Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	charles_n	king_n	son_n	5,345	5	5.4847	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31206	A moral treatise upon valour divided into two books / translated from the French.; Traité de morale sur la valeur. English	Cassagnes, Jacques de, 1635-1679.; Compton, Samuel.	1694 (1694)	Wing C1215; ESTC R22869	65,804	204

to them as Nature they would have left nothing for their Successours to do now but might have made themselves Masters of the Universe The Misfortunes of King John obliged Charles his Son not to hazard a second Disgrace but that Prince who in this then shewed his Prudence had before given Proof of his Courage Lewis the Eleventh who towards the Latter End of his Days had abandoned his Soul to the melancholy Terrours and Apprehensions of Death never gave Testimony of such terrifying Fears in all his Wars And one might have seen him give Personal Proofs of his Valour at the Battle of Montlheri Henry the Third had won three Victories before he was King which gives us to observe that it was his Slothfulness and not his Cowardice which was the Cause of his unhappy Reign He feared not the Danger of War but he dreaded the Labour of it He had been well satisfied to have fought every Year a Battle provided that after the Fight was over he might have been permitted to spend the rest of the Year in Idleness These are they whom Calumny may take occasion to asperse and yet they are free from this Fault of Cowardice The rest claim our Elogies rather than need our Apologies Prosperity sometimes failed them in the Event and Prudence was sometimes wanting in the Enterprize but their Courage never failed neither in the Enterprize nor in the Event There were no Adventures happened to them wherein their Valour was not shewed forth Kings are not made Prisoners of War so long as they remain in their Palaces But if any of them in commanding their Armies do fall into the Hands of their Enemies who manage the War by their Lieutenants it is plain that at the same Time they are vanquished they have appeared more courageous than their Conquerours Such have been the Princes from whom some are descended who have no reason to blush for their Ancestors nor themselves in Reading their History They are found in their proper Place when seated on their Throne And that they were altogether worthy of proceeding their Successours who have since had better Fortune Whose Destinies may raise in us a Compassion for them but will never cause us to be ashamed of them CHAP. XIX The Empire of the Ancient Persians was soon expired as also that of the Graecians And the Reasons thereof AND as some Kings have been always Valiant so have their Subjects never basely degenerated from the Principle of Courage So that we need not wonder that Monarchy hath preserved it self during the Course of so many Ages and that she promiseth her self a Duration equal to that of the Universe On the contrary the Empire of the Ancient Persians did not long subsist because Cyrus had those for his Successors which were not worthy of him They had more of Vanity than Valour They moved indeed with innumerable Armies they poured forth Soldiers by the Millions and with a ridiculous Arrogance vaunted that they would shovel Mountains into the Sea and lay Fetters upon the Ocean and yet after all these dreadful Cracks they were beaten sunk and chased by the little Republicks of Greece However we may say that Darius in whom this Empire expired was not defective in Courage but he had not so much as his Enemy seeing that though he was far stronger than he yet nevertheless he was surmounted by him When his famous Conqueror was dead without Children the Principal of his Captains became Kings One had Macedonia for his Part another Syria a Third Egypt But all these blazing Sovereignties not falling into Hands strong enough to sustain them were soon extinguished Perseus the last King of the Macedonians was but the Seventh in Succession from Antigonus The Seleucides which had Syria continued no long Time And the Ptolemey's whose Kingdom was the last which was reduced to a Province held not Egypt above two Ages Their Misfortunes came from a Defect of Valour Perseus of whom we have been speaking instead of shewing the Courage of a King after his Defeat carried himself with so much Baseness that the General of the Roman Army was ashamed of him when he came from the Battel apprehending that it would not be any Glory for him to conquer such a Man And when he saw him prostrate himself unworthily at his Feet Ah! saith he Do not dishonour my Victory And yet this Carriage was less to be blamed if possible than that of Antiochus of the Race of the Seleucides to whom the Romans sent Popilius to command him to depart out of a Country whereinto he had entred with his main Army So soon as he saw the Ambassador a-far off going over his Camp he humbly salutes him The Ambassador with a Fierceness not to be endured comes up to him without returning him any Salute and delivers him a Letter from the Senate Antiochus after he had read it told him He would deliberate upon whas was to be done Popilius presently making a Circle about this Prince with a Wand that he then had in his Hand said to him Deliberate if you will but before you go out of this Circle I expect your Answer Here You may behold a perfect Coward A King who in the midst of his Army had received such unworthy Carriage from an Envoy instead of being inspired with a just Indignation consulted only his own Fears and answered He would do what the Romans should desire of him As for Ptolemy can any one be guilty of a more sordid and treacherous Action than his when he sacrificed the greatest Infortunate to his infamous Politicks And the better to make his Court to Caesar makes him a Present of the Head of Pompey All these Princes so little worthy of their Sovereignty did but possess part of the Conquests of Alexander What became of Persia after the Death of this great Monarch There were but two Divisions made of those great Conquests one by Perdiccas and the other by Antipater It was in the second Division that Babylon fell to Seleucus He afterwards gained the Army of Nicanor Governor of Media and being also assured of Persia it was the best Division seeing that his Empire extended it self from the Egean Sea even to the Indies But at last all these Successors of Alexander and their Descendants not knowing how to agree amongst themselves nor how to conquer one another it happened that during their Dissensions a valiant Parthian named Arsaces mounts the Throne and became the Founder of one of the most puissant and illustrious Families that History presents to our Remembrance This Noble Family was not eclipsed as others were with the Rays of the Roman Splendor She gave Kings to the Eastern Nations and investing her self during so many Ages with Sovereign Power was never the Subject but always the Rival of that ambitious Republick These were the Princes called the Arsacides from the Name of their illustrious Founder who created so much Trouble to the Romans and abated their Pride by the

it is not true Valour at least it is no part of the Motive wherewith it ought to be animated that is the preferring the Sense of true Honour before our own Lives According to these Principles though the Saying of Agesilaus was excellent when to one who demanded of him how he came to perform such great Exploits he answered It was by despising Death Yet not to abuse this noble Thought it is necessary that we add another Saying of Cato the Elder who tells us In the Perils of War he makes a great Difference between those that love Vertue and those who are weary of their Lives Indeed it must be the Love of Vertue that animates Valour and the principal Wheel that puts it into its due Motions Zeal for Justice ought not only to be the Pretence but the Cause of War And a Prince is obliged to have the same Motive in prosecuting his Enemies by his Arms as in arraigning Offenders by his Laws for his Enemies are looked upon as convicted Criminals the Declaration of War is their Sentence of Condemnation and because this Sentence cannot be so easily executed as the others he sends his Armies to be his Sheriffs and Executioners And the same Effect which the Punishment of a private Criminal hath on a Nation the Punishment of a Nation hath on the Universe or as we may say in the great Republick of the World CHAP. V. Examples against the strange Errour of those who believe the exact Practice of Justice to be an Obstacle to Valour AND yet notwithstanding all this some Men there are in the World who imagine that the exact practising of Justice is an Obstacle to Valour If in the fixed Humour whereinto this fundamental Errour hath cast their Minds they are not capable to be disabused by Reasons they ought to be cured by Examples Marcus Aurelius is the most famous amongst the Emperors for Vertue purely Humane St. Lewis is the most renowned amongst all Kings for Christian Piety They were both very valiant St. Lewis was the first that descended from Ship-board into Egypt in the sight of the Enemy he fought with incredible Obstinacy in that Fight where he lost his Liberty And during his Imprisonment he discovered such a noble Assurance of Mind that the Prince of the Barbarians being near Death the Admiration that they had for the Vertue of their generous Captive put them upon Deliberation whether they should not chuse him for their Sovereign As for Marcus Aurelius he ended his Days in an Expedition in Almaigne He underwent all the Duties of a Soldier and a Captain and had made great Advances if he had not been surprized by Death The Example of this Prince and that of his Son do well demonstrate that Justice is serviceable to Valour instead of being prejudicial to it and that that Courage which is not founded in the Love of Vertue is obnoxious to great Disorders Commodus the Son of Aurelius had been carefully educated by his Father with all the Exactness imaginable This Education was in him joyned with an auspicious Birth he had a vast Genius he was strong dexterous and of a good Mind and nothing was wanting to make him a great Prince but his Will to be so His Father had no sooner rendred up his Life but he thinks of nothing more than returning to Rome though one might have well represented to him that Rome was every where where the Emperor was He abandons an assured Victory and patching up a dishonourable Peace with the Alemaignes sets forward for Italy without being at the Pains to consider whether it would not beget ill Impressions of his Conduct in the Beginning of his Reign We come now from seeing an old Emperor who had rather die under his Military Labours in the Bed of Honour than quit the Design he had formed and we see after him a young Prince full of Vigour who to wind himself out of the Fatigues of War eschews an Enterprize to which the Memory of his Father and his own Honour should have engaged him Instead of embracing a lawful Occasion for the Acquests of Glory he rather chose to expose himself to the View of the Romans in the Equipage of a Gladiator and by throwing of Darts to kill Panthers or Lions in an Amphitheatre CHAP. VI. Why it is that at this Day all the World hath not the Opinion they ought to have upon the Obligation of joyning Justice to Valour IF all Men at this Day have not the Opinion they ought to have of their being obliged to joyn Valour with this other Vertue which is the Rule of all Morality perhaps it comes from hence that in this Monarchy as in many others they have made a Separation of the Gown from the Sword as if they were distinct Functions and do not think it proper that the same Men might be Magistrates and Captains too It is true the Sovereign Administration of Laws and Arms resides in the Person of the Prince but it is in no other properly but in him that this Union is to be found And yet in some sort he hath declared himself for the Military Employment since he every Day bears the Badges of it and even in the actual Administration of Justice he wears a Sword by his Side But the Ancients did not determine of Things after this Rule Amongst them the Charge of Consul that of Praetor and many others were no less for the Wars than for Peace Insomuch that there were some that in a Moment passed from the Tribunal to the Camp and after having heard Causes pleaded and been Pleaders themselves were sent to command and to fight in the Army Fabritius was a Man of an undaunted Spirit Both the Cato's were exceeding valiant And the same Justice which restrained them from suffering their Judgments to be corrupted excited them not to suffer themselves to be vanquished in Battels We find the like Examples in the Graecian History Phocion and Aristides had no less of Courage than Integrity They gave to Aristides the Surname of Just they might as well have given him the Surname of Valiant 'T is true he never commanded the Army in Chief but he distinguished himself in all the Wars where he served either as a Soldier or as an Officer and he behaved himself admirably well in the Battels of Marathron Salamine and Platea Now in the Republicks of Greece no manner of Profession could exempt a Man from his Service in the Wars or at least was incompatible with Arms. We could name Philosophers who have joyned Justice with Valour Socrates saved Alcibiades in a Battel and darting himself through the thickest of his Enemies rescued him out of their Hands Zenophon after the Death of Clearchus was one of the Captains in that famous Retreat which amongst the Criticks in the Art of War passeth for one of the finest Master-pieces that ever was performed CHAP. VII What is the Extent of Military Obedience AS it is an important Thing SIR for