children haunt the vice of the flesh whilest they be yong there is small hope of goodnes to be looked for in them when they be old for the older they waxe the riper be their vices Masters would correct the childe but fathers and mothers forbid them Little auaileth one to pricke the horse with the spurre when he that sitteth vpon him holdeth backe with the bridle Of Death O If we would consider the corruption wherof we are made the filth wherof we are engendred the infinite trauell whereunto we are borne the long tediousnes wherwith we are nourished the great necessities and suspicions wherein we liue and aboue all the great peril wherein we die we find a thousand occasions to wish death not one to desire life The excellencie of the soule laid aside and the hope which we haue of eternall life if man do compare the captiuitie of men to the libertie of beasts with reason we may see that the beasts do liue a peaceable life and that which man doth lead is but a long death I had rather chuse an vnfortunate life and an honorable death than an infamous death and an honorable life That man which will be accounted for a good man not noted for a brute beast ought greatly to trauell to liue well and much more to die better for that euill death maketh men doubt that the life hath not been good and the good death is an excuse of an euill life The dead do rest in a sure hauen and we saile as yet in raging seas If the death of men were as beasts that is to wit that there were no furies nor diuels to torment them that God should not reward the good yet we ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for none other cause but to see them deliuered from the thraldome of this miserable world The pleasure that the Pilote hath to be in a sure hauen the glory that the captaine hath to see the day of victory the rest that the traueller hath to see his iorney ended the contentation that the workman hath to see his worke come to perfection all the same haue the dead seeing themselues out of this miserable life If men were born alwaies to liue it were reason to lament them when we see them die but since it is truth that they are borne to die we ought not to lament those which die quickly but those which liue long since thou knowest he is in place where there is no sorrow but mirth where there is no paine but ease where he weepeth not but laugheth where he sigheth not but singeth where he hath no sorowes but pleasures where he feareth not cruel death but enioyeth perpetuall life The true widow ought to haue hir conuersation among the liuing and hir desire to be with the dead Death is the true refuge the perfite health the sure hauen the whole victory finally after death we haue nothing to bewaile and much lesse to desire Death is a dissolution of the body a terror to the rich a desire of the poore a thing inheritable a pilgrimage vncertain a theefe of men a kind of sleeping a shadow of life a separatiō of the liuing a company of the dead a resolution of all a rest of trauels and the end of all idle desires If any dammage or feare be in him who dieth it is rather for the vice he hath committed than feare of death There is no prince nor knight rich nor poore whole nor sicke luckie nor vnluckie with their vocations contented saue onely the dead which are in their graues at rest and peace If in youth a man liue well and in age studie to die well and his life hath been honest his hope is that death will be ioyfull and although he hath had sorow to liue he is sure he shall haue no paine to die This equal iustice is distributed to all that in the same place where we haue deserued life in the same we shal be assured of death Cato being praised of the Romanes for his courage at his death laughed they demaunded the cause why he laughed he answered Ye maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that you maruel for the perils and trauels considered wherein we liue and the safetie wherein we die it is no more needfull to haue vertue and strength to liue than courage to die We see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thirst trauel pouertie inconuenience sorow enmities and mishaps of the which things we were better to see the end in one day than to suffer them euery hower for it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death than to endure a miserable life The day when we are born is the beginning of death and the day wherein we die is the beginning of life If death be no other but an ending of life and that whiles we liue we carrie death than reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dieth our childhood dieth our manhood dieth and our age shall die whereof we may conclude that we are dying euery yeere euery day euery houre and euery moment Diuers vaine men are come into so great follies that for feare of death they procure to hasten death Hauing thereof due consideration me seemeth that we ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke death for the strong and valiant man ought not to haue life so long as it lasteth nor to be displeased with death when it commeth In such sort therefore ought men to liue as if within an houre after they should die If we trauell by long wayes and want any thing we borow of our company if they haue forgotten ought they returne to seek it at their lodging or els they write vnto their friends a letter but if we once die they will not let vs returne againe we cannot and they will not agree that we shall write but such as they shall find vs so shall we be iudged and that which is most fearful of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let not men leaue that vndone till after their death which they may do during their life nor trust in that they command but in that they do whilest they liue nor in the good works of an other but in their owne good deeds for in the ende one sigh shall be more woorth than all the friends of the world I exhort therefore all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such sort we liue that in the end we liue for euer Those that visite the sicke ought to perswade them that they make their testaments confesse their sinnes discharge their conscience receiue the sacraments and reconcile themselues to their enimies Many in our life time do gape after our goods few at our death are sory for our offences The wise and sage before nature compelleth them to die of their own wils ought to die that is
manners of the common wealth Why do princes commit folly bicause flatterers aboundeth that deceiueth them and true men wanteth that shoulde serue them Princes deserueth more honor for the good meanes they vse in their affairs than for the good successe whervnto it commeth for the one is guided by aduenture and the other aduanced by wisedome The land is with much miserie compassed where the gouernance of the yoong is so euill that all wish for the reuiuing of the dead It is impossible that the people be well gouerned if the magistrates that gouerne them be in their liues dissolute Princes in doubtfull matters ought not onely to demaunde counsell of all the good that be aliue but also to take paines to talke with the dead that is to read the deeds of the good in their writings To a prince that shall be an inheritor one yeeres punishment shal be better woorth then xx yeeres pleasure A prince is as the gouernor of the ship a standerd of a battell a defence of the people a guid of the waies a father of the orphanes a hope of pupils and a treasure of all The glorie of a prince is that in his works he be vpright and in his words he speake verie discreet The vertues of princes should be so manie that al men might praise them and their vices so fewe that no man might reprooue them Princes are lords of all things sauing of iustice wherof they are onely but to minister I would to God that princes did make an account with God in the things of their conscience touching the common wealth as they do with men touching their rents and reuenewes Many crouch to princes with faire words as though they ment good seruice to him their entent being by deceit to get some office or to seeke some profite Seruants I Councell those that be seruaunts to great lordes that their labours be accounted rather honest than wise for the wise man can but please but the honest man can neuer displease Of the toong and of the slanderer or backbiter IT is most certaine that of Hollie we looke for pricks of Acrons husks of Nettels stinging and of thy mouth malice I haue seriously noted I neuer saw thee say well of any nor I neuer knew any that would thee good Octauian the Emperor being demaunded why doing good to all men he suffered some to murmure against him he answered He that hath made Rome free from enimies hath also set at libertie the toongs of malicious men That is a cruell thing that the life and honor of those that be good should by the toong of the euill be measured As in the forge the coales cannot be kindled without sparkes nor as corruption cannot be in the sinkes without ordure so he that hath his hart free from malice his toong is always occupied in sweet and pleasant sayings and contrarywise out of his mouth whose stomacke is infected with malice proceedeth always wordes bitter and full of poison It is an olde disease of euill men through malice to backbite with their toong which through their cowardnes they neuer durst enterprise with their hands Of sorow and griefe GRiefe is a friend of solitude enimie of companie a louer of darknes strange in conuersation heire to desperation Sith fortune is knowen of all she suffreth not hir selfe to be defamed of one and it is better to thinke with fortune how thou maiest remedy thy self than to thinke with grief how to complaine There are diuers men which to publish their grief are very carefull but to seek remedy are very negligent We suffer griefs know them not with the hands we touch them perceiue them not we go ouer them and see them not they sound in our eares we heare them not they daily admonish vs we do not beleeue them finally we feele the wound and see not the remedy Experience doth teach vs with a little blast of winde the fruit doth fall with a little sparke of fire the house is kindled with a little rocke the ship is broken at a litle stone the foote doth stumble with a litle hooke they take great fish and with a little wound dieth a great person I meane that our life is so fraile and fortune so fickle that in that part where we are best harnessed we are soonest wounded and grieued The heauy and sorowfull harts of this world feele no greater grief than to see others reioyce at their sorowes To men of long life without comparison the diseases are more which they suffer than the yeeres are which they liue If the days be few wherein we see the elements without cloudes fewer are the howers wherein we feele our harts without cares As much difference as is betweene the barke and the tree the marow and the bone the corne and the straw the gold and the drosse the truth and dreames so much is there to heare the trauels of an other and taste his owne Greater is the disease that proceedeth of sorow than that which proceedeth of the feuer quartane and therof ensueth that more easily he is cured which of corrupt humors is full than he which with profound thoughts is oppressed There is no griefe that so much hurteth a person as when he himself is cause of his own paine Men which haue not God mercifull and men friendly do eate the bread of griefe and drinke the teares of sorow There is no greater torment to the hart than when it is differred from that which it greatly desired If all things as they be felt at hart shoulde be shewed outward with the toong I thinke that the winds should breake the hart with sighings and water all the earth with teares If the corporall eies sawe the sorow of the hart I beleeue they should see more blood sweating within than all the weeping that appeereth without There is no comparison of the great dolors of the bodie with the least grief of the mind For all trauell of the body men may find some remedie but if the heauy hart speake it is not heard if it weepe it is not seen if it complaine it is not beleeued I know no remedy but this to abhorre the life wherewith it dieth and to desire death wherewith it liueth The toong NOble stoute personages though they would be esteemed and iudged true in their sayings hauing seene many wonders with their eies yet when they make report of them they ought to be very moderate in their toongs for it is a very shame to an honest man to declare any thing wherein may be any doubt whether it be true or not When a woman is mery she alwayes babbleth more with the toong than she knoweth in hir hart Men do not vtter half their grief bicause their wofull and heauie hart commandeth the eyes to weep and the toong to be silent The chiefest thing which God
blinde bayards The shameles man Beautie sinneth Beautie superfluous Sensualitie Quarrellers How men shall leaue a good memorie behinde them Adulterers Man a beast Liers and deceiuers Illworks Eloquent men Priuie fornication or carnall pilgrimage What is required in good tutors 40. yeers old Honest. True Liberall Moderate Wise. Learned Continent Good conditions Renowme He that decaieth loseth goodes and friends Happie Misfortune Aristotle Grief to be reuealed to none but to faithfull friends Ioy. What a true friend is displaid Conuersation Open our secrets Helpe necessities Protectors God impartiall God will punish malefactors They are vnwise that desire offices bicause they are burthens The chusing of a Iustice. Lightnes in offenders Hatred the reward of correction Discipline Negligence in iustice Cause of offences Of iudges The poore mans sute for iustice Euerie member ought to joine with his head Wicked iudges Offices The gate whereinto euill entereth Parents do hatch idlenes in youth Foresight is good in all things In trust is treason Ignorance and ouer-much knowledge The vse of studie Vertue Wise men Wise men Wisedome is pastime Fooles esteemed more than wise men Boldnes of fooles admitted Craesus Anacharsis to Craesus Too soone too late Too hastie Pleasure reuealed is folly Two contraries do make one the more perfit Circumspection necessarie Achaians Romanes auoided lawes Athens Which are fit louers Torments of loue Loue in age The nature of loue A couetous womans loue The slauerie of loue Operation of loue Inconueniences of loue Valiantnes vanquished by loue Loue of parents Matrimoniall loue Marriage What lone is like Wherefore women are desired and loued Mans nature considered is nothing Man bound hand and foot at first comming and last going The apparell of beasts The care of man Danger in our safetie Sorrowes of man The making of costly sepulchres is vaine A painted case for a stinking carkase Mans ende is in the hand of God Man described as a tree The fruits of this tree Beautie Cleanlines in body and filthines in soule Bignes maketh not strength Caesar described Hannibal We feele an others death by lamenting our own life Thine owne estimation nothing Mans life Fortune with hir force Age compared The beautie of man changeth Beautie of man An hundred times happy Anatomie of man Offices of the body and soule A happy cōmon wealth The phrase is heathenish for God rueth and not blind chance Comfortable words manie times helpeth maladies Vnhappie Wars abrod is an enimie to peace at home Christs peace Fruits of pleasure Pleasure vanisheth away with sorrow Sensualitie 50. yeeres Pleasure the cause of many offences Vanitie of vanities Why vices in princes pallaces Plaies Carnall pleasure Carnal pleasure shamefast Reason alloweth not sensualitie therefore Tully said pareat appetitus rationi Fruits of carnall pleasure The fame of conquest The loue of Princes is better sometimes than Iustice. The riches of Princes Some hunger after strāge realms Damnation of soule People like affected Theodosius Imp. The care of princes in chosing their protector captaie and embassador and treasurer counsellers A princes well ordered house is a welfare to the publike weale Officers about the prince A great incontinencie when princes loue one before another Wherein princes should glory Why princes commit follie A miserable land In doubtful matters Punishment in princes necessarie The definitiō of a prince Glorie of a prince Lords of all things sauing iustice Dissimulatiō Octauian The toong Backbite Auoide the taste of euill The haruest of a long life Hard to cure the disease engendred by thoughts Eyes see not the harts grief Grief of mind incomparable Mery women Pythagoras Hart and toong Time lost A confusion Foresight in wars is necessary Women in wars The valure of men A friendly exhortation A looking glasse for a woman If you be a lambe take heed of the woolfe if you be a woolfe deuour not the seely lambe Womens weaknes pardonable A vertuous woman A woman with childe A similitude An other similitude A nurse How long children should sucke A womans contentatiō in marriage A blacke swan Ingenio pollet cui vim natura negauit Praise but not practise Saying and doing should be maried without deuorce The world full of deceits Our ancestors riches A description of the foure elements A description of the world Deceit of the world The world a Cater for all kind of people In seruing the world we are made changelings Note Note Riches ruleth The elder the world is the worse are the people Burden All worldly vices Commendation A good nature Reason ruleth Frailtie of man To him that is ouercome with anie follie Diuersities of gifts The father dieng waxeth yoong in his childe Youthly desires Teachers and not followers A iuell nothing woorth to the ignorant
and in steede of gawling striketh What euill happened to Hercules that after so manie dangers came to die in the armes of an harlot Alexander after his great conquest ended his life with poison Agamemnon that woorthie Greeke after ten yeeres wars against the Troians was killed entring into his owne house Iulius Caesar after two and fiftie battels was killed in the Senate house with xxiij wounds Hanniball slew himselfe in one moment bicause he would not become a pray to his enimies What mishap is this after so many fortunes what reproch after such glorie what perill after such suretie what euill lucke after such good successe what darke night after so cleare day what euil entertainment after so great labor what cruell sentence after so long proces what inconuenience of death after so good beginning of life The miserable life of man is of such condition that dailie our yeeres do diminish and our troubles encrease life is so troublesome that it wearieth vs and death is so doubtefull that it feareth vs. The philosopher Appollonius being demanded what he woondered most at in al the world answered but at two things the one was that in all parts wherein he had trauelled he saw quiet men troubled by seditious persons the humble subiect to the proud the iust obedient to the tyrant the cruell commanding the mercifull the coward ruling the hardie the ignorant teaching the wise and aboue al I saw the most theeues hang vp the innocent The other was that in all the places and circuite that he had bin in I know not neither could finde anie man euerlasting but that all are mortall and that both high low haue an end for many enter the same night into the graue which the day ensuing thought to be aliue Aristotle saith that man is but a tree planted with the rootes vpward whose roote is the head and the stock is the bodie the branches are the armes the barke is the flesh the knots are the bones the sap is the hart the rottennes is malice the gum is loue the flowers are words and the fruits are good woorks We see the vapors to ascend high the plants growe high the trees budde out on high the sourges of the sea mount high the nature of the fire is alwaies to ascende vpwarde onelie the miserable man groweth downewarde and is brought lowe by reason of the feeble and fraile flesh which is but earth and commeth of earth and liueth on earth and in the end returneth to the earth from whence it came Generallie there is no man so good but a man may find in him somwhat reprooueable nor any man so euill but he hath in him something commendable What man and his life is O Blindnes of the world ô life which neuer liueth nor shall liue ô death which neuer hath end I know not why man through the accident of his beautie should take vpon him any vaine glory or presumption sith he knoweth that all the perfitest and most faire must be sacrificed to the worms in the graue It is to be maruelled at that all men are desirous that all things about them should be cleane their gownes brushed their coats neat the table handsome and the bed fine and onely they suffer their soules to be spotted and filthie The faire and well proportioned man is therfore nothing the more vertuous he that is deformed and euill shapen is nothing therfore the more vicious Corporall beautie early or late perisheth in the graue but vertue and knowledge maketh men of immortall memorie Although a man be great it followeth not that he is strong so that it is no generall rule that the bigge body hath always a valiant and couragious hart nor the little man a faint and false hart Iulius Caesar was big of body yet euill proportioned for he had his head bald his nose sharp one hand more shorter than the other and being yoong had a riueled face yealow of colour went crooked and his girdle half vndone Hannibal was called monstrous both for his deeds and euil proportion for of his two eies he lacked the right and of the two feet he had the left foote crooked fierce of countenance and little of body Truly he feeleth the death of another which always is sorowfull and lamenting his own life To esteeme thy selfe to be handsome and proper of person is no other thing but to esteeme thy selfe that dreaming thou shalt be rich and mightie and waking thou findest thy self poore and miserable What shall we say to this little flower that yesterday florished on the tree whole without suspicion to be lost and yet one little frost wasteth and consumeth it the vehement wind ouerthroweth it the knife of enuy cutteth it the water of aduersitie vndoeth it the heate of persecutions pineth it the putrifaction of death decayeth it and bringeth it down to the ground O mans life that art alwayes cursed I count fortune cruel thee vnhappy since she wil not that thou stay on hir which dreaming giueth thy pleasures and waking giueth thy displeasures which giueth into thy handes trauell to taste and suffereth thee to listen after quiet which will that thou approoue aduersitie and agree not that thou haue proseritie but after hir will she giueth thee life by ounces and death without measure The yoong man is but a new knife the which in processe of time cankereth in the edge one day he breaketh the point of vnderstanding another he looseth the edge of cutting and next the rust of diseases taketh him and afterwards by aduersities he is writhen and by infirmities diseased by riches he is wheted by pouerty he is dulled againe and oftentimes it chanceth that the more sharpe he is whetted so much the more the life is put in hazard It is a true thing that the feet and hands are necessary to clime to the vanities of youth and afterwards stumbling a little immediatly rowling the head downwards we descend into the miseries of age What thing is more fearfull or more incredible than to see a man become miserable in short space the fashion of his visage changeth the beautie of the face lost the beard waxe white the head bald the cheeks forehead full of wrinkles the teeth as white as Iuorie becommeth blacke as a cole the light feete by the goute are crepeled the strong arme with palsey weakened the fine and smooth throte with wrinkles plaited and the body that was straite and vpright waxeth crooked The beautie of man is none other but a veile to couer the eyes a paire of fetters for the feete manacles for the hands a lime rod for the wings a theese of time an occasion of danger a prouoker of trouble a place of lecherie a sinke of all euill and finally it is an inuenter of debates and a scourge of the affectioned man O simple simple and ignorant persons how our life consumeth
and we perceiue not how we liue therein Of mercie pitie helpe and compassion towards the poore HAppy not once but an hundred times is he that will remember the poore afflicted and open his hart to comfort them and doth not shut his cofers from helping them to him at the straight day of iudgement the processe of his life shall be iudged with mercie and pitie The pitifull hart which is not fleshed in crueltie hath as much pitie to see another man suffer as of the sorow and torment which he himselfe feeleth If a man behold himselfe from top to toe he shal find not one thing in him to mooue him to crueltie but he shall see in himself many instruments to exercise mercie For he hath eyes to behold the needie feete to goe to the church eares to heare Gods word hands to be stretched to the poore a toong to vtter good things an hart to loue God and to conclude he hath vnderstanding to know the euil and discretion to follow the good God hath not giuen him scratching nails as to the cat nor poison as to the serpent nor perilous feete as to the horse to strike withall nor bloodie teeth as to the Lion but hath created vs to be pitifull and commanded vs to be mercifull Obedience AS the element of the fire the element of the aire and the element of water do obey and the element doth commaund of the earth or that against their nature he bringeth them to the earth and al the noble and most chiefest elements obedient to the most vile onely to forme a body mixt it is great reason that all obey one vertuous person that the common wealth therby might be the better gouerned The second reason is of the body and soule The soule is the mistres that commaundeth and the body the seruant which obeyeth for the body neither seeth heareth nor vnderstandeth without the soule but the soule doth these without the body In that common wealth where one hath care for all and all obey the commandement of that one there God shall be serued the people shall profit the good shall be esteemed the euill despised and besides that tyrants shall be suppressed How many people and realms bicause they would not obey their prince by iustice hath sithence by cruell tyrants been gouerned with tyrannie for it is a iust plague that those which despise the scepter of righteous princes should feele and prooue the scourge of cruel tyrants O happy common wealth wherein the prince findeth obedience in the people and the people in like maner loue of the prince for of the loue of the prince springeth obedience in the subiects and of the obedience in the subiects springeth the loue of the prince Patience LOoke howe much wee offend through the offence so much doe we appease through patience The patience which God vseth in not punishing our faultes is greater than that which men haue in suffering the chastisement bicause we iustly offend and iustly are punished I account all in me at the disposition of fortune as wel riches as other prosperities and I keep them in such a place that at any hower in the night when she listeth she may cary them away and neuer awake me so that though she cary those out of my cofers she should neuer rob me of my patience Patience in aduersitie pleaseth God where as wrath prouoketh his indignation We see in a mans bodie by experience that there are sundry diseases which are not cured with words spoken but with the herbes thereunto applied and in other diseases the contrary is seen which are not cured with costly medicines but with comfortable words When the diseases are not very olde rooted nor dangerous it profiteth more oftentimes to abide a gentle feauer than to take a sharpe purgation The impatient hart especially of a woman hath no rest till she see her enimie dead No patience can endure to see a man obtaine that without trauel which he could neuer compasse by much labor He is most vnhappy which is not patient in aduersity for men are not killed with the aduersities they haue but with the impatience which they suffer Though wise men leese much they ought not therfore to dispaire but that they shall come to it againe in time for in the end time doth not cease to do his accustomed alterations nor perfect friends cease not to do that which they ought That man onely in this life may be called vnhappy to whom God in his troubles hath not giuen patience Peace HE alone doth knowe howe precious a thing peace is which by experience hath felt the extreeme miserie of war The life of a peaceable man is none other then a sweete peregrination and the life of seditious persons is no other than a long death Euerie prince which loueth forraine wars must needs hate the peace of his common wealth Aristotle doth not determine which of these two is the most excellēt either stoutnes to fight in the wars or policie to rule in peace That peace is more woorth that is honest than is the victorie which is bloodie In the good war a man seeth of whom he should take heed but in the euill peace no man knoweth whom to trust Where peace is not no man enioieth his owne no man can eate without feare no man sleepeth in good rest no man safe by the way no man trusteth his neighbor and where there is no peace we are threatned daily with death and euery houre in feare of our life Seeing Christ left to vs his peace and commanded vs to keepe the same we should not condiscend for reuenging iniuries to shed mans blood for the good christians are commanded to bewaile their own sins but they haue no licence to shed the blood of their enimies and therefore I wish all princes for his sake that is prince of peace they loue peace procure peace keepe peace liue in peace for in peace they shall be rich and their people happie Pleasure WHat commeth of vaine pleasure nothing but the time euill spent famine in way of perdition goods consumed credit lost God offended and vertue slandered Of pleasure we get the names of brute beasts and the surnames of shame I would the eies were opened to see how we liue deceiued for all pleasures that delight the bodie make vs beleeue that they come to abide with vs continuallie but they vanish away with sorrow immediately on the contrary the infirmities that blinde the soule say that they come to lodge as guests and remaine with vs continually as housholders Death is a miserable lake wherein all worldly men are drowned for those men that thinke most safely to passe it ouer remaine therin most subtilly deceiued During the time that we liue in the house of this fraile flesh sensualitie beareth so great a rule that she wil not suffer reason to enter in at the gate Reason leadeth