on and carry thither that they have an assured testimonie in themselves that they be affectionat ser vitour of the common-weale WHETHER AN AGED MAN ought to manage publike affaires WE are not ignorant ô Euphanes that you are woont highly to praise the poet Pindarus and how you have oftentimes in your mouth these words of his as being in your conceit well placed and pithily spoken to the point When games of price and combats once are set Who shrinketh back and doth pretend some let In darknesse hides and deepe obscuritie His fame of vertue and activitie But forasmuch as men ordinarily alledge many causes and pretenses for to colour and cover their sloth want of courage to undertake the businesse and affaires of State among others as the very last and as one would say that which is of the sacred line race they tender unto us old age suppose they have found now one sufficient argument to dull or turne backe the edge and to coole the heat of seeking honor thereby in bearing us in hand saying That there is a certein convenient meet end limited not only to the revolution of yeeres proper for combats and games of proofe but also for publike affaires and dealings in State I thought it would not be impertinent nor besides the purpose if I should send and communicate unto you a discourse which sometimes I made privately for mine owne use as touching the government of common-weale managed by men of yeeres to the end that neither of us twaine should abandon that long pilgrimage in this world which we have continued in travelling together even to this present day nor reject that civill life of ours which hither to we have led in swaying of the common-weale no more than a man would cast off an old companion of his owne age or change an ancient familiar friend for another with whom he hath had no acquaintance who hath not time sufficient to converse be made familiar with him But let us in Gods name remaine firme constant in that course of life which we have choson from the beginning make the end of life of well living all one and the same if we will not for that small while which we have to live discredit diffame that longer time which we have alreadie led as if it had bin spent foolishly and in vaine without any good laudable intention For tyrannicall dominioÌ is not a faire monument to be enterred in as one said somtime to Denys the tyrant for unto him this monarchicall absolute sovereigntie gotten held by so unjust wicked meanes the longer that it had continued before it failed the greater more perfect calamitie it would have brought according as Diogenes afterwards seeing the said Dionysius his son become a poore privat man deposed froÌ the princely tyrannicall dignity which he had O Dionysius quoth he how unworthy art thou of this estate how unfitting is it for thee for thou oughtest not to live here in liberty without any feare or doubt of any thing with us but remaine there stil as thy father did immured up confined as it were within a fortresse all thy life time untill extreme old age came But in truth a popular government which is just and lawfull wherein a man hath beene conversant and shewed himselfe alwaies no lesse profitable to the common-wealth in obeying than in commaunding is a faire sepulcher for him to be buried honorably therein and to bestow in his death the glorie of his life for this is the last thing as Simonides said that descendeth and goeth under the earth unlesse we speake of them whose honour bountie and vertue dieth first and in whom the zeale of performing their duetie doth faile and cease before that the covetous desire of things necessarie to this life giveth over as if the divine parts of our soule those which direct our actions were more fraile died sooner than the sensual corporal which neither were honestie to say nor good to beleeve no more than to give credit unto those who affirme that in getting and gaining onely we are never weary but rather we are to bring that saying of Thucydides to a better purpose not to beleeve him who was of minde that not ambition alone and desire of glorie aged in a man but also and that much rather sociality or willingnes to live converse with company civility or affection to policy managing of publik affaires a thing that doth persevere coÌtinue alwaies to the very end even in ants and bees for never was it knowen that a bee with age became a drone as some there be who would have those who all their life time were employed in the State after the vigor strength of their age is past to sit stil keepe the house doing nothing els but eat feed as if they were mued up suffering their active vertue through ease and idlenesse to be quenched marred even like as iron is eaten and consumed with rust canker for want of occupying For Cato said verie wisely That since old age had of it self miseries ynough of the one they ought not to adde moreover thereunto the shame that proceedeth from vice for to mend the matter Now among many vices that be there is not one that more shameth and defameth an old man than restivenesse sloth delicacie and voluptuousnesse namely when he is seene to come downe from the hall and courts of Justice or out of the counsell chamber and such publike places for to goe and keepe himselfe close in a corner of his house like a woman or to retire into some farme in the countrey to oversee onely his mowers reapers and harvest-folke of whom it may be well said as we reade in Sophocles What is become of wise Oedipus In riddles a-reeding who was so famous For to begin to meddle in affaires of State in olde age and not before as it is reported that one Epimenides laied him downe to sleepe when he was very yoong and wakened an olde man fiftie yeeres after and ere he have shaken off and laied aside so long repose and rest that hath stucke so close unto him by use and custome to goe and put himselfe all at once upon a sudden into such travels and laborious negotiations being nothing trained nor inured therein not framed nor exercised thereto in any measure without conversing at all beforehand with men experienced in matters of Estate nor having practised worldly affaires might peradventure give good occasion to one that were disposed to reproove and finde fault for to say that which the prophetesse Pythias answered once to one who consulted with the oracle of Apollo about the like case For government and rule of citie state Who ever thou be thou commest too late An houre this is undecent and past date Thus for to knocke at Court or Pallace-gate like an unmanerly guest who
his death they will evermore have the same in their mouthes to kindle anew and refresh their sorow went he suddenly and never bad his friends farewell when he departed they lament and say That he was ravished away and forcibly taken from them if he languished and was long in dying then they fal a complaining and give out that he consumed and pined away enduring much paine before hee died to be short every occasion circumstance whatsoever is enough to stirre up their griefe and minister matter to mainteine sorowfull plaints And who be they who have mooved and brought in all these outcries and lamentations but Poets and even Homer himselfe most of all other who is the chiefe and prince of the rest who in this maner writeth Like as a father in the fire of wofull funerals Burning the bones of his yoong sonne sonne after his espousals Sheds many teares for griefe of minde and weepeth bitterly The mother likewise tender heart bewailes him piteously Thus he by his untimely death both parents miserable Afflicts with sorrowes manifold and woes inexplicable But all this while it is not certeine whether it be wel and rightly done to make this sorrow for see what followeth afterwards He was their onely sonne and borne to them in their olde age Sole heire of all and to enjoy a goodly heritage And who knoweth or is able to say whether God in his heavenly providence and fatherly care of mankinde hath taken some out of the world by untimely death foreseeing the calamities and miseries which otherwise would have hapned unto them and therefore we ought to thinke that nothing is befallen them which may be supposed odious or abominable For nothing grievous thought may be Which commeth by necesitie Nothing I say that hapneth to man either by primitive cause immediatly or by consequence aswell in this regard that often times most kinds of death preserve men from more grievous aduersities and excuse them for greater miseries as also for that it is expedient for some never to have bene borne and for others to die in their very birth for some a little after they be entred into this life and for others againe when they are in their flower and growen to the verie hight and vigor of their age all which sorts of death in what maner soever they come men are to take in good part knowing that whatsoever proceedeth from fatall destinie can not possiblie be avoided and besides reason would that being well taught and instructed they should consider and premeditate with themselves how those whom we thinke to have bene deprived of their life before their full maturitie go before us but a little while for even the longest life that is can be esteemed but short and no more than the very minute and point of time in comparison of infinit eternitie also that many of them who mourned and lamented most within a while have gone after those whom they bewailed and gained nothing by their long sorow onely they have in vaine afflicted and tormented themselves whereas seeing the time of our pilgrimage here in this life is so exceeding short we should not consume our selves with heavinesse and sadnesse nor in most unhappie sorrow and miserable paines even to the punishing of our poore bodies with injurious misusage but endevour and strive to take a better and more humane course of life in conversing civilly with those persons who are not ready to be pensive with us and fit to stirre up our sorrow and griefe after a flattering sort but rather with such as are willing meet to take away or diminish our heavinesse with some generous and grave kinde of consolation and we ought to have ever in minde these verses in Homer which Hector by way of comfort delivered unto his wife Andromache in this wise Unhappy wight do not my heart vexe and sollicit still For no man shorten shall my daies before the heavenly will And this I say Andromache that fatall destinie No person good or bad once borne avoid can possibly And of this fatall destinie the same Poet speaketh thus in another place No sooner out of mothers wombe are bades brought forth to light But destinie hath spun the thread for every mortall wight These and such like reasons if we would conceive and imprint before-hand in our mindes we should be free from this foolish heavinesse and delivered from all melancholy and namely considering how short is the terme of our life betweene birth and death which we ought therefore to spare and make much of that we may passe the same in tranquillitie and not interrupt it with carking cares and dolefull dumps but laying aside the marks and habits of heavinesse have a regard both to cheerish our owne bodies and also to procure and promote the welfare and good of those who live with us Moreover it will not be amisse to call to minde and remember those arguments and reasons which by great likelihood wee have sometime used to our kinsefolke and friends when they were afflicted with like calamities when as by way of consolation we exhorted and perswaded them to beare the common accidents of this life with a common course of patience and humane cases humanely Neither must we shew our selves so far short and faultie as to have bene sufficiently furnished for to appease the sorrow of others and not be able by the remembrance of such comforts to do our selves good we ought therefore presently to cure the anguish of our heart with the sovereigne remedies and medicinable drogues as it were of reason and so much the sooner by how much better we may admit dealy in any thing els than in discharging the heart of griefe and melancholie for whereas the common proverbe and by-word in every mans mouth pronounceth thus much Who loves delaies and his time for to slacke Lives by the losse and shall no sorrows lacke Much more dammage I supose he shall receive who deferreth and putteth off from day to day to be discharged of the grievous and adverse passions of the minde A man therefore is to turne his eies toward those worthy personages who have shewed themselves magnanimous and of great generositie in bearing the death of their children as for example Anaxagor as the Clazomenian Pericles and Demosthenes of Athens Dion the Syracusian and king Antigonus besides many others both in these daies and also in times past of whom Anaxagor as as we reade in historie having heard of his sonnes death by one who brought him newes thereof even at what time as he was disputing in naturall philosophie and discoursing among his scholers and disciples paused a while and staied the course of his speech and said no more but thus unto those who were about him Well I wist that I begat my sonne to be a mortall man And Pericles who for his passing eloquence and excellent wisedome was surnamed Olympius that is to say divine and heavenly when tidings came to him that his
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 ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Diers also when they would expresse that their colours be medleies or mixed use the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say to be corrupted and the very mixture they tearme ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
whiles we be tempering about this immoderate shamefacednesse for to remoove it that we do not draw away with it grace and modesty gentlenes and debonarity which be adjacents and lie close unto it under which qualities lieth lurking and sticketh close to the foresaid naughtie bashfulnesse flattering him that is possessed therewith as if he were full of humanitie courtesie civilitie and common sense not opinionative severe inflexible and untractable which is the reason that the Stoicke Philosophers when they dispute of this matter have distinguished by severall names this aptnes to blush or over-much bashfulnesse from modestie and shamefacednesse indeed for feare lest the aequivocation and ambiguitie of one common word might give some occasion and vantage to the vicious passion it selfe to do some hurt As for us they must give us leave to use the tearmes without calumniation or rather permit us to distinguish according to Homer when he saith Shame is a thing that doth mickle harme and profiteth as much neither without good cause is it that in the former place he putteth downe the harme and discommoditie thereof for surely it is not profitable but by the meanes of reason which cutteth off that which is superfluous and leaveth a meane behinde To come then unto the remedies thereof it behooveth him first and formost who is given to blushing at every smal matter to beleeve be perswaded that he is possessed with such an hurtfull passion now there is nothing hurtfull which is good and honest neither ought he to take pleasure and delight when he shall be tickled in the eare with praises and commendations when he shall heare himselfe called gentle jolly and courteous in steed of grave magnanimous and just neither let him do as Pegasus the horse in Euripides who When mount his back Bellerophontes should With trembling stoup'd more than his owne selfe would that is to say give place and yeeld after a base manner to the demaunds and requests of everie man or object himselfe to their wil and pleasure for feare forsooth lest one should say of him Lo what a hard man is this See how inexorable he is It is reported of Bocchorus a king of Egypt that being rough fell austere the goddesse Isis sent the serpent called Aspis for to wind and wreath about his head and so to cast a shadow over him from above to the ende that hee might be put in minde to judge aright but this excessive shamefastnesse which alwaies overspreadeth and covereth them who are not manly but faint-hearted and effeminate not suffering them once to dare to deny or gainsay any thing surely would avert and withdraw judges from doing justice close up their mouthes that in counsels and consultations should deliver their opinion frankly yea and cause them both to say and do many things inconsiderately against their minde which otherwhiles they would not For looke whosoever is most unreasonable and importunate he will ever tyrannize and dominier over such an one forcing by his impudencie the bashfulnesse of the other by which meanes it commeth to passe that this excessive shame like unto a low piece of soft ground which is ready to receive all the water that comes and apt to be overflowed and drowned having no power to withstand and repulse any encounter nor say a word to the contrarie whatsoever is proposed yeeldeth accesse to the lewdest desseignes acts and passions that be An evill guardian and keeper of childhood and yoong age is this excessive bashfulnesse as Brutus well said who was of this minde that neither he nor she could well and honestly passe the flower of their fresh youth who had not the heart and face to refuse and denie any thing even so likewise a bad governesse it is of the bride-bed and womens chamber according to that which shee saide in Sophocles to the adulterer who repented of the fact Thy flattering words have me seduced And so perswaded I am abused In such sort as this bashfulnes over and besides that it is vicious and faultie it selfe spoileth and marreth cleane the intemperate incontinent person by making no resistance to his appetites and demaunds but letting all ly unfortified unbard and unlockt yeelding easie accesse and entrance to those that will make assault and give the attempt who may by great gifts and large offers catch and compasse the wickedest natures that be but surely by perswasions and inductions and by the meanes withall of this excessive bashfulnesse they oftentimes conquer and get the mastrie even of such as are of honest and gentle disposition Here I passe-by the detriments and damages that this bashfulnesse hath beene the cause of in many matters and that of profit and commoditie namely how many men having not the heart to say nay have put forth and lent their money even to those whose credite they distrust have beene sureties for such as otherwise they would have beene loth and unwilling to engage themselves for who can approove and commend this golden sentence written upon the temple of Apollo Be surety thou maist but make account then to pay howbeit they have not the power to do themselves good by that warning when they come to deale in the world And how many have come unto their end and died by the meanes of this foolish qualitie it were hard to reckon For Creon in Euripides when he spake thus unto Medea For me Madame it were much better now by flat deniall your minde to discontent Than having once thus yeelded unto you sigh afterwards full sore and ay repent gave a very good lesson for others to follow but himselfe overcome at length through his foolish bashfulnesse graunting one day longer of delay at her request overthrew his owne state and his whole house Some there were also who doubting and suspecting that they were laide for to be bloodily murdered or made away by poison yet upon a foolish modestie not refusing to go into the place of daunger came to their death and were soone destroied Thus died Dion who notwithstanding hee knew well enough that Callippus laide wait for him to take away his life yet forsooth abashed he was to distrust his friend and host and so to stand upon his guard Thus was Antipater the sonne of Cassander massacred who having first invited Demetrius to supper was bidden the morrow after to his house likewise and for that he was abashed to mistrust Demetrius who the day before had trusted him refused not to go but after supper he was murdered for his labour Moreover when Polysperchon had undertaken and promised unto Cassander for the summe of one hundred talents to kill Hercules a base sonne of king Alexander by lady Barsine he sent and requested the said Hercules to sup with with him in his lodging the yoong gentleman had no liking at all to such a bidding but mistrusting and fearing his curtesie alleaged for his excuse that he was not well at ease whereupon Polysperchon came himselfe in person unto
approved likewise his speech but Chilo laughing heartily O my friend quoth he of Naucratia I beseech you before all the sea be drie and cleane spent saile home with all speed and do the king your master to understand that he shal not need to travell and busie his braines in searching how he may consume so great a quantitie of salt water but rather how he may make his regiment and roiall rule now brackish and unpleasant to be sweet and potable unto his subjects for in these feats Bias is a most cunning workeman and a singular master which when king Amasis hath well and throughly learned of him he shall not have any use of that golden basen to wash his feet in and for to conteine the Aegyptians in awe and obedience but they shall serve him all willingly and love him affectionately when they shall see him become a good prince although hee were a thousand times more odious unto them than he seemeth now to be Certes quoth Periander then it were worthily done of us all to contribute unto K. Amasis such like first fruits presents ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Homer speaketh that is to say every one of us by the poll and one after another in order for by this meanes the accesarie haply and addition will arise to a greater matter and be more woorth unto him than the principall or stocke for the negotiation wherefore this voiage was undertaken and besides there will accrew unto ech of us also some great profit Meet it were then quoth Chilo that Solon should begin the speech not only for that he is of all our ancient and hath the highest place of the table but also because he beareth the greatest and most absolute office being the man who ordeined and established the lawes of Athens Niloxenus then turning toward me and speaking softly in mine eare I beleeve verily quoth he ô Diocles that many things goe for currant and are beleeved although they be untrueths and many men there be who are delighted with the false rumors and sinister reports that goe of great and wise men both which themselves do devise and also which they receive readily from others as namely those be which are brought unto us as farre as into Aegypt of Chilon namely that he should renounce all amitie and hospitalitie with Solon for mainteining this That all lawes were mutable A foolish and ridiculous report is this quoth I for if it were so Chilon should have fallen out with Lycurgus and condemned him who together with his lawes altered and changed the whole State of the Lacedaemonians Then Solon after a little pause made began to speake in this wise For mine owne part I am of this minde that a king or sovereigne prince can finde no meanes to make himselfe more glorious than by turning his monarchie or absolute government into a democratie or popular state in communicating his authority sovereigne indifferently to his subjects In the second place spake Bias and said That a prince could not do better for his owne honour than to be the first man that submited himselfe to the positive lawes of his countrey After him opined Thales I repute quoth he that prince and sovereigne ruler happie who liveth to olde age and dieth by a naturall death Anacharsis inferred thus much more in the fourth place If he be onely wise With that said Cleobulus in his turne If he repose no confidence in any one about his person Sixtly came Pittachus with his opinion saying If a prince could so nurture and schoole his subjects that they should not feare him but for his sake And after him in the last place delivered Chilo this speech That a prince ought to amuse his minde about no mortall and transitorie things but meditate onely upon that which was eternall and immottall Now when every one of these Sages had given out his mot we requested of Periander that he also would say somewhat for his part but he with a countenance nothing mery and cheerefull but composed to sadnesse and severitie I will tell you quoth he what I thinke of all these sentences thus delivered by these my lords that they all in a maner be enough to fright a man who is of judgement and understanding from all sovereigne rule and government Then Aesope as one who ever loved to be crosse and finding faults It were meet therefore quoth he that everie one of us should deale in this point apart and severally lest in pretending to be counsellers unto princes and make profession of friendship unto them we become their accusers Then Solon laying his hand upon his head and smiling withall Thinke you not quoth he ô Aesope that he maketh a ruler more reasonable and a tyrant more gracious and inclined to clemencie who perswadeth him that it is simply better not to rule than to rule And who is he quoth Aesope againe that will beleeve you in this rather than the very god himselfe who delivered unto you this sentence by way of oracle I holde that citie happie alone Where voice is heard of Sergeant one Why quoth Solon Is there any man heareth at Athens now any more voices than of one Sergeant and one sole magistrate which is the Law notwithstanding the citie hold of a popular State but you Aesope are so deeply seene in hearing and understanding the voices of crowes and gaies that you heare not wel and perfectly in the meane time your owne speech and language for you that thinke according to the oracle of Apollo that citie most happie which heareth the voice but of one suppose notwithstanding that it is the grace of a feast when all the guests therein met may reason and discourse yea and of every matter True it is quoth Aesope for you have not yet set downe a law that houshold servants should not be allowed wherewith to be drunke like as you have made one at Athens forbidding servants to make love or to be anointed drie that is without the baine Solon began to laugh at this reply of his and Cleodemus the Physician inferred thereupon In mine opinion quoth he it is all one to anoint as you say drie and to talke freely when a man is well whitled and drenched with wine for most delectable and pleasant is both the one and the other Chilo taking hold of this speech Why then quoth he so much the rather it behooveth to abstaine from it Aesope rejoined againe and verily Thales seemed to say that it is a meanes whereby a man shall verie quickly age and looke old Hereat Periander began to take up a laughter and said Now truely Aesope we are well enough served and are woorthily punished according to our desert in that we have suffered our selves to be carried away into other discourses and disputations before wee have heard out all the rest of the contents in King Amasis letters according as wee purposed in the beginning and therefore good sir Niloxenus go on with that
swiftnesse than of rightcousnesse And when one hapned to discourse out of time and place of things verie good and profitable My good friend quoth he unto him your matter is honest and seemely but your manner of handling it is bad and unseemely LEONIDAS the soone of Anaxandridas and brother to Clomenes when one said unto him There was no difference betweene you and us before you were a king Yes I wis good Sir quoth he for if I had not been better than you I had never beene king When his wife named Gorgo at what time as he tooke his leave of her and went foorth to fight with the Persians in the passe of Thermopylae asked of him whether hee had ought else to commaund her Nothing quoth he but this that thou be wedded againe unto honest men and bring them good children When the Ephori said unto him that he lead a small number foorth with him to the foresaid straights of Thermopylae True quoth he but yet enough for that service which we go for And when they enquired of him againe and said Why sir entend you any other desseigne and enterprise In outward shew quoth he and apparance I give out in words that I goe to empeach the passage of the Barbarians but in verie truth to lay downe my life for the Greekes When he was come to the verie entrance of the said passe hee said unto his souldiers It is reported unto us by our scouts that our Barbarous enemies be at hand therefore wee are to lose no more time for now we are brought to this issue that we must either defait them or else die for it When one said unto him for the exceeding number of their arrrowes we are not able to see the sun So much the better quoth he for us that we may fight under the shade To another who said Lo they be even hard close to us And so are we quoth he hard by them Another used those words unto him You are come Leonidas with a verie small troupe for to hazard your selfe against so great a multitude unto whom he answered If youregard number all Greece assembled together is notable to furnish us for it would but answere one portion or cannot of their multitude but if you stand upon valor prowesse of men certes this number is sufficient Another there was who said as much to him But yet I bring quoth he money enough considering we are heere to leave our lives Xerxes wrote unto him to this effect You need not unlesse you list be so perverse and obstained as to fight against the gods but by siding and combining with me make your selfe a monarch over all Greece unto whom he wrote back in this wise If you knew wherein consisted the soveraigne good of mans life you would not covet that which is another mans for mine owne part I had rather loose my life for the safetie of Greece than be the commaunder of all those of mine owne nation Another time Xerxes wrote thus Send me thy armour unto whom he wrote backe Come your selfe and setch it At the verie point when he was to charge upon his enemies the marshals of the armie came unto him and protessed that they must needs hold off and stay until the other allies confederates were come together Why quoth he thinke you not that as many as be minded to fight are come alreadie or know you not that they onely who dread and reverence their kings be they that fight against enimies this said he commaunded his souldiers to take their dinners for sup we shall said he in the other world Being demaunded why the best and bravest men preferre an honorable death before a shamefull life Because quoth he they esteeme the one proper to nature onely but to die well they thinke it peculiar to themselves A great desire he had to have those yoong men of his troupe and regiment who were not yet maried and knowing well that if he delt with them directly and openly they would not abide it he gave unto them one after another two brevets or letters to carrie unto the Ephori and so sent them away he meant also to save three of those who were married but they having an inkeling thereof would receive no brevets or missives at al for one said I have followed you hither to fight and not to be a carier of newes the second also By staying heere I shall quit my selfe the better man and the third I will not be behind the rest but the formost in fight LOCHAGUS the father of Polyaenides and Syron when newes was brought unto him that one of his children was dead I knew long since quoth he that he must needs die LYCURGUS the law-giver minding to reduce his citizens from their old maner of life unto a more sober and temperat course and to make them more vertuous and honest for before time they had beene dissolute and over delicate in their maners and behaviour nourished two whelpes which came from the same dogge and bitch and the one he kept alwaies within house used it to licke in every dish to be greedy after meat the other he would leade forth abroad into the fields and acquaint it with hunting afterwards he brought them both into an open and frequent assembly of the people and set before them in the mids certaine bones sosse scraps he put out also at the same time an hare before them now both the one and the other tooke incontinently to that whereto they had beene acquainted and ranne apace the one to the messe of sops and the other after the hare and caught it heereupon Lycurgus tooke occasion to inferre this speech You see heere my masters and citizens quoth he how these two dogs having one sire and one dam to them both are become farre different the one from the other by reason of their divers educations and bringing up whereby it is evident how much more powerfull nouriture and exercise is to the breeding of vertuous maners than kinde and nature howbeit some there be who say that these two dogs or whelps which he brought out were not of one and the same dogge and bitch but the one came from those curres that used to keepe the house and the other from those hounds that were kept to hunting and afterwards that he acquainted the whelpe that was of the woorse kinde onely to the chase and that which came of the better race to slappe licke and doe nothing else but raven whereupon either of them made their choise and ranne to that quickly whereto they were accustomed and thereby he made it appeer evidently how education trayning and bringing up is availeable both for good and bad conditions for thus he spake unto them By this example you may know my friends that nobilitie of bloud how highly soever it is esteemed with the common sort is to no purpose no though we bee descended from the race of Hercules if we
serve for foure obols by the day After that the Thebans had defaited the Lacedaemonians at the battell of Leuctres they invaded the countrey of Laconia so farre as to the verie river Eurotas and one of them in boasting glorious maner began to say And where be now these brave Laconians what is become of them a Laconian who was a captive among them straight waies made this answer They are no where now indeed for if they were you would never have come thus farre as you doe At what time as the Athenians delivered up their owne citie into the hands of the Lacedaemonians for to be at their discretion they requested that at leastwise they would leave them the isle Samos unto whom the Laconians made this answer When you are not masters of your owne doe you demand that which is other mens hereupon arose the common proverbe throughout all Greece Who cannot that which was his owne save The Isle of Samos would yet faine have The Lacedaemonians forced upon a time a certaine citie and wan it by assault which the Ephori being advertised of said thus Now is the exercise of our yoong men cleane gone now shall they have no more concurrents to keepe them occupied When one of their kings made promise unto them for to rase another citie and destroy it utterly if they so would which oftentimes before had put those of Lacedaemon to much trouble the said Ephori would not permit him saying thus unto him Doe not emolish and take away quite the whetstone that giveth an edge to the harts of our youth The same Ephori would never allow that there should be any professed masters to teach their yong men for to wrestle and exercise other feats of activitie To this end say they that there might bee jealousie and emulation among them not in artificiall slight but in force and vertue And therefore when one demaunded of Lysander how Charon had in wrestling overcome him and laid him along on the plaine ground Even by slight and cunning quoth he and not by pure strength Philip king of Macedonia before he made entrie into their country wrote unto them to this effect Whether they had rather that he entred as a friend or as an enemie unto whom they returned this answer Neither one nor the other When they had sent an embassador to Demetrius the sonne of Antigonus having intelligence that the said embassadour in parle with him eftsoones gave him the name of King they condemned him to pay a fine when he was returned home notwithstanding that hee brought as a present and gratuitie from the said Demetrius in time of extreme famine a certain measure of corne called Medimnus for every poll throughout the whole citie It hapned that a leud and wicked man delivered in a certaine consultation very good counsell this advice of his they approoved right well howbeit receive it they would not comming out of his mouth but caused it to be pronounced by another who was knowen to be a man of good life Two brethren there were at variance and in sute of law together the Ephori set a good fine upon their fathers head for that he neglected his sonnes and suffred them to maintaine quarrell and debate one against another A certaine musician who was a stranger and a traveller they likewise condemned to pay a summe of money for that he strake the strings of his harpe with his fingers Two boies fought together and one gave the other a mortall wound with a sickle or reaping hooke when the boy that was hurt lay at the point of death was ready to yeeld up the ghost other companions of his promised to be revenged for his death and to kill the other who thus deadly had wounded him Doe not so I beseech you quoth he as you love the gods for that were injustice and euen I my selfe had done as much for him if I had beene ought and could have raught him first There was another yong lad unto whom certaine mates and fellows of his in that season wherin yong lads were permitted freely to filtch whatsoever they could handsomely come by but reputed it was a shamefull and infamous thing for them to be surprized and taken in the maner brought a yong cub or little foxe to keepe alive which they had stollen those who had lost the said cub came to make search now had this lad hidden it close under his clothes the unhappie beast being angred gnawed bit him in the flanke as far as to his very bowels which he endured resolutely and never quetched at it for feare he should be discovered but after all others were gone and the search past when his companions saw what a shrewd turne the curst cub had done him they child him for it saying That it had been far better to have brought forth the cub and shewed him rather than to hide him thus with danger of death Nay Iwis quoth he for I had rather die with all the dolorous torments in the world than for to save my life shamefully to be detected so for want of a good heart Some there were who encountred certaine Laconians upon the way in the countrey unto whom they said Happie are you that can come now this way for the theeves are but newly gone from hence Nay forsooth by god Mars we sweare we are never the happier therefore but they rather because they are not fallen into our hands One demaunded of a Laconian upon a time what he knew and was skilfull in Mary in this to be free A yoong lad of Sparta being taken prisoner by King Antigonus and sold among other captives obeied him who had bought him in all things that he thought meet for to be done by a freeman but when he commaunded to bring him an urinall or chamber-pot to pisse in he would not endure that indignitie but said Fetch it your selfe for me I am no servant for you in such ministeries now when his master urged him thereto and pressed hard upon him hee ran up to the ridge or roofe of the house and said You shall see what an one you have bought and with that cast himselfe downe with his head forward and brake his owne necke Another there was to be sold and when the partie who was about him said thus Wilt thou be good and profitable if I doe buy thee Yea that I will quoth he though you never buy me Another there was likewise upon market and when the crier proclaimed aloud Here is a slave who buies him who A shame take thee quoth he couldst not thou say a captive or prisoner but a slave A Laconian had for the badge or ensigne of his buckler a slie painted and the same no bigger than one is naturally whereupon some mocked him and said That he had mad choise of this ensigne because he would not be knowen by it Nay rather quoth he I did it because I would be the better marked for I meane
know what tyranny is for a greater griefe it would be unto me another day to see thee for to serve like a slave vnworthily than to die here presently hereat Aristotimus through impatience of furious anger drew his sword upon the woman herselfe meaning to run her thorow but one of his familiar friends named Cylon who made semblant to be true faithful unto him but hated him secretly in his hart indeed was of the complices in that conspiracy of Hellanicus stepped before him and by his effectuall praiers turned his hand making remonstrance unto him that it was no generous and manly deed but a womanish act neither savoured it of a prince or such a personage as knew how to manage great affaires of State to deale in that sort which he forced and pressed so instantly that hardly and with much ado though it were Aristotinus was of a better minde bethought himselfe and went his way Now there befell unto him a strange accident which presaged what mischiefe was toward him for about high noone it was when being in his bed-chamber reposing himself with his wife whiles his dinner was now readie to be served up those of his houshold might perceive an eagle soaring round over his house and she let fal a bigge stone directly upon the very place of the roofe of the said chamber where he lay as if upon deliberate purpose she had aimed and leveled as it were so to doe himselfe hearing the noise and rap that the stone gave upon the house top over his head and withall the outcry beneath of those who beheld the foule was mightily affrighted and demanded what the matter might be when he understood what it was hee sent presently for the wizard or soothsaier whom he was wont to use in such cases and all troubled and perplexed in spirit asked him what this signe might presage the soothsaier coÌforted him willed him to be of good cheere saying unto himselfe That it was Jupiter who wakened him shewed how willing he was to assist and succour him but unto other citizens whom he might trust he expounded it otherwise and assured them that it was the vengeance of God which speedily would light upon the tyrants head whereupon Hellanicus and his adherents were resolved to deferre the execution of their desseignes no longer but to set upon the enterprise the next morrow in the night that came betweene Hellanicus as he slept dreamed and in that vision he thought that one of his sons late deceased stood before him said Father what meane you to lie a sleepe considering that once to morrow you must be captaine general and sovereigne governor of this citie Hellanicus wonderfully encouraged by this vision started up and went to sollicit the rest of his complices and companions in the said conspiracie By this time was Aristotimus advertised that Craterus was comming to aide him with a puissant armie and lay encamped neere to Olympia in the assurance and confidence whereof he presently tooke Cylon with him and went foorth without any guard about his person Hellanicus seeing the opportunitie now offred and taking the vantage thereof gave not the signal and watchword which was agreed upon with those who first were to set to the execution of their entended enterprise but stretching foorth both his hands with a loud voice cried out Now now my masters and valiant men what staie you for can you desire a fairer theater to shew your valour in than to fight for the defence of your libertie in the very heart of your native countrey At which words Cylon drew his sword first and smot one of them that followed and accompanied Aristotimus but Thrasibulus and Lampis came afront and ran upon the tyrant himselfe who preventing the venue of their stroake fled for refuge and sanctuarie into the temple of Jupiter where they slew him out-right and drew his dead corps into the market place and then assembled all the citizens thither for to recover their freedome but many of the people could not prevent the women for they ranne out with the first in great alacritie weeping and crying out for very joy and environing their husbands round about crowned them and set chaplets of flowers upon their heads then the multitude of the common people set upon the tyrants house and assaulted it his wife having shut her-selfe within her chamber there hung herselfe and whereas she had two daughters virgins as yet but in the prime and flower of their yeeres ready for marriage those they tooke and by force haled them out of the house with full intent to kill them in the end after they had abused their bodies first and then perpetrated all the villanie shame they could devise unto them which no doubt they would have put in execution but that Megisto with other honest matrons of the citie opposed themselves and came betweene who cried aloud unto them that in so dooing they should commit an indignitie unbeseeming them if considering that now being in the verie traine and high way of recovering their libertie for to live from hencefoorth in a popular government they should perpetrate as violent outrages as the most bloudy and cruell tyrants are used to commit the people in good respect and reverence to the honour and authoritie of this vertuous and honest dame who spake her minde so frankely unto them with teares gushing out of her eies were reclaimed and advised to offer no abuse nor vilanie unto their persons but to put unto their choise what death they would die and when they had brought them both back againe into the house and intimated unto them that there was no other remedie but die they must and that presently the elder of the twaine named Myro untied her girdle from about her waste and with a running noose did it about her owne necke in maner of an halter then kissing and embracing her yoonger sister she praied her to marke what she did and according to her example to doe thereafter To the end quoth she that we may not die basely unwoorthy the place from whence we are come and descended but the yoonger desired againe that she might die first caught hold of the girdle and snatched it from her then the elder Well sister quoth she I never yet refused to do any thing that you desired at my hands even now content I am to doe so much for you as to endure and suffer that which will be more greevous unto me than death it selfe namely to see my most deere and best beloved sister to die before me which said she her selfe taught her how to fit the said girdle to her necke and to knit it for the purpose and when she perceived once that the life was out of her bodie she tooke her downe and covered her breathlesse corps then addressing her speech unto dame Megisto her selfe she besought her that she would not suffer her bodie after she was dead to lie shamefully above
Pindarus also writeth as touching Agamedes Trophonius That after they had built the temple of Apollo in Delphos they demanded of that god their hire and reward who promised to pay them fully at the seven-nights end meane while he bade them be merie and make good cheere who did as he enjoined them so upon the seventh night following they tooke their sleepe but the next morning they were found dead in bed Moreover it is reported that when Pindarus himselfe gave order unto the commissioners that were sent from the State of Boeotia unto the oracle of Apollo for to demand what was best for man this answere was returned from the prophetisse That he who enjoined them that errand was not ignorant thereof in case the historie of Agamedes and Trophonius whereof he was author were true but if he were disposed to make further triall he should himselfe see shortly an evident proofe thereof Pindarus when he heard this answer began to thinke of death and to prepare himselfe to die and in trueth within a little while after changed his life The like narration is related of one Euthynous an Italian who was sonne to Elysius of Terinae for vertue wealth and reputation a principall man in that citie namely that he died suddenlie without any apparent cause that could be given thereof his father Elysius incontinently thereupon began to grow into some doubt as any other man besides would have done whether it might not be that he died of poison for that he was the onely childe he had and heire apparant to all his riches and not knowing otherwise how to sound the trueth hee sent out to a certeine oracle which used to give answere by the conjuration and calling forth of spirits or ghosts of men departed where after he had performed sacrifices and other ceremoniall devotions according as the law required he laied him downe to sleepe in the place where he dreamed and saw this vision There appeared unto him as he thought his owne father whom when he saw he discoursed unto him what had fortuned his sonne requesting and beseeching him to be assistant with him to finde out the trueth and the cause indeed of his so sudden death his father then should answere thus And even therefore am I come hither here therefore receive at this mans hands that certificate which I have brought unto thee for thereby shalt thou know all the cause of thy griefe and sorrow now the partie whom his father shewed and presented unto him was a yoong man that followed after him who for all the world in stature and yeeres resembled his sonne Euthynous who being demanded by him what he was made this answere I am the ghost or angell of your sonne and with that offered unto him a little scrowle or letter which when Elysius had unfolded he found written within it these three verses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which may be done into English thus Elysius thou foolish man aske living Sages read Euthynous by fatall course of ãâã is dead For longer life would neither him nor parents stand in stead And thus much may suffice you both as touching the ancient histories written of this matter and also of the second point of the foresaid question But to come unto the third branch of Socrates his conjecture admit it were true that death is the utter abolition and destruction aswell of soule as body yet even so it cannot be reckoned simply ill for by that reckoning there should follow a privation of all sense and a generall deliverance from paine anxietie and angush and like as there commeth no good thereby even so no harme at all can ensue upon it forasmuch as good and evill have no being but in that thing onely which hath essence and subsislence and the same reason there is of the one as of the other so as in that which is not but utterly becommeth void anulled and taken quite out of the world there can not be imagined either the one or the other Now this is certeine that by this reason the dead returne to the same estate and condition wherein they were before their nativitie like as therefore when we were unborne we had no sense at all of good or evill no more shall we have after our departure out of this life and as those things which preceded our time nothing concerned us so whatsoever hapneth after our death shall touch us as little No paine feele they that out of world be gone To die and not be borne I holde all one For the same state and condition is after death which was before birth And do you thinke that there is any difference betweene Never to have bene and To cease from being surely they differ no more than either an house or a garment in respect of us and our use thereof after the one is ruined or fallen downe and the other all rent and torne from that benefit which we had by them before they were begun to be built or made and if you say there is no difference in them in these regards as little there is be you sure between our estate after death and our condition before our nativitie a very pretie and elegant speech therefore it was of Arcesilaus the philosopher when he said This death quoth he which every man tearmeth evill hath one peculiar propertie by it selfe of all other things that be accounted ill in that when it is present it never harmeth any man onely whiles it is absent and in expectance it hurteth folke And in very truth many men through their folly and weakenesse and upon certaine slanderous calumniations and false surmises conceived against death suffer themselves to die because sorsooth they would not die Very well therefore and aptly wrot the poet Epicharmus in these words That which was knit and joined fast Is loosed and dissolv'd at last Each thing returnes into the same Earth into earth from whence it came The spirit up to heaven anon Wherefore what harme heerein just none And as for that which Cresphontes in one place of Euripides speaking of Hercules said If under globe of earth with those he dwell Who being none have left laid once in grave A man of him might say and that right well That puissance and strength he none can have By altering it a little in the end you may thus inferre If under globe of earth with those he dwell Who being none have left laid once in grave A man of him might say and that right well That sense at all of paine he can none have A generous and noble saying also was that of the Lacedaemonians Now are we in our gallant prime Before as others had their time And after us shall others floure But we shall never see that houre As also this Now dead are they who never thought That life or death were simply ought But all their care was for to dy And live as they should
and the woorse sort of people are given thereto more than the better also if you goe thorow all barbarous nations you shall not finde those who are most haughtie-minded and magnanimous or cary any generositie of spirit in them such as be the Almans or Gaules addicted hereunto but Aegyptians Syrians Lydians and such other for some of these by report use to go downe into hollow caves within the ground and there hide themselves for many daies together and not so much as see the light of the sunne because forsooth the dead partie whom they mourne for is deprived thereof In which regard Ion the Tragicall Poet having as it should seeme heard of such fooleries bringeth in upon the stage a woman speaking in this wise Come forth am I now at the last Your nourse and childrens governesse Out of deepe caves where some daies past I kept in balefull heavinesse Others there be also of these Barbarians who cut away some parts and dismember themselves slit their owne noses crop their eares misuse disfigure the rest of their bodies thinking to gratifie the dead in doing thus if they seeme to exceed all measure that moderation which is according to nature There are besides who reply upon us and say That they thinke we ought not to waile and lament for every kind of death but onely in regard of those that die before their time for that they have not as yet tasted of those things which are esteemed blessings in this life to wit the joies of marriage the benefit of literature and learning the perfection of yeeres the management of common weale honors and dignities for these be the points that they stand upon and grieve most who lose their friends or children by untimely death for that they be disappointed and frustrate of their hopes before the time ignorant altogether that this hastie and overspeedie death in regard of humane nature differeth nothing at all from others for like as in the returne to our common native countrey which is necessarily imposed upon al and from which no man is exempted some march before others follow after and all at length meet at one and the same place even so in traveling this journey of fatall destinie those that arrive late thither gaine no more advantage than they who are thither come betime now if any untimely or hastie death were naught simply that of little babes and infants that sucke the brest and cannot speake or rather such as be newly borne were woorst and yet their death we beare verie well and patiently whereas we take their departure more heavily and to the heart who are growen to some good yeeres and all through the vanitie of our foolish hopes whereby we imagine and promise to our selves assuredly that those who have proceeded thus farre be past the woorst and are like to continue thus in a good and certaine estate If then the prefixed terme of mans life were the end of twentie yeeres certes him that came to be sifteene yeeres old we would not judge unripe for death but thinke that he had attained to a competent age and as for him who had accomplished the full time of twentie yeeres or approched neere thereto we would account him absolute happy as having performed a most blessed and perfect life but if the course of our life reached out to two hundred yeeres he who chanced to die at one hundred yeeres end would be thought by us to have died too soone and no doubt his untimely death we would bewaile and lament By these reasons therefore and those which heeretofore we have alledged it is apparent that even the death which we call untimely soone admitteth consolation and a man may beare it patiently for this is certaine that Troilus would have wept lesse yea even Priamus himselfe shed fewer teares in case he had died sooner at what time as the kingdome of Troy flourished or whiles himselfe was in that wealthy estate for which he lamented so much which a man may evidently gather by the words which he gave to his sonne Hector when he admonished and exhorted him to retire from the combat which he had with Achilles in these verses Returne my sonne within these wals that thou from death maist save The Trojan men and women both let not Achilles have Of thee that honour as thy life so sweet to take away By victorie in single fight and hast thy dying day Have pittie yet my sonne of me thy wofull aged sire Ere that my wits and senses faile whom Jupiter inire Will else one day at th' end of this my old and wretched yeeres Consume with miserable death out-worne and spent with teeres As having many objects seene of sorrow and hearts griefe My sonnes cut short by edge of sword who should be my reliefe My daughters trail'd by haire of head and ravisht in my sight My pallace rac'd their chambers sackt wherein I tooke delight And sucking babes from mothers brests pluckt and their braines dasht out Against the stones of pav'ment hard lie sprawling all about When enemie with sword in hand in heat of bloudy heart Shall havocke make and then my selfe at last must play my part Whom when some one by dint of sword or launce of dart from farre Hath quite bereft of vitall breath the hungry dogs shall arre About my corps and at my gates hale it and drag along Gnawing the flesh of hoarie head and grisled chin among Mangling besides the privie parts of me a man so old Unkindly slaine a spectacle most piteous to behold Thus spake the aged father tho and pluckt from head above His haires milke-white but all these words did Hector nothing move Seeing then so many examples of this matter presented unto your eies you are to thinke and consider with your selfe that death doth deliver and preserve many men from great greevous calamities into which without all doubt they should have fallen if they had lived longer But for to avoid prolixitie I will omit the rest my selfe with those that are related already as being sufficient to proove shew that we ought not to breake out beside nature and beyond measure into vaine sorrowes and needlesse lamentations which bewray nothing else but base and seeble minds Crantor the philosopher was wont to say That to suffer adversitie causelesse was no small easement to all sinister accidents of fortune but I would rather say That innocencie is the greatest and most soveraigne medicine to take away the sense of all dolour in adversitie moreover the love and affection that we beare unto one who is departed consisteth not in afflicting and punishing our selves but in doing good unto him so beloved of us now the profit and pleasure that we are able to performe for them who are gone out of this world is the honour that we give unto them by celebrating their good memorials for no good man deserveth to be mourned and bewailed but rather to be celebrated with praise and
hanging which must strangle them for other wise we might aswell say that ãâã condemned to die suffer no punishment all the whiles they lie in hard and colde yrons nor untill the executioner come and strike the head from the shoulders or that he who by sentence of the judges hath drunke the deadly potion of hemlocke is not punished because he walketh stil and goeth up and downe alive waiting untill his legs become heavie before the generall colde and congelation surprise him and extinguish both sense and vitall spirits in case it were so that we esteeme and call by the name of punishment nothing but the last point and extremity thereof letting passe and making no reckoning at all of the passions feares painfull pangues expectance of death pricks and sorrowes of a penitent conscience wherewith every wicked person is troubled and tormented for this were as much as to say that the fish which hath swallowed downe the hooke is not caught untill we see the said fish cut in pieces or broiled roasted and sodden by the cooke Certes every naughty person is presently become prisoner unto justice so soone as he hath once committed a sinfull act and swallowed the hooke together with the bait of sweetnesse and pleasure which he taketh in leaudnesse and wrongfull doing but when the remorse of conscience imprinted in him doth pricke he feeleth the very torments of hell and can not rest But as in sea the Tuny fish doth swiftly crosse the waves And travers still while tempest lasts so he with anguish raves For this audacious rashnesse and violent insolence proper unto vice is verie puissant forward and readie at hand to the effecting and execution of sinfull acts but afterwards when the passion like unto a winde is laied and beginnes to faile it becommeth weake base and feeble subject to an infinite number of feares and superstitions in such sort as that Stesichorus the Poet seemeth to have devised the dreame of queene Clytemnestra very conformable to the trueth and answerable to our daily experience when he bringeth her in speaking in this maner Me thought I saw a dragon come apace Whose crest aloft on head with bloud was stein'd With that anon there did appeare in place Plisthenides the king who that time reign'd For the visions by night in dreames the fantasticall apparitions in the day time the answers of oracles the prodigious signes from heaven and in one word whatsoever men think to be done immediately by the will and finger of God are woont to strike great troubles and horrors into such persons so affected and whose consciences are burdened with the guilt and privitie of sinne Thus the report goeth of Apollodorus that he dreamed upon a time how he saw himselfe first flaied by the Scythians then cut as small as flesh to the pot and so boiled he thought also that his heart spake softly froÌ out of the cauldron and uttered these words I am the cause of all these thy evils and againe he imagined in his sleepe that his own daughters all burning on a light flaming fire ran round about him in a circle Semblably Hipparchus the sonne of Pisistratus a little before his death dreamed that Venus out of a certaine viall sprinkled bloud upon his face The familiar friends likewise of king Ptolomaeus surnamed Ceraunos that is to say Lightning thought verily in a dreame that they saw Seleucus accuse and indite him judicially before wilde wolves and greedie geires that were his judges where he dealt and distribued a great quantitie of flesh among his enemies Pausanias also at Bizantium sent for Cleonice a virgin and gentlewoman free borne of a worshipfull house intending perforce to lie with her all night and abuse her body but being halfe a sleepe when she came to his bed he awakened in a fright and suspecting that some enemies were about to surprise him killed her outright whereupon ever after he dreamt ordinarily that he saw her and heard her pronounce this speech To judgement seat approch thou neere I say Wrong dealing is to men most hurtfull ay Now when this vision as it should seeme ceased not to appeere unto him night by night he embarked and sailed into Heraclea to a place where the spirits and ghosts of those that are departed be raised and called up where after he had offered certaine propitiatorie sacrifices and powred foorth funerall effusions which they use to cast upon the tombes of the dead he wrought so effectually that the ghost of Cleonice appeared and then she said unto him that so soone as he was arrived at Lacedaemon he should have repose and an end of all his troubles and so in very truth no sooner was he thither come but he ended his life and died If therefore the soule had no sense after it is departed out of the bodie but commeth to nothing and that death were the finall end and expiration aswell of thankefull recompenses as of painfull punishments a man might say of wicked persons who are quickly punished and die soone after that they have committed any misdeeds that God dealeth very gently and mildly with them For if continuance of time and long life bringeth to wicked persons no other harme yet a man may at leastwise say thus much of them that having knowne by proofe and found by experience that injustice is an unfrutefull barren and thanklesse thing bringing foorth no good thing at all nor ought that deserveth to be esteemed after many travels and much paines taken with it yet the verie feeling and remorse of conscience for their sinnes disquieteth and troubleth the mind and turneth it upside downe Thus we reade of king Lysmachus that being forced through extreame thirst he delivered his owne person and his whole armie into the hands of the Getes and when being their prisoner hee had drunke and quenched his thirst he said thus O what a miseric is this and wretched case of mine that for so short and transitorie a pleasure I have deprived my selfe of so great a kingdome and all my roiall estate True it is that of all things it is an exceeding hard matter to resist the necessitie of a naturall passion but when as a man for covetousnesse of money or desire of glorie authoritie credit among his countrimen and fellow-citizens or for fleshly pleasures falleth to commit a foule wicked and execrable fact and then afterwards in time when as the ardent thirst and furious heat of his passion is past seeing that there abide and continue with him the filthy shamefull and perilous perturbations onely of injustice and sinfulnesse but nothing at all that is profitable necessarie or delightsome is it not very likely and probable that he shall eftsoones and oftentimes recall into this thought and consideration how being seduced and caried away by the meanes of vain-glory or dishonest pleasures things base vile and illiberall he hath perverted and overthrowen the most beautifull and excellent gifts that men have to wit right
commandement or any teaching which is as much to say as without tillage and sowing it bringeth forth and nourisheth that vertue which is meet and convenient for every one ULYSSES And what vertue is that my good friend Gryllus whereof beasts be capable GRYLLUS Nay what vertue are they not capable of yea and more than the wisest man that is But first consider we if you please valour and fortitude whereupon you beare your selfe and vaunt so highly neither are you abashed and hide your selfe for feare but are very well pleased when as men surname you Hardie Bolde and a Winner of cities whereas you have most wicked wretch that you are circumvented and deceived men who know no other way of making war but that which is plaine and generous and who were altogether unskilfull of fraud guile and leasing by your wily shifts and subtill pranks attributing the name of vertue unto cunning casts the which in deed knoweth not what deceit and fraud meaneth But you see the combats of beasts aswell against men as when they fight one against another how they are performed without any craftinesse or sleight onely by plaine hardinesse and cleane strength and as it were upon a native magnanimitie they defend themselves and be revenged of their enemies and neither by enforcement of lawes nor for feare to be judicially reprooved and punished for cowardise but onely through instinct of nature avoiding the shame and disgrace to be conquered they endure and holde out fight to the very extremitie and all to keepe themselves invincible for say they be in body the weaker yet they yeeld not for all that nor are faint-hearted and give over but chuse to die in fight and many of them there be whose courage and generositie even when they are readie to die being retired into some one corner of their bodie and there gathering it selfe resisteth the killer it leapeth and fretteth still untill such time as like a flame of fire it be quenched and put out once for all they can not skill of praying and intreating their enemie they crave no pardon and mercy and it were strange in any of them to confesse that they are overcome neither was it ever seene that a lion became a slave unto a lion or one horse unto another in regard of fortitude like as one man to another contenting himselfe and willingly embracing servitude as next cousin and a surname appropriate unto cowardise And as for those beasts which men have surprised and caught by snares traps subtill sleights and devices of engins such if they be come to their growth and perfect age reject all food refuse nourishment yea and endure thirst to such extremitie that they chuse to die and seeke to procure their owne death rather than to live in servitude but to their yoong ones and whelps which for their tender age be tractable pliable and easie to be led which way one will they offer so many deceitfull baits to entice and allure them with their sweetnesse that they have no sooner tasted thereof but they become enchanted and bewitched therewith for these pleasures and this delicate life contrary to their nature in tract of time causeth them to be soft and weake receiving that degeneration as it were and effaeminate habit of their courage which folke call tamenesse and in deed but basenesse and defect of their naturall generositie whereby it appeareth that beasts by nature are bred and passing well disposed to be audacious and hardie whereas contrariwise it is not kindly for men to be so much as bolde of speech and resolute in speaking their mindes And this you may good Ulysses learne and know especially by this one argument for in all brute beasts nature swaieth indifferently and equally of either side as touching courage and boldnesse neither is the female in that point inferior to the male whether it be in susteining paine and travell for getting of their living or in fight for defence of their little ones And I am sure you heard of a certeine Cromyonian swine what foule worke she made being a beast of the faemale sex for Theseus how she troubled him as also of that monstrous Sphinx which kept upon the rocke Phicion and held in awe all that tract underneath and about it for surely all her craft and subtilty in devising ridles and proposing darke questions had booted her nothing in case she had not beene withall of greater force and courage than all the Cadmeians In the very same quarter was by report the fox of Telmesus a wily and craftie beast And it is given out that neere unto the said place was also the fell dragon which fought in single fight hand to hand with Apollo for the Seignorie of the oracle at Delphi And even your great king Agamemnon tooke that brave mare Aethe as a gift of an inhabitant of Sycion for his dispensation and immunity that he might not be prest to the warres wherein he did well and wisely in mine opininion to preferre a good and couragious beast before a coward and dastardly man and you your own selfe Ulysses have seene many times lionesses and she libbards how they give no place at all to their males in courage and hardinesse as your lady Penelope doth who gives you leave to be abroad in warfarre whiles she sits at home close by the herth and by the fire side and dares not doe so much as the very swallowes in repelling those back who come to destroy her and her house for all she is a Laconian woman borne What should I tell you of the Carian or Maeonian women for by this that hath beene said already it is plaine and evident that men naturally are not endued with prowesse for if they were then should women likewise have their part with them in vertue and valour And thereupon I inferre and conclude that you and such as you are exerercise a kind of valiance I must needs say which is not voluntarie nor naturall but constreined by force of lawes subject and servile to I wot not what customes reprehensions and you mediate I say and practise for vain-glorious opinion fortitude gaily set out with trim words you sustaine travels and perils not for that you set light by them nor for any hardinesse and confidence in your selves but because you are afraid lest others should goe before you and be esteemed greater than you And like as heere among your mates at sea he that first riseth to his businesse of rowing laieth hand and seizeth upon the lightest oare that he can meet with doth it not for that he despiseth it but because he avoideth and is affraid to handle one that is heavier and he that endureth the knocke of a baston or cudgel because he would not receive any wound by the sword as also he that resisteth an enemie for to avoid some ignominous infamie of death is not to be said valiant in respect of the one but coward in regard of the other even so
passe the time away he thought with himselfe to challenge the god whose servant he was to play at dice with him upon these conditions That if himselfe woon the game Hercules should be a meanes for him of some good lucke and happy fortune but in case he lost the game he should provide for Hercules a good supper and withall a pretie wench and a faire to be his bed fellow these conditions being agreed upon and set downe he cast the dice one chance for himselfe and another for the god but his hap was to be the loser whereupon minding to stand unto his challenge and to accomplish that which he had promised he prepared a rich supper for Hercules his god and withall sent for this Acca Larentia a professed courtisan and common harlot whom he feasted also with him and after supper bestowed her in a bed within the very temple shut the doores fast upon and so went his way Now the tale goes forsooth that in the night Hercules companied with her not after the maner of men but charged her that the next morning betimes she should go into the market place and looke what man she first met withall him she should enterteine in all kindnesse and make her friend especially Then Larentia gat up betimes in the morning accordingly and chanced to encounter a certeine rich man and a stale bacheler who was now past his middle age and his name was Taruntius with him she became so familiarly acquainted that so long as he lived she had the command of his whole house and at his death was by his last will and testament instituted inheritresse of all that he had This Larentia likewise afterward departed this life and left all her riches unto the citie of Rome whereupon this honour abovesaid was done unto her 36 What is the cause that they name one gate of the citie Fenestra which is as much to say as window neere unto which adjoineth the bed-chamber of Fortune IS it for that king ãâã a most fortunate prince was thought named to lie with Fortune who was woont to come unto him by the window or is this but a devised tale But in trueth after that king Tarquinius Priscus was deceased his wife Tanaquillis being a wise ladie and endued with a roiall mind putting forth her head and bending forward her bodie out of her chamber window made a speech unto the people perswading them to elect Servius for their king And this is the reason that afterwards the place reteined this name Fenestra 37 What is the reason that of all those things which be dedicated and ãâã to the gods the custome is at Rome that onely the spoiles of enemies conquered in the warres are neglected and suffered to run to decay in processe of time neither is there any reverence done unto them nor repaired be they at any time when they wax olde WHether is it because they supposing their glory to fade and passe away together with these first spoiles seeke evermore new meanes to winne some fresh marks and monuments of their vertue and to leave them same behinde them Or rather for that seeing time doth waste and consume these signes and tokens of the enmity which they had with their enemies it were an odious thing for them and very invidious if they should refresh and renew the remembrance thereof for even those among the Greeks who first erected their trophes or pillars of brasse and stone were not commended for so doing 38 What is the reason that Quintus Metellus the high priest and reputed be sides a wise man and a politike for bad to observe ãâã or to take presages by flight of birds after the moneth Sextilis now called August IS it for that as we are woont to attend upon such observations about noone or in the beginning of the day at the entrance also and toward the middle of the moneth but we take heed and beware of the daies declination as inauspicate and unmeet for such purposes even so Metellus supposed that the time after eight moneths was as it were the evening of the yeere and the latter end of it declining now and wearing toward an end Or haply because we are to make use of these birds and to observe their flight for presage whiles they are entire perfect and nothing defective such as they are before Summer time But about Autumne some of them moult grow to be sickly and weake others are over young and too small and some againe appeare not at all but like passengers are gone at such a time into another countrey 39 What is the cause that it was not lawfull for them who were not prest soldiors by oth and enrolled although upon some other occasions they conversed in the campe to strike or wound an enemie And verely Cato himselfe the elder of that name signified thus much in a letter missive which he wrote unto his sonne wherein he straitly charged him that if he had accomplished the full time of his service and that his captain had given him his conge and discharge he should immediatly returne or in case he had leifer stay still in the campe that he should obtaine of his captaine permission and licence to hurt and kill his enemie IS it because there is nothing else but necessitie alone doeth warrantize the killing of a man and he who unlawfully and without expresse commaundement of a superiour unconstrained doth it is a ãâã homicide and manslaier And therefore Cyrus commended Chrysantas for that being upon the verie point of killing his enemie as having lifted up his cemiter for to give him a deadly wound presently upon the sound of the retreat by the trumpet let the man go and would not smite him as if he had beene forbidden so to do Or may it not be for that he who presenteth himselfe to fight with his enemie in case he shrink and make not good his ground ought not to go away cleere withal but to be held faulty and to suffer punishment for he doth nothing so good service that hath either killed our wounan enemie as harme and domage who reculeth backe or flieth away now he who is discharged from warfare and hath leave to depart is no more obliged and bound to militarie lawes but he that hath demaunded permission to do that service which sworne and enrolled souldiers performe putteth himselfe againe under the subjection of the law and his owne captaine 40 How is it that the priest of Jupiter is not permitted to annoint himselfe abroad in the open aire IS it for that in old time it was not held honest and lawfull for children to do off their clothes before their fathers nor the sonne in law in the presence of his wives father neither used they the stouph or ãâã together now is Jupiter reputed the priests or Flamines father and that which is done in the open aire seemeth especially to be in the verie eie and sight of Jupiter Or rather ãâã as it
is called Pseudomenos for to say my good friend that the augmentation coÌposed of contrary positions is not notoriously false and againe to affirme that syllogismes having their premisses true yea and true inductions may yet have the contrary to their conclusions true what conception of demonstrations or what anticipation of beleefe is there which it is not able to overthrow It is reported of the Pourcuttle or Pollyp fish that in winter time he gnaweth his owne cleies and pendant hairy feet but the Logicke of Chrysippus which taketh away and cutteth off the principall parts of it what other conception leaveth it behinde but that which well may be suspected For how can that be imagined steady and sure which is built upon foundations that abide not firme but wherein there be so many doubts and troubles But like as they who have either dust or durt upon their bodies if they touch another therewith or rub against him doe not so much trouble and molest him as they doe begrime and beray themselves so much the more and seeme to exasperate that ordure which pricketh and is offensive unto them even so some there be who blame and accuse the Academicks thinking to charge upon them those imputations wherewith themselves are found to be more burdened For who be they that pervert the common conceptions of the senses more than do these Stoicks But if you thinke so good leaving off to acuse them let us answere to those calumniations and slanders which they would seeme to fasten upon us LAMPRIAS Me thinks Diadumenus that I am this day much changed and become full of variety me thinks I am a man greatly altered from that I was ere while for even now I came hither much dismaied and abashed as being depressed beaten downe and amazed as one having need of some advocate or other to speake for me and in my behalfe whereas now I am cleane turned to an humor of accusation and disposed to enjoy the pleasure of revenge to see all the packe of them detected and convinced in that they argue and dispute themselves against common conceptions and anticipations in defence whereof they seeme principally to magnifie their owne sect ** saying that it alone doth agree and accord with nature DIADUMENUS Begin we then first with their most renowmed propositions which they themselves call paradoxes that is to say strange and admirable opinions avowing as it were by that name gently admitting such exorbitant absurdities as for example that such Sages as themselves are onely kings onely rich and faire onely citizens and onely Judges or pleaseth it you that we send all this stuffe to the market of olde and stale marchandise and goe in hand with the examination of these matters which consist most in action and practise whereof also they dispute most seriously LAMPRIAS For mine owne part I take this to be the better For as touching the reputation of those paradoxes who is not full thereof and hath not heard it a thousand times DIADUMENUS Consider then in the first place this whether according to common notions they can possibly accord with nature who thinke naturall things to be indifferent and that neither health nor good plight and habitude of body nor beawty nor cleane strength be either expetible profitable expedient or serving in any stead to the accomplishment of that perfection which is according to nature nor that the contraries hereunto are to be avoided as hurtfull to wit maimes and mutilations of members deformities of body paines shamefull disgraces and diseases Of which things rehearsed they themselves acknowledge that nature estrangeth us from some and acquainteth us with other The which verily is quite contrary to common intelligence that nature should acquaint us with those things which be neither expedient nor good alienate us from such as be not hurtfull nor ill and that which more is that she should either traine us to them or withdraw us from them so farre forth as if men misse in obtaining the one or fall into the other they should with good reason abandon this life and for just cause depart out of the world I suppose that this also is by theÌ affirmed against common sense namely that nature her selfe is a thing indifferent and that to accord and consent with nature hath in it some part of the soveraigne good For neither to follow the rule of the law nor to obey reason is good and honest unlesse both law and reason be good and honest But this verily is one of the least of their errors For if Chrysippus in his first booke of exhortations hath written thus A blessed and happie life consisteth onely in living according to vertue and as for all other accessaries quoth hee they neither touch nor concerne us at all neither make they any whit to beatitude he cannot avoid but he must avow that not onely nature is indifferent but also which is more senselesse and foolish to associate and draw us into a league with that which in no respect concerneth us and we our selves likewise are no better than fooles to thinke that the soveraigne felicity is to consent and accord with nature which leadeth and conducteth us to that which serveth nothing at all to happinesse And yet what agreeth and sorteth sooner to common sense than this that as things eligible are to be chosen and desired for the profit and helpe of this life so naturall things serve for to live answerable to nature But these men say otherwise for although this be their supposition that to live according to nature is the utmost end of mans good yet they hold that things according to nature be of themselves indifferent Neither is this also lesse repugnant to common sense and conception that a well affected sensible and prudent man is not equally enclined and affectionate to good things that be equall and alike but as some of them he waigheth not nor maketh any account of so for others againe he is prest to abide and endure all things although I say the same be not greater or lesse one than another For these things they hold to be equall namely for a man to fight valiantly in the defence of his country and chastly to turne away from an olde trot when for very age she is at the point of death for both the one and the other doe that alike which their duty requireth And yet for the one as being a worthie and glorious thing they would be prest and ready to lose their lives whereas to boast and vaunt of the other were a shamefull and ridiculous part And even Chrysippus himselfe in the treatise which he composed of Jupiter and in the third booke of the Gods saith that it were a poore absurd and foolish thing to praise such acts as proceeding from vertue namely to beare valiantly the biting of a flie or sting of a wespe and chastly to abstaine from a crooked old woman stooping forward ready to tumble into her
So that no man is able to praise those sufficiently and to their full desert who to represse such furious and beastly affections have set downe law established policie and government of State instituted magistrates and ordeined holsome decrees and edicts But who bee they that confound yea and utterly abolish all this Are they not those who give out that all the great empires and dominions in the worlde are nothing comparable to the crowne and garland of fearelesse tranquillity and repose Are they not those who say that to be a king and to reigne is to sinne to erre and wander out of the true way leading to felicity yea and to this purpose write disertly in these termes we are to shew how to maintaine in best sort and to keepe the end of nature and how a man may avoid at the very first not to enter willingly and of his owne accord into offices of state and government of the multitude Over and besides these speeches also be theirs there is no need at all henceforth for a man to labour and take paines for the preservation of the Greeks nor in regard of wisdome and learning to seeke for to obtaine a crowne at their hands but to eate and drinke à Timocrates without hurt doing to the body or rather withall contentment of the flesh And yet the first and most important article of the digests and ordinance of lawes and policie which Colotes so highly commendeth is the beleefe and firme perswasion of the gods whereby Lycurgus in times past sanctified the LacedeÌmonians Numa the Romans that ancient Ion the Athenians and whereby Deucalion brought all the Greeks universally to religion which noble and renowmed personages made the people devout affectionate zealously to the gods in praiers othes oracles and prophesies by the meanes of hope and feare together which they imprinced in their hearts In such sort that if you travell through the world well you may finde cities without wals without literature without kings not peopled and inhabited without housen ãâã and such as desire no coine which know not what Theaters or publicke hals of bodily exercise meane but never was there nor ever shall be any one city seene without temple church or chappell without some god or other which useth no praiers nor othes no prophesies and divinations no sacrifices either to obtaine good blessings or to avert heavy curses and calamities nay me thinks a man should sooner finde a city built in the aire without any plot of ground whereon it is seated than that any common wealth altogether void of religion the opinion of the gods should either be first established or afterwards preserved and maintained in that ãâã This is it that containeth and holdeth together all humane society this is the foundation prop and stay of all lawes which they subvert and overthrow directly who goenot round about the bush as they say nor secretly and by circuit of covert speeches but openly and even at the first assault set upon the principall point of all to wit the opinion of God and religion and then afterwards as if they were haunted with the furies they confesse how greivously they have sinned in shuffling and confounding thus all rights and lawes and in abolishing the ordinance of justice and pollicy to the end that they might obtaine no pardon for to slip and erre in opinion although it be not a part of wise men yet it is a thing incident to man but to impute and object those faults unto others which they commit themselves what should a man call it if he forbeate to use the proper termes names that it deserveth For if in writing against ãâã or Bion the Sophister he had made mention of lawes of pollicy of justice and government of common weale might not one have said unto him as Electra did to her furious brother Orestes Poore soule be quiet feare none ill Deare hart in bed see thou be still cherishing and keeping warme thy poore body As for me let them argue and expostulate with me about these points who have lived oeconomically or politickly And such are they all whom Colotes hath reviled and railed upon Among whom Democritus verily in his writings admonisheth and exhorteth both to learne military science as being of all others the greatest and also to take paines and endure travels Whereby men attaine to much renowme and honour As for Parmenedes hee beawtified and adorned his owne native countrey with most excellent lawes which he ordained in so much as the magistrates every yeere when they newly enter into their offices binde the citizens by an oth to observe the slatutes and lawes of Parmenides And Empedocles not onely judicially convented and condemned the principall persons of the city wherein he dwelt for their insolent behaviour and for distracting or embeselling the publicke treasure but also delivered all the territorie about it from sterility and pestilence whereunto before time it was subject by emmuring and stopping up the open passages of a certaine mountaine through which the southern winde blew and overspred all the plaine country underneath Socrates after he was condemned to death when his frends had made meanes for him to escape refused to take the benefit thereof because he would maintaine and confirme the authority of the lawes chusing rather to die unjustly than to save his life by disobaying the lawes of his country Melissus being praetor or captaine generall of the city wherein he dwelt defaited the Athenians in a battell at sea Plato left behinde him in writing many good discourses of the lawes and of civill government but much better imprinted he in the hearts and minds of his disciples familiars which were the cause that Dion freed Sicily from the tyrany of Dionysius and Thrace likewise was delivered by the meanes of Python and Heracledes who killed king Cotys Chabrtas and Phocion worthy commaunders of the Athenians armie came both out of the schoole Academia As for Epicurus he sent as farre as into Asia certaine persons of purpose to taunt and revile Timocrates yea and caused the man to be banished out of the kings court onely for that he had offended Metrodorus his brother And this you may read written in their owne books But Plato sent of those friends which were brought up under him Aristonimus to the Arcadians for to ordeine their common wealth Phormio to the Elians Menedemus to those of Pyrrha Eudoxus to the Cnidians and Aristotle to those of Stagira who being all his disciples and samiliars did pen and set downe lawes Alexander the Great requested to have from Xenocrates rules and precepts as touching the government of a kingdome And he who was sent unto Alexander from the Greeks dwelling in Asia who most of all other set him on a light fire and whetted him on to enterprise the warre against the barbarous king of Persia was Delius an Ephesian one of Platoes familiars Zenon also ascholar of Parmenides undertooke to kill
wise Convey unto me that Musicall wench of thine that sings so daintily and receive for her ten talents which I send by this bearer let me have her I say unlesse thou thy selfe be in love with her When Antipatrides another of his minions came in a maske on a time to his house accompanied with a prety girle that plaied upon the psaltery sung passing well Alexander taking great delight contentment in the said damosell demanded of Antipatrides whether he were not himselfe enamoured of her And when he answered Yes verily and that exceeding much A mischiefe on thee quoth he leud varlet as thou art and the divell take thee but the wench he absteined from and would not so much as touch her But marke moreover besides of what power even in martiall feats of armes Love is Love I say which is not as saith Euripides Of nature slow dull fickle inconstant Nor in soft cheeks of maidens resiant For a man that is possessed secretly in his heart with Love needeth not the assistance of Mars when he is to encounter with his enemies in the field but having a god of his owne within him and presuming of his presence Most prest he is and resolute to passe through fire and seas The blasts of most tempestuous windes he cares not to appease And all for his friends sake and according as he commandeth him And verily of those children aswell sonnes as daughters of lady ãâã who in a Tragoedie of Sophocles are represented to be shot with arrowes and so killed one there was who called for no other to helpe and ãâã her at the point of death but onely her paramor in this wise Oh that some god my Love would send My life to save and me defend Ye all know I am sure doe ye not how and wherefore Cleomachus the Thessalian died in combat Not I for my part quoth Pemptides but gladly would I heare and learne of you And it is a storie quoth my father worth the hearing and the knowledge There came to aide the Chalcidians at what time as there was hot warre in Thessalie against the Eretrians this Cleomachus now the Chalcidians seemed to be strong enough in their footmen but much adoe they had and thought it was a difficult piece of service to breake the cavallerie of their enemies and to repell them So they requested Cleomachus their allie and confederate a brave knight and of great courage to give the first charge and to enter upon the said men of armes With that he asked the youth whom he loved most entirely and who was there present whether he would beholde this enterprise and see the conflict and when the yong man answered Yea and withall kindly kissing and embracing him set the helmet upon his head Cleomachus much more hardy and fuller of spirit than before assembled about him a troupe of the most valourous hosemen of all the Thessalians advanced forward right gallantly and with great resolution set upon the enemies in such sort as at the very first encounter he brake the front disarraied the men of armes and in the end put them to flight Which discomfiture when their infanterie saw they also fled and so the Chalcidians woon the field and archieved a noble victorie Howbeit Cleomachus himselfe was there slaine and the Chalcidians shew his sepulchre and monument in their Market place upon which there standeth even at this day a mighty pillar erected And whereas the Chalcidians before-time held this paederastie or love of yoong boies an in famous thing they of all other Greeks ever after affected and honoured it most But Aristotle writeth that Cleomachus indeed lost his life after he had vanquished the Eretrians in battell but as for him who was thus kissed by his lover he saith that he was of Chalcis in Thrace sent for to aide those of Chalcis in ãâã and hereupon it commeth that the Chalcidians use to chant such a caroll as this Sweet boies faire impes extract from noble race Endued besides with youth and beauties grace Envie not men of armes and bolde courage Fruition of your prime and flowring age For here aswell of Love and kinde affection As of prowesse we all do make profession The lover was named Anton and the boy whom he loved Philistus as Dionysius the Poet writeth in his booke of Causes And in our city of Thebes ô Pemptides did not one Ardetas give unto a youth whom he loved a complet armour the day that he was enrolled souldier with the inscription of Ardetas his owne name And as for Pammenes an amorous man and one well experienced in love matters he changed and altered the ordinance in battell of our footmen heavily armed reprooving Homer as one that had no skill nor experience of love for ranging the Achaeans by their tribes and wards and not putting in array the lover close unto him whom he loveth for this indeed had beene the right ordinance which Homer describeth in these words The Morians set so close and shield to shield So iointly touch'd that one the other held And this is the onely battalion and armie invincible For men otherwhiles in danger abandon those of their tribe their kindred also and such as be allied unto them yea and beleeve me they forsake their owne fathers and children but never was there enemie seene that could passe through and make way of evasion betweene the lover and his darling considering that such many times shew their adventerous resolution in a bravery and how little reckoning they make of life unto them being in no distresse nor requiring so much at their hands Thus Thero the Thessalian laying and clapping his left hand to a wall drew forth his sword with the right and cut off his owne thumbe before one whom he loved and challenged his corrivall to doe as much if his heart would serve him Another chanced in fight to fall groveling upon his face and when his enemie lifted up his sword to give him a mortall wound he requested him to stay his hand a while untill he could turne his body that his friend whom he loved might not see him wounded in his backe part And therefore we may see that not onely the most martiall and warlicke nations are most given to Love to wit the Boeotians Lacedaemonians and Candiots but also divers renowmed princes and captaines of olde time as namely Meleager Achilles Aristomenes Cimon Epaminondas And as for the last named he had two yong men whom he deerely loved Asopicus and Zephiodorus who also died with him in the field at Mantinea and was likewise interred neere unto him And when Asopicus became hereupon more terrible unto his enemies and most resolute Euchnanus the Amphyssian who first made head against him resisted his furie and smote him had heroique honors done unto him by the Phocaeans To come now unto Hercules hard it were to reckon and number his loves they were so many But among others men honour and worship to
another when they be parted and asunder and they embrace one the other in the darke many times Moreover that this Core or Proserpina is one while above in heaven and in the light another while in darkenesse and the night is not untrue onely there is some error in reckoning and numbring the time For we see her not six moneths but every sixth moneth or from six moneths to six moneths under the earth as under her mother caught with the shadow and seldome is it found that this should happen within five moneths for that it is impossible that she should abandon and leave Pluto being his wife according as Homer hath signified although under darke and covert wordes not untruely saying But to the farthest borders of the earth and utmost end Even to the faire Elysian fields the gods then shall thee send For looke where the shadow endeth and goeth no farther that is called the limit and end of the earth and thither no wicked and impure person shall ever be able to come But good folke after their death in the world being thither carried lead there another easie life in peace and repose howbeit not altogether a blessed happie and divine life untill they die a second death but what death this is aske me not my Sylla for I purpose of my selfe to declare shew it unto you hereafter The vulgar sort be of opinion that man is a subject compounded and good reason they have so to thinke but in beleeving that he consisteth of two parts onely they are deceived for they imagine that the understanding is in some sort a part of the soule but the understanding is better than the soule by how much the soule is better and more divine than the bodie Now the conjunction or composition of the soule with understanding maketh reason but with the bodie passion whereof this is the beginning and principle of pleasure and paine the other of vertue and vice Of these three conjoined and compact in one the earth yeeldeth for her part the body the Moone the soule and the Sunne understanding to the generation or creation of man and understanding giveth reason unto the soule **** even as the Sunne light and brightnesse to the Moone As touching the deathes which we die the one maketh man of 3. two and the other of 2. one And the former verily is in the region and jurisdiction of Ceres which is the cause that we sacrifice unto her Thus it commeth to passe that the Athenians called in olde time those that were departed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say Cereales As for the other death it is in the Moone or region of Proserpina And as with the one terrestriall Mercury so with the other celestiall Mercurie doth inhabit And verily Ceres dissolveth and seperateth the soule from the bodie sodainly and forcibly with violence but Proserpina parteth the understanding from the soule gently and in long time And heereupon it is that the is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as one would say begetting one for that the better part in a man becommeth one and alone when by her it is separated and both the one and the other hapneth according to nature Every soule without understanding as also endued with understanding when it is departed out of the body is ordeined by fatall destiny to wander for a time but not both alike in a middle region betweene the earth and the Moone For such soules as have beene unjust wicked and dissolute suffer due punishment and paines for their sinfull deserts whereas the good and honest untill such time as they have purified and by expiration purged foorth of them all those infections which might be contracted by the contagion of the body as the cause of all evill must remaine for a certeine set time in the mildest region of the aire which they call the meddowes of Pluto Afterwards as if they were returned from some long pilgrimage or wandring exile into their owne countrey they have a taste of joy such as they fecie especially who are professed in holy mysteries mixed with trouble and admiration and ech one with their proper and peculiar hope for it driveth and chaseth foorth many soules which longed already after the Moone Some take pleasure to be still beneath and even yet looke downward as it were to the bottome but such as be mounted aloft and are there most surely bestowed first as victorious stand round about adorned with garlands and those made of the wings of Eustathia that is to saie Constancie because in their life time here upon earth they had bridled and restreined the unreasonable and passible part of the soule and made it subject and obedient to the bridle of reason Secondly they resemble in sight the raies of the Sunne Thirdly the soule thus ascended on high is there confirmed and fortified by the pure aire about the Moone where it doth gather strength and solidity like as iron and steele by their tincture become hard For that which hitherto was loose rare and spongeous groweth close compact and firme yea and becommeth shining and transparent in such sort as nourished it is with the least exhalation in the world This is that Heracletus meant when he said that the soules in Plutoes region have a quicke sent or smelling And first they behold there the greatnesse of the Moone her beauty and nature which is not simple nor void of mixture but as it were a composition of a starre and of earth And as earth mingled with a spirituall aire and moisture becommeth soft and the blood tempered with flesh giveth it sense even so say they the Moone mingled with a celestiall quintessence even to the very bottome of it is made animate fruitfull and generative and withall equally counterpeised with ponderosity and lightnesse For the whole world it selfe being thus composed of things which naturally moove downward and upward is altogether void of motion locall from place to place which it seemth that Xenocrates himselfe by a divine discourse of reason understood taking the first light thereof from Plato For Plato was he who first affirmed that every starre was compounded of fire and earth by the meanes of middle natures given in certeine proportion in as much as there is nothing object to the sense of man which hath not in some proportion a mixture of earth and light And Xenocrates said that the Sunne is compounded of fire and the first or primitive solid the Moone of a second solid and her proper aire in summe throughout neither solid alone by it selfe nor the rare apart is capable and susceptible of a soule Thus much as touching the substance of the Moone As for the grandence bignesse thereof it is not such as the Geometricians set downe but farre greater by many degrees And seldome doth it measure the shadow of the earth by her greatnesse not for that the same is small but for that it bringeth a most servent and swift motion to the end
their wilde and untamed affections with great care and vigilance For this floure of age having no forecast of thrift but set altogither upon spending and given to delights and pleasures winseth and flingeth out like a skittish and frampold horse in such sort that it had need of a sharpe bit and short curb And therefore they that endeuor not by all good meanes forcibly to hold in and restraine this age but give yoong men libertie and suffer them to do after their own mind plunge them ere they be aware into a licentious course of life and all maner of wickednesse Wherefore good and wise fathers ought in this age especially to be vigilant and watchfull over their sonnes they ought I say to keepe them downe and inute them to wisedome and vertue by teaching by threatning by intreatie and praiers by advise and remonstrances by perswasion and counsell by faire promises by setting before their eies the examples of some who being abandoned to their pleasures and all sensualitie have fallen headlong into great calamities and wofull miseries and contrariwise of others who by mastering their lusts and conquering their delights have wonne honor and glorious renowne For surely these be the two Elements and foundations of vertue Hope of reward and Feare of punishment For as hope inciteth and setteth them forward to enterprise the best and most commendable acts so feare plucketh them backe that they dare not enter upon lewd and wicked pranks In summe Fathers ought with great care to divert their children from frequenting ill companie for otherwise they shall be sure to catch infection and carie away the contagion of their leandnes This is that Pythagoras expresly forbiddeth in his Aenigmaticall precepts under covert and dark words which because they are of no small efficacie to the attaining of vertue I will briefly set downe by the way and open their meaning Taste not quoth he of the black tailed fishes Melanuri which is as much to say as Keepe not company with infamons persons such as for their naughtie life are noted as it were with a blacke coale Passe not over a balance That is we ought to make the greatest account of equitie and justice and in no case to transgresse the same Sit not upon the measure Choenix That is to say we are to flie sloth and idlenes that we may forecast to make provision of things necessarie to this life Give not every man thy right hand which is all one with this Make no contracts and bargaines indifferently with all persons Weare not a ring streight upon thy finger i. Live in freedome and at libertie neither intangle and clog thy life with troubles as with gives Dig not nor rake into the fire with a sword whereby he giveth us a caveat not to provoke farther a man that is angrie for that is not meete and expedient but rather to give place unto those that are in heat of choller Ear not thy heart that is to say offend not thine owne soule nor hurt and consume it with pensive cares Abstaine from beanes i. Intermeddle not in the affaires of State and government for that in olde time men were woont to passe their voices by beanes so proceeded to the election of Magistrates Put not viands in a chamber-pot whereby he signifieth that we should not commit good and civill words to a wicked minde because speech is the nutriment of the understanding which becommeth polluted by the leudnesse of men Returne not backe from the limits and confines when thou commest unto them that is to say If wee perceive death approching and that wee are come to the uttermost bounds of our life we ought to beare our death patiently and not be discouraged thereat But now is it time to retume againe to my matter which I proposed before in the beginning namely as I have alreadie said we are to withdraw our children from the societie and companie of leud persons and flatterers especiallie for that which many a time and often I have said to divers and sundrie fathers I will now repeat once againe namely That there is not a more mischievous and pestilent kinde of men or who doe greater hurt to youth and sooner overthrow them then these flatterers who are the undoing both of fathers and sonnes causing the olde age of the one and the youth of the other wretched and miserable presenting with their leud and wicked counsels an inevitable bait to wit Pleasure wherewith they are sure to be caught Fathers exhort their sonnes that be wealthie to sobrietie and these incite them to drunkenesse Fathers give them counsell to live chaste and continent these provoke them to lust and loosenesse of life Fathers bid them to save spare and be thriftie these will them to spend scatter and be wasters Fathers advise their children to labour and travell these flatterers give them counsell to play or sit still and doe nothing What all our life say they is no more but a moment and minute of time to speake of we must live therefore and enjoy our owne whiles wee have it we must not live beside our selves and languish What need you regard and care for the menaces of a father an olde doting foole carying death in his face and having one foot in the grave we shall see him one of these dayes turne up his heeles and then will we soone have him forth and cary him aloft bravely to his grave You shall have one of these come and bring unto a youth some common harlot out of the stinking stewes having bome him in hand before that she is some brave dame and citizens wife for to furnish whom he must robbe his father there is no remedie Thus fathers goodmen in one houre are bereaved and spoiled of that which they had saved many a yeere for the maintenance of their olde age To be short a wretched and cursed generation they be hypocrites pretending friendship but they can not skill of plaine dealing and franke speech Rich men they claw sooth up and flatter the poore they contemne and despise It seemeth they have learned the Art of singing to the Harpe for to seduce yoong men for when their yoong masters who mainteine and feed them begin to laugh then they set up by and by a loud laughter then they yawne shew all their teeth counterfeit cranks fained and supposed men bastard members of mankinde and this life who compose themselves and live to the will and pleasure of rich men and notwithstanding their fortune is to be free borne and of franke condition yet they chuse voluntarily to be slaves who thinke they have great injurie done unto them if they may not live in all fulnesse and superfluitie to be kept delicately and doe nothing that good is And therefore all futhers that have any care of their childrens good education and wel doing ought of necessitie to chase and drive away from them these gracelesse imps and shamelesse beasts they shall doe
feareth Neptune and standeth in dread least he shake cleaue and open the earth and so discover hell he will rebuke also himselfe when he is offended and angrie with for Apollo the principal man of all the Greekes of whom Thetu complaineth thus in the Poet Aesohylus as touching Achilles her sonne Himselfe did sing and say al good of me himselfe also at wedding present was Yet for all this himselfe and none but be hath slaine and done to death my sonne alas He will like wise represse the treares of Achilles now departed and of Agamemnon being in hell who in their desire to revive and for the love of this life stretch foorth their impotent and seeble hands And if it chaunce at any time that he be troubled with passions and surprised with their enchantments and sorcerie he will not sticke nor feare to say thus unto himselfe Make hast and speed without delay Recover soone the light of day Beare well in minde what thou seest heere And all report to thy bed feere Homer spake this in mirth and pleasantly fitting indeed the discourse wherein he describeth hell as being in regard of the fiction a tale fit for the eares of women and none els These be the fables that Poets do feigne voluntarily But more in number there are which they neither devisenor counterfeit but as they are perswaded and do beleeve themselves so they would beare us in hand and infect us with the same untruthes as namely when Homer writeth thus of Iupiter Two lots then of long sleeping death he did in balance put One for Achilles hardy knight and one for Hector stout But when he pis'd it just mids behold str Hectors death Weigh'd downward unto bell beneath Then Phoebus slopt his breath To this fiction Aeschylus the Poët hath aptly fitted one entire Tragedie which he intituled Psychostasia that is to say the weighing of Soules or ghosts in balance Wherein he deviseth to stand at these skales of Iupiter Thetu of the one side and Aurora of the other praying each of them for their sonnes as they fight But there is not a man who seeth not cleerely that this it but a made tale and meere fable devised by Homer either to content and delight the Reader or to bring him into some great admiration and astonishment Likewise in this place T' is Iupiter that mooveth warre He is the cause that men do jarre As also this of another Poët When God above some house will overthrow He makes debate twixt mort all men below These and such like speeches are delivered by Poëts according to the very conceit and beliese which they have whereby the errour and ignorance which themselves are in as touching the nature of the gods they derive and communicate unto us Semblably the strange wonders and marvels of Hell The descriptions by them made which they depaint unto us by fearefull and terrible termes representing unto us the fantasticall apprehensions and imaginations of burning and flaming rivers of hideous places and horrible torments there are not many men but wot well ynough that therein be tales and lies good store no otherwise than in meates and viands you shall finde mixed otherwhiles hurtfull poyson or medicinable drugs For neither Homer nor Pindarus nor Sophocles have written thus of Hell beleeving certainely that there were any such things there From whence the dormant rivers dead of blacke and shady night Cast up huge mists and clouds full darke that overwhelme the light Likewise The Ocean coast they sailed still along Fast by the clifs of Leucas rocke among As also Here boyling waves of gulfe so deepe do swell Where lies the way and downfall into hell And as many of them as bewailed and lamented for death as a most piteous and woful thing or feared want of sepulture as a miserable and wretched case uttered their plaints and griefes in these and such like words Forsake me not unburied so Nor unbewailed when you go Semblably And then the soule from body flew and as to hell she went She did her death her losseof strength and youthfull yeeres lament Likewise Doe not me kill before my time for why to see this light Is sweet sorce me not under earth where nothing is but night These are the voices I say of passionate persons captivate before to error and false opinions And therefore they touch us more neerely and trouble us so much the rather when they finde us likewise possessed of such passions and feeblenes of spirit from whence they proceed In which regard we ought to be prepared betimes and provided alwaies before hand to encounter and withstand such illusions having this sentence readily evermore resounding in our cares as it were from a trunke or pipe That Poetrie is fabulous and maketh smal reckoning of Truth As for the truth indeed of these things it is exceeding hard to be conceived comprehended even by those who travell in no other businesse but to search out the knowledge and understanding of the thing as they themselves do confesse And for this purpose these verses of Empedocles would be alwaies readie at hand who saith that the depth of such things as these No eie of man is able to perceive No care to heare nor spirit to conceive Like as these also of Xenophanes Never was man nor ever will be Able to sound the veritie Of those things which of God I write Or of the world I do endite And I assure you The very words of Socrates in Plato imply no lesse who protesteth and bindeth it with an oath that he cannot attaine to the knowledge of these matters And this will be a good motive to induce yoong men to give lesse credit unto Poëts as touching their certaine knowledge in these points wherein they perceive the Philosophers themselves so doubtfull and perplexed yea and therewith so much troubled Also the better shall we stay the mind of a yoong man cause him to be more warie if at his first entrance into the reading of Poëts we describe Poetrie unto him giving him to understand that it is an art of Imitation a science correspondent every way to the seat of painting and not onely must he be acquainted with the hearing of that vulgar speech so common in every mans mouth that Poësie is a speaking picture and picture a dumbe Poësie but also we ought to teach him that when we behold a Lizard or an Ape wel painted or the face of Thersites lively drawen we take pleasure therein praise the same wonderfully not for any beautie in the one or in the other but because they are so naturally counterfeited For that which is soule of it selfe ilfavored in the owne nature cannot be made faire seemly but the skil of resembling a thing wel be the same faire or be it foule is alwaies commended wheras contrariwise he that takes in hand to purtray an ilfavoured bodie and makes thereof a faire beautifull image shall exhibite a
that authour is of such are all one in effect with the opinions and discourses of Plato in his dialogue Gorgias and in his books of Common weale to wit that more dangerous it is to doe wrong that to suffer injurie and more damage commeth by giving than by receiving an abuse Also to this verse of Aeschylus Be of good cheere Excessive paine Can not endure nor long remaine When wofull bale is at the highest Then blessed boot be sure is nighest we must say that they be the very same with that divulged sentence so often repeated by Epicurus and so highly admired by his followers namely That as great paines are not durable so long griefs are tolerable And as the former member of this sentence was evidently expressed by Acschylus so the other is a consequent thereof and implied therein For if a griefe that is fore and vehement endureth not surely that which continueth can not be violent or intolerable Semblably this sentence of Thespis the Poet in verse Thou seest how Iove all other gods for this doth farre excell Because that lies he doth abhorre and pride of heart expell He is not wont to laugh and scorne to frumpe he doth disdaine He onely can not skill of lusts and pleasures which be vaine is varied by Plato in prose when he saith that the divine power is seated farre from pleasure and paine As for these verses of Barchylides We holde it true and ever will maintaine That glory sound and vertue doth endure Great wealth and store we take to be but vaine And may befall to vile men and impure As also these of Euripides to the like sense Sage temperance I holde we ought to honour most in heart For with good men it doth remaine and never will depart As also these When honour and worldly wealth you have To furnish your selves with vertue take care Without her if riches you get and save Though blessed you seeme unhappy you are Containe they not an evident proofe and demonstration of that which the Philosophers teach as touching riches and externall goods which without vertue profit not those at all who are possessed of them And verily thus to reduce and fitly to accommodate the sentences of Poets unto the precepts and principles delivered by Philosophers will soone dissever Poetrie from fables and plucke from it the masque wherewith it is disguised it will give I say unto them an esfectuall power that being profitably spoken they may be thought serious and perswasive yea and besides will make an overture and way unto the minde of a yoong ladde that it may encline the rather to Philosophicall reasons and discourses namely when he having gotten some smatch and taste alreadie thereof and being not voide altogether of hearing good things he shall not come altogether without judgement replenished onely with foolish conceits and opinions which he hath evermore heard from his mothers and nurses mouth yea and otherwhiles beleeve me from his father tutour and schoole-master who will not sticke in his hearing to repute for blessed and happie yea and with great reverence to give the worship to those who are rich but as for death paine and labour to stand in feare and horror thereof and contrariwise to make no reckoning and account of vertue but to despise the same and thinke it as good as nothing without earthly riches and authoritie Certes when yoong men shal come thus rawly and untrained to heare the divisions reasons arguments of Philosophers flat contrary to such opinions they will at first be much astonied troubled disquieted in their minds and no more able to admit of the same and to reduce such doctrine than they who having a long time bene pent in and kept in darke can abide the glittering raies of the Sun shine unlesse they were acquainted before by little little with some false and bastard light not altogether so lively and cleere as it And even so I say yoong men must be accustomed beforehand yea and from the very first day to the light of the trueth entermingled somewhat with fables among that they may the better endure the full light and sight of the cleere trueth without any paine and offence at all For when they have either heard or read before in Poemes these sentences Lament we ought for infants at their birth Entring a world of eares that they shall have Whereas the dead we should with joy and mirth Accompanie and bring them so to grave Also Of worldly thing we need no more but twaine For bread to eat the earth doth yeeld us graine And for to quench our thirst the river cleere Affords us drinke the water faire and sheere Likewise O tyrannie so lov'd and in request With barbarous but hatefull to therest Lastly The highest pitchos mans felicitie To feele the least part of adversitie Lesse troubled they are grieved in spirit when they shall heare in the Philosophers schooles That we are to make no account of death as a thing touching us That the Riches of nature are definite limited That felicitie and soveraigne happines of man lieth not in great summes of money ne yet in the pride of managing State affaires nor in dignities and great authority but in a quiet life free from paine and sorrow in moderating all passions and in a disposition of the minde kept within the compasse of Nature To conclude in regard hereof as also for other reasons before alleaged A yoong man had neede to be well guided and directed in reading of Poets to the end that he may be sent to the studie of Philosophie not forestalled with sinister surmises but rather sufficiently instructed before and prepared yea and made friendly and familiar thereto by the meanes of Poetrie OF HEARING The Summarie BY good right this present discourse was ranged next unto the former twaine For seeing we are not borne into this world learned but before we can speake our selves sensibly or any thing to reason we ought to have heard men who are able to deliver their minds with judgement to the ende that by thier aide and helpe we may be better framed and fitted to the way of vertue requisite it is that after the imbibition of good nourture in childhood and some libertie and license given to travelin the the writings of Poets according to the rules above declared Yoong men that are students should advance forward and mount up into higher schooles Now for that in the time when this Author Plutarch lived be sides many good bookes there were a great number of professours in the liberall sciences and namely in those rites into which Barbarisme crept afterwards he proposeth and setteth downe those precepts now which they are to follow and observe that goe to heare publike lectures orations and disputations thereby to know how to behave themselves there which traning haply may reach to al that which we shal heare spoken elsewhere and is materiall to make us more learned and better mannered
arising and engendred in any one part of the soule by it selfe but spread over that which is the chiefe and principall to wit reason and understanding where of they be the inclinations assensions motions and in one word certaine operations which in the turning of an hand be apt to change and passe from one to another much like unto the sudden braids starts and runnings to and fro of little children which how violent soever they be and vehement yet by reason of their weaknesse are but slippery unstedfast and unconstant But these assertions and oppositions of theirs are checked and refuted by apparant evidence and common sense For what man is he that ever felt in himselfe a change of his lust and concupiscence into judgement and contrariwise an alteration of his judgement into lust neither doth the wanton lover cease to love when he doth reason with himselfe and conclude That such love is to be repressed and that he ought to strive and fight against it neither doth he then give over reasoning and judging when being overcome through weaknesse he yeeldeth himselfe prisoner and thrall to lust but like as when by advertisement of reason he doth resist in some sort a passion arising yet the same doth still tempt him so likewise when he is conquered and overcome therewith by the light of the same reason at that verie instant he seeth and knoweth that he sinneth and doth amisse so that neither by those perturbations is reason lost and abolished nor yet by reason is he freed and delivered from them but whiles he is tossed thus to and fro he remaineth a neuter in the mids or rather participating in common of them both As for those who are of opinion that one while the principall part of our soule is lust and concupiscence and then anon that it doth resist stand against the same are much like unto them who imagine say that the hunter the wild beast be not twaine but one bodie chaunging it selfe one while into the forme of an hunter and another time taking the shape of a savage beast For both they in a manifest and apparant matter should seeme to be blind and see nothing and also these beare witnesse and depose against their owne sense considering that they finde and seele in themselves really not a mutation or chaunge of one onely thing but a sensible strife and sight of two things together within them But heere they come upon us againe and object in this wise How commeth it to passe then say they that the power and facultie in man which doth deliberate and consult is not likewise double being oftentimes distracted carried and drawen to contrarie opinions as it is namely touching that which is profitable and expedient but is one still and the same True we must confesse that divided it seemeth to be But this comparison doth not hold neither is the event and effect alike for that part of our soule wherein prudence and reason is seated fighteth not with it selfe but using the helpe of one and the same facultie it handleth divers arguments or rather being but one power of discoursing it is emploied in sundry subjects and matters different which is the reason that there is no dolor and griefe at one end of those reasonings and discourses which are without passion neither are they that consult forced as it were to hold one of those contrarie parts against their minde and judgement unlesse peradventure it so fall out that some affection lie close to one part or other as if a man should secretly and under hand lay somewhat besides in one of the balances or skales against reason for to weigh it downe A thing I assure you that many times falleth out and then it is not reason that is poised against reason but either ambition emulation favour jealousie feare or some secret passion making semblance as if in shew of speeches two reasons were at varience and differed one from another As may appeere by these verses in Homer They thought it shame the combate to reject And yet for feare they durst not it accept Likewise in another Poët To suffer death it dolorous though with renowne it meete Death to avoide is cowardise but yet our life is sweete And verily in determining of controversies betweene man and man in their contracts and suits of law these passions comming betweene are they that make the longest delaies be the greatest enimies of expedition and dispatch like as in the counsels of kings and princes they that speake in favour of one partie and for to win grace doe not upon any reason of two sentences encline to the one but they accomodate themselves to their affectioÌ even against the regard of utility profit And this is the cause that in those States which be called Aristocraties that is to say governed by a Senate or Counsel of the greatest men the Magistrates who sit in judgemeÌt will not suffer Oratours Advocates at the Barre to moove affections in all their Pleas for in Truth let not the discourse of reason be impeached and hindered by some passion it will of it selfe tend directly to that which is good and just But in case there do arise a passion betweene to crosse the same then you shal see pleasure and displeasure to raise a combat and dissension to encounter that which by consultation would have beene judged and determined For otherwise how commeth it to passe that in Philosophicall discourses and disputations a man shall never see it otherwise but that without any dolor and griefe some are turned and drawen oftentimes by others into their opinions and subscribe thereto willingly Nay even Aristotle himselfe Democritus also and Chrysippus have beene knowen to retract and recant some points which before time they held and that without any trouble of mind without griefe and remorse but rather with pleasure and contentment of heart because in that speculative or contemplative part of the soule which is given to knowledge and learning onely there raigne no passions to make resistance insomuch as the brutish part being quiet and at repose loveth not curiously to entermedle in these and such like matters By which meanes it hapneth that the reason hath no sooner a sight of trueth but willingly it enclineth thereto and doth reject untruth and falsitie for that there lieth in it and in no other part else that power and facultie to beleeve and give assent one way as also to be perswaded for to alter opinion and goe another way Whereas contrariwise the counsels and deliberations of worldly affaires judgements also and arbitriments being for the most part full of passions make the way somewhat difficult for reason to passe and put her to much trouble For in these cases the sensuall and unreasonable part of the soule is ready to stay and stop her course yea and to fright her from going forward meeting her either with the object of pleasure or else casting in her way
themselves to those that bee harsh bad and unsavourie But Aristippus was of another humour for like a wise man and one that knew his owne good hee was alwaies disposed to make the best of everie occurrence raising and lifting up himselfe to that end of the ballance which mounted aloft and not to that which went downeward It fortuned one day that he lost a faire mannor or Lordship of his owne and when one of his friends above the rest made most semblance to lament with him and to be angrie with Fortune in his behalfe Heare you quoth he know you not that your selfe have but one little farme in the whole world and that I have yet three houses more left with good lands lying to them Yes marie do I quoth the other Why then quoth Aristippus againe wherefore doe not we rather pittie your case and condole with you For it is meere madnesse to grieve and sorrow for those things that are lost and gone and not to rejoice for that which is saved And like as little children if a man chance to take from them but one of their gauds among many other toies that they play withall throw away the rest for verie curst-heart and then fall a puling weeping and crying out aright semblably as much folly and childishnesse it were if when fortune thwarteth us in one thing we be so farre out of the way and disquieted therewith that with our plaints and moanes we make all her other favours unprofitable unto us But wil some one say What is it that we have Nay What is it that we have not might he rather say One man is in honour another hath a faire and goodly house one hath a wife to his minde and another a trustie friend Antipater of Tarsus the Philosopher when he drew toward his end and the houre of his death in recounting and reckoning up all the good and happie daies that ever he saw in his life time left not out of this roll so much as the Bon-voiage that he had when he sailed from Cilicia to Athens And yet we must not forget nor omit those blessings and comforts of this life which we enjoy in common with many more but to make some reckoning account of them and namely to joy in this that we live that we have our health that we behold the light of the sunne that we have neither warre abroad nor civill sedition and dissension at home but that the land yeeldeth it selfe arable and to be tilled and the sea navigable to everie one that will without feare of danger that it is lawful for us to speake and keepe silence at our pleasure that we have libertie to negotiate and deale in affaires or to rest and be at our repose And verily the enjoying of these good things present will breed the greater contentment in our spirit if wee would but imagine within our selves that were absent namely by calling to minde eftsoones what a misse and desire those persons have of health who bee sicke and diseased How they wish for peace who are afflicted with warres How acceptable it is either to a stranger or a meane person and unknowen for to bee advaunced unto honour or to bee friended in some famous and puissant citie And contrariwise what a great griefe it is to forgoe these things when a man once hath them And surely a thing can not bee great or precious when we have lost it and the same of no valour and account all the while wee have and enjoy it for the not being thereof addeth no price and woorth thereto Neither ought wee to holde these things right great and excellent whiles wee stand alwaies in feare and trembling to thinke that we shall be deprived and bereft of them as if they were some woorthie things and yet all the time that they be sure and safe in our possession neglect and little regard them as if they were common and of no importance But we ought to make use of them whiles they be ours and that with joy in this respect especially that the loosse of them if it shall so fall out wee may beare more meekly and with greater patience Howbeit most men are of this opinion as Arcesilaus was woont to say that they ought to follow diligently with their eie and cogitation the Poemes Pictures and Statues of others and come close unto them for to behold and peruse exactly each of them yea and consider everie part and point therein from one ende to the other whiles in the meane time they neglect and let alone their owne lives and manners notwithstanding there be many unpleasant sights to be spied and observed therein looking evermore without and admiring the advancements welfare and fortunes of others much like as adulterers who have an eie after their neighbours wives but loath and set naught by their owne And verily this one point also is of great consequence for the setling of a mans minde in sure repose namely to consider principally himselfe his owne estate and condition or at least wise if he do not so yet to looke backe unto those that be his inferiours and under him and not as the most sort do who love alwaies to looke forward and to compare themselves with their betters and superiors As for example slaves that are bound in prison and lie in irons repute them happy who are abroad at libertie such as be abroad and at libertie thinke their state blessed who be manumised and made free being once a franchised they account themselves to be in verie good case if they were citizens and being citizens they esteeme rich men most happie the rich imagine it a gay matter to be Lords and Princes Lords and Princes have a longing desire to be Kings and Monarchs Kings and Monarchs aspire still higher and would be Gods and yet they rest not so unlesse they may have the power to flash lightnings and shoot thunderbolts aswell as Jupiter Thus whiles they evermore come short of that which is above them and covet still after it they enjoy no pleasure at all of those things that they have nor be thankfull therefore The treasures great I care not for of Gyges King so rich in gold Such avarice I do abhor nor money will I touch untold I never long'd with gods above in their high works for to compare Grand seignories I do not love far from mine eies all such things are A Thrasian he was that protested thus But some other that were a Chian a Galatian or a Bithynian I dare warrant you not contenting himselfe with his part of honor credit authoritie in his owne countrie and among his neighbours and fellow-citizens would be ready to weepe and expostulate the matter with teares if he might not also weare the habite and ornaments of a patritian or Senatour of Rome And say it were graunted and allowed him to be a noble Senatour he would not be quiet untill he were a Romaine Lord Praetor Be he
all agast But the disposition and staied minde of a prudent man over and besides that it bringeth the body into a quiet and calme estate by dissipating and dispatching for the most part the occasions and preparatives of diseases and that by continent life sober diet moderate exercises and travels in measure if haply there chance some little beginning or indisposition to a passion upon which the minde is ready to runne it selfe as a ship upon some blinde rocke under the water it can quickly turne about his nimble and light crosse-saile yard as Asclepiades was woont to say and so avoid the danger But say there come upon us some great and extraordinary accident such as neither we looked for nor be able by all the power we have either to overcome or endure the haven is neere at hand we may swim safely thither out of the body as it were out of a vessell that leaketh and taketh water and will no longer holde a passenger as for foolish ãâã it is the feare of death and not the love of life that causeth them to cling and sticke so close to the body hanging and clasping thereunto no otherwise than Ulysses to the wilde figge tree why hee feared with great horror the gulfe Charybdes roaring under him Whereas the winds would not permit to stay Nor suffer him to rowe or saile away displeased infinitely in the one and dreading fearefully the other But he that some measure be it never so little knoweth the nature of the soule and casteth this with himselfe That by death there is a passage out of this life either to a better state or at least-wise not a woorse certes he is furnished with no meane way-faring provision to bring him to the securit of mind in this life I meane the fearelesse contempt of death for he that may so long as vertue ãâã the better part of the soule which indeed is proper unto man is predominant live pleasantly ãâã when the contrary passions which are enemies to nature doeprevaile depart resolutely ãâã without feare saying thus unto himselfe God will me suffer to be gone When that I will my selfe anon What can we imagine to happen unto a man of this resolution that should encumber trouble or terrifie him for whosoever he was that said I have prevented thee ô Fortune I have stopped up all thy avenewes I have intercepted and choked all the waies of accesse and entry surely he fortified himselfe not with barres and barricadoes not with locks and keies ne yet with mures and walles but with Philosophicall and sage lessons with sententious sawes and with discourses of reason whereof all men that are willing be capable Neither ought a man to discredit the trueth of these and such like things which are committed in writing and give no beleefe unto them but rather to admire and with an affectionate ravishment of spirit embrace and imitate them yea and withall to make a triall and experiment of himselfe first in smaller matters proceeding afterwards to greater untill he reach unto the highest and in no wise to shake off such medirations nor to shift off and seeke to avoid the exercise of the minde in this kinde and in so doing he shall haply finde no such difficultie as he thinketh For as the effeminate delicacy and nicenesse of our mind amused alwaies and loving to be occupied in the most easie objects and retiring eft-soones from the cogitation of those things that fall out crosse unto such as tend unto greatest pleasure causeth it to be soft and tender and imprinteth a certaine daintinesse not able to abide any exercise so if the same minde would by custome learne and exercise it selfe in apprehending the imagination of a maladie of paine travell and of banishment and enforce it selfe by reason to withstand and strive against ech of these accidents it will be found and seene by experience that such things which through an erronious opinion were thought painefull grievous hard and terrible are for the most part but vaine in deed deceitfull and contemptible like as reason will shew the same if a man would consider them each one in particular Howbeit the most part mightily feare and have in horror that verse of Menander No man alive can safely say This case shall never me assay as not knowing how materiall it is to the exempting and freeing of a man from all griefe and sorrow to meditate before-hand and to be able to looke open-eied full against fortune and not to make those apprehensions and imaginations in himselfe soft and effeminate as if hee were fostered and nourished in the shadow under many foolish hopes which ever yeeld to the contrarie and bee not able to resist so much as any one But to come againe unto Menander we have to answer unto him in this maner True it is indeed there is no man living able to say This or this shal never happen unto me howbeit thus much may a man that is alive say and affirme So long as I live I will not do this to wit I will not lie I will never be a cousiner nor circumvent any man I will not defraud any one of his owne neither will I fore-lay and surprise any man by a wile This lieth in our power to promise and performe and this is no small matter but a great meanes to procure tranquillitie and contentment of minde Whereas contrariwise the remorse of conscience when as a man is privie to himselfe and must needs confesse and say These and these wicked parts I have committed festereth in the soule like an ulcer and fore in the flesh and leaveth behind it repentance in the soule which fretteth galleth gnaweth and setteth it a bleeding fresh continually For whereas all other sorrowes griefes and anguishes reason doth take away repentance onely it doth breed and engender which together with shame biteth and punisheth it selfe for like as they who quiver and shake in the feavers called Epioli or contrariwise burne by occasion of other agues are more afflicted and more at ease than those who suffer the same accidents by exterior causes to wit winters cold or summers heat even so all mischances and casuall calamities bring with them lighter dolors and paines as comming from without But when a man is forced thus to confesse My seife I may well thanke for this None els for it blame woorthy is which is an ordinary speech of them who lamentably bewaile their sinnes from the bottome of their hearts it causeth griefe and sorrow to be so much more heavy and it is joyned with shame and infamie whereupon it commeth to passe that neither house richly and sinely furnished nor heapes of gold and silver no parentage or nobilitie of birth no dignitie of estate and authoritie how high soever no grace in speech no force and power of eloquence can yeeld unto a mans life such a calme as it were and peaceable tranquillitie as a soule and conscience cleere from wicked deeds sinfull cogitations
the only gift that the gods have given us freely even so may a man very wel say and with great reason unto those that are superstitious Seeing that the gods have bestowed upon us sleepe for the oblivion and repose of our miseries why makest thou it a very bel place of continuall and dolorous torment to thy poore soule which can not flie nor have recourse unto any other sleep but that which is troublesome unto thee Haraclitus was wont to say That men all the whiles they were awake enjoied the benefit of no other world but that which was common unto all but when they slept every one had a world by himselfe but surely the superstitious person hath not so much as any part of the common world for neither whiles hee is awake hath hee the true use of reason and wisdome nor when he sleepeth is he delivered from feare secured but one thing or other troubleth him still his reason is asleepe his feare is alwaies awake so that neither can he avoid his owne harme quite nor finde any meanes to put it by and turne it off Polycrates the tyrant was dread and terrible in Samos Periander in Corinth but no man feared either the one or the other who withdrew himselfe into any free city or popular State as for him who standeth in dread and feare of the imperiall power of the gods as of some rigorous and inexorable tyranny whither shall he retire withdraw himselfe whither shall he flie where shall he find a land where shal he meet with sea without a god into what secret part of the world poore man wilt thou betake thy selfe wherein thou maiest lie close and hidden and be assured that thou art without the puissance and reach of the gods There is a law that provideth for miserable slaves who being so hardly intreated by their masters are out of all hope that they shall be ensranchised and made free namely that they may demand to be solde againe and to change their master if haply they may by that meanes come by a better and more easie servitude under another but this superstition alloweth us not that libertie to change our gods for the better nay there is not a god to be found in the world whom a superstitious person doth not dread considering that he feareth the tutelar gods of his native countrey and the very gods protectors of his nativitie he quaketh even before those gods which are knowen to be saviours propitious and gracious he trembleth for feare when he thinketh of them at whose hands we crave riches abundance of goods concord peace and the happie successe of the best words and deeds that we have Now if these thinke that bondage is a great calamitie saying thus O heavie crosse and wofull miserie Man and woman to be in thrall-estate And namely if their slaverie Be under lords unfortunate how much more grievous thinke you is their servitude which they endure who can not flie who can not runne away and escape who can not change and turne to another Altars there be unto which bad servants may flie for succour many sanctuaries there be and priviledged churches for theeves and robbers from whence no man is so hardy as to plucke and pull them out Enemies after they are defeated and put to flight if in the very rout and chase they can take holde of some image of the gods or recover some temple and get it over their heads once are secured and assured of their lives whereas the superstitious person is most affrighted scared and put in feare by that wherein all others who be affraid of extreamest evils that can happen to man repose their hope and trust Never goe about to pull perforce a superstitious man out of sacred temples for in them he is most afflicted and tormented What needs many words In all men death is the end of life but it is not so in superstition for it extendeth and reacheth farther than the limits and utmost bounds thereof making feare longer than this life and adjoining unto death an imagination of immortall miseries and even then when there seemeth to be an end and cessation of all sorrowes travels be superstitious men perswaded that they must enter into others which be endlesse everlasting they dream of I wot not what deepe gates of a certein Pluto or infernall God of hell which open for to receive them of fierie rivers alwaies burning of hollow gulfs and flouds of Styx to gape for them of ugly and hideous darkenesse to overspread them full of sundry apparitions of gastly ghosts and sorrowfull spirits representing unto them grizlie and horrible shapes to see and as fearefull and lamentable voices to heare what should I speake of judges of tormentors of bottomlesse pits and gaping caves full of all sorts of torture and infinite miseries Thus unhappy and wretched superstition by fearing overmuch and without reason that which it imagineth to be nought never taketh heed how it submitteth it selfe to all miseries and for want of knowledge how to avoid this passionate trouble occasioned by the feare of the gods forgeth and deviseth to it selfe an expectation of inevitable evils even after death The impietie of an Atheist hath none of all this geere most true it is that his ignorance is unhappie and that a great calamitie and miserie it is unto the soule either to see amisse or wholly to be blinded in so great woorthy things as having of many eies the principall and cleerest of all to wit the knowledge of God extinct and put out but surely as I said before this passionate feare this ulcer and sore of conscience this trouble of spirit this servile abjection is not in his conceit these goe alwaies with the other who have such a superstitious opinion of the gods Plato saith that musicke was given unto men by the gods as a singular meanes to make them more modest and gracious yea and to bring them as it were into tune and cause them to be better conditioned and not for delight and pleasure nor to tickle the eares for falling out as it doth many times that for default and want of the Muses and Graces there is great confusion disorder in the periods and harmonies the accords and consonances of the minde which breaketh out other whiles outragiously by meanes of intemperance and negligence musicke is of that power that it setteth every thing againe in good order and their due place for according as the poet Pindarus saith To whatsoever from above God Iupiter doth cast no love To that the voice melodious Of Muses seemeth odious Insomuch as they fall into fits of rage therewith and be very fell angrie like as it is reported of tygers who if they heare the sound of drums or tabours round about them will grow furious and starke mad untill in the end they teare themselves in peeces so that there commeth lesse harme unto them who by reson of deafenesse or
because for want of experience knowledge what things be good honest we love all our life time to seeke for to be provided of necessaries and like as they who have beene slaves a long time after they come once to be delivered from servitude do of themselves and for themselves the verie same services which they were woont to performe for their masters when they were bound even so the soule taketh now great paines and travel to feed the bodie but if once she might be dispatched and discharged from this yoke of bondage no sooner shall she finde her selfe free and at libertie but she will nourish and regard herselfe she will have an eie then to the knowledge of the truth and nothing shall plucke her away or divert and withdraw her from it Thus much ô Nicharchus as touching those points which were then delivered concerning nourishment But before that Solon had fully finished his speech Gorgias the brother of Periander entred into the place being newly returned from Taenarus whither he had beene sent before by occasion of I wot not what oracles for to carrie thither certaine oblations unto Neptune and to doe sacrifice unto him we all saluted him and welcomed him home but Pertander his brother comming toward and kissed him causing him afterwards to sit downe by himselfe upon the bed-side where hee made relation unto him alone of certaine newes Pertander gave good eare unto his brother and shewed by his countenance that he was diversly affected and verie passionate upon that which he heard him to report and by his visage it seemed one while that he sorrowed and grieved another while that he was angrie and offended he made semblant for a time as if he distrusted and would not give credit unto him and anon againe he seemed as much to woonder and stand in admiration in the end he laughed and said unto us Verie gladly would I out of hand recount unto you the tidings which my brother hath told me but hardly dare I neither will I be over hastie so to doe for feare of Thales whom I have heard otherwise to say That well we might make report of newes that be probable and like to be true but touching things impossible we ought altogether for to hold our peace Hereupon Bias But as wise a saying quoth he was this of Thales That as we ought not to beleeve our enemies in things that be credible so we are not to discredit our friends even in those things that are incredible For mine owne part I thinke verily by this speech of his that hee tooke those for his enemies who were leawd and foolish and reputed for friends such as were good and wise I would advise you therefore ô Gorgias that either you would declare your newes here before all this companie or rather reduce that narration which you come withall to pronounce aloude unto us into those new kinde of verses which are called Dithyrambes Then Gorgias set tale on end and began to speake in this maner After we had sacrificed for the space of three daies together and the last day performed in a generall assembly all the night a festivall solemnitie with plaies and dances along the strond by the sea side as the moone shone at full upon the sea without any winde in the world stirring at all so as there was a gentle generall calme and every thing still and quiet behold we might discover a farre off a certeine motion or trouble in the sea bending toward a promontorie or cape and as it approched neerer thereto raised withall a little scumme and that with a great noise by reason of the agitation of the water and waves that it made in such sort as that all the companie of us woondered what it might be and ran toward the place whereunto it seemed to make way and bend the course for to arrive but before that we could by any conjecture gesse what it was the swiftnesse thereof was such we might evidently descrie with our eie a number of dolphins some swimming round about it thicke together others directing the whole troupe toward the easiest and gentlest landing place of the banke and some there were againe that followed behinde as it were in the rereward now in the mids of all this troupe there appeered above the water I wot not what lumpe or masse of a bodie floting aloft which we could neither discerne nor divise what it was untill such time as the said dolphins all close together and shooting themselves into the shore landed upon the banke a man both alive and also mooving which done they returned toward the rocke or promontorie aforesaid leaping and dauncing wantonly as it should seeme for verie joy more than they did before which the greatest part of our company quoth Gorgias seeing were so greatly afraid that they fled from the sea amaine all amazed my selfe with some few others tooke better heart and approched nere where we found that it was Arion the harper who of himselfe tolde to us his name and easie he was otherwise to be knowne for that he had the same apparell which he was wont to weare when he plaied in publike place upon his harpe So we tooke him up incontinently and brought him into a tent for harme he had none in the world save only that by reason of the swiftnesse violent force of his cariage he was wearie and seemed ready to faint where we heard from his mouth a strange tale and to all men incredible unlesse it were to us who saw the end and issue thereof For this Arion reported unto us that having beene of long time resolved to returne out of Italy and so much the rather because Periander had written unto him for to make haste come away upon the first opportunity presented to him of a Corinthian carricke that made faile froÌ thence he presently embarked but no sooner were they come into the broad and open sea and that with a gentle gale of winde but he perceived that the mariners conspired together for to take away his life whereof the pilot himselfe also of the same ship gave him advertisement secretly namely that they intended to put the thing in execution that night Arion thus finding himselfe destitute of all succour and not knowing what to doe it came into his minde as it were by a certeine heavenly and divine inspiration whiles hee had yet some time to live for to adorne his bodie with those ornaments which he accustomed to put on when he was to play upon his harpe for a prize in some frequent Theater to the end that the same habit might serve him for his funerall weed now at his death and withall to sing a dolefull song and lamentable dittie before his departure out of this life and not to shew himselfe in this case lesse generous than the swans being therefore thus arraied and decked accordingly and doing the marriners to wit before hand that he had a wonderfull desire to
thereof to himselfe like as in times past at Athens Stratocles and Dromoclidas with those about them for to go unto their golden harvest for so by way of jest and merrie speech they called the Tribunall seat and publike pulpit where orations were made unto the people no nor upon any fit of a sudden passion that commeth upon him as Cajus Gracchus did at Rome sometime who at the verie time when his brothers troubles were hot and his death fresh and new retired for a while out of the way and betooke himselfe to a private course of life farre remote from the common-wealth affaires but afterwardes being suddenly enkindled and inflamed againe with choler upon certaine outragious dealings and opprobrious wordes given him by some would needes in all the haste upon a spleene rush into the government of State and quickly had his handes full of businesses and his ambitious humour was soone fed and satisfied but then when as he would with all his heart have withdrawen himselfe changed his life and taken his repose he could not by any meanes lay downe his authoritie and puissance to such greatnes it was growen but was killed before he could bring that about As for these who compasse and dresse themselves as plaiers for to act upon the scaffold in some great Theater and champions to contend with other concurrents or else aime at vaine-glorie it can not be but they must needs repent of that which they have done especially when they once see that they must serve those whom they thought they were woorthie to rule or that they can not chuse but displease them whom they were desirous to gratifie and content And verily this is my conceit of such that they runne headlong upon policie and State matters like unto those who by some misadventure and sooner than they looked for be fallen into a pit for it can not otherwise be but they be woonderously disquieted seeing the depth thereof and wish they had never come there but were out againe whereas they who considerately and upon good deliberation goe downe into the said pit carrie themselves soberly with quietnes and contentment of spirit they are vexed offended and dismaied at nothing as who at their first entrie put on a resolute minde proposing unto themselves vertue and their dutie onely and intending no other thing for to be the scope and end of all their actions Thus when as men have well grounded their choise in themselves untill it be so surely setled confirmed that unneth or hardly it can be altered or changed then they ought to bend all their wits to the consideration and knowledge of the nature of their citizens and subjects whose charge they have undertaken or at leastwise of that disposition which being compounded as it were of them all appeereth most and carrieth greatest sway among them For at the verie first and all at once to goe about a change and to order and to reforme the nature of a whole comminaltie were an enterprise neither easie to be effected nor safe to bee practised as being a thing that requireth long time and great authoritie and power But doe they must as wine doth in our bodies which at the beginning is moistned as it were and overcome by the nature of him who drunke it but afterwards by gentle warming his stomacke and by little and little entring into his veines it becommeth of strength to affect the drinker and make a change and alteration in him semblably a wise politician and governor untill such time as he hath wonne by the confidence reposed in him and the good reputation that he hath gotten so much authority among the people that he is not able to rule and lead them at his pleasure will accommodate and apply himselfe to their manners and fashions such as he findeth them and thereby conjecture and consider their humors untill he know wherein they take pleasure whereto they are inclined and what it is wherewith they will soonest be lead and carried away As for example the Athenians as they are given to be hastie and cholericke so they be as soone turned to pitie and mercy more willing to entertaine a suspition quickly than to have patience and at leasure to be enformed and take certaine knowledge of a thing and as they be more enclined and readie to succour base persons and of low condition so they love embrace and esteeme merrie words and pleasant conceits delivered in game and laughter more than sage and serious sentences they are best pleased when they heare themselves praised and least offended againe with those that flout and mocke them terrible they are and dread to their verie rulers and magistrates and yet courteous and milde enough even to the pardoning of their professed enemies The nature of the Carthaginian people is farre otherwise bitter fell fierce sterne and full of revenge obsequious to their betters and superiours churlish and imperious over their inferiours and underlings in feare most base and cowardly in anger most cruell firme and constant in their resolution and where they have taken a pitch hard to be mooved with any sports pastimes and jolitie and in one word rough untractable You should not have seene these fellowes if Cleon had requested them sitting in counsell forasmuch as he had sacrificed unto the gods and was minded to feast some strangers that were his friends and come to visit him to put off their assembly to another day to arise laughing and clapping their hands for joy nor if whiles Alcibiades was a making unto them a solemne oration a quaile should have escaped from under his gowne and gotten away would they have runne after her away to catch her and given her to him againe nay they would have fallen all upon him they would have killed them both in the place as if they had contemned them and made fooles of them considering that the banished captaine Hanno because in the campe and armie when he marched he used a lion as a sumpter horse to carrie some of his baggage saying that this savoured strongly of a man that affected tyrannie Neither do I thinke that the Thebanes could ever have contained themselves but have opened the letters of their enemies if they had come into their hands like as the Athenians did who having surprized king Philips posts and curriers would never suffer one of their letters missive to be broke open which had the superscription to Queene Olympias my wife nor discover the love-secrets and merrie conceits passing from an husband being absent in another countrey and writing to his wife Neither doe I thinke that the Athenians on the other side would have endured and borne with patience the proude spirit and scornefull contempt of Epaminondas who would not make answere to an imputation charged against him before the bodie of the people of Thebes but arose out of the Theater where the people was assembled and thorow them all went his way and departed into the place of
performed but a token rather and a memoriall that the remembrance thereof might continue long as theirs did whom erewhiles we named whereas in those three hundred statues of Demetrius Phalereus there gathered not so much as rust canker or any ordure or filth whatsoever but were all of them ere himselfe died pulled downe and broken And as for the images of Demades melted they were everie one and of the mettall were made pispots and basins for close stooles yea and many such honours have beene defaced as being displeasant and odious to the world not in regard onely of the wickednesse of the receiver but also of the greatnesse and richnesse of the thing given and received and therefore the goodliest and surest safegard of honour that it may endure and last longest is the least costlinesse and price bestowed thereupon for such as bee excessive massie and immeasurall in greatnesse may bee well compared unto huge colosses or statues not well ballaised and counterpoised nor proportionably made which soone fal downe to the ground of theÌselves And here in this place I cal Honors these exterior things which the common people so far forth as beseemeth them according to the saying of Empedocles so call Howbeit I also affirme as wel as others that a wise governor man of State ought not to despise true honor which consisteth in the benevolence good affection of those who have in remeÌbrance the services and benefits that they have receivedneither ought he altogether to contemne glorie as one who forbare to please his neighbours among whoÌ he liveth as Democritus would have him for neither ought horse-keepers or esquierries of the stable reject the affection of their horses lovingly making toward them nor hunters the sawning of their hounds spaniels but rather seeke to win keepe the same for that it is both a profitable and also a pleasant thing to be able for to imprint in those creatures who are familiar do live converse with us such an affectioÌ to us as Lysimachus his dog shewed toward his master which the poet Homer reporteth that Achilles horses shewed to Patroclus For mine own part I am of this mind that Bees would be better entreated escape better in case they would make much of those suffer them geÌtly to come toward them who norish them and have the care and charge of them rather than to sting and provoke them to anger as they do whereas now men are driven to punish them and chase them away with smoake also to breake and tame their frampold and unruly horses with hard bits and bridles yea and curst dogs which are given to run away they are faine to lead perforce in collars or tie up and hamper with clogs But verily there is nothing in the world that maketh one man willingly obeisant and subject to another more than the affiance that he hath in him for the love which hee beareth and the opinion conceived of his goodnesse honestie and justice which is the reason that Demosthenes said verie well That free cities have no better meanes to keepe and preserve themselves from tyrants than to distrust them for that part of the soule whereby we beleeve is it which is most easie to be taken captive Like as therefore the gift of prophesie which Cassandra had stood her countrey-men and fellow-citizens in no steed because they would never give credit or beleefe unto her for thus she speaketh of her selfe God would not have my voice propheticall When I for etell of things to take effect Nor do my countrey any good at all Or why alwaies they do my words reject In their distresse and woes they would correct Their folly past then am I wise and sage Before it come they say I do but rage even so on the otherside the trust and confidence that the citizens reposed in Archytas the good will and benevolence which they bare unto Battus served them in right good stead for that they used and followed their counsell by reason of the good opinion which they conceived of them This is then the first and principall good which lieth in the reputation of States-men and those who are in government namely the trust and confidence which is in them for it maketh an overture and openeth the doore to the enterprise and execution of all good actions The second is the love and affection of the people which to good governours is to them a buckler and armor of defence against envious and wicked persons Much like unto a mother kind who keepes away the flies From tender babe whiles sweetly it a sleepe in cradell lies putting backe envie that might arise against them and in regard of might and credit making equall a man meanly borne of base parentage with those who are nobly descended the poore with the rich the private person with the magistrates and to be briefe when vertue verity are joined together with this popular benevolence it is as mightie as a strong and steedy gale of a forewind at the poope and driveth men forward to the managing and effecting of all publike affaires whatsoever Consider now and see what contrarie effects the disposition of peoples hearts doth produce and bring foorth by these examples following For even they of Italie when they had in their hands the wife and children of Denys the Tyrant after they had vilanously abused and shamefully forced their bodies did them to death and when they had burnt them to ashes threw and scattered the same out of a ship into the sea Whereas one Menander who reigned graciously over the Bactrians in the end when he had lost his life in the warres was honorably enterred for the cities under his obeisance joined altogether and by a common accord solemnized his funerals and obsequies with great mourning and lamentation but as touching the place where his reliques should be bestowed they grew into a great strife and contention one with another which at the last with much adoo was pacified upon this condition and composition that his ashes should be parted and divided equally among them all and that everie citie should have one sepulcher and monument of him by it selfe Againe the Agrigentines after they were delivered from the Tyrant Phalaris enacted an ordinance That from thence foorth it should not be lawfull for any person whatsoever to weare a roabe of blew colour for that the Guard Pensioners attending about the said Tyrant had blew cassockes for their liveries But the Persians tooke such a love to their Prince Cyrus that because he was hauke-nosed they ever after and even to this day affect those who have such noses and take them to be best favoured And verily of all loves this is the most divine holy and puissant which cities and States do beare unto a man for his vertue as for other honors so falsely called and bearing no true ensignes in deed to testifie love which the people bestow upon them who
commeth to a feast or a rude traveller who seeketh for lodging when it is darke night for even so thou wouldest remoove not to a place nor to a region but to a life whereof thou hast no proofe and triall As for this sentence and verse of Simonides The city can instruct a man true it is if it be meant of them who have sufficient time to be taught and to learne any science which is not gotten but hardly and with much ado after great studie long travell continuall exercise and practise provided also that it meet with a nature painfull and laborious patient and able to undergo all adversities of fortune These reasons a man may seeme very well and to the purpose to alledge against those who begin when they be well stricken in yeeres to deale in publike affaires of the State And yet we see the contrary how men of great wisedome and judgement divert children and yoong men from the government of common-weale who also have the testimonie of the lawes on their side by ordinance whereof at Athens the publicke Crier or Bedle calleth and summoneth to the pulpit or place of audience not such as yoong Alcibiades or Pytheas for to stand up first and speake before the assemblie of the people but those that be above fiftie yeeres of age and such they exhort both to make orations and also to deliver their minds and counsell what is most expedient to be done And Cato being accused when he was fourescore yeeres olde and upward in pleading of his own cause thus answered for himselfe It is an harder matter my masters quoth he for a man to render an account of his life and to justifie the same before other men than those with whom he hath lived And no man there is but he will confesse that the acts which Caesar Augustus atchieved a little before his death in defaiting Antonius were much more roiall and profitable to the weale-publicke than any others that ever hee performed all his life-time before and himselfe in restraining and reforming secretly by good customes and ordinances the dissolute riots of yoong men and namely when they mutined said no more but thus unto them Listen yoong men and heare an olde man speake whom olde men gave eare unto when he was but yoong The government also of Pericles was at the height and of greatest power and authoritie in his olde age at what time as he perswaded the Athenians to enter upon the Peloponesiacke warre but when they would needs in all haste and out of season set forward with their power to encounter with threescore thousand men all armed and well appointed who forraied and wasted their territorie he withstood them and hindered their dessigned enterprise and that in maner by holding sure the armour of the people out of their hands and as one would say by keeping the gates of the citie fast locked and sealed up But as touching that which Xenophon hath written of Agesilaus it is worthy to be delivered word for word as he setteth it downe in these tearmes What youth quoth he was ever so gallant but his age surpassed it what man was there ever in the flower and very best of all his time more dread and terrible to his enemies than Agesilaus was in the very latter end of his daies whose death at any time was more joyfull to enemies than that of Agesilaus although he was very olde when he died what was he that emboldened allies and confederates making them assured and confident if Agesilaus did not notwithstanding he was now at the very pits brincke and had in maner one foot already in his grave what yoong man was ever more missed among his friends and lamented more bitterly when he was dead than Agesilaus how olde so ever he was when he departed this life The long time that these noble personages lived was no impediment unto them in atchieving such noble and honourable services but we in these daies play the delicate wantons in government of cities where there is neither tyrannie to suppresse nor warre to conduct nor siege to be raised and being secured from troubles of warre we sit still with one hand in another being roubled onely with civill debates among citizens and some emulations which for the most part are voided and brought to an end by vertue of the lawes and justice onely with words Wee forbeare I say and draw backe from dealing in these publicke affaires for feare confessing our selves herein to be more cowardly and false-hearted I will not say than the ancient captaines and governours of the people in olde time but even worse than Poets Sophisters and Plaiers in Tragedies and Comedies of those daies If it be true as it is that Simonides in his olde age wan the prize for enditing ditties and setting songs in quires and dances according to the epigram made of him which testifieth no lesse in the last verses thereof running in this maner Fourescore yeeres olde was Simonides The Poet and sonne of Treoprepes Whom for his carrols and musicall vaine The prize he won and honour did gaine It is reported also of Sophocles that when he was accused judicially for dotage by his owne children who laied to his charge that he was become a childe againe unfitting for governing his house and had need therefore of a guardian being convented before the judges he rehearsed in open court the entrance of the chorus belonging to the Tragedie of his entituled Oedipus in Colono which beginneth in this wise Wel-come stranger at thy entrie To villages best of this countrie Renowmed for good steeds in fight The tribe of faire Colonus hight Where nightingale doth oft resort Her dolefull moanes for to report Amid greene bowers which she doth haunt Her sundrie notes and laies to chaunt With voice so shrill as in no ground Elswhere her songs so much resound c. And for that this canticle or sonet wonderfully pleased the judges and the rest of the company they all arose from the bench went out of the Court and accompanied him home to his house with great acclamations for joy and clapping of hands in his honour as they would have done in their departure from the Theater where the Tragedie had bene lively acted indeed Also it is confessed for certeine that an epigram also was made of Sophocles to this effect When Sophocles this sonnet wrote To grace and honour Herodote His daies of life by just account To fiftie five yeeres did amount Philemon and Alexis both comicall Poets chanced to be arrested and surprised with death even as they plaied their Comedie upon the stage for the prize and were about to be crowned with garlands for the victorie As for Paulus or Polus the actour of Tragedies Eratosthenes and Philochorus do report That when he was threescore yeeres olde and ten he acted eight Tragedies within the space of foure daies a little before his death Is it not then a right great shame that olde men
quoth he be throwen for all as if he would say This cast for it there is but one chance to lose all When Pompey was fled from Rome to the sea side and Metellus the superintendent of the publike treasurie would have hindred him for taking foorth any money from thence keeping the treasure house fast shut he threatned to kill him whereat Metellus seeming to be amazed at his adacious words Tush tush quoth he good yoong man I would thou shouldest know that it is harder for me to speake the word than to doe the deed And for that his soldiors staid long ere they were transported over unto him from Brundusuim to Dyrrhachium he embarked himselfe alone into a small vessell without the knowledge of any man who he was purposing to passe the seas alone without his companie but it hapned so that he was like to have beene cast away in a gust and drowned with the waves of the sea whereupon he made himselfe knowne unto the pilot and spake unto him aloud Assure thy selfe and rest confident in fortune for wot well thou hast Caesar a ship boord howbeit for that time he was empeached that he could not crosse the seas as well in regard of the tempest which grew more violent as also of his souldiers who ran unto him from all sides and complained unto him for griefe of heart saying That he offred them great wrong to attend upon other forces as if he distrusted them Not long after this he fought a great battell wherein Pompeius hand the upper had for a time but for that he followed not the train of his good fortune he retired into his campe which when Caesar saw he said The victorie was once this day our enemies but their head and captaine knew not so much upon the plaines of ãâã the very day of the battell Pompey having arranged his army in array commanded his soldiers to stand their ground and not to advaunce forward but to expect their enimies and receive the charge wherin Caesar afterwards said He did amisse and grossely failed for that therby he let slack as it were the vigor vehemencie of his soldiors which is ministred unto theÌ by the violence of the first onset abated that heat also of courage which the said charge would have brought with it When he had defaited at his very first encounter Pharnaces king of Pontus he wrote thus unto his friends I came I saw I vanquished After that Scipio and those under his conduct were discomfited and put to flight in Africke when he heard that Cato had killed himselfe he said I envie thy death ô Cato for that thou hast envied me the honour of saving thy life Some there were who had Antonie and Dolabella in jealousie and suspicion and when they came unto him and said That he was to looke unto himselfe and stand upon his good guard he made them this answer That he had no distrust nor feare of them who ledde an idle life be well coloured and in so good liking as they But I feare quoth he these pale and leane fellowes pointing unto Brutus and Cassius One day as he sat at the table when speech was mooved and the question asked what kind of death was best Even that quoth he which is sudden and least looked for CAESAR him I meane who first was surnamed Augustus being as yet in his youth required and claimed of Antonie as much money as amounted to two thousand and five hundred Myriades which he had transported out of Julius Caesars house after he was murdred and gotten into his owne hands for that he entended to pay the Romans that which the said Caesar had bequeathed unto them by his last will and testament for he had left by legacie unto every citizen of Rome 75. drams of silver but Antonie deteined the said summe of money to himselfe and answered yoong Caesar that if he were wife he should desist from demanding any such monies of him which when the other heard he proclaimed open port sale of all the goods that came to him by his patrimonie in deed sold the same and with the money raised thereof he satisfied the foresaid legacies unto the Romanes in which doing he wan all the hearts of the citizens of Rome to himselfe brought their evill wil and hatred upon Antonie Afterwards Rymetalces king of Thracia left the part of Antonius and turned to his side but he overshot himselfe so much at the table being in his cups and namely in that he could talke of nothing else but of this great good service and casting in his teeth this worthy alliance and confederacie of his so as he became odious therefore insomuch as one time at supper Caesar taking the cup dranke to one of the other kings who sat at the boord saying with a loud voice Treason I love well but traitors I hate The Alexandrians after their citie was woonne looked for no better than to suffer all the extremities and calamities that might follow upon the forcing of a city by assault but this Caesar mounting up into the publike place to make a speech unto the citizens having neere by unto him a familiar friend of his to wit Arius an Alexandrian borne pronounced openly a generall pardon saying that he forgave the citie first in regard of the greatnesse and beautie thereof secondly in respect of king Alexander the great their first founder and thirdly for Arius his sake who was his loving friend Understanding that one of his Procuratours named Eros who did negotiate for him in Aegypt had bought a quaile of the game which in fight would beat all other quailes and was never conquered himselfe but continued still invincible which quaile notwithstanding the said slave had caused to be rosted and so eaten it he sent for him and examined him thereupon whether it was true or no and when he confessed Yea he commanded him presently to be crucified and nailed to the mast of his ship He placed Arius in Sicilie for his agent and procuratour in stead of one Theodorus and when one presented unto him a little booke or bill wherein were written these words Theodorus of Tharsis the bauld is a theefe how thinke you is he not when he had read this bill he did nothing else but subscribe underneath I thinke no lesse He received yeerely upon his birth day from Mecaenas one of his familiar friends who conversed daily with him a cup for a present Athenodorus the Philosopher being of great yeeres craved licence with his good favour to retire unto his owne house from the court by reason of his old age and leave he gave him but at his farewell Athenodorus said unto him Sir when you perceive your selfe to be mooved with choler neither say do nor ought before you have repeated to your selfe all the 24. letters in the Alphabet Caesar hearing this advertisement tooke him by the hand I have need still quoth he of your company and
effect but in the battell of Mantinea he admonished and advised the Lacedaemonians to take no regard at all of other Thebans but to bend their whole forces against Epaminondas onely saying That wise and prudent men alone and none but they were valiant and the sole cause of victorie and therefore if they could vanquish him they might easily subdue all the rest as being blockish fooles and men in deed of no valour and so in truth it proved for when as the victory now enclined wholy unto Epaminondas and the Lacedaemonians were at the verie point to be disbanded discomfited and put to flight as the said Epaminondas turned for to call his owne together to folow the rout a Lacedaemonian chanced to give him a mortall wound wherewith hee fell to the ground and the Lacedaemonians who were with Agesilaus called themselves made head againe and put the victorie into doubtfull ballance for now the Thebanes abated much their courage and the Lacedaemonians tooke the better hearts Moreover when the citie of Sparta was neere driven and at a low ebbe for money to wage warre as being constrained to entertaine mercenarie souldiers for pay who were meere strangers Agesilaus went into Aegypt being sent for by the King of Aegypt to serve as his pensioner but for that hee was meanely and simply apparelled the inhabitants of the countrey despised him for they looked to have seene the King of Sparta richly arraied and set out gallantly and all gorgeously to be seene in his person like unto the Persian King so foolish a conceit they had of kings but Agesilaus shewed them within a while that the magnificence and majestie of Kings was to be acquired by wit wisedome and valour for perceiving that those who were to fight with him and to make head against the enemie were frighted with the imminent perill by reason of the great number of enemies who were two hundred thousand fighting men and the small companie of their owne side he devised with himselfe before the battell began by some stratageme to encourage his owne men and to embolden their hearts which policie of his he would not communicate unto any person and this it was He caused upon the inside of his left hand to be written this word Victorie backward which done he tooke at the priests or sooth-saiers hand who was at sacrifice the liver of the beast which was killed and put it into the said left hand thus written within and so held it a good while making semblance as if he mused deeply of some doubt and seeming to stand in suspense to be in great perplexity untill the characters of the foresaid letters had a sufficient time to give a print and leave their marke in the superficies of the liver then shewed he it unto those who were to fight on his side and gave them to understand that by those characters the gods promised victory who supposing verily that there was in it a certaine signe presage of good fortune ventured boldly upon the hazard of a battell And when the enemies had invested and beleaguered his campe round about such a mightie number there were of them and besides had begun to cast a trench on everie side thereof King Nectanebas for whose aid he was thither come sollicited and intreated him to make a sally and charge upon them before the said trench was fully finished and both ends brought to gether he answered That he would never impeach the deseigne and purpose of the enemies who went no doubt to give him meanes to be equall unto them and to fight so many to so many so he staied until there wanted but a verie little of both ends meeting and then in that space betweene he raunged his battell by which device they encountred and fought with even fronts and on equall hand for number so he put the enemies to flight and with those few souldiers which he had he made a great carnage of them but of the spoile and booty which he wan he raised a good round masse of money and sent it all to Sparta Being now ready to embarke for to depart out of Aegypt upon the point of returne home he died and at his death expresly charged those who were about him that they should make no image or statue whatsoever representing the similitude of his personage For that quoth he if I have done any vertuous act in my life time that will be a monument sufficient to eternize my memorie if not all the images statues and pictures in the world will not serve the turne since they be the workes onely of mechanicall artificers which are of no woorth and estimation AGESIPOLIS the sonne of Cleombrotus when one related in his presence that Philip K. of Macedon had in few daies demolished and raced the citie Olinthus Par die quoth he Philip will not be able in many more daies to build the like to it Another said unto him by way of reproch that himselfe king as he was and other citizens men growen of middle age were delivered as hostages and neither their children nor wives Good reason quoth he and so it ought to be according to justice that we our selves and no others should beare the blame and paine of our faults And when he was minded to send for certaine dog-whelps from home one said unto him that there might not be suffered any of them to goe out of the countrey No more was it permitted heeretofore quoth hee for men to be lead foorth but now it is allowed well enough AGESIPOLIS the sonne of Pausanias when as the Athenians said to him That they were content to report themselves to the judgement of the Megarians as touching certaine variances and differences between them and complaints which they made one against another spake thus unto them Why my masters of Athens this were a great shame indeed that they who are the chiefe and the verie leaders of all other Greeks should lesse skill what is just than the Megarians AG is the sonne of Archidamus at what time as the Ephori spake thus unto him Take with you the yoong able men of this citie go into the countrey of such an one for he wil conduct you his owne selfe as farre as to the verie castle of his city And what reason is it quoth he my masters you that be Ephori to commit the lives of so many lustie gallants into his hands who is a traitour to his native countrey One demaunded of him what science was principally exercised in the citie of Sparta Marie quoth he the knowledge how to obey and how to rule He was woont to say that the Lacedaemonians never asked how many their enemies were but where they were Being forbidden to fight with his enemies at the battell of Mantinea because they were far more in number He must of necessity quoth he fight with many that would have the coÌmand rule of many Unto another who asked what number there might be
and lying Another for to animate him to this warre alleaged the prowesses and worthy exploits atchieved by them at other times against the Persians Me thinkes quoth he you know not what you say namely that because we have overcome a thousand sheepe we should therefore set upon fiftie woolves He was upon a time in place to heare a musician sing who did his part very well and one asked him how he liked the man and what he thought of him May quoth he I take him to be a great amuser of men in a small matter When another highly extolled the citie of Athens in his presence And who can justly and dulie quoth he praise that citie which no man ever loved for being made better in it When Alexander the great had caused open proclamation to be made in the great assemblie at the Olympick games That all banished persons might returne unto their owne countries except the Thebanes Behold quoth Eudamidas heere is a wofull proclamation for you that be Thebans howbeit honorable withall for it is a signe that Alexander feareth none but you onely in all Greece A certaine citizen of Argos said one day in his hearing That the Lacsedaemonians after they be gone once out of their owne countrey and from the obeisance of their lawes proove woorse for their travelling abroad in the world But it is contrary with you that be Argives and other Greekes quoth he for being come once into our cities Sparta you are not the woorse but proove the better by that meanes It was demaunded of him what the reason might be wherefore they used to sacrifice unto the Muses before they did hazard a battell To the end quoth he that our valiant acts might be well and woorthilie written EURYCRATIDAS the sonne of Anaxandrides when one asked him why the Ephori sat every day to decide and judge of contracts betweene men For that quoth he we should learne to keepe our faith and truth even among our enemies ZEUXIDAMUS likewise answered unto one who demaunded of him why the statutes and ordinances of prowesse and martiall fortitude were not reduced into a booke and given in writing unto yoong men for to reade Because quoth he we would have them to be acquainted with deeds and not with writings A certaine Aetolian said That warre was better than peace unto those who were desirous to shew themselves valorous men And not warre onely quoth he for by the gods in that respect better is death than life HERONDAS chaunced to be at Athens what time as one of the citizens was apprehended arraigned and condemned for his idlenesse judicially and by forme of law which when he understood and heard a brute and noise about him he requested one to shew him the partie that was condemned for a gentlemans life THEARIDAS whetted his sword upon a time and when one asked him if it were sharpe he answered Yea sharper than a slanderous calumniation THEMISTEAS being a prophet or soothsaier foretold unto king Leonidas the discomsiture that should happen within the passe or streights of Thermopylae with the losse both of himselfe and also of his whole armie whereupon being sent away by Leonidas unto Lacedaemon under a colour and pretense to enforme them of these future accidents but in truth to the end that he should not miscarie and die there with the rest he would not so doe neither could he forbeare but say unto Leonidas I was sent hither for a warrior to fight and not as an ordinary courrier and messenger to carrie newes betweene THEOPOMPUS when one demaunded of him how a king might preserve his kingdome and roiall estate in safetie said thus By giving his friends libertie to speake the truth and with all his power by keeping his subjects from oppression Unto a stranger who told him that in his owne countrey among his citizens he was commonly surnamed Philolacon that is to say a lover of the Laconians It were better quoth he that you were called Philopolites than Philolacon Another embassadour there came from Elis who said That he was sent from his fellow-citizens because he onely of all that citie loved and followed the Laconike maner of life of him Theopompus demaunded And whether is thine or the other citizens life the better he answered Mine Why then quoth he how is it possible that a citie should safe in which there being so great a number of inhabitants there is but one good man There was one said before him that the citie of Sparta maintained the state thereof entier for that the kings there knew how to governe well Nay quoth he not so much therefore as because the citizens there can skill how to obey well The inhabitants of the citie Pyle decreed for him in their generall counsell exceeding great honors unto whom he wrote backe againe That moderate honors time is woont to augment but immoderate to diminish and weare away THERYCION returning from the citie Delphos found king Philip encamped within the streight of Peloponnesus where he had gained the narrow passage called Isthmos upon which the city of Corinth is seated whereupon he said Peloponnesus hath but bad porters and warders of you Corinthians THECTAMENES being by the Ephori condemned to death went from the judgement place smiling away and when one that was present asked him if he despised the lawes and judiciall proceedings of Sparta No iwis quoth he but I rejoice heereat that they have condemned me in that fine which I am able to pay and discharge fully without borrowing of any friend or taking up money at interest HIPPODAMUS as Agis was with Archidamus in the campe being sent with Agis by the king unto Sparta for to provide for the affaires of weale publicke and looke unto the State refused to goe saying I cannot die a more honorable death than in fighting valiantly for the defence of Sparta now was he fourescore yeeres old and upward and tooke armes where hee raunged himselfe on the right hand of the king and there fighting by his side right manfully was slaine HIPPOCRATIDAS when a certaine prince or great lord of Caria had written unto him that he had in his hands a Lacedaemonian who having beene privie unto a conspiracie and treason intended against his person revealed not the same demaunding withall his counsell what he should doe with him wrote back againe in this wise If you have heeretofore done him any great pleasure and good turne put him to death hardly and make him away if not expell him out of your countrey considering he is a base fellow uncapable altogether of vertue He chaunced to encounter upon the way a yoong boy after whom followed one who loved him and the boy blushed for shame whereupon he said unto him Thou oughtest to goe in their company my boy with whom thou being seene needest not to change colour for the matter CALLICRATIDAS being admirall of a fleet when the friends of Lysander requested him to pleasure them in killing some of
altogether in his presence to runne upon him from everie side to teare him in pieces and make an end of him this plot was not projected so closely but it came to Mithridates eares who caused them al to be apprehended and sent to chop off al their heads one after another but immediately after he called to remembrance that there was one yoong gentleman among the rest for the flower of his yeeres for beautie also and feature of bodie the goodliest person that he had set eie on in his daies whom he tooke pitie of and repented that he had condemned him to die with his fellowes shewing evidently in his countenance that he was mightily greeved and disquieted in his minde as thinking verily that he was executed already with the first howbeit at a very venture he sent in all haste a countermaund that if he were yet alive he should be spared and let goe this yoong mans name was Bepolitanus and verily his fortune was most strange and woonderfull for had away hee was to the place of execution in that habit wherein he was attached and the same was a very faire and rich sute of apparell which because the butcherly executioner desired to reserve cleane and unsprent with bloud he was somewhat long about the stripping of him out of it whiles he was so doing he might perceive the kings men come running apace toward him and with a loud voice naming Bepolitanus See how covetousnesse which hath beene the death of many a thousand was the meanes beyond all expectation to save the life of this yoong gentleman as for Toredorix after he was cruelly mangled with many a chop and hacke his bodie was cast foorth unburied to the dogs neither durst any of his friends come neere for to enterre it one woman onely of Pergamus whom this Galatian in his life time had knowen in regard of her fresh youth and beautie was so hardie as to hazard the taking of his dead corps away and to burie it which when the warders and watchmen perceived they attached her and brought her to the king and it is reported that Mithridates at the very first sight of her had compassion for that she seemed to be a yoong thing a simple harmelesse wench every way but when he understood withal that love was the very cause thereof his heart melted so much the rather whereupon he gave her leave to take up the bodie and commit it to the earth allowing her for that purpose funerall clothes and furnishing her at his owne charges wish all other things meet for comly and decent buriall TIMOCLIA ãâã the Theban carried the like minde and purpose for the defence of his countrey and the common-wealth as sometimes Epaminondas Pelopidas and the bravest men in the world had done but his fortune was to fall in that common ruine of Greece when as the Greeks lost that unfortunate battell before Chaeronea and yet for his owne part he was a victour and followed them in chase whom he had disarraied and put to flight for he it was who when one of them that fled cried out unto him How farre wilt thou pursue and follow us answered Even as farre as into Macedonia but when he was dead a sister of his who survived him gave good testimony that in regard as well of his auncestors vertue as his owne naturall disposition he had beene a worthy personage and worthy to be reckoned and renowmed amongst the most valiant knights in his daies for some fruit received and reaped vertue which helped her to beare and endure patiently as much of the common miseries of her country as touched her for after that Alexander the Great had woon the citie of Thebes by assault the soldiers ran to and fro into al parts of the towne pilling and ransacking whatsoever they could come by it chanced that one seised upon the house of Timoclia a man who knew not what belonged to honour honestie or common curtesie and civilitie but was altogether violent furious and out of reason a captaine he was of a coronet of ThraciaÌ light horsemen and caried the name of king Alexander his lord and master but nothing like he was unto him in conditions for having filled himselfe with wine after supper and good cheere without any respect unto the race and linage of this noble dame without regard of her estate and calling he was in hand with her to be his bedsellow all that night neither was this all for he would needs search and know of her where she had laid up and hourded any gold or silver one while threatning to kill her unlesse she would bring him to it another while bearing her in hand that he would make her his wife if she would yeeld unto him she taking vantage of this occasion which himselfe offred and presented unto her It might have pleased the gods quoth she that I had died before this night rather than remaine alive for though I had lost all besides yet my bodie had beene undefiled saved from all violence and villanie but since it is my fortune that heere after I must repute you for my lord my master and my husband and seeing it is gods will to give you this puissance and soveraigntie over me I will not deprive and disapoint you of that which is yours and as for my selfe I see well that my condition from hencefoorth must be such as you will I was woont indeed to have about me costly jewels and ornaments for my bodie I had silver in plate yea and some gold in good coine and other ready money but when I saw that the citie was lost I willed my women and maid-servants about me to get altogether and so I cast it away or rather indeed to say a truth I bestowed it and reserved it in safetie within a dry pit wherein no water is an odde blinde corner I may say to you that few or none doe know for that there is a great stone lieth over the mouth of it and a many of trees grow round about to shade and cover the same as for you this treasure will make you a man yea and a rich man for ever when you have it once in your possession and for my part it may serve for a good testimony and sufficient proofe to shew how noble and wealthy our house was before-time When the Macedonian heard these words his teeth so watred after this treasure that he could not stay untill the morrow and attend the day light but would needs out of hand be conducted by Timoclia and her maidens to the place but he commanded her in any wise to shut fast and locke the fore-yard gate after them that no man might see and know and so he went downe in his shirt into the foresaid pit but cursed and hideous Clotho was his mistresse and guide who would punish and be revenged of his notorious wickednesse by the hands of Timoclia who standing above for when she perceiued by his
two vertues of one woman by the one she first gave the citizens an affection minde and heart to begin and enterprise and by the other she ministred unto them meanes to execute and performe the same for which good service of Xenocrita those of the citie offred unto her many honors prerogatives and presents but she refused them all onely she requested this favour at their hands that she might enterre the corps of Aristodemus which they graunted and more than so they chose her for to be a religious priestresse unto Ceres supposing that this dignitie would be no lesse acceptable and pleasing unto the goddesse than beseeming and fitting the person of this lady THE WIFE OF PYTHES IT is reported moreover that the wife of rich Pythes in the daies of Xerxes when he warred upon Greece was a vertuous and wise dame for this Pythes having as it should seeme found certeine mines of gold and setting his minde thereon not in measure but excessively and unsatiably for the great sweetnesse and infinit gaines that arose thereby both himselfe in person bestowed his whole time therein and also he emploied all his subjects and citizens indifferently without respect of any person to digge and delve to carrie to purge and clense the said golde oare not suffering them to follow any other trade or exercise any occupation else in the world upon which unmeasurable and incessant toile many died and all were wery and grumbled thereat insomuch as at last their wives came with olive branches like humble suppliants to the gate of this lady his wife for to moove pittie and beseech her for redresse and succour in this case she having heard their supplication sent them away home to their houses with verie good gracious words willing them not to distrust and be discomforted meane while she sent secretly for gold siners goldsmithes and other worke-men in gold such as she reposed most confidence in shut them up close within a certeine place willing them to make loaves pies tarts cakes pastrie-works and junkets of all sorts sweet meats fruits all manner of meats and viands such as she knew her husband Pythes loved best all of cleane gold afterwards when all were made and he returned home to his house for as then he was abroad in a forren country so soone as he called for supper his wife set before him a table furnished with all kinds of counterfeit viands made of gold without any thing at all either good to be eaten or drunken but all gold and nothing but gold great pleasure at the first tooke Pythes for to see so rich a sight and so glorious a banquet wherein arte had so lively expressed nature but after he had fed his eies sufficiently with beholding these goodly golden works he called unto her in good earnest for somewhat to eate but she still whatsoever his minde stood to brought it him in gold so that in the end he waxed angrie and cried out that he was ready to famish Why sir quoth she are not your selfe the cause of all this for you have given us foison and store of this mettall but caused extreame want and scarcitie of meat and all things else for all other trades occupations arts and mysteries are decaied and their use cleane gone neither is there anie man that followeth husbandry and tilleth the ground but laying aside and casting behind us all thing that should be sowen and planted upon the earth for the food and sustentation of man we doe nothing else but digge and search for such things as will not serve to feed and nourish us spending and wearing out both our selves and our citizens These words mooved Pythes verie much howbeit for all this he gave not over quite the mines and mettall works but enjoining the fifth part of his subjects to travell therein by turnes one after another he gave the rest leave to husband their lands and plie their other crafts and misteries But when Xerxes came downe with that puissant armie for to make warre upon the Greeks this Pythes shewed his magnificence in the enterteinment of him with sumptuous furniture costlie gifts and presents which he gave unto the king and all his traine for which he craved this onely grace and favour at his hands againe that of many children which he had he would dispence with him for one of them that he might not goe to the warres to the end that the said sonne might remaine with him at home in his house for to tend and looke unto him carefullie in his old age whereat Xerxes was so wroth that he commaunded that one sonne whom he requested to be killed presently and his dead body to be cloven through in the mids and divided into two parts and so dislodged and caused his armie to march betweene them both the rest of his sonneshe led with him to the warres who died all in the field whereupon Pythes being discomforted and his heart cleane cast downe did that which those ordinarilie doe who want courage and wit for he feared death and hated life willing he was not to live and yet hee had not the power to make an end of his life what did he then There was within the citie a great banke or mount of earth under which there ranne a river which they called Pythopolites within this mount he caused his tombe to be made turned aside the course of the said river in such sort that as it passed the streame might glide upon this monument of his which being prepared and done accordingly hee went downe quicke and alive into the same sepulchre having resigned over unto his wives hands the citie and the whole seignorie thereof injoyning her thus much that she should not approch herselfe unto this tombe or monument but onely every daie once send unto him his supper in a little punt or boat downe the riveret and to continue this so long untill she saw that the said punt went beyond the monument having in it all his victuals whole and untouched for then she should not need to send him any more but take this for an assured signe that he was dead Thus lived Pythes the rest of his daies but his wife governed and managed the State prudently and wrought a great change and alteration in the toilsome life of her people A CONSOLATORIE ORATION SENT UNTO APOLONIUS UPON THE DEATH OF HIS SONNE The Summarie HOwsoever Plutarch in this treatise hath displaied his eloquence and all the skill and helps that he had by the meanes of Philosophie yet we see that the same is not sufficient to set the minde and spirit of man in true repose and that such consolations are as they say but palliative cures no better wherein also is discovered the want and default of light in the reason and wisdome of man yet notwithstanding take this withall that such discourses doe recommend and shew unto us so much the better the excellencie of celestiall wisedome which furnisheth us with
reason rule and stand for finall pay And to knit up in few words Trophimus Of this discourse the summe I reason thus A man you are that is as much to say A creature more prompt and subject ay To sudden change and from the pitch of blis To lie in pit where bale and sorow is Than others all and not unwoorthily For why most weake by his owne nature he Will needs himselfe in highest matters wrap Above his reach secure of after-clap And then anon he falling from on high Beares downe with him all good things that were nigh But as for you the goods which heere to fore O Trophimus you lost exceeded not no more Than those mishaps which you this day susteane Excessive be but keepe with in a meane Hence foorth therefore you ought to beare the rest Indifferently and you shall finde it best Howbeit although the condition and estate of mens affaires stand in these tearmes yet some there be who for want of sound judgement and good discretion are growen to that blockish stupiditie or vaine overweening of themselves that after they be once a little raised up and advanced either in regard of excessive wealth and store of gold and silver under their hands or by reason of some great offer or for other presidence and preeminence of high place which they hold in the common-weale or else by occasion of honours and glorious titles which they have acquired doe menace wrong and insult over their inferiors never considering the uncertaintie and inconstance of mutable fortune nor how quickly that which was aloft may be flung downe and contrariwise how soone that which lieth below on the ground may be extolled and lifted up on high by the sudden mutations and changes of fortune to seeke for any certaintie therefore in that which is by nature uncertaine and variable is the part of those that judge not aright of things For as the wheele doth turne one part we see Of folly high and low in course to bee But to attaine unto this tranquillitie of spirit void of all griefe and anguish the most soveraigne powerfull and effectuall medicine is reason and by the meanes thereof a prepared estate and resolution against all the changes and alterations of this life neither is it sufficient for a man onely to acknowledge himselfe to be by nature borne mortall but also that he is allotted unto a mortall and transitorie life and tied as it were unto such affaires as soone doe change from their present estate unto the contrarie for this also is most certaine that as mens bodies be mortall and fraile so their fortunes also their passions and affections be flitting and momentanie yea and in one word all that belongeth unto them is transitorie which it is not possible for him to avoid and escape who is himselfe by nature mortall but as Pindarus said With massie weights of strong necessitie Of hell so darke to bottome forc'd are we Verie well therefore said Demetrius Phalereus whereas Euripides the Poet wrote thus No worldly wealth is firme and sure But for a day it doth endure Also How small things may our state quite overthrow It falleth out as every man doth know That even one day is able downe to cast Some things from height and others raise as fast All the rest quoth he was excellently by him written but farre better it had bene if he had named not one day but the minute moment and very point of an houre For earthly fruits and mortall mens estate Turne round about in one and selfe same rate Some live waxe strong and prosper day by day Whiles others are cast downe and fade away And Pindarus in another place What is it for to be but one Nay what is it to be just none And verily a man is made To be the dreame even of a shade hath declared the vanitie of mans life by using an Hyperbole or excessive maner of an over-reaching speech both passing-wittily and also to the purpose most significantly For what is there more weake feeble than a shadow but to come in with the fantasticall dreame of a shadow surely it is not possible that any other man should expresse the thing that he meant more lively in fitter tearmes And verily Crantor in good correspondence hereunto when he comforteth Hippocles for the untimely death of his children useth these words among the rest These are the rules quoth he that all the schoole thorowout of ancient Philosophie doth deliver and teach wherein if there be any point besides that we can not admit and approove yet this at leastwise is most undoubted true that mans life is exceeding laborious and painfull for say that in the owne nature it be not such so it is that by our owne selves it is brought to that corruption besides this uncerteine fortune haunteth and attendeth upon us afarre off and even from our very cradle and swadling bands yea and ever since our first entrance into this life accompanieth us for no good in the world To say nothing how in all things whatsoever that breed and budde there is evermore some portion more or lesse of naughtinesse inbred and mingled therewith for the very naturall seed which at the first when it is at best is mortall doth participate this primitive cause whereupon proceed the untoward inclination and disposition of the minde maladies cares and sorrowes and from thence there creepe and grow upon us all those fatall calamities that befall to mortall men But what is the reason that we are digressed hitherto forsooth to this end that we may know that it is no newes for any man to taste of miseries and calamities but rather that we are all subject to the same for as Theophrastus saith fortune never aimeth or levelleth at any certeine marke but shooteth at randon taking much pleasure and being very powerfull to turne a man out of that which he hath painfully gotten before and to overthrow a supposed and reputed felicity with all regard of any fore-set and prefixed time to worke this ãâã These reasons and many other such like every one of us may easily consider and ponder within himselfe yea besides lay thereto the sage speeches which he is ay to heare and learne of ancient and wise men among whom the chiefe and principall is that heavenly and divine Poet Homer who saith thus More weake than man there is no creature That from the earth receiveth nouriture So long as limmes with strength he can advance And whiles the gods do lend him puissance He thinks no harme will ever him befall He casts no doubt but hopes to outgoe all But let them once from heaven some sorrowes send Maugre the smart he heares unto the end Also Such minds have men who here on earth do live As Jupiter from heaven doth daily give And in another place Why aske you of my bloud and parentage Sir Tydeus sonne a knight magnanimous To leaves of trees much like is mans linage
miseries more greevous whereby it is apparent that he who comforteth another whose heart is afslicted with sorrow and anguish giving him to understand that his infortunitie is common to more besides him by laying before his face the semblable accidents which have befallen to others changeth in him the sense and opinion of his owne greevance and imprinteth in him a certeine setled perswasion that his misfortune is nothing so great as he deemed it to be before Aeschylus likewise seemeth with very great reason to reproove those who imagine that death is naught saying in this wise How wrongfully have men death in disdaine Of many evils the remedie soveraigne For in imitation of him right well said he whosoever was the authour of this sentence Come death to cure my painfull malady The onely leech that bringeth remeay For hell is th' haven for worlds calamity And harbour sure in all extremity And verily a great matter it is to be able for to say boldly and with confidence How can he be a slave justlie Who careth not at all to die As also If death me helpe in my hard plight No spirits nor ghosts shall me affright For what hurt is there in death and what is it that should so trouble and molest us when we die A strange case this is I can not see how it commeth to passe that being so well knowen so ordinarily familiar naturall unto us as it is yet it should seeme so painfull dolorous unto us For what wonder is it if that be slit or cut which naturally is given to cleave if that melt which is apt to be molten if that burne which is subject to take fire or if that perish rot which by nature is corruptible and when is it that death is not in our selves for according as Heraclitus saith quicke and dead is all one to awake and to sleepe is the same in yoong and olde there is no difference considering that these things turne one into another and as one passeth the other commeth in place much after the maner of an imager or potter who of one masse of clay is able to give the forme and shape of living creatures and to turne the same into a rude lumpe as it was before he can fashion it againe at his pleasure and confound all together as he list thus it lieth in his power to do and undoe to make and marre as often as he will one after another uncessantly semblably nature of the selfe-same matter framed in times past our ancestours and grandsires and consequently afterwards brought foorth our fathers then she made us and in processe of time will of us ingender others and so proceed still to father posteritie in such sort that as the current as it were of our generation will never stay so the streame also of our corruption will run on still and be perpetuall whether it be the river Acheron or Cocitus as the Poets call them whereof the one signifieth privation of joy the other be tokeneth lamentation And even so that first and principall cause which made us to live and see the light of the sunne the same bringeth us to death and to the darkenesse of hell And hereof we may see an evident demonstration and resemblance by the very aire that compasseth us round about which in alternative course and by turnes representeth unto us the day and afterwards the night it induceth us to a similitude of life and death of waking and sleeping and therefore by good right is life called a fatall debt which we must duely satisfie and be acquit of for our forefathers entred into it first and we are to repay it willingly without grumbling sighing and groaning whensoever the creditour calleth for it unlesse we would be reputed unthankfull and unjust And verily I beleeve that nature seeing the uncertainty and shortnesse of our life would that the end thereof and the prefixed houre of death should be hidden from us for that shee knew it good expedient for us so to be for if it had bene fore-knowen of us some no doubt would have languished and fallen away before with griefe and sorrow dead they would have bene before their death came Consider now the troubles and sorrowes of this life how many cares and crosses it is subject unto certes if wee went about to reckon and number them wee would condemne it as most unhappie yea we would verifie and approove that strong opinion which some have held That it were farre better for a man to die than to live and therefore said the Poet Simonides Full feeble is all humane puissance Vaine is our care and painfull vigilance Mans life is even a short passage Paine upon paine is his arrivage And then comes death that spareth none So fierce so cruell without pardone Over our heads it doth depend And threats alike those that doe spend Their yeeres in vertue and goodnesse As in all sinne and wickednesse Likewise Pindarus For blessing one which men obtaine The gods ordaine them curses twaine And those they can not wisely beare Fooles as they be and will not heare Or thus They can not reach to life immortall Nor yet endure that which is mortall And Sophocles Of mortall men when one is dead Doth thine heart groane and eie teares shead Not knowing once what future gaine May come to him devoid of paine As for Euripides thus he saith In all thy knowledge canst thou find The true condition of mankinde I thinke well No For whence should come Such knowledge deepe to all or some Give eare and thou shalt learne of me The skill thereof in veritie All men ordain'd are once to die The debt is due and paied must be But no man know's if morow next Unto his daies shall be annext And whither fortune bend's her way Who can fore-see and justly say If it be so then that the condition of mans life is such indeed as these great clearks have delivered and described unto us is it not more reason to repute them blessed and happy who are freed from that servitude which they were subject to therein than to deplore and lament their estate as the most part of men doe through follie and ignorance Wise Socrates said that death resembled for all the world either a most deepe and sound sleepe or a voiage farre remote into forraine parts in which a man is long absent from his native countrey or else thirdly an utter abolition and finall dissolution both of soule and bodie Now take which of these three you will according to him there is no harme at all in death for thus he discoursed through them well and beginning at the first in this wise he reasoneth If death quoth he be a kinde of sleepe and those that sleepe feele no ill we must needs confesse likewise that the dead have no sense at all of harme neither is it necessarie to goe in hand to proove that the deepest sleepe is also the sweetest and
most pleasant for the thing it selfe is plaine and evident to all the world To saie nothing of Homers testimonie who speaking of sleepe writeth thus Most sweetly doth a man sleepe in his bed When least he wakes and ãâã most to be dead The same he iterateth in many places and namely once in this wise With pleasant sleepe she there did meet Deaths brother germain you may weet And againe Death and sleepe are sister and brother Both twinnes resembling one another Where by the way he lively declareth their similitude and calling them twins for that brothers and sisters twinnes for the most part be very like and in another place besides he calleth death a brasen sleepe giving us thereby to understand how sencelesse death is neither seemeth he unelegantly and besides the purpose whosoever he was to have expressed as much in this verse when he said That sleepes who doth them well advise Of death are pettie mysteries And in very deed sleepe doth represent as it were a preamble inducement or first profession toward death in like manner also the cynick philosopher Diogenes said very wisely to this point for being surpressed and overtaken with a dead sleepe a little before he yeelded up the ghost when the physician wakened him and demaunded what extraordinary symptome or grievous accident was befallen unto him None quoth he onely one brother is come before another to wit sleepe before death and thus much of the first resemblance Now if death be like unto a farre journey or long pilgrimage yet even so there is no evill at all therein but rather good which is cleane contrary for to be in servitude no longer unto the flesh nor enthralled to the passions thereof which seizing upon the soule doe empeach the same and fill it with all follies and mortall vanities is no doubt a great blessednesse and felicitie for as Plato saith The body bringeth upon us an infinit number of troubles and hinderances about the necessarie maintenance of it selfe and in case there be any maladies besides they divert and turne us cleane away from the inquisition and contemplation of the truth and in stead thereof pester and stuffe us full of wanton loves of lusts feares foolish fansies imaginations and vanities of all sorts insomuch as it is most true which is commonly saide That from the bodie there commeth no goodnesse nor wisedome at all For what else bringeth upon us warres seditions battels and fights but the bodie and the greedie appetites and lusts proceeding from it for to say a truth from whence arise all warres but from the covetous desire of money and having more goods neither are we driven to purchase and gather still but onely for to enterteine the bodie and serve the turne thereof and whiles we are amused emploied thereabout we have no time to studie Philosophie finally which is the woorst and very extremitie of all in case we find some leasure to follow our booke and enter into the studie and contemplation of things this body of ours at al times in every place is ready to interrupt and put us out it troubleth it empeacheth and so disquieteth us that impossible it is to attaine unto the perfect sight and knowledge of the truth whereby it is apparent and manifest that if ever we would cleerely and purely know any thing we ought to be sequestred and delivered from this bodie and by the eies onely of the mind contemplate view things as they be then shall we have that which we desire and wish then shall we attaine to that which we say we love to wit wisedome even when we are dead as reason teacheth us and not so long as we remaine alive for if it cannot be that together with the bodie we should know any thing purely one of these two things must of necessitie ensue that either never at all or else after death we should attaine unto that knowledge for then and not before the soule shall be apart and separate from the bodie and during our life time so much neerer shall we be unto this knowledge by how much lesse we participate with the body and have little or nothing to doe therewith no more than very necessitie doth require nor be filed with the corrupt nature thereof but pure and neat from all such contagion untill such time as God himselfe free us quite from it and then being fully cleered and delivered from all fleshly and bodily follies we shall converse with them and such like pure intelligences seeing evidently of our selves all that which is pure and sincere to wit truth it selfe for unlawfull it is and not allowable that a pure thing should be infected or once touched by that which is impure and therefore say that death seeme to translate men into some other place yet is it nothing ill in that respect but good rather as Plato hath very well prooved by demoÌstration in which regard Socrates in my conceit spake most heavenly divinely unto the judges when he said My lords to be affraid of death is nothing else but to seeme wise when a man is nothing lesse it is as much as to make semblance of knowing that which he is most ignorant of for who wotteth certainly what is death or whetherit be the greatest felicitie that may happen to a man yet men doe feare and dread it as if they knew for certaintie that it is the greatest evill in the world To these sage sentences he accordeth well who said thus Let no man stand in doubt and feare of death Since from all travels it him delivereth and not from travels only but also from the greatest miseries in the world whereto it seemeth that the verie gods themselves give testimonie for we reade that many men in recompense of their religion and devotion have received death as a singular gift and favour of the gods But to avoid tedious prolixitie I will forbeare to write of others and content my selfe with making mention of those onely who are most renowmed and voiced by every mans mouth and in the first place rehearse I will the historie of those two yoong gentlemen of ãâã namely Cleobis and Biton of whom there goeth this report That their mother being priestresse to Juno when the time was come that shee should present herselfe in the temple and the mules that were to draw her coatch thither not in readinesse but making stay behinde they seeing her driven to that exigent and fearing lest the houre should passe under-went themselves the yoke and drew their mother in the coatch to the said temple she being much pleased and taking exceeding joy to see so great pietie and kindnesse in her children praied unto the goddesse that she would vouchsafe to give them the best gift that could befall to man and they the same night following being gone to bedde for to sleepe never rose againe for that the goddesse sent unto them death as the onely recompense and reward of their godlinesse
honestly Right excellent also are those verses of Euripides as touching them who endure long maladies I hate all those by meat and drink Who to prolong their daies doe think By Magick arte and sorcery The course of death who turne awry Where as they should be glad and faine When as they see it is but vaine Of earth to live upon the face For yoongers then to quit the place As for Merope in pronouncing these manlike and magnanimous words she mooveth the whole theater to this consideration of her speeches when she saith I am not th' onely mother left Who of faire children am bereft Nor yet a widow am I alone Who my deere husband have for gone For others infinite there bee Who have felt like calamitiee Unto this a man may very aptly adjoine these verses also What is become of that magnificence Where is king Craesus with his opulence Or Xerxes he whose monstrous worke it was By bridge the firth of Hellespont to pas To Pluto now they are for ever gon To houses of most deepe oblivion Their goods and their wealth together with their bodies are perished howbeit beleeve me some will say many are mooved perforce to weepe and lament when they see a yoong person die before due time and yet I assure you this hastie and untimely death admitteth so readie consolation that even the meanest and most vulgar comicall poets have seene into the thing and devised good meanes and effectuall reasons of comfort for consider what one of them saith in this case to him that mourned and lamented for the unripe and unseasonable death of a friend of his in these words If thou hadst knowne for certaine that thy friend Who now is dead should have beene blesse day Throughout that course of life which was behind In case the gods had staid his dying day His death had beene vntimely I would say But if long life should bring him greefes incurable To him haply was death than now more favorable Seeing then uncertaine it is whether the issue and end of this life will be expedient unto a man and whether he shall be delivered and excused thereby from greater evils or no we ought not to take ones death so heavilie as if we had utterly lost all those things which we hoped for and promised our selves by his life to enjoy and therefore me thinks that Amphiaraus in a certaine tragedy of a poet did not impertinently and without good purpose comfort the mother of Archemorus who tooke it to the heart and grieved excessively that her sonne a yoong infant died so long before the ordmarie time for thus he saith unto her No man there is of womans body born But in his dates much travell he doth beare Children some die the parents long beforn And are by them enterred then they reare And get yoong babes for those that buried were Lastly themselves into the graves doe fall This is the course this is the end of all Yet men for them doe weepe and sorrow make Whose bodies they on biere to earth doe send Although in truth a way direct they take As eares of corne full ripe which downward bend As some begin so others make an end Why should men grieve and sigh at natures lore What must shall be thinke it not hard therefore In summe every man ought both in meditation within himselfe and in earnest discourse also with others to hold this for certaine that the longest life is not best but rather the most vertuous for neither he that plaieth most upon a lute or citterne is commended for the cunnigest musician no more than he who pleadeth longest is held the most eloquent orator nor he that sitteth continually at the helme is praised for the best pilot but they that doe best deserve the greatest commendation for we are not to measure goodnesse by the length of time but by vertue by convenient proportion and measure of all words and deeds for this is that amiable beautie which is esteemed happie in this world and pleasing to the gods which is the reason that the poets have left unto us in writing that the most excellent worthies or demie gods and such as by their saying were begotten by gods changed this their mortal life and departed before they were old for even he Who was of mightie Jupiter and Phaebus loved best Permitted was not long to live and in old age to rest For this we alwaies see that ordinarily the maturitie of yeeres and the same well emploied is preferred before old age and long life for thus we repute those trees and plants best which in least time beare most frute as also those living creatures which in little space yeeld greatest profit and commodity to mans life furthermore little difference you shall finde betweene short time and long in comparison of eternitie for that a thousand yea and ten thousand yeeres according to Simonides are no more than a very prick or rather the smallest indivisible portion of a prick in respect of that which is infinit We reade in histories that there be certaine living creatures about the land of Pontus whose life is comprised within the compasse of one day for in the morning they are bred by noone they are in their vigor and at best and in the evening they be old and end their lives would not these creatures thinke you if they had the soule of man and that use of reason which we have feele the very same passions that we doe if the like accidents befell unto them certes those that died before noone would minister occasion of mourning and weeping but such as continued all day long should be reputed happy Well our life should be measured by vertue and not by continuance of time so that we are to esteem such exclamations as these foolish and full of vanitie Oh great pittie that he was taken waie so yoong it ought not to have beene that he should die yet and who is he that dare say This or that ought But many things else have beene are and shall be done heereafter which some man might say ought not to have been done howbeit come we are not into this life for to prescribe lawes but rather to obey those lawes which are decreed and set down already by the gods who governe the world and the ordinances of destinie and divine providence But to proceed those who so much deplore lament the dead do they it for love of theÌselves or for their sake who are departed if in regard of their own selves for that they find how they are deprived of some pleasure or profit or els disappointed of support in their old age which they hoped to receive by those who are departed surely this were but a small occasion no honest pretence of lamentation for that it seemeth they bewaile not the dead persons but the losse of those coÌmodities which they expected from them but in case they grieve in the behalf of those that
commendation He is not woorthy of sorrow and lamentation but of an honorable and glorious remembrance he requireth not teares as testimonials of griefe and dolour but honest offrings and civill oblations if it be true that he who is gone out of this world doth pertake a more divine and heavenly condition of life as being delivered from the servitude of this bodie and the infinit cares perplexities and calamities which they must needs endure who abide in this mortall life untill such time as they have runne their race and performed the prefixed course of this life which nature hath not granted unto us for to be perpetuall but according to the lawes of fatall destiny hath given to every one in severall proportion Such therefore as be wise and well minded ought not in sorow and griefe for their friends departed to passe beyond the bounds and limits of nature and in vaine plaints and barbarous lamentations forget a meane and never know to make an end expecting that which hath befallen to many before them who have bene so far gone in heavinesse and melancholie that before they had done lamenting they have finished their daies and ere they could lay off the mourning habit for the funerals of others they have bene ready themselves to be caried forth to their unhappie sepulture insomuch as the sorowes which they enterteined for the death of another and the calamities proceeding from their owne folly have bene buried together with them so as a man might very well and truely say of them as Homer did Whiles they their plaints and sorowes made Darke-night over-spread them with her shade And therefore in such case we are eftsoones thus to speake unto our selves and reason in this maner What shall we make an end once or rather never cease so long as we live but still keepe a weeping and wailing as we do for I assure you to thinke that sorrow should never end were a point of extreame folly considering that often times we see even those who of all others take on and fare most impatiently in their fits of griefe and heavinesse become in processe of time so well appeased that even at those tombs and monuments where they piteously cried out and knocke their brests they met afterwards solemnly to make magnificent feasts with musicke minstrelsie and all the meanes of mirth that might be devised It is the propertie therefore of a mad man and one bereft of his wits to resolve and set downe with himselfe to dwell evermore in sorow and not to give it over but if men thinke and reckon that it will cease at length and passe away by occasion of some thing that may occurre let them cast this withall that space of time will after a sort doe it for that which once is done can not by God himselfe be undone and therefore that which now is hapned contrary to our hope and expectation is a sufficient proofe demonstration of that which is wont to befall unto many others by the same meanes How then is not this a thing that we are able to comprehend by learning and discourse of reason in nature to wit The earth is full and sea likewise Of sundrie evils and miseries As also Such mischiefs ay and strange calamities Are daily one after another sent To mortall men by fatall destinies The skie it selfe is not thereof exempt For not onely in these daies but time out of minde many men and those of the wiser sort have deplored the miseries of mankinde reputing life it selfe to be nothing els but punishment and the verie beginning of mans birth and nativitie to be no better than woe and miserie And Aristotle saith That even Silenus when he was caught and taken captive pronounced as much unto king Midas But forasmuch as this matter maketh so well to our purpose it were best to set downe the very words of the said Philosopher for in his booke entituled Eudemus or Of the soule thus he saith Therefore quoth he ô right excellent and of all men most fortunate as we esteeme the dead to be blessed and happy so we thinke that to make a lie or speake evil of them is meere impietie and an intolerable abuse offered unto them as being now translated into a far better and more excellent condition than before which opinion and custome in our countrey is so ancient and of such antiquitie that no man living knoweth either the time when it first began or the first authour thereof who brought it in but from all eternitie this custome hath bene among us observed for a law Moreover you know full wel the old said saw that from time to time hath run currant in every mans mouth And what is that quoth he then the other presently inferred this answere and said That simplie it was best not to be borne at all and to die better than to live and hereto have accorded and given testimonie the very gods themselves and namely unto king Midas who having in chase and hunting upon a time taken Silenus demanded of him what was best for man and what it was that a man should wish for and chuse above all things in the world at the first he would make no answere but kept silence and gave not so much as a word until such time as Midas importuned and urged him by all means so as at length seeing himselfe compelled even against his will he brake out into this speech and said unto him O generation of small continuance ô seed of laborious and painfull destinie ô issue of fortune wretched and miserable why force you me to say that unto you which it were better for you to be ignorant of for that your life is lesse dolorous and irkesome when it hath no knowledge at all of her owne calamities but so it is that men by no meanes can have that which simply is best nor be partakers of that which is most excellent for best it had beene for all men and women both never to have bene borne at all the next to it and indeed the principall and chiefe of all those things that may be effected how ever in order it falleth out to be second as to die immediatly after one is borne So that it appeareth plainly that Silenus judged and pronounced the condition of the dead to be better than of the living For the proofe of which conclusion ten thousand sentences and examples there be and ten thousand more upon the head of them which may be alledged but needlesse it were to discourse father of this point and make more words thereof Well then we ought not to lament the death of yong folke in this regard that they be deprived of those blessings and benefits which men doe enjoy by long life for uncerteine it is as we have shewed often times before whether they be deprived of good things or delivered from bad considering that in mans life there be farre more sorowes than joies and those as few as they
be we get with much paines great travell and many cares whereas calamities and evils come easily unto us insomuch as some men say they be round and united close and following aptly one upon another whereas good things be separate and disjoined insomuch as hardly they meet together at the very end of mans life and therefore it seemeth that we forget our selves for as Euripides saith Not onely worldly goods are not Preper to ãâã when they are got but not any thoug els whatsoever and therefore of all such things we are thus to say The gods have all in right full propertie And under them at will we tenants be To bold and use the same some more somelesse Untill they please as quite to dispossesse We ought not therefore to be grieved and discontented if they redemand of us that which they have lent and put into our hands onely for a little while for even the banquers themselves as we were wont oftentimes to say are not displeased or offended when they be called unto or constrained to render and give up those stocks of money that have beene committed unto them if they be honest men and well minded for a man may by good right say unto those who are unwilling to redeliver the same Hast thou forgotten that thou didst receive these monies to repay againe And the very same may be applied unto all mortall men for we have our life at Gods hands who upon a fatall necessitie have lent and left the same unto us neither is there any time fore-set or presixed within which we ought to yeeld the same no more than the foresaid banquers are limited to some appointed day on which they are bound to deliver up those stocks of money which be put into their hands but unknowen and uncerteine it is when they shall be called unto for to render the same to the owners He therefore who is exceeding much displeased angrie when he perceiveth himselfe readie to die or when his children have changed this life is it not evident that he hath forgotten both that himselfe is a man and also that he be got children mortall for surely it is no part of a man whose understanding is cleere and entire to be ignorant in this point namely that man is a mortall creature or that he is borne upon this condition once to die and therefore if dame Ntobe according as fables recount unto us had beene alwaies furnished with this opinion and setled resolution That The sloure of age she should not aie Enjoy nor children see alway About her fresh in number many To keepe her ever company Nor sweet sun-shine continuallie Behold untill that she must die she would never have fared so and fallen into such despaire as to desire to be out of the world for the unsupportable burden of her calamitie and even to conjure the gods for to fetch her away and plunge her into most horrible destructions Two rules and precepts there are written in the temple of Apollo at Delphos which of all others be most necessarie for mans life the one is Know thy selfe and the other Too much of nothing for of these twaine depend all other lessons and these two accord and sound very well together for it seemeth that the one doth declare the other and containe the force and efficacie one of the other for in this rule know thy selfe is comprised Nothing too much likewise in this a man doth comprehend the knowledge of himselfe and therefore Ion the poet speaking of these sentences saith thus Know thy selfe a word but short Implies a worke not quickly done Of all the gods and heavenly sort None skils thereof but heavenly Jove alone And Pindar us writeth in this wise This sentence briefe Nothing exccssively Wise men have prais'd alwaies exceedingly Whosoever therefore setteth alwaies before the eies of his minde these two precepts and holdeth them in such reverence as the oracles of Apollo deserve he shall be able to apply them easily unto all the affaires and occurrents of humane life and to beare all things modestly as it becommeth both having a regard to his owne nature and also endevouring neither to mount up too high with pride and vain-glorie for any happie fortune that may befall nor yet be dejected and cast downe beyond measure to mourning and lamentation upon infirmitie of fortune or rather of the minde or by reason of that inbred feare of death imprinted deepely in our hearts for want of knowledge and good consideration of that which is ordinary and customably hapneth in mans life either through necessitie or according to the decree of fatall destinie Notable is that precept of the Pythagoreans What part thou hast of griefe and woe which unto man is sent By hand of God take well in woorth and shew no discontent And the tragicall poet Aeschylus said very well Wise men and vertuous in all woe and distresse Against God will not murmure more or lesse As also Euripides The man who yeelds unto necessitie Well skilled is in true divinitie And such we count and not unwoorthily To beare themselves among men most wisely And in another place Who knows the way what ever doth befall With patience meekely to suffer all In my conceit he may be thought right well In vertue and wisedome all men to excell But contrariwise most men in the world complaine and grumble at every thing and whatsoever falleth out crosse and contrary to their hope and expectation they imagine the same to proceed alwaies from the malignitie of fortune and the gods which is the reason that in all accidents they weepe waile and lament yea and they blame their owne froward and adverse fortune unto whom we may very well and with great reason reply in this maner No God it is nor heavenly wight That works thy woe and all this spight but even thine owne selfe thy folly and errour proceeding from ignoraunce and upon this false perswasion and erronious opinion it is that these men complaine of all sorts of death for if any of their friends chaunce to die in a forreine countrey they fetch a deepe sigh in his behalfe and cry out saying Alas poore wretch wo's me for thee that neither father thine Nor mother deere shall present be to close thy sight-lesse eien Dieth he in his owne native soile and in the presence of father and mother they mourne and lament for that being taken out of their hands he hath left unto them nothing else behind but a deepe impression of griefe in seeing him die before their eies Is it his hap to depart out of this world in silence and without given any charge of ought concerning him or them then they cry out amaine and breake foorth into these words as he did in Homer Alas the while that no wise speech end lesson thou me gave Which while my breath and life doth last I should remembred have Againe if he delivered any words unto them at the houre of
two sonnes Paralus and Xantippus had both changed this life behaved himselfe in this manner as Protagoras reporteth of him in these words When his two sonnes quoth he both yoong and beautifull died within eight daies one after the other he never shewed any sad countenance or heavie cheere but tooke their death most patiently for in truth he was a man at all times furnished with tranquillitie of spirit whereby he daily received great frute and commoditie not onely in respect of this happinesse that he never tasted of hearts griefe but also in that he was better reputed among the people for every man seeing him thus stoutly to take this losse and other the like crosses esteemed him valiant magnanimous and of better courage than himselfe the one being privie to his owne heart how he was woont to be troubled and afflicted in such accidents As for Pericles I say immediately after the report of both his sons departure out of this world he ware a chaplet of floures neverthelesse upon his head after the maner of his country put on a white robe made a solemne oration to the people propounded good and sage counsels to the Athenians incited them to war Semblaby Xenophon one of the followers familiars of Socrates when he offred sacrifice one day unto the gods being advertised by certaine messengers returned from the battel that his sonne Gryllus was slaine in fight presently put off the garland which was upon his head and demaunded of them the manner of his death and when they related unto him that he bare himselfe valiantly in the field and fighting manfully lost his life after he had the killing of many enemies he tooke no longer pause for to represse the passion of his mind by the discourse of reason but after a little while set the coronet of flowers againe upon his head and performed the solemnitie of sacrifice saying unto those who had brought those tidings I never praied unto the gods that my sonne should be either immortall or long lived for who knoweth whether this might be expedient or no but this rather was my praier that they would vouchsafe him the grace to be a good man and to love and serve his countrey well the which is now come to passe accordingly Dion likewise the Syracusian when he was set one day in consultation and devising with his friends hearing a great noise within his house and a loud outcry demaunded what it was and when he heard the mischaunce that hapned to wit that a sonne of his was fallen from the top of the house and dead with the fall without anie shew or signe at all of astonishment or trouble of mind he commanded that the breathlesse corps should be delivered unto women for to be interred according to the maner of the countrey and as for himselfe he held on and continued the speech that hee had begun unto his friends Demosthenes also the oratour is reported to have folowed his steps after he had buried his onely and entirely beloved daughter concerning whom Aeschines thinking in reprochfull wise to chalenger her father said thus This man within a seven-night after his daughter was depauted before that he had mourned or performed the due obsequies according to the accustomed manner being crowned with a chaplet of flowers and putting on white robes sacrificed an oxe unto the gods and thus unnaturally he made no reckoning of her that was dead his onely daughter and she that first called him father wicked wretch that he is this Rhetorician thus intending to accuse and reproch Demosthenes used this manner of speech never thinking that in blaming him after this manner he praised him namely in that hee rejected and cast behind him all mourning and shewed that he regarded the love unto his native countrey more than the naturall affection and compassion to those of his owne bloud As for king Antigonus when he heard of the death of his sonne Alcyoneus who was slaine in a battell he beheld the messengers of these wofull tidings with a constant and undaunted countenaunce but after he had mufed a while with silence and held downe his head he uttered these words O Alcyoneus thou hast lost thy life later than I looked for ventring thy selfe so resolutely as thou hast done among thine enemies without any care of thine owne safetie or respect of my admonitions These noble personages there is no man but doth admire and highly regard for their constance magnanimitie but when it commeth to the point and triall indeed they cannot imitate them through the weakenesse and imbecillitie of mind which proceedeth of ignorance and want of good instructions howbeit there be many examples of those who have right nobly and vertuously caried themselves in the death and losse of their friends and neere kinsmen which we may reade in histories as well Greeke as Latin but those that I have rehearsed already may suffice I suppose to moove you for to lay away this most irksome mourning and vaine sorrow that you take which booteth not nor can serve to any good for that yoong men of excellent vertue who die in their youth are in the grace and favour of the gods for being taken away in their best time I have already shewed heeretofore and now also will I addresse my selfe in this place as briefly as possibly I can to discourse giving testimonie of the truth to this notable wise sentence of Menander To whom the gods vouchsafe their love and grace He lives not long but soone hath runne his race But peradventure my most loving and right deere friend you may reply in this maner upon me Namely that yoong Apollonius your sonne enjoied the world at will and had all things to his hearts desire yea and more befitting it was that you should have departed out of this life and beene enterred by him who was now in the flower of his age which had beene more answerable to our nature and according to the course of humanitie True it is I confesse but haply not agreeable to that heavenly providence and government of this universall world and verily in regard of him who is now in a blessed estate it was not naturall for him to remaine in this life longer than the terme prefixed and limited unto him but after he had honestly performed the course of his time it was ãâã and requisit for him to take the way for to returne unto his destinie that called for him to come unto her but you will say that he died an untimely death true and so much the happier he is in that he hath felt no more miseries of this life for as Euripides said very well That which by name of life we call Indeed is travell continuall Certes this sonne of yours I must needs say is soone gone and in the very best of his yeeres and flower of his age a yoong man in all points entire and perfect a fresh bacheler affected esteemed and well reputed of all those
who kept him companie loving to his father kinde to his mother affectionate to his kinsefolke and friends studious of good literature and to say all in a word a lover of all men respecting with reverence no lesse than fathers those friends who were elder than himselfe making much of his equals and familiars honoring those who were his teachers to strangers aswell as to citizensmost civill and courteous gracious and pleasant to all generally beloved aswell for his sweet attractive countenance as his lovely affabilitie All this I confesse is most true but you ought to consider and take this withall That he is translated before us in very good time out of this mortall and transitorie life into everlasting eternity carying with him the generall praise and blessed acclamation of all men for his pietie and observance toward you as also for your fatherly regard of him and departed he is as from some banquet before he is fallen into drunkennesse and follie which hee could not have eschewed but it would have ensued upon olde age and if the saying of ancient Poets and Philosophers be true as it seemeth verily to be namely That good men and those that devoutly serve God whensoever they die have honour and preferment in the other world and a place allotted them apart where their soules abide and converse surely you are greatly to hope very well that your sonne is canonized and placed in the number of those blessed saints concerning the state of which happie wights deceased Pindarus the Lyricke Poet writeth in his canticles after this maner When we have here the shadie night The shining sunne to them gives light The medowes by their citie side With roses red are beautified Shaded with trees which please the sense With golden fruits and sweet incense Some horses ride for exercise Disporting in most comely wise Others delight in harmonie In musicke and in symphonie They live where plentie everie houre Of all delights doth freshly floure Where altars of the gods do fume In every coast with sweet perfume Of odors all most redolent Burning in fire farre resplendent Which is maintein'd continually Thus they converse right pleasantly And a little after he proceedeth to another lamentable dittie wherein speaking of the soule he useth these words Happie is their condition Whom death from all vexation ãâã hath all bodies die Perforce there is no remedie The soule of perpetuitie The image from divinitie Onely deriv'd doth live alway And is not knowen for to decay Whiles limmes to wake and worke are prest She takes her sleepe and quiet rest And doth by many dreames present To those who sleepe her owne judgement Aswell of things which her displease As of such as do her well please Or thus Aswell for vertuous deeds well done As for soule facts which be misdone And as for that divine Philosopher Plato he hath disputed much and alledged many reasons in his treatise of the soule as touching the immortalitie thereof like as in his books of policie in the dialogue intituled Menon in that also which beareth the name of Gorgias and in divers places of many others But as concerning those discourses which he hath expresly made in his dialogue I will give you an extract thereof apart by it selfe according to your request and for this present I will deliver those points which are to the purpose and expedient to the matter in hand to wit what Socrates said to Callicles the Athenian a familiar friend and scholar of Gorgias the Rhetorician Thus therefore saith Socrates in Plato Give eare then and listen unto a most elegant speech which you I suppose will thinke to be a meere fable or tale but I esteeme an undoubted trueth and as a true report I will relate it unto you So it was that according to the narration of Homer Jupiter Neptune and Pluto parted betweene themselves the empire which fell unto them from their father now this law there was concerning men during the reigne of Saturne which also stood in force time out of minde and remaineth even at this day among the gods That looke what man soever lead a just holy life after his death he should take his way directly to certain fortunate islands there to remain in blisse happinesse freed froÌ all misery and infelicite but contrariwise he that lived unjustly without feare and reverence of the gods should goe to a certeine prison of justice and punishment named Tartarus that is to say Hell now the judges who sat judicially and gave their doome of such persons aswell in Saturnes daies as in the beginning also of the reigne of Jupiter were those men alive who gave sentence and judgement of other men living even upon that very day wherein they were to depart this life by reason wherof there passed many judgements not good until such time as Pluto other procurators or superintendents of those fortunate Isles came and made report unto Jupiter that there were thither sent such persons as were not woorthy unto whom Jupiter made this answer I will take order from hencefoorth and provide that it shall be so no more for the cause of this disorder and abuse in judgement is this that they who are to be tried come clad and arraied unto the barre for to receive their doome whiles they are yet living yea many of them haply having filthie soules are apparelled as it were with faire and beautifull bodies with nobilitie of birth and parentage yea and adorned with riches and whiles they stand before the tribunall to be judged many there be who come to depose and give testimonie in their behalfe that they lived well the judges therefore being dazzeled and amazed with these witnesses and depositions being themselves also likewise arraied do give sentence having before their minds their cies eares teeth and whole bodie covered no marvell therefore if these be impediments to impeach sound and sincere judgement to wit as well their owne vesture as the raiment of the judges First and formost therefore good heed would be had that men may know no more before hand the houre of their death for now they foresee the terme and end of life whereupon let Prometheus have first in charge that from henceforth men may have no fore-knowledge of their dying day and then all judgements heere after shall passe indifferently of them that be all naked For which purpose it were requisit that they be all first dead as well the parties in question as the judges themselves so that they come to heare causes and sit in judgement with their soules onely upon the soules likewise of those who are departed even so soone as they are seperated from the bodies being destitute now and forlorne of all kinsfolke and friends to assist them as having left behind them upon earth all the vesture and ornaments which they were woont to have by which meanes the judgement of them may passe more just and right which I knowing well enough
before you were acquainted therewith have ordained mine owne sonnes to be judges namely for Asia two Minos and Rhadamanthus and one for Europe to wit Aeacus These therefore after they be dead shall sit in judgement within a meddow at a quarrefour or crosse-way whereof the one leadeth to the fortunate isles the other to hell Rhadamanthus shall determine of them in Asia Aeacus of those in Europe and as for Minos I wil grant unto him a preeminence in judgement above the rest in case there happen some matter unknowen to one of the other two and escape their censure he may upon weighing and examining their opinions give his definitive sentence and so it shall be determined by a most sincere and just doome whether way each one shall goe This is that O Callicles which I have heard and beleeve to be most true whereout I gather this conclusion in the end that death is no other thing than the separation of the soule from the body Thus you see ô Apollonius my most deere friend what I have collected with great care and diligence to compose for you sake a consolatorie oration or discourse which I take to be most necessarie for you as well to asswage and rid away your present griefe to appease likewise and cause to cease this heavinesse and mourning that you make which of all things is most unpleasant and troublesome as also to comprise within it that praise and honour which me thought I owed as due unto the memoriall of your sonne Apollonius of all others exceedingly beloved of the gods which honour in my conceit is a thing most convenient and acceptable unto those who by happie memorie and everlasting glorie are consecrated to immortalitie You shall doe your part therefore and verie wisely if you obey those reasons which are therein conteined you shall gratifie your sonne likewise and doe him a great pleasure in case you take up in time and returne from this vaine affliction wherewith you punish and undoe both bodie and mind unto your accustomed ordinarie and naturall course of life for like as whiles he lived with us he was nothing well appaied and tooke no contentment to see either father or mother sadde and desolate even so now when he converseth and so laceth himselfe in all joy with the gods doubtlesse he cannot like well of this state wherein you are Therefore plucke up your heart and take courage like a man of woorth of magnanimitie and one that loveth his children well release your selfe first and then the mother of the yoong gentleman together with his kinsfolke and friends from this kind of miserie and take to a more quiet peaceable maner of life which will be both to your sonne departed and to all of us who have regard of your person as it becommeth us more agreeable A CONSOLOTARIE LETTER OR DISCOURSE SENT UNTO HIS OWNE WIFE AS TOUCHING THE DEATH OF HER AND HIS DAUGHTER The Summarie PLutarch being from home and farre absent received newes concerning the death of a little daughter of his a girle about two yeeres old named Timoxene a childe of a gentle nature and of great hope but fearing that his wife would apprehend such a lesse too neere unto her heart he comforteth her in this letter and by giving testimonie unto her of vertue and constancie ãâã at the death of other children of hers more forward in age than she was he exhorteth her likewise to patience and moderation in this newe occurrence and triall of hers condemning by sundry reasons the excessive sorrow and unwoorthy fashion of many fond mothers ãâã withall the inconveniences that such excessive heavinesse draweth after it Then continuing his consolation of her he declareth with what eie we ought to regard infants and children aswell before as during and after life how happie they be who can content themselves and rest in the will and pleasure of God that the blessings past ought to dulce and mitigate the calamities present to stay us also that we proceed not to that degree and height of infortunitie as to make account onely of the misadventures and discommodities hapning in this our life Which done he answereth to certeine objections which his wife might propose and set on foot and therewith delivereth his owne advice as touching the incorruption and immortalitie of mans soule after he had made a medly of divers opinions which the ancient Philosophers held as touching that point and in the end concludeth That it is better and more expedient to die betimes than late which position of his he confirmeth by an ordinance precisely observed in his owne countrey which expresly for bad to mourne and lament for those who departed this life in their childhood A CONSOLATORIE LETTER or Discourse sent unto his owne wife as touching the death of her and his daughter PLUTARCH unto his wife Greeting THe messenger whom you sent of purpose to bring me word as touching the death of our little daughter went out of his way as I suppose and so missed of me as he journeyed toward Athens howbeit when I was arrived at Tanagra I heard that she had changed this life Now as concerning the funerals and enterring of her I am verily perswaded that you have already taken sufficient order so as that the thing is not to doe and I pray God that you have performed that duetie in such sort that neither for the present not the time to come it worke you any grievance displeasure but if haply you have put off any such complements which you were willing enough of your selfe to accomplish untill you knew my minde and pleasure thinking that in so doing you should with better will and more patiently beare this adverse accident then I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie and superstition and yet I must needs say you are as little given that way as any woman that I know this onely I would admonish you deare heart that in this case you shew both in regard of your selfe and also of me a constancie and tranquillitie of minde for mine owne part I conceive and measure in mine owne heart this losse according to the nature and greatnesse thereof and so I esteeme of it accordingly but if I should finde that you tooke it impatiently this would be much more grievous unto me and wound my heart more than the ãâã it selfe that causeth it and yet am not I begotten and borne either of an oake or a rocke whereof you can beare me good witnesse knowing that wee both together have reard many of our children at home in house even with our owne hands and how I loved this girle most tenderly both for that you were very desirous after foure sonnes one after another in a row to beare a daughter as also for that in regard of that fancie I tooke occasion to give her your name now besides that naturall fatherly affection which men coÌmonly have toward little babes there was one
all the publicke feasts and generall astemblies of the Greeks of purpose to make proclamation by sound of trumpet That whosoever hee was kinseman or friend of Aesope that would require satisfaction for his death should come foorth and exact what penaltie he would desire and thus they ceased not continually to call upon them untill at length and namely in the third generation after there presented himselfe a certeine Samian named Idmon who was nothing at all of kin to Aesope but onely one of their posteritie who at the first had bought him for a slave in open market within the isle of Samos and the Delphians having in some measure made satisfaction and recompense unto him were immediatly delivered from their calamities and it is said that from that time forward the execution of sacrilegious persons was translated from the foresaid rocke olde unto the cliffe of Nauplia And verily even those who of all others most admire Alexander the Great celebrate his memorial of which nuÌber we also confesse our selves to be can in no wise approve that which he did unto the Branchides when he rased their citie to the very ground put all the inhabitants thereof to the sword without respect either of age or of sex for that their ancestours in olde time had betraied and delivered up by treason the temple of Miletum And Agathocles the tyrant of Syracusa who laughed and scoffed at the men of Corphu for when they demanded of him the occasion why hee forraied their isle made them this answere Because quoth hee your forefathers in times past received and enterteined Ulysses Semblably when the islanders of Ithaca made complaint unto him of his souldiers for driving away their sheepe Why quoth he your king when he came one time into our island not onely tooke away our sheepe but also put out the eie even of our shepheard Thinke you not then that Apollo dealt more absurdly and unjustly than all these in destroying the Pheneotes at this day in stopping up the mouth of that bottomlesse pit that was wont to receive and soake up all the waters which now doe overflow their whole countrey because that a thousand yeeres agoe by report Hercules having taken away from the Delphians that sacred trefeet from which the oracles were delivered brought the same to the citie Pheneum And as for the Sybarites he answered them directly That their miseries should then cease when they had appeased the ire of Juno Leucadia by three sundry mortalities Certes long agoe it is not since that the Locrians desisted and gave over sending every yeere their daughters virgins unto Trote Who there went bare-foot and did serve all day from morne to night In habit of poore wretched slaves in no apparell dight No coife no caule nor honest veile were they allow'd to weare In decent Wise for womanhood though aged now they were Resembling such as never rest but Pallas temple sweepe And sacred altar dayly cleanse where they do alway keepe and all for the lascivious wantonnesse and incontinence of Ajax How can this be either just or reasonable considering that we blame the very Thracians for that as the report goes they use still even at this day to beat their wives in revenge of Orpheus death Neither do we commend the barbarous people inhabiting along the river Po who as it is said do yet mourne and weare blacke for Phaeton his fall Yet in my conceit it is a thing rather sottish and ridiculous that whereas the men who lived in Phaeton his time made no regard of his ruine those that came sive yea and ten ages after his wofull calamitie should begin to change their raiment for his sake and bewaile his death for surely herein there is nothing at all to be noted but meere folly no harme no danger or absurditie otherwise doth it conteine But what reason is it that the wrath and judgement of the gods hidden upon a sudden at the very time of some hainous fact committed as the propertie is of some rivers should breake out and shew it selfe afterwards upon others yea and end with some extreame calamities He had no sooner paused awhile and staied the current of his speech but I doubting whereto his words would tend and fearing lest he should proceed to utter more absurdities and greater follies presently made this replie upon him And thinke you sir indeed that all is true that you have said What if all quoth he be not true but some part thereof onely thinke you not yet that the same difficultie in the question still remaineth Even so peradventure quoth I it fareth with those who are in an extreame burning fever who whether they have more or lesse clothes upon them feele evermore within them the same excessive heat of the ague yet for to comfort and refresh them a little and to give them some ease it is thought good to diminish their clothes and take off some of them But if you are not so disposed let it alone you may do your pleasure howbeit this one thing I will say unto you that the most part of these examples resemble fables and fictions devised for pleasure Call to mind therefore and remembrance the feast celebrated of late in their honour who sometime received the gods into their houses and gave them intertainment also that beautifull honorable portion set by apart which by the voice of an herald was published expresly to be for the posterity descended from Pindarus and record with your selfe how honorable and pleasant a thing this seemeth unto you And who is there quoth he that would not take pleasure to see this preeminence and preference of honour so naturall so plaine and so auncient after the maner of the old Greeks unlesse he be such an one as according to the same Pindarus Whose heart all black of metall forg'd twis And by cold flame made stiffe and hardened is I omit quoth I to speake of the like solemne commendation published in Sparta which ensued ordinarily after the Lesbian song or canticle in the honor and memoriall of that auncient Terpander for it seemeth that there is the same reason of them both But you who are of the race of Opheltes and thinke your selfe woorthy to be preferred before all others not Baeotians onely but Phocaeans also and that in regard of your stock-father Daiphantus have assisted and seconded me when I maintained before the Lycormians and Satilaians who claimed the priviledge and honor of wearing coronets due by our lawes and statutes unto the progenie of Hercules That such dignities and prerogatives ought inviolably to be preserved and kept for those indeed who descend in right line from Hercules in regard of his beneficiall demerites which in times past he heaped upon the Greeks and yet during his life was not thought woorthy of reward and recompence You have quoth he revived the memorie of a most pleasant question to be debated and the same marvelous well beseeming the profession of
oracle to go to the house habitation of Tettix there by certaine expiatorie sacrifices oblations to appease pacifie the ghost of Archilochus now this house of Tettix was the cape or promontory Taenarus for it is said that Tettix the CaÌdian arriving with his fleet in times past at the head of Taenarus there built a citie inhabited it neere unto the place where the maner was to conjure spirits raise the ghosts of those that were departed The semblable answer being made to those of Sparta namely that they should make meanes to pacifie the soule of Pausanias they sent as farre as into Italy for sacrificers exorcists who had the skil to conjure spirits they with their sacrifices chased his ghost out of the temple This is one reason therefore quoth I that doth confirme and proove that both the world is governed by the providence of God and also that the soules of men do continue after death neither is it possible that we should admit the one denie the other If it be so then that the soule of man hath a subsistence being after death it is more probable soundeth to greater reason that it should then either taste of paine for punishment or enjoy honor for reward for during this life here upon earth it is in continuall combat in maner of a champion but after al combats performed finished then she receiveth according to her deserts Now as touching those honors or punishments which it receiveth in that other world ãâã by her-selfe and separate from the bodie the same concern and touch us nothing ãâã who remaine alive for either we know them not or give no beliefe thereto but such as be either conferred or inflicted upon their children or posteritie for that they be apparant and evident to the world those doe containe and curbe wicked men that they doe not execute their malicious desseignes And considering that there is no punishment more ignominous or that commeth neerer to the quicke and toucheth the heart more than for men to see their ofspring or those that depend upon them afflicted for their sake punished for their faults that the soule of a wicked person enemie to God and to all good lawes seeth after his death not his images statues or any ensignes of honor overthrowne but his owne children his friends kinsfolk ruinate undone persecuted with great miseries tribulations suffring grievous punishment for it there is no man I thinke but would chuse rather to forgoe all the honors of Jupiter if he might have them than to become again either unjust or intemperate lascivious And for the better testimonie truth hereof I could relate unto you a narration which was delivered unto me not long since but that I am afraid you will take it for a fabuolus tale devised to make sport In regard wherof I hold it better to alledge unto you nothing but substantial reasons and arguments grounded upon very good likelihood and probabilitie Not so quoth Olympiacus in any case but rehearse unto us the narration which you speake of And when others also requested the same at my hands Suffer me yet first quoth I to set abroad those reasons which carie some good shew of truth and then afterwards if you thinke well of it I will recite the fable also if so be it is a fable As for Bion when he saith that God in punishing the children of wicked men and sinners for their fathers is much more ridiculous than the physician who for the maladie of father or grandsire goeth about to minister medicine unto the child or nephew surely this comparison faulteth heerein that things be partly semblable and in part divers and unlike for if one be cured of a disease by medicinable meanes this doth not by and by heale the maladie or indisposition of another For never was there man yet being sicke of a feaver or troubled with bleered and impostumate eies became cured by seeing an ointment applied or a salve laid unto another But contrariwise the punishment or execution of justice upon malefactors is for this cause done publikely before all the world that justice being ministred with reason and discretion should effect thus much namely to keepe in and retaine some by the chasticement and correction of others But that point wherein the foresaid comparison of Bion answereth to our matter in question himselfe never understood for many times it falleth out that a man being fallen sicke of a dangerous disease how beit not incurable yet through his intemperance and disorder afterwards suffreth his bodie to grow into greater weaknesse and decay untill at last he dieth whereupon his sonne after him being not actually surprised with the same disease but onely disposed thereto a learned physician some trustie friend or an expert annointer and master of exercises perceiving so much or rather indeed a kind friend and gentle master governor who hath a carefull eie over him taketh him in hand bringeth him to an exquisite maner of austere diet cutteth off all superssuity of viands deintie cates banketting dishes debarreth him of unseasonable drinkings and the company of women purgeth him continually with soveraigne medicines keepeth his body downe by ordinarie labour and exercise and so doth dissipate and dispatch the first beginning and small inclination to a dangerous disease in not permitting it to have head to grow forward to any greatnesse And is not this an usual practise among us to admonish those who are borne of sickly and diseased parents to take good heed unto themselves and not to neglect their indisposition but betimes and even at the very first to endevor for to remoove and rid away the root of such inbred maladies which they bring with them into the world for surely it is an easie matter to expell and drive out yea and to conquer and overcome the same by prevention in due time Yes verily answered they all Well then quoth I we commit no absurditie nor doe any ridiculous thing but that which is right necessarie and profitable when we ordeine and prescribe for the children of those who are subject to the falling sicknesse to madnesse phrenesie and the gout exercises of the bodie diets regiments of life and medicines appropriate for those maladies not when they are sicke thereof but by way of precaution to prevent that they should not fall into them for the bodie ingendred of a corrupt and diseased bodie neither needeth nor deserveth any punishment but physicke rather by good medicines and carefull attendance which diligence and heedfull regard if any one upon wantonnesse nicetie and delicacie doe call chastisement because it depriveth a man of pleasures and delights or haply inferreth some pricke of dolour and paine let him goe as he is we passe not for him Now if it be expedient to cure and medicine carefully one body issued and descended from another that is corrupt is it meet and convenient
they had silver and gold about them he had wrought their death by the meanes of poison and albeit he had not beene detected thereof in his life time whiles he was upon the earth yet here was he convicted and had susteined already part of his punishment and expected to endure the rest afterwards Now Thespesius durst not make sute nor intercede for his father so affrighted he was and astonied but desirous to withdraw himselfe and be gone he lost the sight of that courteous and kind guide of his which all this while had conducted him and he saw him no more but hee might perceive other horrible and hideous spirits who enforced and constrained him to passe farther as if it were necessarie that he should traverse still more ground so he saw those who were notorious malefactours in the view of every man or who in this world had bene chastised how their shadow was here tormented with lesse paine and nothing like to others as having bene feeble and imperfect in the reasonlesse part of the soule and therefore subject to passions and affections but such as were disguised and cloaked with an outward apparence and reputation of vertue abroad and yet had lived covertly and secretly at home in wickednesse certeine that were about them forced some of them to turne the inside outward and with much paine and griefe to lay themselves open to bend and bow and discover their hypocritall hearts within even against their owne nature like unto the scolopenders of the sea when they have swallowed downe an hooke are wont to turne themselves outward but others they flaied and displaied discovering plainly and openly how faulty perverse and vicious they had bene within as whose principall part of the reasonable soule vice had possessed He said moreover that he saw other souls wound and enterlaced one within another two three and more togither like to vipers and other serpents and these not forgetting their olde grudge and malicious ranker one against another or upon remembrance of losses and wrongs susteined by others fell to gnawing and devouring ech other Also that there were three parallel lakes ranged in equall distance one from the other the one seething and boiling with golde another of lead exceeding cold and a third most rough consisting of yron and that there were certeine spirits called Daemons which had the overlooking and charge of them and these like unto mettall-founders or smithes with certeine instruments either plunged in or els drew out soules As for those who were given to filthie Iucre and by reason of insatiable avarice committed wicked parts those they let downe into the lake of melted golde and when they were once set on a light fire and made transparent by the strength of those flames within the said lake then plunged they were into the other of lead where after they were congealed and hardened in maner of haile they transported them anew into the third lake of yron where they became exceeding blacke and horrible and being crackt and broken by reason of their drinesse and hardnesse they changed their forme and then at last by his saying they were throwen againe into the foresaid lake of gold suffering by the meanes of these changes and mutations intolerable paines But those soules quoth he who made the greatest moane unto him and seemed most miserably of all others to be tormented were they who thinking they were escaped and past their punishment as who had suffered sufficiently for their deserts at the hands of vengeance were taken againe and put to fresh torments and those they were for whose sinnes their children and others of their posteritie suffered punishment for whensoever one of the soules of these children or nephewes in lineall descent either met with them or were brought unto them the same fell into a fit of anger crying out upon them shewing the marks of the torments and paines that it susteined reproching and hitting them in the teeth therefore but the other making haste to flie and hide themselves yet were not able so to doe for incontinently the tormentors followed after and pursued them who brought them backe againe to their punishment crying out and lamenting for nothing so much as that they did foresee the torment which they were to suffer as having experience thereof alreadie Furthermore he said that he saw some and those in number many either children or nephewes hanging together fast like bees or bats murmuring and grumbling for anger when they remembred and called to minde what sorrowes and calamities they susteined for their sake But the last thing that he saw were the soules of such as entred into a second life and new nativitie as being turned and transformed forcibly into other creatures of all sorts by certeine workemen appointed therefore who with tooles for the purpose and many a stroake forged and framed some of their parts new bent and wrested others tooke away and abolished a third sort and all that they might sort and be sutable to other conditions and lives among which he espied the soule of Nero afflicted already grievously enough otherwise with many calamities pierced thorow every part with spikes and nailes red hote with fire and when the artisans aforesaid tooke it hand to transforme it into the shape of a viper of which kind as Pindarus saith the yong ones gnaweth thorow the bowels of the dam to come into the world and to deuoure it he said that all on a sudden there shone forth a great light out of which there was heard a voice giving commandement that they should metamorphoze and transfigure it into the forme of another kinde of beast more tame and gentle forging a water creature of it chanting about standing lakes and marishes for that he had bene in some sort punished already for the sinnes which hee had committed and besides some good turne is due unto him from the gods in that of all his subjects he had exempted from taxe tallage and tribute the best nation and most beloved of the gods to wit the Greeks Thuse farre foorth he said he was onely a spectatour of these matters but when he was upon his returne he abid all the paines in the world for very feare that he had for there was a certaine woman for visage and stately bignesse admirable who tooke holde on him and said Come hither that thou maiest keepe in memorie all that thou hast seene the better wherewith she put forth unto him a little rod or wand all sierie such as painters or enamellers use but there was another that staied her and then he might perceive himselfe to be blowen by a strong and violent winde with a trunke or pipe so that in the turning of an hand he was within his owne bodie againe and so began to looke up with his eies in maner out of his grave and sepulchre THAT BRVTE BEASTES HAVE USE OF REASON A discourse in maner of a dialogue named GRYLLUS The Summarie THey who have given out that
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
than those dumbe beasts who enterteine no evill suspicions or surmises of the gods nor any opinions to torment them as touching that which shall befall unto them after death for they neither beleeve and know not so much as once think of any harme at all in such things Furthermore if in the opinion that they holde of the gods they had reserved and left a place for divine providence beleeving that thereby the world was governed they might have beene thought wise men as they are to have gone beyond brute beasts for the atteinting of a pleasant and joifull life in regard of their good hopes but seeing all their doctrine as touching the gods tendeth to this end namely to feare no god and otherwise to be fearelesse and carelesse altogether I am perswaded verily that this is more firmely setled in those having no sense and knowledge at all of God than in these who say they know God but have not learned to acknowledge him for a punishing God and one that can punish and doe harme for those are not delivered from superstition and why they never fell into it neither have they laied away that fearefull conceit and opinion of the gods and no marvell for they never had any such the same may be said as touching hell and the infernall spirits for neither the one nor the other have any hope to receive good from thence marie suspect feare and doubt what shall betide them after death those must needs lesse who have no fore-conceit at all of death than they in whom this perswasion is imprinted beforehand that death concerneth us not and yet thus farre forth it toucheth them in that they discourse dispute and consider thereupon whereas brute beasts are altogether freed from the thought and care of such things as doe nothing perteine unto them true it is that they shunne stroaks wounds and slaughter and thus much I say of death they feare which also even to these men is dreadfull and terrible Thus you see what good things wisdome by their owne saying hath furnished them withall but let us now take a sight and survey of those which they exclude themselves sro and are deprived of As touching those diffusions of the soule when it dilateth and spreadeth it selfe over the flesh and for the pleasure that the flesh feeleth if the same be small or meane there is no great matter therein nor that which is of any consequence to speake of but if they passe mediocritie then besides that they be vaine deceitfull and uncerteine they are found to be combersome and odious such as a man ought rather to tearme not spiritual joies and delights of the soule but rather sensuall and grosse pleasures of the bodie fawning flattering and smiling upon the soule to draw and entice her to the participation of such vanities as for such contentments of the minde which deserve indeed and are woorthy to be called joies and delights they be purified cleane from the contrarie they have no mixture at all of troublesome motions no sting that pricketh them nor repentance that followeth them but their pleasure is spirituall proper and naturall to the soule neither is the good therein borowed abroad and brought in from without nor absurd and void of reason but most agreeable and sorting thereto proceeding from that part of the mind which is given unto contemplation of the trueth and desirous of knowledge or at leastwise from that which applieth it selfe to doe and execute great and honourable things now the delights and joies aswell of the one as the other hee that went about to number and would straine and force himselfe to discourse how great and excellent they be he were never able to make an end but in briefe and few words to helpe our memorie a little as touching this point Histories minister an infinit number of goodly and notable examples which yeeld unto us a singular delight and recreation to passe the time away never breeding in us a tedious satietie but leaving alwaies the appetite that our soule hath to the trueth insatiable and desirous still of more pleasure and contentment in regard whereof untrueths and very lies therein delivered are not without their grace for even in fables and sictions poeticall although we give no credit unto them there is some effectuall force to delight and perswade for thinke I pray you with your selfe with what heat of delight and affection we reade the booke of Plato entituled Atlanticus or the last books of Homers Ilias consider also with what griefe of heart wee misse and want the residue of the tale behinde as if we were kept out of some beautifull temples or faire theaters shut fast against us for surely the knowledge of trueth in all things is so lovely and amiable that it seemeth our life and very being dependeth most upon knowledge and learning whereas the most unpleasant odious and horrible things in death be oblivion ignorance and darknesse which is the reason I assure you that all men in a maner sight and warre against those who would bereave the dead of all sense giving us thereby to understand that they do measure the whole life the being also and joy of man by the sense onely and knowledge of his minde in such sort that even those very things that are odious and offensive otherwise we heare other whiles with pleasure and often times it falleth out that though men be troubled with the thing they heare so as the water standeth in their eies and they be readie to weepe and crie out for griefe yet they desire those that relate the same to say on and speake all as for example Oedipus in Sophocles THE MESSENGER Alas my lord I see that now I shall Relate the thing which is the worst of all OEDIPUS Woe is me likewise to heare it I am prest There is no helpe say on and tell the rest But peradventure this may be a current and streame of intemperat pleasure and delight proceeding from a curiositie of the minde and will too forward to heare and know all things yea and to offer violence unto the judgement and discourse of reason howbeit when as a narration or historie conteining in it no hurtfull and offensive matter besides the subject argument which consisteth of brave adventures and worthy exploits is penned and couched in a sweet stile with a grace and powerfull force of eloquence such as is the historie of Herodotus as touching the Greeke affaires or of Xenophon concerning the Persian acts as also that which Homer with an heavenly spirit hath endited and delivered in his verses or Eudoxus in his peregrinations and description of the world or Aristotle in his treatise of the founding of cities and governments of State or Aristoxenus who hath left in writing the lives of famous and renowmed persons in such I say there is not onely much delight and contentment but also there ensueth thereupon no displeasure nor repentance And what man is he who
meats upon the boord set are Be merie man and make no spare No sooner are these words let flie But all at once they hout and crie The pots then walke one filles out wine Another bring a garland fine Of flowers full fresh his head to crowne And decks the cup whiles wine goes downe And then the minstrell Phoebus knight With faire greene branch of Laurell dight Sets out his rude and rustie throte And sings a filthie tunelesse note With that one thrusts the pipe him fro And sounds his wench and bed fello Do not thinke you the letters of Metrodorus resemble these vanities which he wrote unto his brother in these tearmes There is no need at all Timocrates neither ought a man to expose himselfe into danger for the safetie of Greece or to straine and busie his head to winne a coronet among them in testimonie of his wisedome but he is to eat and drinke wine merily so as the bodie may enjoy all pleasure and susteine no harme And againe in another place of the same letters he hath these words Oh how joifull was I and glad at heart ôh what contentment of spirit found I when I had learned once of Epicurus to make much of my bellie and to gratifie it as I ought For to say a trueth to you ô Timocrates that art a Naturalist The sovereigne good of a man lieth about the bellie In summe these men doe limit set out and circumscribe the greatnesse of humane pleasure within the compasse of the bellie as it were within center and circumserence but surely impossible it is that they should ever have their part of any great roial and magnificall joy such as indeed causeth magnanimitie and hautinesse of courage bringeth glorious honour abroad or tranquillitie of spirit at home who have made choise of a close and private life within doores never shewing themselves in the world nor medling with the publicke affaires of common weale a life I say sequestred from all offices of humanitie farre removed from any instinct of honour or desire to gratifie others thereby to deserve thanks or winne favour for the soule I may tell you is no base and small thing it is not vile and illiberall extending her desires onely to that which is good to bee eaten as doe these poulps or pourcuttle fishes which stretch their cleies as farre as to their meat and no farther for such appetites as these are most quickly cut off with satietie and filled in a moment but when the motions and desires of the minde tending to vertue and honestie to honour also and contentment of conscience upon vertuous deeds and well doing are once growen to their vigor and perfection they have not for their limit the length and tearme onely of mans life but surely the desire of honor and the affection to profit the societie of men comprehending all aeternitie striveth still to goe forward in such actions and beneficiall deeds as yeeld infinit pleasures that cannot be expressed which joies great personages and men of woorth can not shake off and avoid though they would for flie they from them what they can yet they environ them about on every side they are readie to meet them whersoever they goe when as by their beneficence and good deeds they have once refreshed and cheered many other for of such persons may well this verse be verified To towne when that he comes or there doth walk Men him behold as God and so doe talk For when a man hath so affected and disposed others that they are glad and leape for joy to see him that they have a longing desire to touch salute speak unto him who seeth not though otherwise he were blinde that he findeth great joies in himselfe and enjoieth most sweet contentiment this is the cause that such men are never wearie of well dooing nor thinke it a trouble to be emploied to the good of others for we shall evermore heare from their mouths these and such like speeches Thy father thee begat and brought to light That thou one day might'st profit many a wight Againe Let us not cease but shew a minde Of doing good to all manking What need I to speake heere of those that bee excellent men and good in the highest degree for if to any one of those who are not extremely wicked at the very point and instant of death he in whose hands lieth his life be he a god or some king should graunt one howres respit and permit him to employ himselfe at his owne choise either to execute some memorable act or else to take his pleasure for the while so that immediately after that howre past he should goe to his death How many thinke you would chuse rather during this small time to lie with that courtisane and famous strumpet Lais or drink liberally of good Ariusian wine than to kill the tyrant Archias for to deliver the citie of Thebes from tyrannicall servitude for mine owne part verily I suppose that there is not one for this I observe in those sword-fencers who fight at sharpe a combat to the uttrance such I meane as are not altogether brutish and savage but of the Greekish nation when they are to enter in place for to performe their devoir notwithstanding there be presented unto them many deintie dishes and costly cates chuse rather at this very time to recommend unto their friends their wives and children to manumise and enfranchise their slaves than to serve their bellies and content their sensuall appetites But admit that these bodily pleasures be great matters and highly to be accounted of the same are common also even to those that leade an active life and manage affaires of State For as the Poet saith Wine muscadell they drinke and likewise eat Fine manchet bread made of the whitest wheat They banket also and feast with their friends yea and much more merily in my conceit after they be returned from bloudie battels or other great exploits and important services like as Alexander Agesilaus Phocion also and Epaminondas were woont to do than these who are annointed against the fire or carried easily in their litters and yet such as they mocke and scorne those who indeed have the fruition of other greater and more deintie pleasures for what should a man speake of Epaminondas who being invited to a supper unto his friends house when he saw that the provision was greater and more sumptuous than his state might well beare would not stay and suppe with him but said thus unto his friend I thought you would have sacrificed un-the gods and not have beene a wastefull and prodigall spender and no marvell for king Alexander the Great refused to entertaine the exquisit cooks of Ada Queene of Caria saying That he had better about him of his owne to dresse his meat to wit for his dinner or breakfast early rising and travelling before day-light and for his supper a light and hungry dinner As for Philoxenus who wrot
Pindarus likewise who heard god Pan chant one of those canticles which himselfe had composed thinke wee that they tooke small pleasure and contentment of heart thereby Or what may we judge of Phormio when he lodged in his house Castor and Pollux or of Sophocles for enterteining of Aesculapius as both himselfe was perswaded and as others beleeved for the manifest apparitions presented unto them It were not amisse and beside the purpose to rehearse in this place what a faith and beleefe in the gods Heromogenes had and that in those very words and tearmes which he setteth downe himselfe The gods quoth he who know all things and likewise can doe all are so friendly unto me that for the care they have of my person and my affaires are never ignorant day or night either of that action which I purpose to doe or of that way which I entend to goe and for that they forsee the issue and event of whatsoever I enterprise and undertake they advertise me thereof before hand by presage of osses voices dreames auguries and bird-flights which they send as messengers to me of purpose Moreover meet it is that we should have this opinion of the gods that whatsoever proceedeth from them is good but when we are perswaded that the goods which we receive from them be sent unto us upon speciall favor and grace this is a woonderfull contentment to the minde this worketh much confidence breedeth a marvellous courage and inward joy which seemeth as it were to smile upon good men whereas they who are otherwise minded and disposed hinder themselves of that which is most sweet in prosperitie and leave no refuge or retiring place in time of adversitie for when any misfortune lighteth upon them no other haven or retrait have they than the dissolution or separation of body and soule nothing I say but the depriving of all sense as if in a storme or tempest at sea a man should come and say for the better comfort and assuraunce of the passengers that neither the ship had a pilot nor the luckie fire-lights Castor and Pollux appeered to allay the surging waves or still the boisterous and violent winds and yet for all that there was no harme toward because forsooth the shippe should soone sinke and bee swallowed up of the sea or that she would quickly turne side or runne upon some rock for to be split and broken in pieces for these be the proper reasons which Epicurus useth in grievous maladies and extreme perils Hopest thou for any good at Gods hand with all thy religion thou art much deceived for the essence and nature of God being happie immortall is neither given to anger nor yet inclined to pitie Dost thou imagine a better state or condition after thy death than thou hast in thy life surely thou dorest and art mightily beguiled for that which is once dissolved loseth presently all maner of sense if it be senselesse what is that to us it toucheth not us whether it be good or ill But he are you my good friend How is it that you exhort me to eat to drink and make good cheere Marie because the tempest is so bigge that of necessitie shipwracke must soone ensue and the extreme perill at hand will quickly bring thee to thy death and yet the poore passenger after that the shippe is broken all to pieces or that hee is flung or fallen out of it beareth himselfe upon some little hope that he shall by one good fortune or other reach unto the shore and swimme to land whereas by these mens philosophie there is no evasion for the soule To any place without the sea With frothing some all hoare and grey For that immediatly she is dissolved perisheth and dieth before the bodie insomuch as she feeleth excessive joy by having learned and received this most wise and divine doctrine That the end of all her adversities and miseries is to perish for ever to corrupt and come to nothing But it were quoth he casting his eie upon me a great follie to speake any more of this matter considering that long since we have heard you discourse in ample manner against those who hold that the reasons and arguments of Epicurus make us better disposed and ready to die than all that Plato hath written in his treatise concerning the soule What of that quoth Zeuxippus shall this present discourse be left unperfect and unfinished because of it and feare we to alledge the oracle of the gods when we dispute against the Epicureans No quoth I againe in any wise for according to the sentence of Empedocles A good tale twise a man may tell And heare it told as oft full well And therefore we must intreat Theon againe for I suppose he was present at the said disputation and being as he is a yoong man he need not feare that yoong men will charge him for oblivion or default of memorie Then Theon seeming as if he had beene forced and overcome by constreint Well quoth he since there is no other remedie I will not do as you Aristodemus did you were afraid to repeat that which this man had delivered but I will not sticke to make use of that which you have said for in mine opinion you have done very well in dividing men into three sorts the first of those who are leud and wicked the second of them that bee simple ignorant and the common people the third of such as be wise honest and of good worth As for those who be wicked naughtie persons in fearing the pains and punishments proposed in general unto all they will be afraid to commit any more sinne and by this meanes not breaking out but restraining themselves they shal live in more joy with lesse trouble and disquietnesse For Epicurus thinketh that there is no other meanes to divert men from evill doing than feare of punishment therefore he thinketh it good pollicie to imprint in them the frights occasioned by superstition to masker them with the terrors of heaven earth together with fearfull earthquakes deepe chinks and openings of the ground and generally all sorts of feares and suspicions that being terrified thereby they might live in better order and carie themselves more modestly for more expedient it is for them not to commit any hainous fact for feare of torments which they were to suffer after their death than to transgresse break the lawes and thereby live all their life time in danger and exceeding perplexitie and distrust As touching the meane people and ignorant multitude to say nothing of the feare of that which such men beleeve to be in hell the hope of eternitie where of the poets make so great promises and the desire to live alwaies which of all other desires is the most auncient and greatest surpasseth in pleasure and sweet contentment all childish feare of hell insomuch as forgoing and losing their children their wives and friends yet they wish rather they should
are enamored of learning could satisfie to the full his desire as touching the knowledge of the truth and the contemplation of the universall nature of this world for that indeed they see as it were through a darke cloud and a thick mist to wit by the organes and instruments of this body and have no other use of reason but as it is charged with the humors of the flesh weake also and troubled yea and woonderfully hindered therefore having an eie and regard alwaies upward endevoring to flie forth of the bodie as a bird that taketh her flight and mounteth up aloft that she may get into another lightsome place of greater capacitie they labour to make their soule light and to discharge her of all grosse passions and earthly affections such as be base and transitorie and that by the meanes of their studie in philosophie which they use for an exercise and meditation of death And verily for my part I esteeme death a good thing so perfect and consumate in regard of the soule which then shall live a life indeed sound and certaine that I suppose the life heere is not a subsistent and assured thing of it selfe but resembleth rather the vaine illusions of some dreames And if it be so as Epicurus saith That the remembrance and renewing acquaintance of a friend departed out of this life is every way a pleasant thing a man may even now consider and know sufficiently of what joie these Epicureans deprive themselves who imagine otherwhiles in their dreames that they reveive and enterteine yea and follow after to embrace the very shadowes visions apparitions and ghosts of their friends who are dead and yet they have neither understanding nor sense at all and meane while they disappoint themselves of the expectation to converse one day indeed with their deere father and tender mother and to see their beloved and honest wives and are destitute of all such hope of so amiable company and sweet societie as they have who are of the same opinion that Pythagoras Plato and Homer were as touching the nature of the soule Certes I am verily perswaded that Homer covertly and as it were by the way shewed what maner of affection theirs is in this point when he casteth and projecteth amidde the presse of those that were fighting the image of Aeneas as if he were dead indeed but presently after hee exhibiteth him marching alive safe and sound And when his friends saw him so vigorous And whole of limbs and with heart generous To battel prest whom earst they tooke for dead They leapt for joy and banished all dread leaving therefore the foresaid image and shew of him they raunged all about him Let us likewise seeing that reason prooveth sheweth unto us that a man may in very truth converse with those that are departed that lovers and friends may touch handle and keepe companie one with another having their perfect senses be of good cheere and shunne those who can not beleeve so much nor reject and cast behind all such fantasticall images and outward barks and rinds onely in which they do al their life time nothing else but grieve and lament in vaine Moreover they that thinke the end of this life to be the beginning of another that is better if they lived pleasantly in this world better contented they are to die for that they looke for to enjoy a better estate in another and is things went not to their mind heere yet are they not much discontented in regard of the hopes which they have of the future delights and pleasures behind and these worke in them such incredible joies and expectances that they put out and abolish all defects and offences whatsoever these drowne I say and overcome all discontentments otherwise of the minde which by that meanes beareth gently and endureth with patience what accidents soever befal in the way or rather in a short diverticle or turning of the way where as contrariwise to those who beleeve that our life heere is ended and dissolved in a certaine deprivation of all sense death because it bringeth no alteration of miseries is dolorous as well to them of the one fortune as the other but much more unto those who are happie in this present life than unto such as are miserable for that as it cutteth these short of all hope of better estate so from those it taketh away a certeintie of good which was their present joyfull life And like as many medicinable and purgative drougs which are neither good nor pleasant to the stomacke howbeit in some respect necessarie howsoever they case and cure the sicke doe great hurt and offend the bodies of such as be in health even so the doctrine of Epicurus unto those who are infortunate and live miserably in this world promiseth an issure out of their miseries and the same nothing happie to wit a finall end and totall dissolution of their soule And as for those who are prudent wife and live in abundance of al good things it impeacheth and hindreth altogether their alacritie contentment of spirit in bringing and turning them from an happie life to no life at all from a blessed estate to no estate or being whatsoever For first formost this is certeine That the very apprehension of the losse of goods afflicteth and vexeth a man as much as either an assured expectance or a present enjoying and fruition thereof rejoiceth his heart yet would they beare us in hand that the cogitation of this finall dissolution and perdition into nothing leaveth unto men a most assured and pleasant good to wit the refutation or putting by of a certaine fearefull doubt and suspicion of infinit and endlesse miseries and this say they doth the doctrine of Epicurus effect in abolishing the feare of death and teaching that the soule is utterly dissolved Now if this be a singular and most sweet content as they say it is to be delivered from the feare and expectation of calamities and miseries without end how can it otherwise be but irksome and grievous to be deprived of the hope of joies sempiternall and to lose that supreame and sovereigne felicitie Thus you see it is good neither for the nor the other but this Not-being is naturally an enemie and quite contrarie unto all that have Being And as for those whom the miserie of death seemeth to deliver from the miseries of life a poore and cold comfort they have God wot of that insensibility as if they had an evasion and escaped thereby and on the other side those who lived in all prosperitie and afterwards came of a sudden to change that state into nothing me thinks I see very plainly that these tarrie for a fearefull and terrible end of their race which thus shall cause their felicitie to cease for nature abhorreth not privation of sense as the beginning of another estate and being but is afraid of it because it is the privation of those good things which are
present For to say That the thing which costeth us the losse of all that we have toucheth us not is a very absurd speech considering that this very cogitation and apprehension thereof concerneth us much already for this insensibilitie doth not afflict and trouble those who have no more Being but such as yet are namely when they come to cast their account what detriment and losse they receive by being no more and that by death they shall be reduced to nothing for it is not the three-headed-helhound Cerberus nor the river of teares and weeping Cocytus which cause the feare of death to be infinit and interminable but it is that menacing intimation of Nullity or Not being of the impossibility to returne againe into a state of Being after men once are gone and departed out of this life for there is no second nativitie nor regeneration but that Not-being must of necessitie remaine for ever according to the doctrine of Epicurus for if there be no end at all of Non-essence but the same continue infinit and immutable there will be found likewise an eternall and endlesse miserie in that privation of all good things by a certeine insensibilitie which never shall have end In which point Herodotus seemeth yet to have dealt more wisely when he saith That God having given a taste of sweet eternitie seemeth envious in that behalfe especially to those who are reputed happie in this world unto whom that pleasure was nothing els but a bait to procure dolor namely when they have a taste of those things which they must for goe for what joy what contentment and fruition of pleasure is there so great but this conceit and imagination of the soule falling continually as it it were into a vast sea of this infinition is not able to quell and chase away especially in those who repose all goodnesse and beatitude in pleasure And if it be true as Epicurus saith That to die in paine is a thing incident to most men then surely there is no meane at all to mitigate or allay the feare of death seeing it haleth us even by griefe and anguish to the losse of a sovereigne good and yet his sectaries would seeme to urge and enforce this point mainly to wit in making men beleeve that it is a good thing to escape and avoid evill and yet forsooth that they should not thinke it evill to be deprived of good They confesse plainly that in death there is no joy nor hope at all but what pleasure and sweetnesse soever we had is thereby and then cut off whereas contrariwise even in that time those who beleeve their soules to be immortall and incorruptible looke to have and enjoy the greatest and most divine blessings and for certeine great revolutions of yeeres to converse in all happinesse and felicity sometime upon the earth otherwhiles in heaven untill in that generall resolution of the universall world they come to burne together with Sun and Moone in a spirituall and intellectuall fire This spacious place of so many and so great joies Epicurus cutteth off and abolisheth cleane in that he anulleth all hopes that we ought to have in the aide and favour of the gods whereby both in contemplative life he exstinguisheth the love of knowledge and learning and also in the active the desire of valourous acts of winning honour and glory restraining driving and thrusting nature into a narrow roome of a joy which is very strait short and unpure to wit from the soules delight to a fleshly pleasure as if she were not capable of a greater good than the avoiding of evill WHETHER THIS COMMON MOT BE WELL SAID LIVE HIDDEN OR SO LIVE AS NO MAN MAY KNOW THOV LIVEST The Summarie THis precept was first given by Neocles the brother of Epicurus as saith Suidas and as if it had bene some golden sentence it went currant ordinarily in the mouthes of all the Epicureans who advised a man that would live happily not to intermeddle in any publike affaires of State but Plutarch considering well how ill this Emprese sounded being taken in that sense and construction which they give unto it and foreseeing the absurd and dangerous consequences ensuing upon such an opinion doth now confute the same by seven arguments or sound reasons to wit That therein such foolish Philosophers discover mightily their excessive ambition That it is a thing dishonest and perillous for a man to retire himselfe apart from others for that if a man be vicious he ought to seeke abroad for remedie of his maladie if a lover of goodnesse and vertue he is likewise to make other men love the same Item That the Epicureans life being defamed with all or dure and wickednesse it were great reason in deed that such men should remaine hidden and buried in perpetuall darknesse After this he sheweth that the good proceeding from the life of vertuous men is a sufficient encouragement for every one to be emploied in affaires for that there is nothing more miserable than an idle life and that which is unprofitable to our neighbors That life birth generation mans soule yea and man himselfe wholly as he is teach us by their definitions and properties That we are not set in this world for to be directed by such a precept as this and in conclusion That the estate of our soules after they be separate from the bodie condemneth and overthroweth this doctrine of the Epicureans and prooveth evidently that they be extreame miserable both during and after this life All these premisses well marked and considered instruct and teach them that be of good calling in the world and in higher place to endevor and straine themselves in their severall vocations to flie an idle life so farre forth that they take heed withall they be not over curious pragmaticall busie and stirring nor too ready and forward to meddle in those matters which ought to be let alone as they be for feare lest whiles they weene to raise and advance themselves they fall backe and become lower than they would WHETHER THIS COMMON Mot be well said Live hidden or So live as no man may know thou livest LOe how even himselfe who was the authour of this sentence would not be unknowne but that al the world should understand that he it was who said it for expresly he uttered this very speech to the end that it might not remain unknowen that he had some more understanding than others desirous to winne a glorie undeserved and not due unto him by diverting others from glory and exhorting them to obscurity of life I like the man well verily for this is just according to the old verse I hate him who of wisdome beares the name And to himselfe cannot performe the same We reade that Philoxenus the sonne of Eryxis and Gnatho the Sicilian two notorious gluttons given to bellie-cheere and to love their tooth when they were at a feast used to snite their noses into the very dishes and platters
with meat before them thereby to drive those in their messe and who were set at the table from eating with them and by that meanes to engorge themselves and fill their bellies alone with the best viands served up Semblably they who are excessively and out of all measure ambitious before others as their concurrents and corrivals blame and dispraise glorie and honour to the end that they alone without any competitours might enjoy the same And heerein they doe like unto mariners sitting at the oare in a bote or gally for howsoever their eie is toward the poupe yet they labour to set the prow forward in that the flowing of the water by reciprocation caused by the stroke of the oares comming forcibly backe upon the poupe might helpe to drive forward the vessell even so they that deliver such rules and precepts whiles they make semblant to flie from glory pursue it as fast as they can for otherwise if it were not so what need had he whosoever he was to give out such a speech what meant he else to write it and when he had written it to publish the same unto posteritie If I say he meant to be unknowne to men living in his time who desired to be knowne unto those that came after him But let us come to the thing it selfe How can it chuse but be simply naught Live so hidden quoth he that no man may perceive that ever you lived as if he had said Take heed you be not knowne for a digger up of sepulchres a defacer of the tombs monuments of the dead But contrariwise a foule dishonest thing it is to live in such sort as that you should be willing that we al know not the maner thereof Yet would I for my part say cleane contrary Hide not thy life how ever thou do and if thou hast lived badly make thy selfe knowne bewiser repent amend if thou be endued with vertue hide it not neither be thou an unprofitable member if vicious continue not obstinate there but yeeld to correction admit the cure of thy vice or rather at leastwise sir make a distinction define who it is to whom you give this precept If he be ignorant unlearned wicked or foolish then it is as much as if you said thus Hide thy feaver cloke cover thy phreÌsie let not the physician take notice of thee goe and put thy selfe into some darke corner where no person may have a sight of thee or of thy maladies and passions go thy way aside with all thy naughtinesse sicke as thou art of an incurable and mortall disease cover thy spight and envie hide thy superstition suppresse and conceale as it were the disorderly beatings of thine arteries take heed be afraid how you let your pulse be felt or bewray your selfe to those who have the meanes are able to admonish correct and heale you But long ago in the old world our ancestors were wont to take in hand and cure openly in publike place those that were diseased in body in those daies everie one who had met with any good medicine or knowne a remedie whereof he had the proofe either in himselfe being sicke or in another cured thereby would reveale and communicate the same unto another that stood in need thereof and thus they say The skil of Physick arising first and growing by experience became in time a noble and excellent science And even so requisit it is and necessarie to discover and lay open unto all men lives that be diseased and the infirmities of the soule to touch and handle them and by considering the inclinations of every man to say thus unto one Subject thou art to anger take heed thereof unto another Thou art given to jealousie and emulation beware of it doe thus and thus to a third Art thou amorous and full of love I have beene so my selfe otherwhiles but I repent me thereof But now a daies it is cleane contrarie in denying in cloaking covering and hiding men thrust and drive their vices inwardly and more deepely still into their secret bowels Now if they be men of woorth and vertuous whom thou counsellest to hide themselves that the world may take no knowledge of them it is all one as to say unto Epaminondas Take no charge of the conduct of an army or to Lycurgus Amuse not your head about making lawes and to Thrasibulus Kill no tyrants to Pythagoras Keepe no schoole nor teach in any wise to Socrates See you dispute not nor hold any discourses of philosophie and to your selfe Epicurus first of all Write not to your friends in Asia enroll and gather no soldiors out of Aegypt have no commerce nor negotiate with them do not protect and defend as it were with a guard from villanie and violence the yoong gentlemen of Lampsacum send not your books abroad to all men and women alike thereby to shew your learning finally ordeine nothing about your sepulture To what tended your publicke tables what meant those assemblies that you made of your familiar friends and faire yoong boies to what purpose were there so many thousands of verses written and composed so painfully by you in the honour of Metrodorus Aristobulus Chaeredemus to the end that after death they should not be forgotten Was all this because you would ratifie and establish vertue by oblivion arts by doing nothing philosophy by silence and felicitie by forgetfulnesse Will you needs bereave mans life of knowledge as if you would take away light from a feast to the end that meÌ might not know that you your followers do all for pleasure upon pleasure then good reason you have to give counsell saie unto your selfe Live unknowne Certes if I had a minde to leade my life with Haedia the harlot or to keepe ordinarily about me the strumpet Leontium to detest all honestie to repose all my delight and joy in the tickling pleasures of the flesh and in wanton lusts these ends verilie would require to be hidden in darknesse and covered with the shadow of the night these be the things that would be forgotten and not once knowne But if a man in the science of naturall philosophie delight in hymnes and canticles to praise God his justice and providence or in morallknowledge to set out and commend the law humane societie and the politike government of common-weale and therein regard honour and honestie not profit and commodity what reason have you to advise him for to live obscurely Is it because he should teach none by good precept is it for that no man should have a zealous love to vertue or affect honestie by his example If Themistocles had never bene knowne to the Athenians Greece had not given Xerxes the foile and repulse likewise if Camillus had beene unknowne to the Romanes peradventure by this time Rome had beene no city at all had not Dion knowne Plato Sicilie should not have beene delivered from tyrannie But this
is my conceit that like as light effecteth thus much that we not onely know one another but also are profitable one unto another even so in my judgement to be knowne abroad bringeth not onely honor and glorie but also meanes of emploiment in vertue Thus Epaminondas unknowne unto the Thebanes untill he was fortie yeeres old stood them in no stead at all but after that they tooke knowledge of him once and had committed unto him the leading of their armie he saved the citie of Thebes which had like to have been lost and delivered Greece being in danger of servitude shewing in renowme and glorie no lesse than in some cleere light vertue producing her effects in due time For according to the poet Sophocles By use it shineth Like iron or brasse that is both faire and bright So long as men doe handle it aright In time also an house goes to decay And falleth downe if dweller be away Whereas the very maners natural conditions of a man be marred corrupted gathering as it were a mosse growing to age in doing nothing through ignorance obscurity And verily a mute silence a sedentarie life retired a part in idlenesse causeth not onely the bodie but the mind also of man to languish grow feeble like as dornant or close standing waters for that they be covered overshadowed not running grow to putrifie even so they that never stirre nor be emploied what good parts soever they have in them if they put them not foorth nor exercise their naturall and inbred faculties corrupt quickly and become old See you not how when the night commeth on approcheth neere our bodies become more heavie lumpish and unfit for any worke our spirits more dull and lazie to all actions and the discourse of our reason and understanding more drowsie and contracted within it selfe like unto fire that is ready to goe out and how the same by reason of an idlenesse and unwillingnesse comming upon it is somewhat troubled and disquieted with divers fantasticall imaginations which observation advertiseth us daily after a secret and silent manner how short the life of man is But when the sunne with light some beames Dispatched hath these cloudy dreames after he is once risen and by mingling together the actions and cogitations of men with his light awakeneth and raiseth them up as Democritus saith in the morning they make haste jointly one with another upon a forren desire as if they were compunded and knit with a certaine mutuall bond some one way and some another rising to their serverall works and businesse Certes I am of advice that even our life our very nativity yea the participation of mankind is given us of God to this end That we should know him for unknowne he is and hidden in this great fabricke and universall frame of the world all the while that hee goeth too and fro therein by small parcels and piece-meale but when hee is gathered in himselfe and growen to his greatnesse then shineth hee and appeereth abroad where before he lay covered then is he manifest and apparent where before he was obscure and unknowen for knowldege is not the way to his essence as some would have it but contrariwise his essence is the way to knowledge for that knowledge maketh not each thing but onely shewth it when it is done like as the corruption of any thing that is may not be thought a transporting to that which is not but rather a bringing of that which is dissolved to this passe that it appeereth no more Which is the reason that according to the auncient lawes and traditions of our countrey they that take the sunne to be Apollo give him the names of Delius and Pythius and him that is the lord of the other world beneath whether he be a god or a divell they call Ades for that when we are dead and dissolved we goe to a certeine obscuritie where nothing is to be seene Even to the prince of darknesse and of night The lord of idle dreames deceiving sight And I suppose that our auncestors in old time called man Phos of light for that there is in every one of us a vehement desire and love to know and be knowen one of another by reason of the consanguinitie betweene us And some philosophers there be who thike verily that even the soule in her substance is a very light whereupon they are ledde as welby other signes arguments as by this that there is nothing in the world that the soule hateth so much as ignorance rejecting all that is obscure and unlightsome troubled also when she is entred into dark places for that they fill her full of feare and suspicion but contrariwise the light is so sweet and delectable unto her that she taketh no joy and delight in any thing otherwise lovely and desireable by nature without light or in darknesse for that is it which causeth all pleasures sports pastimes recreations to be more jocund amiable to mans nature agreeable like as a common sauce that seasoneth and commendeth al viands wherewith it is mingled whereas he that hath cast himselfe into ignorance and is enwrapped within the clouds of mistie blindnesse making his life a representation of death and burying it as it were in darknesse seemeth that he is wearie even of being and thinketh life a very trouble unto him and yet they are of opinion that the nature of glorie and essence is the place assigned for the soules of godly religious and vertuous folke To whom the sunne shin's alwaies bright When heere with us it darke night The me dowes there both faire and wide With roses red are beautified The fields all round about them dight With verdure yeeld a pleasant sight All tapissed with flowers full gay Of fruitfull trees that blossome ay Amid this place the rivers cleere Runne soft and still some there some heere Wherein they passe the time away in calling to remembraunce and recounting that which is past in discoursing also of things present accompanying one another and conversing together Now there is a third way of those who have lived ill and be wicked persons the which sendeth their soules headlong into a darke gulfe and bottomlesse pit Where from the dormant rivers bleak Of shadie night thick mists doe reak As blacke as pitch continually And those all round about doe flie ensolding whelming and covering those in ignorance and forgetfulnesse who are tormented there and punished for they be not greedy geiers or vultures that evermore eat and gnaw the liver of wicked persons laid in the earth and why the same already is either burned or rotted neither be there certeine heavie fardels or weightie burdens that presse downe and overcharge the bodies of such as be punished For such thin ghosts and fibres small Have neither flesh nor bone at all yet are the reliques of their bodies who be departed such as be capable of punishment for that belongeth
in great capitall letters Why quoth he a man may see this if hee were starke blinde and had never an eie in his head but Theocritus of Chios his prisoner he put to death for that when one to comfort him came and said That if the kings eies once had a sight of him he should be pardoned and save his life Why then quoth he God have mercie upon me for impossible it is for me to escape death which he said because king Antigonus had but one eie Leo the Bizantine when Pasiades objected unto him his bleered eies saying Mine eies before with looking upon yours Goe to quoth he you twit and reproch me for a bodily infirmity that I have and never looke your selfe upon a sonne of your owne who carrieth the vengeance of God upon his shoulders now this Pasiades had a sonne who was crumpt-shouldred and bunch-backed Likewise Archippus who in his time bare a great sway in Athens as being one of the oratours who led the people and ruled the State was very angry with Melanthius who alluding to his bunch backe and scoffing thereat used these tearmes That he did not stand manfully upright in the defence of the citie but stouped and bended forward as if he had suffered it likewise to leane reele and sincke downward And yet some there be who can carrie these broad jests patienly and with good moderation as one of the minions of king Antigonus who having craved of him a talent in free gift and seeing that he was denied it required at the kings hands that he would allow him a good strong guard to accompanie him For feare quoth he that I be forlaied by the way and risled by him who enjoined me to carrie a talent of silver at my backe See how men are diversly affected in these externall things by reason of the inequallitie of their maimes some after one sort and some after another Epaminondas sitting at a feast with his companions and colleagues in government dranke wine as sharpe as vineger and when they asked him why he did so and whether it made for his health I know not that quoth he but well I wot this that good it is to put mee in minde of my home diet And therefore in casting out of jests and pleasant taunts regard would be had of mens natures and dispositions for that some have broader backs to beare scoffes than others and endevour we must so to converse with men both in bourd and in earnest that wee offend no person but be acceptable unto all As for love a passion very divers it is and passing variable as in all other things so in jests and gibes especially for that some will take offence and be soone angry others will be merrie and laugh it out if they be touched in that point and therefore above all things the opportunitie of the time would be well observed for like as when a fire is newly kindled and but weake at the first the winde will put it quite out but when it hath gotten strength and burneth foorth it mainteineth feedeth and augmenteth the flame even so love when it is a breeding and whiles it lieth secret and sheweth not it selfe quickly taketh displeasure and offence against those that discover it but when it is once broken foorth and is made apparent and knowen to all then nourished it is and taketh delight to be blowen as it were and enflamed more with scoffes and merry jestes and that which pleaseth lovers best is this when they be jested with in the presence of those whom they love and namely in love matters otherwise not and if the case stand so that they be woonderfully enamoured upon their owne wedded wives or yoong laddes by the way of honest and vertuous love then they joy exceedingly they glory and take a pride in being scoffed at for the love of them Heereupon Arcesilaus being upon a time in his schoole when one of these professed lovers and amorous persons chaunced in communication to give him these words Me thinks this that you have said toucheth none of this companie replied thus and said No more than you are touched and mooved and withall shewed him a faire and well favoured youth in the prime of his yeeres sitting by him Furthermore good regard and consideration would be had who they be that are present and in place for otherwhiles men are disposed to take up a laughter at merry words which they heare among friends and familiars who would not take it well but be offended thereat if the same were delivered before wife father or schoole-master unlesse it were some thing that agreed very well with their humour as for example if one should mocke a companion of his before a philosopher for going bare-footed or sitting up at his booke all night long studying and writing or in the presence of his father for being thristie and spending little or in the hearing of his owne wife that he cannot skill of courting and loving other dames but is altogether devoted and serviceable unto her alone thus Tigranes in Xenophon was mocked by Cyrus in these tearmes What and if your wife should heare say that you made a page of your selfe and caried your bedding and other stuffe upon your owne necke She shall not quoth he heare it but be an eie witnesse thereof and see it in her presence Furthermore when they who give out such merrie taunts as these be partakers therein and in some sort doe include themselves withall lesse blame-woorthy they are and nothing so much to be reproved as for example when a poore man glaunceth against povertie or a new upstart and gentleman of the first head against meane parentage or an amorous person girdeth at the wantonnesse of another lover for it may seeme thereby that there was no meaning and intent to offend or offer wrong but that all was merrily spoken seeing they participate in the like defects for otherwise it might nippe very much and go too neere to the quicke Thus one of the affranchised or freed men of the emperour growen up on a sudden to be exceeding rich bare himselfe very proud and disdainfull to certeine philosophers who sat at the table and supped together with him insulting very insolently over them and in the end comming out with this foolish question How it came to passe that the broth or pottage made of beanes whether they were blacke or white looked greene alike Aridices one of the philosophers there in place asked him presently againe what the reason was that the wales or marks of stripes and lashes were all red indifferently whether the whippes were made of white or blacke leather thongs at which reply the other was so dashed and disquieted that he rose from the boord in a pelting chafe and would not tarie But Amphias of Tarsis supposed to be no better than a gardiners sonne having by way of scorn scoffed at one of the familiar friends of the lord deputie there for his meane
none should be wasted vainly But Eustrophus the Athenian being upon a time a time at supper with us hearing Florus making this relation And what good gat they by this quoth he unlesse they had learned the cunning cast of Epicharmus our fellow-citizen who as he said himselfe having studied long time how he might keepe his boies and servants about him from silching and stealing away his oile hardly and with much adoe at the last found this meanes for presently after that the lampes were put out he filled them full againe with oile and then the next morning he would come and see whether they were still full This speech made Florus to laugh But seeing quoth he this question is so well solved let us search I pray you into the reason Why in old time as it should seeme our auncients were so religious and precise as touching their tables and lampes first therefore they began with lampes and lights And Caesernius his sonne in law said That those auncients as he thought tooke it to be an ominous matter and a very abomination indeed that any fire whatsoever should be put out for the likenesse and kinred that it had with that sacred fire which is alwaies kept inextinguible for two waies there be as I take it whereby fire like as we men may die the one violent when it is quenched and put out by force the other natural when it goeth out dieth of it selfe as for that sacred fire they remedied both the one the other in mainteining and looking to it continually with great care and diligence the other which is common they neglected and suffred to goe out of it selfe without any more adoe for so they themselves quenched it not perforce nor caused it to die grudging and envying that it should live as a beast that doth no good they passed for it no more nor made any further reckoning Then Lucius the sonne of Florus said That he liked well of all the rest which was said but as concerning the sacred fire he supposed that our ãâã chose it not to reverence and adore because they thought it more holy or better than other but like as among the Aegyptians some worshipped the whole kind of dogs others woolves likewise or crocodiles but they nourished with any especiall respect but one of every kinde to wit some one dogge others one woolfe and others agine one crocodile for that impossible it was to keepe them all even so heere in this case the vigilant care and devotion which they emploied in saving and keeping the sacred fire was a signe and solemne testimoniall of the religious observance which they caried respectively to the whole element of fire the reason was because there is nothing in the world that more resembleth a living creature coÌsidering that it mooveth stirreth and feedeth it selfe yea and by the shining light that it giveth in maner of the soule laieth all things open and maketh them to bee seeme but most of all it sheweth and prooveth the power that it hath not to be without some vitall seed or principle in the extinguishing and violent death thereof for when it is either quenched suffocated or killed by force it seemeth to give a cry or scricke strugling as it were with death like unto a living creature when the life is taken away by violence And in uttring these words casting his eies upon me What say you quoth hee unto me can you alledge any thing better of your owne I cannot said I finde any fault with you in all that you have delivered but I would willingly adde thus much moreover that this fashion and custome of mainteining fire is a very exercise and discipline training us togreat humanitie for surely I hold it not lawfull to spoile our meats and viands after we have eaten thereof sufficiently no more than I doe for to stop or choke up a spring or fountaine after we have drunke our fill of the pure water thereof or to take downe and dimolish the markes that guid men in navigation or waifaring upon the land when we have once served our owne turne with them but these and such like things we ought to leave behinde us unto posteritie as meanes to do them good that shall come after us have need of them when we are gone and therefore I hold it neither seemely nor honest to put out a lampe for mechanicall miserie so soone as a man himselfe hath done withall but he ought to mainteine keepe it burning stil that what need soever there should be of fire it may be found there ready and shining light out for a blessed thing it were in us if possibly we so could to impart the use of our owne eie-sight our hearing yea and of our wisedome strength and valour unto others for the while when we are to sleepe or otherwise to take our repose consider moreover whether our forefathers have not permitted excessive ceremonies and observations in these cases even for an exercise and studious meditation of thankfulnesse as namely when they reverenced so highly the oakes bearing acornes as they did Certes the Athenians had one fig-tree which they honored by the name of the holy and sacred Fig-tree and expresly forbad to cut downe the mulberie tree for these ceremonies I assure you doe not make men inclined to superstition as some thinke but frame traine us to gratitude sociable humanitie one toward another when as we are thus reverently affected to such things as these that have no soule nor sense And therefore Hesiodus did very well when he would not permit any flesh or meats to be taken out of the pots or cauldrons for to be set upon the table unlesse some thing before had gone out of them for an assay to the gods but gave order that some portion thereof should be offred as first fruits unto the fire as it were a reward and satisfaction for the ministery and good service that it hath done The Romans also did as well who would not when they had done with their lampes take from them that nourishment which they had once allowed but suffred them to enjoy the same still burning and living by the meanes thereof After I had thus said Now I assureyou quoth Eustrophus hath not this speech of yours made the overture and given way to passe forward to a discourse of the table for that our auncients thought there should be alwaies somewhat left standing upon it after dinner and supper for their hoshold servants and children for surely glad they be not so much to get wherewith to eat as to have it in this order communicated from us and our table unto them and therefore the Persian kings by report were wont alwaies to send from their owne boord certeine dishes as a liuraison not onely to their friends and minions to their great captaines and lieutenants under them to their chiefe pensioners also and squires of the body but they would have their slaves
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
those places where the aire toucheth them the bones of water and earth within and of these fower medled and contempered together sweat and teares proceed CHAP. XXIII When and how doth man begin to come to his perfection HERACLITUS and the STOICKS suppose that men doe enter into their perfection about the second septimane of their age at what time as their naturall seed doth moove and runne for even the very trees begin then to grow unto their perfection namely when as they begin to engender their ãâã for before then unperfect they are namely so long as they be unripe and fruitlesse and therefore a man likewise about that time is perfect and at this septenarie of yeeres he beginneth to conceive and understand what is good and evill yea and to learne the same Some thinke that a man is consummate at the end of the third septimane of yeeres what time as he maketh use of his full strength CHAP. XXIIII In what manner Sleepe is occasioned or death ALCMEON is of this mind that Sleepe is caused by the returne of blood into the confluent veines and Waking is the diffusion and spreading of the said blood abroad but Death the utter departure thereof EMPEDOCLES holdeth that Sleepe is occasioned by a moderate cooling of the naturall heat of blood within us and Death by an extreme coldnesse of the said blood DIOGENES is of opinion that if blood being diffused and spred throughout fill the veines and withall drive backe the aire setled ãâã into the breast and the interior belly under it then ensueth Sleepe and the breast with the precordiall parts are ãâã thereby but if that aereous substance in the ãâã exspire altogether and exhale forth presently ãâã Death PLATO and the ãâã affirme that the ãâã of Sleep is the ãâã of the spirit sensitive not by way of ãâã and to the earth ãâã by elevation aloft namely when it is carried to the ãâã or ãâã between the ãâã the very ãâã of reason but when there is an ãâã ãâã of the ãâã sensitive ãâã of ãâã Death doth ensue CHAP. XXV Whether of the twaine it is that ãâã or dieth the Soule or the Bodie ARISTOTLE vorely ãâã that Sleepe is common to Bodie and Soule both and the cause thereof is a certaine humiditie which doth steeme and arise in manner of a vapour out of the stomack and the food therein up into the region of the head and the naturall heat about the heart cooled thereby But death he deemeth to be an entire and totall refrigeration and the same of the Bodie onely and in no wise of the Soule for it is immortall ANAXAGORAS saith that Sleepe belongeth to corporall action as being a passion of the Bodie and not of the Soule also that there is ãâã wife a certaine death of the Bodie to wit the separation of it and the Bodie ãâã LEUCIPPUS is of opinion that Sleepe pertaineth to the Bodie onely by concretion of that which was of subtile parts but the excessive excretion of the animall heat is Death which both saith he be passions of the Bodie and not of the Soule EMPEDOCLES saith that Death is a separation of those elements whereof mans Bodie is compounded according to which position Death is common to Soule and Bodie and Sleep a certaine dissipation of that which is of the nature of fire CHAP. XXVI How Plants come to grow and whether they be animate PLATO and EMPEDOCLES hold that Plants have life yea and be animall creatures which appeareth say they by this that they wag to and fro and stretch forth their boughs like armes also that when they be violently strained and bent they yeeld but if they be let loose they returne againe yea in their growth are able to overcome waight laid upon them ARISTOTLE granteth that they be living creatures but not animall for that animal creatures have motions and appetites are sensitive and endued with reason The STOICKS and the EPIGUREANS hold that they have no soule or life at all for of animallcreatures some have the appetitive concupsicible soule others the reasonable but Plants grow after a sort casually of their owne accord and not by the meanes of any soule EMPEDOCLES saith that Trees sprang and grew out of the ground before animall creatures to wit ere the Sunne desplaied his beames and before that day and night were distinct Also that according to the proportion of temperature one came to be named Male another Female that they ãâã up and grow by the power of heat within the earth in such sort as they be parts of the earth like as unborne fruits in the wombe be parts of the matrice As for the fruits of trees they are the superfluous excrements of water and fire but such as have defect of that humiditie when it is dried up by the heat of the Summer lose their leaves whereas they that have plentie thereof keepe their leaves on still as for example the Laurell Olive and Date tree Now as touching the difference of their juices and sapors it proceedeth from the diversitie of that which nourisheth them as appeareth in Vines for the difference of Vine trees maketh not the goodnesse of Vines for to be drunke but the nutriment that the territorie and soile doth affoord CHAP. XXVII Of ãâã and Growth EMPEDOCLES is of opinion that animall creatures are nourished by the substance of that which is proper and familiar unto them that they grow by the presence of naturall heat that they diminish ãâã and perish through the default both of the one and the other And as for men now a daies living in comparison of their auncestos they be but babes new borne CHAP. XXVIII How ãâã creatures came to have appetite and pleasure EMPEDOCLES supposeth that Lust and Appetites are incident to animall creatures through the defect of those elements which went unto the framing of ech one that pleasures arise from humiditie as for the motions of perils and such like as also troubles and hinderances c. **** CHAP. XXIX After what sort a Fever is engendred and whether it is an accessary to another malady ERASISTRATUS defineth a Fever thus A Fever quoth he is the motion of bloud which is entred into the veines or vessels proper unto the spirits to wit the arteries and that against the will of the patient for like as the sea when nothing troubleth it lieth still and quiet but if a boisterous and violent winde be up and bloweth upon it contrary unto nature it surgeth and riseth up into billowes even from the very bottom so in the body of man when the bloud is mooved it invadeth the vitall and spirituall vessels and being set on fire it enchafeth the whole body And according to the same physicians opinion a Fever is an accessary or consequent comming upon another disease But DIOCLES affirmeth that Symptones apparent without foorth doe shew that which lieth hidden within Now we see that an Ague followeth upon those accidents
caused him to be condemned for his contumacy in that he failed to answer at the day assigned for his triall that verie yeere when Theopompus was Provost of the citie under whom the foure hundred conspiratours and usurpers of the common-weale were put downe and overthrowen Now the decree of the Senate by vertue whereof ordained it was That Antiphon should be judicially tried and condemned Cecilius hath put downe in these tearmes The one and twentith day of Prytaneia when Demonicus of Alopece was secretarie or publike notarie Philostratus of Pellene chiefe commander upon the proposition or bill-preferred of Andron the Senate hath ordained as touching these persons namely Archiptolemus Onomacles and Antiphon whom the captaines have declared against that they went in embassage unto Lacedaemon to the losse and detriment of the citie of Athens and departed from the camp first in an enemies ship and so passed by land by Decelia that their bodies should be attached and cast into prison for to abide justice and punishment according to law Item that the captaines themselves with certaine of the Senate to the number of ten such as it pleased them to chuse and nominate should make presentment and give in evidence that upon the points alledged and prooved judgement might passe according Item that the Thesmothetes should call for the said persons judicially the verie next morow after they were committed and convent them before the judges after that they be chosen by lot when and where they should accuse the captaines with the orators abovesaid of treason yea whosoever els would come in he should be heard Item when sentence is concluded and pronounced against them then the judgement of condemnation shall be executed according to the forme and tenure of the law established in case of traitors Vnder the instrument of this decree was subscribed the condemnation of treason in this manner Condemned there were of treason Archiptolemus the sonne of Hippodamus of Agryle present Antiphon the sonne of Sophilus of Rhamus likewise present and awarded it was by the court that these two should be delivered over into the hands of the eleven executors of justice their goods to be confiscate the disme whereof to be consecrate unto the goddesse Minerva their houses to be demolished and pulled downe to the very ground and upon the borders of the plots wherein they stood this superscription to be written Here stood the houses of Archiptolemus and of Antiphon two traitours of the State *** Also that it might not bee lawfull to enter or burie the bodie of Archiptolemus and of Antiphon within the citie of Athens nor in any part belonging to their domain or territorie That their memorie should be infamous and all their posteritie after them as well hastards as legitimate and that whosoever adopted any one of Archiptolemus or Antiphons children for his sonne himselfe should be held infamous Finally that all this should be engrossed and engraven in a columne of brasse wherein also should be set downe the sentence and decree which passed as concerning Phrynichus ANDOCIDES II. ANdocides was the sonne of that Leagoras who somtime made a peace betweene the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians borne in the tribe of Cydathene or Thurie descended from a noble house and as Hellanicus saith even from Mercurie for the race of the Ceryces that is Heraults pertaineth unto him and therefore chosen he was upon a time with Glaucon for to go with a fleet of twentie saile to aide the Corcyreans who warred upon the Corinthians But after all this accused he was of impietie and irreligion for that hee with others had mangled and defaced the images of Mercurie that stood within the citie also for that he had trespassed against the holy mysteries and sacred ceremonies of Ceres in as much as being before time a wild youth and loosely given he went in a maske one night and brake certaine images of the god Mercurie whereupon I say he was judicially convented And because he would not deliver and bring foorth to be examined upon torture that servant of his whom his accusers called for he was held attaint convict of that crime which was laid to his charge yea for the second imputation charged upon him verie deeply suspected for which also he was called into question not long after the setting foorth of the great Armada at sea which went into Sicily when the Corinthians had sent certaine Aegesians and Leontines into the citie of Athens unto whom the Athenians privately were to yeeld aid succour in the night season they brake all the images of Mercury which stood about the market place as Cratippus saith Well being suspected for offending against the sacred mysteries of Ceres thereupon judicially called to his answer he escaped judgement of condemnation and was acquit so that he would discover and declare the delinquents and offenders indeed Now having emploied his whole studie endever there about he wrought so that he found out those who were faultie as touching the sacred mysteries aforesaid among whom was his owne father As for all the rest when they were convicted he caused them to be put to death only his fathers life he saved although he was already in prison promising with all that he would doe much good service unto the common-weale wherein he failed not of his word For Leagoras accused many who had robbed and embezilled the cities treasure and committed other wicked parts by the meanes whereof he was absolved Now albeit Andocides was in great name and reputation for mannaging the affaires of common-weale yet neverthelesse he set his mind to trafficke and merchandize at sea whereby hee got amitie and entred into league of hospitalitie which many princes and great potentates but principally with the king of Cyprus and it was than that he stole and carried away a citizens child the daughter of Aristides and his owne niece without the privitie and consent of her friends and sent her closely for a present to the said king of Cyprus but when he was upon the point to be called in question judicially for this fact he stole her privily away againe out of Cyprus and brought her home to Athens Hereupon the king of Cyprus caused hands to be laid upon him where he was kept in prison but he brake loose and escaped to Athens at the verie time when the foure hundred conspiratours and usurpers governed the State and being by them cast into prison he got away againe when the said Olygarchie was dissolved Howbeit he was drawen out of the citie when the thirtie tyrants ruled all and usurped their government During which time of his exile he abode in the citie of Elis but when Thrasibulus and his adhaerents returned into the city he also repaired thither and was sent in an embassage to Lacedaemon where being taken againe in a trip he was for his ill demeanour banished All these premises appeare evidently by his orations which he hath written for in some of them
changing their minde should determine to hurt afflict plague destroy and crush us quite they could not bring us to a woorse state and condition than wherein we are already according as Chrysippus saith That mans life can not be brought to a lower ebbe nor be in woorse plight and case than now it is insomuch as if it had a tongue and voice to speake it would pronounce these words of Hercules Of miseries to say I dare be bold So full I am that more I can not hold And what assertions or sentences may a man possibly finde more contrary and repugnant one against another than those of Chrysippus as touching both gods and men when he saith That the gods are most provident over men and carefull for their best and men notwithstanding are in as wofull state as they may be Certeine Pythagoreans there are who blame him much for that in his booke of Justice he hath written of dunghill cocks that they were made and created profitable for mans use For quoth he they awaken us out of our sleepe and raise us to our worke they hunt kill and devoure scorpions with their fighting they animate us to battell imprinting in our hearts an ardent desire to shew valour and yet eat them we must for feare that there grow upon us more pullaine than we know what otherwise to do withall And so farre foorth mocketh he and scorneth those who finde fault with him for delivering such sentences that he writeth thus in his third booke of the Gods as touching Jupiter the Saviour Creatour and Father of justice law equity and peace And like as cities quoth he and great townes when they be over full of people deduct and send from thence certeine colonies and begin to make warre upon some other nations even so God sendeth the causes that breed plague and mortalitie to which purpose he citeth the testimony of Euripides and other authours who write that the Trojan warre was raised by the gods for to discharge and disburden the world of so great a multitude of men wherewith it was replenished As for all other evident absurdities delivered in these speeches I let passe for my purpose is not to search into all that which they have said or written amisse but onely into their contradictions and contrarieties to themselves But consider I pray you how Chrysippus hath alwaics attributed unto the gods the goodliest names and most plausible termes that can be devised but contrariwise most savage cruell inhumane barbarous and Galatian deeds For such generall mortalities and carnages of men as the Trojan warre first brought and afterwards the Median and Peloponnesiacke warres are nothing like unto colonies that cities send forth to people and inhabit other places unlesse haply one would say That such multitudes of men that die by warre and pestilence know of some cities founded for them in hell and under the ground to be inhabited But Chrysippus maketh God like unto Deiotarus the king of Galatia who having many sonnes and minding to leave his realme and roiall estate unto one of them and no more made away killed all the rest besides him to the end that he being left alone might be great and mightie like as if one should prune and cut away all the branches of a vine that the maine stocke might thrive and prosper the better and yet the cutter of the vine disbrancheth it when the shoots be yoong small and tender and we also take away from a bitch many of her whelps when they be so yoong as that they can not yet see for to spare the damme whereas ãâã who hath not onely suffered and permitted men to grow unto their perfect age but ãâã given them himselfe their nativitie and growth punisheth them and plagueth them afterwards devising sundry meanes and preparing many occasions of their death and destruction when as indeed he should rather have not given unto them the causes and principles of their generation and birth Howbeit this is but a small matter in comparison and more grievous is that which I will now say for there are no warres bred among men but by occasion of some notable vice seeing the cause of one is fleshly pleasure of another avarice and of a third ambition and desire of rule And therefore if God be the authour of warres he is by consequence the cause of wickednesse and doth provoke excite and pervert men and yet himselfe in his treatise of judgement yea and his second booke of the Gods writeth that it stands to no sense and reason that God should be the cause of any wicked and dishonest things For like as the lawes are never the cause of breaking and violating the lawes no more are gods of impietie so that there is no likelihood at all that they should move and cause men to commit any foule and dishonest fact Now what can there be more dishonest than to procure and raise some to worke the ruine and perdition of others and yet Chrysippus saith that God ministreth the occasions and beginnings thereof Yea but he contrariwise will one say commendeth Euripides for saying thus If Gods do ought that lewd and filthy is They are no more accounted Gods iwis And againe Soone said that is Mens faults t' excuse Nothing more ready than Gods t' accuse as if forsooth we did any thing els now but compare his words and sentences together that be opposit and meere contrary one unto another And yet this sentence which now is heere commended to wit Soone said that is c. we may alledge against Chrysippus not once nor twice nor thrice but ten thousand times For first in his treatise of Nature having likened the eternity of motion to a drench or potion made confusedly of many herbs and spices troubling and turning all things that be engendred some after one sort and some after another thus he saith Seeing it is so that the government and administration of the universall world proceedeth in this sort necessary it is that according to it we be disposed in that maner as we are whether it be that we are diseased against our owne nature maimed or disinembred Grammarians or Musicians And againe soone after according to this reason we may say the like of our vertue or vice and generally of the knowledge or ignorance of arts as I have already said Also within a little after cutting off all doubt and ambiguity There is no particular thing not the very least that is which can otherwise happen than according to common nature and the reason thereof now that common nature and the reason of it is fatall destinie divine providence and Jupiter there is not one search even as farre as to the Antipodes but he knoweth for this sentence is very rife in their mouthes And as for this verse of Homer And as ech thing thus came to passe The will of Jove fulfilled was he saith that well and rightly he referred all to destiny and the universall nature of
But that which more is they holde that Trueth although it be yet it hath no being nor subsistence but is comprehended onely by intelligence is perceptible and beleeved although it have no jote of effence How can this be salved and saved but that it must surpasse the most monstrous absurdity that is But because it may not be thought that all this smelleth overmuch of the quirks and difficulties in Logicke let us treat of those which are more proper unto Naturall philosophie Forasmuch therefore as Jupiter is the first the mids the last even all in all By him all things begin proceed and have their finiall they themselves give out they of all men especially ought to have reformed rectified redressed and reduced to the best order the common conceptions of men as touching the Gods if haply there had crept into them any errour and perplexed doubt or if not so yet at leastwise to have let every man alone and left them to the opinion which the lawes and customes of the countreys wherein they were borne prescribed unto them as touching religion and divinitie For neither now nor yesterday These deepe conceits of God began Time out of ãâã they have beene ay But no man knowes where how nor whan But these Stoicks having begunne even from the domesticall goddesse Vesta as the proverbe saith to alter and change the opinion established and received in every countrey touching religion and the beliefe of God they have not left so much as one conceit or cogitation that way sound syncere and incorrupted For where is or ever was the man besides themselves who doth not conceive in his minde that God is immortall and eternall what is more generally acknowledged in our common conceptions as touching the Gods or what is pronounced with more assent and accord than such sentences as these And there the Gods do alwaies joy In heavenly blisse without annoy Also In heaven the Gods immort all ever be On earth below pooremort all men walke we Againe Exempt from all disease and erasie age The Gods do live injoy and paine feele none They feare no death nor dread the darke passage Over the Frith of roaring Acheron There may peradventure be found some barbarous and savage nations who thinke of no God at all but never was there man having a conception and imagination of God who esteemed him not withall to be immortall and everlasting For even these vile wretches called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say Atheists such as Diagor as Theodor us and Hippon godlesse though they were could never finde in their hearts to say and pronounce That God was corruptible Onely they could not beleeve and be perswaded in their minde that there was any thing in the world not subject to corruption Thus howsoever they admitted not a subsistence of immortality incorruptibility yet reteined they the common anticipation of the Gods but Chrysippus Cleanthes having made the heaven the earth the aire and sea to ring againe as a man would say with their words and filled the whole world with their writings of the Gods yet of so many Gods they make not one immortall but Jupiter onely and in him they spend and consume all the rest so that this propertie in him to resolve and kill others is never a jote better than to be resolved and destroied himselfe For as it is a kinde of infirmitie by being changed into another for to die so it is no lesse imbecillitie to be mainteined and nourished by the resolution of others into it selfe And this is not like to many other absurdities collected and gathered by consequence out of their fundamentall suppositions or inferred upon other affertions of theirs but even they themselves crie out with open mouth expresly in all their writings of the gods of providence of destiny and nature that all the gods had a beginning of their effence and shall perish and have an end by fire melted and resolved as if they were made of waxe or tinne So that to say that a man is immortall and that God is mortall is all one and the one as absurd and against common sense as the other nay rather I cannot see what difference there will be betweene a man and God in case God be defined a reasonable animall and corruptible for if they oppose and come in with this their fine and subtile distinction that man in deed is mortall but God not mortall yet subject to corruption marke what an inconvenience doth follow and depend thereupon for of necessity they must say either that God is immortall and corruptible withall or else neither mortall nor immortall then which a man can not if he would of purpose study for it devise a more strange and monstrous absurdity I speake this by other for that these men must be allowed to say any thing neither have there escaped their tongues and pens the most extravagant opinions in the world Moreover Cleanthes minding still to fortifie and confirme that burning and conflagration of his saith That the sunne will make like unto himselfe the moone with all other starres and turne them into him But that which of all others is most monstrous the moone and other starres being forsooth gods worke together with the sunne unto their owne destruction and conferre somewhat to their owne inflammation Now surely this were a very mockerie and ridiculous thing for us to powre out our praiers and orasons unto them for our owne safety and to repute them the saviours of men if it be kinde and naturall for them to make haste unto their owne corruption and dissolution And yet these men cease not by all the meanes they can to insult over Epicurus crying Fie fie for shame redoubling Out upon him for that by denying the divine providence he troubled confounded the general prenotion and conception mour minds of the gods for that they are held and reputed by all men not onely immortall and happy but also humane and benigne having a carefull eie and due regard to the good and welfare of men as in trueth they have Now if they who take away the providence of God doe withall abolish the common prenotion of men as touching God what doe they then who avouch that the gods indeed have care of us but yet are helpefull to us in nothing neither give they us any good things but such onely as be indifferent not enduing us with vertue but bestowing upon us riches health procreation of children and such like of which there is not one profitable expedient eligible or availeable Is it not certeine that these ãâã throw the common conceptions that are of the gods neither rest they heere but fall to flouting frumping and scoffing whiles they give out that there is one god surnamed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say the superintendent over the fruits of the earth another ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say the patron of generation anothe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
alloweth piety and religious devotion toward God And albeit he giveth out that for pleasure he maketh choise of amity and friendship yet for his friends sake he willingly endureth most grievous paines also for all he supposeth the universall world to be ãâã yet hee taketh not away above and beneath But this is not like unto the maner of drinking one unto another at a table where a man may take the cup in hand and drinke what he will and so give backe the rest But in this disputation especially it behooved to remember well the notable ãâã or saying of the wise man Of what things the beginnings are not necessarie the ends and consequences fall out to be necessary Necessary it was not therefore to suppose or to speake more truely to wring from Democritus thus much That Atomes be the principles of the whole and universall world or when he had supposed and set downe this doctrine and withall made a glorious shew of the first probabilities and faire apparences thereof he should likewise have swallowed that which was troublesome therein or shewed how those bodies which have no quality could give unto others all sorts of qualities onely by meeting and joining together As for example to speake of that which is next to hand this that we call fire whence came it and how groweth it to these indivisible bodies called Atomi if they neither had heat when they came nor became hot after they met together For the former presupposeth that they had some quality and the latter that they were fit to receive the same and to suffer But neither of them twaine ye say fitteth well with the Atomes in that they be incorruptible How then did not Plato Aristotle and Xenocrates produce golde of that which was not golde and stone of that which is not stone yea and many other things out of the foure simple bodies called elements Yes Iwis but together with the said bodies there concurre immediatly at the first the principles also to the generation of every thing bringing with them great contributions to wit the first qualities which be in them afterwards when there come to meet in one and joine together dry with moist cold with heat solid and firme with that which is gentle and soft that is to say active bodies with such as be apt to suffer and to receive all change and alteration then ensueth generation which is the passage from one temperature to another whereas this Atome or indivisible bodie being of it selfe naked and alone is destitute of all qualitie and generative facultie but when it hapneth to run upon others it can make a sound and noise onely by reason of the hardnesse and solidity thereof but no other accident els for strike they doe and are stricken againe continually and so farre be they off from composing and making by this meanes a living creature a soule or a nature that they are not able so much as to raise a round masse or heape of themselves together for that as they jurre and beat one upon another so they rebound and flie backe againe asunder But Colotes verily as if hee dealt with some king that was ignorant and unlettered falleth againe upon Empedocles breathing out these verses One thing will I say more to thee there is no true nature Of mortall wights of grisly death no seed nor geniture A mixture onely first there is of things then after all The same grow to disunion and this men Nature call For mine owne part I doe not see how this is repugnant and contrary unto life among them especially who are of opinion that there is no generation of that which is not at all nor corruption of that which is and hath being but the meeting and union of such things as be is called Generation the dissolution likewise and disunion of the same is termed Death and corruption For that he taketh Nature for Generation and that he meaneth so himselfe hath declared when he set Nature opposite unto Death And if those live not nor can live who put generation in union and death in disunion what thing els doe these Epicureans And yet Empedocles sodering as it were and conjoining the elements by heats softnesse and humidities giveth them in some sort a mixtion and composition unitive but they who drive together the Atomes which they say to be immutable sturdy and impassible compose nothing that proceedeth from them but rather make many and those continuall percussions of them For their interlacing which impeacheth dissolution doth stil augment their collision in such sort as this is no mixtion nor conglutination but a certeine troublesome striving and combat which according to them is called Generation And these Atomes or indivisible bodies which meet together but a moment if one while they recule and start backe for the resistance of the shocke which they have given and another while returne againe and recharge after the blow past they are more than twice so long apart one from another without touching or approching so as nothing can be made of them not so much as the very body without a soule But sense soule understanding and prudence there is no man able to thinke and imagine would he never so faine how they can be formed of voidnesse and of these Atomes which neither of themselves apart have any qualitie nor yet passion or alteration whatsoever when they are met together considering that this meeting is no incorporation nor such a coition as might make a mutuall mixture and conglutination but rather jurrs and reciprocall concussions in such maner as according to the doctrine of these folke supposing as they doe such void impassible invisible undivine and unhelpful principles yea such as will not receive any mixture or incorporation whatsoever To live and to be a creature animall falleth to the ground and comes to nothing How commeth it then that they admit or allow Nature Soule and Living creature Forsooth even as they do an oth a vow praier sacrifice and adoration of the gods to wit in word and mouth onely pronouncing and naming in semblance and outward appearance that which by their principles and doctrines they quite abolish and anull And even so that which is borne they terme Nature and that which is engendred Generation like as they who ordinarily call the frame of wood and timber Wood it selfe and those voices or instruments that accord together Symphonie And what should he meane to object such speech against Empedocles Why trouble we and weary our selves quoth he in being so busie about our owne selves in desiring certeine things as we doe and avoiding others for neither are we our selves neither live we by using others But be of good cheere may one haply say my loving and sweet Colotarion have no feare man no man hindreth you but that you may regard your selfe teaching that the nature of Colotes is Colotes himselfe and nothing els neither that you need or desire to use certeine things
this day Iolaus because they take him to have beene Hercules his derling in so much as upon his tombe the manner is of lovers to take a corporall oth and assurance of reciprocall Love Moreover it is reported of Apollo that being skilfull in Physicke he saved the life of Alcestis being desperatly sicke for to gratifie Admetus who as he loved her intirely being his wife so he was as tenderly beloved of him For the Poets doe fable that Apollo being inamoured for pure Love Did serve Admetus one whole yeere As one that his hir'd servant were And here it falleth out in some sort well that we have made mention of Alcestis for albeit women have ordinarily much dealing with Mars yet the ravishment and furious fits of Love driveth them otherwhiles to enterprise somewhat against their owne nature even to voluntarie death and if the ãâã fables are of any credit and may goe currant for trueth it is evident by such reports as goe of Alcestis of Protesilaus and Euridice the wife of Orpheus that Pluto obeieth no other god but onely Love nor doth what they command And verily howsoever in regard of all other gods as Sophocles saith He cannot skill of equity of favour and of grace But onely with him Iustice straight and rigour taketh place Yet he hath good respect and reverence to lovers and to them alone he is not implacable nor inflixible And therefore a good thing it is my friend I confesse to be received into the religious confraternity of the Eleusinian mysteries but I see that the votaries professed in Love are in the other world in better condition accepted with Pluto And this I say as one who neither am too forward in beleeving such fables of Poets nor yet so backward as to distrust and discredit them all for I assure you they speake well and by a certaine divine fortune and good hap they hit upon the trueth saying as they do that ãâã but lovers returne from hell unto this light againe but what way and how they wot not as wandring indeed and missing of the right path which plato of all men first by the meanes of philosophy found out and knew And yet among the Aegyptians fables there be certaine small slender and obscure shadowes of the truth dispersed here an there Howbeit they had need of an expert and well experienced hunter who by small tracts knoweth how to trace and finde out great matters And therefore let us passe them over And now that I have discoursed of the force and puissance of Love being so great as it appeareth I come now to examine and consider the bountie and liberality thereof to mankinde not whether it conferre many benefits upon them who are acquainted with it and make use thereof for notable they be and well knowen to all men but whether it bringeth more and greater commodity to those that are studious of it and be amorous For Euripides howsoever he were a great favourit of Love yet so it is that he promised and admired that in it which of all others is least namely when he said Love teacheth Musicke marke when you will Though one before thereof had no skill For he might as well have said that it maketh a man prudent and witty who before was dull and foolish yea valiant as hath ãâã said who before was a coward like as they that by putting into fire burning peeces of wood make them firme and straight where as they were before weake and tender Semblably every amorous person becommeth liberall and magnificent although he had beene aforetime a pinching snudge For this base avarice and micherie waxeth soft and melteth by love like as iron in the fire in such sort as men take more pleasure to give away and bestow upon those whom they love than they doe to take and receive of others For yee all know well how Anytus the sonne of Anthenion was inamoured upon Alcebiades and when he had invited certaine friends and guests of his unto a sumptuous and stately feast in his house Alcibiades came thither in a maske to make pastime and after he had taken with him one halfe of the silver cups that stood upon the boord before them went his waies which when the guests tooke not well but said that the youth had behaved himselfe vere proudly and malipertly toward him Not so quoth Anytus for he hath dealt very courteously with me in that when he might have gone away withall he left thus much behinde for me Zeuxippus taking ioy hereat O Hercules quoth he you want but a little of ridding quite out of my heart that hereditary hatred derived and received from our ancestors which I have taken against Anytus in the behalfe of Socrates and Philosophie in case he were so kinde and courteous in his love Be it so quoth my father but let us proceed Love is of this nature that it maketh men otherwise melancholicke austere and hard to be pleased or conversed withall to become more sociable gentle and pleasant for as ye know well enough More stately is that house in sight Wherein the fire burnes cleere and bright and even so a man is more lightsome and jocund when he is well warmed with the heat of love But the vulgar sort of men are in this point somewhat perversly affected and beside all reason for if they see a flashing celestiall light in an house by night they take it to be some divine apparition and woonder thereat but when they see a base vile abject mind suddenly replenished with courage libertie magnificence desire of honour with grace favour and liberality they are not forced to say as Telemachus did in Homer Certes some god I know full well Is now within and here doth dwell And is not this also quoth Daphnaeus tell me I pray you for the love of all the Graces an effect of some divine cause that a lover who regardeth not but despiseth in a maner all other things I say not his familiar friends onely his fellowes and domesticall acquaintance but the lawes also and magistrates kings and princes who is afraid of nothing admireth esteemeth and observeth nothing and is besides so hardy as to present himselfe before the flashing shot of piercing lightning so soone as ever he espieth his faire love Like to some cocke of cravain ãâã le ts fall Or hangs the wing and daunted is withall He droups I say his courage is cooled his heart is done and all his animositie quailed quite And heere it were not impertinent to the purpose to make mention of Sappho among the Muses The Romans write in their history that Cacus the sonne of Vulcane breathed and flashed flames of fire from his mouth And in trueth the words that Sappho uttereth be mixed with fire and by her verses testifieth the ardent and flaming heat of her heart Seeking for love some cure and remedy By pleasant sound of Muses melodie as Philoxenus writeth But Daphnaeus unlesse peradventure the
stranger followed after a man of a good and ingenious countenance to see to and who carried in his visage great mildnesse and humanity besides went in his apparel very gravely and decently Now when he had taken his place and was set downe close unto Simmias and my brother next unto me and all the rest as every one thought good after silence made Simmias addressing his speech unto my brother Go to now Epaminondas quoth he what stranger is this from whence commeth he and what may be his name for this is the ordinary beginning and usuall entrance to farther knowledge and acquaintance His name quoth my brother is Theanor ô Simmias a man borne in the city Croton one of them who in those parts professe Philosophy and ãâã not the glory of great Pythagoras but is come hither from out of Italy a long journey to confirme by good works his good doctrine and profession But you Epaminondas your selfe quoth the stranger then hinder me from doing of all good deeds the best For if it be an honest thing for a man to doe good unto his friends dishonest it cannot be to receive good at their hands for in thanks there is as much need of a receiver as of a giver being a thing composed of them both and tending to a vertuous worke and he that receiveth not a good turne as a tennis ball fairely sent unto him disgraceth it much suffring it to fall short and light upon the ground For what marke is there that a man shooteth at which he is so glad to hit and so sory to misse as this that one worthy of a benefit good turne he either hath it accordingly or faileth thereof unworthily And yet in this comparison he that there in shooting at the marke which standeth still and misseth it is in fault but heere he who refuseth and flieth from it is he that doth wrong and injury unto the grace of a benifit which by his refusall it cannot attaine to that which it tendeth unto As for the causes of this my voiage hither I have already shewed unto you and desirous I am to rehearse them againe unto these gentlemen heere present that they may be judges in my behalfe against you When the colledges and societies of the Pythagorean Philosophers planted in every city of our country were expelled by the strong hand of the seditious faction of the Cyclonians when those who kept still together were assembled and held a counsell in the city of Metapontine the seditious set the house on fire on every side where they were met and burnt them altogether except Philolaus and Lysis who being yet yong active and able of body put the fire by and escaped through it And Phylolaus being retired into the countrey of the Laconians saved himselfe among his friends who began already to rally themselves and grow to an head yea and to have the upper hand of the said Cyclonians As for Lysis long it was ere any man knew what was become of him untill such time as Gorgias the Leontine being sailed backe againe out of Greece into Sicelie brought certeine newes unto Arcesus that he had spoken with Lysis and that he made his abode in the city of Thehes Whereupon Arcesus minded incontinently to embarke and take the sea so desirous he was to see the man but finding himselfe for feeblenesse and age together very unable to persorme such a voiage he tooke order expresly upon his death bed with his friends to bring him over alive if it were possible into Italie or at leastwise if haply he were dead before to convey his bones and reliques over But the warres seditions troubles and tyrannies that came betweene and were in the way expeached those friends that they could not during his life accomplish this charge that he had laied upon them but after that the spirit or ghost of Lysis now departed appearing visibly unto us gave intelligence of his death and when report was made unto us by them who knew the certeine trueth how liberally he was enterteined and kept with you ô Polymnis and namely in a poore house where he was held and reputed as one of the children and in his old age richly mainteined and so died in blessed estate I being a yoong man was sent alone from many others of the ancient sort who have store of money and be willing to bestow the same upon you who want it in recompense of that great favor and gracious friendship of yours extended to him As for Lysis worshipfully he was enterred by you and bestowed in an honourable sepulchre but yet more honourable for him will be that courtesie which by way of recompense is given to his friend by other friends of his and kinsfolke Whiles the stranger spake thus the teares trickled downe my fathers cheeks and he wept a good while for the remembrance of Lysis But my brother smiling upon me as his maner was How shall we do now Caphisias quoth he shall we cast off and abandon our poverty for money and so say no more but keepe silence In no wise quoth I let us not quit and forsake our olde friend and so good a fostresse of yoong folke but defend you it for your turne it is now to speake And yet I quoth he my father feare not that our house is pregnable for money unlesse it be in regard onely of Caphisias who may seeme to have some need of a faire robe to shew himselfe brave and gallant unto those that make love unto him who are in number so many as also of plenty of viands and food to the end that he may endure the toile and travell of bodily exercises and combats which he must abide in the wrestling schooles But seeing this other heere of whom I had more distrust doth not abandon povertie nor reseth out the hereditary indigence of his father house as a tincture and unseemly slaine but although he be yet a yoong man reputeth himselfe gaily set out and adorned with srugality taking a pride therein and resting contented with his present fortunes Wherein should we any more employ out gold and silver if we had it and what use are we to make of it What would you have us to gild our armor and cover our shields as Nicias the Athenian did with purple and gold intermingled therewith And shall we buy for you father a faire mantle of the fine rich cloth of Miletus and for my mother a trim coat of scarlet coloured with purple For surely we will never abuse this present in pampering our bellie feasting our selves and making more sumptuous cheere than ordinary by receiving riches into our house as a costly and chargeable guest Fie upon that my sonne quoth my father God forbid I should ever see such a change in mine house Why quoth he againe we will not sit stil in the house keeping riches with watch and ward idle for so the benefit were not beneficiall but without all grace and
Nisus 893.20 Abyrtacae 703.50 Academiques 1122.30 Acca Larentia one a courtisane and another the nourse of Romulus Remus 862.30 Acca Larentia honored at Rome 862.20.30 Acca Larentia surnamed Fabula how she came renowmed 862.30 Inheritresse to Taruntius 863.1 made Rome her heire ib. Acco and Alphito 1065.1 Acephati verses in Homer 140.20 Acesander a Lybian Chronicler 716.30 Acheron what it signifieth 515.50 Achilles well seene in Physicke 34.30 729.50 Praiseth himselfe without blame 304.50 commended for avoiding occasions of anger 40.50 his continencie 43.30 charged by Vlysses for sitting idlely in Scytos 46.1 of an implacable nature 720.10 noted for anger ãâã 24.26 he loved not wine-bibbing 720.20 whom he invited to the funerall feast of Patroclus 786.40 noted for his fell nature 106.40 his discretion betweene Menelaus and Antilochus 648.30 he kept an hungrie table 750.1 he digested his choler by Musicke 1261.40 noted for a wanton Catamite 568.30 killed by Paris 793.50 Achillium 899.1 Achrades wilde peares 903.40 Acidusa 901.20 Acratisma that is to say a breakfast whereof it is derived 775.20 Acratisma and Ariston supposed to be both one 775.30 Acroames or Ear-sports which be allowed at supper time 758.30 Acron the Physician how he cured the plague 1319.1 Acrotatus his Apophthegmes 453.10 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who they be 604.20 Actaeon the sonne of Melissus a most beautifull youth his pitifull death 945.30 945.40 Action all in all in Eloquence 932.1 Actus the dogge of one Pyrrhus 963.40 Active life 9.40 Ada Queene of Caria 596.20 Ades what it signifieth 608.30 1000.10 Adiaphora 69.1 Adimantus a noble captaine debased by Herodotus 1243.30.40 what names Adimantus gave unto his children 1244.20 Adipsa 339.1 Admetus 1146 Admirable things not to be discredited 723.1 Admiration of other men in a meane 55.20 to Admire nothing Niladmirari 59 Adonis thought to be Bacchus 711.40 Adrastia 557.40 1050.20 Adrastia and Atropos whereof derived 1080.30 Adrastus reviled by Alcmaeon 240.30 he requiteth Alcmaeon ib. Adulterie of Mars and Venus in Homer what it signifieth 25.10 Adulterie strange in Sparta 465.10 Aeacium a priviledged place 933.50 Aeacus a judge of the dead 532.20 Aeantis a tribe at Athens 659.40 never adjudged to the ãâã place 659.50 highly praised 660.20 whereof it tooke the name ib. 40 Aegeria the nymph 633.30 Aegipan 913.1 Aegipans whence they come 568.50 Aegles wings consume other feathers 723.20 Aegon how he came to be king of the Argives 1281.1 Aegyptians neither sowe nor eat beanes 777.20 Aegyptian priestes absteine from salt 728.1 and sish 778.30 Aegyptian kings how chosen 1290.40 Aegypt in old time Sea 1303.40 Aemylij who they were called 917.30 Aemilius a tyrant 916.40 Aemilius Censorinus a bloudie prince 917.20 Aemilius killeth himselfe 912.30 Aeneas at sacrifice covered his head 854.1 Aeneans their wandering their voiage 891.50 896.10.20 Aeolies who they be 899.30 Aequality which is commendable 768.1 Aequality 679.30 Aequality of sinnes held by Stoiks 74.40 Aequinoctiall circle 820.40 Aeschines the oratour his parentage 926.40 Aeschines the oratour first acted tragoedies 926.50 his emploiments in State affaires 927.1 banished 927.10 his oration against Ctesiphon ib. 20. his saying to the Rhodians as touching Demosthenes ib. his schole at Rhodes ib. his death ib. his orations ib. 30. he endited Timarchus ib. 40. his education and first rising 927.30.40 Aescre what fiend or Daemon 157.30 Aeschylus wrote his tragoedies being well heat with wine 763.40 his speech of a champion at the Isthmicke games 39.10 his tragoedies conceived by the insluence of Bacchus ib. entombed in a strange countrey 277.20 Aesculapius the patron of ãâã 997.20 his temple why without the citie of Rome 881.1 Aesops fox and the urchin 392.20 Aesope with his tale 330.30 his fable of the dog 338.20 Aesope executed by the Delphians 549.10 his death revengeà and expiated ib. 20. Aesops hen and the cat 188.50 Aesops dogs and the skins 1091.20 Aethe a faire mare 43.20.565.40 Aether the skie 819.10 In Aethiopia they live not long 849.50 Aetna full of flowers 1011.10 Affabilitie commendeth children and yoong folke 12.1 commendable in rulers 378.30 Affections not to be cleane rooted out 76.40 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what day it was 785.1 Agamedes Trophonius built the temple at Delphi 1518.20 Agamemnon clogged with cares 147.50 Agamemnon noted for Paederastie 568.30 Agamemnon murdered treacherously 812.1 noted in Homer for pride 24.10 Agamemnon his person how compounded 1284.1 Agamestor how he behaved himselfe at a mery meeting 653.10 Aganide skilfull in Astronomie 324.40 Agathocles his Apophthegmes 407.40 being of base parentage he came to be a great Monarch 307.40 his patience 126.1 Agave enraged 314.1 Aged rulers ought to be mild unto yoonger persons growing up under them 398.10 Aged rulers paterns to yoonger 392.40 Age of man what it is 1328.1 Agenor his sacred grove 903.30 Agenorides an ancient Physician 683.40 Agesicles his apophthegms 444.1 Agesilaus the brother of Themistocles his valour and resolution 906.40.50 K. Agesilaus fined for giving presents to the Senatours of Sparta newly created 179.20 he avoided the occasions of wantonnesse 41. 10. his lamenesse 1191.20 of whom he desired to be commended 92. 30. his Apophthegmes 424. 10. he would have no statues made for him after his death ib. 50. commended in his olde age by Xenophon 385.1 Agesilaus the Great his Apophthegmes 444.10 Agesilaus noted for partialitie 445.50 his sober diet 446.10 his continencie 445. 20. his sufferance of paine and travell 446.10 his temperance ib. 30 his faithfull love to his countrey 450. 1. his tendernesse over his children ib. his not able stratageme 451.10 he served under K. Nectanebas in Aegypt 451.20 his death ib. 30. his letter for a friend to the perverting of justice 360.10 too much addicted to his friends 359.50 K. Agesipolis his Apophthegms 451.40 Agesipolis the sonne of Pausanias his Apophthegmes 451.50 Agias given to bellie cheere 679.20 Agis a worthy prince 400.30 his Apophthegmes 423.40 Agis the yonger his Apophthegms 425.1 Agis the sonne of Archidamus his Apophthegmes 452.1 Agis the yonger his apophthegms 452.50 Agis the last king of the Lacedaemonians his apophthegmes 453.1 his death ib. Agis the Argive a cunning flatterer about K. Alexander the Great 98.20 Aglaonice well seene in Astrologie how she deluded the wives of Thessalie 1329.10 Agrioma a feast 899.40 Agronia 765.30 Agroteros 1141.20 Agrotera a surname of Diana 1235.20 Agrypina talkative 206.30 Ajax Telamonius how he came in the twentieth place to the lotterie 790.50 his feare compared with that of Dolon 74.50 Aigos Potamoi 1189.30 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what place 821.1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it signifieth 788.40 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it signifieth in some Poets 29.40 Ainautae who they be 897.50 Aire how made 808.40 the primitive colde 995.40 Aire or Spirit the beginning of all things 806.1 why called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 995.50 Aire the very body and substance of voice 771.1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it signifieth in Homer 737.1 Aix 891.10 Al what parts it hath
1031.30 Ale a counterfeit wine 685.40 Alalcomenae the name of a citie in Ithacesia 901.40 Alalcomenion in Boeotia ib. Alastor 896.1 Alastores 1330.40 Alcamenes his Apophthegmes 453.20 Alcathoe 899.30 Alcestis cured by Apollo 1146.30 Alcibiades of loose behaviour 350.50 Alcibiades a not able flatterer 88.50 his apophthegmes 419.30 he had no good utterance 252.10 Alcioneus the sonne of K. Antigonus a forward knight 530.1 Alcippus and his daughters their pitifull historie 948.10 Alcyons the birds 615.20 Alcyon a bird of the sea of a wonderfull nature 977.30 how she builds her nests 218.10 Alcmaeonidae debased and traduced by Herodotus 1231.20 Alcman the Poet. 270.40 Alcmenaes tombe opened 1206.1 Alenas how declared K. of Thessalie 191.1 K. Alexander the great winketh at his sisters follies 372.50 his respect to Timoclia 504. 1. his apophthegmes 411.10 his magnanimitie ib. his activitie ib. his continencie ib. his magnificence ib. his bountie and liberalitie 411.30 he noteth the Milesians ib. 40. his gratious thankefulnes to Tarrias 1279.50 his frugalitie and sobrietie in diet 412.10 entituled Jupiter Ammons sonne ib. 20. he reprooveth his flatterers ib. he pardoneth an Indian his archer 413.10 his censure of Antipater 412.30 his continence ib. 40. he presumeth not to be compared with Hercules 413.30 his respect of those who were in love 412.40.50 whereby he acknowledged himselfe mortall 105.20.766.30 he honored Craterus most and affected Hephestion best 413.40 his death day observed 766.1 his demeanour to king Porus. 413.40 his ambitious humour 147.40 639.20 he used to sit long at meat 655.10 he dranke wine liberally ib. he wisheth to be Diogenes 296.20 his flesh yeelded a sweet smell 655.10 his moderate cariage to Philotas 1280.20.30 he died with a surfet of drinking 613.20 how he was crossed by Fortune 1283.20 he would not see King Darius his wife a beautifull Lady 142.20 he was favorable to other mens loves 1280. 1. his picture drawen by Apelles 1274.50 his statue cast in brasse by Lysippus ib. his bounty to Persian women 487.1 whether he were given to much drinking 655.10 he intended a voyage into Italie 639.20 his sorrow compared with that of Plato 75.1 he forbeareth the love of Antipatrides 1145.1 he contesteth with Fortune 1264. 30. how hee reprooved his flatterers 1282.1 Alexander nothing beholden to Fortune 1264.40 Alexander his misfortunes and crosses in warre 1264.40.50 The meanes that Alexander had to conquer the world 1265.40 how he enterteined the Persian ambassadours in his fathers absence 1283.10 what small helps he had by Fortune 1265.30 Alexander the great a Philosopher 1266.10 he is compared with Hercules 1282.40 how he joined Persia Greece together 1267.40 his adverse fortune in a towne of the Oxydrates 1284.50 Epigrams and statues of him 1269.10.20 his hopes of conquest whereupon grounded 1283.40 his apophthegmes 1269.30 his kindnes and thankefulnes to Aristotle his master 1270.10 how he honored Anaxarchus the Musician ib. his bounty to Pyrrho and others ib. his saying of Diogenes ib. his many vertues joined together in his actions 1270.10 he espoused Roxane 1278.50 his behavior toward the dead corps of King Darius 1271.10 his continency ib. 20. 1279.1 his liberalitie compared with others 1271.30 his affection to good arts and Artisans 1274.20 his answere ãâã the famous architect Staficrates 1275.40 he graced Fortune 1276.40 his sobriety and milde cariage of himselfe 1278.1 his temperance in diet 1278.50 his exercises and recreations ib. he espoused Statira the daughter of Darius 1278.50 his hard adventures and dangers 1281.30 compared with other Princes 1284.10 Alexander Tyrant of Pherae his bloudy minde 1273.30 Alexander Tyrant of Pherae 428.10 killed by Pytholaus 1155.20 Alexander the ãâã 6 9.20 Alexandridas his apophthegmes 453.30 Alexidimus bastard son of Thrasibulus 329.20 Alexis on old Poet. 385.50 what pleasures he admitteth for principall 27.40 Alibantes 989.50 Alibas what body 785.20 Alimon a composition 338.40 Alima 339.1 Aliterij who they were 143.50 Aliterios 896.1 Allegories in Poets 25.1 Allia field 859.20.637.20 Alliensis dies 858.30 Almonds bitter prevent drunkennesse 656.1 they kill foxes 16.30 their vertues and properties otherwise 656.10 Aloiadae what Gyants 1175.20 Alosa a fish 953.20 Alphabet letters coupled together how many sillables they will make 782.30 Alpheus the river of what vertue the water is 1345.1 Altar of hornes in Delos a woonder 978.20 Altar of Jupiter Idaeus 908.1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of divers significations 29.20 Alysson the herbe what vertues it hath 684.40 Alynomus how he came to be K. of Paphos 1281.20 K. Amasis honoureth Polycritus his sister and mother 505.20 Ambar how it draweth strawes c. 1022.40 Ambition defined 374.50 Ambitious men forced to praise themselves 597.10 Ambrosia 338.10.1177.30 Amenthes what it ãâã 1299.20 Amoebaeus the Musician 67.10 Amestris sacrificed men for the prolonging of her life 268.20 Amethyst stones why so called 684.1 their vertue 18.50 Amiae or Hamiae certeine fishes whereof they take their name 974.30 Amity and Enmity the beginning of all things 888.1 Aminocles enriched by shipwracks 1237.30 Amnemones who they be 889.20 Amoun and Ammon names of Jupiter 1291.1 Amphiaraus 908.20 Amphiaraus commended 419.10 he comforteth the mother of Archemorus 43.1 520.50 Amphictyones 390.40 Amphidamas his funerals 716.20 Amphidamas 334.40 Amphithea killeth her selfe 914.10 Amphion of what Musicke he was author 1249.20 Amphissa women their vertuous act 491.20 Amphitheus delivered out of prison 1226.20 Amphitrite a name of the sea 1317.20 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it is 687.20 Anacampserotes what plants 1178.50 Anacharsis the Philosopher had no certaine place of abode 336.1 put his right hand to his mouth c. 195.40 Anacreon his odes 759.1 Anaxagoras his opinion of the first principle of all things 806.10 how he tooke the death of his sonne 529.10.132.1 why he was thought impious 266.20 Anaxander his apophthegmes and epigrams 453.50 Anaxarchus tortured by Nicocreon 75.10 he flattereth Alexander 295.20 reproved by Timon 70.50 a loose and intemperate person 752.1 Anaxilas his apophthegmes 453.50 Anaximander his opinion of men and fish 780.10 his opinion of the first principle 805.50 his opinion of God 812.1 Anaxemenes confuted by Aristotle 995.1 his opinion of the first principle 806.1 Anchucus the sonne of Midas his resolute death 908.1 Ancient men how to accept of dignities 396.50 Ancus Martius king of Rome 631.1 Andorides the oratour his parentage acts and life 920.40 accused for impiety ib. acquit 921.1 he saved his owne father from death ib. a great statist and a merchant besides ib. 10. arrested by the K. of Cyprus ib. 20. banished ib. his orations and writings 921.30 when he flourished ib. Andreia 762.1 Androclidas his apophthegmes 454.1 Androcides how he painted the gulfe of Scylla 705.30 Anger the sinewes of the soule 75. 10. how it differeth from other passions 119. 20. 30. how it may be quenched and appeased 120.10 how set on fire ib. 20. compared with other passions 121.10.20 c. who are not subject unto it 123.50.124.1 mixed with other passions 131.10 to prevent it as great
a vertue as to bridle it 40.30 to be repressed at the first 120.30 upon what subject it worketh 121.30 how it altereth countenance voice and gesture 122.1.10 compounded of many passions 131.10 it banisheth reason 542.20 Angle lines why made of stone-horse tailes 971.10.1008.40 Anio the river whereof it tooke the name 917.40 Animall creatures subject to generation and corruption 846.30 of sundry sorts ib. 50 Annibal his apophthegme of Fab. Maximus 429.10.20 he scoffeth at soothsaying by beasts entrals 279.20 vanquished in Italie 637.1 Anointing in open aire forbidden at Rome 864.30 Anointing against the fire and sun 620.30 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1166.10 Answers to demaunds how to be made 204.30.40 of three sorts 205.40 Antagoras a poet 415.10 Antagoras a stout shepheard 905.20 Antahidas his apophthegmes 425.30.454.10 how he retorted a scoffe upon an Athenian 363.50 his apophthegme to K. Agesilaus 423.1 Antarctike pole 820.40 Anthes and Anthedonia 894.20 Anthes an auncient Musician 1249.30 Anthedon what it is 894.10 Anthias the fish why called sacred 976.1 Anthisterion what moneth 785.1 Anticlia the mother of Vlysses 901.40 Antigenes enamored upon Telesippe was kindly used by King Alexander 1280.1 Antigonus the elder how he tooke his sonnes death 530.1 being an aged king yet governed well 395.50 his answere unto a Sophister 1268.50 Antigonus the yoonger his brave speech of himselfe 909.1 his apophthegmes 415.40 his piety and kindnesse to his father ib. Antigonus the third his apophthegmes 416.10 his continencie ib. 20 Antigonus the elder his justice 414.30 his patience ib. 40. his magnificence ib. he reprooveth a Rhetorician 414.50 reproved by the Poet Antagoras 415.10 his apophthegmes 414.10 his martiall justice ib. warie to prevent the ocasion of sinne ib. 20. what use he made of his sicknes 414.30 his counsell to a captaine of his garison 1137.20 he acknowledgeth his mortality ib. how he repressed his anger 124.30 his patience 126.1 his secrecy 197.30 his answer to an impudent begger 167.20 Antiochus one of the Ephori his apophthegme 425.30.454.20 K. Antiochus Hierax loving to his brother Seleucus 416.20 he loved to be called Hierax 968.50 Antiochus the great his apophthegmes 417.10 he besiegeth Hierusalem and honoureth a feast of the Jewes ib. 20 Antipater Calamoboas a Philosopher 207.30 Antipater his bash fulnesse cause of his death 165.30.40 his answer to Phocion 103.30 Antipatrides rebuked by K. Alexander the great 1145.1 Antiperistasis what effects it worketh 1021.50 Antiphera an Acolian borne maid servant of Ino. 855.40 Antipho the oratour his pregnant wit 918.50 his parentage and life 418.40 he penned orations for others 919.1 he wrote the institutions of oratorie 919.10 for his eloquence surnamed Nestor 919.10 his stile and maner of writing and speaking ib. the time wherein he lived ib. 20. his martiall acts ib. his Embassie ib. condemned and executed for a traitour ib. 30. his apophthegme to Denys the Tyrant ib. 40. how many orations he made ib. he wrote tragoedies ib. he professed himselfe a Physician of the soule ib. 50 other works and treatises of his 920.1 the judiciall processe and decree of his condemnation ib. 10. inconsiderate in his speech before Denys 108.1 Antipathies of divers sorts in nature 676.20 Antisthenes what he would have us to wish unto our enemies 1276.1 Antipodes 825.30.1164.10 Antisthenes his answer 364.20 his apophthegme 240.50 a great peace maker 666.1 Antitheta 988.10 Anton. 1145.40 Antonius his overthrow by Cleopatra 632.1 enamoured of Queene Cleopatra 99. 20. abused by flatterers ib. 93.50 Antron Coratius his history 851.20 Anubis borne 1293.20 Anytus loved Alcibiades 1147.10 Anytus a sycophant 300.10 Aorne a strong castle 413.30 Apathies what they be 74.20 Apaturia a feast 1232.1 Apeliotes what wind 829.30 Apelles his apophthegme to a painter 8.30 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what feat of activity 716.40 Aphabroma what it is 893.20 Aphester who he is 889. Apioi 903.40 Apis how ingendred 766.40 killed by Ochus 1300.1 Apis how he is interred 1301.20 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what daunces 1251.30 Apollo why called Delius and Pythius 608.30 he wan the prize personally 773.1 a favorer of games of prize ib. 10. surnamed Pyctes ib. 20 Apollo the Runner ib. surnamed Paean Musegetes 797.20 Apollo when borne 766.10 why named Hebdomagines 766.20 his two nourses Alethia and Corythalia 696.1 why surnamed Loxias 103.30 Apollo painted with a cocke on his hand 1194.20 Apollo the authour of Musicke 1252.50 his image in Delos how portraied 1253.1 Apollo what attributes he hath and the reason therof 1353.50 Apollo affectionate to Logicke as well as to Musicke 1356.30 Apollo and Bacchus compared together 1348.1.10.20 Apollo why he is so called 1362.30 why he is called Iuios ib. why Phoebus ib. Apollo and the Sunne supposed to be both one 1362.40 Apollo compared with Pluto 1363.10 Apollodorus troubled in conscience 547.1 Apollodorus an excellent painter 982.20 Queene Apollonis rejoiced in the love of her brethren 176.40 Apollonius the physician his counsell for leane folke 1004.30 Apollonius his son coÌmeÌded 530 Apollonius kinde to his brother Sotion 185.40 Aposphendoneti who they be 890.50 Apotropaei what gods they be 756.1 Appius Claudius the blinde 397.20 his speech in the Senate ib. Application of verses and sentences in Poets 45.30 April consecrated to Venus 879.30 Apopis the brother of the Sunne 1302.10 Apples why named ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 726.30 Apple trees why called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 726 Araeni Acta what it is 897.20 Arcadians repute themselves most ancient 881.1 Arcesilaus sunne of Battus unlike to his father 504.20 surnamed Chalepos ib. poisoned by Laarchus ib. Arcesilaus the Philosopher defended against Colotes 1123.40 he shutteth Battus out of his schoole 92. 20. his patience 129.20 a true friend to Apelles 102.30 Archelaus king of Macedonie his answere to Timotheus the Musician 1273.50 Archestratus a fine Poet not regarded 1273.10 Archias ãâã Spartan honoured by the Samians 1233.20 Archias the Corinthian his notorius outrage 945.40 Archias murdered by Telephus his minion 946.1 he built Syracusa in Sicily ib. Archias Phygadotheres a notable catchpol 936.20 Archias an high priest 1225.1 Archias the ruler of the Thebans negligent of the state 650.30 Archias tyrannized in Thebes 1204. 10. killed by Melon 1225.20 Archelaus his opinion of the first principles 806.30 K. Archelaus how he served an impudent craver 167.10 his apophthegme 408.1 Archidamus his apothegme 425.1.423.20 Archidamus the son of Zeuxidamus his apophthegmes 454.50 Archidamus the sunne of Agesilaus his apophthegmes 455.20 K. Archidamus fined for marying a little woman 2.40 Archilochus an ancient poet and musician 1250.20 Archilochus what he added to musicke 1257.10 Archimedes how studious in geometrie 387.10.590.10 Archiptolemus condemned and executed with Antiphon 920.10.20.30 Architas represseth his anger 542.30 his patience 12.40 Arctique pole 820.40 Arctos the beare a starre representeth Typhon 1295.50 Ardalus 330.30 Ardetas a lover 1145.50 Aretaphila her vertuous deede 498.10 her defence for suspicion of preparing poison to kill her husband 499.1 Argei at Rome what images 861.30 Argileonis the mother
her daughters their wofull end 948.40 Democritus studious in searching the causes of things 660. ãâã Democritus commended 1128.1 his opinion as touching dreames 784.20 his opinion as touching Atomes 807. 40. what he thought of God 812.1 Democritus a brave captaine et sea 1242. ãâã Demodorus an ancient Musician 1249.40 Demonides his shoes 23.10 Demosthenes the oratour never dranke wine 792.50 he loved not to speak unpremeditate 355 10. his parentage education and life 930.50 he called judicially to account his tutors or Guardian 931.10 he sued Midias in an action of battery 931.20 his painfull studie ib. how he corrected his evill gestures ib. 30. his defects in nature ib. 40. his exercise of declaiming by the seaside ib. he sided against the faction of K. Philip. 931.40 encouraged by Eunomus and Andronicus ib. 50. his speech of Action in eloquence 932.1 flowted by Comicall Poets for his broad othes in pleading 932.1 he mainteineth the pronouncing ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with the accent over the second syllable 932.10 Demosthenes dashed Lamachus out of countenance 932.20 commended by K. Philip for his eloquence 932.20 his kindnesse unto Aeschines 932.40 disgraced at his first comming to the barre 398.20 accused and quit ib. his timorousnesse ib. 50. his Motor device upon his targuet ib. not blamed in his orations for praising himself 304.50.305.1 his imploiment and good service in the Common weale 933.1 his honours that he obteined ib. 10. noted for bribery and corruption ib. 20. condemned and banished ib. recalled home by a publique decree ib. 30. he flieth and taketh Sanctuary ib. 40. his answer as touching premeditate speech 8.1 his statue with his owne Epigram 934. 10. his death ib. his issue ib. 30. honours done unto him after death ib. 40. he first made an oration with a sword by his side 934.30 his orations ib. 50. surnamed Batalus for his riotous life ib. scoffed at by Diogenes the Cynicke 935.1 his tale of the asse and the shadow 935. 10. his apophthegme to Polus the great actour 935.20 he studied his orations much ib. 30. how he tooke the death of his only daughter 529.40 Denary or Ten the perfection of numbers 806.40 Deniall of unjust and unlawfull requests 170.20 Denys the Tyrant 296.40 Denys of Sicily abused by slatterers 93.40 how he served a minstrell 56.1 Denys the tyrants wife and children cruelly abused by the Italians 377.1 his cruelty to Philoxenus the Poet. 1274.1 Denys the elder could not abide idlenesse 394.30 how he named his three daughters 1278.30 his witty apophthegmes 406.10 the yoonger his apophthegmes 407.20 his apophthegme 1268.50 his base nigardise to an excellent Musician 1273.30 his proud vain-glory 1278.20 Dercillidas his apophthegmes 456.30 Deris what Daemon 157.30 Destinies three 797.40 Destiny or fatall necessitie 816.40 what it is 817.1 substance thereof what it is ib. 50 Deucalion his deluge 961.50 Dexicreon a cousening Mount-banke or Merchant venturer 904.1 Diagoras of Melos 810.40 ãâã in ãâã of two sorts 758.40 whether they ought to be rehearsed at supper time 759.50 Dianaes temple at Rome why men do not enter into 851.10 Diana but one 796.20 the same that the Moone 697.20 her attributes given by Timotheus 28.10 her temple within the Aventine hill why beautified with Cowes hornes 851.20 Diana Chalceoecos 455.10 surnamed Dictynna 978.40 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã how defined 953.1 Diapason what symphonie in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente what symphony in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diaphantus his apophthegme 2.30 Diatessaron what symphony in Musicke 1035.50 Diatessaron in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diatonique Musicke 796.40 Diatrion in tempering wine and water 695.20 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 736.50 ãâã the citie perished 1190.20 Dice 295.20.557.50 Dictamnus the herbe medicinable 968.20 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 785.20 Diesis 1037.40 Diet exquisit condemned 617.40 620.20 Diet for sicke persons 611.40 Diet for men in health 612.10 Diet physicke taught us by brute beasts 969.10 Differring of punishmeÌt 540.1.10 Digestion of meats how hindered 701.1.10 Diligence supplieth the defect of nature 3.20 the power thereof ib. 30 Dinaea what Daemon 157.30 Dinarchus the orator his life and acts 937.30 his voluntary extle ib. 50 Dino a great captaine 901.30 Dinomenes what oracle he received as touching his sonnes 1197 20 Diogenes smote the master for the scholars misbehaviour 81.40 his free speech to K. Philip. 111.10 Diogenes the Sinopian a Philosopher abandoned the world 249.20 Diogenes compared himselfe with the great king of Persia. 250.1 Diogenes the Cynicke his apophthegme unto a boy drunken 250 Diogenes his patience 128.20 his speech to a yoonker within a Taverne 254.30 Diogenes the Cynicke his answer as touching his banishment 273 20. he contemned slavery 299.20 Diogenes master to Antisthenes 666.1 Diogenes rebuketh Sophocles about the mysteries of Ceres 28.10 his apophthegme as touching revenge of an enemie 28.1 concerning fleshly pleasure 6.30 his silthy wantonnes 1069.1 his franke speech to K. Philip 279.10 Diognetus sansieth Polycrite 497.1 Dion how he tooke the death of his owne sonne 525.40 through foolish bashfulnesse came to his death 165. 30. his apophthegmes 408.1 Dionysius See Denys Dionysus Eleutherios 885.1 Dioscuri two starres 822.10 Dioxippus rebuked by Diogenes for his wandering and wanton eie 141.20 his opinion as touching the passage of our meats and drinks 745.1 Dis diapason 1037.30 Discontentednesse in Alexander the great 147.40 Discourse of reason what it is 839 40 Diseases of a strange maner 782.40 Diseases of the body which be worst 313.30 Diseases of the soule woorse than those of the body 313.10 Diseases have their avantcurriers or forerunners 616.20 Diseases how they arise 781.10 Diseases new how they come 781.20 Diseases which were first 782.1 a Dish of sowes paps 613.50 Disme or tenth of goods why offered to Hercules 855.50 Disputation what maner of exercise 619.30 Disputation after meales 622.50 Distances betweene sunne moone and the earth 1165.30 Dithyrambs what verses songs 1358.10 they sort well with Bacchus 1358.10 Diversitie 65.40 Divine what things be called 728 20.30 Divine knowledge or doctrine of the gods seven folde 810.10 Divine providence what it is 1052 50 Divine providence denied by the Epicureans 598.1 Divine service most delectable ib. 40 Divine power author of no ill nor subject thereto 600.1 Divination of many kinds 841.10 Divination ascribed to Bacchus 1764.10 Divination by dreames 784.10 Divination dented by the Epicureans 598.1 Docana what images they were 174.1 Doctrine and life ought to go together 1057.40 Dodecaedron 1020.40.819.20 Dogs sacrificed by the Greeks in all expiations 873.1 odious unto Hercules 880.30 not allowed to come into the castle of Athens 886. 50. esteemed no cleane creatures 887.10 sacrificed to infernall gods and to Mars 887.20 Sea Dogs how kind they be to their yoong ones 218.20.976.40 Dog how subtill he is 959.40 Dogs their admirable qualities 962.20 a Dog discovereth the murderer of his master ib. 30 a Dog detecteth the murder of Hesiodus ib. 40 Dogs gentle and couragious withall 964.10
valiant citizen of Elis. 493.40 he conspired against Aristotimus 494.40 Hemerides 76.50 Hemeris the vine 1141.30 Hemiolion what proportion 1036.50 Hemitonium 1039.20 Hemlock a poison 690.20 Hens having laid an egge turne round about c. 746.10 hardy in defence of their chickens 219 20 Hephaestion inward with king Alexander 412.10.1280.30 rebuked by king Alexander 1277.10 Heptaphonos a gallery in Olympia 192.40 Heraclides surnamed little Hercules a great eater and drinker 655.40 Heraclitus the Philosopher in a dropsie 625.30 Heraclitus his opinion as touching the first principles 807.20 Heraclius the river 908.40 Hercules noted for Paederasty 568 30. with Omphale in habite of awench 386.20 poisoned by Deianira 812.1 one Hercules killed treacherously by Polysperchon 165.40 enraged 165.40.263.20 Hercules disguised in womens apparell 905.30 Hercules sacrificed the tenth cow of Geryons drove 855.50 not sworn by within house at Rome 860.10 hee never sware but once 860.20 Hercules his sexton 862.30 Hercules where most honoured 1180.40 Hercules skilfull in musicke 1262 10 Hercules the Muses why they had one common altar at Rome 870.30 Hercules greater altar 870.40 women participate not of his begetting 630.30 Hergians 902.50 Hermanubis and Anubis 1311.30 Hermes images why so portraied 401.10 Hermione in Euripides 322.40 Hermodotus the poet wisely reprooved by Antigonus 1296.40 Hermogenes his beliefe in the gods 630 Hermodorus Clazomenius his soule how it walked abroad 1200.20.30 Herodotus a Tharian by habitation 277.30 Herodotus the historiographer his malice 1228. c. Herondas his apophthegm 458.1 Herois what feast 891.1 Heroes or demi-gods 1327.1328 Herons how crafty they are to get the meat in oysters 960.10 Hesiodus whose Poet. 459.40 murdered and his murder detected 344.1.10 skilfull in physicke 339.20 Hesychia the priestresse of Minerva 1197.20 Hiere what she is 398.40 K. Hiero his apophthegmes 405.50 noted for a stinking breath 242.1 first an usurper prooved afterwards a good prince 543.20 his wife a simple and chaste dame 242.10 Hieroes statues 1189.30 Hieroglyphicks Aegyptian 1291 20 Hieromnemones 780.1 Hierophoroi 1288.30 Hierostoloi ib. Hierosolymus the sonne of Typhon 1300.1 Himerius a flatterer 98.40 Hinds their naturall subtilty 965.10 Hippalcmus 899.20 Hipparchus troubled in conscience 547.10 Hippasus his opinion of the first principle 807.20 Hippasus dismembred by his mother and aunts 899.30 Hippo the daughter of Scedasus 946,10 Hippochus murdred 485.20 Hippoclides a dauncer 1240.20 Hippocrates confesseth his owne ignorance 254.40 Hippocratides his apophthegme 458.50 Hippodamus his apophthegme 458.40 Hippodamia killeth Chrysippus 915.30 banished by her husband Pelops ib. 40 Hippolochus tooke Lais to wife 1154.10 Hippolitus the sonne of Theseus by Hippolyte 915.50 killed at the request and praier of his father 916.1 Hippona how engendred 914.30 Hipposthenidas his counsell 1215.1 Hippothoros what tune 315.50 751.10 Hircanians sepultures 299.50 Hircanus the dogge of king Lysimachus 963.40 his love unto his master ib. Hister a singular actor 885.50 Histriones ib. HOC AGE ãâã it signifieth 859.10 Hogs why honoured among the Aegyptians 710.30 Holy warre 491.10 Homers Ilias and Odyssea in what steed it stood king Alexander the Great 1265.40 Homer the chiefe ãâã 708.1 Homer whose Poet. 459.40 presuming much of his owne perfection 252.20 commended 24.1.25.1.195.10 his words were said to have motion 1189.40 Homoeomeries 806.10 Homoeoptota 988.10 unto Honor the Romans sacrificed with bare head 854.40 Honoris a temple at Rome 630.50 Honours which be true 375.10 the Honour of old age void of emulation 388.40 Hony best in the bottome of the vessell 747.30 once boiled it is marred 774.10 Hope 15.1 Hope remaineth in Pandoras tun 514.20 holdeth body and soule together longest 709.1 Horatins Cocles 629.30 his valour 909.1 he killeth his sister Horatia 911.20 Hora. 866.50 a Horse why sacrificed at Rome to Mars 882.20 river Horses unnaturall to their parents 954.20 river Horse symbolizeth impudence and vilany 1300.30 Horizon what circle 1305.10 Horne of Apimdance 630.1 Horta a goddesse at Rome 40. her temple open 866. ib. Horus the sonne of Osiris 1294 40. see Orus Hosias who 890.10 Hosioter who it is 890.10 Houndes have the discourse of reason 962.10 Houndes of a brave courage 964 20 House-government 335.50 A House what it is 336.20 What House is best 336.20.30 Hunger whereupon it proceedeth 273.20 allaied by drinke 733.10 Hunting of wilde beasts commended 950.40 Hunting wilde beasts how farre forth tolerable 957.10 Hunting commended above fishing 958.30 Husband prevaile more with their wives by gentlenesse than by roughnesse 317.30 Husband and wife are not to use daliance before strangers much lesse to chide and braule one with another 317.40 The Husband ought to direct and governe the house 317.20 The Husbands example maketh much to the wives behaviour 318.20 The Husbands praeeminence over the wife 317.20.319.1 How he ought to rule over his wife 321.10.20 Hyaenaes skinne not smitten with ãâã 727.20 Hyagnis an ancient Musician 1250.10 Hyanthia a city 893.1 Hybristica what feast 486.30 Hydrophobie when it was discovered first 780.30 Hymenaeus 861.30 Hyms a plough share whereof derived 710.30 Hypate in musicke whereof it is derived 1025.10 Hypate 796.40 Hypates the Thebane killed by conspiratours 1226.10 Hypatos an attribute of Jupiter 1308.1 Hypeccaustria who she was 889.20 Hypaera Hyperes and Hyperia 894.20 Hyperballontes 646.50 Hyperbolus a busy or at our 1228 30 Hyperides the oratour his parentage and life 935.40 Hyperides articleth against Demosthenes 937. 1. his maner of stile and plaine pleading 937.20 his embasage to Rhodes 937.10 he defended Calippus 937. 20. his praise for eloquence 936.40 chosen to accuse Demosthenes 936.1 his orations ib. given exceeding much to the love of women ib. he pleaded for the noble curtisan Phryne 936.50 he secretly framed an accusatory oration against Demosthenes ib. accused and acquit 936.1 he fled and was taken ib. his death 936.20 Hyperochus K. of the Inachians 892.10 Hyprocreteridian in Herodotus 1348.1 Hypocrisie of the Epicureans 595.30 Hyponoeae 25.1 Hyporchemata 801. 10. 1251.30 Hyporchema and Paean differ 1251.40 Hypotinusa 590.10 Hypsipyles foster father 701.20 Hysiris the same that Osiris 1301.10 Hysteropotmoi who they be 852 10 I IAmbicks Trimeter and Tetrameter whose invention 257.1 10 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 785.20 January why the first moneth among the Romans 856.10 Jason a monarch of Sicilie 372.20 his apophthegme 625.10 Jasians coine what stampe it hath 980.1 Javelin consecrated to ãâã 880.10 Jaundice cured by the bird Charadrios 724.1 Ibis in age smelleth sweet 393.10 Ibis wherefore honoured among the Aegyptians 710.50.1317 1. what letter it representeth among the Aegyptians 789.20 Ibicus murdered and the murderers strangely discovered 201.50 Iearius stoned to death 909.20 Ichneumon how armed 959.10 Icosaedra 762.20.819.20.1020 30 Idaei Dictyli 257.50 ãâã .40 1250.10 Idathyrsus his ãâã 405 20 Ides of the moneth 858.1 Ides of December a feastivall day 822.20 Ides of August feastivall 883. 30 Ides whereof they tooke the name 858.10 Idaea 1310.1 Idaea 768.50 what it is 808. 10 813.1.1019.1.10 Identity 65.40 Idlenesse how hurtfull ãâã breedeth no tranquillity
auncient worke of Venus 1140.20 Lovers be flattcrers 93.30 Love teacheth Musuke c. 655.50 Love resembleth drunkennesse 654.1 Love what resemblance it hath with the Sunne 1149.50 why Lovers be Poets 654.10 Lovers how they can away with jests 667.20 Loxias one of the surnames of Apollo 103.30 Lucar what mony among the Romans 880.10 Lucifer the starre 821.30 Lucina 1142.1 Lucretia the Romane lady 491.30 Lucullus noted by Pompey for his superfluitie 386.30.40 led by Callisthenes 394.30 his valour 437.30 given to pleasure 438.40 kinde to his yonger brother 182.1 why blamed 297.20 Lungs full of pipes and holes to transmite liquors and solide meates 744.40 Luperci at Rome why they sacrifice a dogge 872.50 Lupercalia ib. Lusts and appetites of sundry sorts 567.10.1212.50 Lutatius Catulus erecteth an altar to Saturne 909.20 Lycaons sonnes Eleuther and Lebadius 900.1 Licaeum 900.10 Lycas a booke of Ariston his making 18.30 Lycian womeÌ their vertues 489.1 Lycia overflowen by the sea 489.20 Lyciscus a traytour punished long after his treachery committed 540.10 Lycophanes what it is at Lacedaemon 475.40 Lycospades what horses 677.10 why they be fuller of stomacke than others 677.20 Lycurgus his apophthegme as touching education 4.10 his apophthegmes 462.20.422.50 his example of two whelps ib. he caused all vines to be cut down 19.30.76.40 he brought in base coine 463.10 hurt by Alcander ib. 50. his patience ib. his ordinances in Sparta 464.40 he ordeined sacrifices of least cost 402.30 honoured by the oracle of Apollo 600.20 not blamed for praising himselfe 305.1 Lycurgus the oratour his parentage 927.50 his education 928 1. his state affaires ib. his fidelity and reputation ib. 10. his building for the city 528.10.20 beloved of the people 928.30 a severe justicer ib. 20. his authority ib. 30. his ordinances and ãâã ib. he enacted that Poets might be free burgesses 928.40 Lycurgus ordeined to perpetuate the tragoedies of Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides ib. he rescued Xenocrates the phtlosopher for going to prison 929.1 he saved his wife from the danger of law ib. his meane apparell ib. 10. his painfull studie ib. his apophthegmes ib. his children endited and acquit ib. 30. his death and sepulcher ib. he advanceth the weale publicke 929.40 his innocencie ib. his children ib. 50. his orations 930.10 his crowne and statues ib. honours decreed for him and his ib. his wealth and bounty ib. 20. surnamed Ibis ib. Lydian musicke rejected 1253.20 Lyde the wife of Callimachus 515.10 Lyde an Elegie of his composition ib. Lydiades first an usurping tyrant prooved afterward a good prince 543.30 Lying in children to be avoided 13 4 Lynceus quicke-sighted 238.30 Lyncurium 954.30 Lysander his apophthegmes 423.50 Lysander refused jewels sent to his daughters 320.10 unthankfull 357.40 Lysander slaine by Inachion for want of understanding an oracle 1200.30 Lysanoridas combined with the tyrants of Thebes 1205.20 Lysanoridas put to death 1227.1 Lysias the oratour his parentage and place of nativitie 921.40 his education ib. 50. his troubles and exploits 922.1.10.20 his age and death 922.20.30 Lysias the oratour his orations and writings 922. 20.30 his stile ib. 40. commended 195.10 his eloquence 195.10 K. Lysimachus for to quench his thirst lost a kingdome 416.1.547.40 his apophthegmes 416 1 Lysippus how he portraied K. Alexander 1296.50 Lysis his reliques 1208.1 Lysius the surname of Bacchus 330.50 M MAcareus deslowreth his owne sister 914.10 Macedonians plaine spoken men 409.30 their armie after Alexanders death compared to Cyclops 414.1 Macellus a famous theefe at Rome 869.1 Macellum the shambles there ib. Maemactes 125.20 Magas how he dealt with Philemon 124.50 Mage the sages what they thinke of Oromazes and Arimanius 1306.30 Magi the tyrants of Persia. 375.40 Magistracy shewes a man 363 364. c May the moneth why so called 879.40 Maidens not permitted to mary upon a feastivall day 885.10 Maiden-haire the hearbe why alwaies greene 686.30 Mallacos what it signifieth 505.30 Malladies new come and olde depart 782.50 Malladies new and strange whereof they proceed 783.10.20 Malladies of the soule compared with those of the body 313.20 Malcander king of Byblos 1293.40 Males how begotten 842.30 Male children and female how they be formed in the wombe 847.20 Mallowes 339.1 Man why called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 668.40 Man most miserable 312.50 Mankinde most unhappy 312.50 Mans life full of miseries 512.30.40 Men derived into three sorts 601.30 made to doe good 393.30 Men unable in the act of generation 844.20.30 Men at what age they come to perfection 847.40 Of men in the moone 1176.50 Mandragoras cold and procureth sleepe 689.40 Mandragoras growing neere to a vine 19.40 Maneros who it was 1294.10 Manis a king 1296.30 Manica ib. his pride and arrogancie 1278. 20. how he was scoffed by Pasiades ib. ãâã might not be surnamed Marci 880.40 M. Manlius sought to be king of Rome ib. Manlius Imperiosus beheadeth his owne sonne 910.10 Battell of Mantinea described 983.1.10 Mantous 154.50 Marcellinus unthankefull to Cn. Pompeius 439.10 checked by him ib. Marcellus his apophthegme as touching the gods of Tarentum 429.40 March in old time the first moneth 856.10 Mariage in kinred forbidden at Rome 852.40.886.1 Mariage love discredited by Protogenes 1132.50 maintained by Daphnaeus ib. Mariage a number 1035.40 Mariage with a rich and wealthy wife argued 1137.10.20 Mariage with a wife yonger or elder ib. 40 No Mariages at Rome in May. 879.30 Mariage with the cousin germains how permitted 852.50 of Mariage precepts 315 Maried folke ought to have a reverent regard one of another 317.20 C. Marius defaited the Cimbrians 637.1 his apophthegmes 436.30 he crucified his daughter Calpurnia 912.10 he endured the cutting of his varices ib. his justice ib. 40 Marius and Sylla how they first fell out 350.30 Marius Gurges 907.30 Marpissa ravished by Aphareus 917.30 Mars and Venus commit adulterie 24. 30. disguised himselfe and lay with Sylvia 913.50 what is meant thereby in Homer 25.1 what epithets and attributes he hath 1140.50 his etymologie ib. Mars opposite unto love 1140.40 Mars hath divers acceptions in poets 30.10 Mars what God 1141.10 Marsyas the minstrell deviseth a hood or muzzle for his cheekes whiles he piped 122.40 why punished by Apollo 761.1 Martiall men ought to be strong of body 391.1 Martius Coriolanus 631.1 Masanissa an aged king 394.1 Masdes a renowmed prince 1296 30 Massacre in Argos 368.1 Mathematicks what pleasure they affoord 590.30 Mathematicks 1018.40 of three kinds 796.50 Mathematicall five solid bodies 819.20 Matter 768.50.805.30.808.10 the Matter not the man to be regarded 55.30 Meale an unperfect and raw thing 886.10 why called Mylephaton 886.20 Meats which are to be refused 613.40 for the Medes leave somewhat 750.1 Medica the herbe 583.1 Mediocrity or meane how to be taken 68.50 Mediterranean sea 1173.30 Medius an archsophister and flatterer in K. Alexanders court 104.50 Megaboetes a faire Catamit 449.40 Megabyzus pretily reprooved by Apelles 96.10.154.40 Megali a surname of some prince 1278.40 Megarians insolency against their principall burgesses 894.1 Megisto her
morning 1318.40 Rue growing neere unto a fig tree is not so strong sented 723.30 Rue why called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Greeke 684.1 Rubbings or frictions which be good for students 619.30 Rulers ought not to dispend above their living and abilitie 378.1 Rulers ought to live warily and without note 350.50 how they may helpe and advaunce their friends 361.20 how they ought to cary themselves toward their companions in governement 370.20.30 Rulers ought not to be over-precise 472.40 Rulers must banish from themselves avarice 374.40 they ought to bee voide of ambition 374.50 Ruma 632.40 Rumina a goddesse at Rome 870.10 Rusticus his gravity 142.143 Rust of brasse how caused 1187.30 Rutilius a prowde usurer reproved he is by Musonius 286.10 ib. S SAbbats feast of the Jewes 712.20 Sabbat whereof it commeth 712.20 Sabine maidens ravished 861.20 Sabinus the husband of Empona 1157.20 Saboi ib. Sacadas an ancient Poet and musician 1251.20 Sacred fish 976.10 Sacrificing of children 268.1.10 Sacrificing of men and women 268.1 Sacrifice how to be observed at the Oracle at Delphi 1347.10.1349.1.10 Sacriledge strangely detected by the offender himselfe 201.40 Saffron chaplets what use they have 684.20 Sages in olde time accounted seven were in trueth but five 1354.10 Sailers and sea men love to discourse of the sea 662.50 Salaminia a ship 364.30 Salmatica beseeged by Anniball 489.50 Salt highly commended 709.10 provoketh appetite to meate and drinke 709.30 about Salt and Cumin a proverbe 727.40 Salt-fish washed in sea water is the fresher and sweeter 658.30 of Savours onely the Saltish is not found in fruits 1005.10 Salts called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 728.10 Salt why so highly honored 727.40 it provoketh wanton lust 728.1 why called divine 728.10 Salt why given to beasts 1004.20 Salt procureth appetite to food ib. it maintaineth health ib. 30. it abateth corpulency ib. it mooveth to generation ib. the SAME 1031. Sambicus a miserable man 902.30 Sanctus a god at Rome 861.1 Saosis Queene of Byblos in Aegypt 1293.40 Sapience what it is 68.1.804.30 Sapphoes fits in love 1147.50 Sapphoes verses 759.1.1148.1 Sarapis who he was 1298.20 Serapis or Sarapis the same that Pluto 1298.40 Sarapis from whence it is derived 1299 1 Sardanapalus his epitaph 310.1.1269.1 Sardanapalus an effeminate person advanced by fortune 1264.30 the epigram over his statue 1276.20 Sardians port sale 868.40.50 to Saturne the Romans sacrificed bare headed 854.20 Saturne kept in prison by Jupiter 1180.20 Saturne counted a terrestriall or subterranean god 854.30 Saturne the father of verity 854.30 Saturnes reigne ib. 40 the Island of Saturne 1181.1 Saturnalia solemnized in December 862.20 Saturnes temple the treasury at Rome 865.20 the arches for records 865. 20. in his raigne there was justice and peace ib. why portraied with a sickle in his hand ib. Saturne supposed to cut the privy members of Coelum or Ouranos ãâã Saturne a stranger in Italy 865.50 in Saturnes temple embassadors are regestred 865.50 Saturne kept prisoner asleepe by Briareus 1332.20 Sauces provoking appetite are to be avoided 614.10 Scalenon 1020.30 Scamander 901.1 Scammonie a violent purgative 623.50 Scaurus his uprightnesse shewed to Domitius his enimy 243.40 Scaurus ãâã trecherie even toward his enimy 243.40 Scedasus his lamentable historie and of his daughters 946. 10 his daughters defloured 946.20 murdered ib. 20. his death and his daughters murder revenged 947.20 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it is 785.20 a Scelet presented at Aegyptian feasts 328.30.1294.10 Schema in dancing 800.1 a Scholasticall life 1058.1 Scilurus and his 80 sonnes 103.40 Scilurus perswadeth his children to unity 405.30 Scolia certaine songs 645. 10. sung at feasts 1257.1 Scipio not well thought of for leaving out Mummius at a feast 370.30 why blamed otherwise 297.20 blamed for loving his bed to well ib. 351.1 Scipio the elder his apophthegmes 529.50 a great student ib. accused judicially before the people 530.40 his maner of plea. ib. Scipio the yonger his apophthegmes 433. 50. his commendation 434.10 Scipio used the advise of Laelius 400.50 not blamed in praising himselfe 303.40 Scipio Nasica his saying of the ãâã state 239.20 Sea what it is 832. 1. how it commeth to be salt or brackish ib. Sea commodious to mans life 778.50 Sea aire most agrecable to us 709.40 Sea accounted a fifth element 990. 40. what commodities it affoordeth to man-kind 990.50 Sea-water nourisheth no trees 1003.1.10 Sea-water hotter by agitation contrary to other waters 1006.20 naturally hot ib. 30. lesse brackish in winter than in summer ib. why it is put into vessels with wine ib. Sea sickenesse how it commeth 1007.10 Sea why the Aegyptians doe detest 1300.20 Sea-gods faigned to be the fathers of many children 728.50 Sea Salt Sea-fish and Sailers odious to the Aegyptians 778. 40 Seaven the sacred number and the commendation thereof 1361.1 Secrecie of K. Antigonus and Metellus 197.30 Secrecie of K. Eumenes and his stratageme wrought thereby 197.40 Secrets revealed the cause of much ruine 195.40 Section of bodies 814.30 Seditions how to be prevented and appeased 386.40 Sedition dangerous at Delphi 381.10 Sedition at Syracusa 381.10 Sedition at Sardis ib. 20 Seed falling upon oxe hornes why they proove hard and untoward 746.40 Seed what it is 671.20 Seed naturall to be spared 619.1 why called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1100. 50. what it is 841.40 whether it be a body 841.50 of Seednesse three seasons 323.1 Seeing in the night how it commeth 658.10 Seleucus Callinicus how he served a blab of his tongue Sella Curulis 877.20 Selfe-praise 301.20 in what cases allowed 302. 50. See more in praise Semiramis of base degree became a Queene 1136.40 her brave acts 1276.20 her ãâã ambition 1136.50 her sepulcher and epitaph ãâã P. Sempronis why he drowned his wife 855.10 Senate of Rome why so called 391.30 Senses inserted in our bodies by harmonie 1256.20 Sense what it is 835.50 Senses how many 835.50 Sense common 837.10 Sentences over the temple porch at Delphi 103.20 Septerian what feast 891.1 Septimontium what festivall solemnity 873.20 Sepulcher of children 895.60 Sepulcher of envy 496.50 Sermons how to be heard with profit 56.30 Servius Tullius a favourite of fortune 635. 40. strangely borne 636. 1. how he came to the crowne 636.10 Seth what it signifieth 1307.40 1304.20 Sextilis what moneth at Rome 856.10 Sextilis is August 863.30 Sextius a great student in philosophy 249.1 Shadowes at a feast 682.30 who they be 753.50 how they began ib. whether it be good manners to goe as a Shadow to a feast 754.20 what shadowes a guest invited may bring with him 755.50 Shame good and bad 164.30 Shame breedeth fortitude 42.40.50 Sheepe woolfe-bitteÌ why they yeeld sweetest flesh 677.40 whether their wooll breed lice 677.40 Sibylla the prophetesse 1190.1.716.30 Sicknesse how to be prevented 618 30.40 how immediately occasioned 849.40 Sight how it is caused 837.10 Signes 12 in the Zodiaque they be dissociable 846.20 Sideritis the Load-stone 1312.1 Silenus caught by K. Midas instructeth him of life and death 525.50 Sileni