of the Way A Glorious Spectacle sayes Hannibal when he saw the Trenches flowing with Humane Blood and if the Rivers had run Blood too he would have lik'd it so much the better AMONG the famous and detestable Speeches that are committed to Memory I know none worse than that Impudent and Tyrannical Maxime Let them Hate me so they Fear me not considering that those that are kept in Obedience by Fear are both Malicious and Mercenary and only wait for an opportunity to change their Master Beside that whosoever is Terrible to Others is likewise afraid of Himself What is more ordinary than for a Tyrant to be destroy'd by his own Guards which is no more than the putting of those Crimes into Practice which they learned of their Masters How many Slaves have reveng'd themselves of their Cruel oppressors though they were sure to dye for 't but when it comes once to a Popular Tyranny whole Nations conspire against it For whosoever threatens All is in danger of All over and above that the Cruelty of a Prince encreases the number of his Enemies by destroying some of them for it entailes an hereditary hatred upon the Friends and Relations of those that are taken away And then it has this Misfortune that a Man must be wicked upon Necessity for there 's no going back So that he must betake himself to Armes and yet he lives in fear He can neither trust to the Faith of his Friends nor to the Piety of his Children he both dreads Death and wishes it and becomes a greater Terror to Himself than he is to his People Nay if there were nothing else to make Cruelty detestable it were enough that it passes all Bounds both of Custome and Humanity and is follow'd upon the Heel with Sword or Poyson A Private Malice indeed does not move whole Cities but that which extends to All is every Bodies Mark One Sick Person gives no great disturbance in a Family but when it comes to a Depopulating Plague all People fly from 't And why should a Prince expect any Man to be good whom he has taught to be wicked BUT What if it were Safe to be cruel Were it not still a sad thing the very State of such a Government A Government that beares the Image of a Taken City where there 's nothing but Sorrow Trouble and Confusion Men dare not so much as trust themselves with their Friends or with their Pleasures There is not any Entertainment so Innocent but it affords pretence of Crime and Danger People are betray'd at their Tables and in their Cups and drawn from the very Theatre to the Prison How horrid a Madness is it to be still Raging and Killing to have the ratling of Chains alwayes in our Ears Bloody Spectacles before our Eyes and to carry Terror and Dismay wherever we go If we had Lyons and Serpents to rule over us this would be the manner of Their Government saving that they agree better among themselves It passes for a Mark of Greatness to burn Cities and lay whole Kingdoms waste nor is it for the honor of a Prince to appoint This or That single Man to be kill'd unless they have whole Troops or sometimes Legions to work upon But it is not the Spoils of War and Bloody Trophyes that make a Prince Glorious but the Divine Power of preserving Unity and Peace Ruine without Distinction is more properly the business of a General Deluge or a Conflagration Neither does a Fierce and Inexorable Anger become the Supreme Magistrate Greatness of Mind is alwayes Meek and Humble but Cruelty is a Note and an Effect of Weakness and brings down a Governor to the Level of a Competitor OF Clemency THE Humanity and Excellence of this Virtue is confess'd at all hands as well by the Men of Pleasure and those that think every Man was made for himself as by the Stoicks that make Man a Sociable Creature and born for the Common Good of Mankind For it is of all Dispositions the most Peaceable and Quiet But before we enter any further upon the Discourse it would be first known what Clemency is that we may distinguish it from Pitty which is a Weakness though many times mistaken for a Virtue And the next thing will be to bring the Mind to the Habit and Exercise of it CLEMENCY is a favourable Disposition of the Mind in the Matter of inflicting Punishment Or A Moderation that remits somewhat of the Penalty Incurr'd As Pardon is the Total Remission of a deserv'd Punishment We must be Careful not to confound Clemency with Pitty for as Religion worships God and Superstition Profanes that worship so should we distinguish betwixt Clemency and Pitty Practising the One and Avoiding the Other For Pitty proceeds from a Narrowness of Mind that respects rather the Fortune than the Cause It is a kind of Moral Sickness contracted from other Peoples Misfortunes Such another weakness as Laughing or Yawning for Company or as That of Sick Eyes that cannot look upon others that are Blear'd without dropping Themselves I 'll give a Shipwrack'd-Man a Plank a Lodging to a Stranger or a Piece of Mony to him that wants it I will dry up the Tears of my Friend yet I will not weep with him but treat him with Constancy and Humanity as one Man ought to treat Another IT is objected by some that Clemency is an Insignificant Virtue and that only the Bad are the Better for 't for the Good have no need on 't But in the first place as Physick is in Use only among the Sick and yet in Honor with the Sound so the Innocent have a Reverence for Clemency though Criminals are properly the Object of it And then again a Man may be Innocent and yet have Occasion for it too for by the Accidents of Fortune or the Condition of Times Virtue it self may come to be in danger Consider the most Populous City or Nation what a solitude would it be if none should be left there but those that could Stand the Test of a Severe Justice We should have neither Judges nor Accusers none either to Grant a Pardon or to Ask it More or less we are all Sinners and he that has best purg'd his Conscience was brought by Errors to Repentance And it is farther Profitable to Mankind for many Delinquents come to be Converted There is a Tenderness to be us'd even toward our Slaves and those that we have bought with our Mony How much more then to Free and to Honest Men that are rather under our Protection than Dominion Not that I would have it so General neither as not to distinguish betwixt the Good and the Bad for that would Introduce a Confusion and give a kind of encouragement to Wickedness It must therefore have a respect to the Quality of the Offender and separate the Curable from the Desperate for it is an equal Cruelty to pardon All and to pardon None Where the Matter is
stand the Test. One Man is Forsaken for Fear or Profit Another is Betray'd 'T is a Negotiation not a Friendship that has an Eye to Advantages only through the Corruption of Times that which was formerly a Friendship is now become a Design upon a Booty Alter your Testament and you lose your Friend But my End of Friendship is to have One dearer to me than my Self and for the saving of whose Life I would chearfully lay down my Own taking this along with me that only Wise Men can be Friends Others are but Companions and that there 's a great Difference also betwixt Love and Friendship The One may sometime do us Hurt the Other alwayes does us Good for One Friend is Helpful to Another in all Cases as well in Prosperity as Affliction We receive Comfort even at a Distance from those we Love but then it is Light and Faint whereas Presence and Conversation touches us to the Quick especially if we find the Man we Love to be such a person as we wish IT is Usual with Princes to Reproach the Living by Commending the Dead and to Praise those People for speaking Truth from whom there is no longer any Danger of Hearing it This was Augustus his Case He was forc'd to banish his daughter Iulia for her Common and Prostituted Impudence and still upon Fresh Informations he was often heard to say If Agrippa or Mecaenas had been now alive this would never have been But yet where the Fault lay may be a Question for perchance it was his Own that had rather complain for the Want of them than seek for Others as Good The Roman Losses by War and by Fire Augustus could quickly Supply and Repair but for the Loss of Two Friends he lamented his whole Life after Xerxes a Vain and a Foolish Prince when he made War upon Greece One told him 'T would never come to a Battel Another That he would find only empty Cities and Countryes for they would not so much as stand the very Fame of his Coming Others sooth'd him in the Opinion of his Prodigious Numbers and they all concurr'd to puff him up to his destruction Only Demaratus advis'd him not to depend too much upon his Numbers for he would rather find them a Burthen to him than an advantage And that 300 Men in the Streights of the Mountains would be sufficient to give a Check to his whole Army and that such an Accident would Undoubtedly turn his vast Numbers to his Confusion It fell out afterward as he foretold and he had Thanks for his Fidelity A Miserable Prince that among so many Thousand Subjects had but One Servant to tell him the Truth CHAP. XIX He that would be happy must take an Accompt of his Time IN the distribution of Humane Life we find that a great part of it passes away in Evil-doing A Greater yet in doing just Nothing at all and effectually the whole in doing things beside our business Some hours we bestow upon Ceremony and Servile Attendances Some upon our Pleasures and the Remainder runs at Waste What a deal of Time is it that we spend in Hopes and Fears Love and Revenge in Balls Treats making of Interests Suing for Offices Solliciting of Causes and Slavish Flatteries The shortness of Life I know is the Common Complaint both of Fools and Philosophers as if the Time we have were not sufficient for our duties But 't is with our Lives as with our Estates a good Husband makes a Little go a great way whereas let the Revenue of a Prince fall into the Hands of a Prodigal 't is gone in a moment So that the Time allotted us if it were well employ'd were abundantly enough to answer all the Ends and Purposes of Mankind But we squander it away in Avarice Drink Sleep Luxury Ambition fawning Addresses Envy Rambling Voyages Impertinent Studies Change of Counsels and the like and when our Portion is spent we find the want of it though we gave no heed to it in the Passage In so much that we have rather Made our Life Short than found it so You shall have some People perpetually playing with their Fingers Whistling Humming and Talking to themselves and Others consume their dayes in the Composing Hearing or Reciting of Songs and Lampoons How many precious Mornings do we spend in Consultation with Barbers Taylors and Tire-Women Patching and Painting betwixt the Comb and the Glass A Counsel must be call'd upon every Hair we cut and one Curle amiss is as much as a Bodies Life is worth The truth is we are more sollicitous about our Dress than our Manners and about the Order of our Perriwigs than that of the Government At this rate let us but discount out of a Life of a Hundred years that Time which has been spent upon Popular Negotiations frivolous Amours Domestick Brawls Sauntrings up and down to no purpose Diseases that we have brought upon our selves and this large extent of Life will not amount perhaps to the Minority of another Man It is a Long Being but perchance a Short Life And what 's the Reason of all this we Live as if we should never Dye and without any thought of Humane Frailty when yet the very Moment we bestow upon this Man or Thing may peradventure be our last But the greatest Loss of Time is Delay and Expectation which depends upon the Future We let go the Present which we have in our own Power we look Forward to that which depends upon Fortune and so quit a Certainty for an Uncertainty We should do by Time as we do by a Torrent make Use of it while we may have it for it will not last alwayes THE Calamities of Humane Nature may be Divided into the Fear of Death and the Miseries and Errors of Life And it is the great Work of Mankind to Master the One and to Rectifie the Other And so to Live as neither to make Life Irksome to us nor Death Terrible It should be our Care before we are Old to Live Well and when we are so to Die well that we may expect our End without Sadness For it is the Duty of Life to prepare our selves for Death and there is not an hour we Live that does not Mind us of our Mortality Time Runs on and all things have their Fate though it lies in the Dark The Period is Certain to Nature but What am I the better for it if it be not so to me We propound Travels Armes Adventures without ever considering that Death lies in the way Our Term is set and none of us Know how Near it is but we are all of us Agreed that the Decree is Unchangable Why should we wonder to have That befall us to Day which might have happen'd to us any Minute since we were Born Let us therefore Live as if every Moment were to be our Last and set our Accompts Right every day that passes over our Heads We are not Ready for Death
Security If Death be at Any time to be Fear'd it is Allwayes to be Fear'd but the way never to Fear it is to be often thinking of it To what end is it to put off for a little while that which we cannot avoid He that Dyes does but follow him that is Dead Why are we then so long afraid of that which is so little a while a doing How miserable are those People that spend their Lives in the Dismal Apprehensions of Death For they are beset on all hands and every Minute in Dread of a surprize We must therefore look about us as if we were in an Enemies Country and Consider our Last hour not as the Punishment but as the Law of Nature The Fear of it is a Continual Palpitation of the Heart and he that overcomes That Terror shall never be troubled with any Other Life is a Navigation we are perpetually wallowing and dashing one against another Sometimes we suffer Shipwrack but we are Alwayes in Danger and in Expectation of it And what is it when it comes but either the End of a Journey or a Passage It is as great a Folly to Fear Death as to Fear Old Age. Nay as to Fear Life it self for he that would not Dye ought not to Live since Death is the Condition of Life Beside that it is a Madness to Fear a thing that is Certain for where there is no Doubt there is no place for Fear WE are still chiding of Fate and even those that exact the most Rigorous Justice betwixt Man and Man are yet themselves Unjust to Providence Why was such a One taken away in the Prime of his Years As if it were the Number of years that makes Death easie to us and not the Temper of the Mind He that would Live a little Longer to Day would be as loth to Dye a Hundred year Hence But which is more Reasonable for Us to obey Nature or for Nature to obey us Go we must at Last and no Matter how soon 'T is the Work of Fate to make us Live Long but 't is the Business of Virtue to make a short Life sufficient Life is to be measur'd by Action not by Time a Man may Dye Old at Thirty and Young at Fourscore Nay the One Lives after Death and the Other Perish'd before he Dy'd I look upon Age among the Effects of Chance How Long I shall Live is in the Power of Others but it is in my Own how Well The largest space of Time is to live till a Man is Wise. He that Dyes of Old Age does no more than go to Bed when he is weary Death is the Test of Life and it is that only which discovers what we are and distinguishes betwixt Ostentation and Virtue A Man may Dispute Cite Great Authorities Talk Learnedly Huff it out and yet be Rotten at Heart But let us Soberly attend our Business and since it is Uncertain When or Where we shall Dye let us look for Death in all Places and at all Times We can never Study that Point too much which we can never come to Experiment whether we know it or no. It is a Blessed thing to dispatch the Business of Life before we Dye and then to Expect Death in the Possession of a Happy Life He 's the Great Man that is willing to Dye when his Life is pleasant to him An Honest Life is not a Greater Good than an Honest Death How many Brave young Men by an Instinct of Nature are carry'd on to Great Actions and even to the Contempt of all Hazards 'T IS Childish to go out of the World Groning and Wailing as we came into 't Our Bodies must be thrown away as the Secondine that wraps up the Infant the other being only the Covering of the Soul We shall then discover the Secrets of Nature the Darkness shall be Discuss'd and our Souls Irradiated with Light and Glory A Glory without a Shadow a Glory that shall surround us and from whence we shall look down and see Day and Night beneath us If we cannot lift up our Eyes toward the Lamp of Heaven without dazling What shall we do when we come to behold the Divine Light in its Illustrious Original That Death which we so much dread and decline is not a Determination but the Intermission of a Life which will return again All those things that are the very Cause of Life are the way to Death We Fear it as we do Fame but it is a great Folly to Fear Words Some People are so impatient of Life that they are still wishing for Death but he that wishes to dye does not desire it Let us rather wait Gods Pleasure and Pray for Health and Life If we have a Mind to Live Why do we wish to dye If we have a Mind to dye we may do it without talking of it Men are a great deal more Resolute in the Article of Death it self than they are about the Circumstances of it For it gives a Man Courage to Consider that his Fate is Inevitable the slow Approches of death are the most Troublesome to us as we see many a Gladiator who upon his wounds will direct his Adversaries weapon to his very Heart though but Timorous perhaps in the Combat There are some that have not the Heart either to Live or Dy and that 's a Sad Case But this we are sure of The Fear of Death is a Continual Slavery as the Contempt of it is Certain Liberty CHAP. XXII Consolations against Death from the Providence and the Necessity of it THIS Life is only a Prelude to Eternity where we are to expect Another Original and Another State of Things We have no Prospect of Heaven Here but at a Distance Let us therefore expect our Last and Decretory Hour with Courage The Last I say to our Bodies but not to our Minds Our Luggage we must leave behind us and return as Naked Out of the World as we came Into 't The day which we fear as our Last is but the Birth-day of our Eternity and it is the only way to 't So that what we Fear as a Rock proves to be but a Port In many Cases to be Desir'd Never to be Refus'd and he that Dyes Young has only made a Quick Voyage on 't Some are Becalm'd Others cut it away before the Wind and we Live just as we Saile First we run our Childhood out of sight our Youth next and then our Middle Age After That follows Old Age and brings us to the Common End of Mankind It is a great Providence that we have more wayes Out of the World than we have Into 't Our Security stands upon a Point the very Article of Death It draws a great many Blessings into a very Narrow Compass And although the Fruit of it does not seem to extend to the Defunct yet the Difficulty of it is more than ballanc'd by the Contemplation of the Future Nay suppose that all the
Business of This World should be Forgotten or my Memory traduc'd What 's all this to me I have done my Duty Undoubtedly That which puts an End to all Other Evils cannot be a very great Evil it Self and yet it is no Easie thing for Flesh and Blood to despise Life What if Death comes If it does not stay with us why should we Fear it One Hangs himself for a Mistress Another Leaps the Garret Window to avoid a Cholerick Master a Third runs away and Stabs himself rather than he will be brought back again We see the Force even of our Infirmities and shall we not then do greater things for the Love of Virtue To suffer Death is but the Law of Nature and it is a great Comfort that it can be done but Once In the very Convulsions of it we have This Consolation that our Pain is near an end and that it frees us from all the Miseries of Life What it is we Know not and it were Rash to Condemn what we do not Understand But this we Presume either that we shall pass out of This into a Better Life where we shall Live with Tranquillity and Splendor in Diviner Mansions or else return to our First Principles free from the Sense of any Inconvenience There 's Nothing Immortal nor Many things Lasting but by Diverse wayes every thing comes to an End What an Arrogance is it then when the World it self stands Condemn'd to a Dissolution that Man alone should expect to live for Ever It is Unjust not to allow unto the Giver the Power of disposing of his Own Bounty and a Folly only to value the Present Death is as much a Debt as Mony and Life is but a Journey towards it Some dispatch it Sooner others Later but we must All have the same Period The Thunder-Bolt is undoubtedly Just that draws even from those that are stuck with it a Veneration A Great Soul takes no Delight in Staying with the Body it considers whence it Came and Knows whither it is to Go. The day will come that shall separate this Mixture of Soul and Body of Divine and Humane My Body I will leave where I found it My Soul I will restore to Heaven which would have been There already but for the Clog that keeps it down And beside How many Men have been the worse for longer Living that might have dy'd with Reputation if they had been sooner taken away How many Disappointments of Hopeful Youths that have prov'd Dissolute Men Over and above the Ruines Shipwracks Torments Prisons that attend Long Life A Blessing so deceiptful that if a Child were in Condition to Judge of it and at Liberty to Refuse it he would not take it WHAT Providence has made Necessary Humane Prudence should comply with Chearfully As there is a Necessity of Death so that Necessity is Equal and Invincible No Man has cause of Complaint for that which Every Man must suffer as well as himself When we should dye we Will not and when we would not we must But our Fate is Fixt and Unavoidable is the Decree Why do we then stand Trembling when the Time comes Why do we not as well lament that we did not Live a Thousand years agoe as that we shall not be alive a Thou sand years hence 'T is but travelling the Great Road and to the Place whither we must All go at Last 'T is but submitting to the Law of Nature and to That Lot which the whole World has suffer'd that is gone Before us and so must They too that are to Come After us Nay how many Thousands when our Time comes will Expire in the same Moment with us He that will not Follow shall be drawn by Force And Is it not much better now to do That willingly which we shall otherwise be made to do in spite of our Hearts The Sons of Mortal Parents must expect a Mortal Posterity Death is the End of Great and Small We are Born Helpless and expos'd to the Injuries of all Creatures and of all Weathers The very Necessaries of Life are Deadly to us We meet with our Fate in our Dishes in our Cups and in the very Ayr we Breathe Nay our very Birth is Inauspicious for we come into the World Weeping and in the Middle of our Designs while we are meditating great Matters and stretching of our Thoughts to After Ages Death cuts us off and our longest Date is only the Revolution of a few years One Man Dyes at the Table Another goes away in his Sleep a Third in his Mistress's Armes a Fourth is Stabb'd Another is Stung with an Adder or Crush'd with the Fall of a Horse We have several wayes to our End but the End it self which is Death is still the same Whether we dye by a Sword by a Halter by a Potion or by a Disease 't is all but Death A Child dies in the Swadling Clouts and an Old Man at a Hundred they are Both Mortal alike though the One goes sooner than the Other All that lies betwixt the Cradle and the Grave is Uncertain If we compute the Troubles the Life even of a Child is Long if the Swiftness of the Passage That of an Old Man is short The whole is slippery and Deceiptful and only Death Certain and yet all People Complain of That which never Deceiv'd any Man Senecio rais'd himself from a small Beginning to a Vast Fortune being very well skill'd in the Faculties both of Getting and of Keeping and either of them was sufficient for the doing of his Business He was a Man Infinitely Careful both of his Patrimony and of his Body He gave me a Mornings Visit sayes our Author and after that Visit he went away and spent the rest of the day with a Friend of his that was desperately Sick At Night he was Merry at Supper and seiz'd immediately after with a Squincy which dispatch'd him in a few hours This Man that had Mony at Use in all Places and in the very Course and Height of his Prosperity was thus Cut off How Foolish a thing is it then for a Man to flatter himself with Long Hopes and to Pretend to Dispose of the Future Nay the very Present slips through our Fingers and there is not that moment which we can call our Own How vain a thing is it for us to enter upon Projects and to say to our selves Well! I 'll go Build Purchase Discharge such Offices Settle my Affairs and then Retire We are all of us Born to the same Casualties All equally Frail and Uncertain of To morrow At the very Altar where we Pray for Life we Learn to Dy by seeing the Sacrifices Kill'd before us But there 's no Need of a Wound or Searching the Heart for 't when the Noose of a Cord or Smothering of a Pillow will do the Work All things have their Seasons they Begin they Encrease and they Dye The Heavens and the Earth grow Old and are appointed
's sake more than for the Gods and all this Rabble of Deities which the Superstition of many Ages has gather'd together we are in such manner to adore as to consider the Worship to be rather Matter of Custome than of Conscience Whereupon St. Augustine observes That this Illustrious Senator Worship'd what he Reprov'd Acted what he Dislik'd and Ador'd what he Condemn'd SENECA'S LIFE and DEATH IT has been an Ancient Custome to Record the Actions and the Writings of Eminent Men with all their Circumstances and it is but a Right that we owe to the Memory of our Famous Author Seneca was by Birth a Spaniard of Cordova a Roman Colony of great Fame and Antiquity He was of the Family of Annaeus of the Order of Knights and the Father Lucius Annaeus Seneca was distinguish'd from the Son by the Name of the Orator His Mothers Name was Helvia a Woman of Excellent Qualities His Father came to Rome in the time of Augustus and his Wife and Children soon follow'd him our Seneca yet being in his Infancy There were three Brothers of them and never a Sister Marcus Annaeus Novatus Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Lucius Annaeus Mela. The first of these chang'd his Name for Iunius Gallio who adopted him to him it was that he Dedicated his Treatise of Anger whom he calls Novatus too and he also Dedicated his Discourse of a Happy Life to his Brother Gallio The youngest Brother Annaeus Mela was Lucan's Father Seneca was about Twenty years of Age in the Fifth year of Tiberius when the Iews were expell'd Rome His Father train'd him up to Rhetorick but his Genius led him rather to Philosophy and he apply'd his Wit to Morality and Virtue He was a great Hearer of the Celebrated Men of those times as Attalus Sotion Papirius Fabianus of whom he makes often mention and he was much an Admirer also of Demetrius the Cynique whose conversation he had afterwards in the Court and both at home also and abroad for they often Travell'd together His Father was not at all pleas'd with his humor of Philosophy but forc'd him upon the Law and for a while he Practis'd Pleading After which he would needs put him upon Publick Employment and he came first to be Quaestor and then Praetor and some will have it that he was chosen Consul but this is doubtful Seneca finding that he had ill Offices done him at Court and that Nero's Favour began to cool he went directly and resolutely to Nero with an Offer to refund all that he had gotten Which Nero would not receive but however from that time he chang'd his Course of Life receiv'd few Visits shun'd Company went little abroad still pretending to be kept at home either by Indisposition or by his Study Being Nero's Tutor and Governour all things went well so long as Nero follow'd his Counsel His two Chief Favorites were Burrhus and Seneca who were both of them Excellent in their wayes Burrhus in his care of Military Affairs and severity of Discipline Seneca for his Precepts and Good Advice in the matter of Eloquence and the Gentleness of an Honest Mind assisting one another in that slippery Age of the Prince sayes Tacitus to invite him by the Allowance of Lawful Pleasures to the Love of Virtue Seneca had two Wives the Name of the first is not mention'd his second was Paulina whom he often speaks of with great Passion By the former he had his Son Marcus In the first year of Claudius he was Banish'd into Corsica when Iulia the Daughter of Germanicus was accus'd by Messalina of Adultery and Banish'd too Seneca being charg'd as one of the Adulterers After a matter of Eight years or upwards in Exile he was call'd back and as much in favor again as ever His Estate was partly Patrimonial but the greatest part of it was the Bounty of his Prince His Gardens Villa's Lands Possessions and Incredible Sums of Mony are agreed upon at all hands which drew an Envy upon him Dio reports him to have had 250000 l. Sterling at Interest in Brittany alone which he call'd in all at a Sum. The Court it self could not bring him to Flattery and for his Piety Submission and Virtue the Practice of his whole Life witnesses for him So soon sayes he as the Candle is taken away my Wife that knowes my Custome lies still without a word speaking and then do I Recollect all that I have said or done that day and take my self to shrift And why should I conceal or reserve any thing or make any Scruple of enquiring into my Errors when I can say to my self Do so no more and for this once I 'll forgive thee And again What can be more Pious and Self-denying than this Passage in one of his Epistles Believe me now when I tell you the very bottom of my Soul In all the Difficulties and Crosses of my life this is my Consideration Since it is God's Will I do not only obey but assent to 't nor do I comply out of Necessity but Inclination Here follows now sayes Tacitus the Death of Seneca to Nero's great satisfaction Not so much for any pregnant Proof against him that he was of Piso's Conspiracy but Nero was resolv'd to do that by the Sword which he could not Effect by Poyson For it is reported that Nero had corrupted Cleonicus a Freeman of Seneca ' s to give his Master Poyson which did not succeed whether that the servant had discover'd it to his Master or that Seneca by his own caution and Iealousie had avoided it for he liv'd only upon a simple Diet as the Fruits of the Earth and his Drink was most commonly River-water Natalis it seems was sent upon a Visit to him being indispos'd with a Complaint that he would not let Piso come at him and Advising him to the Continuance of their Friendship and Acquaintance as formerly To whom Seneca made Answer That frequent Meetings and Conferences betwixt them could do neither of them any Good but that he had a great Interest in Piso's wellfare Hereupon Granius Silvanus a Captain of the Guard was sent to examine Seneca upon the Discourse that pass'd betwixt him and Natalis and to return his Answer Seneca either by Chance or upon Purpose came that day from Campania to a Villa of his own within four Miles of the City and thither the Officer went the next Evening and beset the Place He found Seneca at Supper with his Wife Paulina and two of his Friends and gave him immediately an Account of his Commission Seneca told him that it was true that Natalis had been with him in Piso's Name with a Complaint that Piso could not be admitted to see him and that he exous'd himself by reason of his want of health and his desires to be quiet and private and that he had no reason to prefer another Mans Wellfare before his own Caesar himself he said knew very well that he was not a Man of Complement
having receiv'd more Proofs of his Freedome than of his Flattery This Answer of Seneca's was deliver'd to Caesar in the Presence of Poppaea and Tigellinus the Intimate Confidents of this Barbarous Prince and Nero ask'd him Whether he could gather any thing from Seneca as if he intended to make himself away The Tribunes Answer was That he did not find him one jot mov'd with the Message but that he went on roundly with his Tale and never so much as chang'd Countenance for the matter Go back to him then sayes Nero and tell him That he is Condemn'd to Die Fabius Rusticus delivers it that the Tribune did not return the same way he came but went aside to Fenius a Captain of that Name and told him Caesars Orders asking his Advice whether he should obey them or not who bad him by all means to do as he was Order'd Which want of Resolution was fatal to them all for Silvanus also that was one of the Conspirators assisted now to serve and to increase those Crimes which he had before complotted to revenge And yet he did not think fit to appear himself in the business but sent a Centurion to Seneca to tell him his Doom Seneca without any surprize or disorder calls for his Will which being refus'd him by the Officer he turn'd to his Friends and told them That since he was not permitted to requite them as they deserv'd he was yet at liberty to bequeath them the thing of all others that he esteem'd the most that is the Image of his Life which should give them the Reputation both of Constancy and Friendship if they would but imitate it exhorting them to a firmness of Mind sometimes by Good Counsel otherwhile by Reprehension as the occasion requir'd Where sayes he is all your Philosophy now all your Premeditated Resolutions against the violences of Fortune Is there any Man so Ignorant of Nero's Cruelty as to expect after the Murther of his Mother and his Brother that he should ever spare the Life of his Governor and Tutor After some General Expressions to this Purpose he took his Wife in his Armes and having somewhat fortify'd her against the Present Calamity he besought and conjur'd her to moderate her Sorrows and betake her self to the Contemplations and Comforts of a Virtuous Life which would be a fair and an ample Consolation to her for the loss of her Husband Paulina on the ether side tells him her determination to bear him Company and Wills for the Executioner to do his Office Well sayes Seneca if after the sweetness of Life as I have represented it to thee thou hadst rather entertain an honorable Death I shall not envy thy Example consulting at the same time the Fame of the Person he lov'd and his own tenderness for fear of the Injuries that might attend her when he was gone Our Resolution sayes he in this Generous Act may be equal but thine will be the greater Reputation After this the Veins of both their Armes were open'd at one and the same stroke Seneca did not bleed so freely his spirits being wasted with Age and a thin Diet so that he was forc'd to cut the Veins of his Thighs and elsewhere to hasten his dispatch When he was far spent and almost sinking under his Torments he desir'd his Wife to remove into another Chamber least the Agonyes of the one might work upon the Courage of the other His Eloquence continu'd to the last as appears by the Excellent Things he deliver'd at his Death which being taken in Writing from his own Mouth and publish'd in his own words I shall not presume to deliver them in any other Nero in the mean time who had no particular Spite to Paulina gave Orders to prevent her Death for fear His Cruelty should grow more and more Insupportable and Odious Whereupon the Soldiers gave all freedome and encouragement to her Servants to Bind up her Wounds and stop the Blood which they did accordingly but whether she was sensible of it or not is a Question For among the Common People who are apt to judge the worst there were some of Opinion that as long as she despair'd of Nero's Mercy she seem'd to Court the Glory of dying with her Husband for Company but that upon the likelihood of better Quarter she was prevail'd upon to out-live him And so for some years she did survive him with all Piety and Respect to his Memory but so miserably pale and wan that every body might Read the Loss of her Blood and Spirits in her very Countenance Seneca finding his Death slow and lingering desires Statius Annaeus his old Friend and Physician to give him a Dose of Poyson which he had provided before-hand being the same Preparation which was appointed for Capital Offenders in Athens This was brought him and he drank it up but to little purpose for his Body was already chill'd and bound up against the force of it He went at last into a hot Bath and sprinkling some of his servants that were next him This sayes he is an Oblation to Jupiter the Deliverer The fume of the Bath soon dispatch'd him and his Body was Burnt without any Funeral solemnity as he had directed in his Testament though this Will of his was made in the height of his Prosperity and Power There was a Rumor that Subrius Flavius in a Private consultation with the Centurions had taken up this following Resolution and that Seneca himself was no stranger to it that is to say that after Nero should have been slain by the help of Piso Piso himself should have been kill'd too and the Empire deliver'd up to Seneca as one that well deserv'd it for his Integrity and Virtue BOOKS Printed for and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful Fire of LONDON 1666 to 1677. Divinity BIshop Wilkins of Natural Religion M Cumber's Companion to the Temple being a Paraphrase on the Common Prayer 3 Vol. Bishop Cosen's Devotions Bishop Taylor 's Holy Living and Dying Mr. Fowler 's Design of Christianity Mr. Patrick's Witnesses to Christianity in 2 Vol. His Advice to a Friend Dr. Spark's Devotions on the Feasts and Fasts of the Church Dr. Du Moulin's Prayers Holy Anthems of the Church The Saints Legacies The Reformed Monastry or the Love of Iesus Mr. Farindon's Sermons Bona's Guide to Eternity And his Precepts and Practical Rules for a Christian Life Several Sermons at Court c. Dr. Duport's Three Sermons on May 29. Nov. 5. Ian. 30. Histories The Life of the great Duke of Espernon being the History of the Civil Wars of France beginning 1598. Where D'Avila leaves off and ending in 1642. by Charles Cotton Esq The Commentary of Mr. Blaiz de Montluc the great Favourite of France in which are contained all the Sieges Battels Skirmishes in three Kings Reigns by Charles Cotton Esq Mr. Rycaut's History of Turkie The History of the Three last Grand Seigniors The History of Don Quixot Fol. Bishop Wilkins's Real Character Fol. Bishop
Cosens against Transubstantiation Dr. Guidots Hist. of Bathe and of the hot Waters there The Fair one of Tunis a Romance Domus Carthusiana or the History of the most Noble Foundation of the Charter-House in London with the Life and Death of Tho. Sutton Esq The History of the Sevarites a Nation inhabiting part of the third Continent Physick Dr. Glisson de Ventriculo Intestinis De Vita Naturae Dr. Barbet's Practice with Dr. Deoker's Notes Sir Ken. Digby's Excellent Receipts in Physick Chirurgery and Cookery The Anatomy of the Elder-tree with its approved Vertue Miscellanies Vossius of the Wind and Seas Dr. Skinner's Lexicon The Planters Manuel Treatise of Humane Reason The Compleat Gamester Toleration discuss'd by R. L'Estrange Esq England's Improvement by R. Coke Esq Leyburn's Arith. Recreations Geographical Cards describing all parts of the World and a Geographical Dictionary School-Books Screvelius Lexicon in Quarto Centum Fabulae in Octavo Nolens Volens or you shall make Latin Radyns Rudimenta Artis Oratoriae Pools Parnassus The Scholars Guide from the Accidence to the University Erasmus Coll. English Lipsius of Constancy English Controversies Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical account of the Reformation here in England Lex Talionis being an Answer to Naked Truth The Papists Apology answered And several Tracts in Defence of the Church of England SENECA OF Benefits CHAP. I. Of Benefits in General IT is perhaps one of the most pernicious Errors of a Rash and Inconsiderate Life the Common Ignorance of the World in the Matter of exchanging Benefits And this arises from a Mistake partly in the Person that we would Oblige and partly in the thing it self To begin with the Latter A Benefit is a good Office done with Intention and Iudgment that is to say with a due regard to all the Circumstances of What How Why When Where to whom how much and the like Or otherwise It is a Voluntary and Benevolent Action that delights the Giver in the Comfort it brings to the Receiver It will be hard to draw this Subject either into Method or Compass the one because of the infinite variety and Complication of Cases the other by reason of the large Extent of it For the whole Business almost of Mankind in Society falls under this Head The Duties of Kings and Subjects Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants Natives and Strangers High and Low Rich and Poor Strong and Weak Friends and Enemies The very Meditation of it breeds good Blood and generous Thoughts and instructs us in all the Parts of Honor Humanity Friendship Piety Gratitude Prudence and Justice In short the Art and Skill of conferring Benefits is of all Humane Duties the most absolutely necessary to the well-Being both of Reasonable Nature and of every Individual as the very Ciment of all Communities and the Blessing of Particulars He that does good to another Man does good also to himself not only in the Consequence but even in the very Act of doing it for the Conscience of well-doing is an ample Reward OF Benefits in General there are several sorts As Necessary Profitable and Delightful Some things there are without which we Cannot Live Others without which we Ought not to live and some again without which we Will not live In the first Rank are those which deliver us from capital Dangers or Apprehensions of Death And the favour is rated according to the hazard for the greater the Extremity the greater seems the Obligation The next is a Case wherein we may indeed Live but we had better Dye As in the Question of Liberty Modesty and a good Conscience In the third place follow those things which Custome Use Affinity and Acquaintance have made dear to us As Husbands Wives Children Friends c. Which an honest Man will Preserve at his utmost Peril Of things Profitable there 's a large Field as Mony Honor c. to which might be added Matters of Superfluity and Pleasure But we shall open a way to the Circumstances of a Benefit by some previous and more General deliberations upon the thing it self CHAP. II. Several Sorts of Benefits WE shall divide Benefits into Absolute and Vulgar the One appertaining to Good Life the Other is only Matter of Commerce The former are the more Excellent because they can never be made void whereas all Material Benefits are tossed back and forward and change their Master There are some Offices that look like Benefits but are only desirable Conveniencies as Wealth Title c. and These a Wicked Man may receive from a Good or a Good Man from an Evil. Others again that bear the face of Injuries which are only Benefits ill-taken as Cutting Lancing Burning under the hand of a Surgeon The greatest Benefits of all are those of good Education which we receive from our Parents either in the State of Ignorance or Perverseness as their Care and Tenderness in our Infancy Their Discipline in our Childhood to keep us to our duties by fear and if fair means will not do their Proceeding afterward to severity and Punishment without which we should never have come to good There are Matters of great value many times that are but of small price as Instructions from a Tutor Medicines from a Physitian c. And there are small matters again which are of great consideration to us the Gift may be small and the consequence great as a Cup of cold Water in a time of need may save a Mans Life some things are of great Moment to the Giver others to the Receiver One Man gives me a House another snatches me out when 't is falling upon my head One gives me an Estate Another takes me out of the Fire or casts me out a Rope when I am sinking Some good Offices we do to Friends Others to Strangers but those are the noblest that we do without Predesert There is an Obligation of Bounty and an Obligation of Charity This in case of Necessity and That in point of Convenience Some Benefits are Common Others are Personal as if a Prince out of pure Grace grant a Privilege to a City the Obligation lies upon the Community and only upon every Individual as a Part of the whole but if it be done particularly for my sake then am I singly the Debtor for 't The cherishing of Strangers is one of the duties of Hospitality and exercises it self in the Relief and Protection of the Distressed There are Benefits of good Counsel Reputation Life Fortune Liberty Health nay and of Superfluity and Pleasure One Man obliges me out of his Pocket Another gives me Matter of Ornament or Curiosity a Third Consolation To say nothing of Negative Benefits for there are that reckon it an Obligation if they do a Body no hurt and place it to Accompt as if they sav'd a Man when they do not undo him To shut up all in one word as Benevolence
is the most sociable of all Virtues so is it of the largest Extent for there is not any Man either so great or so little but he is yet capable of giving and of receiving Benefits CHAP. III. A Son may Oblige his Father and a Servant his Master THE Question is in the first Place Whether it may not be possible for a Father to owe more to a Son in other respects than the Son owes to his Father for his Being That many Sons are both Greater and Better than their Fathers there is no Question as there are many other things that derive their Beings from others which yet are far greater than their Original Is not the Tree larger than the Seed The River than the Fountain The Foundation of all things lies hid and the Superstructure obscures it If I owe all to my Father because he gave me Life I may owe as much to a Physitian that sav'd his Life for if my Father had not been Cur'd I had never been Begotten Or if I stand indebted for all that I am to my Beginning my Acknowledgment must run back to the very Original of all Humane Beings My Father gave me the Benefit of Life which he had never done if his Father had not first given it to him He gave me Life not knowing to whom and when I was in a Condition neither to feel Death nor to fear it That 's the great Benefit to give Life to one that knows how to use it and that is capable of the Apprehension of Death 'T is true that without a Father I could never have had a Being and so without a Nurse that Being had never been emprov'd but I do not therefore owe my Virtue either to my Nativity or to her that gave me Suck The generation of me was the least part of the Benefit For to Live is common with Brutes but to Live well is the main business and that Virtue is all my own saving what I drew from my Education It does not follow that the first Benefit must be the greatest because without the first the greatest could never have been The Father gives Life to the Son but once but if the Son saves the Fathers Life often though he do but his duty it is yet a greater Benefit And again the Benefit that a Man receives is the greater the more he needs it but the Living has more need of Life than he that is not yet born So that the Father receives a greater Benefit in the Continuance of his Life than the Son in the Beginning of it What if a Son deliver his Father from the Rack or which is more lay himself down in his place The giving of him a Being was but the Office of a Father a simple Act a Benefit given at a venture beside that he had a Participant in it and a regard to his Family He gave only a single Life and he receiv'd a happy one My Mother brought me into the World Naked expos'd and void of Reason but my Reputation and my Fortune are advanc'd by my Virtue Scipio as yet in his Minority rescu'd his Father in a Battel with Hannibal and afterward from the Practices and Prosecution of a Powerful Faction covering him with Consulary Honors and the Spoyles of Publick Enemies He made himself as Eminent for his Moderation as for his Piety and Military Knowledge He was the Defender and the Establisher of his Country He left the Empire without a Competitor and made himself as well the Ornament of Rome as the Security of it and Did not Scipio in all this more than requite his Father barely for Begetting of him Whether did Anchises more for Aeneas in dandling the Child in his Armes or Aeneas for his Father when he carry'd him upon his Back through the Flames of Troy and made his Name famous to future Ages among the Founders of the Roman Empire T. Manlius was the Son of a Sour and Imperious Father who banish'd him his House as a Blockhead and a scandal to the Family This Manlius hearing that his Fathers Life was in Question and a day set for his Tryal went to the Tribune that was concern'd in the Cause and discours'd him about it the Tribune told him the appointed time and withal as an Obligation upon the young Man that his Cruelty to his Son would be part of his Accusation Manlius upon this takes the Tribune aside and presenting a Ponyard to his breast Swear sayes he that you will let this Cause fall or you shall have this Dagger in the heart of you and now 't is at your choise which way you will deliver my Father The Tribune Swore and kept his Word and made a fair Report of the whole matter to the Council He that makes himself Famous by his Eloquence Justice or Armes illustrates his Extraction let it be never so mean and gives inestimable Reputation to his Parents We should never have heard of Sophroniscus but for his Son Socrates nor of Aristo and Gryllus if it had not been for Xenophon and Plato THIS is not to discountenance the Veneration we owe to Parents nor to make Children the worse but the better and to stir up generous Emulations for in Contests of good Offices both Parts are happy as well the vanquish'd as those that overcome It is the only honorable dispute that can arrive betwixt a Father and a Son which of the two shall have the better of the other in the Point of Benefits IN the Question betwixt a Master and a Servant we must distinguish betwixt Benefits Duties and Actions Ministerial By Benefits we understand those good Offices that we receive from Strangers which are voluntary and may be forborn without blame Duties are the Parts of a Son and Wife and incumbent upon Kindred and Relations Offices Ministerial belong to the Part of a Servant Now since it is the Mind and not the Condition of the Person that Prints the Value upon the Benefit a Servant may oblige his Master and so may a Subject his Sovereign or a Common Soldier his General by doing more than he is expresly bound to do Some things there are which the Law neither commands nor forbids and here the Servant is free It would be very hard for a Servant to be chastiz'd for doing less than his duty and not thank'd for 't when he does more His Body 't is true is his Masters but his Mind is his own and there are many Commands which a Servant ought no more to obey than a Master to impose There is no Man so great but he may both need the help and service and stand in fear of the Power and Unkindness even of the meanest of Mortals One Servant Kills his Master another Saves him nay preserves his Masters Life perhaps with the loss of his own He exposes himself to Torment and Death he stands firm against all threats and flatteries which is not only a Benefit in a Servant but much the
greater for his so being WHEN Domitius was besieg'd in Corfinium and the Place brought to great extremity he pressed his servant so earnestly to Poyson him that at last he was prevail'd upon to give him a Potion which it seems was an innocent Opiate and Domitius out-liv'd it Caesar took the Town and gave Domitius his Life but it was his Servant that gave it him first THERE was another Town besieg'd and when it was upon the last pinch two Servants made their escape and went over to the Enemy Upon the Romans entring the Town and in the heat of the Soldiers fury these two Fellows ran directly home took their Mistress out of her house and drave her before them telling every body how barbarously she had us'd them formerly and that they would now have their Revenge when they had her without the Gates they kept her close till the danger was over by which means they gave their Mistress her Life and she gave them their Freedom This was not the Action of a Servile Mind to do so Glorious a thing under an appearance of so great a Villany for if they had not pass'd for Deserters and Parricides they could not have gain'd their End WITH one Instance more and that a very brave one I shall conclude this Chapter IN the Civil Wars of Rome a Party coming to search for a Person of Quality that was proscrib'd a Servant put on his Masters Cloths and deliver'd himself up to the Soldiers as the Master of the House he was taken into Custody and put to death without discovering the Mistake What could be more glorious than for a Servant to dye for his Master in that Age when there were not many Servants that would not betray their Masters So generous a tenderness in a Publick Cruelty So invincible a Faith in a General Corruption What could be more glorious I say than so exalted a Virtue as rather to chuse death for the Reward of his Fidelity than the greatest advantages he might otherwise have had for the violation of it CHAP. IV. It is the Intention not the Matter that makes the Benefit THE Good will of the Benefactor is the Fountain of all Benefits nay it is the Benefit it self or at least the Stamp that makes it valuable and current Some there are I know that take the Matter for the Benefit and taxe the Obligation by weight and measure When any thing is given them they presently cast it up What may such a House be worth Such an Office Such an Estate As if that were the Benefit which is only the Sign and Mark of it For the Obligation rests in the Mind not in the Matter And all those Advantages which we see handle or hold in actual possession by the Courtesie of another are but several Modes or Wayes of Explaining and putting the Good Will in Execution There needs no great subtilty to prove that both Benefits and Injuries receive their value from the Intention when even Brutes themselves are able to decide this Question Tread upon a Dog by chance or put him to pain upon the dressing of a Wound the one he passes by as an Accident and the other in his fashion he acknowledges as a Kindness but offer to strike at him though you do him no hurt at all he flies yet in the face of you even for the Mischief that you barely meant him IT is further to be observ'd that all Benefits are good and like the distributions of Providence made up of Wisdom and Bounty whereas the Gift it self is neither good nor bad but may indifferently be apply'd either to the one or to the other The Benefit is Immortal the Gift Perishable For the Benefit it self continues when we have no longer either the Use or the Matter of it He that is dead was alive He that has lost his Eyes did see and whatsoever is done cannot be rendred undone My Friend for Instance is taken by Pyrates I redeem him and after that he falls into other Pyrates hands his Obligation to me is the same still as if he had preserv'd his Freedom And so if I save a Man from any one Misfortune and he falls into another if I give him a Sum of Money which is afterward taken away by Thieves it comes to the same Case Fortune may deprive us of the Matter of a Benefit but the Benefit it self remains inviolable If the Benefit resided in the Matter that which is good for one Man would be so for another whereas many times the very same thing given to several Persons works contrary effects even to the difference of Life or Death and that which is one bodies Cure proves another bodies Poison Beside that the Timeing of it alters the value and a Crust of Bread upon a pinch is a greater Present than an Imperial Crown What is more Familiar than in a Battel to shoot at an Enemy and kill a Friend Or in stead of a Friend to save an Enemy But yet this disappointment in the Event does not at all operate upon the Intention What if a Man cures me of a Wen with a stroke that was design'd to cut off my head Or with a Malicious blow upon my Stomach breaks an Imposthume or What if he save my Life with a Draught that was prepar'd to Poyson me The Providence of the Issue does not at all discharge the Obliquity of the Intent And the same Reason holds good even in Religion it self It is not the Incense or the Offering that is acceptable to God but the Purity and Devotion of the Worshipper Neither is the bare Will without Action sufficient that is where we have the Means of Acting for in that Case it signifies as little to wish well without well doing as to do good without willing it There must be Effect as well as Intention to make me owe a Benefit but to will against it does wholly discharge it In fine the Conscience alone is the Judge both of Benefits and Injuries IT does not follow now because the Benefit rests in the Good Will that therefore the Good Will should be alwayes a Benefit for if it be not accompany'd with Government and Discretion those Offices which we call Benefits are but the Works of Passion or of Chance and many times the greatest of all Injuries One Man does me good by Mistake another Ignorantly a third upon force but none of these Cases do I take to be an Obligation for they were neither directed to me nor was there any kindness of Intention We do not thank the Seas for the Advantages we receive by Navigation or the Rivers for supplying us with Fish and flowing of our Grounds we do not thank the Trees either for their Fruits or Shades or the Winds for a fair Gale And What 's the difference betwixt a reasonable Creature that does not know and an Inanimate that cannot A good Horse saves one Man's Life a good Sute of Armes Another's and a Man perhaps
the Receiver who is never to forget it may bear it in his Mind with satisfaction There must be no mixture of Sourness Severity Contumely or Reproof with our Obligations nay in case there should be any occasion for so much as an Admonition let it be referr'd to another time We are a great deal apter to remember Injuries than Benefits and 't is enough to forgive an Obligation that has the Nature of an Offence THERE are some that spoil a good Office after it is done and others in the very instant of doing it There must be so much Entreaty and Importunity nay if we do but suspect a Petitioner we put on a sour face look another way pretend Haste Company Business talk of other Matters and keep him off with Artificial Delayes let his Necessities be never so pressing and when we are put to 't at last it comes so hard from us that 't is rather Extorted than Obtain'd and not so properly the giving of a Bounty as the quitting of a Mans hold upon the Tugg when another is too strong for him so that this is but doing one kindness for mee and another for himself He gives for his own Quiet after he has tormented me with difficulties and delayes The Manner of Saying or of Doing any thing goes a great way in the value of the thing it self It was well said of him that call'd a good Office that was done harshly and with an ill-will A Stony Piece of Bread 't is necessary for him that is hungry to receive it but it almost chokes a Man in the going down There must be no Pride Arrogance of looks or tumour of Words in the bestowing of Benefits no Insolence of Behaviour but a Modesty of Mind and a diligent care to catch at occasions and prevent Necessities A Pause an Unkind Tone Word Look or Action destroyes the Grace of a Curtesie It corrupts a Bounty when it is accompany'd with State Haughtiness and Elation of Mind in the giving of it Some have the Trick of shifting off a Suitor with a point of Wit or a Cavil As in the Case of the Cynick that beg'd a Talent of Antigonus That 's too much sayes he for a Cynick to ask and when he fell to a Penny That 's too little sayes he for a Prince to give He might have found a way to have compounded this Controversie by giving him a Penny as to a Cynique and a Talent as from a Prince Whatsoever we bestow let it be done with a Frank and Chearful Countenance a Man must not give with his Hand and deny with his Looks he that gives quickly gives willingly WE are likewise to accompany Good Deeds with Good Words and say for the Purpose Why should you make such a Matter of this Why did not you come to me sooner Why would you make use of any body else I take it ill that you should bring me a Recommendation Pray let there be no more of this but when you have occasion hereafter come to me upon your own account That 's the glorious Bounty when the Receiver can say to himself What a blessed day has this been to me never was any thing done so generously so tenderly with so good a Grace What is it I would not do to serve this Man a thousand times as much another way could not have given me this satisfaction In such a Case let the Benefit be never so considerable the manner of conferring it is yet the noblest part Where there is harshness of Language Countenance or Behaviour a Man had better be without it A flat denyal is infinitely before a vexatious delay as a quick Death is a Mercy compar'd with a lingering Torment But to be put to Waytings and Intercessions after a Promise is past is a Cruelty Intolerable 'T is troublesome to stay long for a Benefit let it be never so great and he that holds me needlesly in pain loses two precious things Time and the Proof of Friendship Nay the very hint of a Mans wants comes many times too late If I had Money said Socrates I would buy me a Cloak They that knew he wanted one should have prevented the very Intimation of that want It is not the Value of the Present but the Benevolence of the Mind that we are to consider He gave me but a little but it was generously and frankly done it was a little out of a little he gave me it without asking he prest it upon me he watch'd the opportunity of doing it and took it as an Obligation upon himself On the other side many Benefits are great in shew but little or nothing perhaps in effect when they come hard slow or at unawares That which is given with Pride and Ostentation is rather an Ambition than a Bounty SOME Favours are to be conferr'd in Publick others in Private In Publick the rewards of great Actions as Honours Charges or whatsoever else gives a Man Reputation in the World but the good Offices we do for a Man in Want Distress or under Reproach these should be known only to those that have the Benefit of them Nay not to them neither if we can handsomely conceal it from whence the favour came For the Secrecy in many Cases is a main part of the Benefit There was a good Man that had a Friend who was both Poor and Sick and asham'd to own his Condition He privately convey'd a Bag of Money under his Pillow that he might seem rather to find than receive it Provided I know that I give it no matter for his knowing from whence it comes that receives it Many a man stands in need of help that has not the face to confess it if the discovery may give offence let it lye conceal'd He that gives to be seen would never relieve a man in the dark It would be tedious to run through all the Niceties that may occurre upon this Subject But in two words he must be a Wise a Friendly and a Well-bred man that perfectly acquits himself in the Art and Duty of Obliging for all his Actions must be squared according to the Measures of Civility Good Nature and Discretion CHAP. VIII The Difference and Value of Benefits WE have already spoken of Benefits in General the Matter and the Intention together with the Manner of conferring them It follows now in Course to say something of the Value of them which is rated either by the Good they do us or by the Inconvenience they save us and has no other Standard than that of a judicious Regard to Circumstance and Occasion Suppose I save a Man from Drowning the Advantage of Life is all one to him from what hand soever it comes or by what means but yet there may be a vast difference in the Obligation I may do it with Hazard or with Security with Trouble or with Ease Willingly or by Compulsion upon Intercession or without it I may have a Prospect of vain Glory or
Action How great a Man soever he was in other Cases without dispute he was extremely out in this and below the dignity of his Profession For a Stoick to fear the Name of a King when yet Monarchy is the best State of Government or there to hope for Liberty where so great rewards were propounded both for Tyrants and their Slaves For him to imagine ever to bring the Laws to their former State where so many thousand lives had been lost in the Contest not so much whether they should serve or no but who should be their Master He was strangely mistaken sure in the Nature and Reason of things to Phansy that when Iulius was gone some body else would not start up in his place when there was yet a Tarquin found after so many Kings that were destroy'd either by Sword or Thunder And yet the Resolution is That he might have Receiv'd it but not as a Benefit for at that rate I owe my Life to every Man that does not take it away GRAECINUS IULIUS whom Caligula put to death out of a pure Malice to his Virtue had a considerable sum of Mony sent him from Fabius Persicus a Man of Great and Infamous Example as a Contribution toward the Expense of Playes and other Publick Entertainments but Iulius would not receive it and some of his Friends that had an Eye more upon the Present than the Presenter ask'd him with some freedome What he meant by refusing it Why sayes he Do you think that I 'll take Mony where I would not take so much as a Glass of Wine After this Rebilus a Man of the same stamp sent him a greater Sum upon the same score You must excuse me sayes he to the Messenger for I would not take any thing of Persicus neither TO match this Scruple of Receiving Mony with another of Keeping it and the Sum not above Three pence or a Groat at most There was a certain Pythagorean that Contracted with a Cobler for a pair of Shooes and some three or four days after going to pay him his Mony the shop was shut up and when he had knock'd a great while at the door Friend sayes a Fellow you may hammer your heart out there for the Man that you look for is dead And when our Friends are dead we hear no more News of them but yours that are to live again will shift well enough alluding to Pythagoras his Transmigration Upon this the Philosopher went away with his Mony chinking in his hand and well enough content to save it at last his Conscience took check at it and upon Reflection Though the Man be dead sayes he to Others he is alive to Thee pay him what thou owest him and so he went back presently and thrust it into his Shop through the Chink of the door Whatever we owe 't is our part to find where to pay it and to do it without asking too for whether the Creditor be good or bad the Debt is still the same IF a Benefit be forc'd upon me as from a Tyrant or a Superior where it may be dangerous to refuse this is rather Obeying than Receiving where the necessity destroyes the choice the way to know what I have a Mind to do is to leave me at liberty whether I will do it or no but it is yet a Benefit if a Man does me good in spite of my Teeth as it is none if I do any Man good against my Will A Man may both hate and yet Receive a Benefit at the same time the Mony is never the worse because a Fool that is not read in Quoines refuses to take it If the thing be good for the Receiver and so intended no matter how ill 't is taken Nay the Receiver may be oblig'd and not know it But there can be no Benefit which is unknown to the Giver Neither will I upon any Termes receive a Benefit from a Worthy Person that may do him a Mischief It is the part of an Enemy to save himself by doing another Man harm BUT Whatever we do let us be sure alwayes to keep a Grateful Mind It is not enough to say What Requital shall a Poor Man offer to a Prince or a Slave to his Patron When it is the glory of Gratitude that it depends only upon the good will Suppose a Man defends my Fame delivers me from Beggery saves my Life or gives me Liberty that is more than Life How shnll I be grateful to that Man I will receive cherish and rejoyce in the Benefit Take it kindly and it is requited not that the Debt it self is discaharg'd but it is nevertheless a discharge of the Conscience I will yet distinguish betwixt a Debtor that becomes Insolvent by Expenses upon Whores and Diee and another that is undone by Fire or Thieves Nor do I take this Gratitude for a payment but there is no danger I presume of being Arrested for such a Debt IN the Return of Benefits let us be ready and chearful but not pressing There is as much greatness of Mind in the Owing of a good Turn as in the doing of it and we must no more force a requital out of season than be wanting in it He that precipitates a Return does as good as say I am weary of being in this Mans Debt not but that the hastening of a Requital as a good Office is a Commendable Disposition but 't is another thing to do it as a discharge for it looks like casting off a heavy and a troublesome burthen 'T is for the Benefactor to say when he will receive it no matter for the Opinion of the World so long as I gratifie my own Conscience for I cannot be mistaken in my self but another may He that is over-sollicitous to return a Benefit thinks the other so likewise to receive it If he had rather we should keep it Why should we refuse and presume to dispose of his Treasure who may call it in or let it lye out at his choice 'T is as much a fault to receive what I ought not as not to give what I ought for the Giver has the Priviledge of Chusing his own time for receiving SOME are too proud in the conferring of Benefits others in the Receiving of them which is to say the Truth intolerable The same Rule serves both sides as in the Case of a Father and a Son a Husband and a Wife one Friend or Acquaintance and another where the Duties are known and common There are some that will not receive a Benefit but in Private nor thank you for 't but in your Ear or in a Corner there must be nothing under Hand and Seal no Brokers Notaries or Witnesses in the Case This is not so much a scruple of modesty as a kind of denying the Obligation and only a less harden'd Ingratitude Some receive Benefits so coldly and indifferently that a Man would think the Obligation lay on the other side
fall under Natural Philosophy Arguments under Rational and Actions under Moral Moral Philosophy is again divided into Matter of Iustice which arises from the Estimation of Things and of Men and into Affections and Actions and a failing in any one of these disorders all the rest For What does it profit us to know the true value of things if we be transported by our Passions or to Master our Appetites without understanding the when the what the how and other Circumstances of our Proceedings For it is one thing to Know the Rate and Dignity of things and another to know the little Nicks and Springs of Acting Natural Philosophy is Conversant about things Corporeal and Incorporeal the disquisition of Causes and Effects and the Contemplation of the Cause of Causes Rational Philosophy is divided into Logick and Rhetorick the One looks after Words Sense and Order the Other Treats barely of Words and the Significations of them Socrates places all Philosophy in Moralls and Wisdome in the distinguishing of Good and Evil. It is the Art and Law of Life and it Teaches us what to do in all Cases and like good Markes-men to hit the White at any distance The force of it is incredible for it gives us in the weakness of a Man the security of a Spirit In Sickness it is as good as a Remedy to us for whatsoever eases the Mind is profitable also to the Body The Physitian may prescribe Dyet and Exercise and accommodate his Rule and Medicine to the Disease but 't is Philosophy that must bring us to a Contempt of Death which is the Remedy of all Diseases In Poverty it gives us Riches or such a State of Mind as makes them superfluous to us It armes us against all Difficulties One Man is prest with Death another with Poverty some with Envy others are offended at Providence and unsatisfied with the Condition of Mankind But Philosophy prompts us to relieve the Prisoner the Infirm the Necessitous the Condemn'd to shew the Ignorant their Errors and rectify their Affections It makes us inspect and govern our Manners it rouzes us where we are faint and drouzy it binds up what is loose and humbles in us that which is Contumacious It delivers the Mind from the Bondage of the Body and raises it up to the Contemplation of its Divine Original Honors Monuments and all the works of Vanity and Ambition are demolished and Destroyed by Time but the Reputation of Wisdome is venerable to Posterity and those that were envy'd or neglected in their Lives are ador'd in their Memories and exempted from the very Laws of Created Nature which has set bounds to all other things The very shadow of Glory carries a Man of Honor upon all dangers to the Contempt of Fire and Sword and it were a shame if Right Reason should not inspire as generous Resolutions into a Man of Virtue NEITHER is Philosophy only profitable to the Publick but one Wise Man helps another even in the Exercise of their Virtues and the One has need of the Other both for Conversation and Counsel for they Kindle a mutual Emulation in good Offices We are not so perfect yet but that many new things remain still to be found out which will give us the reciprocal Advantages of Instructing one another For as one Wicked Man is Contagious to another and the more Vices are mingled the worse it is so is it on the Contrary with Good Men and their Virtues As Men of Letters are the most useful and excellent of Friends so are they the best of Subjects as being better Judges of the Blessings they enjoy under a well-order'd Government and of what they owe to the Magistrate for their Freedome and Protection They are Men of Sobriety and Learning and free from Boasting and Insolence they reprove the Vice without Reproaching the Person for they have learn'd to be Wise without either Pomp or Envy That which we see in high Mountains we find in Philosophers they seem taller near hand then at a distance They are rais'd above other Men but their greatness is substantial Nor do they stand upon the Tiptoe that they may seem higher than they are but content with their own stature they reckon themselves tall enough when Fortune cannot reach them Their Laws are short and yet comprehensive too for they bind all IT is the Bounty of Nature that we live but of Philosophy that we live well which is in truth a greater Benefit than Life it self Not but that Philosophy is also the Gift of Heaven so far as to the Faculty but not to the Science for that must be the business of Industry No Man is born Wise but Wisdom and Virtue require a Tutor though we can easily learn to be Vicious without a Master It is Philosophy that gives us a Veneration for God a Charity for our Neighbor that teaches us our Duty to Heaven and exhorts us to an Agreement one with another It unmasks things that are terrible to us asswages our Lusts refutes our Errors restrains our Luxury Reproves our Avarice and Works strangely upon Tender Natures I could never hear Attalus sayes Seneca upon the Vices of the Age and the Errors of Life without a compassion for Mankind and in his discourses upon Poverty there was something me thought that was more than Humane More than we use saies he is more than we need and only a Burthen to the Bearer That saying of his put me out of countenance at the superfluities of my own fortune And so in his Invectives against vain pleasures he did at such a rate advance the felicities of a Sober Table a Pure Mind and a Chast Body that a man could not hear him without a Love for Continence and Moderation Upon these Lectures of his I deny'd my self for a while after certain delicacies that I had formerly used but in a short time I fell to them again though so sparingly that the Proportion came little short of a Total Abstinence NOW to shew you saies our Author how much earnester my entrance upon Philosophy was than my Progress My Tutor Sotion gave me a wonderful kindness for Pythagoras and after him for Sextius The former forbare shedding of Bloud upon his Metempsychosis and put men in fear of it least they should offer violence to the souls of some of their departed friends or relations Whether sayes he there be a Transmigration or not if it be true there 's no hurt in 't if false there 's frugality and nothing's gotten by Cruelty neither but the cozening a Wolfe perhaps or a Vulture of a Supper Now Sextius abstain'd upon another Account which was that he would not have men inur'd to hardness of heart by the Laceration and tormenting of Living Creatures beside that Nature had sufficiently provided for the Sustenance of Mankind without Bloud This wrought so far upon me that I gave over eating of flesh and in one year made it not only easie to me but
this is the Difference betwixt a Mean and an Exalted Mind The Former is Rude and Tumultuary the Latter is Modest Venerable Compos'd and alwayes Quiet in its Station In brief It is the Conscience that pronounces upon the Man whether he be Happy or Miserable But though Sacrilege and Adultery be Generally condemn'd How many are there still that do not so much as Blush at the One and in truth that take a Glory in the Other For nothing is more Common than for Great Thieves to ride in Triumph when the little ones are punish'd But Let Wickedness scape as it may at the Bar it never fails of doing Iustice upon it self for every Guilty Person is his own Hangman CHAP VIII The Due Contemplation of Divine Providence is the Certain Cure of all Misfortunes WHOEVER observes the World and the Order of it will find all the Motions in it to be only a Vicissitude of Falling and Rising Nothing extinguish'd and even those things which seem to us to Perish are in truth but Chang'd The seasons Go and Return Day and Night follow in their Courses The Heavens Roul and Nature goes on with her Work All things succeed in their Turns Storms and Calms the Law of Nature will have it so which we must follow and obey accompting all things that are done to be well done So that what we cannot Mend we must Suffer and wait upon Providence without Repining It is the part of a Cowardly Soldier to follow his Commander Groaning but a Generous Man delivers himself up to God without struggling and it is only for a Narrow Mind to condemn the Order of the World and to propound rather the mending of Nature than of Himself No Man has any Cause of Complaint against Providence if that which is Right pleases him Those Glories that appear fair to the Eye their Lustre is but false and superficial and they are only Vanity and Delusion They are rather the Goods of a Dream than a Substantial Possession they may Cozen us at a Distance but bring them once to the Touch they are Rotten and Counterfeit There are no greater wretches in the World than many of those which the People take to be Happy Those are the only true and Incorruptible Comforts that will abide all Tryals and the more we turn and examine them the more valuable we find them and The greatest Felicity of all is not to stand in need of Any What 's Poverty No Man lives so poor as he was born What 's Pain It will either have an end it self or make an end of us In short Fortune has no Weapon that reaches the Mind But the Bounties of Providence are Certain and Permanent Blessings and they are the Greater and the Better the longer we consider them That is to say The Power of contemning things Terrible and despising what the Common People Covet In the very Methods of Nature we cannot but observe the Regard that Providence had to the Good of Mankind even in the Disposition of the World in providing so amply for our Maintenance and Satisfaction It is not possible for us to Comprehend what that Power is which has made all things Some few sparks of that Divinity are discover'd but infinitely the greater part of it lies hid We are all of us however so far agreed First in the Acknowledgment and Belief of that Almighty Being and Secondly that we are to ascribe to it all Majesty and Goodness IF there be a Providence say some How comes it to pass that good Men labour under Affliction and Adversity and Wicked Men enjoy themselves in Ease and Plenty My Answer is That God deals by Us as a good Father does by his Children he Tryes us he Hardens us and Fits us for Himself He keeps a strict hand over those that he loves and by the rest he does as we do by our slaves he lets them go on in License and Boldness As the Master gives his most hopeful Scholars the hardest Lessons so does God deal with the most Generous Spirits and the Cross Encounters of Fortune we are not to look upon as a Cruelty but as a Contest The Familiarity of Dangers brings us to the Contempt of them and that part is strongest which is most exercis'd the Seamans Hand is Callous the Soldiers Arm is Strong and the Tree that is most expos'd to the Wind takes the best Root Those People that live in a perpetual VVinter in extremity of Frost and Penury where a Cave a Look of Straw or a few Leaves is all their Covering and wild Beasts their Nourishment All this by Custome is not only made tolerable but when 't is once taken up upon necessity by little and little it becomes pleasant to them Why should we then accompt that Condition of Life a Calamity which is the Lot of many Nations There is no State of Life so miserable but there are in it Remissions Diversions nay and Delights too such is the Benignity of Nature toward us even in the severest Accidents of Humane Life There were no Living if Adversity should hold on as it begins and keep up the Force of the First Impression We are apt to Murmure at many things as great Evils that have nothing at all of Evil in them beside the Complaint which we should more reasonably take up against our selves If I be Sick 't is part of my Fate and for other Calamities they are usual Things they Ought to be nay which is more they Must be for they come by Divine Appointment So that we should not only Submit to God but Assent to him and Obey him out of Duty even if there were no Necessity All those terrible Appearances that make us Groan and Tremble are but the Tribute of Life we are neither to Wish nor to Ask nor to Hope to scape them For 't is a kind of Dishonesty to pay a Tribute Unwillingly Am I troubl'd with the Stone or Afflicted with continual Losses Nay Is my Body in danger All this is no more than what I Pray'd for when I Pray'd for Old Age. All these things are as familiar in a Long Life as Dust and Dirt in a Long Way Life is a Warfare and What Brave Man would not rather Chuse to be in a Tent than in a Shambles Fortune does like a Sword-Man She Scorns to Encounter a fearful Man there 's no Honor in the Victory where there 's no Danger in the Way to 't She tryes Mucius by Fire Rutilius by Exile Socrates by Poyson Cato by Death 'T is only in Adverse Fortune and in Bad Times that we find great Examples Mucius thought himself happier with his Hand in the Flame than if it had been in the Bosome of his Mistriss Fabricius took more pleasure in eating the Roots of his own Planting than in all the Delicacies of Luxury and Expence Shall we call Rutilius miserable whom his very Enemies have ador'd who upon a Glorious and a Publick Principle chose rather to
one labors of a Disease and the other of a False Opinion THE Stoicks hold That all those Torments that commonly draw from us Grones and Ejulations are in themselves Trivial and Contemptible But these High-flown Expressions apart how true soever Let us Discourse the Point at the rate of Ordinary Men and not make our selves Miserable before our time for The things we apprehend to be at Hand may possibly never come to pasâ—… Some things trouble us More than they should Other things Sooner and some things again disorder us that ought not to trouble us at all So that we either Enlarge or Create or Anticipate our Disquiets For the First part let it rest as a matter in Controversie for that which I accompt Light Another perhaps will Judge Insupportable One Man Laughs under the Lash and another Whines for a Phillip How sad a Calamity is Poverty to One Man which to Another appears rather Desirable than Inconvenient For the Poor Man that has nothing to Lose has nothing to Fear And he that would enjoy himself to the Satisfaction of his Soul must be either poor Indeed or at least look as if he were so Some people are extremely dejected with Sickness and Pain whereas Epicurus bless'd his Fate with his last Breath in the Acutest Torments of the Stone Imaginable And so for Banishment which to One Man is so Grievous and yet to Another is no more than a bare Change of Place A thing that we do every day for our Health Pleasure nay and upon the Accompt even of Common Business How Terrible is Death to One Man which to Another appears the greatest Providence in Nature even toward all Ages and Conditions It is the Wish of Some the Relief of Many and the End of All. It sets the Slave at Liberty carries the Banish'd Man Home and places all Mortals upon the same Level Insomuch that Life it self were a Punishment without it When I see Tyrants Tortures Violences the Prospect of Death is a Consolation to me and the only Remedy against the Injuries of Life NAY so great are our Mistakes in the True Estimate of things that we have hardly done any thing which we have not had reason to wish Undone and we have found the things we fear'd to be more desirable than those we coveted Our very Prayers have been more Pernicious than the Curses of our Enemies and we must Pray again to have our former Prayers forgiven Where 's the Wise Man that wishes himself the wishes of his Mother his Nurse or his Tutour the worst of Enemies with the Intention of the best of Friends We are Undone if their Prayers be heard and it is our Duty to Pray that they may not For they are no other than well-meaning Execrations They take Evil for Good and one Wish fights with another Give me rather the Contempt of all those things whereof they wish me the greatest Plenty We are equally hurt by some that Pray for us and by others that Curse us The One imprints in us a False Fear and the Other does us Mischief by a Mistake So that it is no wonder if Mankind be Miserable that is brought up from the very Cradle under the Imprecations of our Parents We pray for Trifles without so much as thinking of the greatest Blessings and we are not asham'd many times to ask God for That which we should blush to own to our Neighbor IT is with us as with an Innocent that Our Author had in his Family She fell blind on a sudden and no body could perswade her that she was Blind She could not endure the House she Cry'd it was so dark and was still calling to go abroad That which we laught at in her we find to be true in our selves we are Covetous and Ambitious but the World shall never bring us to acknowledge it and we Impute it to the Place Nay we are the worse of the Two for that blind Fool call'd for a Guide and we wander about without one It is a hard matter to Cure those that will not believe they are Sick We are asham'd to admit a Master and we are too old to Learn Vice still goes before Virtue So that we have two Works to do we must cast off the One and Learn the Other By One Evil we make way to another and only seek things to be avoided or those of which we are soon weary That which seem'd too Much when we wish'd for 't proves too Little when we have it and it is not as some Imagine that Felicity is Greedy but it is Little and Narrow and cannot Satisfie us That which we take to be very High at a distance we find to be but Low when we come at it And the Business is we do not understand the true State of Things we are deceiv'd by Rumors when we have Gain'd the thing we aim'd at we find it to be either Ill or Empty or perchance Less than we expected or otherwise perhaps Great but not Good CHAP XV. The Blessings of Temperance and Moderation THERE is not any thing that is Necessary to us but we have it either Cheap or Gratis and this is the Provision that our Heavenly Father has made for us whose Bounty was never wanting to our Needs 'T is true the Belly Craves and Calls upon us but then a small matter contents it A little Bread and Water is sufficient and all the rest is but superfluous He that lives according to Reason shall never be Poor and he that Governs his Life by Opinion shall never be Rich for Nature is Limited but Phancy is Boundless As for Meat Cloths and Lodging a little Feeds the Body and as little Covers it So that if Mankind would only attend Humane Nature without gaping at Superfluities a Cook would be found as needless as a Soldier For we may have Necessaries upon very Easie Termes whereas we put our selves to great Pains for excesses When we are Cold we may cover our selves with Skins of Beasts and against violent Heats we have Natural Grotto's or with a few Osyers and a little Clay we may defend our selves against all Seasons Providence has been kinder to us than to leave us to live by our Wits and to Stand in need of Invention and Arts It is only Pride and Curiosity that Involves us in Difficulties If nothing will serve a Man but Rich Cloths and Furniture Statues and Plate a Numerous Train of Servants and the Rarities of all Nations it is not Fortunes Fault but his Own that he is not Satisfied For his Desires are Insatiable and this is not a Thirst but a Disease and if he were Master of the whole World he would be still a Begger 'T is the Mind that makes us Rich and Happy in what Condition soever we are and Money signifies no more to 't than it does to the Gods If the Religion be Sincere no matter for the Ornaments 'T is only Luxury and Avarice that
cannot Close up This Chapter with a more Generous Instance of Moderation than That of Fabricius Pyrrhus tempted him with a Sum of Money to betray his Country and Pyrrhus his Physician offer'd Fabricius for a Sum of Mony to Poyson his Master But he was too Brave either to be Overcome by Gold or to Overcome by Poyson so that he refus'd the Money and advis'd Pyrrhus to have a Care of Treachery and This in the Heat too of a Licentious War Fabricius valu'd himself upon his Poverty and was as much above the Thought of Riches as of Poyson Live Pyrrhus sayes he by my Friendship and Turn That to thy Satisfaction which was before thy Trouble that is to say That Fabricius could not be Corrupted CHAP. XVI Constancy of Mind gives a Man Reputation and makes him Happy in despite of all Misfortunes THE Whole Duty of Man may be reduc'd to the Two Poynts of Abstinence and Patience Temperance in Prosperity and Courage in Adversity We have already treated of the Former and the Other follows now in Course EPICURUS will have it that a Wise Man will Bear all Injuries but the Stoicks will not allow Those things to be Injuries which Epicurus calls so Now betwixt these Two there is the same difference that we find betwixt two Gladiators the One receives Wounds but yet maintains his Ground the Other tells the People when he is in Blood that 'T is but a scratch and will not suffer any body to part them An Injury cannot be Receiv'd but it must be Done but it may be Done and yet not Receiv'd as a Man may be in the Water and not Swim but if he Swims 't is presum'd that he is in the Water Or if a Blow or a Shot be levell'd at us it may so happen that a Man may miss his Aim or some Accident interpose that may divert the Mischief That which is Hurt is Passive and Inferior to that which Hurts it but you will say that Socrates was Condemn'd and put to Death and so receiv'd an Injury but I answer that the Tyrants Did him an Injury and yet he Receiv'd none He that steals any thing from me and Hides it in my Own house though I have not Lost it yet he has stoln it He that lies with his own Wife and takes her for another Woman though the Woman be Honest the Man is an Adulterer Suppose a Man gives me a draught of Poyson and it proves not strong enough to kill me his Guilt is never the Less for the Disappointment He that makes a Pass at me is as much a Murtherer though I put it by as if he had struck me to the Heart It is the Intention not the Effect that makes the Wickedness He is a Thief that has the Will of Killing and Slaying before his hand is dipt in Blood As it is Sacrilege the very Intention of laying violent Hands upon Holy Things If a Philosopher be expos'd to Torments the Axe over his Head his Body wounded his Guts in his Hands I will allow him to Grone for Virtue it self cannot divest him of the Nature of a Man but if his Mind stands Firm he has discharg'd his part A Great Mind enables a Man to maintain his Station with Honor So that he only makes Use of what he meets in his way as a Pilgrim that would fain be at his Journeys End IT is the Excellency of a Great Mind to Ask nothing and to Want nothing and to say I 'll have nothing to do with Fortune that Repulses Cato and Prefers Vatinius He that quits his Hold and accompts any thing Good that is not Honest runs gaping after Casualties spends his days in Anxiety and Vain Expectation That Man is Miserable And yet 't is hard you 'll say to be Banish'd or cast into Prison Nay what if it were to be burnt or any other way destroy'd We have Examples in all Ages and in all Cases of Great Men that have triumph'd over all Misfortunes Metellus suffer'd Exile Resolutely Rutilius Chearfully Socrates disputed in the Dungeon and though he might have made his Escape refus'd it To shew the World how easie a thing it was to subdue the Two Great Terrors of Mankind Death and a Iayle Or what shall we say of Mucius Scaevola a Man only of a Military Courage and without the Help either of Philosophy or Letters who when he found that he had kill'd the Secretary in stead of Porcenna the Prince burnt his Right Hand to Ashes for the Mistake and held his Arm in the Flame till it was taken away by his very Enemies Porcenna did more easily pardon Mucius for his Intent to kill him than Mucius forgave Himself for missing of his Aim He might have done a Luckyer thing but never a Braver DID not Cato in the last night of his Life take Plato to Bed with him with his Sword at his Beds-head the One that he might have Death at his Will the Other that he might have it in his Power being resolv'd that no Man should be able to say either that he kill'd or that he sav'd Cato So soon as he had compos'd his Thoughts he took his Sword Fortune sayes he I have hitherto Fought for my Countryes Liberty and for my Own and only that I might live Free among Freemen but the Cause is now Lost and Cato Safe With that word he cast himself upon his Sword and after the Physitians that press'd in upon him had bound up his Wound he tore it open again and so expir'd with the same Greatness of Soul that he Liv'd But these are the Examples you 'll say of Men Famous in their Generations Let us but Consult History and we shall find even in the most Effeminate of Nations and the most Dissolute of Times Men of all Degrees Ages and Fortunes nay even Women themselves that have overcome the Fear of Death which in truth is so little to be fear'd that duly consider'd it is one of the Greatest Benefits in Nature It was as great an Honor for Cato when his Party was Broken that He himself stood his Ground as it would have been if he had carry'd the Day and setled an Universal Peace For it is an Equal Prudence to make the Best of a Bad Game and to manage a Good one The Day that he was Repuls'd he Playd and the Night that he Kill'd himself he Read as valuing the Loss of his Life and the Missing of an Office at the same Rate People I know are apt to pronounce upon Other Mens Infirmities by the Measure of their Own and to think it Impossible that a Man should be content to be burnt Wounded Kill'd or Shackl'd though in some Cases he may It is only for a Great Mind to judge of Great things for otherwise that which is our Infirmity will seem to be another Bodies as a streight Stick in the Water appears to be Crooked He that Yields draws upon his own Head his
own Ruin for we are sure to get the better of Fortune if we do but struggle with her Fencers and Wrastlers we see what Blows and Bruises they endure not only for Honor but for Exercise If we turn our Backs once we are Routed and Pursu'd That Man only is Happy that Draws Good out of Evil that stands fast in his Judgment and Unmov'd with any External Violence or however so little mov'd that the Keenest Arrow in the Quiver of Fortune is but as the Prick of a Needle to him rather than a Wound And all her other Weapons fall upon him only as Hail upon the Roof of a House that Crackles and skips off again without any Damage to the Inhabitant A Generous and a Clear-sighted Young Man will take it for a Happiness to encounter Ill Fortune 'T is nothing for a Man to hold up his Head in a Calm but to maintain his Post when all others have quitted their Ground and there to stand upright where other Men are beaten Down this is Divine and Praise-worthy What Ill is there in Torments or in those things which we commonly accompt Grievous Crosses The great Evil is the want of Courage the Bowing and Submitting to them which can never happen to a Wise Man for he stands Upright under any Weight Nothing that is to be Born displeases him he knows his Strength and whatsoever may be Any Mans Lot he never complains of if it be his Own Nature he sayes deceives no Body she does not tell us whether our Children shall be Fair or Foul Wise or Foolish Good Subjects or Traitors nor whether our Fortune shall be Good or Bad. We must not Judge of a Man by his Ornaments but strip him of all the Advantages and the Impostures of Fortune nay of his very Body too and look into his Mind If he can see a naked Sword at his Eyes without so much as winking if he make it a thing Indifferent to him whether his Life go out at his Throat or at his Mouth if he can hear himself Sentenc'd to Torments or Exile and under the very hand of the Executioner say Thus to himself All This I am provided for and 't is no more than a Man that is to Suffer the Fate of Humanity This is the Temper of Mind that Speaks a Man Happy and without This all the Confluences of External Comforts signifie no more than the Personating of a King upon the Stage when the Curtain is drawn we are Players again Not that I pretend to except a Wise Man out of the Number of Men as if he had no sence of Pain but I reckon him as Compounded of Body and Soul The Body is Irrational and may be Gall'd Burnt Tortur'd but the Rational Part is Fearless Invincible and not to be shaken This is it that I reckon upon as the Supreme Good of Man which till it be perfected is but an Unsteady Agitation of Thought and in the Perfection an Immovable Stability It is not in our Contentions with Fortune as in those of the Theatre where we may throw down our Arms and pray for Quarter but here we must Dy Firm and Resolute There needs no Encouragement to those things which we are Inclin'd to by a Natural Instinct as the Preservation of our selves with Ease and Pleasure but if it comes to the Tryal of our Faith by Torments or of our Courage by Wounds these are Difficulties that we must be arm'd against by Philosophy and Precept And yet all This is no more than what we were born to and no matter of Wonder at all so that a Wise Man prepares himself for 't as expecting that whatsoever May be Will be My Body is Frail and Liable not only to the Impressions of Violence but to Afflictions also that Naturally Succeed our Pleasures Full Meales bring Crudities Whoring and Drinking make the Hands to Shake and the Knees to Tremble It is only the Surprize and Newness of the thing which makes that Misfortune Terrible which by Premeditation might be made Easie to us For that which some People make Light by Sufferance others do by Foresight Whatsoever is Necessary we must bear Patiently 'T is no new thing to Dy no new thing to Mourn and no new thing to be Merry again Must I be Poor I shall have Company In Banishment I 'll think my self Born there If I Dy I shall be no more Sick and 't is a thing I can do but Once LET us never wonder at any thing we are Borne to for no Man has reason to Complain where we are All in the same Condition He that scapes might have suffer'd and 't is but Equal to submit to the Law of Mortality We must undergo the Colds of Winter the Heats of Summer the Distempers of the Ayre and Diseases of the Body A Wild Beast meets us in One place and a Man that is more Brutal in another We are Here assaulted by Fire There by Water Demetrius was reserv'd by Providence for the Age he liv'd in to shew that neither the Times could Corrupt Him nor He Reform the People He was a Man of an Exact Judgment Steady to his Purpose and of a Strong Eloquence Not Finical in his Words but his Sence was Masculine and Vehement He was so Qualify'd in his Life and Discourse that ho serv'd both for an Example and a Reproche If Fortune should have offer'd that Man the Government and the Possession of the whole World upon Condition not to lay it down again I dare say he would have refus'd it And Thus have Expostulated the matter with you Why should you tempt a Freeman to put his shoulderâ—… under a Burthen or an Honest Man to pollute himself with the Dregs of Mankind Why do you offer me the Spoyle's of Princes and of Nations and the Prince not only of your Blood but of your Soules It is the part of a Great Mind to be Temperate in Prosperity Resolute in Adversity To Despise what the Vulgar Admire and to Prefer a Mediocrity to an Excess Was not Socrates oppress'd with Poverty Labor nay and the worst of Wars in his Own Family a Fierce and Turbulent Woman to his Wife Were not his Children Indocile and like their Mother After Seven and twenty years spent in Armes he fell under a slavery to the Thirty Tyrants and most of them his bitter Enemies He came at last to be Sentenc'd as a Violator of Religion a Corrupter of Youth and a Common Enemy to God and Man After This he was Emprison'd and put to Death by Poyson which was all so far from working upon his Mind that it never so much as alter'd his Countenance We are to bear Ill Accidents as Unkind Seasons Distempers or Diseases and Why may we not reckon the Actions of Wicked Men even among those Accidents Their Deliberations are not Counsels but Frauds Snares and Inordinate Motions of the Mind and they are never without a thousand Pretences and Occasions of doing a
Man Mischief They have their Informers their Knights of the Post they can make an Interest with Powerful Men and one may be Robb'd as well upon the Bench as upon the High-way They lie in wait for Advantages and live in Perpetual Agitation betwixt Hope and Fear Whereas he that is truely Compos'd will stand all Shocks either of Violences Flatteries or Menaces without Perturbation It is an Inward fear that makes us Curious after what we hear Abroad IT is an Error to attribute either Good or Ill to Fortune but the Matter of it we may and we our selves are the Occasion of it being in Effect the Artificers of our own Happiness or Misery For the Mind is above Fortune if That be Evil it makes every thing else so too But if it be Right and Sincere it Corrects what is Wrong and Mollifies what is Hard with Modesty and Courage There 's a great Difference among those that the World calls Wise Men. Some take up Private Resolutions of Opposing Fortune but they cannot go Thorough with them for they are either Dazled with Splendor on the One hand or Affrighted with Terrors on the Other but there are Others that will Close and Grapple with Fortune and still come off Victorious Mucius overcame the Fire Regulus the Gibbet Socrates Poyson Rutilius Banishment Cato Death Fabricius Riches Tubero Poverty and Sextius Honors But there are some again so Delicate that they cannot bear so much as a Scandalous Report which is the same thing as if a Man should quarrel for being Justled in a Croud or dash'd as he walks in the Streets He that has a great way to Go must expect to Slip to Stumble and to be Tir'd To the Luxurious Man Frugality is a Punishment Labour and Industry to the Sluggard nay Study it self is a Torment to him Not that these things are Hard to us by Nature but we our selves are Vain and Irresolute Nay we wonder many of us how any Man can live without Wine or endure to Rise so early in a Morning A Brave man must expect to be toss'd for he is to steer his Course in the Teeth of Fortune and to work against VVind and VVeather In the Suffering of Torments though there appears but one Virtue a Man Exercises many That which is most Eminent is Patience which is but a Branch of Fortitude But there is Prudence also in the Choice of the Action and in the Bearing what we cannot avoid and there is Constancy in bearing it Resolutely And there is the same Concurrence also of several Virtues in other Generous Undertakings VVhen Leonidas was to carry his 300 Men into the Straits of the Thermopylae to put a stop to Xerxes his huge Army Come fellow Soldiers sayes he Eate your Dinners here as if you were to Sup in another World And they answer'd his Resolution How Plain and Imperious was That short Speech of Caeditius to his Men upon a Desperate Action and How glorious a Mixture was there in it both of Bravery and Prudence Soldiers sayes he it is necessary for us to Go but it is not necessary for us to Return This Brief and Pertinent Harangue was worth Ten thousand of the Frivolous Cavils and Distinctions of the Schools which rather break the Mind than Fortifie it and when 't is once perplex'd and prick'd with Difficulties and Scruples there they leave it Our Passions are Numerous and Strong and not to be Master'd with Quirks and Tricks as if a Man should undertake to defend the Cause of God and Men with a Buâ—…rush It was a Remarkable piece of Honor and Policy together That Action of Caesar's upon the taking of Pompey's Cabinet at the Battle of Pharsalia 'T is Probable that the Letters in it might have discover'd who were his Friends and who his Enemies and yet he Burnt it without so much as Opening it Esteeming it the Noblest way of Pardoning to keep himself Ignorant both of the Offender and of the Offence It was a Brave Presence of Mind also in Alexander who upon Advice that his Physitian Philip intended to Poyson him took the Letter of Advice in One hand and the Cup in the Other delivering Philip the Letter to Read while he himself drank the Potion SOME are of Opinion that Death gives a Man Courage to support Pain and that Pain fortifies a Man against Death But I say rather that a Wise Man depends upon himself against Both and that he does not either suffer with Patience in hopes of Death or Dye willingly because he is weary of Life but he bears the One and Waits for the Other and carries a Divine Mind through all the Accidents of Humane Life He looks upon Faith and Honesty as the most Sacred Good of Mankind and neither to be forc'd by Necessity nor Corrupted by Reward Kill Burn Tear him in Pieces he will be True to his Trust and the more any Man labors to make him discover a Secret the deeper will he hide it Resolution is the Inexpugnable Defence of Humane Weakness and it is a wonderful Providence that attends it Horatius Cocles oppos'd his Single Body to the whole Army till the Bridge was cut down behind him and then leap'd into the River with his Sword in his Hand and came off safe to his Party There was a Fellow Question'd about a Plot upon the Life of a Tyrant and put to the Torture to declare his Confederates He nam'd by One and One all the Tyrants Friends that were about him and still as they were nam'd they were put to Death The Tyrant ask'd him at last if there were any more Yes sayes he you your self were in the Plot and now you have never another Friend left you in the World Whereupon the Tyrant Cut the Throats of his own Guards He is the Happy Man that is the Master of himself and triumphs over the Fear of Death which has overcome the Conquerors of the World CHAP XVII Our Happiness depends in a great Measure upon the Choice of our Company THE Comfort of Life depends upon Conversation Good Offices and Concord and Humane Society is like the Working of an Arch of Stone All would fall to the Ground if One Piece did not support another Above all things let us have a tenderness for Blood and it is yet too Little not to Hurt unless we Profit one another We are to Relieve the Distressed to put the Wanderer into his Way and to Divide our Bread with the Humble which is but the doing of Good to our Selves for we are only several Members of one Great Body Nay we are all of a Consanguinity form'd of the same Materials and Design'd to the same End This obliges us to a mutual Tenderness and Converse and the Other to live with a Regard to Equity and Justice The Love of Society is Natural but the Choice of our Company is Matter of Virtue and Prudence Noble Examples stir us up to Noble Actions and the very History
in the Vices of his Mind We must discharge all Impediments and make way for Philosophy as a Study Inconsistent with Common Business To all other things we must deny our selves openly and frankly When we are Sick we refuse Visits keep our selves Close and lay aside all Publick Cares and shall we not do as much when we Philosophize Business is the Drudgery of the World and only fit for Slaves but Contemplation is the Work of Wise Men. Not but that Solitude and Company may be allow'd to take their Turns the One Creates in us the Love of Mankind the Other That of our selves Solitude Relieves us when we are Sick of Company and Conversation when we are weary of being Alone So that the One Cures the Other There is no Man in fine so miserable as he that is at a Loss how to spend his Time He is Restless in his Thoughts unsteady in his Counsels Dissatisfy'd with the Present Sollicitous for the Future whereas he that prudently computes his Hours and his Business does not only fortifie himself against the Common Accidents of Life but Improves the most Rigorous Dispensations of Providence to his Comfort and stands Firm under all the Tryals of Humane Weakness CHAP. XXI The Contempt of Death makes all the Miseries of Life Easy to us IT is a hard Task to Master the Natural Desire of Life by a Philosophical Contempt of Death and to convince the World that there is no hurt in 't and crush an Opinion that was brought up with us from our Cradles What help What Encouragement What shall we say to Humane Frailty to carry it Fearless through the Fury of Flames and upon the Points of Swords What Rhetorick shall we use to bear down the Universal Consent of People to so dangerous an Error The Captious and Superfine Subtilties of the Schools will never do the Work They speak many sharp things but utterly unnecessary and void of Effect The Truth of it is there is but one Chain that holds all the World in Bondage and that 's the Love of Life It is not that I propound the making of Death so Indifferent to us as it is whether a Mans Hairs be Even or Odd For what with Self-Love and an Implanted Desire in every thing of Preserving it self and a long Acquaintance betwixt the Soul and Body Friends may be loth to part and Death may carry an Appearance of Evil though in truth it is it self no Evil at all Beside that we are to go to a strange Place in the Dark and under great Uncertainties of our Future State So that People Dye in Terror because they do not know whither they are to goe and they are apt to Phancy the worst of what they do not understand and these Thoughts indeed are enough to startle a Man of great Resolutionâ—… without a wonderful Support from Above And moreover our Natural Scruples and Infirmities are assisted by the Wits and Phancies of all Ages in their Infamous and Horrid Descriptions of another World Nay taking it for granted that there will be a Reward and Punishment they are yet more affraid of an Annihilation than of Hell it self BUT What is it we fear Oh! 'T is a terrible thing to Dye But is it not better Once to Suffer it than always to Fear it the Earth it self suffers both With me and Before me How many Islands are swallow'd up in the Sea How many Towns do we Sail over Nay How many Nations are wholly Lost either by Inundations or Earthquakes And Shall I be afraid of my little Body Why should I that am sure to Dye and that all other things are Mortal be fearful of coming to my last Gasp my Self It is the Fear of Death that makes us Base and troubles and destroys the Life that we would preserve That Aggravates all Circumstances and makes them Formidable We depend but upon a Flying Moment Dye we must but When VVhat 's that to us It is the Law of Nature the Tribute of Mortals and the Remedy of all Evils 'T is only the Disguise that affrights us as Children that are Terrify'd with a Visor Take away the Instruments of Death the Fire the Axe the Guards the Executioners the VVhips and the VVracks take away the Pomp I say and the Circumstances that accompany it and Death is no more than what my Slave yesterday Contemn'd The Pain is nothing to a Fit of the Stone if it be Tolerable it is not Great and if Intolerable it cannot last long There is nothing that Nature has made Necessary which is more Easie than Death VVe are longer a coming into the VVorld than going out of it and there is not any Minute of our Lives wherein we may not Reasonably Expect it Nay 't is but a Moments VVork the parting of the Soul and Body VVhat a shame is it then to stand in Fear of any thing so Long that is done so Soon NOR is it any great matter to overcome this Fear For we have Examples as well of the meanest of Men as of the greatest that have done it There was a Fellow to be expos'd upon the Theatre who in disdain thrust a Stick down his Own Throat and Chok'd himself And another on the same Occasion pretending to nod upon the Chariot as if he were asleep cast his head betwixt the Spokes of the Wheel and kept his Seat till his Neck was broken Caligula upon a dispute with Canius Iulus do not flatter your self sayes he for I have given Order to put you to Death And I thank your most Gracious Majesty for it sayes Canius giving to understand perhaps that under his Government Death was a Mercy For he knew that Caligula seldome fail'd of being as good as his Word in that Case He was at Play when the Officer carry'd him away to his Execution and beckoning to the Centurion Pray sayes he will you bear me Witness when I am dead and gone that I had the better of the Game He was a Man exceedingly belov'd and lamented And for a Farewell after he had Preach'd Moderation to his Friends You sayes he are here disputing about the Immortality of the Soul and I am now a going to learn the Truth of it If I discover any thing upon that Poynt you shall hear on 't Nay the most Timorous of Creatures when they see there 's no escaping they oppose themselves to all Dangers the Despair gives them Courage and the Necessity overcomes the Fear Socrates was Thirty dayes in Prison after his Sentence and had time enough to have Starv'd himself and so to have prevented the Poyson but he gave the World the Blessing of his Life as long as he could and took that Fatal Draught in the Meditation and Contempt of Death Marcellinus in a Deliberation upon Death call'd several of his Friends about him One was Fearful and Advis'd what he himself would have done in the Case Another gave the Counsel which he thought Marcellinus would like
best but a Friend of his that was a Stoick and a stout Man reason'd the Matter to him after this manner Marcellinus do not trouble your self as if it were such a mighty business that you have now in hand 't is Nothing to Live all your Servants do it nay your very Beasts too but to Dy Honestly and Resolutely that 's a great point Consider with your self there 's nothing pleasant in Life but what you have tasted already and that which is to Come is but the same over again And how many Men are there in the World that rather chuse to Dye than to suffer the Nauseous Tediousness of the Repetition Upon which discourse he fasted himself to Death It was the Custome of Pacuvius to Solemnize in a kind of Pagentry every day his own Funerals When he had Swill'd and Gourmandiz'd to a Luxurious and Beastly Excess he was carry'd away from Supper to Bed with this Song and Acclamation He has Liv'd he has Liv'd That which he did in Lewdness would become us to do in Sobriety and Prudence If it shall please God to add another Day to our Lives let us thankfully receive it but however it is our Happiest and Securest Course so to compose our selves to Night that we may have no Anxious Dependence upon to Morrow He that can say I have Liv'd this Day makes the next clear again DEATH is the worst that either the Severity of Laws or the Cruelty of Tyrants can impose upon us and it is the Utmost extent of the Dominion of Fortune He that is fortify'd against That must consequently be Superior to all other Difficulties that are but in the Way to 't Nay and in some Occasions it requires more Courage to Live than to Dye He that is not prepar'd for Death shall be perpetually troubled as well with vain Apprehensions as with real Dangers It is not Death it self that is Dreadful but the Fear of it that goes before it When the Mind is under a Consternation there is no State of Life that can please us for we do not so much endeavour to Avoid Mischiefs as to Run away from them and the greatest slaughter is upon a flying Enemy Had not a Man better breathe out his Last once for all than lye Agonizing in pains Consuming by Inches losing of his Blood by Drops and yet how many are there that are ready to betray their Country and their Friends and to prostitute their very Wives and Daughters to preserve a Miserable Carkass Madmen and Children have no apprehension of Death and it were a shame that our Reason should not do as much toward our security as their Folly But the great matter is to Dye Considerately and Chearfully upon the Foundation of Virtue For Life in it self is Irksome and only Eating and Drinking and Feeling in a Circle HOW many are there that betwixt the Apprehensions of Death and the Miseries of Life are at their Wits End what to do with themselves wherefore let us fortifie our selves against those Calamities from which the Prince is no more exempt than the Beggar Pompey the Great had his head taken off by a Boy and an Eunuch young Ptolomy and Photinus Caligula commanded the Tribune Daecimus to kill Lepidus and another Tribune Chaereas did as much for Caligula Never was any Man so Great but he was as Liable to suffer Mischief as he was Able to do it Has not a Thief or an Enemy your Thâ—…ote at his Mercy Nay and the meanest of Servants has the Power of Life and Death over his Master for whosoever contemns his own Life may be the Master of Another bodies You will find in Story that the Displeasure of Servants has been as Fatal as that of Tyrants And what matters it the Power of him we Fear when the thing we Fear is in every Bodies Power Suppose I fall into the hands of an Enemy and the Conqueror Condemns me to be led in Triumph It is but carrying me thither whither I should have gone without him that is to say toward Death whither I have been marching ever since I was born It is the Fear of our Last hour that disquiets all the Rest. By the Justice of all Constitutions Mankind is condemn'd to a Capital Punishment Now how despicable would that Man appear who being Sentenc'd to Death in Common with the whole World should only Petition that he might be the last Man brought to the Block Some Men are particularly afraid of Thunder and yet extremely careless of Other and of greater Dangers as if That were all they have to Fear Will not a Sword a Stone a Feaver do the work as well Suppose the Bolt should hit us it were yet braver to Dye with a Stroke than with the Bare Apprehension of it Beside the Vanity of Imagining that Heaven and Earth should be put into such a Disorder only for the Death of one Man A Good and a Brave Man is not mov'd with Lightening Tempests or Earthquakes but perhaps he would voluntarily plunge himself into that Gulph where otherwise he should only fall the cutting of a Corn or the swallowing of a Fly is enough to dispatch a Man and 't is no matter how great That is that brings me to my Death so long as Death it self is but Little Life is a small matter but 't is a matter of Importance to Contemn it Nature that Begot us expells us and a better and a safer Place is provided for us And what is Death but a Ceasing to be what we were before we are kindled and put out to Cease to Be and not to Begin to Be is the same thing We Dye daily and while we are growing our Life decreases every moment that passes takes away part of it All that 's past is Lost Nay we divide with Death the very Instant that we Live As the last Sand in the Glass does not Measure the Hour but finishes it so the Last moment that we Live does not make up Death but concludes There are some that Pray more earnestly for Death than we do for Life but it is better to receive it chearfully when it Comes than to hasten it before the time BUT What is it that we would live any longer for Not for our Pleasures for those we have tasted over and over even to Satiety so that there 's no point of Luxury that 's New to us But a Man would be loth to leave his Country and his Friends behind him That is to say he would have them go First for that 's the least part of his Care Well! But I would fain live to do more Good and discharge my self in the Offices of Life As if to Dye were not the Duty of every Man that Lives We are loth to Leave our possessions and no Man Swims well with his Luggage We are all of us equally Fearful of Death and Ignorant of Life But What can be more shameful than to be Sollicitous upon the Brink of
Misfortunes into Blessings 'T is a sad Condition you 'l say for a Man to be barr'd the Freedome of his own Country And is not This the Case of Thousands that we meet every day in the Streets Some for Ambition Others to Negotiate or for Curiosity Delight Friendship Study Experience Luxury Vanity Discontent Some to exercise their Virtues Others their Vices and not a few to Prostitute either their Bodies or their Eloquence To pass now from pleasant Countryes into the worst of Islands Let them be never so barren or Rocky the People never so Barbarous or the Clime never so Intemperate he that is Banish'd thither shall find many Strangers to live there for their Pleasures The Mind of Man is Naturally Curious and Restless which is no wonder considering their Divine Original for Heavenly things are alwayes in Motion Witness the Stars and the Orbs which are perpetually Moving Rowling and Changing of Place according to the Law and Appointment of Nature But here are no Woods you 'l say no Rivers no Gold nor Pearle no Commodity for Traffick or Commerce nay hardly Provision enough to keep the Inhabitants from starving 'T is very Right here are no Palaces no Artificial Grotto's or Materials for Luxury and Excess but we lye under the Protection of Heaven and a Poor Cottage for a Retreat is more worth than the most Magnificent Temple when That Cottage is Consecrated by an Honest Man under the Guard of his Virtues Shall any Man think Banishment Grievous when he may take such Company along with him Nor is there any Banishment but yields enough for our Necessities and no Kingdom is sufficient for Superfluities It is the Mind that makes us Rich in a Desert and if the Body be but kept Alive the Soul Enjoyes all Spiritual Felicities in Abundance What signifies the being Banish'd from one Spot of Ground to Another to a Man that has his Thoughts Above and can look Forward and Backward and whereever he pleases and whereever he is he has the same Matter to work upon The Body is but the Prison or the Clog of the Mind subjected to Punishments Robberies Diseases but the Mind is Sacred and Spiritual and Lyable to no Violence Is it that a Man shall want Garments or Covering in Banishment The Body is as easily Cloth'd as Fed and Nature has made nothing Hard that is Necessary But if nothing will serve us but Rich Embroderies and Scarlet 't is none of Fortunes Fault that we are Poor but our Own Nay suppose a Man should have All restor'd him back again that he has Lost it will come to nothing for he will want more after That to satisfie his Desires than he did before to supply his Necessities Insatiable Desires are not so much a Thirst as a Disease TO come Lower now Where 's That People or Nation that have not chang'd their Place of Abode Some by the Fate of War Others have been cast by Tempests Shipwracks or want of Provisions upon unknown Coasts Some have been forc'd Abroad by Pestilence Sedition Earthquakes Surcharge of People at Home Some Travel to see the World Others for Commerce But in fine it is clear that upon some Reason or other the whole Race of Mankind have shifted their Quarters Chang'd their very Names as well as their Habitations Insomuch that we have lost the very Memorials of what they were All these Transportations of People what are they but Publick Banishments The very Founder of the Roman Empire was an Exile Briefly The whole World has been Transplanted and one Mutation treads upon the Heel of another That which one Man Desires turns another Mans Stomach and he that Proscribes me To Day shall himself be cast out To morrow We have however this Comfort in our Misfortune we have the same Nature the same Providence and we carry our Virtues along with us And This Blessing we owe to that Allmighty Power call it what you will either a God or an Incorporeal Reason a Divine Spirit or Fate and the Unchangeable Course of Causes and Effects It is however so order'd that nothing can be taken from us but what we can well spare and that which is most Magnificent and Valuable continues with us Wherever we go we have the Heavens over our Heads and no further from us than they were before and so long as we can entertain our Eyes and Thoughts with those Glories what matter is it what Ground we tread upon IN the Case of Pain or Sickness 't is only the Body that is affected It may take off the Speed of a Footman or Bind the Hands of a Cobler but the Mind is still at Liberty to Hear Learn Teach Advise and to do other Good Offices 'T is an Example of Publick Benefit a Man that is in Pain and Patient Virtue may shew it self as well in the Bed as in the Field and he that chearfully encounters the Terrors of Death and Corporal Anguish is as great a Man as he that most Generously hazards himself in a Battel A Disease 't is true barrs us of some Pleasures but Procures us others Drink is never so Grateful to us as in a Burning Feaver nor Meat as when we have fasted our selves Sharp and Hungry The Patient may be forbidden some Sensual Satisfaction but no Physitian will forbid us the Delight of the Mind Shall we call any Sick Man Miserable because he must give Over his Intemperance of Wine and Gluttony and betake himself to a Diet of more Sobriety and less Expence and abandon his Luxury which is the Distemper of the Mind as well as of the Body 'T is Troublesome I know at First to abstein from the Pleasures we have been us'd to and to endure Hunger and Thirst but in a Little time we lose the very Appetite and 't is no Trouble then to be without That which we do no not Desire In Diseases there are great Pains but if they be Long they Remit and give us some Intervals of Ease if short and violent either they dispatch Us or Consume Themselves so that either their Respites make them Tolerable or the Extremity makes them short So Merciful is Allmighty God to us that our Torments cannot be very Sharp and Lasting The Acutest Pains are those that Affect the Nerves but there 's this comfort in them too that they will quickly make us Stupid and Insensible In Cases of Extremity let us call to mind the most Eminent Instances of Patience and Courage and turn our Thoughts from our Afflictions to the Contemplation of Virtue Suppose it be the Stone the Gout nay the Rack it self how many have endur'd it without so much as a Grone or a Word speaking without so much as Asking for Relief or giving an Answer to a Question Nay they have laugh'd at the Tormenters upon the very Torture and provok'd them to New Experiments of their Cruelty which they have had still in Derision The Asthma I look upon as of all Diseases the
and leave no Hope of Reclaiming me it would be a kind of Mercy to Destroy me Vice is Incorporated with me and there 's no Remedy but the taking of Both away together but still without Anger CHAP. VI. Anger in General with the Danger and Effects of it THERE is no Surer Argument of a Great Mind than not to be transported to Anger by any Accident The Clouds and the Tempests are form'd below but all Above is Quiet and Serene which is the Embleme of a brave Man that suppresses all Provocations and lives within himself Modest Venerable and Compos'd Whereas Anger is a Turbulent humour which at first dash casts off all shame without any regard to Order Measure or good Manners transporting a Man into Misbecoming Violences with his Tongue his Hands and every part of his Body And whoever considers the Foulness and the Brutality of this Vice must acknowledge that there iâ—… no such Monster in Nature as onâ—… Man raging against another and labouring to sink that which can never be drown'd but with himself for Company It renders us incapable either of Discourse or of other common Duties It is of all Passions the most Powerful For it makes a Man that is in Love to kill his Mistress The Ambitious Man to trample upon his Honors and the Covetous to throw away his Fortune There is not any Mortal that lives free from the danger of it for it makes even the heavy and the good Natur'd to be fierce and outrageous It invades us like a Pestilence the Lusty as well as the Weak and 't is not either strength of Body or a good Dyet that can secure us against it Nay the Learnedest and Men otherwise of exemplary Sobriety are infested with it It is so potent a Passion that Socrates durst not trust himself with it Sirrah sayes he to his Man now would I beat you if I were not angry with you There is no Age oâ—… Sect of Men that Scapes it Otâ—…r Vices take us one by one but This like an Epidemical Coâ—…agion sweeps all Men Women and Children Princes and Beggars are carry'd away with it in Sholes and Troops as one Man It was never seen that a whole Nation was in Love with one Woman or Unanimously bent upon one Vice But here and there some particular Men are teinted with some Particular Crimes whereas in Anger a single word many times inflames the whole Multitude and Men betake themselves Presently to Fire and Sword upon it the Rabble takes upon them to give Laws to their Governors the Common Soldiers to their Officers to the Ruin not only of Private Families but of Kingdoms turning their Armes against their own Leaders and chusing their own Generals There 's no publick Councel no putting of things to the Vote but in a Rage the Mutiniers divide from the Senate name their Head force the Nobility in their own Houses and put them to death with their own hands The Laws of Nations are violated the Persons of Publick Ministers affronted whole Cities infected with a General Madness and no Respite allow'd for the Abatement or Discussing of this Publick Tumor The Ships are crouded with tumultuary Soldiers And in this rude and Ill-boding Manner they March and act under the Conduct only of their own Passions Whatever comes next serves them for Armes till at last they pay for their Licentious rashness with the slaughter of the whole party This is the Event of a heady and inconsiderate War When Mens Minds are struck with the Opinion of an Injury they fall on immediately wheresoever their Passion leads them without either Order Fear or Caution provoking their own Mischief never at Rest till they come to Blows and pursuing their Revenge even with their Bodies upon the Points of their Enemies Weapons So that the Anger it self is much more hurtful to us than the Injury that provokes it for the one is bounded but where the other will stop no Man living knows There are no greater Slaves certainly than those that serve Anger for they emprove their Misfortunes by an Impatience more insupportable than the Calamity that causes it NOR does it rise by degrees as other Passions but flushes like Gunpowder blowing up all in a Moment Neither does it only press to the Mark but overbears every thing in the way to 't Other vices Drive us but This Hurry's us headlong other Passions stand firm Themselves though perhaps we cannot resist them but this consumes and destroyes it self It falls like Thunder or a Tempest with an Irrevocable Violence that gathers strength in the Passage and then evaporates in the Conclusion Other Vices are Unreasonable but this is Unhealthful too Other distempers have their Intervals and Degrees but in this we are thrown down as from a Precipice There is not any thing so amazing to others or so destructive to it self So Proud and Insolent if it succeeds or so Extravagant if it be disappointed No repulse discourages it and for want of other Matter to Work upon it falls foul upon it self and let the Ground be never so Trivial it is sufficient for the Wildest outrage imaginable It spares neither Age Sex nor Quality Some People would be Luxurious perchance but that they are Poor and Others Lazy if they were not perpetually kept at work The Simplicity of a Country Life keeps many Men in Ignorance of the Frauds and Impieties of Courts and Camps But no Nation or Condition of Men is exempt from the Impressions of Anger and it is equally dangerous as well in War as in Peace We find that Elephants will be made Familiar Bulls will suffer Children to ride upon their backs and play with their hornes Beares and Lyons by good Usage will be brought to â—…awn upon their Masters How desperate a Madness is it then for Men after the reclaiming of the fiercest of Beasts and the bringing of them to be tractable and domestick to become yet worse than Beasts one to another Alexander had two Friends Clytus and Lysimachus the One he expos'd to a Lyon the Other to Himself and he that was turn'd loose to the Beast escap'd Why do we not rather make the best of a short Life and render our selves Amiable to all while we Live and Desirable when we Dye LET us bethink our selves of our Mortality and not squander away the little time that we have upon Animosities and Fewds as if it were never to be at an end Had we not better enjoy the Pleasure of our own Life than be still contriving how to Gall and torment anothers In all our Brawlings and Contentions never so much as dreaming of our own weakness Do we not know that these implacable Enmities of ours lye at the Mercy of a Feaver or any petty Accident to disappoint Our Fate is at hand and the very hour that we have set for another Mans Death may peradventure be prevented by our own What is it that we make all this bustle for and so
been left at liberty to do my own Business For all the Impertinents were either at the Theatre at Bowls or at the Horse-match My Body does not require much Exercise and I am beholden to my Age for it A Little makes me Weary and That 's the end also of that which is most Robust My Dinner is a Piece of Dry Bread without a Table and without fouling of my Fingers My Sleeps are short and in truth a little Doubtful betwixt slumbering and waking One while I am reflecting upon the Errors of Antiquity and then I apply my Self to the Correcting of my Own In my Reading with Reverence to the Antients Some things I Take Others I Alter and some again I Reject Others I Invent without enthralling my self so to anothers Judgment as not to preserve the Freedom of my Own Sometimes of a sudden in the Middle of my Meditations my Ears are struck with the Shout of a Thousand People together from some Spectacle or other The Noise does not at all discompose my Thoughts it is no more to me than the Dashing of Waves or the Wind in a Wood but possibly sometimes it may divert them Good Lord think I if Men would but exercise their Brains as they do their Bodies and take as much Pains for Virtue as they do for Pleasure For Difficulties Strengthen the Mind as well as Labor does the Body You tell me That you want my Books more than my Counsels which I take just as kindly as if you should have ask'd me for my Picture For I have the very same Opinion of my Wit that I have of my Beauty You shall have both the One and the Other with my very Self into the Bargain In the Examination of my own Heart I find some Vices that lie Open Others more Obscure and out of Sight and some that take me only by Fits Which Last I look upon as the most Dangerous and Troublesome For they lie upon the Catch and keep a Man upon a Perpetual Guard Being neither provided against them as in a State of War nor Secure as in any Assurance of Peace To say the Truth we are all of us as Cruel as Ambitious and as Luxurious as our Fellows But we want the Fortune or the Occasion perchance to shew it When the Snake is Frozen 't is Safe but the Poyson is still in it though it be Num'd We hate Upstarts that use their Power with Insolence when yet if we had the same Means 't is Odds that we should do the same thing our selves Only our Corruptions are Private for want of Opportunity to Employ them Some things we look upon as Superfluous and Others as not worth the while But we never consider that we pay dearest for that which we pretend to receive Gratis As Anxiety Loss of Credit Liberty and Time So Cheap is every Man in effect that pretends to be most Dear to Himself Some are Dipt in their Lusts as in a River there must be a hand to help them out Others are Strangely Careless of Good Counsel and yet well enough dispos'd to follow Example Some again must be forc'd to their Duties Because there 's no Good to be done upon them by Perswasion But out of the whole Race of Mankind How few are there that are able to help themselves Being thus Conscious of our own Frailty we should do well to keep our selves quiet and not to Trust Weak Minds with Wine Beauty or Pleasure We have much adoe you see to keep our Feet upon Dry Ground What will become of us then if we venture our selves where it is Slippery 'T is not to say This is a hard Lesson and we cannot go through with it For we Can if we Would Endeavour it But we Cannot because we give it for granted That we Cannot without trying whether we Can or No. And what 's the Meaning of all This but that we are pleas'd with our Vices and willing to be Master'd by them So that we had rather Excuse than cast them off The true Reason is we Will not but the Pretence is that we Cannot And we are not only under a Necessity of Error but the very Love of it To give you now a Brief of my own Character I am none of Those that take Delight in Tumults and in Struggling with Difficulties for had rather be Quiet than in Armes for I accompt it my Duty to bear up against Ill Fortune but without Chusing it I am no Friend to Contention Especially to That of the Barr But I am very much a Servant to all Honest Business that may be done in a Corner And there is no Retreat so Unhappy as not to yield Entertainment for a great Mind by which he may make himself Profitable both to his Country and to his Friends by his Wisdom by his Interest and by his Counsel It is the Part of a good Patriot to prefer Men of Worth to Defend the Innocent to Provide Good Laws and to Advise in War and in Peace But is not He as good a Patriot that instructs Youth in Virtue that furnishes the World with Precepts of Morality and keeps Humane Nature within the Bounds of Right Reason Who is the Greater Man he that Pronounces a Sentence upon the Bench or he that in his Study reads us a Lecture of Justice Piety Patience Fortitude the Knowledge of Heaven the Contempt of Death and the Blessing of a Good Conscience The Soldier that guards the Ammunition and the Baggage is as Necessary as he that fights the Battel Was not Cato a greater Example than either Ulysses or Hercules They had the Fame you know of being indefatigable Despisers of Pleasures and great Conquerors both of their Enemies and of their Appetites But Cato I must Confess had no Encounters with Monsters nor did he fall into those Times of Credulity when people believ'd that the weight of the Heavens rested upon one Mans Shoulders But he grappled with Ambition and the unlimited Desire of Power which the whole World divided under a Triumvirate was not able to satisfie He Oppos'd himself to the Vices of a degenerate City even when it was now sinking under its own weight He stood single and supported the falling Common-Wealth till at last as Inseparable Friends they were crush'd together For Neither would Cato Survive the Publick Liberty nor did That Liberty Outlive Cato To give you now a Farther Accompâ—… of my Self I am Naturally a Friend to all the Rules and Methods of Sobriety and Moderation I like the Old Fashion'd Plate that was left me by my Country Father It is Plain and Heavy And yet for all this there is a kind of Dazling methinks in the Ostentations of Splendor and Luxury But it strikes the Eye more than the Mind and though it may shake a Wise Man it cannot Alter him Yet it sends me home many times sadder perhaps than I went out but yet I hope not Worse though not without some secret Dissatisfaction at my Own
is a Frantick Error that Fears where it should Love and Rudely Invades where it should Reverentially Worship Death it self is no Evil at all but the Common Benefit and Right of Nature There is a great Difference betwixt those things which are Good in Common Opinion and those which are so in Truth and Effect The Former have the Name of Good things but not the Propriety They may Befall us but they do not Stick to us And they may be taken away without either Pain to us or Diminution We may Use them but not Trust in them For they are Only Deposited and they must and will Forsake us The only Treasure is That which Fortune has no Power over And the Greater it is the Less Envy it carries along with it Let our Vices Die before us and let us Discharge our Selves of our Dear-bought Pleasures that hurt us as well Past as to Come for they are follow'd with Repentance as well as our Sins There 's neither Substance in them nor Truth for a Man can never be weary of Truth but there 's a Satiety in Error The Former is alwayes the same but the Latter is Various and if a Man looks near it he may see through it Beside that the Possessions of a Wise Man are Maintain'd with Ease He has no need of Embassadors Armies and Castles but like God himself he does his Business without either Noise or Tumult Nay there is something so Venerable and Sacred in Virtue that if we do but meet with any thing like it the very Counterfeit Pleases us By the help of Philosophy the Soul gives the slip to the Body and Refreshes itself in Heaven Pleasures at best are Short-Liv'd but the Delights of Virtue are Secure and Perpetual Only we must Watch Labor and attend it our selves For 't is a Business not to be done by a Deputy Nor is it properly a Virtue to be a little better than the Worst Will any Man boast of his Eyes because they tell him that the Sun shines Neither is he presently a Good Man that thinks Ill of the Bad. For Wicked Men do That too and 't is perhaps the Greatest punishment of Sin the Displeasure that it gives to the Author of it The saddest Case of all is when we become Enamour'd of our Ruine and make Wickedness our Study When Vice has got a Reputation and when the Dissolute have lost the Only Good thing they had in their Excesses the Shame of Offending And yet the Lewedest part of our Corruptions is in Private which if any body had look'd on we should never have Committed Wherefore let us bear in our Minds the Idea of some great Person for whom we have an Awful Respect and his Authority will even Consecrate the very Secrets of our Souls and make us not only mend our Manners and purifie our very Thoughts but in good time render us Exemplary to Others and Venerable to our Selves If Scipio or Laelius were but in our Eye we should not dare to Transgress Why do we not make our selves then such persons as in whose Presence we dare not offend EPIST. XII We are Moved at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them THe whole Subject of Natural Philosophy falls under these Three Heads the Heavens the Air and the Earth The First Treats of the Nature of the Stars their Form and Magnitude The Substance of the Heavens whether Solid or not and whether they move of Themselves or be moved by any thing Else whether the Stars be Below them or fixed in their Orbs In what manner the Sun divides the Seasons of the Year and the like The Second Part Enquires into the Reason of things betwixt the Heavens and the Earth as Clouds Rain Snow Thunder and whatsoever the Air either Does or Suffers The Third handles matters that have a regard to the Earth as the difference of Soils Minerals Metalls Plants Groves c. But these are Considerations wholly forreign to our Purpose in the Nature of them though they may be of very Proper and Pertinent Application There is not any Man so Brutal and so Groveling upon the Earth but his Soul is rouz'd and carry'd up to higher Matters and Thoughts upon the Appearance of any New Light from Heaven What can be more worthy of Admiration than the Sun and the Stars in their Courses and Glory And yet so long as Nature goes on in her Ordinary way there 's no body takes Notice of them But when any thing falls out beyond Expectation and Custome what a Gazing Pointing and Questioning is there presently about it The People gather together and are at their Wits End not so much at the Importance of the Matter as at the Novelty Every Meteor sets People agog to know the Meaning of it and what it Portends and whether it be a Star or a Prodigy So that it is worth the while to enquire into the Nature and Philosophy of these Lights though not the business of this Place that by discovering the Reason we may overcome the Apprehension of them There are many things which we know to Be and yet we know nothing at all of what they Are. Is it not the Mind that Moves us and Restreins us But What that Ruling Power is we do no more understand than Where it is One will have it to be a Spirit Another will have it to be a Divine Power Some only a Subtile Ayr Others an Incorporeal Being and some again will have it to be only Blood and Heat Nay so far is the Mind from a Perfect understanding of Other things that it is still in search of it Self It is not long since we came to find out the Causes of Eclipses And farther Experience will bring more things to Light which are as yet in the Dark But one Age is not sufficient for so many Discoveries It must be the Work of Successions and Posterity and the time will come when we shall wonder that Mankind should be so long Ignorant of things that lay so open and so easie to be made Known Truth is offer'd to all But we must yet content our selves with what 's already found and leave some Truths to be retriv'd by After Ages The Exact truth of things is only known to God but it is yet Lawful for us to Enquire and to Conjecture though not with too much Confidence Nor yet alltogether without Hope In the First place however let us Learn things Necessary and if we have any time to spare we may apply it to Superfluities Why do we trouble our selves about things which Possibly May Happen and peradventure Not Let us rather provide against those Dangers that Watch us and lie in wait for us To suffer Shipwrack or to be Crush'd with the Ruin of a House these are great Misfortunes but they Seldom Happen The Deadly and the hourly danger that threatens Humane Life is from One Man to Another Other Calamities do Commonly give us Some Warning
are brought up only to Carve others to Season and all to serve the Turns of Pomp and Luxury Is it not a Barbarous Custome to make it almost Capital for a Servant only to Cough Sneeze Sigh or but wag his Lips while he is in waiting and to keep him the whole Night Mute and Fasting Yet so it comes to pass that they that dare not speak Before their Masters will not forbear talking Of them and those on the other side that were allow'd a modest Freedom of Speech in their Masters Entertainments were most obstinately silent upon the Torture rather than they would betray them But we live as if a Servant were not made of the same Materials with his Master or to Breath the same Ayr or to Live and Dye under the Same Conditions It is worthy of Observation that the most Imperious Masters over their own Servants are at the same time the most Abject Slaves to the Servants of other Masters I will not distinguish a Servant by his Office but by his Manners The One is the work of Fortune the Other of Virtue But we look only to his Quality and not to his Merit Why should not a Brave Action rather Dignify the Condition of a Servant than the Condition of a Servant Lessen a Brave Action I would not value a Man for his Cloaths or Degree any more than I would do a Horse for his Trappings What if he be a Servant shew me any Man that is not so to his Lusts his Avarice his Ambition his Palate to his Quean nay to other Mens Servants and we are all of us Servants to Fear Insolent we are many of us at Home Servile and Despised Abroad and none are more Liable to be trampled upon than those that have gotten a habit of Giving Affronts by Suffering them What matters it how many Masters we have When 't is but One Slavery And whosoever Contemns That is perfectly Free let his Masters be never so Many That Man is only Free not whom Fortune has a Little Power over but over whom she has none at all Which State of Liberty is an Inestimable Good when we desire Nothing that is either Superfluous or Vitious They are Asses that are made for Burthen and not the Nobler sort of Horses In the Civil Wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey the Question was not who should be Slaves or Free but who should be Master Ambition is the same thing in Private that it is in Publick and the Duties are Effectually the same betwixt the Master of a Kingdom and the Master of a Family As I would treat some Servants kindly Because they are Worthy and Others to make them so so on the Other side I would have a Servant to Reverence his Master and rather to Love him than Fear him Some there are that think this too little for a Master though it is all that we pay even to God himself The Body of a servant may be bought and sold but his Mind is Free EPIST. XVIII We are Iuster to Men than to God Of Life and Death of Good and Evil. IT is without Dispute that the Loss of a Friend is one of the greatest Tryals of Humane Frailty and no Man is so much exalted above the sense of that Calamity as not to be affected with it And yet if a Man bears it Bravely they cry he has no Sense of Piety or Good Nature in him if he sink under it they call him Effeminate so that he lies both wayes under a Reproach But What 's the Ground of your Trouble I beseech you but that he might have Liv'd Longer in respect of his years and in effect that he ought to have done so in regard of his Usefulness to the World I cannot but wonder to see that a Person so Just and so Temperate in all his Dealings with Men and in Business should so exceedingly forget himself in This Point But you have in Excuse of this Error the Failings of the whole VVorld with you for Company For even those that are the most scrupulously Consciencious toward Men are yet Unthankful and Injurious to Providence It is not the Number of Dayes that makes a Life Long but the Full Employment of them upon the main End and Purpose of Life which is the Perfecting of the Mind in making a Man the Absolute Master of Himself Ireckon the Matter of Age among External things the main point is to Live and Die with Honor. Every Man that Lives is upon the way and must go through with his Journy without stopping till he comes at the End And wheresoever it ends if it ends well it is a Perfect Life There is an Invincible Fate that attends all Mortals and one Generation is condemn'd to tread upon the Heels of another Take away from Life the Power of Death and 't is a slavery As Caligula was passing upon the way an Old man that was a Prisoner and with a Beard down to his Girdle made it his request to Caesar that he might be put to death Why sayes Caesar to him are you not dead already So that you see Some Desire it as well as others Fear it And why not When it is one of the Duties of Life to Dye And it is one of the Comforts of it too For the Living are under the Power of Fortune but she has no Dominion at all over the Dead How can Life be Pleasant to any Man that is not prepar'd to part with it Or what Loss can be easier to us than that which can never be Miss'd or Desir'd again I was brought by a Defluxion into a hopeless Consumption and I had it many times in my Thought to Deliver my self from a Miserable Life by a Violent Death But the Tenderness I had for an Aged and Indulgent Father held my hand for thought I to my self it will be very hard for my Father to be without me though I could most willingly part with my self In the Case of a Particular Disease a Physitian may propound a Remedy but the onely Remedy for all Diseases is the Contempt of Death Though I know too that it is the business of a Long Life to Learn That Lesson Oh! The Happiness of distinguishing Good from Evil in the Works of Providence But in stead of raising our Thoughts to the Contemplation of Divine Matters and enquiring into the Original the State and the Appointed Issue of Created Nature we are digging of the Earth and serving of our Avarice Neglecting all the good things that are so frankly offer'd us How great a Folly and Madness is it for Men that are Dying and in the hands of Death already to extend their Hopes and to carry their Ambition and Desires to the Grave Unsatisfy'd For whosoever is tainted with those Hydroptick Appetites can never have enough either of Mony or Power It is a Remarkable thing that among those that place their Happiness in Sense they are the most miserable that seem to be happiest The Riches
of Nature are the most precious Treasures What has any Man to desire more than to keep himself from Cold Hunger and Thirst It is not the Quantity but the Opinion that Governs in this Case That can never be Little which is Enough Nor does any Man accompt That to be Much which is too Little The Benefits of Fortune are so far Comfortable to us as we enjoy them without losing the Possession of our selves Let us Purge our Minds and follow Nature we shall otherwise be still either Fearing or Craving and Slaves to Accidents Not that there is any Pleasure in Poverty but it is a great Felicity for a Man to bring his Mind to be contented even in That State which Fortune it self cannot make worse Methinks our Quarrels with Ambition and Profitable Employments are somewhat like those we have with our Mistresses we do not Hate them but Wrangle with them In a word betwixt those things which are Sought and Coveted and yet Complain'd of and those things which we have Lost and pretend that we cannot live without our Misfortunes are purely Voluntary and we are Servants not so much by Necessity as by Choice No Man can be Happy that is not Free and Fearless And no Man can be so but he that by Philosophy has got the better of Fortune In what Place soever we are we shall find our selves beset with the Miseries of Humane Nature Some Without us that either Encompass us Deceive us or Force us Others Within us that eat up our very Hearts in the Middle of Solitude And it is not yet as we imagine that Fortune has Long Armes She meddles with no body that does not first lay hold upon Her We should keep a Distance therefore and withdraw into the Knowledge of Nature and of our Selves We Understand the Original of things the Order of the World the Circulation of the Seasons the Courses of the Stars and that the whole Frame of the Universe only the Earth excepted is but a Perpetual Motion We know the Causes of Day and Night of Light and of Darkness but it is at a distance Let us direct our Thoughts then to That Place where we shall see all nearer Hand And it is not This Hope neither that makes a Wise Man Resolute at the Point of Death because Death lies in his way to Heaven For the Soul of a Wise Man is there before-hand Nay if there were nothing after Death to be either Expected or Fear'd he would yet leave this World with as great a Mind though he were to pass into a State of Annihilation He that reckons every hour his Last a Day or an Age is all one to him Fate is doing our Work while we Sleep Death steales upon us Insensibly and the more Insensibly because it passes under the name of Life From Childhood we grow up without perceiving it to Old Age and this Encrease of our Life duely consider'd is a Diminution of it We take Death to be Before us but it is Behind us and has already swallow'd up all that is past Wherefore make use of the Present and trust nothing to the Morrow for Delay is just so much time lost We catch hold of Hopes and Flatteries of a little longer Life as Drowning Men do upon Thorns or Straws that either Hurt us or Deceive us You will ask perhaps what I do my Self that Preach at this Rate Truely I do like some ill Husbands that spend their Estates and yet keep their Accompts I run out but yet I can tell which way it goes And I have the Fate of Ill Husbands too another way for every Body Pitties me and no Body Helps me The Soul is never in the Right place so long as it fears to quit the Body Why should a Man trouble himself to extend Life which at Best is a kind of Punishment And at Longest amounts to very little more than Nothing He is Ungrateful that takes the Period of Pleasure for an Injury and he is Foolish that knows no Good but the Present Nay there are some Courses of Life which a Man ought to quit though with Life it self As the Trade of Killing Others in stead of Learning to Dye Himself Life it self is neither Good nor Evil but only a Place for Good and Evil. It is a kind of Trage-Comedy Let it be well Acted and no matter whether it be Long or Short We are apt to be missed by the Appearances of things and when they come to us recommended in Good Terms and by Great Example they will impose many times upon very Wise Men. The Mind is never Right but when it is at peace within it self and Independent upon any thing from Abroad The Soul is in Heaven even while it is in the Flesh if it be purg'd of Natural Corruptions and taken up with Divine Thoughts And whether any body sees us or takes notice of us it matters not Virtue will of it self break forth though never so much pains be taken to suppress it And it is all one whether it be known or no But After Ages however will do us Right when we are Dead and Insensible of the Veneration they allow us He that is wise will compute the Conditions of Humanity and contract the Subject both of his Joyes and Fears And it is time well spent so to Abate of the One that he may likewise Diminish the Other By this Practice he will come to understand how short how uncertain and how safe many of those things are which we are wont to Fear When I see a Splendid House or a glittering Train I look upon it as I do upon Courts which are only the Schools of Avarice and Ambition and they are at best but a Pompe which is more for Shew than Possession Beside that Great Goods are seldome Long-liv'd and That is the Fairest Felicity which is of the shortest Growth EPIST. XIX Of True Courage FOrtitude is properly the Contempt of all Hazards according to Reason though it be commonly and promiscuously used also for a Contempt of all Hazards even Without or Against Rea-Reason Which is rather a Daring and a Brutal Fierceness than an Honorable Courage A Brave Man fears Nothing more than the Weakness of being affected with Popular Glory His Eyes are not Dazled either with Gold or Steel he tramples upon all the Terrors and Glories of Fortune he looks upon himself as a Citizen and Soldier of the World and in despite of all Accidents and Oppositions he maintains his Station He does not only Suffer but Court the most Perilous Occasions of Virtue and those Adventures which are most Terrible to Others for he values himself upon Experiment and is more Ambitious of being reputed Good than Happy Mucius Lost his hand with more Honor than he could have Preserv'd it He was a greater Conqueror Without it than he could have been With it For with the very Stump of it he overcame two Kings Tarquin and Porsenna Rutilia follow'd Cotta into
Banishment she stay'd and she return'd with him too and soon after she Lost him without so much as shedding a Tear a Great Instance of her Courage in his Banishment and of her Prudence in his Death This sayes Epicurus is the Last and the Blessed'st day of my Life when he was ready to Expire in an extreme torment of the Stone It is never said of the 300 Fabii that they were Overcome but that they were Slain Nor of Regulus that he was Vanquish'd by the Carthaginians but that he was Taken The Spartans prohibited all Exercises where the Victory was declar'd by the Voice and Submission of him that was worsted When Phaeton begg'd of Phoebus the Government of the Chariot of the Sun for one day the Poet makes him so far from being Discouraged by his Fathers telling him of the Danger of the Undertaking and how he himself had much adoe to keep his Seat for Fear when he look'd down from the Meridian that it prov'd a Spur to his Importunity That 's the thing sayes Phaeton that I would be at to stand Firm in That difficulty where Phoebus himself Trembles Security is the Caution of Narrow Minds But as Fire tries Gold so does Difficulty and Hazard try Virtuous Men. Not but that he may be as Valiant that Watches upon the Tower as he that fights upon his Knees only the One has had the good Fortune of an Occasion for the Proof of his Resolution As some Creatures are Cruel Others Crafty and some Timorous so Man is endu'd with a Glorious and an Excellent Spirit that prompts him not so much to regard a Safe Life as an Honest. Providence has made him the Master of this Lower World and he reckons it his Duty to Sacrifice his Own Particular to the Advantage of the Whole And yet there is a vast Difference even in the same Action done by a Brave Person and by a Stupid as the Death of Cato was Honorable but that of Brutus was Shameful Nor is it Death it self that we recommend for Glorious but it is a glorious thing to Dye as we Ought Neither is it Poverty Banishment or Pain that we commend but the Man that behaves himself Bravely under those Afflictions How were the Gladiators Contemn'd that call'd for Quarter And those on the other side Favour'd that Despis'd it Many a Man saves his Life by not fearing to Lose it and Many a Man Loses his Life for being over-sollicitous to save it We are many times afraid of Dying by One thing and we come to Dye by Another As for Example we are Threatned by an Enemy and we Dye by a Pleurisie The Fear of Death enlarges all other things that we Fear To Bear it with Constancy we should Compute that whether our Lives be long or short it comes all to a Point Some Hours we lose What if they were Dayes Months Years What matters it if I never Arrive at that which I must certainly Part with when I have it Life is but one Point of Flying Time and that which is to come is no more Mine than that which is Past. And we have this for our Comfort too that whosoever now Fears Death will some time or other come to Wish it If Death be Troublesome or Terrible the Fault is in us and not in Death it self It is as great a Madness for a Man to Fear that which he is not to Feel as that which he is not to Suffer The Difference lies in the Manner of Dying and not in the Issue of Death it Self 'T is a more Inglorious Death to be Smother'd with Perfumes than to be torn to pieces with Pincers Provided my Mind be not Sick I shall not much heed my Body I am Prepar'd for my last Hour without tormenting my self when it will come It is betwixt the Stoicks and other Philosophers as betwixt Men and Women They are Both Equally Necessary for Society only the one is Born for Government and the other for Subjection Other Sects deal with their Disciples as Plausible Physitians do with their Patients they Flatter and Humor them whereas the Stoicks go a Bolder way to work and consider rather their Profit than their Pleasure EPIST. XX. 'T is never too Late to Learn The Advantages of a Private Life and the Slavery of a Publick The Ends of Punishment LEt no Man presume to advise Others that has not first given Good Counsel to himself And he may Then pretend to help his Neighbor It is in short as hard a matter to Give Good Counsel as to Take it Let it however be agreed betwixt the Two Parties that the One designs to Confer a Benefit and the Other to Receive it Some People Scorn to be Taught Others are Asham'd of it as they would be of going to School when they are Old But it is never too late to Learn what it is alwayes Necessary to Know And it is no Shame to Learn so long as we are Ignorant that is to say so long as we Live When any thing is Amiss in our Bodies or Estates we have Recourse presently to the Physitian or the Lawyer for Help And why not to the Philosopher in the Disorders of our Mind No Man Lives but he that applyes himself to Wisdom for he takes into his own Life the Supplement of all Past Ages 'T is a Fair Step toward Happiness and Virtue to Delight in the Conversation of Good and of Wise Men And where That cannot be had the next point is to keep no Company at all Solitude affords Business enough and the Entertainment is Comfortable and Easie. Whereas Publick Offices are Vexatious and Restless There 's a great Difference betwixt a Life of Leisure and of Lazyness When People will Express their Envy of a Man in a Happy Condition they 'll say He lives at his Ease When in truth the Man is Dead Alive There is a Long Life and there is a Long Death The Former when we enjoy the Benefits of a Right Mind and the Other when the Senses are Extinguish'd and the Body Dead before-hand He that makes me the Master of my Own Time and places me in a State of Freedom layes a great Obligation upon me As a Merchant that has a Considerable Fortune Aboard is more sensible of the Blessing of a Fair Wind and a Safe Passage than he that has only Ballast or some Course Commodity in the Vessel So That Man that employes his Privacy upon Thoughts Divine and Precious is more sensible of the Comfort of that Freedom than he that bends his Meditations an Ill way For he considers all the Benefits of his Exemption from Common Duties he enjoyes himself with Infinite Delight and makes his Gratitude Answerable to his Obligations He is the best of Subjects and the Happiest of Men and he lives to Nature and to himself Most Men are to Themselves the worst Company they can keep If they be Good Quiet and Temperate they are as good Alone as in Company But if
by a Generous Concurrence of Resolution and Fate but Cato is above Example and does as much scorn to ask his Death of any Man as his Life With what Joy did this Great Man Contemplate Immortality when he took his Book and his Sword together and in Cold Thoughts dispatch'd himself Let this suffice of Cato whose Virtue Providence made use of to Cope with all the Powers of the Earth His Courage took delight in and sought for all Occasions of Hazard keeping his Eye still upon the End without valuing the Difficulties of the Passage The Sufferance is one Part of the Glory and though one Man may scape without Wounds yet he is still more Reverend and Bemarkable that comes off Bloody The Malice of Great Men is grievous you 'll say and yet he Supported the Oppositions of Pompey Caesar and Crassus Is it troublesome to be Repuls'd Vatinius was preferr'd before him Prosperity shews a Man but one part of Humane Nature No Body knows what such a Man is good for Neither in truth does he understand himself for want of Experiment Temporal Happiness is for weak and Vulgar Minds but the subduing of Publick Terrors is a Work that is reserv'd for more Generous Spirits Calamity is the Touch-stone of a Brave Mind that resolves to Live and Dye Free and Master of it self The Combatant brings no Mettal into the Field that was never Batter'd He that has lost Blood and yet keeps his Stomach he that has been under his Enemy and worsted and yet comes on again and gathers heart from his Misfortunes That 's the Man of Hope and Courage But Is it not a very Unjust and a Rigorous Fate that Good Men should be Poor and Friendless All this is no more than the Natural Work of Matter and Form Mean Souls are meanly Principled But there goes more to the making up of a Brave Man that is to work out his way through Difficulties and Storms We are condemn'd to Terrible Encounters and because we cannot according to the Course of Nature Avoid them we have Faculties given us that will Enable us to Bear them Or at the worst we have a Retreat If we will not fight we may fly So that nothing is made more Easie to us than that which is most Necessary to us to Dye No Man is kept in the World against his Will But Adversity is the Better for us all for it is Gods Mercy to shew the World their Errors and that the things they Fear and Covet are neither Good nor Evil being the Common and promiscuous Lot both of Good Men and Bad. If they were Good only the Good should enjoy them And if Bad only the Wicked should suffer them One Man is taken away in a Scuffle for a Wench and another in the Defence of his Country and we find Silver and Gold both in a Temple and in the Stewes Now to shew you that the Virtue which I affect is not so Imaginary and Extravagant as it is taken to be I will allow a Wise Man to Tremble to turn Pale nay and to Grone too And to suffer all the Affections of his Bodily Sense provided that he keep his Mind Firm and Free from submission to his Body and that he do not Repent of his Constancy which is in it self so great a Virtue that there is some Authority even in a pertinacious Error If the Body may be brought by Exercise to the Contempt of Bruises and Wounds How much more easily then may the Mind be Fortify'd against the Assaults of Fortune And though perhaps thrown down and Trod upon yet Recover it self The Body must have Meat and Drink much Labor and Practice whereas the Food and the Business of the Mind is within it self and Virtue is maintain'd without either Toyl or Charge If you say That many Professors of Wisdom are wrought upon by Menaces and Mischiefs these let me tell you are but Proficients and not as yet arriv'd at the State of Wisdom They are not strong enough to practice what they know It is with our Dispositions as with our Cloaths They will take some Colours at One Dipping But others must be steep'd over and over before they will Imbibe them And so for Disciplines they must Soke and lye long before they take the Tincture No Man can receive an Injury and not be mov'd at it But yet he may keep himself Free from Perturbations and so far from being troubled at them that he may make use of them for the Experiment and Tryal of his Virtue keeping himself still moderate Placid Chearful and Safe in a Profound quiet and Fixed in his Station But if a Wise Man cannot be Poor How comes it that he is many times without either Meat Drink Cloaths or Lodging If only Fools are Mad How comes it then that VVise Men have their Alienations of Mind and talk as Idly in a Fever as other people 'T is one thing the Receiving of an Injury and another thing the Conceiving of an Indignation for it It is the Body in This Case that suffers which is the Fools Part but not the Mind That Man is never the worse Pilot that by foul weather is forc'd beside his Business When a Ship springs a Leak we do not presently quarrel either with the Mariners or with the Vessel But some to the Pump others into the Hold to keep the Ship above Water And if we cannot absolutely Master it we must still work on For it is then a great point gain'd if we can but keep it at a stay Some Men are strangely Transported at the Insolence of the Porter that refuses to let them into a Great Mans House They forget that the door of a Prison is more strictly guarded than that of a Palace He that has Business must pay for his Passage and Sweeten him as he would do a Churlish Curr with a Sop. That which is to be Sold is to be Bought He 's a weak Man that rates himself according to the Civility of a Slave Let him have a Reverence for himself and then no matter who despises him What if he should break his Staff or Cause his Master to turn him away or to correct him He that Contends supposes an Equality and even when he has got the better of him admits that there VVas one What if he should receive a Blow Cato the greatest Man of his Age did not only Forgive it but Forget it 'T is not to say That This or That is Tolerable to a Wise Man or Intolerable If VVe do not totally subdue Fortune Fortune Overcomes Us. It is the Foundation of a Happy Life for a Man to depend upon himself but an Absolute Tranquility of Mind and a Freedome from Errors must be the Business of another World EPIST. XXV A VVise and a Good Man is Proof against all Accidents Of Fate THe Book you promis'd me is now come to my hand and I open'd it with an Intent to read it over at Leisure But
Demolish'd but the Deity still remaines untouch'd EPIST. XXVII Some Traditions of the Antients concerning Thunder and Lightning with the Authors Contemplations Thereupon THere is no question but that Providence has given to Mortals the Tokens or Fore-runners of things to Come and by those meanes laid open in some measure the Decrees of Fate Only we take Notice of some things without giving any heed to Others There is not any thing done according to the Course of Nature which is not either the Cause or the Sign of something that follows So that wheresoever there is Order there is place for Prediction But there is no judgement to be given upon Accidents Now though it is a very hard matter to arrive at the Fore-Knowledge of things to come and to predict particularly what shall hereafter fall out Upon a Certain Knowledge of the Power and Influences of the Stars It is yet unquestionable that they have a Power though we cannot expresly say what it is In the Subject of Thunder there are several Opinions as to the significations of it The Stoicks hold that because the Cloud is Broken therefore the Bolt is shot according to Common Speech Others Conjecture that the Cloud is broken to that very End that it may discharge the Thunder-Bolt referring all in such sort to God as if the signification did not arise from the thing done but as if the thing it self were done for the signification sake But whether the signification goes before or follows it comes all to the same Point There are Three sorts of Lightning the First is so pure and subtile that it pierces through whatsoever it Encounters The Second Shatters and Breaks every thing to pieces the Other Burns either by Blasting Consuming Inflaming or Discolouring and the like Some Lightnings are Monitory Some are Mâ—…nacing and others they Phansy to be Promising They Allot to Iupiter Three Sorts the First is only Monitory and Gentle which he casts of his own Accord The Second they make to be an Act of Counsel as being done by the Vote and Advice of Twelve Gods This they say does many times some Good but not without some Mischief too As the Destruction of One Man may prove the Caution of another The Third is the Result of a Council of the Superior Deities from whence proceed great Mischiefs both Publick and Private Now this is a great Folly to Imagine that Iupiter would wreak his Displeasure upon Pillars Trees nay upon Temples themselves and yet let the Sacrilegious go Free To strike Sheep and Consume Altars and all this upon a Consultation of the Gods as if he wanted either Skill or Justice to Govern his own Affairs by himself either in Sparing the Guilty oâ—… in Destroying the Innocent Now What should be the Mistery of all this The Wisdom of our Forefathers found it necessary to keep Wicked People in Awe by the Apprehension of a Superior Power And to Fright them into their good Behaviour by the Fear of an Armed and an Avenging Justice over their Heads But How comes it that the Lightning which comes from Iupiter himself should be said to be harmless and That which he casts upon Counsel and Advice to be so Dangerous and Mortal The Moral of it is This. That all Kings should after Iupiters Example do all Good by themselves And when Severity is Necessary permit That to be done by Others Beside that as Crimes are Unequal so also should be the Punishments Neither did they believe That Iupiter to be the Thunderer whose Image was worship'd in the Capitol and in other Places but intended it of the Maker and Governor of the Universe by what Name soever we shall call him Now in truth Iupiter does not Immediately cast the Lightning himself but leaves Nature to her Ordinary Method of Operation so that what he does not Immediately by himself he does yet Cause to be done For whatsoever Nature does God does There may be something gather'd out of all things that are either said or done that a Man may be the better for And he does a greater thing that Masters the Fear of Thunder than he that discovers the Reason of it We are Surrounded and Beset with Ill Accidents and since we cannot avoid the stroke of them let us prepare our selves honestly to bear them But How must that be By the Contempt of Death we do also Contemn all things in the way to it as Wounds Shipwracks the Fury of Wild Beasts or any other violence whatsoeever which at the worst can but part the Soul and the Body And we have this for our Comfort though our Lives are at the Mercy of Fortune she has yet no power over the Dead How many are there that call for Death in the Distress of their Hearts even for the very Fear of it And this Unadvised Desire of Death does in Common affect both the best and the worst of Men only with this Difference the Former Despise Life and the other are Weary of it 'T is a Nauseous thing to serve the Body and to be so many years a doing so many Beastly things over and over It is well if in our Lives we can please Others but whatever we do in our Deaths let us be sure to please our selves Death is a thing which no Care can avoid no Felicity can Tame it no Power Overcome it Other things are Disposed of by Chance and Fortune but Death treats all Men alike The Prosperous must Dye as well as the Unfortunate and methinks the very Despair of overcoming our Fate should inspire us with Courage to Encounter it For there is no Resolution so Obstinate as that which arises from Necessity It makes a Coward as bold as Iulius Caesar though upon different Principles We are all of us reserv'd for Death and as Nature brings forth One Generation she Calls back Another The whole Dispute is about the Time but no body doubts about the Thing it self EPIST. XXVIII A Contemplation of Heaven and Heavenly Things Of God and of the Soul THere is a great Difference betwixt Philosophy and other Arts and a greater yet betwixt That Philosophy it self which is of Divine Contemplation and That which has a regard to things here Below It is much Higher and Braver It takes a Larger Scope and being unsatisfy'd with what it sees it aspires to the Knowledge of something that is Greater and Fairer and which Nature has placed out of our Ken. The One only teaches us what is to be done upon Earth the Other reveales to us That which Actually is done in Heaven The One discusses our Errors and holds the Light to us by which we distinguish in the Ambiguities of Life the Other Surmounts that Darkness which we are wrapt up in and carries us up to the Fountain of Light it self And then it is that we are in a special manner to acknowledge the Infinite Grace and Bounty of the Nature of things when we see it not only where it is Publick
Nature d d d Three degrees of Proficients in Wisdome e e e A Wise Man in some Cases may need Counsel a a a The dignity of Virtue b b b The Good Will is accepted for the Deed. c c c Virtue is divided into Contemplation and Action d d d A Virtuous Life must be all of a Piece e e e Virtue can never be suppressed a a a Philosophy is Moral Natural and Rational b One Wise Man teaches another b Philosophy teaches us to live well e e e Youth is apt to take good Impressions f f f The Liberal Sciences are matter rather of Curiosity than Virtue g g g 'T is not for the Dignity of a Philosopher to be curious about words a a a The best of us are yet the better for Admonition and Precept b b b The Power of Precepts and Sentences c c c Good Counsel is the best Service we can do to Mankind d d d Three Points to be amin'd in all our Undertakings e e e Propose nothing but what is Hopeful and Honest. a a a Every mans Conscience is his Iudge b Let every Man Examine himself a A Good Man makes himself profitable to Mankind b b b The Injuries of Fortune do not affect the Mind c A Generous Instance of a Constant Mind a a a How comes it that Good Men are Afflicted in this World and Wicked Men Prosper b b b Providence draws Good out of Evil. c Calamity is the Tryal of Virtue d d d Accidents are neither Good nor Evil. e e e Nothing that is properly Evil can befall a Good Man a a a Impediments of Happiness b b b Levity of Mind is a great Hindrance of our Repose b Change of Place does no good without Change of Mind c c c Constancy of Mind secures us in all Difficulties d d d The less we have to do with the World the Better a a a An Instance of the uncertainty of Humane Affairs in the Burning of Lyons b b b That which we call our Own is but lent us c c c Fortune spares neither Great nor Small a a a The Excesses of Luxury are Painful and Dangerous b b b If Sensuality were Happiness Beasts were Happier than Men. c c c We have as many Diseases as Dishes d d d Drunkenness is a Voluntary Madness c c c The Folly and Vanity of Luxury f f f A Voluptuous Person cannot be a Good Man a a a Avarice punishes it self b b b Money does â—…ll c c c Avarice makes us Ill-natur'd as well as Miserable d d d The Cares and Crimes that attend Ambition c c c Miserable are those People that the World Accompts Great and Happy a a a Our Miseries are Endless if we fear all Possibilities b b b Prepare for the worst c c c The things most to be Fear'd are Want Sickness and the Violences of Men in Power a a a Let every Man make the best of his Lot b b b Our very Prayers many times are Curses c c c We are vain and wicked and will not Believe it a a a The moderation of past Ages b b b The State of Innocence c c c A Temperate Life is a Happy Life c Let Philosophers Live as they Teach d d d T is good to Practice Frugality in Plenty e e e The Moderation and Bravery of Fabricius a a a A Wise Man is above Injuries b b b A Great Mind neither Asks any thing nor wants any thing c c c Cato's Constancy d d d The greatest Evil in Adversity is the Submitting to it e e e Let no Man be Surpriz'd with what he is Born to f f f The Works of Fortune are neither Good nor Evil. g Virtue is most Glorious in Extremities h h h Virtue is Invincible a a a Avoid even Dissolute places as well as loose Companions b b b Practical Philosophers are the best Company c The more Company the more Danger a a a Every Man is not a Friend that makes us a Visit. b b b The Choice of a Friend c c c There must be no Reserves in Friendship d d d A Generous Friendship e The Loss of a Friend is hardly to be Repair'd f f f No Man can be Happy to whom Life is Irksome or Death Terrible g g g We take more care of our Fortunes than of our Lives h Time Present Past and to come i i i We can call nothing our Own but our Time k k k Company and Business are great Devourers of Time a a a Philosophy is a quiet Study b b b Liberty is to be Purchasâ—…d at any Rate c Several People withdraw for several Ends. d d d Some Men retire to be talk'd of e Philosophy requires Privacy and Freedome a a a 'T is a Folly to Fear Death b b b The Fear of Death is Easily overcome c c c He that Despises Death Fears nothing d d d All Men must Dye c c c To what end should we Covet Life f To Dye is to Obey Nature g g g 'T is Childish to Dye Lamenting a What God has made Necessary Man should comply with Chearfully a a a Sorrow within Bounds is allowable b b b Sorrow is in some Cases Allowable and Inevitable in others c c c We Grieve more for Our Own Sakes than for Our Friends d d d A Friend may be taken away but not the Comfort of the Friendship e There 's no Dealing with the First Transports of Sorrow a a a Banishment is but Change of Place in which sence All People and Nations have been Banish'd b b b Pain only affects the Body but not the Mind a a a Poverty is only Troublesome in Opinion b b b Mediocrity is the Best State of Fortune a a a Anger Desrib'd What it is b b b It is against Nature c c c Several sorts of Anger d d d The first Motion of Anger a a a Pisistratus Master'd his Anger b b b The Gentleness of Augustus c c c The Moderation of Antigonus d d d A Predominant Fear Masters Anger e e e An Instance of Anger supprest in Harpagus f f f The Moderation of Philip of Macedon g g g All Creatures are made more Terrible by Anger a a a Anger is Insociable b b b It is Unprofitable b And in no Case Allowable c c c It is more mischievous in War than in Peace d d d He that 's Angry at Publick Wickedness shall never be at Peace e e e Iustice is Calm and Temperate f f f Correction is necessary but within Bounds a Anger blows up all in a Moment b b b Anger is Loss of Time as well as of Peace c Anger may be better kept out than Govern'd d Anger the most Detestable of all Vices e The Miserable Effects of Anger f f f The Cruelty of Marius g g g A Barbarous Severity of Piso a a a The Subject of our Aâ—…ger is not worth the while b b b We are Angry for Trifles c The Blasphemous Extravagance of Caius Caesar. d A Ridiculous Extravagance of Cyrus a a a Pardon all where there 's either sign of Repentance or Hope of Amendment b b b The same conceipt makes us Merry in Private and angry in Publick c Some Ieasts will never be forgiven a a a Patience softens Wrath. b b b Several wayes of diverting Anger c c c Those Injuries go nearest us that we have neither Deserv'd nor Expected a a a Make the best of every thing b b b Whoever does an Injury is liable to suffer one c c c Let no Man condemn another without making it his own Case d d d Some things cannot hurt us and others will not c c c A Stoical Error a a a The Cruelty of the Roman Spectacles c c c Barbarous Cruelties d He that Threatens All Feares all c A Tyrannical Government is a Perpetual State of War a Clemency Defin'd a Clemency is Profitable for all b b b Clemency does well in Private Persons but 't is more Beneficial in Princes c c c Mercy is the Interest both of Prince and People d d d The blessed Reflections of a Merciful Prince e e e Upon the well-being of the Prince depends the Safety of the People The Prince that is Gracious is Belov'd f f f Where Punishment is Necessary let it be Moderate g g g The Ends of Punishment h h h A famous Instance of Augustus's Clemency i i i Augustus's Moderation to his Enemies k k k A Merciful Iudgment of Augustus
matter to convince a Great Man that his Station is slippery or to Prevail with him not to depend upon his Greatness But all Superfluities are Hurtful a Rank Crop layes the Corn too great a Burthen of Fruit breaks the Bow and our Minds may be as well overcharg'd with an Immoderate Happiness Nay though we our selves would be at Rest our Fortune will not suffer it The way that leads to Honor and Riches leads to Troubles and we find the Causes of our Sorrows in the very Objects of our Delights What Joy is there is Feasting and Luxury in Ambition and a Croud of Clients In the Armes of a Mistriss or in the Vanity of an Unprofitable Knowledge These short and False Pleasures deceive us and like Drunkenness Revenge the Jolly Madness of one hour with the Nauseous and sad Repentance of Many Ambition is like a Gulph every thing is swallow'd up in it and bury'd beside the dangerous consequences of it For that which One has taken from All may be easily taken away again from All by One. It was not either Virtue or Reason but the Mad Love of a deceiptful Greatness that animated Pompey in his Wars either Abroad or at Home What was it but his Ambition that hurry'd him to Spain Affrica and elsewhere when he was too Great already in every bodies Opinion but his Own And the same Motive had Iulius Caesar who could not even then brook a Superior Himself when the Common-wealth had submitted unto Two already Nor was it any instinct of Virtue that push'd on Marius who in the Head of an Army was himself yet led on under the Command of Ambition but he came at last to the deserved Fate of other Wicked Men and to Drink himself of the same Cup that he had filled to others We Impose upon our Reason when we suffer our selves to be transported with Titles for we know that they are nothing but a more Glorious Sound and so for Ornaments and Gildings though there may be a Lustre to Dazle our Eyes our Understanding tells us yet that it is only Outside and that the Matter under it is Course and Common I will never Envy those that the People call Great and Happy A Sound Mind is not to be shaken with a Popular and Vain Applause nor is it in the Power of their Pride to disturbe the State of our Happiness An Honest Man is known now adayes by the Dust he raises upon the Way and 't is become a Point of Honor to overrun People and keep all at a distance though he that is put out of the way may perchance be Happier than he that takes it He that would exercise a Power Profitable to himself and Grievous to no body else let him practise it upon his Passions They that have Burnt Cities otherwise Invincible driven Armies before them and bath'd themselves in Humane Blood after that they have overcome all open Enemies they have been vanquish'd by their Lust by their Cruelty and without any Resistance Alexander was possess'd with the Madness of laying Kingdoms waste He began with Greece where he was brought up and there he quarry'd himself upon that in it which was Best He Enslav'd Lacedaemon and Silenc'd Athens Nor was he content with the Destruction of those Towns which his Father Philip had either Conquer'd or Bought but he made himself the Enemy of Humane Nature and like the worst of Beasts he worry'd what he could not eat Felicity is an Unquiet thing it torments it self and puzzles the Brain It makes some People Ambitious others Luxurious It puffs up some and softens others only as 't is with Wine some Heads bear it better than others But it dissolves all Greatness stands upon a Precipice and if Prosperity carries a Man never so little beyond his Poyze it over-beares and dashes him to pieces 'T is a rare thing for a Man in a great Fortune to lay down his Happiness gently it being a Common Fate for a Man to sink under the Weight of those Felicities that raise him How many of the Nobility did Marius bring down to Herdsmen and other mean Offices Nay in the very Moment of our despising Servants we may be made so our selves CHAP. XIII Hope and Feare are the Bane of Humane Life NO Man can be said to be perfectly Happy that runs the Risque of Disappointment which is the Case of every Man that Feares or Hopes for any thing For Hope and Fear how distant soever they may seem to be the one from the other they are both of them yet coupled in the same Chain as the Guard and the Prisoner and the one treads upon the Heel of the other The Reason of this is Obvious for they are Passions that look forward and are ever sollicitous for the Future only Hope is the more Plausible Weakness of the Two which in truth upon the Main are Inseparable for the one cannot be without the other but where the Hope is stronger than the Fear or the Fear than the Hope we call it the one or the other For without Fear it were no longer Hope but Certainty as without Hope it were no longer Fear but Despair We may come to Understand whether our Disquiets are vain or no if we do but Consider that we are either troubled about the Present the Future or Both. If the Present 't is easie to Judge and the Future is Uncertain 'T is a Foolish thing to be Miserable before-hand for fear of Misery to come for a Man loses the Present which he might enjoy in expectation of the Future Nay the Fear of losing any thing is as bad as the loss it self I will be as Prudent as I can but not Timorous or Careless And I will bethink my self and forecast what Inconveniences may happen before they come 'T is true a Man may Fear and yet not be Fearful which is no more than to have the Affection of Fear without the Vice of it but yet a frequent Admittance of it runs into a Habit. It is a Shameful and an Unmanly thing to be Doubtful Timorous and Uncertain to set one step forward and another backward and to be Irresolute Can there be any Man so Fearful that had not rather fall once than hang alwayes in suspence OUR Miseries are Endless if we stand in Fear of all Possibilities the best way in such a Case is to drive out one Nail with another and a little to qualifie Fear with Hope which may serve to Palliate a Misfortune though not to Cure it There is not any thing that we Fear which is so Certain to come as it is certain that many things which we do Fear will not come but we are loth to oppose our Credulity when it begins to move us and so to bring our Fear to the Test. Wâ—… but What if the Thing we fear should come to pass perhaps it will be the better for us Suppose it to be Death it self Why may it not prove
the Glory of my Life Did not Poyson make Socrates Famous And was not Cato 〈◊〉 a great part of his Honor Do we fear any Misfortune to be fall us We are not presently sure that it will Happen How many deliverances have Come Unlook'd for And How many Mischiefs that we look'd for have never come to pass 'T is time enough to lament when it comes and in the Interim to promise our selves the Best What do I know but some thing or other may delay or divert it Some have scap'd out of the Fire Others when a House has faln over their Heads have receiv'd no Hurt One Man has been sav'd when a Sword was at his Throat another has been Condemn'd and out-liv'd his Heads-man So that Ill Fortune we see as well as Good has her Levities Peradventure it will be Peradventure not and till it comes to Pass we are not sure of it We do many times take Words in a worse sense than they were intended and imagine things to be worse taken than they are 'T is time enough to bear a Misfortune when it Comes without Anticipating it HE that would deliver himself from all Apprehensions of the Future let him first take for granted that all his Fears will fall upon him and then Examine and Measure the Evil that he fears which he will find to be neither Great nor Long. Beside that the Ills which he fears he May Suffer he suffers in the very Fear of them As in the symptomes of an Approaching Disease a Man shall find himself Lazy and Listless a Weariness in his Limbs with a Yawning and Shuddering all over him So is it in the Case of a Weak Mind It Phancies Misfortunes and makes a Man wretched before his time Why should I torment my self at present with what perhaps may fall out Fifty year hence This Humor is a kind of Voluntary Disease and an Industrious Contrivance of our own Unhappiness to complain of an Affliction that we do not Feel Some are not only mov'd with Grief it self but with the meer Opinion of it as Children will start at a Shadow or at the Sight of a Deformed Person If we stand in fear of Violence from a Powerful Enemy it is some Comfort to us that whosoever makes himself terrible to Others is not without Fear Himself The least Noise makes a Lyon start and the Fiercest of Beasts whatsoever enrages them makes them tremble too A Shadow a Voice an Unusual Odour rouzes them THE things most to be fear'd I take to be of three Kinds Want Sickness and those Violences that may be impos'd upon us by a Strong Hand The Last of these has the greatest Force because it comes attended with Noise and Tumult Whereas the Incommodities of Poverty and Diseases are more Natural and steal upon us in Silence without any External Circumstances of Horror But the Other marches in Pomp with Fire and Sword Gibbets Racks Hooks Wild Beasts to devour us Stakes to Empale us Engines to Tear us to pieces Pitch'd Bags to burn us in and a thousand other Exquisite Inventions of Cruelty No wonder then if that be most Dreadful to us that presents it self in so many Uncouth shapes and by the very Solemnity is render'd the most Formidable The more Instruments of Bodily pain the Executioner shewes us the more Frightful he makes himself For many a Man that would have encounter'd Death in any Generous Form with Resolution enough is yet overcome with the Manner of it As for the Calamities of Hunger and Thirst Inward Ulcers Scorching Feavers Tormenting Fits of the Stone I look upon these Miseries to be at least as Grievous as any of the rest Only they do not so much affect the Phancy because they Lye out of Sight Some People talk High of Dangers at a Distance but like Cowards when the Executioner comes to do his Duty and shewes us the Fire the Axe the Scaffold and Death at Hand their Courage fails them upon the very Pinch when they have most need of it Sickness I hope Captivity Fire are no new things to us the Falls of Houses Funerals and Conflagrations are every day before our Eys The Man that I Supp'd with last Night is Dead before Morning Why should I wonder then seeing so many fall about me to be hit at last my Self What can be a Greater Madness than to cry out Who would have dream'd of This And why not I beseech you Where is that Estate that may not be reduc'd to Beggery That Dignity which may not be follow'd with Banishment Disgrace and Extreme Contempt That Kingdome that may not suddenly fall to ruine change its Master and be Depopulated That Prince that may not pass the Hand of a Common Hangman That which is one Mans Fortune may be anothers but the Foresight of Calamities to come breaks the Violence of them CHAP. XIV It is according to the True or False Estimate of Things that we are Happy or Miserable HOW many things are there that the Phancy makes Terrible by Night which the Day turns into Ridiculous What is there in Labour or in Death that a Man should be afraid of They are much Slighter in Act than in Contemplation and we May contemn them but we Will not So that it is not because they are Hard that we dread them but they are Hard because we are first afraid of them Pains and other Violences of Fortune are the same thing to Us that Goblins are to Children We are more Scar'd with them than Hurt We take up our Opinions upon Trust and Erre for Company still Judging That to be Best that has most Competitors We make a False Calculation of Matters because we advise with Opinion and not with Nature And this misleads Us to a higher esteem for Riches Honor and Power than they are worth We have been us'd to Admire and Recommend them and a Private Error is Quickly turn'd into a Publick The Greatest and the Smallest things are equally Hard to be comprehended we accompt many things Great for want of Understanding what effectually is so And we reckon other things to be Small which we find frequently to be of the Highest Value Vain things only move Vain Minds The Accidents that we so much Boggle at are not Terrible in themselves but they are made so by our Infirmities and we consult rather what we Hear than what we Feel without Examining Opposing or Discussing the things we fear so that we either stand still and Tremble or else directly Run for 't as those Troops did that upon the raising of the Dust took a Flock of Sheep for the Enemy When the Body and Mind are Corrupted 't is no Wonder if all things prove Intolerable and not because they are so in Truth but because we are Dissolute and Foolish For we are Infatuated to such a Degree that betwixt the Common Madness of Men and that which falls under the Care of the Physitian there is but this difference The