cannot repel with any Armed Force And when he is sometime Inur'd to that Slavish Condition Custom by little and little makes it Supportable and Natural But whatsoever there be in this or any Dolours of Life the more Acute they are the sweeter are the thoughts of Death whereas to one who makes Pleasure his End the greater it is the more painful are the thoughts of quitting Life so that as the latter is in a Condition of making his passage into Misery the other is always in a Passage to a better State From the Evils of Pain let us go on to consider the Evils of Privation such as loss of Liberty of Riches of Friends and Relations of Reputation with the like Loss of Liberty must be Confess'd to be a great Calamity not only in its self as it causes the Name of Restraint and Confinement but in respect also of all other Comforts for it not only deprives Men ordinarily of the Benefit of Friends but does expose them to great Wants and Necessities and what is worst of all it becomes many times Destructive to Health Exile seems something more uncomfortable than Imprisonment for besides that Divorce which it makes betwixt the dearest Relations Men Naturally have an affection for their Native Country especially when they are out of it which Affection will be ever apt to beget Sorrow But for all this let us but Examine matters a little by detayl and see whether Reason does not furnish us with sufficient Remidies Loss of Liberty like all other Evils which befal us is greatest in the beginning Birds when they are at first put into the Cage do Flutter and Struggle and refuse to feed but after a little Time they return to their former Natures and Sing Then for the Exigence of Nature it is easily supplyed the Body requires no more but to be preserv'd from Cold and a little is sufficient to satisfy Hunger and to Extinguish Thirst whatsoever exceeds these Measures tends to Surfeit and makes Provision for Diseases Seneca observes well of those who Indulge their Palats that it is not so much the Tast and Relish of the Meat as the Rarity and Price which makes it Delicate Now there is not the Place scarce upon the Face of the Earth which does not afford Sustenance for Life To want that Variety of Delightful Objects with which Men daily are Refresh'd is no great Misery for 't is in a Man 's own Power to bring their Images into his thoughts which is altogether as Recreative as the External Objects themselves and if Confinement be so great a Misery then are they as unhappy altogether who by Office or any other Circumstances of Life are oblig'd to perpetual Residence and so in a manner Circumscrib'd within one constant place Then for Separation from ones Country 't is not so great a Misfortune as it at first appears for to whatsoever place a Man is Banish'd tho seemingly never so Unhospitable and Desolate he may observe great numbers of Persons resorting thither daily of their own Accords so that what is made the Subject of Mens choice cannot be so Incommodious and Intolerable Nay let a Man go into what City soever he please he shall find great numbers of Strangers who live Contentedly and happy which yet they could not do were absence from ones Native Country so great a Misery Privation of Friends and Acquaintance has been ever lookt upon as a great Misfortune and such as leaves too great a damp upon the Spirits But there is a Remedy against this too for tho some Men have been deny'd the Conversation of the Living yet there was never any man depriv'd of the Society of the Dead of those I mean whose Works and Monuments are Replenish'd with all Variety of Learning for the Entertainment of his Thoughts Here I am instructed how to behave myself under all the Calamities of Fortune here my Soul is fill'd with bright Idea 's and with Notions of true Morality and above all here I meet with Examples of the bravest Men who have endur'd the same or greater Miseries with Invincible Courage and by so doing have Consecrated their Memories to after-after-Ages Amongst the Greek and Roman worthies we shall meet with few but were disgrac'd by Fortune and ended their Mortality in Exile Instead of Repining at fate they employ'd their Thoughts and Pens in Writing excellent Books of Morality and by this means made themselves most Publick when they were under the greatest Restraint and when they were in the nearest approaches to Death then did they advance most towards Life and Immortality and such were Seneca and Boethius of old with infinite others of later date That Condition therefore cannot be miserable which is so familiar to the bravest Souls and which gives life to such excellent Productions 'T is too usual for men to compare themselves with others who are above them in respect of these they many times seem unhappy but let them come and measure themselves by the Majority of Mankind and such as really are more Afflicted with outward Discomforts and then they will find themselves to be truly happy For things are good and Evil only by Compaâ—â—son so that what is Evil in respect of something that is better may be styl'd good also in respect of something that is worse than it self and he that is happy in one Capacity may be Miserable in another so the contrary From whence we may take notice of the Infinite Wisdom and Providence of Almighty God who does so mix Good Evil through all Conditions of Men and carries them on in such a manner through all the Stations and Circumstances of Life as seems to reduce all Men to a certain State of Equity such as makes up an universal perfect Harmony The Great Man enjoys Titles and Honour the Poor Man Health The Great Man lives in rest and Repose of Body the Poor Man has the better rest and Repose of Mind he is never vext with Affronts nor Cracks his Brains to contrive Revenge He fears not to be degraded from his Place nor is he Solicitous to make an Interest at Court neither does he live in Jealousy of those who are about him He Rises early to his Work and merrily passes away the Day and at Night meets with a full reward of his Labour in the sweet Refreshments of Sleep If Humility depress the one so is Nobility a Burden to the other large Retinues and Numerous Dependences are but Clogs and are a real weight to him on whom they lie if one feels Hunger the other feels Surfeit if one may be despis'd the other may be Affronted so that upon a Serious and Impartial Survey the Misfortunes which attend the great are really more unsupportable than those to which meaner Persons are usually expos'd and what is yet a further Aggravation they are also more publick and lasting Now whether the Chain be of Gold or of Iron or whether it be fastned upon the right
Calamities so does it promise to open to them a Door to Eternal Felicity Sometimes wefind that even good and pious men have been Timerous when they came to Dye The Endearments of Life are strong Remarks and the Considerations of Guilt and Punishment which the best of Men ought to have before their Eyes are able to shake the stoutest Courage They who suffer by the Hand of an Executioner seem in some Respects to have an Advantage over such as die a Natural Death First they dye generally with less Pain and the Pain they undergo is of less Duration than that of those who pine away by Sickness unless it be in case of Torture In the next place they retain their Senses and Faculties Entire to the last so that they can fix their Minds upon their Future State with more Strength and without Distraction They can quit the Stage of Life with good Thoughts tho the Infamy which sometimes attends such a Death as also the Calamities it entails upon Posterity cannot choose but make it Bitter We have many Examples of the Moraliz'd Heathens who suffer'd a Violent Death with all Imaginable Resolution Some out of an Heroick Bravery others upon the Apprehension they had of being in a more happy State but generally upon a Persuasion of being reduc'd to the same Condition they were in before they were born believing no other Immortality than that of Fame nor no other Rewards after Death than the Praise due from after Ages upon the Remembrance of their Vertuous Actions And certainly with Men of this Belief 't was no such Daring matter to stare Death in the Face and to Conquer all its Terrours by a Voluntary Submission to it for 't was no more but for a Man to close up all the Travails Pains and Misfortunes of Life with one Sweet and Eternal Sleep Hence came these Reasonings of theirs if there be any Sense after Death the Soul then cannot but exult and triumph for its Deliverance from the streight Imprisonment of the Body That which immediately before was a Captive is now set at Liberty 't is advanc'd on high it has a free and a full Prospect of all the Glorious Sights in Nature Here it looks down upon all humane and Mortal things with a kind of Pity and Contempt it sees all the Follies and Transactions of past Life at one View and beholds those Divine Mysteries clearly and distinctly whose Knowledge formerly it had so often sought in vain But on the other hand if there be nothing which survives the Body he cannot be miserable who ceases to be For if he has lost much 't is yet much more which he does not fear He is now at everlasting Rest the Fears and Miseries of Poverty the Anxiety of Riches the Vexations of a Process do not devoure him He is not tormented with the Furies of Lust or Anger he is not Envious at another's Felicity nor Sollicitous about his own No publick nor private Calamities disturb his â—…easures no Scenes of Blood appear before his Eyes no Dreams or Terrours of the Night discompose his Sleep He does not hang in Suspense upon the Event of future things which fall out always for the worse he does not fear the Calumnies of the Base nor the Frowns of the Great he does not fear the Assaults of the Perfidious Assassinant nor yet the more Dangerous and Mortal Wounds of a Perjur'd Tongue In a word the Evils he is delivered from are greater than the Good things he is depriv'd of and he is arriv'd to that Station of Security from which he cannot be driven by Force nor drawn off by Terrours Why therefore should any one be Sollicitous about another's Death which will either make him Happy or reduce him to his first Nothing If Happy 't is Envy to deplore him if Nothing 't is Folly 'T is Death which delivers the Prisoner from his Fetters and the Slave and Captive from his Chain 'T is Death which rescues the Servant from the endless Toyls of a Laborious Life the Poor from Oppression and makes the Beggar equal with Princes Here Desperation finds a Remedy all the Languors of Disease all the Frustrations and Tediousness of Life all the Infirmities of Age all the Disquiets of the Passions and all the Calamities of Fortune with whatsoevâ—â— can make a man Miserable vanish in these Shades Such as these were the Notions which many of the more learned Heathens had of Death But for all this we find it Natural to most men to seek the Prolongation of Life by all means possible The Poor man in the Fable when he had drudg'd all day in cutting and carrying Thorns at last spent with Heat and Labour he threw away his Burden and sitting down upon the Ground calls on Death to deliver him from his wretched Life Grim Death presently appears with his Javelin in his hand and ask'd him what he had to say Nothing replies the good Man but that you will be so kind as to help me up again with my Burden Tho we often cry out of a weary Life yet when once that ghastly Adversary appears most men desire to return to their former Burden and to toil longer amongst the Briars and Vexations of Life The best Course therefore that a Man can take to fortifie himself against the Terrours of Death is To think often of it The Wolf in the Fable when he first saw the Lyon was ready to die with Fear the next time he saw him he was afraid indeed but the third time he grew Bold to draw near and to converse with him Hence it is that Soldiers who converse always with Wounds and Dying Men are no ways concern'd at the Fall of others or at their own Danger But this kind of Hardiness proceeds rather from Custom than from a well setled Consideration Naturally speaking that which makes Men dread Death is the evil of Privation rather than of Pain The Separation of Soul and Body in which consists Death is probably without Sense and whatever Pains precede it they are short of the Dolours of many Diseases and of other Disasters which every Man meets with some time or other of his Life But to bid an Eternal Adieu to Wife Children Friends Pleasures Pomps Preferments with all the Blandishments of this World is uneasie to most Men and to this Condition must the greatest Favourite of Fortune be reduc'd The best Consideration therefore in this Case is that of Epictetus who compares the Course of Man's Life to that of a Passenger at Sea where the Patron or Master of the Vessel being to take in Fresh Water or some such necessary Provision sets his Passengers ashoar for Refreshment To pass away the time a little some fall to gathering Cockles others Reeds or some such Toyes they meet with yet so as to be always ready to leave them whensoever the Master calls his Men aboard So in this Life instead of a Shell or Bulrush thou may'st have a Wife a Child
said to be nourish'd by a Bitch the other by a Woolf that is as I suppose amongst Shepherds and Savage people whom their natures and dispositions little differed from the wild Beasts amongst which they liv'd or perhaps such Fables were invented only to make their Actions to seem more extraordinary and prodigious Whatsoever there were in such reports certain 't is that great regard is to be had both to the temper of the Mind as well as to the state and condition of the body of her who gives the Breast let her be of a cheerful humour and temperate as well as healthful and abounding in Milk but this more properly concerns the Mother let us look a little to that which concerns the Father and that is the Breeding and Education of his Children which is a great and weighty duty Parents for the future good of their Children would do well to place them forth as early as may be in a wholsom piercing Air and by this means inure them to hardship by times The old Germans were wont to plunge their Children into the Rhyne as soon as they were born to bring their bodies to a stronger temper Ladies we see of the most delicate Constitutions by using to have their Breasts and Arms naked from their childhood receive no injury by the weather be it never so cold whereas the strongest man should he attempt to do the like might be in danger of his life Let a Child therefore be accustom'd to course Dyet to thin Cloathing hard Lodging and to much Toyl and when he arrives to Manhood his Constitution will be much more vigorous he will be more hardy to undertake and more strong to conquer any difficulty He will enjoy a more prosperous health of body and by consequence will be able to pursue any work wherein the Brains and Thoughts are engag'd with great Alacrity Constancy and Courage and indeed since the Occurrances of life do still cast a man upon the more painful side 't is best to make hardship to grow up with our Natures by accustoming our selves to it when our blood is Youthful when we are free from distempers and at such a season also when the least impressions grow into a habit and many times become indeleble There is one great fault which Parents generally commit in the Education of their Children viz. in labouring to bring them to habits of good Husbandry and Frugality by cutting them short in their allowance By this means many a young Gentleman is taught to keep mean Company and gets such habits of shifting and shirking as shall for ever render him contemptible others there are of this Tribe who spend without measure upon the prospect of their Fathers death so that when they come to their Estates all they have will be too little to satisfie their Creditors for such are ever sure to lend the young Squire freely and make him indebted to them for twice as much as he borrow'd upon pretence forsooth that the old Gentleman may out-live the Son and then all is desperate 'T is generally seen that none are so extravagant and profuse when they come to their Estates as those who in their Fathers life-time were kept shortest of Money The more the Fire is pent in the more violent will be the Eruption but in all cases 't is certain that too great a restraint on Youth does make them wish their Parents death and does engender those ill humours in a Son as end commonly in Defiance and Rebellion Upon the walls in the Court of the Jesuits Colledge at Lyons where they have a great School there are many ingenious Emblems painted in Fresco of which this I remember to be one an Eagle flying towards the Sun with her Young ones in her Talons casting those away as spurious which would not endure the Light with this Motto à teneris luce imbuit 'T is easy to observe but sad to consider what little care many Parents take in this particular so they can but beget and keep their Children 't is sufficient They are many times very industrious in improving their Estates and in cultivating their Lands but for their Children they let them converse with the Poor ones of the Village or with Plow-men or Servants of their own Family and by this means they get many times such habits both of clownish speech and carriage as also of rudeness and of an abject Mind as no future Education though it were bestow'd upon them will ever be able to wear away We see a straight Tree when it is young and tender will easily be bow'd aside and grow so too beyond recovery if it be let alone a little as also another which is young and crooked may by little and little be in a great measure rectified and by cutting away the superfluities may become fruitful As for those who are to follow the Plow or any Mechanick and Laborious course of life and such there must be as their Means and Opportunities are small so neither do their Circumstances require any thing more then to be instructed in the Principles of Religion and of Morality and in the Duties of Obedience and to be able to Write and Read for there is nothing more ridiculous then to have a Bumkin or Shopkeeper pretend to State-matters or Divinity Nor indeed is there any thing so dangerous to Church or State as these half headed and conceited Fellows who are generally most Impudent Ignorant and Factious The Education therefore which I here discourse of is such as I would have in those who would be accounted Gentlemen as having some Priviledges both of Birth and Fortune above the Common sort of Men which Education of theirs may be reduc'd to these three general heads viz. Erudition Exercise and Travel Of Erudition CHAP. III. ERudition extends it self not only to Literature but to Precepts of Life the former serves for the information of the Understanding the later for the direction of the Will and for regulating the Passions to both which things all civiliz'd Nations have ever had a special regard The Chineses boast themselves to be the only civiliz'd People upon the Earth looking upon all other Nations as Barbarians which considering the little or no advantage they have had by Commerce with other parts of the World may be in a great measure admitted In this particular they are a reproach to the Europeans for there is no Art nor Industry omitted by them which may serve for the Information and Education of Youth All Publick places whether Civil or Military are bestow'd on such Persons only as have undergone the Test and Appprobation of their Doctors in which charge they are not perfunctory and superficial but severe They have no Offices or Titles of Honour but what Learning does procure them and such Reverence and Veneration have they for their Preceptors that in case a Schollar be advanc'd to a higher place of Trust and Dignity then his Master yet he never sits with him cheek