigilant and not to neglect no more than in a bodie naturall the beginnings of maladies all little heart-burnings and offences that quickly passe from one to another but to stay their course and remedie the same with all convenient speed For by a heedfull eie and carefull prevention as Cato saith that which was at first great becommeth small and that which was small commeth to nothing Now to induce and perswade other men so to doe there is not a more artificiall device nor a better meanes than for a man of government to shew himselfe exorable inclined to pardon easie to be reconciled in like cases in principal matters of weight greatest importance resolute and constant without any rankor or malice and in none at all seeme to be selfe-willed peevish contentious cholerike or subject to any other passion which may breed a sharpnesse and bitternesse in necessarie controversies and doubtfull cases which can not be avoided For in those combats at buffets which champions performe for pleasure in manner of foiles the manner is to binde about their fists certaine round muffles like bals to the end that when they come to coping and to let drive one at another they might take no harme considering the knocks and thumps that they give are so soft and can not put them to any paine to speake of even so in the sutes processes and trials of law which passe betweene citizens of the same citie the best way is to argue and plead by laying downe their allegatiions and reasons simply and purely and not to sharpen or envenime their matters like darts and arrowes with poisoned taunts railing tearmes opprobrious speeches and spightfull threats and so to make deepe wounds and the same festured with venim whereby the controversies may grow incurable and augment still in such sort that in the end they touch the State He that can so cary himselfe in his owne affaires as to avoid these foresaid mischiefs and dangers shal be able to compasse others in the like and make them willing to be ruled by reason so that afterwards when once the particular occasions of priuie grudges be taken away the quarrels and discords which touch a common-wealth are sooner pacified and composed neither doe they ever bring any inconveniences hard to be cured or remedilesse WHETHER AN AGED MAN OUGHT TO MANAGE PUBLICKE AFFAIRES The Summarie THe title of this discour se discover eth sufficiently the intention of the Author but for that they who manage affaires of State and namely men in yeeres fall oftentimes into one of these two extremities as touching their duetie namely that they be either too slacke and remisse or else more stiffe and severe than they ought these precepts of Plutarch a man well conversed in high places and offices and who as we may gather by his words was well striken in age when he wrote this Treatise ought to be diligently read considered and practised by men of authoritie And albeit this booke containeth some advertisements in that behalfe which sort not wholy with the order of government put in practise in these our daies yet so it is that the fundamentall reasons are so well laid that any politician or States-man building therupon may assure himselfe that he shall raise edifie some good piece of worke Now he beginneth with the resutation of one common objection of certaine men who enjoine command elder folke to sit still and remaine quiet and he prooveth the contrarie namely that then it is meet that they should put themselves foorth more than ever before but he addeth this correction and caveat withall that they have beene a long time alreadie broken as it were to the world and beaten in publike affaires to the end that they be not taxed and noted for their slender carriage or light vanitie nor proove the cause of some great mischiefe medling as they do in that which they had not wel comprehended before After this he proposeth and laieth abroad the examples of men well qualified who have given good proofe of their sufficiencte in old age whereupon he inferreth that those be the persons indeed unto whom government doth appertaine and that to go about for to make such idle now in their latter daies were as absurde and as much injurie offeredunto them as to confine a prudent Prince and wise King to some house in the countrey and this he inforceth and verifieth by eloquent compcrisons and by the example of Pompeius Which done he setteth downe the causes which ought to put forward and moove a man well stept in yeeres to the government of a common-weale confuting those who are of the contrarie opinion and prooving that elderly persons are more fit therefore than yoonger because of the experience and aut boritte that age doth affoord them as also in regardof many other reasons then he returneth the objection upon them and sheweth that yoong folke are unmeet for publike charges unlesse they have beene the disciples of the aged or be directed and guided by them he resuteth those also who esteeme that such a vocation resembleth some particular trafficke or negotiation and when he hath so done he taketh in hand againe his principall point detecting and laying open the folly of those who would bereave old men of all administration of publike matters and then he exhorteth them to take heart and shunne idlenesse which he doth diffame wonderfully and setteth before their eles their duetie which he also considereth inparticular then he adviseth them not to take so much upon them not to accept any charge unworthie or not beseeming that gravitie which time and age hath given them but tooccupie and busie themselves with that which is honorable and of great consequence to endevour and strive for to serve their countrey and above all in matters of importance to use good discretion as well in the refusall as the acceptation of dignities and offfices carying themselves with such dexterity among yoong men that they may induct set them into the way of vertue And for a conclusion he teacheth all persons who deale in State affaires what resolution they should put
conceive and imagine in our selves what great pleasures vertues do yeeld unto those who effect any commendable action tending to the good of their countrey turning to the profit of the common-weale they tickle not they itch not neither do they after a stroking manner give contentment as do these sweete motions and gentle prickes of the flesh for such bring with them a certaine impatient itch an unconstant tickling mingled with a furious hear and inflammation but those pleasures which come from notable and praise-woorthie deeds such as they be whereof the ordinarie workman and author is he who governeth a common-weale aright and as it appertaineth unto him for to doe lift up and raise the soule to a greatnesse and haughtinesse of courage accompained with joy not with gilded plumes as Euripides saith but with celestiall wings as Plato was woont to say And that the truth hereof may the better appeere call to remembrance your selfe that which oftentimes you have heard concerning Epaminondas who being asked upon a time what was the greatest pleasure that ever he felt in all his life answered thus Marie even this quoth he that it was my fortune to win the field at the battell of Leuctres my father and mother both being yet living And Sylla the first time that he came to Rome after he had cleered Italy from civill and domesticall warres could not sleepe one winke nor lay his eies together a whole night for exceeding great joy and contentment wherewith his spirit was ravished as if it had beene with a mightie and violent wind and thus much he wrote of himselfe in his owne Commentaries I can therefore hold well with Xenophon in that hee saith That there is no sound or speech more delectable to a mans eare than the hearing of his owne praises and even so it must bee confessed That there is no spectacle no sight no report and memoriall no cogitation nor thought in the world that bringeth so great pleasure delectation to the mind as doth the contemplation and beholding of those good and laudable deeds which a man hath performed whiles he was employed in the administration of State and in bearing offices as being conspicuous eminent and publike places to be seene afarre off True it is moreover that the amiable grace and favour thereby gotten accompanying alwaies vertuous acts and bearing witnesse therto the commendation also of the people who strive a vie and contend who can give out greatest praise and speake most good the verie guide which leadeth the way of just and due benevolence doth adde a glosse and lustre as it were unto the joy proceeding from vertue for to polish and beautifie the same Neither ought a man by negligence to suffer for to fade and wither in old age the glorie of his good deeds like unto a cornet or garland of greene leaves which was woon at some games of prize but evermore to bring foorth some fresh and new demerites to stir up and awaken as a man would say the grace of the old deeds precedent and thereby to make the same both greater and also more permanent and durable For like as the carpenters and shipwrights who had the charge to maintaine the ship called the Gallion of Delos evermore made supply of new pieces of timber as anie of the olde began to decaie keeping it in continuall reparation by putting in one ribbe and planke for another and so preserved it alwaies entire and whole as it was the verie first daie when it was built even so a man is to doe by his reputation and credit And no harder matter is it for to maintaine glorie once up and on foote than to keepe a fire continually flaming which is once kindled by putting eftsoones fresh fewell under bee it never so little for to feede the same but if they bee once out and throughly quenched indeede then it is no small matter to set either the one or the other a burning againe And like as Lampas the rich merchant and shipmaster being demaunded how he got his goods Marie quoth he my greatest wealth I gained soone and with ease but my smaller estate with exceeding much paine and slowly even so it is no easie matter at the beginning to acquire reputation or to win credit and authoritie in the managing of civill affaires but to augment it after the foundation is laid or to preserve and uphold the same when it is once come to greatnes is not so hard for every litle thing the smallest meanes wil do it And so we see that a friend when he is onece had requireth not many great pleasures offices of kindnesse friendship for to be kept and continued a friend stil but petie tokens smal signes of curtesie passing continually from time to time betweene are sufficient to preserve mutuall love and amity Semblablie the good will and affection of the people their trust confidence which they have conceived towards a man although he be not able evermore to give largesses among them although he doe not alwaies defend and mainteine their causes nor sit continually in place of magistracie and office yet neverthelesse it holdeth still if he doe but shew himselfe onely to carie a good heart unto them not to cease for to take paines care for the common good nor refuse any service in that behalfe for even the very expeditions and voiages in warre have not alwaies battailes araunged nor fields fought and bloudie skirmishes ne yet besieging and beleaguing of cities but they afford betweene whiles festivall sacrifices parlies enterviewes some leasure also and time of rest to follow games disports and pastimes How then commeth it that an old man should be afraid to meddle in State affaires as if it were a charge unsupportable full of infinite and innumerable travels without any comfort and consolation at all considering that there be allowed at times varietie of plaies and games goodly sights and shewes solemne precessions and stately pompes publike doles and largesses daunces musicke and seasts and ever and anon the honorable service and worship of one god or other which are able to unknit the frownes and unbend the browes to dispatch and dissipate the cloudy cares and austeritie of the judges in court hall and of senatours also in counsell chamber yeelding unto them much more pleasure contentment in proportion to their travels and paines belonging to their place As for the greatest mischief which is most to be feared in such administrations of the common-weale to wit envy it setleth taketh least hold upon old age of any other for like as Heraclitus was wont to say That dogs do baie barke at those whom they know not even so envie assaileth him who beginneth to governe just at the dore as it were and the entrie of the tribunall and throne of estate seeking to impeach his accesse and passage thither but after it is accustomed and acquainted once with the glorie of a man and
when it hath beene nourished and fed therewith it is not so troublesome and churlish but becommeth more kinde and gentle and this is the reason that some have likened envie unto a smoke which at the first when the fire beginneth to kindle ariseth grosse and thicke but after that it burneth light and cleere vanisheth away and is gone In all other preeminences and superiorities men are wont ordinarily to debate and quarrell namely about vertue nobilitie of bloud and honour as being of opinion that the more they yeeld unto others the more they doe abridge from themselves but the prerogative or precedence of time which properly is called Presbeion as if a man would say the Honor of age or Time-right is voide of all jealousie and emulation and there is no man but will willingly yeeld it to his companion neither is there any kinde of honour whereunto so well sorteth this qualitie namely to grace him more who giveth the honour than the party who is honoured as to the prerogative which is given to old men Moreover all men doe not hope nor expect to have credit one time or other by their riches by their eloquence or wisedome whereas you shall not see so much as one of those that rule in common-wealth to despaire of comming one day to that authoritie and reverence which old age bringeth men unto He therefore who after he hath wrestled long against envie retireth in the end from the administration of the common-weale at what time as it is well appeased and at the point to be extinguished or laid along should doe like unto that pilot who in a tempest having winde and waves contrarie spreadeth saile and roweth in great danger but afterwards when the weather is faire and a gentle gale of forewinde serveth doth goe about to strike saile and ride at anchor in the pleasant sunne-shine he should I say in so doing abandon together with his publike affaires the societie felowship alliance and intelligences which he had with his good friends for the more time that he had the more friends by good reason he ought to have gotten for to stand with him and take his part whom he neither cannot all at once leade foorth with him like as a master of carols his whole quire of singing men nor meete it is and reason that he should leave and forsake them all but as it is not an easie peece of worke to stocke up by the root olde trees no more is it a thing soone done to extirpe a long government in the common-weale as having manie great rootes and those enterlaced enwrapped one within another by reason of sundrie and weightie affaires the which no doubt must needs worke more trouble and vexation to those that retire and depart from it than to those that tarrie still by it and say there remained yet behind for old men some reliques of envie emulation and contention which grew in the time of their government it were farre better to extinguish and quench the same by power and authoritie than to turne both side and backe unto them all naked and disarmed for envious persons and evill willers never doe assaile them so much with despight who make head againe and stand their ground as they doe by contempt those who yeeld backe and retire and to this accordeth well that which in times past that great Epaminondas said unto the Thebans For when the Arcadians had made offer unto them yea and requested them to enter in their cities during the winter season and there to lodge and abide under covert he would not permit them so to doe nor to accept of their courtesie For now quoth he all while that they behold you exercising and wrestling in your armour they have you in great admiration as valiant and hardy men but if they should see you once by the fire side punning and stamping beanes they would take you to be no better then themselves even so I would make my application and inferre heereupon that it is a venerable and goodly sight to behold a grave and ancient personage speaking to the people dispatching affaires of State and generally to be honored of every man but he who all the day long stirres not out of his warme bed or if he be up sitteth still in some corner of a gallerie prating and talking vainely or else reaching hawking spitting or wiping his nose that drops for cold such an one I say is exposed to contempt Homer verily himselfe hath taught us this lesson if we will marke and give good eare to that which he hath written For old Nestor being at the warre before Troie was had in honour and reputation whereas contrariwise Peleus and Laertes who taried behinde at home were set little by and despised For the habitude of wisedome doth not continue the same nor is any thing like it selfe in those who give themselves to ease and doe not practise the same but through idlenesse and negligence it diminisheth and is dissolved by little and little as having need alwaies of some exercise of the cogitation and thought which may waken the spirit cleere the discourse of reason and lighten the operative part of the minde to the dealing in affaires Like as both iron and brasse is bright and cleere All while mans hand the same doth use and weare Where as the house wherein none dwels at all In tract of time must needs decay and fall Neither is the infirmitie and feeblenesse of the bodie so great an hinderance unto the government of State in those who above the strength of their age seeme either to mount into the tribunall or to the bench or to the generals pavilion and place of audience within the campe as otherwise their yeeres bring good with them to wit considerate circumspection staied wisedom as also not to be troubled or driven to a non plus in the managing of any busines or to commit an absurditie error partly for want of experience in part upon vaine-glorie so to draw the multitude therewith and doe mischiefe to the common-wealth all at once like unto a sea tossed with windes but to treat and negotiat gently mildly and with a setled judgement with those who come unto them for advice or have any affaires or to doe with them And heereupon it is that cities after they have susteined some great shake or adverse calamitie or when they have beene affrighted desire streight waies to be ruled by auncient men and those well experienced in which cases they have many times drawen perforce an old man out of his house in the countrey for to governe them who thought or desired nothing lesse they have compelled him to lay his hand upon the helme for to set all streight and upright againe in securitie rejecting in the meane while greene headed generals of armies eloquent oratours also who knew well enough how to speake aloud and to pronounce long clauses and periods with one breath and never fetching their
Asians had a custom to call the King of Persia the Great King And why quoth Agesilaus is he a greater king than I if he be not more just and temperat Being demaunded his opinion as touching Fortitude Justice whether of them was the better vertue We have no need or use quoth he of Fortitude if we were all just Being enforced to breake up his campe and dislodge one night in great haste out of his enemies countrey and seeing a boy whom hee loved well weeping and all blubbered with teares for that he was left behind could not follow by reason of weaknes It is quoth he an hard matter to be pitifull and wise both at once Menecrates the physician who would entitle himselfe with the name of Jupiter wrote a letter unto him with this superscription Menecrates Iupiter unto King Agesilaus long life c. Unto whom hee returned this answere King Agesilaus unto Menecrates better health meaning in deed that he was braine-sicke The Lacedaemonians having defaited those of Athens with their allies and confederates neere unto the citie of Corinth when he heard what a number of enemies lay dead in the field O unhappie and unfortunate Greece quoth he that hath destroied so many men of her owne as had beene able to have subdued all the Barbarians in the world Having received an answer from the oracle of Jupiter at Olympta according to his minde the great Lords controllers called Ephori willed him also to consult with the oracle of Apollo as touching the same when he was therefore at Delphos he demaunded of the said god whether he were not of the same minde as his father was When he sued for the deliverance of a friend of his who was taken prisoner and in the hands of Idrieus a prince of Carta he wrote unto him about it in this manner If Nicias have not trespassed deliver him for justice sake if he have transgressed deliver him for my sake but howsoever it be in any wise deliver him He was requested one day to heare a man sing who could maruellous lively and naturally counterfeit the voice of a nightingale I have heard quoth he the nightingale her selfe many a time After the overthrow at the battell of Leuctres the lawe ordained that as many as saved themselves by their good footmanship should be noted with infamy but the Ephori fore-seeing that in so doing the citie would be dispeopled and emptie were willing to abrogat disanul this ignominie and for this purpose declared Agesilaus for law-giver who going into the market place and mounting up into the pulpit ordained that from the next morrow forward the lawes should remaine in their ancient force and vertue Sent he was upon a time to aide the King of AEgyt where he together with the King was besieged by the enemies who were many more in number than they had begun to cast a great trēch about their camp so beleaguered them that they could not escape Now when the king commaunded him to make a sally upon them and to keepe them battell I will not quoth he empeach our enemies but that they may as I see them go about it willingly fight with us so many to so many and finding that their trench wanted but a little of both ends meeting and joining together in that verie distance and space betweene he set his souldiers in battell array and so comming to encounter on even hand he defaited his enemies When he died he charged his friends to make no image nor statue of him For if I have quoth he done any thing in my life worthy of remembrance that will be a sufficient monument and memoriall for me after my death if not all the statues and images in the world shall never be able to perpetuate my memorie ARCHIDAMVS the first time that ever he saw the shot discharged out of an engin or battering peece which had beene newly brought out of Sicilie cried out aloud O Hercules the prowesse and valour of man I see well is now gone for ever When Demades mocking at the Lacedaemonian courtilasses said merrily That they were so little and short as that the juglers and plaiers at leger-demain were able to swallow them downe whole as they be AGIS the yoonger answered verie fitly and said Yet as short as they be the Lacedaemonians can reach their enemies verie well with them The Ephori charged him upon a time to deliver vp his souldiers into the hands of a traitour I will beware I trow quoth he to commit another mans souldiers to him who betraied his owne CLEOMENES when one promised to give him certaine cocks of the game so courageous that they would with fighting die in the place and never give over Give me not quoth he those that will die themselves but such rather as in fight will make others to die PAEDARETVS missing the place to be chosen one of the great councell consisting of three hundred returned from the assembly very jocond merrie and smiling I am well appaied quoth he that in the citie of Sparta there be found three hundred better men and more sufficient than my selfe DAMONIDAS being by the master of the Revels set in the last place of the dance Well fare thy heart quoth he thou hast devised a good meanes to make this place honourable NICOSTRATVS captaine of the Argives being sollicited by Archidamus to take a good round summe of money for to deliver up unto him by treason a place whereof he had the keeping with a promise also that he should espouse and wed what damosell he would himselfe choose in all Sparta excepting those of the blood-roiall made him this answer You are not quoth he of the race of Hercules for that Hercules went thorow the world punishing and putting to death in all places malefactors and wicked persons but you go about to make those naught and leaud who are good and honest EYDAMONIDAS seeing in the great schoole Academie Xenocrates an auncient man among other yoong scholers students in Philosophie and understanding that he sought for vertue And when will he use vertue quoth he if he have not yet found it Another time hearing a philosopher to mainteine this paradox That a learned Sage was onely a good captaine Brave words quoth he and a marvelous position but the best is he that holdeth it never in his life heard the sound of a trumpet in the campe ANTIOCHUS one of those controllers in Sparta named Ephori being advertized that king Philip had given unto the Messenians their territorie But hath hee withall quoth he given them the meanes to vanquish in battell when they shall be put to it for to defend the same ANTALCIDAS answered unto an Athenian who termed the Lacedemonians ignorant persons Indeed quoth he it may well be so for wee are the onely men who have learned of you no evill Another Athenian contested with him and said we have driven you manie a time
why they ran away and suffered themselves to be beaten by those who had foiled them so often before but one of the Numantines answered Because the sheep be the verie same that they were in times past mary they have changed their shepheard After he had forced the citie of Numance by assault and entred now the second time with triumph into Rome he fell into some variance and debate with C. Gracchus in the behalfe of the Senate and certaine allies or confederates whereupon the common-people taking a spleene and displeasure against him made such clamours at him upon the Rostra when he was purposed to speake and give remonstrances unto them that thereupon he raised this speech There was never yet any outcries and alarmes of whole campes nor shouts of armed men ready to give battell that could astonish and daunt me no more shall the rude crie of a cofused multitude trouble me who know assuredly that Italy is not their mother but their stepdame And when Gracchus with his consorts and adherents cried out aloud Kill the tyrant there kill him Great reason quoth he have they to take away my life who warre against their owne countrie for they know that so long as Scipio is on foot Rome cannot fall nor Scipio stand when Rome is laid along CAECILIUS METELLUS devising and casting about how to make sure his approches and avenues for to assault a strong fort when a Centurion came unto him and saide With the losse but of ten men you may be master of the piece Wilt thou then quoth he be one of those tenne And when another who was a colonell and a yoong man demaunded of him what service he intended to do If I wist quoth he that my wastcoat or shirt were privie to my minde I would put it off presently and cast it into the fire He was a great enemie to Scipio so long as Scipio lived but when he was once dead he tooke it very heavily and commanded his owne sonnes to goe under the beare and carrie him upon their owne shoulders to buriall saying withall That he gave the gods heartie thankes that Scipio was borne at Rome and in no place else C. MARIUS being risen from a base degree by birth unto the government of State and all by the meanes of armes sued for the greater Aedileship called Curule but perceiving that he could not compasse it made sute the verie same day for the lesse and notwithstanding that he went besides both the one and the other yet he said That he doubted not one day to be the greatest man of all the Romanes Being troubled with the swelling of the veines called Varices in both his legges he suffered the chirurgian to cut those of the one legge without being bound or tied for the matter enduring the operation of his hand and never gave one grone or so much as bent his browes all the whiles but when the chirurgian would have gone to the other legge Nay staie there quoth he for the cure of such a maladie as this is not woorth the greevous paines that belongeth thereto He had a nephew or sisters sonne named Lusius who in the time that his uncle was second time Consull would have forced and abused a youth in the prime of his yeeres named Trebonius who began but then under his charge to beare armes this yoong springall made no more adoe but slew him outright and when many there were who charged and accused him for this murder he denied not the fact but confessed plainly that he had killed his captaine and withall declared the cause publikely Marius himselfe being advertised heereof caused to be brought unto him a coronet such as usually was given unto those who had performed in warre some woorthie exploit and with his owne hand set it upon the head of this youth Tribonius Being encamped very neere to the campe of the Tentones in a plot of ground where there was but little water when his soldiers complained that they were lost for water and ready to die for very thirst he shewed them a river not far off running along the enemies campe Yonder quoth he there is water enough for to be bought with the price of your blood Then leade us to it quickly answered his souldiers whiles our blood is liquid and will runne and never let us stay so long till it be cluttered and dried up quite with drought During the time of the Cimbrians warre he endued at once with the right of free Burgeousie of Rome a thousand men all Camerines in consideration of their good service in that warre a thing that was contrarie to lawe now when some blamed him for transgressing the lawes he answered and said That he could not heare what the lawes said for the great rustling and clattering that harneis and armor made In this time of the civill warre seeing himselfe enclosed round about with trenches and rampars and streight beleaguered he endured all and waited his best opportunitie and when Popedius Silo captaine generall of the enemies saide unto him Marius if thou be so great a warrior as the name goeth of thee come foorth of the campe and combat with me hand to hand Nay saith he and if thou art so brave a captaine as thou wouldest be taken force me to combatif thou canst CATULUS LUCTATIUS in the foresaid Cimbrian warre lay encamped along the river Athesis and when the Romans saw that the Barbarians were about to passe over the water and to set upon them retired and dislodged presently what reasons and perswasions soever their captaine could use to the contrary but when he saw he could doe no good nor cause them to stay himselfe ranne away with the formost to the end that it should not seeme that they fled cowardly before their enemies but dutifully followed their captaine SYLIA surnamed Foelix i. Happie among other prosperities counted these two for the greatest the one that he lived in love and amitie with Metellus Pius the other that he had not destroied the citie of Athens but saved it from being raced C. POPILIUS was sent unto king Antiochus with a letter from the Senate of Rome the tenor whereof was this That they commanded him to withdraw his forces out of Aegypt and not to usurpe the kingdome which apperteined to the children of Ptolomaeus being orphans The king seeing Popilius comming toward him through his campe faluted him a farre off very curteously but Popilius without any resalutations or greeting againe delivered him the letter which Antiochus read and after he had read it answered him that he would thinke upon the matter that the Senate willed him to doe and then give him his dispatch whereupon Popilius drew a circle round about the king with a vine rod that he had in his hand saying Resolve I advise you sie before you passe foorth of this compasse and give me my answer all that were present woondered and were astonished at the boldnesse and resolution
and lying Another for to animate him to this warre alleaged the prowesses and worthy exploits atchieved by them at other times against the Persians Me thinkes quoth he you know not what you say namely that because we have overcome a thousand sheepe we should therefore set upon fiftie woolves He was upon a time in place to heare a musician sing who did his part very well and one asked him how he liked the man and what he thought of him May quoth he I take him to be a great amuser of men in a small matter When another highly extolled the citie of Athens in his presence And who can justly and dulie quoth he praise that citie which no man ever loved for being made better in it When Alexander the great had caused open proclamation to be made in the great assemblie at the Olympick games That all banished persons might returne unto their owne countries except the Thebanes Behold quoth Eudamidas heere is a wofull proclamation for you that be Thebans howbeit honorable withall for it is a signe that Alexander feareth none but you onely in all Greece A certaine citizen of Argos said one day in his hearing That the Lacsedaemonians after they be gone once out of their owne countrey and from the obeisance of their lawes proove woorse for their travelling abroad in the world But it is contrary with you that be Argives and other Greekes quoth he for being come once into our cities Sparta you are not the woorse but proove the better by that meanes It was demaunded of him what the reason might be wherefore they used to sacrifice unto the Muses before they did hazard a battell To the end quoth he that our valiant acts might be well and woorthilie written EURYCRATIDAS the sonne of Anaxandrides when one asked him why the Ephori sat every day to decide and judge of contracts betweene men For that quoth he we should learne to keepe our faith and truth even among our enemies ZEUXIDAMUS likewise answered unto one who demaunded of him why the statutes and ordinances of prowesse and martiall fortitude were not reduced into a booke and given in writing unto yoong men for to reade Because quoth he we would have them to be acquainted with deeds and not with writings A certaine Aetolian said That warre was better than peace unto those who were desirous to shew themselves valorous men And not warre onely quoth he for by the gods in that respect better is death than life HERONDAS chaunced to be at Athens what time as one of the citizens was apprehended arraigned and condemned for his idlenesse judicially and by forme of law which when he understood and heard a brute and noise about him he requested one to shew him the partie that was condemned for a gentlemans life THEARIDAS whetted his sword upon a time and when one asked him if it were sharpe he answered Yea sharper than a slanderous calumniation THEMISTEAS being a prophet or soothsaier foretold unto king Leonidas the discomsiture that should happen within the passe or streights of Thermopylae with the losse both of himselfe and also of his whole armie whereupon being sent away by Leonidas unto Lacedaemon under a colour and pretense to enforme them of these future accidents but in truth to the end that he should not miscarie and die there with the rest he would not so doe neither could he forbeare but say unto Leonidas I was sent hither for a warrior to fight and not as an ordinary courrier and messenger to carrie newes betweene THEOPOMPUS when one demaunded of him how a king might preserve his kingdome and roiall estate in safetie said thus By giving his friends libertie to speake the truth and with all his power by keeping his subjects from oppression Unto a stranger who told him that in his owne countrey among his citizens he was commonly surnamed Philolacon that is to say a lover of the Laconians It were better quoth he that you were called Philopolites than Philolacon Another embassadour there came from Elis who said That he was sent from his fellow-citizens because he onely of all that citie loved and followed the Laconike maner of life of him Theopompus demaunded And whether is thine or the other citizens life the better he answered Mine Why then quoth he how is it possible that a citie should safe in which there being so great a number of inhabitants there is but one good man There was one said before him that the citie of Sparta maintained the state thereof entier for that the kings there knew how to governe well Nay quoth he not so much therefore as because the citizens there can skill how to obey well The inhabitants of the citie Pyle decreed for him in their generall counsell exceeding great honors unto whom he wrote backe againe That moderate honors time is woont to augment but immoderate to diminish and weare away THERYCION returning from the citie Delphos found king Philip encamped within the streight of Peloponnesus where he had gained the narrow passage called Isthmos upon which the city of Corinth is seated whereupon he said Peloponnesus hath but bad porters and warders of you Corinthians THECTAMENES being by the Ephori condemned to death went from the judgement place smiling away and when one that was present asked him if he despised the lawes and judiciall proceedings of Sparta No iwis quoth he but I rejoice heereat that they have condemned me in that fine which I am able to pay and discharge fully without borrowing of any friend or taking up money at interest HIPPODAMUS as Agis was with Archidamus in the campe being sent with Agis by the king unto Sparta for to provide for the affaires of weale publicke and looke unto the State refused to goe saying I cannot die a more honorable death than in fighting valiantly for the defence of Sparta now was he fourescore yeeres old and upward and tooke armes where hee raunged himselfe on the right hand of the king and there fighting by his side right manfully was slaine HIPPOCRATIDAS when a certaine prince or great lord of Caria had written unto him that he had in his hands a Lacedaemonian who having beene privie unto a conspiracie and treason intended against his person revealed not the same demaunding withall his counsell what he should doe with him wrote back againe in this wise If you have heeretofore done him any great pleasure and good turne put him to death hardly and make him away if not expell him out of your countrey considering he is a base fellow uncapable altogether of vertue He chaunced to encounter upon the way a yoong boy after whom followed one who loved him and the boy blushed for shame whereupon he said unto him Thou oughtest to goe in their company my boy with whom thou being seene needest not to change colour for the matter CALLICRATIDAS being admirall of a fleet when the friends of Lysander requested him to pleasure them in killing some of
vomit up all and leave nothing behinde if haply thou canst rid and purge thy heart of all the wicked venim wherewith thou seemest to swell Some time after when he was dead there arose variance betweene the allies of Sparta as touching certaine matters and for to know the truth and settle all causes among them Agesilaus went to Lysanders house for to search certaine papers that might give light and evidence to the thing in controversie and among other writings he chaunced to light upon an oration or pamphlet penned by him as touching policie the State wherein he seemed to perswade the Spartans to take the roialtie and regall dignitie from the houses of the Eurytionida and Agiadae and to bring it to a free election of the citizens that they might chuse for their kings out of all the citie those who were approoved and knowen for the woorthiest men and not to be obliged for to take and admit of necessitie one of Hercules line so as the crowne and regall state might be conferred as a reward and honour upon him who in vertue resembled Hercules most considering that it was by the meanes thereof that unto him were assigned the honors due unto the gods now was Agesilaus fully bent to have published this oration before al the citizens to the end that they might take knowledge how Lysander was another kind of man than he had beene taken for and withall to traduce those that were his friends and bring them into obloquie suspicion and trouble but by report Lacratidas the principall man and president of the Ephori fearing lest if this oration were once divulged openly read it might take effect and perswade that indeed which it pretended staied Agesilaus and kept him from doing so saying That he should not now rake Lysander out of his grave but rather enterre and burie the oration together with him so wittily and artificially composed it was and so effectuall to perswade Certaine gentlemen there were of the citie who during his lise were suters to his daughters in mariage but after his death when his estate was knowen to be but poore they desisted and cast them off whereupon the Ephori condemned them in great sines for that they made court unto them so long as they esteemed him wealthy but afterwards when they found by his poore estate that he was a righteous and just man they made no more reckoning of his daughters but disdained them NAMERTES being sent as embassadour into a forren countrey there chanced to be one of those parts who said unto him That he held and reputed him for an happie man because he had so many friends unto whom he replied and asked Whether he knew the true proofe whereby a man might be assured that he had many friends the other answered No but I pray you tell me Why then quoth he it is adversitie NICANDER when one brought him word that the Argives spake ill of him It makes no matter quoth he are they not sufficiently chastised and punished for railing upon good men One asked of him wherefore the Lacedaemonians wore their haire long of their heads suffred likewise their beards to grow side unto whom he answered Because a mans owne proper ornament is of all other the fairest and costeth least A certaine Athenian being in communication with him cast out this word All you Lacedaemonians Nicander love your ease well and are idle You say true indeed quoth he but we busie not our selves as you doe in every trifling matter PANTHOIDAS being sent in embassage into Asia was shewed by the people of those parts a certaine strong citie well fortified with high and goodly wals Now by the gods quoth he my friends this seemes to be a trim cloister to mue up women in In the schoole of Academie the philosophers discoursed and disputed as touching many good themes and after they had made an end they said unto him Now good sir ô Panthoidas how like you these discourses What should I thinke of them else quoth he but that they are goodly and honest in shew but surely profitable they are not nor edifie at all so long as your selves doe not live accordingly PAUSANIAS the sonne of Cleombrotus when the inhabitants of the isle Delos were at debate and pleaded for the proprietie of the said isle against the Athenians alleaging for themselves that by an old law time out of minde observed among them there might none of their women beare children within the said island nor any of their dead be buried there How then quoth he can this isle be yours if none of you were ever borne or buried there When certaine exiled persons from Athens sollicited him to leade his armie against the Athenians and for to provoke him rather thereto said That they were the onely men who hissed and whistled at the naming of him when he was declared victor in the solemnitie of the Olympick games But what thinke you quoth he will they doe when we have wrought them some shrewd turne since they sticke not to hisse at us being their benefactors Another asked of him wherefore the Lacedaemonians had enfranchized the poet Tyrteus their denizen Because quoth he we never would be thought to have a stranger or alien our leader and governour There was a very weak and feeble man of bodie who neverthelesse seemed very earnest and instant to make warre upon the enemies and to give them battell both on sea and land Will you quoth he strip your selfe out of your clothes that we may see what a goodly man of person you are to moove and perswade us for to fight Some there were who seeing the spoiles that were taken from the dead bodies of the Barbarians after they were slaine in the field marveiled much at their sumptuous and costly clothes It had been better quoth he that themselves had beene of more valour and their habilements of lesse valew After the victorie which the Greeks wan of the Persians before the citie Plateae he commaunded those about him to serve him up to the table that supper which the Persians had provided for themselves which being woonderfull excessive and superfluous Now Par-die quoth he the Persians are great gourmaunders and greedy gluttons having so great store of viands come hither among us for to eate up our browne bread and course bisket PAUSANIAS the sonne of Plistonax unto one who asked him why it was not lawfull in their countrey to alter any of their auncient statutes made this answer Because lawes ought to be mistresses of men and not men masters of the lawes Being exiled from Sparta and making his abode within the citie Tegea he highly praised the Lacedaemonians one of the standers by said unto him And why then staied not you at Sparta if there be so good men there why I say fled you from thence Because quoth he physicians doe not use to keepe where folke be sound and whole but where they are sicke and diseased
good issue to the shame and ruine of the wicked but to the repose and quietnesse of all persons who desire seeke and procure that which is good THE VERTUOUS DEEDS of women I Am not of Thucydides minde dame Clea touching the vertue of women for he is of this opinon That she is the best most vertuous of whom there is least speech abroad aswell to her praise as her dispraise thinking that the name of a woman of honour ought to be shut up and kept fast within like as her bodie that it never may go forth Gorgias yet me thinks was more reasonable who would have the renowme and fame but not the face visage of a woman to be knowen unto men and it seemeth unto me that it was an excellent law and custome among the Romans which imported thus much That women aswell as men after their death might be honoured publickly at their funerals with such praises as they had deserved and therefore immediatly after the decease of the most vertuous ladie Leontis I discoursed with you at large upon this matter which discourse in my conceit was not without some consolation founded upon reason Philosophy and now also according to your request at that time I send you in writing the rest of our speech and communication tending to this point That the vertue of man and woman is all one and the very same which appeareth by the proofe and testimony of many and sundry examples drawen out of ancient histories collected by me not upon any intention to please the eare but if the nature of an example be such as alwaies to the periwasive power that it hath to proove there is joined also a lively vertue to delight This treatise of mine rejecteth not the grace of that pleasure which doth second and favourise the efficacie of a proofe neither is it ashamed to join Graces with Muses which as Eurypides saith is the best conjunction in the world inducing the minde most easily to give eare and credit unto good reasons by meanes of the delectation which it there findeth For if to proove that it is all one art to paint and draw the life of women and men I should produce and bring foorth such pictures of women as Apelles Zeuxis or Nicomachus have left behinde them hath any man reason to finde fault and to charge me that I aime and intend to delight the eie and content the minde rather than to verifie my assertion I suppose that no man will so doe semblably if otherwise to shew that the art of Poetrie or skill to represent in verse all things whatsoever is the same in women and men and nothing different one from the other I should conferre the Odes and verses of Sappho with those of Anacreon or the oracles penned by the Sibylles with those which are set downe by Bacchis is there any man that could justly blame such a demonstration for that it draweth the hearer to beleeve with some pleasure and content no man I trow would ever so fay and yet there were no better way to know either the resemblance or the difference in the vertue of man and woman than in comparing lives with lives and deeds with deeds as if wee should lay together the works of some noble science and consider them one by another even so likewise to see whether the magnificence of queene Semiramis hath all one forme and figure with that of king Sesostris and the wisedome of queene Tanaquil with that of king Servius or the magnanimitie of ladie Porcia with that of Brutus or of dame Timoclea with that of Pelopidas namely in that quality which is most principall and wherein lieth the chiefest point and force of these vertues for vertue admitteth certeine other differences as proper and particular colours according to divers natures and is in some sort conformable to the maners and conditions of those subjects wherein they be and to the temperatures of their bodies or to the verie nutriments and divers diets and fashions of their life For Achilles was after one sort valiant and Ajax after another the wisdome of Ulysses was not like unto Nestors neither were Cato and Agesilaus just alike Irene loved not her husband in that maner as Alcestis loved hers nor Cornelia Olympias were alike magnanimous and yet for all that we say not that there be many and diverskinds of fortitude sundry sorts of prudence and wisdome nor different justices in regard of the dissimilitude and varietie which ariseth particularly in ech one person so as the said peculiar differences do not exclude any one vertue from the proper definition thereof As for such examples as are most divulged and published abroad of which I presume you have already sufficient knowledge and firmely remember their historie by that which you have read in ancient books I wil passe them over at this present unlesse haply there be some acts worthy of remembrance which they were ignorant of who before our time have written the common histories and vulgar Chronicles But for that the women in times past aswell in common as particular have performed many memorable deeds it will not be amisse in the first place to set downe briefly what some of them have done in societie and companie together THE TROJANE DAMES OF those Trojanes who escaped after the winning and destruction of Troie the Great the most part went to seeke their fortune and by force of tempest the rather for that they had no skill in navigation and were not acquainted with the seas were cast upon the coast of Italie where putting into such baies ports creeks as they could meet with in that very place whence the river Tybris dischargeth it selfe into the sea with much adoe and great difficultie they landed and the men went wandring up and downe the countrey for to see if they could light upon those that might direct them in their voiage and give them some light and intelligence of those coasts Meane while the women communed and devised thus among themselves That since they had beene the most fortunate and happie nation in the world it were better for them to settle in any one certaine place whatsoever than still to wander uncertainely upon the seas and to make that their countrey and seat of habitation since they were not able to recover that native soile which they had lost to which motion after they had all with one accord agreed they set fire on their ships and the first ring-leader in this action was a Ladie by report named Roma which done they went farther up into the continent to meet with the men afore said who now by this time were cōming apace to the sea for to succour their ships on fire fearing their furious anger they fell to embrace and kisse them very kindly some their husbands others their kinsfolk and by this means appeased their wrath Hereupon arose that custom which continueth at this day among the Romanes that no men
should salute their kinsfolke and those that be joined in blood to them by kissing their lips for the Trojan men seeing as it should seeme in what necessitie they stood were well enough content and withal finding the inhabitants of the sea-coasts courteous and ready to receive and entertaine them friendly approoved that which the women had done and so remained and dwelt in the same part of Italy among the Latines THE DAMES OF PHOCIS THE woorthy act of the dames of Phocis whereof we now meane to make mention no Historiographer of name hath yet recorded and set downe in writing howbeit there was never a more memorable deed of vertue wrought by women and the same testified by the great sacrifices which the Phocians do celebrate even at this day neere unto the citie Hyampolis and that according to the ancient decrees of the countrey Now is the totall historie of this whole action from point to point particularly recorded in the life of Daiphantus as for that which the said women did thus stood the case There was an irreconcilable and mortall warre betweene the Thessalians and those of Phocis for that the Phocians upon a certaine fore-set day killed all the magistrates and rulers of the Thessalians who exercised tyrannie in the cities of Phocis and they againe of Thessalia had beaten and bruised to death two hundred and fiftie hostages of the Phocaeans whom they had in custodie and after that with all their puissance entred and invaded their countrey by the way of the Locrians having before hand concluded this resolution in their generall counsell not to pardon nor spare any one that was of age sufficient to beare armes and as for their wives and children to leade them away captives as slaves whereupon Daiphantus the sonne of Bathyllus one of the three soveraign governours of Phocis mooved and perswaded the Phocaeans as many as were of yeeres to fight for to go forth and encounter the Thessalians but their wives and children to assemble all together unto a certaine place in Phocis environe the whole pourprise and precinct thereof with a huge quantity of wood and there to set certaine guards to watch and ward whom hee gave in charge that so soone as ever they heard how their countrey-men were defaited they should set the wood on fire and burne all the bodies within the compasse thereof which desseigne when all others had approoved there was one man among them stood up and said It were just and meet that they had the consent also of the women as touching this matter and if they would not approve and allow of this counsell to leave it unexecuted and not to force them thereto this consultation being come to the eares of the said women they held a counsell together apart by themselves as touching this entended action where other resolved to follow the advice of Daiphantus and that with so great alacritie and contentment that they crowned Daiphantus with a chaplet of flowers as having given the best counsell that could be devised for Phocis It is reported also that their verie children sat in counsell hereabout by themselves and concluded the same but it fortuned so that the Phocaeans having given the Thessalians battell neere unto a village called Cleonae in the marches or territorie of Hyampolis defaited them This resolution of the Phocaeans was afterwards by the Greekes named Aponaea that is A desperat desseigne and in memoriall of the said victorie all the people of Phocis to this day do celebrate in Hyampolis the greatest and most solemne feast that they have to the honour of Diana and call it Elaphebolia THE WOMEN OF CHIOS THE men of Chios inhabited sometime the colonie Leuconia upon such an occasion as this A gentleman one of the best houses in Chios chanced to contract a marriage and when the bride was to be brought home to his house in a coach King Hippoclus being a familiar friend unto the bridegroom one who was present with others at the espousales and wedding after he had taken his wine wel being set upon a merrie pin and disposed to make sport leapt up into the coach where the new wedded wife was not with any entent to offer violence or vilanny but only to dallie toy make pastime in a meriment as the maner was at such a feast howbeit the friends of the bridegroome tooke it not so but fell upon him and killed him outright in the place upon which murder there appeered unto those of Chios many evident tokens and signes of Gods anger yea and when they understood by the oracle of Apollo that for to appease their wrath they should put all those to death who had murdered Hippoclus they made answere That they all were guiltie of the fact and when the god Apollo commanded them that if they were all tainted with the said murder they should all depart out of the citie Chios they sent away as manie as either were parties and principals or accessaries and privie to the said blood-shed yea and whosoever approoved and praised the fact and those were neither few in number nor men of meane qualitie and power as far as to Leuconta which citie the Chians first conquered from the Coroneans and possessed by the helpe of the Erythraeans but afterwardes when there was warre betweene the said Chians and the Erythraeans who in those daies were the mightiest people in all Ionia insomuch as the Erythraeans came against Leuconia with a power intending to assault it the Chians being not able to resist grew to make a cōposition in which capitulated it was agreed that they should quit the city depart every person with one coat cassock only without taking any thing els with them The women understanding of this agreement gave them foule words bitterly reproched them for being so base minded as to lay off their armor thus to go naked thorow the mids of their enimies but when their husbands alleaged that they had sworn taken a corporal oth so to do they gave them counsel in any wise not to leave their armes and weapons behind them but to say that a javelin was a coat and a shield the cassocke of a valiant and hardie man The Chians perswaded hereunto spake boldly to the Erythraeans to that effect and shewed them their armes insomuch as the Erythraeans were affraid to see their resolute boldnesse and there was not one of them so hardie as to come neere for to empeach them but were verie well content that they abandoned the place and were gone in that sort Thus you may see how these men having learned of their wives to be couragious and confident saved their honours and their lives Long after this the wives of the Chians atchieved an other act nothing inferiour to this in vertue and prowesse At what time as Philip the sonne of Demetrius holding their citie besieged caused this barbarous edict and proud proclamation to be published That all the slaves of the
upon the land which had remained a long time among them and had passed by descent from father to sonne and by their forefathers had beene first brought unto them from Brauron unto the isle Lemnos and which they caried with them from thence into all places wheresoever they came after this sudden fright and tumult was passed as they sailed in the open sea they missed the said image and withall Pollis also was advertised that a flouke of an anker was wanting and lost for that when they came to weigh anker by great force as commonly it hapneth in such places where it taketh hold of the ground among rocks it brake and was left behinde in the bottome of the sea whereupon he said that the oracles were now fulfilled which foretold them of these signes and therewith gave signall to the whole fleete for to retire backe and so he entred upon that region to his owne use and after he had in many skirmishes vanquished those who were up in armes against him he lodged at length in the citie Lyctus and wan many more to it Thus you see how at this day they call themselves the kinsfolke of the Athenians by the mothers side but indeed by the father they are a colonie drawne from Lacedaemon THE LYCIAN WOMEN THat which is reported to have beene done in Lycia as a meere fable and tale devised of pleasure yet neverthelesse testified by a constant same that runneth verie currant For Amisodarus as they say whom the Lycians name Isarus came from about the marches of Zelea a colonie of the Lycians with a great fleet of rovers and men of warre whose captaine or admirall was one Chimaerus a famous arch-pirate a warlike man but exceeding cruell savage and inhumane who had for the badges and ensignes of his owne ship in the prow a lion and at the poope a dragon much hurt hee did upon all the coasts of Lycia insomuch as it was not possible either to saile upon the sea or to inhabit the maritime cities and townes neere unto the sea side for him This man of warre or arch-rover Bellerophontes had slaine who followed him hard in chase with his swift pinnace Pegasus as he fled untill he had overtaken him and withall had chased the Amazones out of Lycia yet for all this he not onely received no worthy recompence for his good service at the hands of Iobates king of Lycia but also which was woorse sustained much wrong by him by occasion whereof Bellerophontes taking it as a great indignitie went to sea againe where he praied against him unto Neptune that he would cause his land to be barraine and unfruitfull which done hee returned backe againe but behold a strange and fearfull spectacle for the sea swelled overflowed all the countrey following him everie where as he went and covering after him the face of the earth and for that the men of those parts who did what possibly they could to entreat him for to stay this inundation of the sea could not obtaine so much at his hands the women tooke up their petticots before went to meet him shewed their nakednes wherupon for very shame he returned back the sea likewise by report retired with him into the former place But some there be who more civilly avciding the fabulosity of this tale say That it was not by praiers imprecations that he drew after him the sea but because that part of Lycia which was most sertill being low and flat lay under the levell of the sea there was a banke raised along the sea side which kept it in and Bellerophon cut a breach thorow it and so it came to passe that the sea with great violence entred that way and drowned the flat part of the countrey whereupon the men did what they could by way of praiers and intrearie with him in hope to appease his mood but could not prevaile howbeit the women environing him round about by great troups companies pressed him so on all sides that he could not for verie shame deny them so in favour of them said downe his anger Others affirme that Chimaera was an high mountaine directly opposite to the sunne at noon-tide which caused great reflections and reverberations of the sunne beames and by consequence ardent heats in manner of a fire in the said mountaine which comming to be spread and dispersed over the champion ground caused all the fruits of the earth to dry fade and wither away whereof Bellerophontes a man of great reach and deepe conceit knowing the cause in nature caused in many places the superfice of the said rocke or mountaine to be cloven and cut in two which before was most smooth even and by that reason consequently did send back the beames of the sun cansed the excessive heat in the countrey adjoining now for that he was not well considered and regarded by the inhabitants according to his demerit in despite he meant to be revenged of the Lycians but the women wrought him so that they allaied his fury But surely that cause which Nymphus alleageth in his fourth booke as touching Heraclea is not fabulous nor devised to delight the Reader for he saith That this Bellerophontes having killed a wilde bore that destroied all the fruits of the earth all other beasts within the Xanthiens countrey had no recompense therefore whereupon when he had powred out grievous imprecations against those unthankfull Xanthiens unto Neptune hee brought salt-water all over the land which marred all and made all become bitter untill such time as he being wonne by the praiers and supplications of the women besought Neptune to let fal his wrath Loe whereupon the custome arose and continueth still in the Xanthiens countrey That men in all their affaires negotiate not in the name of their fathers but of their mothers and called after their names THE WOMEN OF SALMATICA ANnnibal of the house of Barca before that he went into Italic to make warre with the Romaines laid siege unto a great citie in Spaine named Salmatica the besieged were at the first affraid and promised to do whatsoever Annibal would commaund them yea and to pay him three hundred talents of silver for securitie of which capitulation to be performed they put into his hands three hundred hostages but so soone as Anmbal had raised his siege they repented of this agreement which they had concluded with him and would do nothing according to the conditions of the accord whereupon hee returned againe for to besiege them afresh and to encourage his souldiers the better to give the assault he said That hee would give unto them the saccage and pillage of the towne whereupon the citizens within were wonderfully affraid and yeelded themselves to his devotion upon this condition That the Barbarians would permit as many as were of free condition to goe foorth every man in his single garment leaving behind them their armes goods money slaves and the citie Now the dames
other meanes became enamoured upon her so farre that he was ready to give unto her and to do for the love of her whatsoever she would also that she promised to go with him in case he would agree and graunt one thing and as the said philosopher telleth the tale thereupon she required of him an obligation of his oth and after he had faithfully sworne unto her she demaunded that hee should deliver unto her the castle Delio for that was the name of the fort or piece whereof hee had the charge otherwise she said that she would never come in bed with him whereupon he aswell for the great desire that he had to enjoy her love as in regard of his foresaid oath by which he was bound and obliged quit the place and rendred it into the hands of Polycrite who presently delivered it up unto her countrey-men and fellow-citizens by which meanes they being now able once againe to make their parts good with the Milesians made an accord and concluded peace under what conditions they desired themselves LAMPSACE IN the citie Phocaea there were sometimes two brethren twinnes of the house and family of the Codridae the one named Phobus the other Blepsus of which twaine Phobus was the first that according as Charon the Chronicler of Lampsacum doth record cast himselfe from the high rocks and cliffes of Leucas into the sea This Phobus being of great puissance and royall authoritie in his countrey hapned to have some private affaire and negotiation of his owne in theisle of Paros and thither he went where he contracted amitie alliance and hospitalitie with Mandron king of the Bebrycians surnamed Pityoessenes and by vertue of this new league he aided them and in their behalfe made warre with them against other barbarous people their neighbours who did them wrong and wrought them much damage afterwards when he was upon his departure and returne home Mandron among many other courtesies and tokens of kindnesse which he bestowed upon him now ready to embarke and take the sea offered him the one moitie of his country and city if he would come dwel in the citie Pityoessa with some part of the Phocaeans for to people the place whereupon Phobus after he was come home againe to Phocaea proposed this matter unto the Phocaeans his citizens having perswaded them to accept of the offer he sent his owne brother as leader and captaine to conduct this colonie of new inhabitants who upon their first arrivall and comming thither found themselves as well entreated as courteously entertained as they could wish or looke for at Mandron his hands but in tract of time after that they had gotten many advantages at the Barbarians hands their neighbours borderers wan divers booties from them and gained much pillage spoile they began to be envied first and afterwards to be dread and feared of the Bebrycians who being desirous for to be rid and delivered of such guests durst not addresse themselves unto Mandron whom they knew to be an honest and just man for to perswade him to practise any disloyaltie or treacherie against men of the Greek nation but espying a time when he was absent and out of the countrey they complotted and prepared to surprize the Phocaeans by a wile and so to dispatch them al to once out of the way but Lampsace the daughter of Mandron a maiden yet unmarried having some fore-inkling and intelligence of this forelaied ambush laboured dealt first with her familiar friends to divert them from so wicked an enterprise shewing and prooving unto them that it was a damnable act before God and abominable among men to proceed so treacherously against their allies and confederates who had beene ready at all times to aid and assist them in their need against their enemies and besides were now incorporate with them and their fellow-citizens but when she saw that there would no good be done and that she could not disswade them from it she acquainted the Greeks under-hand with this treason which was a warping against them advised them to look unto themselves stand upon their own guard so the Phocaeans made a solemn sacrifice a publick feast invited the Pityoessenes to come out of the citie into the suburbes to take part therof themselves they divided into two troupes whereof the one seised the wals of the citie whiles the inhabitants were at the feast meane time the other were busie in massacring the guests that were bidden to it and by this meanes they became masters of the whole citie and sent for Mandron whom they desired to participate with them in their counsels and affaires as for Lampsace his daughter who fortuned to die of sicknesse they interred magnificently and in memoriall of that good which she did unto them called the citie after her name Lampsacum howbeit Mandron because he would not be suspected to have beene a traitour unto his owne people would not consent to dwell among them but required to have of them the wives and children of them who were dead whom they sent unto him with all speed and diligence without dooing any harme or displeasure at all unto them as for Lamsaca unto whom before they had ordeined heroick honors they decreed for ever to sacrifice unto her as unto a goddesse and even to this day they doe continue and observe the same divine worship unto her ARETAPHILA ARetaphila of Cyrene was none of them that lived in ancient time but lately in the daies of king Mithridates but she shewed vertue performed an act comparable to the magnanimous counsels and desseignes of the most autike demi-goddesses that ever were daughter she was to Aeglator and wife to Phaedimus both noble men and great personages faire beautifull of visage of deepe conceit and high reach and namely in matters of estate affaires of government well experienced the publike calamities of her countrey did illustrate her name and caused her to be well knowne and voiced in the world for Nicocrates having usurped the tyrannie of Cyrene put to death many of the chiefe and principall men of the citie and among the rest one Melanippus the high priest of Apollo whom he slew with his owne hands for to enjoy his priesthood he did to death also Phaedimus the husband of Aretaphila and not content therewith married her perforce and against her will this tyrant over above an infinit number of other cruelties which he daily committed set certaine warders at every gate of the city who when there was caried foorth any dead corps to buriall out of the citie abused the same with digging into the soles of their feet with the points of their daggers and poinards or else with searing them with red hot irons for feare that any of the inhabitants should be conveied alive out of the citie under colour of being borne to the grave as dead private and particular crosses had Aretaphila no doubt which were greevous unto her
and yet consideratly waiting the time and opportunitie of revenge on the other side Synorix followed his sute verie earnestly soliciting and intreating 〈◊〉 nately neither seemed he to alledge vaine and frivolous reasons but such as carried some colourable pretense of honestie namely that he had alwaies shewed himselfe a man of more valor worth than Sinatus and whereas he took away his life induced he was thereto for the 〈◊〉 love that hee bare to Camma and not mooved thereto by any malice otherwise This yoong dame at the first seemed to denie him but yet her denials were not verie churlish and such as he might take for his finall answer for daily by little and little she made semblant that she relented and inclined unto him for that divers kinsfolk and friends also of hers joined with him to second his sute who for to gratifie and doe pleasure unto Synorix a man of the greatest credit and authoritie in his countrey perswaded yea forced her to yeeld unto this match To be short in the end she gave her consent Synorix was sent for to come unto her where she kept her resiance that in the presence of the said goddesse the contract of marriage might passe the espousals be solemnized when he was come she received and welcomed him with an amiable and gracious countenance lead him unto the very altar of Diana where rehgiously with great ceremonie she powred forth before the goddesse a little of a potion which shee had prepared out of a boule the one part thereof she drunke herselfe the other she gave unto Synorix for to drinke now this potion was mead mingled with ranke poison when she saw that he had taken his draught she fetching a loud and evident groane doing reverence also unto the goddesse I protest and call thee to witnesse quoth she most powerfull and honourable goddesse that I have not survived Sinatus for any other cause in the world but onely to see this day neither have I had any joie of my life all this while that I have lived since but onely in regard of hope that one day I might be revenged of his death which seeing that now I have effected I go most gladly and joifully unto that sweet husband of mine and as for thee most accursed wicked wretch in the world give order to thy kinsfolke and friends in stead of a nuptiall bed to provide a grave for thy burial the Galatian hearing these words and beginning withal to feele the operation of the poison and how it wrought troubled him within his bowels and all parts of his body mounted presently his chariot hoping that by the jogging and agitation thereof he might vomit and cast up the poison but immediately he alighted againe and put himselfe into an easie litter but did he what he could dead he was that very evening as for Camma she continued all the night languishing and when she heard for certaintie that he was deceased she also with joy and mirth departed out of this world STRATONICE THe selfesame province of Galatia affoorded two other dames woorthy of eternall memorie to wit Stratonice the wife of king Deiotarus and Chiomara the wife of Ortiagon as for Stratonice she knowing that the king her husband was desirous to have children lawfully begotten for to leave to be his successors inheritors of the crowne and yet could have none by her praied and intreated him to trie another woman and beget a childe of her body yea and permitted that it should be put unto her and she would take it upon her as her owne Deiotarus woondered much at this resolution of hers and was content to doe all things according to her mind wherupon she chose among other captives taken prisoner in the warres a proper faire maiden named Electra whom she brought into Deiotarus bed chamber shut them in both together and all the children which this concubine bare unto him his wife reared and brought up with as kinde an affection and as princelike as if she had borne them herselfe CHIOMARA AT what time as the Romans under the conduct of Cn. Scipio defaited the Galatians that inhabit in Asia it befell that Chiomara the wife of Ortiagon was taken prisoner with other Galatian women the captaine whose captive she was made use of his fortune did like a soldier and abused her bodie who as he was a man given unto his fleshly pleasure so he looked also as much or rather more unto his profit and filthie lucre but so it fell out that overtaken he was and entrapped by his owne avarice for being promised by the woman a good round quantitie of gold for to deliver her out of thraldome and set her at libertie he brought her to the place which she had appointed for to render her and set her free which was at a certeine banke by the river side where the Galatians should passe over tender him the said monie and receive Chiomara but she winked with her eie thereby gave a signall to one of her own companie for to kill the said Romane captaine at what time as he should take his leave of her with a kisse and friendly farewell which the partie did with his sword at one stroke fetched off his head the head she herselfe tooke up and wrapped it in the lap of her gowne before and so gat her away apace homeward when she was come to her husbands house downe she cast his head at his feet whereat he being astonied Ah my sweet wife quoth he it is a good thing to keepe faithfull promise True quoth she but it is better that but one man alive should have my companie Polybius writeth of the same woman that himselfe talked with her afterwards in the citie of Sardis and that he found her then to be a woman of an high minde and of woonderfull deepe wit But since I am fallen to the mention of the Galatians I will rehearse yet one story more of them A WOMAN OF PERGAMUS KIng Mithridates sent upon a time for threescore of the principall lords of Galatia to repaire unto him upon trust and safe-conduct as friends into the citie Pergamus whom being come at his request he enterteined with proud imperious speeches whereat they al took great scorn and indignation insomuch as one of them named Toredorix a strong tal man of his hands besides woonderfull couragious Tetrarch of the Tossepians country undertooke this one day enterprise to set upon Mithridates at what time as he sat in judgement gave audience from the tribunal seat in the publike place of exercise and both him and seat together to tumble downe headlong into the pit underneath but it fortuned that the king that day came not abroad as his maner was up into that place of open exercise but commanded al those Galatian lords to come and speake with him at his house Toredorix exhorted them to be bold and confident and when they were
all just and honest actions when it hath chased and removed out of the way ire and wrath and therefore men are mollified appeased and become gentle by examples of men when they heare it reported how Plato when hee lifted up his staffe against his page stood so a good while and forbare to strike which hee did as he said for to represse his choler And Architas when he found some great negligence and disorder at his ferme-house in the countrey in his houshold servants perceiving himselfe moved and disquieted therewith insomuch as he was exceeding angrie and readie to flie upon them proceeded to no act but onely turning away and going from them said thus It is happie for you that I am thus angrie with you If then it be so that such memorable speeches of ancient men and woorthy acts reported by them are effectuall to represse the bitternesse and violence of choler much more probable it is that we seeing how God himselfe although he standeth not in feare of any person nor repenteth of any thing that he doth yet putteth off his chastisements and laieth them up a long time should be more wary and considerate in such things and esteeme that clemencie long sufferance and patience is a divine part of vertue that God doth shew and teach us which by punishment doth chastise and correct a few but by proceeding thereto slowly doth instruct admonish and profit many In the second place let us consider that judiciall and exemplarie processe of justice practised by men intendeth and aimeth onely at a counter change of paine and griefe resting in this point That he who hath done evill might suffer likewise proceeding no farther at all and therefore baying and barking as it were like dogges at mens faults and trespasses they follow upon them and pursue after all action by tract and footing but God as it should seeme by all likelihood when hee setteth in hand in justice to correct a sinfull diseased soule regardeth principally the vicious passions thereof if haply they may be bent wrought so as they will incline turne to repentance in which respect he staieth long before that he inflict any punishment upon delinquents who are not altogether past grace incorrigible for considering withall and knowing as he doth what portion of vertue soules have drawen from him in their creation at what time as they were produced first and came into the world as also how powerfull and forcible is the generositie thereof and nothing weake and feeble in it selfe but that it is cleane contrary to their proper nature to bring forth vices which are engendered either by ill education or els by the contagious haunt of leaud company and how afterward when they be well cured and medicined as it falleth out in some persons they soone returne unto their owne naturall habitude and become good againe by reason heereof God doth not make haste to punish all men alike but looke what he knoweth to be incurable that he quickly riddeth away out of this life and cutteth it off as a very hurtfull member to others but yet most harmefull to it selfe if it should evermore converse with wickednesse but to such persons in whom by all likelihood vice is bred and ingendred rather through ignorance of goodnesse than upon any purpose and will to chuse naughtinesse hee giveth time and respit for to change and amend how beit if they persist still and continue in their leaud waies hee paieth them home likewise in the end and never feareth that they shall escape his hands one time or other but suffer condigne punishment for their deserts That this is true consider what great alterations there happen in the life and behaviour of men and how many have beene reclaimed and turned from their leaudnesse which is the reason that in Greeke our behaviour and conversation is called partly 〈◊〉 that is to say A conversion and in part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one because mens maners be subject to change and mutation the other for that they be ingendered by use or custome and the impression thereof being once taken they remaine firme and sure which is the cause also as I suppose that our ancients in olde time attributed unto king Cecrops a double nature and forme calling him Double not for that as some said of a good element and gracious prince he became a rigourous fell and cruell tyrant like a dragon but contrariwise because having bene at the first perverse crooked and terrible he proved afterward a milde and gentle lord and if we make any doubt hereof in him yet we may be sure at leastwise that Gelon and Hiero in Sicilie yea and Pisistratus the sonne of Hipocrates all usurpers who atteined to their tyrannicall dominion by violent and indirect meanes used the same vertuously and howsoever they came unto their sovereigne rule by unlawfull and unjust meanes yet they grew in time to be good governours loving and profitable to the common weale and likewise beloved and deare unto their subjects for some of them having brought in and established most excellent lawes in the countrey and caused their citizens and subjects to be industruous and painfull in tilling the ground made them to be civill sober and discreet whereas before they were given to be ridiculous as noted for their laughter and lavish tongues to be true labourers also and painfull who had bene idle and playfull And as for Gelon after he had most valiantly warred against the Carthaginians and defaited them in a great battell when they craved peace would never grant it unto them unlesse this might be comprised among the articles and capitulations That they should no more sacrifice their children unto Saturne In the citie also of Megalopolis there was a tyrant named Lydiades who in the mids of his usurped dominion repented of his tyrannie and made a conscience thereof detesting that wrongfull oppression wherein he held his subjects in such sort ' as he restored his citizens to their ancient lawes and liberties yea and afterwards died manfully in the field fighting against his enemies in the defence of his countrey Now if any one had killed Miltiades at the first whiles he exercised tyrannie in Chersonesus or if another had called judicially into question Cimon enditing him for keeping his owne sister and so being condemned of incest had caused him to be put to death or disfranchised and banished Themistocles out of the citie for his loose wantonnesse and licentious insolencie shewed publickly in the Common place as Alcibiades afterwards was served and proscribed for the like excesse and riot committed in his youth Where had bene then that famous victorie At chieved on the plaines of Marathon Where had bene that renowmed chivalrie Performed neere the streame Eurymedon Or at the mount faire Artemision Where Athens youth as poet Pindare said Freedome first the glorious ground-worke laid For so it is great natures and high minds can bring foorth no meane matters nor the
better regarded more honored and renowed from hence foorth than now you are and in the meane while you consider not that you seeke after a vaine felicitie and the image or shadow onely for the thing indeed ULYSSES Well Circe I am content that it be so as you say for why should we so often contest and debate thus about the same still But I pray you of all loves unbinde and let loose these poore men for my sake and give them me CIRCE Nay that I will not I sweare by Hecate You shall not come so easily by them for I tell you they be no meane persons and of the common sort But you were best to aske them first if they themselves be willing thereto or no And if they answer nay then like a noble valiant gentleman as you are deale with them effectually and induce them thereto But in case you cannot with all your reasons bring them to it and that they be able to convince you by force of argument let it suffice you that you have advised your selfe and your friends but badly ULYSSES Is it so indeed good lady and are you about to mocke and make a foole of me For how can they either yeeld or receive reason in conference so long as they be asses swine and lions as they are CIRCE Goe to sir most ambitious man that you are let that never trouble you for I will uphold them sufficient both to heare and understand whatsoever you shall alledge unto them yea and able to reason and discourse with you Or rather I passe not much if one of them for all his fellowes shall both demaund and 〈◊〉 Lo heare is one deale with him as it pleaseth you ULYSSES And by what name shall we call him Circe or who might he be when he was a man CIRCE What matters that and what maketh it to disputation and question in hand Howbeit name him if you thinke good Grydus And to the end that you should not thinke that for to gratifie or doe me a pleasure he may seeme to reason crosse and against your minde I will for the time retire my selfe out of the place GRYLLUS God save you Ulysses ULYSSES And you also gentle Gryllus GRYLLUS What is your will with me and what would you demaund of me ULYSSES I wot well that you and the rest were sometimes men and therefore I have great ruth and pitie to see you all in this estate but as good reason is it grieveth me most for the Greeks that they are fallen into this calamity But so it is that even now I requested Circe to loosen as many of you as be willing thereto and after she hath restored them to their auncient shape to give them leave to goe with me GRYLLUS Peace Ulysses and say not a word more I beseech you for we all have you in contempt now seeing that you have bene taken and named all this whiles for a singular man and seemed far to surpasse all others in wisedome whereas there is little or no cause thereof in that you have bene afraid even of this to change from the woorse to the better and never considered that as children abhorre the medicines and drogues that Physicians ordeine and refuse to learne those sciences and disciplines which of sickly diseased and foolish might make them more healthie sound wise even so you have rejected east behind you this oportunitie to be transformed and changed from one to another and even still you tremble and dare not venture to keepe companie and lie with Circe for dread and feare lest ere you be aware she should make of you either a swine or a woolfe and you would perswade us that whereas we live now in abundance and enjoy the affluence of all good things we should quit the same and withall abandon and forsake her who hath procured us this happinesse and all to goe away with you when we are become men againe that is to say the most wretched creatures in the world ULYSSES It seemeth Gryllus that the potion which you dranke at Circes hands hath not onely marred the forme and fashion of your bodie but also spoiled your wit and understanding having intoxicate your braine and filled your head with corrupt strange and monstrous opinions for ever or els some pleasure that you have taken by the acquaintance of this body so long hath cleane bewitched you GRYLLUS Nay iwis good sir it is neither so nor so if it please you ô king of the Cephallenians but if you be disposed to argue with reason rather than to wrangle with opprobrious tearmes we will soone bring you to another opinion and proove by sound arguments upon the experience which we have of the one life and the other that there is great reason why we should love and embrace this present state above the former ULYSSES For mine owne part I am readie to give you the hearing GRYLLUS And I as willing likewise to deliver my minde But first and formost begin I will to speake of vertues upon which I see you stand so much and in regard whereof you woondrously please your selves as who would be thought in justice in wisedome in magnanimitie and other vertues to excell and farre surpasse all brute beasts Answer me therefore I beseech you the wisest man of all other to this point For I have heard say that upon a time you made relation unto Circe of the Cyclopes countrey how the soile there is naturally so good and fertill that without plowing sowing or planting at all it bringeth foorth of it selfe all sorts of fruit Tell me I say whether you esteeme better of it so frutefull as it is or of Ithaca a rough and mountaine region good onely for to breed goats in and which hardly and with great labour yeeldeth unto those that till it small store God wot of poore and leane frutes which will not quit for the cost and paines But take heed it grieve you not to answer contrarie to your minde for the love that you beare unto your native countrey ULYSSES I love verily for I must not lie yea and I imbrace and holde most deare mine owne countrey and place of nativitie howbeit I praise and admire that other region of theirs GRYLLUS Why then belike the case stands thus and this we are to say that the wisest man is of opinion that there be some things which are to praise and commend and other things to chuse and love and verily I thinke that your judgement is the same of the soule for the like reason there is of it and a land or plot of ground namely that the soule is better which without any travell or labour bringeth forth vertue as a fruit springing and growing of it selfe ULYSSES Well be it so as you say GRYLLUS You grant then and confesse already That the soule of brute beasts is by nature more kinde more perfect and better disposed to yeeld vertue considering that without compulsion without
contentment when they be asked questions of that which they have an insight in and knowing so much by themselves as they doe loth they bee to have their cunning hidden and to be thought of others ignorant therein therefore those who have beene great travellers and sailed in many voiages cannot be better pleased than when others enquire of them as touching farre countries strange seas the manners fashions and customes of barbarous nations and you bring them to bedde as they say when you put them to discourse of such matters as being most willing to describe and draw upon a table the coasts places straigths and gulfes by which and through which they have passed reputing it to be no small frute of all their travels and an easement of the paines which they have endured in one word looke whatsoever we of our selves are woont without the demaund and intreatie of others to recount and relate willingly the same are we desirous that men should aske us questions of and howsoever we seeme to doe pleasure unto the company yet indeed we have much adoe to hold and with great paine forbeare to utter the same This is a very maladie incident to sailers and sea-men above all other As for those that be of a more modest and civill nature they are desirous to be asked those things which they are willing enough to utter but that they be abashed and in reverent regard of them that be present passe over in silence those exploits which they have performed happily and with great honour and therefore good olde Nestor in Homer did very wisely who knowing well the ambitious humour and desire of glory which was in Ulysses spake unto him Ulysses flower of noble chivalrie Renowmed knight and all the Greeks glorie To tell us now I pray good sir begin How ye both twaine did those great horses win For unwilling men are to heare those who praise themselves or recount their owne worthy acts if there be not one or other of the company that is urgent with them so to do or unlesse they be in maner forced unto it and therefore they are glad when they be asked concerning the ambassages wherein they have beene imploied of their acts during the time of their government of State especially if they have performed some great and honourable service therein and withall perceive that it is not for envie nor malice that such demands be made for otherwise such as be envious or malicious weepe at those reports and be ready to put them by not willing to give place unto any narrations nor to minister occasion or matter of talke that may turne to the honor and commendation of him that delivereth the same Moreover this is another meanes to gratifie those who are to answere namely to move question of such things as they wot well enough that their enemies and ill-willers are loth to heare And verily Ulysses said to Alcinous in this wise A minde you have to heare me tell my wofull miserie That I might still sigh groane and waile for my hard destinie Even so Oedipus in Sophocles answered thus to the company of the Chorus Awoe it is my friend to raise and wake A griefe that long hath slept and rest doth take But contrariwise Euripides wrote after this sort How sweet is it to one for to remember The paine now past which sometime he did suffer True it is but not to those who still wander and being tossed in troublesome seas do yet meet with new misfortunes and calamities But to returne againe to our former purpose we ought to beware how wee demand ill newes for men are grieved at the heart to make report either how they have bene cast condemned in any sute or that that they have buried their children as also how infortunate they have bene in their traffique either by sea or land contrariwise they are well pleased to rehearse and repeat often times if they be asked the question how they have had good audience given them from the publike place of making orations and obteined whatsoever they there demaunded how they have beene saluted and honourably entreated by some king and potentate and how when other passengers and travellers with them have beene plunged into dangers of tempest or theeves they onely escaped the perill and for that in the bare relation they seeme as it were to enjoy the thing it selfe they can not be satisfied with the discourse and remembrance thereof Also men rejoice and take delight when they be asked as touching their friends who are fortunate and doe prosper in the world or of their owne children that profit well in learning and good literature or have sped well in pleading causes or otherwise are of credit in the court and with princes semblably they be very well content and pleased to be moved for to relate and so are more willing to make report of the losses or shamefull disgraces of their enemies and ill-willers whom either they have overthrowen at the barre and caused to be condemned or who otherwise are fallen into any disastrous calamity for of themselves loth they are unlesse they be required thereto to recount such things lest they might be reputed malicious and glad to heare of other mens harmes A hunter loveth very well to have speech and question mooved unto him as touching hounds so doth a champion and one that delighteth in bodily exercises to be trained to talke of gymnasticall pastimes and seats of activitie like as an amorous lover of such persons as be faire and beautifull a devout and religious man discourseth ordinarily of dreames and visions that hee seeth and what good successe he hath had in his affaires by observing the direction of oracles the presages of augurie and osses by doing sacrifice and generally by the grace and especiall favour of the gods and such be well pleased for to be asked questions as concerning these matters As for old folke you shall do them a high pleasure if you put them to it for to make any discourse whatsoever for although the narration concerne them nothing at all nor be to any purpose yet if one aske them questions he tickleth them in the right veine and scratcheth them as they say where it itcheth This appeareth by these verses out of Homer O Nestor sonne of Neleus tell me in veritie How Agamemnon elder sonne of Atreus did die Where was his yoonger brother then sir Menelaus hight Lives he or no in Achaea at Argos citie bright Here you see Telemachus asketh him many questions at once giving him occasion and matter of much speech not as some do who restreining olde folke to answere to the point only which is necessarie and driving them within a narrow compasse bereave them of that which is their greatest pleasure In sum they that would rather please and delight than displease and trouble propose such questions the answeres whereunto draw with them not the blame and reproofe but the praise and commendation
all things When Firmus had discoursed in this wise Senecio opposed himselfe and said That the last similitude and comparison which he brought was that which first and principally made against him For you marke not ô Firmus quoth he how ere you were aware you opened the world like a gate as the proverbe saith even upon your selfe for that the world was before all other things as being most perfect and reason would that whatsoever is perfect should precede the unperfect the entier and sound goe before that which is wanting and defectious and the whole before the part for that there can be no parcell but the whole thereof went before for no man useth to speake thus The seeds-man or the egges henne but cōtrariwise we say The mans seed and the hennes egge as if both generative seed and egge did succeed and follow them taking their owne generation in them first and afterwards paying againe as it were a debt unto nature a successive generation from them for need they have of that which is proper and familiar unto them and thereupon are endued with a naturall desire and inclination to produce such another thing as that was from whence they came and heereupon it is that seed is thus defined to be a geniture or thing bred having need and desire of new generation Now there is nothing that either standeth in need or hath an appetite to that which is not or hath no being and wee may plainly see that egges have their totall essence and substance from that compact knot and composition which is gathered within the body of a living creature and faileth heerein onely that it hath not such organes instruments and vessels as they have which is the reason that you shall never finde written in any historie that an egge was ingendred immediately of the earth for even the poets themselves doe say That the egge out of which sprang Castor and Pollux fell from heaven whereas the earth even at this day produceth many complet and perfect creatures as for example mice in Aegypt and in many other places serpents frogges and grashoppers by reason that the principle and puissance generative is infused and inserted into it from without In Sicilie during the time of the Servile warre much carnage there was and a great quantitie of bloud shedde and spilt upon the earth many dead bodies corrupted and putrified above ground lying unburied by occasion whereof an infinit number of locusts were engendred which being spred over the face of the whole island spoiled and destroied all the come in the countrey all these creatures therefore are bred and fedde of the earth and of their nourishment they yeeld a generall superfluitie apt to ingender the same kind and that is called seed and for to be discharged thereof by meanes of a certeine mutuall pleasure the male and the female match and couple together and so some according to their nature breed and lay egges others bring foorth yoong ones alive whereby it is evidently seene that the primitive generation came first and immediatly from the earth but afterwards by a certeine conjunction of one with another in a second sort they breed their yoong In summe to say that the egge was before the hen is as much as if the matrice were before the woman for looke what relation there is betweene the said matrice and the egge the semblable hath the egge unto the chicken that is ingendered and hatched within it So that to demand how birds were made when there were egges is all one as to aske how men and women were created before the naturall parts and genetall members of the one sex and the other were made And verily the members for the most part have their subsistence and being together with the whole but the powers and faculties come after those members the functions succeed the faculties and consequently the effects or complements follow upon the said functions and operation now the accomplished worke or perfection of that generative facultie in the naturall parts is the seed or the egge so that we must of necessitie confesse that they be after the generation of the whole Consider moreover that as it is not possible that there should be concoction of meats or any nourishment before the living creature be fully made and compleat no more can there be any seed or egge for that both the one and the other is made by certeine concoctions and alterations neither is it seene how before the full perfection of a living creature there should be any thing that hath the nature of the superfluity or excrement of nutrition and yet I must needs say that naturall seed otherwise in some sort may go for the principle and beginning of life whereas the egge in no proportion answereth to such a principle for that it hath not a subsistence first nor any reason or nature of the whole because it is imperfect And hereupon it is that we never say that a living creature had any being or subsistence without an elementarie beginning but we affirme that there was a principle of generation to wit the power or facultie generative by which the matter was transmuted and wherein there was imprinted a generall temperature and that the egge afterwards is as it were a certein supergeneration much like unto the bloud milke of a living creature after nourishment concoction for never shall you see an egge engendred of mud for that an egge hath the generation and concretion within the bodie onely of a living creature whereas there be an innumerable sort of creatures procreated bred of mud and within mud And to seeke no surther for allegation of other examples to prove this there be taken every day an infinit number of eeles and yet never saw any man one eele either milter or spawner or that had any row in it And more than that if one let out all the water forth out of the poole and cleanse it from all mud and mire yet after the water is returned thither againe into the place there will be eeles soone engendred And therefore we may conclude necessarily that whatsoever in generation hath need of another can not chuse but be after it and that which otherwise may be of it selfe and without the other must of necessitie precede and goe before in generation for this is that prioritie whereof I speake To prove this marke how birds do build and make their nests before they lay egges women also provide cradles clouts beds and swadling-clothes for their little babes before they crie out or be delivered and yet you will not say I trow that either the nest was before the egge or the swadling cloths before the infant For as Plato saith the earth doth not imitate a woman but a woman the earth and consequently all other females And very like it is that the first procreation out of the earth was performed entire and accomplished by the absolute vertue and perfection of the Creatour
drunkennesse nor as an enemie to wine who directly calleth wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and surnameth himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereupon but in mine opinion like as they who love wine if they cannot meet with the liquor of the grape use a counterfet wine or barley broth called beere ale or els a certeine drinke made of apples named cydres or els date-wines even so he that gladly would in winter season weare a chaplet of vine branches seeing it altogether naked and bare of leaves is glad of the Ivie that resembleth it for the body or wood thereof is likewise writhed and crooked and never groweth upright but shutteth out heere and there to and fro at a venture the soft fattie leaves also after the same maner grow dispersed about the branches without all order besides all this the very berries of the Ivie growing thick clustered together like unto greene grapes when they begin to turne doe represent the native forme of the vine and yet albeit the same yeeldeth some helpe and remedie against drunkennesse we say it is by occasion of heat in opening the pores and small passages in the body for to let out the fumes of wine and suffer them to evaporate and breathe forth or rather by her heat helpeth to concoct and digest it that for your sake good Tryphon Bacchus may still continue a physician At these words Tryphon staied a while and made no answere as thinking with himselfe and studying how to reply upon him But Eraton calling earnestly upon every one of us that were of the yoonger sort spurned us forward to aide and assist Tryphon our advocate and the patton of our flower-chaplets or els to plucke them from our heads and weare them no longer And Ammonius assured us for his part that if any one of us would take upon him to answere he would not recharge againe nor come upon him with a rejoinder Then Tryphon himselfe moved us to say somewhat to the question WHereupon I began to speake and said That it belonged not to me but rather unto Tryphon for to proove that Ivie was colde considering that he used it much in physicke to coole and binde as being an astringent medicine but as touching that which ere-while was alledged namely that the Ivie berie doth inebriat if it be steeped in wine it is no found to be true and the accident which it worketh in those who drinke it in that maner can not well be called drunkennesse but rather an alienation of the mind and trouble of the spirit like to that effect which henbane worketh many other plants which mightily disquiet the braine and transport our senses and understanding As for the tortuositie of the bodie and branches it maketh nothing to the purpose and point in hand for the works and effects against nature can not 〈◊〉 from faculties and powers naturall and pieces of wood do twine and bend crooked because fire being neere unto them draweth and drieth up forcibly all the native and kindly humour where as the inward and naturall heat would rather ferment enterteine and augment it But consider better upon the matter and marke rather whether this writhed-bunching forme of the Ivie wood as it groweth and the basenesse bearing still downward and tending to the ground be not an argument rather of weaknesse and bewray the coldnesse of the bodie being glad as it were to make many rests and staies like unto a pilgrim or wayfaring traveller who for wearinesse and faintnesse sitteth him downe and reposeth himselfe many times in his way and ever and anon riseth againe and beginneth to set forward in regard of which feeblenesse the Ivie hath alwaies need of some prop or other to stay it selfe by to take hold of to claspe about and to cling unto being not able of her owne power to rise for want of naturall heat whose nature is to mount aloft As touching Snow that it thaweth and passeth away so soone the cause is the moisture and softnesse of the Ivie leafe for so wee see that water dispatcheth and dissolveth presently the laxitie and spongeous raritie thereof being as it is nothing els but a gathering and heaping of a number of small bubbles couched thrust together and hereof it commeth that in over-moist places sobbed and soaked with water snow melteth assoone as in places exposed to the sun Now for that it hath leaves alwaies upon it and the same as Empedocles saith firme and fast this proceedeth not of heat no more than the fall and shedding of leaves every yeere is occasioned by colde And this appeareth by the myrtle tree and the herbe Adiantum that is to say Maidenhaire which being not hot plants but colde are alwaies leaved and greene withall and therefore some are of opinion that the holding of the leaves is to be ascribed to an equality of temperature but Empedocles over and besides attributeth it to a certeine proportion of the pores thorow which the sap and nourishment doth passe and pierce qually into the leaves in such fort as it runneth sufficiently for to mainteine them which is not so in those trees which lose their leaves by reason of the laxitie or largenesse of the said pores and holes above and the straightnesse of them beneath whereby as these doe not send any nourishment at all so the other can hold and reteine none but that little which they received they let goe all at once like as we may observe in certeine canals or trenches devised for to water gardens and orchards if they be not proportionable and equall for where they be well watred and have continuall nourishment and the same in competent proportion there the trees hold their owne and remaine firme alwaies greene and never die But the Ivie tree planted in Babylon would never grow and refused there to live Certes it was well done of her and she shewed great generositie that being as she was a devoted vassaile to the god of Boeotia and living as it were at his table she would not goe out of her owne countrey to dwell among those Barbarians shee followed not the steps of king Alexander who entred alliance and made his abode with those strange and forren nations but avoided their acquaintance all that ever she could and withstood that transmigration from her native place but the cause thereof was not heat but colde rather because shee could not endure the temperature of the aire so contrary to her owne for that which is semblable and familiar never killeth any thing but receiveth nourisheth and beareth it like as drie ground the herbe thyme how hot soever the soile be Now for the province about Babylon they say the aire in all that tract is so soultrie hot so stuffing so grosse and apt to stifle and stop the breath that many inhabitants of the wealthier sort cause certeine bits or bagges of leather to be filled with water upon which as upon featherbeds they lie to sleepe and coole their
they be such as breed and bee nourished in those places furthermore it is said that the sight of their eies is so bent and fixed downeward that they can see nothing on high no nor once so much as looke up to the skie unlesse they be cast upon their backs with their feet upward so that the balles of their eies by this means be turned quite contrary to the course of nature and verily this beast howsoever otherwise ordinarily it be given to cry and grunt exceeding much yet if the feet be turned upward as is before said it will be silent and still so much astonied and amazed it is to see the sace of heaven which it is not woont to doe and so for feare of some greater harme it is thought that it giveth over crying Now if wee may come in with poeticall fables to make up our discourse it is said that faire Adonis was killed by a wilde bore and Adonis is thought to be no other than Bacchus himselfe which opinion may be confirmed by many ceremoniall rites in sacrisicing both to the one and the other which are the very same although some hold that Adonis was the minion whom Bacchus loved as appeereth by Phanocles the poet a man well seene in love-matters in these verses Bacchus who tooke so great delight The hilles and forrests for to range Of faire Adonis had once a sight And him to ravish made it not strange Symmachus marvelling at this last speech of his above the rest How now quoth he will you Lamprias indeed insert and transcribe the tutelar god of your country Bacchus I meane surnamed Evius Who women doth to rage incite And in such service furious And franticke worship takes delight among the secret ceremonies of the Hebrewes Or doe you not thinke there is some reason that he is the very same god whom they love Then Meragenes Let Lamprus alone quoth he as for my selfe who am an Athenian I answer say unto you assuredly that he and Bacchus are both one but the most part of the arguments and conjectures which proove it may not be uttered and taught but unto those who are professed in the absolute religion and confraternitie trietericall of Bacchus in our country howbeit that which we are not forbidden to speake among friends and namely at the table amidde our cuppes and when we take pleasure in the gifts and benefits of this god if it pleaseth the cōpany ready I am to deliver and when they all willed requested him so to doe First and formost quoth he the season and whole manner of their principall and greatest feast is altogether proper and convenient unto Bacchus for that which they call their fast they celebrate in the very middes and heat of vintage at what time as they bring tables abroad and furnish them with all kinds of fruit they sit under tents or boothes which are made principally of vine branches and ivie wrought twisted interlaced one within another and the even or day before it they call the feast of tabernacles or pavilions within a few daies after they celebrate another feast and the same is not under a figure and covertly but openly and directly in the name of Bacchus there is a third solemnitie yet among them named Cradephoria of carying vine braunches and Thyrsophoria ofbearing jevelins dight with ivie and in that manner enter they into their temple but what they doe within we know not howbeit very probable it is that they performe there certeine Bacchanales or rites in the honor of Bacchus for they use little trumpets to invocate upon their god such as the Argives have in their Bacchanale solemnitie then come others playing upon harpes and lutes whom they call in their language Levites a denomination haply derived of Lycius the surname of Bacchus or rather of Evius It seemeth also to me that their feasts of Sabbats is not altogether disagreeable with Bacchus for there be many places yet in Greece even at this day where they call the priests Baccht by the name of Sabbi who in their Bacchanales and ceremoniall sports estsoones reiterate these voices Euoi and Sabboi as appeareth in the oration of the crowne which Demoslhenes made against Aeschines as also in the poet Menander And this name Sabbat if a man should say it was imposed upon thus feast of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of the inordinate motion and turbulent agitation of the priests of Bacchus it were not altogether absurd and without reason for even they themselves testifie no lesse for they solemnize and honor the Sabbat with mutuall feasting and inviting one another to drinke wine untill they be overseene therewith unlesse some great occasion do 〈◊〉 that hindereth them and even then they thinke yet that they must needs taste strong wine Howbeit some man may haply say that these arguments be but bare conjectures and presumptions that cary with them some little probablitie but verily that which is done among them is a forcible necessarie proofe First and formost their high priest shewing himselfe abroad and going before with a miter upon his head at these feasts argueth no lesse who also is clad in a vesture of Stags skinne wrought richly with golde arraied beside in a long robe downe to his feet and wearing buskins besides there be many little belles pendant round about the border and skirt of his robe which gingle and ring as he goeth like as also among us this maner of resounding they use still in their sacrifices and they surname the nourses of their god Cholcodrytae and besides there is a Thyrse or Javelot with tabours to be seene expresly printed aloft against the walles of their temple all which ceremonies certeinly can agree to no other god but unto Bacchus Moreover in none of all their oblations do they offer honie for that they thinke it marreth and corrupteth wine when it is mingled with it and yet this was the liquor which they used in olde time to serve God withall in their libaments and whereof they dranke untill they were drunke before the vine-tree was knowen and even at this day those barbarous nations who drinke no wine use a certeine drinke made of honie correcting the exceeding sweetnesse thereof with certeine tart and austere roots resembling in some sort the verdure of wine these oblations the Greeks present unto their gods and those they call Nephalia and Melesponda as one would say Sober and confected with honie for that honie hath a natural propertie adverse and contrary unto wine To conclude that this is the same God which they worship a man may collect by this one argument which is of no small force namely that among many punishments which they have this is the most shamefull and ignominious when they are forbidden to drinke wine wo are punished even so long as it pleaseth him to set downe who is the judge and hath power to impose the penaltie and those who are
their registers IS it for that Saturne himselfe was a stranger in Italy and therefore all strangers are welcome unto him Or may not this question besolved by the reading of histories for in old time these Questors or publick Treasurers were wont to send unto embassadors certeine presents which were called Lautia and if it fortuned that such embassadors were sicke they tooke the charge of them for their cure and if they chanced to die they enterred them likewise at the cities charges But now in respect of the great resort of embassadors from out of all countries they have cut off this expense howbeit the auncient custome yet remaineth namely to present themselves to the said officers of the treasure and to be registred in their booke 44 Why it is not lawfull for Jupiters priest to sweare IS it because an oth ministred unto free borne men is as it were the racke and torture tendred unto them for certeine it is that the soule as well as the bodie of the priest ought to continue free and not be forced by any torture whatsoever Or for that it is not meet to distrust or discredit him in small matters who is beleeved in great and divine things Or rather because every oth endeth with the detestation and malediction of perjurie and considering that all maledictions be odious and abominable therefore it is not thought good that any other priests whatsoever should curse or pronounce any malediction and in this respect was the priestresse of Minerva in Athens highly commended for that she would never curse 〈◊〉 notwithstanding the people commanded her so to doe For I am quoth she ordeined a priestresse to pray for men and not to curse them Or last of all was it because the perill of perjurie would reach in common to the whole common wealth if a wicked godlesse and forsworne person should have the charge and superintendance of the praiers vowes and sacrifices made in the behalfe of the citie 45 What is the reason that upon the festivall day in the honour of Venus which solemnitie they call Veneralia they use to powre foorth a great quantitie of wine out of the temple of Venus IS it as some say upon this occasion that Mezentius sometime captaine generall of the Tuscans sent certeine embassadors unto Aeneas with commission to offer peace unto him upon this condition that he might receive all the wine of that yeeres vintage But when Aeneas refused so to doe Mezentius for to encourage his souldiers the Tuskans to fight manfully promised to bestow wine upon them when he had woon the field but Aeneas understanding of this promise of his consecrated and dedicated all the said wine unto the gods and in trueth when he had obteined the victorie all the wine of that yeere when it was gotten and gathered together he powred forth before the temple of Venus Or what if one should say that this doth symbolize thus much That men ought to be sober upon festivall daies and not to celebrate such solemnities with drunkennesse as if the gods take more pleasure to see them shed wine upon the ground than to powre overmuch thereof downe their throats 46 What is the cause that in ancient time they kept the temple of the goddesse Horta open alwaies WHether was it as Antistius Labeo hath left in writing for that seeing Hortart in the Latine tongue signifieth to incite and exhort they thought that the goddesse called Horta which stirreth and provoketh men unto the enterprise and execution of good exploits ought to be evermore in action not to make delaies not to be shut up and locked within dores ne yet to sit still and do nothing Or rather because as they name her now a daies Hora with the former syllable long who is a certeine industrious vigilant and busie goddesse carefull in many things therefore being as she is so circumspect and so watchfull they thought she should be never idle nor rechlesse of mens affaires Or els this name Hora as many others besides is a meere Greeke word and signifieth a deitie or divine power that hath an eie to overlooke to view and controll all things and therefore since she never sleepeth nor laieth her eies together but is alwaies broad awake therefore her church or chapel was alwaies standing open But if it be so as Labeo saith that this word Hora is rightly derived of the Greeke verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to incite or provoke consider better whether this word Orator also that is to say one who stirrith up 〈◊〉 encourageth and adviseth the people as a prompt and ready counseller be not derived likewise in the same sort and not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say praier and supplication as some would have it 47 Wherefore founded Romulus the temple of Vulcane without the citie of Rome IS it for the jealousie which as fables do report Vulcane had of Mars because of his wife Venus and so Romulus being reputed the sonne of Mars would not vouchsafe him to inhabit and dwell in the same citie with him or is this a meere foolerie and senselesse conceit But this temple was built at the first to be a chamber and parlour of privie counsell for him and Tatius who reigned with him to the end that meeting and sitting there in consultation together with the Senatours in a place remote from all troubles and hinderances they might deliberate as touching the affaires of State with ease and quietnesse Or rather because Rome from the very first foundation was subject to fire by casualtie hee thought good to honour this god of fire in some sort but yet to place him without the walles of the citie 48 What is the reason that upon their festivall day called Consualia they adorned with garlands of flowers aswell their asses as horses and gave them rest and repose for the time IS it for that this solemnitie was holden in the honour of Neptune surnamed Equestris that is to say the horseman and the asse hath his part of this joyfull feast for the horses sake Or because that after navigation and transporting of commodities by sea was now found out and shewed to the world there grew by that meanes in some sort better rest and more case to poore labouring beasts of draught and carriage 49 How commeth it to passe that those who stood for any office and magistracie were woont by anold custome as Cato hath written to present themselves unto the people in a single robe or loose gowne without any coat at all under it WAs it for feare lest they should carrie under their robes any money in their bosomes for to corrupt bribe and buy as it were the voices and suffrages of the people Or was it because they deemed men woorthy to beare publicke office and to governe not by their birth and parentage by their wealth and riches ne yet by their shew and
defiance one to the other and chalenged combat to fight hand to hand The king of the Aeneians Phemius seeing Hyperochus king of the Inachiens comming upon him with his dog cried out and said That he dealt not like a just and righteous man thus to bring an assistant and helper with him whereat as Hyperochus turned his head about and looked backe for to chase away his dog Phemius raught him such a rap with a stone upon the side of his head that he felled him to the ground and killed him outright therewith in the verie place Thus the Aenians having conquered the countrey and expelled the Inachiens and the Achaeans adored ever after that stone as a sacred thing and sacrificed unto it and within the fat of the beast sacrificed enwrap it verie charily Afterwards whensoever they have according to their vow offered a magnificent sacrifice of an hundred oxen to Apollo and killed likewise an oxe unto Jupiter the send the best and most daintiest piece of the said sacrifice unto those that are lineally descended from Temon which at this day is called among them The Begged flesh or the Beggers-flesh 41 Who be those whom the inhabitants of Ithaca named Coliades and who is Phagilus among them AFter that Ulysses had killed those who wooed his wife in his absence the kinsfolke and friends of them being now dead rose up against him to be revenged but in the end they agreed on both sides to send for Neoptolemus to make an accord and attonement betweene them who having undertaken this arbitrement awarded that Vlysses should depart out of those parts and quit the Isles of Cephalenia Ithaca and Zacynthus in regard of the bloodshed that he had committed Item that the kinsfolke and friends of the said woers should pay a certaine fine everie yeere unto Ulysses in recompence for the riot damage and havoke they had made in his house As for Ulysses he withdrew himselfe and departed into Italie but for the mulct or fine imposed upon them which he had consecrated unto the gods he tooke order that those of Ithaca should tender the payment thereof unto his sonne and the same was a quantitie of meale and of wine a certaine number of wax-lights or tapers oyle salt and for sacrifices the bigger sort and better growen of Phagili now Phagilus Aristotle interpreteth to be a lambe Moreover as touching Eumaeus Telemachus enfranchised him and all his posteritie yea and endued them with the right of free burgeosie And so the progenie of Eumaeus are at this day the house and family called Coliadae like as Bucolij be those who are descended from Philaetius 15 What is the woodden dog among the Locrians LOcrus was the sonne of Physcius who had to his father Amphyction This Locrus had by Cabya a sonne named likewise Locrus with him his father was at some variance who having gathered a number of citizens to him consulted with the oracle about a place where he should build a new citie and people it in the nature of a colonie The oracle returned unto him this answere That in what place a dog of wood did bite him there he should found a citie And so when he had passed over to the other side of the sea and was landed he chanced to tread as he walked along upon a brier which in Greeke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was so pricked therewith that he was constrained there to sojourne certaine daies during which time after he had well viewed and considered the countrey he founded these townes to wit Physces and Hyanthia and all those besides which were afterwards inhabited by the Locrians surnamed Ozolae that is to say Stinking which surname some say was given unto these Locrians in regard of Nessus others in respect of the great dragon Python which being cast up a land by the sea putrified upon the coast of the Locrians others report that by occasion of certaine sheepes fels and goats skins which the men of that countrey used to weare and because that for the most part they conversed among the flockes of such cattell and smelled ranke and carried a strong stinking savour about them thereupon they were cleped Ozolae And some there be who hold the cleane contrarie and say that the countrey being ful of sweet flowers had that name of the good smell among whom is Architas of Amphissa for thus he writeth Atract with crowne of grapes full lively dight Senting of flowers like spice Macyna hight 16 What is it which the Megarians call Aphabroma NIsus of whom the city Nisaea tooke the name being king of Megaris espoused a wife out Baeotia named Abrota the daughter of Onchestus and sister to Megareus a dame of singular wisdome and for chastity and vertue incomparable when she was dead the Megarians for their part willingly and of their owne accord mourned and Nisus her husband desirous to eternize her name and remembrance by some memoriall caused her bones to be set together and the same to be clad with the very same apparrell that she was wont to weare in her life time and of her name he called that habit and vesture Aphabroma And verily it seemeth that even god Apollo himselfe did favourize the glorie of this ladie for when the wives of Megara were minded many times to change these robes and habillements they were alwaies forbiden and and debarred by this oracle 17 Who is Doryxenus among the Megarians THe province Megaris was in olde time inhabited by certeine townes and villages and the citizens or inhabitants being devided into five parts were called Heraens Pyraens Megarians Cynosuriens and Tripodissaeans now the Corinthians their next neighbours and who spied out all occasions and sought meanes to reduce the proovince Megarica under their obedience practised to set them together by the eares and wrought it so that they warred one upon another but they caried such a moderate hand and were so respective in their warres that they remembred evermore they were kinsfolke and of a bloud and therefore warred after a milde and gentle manner for no man offred any injury or violence to the husbandmen that tilled the ground on either side and looke whosoever chanced to be taken prisoners were to paie for their ransome a certeine piece of money set downe betweene them which summe of money was received ever after they were delivered and not before because no man would demaund it for looke who had taken a captive in the warre he would bring him home with him into his house and make him good cheere at his owne table consult together and then send him home in peace and the party thus set free when he came duely and brought his raunsome aforesaid with him was commended and thanked for it yea and continued ever after unto his dying day friend unto him received the money and thus in stead of Doryalotos which signifieth a prisoner taken in warre he was called Doryxenus that is to say a friend made by
seene at all with him the master beleeved this lay with her but one time above the rest desirous to know who she was with whom he companied called for a light and so soone as he knew it was his owne daughter he drew his sword and followed after this most vilanous and and incestuous filth intending to kill her but by the providence of Venus transformed she was into a tree bearing her name to wit Myrtle as Theodorus reporteth in his Metamorphoses or transmutations Valeria Tusculanaria having incurred the displeasure of Venus became amorous of her owne father and communicated this love of hers unto her nourse who likewise went cunningly about her master and made him beleeve that there was a young maiden a neighbous child who was in fancie with him but would not in regard of modestie be knowen unto him of it nor be seene when she should frequent his companie Howbeit her father one night being drunk called for a candle but the nourse prevented him and in great hast wakened her who fled therupon into the countrey great with child where she cast her selfe downe from the pitch of a steep place yet the fruit of her wombe lived for notwithstanding that fall she did not miscarie but continued still with her great belly and when her time was come delivered she was of a sonne such an one as in the Roman language is named Sylvanus and in Greeke Aegipanes Valerius the father tooke such a thought thereupon that for verie anguish of mind he threw himselfe downe headlong from a steepe rocke as recordeth Aristides the Milesian in the third booke of Italian histories 23 After the destruction of Troy Diomedes by a tempest was cast upō the coast of Libya where raigned a king named Lycus whose maner and custome was to sacrifice unto his owne father god Mars all those strangers that arrived and were set a land in his countrey But Callirohōe his daughter casting an affection unto Diomedes betraied her father and saved Diomedes by delivering him out of prison And he againe not regarding her accordingly who had done him so good a turne departed from her and sailed away which indignitie she tooke so neere to the heart that she hanged her selfe and so ended her daies this writeth Juba in the third booke of the Libyan historie Calpurnius Crassus a noble man of Rome being abroad at the warres together with Regulus was by him sent against the Massilians for to seize a stronge castle and hard to be won named Garaetion but in this service being taken prisoner and destined to be killed in sacrifice unto Saturne it fortuned that Bysatia the kings daughter fansied him so as she betraied her father and put the victory into her lovers hand but when this yoong knight was retired and gone the damsell for sorrow of heart cut her owne throat as writeth Hesianax in the third booke of the Libian historie 24 Priamus king of Troy fearing that the city would be lost sent his yoong sonne Polydorus into Thrace to his sonne in law Polymester who married his daughter with a great quantity of golde Polymester for very covetousnesse after the destruction of the city murdered the childe because he might gaine the gold but Hecuba being come into those parts under a colour and pretence that she should bestow that golde upon him together with the helpe of other dames prisoners with her plucked with her owne hands both eies out of his head witnesse Euripides the tragaedian poet In the time that Hanniball overran and wasted the countrey of Campania in Italy Lucius Jmber bestowed his sonne Rustius for safetie in the hands of a sonne in law whom he had named Valerius Gestius and left with him a good summe of money But when this Campanian heard that Anniball had wonne a great victorie for very avarice he brake all lawes of nature and murdered the childe The father Thymbris as he travelled in the countrey lighting upon the dead corps of his owne sonne sent for his sonne in law aforesaid as if he meant to shew him some great treasure who was no sooner come but he plucked out both his eies and afterwards crucified him as Aristides testifieth in the third booke of his Italian histories 25 Aeacus begat of Psamatha one sonne named Phocus whom he loved very tenderly but Telamon his brother not well content therewith trained him foorth one day into the forest a hunting where having rouzed a wilde bore he launced his javelin or bore-speare against the childe whom he hated and so killed him for which fact his father banished him as Dorotheus telleth the tale in the first booke of his Metamorphoses Cajus Maximus had two sonnes Similius and Rhesus of which two Rhesus he begat upon Ameria who upon a time as he hunted in the chase killed his brother and being come home againe he would have perswaded his father that it was by chaunce and not upon a propensed malice that he slew him but his father when he knew the truth exiled him as Aristocles hath recorded in the third booke of Italian Chronicles 26 Mars had the company of Althaea by whom she was conceived and delivered of Meleager as witnesseth Euripides in his tragoedie Meleager Septimtus Marcellus having maried Sylvta was much given to hunting and ordinarily went to the chase then Mars taking his advantage disguising himselfe in habit of a shepherd forced this new wedded wife and gat her with childe which done he bewraied unto her who he was and gave her a launce or speare saying unto her That the generositie and descent of that issue which she should have by him consisted in that launce now it hapned that Septimius slew Tusquinus and Mamercus when he sacrificed unto the gods for the good encrease of the fruits upon the earth neglected Ceres onely whereupon she taking displeasure for this contempt sent a great wilde bore into his countrey then he assembled a number of hunters to chase the said beast and killed him which done the head and the skinne he sent unto his espoused wife Scimbrates and Muthias her unckles by the mother-side offended heereat would have taken all away from the damosell but hee tooke such displeasure thereat that hee slew his kinsmen and his mother for to be revenged of her brethrens death buried that cursed speare as Menylus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian histories 27 Telamon the sonne of Aeacus and Endeis fledde by night from his father and arrived in the isle of Euboea ** The father perceiving it and supposing him to be one of his subjects gave his daughter to one of his guard for to be cast into the sea but he for very commiseration and pitty sould her to certaine merchants and when the shippe was arrived at Salamis Telamon chaunced to buy her at their hands and she bare unto him Ajax witnesse Aretados the Gnidian in the second booke of his Insular affaires Lucius Trocius had by his wife Patris a daughter
crafty queane in right hand water cold And in the left hot fire did closely hold And among the Persians the most effectuall maner of supplication and that which might in no wise be rejected and denied was if the suppliant with fire in his hand entred into a river there menaced to fling it into the water if he might not have his request granted then he obtatined verily his petitiō but afterwards punished he was for that threatning which he used as being wicked wretched unnatural And what proverbe is there readier in every mans mouth than to say when we would signify an unpossible thing This is to mingle fire and water together which testifieth thus much that water is the mortall enimy unto fire warring with it punishing quenching it and not the aire which receiveth entertaineth fire into the substance whereof it is transmuted for if that into which a thing is turned when it perisheth were contrary unto it then fire should be more contrary to aire than water is For aire when it doth gather and thicken is converted into water but when it is made more subtil it resolveth into fire as also in like case water by rarefaction is resolved into aire and by condensation becommeth earth not upon any enmity or contrariety that it hath to these both as I take it but rather by reason of some amity and kindred that is betweene them Wel whether way of these two it is that these philosophers will take they overthrow still their intent and purpose But to say that it is the aire which causeth water to frize and become yce it is without all sense and most absurd for we see that the very aire it selfe is never conglaciate nor frozen nor hardened considering that mists 〈◊〉 and clouds are no congealations but onely gatherings and thickenings of a moist and vapourous aire for the true aire indeed which hath no vapour at all and is altogether drie admitteth no such refrigeration as may alter it to that degree and heigth And certeine mountaines there be which are not subiect either to clouds mists or dewes for that their heads reach up to that region of the aire which is pure and exempt from all humidity wherby it is apparent that these gatherings and thickenings which are seene in the aire beneath proceed from cold and moisture which is mingled therewith ruuneth from elswhere As for the bottoms of great rivers which be never frozen to 〈◊〉 great reason there is of it for that the upper part being glazed over with ice 〈◊〉 not the exhalation which ariseth from beneath to passe thorow but keepeth it enclosed striketh it downward wherby is engendred a certaine heat in the water that runneth in the bottome And heereof we may see a faire demonstration in this that when the yce is broken the water riseth up and there mounteth withall a great quantity of vapours and exhalations which is the reason also that the bellies and other concavities within the bodies of living creatures are alwaies hotter in winter for that they hold and containe the heat which the coldnesse of the circumstant aire driveth inward As for the drawing flinging up of water into the aire it taketh not onely the heat away from waters but also their cold and therefore they that desire to have their snow or the liquor expressed out of it exceeding cold moove it as little as they can for this stirring chaseth away the colde both of the one and the other But that it is the inward power of the water and not of the aire that doth it a man may thus discourse and begin againe First and formost it is not probable that the aire being so neere as it is to the elementarie fire touching also as it doth that ardent revolution and being touched of it againe hath a contrary nature and power unto it neither is it possible that it should be so considering that their two extremities are contignate yea and continuate one to the other neither soundeth it and is conformable to reason that nature hath fastened with one tenon as they say and placed so neere together the killer and that which is killed the consumer and that which is consumed as if the were not the mediatresse betweene them of peace unitie and accord but rather the workmistresse of warre debate and discord For surely her order and custome is not to joine front to front substances that be altogether contrarie and open enemies one to the other but to place betweene them such as participate with the one and the other which are so seated disposed and interlaced in the middle as that they tend not to the destruction but to the association of two contraries Such a situation and region hath the aire in the world being spred under the fire and before the water for to accommodate and frame it selfe both to the one and the other and to conjoine and linke them both together being of it selfe neither hot nor colde but is as it were a medley and temperature of them both not I say a pernicious mixture but a gracious which gently enterteineth and receiveth these contrarie extremities Furthermore the aire is alwaies equall and yet the Winter is not evermore colde a little but some parts of the world be cold and exceeding moist others colde and as dry and that not casually and by fortune but for that one and the same substance is susceptable both of heat and colde For the greater part of 〈◊〉 is hot and dry altogether without water And those who have travelled through Scithia Thracia and Pontus doe report that there be exceeding great lakes therein and that those kingdoms be watered with many mighty deepe rivers also that the countries in the midst betweene and those parts which adjoyne upon those huges meres and fens be extreeme colde by reason of the vapours that arise from them As for Posidonius when he saith that the cause of that moisture is this that the fenny and morish aire is ever fresh and moist he hath not solved the question which was probable but made it more doubtfull and without probability for the aire seemed not alwaies so much colder as it is more fresh in case cold be not engendred of moisture and therefore Homer said much better The winde from river if that it hold Is 〈◊〉 bleake and blowes full cold as if he pointed with his very finger to the source and fountaine of colde Moreover our sense doth oftentimes beguile and deceive us as namely when wee touch wooll or clothes that be colde for we thinke that they be moist and wet for that there is one substance common to both these qualities and both these natures be neighbours and familiar Also in those climates of the world where the winter is extreme hard and rough the colde many times cracketh and breaketh vessels of brasse and of earth not any I meane that is voide and emptie but all full by reason
is called Pseudomenos for to say my good friend that the augmentation cōposed of contrary positions is not notoriously false and againe to affirme that syllogismes having their premisses true yea and true inductions may yet have the contrary to their conclusions true what conception of demonstrations or what anticipation of beleefe is there which it is not able to overthrow It is reported of the Pourcuttle or Pollyp fish that in winter time he gnaweth his owne cleies and pendant hairy feet but the Logicke of Chrysippus which taketh away and cutteth off the principall parts of it what other conception leaveth it behinde but that which well may be suspected For how can that be imagined steady and sure which is built upon foundations that abide not firme but wherein there be so many doubts and troubles But like as they who have either dust or durt upon their bodies if they touch another therewith or rub against him doe not so much trouble and molest him as they doe begrime and beray themselves so much the more and seeme to exasperate that ordure which pricketh and is offensive unto them even so some there be who blame and accuse the Academicks thinking to charge upon them those imputations wherewith themselves are found to be more burdened For who be they that pervert the common conceptions of the senses more than do these Stoicks But if you thinke so good leaving off to acuse them let us answere to those calumniations and slanders which they would seeme to fasten upon us LAMPRIAS Me thinks Diadumenus that I am this day much changed and become full of variety me thinks I am a man greatly altered from that I was ere while for even now I came hither much dismaied and abashed as being depressed beaten downe and amazed as one having need of some advocate or other to speake for me and in my behalfe whereas now I am cleane turned to an humor of accusation and disposed to enjoy the pleasure of revenge to see all the packe of them detected and convinced in that they argue and dispute themselves against common conceptions and anticipations in defence whereof they seeme principally to magnifie their owne sect ** saying that it alone doth agree and accord with nature DIADUMENUS Begin we then first with their most renowmed propositions which they themselves call paradoxes that is to say strange and admirable opinions avowing as it were by that name gently admitting such exorbitant absurdities as for example that such Sages as themselves are onely kings onely rich and faire onely citizens and onely Judges or pleaseth it you that we send all this stuffe to the market of olde and stale marchandise and goe in hand with the examination of these matters which consist most in action and practise whereof also they dispute most seriously LAMPRIAS For mine owne part I take this to be the better For as touching the reputation of those paradoxes who is not full thereof and hath not heard it a thousand times DIADUMENUS Consider then in the first place this whether according to common notions they can possibly accord with nature who thinke naturall things to be indifferent and that neither health nor good plight and habitude of body nor beawty nor cleane strength be either expetible profitable expedient or serving in any stead to the accomplishment of that perfection which is according to nature nor that the contraries hereunto are to be avoided as hurtfull to wit maimes and mutilations of members deformities of body paines shamefull disgraces and diseases Of which things rehearsed they themselves acknowledge that nature estrangeth us from some and acquainteth us with other The which verily is quite contrary to common intelligence that nature should acquaint us with those things which be neither expedient nor good alienate us from such as be not hurtfull nor ill and that which more is that she should either traine us to them or withdraw us from them so farre forth as if men misse in obtaining the one or fall into the other they should with good reason abandon this life and for just cause depart out of the world I suppose that this also is by thē affirmed against common sense namely that nature her selfe is a thing indifferent and that to accord and consent with nature hath in it some part of the soveraigne good For neither to follow the rule of the law nor to obey reason is good and honest unlesse both law and reason be good and honest But this verily is one of the least of their errors For if Chrysippus in his first booke of exhortations hath written thus A blessed and happie life consisteth onely in living according to vertue and as for all other accessaries quoth hee they neither touch nor concerne us at all neither make they any whit to beatitude he cannot avoid but he must avow that not onely nature is indifferent but also which is more senselesse and foolish to associate and draw us into a league with that which in no respect concerneth us and we our selves likewise are no better than fooles to thinke that the soveraigne felicity is to consent and accord with nature which leadeth and conducteth us to that which serveth nothing at all to happinesse And yet what agreeth and sorteth sooner to common sense than this that as things eligible are to be chosen and desired for the profit and helpe of this life so naturall things serve for to live answerable to nature But these men say otherwise for although this be their supposition that to live according to nature is the utmost end of mans good yet they hold that things according to nature be of themselves indifferent Neither is this also lesse repugnant to common sense and conception that a well affected sensible and prudent man is not equally enclined and affectionate to good things that be equall and alike but as some of them he waigheth not nor maketh any account of so for others againe he is prest to abide and endure all things although I say the same be not greater or lesse one than another For these things they hold to be equall namely for a man to fight valiantly in the defence of his country and chastly to turne away from an olde trot when for very age she is at the point of death for both the one and the other doe that alike which their duty requireth And yet for the one as being a worthie and glorious thing they would be prest and ready to lose their lives whereas to boast and vaunt of the other were a shamefull and ridiculous part And even Chrysippus himselfe in the treatise which he composed of Jupiter and in the third booke of the Gods saith that it were a poore absurd and foolish thing to praise such acts as proceeding from vertue namely to beare valiantly the biting of a flie or sting of a wespe and chastly to abstaine from a crooked old woman stooping forward ready to tumble into her
vilipend and mocke Socrates most in that he demaundeth the question What is man and in a youthfull bravery and childishly as he saith affirmeth that he knoweth not it is evident that even hee who derideth him never came himselfe where it was nor atteined thereto whereas Heraclitus contrariwise as one who had done a great and worthy matter said thus I have beene seeking out my selfe And of all those sentences which are written over the gates of Apolloes temple at Delphos this was thought to be most heavenly and divine Know thy selfe which gave unto Socrates occasion first to doubt and enquire thereof according as Aristotle hath set downe in his Platonique questions But this forsooth seemeth unto Colotes to be a foolish and ridiculous thing I marvell then why he mocketh not his master likewise for doing so as often as he writeth and discourseth as touching the substance of the soule and the beginning of that confused masse for if that which is compounded of both as they themselves doe teach to wit of such a body soule be man he who searcheth the nature of the soule searcheth consequently the nature of man even from his principall chiefe principle Now that the same is hardly by reason to be comprehended but by the outward sense altogether incomprehensible let us learne not of Socrates a vaine glorious man sophisticall disputer but rather of these wise men here who doe forge frame the substance of the soule so farre onely as to the faculties extending to the flesh whereby she giveth heat softnesse strength to the bodie of I wot not what heat and aireous spirit never wading so far as to that which is the principall but faint give over in the way For that faculty whereby she judgeth whereby she remembreth whereby she loveth or hateth and in one word that reason which wisely foreseeth discourseth he saith is made of a certaine quality which is namelesse Now that this nameles thing is a mere confession of shameful ignorance in them that say they cannot name that which indeed they are not able to comprehend and understand we know well enough But this also may well deserve pardon as they are wont to say For it seemeth that this is no small and light matter neither a thing that every one can finde out and reach unto being deeply settled in the bottom of some by-place far remote and in some obscure and hidden corner seeing that among so many words and termes which be in use there is not one significant enough and sufficient to declare and explaine the same And therefore Socrates was no foole nor lob for seeking and searching what himselfe was but they rather be dolts who go about enquiring after any other thing before this the knowledge whereof is so necessary and hard to be found For hardly may he hope to attaine unto the knowledge of any other thing who is not able to understand the principall part of himselfe But say we should graunt and yeeld thus much unto him as to confesse that there is nothing so vaine so unprofitable and so odious as for a man to seeke himselfe we will be so bolde as to demaund what confusion of mans life this should be or how it is that a man cannot continue in life when he comes to discourse reason thus with himselfe Who and what mought I be Am I after the maner of some composition confected and mingled of soule and body or rather a soule making use of the body as the horsman doth of his horse and not a subject composed of horse and man or whether the principall part of the soule whereby we understand we discourse we reason and doe every action is every each one of us and all the parts besides both of soule and body be nothing but the organs and instruments serving to this puissance and faculty Or to conclude whether there be no substance of the soule apart but onely a temperature and complexion of the body so disposed that it hath power to understand and to live But Socrates herein saith he doth not overthrow the life of man considering that all naturall philosophers doe handle this argument Mary they be those monstrous questions that trouble the common-wealth and turne all upside downe which are in the Diologue Phaedrus wherein he thinketh that he ought to examine and consider himselfe namely whether he be a beast more savage more subtill cautelous and furious than ever was that Typhon or rather some animall more tame and gentle by nature and endued with a portion more divine and a condition nothing proud and insolent But yet by these discourses and reasonings he overturneth not the life of man but he chaseth out of it presumption arrogance proud and puffed up opinions and vaine overweenings of a mans selfe For this is that fell Typhon which your good master and teacher hath made to be so great in you warring as he doth both against the gods and all good and godly men After he hath done with Socrates and Plato he falleth in hand with the Philosopher Stilpo As for the true doctrines and good discourses of the man whereby he ordered and governed himselfe his native country his friends those kings and princes who affected him and made good account of him he hath not written a word neither what gravity and magnanimity was in his heart and the same accompanied with mildenesse moderation and modesty but of those little sentences or propositions which Stilpo was wont to use cast forth in meriment against the Sophisters when he was disposed to laugh and play with them he made mention of one and without alledging any reason against it or solving the subtilty thereof he made a tragoedie and kept a foule stirre with him about it saying that by him the life of man and the whole course of this world was subverted because he said that one thing could not be affirmed and verified of another For how should we live quoth Colotes if we may not say a good man or a man is a captaine but we must pronounce apart man is man good is good and captaine is a captaine neither ten thousand horsmen nor a fensed city but horsmen be horsmen ten thousand be ten thousand and so of the rest But tell me I pray you what man ever lived the worse for saying thus And who is he who having heard these words and this maner of arguing did not conceive and understand straight waies that it was the speech of a man disposed to make some game and disport learnedly or to propose unto others this Logicall quillet for exercise sake It is not Colotes such a greivous scandall and hainous matter as you would make it to say man is not good or horsmen be not ten thousand marry to affirme that god is not god as you and the rest doe who will not confesse that there is a Jupiter president over generation or a Ceres that giveth lawes or
So that no man is able to praise those sufficiently and to their full desert who to represse such furious and beastly affections have set downe law established policie and government of State instituted magistrates and ordeined holsome decrees and edicts But who bee they that confound yea and utterly abolish all this Are they not those who give out that all the great empires and dominions in the worlde are nothing comparable to the crowne and garland of fearelesse tranquillity and repose Are they not those who say that to be a king and to reigne is to sinne to erre and wander out of the true way leading to felicity yea and to this purpose write disertly in these termes we are to shew how to maintaine in best sort and to keepe the end of nature and how a man may avoid at the very first not to enter willingly and of his owne accord into offices of state and government of the multitude Over and besides these speeches also be theirs there is no need at all henceforth for a man to labour and take paines for the preservation of the Greeks nor in regard of wisdome and learning to seeke for to obtaine a crowne at their hands but to eate and drinke Ô Timocrates without hurt doing to the body or rather withall contentment of the flesh And yet the first and most important article of the digests and ordinance of lawes and policie which Colotes so highly commendeth is the beleefe and firme perswasion of the gods whereby Lycurgus in times past sanctified the Lacedēmonians Numa the Romans that ancient Ion the Athenians and whereby Deucalion brought all the Greeks universally to religion which noble and renowmed personages made the people devout affectionate zealously to the gods in praiers othes oracles and prophesies by the meanes of hope and feare together which they imprinced in their hearts In such sort that if you travell through the world well you may finde cities without wals without literature without kings not peopled and inhabited without housen 〈◊〉 and such as desire no coine which know not what Theaters or publicke hals of bodily exercise meane but never was there nor ever shall be any one city seene without temple church or chappell without some god or other which useth no praiers nor othes no prophesies and divinations no sacrifices either to obtaine good blessings or to avert heavy curses and calamities nay me thinks a man should sooner finde a city built in the aire without any plot of ground whereon it is seated than that any common wealth altogether void of religion the opinion of the gods should either be first established or afterwards preserved and maintained in that 〈◊〉 This is it that containeth and holdeth together all humane society this is the foundation prop and stay of all lawes which they subvert and overthrow directly who goenot round about the bush as they say nor secretly and by circuit of covert speeches but openly and even at the first assault set upon the principall point of all to wit the opinion of God and religion and then afterwards as if they were haunted with the furies they confesse how greivously they have sinned in shuffling and confounding thus all rights and lawes and in abolishing the ordinance of justice and pollicy to the end that they might obtaine no pardon for to slip and erre in opinion although it be not a part of wise men yet it is a thing incident to man but to impute and object those faults unto others which they commit themselves what should a man call it if he forbeate to use the proper termes names that it deserveth For if in writing against 〈◊〉 or Bion the Sophister he had made mention of lawes of pollicy of justice and government of common weale might not one have said unto him as Electra did to her furious brother Orestes Poore soule be quiet feare none ill Deare hart in bed see thou be still cherishing and keeping warme thy poore body As for me let them argue and expostulate with me about these points who have lived oeconomically or politickly And such are they all whom Colotes hath reviled and railed upon Among whom Democritus verily in his writings admonisheth and exhorteth both to learne military science as being of all others the greatest and also to take paines and endure travels Whereby men attaine to much renowme and honour As for Parmenedes hee beawtified and adorned his owne native countrey with most excellent lawes which he ordained in so much as the magistrates every yeere when they newly enter into their offices binde the citizens by an oth to observe the slatutes and lawes of Parmenides And Empedocles not onely judicially convented and condemned the principall persons of the city wherein he dwelt for their insolent behaviour and for distracting or embeselling the publicke treasure but also delivered all the territorie about it from sterility and pestilence whereunto before time it was subject by emmuring and stopping up the open passages of a certaine mountaine through which the southern winde blew and overspred all the plaine country underneath Socrates after he was condemned to death when his frends had made meanes for him to escape refused to take the benefit thereof because he would maintaine and confirme the authority of the lawes chusing rather to die unjustly than to save his life by disobaying the lawes of his country Melissus being praetor or captaine generall of the city wherein he dwelt defaited the Athenians in a battell at sea Plato left behinde him in writing many good discourses of the lawes and of civill government but much better imprinted he in the hearts and minds of his disciples familiars which were the cause that Dion freed Sicily from the tyrany of Dionysius and Thrace likewise was delivered by the meanes of Python and Heracledes who killed king Cotys Chabrtas and Phocion worthy commaunders of the Athenians armie came both out of the schoole Academia As for Epicurus he sent as farre as into Asia certaine persons of purpose to taunt and revile Timocrates yea and caused the man to be banished out of the kings court onely for that he had offended Metrodorus his brother And this you may read written in their owne books But Plato sent of those friends which were brought up under him Aristonimus to the Arcadians for to ordeine their common wealth Phormio to the Elians Menedemus to those of Pyrrha Eudoxus to the Cnidians and Aristotle to those of Stagira who being all his disciples and samiliars did pen and set downe lawes Alexander the Great requested to have from Xenocrates rules and precepts as touching the government of a kingdome And he who was sent unto Alexander from the Greeks dwelling in Asia who most of all other set him on a light fire and whetted him on to enterprise the warre against the barbarous king of Persia was Delius an Ephesian one of Platoes familiars Zenon also ascholar of Parmenides undertooke to kill
it placeth in lieu thereof modest bashfulnesse silence and taciturnity it adorneth it with decent gesture and seemly countenance making it for ever after obedient to one lover onely Ye have heard I am sure of that most famous and renowmed courtisan Lais who was courted and sought unto by so many lovers and ye know well how she inflamed and set on fire all Greece with the love and longing desire after her or to say more truly how two seas strave about her how after that the love of Hippolochus the Thessalian had seased upon her she quit and abandoned the mount Acrocorinthus Seated upon the river side Which with greene waves by it did glide as one writeth of it and flying secretly from a great army as it were of other lovers she retired herselfe right decently within Megalopolis unto him where other women upon very spight envie and jelousie in regard of her surpassing beautie drew her into the temple of Venus and stoned her to death whereupon it came as it should seeme that even at this day they call the said temple The temple of Venus the murderesse We our selves have knowen divers yoong maidens by condition no better than slaves who never would yeeld to lie with their master as also sundry private persons of meane degree who refused yea and disdained the companie of queenes when their hearts were once possessed with other love which as a mistresse had the absolute command thereof For like as at Rome when there was a Lord Dictatour once chosen all other officers of State and magistrates valed bonet were presently deposed and laied downe their ensignes of authority even so those over whom Love hath gotten the mastery and rule incontinently are quit freed and delivered from all other lords and rulers no otherwise than such as are devoted to the service of some religious place And in trueth an honest and vertuous dame linked once unto her lawfull spouse by unfained love will sooner abide to be clipped clasped and embraced by any wolves and dragons than the contrectation and bed fellowship of any other man whatsoever but her owne husband And albeit there be an infinit number of examples among you here who are all of the same countrey and professed associats in one dance with this god Love yet it were not well done to passe over in silence the accidents which befell unto Camma the Galatian lady This yong dame being of incomparable beauty was maried unto a tetrarch or great lord of that countrey named Sinnatus howbeit one Synorix the mightiest man of all the Galatians was enamoured upon her but seeing that he could not prevaile with the woman neither by force and perswasion so long as her husband lived he made no more ado but murdred him Camma then having no other refuge for her pudicity nor comfort and easement of her hearts griefe made choise of the temple of Diana where she became a religious votary according to the custome of that countrey And verily the most part of her time she bestowed in the worship of that goddesse and would not admit speech with any 〈◊〉 many though they were and those great personages who sought her mariage but when Synorix had made meanes very boldly to aske her the question and to sollicite her about that point she seemed not to reject his motion nor to expostulate and be offended for any thing past as if for pure love of her and ardent affection and upon no wicked and malicious minde unto Sinnatus he had beene induced to do that which he did and therefore Synorix came confidently to treat with her and demand mariage of her she also for her part came toward the man kindly gave him her hand and brought him to the altar of the said goddesse where after she had made an offring unto Diana by powring forth some little of a certeine drinke made of wine hony as it should seeme empoisoned which she had put into a cup she began unto Synorix dranke up the one 〈◊〉 of it giving the rest unto the said Galatian for to pledge her Now when she saw that he had drunke it all off she fetched a grievous grone and brake forth aloud into this speech naming withall her husband that dead was My most loving and deere spouse quoth she I have lived thus long without thee in great sorow and heavinesse expecting this day but now receive me joifully seeing it is my good hap to be revenged for thy death upon this most wicked and ungratious wretch as one most glad to have lived once with thee and to die now with him As for Synorix he was caried away from thence in a litter and died soone after but Camma having survived him a day and a night died by report most resolutely and with exceeding joy of spirit Considering then that there be many such like examples aswel among us here in Greece as the Barbarians who is able to endure those that reproch and revile Love as if being associate and assistant to love she should hinder amitie whereas contrariwise the company of male with male a man may rather terme intemperance and disordinate lasciviousnesse crying out upon it in this maner Grosse wantonnesse or filthie lust it is Not Venus faire that worketh this And therefore such filths baggages as take delight to suffer themselves voluntarily thus to be abused against nature we reckon to be the woorst and most flagitious persons in the world no man reposeth in them any trust no man doth them any jote of honor and reverence nor vouchsafeth them woorthy of the least part of friendship but in very trueth according to Sophocles Such friends as these men are full glad and joy when they be gone But whiles they have them wish and pray that they were rid anone As for those who being by nature leaud and naught have beene circumvented in their youth aad forced to yeeld themselves and to abide this villany and abuse al their life after abhorre the sight of such wicked wantons and deadly hate them who have bene thus disposed to draw them to this wickednesse yea and ready they are to be revenged and to pay them home at one time or other whensoever meanes and opportunity is offered for upon this occasion Cratenas killed Archelaus whom in his flower of youth he had thus spoiled as also Pytholaus slew Alexander the tyrant of Pherae And Pertander the tyrant of Ambracia demanded upon a time of the boy whom he kept whether he were not yet with childe which indignity the youth tooke so to the heart that he slew him outright in the place whereas with women and those especially that be espoused and wedded wives these be the earnest penies as it were and beginnings of amity yea the very obligation and society of the most sacred holiest ceremonies As for fleshly pleasure it selfe the least thing it is of all other but the mutuall honour grace dilection and fidelity that springeth and ariseth
three waies and as for themselves they resemble the wandring Nomades in Scythia who having encamped in the spring time and pastured where the fields be greene and full of flowers presently dislodge and depart as it were out of an enemies countrey And yet Bion the Sophister was more rough and odious in his words toward such when he termed the first downe or haires appearing upon the face of beautifull youthes Harmodii and Aristogitones for that by them Lovers were delivered out of the tyrannie of such faire persons when they begin once to budde and put foorth But these imputations are not justly charged upon true Lovers As for that which Euripides said it was pretie and caried some elegancie with it for as he embraced and kissed faire Agathon even when his beard began to grow he said that of faire persons the very latter season of the Autumne was lovely and beautiful But I say more than so namely that the lovelinesse of honest women passeth not away with rivels wrinckles and hoarie haires but continue alwaies even to their sepulchre and tombes of memoriall Againe there are but a few couples in that other sex of true Lovers but of men and women joined in wedlocke an infinite number who to the very last houre have kept most faithfully their loialty and hearty love reciprocally one unto the other But one example among many other which befell in our daies under Vespasian the emperour I will relate unto you Julius he who in Galatia was the author of a revolt and raised a rebellion had many other complices as a man may well thinke of this conspiracie and among the rest one Sabinus a yoong gentleman of an high spirit and for wealth and reputation a principall person and of speciall marke these men having enterpised a great desseigment failed of their purpose and expecting no other but that they should according to justice suffer due punishmēt according to their deserts some killed themselves other thinking to escape by flight were apprehended as for Sabinus all other good and ready meanes he had to save himselfe and flie unto the Barbarians in a strange countrey but lately he had taken to wife a most vertuous dame and every way right excellent whose name in those parts was Empona as one would say in the Greeke language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a princesse or great lady but her he could not possibly either in his love endure to forsake nor find meanes to take with him whereas therefore he had at an house in the country certeine secret vaults hidden cellars deepe under the ground where he bestowed his treasure goods in safteie and those knowen to two of his enfranchised servants and no more the rest of his houshold servitors he discharged and sent away pretending unto them that he was resolved to poison himselfe reteining still about him those two trusty freed men with them he went downe into those secret caves or vaults digged out of the ground which done he sent one of these enfranchised servants of his whose name was Martalinus unto his wife to let her understand that he had killed himselfe with poison and that the whole house together with his corps was burnt for his purpose was by the unfeined sorrow and mourning of his wife to make the rumour that ran of his death the better to be beleeved so it fell out invery deed for no sooner heard she this newes but with piteous cries dolefull lamentations she cast herselfe upon the ground where she at that time was lay there along for three daies and three nights together without meat or drinke which when Sabinus heard fearing least the woman would by this meanes worke her owne death he commanded the said Martalinus to round her secretly in the eare that he was yet living and lay hidden within the ground requesting her withall that she would continue still a while longer in this monrnefull state bewailing her husbands death yet so as she might not be perceived to counterfet and verily this yoong ladie in all other respects performed the tragicall shew of that calamitie so artificially and plaied her part with such dexteritie that she confirmed the opinions received and divulged of his death but having a longing desire to see him she went by night unto him and came againe the same so secretly that no creature perceived it and thus continued she this haunt from time to time for the space of seven moneths keeping company and lying as one would say in hell under the ground with her husband during which time she one day disguised Sabinus in his apparell and what with shaving his beard and knitting about his head a kerchiefe she ordered the matter so that he could not be knowen to them that met him and upon hope of obteining pardon she brought him with her to Rome with other stuffe and cariages of hers but when she could not speed she retired againe into the countrey and for the most part abode and conversed with him under the grond howbeit otherwhiles betweene she would repaire to the city and shew herselfe unto other women her friends and of her familiar acquaintance But that which of all other seemeth most incredible she handled the matter so that it was never perceived she was with childe albeit she washed and bathed ordinarily with other dames and wives of the citie for the oile or ointment wherewith women use to annoint the haire of their head for to make the same faire and yellow like burnishing gold hath a certaine propertie in it to pinguisie withall to incarnate and so to raise and rarifie the flesh that it causeth it to be lax and so to swell and puffe up more plumpe of this medicinable oile she made no spare but used to rub and besmeare the other parts of her body in such sort as that by their proportionable rising she hid her great belly which grew more round and full every daie than other Now when her time was come she endured the pangs and paines of her travell in child-birth alone by herselfe being gone downe to her husband like a lionesse into her denne and there she suckled at her owne brest secretly if I may so say her male whelpes for two boy twinnes she was delivered of of which two sonnes the one chanced to be flaine in Aegypt the other not long since but very lately was with us at Delphos named after his father Sabinus Howbeit for all this Vespasian caused this lady to be put to death but for this murder of his he dearely paid and was punished accordingly for within a while after his whole posterity was utterly destroid and rooted out from the face of the earth so as there remained not one of his race for there was not in those daies and during his empire a more cruell and inhumane fact committed neither was there ever any other spectacle that both gods and angels seemed more to abhorre and
plants living creatures for of the rest some part is desert waste and barren by reason of excessive colde and heat but in trueth the greatest portion lieth drowned under the great and maine sea But you for the great love that you beare to Aristarchus whom you admire so much and evermore have in your hands give no eare to Crates notwithstanding that you reade these verses in Homer The ocean sea from whence both men and gods were first 〈◊〉 With surging waves the greatest part of earth 〈◊〉 over spred And yet God forbid that these parts should be said for to have beene made for nought for the sea doth expire and breath forth certeine mild vapours and the most gentle and pleasant winds which arise and blow in the greatest heat of Summer come from frozen regions and not inhabited for extreame colde which the snow melting and thawing by little and little do send from them and scatter over all our countreys And the earth as Plato saith ariseth out of the sea in the mids as a guardianesse and workmistresse of night and day What should hinder then but that the Moone also may well be without living creatures in it and yet give reflexions unto the light diffused and spred about her yea and yeeld a receit or receptacle of the stars raies which have their confluence meeting and temperature in her whereby she concocteth the evaporations ascending from the earth and withall 〈◊〉 the over-ardent and firie heat of the Sunne Over besides attributing as we do very much to the ancient opinion voice which we have received from our forefathers we will be bold to say that she hath bene reputed Diana as a virgin barren and fruitlesso but otherwise salutarie helpfull and profitable to the world And of all this that hath bene said my friend Theon there is nothing that doth proove and shew directly this habitation of men in the Moone to be impossible for her turning about being so middle so kinde and calme polisheth the aire neere unto it it distributeth and spreadeth the same all about in so good disposition that there is none occasion given to feare that those who live in it should fall downe or slide out of her unlesse she also come downe withall As for that manifold variety of her motions it proceedeth not from any inequality error or confusion but the Astrologers demonstratively shew thereby an order and course most admirable contriving it so that she should be fast within certeine circles that turne and winde about other circles some devising that she herselfe stirreth not others supposing that she mooveth alwaies equally smoothly and in conforme celerity for these are the ascensions of divers circles the circumvertions and turnings about the habitudes in references one to another yea and respective to us which make most elegantly those orderly elevations and depressions in altitude which appeare in her motion yea and her digressions in latitude all jointly with that ordinary and direct revolution of hers in longitude As touching that exceeding heat and continuall inflamation of the Sunne you will cease I am sure to be afraid thereof in case first and formost you will lay to those eleven hote and aestivall conjunctions as it were in exchange as many oppositions when she is at the full and then oppose unto those excessive and enormous extremities which holde not long the continuall change and mutation which reduceth them into a proper and peculiar temperature taking from them that which is excessive and overmuch in both for it seemeth very probable that the time betweene is a season resembling the Springtide Moreover the Sun sendeth his beames into us thorow a grosse and troubled aire casting his heat nourished and fed by evaporations whereas the aire there about the Moone being subtile transparent doth disgre gate and disperse the said beames as having no nouriture to mainteine them nor body to settle upon To come now unto trees woods and fruits here indeed with us they be the raines that nourish them but in other high countreys with you namely about Thebes and Siene it is not the water from heaven but out of the earth that feedeth them for the earth being soaked therewith and besides refreshed with coole winds and comfortable dewes would be loth to compare infertilitie with the best watered ground in the world such is the goodnesse vertue and temperature of the soile And verily the trees of the same kinde with us if they have beene well Wintered that is to say if they have endured a sharpe and long Winter bring forth plenty of good fruit but in Libya and with you in Aegypt they are soone hurt and offended with colde and it they seare exceedingly And whereas the provinces of Gedrosia and Trogloditis lying hard upon the ocean sea be very barren by reason of their drouth and are altogether without trees yet within the sea adjoining thereto and which beateth upon the continent there grow trees of a wonderfull bignesse yea there be that put foorth fresh and greene at the very bottome of the sea whereof some they call Olive trees others Lawrels and some againe Isis haires As for those plants which be called Anacampserotes after they be plucked foorth of the ground where they grow and so hanged up they doe not onely live as long as a man would have them but that which more is budde and put foorth greene leaves Moreover of those plants which are set or sowen some as namely Centauri if they be planted or sowed in a rich or sat soile and the same well drenched and watered doe degenerate and grow out of their naturall qualitie yea and leese all their vertue for that they love to grow drie and in their proper nature and soile agreeable thereto they thrive passing well Others cannot so much as away with any dewes as the most part of the Arabian plants for wet them once they mislike fade and die What marvell then if there grow within the Moone rootes seeds plants and trees that have no need either of shewers or of winter winde and weather but are appropriate naturally to a subtile and dry aire such as the summer season doeth affoord And why may it not stand with good reason that the Moone herselfe sends certeine warme windes and that by her shaking and agitation as she still mooveth there should breath foorth a sweet and comfortable aire fine dewes and gentle moistures spred and dispersed all about sufficient to mainteine the plants fresh and greene considering withall that she of her owne temperature is not ardent nor exceeding drie but rather soft and moist and engendring all humiditie For there commeth not from her unto us any one effect or accident of siccity but of moisture and of a seminine soft constitution many to wit the growing and thriving of plants the putrefaction of flesh killed the turning of wines to be sowre flat and dead the srumnesse and tendernesse of wood and the easie
deliverance of women in childbirth But I feare me that I should moove and provoke Pharnaces againe who all this while sitteth still and saieth nought if I alledge the ebbing and flowing or the inundations of the great Ocean as they themselves say the firthes streights and armes of the sea which swell and rise by the Moone naturally given to encrease moisture and breed humours and therefore I will direct my words toward you rather friend Theon for you say unto us in expounding these verses of the Poet Aleman What things on earth the 〈◊〉 as nourse doth feed Which Jupiter and Moone betwixt them breed that in this place he calleth the aire Jupiter and saith that being moistened by the Moone he is converted into dew for the Moone my good friend seemeth in nature to be quite contrary unto the sunne not onely in this that whatsoever he doeth thicken drie and harden she is woont to resolve moisten and mollifie but that which more is to humect and refrigerate the heat that commeth from him when the same lighteth upon her or is mingled with her Therefore as well they who suppose the Moone to be a firie and ardent body doe erre as those who would have the creatures there inhabiting to have all things necessarie for their generation food and maintenance like unto them that live heere never considering the great difference and inequality which is in nature wherein there be found greater and more varieties and diversities of living creatures one with another than with other things neither would there be men in the world without mouthes and whose lippes are growen up together and who were nourished also with smels onely in case men could not live without solide and substantiall food But that power of Nature which Ammonius himselfe hath shewed us and which Hesiodus under covert words hath given us to understand by these verses In Mallowes and in Asphodels which grow on every ground What use and profit manifold for man there may be found Epimenides hath made plaine and evident indeed and effect teaching us that nature susteineth and preserveth a living creature with very small food and maintenance for so it may have but as much as an oilive it needs no more nourishment but may live therewith and doe full well Now it is very like probable that those who dwel within the Moone if any els be light active and nimble of body and easie to be nourished with any thing whatsoever also that the Moone as well as the Sunne who is a living creature standing much upon fire and by many degrees greater than the earth is nourished and mainteined as they say by the humours which are upon the earth like as all other starres which are in number infinite So light and slender they imagine those living creatures to be that are above and so soone contented and satisfied with small necessaries But we neither see this nor yet consider that a divers region nature and temperature is meet and agreeable unto them much like as if when we could not ourselves come nere unto the sea nor touch and taste it but have seene it only a farre off heard that the water in it is bitter brackish salt and not potable one should come and tell us that it nourisheth a mightie number of great creatures of all sorts formes living in the bottome thereof and that it is full of huge and monstrous beasts which make use of the water as we doe of aire hee would be thought to tell us tales and monstrous fables even so it seemeth that we stand affected and disposed in these matters of the Moone not beleeving that there be any men inhabiting within it But I am verily perswaded that they may much more marvell seeing the earth heere a sarre off as the dregges sediment and grounds as it were of the whole world appearing unto them through moist cloudes and foggie mists a small thing God wot and the same without light base abject and unmooveable how the same should breed nourish maintaine and keepe living creatures which have motion breathing and vitall heat and in case they had ever heard these verses out of Homer as touching certaine habitations Ugly and foule most hideous to be seene Whereof the gods themselves right fearefull beene Also Under the earth beneath and hell unseene As farre as heavens from earth remooved beene they would thinke verily and say that they had beene spoken of this earth heere and that darke hell and Tartarus were heere situate and farre remote as also that the Moone onely was the earth as being equally distant from heaven above and hell beneath Now before I had well made an end of my speech Sylla taking the words out of my mouth Stay a while quoth he ô Lamprias your speech and hold off with your boat as they say for feare you runne an end with your tale upon the ground ere you be aware and mar all the plaie which for this present hath another scene and disposition and I my selfe am the actour but before I proceed farther I will bring forth mine author unto you if there be nothing to impeach me who beginneth in this maner with a verse of Homer Farre from the maine within the Ocean sea There lies an Iland hight Ogygiae distant from great Britaine or England Westward five daies sailing And other three isles there be of like distance one from the another and from the said iland bearing northwest whereas the sun setteth in Summer in one of which the barbarous people of the countrey do fable and feine that Saturne was deteined and kept prisoner by Iupiter Now for the keeping as well of it as of those other isles and the whole sea adjacent which was called Saturns sea the gyant Ogygius or Briareus was placed as also that the maine and firme land wherewith the great sea is bordered round about is remooved from the others isles not so farre but from Ogygia five hundred stadia or there about unto which men use to row in galleis for that sea is very ebbe and low hardly to be passed by great vessels by reason of the huge quantitie of mudde brought thither by a number of rivers which running out of the maine continent discharge themselves into it raising mightie shelves and barres whereby the sea is choked up as it were with earth and hardly navigable which gave occasion of that old opinion which went thereof that it should be frozen and stand all over with an ice Well the coasts along the firme land which lie upon this sea are inhabited by Greeks all about a mightie bay or gulfe thereof no lesse spacious than the huge lake Maeotis the mouth or entrance whereof lieth directly opposite unto that of the Caspian sea These people are reputed and named to be the inhabitants of the continent or firme land accounting and calling all us Ilanders as dwelling in a land environed round about and washed with the sea They suppose also
sit yet about the oracle for to receive and catch some words there delivered which presently and extempore they reduce and contrive into verse meeter and rhime as if they were panniers to bestow all the answers in And heere I forbeare to speake what occasion of blame and matter of calumniation in these oracles these Onomacritoi Prodotae and Cinesones have ministred by adding unto them a tragicall pompe and swelling inflation of words when as neither they had need thereof nor yet received any varietie and alteration thereby Moreover certeine it is that these juglers and vagarant circumforanean landleapers these practisers of legier de main these plaiers at passe and repasse with all the packe of those vagabonds ribauds and jesters who haunt the feasts of Cybele and Serapis have greatly discredited and brought into obloquie the profession of Poetrie some by their extemporall facultie and telling fortunes others by way of lotterie forsooth and by certeine letters and writings forging oracles which they would give to poore varlets and sily women who were soonest abused thereby especially when they saw the same reduced into verse and so were caried away with Poeticall termes And from hence it is now come to passe that Poesie for that she hath suffered herselfe thus to be prophaned and made common by such cousiners juglers deceivers enchanters and false prophets is fallen from the trueth and rejected from Apolloes three-footed table And therefore I nothing woonder if otherwhiles in old time there was some need of this double meaning circumlocution and obscuritie for I assure you there was not woont to come hither one for to enquire and be resolved about the buying of a slave in open market nor another to know what profit he should have by his traffike or husbandry but hither came or sent great and puissant cities kings princes and tyrants who had no meane matters in their heads to consult with Apollo as concering their important affaires whom to provoke displease and offend by causing them to heare many things contrary to their will and minde was nothing good and expedient for those who had the charge of the oracle for this god obeieth not Euripides when he setteth downe a law as it were for him saying thus Phoebus himselfe and none but he Ought unto men the prophet to be for he useth mortall men to be his ministers and underprophets of whom he is to have a speciall care for to preserve them that in doing him service they be not spoiled and slaine by wicked persons in which regard he is not willing to conceale the trueth but turning aside the naked declaration thereof which in poetrie receiveth many reflexions and is divided into many parcels he thereby did away the the rigor and odious austerity therein conteined And it skilled much that neither tyrants should know it not enemies be advertised and have intelligence thereof For their sakes therefore he enfolded in all his answeres doubts suspitions and ambiguities which from others did hide the true meaning of that which was answered But such as came themselves to the oracle and gave close and heedfull eare as whom it concerned particularly those he deceived not neither failed they of the right understanding thereof And therefore a very foolish man is he and of no judgement who doth take occasion of slander and calumniation if the world and estate of mens affaires being changed this God thinketh that he is not to aide and helpe men any more after his accustomed maner but by some other Furthermore by the meanes of poetrie and versification there is not in a sentence any greater commoditie than this that being couched and comprised in a certeine number of words and syllables measuted a man may reteine and remember the same better And necessarie it was for those in olde time to cary away in memory many things because there were delivered many signes and marks of places many times and opportunities of affaires many temples of strange gods beyond sea many secret monuments and repositories of demi-gods hard to be found of those who sailed farre from Greece For in the voyages of Chios and Candie *** enterprised by Onesichus and Palanthus beside many other captaines and admirals how many signes and conjectures went they by and were to observe for to finde the resting seat and place of abode which was ordeined to every one of them and some of them quite missed thereof as for example Battus for his prophesie ran thus That unlesse he arrived to the right place he should be banished Failing therefore of the countrey whereto he was sent he returned againe to the oracle in humble maner craving his favour And then Apollo answered him in this wise Thou knowest thy selfe aswell as I can tell That uneth yet in Afrike thou hast beene For thither sent I thee to build and dwell Nor Meliboea that place so fertile seene If thither now accordingly thou wend Thy wisdome then greatly will I commend And so he sent him away the second time Likewise Lysander being altogether ignorant of the little hill Archeledes of the place called Alopecon as also of the river Oplites And of the dragon sonne of earth by kinde Full craftily assailing men behinde all which hee should have avoided was vanquished in battell and slaine about those very places and that by one Inachion and Aliartian who had for his device or armes in the target that he bare a dragon purtraid But I thinke it needlesse to recite many other ancient oracles of this kinde which are not easily to be related and as hardly remembred especially among you who know them well enough But now thanks be to God the state of our affaires and of the world in regard whereof men were woont to seeke unto the oracle is 〈◊〉 for which I rejoice and congratulate with you For great peace there is and repose in all parts warres be staied and there is no more need of running and wandring to and fro from one countrey to another civill dissentions and seditions be appeased there are no tyrannies now excercised neither doe there raigne other maladies and miseries of Greece as in times past which had need of soveraigne medicins exquisit drogues and powerfull confections to remedy and redresse the same Whereas therefore there is no variable diversity no matter of secrecie no dangerous affaires but all demands be of petie vulgar matters much like to these schoole questions Whether a man should marry or no Whether a man may undertake a voiage by sea or no or Whether he is to take up or put forth mony for interest where I say the greatest points about which cities seeke unto Apollo are about the fertility of their ground plenty of corne and other fruits of the earth the breed and multiplying of their cattell and the health of their bodies to goe about for to comprise the same in verse to devise and forge long circuits of words to use strange and obscure tearmes to such interrogatories
out of the city and put others in prison or held the men in awe whiles themselves ruled tyrannically and with violence Whereof I had intelligence because I was as you wot well hoast unto Melon and Pelopidas with whom so long as they were in exile I was inwardly acquainted and conversed familiarly Moreover we have heard already how the Lacedaemonians condemned Phaebidas to pay a great sine for that he had seized the fort Cadmia and how they put him by and kept him from the journey and expedition of Olynthus and sent thither in stead of him Lysanoridas with two other captaines and planted a stronger garrison within the castle Furthermore we know very well that Ismenias died not the fairest kinde of death presently upon I wot not what processe framed and an action commensed against him for that Gorgidas advertised the banished who were heere by letters from time to time of all matters that passed in such sort as there remaineth for you to relate nothing els but the returne of the said banished men and the surprising or apprehension of the tyrants CAPHISIAS About that time Archidamus all we that were of the confederacie and complotted together used ordinarily to meet in the house of Simmias by occasion that he was retired and in cure of a wound which he had received in his leg where we conferred secretly of our affaires as need required but in shew and openly discoursed of matters of learning and Philosophy drawing unto us often times into our companic Archias and Leontidas men who misliked not such conferences and communications because we would remoove all suspicion of such conventicles For Simmias having abode long time in forren parts among the Barbarians being returned to Thebes but a little while before was full of all manet of newes and strange reports as touching those barbarous nations insomuch as Archias when he was at leasure willingly gaue eare to his discourses and narrations sitting in the company of us yong gentlemen as being well pleased that we should give our mindes to the study of good letters and learning rather than busie our heads about those matters which they went about and practised in the meane while And the very day on which late in the evening and toward darke night following the exiled persons abovesaid were come closely under the wall there arrived from thenee unto us a messenger whom Pherenicus sent one who was unknowen to us all unlesse it were to Charon who brought us word that to the number of twelve yoong gentlemen and those the bravest gallants of all the banished conspiratours were already with their hounds hunting in the forest Cithaeron intending to be heere in the evening and that therefore they had sent before and dispatched a vauntcourrier of purpose aswell to advertise us thereof as to be certified themselves who it was that should make his house ready for them to lie secret and hidden therein when they were once come to the end that upon this forcknowledge they might set forward and go directly thither Now as we studied and tooke some deliberation about this point Charon of himselfe offered his house whereupon when the messenger intended to returne immediatly with great speed to the exiles Theocritus the soothsaier griping me fast by the hand casting his eie upon Charon that went before This man quoth he ô Caphisias is no Philosopher nor deepe scholar neither is he come to any excellent or exquisit knowledge above others as his brother Epaminondaes and yet you see how being naturally enclined and directed withall by the lawes unto honor and vertue he exposeth himselfe willingly unto danger of death for the deliverie and setting free of his countrey whiles Epaminondas who hath had better meanes of instruction and education to the attaining of vertue than any other Boeotian whatsoever is restiffe dull and backeward when the question is of executing any great enterprise for the deliverance of his native country And to what occasion of service shall he ever be so well disposed prepared and emploied than this Vnto whome I made answere in this wife We for our parts most kinde and gently Theoritus doe that which hath beene thought good resolved and concluded upon among our selves but Epaminondas having not yet perswaded us according as he thinketh it better himselfe not to put these our designements in execution hath good reason to goe against that wherewith his nature repugneth and so he approveth not the designement whereunto he is moved and invited For it were unreasonable to force compell a physician who promiseth undertaketh to cure a disease without lancet fire for to proceed to incission cutting cauterizing Why quoth Theocritus doth not he approve of the conspiracie No quoth I neither alloweth he that any citizens should be put to death unlesse they were condemned first judicially by order of law mary he saith that if without massacre and effusion of citizens blood they would enterprise the deliverance of the city he would assist and aide them right willingly Seeing then that he was not able to enduce us for to beleeve his reasons but that we followed still our owne course he requireth us to let him alone pure innocent and impolluted with the blood of his citizens and to suffer him for to espie and attend some better occasions and opportunities by meanes whereof with justice he might procure the good of the weale publicke For murder quoth he will not containe it selfe within limits as it ought but Pherenicus happly and Pelopedas may bend their force principally upon the authors and heads of the tyranny and wicked persons but you shall have some such as Eumolpidas and Samiadas hot stomacked men set on fire with choler and desire of revenge who taking liberty by the vantage of the night will not lay downe their armes nor put up their swords untill they have filled the whole city with bloodsned and murdered many of the best and principall citizens As I thus devised and communed with Theocritus Anaxidorus ovethearing some of our words for nere he was unto us Stay quoth he and hold your peace for I see Archiaes Lysanoridas the Spartan captaine comming from the castle Cadmia and it seemeth that they make haste directly toward us Heereupon we paused and were still with that Archias calling unto Theocritus and bringing him apart by himselfe unto Lysanoridas talked with him a long while drawing him aside a little out of the way under the temple of Amphton in such sort as we were in an extreame agony perplexity for feare lest they had an inckling or suspition of our enterprise or that somthing were discovered thereupon they examined Theocritus As these matters thus passed Phyllidas whom you Archidamus know who was then the principall secretary or scribe under Archias at that time captaine generall of the armie being desirous of the approch of the conspiratours withal both privy and party with us in the complot came in
note of notorious impudencie Next neighbours unto these are they who among imputations and blames adjoine certaine praises as in the time of Socrates one Aristoxenus having given him the termes of ignorant untaught dissolute came in with this afterwards but true it is that he doeth no man wrong and is woorst to himselfe for like as they who will cunningly and artificially flatter otherwhiles among many and unmeasurable praises mingle some light reprehensions joining with their sweet flatteries as it were some tart sauce to season them certeine words frankly and freely spoken even so the malicious person because he would haue that beleeved which he blameth putteth thereto some little sprinkling of a few praises There may be exemplified and numbered many other signes and marks of malice but these may suffice to give us to understand the nature and intention of this author whom now we have in hand First and formost therefore to begin at heavenly wights and as they say at Vesta Io the daughter of Inachus whom all the Greeks thinke to have bene deified and honored with divine honors by the barbarous nations in such sort as that she hath left her name to manie seas and noble ports in regard of her great glory and renowme and opened the source as it were and original beginning of many right noble most famous and roiall families this our gentle Historiographer saith that she yeelded her selfe unto certaine marchants of Phoenicia to be caried away for that she having bene defloured not against her will by a master of a ship feared lest she should be spied great with child and withall belieth the Phoenicians themselves as if they gave out as much of her He reports himselfe also to the restimony of the sages and wise men of Persia that the Phoenicians ravished and caried her away with other women shewing withall directly his opinion a little after that the most noble and bravest exploit that ever the Greeks atcheived to wit the war of Troy was an enterprise begone in folly for a leawd and naughty woman for it is very apparent quoth he that these women if they had not bene willing themselves they had never bene so ravished and had away as they were And therefore we may as well say that the gods did foolishly to shew themselves angry and offended with the Lacedaemonians for the abusing of the daughters of Scedasus the Leuctrian as also to punish Ajax for that he forced lady Cassandra for certeine it is according to Herodotus that if they had not bene willing they had never beene defloured and yet himselfe saith that Aristomenes was taken alive and caried away by the Lacedaemonians and afterwards Philopoemen captaine generall of the Achaeans tasted the same fortune and Atilius Regulus the consull of the Romans fell likewise into the hands of his enimies all of them such personages as hardly may be found more valiant and hardy warriors in the world But what marvell is this considering that men doe take leopards and tygres alive Now Herodotus blameth the poore women who were by force abused and defendeth those wicked men who offered them that abuse Besides so much affected he is in love unto the Barbarous nations that he will acquite cleere Busirides of that ill name which went of him for slaying of his guests sacrificing men and attributing unto all the Aegyptians by all his testimonies much godlinesse religion and justice returneth upon the Greeks this inhumaine and abhominable cruelty For in his second booke he writeth that Menelaus having received Helena at the hands of king Proteus his wife and bene by him honored with great and rich presents shewed himselfe againe a most unjust and wicked man For when the winde and weather served him not for to embarke and saile away he wrought by his report a most cursed and detestable fact in taking two of the inhabitants male children of that countrey and cut them in peeces for sacrifice by occasion whereof being hated of the Aegyptians and pursued he fled directly with his fleet and departed into Libya For mine owne part I wot not what Aegyptian hath given out this report of Menelaus but contrariwise I know full well that in Aegypt they retaine still to this day many honors in the memoriall both of him and also of his wife Helena Moreover this writer holding on still his course reporteth that the Persians learned of the Greeks to abuse boies carnally and contrary to kinde And yet how is it possible that the Persians should learne this vilany and filthinesse of the Greeks considering that the Persians maner all doe confesse that the children were there guelded before they had ever seene the Greeks sea Also he writeth that the Greeks were taught by the Aegyptians their solemne pompes festivall processions and publicke assemblies likewise to adore the twelve gods yea that Melampus had learned of the same Aegyptians the very name of Dionysus that is to say Bacchus who taught it the other Greeks As touching the sacred mysteries and secret ceremonies of Ceres that they were brought out of Aegypt by the daughters of Danaus as also that the Aegyptians beat themselves and are in great sorrow yet will themselves name nothing why they so doe but remaine close and keepe silence in the religious service of the gods As touching Hercules and Bacchus whom the Aegyptians esteeme as gods and the Greeks very aged men he maketh mention in no place of this precise observation and distinction howsoever he faith that this Aegyptian Hercules was reckoned and ranged in the second order of the gods and Bacchus in the third as those who had a beginning of their essence and were not eternall and yet he pronounceth those other to be gods but unto these he judgeth that we ought to performe anniversarie funerals as having beene sometime mortall and now canonized demi-gods but in no wise to sacrifice unto them as gods After the same maner spake he of Pan overthrowing the most holy and venerable sacrifices of the Greeks by the vanities and fables which the Aegyptians devised Yet is not this the woorst nor so intollerable for deriving the pedegree of Hercules from the race of Perseus he holdeth that Perseus was an Assyrian according to that which the Persians say But the captaines and leaders of the Dorians saith he seeme to be descended in right line from the Aegyptians and fetch their genealogie and ancestours from before Danae and Acrisius for as concerning Epaphus Io Iasus and Argus he hath wholly passed over and rejected striving to make not onely the other two Herculees Aegyptians and Phoenicians but also this whom himselfe nameth to be the third a meere stranger from Greece and to enroll him among Barbarians notwithstanding that of all the ancient learned men neither Homer nor Hesiodus ne yet Archilochus Pisander Stesichorus Alcman nor Pindarus do make mention of any Hercules an Aegyptian or Phoenician but acknowledge one alone to wit our Boeotian and Argien And that
naked thay had to deale with the Lacedaemonians that were heavily armed at all pieces What honor then or great matter of glory could redound unto the Greeks out of these foure battels in case it be so that the Lacedaemonians encountred naked and unarmed men And for the other Greeks although they were in those parts present yet if they knew not of the combat untill the service was done to their hands and if the tombs honored yeerely by the severall cities belonging to them be emptie and mockeries onely of monuments and sepulchres and if the trevets and altars erected before the gods be full of false titles and inscriptions and Herodotus onely knew the trueth and all men in the world besides who have heard of the Greeks and were quite deceived by the honorable name and opinion that went of them for their singular prowesse and admirable vertue what is their then to be thought or said of Herodotus Surely that he is an excellent writer and depainteth things to the life he is a fine man he hath an eloquent tongue his discourses are full of grace they are pleasant beautifull and artificiall and as it was said of a Poet or Musician in telling his tale how ever he hath pronounced his narration and history not with knowledge and learning yet surely he hath done it elegantly smoothly and with an audible and cleare voice And these I wis be the things that move delight and doe affect all that reade him But like as among roses we must beware of the venimous flies Cantharides even so we ought to take heed of detractions and backebiting of his base penning likewise of things deserving great praise which insinuate themselves and creepe under his smooth stile polished phrase and figurative speeches to the end that ere we be aware we intertaine not nor foster in our heads false conceits and absurd opinions of the bravest men and noblest cities of Greece OF MVSICKE A Dialogue The persons therein discoursing ONESICRATES SOTERICHUS LYSIAS This treatise little or nothing at all concerneth the Musicke of many voices according and interlaced together which is in use and request at this day but rather apperteineth to the ancient fashion which consisteth in the accord and consonance of song with the sense and measure of the letter as also with the good grace of gesture and by the stile and maner of writing it seemeth not to be of Plutarchs doing THe wife of that good man Phocion was wont to say that the jewels and ornaments wherein she joined were those stratagemes and worthy feats of armes which her husband Phocion had atchieved but I for my part may well and truely avouch that the ornaments not onely of my selfe in particular but also of all my friends and kinsfolke in generall is the diligence of my schoolemaster and his affection in teaching me good literature For this we know full well that the noblest exploits and bravest pieces of service performed by great generals and captaines in the field can doe no more but onely save from present perill or imminent danger some small armie or some one citie or haply at the most one entire nation and countrey but are not able to make either their souldiers or citizens or their countreymen better in any respect whereas on the other side good erudition and learning being the very substance indeed of felicitie and the efficient cause of prudence and wisdome is found to be good and profitable not onely to one family city and nation but generally to all mankinde By how much therefore the profit and commodity ensuing upon knowledge and good letters is greater than that which proceedeth from all stratagemes or martiall feats by so much is the remembrance and relation thereof more worthy and commendable Now it fortuned not long since that our gentle friend Onesicrates invited unto a feast in his house the second day of the Saturnall solemnities certeine persons very expert and skilfull in Musicke and among the rest Soterichus of Alexandria and Lysias one of those who received a pension from him and after the ordinary ceremonies and complements of such feasts were performed he began to make a speech unto his company after this maner My good friends quoth he I suppose that it would not beseeme a feast or banquet to search at this time what is the efficient cause of mans voice for a question it is that would require better leasure and more sobrietie but for asmuch as the best Grammarians define voice to be the beating or percussion of the aire perceptible unto the sense of hearing and because that yesterday we enquired and disputed as touching Grammar and found it to be an art making profession and very meet to frame and shape voices according to lines and letters yea and to lay them up in writing as in the treasury and storehouse of memorie let us now see what is the second science next to it that is meet and agreeable to the voice and this I take to be Musicke For a devout and religious thing it is yea and a principall duty belonging unto men for to sing the praises of the gods who have bestowed upon them alone this gift of a distinct and articulate voice which Homer also by his testimonie hath declared in these verses Then all day long the Grecian youth in songs melodious Besought god Phoebus of his grace to be propitious Phoebus I say who from afarre doth shoot his arrowes nie They chaunt and praise who takes great joy to heare such harmony Goe to therefore my masters you that are professed Musicians relate unto this good company here that are your friends who was the first inventour of Musicke what it is that time hath added unto it afterwards who they were that became famous by the exercise and profession of this science as also to how many things and to what is the said study and practrise profitable Thus much as touching that which Onesicrates our master moved and propounded whereupon Lysias inferred againe and said You demand a question good Onesicrates which hath alreadie beene handled and discussed for the most part of the Platonique Philosophers and the best sort of the Peripateticks have emploied themselves in the writing of the ancient Musicke and of the corruption that in time crept into it The best Grammarians also and most cunning Musicians have taken great paines and travelled much in this argument and yet there is no small discord and jarre among them as harmonicall otherwise as they be about these points Heraclides in his Breviarie wherein he hath collected together all the excellent professours of Musicke writeth that Amphion devised first the maner of singing to the Lute or Citherne as also the Citharaedian poësie for being the sonne of Antiope and Jupiter his father taught him that skill And this may be proved true by an olde evidence or record enrolled and diligently kept in the city Sicyone where in he nameth certeine Priestresses in Argos as also Poets
be blamed if haply they be not well used but impure all the fault unto them that abuse the same And therefore if any one from his childhood shall be well instructed and trained up in Musicke and withall employ his labour and diligence therein he will receive and approove that which is honest and commendable blame also he will and reject the contrary not in musicke onley but in all things else and such a one will decline all unhonest and unwoorthy actions and thus reaping from musicke the greatest and best contentment that can be he may benefit exceeding much as well himselfe as his whole countrey using no word nor deed unseemely but observing at all times and in every place that which is befitting decent temperate and elegant Moreover that cities and states best governed by pollicie and good lawes have alwaies had a speciall regard of generous and good musicke many and sundry testimonies may be alledged and namely a man may very well cite to this purpose Terpander who suppressed in times past the great sedition and civill descord that was in Lacedaemon Thales also the Candiot who went as it is said by the commandement and oracle of Apollo to Lacedaemon and there cured the citizens and delivered them from that great pestilence which reigned in that citie and all by the meanes of musicke as writeth Pratinas Homer also himselfe saith that the plague which afflicted the Greeks was by musicke staied and appeased Then all day long the Grecian youth in songs melodious Besought god Phoebus of his grace to be propitious Phoebus I say who from a farre doth shoot his arrowes nie They chaunt and praise who takes great joy to heare such harmonie with these verses as with Corollarie good master I will conclude this my discourse of Musicke and the rather because you first by the very same verses commended unto us the force and power of Musicke for in very trueth the principall and most commendable worke thereof is thanksgiving unto the gods and the acknowledgement of their grace and favour the second and that which next followeth is a sanctified heart a pure consonant and harmonicall estate of the soule When Soterichus had said Thus you have quoth he my good master heard us discourse of Musicke round about the boord as we sit And verily Soterichus was highly admired for that which he had delivered for he shewed evidently both by his voice and visage how much he was affected unto Musicke what study he had emploied thereto Then my master Over and above other things this also I commend in you both that you have kept your owne course and place the one as well as the other For Lysias hath furnished our feast with those things which are proper and meet for a Musician who knoweth onely to handle the lute or harpe and hath no farther skill than manuall practise Soterichus also hath taught us whatsoever concerneth both the profit and also the speculation thereof yea and withall comprehendeth therein the power and use of Musicke whereby he hath mended our fare and feasted us most sumptuously And I suppose verily that both of them have of purpose and that right willingly left thus much unto me as to draw Musicke unto feasts and banquets neither will I condemne them of timidity as if they were ashamed so to doe For if in any part of mans life certes in such feasts and mery meetings it is right profitable For according as good Homer saith Both song and daunce delight affoord And things that well beseeme the boord Neither would I have any man to inferre heereupon that Homer thought Musicke good for nothing else but to delight and content the company at a feast considering there is in those verses couched and hidden a more deepe and profound meaning For he brought Musicke to those times and places wherein it might profit and helpe men most I meane the feasts and meetings of our ancients and expedient it was to have her company there for that she is able to divert and temper the heat and strength of wine according as our Aristoxenus also else where saith Musicke quoth he is brought in thither because that whereas wine is wont to pervert overturne as well the bodies as the minds of those who take it immoderatly Musicke by that order symmetry and accord which is in it reduceth them againe into a contrary temperature and dulceth all And therefore Homer reporteth that our ancients used Musicke as a remedy and helpe at such a time But that which is principall and maketh Musicke above all things most venerable you have my good friend let passe and omitted For Pythagoras Archias Plato and all the rest of the old Philosophers doe hold that the motion of the whole world together with the revolution of the starres is not performed without Musicke For they teach that God framed all things by harmonie But to prosecute this matter more at large this time will not permit and besides it is a very high point and most Musicall to know in every thing how to keepe a meane and competent measure This said he sung an hymne and after he had offered a libation of wine unto Saturne and to all the gods his children as also to the Muses he gave his guests leave to depart OF THE FORTVNE OR VERTUE OF K. Alexander The Summarie IN this treatise and that which followeth framed both in forme of a declamation Plutarch magnifieth Alexander a praise worthy prince for many good parts that were in him wherein he sheweth also that we ought to attribute unto vertue and not to fortune those brave exploits which he performed By fortune he meaneth that course of the affarres in this world whereby it falleth out many times that the wisest men are not alwaies most happy and best advanced To proove therefore that Alexander was endued with exquisit qualities for execution of those enterprises which by him were atchieved afterwordes and brought to an end he compareth him in the beginning of this treatise with the kings of Persia raised up to their greatnesse by fortune and then sheweth that Alexander being an excellent Philosopher we ought not to wonder or be astonished if by his vertue he saw the end of many things which the most fortunate princes of the world durst never take in hand and begin Now the better to set out the excellencie of this Philosophy of Alexander he compareth his scholars with the disciples of Plato and Socrates proving that those of this prince surpassed the others as much as a good deed or benefit done to an infinit number of men surmounteth a good speech or instruction given to some perticular persons the most part of whom make no account thereof He proceedeth forward and discribeth the wisdome and sufficiencie of Alexander in politicke government which he amplifieth by the consider ation of his amiable behaviour and lovely cariage toward those nations which by him were subdued also by the recitall of some notable
neere kinsfolke and friends and more entirely beloved than Ulysses whose mother died for sorrow and griefe of heart whereas when Alexander died his very enemies mother for kinde affection and good will died with him for company In summe if it was by the indulgence of Fortune that Solon established the common-wealth of Athens so well at home that Miltiades conducted the armies so happily abroad if it was by the benefit and favour of fortune that Aristides was so just then farewell vertue for ever then is there no worke at all effected by her but onely it is a vaine name and speech that goeth of her passing with some shew of glorie and reputation thorow the life of man feined and devised by these prating Sophisters cunning Law-givers and Statists Now if every one of these persons and such like was poore or rich feeble or strong foule or faire of long life or short by the meanes of fortune againe in case ech of them shewed himselfe a great captaine in the field a great politician or wise law-giver a great governour and ruler in the city and common-wealth by their vertue and the direction of reason within them then consider I pray you what Alexander was in comparison of them all Solon instituted at Athens a generall cutting off and cancelling of all debts which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as A discharge of burdens but Alexander out of his owne purse paied all debts in the name of debtors due unto their creditors Pericles having imposed a tax and tribute upon the Greeks with the money raised by that levie beautified the citadell or castle of Athens with temples and chapels whereas Alexander sent of the pillage and treasure which he gat from the Barbarians to the number of tenne thousand talents into Greece with commandement to build there with sacred temples to the honour of the gods Brasidas wan a great name and reputation of valour among the Greeks for that he passed from one end to another thorow his enemies campe pitched along the sea side before the towne Methon but that wonderfull leape that Alexander made into a towne of the Oxydraques which to them that heare it is incredible and to as many as saw it was most fearefull namely at what time as he cast himselfe from the battlements of the walles among his enemies ready to receive him with pikes with javelins with darts and naked swords whereto may a man compare but unto a very flash of lightning breaking volently out of a cloud and being carried with the winde lighteth upon the ground resembling a spirit or apparition resplendent all about with flaming and burning armours insomuch as at the first sight men that saw it were so affrighted as they ran backward and fled but after that they beheld it was but one man setting upon many then they came againe and made head against him Heere Fortune shewed no doubt many plaine and evident proofs of her speciall good will 〈◊〉 Alexander namely first when she put him into an ignoble base and barbarous towne and there inclosed him sure enough within the walles thereof then after that those without made haste to rescue him and reared their scaling ladders against the walles for to get over and come unto him she caused them all to breake fall in pieces whereby she overthrew and cast them downe who were climbed halfe way up againe of those three onely whose hap it was to mount up to the top before the ladders brake and who flang themselves desperatly downe and stood about the king to guard his person she fell upon one immediatly and killed him in the place before he could do his master any service a second overwhelmed with a cloud of arrowes and darts was so neere death that he could do no more but onely see and feele All this while the Macedonians without ranne to the walles with a great noise and outcry but all in vaine for artillerie they had none nor any ordinance or engins of battery onely they laied at the walles with their naked swords and bare hands and so earnest they were to get in that they would have made way with their very teeth if it had beene possible Meane while this fortunate prince upon whom Fortune attended at an inch ready now to accompany and defend him you may be sure as at all times els was taken and caught as a wilde beast within toiles abandoned and left alone without aide and succour not iwis to win the city of Susa or of Babylon nor to conquer the province of Bactra nor to seize upon that mighty body of king Porus for of great and renowmed attempts although the end alwaies prove not happy yet there can redound no infamy But to say a trueth Fortune was on his behalfe so spightfull and envious but on the other side so good and gracious to the Barbarians so adverse I say she was to Alexander that she went about as much as lay in her to make him not onely lose his life and body but also to forfeit his honour and glory for if he had beene left lying dead along the river Euphrates or Hydaspes it had beene no great desastre and indignitie neither had it beene so dishonorable unto him when he came to joine with Darius hand to hand if he had beene massacred among a number of great horses with the swords glawes battle-axes of the Persians fighting for the empire no nor when he was mounted upon the wals of Babylon if he had taken the foile and bene put by his great hope of forcing the city for in that sort lost Pelopidas and Epaminondas their lives and their death was rather an act of vertue than an accident of infortunitie whiles they gave the attempt to execute so great exploits and to gaine so worthy a prise But as touching fortune which now we examine and consider what piece of worke effected she In a Barbarous countrey farre removed on the further side of a river within the walles of a base village in comparison to shut up and enclose the king and sovereigne lord of the earth that he might perish there shamefully by the hands rude weapons of a multitude of Barbarous rascals who should knocke him downe with clubs and staves and pelt him with whatsoever came next hand for wounded he was in the head with a bill that clove his helmet quite thorow and with a mighty arrow which one discharged out of a bow his brest-plate was pierced quite thorow whereof the steile that was without his bodie weighed him downe heavily but the yron head which stucke fast in the bones about one of his paps was foure fingers broad and five long And to make up the full measure of all mischiefs whiles he defended himselfe right manfully before and when the fellow who had shot the foresaid arrow adventured to approch him with his sword to dispatch him outright with a dead thrust him he got within
seeme that it is found what time as Nilus beginnes to flow and therefore the said fish by his appearing signifieth the rising and inundation of Nilus whereof they be exceeding joious holding him for a certeine and sure messenger But the priests absteme from all fishes ingenerall and whereas upon the ninth 〈◊〉 of the first moneth all other inhabitants of Aegypt seede upon a certeine broiled or rosted fish before their dores the priests in no wise taste thereof mary they burne fishes before the gates of their houses and two reasons they have the one holy fine and subtile which I will deliver hereafter as that which accordeth and agreeth very well to the sacred discourses as touching Osiris and Typhon the other plaine vulgar and common represented by the fish which is none of the viands that be necessary rare and exquisit according as Homer beareth witnesse when he brings not in the Phaeacians delicate men loving to feed daintily nor the Ithacesians Ilanders to eat fish at their feasts no nor the mates and fellow travellers with Ulysses during the time of their long navigation and voiage by sea before they were brought to extreame necessity To be briefe the very sea it selfe they thinke to be produced a part by fire without the bounds limits of nature as being no portion nor element of the world but a strange excrement a corrupt superfluity and unkinde maladie For nothing absurd and against reason nothing fabulous and superstitious as some untruly thinke was inserted or served as a sacred signe in their holy ceremonies but they were all markes grounded upon causes and reasons morall and the same profitable for this life or else not without some historicall or naturall elegancy As for example that which is said of the oinion for that Dictys the foster father of Isis fell into the river of Nilus and was there drowned as he was reaching at oinions and could not come by them it is a mere fable and carieth no sense or probability in the world but the trueth is this the priests of Isis hate the oinion and avoid it as a thing abominable because they have observed that it never groweth nor thriveth well to any bignesse but in the decrease and waine of the Moone Neither is it meet and fit for those who would lead an holy and sanctified life or for such as celebrate solemne feasts and holidaies because it provoketh thirst in the former and in the other causeth teares if they feed thereupon And for the same reason they take the sow to be a prophane and uncleane beast for that ordinarily she goeth a brimming and admitteth the bore when the Moone is past the full and looke how many drinke of her milke they breake out into a kinde of leprosie or drie skurfe all over their bodies As touching the tale which they inferre who once in their lives doe sacrifice a sow when the Moone is in the full and then eat her flesh namely that Typhon hunting and chasing the wilde swine at the full of the Moone chanced to light upon an arke or coffin of wood wherein was the body of Osiris which he dismembred and threwaway by peece meale all men admit not thereof supposing that it is a fable as many others be misheard and misunderstood But this for certaine is held that our ancients in old time so much hated and abhorred all excessive delicacy superfluous and costly delights and voluptuous pleasures that they said within the temple of the city of Thebes in Aegypt there stood a square columne or pillar wherein were engraven certaine curses and execrations against their king Minis who was the first that turned and averted the Aegyptians quite from their simple and frugal maner of life without mony without sumptuous fare chargeable delights It is said also that Technatis the father of Bocchoreus in an expedition or journey against the Arabians when it chaunced that his cariages were far behind and came not in due time to the place where he incamped was content to make his supper of whatsoever he could get so to take up with a very small and simple pittance yea and after supper to lie upon a course and homely pallet where he slept all night very soundly and never awoke whereupon he ever after loved sobrietie of life srugality cursed the foresaid king Minis which malediction of his being by the priests of that time approved he caused to be engraven upon the pillar abovesaid Now their kings were created either out of the order of their priests or else out of the degree of knights and warriors for that the one estate was honored and accounted noble for valour the other for wisdome and knowledge And looke whomsoever they chose from out of the order of knighthood presently after his election he was admitted unto the colledge of priests and unto him were disclosed and communicated the secrets of their Philosophy which under the vaile of fables and darke speeches couched and covered many mysteries through which the light of the trueth in some sort though dimly appeare And this themselves seeme to signifie and give us to understand by setting up ordinarily before the porches and gates of their temples certaine Sphinges meaning thereby that all their Theologie containeth under aenigmaticall and covert words the secrets of wisdome In the citie of Sais the image of Minerva which they take to be Isis had such an inscription over it as this I am all that which hath beene which is and which shall be and never any man yet was able to draw open my vaile Moreover many there be of opinion that the proper name of Jupiter in the Aegyptians language is 〈◊〉 of which we have in Greeke derived the word Ammon whereupon 〈◊〉 Jupiter Ammon but Manethos who was an Aegyptian himselfe of the citie of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by this word is signfied a thing hidden or occulation and 〈◊〉 the Abderite 〈◊〉 that the Aegyptians used this terme among themselves when they called one unto another for it was a vocative word and for that they imagined the prince and soveraigne of the gods to be the same that Pan that is to say an universall nature and therefore unseene hidden and unknowen they praied and be sought him for to disclose and make himselfe knowen unto them by calling him 〈◊〉 See then how the Aegyptians were very strict and precise in not profaning their wisdome nor publishing that learning of theirs which concerned the gods And this the greatest Sages and most learned clerkes of all Greece do testifie by name Solon Thales Plato Eudoxus Pythagoras as some let not to say Lycurgus himselfe who all travelled of a deliberate purpose into Aegypt for to confer with the priests of that country For it is constantly held that Eudoxus was the auditour of Chonupheus the priest of Memphis Solon of Sonchis the priest of 〈◊〉 Pythagoras of Oenupheus the priest of Heliopolis And verily this Pythagoras last named was highly
who hold and affirme such fables as these touching the blessed and immortall nature whereby especially we conceived in our minde the deity to be true and that such things were really done or hapned so indeed We ought to spit upon their face And curse such mouthes with all disgrace as Aeschylus saith I need not say unto you for that you hate and detest those enough alreadie of your selfe who conceive so barbarous and absurd opinions of the gods And yet you see verie well that these be not narrations like unto old wives tales or vaine and foolish fictions which Poets or other idle writers devise out of their owne fingers ends after the maner of spiders which of themselves without any precedent subject matter spin their threeds weave and stretch out their webbes for evident it is that they conteine some difficulties and the memorials of certeine accidents And like as the Mathematicians say that the rainbow is a representation of the Sunne and the same distinguished by sundry colours by the refraction of our eie-sight against a cloud even so this fable is an apparence of some doctrine or learning which doeth reflect and send backe our understanding to the consideration of some other trueth much after the maner of sacrifices wherein there is mingled a kinde of lamentable dole and sorrowfull heavinesse Semblably the making and disposition of temples which in some places have faire open Isles and pleasant allies open over head and in other darke caves vaults and shrouds under the earth resembling properly caves sepulchers or charnell vauts wherein they put the bodies of the dead especially the opinion of the Osirians for albeit the bodie of Osiris be said to be in many places yet they name haply Abydus the towne or Memphis a little citie where they affirme that his true body lieth in such sort as the greatest and welthiest persons in Aegypt usually doe ordeine and take order that their bodies be interred in Abydus to the end they may lie in the same sepulchre with Osiris and at Memphis was kept the beese Apis which is the image and figure of his soule and they will have his body also to be there Some likewise there be who interpret the name of this towne as if it should signifie the haven and harbour of good men others that it betokeneth the tombe of Osiris and there is before the gate of the citie a little Isle which to all others is inaccessible and admitteth no entrance insomuch as neither fowles of the aire will there light nor fishes of the sea approch thither onely at one certeine time the priests may come in and there they offer sacrifices and present oblations to the dead where also they crowne and adorne with flowers the monument of one Mediphthe which is overshadowed and covered with a certeine plant greater and taller than any olive tree Eudoxus writeth that how many sepulchres soever there be in Aegypt wherein the corps of Osiris should lie yet it is in the citie Busiris for that it was the countrey and place of his nativitie so that now there is no need to speake of Taphosiris for that the very name it selfe saith enough signifying as it doeth the sepulture of Osiris Well I approove the cutting of the wood and renting of the linnen the effusions also and funerall libaments there performed because there be many mysteries mingled among And so the priests of Aegypt affirme that the bodies not of these gods onely but also of all others who have beene engendred and are not incorruptible remaine among them where they honoured and reverenced but their soules became starres and shine in heaven and as for that of Isis it is the same which the Greekes call Cyon that is to say the dogge-starre but the Aegyptians Sothis that of Orus is Orion and that of Typhon the Beare But whereas all other cities and states in Aegypt contribute a certeine tribute imposed upon them for to pourtray draw and paint such beasts as are honored among them those onely who inhabite the countrey Thebais of all others give nothing thereto being of opinion that no mortall thing subject to death can be a god as for him alone whom they call Cneph as he was never borne so shall he never die Whereas therefore many such things as these be reported and shewed in Aegypt they who thinke that all is no more but to perpetuate and eternize the memorie of marvelous deeds and strange accidents of some princes kings or tyrants who for their excellent vertue mighty puissance have adjoined to their owne glory the authoritie of deitie unto whom a while after there befell calamities use heerein a very cleanly shift and expedite evasion transferring handsomly from the gods unto men all sinister infamie that is in these fable and helpe themselves by the testimonies which they finde and read in histories for the Aegyptians write that Mercurie was but small of stature and slender limmed that Typhon was of a ruddy colour Orus white Osiris of a blackish hew as who indeed were naturally men Moreover they call Osiris captaine or generall Canobus pilot or governor of a ship after whose name they have named a starre and as for the shippe which the Greeks name Argo they hold that it was the very resemblance of Osiris ship which for the honour of him being numbred among the starres is so situate in heaven as that it mooveth and keepeth his course not farre from that of Orion and the Cyon or dogge-starre of which twaine the one is consecrate unto Horus the other to Isis. But I feare me that this were to stirre and remoove those sacred things which are not to be touched and medled withall and as much as to fight against not continuance of time onely and antiquitie as Simonides saith but also the religion of many sorts of people and nations who are long since possessed with a devotion toward these gods I doubt I say lest in so doing they faile not to transfer so great names as these out of heaven to earth and so goe very neere and misse but a little to overthrow and abolish that honour and beliefe which is ingenerate and imprinted in the hearts of all men even from their very first nativitie which were even to set the gates wide open for a multitude of miscreants and Atheists who would bring all divinity to humanity and deitie to mans nature yea and to give a manifest overture and libertie for all the impostures and jugling casts of Euemerus the Messenian who having himselfe coined and devised the originals of fables grounded upon no probability nor subject matter but even against the course of reason and nature spred and scattered abroad throughout the world all impietie transmuting and changing all those whom we repute as gods into the names of admirals captaines generall and kings who had lived in times past according as they stand upon record by his saying written in golden letters within the citie
potable water and with that all those who are present set up a note and shout as if they had found Osiris againe then they take a piece of fatty and fertile earth and together with the water knead and worke it into a paste mixing therewith most precious odors persumes and spices whereof they make a little image in forme of the Moone croissant which they decke with robes and adorne shewing thereby evidently that they take these gods to be the substance of water and earth Thus when Isis had recovered Osiris nourished Orus and brought him up to some growth so that he now became strengthned fortified by exhalations vapors mists and clouds Typhon verily was vanquished howbeit not shine for that the goddesse which is the ladie of the earth would not permit suffer that the power or nature which is contrary unto moisture should be utterly abolished onely she did slacken and let downe the vehement force thereof willing that this combat and strife should still continue because the world would not have beene entier and perfect if the nature of fire had beene once extinct gone And if this goe not currant among them there is no reason and probability that any one should project this assertion also namely that Typhon in times past overcame one part of Osiris for that in olde time Aegypt was sea whereupon it is that even at this day within the mines wherein men dig for mettals yea and among the mountaines there is found great store of seafish Likewise all the fountaines welles and pits and those are many in number cary a brackish saltish and bitter water as if some remnant or residue of the olde sea were reserved which ranne thither But in processe of time Orus subdued Typhon that is to say when the seasonable raine came which tempered the excessive heat Nilus expelled and drave forth the sea discovered the champian ground and filled it continually more and more by new deluges and inundations that laied somewhat still unto it And hereof the daily experience is presented to our eies for we perceive even at this day that the overflowes and rising of the river bringing new mud and adding fresh earth still by little and little the sea giveth place and retireth and as the deepe in it is filled more and more so the superficies riseth higher by the continuall shelves that the Nile casts up by which meane the sea runneth backward yea the very Isle Pharos which Homer knew by his daies to lie farre within the sea even a daies sailing from the continent firme land of Aegypt is now a very part thereof not for that it remooved and approched neerer and neerer to the land but because the sea which was betweene gave place unto the river that continually made new earth with the mudde that it brought and so mainteined and augmented the maine land But these things resemble very neere the Theologicall interpretations that the Stoicks give out for they holde that the generative and nutritive Spirit is Bacchus but that which striketh and divideth is Hercules that which receiveth is Ammon that which entreth and pierceth into the earth is Ceres and Proserpina and that which doth penetrate farther and passe thorow the sea is Neptune Others who mingle among naturall causes and reasons some drawen from the Mathematicks and principally from Astrology thinke that Typhon is the Solare circle or sphaere of the Sunne and that Osiris is that of the Moone inasmuch as the Moone hath a generative and vegetable light multiplying that sweet and comfortable moisture which is so meet for the generation of living creatures of trees and plants but the Sunne having in it a pure firy flame indeed without any mixture or rebatement at all heateth and drieth that which the earth bringeth forth yea and whatsoever is verdant and in the flower insomuch as by his inflamation he causeth the greater part of the earth to be wholly desert and inhabitable and many times subdueth the very Moone And therefore the Aegyptians evermore name Typhon Seth which is as much to say as ruling lordly and oppressing with violence And after their fabulous maner they say that Hercules sitting as it were upon the Sunne goeth about the world with him and Mercurie likewise with the Moone by reason whereof the works and effects of the Moone resemble those acts which are performed by eloquence and wisedome but those of the Sunne are compared to such as be exploited by force and puissance And the Stoicks say that the Sunne is lighted and set on fire by the Sea and therewith nourished but they be the fountaines and lakes which send up unto the Moone a milde sweet and delicate vapour The Aegyptians faine that the death of Osiris hapned on the seventeenth day of the moneth on which day better than upon any other she is judged to be at the full and this is the reason why the Pythagoreans call this day The obstruction and of all other numbers they most abhorre and detest it for whereas sixteene is a number quadrangular or foure-square and eighteene longer one way than another which numbers onely of those that be plaine happen for to have the ambient unities that environ them equall to the spaces conteined and comprehended within them seventeene which falleth betweene separateth and disjoineth the one from the other and being cut into unequall intervals distracteth the proportion sesquioctave And some there be who say that Osiris lived others that he reigned eight and twenty yeeres for so many lights there be of the Moone and so many daies doth she turne about her owne circle and therefore in those ceremonies which they call The sepulture of Osiris they cut a piece of wood and make a certeine coffin or case in maner of the Moone croissant for that as she approcheth neere to the Sunne she becommeth pointed and cornered untill in the end she come to nothing and is no more seene And as for the dismembring of Osiris into foureteene pieces they signifie unto us under the covert vaile of these words The daies wherein the said planet is in the wane and decreaseth even unto the change when she is renewed againe And that day on which she first appeareth by passing by and escaping the raies of the Sunne they call an Unperfect good for Osiris is a doer of good and this name signifieth many things but principally an active and beneficiall power as they say and as for the other name Omphis Hermaeus saith that it betokeneth as much as a benefactour Also they are of opinion that the risings and inundations of the river Nilus answere in proportion to the course of the Moone for the greatest heigth that it groweth unto in the countrey Elephantine is eight and twenty cubits for so many illuminations there be or daies in every revolution of the Moone and the lowest gage about Mendes and Xois sixe cubits which answereth to the first quarter but the meane betweene about the city
as if they thought to hide themselves within the bodies of the blacke storkes called Ibides of dogges and haukes passeth all the monstrous woonders and fixions of tales that can be devised Likewise to hold that the soules of those who are departed so many as remaine still in being are regenerate againe onely in the bodies of these beasts is as absurd and incredible as the other And as for those who will seeme to render a civill and politicke reason heereof some give out that Osiris in a great expedition or voiage of his having divided his armie into many parts such as in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say bands and companies he gave unto every of them for their severall ensignes the portractures and images of beasts and each band afterwards honored their owne had in reverence as some holy and sacred thing Others affirme that the kings who succeeded after Osiris for to terrify their enimies went forth to battell carying before them the heads of such beasts made in gold and silver vpon their armes Some there be againe who alledge that there was one of these their subtile and fine headed kings who knowing that the Aegyptians of their owne nature were lightly disposed ready to revolt and given to change and innovations also that by reason of their great multitude their power was hardly to be restrained and in maner invincible in case they joined together in counsell and drew jointly in one common line therefore he sowed among them a perpetuall superstition which gave occasion of dissention and enmity among them that never could be appeased For when he had given commandement unto them for to have in reverence those beasts which naturally disagreed and warred together even such as were ready to eat and devour one another whiles every one endevored alwaies to succor and maintaine their owne and were moved to anger if any wrong or displeasure were done to those which they affected they sell together themselves by the eares ere they were aware and killed one another for the enmity and quarell which was betweene those beasts whom they adored and so fostered mutuall and mortall hatred For even at this day of all the Aegyptians the Lycopolitans onely eat 〈◊〉 because the wolfe whom they adore as a god is enimy unto sheepe And verily in this our age the Oxyrinchites because the Cynopolites that is to say the inhabitants of the city Cynopolis eat the fish named Oxyrinchos that is to say with the sharpe becke whensoever they can entrap or catch a dogge make no more adoe but kill him for a sacrifice and eat him when they have done Vpon which occasion having levied warre one against the other and done much mischiefe reciprocally after they had beene well chastised and plagued by the Romans they grew to attonement and composition And for as much as many of them doe say that the soule of Typhon departed into these beasts it seemeth that this fiction importeth thus much that every brutish and beastly nature commeth and proceedeth from some evill daemon and therefore to pacific him that he doe no mischiefe they worship and adore these beasts And if paradventure there happen any great drowght or contagious heat which causeth pestilent maladies or other unusuall and extraordinary calamities the priests bring forth some of those beasts which they serve and honor in the darke night without any noise in great silence menasing them at the first and putting them in fright Now if the plague or calamity continue still they kill and sacrifice them thinking this to be a punishment and chastisement of the said evill daemon or else some great expiation for notable sinnes and transgressions For in the city verily of Idithya as Manethos maketh report the maner is to burne men alive whom they called Typhony whose ashes when they had boulted through a tamise they scattered abroad untill they were reduced to nothing But this was done openly at a certaine time in those daies which are called Cynades or Canicular Mary the immolation of these beasts which they accounted sacred was performed secretly and not at a certaine time or upon perfixed daies but according to the occurrences of those accidents which happned And therefore the common people neither knew nor saw ought but when they solemnize their obsequies and funerals for them in the presence of all the people they shew some of the other beasts and throw them together into the sepulcher supposing thereby to vex and gall Typhon and to represse the joy that he hath in doing mischiefe For it seemeth that Apis with some other few beasts was consecrated to Osiris howsoever they attribute many more unto him And if this be true I suppose it importeth that which we seeke and search all this while as touching those which are confessed by all and have common honors as the foresaid stroke Ibis the hauke and the Babian or Cynecephalus yea and Apis himselfe for so they call the goat in the city Mendes Now their remaineth the utility and symbolization heereof considering that some participate of the one but the most part of both For as touching the goat the sheepe and the Ichneumon certaine it is they honor them for the use and profit they receive by them like as the inhabitants of Lemnos honor the birds called Corydali because they finde out the locusts nests and quash their egges The Thessalians also have the storkes in great account because whereas their country is given to breed a number of serpents the said storks when they come kill them up all By reason whereof they made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a storke should be banished his country The serpent Aspis also the wezill and the flie called the bettill they reverence because they observe in them I wot not what little slender images like as in drops of water we perceive the resemblance of the Sunne of the divine power For many there be even yet who both thinke and say that the male wezill engendreth with the female by her care and that she bringeth forth her yoong at the mouth which symbolizeth as they say and representeth the making and generation of speech As for the beetils they hold that throughout all their kinde there is no female but all the males doe blow or cast their seed into a certaine globus or round matter in forme of bals which they drive from them and roll to and fro contrary waies like as the Sunne when he moveth himselfe from the west to the east seemeth to turne about the heaven cleane contrary The Aspis also they compare to the planet of the Sunne because he doth never age and wax old but mooveth in all facility readinesse and celerity without the meanes of any instruments of motion Neither is the crocodile set so much by among them without some probable cause For they say that in some respect he is the very
set eie on neither was he subject to any disease once every moneth he fed upon a medicinable and bitter fruit of a certeine herbe and this was the fare he lived upon A good linguist he was and used to speake many languages but with me he talked commonly in Greeke after the Doricke dialect His speech differed not much from song and meeter and whensoever he opened his mouth for to speake there issued forth of it so sweet and fragrant a breath that all the place about was filled therewith and smelled most pleasantly As for his other learning and knowledge yea the skill of all histories he had the same all the yere long but as touching the gift of divination he was inspired therewith one day every yeere and no more and then he went downe to the sea side and prophesied of things to come and thither resorted unto him the Princes and great Lords of that countrey yea and Secretaries of forren kings who there attended his comming at a day prefixed which done he returned This personage then attributed unto Daemons the spirit of divination and prophesie most pleasure tooke he in hearing and speaking of Delphi and looke whatsoever we hold here as touching Bacchus what adventures befel unto him what sacrifices are performed by us in his honor he had bene enformed thereof and knew all well enough saying withall That as these were great accidents that hapned to Daemons so like wife was that which men reported of the serpent Python whom he that slew was neither banished for nine yeres nor fled into the valley of Tempe but was chased out of this world and went into another from whence after nine revolutions of the great yeeres being returned all purified and Phoebus indeed that is to say cleere and bright he recovered the superintendance of the Delphicke Oracle which during that while was left to the custodie of Themis The same was the case said he of the Titons and Typhous For he affirmed they were the battels of Daemons against Daemons the flights and banishments also of 〈◊〉 who were vanquished or rather the punishments inflicted by the gods upon as many as 〈◊〉 committed such outrages as Typhon had done against Osiris and Saturne against Caelus or the heaven whose honours were the more obscure or abolished altogether by reason that themselves were translated into another world For I understand and heare that the Solymians who border hard upon the Lycians highly honoured Saturne when the time was but after that he having slaine their princes Arsalus Dryus and Trosobius fled departed into some other countrey for whither he went they knew not they made no more any reckoning of him but Arsalus and the other they termed by the name of Scleroi that is to say severe gods and in trueth the Lycians at this day aswell in publicke as private utter and recite the forme of all their curses and execrations in their names Many other semblable examples a man may draw out of Theologicall writings as touching the gods Now if we call some of these Daemons by the usuall and ordinary names of the goes we ought not to marvell thereat quoth this stranger unto me for looke unto which of the gods they do reteine upon whom they depend and by whose meanes they have honour and puissance by their names they love to be called like as heere among us men one is called Jovius of Jupiter another Palladius or Athenaeus of Minerva a third Apollonius of Apollo or 〈◊〉 and Hermaeus of Bacchus and Mercurie And verily some there be who although they be named thus at aventure yet answer very fitly to such denominations but many have gotten the denominations of the gods which agree not unto them but are transposed wrong and 〈◊〉 Herewith Cleombrotus paused and the speech that he had delivered seemed very strange unto all the company Then Heracleon demanded of him whether this doctrine concerned Plato and how it was that Plato had given the overture and beginning of such matter You doe well quoth Cleombrotus to put me in minde heereof and to reduce it into my memory First and formost therefore he condemneth evermore the infinity of worlds mary about the just and precise number of them he doubteth and howsoever he seemes to yeeld a probability and apparence of trueth unto those who have set downe five and attributed to every element one yet himselfe sticketh still to one which seemeth indeed to be the peculiar opinion of Plato wheras other Philosophers also have alwaies mightily feared to admit a multitude of worlds as if necessarie it were that those who staied not by the meanes of matter in one but went out of it once could not chuse but fall presently into this indeterminate and troublesome infinity But this your stranger quoth I determined he nothing of this multitude of worlds otherwise than Plato did or all the whiles that you conversed with him did you never move the question thereof unto him to know what his opinion was thereof Thinke you quoth Cleombrotus that I failed herein and was not howsoever otherwise I behaved my selfe a diligent scholar and affectionate auditor of his in these matters especially seeing he was so affable and shewed himselfe so courteous unto me But as touching this point he said That neither the number of the worlds was infinit nor yet true it was that there were no more but one or five in all for there were 183 and those ordeined and ranged in a forme triangular of which triangle every side contemed threescore worlds and of the three remaining still every corner thereof had one that they were so ordered as one touched and interteined another round in maner of those who are in a ring dance that the plaine within the triangle is as it were the foundation and altar common to all the worlds which is called The Plaine or Field of Trueth and within it lie immovable the designes reasons formes ideae and examples of all things that ever were or shall be and about them is eternity wherof time is a portion which as a riveret 〈◊〉 from thence to those things that are done in time Now the sight and contemplation of these things was presented unto the soules of men if they lived well in this world and that but once in ten thousand yeeres as for our mysteries heere beneath and all our best and most sacred ceremonies they were but a dreame in comparison of that spectacle and holy ceremonies Moreover he said That for the good things there and for to enjoy the sight of those beauties men emploied their study in Philosophy here or els all their paines taken was but in vaine and their travellost And verily quoth he I heard him discourse of these matters plainly and without any art no otherwise than if it had beene some religion wherein I was to be professed in which he instructed me without using any proofe and demonstration of his doctrine Then I turning to Demetrius
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
Demetrius 159.1 his dreame of Neptune ib. Stoiks opinion of God 812.20 bitterly bent against the Academiques 1082.20 repugnant to common sense and notions both in doctrine and maners 1086.10 they lead a voluptuous life 1058.10 Stones lying within the earth more pliable and easie to be wrought 747.10 Stone why it resoundeth not 770.10 Stone flakes whereof Naperie is made 1345.50 Storks doe us some service 777.10 kinde to their parents 954.20 Storks why honoured by the Thessalians Stratius a surname of Mars 1141 10 Stratocles a great polititian at Athenes 348.40 he 〈◊〉 the Athenians 350.10 Stratonice wise of Deiotarus her kindnesse to her husband 501.40 Straton his disloialtie unto Theophanes and Callisthenes 314.30 Strato his apophthegme of Menedemus and his scholars 155.40 Stratonicus his apophthegme of the Isle Seriphos 273.30 his speech concerning banishment 273.30 how he taxed the Rhodians 211.20 Awispe of Straw or hey why tied to the hornes of curst beasts 673.50 Strength of body how to be regarded 6.50 Struthias a scoffing flatterer 94.10 Styx and the water thereof 1000.40 Styx what it is 1219.20 Sulpitius Gallus why he put away his wife 855.10 Summer 829.40 The Sunnes substance 822.30 his circle 〈◊〉 his magnitude 823.20 his forme or figure ib. 30 Sun-steads or Tropikes 〈◊〉 Sunnes twaine appearing in Pontus 829.10 Sunnes ecclipse how occasioned 824.1 The Sunne the image of God 296.10 Sunne rising how portrayed among the Aegyptians 1291.40 Sunne and Moone row in barges 1301.1 to the Sunne incense burned three times a day 1308.40 The folly of Superstitious persons 262 20.30. c Superstitious folk compared with Atheists 263.30 Of Superstition 260 1.10. c what it is 260.40.598.50 to be avoided ib. 30. how it is bred 260.1 Be Surety and be sure to pay 346.10 Suretiship dangerous 165.20 Surfets how cured 618.40 Surnames drowne other names 1195.1 Swallowes how they build 959.10 Swallowes why to be kept out of our houses 776.40 unthankefull and disloyall 777.1 they will not be tamed ib. 20 Swallowing of our victuals how it is performed 1022.20 Sweet and pleasant how they differ 693.50 Swine eare the Aegyptians land in stead of a plough 710.30 subject to leprosie and the scurfe Psora 711.20 love not to looke up into the aire 711.30 Swine tame why they farrow oftener than the wild 1010.20 Sword-fight at Pisa in olde time 717.1 Sybarits how they invite women to a feast 328.10 Sycophants who they be 143.40 A Sycophant first put to death at Athens 951.5 compared with curious busibodies 143.40 Cornelius Sylla Fortunes minion and adopted sonne 630.30 he surnamed himselfe Foelix ib. his stile ib. 40 Sylla Foelix his apophthegme 103 30. 437. 10. hee advaunced Pompeius and envied not his glory 358.30 envied by Marius 358. 20. hee surnamed himself Epaphroditus 306.10 Sylvanus 913.1 Sylvia mother of Romulus and Remus 632.30 The Symbolicall speech of Heraclitus 103.30 Sympathie in man and wife commended 318.50 Symphonies in Musicke five with their proportions 1358.40 Symposiaca and Sympotica how they differ 662.1 Syncritesmus what it is among the Candiots 188.40 Synorix murdered Sinnatus 1154.30 poisoned by Camma 1154.50 Syssitia what they be and by whom instituted 463.20 T TAbernacles feast of the Jewes 712.10 Table-talke not to be forgotten 642.10 Table makes friends 64.2 Table discourses of Philosophie allowable 642.20 Table why not voided cleane at Rome 748.3.872.1 the Table a sacred thing 750.20 why it is called vertue ib. colde Tables in old time what they were 783.20 Table the foundation of the house 339.30 a Table furnished with meats and drinks commended ib. 40.50 Table talke of two sorts 661.50 Table discourses of learning highly commended 730.1.10 Table talke ought to be used with discretion 742.50 〈◊〉 193.1 commended 53.20 of a Romane seruant 204.10 Talasia and Talosos 861.10 Talassto a word used at weddings 861.10 Talassius an active gentleman 861.20 Tale of the Fox and Crane out of AEgypt 640.40 Tanagra 899.10 Tanaquil wife to Tarquinius Priscus 635.40 Tanaquillis or Tanaquil a wise Lady 863.10 Tantalian riches 298.10 Taphosiris in AEgypt 1295.40 Tarpeia betraied the Capitoll 910.50 Tarquin the proud deposed and banished 491.30 he warreth upon the Romans 491.30 Tarquinius Priscus 630.10 his prowesse 883.40 Tarrias a false cousener 1279.50 Tartarians desired to be devoured of dogs 299.50 Tartarus for the damned 531.50 Taruntius 862.50 Taste how it is performed 838.30 Taunts and merry scoffes how to be used by a States-man 363.40 Taxiles an Indian king his conference with King Alexander 413.20 Teares of wilde-bores sweet of stags and hinds saltish 1010.1 Technatis king of Aegypt loved frugalitie 1290.40 Telamon killeth his brother Phocus 913.40 Telechus his apophthegme 423.10 Telecrus his apophthegme 469.30 Telegonus the sonne of Vlysses Circe 917.50 Telemachus his discretion 214.50 Telemachus bewaileth that hee hath no brother 177.10 Telephus cured by his enimies speare 241.1 Telephus healed by that which wounded him 62.1 Telesphorus encouraged 279.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 1060.1 Teleutia mother of Pedaretus 481.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who he is 225.10 Tellus deemed by Solon happy 96 20 Tellus the goddesse her chappell 1196.20.40 Telesilla her noble acts 486.1 Telesinus 634.20 Temenus 902.50 Temon his stratageme 892.1 Temperance what it is 69.10 how it differeth from continencie 69.20 Temperance and continencie defined 567.1 Temperance of brute beasts compared with that of men 568.569 Tenes and Tenedians 896.40 Tenes staine by Achilles 896.50 L. Terentius redeemed by Scipio the elder 430.20 he wore a cap in the triumph of Scipio ib. Teres his apophthegme 405.1 Tereus 777.1 Teribasus how devoted to the K. of Persia. 264.50 no beast sacrificed to Terminus 855.20 Terminus a god 855.20 Terminalia ib. Ternarie number 807.20 Ternarie number or three called Justice 1317.30 Terpander an ancient Musician 1249.40 Terpsichore the Muse who loveth dauncers 692.30 Tetractys the famous quaternarie of the Pythagoreans called the World ib. 1317.30 Thales his errour 805.30 the first author of Philosophie 16.40 he travelled into Aegypt ib. his opinion of God 812.1 Thales how he answered his mother as touching mariage 691.40 he found out the height of the Pyramis in Aegypt 327.20 admired of K. Amasis 327.20 accused unto him ib. Thalia 797.20 Thalia wherein emploied 799.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 299.20 Thamus pronounceth That the great Pan was dead 1332.11 Thargelia 766.10 Thamyris the musician chalengeth the Muses in song 1249.30 Thamyris the musician how he fared in his anger 121.40 Thaumas the father of the 〈◊〉 828.30 Theacidas his apophthegm 458.1 Theagenes a vaing lorious champion 364.40 Theagenes died in the quarrell of his countrey 503.1 Theano a chaste and sober matron 321.1 Theano daughter of Scedasus 946.10 Theatrical sports banished 358.30 Theatre whereof the word came 1256.50 Thebe the wife of Alexander tyrant of Pherz 428.20 Thectamenes his apophthegme 458.30 Thelonae what nources 870.10 Thematiron what musicke 1252.30 Themisteas his apophthegm 458 10 Themistocles his apophthegmes 417.30 riotous in his youth ib.
you are so yoong a man And why not quoth he for Alexander whom you make a god among you by your decrees is yoonger than my selfe Furthermore over and besides a ready tongue and well exercised he ought to bring with him a strong voice a good breast and a long breath to this combat of State government which I assure you is not lightly to be accounted of but wherein the champion is to be provided for all feats of masteries or fight for feare lest if it chance that his voice faile or be wearie and faint he be overcome and supplanted by some one Catchpoll Crier and of that ranke Wide-mouth'd Jugler or mount-banke And yet Cato the yoonger when he suspected that either the Senate or the people were forestalled by graces laboring for voices and such like prevention so as he had no hope to perswade and compasse such matters as he went about would rise up and holde them all a day long with an oration which he did to drive away the time that at least-wise upon such a day there should be nothing done or passe against his mind But as touching the speech of a governor how powerfull and effectuall it is and how it ought to be prepared we have this already sufficiently treated especially for such an one as is able of himselfe to devise all the rest which consequently followeth hereupon Moreover two avennes as it were or waies there be to come unto the credit of government the one short and compendious yeelding an honourable course to win glory and reputation but it is not without some danger the other longer and more base and obscure howbeit alwaies safe and sure For some there be who making saile and setting their course as a man would say from some high rocke situate in the maine sea have ventured at the first upon some great and worthy enterprise which required valour and hardinesse and so at the very beginning entred into the middes of State-affaires supposing that the Poet Pindarus said true in these his verses A worthy worke who will begin Must when he enters first therein Set out a gay fore front to view Which may farre off the lustre shew For certeinly the multitude and common sort being satisfied and full already of those governours whom they have bene used to a long time receive more willingly all beginners and new-commers much-like as the spectatours and beholders of plaies or games have better affection a great deale to see a new champion entring fresh into the lists And verily all those honours dignities and powerfull authorities which have a sudden beginning and glorious encrease doe ordinarily astonish and daunt all envie for neither doth the fire as Ariston saith make a smoke which is quickly kindled and made to burne out of a light flame nor glorie breed envie when it is gotten at once and speedily but such as grow up by little and little at leisure those be they that are caught therewith some one way and some another And this is the cause that before they come to flower as it were and grow to any credit of government fade and become dead and withered about the publike place of audience But whereas it falleth out according to the Epigram of the courrier or runner Ladas No sooner came the sound of whip to eare But he was at the end of his carreare And then withall in one and selfe-same trice He crowned was with laurell for his price that some one hath at first performed an ambassage honourably rode in triumph gloriously or conducted an armie valiantly neither envious persons nor spightfull ill-willers have like power against such as against others Thus came Aratus into credit the very first day for that he had defaited and overthrowen the tyrant Nicocles Thus Alcibiades woon the spurres when he practised and wrought the alliance betweene the Mantimeans and the Athenians against the Lacedaemonians And when Pompey the great would have entred the citie of Rome in triumph before he had shewed himselfe unto the Senate and was withstood by Sylla who meant to impeach him he stucke not to say unto him More men there be sir who worship the Sun rising than the Sun setting which when Sylla heard he gave place and yeelded unto him without one word replying to the contrary And when as the people of Rome chose and declared Cornelius Scipio Consull all on a sudden and that against the ordinary course of law when as himselfe stood onely to be Aedile it was not upon some vulgar beginning and ordinary entrance into affaires of State but for the great admiration they had of his rare and singular prowesse in that being but a very youth he had mainteined single fight and combat hand to hand with his enemy in Spaine and vanquished him yea and within a while after in the necke of it had atchieved many worthy exploits against the Carthaginians being but a militarie Tribune or Colonel of a thousand foot for which brave acts and services of his Cato the elder as he returned out of the campe cried out with a loud voice of him Right wise and sage indeed alone is he The rest to him but flitting shadowes be But now sir seeing that the cities States of Greece are brought to such tearmes that they have no more armies to conduct nor tyrants to be put downe nor yet alliances to be treated and made what noble and brave enterprise would you have a yoong gentleman performe at his beginning and entrance into government Mary there are left for him publike causes to plead ambassages to negotiate unto the Emperour or some sovereigne potentate which occasions do ordinarily require a man of action hardy and ardent at the first enterprise wise and warie in the finall execution Besides there be many good and honest customes of ancient time either for-let or growen out of kinde by negligence which may be set on foot renewed and reformed againe many abuses also by ill custome are crept into cities where they have taken deepe root and beene setled to the great dishonour and damage of the common-wealth which may be redressed by his meanes It falleth out many times that a great controversie judged and decided aright the triall likewise and proofe of faithfull trust and diligence in a poore mans cause mainteined and defended frankly and boldly against the oppression of some great and mightie adversarie also a plaine and stout speech delivered in the behalfe of right and justice against some grand Signiour who is unjust and injurious have affoorded honorable entries unto the management of State affaires And many there be who have put foorth themselves made their parts knowen and come up by enterteining quarrels and enmities with those personages whose authoritie was odious envied and terrible to the people for we alwaies see that presently the puissance and power of him that is put downe and overthrowen doth accrue unto him who had the upper hand with greater reputation which I speake not
as if I did approve and thought it good for one to oppose himselfe by way of envie unto a man of honour and good respect and who by his vertue holdeth the chiefe place of credit in his countrey thereby to undermine his estate like as Simmias dealt by Pericles Alcmaeon by Themistocles Clodius by Pompeius and Meneclides the Oratour by Epaminondas for this course is neither good nor honourable and besides lesse gainefull and profitable for say that the people in a sudden fit of furious choler commit some outrage and abuse upon a man of worth afterwards when they repent at leasure being coole that which they did hastily in their heat of blood they thinke there is no readier nor juster means to excuse themselves to him than to deface yea and undoe the said partie who first moved and induced them to those proceedings And verily to set upon a wicked person who either by his audacious and inconsiderate rashnesse or by his fine cautelous devices hath gotten the head over a whole citie or brought a state to his devotion such as were in olde time Cleon and Clitophon at Athens to set upon those I say for to bring them under yea and utterly to destroy them out of the way were a notable preamble as it were to the Comedy for him that is mounted upon the stage of a common-wealth and newly entred into the government thereof I am not ignorant likewise that some by clipping the wings or paring the nailes as a man would say of an imperious Senate and lordly Seignoury taking upon them too much and try nnizing by vertue of their absolute sovereigntie which was the practise of one Ephialtes at Athens and another in the citie Elis whose name was Phormio have acquired honour and reputation in their countrey but I holde this to be a dangerous beginning for to be enterprised by them that would come to the managing of State-affaires And it seemeth that Solon made choise of a better entrance than so for the citie of Athens being divided into three parts or regions the first of those that did inhabit the hill the second of them who dwelt upon the plaine and the third of such as kept by the water-side he would not seeme to side with any one of these three parts but caried himselfe indifferent unto them all saying doing what he could to reconcile and reunite them together by which meanes chosen he was by the generall consent of them all the lord Reformer to draw new lawes and conditions of pacification among them and by this practise he established and confirmed the State of Athens Thus you see how a man may enter into the government of the common-wealth by honourable and glorious commencements and this may suffice for the former avenne of the twaine aforesaid unto the affaires of State As for the other way which as it giveth more sure accesse so it is not so expedite and short there have beene many notable men who in old time made choise thereof and loved it better and by name Aristides Phocion Pammenes the Theban Lucullus in Rome Cato and Agesilaus at Lacedaemon for like as the ivie windeth about trees stronger than it selfe and riseth up aloft together with them even so each one of these before-named being yet yoong novices and unknowen joining and coupling themselves with other ancient personages who were already in credit by rising leasurely under the wing and shadow of others and growing with them grounded themselves and tooke good root against the time that they undertooke the government of State Thus Clisthenes raised Aristides Chabrias advanced Phocion by Sylla Lucullus rose Cato by Fab. Maximus Epaminondas came up by Pammenes and Agesilaus by Lysander but this man named last upon a certeine inordinate ambition and importune jealousie did wrong unto his owne reputation by casting and rejecting behind him a worthy personage who guided and directed him in all his actions but all the rest wisely and honestly reverenced acknowledged yea and aided with all their power even to the very end the authors of their rising and advancement much like unto those bodies which are opposed full against the Sunne in returning and sending backe the light that shineth upon them doe augment and illustrate the same so much the more Thus when evill tongued persons who envied and maligned the glory of Scipio gave out that he was but the plaier and actour onely of those woorthy feats of armes which he executed for the authour thereof was Laelius his familiar friend yet Laelius for all these speeches was never mooved nor altered in his purpose but continued still the same man to promote and second the glory and vertue of Scipio As for Afranius the friend of Pompeius notwithstanding he was but of base and low degree yet being upon tearmes to be chosen Consull when he understood that Pompeius fauoured others gave over his sute and let fall the possibilitie that he had saying withal That it would not be so honourable unto him for to be promoted unto that dignitie of Consulate as grievous and troublesome to obteine the same against the good will and without the favour and assistance of Pompeius and so in deferring and putting off the matter but one yeere longer he had not the repulse when the time came and therewith he kept his friend still and enjoied his favour And by this meanes it commeth to passe that those who are thus led by the hand of others and trained to the way of preferment and glorie in gratifying one do gratisie many withall and besides if any inconvenience chance to ensue the lesse odious they be and hatefull for it which was the reason that Philip king of Macedonie earnestly exhorted and admonished his sonne Alexander that he should provide himselfe of many friends and servitours whiles he might and had leasure even during the reigne of another namely by conversing and conferring graciously with every one and by cheerefull behaviour and affabilitie to all for to winne their love and favour but when he was once invested in the kingdome to chuse for his guide and conductour in the managing of State-affaires not simply him who is of most credit and greatest reputation but rather the man who is such an one by his desert and vertue for like as every tree will not admit a vine to wind about the trunke body thereof for some there be that do choke utterly marre the growth of it even so in the government of cities States those who are not truely honest and lovers of vertue but ambitious and desirous of honour and sovereignty onely affoord not unto yong men the meanes and occasions of worthy enterprises and noble acts but upon envie and jealousie holde them under and put them backe as farre as they can and thus make them to consume and languish as if they deteined from them their glorie and cut them short of that which is their onely food and nourishment Thus did Marius
honoured and worshipped among the Samnites His wife Fabta had committed adulterie with a faire and well favoured yoong man named Petronius Valentinus and afterwards treacherously killed her husband Now had Fabia his daughter saved her brother Fabricianus being a verie little one out of danger and sent him away secretly to be nourished and brought up This youth when he came to age killed both his mother and the adulterer also for which act ofhis acquit he was by the doome of the Senate as Dositheus delivereth the storie in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 38 Busiris the sonne of Neptune and Anippe daughter of Nilus under the colour of pretended hospitalitie and courteous receiving of strangers used to sacrifice all passengers but divine justice met with him in the end and revenged their death for Hercules set upon him and killed him with his club as Agathon the Samian hath written Hercules as he drave before him thorow Italy Geryons kine was lodged by king Faunus the sonne of Mercurie who used to sacrifice all strangers and guests to his father but when hee meant to do so unto Hercules was himselfe by him slaine as writeth Dercyllus in the third booke of the Italian histories 39 Phalaris the tyrant of the Agrigentines a mercilesse prince was wont to torment put to exquisite paine such as passed by or came unto him and Perillus who by his profession was a skilfull brasse-founder had framed an heyfer of brasse which he gave unto this king that hee might burne quicke in it the said strangers And verily in this one thing did this tyrant shew himselfe just for that he caused the artificer himself to be put into it and the said heyfer seemed to low whiles he was burning within as it is written in the third booke of Causes In Aegesta a citie of Sicilie there was sometime a cruell tyrant named Aemilius Censorinus whose manner was to reward with rich gifts those who could invent new kinds of engines to put men to torture so there was one named Aruntius Paterculus who had devised and forged a brasen horse and presented it unto the foresaid tyrant that he might put into it whom he would And in truth the first act of justice that ever he did was this that the partie himselfe even the maker of it gave the first hansell thereof that he might make triall of that torment himselfe which he had devised for others Him also hee apprehended afterwards and caused to bee throwen downe headlong from the hill Tarpeius It should seeme also that such princes as reigned with violence were called of him Aemylii for so Aristides reporteth in the fourth booke of Italian Chronicles 40 Euenus the son of Mars Sterope tooke to wife Alcippe daughter of Oenomaus who bare unto him a daughter named Marpissa whom he minded to keepe a virgin still but Aphareus seeing her carried her away from a daunce and fled upon it The father made suce after but not able to recover her for verie anguish of mind he cast himselfe into the river of Lycormas and thereby was immortalized as saith Dositheus in the fourth booke of his Italian historie Anius king of the Tuskans having a faire daughter named Salia looked straightly unto her that she should continue a maiden but Cathetus one of his nobles seeing this damosell upon a time as she disported herselfe was enamoured of her and not able to suppresse the furious passion of his love ravished her and brought her to Rome The father pursued after but seeing that he could not overtake them threw himselfe into the river called in those daies Pareüsuis and afterwards of his name Anio Now the said Cathetus lay with Salia and of her bodie begat Salius and Latinus from whom are discended the noblest families of that countrey as Aristides the Milesian and Alexander Polyhistor write in the third booke of the Italian historie 41 Egestratus an Ephesian borne having murdered one of his kinfmen fled into the citie Delphi and demaunded of Apollo in what place he should dwell who made him this answere that he was to inhabit there whereas he saw the peasants of the countrey dauncing and crowned with chaplets of olive branches Being arrived therefore at a certaine place in Asia where he found the rurall people crowned with garlands of olive leaves and dauncing even there hee founded a citie which he called Elaeus as Pythocles the Samian writeth in the third booke of his Georgicks Telegonus the sonne of Vlysses by Circe being sent for to seeke his father was advised by the oracle to build a citie there where he should find the rusticall people and husbandmen of the countrey crowned with chaplets and dauncing together when he was arrived therefore at a certaine coast of Italie seeing the peasants adorned with boughes branches of the wild olive tree passing the time merily and dauncing together he built a citie which upon that occurrent he named Prinesta and afterwards the Romans altering the letters a little called it Preneste as Aristotle hath written in the third booke of the Italian historie THE LIVES OF THE TEN ORATOVRS The Summarie IN these lives compendiously descibed Plutarch sheweth in part the government of the Athenian common-weale which flourished by the meanes of many learned persons in the number of whom we are to reckon those under written namely Antipho Andocides Lysias Isocrates Isaeus Aeschines Lycurgus Demosthenes Hyperides and Dinarchus but on the other side he discovereth sufficiently the indiscretion of cretaine oratours how it hath engendred much confusion ruined the most part of such personages themselves and finally overthrowen the publick estate which he seemeth expresly to have noted and observed to the end that every one might see how dangerous in the managemēt of State affaires he is who hath no good parts in him but onely a fine and nimble tongue His meaning therefore is that lively vertue indeed should be joined unto eloquence meane while we observe also the lightnesse vanitie and ingratitude of the Athenian people in many places and in the divers complexions of these ten men here depainted evident it is how much availeth in any person good in struction from his infancie and how powerfull good teachers be for to frame and fashion tender minds unto high matters and important to the weale publicke In perusing and passing through this treatise a man may take knowledge of many points of the ancient popular government which serve verie well to the better understanding of the Greeke historie and namely of that which concerneth Athens As also by the recompenses both demanded and also decreed in the behalfe of vertuous men we may perceive and see among the imperfections of a people which had the soveraigntie in their hands some moderation from time to time which ought to make us magnifie the wisedome and providence of God who amid so great darkneffe hath maintained so long as his good pleasure was so many States and governours in Greece which
afterwards fell away and came to nothing so as at this present that goodly countrey is become subject and made thrall to the most violent wicked and wretched nation under heaven THE LIVES OF THE ten oratours ANTIPHON I. ANtipho the sonne of Saphilus and borne in the borough and corporation of Karannum was brought up as a scholar under his owne father who kept a Rhetorick schoole whereunto Alcibiades also by report was wont to go and resort when he was a young boy who having gotten sufficiencie of speech and eloquence as some thinke himselfe such was the quicknesse of his wit and inclination of of his nature he betooke himselfe to affaires of State and yet he held a schoole neverthelesse where he was at some difference with Socrates the Philosopher in matter of learning and oratorie not by way of contention and aemulation but in maner of reprehension finding fault with some points as Xenophon testifieth in the first booke of his Commentaries as touching the deeds and sayings of Socrates He penned orations for some citizens at their request for to be pleaded and pronounced in judiciall courts and as it is given out by some was the first who gave himselfe to this course and professed so to do for there is not extant one oration written in maner of a plea by any oratours who lived before his time no more by those that flourished in his daies for it was not the maner yet and custome to compose oraions for others Themistocles I meane Pericles and Aristides notwithstanding that the time presented unto them many occasions yea and meere necessiries so to do neither was it upon their insufficiencie that they thus abstained as it may appeare by that which Historians have written of everie one of these men above mentioned Moreover if we looke into the most ancient oratours whom we can cal to mind to wit Alcibiades Critias Lysius and Archilochus who have written one the same stile and exercised the same forme maner of pleading it wil be found that they all conversed and conferred with Antiphon being now very aged and farre stept in yeeres for being a man of an excellent quicke and readie wit he was the first that made and put forth the Institutions of oratorie so as for his profound knowledge he was surnamed Nestor And Cecilius in a certaine treatise which he compiled of him conjectureth that he had beene sometime schoolemaster to Thucydides the Historiographer for that Antipho is so highly commended by him In his speeches and orations he is verie exquisite and ful of perswasion quicke and subtil in his inventions in difficult matters verie artificiall assailing his adversarie after a covert maner turning his words and sayings respective to the lawes and to move affections withal aiming alwaies to that which is decent seemely and carying the best apparance shew with it He lived about the time of the Persian warre when Gorgias Leontinus the great professor in Rhetoricke flourished being somewhat yonger than he was and he continued to the subversion of the popular state and government which was wrought by the 400 conspirators wherin himselfe seemed to have had a principall hand for that he had the charge and command of two great gallies at sea and was besides a captaine and had the leading of certaine forces during which time he wan the victorie in divers battels and procured unto them the aide of many allies also he moved the young and lustie able man of warre to take armes he rigged manned and set out sixtie gallies and in all their occasions was sent embassadour to the Lacedaemonians when as the citie Ectionia was fortified with a wall but after that those 400 before said were put downe and overthrowen he was together with Archiptolemus one of the 400 accused for the conspiracie condemned and adjudged to the punishment which is due unto traitours His corps was cast forth without sepulture himselfe and all his posteritie registred for infamous persons upon record and yet some there be who report that he was put to death by the 30 tyrants and namely among the rest Lysias testifieth as much in an oration which he made for Antiphoes daughter for a little daughter he had unto whom Calleschrus made claime in right for his wife and that the thirtie tyrants wee they who put him to death Theopompus beareth witnesse in the fifteenth of his Philippickes But more moderne surely was this man and of a later time yea and the sonne of one Lysidonides of whom 〈◊〉 maketh mention as of no wicked man in his commedie called Pytine For how should he who before was executed by those 400 returne to life againe in the time of the thirtie usurpers or tyrants but his death is reported otherwise namely that being verie aged he sailed into Cicily when as the tyrannie of the former Denys was at the highest and when the question was proposed at the table which was the best brasse as some said this and others that he answered that for his part he thought that brasse was best whereof the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton were made which when Denys heard he imagining that the speech imported thus much covertly as to set on the Syracusians for to attempt some violence upon his person commanded him to be put to death Others report that the said tyrant gave order that he should be made away upon indignation that he skoffed at his tragoedies There be extant in this oratours name three score orations whereof as Cecilius saith 25 are untruly reported to be his Noted he is and taxed by Plato the comicall poet together with Pysander for avarice love of money It is said moreover that he composed certaine tragoedies alone and others with Dionysius the tyrant who joined with him At the same time also when he gave his mind unto Poetrie he devised the art of curing the griefes and maladies of the minde like as physicians pretend skill for to heale the diseases and paines of the bodie Certes having built a little house at Corinth in the market place hee set up a bill on the gate wherein hee made profession That he had the skill to remedie by words those who were vexed and grieved in spirit and he would demaund of those who were amisse the causes of their sorrow and according thereto apply his comforts and consolations Howbeit afterwards supposing this art and profession to be too base and meane for him he turned his studie to Rhetoricke and taught it Some there be who attribute unto Antipho the booke of Glaucus the Rhegine as touching poets but principally is that treatise commended which he made unto Herodotus as also that which is dedicated to Erasistratus touching the Ideaes and the oration of Message which he penned for his owne selfe another against Demosthenes the captaine which he named Paranomon for that he charged him to have broken the lawes Also another oration he wrote against Hippocrates the general commander