in hir owne worke as doe our silke-wormes and therein stiffleth hir selfe Mus in pice A Mouse in pitch Hee supposeth to note a farre-off I wot not what apparence of cleerenesse and immaginary truth but whilest he runneth vnto it so many lets and difficulties crosse his way so many empeachments and new questings start vp that they stray loose and besot him Not much otherwise than it fortuned to Aesops Dogges who farre-off discovering some shew of a dead body to flote vpon the Sea and being vnable to approach the same vndertooke to drinke vp all the Water that so they might drie-vp the passage and were all stifeled To which answereth that which one Crates said of Heraclitus his compositions that they needed a Reader who should be a cunning swimmer lest the depth and weight of his learning should drowne and swallow him vp It is nothing but a particular weakenesse that makes vs contend with that which others or wee our selves have found in this pursuite of knowledge A more sufficient man will not bee pleased therewith There is place for a follower yea and for ourselves and More wayes to the Wood than one There is no ende in our inquisitions Our end is in the other World It is a signe his wits grow short when hee is pleased or a signe of wearinesse No generous spirit stayes and relies vpon himselfe Hee ever pretendeth and goeth beyond his strength He hath some vagaries beyond his effects If he advaunce not himselfe presse settle shocke turne winde and front himselfe hee is but halfe alive His pursuites are termelesse and formelesse His nourishment is admiration questing and ambiguitie Which Apollo declared sufficiently alwayes speaking ambiguously obscurely and obliquely vntovs not feeding but busying and ammusing vs. It is an irregular vncertaine motion perpetuall patternelesse and without end His inventions enflame follow and enter produce one another Ainsi voit-on en vn ruisseau coulant San fin l'vne eau apres l'outre roulant Et tout de rang d'vn et ernel conduict L'vne suit l'autre l'vne l'autre fuit Par cette-cy celle-là est poussée Et cette-cy par l'autre est devancée Tousiours l'eau va dans l'eau tousiours est â—e Mesme ruisseau tousiours eau diverse As in a running river we behold How one wave after th' other still is rold And all along as it doth endlesse rise Th' one th' other followes th' one from th' other flyes By this Wave that is driv'n and this againe By th' other is set forward all amaine Water in Water still one river still Yet diverse Waters still that river fill There 's more a doe to enterprete interpretations than to interprete things and more bookes vpon bookes then vpon any other subject We doe but enter-glose our selves All swarmeth with commentaries Of Authours their is great penury Is not the chiefest and most famous knowledge of our ages to know how to vnderstand the wise Is it not the common and last scope of our study Our opinions are grafted one vpon an other The first serveth as a stocke to the second the second to the third Thus we ascend from steppe to steppe Whence it followeth that the highest-mounted hath often more honour than merite For hee is got-vp but one inch above the shoulders of the last save one How often and peradventure foolishly hove I enlarged my Booke to speake of himselfe Foolishly if it were but for this reason That I should have remembred that what I speake of others they doe the like of me That those so frequent glances on their workes witnesse their hart shivereth with their love they beare them and that the disdainfull churlishnesse wherewith they beate them are but mignardizes and affectations of a motherly favour Following Aristotle in whom both esteeming and dis-esteeming himselfe arise often of an equall aire of arrogancy For mine excuse That in this I ought to have more liberty than others forsomuch as of purpose I write both of my selfe and of my writings as of my other actions that my theame doth turne into it selfe I wot not whether every man will take it I have seene in Germanie that Luther hath left as many divisions and altercations concerning the doubt of his opinions yea and more than himselfe mooveth about the Holy Scriptures Our contestation is verball I demaund what Nature voluptuousnesse circle and substitution is The question is of words and with words it is answered A stone is a body but he that should insist and vrge And what is a body A substance And what a substance And so goe-on Should at last bring the respondent to his Calepine or wittes end One worde is changed for another word and often more vnknowen I know better what Homo is then I know what Animall is either mortall or reasonable To answere one doubt they give mee three It is Hidraes head Socrates demaunded of Memnon what vertue was There is answered Memnon the vertue of a Man of a Woman of a Magistrate of a private Man of a Childe of an olde Man What vertue meane you Yea marry this is very well quoth Socrates we were in search of one vertue and thou bringest me a whole swarme Wee propose one question and wee have a whole huddle of them made vnto vs againe As no event or forme doth wholly resemble another so doth it not altogether differ one from another Oh ingenious mixture of Nature If our faces were not like wee could not discerne a man from a beast If they were not vnlike we could not distinguish one man from another man Al things hold by some similitude Every example limpeth And the relation which is drawen from experience is ever defective and imperfect Comparisons are neverthelesse joyned together by some end So serve the Lawes and so are they sorted and fitted to all our sutes or affaires by some wire-drawen forced and collaterall interpretation Since the morall Lawes which respect the particular duty of every man in himselfe are so hard to be taught and observed as we see they are It is no wonder if those which governe so many particulars are more hard Consider the forme of this Law by which we are ruled It is a lively testimony of humane imbecility so much contradiction and so many errours are therin contained That which we thinke favour or rigour in Law wherein is so much of either that I wot not wel whether we shal so often find indifferency in them are crazed-infected parts and vnjust members of the very body and essence of Law Certaine poore Country-men came even now to tell me in a great haste that but now in a forrest of mine they have left a man wounded to death with a hundred hurts about him yet breathing and who for Gods sake hath begged a little water and some helpe to raise himselfe at their handes But that they durst not come neere him and ran all away for feare some officers belonging to the Law should meete and catch them
to kill not onely his dessigne but added more-over that in his campe there were a great many Romanes who had vndertaken and sworne the verie same enterprise and were confederates with him And to make shew of his dread lesse magnanimitie having caused a pan of burning coales to be brought he saw and suffred his right arme in penance that it had not effected his project to be parâ—hed and wel-nigh rosted off vntill such time as his enemie himselfe feeling a kind of remorce full horror commaunded the fire to be caried away What shall we say of him that would not vouchsafe to leave or so much as to interrupt the reading of his booke whil'st he had an incision made into him And of him who resolved to skoffe and laugh even in spight and contempt of the tortures which were inflicted vpon him so that the raging crueltie of the hangmen that held him and all the inventions of torments that could be devised being redoubled vpon him one in the necke of another gave him over But he was a Philosopher What of one of Caesars gladiators who with a cheerefull and smiling countenance endured his wounds to be slit and sounded Quis mediocris gladiator ingemuit Quis vultum mutavit vnquam Quis non modò stetâ—â— verùm etiam decubuit turpiter Quis â—ùm decubuisset ferrum recipere â—â—ssus collum contraxit What meane Fencer hath once groâ—ed Which of them hath once changed his countenance Which of them not onely hath sâ—ood vp but even falne with shame Which of them when he was downe and was willed to take his death did once shrinke-in his necke But let vs joyne some women vnto them Who hath not heard of hir at Paris which onely to get a fresher hew of a new skin endured to have hir face flead all over There are some who being â—ound and in perfit health have had some teeth puld-out thereby to frame a daintier and more pleasing voyce or to set them in better order How many examples of contempt of paine or smart have we of that kind and sex What can they not doe What will they not doe What feare they to doe So they may but hope for some amendment of their beautie Vellere queis cura est albos à stirpe capillos Et faciâ—m dempta pelle râ—ferre novam Who take great care to roote out their gray haire And skinne fleade off a new face to repaire I haue seene some swallow gravell ashes coles dust tallow candles and for the noâ—ce labour and toyle themselves to spoile their stomacke onely to get a pale bleake colour To become slender in wast and to have a straight spagnolized body what pinching what guirding what cingling will they not indure Yea sometimes with yron-plates with whale-bones and other such trash that their very skinne and quicke flesh is eaten-in and consumed to the bones Whereby they sometimes worke their owne death It is common to divers nations of our times to hurte and gash themselves in good earnest to give credit to their words And our king reporteth sundrie examples of what himselfe sawe in Poloniâ— and towards himselfe But besides what I know to have by some been imitated in France when I came from the famous Parliament of Blois I had a little before seene a wench in Picardiâ— to witnes the vehemencie of hir promises and also hir constancie with the bodkin she wore in hir haire to give hir-selfe foure or five thrusts in hir arme which made hir skinne to crack and gush out blood The Turkes are wont to wound and scarre themselves for their Ladies sakes and that the marke may the better appeare and continue the longer they wil presently lay fire vpon the cuttes and to stanch the blood and better to forme the cicatrice they will keepe-it on an incredible while Honest men that have seene it have written the same and sworne it vnto me And for ten Aspers you shall dayly finde some amongst them that will give themselves a deepe gash with a Scimitarie either in their armes or thighes I am very glad witnesses are so readie at hand where we have most need of them For Christendome affordeth many And after the example of our holy guide there have beene divers who for devotion would needes beare the crosse We learne by a worthy testimonie of religâ—on that Saint Lewes the King wore a haire-shirt vntill such time as he was so aged that his confessor gave him a dispensation for-it and that every friday he caused his priests to beate his shoulders with five little yron chaines which to that purpose were ever caried with his night-geare William our last duke of Guienne father to that Eleonore who transferred that Dutchie vnto the houses of France and England the last ten or twelve yeares of his life for penancesake wore continually a corâ—elet vnder a religious habit Foulkes Earle of Aâ—â—ou went to Ierusalem there with a rope about his necke to be whiped by two of his servants before our Saviours sepulchre Do we not vpon every good-friday in sundrie places see a great number of men and women scourge and beate themselves so long till they bruse and teare their flesh even to the bones I have often seene it my selfe and that without enchantment And some say for they are masked there were some amongst them who for monie would vndertake thereby to warrant other mens religion by a contempt of smart full paine so much the greater by how much the stings of devotion are of more force thâ— those of covetousnes Q. Maximus buried his son who had beene Consul Marcus Caâ—o his being elected Pretor and L. Paulus both his within few daies with so cheerefull and setled a countenance and with out any shew of sorrowe I have sometimes by way of â—esting tolde one that he had confronted divine iustice For the violent death of three tall children of his comming vnto his cares all vpon one day and sent-him as it may be imagined as a great scourge he was so farre from mourning that he rather tooke it as a favour and singular gratification at Gods hande I doe not follow these monstrous humors Yet have I lost two or three my selfe whilst they were yong and at nurce if not without apprehension of sorrow yet without continuance of griefe And there is no accident woundeth men acâ—pâ—r or goeth so neere the heart as the losse of children I see divers other common occasions of affliction which were I assailed by them I should scarcely feele And I have contemned and neglected some when it hath pleased God to visit me with them on which the world setteth so vglie and balefull a countenance that I hardly dare boast of them without blushing Ex quo intelligitur non in natura sed in opinione esse aegretudinem Whereby it is vnderstood that griefe consisteth not in nature but opinion Opinion is a power full boold and vnmeasurable party Who doth ever so greedily search after
saevitiae pereuntis parcere morti And we have seeene when all the body tortur'd lay Yet no stroke deadly giv'n and that in humane way Of tyranny to spare his death that sought to die Verely it is not so great a matter being in perfect health and well setled in minde for one to resolve to kill himselfe It is an easie thing to shew stoutnes and play the wag before one come to the pinch So that Heliogabalus the most dissoluteman of the world amidst his most riotous sensualities intended whensoever occasion should force him to it to have a daintie death Which that it might not degenerate from the rest of his life hee had purposely caused a stately tewre to be built the nether part and fore-court wherof was floored with boardes richly set and enchased with gold and precious stones from-off which hee might headlong throwe himselfe downe He had also caused cordes to be made of gold and crimson silke therewith to strangle himselfe And a rich golden rapier to thrust himselfe through And kept poison in boxes of Emeraldes and Topases to poison himselfe with according to the humor hee might have to chuse which of these deaths should please him Impiger fortis virtute coactâ A ready minded gallant And in forst valour valiant Notwithstanding touching this man the wantonnesse of his preparation makes it more likely that he would have fainted had he beene put to his triall But even of those who most vndantedly have resolved themselves to the execution we must consider I say whether it were with a life ending stroke and that tooke away any leasure to feele the effect thereof For it is hard to gesse seeing life droope away by little and little the bodies-feeling entermingling it selfe with the soules meanes of repentance being offered whether in so dangerous an intent constancie or obstinacie were found in him In Caesars civill warres Lucius domitius taken in prussia having empoisoned himselfe did afterward rue and repent his deede It hath hapned in our daies that some having resolved to die and at first not stricken deepe enough the smarting of his flesh thrusting his arme backe twice or thrice more wounded himselfe a new and yet could never strike sufficiently deepe Whilst the arraignement of Plantius Silvanus was preparing Vrgulaniae his grandmother sent him a poignard wherewith not able to kill himselfe throughly hee caused his owne servants to cutte his veines Albucilla in Tiberius time purposing to kill hirselfe but striking over faintly gave hir enemies leasure to apprehend and imprison hir and appoint hir what death they pleased So did Captaine Demosthenes after his discomfiture in Sicilie And C. Fimbria having over feeblie wounded himselfe became a sutor to his boy to make an end of him On the other side Ostorius who forsomuch as hee could not vse his owne arme disdained to employ his servants in any other thing but to hold his dagger stiffe and strongly and taking his running himselfe caried his throate to it's point and so was thrust through To say truth it is a meate a man must swallow without chewing vnlesse his throate be frostshod And therefore Adrianus the Emperour made his Phiâ—â—tian to marke and take the just compasse of the mortall place about his pap that so his aime might not faile him to whom he had given charge to kill him Loe why Caesar being demanded which was the death he most allowed answered the least premeditated and the shortest If Caesar said it it is no faintnesse in me to beleeve it A short death saith Plinie is the chiefe happe of humane life It grie veth them to acknowledge it No man can be saide to be resolved to die that feareth to purchase it and that cannot abide to looke vpon and out-stare it with open eyes Those which in times of execution are seene to runne to their end and hasten the execution doe it not with resolution but because they will take away time to consider the same it grieves them not to be dead but to die Emori nolo sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo I would not die too soone But care not when t is doone It is a degree of constancie vnto which I have experienced to arrive as those that cast themselves into danger or into the Sea with closed eyes In mine opinion there is nothing more worthy the noting in Socrates life then to have had thirtie whole dayes to ruminate his deaths-decree to have digested it all that while with an assured hope without dismay or alteration and with a course of actions and words rather supprest and loose-hanging then out-stretched and raised by the weight of such a cogitation That Pomponius Atticus to whome Cicero writeth being sicke caused Agrippa his sonne in lawe and two or three of his other friends to be called for to whom he said that having assaied how he got nothing in going about to be cured and what he did to prolong his life did also lengthen and augment his griefe he was now determined to make an end of one and other intreating them to allow of his determination and that by no meanes they would loose their labour to disswade him from it And having chosen to end his life by abstinence his sickenes was cured by accident The remedy he had employed to make himselfe away brought him to health againe The Physitions and his friendes glad of so happy a successe and rejoycing thereof with him were in the end greatly deceived for with all they could doe they were never able to make him alter his former opinion saying that as he must one day passe that cariere and being now so forward he would remoove the care another time to beginne againe This man having with great leasure apprehended death is not onely no whit discouraged when hee comes to front it but resolutely falles vpon it for being satisfied of that for which he was entred the combate in a braverie he thrust himselfe into it to see the end of it It is farre from fearing death to goe about to taste and savour the same The historie of Cleanthes the philosopher is much like to this His gummes being swolne his Physitions perswaded him to vse great abstinence having fasted two dayes he was so well amended as they told him he was well and might returne to his wonted course of life He contrarily having already tasted some sweetenes in this fainting resolveth not to draw backe but finish what he had so well begunne and was so farre waded into Tullius Marcellinus a yoong Romane Gentleman willing to prevent the houre of his destiny to ridde himselfe of a disease which tormented him more than he would endure although Physitions promised certainely to cure him howbeit not sodainely called his friends vnto him to determine about it some saieth Seneca gave him that counsell which for weakenesse of heart themselves would have taken others for flatterie that which they imagined would be most pleasing vnto him but a
sundry prognostications that one Phocas a Souldier at that time yet vnknowne should kill him demanded of Philip his sonne in law who that Phocas was his nature his conditions and customes and how amongst other things Philip told him he was a fainte cowardly and timorousfellow The Emperour thereby presently concluded that he was both cruell and a murtherer What makes tyrants so bloud-thirstie it is the care of their securitie and that their faint-hart yeelds them no other meanes to assure themselves then by rooting out those which may in any sort offend them yea silly women for feare they should or bite or scrach them Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet Of all things he afraide At all things fiercely laide The first cruelties are exercised by themselves thence proceedeth the feare of a just revenge which afterward produceth a swarme of new cruelties by the one to stisâ—le the other Philip the King of Macedon who had so many crowes to pull with the Romanes agitated by the horrour of so many murthers committed by his appointment and vnable to make his partie good or to take any saue resolution against so many families by him at severall times injuried resolved at last to seize vpon all their children whom he had caused to be murthered that so he might day by day one after another rid the world of them and so establish his safety Matters of worth are not impertinent wheresoever they be placed I who rather respect the weight and benefite of discourses then their order and placing neede not feare to place here at randone a notable storie When they are so rich of their owne beautie and may very well vpholde themselves alone I am content with a haires end to fitte or joyne them to my purpose Amongst others who had beene condemned by Philip was one Herodicus Prince of the Thessalians After whome he caused his two sonnes in lawe to bee put to death each of them leaving a yoong sonne behinde him Theoxena and Arco were the two widdowes Theoxena although shee were instantly vrged therevnto coulde never be induced to marry againe Arco tooke to husbande Poris a chiefe man amongst the Aenians and by him had diverse children all which she left very yoong Theoxena moved by a motherly charitie toward her yoong nephewes and so to have them in her protection and bringing vp wedded Poris Vpon this came out the proclamation of the Kings Edict This noble-minded mother distrusting the kings crueltie and fearing the mercilesnes of his Satelities or officers towards these noble hopefull and tender youths feared not to say that shee would rather kil them with her owne hands then deliver them Poris amazed at her protestations promiseth her secretly to convey them to Athens there by some of his faithfull friends to be kept safely They take occasion of an yearely feast which to the honor of Aeneas was solemnized at Aenia and thither they goe where having all day-long assisted to the ceremonies and publike banket night being come they convay themselves iuto a shippe appointed for that purpose in hope to save themselves by Sea But the winde fell out so contrarie that the next morning they found themselves in view of the towne whence the night before they had hoised sailes where they were pursued by the guarders and Souldiers of the Porte Which Poris perceiving laboured to hasten and encourage the Mariners to shift away But Theoxena enraged through love and revenge remembring her first resolution prepared both weapons and poison and presenting them to their sight thus shee bespake them Oh my deere children take a good heart death is now the onely meane of your defence and libertie and shall be a just cause vnto the Gods for their holy justice These bright-keene blades these full cuppes shall free you the passage vnto it Courage therefore and thou my eldest childe take this sworde to die the strongest death Who on the one side hauing so vndaunted a perswader and on the other their enemies ready to cut their throates in furious manner ranne all to that which came next to his hand And so all goared and panting were throwne into the Sea Theoxena prowde shee had so gloriouslie provided for her childrens safety lovingly embracing her husband saide thus vnto him Oh my deare heart let vs follow these boyes and together with them enjoy one selfe same graue And so close-claspt-together they flung themselves in to the maine So that the ship was brought to shoare againe but emptie of hir Maisters Tyrants to act two things together that is to kill and cause their rage to be felt have employed the vtmost of their skill to devise lingring deaths They will have their enemies die yet not so soone but that they may have leisure to feele their vengeance Wherein they are in great perplexitie for if the torments be over-violent they are short if lingring not grievous inough In this they imploy their wits and devises Many examples whereof we see in antiquitie and I wot not whether wittingly we retaine some spice of that barbariâ—me Whatsoever is beyond a simple death seemeth to mee meere crueltie Our justice cannot hope that he whom the terror of death cannot dismay be he to be hanged or beheaded can in any sort be troubled with the imagination of a languishing fire of a wheele or of burning pincers And I wot not whether in that meane time we bring him to despaire For what plight can the soule of a man be in that is broken vpon wheele or after the olde fashion nailed vpon a Crosse and xxiiij houres together expects his death Iosephus reporteth that whilest the Romane warres continued in Iurie passing by a place where certaine Iewes had beene crucified three dayes before he knew three of his friends amongst them and having gotten leave to remoove then two of them died but the third lived long after Chalcondylas a man of credite in the memories he left off matters happened in his time and thereabouts maketh report of an extreame torment the Emperor Mechmed was often wont to put in practise which was by one onely blow of a Cimitary or broad Persian Sword to have men cutte in two parts by the waste of the body about the Diaphragma which is a membrane lying ouerthwart the lower part of the breast separating the heart and lights from the stomake which caused them to dy two deaths at once and affirmeth that both parts were seene full of life to moove and stirre long time after as if they had beene in lingring torment I doe not thinke they felt any great torture in that mooving The gastliest torments to looke vpon are not alwaiâ—s the greatest to be endured And I finde that much more fiercely-horrible which other Historians write and which he vsed against certain Lords of Epirus whom faire and leasurely he caused to be fleade all over disposed by so malicious a dispensation that their lives continued fifteene daies in that languor and anguish And these two
I considered by how flight causes and friuolous obiects imagination nourished in mee the griefe to loose my life with what Atomes the consequence and difficulty of my dislodging was contriued in my minde to what idle conceits and friuolous cogitations we giue place in so waighty a case or important affaire A Dogge a Horse a Hare a Glasse and what not were corrupted in my losse To others their ambitious hopes their purse their learning In my minde as sottishly I view death carelessely when I behould it vniuersally as the end of life I ouerwhelme and contemne it thus in great by retayle it spoyles and proules me The teares of a Lacquey the distributing of my cast sutes the touch of a knowne hand an ordinary consolation doth disconsolate and â—ntendeâ— me So doe the plaints and of fables trouble and vex our mindes and the wailing laments of Dydo and Ariadne passionare euen those that beleeue them not in Virgill nor in Catullus It is an argument of an obstinate nature and indurate hart not to be mooued therewith as for a wonder they report of Polemon who was not so much as appaled as the biting of a Dog who tooke away the braune or calfe of his leg And no wisedome goeth so far as by the due iudgement to conceiue aright the euident cause of a Sorrow and griefe so liuely and wholly that it suffer or admit noe accession by presence when eyes and eares haue their share therein parts that cannot be agitated but by vaine accidents Is it reason that euen arts should serue their purposes and make their profit of our imbecility and naturall blockishnes An Orator saith Rethorick in the play of his pleading shall bee mooued at the sound of his owne voice and by his fained agitations and suffer himselfe to be cozoned by the passion he representeth imprinting a liuely and essentiall sorrow by the iugling he acteth to transferre it into the iudges whome of the two it concerneth lesse As the persons hyred at our funerals who to ayde the ceremony of mourning make sale of their teares by measure of their sorrow by waight For although they striue to act it in a borrowed forme yet by habituating and ordering their countenance it is certaine they are often wholly transported into it and entertaine the impression of a true and vnfained melancholly I assisted amongst diuers others of his friends to conuay the dead corpes of the Lord of Grammont from the siege of Laferre where hee was vntimely slaine to Soissous I noted that euery where as we passed a long we filled wth lamentation and teares all the people we met by the onely shewe of our conuoyes mourning attire for the deceased mans name was not so much as knowne or hard of about those quarters Quintilian reporteth to haue seene Comediants so farre ingaged in a sorrowfull part that they wept after being come to their lodgings and of himselfe that hauing vndertaken to mooue a certaine passion in another hee had found himselfe surprised not onely with shedding of teares but with a palenesse of countenance and behauiour of a man truely deiected with griefe In a country neare our Mountaynes the women say and vnsay weepe and laugh with one breath as Martin the Priest for as for their lest husbands they encrease their way mentings by repetition of the good and gracefull parts they were endowed with therewithall vnder one they make publike relation of those imperfections to worke as it were some recompence vnto themselues and transchange their pitty vnto disdaine with a much better grace then we who when we loose a late acquaintance striue to loade him with new and forged prayses and to make him farre other now that we are depriued of his sight then hee seemed to bee when wee enioyed and beheld him As if mourning were an instructing party or teares cleared our vnderstanding by washing the same I renounce from this time forward all the fauourable testimonies any man shall affoorde mee not because I shall deserue them but because I shall bee dead If one demand that fellow what interest hee hath in such a siege The interest of example will bee say and common obedience of the Prince I nor looke nor pretend any benefit thereby and of glory I know how small a portion commeth to the share of a priuate man such as I am I haue neyther passion nor quarrell in the matter yet the next day shall you see him all changed and chafing boyling and blushing with rage in his ranke of battaile ready for the assault It is the glaring reflecting of so much steele the flashing thundering of the Cannon the clang of trumpers and the ratling of Drummes that haue infused this new furie and rankor in his swelling vaines A friuolous cause will you say How a cause There needeth none to excite our minde A doating humour without body without substance ouerswayeth and tosseth it vp and downe Let mee thinke of building Castles in Spayne my imagination will forge mee commodities and afforde mee meanes and delights wherewith my mynde is really tickled and essentially gladded How often doe wee pester our spirits with anger or sadnesse by such shaddowes and entangle our selues into fantasticall passions which alter both our mynde and bodye what astonished flearing and confused mumpes and mowes doth this dotage stirre vp in our visages what skippings and agitations of members and voyce seemes it not by this man alone that hee hath false visions of a multitude of other men with whome hee dooth negotiate or some inwarde Goblin that torments him Enquire of your selfe where is the object of this alteration Is there any thing but vs in nature except subsisting nullitye ouer whome it hath any power Because Cambyses dreamed that his brother should bee King of Persia hee put him to death a brother whom he loued and euer trusted Aristodemus King of the Messenians killed himselfe vpon a conceite he tooke of some ill presage by I know not what howling of his Dogs And King Midas did asmuch beeing troubled and vexed by a certaine vnpleasing dreame of his owne It is the right way to prize ones life at the right worth of it to forgo it for a dreame Heare notwithstanding our mindes triumph ouer the bodies weakenesses and misery in that it is the prey and marke of all wrongs and alterations to seede on and aime at It hath surely much reason to speake of it O prima infoelix fingenti terra Prometheo Ille parum cauti pectoris egit opus Corpora disponens ment em non vidit in arte Recta animi primum debuit esse via Vnhappy earth first by Prometheus formed Who of small providence a worke performed He framing bodies saw in arte no minde The mindes way first should rightly be assign'd The fifth Chapter Vpon some verses of Virgill PRofitable thoughts the more full and solide they are the more combersome and heauy are they vice death poverty and diseases are subjects that
side By which termes it hapneth that some have so great an opinion of themselves and their meanes and deeming it vnreasonable any thing should be woorthie to make head against them that so long as their fortune continueth they overpasse what hill or difficultie soever they finde to withstand or resist them As is seene by the formes of sommonings and challenges that the Princes of the East and their successors yet remaining have in vse so fierce so haughtie and so full of a barbarous kinde of commandement And in those places where the Portugales abated the pride of the Indians they found some states observing this vniuersall and inviolable law that what enemie soever he be that is overcome by the King in person or by his Lieutenant is exempted from all composition of ransome or mercie So above all a man who is able should take heed lest he fall into the hands of an enemie-judge that is victorious and armed The fifteenth Chapter Of the punishment of cowardise I Have heretofore heard a Prince who was a very great Captaine hold opinion that a souldier might not for cowardise of heart be condemned to death who sitting at his table heard report of the Lord of Veruins sentence who for yeelding vp of Bollein was doomed to loose his head Verily there is reason a man should make a difference betweene faultes proceeding from our weakenesse and those that grow from our malice For in the latter we are directly bandied against the rules of reason which nature hath imprinted in vs and in the former it seemeth we may call the same nature as a warrant because it hath left-vs in such imperfection and defect So as divers nations have judged that no man should blame vs for any thing we doe against our conscience And the opinion of those which condemne heretikes and miscreants vnto capitall punishments is partly grounded vpon this rule and the same which establisheth that a Iudge or an advocate may not be called to account for any matter committed in their charge through oversight or ignorance But touching cowardise it is certain the common fashion is to punish the same with ignominie and shame And some hold that this rule was first put in practise by the Law-giver Charondas and that before him the lawes of Greece were woont to punish those with death who for feare did runne away from a Battell where he onely ordained that for three daies together clad in womens attire they should be made to sit in the market-place hoping yet to have some service at their hands and by meanes of this reproch they might recover their courage againe Suffundere malis hominis sanguinem quà m effundere Rather moove a mans bloud to blush in his face than remoove it by bleeding from his body It appeareth also that the Romane lawes did in former times punish such as had runaway by death For Animianus Marcellinus reporteth that Iulian the Emperor condemned tenne of his Souldiers who in a charge against the Parthians had but turned their backes from it first to be degraded then to suffer death as he saith according to the ancient lawes who neverthelesse condemneth others for a like fault vnder the ensigne of bag and baggage to be kept amongst the common prisoners The sharp punishment of the Romanes against those Souldiers that escaped from Cannae and in the same warre against those that accompanied Ca. Fuluius in his defeate reached not vnto death yet may a man feare such open shame may make them dispaire and not only prove faint and cold friends but cruell and sharp enemies In the time of our forefathers the Lord of Franget Whilom Lieutenant of the Marshall of Chastillions companie having by the Marshall of Chabanes been placed Governor of Fontarabie instead of the Earle of Lude and having yeelded the same vnto the Spaniards was condemned to be degraded of all Nobilitie and not only himselfe but all his succeding posteritie declared villains and clownes taxable and incapable to beare armes which seuere sentence was put in execution at Lyons The like punishment did afterward al the Gentlemen suffer that were within Guise when the Earle of Nansaw entred the town and others since Neuerthelesse if there were so grosse an ignorance and so apparant cowardise as that it should exceede all ordinarie it were reason it should be taken for a sufficient proofe of inexcusable treacherie and knaverie and for such to be punished The sixteenth Chapter A tricke of certaine Ambassadors IN all my trauels I did ever observe this custome that is alwaies to learne something by the communication of others which is one of the bests schooles that may be to reduce those I confer withall to speake of that wherein they are most conversant and skilfull Basti al nochiero ragionar de'venti Albifolco de'â—ori lesue piaghe Conti il guerrier conti il pastor gl' armenti Sailers of windes plow-men of beastes take keep Let Souldiers count their wounds sheepheards their sheep For commonly we see the contrary that many chuse rather to discourse of any other trade than their own supposing it to be so much new reputation gotten witnes the quip Archidamus gaue Periander saying that he forsooke the credit of a good Phisitian to become a paltry Poet. Note but how Caesar displaieth his invention at large when he would have vs conceive his inventions how to build bridges and devises how to frame other war-like engins and in respect of that how close and succinct he writes when he speaketh of the offices belonging to his profession of his valour and of the conduct of his warre-fare His exploits prove him a most excellent Captain but he would be known for a skilfull Ingenier a qualitie somewhat strange in him Dionysius the elder was a very great chieftaine and Leader in warre as a thing best sitting his fortune but he greatly labored by meanes of Poetrie to assume high commendation vnto himselfe howbeit he had but little skill in it A certain Lawier was not long since brought to see a studie stored with all manner of bookes both of his owne and of all other faculties wherein he found no occasion to entertaine himselfe withall but like a fond cunning clarke earnestly busied himselfe to glosse and censure a fence or barricado placed over the screw of the studie which a hundred Captaines and Souldiers see every day without observing or taking offence at them Optat ephippia bâ—s piger optat arare caballus The Oxe would trappings weare The Horse ploughs-yoake would beare By this course you never come to perfection or bring any thing to good passe Thus must a man indevor to induce the Architect the Painter the Shoomaker to speake of their owne trade and so of the rest everie man in his vocation And to this purpose am I wont in reading of histories which is the subject of most men to consider who are the writers If they be such as professe nothing but bare learning the
life but for five or six moneths And in our fathers daies Lodowicke Sforce tenth Duke of Millane vnder whom the state of Italie had so long beene turmoiled and shaken was seene to die a wretched prisoner at Loches in France but not till he had lived and lingered ten yeares in thraldome which was the worst of his bargaine The fairest Queene wife to the greatest King of Christendome was she not lately seene to die by the hands of an executioner Oh vnworthie and barbarous crueltie And a thousand such examples For it seemeth that as the sea-billowes and surging waves rage and storme against the surly pride and stubborne height of our buildings So is there above certain spirits that envie the rising prosperities and greatnesse heere below Vsque adeò res humanas res abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros fasces savásque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur A hidden power so mens states hath out worne Faire swordes fierce scepters signes of honours borne It seemes to trample and deride in scorne And it seemeth Fortune doth sometimes narrowly watch the last day of our life thereby to shew her power and in one moment to overthrow what for many yeares together she had beene erecting and makes vs crie after Laberius Nimirum hac die vna plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit Thus it is I have lived longer by this one day than I should So may that good advise of Solon be taken with reason But for somuch as hee is a Philosopher with whom the favours or disfavours of fortune and good or ill lucke have no place and are not regarded by him and puissances and greatnesses and accidents of qualitie are well nigh indifferent I deeme it very likely he had a further reach and meant that the same good fortune of our life which dependeth of the tranquilitie and contentment of a wel-borne minde and of the resolution and assurance of a well ordered soule should never be ascribed vnto man vntill he have beene seene play the last act of his comedie and without doubt the hardest In all the rest there may besome maske either these sophisticall discourses of Philosophie are not in vs but by countenance or accidents that never touch vs to the quick give vs alwaies leasure to keep our countenance setled But when that last part of death and of our selves comes to be acted then no dissembling will availe then is it high time to speake plaine english and put off all vizards then whatsoever the pot containeth must be shewne be it good or bad foule or cleane wine or water Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Eijciuntur eripitur persona manet res For then are sent true speeches from the heart We are our selves we leave to play a part Loe heere why at this last cast all our lives other actions must be tride and touched It is the master-day the day that judgeth all others it is the day saith an auncient Writer that must judge of all my forepassed yeares To death do I referre the essay of my studies fruit There shall wee see whether my discourse proceede from my heart or from my mouth I have seene divers by their death either in good or evill give reputation to all their forepassed life Scipio father in law to Pompey in well dying repaired the ill opinion which vntill that houre men had ever held of him Epaminondas being demanded which of the three he esteemed most either Chabrias or Iphicrates or himselfe It is necessary said he that we be seene to die before your question may well be resolved Verily we should steale much from him if he should be weighed without the honour and greatnesse of his end God hath willed it as he pleased but in my time three of the most execrable persons that ever I knew in all abomination of life and the most infamous have beene seen to die very orderly and quietly and in every circumstance composed even vnto perfection There are some brave and fortunate deaths I have seene her cut the twine of some mans life with a progresse of wonderfull advancement and with so worthie an end even in the flowre of his growth and spring of his youth that in mine opinion his ambitious and haughtie couragious designes thought nothing so high as might interrupt them who without going to the place where he pretended arived there more gloriously and worthily than either his desire or hope aimed at And by his fall fore-went the power and name whether by his course he aspired When I judge of other mens lives I ever respect how they have behaved themselves in their end and my chiefest study is I may well demeane my selfe at my last gaspe that is to say quietly and constantly The nineteenth Chapter That to Philosophie is to learne how to die CIcero saith that to Philosophie is no other thing than for a man to prepare himselfe to death which is the reason that studie and contemplation doth in some sort withdraw our soule from vs and severally employ it from the body which is a kind of apprentisage and resemblance of death or else it is that all the wisedome and discourse of the world doth in the end resolve vpon this point to teach vs not to feare to die Truely either reason mockes vs or it only aimeth at our contentment and in fine bends all her trauell to make vs live wel and as the holy Scripture saith at our ease All the opinions of the world conclude that pleasure is our end how be it they take divers meanes vnto and for it else would men reject them at their first comming For who would giue eare vnto him that for it's end would establish our paine and disturbance The dissentions of philosophicall sects in this case are verball Transcurramus solertissimas nugas Let vs runne over such over-fine fooleries and subtill trifles There is more wilfulnesse and wrangling among them than pertaines to a sacred profession But what person a man vndertakes to act he doth ever therewithall personate his owne Although they say that in vertue it selfe the last scope of our aime is voluptuousnes It pleaseth me to importune their eares still with this word which so much offends their hearing And if it imply any chiefe pleasure or exceeding contentments it is rather due to the assistance of vertue than to any other supply voluptuousnes being more strong sinnowie sturdie and manly is but more seriously voluptuous And we should give it the name of pleasure more favorable sweeter and more naturall and not terme it vigor from which it hath his denomination Should this baser sensuality deserue this faire name it should be by competencie and not by privilege I finde it lesse voide of incommodities and crosses than vertue And besides that her taste is more fleeting momentarie and fading she hath her fasts her eves and her travels and both sweate and blood Furthermore she hath perticularly
pietie to take example by the humanity of Iesus Christ who ended his humane life at three and thirtie yeares The greatest man that ever was being no more than a man I meane Alexander the great ended his dayes and died also of that age How many severall meanes and waies hath death to surprise vs. Quid quisque vitet nunquum homini satis Cautum est in horas A man can never take good heede Hourely what he may shun and speede Iomit to speake of agues and pleurisies who would ever have imagined that a Duke of Brittanie should have beene stifled to death in a throng of people as Whilome was a neighbour of mine at Lyons when Pope Clement made his entrance there Hast thou not seene one of our late Kings slaine in the middest of his sportes and one of his ancestors die miserably by the chocke of an hog Eschilus fore-threatned by the fall of an house when he stood most vpon his guard strucken dead by the fall of a Tortoise shell which fell out of the tallans of an Eagle flying in the aire and another choaked with the kernell of a grape And an Emperour die by the scratch of a combe whilest he was combing his head And Aemylius Lepidus with hitting his foote against a doore-seele And Aufidius with stumbling against the Consull-Chamber doore as he was going in thereat And Cornelius Gallus the Praetor Tigillinus Captaine of the Romane watch Lodowike sonne of Guido Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua end their daies betweene womens thighs And of a farre worse example Speusippus the Plantonian Philosopher and one of our Popes Poore Bebius a judge whilest he demurreth the sute of a plaintife but for eight daies behold his last expired And Caius Iulius a Physitian whilest he was annointing the eies of one of his patients to have his ownesight closed for ever by death And if amongst these examples I may adde one of a brother of mine called Captaine Saint Martin a man of three and twentie yeares of age who had alreadie given good testimonie of his worth and forward valor playing at tennis received a blow with a ball that hit him a little above the right care without apparance of any contusion bruse or hurt and never sitting or resting vpon it died within six houres after of an Apoplexie which the blow of the ball caused in him These so frequent and ordinary examples hapning and being still before our eies how is it possible for man to forgo or forget the remembrance of death and why should it not continually seeme vnto vs that shee is still ready at hand to take vs by the throat What matter is it will you say vnto me how and in what manner it is so long as a man do not trouble and vex himselfe therewith I am of this opinion that howsoeuer a man may shrowd or hide himselfe from her dart yea were it vnder an oxe-hide I am not the man would shrinke backe it sufficeth me to live at my ease and the best recreation I can have that do I evertake in other matters as little vainglorious and exemplare as you list praetulerim delirus inérsque videri Dum mea delectent mala me vel denique fallant Quà m sapere ringi A dotard I had rather seeme and dull So me my faults may please make me a gull Than to be wise and beat my vexed scull But it is folly to thinke that way to come vnto it They come they goe they trot they daunce but no speech of death All that is good sport But if she be once come and on a sudden and openly surprise either them their wiues their children or their friends what torments what out-cries what rage and what dispaire doth then overwhelme them saw you ever any thing so drooping so changed and so distracted A man must looke to it and in better times fore-see it And might that brutish carelessenesse lodge in the minde of a man of vnderstanding which I find altogether impossible she sels vs her ware at an over deere rate were she an enemie by mans wit to be auoided I would advise men to borrow the weapons of cowardlinesse but since it may not be and that be you either a coward or a runaway an honest or valiant man she overtakes you Nempe sugacempersequitur virum Nec parcit imbellis inuenta Poplitibus timidóque tergo Shee persecutes the man that flies Shee spares not weake youth to surprise But on their hammes and backe turn'd plies And that no temper of cuirace may shield or defend you Ille licet ferro cautus se condat aere Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput Though he with yron and brasse his head empale Yet death his head enclosed thence will hale Let vs learne to stand and combate her with a resolute minde And begin to take the greatest advantage she hath vpon vs from her let vs take a cleane contrary way from the common let vs remove her strangenesse from her let vs converse frequent and acquaint our selves with her let vs have nothing so much in minde as death let vs at all times and seasons and in the vgliest manner that may be yea with all faces shapen and represent the same vnto our imagination At the stumbling of a horse at the fall of a stone at the least prick with a pinne let vs presently ruminate and say with our selves what if it were death itselfe and thereupon let vs take heart of grace and call our wits together to confront her A middest our bankets seasts and pleasures let vs ever have this restraint or object before vs that is the remembrance of our condition and let not pleasure so much mislead or transport vs that we altogether neglect or forget how many waies our joyes or our feastings be subject vnto death and by how many hold-fasts shee threatens vs and them So did the Aegyptians who in the middest of their banquetings and in the full of their greatest cheere caused the anatomie of a dead man to be brought before them as a memorandum and warning to their guests Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora. Thinke every day shines on thee as thy last Welcome it will come whereof hope was past It is vncertaine where death looks for vs let vs expect hir everie where the premeditation of death is a fore-thinking of libertie He who hath learned to die hath vnlearned to serve There is no evill in life for him that hath well conceived how the privation of life is no evill To know how to die doth freevs from all subjection and constraint Paulus Aemâ—â—us answered one whom that miserable king of Macedon his prisoner sent to entreate him he would not leade him in triumph let him make that request vnto himselfe Verily if Nature afforde not some helpe in all things it is very hard that arte and industrie should goe farre before
Of my selfe I am not much given to melancholy but rather to dreaming and sluggishnes There is nothing wherewith I have ever more entertained my selfe than with the imaginations of death yea in the most licentious times of my age Iucundum cùm aetas florida ver ageret When my age flourishing Did spend it's pleasant spring Being amongst faire Ladies and in earnest play some have thought me busied or musing with my selfe how to digest some jealousie or meditating on the vncertaintie of some conceived hope when God he knowes I was entertaining my selfe with the remembrance of some one or other that but few daies before was taken with a burning feuer and of his sodaine end comming from such a feast or meeting where I was my selfe and with his head full of idle conceits of love and merry glee supposing the same either sicknes or end to be as neere me as him Iam fuerit nec post vnquam revocare licebit Now time would be no more You can this time restore I did no more trouble my selfe or frowne at such a conceit then at any other It is impossible we should not apprehend or feele some motions or startings at such imaginations at the first and comming sodainely vpon vs but doubtlesse he that shall manage and meditate vpon them with an impartiall eye they will assuredly in tract of time become familiar to him Otherwise for my part I should be in continuall feare and agonie for no man did evermore distrust his life nor make lesse account of his continuance Neither can health which hitherto I have so long enjoied and which so seldome hath bin crazed lengthen my hopes nor any sicknesse shorten them of it At every minute me thinkes I make an escape And I vncessantly record vnto my selfe that whatsoever may be done another day may be effected this day Truely hazards and dangers do little or nothing approach vs at our end And if we consider how many more there remaine besides this accident which in number more than millions seeme to threaten vs and hang over vs we shall find that be we sound or sicke lustie or weake at sea or at land abroad or at home fighting or at rest in the middest of a battell or in our beds she is ever alike neere vnto vs. Nemo altero fragilior est nemo in crastinum sui certior No man is meaker then other none surer of himselfe to live till to morrow Whatsoever I have to do before death all leasure to end the same seemeth short vnto me yea were it but of one houre Some body not long since turning over my writing tables found by chance a memoriall of something I would have done after my death I told him as indeed it was true that being but a mile from my house and in perfect health and lustie I had made hast to write it because I could not assure my selfe I should ever come home in safety As one that am ever hatching of mine owne thoughts and place them in my selfe I am ever prepared about that which I may be nor can death come when she please put me in mind of any new thing A man should ever as much as in him lieth be ready booted to take his journey and above all things looke he have then nothing to do but with himselfe Quid brevifortes iaculamur aevo Multa To aime why are we ever bold At many things in so short hold For then we shall have worke sufficient without any more accrease Some man complaineth more that death doth hinder him from the assured course of an hoped for victorie than of death itself another cries out he should give place to her before he have married his daughter or directed the course of his childrens bringing vp another bewaileth he must forgo his wives company another moaneth the losse of his children the chiefest commodities of his being I am now by meanes of the mercie of God in such a taking that without regret or grieving at any worldly matter I am prepared to dislodge whensoever he shall please to call me I am everie where free my farewell is soone taken of all my friends except of my selfe No man did ever prepare himselfe to quit the world more simply and fully or more generally spake of all thoughts of it then I am fully assured I shall do The deadest deaths are the best Miser ô miser aiunt omnia ademit Vna dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae O wretch O wretch friends cry one day All ioies of life hath ta'ne away And the builder maneant saith he opera interrupta minaeque Murorumingentes The workes vnfinisht lie And walles that threatned hie A man should designe nothing so long afore hand or at least with such an intent as to passionate himselfe to see the end of it we are all borne to be doing Cùm moriar medium soluar inter opus When dying I my selfe shall spend Ere halfe by businesse come to end I would have a man to be doing and to prolong his lives offices as much as lieth in him and let death seize vpon me whilest I am setting my cabiges carelesse of her dart but more of my vnperfect garden I saw one die who being at his last gaspe vncessantly complained against his destenie and that death should so vnkindly cut him off in the middest of an historie which he had in hand and was now come to the fifteenth or sixteenth of our Kings Illud in his rebus non addunt nec tibi earum Iam desiderium rerum super insidet vna Friends adde not that in this case now no more Shalt thou desire or want things wisht before A man should rid himselfe of these vulgar and hurtfull humours Even as Churchyards were first placed adjoyning vnto churches and in the most frequented places of the Citie to enure as Lycurgus said the common people women and children not to be skared at the sight of a dead man and to the end that continuall spectacle of bones sculs tombes graves and burials should forewarne vs of our condition and fatall end Quin etiam exhilarare viris convivia caede Mos olim miscere epulis spectacula dira Certantum ferro saepe super ipsa cadentum Pocula resper sis non parco sanguine mensis Nay more the manner was to welcome guests And with dire shewes of slaughter to mix feasts Of them that fought at sharpe and with bords tainted Of them with much bloud who o're full cups fainted And even as the Aegyptians after their feastings and carowsings caused a great image of death to be brought in and shewed to the guests and by-standers by one that cried aloud Drinke and be mery for such shalt thou be when thou art dead So have I learned this custome or lesson to have alwaies death not only in my imagination but continually in my mouth And there is nothing I desire more to be informed of than
of the death of men that is to say what words what countenance and what face they shew at their death and in reading of histories which I so attentively observe It appeareth by the shuffling and hudling vp of my examples I affect no subject so particularly as this Were I a composer of bookes I would keepe a register commented of the diverse deaths which in teaching men to die should after teach them to live Dicearcus made one of that title but of an other and lesse profitable end Some man will say to me the effect exceedes the thought so farre that there is no fence so sure or cunning so certaine but a man shall either loose or forget if he come once to that point let them say what they list to premeditate on it giveth no doubt a great advantage and is it nothing at the least to go eso farre without dismay or alteration or without an ague There belongs more to it Nature herselfe lends her hand and gives vs courage If it be a short and violent death we have no leasure to feare it if otherwise I perceive that according as I engage my selfe in sicknesse I do naturally fall into some disdaine and contempt of life I find that I have more ado to disgest this resolution that I shall die when I am in health than I have when I am troubled with a feaver forsomuch as I have no more such fast hold on the commodities of life whereof I begin to loose the vse and pleasure and view death in the face with a lesse vndanted looke which makes me hope that the further I go from that and the neerer I approch to this so much more easily do I enter in composition for their exchange Even as I have tried in many other occurrences which Caesar affirmed that often somethings seeme greater being farre from vs than if they be neere at hand I have found that being in perfect health I have much more beene frighted with sicknesse than when I have felt it The jollitie wherein I live the pleasure and the strength make the other seeme so disproportionable from that that by imagination I amplifie these commodities by one moitie and apprehended them much more heauie and burthensome then I feele them when I have them vpon my shoulders The same I hope will happen to me of death Consider we by the ordinary mutations and daily declinations which we suffer how Nature deprives vs of the night of our losse and empairing what hath an aged man left him of his youths vigor and of his forepast life Heu senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men in yeares how small A part of life is left in all Caesar to a tired and crazed Souldier of his guard who in the open streete came to him to beg leave he might cause himselfe to be put to death viewing his decrepit behauiour answered pleasantly Doest thou thinke to be alive then Were man all at once to fall into it I do not thinke we should be able to beare such a change but being faire and gently led on by her hand in a slow and as it were vnperceived descent by little and little and step by step she roules vs into that miserable state and day by day seekes to acquaint vs with it So that when youth failes in vs we feele nay we perceive no shaking or transchange at all in our selves which in essence and veritie is a harder death then that of a languishing and irkesome life or that of age Forsomuch as the leap from an ill being vnto a not being is not so dangerous or steeple as it is from a delightfull and flowrishing being unto a painfull and sorrowfull condition A weake bending and faint stooping bodie hath lesse strength to beare and vndergo a heauie burden So hath our soule She must be rouzed and raised against the violence and force of this adversarie For as 〈…〉 s impossible shee should take any rest whilest shee feareth whereof if she be assured which is a thing exceeding humane condition she may boast that it is impossible vnquietnesse torment and feare much lesse the least displeasure should lodge in her Non vulius instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Iovis manus No vrging tyrants threatning face Where minde is sound can it displace No troublous wind the rough seas Master Nor Ioves great hand the thunder-caster She is made Mistris of her passions and concupiscence Lady of indulgence of shame of povertie and of all fortunes injuries Let him that can attaine to this advantage Herein consists the true and Soveraigne libertie that affords vs meanes wherewith to jeast and make a scorne of force and in justice and to deride imprisonment gives or fetters in manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sensit moriar mor◠vltima linearerum est In gyves and fetters I will hamper thee Vnder a Iayler that shall cruell be Yet when I will God me deliver shall He thinkes I shall die death is end of all Our religion hath had no surer humane foundation then the contempt of life Discourse of reason doth not onely call and summon vs vnto it For why should we feare to loose a thing which being lost cannot be moaned but also since we are threatned by so many kinds of death there is no more inconvenience to feare them all than to endure one what matter is it when it commeth since it is vnavoidable Socrates answered one that told him The thirty Tyrants have condemned thee to death And Nature them said he What fondnesse is it to carke and care so much at that instant and passage from all exemption of paine and care As our birth brought vs the birth of all things so shall our death the end of all things Therefore is it as great follie to weepe we shall not live a hundred yeeres hence as to waile we lived not a hundred yeeres agoe Death is the beginning of another life So wept we and so much did it cost vs to enter into this life and so did we spoile vs of our ancient vaile in entring into it Nothing can be grievous that is but once Is it reason so long to feare a thing of so short time Long life or short life is made all one by death For long or short is not in things that are no more Aristotle saith there are certaine litle beasts alongst the river Hyspanis that live but one day she which dies at 8. a clocke in the morning dies in her youth she that dies at 5. in the afternoon dies in her decrepitude who of vs doth not laugh when we shall see this short moment of continuance to be had in consideration of good or ill fortune The most the least in ours if we compare it with eternitie or equall it to
thereby Therefore is it meere simplicitie to condemne a thing you never prooved neither by your selfe nor any other Why doest thou complaine of me and of destinie Doe we offer thee any wrong is it for thee to direct vs or for vs to governe thee Although thy age be not come to her period thy life is A little man is a whole man as well as a great man Neither men nor their lives are measured by the Ell. Chiron refused immortalitie being informed of the conditions thereof even by the God of time and of continuance Saturne his father Imagine truely how much an ever during life would be lesse tollerable and more painefull to a man then is the life which I have given him Had you not death you would then vncessantly curse and cry out against me that I had deprived you of it I have of purpose and wittingly blended some bitternes amongst it that so seeing the commoditie of it's vse I might hinder you from over greedily embracing or indiscreetly calling for it To continue in this moderation that is neither to flie from life nor to run to death which I require of you I have tempered both the one and other betweene sweetenes sowrenes I first taught Thales the chiefest of your Sages and Wise men that to live die were indifferent which made him answer one very wisely who asked him wherefore he died not Because saith he it is indifferent The water the earth the aire the fire and other members of this my vniverse are no more the instruments of thy life then of thy death Why fearest thou thy last day He is no more guiltie and conferreth no more to thy death then any of the others It is not the last step that causeth wearinesse it onely declares it All daies march towards death onely the last comes to it Behold heere the good precepts of our vniversall mother Nature I have oftentimes bethought my selfe whence it proceedeth that in times of warre the visage of death whether wee see it in vs or in others seemeth without all comparison much lesse dreadfull and terrible vnto vs then in our houses or in our beds otherwise it should be an armie of Phisitians and whiners and she ever being one there must needes bee much more assurance amongst contrie-people and of base condition then in others I verily beleeve these fearefull lookes and astonishing countenances wherewith we encompasse it are those that more amaze and terrifie vs then death a new forme of life the out-cries of mothers the wailing of women and children the visitation of dismaid and swouning friends the assistance of a number of pale-looking distracted and whining servants a darke chamber tapers burning round about our couch beset round with Phisitians and Preachers and to conclude nothing but horror and astonishment on every side of vs are wee not alreadie dead and buried The very children are afraid of their friends when they see them masked and so are we The maske must as well be taken from things as from men which being remooved we shall finde nothing hid vnder it but the very same death that a seely varlet or a simple maide-servant did lately suffer without amazement or feare Happie is that death which takes all leasure from the preparations of such an equipage The twentieth Chapter Of the force of Imagination FOrtis imaginatio generat casum A strong imagination begetteth chance say learned clearkes I am one of those that feele a very great conflict and power of imagination All men are shockt therewith and some overthrowne by it The impression of it pierceth me and for want of strength to resist her my endevour is to avoid it I could live with the only assistance of holy and mery hearted men The sight of others anguishes doth sensibly drive me into anguish and my sense hath often vsurped the sense of a third man If one cough continually he provokes my lungs and throate I am more vnwilling to visite the sicke dutie doth engage me vnto than those to whom I am little beholding and regard least I apprehend the evill which I studie and place it in me I deeme it not strange that she brings both agues and death to such as give her scope to worke her will and applaude her Simon Thomas was a great Phisitian in his daies I remember vpon a time comming by chance to visit a rich old man that dwelt in Tholouse and who was troubled with the cough of the lungs who discoursing with the said Simon Thomas of the meanes of his recoverie he told him that one of the best was to give me occasion to be delighted in his companie and that fixing his eyes vpon the livelines and freshnes of my face and setting his thoughts vpon the jolitie and vigor wherewith my youthfull age did then flourish and filling all his senses with my florishing estate his habitude might thereby be amended and his health recovered But he forgot to say that mine might also be empaired and infected Gallus Vibius did so well enure his minde to comprehend the essence and motions of folly that he so transported his judgement from out his seate as he could never afterward bring it to his right place againe and might rightly boast to have become a soole through wisdome Some there are that through feare anticipate the hang-mans hand as he did whose friends having obtained his pardon and putting away the cloth wherewith he was hood-winkt that he might heare it read was found starke dead vpon the scaffold wounded onely by the stroke of imagination Wee sweate we shake we grow pale and we blush at the motions of our imaginations and wallowing in our beds we feele our bodies agitated and turmoiled at their apprehensions yea in such manner as sometimes we are ready to yeeld vp the spirit And burning youth although asleepe is often therewith so possessed and enfoulded that dreaming it doth satisfie and enjoy her amorous desires Vt quasi transactis saepe omnibu'rebu ' profundant Fluminis ingentes fluctus vest émque cruentent And if all things were done they powre foorth streames And bloodie their night-garment in their dreames And although it be not strange to see some men have hornes growing vpon their head in one night that had none when they went to bed notwithstanding the fortune or successe of Cyppus King of Italie is memorable who because the day before he had with earnest affection assisted and beene attentive at a bul-baâ—ting and having all night long dreamed of hornes in his head by the very force of imagination brought them foorth the next morning in his forehead An earnest passion gave the son of Croesus his voice which nature had denied him And Antiochus got an ague by the excellent beautie of Stratonicâ— so deepely imprinted in his minde Plinie reporteth to have seene Lucius Cossitius vpon his marriage day to have beene transformed from a woman to a man Pontanus and others recount the like Metamorphosies
received any good witnesse so many Romane Emperours Hee that perceiveth himselfe to be in this danger ought not much to relie vpon his power or hope in his vigilancie For how hard a matter is it for a man to warrant and safegard himselfe from an enemie that masks vnder the visage of the most officious and heartie-seeming friend we have And to knowe the inward thoughts and minde-concealed meanings of such as daily attend and are continually with vs It will little availe him to have forraine nations to his guard and ever to be encircled about with troupes of Armed men whosoever he be that resolveth to condemne his owne life may at any time become master of other mens lives Moreover that continuall suspition which makes the Prince to mistrust every body should be a wonderfull vexation to his minde And therefore when Dion was advertised that Callippus watched to kill him could never finde in his heart to informe himselfe of it affirming He had rather die once than ever live in feare and miserie and to garde himselfe not only from his enemies but from his very friends Which thing Alexander presented more lively and vndantedly by effect who by a letter of Parmeâ—â—o having received advertisement that Phillip his neerest and best regarded Phisitian had with money beene subborned and corrupted by Darius to poison him who at the very instant that he gave Phillip the letter to reade swallowed downe a potion he had given him was it not to expresse his resolution that if his friends would kill him he would not shunne them but consent to their treachery This Prince is the Soveraigne patterne of hazardous attempts yet know I not whether in all his life he shewed an act of more resolute constancie than this nor an ornament so many waies famous Those which daily preach and buzze in Princes eares vnder colour of their safetie a heeâ—y diffidence and ever-warie distrustfulnesse doe nought but tell them of their ruine and further their shame and downefall No noble act is atchived without danger I know one by his owne complexion of a right martiall courage and ready for any resolution whose good and hopefull fortune is dayly corrupted by such verball perswasions as first to keepe close with his friends never to listen to any reconciliation with his olde enemies to stand vpon his owne guarde never to commit himselfe to any stronger then himselfe what faire promse soever they make him or whatsoever apparant profit they seeme to containe I also know another who because he did ever follow the contrarie counsell and would never listen to such schoole-reasons hath beyond all hope raised his fortune above the common reach That boldenesse wherewith they so greedily gape after glory is alwaies at hand when ever neede shall be as gloriously in a dublet as in an armor in a cabinet as in a campe the arme held downe as lifted vp A wisedome so tenderly-precise and so precisely-circumspect is a mortall enemie to haughty executions Scipio to sound the depth of Siphax intent and to discover his minde leaving his armie and abandoning the yet vnsetled country of Spaine which vnder his new conquest of it was likely to be suspected he I say could passe into Affrike only with two simple ships or small barkes to commit himselfe in a strange and foe countrie to engage his person vnder the power of a barbarous King vnder an vnknowne faith without either hostage or letters of credence yea without any body but onely vpon the assurance of the greatnesse of his courage of his successefull good fortune and of the promise of his high-raised hopes Habita fides ipsam plerumque fidem obligat Most commonly trusting obligeth trustinesse To an ambicious and fameaspiring minde contrariwise a man must yeeld little and cary a hard hand against suspitions Feare and distrust draw on offences and allure them The most mistrustfull of our Kings established his affaires and setled his estate especially because he had voluntarily given over abandoned and committed his life and libertie to the hands and mercy of his enemies Seeming to put his whole confidence in them that so they might likewise conceive an vndoubted affiance in him Caesar did onely confront his mutinous legions and oppose his hardly-ruled Armies with the minde-quelling authoritie of his countenance and awemooving fiercenesse of his wordes and did so much trust himselfe and his fortune that he no whit feared to abandon and commit himselfe to a seditious and rebellious Armie stetit aggere fulâ—â— Caspitis intrepitus vultu meruitque timeri Nil metuens He on arampart stood of turfe vprear'd Fearelesse and fearing none was to be fear'd True it is that this vndaunted assurance can not so fully and lively be represented but by those in whom the imagination or apprehension of death and of the worst that may happen can strike no amazement at all for to represent it fearefully-trembling doubtfull and vncertaine for the service of an important reconciliation is to effect no great matter It is an excellent motive to gaine the heart and good will of others for a man to go and submit himselfe to them provided it be done freely and without constraint of any necessitie and in such sort that a man bring a pure and vnspotted confidence with him and at least his countenance void of all scruple Being yet a child I saw a gentleman who had the command of a great Citie and by a commotion of a seditiously-furious people greatly put to his plunges who to suppresse the rising-fire of this tumult resolved to sally out from a strongly-assured place where he was safe and yeeld himselfe to that many-headed monster mutinous rowt thrived so ill by it that he was miserably slaine amongst them yet deeme I not his oversight to have beene so great an issuing out his memorie being of most men condemned as because he tooke a way of submission and remissenesse and attempted to extinguish that rage and hurly-burly rather by way of following than of guiding and by requiring sute than by demonstrative resolution and I deeme a gratiously-milde severitie with a militarie commandement full of confidence and securitie beseeming his ranke and the dignitie of his charge had better availed him had beene more successefull at least with more honour and well seeming comlinesse There is nothing lesse to bee expected or hoped for at the hands of this monstrous-faced-multitude thus agitated by furie then humanitie and gentlenesse it will much sooner receive reverence and admit feare I might also blame him that having vndertaken a resolution in my judgement rather brave then rash to cast himselfe inconsiderately weake and vnarmed amidst a tempestuous Ocean of sencelesse and mad men he should have gone through-stitch with it and not leave the person he represented in the briers whereas after he had perceived the danger at hand he chanced to bleede at the nose and then to change that demisse and flattering countenance he had vndertaken into
resolving that whatsoever should present it selfe vnto his enemic must necessarily be vtterly defeated On the other side deeming it vnwoorthy both his vertue and magnanimitie and the Lacedemonian name to â—aâ—le or faint in his charge betweene these two extremities he resolved vpon a meane and indifferent course which was this The yoongost and best disposed of his troupe he reserved for the service and defence of their countrie to which hee sent them backe and with those whose losse was least and who might best be spared hee determined to maintaine that passage and by their death to force the enemie to purchase the entrance of it as deare as possibly he could as indeed it followed For being suddenly environed round by the Arcadians After a great slaughter made of them both himselfe and all his were put to the sword Is any Trophey assigned for conquerours that is not more duly due vnto these conquered A true conquest respecteth rather an vndanted resolution and honourable end then a faire escape and the honour of vertue doth more consist in combating then in beating But to returne to our historie these prisoners howsoever they are dealt withall are so farre from yeelding that contrariwise during two or three moneths that they are kept they ever carry a cheerefull countenace and vrge their keepers to hasten their triall they outragiously defic and injure them They vpbraid them with their cowardlinesse and with the number of battels they have lost againe theirs I have a song made by a prisoner wherein is this clause Let them boldly come altogether and flocke in multitudes to feed on him for with him they shall feed vpon their fathers and grandfathers that heeretosore have served his bodie for food and nourishment These muscles saith he this flesh and these veines are your owne fond men as you are know you not that the substance of your forefathers limbes is yet tied vnto ours Taste them well for in them shall you finde the relish of your owne flesh An invention that hath no shew of barbarisme Those that paint them dying and that represent this action when they are put to execution delineate the prisoners spitting in their executioners faces and making mowes at them Verily so long as breath is in their bodie they never cease to brave and defie them both in speech and countenance Surely in respect of vs these are very savage men for either they must be so in good sooth or we must be so indeed There is a woondrous distance betweene their forme and ours Their men have many wives and by how much more they are reputed valiant so much the greater is their number The maner and beautie in their marriages is woondrous strange and remarkable For the same jealousie our wives have to keepe vs from the love and affection of other women the same have theirs to procure it Being more carefull for their husbands honour and content then of any thing else They endevour and apply all their industrie to have as many rivals as possibly they can forasmuch as it is a testimonie of their husbands vertue Our women would count it a woonder but it is not so It is vertue properly Matrimoniall but of the highest kinde And in the Bible Lea Rachell Sara and Iacobs wives brought their fairest maiden servants vnto their husbands beds And Livia seconded the lustfull appetites of Augustus to her great prejudice And Stratonica the wife of king Deiâ—tarus did not onely bring a most beauteous chamber-maide that served her to her husbands bed but very carefully brought-vp the children he begot on her and by all possible meanes aided and furthered them to succeed in their fathers roialtie And least a man should thinke that all this is done by a simple and servile or awefull dutie vnto their custome and by the impression of their ancient customes authoritie without discourse or judgement and because they are so blockish and dull-spirited that they can take no other resolution it is not amisse wee alleadge some evidence of their sufficiencie Besides what I have said of one of their warlike songs I have another amorous canzonet which beginneth in this sence Adder stay stay good adder that my sister may by the patterne of thy partie-coloured coate drawe the fashion and worke of a rich lace for me to giue vnto my love so may thy beautie thy nimblenesse or disposition be ever preferred before all other serpents The first couplet is the burthen of the song I am so conversant with Poesie that I amy judge this invention hath no barbarisme at all in it but is altogether Anacreontike Their language is a kinde of pleasant speech and â—ath a pleasing sound and some affinitie with the Greeke terminations Three of that nation ignorant how deare the knowledge of our corruptions will one day cost their repose securitie and happinesse and how their ruine shall proceed from this commerce which I imagine is already well advanced miserable as they are to have suffered themselves to be so cosoned by a desire of new-fangled novelties and to have quit the calmenesse of their climate to come and see ours were at Roane in the time of our late King Charles the ninth who talked with them a great while They were shewed our fashions our pompe and the forme of a faire Citie afterward some demanded their advise and would needes know of them what things of note and admirable they had observed amongst vs they answered three things the last of which I have forgotten and am very sorie for it the other two I yet remember They saide First they found it very strange that so many tall men with long beards strong and well armed as it were about the Kings persen it is very likely they â—ent the Switzers of his guard would submit themselues to obey a beardlesse childe and that we did not rather obuse one amongst them to command the rest Secondly they have a maner of phrase whereby they call men but a moytie one of another They had perceived there were men amongst vs fâ—ll gorged with all sortes of commodities and others which hunger-starved and bare with neede and povertie begged at their gates and found it strange these moyties so needie could endure such an iniustice and that they tooke not the others by the throte or set fire on their houses I talked a good while with one of them but I had so bad an interpreter and who did so ill apprehend my meaning and who through his foolishnesse was so troubled to conceive my imaginations that I could draw no great matter from him Touching that point wherein I demaunded of him what good he received by the superioritie he had amongst his countriemen for he was a Captaine and our Marriners called him King he told me it was to march formost in any charge of warre further I asked him how many men did follow him hee shewed me a distance of place to signifie they were as many as might be contained in
extravagancie of force He will iudge there were yet place for one or two degrees of invention to reach vnto the fourth in consideration of which he will through admiration ioyne handes for the last yet first in some degree and space but which space he will sweare can by no humane spirit be filled-vp he wil be much amazed he will be much amated Loe here are wonders we haue more Poets than iudges and interpreters of poesie It is an easier matter to frame it then to knowe-it Being base and humble it may be iudged by the precepts and art of it But the good loftie the supreme divine is beyond rules and aboue reason Whosoeuer discerneth hir beauty with a constant quicke-seeing and setled looke he can no more see and comprehend the same then the splendor of a lightning flash It hath no community with our iudgement but ransacketh and ravisheth the same The furie which prickes and moves him that can penetrate hir doth also stricke and wound a third man if he heare-it either handled or recited as the Adamant stone drawes not only a needle but infuseth some of hir faculty in the same to drawe others And it is more apparently seene in theaters that the sacred inspiration of the Muses having first stirred vp the Poet with a kinde of agitation vnto choler vnto griefe vnto hatred yea and beyond him self whether and how soever they please doth also by the Poet strike enter into the Actor and consequently by the Actor a whole auditorie or multitude It is the ligament of our sences depending one of another Even from my infancie Poesie hath had the vertue to transpierce and transport me But that lively and feeling-mouing that is naturally in me hath diversly beene handled by the diversitie of formes not so much higher or lower for they were ever the highest in every kind as different in colour First a blithe and ingenious fluidity then a quaint-witie and loftie conceit To conclude a ripe and constant force Ovid Lucan and Virgill will better declare it But here our Gallants are in their full cariere Sit Cato dum viuit sanè vel Caesare maior Let Cato Junior while he doth live greater than Caesar be Saith one inuictum devictâ morte Catonem Cato vnconquered death being vanquished Saith another And the third speaking of the civill warres betweene Caesar and Pompey Victrix causa dijs placuit sed victa Catoni The cause that overcame with Gods was greater But the cause overcome pleasd Cato better And the fourth vpon Caesars commendations Et cuncta terrarum subacta Praeter atrocem animum Catonis Of all the earth all parts inthralled Catoes minde onely vnappalled And the hartes-master after he hath enstalled the names of the greatest Romanes in his picture endeth thus his dantem iura Catonem Chiefe justice Cato doe decree Lawes that for righteous soules should be The seven and thirtieth Chapter How we weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing WHen we reade in Histories that Antigonus was highly displeased with his sonne at what time he presented vnto him the head of King Pirrhus his enemie slaine but a little before in fight against him which he no sooner saw but hee burst foorth a weeping And that Renate Duke of Loraine wept for the death of Charles Duke of Burgundie whom hee had eftsoones discomfired and was as an assistant mourner at his funeralles And that in the battel of Auroy which the Earle of Montfort had gained against the faction of Charles de Blois for the Dutchie of Britanie the victorious conqueror met with the bodie of his enemie deceased mourned very grievously for him a man must not suddenly exclaime Ecosi auvien ' che l'animo ciaseuna Sua passion sotto contrarie manto Ricuopre con la vista hor chiara hor bruna So happens it the minde covers each passion Vnder a cloake of colours opposite To sight now cleare now darke in divers fashion When Caesar was presented with Pompeis head Histories report that he turn'd his looks aside as from a ghastly and vnpleasing spectacle There hath beene so long a correspondencie and societie in the managing of publike affaires mutually betweene them such a communitie of fortunes so many reciprocall offices and bondes of alliance that a man cannot think his countenance to have beene forced false and wâ—ly as this other supposeth tutúmque putauit I am bonus esse socer lacrymas non sponte cadentes Effudit gemitúsque expressit pectore laeto Now to be kinde indeed he did not doubt Father in lawe teares which came hardly out He shed and grones exprest From inward pleased brest For certainly howbeit the greatest number of our actions bee but masked and painted over with dissimulation and that it may sometimes be true Haredis fletus sub persona risus est The weeping of an heire is laughing vnder a visard or disguise Yet must a man consider by judging of his accidents how our mindes are often agitated by divers passions For as they say there is a certaine assembly of divers humors in our bodies whereof she is soveraigne mistris who most ordinarily according to our complexions doth command vs so in our minde although it containe severall motions that agitate the same yet must one chiefly be predominant But it is not with so full an advantage but for the volubilitie and supplenesse of our minde the weakest may by occasion reobtaine the place againe and when their turne commeth make a new charge whence we see not onely children who simplie and naturally follow nature often to weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing but none of vs all can vaunt himselfe what wished for or pleasant voyage soever he vndertake but that taking leave of his family and friends he shall feele a chilling and panting of the heart and if he shed not teares at least he puts his foote in the stirrop with a sad and heavie cheere And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of yong virgines yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgo their mothers to betake them to their husbands whatsoever this good fellow say Est ne nouis nuptis odio Venus únnê parentum Frustrantur falsis gaudia lacrymulis Vbertim thalami quas intra limina fundunt Non it a me diui veragemunt uiverint Doe yoong Birdes hate indeed fresh Venus toyes Or with false teares delude their parents joyes Which in their chambers they powre out amaine So helpe me God they do not true complaine So is it not strange to mourne for him dead whom a man by no meanes would have alive againe When I chide my boy I doe it with the best heart I have They are true and not fained imprecations but that fit past over let him have need of me I will gladly doe him all the good I can and by and by I turne ouer another leafe If I chance to call one knaue or asse my
of favour or commendatorie but he for whom they were judged them drie barren and faint The Italians are great Printers of Epistles where of I thinke I have a hundred severall Volumes I deeme those of Hanniball Caro to be the best If all the paper I have heeretofore scribled for Ladies were extant at what time my hand was truly transported by my passion a man should haply find some page worthy to be communicated vnto idle and fond-doting youth embabuinized with this furie I ever write my letters in post-hast and so rashly-head long that howbeit I write intolerablie ill I had rather write with mine owne hand than imploy another for I find none that can follow me and I never copie them over againe I have accustomed those great persons that know me to endure blots blurs dashes and botches in my letters and a sheete without folding or margine Those that cost me either most labour or studie are they that are least worth When I once begin to traile them it is a signe my mind is not vpon them I commonly begin without project the first word begets the second Our moderne letters are more fraught with borders and prefaces than with matter as I had rather write two then fold and make vp one which charge I commonly resigne to others So likewise when the matter is ended I would willingly give another the charge to adde these long orations offers praiers and imprecations which we place at the end of them and wish hartily some new fashion would discharge vs of them As also to superscribe them with a legend of qualities titles and callings wherein lest I might have tripped I have often times omitted writing especially to men of Iustice Lawyers and Financiers So many innovations of offices so difficult a dispensation and ordinance of divers names and titles of honour which being so dearely bought can neither be exchanged or forgotten without offence I likewise find-it gracelesse and idly-fond to charge the front and inscription of the many bookes and pamphlets which we daily cause to be imprinted with them The fortieth Chapter That the taste of goods or evils doth greatly depend on the opinion we have of them MEn saith an ancient Greeke sentence are tormented by the opinions they have of things and not by things themselves It were a great conquest for the ease of our miserable humane condition if any man could establish every where this true proposition For if evils have no entrance into-vs but by our judgement it seemeth that it lieth in our power either to contemne or turne them to our good If things yeeld themselves vnto our mercie why should we not have the fruition of them or applie them to our advantage If that which we call evill torment be neither torment nor evill but that our fancie only gives it that quatie it is in vs to change-it and having the choice of it if none compell-vs we are verie fooles to bandie for that partie which is irkesome vnto vs and to give infirmities indigence and contempt a sharpe and ill taste if we may give them a good And if fortune simplie affoord-vs the matter it lieth in vs to give-it the forme Now that that which we terme evill is not so of it selfe or at least such as it is that it depends of vs to give-it another taste and another countenance for all comes to one let vs see whether it can be maintained If the originall-being of those things we feare had the credite of it's owne authoritie to lodge it selfe in vs alike and semblable would it lodge in all For men be all of one kind and except the most or least they are furnished with like meanes to judge and instruments to conceive But the diversitie of opinions which we have of those things doth evidently shew that but by composition they never enter into-vs Some one peradventure doth lodge them in himselfe as they are in essence but a thousand others give them a new being and a contrarie We accompt of death of povertie and of sorrow as of our chiefest parts Now death which some of all horrible things call the most horrible who knowes not how others call it the onely haven of this lives-torments the soveraigne good of nature the onely staâ—e of our libertie and the readie and common receit of our evils And as some doe fearefully-trembling and senslesly-affrighted expect her comming others endure it more easilie then life And one complaineth of her facilitie Mors vt inam pavidos vitae subducere nolles Sed virtus to sola daret O death I would thou would'st let cowards live That resolv'd valour might thee only give But let vs leave these glorious minds Theodorus answered Lysimachus who threatned to kill him Thou shalt doe a great exploit to come to the strength of a Cantharides The greatest number of Philosophers are found to have either by designe prevented or hastned and furthered their deaths How many popular persons are seen brought vnto death and not to a simple death but entermixt with shame sometimes with grievous torments to embrace it with such an vndaunted assurance some through stubborne wilfulnesse other-some through a naturall simplicitie in whom is nothing seene changed from their ordinarie condition setling their domesticall affaires recommending themselves vnto their friends preaching singing and entertaining the people yea and sometimes vttering words of â—esting and laughter and drinking to their acquaintance as well as Socrates One who was ledde to the gallowes desired it might not be thorow such a street for feare a Merchant should set a Serâ—ant on his backe for an old debt Another wished the hang-man not to touch his throat lest hee should make him swowne with laughing because hee was so ticklish Another answered his confessour who promised him he should suppe that night with our Saviour in heaven Goe thither your selfe to supper for I vse to fast a nights Another vpon the Gibbet calling for drinke and the hang-man drinking first said hee would not drinke after him for feare hee should take the poxe of him Everie man hath heard the tale of the Piccard who being vpon the ladder ready to be throwen downe there was a wench presented vnto him with this offer as in some cases our law doth sometimes tolerate that if hee would marry her his life should be saued who after he had a while beheld her perceving that she halted said hastily Away away good bang-man make an end of thy busines she limps The like is reported of a man in Denmarke who being adiudged to haue his head cut off and being vpon the scaffold had the like condition offered him but refused it because the wench offered him was jaw-falne long cheâ—kt and sharpe-nosed A yoong ladde at Tholous being accused of hereâ—ie in all points touching his beleefe referred himselfe wholly to his Masters faith a yong scholar that was in prison with him and rather chose to die than hee would be
employ our lives if our friends stand in need of-vs But seldome shall we see a man communicate his honor share his reputation and imparte his glory vnto others Catulus Luctatius in the warres against the Cymbres having done the vtmost of his endevours to stay his souldiers that fled before their enemies put-himselfe amongest the runne-awaies and dissembled to bee a coward that so they might rather seeme to follow their Captaine then flie from the enemie This was a neglecting and leaving off his reputation to conceale the shame and reproach of other When Charles the fift passed into Provence the yeare a thousand five hundred thirty seaven some are of opnion that Anthony de Leva seeing the emperor his master resolutely obstinate to vndertake that voyage deeming it wonderfully glorious maintained neverthelesse the contrary and discouncelled him from-it to the end all the honour and glory of this counsell might be attributed vnto his Maister and that it might be said his good advise and fore-sight to have been such that contrary to al mens opinions he had atchieved so glorious an enterprise Which was to honor and magnifie him at his owne charges The Thracian Ambassadors comforting Achileonida the Mother of Brasidas for the death of hir son and highly extolling and commending him said he had not left his equall behind him She refused this private commendation and particular praise assigne-it to the publike state Do not tell me that quoth she For I knowe the Citty of Sparta hath many greater and more valiant Citizens then he was At the battaile of Creey Edward the blacke Prince of Wales being yet very yoong had the leading of the vant-gard The greatest and chiefe violence of the fight was in his quarter The Lordes and Captains that accompanied him perceiving the great danger sent vnto King Edward the princes father to come and help them which when he hard he enquired what plight his sonne was-in and how he did and hearing that he was living and on horse-backe I should quoth he offer him great wrong to goe now and deprive him of the honor of this combates victory which he already hath so long sustained what danger soever there be in-it it shall wholy be his and would neither goe nor send vnto him knowing that if he had gone or sent it would have beene said that without his ayd all had beene lost and that the advantage of this exployt would have beene ascribed vnto him Semper enim quod postremum adiectum est id rem totam videtur traxisse For ever more that which was last added seemes to have drawne on the whole matter In Rome many thought and it was commonly spoken that the chiefest glorious deeds of Scipio were partely due vnto Lalius who notwithstanding did ever advance the greatnesse further the glory and second the renowne of Scipio without any respect of his owne And Theopompus King of Sparta to one who tolde him that the common-wealth should subsist and continue still forsomuch as he could command so well No said he it is rather because the people know so well how to obey As the women that succeeded in the Peere-domes of France had notwithstanding their sexâ— right to assist and priviledge to plead in cases appertaining to the iuridictions of Peeres So the Ecclesiasticall Peeres notwithstanding their profession and function were bound to assist our Kings in their warres not onely with hir friends servants and tenants but in their owne person The Bishop of Beauvais being with Philip Augustus in the battell of Bovines did very couragiously take part with him in the effect but thought hee should not be partaker of the fruite and glory of that bloody and violent exercise He overcame and forced that day many of the enimies to yeeld whom he delivered vnto the first gentleman hee met withall to rifle to take them prisoners or at their pleasure to dispose of them Which he also did with William Earle of Salisbury whom he delivered vnto the Lord Iohn of Neste with a semblable subtletie of conscience vnto this other He desired to fell and strike down a man but not to wound or hurt him and therefore never sought but with a great clubbe A man in my time being accused to the King to have laide violent hands vpon a Priest denied it very stoutly forsomuch as he had onely thumped and trampled him with his feete The two and fortieth Chapter Of the inequalitie that is betweene vs. PLutarke saith in some place That he findes no such great difference betweene beast and beast as he findeth diversitie betweene man and man He speaketh of the sufficiencie of the minde and of internall qualities Verily I finde Epaminondas so farre taking him as I suppose him from some that I know I meane capable of common sense as I could finde in my heart to endeare vpon Plutarke and say there is more difference betweene such and such a man than there is diversitie betweene such a man and such a beast Hem vir viro quid praestat O Sir how much hath one An other man out-gone And that there be so many degrees of spirits as there are steps betweene heaven and earth and as innumerable But concerning the estimation of men it is marvell that except our selves no one thing is esteemed but for i'ts proper qualities We commend a horse because he is strong and nimble volucrem Sic laudamus equum facili cui plurima palma Fervet exultat rauco victoria circo We praise the horse that beares most belles with flying And triumphs most in races hoarce with crying and not for his furniture a graie-hound for his swiftnesse not for his choller a hawke for hir wing not for hir cranes or belles Why doe we not likewise esteeme a man for that which is his owne He hath a goodly traine of men following him a stately pallace to dwell in so great credit amongst men and so much rent comming in Alas all that is about him and not in him No man will buy a pig in a poke If you cheapen a horse you wil take his saddle and clothes from him you will see him bare and abroade or if he be covered as in old times they wont to present them vnto Princes to be sold it is onely his least necessary parts lest you should ammuse your selfe to consider his colour or breadth of his crupper but chiefly to view his legges his head his eyes and his foote which are the most remarkable parts and above all to be considered and required in him Regibus hic mos est vbi equos mercantur apertos Inspiciunt ne si facies vt saepe decora Molli fulâ—a pede est emptorem inducat hiantem Quòd pulchrae clunes breve quòd caput ardua cervix This is Kings maner when they horses buy They see them bare lest if as oft we try Faire face have soft hoofes gull'd the buyer be They buttockes round short head high crest may see
that they doe not so much as breake their sleepe for them Alexander the great on the day appointed for that furious-bloodie battle against Darius slept so soundly and so long that morning that Parmenion was faine to enter his chamber approching neere vnto his bed twice or thrice to call him by his name to awaken him the houre of the battle being at hand and vrging him Otho the Emperour having determined to kill himselfe the very same night after he had given order for his domesticall affaires shared his monie amongst his servans and whetted the edge of a sword wherewith he intended to wound himselfe expecting no other thing but to know whether all his friends were gone to rest fell into so sound a sleepe that the groomes of his chamber heard him snort in another roome This Emperours death hath many parts semblable vnto that of great Cato and namely this For Cato being prepared to defeat himselfe whilest he expected to heare newes whether the Senators whom he caused to retire were lanched out from the haven of Vtica fell so fast asleep that he was heard to snort into the next chamber And he whom he had sent toward the port having awaked him to tell him the storme was so rough that the Senators could not conveniently put out to sea he sent another and lying downe a new fell asleep againe vntill the last messenger assured him they were gone We may also compare him vnto Alexander in that great and dangerous storme which threatned him by the sedition of Metellus the Tribune who laboured to publish the decree of Pompeys re-appeal into the Citie together with his armie at what time the commotion of Catiline was on foote against which decree onely Cato did insist and to that purpose had Metellus and he had many injurious speeches and menaced one another in the Senate-house And it was the next day they were like to come to the execution in the market-place where Metellus besides the favour of the common people and of Caesar then conspiring and complotting for the aduancement of Pompey should come accompanied with a multitude of strange and fortaine slaves and fencers to doe their vtmost And Cato strengthened with his onely constancie and with an vnmated resolve So that his kinsmen his familiars and many honest men tooke great care and were in heavie anxietie and pensivenesse for him of which many never left him all night but sate vp together without rest eating or drinking by reason of the danger they saw prepared for him yea his wife and sisters did nought but weep and waile and for his sake torment themselves in their house whereas contrariwise he alone comforted every bodie and blamed them for their demissenesse And after he had supped as he was wont he went quietly to his bed and slept verie soundly vntill the next morning that one of his copartners in the Tribune-ship came to call him to goe to the skirmish The knowledge we have of this mans vnmated-haughtie heart by therest of his life may make vs judge with all securitie that it onely proceeded from a spirit so far elevated above such accidents that he dained not so much as to trouble his mind with them no more then with ordinarie chances In the sea-fight which Augustus gained against Sextus Pompeius in Sicilie even at the instant he should go to fight was surprised with so heavie a sleep that his friends were compelled to awaken-him to give the signall of the battell which afterward gave occasion vnto Marcus Antonius to charge him with this imputation that he had not dared with open eyes to survay the marshalling of his armie and that his heart would not suffice him to present himselfe vnto his souldiers vntill such time that Agrippa brought him newes of the victorie he had obtained of his enemies But concerning yong Marius who committed a greater errour for on the day of his last battel against Sylla after he had marshalled his armie and given the word or signall of the battell he lay downe in the shadow vnder a tree a while to rest himselfe and fell so fast asleep that he could hardly be awaked with the rout and flight of his men having seen no part of the fight they say it was because he was so exceedingly aggravated with travell and over-tired with wearinesse and want of sleep that nature was overcome and could no longer endure And touching this point Phisitians may consider whether sleep be so necessarie that our life must needs depend of-it For we find that Perseus King of Macedon prisoner at Rome being kept from sleep was made to die but Plinie aleadgeth that some have lived a long time without any sleep at all And Herodotus reporteth There are Nations where men sleep and wake by halfe yeares And those that write the life of Epimenides the wise affirme that he slept the continuall space of seaven and fiftie yeares The five and fortieth Chapter Of the battell of Dreux THere hapned divers rare accidents and remarkable chances in our battell of Dreux but those who do not greatly favour the reputation of the Duke of Guise doe boldly aledge that he cannot be excused to have made a stand and temporised with the forces he commaunded whilst the Lord Constable of France Generall of the Armie was engaged and suppressed with the enemies Artillerie and that it had been better for him to hazard himselfe to charge the enemie flankwise then by expecting any aduantage to have him come behind him to suffer so reprochfull an overthrow and so shamefull a losse But omitting what the event thereof witnessed he that shall without passion debate the matter shall easilie in my conceit confesse that the ayme and drift not onely of a Captaine but of every particular Souldier ought chiefly to respect a victorie in great And that no particular occurrences of what consequence soever or what interest may depend on them should never divert-him from that point Philopoemen in an encounter with Machanidas having sent before a strong troupe of Archers and good marke men to begin the skirmish and the enemie after he had put them to route and dis-ranked them ammusing himselfe in mainly pursuing them and following the victorie alongst the maine battell where Philopoemen was although his souldiers were much moved and offended to see their fellowes put to the worst he could not be induced to bouge from his place nor make head against his enemie to succour his men but rather having suffered them to be defeated and cut in pieces before his face began then to charge his enemies in the battalion of their Infanterie when he perceived them forsaken of their horsemen And albeit they were Lacedemonians forasmuch as he charged them at what time supposing to have gained the day they began to disorder themselves he easilie overcame them which done he pursued Machanidas This case is cousin-german vnto that of the Duke of Guise In that sharpe-bloodie battell of Agesilaus against the
vnto him All haile Diogenes And to thee no health at all replied Diogenes that endurest to live in so wretched an estate True it is that a while after Speusippus as overtired with so languishing a condition of life compassed his owne death But this goeth not without some contradiction For many are of opinion that without the expresse commandement of him that hath placed vs in this world we may by no meanes forsake the garrison of it and that it is in the hands of God onely who therein hath placed-vs not for our selves alone but for his glorie and others service when ever it shall please him to discharge vs hence and not for vs to take leave That we are not borne for our selves but for our Countrie The Lawes for their owne interest require an accompt at our hands for our selves and have a just action of murther against-vs Else as forsakers of our owne charge we are punished in the other world Proxima deinde tenent moestiloca qui sibi let hum Insontes pâ—perere manu lucémque perosi Proiâ—cere animas Next place they lamentable hold in hell Whose hand their death caus'd causelesse but not well And hating life did thence their soules expell There is more constancie in vsing the chaine that holds-vs then in breaking the same and more triall of stedfastnesse in Regulus then in Cato It is indiscretion and impatience that hastneth our way No accidents can force a man to turne his backe from lively vertue She seeketh-out evils and sorrowes as her nourishment The threats of fell tyrants tortures and torments executioners and torturers doe animate and quicken her Duris vt ilex tâ—nsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algidâ— Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animúmque ferro As holme-tree doth with hard axe lopt On hils with many holme-trees topt From losse from cuttings it doth feel Courage and store rise ev'n from steel And as the other saith Non est vt put as virtus pater Timere vitam sed magis ingentibus Obstare nec se vertere ac retro dare Sir ti 's not vertue as you vnderstand To feare life but grosse mischiefe to withstand Not to retire turne backe at any hand Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem Fortius ille facit qui miser esse potest T' is easie in crosse chance death to despise He that can wretched be doth stronger rise It is the part of cowardlinesse and not of vertue to seek to squat it selfe in some hollowlurking hole or to hide her selfe vnder some massie tombe thereby to shun the strokes of fortune She never forsakes her course nor leaves her way what stormie weather soever crosse-her Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruina If the world broken should vpon her fall The ruines may her strike but not appall The avoyding of other inconveniences doth most commonly drive vs into this yea sometimes the shunning of death makes vs to run into it Hic rogo non furor est â—â— moriare mori Madnesse is 't not say I To die lest you should die As those who for feare of a break-necke down-fall doe headlong cast themselves into-it multos in summa pericula misit Vâ—â—turi timor ipse mali fortissimus ille est Qui promptus metuenda pati si cominus instent Et differre potest The verie feare of ils to come hath sent Many to mightie dangers strongest they Who fearfull things t' endure are readie bent If they confront them yet can them delay vsque adeo mortis formidine vitae Percipit humanos odium lucâ—sque videndae Vt sibi consciscant moerenti pectore let hum Obâ—iâ—i fontem curarum hunc esse timorem So far by feare of death the hate of life And seeing-light doth men as men possesse They grieving kill themselves to end the strife Forgetting feare is spring of their distresse Plato in his lawes alots him that hath deprived his neerest and deerest friend of life that is to say himselfe and abridged him of the destinies course not constrained by any publike judgement nor by any lewde and inevitable accident of fortune nor by any intolerable shame or infamie but through basenesse of minde and weaknesse of a faint-fearfull courage to have a most ignominious and ever-reproachfull buriall And the opinion which disdaineth our life is rediculous For in fine it is our being It is our all in all Things that have a nobler and richer being may accuse ours But it is against nature we should despise and carelesly set our selves at naught It is a particular infirmitie and which is not seen in any other creature to hate and disdaine himselfe It is of like vanitie that we desire to be other then we are The fruit of such a desire doth not concerne-vs forasmuch as it contradicteth and hindereth it selfe in it selfe He that desireth to be made of a man an Angell doth nothing for himselfe He should be nothing the better by it And being no more who shall rejoice or conceive any gladnesse of this change or amendment for him Debet enim misâ—rè fortè aegréque futurum est Ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore cùm male possit Accidere For he who shall perchance proove miserable And speed but ill should then himselfe be able To be himselfe when ills may chance vnstable The securitie indolencie impassibilitie and privation of this lives-evils which we purchase at the price of death bring vs no commoditie at all In vaine doth be avoide warre that can not inioy peace and bootâ—lesse doth â—â— shun paine that hath no meanes to feel rest Amongst those of the first opinion great questioning hath been to know what occasions are sufficiently just and lawfull to make a man vndertake the killing of himselfe they call that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable orderly out-let For although they say a man must often die for slight causes since these that keep vs alive are not verie strong yet is some measure required in them There are certaine fantasticall and braine-sicke humors which have not only provoked particular men but whole Nations to defeat themselves I have heretofore alleaged some examples of them And moreover we read of certaine Miâ—â—sian virgins who vpon a surious conspiracie hanged themselves one after an other vntill such time as the Magistrate provided for it appointing that such as should be found so hanged should with their owne halters be dragged naked through the streets of the Citie When Threicion perswadeth Cleomâ—nes to kill himselfe by reason of the bad and desperate estate his affaires stood in and having escaped a more honourable death in the battell which he had lately lost moveth him to accept of this other which is second to him in honour and give the conqueror no leisure to make him endure either another death or else a shamefull life Cleomenes with a Lacedemonian and Stoike courage
common deplored and bewailed their countries misfortunes some went home to their owne houses othersome staied there to be entombed with Vibius in his owne fire whose death was so long and lingring forsomuch as the vapor of the wine having possessed their veines and slowed the effect and operation of the poyson that some lived an houre after they had seene their enemies enter Capua which they caried the next day after and incurred the miseries and saw the calamities which at so high a rate they had sought to eschew Taurea Iubellius another citizen there the Consul Fulvius returning from that shamefull slaughter which he had committed of 225. Senators called him churlishly by his name and having arested him Command quoth he vnto him that I alâ—o be massacred after so many others that so thou maist brag to have murthered a much more valiant man then ever thou wast Fulvius as one enraged disdaining him forasmuch as he had newly received letters from Rome contrarie to the inhumanitie of his execution which inhibited him to proceed any further Iubellius continuing his speach said sithence my Countrie is taken my friends butchered having with mine owne hands slaine my wife and children as the only meane to free them from the desolation of this ruine I may not die the death of my fellow-citizens let vs borrow the vengeance of this hatefull life from vertue And drawing a blade he had hidden vnder his garments therwith ran himselfe through and falling on his face died at the Consuls feet Alexander besieged a citie in India the inhabitants whereof perceiving themselves brought to a very narrow pinch resolved obstinately to deprive him of the pleasure he might get of his victorie and together with their citie in despite of his humanitie set both the Towne themselves on a light fire and so were all consumed A new kind of warring where the enemies did all they could and fought to save them they to loose themselves and to be assured of their death did all a man can possible effect to warrant his life Astapa a Citie in Spaine being very weake of wals and other defences to withstand the Romanes that besieged the same the inhabitants drew all their riches and wealth into the market-place whereof having made a heap and on the top of it placed their wives and children and encompassed and covered the same with drie brush wood that it might burne the easier and having appointed fiftie lusty yong men of theirs for the performance of their resolution made a sallie where following their determined vow seeing they could not vanquist suffered themselves to be flame every mothers childe The fiftie after they had massacred every living soule remaining in the Citie and set fire to the heap joyfully leaped there-into ending their generous libertie in a state rather insensible then dolorous and reprochfull shewing their enemies that if fortune had been so pleased they should aswell have had the courage to bereave them of the victorie as they had to yeeld it them both vaine and hideous yea and mortall to those who allured by the glittering of the gold that moulten ran from out the flame thicke and three-fold approching greedily vnto it were therein smothered burned the formost being vnable to give backe by reason of the throng that followed them The Abideans pressed by Philip resolved vpon the verie same but being prevented the King whose heart yerned and abhorred to see the fond-rash precipitation of such an execution having first seized-vpon and saved the treasure and moveables which they had diversly condemned to the flames and vtter spoyle retiring all the Souldiers granting them the full space of three daies to make themselves away that so they might do it with more order and leasure which three daies they replenished with blood and murther beyond all hostile crueltie And which is strange there was no one person saved that had power vpon himselfe There are infinite examples of such-like popular conclusions which seeme more violent by how much more the effect of them is more vniversall They are lesse then severall what discourse would not doe in every one it doth in all The vehemence of societie ravishing particular judgements Such as were condemned to die in the time of Tiberius and delaide their execution any while lost their goods and could not be buried but such as prevented the same in killing themselves were solemnly enterred might at their pleasure bequeath such goods as they had to whom they list But a man doth also sometimes desire death in hope of a greater good I desire saith Saint Paul to be out of this world that I may be with Iesus Christ and who shall release me out of these bonds Cleombrotus Ambraciota having read Platoes Phaedon was so possessed with a desire and longing for an after-life that without other occasion or more adoe he went and headlong cast himselfe into the sea Whereby it appeareth how improperly we call this voluntarie dissolution dispaire vnto which the violence of hope doth often transport-vs and as often a peacefull setled inclination of judgement Iaques du Castell Bishop of Soissons in the voyage which Saint Lewes vndertooke beyond the Seas seeing the King all his Armie readie to returne into France and leave the affaires of Religion imperfect resolved with himself rather to go to heaven And having bidden his friends farewell in the open view of all men rushed alone into the enemies troops of whom he was forthwith hewen in pieces In a certaine kingdome of these late-discovered Indies vpon the day of a solemne procession in which the Idols they adore are publikely caried vp and downe vpon a chariot of exceeding greatnesse besides that there are many seen to cut and slice great mammocks of their quicke flesh to offer the said Idols there are numbers of others seen who prostrating themselves alongst vpon the ground endure verie patiently to be mouldred and crushed to death vnder the Chariots wheeles thinking thereby to purchase after their death a veneration of holinesse of which they are not defrauded The death of this Bishop armed as we have said argueth more generositie and lesse sence the heat of the combate ammusing one part of it Some common-wealths there are that have gone about to sway the justice and direct the opportunitie of voluntarie deaths In our Citie of Marseille they were wont in former ages ever to keep some poison in store prepared and compounded with hemlocke at the Cities charge for such as would vpon any occasion shorten their daies having first approved the reasons of their enterprise vnto the six hundred Elders of the Towne which was their Senate For otherwise it was vnlawfull for any bodie except by the Magistrates permission and for verie lawfully-vrgent occasions to lay violent hands vpon himselfe The verie same law was likewise vsed in other places Sextus Pompeius going into Asia passed through the Iland of Cea belonging to Negropont it fortuned whilst he abode there
aipausasequutâ— No man doth ever-ofter wake Whom once his lifes cold rest doth take Canius Iulius a noble Romane a man of singular vertue and constancie having beene condemned to death by that lewdly-mischievous monster of men Caligula besides many marvelous evident assurances he gave of his matchlesse resolution when he was even in the nicke to endure the last stroke of the executioner a Philosopher being his friend interrupted him with this question saying Canius in what state is your soule now what doth she what thoughts possesse you now I thought answered he to keep me readie and prepared with all my force to-see whether in this instant of death so short and so neere at hand I might perceive some dislodging or distraction of the soule and whether it will shew some feeling of hir sudden departure that if I apprehend or learne anything of hir I may afterward if I can returne and give advertisement therof vnto my friends Loe-here a Philosopher not onely vntil death but even in death it selfe what assurance was it and what fiercenes of courage to will that his owne death should serve him as a lesson and have leasure to thinke elsewhere in a matter of such consequence it is hoc animi morientis habebat This power of minde had he When it from him did flee Me seemeth neverthelesse that in some sort there is a meane to familiarize our selves with it and to assay-it We may have some experience of it if not whole and perfect at least such as may not altogether be vnprofitable and which may yeelde vs better fortified and more assured If we cannot attaine vnto it we may at least approch-it and discerne the same And if we cannot enter hir sort yet shall we see and frequent the approches vnto-it It is not with out reason we are taught to take notice of our sleepe for the resemblance it hath with death How easily we passe from waking to sleeping with how little interest we loose the knowledge of light and of ourselves The facultie of sleepe might happily seeme vnprofitable and against nature sithence it depriveth vs of all actions and barreth vs of all sense were it not that nature doth thereby instruct vs that she hath equally made vs as wel to live as to die and by life presenteth the eternall state vnto vs which she after the same reserveth for vs so to accustome vs thereunto and remove the feare of it from vs. But such as by some violent accident are falne into a faintnes of heart and have lost all senses they in mine opinion have well-nigh beene where they might beholde hir true and naturall visage For touching the instant or moment of the passage it is not to be feared it should bring any travell or displeasure with-it forasmuch as we can have nor sense nor feeling without leasure Our sufferances have neede of time which is so short and plunged in death that necessarily it must be insensible It is the approches that lead vnto it we should feare and those may fall within the compasse of mans experience Many things seeme greater by imagination then by effect I have passed over a good part of my age in sound and perfect health I say not onely sound but blithe and wantonly-lustfull That state full of lust of prime and mirth made me deeme the consideration of sicknesses so yrkesome and horrible that when I came to the experience of them I have found their fittes but weake and their assaultes but faint in respect of my apprehended feare Lo here what I daily proove Let me be vnder a roofe in a good chamber warme-clad and well at ease in some tempestuous and stormy night I am exceedingly perplexed and much grieved for such as are abroade and have no shelter But let me be in the storme my selfe I doe not so much as desire to be else-where Onely to be continually pent vp in a chamber seemed in tollerable to me I have now enured my selfe to live a whole weeke yea a moneth in my chamber full of care trouble alteration and weakenes and have found that in the time of my best health I moaned such as were sicke much more then I can well moane my selfe when I am ill at ease and that the power of my apprehension did well-nigh halfe endeare the essence and truth of the thing it selfe I am in good hope the like will happen to me of death and that it is not worth the labor I take for so many preparations as I prepare against hir and so many helpes as I call â—osustaine and assemble to endure the â—â—ocke and violence of it But hab ornab we can never take too much advantage of it During our second or third troubles I doe not well remember which I fortuned one day for recreation-sake to goe forth and take the ayre about a league from my house who am seated even in the bowels of all troubles of our civill wars of France supposing to be most safe so neere mine owne hoâ—e and petreite that I had no neede of better attendance or equipage I was mounted vpon a very easie-going nagge but not very sure At my returning home againe a sudden occasion being offered me to make vse of this nagge in a peece of service whereto he was neither trained not accustomed one of my men a-strong sturdie fellow mounted vpon a yong strong-headed horse and that had a desperate hard mouth fresh lustie and in breath to shew his courage and to out-goe his fewoes fortuned with might and maine to set spurres vnto him and giving him the bridle to come right into the path where I was and as a Colossus with his weight riding over me and my nagge that were both very little he overthrew vs both and made vs fall with our heeles vpward so that the nagge lay along astonied in one place and I in a trance groveling on the ground ten or twelfe paces wide of him my face all torne and brused my sword which I had in my hand a good way from me my girdle broken with no more motion or sense in me then a stocke It is the onely swowning that ever I felt yet Those that were with me after thy had assayed all possible meanes to bring me to my selfe againe supposing me dead tooke me in their armes and with much adoe were carying me home to my-house which was about halfe a french league thence vpon the way after I had for two houres space by all bin supposed dead and past all recoverie I began to stir and breathe for so great aboundance of blood was falne into my stomake that to discharge it nature was forced to roweze vp hir spirits I was imediately set vpon my feete and bending forward I presently cast vp n quantitie as much clottie pure blood as abucket will hold and by the way was constraâ—ned to doe the like divers times before I could get home whereby I begane to recover â—â—ttle life but it was by little
termed ours For to make them ours a man must wholy be engaged vnto them And the paines that our feete or handes feele whilest we sleepe are not ours When I came neere my house where the tidings of my fall was alreadie come and those of my housholde met me with such outcries as are vsed in like times I did not onely answere some words to what I was demanded but some tell me I had the memory to commaund my men to give my wife a horse whom I perceived to be over-tired and labouring in the way which is very hilly fowle and rugged It seemeth this consideration proceeded from a vigilant soule yet was I cleane distracted from-it they were but vaine conceits and as in a cloud onely moved by the sense of the eyes and eares They came not from my selfe All which notwithstanding I knew neither whence I came nor whither I went nor could I vnderstand or consider what was spoken vnto me They were but light effects that my senses produced of themselves as it were of custome Whatsoever the soule did assist-it with was but a dreame being lightly touched and only sprinkled by the soft impression of the senses In the meane time my state was verily most pleasant and easefull I felt no maner of care or affliction nither for my selfe nor others It was a slumbering langushing and extreame weaknesse without anie paine at all I saw mine owne house and knew it not when I was laide in my bedde I felt great ease in my rest For I had beene vilely hurred and haled by those poore men which had taken the paines to carry me vpon their armes a long and wearysome way and to say truth they had all beene wearied twice or thrice over and were faine to shift severall times Many remedies were presently offerd me but I tooke none supposing verily I had beene deadly hurt in the head To say truth it had beene a very happy death For the weakenesse of my discourse hinderd me from judging of it and the feeblenes of my body from feeling the same Me-thought I was yeelding vp the ghost so gently and after so easie and indolent a maner that I feele no other action lesse burthensome then that was But when I beganne to come to life againe and recover my former strength Vt tandem sensus convaluere mei At last when all the sprites I beare Recall'd and recollected were which was within two or three houres after I presently felt my selfe full of aches and paines all my body over for each part thereof was with the violence of the fall much brused and tainted and for two or three nights after I found my selfe so ill that I verily supposed I should have had another fit of death But that a more lively and sensible one and to speak plaine I feel my bruâ—â—â— yet and feare me shall doe while I live I will not forget to tell you that the last thing I could rightly fall into againe was the remembrance of this accident and I made my men many times to repeat me over and over againe whither I was going whence I came and at what houre that chance befell me before I could throughly conceive it Concerning the maner of my falling they in favor of him who had bin the cause of it concealed the truth from me and told me other flim flam tales But a while after and the morrow next when my memorie beganne to come to it selfe againe and represent the state vnto me wherein I was at the instant when I perceived the horse riding over me for being at my heeles I chanced to espie him and helde my selfe for dead yet was the conceite so sodaine that feare had no leasure to enter my thoughts me seemed it was a flashing or lightning that smote my soule with shaking and that I came from another world This discourse of so slight an accident is but vaine and frivolous were not the instructions I have drawne from thence for my vse For truly for a man to acquaint himselfe with death I finde no better way then to approch vnto it Now as Plinie saith every man is a good discipline vnto himselfe alwayes provided he be able to prie into himselfe This is not my doctrine it is but my studie And not another mans lesson but mine owne Yet ought no man to blame me if I impart the same What serves my turne may happily serve another mans otherwise I marre nothing what I make vse of is mine owne And if I play the foole it is at mine owne cost and without any other bodies interest For it is but a kind of folly that dies in me and hath no traine We have notice but of two or three former ancients that have trodden this path yet can we not say whether altogether like vnto this of mine for we know but their names No man since hath followed their steppes it is a thorny and crabbed enterprise and more then it makes shew of to follow so strange and vagabond a path as that of our spirit to penetrate the shady and enter the thicke-covered depths of these internall winding crankes To chuse so many and settle so severall aires of his agitations And t is a new extraordinary ammusing that distracts vs from the common occupation of the world yea and from the most recommended Many yeares are past since I have no other aime whereto my thoughts bend but my selfe and that I controule and study nothing but my selfe And if I study any thing else it is imediatly to place it vpon or to say better in my selfe And me thinkes I erre not as commonly men doe in other sciences without all comparison lesse profitable I impart what I have learn't by this although I greatly conâ—ent not my selfe with the progresse I have made therein There is no description so hard nor so profitable as is the description of a mans owne life Yet must a man handsomely trimme vp yea and dispose and range himselfe to appeare on the Theatre of this world Now I continually tricke vp my selfe for I vncessantly describe my selfe Custome hath made a mans speech of himselfe vicious And obstinately forbids it in hatred of boasting which ever seemeth closely to follow ones selfe witnesses whereas a man should wipe a childes nose that is now called to vn nose himselfe In vicium ducis culpae fuga Some shunning of some sinne Doe draw some further in I finde more evill then good by this remedie But suppose it were true that for a man to entertaine the company with talking of himselfe were necessarily presumption I ought not following my generall intent to refuse an action that publisheth this crazed quality since I have it in my selfe and I should not conceale this fault which I have not onely in vse but in profession Neverthelesse to speake my opinion of it this custome to condemne wine is much to blame because many are therewith made drunke Onely good things may be abvsed
being a prisoner and perceiving from a loft a Tower where he was kept that store of people flocked together on a greene and Carpenters were busie at worke to erect a skaffold supposing the same to be for him as one desperat resolved to kill himselfe and searching vp and downe for some thing to make himselfe away found nothing but an old rustie cart-naile which fortune presented him with he tooke it and therewithall with all the strength he had strooke and wounded himselfe twice in the throat but seeing it would not rid him of life he then thrust it into his bellie vp to the head where he left it fast-sticking Shortly after one of his keepers comming-in vnto him and yet living finding him in that miserable plight but weltring in his goare-blood and readie to gaspe his last told the Magistrates of it which to prevent time before he should die hastned to pronounce sentence against him which when he heard and that he was onely condemned to have his head cut-off he seemed to take heart of grace againe and to be sorie for what he had done and tooke some comfortable drinks which before he had refused greatly thanking the Iudges for his vnhoped gentle condemnation And told them that for feare of a more sharply-cruell and intollerable death by law he had resolved to prevent-it by some violent manner of death having by the preparations he had seen the Carpenters make and by gathering of people together conceived an opinion that they would torture him with some horrible torment and seemed to be delivered from death onely by the change of it Were I worthie to give counsell I would have these examples of rigor by which superior powers goe about to keep the common people in awe to be onely exercised on the bodies of criminall malefactors For to see them deprived of christian buriall to see them haled disbowelled parboyled and quartered might happly touch the common sort as much as the paines they make the living to endure howbeit in effect it be little or nothing as saith God Qui corpus occidunt postea non habent quod faciant Those that kill the bodie but have afterwards no more to doe And Poets make the horror of this picture greatly to prevaile yea and above death Hen reliquias semiassi Regis denudatis ossibus Per terram sanie delibutas foede divexarier O that the reliques of an halfe-burn't King bones bared On earth besmear'd with filth should be so fouly marred It was my fortune to be at Rome vpon a day that one Catena a notorious high-way theese was executed at his strangling no man of the companie seemed to be mooved to any ruth but when he came to be quartered the Executioner gave no blow that was not accompanied with a pitteous voyce and hartie exclamation as if every man had had a feeling sympathie or lent his senses to the poore mangled wretch Such inhumane outrages and barbarous excesses should be exercised against the rinde and not practised against the quicke In a case somewhat like vnto this did Artaxerces asswage and mittigate the sharpnesse of the ancient lawes of Persia appointing that the Lords which had trespassed in their estate whereas they were wont to be whipped they should be stripped naked and their clothes whipped for them and where they were accustomed to have their haire pulled-off they should onely have their hat taken off The Aegyptians so devout and religious thought they did sufficiently satisfie divine Iustice in sacrificing painted and counterfait hogges vnto it An over-hardy invention to go about with pictures shadowes to appease God a substance so essentiall and divine I live in an age wherein we abound with incredible examples of this vice through the licentiousnesse of our civill and intestine warres And read all ancient stories be they never so tragicall you shall find none to equall those we daily see practised But that hath nothing made me acquainted with it I could hardly be perswaded before I had seene it that the world could have afforded so marble-hearted and savage-minded men that for the onely pleasure of murther would commit-it then cut mangle and hacke other members in pieces to rouze and sharpen their wits to invent vnused tortures and vnheard-of torments to devise new and vnknowne deathes and that in cold blood without any former enmitie or quarrell or without any gaine or profite and onely to this end that they may enjoy the pleasing spectacle of the languishing gestures pittifull motions horror-moving yellings deep fetcht groanes and lamentable voyces of a dying and drooping man For that is the extreamest point whereunto the crueltie of man may attaine Vt homo hominem non iratus non timens tantum spectaturus occidat That one man should kill another neither being angrie nor afeard but onely to looke on As for me I could never so much as endure without remorse and griefe to see a poore sillie and innocent beast pursued and killed which is harmelesse and voide of defence and of whom we receive no offence at all And as it commonly hapneth that when the Stag begins to be embost and finds his strength to faile-him having no other remedie left him doth yeeld and bequeath himselfe vnto vs that pursue him with teares suing to vs for mercie questúque cruentus Atque imploranti similis With blood from throat and teares from eyes It seemes that he for pittie cryes was ever a grievous spectacle vnto me I seldom take any beast alive but I give him his libertie Pythagoras was wont to buy fishes of fishers and birds of fowlers to set them free againe primóque à cade ferarum Incaluisse puto maculatum sanguine ferrum And first our blades in blood embrude I deeme With slaughter of poore beasts did reeking steeme Such as by nature shew themselves bloodie-minded towards harmlesse beasts witnesse a naturall propension vnto crueltie After the ancient Romanes had once enured themselves without horror to behold the slaughter of wilde beasts in their shewes they came to the murther of men and Gladiators Nature I feare me hath of hir owne selfe added vnto man a certaine instinct to humanitie No man taketh delight to see wilde beasts sport and wantonly to make much one of another Yet all are pleased to see them tugge mangle and enterteare one an other And least any bodie should jeast at this simphathie which I have with them Divinitie it selfe willeth vs to shew them some favour And considering that one selfe-same master I meane that incomprehensible worlds-framer hath placed all creatures in this his woondrous pallace for his service and that they as well as we are of his houshold I say it hath some reason to injoyne vs to shew some respect and affection towards them Pythagoras borrowed Metempsychosis of the Aegyptians but since it hath been received of divers Nations and especially of our Druides Morte carent animae sempérque priore relictâ Sede novis
that which Anthistenes said that a man must provide himselfe either of wit to vnderstand or of a halter to hange himselfe And that which Chrysippus alleaged vpon the speech of the Poet Tyrtaeus De lavertu ou de mort approcher Or vertue to approch Or else let death incroch And Crates said that love was cured with hunger i◠not by time and in him that liked not these two meanes by the halter That Sextius to whom Seneca and Plutarke give so much commendation having given over all things else and betaken himselfe to the study of Philosophy seeing the progresse of his studies so tedious and slow purposed to cast himselfe into the Sea Ranne vnto death for want of knowledge Reade here what the law saith vpon this subject If peradventure any great inconvenience happen which cannot be remedied the haven is not farre-off and by swimming may a man save himselfe out of his body as out of a leaking boate for it is feare to die and not desire to live which keepes a foole joyned to his body As life through simplicity becommeth more pleasant So as I erewhile began to say becommeth-it more innocent and better The simple and the ignorant saith S. Paul raise themselves vp to heaven and take possession of it whereas we withall the knowledge we have plunge our selves downe to the pit of hell I rely neither vpon Valentinianus a professed enemy to knowledge and learning nor vpon Licinius both Roman Emperours who named them the venime and plague of all politike estates Nor on Mahomet who as I have heard doth vtterly interdict all maner of learning to his subjects But the example of that great Lycurgus and his authority ought to beare chiefe sway and thereverence of that divine Lacedemonian policy so great so admirable and so long time florishing in all vertue and felicity without any institution or exercise at all of letters Those who returne from that new world which of late hath beene discovered by the Spaniards can witnesse vnto vs how those nations being without Magistrates or law live much more regularly and formally then we who have amongst vs more Officers and lawes then men of other professions or actions Di cit atorie piene di libelli D'essamine di carte diprocure Hanno le mani e'lseno granfastelli Di chiose di consigli di letture Per cui le faculi â de'poverelli Non sono mai ne le citt à sicure Hanno dietre dinanzi d'ambo i lati Notai procuratori advocati Their hands and bosoms with writs and citations With papers libels proxjes full they beare And bundels great of strict examinations Of glosses counsels readings here and there Whereby in townes poore men of occupations Possesse not their small goods secure from feare Before behind on each sides Aduocates Proctors and Notaries hold vp debates It was that which a Roman Senatour said that their predecessors had their breath stinking of garlike and their stomake perfumed with a good conscience and contrary the men of his times outwardly smelt of nothing but sweet odours but inwardly they stunke of all vices Which in mine opinion is as much to say they had much Knowledge and Sufficiency but great want of honesty In civility ignorance simplicity and rudnesse are commonly joyned with innocency Curiosity subtilty and knowledge are ever followed with malice Humility feare obedience and honesty which are the principall instruments for the preservation of humane society require a single docile soule and which presumeth little of hir selfe Christians have a peculiar knowledge how curiosity is in a man a naturall and originall infirmity The care to encrease in wisedome and knowledge was the first overthrow of man-kinde It is the way whereby man hath headlong cast himselfe downe into eternall damnation Pride is his losse and corruption It is pride that misleadeth him from common waies that makes him to embrace all newfangles and rather chuse to be chiefe of a stragling troupe and in the path of perdition and be regent of some erronious sect and a teacher of falsehood then a disciple in the schoole of truth and suffer himselfe to be led and directed by the hand of others in the ready beaten high way It is happily that which the ancient Greeke proverbe implieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superstion obaieth pride as a father Oh overweening how much doest thou hinder vs Socrates being advertised that the God of wisedome had attributed the name of wise vnto him was thereat much astonished and diligently searching and rouzing vp himself ransaking the very secrets of his hart found no foundation or ground for this divine sentence He knew some that were as just as temperate as valiant and as wise as he and more eloquent more faire and more profitable to their country In fine he resolved that he was distinguished from others and reputed wise only because he did not so esteeme himselfe And that his God deemed the opinion of science and wisedome a singular sottishnes in man and that his best doctrine was the doctrine of ignorance and simplicitie his greatest wisedome The sacred writ pronounceth them to be miserable in this world that esteeme themselves Dust and ashes saith he what is there in thee thou shouldest so much glory of And in an other place God hath made man like vnto a shadowe of which who shall judge when the light being gone it shall vanish away Man is a thing of nothing So far are our faculties from conceiving that high Deitie that of our Creators works those beare his marke best and are most his owne which we vnderstand least It is an occasion to induce Christians to beleeve when they chance to meet with any incredible thing that it is so much the more according vnto reason by how much more it is against humane reason If it were according vnto reason it were no more a wonder and were it to be matched it were no more singular Melius scitur Deus nesoiendo God is better knowen by our not knowing him Saith S. Augustine And Tacitus Sanctius est ac reverentius de actis deorum credere quà m scire It is a course of more holinesse and neverence to hold beliefe then to have knowledge of Gods actions And Plato deemes it to be a vice of impiety over-curiously to enquire after God after the world and after the first causes of things Atque illum quidem parentem huius vniversit atis invenire difficile quum iam inveneris indicare in vulgus nesas Both it is difficult to finde out the father of this vniverse and when you have found him it is vnlawful to reveale him to the vulgar saith Cicero We easily pronounce puissance truth and justice they be words importing some great matter but that thing we neither see nor conceive We say that God feareth that God will be angry and that God loveth Immortalia mortali sermone notante◠Who with tearmes
Aegyptians with an impudent wisedome forbad vpon paine of hanging that no man should dare to say that Serapis and Isis their Gods had whilom been but men when all knew they had beene so And their images or pictures drawne with a finger a crosse their mouthes imported as Varro saith this misterious rule vnto their priests to conceale their mortall ofspring which by a necessary reason disanulled all their veneration Since man desired so much to equall himselfe to God it had beene better for him saith Cicero to draw those divine conditions vnto himselfe and bring them downe to earth then to send his corruption and place his miserie above in heaven but to take him aright he hath divers waies and with like vanitie of opinion done both the one and other When Philosophers blazon and display the Hierarchy of their gods and to the vtmost of their skil indevor to distinguish their aliances their charges and their powers I cannot beleeve they speake in good earnest when Plato decifreth vnto vs the orchard of Pluto and the commodities or corporall paines which even after the ruine and consumption of our bodie waite for vs and applyeth them to the apprehension or feeling we have in this life Secreti celant colles myrtia circùm Sylva tegit curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt Them paths aside conceale a mirtle grove Shades them round cares in death doe not remove When Mahomet promiseth vnto his followers aparadise all tapistred adorned with gold and precious stones peopled with exceeding beauteous damsels stored with wines and singular cates I well perceive they are but sooffers which sute and applie themselves vnto our foolishnesse thereby to enhonme and allure vs to these opinions and hopes fitting our mortall appetite Even so are some of our men falne into like errours by promising vnto themselves after their resurection a terrestriall and temporall life accompanied with al sorts of pleasures and worldly commodities Shall we thinke that Plato who had so heavenly conceptions and was so well acquainted with Divinity as of most he purchased the surname of Divine was ever of opinion that man this seely and wretched creature man had any one thing in him which might in any sort be applied and suted to this incomprehensible and vnspeakable power or ever imagined that our languishing hold fasts were capable or the vertue of our vnderstanding of force to participate or be partakers either of the blessednesse or eternall punishment He ought in the behalfe of humane reason be answered If the pleasures thou promisest vs in the other life are such as I have felt heere below they have nothing in them common with infinity If all my five naturall senses were even surcharged with joy and gladnesse and my soule possessed with all the contents and delights it could possibly desire or hope for and we know what it either can wish or hope for yet were it nothing If there bee any thing that is mine then is there nothing that is Divine if it be nothing else but what may appertaine vnto this our present condition it may not be accounted-of All mortall mens contentment is mortall The acknowledging of our parents of our children and of our friends if it can not touch move or tickle vs in the other world if we still take hold of such a pleasure we continue in Terrestrial and transitorie commodities We can not worthily conceive of these high mysterious and divine promises if wee can but in any sorte conceive them and so imagine them aright they must be thought to be inimaginable vnspeakeable and incomprehensible and absolutely and perfectly other then those of our miserable experience No eye can behold saith Sainte Paul The happe that God prepareth for his elect nor can it possibly enter the heart of man And if to make vs capable of it as thou saith Plato by thy purifications our being is reformed and essence changed it must be by so extreame and vniversall a change that according to Philosophicall doctrine we shall be no more our selves Hector erat tunc cùm bello certabat at ille Trâ—ctus ab Aemonio non er at Hector equo Hector he was when he in fight vs'd force Hector he was not drawne by th' enemies horse it shall be some other thing that shall receive these recompences quod mutatur dissolvitur interit ergo Traijciuntur enim partes at que ordine migrant What is chang'd is dissolved therefore dies Translated parts in order fall and rise For in the Metempsychosis or transmigration of soules of Pithagoras and the change of habitation which he imagined the soules to make shall we thinke that the Lion in whom abideth the soule of Caesar doth wed the passions which concerned Caesar or that it is hee And if it were hee those had some reason who debating this opinion against Plato object that the sonne might one day bee found committing with his mother vnder the shape of a Mules body and such like absurdities And shall wee imagine that in the transmigrations which are made from the bodies of some creatures into others of the same kind the new succeeding-ones are not other then their predecessors were Of a Phenixes cinders first as they say is engendred a worme and then another Phenix who can imagine that this second Phenix be no other and different from the first Our Silk-wormes are seene to die and then to wither drie and of that body breedeth a Butter-flie and of that a worme were it not ridiculous to thinke the same to be the first Silkeworm what hath once lost his being is no more Nec si materiam nostram collegerit aetas Post obitum rursúmque redegerit vt sita nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae Pertineat quidquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel cùm sit repet entia nostra If time should recollect when life is past Our stuffe and it replace as now t is plac't And light of life were granted vs againe Yet nothing would that deede to vs pertaine When interrupted were our turne againe And Plato when in another place thou saist that it shall be the spirituall part of man that shall enjoy the recompences of the other life thou tellest of things of as small likely-hood Scilicet avulsis radicibus vt nequit vllam Dispicere ipse oculus rem seorsum corpore toto Ev'n as no eye by th'root's pull'd-out can see Ought in whole body severall to bee For by this reckoning it shall no longer be man nor consequently vs to whom this enjoying shall appertaine for we are builte of two principall essentiall parts the separation of which is the death and consummation of our being Inter enim iacta est vitai causa vagèque Dâ—â—rrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes A pause of life is interpos'd from sense All motions straied are farre wandring thence we doe not say that man
suffereth when the wormes gnaw his body and limbes whereby he lived and that the earth consumeth them Et nihil hoc ad nos qui coitu coniugioque Corporis atque animae consistimus vniter apti This nought concern's vs who consist of vnion Of minde and body joyn'd in meete communion Moreover vpon what ground of their justice can the Gods reward man and be thankefull vnto him after his death for his good and vertuous actions since themselves addressed and bred them in him And wherefore are they offended and revenge his vicious deedes when themselves have created him with so defective a condition and that but with one twinkling of their will they may hinder him from sinning Might not Epicurus with some shew of humane reason object that vnto Plato if he did not often shrowd himselfe vnder this sentence That it is vnpossible by mortall nature to establish any certainty of the immortall Shee is ever straying but especially when she medleth with divine matters Who feeles it more evidently then we For although we have ascribed vnto hir assured and infallible principles albeit wee enlighten hir steps with the holy lampe of that truth which God hath beene pleased to impart vnto vs we notwithstanding see daily how little soever she stray from the ordinary path and that she start or stragle out of the way traced and measured out by the Church how soone she looseth entangleth and confoundeth hir selfe turning tossing and floating vp and downe in this vast troublesome and tempestious sea of mans opinions without restraint or scope So soone as she looseth this high and common way shee devideth and scattereth hir selfe a thousand diverse waies Man can be no other then he is nor imagine but according to his capacitie It is greater presumption sath Plutarke in them that are but men to attempt to reason and discourse of Gods and of demie-Gods then in a man meerly ignorant of musicke to judge of those that sing or for a man that was never in warres to dispute of Armes and warre presuming by some light conjecture to comprehend the effects of an arte altogether beyond his skill As I thinke Antiquity imagined it did something for divine Majesty when shee compared the same vnto man attiring hir with his faculties and enriching hir with his strange humours and most shamefull necessities offering hir some of our cates to feede vpon and some of our dances mummeries and enterludes to make hir merry with our clothes to apparrell hir and our houses to lodge hir cherishing hir with the sweet odors of incense and sounds of musicke adorning hir with garlands and flowers and to draw her to our vicious passion to flatter her justice with an in humane revenge gladding her with the ruine and dissipation of things created and preserved by her As Tiberius Sempronius who for a sacrifice to Vulcane caused the rich spoiles and armes which he had gotten of his enemies in Sardinia to be burned And Paulus Emilius those he had obtayned in Macedonia to Mars and Minerva And Alexander comming to the Ocean of India cast in favour of Thetis many great rich vessels of gold into the Sea replenishing moreover hir Alters with a butcherly slaughter not onely of innocent beasts but of men as diverse Nations and amongst the rest ours were wont to doe And I thinke none hath beene exempted from shewing the like Essayes Suâ—mone creatos Quatuor hic iuuenes totidem quos educat Vfens Viventes rapit inferias quos immolet vmbris Foure yong-men borne of Sulmo and foure more Whom Vfens bred he living over-bore Whom he to his dead friend A sacrifice might send The Getes deeme themselves immortall and their death but the beginning of a jorney to their God Zamolxis From five to five yeares they dispatch some one among themselves toward him to require him of necessarie things This deputie of theirs is chosen by lottes And the manner to dispatch him after they have by word of mouth instructed him of his charge is that amongst those which assist his election three holde so many javelins vpright vpon which the others by meere strength of armes throwe him if he chance to sticke vpon them in any mortall place and that he die suddenly it is to them an assured argument of divine favor but if he escape they deeme him a wicked and execrable man and then chuse another Amestris mother vnto Xerxes being become aged caused at one time 14. yoong striplings of the noblest houses of Persia following the religion of hir countrie to be buried all alive thereby to gratifie some God of vnder-earth Even at this day the Idols of Temixitan are cimented with the blood of yong children and love no sacrifice but of such infant and pure soules Oh justice greedie of the blood of innocencie Tantum religio potuit suâ—dere malorum Religion so much mischeefe could Perswade where it much better should The Carthaginians were wont to sacrifice their owne children vnto Saturne and who had none was faine to buy some and their fathers and mothers were enforced in their proper persons with cheerefull and pleasant countenance to assist that office It was a strange conceite with our owne affliction to goe about to please and appay divine goodnes As the Lacedemomans who flattered and wantonized their Diana by torturing of yong boyes whom often in favor of hir they caused to be whipped to death It was a savage kinde of humor to thinke do gratifie the Architect with the subversion of his architecture and to cancel the punishment due vnto the guiltie by punishing the guiltles and to imagine that poore Iphigenia in the port of Aulis should by hir death and sacrifice discharge and expiate towards God the Grecians armie of the offences which they had committed Et casta inceste nubendi tempore in ipso Hostia concider et mactatu moest a parentis She a chast offring griev'd incestuously By fathers stroke when she should wed to die And those two noble and generous soules of the Decij father and sonne to reconcile and appease the favor of the Gods towards the Romanes affaires should head long cast their bodies athwart the thickest throng of their enemies Quae fuit tanta Deorum iniquitas vt placari populo Romano non possint nisi tales viri occidissent What iniustice of the Gods was so great as they could not be appeased vnlesse such men perished Considering that it lies not in the offender to cause himselfe to be whipped how and when he list but in the judge who accoumpteth nothing a right punishment except the torture he appointeth and cannot impute that vnto punishment which is in the free choise of him that suffereth The divine vengeance presupposeth our full dissent for his justice and our paine And ridiculous was that humor of Polycrates the Tyrant of Samos who to interrupt the course of his continuall happines and to recompence-it cast the richest and most precious jewell he
being Wherfore we must conclude that onely God is not according to any measure of time but according to an immoovable and immutable eternity not measured by time nor subiect to any declination before whom nothing is nor nothing shall be after nor more now nor more recent but one really being which by one onely Now or Present filleth the Ever and there is nothing that truly is but the alone Without saying he hath beene or he shall be without beginning and sans ending To this so religious conclusion of a heathen man I will onely adde this word taken from a testimony of the same condition for an end of this long and period of this tedious discourse which might well furnish me with endlesse matter Oh what a vile and abiect thing is man saith he vnlesse he raise himselfe aboue humanity Observe here a notable speech and a profitable desire but likewise absurd For to make the handful greater than the hand and the embraced greater then the arme and to hope to straddle more than our legs length is impossible and monstious nor that man should mount over and above himselfe or humanity for he cannot see but with his owne eies nor take hold but with his owne armes He shall raise himselfe vp if it please God extraordinarily to lend him his helping hand He may elevate himselfe by forsaking and renouncing his owne meanes and suffering himselfe to be elevated and raised by meere heavenly meanes It is for our Christian faith not for his Stoicke vertue to pretend or aspire to this divine Metamorphosis or miraculous transmutation The thirteenth Chapter Of iudging of others death WHen we judge of others assurance or boldnesse in death which without all peradventure is the most remarkeable action of humane life great heed is to be taken of one thing which is that a man will hardly beleeve he is come to that point Few men die with a resolution that it is their last houre And no where doth hopes deceit ammuse vs more She never ceaseth to ring in our eares that others have beene sicker and yet have not died the cause is not so desperate as it is taken and if the worst happen God hath done greater wonders The reason is that we make to much account of our selves It seemeth that the generality of things doth in some sort suffer for our annullation and takes compassion of our state Forsomuch as our sight being altered represents vnto it selfe things alike and we imagine that things faile it as it doth to them As they who travell by Sea to whom mountaines fields townes heaven and earth seene to goe the same motion and keepe the same course they doe Provehimur portu terraeque vrbésque recedunt We sayling launch from harbour and Behinde our backee leave townes leave land Who ever saw old age that commended not times past and blamed not the present charging the world and mens customes with hir misery and lowring discontent Iámque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Et cùm tempor a temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis laudat fortunas saepe parentis Et crepat antiquum genus vt pietate repletum The gray-beard Plow-man sighes shaking his hoary head Compares times that are now with times past heretofore Praises the fortunes of his father long since dead And crakes of ancient men whose honesty was more We entertaine and carry all with vs Whence it followeth that we deeme our death to be some great matter and which passeth not so easily nor without a solemne consultation of the Starres Tot circa vâ—um caput tumultuantes Deos. So many Gods keeping a stirre about one mans life And so much the more we thinke it by how much more we praise our selves What Should so much learning and knowledge be lost with so great dommage without the Destinies particular care A soule so rare and exemplar costs it no more to be killed then a popular and vnprofitable soule This life that covereth so many others of whom so many other lives depend that for his vse possesseth so great a part of the world and filleth so many places is it displaced as that which holdeth by it's owne simple string No one of vs thinkes it sufficient to be but one Thence came those words of Caesar to his pilot more proudly swolne then the Sea that threatned him Italiam si caelo authore recusas Mepete sola tibi causa haec est iusta timoris Vectorem non nosse tuum perrumpe procellas Tutelâ secure maie If Italie thou do refuse with heav'n thy guide Turne thee to me to thee only just cause of feare Is that thy passinger thou know'st not stormie tide Breake through secure by guard of me whom thou dost beare And these credit iam digna pericula Caesar Fatis esse suis tantúsque evertere dixit Mesuperis labor est parvâ qâ—em puppe sedentem Tam magno petiere mari Cesar doth now beleeve those dangers worthie are Of his set fate and saies doe Gods take so much paine Me to vndoe whom they thus to assault prepare Set in so small a skiffe in such a surging maine And this common foppery that Phoebus for one whole yeare bare mourning weedes on his forehead for the death of him Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam Cùm caput obscurá nitidum ferrugine texit The Snnne did pittie take of Rome when Caesar dide When he his radiant head in obscure rust did hide And a thousand such wherewith the world suffers it selfe to be so easily conicatcht deeming that our owne interests disturbe heaven and his infinitie is moved at our least actions Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est vt nostro fato mortalis sit ille quoque siderum fulgor There is no such societie betweene heaven and vs that by our destinie the shining of the starres should be mort all as we are And to judge a resolution and constancie in him who though he be in manifest danger dooth not yet beleeve it it is no reason And it sufficeth not that he die in that ward vnlesse he have directly and for that purpose put himselfe into it It hapneth that most men set a sterne countenance on the matter looke big and speake stoutly thereby to acquire reputation which if they chance to live they hope to enjoy Of all I have seene die fortune hath disposed their countenances but not their desseignes And of those which in ancient times have put themselves to death the choise is great whether it were a sodaine death or a death having time and leasure That cruell Romane Emperor said of his prisoners that he would make them feele death And if any fortuned to kill himselfe in prison That fellow hath escaped me would he say He would extend and linger death and cause it be felt by torments Vidimus toto quamuis in corpore caese Nil animae let hale datum morémque nefandae Durum
poetae confugiunt ad Deum cùm explicare argumenti exitum non pâ—ssunt As Poets that write Tragedies have recourse to some God when they cannot vnfold the end of their argument Since men by reason of their insufficiencie cannot well pay themselves with good lawfull coyne let them also employ false mony This meane hath beene practised by all the law-givers And there is no common-wealth where there is not some mixture either of ceremonious vanitie or of false opinion which as a restraint serveth to keepe the people in awe and dutie It is therefore that most of them have such fabulous grounds and trifling beginnings and enriched with supernaturall mysteries It is that which hath given credite vnto adulterate and vnlawful religions and hath induced men of vnderstanding to favour and countenance them And therefore did Numa and Sertorius to make their men have a beter beliefe feede them with this foppery the one that the Nimph Egeria the other that his white Hinde brought him all the counsel she tooke from the Gods And the same authoritie which Numa gave his Lawes vnder the title of this Goddesses patronage Zoroastres Law giver to the Bactrians and Persians gave it to his vnder the name of the God Oromâ—zis Trismegistus of the Aegyptians of Mercurie Zamolzis of the Scithians of Vesta Charondas of the Chalcid onians of Saturne Minos of the Candiots of Iupiter Lycurgus of the Lacedemonians of Apollo Dracon and Solon of the Athenians of Minerva And every common wealth hath a God to her chief all others falsly but that truly which Moses instituted for the people of Iewry desceded from Aegypt The Bedoins religion as saith the Lord of Iovinuile held among other things that his soule which among them al died for his Prince went directly into another more happy body much fairer and stronger than the first by means wherof they much more willingly hazarded their live for his sake In ferrum mens pronavirâ—â— animaque capaces Mortis ignavum est rediturae parcerevitae Those men sword minded can death entertaine Thinke base to spare the life that turnes againe Loe-heere although very vaine a most needefull doctrine and profitable beliefe Everie Nation hath store of such examples in itselfe But this subject would require a severall discourse Yet to say a word more concerning my former purpose I doe not counsell Ladies any longer to call their duty honour vt enim consuetudo loquitur id solum dicitur honestum quod est populari famâ gloriosum For as custome speakes that onely is called honest which is glorious by popular report Their duty is the marke their honour but the barke of it Nor doe I perswade them to give vs this excuse of their refusall in payment for I suppose their intentions their desire and their will which are parts wherein honor can see nothing forasmuch as nothing appeareth outwardly there are vet more ordred then the effects Quae quia non liceat non facit illa facit She doth it though she doe it not Because she may not doe 't God wot The offence both toward God and in conscience would be as great to desire it as to effect the same Besides they are in themselves actions secret and hid it might easily be they would steale some one from others knowledge whence honor dependeth had they no other respect to their duty and affection which they beare vnto chastity in regard of it selfe Each honorable person chuseth rather to loose his honour then to forgoe his conscience The seuenteenth Chapter Of Presumption THere is another kinde of glorie which is an over-good opinion we conceive of our worth It is an inconsiderate affection wherewith wee cherish our selves which presents-vs vnto our selves other then wee are As an amorous passion addeth beauties and lendeth graces to the subject it embraceth and maketh such as are therewith possessed with a troubled conceite and distracted Iudgement to deeme what they love and finde what they affect to bee other and seeme more perfect then in trueth it is Yet would I not have a man for feare of offending in that point to misacknowledge himselfe nor thinke to bee lesse then hee is A true Iudgement should wholy and in every respect maintaine his right It is reason that as in other things so in this subject hee see what truth presenteh vnto him If hee be Caesar let him hardly deeme himselfe the greatest Captaine of the world We are nought but ceremonie ceremonie doth transport vs and wee leave the substance of things wee hold-fast by the boughs and leave the trunke or body We have taught Ladies to blush onely by hearing that named which they nothing feare to doe Wee dare not call our members by their proper names and feare not to employ them in all kinde of dissolutenesse Ceremonie forbids vs by words to expresse lawfull and naturall things and we believe it Reason willeth vs to doe no bad or vnlawfull things and no man giveth credite vnto it Heare I find my selfe entangled in the lawes of Ceremonie for it neither allowes a man to speake ill or good of himselfe Therefore will wee leave her at this time Those whom Fortune whether wee shall name her good or bad hath made to passe their life in some eminent or conspicuous degree may by their publike actions witnesse what they are but those whom she never emploied but in base things and of whom no man shall ever speake except themselves doe it they are excusable if they dare speake of themselves to such as have interest in their acquaintance after the example of Lucilius Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim Credebat libris neque si malè cesser at vsquam Decurreâ—s aliâ— neque si benè quo fit vt omnis Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ Vita sâ—nis He trusted to his booke as to his trusty friend His secrets nor did he to other refuge bend How ever well or ill with him his fortune went Hence is it all the life is seene the old man spent As it were in a Table noted Which were vnto some God devoted This man committed his actions and imaginations to his paper and as he felt so he pourtraied himselfe Nec id Rutiliâ— Scauro citra fidem aut obâ—rectationifuit Nor was that without credit or any imputation to Rutilius or Scaurus I remember then that even from my tenderest infancy some noted in me a kind of I know not what fashion in carrying of my body and gestures witnessing a certaine vaine and foolish fiercenesse This I will first say of it that it is not inconvenient to have conditions so peculiar and propensions so incorporated in vs that we have no meane to feele or way to know them And of such naturall inclinations vnknowne to vs and without our consent the body doth easily retaine some signe or impression It was an affectation witting of his beauty which made Alexander to bend his head
to like purpose And Kings ought often to be put in minde of it to make them feele that this great charge which is given them of the commandement over so many men is no idle charge and that there is nothing may so justly distaste a subject from purting himselfe in paine and danger for the service of his Prince then therewhilst to see him given to lazinesse to base and vaine occupations and to have care of his conservation seeing him so carelesse of ours If any shall goe about to maintaine that it is better for a Prince to manage his warres by others then by himselfe Fortune will store him with sufficient examples of those whose Lieutenants have atchieved great enterprises and also of some whose presence would have beene more hurtfull then profitable But no vertuous and coragious Prince will endure to be entertained with so shamefull instructions Vnder colour of preserving his head as the statue of a saint for the good fortune of his estate they degrade him of his office which is altogether in military actions and declare him vncapable of it I know one would rather chuse to be beaten then sleepe whilst others fight for him and who without jelousie never saw his men performe any notable act in his absence And Selim the first had reason to say that he thought victories gotten in the masters absence not to be compleate So much more willingly would he have said that such a master ought to blush for shame who onely by his name should pretend any share in it having therevnto employed nothing but his thought and verbal direction Nor that since in such a busines the advises and commandements which bring honor are only those given in the field and even in the action No Pilote exerciseth his office standing stil The princes of Otomans race the chefest race in the world in warlike fortune have earnestly embraced this opinion And Baiazeth the second with his sonne who ammusing themselves about Sciences and other private home-matters neglected the same gave diverse prejudiciall blowes vnto their Empire And Amurath the third of that name who now raigneth following their example beginneth very well to feele their fortune Was it not the King of England Edward the third who spake these words of our King Charles the fifth There was never King that lesse armed himselfe and yet was never King that gave me so much to doe and put me to so many plunges He had reason to thinke it strange as an effect of fortune rather then of reason And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors seeke for some other adherent then my selfe forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias onely by the conduct and direction of their factors of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person The Emperor Iuhan said moreover that a Philosopher and gallant minded man ought not so much as breath that is to say not to give corporall necessities but what may not be refused them ever holding both minde and body busied about notable great and vertuous matters He was ashamed any man should see him spitte or sweat before people which is also said of the Lacedemonian youths and Xenphon reporeth it of the Persian forasmuch as he thought that continuall travel exercise and sobriety should have concocted and dried vp all such superfluities What Seneca saith shall not impertinently be alleaged here That the ancient Romanes kept their youth vpright and taught their children nothing that was to be learned sitting It is a generous desire to endevor to die both profitable and manlike But the effect consisteth not so much in our good resolution as in our good fortune A thousand have resolved to vanquish or to die fighting which have missed both the one and other Hurts or emprisonment crossing their desseigne and yeelding them a forced kinde of life There are diseases which vanquish our desires and knowledge Fortune should not have seconded the vanitie of the Romane Legions who by othe bound themselves either to die or conquer Victor Marce Fabi revertar ex acie Si fallo lovem patrem Gradiuumque Martem alâ—osque iratos inveco Deos. I will O Marcus Fabius returne conqueror from the armie If in this I deceive you I wish both great Iupiter and Mars and the other Gods offended with me The Portugalles report that in certaine places of their Indian conquests they found some Souldiers who with horrible execrations had damned themselves never to enter into any composition but either they would be killed or remaine victorious and in signe of their voweâ—ore their heads and beards shaven We may hazard and obstinate our selves long enough It seemeth that blowes shunne them who over-joyfully present themselves vnto them and vnwillingly reach those that overwillingly goe to meete them and corrupt their end Some vnable to loose his life by his adversaries force having assaied all possible meanes hath beene enforced to accomplish his resolution either to beare away the honor or not to carie away his life and even in the fury of the fight to put himselfe to death There are sundrie examples of it but nete this one Philistus chiefe Generall of yong Dionisius his navie against the Siracusans presented them the battle which was very sharply withstood their forces being alike wherein by reason of his prowesse he had the better in the beginning But the Siracusans flocking thicke and threefold about his gally to grapple and board him having performed many worthie exploytes with his owne person to riddâ— himselfe from them disparing of all escape with his owne hand deprived himselfe of that life which so lavishly and in vaine he had abandoned to his enemies hands Moleâ— Moluch King of Fez who not long since obtained that famous victorie against Sebastian King of Portugall a notable victorie by reason of the death of three Kings and transmission of so great a Kingdome to the crowne of Castile chansed to be grievously sicke at what time the Portugales with armed hand entred his dominions and afterward though hee foresaw it approching nearer vnto death empaired worse and worse Never did man more stoutly or more vigorously make vse of an vndanted courage than he He found himselfe very weake to endure the ceremonious pompe which the Kings of that Country at their entrance into he Camp are presented withall which according to their fashion is full of all magnificence and state and charged with all maner of action and therefore he resigned that honour to his brother yet resigned he nothing but the office of the chiefe Captaine Himselfe most gloriously executed and most exactly perfourmed all other necessarie duties and profitable Offices Holding his body laid along his cowch but his minde vpright and courage constant even to his last gaspe and in some sort after He might have vndermined his enemies who were fond-hardily
sorte our ancient French leaving the high Countries of Germanie came to possesse Gaule whence they displaced the first Inhabitants Thus grew that infinite confluence of people which afterward vnder Brennus and others over-ranne Italie Thus the Gothes and Vandalles as also the Nations which possesse Greece left their naturall countries to go where they might have more elbow-roome And hardly shall we see two or three corners in the worlde that have not felt the effect of such a remooving alteration The Romanes by such meanes erected their Colonies for perceiving their Cittie to growe over-populous they were wont to discharge it of vnnecessarie people which they sent to inhabite and manure the Countries they had subdued They have also sometimes maintained warre wiâ—h some of their enemies not onely thereby to keepe their men in breath lest Idlenesse the mother of Corruption should cause them some worse inconvenience Et patimur longae pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incumbit We suffer of long peace the soking harmes On vs lies luxury more fierce then armes But also to let the Common-wealth bloud and somewhat to allay the over vehement heat of their youth to lop the sprigs and thin the branches of this over-spreading tree too much abounding in ranknesse and gaillardise To this purpose they maintained a good while war with the Carthaginians In the treaty of Bretigny Edward the third King of England would by no meanes comprehend in that generall peace the controversie of the Dutchie of Britany to the end he might have some way to disburthen himselfe of his men of war and that the multitude of English-men which he had emploied about the warres of France should not returne into England It was one of the reasons induced Philip our King to consent that his sonne Iohn should be sent to warre beyond the seas that so he might carry with him a great number of yong hot-blouds which were amongst his trained military men There are divers now adaies which will speake thus wishing this violent and burning emotion we see and feele amongst vs might be derived to some neighbour war fearing lest those offending humours which at this instant are predominant in our bodie if they be not diverted elsewhere will still maintaine our fever in force and in the end cause our vtter destruction And in truth a forraine warre is nothing so dangerous a disâ—ase as a civill But I will not beleeve that God would favour so vnjust an enterprise to offend and quarrell with others for our commodity Nil mihi tam valdè placeat Rhammusia virgo Quòd temerè invitis suscipiatur heris That fortune likes me not which is constrained By Lords vnwilling rashly entertained Notwithstanding the weaknesse of our condition doth often vrge vs to this necessity to vse bad meanes to a good end Lycurgus the most vertuous and perfect Law-giver that ever was devised this most vnjust fashion to instruct his people vnto temperance by force to make the Helotes which were their servants to be drunke that seeing them so lost and buried in wine the Spartanes might abhor the excesse of that vice Those were also more to be blamed who anciently allowed that criminall offendors what death soever they were condemned vnto should by Phisitians all alive be torne in pieces that so they might naturally see our inward parts and thereby establish a more assured certainty in their arte For if a man must needes erre or debauch himselfe it is more excusable if he doe it for his soules health then for his bodies good As the Romans trained vp and instructed their people to valour and contempt of dangers and death by the outragious spectacles of Gladiators and deadly fighting Fencers who in presence of them all combated mangled sliced and killed one another Quid vesani aliud sibi vult ars impia luds Quid mortes iuvenum quid sanguine pasta voluptas What else meanes that mad arte of impious fense Those yong-mens deaths that blood-fed pleasing sense which custome continued even vntill the time of Theodosius the Emperour Arripe delatam tua dux in tempora famam Quódque patris superest successor laudis habeto Nullus in vrbe cadat cuius sit poena voluptas Iam solis contenta feris infamis arena Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis The fame defer'd to your times entertaine Enherite praise which doth from Sire remaine Let none die to give pleasure by his paine Be shamefull Theaters with beastes content Not in goar'd armes mans slaughter represent Surely it was a wonderfull example and of exceeding benefit for the peoples institution to see dayly one or two hundred yea sometimes a thousand brace of men armed one against another in their presence to cut and hacke one another in pieces with so great constancy of courage that they were never seene to vtter one word of faintnesse or commiseration never to turne their backe nor so much as to shew a motion of demissenesse to avoide their adversaries blowes but rather to extend their neckes to their swords and present themselves vnto their strokes It hath hapned to diverse of them who through many hurts being wounded to death have sent to aske the people whether they were satisfied with their duty before they would lie downe in the place They must not onely fight and die constantly but jocondly in such sort as they were cursed and bitterly scolded at if in receiving their death they were any way seene to strive yea maidnes encited them to it consurgit adictus Et quoties victor ferrum iugulo inserit illa Delicias ait esse suas pectúsque iacentis Virgo modesta iubet converso pollice rumpi The modest maide when wounds are giv'n vpriseth When victors sword the vanquisht throate surpriseth She saith it is hir sport and doth command T'embrue the conquer'd breast by signe of hand The first Romans disposed thus of their criminals But afterward they did so with their innocent servants yea of their free-men which were sold to that purpose yea of Senators and Roman Knights and women also Nunc caput in mortem vendunt fumus arenae Atque hostem sibi quisque parat cùm bella quiescunt They sell mens lives to death and Stages sight When wars doe cease they finde with whom to fight Hos inter fremitus novósque lusus Stat sexus rudis insciúsque ferri Et pugnas capit improbus viriles Amidst these tumults these strange sporting sights That Sex doth sit which knowes not how sword bites And entertaines vnmov'd those manly fights Which I should deeme very strange and incredible if we were not dayly accustomed to see in our wars many thousands of forraine nations for a very small some of mony to engage both their blood and life in quarrels wherein they are nothing interessed The foure and twentieth Chapter Of the Roman greatnesse I Will but speake a word of this infinite argument and slightly glance at it to shew
kindled That done she commeth downe againe and taking the nearest of hir Husbands kindred by the hand they goe together to the nex River where shee strippes hir selfe all naked and distributeth hir jewels and clothes among hir friends then plungeth herselfe in the Water as if she meant to wash away hir sins then comming out she enwrappeth herselfe in a yellow piece of linnen cloth about the length of fourteene yards And giving hir hand againe vnto hir Husbands Kins-man they returne vnto the Mount where she speakes vnto the people to whom if she have any she recommendeth hir Children Betweene the Pitte and Mount there is commonly a Curtaine drawne lest the sight of that burning furnace might dismay them Which many to shew the greater courage will not have it drawne Her speech ended a Woman presenteth her with a Vessell ful of Oyle therewith to annoint hir head and body which done she casteth the rest into the fire and there withall sodainely flings herselfe into it Which is no sooner done but the people cast great store of Faggoâ—s and Billets vpon hir lest she should languish over-long and all their joy is converted into griefe and sorrow If they be persons of meane quality the dead mans body is carried to the place where they intend to bury him and there he is placed sitting his Widdow kneeling before him with hir armes close about his middle and so keepeth hirselfe whilest a Wall is erected vp about them both which raised to the height of her shoulders some of her kindred taking her by the head behind wrings her neck about and having given the last gaspe the wall is immediately made vp close over their heades wherein they remaine buried In the same Country there was something like to this in their Gymnosophists or wise-men who not by meanaces-or compulsions of others nor by the violence of a sodaine humour but by the expresse and voluntary profession of their rule their maner was according as they attained vnto a certaine age or saw themselves threatned by some sickenesse to cause a pile of Wood to be erected and vpon it a rich bedde and having cheerefully feasted their friends and acquaintance with such a resolution laide themselves downe in that bedde that fire set vnto it they were never seene to stirre nor hand nor foote and thus died one of them named Calanus in the presence of all the army of Alexander the Great And who had not so made himselfe away was neither esteemed holy nor absolutely happy amongst them sending his soule purged and purified by fire after it had consumed whatsoever was mortall and iterrestriall in it This constant premeditation of al the life is that which makes the wonder Amongest our other disputation that of Fatum hath much entermedled it selfe and to joyne future things and our will it selfe vnto a certaine vnavoidable necessity wee yet stand vpon that argument of former times since God foreseeth all things must thus happen as vndoubtedly he doeth They must then necessarily happen so To which our Clarks and Maisters answere that to see any thing come to passe as we doe and likewise God for hee being present in full essence rather feeth than foreseeth is not to force the same to happen yea we see because things come to passe but things happen not because we see The hapning makes the science or knowledge and not knowledge the happening What we see come to passe happeneth but it might come to passe otherwise And God in the eternall register of the causes of happenings which he hath in his prescience hath also those which are called casuall and the voluntary which depend of the liberty he hath given vnto our free wil and knoweth we shall faile because our will shall have beene to faile I have seene diverse encourage their troupes with this fatall necessitie For if our houre be tied vnto a certaine point neither the musket-shottes of our enemies nor our courage nor our flight and cowardize can either advance or recoyle the same This may well be saide but seeke you who shall effect it And if it be so that a strong and lively faith doth likewise draw action after it truely this faith wherewith wee so much fill our mouths is marvelous light in our times except the contempt it hath of workes make her disdaine their company So it is that to the same purpose the Lord of Ioinville as credible a witnesse as any other tells vs of the Bedoins a nation entermingled with the Saracine with whom our King Saint Lewes had to deale in the holy land who so confidently believed in their religion the dayes of every one to be prefixed and numbred from all eternitie by an inevitable preordinance that they went all bare and naked to the warres except a Turkish Glaive in their hand and their body covered but with a white linnen-cloth And for the the bitterest curse if they chanced to fall out one with another they had ever in their mouth Cursed be thou as he that armeth himselfe for feare of death Here is another maner of triall or a beliefe or faith then ours In this rank may likewise be placed that which those two religious men of Florence not long since gave vnto their countrymen Being in some controversie betweene themselves about certaine points of learning they accorded to goe both into the fire in the presence of all the people and in the open market place each one for the verifying of his opinion and all preparations were ready made an execution to be performed but that by an vnexpected accident it was interrupted A yong Turkish Lord having atchieved a notable piece of service in armes and with his owne person in full view of the two battels betweene Ammurath Huniades ready to be joyned together being demanded by Ammurath his Prince who being so yong and vnexperienced for is was the first warre oâ— service he had seene before had replenished him with so generous and vndanted vigor of courage answered that a Hare had beene his soveraigne maister and onely teacher of valour and thus began his speech Being one day a hunting I found a Hare sitting in her forme and although I had a brace of excellent good gray-houndes with me in a slip or leash I thought it good because I would be sure of my game to vse my bow for she was a very faire marke I beganne to shootâ— my arrowes at her which I did to the number of fortie for in my quiver were iust so many yet could I never hurt her no not so much as start her After all this I let slip my gray-hounds who could doe no more then I had done by which I learnt that she had beene sheltred and defended by her destinie and that no glaives nor arrowes never hit but by the permission of our fatalitie which it lieth not in vs to avoide or advance This storie may serve to make vs perceive by the way how flexible our reason is
to all sorts of Objects A notable man great in yeares in name in dignity and in learning vaunted himselfe vnto me that he was induced to a certaine most important change of his religion by a strange and fantasticall incitation and in all things so il-concluding that I deemed the same stronger and more forcible being taken contrary He termed it a miracle and so did I but in a different sense Their historians say that perswasion having popularly beene scattered amongst the Turkes of the fatall and inflexible prescription of their dayes doth apparantly ayde to warrant and emboulden them in dangers And I know a great Prince who happily thrives by it be it he beleive it or take it for an excuse to hazard himselfe extraordinarily provided fortune be not soone wearie to favour and backe him There hath not happened in our memorie a more admirable effect of resolution than of those two villaines that conspired the death of the Prince of Orange It is strange how the last who perfourmed the same could be induced or encouraged to vndergoe such an enterprise wherein his fellow though he had resolutely attempted it and had all might be required for such an action had so ill successe and miscarried And in these steps and with the same weapons to goe and vndertake a Lord armed with so late an instruction of distrust mighty in friends and followers puissant of bodily strength in his owne hall amiddest his servants and guarde and in a Citty wholy at his devotion It must of force be saide that in perfourming it he employed a well-directed and resolute hand and a dreadlesse courage mooved by a vigorous passion A Poynard is more sure to wound a man which forsomuch as it requireth more motion and vigor of the arme than a pistole it 's stroke is more subject to be hindred or avoided That the first ranne not to an assured death I make no great doubt for the hopes wherewith hee might be entertained could not harbour in a well setled and resolute minde and the conduct of his exploit sheweth hee wanted no more that then courage The motions of so forcible a perswasion may be diverse for our fantasie disposeth of her selfe and of vs as she pleaseth The execution committed neere Orleans had no coherence with this wherein was more hazard then vigor the blow was not mortall had not fortune made it so and the enterprise to shoote on horse-backe and farre-off and to one who mooved still according to the motion of his horse was the attempt of a man that rather loved to misse of his effect then faile to save himselfe What followed did manifestly shew it For he was so amazed drunken with the thought of so haughty an execution as he lost all his senses both to worke his escape and direct his tongue in his answeres What needed he have done more then recover his friends by crossing of a river It is a meane wherin I have cast my selfe in farre lesse dangers and which I thinke of small hazard how broade soever alwayes provided your horse finde an easie entrance and on the further side you foresee an easie and shallow landing according to the course of the streame of the water The second when the horrible sentence was pronounced against him answered stowtly I was prepared for it and I shall amaze you with my patience The Assassines a nation depending of Phaenicia are esteemed among the Mahometists of a soveraigne devotion and puritie of maners they hold that the readiest and shortest way to gaine Paradise is to kill some one of a contrary religion therefore hath it often beene seene that one or two in their bare doublets have vndertaken to assault mightie enemies with the price of an assured death and without any care of their owne danger And thus was our Earle Raymond of Tripoli murthered or assassinated this word is borrowed from their name in the middest of his Cittie during the time of our warres in the holy land And likewise Conrade Marquis of Montferrato his murtherers being brought to their torture were seene to swel with pride that they had performed so worthy an exploit The thirtieth Chapter Of a monstrous Child THis discourse shall passe single for I leave it to Phisitions to treate of I sawe two dayes since a childe whom two men and a nurce which named themselves to be his father his Vnckle and his Aunt carried about with intent to get some money with the sight of him by reason of his strangenes In all the rest he was as other children are He stoode vpon his feete went and pratled in a maner as all others of his age Hee would never take nourishment but by his nurces breast and what in my presence was offred to be put in his mouth he chewed a little and put it all out againe His puling differed somewhat from others He was just fourteene moneths olde Vnder his paps he was fastned and joyned to an other childe but had no head and who had the conduite of his backe stopped the rest whole One of his armes was shorter then the other and was by accident broken at their birth They were joyned face to face and as if a hâ—â—e childe would embrace another somewhat bigger The joyning and space whereat they were closed together was but foure inches bâ—oade or thereabouts insuch sort that if you thrust vp the imperfect childe you might see vnder the others navill And the seame was betweene the paps and his navill The navill of the imperfect one could not be seene but all the rest of his belly â—â—ght Thus what of the imperfect one was not joyned as armes buttocks thighes and legges did hang and shake vpon the other whose length reached to the middle-leg of the other perfect His Nurce tolde me hee made water by both privities The members of the little one were nourished living and in the same state as the others except only they were lesse and thinner This double body and these different members having reference to one onely head might serve for a favorable prognostieation to our King to maintaine the factions and differing parties of this our kingdome vnder an vnitie of the lawes But least the successe should prove it contrarie it is not amisse to let him runne his course For in things alreadie past their neede no divination Vt quum factasunt tum ad coniecturam aliqua inter pretatione revocantur So as when they are done they then by some construction should be revoked to coniecture As it is reported of Epimenides who ever divined backward I come now from seeing of a shepheard at Medoc of thirtie yeares of age or thereabouts who had no signe at all of genitorie parts But where they should be are three little holes by which his water doth continually trill from him This poore man hath a beard and desireth still to be fumbling of women Those which we call monsters are not so with God who â—â— the immensitie of his
exquisitely vnspotted nor so entire or constant as that of Seneca Now this Booke whereof I speake to come to his intention maketh a most injurious description of Seneca having borrowed his reproaches from Dion the Historian to whose testimony I give no credite at all For besides he is inconstant as one who after hee hath called Seneca exceeding wise and shortly after termed him a mortall enemy to Neroes vices in other places makes him covetous given to vsurie ambitious base-minded voluptuous and vnder false pretences and fained shewes a counterfet Philosopher his vertue appeareth so lively and wisedome so vigorous in his writings and the defence of these imputations is so manifest as well of his riches as of his excessive expences that I beleeve no witnesse to the contrarie Moreover there is great reason wee should rather give credite to Romane Historians in such things then to Graecians and strangers whereas Tacitus and others speake very honourably of his life and death and in all other circumstance declare him to have beene a most excellent and rarely-vertuous man I will alleadge noe other reproch against Dions judgement then this which is vnavoydable that is his vnderstanding of the Roman affaires is so weake and ill advised as he dareth defend and maintaine Iulius Caesars cause against Pompey and blâ—sheth not to justifie Antonius against Cicero But let vs come to Plutarke Iohn Bodine is a good moderne Author and endowed with much more judgement then the common-rabble of Scriblers and blur-papers which now adayes stuffe Stationers shops and who deserveth to bee judged considered and had in more then ordinary esteeme Neverthelesse I finde him somewhat malapert and bolde in that passage of his Methode of Historie when he accuseth Plutarke not onely of ignorance wherein I woulde have let him say his pleasure for that is not within my element but also that he often writeth things altogether incredible and meerely fabulous these are his very words If he had simply said things otherwise than they are it had beene no great reprehension for what we have not seene we receive from others and vpon trust And I see him sometime wittingly and in good earnest report one and same story diversly As the judgemenns of three best captaines that ever were spoken by Hanibal is otherwise in Flaminius his life otherwise in Pyrrhus But to taxe him to have taken incredible and impossible things for ready payment is to accuse the more judicious author of the World of want of judgement And see heere his example As saith he when he reports that a Childe of Lacedemon suffered all his belly and guttes to be torne out by a Cubbe or yoong Foxe which he had stolne and kept close vnder his garment rather than he would discouer his theft First I finde this example ill chosen Forasmuch as it is verie heard to limit the powers of the soules-faculties whereas of corporall forces we have more law to limite and know them And therfore had I beene to write of such a subject I would rather have made choyce of an example of this second kinde And some there be lesse credible As amongest others that which he reportes of Pyrrhus who being fore wounded gave so great a blow with a sword vnto one of his enemies armed at all assayes and with all pieces as he cleft him from the Crowne of the head downe to the groine so that the body fell in two pieces In which example I finde no great wonder nor doe I admit of his excuse wherewith he cloaketh Plutarke to have added this Word as it is said to forewarne vs and restraine our beliefe For if it be not in things received by authoritie and reverence of antiquity or religion neither would himselfe have received nor proposed to vs to believe things in themselves incredible And that as it is saide hee doeth not heere sette downe this phrase to that purpose may easily bee perceived by what himselfe in other places telleth vs vpon the subject of the Lacedemonian Childrens patience of examples happened in his time much harder to be perswaded As that which Cicero hath also witnessed before him because as he saith he had beene there himselfe That even in their times there were Children found prepared to endure all maner of patience whereof they made triall before Dianaes Aulter and which suffered themselves to bee whipped till the blood trilled downe all partes of their body not onely without crying but also without sobbing and some who voluntarily suffered themselvs to bee â—courged to death And what Plutarke also reporteth and a hundreth other witnesses averre that assisting at a sacrifice a burning coale happened to fall into the sleeve of a Lacedemonian childe as he was busie at incensing suffered his arme to burne so long vntill the smell of his burnt flesh came to all the by-standers There was nothing according to their custome so much called their reputation in question and for which they endured more blame and shame than to be surprised stealing I am so well instructed of those mens greatnesse of courage that this report doth not onely not seeme incredible to mee as to Bodine but I doe not so much as deeme it rare or suppose it strange The Spartane story is full of thousands of much more rare and cruell examples then according to this rate it containeth nothing but myracle Concerning this point of stealing Marcellinus reporteth that whilest hee lived there could never be found any kinde of torment that might in any sort compell the Aegyptians surprized filching which was much vsed amongest them to confesse and tell but their names A Spanish Peasant being laide vpon the racke about the complices of the murther of the Pretor Lucius Piso in the midst of his torments cried out his friends should not stir but with all securitie assist him that it was not in the power of any griefe or paine to wrest one word of confession from him and the first day nothing else could possibly be drawne from him The next morrow as he was led toward the racke to be tormented a new he by strong violence freed himselfe from out his keepers hands and so furiously ranne with his head against a Wall that he burst his braines out and presently fell downe dead Epicharis having glutted wearied the moody cruelty of Neroes Satellites or officers and stoutly endured their fire their beatings their engins a whole day long without any one voyce or word of revealing hir conspiracy the next day after being againe brought to the torture with hir limbs bruzed broken convayed the lace or string of hir Gowne over one of the pillers of the Chaire wherein she sate with a sliding knot in it into which sodainely thrusting hir head she strangled herselfe with the weight of hir body Having the courage to dye so and steale from the first torments seemeth shee not purposely to have lent hir life to the triall of hir patience of the
precedent day only to mocke that Tyrant and encorage others to attempt the like enterprize against him And he that shall enquire of our Argolettiers or Free-booters what experiences they have had in these our late Civill wars shall no doubt find effects examples of patience of obstinacy and stif-neckednesse in these our miserable dayes and amidst the effeminate and puling worldlings farre beyond the Aegyptian and well worthy to be compared to those already reported of Spartan vertue I know there have beene found seely boores who have rather endured to have their feet broiled vpon a Greedyron their fingers ends crusht and wrung with the locke of a Pistole their eyes all bloody to be thrust out of their heades with wringing and wresting of a corde aboute their foreheads before they would so much as be ransomed I have seene and spoken with one who had beene left all naked in a ditch for dead his necke all brused and swolne with a halter about it wherewith he had beene dragged a whole night at a horses taile through thick thinne with a hundred thrusts in his body given him with daggers not to kil him outright but to grieve and terrifie him and who had patiently endured all that and lost both speech and sense fully resolved as himselfe told me rather to die a thousand deaths as verily if you apprehend what he suffered he past more then one full death then promise any ransome yet was he one of the wealthiest husbandmen in all his countrie How many have bin seene who have patiently endured to be burnt and rosted for vnknowne and wilful opinions which they had borrowed of others My selfe have knowne a hundred and a hundred women for the saying is Gaskoine heads have some prerogative in that whom you might sooner have made to bite a red-hot piece of yron then recant an opinion they had conceived in anger They will be exasperated and growe more fell against blowes and compulsion And he who first invented the tale of that woman which by no threates or stripes would leave to call her husband pricke-lowse and being cast into a pond and duckt vnder water lifted vp her hands and joyning her two thumbs-nailes in act to kill lice above her head seemed to call him lousie still devised a fable whereof in truth we dayly see the expresse image in divers womens obstinacie and wilfulnesse And yet obstinacie is the sister of constancy at least in vigor and stedfastnesse A man must not judge that which is possible and that which is not according to that which is credible and incredible to our sense and vnderstanding as I have already saide elsewhere And it is a great fault wherein the greater number of men doe dayly fall I speake not this of Bodine to make a difficultie in believing that of others which themselves neither can nor would doe Every man perswades himselfe that the chiefe-forme of humane nature is in himselfe according to her must all others be directed The proceedings that have no reference to hirs are false and faâ—â—ed Is any thing proposed vnto him of anothers mans faculties or actions The first thing he calls to the judgement of his consultation is his owne examples according as it goeth in him so goeth the worlds order Oh dangerous sottishnesse and intolerable foppery I consider some men a farre-off beyond and above my selfe namely amongst those ancient ones and though I manifestly acknowledge mine owne insufficiencie to follow or come neere them by a thousand paces I cease not to keepe them still in view and to judge of those wardes and springs that raise them so high the seedes whereof I somewhat perceive in my selfe as likewise I doe of the mindes extreame basenes which amazeth me nothing at all and I misbelieve no more I see the turne those give to wind vp themselves and I admire their greatnesse and those starts which I perceive to be so wondrous faire I embrace them and if with man wrength I reach not vnto them at least my judgement doth most willingly apply it selfe vnto them The other example he alledgeth of things incredible and altogether fabulous reported by Plutarke is that Agesilaus was fined by the Ephories because he had drawne tee harts and good wills of all his fellow-cittizens ento himselfe alone I knowe not what marke of falshood or shew of impossibiiltie he findes in it but so it is that Plutarke speakes there of things which in all likelihood were better knowne to him then to vs And as it was not strange in Geecce to see men punished and exiled onely because they were too popular and pleased the common people over much Witnesse the Ostracisme amongst the Athenians and the Petalisme among the Siracusans There is another accusation in the same place which for Plutarkes sake doth somewhat touch me where he saieth that he hath very well and in good trueth sorted the Romanes with the Romanes and the Graecians amongst themselues but not the Romanes with the Graecians witnesse saith he Demosthenes and Cicero and Aristides Syllâ— and Lysander Marcellus and Pelopidas Pompey and Agesilaus deming thereby that hee hath fauoured the Graecians in giving them so vnequall companions It is a just reproving of that which is most excellent and commendable in Plutarke Eor in his comparisons which is the most admirable part of his worke and wherein in mine opinion hee so much pleased himselfe the faithfulnesse and sinceritie of his judgement equalleth their depth and weight Hee is a Philosopher that teacheth vs vertue But let vs see whether wee can warrant him from this reproch of prevarication and false-hood That which I imagine hath given occasion or ground to this judgement is that great and farre-spreading lustre of the Romane names which still are tingling in our eares and never our of our mindes Wee doe not thinke Demosthenes may equall the glory of a Consull of a Proâ—ousull and a Questor of this great Common wealth of Rome But hee that shall impartially consider the truth of the matter and men in themselves which Plutarke did chiefly aime at and more to balance their custome their naturall dispositions and their sufficiencie then their fortune I am of a cleane opposite opinion to Bodine and thinke that Cicero and old Cato are much behinde or short of their parallels For this purpose I would rather have chosen the example of yong Cato compared to Phocion for in that paire might well be found a more likely disparitie for the Romanes advantage As for Marcellus Sylla and Pompey I see very well how their exploites of warre be more swolne glorious and pompous then the Craecians whom Plutarke compareth vnto them but the most vertuous and fairest actions no more in warre then elsewhere are not alwayes the most famous I often see the names of some Captaines smothered vnder the brightnesse of other names of lesser desert witnesse Labienus Ventidius Telesinus and diverse others And to take him in that sense were I to
griefe to faint in heart and strength hee collâ—d and eâ—braced her abouâ— the necke and heartily entreated hir for the love of him somwhat more patiently to beare this accident and that his houre was come wherein he must shâ—w no longer by discourse and disputation but in earnest effect declare the fruite he had reaped by his studie and that vndoubtedly he embraced death not onely without griefe but with exceeding joy Wherefore my deere-deere heart doe not dishonour it by thy teares lâ—st thou seeme to love thy selfe more than my reputation Asswage thy sorrowes and comfort thy selfe in the knowledge thou hast had of mee and of my actions leading the rest of thy life by the honest occupations to which thou art addicted To whom Paulina having somwhat rouzed hir drooping spirites and by a thrice-noble affection awakened the magnanimitie of her high-setled courage answered thus No Seneca thinke not that in this necessitie I will leave you with out my companie I would not have you imagin that the vertuous examples of your life have not also taught me to die And when shall I be able to doe it or better or more honestly or more to mine owne liking then with your selfe And be resolved I will goe with you and be partaker of your fortune Seneca taking so generous a resolve and glorious a determination of his wife in good part and to free himselfe from the feare he had to leave her after his deaâ—h to his enemies mercie and crueltie Oh my deare Paulina I had quoth hee perswaded thee what I thought was convenient to leade thy life more happily and doost thou then rather choosâ— the honour of a glorious death Assuredly I will not envy thee Be the constancie and resolution answerable to our common end but be the beautie and glory greater on thy side That said the veiâ—es of both their aâ—mes were cut to the end they might bleede to death but because Senecaes were somwhat shrunken vp through age and abstinence and his bloud could have no speedy course he commaunded the veines of his thighes to be launced And fearing lest the torments he felt might in some sort entender his wifes heart as also to deliver â—imselfe from the affliction which greatly yearned him to see her in so pitteous plight after he had most lovingly taken leave of her he beâ—ought her to be pleased shee might be caried into the next chamber which was accordingly performed But all those incisions being vnable to make him die he willed Statius Annous his Phisition to give him some poysoned potion which wrought but small effect in him for through the weaknesse and coldenesse of his members it could not come vnto his heart And therefore they caused a warme bath to be prepared wherein they layde him then perceiving his end to approch so long as he had breath hee continued his excellent discourses concerning the subject of the estate wherein he found himselfe which his Secretaries so long as they could heare his voyce collected very diligently whose last words continued long time after in high esteeme and honor amongst the better sort of men as Oracles but they were afterward lost and great pittie it is they never came vnto our handes But when he once beganne to feele the last pangs of death taking some of the water wherein he lay bathing all bloody he therewith washed his head saying I vow this water vnto Iupiter the Deliverâ—r Nero being advertised of all this fearing lest Pâ—ulinaes death who was one of the best alied Ladies in Rome and to whome hee bare no particular grudge might cause him some reproach sent in all poste haste to have her incisions closed vp againe and if possibly it could be to save her life which hir servants by vnwriting vnto her performed she being more than halfe dead and voyde of any sence And that afterward contrary to her intent shee lived it was very honourable and as beâ—itted her vertue shewing by the pale â—ew and wanne colour of her face how much of her life shee had wasted by her incisions Loe heere my three true Stories which in my conceiâ—e are as pleasant and as tragicall as any wee devise at our pleasures to please the vulgaâ— sort with al and I wonder that those who invent so many fabulous tales do not rather make choise of infinite excellent and quaint Stories that are found in Books wherein they should have lesse trouble to write them and might doubtlesse proove more pleasing to the hearer and profitable to the Reader And whosoever would vndertake to frame a compleate and well-joynted bodie of them neede neither employe nor adde any thing of his owne vnto it except the â—igaments as the â—oldring of another mettall and by this meanes might compact sundry events of all kindes disposing and diversifying them according as the beauty and lustre of the worke should require And very neere as Ovid hath sowen and contrived his Meâ—amorphosis with that strange number of divers fables In the last couple this is also worthy consideration that Paulina offreth willingly to leave her life for hir husbands sake that hir husband had also other times quit death for the love of hir There is no great counterpoyze in this exchange for vs but according to his Stoâ—ke humour I suppose hee perswaded himselfe to have done as much for hir proloâ—ging his life for hir availe as if hee had died for hir In one of his letters he writeth to Lucilius after he hath given him to vnderstand how an ague having surprised him in Rome contrary to his wives opinion who would needs have stayed him hee sodainely tooke his Coach to goe vnto a house of his into the Country and how he tolde hir that the ague he had was no bodily fever but of the place and followeth thus At last shee let me goe earnestly recommending my health vntome Now I who knowe how her life lodgeth in mine beginne to provide for my selfe that consequently I may provide for her The priviledge my age hath bestowed on me in making me more constant and more resolute in many things I loose it when-ever I call to minde that in this aged corps there harboureth a yoong woman to whome I bring some profite Since I cannot induce her to love me more couragiously shee induceth me to love my selfe more carefully for something must be lâ—nt to honest affections and sometimes although occasions vrge vs to the contrary life must be revoked againe yea with torment The soule must bee held fast with ones teeth since the lawe to live in honest men is not to live as long as they please but so long as they ought He who esteemeth not â—is wife or a friend so much â—â— that he will not lengthen his life for thâ—m and will obâ—â—inately die that man is over-nice and too â—ffâ—minate The Soule must commaund that vnto her selfe when the vtilitie of our friends requireth it we must sometimes lend our selves vnto our friends and
confusion of prescriptions what other end or effect workes it but to evacuate the belly which a thousand home-simples will doe as well And I knowe not whether it be as profitable as they say and whether our nature require the residents of her exâ—rements vntill a certaine measure as wine doth his lees for his preservation You see often men very healthy by some strange accidents to fall into violent vomiâ—es and fluxes and voyde great store of excrements without any praecedent neede or succeeding benefite yea with some empairing and prejudice I learn't of Plato not long since that of three motions which belong to vs the last and worst is that of purgations and that no man except hee be a foole ought to vndertake it vnlesse it be in great extreamitie The evill is troubled and stirred vp by contrary oppositions It is the forme of life that gently must diminish consume and bring it to an end Since the violent twinges of the drug and maladie are ever to our losse since the quarrell is cleared in vs and the drug a trustlesse helpe by it 's owne nature an enemie to our health and but by trouble hath no accesse in our state Let 's give them leave to go on That order which provideth for Fleas and Moles doth also provide for men who have the same patience to suffer themselves to be governed that Fleas and Moles have We may fairely cry bo-bo-boe it may well make vs hoarse but it will nothing advaunce it It is a prowd and impetuous order Our feare and our despaire in liew of enviting the same vnto it doth distaste and delay it out of our helpe he oweth his course to evill as well as to sickenesse To suffer himselfe to be corrupted in favour of one to the prejudice of the others rights he will not doe it so should they fall into disorder Let vs goe on in the name of God let vs follow He leadeth-on such as follow him those that follow him not he haleth-on both with their rage and phisicke together Cause a purgation to be prepared for your braine it will bee better employed vnto it then to your stomacke A Lacedemonian being asked what had made him live so long in health answered The ignorance of physicke And Adrian the Emperour as he was dying ceased not to crie out that the number of Physitions had killed him A bad wrestler became a Physition Courage saide Diogenes to him thou hast reason to doe so for now shalt thou helpe to put them into the ground who have heeretofore ayded to lay thee on it But according to Nicoles they have this happe That the Sunne doth manifest their successe and the earth doth cover their fault And besides they have a very advantageous fashion among themselves to make vse of all manner of events for whatsoever either Fortune or Nature or any otherstrange cause whereof the number is infinite produceth in vs or good or healthfull it is the priviledge of Physicke to ascribe it vnto herselfe All the fortunate successes that come to the patient which is vnder their government it is from nature he hath them The occasions that have cured me and which heale a thousand others who never send or call for Physitions to helpe them they vsurpe them in their subjects And touching ill accidents either they vtterly disavow them in imputing the blame of them to the patient by some vaine reasons whereof they never misse to finde a great number as he lay with his armes out of the bed he hath heard the noyse of a coach rhedarum transitus arcto Vicorum inflexu Coaches could hardly passe The lane so crooked was His Window was left open all night Hee hath laine vpon the left side or troubled his head with some heavie thought In some a word a dreame or a looke is of them deemed a sufficient excuse to free themselves from all imputation Or if they please they will also make vse of this emparing and thereby make vp their businesse and as a meane which can never faile them when by their applications the disease is growne desperate to pay vs with the assurance that if their remedies had not beene it would have beene much woorse He whom but from a colde they have brought to a Cotidian Ague without them shoulde have had a continuall feaver They must needes thrive in their businesse since all ills redownd to their profit Truely they have reason to require of the pacient an application of favourable confidence in them which must necessarily be in good earnest and yeelding to apply itselfe vnto imaginations over-hardly to be believed Plato said very well and to the purpose that freely to lie belonged onely to Physitions since our health dependeth on their vanitie and falsehood of promises Aesope an Authour of exceeding rare excellence and whose graces few discover is very pleasant in representing this kinde of tyrannicall authoritie vnto vs. which they vsurpe vpon poore soules weakened by sickenesse and over-whelmed through feare for he reporteth how a sicke man being demaunded by his Physition what operation hee felt by the Physicke he had given him I have sweate much answered he that is good replied the Physition Another time he asked him againe how he had done since I have had a great colde and quivered much said he that is very well quoth the Physition againe The third time he demaunded of him how he felt himselfe He answered I swell and puffe-vp as it were with the dropsie That 's not amisse saide the Physition A familiar friend of his comming afterward to visite him and to know how hee did Verely said hee my friend I die with being too too well There was a more equall Law in Aegypt by which for the first three dayes the Phisition tooke the patient in hand vpon the patients perrill and fortune but the three dayes expired it was at his owne For What reason is there that Aesculapius their patrone must have beene strucken with Thunder forsomuch as hee recovered Hippolitus from death to life Nampater omnipotens aliquem indignatus ab vmbris Mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae Ipse repertorem medicinae talis artis Fuâ—mine Phoebigenam slygias detrusit advndas Iove scorning that from shades infernall night A mortall man should rise to lifes new light Apolloes sonne to hell he thunder-threw Who such an arte found out such med'cine knew and his followers must be absolved that send so many soules from life to death A Phisitian boasted vnto Nicocles that his Arte was of exceeding great authoritie It is true quoth Nicocles for it may kill so many people without feare of punishment by Law As for the rest had I beene of their counsel I would surely have made my discipline more sacred and mysterious They had begunne very well but the end hath not answered the beginning It was a good ground to have made Gods and Doemons Authors of their Science to have affiâ—med a peculiar
them vndig estible Whilst they feared to stop the course of a bloody flux because he should not fal into an ague they killed me a friend of mine who was more worth then all the rabble of them yea were they as many more They ballance their diuinatious of future things with present cuils and because they will not cure the braine in preiudice of the stomacke they offend the stomacke and empaire the braine and all by their seditious and tumultuary drugs Concerning the variety and weaknes of the reasons of this Art it is more apparent then in any other Art Aperitive things are good for a man that 's troubled with the collike because that opening and dilating the passages they addresse this slimie matter whereof the gravell and stone is ingendred and so convay downeward whatsoever beginneth to harden and petrifie in the reines A peritive things are dangerous for a man that 's troubled with the collike because that opening and dilating the passages they addresse towards the reines the matter engendring gravell which by reason of the propensions they have with it easily seizing on the same must by consequence stay great store of that which is convaied vnto them Moreover if by chance it fortune to meet with a body somewhat more grosse then it ought to be to pasâ—e all those strait turnings which to expell the same they must glide thorow that body being mooved by those soluble things and cast in those strait chanels and comming to stop them it will doubtlesse hasten a certaine and most dolorous death They have a like constancie about the counsels they giue vs touching the regiment of our life It is good to make water often for by experience we see that permitting the same idlely to lie still we give it leisure to discharge it selfe of her lees and excrements which may serve to breed the stone in the bladder It is good to make water but seldome for the weightie dregs it drawes with it are not easily caried away except by violence as by experience is seene in a torrent that runneth very swift which sweepeth and clenseth the place through which he passeth much more then doth a slow-gliding streame Likewise it is good to have often copulation with women for that openeth the passages and convaieth the gravell away It is also hurtfull for it heateth wearieth and weakneth the reines It is good for one to bathe himselfe in warme water for so much as that looseth and moistneth the places where the gravel and stone lurketh It is also bad because this application of externall heat helpeth the reines to concoct to harden and petrifie the matter disposed vnto it To such as are at the bathes it is more healthfull to eat but little at night that the water they are to drinke the next morning finding the stomacke empty and without any obstacle it may worke the greater operation on the other side it is better to eat but a little at dinner lest a man might hinder the operation of the water which is not yet perfect and not to charge the stomacke so suddenly after this other travell and leave the office of digesting vnto the night which can better do it then the day the body and spirit being then in continuall motion and action Loe heere how they in all their discourses juggle dally and trifle at our charge and are never able to bring mee a proposition but I can presently frame another to the contrary of like force consequence Let them then no longer raile against those who in any sicknesse suffer themselves gently to be directed by their owne appetite and by the counsell of nature and who remit themselves to common fortune I have by occasion of my travels seene almost all the famous Bathes of Christendome and some yeers since haue begun to vse them For in generall I deeme bathing to be very good and healthy and I am perswaded we incurre no small incommodities in our health by having neglected and lost this custome which in former times were generally observed very neere amongst all Nations and is yet with divers at this time to wath their bodies every day And I cannot imagine but that we are much the worse with keeping our bodies all over-crusted and our pores stopt with grease and filth And touching the drinking of them fortune hath first made it to agree very well with my taste secondly it is naturall and simple and though vaine nothing dangerous whereof this infinitie of people of all sorts and complexions and of all nations that come to them doth warrant mee And although I have as yet found no extraordinary good or wondrous effect in them but rather having somewhat curiously examined the matter I finde all the reports of such operations which in such places are reported and of many believed to be false and fabulous So easily doth the world deceive it selfe namely in things it desireth or faine would have come to passe Yet have I seene but few or none at all whom these waters have made worse and no man can without malice denie but that they stirre vp a mans appetite make easie digestion and except a man goe to them overweake and faint which I would have none doe they will adde a kinde of new mirth vnto him They have not the power to raise men from desperate diseases They may stay some light accident or prevent the threates of some alteration Whosoever goeth to them and resolveth not to be merry that so hee may enjoy the pleasure of the good company resorts to them and of the pleasant walkes or exercises which the beauty of those places where bathes are commonly seated doth affoord and delight men withall he without doubt looseth the better part and most assured of their effect And therefore have I hitherto chosen to stay my selfe and make vse of those where I found the pleasure of the scituation most delightsome most conveniencie of lodging of victuals and companie as are in France the bathes of Banieres those of Plombieres on the frontiers of Germanie and Loraine those of Baden in Switzerland those of Lucea in Tuscanie and especially those of Della villaâ— which I have vsed most often and at diverse seasons of the yeare Every nation hath some particular opinion concerning their vse and severall lawes and formes how to vse them and all different And as I have found by experience the effect in a maner all one In Germanie they never vse to drinke of their waters but bathe themselves for all diseases and will lie padling in them all most from Sunne to Sunne In Italie if they drinke nine dayes of the water they wash themselves other thirtie dayes with it And commonly they drincke it mixed with other drugges thereby to helpe the operation Heere our Phisitions appoint vs when wee have drunke to walke vpon it that so wee may helpe to digest it There so soone as they have drunke they make them lie a bed vntill they
towards it I have found after I had made diligent inquiry among such as were wont to open such beasts that it was a seld-seene and vnheard of accident It is very likely they were such stones as ours be and cozen-germanes to them which if it be it is but vaine for such as be troubled with the stone or gravell to hope to be cured by meanes of a beasts-blood that was drawing neere vnto death and suffered the same disease For to aleadge the blood cannot participate of that contagion ' and doth no whit thereby alter his accustomed vertue it may rather be inferred that nothing ingendreth in a body but by consent and communication of all the parts The whole masse doth worke and the whole frame agitate altogether although one part according to the diversitie of operations doth contribute more or lesse than another whereby it manifestly appeareth that in all parts of this bucke-goate there was some grettie or petrificant qualitie It was not so much for feare of any future chaunce or in regard of my selfe that I was so curious of this experiment as in respect that as well in mine owne house as else-where in sundry other places it commeth to passe that many women doe often gather and lay vp in store divers such kindes of slight drugges to help their neighbours and other people with them in time of necessitie applying one same remedy to an hundred severall diseases yea many times such as they would be very loath to take themselves with which they often have good lucke and well thrives it with them As for mee I honour Physitions not according to the common-received rule for necessitie sake for to this passage another of the Prophet may be alleaged who reprooved King Asa because hee had recourse vnto Physitions but rather for love I beare vnto themselves having seene some and knowne diverse honest men amongst them and worthy all love and esteeme It is not them I blame but their Arte yet doe I not greatly condemne them for seeking to profit by our foolishnesse for most men doe so and it is a thing common to all worldlings Diverse professious and many vacations both more and lesse worthie than theirs subsist and are grounded onely vpon publike abuses and popular errours I send for them when I am sicke if they may conveniently be found and love to be entertained by them rewarding them as other men doe I give them authoritie to enjoyne me to keepe my selfe warme if I love it better so than otherwise They may chuse be it either leekes or lettuce what my broth shall be made withall and appoynt mee either white or clarer to drinke and so of other things else indifferent to my taste humor or custome I know well it is nothing to them forsomuch as Sharpenesse and Strangenesse are accidents of Physickes proper essence Lycurgus allowed and appoynted the sicke men of Sparta to drinke wine Why did he so Because being in health they hated the vse of it Even as a Gentleman who dwelleth not farre from mee vseth wine as a soveraigne remedie againg agews because being in perfect health he hateth the taste thereof as death How many of them see wee to be of my humour That is to disdaine all Physicke for their owne behoofe and live a kinde of formall free life and altogether contrarie to that which they prescribe to others And what is that but a manifest abusing of our simplicitie For they holde their life as deare and esteeme their health as pretious as wee doe ours and would apply their effects to their skill if themselves knew not the vncertaintie and falsehood of it It is the feare of paine and death the impatience of the disease and griefe and indiscreete desire and headlong thirst of health that so blindeth them and vs. It is meere faintnes that makes our conceit and pusillanimitie forceth our credulitie to bee so yeelding and pliable The greater parte of whome doe notwithstanding not beleeve so much as they endure and suffer of others For I heare them complaine and speake of it no otherwise than wee doe Yet in the ende are they resolved What should I doe then As if impatience were in itselfe a better remedie than patience Is there any of them that hath yeelded to this miserable subjection that doth not likewise yeelde to all manner of impostures or dooth not subject himselfe to the mercie of whomsoever hath the impudencie to promise him recoverie and warrant him health The Babilonians were wont to carry their sicke people into the open streetes the common sort were their physitions where all such as passed by were by humanitie and civilitie to enquire of their state and maladie and according to their skill or experience give them some â—ound aduise and good counsell We differ not greatly from them There is no poore Woman so simple whose mumbling and muttering whose slibber-slabbers and drenches wee doe not employ And as for mee were I to buy any medicine I would rather spend my money in this kinde of physicke than in any other because therein is no danger or hurt to be feared What Homer and Plato said of the Aegyptians that they were all Physitions may well be said of all people There is neither Man nor Woman that vanteth not himselfe to have some receipt or other and doth not hazard the same vpon his neighbour if he will but give credite vnto him I was not long since in a company where I wot not who of my fraternity brought newes of a kinde of pilles by true accompt composed of a hundered and odde severall ingredients Whereat we laughed very heartily and made our selves good sport For what rocke so hard were able to resist the shocke or withstand the force of so thicke and numerous a battery I vnderstand neverthelesse of such as tooke of them that the least graine gravell dained not to stirre at all I cannot so soone give over writing of this subject but I must needes say a word or two concerning the experience they have made of their prescriptions which they would have vs take as a warrantize or assurance of the certainty of their drugges and potions The greatest number and as I deeme more than the two thirds of medicinable vertues consist in the quintessence or secret propriety of simples whereof we can have no other instruction but vse and custome For Quintessence is no other thing than a quality whereof we cannot with our reason finde out the cause In such trials or experiments those which they affirme to have acquired by the inspiration of some Daemon I am contented to receive and allow of them for touching myracles I meddle not with them or be it the experiments drawne from things which for other respects fall often in vse with vs As if in Wooll wherewith we wont to cloth our selves some secret exsiccating or drying quality have by accident beene found that cureth kibes or chilblaines in the heeles and if in reddishes
waigh and grieve We must have our minde instructed with meanes to sustaine and combate mischiefes and furnished with rules how to live well and believe right and often rouze and exercise it in this goodly study But to a minde of the common stampe it must be with intermission and moderation it groweth weake by being continually over-wrested When I was young I had neede to be aduertised and sollicited to keepe my selfe in office Mirth and health saies one sute not so well with these serious and grave discourses I am now in another state The conditions of age doe but over-much admonish instruct and preach vnto me From the excesse of iollity I am falne into the extreame of severity more peevish and more vntoward Therefore I doe now of purpose somewhat give way vnto licentious allurements and now and then employ my minde in wanton and youthfull conceits wherein she recreates hir selfe I am now but too much setled too heavy and too ripe My yeares read me daily a lesson of coldnesse and temperance My body shunneth disorder and feares it it hath his turne to direct the minde toward reformation his turne also to rule and sway and that more rudely and imperiously Be I awake or a sleepe it doth not permit me one houre but to ruminate on instruction on death on patience and on repentance As I have heerâ—tofore defended my selfe from pleasure so I now ward my selfe from temperance it haleth me too far backe and even to stupidity I will now every way be master of my selfe Wisdome hath hir excesses and no lesse neede of moderation then folly So that least I should wither tarnish and over cloy my selfe with prudence in the intermissions my evils affoord mee Mens intenta suis ne sict vsque malis Still let not the conceit attend The ils that it too much offend I gently turne aside and steale mine eies from viewing that tempestuous and cloudy skie I have before me which thankes be to God I consider without feare but not without contention and study And ammuse my selfe with the remembrance of passed youth-tricks animus quod perdidit optat Atque in praeterita se totus imagine versat The minde what it hath lost doth wish and cast And turne and wind in Images forepast That infancy looketh forward and age backward was it not that which Ianus his double visage signified yeares entraine me if they please but backward As far as mine eies can discerne that faire expired season by fits I turne them thitherward If it escape my bloud and veines yet will I not roote the image of it out of my memory hoc est Vinere bis vita posse priore frui This is the way for any to live twise Who can of former life enioy the price Plato appoints old men to be present at youthfull exercises dances and games to make them reioyce at the bodies agility and comlinesse of others which is now no longer in them and call to their remembrance the grace and fauour of that blooming age and willeth them to give the honour of the victory to that young-man who hath gladded and made most of them mery I was heretofore wont to note sullen and gloomy daies as extraordinary now are they my ordinary ones the extraordinary are my faire and cleere daies I am ready to leape for ioy as at the receaving of some vnexspected fauour when nothing grieueth mee Let me tickle my selfe I can now hardly wrest a bare smile from this wretched body of mine I am not pleased but in conceite and dreaming by sleight to turne aside the way-ward cares of age but sure ther-s neede of other remedies then dreaming A weake contention of arte against nature It is meere simplicitie as most men doe to prolong and anticipate humane in commodities I had rather be lesse while olde then old before my time I take hold even of the least occasions of delight I can meet withall I know by how heare-say diuers kindes of wise powerfull and glorious pleasures but opinionis not of sufficient force over me to make mee long for them I would not haue them so stately lofty and disdainfull as pleasant gentle and ready A natura discedimus populo nos damus nullius rei bono auctori We forsake nature We followe the people aucthor of no good My Philophie is in action in naturall and present little in conceit What if I should be pleased to play at cob-nut or whip a top Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem He did not prize what might be said Before how al might safe be laid Voluptuousnesse is a qualitie little ambitious it holds it selfe rich enough of it selfe without any accesse of reputation and is best affected where it is most obscured That young man should deserue the whip who would spend his time in choosing out the nearest Wine and best sauces There is nothing I ever knew or esteemed lesse I now beginne to learne it I am much ashamed of it but what can I doe withall and am more ashamed and vexed at the occasions that compell me to it It is for vs to dally doate and trifle out the time and for youth to stand vpon nice reputation and hold by the better end of the staffe That creepeth towards the world and marcheth toward credite we come from it Sibi arma sibi equos sibi hastas sibi clauam sibi pilam sibi natationes cursus habeant nobis senibus ex lusionibus multis talos relinquant tesseras Let them keepe their armor their horses their lances their polaxes their tennis their swimming and their running and of their many games let them put ouer to vs old men the tables and the cardes The very lawes send vs home to our lodgings I can do no lesse in favour of this wretched condition whereto my age forceth mee then furnish it with somewhat to dandle and ammuse it selfe as it were childehood for when all is done we fall into it againe And both wisedome and folly shall have much a doe by enterchange offices to support aud succour me in this calamitie of age Misce stultitiam consilijs breuem With short-like-foolish tricks Thy grauest counsels mixe Withall I shun the lightest pricklings and those which heretofore could not have scratcht me doe now transpearce me So willingly my habite doth now begin to apply it selfe to euill infragili corpore odiosa omnis offensio est all offences is yrkesome to a crazed body Mensque pati durum sustinet agra nihil A sicke minde can endure No hard thing for hir cure I have ever beene ticklish and nice in matters of offence at this present I am more tender and every where open Et minimae vires frangere quassavalent Least strength can breake Things worne and weake Well may my iudgement hinder mee from spurning and repining at the inconueniences which nature allots mee to indure from feeling them it cannot I
enemies before they shoulde know or feele what the rest of their forces could doe which was no smale aduancement or if not this they mainely droue those coaches amidde the thickest of their enemies squadrons with purpose to breake disroute and make waye through them Besides the benefit and helpe they might make of them in any suspicious or dangerous place to flanke their troupes marching from place to place or in hast to encompasse to embarricado to couer or fortifie any lodgement or quarter In my time a gentleman of quality in one of our frontieres vnwealdy and so burly of bodye that hee coulde finde no horse able to beare his waight and hauing a quarrell or deadly fude in hand was wont to trauaile vp and downe in a coach made after this fashion and found much ease and good in it But leaue wee these warlike coaches as if their nullity were not sufficiently knowne by better tokens The lastkings of our first race were wont to trauell in chariors drawne by foure oxen Marke Antonie was the first that caused himselfe accompanied with a minsterell harlot to bee drawne by Lyons fitted to a coach So did Heliogabalus after him naming himselfe Cibele the mother of the Gods and also by Tigers counterfetting God Bacchus who sometimes would also bee drawne in a coach by two Stagges and an-other time by foure mastiue Dogs and by foure naked wenches causing himselfe to bee drawne by them in pompe and state hee being all naked The emperour Firmus made his coach to bee drawne by Estriges of exceeding greatnesse so that hee rather seemed to flye then to roule on wheeles The strangenesse of these inuentions doth bring this other thing vnto my fantasie That it is a kinde of pusilanimity in Monarkes and a testimony that they doe not sufficiently know what they are when they labour to shew their worth and endeuour to appeare vnto the world by excessiue and intolerable expences A thing which in a strange country might somewhat bee excused but amongst his natiue subiects where hee swayeth all in all hee draweth from his dignity the extreamest degree of honour that hee may possible attaine vnto As for a gentleman in his owne priuate house to apparrell himselfe richly and curiously I deeme it a matter vaine and superfluous his house his houshold his traine and his kitchin doe sufficiently answere for him The counsell which Isocrates giueth to his King in my conceite seemeth to carry some reason when hee willeth him to bee richly-stored and stately adorned with mooueables and housholde-stuffe forsomuch as it is an expence of continuance and which descendeth euen to his posterity or heires And to auoyde all magnificences which presently vanish both from custome and memory I loued when I was a yonger brother to set my selfe foorth and bee gaye in cloathes though I wanted other necessaries and it became mee well There are some on whose backes their ritch Robes weepe or as wee say their rich cloathes are lyned with heauye debts We haue diuers strange tales of our auncient Kings frugalitie about their owne persons and in their gifts great and farre renouned Kings both in credit in valour and in fortune Demosthenes mainely combates the law of his Cittie who assigned their publique money to be imployed about the stately setting forth of their playes and feastes He willeth that their magnificence should bee seene in the quantity of tall ships well manned and appointed and armies well furnished And they haue reason to accuse Theophrastus who in his booke of riches established a contrarie opinion and vpholdeth such a quality of expences to be the true friute of wealth and plenty They are pleasures saith Aristotle that onely touch the vulgar and basest communalty which as soone as a man is satisfied with them vanish out of minde and whereof no man of sound judgement of gravity can make any esteeme The imployment of it as more profitable just and durable would seeme more royall worthy and commendable about portes heauens fortifications and walles in sumptuous buildings in churches hospitales colledges mending of heighwayes and streetes and such like monuments in which things Pope Gregory the thirteenth shall leaue aye-lasting and commendable memory vnto his name and wherein our Queene Catherin should witnes vnto succeeding ages her naturall liberality and exceeding bounty if her meanes were answarable to her affection Fortune hath much spighted mee to hinder the structure and brake-off the finishing of our new-bridge in our great Citty and before my death to depriue mee of all hope to see the great necessity of it set forwarde againe Moreouer it appeareth vnto subjects spectators of these triumphs that they haue a show made them of their owne riches and that they are feasted at their proper charges For the people doe easily presume of their kings as wee doe of our seruants that they should take care plenteously to provide vs of whatsoeuer wee stand in neede of but that on their behalfe they should no way lay handes on it And therefore the Emperor Galba sitting at supper hauing taken pleasure to heare a musicion play and sing before him sent for his casket out of which he tooke a handful of Crowns and put them into his hand with these wordes Take this not as a guift of the publique money but of mine owne priuate store So is it that it often commeth to passe that the common people haue reason to grudge and that their eyes are fedde with that which he should feede their belly Liberality it selfe in a soueraigne hand is not in her owne luster priuate men haue more right and may challenge more interest in her For taking the matter exactlye as it is a King hath nothing that is properlye his owne hee oweth euen himselfe to others Authority is not giuen in fauour of the authorising but rather in fauour of the authorised A superiour is neuer created for his owne profit but rather for the benefit of the inferiour And a Phisition is instituted for the sicke not for himselfe All Magistracie euen as each arte reiecteth her end out of her selfe Nulla ars in se versatur No arte is all in it selfe Wherefore the gouernours and overseers of Princes childhood or minoritie who so earnestly endevour to imprint this vertue of bountie and liberalitie in them and teach them not to refuse any thing and esteeme nothing so well imploied as what they shall give an instruction which in my daies I have seene in great credit either they preferre and respect more their owne profit then their masters or else they vnderstand not aright to whom they speake It is too easie a matter to imprint liberalitie in him that hath wherewith plenteously to satisfie what he desireth at other mens charges And his estimation being directed not according to the measure of the present but according to the qualitie of his meanes that exerciseth the same it commeth to proove vaine in so puissant hands They are found to be prodigall before
to the Racke one in presence of another The Prince environed round with hot burning coales being ouercome with the exceeding torment at last in most pittious sort turning his dreary eyes toward his Master as if hee asked mercy of him for that hee could endure no longer The king fixing rigorously and fiercely his lookes vpon him seeming to vpbraide him with his remisnesse and pusilanimity with a sterne and setled voyce vttered these few wordes vnto him What supposest thou I am in a colde bath am I at more ease then thou art Where at the silly wretch immediately fainted vnder the torture and yeelded vp the ghost The king halfe rosted was carryed away Not so much for pitty for what ruth could euer enter so barbarous mindes who vpon the surmised information of some odde peece or vessell of golde they intended to get would broyle a man before their eyes and not a man onely but a king so great in fortune and so renouned in desert but forsomuch as his vnmatched constancie did more and more make their inhumane cruelty ashamed They afterward hanged him because he had couragiously attempted by armes to deliuer himselfe out of so long captiuity and miserable subiection where he end ed his wretched life worthy an high minded and neuer danted Prince At another time in one same fire they caused to be burned all aliue foure hundred common men and three score principall Lordes of a prouince whom by the fortune of warre they had taken prisoners These narrations we have out of their owne bookes for they doe not onely auouche but vauntingly publish them May it be they doe it for a testimony of their iustice or zeale toward their religion verily they are wayes ouerdifferent and enemies to so sacred an ende Had they proposed vnto themselues to enlarge and propagate our religion they would haue considered that it is not amplified by possession of landes but of men and would have beene satisfied with such slaughters as the necessity of warre bringeth without indifferently adding therevnto so bloody a butchery as vpon savage beastes and so vniversall as fire or sword could ever attaine vnto having purposely preserued no more then so many miserable bond slaues as they deemed might suffice for the digging working and seruice of their mines So that diuers of their chieftaines have beene executed to death even in the places they had conquered by the appointment of the Kings of Castile iustly offended at the seld-seene horror of their barbarous demeanours and well nigh all disesteemed contemned and hated God hath meritoriously permitted that many of their great pillages and ill gotten goods have eyther beene swallowed vp by the revenging Seas in transporting them or consumed by the intestine warres and ciuill broyles wherewith themselues have devoured one another and the greatest part of them have beene ouer-whelmed and buryed in the bowels of the earth in the very places they found them without any fruite of their victory Touching the obiection which some make that the receipte namely in the handes of so thrifty wary and wise a Prince doth so little answer the fore-conceaved hope which was given vnto his predecessors and the said former aboundance of riches they mette withall at the first discovery of this new-found world for although they bring home great quantitye of gold and siluer we perceiue the same to be nothing in respect of what might bee expected thence it may bee answered that the vse of mony was there altogether vnknowne and consequently that all their golde was gathered together seruing to no other purpose then for shew state and ornament as a mooveable reserued from father to sonne by many puissant Kings who exhausted all their mines to collect so huge a heape of vessels and statues for the ornament of their Temples and embellishing of their Pallaces whereas all our golde employed in commerce and trafficke betweene man and man Wee mince and alter it into a thousand formes wee spend wee scatter and disperce the same to severall vses Suppose our Kings should thus gather and heape vp all the golde they might for many ages hoarde vp together and keepe it close and vntouch't Those of the kingdome of Mexico were somewhat more encivilized and better artistes then other nations of that worlde And as wee doe so judged they that this Vniuers was neare his end and tooke the desolation wee brought amongst them as an infallible signe of it They beleeued the state of the worlde to bee divided into fiue ages and in the life of fiue succeeding Sunnes whereof foure had already ended their course or time and the same which now shined vpon them was the fifth and last The first perished together with all other creatures by an vniversall inundation of waters The second by the fall of the heavens vpon vs which stifled and ouerwhelmed euery living thing in which age they affirme the Giants to haue beene and shewed the Spaniards certaine bones of them according to whose proportion the stature of men came to bee of the height of twenty handfuls The third was consumed by a violent fire which burned and destroyed all The fourth by a whirling emotion of the ayre and windes which with the violent fury of it selfe remooued and ouerthrew diuers high mountaines saying that men dyed not of it but were transformed into Munkeis Oh what impressions doth not the weakenesse of mans beliefe admit After the consummation of this fourth Sunne the world continued fiue and twenty yeares in perpetuall darkenesse in the fifteenth of which one man and one woman were created who renewed the race of man-kinde Ten yeares after vpon a certaine day the Sunne appeared as newly created from which day beginneth euer since the calculation of their yeares On the third day of whose creation died their ancient Gods their new ones haue day by day beene borne since In what manner this last Sunne shall perish my aucthor could not learne of them But their number of this fourth change doth iumpe and meete with that great coniunction of the Starres which eight hundred and odde yeares since according to the Astrologians supposition produced diuers great alterations and strange novelties in the world Concerning the proud pompe and glorious magnificence by occasion of which I am fallen into this discourse nor Greece nor Rome nor Aegipt can bee it in profit or difficultie or nobility equall or compare sundrie and diuers of their workes The cawcy or high-way which is yet to bee seene in Peru errected by the Kings of that countrie stretching from the citty of Quito vnto that of Cusco containing three hundred leagues in length straight euen and fine and twentie paces in breadth curiously paved raysed on both sides with goodly high masonrie-walles all along which on the inner side there are two continuall running streames pleasantly beset with beautious trees which they call Moly In framing of which where they mette any mountaines or rockes they haue cut raised and leuelled them and
filled all hollow places with lime and stone At the ende of euery dayes journey as stations there are built stately great pallaces plentiously stored with all manner of good victuals apparrell and armes as well for daylie way-fairing men as for such armies that might happen to passe that way In the estimation of which worke I haue especially considered the difficulty which in that place is particvlarly to bee remembred For they built with no stones that were lesse then ten foote square They had no other meanes to cary or transport them then by meere strength of armes to draw and dragge the carriage they needed they had not so much as the arte to make scaffolds nor knew other deuise then to raise so much earth or rubish against their building according as the worke riseth and afterwarde to take it a way againe But returne we to our coaches In steade of them and of all other carrying beastes they caused themselues to be carryed by men and vpon their shoulders This last King of Peru the same day hee was taken was thus carried vpon rafters or beames of massiue Golde sitting in a faire chaire of state likewise all of golde in the middle of his battaile Looke how may of his porters as were slaine to make him fall for all their endeuour was to take him aliue so many others and as it were auye tooke and vnder-went presently the place of the dead so that he could never be brought down or made to fall what slaughter so ever was made of those kinde of people vntill such time as a horseman furiously ranne to take him by some parte of his body and so pulled him to the ground The seuenth Chapter Of the incommoditie of greatnesse SInce we cannot attaine vnto it let vs revenge our selues with railing against it yet is is not absolute railing to finde faulte with any thing There are defects found in all things how faire soever in show and desirable they be It hath generally this evident aduantage that when ever it pleaseth it will decline and hath well-nigh the choise of one and other condition For a man doth not fall from all heights divers there are whence a man may descend without falling Verily mee seemeth that we value it at too high a rate and prize over-deare the resolution of those whom we have either seene or heard to have contemned or of their owne motion rejected the same Hir essence is not so evidently commodious but a man may refuse it without wonder Indeed I finde the labour very hard in suffering of evils but in the contentment of a meane measure of fortune and shunning of greatnesse therein I see no great difficulty In my conceit it is a vertue wherevnto my selfe who am but a simple nâ—nny might easily attaine and without great contention What shall they doe who would also bring into consideration the glory which accompanieth this refusall wherein may fall more ambition then even in the desire and absolute enioying of greatnesse For somuch as ambition is never better directed according to it selfe then by a straying and vnfrequented path I sharpen my courage toward patience and weaken the same against desire I have as much to wish for as another and leave my wishes as much liberty and indiscretion but yet it never came into my minde to wish for Empire for royalty or eminency of high and commanding fortunes I aime not that way I love my selfe too well When I thinke to grow it is but meanely with a forced and coward aduancement fit for me yea in resolution in wisedome in health in beauty and also in riches But this credite this aspiring reputation this overswaying authority suppresseth my imagination And cleane opposite to some other I should peradventure loue my selfe better to be the second or third man in Perigot then the first in Paris At least without faining I had rather be the third man in Paris then the first in charge I will neither contend with an Vsher of a doore as a silly vnknowen man nor with gaping and adoration make a Lane through the throng as I passe I am enured to a meane calling mediocrity best fitteth me as well by my fortune as by mine owne humor And have shewed by the conduct of my life and course of my enterprises that I have rather sought to avoid then otherwise to embrace beyond the degree of fortune that at my birth it pleased God to call me vnto Each naturall constitution is equally iust and easie My minde is so dull and slowe that I measure not good fortune according to her height but rather according to her facility And if my hart be not great enough it is ratably free and open and who biddeth me bouldly to publish my weaknesse Should any will me on the one part to conferre and consider the life of L. Thorius Balbus a worthy gallant man wise faire goodly healthie of good vnderstanding richly-plentious in all maner of commodities and pleasures leading a quiet easefull life altogether his owne with a minde armed and well prepared against death superstition griefes cares and other encombrances of humane necessity dying in his olde age in an honourable battell with his weapons in his hand for the defence of his country and on the other side the life of M. Rugulus so high and great as all men know together with his admirable and glorious ende the one vnmentioned and without dignity the other exemplare and wonderfull renouned truely I would say what Cicero saith of it had I the gift of well-speaking as hee had But if I were to sute them vnto mine I would also say that the former is asmuch agreeing to my quality and to the desire I endeuour to conforme my quality vnto as the second is farre beyond it That to this I cannot attaine but by veneration and to the other I would willingly attaine by custome But returne we to our temporall greatnesse whence we have digressed I am distasted of all mastry both actiue and passiue Otanes one of the seaven that by right might chalenge the crowne or pretend the kingdome of Persia resolved vpon such a resolution as I should easily have done the like which was that he vtterly renounced all maner of claime he might in any sort pretend vnto that crowne to his fellow competitores were it either by election or chance alwaies provided that both himselfe and all his might liue in that Empire free from all subjections and exempted from all maner of commandement except that of the ancient lawes and might both chalenge all liberty and enioy all immunities that should not preiudice them being as impacient to command as to becommanded The sharpest and most aificile profession of the world is in mine opinion worthily to act and play the King I excuse more of their faults then commonly other men doe and that in consideration of the downe-bearing waight of their immense charge which much astonisheth me It is a very hard task to
that man is not immoderate in all and every where and hath no other sentence or arrest than that of necessity and impuissance to proceede further The twelfth Chapter Of Phisiognomy ALmost all the opinions we have are taken by authority and vpon credit There is no hurt We cannot chuse worse then by our selves inso weake an age This image of Socrates his discourse which his friends have left vs we only approve it by the reverence of publicke approbation It is not of our owne knowledge they are not according to our vse Might such a man be borne now adayes there are but few would now esteeme him Wee discerne not graces inlie or aright We onely perceive them by a false light set out and pufft vp with arte Such as passe vnder their naturall purity and simplicity doe easily escape so weake and dimme a sight as ours is They have a secret vnperceived and delicate beauty he had neede of a cleere farre-seeing and true-discerning sight that should rightly discover this secret light Is not in genuity according to vs cosin-germaine vnto sottishnesse and a quality of reproach Socrates maketh his soule to moove with a naturall and common motion Thus saith a plaine Country-man and thus a seely Woman Hee never hath other people in his mouth than Coach-makers Ioyners Coblers and Masons They are inductions and similitudes drawen from the most vulgar and knowen actions of men every one vnderstands him Vnder so base a forme wee should never have chosen the noble worthinesse and brightnesse of his admirable conceptions Wee that esteeme all those but meane and vile that learning doth not raise and who have no perceiving of riches except set out in shew and pompe Our World is framed but vnto ostentation Men are puffed vp with winde and moved or handled by bounds as Baloones This man proposeth no vaine fantasies vnto himselfe His end was to store vs with things and furnish vs with precepts which really more substantially and jointly serve our life servare modum finémque tenere Naturámque sequi To keepe a meane to hold the end And natures conduct to attend So was he ever all one alike And raised himselfe to the highest pitch of vigor not by fits but by complexion Or to say better he raised nothing but rather brought downe and reduced all difficulties or sharpenesse to their originall and naturall state and therevnto subdued vigor For in Cato it is manifestly seene to be an out-right proceeding far-above beyond the common By the brave exploites of his life and in his death hee is ever perceived to be mounted vpon his great horses Whereas this man keepes on the ground and with a gentle and ordinary pace treateth of the most profitable discourses and addresseth himselfe both vnto death and to the most thorny and crabbed crosses that may happen vnto the course of humane life It hath indeede fortuned that the worthiest man to be known and for a patterne to be presented to the world he is the man of whom we have most certaine knowledge He hath beene declared and enlightned by the most cleare-seeing men that ever were the testimonies wee have of him are in faithfulnesse and sufficiency most admirable It is a great matter that ever he was able to give such order vnto the pure imaginations of a childe that without altring or wresting them he hath thence produced the fairest effects of our minde He neither represents it rich nor high-raised but found and pure and ever with a blithe and vndefiled health By these vulgar springs and naturall wards by these ordinary and common fantasies sans mooving or without vrging himselfe hee erected not onely the most regular but the highest and most vigorous opinions actions and customes that ever were Hee it is that brought humane wisedome from heaven againe where for a long time it had beene lost to restore it vnto man where her most just and laborious worke is See or heare him pleade before his judges marke with what reasons hee rouzeth his courage to the hazards of warre what arguments fortifie his patience against detraction calumniation tyranny death and against his wives peevish head therein is nothing borrowed from arte or from learning The simplest may there know their meanes and might it is impossible to goe further backe or lower He hath done humane nature a great kindenesse to shew what and how much she can doe of her selfe Wee are every one richer then we imagine but we are taught to borrow and instructed to shift and rather to make vse of others goods and meanes then of our owne There is nothing whereon man can stay or fix himselfe in time of his neede Of voluptuousnesse of riches of pleasure of power hee ever embraceth more then hee can graspe or hold His greedinesse is incapable of moderation The very same I finde to bee in the curiosity of learning and knowledge he cuts out more worke then hee can well make an end of and much more then he neede Extending the profit of learning as farre as his matter Vt omnium rerum sic literarum quoque intemperantia laboramus Wee are sicke of a surfet as of all things so of learning also And Tacitus hath reason to commend Agricolaes mother to have brideled in her sonne an over-burning and earnest desire of learning It is a good being neerely looked vnto that containeth as other humane goods much peculiar vanitie and naturall weakenesse and is very chargeable The acquisition and purchase whereof is much more hazardous then of all other viandes and beverage For whatsoever else wee have bought we carry home insome vessell or other where wee have law to examine it's worth how much and at what time wee are to take-it But Sciences wee cannot sodainely put them into any other vessell then our minde we swallow them in buying them and goe from the marketh either already infected or amended There are some which insteade of nourishing doe but hinder and surcharge vs and other some which vnder colour of curing empoison vs. I have taken pleasure in some place to see men who for devotions sake have made a vow of ignorance as of chastity poverty and penitence It is also a kind of guelding of our inordinate appetites to muzzle this greedinesse which provoketh vs to the study of bookes and deprive the minde of that voluptuous delight which by the opinion of learning doth so tickle vs. And it is richly to accomplish the vow of poverty to joine that of the minde vnto it Wee neede not much learning for to live at ease And Socrates teacheth vs that wee have both it and the way to finde and make vse of it within vs. All our sufficiency that beyond the naturall is wellnigh vaine and superfluous It is much if it charge and trouble vs no more then it steads vs. Paucis opus est literis ad mentem bonam Wee have neede of little learning to have a good minde They are
febricitant excesses of our spirit a turbulent and vnquiet instrument Rowze vp your selfe and you shall finde forcible arguments against death to bee in your selfe most true and very proper to serve and steade you in time of necessity T' is they which induce a peasant swaine yea and whole nations to die as constantly as any Philosopher Should I have died lesse merrily before I read the Thusculanes I thinke not And when I finde my selfe in my best wits I perceive that I have somewhat enriched my tongue my courage but little It is even as nature framed the same at first And against any conflict it shields itselfe but with a natural and common march Bookes have not so much served me for instruction as exercitation What if learning assaying to arme vs with new wardes and fences against naturall inconveniences hath more imprinted their greatnesse and weight in our fantasie then her reasons quidities and subtilities therewith to cover vs They are subtilities indeed by which she often awaketh vs very vainely Obserue how many sleight and idle arguments the wisest and closest authours frame and scatter about one good sound which if you consider neerely are but vaine and incorporall They are but verball wyles which beguile vs. But forsomuch as it may bee profitable I will not otherwise blanch them Many of that condition are scattered here and there in diuerse places of this volume either borrowed or imitated Yet should a man somewhat heed he call not that force which is but quaintnes or terme that which is but quipping sharpe solide or name that good which is but faire quae magis gustata quà m potata delectant which more delight vs being but tasted then swild and swallowed downe All that which pleaseth feedeth not vbi non ingenij sed animi negotium agitur Where it is no matter of wit but of courage To see the strugling endevours which Seneca giveth himselfe to prepare himselfe against death to see him sweate with panting to see him bathe so long vpon this pearch thereby to strengthen and assure himselfe I should have made question of his reputation had he not most vndantedly maintained the same in his death His so violent and frequent agitation sheweth that himselfe was fervent and impetuous Magnus animus remissius loquitur securius Non est alius ingenio alius animo color A great courage speakes softly but securely Wit hath not one colour and courage another He must be convicted at his owne charges And sheweth in some sort that hee was pressed by his adversary Plutarkes maner by how much more disdainefull and farre-extending it is in my opinion so much more manlike and perswasive is it I should easily beleeve that his soule had her motions more assured and more regular The one more sharpe pricketh and sodainely starts vs toucheth the spirit more The other more solide doth constantly enforme establish and comfort vs toucheth more the vnderstanding That ravisheth our judgement this doth gaine it I have likewise seene other compositions and more reverenced which in purtraying the combate they endure against the provocations of the flesh represent them so violent so powerfull and so invincible that our selves who are cast in the common mould of other men have as much to admire the vnknowen strangenesse and vnfelt vigor of their temptation as their constant resistance To what purpose doe we so arme and steele ourselves with these labouring-efforts of learning Let vs diligently survay the surface of the earth and there consider so many seely-poore people as wee see toyling sweltring and drooping about their businesse which never heard of Aristotle not of Plato nor ever knew what examples or precepts are From those doth nature dayly draw and affoord vs effects of constancy and patterns of patience more pure and forcible then are those we so curiously study-for in schooles How many do I ordinarily see that misacknowledge poverty how many that wish for death or that passe it without any alaram or affliction A fellow that dungeth my gardine hath happily this morning buried his father or his childe The very names whereby they call diseases doe somewhat mylden and diminish the sharpenes of them With them a Phthysique or consumption of the lungs is but an ordinary cough A dysenterie or bloody flix but a distemper of the stomacke A pleurisie but a cold or murre and as they gently name them so they easily endure them Grievous are they indeed when they hinder their ordinary labour or breake their vsuall rest They will not take their beds but when they thinke they shall dy Simplex illa aperta virtus in obscuram solertâ—m scientiam versa est That plaine and cleare vertue is turned into obscure and cunning knowledge I was writing this about a time that a boistrous storme of our tumultuous broiles and bloody troubles did for many months space with all it's might and horrour hang full over my head On the one side I had the enemies at my gates on the other the Picoreurs or free-booters farre worse foes Non armis sed vitijs certatur We contend not with armour but with vices And at one time felt and endured all manner of harme-bringing military injuries Hostis adest dextra laevâ—que à parte timendus Vicinóque malo terret vtrúmque latus A fearefull foe on left hand and on right Doth with his neighbour harmes both sides afright Oh monstrous Warre Others worke without this inwardly and against himselfe And with her owne venome gnaweth and consumes her selfe It is of so ruinous and maligne a Nature that together with all things els she ruineth her selfe and with spitefull rage doth rent deface and massacre it selfe Wee doe more often see it by and through hir selfe to waste to desolate and dissolve hir selfe then by or through want of any necessary thing or by enemies force All manner of discipline doth shunne and flie it She commeth to cure sedition and hir selfe is throughly therewith infected She goeth about to chastize disobedience and sheweth the example of it and being employed for the defence of Lawes entreth into actuall rebellion against her owne ordinances Aye me where are we Our Physicke bringeth infection Nostre mal s'empoysonâ—e Du secours qu'on luy donne Our evill is empoysond more By plaister they would lay to th'sore exuperat magis aegrescitque medendo It rises higher quicker And growes by curing sicker Omnia fanda nefanda malâ— permista furore Iustificam nobis mentem avertere Deorum Lawfull vnlawfull deedes with fury blended Have turn'nd from vs the Gods just minde offended In these popular diseases one may in the beginning distinguish thescund from the sicke but if they chance to continue any time as ours hath done and doth still all the body yea head and heeles feele themselves the worse no part is exempted from corruption For there is no aire a man drawes so greedily or sucks so gluttonnously and that more spreds
diverse in force they must be directed to their good according to themselves and by divers waies Quò me cumque rapit tempestas deferor hospes Where I am whirld by winde and wether I guest-like straight am carried thether I never saw meane paisant of my neighbours enter into cogitation or care with what assurance or countenance hee should passe this last houre Nature teacheth him never to muze on death but when he dieth And then hath hee a better grace in it than Aristotle whom death perplexed doubly both by her selfe and by so long a premeditation Therefore was it Caesars opinion that The least premeditated death was the happiest and the easâ—est Plus dolet quà m necesse est qui ante dolet quà m necesse est He grieves more than he need That grieves before he neede The sharpenesse of this imagination proceedes from our curiosity Thus we ever hinder our selves desiring to fore-runne and sway naturall prescriptions It is but for Doctors being in health to fare the worse by it and to frowne and startle at the image of death The vulgar sort have neither neede of remedy nor comfort but when the shocke or stroke commeth And justly considers no more of it than hee seeleth And is it not as we say that the vulgares stupidity and want of apprâ—hension affoorde them this patience in private evils and this deepe carelesnes of sinister future accidents That their mind being more grosse dull and blockish is lesse penetrable and agitable In Gods name if it be so let vs hence forth keepe a schoole of brutality It is the vtmost fruit that Sciences promise vnto vs to which she so gently bringeth her disciples We shall not want good teachers interpreters of naturall simplicity Socrates shall be one For as neare as I remember he speaketh in this sence vnto the Iudges that determine of his life I feare me my maisters saith hee that if I intreate you not to make me die I shall confirme the evidence of my accusers which is That I professe to have more vnderstanding than others as having some knowledge more secret and hidde of things both above and beneath vs. I know I have neither frequented nor knowen death nor have I seene any body that hath either felt or tried her qualities to instruct me in them Those who feare her presuppose to know As for me I neither know who or what shee is nor what they doe in the other worlde Death may peradventure be a thing indifferent happily a thing desirable Yet is it to bee beleeved that if it be a transmigration from one place to another there is some amendement in going to live with so many worthy famous persons that are deceased and be exempted from having any more to doe with wicked and corrupted Iudges If it be a consummation of ones being it is also an amendement and entrance into a long and quiet night Wee finde nothing so sweete in life as a quiet rest and gentle sleepe and without dreames The things I know to be wicked as to wrong or offend ones neighbour and to disobey his superiour be he God or man I carefully shâ—nne them Such as I know not whether they bee good or bad I cannot feare them If I goe to my death and leave you alive the Gods onely see whether you or I shall prosper best And therefore for my regarde you shall dispose of it as it shall best please you But according to my fashion which is to counsell good and profitable things this I say that for your owne conscience you shall doe best to free and discharge mee except you see further into mine owne cause than my selfe And iudging according to my former actions both publike and private according to my intentions and to the profit that so many of our Cittizens both yoong and olde draw daily from my conversation and the fruit all you reape by me you cannot more iustly or duely discharge your selves toward my desertes than by appointing my poverty considered that I may live and at the common charge bee kept in the Brytanâ—o which for much lesse reasons I have often seene you freely graunt to others Impute it not to obstinacy or disdaine in mee nor takâ— it in ill part that I according to custome proceede not by way of inâ—râ—atie and moove you to commiseration I have both friends and kinsfolkes being not as Homer saith begotten of a blocke or stone no more than other men capable to present themselves humbly suing with teares and mourning and I have three desolate wailing children to moove you to pittie But I should make your Cittie ashamed of the age I am in and in that reputation of wisedome as now I stand in prevention to yeeld vnto so base and abiect countenances What would the worlde say of other Athenians I have ever admonished such as have heard me speake never to purchase or redeeme their life by any dishonest or vnlawfull act And in my countries warres both at Amphipolis at Potidea at Delia and others in which I have beene I have shewen by effects how farre I was from warranting my safety by my shame Moreover I should interest your duty and preiudice your calling and perswade you to feule vnlan full things for not my prayers but the pure and â—olide reasons of iustice should perswade you You have swâ—rne to the Gods so to maintaine your selves Not to beleeve there were any might seeme I would suspect recriminate or retorte the fault vpon you And my selfe should witnesse against my selfe not to beleeve in them as I ought distructing their conduct and not meerely remitting my affaires into their handes I wholly trust and relâ—e on them and certainely holde that in this they will dispose as it shall bee nocetest for you and fittest for me Honest men that neither live nor are dead have no cause at all to feare the Gods Is not this a childish pleading of an inimaginable courage and in what necessity employed Verily it was reason hee should preferre it before that which the great Orator Lysiaâ— had set downe in writing for him excellency fashioned in a judiciary Stile but vnworthie of so noble a criminall Should a man have heard an humbly-suing voice out of Socrates his mouth Would that prowde vertue have failed in the best of her shew And would his rich and powerfull nature have committed her defence vnto arte and in her highest Essay renounced vnto trueth and sinceritie the ornaments of his speech to adorne and decke himselfe with the embellishment of the figures and fictions of a fore-lern'nt Oration Hee did most wisely and according to himselfe not to corrupt the tenure of an incorruptible life so sacred an image of humane forme to prolong his decrepitude for one yeere and wrong the immortall memory of so glorious an end He ought his life not to himselfe but to the worlds example Had it not beene a publike losse if he had finished the same in some idle base
and obscure manner Truely so carelesse and effeminate a consideration of his death deserved posteritie should so much more consider the same for him which it did And nothing is so just in justice as that which fortune ordained for his commendation For the Athenians did afterward so detest and abhorre those which had furthered and caused his death that of all they were lâ—athed and shunned as cursed and excommunicated men what soever they had but touched was held to bee polluted No man would so much as wash with them in bathes or hot-houses no man affoord them a salutation much lesse accost or have to doe with them so that being in the end no longer able to endure this publike hatred and generall contempt they all hanged themselves If any man thinkes that amongst so many examples I might have chosen for the service of my purpose in Socrates his sayings I have chosen or handled this but ill and deemeth this disccurse to be raised above common opinions I have done it wittingly for I judge otherwise And hold it to bee a discourse in ranke and sincerity much shorter and lower then vulgar opinions It representeth in an vn-artificiall boldnesse and infantine securitie the pure impression and first ignorance of nature Because it is credible that wee naturally feare paine but not death by reason of her It is a part of our being no lesse essentiall than life To what end would Nature have else engendred the hate and horror of it seeing it holdes thererein and with it a ranke of most great profit to foster the succession and nourish the vicissitude of her works And that in this vniversall Common-weale it steadeth and serveth more for birth and augmentation then for losse decay or ruine Sic rerum summa novatur So doth the summe of all By courses rise and fall Mille animas vna necat a dedit We thousand soules shall pay For one soule made away The decay of one life is the passage to a thousand other lives Nature hath imprinted in beasts the care of themselves and of their preservation They proceede even to the feare of their empairing to shocke or hurt themselves and that wee should not shackle or beate them accidents subject to their sence and experience But that we should kill them they cannot feare it nor have they the faculty to imagine or conclude their death Yet is it reported that they are not seene onely to embrace and endure the same joyfully most Horses neigh in dying and Swannes sing when it seiseth them But moreover they seeke it when they neede it as by divers examples may be prooved in the Elephants Besides the manner of arguing which Socrates vseth here is it not equally admirable both in simplicitie and in vehemency Verily It is much â—asier to speake as Aristotle and live as Caesar than speake and live as Socrates Therein consists the extreame degree of difficultie and perfection arte cannot attaine vnto it Our faculties are not now so addressed We neither assay nor know them we invest our selves with others and suffer our owne to be idle As by some might be saide of me that here I have but gathered a nosâ—gay of strange floures and have put nothing of mine vnto it but the thred to binde them Certes I have given vnto publike opinion that these borrowed ornaments accompany me but I meane not they should cover or hide me it is contrary to mine intention who would make shew of nothing that is not mine owne yea and mine owne by nature And had I believed my selfe at all adventure I had spoken alone I dayly charge my selfe the more beyond my proposition and first forme vpon the fantasie of time and through idlenesse If it mis-seeme me as I thinke it doth it is no great matter it may be profitable for some other Some aleadge Plato and some mention Homer that never saw them or as they say in English many a man speakes of Robin hood that never shot in his how And I have taken diverse passages from others then in their spring Without paine or sufficiency having a thousand volumes of bookes about me where now I write if I please I may presently borrow from a number of such botcherlypatchcotes men that I plod not much vpon wherewith to enamell this treaty of Phisiognomie I neede but the liminary epistle of a Germane to store me with allegations and we goe questing that way for a fading greedy glory to cousin and delude the foolish world These rapsodies of common places wherewith so many stuffe their study serve not greatly but for vulgar subjects and serve but to shew and not to direct vs A ridiculous-fond fruite of learning that Socrates doth so pleasantly enveigh and exagitate against Euthydemus I have seene bookes made of things neither studied nor ever vnderstood the authour comming to diverse of his learned and wise friends the search of this and that matter that so he might compile them into a booke contenting himselfe for his owne part to have cast the plot and projected the desseigne of it and by his industry to have bound vp the fagot of vnknowne provisions at least is the inke and paper his owne This may bee saide to bee a buying or borrowing and not a making or compiling of a booke It is to teach men not that one can make a booke but to put them out of doubt that hee cannot make it A president of the law in a place where I was vanted himselfe to have hudled vp together two hundred and od strange places in a presidentiall law-case of his In publishing of which hee defaced the glory which others gave him for it A weake childish and absurde boasting in my opinion for such a subject and for such a man I doe cleane contrary and amongst so many borrowings am indeed glad to filch some one disguising and altering the same to some new service On hazard to let men say that it is for lacke of vnderstanding it 's naturally vse I give it some particular addressing of mine owne hand to the end it may be so much lesse meerely strange Whereas these put their larcenies to publike view and garish shew So have they more credite in the lawes then I. We other naturalists suppose that there is a great and in comparable preference betweene the honour of invention and that of allegation Would I have spoken according to learning I had spoken sooner I had writen at such times as I was neerer to my studies when I had more wit and more memory and should more have trusted the vigor of that age then the imperfection of this had I beene willing to professe writing of bookes And what if this gratious favour which fortune hath not long since offered mee by the intermission of this worke could have befalne me in such a season in liew of this where it is equally desireable to possesse and ready to loose Two of mine acquaintance both notable men in this faculty
have in my conceit lost much because they refused to publish themselves at forty yeares of age to stay vntill they were three score Maturity hath her defects aswell as greenenesse and worse And as in commodious or vnfit is old age vnto this kinde of worke as to any other Whosoever put 's his decrepitude vnder the presse committeth folly if thereby he hopes to wring out humors that shall not taste of dotage of â—oppery or of drousinesse Our spirit becommeth costive and thickens in growing old Of ignorance I speake sumptuously and plentiously and of learning meagerly and pitiously This acceâ—â—orily and accidentally That expressely and principally And purposely I treate of nothing but of nothing nor of any one science but of vnscience I have chosen the time where the life I have to set forth is all before mee the rest holdes more of death And of my death onely should I finde it babling as others doe I would willingly in dislodging give the World advise Socrates hath been a perfect patterne in all great qualities I am vexed that ever he met with so vnhansome and crabbed a body as they say he had and so dissonant from the beauty of his minde Himselfe so amorous and so besotted on beauty Nature did him wrong There is nothing more truly semblable as the conformity or relation betweene the body and the minde Ipsi animi magni refert quali in copore locati sint multa enim è corpore existunt quae acuant mentem multa quae obtundant It is of great import in what body the minde is bestowed for many things arise of the body to sharpen the minde and many things to dull and rebate it This man speakes of an vnnaturall ill-favourdnesse and membrall deformity but we call ill-favourdnesse a kinde of vnseemelinesse at the first sight which chiefely lodgeth in the face and by the colour worketh a dislike in vs A freckle a blemmish a rude countenaunce a sower looke proceeding often of some inexplicable cause may be in well ordered comely and compleate limmes The foulenesse of face which invested a beauteous minde in my deare friend La Boitie was of this predicament This superficiall ill-favourdnesse which is notwithstanding to the most imperious is of lesse prejudice vnto the state of the minde and hath small certainty in mens opinion The other by a more proper name called a more substantiall deformity beareth commonly a deeper inward stroke Not every shooe of smooth-shining leather but every well-shapen and hansome-made shoe sheweth the inward and right shape of the foot As Socrates said of his that it justly accused so much in his mind had he not corrected the same by institution But in so saying I suppose that according to his wonted vse he did but jest and so excellent a mind did never frame it selfe I cannot often enough repeate how much I esteeme beauty so powerfull and advantagious a quality is she He named it a short tyranny And Plato the priviledge of Nature We have none that exceeds it in credit She possesseth the chiefe ranke in the commerce of society of men She presents itselfe forward she seduceth and preoccupates our judgement with great authority and wonderfull impression Phryne had lost her plea though in the hands of an excellent lawyer if with opening her garments by the sodaine flashing of hir beauty she had not corrupted her judges And I finde that Cyrus Alexannder and Caesar those three Masters of the World have not forgotten or neglected the same in atchieving their great affaires So hath not the first Scipio One same word in Greeke importeth faire and good And even the Holy-Ghost calleth often those good which he meaneth faire I should willingly maintaine the ranke of the goods as imployed the song which Plato saith to have beene triviall taken from some auncient Poet Health beeuty and riches Aristotle saith that the right of commaunding doth of duty belong to such as are faire and if haply any be found whose beauty approached to that of the Gods images that veneration is equally due vnto them To one that asked him why the fairest were both longer time and oftner frequented This question quoth he ought not to bee mooved but by a blinde man Most and the greatest Philosophers paide for their schooling and attained vnto Wisedome by the intermission of their beauty and favour their comlines Not onely in men that serue me but in beastes also I consider the same within two inches of goodnesse Yet me thinkes that the same feature and manner of the face and those lineaments by which some argue certaine inward complexions and our future fortunes is a thing that doth not directly nor simply lodge vnder the Chapter of beauty and ill favourdnesse no more than all good favours or cleerenesse of aire doe not alwayes promise health nor all fogges and stinkes infection in times of the plague Such as accuse Ladies to contradict the beauty by their manners guesse not alwayes at the truth For In an ill favourd and ill composed face may sometimes harbour some aire of probitie and trust As on the contrary I have sometimes read betweene two faire eyes the threats of a maligne and dangerous ill-boding nature There are some fauourable Physiognomies For in a throng of victorious enemies you shall presently ammiddest a multitude of vnknowen faces make choise of one man more than of others to yeeld yourselfe vnto and trust yòur life and not properly by the consideration of beauty A mans loòke or aire of his face is but a weake warrant notwithstanding it is of some consideration And were I to whippe them I would more rudely scourge such as maliciously bely betray the promises which Nature had charactred in their front And more severely would I punish malicious craft in a debonaire apparance and in a mild promising countenance It seemeth there bee some lucky and well boding faces and other some vnlucky and ill presaging And I thinke there is some Arte to distinguish gently-milde faces from nyaes and simple the severe from the rude the malicious from the froward the disdainefull from the melancholike and other neighbouring qualities There are some beauties not onely fierce-looking but also sharpe-working some others pleasing-sweete and yet wallowishly tastlesse To prognosticate future successes of them be matters I leave vndecided I have as elsewhere I noted taken for my regard this ancient precept very rawly and simply That We cannot erre in following Nature and that the soveraigne document is for a man to conforme himselfe to her I have not as Socrates by the power and vertue of reason corrected my naturall complexions nor by Arte hindered mine inclination Look how I came into the World so I goe-on I strive with nothing My two Mistris partes live of their owne kindenesse in peace and good agreement but my nurses milke hath thanks be to God beene indifferently wholesome and temperate Shall I say thus much by the way That I see a certaine
with contemning and corrupting the same A man should apply himselfe to the best rules but not subject himselfe vnto them except to such if any there bee that duty and thraldome vnto them be profitable Both Kings and Philosophers obey nature and goe to the stoole and so doe Ladies Publike lives are due vnto ceremony mine which is obscure and private enjoyeth all naturall dispensations To be a Souldier and a Gascoyne are qualities somwhat subject to indiscretion And I am both Therefore will I say thus much of this action that it is requisite we should remit the same vnto certaine prescribed night-houres and by custome as I have done force and subject our selves vnto it But not as I have done growing in yeeres strictly tie him selfe to the care of a particular convenient place and of a commodious Aiax or easie close-stoole for that purpose and make it troublesome with long sitting and nice observation Neverthelesse in homeliest matters and fowlest offices is it not in some sorte excusable to require more care and cleanelinesse Naturâ— homo mundum elegans animal est By nature man is a cleanely and neate creature Of all naturall actions there is none wherein I am more loath to be troubled or interrupted when I am at it I have seene divers great men and souldiers much troubled and vexed with their bellies vntune and disorder when at vntimely houres it calleth vpon them whilst mine and my selfe never misse to call one vpon another at our appointment which is as soone as I get out of my bed except some vrgent busines or violent sickenesse trouble mee Therefore as I saide I judge no place where sicke men may better seate themselves in security then quietly and wisht to holde themselves in that course of life wherein the have beene brought vp and habituated Any change or variation soever astonieth and distempereth Will any beleeue that Chestnuttes can hurt a Perigordin or a Luquoâ—s or that milk or whitmeates are hurtful vnto a mountaine dwelling people whom if one seeke to divert from their naturall diet he shall not onely prescribe them a new but a contrary forme of life A change which a healthy man can hardly endure Appoynt a Bretton of three score yeeres of age to drinke water put a Sea-man or Mariner into a Stove forbid a lackey of Baske to walke you bring them out of their element you depriue them of all motion and in the end of aire of light and life an vivere tanti est Doe we reckon it so deare Onely living to be here Cogimur à suet is animum suspendere rebus Atque vt vivamus vivere desinimus From things erst vs'd we must suspend our minde We leave to live that we may live by kinde Hos superesse reor quibus spirabilis aâ—r Et lux quaregimur redditur ipsa gravis Doe I thinke they liue longer whom doth grieve Both aire they breathe and light whereby they live If they doe no other good at least they doe this that betimes they prepare their patients vnto death by little vndermining and cutting-off the vse of life Both in health and in sickenesse I haue willingly seconded and giuen my selfe over to those appetites that pressed mee I allow great authority to my desires and propensions I loue not to cure one evill by another mischiefe I hate those remedies that importune more then sickenesse To be subject to the cholike and to be tied to abstaine from the pleasure I have in eating of oysters are two mischiefes for one The disease pincheth vs on the one side the rule on the other Since we are ever in danger to misdoe let vs rather hazard our selves to follow pleasure Most men doe contrary and thinke nothing profitable that is not painefull Facility is by them suspected Mine appetite hath in diuerse things very happily accommodated and ranged it selfe to the health of my stomake Being yong acrimony and tartnesse in sawces did greatly delight me but my stomake being since glutted therewith my taste hath likewise seconded the same Wine hurts the sicke it is the first thing that with an invincible distaste brings my mouth out of taste Whatsoeuer I receiue vnwillingly or distastefully hurts me whereas nothing doth it whereon I feede with hunger and rellish I never receiued harme by any action that was very pleasing vnto me And yet I have made al medicinall conclusions largely to yeeld to my pleasures And when I was yong Quem circumcursans huc atque huc saepe Cupido Fulgebat crocina splendidus in tunica About whom Cupid running here and there Shinde in the saffron coate which he did weare I have as licentiously inconsiderately as any other furthred al such desires as possessed me Et militavi non sine gloria A Souldier of loves hoast I was not without boast More notwithstanding in continuation and holding out then by snatches or by stealth Sex me vix memini sustinuesse vices I scarse remember past Six courses I could last It is surely a wonder accompanied with vnhappinesse to confesse how yoong and weake I was brought vnder it's subjection Nay shall I not blush to tell it It was long before the age of choise or yeares of discretion I was so yoong as I remember nothing before And fitly may my fortune bee compared to that of Quartilla who remembred not her mayden-head Inde tragus celeresque pili mirandáque matri Barba meâ— Thence goatishnesse haires over-soone a beard To make my mother wonder and afear'd Physitians commonly enfold and joine their rules vnto profit according to the violence of sharpe desires or earnest longings that incidently follow the sicke No longing desire can be imagined so strange and vicious but nature will apply herselfe vnto it And then how easie is it to content ones fantasie In mine opinion this part importeth all in all at least more and beyond all other The most grievous and ordinary evills are those which fancy chargeth vs withall That Spanish saying doth every way please me Deffienda me Dios de my God defend me from my selfe Being sicke I am sory I have not some desire may give mee the contentment to satiate and cloy the same Scarsly would a medicine divert me from it So doe I when I am in health I hardly see any thing left to be hoped or wished-for It is pittie a man should be so weakned and enlanguished that hee hath nothing left him but wishing The arte of Physicke is not so resolute that whatsoever wee doe wee shall bee void of all authority to doe it Shee changeth and shee varieth according to climates according to the Moones according to Fernelius and according to Scala If your Physitian thinke it not good that you sleepe that you drinke wine or eate such and such meates Care not you for that I will finde you another that shall not be of his opinion The diversity of physicall arguments and medicinall opinions embraceth all manner of