the first Consuls that ever bare rule in Rome were enstalled immediatly upon the deposition and expulsion of the kings out of the citie But there seemeth to be more probability likelihood of truth in their speech who say that Romulus being a martiall prince and one that loved warre and feats of armes as being reputed the sonne of Mars set before all other moneths that which caried the name of his father how be it Numa who succeedednext after him being a man of peace and who endevored to withdraw the hearts and minds of his subjects and citizens from warre to agriculture gave the prerogative of the first place unto Januarie and honoured Janus most as one who had beene more given to politick government and to the husbandrie of ground than to the exercise of warre and armes Consider moreover whether Numa chose not this moneth for to begin the yeere withall as best sorting with nature in regard of us for otherwise in generall there is no one thing of all those that by nature turne about circularly that can be said first or last but according to the severall institutions and ordinances of men some begin the time at this point others at that And verely they that make the Winter solstice or hibernall Tropick the beginning of their yeere do the best of all others for that the Sunne ceasing then to passe farther beginneth to returne and take his way againe toward us for it seemeth that both according to the course of nature and also in regard of us this season is most 〈◊〉 to begin the yeere for that it increaseth unto us the time of daie light and diminisheth the darknesse of night and causeth that noble starre or planet to approch neerer and come toward us the lord governour and ruler of all substance transitorie and fluxible matter whatsoever 20 Why do women when they dresse up and adorne the chappell or shrine of their feminine goddesse whom they call Bona never bring home for that purpose any branches of Myrtle tree and yet otherwise have a delight to employ all sorts of leaves and flowers MAy it not be for that as some fabulous writers tell the tale there was one Flavius a soothsaier had a wife who used secretly to drinke wine and when she was surprised and taken in the manner by her husband she was well beaten by him which myrtle rods and for that cause they bring thither no boughs of myrtle marry they offer libations unto this goddesse of wine but forsooth they call it Milke Or is it not for this cause that those who are to celebrate the ceremonies of this divine service ought to be pure and cleane from all pollutions but especially from that of Venus or lechery For not onely they put out of the roome where the service is performed unto the said goddesse Bona all men but also whatsoever is besides of masculine sex which is the reason that they so detest the myrtle tree as being consecrated unto Venus insomuch as it should seeme they called in old time that Venus Myrtea which now goeth under the name of Murcia 21 What is the reason that the Latines doe so much honour and reverence the Woodpecker and forbeare altogether to doe that bird any harme IS it for that Picus was reported in old time by the enchantments and forceries of his wife to have changed his owne nature and to be metamorphozed into a Woodpecker under which forme he gave out oracles and delivered answeres unto those who propounded unto him any demaunds Or rather because this seemeth a meere fable and incredible tale there is another storie reported which carieth more probabilitie with it and soundeth neerer unto trueth That when Romulus and Remus were cast foorth and exposed to death not onely a female woolfe gave them her teats to sucke but also a certeine Woodpecker flew unto them and brought them food in her bill and so fedde them and therefore haply it is that ordinarily in these daies wee may see as Nigidius hath well observed what places soever at the foot of an hill covered and shadowed with oakes or other trees a Woodpecker haunteth thither customably you shall have a woolfe to repaire Or peradventure seeing their maner is to consecrate unto every god one kinde of birde or other they reputed this Woodpecker sacred unto Mars because it is a couragious and hardy bird having a bill so strong that he is able to overthrow an oke therewith after he hath jobbed and pecked into it as farre as to the very marrow and heart thereof 22 How is it that they imagine Janus to have had two faces in which maner they use both to paint and also to cast him in mold IS it for that he being a Graecian borne came from 〈◊〉 as we finde written in histories and passing forward into Italy dwelt in that countrey among the Barbarous people who there lived whose language and maner of life he changed Or rather because he taught and perswaded them to live together after a civill and honest sort in husbandry and tilling the ground whereas before time their manners were rude and their fashions savage without law or justice altogether 23 What is the cause that they use to sell at Rome all things perteining to the furniture of 〈◊〉 within the temple of the goddesse Libitina supposing her to be Venus THis may seeme to be one of the sage and philosophicall inventions of king Numa to the end that men should learne not to abhorre such things not to 〈◊〉 from them as if they did pollute and defile them Or else this reason may be rendred that it serveth for a good record and memoriall to put us in minde that whatsoever had a beginning by generation shall likewise come to an end by death as if one and the same goddesse were superintendent and governesse of nativitie and death for even in the city of Delphos there is a pretie image of Venus surnamed Epitymbia that is to say sepulchrall before which they use to raise and call foorth the ghosts of such as are departed for to receive the libaments and sacred liquors powred foorth unto them 24 Why have the Romans in every moneth three beginnings as it were to wit certeine principall and prefixed or preordeined daies and regard not the same intervall or space of daies betweene IS it because as Juba writeth in his chronicles that the chiefe magistrates were wont upon the first day of the moneth to call and summon the people whereupon it tooke the name of Calends and then to denounce unto them that the Nones should be the fift day after and as for the Ides they held it to be an holy and sacred day Or for that they measuring and determining the time according to the differences of the moone they observed in her every moneth three principall changes and diversities the first when she is altogether hidden namely during her conjunction with the sunne the second when she
is somewhat remooved from the beames of the sunne beginneth to shew herselfe croissant in the evening toward the West whereas the sunne setteth the third when she is at the full now that occultation and hiding of hers in the first place they named Calends for that in their tongue whatsoever is secret hidden they say it is Clam and to hide or keepe close they expresse by this word Celare and the first day of the moones illumination which wee heere in Greece tearme Noumenia that is to say the new-moone they called by a most just name Nonae for that which is new and yoong they tearme Novum in manner as wee doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for the Ides they tooke their name of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifieth beautie for that the moone being then at the full is in the very perfection of her beautie or haply they derived this denomination of Dios as attributing it to Jupiter but in this we are not to search out exactly the just number of daies nor upon a small default to slander and condemne this maner of reckoning seeing that even at this day when the science of Astrologie is growen to so great an increment the inequalitie of the motion and course of the moone surpasseth all experience of Mathematicians and cannot be reduced to any certeine rule of reason 25 What is the cause that they repute the morrowes after Calends Nones and Ides disasterous or dismall dates either for to set forward upon any journey or voiage or to march with an army into the field IS it because as many thinke and as Titus Livius hath recorded in his storie the Tribunes militarie at what time as they had consular and soveraigne authoritie went into the field with the Romane armie the morrow after the Ides of the moneth Quintilis which was the same that July now is and were discomfited in a battell by the Gaules neere unto the river Allia and cōsequently upon that overthrow lost the very city it selfe of Rome by which occasion the morrow after the Ides being held and reputed for a sinister and unluckie day superstition entring into mens heads proceeded farther as she loveth alwaies so to doe and brought in the custome for to hold the morrow after the Nones yea and the morrow after the Calends as unfortunate and to be as religiously observed in semblable cases But against this there may be opposed many objections for first and formost they lost that battell upon another day and calling it Alliensis by the name of the river Allia where it was strucken they have it in abomination for that cause Againe whereas there be many daies reputed dismall and unfortunate they doe not observe so precisely and with so religious feare other daies of like denomination in every moneth but ech day apart onely in that moneth wherein such and such a disaster hapned and that the infortunitie of one day should draw a superstitious feare simply upon all the morrowes after Calends Nones and Ides carieth no congruitie at all not apparence of reason Consider moreover and see whether as of moneths they used to consecrate the first to the gods celestiall the second to the terrestriall or infernall wherein they performe 〈◊〉 expiatorie ceremonies and sacrifices of purification and presenting offrings and services to the dead so of the daies in the moneth those which are chiefe and principall as hath beene said they would not have to be kept as sacred and festivall holidaies but such as follow after as being dedicated unto the spirits called Daemons and those that are departed they also have esteemed cōsequently as unhappy altogether unmeet either for to execute or to take in hand any businesse for the Greeks adoring and serving the gods upon their new moones and first daies of the moneth have attributed the second daies unto the demi-gods and Daemons like as at their feasts also they drinke the second cup unto their demi-gods and demi-goddesses In summe Time is a kinde of number and the beginning of number is I wot not what some divine thing for it is Unitie and that which commeth next after it is Deuz or two cleane opposite unto the said beginning and is the first of all even numbers as for the even number it is defective unperfect and indefinit whereas contrariwise the uneven or odde number it selfe is finite complet and absolute and for this cause like as the Nones succeed the Calends five daies after so the Ides follow the Nones nine daies after them for the uneven and odde numbers doe determine those beginnings or principall daies but those which presently ensue after the said principall daies being even are neither ranged in any order nor have power and puissance and therefore men doe not enterprise any great worke nor set foorth voiage or journey upon such daies and heereto wee may to good purpose annex that pretie speech of Themistocles For when the morrow quoth he upon a time quarrelled with the festivall day which went next before it saying that herselfe was busied and tooke a great deale of pains preparing providing with much travel those goods which the feast enjoied at her ease with all repose rest and leisure the Festivall day made this answer Thou saidst true indeed but if I were not where wouldst thoube This tale Themistocles devised and delivered unto the Athenian captaines who came after him giving them thereby to understand that neither they nor any acts of theirs would ever have beene seene unlesse hee before them had saved the citie of Athens Forasmuch then as every enterprise and voiage of importance hath need of provision and some preparatives and for that the Romans in old time upon their festivall daies dispensed nothing nor tooke care for any provision being wholy given and devoted at such times to the service worship of God doing that nothing else like as even yet at this day when the priests begin to sacrifice they pronounce with a loud voice before all the companie there assembled HOCAGE that is to say Minde this and doe no other thing verie like it is and standeth to great reason that they used not to put themselves upon the way for any long voiage nor tooke in hand any great affaire or businesse presently after a festivall day but kept within house all the morrow after to thinke upon their occasions and to provide all things necessarie for journey or exploit or we may conjecture that as at this very day the Romans after they have adored the gods and made their praiers unto them within their temples are woont to stay there a time and sit them downe even so they thought it not reasonable to cast their great affaires so as that they should immediately follow upon any of their festivall daies but they allowed some respit and time betweene as knowing full well that businesses carie with them alwaies many troubles and hinderances beyond the opinion expectation and will
most sant oblations that is for so saith Epaminondas the Thebane fighting valiantly and exposing your selves to the most honorable and bravest services that be in defence of countrey of your auncestors tombes and sepulchers and of your temples and religion mee thinks also I see their victories comming toward mee in solemne pompe and procession not drawing or leading after them for their prize and reward an ox or a goat neither be the said victories crowned with ivie or smelling strong of new wine in the lees as the Bacchanales doe but they have in their traine whole cities islands continents and firme lands as well mediterranean as maritime sea-coasts together with new colonies of ten thousand men a piece to be planted heere and there and withall crowned they be and adorned on every side with trophaes with triumphes pillage and booty of all sorts the ensignes badges and armes that these victorious captaines give the images also that they represent in shew be their stately beautiful temples as the Parthenon the Hecatompedos their city walles on the south side the arcenals to receive lodge their ships their beautifull porches and galleries the province of the demy isle Chersonesus the city Amphipolis as for the plaine of Marathon it goeth before the laureat garland and victorie of Miltiades Solanius accompanieth that of Themistocles trampling under his feet and going over the broken timber and shipwracke of a thousand vessels as for the victory of Cimon it bringeth with it an hundred Phaenician great gallies from the rivers Eurymedon that of Demosthenes and Cleon comes from Sphacteria with the targuet of captaine Brasidas wonne in the field and a number of his souldiers captive and bound in chaines the victory of Conon walled the city and that of Thrasibulus reduced the people with victorie and liberty from Phyle the sundry victories of Alcibiades set upright the State of the city which by the infortunate overthrow in Sicilie reeled and was ready to fall to the ground and by the battel 's fought by Neleus and Androclus in Lydia and Carta Greece saw all Jonta raised up againe and supported And if a man demaund of each one of the other victories what benefit hath accrued unto the city by them one will name the isle Lesbos and another Samos one will speake of the Euxine sea and another of sive hundred gallies and he shall have another talke of ten thousand talents over and above the honour and glory of trophaees These be the causes why this city doeth solemnize and celebrate to many festivall daies and heereupon it is that it offreth sacrifices as it doeth to the gods not iwis for the victory of Aeschylus or Sophocles nor for the prizes of poetry no nor when Carcinus lay with Aerope or Astidamus with Hector But upon the sixth of May even to this present day the city holdeth festivall the memory of that victory in the plaines of Marathon and the sixth day of * another * moneth maketh a solemne offring of wine unto the gods in remembrance of that victorie which Chabrias obteined neere unto the isle Naxos and upon the 12. day of the same moneth there is another sacrifice likewise performed in the name of a thankes-giving to the gods for their liberty recovered because upon the same day those citizens which were prisoners and in bondage within Phyle came downe and returned into the city upon the third day of March they wonne the famous field of Platea and the sixteenth day of the said March they consecrated to Diana for on that day this goddesse shone bright and it was full moone to the victorious Greeks before the isle of 〈◊〉 The noble victory which they archieved before the citie of Mantinea made the twelfth day of September more holy and with greater solemnity observed for upon that day when all other their allies and associates were discomfited and put to flight they onely by their valour wonne the field and erected a trophae over their enemies who were upon the point of victory See what hath raised this city to such grandence Lo what hath exalted it to so high a pitch of honor and this was the cause that Pindarus called the city of Athens the pillar that supported Greece not for that by the tragedies of Phrynichus or Thespis if set the fortune of the Greeks upright but in regard of this that as himselfe writeth in another place along the coast of Artemisium Where Athens youth as poet Pindar said Of freedome first the glorious ground worke laid And afterwards at Salamis at Mycale and Plataees having setled it firme and strong as upon a rocke of diamonds they delivered it from hand to hand unto others But haply some man will say True it is indeed all that ever poets doe are no better than sports and pastimes But what say you to oratours they seeme to have some prerogative gative and ought to be compared with martiall captaines whereupon it may seeme as Aeschynes scoffing merily and quipping at Demosthenes said That there is some reason why the barre or pulpit for publicke orations may commence action and processe against the tribunall seat of generals and their chaire of estate Is it then meet and reasonable that the oration of Hyperides intituled Plataicus should be preferred before the victory which Aristides wonne before the city Platea or the oration of Lysies against the thirty tyrants goe before the massacre and execution of them performed by Thrasybelus and Archias or that of Aeschines against Timarchus being accused for keeping harlots and a brothell house before the aide that Phocion brought into the city of Byzantium besieged by which succour he impeached the Macedonians and repressed their insolent vilanies and outrages committed in abusing the children of the Athenian consederates or shall we compare the oration of Demosthenes as touching the crowne with those publicke and honorable coronets which Themistocles received for setting Greece free considering that the most excellent place of all the said oration and fullest of eloquence is that wherein the said oratour conjureth the soules of those their auncestors and citeth them for witnesses who in the battell of Marathon exposed their lives with such resolution for the saftie of Greece or shall we put in balance to weigh against woorthy warriours these that in schooles teach yoong men rhetoricke namely such as Isocrates Antiphon and Isaeus But certeine it is that this city honored those valiant captaines with publicke funerals and with great devotion gathered up the reliques of their bodies yea and the same oratour canonized them for gods in heaven when he sware by them although he followed not their steps and Isocrates who extolled and highly praised those who manfully sought willing were to spend their hartbloud in the battell of Marathon saying that they made so little account of their lives as if their owne soules had bene else-where other mens in their bodies magnifying this their resolution and the small
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
chaunt a sonet or hymne unto Apollo Pythius for the safetie of himselfe the ship and all those fellow passengers who were within it he stood upright on his feet in the poope close to the ship side and after he had founded a certaine invocation or praier to the sea-gods he chanted the canticle beforesaid and as he was in the mids of his song the sunne went downe and seemed to settle within the sea and with that they began to discover Peloponnesus Then the marriners who could no longer stay nor tarrie for the darke night came toward for to kill him when he saw their naked swords drawen and beheld the foresaid Pilot how he covered his face because he would not see so vilanous a spectacle he cast himselfe over ship-boord and leapt as farre into the sea from the ship as he could but before that his whole bodie was under the water the dolphins made haste and from beneath were readie to beare him up for sinking Full of feare and perturbation of spirit hee was at first insomuch as being astonied thereat hee wist not what it might be but within a while after perceiving that he was carried at ease and seeing a great flote of dolphins environing gently round about him and that they succeeded and seconded one another by turnes for to take the charge of carrying him as if it had beene a service imposed upon them all and whereunto they were necessarily obliged and seeing besides that the carrike was a good way behind by which he gathered that he went apace and was carried away with great celerity He was not quoth Gorgias so fearful of death or desirous otherwise to live as hee had an ambitious desire to arrive once at the haven of safetie to the ende that the world might know that he stood in the grace and favour of the gods and that he reposed an assured beliefe and firme affiance in them beholding as he did the skie full of starres the moone arising pure and cleere with exceeding brightnesse and the whole sea about him smooth and calme but that the course of these dolphins traced out a certaine way and path so that hee thought thus within himselfe that the divine justice had not one eie alone but as many eies as there were starres in the heaven and that God beheld all about whatsoever was done both by sea and land Which cogitations and thoughts of mind quoth he mightily strengthened and sustained my bodie which otherwise was readie to faint and yeeld with travell and wearinesse finally when the dolphins were come as farre as to the great promontorie of Tenarus so high and steepe they were verie warie and careful that they ran not upon it but turned gently at one side and swom behind it a long the coast as if they would have conducted a barke safe and sound to a sure bay and landing place whereby he perceived evidently that carried he was thus by the guidance of the divine providence After that Arion said Gorgias had made all this discourse unto us I inquired of him where he thought that the ship above said intēded to arrive At Corinth quoth he without all doubt but it will be very late first for it being toward evening when I leapt into the sea I suppose that I was carried upon the dolphins backs no lesse than a course of five hundred furlongs and no sooner was I from ship-boord but there insued presently a great calme at sea Moreover Gorgias said That he having learned the names aswell of the ship-master as the pilot and withall knowen what badge or ensigne the ship carried made out certaine pinnaces and those manned with souldiours for to observe what creeks commodious baies and landing places there were upon the said coast but as for Arion Gorgias conveied him secretly with him for feare lest if the mariners should have had any advertisement of his deliverie and safetie they might flie away and escape But as God would have it every thing fell out so as we might see quoth Gorgias the very immediat hand of the divine power for at one and the same instant that I arrived here I had intelligence also that the said ship was fallen into the hands of those souldiors whom I set out and so the mariners and passengers within it were taken all prisoners Hereupon Periander commanded Gorgias presently to arise to apprehend them and lay them up fast in close prison where no person might have accesse unto them or certifie them that Arion was alive and safe Then Aesope Mocke on now quoth he at my gaies and crowes that talke and tell tales when you see that dolphins also can in this wise play their youthfull parts and atchieve such prowesses Nay quoth I then we are able to report Aesope another narration like to this which hath benefer downe in writing and received for currant and good these thousand yeeres passed and more even from the daies of Ino and Athamas Then Solon taking occasion of speech by these words Yea but these matters ô 〈◊〉 quoth he concerne the gods more neerely and surpasse our puissance but as for that which befell to Hesiodus was a meere humane accident and not impertinent unto us for I suppose you have heard the historie tolde No I assure you quoth I But woorth it is the hearing quoth Solon againe And thus by report it was A certaine Milesian with whom as it should seeme Hesiodus had familiar acquaintance in so much as they lodged eat and drunke together ordinarily in the citie of Locres kept their hosts daughter secretly and abused her body so as in the end he was taken with the manner Now was Hesiodus suspected to have beene privie to him of this vilannie from the verie beginning yea and to have kept the doore and assisted him in concealing the same whereas indeed he was in no fault at all nor culpable any way howbeit by means of false suspitions and sinister surmizes of people hee incurred much anger and was hardly thought of neither could he avoide the unjust imputations of the world for the brethren of the yoong damosell lay in ambush for him neere unto a wood about Locri set upon and slew him outright together with his servant or page Troilus who tended upon him After this murther committed and their bodies cast into the sea it chanced that the corps of Troilus being carried foorth into the river Daphnus rested upon a rocke environed and dashed round about with the water and the same not far from the sea which rocke thereupon tooke his name and is so called at this day But the dead bodie of Hesiodus immediately from the land was received by a float or troupe of Dolphins and by them carried as farre as to the capes Rhion and Molychria It fortuned at the verie same time that the citizens of Locri held a solemne assembly and celebrated festivall sacrifices called Rhia which they performe even at this daie also in the verie same place
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
lawyer although he had no law in the world in him and was besides a man of very grosse capacity this man was served with a writ to appeare in the court for to beare witnesse of a trueth touching a certeine fact in question but he answered That he knew nothing at all True quoth Cicero for peradventure you meane of the law and thinke that you are asked the question of it Hortensius the orator who pleaded the cause of Verres had received of him for a fee or a gentle reward a jewel with the portraiture of Sphinx in silver it fell out so that Cicero chanced to give out a certeine darke and ambiguous speech As for mee quoth Hortensius I can not tell what to make of your words for I am not one that useth to solve riddles and aenigmaticall speeches Why man quoth Cicero and yet you have Sphinx in your house He met upon a time with Voconius and his three daughters the foulest that ever looked out of a paire of eies at which object he spake softly to his friends about him This man I weene his children hath begot In spight of Phoebus and when he would it not Faustus the sonne of Sylla was in the end so farre endebted that he exposed his goods to be sold in open sale and caused billes to be set up on posts in every quarrefour to notisie the same Yea mary quoth Cicero I like these billes and proscriptions better than those that his father published before him When Caesar and Pompeius were entred into open warre one against another I know full well quoth Cicero whom to flie but I wot not unto whom to flie He found great fault with Pompeius in that he left the citie of Rome and that he chose rather in this case to imitate the policy of Themistocles than of Pericles saying That the present state of the world resembled rather the time of Pericles than of Themistocles Hee drew at first to Pompeius side and being with him repented thereof When Pompey asked him where he had left Piso his son-in-law he answered readily Even with your good father-in-law meaning Caesar. There was one who departed out of Caesars campe unto Pompey and said That he had made such haste that hee left his horse behinde him Thou canst skill I perceive better to save thy horses life than thine owne Unto another who brought word that the friends of Caesar looked soure and unpleasant Thou saiest quoth he as much as if they thought not well of his proceedings After the battell of Pharsalia was lost and that Pompeius was already fled there was one Nonius who came unto him and willed him not to despaire but be of good cheere for that they had yet seven eagles left which were the standerds of the legions Seven eagles quoth he that were somewhat indeed if we had to warre against jaies jackdawes After that Caesar upon his victorie being lord of all had caused the statues of Pompey which were cast done to be set up againe with honor Cicero said of Caesar In setting up these statues of Pompey he hath pitched his owne more surely He so highly esteemed the gift of eloquence and grace of well speaking yea and he tooke so great paines with ardent affection for to performe the thing that having to plead a cause onely before the Centumvirs or hundred judges and the day set downe being neere at hand for the hearing and triall thereof when one of his servants Eros brought him word that the cause was put off to the next day he was so well contented and pleased therewith that incontinently he gave him his freedome for that newes CAIUS CAESAR at what time as he being yet a yoong man fled and avoided the furie of Sylla fell into the hands of certeine pirats or rovers who at the first demanded of him no great summe of money for his ransome whereat hee mocked and laughed at them as not knowing what maner of person they had gotten and so of himselfe promised to pay them twise as much as they asked and being by them guarded and attended upon very diligently all the while that he sent for to gather the said summe of money which he was to deliver them he willed them to keepe silence and make no noise that he might sleepe and take his repose during which time that he was in their custodie he exercised himselfe in writing aswell verse as prose and read the same to them when they were composed and if hee saw that they would not praise and commend those poemes and orations sufficiently to his contentment he would call them senselesse fots and barbarous yea and after a laughing maner threaten to hang them and to say a truth within a while after he did as much for them for when his ransome was come and he delivered once out of their hands he levied together a power of men and ships from out of the coasts of Asia set upon the said rovers spoiled them and crucified them Being returned to Rome and having enterprised a sute for the soveraign Sacerdotall dignitie against Catulus who was then a principall man at Rome whenas his mother accompanied him as farre as to the utmost gates of his house when he went into Mars field where the election was held he took his leave of her and said Mother you shall have this day your sonne to be chiefe Pontifice and high priest or else banished from the citie of Rome He put away his wife Pompeia upon an ill name that went of her as if she had beene naught with Clodius whereupon when Clodius afterwards was called into question judicially for the fact and Caesar likewise convented into the court peremptorily for to beare witnesse of the truth being examined upon his oath he sware that he never knew any ill at all by his wife and when he was urged and replied upon againe wherefore he had put her away he answered That the wife of Caesar ought not onely to be innocent and cleere of crime but also of all suspicion of crime In reading the noble acts of Alexander the great the teares trickled downe his cheeks and when his friends desired to know the reason why he wept At my age quoth he Alexander had vanquished subdued Darius and I have yet done nothing As he passed along through a little poore towne situate within the Alpes his familiar friends about him merrily asked one another whether there were any factions and contentions in that burrough about superioritie and namely who should be the chiefe whereupon he staid suddenly and after he had studied and mused a while within himselfe I had rather quoth he be the first here than the second in Rome As for hautie adventerous enterprises he was wont to say They should be executed not consulted upon and verily when he passed over the river Rubicon which divideth the province of Gaul from Italy for to leade his power against Pompeius Let the Die
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
and made all the images of their gods as well female as male with launces and javelins in their hands as if they all had militar and martiall vertue in them Also they used this saying as a common proverbe Call upon fortune in each enterprise With hand stretcht foorth wot otherwise As if they would say that we ought when we invocate the gods to enterprise somewhat our selves and lay our hands to worke or else not to call upon them They used to let their children see the Ilotes when they were drunk to keepe them by their example from drinking much wine They neverknocked and rapped at their neighbours doores but stood without and called aloud to to those within The curry-combes that they occupied were not of iron but of canes and reeds They never heard any comedies or tragedies acted because neither in earnest nor in game they would not heare those that any wise contradicted the lawes When Archilochus the poet was come to Sparta they drave him out the very same houre that he came for that they knew he had made these verses wherein he delivered That it was better to fling away weapons than to die in the field A foole he is who trusting in his shield Doth venture life and limme in bloody field As for mine owne I have it flung me fro And left behind in bushes thick that gro Others translate it thus Some Saïan now in that my doubtie shield Doth take great joy which flying out of field Though full against my mind I flang me fro And left behind in bushes thicke that grow Although it were right good yet would not I Presume to fight with it and so to dy Farewell my shield though thou be lost and gone Another day as good I shall buy one All their sacred and holy ceremonies were common as well for their daughters as their sonnes The Ephori condemned one Siraphidas to pay a summe of money for that he suffred himselfe to take wrong and abuse at many mens hands They caused one to be put to death for playing the hypocrite and wearing sackcloth like a publike penitent for that the saide sackcloth was purfled with a border of purple They rebuked and checked a yoong man as hee came from the ordinary place of exercise for that hee frequented it still knowing as he did the way to Pytaea where was held the assembly of the States of Greece They chased out of the citie a Rhetorician named Cephisophon because he made his boast That he could speak if it were a whole day of any theame proposed unto him for they said That speech ought to be proportionable to the subject matter Their children would endure to be lashed whipped all the day long yea and many times even to death upon the altar of Diana surnamed Orthia taking joy and pleasure therein striving a vie for the victorie who could hold out longest and looke who was able to abide most beating he was best esteemed and caried away the greatest praise this strife emulation among them was called the Whippado and once every yeere they observed such an exercise But one of the best most commendable and blessed things that Lycurgus provided for his citizens was the plentie abundance that they had of rest leisure for they were not allowed at all to meddle with any mechanicall arte and to trafficke and negotiate painfully for to gather and heape up goods was in no wise permitted for he had so wrought that riches among them was neither honored nor desired The Ilotes were they that ploughed and tilled their ground for them yeelding them as much as in old time was downe and ordeined and execrable they esteemed it to exact more of any of them to the end that those Ilotes for the sweetnesseof gaine which they found thereby might serve them more willingly and themselves covet to have no more than the old rate Forbidden likewise were the Lacedaemonians to he mariners or to fight at sea yet afterwards for all that they fought navall battels and became lords of the sea howbeit they soone gave that over when they once saw that the maners and behavior of their citizens were thereby corrupted and depraved but they changed afterwards againe and were mutable as well in this as in all other things for the first that gathered and hoarded up money for the Lacedaemonians were condemned to death by reason that there was an auncient oracle which delivered this answer unto Alcamenes and Theopompus two of their kings Avarice one day who ever lives to see Of Sparta citie will the ruine bee And yet Lysander after he had wonne the citie of Athens brought into Sparta a great masse of gold and silver which the citizens received willingly and did great honour unto the man himselfe for his good service True it is that so long as the citie of Sparta observed the lawes of Lycurgus and kept the othes which it was sworne by she was a paragon yea and the soveraigne of all Greece in good government and glorie for the space of 300. yeeres but when they came once to transgresse the said lawes and breake their oathes avarice and covetousnesse crept in among them by little and little and they with all their puislance authoritie decreased yea and their allies and confederates heereupon began to be ill affected unto them and yet being as they were in this declining estate after that king Philip of Macedonia had woon the battell at Chaeronea when all other cities and states of Greece by a generall consent and with one accord had chosen him the generall captaine of all the Greeks as well for land as sea yea and after him his sonne Alexander the Great upon the destruction of the citie Thebes onely the Lacedaemonians notwithstanding their citie lay all open without any wall about it and themselves were brought to a very small number by occasion of their continuall warres which had wasted and consumed them whereby they were become very feeble and by consequence more easie to be defeated than ever before yet for that they had retained still some little reliques of the government established by Lycurgus they would never yeeld to serve under those two mightie monarches no nor other kings of Macedonia their successors neither would they be present at the generall diets and common assemblies of other states nor contribute any money with the rest untill they having utterly cast aside and rejected the lawes of Lycurgus they were held under and yoked with the tyranny of their owne citizens namely when they reteined no part of the ancient discipline whereby they grew like unto other nations and utterly lost their old reputation glory and libertie of franke speech so as in the end they were brought into servitude and even at this day be subject unto the Romane empire aswell as other cities and states of Greece THE APOPHTHEGMES THAT IS TO SAY THE NOBLE SAYINGS AND ANSWERS OF LACEDAEMONIAN DAMES ARGILEONIS the mother of Brasidas
Philosophie But I pray you my very good friend quoth I unto him forbeare this vehement and accusatorie humour of yours and be not angry if haply you see that some because they be borne of leud and wicked parents are punished or else doe not rejoice so much nor be ready to praise in case you see nobilitie also of birth to be so highly honored for if we stand upon this point and dare avow that recompence of vertue ought by right and reason to continue in the line and posteritie we are by good consequence to make this account that punishment likewise should not stay and cease together with misdeeds committed but reciprocally fall upon those that are descended of misdoers and malefactors for he who willingly seeth the progenie of Cimon honoured at Athens and contrariwise is offended and displeased in his heart to see the race of Lachares or Ariston banished driven out of the citie he I say seemeth to be too soft tender and passing effeminate or rather to speake more properly over-contentious and quarrelsome even against the gods complaining and murmuring of the one side if the children childrens children of an impious wicked person do prosper in the world and contrariwise is no lesse given to blame and find fault if he doe see the posterity of wicked and ungracious men to be held under plagued or altogether destroied from the face of the earth accusing the gods if the children of a naughtie man be afflicted even as much as if they had honest persons to their parents But as for these reasons alledged make you this reckoning that they be bulwarks and rampars for you opposed against such bitter sharpe accusers as these be But now taking in hand again the end as it were of a clew of thread or a bottom of yearne to direct us as in a darke place and where there be many cranks turnings and windings to and fro I meane the matter of gods secret judgements let us conduct and guide our selves gently and warily according to that which is most likely probable considering that even of those things which we daily manage and doe our selves we are not able to set downe an undoubted certaintie as for example who can yeeld a sound reason wherefore we cause and bid the children of those parents who died either of the phthisick and consumption of the lungs or of the dropsie to sit with their feet drenched in water until the dead corps be fully burned in the funeral fire For an opiniō there is that by this meanes the said maladies shall not passe unto them as hereditarie nor take hold of their bodies as also what the cause should be that if a goat hold in her mouth the herbe called Eryngites that is to say Sea-holly the whole flocke will stand still untill such time as the goat-herd come and take the said herbe out of her mouth Other hidden properties there be which by secret influences and passages from one to another worke strange effects and incredible as well speedily as in longer tract of time and in very truth we woonder more at the intermission and stay of time betweene than we doe of the distance of place and yet there is greater occasion to marvell thereat as namely that a pestilent maladie which began in Aethiopia should raigne in the citie of Athens and fill every street and corner thereof in such sort as Pericles died and Thucydides was sicke thereof than that when the Phocaeans and Sybarits had committed some hainous sins the punishment therefore should fall upon their children go through their posteritie For surely these powers and hidden properties have certaine relations and correspondences from the last to the first the cause whereof although it be unknowen to us yet it ceaseth not secretly to bring foorth her proper effects But there seemeth to be verie apparent reason of justice that publicke vengeance from above should fall upon cities many a yeere after for that a citie is one entire thing and a continued body as it were like unto a living creature which goeth not beside or out of it selfe for any mutations of ages nor in tract and continuance of time changing first into one and then into another by succession but is alwaies uniforme and like it selfe receiving evermore and taking upon it all the thanke for well doing or the blame for misdeeds of whatsoever it doth or hath done in common so long as the societie that linketh holdeth it together maintaineth her unitie for to make many yea innumerable cities of one by dividing it according to space of time were as much as to go about to make of one man many because he is now become old who before was a yong youth in times past also a very stripling or springall or else to speake more properly this resembleth the devises of Epicharmus wherupon was invented that maner of Sophisters arguing which they cal the Croissant argument for thus they reason He that long since borrowed or tooke up mony now oweth it not because he is no more himselfe but become another he that yesterday was invited to a feast cōmeth this day as an unbidden guest cōsidering that he is now another man And verily divers ages make greater difference in ech one of us than they do commonly in cities and States for he that had seene the citie of Athens thirtie yeeres agoe and came to visit it at this day would know it to be altogether the very same that then it was insomuch as the maners customes motions games pastimes serious affaires favours of the people their pleasures displeasures and anger at this present resemble wholly those in ancient time whereas if a man be any long time out of sight hardly his very familiar friend shall be able to know him his countenance will be so much changed and as touching his maners and behaviour which alter and change so soone upon every occasion by reason of all sorts of labour travell accidents and lawes there is such varietie and so great alteration that even he who is ordinarily acquainted and conversant with him would marvell to see the strangenesse and noveltie thereof and yet the man is held and reputed still the same from his nativitie unto his dying day and in like case a citie remaineth alwaies one and the selfe same in which respect we deeme it great reason that it should participate aswell the blame and reproch of ancestours as enjoy their glorie and puissance unlesse we make no care to cast all things in the river of Heraclitus into which by report no one thing entreth twise for that it hath a propertie to alter all things and change their nature Now if it be so that a citie is an united and continued thing in it selfe we are to thinke no lesse of a race and progenie which dependeth upon one and the same stocke producing and bringing foorth a certeine power and communication of qualities and the same doth
owne safetie and life mooveth us but even for our pleasure we have a poore sheepe lying under our hand with the throat turned upward a philosopher of the one side should say Cut the throat for it is a brute beast and another admonish us on the other side saying Stay your hand and take heed what you doe for what know you to the contrarie whether in that sheepe be the soule lodged of some kinsman of yours or peradventure of some God Is the danger before God all one and the same whether I refuse to eat of the flesh or beleeve not that I kill my child or some one of my kinsfolke But surely the Stoicks are not equally matched in this fight for the defence of eating flesh For what is the reason that they so band themselves and be so open mouthed in the maintenance of the belly and the kitchin what is the cause that condemning pleasure as they doe for an effeminate thing and not to be held either good or indifferent no nor so much as familiar and agreeable to nature they stand so much in the patronage of those things that make to the pleasure and delight of feeding And yet by all consequence reason would that considering they chase and banish from the table all sweet perfumes and odoriferous ointments yea and al pastrie worke and banketting junkets they should be rather offended at the sight of bloud and flesh But now as if by their precise philosophicall rules they would controule our day books and journals of our ordinarie expences they cut off all the cost bestowed upon our table in things needlesse and superfluous meane while they sinde no fault with that which savoureth of bloudshed and crueltie in this superfluitie of table furniture We doe not indeed say they because there is no communication of rights betweene beasts and us but a man might answer them againe verie well No more is there betweene us and perfumes or other forraine and exoticall sauces and yet you would have us to absteine from them rejecting and blaming on all sides that which in any pleasure is neither profitable nor needfull But let us I pray you consider upon this point a little neerer to wit whether there be any communitie in right and justice betweene us and unreasonable creatures or no and let us doe it not subtilly and artificially as the captious manner is of these sophisters in their disputations but rather after a gentle and familiar sort having an eie unto our owne passions and affections let us reason and decide the matter with our selves THAT A MAN CANNOT LIVE PLEASANTLY ACCORDING TO THE DOCTRINE OF EPICURUS The Summarie GReat disputations there have beene holden among the Philosophers and Sages of the world as touching the sovereigne good of man as it may appeere even at this day by the books that are extant among us and yet neither one nor other have hit the true marke whereat they shot to wit The right knowledge of God Howbeit some of them are a great deale farther out of the way than others and namely the Epicureans whom our author doth perstringe in many places as holding a doctrine cleane contrary unto theirs according as his writings doe testifie And forasmuch as Epicurus and his disciples placed and established this sovereigne good in pleasure of the bodie this their opinion is heere examined and confuted at large for in forme of a dialogue Plutarch rehearseth the communication or conference which he had with Aristodemus Zeuxippus and Theon as they walked together immediately after one lecture of his upon this matter who having shewed in generall tearmes the absurdities of this Epicurian doctrine maint eineth in one word That it is no life at all for to live according to the same Then he explaneth and sheweth what the Epicureans meane by this word To live and from thence proceedeth forward to refute their imagination and whatsoever dependeth thereupon and that by sound and weighty arguments intermingling many pretie conceits and pleasant jests together with certeine proper similitudes for the purpose After he had prooved that they were deceived themselves and seduced their disciples he holdeth moreover this point That even they deprive themselves of the true good which consisteth in the repose and contentment of the mind rejecting as they doe all Histories Mathematicall arts and liberall sciences and among the rest Poëtrie and Musicke shewing throughout all this discourse that such persons are deprived of common sense Passing forward he holdeth and mainteineth that the soule taketh joyin a contentment proper to it selfe and afterwards in discoursing of the pleasure that active life doth bring he refuteth more and more his adversarie addressing to this purpose a certeine conference and comparison betweene the pleasures of bodie and soule whereby a man may see the miserie of the one and the excellencie of the other This point he enricheth with divers examples the end whereof sheweth That there is nothing at all to be counted great or profitable in the schoole of Epicurus whose scholars never durst approove his opinion especially in death also That vertuous men have without all comparison much more pleasure in this world than the Epicureans who in their afflictions know not how to receive any joy or comfort by remembrance of their pleasures past And this is the very summe of the dialogue during the time that the above named persons did walke who after they were set began the disputation a fresh and spake in the first place of Gods providence condemning by diversreasons the atheisme of the Epicureans who are altogether inexcusable even in comparison of the common sort given to superstition continuing and holding on this discourse he depainteth very lively the nature of the Epicureans and commeth to represent and set down the contentment that men of honor have in their religion where also he holdeth this point That God is not the author of evill and that the Epicureans are sufficiently punished for their impietie in depriving themselves of that pleasure which commeth unto us by meditation of the divine wisedome in the conduct and management of all things Consequently he sheweth that this their prophane philosophie overthroweth and confoundeth all persons as well in their death as during their life Whereupon he proceedeth to treat of the immortality of the soule and of the life to come describing at large the misery of the Epicureans and for a finall conclusion he compriseth in fower or five lines the summary of all their error and so shutteth up and concludeth the whole disputation THAT A MAN CANNOT live pleasantly according to the doctrine of Epicurus COlotes one of the disciples and familiar followers of Epicurus wrote and published a booke wherein he endevoured to proove and declare That there was no life at all to speake of according to the opinions and sentences of other Philosophers Now as touching that which readily came into my minde for the answere of his challenge and the discourse against his
the summer we finde a notable cooling refreshing and easement in our inward bowels the reason is because the humiditie of water is kinde and milde procuring no debate or disquietnesse at all whereas the moisture of wine hath a vehement force which never is at quiet and repose but maketh a deepe impression nothing agreeable nor fit to appease the indispositions that are a breeding Now if one doe feare the sowre and sharpe acrimonies and the bitter tastes which by the saying of some hunger and want of food engender in our bodies or as little children use to do thinketh much not to sit at the table for to eat a little before the fit of an ague or when he suspecteth it comming the drinking of water is as it were a confine and frontier betweene both very fit to remedie the one and the other and many times we offer unto Bacchus himselfe certeine sacrifices called Nephalia for that there is no wine used therein accustoming our selves wisely thereby not to be alwaies desirous sor to drinke wine Minos tooke away from sacrifices the flute and the chaplets used to be worne on mens heads in regard of griefe and sorrow and yet we know full well that the heavie and sorrowfull minde is neither by flutes nor flowers passionate whereas there is 〈◊〉 the bodie of a man how strong and stout soever he be but if it be stirred troubled and 〈◊〉 will take more harme and offence by wine if it be taken or powred into it It is recorded in the Chronicles that the Lydians in time of a great dearth and famine did eat but once in two daies and spent the time betweene at dice-play and other such games and pastimes and even so it were well beseeming a student and lover of the Muses and his booke at such a time as he had need to make a late and short supper to have before him the sigure serving for some Geometricall proposition or some little booke some harpe or lute this will not suffer him to be ledde as prisoner to his owne belly but by diverting and turning ordinarily his mind from the boord to these honest pastimes and recreations will chase away from the Muses the greedy appetite of eating and drinking as if they were so many ravenous fowles and harpies For a shame it were that a Scythian whiles hee is drinking should estsoones take his bow in hand readie bent and twang the string and by the sound thereof awaken and quicken his courage which otherwise would become drowsie loose and dull by wine and that a Grecian should be ashamed or afraid of a flout or mocke in assaying gently to refraine and bridle an unreasonable violent and greedie appetite by the meanes of bookes and writings for much after the same manner in a comedie of Menander when there was a baud who for to tempt certeine yoong men suting at supper together brought in amongst them certeine pretie yoong wenches very faire richly arraid every one of the said yoong men because they were afraid unwilling to looke those beautifull damosels in the face made no more adoe but as he saith Cast downe the head and like good merrie mates Fall to their junkets hard and deinty cates Moreover men that are addicted to their studie and to learning have many other proper and pleasant meanes to turne away their eies and divert their minds if otherwise they be not able to looke off and to stay or hold in this violent and dogge-like greedy appetite when the meat standeth before them upon the bourd For as touching the speeches of some masters of wrestlers or the words of certeine schoole-masters who goe up and downe saying That to reason argue and discourse at the table upon points of learning causeth the meat to corrupt within the stomacke and breedeth head-ach or heavinesse of the braine we may indeed feare somewhat if we will needs while we be at our repast fall to resolve such a sophisticall argument as the Logicians call Indos or if wee be disposed to reason and dispute about the masterfull sophisme named Kyriton It is said that the crowne or upmost tuft growing upon the date tree called the braine thereof is exceeding sweet and pleasant to the taste howbeit hurtfull to the head howbeit these prickie and intricate disputations in Logicke at supper time are no pleasant banketting dishes but offensive to the braine tedious and irksome nothing more But if those men will not permit us to discourse to heare reade or talke of other matters in supper time which together with honestie and profit have an attractive pleasure and sweetnesse joined therewith we will desire them to let us alone not trouble us but to arise from the table and goe their waies into their galleries and hals for wrestling and there to hold and maintaine such positions among their scholars and champions whom they withdraw and turne away from the study of good letters and accustoming them to spend their time all the day long in scoffes and scurrile speeches they make them in end as gentle Ariston said as witlesse and without sense yet glib and well greased as the stone pillers which support those galleries and places of exercise where they use to converse and keepe schoole But we contrariwise being ruled by the physicians who advise us alwaies to interpose some competent time betweene supper and sleepe are not presently to go unto it after we have filled our bellies with viands and stuffed our spirits even whiles the morsels of meat bee all raw or beginning now to be concocted thereby to hinder and staie digestion but give some space and breathing time betweene untill the meat bee well setled in the stomacke And as they who give us counsell to moove and stirre the bodie after meales will us not to runne our selves out of breath nor to exercise our selves so as that we put all the parts of our bodie to the triall after the manner of the Pancratiasts but either to walke faire and softly or to daunce after a gentle and easie manner semblably we are to thinke that we ought to exercise our wits and minds after a dinner or supper not about any affaires of deepe studie and profound meditation nor in sophistical disputes tending to the ostentation of a quicke and lively spirit or which bee litigious and breed contention but there be many questions besides of naturall philosophie pleasant to be discussed and easie to be decided many pretie tales and narrations there are out of which a man may draw good considerations and wise instructions for to traine and frame our manners and these conteine that grace facilitie in them which the poet Homer calleth Menocikes that is to say yeelding to anger and in no wise crosse and resistant Heereupon it is that some doe pleasantly teame this exercise of moovoing propounding resolving historicall or poetical questions the second course or the service of banketting dishes for students and learned men
likewise in all other things diligent industrious talkative and namely inclined to making of verses and chanting songs as much or rather more than any other passion which can enter into the heart of man THE SIXTH QUESTION Whether king Alexander of Macedonie were a great drinker THere was some speech upon a time as touching king Alexander the Great to this effect That he dranke not so much as sat long at his meat and passed the time away in devising and talking with his friends but Philinus shewed by certeine scroles papers and day-books of the said kings house that they who held that opinion knew not well what they said for that this particular instance was ordinarily and usually found in those records That such a day the king slept all day long upon his liberall drinking of wine yea and other-whiles it appeareth that he slept the morrow after likewise which is the reason that hee was not so forward in venerous matters nor given much to women though otherwise he was hastie quicke and couragious great arguments of an inward heat of bodie and it is to be seene upon record That his flesh yeelded from it and breathed a passing sweet smell insomuch as his shirts and other clothes were full of an aromaticall sent and savour as if they had bene perfumed which seemeth also to be an argument and signe of heat For we see that those be the hottest driest countries which bring foorth cynamon and frankincense according as Theophrastus saith That a sweet odour proceedeth of perfect concoction and digestion of humours namely when by naturall heat all superfluous moisture is quite chased and expelled And by all likelihood this was the principall cause that Callisthenes grew into disgrace and lost the kings favour for that he was unwilling to sup with him in regard that he would impose upon him to drinke so much For it is reported that upon a time the great boule or goblet surnamed Alexanders boule having passed round about the table thorowout untill it came to Callisthenes he refused it and put it backe saying withall I will not drinke in Alexander for to have need of Aesculapius And thus much was said then concerning king Alexanders much wine-bibbing Moreover king Mithridates he who warred against the Romans among other games of prise which hee exhibited ordeined one for those who could drinke best and eat most and by mens saying himselfe performed them both so well that he won the prize in the one and the other for he could eat and drinke more than any man living in his time by occasion whereof he was commonly surnamed Dionysus that is to say Bacchus But as touching the reason of this surname wee say it is an opinion rashly received for when hee was a very infant lying in the cradle the lightning caught the swadling clothes and set them on fire but never touched or hurt his body save onely that there remained a little marke of the fire upon his forehead which notwithstanding the haire did cover that it was not greatly seene so long as he was a childe againe when he was a man growen it chaunced that the lightning pierced into the bed chamber where he lay asleepe and for his owne person it was not so much as singed therewith but it blasted a quiver of arrowes that hung at his bed-side went through it and burnt the arrowes within which as the soothsaiers and wise men out of their learning did intepret signified that one day he should be puissant in archers and light armed men But most men affirme that hee gat his surname of Bacchus or Dionysus in regard of the resemblance and likenesse of such accidents of lightning and blasting as many times befall After these words passed they entred into a speech as touching great drinkers among whom was reckoned also one Heraclides a famous wrestler or champion whom the men of Alexandria in our fathers daies pleasantly called little Hercules This good fellow when he could not meet with a companion able to set foot to his and drinke with him continually used to invite some to breake their fast with him in a morning others to beare him company at dinner some he would bidde to supper and intreat others last of all to sit with him at his collation or banquet after supper now when the first were gone came in the second immediatly then you should have the third succeed them in place and no sooner were they departed but in steps the fourth crew without any interruption and he himselfe sat it out still and making no intermission was able to hold out with all and beare those fower repasts and refections one after another Among those who were familiarly acquainted with Drusus sonne to the emperour Tibetius a physician there was who in drinking would chalenge and defie all the world but observed it was by some that spied and looked neere unto him That to prevent drunkennesse he used to take alwaies five or sixe bitter almonds before every cuppe that he drunke and when he was once debarred of them and not suffered so to doe he was not able to beare his drinke nor resist the least headinesse and strength thereof And verily some there be who say that these almonds have an abstersive propertie to bite to clense and scoure the flesh in such sort as that they will take away the spottes and freckles of the visage by reason of which qualitie when they be taken afore drinke with their bitternesse they fret the pores of the skinne and leave the impression of a certeine biting behinde them by meanes whereof there ensueth a certaine revulsion downward from the head of those vapours which flie up thither and so evaporate away through the said pores But for mine owne part I am of this opinion rather that their bitternesse hath a vertue to dry up and spend humors which is the reason that of all vapours the bitter is most unpleasant and disagreeable to the taste for that indeed as Plato saith consuming moisture as it doth by meanes of the drinesse which it hath it doth unnaturally binde and draw in the little veines of the toong which of themselves be soft and spungeous after the same manner men use to restraine such wounds or ulcers which be moist with medicines or salves composed of bitter drougues according as the poet Homer testisieth in these verses A bitter roote he bruis'd with hands and laid upon the sore To take the anguish cleane away that it might ake no more And so applied when it was all paines were soone allaid The running ulcer dried anon and flux of bloud was staid He said well and truly of that which is in taste bitter That it hath a vertue propertie to drie And it should seeme also that the powders which women strew upon their bodies for to represse diaphoneticall and extraordinarie sweets be by nature bitter and astringent so forcible is their bitternesse to binde and restreine which being so great reason
words of mine that I meant to alledge old testimonies and to cite stale and triviall examples for proofe of the cause to wit the funerals of Oeolycus the Thessalian and of Amphidamas the Chalcidian at which Homer and Hesiodus made verses one against another for the victorie as stories make mention but casting by and rejecting all these evidences so much tossed and divnlged already by Grammarians and namely the funerall obsequies and honours done to Patroclus in Homer where they read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say launcers of darts but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say makers of orations and eloquent oratours as if Achilles had proposed rewards and prizes for orations leaving I say these matters I affirmed That when Acastus celebrated the funerals for his father Pelias he exhibited a combat of poets for the best game wherein Sibylla went away with the victory Hereat many stood up and opposed themselves against me demanding a reall caution at my hands for to make good that which I had averred for that it seemed unto them a very strange narration and incredible but as good hap was I called to remembrance that I had read so much in the Chronicle of Lybia cōpiled by Acesander where the story is put downe And this booke quoth I is not in every mans hand to reade howbeit I thinke verily that the most of you have beene carefull to peruse those records which Polemon the Athenian a diligent writer and a learned antiquarie who hath not beene idle and sleepie in seeking out the antiquities and singularities of Greece hath set downe in writing as concerning the treasures of the city Delphos for there you shal find written that in the treasurie of the Sicyonians there was a golden booke given and dedicated by Aristomache the poetresse of Erythraea after she had obteined the victorie gotten the garland at the solemnitie of the Isthmicke games Neither have you any reason quoth I to esteeme Olympia and the games thereof with such admiration above the rest as if it were another fatall desteny immutable and which can not be changed nor admit alteration in the plaies there exhibited as for the Pythian solemnitie three or foure extraordinarie games it had respective unto good letters and the Muses adjoined and admitted to the rest the Gymnicke exercises and combats performed by men naked as they were at first ordeined so they continued for the most part still and hold on at this day but at the Olympian games all save onely running in the race were taken up afterwards and counted as accessories likewise there have bene many of them which at first were instituted since put downe and abolished namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an exercise and feat of activitie when the concurrent mounted on horsebacke in the mids of his course leapeth downe to the ground taketh his horse by the bridle and runneth on foot with him a full gallop as also another called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a course with a chariot drawen by two mules moreover there is taken away now the coronet ordeined for children that atchieved the victorie in Pentathlus that is to say five severall feats to be short much innovation change and altering there hath beene in this festivall solemnitie from the first institution but I feare me that you will call upon me againe for new pledges and cautions to proove and justifie my words if I should say that in olde time at Pisae there were combats of sword-fencers fighting at the sharpe to the uttrance man to man where they that were vanquished or yeelded themselves died for it and if my memorie failed mee that I could not bring out mine author and name him unto you I doubt you would laugh and make a game of mee as if I had overdrunke my selfe and taken one cup to many THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that the pitch-tree is held consecrated unto Neptune and Bacchus And that in the beginning the victours at the Isthmian games were crowned with a garland of pine-tree branches but afterwards with a chaplet of smallage or parsley and now of late with the foresaid pitch-tree THere was a question propounded upon a time Why the manner was to crowne those with pine or pitch-tree branches who gained the prize at the Isthmick games For so it was that during the said festivall solemnity Lucanius the high priest made a supper at Corinth at his owne house and feasted us where Praxiteles the geometrician a great discourser told us a poeticall tale and namely that the body of Melicerta was found cast up driven upon the body of a pine-tree by the sea at a full tide for that there was a place not farre from Megara named Cales Dromos that is to say the race of the faire lady whereas the Megarians doe report that dame Ino carrying her yoong babe within her armes ranne and cast her-selfe headlong into the sea But it is a common received opinion quoth he that the pine is apropriat for the making of coronets in the honour of Neptune whereupon when as Lucanius the high-priest added moreover and said That the said tree being consecrated unto Bacchus it was no marvell nor absurditie if it were dedicared also to the honour of Melicerta Occasion was taken to search into the cause wherefore the auncients in old time held the said tree sacred unto Bacchus and Neptune both For mine owne part I saw no incongruitie therein for that these two gods be the lords and rulers over one genetall principle or element to wit humidity or moisture considering also that they generally in manner all sacrifice unto Neptune under the surname 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say protectour of plants and unto Bacchus likewise by the name or addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the president over trees and yet it may be said that the pine more particularly apperteineth not to Neptune not as Apollodorus is of opinion because it is a tree that loveth to grow by the sea-side or for that it delighteth in the windes as the sea doth for some there be of this minde but especially in this regard that it affoordeth good timber and other stuffe for building of ships for both it and also other trees which for their affinitie may goe for her sisters to wit pitch-trees larike-trees and cone-trees furnish us with their wood most proper to flote upon the sea and with their rosin also and pitch to calke and calfret without which composition be the joints never so good and close they are to no purpose in the sea as for Bacchus they consecrated the pitch-tree unto him for that pitch doth give a pleasant seasoning unto wine for looke where these trees doe naturally grow the vine there by report yeeldeth pleasant wine which Theophrastus imputeth to the heat of the soile for commonly the pitch tree groweth in places of marle or white clay which by nature
to come in by which meanes whiles they looked evermore when the said dish should come to the table and did eat more sparily in hope of it of those meats which stood before them there was sufficient for them all But whiles I seemed thus to play upon the point before the company there present Florus thought good that this question ought to be handled in good earnest and more seriously namely as touching those shadowes abovesaid Whether it might stand with honesty and good maners to follow or goe with them who were bidden As for Cesernius his sonne in law he utterly condemned that fashion For a man ought quoth he to obey the counsell of Hesiodus who writeth thus Above all others to thy feast Invite thy friend who loves thee best If not so yet be sure at leastwise to bid thy familiars and those of thine acquaintance for to participate with thee in thy sacred libations and thanks givings to the gods at the table in discourses there held in the courtesies passing to and fro and namely in drinking one to another but now a daies it is with men that make feasts as with those who keepe ferrie-barges or barks to transport passengers for when they take in men aboord they permit them to cast into the vessell what fardels or baggage they have besides for even so we making a feast for some especiall persons give them leave to fill the place with whomsoever they please whether they be honest men of worth or no it makes no matter And I would marvell much if a man of quality and one that knoweth good maners would come thus bidden as it were at the second hand which is all one as unbiddē being such an one as many times the master of the feast himselfe knoweth not and if he be one of his acquaintance and knowledge and yet unbidden surely it were more shame now to go unto his house as it it were to upbraid him and cast in his teeth as if he came unto his feast without his good will and yet would take his part thereof even by violence and strong hand Moreover to go before or tarrie after him who would seeme to bid one to another mans table carieth some shame with it and would make a modest and honest man dismaied and blanke neither is it a decent thing to have need of witnesses and a warrant as it were betweene him and the master of the house to insinuate thus much that he is come indeed not as one formally bidden to supper but as the shadow of such and such a man besides to daunce attendance upon another and observe when he hath bene in the stouph is anointed and washed waiting the houre when he will goe sooner or later this in my simple judgement is a very base and mechanicall thing savouring strongly of the bonfon or parasit Gnatho if ever there were such a smell-feast as Gnatho who haunted mens tables where it cost him naught furthermore if there be no time or place where in a mans tongue may be better permitted to say thus Art thou dispos'd to boast to cracke and brave In measure speake out hardly good leave have than at a banquet where commonly there is most libertie allowed and intermingled in all that is done and said and every thing is well taken as in mirth how should a man behave and governe himselfe at such a place who is not a lawfull and naturall bidden guest indeed but as a man would say a bastard and subreptitious crept in and intruded I wot not how into a feast without all order of inviting for say that hee doe speake freely at the boord or say he doe not lie open he shall both for the one and the other to the calumniations of them there present neither is it a small inconvenience to be made a marke for scurrile tearmes and a meere laughing stocke namely when a man putteth up and endureth the base name of a shadow and will be content to answere thereunto for I assure you to make small account of unseemely words is the next waie to leade men unto undecent and dishonest deedes and to acquaint them therewith by little and little wherefore when I invite others to a feast or supper unto mine owne house I allow them otherwhiles to bring their shadowes with them for the custome of a citie is much and may not well be broken but surely when I have my selfe beene called upon to goe with others to a place where I am not bidden I have ever yet denied and could not for any thing be brought unto it Upon which words ensued silence for a time untill Florus began againe in this wise Certes this second point is more difficult and doubtfull than the other for when wee are to enterteine strangers that be travellers as hath beene said before we must of necessitie invite them in this order the reason is because it were incivilitie and discourtesie to part them and their friends in a strange place whom they were woont to have about them and againe it is no easie matter to know whom a man hath in his company See then quoth I whether they who have given libertie unto them that make a feast thus to invite guests that they may take others unto them as you say permit not them also whom they would bring as their shadowes to obey and so to come unto a feast for it standeth not with honestie to graunt and give that which is not meet for to demaund or give not in one word to sollicite or exhort one to that whereunto he would not willingly be sollicited either to doe or give his consent but as for great States and rulers or strangers travelling by the way there is no such inviting or choise to be made for enterteined they must be whom soever they bring with them but otherwise when one friend feasteth another it were a more friendly and courteous part for himselfe to bid the familiars or kinsfolke of his said friend knowing them so well as he doth for by this meanes greater honour he doth unto his friend yea and winneth more thanks at his hands againe when the partie invited shall know that he loveth them best that most willingly he desireth to have their companie as taking pleasure that they be honored and intreated to come as well for his sake and yet for all this it would otherwhiles be wholly referred unto his discretion that is bidden like as those who sacrifice unto some one god doe honour likewise and make vowes unto those who are partakers of the same temple and altar in common although they name them not severally by themselves ** For there is neither wine deintie viands nor sweet perfumes that give such contentment and pleasure at a feast as doth a man whom one loveth and liketh well of sitting by his side or neere unto him at the table moreover to aske and demaund of the man himselfe whom one would feast what viands or
for to commune or speake with the master of the feast or with the other partie and that otherwise thou cannest meet with no good opportunitie for to doe it or if he be newly returned from some long voiage when he hath bene a great time away or els about to depart and so seeme for very good will desirous of thy companie at supper or if it appeare that he meaneth not to take with him many nor those strangers and unknowen but either thy selfe alone or others some few others of his familiars or after all these considerations if thou maiest perceive that by this occasion and opportunitie of thy companie he doth practise to contract some beginning of farther acquaintance friendship and amity and namely if he be reputed an honest man and woorthy to be loved and regarded who thus is desirous of thy companie and earnest with thee to go with him for wicked and leaud persons the more they seeme to claspe and take hold and hang upon us the more we ought to shake them off as burres or els to leape over them as briers and brambles nay admit that they be honest enough who would have our companie and bring us to a man that is is not honest we ought not to go with them lest we chance to take poison with honie that is to say get the acquaintance of a naughtie man by the meanes of an honest minded friend moreover absurd it is to goe unto a mans house whom we know not at all or with whom we never had any maner of dealing and acquaintance unlesse he be a personage of great marke for singular vertue as we have before said or that this occasion may serve as a foundation or ground-worke of some farther love and amitie for then it were not amisse to be easily intreated and to go willingly without any ceremoniall complement unto him under the wing and shadow of another As for those who be already our familiars unto such above all others we may be bolde to goe at the motion of another for by that meanes we give reciprocall libertie and leave unto them for to repaire likewise unto us at the request of others There was one Philip indeed a buffon and scurrile jester who was wont to say That to go unto a feast formally invited was simply more ridiculous than to come as a shadow by the bidding of another but in trueth more honourable and pleasant it is for honest men and good friends to resort unto their friends who be likewise honest and vertuous in seasonable time without being invited or expected with other friends for thereby they both rejoice the heart of those that enterteine them and doe honour unto such as bring them but above all most undecent it is to goe unto princes rulers rich men and great States when we are not invited by themselves but brought by others for in any case avoid we must the imputation and note not undeserved of impudencie incivilitie want of good maners or ambitious insolence THE SEVENTH QUESTION Whether it be a lawfull and decent thing to admit minstrell-wenches to a feast for to play and sing IN our citie Chaeronea there was held a great discourse one day at the table where Diogenianus the Pergamian was present as touching the eare-sports which were to be admitted at a banquet and much adoe we had to defend our selves and to confute a long bearded philosopher that was there one of the Stocicks sect forsooth who alledged against us Plato blaming and condemning those who brought into their feasts minstrell-wenches to pipe and sing and to be heard as if they were not able themselves to enterteine good speeches one with another and yet present there was a scholar out of the same schoole Philip a Prusian who said That such personages were not to be named in this question who are brought in as speakers at Agathons boord for that their speeches sounded more sweetly and melodiously than all the flutes and cithrons in the world no marvell it was therefore that these minstrels had no audience at such a feast but rather that the guests sitting there at the table forgot not altogether to eat and drinke for the great pleasure and contentment which they tooke in hearing such discourses And yet Xenophon was not ashamed to endure in the presence of Socrates Antisthenes and other such personages a pleasant conceited jester named Philippus no more than Homer to teach men That an onion was a good fauce to draw on wine And Plato having inserted in manner of an interlude or comedie within his Banquet the speech of Aristophanes as touching love at the last setting as it were the backe doores of the hall wide open brings in a pagent fuller of varietie and vanitie than all the rest to wit Alcibiades little better than drunke crowned with chaplets and garlands of flowers and marching in a maske or mummerie then follow the altercations and debates with Socrates as touching Agathon and that encomiasticall praise of Socrates ô blessed saint Charites that even Apollo himselfe were it lawfull so to say if he had entred in place with his harpe ready strung and tuned for to play the company would have requested him to stay his hand untill the foresaid speech had beene finished and brought to an end And did these personages indeed quoth hee notwithstanding they had so great grace in their discourses use neverthelesse these pleasant sports and pastimes betweene garnishing their feasts therewith and all to make the companie to laugh and be merry And shall wee being intermingled with persons managing affaires of State with merchants occupiers and with many it may so fall out altogether unlettered and some what rusticall banish out of our feasts and banquets this amiable delight and pastime or else rise from the table and be gone as if we would flie from such Sirenes as soone as ever wee see them comming It was thought a strange and woonderfull matter in Clitomachus the campion and professour of performing games of prise that so soone as ever there was any talke begun of love matters hee would leave the companie and depart and when a grave philosopher avoideth the sound of the flute and goeth out of the feast and as if he were afraid of a minstrell wench preparing her-selfe to sound and sing putteth on his shoes and calleth incontinently to his page for to light his torch shall he not in so doing be thought woorthie to bee hissed at and laughed of every one for taking offence and abhorring these harmelesse pleasures like as these bettils which flie from perfumes and sweet odors For if there be any time or place allowed for these disports it is at feasts and banquets principally Then I say and there are wee to give our minds to such delights all while we sacrifice unto Bacchus For mine own part Euripides howsoever otherwise he pleaseth me verie well doth not satisfie me heerein when he ordeineth as touching musicke that transferred it
over seeking and say that he is gone away and run to the muses and there lurketh and lieth hidden among them and anon when supper is ended they use to put forth darke riddles and propose questions one to another hard to be solved the mysterie whereof teacheth us thus much that both we ought at the table to use such speech as doth conteine some good learned speculation and erudition and also that when those discourses are joined with wine and drunkennesse then they be the muses who hide and cover all furious outrage and enormitie which also is willing to be deteined and kept by them THE FIRST QUESTION As touching those daies which are ennobled by the nativitie of some renowmed persons and withall of that pragenie or race which is said to be derived from the gods THis book then which is the eighth in order of our symposlaques or discourses at the table shall conteine in the first place that which not long since we chanced to heare and speake that day whereon we celebrate the feast of Platoes nativity for having solemnized the birth day of Socrates upon the sixth of February the morow after which was the seventh of that moneth we did the like by Plato which gave us occasion and ministred matter first to enter into a discourse fitting the occurrence of these two nativities in which Diogenianus the Pergamian began first in this maner Ion the poet quoth he said not amisse of fortune that being as she was different from wisdome in many things yet she brought foorth effects not a few like unto her and as for this it seemeth that she hath caused it to fall out very well and fitly and not without some skill rash though she be otherwise not only for that these two birth-daies jumpe so nere one unto the other but also because that of the master who of the twaine more ancient commeth also in order before the other Whereupon it came into my head also to alledge many examples of occurrents happening likewise at one and the same time and namely as touching the birth and death of Euripides who was borne that very day whereon the Greeks fought the navall battell of Solamis at sea with the king of Persia and whose fortune it was to die the same day that Denys the elder tyrant of Sicilie was borne as if fortune of purpose as Timaeus saith had taken out of the world a poet who represented tragicall calamities the very same day that she brought into the world the actour thereof Mention also was made of the death of king Alexander the Great which fell out just upon the same day that Diogenes the Cynicke philosopher departed this life and by one generall voice accorded it was that king Attalus left his life the very day that hee celebrated the memoriall of his nativitie and some there were who said that Pompey the Great died in Aegypt the same day of the yere that he was born though others affirmed that it was one day sooner semblably there came into our remembrance at the same time Pindarus who being borne during the solemnitie of the Pythicke games composed afterwards many hymnes in the honour of that god for whom those games were solemnized Then Florus said that Carneades was not unworthy to be remembred upon the day of Platoes nativity considering he was one of the most famous pillers that supported the schoole of Academy and both of them were borne at the festivall times of Apollo the one in Athens what time as the feast Thargelia was holden and the other that very day when as ths Cyrenians solemnized it which they call Carnea and both of them fell out just upon the seventh day of Februarie on which day you my masters who are the prophets and priests of Apollo doe say that himselfe was borne and therefore you call him Hebdomagenes neither doe I thinke that they who attribute unto this God the fatherhood of Plato doe him any dishonour in that he hath begotten and provided for us a physician who by the meanes of the doctrine of Socrates even another Chrion cureth and healeth the greater infirmities and more grievous maladies of the soule Moreover it was not forgotten how it was held for certeine that Apollo appeared in a vision by night unto Ariston the father of Plato and a voice besides was heard forbidding him expresly not to lie with his wife nor to touch her for the space of ten moneths Hereupon Tyndares the Lacedaemonian seconded these words and said that by good right we were to sing and say thus of Plato He seemed not the sonne of mortall wight Some god for sire he may avouch by right Howbeit for my part I am afraid that to beget repugneth no lesse with the immortalitie of the deitie than to be begotten for surely even the act of generation implieth also a mutation and passion and king Alexander the Great signified no lesse one time when he said that he knew himselfe principally to be mortall and subject to corruption by having companie with a woman by his sleep for that sleepe is occasioned by a relaxation proceeding from feeblenesse and as for all generation performed it is by the passage of some portion of ones selfe into another and so much therefore is lost gone from the principall and yet on the other side I take heart againe and am confirmed when I heare Plato himselfe to call the eternall God who never was borne nor begotten Father and Creatour of the world and of other things generable not that God doth engender after the maner of men by the meanes of naturall seed but by another power doth ingenerate and infuse into matter a vertue generative and a principle which altereth moveth and transmuteth the same For even by windes that female birds inspire Conceiv'd they be when they to breed desire Neither doe I thinke it any absurditie that a god companying with a woman not as man but after another sort of touching contractation and by other meanes altereth and replenisheth her being a mortall creature with divine and heavenly seed And this is quoth he no invention of mine for the Aegyptians hold that their Apis is in that manner engendred by the light of the moone striking upon his dam whereby she is conceived and generally they admit thus much that a god of the male sex may deale with a mortall woman but contrariwise they think not that a mortall man is able to give unto any goodesse the beginning of conception or birth for they are of opinion that the substance of these goddesses consisteth in a certeine aire and spirits yea and in certeine heats and humors THE SECOND QUESTION How Plato is to be understood when he saith That God continually is exercised in Geometry AFter these words there ensued some silence for a while and then Diogenianus beginning againe to speake How thinke you masters quoth he are you contented well pleased considering that we have had some speech already
was thought a great sinne and exceeding irreverence for a man to turne himselfe out of his apparrell naked in any church chappell or religious and sacred place 〈◊〉 so they carried a great respect unto the aire and open skie as being full of gods demi-gods and saints And this is the verie cause why we do many of our necessarie businesses within 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and covered with the 〈◊〉 of our houses and so remooved from the eies as it were of the deitie 〈◊〉 somethings there be that by law are commaunded and enjoined unto the priest onely and others againe unto all men by the priest as for example heere with us in 〈◊〉 to be crowned with chaplets of flowers upon the head to let the haire grow long to weare a sword and not to set foot within the limits of Phocis pertaine all to the office and dutie of the captaine generall and chiefe ruler but to tast of no new fruits before the Autumnall Aequinox be past nor to cut and prune a vine but before the Acquinox of the Spring be intimated and declared unto all by the said ruler or captaine generall for those be the verie seasons to do both the one the other In like case it should seeme in my judgement that among the Romans it properly belonged to the priest not to mount on horseback not to be above three nights out of the citie not to put off his cap wherupon he was called in the Roman language Flamen But there be many other offices and duties notified and declared unto all men by the priest among which this is one not to be enhuiled or anointed abroad in the open aire For this maner of anointing drie without the bath the Romans mightily suspected and were afraid of and even at this day they are of opinion that there was no such cause in the world that brought the Greeks under the yoke of servitude and bondage and made them so tender and effeminate as their halles and publike places where their yong men wrestled exercised their bodies naked as being the meanes that brought into their cities much losse of time engendred idlenesse bred lazie slouth and ministred occasion opportunity of lewdnesse and vilany as namely to make love unto faire boies and to spoile and marre the bodies of young men with sleeping with walking at a certaine measure with stirring according to motions keeping artificiall compasse and with observing rules of exquisit diet Through which fashions they see not how ere they be aware they befallen from exercises of armes and have cleane forgotten all militarie discipline loving rather to be held and esteemed good wrestlers fine dauncers conceited pleasants and faire minions than hardic footmen or valiant men of armes And verely it is an hard matter to avoid and decline these inconveniences for them that use to discover their bodies naked before all the world in the broad aire but those who annoint themselves closely within doores and looke to their bodies at home are neither faultie nor offensive 41 What is the reason that the auncient coine and mony in old time caried the stampe of one side of Ianus with two faces and on the other side the prow or the poope of a boat engraved 〈◊〉 WAs it not as many men do say for to honour the memorie of Saturne who passed into Italy by water in such a vessell But a man may say thus much as well of many 〈◊〉 for Janus Evander and Aeneas came thither likewise by sea and therefore a man may peradventure gesse with better reason that whereas some things serve as goodly ornaments for cities others as necessarie implements among those which are decent and seemely ornaments the principall is good government and discipline and among such as be necessary is reckoned plentie and abundance of victuals now for that Janus instituted good government in 〈◊〉 holsome lawes and reducing their manner of life to civilitie which before was rude and brutish and for that the river being navigable furnished them with store of all neceslary commodities whereby some were brought thither by sea others from the land the coine caried for the marke of a law-giver the head with two faces like as we have already said because of that change of life which he brought in and of the river a ferrie boate or barge and yet there was another kinde of money currant among them which had the figure portraied upon it of a beefe of a sheepe and of a swine for that their riches they raised especially from such cattle and all their wealth and substance consisted in them And heereupon it commeth that many of their auncient names were Ovilij Bubulci and 〈◊〉 that is to say Sheepe-reeves and Neat-herds and Swineherds according as Fenestella doth report 42 What is the cause that they make the temple of Saturne the chamber of the 〈◊〉 for to keepe therein the publicke treasure of gold and silver as also their arches for the custodic of all their writings rolles contracts and evidences whatsoever IS it by occasion of that opinion so commonly received and the speech so universally currant in every mans mouth that during the raigne of Saturne there was no avarice nor injustice in the world but loialtie truth faith and righteousnesse caried the whole sway among men Or for that he was the god who found out fruits brought in agriculture and taught husbandry first for the hooke or sickle in his hand signifieth so much and not as Antimachus wrote following therein and beleeving Hesiodus Rough Saturne with his hairy skinne against all law and right Of Aemons sonne sir Ouranus or Coelus sometime hight Those privy members which him gat with hooke a-slant off-cut And then anon in fathers place of reigne himselfe did put Now the abundance of the fruits which the earth yeeldeth and the vent or disposition of them is the very mother that bringeth foorth plentie of monie and therefore it is that this same god they make the author and mainteiner of their felicitie in testimonie whereof those assemblies which are holden every ninth day in the comon place of the city called Nundinae that is to say Faires or markets they esteeme consecrated to Saturne for the store foison of fruits is that which openeth the trade comerce of buying and selling Or because these reasons seeme to be very antique what and if we say that the first man who made of Saturns temple at Rome the treasurie or chamber of the citie was Valerius Poplicola after that the kings were driven out of Rome and it seemeth to stand to good reason that he made choise thereof because he thought it a safe and secure place eminent and conspicuous in all mens eies and by consequence hard to be surprised and forced 43 What is the cause that those who come as embassadours to Rome from any parts whatsoever go first into the temple of Saturne and there before the Questors or Treasurers of the citie enter their names in
Macellus who after he had committed many outrages and robberies was with much ado in the end taken and punished and of his goods which were forfeit to the State there was built a publike shambles or market place to sell flesh-meats in which of his name was called Macellum 55 Why upon the Ides of Januarie the minstrels at Rome who plaied upon the haut boies were permitted to goe up and downe the city disguised in womens apparell A Rose this fashion upon that occasion which is reported namely that king Numa had granted unto them many immunities and honorable priviledges in his time for the great devotion that hee had in the service of the gods and for that afterwards the Tribunes militarie who governed the citie in Consular authority tooke the same from them they went their way discontented and departed quite from the citie of Rome but soone after the people had a misse of them and besides the priests made it a matter of conscience for that in all the sacrifices thorowout the citie there was no sound of flute or hautboies Now when they would not returne againe being sent for but made their abode in the citie Tibur there was a certeine afranchised bondslave who secretly undertooke unto the magistrates to finde some meanes for to fetch them home So he caused a sumptuous feast to be made as if he meant to celebrate some solemne sacrifice and invited to it the pipers and plaiers of the hautboies aforesaid and at this feast he tooke order there should be divers women also and all night long there was nothing but piping playing singing and dancing but all of a sudden this master of the feast caused a rumor to be raised that his lord and master was come to take him in the maner whereupon making semblant that he was much troubled and affrighted he perswaded the minstrels to mount with all speed into close coatches covered all over with skinnes and so to be carried to Tibur But this was a deceitfull practise of his for he caused the coatches to be turned about another way and unawares to them who partly for the darkenesse of the night and in part because they were drowsie and the wine in their heads tooke no heed of the way he brought all to Rome betimes in the morning by the breake of day disguised as they were many of them in light coloured gownes like women which for that they had over-watched and over-drunke themselves they had put on and knew not therof Then being by the magistrates overcome with faire words and reconciled againe to the citie they held ever after this custome every yeere upon such a day To go up and downe the citie thus foolishly disguised 56 What is the reason that it is commonly received that certein matrons of the city at the first founded and built the temple of Carmenta and to this day honour it highly with great reverence FOr it is said that upon a time the Senat had forbidden the dames and wives of the city to ride in coatches whereupon they tooke such a stomacke and were so despighteous that to be revenged of their husbands they conspired altogether not to conceive or be with child by them nor to bring them any more babes and in this minde they persisted still untill their husbands began to bethinke them selves better of the matter and let them have their will to ride in their coatches againe as before time and then they began to breed and beare children a fresh and those who soonest conceived and bare most and with greatest ease founded then the temple of Carmenta And as I suppose this Carmenta was the mother of Evander who came with him into Italy whose right name indeed was Themis or as some say Nicostrata now for that she rendred propheticall answeres and oracles in verse the Latins surnamed her Carmenta for verses in their tongue they call Carmina Others are of opinion that Carmenta was one of the Destinies which is the cause that such matrons and mothers sacrifice unto her And the Etymologic of this name Carmenta is as much as Carens mente that is to say beside her right wits or bestraught by reason that her senses were so ravished and transported so that her verses gave her not the name Carmenta but contrariwise her verses were called Carmina of her because when she was thus ravished and caried beside herselfe she chanted certeine oracles and prophesies in verse 57 What is the cause that the women who sacrifice unto the goddesse Rumina doe powre and cast store of milke upon their sacrifice but no wine at all do they bring thither for to be drunke IS it for that the Latins in their tongue call a pap Ruma And well it may so be for that the wilde figge tree neere unto which the she wolfe gave sucke with her teats unto Romulus was in that respect called Ficus Rumtnalis Like as therefore we name in our Greeke language those milch nourses that suckle yoong infants at their brests Thelona being a word derived of 〈◊〉 which signifieth a pap even so this goddesse Rumina which is as much to say as Nurse and one that taketh the care and charge of nourishing and rearing up of infants admitteth not in her sacrifices any wine for that it is hurtfull to the nouriture of little babes and sucklings 58 What is the reason that of the Romane Senatours some are called simply Patres others with an addition Patres conscripti IS it for that they first who were instituted and ordeined by Romulus were named Patres 〈◊〉 that is to say Gentlemen or Nobly borne such as we in Greece tearme Eupatrides Or rather they were so called because they could avouch and shew their fathers but such as were adjoined afterwards by way of supply and enrolled out of the Commoners houses were Patres conscripti thereupon 59 Wherefore was there one altar common to Hercules and the Muses MAy it not be for that Hercules taught Evander the letters according as Juba writeth Certes in those daies it was accounted an honourable office for men to teach their kinsefolke and friends to spell letters and to reade For a long time after it and but of late daies it was that they began to teach for hire and for money and the first that ever was knowen to keepe a publicke schoole for reading was one named Spurius Carbilius the freed servant of that Carbilius who first put away his wife 60 What is the reason that there being two altars dedicated unto Hercules women are not partakers of the greater nor tast one whit of that which is offered or sacrificed thereupon IS it because as the report goes Carmenta came not soone enough to be assistant unto the sacrifice no more did the family of the Pinarij whereupon they tooke that name for in regard that they came tardie admitted they were not to the feast with others who made good cheere and therefore got the name Pinarij as if one
first borne IS it for that as some say Servius being by chance borne of a maid-servant and a captive had Fortune so favourable unto him that he reigned nobly and gloriously king at Rome For most Romans are of this opinion Or rather because Fortune gave unto the city of Rome her first originall and beginning of so mightie an empire Or lieth not herein some deeper cause which we are to fetch out of the secrets of Nature and Philosophie namely that Fortune is the principle of all things insomuch as Nature consisteth by Fortune namely when to some things concurring casually and by chance there is some order and dispose adjoined 107 What is the reason that the Romans call those who act comedies and other theatricall plaies Histriones IS it for that cause which as Claudius Rufus hath left in writing for he reporteth that many yeeres ago and namely in those daies when Cajus Sulpitius and Licinius Stolo were Consuls there raigned a great pestilence at Rome such a mortalitie as consumed all the stage plaiers indifferently one with another Whereupon at their instant praier and request there repaired out of Tuscane to Rome many excellent and singular actours in this kinde among whom he who was of greatest reputation and had caried the name longest in all theaters for his rare gift and dexteritie that way was called Hister of whose name all other afterwards were tearmed Histriones 108 Why espoused not the Romans in mariage those women who were neere of kin unto them WAs it because they were desirous to amplifie and encrease their alliances and acquire more kinsfolke by giving their daughters in mariage to others and by taking to wife others than their owne kinred Or for that they feared in such wedlock the jarres and quarrels of those who be of kin which are able to extinguish and abolish even the verie lawes and rights of nature Or else seeing as they did how women by reason of their weaknesse and infirmitie stand in need of many helpers they would not have men to contract mariage nor dwell in one house with those who were neere in blood to them to the end that if the husband should offer wrong and injurie to his wife her kinsfolke might succour and assist her 109 Why is it not lawfull for Jupiters priest whom they name Flamen Dialis to handle or once touch meale or leaven FOr meale is it not be because it is an unperfect and raw kind of nourishment for neither continueth it the same that it was to wit wheat c. nor is that yet which it should be namely bread but hath lost that nature which it had before of seed and withall hath not gotten the use of food and nourishment And hereupon it is that the poet calleth meale by a Metaphor or borrowed speech Mylephaton which is as much to say as killed and marred by the mill in grinding and as for leaven both it selfe is engendred of a 〈◊〉 corruption of meale and also corrupteth in a maner the whole lumpe of dough wherin it is mixed for the said dough becommeth lesse firme and fast than it was before it hangeth not together and in one word the leaven of the paste seemeth to be a verie putrifaction and tottennesse thereof And verely if there be too much of the leaven put to the dough it maketh it so sharpe and soure that it cannot be eaten and in verie truth spoileth the meale quite 110 Wherefore is the said priest likewise forbidden to touch raw flesh IS it by this custome to withdraw him farre from eating of raw things Or is it for the same cause that he abhorreth and detesteth meale for neither is it any more a living animall nor come yet to be meat for by boiling and rosting it groweth to such an alteration as changeth the verie forme thereof whereas raw flesh and newly killed is neither pure and impolluted to the eie but hideous to see to and besides it hath I wot not what resemblance to an ougly sore or filthie ulcer 111 What is the reason that the Romans have expresly commaunded the same priest or Flamen of Jupiter not onely to touch a dogge or a goat but not so much as to name either of them TO speake of the Goat first is it not for detestation of his excessive lust and lecherie and besides for his ranke and filthie savour or because they are afraid of him as of a diseased creature and subject to maladies for surely there seemeth not to be a beast in the world so much given to the falling sicknesse as it is nor infecteth so soone those that either eate of the flesh or once touch it when it is surprised with this evill The cause whereof some say to be the streightnesse of those conduits and passages by which the spirits go and come which oftentimes happen to be intercepted and stopped And this they conjecture by the small and slender voice that this beast hath the better to confirme the same we do see ordinarily that men likewise who be subject to this malady grow in the end to have such a voice as in some fort resembleth the 〈◊〉 of goats Now for the Dog true it is haply that he is not so lecherous nor smelleth altogether so strong and so ranke as doth the Goat and yet some there be who say that a Dog might not be permitted to come within the castle of Athens nor to enter into the Isle of Delos because forsooth he lineth bitches openly in the sight of everie man as if bulls boares and stalions had their secret chambers to do their kind with females and did not leape and cover them in the broad field and open yard without being abashed at the matter But ignorant they are of the true cause indeed which is for that a Dog is by nature fell and 〈◊〉 given to arre and warre upon a verie small occasion in which respect men banish them from sanctuaries holy churches and priviledged places giving thereby unto poore afflicted suppliants free accesse unto them for their safe and sure refuge And even so verie probable it is that this Flamen or priest of Jupiter whom they would have to be as an holy sacred and living image for to flie unto should be accessible and easie to be approched unto by humble futers and such as stand in need of him without any thing in the way to empeach to put backe or to 〈◊〉 them which was the cause that he had a little bed or pallet made for him in the verie porch or entrie of his house and that servant or slave who could find meanes to come and fall downe at his feet and lay hold on his knees was for that day freed from the whip and past danger of all other punishment say he were a prisoner with irons and bolts at his feet that could make shift to approch neere unto this priest he was let loose and his gives and fetters were throwen out of the house not
Having thus begun his tale he came downe and went his way the people then called him backe and praied him to tell the tale out and make an end thereof Why my masters quoth he how is it that you are so desirous that I should tell you a tale of the shadow of asse and will not give me the hearing when I am to speake unto you of your affaires of great importance Polus the famous actour and stage-plaier made his boast upon a time that in two daies wherein he plaied his part he had gotten a whole talent of silver And I quoth he have gained five in one day for holding my peace and keeping silence His voice upon a time when he made a speech unto the people failed him whereupon his audience being not well pleased and himselfe somewhat troubled he said aloud unto them You are to judge plaiers by their pleasant and strong voice but oratours by their good and grave sentences Epicles seemed to upbraid and reproch him for that he was alwaies musing and premeditating I would be ashamed quoth he unto him if being to speake before so great an assembly of people I should come unprovided It is written of him that he never put out his lampe that is to say that he never ceased studying how to file and polish as it were his orations untill he was fiftie yeres old He said of himselfe that he drunke nothing but faire water Lysias the oratour had knowledge of him and Isocrates saw him to manage the affaires of State untill the battell of Chaeronea yea and some also of the Socraticall oratours The most part of his orations he pronounced ex tempore and of a sudden as having a ready and pregnant wit and one who naturally was fitted to speake The first that ever proposed and put up a bill unto the people that he should be crowned with a coronet of gold was Aristonicus the Anagyrasian the sonne of Nicophanes and Diondas did second the motion with an oath HYPERIDES IX HYperides the sonne of Glaucippus who was the sonne of Dionysius of the burrough Colyttea had a sonne who bare the name of his father Glaucippus an orator who composed cerreine orations and he begat another oratour named Alphinus He was at one time the scholar of Plato the Philosopher of Lycurgus and of Isocrates He dealt in the State at what time as Alexander the Great intended the affaires of Greece and he crossed him as touching those captaines which he demanded of the Athenians as also about the gallies which he required to have He advised the people not to casse and discharge those souldiers which were enterteined at Taenara who had for their captaine Chares and whose friend particularly he was He pleaded ordinarily at the first as an advocate for his fee and was suspected to have received part of that money which Ephialtes brought out of Persia. Chosen he was the captaine of one great galley at what time as king Philip went to lay siege unto the citie Bizantium and sent he was to aide the Bizantines The very same yeere he tooke the charge of defraying the expenses of the solenme dances whereas the rest of the captaines were exempt from all publicke offices for that yeere He passed a decree that certeine honours should be done unto Demosthenes and when the said decree was by Diondas repealed as made against the lawes and himselfe thereupon accused yet found he was unguiltie and thereupon acquit Friend he was to Demosthenes Lysicles and Lycurgus howbeit in this amitie he continued not unto the end for after that Lysicles and Lycurgus were dead when Demosthenes was once called in question for taking money of Harpalus he alone for that his hands onely were free of bribery was nominated and picked out from the rest to frame an accusation against him because they were all thought culpable in the same fault and so he judicially accused him but himselfe was charged by Aristogiton for publishing acts contrary to the lawes after the battell at Chaeronea namely That all the inhabitants and dwellers in Athens should be burgesses of the citie that all slaves should manumized and made free that all sacred and holy reliques that women and children should be bestowed within the port or haven Pireaeum howbeit absolved he was and went cleere away And when some there were who found fault with him and marvelled how he should be so negligent and overseene as not to know so many lawes which were directly opposit to the said decrees he made this answere If quoth he the armes of the Macedonians and the battell of Chaeronea had not dazzeled and dimmed my sight I had never written nor proposed such an edict But certeine it is that after this Philip being affrighted gave the Athenians leave to take up the bodies of their dead that lay in the field which before he had denied unto the heralds that came of purpose unto him out of Lebadia Afterwards upon the defaiture at Cranon when he was demanded by Antipater and the people resolved to deliver him into his hands he forsooke the citie and fled into the Isle Aegina with other persons who likewise were condemned where meeting with Demosthenes he desired him to holde him excused for that he had by constraint accused him And when he minded to depart from thence surprised he was by one Archias surnamed Phygadotheres a man borne in the citie of Thurit and who at the first was a professed stage-plaier but then imploied in the service and aid of Antipater so he was apprehended perforce within the temple of Neptune notwithstanding hee held the image of the said god in his armes and from thence brought to Corinth before Antipater where being set upon the racke and put to torture he bit his tongue off with his owne teeth because he would not discover the secrets of the city and so ended his daies the ninth day of the moneth October howbeit Hermippus saith that as he went into Macedonie he had his tongue cut out of his head and his dead corps was cast forth unto the beasts of the field without sepulture yet one Alphinus his cousen germaine or as some say the cousen of Glaucippus his sonne obteined licence by the meanes of Philopithes a certeine physician to take up his bodie who burnt the same in a funerall fire the ashes and bones whereof he caried to Athens afterwards among his kinsfolke and friends contrary to the orders and decrees set downe both by the Macedonians and the Athenians for by vertue thereof they were not onely banished but interdicted so as they might not be interred within their owne countrey Others say that he was carried unto the citie Cleonae with others where he died and that his tongue was cut and afterwards himselfe murdred in maner aforesaid Howbeit his kinsemen and friends gathered up his bones when his corps was burnt and buried them amongs his parents and progenitours before the gates called Hippades according as Heliodorus
and hinde withall To hunt and follow hard at trace So neere unto the quicke did that discourse touch me alleaging such a number of proper and pithy reasons SOCLARUS True it is that you say ô Autobulus for me thought that therein he stirred up and awakened his singular eloquence and skill in Rhetoricke which some time he had discontinued which lay asleepe to gratifie as I take it those yoong gentlemen who were present in place and withall to solace and disport himselfe among them but that which pleased me most was this When hee represented unto our eies by way of comparison sword-fencers fighting at sharpe one with another to the uttrance alledging this for one of his reasons wherefore he principally commending hunting in that it diverteth and calleth away a certeine affection that we have either naturally engraffed or else acquired by use and custome to take pleasure in seeing men at swords point enter into combat for life death one against another turneth it especially hither yeelding unto us a faire pure and innocent spectacle of artificial cunning conjoined with hardinesse and courage guided with reason against brutish force and witlesse strength and in so doing giveth us to understand that this sentence of Euripides is woorthy to be praised when he saith Small is mans strength and puissance corporall His wit is great and prudence naturall It tames all fish beneath in sea so deepe And wily beasts aloft on earth that keepe AUTOBULUS And yet my good friend Soclarus some there be who hold that this inflexible rigour and savage impassibility of not being mooved at all with pitty came from hence into mens hearts namely from the custome of killing of beasts in chase and of learning not to have in honour the sight of bloudshed and of the grievous wounds of beasts which they received but to take delight in seeing them to die and to be cut in pieces and like as in the citie of Athens when it was reduced under the tyrannie of the thirtie usurpers the first man whom they put to death was a sycophant of whom it was said then that hee had well deserved it and was rightly served and so they said by a second and a third but from thence they went forward by little and little untill they came to lay hold upon honest men and in the end spared not the best and most vertuous citizens even so he that killed at the first a beare or a woolfe was highly commended and thought to have done a very good deed and an oxe or a swine that had eaten some things provided for a sacrifice or oblation to the gods was condemned as fit and worthy to die heereupon stagges and hinds hares also and goates which men began already to eat invited also the flesh of sheepe yea and in some places of dogges and horses to the table But they who taught first to dismember and cut in pieces for meat a tame goose a house dove and familiar pigeon a dung-hill cocke or domesticall henne of the roust and that not for to satisfie and remedie the necessitie of hunger as doe these weezils and cattes and but onely for pleasure and to feed a daintie tooth surely have confirmed and strengthened all that bloudinesse and savage cruelty which was in our nature and made it altogether inflexible and immooveable without any compassion but contrariwise enfeebled and dulled for the most part all naturall mildnesse and humanitie whereas on the other side the Pythagoreans would have men to accustome themselves to use gentlenesse even towards beasts as an exercise of pitty and mercy to men for custome which traineth us familiarly by little and little to any passion and affection hath a wonderous efficacie to set a man forward thereunto But I wot not how being entred into speech we have forgotten our selves and not kept us to that which was begun yesterday and should be continued and held on this day for yesterday as you know very well having agreed upon this That all sorts of living creatures have in them some little discourse and reason we gave good occasion and matter of a learned and pleasant disputation unto our yoong gentlemen who love hunting so well namely as touching the wit and wisedome of beasts whether there be more in them of the land or those of the sea which question we are as I take it this day to decide in case Aristotimus and Phaedimus hold on still and persist in their defiances and chalenges which yesterday they gave one another for the one of them undertooke unto his friends and companions to mainteine that the earth bringeth foorth beasts of more sense capacitie and understanding and the other contrariwise promised as much in the behalfe of the water SOCLARUS That they do Autobulus they are of the same mind still to dispute it out and here they wil be anon for this very purpose for I saw them in the morning betimes addressing making themselves readie but if you thinke it good before this combat begin let us go in hand againe with that which yesterday should have been handled and was not partly for that the time and place served not therto or rather because the matter was proposed unto them at the table and among the cups of wine which went merrily about and not treated of in good earnest and sadnesse in deed for one there was who seemed after a pragmaticall sort to resound on the adverse part not impertinently as if he came out of the Stoicks schoole thus much That like as mortal is opposite unto immortall corruptible unto incorruptible and corporall to incorporall even so confesse we ought that reasonable is contrarie to unreasonable so that if one of them be the other ought likewise of necessitie to be and that this onely couple of contraries among so many other ought not to be left defectuous or unperfect AUTOBULUS And what is he friend Soclarus who will say that if we admit in nature that which is reasonable to subsist and have being wee should not likewise allow that which is unreasonable for no doubt it is and that in great measure namely in all creatures which have no life nor soule neither need we to seeke father for any other opposition unto that which is reasonable for whatsoever is without life and soule is incontinently opposite unto that which together with soule hath the use of understanding and reason and if any one there be who maintaineth that nature for all this is not unperfect in that everie substance having soule is either reasonable or unreasonable another will say unto him likewise that a nature endued with life and soule is not defective namely in that either it hath imagination or else is without it is either sensitive or else hath no sense to the end that it may have on either side these two oppositions or privations making counterpoise one against another about one and the same kind as two contrarie branches arising out of one
and comprehend another that the rainebow which compasseth the other without forth yeeldeth dim colours and not sufficiently distinct expressed because the outward cloud being farther remote from our sight maketh not a strong and forcible reflexion And what needs there any more to be said considering that the very light of the Sunne returned and sent backe by the Moone 〈◊〉 all the heat and of his brightnesse there commeth unto us with much adoe but a small remnant and a portion very little and feeble Is it possible then that our sight running the same race there should any percell or residue thereof reach from the Moone backe againe to the Sunne For mine owne part I thinke not Consider also I beseech you quoth I even your owne selves that if our eiesight were affected and disposed alike by the water and by the Moone it could not otherwise be but that the Moone should represent unto us the images of the earth of trees of plants of men and of starres as well as water doth and all other kinds of mirrors Now if there be no such reflexion of our eie sight 〈◊〉 the Moone as to bring backe unto us those images either for the feeblenesse of it or the rugged innequallity of her superficies let us never require that it should leape backe as far as to the Sun Thus have we reported as much as our memory would carrie away whatsoever was there delivered Now is it time to desire Sylla or rather to require exact of him to make his narration for that admitted he was to here this discourse upon such a condition And therefore if you thinke so good let us give over walking and sitting downe here upon these seates make him a sedentarie audience All the companie liked well of this motion And when we had taken our places Theon thus began Certes I am desirous quoth he and none of you all more to heare what shall be said But before I would be very glad to understand somewhat of those who are said to dwell in the Moone not whether there be any persons there inhabiting but whether it be possible that any should inhabit there For if this cannot be then it were mere folly and beside all reason to say that the Moone is earth otherwise it would be thought to have beene created in vaine and to no end as bearing no fruits nor affoording no habitation no place for nativity no food or nourishment for any men or women in regard of which cause and for which ends we 〈◊〉 hold that this earth wherein we live as Plato saith was made and created even to be our nourse and keeper making the day and night distinct one from another For you see and know that of this matter many things have beene said aswell merily and by way of laughter as 〈◊〉 and in good earnest For of those who inhabit the Moone some are said to hang by the heads under it as if they were so many 〈◊〉 others contrariwise who dwell upon it are tied fast like a sort of 〈◊〉 and turned about with such a violence that they are in danger to be slung and shaken out And verily she moveth not after one single motion but three maner of waies whereupon the Poets call her other while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Trivia performing her course together according to length bredth and depth in the Zodiak Of which motions the first is called A direct revolution the second An oblique winding or wheeling in and out and the third the Mathematicians call I wote not how An inequalitie and yet they see that she hath no motion at all even and uniforme nor certeine in all her monthly circuits and reversions No marvell therefore considering the impetuositie of these motions if there fell a lion sometimes out of her into Peloponnesus nay rather we are to wonder why we see not every day a thousand sals of men women yea and as many beasts shaken out from thence and flung downe headlong with their heeles upward For it were a meere mockerie to dispute and stand upon their habitation there if they neither can breed nor abide there For considering that the 〈◊〉 and Troglodytes over whose heads the Sunne standeth directly one moment onely of the day in the time of the Solstices and then presently retireth hardly escape burning by reason of the excessive siccitie of the circumstant aire how possibly can the men in the Moone endure 12 Summers every yere when the Sunne once a moneth is just in their Zenith and setleth plumbe over head when she is at the full As for winds clouds and raines without which the plants of the earth can neither come up nor be preserved it passeth all imagination that there should be any there the aire is so subtile drie and hote especially seeing that even here beneath the highest mountaines doe admit or feele the hard and bitter Winters from yeere to yeere but the aire about them being pure and cleere and without any agitation whatsoever by reason of the subtilitie and lightnesse avoideth all that thicknesse and concretion which is among us unlesse haply we will say that like as Minerva instilled and dropped into Achilles mouth some Nectar and Ambrosia when he received no other food so the Moone who both is called and is indeed Minerva nourisheth men there bringeth foorth daily for them Ambrosia according as olde Pherecides was wont to say that the very gods also were sedde and nourished For as touching that Indian root which as Megasthenes saith certeine people of India who neither eat nor drinke nor have so much as mouthes whereupon they be called Astomi do burne and make to smoake with the odor and perfume whereof they live how can they come by any such there considering the Moone is never watered nor refreshed with raine When 〈◊〉 had thus said You have quoth I very properly and sweetly handled this point you have I say by this mery conceited jest laied smooth and even those bent and knit browes the austerity I meane of this whole discourse which hath given us heart and encouraged us to make answere for that if we faile and come short we looke not for streight examination nor feare any sharpe and grievous punishment For to say a trueth they who take most offence at these matters rejecting and discrediting the same are not so great adversaries unto those who are most perswaded thereof but such as will not after a milde and gentle sort consider that which is possible and probable First and formost therefore this I say that suppose there were no men at all inhabiting the Moone it doth not necessarily follow therefore that she was made for nothing and to no purpose for we see that even this earth here is not thorowout inhabited nor tilled in all parts nay there is but a little portion thereof habitable like unto certeine promontories or 〈◊〉 arising out of the deepe sea for to breed in gender and bring forth
not set foorth unlesse the moone were at the full And thus these men waited for the full moone But you good sir transferre the ful moone into the beginning of the halfe moone or second quarter confounding the course of heaven and the order of daies yea and shuffling every thing together Over and besides promising in the forefront and inscription of your historie to write the deeds and affaires of the Greekes you employ all your eloquence to magnifie and amplifie the acts of the Barbarians and making semblance to be affectionate to the Athenians yet for all that you make no mention at all of that solemne pompe and procession of theirs at Agrae which they hold even at this day in the honour of Hecate or Proserpina by way of thankes giving for the victorie the feast whereof they do celebrate But this helpeth Herodotus verie much to meet with that improperation and slander that went of him namely that he flattered the Athenians in his storie for that he had received a great summe of money of them for that purpose for if he had read this unto the Athenians they would never have neglected nor let passe that wicked Philippides who went to moove and sollicite the Lacedaemonians to be at that battell from which himselfe came and he especially who as he saith himselfe within two daies was in Sparta after he had beene at Athens if the Athenians after the winning of the field did not send for the aide of their confederates and allies But Diyllus an Athenian none of the meanest Chroniclers writeth that he received of the Athenians the summe of ten talents of silver by vertue of an an act that Anytus propounded Moreover many are of opinion that Herodotus in his narration of the battell of Marathon himselfe marred the whole grace and honour of the exploit by the number that he putteth downe of them who there were slaine for he saith that the Athenians made a vow to sacrifice unto Proserpina or Diana surnamed Agrotera as many yeere-old goats as they slew of the Barbarians but when after the discomfiture and overthrow they saw that the number of the dead bodies was infinit they made supplication to the gooddesse for to be dispensed for their vow and promise and to acquit them for five hundred every yeere to be killed in sacrifice for her But to passe over this let us see what followed after the battell The Barbarians quoth he with the rest of their ships drawing backe and retiring into the open sea and having taken a ship boord those slaves of Eretria out of the Isle where they had left them doubled the point of Sunium with a full purpose to prevent the Athenians before they could recover the citie And the Athenians were of opinion that they were advised thus to do by a secret complot betweene them and the Alcmaeonidae who had apponted and agreed with the Persians to give them a signall so soone as they were all embarked by holding up aloft and shewing them a shield afarre off And so they fetched a compasse about the cape of Sunium And here I am content that he should go cleere away with this that he called those prisoners of Eretria by the name of slaves who shewed as much courage and valour in this warre yea and as great a desire to win honour as any Greeks whatsoever although their vertue sped but ill and was unworthily afflicted And lesse account I make also of this that he defameth the Alcmaeonidae of whom were the greatest families and noblest persons of all the citie But the worst of all is this that the honour of this brave victorie is quite overthrowen and the issue or end of so woorthy and renowmed a piece of service is come just to nothing in a maner neither seemeth it to have beene any such battell or so great an exploit but onely a short scuffling or light skirmish with the Barbarians when they were landed as evill willers carpers and envious persons give out to deprave the service if it be so that after the battell they fled not when they had cut the cables of their ships permitting themselves to the winde for to cary them as far as possibly might be frō Attica but that there was a shield or targuet lifted up aloft in the aire as a signall unto them of treason and that of purpose they made saile toward the city of Athens in hope to surprise it and having without any noise in great silence doubled the foresaid point of Sunium and were discovered a float hovering about the port Phalerae insomuch as the principall and most honourable personages of the Athenians being out of all hope to save the citie betraied it into their hands for afterwards he dischargeth and cleereth the Alcmaeonidae and attributeth this treason unto others And certeine it is quoth he that such a targuet or shield was shewed And this he saith so confidently as if himselfe had seene the thing But impossible it is that it should be so in case the Athenians won the victorie cleere and say it had so beene the Barbarians never could have perceived it flying so as they did in great affright and danger wounded also as they were and chased both with sword and shot into their ships who left the field every man and fled from the land as fast as ever he could But afterwards againe when he maketh semblance to answere in the behalfe of the Alcmaeonidae and to refute those crimes which himselfe broched and charged upon them I woonder quoth he and I can not beleeve the rumour of this imputation that ever the Alcmaeonidae by any compact with the Barbarians shewed them the signall of a shield as willing that the Athenians should be in subjection to the Barbarians under Hippias In thus doing he putteth me in mind and remembrance of a certeine clause running in this maner Take him you will and having taken him let him goe you will Semblably first you accuse and anon you defend write you do and frame accusatorie imputations against honourable persons which afterwards you seeme to cancile discrediting herein no doubt and distrusting your selfe for you have heard your owne selfe to say that the Alcmaeonidae set up a targuet for a signal to the Barbarians vanquished and flying away but in relieving them againe and answering in their defence you shew your selfe to be a slanderous sycophant for if that be true which you write in this place that the Alcmaeonidae were worse or at leastwise as badly affected to tyrants as Callias the sonne of Phenippus and father of Hipponicus where will you bestow and place that conspiracie of theirs against the common wealth which you have written in your former books saying that they contracted alliance and affinitie in marriage with Pisistratus by meanes whereof they wrought his returne from exile to exercise tyrannie neither would they ever have banished him againe had it not beene that their daughter had complained and accused him that he
Panchon which never Graecian nor Barbarian save himselfe saw as having sailed unto the countreies of the Panchonians and Triphylians nations forsooth that neither are nor ever were in this world And yet verily a great name there goeth among the Assyrians of the woorthy and renowmed acts of Semiramis as also in Aegypt of Sesostris As for the Phrygians even at this day they terme noble exploits and admirable enterprises by the name Manica of one of their ancient kings whom they called Manis who in his time was a most prudent and valiant prince and whom others named Masdes Cyrus led the Persians and Alexander the Macedonians with conquest still and victorie from one end of the world in maner to another and yet for all these brave acts no otherwise renowmed they are nor remembred but onely for puissant and good kings and say there were haply some of them who upon an overweening and high conceit of themselves helped forward with youth and want of experience as Plato saith and whose mindes were puffed up and inflamed with pride and vain-glory tooke upon them the surnames of gods and had temples founded in their names yet this glory of theirs lasted but a while and soon after being condemned by the posterity of vanitie and arrogancie together with impietie and injustice Were quickly gone like smoke which mounting hie Into the aire doth vanish by and by and now as fugitive slaves that may be brought backe againe where ever they be found they are haled and pulled away from their temples and altars and nothing remaineth for them but their tombs sepulchers and therefore that old king Antigonus when a certeine Poet named Hermodotus in his verses called him the sonne of the Sun yea a god Well quoth he my groome that daily voideth my close stoole knowes no such matter by me Lysippus also the Imager did very well to reproove Apelles the painter for that when he drew the picture of Alexander hee portraied him with lightning in his hand whereas Lysippus put in his hand a launce the glory and renowme whereof as due and proper unto him yea and beseeming his person indeed no time nor age should ever be able to abolish In which regard I hold better with them who thinke that the things which be written of Typhon Osiris and Isis were no accidents or passions incident to gods or to men but rather to some great Daemons of which minde were Pythagoras Plato Xenocrates and Chrysippus following heerein the opinions of the ancient Theologians who hold that they were farre stronger than men and that in puissance they much surmounted our nature but that divinitie which they had was not pure and simple but they were compounded of a nature corporall and spirituall capable of pleasure of griefe and other passions and affections which accompanying these mutations trouble some more others lesse For in these Daemons there is like as also among men a diversity and difference of vice and of vertue For the acts of Giants and Titans so much chaunted in every Greeke song the abominable deeds likewise and practises of one Saturne the resistance also of Python against Apollo the sounds of Bacchus and the wanderings of Ceres differ in no respect from the accidents of Osiris and Typhon and of all other such like fabulous tales which every man may heare as much as he list as also whatsoever lying covered and hidden under the vaile of mystical sacrifices and ceremonies is kept close not uttered nor shewed to the vulgar people is of the same sort And acding hereto we may heare Homer how he calleth good men and such as excell others diversly one while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say like unto the gods otherwhile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say comparable to the gods sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say having their wisdome and counsell from the gods But the denomination or addition drawen from the Daemons he useth commonly as well to the good as the bad indifferent to valiant persons and to cowards to a timorous and fearefull soldior thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemonian approch thou neare The Greeks why doest thou so much feare On the other side of an hardy soldior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When he the charge in field the fourth time gave Like to some Daemon he did himselfe behave And againe in the woorse sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Daemonian what is that great offence Which Priam and his sonnes committed have Against thee for to make thy just pretence In wrathfull tearmes upon them thus to rave And them no grace and mercy to vouchsave Nor rest untill thou seest the stately towne Of Ilion destroid and rased downe Giving us heereby thus much to understand that the Daemons have a mixt nature and a will or affection which is not equall nor alwaies alike And heereupon it is that Plato verily attributeth unto the Olympian and celestiall gods all that which is dexterous and odde but unto the Daemons whatsoever is sinister and even And Xenocrates holdeth that those daies which be unluckie and dismall those festivall solemnities likewise which have any beatings or knocking and thumping of brests or fasting or otherwise any cursed speeches and filthy words are not meet for the honour worship either of gods or of good Daemons but he supposeth that there be in the aire about us certeine natures great puissant howbeit shrewd malicious and unsociable which take some pleasure in such matters and when they have obteined and gotten so much to be done for their sake they goe about no farther mischiefe nor wait any shrewder turnes whereas contrariwise both Hesiodus calleth the pure and holy Daemons such also as be the good angels and keepers of men Givers of wealth and opulence as whome This regall gift and honour doth become And Plato also termeth this kinde of Daemons or angels Mercuriall that is to say expositours or interpretours and ministeriall having a middle nature betweene gods and men who as mediatours present the praiers and petitions of men heere unto the gods in heaven and from thence transmit and convey unto us upon earth the oracles and revelations of hidden and future things as also their donations of goods and riches As for Empedocles he saith that these Daemons or fiends are punished and tormented for their sinnes and offences which they have committed as may appeere by these his verses For why the power of aire and skie did to the sea them chace The sea them cast up of the earth even to the outward face The earth them sends unto the beames of never-tyred Sunne The Sunne to aire whence first they came doth fling them downe anon Thus posted to and fro twixt seas beneath and heav'ns aboue From one they to another passe not one yet doth them love untill such time as being thus in this purgatory chastised and clensed they recover againe that place
their espies and escouts going too and fro throughout all parts some to oversee and direct the sacrifices and sacred rites and ceremonies performed to the gods others to chastice and punish the enormious and outragious offences and wrongs committed by men and others there are besides of whom the Poet Hesiodus speaketh most 〈◊〉 verently saying Pure holy and syncere they be the Donors of good things This honour is allotted them beseeming noble kings Giving us by the way thus much to understand that to doe good and be beneficiall is a roiall office and function for a difference there is and sundry degrees there be in the gifts and vertues of Daemons like as among men For in some of them there remaine still certaine small reliques and the same verie feeble and scarce sensible of that passionate and sensitive part of the soule which is not reasonable even as a very excrement and superfluitie left behind of the rest but in others againe there abideth a great deale and the same hardly to be extinguished whereof we may see lively the works and evident tokens in many places disseminate in some sacrifices feasts and ceremonies celebrated unto them yea and in the tales reported by them Howbeit as touching the mysteries and sacred services by which through which a man may more cleerely perceive than by any other meanes whatsoever the true nature of the gods I will not speake a word let them lie close and hidden still for me as Herodot us saith But as for certeine festivall solemnities and sacrifices which are held as dismall unfortunate and heavy daies when sometimes they use to eat raw flesh and teare humane bodies piece-meale or otherwhile to fast and knocke their brests and in many places utter most filthy and beastly words during the sacrifices Wagging their heads in frantike wise With strange all armes and hideous cries I will never beleeve that this is done for any of the gods but will say rather it is to avert the ire and appease the furie of some maligne divels Neither carieth it any likelihood and probability that ever any god would require men to be sacrificed unto them as they were in old time or stand well pleased with any such sacrifices Neither was it for nought that kings and great captaines gave their owne children thus to be slaine yea and with their owne hands killed them for sacrifice but we are to beleeve that it was to turne away and divert the rankor and wrath of some perverse spirits and malicious fiends or to satisfie such hurtfull divels yea and to fulfill the violent furious and tyrannicall lusts of some who either could not or would not enjoy them with their bodies or by their bodies But like as Hercules besieged the city of Oechalia for a virgins sake who was within even so these powerfull and outragious fiends demaunding some humane soule clad and compassed within a body to be given unto them and yet not able to fulfill their lust by the body bring pestilence famine dearth and sterility of the ground upon cities raise wars and civil dissentions untill such times as they come to have and enjoy that which they loved and some doe cleane contrary as it was my hap to observe in Candie where I abode a long time how they celebrated a certaine monstrous feast in which they made shew of an headlesse mans image saying it was Molus the father of Meriones for having forced or defloured a Nymph he was afterwards found without an head Moreover what ravish ment soever what wandring voiages what occultations flights banishments ministeries and services of the gods be reported and sung in fables or hymnes certes they be all of them no passions and accidents that befell to gods indeed but to some Daemons whose fortunes were recorded in memoriall of their vertue puissance neither meant the Poet Aeschylus a god when he said Apollo chast who now is sled And out of heaven bantshed Nor Admetus in Sophocles My chaunting cocke that crowes so shrill Hath raised 〈◊〉 and brought to mill Also the Divines and Theologians of Delpht are in a great error and farre from the truth who thinke that sometimes in this place there was a combat betweene Apollo and a dragon about the hold and possession of this Oracle They are to blame also who suffer Poets and Oratours striving one against another in their Theatres to act or relate such matters as if of purpose and expresly they contradicted and condemned those things which themselves performe in their most sacred solemnities Heereat when Philippus woondered much for the Historiographer of that name was present in this companie demanded withall what divine rites and ceremonies they might be which were contradicted and testified against by these who contended in the Theaters Mary even those quoth Cleombrotus which concerne this very Oracle of Delphi and by which this citie not long since hath admitted and received into the sacred profession of holy mysteries all the Greeks without Thermopylae and excluded those that dwell as farre as the vale of Tempe For the tabernacle or cotage heere of boughes which is erected and set up every ninth yeere within the court-yard of this temple is not a representation of the dragons cave or denne but rather of some tyrants or kings house as also the affault or surprise thereof in great silence by the way called Dolonia Likewise that a little after they bring thither a boy who hath both father and mother living with torches light burning and when they have set the said tabernacle or tent on fire and overthrowne the table runne away as hard as they can through the dores of the temple and never looke behinde them And finally the wanderings of this boy in divers places and his servile ministeries together with the expiatory sacrifices and ceremonies about Tempe move suspicion that there should be represented thereby some notorious outrage and audacious fact perpetrated there in old time For it were a meere mockery my friend Philippus to say that Apollo for killing the dragon fled as farre as to the utmost coasts and marches of Greece for to be purified and assoiled also that he offered thereon certeine expiatorie libations and effusions and performed all such duties and services which men doe when they would appease the wrath and indignation of such Daemons and curst fiends whom we call Alastor as and Palamnaeos as one would say The revengers of such enormities and crimes as could not be forgotten and those who bare still in minde some old sinnes and pursued the same As for that tale which I my selfe of late have heard as touching this flight and banishment it is woonderfull strange and prodigious but if it conteine some trueth among we must not thinke that it was a small and ordinary matter that befell in those daies about the said Oracle But for feare I might be thought as Empedocles sometimes said To stitch the heads of sundry tales together And goe in divers
ceaseth to be it commeth and goeth together in such sort as that which beginneth to breed never reacheth to the perfection of being for that in very deed this generation is never accomplished nor resteth as being come to a ful end and perfection of being but continually changeth and moveth from one to another even as of humane seed first there is gathered within the mothers wombe a fruit or masse without forme then an infant having some forme and shape afterwards being out of the mothers belly it is a sucking babe anon it proves to be alad or boy within a while a stripling or springall then a youth afterwards a man growen consequently an elderly ancient person last of ala croked old man so that the former ages precedent generations be alwais abolished by the subsequent those that follow But we like ridiculous fooles be affraid of one kinde of death when as we have already died so many deaths and doe nothing daily and hourely but die still For not onely as Heraclitus saith the death of fire is the life of aire and the end of aire the beginning of water but much more evidently we may observe the same in our selves The floure of our yeeres dieth and passeth away when old age commeth youth endeth in the floure of lusty and perfect age childhood determineth in youth infancy in childhood Yesterday dieth in this day and this day will be dead by to morow neither continueth any man alwaies one and the same but we are engendred many according as the matter glideth turneth and is driven about one image mould or patterne common to all figures For were it not so but that we continued still the same how is it that we take delight now in these things whereas we joied before in others how is it that we love and hate praise and dispraise contrary things how commeth it to passe that we use divers speeches fal into different discourses are in sundry affections retaine not the same visage one countenance one minde and one thought For there is no likelihood at all that without change a man should entertaine other passions and looke who is changed he continueth not the same and if he be not the same he is not at all but together with changing from the same he changeth also to be simply for that continually he is altered from one to another and by consequence our sense is deceived mistaking that which appeareth for that which is indeed and all for want of knowledge what it is to be But what is it in trueth to be Surely to be eternall that is to say which never had beginning in generation nor shall have end by corruption and in which time never worketh any mutation For a moveable and mutable thing is time appearing as it were in a shadow with the matter which runneth and floweth continually never remaining stable permanent and solid but may be compared unto a leaking vessell conteining in it after a sort generations and corruptions And to it properly belong these tearmes 〈◊〉 and after Hath bene shall be which presently at the very first sight do evidently shew that time hath no being For it were a great folly and manifest absurditie to say that a thing is which as yet commeth not into esse or hath already ceased to be And as for these words Present Instant Now c. by which it seemeth that principally we ground and mainteine the intelligence of Time reason discovereth the same and immediatly overthroweth it for incontinently it is thrust out dispatched into future and past so that it fareth with us in this case as with those who would see a thing very farre distant for of necessitie the visuall beames of his sight doe faile before they can reach thereto Now if the same befall to nature which is measured that unto time which measureth it there is nothing in it permanent nor subsistent but all things therein be either breeding or dying according as they have reference unto time And therefore it may not be allowed to say of that which is It hath beene or it shall be for these termes be certaine inclinations passages departures and chaunges of that which cannot endure nor continue in being Whereupon we are to conclude that God alone is and that not according to any measure of time but respective to eternity immutable and unmooveable not gaged within the compasse of time nor subsert either to inclination or declination any way before whom nothing ever was nor after whom ought shall be nothing future nothing past nothing elder nothing yoonger but being one really by this one Present or Now accomplisheth his eternitie and being alway Neither is there any thing that may truely be said to be but he alone nor of him may it be verified He hath beene or shall be for that he is without beginning and end In this maner therefore we ought in our worship and adoration to salute and invocate him saying EI that is to say Thou art unlesse a man will rather according as some of the ancients used to doe salve him by this title EI EN that is to say Thou art one for god is not many as every one of us who are a confused heape and masse composed or rather thrust together of infinit diversities and differences proceeding from all sorts of alterations but as that which is ought to be one so that which is one ought to be for alternative diversitie being the difference of that which is departeth from it and goeth to the engendring of that which is not And therefore very rightly agreeth unto this god the first of his names as also the second and the third for Apollo he is called as denying and disavowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say plurality multitude likewise Iëias which is as much to say as One or alone thirdly Phoebus by which name they called in the olde time All that was cleane and pure without mixture and pollution And semblably even at this day the Thessalians if I be not deceived say that their priests upon certeine vacant dayes when they keepe forth of their temples and live apart pivatly to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now that which is one is also pure and syncere for pollution commeth by occasion that one thing is mingled with another like as Homer speaking in one place of Yvorie having a tincture of red said it was polluted and the word that he useth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diers also when they would expresse that their colours be medleies or mixed use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be corrupted and the very mixture they tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Corruption It behooveth therefore that the thing which is syncere and incorruptible should be also one and simple without all mixture whatsoever In which regard they who thinke that Apollo and the Sunne be both one god are worthy to
reason to induce us thereunto for men are wont to attribute a kinde of divinty unto things which are passing common and the commoditie whereof reacheth farre as for example to water light the seasons of the yeere as for the earth her above the rest they repute not onely divine but also to be a goddesse there is none of all these things rehearsed that salt giveth place unto one jot in regard of use and profit being as it is a fortification to our meats within the bodie and that which commendeth them unto our appetite but yet consider moreover if this be not a divine propertie that it hath namely to preserve and keepe dead bodies free from putrifaction a long while and by that meanes to resist death in some sort for that it suffereth not a mortall bodie wholly to perish and come to nothing but like as the soule being the most divine part of us is that which mainteineth all the rest alive and suffereth not the masse and substance of the bodie to be dissolved and suffer colliquation even so the nature of salt taking hold of dead bodies and imitating heerein the action of the soule preserveth the same holding and staying them that they runne not headlong to corruption giving unto all the parts an amitie accord agreement one with the other and therefore it was elegantly said by some of the Stoicks That the flesh of an hogge was even from the beginning no better than a dead carion but that life being diffused within it as if salt were strewed throughout kept it sweet and so preserved it for to last long Moreover you see that wee esteeme lightning or the fire that commeth by thunder celestiall and divine for that those bodies which have beene smitten therewith are observed by us to continue a great while unputrified and without corruption What marvell is it then if our auncients have esteemed salt divine having the same vertue and nature that this divine and celestiall fire hath Heere I staied my speech and kept silence With that Philinus followed on and pursued the same argument And what thinke you quoth he is not that to be held divine which is generative and hath power to ingender considering that God is thought to be the originall authour creatour and father of all things I avowed no lesse and said it was so And it is quoth he an opinion generally received that salt availeth not a little in the matter of generation as you your selfe touched ere-while speaking of Aegyptian priests they also who keepe and nourish dogs for the race when they see them dull to performe that act and to doe their kinde do excite and awaken their lust and vertue generative that lieth as it were asleepe by giving them aswell as other hot meats salt flesh and fish both that have lien in bring pickle also those ships vessels at sea which ordinarily are fraight with salt breed commonly an infinit number of mice and rats for that as some hold the females or does of that kinde by licking of salt onely will conceive and be bagged without the company of the males or bucks but more probable it is that saltnesse doth procure a certeine itching in the naturall parts of living creatures and by that means provokeht males females both to couple together and peradventure this may be the reason that the beauty of a woman which is not dull and unlovely but full of favor attractive and able to move concupiscence men use to name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say saltish or well seasoned And I suppose that the poets have fained Venus to have beene engendred of the sea not without some reason and that this tale that she should come of salt was devised for the nonce to signifie and make knowen under those covert tearmes that there is in salt a generative power certes this is an ordinarie and generall thing among those poets to make all the sea-gods fathers of many children and very full of issue To conclude you shall not finde any land creature finde any land-creature or flying fowle for fruitfulnesse comparable to any kinde of fishes bred in the sea which no doubt this verse of Empedocles had respect unto Leading a troupe which senselesse were and rude Even of sea-fish a breeding multitude THE SIXTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-QUESTIONS The Summarie 1 WHat is the reason that men fasting be more at hirst than hungrie 2 Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or the transformation and change of the pores and conduit of the bodie be the cause thereof 3 How commeth it that they who be hungrie if they drinke are eased of their hunger but contrariwise those who are thir stie if they eat be more thirstic 4 What is the reason that pit-water when it is drawen if it be left all night within the same aire of the pit becommeth more cold 5 What is the cause that little stones and plates or pellets of lead if they be cast into water cause it to be the colder 6 Why snowe is preserved by covering it with straw chaffe or garments 7 Whether wine is to run throw a strainer 8 What is the cause of extraordinarie hunger or appetites to meat 9 Why the poet Homer when he spcaketh of other liquors useth proper epithits onely oile he calleth moist 10 What is the cause that the flesh of beasts flaine for sacrifiece if they be hanged upon a fig-tree quickly become tender THE SIXTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-questions The Proeme PLato being minded to draw Timotheus the sonne of Canon ô Sossius Senecio from sumptuous feasts and superfluous banquets which great captaines commonly make invited him one day to a supper in the Academie which was philosophicall indeed and frugall where the table was not furnished with those viands which might distemper the bodie with feaverous heats and inflamations as Iōn the poet was wont to say but such a supper I say upon which ordinarily there follow kinde and quiet sleeps such fansies also and imaginations as ingender few dreames and those short and in one word where the sleeps do testifie a great calmnesse and tranquillitie of the bodie The morrow after Timotheus perceiving the difference betweene these suppers and the other said That they who supped with Plato over-night found the pleasure and comfort therof the next day and to say a trueth a great helpe and ready meanes to a pleasant and blessed life is the good temperature of the body not drenched in wine nor loaden with viands but light nimble and ready without any feare or distrust to performe all actions and functions of the day-time But there was another commodity no lesse than this which they had who supped with Plato namely the discussing and handling of good and learned questions which were held at the table in supper time for the remembrance of the pleasures in eating and drinking is illiberall and unbeseeming men of worth
transitorie besides and soone at an end like unto the odor of a perfume and sweet ointment or the smell of rost in a kitchin a day after whereas discourses philosophicall and disputations of learning when they be remembred afterwards yeeld alwaies new pleasure and fresh delight unto those that were at them yea and cause them who were absent and left out in hearing the relation thereof to have no lesse part of learning and erudition than they who were present for thus we see that even at this day students and prosessours of learning have the fruition and enjoy the benefit of Socrates his banquets no lesse than they themselves who were personally present and had their reall part of them at the time and verily if corporall matter as dainty dishes and exquisit fare had so greatly affected and delighted their minds with pleasure Plato and Xenophon should have put downe in writing and left unto us the memoriall not of the discourses there held nor of the talke which then passed but rather of the furniture of the table have made a note of the delicate viands pastrie works comfitures and junkets served up in Callias or Agathus houses whereas now of all such matters there is no mention at all as if they were of no account nor worth the naming notwithstanding very like it is there was no want of provision no spare of cost nor defect of diligence in that behalfe but on the otherside penned they have most exactly and with great diligence the discourses of good letters and philosophy which then and there passed merrily and those they have commended unto posterities to give us example that we ought not onely to devise and reason together when we are at the boord but also to call to minde afterwards what good talke had passed and to keepe the same in memorie THE FIRST QUESTION What is the reason that those who be fasting are more thirsty than hungry NOw send I unto you Sossius Senecio this sixth booke of banquet discourses whereof the first question is Why those who be long fasting are more thirstie than hungry for it may seeme contrary unto all reason that thirst rather than hunger should ensue much fasting for that the want of dry food would seeme by course of nature to require a supplie of nutriment by the like Then began I in this manner to argue before the companie there in place That of all things within us and whereof we consist our naturall heat either alone or principally had need of nouriture and maintenance for thus verily wee doe observe in outward elements that neither aire water nor earth desire nutriment neither doe they consume whatsoever is neere unto them but it is fire onely that requireth the one and doth the other which is the reason that all yoong folke doe eat more than elder persons for that they be hotter yea and old men and women can endure to fast better because their naturall heat is already decaied and feeble in them like as it is in those living creatures which have but little bloud for small need have they of nouriture for default of naturall heat Moreover thus much we may observe in everie one of our selves that our bodily exercises our loud outcries and such like matters as by motion doe augment heat make us to take more pleasure in our meat and to have a better appetite to eat now the principall most familiar and naturall food of heat in mine opinion is moisture as we may see by daily experience that burning flames of fire increase by powring oile thereto of all things in the world ashes are the driest because the whole humiditie is burnt up and consumed but the terrestriall substance destitute of all liquor remaineth alone semblably the natures of fire is to separate and divide bodies by taking away the moisture which held them sodered and bound together when as therefore wee fast long our naturall heat draweth forcibly unto it first all the humours out of the reliques of our nourishment which done the inslammation thereof passeth farther and setteth upon the very radical humour within our flesh searching every corner for moisture to feed and nourish it there being caused therefore a woonderfull drinesse our bodie like as in earth or clay that is parched with heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by consequence commeth to stand more in need of drinke than of meat untill such time as we have taken a good draught by meanes whereof our heat being well refreshed and 〈◊〉 worketh and procureth appetite to solide and dry nourishment THE SECOND QUESTION Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or rather the transformation and change of the conduits and passages within our bodies THis discourse being thus ended Philo the physician went about to impugne and overthrow the first position mainteining that thirst proceeded not from default of any nourishment but was to be imputed unto the change of the forme in certaine passages of the body and for demonstration heereof hee alledged of the one side this experience That they who be a thirst in the night if they sleepe upon it lose their thirstinesse although they drinke never a drop on the other side that they who have the ague if their fit decline or be off them or in case the feaver be cleane past and gone presently they are eased of their drought likewise there be many who after they have beene bathed yea and beleeve me others when they have vomited are ridde of thirstinesse and yet they get moisture neither by the one nor the other but they are the pores and petie conduits of the body that suffer mutation because they be altered and transformed into another state and disposition and this appeereth more evidently in hunger for many sicke folke there be who at one time have need of nourishment and yet want appetite to their meat some there are againe who let them eat and fill themselves never so much have never the lesse appetite to meat nay their greedie hunger encreaseth the more semblablie you shall have many of those who lothed their meat to recover their stomacke and appetite quickly by tasting a few olives or capres condite with salt pickle whereby it appeareth plainly that hunger is not occasioned by default of nourishment but through the said alteration or passion of the pores and conduits of the body for surely such meats as those although they diminish the want of nourishment by addition of more food yet neverthelesse cause hunger and even so the poinant acrimonie of these salt viands contenting the taste and pleasant to the mouth by knitting binding and strengthening the stomacke or contrariwise by relaxing or opening the same do procure unto it and breed therein a certeine gnawing and a disposition to the liking of their meat which we call appetite The reason of these arguments seemed unto me very wittily devised and framed pretily for to carrie a good shew of probabilitie howbeit to be contrary unto the