that Souls abide after they are gone out of the Body but not always The Stoicks held the Soul to be a hot Breath that is a Body compounded of Air and Fire so consequently subject to Dissolution but not suddenly upon expiring The Souls of the loose and debauched they fancied to abide a time accordingly shorter but those of the just and resolute to the next Conflagration of the World n The Homer of the Philosophers Not only because as Homer led and excelled in Poetry so Plato in Philosophy but also more because as the continued Epique Poem of Homer was that rich Spring from whence the following Poets drew the partial Arguments of their Poetry so the Dialogues of Plato are that well-stored Repertory of Wisdom from whence the succeeding Philosophers have set up their several Sects with their respective Opinions So that what the one furnished in gross the others deal out by retail SECT XXXIII The Arguments of Panaetius answered THESE Reasons may be disprov'd for they proceed from ignorance that when there is speech about the Eternity of Souls it is meant of the Understanding which is always free from any turbulent Motion not of those parts wherein Passions Wrath and Lusts inhabit which o he against whom these Objections are raised supposeth remov'd from the Understanding and lodg'd in distinct Apartments For likeness more appeareth in Beasts whose Souls have no reason But the likeness of men is more visible in the shape of their Bodies and the Souls themselves it much imports in what kind of Body they be lodg'd for there proceed many Impressions from the Body which quicken the understanding many which dull it p Aristotle indeed saith that all ingenious men are of a melancholly Complexion so that I have the less reason to be troubled that I am none of the quickest And as if the Problem were agreed upon subjoyns a reason why it cometh to be so Now if there be such great influence see the Production in the Body upon the habit of the Mind and these whatever they be are all that maketh the likeness the likeness of Soul infers no necessity why it should be born To pass likeness would Panaetius could be present he liv'd with Africanus I would enquire of him whom of all his Kindred was Africanus's Brother's Grandson like In shape his very Father in life so like any Villain that he was by far the basest of all Like to whom too was the Grandchild of P. Crassus both a wise and eloquent man as also the Sons and Grandsons of many other excellent Personages whom it is no ways material to name on this occasion But what drive we at have we forgot that this is the Scope of our present discourse after we had spoken sufficiently upon Eternity further to prove that there is no evil in death though Souls were also to be extinct S. True I minded it but all the while you were discoursing upon Eternity was willing you should run on wide of the Point in hand o He against whom these Objections are raised Plato p Aristotle indeed saith that all ingenious men are of a melancholy Temper In his Problems Sect. 30. Choler adust hath the predominancy in them and they are upon the confines of madness SECT XXXIV Upon Supposition of the Souls mortality death is not evil being a departure from evils M. YOU look high I see and would fain be removing to Heaven I hope that will be our portion but suppose as those Gentlemen would have it to be that Souls do not remain after death I see we are cut off from the hopes of a more blessed Life but what evil doth that opinion import Suppose the Soul so to perish as the Body is there then any pain or indeed any sense at all in the Body after death No body saith so although Epicurus chargeth that on Democritus his Followers deny it neither is there any sense therefore left in the Soul for that it self is no where where then is the Evil for there is no third Subject is it because the parting of the Soul from the Body passeth not without pain Should I believe it to be so how small a business is that and I take it to be untrue for it happens frequently without Sense nay sometimes with Pleasure And that whole concern make the most of it is of small import for it indureth but a Moment That consideration perplexeth or rather torments a departure from all those things which are good in this Life Look whether it may not more truly be said from the Evils thereof Why should I now bewail mans Life I might truly and have title to do so but what needs it when I am labouring to take off the opinion that we shall be miserable after death to make even Life more miserable by bemoaning it We have done this in that Book wherein we comforted our selves as much as we could Therefore to state the question aright Death withdraws us from Evils not from Goods This Point was so largely debated by Hegesias the Cyrenaick that he is reported to have been prohibited by King Ptolomy to dispute publickly on that Subject because many upon the hearing it made themselves away Callimachus hath an Epigram upon Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who saith he had no misfortune befell him but upon reading Plato's Dialogue threw himself from the Wall into the Sea And that Hegesias whom I mention'd left a Book entitled The resolv'd Passenger because one departing out of Life by forbearing to eat is disswaded by his Friends whom he answers by reckoning up the Miseries of man's Life I could do the like though not to that degree as he who thinks it expedient for none at all to live Others I wave Is it expedient for us to do so who being strip'd of the Comforts and Ornaments both of Family and Court had we dy'd before Death had most assuredly remov'd us from Evils and not from Goods SECT XXXV Or from uncertain Goods SUppose we then one that has no Evil hath met with some misfortune q Metellus the Honourable had four Sons Ay but Priam had fifty and seventeen of them born of his lawful Wife Fortune had the same power over both though she made use of it only upon one for many Sons Daughters Grandsons Grand-daughters laid Metellus in the Grave but the hand of an Enemy slew Priam before the Altar where he had taken Sanctuary after the loss of so numerous a Progeny Had he been deceas'd whilst his Children surviv'd the State of the Empire continu'd firm By Barbary Guards attended In Palace carv'd and vaulted Resolve me whither he had departed from Goods or Evils from Goods he would at that time have thought But in truth it had fallen out better for him nor had that Ditty been sung to so lamentable a Tune All these I saw in Ashes lay'n Priam by the proud Victor slain Joves sacred Altar blood profane As if at that time any thing could have befallen him better
premis'd What was Socrates Sense of the business appeareth in a Dialogue which relateth the manner of his death about which we have already spoke so much for having argued for the immortality of Souls when the time of his dying press'd on and he was ask'd by Crito how he would be buried Now much pains saith he have I laid out Friends to little purpose for I have not perswaded our Companion Crito that I shall fly away hence and leave nothing of me here below Nevertheless Crito if you can come at me or shall find me any where bury me as you shall think fit But believe me when I shall have departed hence none of you will reach me An excellent reply for he both left it to his Friend and declar'd that he was upon the whole matter altogether indifferent Diogenes was more churlish though of the same mind yet like a Cynick more roughly bid them fling him out of doors without any burying What say his Friends to the Birds and Beasts By no means saith he but lay my staff by me that I may beat them away How can you do that answered they when you shall have no feeling Oh! I shall have no feeling what harm then will the tearing of wild Beasts do me Bravely said Anaxagoras who when he lay a dying x at Lampsacus and his Friends ask'd him whither if he should do otherwise than well he would be carried to Clazomenae his Country answered There is no need for it is the same distance from all places to the other World Now upon the whole consideration of Burial this Principle is to be held that it relates to the Body whether the Soul dye or survive it is also manifest that whether the Soul be extinguish'd or escap'd there remains no Sense in the Body x At Lampsacus Anaxagoras was banish'd Athens for speaking irreverently as they judg'd it of the Sun which he call'd a Mass of glowing Iron SECT XLIV Cruelty towards dead Enemies and lamenting unburied Friends reprov'd BUT all the World is full of mistakes Achilles drags Hector ty'd at the Chariots tail sure he thinks him torn grievously Therefore this the man doth out of revenge as he thinks Again y the Woman bewails it as a very cruel matter I saw and at the sight my sad heart fail'd Hector behind the flying Chariot trail'd What Hector or how long will he continue Hector Better saith Attius and Achilles at length grown wise Priam the Corps I gave But Hector took away Thou didst not therefore drag Hector but the Corps which had been Hector's z Look another peeps up from under ground who cannot let his Mother sleep Mother whose care soft slumbers have beguil'd Nor pittiest me rise bury thy dead Child When these Aires are plaid to a low and lamentable Tune which raiseth compassion in whole Theaters it is hard not to judge them miserable who lye unburied E're Birds and Breasts He is afraid least he should not have the use of his Limbs if they be torn but fears not if they be burnt a Alas what of the half-burnt King remain'd Bare bones lye trod on ground with gore distain'd I understand not what he feareth since he worketh out such sweet numbers to the sound of the Pipe Hold we this then for a Maxim that nothing is to be regarded after Death though many take Vengeance on Enemies even when they are dead Thyestes in Ennius curseth his Brother in very ingenious Verses wishing first that Atreus might perish by Shipwrack a dismal Fate for such a kind of death is not without grievous pain the rest is but empty sound Pitch'd on a craggy Rocks sharp-pointed Top There let him hang his Bowels panch'd His sides upon the rough Spikes gaunch'd On the stones black gore and matter drop Why those very stones were not more void of all Sense than he that is thus empal'd whom he thinks he wisheth it for a Torment How grievous would they be if he felt them without Sense they were no torture at all that too is wonderful idle Nor of the Graves safe harbor be possess'd Where after life his Corps from harms may rest You see upon how great a mistake all this runs on he thinks the Grave to be the Bodies Haven and that when it is dead it rests there Pelops was much to blame who had not taught his Son better nor instructed him what regard was due to each thing y The Woman Andromache Hector's Wife the couplet is taken out of a Tragedy of Ennius of that name z Look another peeps up from under ground Priam King of Troy at the Greeks Invasion had sent his youngest Son Polydore with a great Sum of Money to Polymester King of Thrace who had married Iliona the Princess Royal of Asia his eldest Daughter that he might be secured against the uncertain events of War She tenderly brought him up as her own Son but the Fortune of the Trojans being turned the Tyrant to curry favor with the Greeks murthers his Charge flings him out unburied and seiseth his Portion Thhe Ghost of the murther'd appears to his ruputed Mother in her sleep and demands burial This passage is taken out of the Iliona of Pacuvius a Alas what of the half-burnt King These seem to be a distinct out of Ennius spoken by Hecuba or Andromache about King Priam consum'd or scorch'd in the Flames of Troy with an allusion to the Greek way of burning the Corps or gathering the Ashes or Bones into Urns. SECT XLV The Customs about some Savages about Burial condemn'd What decency to be observ'd in Interment of the Dead BUT why do I take notice of private Opinions when we may plainly see the diverse Errors of whole Nations The Egyptians embalm their Dead and keep them at home The Persians over and above embalming wrap them in Searcloths that the Body may continue as long as is possible entire It is the Custom of the Magi not to inter any of their Fellows till their Bodies have been first torn in pieces with wild Beasts In Hircania the Commons maintain Dogs at the publick Charge Noble-men in their Families Now we know that is a generous Race of Mastiffs but every one purchaseth them according to his Ability and that they take for the best way of Burial Chrysippus collects many other Instances as being excellently well vers'd in all sorts of History but some of them b so loathsom that civil Discourse doth nauseate and abhor the mentioning of them Now this whole matter is to be despised by us not neglected by our Friends provided always that we judge the Bodies of the Dead to have no Sense yet how far Custom and common Fame is to be comply'd with let the Living consider that but so as to understand that it no ways concerns the Dead Now death is then to be receiv'd with the greatest content when the decaying Life can comfort it self with a Reflexion upon its past good Services No man hath liv'd short of his
as it were with Hereditary Family Vices and Scandals or had committed inexpiable Villanies in the overthrow of the State that these were carried in a By-road debarred from the blessed Assembly of the Gods But those who had kept themselves pure and uncorrupt and had contracted least infection from their Bodies but had alwayes drawn themselves into retirement from them and in humane Bodies had imitated the life of God that such had an easie and open return to those from whom they came and then he recounts how Swans which are not without reason dedicated to Apollo but because they seem to have the Gift of Divination from him by which foreseeing what benefit there is in death they dye with Melody and Pleasure so should all good and learned men do Nor could any one doubt of this unless it fared with us when we think earnestly about our Souls as it is wont to do with those that gaze stedfastly upon the Sun in Eclipse that they quite lose their sight so the eye of the mind looking nearly into it self is sometimes dazled and by that very means we let go the intenseness of Contemplation Therefore our whole discourse upon the Subject proceeds with suspence viewing round the Coast demurring crusing forward and backward as a small Pinnace beats about in the vast Ocean But these are old Instances and fetch'd from the Greeks Now Cato of late so parted with life as that he was glad he had gotten an occasion of dying For that Vicegerent of God which Rules within us lays a strict Injunction not to depart hence without his leave But when God himself shall give a just Cause as he did Socrates then Cato now and many often then truly will the Wise man joyfully escape out of this darkness into the light Nor yet will he break Prison for the Laws defend that but being so discharg'd and dismiss'd by God as by a Magistrate or lawful Authority he will depart For the whole Life of Philosophy as the same Author saith is a Meditation of Death CHAP. XXXI From the Sequestring it self from the Body in Meditation as in Death NOW what else do we when we call of our mind from following Pleasure that is the Body from minding our Estate that is the Servant of the Body when we withdraw it from managing State-Affairs and all business What say I do we then but call the Soul home oblige it to dwell within it self and draw it to the farthest distance from the Body Now to abstract the Soul from the Body is nothing else than to exercise dying Wherefore take my word let us practise this and sit loose from our Bodies that is accustom our selves to dye This both whilst we shall be on Earth will be like the Life of Heaven and when being set at liberty from these Bonds we shall ascend thither by this means the agility of our Souls will be less clog'd For they who have always been held fast bound in the Fetters of the Body even when they are knock'd off tread more gently as they who have been many years loaded with Irons But when we shall come thither then shall we live in truth for this Life is but a Death which if I were so disposed I could lament S. That you have enough lamented k in your Book of Consolation which when I read I desire nothing more than to leave this World but upon hearing the present Discourse I am much more desirous to do so M. The time will come and that speedily and that whether you draw back or hasten for Life is upon the Wing but Death is so far from being an Evil as you lately thought that I doubt whether any thing else be I say not no evil but any thing else be a greater good for we shall be either Gods or with the Gods S. What availeth it for there are many among us that give no credit to these things M. Now will I never in this debate part with you on such Terms as that you should be of opinion that death is evil S. How can I now I have been thus inform'd M. How can you do you ask there will come upon you whole troops of Gain-sayers and those not only Epicureans whom for my part I do not despise though best Scholars generally do contemn But my dear Dicaearchus hath most earnestly disputed against this immortality of Souls for he wrote three Books call'd Lesbian because the debate was held at Mitylenae wherein he would prove that Souls are Mortal the Stoics l they prorogue us as Crows to a late day of Death for they allow Souls to abide long but not for ever k In your Book of Consolation Upon the occasion of his beloved Daughter Tullia dying in Childbed Tully drew up into a Treatise all the Heads of comfort and distress delivered by the ancient Philosophers and applyed them for his own use which Book is lost though there go about a piece under that name l They prorogue us as Crows to a late day of death This is a Tradition from Hesiod that Crows live nine Lives of a man Aristotle denies it and affirms only the Elephant to out-live man SECT XXXII The Adversaries of the Souls Immortality confuted HAVE you a mind therefore to hear how though it should be so yet there is no evil in Death S. Use your pleasure but no one shall ever beat me out of Immortality M. I commend you for that but it is good not to be too confident for we often give upon some subtle Argument are shaken and change our Judgment even in clearer Matters for there is some obscurity in these Therefore if such a rencounter should happen let us be arm'd S. Well advis'd but I will watch that it may not happen M. Have you then any thing to alledge why we should not dismiss our Friends the Stoics those I mean m who allow that Souls abide after they are gone out of the Body but not always S. Ay those Gentlemen who maintain that which is most difficult in this whole dispute that the Soul may subsist in a separate condition but do not yield that which is not only easie to be believ'd but consequent upon that which they have granted that the Soul after it hath long surviv'd should not at all dye M. You rightly reprove them Should we then believe Panaetius dissenting from his Master Plato Him that in all places he calls the Divine the Wisest the Holiest n the Homer of the Philosophers yet this only Tenet of his about the Immortality of the Soul he doth not approve for he affirms what no body denies that whatsoever is born dyes but Souls are born as the likeness of Children to their Parents makes evident which appears in their Wits also nor only in their Bodies He brings another Argument for it Nothing suffers pain but what may also be sick and what is liable to disease that must dye but Souls suffer pain they therefore must dye m Who allow
of Friendships wherein as all the Counsel agreeing and almost conspiring in the conduct of Life hath been plac'd by the Learned so is there singular delight in dayly respect and Conversation What I pray doth this Life lack to make it more Happy To this Estate fill'd up with so many and so great Joys Fortune it self must needs submit Now if it be Happy to rejoyce in such Goods of the Mind that is Vertues and all wise men constantly feel such Joys we must of necessity confess that all wise men are Happy SECT XXVI The wise man is Happy in Adversity S. WHAT under Tortures and Racking M. Do you think I mean under a Chaplet of Violets and Roses Shall Epicurus who is only a Philosopher in Masquerade and assumes that Title to himself shall he be allow'd to say what yet he doth with my applause as the matter now stands that there is no time of a wise man although whilst he is burning wrack'd cut but wherein he may cry out Now nothing do I value this especially when he defines all Evil by Pain Good by Pleasure laughs at this our Honesty as baseness and teaches us to be a company of Canters that set up for a parcel of idle School-Gibbrish not having any other true Interest but in what feels smooth or rough in the Body Shall he then as I said not much differing in judgment from Beasts be allow'd to forget himself and then to brave Fortune when as his whole both Good and Evil is in the Power of Fortune then call himself Happy in the greatest racking and torture when he hath laid it down for a Principle that Pain is not only the chiefest but the only Evil and that not having provided himself of those supports to the bearing up under Pain such as are Resolution of Mind Fear of Baseness Exercise and Habit of Patience Precepts of Fortitude manly Hardiness but saith he rests himself on the bare remembrance of past Pleasures just as if one sweltring when he is ready to faint away with the excess of heat would call to mind that he had been p in our Manner of Arpinum refresh'd with the Breezes from the cool Streams that run about it for I do not see how past Pleasures can asswage present Evils but when he saith that a wise man is always Happy who could say no such thing if he would be true to himself what should they do who think nothing desirable nothing to be rank'd amongst Goods which is abstracted from Honesty If my word may pass even the Peripateticks and old Academicks should at length leave their lisping and without more mincing the matter take courage to speak plain and with an intelligible voice that Happiness of Life can enter into q Phalaris his Bull. p In our Manner of Arpinum refresh'd with the Breezes from the cold Streams that run about it In Cicero's Arpinum were two Rivers Fibrenus and another where the Marian Oak stood a pertinent and pleasant Similitude q Phalaris his Bull. When Phalaris rul'd in Sicily with rigor he put many to diverse Tortures Upon this Perillus thinking to gratifie the Tyrants cruel Humour invented a Brazen Bull hollow and with a Trap-door to let in the Sufferers then having shut it again to kindle a gentle Fire and so the Brass heating the Person also roar'd out into bellowings as of a true Bull the Tyrant made the first experiment upon the Artist it is put Metonymically for any exquisite Torture SECT XXVII Objection from Pain against the self-sufficiency of Vertue answered FOR allow there be three sorts of Goods that we may at length get clear of the Snares of the Stoicks more of which I understand that I have us'd than I am wont to do allow them I say for sorts of Goods so those of the Body and of the Estate couch on the ground and be only term'd Good because they are to be accepted but those other Divine ones let them spread far and near and mount up to Heaven so that he who hath acquir'd them why should I call him Happy only and not also most Happy But will a wise man dread Pain for that is the greatest Adversary to this opinion for we seem enough fortified and prepared by the former days Disputes against our own Death and that of our Friends as also against Discontent and the other Passions of the Mind Pain seems to be the most violent Adversary against Vertue that thrusts out his burning Torches at us that threatens to vanquish Fortitude Magnanimity and Patience Shall Vertue then fall under this Shall the Blessed Life of a Wife and Constant man render to this Good Gods how base were that Spartan Children torn with smarting Lashes never give a groan We have seen our selves at Lacedaemon Multitudes of young men Box Kick Scratch Bite with incredible earnestness so as to fall down dead before they would confess themselves worsted What Barbarous Land is more wast or wild than India yet in that Nation those who are counted wise men live naked and endure the Snows and Winter violence of Caucasus without Pain and when they turn themselves to the Flame are scorch'd without groaning Nay r the Indian Women when the Husband of any of them is dead enter into Contest and Tryal which of them he lov'd best for they are wont to be many Wives to one man she that gets the better joyful and attended by her Friends is laid by her Husband on the Funeral Pile the other that lost goes away sorrowful Custom could never vanquish Nature for that is always invincible But we have emasculated our Spirit with Shade Delicacies Ease Niceness Sloth and debauched our Judgment with Mistakes and bad Presidents Who knows not the Aegyptians Practice whose minds being prepossess'd with corrupt Errors would endure any the most exquisite Torment rather than violate s an Ibis t or Asp or Cat or Dog or Crocodile and if unawares they do any such thing they are content to undergo any Punishment that shall be inflicted on them I speak hitherto of Men. What do Beasts do not they endure Cold and Hunger Running and Ranging over Mountains and thorough Woods do they not so Fight to protect their Young as to receive Wounds fear no Charges no Blows I wave that ambitious men abide and suffer for Honors sake what the vain-glorious for Praise what the Amorous for Lust The World is full of Instances r The Indian Women In the Camp of Eumenes there fell out an admirable Instance and very much different from the Grecian Practice Cetrus one of the Indian Captains having fought bravely fell in the Battle and left two Wives behind him Now it had been an old Custom in India that young Men and Maids married without asking their Parents Consent but as they fancied one another This rash judgment of Youth was often follow'd with speedy Repentance so that many Women were debauch'd and fell in Love with others but finding no colour of leaving them
so violently that we should not see reason enough to endure them any longer good Gods m why do we make much difficulty for the Harbor is at hand death upon the spot an eternal receptacle into a State of insensibility n Theodorus said to Lysimachus threatning him with death you have indeed rais'd your self to great advancement if you can compare in power with a Spanish Fly Paul when King Perses petition'd him not to be led in Triumph reply'd That is in your own Power Much hath been said of death the first day when the Debate was expresly concerning death and not a little the second when the Subject was about Pain he that can remember that is in no great danger of not thinking death either to be desir'd or at least not to be fear'd k That he heard ill M. Crassus the Triumvir one of the three Keepers of the Liberty of Rome with Pompey and Julius Caesar he certainly lay under a flagrant infamy of unsatiable Covetousness both at home and with the Persians On this account Tully inveighs against him in his last Paradox He was also brought into some suspicion in the matter of Catiline but there compurg'd by him and perhaps he doth the like here only in point of disaffection to the Government in his time establish'd l Our Epicureans A colour or facetious Argument taken to expose that Sect. m Why do we make much difficulty A Stoical case to favour impatience in Pain n Theodorus Call'd Atheist was sent Embassador by Ptolomy to Lysimachus King of Thrace where speaking resolutely he was threat'ned by him who was of a cholerick Temper when he bid him come no more into his presence he reply'd he would not unless Ptolomy sent him again Some of the Fathers count him falsly traduc'd of Atheism because he disallow'd the worship of the Greeks and being a Cyrenian and known to Ptolomy he might have acquaintance with the Alexandrian Jews SECT XLI That it is an opinion almost universally held by the Philosophers that wise men are always happy THAT order seems in my judgment fit to be observ'd in Life which is enjoyn'd in the treats of the Greeks either drink or be gone And reason good for either let a man enjoy the pleasure of taking his Cup with others or let him timely withdraw lest he being sober be fallen upon by the rest in a drunken Fit So should a man avoid by retiring what injuries of Fortune he cannot sustain These same directions of Epicurus repeats Hierom word for word Now if those Philosophers who are of the opinion that vertue of it self is of no consideration all that we call honest and praise-worthy they say to be meer Jargon and a pure Rant yet if these judge the wise man to be always happy what I pray do you think should the Philosophers descended from Socrates and Plato do some of which say there is so great excellency in the goods of the mind that those of the Body and external ones are eclips'd by them others do not so much as count them goods place all their advantages in their mind Which Controversie of theirs Carneades was wont to moderate as an Umpire to which both Parties refer'd their Cause to be compromis'd For whereas what things the Peripateticks think goods the Stoicks count the same Conveniencies and yet the Peripateticks do not attribute more to Riches Health and other things of like Nature then the Stoicks since they were to be weigh'd by reality not words he deny'd there was any just cause of Dissention Wherefore let the Philosophers of other Perswasions look to it how they can gain this Point Yet I am pleas'd that they make a profession beseeming Philosophers about wise mens title to living in perpetual happiness But since we must be going to morrow let us comprise in memory these five days Debates And to say the truth I think I shall draw them up in writing for upon what can we better employ o this leisure such as it is and we will send these other five Books to our Friend Brutus by whom we have not only been invited to the making Philosophical Treatises p but also provok'd Wherein how much we shall profit others we cannot easily tell but for our own most bitter griefs and various disquiets charging us on every side no other relief could be found o This leisure such as it is Spoken with some Stomach for his being at that time in Prudence oblig'd to compound for his safety by retirement from his honourable Emploiments p But also provok'd By example and the address of his Book upon alike Subject FINIS THE CONTENTS Of the First BOOK Comforts against Death The Prologue Sect. 1 2 3 4. SECT I. THAT the Greeks were inferior to the Romans in most Points of useful knowledge Page 1. SECT II. However Superior in Poetry Pictures Musick and Geometry P. 3. SECT III. Equall'd by them in Oratory which is encouragement to set upon Philosophy P. 5. SECT IV. Philosophy joyn'd with Oratory is more beneficial P. 6. SECT V. The Position that the Proponent taketh Death to be Evil. P. 8. SECT VI. The local Hell of the Poets to be fictitious P. 10. SECT VII They who are not are not miserable P. 12. SECT VIII Nor is dying miserable but essay'd to be prov'd rather good P. 14. SECT IX What Death is What the Soul in vulgar opinion P. 16. SECT X. What it is in the judgment of divers Philosophers P. 17. SECT XI Inferences from these different Opinions P. 19. SECT XII Arguments for the Souls subsistence after death from immemorial Tradition from Funeral Rites and from the veneration of ancient Heroes P. 21. SECT XIII From this that there is a Tradition of the Superior Gods having been Men deceas'd P. 23. SECT XIV From an innate care of Posterity Zeal for the State P. 25. SECT XV And thirst after Glory P. 26. SECT XVI That dead mens Souls abide in Caverns under Earth is the groundless Fiction of Poets or imposture of Magicians P. 28. SECT XVII That it is more likely they ascend P. 30. SECT XVIII Nor vanish P. 32. SECT XIX But mount the Sky P. 33. SECT XX. And thence contemplate Nature P. 35. SECT XXI That the Epicureans who plead for Annihilation have no such reason to triumph in their Scheme of Natural knowledge improved P. 37. SECT XXII An immaterial Substance though invisible may subsist of it self as God so the Soul P. 38. SECT XXIII Arguments for the immortality of the Soul from its being the principle of its own Motion P. 40. SECT XXIV From the capaciousness of its memory P. 41. SECT XXV Corollaries upon the former Arguments from that of Invention P. 44. SECT XXVI From further Endowments P. 46. SECT XXVII From its Divine Original P. 48. SECT XXVIII From its Faculties P. 49. SECT XXIX From its Nature P. 51. SECT XXX From the Authority of Socrates and Cato P. 52. SECT XXXI From the Sequestring it self from the Body
ago or rather all that ever were born S. I am clearly of that Perswasion M. Prithee tell me do these Advises from under ground scare you The black Mastiff with three Heads the howling River the Ferry over the Stygian Lake Tantalus chin-deep in Water choak'd with thirst Doth Sisyphus his ponderous Stone Tug'd up with sweat still rolling down alone Perhaps too those inexorable Justicers Minos and Rhadamanthus before whom you can have neither Lucius Crassus nor Mark Antony to plead your Cause nor because the Matter is to be try'd before Greek Judges can you have Demosthenes for Counsel your self must make your own defence in the greatest of all Assemblies These things perhaps you dread and therefore apprehend death as an eternal Evil. a We are born to everlasting Misery It is horrible to imagine that the Author of Nature should ordain the whole Race of Mankind so highly by him advanced to a State of endless Misery But the Heathen did not understand death as a Punishment superinduc'd through the defection of our first Parent This is brought against Death's being Evil that is miserable to both living and dead The third Member of the Dis-junction SECT VI. The Local Hell describ'd by Poets is fictitious S DO you take me to be so destitute of Reason as to believe these Legends M. What do not you verily believe them S. Not I at all M. You tell me ill news S. How so I beseech you M. Because I could have past for a Wit in confuting them S. And who might not on such a Subject or what difficulty is it to prove these to be meer extravagancies of Poets and Painters M. Why there are whole Book-fulls in the Philosophers of Disputations to overthrow these Supposititions S. To much purpose indeed for who is so senseless as to be concern'd at them M. If therefore there be none miserable under ground neither are there any Persons under ground S. I am clear of your mind in that M. Where then are those that you call miserable or what place do they inhabit for if they be they cannot be no where S. Yes I think them to be no where M. Therefore neither to be S. Well as you say and yet miserable for that very reason because they be not M. Nay now had I rather you were afraid of Cerberus than to use such inconsiderate Discourse S. How so M. You say that the same is not and yet is Where is your Subtilty for when you say he is miserable you then say that he who is not yet is S. I am not so stupid as to say that M. What is it then that you say S. That M. Crassus for instance is miserable who by death was taken from that Estate Cn. Pompey miserable who was depriv'd of so great Glory in a word that all are miserable who lack this chearful light M. You come round thither where you were before for they needs must be if they are miserable but you lately deny'd that the Dead are if therefore they are not they cannot be any thing and by consequence not miserable S. Perchance I do not yet speak out my meaning for I take that very thing to be most miserable for him not to be that hath been M. What more miserable than for one never to have been at all by the same reason they that are yet unborn are already miserable because they are not And we our selves if we shall be miserable after we are dead were so before we were born but I do not remember that I was miserable before I was born you if you have a better Memory I would fain know whether you remember any such thing of your self * * To prove these to be meer Extravagancies of Poets and Painters The Body in a State of Separation in insensible nor did they expect a Resurrection of the Body only by Faith in the sacred Testimonies apprehended therefore to place Hell in bodily Sufferings seem'd to them repugnant both to Sense and Reason Yet they own'd the Souls of the deceas'd to enter into a State of Happiness or Misery according to their Actions in this Life SECT VII They who are not are not miserable S. YOU make a Droll of it as if I said they are miserable who are not born and not those that are dead M. You say then that these are S. Nay but because they have been and are not that they are miserable M. Do not you perceive that you speak Contradictions for what is so opposite as that he should be not only miserable but any thing who is not at all b As you go out at the Capuan Gate and see there the Sepulchres of Calatinus the Scipio's the Servilii and Marcelli can you judge them miserable S. Because you pinch me with cavilling at a word I shall hereafter forbear to say they are miserable but only term them miserable for that very reason because they are not M. You do not say then M. Crassus is miserable but miserable M. Crassus S. Right M. As though whatsoever is pronounc'd of any one were not of necessity either so or not so have you not so much as learn'd the Rudiments of Logick for this is a fundamental Maxim there that every Proposition must be either true or false when therefore you say miserable M. Crassus either you say M. Crassus is miserable that it may be brought to trial whether it be true or false or you say nothing at all S. Well then I grant that they are not miserable who are dead because you have wrack'd out of me the Confession that a they who have no being cannot be so much as miserable what say you of us that are alive can we be other than miserable since we must dye for what enjoyment can there be in life when we are to think day and night that dye we must of a certain and it is uncertain whether this or the next Moment a They who have no being cannot be so much as miserable Nothing is more certain as the Action at Law dies with the Person so if the Subject cease to be all the Accidents depending on it fall together Death is a Dissolution of the whole compound but this Argument is intended to reprove the Vulgar who foolishly pittied the dead only for their loss of these worldly Advantages to which indeed the dead are utterly lost but he afterwards retrieves the Soul The drift of these two Sections is to disprove Death's being evil or miserable to them that are already dead which was the second Member of the disjunctive b As ye go out at the Capuan Gate It was a Law among the Romans taken from the Attick to bury none within the City but without the several Gates by the High-way-side Monuments erected for the dead were admonitions to the Passengers and Ornaments of the Publick SECT VIII Nor is dying a miserable thing it is assay'd to prove it rather good M. DO you come then to understand of how
much evil you have discharg'd humane Condition S. Which way M. Because if dying had been miserable to them that are dead we should have had an endless and everlasting evil in Life Now I see the Goal whether when I have finish'd my course nothing further is to be fear'd But you seem to me to be of Epicharmus's mind an acute man and not unfacetious as being a Sicilian S. What was his mind for I do not know it M. I will tell you if I can translate it for you know I no more use to bring in ends of Greek in a Latin Discourse than when I am speaking Greek to come in with Latin Sentences S. In that you are right but what I pray is that saying of Epicharmus M. To dye I 'me loth but weigh not to be dead S. Now I find the Greek by his subtlety but since you have forc'd me to yield that they who are dead are not miserable perswade me if you can that it is not a miserable thing that we must dye M. There is now no great difficulty in that but I aim at higher Matters S. How no great difficulty in that or what can be those higher Matters M. Because if there be no evil after death neither can death it self be evil for the time which immediately follows it is after death wherein you allow that there is no evil upon which follows that neither is it evil that we must dye which is we must arrive thither where we confess is no evil S. Speak to that I pray more largely for these captious questions sooner gain of me a Confession than a Conviction But what are those higher Matters that you say you aim at M. To make out if I am able that death is so far from being evil that it is good S. I do not require that from you but would gladly hear it for though you should not demonstrate what you attempt yet you will gain the question that death is not evil Proceed then I shall not interrupt you I had rather hear it in a continu'd Speech M. What if I should ask you any thing would you not answer me S. That were an uncivil part but unless there be a necessity I had rather you would for bear it * * If there be no evil after death neither can death it self be evil Death as a passage to a State of insensibility can have no very formidable aspect and this is offer'd to overthrow the first Branch in the disjunctive Syllogisme as if death were evil to them that are to dye But the Heathen World knew not the universal calpableness of mankind the rigorous Sanction of a just Law and Power of the Law-giver to put his Sentence in Execution wherein the Terrors of Death doth consist SECT IX What is death what the Soul in vulgar Opinion M. I Will comply with you and to my best Ability declare what you desire yet not so as if inspir'd by Pythian Apollo I should speak nothing that were no Oracle and Infallible but as a weak man of like frailty with the rest of Mankind pursuing what hath greatest appearance of Truth for beyond probabilities I am not able to advance Let a them deliver Certainties who both affirm these Matters to be comprehensible and profess themselves to have arriv'd at Perfection S. In that as you please we are prepar'd to give attention M. Death then however universally it may seem to be known must first be enquir'd what it is Some hold death to be a Separation of the Body from the Soul Others think there is no Separation but that both Soul and Body determine at once and that the Soul is extinguish'd with the Carkass Of those who judge that the Soul departs some hold that it presently scatters some again after a long space others maintain that it endures for ever Now what it is where seated or whence it cometh is matter of great Controversie Some take it to be the heart whence men are said to be without Heart of a bad Heart or of one Heart And that great Statesman Nasica who was twice Consul had the Surname of Wise-heart And the old Poet terms Wise Aelius Sextus of an heart Profound Empedocles thinks the Soul to be the Bloodshed through the Heart Others judge that a part of the Brain is the Principle of Sense and Understanding Another Party cannot agree either the one or other to be the Soul but these lodge it in the Heart those in the Brain as its Seat or Palace Others and among them we in our own Language use the name Soul and Spirit promiscuously for we say to gasp and expire or give up the Ghost also men of a gallant Spirit of a sound Spirit and the like As for Spirit it is being interpreted Breath Zeno the Stoic holds the Soul to be a Fire a Let them deliver Certainties He reflects upon the Stoics who were very positive and Pretenders to perfect Wisdom SECT X. What it is in the Judgment of divers Philosophers BUT these which I have recited that the Soul should be Heart Brains Breath Fire are vulgar Opinions the remaining private Doctors have held and some of the Ancient ones Of later date Aristoxenus Musician and Philosopher too maintain'd it was a certain Key to which the body was strain'd as in the tuning of an Instrument so by the nature and posture of the Body variety of Motions were rais'd and as Notes in Musick He kept to his Art yet somewhat he said which somewhat such as it was had been long before both said and explain'd by Plato Xenocrates deny'd that the Soul hath any corporeal Figure but said it was a number whose Power as Pythagoras had before held was of great Efficacy in Nature His Master Plato divided the Soul into three Parts The Principal of these which is Reason he plac'd in the Head as in its Citadel and separated into two Anger and Lust which he lodg'd in different Apartments placing Anger in the Stomach and Lust under the Entrails But Dicaearchus in that Discourse which he held at Corinth and put out in three Books in the Person of learned men in the first Books brings in many Disputants in the two latter introduceth one Pherecrates an old man of Phthia whom he alledgeth as descended of Deucalion and there to argue that there is no such being as a Soul that it is a meer Name without a Notion and that we speak improperly in saying that Creatures have a living Soul whereas in truth there is neither in Man nor Beast any such thing as Soul or Spirit but all that Power which produceth in us Actions of the Mind or Senses is an equal Complexion of the Elements nor can subsist in a separate Estate as being no substance but plain body which under such a Figure is by its natural Temper dispos'd to Vegetation and Sense Aristotle who far surpasseth all others Plato alwayes excepted both in Parts and Industry after he had computed the four
Elements which furnish material cause of existence to all compound Bodies pitches upon a fifth Essence of which the rational Soul should consist for to think and forecast to learn and teach to invent with so many other Abilities of Memory Love Hatred Desire Fear Anxiety Joy he doth not conceive these and the like can be inherent in any of those four Elements Hereupon he adds a fifth nameless Nature and so calls the Soul by the new name of a pure Act being in continu'd and perpetual Motion SECT XI Inferences from these diverse Opinions THese are almost all the Opinions about the Soul as far as I can recollect for let us wave Democritus a brave man indeed and excellent Scholar but who fram'd the Soul upon a casual rencounter of smooth and globular Moths for among those Gentlemen there is no feat so strange but what omnipotent Atomes can perform Of these Opinions which is true God alone knows which hath the greatest appearance of truth is much to be question'd Had we best therefore discuss these different Opinions or return to the enquiry at first propos'd S. I would fain both might be if it were possible but it is hard to confound them Wherefore if without scanning them at large we may be deliver'd from the Terrors of death let that be our business but if that cannot be obtain'd till this question of the Souls nature be decided let us now dispatch this and that another time M. I judge that more convenient which I find you like better for it will be concluded with good Reason that whatsoever of those Opinions which I have alledged prove true death must be either not evil or rather good For if the Soul be Heart or Blood or Brains of a certain because it is Corporal it will dye with the other Body If it be breath perhaps it will scatter into thin Air If Fire it will be quench'd If it be the Harmony of Aristoxenus it will be discomposed What need I mention Dicaearchus who allows not the Soul to be any Substance according to all these Opinions none hath any concern after Death for Life and Sense are extinguish'd together But what is insensible hath neither interest in good or evil The Judgments of the rest open some door of Hope if this may chance to please you that our Souls when they have escap'd out of our Bodies may arrive at Heaven as at their own Home S. That is well pleasing to me and I could principally wish that it were so But next however it is could be contented with the perswasion that it were so M. What need have you of our pains to that purpose can we surpass Plato in Eloquence Read over diligently his Book about the Soul you will need no further Information S. I have in truth done so and that many times but I know not how whilst I am in reading I yield my assent when I have laid down the Book and begin to meditate with my self upon the Soul's Immortality all my former Assent slips out of my mind M. What think you of this do you grant that Souls do either subsist after death or determine upon death S. I readily grant it M. b What if they survive S. I allow they are blessed M. If they dye S. That they are not miserable because they have no being for that Point upon compulsion from you we a little before granted M. How then or wherefore do you say death in your judgment to be an evil which either renders us blessed in case the Soul survive or not miserable as being without all Sense b What if they survive I allow they are blessed An intellectual Life is a Blessing compar'd with Annihilation but to this must be added Reconciliation to God on such Terms as he hath declar'd consistent with the Honor of his Justice and Truth SECT XII Arguments that the Soul subsists after Death from immemorial Tradition from Funeral Rites and from the Veneration of ancient Heroes S. BE pleas'd therefore to declare in the first place if you are able that the Soul subsists after Death if you cannot evince that for it is a hard matter to make out clearly inform us that Death carrieth no evil along with it for I fear least that be evil I say not to be insensible but that we must lose our Senses M. We can produce the best Authority for that Sentence which you would gain now this both ought and is wont to be of greatest moment in deciding all Causes as first the consent of all Antiquity who the less distance they were remov'd from their original and divine Extraction did perhaps discern truth more clearly Therefore this one Principle was deeply engrasted in those old Sires who liv'd in the non-age of time that there was Sense after Death nor would man by departure out of Life be so rais'd up from the Foundations as to perish totally And this may be collected as from many other Instances so in particular from the Pontifical Sanctions about Ceremonies at the places of burial which they would never have observ'd with so much Devotion nor aveng'd the breach of them under such inexpiable Penalties had it not been imprinted in their minds that death was not an Annihilation but a removal and change only of Life which used to conduct Men and Women of good Fame up to Heaven and which continu'd in others but was depress'd to the grosser Regions investing the Earth After this Ritual and the Opinion of our Ancestors In Heaven lives Romulus with the Gods in bliss as Ennius compliant with Fame sweetly sings In like manner among the Greeks and from them deriv'd to us and as far as the Western Ocean is Hercules esteem'd a God so powerful and propitious From hence Bacchus born of Semâ—le and in like renown Castor and Pollux Brethren Sons of Tynearus who are deliver'd to have been in the Battles of the Roman People not only assistants of Victory c but also Messengers there of express What is not Ino Cadmus's Daughter who was nam'd by the Greeks Leucothea term'd by the Romans Matuta What is not almost all Heaven not to instance in more peopled with Inhabitants of humane Race c But also Messengers thereof In the War with the Latins at the Regillan Lake two Knights on white Horses were seen to lead up the Roman Battalia and after the Victory the same night to wash their Houses at the Fountain of Juiurna where having brought Post to Rome the News of the day won they vanish'd The like divine Express is said to have brought the word to Domitius Aenobarbus the day that Perses King of Macedon was beaten by Paulus Aemilius SECT XIII From this that the Superior Gods are receiv'd to have been Men deceas'd BUT if I should go about to ransack old Monuments and discover out of them what the Greek Writers have disclos'd those very Gods which are reputed of the higher Rank will be found to have pass'd from us here to
Heaven Enquire whose Sepulchers are shew'd in Greece Call to mind because you have been admitted to the Vision of the secret Ceremonies what passages are deliver'd in those Mysteries so will you come to understand of how large extent this Suggestion is But those plain-hearted Ancients who had never learn'd these Systems of natural Theology which many years after came to be form'd believ'd no more than the bare objects of their Senses comprehended not the Reasons and Causes of them were often mov'd by some Apparitions and those most commonly in the night to conceive that those who had departed this World were still alive Now allowing this to pass for a most conclusive Argument why we should believe the being of a God because there is no People so Savage no Person so Barbarous but hath some Notion of a Deity impress'd on his mind Many have unworthy Conceptions of God for that ariseth from corrupt Custom yet all concur in this Faith that there is a divine Nature and Power nor is this opinion wrought by the Conferring or Combination of men together nor is it built upon Customs or Laws Now the consent of all Nations in any thing is to be esteem'd the Law of Nature Who therefore is there who doth not mourn for the loss of his Friends upon the account that he thinks them depriv'd of the Comforts of Life Take away this Opinion and you will take away Mourning for no body bemoans his own loss Perhaps they grieve or are in anguish for it That same pitiful Lamentation weeping and wailing springeth from the Consideration that we judge him whom we lov'd despoil'd of the Conveniencies of Life and sensible that he is so And this judgment we bear from the Impressions of Nature without any Conclusions of Reason or Instructions of Learning SECT XIV From an innate care of Posterity and zeal for the State FUrther it is a strong Argument that Nature hath in her self secret Convictions about the Souls Immortality from that Providence which all have and especially in those things which are to take place after our Death He raiseth Plants whose Fruit next Age must gather As saith Statius in the Comedy of the young Twins upon what Contemplation but only this that he is interess'd in succeeding Generations Shall then a careful Husbandman Plant Trees whereof he is never likely to see one Berry and shall not a good Patriot plant Laws Customs for the Commonwealth What means the breeding of Children what the propagating our Name what the Adoptions of Sons what the formality of Wills what the Monuments of Tombs what Epitaphs but what we reckon upon future times What say we to this Do you make any question but that a Pattern of our Nature ought to be taken from the very best of Natures Now what Nature is better in Mankind than that of those who esteem themselves born for the Succor Defence and Preservation of men Hercules is gone to the Gods he had never gone had he not while he liv'd among men secur'd his passage thither SECT XV. And thirst after Glory THese Instances are of old Date and consecrated by the Religion of all People By what Principles do we suppose so many brave Persons acted in our own State who laid down their Lives for the Commonwealth was it their Judgment that their name should be confin'd within the same compass as their Lives No man without great hopes of immortality would ever offer up himself in the Service of his Country Themistocles might have liv'd at ease so might Epaminondas and not to look abroad or backward for Examples so might I. But there is in our minds a kind of secret sally-port whereby we make excursion into future Ages This is most forward and observable in the most pregnant Wits and gallant Spirits Take away this who would be so sensless as to live in perpetual toyl and hazzard I speak for Statesmen but as to Poets have they no regard to Fame after Death whence then came this Inscription Here Roman stands old Ennius crown'd with Bays Who sung your Fathers in immortal Layes He expects the Wages of Glory from those whose Parents he had immortaliz'd Then further on the same occasion None mourn for me nor cruel Destiues blame I draw the breath of never-dying Fame But why do I insist on Poets Artisans strive to be ennobled by their Master-pieces after Death For why else should Phidias work an Image like himself in the Shield of Minerva where he might not inscribe his Name Nay our own Philosophers do they not set their Names to those very Books which they write upon contemning Glory Now if the consent of all men be the voice of Nature and all men every where do accord that they who are departed this Life have some interest here we then must needs be of the same Sense and if any who excell in Parts and Vertue we suppose them as being best natur'd to see farthest into the Power of Nature it is likely since the best men are most serviceable to Posterity that there is somewhat whereof they shall be sensible after Death SECT XVI That Dead mens Souls abide in Caves under earth is the groundless Fiction of Poets or Imposture of Magicians BUT as We conceive the Being of God by natural Instinct but gather his Nature and Attributes by rational Deductions so that Souls do subsist in a separate State we judge by the consent of all Nations what Mansions they inhabit and what be their essential Qualities we must learn by reason the ignorance of which hath feigned a Hell in the Center of the Earth and those bugbears which you did seem not without just Cause to despise For when Bodies fell into the Earth and were covered within the ground from whence they are said to be inhum'd they fancied that the dead led the rest of their Life under the Earth Upon which opinion of theirs great errors ensu'd these the Poets improv'd For the cram'd Seats of the Theater in which be Women and Children are mov'd when they hear such a lofty Verse I come mith woful pains from under ground A steep and headlong way which Cliff's surround Huge pointed pendant where gross darkness dwells And so far did the error prevail which seems to me now taken quite away that though they knew Corpses to have been burnt yet they feign'd such Acts done below as could neither be performed without corporeal Organs nor understood For they could not comprehend the Soul's subsisting in a separate condition but requir'd it to have some shape and figure Upon this conceit depends all Homer's Descent into Hell Upon the same that Necromancy which my Friend Appius practis'd Upon this the Avernian Lake in our Neighborhood Whence rais'd are Night-Ghosts Images of the dead Deep Acheron 's Gates flung ope by salt blood-shed Yet they will have these Images speak which is impossible without a Tongue without a Palate without the force and figure of Throat Sides and Lungs
concupiscence and to be so much the more fir'd because we emulate those who are in possession of those Goods which we pursue Doubtless blessed shall we be when divested of these Bodies we shall with them have put off their craving desires and fond Emulations Now as it fareth with us here when releas'd from cares we love to recreate our selves in beholding some moral Divertisements or other pleasing sights we shall have then much more liberty to attend to it d and shall lay out our selves wholly in contemplating the wonderful Effects of Nature and discerning their Causes both because our minds have naturally unplanted in them an insatiable longing to come at the sight of Truth And because the very Borders of those heavenly places at which we shall have arriv'd as by their proximity they will furnish greater advantages as the discovery of the celestial Bodies with their motions so will they accordingly excite in us a more ardent desire to enquire after them For it was this beautiful order which put our Fathers and Grand-fathers even here on Earth as Theophrastus saith upon Philosophy and inflam'd them with a desire of Knowledge but they shall with more inlarged Faculties and satisfaction comprehend them who while here upon Earth however they were invelopped in thick mists of Obscurity yet by the piercing sight of a clear mind endeavoured to descry them d And shall lay out our selves wholly in contemplating the wonderful Effects of Nature and discerning their Causes To behold natural Causes is delightful to the Understanding God is said to look down upon his Works and rejoyce But our greatest satisfaction is by them as in a Mirror to behold the infinite Wisdom and Power of him who hath dispos'd them And since the Creature must pass away in the general Conflagration there remains no other beatifical Vision but to behold the face of the Creator reconciled to us through a gracious Redeemer to which only purity of heart can prepare SECT XX. And thence contemplate Nature NOW if they fancy themselves to have got some advantage who have seen the Mouth of the Black-Sea and those Streights through which the Galley enter'd which was nam'd Argo because in her the Flower of Greece From Argos row'd to fetch the Golden Fleece And those also who have seen the Streights mouth where the swift current Libya and Europe parts What a rare sight do we think it will be when we may see the whole Earth at one view and as its Situation Form Circuit so both its Country's habitable and those again utterly uninhabitable through excess of cold or heat For we do not at present behold with our eyes the things we do see Since there is no sense in the Body but as not only Naturalists inform but also Physitians who in Dissections have seen and examin'd the several parts there are certain open passages bored from the Seat of the Soul to the Eyes to the Ears and to the Nostrils whence oftentimes either being deep in Meditation or seiz'd with some violent Distemper though our eyes and eares be both sound and open we can neither see nor hear with them So that it is very apparent that it is the Soul which both sees and hears and not those parts which are but as it were the Casements of the Soul with which yet it can perceive nothing unless it be mindful and attentive It is further observable that with the same mind we comprehend objects of a most different Nature as colour taste heat scent and sound which the Soul could never distinguish from the report of five Messengers unless all were committed to her that she alone might be judge of all And in truth those things will be seen much more clearly and transparently when the Soul shall get free to the place whither Nature is bound for at present however Nature hath fram'd those overtures which are a thorough-fair from the Body to the Soul after a most curious and artificial manner yet are they in a sort obstructed by gross and impure Matter but when the Soul shall he by her self nothing shall interpose to hinder her from discerning every object according to its proper Nature SECT XXI That the Epicureans who plead for Annihilation have no such reason to triumph in their Scheme of natural Knowledge improv'd WE could sufficiently dilate upon this Subject if the Matter requir'd it how many how different how great entertainments of the Sight the Soul should find in the heavenly places The Consideration of which makes me often admire at the strange Vanity of some Philosophers who magnifie their knowledge of Nature and in great Extasies of Joy offer up thanks to him that first invented and revealed it worshipping him as a God For by his means they pretend themselves freed from the most insupportable Lords everlasting Terror and apprehension day and night What Terror What Apprehension Is there any old Good-wife so doting as to fear those things which you see now had you not learn'd the Scheme of natural Philosophy you should have fear'd Acheron 's low Regions which pale shades frequent Where Clouds o're-spread the gloomy Firmament Is it not a shame for a Philosopher to glory that he is got above these fears and that he knows them to be but Fables By which it appears what profound natural Parts these men have who should have believ'd such Stories if they had not been bred up to Learning A great prize too they have got by this Learning that when they come to dye they are to perish Soul and Body Which admit to be true for I am not contentious what great matter of joy or boasting doth the Doctrine afford Though to speak truth I cannot find any considerable Objection against the opinion of Pythagoras and Plato for had Plato alledged no reason for it see what deference I have to his Person he would have dash'd me with his bare Authority but now he hath back'd his Judgment with so many Reasons that he seems to me to have endeavoured to make others to be so but himself truly to have been of the perswasion SECT XXII An immaterial Substance though invisible may subsist of it self as God so the Soul YET many stubborn Opponents there are who pass Sentence of Death upon Souls as Capital Malefactors Nor have they other ground upon which they derogate credit from the Eternity of Souls but only this that they cannot fancy nor comprehend what should be the nature of a Soul separate from the Body as if they understood what were the nature of it when united to it what fashion what size what place it takes up So that were man a Creature who might be look'd into and all his inward Parts discover'd whether would the Soul be visible or for its extraordinary subtilty escape the sight These things they would do well to consider who say they cannot conceive what a Soul should be without a Body they will find what Conception they have of it now it is
than Death Now had he been taken away before he had escap'd those Evils but being so at this time he lost the Sense of them Our Friend Pompey after a sore Sickness at Naples was pretty well recover'd the Neapolitans put on Garlands so did the Burgers of Puteoli no doubt The adjacent Towns deputed Members of their own to congratulate him in the Name of their Corporations a formal piece of insignificant Courtship to say truth and like the Greeks but yet successful Pray then inform me if he had at that time dy'd would he have been taken away from good or evil things To be sure he had from unhappy ones for then would he not have been engag'd in a War with his Father-in-law he would not have taken up Arms without any Preparation he would not have left home not fled out of Italy he had not after the loss of his Army fallen naked into the hands and Poignard of Slaves his Children had not been left in a deplorable condition and all his Fortunes possess'd by the Conqueror He that by departing then had dy'd in a most honourable Estate by prolonging his Life how many great and incredible Calamities did he suffer q Metellus the Honourable had four Sons Qu. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus had been himself Consul Censor Augur and had triumph'd over Andriscus the Mock Philip Usurper of the Kingdom of Macedon he saw three Sons Consuls whereof one Censor and Triumphal also a fourth Pretor These he left all in good Estate and three Daughters Married by whom and his numerous Progeny he was accompanied at his Funeral having liv'd the Favourite of Fortune indulgent to the last SECT XXXVI Such as we shall not miss THESE accidents are escap'd by dying although they never actually befall us yet because of their possibility But men do not consider themselves liable to these chances every one hopes for Metellus's Fortune As though either there were more fortunate than unhappy or there were any certainty in man's Estate or it were more prudent to hope than fear But be this granted that men are depriv'd of their good things by death is it therefore consequent that the Dead lack the Conveniencies of Life and that it is a miserable thing so to do To be sure they must say so Can he that hath no Being be in want of any thing the very name of want is sad because it imports thus much The man had something hath it not desireth looketh after needeth it These are I take it the Inconveniencies of want One wants Eyes to be blind is discomfortable Another Children so is it to be Childless This holds in the Living but none of the Dead want any comforts of Life no nor Life it self I speak of the Dead which have no Being we who have a Being though we are without Horns or Wings would any one of us say he wanted them None I trow For if one have not that which is neither for his use nor agreeable to his Nature he doth not want it though he is sensible he hath it not This Argument is to be urged over and over when that is made out which is unquestionable upon supposition of the Souls mortality but that there is so total an Abolition in death as that there is not left the least Suspition of any Sense This therefore being fully resolv'd it must be strictly search'd to find what it is to want that so there be no ambiguity left in the Term. Want therefore is the being without that which one desireth to have for desire is imply'd in missing unless in such case as when we speak of having miss'd the Fit of an Ague in a more restrain'd notion of the word The term of wanting is farther used in another Sense when one is without a thing and sensible that he is without it and yet not much concern'd about it but to want any evil is not properly spoken for that would import no sorrow for it The opposite is properly said to want good which is evil but neither doth the Living want what he doth not need Yet it may be understood of a living man that he wants a Kingdom now this cannot with any Logical Truth be said of you it might of Tarquin when he was depos'd and banish'd from his Kingdom but the term can by no means be understood of a dead man for want is proper to one that hath Sense but the Dead have no Sense therefore neither do the Dead want Though what need we syllogize on this Point since we see the matter stands in no such great need of Logic SECT XXXVII Since it hath not appear'd dreadful even to common Soldiers HOW often have not only our Commanders but whole Armies also charg'd the Enemy without any probability of coming back alive Had death been to be fear'd r L. Brutus would never have hindered the return of that Tyrant which himself had expell'd by losing his Life in the Engagement Nor would Decius the Father in Battle with the Latins the Son of the Hetrurians and Grandson with Pyrrhus have run upon the Point of the Enemies Sword Spain had not seen the two Scipio's in one War fall for their Country Cannae Paulus Aemilius Venusia Marcellus the Latins Albinus the Lucanians Gracchus is any one of these at this day miserable No nor immediately after they had expir'd for none can be miserable who is insensible But that very thing is grievous to be without Sense grievous indeed if one were to miss it But it being notorious that he can be nothing who hath himself no Being what can be grivous to him who is without any thing and hath no Sense that he is so Although we have inculcated this Argument too often already but for this purpose because all that distress of mind which ariseth from the apprehension of death is grounded on this For whosoever shall sufficiently perceive what is clearer than the light that upon perishing of Body and Soul together and the whole living Creature being destroy'd and an utter Abolition made of the entire compound that Animal which was before is annihilated he will clearly discern that there is no difference between a flying Horse which never was and King Agamemnon And that M. Camillus doth now no more regard this Civil War than I did the taking of Rome when he was alive Why then would both Camillus have griev'd had he thought these things would have come to pass about three hundred and fifty years after and should I grieve if I thought any Foreign Nation would be Masters of our City ten thousand years hence Because the dearness of our Country is so great that we measure it not by our Sense but it s own safety r L. Brutus L. Junius Brutus the first Roman Consul after the expulsion of Tarquin in a Battle for the reducing him charg'd Aruns the Son of Tarquin so furiously that they gave each the other his deaths wound Decius Mus the Father in the War with the
more desirable but if it destroy and abolish the whole what is better than in the midst of our labors here to fall asleep and so laid fast to take an eternal repose If that fall out to be true yet i better is the saying of Ennius than of Solon for that our Country-man saith None at my Funerals weep nor hard Fates blame But that wise man on the contrary Let not my death want tears may my Friends mourn And with deep sighs my Funerals adorn k But as for us if any such thing should fall out that a Message may seem to be sent us from God to depart this Life let us submit with joy and be thankful judging our selves discharg'd from Prison and our Shackles knock'd off that we may either return to dwell in our eternal and true home or may be set free from all Sense and uneasiness but if no such Message be sent us yet let us be prepared to think that day so dreadful to others to be to us happy and rank nothing amongst Evils l which is either by God appointed or by Nature the common Mother m For we were not without Cause or at all adventures born and bred but in truth there was some Power which had an especial Providence over man nor would beget or breed up such a Being as after it had endur'd all the labours of this Life should then fall into the eternal Evil of Death Let us rather think it a Haven to find provided for us into which I could wish we might ride with Sails top and top-gallant but if we shall be beaten off through contrary Winds yet not long after we must of necessity be driven back to the same place Now what is necessary for all can that be miserable to any one You have the Epilogue least you should think any thing hath been omitted or left unfinish'd S. I have it indeed and that Conclusion hath in truth more confirm'd me M. Very well say I but at present let us have some regard to our Health then to morrow and as many days after as we shall abide in this Tusculan Place let us mind these Matters and especially such as bring relief to our Discontents Fears and Lusts which is the greatest advantage that can be made of all Philosophy i Better is the Saying of Ennius The loss of the Vertuous finds in sorrow comfort and yet he that lives undesir'd dyes unlamented but Cicero must extoll his Country-man above a wise man of Greece k But as for us if any such thing should fall out that a message may seem to be sent us from God to depart this Life This is a particular Application of the former discourse to himself in that present juncture of Affairs wherein he seems not to be free from all apprehension of violence from the displeasure of Caesar and exasperated Spirits of some of the Caesarian Officers and their Army of Veterans spread all over Italy and the places whither he was then retired l Which is either by God appointed Death is not the Ordinance of a Creator but Sentence of a Judge m For we were not without cause or at all adventures born and bred but in truth there was some Power which had an especial Providence over man This is a masterly stroke to set forth our primitive Institution Man was ordain'd to some good end no less than that of Vertue and Glory which State being lost as evidently it is the same especial Providence watching over him hath by a new Covenant in the hands of a Mediator restor'd him to a lively hope that after he hath endur'd the labours of this painful Life he shall not then fall into the evil of eternal Death Patience under Pain The Proem Sect. 1 2 3 4. Book II. SECT I. The benefit of Philosophy NEoptolemus in Ennius saith he must act the Philosopher but a little for the part is no way pleasing But I my dear Brutus judge that I must study Philosophy for in what can I be better employ'd especially being out of all employment but not a little as he saith for it is hard in Philosophy to have a little known to him that doth not know the most or all for neither can a little be chosen but out of much nor will he that hath understood a little be satisfied till he hath learn'd the rest n But in a life of employment and such as was that of Neoptolemus at that time Military even that little doth often much good and brings advantages though not so great as might be reap'd from the whole course of Philosophy yet such as thereby we may in some measure be reliev'd against Lust or Fear or Discontent As by that Disputation which I lately held in my House at Tusculum there seem'd to have been wrought a great contempt of Death which is of no small influence to free the Soul from the fear of it For he who is continually afraid of that which cannot be avoided can by no means have any quiet of his Life but he that doth not fear death not only because he must of necessity dye but because death hath nothing dreadful in it that man hath gain'd good interest towards the ensuring a happy Life Although we are not ignorant that many will earnestly contradict these things which we could no ways prevent unless we would write nothing at all for if our very Orations which we desir'd should be approv'd to the judgment of the Multitude for the Faculty is popular and the Approbation of the Auditors is the work that Eloquence hath to do but if there were some men in the World who would commend nothing but what they were confident themselves could imitate and made their own hope the Standard of their good words and when they were born down with copiousness of words and sense would say they had rather have Barrenness and Poverty than Plenty and Riches from whence o a sort of Attick Speakers took their Rise who knew not themselves what it was they pretended to follow and who are now silenc'd being almost laugh'd out of Court what do we think would become of us when we see we cannot now have the People any longer our abettor as we had before for Philosophy is contented to have but few judges and studiously avoids the multitude as being suspected by it and hated of it So that if a man would speak against Philosophy in general he might have the People on his side or if he would go about to attack this which we chiefly profess to follow he might have great assistance from the Doctrines of other Philosophers Now as to the Traducers of Philosophy in general we have answered them in our Hortensius n But in a Life of Employment Skill in Logick and knowledge of Natural and Moral Philosophy do undoubtedly conduce to Prudence and Moderation both in Discourse and Action He that hath not shar'd in such Education may through preguancy of parts and evenness of Temper grow
things and consequently Pain were indifferent Pyrrho that Sense of Ignorance was Good Opinion of Knowledge Evil other things neither to be desir'd nor avoided SECT VII Epicurus contradicts himself herein the Tragical impatiences of Philoctetes BUT Epicurus speaks after that rate that he seems to me desirous to move Laughter for in one place he affirms If a wise man be burnt if he be wrack'd you look perhaps that he should say He will be patient he will endure he will not sink under it By Hercules a great Commendation and worthy that very Hercules by whom I swore But this will not serve x Epicurus a rough and hardy man If he shall be in Phalaris brazen Bull he will say Oh! how sweet is this How unconcern'd am I at all this Is it sweet too Were it too little if it be not better But those very Persons who deny Pain to be Evil are not wont to say that it is sweet to any one to be put to Torture they say that it is rough hard octious contrary to Nature and yet not Evil. He who saith this is the only Evil and the utmost of all Evils affirms that a wise man would call it sweet I do not require of you to speak of Pain in the same Language as Epicurus doth of Pleasure who was himself as you know a great Voluptuary Let him say the same with all my heart in the Brazen Bull as if he were upon a Feather-Bed I do not attribute to Wisdom so much strength against Pain If perhaps it be sufficient discharge of Duty to bear it patiently I do not further demand that she rejoyce at it For without doubt it is a sad thing bitter repugnant to Nature difficult to be endur'd with any Patience y Look on Philoctetes who is to be pardon'd his groaning for he had seen Hercules on Oeta yelling through excess of Pains The Arrows therefore which he had receiv'd from Hercules did then nothing comfort him when z The Vipers Gall into his Marrow shed Had through his Bowels griping Tortures bred Then he roars out seeking for aid desiring to dye a Ho! down that Peek who doth me throw Into the bring Waves below Now now I faint the belking wound The burning sore my Soul confound It seemeth a hard word that he who is forc'd to roar out after this sort should not be in evil Estate and that very Evil too x Epicurus a rough and hardy man Spoken by way of Derision for he was soft and voluptuous y Look on Philoctetes Hercules on Mount Oeta is said to have bequeath'd his Bow and Arrows to Philoctetes he one day heedlesly let fall an Arrow on his Foot which gave him such intolerable anguish that with his roaring he disturb'd the Grecian Host then on their March towards Troy He may be look'd upon as a fit Emblem of the Gout z The Vipers Gall. These and the following Verses are taken out of the Philoctetes of Attius translated out of Sophocles The Arrows of Hercules were strain'd with Poyson shed upon them by Hydras gnawing them when he emptied his Quiver into her Body a Ho! down that Peek Ulysses to rid the Grecian Camp of the Outcrys of Philoctetes gets the Fleet to weigh Anchor and leave him ashore in Lemnos where he got on a Rock to look after them and there took up his abode in a Grot and lay on a Couch of Leaves CHAP. VIII Hercules BUT look we upon Hercules himself who was then carried forth into Impatience thorough Pain when he was upon acquiring Immortality by his very death What Expressions doth he utter in Sophocles in his Play call'd Trachiniae for when Deianira had made him put on the Shirt b dip'd in the Centaure 's Blood and that had stuck to his Body thus he saith O many labours hard to be recounted Which this spent Soul and Body have surmounted Nor spightful Juno's spleen implacable Nor sad Eurysthens wrought me so much ill As one perverse ill-natur'd Oeneus Seed She hath ensnar'd me in a Hellish Weed Which cleaving rends the flesh away which drains My tainted Liver and exhausts my Veins Wanz'd to a Skeleton I my self survive Wound in an anctious Cere-cloth up alive No proud Foes hand nor Earth-born Gyants force No Centaure dealt these blows half Man half Horse No power of Greeks no fierce Barbarian hands No Savages banish'd to remotest Lands Whither I rov'd all harms to exterminate But I to a Woman owe my ignoble Fate Son may thy Father all that Name engross Nor to a Mothers fondness quit my loss Go hale her hither with officious hands Prove which you value her or my commands On start not Son o're thy wrack'd Sire lament Pity him Nations shall our grief resent Alack that I should like a Girl make moan Who none e're saw in anguish vent a groan My manlike bravery thus unman'd and gone b Dip'd in the Centaure 's blood The Story of Nessus may be known from Ovid's Metamorphoses English'd and illustrated by Sandys the Jealousie of Deianira the twelve Labourers of Hercules and his being Deify'd after he had been burn'd on Oeta whither the Reader is refer'd SECT IX COME hither Son stand near survey with tears The fleshless Carcass thy torn Father wears All men behold and thou that rul'st the Sky Quick bolt of Thunder at my head let fly Now now the grinding pangs my Bowels guide Now spreads the Plague O hands that once were fear'd O Back O Breast O Arms with Muscles swell'd Was it your Gripe that Nemeas Lyon held Till hug'd he roar'd most hideously then dy'd This hand the dreadful Leona pacify'd This Centaur's Horse and Man in death did joyn This quell'd the Erymanthus rooting Swine This carry'd off from dark Tartarean Cell In his own Chain the foaming Dog of Hell This slaying th'oft-twisted Dragon did unfold Which watch'd the Tree that bore the Fruit of Gold Many like prize hath been our Conqu'ring spoil Non man e're yet could vaunt he did us foil Nor can we now despise Pain when we see Hercules himself so impatient under it SECT X. Prometheus ENTER next Aeschylus not only a Poet but also Pythagorean for so have we by Tradition How doth Prometheus in him bear the Pain inflicted on him for c the Lemnian Theft whereby Fire that is now become culinary was clandestinely dealt among Mortals Which sly Prometheus did they say From Heav'n to Earth cleanly convey And for which bold attempt He stands by Jove condemn'd An amends honourable to pay Paying therefore this amercement as he hangs fastened to Mount Caucasus he utters these words Ye Race of Titans to us near ally'd Born of high Heav'n behold your Kinsman ty'd To rough Rocks as a Crew of Seamen binds Their Ship for fear of night and boisterous Winds Here hang in Chains I by Joves strict commands To which obsequious Vulcan lent his hands He cruel Artist did my quick limbs nail With piercing Staples to this hellish Goal When the third Execution
if whining he that should render himself to such low Passion I should hardly allow for a man Which sighing too if it did Administer any real relief yet it were for all that to be consider'd what were the part of a gallant and couragious man but since it abateth nothing of Pain why do we chuse to disgrace our selves to no purpose For what is more discreditable to any man than crying like a Woman Now this Rule which is given about Pain is of larger extent for we must resist all Occurrences not only Pain with the like intention of Spirit Passion bursts forth Lust disturbeth We must fly for refuge into the same Fortress must stand to the same Arms but because our present Discourse is of Pain let us wave these Particulars It is therefore of main advantage towards the patient and calm enduring of Pain to consider with our whole heart as goes the word how honourable it is For we are naturally as I said before and oft'ner it must be said most eager and zealous upon Honour if we see any twinkling of that though but thorough a Crevis there is nothing which we are not ready to bear and go thorough with that we may obtain it It is from this race and eagerness of our Souls after true praise and Honour that those dangers in Battle are undertaken Men of Valour feel not their wounds in the Field or feel them they do but choose rather to dye than to part with the least punctilio of their Honour The Decii beheld the glittering Swords of their Enemies when they charg'd upon their main Body but the nobleness of their death and the glory of their Names render'd easie to them all the apprehension of wounds Can you imagine k that Epaminondas then gave a groan when he found his Life run out together with his Blood Since he left his Country in command over the Lacedemonians which he had found in subjection to them These are the Comforts these the Lenitives of the greatest Pains g I saw Mark Antony when he made his earnest defence being impeach'd upon the Varian Law touch the very ground with his Knee At the time of the Social War when Tully was about sixteen years of Age Qu. Varius Tribune of the Commons brought in a Bill that Inquisition should be made who had been Abettors of the Allies Incendiaries of that War this past and was call'd the Varian Law In it was a Title about Incest upon that head was Mark Antony indicted before Cassius Praetor whose Bar for his great severity was called the Rock of Defendants but Mark Antony an Orator vehement both in Words and Gesture being conscious of his own Innocency made his defence and was acquitted Some say the Slave accused to have held the Candle being wrack'd did in the most bitter Torments clear his Patron h For as Cross-bows wrought with Capstones The old Cross-bow cast Stones or shot off 120 pounds weight which did great Execution upon Walls or Towers almost a Mile distant from the Batteries i And other Engines As Hand-Cross-bows and Bows nay Slings with the greater jerk they are sent and the Axe on the Wood or Beetle on the Wedge the higher the hand is lift up and set on with a groan k That Epaminondas then gave a groan In the Battle of Mantinea after Epaminondas had led on gallantly and made many personal Charges he was unfortunately run thorough with a Javelin being fallen he demanded whether his Shield was safe when it was brought to him he kiss'd it as the Companion of his Labors and Glory again he enquir'd whether the Enemies were beaten and understanding that also he bid the Spear-head to be drawn out of his Wound and so with loss of much Blood triumphantly expir'd SECT XXV in Tryals at home YOU will say But l what are the Remedies in Peace what at Home what on the Bed of Sickness you call me back to consider the Philosophers who do not often engage in the Field Amongst whom m Dionysius of Heraclea a very fickle man after he had learn'd of Zeno to be couragious was by Pain brought to alter his judgment for being troubled with Gravel in the Kidneys in the midst of his roaring he cry'd out that his former Tenets about Pain were all false And when his Fellow-Pupil Cleanthes asked him what reason had prevail'd upon him to quit his Principle he replied Because I had studied Philosophy so much and yet could not endure Pain therefore he concluded that Pain was evil Now I have spent many years in Philosophy and yet cannot brook it therefore is Pain evil Then is Cleanthes after he had stamp'd on the ground reported to have repeated a Verse out of the Tragedy called Epigoxi Amphiarchus under ground hears't this Zeno he meant from whose Instructions he was vex'd that the other had degenerated n But Posidonius our Friend was no such man whom both I have often seen and will now relate what Pompey was wont to tell which was that as he came to Rhodes o in his return from his Government of Syria he had a desire to hear Posidonius read but he was inform'd that he was very ill being much afflicted with the Joynt-Gout however he had a desire to visit him as soon as he had seen him enquir'd of his Health and complemented him and withall added that he looked upon it as his great misfortune that he could not hear him He reply'd again But you can nor will I be so rude as that any bodily Pain should occasion that a Person of your high Quality should be disappointed in the Visit wherewith you have honoured me Hereupon he related how that as he lay on this Couch he disputed with much Gravity and at large upon this very subject that nothing was good but what was honourable and when the twitches of his Distemper would guird him sore that he said often Pain you do but loose your labour be as troublesom as you will I shall never confess you to be evil And indeed all eminent and renown'd Labours whatsoever by our contempt of them come to be within a possibility also of being sustained l What are the Remedies in Peace Having given Examples of Pain voluntarily submitted to for Glory he cometh to the part of more ordinary use concerning support under painful Diseases here from a twofold instance he demonstrates the question reducing the contrary to an absurdity in that of Dionysius the Heracleate and directly concluding it in that other of Posidonius m Dionysius of Heraclea Sirnam'd the Turn-coat because troubled with Sore-eyes as is elsewhere said or with the Stone as is here he turn'd from the Stoicks to the Cyrenaicks This account he gives of his change because he had been long learning Philosophy but had not yet attained to the Practical knowledge of it therefore the Doctrine was not true An absurd and inconsequential inference n But our Friend Posidonius was no such man As to be brought to alter
always to repress the Enormity of the Will and to preserve a constant Moderation in all things The contrary Vice to which is called Naughtiness Frugality is as I suppose from Fruit than which nothing better springs out of the Earth Naughtiness is hence though perhaps it may be somewhat hard however let us assay though it pass but for an Allusion if there should be nothing more it is hence deriv'd from that such a man hath not ought in him whereupon he is also said to be nothing worth He then that is Honest or if you had rather that is Modest and Temperate must of necessity be Constant and he that is Constant Quiet he that is Quiet free from all Disturbance and consequently Discontent but these are the Properties of a Wise man theâ—â—fore Discontent will be far from a Wise 〈…〉 SECT IX by an Induction from Particular Passions of Wrath Envy SO that Dionysius of Heraclea Disputes not unhandsomly upon that Passage of Homer wherein Achilles complains to this purpose as I take it My Heart swells big whil'st I on this reflect Rob'd of my Lawful Prize and iust respect Is the Hand rightly dispos'd when it is swell'd or is there any other Member which hath a Rising or Swelling that is not out of order in like manner therefore the Soul puffed up or swollen is out of order but the wise mans Soul is always in order therefore it never rifeth never swelleth But now the Soul in anger is so therefore a wise man is never angry for if he be angry he also Lusts for it is the property of one angry to desire a fixing the most grievous Pain on him by whom he thinks he is injur'd and he who covets that if he shall obtain it must necessarily be transported with joy whence it follows that he must rejoyce at anothers harm which because it is not incident to a wise man neither is it incident to him to be angry but if Discontent were incident to a wise man so also were the Passion of Anger but because he is free from this so must he be also from that of Discontent For if a wise man were liable to Discontent so might he also be to Pitty so might he also be to Envy I use a word of active signification because the ordinary Latin word rather signifieth passively an Odium that so we may decline the Iniquity of the Term now the Latin word for Envy is deriv'd from a Verb which imports looking very wistfully upon anothers Beauty as in the Play Menalippus Who on my blooming Sons look'd with ill eye The Latin Construction seems wrong but Attins said singularly well who though he departs from Custom at present prevailing yet challeng'd the Priviledge of a Poet ventur'd to follow the natural Analogy SECT X. and Pitty THerefore also the Passions of Pitty and Envy are incident to the same Subject For he that is griev'd at some ones Adversity is also griev'd at some ones Prosperity h As Theophrastus deploring the untimely death of Callisthenes his Fellow-Student maligneth the good successes of Alexander therefore he saith that Calisthenes light upon Relation to a Person of the greatest Power and highest Fortune but ignorant how to manage Prosperity as he ought Now as Mercy is the being afflicted at anothers Adversity so Envy is the being afflicted at anothers Prosperity Whosoever therefore is liable to Pitty the same is also liable to Envy but Envy is not incident to a wise man therefore neither is Pitty Now if a wise man used to take Discontent he would use also to take Pitty therefore a wise man is not liable to Discontent i These Arguments are thus brought by the Stoicks and infer'd by legitimate Conclusions but they are to be discours'd somewhat more at large and with greater Variety Yet we must maintain their Tenets more expresly who have proceeded upon the most couragious and as I may say manly Principle and Opinion For our Friends the Peripateticks though there be nothing under Heaven more Copious than they are nothing more Learned nothing more Grave yet do not make out to my judgment a Moderation either of the Distempers or Diseases of the Soul for every Evil though but indifferent great is great But we are proving this that there is no such thing at all in a wise man For as the Body if it be but indifferent is not well so if there be the same indifferency in the Soul it is not in Health Therefore our Ancestors did excellently well name as many other things after their Propriety so Vexation Disquiet Anxiety a Distemper and the Greeks express every disorder of mind by a Term near the same for they call every inordinate Sally of the Spirit a Passion which in that Language imports a Disease We more properly for the Distemper of the mind bears great Analogy with bodily Sickness But Lust is not like Sickness nor is immoderate Joy which is an ecstatical and extravagant pleasure of the Mind Nay Fear it self is not very like a Disease though it borders upon Discontent But properly as Sickness in the Body so Distemper in the Soul hath a name not sever'd from Pain therefore the Original of this Pain is to be laid open by us that is the efficient cause of Distemper in the Soul as of Sickness in the Body for as Physicians having found out the cause of a Disease think the Cure found out so we having discover'd the Cause of Discontent shall find out the method of curing it h As Theophrastus deploring the untimely death of Callisthenes his Fellow-Student Callisthenes the Olynthian was well known to Alexander the Great having studied together under the same Tutor Aristotle The King took him along with him to Pen the History of his Asian Atchievements but the freedom of his Discourse and uncomplying demeanor wrought his overthrow For when King Alexander now Lord of Asia requir'd of his Macedons to give him the Ceremony of Persian Adoration he with some others of the Macedonian Nobles too openly declar'd their dislike of it The haughty young Victor could not brook that the Majesty of his Empire and with that Grandeur improv'd should be disputed by his Vasals and therefore is said under a colour of a Sham-Plot of Hermolaus to have executed many of the Non-conforming Nobility but Calisthenes he first mangled and disfigured cut off his Ears Nose and Lips afterwards put him into a Cage with a Dog and so carried him about whithersoever the Army march'd till at last he dy'd with the torture and regret of Spirit Theophrastus wrote a Book entitled Calisthenes or a Lamentation from whence this Passage is quoted i These Arguments are thus brought by the Stoicks From strict Arguing he cometh to examine Terms and prepares the way to enlarge more clearly on the Subject SECT XI The Cause of Dissatisfaction is a mistake in Opinion k THE whole therefore is in Opinion nor is that the Cause of Discontent only but of all the
Circumstances of Humane Life understood that they were not to be dreaded after the rate of vulgar Apprehensions and in truth as to my judgment those who have long before consider'd and those whom length of time cureth seem to have been wrought upon in a manner by one and the same cause only that a Principle of Reason healeth the former Nature the latter when that cometh to be understood wherein the Remedy consists that the evil which was conceiv'd to have been excessive is not yet so great as to cast down a state of happiness This therefore is consequent that through want of consideration the wound is greater but what they imagine doth not follow that when equal misfortunes befall different Persons he only is afflicted by the mischance on whom it fell unexpected therefore some in distress when they have been minded that we came into the World upon those terms that no man can pass the whole course of Life without his share of suffering are said to have been the more troubled c That Stanza of the most potent King Agamemnon in Euripides his Iphigenia in Aulis bespeaks an old Country-man Father I envy thy content Who e're safe private life hath spent I envy much his happiness But Potentates I envy less SECT XXV The Cavil of Carneades examin'd WHereupon Carneades as I find our Friend Antiochus Record of him was wont to blame Chrysippus for quoting as some wise passage that Verse of Euripides No Mortal is advanc'd above all Pain But buries Children breeds up some again Then dys himself yet their deceased Friend Vain Mourners to the Grave with Pomp attend Dust will to Dust one Law is made for all Life like ripe Corn must by the Sickle fall He deny'd that Arguments of this sort had any influence at all to the abating Sorrow for said he that is the very matter of our grief to be caught in such a cruel necessity and a Discourse in rehersal of other mens Sufferings only to be suited to the Consolation of ill-natur'd Persons But I am clear of a differing judgment for both the necessity of conforming to that condition whereunto we were ordain'd doth with-hold us from fighting as it were against God and minds us that we are but men Which consideration doth greatly allay Sorrow and the recounting Examples is not produc'd to give content to the malitious but to inform the judgment of him that is in trouble that he is well able to bear what he seeth many have born before him with Moderation and Patience for they are to be staid up by all methods who are sinking and cannot hold together through excess of grief Chrysippus was wont to make the allusion as if the Greek word importing Sorrow imply'd in the very Term a Solution of the whole man This evil Humour may be utterly expell'd by laying open as I said in the beginning the cause of Discontent Now this is no other than an opinion and judgment of some great evil instant and pressing therefore also bodily Pain though the Fit be never so sharp yet is sustain'd by entertaining probable Hopes of Ease and a Life led with Reputation and Honour carrieth along with it such strong Consolation as that no Affliction can touch those who so liv'd or else Troubles make but a very slight impression on their Souls d That Verse of Euripides They are the words of Amphiarchus comforting the Mother of Archemorus for the loss of her Son SECT XXVI The mistake that trouble of mind is a Duty BUT over and above the opinion that our evil is great when a further opinion falls in that we ought that we do well that it is our duty to be disquieted at any misfortune then ariseth that violent Storm of excessive Sorrow From this opinion come those diverse and detestable sorts of Mourning neglects of being trim'd smiting on the Breast Thighs and Head Hence Agamemnon in Homer and no less in Attius is personated Tearing for grief at times his Looks unshorn Which occasion'd this ingenuous Saying of Bion that sure the King was out of his Wits to pull his Hair up by the Roots as though melancholly were to be abated by a bald Pate but they do all these things out of a conceit that they should be so done Upon the same ground also doth Aeschines inveigh against Demosthenes because he offer'd Sacrifice a Sevennight after his Daughters Death But in how Rhetorical strains how copiously what strong lines doth he compile what words dart forth that one would conclude a Rhetorician may take upon him as much as he pleaseth Which Liberty none could allow unless they had this Principle ingrafted in their Souls that all good men ought to be most grievously afflicted at the death of their Relations From hence doth it proceed that in troubles of mind some affect solitary Walks as Homer of Bellerophon Who o're th' Aleian Deserts stray'd alone Pensive and sought for Paths to men unknown Niobe is fain'd to have been turn'd into Stone I suppose for her eternal silence in Sorrow Hecuba on the other side for the bitterness of her Spirit and out-rage they suppose faign'd to have been transform'd into a Bitch Others again there are who in their Distresses often delight to vent their Complaints in Soliloquies as that Nurse in Ennius Now doth my Passion prompt me to relate To Heav'n and Earth Medeas sad Estate SECT XXVII Farther illustrated ALL this do men in Affliction and conceive it to be just proper and what ought to be done in such Circumstances and it is no small Evidence that this cometh from a pretended Conscience of Duty in that such as mourn in State if they chance to let any Action escape that looks like Civility or speak a chearful word they presently recompose themselves to a disconsolate Garb and confess their fault in having transgress'd the Ceremony of Mourning Nay Mothers and Tutors are wont to check their Children and that not only by chiding but also beating them if they say or do any pleasant thing whilst the Family is in Mourning they make them cry what when the time of second and less strict Mourning is come and it is found by experience that no advantage ariseth from Melancholly doth it not declare that the whole business was voluntary and upon choice What meaneth the Self-Tormentor in Terence I thus resolv'd in misery to share Chremes would my Sons wrong in part repair He resolves to be miserable Now doth any one resolve upon any thing against his Will I judge I should deserve the worst of ills He judges he should deserve the worst of Punishments unless he be miserable you see plainly that it is an Evil of conceit and not in its own Nature What and if the very Object forbids Lamentation as in Homer the daily Slaughters and great Carnage avail to Moderation in grief in whom this Passage is found Many before our Eyes are daily slain So that of Sorrow none can respit gain Bury we then
Duty to be dejected and troubled in mind Mirth a fresh opinion of a present Good upon which it seems our Duty to be elevated Fear an opinion of an impending Evil which seems intolerable Lust an opinion of an approaching Good the presence and Fruition of which would be beneficial to us Now as to those Opinions and Judgments which I said were Ingredients of the Passions they do not say that only the Passions have their subsistence from them but also the Effects of those Passions so that Discontent causeth a certain painful remorse Fear a withdrawing of the Soul and a kind of flight Mirth an extravagant Jolity Lust an unbridled Concupiscence Again they interpret that opinion which we have inserted into the Definitions above-mention'd to be a weak assent But under each of these general Passions there are certain particular ones of the same sort distributed as under Discontent Envying for we must serve our selves of a less usual word in order to the clearness of Explication since the word Envy especially in Latin is taken not only actively as it refers to him that Envys but passively as to him that is envy'd for the Odium that is cast upon him Emulation Detraction Pitty Anguish Mourning Bemoaning Distress Sorrow Lamentation Anxiety Uneasiness Self-afflicting Despair and whatever else be of the same Nature Again subordinate to Fear are Sloth Shame Terrour Timorousness Dismay Confusion Distraction Cowardise under Pleasure Malice rejoycing at anothers Mischief Delight Boasting and the like Under Lust Anger Wrath Hatred Enmity Discord Want Desire and the rest of that kind Now these they define after this manner SECT VIII The subordinate Passions desin'd Of Discontent and Fear THEY say that Envying is a Discontent admitted upon anothers good Successes being no ways prejudicial to him that envieth for if any one be troubled at the Prosperity of one who hurts him he is not properly said to Envy as if Agamemnon should be so at Hectors But he who is griev'd that another should enjoy those advantages which are no ways prejudicial to himself he in truth is envious Emulation again hath a twofold importance so as to be taken both in a good and a bad Sense for the imitation of Vertue is also call'd Emulation but we have nothing to do with it here in that acceptation for that is praise-worthy And there is an Emulation a Discontent if another enjoy and one go himself without that which he hath eagerly coveted after Detraction is now what I would have understood to be Jealousie a Discontent that another should share in that which one hath eagerly coveted Pitty is a Discontent arising from the Misery of another suffering wrongfully for no Body is touch'd with pitty at the punishment of an Assassine or Traytor Anguish is a sore Discontent Mourning is a Discontent at the untimely death of one who was dear to us Bemoaning is a Discontent with Tears Distress a toilsome Discontent Grief a tormenting Discontent Lamentation a Discontent with wailing Sollicitude a Discontent with pensiveness Uneasiness a persevering Discontent Self-afflicting a Discontent with Inflictions upon the Body Despair a Discontent without any expectation of better condition But what are subject to Fear they thus define Sloth to be a Fear of ensuing Labour Terrour an astonishing Fear Whence it cometh to pass that blushing followeth shame paleness and trembling and gnashing of Teeth Terrour Timorousness to be a Fear of approaching Evil. Dismay a Fear that puts the mind besides it self whence that of Ennius Dismay all wisdom from my Soul expells Confusion a Fear following and as it were attendant on Dismay Distraction a Fear that breaks all the Measures we had taken Dread a persevering Fear SECT IX of Pleasure and Lust AGAIN the particular Branches from Pleasure they thus describe that Malice should be a Pleasure taken in anothers harm without any advantage to onesself Delight a Pleasure charming the mind with the sweetness of the hearing and such as is that of the Ears such are those of the Eyes the Touching the Scent and Tast which are all of one kind as it were Pleasures melted down to gratifie the Soul Boasting is a Pleasure naturally Impertinent and which exalts it self with some Insolence But what Passions are subjected to Lust they thus define so that Anger is a Lust of punishing him who appears to have injur'd us Wrath is Anger breaking forth and newly arisen which is in Greek call'd Heat Hatred is an inveterate Anger Enmity an Anger watching the time of taking Revenge Heart-burning is a deadly feud conceiv'd with inward rancor of Spirit Worldliness an insatiable Lust Expectation a Lust of seeing one who is not yet come They further distinguish this that Lust is of those things which are affirm'd of one or more which the Logicians call Predicates as having Riches bearing Offices Want is a Lust after the things themselves as Mony as Honours Again they say the Spring of all Passions is Intemperance which is a defection from the whole Understanding and from right Reason At such Aversion to the Orders of Reason that its Affections can by no means be regulated nor restrain'd As Temperance therefore moderates the Affections and causeth them to obey right Reason so it s opposite habit Intemperance Fires Confounds puts into an Uproar the whole State of the Mind therefore both Discontents and Fears and all the other Passions take their Rise from it CHAP. X. The Original of the Distempers of the Soul AS therefore when the Blood is corrupted or Phlegm abounds or Choler in the Body Diseases and Indispositions are ingender'd So the medley of perverse Opinions and their opposition one to another rob the Soul of its Health and afflict it with Diseases Now from the Passions first Diseases as they so call them are contracted and those Habits which are contrary to those Diseases as having a deprav'd Aversion and Distast for certain things Then Indispositions which are call'd by the Stoicks Infirmities and also contrary Aversions oppos'd to them Upon this place too much Pains is taken by the Stoicks and especially Chrysippus it setting forth the resemblance between the Diseases of the Body and those of the Soul waving which Discourse not at all necessary let us dispatch those things wherein the Matter consists Be it therefore adverted that whilst Opinions toss about as they are inconstant and impetuous Passion is still in motion But when this boiling and tumult of the Soul hath fermented and as it were shed it self into the Veins and Marrow then breaks forth both the Disease and Indisposition and those Aversions which are contrary to those Diseases and Indispositions SECT XI The Nature of Passion and Antipathy THESE things which I am speaking of differ from one another in Speculation but in reality are link'd together and arise from Lust and Mirth for when Mony is coveted and Reason not presently apply'd as a kind of Socratick Medicim to cure that coveting the Infection sinks into the Veins and
in Meditation as in Death P. 54. SECT XXXII The Adversaries of the Souls immortality confuted P. 56. SECT XXXIII The Arguments of Panaetius answer'd P. 58. SECT XXXIV Upon Supposition of the Souls mortality Death is not evil being a departure from Evils P. 59. SECT XXXV Or from uncertain Goods P. 61. SECT XXXVI Such as we shall not miss P. 63. SECT XXXVII Since it hath not appear'd dreadful even to common Souldiers P. 65. SECT XXXVIII Much less should it hinder promoting the publick Good but as Death is not terrible so neither is it amiable P. 67. SECT XXXIX The opinion of untimely Death examined P. 68. SECT XL. We must live in our places undaunted and when our time is come dye contented after the example of Theramenes P. 70. SECT XLI Socrates P. 72. SECT XLII The Spartans P. 73. SECT XLIII And Theodorus the Cyrenian A digression to the Point of Burial P. 75. SECT XLIV Cruelty towards dead Enemies and lamenting unburied Friends reproved P. 77. SECT XLV The Customs of some Savages herein condemn'd what decency to be observed in interment of the dead P. 80. SECT XLVI Glory after death should abate the fear of dying in prosperity P. 82. SECT XLVII An Epilogue after the mode of the Greek Rhetoricians who would perswade us that Death is the greatest good that can befall man and that from Divine Testimonies P. 84. SECT XLVIII From those of Demi-gods Oracles and Panegyrical Commemorations of such as have dy'd for their Country P. 87. SECT XLIX The Close of all applys the substance of the present Debate to the Readers benefit P. 89. THE CONTENTS Of the Second BOOK Patience under Pain The Proem Sect 1 2 3 4. SECT I. THE benefit of Philosophy P. 92. SECT II. That the Academick Scheme is cautious and modest P. 95. SECT III. The Epicurean only regarded by its own Followers P. 97. SECT IV. The bad lives of some Teachers only scandal to their Persons not Doctrines P. 99. SEOT V. The Position maketh Pain the greatest of all Evils P. 101. SECT VI. The different Maxims of Philosophers on that Subject P. 103. SECT VII Epicurus contradicts himself herein The Tragical Impatiences of Philoctetes P. 104. SECT VIII IX Hercules P. 106. 108. SECT X. Prometheus P. 109. SECT XI Digression against the Poets P. 111. SECT XII And some Heterodox Philosophers P. 114. SECT XIII Pain must not betray us to indecent carriage P. 115. SECT XIV Must be oppos'd with Courage P. 117. SECT XV. Inuring to labour disposeth to a patient enduring of Pain P. 120. SECT XVI XVII The Power of Exercise P. 121. 123. SECT XVIII The force of Reason P. 126. SECT XIX The direction of Epicurus impracticable P. 127. SECT XX. Vertue personated making her Exhortation p. 129. SECT XXI The manner of subduing our Passion to Reason p. 130. SECT XXII Armour against Impatience p. 133. SECT XXIII Faintness of Spirit dishonourable p. 136. SECT XXIV Resolution necessary to War p. 137. SECT XXV in Tryals at home p. 140. SECT XXVI and in all laudable Enterprises p. 142. SECT XXVII Our Patience must be of equal Temper as to the Field in Battle or the Bed of Sickness p. 144. THE CONTENTS Of the Third BOOK The Cure of Discontent Premis'd in Sect. 1 2 3. SECT I. THE Reluctancy of depraved Man against his Souls Cure with some Causes of his Depravity p. 148. SECT II. Further Causes of the Depravation of Humane Nature p. 150. SECT III. That the Soul may have Remedies for its Distempers p. 151. SECT IV. The Position offers it as a probable opinion that a Wise man is liable to Discontent p. 153. SECT V. That men imported by Passions are Mad. p. 154. SECT VI. The absurdity of denying a Wise man all use of the Affections is declin'd p. 157. SECT VII The Position impugn'd by an Argument from the Topick of Fortitude p. 158. SECT VIII By another from that of Temperance p. 160. SECT IX By an Induction from particular Passions as of Wrath Envy p. 161. SECT X. And Pitty p. 163. SECT XI The Cause of Dissatisfaction is a mistake in Judgment p. 165. SECT XII The Picture of Discontent in certain unfortunate Princes p. 167. SECT XIII We should not despair whatever our Circumstances be p. 169. SECT XIV Meditation on possible Mishaps abates their Evil when come p. 170. SECT XV. Is also ground of Constancy p. 172. SECT XVI The contrary Tenet of Epicurus and his Followers p. 174. SECT XVII The true Remedy assign'd p. 175. SECT XVIII And verified in the Case of Thyestes Aeetes Telamon p. 177. SECT XIX And Andromache p. 180. SECT XX. Epicurus prov'd inconstant to his own Principles p. 182. SECT XXI The stoutness of the Epicureans taken down p. 184. SECT XXII The judgment of the Cyrenian Sect how far allowable p. 185. SECT XXIII Forecast of possible Calamities is needful p. 187. SECT XXIV The use of Presidents p. 189. SECT XXV The Cavil that the common condition of Mortality is ineffectual in point of Comfort examin'd p. 191. SECT XXVI Trouble of mind to be a Duty is a mistake p. 192. SECT XXVII Farther illustrated p. 194. SECT XXVIII That mistake rectify'd by Consideration that our Sorrow availeth nothing p. 196. SECT XXIX That the matter of our disquiet is by misapprehension aggravated beyond its own Nature p. 199. SECT XXX That Motives of Consolation too often prove ineffectual proceeds not from defect in them but our own Indisposition p. 201. SECT XXXI Directory for Comforters as to the Season p. 203. SECT XXXII the Method p. 204. SECT XXXIII That it is a Duty not to be swallow'd up of Grief p. 205. SECT XXXIV A Passage clear'd to the Remedies of Disquiet arising from the particular Passions p. 207. THE CONTENTS Of the Fourth BOOK The Government of the Passions The Preface Sect. 1 2 3. SECT I. THE ancient Romans probably not Strangers to polite Learning because Borderers upon Greece the Great p. 209. SECT II. Because acquainted with Musick Poetry and Oratory p. 211. SECT III. But Philosophy was of later date with the Romans p. 212. SECT IV. The Position That it is probable thâ—â— a wise man is not free from all Passion p. 214. SECT V. The method of the ensuing Disputation p. 216. SECT VI. The Definition of the Passions in general p. 217. SECT VII The Intellect to be accessary to the Passions p. 219. SECT VIII The subordinate Passions defin'd those under Discontent and Fear p. 220. SECT IX Those under Pleasure and Lust p. 222. SECT X. The Original of the Souls Distempers p. 223. SECT XI The Cause of Passion and Antipathy p. 224. SECT XII The Analogy between the Souls and Bodies Sickness in ill habits p. 226. SECT XIII The Similitude between Soundness and Unsoundness of Body and Soul p. 227. SECT XIV Their Dissimilitude p. 229. SECT XV. The Cure of the Souls Infirmities p. 230. SECT XVI Especially to be in Moderation p. 231.