displeas'd But I cannot away with this that thou art so nice and tender who makest such grievous complaints that there is some thing wanting which thou wouldest have to compleat thy Happiness For where is the man that hath attein'd to such a state of Ease and satisfaction that he is not in any regard Discontented with the quality of his present Fortune For the condition of the Goods of this World is full of Anxiety and vexation and such that it never comes whole and entire and never can be made stable and permanent One man abounds in Wealth but is Asham'd of his Ignoble Birth Another being Nobly Born is well Known throughout all the Country but wanting an Estate Answearable to the Greatness of his Name he would rather be hid in Obscurity with persons of the meanest Rank This man is both Rich and Noble and bemoans himselfe for want of a Wife That man hath a Good Wife but hath no Children and afflicts himselfe with the thoughts that he must leave his Wealth to a Stranger Another rejoycing in his Issue turns his joy into mourning for the ill carriage of his Son or of his Daughter So that no man can easily suit his Mind with his own Condition And let us moreover consider this that the sense of every man that has been most us'd to Prosperity is exceeding soft and delicate and unless he can have all things at his beck being unaccustom'd to any Adversity is cast down with every little thing that goes across to him of such small moment are such matters which detract from the perfection of the Happiness of those men on whom Fortune has bestowd her choicest Favours How many are there thinkest thou who would conceit themselves to be Advanc'd almost as high as Heaven if they could have but a part of the remains of thy Prosperity This very Place that thou callest Exile is the Country of the Inhabitants Thus nothing is a Misfortune but when thou deemest it so to be And on the contrary Every Condition turns into Prosperity to those who know how to Dispose themselves in it What man is there so Happy but he would be desirous to change his Estate if he should once give way to Impatience what bitterness is the sweetness of Humane Felicity sprinkled with which if it seem joyful to him that possesteth it yet it cannot be secur'd to him for a moment 'T is evident therefore how Wretched that Happiness is which consists in the Enjoyment of perishing things which neither remains with those that are contented nor is wholly delightsome to persons of anxious and disturbed minds Therefore O ye sons of Men why do yee seek for True Happiness Without which is plac'd Within Your selves You are confounded with Ignorance and Wrong Opinions I shall in a few words shew thee what is the Soveraign and onely True Happiness Is there any thing more Dear and Pretious to Thee than Thy Selfe Nothing thou wilt say Therefore if thou canst have the full Dominion of Thy Selfe thou shalt Possess that which thou wouldest never part with and which Fortune shall never be able to take from thee And that thou mayst clearly perceive that True Happiness consists not in those things that are in the Power of Fortune consider this Argument If Bliss or True Happiness be the Soveraign Good of Intellectual Nature neither is that Soveraign Good which can by any means be taken from us because that Excells it which we cannot be deprived of 't is manifest that the Instability of Fortune can never bring us into the waies of True Happiness Moreover he that is puft up with this unconstant Felicity either knowes or doth not know how Changeable it is If he knowes it not what Happiness can there be in Ignorance the Blindness of the Soule If he knowes it he must needs be in Fear of losing what he doubts not but may easily be lost Wherefore the Dread he is in continually suffers him not to be Happy Or else he cares not if it be lost Thus also it appears to be a matter of small moment whose loss can be so easily born And because thou art one of those who know and are assur'd by many Demonstrations that the Soules of Men are Immortal and sith it is so clear and unquestionable that such Happiness or Prosperity which is in the Power of Fortune has it's Period by the Death of the Body it cannot be doubted but if Death be able to deprive us of our Bliss All Mankind must at length become Miserable And sith we know that many a man hath earnestly pursu'd and endeavour'd after Bliss or True Happiness not only by Death but also by great Pains and Torments how can it be that this present Life should be able to make men Happy the End whereof makes them not Miserable THE FOURTH VERSE Philosophy commendeth a meane estate Who so intends to get A firm and lasting Seat That he may Safety find From Roaring Angry Wind And scorn proud Neptunes Threats When all the Shores he Beats Let him not Build on High From loose Sands let him fly When stormy Winds do blow High Houses they o'rethrow An House can never stand Vpon the sliding Sand. If thou wilt fly the great Dangers of a brave Seat Build thy House very Low And on a Rock Although The Winds their Forces raise And trouble Lands and Seas Thou mayst their Noise endure In thy Low Seat Secure Thy Lookes will still be Clear Though Stormes disturbe the Aire The FIFTH PROSE How riches are neither pretious nor our own BUT because these soft and gentle Reasonings or Fomentations of the Mind begin to sink into thee I think it would now be seasonable to use some stronger Medicines Well then Though the Gifts of Fortune were not so fraile and transitory what is there in them that can ever be truly and properly Your own and which being throughly discover'd what it is in it selfe would not appear to be most vile and despicable Are Riches to be Priz'd in regard of Your Nature or of Their own what is the best kind of Riches is it not Gold or great Heaps of Mony But these things make men to be sincerely Esteem'd when they are given away rather than when they are kept in store for Covetousness makes men Odious Bounty Glorious If that cannot remain with any man which passeth from him to another then is Mony Pretious when being confer'd on another by the exercise of Bounty it ceaseth to be in our own Possession But if one man had All the Wealth in the World it would leave others in the greatest Poverty And indeed a Voice comes Whole and Vndivided to the Ears of a Multitude of People at the same time but Your Riches unless divided into many small Parts cannot be communicated to divers Persons And hence it is that of necessity they expose such men to Poverty from whom they come into the Possession of others O then how Narrow and Contracted how
which is Inhabited by such Creatures which are known to us If thou shalt substract from this Fourth Part what the Seas and Marrises take up and the utmost Extent of the Dry Sands and Desarts there will be left but a very Narrow Space for the Habitations of Men. Being then Encompast and Shut up within the least Part of this Extream Little Part of the Vniverse do you Think of Enlarging your Fame and making your Name Great But what hath that Glory of Amplitude and Magnificence that is straitned with such Narrow Limits Moreover I would have thee to consider that in the Habitable Part of the World most Nations Differ very much one from another in their Language and in their Dispositions and their whole Kind of Life so that by reason of the Difficulty of such Journeyes or Voiages and the Diversity of Languages and the want of all Traffick or Commerce not only the Fame of Particular Men but even of Great Cities may never come to some Nations In the Daies of Marcus Tullius as he himselfe somewhere shewes the Fame of the Roman Common-Wealth had not yet past beyond the Mountain Caucasus and at that time Rome was so Great as to be a Terror even to the Parthians and the other Nations therabout And dost thou not see then how Narrow and Strait that Glory is which you labour to spread and dilate Shall the Glory of a Roman go thither where the Name of ROME could never arrive The Manners and Institutions of Divers Countries do not Agree so that what with some men deserveth Prayse with others is accounted worthy of the greatest Punishment Hence it comes to pass that if any one delight to be Well spoken of it is in no wise convenient for him that his Name should be carryed to Many People Therefore Every man must be contented with the Glory that is propagated amongst those who are Govern'd by the same Lawes with himselfe and that Fame and Lasting Renown which they call Immortality shall be confin'd within the Limits of one Country But how many Persons of great Eminency in their Time had their Names Omitted by the Historians of that Age And what doth it profit a man to be mention'd in Histories which at length together with their Authors fall into Oblivion But you seem to your selves to have gotten a kind of Immortality when you think that your Fame shall endure in the Generations to come If thou dost but compare that Duration to Eternity thou wilt find that thou hast no cause to rejoyce in the Long Continuance of thy Name For if we make comparison of One Moment with Ten Thousand Years because both Spaces have their Bounds it carries though but a little yet some Proportion therunto But this Number of Years be it Multiplyed never so much can in no wise be compar'd to that Duration which shall never End For between things Finite there is some Proportion but Infinite and Finite can never have any Thus it comes to pass that the Fame which endures for never so long a Time in comparison of Eternity will not only appear to be very little but as nothing at all But you care not to Do well unless for the Prayse of People and the empty noice of Vulgar Applause and disregarding the Excellency of your own Conscience and Vertue you expect your Reward from the Talk of others Observe how Ingeniously a certain man reproves this kind of Folly For when he saw a conceited Person that had through vain Glory assum'd to himselfe the False Name of a Philosopher to be assaulted with many sharpe Contumelies and Revilings and he had told him that now he should know him to be a Philosopher indeed if he would bear those Injuries with Meekness and Patience For a little while he tooke on him a kind of Patience and Boasting as it were in the Contumelies he had receiv'd Dost thou not understand at length sayth he that I am a Philosopher Then replyes the other very Bitingly I had understood it indeed if thou hadst held thy peace But what is Fame to Excellent Men for of such is our discourse who seeke for Glory in the way of Virtue what I say is Fame or the Glory of this present World to them when their Bodies return to the Dust For if Death seize on the Whole Man which my Doctrine will not suffer you to believe ther 's no such thing as Glory sith he who is said to be the Owner of it is depriv'd of his Being But if the Soule that is cleansed from all Impurity being deliver'd from this Earthly Prison Ascendeth into Heaven will she not despise all that is done here upon Earth whilst she being an Inhabitant of Heaven rejoyceth that she is Exempted from all Earthly Concerns The SEVENTH VERSE Of the smalness and shortness of fame WHoever thinks that Earthly Glory is The thing that brings true Bliss Let him Comtemplate the Large Skye and see Earths small Capacity Sith that such Narrow Space Exceeds his Fame Hee 'll Blush at his Great name Why do Proud Men in vain Desire to be Free'd from Mortality Though their Fame pass through People far and near And make Whole Nations hear And though their House toth ' Highest Titles rises This Glory Death despises It spares not Humble Heads the Lofty neither Layes High and Low together Where lye the Bones now of Fabricius Wher 's Cato or Brutus Some Letters after Death preserve their Fame That is Their Empty Name But may we Know Men long since Dead and gone Because those Words are Known You surely turn'd to Dust we cannot Know Fame can't your Persons show If you conceit that 't is a Life to be Mention'd in History When Time deprives you of the Peoples Breath That is a Second Death The EIGHTH PROSE Adversity more profitable than prosperity BUT that thou mayst not think me to be an Irreconcileable Enemy to Fortune Ther 's a Time when she deserveth well of men though she be so Deceitful To wit Then when she shewes Her selfe and discovers what Disposition she is of Perhaps thou dost not yet understand what I mean That which I vehemently desire to tell thee is a Wonderful thing so that I have much adoe to fit Words to the Thoughts I have of it For I Judge that Adverse Fortune is more Profitable for Men than Prosperity For the one allwayes cheats us with the empty shew of Felicity whilst she seems to be very Kind the other is allwayes True to us whilst by her Change she demonstrates her Instability The one Deceives the other Teaches and Instructs us the one Fetters the Minds of those that Enjoy it with the Allurements of False Goods the other sets them at Liberty by making them to understand the Vanity of all Earthly Happiness Therefore thou mayst observe that the one is Windy Loose and allwayes void of the Knowledge of her selfe the other is Sober Strict and encreasing in
contrary to this For they endeavour to move the Pity or Commiseration of the Judges towards those who have Suffer'd some Great Injury wheras indeed they should be rather Pityed who have contracted the Guilt of being so Injurious whom their Accusers should not be mov'd to bring before the Judge by Wrath and Indignation but by a Generous Pity and Desire of their Welfare as Sick folk are brought to the Physitian that by the Infliction of External Punishment they may be Cur'd of their Inward Distempers And thus the Employment of those that Plead for Offenders would either totally cease or if it should be continued for the Good of Mankind it would be turn'd into the Form of an Accusation The Wicked themselves if they could have but a Glimpse of Virtue which they have Forsaken and could perceive that they should be in some capacity of cleansing themselves from the Filth of their Vices by receiving their due Punishment their Pains being recompenc'd with the obteining of True Goodness and Piety they would not esteem them to be the Object of their Horror and Aversation and they would refuse the Assistance of those men that make Apologies for such who Deserve Punishment and yeild themseles to be Dispos'd of according to the Pleasure of their Accusers and of the Judges Whence it comes to pass that among Wise men there is no Place left for Hatred For who but an egregious Foole will Hate Good men And it is also against all Reason to Hate Wicked men For if a Vitious and Depraved Temper be the Sickness of the Soule sith we judge those that are Sick in Body in no wise to deserve our Hatred but rather our Pity much rather are they not to be Hated but Pityed whose Minds are opprest with Vice and Impurity a more Cruel Distemper than any that can afflict the Body The FOURTH VERSE No man is to be hated the good are to be loved and the evil to be pityed WHy do you Mortals labour so To Get your Deaths with your own Hands Although you would you cannot go From Fate It 's Course no Power withstands Those whom the Wild Beasts would Annoy And Tear both with their Teeth and Clawes Each other would with Swords Destroy Is 't that they Differ in their Lawes And Manners that they so Pursue Each other This we can't Approve If thou wilt yeild to All their Due The Wicked Pity Good men Love The FIFTH PROSE Boetius complaineth that prosperity and adversity are common both to good and badd THEN said I. I see what Felicity is implyed in the Nature of Good and what Misery in the Nature of Evil Actions But in this Outward Estate about which the Generality of men are so much concern'd it seemeth to me that there is somewhat of Good and somewhat of Evill For no Wise man would choose rather to be Banisht Poore Disgrac'd than to remain Safe in his own Country Rich Honor'd Powerful For by such means Wisedome Acts her Part with greater Renown and with more Advantage to the World the Happiness of those that are in Authority being in a manner transfus'd into the People that are under them especially sith Prisons Lawes and all Legall Penalties are Ordain'd for those that are Injurious Therefore I am Astonisht to see things thus turned upside down Good men lying under such Punishments as are due to the Wicked the Rewards of Virtue being snatcht away by those that have immerst themselves in the deepest Vices But I should less wonder if I did believe All things to be huddled in Confusion by Chance or Casualty Now it encreaseth my Astonishment that GOD is the Governor of All things sith He often distributes Ease and Contentment to Good men and Trouble and Vexation to Wicked men and on the contrary much Hardship and Affliction to Good men and the greatest Prosperity to the Wicked unless there may be a Reason given for these things how doth his Government differ any whit from Chance or meer Casualtie 'T is no wonder said she if any thing seem to be Disorder'd and Confus'd the Order therof being not discover'd But although thou dost not understand the Cause of this Management of the Vniverse yet sith it is Govern'd By Almighty GOODNESS thou mayst not doubt but that All things are Done for the Best The FIFTH VERSE Admiration ceaseth when the causes of things are known WHo knowes not how Stars neer the Poles do slide And how Bootes his slow waine does guide Why he sets late and does so early rise May wonder at the courses of the skies If the full Moon bereaved is of light Infested with a darkness like to night An errour straight through Vulgar minds doth pass To ease her labou'ring light they beat on Braess But no one wonders why the Winds do blow Nor why hot Phaebus beams dissolve the snow These are well known the other hidden lye And therefore more our hearts they terrifie Those strange Events which Time but seldome brings And the vaine people count as suddain things If we our mind from ignorance could free No longer would by us admired be The SIXTH PROSE Of providence and Fate and why prosperitie and adversitie are common both to good and bad 'T IS right said I. But sith it is thy Taske to unfold the hidden Causes of things and to Clear the Obscurest Truthes I pray thee Determine this matter and because this Strange thing is that by which I am most disturb'd and perplext Discourse therof at large Then Smiling a little she spake thus This Inquiry is the most difficult of all which will hardly be satisfyed with any thing that can be said in Answear therunto For the Matter is such that one doubt being Cutt of many others Grow up like the Heads of the Snake Hydra neither will there be any end of these Doubts and Scruples unless they are Burnt up with the most Lively Fire of an Ardent Mind For here Questions are wont to be made of the Simplicity of Providence of the Series of Fate of sudden and unexpected Accidents of the Divine Knowledge and Predestination of the Liberty of the Will And of how great Weight such Questions are Thou thy selfe art not unsensible But because the Knowing of these things is a part of the Medicine which thy Distemper requires although I am much streightned with the shortness of Time yet I shall endeavour to say somewhat in Answear to the Deep Question thou hast propos'd But though thou art much taken with the sweet Harmony of our Verses thou must defer this Pleasure a little while 'till I shall have made a due and orderly Contexture of such Reasons as tend to the Solution of thy Doubts Do as thou thinkst fit said I. Then as if she past to another Subject thus she Discourst The Generation of All things and All the Progress of Changeable Natures and whatsoever has any kind of Motion receiveth it's Causes Order Formes from the Stability of the Divine Mind Which
that Knoweth All things And My Lucan saith that The Cause of the Conquerour was Pleasing to the GODS but of the Conquer'd to Cato Whatsoever then thou mayst see at any time to be Done here upon Earth there is certainly a Right Order in the Things themselves but thine Opinion concerning them is Perverse and Confus'd But suppose there be any one so syncerely Virtuous that he is both Acceptable to GOD and Approv'd of Men yet it may be he wants a Courageous and undanted Spirit to whom if any Adversity should happen perhaps he will no longer take care to preserve his Innocency by which he could not retein his Fortune Therefore the Wisedome of the Divine Dispensation deals Gently with him whom Adversity might incline to Wickedness that he may not be Affiicted who is not Qualifyed to Endure Affiiction Another hath Attein'd to the Perfection of All Virtue an Holy Person Fully Partaking of the Divine Nature the All-wise GOD Judges that it would be contrary to the Rules of Justice that this man should be toucht with any Adversity so that He does not suffer such a man to be Affiicted even with any Bodily Distempers For as one more Excellent than I Sayes ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But many times it comes to pass that the chiefe Management of things is by Providence put into the Hands of Good men that Abounding Wickedness may be represt To others the Supream Wisedome and Goodness distributeth a Medley of Pleasing and Bitter things According to the Temper and Disposition of their Soules some He Curbs and Restrains least they grow Wanton by long Prosperity others He makes to suffer Hardship that by the Use and Exercise of Patience they may be confirm'd in All Virtue and strength of Mind Others are too Fearful of that which they are Able to Endure others are too apt to make light of that which they are not Able to Endure These men that they may Know themselves He brings into Adversity Some have purchac'd a Venerable Name in this World at the Price of a Glorious Death Some being Undanted in the greatest Torments have given to others an Example of this Truth that Virtue is Invincible in any Calamity whatsoever which how rightly and Orderly it comes and how it tends to the Good of those whom we see to labour under it may not be doubted This also that sometimes Sad things befall the Wicked sometimes they have the things that they Wish for doth proceed from the same Causes No man wonders at this that Sad things should befall them whom every one Judges to deserve so Ill. Whose Punishments are a Terror to others that they may not be guilty of the like Offences and they conduce to the Amendment of those upon whom they are Inflicted But the Prosperity of the Wicked is a clear Demonstration to those that Delight in Virtue what they are to Judge of that kind of Happiness which they see to Attend upon the Worst of men And here I conceive this also to be the Tendency of the Divine Dispensation that some men are Naturally so Head-strong and Violent in their wayes that the want of Mony would excite them to commit the greatest Wickedness Providence by distributing Riches to such kind of Persons applies a Remedy to their Distemper This man observing his Conscience Defil'd with all manner of Impurities and comparing Himselfe with His Fortune is perhaps struck with a Fear least the Loss of that should be extream Grievous the Enjoyment whereof is so Delightsome unto him therefore he will betake himselfe to a New Course of Life and whilst he Fears that his Fortune shall be Taken from him he makes speed to Depart from his Iniquity Others are suddenly brought to their Deserved Ruine by the Prosperity they have Abus'd Some are permitted to have the Power of Inflicting Punishment for the Exercise of Good men and the Vexation of the Wicked For as there is no League between the Lovers of Virtue and the Slaves of Vice so these Slaves of Vice can never Agree amongst themselves How should it be otherwise their Consciences being torn in peeces by the Fury of their vile Affections they Dissent from Their own Minds and often Do those things which when they have Done they Determine that they ought not in any Case to have Done such things Whence it is that the Divine Providence hath often produc'd this great Miracle that even Wicked men make other Wicked men to become Virtuous For whilst some Unrighteous Persons seem to themselves to suffer most Unjustly by those that are as Bad as themselves or Worse Burning with Indignation against those who have dealt so Injuriouslly with them they return to the wayes of Virtue whilst they endeavour to render themselves Unlike to those against whom they have conceiv'd such Hatred For 't is only the Power of the ALMIGHTY to which Evils become Good whilst by the use He makes of them He draweth forth some Good Effect For a certain Order Embraceth All things so that whatsoever hath swerv'd from that Course which by Providence was Primarily or Antecedently Assign'd unto it it falls still within the Compass of Order least any Chance or Temerity should have any thing to do in the Kingdome of Providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wit of Man can never comprehend nor his Eloquence Express all the Contrivances of the Divine Worke. Let it suffice that so much hath been made Known unto thee that GOD the Author of All Natures so Ordereth and Disposeth All things as to Direct them to the True Good whilst He makes those things which He hath Produc'd to retein some Resemblance of Himselfe by the Series of Fatal Necessity He Banisheth All Evill out of His Dominions Whence it comes to pass that though Evill seems to Abound here upon Earth if thou dost consider how All Events are Order'd and Dispos'd by Providence thou wilt not find any thing that deserves the name of Evill But I see thou art over-burthen'd with the Weight of the Question and wearied with the Prolixity of the Reasons I have produc'd for the Solution of it and that thou dost expect to be Refresht with the Sweetness of Verse Take a Draught then to strengthen thine Attention to that Part of my Discourse which is yet behind THE SIXTH VERSE Philosophy praiseth Gods providence IF with Pure Thought thou wilt Descry Jehovah's Power and Equity Looke up to Heav'n Above There Natures League is kept no Wars Were ever heard of there the Stars Ne're broke the Bonds of Love Sols Fiery Chariot keeps it's Course Nor doth it with ungovern'd Force Phaebes Coole Wain o'rethrow The Bear on High doth ne're Desire In the Deep Sea to plunge his Fire Though other Stars do so Vesper ne're failes to come at Night And Lucifer still brings Day-Light In which All things Rejoyce Thus Love keeps them in their Right Way Thus they all Discord drive away And all Tumultuous Noise This Peace the Elements