children haunt the vice of the flesh whilest they be yong there is small hope of goodnes to be looked for in them when they be old for the older they waxe the riper be their vices Masters would correct the childe but fathers and mothers forbid them Little auaileth one to pricke the horse with the spurre when he that sitteth vpon him holdeth backe with the bridle Of Death O If we would consider the corruption wherof we are made the filth wherof we are engendred the infinite trauell whereunto we are borne the long tediousnes wherwith we are nourished the great necessities and suspicions wherein we liue and aboue all the great peril wherein we die we find a thousand occasions to wish death not one to desire life The excellencie of the soule laid aside and the hope which we haue of eternall life if man do compare the captiuitie of men to the libertie of beasts with reason we may see that the beasts do liue a peaceable life and that which man doth lead is but a long death I had rather chuse an vnfortunate life and an honorable death than an infamous death and an honorable life That man which will be accounted for a good man not noted for a brute beast ought greatly to trauell to liue well and much more to die better for that euill death maketh men doubt that the life hath not been good and the good death is an excuse of an euill life The dead do rest in a sure hauen and we saile as yet in raging seas If the death of men were as beasts that is to wit that there were no furies nor diuels to torment them that God should not reward the good yet we ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for none other cause but to see them deliuered from the thraldome of this miserable world The pleasure that the Pilote hath to be in a sure hauen the glory that the captaine hath to see the day of victory the rest that the traueller hath to see his iorney ended the contentation that the workman hath to see his worke come to perfection all the same haue the dead seeing themselues out of this miserable life If men were born alwaies to liue it were reason to lament them when we see them die but since it is truth that they are borne to die we ought not to lament those which die quickly but those which liue long since thou knowest he is in place where there is no sorrow but mirth where there is no paine but ease where he weepeth not but laugheth where he sigheth not but singeth where he hath no sorowes but pleasures where he feareth not cruel death but enioyeth perpetuall life The true widow ought to haue hir conuersation among the liuing and hir desire to be with the dead Death is the true refuge the perfite health the sure hauen the whole victory finally after death we haue nothing to bewaile and much lesse to desire Death is a dissolution of the body a terror to the rich a desire of the poore a thing inheritable a pilgrimage vncertain a theefe of men a kind of sleeping a shadow of life a separatiō of the liuing a company of the dead a resolution of all a rest of trauels and the end of all idle desires If any dammage or feare be in him who dieth it is rather for the vice he hath committed than feare of death There is no prince nor knight rich nor poore whole nor sicke luckie nor vnluckie with their vocations contented saue onely the dead which are in their graues at rest and peace If in youth a man liue well and in age studie to die well and his life hath been honest his hope is that death will be ioyfull and although he hath had sorow to liue he is sure he shall haue no paine to die This equal iustice is distributed to all that in the same place where we haue deserued life in the same we shal be assured of death Cato being praised of the Romanes for his courage at his death laughed they demaunded the cause why he laughed he answered Ye maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that you maruel for the perils and trauels considered wherein we liue and the safetie wherein we die it is no more needfull to haue vertue and strength to liue than courage to die We see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thirst trauel pouertie inconuenience sorow enmities and mishaps of the which things we were better to see the end in one day than to suffer them euery hower for it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death than to endure a miserable life The day when we are born is the beginning of death and the day wherein we die is the beginning of life If death be no other but an ending of life and that whiles we liue we carrie death than reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dieth our childhood dieth our manhood dieth and our age shall die whereof we may conclude that we are dying euery yeere euery day euery houre and euery moment Diuers vaine men are come into so great follies that for feare of death they procure to hasten death Hauing thereof due consideration me seemeth that we ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke death for the strong and valiant man ought not to haue life so long as it lasteth nor to be displeased with death when it commeth In such sort therefore ought men to liue as if within an houre after they should die If we trauell by long wayes and want any thing we borow of our company if they haue forgotten ought they returne to seek it at their lodging or els they write vnto their friends a letter but if we once die they will not let vs returne againe we cannot and they will not agree that we shall write but such as they shall find vs so shall we be iudged and that which is most fearful of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let not men leaue that vndone till after their death which they may do during their life nor trust in that they command but in that they do whilest they liue nor in the good works of an other but in their owne good deeds for in the ende one sigh shall be more woorth than all the friends of the world I exhort therefore all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such sort we liue that in the end we liue for euer Those that visite the sicke ought to perswade them that they make their testaments confesse their sinnes discharge their conscience receiue the sacraments and reconcile themselues to their enimies Many in our life time do gape after our goods few at our death are sory for our offences The wise and sage before nature compelleth them to die of their own wils ought to die that is
to say before they see or feele the pangs of death they haue their consciences ready prepared What loseth a wise man to haue his wil wel ordained what loseth he of his credite who in his life time restoreth which at his death he shall be constrained to render Wherein may a man shew his wisedom more than willingly to be discharged of that which otherwise by processe they will take from him How many lordes which for not spending one day about their testament haue caused their heires all the days of their life after to be in trauerse in the law so that in supposing to haue left them wealthie haue left them but attorneis in the law The true christian and vnfained ought euery morning so to dispose his goods and correct his life as if he should die the same night and so to commit himselfe to God at night as if he hoped for no life vntil the morning Princes and Lords ought to be perfect before they be perfect to end before they end to die before they die to be mortified before they be mortified if they do this they shal as easily leaue their life as if they changed from one house to another The most part of men delight to talke with leisure to drinke with leisure to eate with leisure and to sleepe with leisure but they die in haste for we see them send for their ghostlie father in haste to receiue the sacrament in haste to make their wils by force to vse conference so out of season that oftentimes the sicke hath lost his senses and giuen vp the ghost before any thing be perfectly ordered What auaileth the shipmaister after the ship is sunke what do weapons auaile after the battell is done what pleasure after men are dead likewise what auaileth the godlie instructor when the sicke is heauie and bereft of his senses or to vnlocke his conscience when the key of his toong is lost Let vs not deceiue our selues thinking in age to amend and to make restitution at our death for it is not the point of wise men nor of good Christians to desire so much time to offend and yet will neuer spie any time to amend Would to God that the third part of time which men do occupie in sinne were imploied about the meditation of death and the cares which they haue to accomplish their fleshlie lusts were spent in bewailing their filthie sinnes All worldlings do willingly sinne vpon hope onely in age to amend and at death to repent but they that in this hope sinne what certaintie haue they of amendement and assurance to haue long warning ere they die sith in number there are more yoong than old which die The omnipotencie of the diuine mercie considered the space of an hower sufficeth yea too much to repent vs of our wicked life but yet I counsell all sith the sinner for his repentance taketh but one hower that it be not the hower too late The sighes and repentance which proceedeth from the bottom of the hart do penetrate the high heauens but those which come of necessitie do not pearce the seeling of the house What wrong doth God offer vnto vs when he calleth vs away seeing from an olde decaied house he is to change vs to a new builded pallace What other thing is the graue but a strong fort wherin we shut our selues from the assalts of life and broiles of fortune for we ought to be more desirous of that we find in death than of that we leaue in life Two things cause men loth to die the loue they haue to that they leaue or else the feare of that they deserue Now I enter into the field not where of the wilde beasts I shall be assalted but of the hungrie woorms deuoured We ought not to lament the death allotted but the life that is wicked that man is very simple that dreadeth death for feare to lose the pleasures of life There is nothing that shorteneth more the life of man than vaine hope and idle thoughts The great estimation that we haue of this life causeth that death seemeth to vs sudden and that the life is ouertaken by vnwarie death but this is a practise of the children of vanitie for that by the will of God death visiteth vs and against the will of man life forsaketh vs. To the stout harts and fine wits this is a continuall torment and endlesse paine and a woorme that alwaie gnaweth to call to mind that he must lose the ioifull life which he so entirely loued and taste the fearfull death that he so greatly abhorred O cursed and wicked world thou that sufferest things neuer to remaine in one state for when we are in most prosperitie then thou with death dost persecute vs most cruelly Death is a patrimonie which successiuely is inherited but life is a right which daily is surrendred for death accounteth vs so much his owne that oftentimes vnwares he commeth to affalt vs and life taketh vs such strangers that oftentimes we not doubting thereof vanisheth away When death hath done hir office what difference is there between the faire and the fowle in the graue The man which is loden with yeers tormented with diseases pursued with enimies forgotten of his friends visited with mishaps charged with euill will and pouertie is not to demand long life but rather to imbrace death Death is that from whence youth cannot flie a foot and from whence age cannot escape on horsebacke Discord Enimitie and Variance FOr all that we can see heare or trauell and all that we can do we did neuer see nor heare tel of men that haue lacked enimies For either they be vicious or vertuous and if they be vicious and euill they are hated of the vertuous if they be good and vertuous they are continually hated and persecuted of the euill In great armies the discord that among them arise doth more harme than the enimies against whom they fight Manie vaine men do raise dissentions and quarrels among people thinking that in troubled water they should augment their estate whereas in short space they do not onely lose their hope of that they sought but are put out of that they possessed For it is not onely reasonable but also most iust that they by experience feele that which their blind malice will not suffer them to knowe Enuie AGainst enuie is no fortresse nor caue to hide nor high hil to mount on nor thicke wood to shadow in nor ship to scape in nor horse to beare away nor monie to redeeme vs. Enuie is so venemous a serpent that there was neuer mortall man among mortals that could scape from the biting of hir tooth the scratching of hir nailes defiling of hir feete and the casting of hir poison Enuie is so enuious that to them which of hir are most denied and set fardest off she giueth most cruell strokes with hir feete The maladie of enuie rankleth to death
to suffer another to be good which aboue all things is to be abhorred and not to be suffered Truly the shameles man feeleth not so much a great stripe of correction as the gentle hart doth a sharp word of admonition In the man that is euill there is nothing more easier than to giue good counsell and there is nothing more harder than to worke well Vnder the cristall stone lieth oftentimes a dangerous woorme in the faire wall is nourished the venemous coluber within the middle of the white tooth is engendred griefe to the gums in the finest cloth is the moth soonest found and the most fruitfull tree by woorms doth soonest perish so vnder the cleane bodie and faire countenance are hid manie and abhominable vices Truly not onely to children that are not wise but to all other wich are light and fraile beautie is nothing els but the mother of all vices and the hinderer of all vertues There is nothing more superfluous in man and lesse necessarie than the beautie of the bodie for whether we be faire or fowle we are nothing the more beloued of God or hated of wise men The man of a pleasant toong and euill life is he which with impostumes vndoeth the common wealth Sensualitie maketh vs inferior to beasts and reason maketh vs superior to men He that knoweth most the course of the elements is not called wise but he which knoweth least the vices of this world for the good philosopher profiteth more by not knowing the euill than by learning the good Quarrellers and malicious persons will haue their words by weight and measure but the vertuous and patient men regard the intentions Men naturally desire honor in their life and memorieis after death therefore I say as they come and attaine thereunto by high noble and heroicall facts so memorie left by the good and legitimate children For the children that are borne in adulterie are begotten in sin and that memorie is infamous Adulterers are not only taken among Christians for offenders but also among the gentils they are counted infamous If the gentils feared infamie the Christians ought to feare both infamie and paine Men are so euill and wicked that they behold to the vttermost the offences of an other but wil not heare the faults of himselfe It is a naturall thing that when a man hath committed any vice foorthwith it repenteth him of his deede and so againe after his new repentance he turneth to his old vices Where the soule doth not shew hir selfe mistres it wanteth but little but that the man remaineth a beast The euill do refraine more from vice for feare of punishment than for any desire they haue of amendment The Romans did not permit that liers nor deceiuers should be credited by their othes neither would they permit or suffer them to sweare The simple man slaieth but one man with his sword of wrath but the sage killeth manie by the il example of his life There is no man by his eloquence may haue such renowme but in the end may lose it by his euill life for he is vnwoorthie to liue amongst men whose words of all are approoued and his works of all are condemned There is no beard so bare shauen but that it will grow againe I meane there is no man of so honest a life but if a man make inquisition he may find som spots therein Oftentimes they say they haue been on pilgrimage at some deuout Saint that is dead when indeed they haue been imbracing the bodie of some faire harlot aline Of Fame and Infamie THe infamie of the slanderous shall neuer die for he neuer liued to die well To die well doth couer an evill fame and to make an ende of an euill life doth begin a good fame When a noble man shal aduenture to hazard his person and his goods he ought to do it for a matter of great importance for more defamed is he that ouercommeth a poore laborer than he which is ouercome of a sturdie knight The losse of children and temporall goods cannot be called losse if the life be safe and renowme remaine vndefiled Of the good man there is but a short memorie of his goodnes if he be euill his infamie shal neuer haue end If he deserue great infamie which worketh euil in his life truly he deserueth much more which trauelleth to bring that euill in vre that shal continue after his death for mans malice doth rather pursue the euill which the wicked do inuent than the good which vertuous man do begin Noble harts ought little to efteeme the increase of their riches and ought greatly to esteeme the perpetuitie of their good name The good life of the child that is aliue keepeth the renowme of the father that is dead The glorie of the scholler alwaies redoundeth to the honor and praise of the maister First that he be fortie yeeres of age bicause the maister that is yoong is ashamed to command if he be aged he is not able to correct Secondly he ought to be honest and that not onely in purenes of conscience but in the outward appeerance and cleannes of life for it is impossible that the child be honest if the maister be dissolute Thirdly they ought to be true in words and deedes for the mouth that is alwaies full of lies ought not by reason to be a teacher of the truth Fourthly they ought of nature to be liberall for oftentimes the couetousnes of maisters maketh and causeth the harts of princes to be greedie and couetous Fiftly they ought to be moderate in words and verie resolute in sentences so that they ought to teach the children to speake little and to harken much for it is a great vertue in a prince or noble man to heare with patience and to speake with wisedome Sixtly they ought to be wise and temperate so that their grauitie may restraine the lightnes of their schollers for there can be no greater plagues to a realme than princes to be yoong and their maisters light It behooueth also that they be learned both in diuine and humane letters in such sort that that which they teach princes by word they may shew it by writing to the end they may put the same in vre for mens harts are sooner moued by the example of those that are past than by the words of them that are present Also he ought not to be giuen to vices of the flesh for as they are yoong and naturally giuen to the flesh they haue no strength to abide chaste neither wisedome to beware of the suares it is necessarie therefore that the maister be pure and honest for the disciple shall hardly be chaste if the maister be vicious They ought to haue good conditions bicause noble mens children being daintily brought vp are more prone to learne euill than good conditions the which their
Alcibiades from Dorobella Demophon from Phillis Hannibal from Sabina and Marcus Antonius from Cleopatra from whom they could neuer onelie depart but also in the end for them and with them were cast away In case of loue let no man trust any man and much lesse himselfe for loue is so naturall to man or woman and they desire to be beloued that where loue amongst them doth once begin to cleaue it is a sore that neuer openeth and a bond that neuer vnknitteth Many words outwardly declare small loue within and the feruent inward loue keepeth silence outward the intrals within imbraced with loue causeth the tong outward to be mute he that passeth his life in loue ought to keepe his mouth close The loue of the mother is so strong though the child be dead and laid in the graue yet alwaies she hath him quicke in hir hart Amongst the well married persons is true loue and perfect friendship as for parents and friends if they praise vs in presence they hate vs in absence if they giue faire words they carrie hollow harts if they loue vs in prosperitie they hate vs in aduersitie but it is not so among the noble and well married persons In prosperitie and aduersitie pouertie and riches absence and presence in mirth and sadnes do they loue and if not ought to do for when the husband is troubled in his foote the wife ought to be grieued in hir hart We see by experience that loue in marriage is seldom broken through pouertie nor yet continued with riches The loue betwixt the husband and wife ought to be such that she by hir patience ought to suffer the imperfections of him and likewise he by his wisedome ought to dissemble the importunities of hir that they may the rather loue and agree togither The dart of loue is like a stroke with a clod of earth which being throwen amongst a companie doth hurt the one and blind the other The hart which is intangled with loue dare boldly aduenture himselfe in many kind of dangers to accomplish that which he desireth Women ought to know that for their beautie they are desired but for their vertue onely they are beloued The loue of the flesh is so naturall to the flesh that when from you the bodie flieth in sport we leaue our harts to you engaged in earnest and though reason as reason putteth the desire to flight yet the flesh as flesh yeeldeth it selfe a prisoner The man that willingly goeth into the briers must thinke before to endure the pricks What Man and his life is with fortune and hir frailtie IF man would deepelye consider what man is he should finde more things in him to mooue him to humilitie than to stir him to be proud O miserable and fraile nature of man which taken by it selfe is little woorth and compared with another thing is much lesse Man seeth in brute beasts many things which reioiceth him and if beasts had reason they should see in man many things which they would shame at Man being borne can neither go mooue or stand where all other beasts assoone as they are disclosed can do and performe all these As the euil doer is imprisoned with his hands bound and his feete in the stocks so likewise to the miserable man when he entereth into the charter of this life immediately they bind both his hands and feete and lay him in the cradle and so they vse him at his departure out of this world It is to be noted that at the hower wherein the beast is brought foorth though it know not the father yet it findeth the mother for that it presently sucketh the teats if it haue milke if not it shrowdeth it selfe vnder hir wings it is not so with man for the day wherein he is borne he knoweth not the nurse that giueth him milke the father that begat him nor mother that bare him nor the midwife that receiued him Moreouer cannot see with his eies heare with his eares iudge with his taste and knoweth not what it is to taste or smell so that we see him to whom the seigniorie of all things doth appertain to be borne the most vnable of all other beasts To beasts nature hath giuen clothing wherwith they may keepe them from the heate in sommer and defend the cold in winter as to sheepe wooll to birds fethers to horses haire to trees barke to fishes scales to snails shelles Of all this man is depriued who is borne all naked and dieth all naked not carrieng with him one onely garment and if in the time of his life he vseth any garments he must demand it of the beast both leather and wooll and thereto must put his labour and industrie What care and trauell had man beene discharged of if the trauel to apparel himselfe and to search for things to eate had been taken from him before he eateth he must till sow reape and thresh he must winnow grind and bake and this cannot be done without the care of mind and sweat of browes We see the sheepe flieth the wolfe the cat flieth the dog the rat flieth the cat and the chicken the kite O miserable creatures that we are we know not how to flie our enimies bicause they are in our owne shape When man thinketh oftentimes tht he hath entered a sure hauen within three steppes afterwards he falleth headlong into the deepe sea O poore and miserable man who for to sustaine this wretched life is inforced to craue the beasts helpe they draw him water they soile his lande they plough his lande they carrie his corne and beare himselfe from place to place What state liueth man in that cannot but bewaile the vnthankfulnes of his friends the death of his children the want of necessaries the case of aduersity that succeedeth them the false witnes that is brought against thē and a thousand calamities that do torment their harts The innocencie of the brute beasts considered and the malice of the malicious man marked without comparison the companie of the brute beast is lesse hurtfull than the conuersation of euill men for in the end if yee be conuersant with a beast ye haue not but to beware of him but if yee be in companie with a man there is nothing wherein yee ought to trust him Treasure consumed in making a mans graue is verie vaine for there is no greater lightnes or vanitie in man than to be esteemed much for his sumptuous graue and little for the life he hath led It profiteth little the bodie to be among the painted and carued stones when the miserable soule is burning in the firie flames of hell The man that presumeth to be sage in all things and well prouided goeth not so fast that at euerie step he is in danger of falling not so softly that in long time he cannot arriue at his iourneies ende for false fortune gawleth in steede of striking
and we perceiue not how we liue therein Of mercie pitie helpe and compassion towards the poore HAppy not once but an hundred times is he that will remember the poore afflicted and open his hart to comfort them and doth not shut his cofers from helping them to him at the straight day of iudgement the processe of his life shall be iudged with mercie and pitie The pitifull hart which is not fleshed in crueltie hath as much pitie to see another man suffer as of the sorow and torment which he himselfe feeleth If a man behold himselfe from top to toe he shal find not one thing in him to mooue him to crueltie but he shall see in himself many instruments to exercise mercie For he hath eyes to behold the needie feete to goe to the church eares to heare Gods word hands to be stretched to the poore a toong to vtter good things an hart to loue God and to conclude he hath vnderstanding to know the euil and discretion to follow the good God hath not giuen him scratching nails as to the cat nor poison as to the serpent nor perilous feete as to the horse to strike withall nor bloodie teeth as to the Lion but hath created vs to be pitifull and commanded vs to be mercifull Obedience AS the element of the fire the element of the aire and the element of water do obey and the element doth commaund of the earth or that against their nature he bringeth them to the earth and al the noble and most chiefest elements obedient to the most vile onely to forme a body mixt it is great reason that all obey one vertuous person that the common wealth therby might be the better gouerned The second reason is of the body and soule The soule is the mistres that commaundeth and the body the seruant which obeyeth for the body neither seeth heareth nor vnderstandeth without the soule but the soule doth these without the body In that common wealth where one hath care for all and all obey the commandement of that one there God shall be serued the people shall profit the good shall be esteemed the euill despised and besides that tyrants shall be suppressed How many people and realms bicause they would not obey their prince by iustice hath sithence by cruell tyrants been gouerned with tyrannie for it is a iust plague that those which despise the scepter of righteous princes should feele and prooue the scourge of cruel tyrants O happy common wealth wherein the prince findeth obedience in the people and the people in like maner loue of the prince for of the loue of the prince springeth obedience in the subiects and of the obedience in the subiects springeth the loue of the prince Patience LOoke howe much wee offend through the offence so much doe we appease through patience The patience which God vseth in not punishing our faultes is greater than that which men haue in suffering the chastisement bicause we iustly offend and iustly are punished I account all in me at the disposition of fortune as wel riches as other prosperities and I keep them in such a place that at any hower in the night when she listeth she may cary them away and neuer awake me so that though she cary those out of my cofers she should neuer rob me of my patience Patience in aduersitie pleaseth God where as wrath prouoketh his indignation We see in a mans bodie by experience that there are sundry diseases which are not cured with words spoken but with the herbes thereunto applied and in other diseases the contrary is seen which are not cured with costly medicines but with comfortable words When the diseases are not very olde rooted nor dangerous it profiteth more oftentimes to abide a gentle feauer than to take a sharpe purgation The impatient hart especially of a woman hath no rest till she see her enimie dead No patience can endure to see a man obtaine that without trauel which he could neuer compasse by much labor He is most vnhappy which is not patient in aduersity for men are not killed with the aduersities they haue but with the impatience which they suffer Though wise men leese much they ought not therfore to dispaire but that they shall come to it againe in time for in the end time doth not cease to do his accustomed alterations nor perfect friends cease not to do that which they ought That man onely in this life may be called vnhappy to whom God in his troubles hath not giuen patience Peace HE alone doth knowe howe precious a thing peace is which by experience hath felt the extreeme miserie of war The life of a peaceable man is none other then a sweete peregrination and the life of seditious persons is no other than a long death Euerie prince which loueth forraine wars must needs hate the peace of his common wealth Aristotle doth not determine which of these two is the most excellēt either stoutnes to fight in the wars or policie to rule in peace That peace is more woorth that is honest than is the victorie which is bloodie In the good war a man seeth of whom he should take heed but in the euill peace no man knoweth whom to trust Where peace is not no man enioieth his owne no man can eate without feare no man sleepeth in good rest no man safe by the way no man trusteth his neighbor and where there is no peace we are threatned daily with death and euery houre in feare of our life Seeing Christ left to vs his peace and commanded vs to keepe the same we should not condiscend for reuenging iniuries to shed mans blood for the good christians are commanded to bewaile their own sins but they haue no licence to shed the blood of their enimies and therefore I wish all princes for his sake that is prince of peace they loue peace procure peace keepe peace liue in peace for in peace they shall be rich and their people happie Pleasure WHat commeth of vaine pleasure nothing but the time euill spent famine in way of perdition goods consumed credit lost God offended and vertue slandered Of pleasure we get the names of brute beasts and the surnames of shame I would the eies were opened to see how we liue deceiued for all pleasures that delight the bodie make vs beleeue that they come to abide with vs continuallie but they vanish away with sorrow immediately on the contrary the infirmities that blinde the soule say that they come to lodge as guests and remaine with vs continually as housholders Death is a miserable lake wherein all worldly men are drowned for those men that thinke most safely to passe it ouer remaine therin most subtilly deceiued During the time that we liue in the house of this fraile flesh sensualitie beareth so great a rule that she wil not suffer reason to enter in at the gate Reason leadeth