and of a wondrous strange disposition to ridde herselfe from the importunate pursuit of a thousand amorous sutors who sollicited her for mariage prescribed this law vnto them that shee would accept of him that should equall her in running on condition those she should ouercome might lose their lives Some there were found who deemed this prize worthy the hazard and who incurred the penaltie of so cruell a match Hippomenes comming to make his essay after the rest deuoutly addressed himselfe to the diuine protectresse of all amorous delights earnestly inuoking her assistance who gently listning to his hearty praiers furnished him with three golden Apples and taught him how to vse them The scope of the race being plaine according as Hippomenes perceiued his swift footed mistresse to approch his heeles he let fall as at vnawares one of his Apples the heedlesse maiden gazing and wondring at the alluring beautie of it failed not to turne and take it vp Obstupuit virgo nitidique cupidine pomi Declinat cursus aurumque volubile tollit The maid amaz'd desiring that faire gold Turnes by her course takes it vp as it rold The like hee did at his need with the second and third vntill by this digressing and diverting the goale and aduantage of the course was judged his When Physitians cannot purge the rheume they divert and remooue the same vnto some lesse dangerous part I also perceiue it to be the most ordinary receit for the mindes diseases Abducendus etiam nonnunquam animus est ad alia studia sollicitudines curas negotia Loci denique mutatione tanquam aegroti non conualescentes saepe curandus est Our minde also is sometimes to bee diuerted to other studies cogitations cares and businesses and lastly to be cured by change of place as sicke folkes vse that otherwise cannot get health We make it seldome to shocke mischiefes with direct resistance we make it neither to beare nor to breake but to shun or divert the blow This other lesson is too high and over-hard It is for them of the first ranke meerely to stay vpon the thing it selfe to examine and iudge it It belongeth to one onely Socrates to accost and entertaine death with an vndaunted ordinary visage to become familiar and play with it He seeketh for no comfort out of the thing it selfe To die seemeth vnto him a naturall and indifferent accident thereon he wishly fixeth his sight and thereon he resolueth without looking else-where Hegosias his disciples who with hunger starued themselues to death incensed therevnto with the perswading discourses of his lessons and that so thicke as King Ptolomey forbad him any longer to entertaine his schoole with such murtherous precepts Those considered not death in it selfe they iudge it not This was not the limit of their thoughts they run on and ayme at another being Those poore creatures we see on scaffolds fraught with an ardent deuotion therein to the vttermost of their power employing all their sences their eares attentive to such instructions as Preachers give them their hands and eies liât vp towardes heaven their voice vttering loud and earnest praiers all with an eager and continual ruth-mooving motion doe verily what in such an vnavoidable exigent is commendable and conuenient One may well commend their religion but not properly their constancy They shunne the brunt they divert their consideration from death as we vse to dandle and busie children when we would lance them or let them bloud I have seene some who if by fortune they chanced to cast their eies towards the dreadfull preparations of death which were round about them fall into trances and with fury cast their cogitations else-where We teach those that are to passe-over some steepy downe fall or dreadfull abisse to shut or turne aside their eies Subrius Flauius being by the appointment of Nero to be put to death by the hands of Niger both chiefe commanders in war when he was brought vnto the place where the execution should be performed seeing the pit Niger had caused to be digged for him vneuen and vnhandsomely made Nor is this pit quoth he to the souldiers that stood about him according to the true discipline of war And to Niger who willed him to hold his head steddy I wish thou wouldest stricke as steddily He guessed right for Nigers arme trembling he had divers blowes at him before he could strike it off This man seemeth to haue fixed his thoughts surely and directly on the matter He that dies in the fury of a battle with weapons in hand thinkes not then on death and neither feeleth nor considereth the same the heate of the fight transports him An honest man of my acquaintance falling downe in a single combat and feeling himselfe stab'd nine or ten times by his enemy was called vnto by the by-standers to call on God and remember his conscience but he tould me after that albeit those voices came vnto his eares they had no whit mooued him and that he thought on nothing but how to discharge and reuenge himselfe In which combat he vanquished and slew his aduersary He who brought L. Syllanus his condemnation did much for him in that when he heard him answer he was prepared to die but not by the hands of base villaines ran vpon him with his souldiers to force him against whom obstinately defending himselfe though vnarmed with fists and feet he was slaine in the conflict dispersing with a ready and rebellious choller the painefull sence of a long and fore-prepared death to which he was assigned We euer thinke on somewhat else either the hope of a better life doth settle and support vs or the confidence of our childrens worth or the future glory of our name or the auoyding of these liues mischieues or the reuenge hanging ouer their heads that have caused and procured our death Spero equidem medijs si quid âia numina possunt Supplicia hausurum scopulis nomine Dido Saepe vocaturum Audiam haec manes veniet mihi fama sub imos I hope if powers of heaven have any power On rockes he shall be punisht at that houre He oft on Didoes name shall pittilesse exclaime This shall I heare and this report shall to me in my grave resort Xenophon sacrificed with a crowne on his head when one came to tell him the death of his sonne Gryllus in the battell of Mantinea At the first hearing whereof hee cast his crowne to the ground but finding vpon better relation how valiantly hee died hee tooke it vp and put it on his head againe Epicurus also at his death comforted himselfe in the eternitie and worth of his writings Omnes clari nobilitati labores fiunt tolerabiles All glorious and honourable labours are made tolerable And the same wound and the same toile saith Xenophon toucheth not a Generall of an armie as it doth a private souldier Epaminondas tooke his death much the more cheerefully being informed that the victorie
mee I have a thousand times gone to bedde in mine house imagining I should the very same night either have beene betrayed or slaine in my bedde compounding and conditioning with fortune that it might be without apprehension of fearefull astonishment and languishment And after my praiers have cried out Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit Shall these our grounds so deckt and drest By godlesse souldiers be possest What remedie It is the place where my selfe and most of my ancestors were borne therein have they placed their affection and their name Wee harden our selves vnto whatsoever we accustome our selves And to a wretched condition as ours is custome hath beene a most favourable present given vs by nature which enureth and lulleth our sense asleepe to the suffring of divers evils Civill warres have this one thing worse then other warres to cause every one of vs to make a watch-tower of his owne house Quà m miserum porta vitam muroque tueri Vixque suae tutum viribus esse domus How hard with gate and wall our life to gard And scarce be safe in our owne houses bard It is an irkesome extremitie for one to be troubled and pressed even in his owne houshold and domesticall rest The place wherein I dwell is ever both the first and last to the batterie of our troubles and where peace is never absolutely discerned Tum quoque cùm pax est trepidant formidine belli Ev'n when in peace they are They quake for feare of warre quoties pacem fortuna lacessit Hac iter est bellis melius fortuna dedisses Orbe sub Eoo sedem gelidaque sub Arcto Errantesque domos As oft as fortune troubleth peace their race Warres makes this way fortune with better grace In th'Easterne world thou shouldst have giv'n them place Or wandring tents for warre vnder the cold North-starre I sometimes draw the meanes to strengthen my selfe against these considerations from carelesnesse and idlenesse which also in some sort bring vs vnto resolution It often befulleth me with some pleasure to imagine what mortall dangers are and to expect them I do even hood-winkt with my head in my bosome and with stupiditie plunge my selfe into death without considering or knowing it as into a deepe hollow and bottomlesse abysse which at one leape doth swallow me vp and at an instant doth cast me into an eternall slumber full of insipiditie and indolencie And in these short sudden or violent deaths the consequence I fore-see of them affoords me more comfort then the effect of feare They say that even an life is not the best because it is long so death is the best because it is short I estrange not my selfe so much by being dead as I enter into confidence with dying I enwrap and shrowd my selfe in that storme which shall blinde and furioosly wrap me with a ready and insensible charge Vea if it hapned as some gardners say that those Roses and Violets are ever the sweeter and more odoriferous that grow neere vnto Garlike and Onions forsomuch as they sucke and draw all the ill savours of the ground vnto them so that these depraved natures would draw and sucke all the venome of mine aire and infection of my climate and by their neerenesse vnto me make me so much the better and purer that I might not lose all That is not but of this something may be forsomuch as goodnesse is the fairer and more attracting when it is rare and that contrarietie stifneth and diversitie encloseth well-doing in it selfe and by the jealousie of opposition and glory it doth inflame it Theeves and stealers godamercie their kindnesse have in particular nothing to say to mee no more have I to them I should then have to do with over-many sorts of men Alike consciences lurke vnder diverâ kinds of garments Alike crueltie disloialtie and stealing And so much the worse by how much it is more base more safe and more secret vnder the colour of lawes I hate lesse an open-professed iniurie then a deceiving traitrous wrong an hostile and war-like then a peacefull and lawfull Our feaver hath seased vpon a body which it hath not much empaired The fire was in it but now the flame hath taken hold of it The report is greater the hurt but little I ordinarily answer such as demand reasons for my voiages That I know what I shunne but wât not what I seeke If one tell mee there may bee as little sound health amongst strangers and that their manners are neither better nor purer then ours I answer first that it is very hard Tam multa scelerum facies The formes so manifold Of wickednesse we hold Secondly that it is ever a gaine to change a bad estate for an vncertaine And that others evils should not touch vs so neare as ours I will not forget this that I can never mutinie so much against France but I must needs looke on Paris with a favourable eye It hath my hart from my infancy whereof it hath befalne me as of excellent things the more other faire and stately citties I have seene since the more hir beauty hath power and doth still vsurpingly gaine vpon my affection I love that Cittie for hir owne sake and more in hir onely subsisting and owne being then when it is full-fraught and embellished with forraine pompe and borrowed garish ornaments I love hir so tenderly that even hir spots hir blemishes and hir warts are deare vnto me I am no perfect French-men but by this great-matchlesse Cittie great in people great in regard of the felicitie of hir situation but above all great and incomparable in varietie and diversitie of commodities The glory of France and one of the noblest and chiefe ornaments of the world God of his mercy free hir and chase away all our divisions from hir Being entirely vnited to hir selfe I finde hir defended from all other violence I forewarne hir that of all factions that shall bee the worst which shall breed discord and sedition in hir And for hir sake I onely feare hir selfe And surely I am in as great feare for hir as for any other part of our state So long as she shall continue so long shall I never want a home or retreat to retire and shrowd my selfe at all times a thing able to make me for get the regret of all other retreates Not because Socrates hath said it but because such is in truth my humour and peradventure not without some excuse to esteeme all men as my country-men and as I kindly embrace a Polonian as a Frenchman postposing this naturall bond to vniversall and common I am not greatly strucken with the pleasantnesse of naturall aire Acquaintances altogether new and wholly mine doe in my conceit countervaile the woorth of all other vulgar and casuall acquaintances of our neighbours Friendships meerely acquired by our selves doe ordinarily exceed those to which wee are joyned either by communication of Climate or affinity
enemies foolish oversight as we do of their cowardise And verily warre hath naturally many reasonable priviledges to the prejudice of reason And here failes the rule Neminem id agere vt ex alterins praedetur inscitia That no man should indeuour to pray vpon another mans ignorance But I wonder of the scope that Xenophon allowes them both by his discourse and by diverse exploits of his perfect Emperour an Author of wonderfull consequence in such things as a great Captaine and a Philosopher and one of Socrates chiefest Disciples nor do I altogether yeeld vnto the measure of his dispensation The Lord of Aubigny besieging Capua after he had given it a furious batterie the Lord Fabritius Colonna Captaine of the towne having from vnder a basâion or skonce begunne to parlie and his men growing negligent and carelesse in their offices and guarde our men did suddenly take the advantage offered them entered the towne over-ranne it and put all to the sworde But to come to later examples yea in our memorie the Lord Iulio Romero at Yvoy having committed this oversight to issue out of his holde to parlie with the Constable of France at his returne found the Towne taken and himselfe jack-out-of-doores But that wee may not passe vnrevenged the Marques of Pescara beleagering Genova where Duke Octavian Fregoso commanded vnder our protection and an accord between them having so long been treated and earnestly solicited that it was held as ratified and vpon the point of conclusion the Spaniards being entred the Towne and seeing themselves the stronger tooke their opportunitie and vsed it as a full and compleate victorie and since at Lygny in Barroe where the Earle of Brienne commanded the Emperour having besieged him in person and Bartholemy Lieutenant to the saide Earle being come foorth of his hold to parlie was no sooner out whilest they were disputing but the Towne was surprised and he excluded They say Fu il vincer sempre mai laudabil cosa Vincasi per fortuna ô per ingegno To be victorious evermore was glorious Be we by fortune or by wit victorious But the Philosopher Chrysippus would not have beene of that opinion nor I neither for he was woont to say That those who runne for the masterie may well employ all their strength to make speede but it is not lawfull for them to lay handes on their adversaries to stay him or to crosse legges to make him trip or fall And more generously answered Alexander the great at what time Polypercon perswaded him to vse the benefit of the advantage which the darkenesse of the night afforded him to charge Darius No no said hee it fittes not mee to hunt after night-stolne victories Malo me fortunae poeniteat quà m victoriae pudeat I had rather repent me of my fortune than be ashamed of my victorie Atque idem fugientem haud est dignatus Orodem Sternere nec âactacaecum dare cuspide vulnus Obuius aduersóque occurrit séque viro vir Contulit haud fur to meliôr sed fortibus armis He deign'd not to strike downe Orodes flying Or with his throwne-launce blindely-wound him running But man to man afront himselfe applying Met him as more esteem'd for strength then cunning The seuenth Chapter That our intention iudgeth our actions THE common saying is that Death acquits vs of all our bondes I know some that have taken it in another sence Henry the seventh King of England made a composition with Philip sonne to Maximilian the Emperour or to give him a more honorable title father to the Emperour Charles the fift that the said Philip should deliver into his hands the Duke of Suffolke his mortall enemie who was fled out of England and saved himselfe in the Low countries alwaies provided the King should attempt nothing against the Dukes life which promise notwithstanding being neere his end he expresly by will and testament commanded his succeeding-sonne that immediately after his decease he should cause him to be put to death In the late tragedie which the Duke of Alva presented vs withall at Brussels on the Earles of Horne and Egmond were many remarkeable things and woorthie to be noted and amongst others that the said Count Egmond vpon whose faithfull word and assurance the Earle of Horne was come in yeelded himselfe to the Duke of Alva required verie instantly to be first put to death to the end his death might acquit and free him of the word and bond which he ought and was engaged for to the saide Earle of Horne It seemeth that death hath no whit discharged the former of his worde giuen and that the second without dying was quit of it We cannot be tied beyond our strength and meanes The reason is because the effects and executions are not any way in our power and except our will nothing is truely in our power on it onely are all the rules of mans dutie grounded and established by necessitie And therefore Count Egmond deeming his minde and will indebted to his promise howbeit the power to effect it lay not in his hands was no doubt cleerely absolved of his debt and dutie although he had survived the Count Horne But the King of England failing of his word by his intention cannot be excused though hee delaide the execution of his disloyaltie vntill after his death No more then Herodotus his Mason who during his naturall life having faithfully kept the secret of his Master the King of Aegypts treasure when he died discovered the same vnto his children I have in my daies seene many convicted by their owne conscience for detaining other mens goods yet by their last will and testament to dispose themselves after their decease to make satisfaction This is nothing to the purpose Neither to take time for a matter so vrgent nor with so small interest or shew of feeling to goe about to establish an injurie They are indebted somewhat more And by how much more they pay incommodiously and chargeably so much the more just and meritorious is their satisfaction Penitence ought to charge yet doe they worse who reserve the revealing of some heinous conceit or affection towards their neighbour to their last will and affection having whilest they lived ever kept it secret And seeme to have little regard of their owne honour by provoking the partie offended against their owne memory and lesse of their conscience since they could never for the respect of death cancell their ill-grudging affection and in extending life beyond theirs Oh wicked and vngodly judges which referre the judgement of a cause to such time as they have no more knowledge of causes I will as neere as I can prevent that my death reveale or vtter any thing my life hath not first publikely spoken The eight Chapter Of Idlenesse AS we see some idle-fallow grounds if they be fat and fertile to bring foorth store sundrie roots of wilde and vnprofitable weedes and that to keepe them in vrewe must subject
life but for five or six moneths And in our fathers daies Lodowicke Sforce tenth Duke of Millane vnder whom the state of Italie had so long beene turmoiled and shaken was seene to die a wretched prisoner at Loches in France but not till he had lived and lingered ten yeares in thraldome which was the worst of his bargaine The fairest Queene wife to the greatest King of Christendome was she not lately seene to die by the hands of an executioner Oh vnworthie and barbarous crueltie And a thousand such examples For it seemeth that as the sea-billowes and surging waves rage and storme against the surly pride and stubborne height of our buildings So is there above certain spirits that envie the rising prosperities and greatnesse heere below Vsque adeò res humanas res abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros fasces savásque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur A hidden power so mens states hath out worne Faire swordes fierce scepters signes of honours borne It seemes to trample and deride in scorne And it seemeth Fortune doth sometimes narrowly watch the last day of our life thereby to shew her power and in one moment to overthrow what for many yeares together she had beene erecting and makes vs crie after Laberius Nimirum hac die vna plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit Thus it is I have lived longer by this one day than I should So may that good advise of Solon be taken with reason But for somuch as hee is a Philosopher with whom the favours or disfavours of fortune and good or ill lucke have no place and are not regarded by him and puissances and greatnesses and accidents of qualitie are well nigh indifferent I deeme it very likely he had a further reach and meant that the same good fortune of our life which dependeth of the tranquilitie and contentment of a wel-borne minde and of the resolution and assurance of a well ordered soule should never be ascribed vnto man vntill he have beene seene play the last act of his comedie and without doubt the hardest In all the rest there may besome maske either these sophisticall discourses of Philosophie are not in vs but by countenance or accidents that never touch vs to the quick give vs alwaies leasure to keep our countenance setled But when that last part of death and of our selves comes to be acted then no dissembling will availe then is it high time to speake plaine english and put off all vizards then whatsoever the pot containeth must be shewne be it good or bad foule or cleane wine or water Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Eijciuntur eripitur persona manet res For then are sent true speeches from the heart We are our selves we leave to play a part Loe heere why at this last cast all our lives other actions must be tride and touched It is the master-day the day that judgeth all others it is the day saith an auncient Writer that must judge of all my forepassed yeares To death do I referre the essay of my studies fruit There shall wee see whether my discourse proceede from my heart or from my mouth I have seene divers by their death either in good or evill give reputation to all their forepassed life Scipio father in law to Pompey in well dying repaired the ill opinion which vntill that houre men had ever held of him Epaminondas being demanded which of the three he esteemed most either Chabrias or Iphicrates or himselfe It is necessary said he that we be seene to die before your question may well be resolved Verily we should steale much from him if he should be weighed without the honour and greatnesse of his end God hath willed it as he pleased but in my time three of the most execrable persons that ever I knew in all abomination of life and the most infamous have beene seen to die very orderly and quietly and in every circumstance composed even vnto perfection There are some brave and fortunate deaths I have seene her cut the twine of some mans life with a progresse of wonderfull advancement and with so worthie an end even in the flowre of his growth and spring of his youth that in mine opinion his ambitious and haughtie couragious designes thought nothing so high as might interrupt them who without going to the place where he pretended arived there more gloriously and worthily than either his desire or hope aimed at And by his fall fore-went the power and name whether by his course he aspired When I judge of other mens lives I ever respect how they have behaved themselves in their end and my chiefest study is I may well demeane my selfe at my last gaspe that is to say quietly and constantly The nineteenth Chapter That to Philosophie is to learne how to die CIcero saith that to Philosophie is no other thing than for a man to prepare himselfe to death which is the reason that studie and contemplation doth in some sort withdraw our soule from vs and severally employ it from the body which is a kind of apprentisage and resemblance of death or else it is that all the wisedome and discourse of the world doth in the end resolve vpon this point to teach vs not to feare to die Truely either reason mockes vs or it only aimeth at our contentment and in fine bends all her trauell to make vs live wel and as the holy Scripture saith at our ease All the opinions of the world conclude that pleasure is our end how be it they take divers meanes vnto and for it else would men reject them at their first comming For who would giue eare vnto him that for it's end would establish our paine and disturbance The dissentions of philosophicall sects in this case are verball Transcurramus solertissimas nugas Let vs runne over such over-fine fooleries and subtill trifles There is more wilfulnesse and wrangling among them than pertaines to a sacred profession But what person a man vndertakes to act he doth ever therewithall personate his owne Although they say that in vertue it selfe the last scope of our aime is voluptuousnes It pleaseth me to importune their eares still with this word which so much offends their hearing And if it imply any chiefe pleasure or exceeding contentments it is rather due to the assistance of vertue than to any other supply voluptuousnes being more strong sinnowie sturdie and manly is but more seriously voluptuous And we should give it the name of pleasure more favorable sweeter and more naturall and not terme it vigor from which it hath his denomination Should this baser sensuality deserue this faire name it should be by competencie and not by privilege I finde it lesse voide of incommodities and crosses than vertue And besides that her taste is more fleeting momentarie and fading she hath her fasts her eves and her travels and both sweate and blood Furthermore she hath perticularly
pietie to take example by the humanity of Iesus Christ who ended his humane life at three and thirtie yeares The greatest man that ever was being no more than a man I meane Alexander the great ended his dayes and died also of that age How many severall meanes and waies hath death to surprise vs. Quid quisque vitet nunquum homini satis Cautum est in horas A man can never take good heede Hourely what he may shun and speede Iomit to speake of agues and pleurisies who would ever have imagined that a Duke of Brittanie should have beene stifled to death in a throng of people as Whilome was a neighbour of mine at Lyons when Pope Clement made his entrance there Hast thou not seene one of our late Kings slaine in the middest of his sportes and one of his ancestors die miserably by the chocke of an hog Eschilus fore-threatned by the fall of an house when he stood most vpon his guard strucken dead by the fall of a Tortoise shell which fell out of the tallans of an Eagle flying in the aire and another choaked with the kernell of a grape And an Emperour die by the scratch of a combe whilest he was combing his head And Aemylius Lepidus with hitting his foote against a doore-seele And Aufidius with stumbling against the Consull-Chamber doore as he was going in thereat And Cornelius Gallus the Praetor Tigillinus Captaine of the Romane watch Lodowike sonne of Guido Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua end their daies betweene womens thighs And of a farre worse example Speusippus the Plantonian Philosopher and one of our Popes Poore Bebius a judge whilest he demurreth the sute of a plaintife but for eight daies behold his last expired And Caius Iulius a Physitian whilest he was annointing the eies of one of his patients to have his ownesight closed for ever by death And if amongst these examples I may adde one of a brother of mine called Captaine Saint Martin a man of three and twentie yeares of age who had alreadie given good testimonie of his worth and forward valor playing at tennis received a blow with a ball that hit him a little above the right care without apparance of any contusion bruse or hurt and never sitting or resting vpon it died within six houres after of an Apoplexie which the blow of the ball caused in him These so frequent and ordinary examples hapning and being still before our eies how is it possible for man to forgo or forget the remembrance of death and why should it not continually seeme vnto vs that shee is still ready at hand to take vs by the throat What matter is it will you say vnto me how and in what manner it is so long as a man do not trouble and vex himselfe therewith I am of this opinion that howsoeuer a man may shrowd or hide himselfe from her dart yea were it vnder an oxe-hide I am not the man would shrinke backe it sufficeth me to live at my ease and the best recreation I can have that do I evertake in other matters as little vainglorious and exemplare as you list praetulerim delirus inérsque videri Dum mea delectent mala me vel denique fallant Quà m sapere ringi A dotard I had rather seeme and dull So me my faults may please make me a gull Than to be wise and beat my vexed scull But it is folly to thinke that way to come vnto it They come they goe they trot they daunce but no speech of death All that is good sport But if she be once come and on a sudden and openly surprise either them their wiues their children or their friends what torments what out-cries what rage and what dispaire doth then overwhelme them saw you ever any thing so drooping so changed and so distracted A man must looke to it and in better times fore-see it And might that brutish carelessenesse lodge in the minde of a man of vnderstanding which I find altogether impossible she sels vs her ware at an over deere rate were she an enemie by mans wit to be auoided I would advise men to borrow the weapons of cowardlinesse but since it may not be and that be you either a coward or a runaway an honest or valiant man she overtakes you Nempe sugacempersequitur virum Nec parcit imbellis inuenta Poplitibus timidóque tergo Shee persecutes the man that flies Shee spares not weake youth to surprise But on their hammes and backe turn'd plies And that no temper of cuirace may shield or defend you Ille licet ferro cautus se condat aere Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput Though he with yron and brasse his head empale Yet death his head enclosed thence will hale Let vs learne to stand and combate her with a resolute minde And begin to take the greatest advantage she hath vpon vs from her let vs take a cleane contrary way from the common let vs remove her strangenesse from her let vs converse frequent and acquaint our selves with her let vs have nothing so much in minde as death let vs at all times and seasons and in the vgliest manner that may be yea with all faces shapen and represent the same vnto our imagination At the stumbling of a horse at the fall of a stone at the least prick with a pinne let vs presently ruminate and say with our selves what if it were death itselfe and thereupon let vs take heart of grace and call our wits together to confront her A middest our bankets seasts and pleasures let vs ever have this restraint or object before vs that is the remembrance of our condition and let not pleasure so much mislead or transport vs that we altogether neglect or forget how many waies our joyes or our feastings be subject vnto death and by how many hold-fasts shee threatens vs and them So did the Aegyptians who in the middest of their banquetings and in the full of their greatest cheere caused the anatomie of a dead man to be brought before them as a memorandum and warning to their guests Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora. Thinke every day shines on thee as thy last Welcome it will come whereof hope was past It is vncertaine where death looks for vs let vs expect hir everie where the premeditation of death is a fore-thinking of libertie He who hath learned to die hath vnlearned to serve There is no evill in life for him that hath well conceived how the privation of life is no evill To know how to die doth freevs from all subjection and constraint Paulus Aemââus answered one whom that miserable king of Macedon his prisoner sent to entreate him he would not leade him in triumph let him make that request vnto himselfe Verily if Nature afforde not some helpe in all things it is very hard that arte and industrie should goe farre before
of the death of men that is to say what words what countenance and what face they shew at their death and in reading of histories which I so attentively observe It appeareth by the shuffling and hudling vp of my examples I affect no subject so particularly as this Were I a composer of bookes I would keepe a register commented of the diverse deaths which in teaching men to die should after teach them to live Dicearcus made one of that title but of an other and lesse profitable end Some man will say to me the effect exceedes the thought so farre that there is no fence so sure or cunning so certaine but a man shall either loose or forget if he come once to that point let them say what they list to premeditate on it giveth no doubt a great advantage and is it nothing at the least to go eso farre without dismay or alteration or without an ague There belongs more to it Nature herselfe lends her hand and gives vs courage If it be a short and violent death we have no leasure to feare it if otherwise I perceive that according as I engage my selfe in sicknesse I do naturally fall into some disdaine and contempt of life I find that I have more ado to disgest this resolution that I shall die when I am in health than I have when I am troubled with a feaver forsomuch as I have no more such fast hold on the commodities of life whereof I begin to loose the vse and pleasure and view death in the face with a lesse vndanted looke which makes me hope that the further I go from that and the neerer I approch to this so much more easily do I enter in composition for their exchange Even as I have tried in many other occurrences which Caesar affirmed that often somethings seeme greater being farre from vs than if they be neere at hand I have found that being in perfect health I have much more beene frighted with sicknesse than when I have felt it The jollitie wherein I live the pleasure and the strength make the other seeme so disproportionable from that that by imagination I amplifie these commodities by one moitie and apprehended them much more heauie and burthensome then I feele them when I have them vpon my shoulders The same I hope will happen to me of death Consider we by the ordinary mutations and daily declinations which we suffer how Nature deprives vs of the night of our losse and empairing what hath an aged man left him of his youths vigor and of his forepast life Heu senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men in yeares how small A part of life is left in all Caesar to a tired and crazed Souldier of his guard who in the open streete came to him to beg leave he might cause himselfe to be put to death viewing his decrepit behauiour answered pleasantly Doest thou thinke to be alive then Were man all at once to fall into it I do not thinke we should be able to beare such a change but being faire and gently led on by her hand in a slow and as it were vnperceived descent by little and little and step by step she roules vs into that miserable state and day by day seekes to acquaint vs with it So that when youth failes in vs we feele nay we perceive no shaking or transchange at all in our selves which in essence and veritie is a harder death then that of a languishing and irkesome life or that of age Forsomuch as the leap from an ill being vnto a not being is not so dangerous or steeple as it is from a delightfull and flowrishing being unto a painfull and sorrowfull condition A weake bending and faint stooping bodie hath lesse strength to beare and vndergo a heauie burden So hath our soule She must be rouzed and raised against the violence and force of this adversarie For as ãâ¦ã s impossible shee should take any rest whilest shee feareth whereof if she be assured which is a thing exceeding humane condition she may boast that it is impossible vnquietnesse torment and feare much lesse the least displeasure should lodge in her Non vulius instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Iovis manus No vrging tyrants threatning face Where minde is sound can it displace No troublous wind the rough seas Master Nor Ioves great hand the thunder-caster She is made Mistris of her passions and concupiscence Lady of indulgence of shame of povertie and of all fortunes injuries Let him that can attaine to this advantage Herein consists the true and Soveraigne libertie that affords vs meanes wherewith to jeast and make a scorne of force and in justice and to deride imprisonment gives or fetters in manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sensit moriar morâ vltima linearerum est In gyves and fetters I will hamper thee Vnder a Iayler that shall cruell be Yet when I will God me deliver shall He thinkes I shall die death is end of all Our religion hath had no surer humane foundation then the contempt of life Discourse of reason doth not onely call and summon vs vnto it For why should we feare to loose a thing which being lost cannot be moaned but also since we are threatned by so many kinds of death there is no more inconvenience to feare them all than to endure one what matter is it when it commeth since it is vnavoidable Socrates answered one that told him The thirty Tyrants have condemned thee to death And Nature them said he What fondnesse is it to carke and care so much at that instant and passage from all exemption of paine and care As our birth brought vs the birth of all things so shall our death the end of all things Therefore is it as great follie to weepe we shall not live a hundred yeeres hence as to waile we lived not a hundred yeeres agoe Death is the beginning of another life So wept we and so much did it cost vs to enter into this life and so did we spoile vs of our ancient vaile in entring into it Nothing can be grievous that is but once Is it reason so long to feare a thing of so short time Long life or short life is made all one by death For long or short is not in things that are no more Aristotle saith there are certaine litle beasts alongst the river Hyspanis that live but one day she which dies at 8. a clocke in the morning dies in her youth she that dies at 5. in the afternoon dies in her decrepitude who of vs doth not laugh when we shall see this short moment of continuance to be had in consideration of good or ill fortune The most the least in ours if we compare it with eternitie or equall it to
the lasting of mountaines rivers stars and trees or any other living creature is no lesse ridiculous But nature compels vs to it Depart saith she out of this world even as you came into it The same way you came from death to life returne without passion or amazement from life to death your death is but a peece of the worlds order and but a parcell of the worlds life inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt Mortall men live by mutuall entercourse And yeeld their life-torch as men in a course Shal I not change this goodly contexture of things for you It is the condition of your creation death is a part of your selves you flie from your selves The being you enjoy is equally shared between life and death The first day of your birth doth aswell addresse you to-die as to live Prima quae vitam dedit hora carpsit The first houre that to men Gave life strait cropt it then Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet As we are borne we die the end Doth of th' originall depend All the time you liue you steale it from death it is at her charge The continuall work of your life is to contrive death you are in death during the time you continue in life for you are after death when you are no longer living Or if you had rather have it so you are dead after life but during life you are still dying death doth more rudely touch the dying then the dead and more lively and essentially If you haue profited by life you haue also beene fed thereby depart then satisfied Cur non vt plenus vitae conviva recedis Why like a full-fed guest Depart you not to rest If you have not knowne how to make vse of it if it were vnprofitable to you what neede you care to have lost it to what end would you enioy it longer cur amplius addere quaris Rursum quod pereat malè ingratum occidat omne Why seeke you more to gaine what must againe All perish ill and passe with griefe or paine Life in it selfe is neither good nor euill it is the place of good or evill according as you prepare it for them And if you have liued one day you have seene all one day is equal to all other daies There is no other light there is no other night This Sunne this Moone these Starres and this disposition is the very same which your forefathers enjoyed and which shall also entertaine your posteritie Non alium âidâre patres aliúmue nepotes Aspicient No other saw our Sires of old No other shall their sonnes behold And if the worst happen the distribution and varietie of all the acts of my comedie is performed in one yeare If you have observed the course of my foure seasons they containe the infancie the youth the virilitie the old age of the world He hath plaied his part he knowes no other wilinesse belonging to it but to begin againe it will ever be the same and no other Versamur ibidem atque insumus vsque We still in one place turne about Still there we are now in now out Atque inse sua per vestigia volvitur annus The yeare into it selfe is cast By those same steps that it hath past I am not purposed to devise you other new sports Nam tibi praeterea quod machiner inveniámque Quod placeat nihil est eadem sunt omnia semper Else nothing that I can devise or frame Can please thee for all things are still the same Make roome for others as others have done for you Equalitie is the chiefe ground-worke of equitie who can complaine to be comprehended where all are contained So may you live long-enough you shall never diminish any thing from the time you have to die it is bootelesse so long shall you continue in that state which you feare as if you had died being in your swathing-clothes and when you were sucking licet quot vis vivendo vincere secla Mors aeterna tamen nihil ominus illa manebit Though yeares you live as many as you will Death is eternall death remaineth still And I will so please you that you shall have no discontent In vera nescis nullum fore morte alium te Qui possit vivus tibi te lugere peremptum Stánsque iacnetem Thou know'st no there shall be not other thou When thou art dead indeede that can tell how Alive to waile thee dying Standing to waile thee lying Nor shall you wish for life which you so much desire Nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitámque requirit Nec desiderium nostri nos afficit vllum For then none for himselfe himselfe or life requires Nor are we of our selves affected with desires Death is lesse to be feared than nothing if there were any thing lesse than nothing multo mortem minus ad nos esse putandum Si minus esse potest quám quod nihil esse videmus Death is much lesse to vs we ought esteeme If lesse may be then what doth nothing seeme Nor alive nor dead it doth concerne you nothing Alive because you are Dead because you are no more Moreover no man dies before his houre The time you leave behinde was no more yours then that which was before your birth and concerneth you no more Respice enim quà m nil ad nos anteacta vetustas Temporis aeterni fuerit For marke how all antiquitie fore-gone Of all time e're we were to vs was none Wheresoever your life endeth there is it all The profit of life consistes not in the space but rather in the vse Some man hath lived long that hath had a short life Follow it whilest you have time It consists not in number of yeeres but in your will that you have lived long enough Did you thinke you should never come to the place where you were still going There is no way but hath an end And if company may solace you doth not the whole world walke the same path Omnia te vita perfuncta sequenter Life past all things at last Shall follow thee as thou hast past Doe not all things moove as you doe or keepe your course Is there any thing grows not old togither with your selfe A thousand men a thousand beasts and a thousand other creatures die in the very instance that you die Nam nox nulla diem neque noctem aurora sequuta est Quae non audierit mistos vagitibus aegris Ploratus mortis comites funeris atri No night ensued day light no morning followed night Which heard not moaning mixt with sick-mens groaning With deaths and funerals joyned was that moaning To what end recoile you from it if you cannot goe backe You have seene many who have found good in death ending thereby many many miseries But have you seene any that hath received hurt
hearty cheerefulnesse defie all evils and scornefully despising lesse sharpe griefes disdayning to grapple with them he blithely desireth and calleth for sharper more forcible and worthy of him Spumantémque dari pecora inter inereiâ votis Optat aprum aut fulvum descendere monte leonem He wisht mongst hartlesse beasts some foming Bore Or mountaine-Lyon would come downe and rore Who would not judge them to be prankes of a courage remooved from his wonted seate Our minde cannot out of hir place attaine so high She must quit it and raise hir selfe a loft and taking the bridle in hir teeth carry and transport hir man so farre that afterward hee wonder at himselfe and rest amazed at his actions As in exploites of warre the heat and earnestnesse of the fight doth often provoke the noble-minded-souldiers to adventure on so dangerous passages that afterward being better advised they are the first to wonder at it As also Poets are often surprised and rapt with admiration at their owne labours and forget the trace by which they past so happy a career It is that which some terme a fury or madnesse in them And as Plato saith that a setled and reposed man doth in vaine knocke at Poesies gate Aristotle likewise saith that no excellent minde is freely exempted from some or other entermixture of folly And he hath reason to call any starting or extraordinarie conceit how commendable soever and which exceedeth our judgement and discourse folly Forsomuch as wisedome is an orderly and regular managing of the minde and which she addresseth with measure and conducteth with proportion And take hir owne word for-it Plato disputeth thus that the facultie of prophesiyng and divination is far above-vs and that when wee treate it we must be besides our selves our wisdome must be darkened and ouer shadowed by sleepe by sickenesse or by drowzinesse or by some celestiall fury ravished from hir owne seat The third Chapter A custome of the I le of Cea IF as some say to philosophate be to doubt with much more reason to rave and fantastiquize as I doe must necessarily be to doubt For to enquire and debate belongeth to a scholler and to resolve appertaines to a cathedrall master But know my cathedrall it is the authoritie of Gods divine will that without any contradiction doth sway-vs and hath hir ranke beyond these humane and vaine contestations Philip being with an armed hand entred the Countrie of Peloponnesus some one told Damidas the Lacedemonians were like to endure much if they sought not to reobtaine his lost favour Oh varlet as thou art answered he And what can they suffer who have no feare at all of death Agis being demanded how a man might do to live free answered Despising and contemning to die These and a thousand like propositions which concurre in this purpose do evidently inferre some thing beyond the patient expecting of death it selfe to be suffered in this life witnesse the Lacedemonian child taken by Antigonus and sold for a slave who vrged by his master to performe some abject service Thou shalt see said he whom thou hast bought for it were a shame for me to serve having libertie so neere at hand and therewithall threw himselfe headlong downe from the top of the house Antipater sharply threatning the Lacedemonians to make them yeeld to a certaine request of his they answered shouldest thou menace vs worse then death we will rather die And to Philip who having written vnto them that he would hinder all their enterprises What say they wilt thou also hinder vs from dying That is the reason why some say that the wiseman liveth as long as he ought and not so long as he can And that the favourablest gift nature hath bequeathed-vs and which removeth all meanes from-vs to complaine of our condition is that she hath left-vs the key of the fieldes She hath appointed but one entrance vnto life but many a thousand wayes out of it Well may we want ground to live vpon but never ground to die in As Boiocatus answered the Romanes Why doost thou complaine against this world It doth not containe thee If thou livest in paine and sorrow thy base courage is the cause of-it To die there wanteth but will Vbique mors est optimè hoc cavit Deus Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest At nemo mortem mille ad hanc aditus patent Each where death is God did this well purvay No man but can from man life take away But none barr's death to it lies many'a way And it is not a receipt to one maladie alone Death is a remedie against all evils It is a most assured haven never to be feared and often to be sought All comes to one period whether man make an end of himselfe or whether he endure it whether he run before his day or whether he expect it whence soever it come it is ever his owne where ever the threed be broken it is all there it 's the end of the web The voluntariest death is the fairest Life dependeth on the will of others death on ours In nothing should we so much accommodate our selves to our humors as in that Reputation doth nothing concerne such an enterprise it is follie to have any respect vnto it To live is to serve if the libertie to die be wanting The common course of curing any infirmitie is ever directed at the charge of life we have incisions made into vs we are cauterized we have limbes cut and mangled we are let blood we are diâted Go we but one step further we need no more phisicke we are perfectly whole Why is not our jugular or throat veine as much at our commaund as the mediane To extreame sicknesses extreame remedies Servius the Gramarian being troubled with the gowt found no better meanes to be rid of it then to applie poison to mortifie his legs He cared not whether they were Podagrees or no so they were insensible God giveth vs sufficient priviledge when he placeth vs in such an estate as life is worse then death vnto vs. It is weaknesse to yeeld to evils but follie to foster them The Stoikes say it is a convenient naturall life for a wiseman to forgoe life although he abound in all happinesse if he do it opportunely And for a foole to prolong his life albeit he be most miserable provided he be in most part of things which they say to be according vnto nature As I offend not the lawes made against theeves when I cut mine owne purse and carrie away mine owne goods nor of destroyers when I burne mine owne wood so am I nothing tied vnto lawes made against murtherers if I deprive my selfe of mine owne life Hegesias was wont to say that even as the condition of life so should the qualitie of death depend on our election And Diogenes meeting with the Philosopher Speufippus long time afflicted with the dropsie and therefore carried in a litter who cried out
common deplored and bewailed their countries misfortunes some went home to their owne houses othersome staied there to be entombed with Vibius in his owne fire whose death was so long and lingring forsomuch as the vapor of the wine having possessed their veines and slowed the effect and operation of the poyson that some lived an houre after they had seene their enemies enter Capua which they caried the next day after and incurred the miseries and saw the calamities which at so high a rate they had sought to eschew Taurea Iubellius another citizen there the Consul Fulvius returning from that shamefull slaughter which he had committed of 225. Senators called him churlishly by his name and having arested him Command quoth he vnto him that I alâo be massacred after so many others that so thou maist brag to have murthered a much more valiant man then ever thou wast Fulvius as one enraged disdaining him forasmuch as he had newly received letters from Rome contrarie to the inhumanitie of his execution which inhibited him to proceed any further Iubellius continuing his speach said sithence my Countrie is taken my friends butchered having with mine owne hands slaine my wife and children as the only meane to free them from the desolation of this ruine I may not die the death of my fellow-citizens let vs borrow the vengeance of this hatefull life from vertue And drawing a blade he had hidden vnder his garments therwith ran himselfe through and falling on his face died at the Consuls feet Alexander besieged a citie in India the inhabitants whereof perceiving themselves brought to a very narrow pinch resolved obstinately to deprive him of the pleasure he might get of his victorie and together with their citie in despite of his humanitie set both the Towne themselves on a light fire and so were all consumed A new kind of warring where the enemies did all they could and fought to save them they to loose themselves and to be assured of their death did all a man can possible effect to warrant his life Astapa a Citie in Spaine being very weake of wals and other defences to withstand the Romanes that besieged the same the inhabitants drew all their riches and wealth into the market-place whereof having made a heap and on the top of it placed their wives and children and encompassed and covered the same with drie brush wood that it might burne the easier and having appointed fiftie lusty yong men of theirs for the performance of their resolution made a sallie where following their determined vow seeing they could not vanquist suffered themselves to be flame every mothers childe The fiftie after they had massacred every living soule remaining in the Citie and set fire to the heap joyfully leaped there-into ending their generous libertie in a state rather insensible then dolorous and reprochfull shewing their enemies that if fortune had been so pleased they should aswell have had the courage to bereave them of the victorie as they had to yeeld it them both vaine and hideous yea and mortall to those who allured by the glittering of the gold that moulten ran from out the flame thicke and three-fold approching greedily vnto it were therein smothered burned the formost being vnable to give backe by reason of the throng that followed them The Abideans pressed by Philip resolved vpon the verie same but being prevented the King whose heart yerned and abhorred to see the fond-rash precipitation of such an execution having first seized-vpon and saved the treasure and moveables which they had diversly condemned to the flames and vtter spoyle retiring all the Souldiers granting them the full space of three daies to make themselves away that so they might do it with more order and leasure which three daies they replenished with blood and murther beyond all hostile crueltie And which is strange there was no one person saved that had power vpon himselfe There are infinite examples of such-like popular conclusions which seeme more violent by how much more the effect of them is more vniversall They are lesse then severall what discourse would not doe in every one it doth in all The vehemence of societie ravishing particular judgements Such as were condemned to die in the time of Tiberius and delaide their execution any while lost their goods and could not be buried but such as prevented the same in killing themselves were solemnly enterred might at their pleasure bequeath such goods as they had to whom they list But a man doth also sometimes desire death in hope of a greater good I desire saith Saint Paul to be out of this world that I may be with Iesus Christ and who shall release me out of these bonds Cleombrotus Ambraciota having read Platoes Phaedon was so possessed with a desire and longing for an after-life that without other occasion or more adoe he went and headlong cast himselfe into the sea Whereby it appeareth how improperly we call this voluntarie dissolution dispaire vnto which the violence of hope doth often transport-vs and as often a peacefull setled inclination of judgement Iaques du Castell Bishop of Soissons in the voyage which Saint Lewes vndertooke beyond the Seas seeing the King all his Armie readie to returne into France and leave the affaires of Religion imperfect resolved with himself rather to go to heaven And having bidden his friends farewell in the open view of all men rushed alone into the enemies troops of whom he was forthwith hewen in pieces In a certaine kingdome of these late-discovered Indies vpon the day of a solemne procession in which the Idols they adore are publikely caried vp and downe vpon a chariot of exceeding greatnesse besides that there are many seen to cut and slice great mammocks of their quicke flesh to offer the said Idols there are numbers of others seen who prostrating themselves alongst vpon the ground endure verie patiently to be mouldred and crushed to death vnder the Chariots wheeles thinking thereby to purchase after their death a veneration of holinesse of which they are not defrauded The death of this Bishop armed as we have said argueth more generositie and lesse sence the heat of the combate ammusing one part of it Some common-wealths there are that have gone about to sway the justice and direct the opportunitie of voluntarie deaths In our Citie of Marseille they were wont in former ages ever to keep some poison in store prepared and compounded with hemlocke at the Cities charge for such as would vpon any occasion shorten their daies having first approved the reasons of their enterprise vnto the six hundred Elders of the Towne which was their Senate For otherwise it was vnlawfull for any bodie except by the Magistrates permission and for verie lawfully-vrgent occasions to lay violent hands vpon himselfe The verie same law was likewise vsed in other places Sextus Pompeius going into Asia passed through the Iland of Cea belonging to Negropont it fortuned whilst he abode there
glorious and generous Epicurian voluptuousnesse that makes accompt effeminately to pamper vertue in hir lap and there wantonly to entertaine it allowing it for hir recreation shame reproch agues povertie death and tortures If I presuppose that perfect vertue is knowne by combating sorrow and patiently vnder-going paine by tollerating the fits and agonies of the gout without stirring out of his place if for a necessarie object I appoint hir sharpnesse and difficultie what shall become of that vertue which hath attained so high a degree as it doth not onely despise all maner of paine but rather rejoyceth at-it and when a strong fit of the collike shall assaile-it to cause it selfe to be tickled as that is which the Epicurians have established and whereof divers amongst them have by their actions left most certaine proofes vnto-vs As also others have whom in effect I finde to have exceeded the verie rules of their discipline witnesse Cato the yonger when I see him die tearing and mangling his entrails I cannot simply content my selfe to beleeve that at that time he had his soule wholy exempted from all trouble or free from vexation I cannot imagine he did onely maintaine himselfe in this march or course which the rules of the Stoike sect had ordained vnto him setled without some alteration or motion and impassibilitie There was in my conceit in this mans vertue overmuch cheerefulnesse and youthfulnesse to stay there I verily beleeve he felt a kind of pleasure and sensualitie in so noble an action and that therein he more pleased himselfe then in any other he ever performed in his life Sic abijt è vita vt causam moriendi nactum se esse gauderet So departed he his life that he reioyced to have found an occasion of death I doe so constantly beleeve-it that I make a doubt whether he would have had the occasion of so noble an exploit taken from him And if the goodnesse which induced him to embrace publike commodities more then his owne did not bridle me I should easily fall into this opinion that he thought himselfe greatly beholding vnto fortune to have put his vertue vnto so noble a triall and to have favoured that robber to tread the ancient libertie of his Countrie vnder foote In which action me thinks I read a kinde of vnspeakable joy in his minde and a motion of extraordinarie pleasure joyned to a manlike voluptuousnesse at what time it beheld the worthinesse and considered the generositie and haughtinesse of his enterprise Deliberat a morte ferociâr Then most in fiercenesse did he passe When he of death resolved was not vrged or set-on by any hope of glorie as the popular and effeminate judgements have judged For that consideration is over base to touch so generous so haughtie and so constant a heart but for the beautie of the thing it selfe in it selfe which he who managed all the springs and directed all the wards thereof saw much more clearer and in it's perfection then we can doe Philosophie hath done me a pleasure to judge that so honorable an action had been vndecently placed in any other life then in Catoes and that onely vnto his it appertained to make such an end Therefore did he with reason perswade both his sonne and the Senators that accompanied him to provide otherwise for themselves Catoni quum incredibilem natura tribuisset gravitatem eámque ipse perpetua constantia roboravisset sempérque in proposito consilio permansisset moriendum potius quà m tyranni vultus aspiciendus erat Whereas nature had affoorded Cato an incredible gravitie and he had strengthned it by continuall constancie and ever had stood firme in his purposed desseignes rather to die then behold the Tyrants face Each death should be such as the life hath been By dying we become no other then we were I ever interpret a mans death by his life And if a man shall tell me of any one vndanted in apparance joyned vnto a weake life I imagine it to proceed of some weake cause and sutable to his life The ease therefore of his death and the facilitie he had acquired by the vigor of his minde shall we say it ought to abate something of the lustre of his vertue And which of those that have their spirites touched be it-never so little with the true tincture of Philosophie can content himselfe to imagine Socrates onely free from feare and passion in the accident of his imprisonment of his fetters and of his condemnation And who doth not perceive in him not onely constancie and resolution which were ever his ordinarie qualities but also a kinde of I wot not what new contentment and carelesse rejoycing in his last behaviour and discourses By the startling at the pleasure which he feeleth in clawing of his legges after his fetters were taken-off doth he not manifestly declare an equall glee and joy in his soule for being rid of his former incommodities and entring into the knowledge of things to come Cato shall pardon me if he please his death is more tragicall and further extended whereas this in a certaine manner is more faire and glorious Aristippus answered those that bewailed the same when I die I pray the Gods send me such a death A man shall plainly perceive in the minds of these two men and of such as imitate them for I make a question whether ever they could be matched so perfect an habitude vnto vertue that it was even converted into their complexion It is no longer a painfull vertue nor by the ordinances of reason for the maintaining of which their minde must be strengthned It is the verie essence of their soule it is hir naturall and ordinarie habite They have made it such by a long exercise and observing the rules and precepts of Philosophie having lighted vpon a faââe and rich nature Those vicious passions which breed in vs finde no entrance in them The vigor and constancie of their soules doth suppresse and extinguish all manner of concupisences so soone as they but begin to move Now that it be not more glorious by an vndaunted and divine resolution to hinder the growth of temptations for a man to frame himselfe to vertue so that the verie seeds of vice be cleane rooted out then by maine force to hinder their progresse and having suffred himselfe to be surprised by the first assaults of passions to arme and bandie himselfe to stay their course and to suppresse them And that this second effect be not also much fairer then to be simply stored with a facile and gentle nature and of it selfe distasted and in dislike with licenciousnesse and vice I am perswaded there is no doubt For this third and last manner seemeth in some sort to make a man innocent but not vertuous free from doing ill but not sufficiently apt to doe well Seeing this condition is so neere vnto imperfection and weaknesse that I know not well how to cleare their confines and distinctions The
immortall by the creators decree Now if there be divers Worldes as Democritus Epicurus and well-neere all Phylosophie hath thought what know wee whether the principles and the rules of this one concerne or touch likewise the others Happily they have another semblance and another policie Epicurus imagineth them either like or vnlike We see an infinite difference and varietie in this world only by the distance of places There is neyther Corne nor Wine no nor any of our beastes seene in that new Corner of the World which our fathers have lately discovered All things differ from ours And in the old time marke but in how many parts of the world they had never knowledge nor of Bacchus nor of Ceres If any credit may be given vnto Plinie or to Herodotus there is in some places a kind of men that have very little or no resemblance at all with ours And there be mungrell and ambiguous shapes betweene a humane and brutish Nature Some Cuntries there are where men are borne headlesse with eyes and mouthes in their breasts where al are Hermaphrodites where they creep on all foure Where they have but one eie in their forehead and heads more like vnto a dog than ours Where from the Navill downewards they are halfe fish and live in the water Where women are brought a bed at five yeares of age and live but eight Where their heads and the skinne of their browes are so hard that no yron can pierce them but wil rather turne edge Where men never have beardes Other Nations there are that never have vse of fire Others whose sperme is of a blacke colour What shall we speake of them who naturally change themselves into Woolves into Coults and then into Men againe And if it bee as Plutark saith that in some part of the Indiaes there are men without mouthes and who live only by the smell of certaine sweete odours how many of our descriptions be then false Hee is no more riâible nor perhappes capable of reason and societie The direction and cause of our inward frame should for the most part be to no purpose Moreover how many things are there in our knowledge that oppugne these goodly rules which we have allotted and prescribed vnto Nature And we vndertake to joyne GOD himselfe vnto hir How manie things doe we name miraculous and against Nature Each man and every Nation doth it according to the measure of his ignorance How many hidden proprieties and quintessences doe we dayly discover For vs to goe according to Nature is but to follow according to our vnderstanding as farre as it can follow and asmuch as we can perceive in it Whatsoever is beyond it is monstrous and disordred By this accoumpt all shall then be monstrous to the wisest and most sufficient for even to such humane reason hath perswaded that she had neither ground nor footing no not so much as to warrant snow to be white And Anaxagoras said it was blacke Whether there be any thing or nothing Whether there be knowledge or ignorance Which Metrodorus Chius denyed that any man might say Or whether we live as Euripides seemeth to doubt and call in question whether the life we live be a life or no or whether that which we call death be a life ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Who knowes if thus to live be called death And if it be to die thus to draw breath And not without apparance For wherefore doe we from that instant take a title of being which is but a twinckling in the infinit course of an eternall night and so short an interruption of our perpetuall and naturall condition Death possessing what-ever is before and behind this moment and also a good part of this moment Some others affirme there is no motion and that nothing stirreth namely those which follow Melissus For if there be but ãâ¦ã this sphericall motion serve him nor the mooving from one place to another as Plato prooveth that there is neither generation nor corruption in nature Protagoras saith there is nothing in Nature but doubt That a man may equally dispute of all things and of that also whether all things may equally be disputed of Mansiphanes said that of things which seeme to be no one thing is no more then it is not That nothing is certaine but vncertainty Parmenides that of that which seemeth there is no one thing in Generall That there is but one Zeno that one selfe same is not And that there is nothing If one were he should either be in another or in himselfe if he be in another then are they two If he be in himselfe they are also two the comprizing and the comprized According to these rules or doctrines the Nature of things is but a false or vaine shadow I have ever thought this manner of speech in a Christian is full of indiscretion and irreverence God cannot die God cannot gaine-say himselfe God cannot doe this or that I cannot allow a man should so bound Gods heavenly power vnder the Lawes of our word And that apparance which in these propositions offers it selfe vnto vs ought to be represented more reverently and more religiously Our speech hath his infirmities and defects as all things else have Most of the occasions of this worlds troubles are Grammaticall Our sutes and processes proceed but from the canvasing and debating the interpretation of the Lawes and most of our warres from the want of knowledge in State-counsellors that could not cleerely distinguish and fully expresse the Covenants and Conditions of accords betweene Prince and Prince How many weighty strifes and important quarrels bath the doubt of this one silable Hoc brought forth in the world examine the plainest sentence that Logike it selfe can present vnto vs. If you say it is faire Weather and in so saying say true it is faire Weather then Is not thie a certaine forme of speech Yet will it deceive vs That it is so Let vs follow the example If you say I lie and that you should say true you lie then The Arte the reason the force of the conclusion of this last are like vnto the other notwithstanding we are entangled I see the Pyrhonian Phylosophers who can by no manner of speech expresse their General conceit for they had neede of a new language Ours is altogether composed of affirmative propositions which are directly against them So that when they say I doubt you have them fast by the throte to make them a vow that at least you are assured and know that they doubt So have they been compelled to save themselves by this comparison of Physicke without which their conceite would be inexplicable and intricate When they pronounce I know not or I doubt they say that this proposition transportes it selfe together with the rest even as the Rewbarbe doeth which scowred ill humours away and therewith is carryed away himselfe This conceipt is more certainly conceived by an interrogation What can I
being Wherfore we must conclude that onely God is not according to any measure of time but according to an immoovable and immutable eternity not measured by time nor subiect to any declination before whom nothing is nor nothing shall be after nor more now nor more recent but one really being which by one onely Now or Present filleth the Ever and there is nothing that truly is but the alone Without saying he hath beene or he shall be without beginning and sans ending To this so religious conclusion of a heathen man I will onely adde this word taken from a testimony of the same condition for an end of this long and period of this tedious discourse which might well furnish me with endlesse matter Oh what a vile and abiect thing is man saith he vnlesse he raise himselfe aboue humanity Observe here a notable speech and a profitable desire but likewise absurd For to make the handful greater than the hand and the embraced greater then the arme and to hope to straddle more than our legs length is impossible and monstious nor that man should mount over and above himselfe or humanity for he cannot see but with his owne eies nor take hold but with his owne armes He shall raise himselfe vp if it please God extraordinarily to lend him his helping hand He may elevate himselfe by forsaking and renouncing his owne meanes and suffering himselfe to be elevated and raised by meere heavenly meanes It is for our Christian faith not for his Stoicke vertue to pretend or aspire to this divine Metamorphosis or miraculous transmutation The thirteenth Chapter Of iudging of others death WHen we judge of others assurance or boldnesse in death which without all peradventure is the most remarkeable action of humane life great heed is to be taken of one thing which is that a man will hardly beleeve he is come to that point Few men die with a resolution that it is their last houre And no where doth hopes deceit ammuse vs more She never ceaseth to ring in our eares that others have beene sicker and yet have not died the cause is not so desperate as it is taken and if the worst happen God hath done greater wonders The reason is that we make to much account of our selves It seemeth that the generality of things doth in some sort suffer for our annullation and takes compassion of our state Forsomuch as our sight being altered represents vnto it selfe things alike and we imagine that things faile it as it doth to them As they who travell by Sea to whom mountaines fields townes heaven and earth seene to goe the same motion and keepe the same course they doe Provehimur portu terraeque vrbésque recedunt We sayling launch from harbour and Behinde our backee leave townes leave land Who ever saw old age that commended not times past and blamed not the present charging the world and mens customes with hir misery and lowring discontent Iámque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Et cùm tempor a temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis laudat fortunas saepe parentis Et crepat antiquum genus vt pietate repletum The gray-beard Plow-man sighes shaking his hoary head Compares times that are now with times past heretofore Praises the fortunes of his father long since dead And crakes of ancient men whose honesty was more We entertaine and carry all with vs Whence it followeth that we deeme our death to be some great matter and which passeth not so easily nor without a solemne consultation of the Starres Tot circa vâum caput tumultuantes Deos. So many Gods keeping a stirre about one mans life And so much the more we thinke it by how much more we praise our selves What Should so much learning and knowledge be lost with so great dommage without the Destinies particular care A soule so rare and exemplar costs it no more to be killed then a popular and vnprofitable soule This life that covereth so many others of whom so many other lives depend that for his vse possesseth so great a part of the world and filleth so many places is it displaced as that which holdeth by it's owne simple string No one of vs thinkes it sufficient to be but one Thence came those words of Caesar to his pilot more proudly swolne then the Sea that threatned him Italiam si caelo authore recusas Mepete sola tibi causa haec est iusta timoris Vectorem non nosse tuum perrumpe procellas Tutelâ secure maie If Italie thou do refuse with heav'n thy guide Turne thee to me to thee only just cause of feare Is that thy passinger thou know'st not stormie tide Breake through secure by guard of me whom thou dost beare And these credit iam digna pericula Caesar Fatis esse suis tantúsque evertere dixit Mesuperis labor est parvâ qâem puppe sedentem Tam magno petiere mari Cesar doth now beleeve those dangers worthie are Of his set fate and saies doe Gods take so much paine Me to vndoe whom they thus to assault prepare Set in so small a skiffe in such a surging maine And this common foppery that Phoebus for one whole yeare bare mourning weedes on his forehead for the death of him Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam Cùm caput obscurá nitidum ferrugine texit The Snnne did pittie take of Rome when Caesar dide When he his radiant head in obscure rust did hide And a thousand such wherewith the world suffers it selfe to be so easily conicatcht deeming that our owne interests disturbe heaven and his infinitie is moved at our least actions Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est vt nostro fato mortalis sit ille quoque siderum fulgor There is no such societie betweene heaven and vs that by our destinie the shining of the starres should be mort all as we are And to judge a resolution and constancie in him who though he be in manifest danger dooth not yet beleeve it it is no reason And it sufficeth not that he die in that ward vnlesse he have directly and for that purpose put himselfe into it It hapneth that most men set a sterne countenance on the matter looke big and speake stoutly thereby to acquire reputation which if they chance to live they hope to enjoy Of all I have seene die fortune hath disposed their countenances but not their desseignes And of those which in ancient times have put themselves to death the choise is great whether it were a sodaine death or a death having time and leasure That cruell Romane Emperor said of his prisoners that he would make them feele death And if any fortuned to kill himselfe in prison That fellow hath escaped me would he say He would extend and linger death and cause it be felt by torments Vidimus toto quamuis in corpore caese Nil animae let hale datum morémque nefandae Durum
saevitiae pereuntis parcere morti And we have seeene when all the body tortur'd lay Yet no stroke deadly giv'n and that in humane way Of tyranny to spare his death that sought to die Verely it is not so great a matter being in perfect health and well setled in minde for one to resolve to kill himselfe It is an easie thing to shew stoutnes and play the wag before one come to the pinch So that Heliogabalus the most dissoluteman of the world amidst his most riotous sensualities intended whensoever occasion should force him to it to have a daintie death Which that it might not degenerate from the rest of his life hee had purposely caused a stately tewre to be built the nether part and fore-court wherof was floored with boardes richly set and enchased with gold and precious stones from-off which hee might headlong throwe himselfe downe He had also caused cordes to be made of gold and crimson silke therewith to strangle himselfe And a rich golden rapier to thrust himselfe through And kept poison in boxes of Emeraldes and Topases to poison himselfe with according to the humor hee might have to chuse which of these deaths should please him Impiger fortis virtute coactâ A ready minded gallant And in forst valour valiant Notwithstanding touching this man the wantonnesse of his preparation makes it more likely that he would have fainted had he beene put to his triall But even of those who most vndantedly have resolved themselves to the execution we must consider I say whether it were with a life ending stroke and that tooke away any leasure to feele the effect thereof For it is hard to gesse seeing life droope away by little and little the bodies-feeling entermingling it selfe with the soules meanes of repentance being offered whether in so dangerous an intent constancie or obstinacie were found in him In Caesars civill warres Lucius domitius taken in prussia having empoisoned himselfe did afterward rue and repent his deede It hath hapned in our daies that some having resolved to die and at first not stricken deepe enough the smarting of his flesh thrusting his arme backe twice or thrice more wounded himselfe a new and yet could never strike sufficiently deepe Whilst the arraignement of Plantius Silvanus was preparing Vrgulaniae his grandmother sent him a poignard wherewith not able to kill himselfe throughly hee caused his owne servants to cutte his veines Albucilla in Tiberius time purposing to kill hirselfe but striking over faintly gave hir enemies leasure to apprehend and imprison hir and appoint hir what death they pleased So did Captaine Demosthenes after his discomfiture in Sicilie And C. Fimbria having over feeblie wounded himselfe became a sutor to his boy to make an end of him On the other side Ostorius who forsomuch as hee could not vse his owne arme disdained to employ his servants in any other thing but to hold his dagger stiffe and strongly and taking his running himselfe caried his throate to it's point and so was thrust through To say truth it is a meate a man must swallow without chewing vnlesse his throate be frostshod And therefore Adrianus the Emperour made his Phiââtian to marke and take the just compasse of the mortall place about his pap that so his aime might not faile him to whom he had given charge to kill him Loe why Caesar being demanded which was the death he most allowed answered the least premeditated and the shortest If Caesar said it it is no faintnesse in me to beleeve it A short death saith Plinie is the chiefe happe of humane life It grie veth them to acknowledge it No man can be saide to be resolved to die that feareth to purchase it and that cannot abide to looke vpon and out-stare it with open eyes Those which in times of execution are seene to runne to their end and hasten the execution doe it not with resolution but because they will take away time to consider the same it grieves them not to be dead but to die Emori nolo sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo I would not die too soone But care not when t is doone It is a degree of constancie vnto which I have experienced to arrive as those that cast themselves into danger or into the Sea with closed eyes In mine opinion there is nothing more worthy the noting in Socrates life then to have had thirtie whole dayes to ruminate his deaths-decree to have digested it all that while with an assured hope without dismay or alteration and with a course of actions and words rather supprest and loose-hanging then out-stretched and raised by the weight of such a cogitation That Pomponius Atticus to whome Cicero writeth being sicke caused Agrippa his sonne in lawe and two or three of his other friends to be called for to whom he said that having assaied how he got nothing in going about to be cured and what he did to prolong his life did also lengthen and augment his griefe he was now determined to make an end of one and other intreating them to allow of his determination and that by no meanes they would loose their labour to disswade him from it And having chosen to end his life by abstinence his sickenes was cured by accident The remedy he had employed to make himselfe away brought him to health againe The Physitions and his friendes glad of so happy a successe and rejoycing thereof with him were in the end greatly deceived for with all they could doe they were never able to make him alter his former opinion saying that as he must one day passe that cariere and being now so forward he would remoove the care another time to beginne againe This man having with great leasure apprehended death is not onely no whit discouraged when hee comes to front it but resolutely falles vpon it for being satisfied of that for which he was entred the combate in a braverie he thrust himselfe into it to see the end of it It is farre from fearing death to goe about to taste and savour the same The historie of Cleanthes the philosopher is much like to this His gummes being swolne his Physitions perswaded him to vse great abstinence having fasted two dayes he was so well amended as they told him he was well and might returne to his wonted course of life He contrarily having already tasted some sweetenes in this fainting resolveth not to draw backe but finish what he had so well begunne and was so farre waded into Tullius Marcellinus a yoong Romane Gentleman willing to prevent the houre of his destiny to ridde himselfe of a disease which tormented him more than he would endure although Physitions promised certainely to cure him howbeit not sodainely called his friends vnto him to determine about it some saieth Seneca gave him that counsell which for weakenesse of heart themselves would have taken others for flatterie that which they imagined would be most pleasing vnto him but a
advanced in his dominions And was exceedingly grieved that for want of a litle longer life and a substitute to manage the Warre and affaires or so troubled a state he was enforced to seeke a bloody and hazardous battell having another pure and vndoubted victory in hand He notwithstanding managed the continuance of his sicknes so miraculously that he consumed his enemy diverted him from his Sea-Fleete and Maritime places he helde along the Coaste of Affricke even vntill the last day of his life which by designe he reserved and emploied for so great and renowmed a fight He ranged his battell in a round on ev'ry side besieging the Portugals army which bending round and comming to close did not onely hinder them in the conflict which through the valour of that yong-assailant King was very furious since they were to turne their faces on all sides but also hindred them from running away after the rowte And finding all issewes seized and all passages closed they were constrained to turne vpon themselves coacervantúrque non solum caede sed etiam fugâ They fall on heapes not only by slaughter but by flight And so pel-mell to heape one on anothers neck preparing a most murthrous and compleat victory to the Conquerours When he was even dying hee caused himselfe to be carryed and haled where-ever neede called for him and passing along the files hee exhorted the Captaines and animated the Souldiers one after another And seeing one wing of the fight to have the worst and in some danger no man could hold him but he would needs with his naked-sword in hand get on hors-backe striving by all possible meanes to enter the throng his men holding him some by the Bridle some by the Gowne and some by the Stirrops This toyle and straining of himselfe made an end of that litle remainder of his life Then was he laid on his bed But comming to himselfe again starting vp as out of a swowne each other faculty failing him he gave them warning to conceale his death which was the necessariest commandement he could give his servaunts lest the souldiers hearing of his death might fal into dispaire and so yeelded the Ghost holding his fore-fingers vpon his mouth an ordinary signall to impose silence What man ever lived so long and so neere death Who ever died so vpright and vndaunted The extreamest degree and most naturall couragiously to manage death is to see or front the same not only without amazement but without care the course of life continuing free even in death As Cato who ammuzed himselfe to studie and sleepe having a violent and bloudy death present in his hart and as it were holding it in his hand The two and twentieth Chapter Of running Posts or Curriers I Have beene none of the weakest in this exercise which is proper vnto men of my stature well-trust short and tough but now I have given it over It toyles vs over-much to holde out long I was even-now reading how King Cyrus that he might more speedily receave newes from all parts of his Empire which was of exceeding great length would needs have it tried how farre a horse could in a day goe out-right without baiting at which distance hee caused Stations to be set and men to have fresh horses ready for al such as came to him And some report this swift kinde of running answereth the flight of Cranes Caesar saith that Luâius Vibulus Rufus making haste to bring Pompey an advertisement rode day and night and to make more speed shifted many horses And himselfe as Suetonius writeth would vpon an hyred coache runne a hundred miles a day And sure he was a rancke-runner for where any river hindred his way he swam it over and never went out of his way to seeke for a bridge or foarde Tib erius Nero going to visite his brother Drusus who lay sicke in Germanie having three coaches in his companie ranne two hundred miles in foure and twenty hours In the Romane warres against King Antiochus Titus Sempronius Gracchus saiâh Titus Livius per dispositos equos propè incredibili celeritae ab Amphisa tertio dic Pellam pervenit By horse laide poste with incredible speede within three dayes he past from Amphisa to Pella And viewing the place it seemeth they were set Stations for Postes and not newly appointed for that race The inuention of Cecinna in sending newes to those of his house had much more speede he carried certaine swallowes with him and having occasion to send newes home he let them flie toward their nests first marking them with some colour proper to signifie what he meant as before he had agreed vpon with his friends In the Theatres of Rome the houshold Masters carried Pigeons in their bosomes vnder whose wings they fastened letters when they would send any word home which were also taught to bring back an answer D. Brutus vsed some being besieged in Mutina and otherselfe-where In Peru they went poste vpon mens backes who tooke their Masters vpon their shoulders sitting vpon certaine beares or chaires with such agilitie that in full running speede the first porters without any stay cast their loade vpon others who vpon the way waited for them and so they to others I vnderstand that the Valachians which are messengers vnto the great Turk vse extreame diligence in their businesse forasmuch as they have authoritie to dis-mount the first passenger they meete vpon the high-way and give him their tyred Horse And bicause they shall not be weary they are wont to swathe themselves hard about the bodie with a broade Swathe or Seare cloath as diverse others doe with vs I could never finde ease or good by it The three and twentieth Chapter Of bad meanes emploied to a good end THere is a woonderfull relation and correspondencie found in this vniversall pollicie of Natures workes which manifestly sheweth it is neither casuall nor directed by diverse masters The infirmities and conditions of our bodies are likewise seene in states and goverments Kingdomes and Commowealths as well as we are borne florish and fade through age We are subject vnto a repleatnesse of humours hurtfull and vnprofitable yea be it of good humours for even Phisitians feare that and because there is nothing constant in vs they say that perfection of health over joyfull and strong must by arte be abated and diminished lest our nature vnable to settle it selfe in any certaine place and for hir amendment to ascend higher should over-violently recoile backe into disorder and therefore they prescrib vnto Wrestlers purging and phlebotomie to substract that superabundance of health from them or of bad which is the ordinarie cause of sickenesse Of such like repletion are States often seene to be sicke and diverse purgations are wont to be vsed to purge them As wee have seene some to dismisse a great number of families chiefly to disburthen the Countrey which else where goe to seeke where they may at others charge seare themselves In this
griefe to faint in heart and strength hee collâd and eâbraced her abouâ the necke and heartily entreated hir for the love of him somwhat more patiently to beare this accident and that his houre was come wherein he must shâw no longer by discourse and disputation but in earnest effect declare the fruite he had reaped by his studie and that vndoubtedly he embraced death not onely without griefe but with exceeding joy Wherefore my deere-deere heart doe not dishonour it by thy teares lâst thou seeme to love thy selfe more than my reputation Asswage thy sorrowes and comfort thy selfe in the knowledge thou hast had of mee and of my actions leading the rest of thy life by the honest occupations to which thou art addicted To whom Paulina having somwhat rouzed hir drooping spirites and by a thrice-noble affection awakened the magnanimitie of her high-setled courage answered thus No Seneca thinke not that in this necessitie I will leave you with out my companie I would not have you imagin that the vertuous examples of your life have not also taught me to die And when shall I be able to doe it or better or more honestly or more to mine owne liking then with your selfe And be resolved I will goe with you and be partaker of your fortune Seneca taking so generous a resolve and glorious a determination of his wife in good part and to free himselfe from the feare he had to leave her after his deaâh to his enemies mercie and crueltie Oh my deare Paulina I had quoth hee perswaded thee what I thought was convenient to leade thy life more happily and doost thou then rather choosâ the honour of a glorious death Assuredly I will not envy thee Be the constancie and resolution answerable to our common end but be the beautie and glory greater on thy side That said the veiâes of both their aâmes were cut to the end they might bleede to death but because Senecaes were somwhat shrunken vp through age and abstinence and his bloud could have no speedy course he commaunded the veines of his thighes to be launced And fearing lest the torments he felt might in some sort entender his wifes heart as also to deliver âimselfe from the affliction which greatly yearned him to see her in so pitteous plight after he had most lovingly taken leave of her he beâought her to be pleased shee might be caried into the next chamber which was accordingly performed But all those incisions being vnable to make him die he willed Statius Annous his Phisition to give him some poysoned potion which wrought but small effect in him for through the weaknesse and coldenesse of his members it could not come vnto his heart And therefore they caused a warme bath to be prepared wherein they layde him then perceiving his end to approch so long as he had breath hee continued his excellent discourses concerning the subject of the estate wherein he found himselfe which his Secretaries so long as they could heare his voyce collected very diligently whose last words continued long time after in high esteeme and honor amongst the better sort of men as Oracles but they were afterward lost and great pittie it is they never came vnto our handes But when he once beganne to feele the last pangs of death taking some of the water wherein he lay bathing all bloody he therewith washed his head saying I vow this water vnto Iupiter the Deliverâr Nero being advertised of all this fearing lest Pâulinaes death who was one of the best alied Ladies in Rome and to whome hee bare no particular grudge might cause him some reproach sent in all poste haste to have her incisions closed vp againe and if possibly it could be to save her life which hir servants by vnwriting vnto her performed she being more than halfe dead and voyde of any sence And that afterward contrary to her intent shee lived it was very honourable and as beâitted her vertue shewing by the pale âew and wanne colour of her face how much of her life shee had wasted by her incisions Loe heere my three true Stories which in my conceiâe are as pleasant and as tragicall as any wee devise at our pleasures to please the vulgaâ sort with al and I wonder that those who invent so many fabulous tales do not rather make choise of infinite excellent and quaint Stories that are found in Books wherein they should have lesse trouble to write them and might doubtlesse proove more pleasing to the hearer and profitable to the Reader And whosoever would vndertake to frame a compleate and well-joynted bodie of them neede neither employe nor adde any thing of his owne vnto it except the âigaments as the âoldring of another mettall and by this meanes might compact sundry events of all kindes disposing and diversifying them according as the beauty and lustre of the worke should require And very neere as Ovid hath sowen and contrived his Meâamorphosis with that strange number of divers fables In the last couple this is also worthy consideration that Paulina offreth willingly to leave her life for hir husbands sake that hir husband had also other times quit death for the love of hir There is no great counterpoyze in this exchange for vs but according to his Stoâke humour I suppose hee perswaded himselfe to have done as much for hir proloâging his life for hir availe as if hee had died for hir In one of his letters he writeth to Lucilius after he hath given him to vnderstand how an ague having surprised him in Rome contrary to his wives opinion who would needs have stayed him hee sodainely tooke his Coach to goe vnto a house of his into the Country and how he tolde hir that the ague he had was no bodily fever but of the place and followeth thus At last shee let me goe earnestly recommending my health vntome Now I who knowe how her life lodgeth in mine beginne to provide for my selfe that consequently I may provide for her The priviledge my age hath bestowed on me in making me more constant and more resolute in many things I loose it when-ever I call to minde that in this aged corps there harboureth a yoong woman to whome I bring some profite Since I cannot induce her to love me more couragiously shee induceth me to love my selfe more carefully for something must be lânt to honest affections and sometimes although occasions vrge vs to the contrary life must be revoked againe yea with torment The soule must bee held fast with ones teeth since the lawe to live in honest men is not to live as long as they please but so long as they ought He who esteemeth not âis wife or a friend so much ââ that he will not lengthen his life for thâm and will obââinately die that man is over-nice and too âffâminate The Soule must commaund that vnto her selfe when the vtilitie of our friends requireth it we must sometimes lend our selves vnto our friends and
filled all hollow places with lime and stone At the ende of euery dayes journey as stations there are built stately great pallaces plentiously stored with all manner of good victuals apparrell and armes as well for daylie way-fairing men as for such armies that might happen to passe that way In the estimation of which worke I haue especially considered the difficulty which in that place is particvlarly to bee remembred For they built with no stones that were lesse then ten foote square They had no other meanes to cary or transport them then by meere strength of armes to draw and dragge the carriage they needed they had not so much as the arte to make scaffolds nor knew other deuise then to raise so much earth or rubish against their building according as the worke riseth and afterwarde to take it a way againe But returne we to our coaches In steade of them and of all other carrying beastes they caused themselues to be carryed by men and vpon their shoulders This last King of Peru the same day hee was taken was thus carried vpon rafters or beames of massiue Golde sitting in a faire chaire of state likewise all of golde in the middle of his battaile Looke how may of his porters as were slaine to make him fall for all their endeuour was to take him aliue so many others and as it were auye tooke and vnder-went presently the place of the dead so that he could never be brought down or made to fall what slaughter so ever was made of those kinde of people vntill such time as a horseman furiously ranne to take him by some parte of his body and so pulled him to the ground The seuenth Chapter Of the incommoditie of greatnesse SInce we cannot attaine vnto it let vs revenge our selues with railing against it yet is is not absolute railing to finde faulte with any thing There are defects found in all things how faire soever in show and desirable they be It hath generally this evident aduantage that when ever it pleaseth it will decline and hath well-nigh the choise of one and other condition For a man doth not fall from all heights divers there are whence a man may descend without falling Verily mee seemeth that we value it at too high a rate and prize over-deare the resolution of those whom we have either seene or heard to have contemned or of their owne motion rejected the same Hir essence is not so evidently commodious but a man may refuse it without wonder Indeed I finde the labour very hard in suffering of evils but in the contentment of a meane measure of fortune and shunning of greatnesse therein I see no great difficulty In my conceit it is a vertue wherevnto my selfe who am but a simple nânny might easily attaine and without great contention What shall they doe who would also bring into consideration the glory which accompanieth this refusall wherein may fall more ambition then even in the desire and absolute enioying of greatnesse For somuch as ambition is never better directed according to it selfe then by a straying and vnfrequented path I sharpen my courage toward patience and weaken the same against desire I have as much to wish for as another and leave my wishes as much liberty and indiscretion but yet it never came into my minde to wish for Empire for royalty or eminency of high and commanding fortunes I aime not that way I love my selfe too well When I thinke to grow it is but meanely with a forced and coward aduancement fit for me yea in resolution in wisedome in health in beauty and also in riches But this credite this aspiring reputation this overswaying authority suppresseth my imagination And cleane opposite to some other I should peradventure loue my selfe better to be the second or third man in Perigot then the first in Paris At least without faining I had rather be the third man in Paris then the first in charge I will neither contend with an Vsher of a doore as a silly vnknowen man nor with gaping and adoration make a Lane through the throng as I passe I am enured to a meane calling mediocrity best fitteth me as well by my fortune as by mine owne humor And have shewed by the conduct of my life and course of my enterprises that I have rather sought to avoid then otherwise to embrace beyond the degree of fortune that at my birth it pleased God to call me vnto Each naturall constitution is equally iust and easie My minde is so dull and slowe that I measure not good fortune according to her height but rather according to her facility And if my hart be not great enough it is ratably free and open and who biddeth me bouldly to publish my weaknesse Should any will me on the one part to conferre and consider the life of L. Thorius Balbus a worthy gallant man wise faire goodly healthie of good vnderstanding richly-plentious in all maner of commodities and pleasures leading a quiet easefull life altogether his owne with a minde armed and well prepared against death superstition griefes cares and other encombrances of humane necessity dying in his olde age in an honourable battell with his weapons in his hand for the defence of his country and on the other side the life of M. Rugulus so high and great as all men know together with his admirable and glorious ende the one vnmentioned and without dignity the other exemplare and wonderfull renouned truely I would say what Cicero saith of it had I the gift of well-speaking as hee had But if I were to sute them vnto mine I would also say that the former is asmuch agreeing to my quality and to the desire I endeuour to conforme my quality vnto as the second is farre beyond it That to this I cannot attaine but by veneration and to the other I would willingly attaine by custome But returne we to our temporall greatnesse whence we have digressed I am distasted of all mastry both actiue and passiue Otanes one of the seaven that by right might chalenge the crowne or pretend the kingdome of Persia resolved vpon such a resolution as I should easily have done the like which was that he vtterly renounced all maner of claime he might in any sort pretend vnto that crowne to his fellow competitores were it either by election or chance alwaies provided that both himselfe and all his might liue in that Empire free from all subjections and exempted from all maner of commandement except that of the ancient lawes and might both chalenge all liberty and enioy all immunities that should not preiudice them being as impacient to command as to becommanded The sharpest and most aificile profession of the world is in mine opinion worthily to act and play the King I excuse more of their faults then commonly other men doe and that in consideration of the downe-bearing waight of their immense charge which much astonisheth me It is a very hard task to
Even so is my lifes voiage directed Yet have I seene divers farre-countries where I would have beene glad to have beene staied Why not If Chrysippus Diogenes Cleanthes Antipater and Zeno with so many other wise men of that roughly-severe and severely-strict Sect forsooke their Countries without iust cause to bee offended with them onely to enioy another aire Truly the greatest griefe of my peregrinations is that I cannot have a firme resolution to establish my abiding where I would And that I must ever resolve with my selfe to returne for to accommodate my selfe vnto common humours If I should feare to die in any other place then where I was borne if I thought I should die lesse at my ease farre from mine owne people I would hardly goe out of France nay I should scarcely goe out of mine owne parish without feeling some dismay I feele death ever pinching me by the throat or pulling me by the backe But I am of another mould to me it is ever one and at all times the same Neverthelesse if I were to chuse I thinke it should rather be on horsebacke than in a bed from my home and farre from my friends There is more hartssorrow than comfort in taking ones last farewell of his friends I doe easily forget or neglect these duties or complements of our common or civill courtesie For of Offices appertaining to vnaffected amitie the same is the most displeasing and offensive And I should as willingly forget to give a body that great adiew or eternall farewell If a body reape any commoditie by this assistance hee also findes infinite inconveniences in it I have seene divers die most piteously compassed and beset round with their friends and servants Such multitudes and thronging of people doth stifle them It is against reason and a testimony of smal affection and little care they have of you should die at rest One offendeth your eies another molesteth your eares the third v exeth your mouth You have neither sense nor limme or parte of your body but is tormented and grieved Your hart is ready to burst for pittie to heare your friends moanes and complaints and to rive asunder with spite to heare peradventure some of their wailings and moans that are but fained and counterfet If a man have ever had a milde or tender nature being weake and ready to die he must then necessarily have it more tender and relenting It is most requisite that in so vrgent a necessitie one have a gentle hand and fitly applied to his sences to scratch him where he itcheth or else he ought not be clawed at all If wee must needs have the helpe of a Midwife to bring vs into this world there is reason we should also have the aiding-hand of a wise man to deliver vs out of the same Such a one and there with all a true friend should a man before-hand purchase very deare only for the service of such an occasion I am not yet come to that disdainfull vigor which so fortifieth it selfe that at such times nothing aideth nor nothing troubleth I flie a lower pitch I seeke to squat my selfe and steale from that passage not by feare but by Art My intent is not in such an action to make either triall or shew of my constancie Wherefore Because then shall the right and interest I have in reputation cease I am content with a death vnited in it selfe quiet and solitarie wholly mine convenient to my retired and private life Cleane contrary to the Roman superstition where hee was judged vnhappie that died without speaking and had not his neerest friends to close his eies I have much adoe to comfort my selfe without being troubled to comfort others cares and vexations ânow in my minde without needing circumstances to bring me new and sufficient matter to entertaine my selfe without borrowing any This share belongs not to the part of societie It is the act of one man alone Let vs live laugh and be merry amongst our friends but die and yeeld vp the ghost amongst strangers and such as wee know not Hee who hath money in his purse shall ever finde some ready to turne his head make his bedde rubbe his feet attend him and that will trouble and importune him no longer than hee list and will ever shew him an indifferent and well-composed countenance and without grumbling or grudging give a man leave to doe what he please and complaine as he list I daily endevour by discourse to shake off this childish humour and inhumane conceit which causeth that by our griefes and paines we ever desire to moove our friends to compassion and sorrow for vs and with a kinde of sympathie to condole our miseries and passions We endeare our inconveniences beyond measure to extract teares from them And the constancie we so much commend in all others vndauntedly to endure all evill fortunes we accuse and vpbraid to our neerest allies when they molest vs we are not contented they should have a sensible feeling of our calamities if they doe not also afflict themselves for them A man should as much as he can set foorth and extend his joy but to the vtmost of his power suppresse and abridge his sorrow He that will causelesly be moaned and sans reason deserveth not to be pitied when he shall have cause and reason for it To be ever complaining and alwaies moaning is the way never to be moaned and seldome to be pitied and so often to seeme over-passionately-pitifull is the meane to make no man feelingly-ruthfull towards others He that makes himselfe dead being alive is subiect to be accounted alive when he is dying I have seene some take pepper in the nose forsomuch as they were told that they had a cheerefull countenance that they looked well that they had a temperate pulse to force laughter because some betraied their recoverie and hate their health because it was not regreetable And which is more they were no women I for the most represent my infirmities such as they are And shunne such words as are of evill presage and avoid composed exclamations If not glee and mirth at least an orderlysetled countenance of the by-standers and assistants is sufficiently-convenient to a wise and discreet sicke-man who though he see himselfe in a contrary state he will not picke a quarrell with health He is pleased to behold the same sound and strong in others and at least for company-sake to enjoy his part of it Though he feele and finde himselfe to faint and sinke downe he doth not altogether reject the conceits and imaginations of life nor doth he avoid common entertainments I will studie sicknesse when I am in health when it comes it will really enough make her impression without the helpe of my imagination We deliberately prepare our selves before hand for any voiage we vndertake and therein are resolved the houre is set when we will take horse and we give it to our company in whose favour we extend it I
but now being so olde beginne to threaten mee I have from my infancie learnd to rubbe them with my napkin both in the morning when I rise and sitting downe and rising from the table God doth them a grace from whom by little and little he doth substract their life It is the onely benefite of old age Their last death shall be so much the lesse full languishing and painefull it shall then kill but one halfe or quarter of a man Even now I lost one of my teeth which of it selfe fell out without strugling or paine it was the naturall terme of it's continuance That part of my being with diuerse others are already dead and mortified in mee others of the most active halfe dead and which during the vigor of my age held the first ranke Thus I sinke and scape from my selfe What foolishnes will it be in my vnderstanding to feele the start of that fall already so advaunced as if it were perfectly whole I hope it not verely I receive a speciall comfort in thinking on my death and that it shall be of the most just and natural and cannot now require or hope other favor of destinie concerning that then vnlawfull Men perswade themselves that as heretofore they have had a higher stature so their lives were longer But they are deceived for Solon of those ancient times though he were of an exceeding high stature his life continued but 70. yeeres Shal I that have so much so vniversally adored that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a meane is best of former times and have ever taken a meane measure for the most perfect therefore pretend a most prodigious and vnmeasurable life whatsoever commeth contrary to Natures course may be combersome but what comes according to her should ever please Omnia quae secundum naturam fiunt sunt habenda in bonis All things are to be accompted good that are donne according to nature And therefore saith Plato is that death violent which is caused either by woundes or sicknesses but that of all others the easiest and in some sort delitious which surprizeth vs by meanes of age Vitam adolescentibus vis aufert senibus maturitas A forcible violence takes their life from the yoong but a ripe maturitie from the old Death entermedleth and every where confounds it selfe with our life declination doth preoccupate her houre and insinuate it selfe in the very course of our advauncement I have pictures of mine owne that were drawne when I was five and twenty and others being thirty yeeres of age which I often compare with such as were made by mee as I am now at this instant How many times doe I say I am no more my selfe how much is my present image further from those then from that of my decease It is an over-great abuse vnto nature to dragge and hurry her so farre that shee must bee forced to give vs over and abandon our conduct our eyes our teeth our legges and the rest to the mercy of a forraine help and begged assistance and to put our selves into the hands of arte wearie to followe vs. I am not overmuch or greedily desirous of sallets or of fruites except melons My father hated all manner of sawces I love them all Overmuch eating doeth hurt and distemper me but for the qualitie I have yet no certaine knowledge that any meate offends me I never observe either a full or wained Moone nor make a difference betweene the Spring time or Autumne There are certaine inconstant and vnknowne motions in vs. For by way of example I have heeretofore found redish-rootes to be very good for mee then very hurtfull and now againe very well agreeing with my stomacke In diverse other things I feele my appetite to change and my stomacke to diversifie from time to time I have altred my course of drinking sometimes from white to claret wine and then from claret to white againe I am very friand and gluttonous of fish and keepe my shroving dayes vpon fish dayes and my seasts vpon fasting-dayes I believe as some others doe that fish is of lighter disgestion than flesh As I make it a conscience to eate flesh vpon a fish day so doth my taste to eate fish and flesh together The diversity betweene them seemes to mee over-distant Even from my youth I was wont now and then to steale some repast either that I might sharpen my stomake against the next day for as Epicurus was wont to fast and made but sparing meales thereby to accustome his voluptuousnesse to neglect plenty I contrarie to him to enure my sensualitie to speede the better and more merrily to make vse of plentie or else I fasted the better to maintaine my vigor for the service or performaunce of some bodily or mentall action for both are strangely dulled and ideled ââ me through over-much fulnesse and repleatenesse And above all I hate that foolish combination of so sound and bucksome a Goddesse with that indigested and belching God all puffed with the âume of his liquor or to recover my crazed stomake or because I wanted some good companie And I say as Epicuria said that A man should not so much respect what he eateth as with whom hee eateth And commend Chilon that he would not promise to come to Periander's feast before he knew certainely who were the other bidden gââsts No viends are so sweetely pleasing nor no sauce so tastefull as that which is drawne from conversable and mutuall societie I thinke it wholesome to eate more leisurely and lesse in quantity and to feede oftner But I will have appetite and hunger to be endeared I should finde no pleasure after a phisicall maner to swallow three or foure forced and spare meales a day Who can assure me if I have a good taste or stomake in the morning that I shall have it againe at supper Let vs old men let vs I say take the first convenient time that commeth Let vs leave hopes and prognostikes vnto Almanacke-makers The extreame fruite of my health is pleasure Let vs hold fast on the present and to vs knowne I eschew constancie in these Lawes of fasting Who so will have a forme to serue him let him avoyd continuance of it but wee harden our selves vnto it and therevnto wholy apply our forces sixe moneths after you shall finde your stomake so enured vnto it that you shall have gotten nothing but this to have lost the liberty to vse it otherwise without domage I vse to goe with my legges and thighs no more covered in Sommer than in Winter for I never weare but one paire of single like-stockins For the easing of my rheume and helpe of my chollike I have of late vsed to keepe my head and belly warme My infirmities did in few dayes habituate themselves thereunto and disdained my ordinary provisions From a single night-cappe I came to a double coverchef and from a bonnet to a lined and quilted hat The bum basting of my doublet serves me now for
himselfe amongst many other notable qualities they are endued with have throughout all the course of their life seemed to have a singular respect and awfull reverence vnto religion That storie displeased me very much which a noble man told me of a kinsman of mine a man very famous well knowne both in peace and warre which is that dying verie aged in his court being much tormented with extreame pangs of the stone he with an earnest and vnwearied care emploied all his last houres to dispose the honor and ceremonie of his funerals and summoned all the nobilitie that came to visit him to give him assured promise to be as assistants and to convay him to his last resting place To the very same Prince who was with him at his last gasp he made verie earnest sute he would command all his houshold to wait vpon him at his interrement enforcing many reasons and all eaging divers examples to prove that it was a thing very convenient and fitting a man of his qualitie which assured promise when he had obtained had at his pleasure marshalled the order how they should march he seemed quietly and contentedly to yeeld vp the ghost I have seldome seene a vanitie continue so long This other curiositie meere opposite vnto it which to prove I need not labor for home-examples seemeth in my opinion cosin-german to this that is when one is ever readie to breathe his last carefully and passionately to endevor how to reduce the convoy of his obsequies vnto some particular vnwonted parcimonie to one servant and to one lanterne I heare the humor and appointment of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus commended who expresly forbade his heires to vse those ceremonies about his interrement which in such cases were formerly accustomed Is it temperance and frugalitie to avoid charge and voluptuousnes the vse and knowledge of which is inperceptable vnto vs Lo here an easie reformation and of small cost Were it requisite to appoint any I would be of opinion that as well in that as in all other actions of mans life every man should referre the rule of it to the qualitie of his fortune And the Philosopher Lycon did wisely appoint his friends to place his body where they should thinke it fittest and for the best and for his obsequies they should neither be superfluous and over-costly nor base and sparing For my part I would wholy relie on custome which should dispose this ceremonie and would yeeld my selfe to the discretion of the first or next into whose hands I might chance to fall Totus hic locus est contemnendus in nobis non negligendus in nostris All this matter should be despised of vs but not neglected of ours And religiously said a holy man Curatio funeris conditio sepulturae pompa exequiarum magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia mortuorum The procuration of funerals the manner of buriall the pomp of obsequies are rather comforts to the living than helpes to the dead Therefore Socrates answered Criton who at the houre of his death asked him how he would be buried Even as you please said he were I to meddle further with this subject I would deeme it more gallant to imitate those who yet living and breathing vndertake to enjoy the order and honour of their sepulchres and that please themselves to behold their dead countenance in Marble Happy they that can rejoyce and gratifie their senses with insensibilitie and live by their death A little thing would make me conceive an inexpiable hatred against all popular domination although it seeme most naturall and just vnto me when I call to minde that inhumane injustice of the Athenians who without further triall or remission yea without suffering them so much as to reply or answere for themselves condemned those noble and worthy captaines that returned victoriously from the sea-battell which they neere the Iles Arginusae had gained of the Lacedemonians the most contested bloudie and greatest fight the Graecians ever obtained by sea with their owne forces forsomuch as after the victorie they had rather followed those occasions which the law of warre presented vnto them for their availe than to their prejudice staid to gather and burie their dead men And the successe of Diomedon makes their ruthlesse execution more hatefull who beeing a man of notable and exemplar vertue both militarie and politike and of them so cruelly condemned after he had heard the bloudie sentence advauncing himselfe forward to speake having fit opportunitie and plausible audience he I say in stead of excusing himselfe or endevouring to justifie his cause or to exasperate the evident iniquitie of so cruell a doome expressed but a care of the Iudges preservation earnestly beseeching the Gods to turne that judgement to their good praying that for want of not satisfying the vowes which he and his companions had vowed in acknowledgement and thanksgiving for so famous a victorie and honourable fortune they might not draw the wrath and revenge of the Gods vpon them declaring what their vowes were And without more words or vrging further reasons couragiously addressed himselfe to his execution But fortune some yeares after punished him alike and made him taste of the very same sauce For Chabrias Captaine Generall of their sea-fleet having afterward obtained a famous victorie of Pollis Admirall of Sparta in the I le of Naxos lost absolutely the benefit of it and only contented with the day a matter of great consequence for their affaires fearing to incurre the mischiefe of this example and to save a few dead carcasses of his friends that floated vp and downe the sea gave leasure to an infinite number of his living enemies whom he might easily haue surprized to saile away in safetie who afterward made them to purchase their importunate superstition at a deere-deere rate Quaeris quo âacâas post obitum loco Quo non nata iacent Where shall you lie when you are dead Where they lie that were neuer bred This other restores the sense of rest vnto a bodie without a soule Neque sepulchrum quo recipiat habeat portum corporis Vbi remissa humana vita corpus requiescat à malis To turne in as a hav'n have he no grave Where life left from all griefe he rest may have Even as Nature makes vs to see that many dead things have yet certaine secret relations vnto life Wine doth alter and change in sellers according to the changes and alterations of the seasons of it's vineyard And the flesh of wilde beastes and venison doth change qualitie and taste in the powdering-tubbes according to the nature of living flesh as some say that have observed it The fourth Chapter How the soule dischargeth her passions vpon false obiects when the true faile it A Gentleman of ours exceedingly subject to the gowt being instantly solicited by his Physitions to leave all manner of salt-meates was woont to answer pleasantly that when the fittes or pangs of the disease
so many wounding passions and of so severall sorts and so filthie and lothsome a societie waiting vpon her that shee is equivalent to penitencie Wee are in the wrong to thinke her incommodities serve her as a provocation seasoning to her sweetnes as in nature one contrarie is vivified by another contrarie and to say when we come to vertue that like successes and difficulties over-whelme it and yeeld it austere and inaccessible Where as much more properly then vnto voluptuousnes they ennobled sharpen animate and raise that divine and perfect pleasure which it mediates and procureth vs. Truly he is verie vnworthie her acquaintance that counter-ballanceth her cost to his fruit and knowes neither the graces nor vse of it Those who go about to instruct vs how her pursuite is very hard and laborious and her jovisance well pleasing and delightfull what else tell they vs but that shee is ever vnpleasant and irksome For what humane meane did ever attaine vnto an absolute enjoying of it The perfectest have beene content but to aspire and approach her without ever possessing her But they are deceived seeing that of all the pleasures we know the pursute of them is pleasant The enterprise is perceived by the qualitie of the thing which it hath regard vnto for it is a good portion of the effect and consubstantiall That happines and felicitie which shineth in vertue replenisheth her approaches and appurtenances even vnto the first entrance and vtmost barre Now of all the benefits of vertue the contempt of death is the chiefest a meane that furnisheth our life with an ease-full tranquillitie and giues vs a pure and amiable taste of it without which every other voluptuousnes is extinguished Loe here the reasons why all rules encounter and agree with this article And albeit they all leade vs with a common accord to despise griefe povertie and other accidentall crosses to which mans life is subject it is not with an equall care as well because accidents are not of such a necessitie for most men passe their whole life without feeling any want or povertie and other-some without feeling any griefe or sicknes as Xenophilus the musitian who lived a hundred and sixe yeares in perfect and continuall health as also if the worst happen death may at all times and whensoever it shall please vs cut off all other inconveniences and crosses But as for death it is inevitable Omnes eodem cogimur omnium Versatur vrna serius ocyus Sors exitura nos inaeter num exitium impositura cymbae All to one place are driv'n of all Shak't is the lot-pot where-hence shall Sooner or later drawne lots fall And to deaths boat for aye enthrall And by consequence if she make vs affeard it is a continuall subject of torment and which can no way be eased There is no starting-hole will hide vs from her she will finde vs wheresoever we are we may as in a suspected countrie starte and turne heere and there qua quasi saxum Tantalo semper impendet Which evermore hangs like the stone over the head of Tantalus Our lawes doe often condemne and send malefactors to be executed in the same place where the crime was committed to which whilest they are going leade them along the fairest houses or entertaine them with the best cheere you can non Siculae dapes Dulcem elaborabunt saporem Non avium cithaeraeque cantus Somnum reducent Not all King Denys daintie fare Can pleasing taste for them prepare No song of birds no musikes sound Can lullabie to sleepe profound Doe you thinke they can take any pleasure in it or be any thing delighted and that the finall intent of their voiage being still before their eies hath not altered and altogether distracted their taste from all these commodities and allurements Audit iter numer átque dies spatióque viarum Metitur vitam torquetur peste futura He heares his iorney count's his daies so measures he His life by his waies length vex't with the ill shall- be The end of our cariere is death it is the necessarie object of our aime if it affright vs how is it possible we should step one foote further without an ague The remedie of the vulgar sort is not to thinke on it But from what brutall stupiditie may so grosse a blindnesse come vpon him he must be made to bridle his Asse by the taile Qui capite ipse suo instituit vest igia retro Who doth a course contrarie runne With his head to his course begunne It is no marvell if he be so often taken tripping some doe no sooner heare the name of death spoken of but they are afraid yea the most part will crosse themselves as if they heard the Divell named And because mention is made of it in mens wils and testaments I warrant you there is none will set his hand to them till the Physitian have given his last doome and vtterly forsaken him And God knowes being then betweene such paine and feare with what sound judgement they indure him For so much as this sillable sounded so vnpleasantly in their eares and this voice seemed so ill-boding and vnluckie the Romans had learned to allay and dilate the same by a Periphrasis In liew of saying he is dead or he hath ended his daies they would say he hath lived So it be life be it past or no they are comforted from whom we have borowed our phrases quondam alias or late such a one It may happily be as the common saying is the time we live is worth the mony we pay for it I was borne betweene eleven of the clocke and noone the last of Februarie 1533. according to our computation the yeare beginning the first of Ianuarie It is but a fortnight since I was 39. yeares old I want at least as much more If in the mean time I should trouble my thoughts with a matter so farre from me it were but folly But what we see both young and olde to leave their life after one self condition No man departs otherwise from it than if he but now came to it seeing there is no man so crazed bedrell or decrepite so long as he remembers Met husalem but thinkes he may yet live twentie yeares Moreover seely creature as thou art who hath limited the end of thy daies Happily thou presumest vpon Physitians reports Rather consider the effect and experience By the common course of things long since thou livest by extraordinarie favour Thou hast alreadie over-past the ordinarie tearmes of common life And to prove it remember but thy acquaintances and tell me how many more of them have died before they came to thy age than have either attained or out-gone the same yea and of those that through renoune have ennobled their life if thou but register them I will lay a wager I will finde more that have died before they came to five and thirty yeares than after It is consonant with reason and
Of my selfe I am not much given to melancholy but rather to dreaming and sluggishnes There is nothing wherewith I have ever more entertained my selfe than with the imaginations of death yea in the most licentious times of my age Iucundum cùm aetas florida ver ageret When my age flourishing Did spend it's pleasant spring Being amongst faire Ladies and in earnest play some have thought me busied or musing with my selfe how to digest some jealousie or meditating on the vncertaintie of some conceived hope when God he knowes I was entertaining my selfe with the remembrance of some one or other that but few daies before was taken with a burning feuer and of his sodaine end comming from such a feast or meeting where I was my selfe and with his head full of idle conceits of love and merry glee supposing the same either sicknes or end to be as neere me as him Iam fuerit nec post vnquam revocare licebit Now time would be no more You can this time restore I did no more trouble my selfe or frowne at such a conceit then at any other It is impossible we should not apprehend or feele some motions or startings at such imaginations at the first and comming sodainely vpon vs but doubtlesse he that shall manage and meditate vpon them with an impartiall eye they will assuredly in tract of time become familiar to him Otherwise for my part I should be in continuall feare and agonie for no man did evermore distrust his life nor make lesse account of his continuance Neither can health which hitherto I have so long enjoied and which so seldome hath bin crazed lengthen my hopes nor any sicknesse shorten them of it At every minute me thinkes I make an escape And I vncessantly record vnto my selfe that whatsoever may be done another day may be effected this day Truely hazards and dangers do little or nothing approach vs at our end And if we consider how many more there remaine besides this accident which in number more than millions seeme to threaten vs and hang over vs we shall find that be we sound or sicke lustie or weake at sea or at land abroad or at home fighting or at rest in the middest of a battell or in our beds she is ever alike neere vnto vs. Nemo altero fragilior est nemo in crastinum sui certior No man is meaker then other none surer of himselfe to live till to morrow Whatsoever I have to do before death all leasure to end the same seemeth short vnto me yea were it but of one houre Some body not long since turning over my writing tables found by chance a memoriall of something I would have done after my death I told him as indeed it was true that being but a mile from my house and in perfect health and lustie I had made hast to write it because I could not assure my selfe I should ever come home in safety As one that am ever hatching of mine owne thoughts and place them in my selfe I am ever prepared about that which I may be nor can death come when she please put me in mind of any new thing A man should ever as much as in him lieth be ready booted to take his journey and above all things looke he have then nothing to do but with himselfe Quid brevifortes iaculamur aevo Multa To aime why are we ever bold At many things in so short hold For then we shall have worke sufficient without any more accrease Some man complaineth more that death doth hinder him from the assured course of an hoped for victorie than of death itself another cries out he should give place to her before he have married his daughter or directed the course of his childrens bringing vp another bewaileth he must forgo his wives company another moaneth the losse of his children the chiefest commodities of his being I am now by meanes of the mercie of God in such a taking that without regret or grieving at any worldly matter I am prepared to dislodge whensoever he shall please to call me I am everie where free my farewell is soone taken of all my friends except of my selfe No man did ever prepare himselfe to quit the world more simply and fully or more generally spake of all thoughts of it then I am fully assured I shall do The deadest deaths are the best Miser ô miser aiunt omnia ademit Vna dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae O wretch O wretch friends cry one day All ioies of life hath ta'ne away And the builder maneant saith he opera interrupta minaeque Murorumingentes The workes vnfinisht lie And walles that threatned hie A man should designe nothing so long afore hand or at least with such an intent as to passionate himselfe to see the end of it we are all borne to be doing Cùm moriar medium soluar inter opus When dying I my selfe shall spend Ere halfe by businesse come to end I would have a man to be doing and to prolong his lives offices as much as lieth in him and let death seize vpon me whilest I am setting my cabiges carelesse of her dart but more of my vnperfect garden I saw one die who being at his last gaspe vncessantly complained against his destenie and that death should so vnkindly cut him off in the middest of an historie which he had in hand and was now come to the fifteenth or sixteenth of our Kings Illud in his rebus non addunt nec tibi earum Iam desiderium rerum super insidet vna Friends adde not that in this case now no more Shalt thou desire or want things wisht before A man should rid himselfe of these vulgar and hurtfull humours Even as Churchyards were first placed adjoyning vnto churches and in the most frequented places of the Citie to enure as Lycurgus said the common people women and children not to be skared at the sight of a dead man and to the end that continuall spectacle of bones sculs tombes graves and burials should forewarne vs of our condition and fatall end Quin etiam exhilarare viris convivia caede Mos olim miscere epulis spectacula dira Certantum ferro saepe super ipsa cadentum Pocula resper sis non parco sanguine mensis Nay more the manner was to welcome guests And with dire shewes of slaughter to mix feasts Of them that fought at sharpe and with bords tainted Of them with much bloud who o're full cups fainted And even as the Aegyptians after their feastings and carowsings caused a great image of death to be brought in and shewed to the guests and by-standers by one that cried aloud Drinke and be mery for such shalt thou be when thou art dead So have I learned this custome or lesson to have alwaies death not only in my imagination but continually in my mouth And there is nothing I desire more to be informed of than
thereby Therefore is it meere simplicitie to condemne a thing you never prooved neither by your selfe nor any other Why doest thou complaine of me and of destinie Doe we offer thee any wrong is it for thee to direct vs or for vs to governe thee Although thy age be not come to her period thy life is A little man is a whole man as well as a great man Neither men nor their lives are measured by the Ell. Chiron refused immortalitie being informed of the conditions thereof even by the God of time and of continuance Saturne his father Imagine truely how much an ever during life would be lesse tollerable and more painefull to a man then is the life which I have given him Had you not death you would then vncessantly curse and cry out against me that I had deprived you of it I have of purpose and wittingly blended some bitternes amongst it that so seeing the commoditie of it's vse I might hinder you from over greedily embracing or indiscreetly calling for it To continue in this moderation that is neither to flie from life nor to run to death which I require of you I have tempered both the one and other betweene sweetenes sowrenes I first taught Thales the chiefest of your Sages and Wise men that to live die were indifferent which made him answer one very wisely who asked him wherefore he died not Because saith he it is indifferent The water the earth the aire the fire and other members of this my vniverse are no more the instruments of thy life then of thy death Why fearest thou thy last day He is no more guiltie and conferreth no more to thy death then any of the others It is not the last step that causeth wearinesse it onely declares it All daies march towards death onely the last comes to it Behold heere the good precepts of our vniversall mother Nature I have oftentimes bethought my selfe whence it proceedeth that in times of warre the visage of death whether wee see it in vs or in others seemeth without all comparison much lesse dreadfull and terrible vnto vs then in our houses or in our beds otherwise it should be an armie of Phisitians and whiners and she ever being one there must needes bee much more assurance amongst contrie-people and of base condition then in others I verily beleeve these fearefull lookes and astonishing countenances wherewith we encompasse it are those that more amaze and terrifie vs then death a new forme of life the out-cries of mothers the wailing of women and children the visitation of dismaid and swouning friends the assistance of a number of pale-looking distracted and whining servants a darke chamber tapers burning round about our couch beset round with Phisitians and Preachers and to conclude nothing but horror and astonishment on every side of vs are wee not alreadie dead and buried The very children are afraid of their friends when they see them masked and so are we The maske must as well be taken from things as from men which being remooved we shall finde nothing hid vnder it but the very same death that a seely varlet or a simple maide-servant did lately suffer without amazement or feare Happie is that death which takes all leasure from the preparations of such an equipage The twentieth Chapter Of the force of Imagination FOrtis imaginatio generat casum A strong imagination begetteth chance say learned clearkes I am one of those that feele a very great conflict and power of imagination All men are shockt therewith and some overthrowne by it The impression of it pierceth me and for want of strength to resist her my endevour is to avoid it I could live with the only assistance of holy and mery hearted men The sight of others anguishes doth sensibly drive me into anguish and my sense hath often vsurped the sense of a third man If one cough continually he provokes my lungs and throate I am more vnwilling to visite the sicke dutie doth engage me vnto than those to whom I am little beholding and regard least I apprehend the evill which I studie and place it in me I deeme it not strange that she brings both agues and death to such as give her scope to worke her will and applaude her Simon Thomas was a great Phisitian in his daies I remember vpon a time comming by chance to visit a rich old man that dwelt in Tholouse and who was troubled with the cough of the lungs who discoursing with the said Simon Thomas of the meanes of his recoverie he told him that one of the best was to give me occasion to be delighted in his companie and that fixing his eyes vpon the livelines and freshnes of my face and setting his thoughts vpon the jolitie and vigor wherewith my youthfull age did then flourish and filling all his senses with my florishing estate his habitude might thereby be amended and his health recovered But he forgot to say that mine might also be empaired and infected Gallus Vibius did so well enure his minde to comprehend the essence and motions of folly that he so transported his judgement from out his seate as he could never afterward bring it to his right place againe and might rightly boast to have become a soole through wisdome Some there are that through feare anticipate the hang-mans hand as he did whose friends having obtained his pardon and putting away the cloth wherewith he was hood-winkt that he might heare it read was found starke dead vpon the scaffold wounded onely by the stroke of imagination Wee sweate we shake we grow pale and we blush at the motions of our imaginations and wallowing in our beds we feele our bodies agitated and turmoiled at their apprehensions yea in such manner as sometimes we are ready to yeeld vp the spirit And burning youth although asleepe is often therewith so possessed and enfoulded that dreaming it doth satisfie and enjoy her amorous desires Vt quasi transactis saepe omnibu'rebu ' profundant Fluminis ingentes fluctus vest émque cruentent And if all things were done they powre foorth streames And bloodie their night-garment in their dreames And although it be not strange to see some men have hornes growing vpon their head in one night that had none when they went to bed notwithstanding the fortune or successe of Cyppus King of Italie is memorable who because the day before he had with earnest affection assisted and beene attentive at a bul-baâting and having all night long dreamed of hornes in his head by the very force of imagination brought them foorth the next morning in his forehead An earnest passion gave the son of Croesus his voice which nature had denied him And Antiochus got an ague by the excellent beautie of Stratonicâ so deepely imprinted in his minde Plinie reporteth to have seene Lucius Cossitius vpon his marriage day to have beene transformed from a woman to a man Pontanus and others recount the like Metamorphosies
Diuers events from one selfe same counsell I Ames Amiot great Almoner of France did once tell me this storie to the honour of one of our Princes And so he was indeed by very good tokens albeit by ofspring he were a stranger that during our first troubles at the siege of Roane the said Prince being advertised by the Queene-mother of a conspiracie and enterprise that should be attempted against his life and by letters particularly informed him of the partie that should performe it who was a gentle-man of Anâow or Manse and who to that purpose did ordinarily frequent the said Princes court he never imparted that secret or communicated that warning to any man but the next morrow walking vpon Saint Catherins hill whence our batterie played against the towne for it was at what time we laid siege to Roane with the said Lord great Almoner and another Bishop by his side he chanced to descrie the said gentleman whom the Queene-mother had described vnto him and caused him to be called who being come before his presence said thus vnto him perceaving him alreadie to waxe pale and tremble at the alarums of his conscience Maister such a one I am fully perswaded you fore-imagine what I will charge you with and your countenance doth plainly show it you can conceale nothing from me for I am so well instructed of your businesse that would you goe about to hide it you should but marre all you have perfect knowledge of this and this thing which were the chiefest props and devises of the secretest drifts of his complot and conspiracie faile not therefore as you tender your life to confesse the trueth of all your purpose When the silly man saw himselfe so surprized and convicted for the whole matter had beene discovered vnto the Queene by one of the complices he had no other way but to lift vp his handes and begge for grace and mercie at the Princes handes at whose feete he would have prostrated himselfe but that he would not let him thus following his discourse Come hither my friend said he Did I ever doe you any displeasure Have I ever through any particular hatred wronged or offended any friend of yours It is not yet three weekes since I knew you what reason might move you to conspire and enterprise my death The Gentleman with a faint-trembling voyce and selfe-accusing looke answered him that no particular occasion had ever moved him to that but the interest of the generall cause of his faction and that some of them had perswaded him that to roote out and in what maner soever to make away so great an enemy of their religion would be an execution full of pietie and a worke of supererogation Then said the Prince I will shew you how much the religion which I professe is more milde than that whereof you make profession yours hath perswaded you to kill me without hearing me having never been offended by me and mine commaundes me to pardon you convicted as you are that you would so treacherously and without cause have killed me Goe your way withdraw your selfe let mee never see you heere againe and if you be wise hence-forward in your enterprises take bonester men for your counsellers than those of your religion The Emperour Augustus being in Gaule received certaine advertisement of a conspiracie that L. Cinna complotted against him whereof he purposed to be avenged and for that purpose sent to all his friends against the next morrow for advise and counsell but passed the fore-going night with great anxietie and vnrest considering that following his intent he should bring a yong Gentleman well borne of a noble house and great Pompeyes nephew to his death which perplexitie produced divers strange discourses and consideration in him What said he vnto himselfe Shall it ever bee reported that I doe live in feare and suffer mine enemie to walke at his pleasure and libertie Shall he then goe free that hath attempted and resolved to deprive me of my life which both by sea and land I have saved from so many civill warres and from so many battels And now that I have established an vniversall peace in the world shall he be absolved and goe vnpunished that hath not only determined to murther but to sacrifice me For the complot of the conspiracie was to murther him when he should be at sacrifice After that having taken some rest with himselfe he with a lowder voice beganne to exclaime and cry out against himselfe saying Why livest thou if the lives of so many depend on thy death Shall thy vengeance and cruelties never have an end Is thy life of that worth as it may counter vaile the sundry mischiefes that are like to ensue if it be preserved Livia his wife being in bed with him perceiving his agonie and hearing his speeches said thus vnto him And may not womens counsels be admitted Doe as Physitians are woont who when their ordinarie receipts will not worke have recourse to the contrarie Hitherto thou couldest never doe any good with severitie Lepidus hath followed Savidienus Murena Lepidus Coepio Murena Egnatius Scoepio beginne now to proove what good lenitie and clemencie will doe thee Cinna is convicted pardon him To annoy or hurt thee now he is not able and thou shalt thereby encrease thy glory Augustus seemed very glad to have found an Advocate of his humour and having thanked his wife and countermaunded his friends whom he had summoned to the Counsell commaunded Cinna to be brought before him alone Then sending all men out of his chamber and a chaire prepared for Cinna to sit in he thus bespake him First Cinna I require to have gentle audience and that thou wilt not interrupt my speech which ended I will give thee time and leasure to answer me Thou knowest oh Cinna that when I had taken thee prisoner in mine enemies campe who wast not only become but borne my foe I saved thee then put thee in quiet possession of thy goods and at last have so enriched thee and placed thee in so high a degree that even the conquerours are become envious over the conquered The Priestes office which thou beggedst at my hands I freely bestowed on thee having first refused the same to others whose fathers and friendes had in many battels shead their bloud for me After all which benefites and that I had in dutie tied thee so fast vnto me thou hast notwithstanding vndertaken to kill me To whom Cinna replied crying alowde That he had never so much as conceived so wicked a thought much lesse entertained the same Oh Cinna this is not according to thy promise answered then Augustus which was that thou wouldest not interrupt me What I say is true thou hast vndertaken to murther me in such a place on such a day in such a company and in such manner and seeing him so amazed in heart and by his evidence strucken dombe moved thereunto not by the condition of his promise but by the guilt
certè semper amabo O brother reft from miserable me All our delight 's are perished with thee Which thy sweete love did nourish in my breath Thou all my good hast spoiled in thy death With thee my soule is all and whole enshrinde At whose death I have cast out of minde All my mindes sweete-meates studies of this kinde Never shall I heare thee speake speake with thee Thee brother then life dearer never see Yet shalt thou ever be belou'd of mee but let-vs a little heare this yong man speake being but sixteene yeares of age Because I have found this worke to have since bin published and to an ill end by such as seeke to trouble and subvert the state of our common-wealth nor caring whether they shall reforme it or no which they have fondly inserted among other writings of their invention I have revoked my intent which was to place-it here And lest the Authors memory should any way be interessed with those that could not thoroughly know his opinions and actions they shall vnderstand that this subject was by him treated of in his infancie onely by way of exercise as a subject common bare-worne and wyer-drawne in a thousand bookes I will never doubt but he beleeved what he writ and writ as he thought for hee was so conscientious that no lie did ever passe his lips yea were it but in matters of sport or play and I know that had it bin in his choyce he would rather have bin borne at Venice than at Sarlac and good reason why But he had an other maxime deepely imprinted in his minde which was carefully to obey and religiously to submit himselfe to the lawes vnder which he was borne There was never a better Citizen nor more affected to the welfare and quietnesse of his countrie nor a sharper enemie of the changes innovations newfangles and hurly-burlies of his time He would more willingly have imployed the vtmost of his endevours to extinguish and suppresse then to favour or further them His minde was modelled to the patterne of other best ages But yet in exchange of his serious treatise I will here set you downe another more pithie materiall and of more consequence by him likewise produced in that tender age The eight and twentieth Chapter Nine and twentie Sonnets of Steven de la Boetie to the Ladie of Grammont Countesse of Guissen MAdame I present you with nothing that is mine either because it is already yours or because I finde nothing therein woorthy of you But wheresoever these verses shall be seene for the honor which thereby shall redound to them by having this glorious Corisandâ of Andoms for their guide I thought it good to adorne them with your woorthie name I have deemed this present fit for your Ladiship forsomuch as there are few Ladies in France that either can better judge of Poesie or fitter apply the vse of it then your woorthy selfe and since in these her drooping daies none can give it more life or vigorous spirit than you by those rich and high-tuned accords wherewith amongst a million of other rarâ beauties nature hath richly graced you Madame these verses deserve to be cherished by you and I am perswaded you will be of mine opinion which is that none have come out of Gaskonie that either had more wit or better inuention and that witnesse to have proceeded from a richer vaine And let no jealousie possesse you inasmuch as you have but the remainder of that which whilome I caused to be printed vnder the name of my Lord of Foix your woorthy noble and deare kinsman For truely these have a kinde of livelinesse and more piercing Emphasis than any other and which I can not well expresse as hee that made them in his Aprils youth and when he was enflamed with a noble-glorious flame as I will one day tell your honour in your care The other were afterward made by him in favour of his wife at what time he wooed and solicited her for mariage and began to feele I wot not what martiall-chilnesse and husbands-coldnesse And I am one of those whose opinion is that divine Poesie doth no where fadge so well and so effectually applaudeth as in a youthfull wanton and vnbridled subject The above-mentioned nine and twentie Sonnes of Boetie and that in the former impressions of this booke were heere set downe have since beene printed with his other works The nine and twentieth Chapter Of Moderation AS if our sense of feeling were infected wee corrupt by our touching things that in themselves are faire and good We may so seize on vertue that if we embrace it with an over greedie and violent desire it may become vitious Those who say There is never excesse in vertue because it is no longer vertue if any excesse be in it doe but jeast at words Insani sapiens nomen ferat aequus iniqui Vltra quà m satis est virtut em si pet at ipsam A wise man mad just vnjust may I name More then is meet ev'n vertue if he claime Philosophie is a subtile consideration A man may love vertue too much and excessively demeane himselfe in a good action Gods holy word doth apply it selfe to this byase Be not wiser then you should and be soberly wise I have seene some great men blemish the reputation of their religion by shewing themselves religious beyond the example of men of their qualitie I love temperate and indifferent natures Immoderation towards good if it offend me not it amazeth and troubleth me how I should call it Neither Pausanias his mother who gave the first instruction and for her sonnes death brought the first stone Not Posthumius the Dictator that brought his owne sonne to his end whom the heate and forwardnesse of youth had haply before his ranke made to charge his enemies seeme so just as strange vnto me And I neither love to perswade or follow so savage and so deare a vertue The Archer that overshootes his marke doth no otherwise than he that shooteth short Mine eies trouble me as much in climbing vp toward a great light as to goe downe in the darke Caliscles in Plato saith The extremitie of Philosophie to bee hurtfull and perswades no man to wade further into it then the bounds of profit And that taken with moderation it is pleasant and commodious but in the end it makes a man wilde and vicious disdainfull of religion and of common lawes an enemie of civill conversation a foe to humane sensualitie and worldly pleasures incapable of all politike administration and vnfit to assist others or to helpe himselfe apt to be without revenge buffeted and bassled He saith true for in her excesse she enthralleth our naturall libertie and by an importunate wile diverts vs from the faire and plaine path which nature traceth out for vs. The love we beare to women is very lawfull yet doth Divinitie bridle and restraine the same I remember to have read in Saint Thomas in a
evils and mischiefe then they vnder-tooke not this maner of revenge without cause and that consequently it was more smartfull and cruell then theirs and therevpon began to leave their old fashion to follow this I am not sorie we note the barbarous horror of such an action but grieved that prying so narrowly into their faults we are so blinded in ours I thinke there is more barbarisme in eating men alive then to feed vpon them being dead to mangle by tortures and torments a body full of lively sense to roast him in peeces to make dogges and swine to gnawe and teare him in mammockes as wee have not onely read but seene very lately yea and in our owne memorie not amongst ancient enemies but our neighbours and fellow-citizens and which is woorse vnder pretence of pietie and religion then to roast and eate him after he is dead Chrysippus and Zeno arch pillers of the Stoicke sect have supposed that it was no hurte at all in time of need and to what end soever to make vse of our carrion bodies and to seed vpon them as did our forefathers who being besieged by Caesar in the Citie of Alexia resolved to sustaine the famine of the siege with the bodies of old men women other persons vnserviceable and vnfit to fight Vascones fama est alimentis talibus vsi Produxere animas Gascoynes as same reports Liu'd with meates of such sorts And Phisitians feare not in all kindes of compositions availefull to our health to make vse of it be it for outward or inward applications But there was never any opinion found so vnnaturall and immodest that would excuse treason treacherie disloialty tyrannie crueltie and such like which are our ordinarie faults We may then well call them barbarous in regard of reasons rules but not in respect of vâââ at exceed them in all kinde of barbarisme Their warres are noble and generous and have as much excuse and beautie as this humane infirmitie may admit they ayme at nought so much and have no other foundation amongst them but the meere jelousie of vertue They contend not for the gaining of new landes for to this day they yet enjoy that naturall vbertie and fruitesulnesse which without labouring toyle doth in such plenteous aboundance furnish them with all necessary things that they neede not enlarge their limits They are yet in that happy estate as they desire no more then what their naturall necessities direct them whatsoever is beyond it is to them fuperfluous Those that are much about one age doe generally enter-call one another brethren and such as are yoonger they call children and the aged are esteemed as fathers to all the rest These leave this full possession of goods in common and without division to their heires without other claime or title but that which nature doth plainely impart vnto all creatures even as shee brings them into the world If their neighbours chance to come over the mountaines to assaile or invade them and that they get the victory over them the Victors conquest is glorie and the advantage to be and remaine superior in valour and vertue else have they nothing to doe with the goods and spoyles of the vanquished and so returne into their countrie where they neither want any necessarie thing nor lacke this great port on to know how to enioy their condition happily and are contented with what nature affoordâth them So doe these when their turne commeth They require no other ransome of their prisoners but an acknowledgement and confession that they are vanquished And in a whole age a man shall not finde one that doth not rather embrace death then either by word or countenance remissely to yeeld one jot of an invincible courage There is none seene that would not rather be slaine and devoured then sue for life or shew any feare They vse their prisoners with all libertie that they may so much the more holde their lives deare and precious and commonly entertaine them with threats of future death with the torments they shall endure with the preparations intended for that purpose with mangling and slicing of their members and with the feast that shall be kept at their charge All which is done to wrest some remisse and exact some faint-yeelding speech of submission from them or to possesse them with a desire to escape or runne away that so they may have the advantage to have danted and made them afraid and to have forced their constancie For certainly true victory consisteth in that onely point Victoria nulla est Quà m quae confessos animo quoque subingat hostes No conquest such as to suppresse Foes hearts the conquest to confesse The Hungarians a most warre-like nation were whilome woont to pursue their pray no longer then they had forced their enemie to yeeld vnto their mercie For having wrested this confession from-him they set him at libertie without offence or ransome except it were to make him sweare never after to beare armes against them Wee get many advantages of our enemies that are but borrowed and not ours It is the qualitie of porterly-rascall and not of vertue to have stronger armes and sturdier legs Disposition is a dead and corporall qualitie It is a tricke of fortune to make our enemie stoope and to bleare his eies with the Sunnes-light It is a pranke of skill and knowledge to be cunning in the arte of fencing and which may happen vnto a base and woorthlesse man The reputation and woorth of a man consisteth in his heart and will therein consists true honor Constancie is valour not of armes and legs but of minde and courage it consisteth not in the spirit and courage of our horse nor of our armes but in ours He that obstinately faileth in his courage Si succiderit de genu pugnat If hee slip or fall he fights vpon his knee He that in danger of imminent death is no whit danted in his assurednesse he that in yeelding vp his ghost be holding his enemie with a scornefull and fierce looke he is vanquished not by vs but by fortune he is slaine but not conquered The most valiant are often the most vnfortunate So are there triumphant losses in envie of victories Not those foure-sister-victories the fairest that ever the Sunne beheld with his all-seeing eie of Salamis of Plateae of Micale and of Sicilia durst ever dare to oppose all their glorie together to the glory of the King Lâonidas his discomsiture and of his men at the passage of Thermopylae what man did ever runne with so glorious an envie or more ambitious desire to the goale of a combat then Captaine Ischolas to an evident losse and overthrow who so ingeniously or more politikely did ever assure him-selfe of his welfare then he of his ruine He was appointed to defend a certaine passage of Peloponesus against the Arcadians which finding himselfe altogether vnable to performe seeing the nature of the place and inequalitie of the forces and
should chuse for such a life must neither be painfull nor tedious otherwise in vaine should we accompt to have sought our abiding there which depends from the particular taste of every man Mine doth no way accommodate it selfe to husbandrie Those that love it must with moderation applie themselves vnto it Conentur sibi res non se submittere rebus Endevour they things to them to submit Not them to things if they have Horace wit Husbandrie is otherwise a servile office as Salust termeth it It hath more excusable parts as the care of gardening which Xenophon ascribeth to Cyrus A meane or mediocritie may be found betweene this base and vile carking care extended and full of toiling labor which we see in men that wholie plunge themselves therein and that profound and extreame retchlesnesse to let all things go at six and seaven which is seen in others Democriti pecus edit agellos Cultáque dum peregrè est animus sine corpore velox Cattle destroyde Democritus-his sets While his mind bodilesse vagaries fets But let-vs heare the counsell which Plinie the yonger giveth to his friend Cornelius Rusus touching this point of Solitarinesse I perswade thee in this full-gorged and fat retreit wherein thou art to remit this base and abiect care of husbandrie vnto thy servants and give thy selfe to the studie of letters whence thou maist gather something that may altogether be thine owne He meaneth reputation like vnto Ciceroes humor who saith That he will imploy his solitarinesse and residence from publike affaires to purchase vnto himselfe by his writings an immortall life vsque adeóne Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter Is it then nothing-worth that thou doost know Vnlesse what thou doost know thou others snow It seemeth to be reason when a man speaketh to withdraw himselfe from the world that one should looke beyond him These do-it but by halfes Indeed they set their match against the time they shall be no more but pretend to reap the fruit of their dessignes when they shall be absent from the world by a ridiculous contradiction The imagination of those who through devotion seeke solitarinesse filling their minds with the certaintie of heavenly promises in the other life is much more soundly consorted They propose God as an object infinite in goodnesse and incomprehensible in power vnto themselves The soule hath therein in all free libertie wherewith to glut her-selfe Afflictions and sorrowes redound to their profit being imployed for the purchase and attaining of health and eternall gladnesse Death according to ones wish is a passage to so perfect an estate The sharpnesse of their rules is presently made smooth and easie by custome and carnall concupiscences rejected abated and âulled a sleep by refusing them for nothing entertaineth them but vse and exercise This onely end of another life blessedly immortall doth rightly merite we should abandon the pleasures and commodities of this our life And he that can enlighten his soule with the flame of a lively faith and hope really and constantly in his solitarinesse âth build vnto himselfe a voluptuous and delicious life far surmounting all other lives Therefore doth neither the end nor middle of this counsell please me We are ever falling into a relaps from an ague to a burning feaver This plodding occupation of bookes is as painfull as any other and as great an enemie vnto health which ought principally to be considered And a man should not suffer himselfe to be inveagled by the pleasure he takes in them It is the same pleasure that looseth the thriving husband-man the greedy-covetous the sinning-voluptuous and the puft-vp ambitious The wisest men teach vs sufficiently to beware and thield-vs from the treasons of our appetites and to discerne true and perfect pleasures from delights blended and entermingled with more paine For most pleasures say they tickle fawne vpon and embrace-vs with purpose to strangle-vs as did the theeves whom the Aegyptians termed Philiââas And if the head-ach would seize vpon vs before drunkennesse we would then beware of too much drinking but sensualitie the better to entrap-vs marcheth before and hideth her tracke from-vs Bookes are delightfull but if by continuall frequenting them we in the end loose both health and cheerefulnesse our best parts let vs leave them I am one of those who thinke their fruit can no way countervaile this losse As men that have long time selt themselves enfeebled through some indisposition doe in the end yeeld to the mercie of Physicke and by arte have certaine rules of life prescribed them which they will not transgresse So he that with-drawes himselfe as distasted and over-tired with the common life ought likewise to frame and prescribe this vnto the rules of reason direct and range the same by premeditation and discourse He must bid all manner of travell farewell what shew soever it beare and in generall shun all passions that any way empeach the tranquilitie of mind and bodie and follow the course best agreeing with his humour Vnusquisque sua noverit ire via His owne way every man Tread-out directly can A man must give to thriving-husbandrie to laborious studie to toilesome hunting and to every other exercise the vtmost bounds of pleasure and beware he engage himselfe no further if once paine begin to intermeddle it selfe with hir we should reserve businesse and negotiations onely for so much as is behoofefull to keep vs in breath and to warrant vs from the inconveniences which the other extremitie of a base faint-harted idlenesse drawes after it There are certaine barren and thornie sciences which for the most part are forged for the multitude they should be left for those who are for the service of the world As for my selfe I love no books but such as are pleasant and easie and which tickle me or such as comfort and counsell me to direct my life and death tacitum sylvas inter reptare salubres Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonóque est Silently creeping midst the wholesome wood With care what 's for a wise-man and a good The wiser sort of men having a strong and vigorous mind may frame vnto themselves an altogether spirituall life But mine being common I must help to vphold my selfe by corporall commodities And age having estsoones dispoiled me of those that were most sutable to my fantasie I instruct and sharpen my appetite to those remaining most sortable this other season We must tooth-and naile retaine the vse of this lives pleasures which our yeares snatch from vs one after another Carpamus dulcia nostrum est Quod vivis cinis maenes fabula fies Plucke we sweet pleasures we thy life give thee Thou shalt a tale a ghost and ashes be Now concerning the end of glorie which Plinie and Cicero propose vnto vs it is far from my discourse The most opposit humour to solitarie retiring is ambition Glorie and rest are things that cannot squat
perswaded his Master could erre We reade of those of the Towne of Arras at what time king Lewis the eleventh tooke it that amongst the common people many were found who rather than they would say God save the King suffered themselves to be hanged And of those base-minded jesters or buffons some have bin seene that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out Rowe the Gally which was his ordinary by-word Another who being at his last gaspe his friends had laid him vpon a pallet alongest the fire-side there to breathe his last the Physitian demanding where his griefe pained him Answered betweene the bench and the fire And the Priest to give him the last vnction seeking for his feet which by reason of his sickenesse were shruncken vp he told him My good friend you shall finde them at my legges ends if you looke wel To another that exhorted him to recommend himself to God he asked who is going to him And the follow answering your selfe shortly If it be his good pleasure I would to God it might be to morrow night replied he Recommend but your selfe to him said the other and you shall quickly be there It is best then answered he that my selfe carry mine owne commendations to him In the Kingdome of Narsinga even at this day their Priests wives are buried alive with the bodies of their dead husbands All other wives are burnt at their husbands funerals not only constantly but cheerfully When their king dieth his wives his concubines his minions together with all his officers and servants which make a whole people present themselves so merrily vnto the fire wherein his bodie is burned that they manifestly seemâ to esteeme-it as a great honour to accompanie their deceased master to his ashes During our last warres of Millaine and so many takings losses miseries and calamities of that Citie the people impatient of so manie changes of fortune tooke such a resolution vnto death that I have heard my father say he kept accompt of five and twentie chiefe housholders that in one weeke made them-selves away An accident which hath some affinitie with that of the Xanthians who being besieged by Brutus did pell-mell-headlong men women and children precipitate them-selues into so furious a desire of death that nothing can be performed to avoid death which these did not accomplish to avoid life So that Brutus had much adoe to save a verie small number of-them Euery opinion is of sufficient power to take hold of a man in respect of life The first Article of that couragious oath which the Countrie of Greece did sweare and keep in the Median warre was that every particular man should rather change his life vnto death than the Persian lawes for theirs What a world of people are daily seene in the Turkish warres and the Graecians more willing to embrace a sharpe a bitter and violent death then to be vncircumcized and baptized An example whereof no religion is incapable The Kings of Castile having banished the Iewes out of their Countrie king Iohn of Portugall for eight crownes a man sold them a retreit in his dominion for a certaine time vpon condition the time expired they should avoid and he find them ships to transport them into Affrike The day of their departure come which past it was expressed that such as had not obeyed should for-ever remaine bond-slaves shippes were provided them but very scarse and sparingly And those which were imbarked were so rudely churlishly and villainously vsed by the passengers and marriners who besides infinit other indignites loitred so long on the seas now forward now backward that in the end they had consumed all their victuals and were forced if they would keepe themselves alive to purchase some of them at so excessive a rate and so long that they were never set a shore til they had brought them so bare that they had nothing lâât them but their shirts The newes of this barbarous inhumanity being reported to those that were yet on land most of them resolved to yeeld and continue bound-slaves whereof some made a semblance to change their religion Emanuel that immediately succeeded Iohn being come to the Crowne first set them at libertie then changing his minde commanded them to depart out of his dominions and for their passages assigned them three ports He hoped as Bishop Osorius reporteth a Latine Historian of our ages not to be despised that the favor of the libertie to which he had restored them having failed to convert them vnto Christianity the difficultie to commit themselves vnto marriners and pyrates robberies to leave a Country where they were setled with great riches for to go seeke vnknowen and strange regions would bring them into Portugall againe But seeing all his hopes frustrate that they purposed to passe away hee cut off two of the three ports he had promised them that so the tedious distance and incommoditie of the passage might retaine some or rather that he might have the meane to assemble them all together in one place for a fitter opportunitie of the execution he intended which was this Hee appointed that all their children vnder fourteene yeeres of age should be taken from out the handes of their parents and remooved from their sight and conversation to some place where they might be brought-vp and instructed in our religion He saith that this effect caused an horrible spectacle The naturall affection betweene the fathers and the children moreover the zeale vnto their ancient faith striving against this violent ordinance Diverse fathers and mothers were ordinarily seene to kill themselues and with a more cruell example through compassion and love to throw their yong children into pittes and welles thereby to shunne the Law The terme which he had prefixed them being expired for want of other meanes they yeelded vnto thraldome Some became Christians from whose faith and race even at this day for it is a hundred yeares since few Portugalles assure themselves although custome and length of time be much more forcible counsellors vnto such mutations that any other compulsion In the Towne of Castelnaw Darry more then fifty Albigeois all heretikes at one time with a determined courage suffred themselves to be burned alive all in one same fire before they would recant disavow their opinions Quoties non modò ductores nostri sed vniversi etiam exercitus ad non dubiam mortem concurrerunt How often have not only our Leader saith Tully but also our whole armies run roundly together to an vndoubted death I have seene one of my samiliar friends runne furiously on death with such and so deepely in his heart rooted affection by diverse visages of discourse which I could never suppresse in him and to the first that offered it selfe masked with a lustre of honour without apprehending any sharpe or violent end therein to precipitate himsefe We have many examples
in our daies yea in very children of such as for feare of some slight incómodity have yeelded vnto death And to this purpose saith an ancient Writer what shall we not feare if we feare that which cowardise it selfe hath chosen for her retrait Heere to huddle vp a long bead-rowle of those of all sexes conditions sects in most happie ages which either have expected death most constantly or sought for it voluntarily and not onely sought to avoid the evils of this life but some onely to shun the sacietie of living any longer and some for the hope of a better condition elsewhere I should never have done The number is so infinite that verily it would be an easier matter for me to reckon vp those that have feared the same Onely this more Pirro the philosopher finding himselfe vpon a very tempestuous day in a boat shewed them whom he perceived to be most affrighted through feare and encouraged them by the example of an hog that was amongst them and seemed to take no care at all for the storme Shall wee then dare to say that the advantage of reason whereat we seeme so much to rejoyce and for whose respect we account our selves Lords and Emperours of all other creatures hath beene infused into vs for our torment What availeth the knowledge of things if through them we become more demisse If thereby wee loose the rest and tranquilitie wherein we should be without them and if it makes vs of worse condition then was Pirrhos hog Shall we employ the intelligence heaven hath bestowed vpon vs for our greatest good to our ruine repugning natures desseigne and the vniversall order and vicissitude of things which implieth that every man should vse his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie Wel will some tel me let your rule fit you against death but what will you say of indigence and necessitie what will you also say of minde-grieving sorrow which Aristippus Hieronimus and most of the wisest have judged the last evill and those which denied the same in words confessed the same in effect Possidonius being extreamely tormented with a sharpe and painefull sickenesse Pompey came to see him and excused himselfe he had chosen so vnfit an houre to heare him discourse of Philosophie God forbid answered Possidonius that over paine should so farre vsurpe vpon me as to hinder me from discoursing of so woorthy a subiect And thereupon began to speake of the contempt of paine But there whilst she plaied her part and vncessantly pinched and vrged him gainst whom hee exclaimed Paine doe what thou list I shall never be drawne to say that thou art an evill That saying which they would make of such consequence what doth it inferre against the contempt of paine it contends but for the word And if the pangs thereof moove him not there whilst why breakes he off his discourse for it Why thinks he to worke a great exploit not to call it an evill All doth not consist in imagination Heere we judge of the rest It is assured learning that here doth play her part our owne senses are judges of it Qui nisi sunt veri ratio quoque falsa sit omnis Which sences if they be not true All reason 's false it must ensue Shall we make our skin beleeue the stripes of a whip doe tickle it and perswade our taste that Aloes be wine of Graves Pirrhos hog is here in our predicament He is nothing danted at death but if you beate him he will grunt crie and torment himselfe Shall wee force the generall law of nature which in all living creatures vnder heaven is seene to tremble at paine The very trees seeme to groane at offences Death is but felt by discourse because it is the motion of an instant Aut fuit aut veniet nihil est praesentis in illa Death hath come or it will not misse But in it nothing present is Mórsque minus poenae quà m mor a mortis habet Deaths pain 's lesse roundly acted Then when death is protracted A thousand beasts a thousand men are sooner dead then threatned Besides what wee principally call feare in death it is paine her customary fore-runner Neverthelesse if we must give credit to an ancient father Malam mortem non facit nisi quod sequitur mortem Nothing but what follows death makes death to be evill And I might more truly say that neither that which goeth before noâ that which commeth after is no appurtenance of death we falsely excuse our selves And I find by experience that it is rather the impatience of the imagination of death that makes vs impatient of the paine that we feele it two-fold grievous forasmuch as it threats vs to die But reason accusing our weakenesse to feare so sudden a thing so vnavoidable so insensible we take this other more excusable pretence All evils that have no other danger but of the evill we count them dangerlesse The tooth-âch the paine of the gowt how grievous soever because they kill not who reckoneth them in the number of maladies Well suppose that in death wee especially regard the paine As also povertie hath nothing to be feared for but what she casteth vpon vs through famine thirst colde heate and other miseries it makes vs feele and endure So have we nothing to do but with paine I will willingly grant them that it is the woorst accident of our being For I am the man that hate and shunne it as much as possible may be because hitherto thanks be vnto God I have no commerce or dealing with her But it is in our power if not to dissanull at least to diminish the same through patience And though the body should be mooved thereat yet to keepe the minde and reason in good temper And if it were not so who then hath brought vertue valour force magnanimitie and resolution into credit Where shall they play their part if there be no more paine defied Avida est periculi virtus Vertue is desirous of danger If a man must not lie on the hard ground armed at all assaies to endure the heat of the scorching Sunne to feed hungerly vpon a horse or an asse to see himselfe mangled and cut in peeces to have a bullet pluckt out of his bones to suffer incisions his flesh to be stitcht-vp cauterized and searched all incident to a martiall man how shall we purchase the advantage and preheminence which we so greedily seek-after over the vulgar sort It is far from avoiding the evill and paines of it as wise men say that of actions equally good one should most be wished to be done wherein is most paine and griefe Non enim hilaritate nec lascivia risu aut ioco comite levitatis sed saepe etiam tristes firmitate constantia sunt beati For men are not happy by mirthfulnesse or wantonnesse or laughing or iesting which is the companion of lightnesse but often even those that are
sorrowfull through their strong heart and constancie And therefore was it impossible to perswade our fathers that conquests atchieved by maine force in the hazard of warre were not more available and advantageous then those obtained in all securitie by practises and stratagems Laetius est quoties magno sibi constat honestum Honestie makes chiefest cheare When it doth cost it selfe most deare Moreover this ought to comfort vs that naturally if paine be violent it is also short if long it is easie Si gravis brâvis si longus levis If it be grievous it is short if it be long it is light Thou shalt not feel-it over long if thou feel-it over much it will either end it selfe or end thee All comes to one If thou beare not it it will beare thee away Memineris maximos morte finiri parvos multa habere intervalla requietis mediocrium nos esse dominos vt si tolerabiles sint feramâs sin minus è vita quum ea non placeat tanquà m è theatro exeamus Remember the greatest are ended with death the lesser have many pauses of rest we are masters of the meane ones so as if they be tolerable we may beare them if not we may make an Exit from our life which doth not please as from a stage That which makes vs endure paine with such impatience is that we are not accustomed to take our chiefe contentment in the soule and that we do not sufficiently relie on hir who is the onely and soveraigne mistris of our condition The bodie hath except the least or most but one course and one by ase The soule is variable in all maner of formes and rangeth to her selfe and to her estate whatsoever it be the senses of the bodie and all other accidents Therefore must she be studied enquired and sought-after and her powerfull springs and wardes should be rowzed vp There is neither reason nor prescription nor force can availe against her inclination and choâse Of so infinit byases that she hath in her disposition let vs allow hir one sutable and fit to our rest and preservation Then shall we not onely be sheltered from all offence but if it please her also gratified and flattered of all grievances and evils She indifferently makes profit of all even errours and dreames doe profitably bestead her as a loyall matter to bring-vs vnto safetie and contentment It may easilie be seen that the point of our spirit is that which sharpneth both paine and pleasure in vs. Beasts wanting the same leave their free and naturall senses vnto their bodies and by consequence single well nigh in every kind as they shew by the semblable application of their movings If in our members we did not trouble the jurisdiction which in that belongs vnto them it may be thought we should be the better for-it and that nature hath given them a just and moderate temperature toward pleasure and toward paine And it can not chuse but be good and just being equall and common But since we have freed and alienated our selves from her rules to abandon our selves vnto the vagabond libertie of our fantasies let vs at least help to bend them to the most agreeing side Plato feareth our sharp engaging vnto paine and voluptuousnesse forsomuch as he over-strictly tieth and bindeth the soule vnto the bodie I am rather opposite vnto him because it is sundred and loosed from it Even as an enemie becommeth more furious when we flie from him so doth paine grow more prowd if it see-vs tremble vnder it It will stoope and yeeld vpon better compositions to him that shall make head against-it A man must oppose and bandie against it In recoyling and giving ground we call and draw on the ruine threatning-vs Even as the bodie is more steadie and stronge to a charge if it stand stiffely to it so is the soule But let vs come to examples properly belonging vnto weak-backt men as I am where we shall find that it is with paine as with stones which take either a higher or deeper colour according to the foyle that is laide vnder them and holdeth no other place in vs then we give-it Tantum doluerunt quantum doloribus se inseruerunt So much they grieved as they interessed themselves in griefes We feel a dash of a chirurgions razor more then ten blews with a sword in the heat of fight The painfull throwes of child-bearing deemed both by Phisitians and by the word of God to be verâe great and which our women passe with so many ceremonies there are whole Nations that make no reckoning of them I omit to speake of the Lacedemonian women but come we to the Swizzers of our Infanterie what change doe you perceive in them But that trudging and trotting after their husbands to day you see them carrie the child about their necke which but yesterday they bare in their wombe And those counterfet roging Gyptians whereof so many are daily seene amongst vs doe they not wash their children so soone as they are borne And in the next river that comes to hand Besides so many harlots which daily steal their children in the deliverie as in the conception The heauteous and noble Ladie of Sabinus a Roman Patritian for the interest of others did alone without any bodies help or assistance and without noise or groning endure the bearing and deliverie of two twins A simple lad of Lacedemon having stolne a Foxe for they more feared the shame of their foolishnesse in stealing then we feare the paine or punishment of mis deeds and hiding the same vnder his cloake endured rather to have his guts gnawne out by hir then to discover himselfe An other who offering incense at a sacrifice suffered his flesh to burne to the bone by a coale falne into his sleeve rather then he would trouble that sacred mysteriâ And a great number have been seen for the onely essay of vertue following their institution that at the age of seaven yeares without so much as changing their countenance have indured to be whipped to death And Cicero hath seen whole troups to beat one aâ other so long with their ââsts with their feet and with their teeth till they have fainted and falne downe halfe dead before ever they would confesse to be overcome Nunquam ãâã mâs viâceret est enim ea semper invicta sed nos vmbris deliâijs otio languore desidââ animum infecimus opinionibus malóque more delinitum mollivimus Custome should never overcome nature for she is still invincible but we have infected our mind with shadowes daintinesse idlenesse faint hartednesse sloughtfulnesse and have effeminated it inveagled with opinions and evill custome Every man knowes the storie of Sââvola who being entred the enemies campe with a full resolution to kill their Chieftaine and having missed of his purpose to checke his effect with a stranger invention and to cleare his countrie confessed vnto Prosenna who was the King he intended
Bucephalus had a head shaped like vnto that of a bull that he suffered no man to get-on and sit-him but his master that none could wealde and manage him but he what honours were done him after his death all know for he had a Citie erected in his name Caesar likewise had another who had his fore-feet like vnto a mans with hoofes cloven in forme of fingers who could never be handled drest or mounted but by Caesar who when he died dedicated his image to the Goddesse Venus If I be once on horse-backe I alight verie vnwillingly for it is the seat I like best whether I be sound or sicke Plato commendeth-it to be availefuâ for health And Plinie affirmeth the same to be healthfull for the slomacke and for the ioynts And sithence we be falne into this subject let vs a little sollow-it I pray you We read of a law in Xenophon by which all men that either had or were able to keep a horse were expresly forbidden to travell and goe a foote Trogus and Iustââus report that the Parthians were not onely accustomed to warre on horse-backe but also to dispatch all their businesse and negotiate their affaires both publike and private as to batgaine to buy to sell to parlie to meet to entertaine one another and to converse and walke together and that the chiefest difference betweene free men and servants amongst them is that the first ever ride and the other goe alwaies on-foote An institution first devised by King Cyrus There are many examples in the Romane histories and Suetonius doth more particularly note it in Caesar of Captaines that commanded their horsemen to alight whensoever by occasion they should be vrged vnto it thereby to remove all maner of hope from their Souldiers to save themselves by flight and for the advantage they hoped-for in this maner of fight Quo haud dubiè superat Romanus Wherein vndantedly the Romanes is superiour to all saith Titus Livius yet shall we see that the first provision and chiefe meanes they vsed to bridle rebellion amongst their new conquered nations was to deprive them of all armes and horses Therefore find we so often in Caesar Arma proferri iâmenta produci obsides dari iubet He commands all their armour should be brought forth all their cattell should be driven out and hostages should be delivered The great Turke doth not permit at this day any Christian or Iew to have or keepe any horse for himselfe throughout all his large Empire Our ancestors and especially at what time we had warres with the English in all solemne combats or set battels would for the most part alight from their horses and fight on foote because they would not adventure to hazard so precious a thing as their honour and life but on the trust of their owne proper strength and vigour of their vndanted courage and confidence of their limbes Let Chrisanthes in Xenephon say what he pleaseth whosoever fighteth on horse-backe engageth his valour and hazardeth his fortune on that of his horse his hurts his stumbling his death drawes your life and fortune into consequence if he chance to startle or be afraide then are you induced to doubt or feare if to leape forward then to become rash and fond-hardie if he want a good mouth or a timely spurre your honour is bound to answer for-it And therefore do not I finde-it strange that those combats were more firme and furious then those which now we see foughten on horse backe cedebant pariter paritérque ruebant Victores victique neque his fuga nota neque illis The victors and the vanquisht both together Gave backe came on the flight was knowne in neither Their battels are seene much better compact and contrived They are now but bickerings and routs primus clamor atque impetus rem decernit The first shoute and shocke makes an end of the matter And the thing we call to helpe vs and keepe vs company in so great and hazardous an adventure ought as much as possible may be lie still in our disposition and absolute power A I would counsell a gentleman to chuse the shortest weapons and such as he may best assure himselfe-of It is most apparant that a man may better assure himselfe of a sworde he holdeth in his hand then of a bullet shot out of a pistoll to which belong so many severall parts as powder stone locke snap-hanse barrell stoke scowring-piece and many others whereof if the least faile or chance to breake and be distempered it is able to overthrow to hazard or miscarry your fortune Seldome doth that blow come or light on the marke it is aymed-at which the ayre doth carry Et quò ferre velint permittere vulnera a ventis Ensis habet vires gens quaecunque virorum est Bellae gerit gladij Giving windes leave to give wounds as they list But swords have strength and right men never mist With sword t'assalt and with sword to resist But concerning that weapon I shall more amplie speake of-it where I will make a comparison betweene ancient and moderne armes And except the astonishment and frighting of the eare which nowadaies is growne so familiar amongest men that none doth greatly feare-it I thinke it to be a weapon of small effect and hope to see the vse of-it abolished That wherewith the Italians were wont to throw with sire in-it was more frightfull and terrour-moving They were accustomed to name a kinde of âavelin Phalarica armed at one end with an yron pike of three foote long that it might pierce an armed man-through which lying in the field they vsed to lanch or hurle with the hand and sometimes to shoote out of certaine engânes for to defend besieged places the staffe whereof being wreath'd about with hempor flax all pitched and oiled over flying in theayre would soone be set-afre and lighting vpon any body or target deprived the partie âât therewith of all vse of weapons or limbes Me thinkes neverthelesse that comming to graple it might aswell hindââ the assailant as trouble the assailed and that the ground strewed with such burning truncheons might in a pell-mell-consusion produce a common incommoditie magâum stridens contorta phalarica venit Fulminis acta modo With monstrous buzzing came a fire-dart thirled As if a thunder-bolt had there beene whirled They had also other meanes to the vse of which custome enured them and that be reason of inexperience seeme incredible to-vs wherewith they supplied the defect of our powder and bullets They with such fury darted their Piles and with such force hurled their iavelins that they often pierced two targets and two armed men through as it were with a spit They hit as sure and as farre with their slings as with any other shot Saxis globosis funda mare apertum incessentes coronas modici circuli magno ex intervallo loci assueti traijcere non capita modò hostium vulnerabant sed quem locum
vnto him All haile Diogenes And to thee no health at all replied Diogenes that endurest to live in so wretched an estate True it is that a while after Speusippus as overtired with so languishing a condition of life compassed his owne death But this goeth not without some contradiction For many are of opinion that without the expresse commandement of him that hath placed vs in this world we may by no meanes forsake the garrison of it and that it is in the hands of God onely who therein hath placed-vs not for our selves alone but for his glorie and others service when ever it shall please him to discharge vs hence and not for vs to take leave That we are not borne for our selves but for our Countrie The Lawes for their owne interest require an accompt at our hands for our selves and have a just action of murther against-vs Else as forsakers of our owne charge we are punished in the other world Proxima deinde tenent moestiloca qui sibi let hum Insontes pâperere manu lucémque perosi Proiâcere animas Next place they lamentable hold in hell Whose hand their death caus'd causelesse but not well And hating life did thence their soules expell There is more constancie in vsing the chaine that holds-vs then in breaking the same and more triall of stedfastnesse in Regulus then in Cato It is indiscretion and impatience that hastneth our way No accidents can force a man to turne his backe from lively vertue She seeketh-out evils and sorrowes as her nourishment The threats of fell tyrants tortures and torments executioners and torturers doe animate and quicken her Duris vt ilex tânsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algidâ Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animúmque ferro As holme-tree doth with hard axe lopt On hils with many holme-trees topt From losse from cuttings it doth feel Courage and store rise ev'n from steel And as the other saith Non est vt put as virtus pater Timere vitam sed magis ingentibus Obstare nec se vertere ac retro dare Sir ti 's not vertue as you vnderstand To feare life but grosse mischiefe to withstand Not to retire turne backe at any hand Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem Fortius ille facit qui miser esse potest T' is easie in crosse chance death to despise He that can wretched be doth stronger rise It is the part of cowardlinesse and not of vertue to seek to squat it selfe in some hollowlurking hole or to hide her selfe vnder some massie tombe thereby to shun the strokes of fortune She never forsakes her course nor leaves her way what stormie weather soever crosse-her Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruina If the world broken should vpon her fall The ruines may her strike but not appall The avoyding of other inconveniences doth most commonly drive vs into this yea sometimes the shunning of death makes vs to run into it Hic rogo non furor est ââ moriare mori Madnesse is 't not say I To die lest you should die As those who for feare of a break-necke down-fall doe headlong cast themselves into-it multos in summa pericula misit Vââturi timor ipse mali fortissimus ille est Qui promptus metuenda pati si cominus instent Et differre potest The verie feare of ils to come hath sent Many to mightie dangers strongest they Who fearfull things t' endure are readie bent If they confront them yet can them delay vsque adeo mortis formidine vitae Percipit humanos odium lucâsque videndae Vt sibi consciscant moerenti pectore let hum Obâiâi fontem curarum hunc esse timorem So far by feare of death the hate of life And seeing-light doth men as men possesse They grieving kill themselves to end the strife Forgetting feare is spring of their distresse Plato in his lawes alots him that hath deprived his neerest and deerest friend of life that is to say himselfe and abridged him of the destinies course not constrained by any publike judgement nor by any lewde and inevitable accident of fortune nor by any intolerable shame or infamie but through basenesse of minde and weaknesse of a faint-fearfull courage to have a most ignominious and ever-reproachfull buriall And the opinion which disdaineth our life is rediculous For in fine it is our being It is our all in all Things that have a nobler and richer being may accuse ours But it is against nature we should despise and carelesly set our selves at naught It is a particular infirmitie and which is not seen in any other creature to hate and disdaine himselfe It is of like vanitie that we desire to be other then we are The fruit of such a desire doth not concerne-vs forasmuch as it contradicteth and hindereth it selfe in it selfe He that desireth to be made of a man an Angell doth nothing for himselfe He should be nothing the better by it And being no more who shall rejoice or conceive any gladnesse of this change or amendment for him Debet enim misârè fortè aegréque futurum est Ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore cùm male possit Accidere For he who shall perchance proove miserable And speed but ill should then himselfe be able To be himselfe when ills may chance vnstable The securitie indolencie impassibilitie and privation of this lives-evils which we purchase at the price of death bring vs no commoditie at all In vaine doth be avoide warre that can not inioy peace and bootâlesse doth ââ shun paine that hath no meanes to feel rest Amongst those of the first opinion great questioning hath been to know what occasions are sufficiently just and lawfull to make a man vndertake the killing of himselfe they call that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a reasonable orderly out-let For although they say a man must often die for slight causes since these that keep vs alive are not verie strong yet is some measure required in them There are certaine fantasticall and braine-sicke humors which have not only provoked particular men but whole Nations to defeat themselves I have heretofore alleaged some examples of them And moreover we read of certaine Miââsian virgins who vpon a surious conspiracie hanged themselves one after an other vntill such time as the Magistrate provided for it appointing that such as should be found so hanged should with their owne halters be dragged naked through the streets of the Citie When Threicion perswadeth Cleomânes to kill himselfe by reason of the bad and desperate estate his affaires stood in and having escaped a more honourable death in the battell which he had lately lost moveth him to accept of this other which is second to him in honour and give the conqueror no leisure to make him endure either another death or else a shamefull life Cleomenes with a Lacedemonian and Stoike courage
and little and so long adoing that my chiefe senses were much more enclining to death then to life Per che dubbiosa ancor del suo riterne Nons ' assicura at tonita la mente For yet the minde doubtfull it's returne Is not assured but astonished The remenbrance whereof which yet I beare deepely imprinted in my minde representing me hir visage and Idea so livele and so naturally doth in some sort reconcile me vnto hir And when I began to see it was with so dim so weake and so troubled a sight that I could not discrene any thing of the light come quel â'hor'aepre hor chiude Gliocchij mezzo tral sonno el esser desto As he that sometimes opens sometimes shuts His eyes betweene sleepe and awake Touching the function of the soule they started vp and came in the same progresse as those of the body I perceived my selfe all bloodie for my doublet was all sullied with the blood I had cast The first conceit I apprehended was that I had received some shot in my head and in truth at the same instant there were divers that shot round about vs. Me thought my selfe had no other hold of me but of my lippes-ends I closed mine eyes to helpe as me seemed to send it forth and tooke a kind of pleasure to linger and languishingly to let my selfe goe from my selfe It was an imagination swimming superficially in my minde as weake and as tender as all the rest but in truth not onely exempted from displeasure but rather commixt with that pleasant sweetenesse which they feele that suffer themselves to fall into a soft-slumbring and sense-entrancing sleepe I beleeve it is the same state they find themselves in whom in the agonie of death we see to droop and faint thorow weaknesse and am of opinion we plaine and moane them without cause esteeming that either they are agitated with grieveous pangs or that their soule is pressed with painfull cogitations It was ever my conceite against the opinion of many yea and against that of Stephanus la Boetie that those whom we see so overwhelmed and faintly-drooping at the approches of their end or vtterly cast downe with the lingring tediousnes of their deseases or by accident of some apoplexie or falling-evill vi morbi saepe âoactus Ante oculos aliquis nostros vt fulminis ictu Concidit spumas agit ingemit fremit artus Desipit extent at neruos torquetur anhelat Inconstanter in iactando membra fatigat Some man by force of sicknesse driu'n doth fall As if by thunder stroke before our eyes He fomes he grones he trembles over all He raves he stretches he 's vext panting lyes He tyr's his limmes by tossing Now this now that way crossing or hurt in the head whom we heare throb and rattle and send forth grones and gaspes although we gather some tokens from them whereby it seemeth they have yet some knowledge left and certain motions we see them make with their body I say I have ever thought they had their soule and body buried and a sleepe Viuat est vitae nescius ipse suae He lives yet knowes not he That he alive should be And I could not beleeve that at so great an astonishment of members and deffailance of senses the soule could maintaine any force within to know hirselfe and therefore had no manner of discourse tormenting them which might make them judge and feele the misery of their condition and that consequently they were not greatly to be moaned As for my selfe I imagine no state so intolerable nor condition so horrible as to have a feelingly-afflicted soule voide of meanes to disburthen and declare hir-selfe As I would say of those we send to execution having first caused their tongne to be cut out were it not that in this manner of death the most dumbe seemes vnto me the fittest namely if it be accompanied with a resolute and grave countenance And as those miserable prisoners which light in the hands of those hard-harted and villenous Souldiers of these times of whom they are tormented with all manner of cruell entreatie by compulsion to drawe them vnto some excessive and vnpossible ransome keeping them all that while in so hard a condition and place that they have no way left them to vtter their thoughts and expresse their miserie The Poets have fained there were some Gods that fauoured the release of such as sufferd so languishing deaths hunc ego Diti Sacrumiussa fero téque isto corpore soluo This to death sacred I as was my charge Doe beare and from this body thee enlarge And the faltering speeches and vncertaine answeres that by continuall ringing in their eares and incessantvrging them are somtimes by force wrested from them or by the motions which seeme to have some simpathie with that whereof they are examined is notwithstanding no witnes that they live at least a perfect sound life We doe also in yawning before fleep fully seize vpon vs apprehend as it were in a slumber what is done about vs and with a troubled and vncertain hearing follow the voyces which seeme to sound but on the outward limits of our soule and frame answers according to the last words we heard which taste more of chance then of sense which thing now I have proved by experience I âake no doubt but hitherto I have well judged of it For first lying as in a trance I laboââed even with my na les to open my doublet for I was vnarmed and well I wot that in âây imagination I felt nothing did hurt me For there are several motions in vs which preceed not of our free wil Semâanimésque micant digiti ferrúmque retractant The halfe-dead fingers stirre and feele Though it they cannot stirre for steele Those that fall doe commonly by a naturall impulsion cast their armes abroade before their falling which sheweth that our members have certaine offices which they lend one to another and possesse certain agitations apart from our discourse Falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra Vt tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod Decidit abscissum cùm mens tamen atque hominis vis Mobilitate mali non quit sentire dolorem They say sith-bearing chariots limbes bereave So as on earth that which cut-off they leave Doth seeme to quake when yet mans force and minde Doth not the paine through so quicke motion finde My stomacke was surcharged with clotted blood my hands of themselves were still running to it as often they are wont yea against the knowledg of our will where we feele it to itch There are many creatures yea and some men in whom after they are dead we may see their muskles to close and stirre All men know by experience there be some partes of our bodies which often without any consent of ours doe stirre stand and lie downe againe Now these passions which but exteriourly touch vs can not properly be
we see them following vs at our heeles supposing they solicite vs to be gone hence And if we were to feare that since the order of things beareth that they cannot indeede neither be nor live but by our being and life we should not meddle to be fathers As for mee I deeme it a kind of cruelty and injustice not to receive them into the share and society of our goods and to admit them as Partners in the vnderstanding of our domesticall affaires if they be once capable of it and not to cut off and shut vp our commodities to provide for theirs since we have engendred them to that purpose It is meere injustice to see an old crazed sinnow-shronken and nigh dead father sitting alone in a Chimny-corner to enjoy so many goods as would suffice for the preferment and entertainment of many children and in the meane while for want of meanes to suffer them to loose their best daies and yeares without thrusting them into publike service and knowledge of men whereby they are often cast into dispaire to seeke by some way how vnlawfull soever to provide for their necessaries And in my daies I have seene divers yong-men of good houses so given to stealing and filching that no correction could divert them from it I know one very well alied to whom at the instance of a brother of his a most honest gallant and vertuous Gentleman I spake to that purpose who boldly answered and confessed vnto me that onely by the rigor and covetise of his father he had beene forced and driuen to fall into such lewdnesse and wickednesse And even at that time he came from stealing certaine jewels from a Lady in whose bed-chamber he fortuned to come with certaine other Gentlemen when she was rising and had almost beene taken He made me remember a tale I had heard of an other Gentleman from his youth so fashioned and inclined to this goodly trade of pilfering that comming afterward to be heire and Lord of his owne goods resolved to giue over that manner of life could notwithstanding if he chanced to come neere a shop where he saw any thing he stood in neede of not chuse but steale the same though afterward he would ever send mony and pay for it And I have seene diverse so inured to that vice that amongst their companions they would ordinarily steale such things as they would restore againe I am a Gascoine and there is no vice wherein I have lesse skill I hate it somewhat more by complexion then I accuse it by discourse I doe not so much as desire another mans goods And although my Country-men be indeed somewhat more taxed with this fault then other Provinces of France yet have we seene of late daies and that sundry times men well borne and of good parentaeg in other parts of France in the hands of justice and lawfully convicted of many most horrible robberies I am of opinion that in regard of these debauches and lewd actions fathers may in some sort be blamed and that it is onely long of them And if any shall answer mee as did once a Gentleman of good worth and vnderstanding that he thriftily endevored to hoard vp riches to no other purpose nor to have any vse and commodity of them then to be honoured respected and suingly sought vnto by his friends and kinsfolkes and that age having bereaved him of all other forces it was the onely remedy he had left to maintaine himselfe in authority with his houshold and keepe him from falling into contempt and disdaine of all the world And truely according to Aristotle not onely old-age but each imbecility is the promoter and motive of couetousnesse That is something but it is a remedie for an evill whereof the birth should have beene hindered and breeding a voyded That father may truely be said miserable that holdeth the affection of his children tied vnto him by no other meanes then by the neede they have of his helpe or want of his assistance if that may be termed affection A man should yeeld himselfe respectable by vertue and sufficiency and amiable by his goodnesse and gentlenesse of maners The very cinders of so rich a matter have their value so have the bones and reliques of honourable men whom we hold in respect and reverence No age can be so crazed and drooping in a man that hath lived honourably but must needes prove venerable and especially vnto his children whose mindes ought so to be directed by the parents that reason and wisedome not necessity and neede nor rudenesse and compulsion may make them know and performe their duty errat longè mea quidem sententia Qui imperium credat esse gravius aut stabilius Vi quod fit quà m illud quod amicitia adiungitur In mine opinion he doth much mistake Who that command more graue more firme doth take Which force doth get then that which friendships make I vtterly condemne all maner of violence in the education of a yong spirit brought vp to honour and liberty There is a kinde of slavishnesse in churlish-rigor and servility in compulsion and I hold that that which can not be compaessed by reason wisedome and discretion can never be attained by âorce and constraint So was I brought vp they tell mee that in all my youth I never felt rod but twice and that very lightly And what education I have had my selfe the same have I given my children But such is my ill hap that they die all very yong yet hath Leonora my onely daughter escaped this misfortune and attained to the age of six yeares and somewhat more for the conduct of whose youth and punishment of hir childisn faults the indulgence of hir mother applying it selfe very mildely vnto it was never other meanes vsed but gentle words And were my desire frustrate there are diverse other causes to take hold-of without reproving my discipline which I know to be just and naturall I would also have beene much more religious in that towards male-children not borne to serve as women and of a freer condition I should have loved to have stored their minde with ingenuity and liberty I have seene no other effects in rods but to make childrens mindes more remisâe or more maliciously head-strong Desire we to be loved of our children Will we remove all occasions from them to wish our death although no occasion of so horrible and vnnaturall wishes can either be just or excusable nullum scelus rationem habet no ill deede hath a good reason Let vs reasonably accommodate their life with such things as are in our power And therfore should not we marry so yoong that our age doe in a maner confound it selfe with theirs For this inconvenience doth vnavoidably cast vs into many difficulties and encombrances This I speake chiefly vnto Nobility which is of an idle disposition or loâtering condition and which as we say liveth onely by hir lands or rents for else where life standeth
and consuming fire There were neither meanes enough or matter sufficient of crueltie vnlesse we had entermingled amongst them things which nature hath exempted from all sense and sufferance as reputation and the inventions of our minde and except we communicated corporall mischiefes vnto disciplines and monuments of the Muses Which losse Labienus could not endure nor brooke to survive those his deare and highly-esteemed issues And therefore caused himselfe to be carried and shut vp alive within his auncestors monument where with a dreadlesse resolution he at once provided both to kill himselfe and be buried together It is hard to shew any more vehement fatherly affection than that Cassius Severus a most eloquent man and his familiar friend seeing his Bookes burnt exclamed that by the same sentence hee should therewithall be condemned to be burned alive for hee still bare and kept in minde what they contained in them A like accident happened to Geruntius Cordââs who was accused to have commended Brutus and Cassius in his Bookes That base servile and corrupted Senate and worthie of a farre worse maister then Tiberius adjudged his writings to be consumed by fire And he was pleased to accompany them in their death for he pined away by abstaining from all manner of meat That notable man Lucane being adjudged by that lewd varlet Nero to death at the latter end of his life when al his bloud was well nigh spent from out the veines of his arme which by his Phisitian he had caused to be opened to hasten his death and that a chilling cold began to seize the vttermost parts of his limbes and approch his vitale spirits the last thing he had in memory was some of his owne verses written in his booke of the Pharsalian warres which with a distinct voice hee repeated and so yeelded vp the ghost having those last words in his mouth What was that but a kinde tender and fatherly farwell which he tooke of his children representing the last adewes and parting imbracements which at our death we give vnto our deerest issues And an effect of that naturall inclination which in that last extremity puts vs in minde of those things which in our life-time we have held dearest and most precious Shall we imagine that Epâcurus who as himselfe said dying tormented with the extreame paine of the chollike had all his comfort in the beauty of the doctrine which he left behinde him in the world would have received as much contentment of a number of well-borne and better-bred children if he had had any as he did of the production of his rich compositions And if it had beene in his choise to leave behind him either a counterfeit deformed or ill-borne childe or a foolish triviall and idle booke not onely he but all men in the world besides of like learning and sufficiency would much rather have chosen to incurre the former then the latter mischiefe It might peradventure be deemed impiety in Saint Augustine for example-sake if on the one part one should propose vnto him to bury all his bookes whence our religion receiveth so much good or to interre his children if in case he had any that he would not rather chuse to bury his children or the issue of his loynes then the fruits of of his minde And I wot not well whether my selfe should not much rather desire to beget and produce a perfectly-well-shaped and excellently-qualited infant by the acquaintance of the Muses then by the copulation of my wife Whatsoever I give to this let the world allow of it as it please I give it as purely and irrevocable as any man can give to his corporal children That little good which I have done him is no longer in my disposition He may know many things that my selfe know no longer and hold of me what I could not hold my selfe and which if neede should require I must borrow of him as of a stranger If I be wiser then he he is richer then I. There are few men given vnto Poesie that would not esteeme it for a greater honour to be the fathers of Virgils Aeneidos then of the goodliest boy in Rome and that would not rather endure the losse of the one then the perishing of the other For according to Aristotle Of all workemen the Poet is principally the most amorous of his productions and conceited of his Labours It is not easie to be believed that Epaminondas who vanted to leave some daughters behind him which vnto all posterity should one day highly honour their father they were the two famous victories which he had gained of the Lacedemonians would ever have given his free consent to change them with the best-borne most gorgeous and goodliest damsels of all Greece or that Alexander and Caesar did ever wish to be deprived of the greatnesse of their glorious deedes of warre for the commodity to have children and heires of their owne bodies how absolutely-perfect and well accomplished so ever they might be Nay I make a great question whether Phidtas or any other excellent statuary would as highly esteeme and dearely love the preservation and successefull continuance of his naturall children as he would an exquisite and match-lesse-wrought Image that with long study and diligent care he had perfected according vnto arte And as concerning those vicious and furious passions which sometimes have inflamed some fathers to the love of their daughters or mothers towards their sonnes the very same and more partially-earnest is also found in this other kinde of childe-bearing and aliance Witnesse that which is reported of Pigmalion who having curiously framed a goodly statue of a most singularly-beauteous woman was so strange-fondly and passionately surprised with the lustfull love of his owne workmanship that the Gods through his raging importunity were faine in favour of him to give it life Tentatum mollescit ebur positoque rigore Subsidit digitis As he assaid it th'yvorie softned much And hardnesse left did yeeld to fingers touch The ninth Chapter Of the Parthians Armes IT is a vitious fond fashion of the Nobility and gentry of our age and full of nice-tendernesse never to betake themselves to armes except vpon some vrgent and extreame necessity and to quit them as soone as they perceive the least hope or apparance that the danger is past Whence ensue many disorders and inconveniences For every one running and calling for his armes when the alarum is given some have not yet buckled their cuirace when their fellowes are already defeated Indeede our forefathers would have their Caske Lance Gantlets and Shields carried but so long as the service lasted themselves would never leave-off their other pieces Our troopes are now all confounded and disordered by reason of bag and baggage of carriages of lackies and foote-boies which because of their masters armes they carry can never leave them Titus Livius speaking of the French saith Intolerantissima laboris corpora vix arma humer is gerebant Their bodies most
both which with a naturall kinde of ligament or seame hold and are fastned together In such sort as what we speake we must first speake it vnto our selves and before we vtter and send the same forth to strangers we make it inwardly to sound vnto our eares I haue said all this to maintaine the coherency and resemblance that is in all humane things and to bring vs vnto the generall throng We are neither aboue nor vnder the rest what ever is vnder the coape of heaven saith the wise man runneth one law and followeth one fortune Indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis All things enfolded are In fatall bonds as fits their share Some difference there is there are orders and degrees but all is vnder the visage of one same nature res quaeque suo ritâ procedit omnes Foedere naturae certâ discrimina servant All things proceed in their course natures all Keepe difference as in their league dothe fall Man must be forced and marshalled within the listes of this policie Miserable man with all his wit cannot in effect goe beyond it he is embraced and engaged and as other creatures of his ranke are he is subjected in like bondes and without any prerogative or essentiall pre-excellencie what ever Priviledge he assume vnto himselfe he is of very meane condition That which is given by opinion or fantasie hath neither body nor taste And if it be so that he alone above all other Creatures hath this liberty of imagination and this licence of thoughts which represent vnto him both what is and what is not and what him pleaseth false-hood and truth it is an advantage bought at a very high rate and whereof he hath litle reason to glorie For thence springs the chiefest source of al the mischiefs that oppressehim as sinne sickenesse irresolution trouble and despaire But to come to my purpose I say therefore there is no likely-hood we should imagine the beasts doe the very same things by a naturall inclination and forced genuitie which we doe of our owne free-wil and industrie Of the very same effects we must conclude alike faculties and by the richest effects inferr the noblest faculties and consequently acknowledge that the same discourse and way we hold in working the very same or perhapps some other better doe beasts hold Wherefore shall we imagine that natural compulsion in them that prove no such effect our selves Since it is more honourable to be addressed to act and tyed to worke orderly by and through a naturall and vnavoideable condition and most approching to Divinitie then regularly to worke and act by and through a casuall and rash libertie and it is safer to leave the reignes of our conduct vnto nature then vnto our selves The vanitie of our presumption maketh vs rather to be beholding and as it were endebted vnto our owne strength for our sufficiency then vnto hir liberalitie and enrich other creatures with natural giftes and yeeld those vnto them that so we may en-noble and honour our selves with gifts purchased as me thinketh by a very simple humour For I would prize graces and value gifts that were altogether mine owne and naturall vnto me as much as I would those I had begged and with a long prentishippe shifted For It lyeth not in our power to obtaine a greater commendation then to be favored both of God and Nature By that reason the Foxe which the inhabitants of Thrace vse when they will attempt to march vpon the yce of some frozen river and to that end let hir go loose afore them should we see hir running alongst the river side approch hir eare close to the yce to listen whether by any farre or neere distance she may heare the noyse or roaring of the water running vnder the same and according as she perceiveth the ice thereby to be thicke or thinne to goe either forward or backeward might not we lawfully judge that the same discourse possesseth hir head as in like case it would ours And that it is a kinde of debating-reason and consequence drawen from naturall sense Whatsoever maketh a noyse moveth whatsoever mooveth is not frozen whatsoever is not frozen is liquide whatsoever is liquide yeelds vnder any weight For to impute that only to a quicknes of the sense of hearing without discourse or consequence is but a fond conceipt and cannot enter into my imagination The like must be judged of so many wiles and inventions wherewith beasts save themselves from the snares and scape the baâts we lay to entrap them And if we will take hold of any advantage tending to that purpose that it is in our power to seize vpon them to employ them to our service and to vse them at our pleasure it is but the same oddes we have one vpon another To which purpose wee have our slaves or bond-men and were not the Climacides certaine women in Syria which creeping on al foure vpon the ground served the Ladies in steed of footstoles or ladders to get vp into their coches Where the greater part of free men for very slight causes abandon both their life and being to the power of others The wives and Concubines of the Thracians strive and contend which of them shal be chosen to bee slaine over hir husbands or lovers tombe Have tyrants ever failed to find many men vowed to their devotion Where some for an over-plusse or superergation have added this necessity that they must necessarily accompany them as well in death as in life Whole hostes of men have thus tyed themselves vnto their Captaines The tenor of the oath ministred vnto the schollers that entered and were admitted the rude schoole of Roman Gladiators emplied these promises which was this We vow and sweare to suffer our selves to be enchained beaten burned and killed with the sword and endure whatsoever any lawfull fenser ought to endure for his maister most religiously engaging both our bodie and soule to the vse of his service Vre meum si vis flamma caput pete ferrâ Corpus intorto verbere âergaseca Burnetyrant if thou wilt my head with fire with sword My body strike my backe cut with hard-twisted cord Was not this a very strict covenant Yet were there some yeares ten thousand found that entered and lost themselves in those schooles When the Scithians buried their King they strangled over his dead body first the chiefest and best beloved of his Concubines then his Cup-bearer the Master of his horse his Chamberlaine the Vsher of his Chamber and his master Cooke And in his anniversary killed fiftie horse mounted with fifty Pages whom before they had slaine with thrusting sharpe stakes into their fondament which going vp along their chine-bone came out at their throte Whom thus mounted they set in orderly ranckes about the tombe The men that serve-vs doe it better cheape and for a lesse curious and favourable entreating then wee vse vnto birdes vnto horses and vnto dogges What carke and
the vigor both of her bodie and armes shall faile her For not onely to a strict Philosopher but simply to any setled man when he by experience feeleth the burning alteration of a hot fever what currant paiment is it to pay him with the remembrance of the sweetnesse of Greeke wine It would rather empaire his bargaine Che ricordarsi il ben doppia la noia For to thinke of our joy Redoubles our annoy Of that condition is this other counsell which Philosophie giveth onely to keepe forepast selicities in memorie and thence blot out such griefes as we have felt as if the skill to forget were in our power and counsell of which we have much lesse Suavis est laborum praeteritorum memoria Of labours overpast Remembrance hath sweet taste What shall Philosophie which ought to put the weapons into my hands to fight against fortune which should harden my courage to suppresse and lay at my feet all humane adversities will she so faint as to make me like a fearfull cunnie creepe into some lurking-hole and like a craven to tremble and yeeld For memorie representeth vnto vs not what we chuse but what pleaseth her Nay there is nothing so deeply imprinteth any thing in our remembrance as the desire to forget the same It is a good way to commend to the keeping and imprint any thing in our minde to solicite her to loose the same And that is false Est situm in nobis vt adversa quasi perpetua oblivione obruamus secunda iucundè suaviter meminerimus This is ingraffed in vs or at least in our power that we both burie in perpetuall oblivion things past against vs and record with pleasure and delight whatsoever was for vs. And this is true Memini etiam quae nolo oblivisci non possum quae volo I remember even those things I would not and can not forget what I would And whose counsell is this his Qui se vnus sapientem profiteri sit ausus Who onely durst professe himselfe a wise man Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit omnes Praestrinxit stellas exortus vti aetherius Sol. Who from all mankind bare for wit the prize And dimm'd the stars as when skies Sunne doth rise To emptie and diminish the memorie is it not the readie and onely way to ignorance Iuers malorum remedium ignorantia est Of ills a remedie by chance And verie dull is ignorance We see diverse like precepts by which we are permitted to borrow frivolous apparances from the vulgar sort where lively and strong reason is not of force sufficient alwaies provided they bring vs content and comfort Where they can not cure a sore they are pleased to stupifie and hide the same I am perswaded they will not denie me this that if they could possiblie adde any order or constancie to a mans life that it might thereby be still maintained in pleasure and tranquillitie by or through any weaknesse or infirmitie of judgement but they would accept-it potare spargere flores Incipiam patiárque vel inconsultus haberi I will begin to strew flowers and drinke free And suffer witlesse thriftlesse held to bee There should many Philosophers be found of Lycas his opinion This man in all other things being verie temperate and orderly in his demeanors living quietly and contentedly with his familie wanting of no dutie or office both toward his owne houshold and strangers verie carefully preserving himselfe from all hurtfull things notwithstanding through some alteration of his senses or spirites he was so possessed with this fantasticall conceipt or obstinate humour that he ever and continually thought to be amongst the Theaters where he still saw all manner of spectacles pastimes sports and the best Comedies of the world But being at last by the skill of Physitions cured of this maladie and his offending humour purged he could hardly be held from putting them in sute to the end they might restore him to the former pleasures and contents of his imagination polme occidistis amici Non servastis ait cui fic extorta voluptas Et demptus per vim menti gratissimus error You have not sav'd me friends but slaine me quite Quoth he from whom so reft is my delight And errour purg'd which best did please my spright Of a raving like vnto that of Thrâsylaus sonne vnto Pythodorus who verily believed that all the ships that went out from the haven of Pyraeum yea and all such as came into it did only travell about his businesse rejoycing when any of them had made a fortunate voyage and welcommed them with great gladnesse His brother Crito having caused him to be cured and restored to his better senses he much bewailed and grieved the condition wherein he had formerly lived in such joy and so voide of all care and griefe It is that which that ancient Greeke verse saith That not to be so advised brings many commodities with it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The sweetest life I wis In knowing nothing is And as Ecclesiastes witnesseth In much wisdome much sorrow And who getteth knowledge purchaseth sorrow and griefe Even that to which Philosophy doth in generall tearmes allow this last remedy which she ordaineth for all manner of necessities that is to make an end of that life which we can not endure Placet pare Non placet quacunque vis exi Pungit dolor velfodiat sanè si nudus es da iugulum sint ectus armis vulcanijs id est fortitudine resiste Doth it like you obey doth it not like you get out as you will doth griefe pricke you and let it perce you to if you be naked yeeld your throate but if you be covered with the armour of Vulcan that is with fortitude resist And that saying vsed of the Graecians in their banquets which they apply vnto it Aut bibat aut abeat Either let him carouse or carry him out of the house which rather fitteth the mouth of a Gascoine then that of Cicero who very easily doth change the letter B into V Vivere si recte nëscis decede peritis Lusisti satis edisti satis atque bibisti Tempus abire tibi est ne potum largiùs aequo Rideat pulset lasciva decentiùs aetas Live well you cannot them that can give place Well have you sported eaten well drunke well 'T is time you part least wanton youth with grace Laugh at and knocke you that with swilling swell what is it but a confession of his insufficiency and a sending one backe not only to ignorance there to be shrowded but vnto stupidity it selfe vnto vnsensiblenesse and not being Democritum post quà m matura vetustas Admonuit memorem motus languescere mentis Sponte sua let ho caput obvius obtulit ipse When ripe age put Democritus in minde That his mindes motions fainted he to finde His death went willing and his life resign'd It is
entered into admiration and reverence of it Thaleâ who was the first to enquire and finde out this matter esteemed God to bee a spirit who made all things of water Anaximander thought the Gods did dy and were new borne at divers seasons and that the worlds were infinite in number Anaximenes deemed the ayre to be a God which was created immense and alwaies mooving Anaxagoras was the first that held the description and manner of all things to be directed by the power and reason of a spirit infinit Alcmaeon hath ascribed Divinity vnto the Sunne vnto the Moone vnto Stars and vnto the Soule Pithagoras hath made God a spirit dispersed through the Nature of all things whence our soules are derived Parmenides a Circle circumpassing the heavens and by the heate of light maintaining the world Empedocles said the foure Natures whereof all things are made to be Gods Protagords that he had nothing to say whether they were or were not or what they were Democritus would sometimes say that the images and their circuitions were Gods and othertimes this Nature which disperseth these images and then our knowledge and intelligence Plato scattereth his beliefe after diverse semblances In his Tymeus he saith that the worlds-father could not be named In his Lawes that his being must not be enquired-after And else-where in the said bookes he maketh the world the heaven the starres the earth and our soules to be Gods and besides admiteth those that by ancient institutions have beene received in every Common-wealth Xenophon reporteth a like difference of Socrates his discipline Sometimes that Gods forme ought not to be inquired after then he makes him infer that the Sunne is a God and the Soule a God othertimes that there is but one and then more Speusippus Nephew vnto Plato makes God to be a certaine power governing all things and having a soule Aristotle saith sometimes that it is the spirit and sometimes the world othertimes he appoynteth another ruler over this world and sometimes he makes God to be the heat of heaven Xenocrates makes eight five named amongst the planets the sixth composed of all the fixed starres as of his owne members the seaventh and eight the Sunne and the Moone Heraclides Ponticus doth but roame among his opinions and in fine depriveth God of sense and maks him remoove and transchange himselfe from one forme to another and then saith that it is both heaven and earth Theophrastus in all his fantazies wandereth still in like irresolutions attributing the worldes superintendency now to the intelligence now to the heaven and now to the starres Straio that it is Nature having power to engender to augment and to diminish without forme or sense Zeno the naturall Lawe commaunding the good and prohibiting the evil which Lawe is a breathing creature and remooveth the accustomed Gods Iupiter Iuno and Vesta Diogenes Appolloniates that it is Age. Xenophanes makes God round seeing hearing not breathing and having nothing common with humane Nature Aristo deemeth the forme of God to bee incomprehensible and depriveth him of senses and wotteth not certainely whether he bee a breathing soule or something else Cleanthes sometimes reason othertimes the World now the soule of Nature and other-while the supreame heate enfoulding and containing all Persaeus Zenoes disciple hath beene of opinion that they were surnamed Gods who had brought some notable good or benefite vnto humane life or had invented profitable things Chrysippus made a confused huddle of all the foresaide sentences and amongst a thousand formes of the Gods which he faineth hee also accompteth those men that are immortalized Diagoras and Theodorus flatly denyed that there were anie Gods Epicurus makes the Gods bright-shining transparent and perflable placed as it were betweene two Forts betweene two Worldes safely sheltered from all blowes invested with a humane shape and with our members which vnto them are of no vse Ego Deûm genus esse semper duxi dicam câlitum Sed eos non curare opinor quid agat humanum genus I still thought and wil say of Gods there is a kinde But what our mankinde doth I thinke they nothing minde Trust to your Phylosophie boast to have hit the naile on the head or to have found out the beane of this Cake to see this coile and hurly-burly of so many Phylosophical wits The trouble or confusion of worldly shapes and formes hath gotten this of mee that customes and conceipts differing from mine doe not so much dislike me as instruct me and at what time I conferre or compare them together they doe not so much puffe me vp with pride as humble me with lowlinesse And each other choyse except that which commeth from the expresse hand of God seemeth to me a choyse of small prerogative or consequence The worlds policies are no lesse contrary one to another in this subject than the schooles Wherby we may learne that Fortune hirself is no more divers changing and variable than our reason nor more blinde and inconsiderat Things most vnknowne are fittest to bee deified Wherefore to make gods of our selves as antiquitie hath done it exceed the extreame weakensse of discourse I would rather have folowed those that worshipped the Serpent the Dogge and the Oxe forsomuch as their Nature and being is least knowne to vs and we may more lawfully imagine what we list of those beasts and ascribe extraordinarie faculties vnto them But to have made Gods of our condition whose imperfections we should know and to have attributed desire choller revenge marriages generation alliances love and jealousie our limmes and our bones our infirmities our pleasures our deathes and our Sepulchres vnto them hath of necessity proceeded from a meere and egregious sottishnesse or drunkennesse of mans wit Quae procul vsque adeo divino ab numine distant Inque Deûm numero quae sint indigna videri Which from Divinity so distant are To stand in rancke of Gods vnworthy farre Forma aetates vestitus ornatus noti sunt genera coniugia cognationes omniáque traducta ad similitudinem imbecillitatis humanae nam perturbatis animis inducuntur accipimus enim Deorum cupiditates agritudines iracundias Their shapes their ages their apparrell their furnitures are knowen their kindes their marriages their kindered and all translated to the likenesse of mans weakenesse For they are also brought in with mindes much troubled for we reade of the lust fulnesse the grievings the angrinesse of the Gods As to have ascribed Divinity not only vnto faith vertue honour concord liberty victory and piety but also vnto voluptuousnesse fraud death envie age and misery yea vnto feare vnto ague and vnto evill fortune and such other iniuries and wrongs to our fraile and transitory life Quid invat hoc templâs nostros inducere mores O curvae in terris animae calestium inanes What boots it into Temples to bring manners of our kindes O crooked soules on earth and voide of heavenly mindes The
Aegyptians with an impudent wisedome forbad vpon paine of hanging that no man should dare to say that Serapis and Isis their Gods had whilom been but men when all knew they had beene so And their images or pictures drawne with a finger a crosse their mouthes imported as Varro saith this misterious rule vnto their priests to conceale their mortall ofspring which by a necessary reason disanulled all their veneration Since man desired so much to equall himselfe to God it had beene better for him saith Cicero to draw those divine conditions vnto himselfe and bring them downe to earth then to send his corruption and place his miserie above in heaven but to take him aright he hath divers waies and with like vanitie of opinion done both the one and other When Philosophers blazon and display the Hierarchy of their gods and to the vtmost of their skil indevor to distinguish their aliances their charges and their powers I cannot beleeve they speake in good earnest when Plato decifreth vnto vs the orchard of Pluto and the commodities or corporall paines which even after the ruine and consumption of our bodie waite for vs and applyeth them to the apprehension or feeling we have in this life Secreti celant colles myrtia circùm Sylva tegit curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt Them paths aside conceale a mirtle grove Shades them round cares in death doe not remove When Mahomet promiseth vnto his followers aparadise all tapistred adorned with gold and precious stones peopled with exceeding beauteous damsels stored with wines and singular cates I well perceive they are but sooffers which sute and applie themselves vnto our foolishnesse thereby to enhonme and allure vs to these opinions and hopes fitting our mortall appetite Even so are some of our men falne into like errours by promising vnto themselves after their resurection a terrestriall and temporall life accompanied with al sorts of pleasures and worldly commodities Shall we thinke that Plato who had so heavenly conceptions and was so well acquainted with Divinity as of most he purchased the surname of Divine was ever of opinion that man this seely and wretched creature man had any one thing in him which might in any sort be applied and suted to this incomprehensible and vnspeakable power or ever imagined that our languishing hold fasts were capable or the vertue of our vnderstanding of force to participate or be partakers either of the blessednesse or eternall punishment He ought in the behalfe of humane reason be answered If the pleasures thou promisest vs in the other life are such as I have felt heere below they have nothing in them common with infinity If all my five naturall senses were even surcharged with joy and gladnesse and my soule possessed with all the contents and delights it could possibly desire or hope for and we know what it either can wish or hope for yet were it nothing If there bee any thing that is mine then is there nothing that is Divine if it be nothing else but what may appertaine vnto this our present condition it may not be accounted-of All mortall mens contentment is mortall The acknowledging of our parents of our children and of our friends if it can not touch move or tickle vs in the other world if we still take hold of such a pleasure we continue in Terrestrial and transitorie commodities We can not worthily conceive of these high mysterious and divine promises if wee can but in any sorte conceive them and so imagine them aright they must be thought to be inimaginable vnspeakeable and incomprehensible and absolutely and perfectly other then those of our miserable experience No eye can behold saith Sainte Paul The happe that God prepareth for his elect nor can it possibly enter the heart of man And if to make vs capable of it as thou saith Plato by thy purifications our being is reformed and essence changed it must be by so extreame and vniversall a change that according to Philosophicall doctrine we shall be no more our selves Hector erat tunc cùm bello certabat at ille Trâctus ab Aemonio non er at Hector equo Hector he was when he in fight vs'd force Hector he was not drawne by th' enemies horse it shall be some other thing that shall receive these recompences quod mutatur dissolvitur interit ergo Traijciuntur enim partes at que ordine migrant What is chang'd is dissolved therefore dies Translated parts in order fall and rise For in the Metempsychosis or transmigration of soules of Pithagoras and the change of habitation which he imagined the soules to make shall we thinke that the Lion in whom abideth the soule of Caesar doth wed the passions which concerned Caesar or that it is hee And if it were hee those had some reason who debating this opinion against Plato object that the sonne might one day bee found committing with his mother vnder the shape of a Mules body and such like absurdities And shall wee imagine that in the transmigrations which are made from the bodies of some creatures into others of the same kind the new succeeding-ones are not other then their predecessors were Of a Phenixes cinders first as they say is engendred a worme and then another Phenix who can imagine that this second Phenix be no other and different from the first Our Silk-wormes are seene to die and then to wither drie and of that body breedeth a Butter-flie and of that a worme were it not ridiculous to thinke the same to be the first Silkeworm what hath once lost his being is no more Nec si materiam nostram collegerit aetas Post obitum rursúmque redegerit vt sita nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae Pertineat quidquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel cùm sit repet entia nostra If time should recollect when life is past Our stuffe and it replace as now t is plac't And light of life were granted vs againe Yet nothing would that deede to vs pertaine When interrupted were our turne againe And Plato when in another place thou saist that it shall be the spirituall part of man that shall enjoy the recompences of the other life thou tellest of things of as small likely-hood Scilicet avulsis radicibus vt nequit vllam Dispicere ipse oculus rem seorsum corpore toto Ev'n as no eye by th'root's pull'd-out can see Ought in whole body severall to bee For by this reckoning it shall no longer be man nor consequently vs to whom this enjoying shall appertaine for we are builte of two principall essentiall parts the separation of which is the death and consummation of our being Inter enim iacta est vitai causa vagèque Dâârrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes A pause of life is interpos'd from sense All motions straied are farre wandring thence we doe not say that man
the Aegyptian Priests taught Solon Athenâs tenue coelum ex quo etiam acutiores putantur Aâtici crassum Thebis itaque pingues Thebani valentes About Athens is a thin aire whereby those Country-men are esteemed the sharper-âitted About Thebes the aire is grose and therefore the Thebans were grose and strong of constitution In such manner that as fruites and beasts doe spring vp diverse and different So men are borne either more or lesse warlike martiall just temperate and docile heere subject to wine there to theft and whoredome heere inclined to superstition addicted to mis-believing heere given to liberty there to servitude capable of some one Arte or Science grose-witted or ingenious either obedient or rebellious good or bad according as the inclination of the place beareth where they are seated and being remooved from one soile to another as plants are they take a new complexion which was the cause that Cirus would never permit the Persians to leave their barren rough and craggie Country for to transport themselves into another more gentle more fertile and more plaine saying that fat and delicious countries make men wanton and effeminat and fertile soiles yeeld infertile spirites If sometimes we see one arte to florish or a beliefe and sometimes another by some heauenly influence some ages to produce this or that nature and so to encline mankind to this or that biase mens spirits one while flourishing another while barren even as fields are seene to be what become of all those goodly prerogatives wherwith we still flatter our selves Since a wise man may mistake himselfe yea many men and whole nations and as wee say means nature either in one thing or other hath for many ages together mistaken hirselfe What assurance have we that at any time she leaveth her mistaking and that she continueth not even at this day in hir error Me thinkes amongst other testimonies of our imbecilities this one ought not to be forgotten that by wishing it selfe man cannot yet finde out what he wanteth that not by enjoying our possessing but by imagination and full wishing we can not all agree in one that we most stand in need-of and would best content vs. Let our imagination have free libertie to cut out and sew at her pleasure she cannot so much as desire what is fittest to please and content her quid enim ratione timemus Aut cupimus quid tam dextro pede concipis vt te Conatus non poeniteat votique peracti By reason what doe we feare or desire With such dexteritie what doest aspire But thou eftsoones repentest it Though thy attempt and vow doe hit That is the reason why Socrates never requested the gods to give him any thing but what they knew to be good for him And the publike and private prayer of the Lacedemonians did meerely implie that good and faire things might be granted them remitting the election and choise of them to the discretion of the highest power Coniugium petimus partúmque vxoris at illi Notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit vxor We wish a wife wifes breeding we would know What children shall our wife be sheep or shrow And the Christian beseecheth God that his will may be done least he should fall into that inconvenience which Poets faine of King Midas who requested of the Gods that whatsoever he toucht might be converted into gold his praiers were heard his wine was gold his bread gold the feathers of his bed his shirt and his garments were turned into gold so that he found himselfe overwhelmed in the injoying of his desire and being enrich't with an intollerable commoditie he must now vnpray his prayers Attonitus novitate mali divésque misérque Effugere optat opes quae modó voverat odit Wretched and rich amaz'd at so strange ill His riches he would flie hates his owne will Let me speake of my selfe being yet verie yong I besought fortune above all things that she would make me a knight of the order of Saint Michaell which in those daies was verie rare and the highest tipe of honour the French Nobilitie aymed at She verie kindly granted my request I had it In liew of raising and advancing me from my place for the attaining of it she hath much more graciously entreated me she hath abased and depressed it even vnto my shoulders and vnder Cleobis and Biton Trophonius and Agamedes the two first having besought the Goddesse the two latter their God of some recompence worthie their pietie received death for a reward So much are heavenly opinions different from ours concerning what we have need-of God might grant vs riches honours long life and health but many times to our owne hurt For whatsoever is pleasing to vs is not alwayes healthfull for vs If in liew of former health he send vs death or some worse sicknesse Virga tua baculus tuus ipsa me consolata sunt Thy rod and thy staffe hath comforted me He doth it by the reasons of his providence which more certainly considereth and regardeth what is meet for vs then we our selves can doe and we ought to take it in good part as from a most wise and thrice-friendy-hand si concilium vis Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid Conveniat nobis rebúsque sit vtile nostris Charior est illis homo quám sibi If you will counsell have give the Gods leave To weigh what is most meet we should receive And what for our estate most profit were To them then to himselfe man is more deare For to crave honours and charges of them is to request them to cast you in some battle or play at hazard or some such thing whereof the event is vnknowne to you and the fruit vncertaine There is no combate amongst Philosophers so violent and sharpe as that which ariseth vpon the question of mans chiefe felicitie from which according to Varroes calculation arose two hundred and foure score Sects Qui autem de summo bono dissentit de tota Philosophiae ratione disputat But he that disagrees about the chiefest felicitie cals in question the whole course of Philosophie Tres mihi convivae propè dissentire videntur Poscentes vario multum diversâpalato Quid dem quid non dem renuis tu quod iubet alter Quod petis id sanè est invisum acidúmque duobus Three guests of mine doe seeme almost at ods to fall Whilst they with divers taste for divers things doe call What should I give What not You wil not what he will What you would to them twaine is hatefull sowre and ill Nature should thus answer their contestations and debates Some say our felicitie consisteth and is in Vertue Others in voluptuousnesse Others in yeelding vnto Nature Some others in learning others in feeling no maner of paine or sorrow Others for a man never to suffer himselfe to be carried away by apparances and to this opinion seemeth this other of
fortuna in omni re dominatur Ea res cunctas ex libidine magis quà m ex vero celebrat obscurátque Fortune governeth in al things and either advancethor abaseth them rather by froward disposition then vpright iudgement To make actions to be knowen and seene is the meere worke of fortune It is chance that applyeth glory vnto vs according to her temeritie I have often seene it to goe before desert yea and many times to out-goe merite by very much He that first bethought himselfe of the resemblance betweene shadow and glory did better than he thought of They are exceeding vaine things It also often goeth before hir body and sometimes exceeds by much in length Those who teach Nobility to seeke in valour nothing but honor Quasi non sit honestum quod nobilitatum non sit As though it were not honest except it were ennobled What gaine they by it But to instruct them never to hazard themselves vnlesse they be seene of others and to be very heedy whether such witnesses are by that may report newes of their valour whereas a thousand occasions to doe well are dayly offered and no man by to marke them How many notable particular actions are buried in the throng of a Battell Whosoever ammuseth himselfe to controule others in so confused a hurly-burly is not greatly busied about it and produceth the testimony which hee giveth of his fellowes proceedings or exploits against himselfe Vera sapiens animi magnitudo honestum illud quod maxime naturam sequitur in factis positum non in gloria iudicat A true and wise magnanimitie esteemeth that honesty which especially followeth Nature to consist in good actions and not in glory All the glory I pretend in my life is that I have lived quietly Quietly not accord to Metrodorius Arcesilas or Aristippus but according to my selfe Since Philosophie could never finde any way for tranquility that might be generally good let every man in his particular seeke for it To whom are Caesar and Alexander beholding for that infinite greatnes of their renowne but to fortune How many men hath she suppressed in the beginning of their progresse of whom we have no knowledge at all who bare the same courage that others did if the il fortune of their chance had not staid them even in the budding of their enterprises Amongst so many and so extreame dangers to my remembrance I never read that Caesar received any hurt A thousand have dyed in lesse danger than the least of those he escaped Many worthy exploits and excellent deedes must be lost before one can come to any good A man is not alwayes vpon the toppe of a breache nor in the front of an army in the sight of his Generall as vpon a stage A man may be surprised betweene a hedge and a ditch A man is sometimes put to his sodaine shifts as to try his fortune against a Hens-roost to ferret out foure seely shotte out of some barne yea and sometimes straggle alone from his troupes and enterprise according as necessity and occasion offereth it selfe And if it be well noted in mine advise it will be found and experience doth teach it that the least blazoned occasions are the most dangerous and that in our late home-warres more good men have perished in slight and little-importing occasions and incontention about a small cottage than in worthy atchievements and honourable places Who so thinketh his death il emploied except it be in some glorious exploite or famous attempt in liew of dignifying his death he happily obscureth his life Suffering in the meane time many just and honor affoording oportunties to escape wherein he might and ought adventure himselfe And all just occasions are glorious enough his owne conscience publishing them sufficiently to all men Gloria nostra est testimonium conscientiâ nostra Our glory is the testimony of our conscience He that is not an honest man but by that which other men know by him and because he shall the better be esteemed being knowne to be so that will not do well but vpon condition his vertue may come to the knowledge of men such a one is no man from whom any great service may be drawne or good expected Credo ch'il reste di quel verne cose Facesse degne di tenerne conto Ma fur fin'a quel tempo si nâscose Che non è colpa mia s'hor'non le conto Perche Orlando a far'âpre virtuose Piu ch'à narrarle poisempre era pronto Ne mai fu alcun'de li suoi fatti espresso Senen quando hebbe i testimonij appresso I guesse he of that winter all the rest Atchiev'd exploites whereof to keepe account But they vntill that time were so supprest As now my fault t' is not them not to count Because Orlando ever was more prest To doe than tell deeds that might all surmount Nor was there any of his deeds related Vnlesse some witnesse were associated A man must goe to wars for his devoirs sake and expect this recompence of it which cannot faile all worthy actions how secret soever no not to vertuous thoughts It is the contenment that a well disposed conscience receiveth in it selfe by well doing A man must be valiant for himselfe and for the advantage he hath to have his courage placed in a constant and assured seate to withstand all assaults of fortune Virtus repulsae nesciâ sordide Iutaminatis fulget honoribus Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis aârae Vertue vnskill'd to take repulse that 's base In vndefiled honors clearely shines At the dispose of peoples airy grace She signes of honor tak's not nor resignes It is not onely for an exterior shew or ostentaion that our soule must play hir part but inwardly within our selves where no eyes shine but ours There it dooth shroud vs from the feare of death of sorrowes and of shame There it assureth vs from the losse of our children friends and fortunes and when oportunitie is offerd it also leades vs to the dangers of warre Non emolumento aliquo sed ipsius honestatis decore Not for any advantage but for the greacefulnes of honestie it selfe This benefit is much greater and more worthie to be wished and hoped then honor and glorie which is nought but a favorable judgement that is made of vs. Wee are often driven to empanell and select a jury of twelve men out of a whole countrie to determine of an acre of land And the judgement of our inclinations and actions the waightiest and hardest matter that is we referre it to the idle breath of the vaine voice of the common sort and base raskalitie which is the mother of ignorance of injustice and inconstancie Is it reason to make the life of a wise man depend on the judgement of fooles An quidquam stultius quà m quos singulos contemnas eos aliquid putare esse vniverses Is there any thing more foolish then to thinke
poetae confugiunt ad Deum cùm explicare argumenti exitum non pâssunt As Poets that write Tragedies have recourse to some God when they cannot vnfold the end of their argument Since men by reason of their insufficiencie cannot well pay themselves with good lawfull coyne let them also employ false mony This meane hath beene practised by all the law-givers And there is no common-wealth where there is not some mixture either of ceremonious vanitie or of false opinion which as a restraint serveth to keepe the people in awe and dutie It is therefore that most of them have such fabulous grounds and trifling beginnings and enriched with supernaturall mysteries It is that which hath given credite vnto adulterate and vnlawful religions and hath induced men of vnderstanding to favour and countenance them And therefore did Numa and Sertorius to make their men have a beter beliefe feede them with this foppery the one that the Nimph Egeria the other that his white Hinde brought him all the counsel she tooke from the Gods And the same authoritie which Numa gave his Lawes vnder the title of this Goddesses patronage Zoroastres Law giver to the Bactrians and Persians gave it to his vnder the name of the God Oromâzis Trismegistus of the Aegyptians of Mercurie Zamolzis of the Scithians of Vesta Charondas of the Chalcid onians of Saturne Minos of the Candiots of Iupiter Lycurgus of the Lacedemonians of Apollo Dracon and Solon of the Athenians of Minerva And every common wealth hath a God to her chief all others falsly but that truly which Moses instituted for the people of Iewry desceded from Aegypt The Bedoins religion as saith the Lord of Iovinuile held among other things that his soule which among them al died for his Prince went directly into another more happy body much fairer and stronger than the first by means wherof they much more willingly hazarded their live for his sake In ferrum mens pronavirââ animaque capaces Mortis ignavum est rediturae parcerevitae Those men sword minded can death entertaine Thinke base to spare the life that turnes againe Loe-heere although very vaine a most needefull doctrine and profitable beliefe Everie Nation hath store of such examples in itselfe But this subject would require a severall discourse Yet to say a word more concerning my former purpose I doe not counsell Ladies any longer to call their duty honour vt enim consuetudo loquitur id solum dicitur honestum quod est populari famâ gloriosum For as custome speakes that onely is called honest which is glorious by popular report Their duty is the marke their honour but the barke of it Nor doe I perswade them to give vs this excuse of their refusall in payment for I suppose their intentions their desire and their will which are parts wherein honor can see nothing forasmuch as nothing appeareth outwardly there are vet more ordred then the effects Quae quia non liceat non facit illa facit She doth it though she doe it not Because she may not doe 't God wot The offence both toward God and in conscience would be as great to desire it as to effect the same Besides they are in themselves actions secret and hid it might easily be they would steale some one from others knowledge whence honor dependeth had they no other respect to their duty and affection which they beare vnto chastity in regard of it selfe Each honorable person chuseth rather to loose his honour then to forgoe his conscience The seuenteenth Chapter Of Presumption THere is another kinde of glorie which is an over-good opinion we conceive of our worth It is an inconsiderate affection wherewith wee cherish our selves which presents-vs vnto our selves other then wee are As an amorous passion addeth beauties and lendeth graces to the subject it embraceth and maketh such as are therewith possessed with a troubled conceite and distracted Iudgement to deeme what they love and finde what they affect to bee other and seeme more perfect then in trueth it is Yet would I not have a man for feare of offending in that point to misacknowledge himselfe nor thinke to bee lesse then hee is A true Iudgement should wholy and in every respect maintaine his right It is reason that as in other things so in this subject hee see what truth presenteh vnto him If hee be Caesar let him hardly deeme himselfe the greatest Captaine of the world We are nought but ceremonie ceremonie doth transport vs and wee leave the substance of things wee hold-fast by the boughs and leave the trunke or body We have taught Ladies to blush onely by hearing that named which they nothing feare to doe Wee dare not call our members by their proper names and feare not to employ them in all kinde of dissolutenesse Ceremonie forbids vs by words to expresse lawfull and naturall things and we believe it Reason willeth vs to doe no bad or vnlawfull things and no man giveth credite vnto it Heare I find my selfe entangled in the lawes of Ceremonie for it neither allowes a man to speake ill or good of himselfe Therefore will wee leave her at this time Those whom Fortune whether wee shall name her good or bad hath made to passe their life in some eminent or conspicuous degree may by their publike actions witnesse what they are but those whom she never emploied but in base things and of whom no man shall ever speake except themselves doe it they are excusable if they dare speake of themselves to such as have interest in their acquaintance after the example of Lucilius Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim Credebat libris neque si malè cesser at vsquam Decurreâs aliâ neque si benè quo fit vt omnis Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ Vita sânis He trusted to his booke as to his trusty friend His secrets nor did he to other refuge bend How ever well or ill with him his fortune went Hence is it all the life is seene the old man spent As it were in a Table noted Which were vnto some God devoted This man committed his actions and imaginations to his paper and as he felt so he pourtraied himselfe Nec id Rutiliâ Scauro citra fidem aut obârectationifuit Nor was that without credit or any imputation to Rutilius or Scaurus I remember then that even from my tenderest infancy some noted in me a kind of I know not what fashion in carrying of my body and gestures witnessing a certaine vaine and foolish fiercenesse This I will first say of it that it is not inconvenient to have conditions so peculiar and propensions so incorporated in vs that we have no meane to feele or way to know them And of such naturall inclinations vnknowne to vs and without our consent the body doth easily retaine some signe or impression It was an affectation witting of his beauty which made Alexander to bend his head
to ingenuitie and ever to speake truth and what I thinke both by complexion and by intention leaving the successe thereof vnto fortune Aristippus said that the chiefest commoditie her reaped by Philosophie was that he spake freely and sincerely to all men Memory is an instrument of great service and without which judgement will hardly discharge his duty whereof I have great want What a man will propose vnto me he must doe it by peece-meales For to answer to a discourse that hath many heads lieth not in my power I cannot receive a charge except I have my writing tables about me and if I must remember a discourse of any consequence be it of any length I am driven to this vile and miserable necessitie to learne every word I must speake by rote otherwise I should never doe it well or assuredly for feare my memory should in my greatest need faile me which is very hard vnto me for I must have three houres to learne three verses Moreover in any long discourse the libertie or authoritie to remoove the order to change a word vncessantly altering the matter makes it more difficult to bee confirmed in the authors memory And the more I distrust it the more it troubleth me It serveth me better by chance and I must carelesly sollicite her for if I vrge her she is astonished and if it once beginne to waver the more I sound her the more entangled and intricate shee proveth She will wait vpon me when she list not when I please And what I feele in my memorie I feele in many other parts of mine I eschew commandement duty and compulsion What I doe easily and naturally if I resolve to doe it by expresse and prescribed appointment I can then doe it no more Even in my body those parts that have some liberty and more particular jurisdiction doe sometimes refuse to obey me if at any time I appoint and enjoine them to doe me some necessary services This forced and tyrannicall preordinance doth reject them and they either for spight or feare shrinke and are quailed Being once in a place where it is reputed a barbarous discourtesie not to pledge those that drinke to you where although I were vsed with all liberty in favour of certaine Ladies that were in companie according to the fashion of the countrey I would needs play the good fellow But it made vs all mery for the threats and preparation that I should force my selfe beyond my naturall custome did in such sort stop and stuffe my throat that I was not able to swallow one drop and was barr'd of drinking all the repast I found my selfe glutted and full of drinke by the overmuch swilling that my imagination had fore-conceived This effect is more apparant in those whose imagination is more vehement and strong yet it is naturall and there is no man but shall sometimes have a feeling of it An excellent Archer being condemned to death was offered to have his life saved if he would but shew any notable triall of his profession refused to make proofe of it fearing lest the contention of his will should make him to misse-direct his hand and that in lieu of saving his life hee might also lose the reputation he had gotten in shooting in a bow A man whose thoughts are busie about other matters shall very neere within an inch keepe and alwaies hit one selfe same number and measure of paces in a place where he walketh but if heedily hee endevour to measure and count them he shall finde that what he did by nature and chance he cannot doe it so exactly by desseigne My Library which for a countrey Library may passe for a very faire one is seated in a corner of my house if any thing come into my minde that either I must goe seeke or write in it for feare I should forget it in crossing of my Court I must desire some other body to remember the same for me If speaking I embolden my selfe never so little to digresse from my Discourse I doe ever loose it which makes mee to keepe my selfe in my speech forced neere and close Those that serve me I must ever call them either by their office or countrey for I finde it very hard to remember names Well may I say it hath three sillables that it's sound is harsh or that it beginneth or endeth with such a letter And should I live long I doubt not but I might forget mine own name as some others have done heretofore Messala Corvinus lived two yeeres without any memory at all which is also reported of George Trapezoncius And for mine owne interest I doe often ruminate what manner of life theirs was and whether wanting that part I shall have sufficient to maintaine myselfe in any good sort which looking neere vnto I feare that this defect if it be perfect shall loose all the functions of my soule Plenus rimarum sum hâc atque illâc perfluo I am so full of holes I can not holde I runne out ev'ry way when tales are tolde It hath often befallen me to forget the word which but three houres before I had either given or received of another and to forget where I had layed my purse let Cicero say what he list I helpe my selfe to loose what I perticularly locke vp Memoria certè non modè Philosophiam sed omnis vitae vsum omnésque artes vna maximè continet Assuredly memorie alone of all other things compriseth not onely Philosophy but the vse of our whole life and all the sciences Memorie is the receptacle and case of knowledge Mine being so weake I have no great cause to complaine if I know but little I know the names of Artes in Generall and what they treate of but nothing further I turne and tosse over bookes but do not studie them what of them remaines in me is a thing which I no longer acknowledge to be any bodies else Onely by that hath my judgement profited and the discourses and imaginations wherewith it is instructed and trained vp The Authours the place the words and other circumstances I sodainely forget and am so excellent in forgetting that as much as any thing else I forget mine owne writings and compositions Yea mine owne sayings are every hand-while alleaged against my selfe when God wot I perceive it not He that would know of me whence or from whom the verses or examples which here I have hudled vp are taken should greatly put me to my shifts I could hardly tell it him Yet have I not begged them but at famous and very well knowen gates which though they were rich in themselves did never please me vnlesse they also came from rich and honourable hands and that authority concurre with reason It is no great marvell if my booke follow the fortune of other bookes and my memory forgoe or forget as well what I write as what I reade and what I give as well as what I receive Besides the defect of
replyed I thanke Iesus Christ that he hath deprived me of my sight that so I might not view thy impudent face affecting therby as they say a kind of Philosophicall patience So it is this part cannot be referred to the cruelties which he is said to have exercised against vs. He was saith Eutropius my other testimony an enemy vnto Christianity but without shedding of bloud But to returne to his justice he can be accused of nothing but of the rigors he vsed in the beginning of his Empire against such as had followed the faction of Constantius his Predecessour Concerning sobrietie he ever lived a Souldiers kinde of life and in time of peace would feede no otherwise than one who prepared and enured himselfe to the austeritie of warre Such was his vigilancie that he divided the night into three or foure parts the least of which hee allotted vnto sleepe the rest he employed in visiting the state of his army and his guardes or in study for amongest other his rare qualities he was most excellent in all sorts of learning It is reported of Alexander the Great that being laide down to rest fearing lest sleep should divert him from his thoughts and studies he caused a basen to be set neere his bed side and holding one of his handes out with a brazen ball in it that if sleepe should surprize him loosing his fingers endes the ball falling into the basen might with the noyse rouze him from out his sleepe This man had a mind so bent to what he vndertook and by reason of his singular abstinence so little troubled with vapours that he might well have past this devise Touching military sufficiencie he was admirable in all partes belonging to a great Captaine So was he almost all his life time in continuall exercise of War and the greater part with vs in France against the Alemans and French Wee have no great memorie of any man that either hath seene more dangers nor that more often hath made triall of his person His death hath some affinitie with that of Epaminoudas for being strucken with an arrow and attempting to pull it out he had surely done it but that being sharpe-cutting it hurt and weakened his hand In that plight he earnestly requested to bee carryed forth in the middest of his army that so he might encourage his souldiers who without him couragiously maintained the battell vntill such time as darke night severed the Armies Hee was beholding to Philosophie for a singular centempt both of himselfe and of all humane things Hee assuredly believed the eternitie of soules In matters of religion he was vicious every-where He was surnamed Apostata because he had forsaken ours notwithstanding this opinion seemes to mee more likely that never tooke it to hart but that for the obedience which he bare to the lawes he dissembled til he had gotten the Empire into his hands He was so superstitious in his that even such as lived in his time and were of his owne religion mocked him for it and it was saide that if he had gained the Victory of the Parthians hee would have consumed the race or breede of Oxen to satisfie his sacrifices He was also besetted with the Art of sooth saying and gave authoritie to all manner of prognostikes Amongst other things hee spake at his death he saide he was much beholding to the Gods and greatly thanked them that they had not suffred him to be slaine sodainely or by surprize as having long before warned him both of the place and houre of his end nor to die of a base and easie death more beseeming idle and effeminate Persons nor of a lingring languishing and dolorous death and that they had deemed him worthy to end his life so nobly in the course of his victories and in the flower of his glory There had before appeared a vision vnto him like vnto that of Marcus Brutus which first threatned him in Gaule and afterward even at the point of his death presented it selfe to him in Persia The speach he is made to speake when he felt himselfe hurt Thou hast vanquished ô Nazaraean or as some wil have it Content thy self oh Nazaraean would scarce have beene forgotten had it beene believed of my testimonies who being present in the army have noted even the least motions and wordes at his death no more than certaine other wonders which they annex vnto it But to returne to my theame he had long before as saith Marcellinus hatched Paganisme in his hart but forsomuch as he saw all those of his armie to be Christians he durst not discover him selfe In the end when he found himselfe to be sufficiently strong and durst publish his minde he caused the Temples of his Gods to be opened and by all meanes endevoured to advance idolatrie And to attaine his purpose having found in Constantinople the people very loose and at ods with the Prelates of the christian church and caused them to appeare before him in his pallace he instantly admonished them to appease all their civill dissentions and every one without hinderance or feare apply themselves to follow and serve religion Which he verie carefully sollicited hoping this licence might encrease the factions and controversies of the division and hinder the people from growing to any vnity and by consequence from fortifying themselves against him by reason of their concord and in one mind-agreeing intelligence having by the cruelty of some Christians found that There is no beast in the world so much of man to be feared as man Loe-heere his very words or very neare Wherin this is worthy consideration that the Emperor Iulian vseth the same receipt of libertie of conscience to enkindle the trouble of civill dissention which our Kings employ to extinguish It may be saide on one side that To give factions the bridle to entertaine their opinion is to scater contention and sew division and as it were to lend it a hand to augment and encrease the same There beeing no Barre or Obstacle of Lawes to bridle or hinder hir course But on the other side it might also bevrged that to give factions the bridle to vpholde their opinion is by that facilitie and ease the readie way to mollifie and release them and to blunt the edge which is sharpned by rarenesse noveltie and difficultie And if for the honour of our Kings devotion I believe better it is that since they could not doe as they would they have fained to will what they could not The twentieth Chapter We taste nothing purely THe weakenes of our condition causeth that things in their naturall simplicitie and puritie cannot fall into our vse The elements we enjoy are altered Metals likewise yea golde must be empaired with some other stuffe to make it fit for our service Nor vertue so simple which Ariston Pirrho and the Stoikes made the end of their life hath beene able to doe no good without composition Nor the Cirenaike sensualitie or Aristippian voluptuousnes
sundry prognostications that one Phocas a Souldier at that time yet vnknowne should kill him demanded of Philip his sonne in law who that Phocas was his nature his conditions and customes and how amongst other things Philip told him he was a fainte cowardly and timorousfellow The Emperour thereby presently concluded that he was both cruell and a murtherer What makes tyrants so bloud-thirstie it is the care of their securitie and that their faint-hart yeelds them no other meanes to assure themselves then by rooting out those which may in any sort offend them yea silly women for feare they should or bite or scrach them Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet Of all things he afraide At all things fiercely laide The first cruelties are exercised by themselves thence proceedeth the feare of a just revenge which afterward produceth a swarme of new cruelties by the one to stisâle the other Philip the King of Macedon who had so many crowes to pull with the Romanes agitated by the horrour of so many murthers committed by his appointment and vnable to make his partie good or to take any saue resolution against so many families by him at severall times injuried resolved at last to seize vpon all their children whom he had caused to be murthered that so he might day by day one after another rid the world of them and so establish his safety Matters of worth are not impertinent wheresoever they be placed I who rather respect the weight and benefite of discourses then their order and placing neede not feare to place here at randone a notable storie When they are so rich of their owne beautie and may very well vpholde themselves alone I am content with a haires end to fitte or joyne them to my purpose Amongst others who had beene condemned by Philip was one Herodicus Prince of the Thessalians After whome he caused his two sonnes in lawe to bee put to death each of them leaving a yoong sonne behinde him Theoxena and Arco were the two widdowes Theoxena although shee were instantly vrged therevnto coulde never be induced to marry againe Arco tooke to husbande Poris a chiefe man amongst the Aenians and by him had diverse children all which she left very yoong Theoxena moved by a motherly charitie toward her yoong nephewes and so to have them in her protection and bringing vp wedded Poris Vpon this came out the proclamation of the Kings Edict This noble-minded mother distrusting the kings crueltie and fearing the mercilesnes of his Satelities or officers towards these noble hopefull and tender youths feared not to say that shee would rather kil them with her owne hands then deliver them Poris amazed at her protestations promiseth her secretly to convey them to Athens there by some of his faithfull friends to be kept safely They take occasion of an yearely feast which to the honor of Aeneas was solemnized at Aenia and thither they goe where having all day-long assisted to the ceremonies and publike banket night being come they convay themselves iuto a shippe appointed for that purpose in hope to save themselves by Sea But the winde fell out so contrarie that the next morning they found themselves in view of the towne whence the night before they had hoised sailes where they were pursued by the guarders and Souldiers of the Porte Which Poris perceiving laboured to hasten and encourage the Mariners to shift away But Theoxena enraged through love and revenge remembring her first resolution prepared both weapons and poison and presenting them to their sight thus shee bespake them Oh my deere children take a good heart death is now the onely meane of your defence and libertie and shall be a just cause vnto the Gods for their holy justice These bright-keene blades these full cuppes shall free you the passage vnto it Courage therefore and thou my eldest childe take this sworde to die the strongest death Who on the one side hauing so vndaunted a perswader and on the other their enemies ready to cut their throates in furious manner ranne all to that which came next to his hand And so all goared and panting were throwne into the Sea Theoxena prowde shee had so gloriouslie provided for her childrens safety lovingly embracing her husband saide thus vnto him Oh my deare heart let vs follow these boyes and together with them enjoy one selfe same graue And so close-claspt-together they flung themselves in to the maine So that the ship was brought to shoare againe but emptie of hir Maisters Tyrants to act two things together that is to kill and cause their rage to be felt have employed the vtmost of their skill to devise lingring deaths They will have their enemies die yet not so soone but that they may have leisure to feele their vengeance Wherein they are in great perplexitie for if the torments be over-violent they are short if lingring not grievous inough In this they imploy their wits and devises Many examples whereof we see in antiquitie and I wot not whether wittingly we retaine some spice of that barbariâme Whatsoever is beyond a simple death seemeth to mee meere crueltie Our justice cannot hope that he whom the terror of death cannot dismay be he to be hanged or beheaded can in any sort be troubled with the imagination of a languishing fire of a wheele or of burning pincers And I wot not whether in that meane time we bring him to despaire For what plight can the soule of a man be in that is broken vpon wheele or after the olde fashion nailed vpon a Crosse and xxiiij houres together expects his death Iosephus reporteth that whilest the Romane warres continued in Iurie passing by a place where certaine Iewes had beene crucified three dayes before he knew three of his friends amongst them and having gotten leave to remoove then two of them died but the third lived long after Chalcondylas a man of credite in the memories he left off matters happened in his time and thereabouts maketh report of an extreame torment the Emperor Mechmed was often wont to put in practise which was by one onely blow of a Cimitary or broad Persian Sword to have men cutte in two parts by the waste of the body about the Diaphragma which is a membrane lying ouerthwart the lower part of the breast separating the heart and lights from the stomake which caused them to dy two deaths at once and affirmeth that both parts were seene full of life to moove and stirre long time after as if they had beene in lingring torment I doe not thinke they felt any great torture in that mooving The gastliest torments to looke vpon are not alwaiâs the greatest to be endured And I finde that much more fiercely-horrible which other Historians write and which he vsed against certain Lords of Epirus whom faire and leasurely he caused to be fleade all over disposed by so malicious a dispensation that their lives continued fifteene daies in that languor and anguish And these two
others Croesus having caused a Gentleman to be apprehended greatly favoured by Pantaleon his brother led him into a fullers or cloth-workers shoppe where with Cardes and Teazles belonging to that trade he made him to be carded scraped and teazled so long vntill he died of it George Sechell Ring-leader of the Countrymen of Polina who vnder the title of a Croysada wrought so many mischiefes having beene defeated in a battell by the Vayvoda of Transilvania and taken Prisoner was for three dayes together tyed naked to a woden-horse exposed to all maner of tottures any man might devise against him during which time divers other prisoners were kept fasting At last he yet living saw Lueat his deare brother and for whose safety he saued and entreated forced to drinke his bloud drawing all the envie and hatred of his misdeedes vpon himselfe And twentie of his most favoured Captaines were compelled to feed vpon his flesh which with their teeth they must teare off and swallow their morsels The rest of his body and entrailes he being dead were boiled in a pan and given for foode to other of his followers The eight and twentieth Chapter All things have their season THose who compare Cato the Censor to Cââo the yonger that killed himselfe compare two notable natures and in forme neare one vnto another The first exploited his sundrie waies and excelleth in militarie exploites and vtilitie of his publike vacations But the yongers vertue besides that it were blasphemie in vigor to compare any vnto him was much more sincere and vnspotted For who will discharge the Censores of envie and ambition that durst counter-checke the honor of Scipio in goodnesse and all other parts of excellencie farre greater and better than him or any other man living in his age Amongst other things reported of him this is one that in his eldest yeares he gave himselfe with so ernest a longing to learne the Greeke tong as if it had been to quench a long burning thirst A thing in mine opinion not very honorable in him It is properly that which we call doting or to become a child againe All things have their season yea the good and all And I may say my Pator noster out of season As T. Quintius Flaminius was accused forasmuch as being Generall of an Army even in the houre of the conflict he was seene to withdraw himselfe apart ammusing himselfe to pray God although he gained the battell Imponit finem sapiens rebus honestis A wise-man will vse moderation Even in things of commendation Eudemonidas seeing Xenocrates very old laboriously apply himself in his Schoole-lectures said when will this man know something since he is yet learning And Philopoemen to those who highly extolled King Ptolomey because he daily hardned his body to the exercise of armes It is not said he a matter commendable in a King of his age in them to exercise himselfe he should now really and substancially imploy them Wise men say that yoong-men should make their preparations and old men enioy them And the greatest vice they note in vs is that our desires doe vncessantly grow yonger and yonger We are ever beginning a new to live Our studies and our desires should sometimes have a feeling of age We have a foote in the grave and our appetites and pursuites are but new-borne Tusecanda marmora Locas sub ipsum funus sepulcri Immemor struis domos You when you should be going to your grave Put Marble out to worke build houses brave Vnmindfull of the buriall you must have The longest of my desseignes doth not extend to a whole yeare now I onely apply my selfe to make an end I shake off all my newe hopes and enterprises I bid my last farewell to all the places I leave and daily dispossesse my selfe of what I have Olim iam nec peris quicquam mihi nec acquiritur Plus superest viatici quam viae It is a good while since I neither loose nor get any thing I have more to beare my charges then way to goe Vixi quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi I have liv'd and the race have past Wherein my fortune had me plast To conclude it is all the ease I finde in my age and that it suppresseth many cares and desires in me wherewith life is much disquieted The care of the worlds course the care of riches of greatnesse of knowledge of health and of my selfe This man learneth to speake when he should rather learne to hold his peace for ever A man may alwaies continue his studie but not schooling O fond-foolish for an old man to be ever an Abcedarian Diversos diversa iuuant non omnibus annis Omnia conveniunt Diverse delights to diverse nor to all Do all things at all yeares convenient fall If we must needes study let vs study something sorteable to our condition that we may answer as he did who being demanded what his studies would steade him in his decrepity answered that he might the better and with more ease leave this world Such a study was yoong Catoes in âore feeling his approaching end who lighting vpon Platoes discourse of the soules immortality Not as it may be supposed that long before he had not stored himselfe with all sorts of munition for such a dislodging Of assurance of constancy and instruction he had more then Plato hath in all his writings His Science and his courage were in this respect above all Philosophie Hee vndertooke this occupation not for the service of his death but as one who did not so much as interrupt his sleepe in a deliberation of such consequence whoever without choise or change continued his wonted studies and all other accustomed actions of his life The same night wherein the Pretorship was refused him he passed over in play That wherein he must die he spent in reading The losse of life or office was all one to him The nine and twentieth Chapter Of Vertue I Finde by experience that there is great difference betweene the sodaine fits and fantasies of the soule and a resolute disposition and constant habitude And I see there is nothing but we may attaine vnto yea as some say to exceede Divinitie it selfe forsomuch as it is more to become impassible of himselfe then to be so by his originall condition And that one may joyne a resolution and assurance of God to mans imbecilitie But it is by fits And in the lives of those Heroes or noble worthies of former ages are often found wonderfull parts and which seeme greatly to exceede our naturall forces but they are prankes or parts consonant to truth and it may hardly be believed mans soule may so be tainted and fed with those so high-raised conditions that vnto it they may become as ordinary and naturall It hapneth vnto our selves who are but abortiue broodes of men sometimes to rowze our soule farre beyond her ordinary pitch as stirred vp by the discourses or
huge multitude for feare they might breede a confusion This example is new to feare to bee over many yet if it be well taken it is very likely that The bodie of an Armie ought to have a well proportioned greatnesse and ordered to indifferent bounds Whether it be for the difficulty to feed the same or to lead it in order and keepe it in awe And we may easily verifie by examples that These numerous and infinite Armies haue seldome brought any not able thing to passe According to Cyrus his saying in Xenophon It is not the multitude of men but the number of good men that causeth an advantage The rest rather breeding confusion and trouble than helpe or availe And Baiazeth tooke the chiefest foundation of his resolution against the advise of all his Captaines to joyne fight with Tamburlane onely because the innumerable number of men which his enemie brought into the field gave him an assured hope of route and confusion Scanderbeg a sufficient and most expert Iudge in such a case was wont to say that tenne or twelve thousand trusty and resolute fighting men ought to suffice any sufficient Chieftaine of Warre to warrant his reputation in any kinde of military exploite The other point which seemeth to be repugnant both vnto custome and reason of Warre is that Vercingentorix who was appointed chiefe Generall of all the forces of the revolted Gaules vndertooke to immure and shutte himselfe into Alexia For He that hath the commaundement of a whole Countrie ought never to engage himselfe except in cases of extreamitie and where all his rest and last refuge goeth on it and hath no other hope lest him but the defence of such a place Otherwise he ought to keepe himselfe free that so he may have meanes to provide in all partes of his Government But to returne to Caesar hee became in time somewhat more slow heedy and considerate as witnesseth his familiar friend Oppius deeming he should not so easily hazard the honour of so many Victories which one onely disaster or mis-encounter might make him loose It is that the Italians are wont to say when they will or blame or reproach any man with this overdaring or rash fond-hardinesle which is often seene in yoong men calling them Bisognosid honore as much to say as needie of honour And that being yet hungrie greedy and voyde of reputation they have reason to seeke after it whatsoever it may cost them Which they should never doe that have already acquired the same There may be some just moderation in this desire of glory and some sacietie in this appetite as well as in others Divers doe so practize it He was farre from that religion of the auncient Romans who in their Warres would never prevaile but with meere and genuine vertue But rather joyned more conscience vnto it than now-adayes wee should doe And would never allow of all meanes were he never so certaine to get the victory In his Warres against Ariovistus whilest he was in Parly with him some tumult or insurrection happened betweene the two armies which beganne by the fault or negligence of some of Ariovistus horsmen In which hurlie-burlie Caesar found himselfe to have a great advantage over his enâemies which notwithstanding he would not embrace for feare he might be taxed or suspected to have proceeded falsly or consented to any trechery At what time soever hee went to fight he was accustomed to weare a verie rich garment and of a sheene and garish colour that so he might the better be marked When his Souldiers were neerest vnto their enemies he restrained and kept them very short When the ancient Graecians would accuse or tax any man of extreame insufficiencie they vsed this common Proverbe That he could neyther read nor swimme And himselfe was of this opinion that the arte of swimming was most necessary and beneficiall in Warre and a Souldier might reape divers commodities by it If hee were in haste and to make speede he would ordinarily swimme over al the Rivers hee met withal and loved greatly to travell on foote as Alexander the Great was wont In Aegypt being on a time forced to save himselfe to leape into a little Whirry or Boate and so many of his people following him that he was in danger to sinke hee rather chose to fling himselfe into the Sea which he did and swimming came into his fleete that was more than two hundred paces from him holding his writing-Tables in his left hand out of the Water and with his teeth drawing his Coate of Armes after him that his enemies might not enjoy it and this did hee being well strucken in yeares No Generall of Warre had ever so much credit with his Souldiers In the beginning of his civill warres his Centeniers offered him every one at their owne charges to pay and finde him a man at Armes and his foote men to serve him for nothing and those that were best able to defray the poore and needie Our late Admirall of France Lord Chastillion in our late civill warres shewed such an example For the French-men of his armie at their proper cost and charges helped to pay such strangers as followed him Few examples of so loving and earnest affection may bee found amongst those that follow the old manner of warre and strictly hold themselves vnder the ancient pollicie of their lawes Passion hath more sway over vs then reason Yet hath it chanced in the warres against Hanniball that imitating the example of the Romane Peoples liberalitie in the Cittie the Souldiers and Captaines refused their pay and in Marcellus his campe those were called mercenarie that tooke any pay Having had some defeate neere vnto Dyrrachium his Souldiers came voluntarily before him and offred themselves to be punished so that he was more troubled to comfort then to chide them One onely of his Cohortes whereof ten went to a Legion held fight above foure howres with foure of Pompeies whole Legions vntill it was well-nigh all defeated with the multitude and force of arrowes And in his trenches were afterward found one hundred and thirtie thousand shafts A Souldier of his named Scava who commanded one of the entrances did so invincibly defend and keepe himselfe that he had one of his eyes thrust out and one shoulder and one thigh thrust through and his sheild flawed and pearced in two hundred and thirtie severall places It hath befalne to many of his Souldiers being taken prisoners to chuse rather to die then promise to follow any other faction or receive any other entertainement Granius Petronius taken by Scipio in Affricke After Scipio had caused all his fellowes to bee put to death sent him word that hee gave him his life forsomuch as hee was a man of ranke and a Questor Petronius answered that Caesars Souldiers were wont to give life to others and not accept it themselves And therewithall with his owne handes killed himselfe Infinite examples there are of their fidelitie That part which they
acted who were beseiged in Salona a Cittie which tooke partwith Caesar against Pompey must not be forgotten by reason of a rare accident that there hapned Marcus Oâtavius having long time beleagred the Towne they within were reduced to such extreamitie and pinching necessitie of all things that to supply the great want they had of men most of them being alreadie or hurt or dead they had set all their slaues at libertie and for the behoofe of their engines were compelled to cut-off all their womens haires to make ropes with them besides a wonderfull lacke of victualles resolving notwithstanding never to yeeld themselves After they had a long time lingered the siege and that Octavius was thereby become more carelesse and lesse heeding or attentive to his enterprise they one day about high noone having first ranged their wives and children vpon the walles to set the better face vpon the matter rushed out in such a furie vpon the beseigers that having put to rout and defeated the first the second and third corps de garde then the fourth and the rest and having forced them to quit their trenches chased them even to their shippes and Octavius with much adoe saved himselfe in Dyrrachium where Pompey was I remember not at this time to have read of any other example where the beleagred doe in grosse beate the beleagrers and get the maistrye and possession of the field nor that a sallie hath drawne a meere and absolute victory of a battell into consequence The five and thirtieth Chapter Of three good women THey are not to be had be dozens as each one knowes namely in rights and duties of mariage For it is a bargaine full of so many thornie circumstances that it is hard the will of a woman should long keepe hir selfe whole and perfect therein And although men have somewhat a better condition in the same yet have they much to doe The touchstone and perfect triall of a good mariage respects the time that the societie continueth whether it have constantly beene milde loyall and commodious In our age they more commonly reserve to enstall their good offices and set foorth the vehemence of their affections toward their lost husbands And then seeke they at least to yeeld some testimonie of their good wil. Oh late testimony out of season whereby they rather shew they never love them but when they are dead Our life is full of combustion and scolding but our disease full of love and of curtesie As fathers conceale affection toward their children so they to maintaine an honest respect cloake their love toward their husbands This mysterie answereth not my taste They may long enough scratch and dishevell themselues let me enquire of a chamber-maide or of a secretarie how they were how they did and how they have lived together I can never forget this good saying Iactantius maerent quae minus dolent They keepe a âowling with most ostentation who are lesse sorrowfull at heart Their lowring and puling is hatefull to the living and vaine to the dead Wee shall easily dispence with them to laugh at vs when we are dead vpon condition they smile vpon vs while we live Is not this the way to reviue a man with spite that he who hath spitten in my face when I was living shall come and clawe my feete when I am dead If there be any honour for a woman to weepe for hir husband it belongs to hir that hath smiled vpon him when she had him Such as have wept when they lived let them laugh when they are dead as well outwardly as inwardly Moreover regard not those blubred eyes nor that pittie-mooving voyce but view that demeanor that colour and cheerefull good plight of those cheekes vnder their great vailes thence it is she speakes plaine French There are few whose health doth not daily growe better and better a qualitie that cannot lie This ceremonious countenance looketh not so much backeward as foreward It is rather a purchase then a payment In mine infancie an honest and most faire Ladie who yet liveth the widdowe of a Prince had somewhat more of I wot not what in hir attires then the lawes of widowehood would well permit To such as blamed hir for it ât is said shee because I intend no more new acquaintances and have no mind at all to marry againe Because I will not altogether dissent from out custome I have heere made choise of three women who have also employed the vtmost endevor of their goodnes and affection about their husbandes deathes Yet are they examples somewhat different and so vrging that they hardly drawe life into consequence Plinie the yonger had dwelling neere vnto a house of his in Italie a neighbour wonderfully tormented with certaine vlcers which much troubled him in his secret parts His wife perceiving him to droope and languish away entreated him she might leasurely search and neerely view the qualitie of his disease and she would more freely then any other tell him what hee was to hope for Which having obtained and curiously considered the same shee found it impossible ever to be cured and all he might expect was but to lead a long dolorous and languishing life and therefore for his more safetie and soveraigne remedie perswaded him to kill himselfe And finding him somewhat nice and backeward to effect so rude an enterprise Thinke not my deare friend quoth shee but that the sorrowes and griefes I see thee feele touch me as neere and more if more may be as they selfe and that to be rid of them I will applie the same remedie to my selfe which I prescribe to thee I will accompanie thee in thy cure as I have done in thy sickenesse remoove all feare and assure they selfe we shall have pleasure in this passage which shall deliver vs from all torments for we will happily goe together That said and having cheared vp her husbands courage she determined they should both headlong throw themselves into the sea from out a window of their house that over looked the same and to maintaine this loyall vehement and never to be severed affection to the end wherewith shee had during his life embraced him shee would also have him die in her armes and fearing they might faile her and through the fall or feare or apprehension her hold-fast might be loosed shee caused herselfe to be fast bound vnto him by the middle And thus for the ease of her husbands life shee was contented to forgoe her owne She was but of meane place and low fortune and amidde such condition of people it is not so strange to see some parts of rare vertue and exemplare goodnesse extremaper illos Iustitia excedens terris vestigia fecit Iustice departing from the earth did take Of them her leave through them last passage make The other two are noble and rich where examples of vertue are rarely lodged Arria wife vnto Cecinna Paetus a man that had beene consul was mother
of another Arria wife to Thrasea Paetus whose vertue was so highly renowmed during the time of Nero and by meane of his sonne-in-lawe grandmother to Fannia For the resemblance of these mens and womens names and fortunes hath made diverse to mistake them This first Arria her husband Cecinna Paetus having beene taken prisoner by the Souldiers of Claudius the Emperour after the overthrow of Scribonianus whose faction hee had followed entreated those who led him prisoner to Rome to take her into their ship where for the service of her husband shee should be of the lesse charge and incommoditie to them then a number of other persons which they must necessarily have and that she alone might supply and steade him in his chamber in his kitchin and all other offices which they vtterly refused and so hoised sailes but shee leaping into a Fishers boate that she immediately hired followed him aloofe from the further shoare of Sclavonia Being come to Rome one day in the Emperours presence Iunia the widdow of Scribonianus by reason of the neerenesse and societie of their fortunes familiarly accosted her but she rudely with these wordes thrust her away What quoth shee shall I speake to thee or shall I listen what thou saiest Thou in whose lappe Scribonianus thy husband was slaine and thou yet livest and thou breathest These words with divers other signes made her kinsfolkes and friendes perceive that shee purposed to make herselfe away as impatient to a abide her husbands fortune And Thrasea her sonne in law taking hold of her speeches beseeching her that she wold not so vnheedily spoile her selfe he thus bespake her What If I were in Cecinnaes Fortune or the like would you have my wife your daughter to doe so What else make you a question of it answered she Yes mary would I had she lived so long and in so good-agreeing sort with thee as I have done with my husband These and such-like answeres encreased the care they had of her and made them more heedfully to watch and neerely to looke vnto her One day after she had vttered these wordes to her keepers you may looke long enough to mee well may you make mee die worse but you shall never be able to keepe me from dying and therewith furiously flinging her selfe out of a chaire wherein shee fate with all the strength shee had she fiercely ranne her head against the next wall with which blowe having sore hurt her selfe and falling into a dead swowne after they had with much adoe brought her to her selfe againe Did I not tell you quoth she that if you kept me from an easie death I would choose another how hard and difficult soever The end of so admirable a vertue was this Her husband Paetus wanting the courage to doe himselfe to death vnto which the Emperors crueltie reserved him one day having first employed discourses and exhortations befitting the counsell she gave him to make himselfe away shee tooke a Dagger that her husband wore and holding it outright in her hand for the period of her exhortation Doe thus Paetus said shee and at that instant stabbing herselfe mortally to the heart and presently pulling the Dagger out againe shee reached the same vnto her husband and so yeelded vp the ghost vttering this noble generous and immortall speech Paete non dolet shee had not the leasure to pronounce other than these three wordes in substance materiall and worthy her selfe Holde Paetus it hath done me no hurt Casta suo gladium cùm traderet Arria Paeto Quem de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis Si qua fides vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quod tu facies id mihi Paete dolet Chast Arria when she gave her Paetus that sharpe sword Which from her bowells she had drawne forth bleeding new The wound I gave and have if you will trust my word Griev's not said she but that which mill be made by you It is much more lively in his owne naturall and of a richer Sense for both her husbands wound and death and her owne hurts shee was so farre from grieving to have beene the counselor and motive of them that shee rejoiced to have performed so haughtie and couragious an act onely for the behoofe of her deere husband and at the last gaspe of her life she onely regarded him and to remove all feare from him to follow her in death which Paetus beholding he immediatly wounded himselfe with the same dagger ashamed as I suppose to have had need of so deare an instruction and precious a teaching Pompea Paulina an high and noble-borne yong Roman Lady had wedded Seneca being very aged Nero his faire disciple having sent his Satellites or officers toward him to denounce the decree of his death to him which in those dayes was done after this maner When the Roman Emperors had condemned any man of qualitie to death they were wont to send their officers vnto him to chuse what death he pleased and to take it within such and such a time which according to the temper of their choller they prescribed vnto him sometimes shorter and sometimes longer giving him that time to dispose of his affaires which also by reason of some short warning they divers times tooke from him And if the condemned partie seemed in any sort to strive against their will they would often send men of purpose to execute him either cutting the vâiâs of his armes and legs or compelling him to take and swallow poison But men of honor stayed not that enforcement but to that effect vsed their own Phisitions or Surgeons Seneca with a reposed and vndanted countenance listned attentively to their charge and presently demaunded for paper and inke to make his last will and testament which the Captaine refusing him hee turned toward his friends and thus bespake them Sââh my loving friends I cannot bequeath you any other thing in remembrance or acknowledgement of what I owe you I leave you at least the richest and best portion I have that is the image of my maners and my life which I beseech you to keepe in memory which doing you may acquire the glory and purchase the name of truly sincere and absolutely-true friends And therewithall somââmes appeasing the sharpnes of the sorow he saw them endure for his sake with mild and gentle speaches sometimes raising his voyce to chide thâm Where are said he those memorable precepts of Philosophy What is becom of those provisions which for so many yeares together we have laid vp against the brunts and accidents of Fortune Was Neroâs innated cruâly vnknowen vnto vs What might we expect or hope-for at his hands who hath murdered his Mother and massacred his Brother but that he would also do his Tutor and Governor to death that hath fostred and brought him vp Having vttered these words to all the by-standers he turned him to his wife as she was ready to sinke downe and with the burthen of hir
a life as they lived For there was none so wretched amongest them that would not rather have beene three times a Leaper than not to be at all And Antisthenes the Stoick being very sicke and crying out Oh who shall deliver me from my tormenting evils Diogenes who was come to visite him foorth with presenting him a knife Mary this said he and that very speedily iâ thou please I meane not of my life replyed hee but of my sickenesse The sufferances which simply touch vs in minde doe much lesse afflict me then most men Partly by judgement For the Worlde deemeth diverse things horrible or avoydable with the losse of life which to me are in maner indifferent Partly by a stupide and insensible complexion I have in accidents that hit me not point-blancke Which complexion I esteeme one of the better partes of my naturall condition But the truely-essentiall and corporall sufferances those I taste very sensibly Yet is it having othertimes fore-apprehended them with a delicate and weake sight and by the enjoying of this long health and happy rest which God hath lent me the better part of my age somewhat empaired I had by imagination concciued them so intolerable that in good truth I was more afraide than since I have found hurt in them Wherevpon I dayly augment this opinion That most of our soules faculties as we employ them doe more trouble than steade the quiet repose of life I am continually grapling with the worst of all diseases the most grievous the most mortall the most remedilesse and the most violent I have already had triall of five or sixe long and painefull fittes of it Neverthelesse eyther I flatter my selfe or in this plight there is yet something that would faine keep life and soule together namely in him whose minde is free from feare of death and from the threats conclusions and consequences which phisicke is ever buzzing into our heads But the effect of paine it selfe hath not so sharpe a smarting or so pricking a sharpnesse that a setled man should enter into rage or fall into despaire This commoditie at leaste I have by the chollicke that what I could never bring to passe in my selfe which was altogether to reconcile and throwly to acquaint my selfe with death shee shall atchieve shee shall accomplish for by how much more shee shall importune and vrge me by so much lesse shall death bee fearefull vnto mee I had already gotten not to bee beholding to life but onely in regrad of life and for lives sake She shall also vntie this intelligence and loose this combination And God graunt if in the end her sharpenesse shall happen to surmount my strength shee cast ââce not into the other extreamitie no lesse vicious no lesse bad that is to love and desire to die Summum nec metuas diem nec optes Nor feare thy latest doome Nor wish it ere it come They are two passions to be feared but one hath her remedy neerer than the other Otherwise I have ever found that precept ceremonious which so precizely appoints a man to set a good countenance a setled resolution and disdainefull carriage vpon the sufferance of evills Why doth Philosophy which onely respecteth livelinesse and regardeth effects ammuze it selfe about these externall apparances Let her leave this care to Mimikes to Histrions and to Rhethoricke Masters who make so great accoumpt of our gestures Let her hardly remit this vocall lithernesse vnto evill if it be neyther cordiall nor stomacall And let her lend her voluntary plants to the kinde of sighes sobbes palpatations and palenesse which nature hath exempted from our puissance Alwayes provided the courage be without feare and wordes sance dispaire let her be so contented What matter is it if wee bend our armes so wee writhe not our thoughts She frameth vs for our selves not for others to be not to seeme Let her applie her selfe to governe our vnderstanding which shee hath vndertaken to instruct Let her in the pangs or fittes of the chollike still maintaine the soule capable to acknowledge hir selfe and follow her accustomed course resisting sorrow and enduring grieâe and not shamefully to prostrate her selfe at his feete Mooved and chafed with the combate not basely suppressed nor faintly overthrowen Capable of entertainement and other occupations vnto a certaine limite In so extreame accidents it is crueltie to require so composed a warde at our hands If wee have a good game it skills not though wee have an ill countenaunce If the body be any whit eased by complaining let him doe it If stirring or agitation please him let him turne rowle and tosse himselfe as long as hee list If with raising his voyce or sending it forth with more violence hee thinke his griefe any thing alayed or vented as some Phisitians affirme it some what easeth women great with childe and is a meane of eaâie or speedie delivery feare hee not to doe it or if hee may but entertaine his torment let him mainely cry out Let vs not commaund our voyce to depart but if she will let vs not hinder it Epicurus doth not only pardon his wise man to crie-out when hee is grieved or vexed but perswadeth him to it Pugiles etiam quum feriunt in iactandis cestibus ingeâiscunt quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur venit que plaga vehementior Men when they fight with sand-baoges or such heavy Weapons in fetcâing their blowe and driving it wil give a groane with all because by stretching their voyce all their body is also strayned and the stroke commeth with more vehemence We are vexed and troubled enough with the euill without troubling and vexing our selves with these superfluous rules This I say to excuse those which are ordinarily seene to rage in the fittes and storme in the assaults of this sickenesse for as for mee I have hitherto past it over with somwhat a better countenaunce and am content to groane without braying and exclaiming And yet I trouble not my selfe to mainetaine this exterior decency for I make small reckoning of such an advantage In that I lend my sicknesse what it requireth But either my paine is not so excessive or I beare it with more constancy than the vulgare sorte Indeede I must confesse when the sharpe fittes or throwes assaile me I complaine and vex my selfe but yet I never fall into despaire as that fellow Eiulatu questu gemitu fremitibus Resanando multum flebiles vâces refert with howling groaniug and complaint of fates Most lamentable cries he imitates I feele my selfe in the greatest heate of my sickenesse and I ever found my selfe capable and in tune to speake to thinke and to answer as soundly as at any other time but not so constantly because my paine doeth much trouble and distract mee When I am thought to bee at the lowest and that such as are about me spare me I often make a triall of my forces and propose them such discourses as are
confusion of prescriptions what other end or effect workes it but to evacuate the belly which a thousand home-simples will doe as well And I knowe not whether it be as profitable as they say and whether our nature require the residents of her exârements vntill a certaine measure as wine doth his lees for his preservation You see often men very healthy by some strange accidents to fall into violent vomiâes and fluxes and voyde great store of excrements without any praecedent neede or succeeding benefite yea with some empairing and prejudice I learn't of Plato not long since that of three motions which belong to vs the last and worst is that of purgations and that no man except hee be a foole ought to vndertake it vnlesse it be in great extreamitie The evill is troubled and stirred vp by contrary oppositions It is the forme of life that gently must diminish consume and bring it to an end Since the violent twinges of the drug and maladie are ever to our losse since the quarrell is cleared in vs and the drug a trustlesse helpe by it 's owne nature an enemie to our health and but by trouble hath no accesse in our state Let 's give them leave to go on That order which provideth for Fleas and Moles doth also provide for men who have the same patience to suffer themselves to be governed that Fleas and Moles have We may fairely cry bo-bo-boe it may well make vs hoarse but it will nothing advaunce it It is a prowd and impetuous order Our feare and our despaire in liew of enviting the same vnto it doth distaste and delay it out of our helpe he oweth his course to evill as well as to sickenesse To suffer himselfe to be corrupted in favour of one to the prejudice of the others rights he will not doe it so should they fall into disorder Let vs goe on in the name of God let vs follow He leadeth-on such as follow him those that follow him not he haleth-on both with their rage and phisicke together Cause a purgation to be prepared for your braine it will bee better employed vnto it then to your stomacke A Lacedemonian being asked what had made him live so long in health answered The ignorance of physicke And Adrian the Emperour as he was dying ceased not to crie out that the number of Physitions had killed him A bad wrestler became a Physition Courage saide Diogenes to him thou hast reason to doe so for now shalt thou helpe to put them into the ground who have heeretofore ayded to lay thee on it But according to Nicoles they have this happe That the Sunne doth manifest their successe and the earth doth cover their fault And besides they have a very advantageous fashion among themselves to make vse of all manner of events for whatsoever either Fortune or Nature or any otherstrange cause whereof the number is infinite produceth in vs or good or healthfull it is the priviledge of Physicke to ascribe it vnto herselfe All the fortunate successes that come to the patient which is vnder their government it is from nature he hath them The occasions that have cured me and which heale a thousand others who never send or call for Physitions to helpe them they vsurpe them in their subjects And touching ill accidents either they vtterly disavow them in imputing the blame of them to the patient by some vaine reasons whereof they never misse to finde a great number as he lay with his armes out of the bed he hath heard the noyse of a coach rhedarum transitus arcto Vicorum inflexu Coaches could hardly passe The lane so crooked was His Window was left open all night Hee hath laine vpon the left side or troubled his head with some heavie thought In some a word a dreame or a looke is of them deemed a sufficient excuse to free themselves from all imputation Or if they please they will also make vse of this emparing and thereby make vp their businesse and as a meane which can never faile them when by their applications the disease is growne desperate to pay vs with the assurance that if their remedies had not beene it would have beene much woorse He whom but from a colde they have brought to a Cotidian Ague without them shoulde have had a continuall feaver They must needes thrive in their businesse since all ills redownd to their profit Truely they have reason to require of the pacient an application of favourable confidence in them which must necessarily be in good earnest and yeelding to apply itselfe vnto imaginations over-hardly to be believed Plato said very well and to the purpose that freely to lie belonged onely to Physitions since our health dependeth on their vanitie and falsehood of promises Aesope an Authour of exceeding rare excellence and whose graces few discover is very pleasant in representing this kinde of tyrannicall authoritie vnto vs. which they vsurpe vpon poore soules weakened by sickenesse and over-whelmed through feare for he reporteth how a sicke man being demaunded by his Physition what operation hee felt by the Physicke he had given him I have sweate much answered he that is good replied the Physition Another time he asked him againe how he had done since I have had a great colde and quivered much said he that is very well quoth the Physition againe The third time he demaunded of him how he felt himselfe He answered I swell and puffe-vp as it were with the dropsie That 's not amisse saide the Physition A familiar friend of his comming afterward to visite him and to know how hee did Verely said hee my friend I die with being too too well There was a more equall Law in Aegypt by which for the first three dayes the Phisition tooke the patient in hand vpon the patients perrill and fortune but the three dayes expired it was at his owne For What reason is there that Aesculapius their patrone must have beene strucken with Thunder forsomuch as hee recovered Hippolitus from death to life Nampater omnipotens aliquem indignatus ab vmbris Mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae Ipse repertorem medicinae talis artis Fuâmine Phoebigenam slygias detrusit advndas Iove scorning that from shades infernall night A mortall man should rise to lifes new light Apolloes sonne to hell he thunder-threw Who such an arte found out such med'cine knew and his followers must be absolved that send so many soules from life to death A Phisitian boasted vnto Nicocles that his Arte was of exceeding great authoritie It is true quoth Nicocles for it may kill so many people without feare of punishment by Law As for the rest had I beene of their counsel I would surely have made my discipline more sacred and mysterious They had begunne very well but the end hath not answered the beginning It was a good ground to have made Gods and Doemons Authors of their Science to have affiâmed a peculiar
them vndig estible Whilst they feared to stop the course of a bloody flux because he should not fal into an ague they killed me a friend of mine who was more worth then all the rabble of them yea were they as many more They ballance their diuinatious of future things with present cuils and because they will not cure the braine in preiudice of the stomacke they offend the stomacke and empaire the braine and all by their seditious and tumultuary drugs Concerning the variety and weaknes of the reasons of this Art it is more apparent then in any other Art Aperitive things are good for a man that 's troubled with the collike because that opening and dilating the passages they addresse this slimie matter whereof the gravell and stone is ingendred and so convay downeward whatsoever beginneth to harden and petrifie in the reines A peritive things are dangerous for a man that 's troubled with the collike because that opening and dilating the passages they addresse towards the reines the matter engendring gravell which by reason of the propensions they have with it easily seizing on the same must by consequence stay great store of that which is convaied vnto them Moreover if by chance it fortune to meet with a body somewhat more grosse then it ought to be to pasâe all those strait turnings which to expell the same they must glide thorow that body being mooved by those soluble things and cast in those strait chanels and comming to stop them it will doubtlesse hasten a certaine and most dolorous death They have a like constancie about the counsels they giue vs touching the regiment of our life It is good to make water often for by experience we see that permitting the same idlely to lie still we give it leisure to discharge it selfe of her lees and excrements which may serve to breed the stone in the bladder It is good to make water but seldome for the weightie dregs it drawes with it are not easily caried away except by violence as by experience is seene in a torrent that runneth very swift which sweepeth and clenseth the place through which he passeth much more then doth a slow-gliding streame Likewise it is good to have often copulation with women for that openeth the passages and convaieth the gravell away It is also hurtfull for it heateth wearieth and weakneth the reines It is good for one to bathe himselfe in warme water for so much as that looseth and moistneth the places where the gravel and stone lurketh It is also bad because this application of externall heat helpeth the reines to concoct to harden and petrifie the matter disposed vnto it To such as are at the bathes it is more healthfull to eat but little at night that the water they are to drinke the next morning finding the stomacke empty and without any obstacle it may worke the greater operation on the other side it is better to eat but a little at dinner lest a man might hinder the operation of the water which is not yet perfect and not to charge the stomacke so suddenly after this other travell and leave the office of digesting vnto the night which can better do it then the day the body and spirit being then in continuall motion and action Loe heere how they in all their discourses juggle dally and trifle at our charge and are never able to bring mee a proposition but I can presently frame another to the contrary of like force consequence Let them then no longer raile against those who in any sicknesse suffer themselves gently to be directed by their owne appetite and by the counsell of nature and who remit themselves to common fortune I have by occasion of my travels seene almost all the famous Bathes of Christendome and some yeers since haue begun to vse them For in generall I deeme bathing to be very good and healthy and I am perswaded we incurre no small incommodities in our health by having neglected and lost this custome which in former times were generally observed very neere amongst all Nations and is yet with divers at this time to wath their bodies every day And I cannot imagine but that we are much the worse with keeping our bodies all over-crusted and our pores stopt with grease and filth And touching the drinking of them fortune hath first made it to agree very well with my taste secondly it is naturall and simple and though vaine nothing dangerous whereof this infinitie of people of all sorts and complexions and of all nations that come to them doth warrant mee And although I have as yet found no extraordinary good or wondrous effect in them but rather having somewhat curiously examined the matter I finde all the reports of such operations which in such places are reported and of many believed to be false and fabulous So easily doth the world deceive it selfe namely in things it desireth or faine would have come to passe Yet have I seene but few or none at all whom these waters have made worse and no man can without malice denie but that they stirre vp a mans appetite make easie digestion and except a man goe to them overweake and faint which I would have none doe they will adde a kinde of new mirth vnto him They have not the power to raise men from desperate diseases They may stay some light accident or prevent the threates of some alteration Whosoever goeth to them and resolveth not to be merry that so hee may enjoy the pleasure of the good company resorts to them and of the pleasant walkes or exercises which the beauty of those places where bathes are commonly seated doth affoord and delight men withall he without doubt looseth the better part and most assured of their effect And therefore have I hitherto chosen to stay my selfe and make vse of those where I found the pleasure of the scituation most delightsome most conveniencie of lodging of victuals and companie as are in France the bathes of Banieres those of Plombieres on the frontiers of Germanie and Loraine those of Baden in Switzerland those of Lucea in Tuscanie and especially those of Della villaâ which I have vsed most often and at diverse seasons of the yeare Every nation hath some particular opinion concerning their vse and severall lawes and formes how to vse them and all different And as I have found by experience the effect in a maner all one In Germanie they never vse to drinke of their waters but bathe themselves for all diseases and will lie padling in them all most from Sunne to Sunne In Italie if they drinke nine dayes of the water they wash themselves other thirtie dayes with it And commonly they drincke it mixed with other drugges thereby to helpe the operation Heere our Phisitions appoint vs when wee have drunke to walke vpon it that so wee may helpe to digest it There so soone as they have drunke they make them lie a bed vntill they
towards it I have found after I had made diligent inquiry among such as were wont to open such beasts that it was a seld-seene and vnheard of accident It is very likely they were such stones as ours be and cozen-germanes to them which if it be it is but vaine for such as be troubled with the stone or gravell to hope to be cured by meanes of a beasts-blood that was drawing neere vnto death and suffered the same disease For to aleadge the blood cannot participate of that contagion ' and doth no whit thereby alter his accustomed vertue it may rather be inferred that nothing ingendreth in a body but by consent and communication of all the parts The whole masse doth worke and the whole frame agitate altogether although one part according to the diversitie of operations doth contribute more or lesse than another whereby it manifestly appeareth that in all parts of this bucke-goate there was some grettie or petrificant qualitie It was not so much for feare of any future chaunce or in regard of my selfe that I was so curious of this experiment as in respect that as well in mine owne house as else-where in sundry other places it commeth to passe that many women doe often gather and lay vp in store divers such kindes of slight drugges to help their neighbours and other people with them in time of necessitie applying one same remedy to an hundred severall diseases yea many times such as they would be very loath to take themselves with which they often have good lucke and well thrives it with them As for mee I honour Physitions not according to the common-received rule for necessitie sake for to this passage another of the Prophet may be alleaged who reprooved King Asa because hee had recourse vnto Physitions but rather for love I beare vnto themselves having seene some and knowne diverse honest men amongst them and worthy all love and esteeme It is not them I blame but their Arte yet doe I not greatly condemne them for seeking to profit by our foolishnesse for most men doe so and it is a thing common to all worldlings Diverse professious and many vacations both more and lesse worthie than theirs subsist and are grounded onely vpon publike abuses and popular errours I send for them when I am sicke if they may conveniently be found and love to be entertained by them rewarding them as other men doe I give them authoritie to enjoyne me to keepe my selfe warme if I love it better so than otherwise They may chuse be it either leekes or lettuce what my broth shall be made withall and appoynt mee either white or clarer to drinke and so of other things else indifferent to my taste humor or custome I know well it is nothing to them forsomuch as Sharpenesse and Strangenesse are accidents of Physickes proper essence Lycurgus allowed and appoynted the sicke men of Sparta to drinke wine Why did he so Because being in health they hated the vse of it Even as a Gentleman who dwelleth not farre from mee vseth wine as a soveraigne remedie againg agews because being in perfect health he hateth the taste thereof as death How many of them see wee to be of my humour That is to disdaine all Physicke for their owne behoofe and live a kinde of formall free life and altogether contrarie to that which they prescribe to others And what is that but a manifest abusing of our simplicitie For they holde their life as deare and esteeme their health as pretious as wee doe ours and would apply their effects to their skill if themselves knew not the vncertaintie and falsehood of it It is the feare of paine and death the impatience of the disease and griefe and indiscreete desire and headlong thirst of health that so blindeth them and vs. It is meere faintnes that makes our conceit and pusillanimitie forceth our credulitie to bee so yeelding and pliable The greater parte of whome doe notwithstanding not beleeve so much as they endure and suffer of others For I heare them complaine and speake of it no otherwise than wee doe Yet in the ende are they resolved What should I doe then As if impatience were in itselfe a better remedie than patience Is there any of them that hath yeelded to this miserable subjection that doth not likewise yeelde to all manner of impostures or dooth not subject himselfe to the mercie of whomsoever hath the impudencie to promise him recoverie and warrant him health The Babilonians were wont to carry their sicke people into the open streetes the common sort were their physitions where all such as passed by were by humanitie and civilitie to enquire of their state and maladie and according to their skill or experience give them some âound aduise and good counsell We differ not greatly from them There is no poore Woman so simple whose mumbling and muttering whose slibber-slabbers and drenches wee doe not employ And as for mee were I to buy any medicine I would rather spend my money in this kinde of physicke than in any other because therein is no danger or hurt to be feared What Homer and Plato said of the Aegyptians that they were all Physitions may well be said of all people There is neither Man nor Woman that vanteth not himselfe to have some receipt or other and doth not hazard the same vpon his neighbour if he will but give credite vnto him I was not long since in a company where I wot not who of my fraternity brought newes of a kinde of pilles by true accompt composed of a hundered and odde severall ingredients Whereat we laughed very heartily and made our selves good sport For what rocke so hard were able to resist the shocke or withstand the force of so thicke and numerous a battery I vnderstand neverthelesse of such as tooke of them that the least graine gravell dained not to stirre at all I cannot so soone give over writing of this subject but I must needes say a word or two concerning the experience they have made of their prescriptions which they would have vs take as a warrantize or assurance of the certainty of their drugges and potions The greatest number and as I deeme more than the two thirds of medicinable vertues consist in the quintessence or secret propriety of simples whereof we can have no other instruction but vse and custome For Quintessence is no other thing than a quality whereof we cannot with our reason finde out the cause In such trials or experiments those which they affirme to have acquired by the inspiration of some Daemon I am contented to receive and allow of them for touching myracles I meddle not with them or be it the experiments drawne from things which for other respects fall often in vse with vs As if in Wooll wherewith we wont to cloth our selves some secret exsiccating or drying quality have by accident beene found that cureth kibes or chilblaines in the heeles and if in reddishes
hee was beholden to yeares because they had ridde him of voluptuousnesse was not of mine opinion I shall neuer giue impuissance thankes for any good it can doe mee Nec tam aversa vnquam videbitur ab opere suo providentia vt debilitas inter optima inuenta sit Nor shall fore-sight euer bee seene so auerse from hir owne worke that weakenesse bee found to bee one of the best things Our appetites are rare in olde-age the blowe over-passed a deepe sacietie seazeth vpon vs Therein I see no conscience Fretting care and weakenesse imprint in vs an effeminate and drowzie vertue Wee must not suffer our selues so fully to be carried into naturall alterations as to corrupt or adulterate our iudgement by them Youth and pleasure haue not heretofore prevailed so much ouer me but I could ever even in the midst of sensualities discerne the vgly face of sinne nor can the distaste which yeares bring on me at this instant keepe mee from discerning that of voluptuousnesse in vice Now I am no longer in it I judge of it as if I were still there I who lively and attentively examine my reason finde it to be the same that possessed me in my most dissolute and licentious age vnlesse perhaps they being enfeebled and empayred by yeares doe make some difference And finde that what delight it refuseth to affoorde mee in regarde of my bodilie health it would no more denie mee then in times past for the health of my soule To see it out of combate I holde it not the more couragious My temptations are so mortified and crazed as they are not worthy of it's oppositions holding but my hand before me I be-calme them Should one present that former concupiscence vnto it I feare it would be of lesse power to sustance it than heretofore it hath beene I see in it by it selfe no encrease of iudgement nor accesse of brightnesse what it now iudgeth it did then Wherefore if there be any amendment t' is but diseased Oh miserable kinde of remedie to be beholden vnto sicknesse for our health It is not for our mishap but for the good successe of our iudgement to performe this office Crosses and afflictions make me doe nothing but cursse them They are for people that cannot be awaked but by the whip The course of my reason is the nimbler in prosperitie It is much more distracted and busied in the digesting of mischiefes than of delights I see much cleareâ in faire weather Health forewarneth me as with more pleasure so to better purpose than sicknesse I approached the nearest I could vnto amendment and regularity when I should have enioyed the same I should be ashamed and vexed that the misery and mishap of my old age could exceede the helth attention and vigor of my youth and that I should be esteemed not for what I have beene but for what I am leaft to be The happy life in my opinion not as said Antisthenes the happy death is it that makes mans happinesse in this world I have not preposterously busied my selfe to tie the taile of a Philosopher vnto the head and bodie of a varlet nor that this paultrie end should disavow and belie the fairest soundest and longest part of my life I will present my selfe and make a generall muster of my whole every where vniformally Were I to live againe it should bee as I have already lived I neither deplore what is past nor dread what is to come and if I be not deceived the inward parts have neerely resembled the outward It is one of the chiefest points wherein I am beholden to fortune that in the course of my bodies estate each thing hath beene carried in season I have seene the leaves the blossomes and the fruit and now see the drooping and withering of it Happily because naturally I beare my present miseries the more gently because they are in season and with greater favour make mee remember the long happinesse of my former life In like manner my discretion may well bee of like proportion in the one and the other time but sure it was of much more performance and had a better grace being fresh iolly and full of spirit then now that it is worne decrepite and toylesome I therefore renounce these casuall and dolourous reformations God must touch our heartes our conscience must amende of it selfe and not by re-inforcement of our reason nor by the enfeebling of our appetites Voluptuousnesse in it selfe is neither pale nor discouloured to be discerned by bleare and troubled eyes Wee should affect temperance and chastity for it selfe and for Gods cause who hath ordained them vnto vs that which Catars bestow vpon vs and which I am beholden to my chollicke for is neither temperance nor chastitie A man cannot boast of contemning or combating sensualitie if hee see her not or know not her grace her force and most attractive beauties I know them both and therefore may speake it But mee thinkes our soules in age are subject vnto more importunate diseases and imperfections then they are in youth I said so being young when my beardlesse chinne was vpbraided mee and I say it againe now that my gray beard gives me authoritie We entitle wisdome the frowardnesse of our humours and the distaste of present things but in truth wee abandon not vices so much as wee change them and in mine opinion for the worse Besides a sillie and ruinous pride combersome tattle wayward and vnsociable humours superstition and a ridiculous carking for wealth when the vse of it is well nigh lost I finde the more enuie injustice and leaudnesse in it It sets more wrinckles in our mindes then on our foreheads nor are there any spirits or very rare ones which in growing old taste not sowrely and mustily Man marcheth entirely towards his encrease and decrease View but the wisedome of Socrates and divers circumstances of his condemnation I dare say he something lent himselfe vnto it by prevarication of purpose being so neere and at the age of seventie to endure the benumming of his spirits richest pace and the dimming of his accustomed brightnesse What Metamorphoses have I seene it daily make in diuers of mine acquaintances It is a powerfull maladie which naturally and imperceptible glideth into vs There is required great prouision of stuââ heed and precaution to auoid the imperfections wherewith it chargeth vs or at least to weaken their further progresse I finde that notwithstanding all my entrenchings by little and little it getteth ground vpon mee I hold out as long as I can but know not whither at length it will bring mee Happe what happe will I am pleased the world know from what height I tumbled The third Chapter Of three commerces or societies WE must not cleave so fast vnto our humours and dispositions Our chiefest sufficiencie is to applie our selves to divers fashions It is a being but not a life to bee tied and bound by necessitie to one onely course The
I considered by how flight causes and friuolous obiects imagination nourished in mee the griefe to loose my life with what Atomes the consequence and difficulty of my dislodging was contriued in my minde to what idle conceits and friuolous cogitations we giue place in so waighty a case or important affaire A Dogge a Horse a Hare a Glasse and what not were corrupted in my losse To others their ambitious hopes their purse their learning In my minde as sottishly I view death carelessely when I behould it vniuersally as the end of life I ouerwhelme and contemne it thus in great by retayle it spoyles and proules me The teares of a Lacquey the distributing of my cast sutes the touch of a knowne hand an ordinary consolation doth disconsolate and ântendeâ me So doe the plaints and of fables trouble and vex our mindes and the wailing laments of Dydo and Ariadne passionare euen those that beleeue them not in Virgill nor in Catullus It is an argument of an obstinate nature and indurate hart not to be mooued therewith as for a wonder they report of Polemon who was not so much as appaled as the biting of a Dog who tooke away the braune or calfe of his leg And no wisedome goeth so far as by the due iudgement to conceiue aright the euident cause of a Sorrow and griefe so liuely and wholly that it suffer or admit noe accession by presence when eyes and eares haue their share therein parts that cannot be agitated but by vaine accidents Is it reason that euen arts should serue their purposes and make their profit of our imbecility and naturall blockishnes An Orator saith Rethorick in the play of his pleading shall bee mooued at the sound of his owne voice and by his fained agitations and suffer himselfe to be cozoned by the passion he representeth imprinting a liuely and essentiall sorrow by the iugling he acteth to transferre it into the iudges whome of the two it concerneth lesse As the persons hyred at our funerals who to ayde the ceremony of mourning make sale of their teares by measure of their sorrow by waight For although they striue to act it in a borrowed forme yet by habituating and ordering their countenance it is certaine they are often wholly transported into it and entertaine the impression of a true and vnfained melancholly I assisted amongst diuers others of his friends to conuay the dead corpes of the Lord of Grammont from the siege of Laferre where hee was vntimely slaine to Soissous I noted that euery where as we passed a long we filled wth lamentation and teares all the people we met by the onely shewe of our conuoyes mourning attire for the deceased mans name was not so much as knowne or hard of about those quarters Quintilian reporteth to haue seene Comediants so farre ingaged in a sorrowfull part that they wept after being come to their lodgings and of himselfe that hauing vndertaken to mooue a certaine passion in another hee had found himselfe surprised not onely with shedding of teares but with a palenesse of countenance and behauiour of a man truely deiected with griefe In a country neare our Mountaynes the women say and vnsay weepe and laugh with one breath as Martin the Priest for as for their lest husbands they encrease their way mentings by repetition of the good and gracefull parts they were endowed with therewithall vnder one they make publike relation of those imperfections to worke as it were some recompence vnto themselues and transchange their pitty vnto disdaine with a much better grace then we who when we loose a late acquaintance striue to loade him with new and forged prayses and to make him farre other now that we are depriued of his sight then hee seemed to bee when wee enioyed and beheld him As if mourning were an instructing party or teares cleared our vnderstanding by washing the same I renounce from this time forward all the fauourable testimonies any man shall affoorde mee not because I shall deserue them but because I shall bee dead If one demand that fellow what interest hee hath in such a siege The interest of example will bee say and common obedience of the Prince I nor looke nor pretend any benefit thereby and of glory I know how small a portion commeth to the share of a priuate man such as I am I haue neyther passion nor quarrell in the matter yet the next day shall you see him all changed and chafing boyling and blushing with rage in his ranke of battaile ready for the assault It is the glaring reflecting of so much steele the flashing thundering of the Cannon the clang of trumpers and the ratling of Drummes that haue infused this new furie and rankor in his swelling vaines A friuolous cause will you say How a cause There needeth none to excite our minde A doating humour without body without substance ouerswayeth and tosseth it vp and downe Let mee thinke of building Castles in Spayne my imagination will forge mee commodities and afforde mee meanes and delights wherewith my mynde is really tickled and essentially gladded How often doe wee pester our spirits with anger or sadnesse by such shaddowes and entangle our selues into fantasticall passions which alter both our mynde and bodye what astonished flearing and confused mumpes and mowes doth this dotage stirre vp in our visages what skippings and agitations of members and voyce seemes it not by this man alone that hee hath false visions of a multitude of other men with whome hee dooth negotiate or some inwarde Goblin that torments him Enquire of your selfe where is the object of this alteration Is there any thing but vs in nature except subsisting nullitye ouer whome it hath any power Because Cambyses dreamed that his brother should bee King of Persia hee put him to death a brother whom he loued and euer trusted Aristodemus King of the Messenians killed himselfe vpon a conceite he tooke of some ill presage by I know not what howling of his Dogs And King Midas did asmuch beeing troubled and vexed by a certaine vnpleasing dreame of his owne It is the right way to prize ones life at the right worth of it to forgo it for a dreame Heare notwithstanding our mindes triumph ouer the bodies weakenesses and misery in that it is the prey and marke of all wrongs and alterations to seede on and aime at It hath surely much reason to speake of it O prima infoelix fingenti terra Prometheo Ille parum cauti pectoris egit opus Corpora disponens ment em non vidit in arte Recta animi primum debuit esse via Vnhappy earth first by Prometheus formed Who of small providence a worke performed He framing bodies saw in arte no minde The mindes way first should rightly be assign'd The fifth Chapter Vpon some verses of Virgill PRofitable thoughts the more full and solide they are the more combersome and heauy are they vice death poverty and diseases are subjects that
of blood Nature hath plac't vs in the world free and vnbound wee emprison our selves into certaine streights As the kings of Perfia who bound themselves never to drinke other water then of the river Choaspez foolishly renouncing all lawfull righ of vse in all other waters and for their regard dried vp all the rest of the world What Socrates did in his latter dayes to deeme a sentence of banishment worse then a doome of death against himselfe being of the minde I am now I shall never be neither so base minded nor so strictly habituated in my country that I would follow him The celestiall lives have divers images which I embrace more by estimation then by affection And some to extraordinary and so highly elevated which because I am not able to conceive I cannot embrace by estimation This humor was very tenderly appehended by him who deemed all the world to be his Citty True it is he disdained peregrinations and had not much set his foote beyond the territory of Athens What if he bewailed the mony his friend offred to lay out to disingage his life and refused to come out of prison by the intercession of others because he would not disobey the lawes in a time wherin they were otherwise so corrupted These examples are of the first kind for me Of the second there are others which I could find in the very same man Many of these rare examples exceed the power of my action but some exceed also the force of my judgement Besides these reasons I deem travell to be a profitable exercise The minde hath therein a continuall exercitation to marke things vnknowne and note new obiects And as I have often said I know no better schoole to fashion a mans life then vncessantly to propose vnto him the diversity of so many other mens lives customes humors and fantazies and make him taste or apprehend one so perpetuall variety of our natures shapes or formes Therein the body is neither absolutely idle nor wholly troubled and that moderate agitation doth put him into breath My selfe as crazed with the chollicke as I am can sit eight yea sometimes ten houres on horse-backe without wearinesse or tyring Vires vltra sortemque senectae Beyond strength ordinary Which old yeeres vse to cary No weather is to me so contrary as the scorching heat of the parching Sunne For these Vmbrels or riding canapies which since the ancient Romans the Italians vse doe more weary the armes then ease the head I would faine-faine know what industry it was in the Persians so anciently and even in the infancie of luxuriousnesse as Xenophân reporteth to fanne themselves and at their pleasures to make cold shades I love rainy and durty weather as duckes doe The change either of aire or climate doth nothing distemper mee All heavens are alike to me I am never vexed or beaten but with internall alterations such as I produce my selfe which surprise and possesse me least in times of way-fairing It is a hard matter to make mee resolve of any iourney but if I be once on the way I hold out as long and as farre as another I strive as much in small as I labour in great enterprises and to prepare my selfe for a short journey or to visit a friend as to vndertake a farre-set voiage I have learn't to frame my journies after the Spanish fashion all at once and out-right great and reasonable And in extreme heats I travell by night from Sunne-set to Sunne-rising The other fashion confusedly and in haste to bait by the way and dine especially in Winter when the daies are so short is both troublesome for man and incommodious for horse My Iades are the better and hold out longer No horse did ever faile me that held out the first daies iourney with me I water them in all waters and onely take care of their last watering that before I come to mine Inne they have way enough to beat their water My slothfulnesse to rise in the morning alloweth such as follow mee sufficient leasure to dine before wee take horse As for me I never feed over-late I commonly get an appetite in eating and no otherwise Iam never hungry but at the table Some complaine that being maried and well strucken in yeeres I have enured my selfe and beene pleased to continue this exercise They doe me wrong The best time for a man to leave his house is when hee hath so ordered and settled the same that it may continue without him and when he hath so disposed his affaires that they may answer the ancient course and wonted forme It is much more indiscretion and an argument of want of judgement to goe from home and leave no trustie guard in his house and which for lacke of care may be slow or forgetfull in providing for such necessities as in your absence it may stand in need of The most profitable knowledge and honourablest occupation for a matron or mother of a familie is the occupation and knowledge of huswiferie I see divers covetous but few huswives It is the mistresse-qualitie that all men should seeke after and above all other endevour to finde as the only dowry that serveth either to ruine and overthrow or to save and enrich our houses Let no man speake to me of it according as experience hath taught me I require in a maried woman the Oeconomicall vertue above all others Wherein I would have her absolutely skilfull since by my absence I commit the whole charge and bequeath the full government of my houshold to her I see and that to my griefe in divers houses the master or goodman come home at noone all weary durty and dusty with drudging and toiling about his businesse when the mistresse or good-wife is either scarce vp or if shee bee shee is yet in her closet dressing decking smugging or trimming of her selfe It is a thing onely fitting Queenes or Princes whereof some doubt might be made It is ridiculous that the idlenesse and vniust that the lithernesse of our wives should be fostered with our sweat and maintained by our travell No man as neere as I can shall fortune to have a more free and more absolute vse or a more quiet and more liquid fruition of his goods then I have If the husband bring matter nature her selfe would have women to bring forme Concerning duties of wedlocke-friendship which some happily imagine to be interessed or preiudiced by the husbands absence I beleeve it not Contrariwise it is a kinde of intelligence that easily growes cold by an over-continuall assistance and decaieth by assiduitie for to stand still at racke and manger breedeth a satietie Every strange woman seemeth to vs an honest woman And all feele by experience that a continuall seeing one another cannot possibly represent the pleasure men take by parting and meeting againe These interruptions fill mee with a new kinde of affection toward mine owne people and yeeld me the vse of my house more pleasing
vpon her to persecute vs. When I am sicke I want nothing that is extraordinarie what nature cannot worke in me I will not have a Bolus or a glister to effect At the very beginning of my agues or sickenesses that cast me downe whilst I am yet whole in my senses and neere vnto health I reconcile my selfe to God by the last duties of a Christian whereby I finde my selfe free and discharged and thinke I have so much more reason and authoritie over my sickenesse I finde lesse want of Notaries and counsell then of Physitions What I have not disposed of my affaires or settled of my state when I was in perfect health let none expect I should doe it beeing sicke Whatever I will doe for the service of death is alwayes ready done I dare not delay it one onely day And if nothing be done it is as much to say that either some doubt hath delaide the choise For sometimes it is a good choise not to chuse at all Or that absolutely I never intended to doe any thing I write my booke to few men and to few yeares Had it beene a matter of lasting continuance it should have beene compiled in a better and more polished language According to the continuall variation that hitherto hath followed our French tongue Who may hope that it 's present forme shall be in vse fifty yeares hence It dayly changeth and slips our hands and since I could speake the same it is much altred and well nigh halfe varied We say it is now come to a full perfection There is no age but saith as much of hirs It lies not in my power so long as it glideth and differeth and altereth as it doth to keepe it at a stay It is for excellent and profitable compositions to fasten it vnto them whose credit shall either diminish or encrease according to the fortune of our state For all that I feare not to insert therein divers private articles whose vse is consumed amongst men living now adayes and which concerne the particular knowledge of some that shall further see into it then with a common vnderstanding When all is done I would not as I often see the memory of the deceased tossed too and fro that men should descant and argue Thus and thus be iudged thus he lived thus he ment had he spoken when his life left him he would have given I wot what There is no man knew him better then my selfe Now as much as modestie and decorum doth permit me I heere give a taste of my inclinations and an essay of my affection which I doe more freely and more willingly by word of mouth to any that shall desire to be throughly informed of them But so it is that if any man shall looke into these memorialls he shall finde that either I have said all or desseigned all What I cannot expresse the same I point at with my finger Verum animo satis haec vestigia parva sagaci Sunt per quae possis cognoscere cateratnte But this small footing to a quicke-sent minde May serve whereby safely the rest to finde I leave nothing to bee desired or divined of mee If one must entertaine himselfe with them I would have it to be truely and justly I would willingly come from the other world to give him the lie that should frame me other then I had beene were it he meant to honour mee I see that of the living men never speake according to truth and they are ever made to he what they are not And if with might and maine I had not vpheld a friend of mine whom I have lately lost he had surely been mangled and torne in a thousand contrrary shapes But to make an end of my weake humours I confesse that in travelling I seldome alight in any place or come to any Inne but first of all I cast in my minde whether I may conveniently lie there if I should chance to fall sicke or dying die at my ease and take my death quietly I will as neere as I can be lodged in some convenient part of the house and in particular from all noise or stinking favours in no close filthy or smoaky chamber I seeke to flatter death by these frivolous circumstances Or as I may rather say to discharge my selfe from all other trouble or encombrance that so I may wholly apply and attend her who without that shall happily lie very heavy vpon me I will have her take a full share of my lives eases and commodities it is a great part of it and of much consequence and I hope it shall not belie what is past Death hath some formes more easie then others and assumeth divers qualities according to all mens fantazies Among the naturall ones that proceeding of weakenesse and heavy dulnesse to me seemeth gentle and pleasant Among the violent I imagine a precipice more hardly then a ruine that overwhelmes me and a cutting blow with a sword then a shot of an harquebuse and I would rather have chosen to drinke the potion of Socrates then wound my selfe as Cato did And though it bee all one yet doth my imagination perceive a difference as much as is betweene death and life to cast my selfe into a burning furnace or in the channell of a shallow river So foolishly doth our feare respect more the meane then the effect It is but one instant but of such moment that to passe the same according to my desire I would willingly renounce many of my lives-dayes Since all mens fantazies finde either excesse or diminution in her sharpensse since every man hath some choise betweene the formes of dying let vs trie a little further whether we can finde out some one free from all sorrow and griefe Might not one also make it seeme voluptuous as did those who died with Anthonic and Cleopatra I omit to speake of the sharpe and exemplar efforts that philosophy and religion produce But amongst men of no great fame some have beene found as one Petronius and one Tigillinus at Rome engaged to make themselves away who by the tendernesse of their preparations have in a manner lulled the same asleepe They have made it passe and glide away even in the midst of the security of their accustomed pastimes and wanton recreations Amongst harlots and good felowes no speech of comfort no mention of will or testament no ambitious affectation of constancie no discourse of their future condition no compunction of sinnes committed no apprehension of their soules-health ever troubling them amid sports playes banketting surfetting chambring jesting musicke and singing of amorous verses and all such popular and common entertainments Might not wee imitate this manner of resolution in more honest affaires and more commendable attempts And since there are deaths good vnto wise men and good vnto fooles let vs find some one that may be good vnto such as are betweene both My imagination presents me some easie and milde countenance thereof and since we
must all die to bee desired The tyrants of Rome have thought they gave that criminall offender his life to whom they gave the free choise of death But Theophrastus a Philosopher so delicate so modest and so wise was he not forced by reason to dare to vtter this verse latinized by Cicero Vitam regit fortuna non sapientia Fortune our life doth rule Not wisedome of the schoole Fortune giveth the facilitie of my lives-condition some aide having placed it in such a time wherein it is neither needefull nor combersome vnto my people It is a condition I would have accepted in all the seasons of my age but in this occasion to trusse vp bag and baggage and take vp my bed and walke I am particularly pleased that when I shall die I shall neither breede pleasure nor cause sorrow in them Shee hath caused which is the recompence of an artist that such as by my death may pretend any materiall benefit receive thereby elsewhere jointly a materiall losse and hinderance Death lies sometimes heavie vpon vs in that it is burthensome to others and interesseth vs with their interest almost as much as with ours and somtimes more yea altogether In this inconveniency of lodging that I seeke I neither entermix pompe nor amplitude For I rather hate it But a certaine simple and homely proprietie which is commonly found in places where lesse Arte is and that nature honoureth with some grace peculiar vnto her selfe Non ampliter sed munditer convivium Plus salis quà m sumptus Not a great but a neate feast More conceite then cost And then it is for those who by their vrgent affaires are compelled to travell in the midst of deepe Winter and amongest the Grisons to be surprized by such extreamities in their journies But I who for the most part never travell but for pleasure will neither bee so ill advised nor so simply guided If the way be fowle on my right hand I take the left If I find my selfe ill at ease or vnfit to ride I stay at home Which doing and observing this course in very truth I see no place and come no where that is not as pleasant as convenient and as commodious as mine owne house True it is that I ever finde superfluitie superfluous and observe a kinde of troublesomenesse in delicatenesse and plenty Have I omitted or left any thing behind me that was worth the seeing I returne backe It is ever my way I am never out of it I trace no certaine line neither right nor crooked Comming to any strange place finde I not what was tould mee As it often fortuneth that others judgements agree not with mine and have most times found them false I grieve not at my labour I have learned that what was reported to bee there is not I have my bodies complexion as free and my taste as common as any man in the world The diversity of fashions betweene one and other nations concerneth mee nothing but by the varieties-pleasure Each custome hath his reason Bee the trenchers or dishes of wood of pewter or of earth bee my meate boyled rosted or baked butter or oyle and that of Olives or of Wall-nuts hot or colde I make no difference all is one to me And as one that is growing old I accuse the generous facultie and had neede that delicatnesse and choise should stay the indiscretion of my appetite and sometime ease and solace my stomacke When I have beene out of France and that to do me curtesie some have asked me whether I would be served after the French maner I have jested at them and have ever thrust-in amongest the thickest tables and fullest of strangers I am ashamed to see our men besotted with this foolish humor to fret and chafe when they see any fashions contrary to theirs They thinke themselves out of their element when they are out of their Village Where ever they come they keepe their owne country fashions and hate yea and abhorre all strange maners Meete they a countriman of theirs in Hungary they feast that good fortune And what doe they Marry close and joyne together to blame to condemne and to scorne so many barbarous fashions as they see And why not Barbarous since not French Nay happily they are the better sort of men that have noted and so much exclaimed against them Most take going out but for comming home They travell close and covered with a silent and incommunicable wit defending themselves from the contagion of some vnknowne ayre What I speake of such puts mee in minde in the like matter of that I have heretofore perceived in some of your yoong Courtiers They onely converse with men of their coate and with disdaine or pitty looke vpon vs as if we were men of another World Take away their new fangled mysterious and affected courtly complements and they are out of their byase As farre to seeke and short of vs as we of them That saying is true That An honest man is a man compounded Cleane contrary I travell fully glutted with out fashions Not to seeke Gaskoines in Sicilie I have left over many at home I rather seeke for Graecians and Persians Those I accost them I consider and with such I endevor to be acquainted to that I prepare and therein I employ my selfe And which is more me seemeth I have not met with many maners that are not worth ours Indeede I have not wandred farre scarsly have I lost the sight of our Chimnies Moreover most of the casuall companies you meete withall by the way have more incommodity than pleasure a matter I doe not greatly take hold of and lesse now that age dooth particularize and in some sort sequester me from common formes You suffer for other or others endure for you The one inconvenience is yrkesome the other troublesome but yet the last is in my conceipt more rude It is a rare chaunce and seld-seene fortune but of exceeding solace and inestimable woorth to have an honest man of singular experience of a sound iudgement of a resolute vnderstanding and constant resolution and of manners comformable to yours to accompany or follow you with a goodwill I have found great want of such a one in all my voyages Which company a man must seeke with discretion and with great heed obtaine before he wander from home With me no pleasure is fully delightsome without communication and no delight absolute except imparted I do not so much as apprehend one rare conceipt or conceive one excellent good thought in my minde but me thinks I am much grieved and grievousty perplexed to have produced the same alone and that I have no simpathyzing companion to impart it vnto Si cum hac exceptione detur sapientia vt illam inclusam tencam nec enunciem reijciam If wisdome should be offered with this exception that I should keepe it concealed and not vtter it I would refuse it The other strain'd it one note higher
that man is not immoderate in all and every where and hath no other sentence or arrest than that of necessity and impuissance to proceede further The twelfth Chapter Of Phisiognomy ALmost all the opinions we have are taken by authority and vpon credit There is no hurt We cannot chuse worse then by our selves inso weake an age This image of Socrates his discourse which his friends have left vs we only approve it by the reverence of publicke approbation It is not of our owne knowledge they are not according to our vse Might such a man be borne now adayes there are but few would now esteeme him Wee discerne not graces inlie or aright We onely perceive them by a false light set out and pufft vp with arte Such as passe vnder their naturall purity and simplicity doe easily escape so weake and dimme a sight as ours is They have a secret vnperceived and delicate beauty he had neede of a cleere farre-seeing and true-discerning sight that should rightly discover this secret light Is not in genuity according to vs cosin-germaine vnto sottishnesse and a quality of reproach Socrates maketh his soule to moove with a naturall and common motion Thus saith a plaine Country-man and thus a seely Woman Hee never hath other people in his mouth than Coach-makers Ioyners Coblers and Masons They are inductions and similitudes drawen from the most vulgar and knowen actions of men every one vnderstands him Vnder so base a forme wee should never have chosen the noble worthinesse and brightnesse of his admirable conceptions Wee that esteeme all those but meane and vile that learning doth not raise and who have no perceiving of riches except set out in shew and pompe Our World is framed but vnto ostentation Men are puffed vp with winde and moved or handled by bounds as Baloones This man proposeth no vaine fantasies vnto himselfe His end was to store vs with things and furnish vs with precepts which really more substantially and jointly serve our life servare modum finémque tenere Naturámque sequi To keepe a meane to hold the end And natures conduct to attend So was he ever all one alike And raised himselfe to the highest pitch of vigor not by fits but by complexion Or to say better he raised nothing but rather brought downe and reduced all difficulties or sharpenesse to their originall and naturall state and therevnto subdued vigor For in Cato it is manifestly seene to be an out-right proceeding far-above beyond the common By the brave exploites of his life and in his death hee is ever perceived to be mounted vpon his great horses Whereas this man keepes on the ground and with a gentle and ordinary pace treateth of the most profitable discourses and addresseth himselfe both vnto death and to the most thorny and crabbed crosses that may happen vnto the course of humane life It hath indeede fortuned that the worthiest man to be known and for a patterne to be presented to the world he is the man of whom we have most certaine knowledge He hath beene declared and enlightned by the most cleare-seeing men that ever were the testimonies wee have of him are in faithfulnesse and sufficiency most admirable It is a great matter that ever he was able to give such order vnto the pure imaginations of a childe that without altring or wresting them he hath thence produced the fairest effects of our minde He neither represents it rich nor high-raised but found and pure and ever with a blithe and vndefiled health By these vulgar springs and naturall wards by these ordinary and common fantasies sans mooving or without vrging himselfe hee erected not onely the most regular but the highest and most vigorous opinions actions and customes that ever were Hee it is that brought humane wisedome from heaven againe where for a long time it had beene lost to restore it vnto man where her most just and laborious worke is See or heare him pleade before his judges marke with what reasons hee rouzeth his courage to the hazards of warre what arguments fortifie his patience against detraction calumniation tyranny death and against his wives peevish head therein is nothing borrowed from arte or from learning The simplest may there know their meanes and might it is impossible to goe further backe or lower He hath done humane nature a great kindenesse to shew what and how much she can doe of her selfe Wee are every one richer then we imagine but we are taught to borrow and instructed to shift and rather to make vse of others goods and meanes then of our owne There is nothing whereon man can stay or fix himselfe in time of his neede Of voluptuousnesse of riches of pleasure of power hee ever embraceth more then hee can graspe or hold His greedinesse is incapable of moderation The very same I finde to bee in the curiosity of learning and knowledge he cuts out more worke then hee can well make an end of and much more then he neede Extending the profit of learning as farre as his matter Vt omnium rerum sic literarum quoque intemperantia laboramus Wee are sicke of a surfet as of all things so of learning also And Tacitus hath reason to commend Agricolaes mother to have brideled in her sonne an over-burning and earnest desire of learning It is a good being neerely looked vnto that containeth as other humane goods much peculiar vanitie and naturall weakenesse and is very chargeable The acquisition and purchase whereof is much more hazardous then of all other viandes and beverage For whatsoever else wee have bought we carry home insome vessell or other where wee have law to examine it's worth how much and at what time wee are to take-it But Sciences wee cannot sodainely put them into any other vessell then our minde we swallow them in buying them and goe from the marketh either already infected or amended There are some which insteade of nourishing doe but hinder and surcharge vs and other some which vnder colour of curing empoison vs. I have taken pleasure in some place to see men who for devotions sake have made a vow of ignorance as of chastity poverty and penitence It is also a kind of guelding of our inordinate appetites to muzzle this greedinesse which provoketh vs to the study of bookes and deprive the minde of that voluptuous delight which by the opinion of learning doth so tickle vs. And it is richly to accomplish the vow of poverty to joine that of the minde vnto it Wee neede not much learning for to live at ease And Socrates teacheth vs that wee have both it and the way to finde and make vse of it within vs. All our sufficiency that beyond the naturall is wellnigh vaine and superfluous It is much if it charge and trouble vs no more then it steads vs. Paucis opus est literis ad mentem bonam Wee have neede of little learning to have a good minde They are
to encourage vs have more shew then force and more ornament then fruit Wee have forsaken nature and yet wee will teach her her lesson Shee that lead vs so happily and directed vs so safely And in the meane while the traces of her instructions and that little which by the benefit of ignorance remaineth of her image imprinted in the life of this rusticall troupe of vnpolished men learning is compelled to goe daily a borrowing thereby to make her disciples a patterne of constancie of innocencie and of tranquillitie It is a goodly matter to see how these men full of so great knowledge must imitate this foolish simplicitie yea in the first and chiefe actions of vertue And that our wisedome should learne of beasts the most profitable documents belonging to the chiefest and most necessari parts of our life How we should live and die husband our goods love and bring vp our children and entertaine justice A singular testimonie of mans infirmitie and that this reason we so manage at our pleasure ever finding some diversitie and noveltie leaveth vnto vs no maner of apparent tracke of nature Wherwith men have done as perfumers doe with oile they have adulterated her with so many argumentations and sofisticated her with so diverse farre-fetcht discourses that she is become variable and peculiar to every man and hath lost her proper constant and vniuersall visage whereof we must seeke for a testimonie of beasts not subject to favor or corruption nor to diversitie of opinions For it is most true that themselves march not alwayes exactly in natures path but if they chance to stray it is so little that you may ever perceive the tracke Even as horses led by hand doe sometimes bound and start out of the way but no further then their halters length and neverthelesse follow ever his steps that leadeth them And as a Hawke takes his flight but vnder the limites of hir cranes or twyne Exilia tormenta bella morbos naufragia meditare vt nullo sis malo tyro Banishments torments warres sicknesses shipwracks all these fore-cast and premeditate that thou maiest seeme no novice no freshwater Souldier to any misadventure What availeth this curiositie vnto vs to preoccupate all humane natures inconveniences and with so much labour and toyling against them to prepare our selves which peradventure shall nothing concerne vs Parem passis tristitiam facit patiposse It makes men as sad that they may suffer some mischiefe as if they had suffred it Not onely the blow but the winde and cracke strikes vs Or as the most febricitant for surely it is a kinde of fever now to cause your selfe to be whipped because fortune may one day chance to make you endure it and at Mid-Sommer to put-on your furr'd Gowne because you shall neede it at Christmas Cast your selves into the experience of all the mischiefes that may befall you namely of the extreamest there try your selfe say they there assure your selfe Contrarywise the easiest and most naturall were even to discharge his thought of them They will not come soone enough their true being doth not last vs long enough our spirit must extend and lengthen them and before hand incorporate them into himselfe and therewith entertaine himselfe as if they lay not sufficiently heavy on our senses They will weigh heavy enough when they shall be there saith one of the maisters not of a tender but of the hardest Sect meane while favour thy selfe Beleeve what thou lovest best What availes it thee to collect and prevent thy ill fortune and for feare of the future lose the present and now to be miserable because in time thou maiest bee so They are his owne wordes Learning doth vs willingly one good office exactly to instruct vs in the demensions of evils Curis acuens mortalia corda Mens cogitations whetting With sharpe cares inly fretting It were pitty any part of their greatnesse should escape our feeling and vnderstanding It is certaine that preparation vnto death hath caused more torment vnto most than the very sufferance It was whilome truely said of and by a most judicious Authour Minus afficit sensus fatigatiâ quà m cogitatio Wearinesse lesse troubleth our senses then pensiâenesse doth The apprehension of present death doth sometimes of it selfe aânimate vs with a ready resolution no longer to avoide a thing altogether inevitable Many Gladiators have in former ages beene seene having at first fought very cowardly most couragiously to embrace death offering their throate to the enemies sword yea and bidde them make haste The sight distant from future death hath neede of a slowe constancy and by consequence hard to bee found If you know not how to die take no care for it Nature her selfe will fully and sufficiently teach you in the nicke she will exactly discharge that worke for you trouble not your selfe with it Incert am frustra mortales funeris horam Quaeritis qua sit mors aditur a via Pana minor certam subitò perferreââinam Quod time as gravius sustinuisse diâ Of death th' vncertaine houre you men in vaine Enquire and what way leath shall you distraine A certaine sodaine ruine is lesse paine More grievous long what you feare to sustaine We trouble death with the care of life and life with the care of death The one annoyeth the other assrights vs. It is not against death we prepare our selves it is a thing too momentary A quarter of an houre of passion without consequence and without annoyance deserves not particular precepts To say truth we prepare our selves against the preparations of death Philosophy teacheth vs ever to have death before our eyes to fore-see and consider it before it come Then giveth vs rules and precautions so to provide that such foresight and thought hurt vs not So doe Physitians who cast vs into diseases that they may employ their drugges and skill about them If we have not knowen how to live it is injustice to teach vs how to die and deforme the end from all the rest Have wee knowen how to live constantly and quietly wee shall know how to die resolutely and repâsedly They may bragge as much as they please Tota Philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est The whole life of a Philopher is the meditation of his death But me thinkes it is indeede the end yet not the scope of life It is her last it is her extremity yet not her object Hir selfe must be vnto hirselfe hir aime hir drift and her designe Hir direct studie is to order to direct and to suffer hir selfe In the number of many other offices which the generall and principall Chapter to know how to live containeth is this speciall Article To know how to die And of the easiest did not our owne feare weigh it downe To judge them by their profit and by the naked truth the lessons of simplicity yeeld not much to those which Doctrine preacheth to the contrary vnto vs. Men are different in feeling and
and obscure manner Truely so carelesse and effeminate a consideration of his death deserved posteritie should so much more consider the same for him which it did And nothing is so just in justice as that which fortune ordained for his commendation For the Athenians did afterward so detest and abhorre those which had furthered and caused his death that of all they were lâathed and shunned as cursed and excommunicated men what soever they had but touched was held to bee polluted No man would so much as wash with them in bathes or hot-houses no man affoord them a salutation much lesse accost or have to doe with them so that being in the end no longer able to endure this publike hatred and generall contempt they all hanged themselves If any man thinkes that amongst so many examples I might have chosen for the service of my purpose in Socrates his sayings I have chosen or handled this but ill and deemeth this disccurse to be raised above common opinions I have done it wittingly for I judge otherwise And hold it to bee a discourse in ranke and sincerity much shorter and lower then vulgar opinions It representeth in an vn-artificiall boldnesse and infantine securitie the pure impression and first ignorance of nature Because it is credible that wee naturally feare paine but not death by reason of her It is a part of our being no lesse essentiall than life To what end would Nature have else engendred the hate and horror of it seeing it holdes thererein and with it a ranke of most great profit to foster the succession and nourish the vicissitude of her works And that in this vniversall Common-weale it steadeth and serveth more for birth and augmentation then for losse decay or ruine Sic rerum summa novatur So doth the summe of all By courses rise and fall Mille animas vna necat a dedit We thousand soules shall pay For one soule made away The decay of one life is the passage to a thousand other lives Nature hath imprinted in beasts the care of themselves and of their preservation They proceede even to the feare of their empairing to shocke or hurt themselves and that wee should not shackle or beate them accidents subject to their sence and experience But that we should kill them they cannot feare it nor have they the faculty to imagine or conclude their death Yet is it reported that they are not seene onely to embrace and endure the same joyfully most Horses neigh in dying and Swannes sing when it seiseth them But moreover they seeke it when they neede it as by divers examples may be prooved in the Elephants Besides the manner of arguing which Socrates vseth here is it not equally admirable both in simplicitie and in vehemency Verily It is much âasier to speake as Aristotle and live as Caesar than speake and live as Socrates Therein consists the extreame degree of difficultie and perfection arte cannot attaine vnto it Our faculties are not now so addressed We neither assay nor know them we invest our selves with others and suffer our owne to be idle As by some might be saide of me that here I have but gathered a nosâgay of strange floures and have put nothing of mine vnto it but the thred to binde them Certes I have given vnto publike opinion that these borrowed ornaments accompany me but I meane not they should cover or hide me it is contrary to mine intention who would make shew of nothing that is not mine owne yea and mine owne by nature And had I believed my selfe at all adventure I had spoken alone I dayly charge my selfe the more beyond my proposition and first forme vpon the fantasie of time and through idlenesse If it mis-seeme me as I thinke it doth it is no great matter it may be profitable for some other Some aleadge Plato and some mention Homer that never saw them or as they say in English many a man speakes of Robin hood that never shot in his how And I have taken diverse passages from others then in their spring Without paine or sufficiency having a thousand volumes of bookes about me where now I write if I please I may presently borrow from a number of such botcherlypatchcotes men that I plod not much vpon wherewith to enamell this treaty of Phisiognomie I neede but the liminary epistle of a Germane to store me with allegations and we goe questing that way for a fading greedy glory to cousin and delude the foolish world These rapsodies of common places wherewith so many stuffe their study serve not greatly but for vulgar subjects and serve but to shew and not to direct vs A ridiculous-fond fruite of learning that Socrates doth so pleasantly enveigh and exagitate against Euthydemus I have seene bookes made of things neither studied nor ever vnderstood the authour comming to diverse of his learned and wise friends the search of this and that matter that so he might compile them into a booke contenting himselfe for his owne part to have cast the plot and projected the desseigne of it and by his industry to have bound vp the fagot of vnknowne provisions at least is the inke and paper his owne This may bee saide to bee a buying or borrowing and not a making or compiling of a booke It is to teach men not that one can make a booke but to put them out of doubt that hee cannot make it A president of the law in a place where I was vanted himselfe to have hudled vp together two hundred and od strange places in a presidentiall law-case of his In publishing of which hee defaced the glory which others gave him for it A weake childish and absurde boasting in my opinion for such a subject and for such a man I doe cleane contrary and amongst so many borrowings am indeed glad to filch some one disguising and altering the same to some new service On hazard to let men say that it is for lacke of vnderstanding it 's naturally vse I give it some particular addressing of mine owne hand to the end it may be so much lesse meerely strange Whereas these put their larcenies to publike view and garish shew So have they more credite in the lawes then I. We other naturalists suppose that there is a great and in comparable preference betweene the honour of invention and that of allegation Would I have spoken according to learning I had spoken sooner I had writen at such times as I was neerer to my studies when I had more wit and more memory and should more have trusted the vigor of that age then the imperfection of this had I beene willing to professe writing of bookes And what if this gratious favour which fortune hath not long since offered mee by the intermission of this worke could have befalne me in such a season in liew of this where it is equally desireable to possesse and ready to loose Two of mine acquaintance both notable men in this faculty
with contemning and corrupting the same A man should apply himselfe to the best rules but not subject himselfe vnto them except to such if any there bee that duty and thraldome vnto them be profitable Both Kings and Philosophers obey nature and goe to the stoole and so doe Ladies Publike lives are due vnto ceremony mine which is obscure and private enjoyeth all naturall dispensations To be a Souldier and a Gascoyne are qualities somwhat subject to indiscretion And I am both Therefore will I say thus much of this action that it is requisite we should remit the same vnto certaine prescribed night-houres and by custome as I have done force and subject our selves vnto it But not as I have done growing in yeeres strictly tie him selfe to the care of a particular convenient place and of a commodious Aiax or easie close-stoole for that purpose and make it troublesome with long sitting and nice observation Neverthelesse in homeliest matters and fowlest offices is it not in some sorte excusable to require more care and cleanelinesse Naturâ homo mundum elegans animal est By nature man is a cleanely and neate creature Of all naturall actions there is none wherein I am more loath to be troubled or interrupted when I am at it I have seene divers great men and souldiers much troubled and vexed with their bellies vntune and disorder when at vntimely houres it calleth vpon them whilst mine and my selfe never misse to call one vpon another at our appointment which is as soone as I get out of my bed except some vrgent busines or violent sickenesse trouble mee Therefore as I saide I judge no place where sicke men may better seate themselves in security then quietly and wisht to holde themselves in that course of life wherein the have beene brought vp and habituated Any change or variation soever astonieth and distempereth Will any beleeue that Chestnuttes can hurt a Perigordin or a Luquoâs or that milk or whitmeates are hurtful vnto a mountaine dwelling people whom if one seeke to divert from their naturall diet he shall not onely prescribe them a new but a contrary forme of life A change which a healthy man can hardly endure Appoynt a Bretton of three score yeeres of age to drinke water put a Sea-man or Mariner into a Stove forbid a lackey of Baske to walke you bring them out of their element you depriue them of all motion and in the end of aire of light and life an vivere tanti est Doe we reckon it so deare Onely living to be here Cogimur à suet is animum suspendere rebus Atque vt vivamus vivere desinimus From things erst vs'd we must suspend our minde We leave to live that we may live by kinde Hos superesse reor quibus spirabilis aâr Et lux quaregimur redditur ipsa gravis Doe I thinke they liue longer whom doth grieve Both aire they breathe and light whereby they live If they doe no other good at least they doe this that betimes they prepare their patients vnto death by little vndermining and cutting-off the vse of life Both in health and in sickenesse I haue willingly seconded and giuen my selfe over to those appetites that pressed mee I allow great authority to my desires and propensions I loue not to cure one evill by another mischiefe I hate those remedies that importune more then sickenesse To be subject to the cholike and to be tied to abstaine from the pleasure I have in eating of oysters are two mischiefes for one The disease pincheth vs on the one side the rule on the other Since we are ever in danger to misdoe let vs rather hazard our selves to follow pleasure Most men doe contrary and thinke nothing profitable that is not painefull Facility is by them suspected Mine appetite hath in diuerse things very happily accommodated and ranged it selfe to the health of my stomake Being yong acrimony and tartnesse in sawces did greatly delight me but my stomake being since glutted therewith my taste hath likewise seconded the same Wine hurts the sicke it is the first thing that with an invincible distaste brings my mouth out of taste Whatsoeuer I receiue vnwillingly or distastefully hurts me whereas nothing doth it whereon I feede with hunger and rellish I never receiued harme by any action that was very pleasing vnto me And yet I have made al medicinall conclusions largely to yeeld to my pleasures And when I was yong Quem circumcursans huc atque huc saepe Cupido Fulgebat crocina splendidus in tunica About whom Cupid running here and there Shinde in the saffron coate which he did weare I have as licentiously inconsiderately as any other furthred al such desires as possessed me Et militavi non sine gloria A Souldier of loves hoast I was not without boast More notwithstanding in continuation and holding out then by snatches or by stealth Sex me vix memini sustinuesse vices I scarse remember past Six courses I could last It is surely a wonder accompanied with vnhappinesse to confesse how yoong and weake I was brought vnder it's subjection Nay shall I not blush to tell it It was long before the age of choise or yeares of discretion I was so yoong as I remember nothing before And fitly may my fortune bee compared to that of Quartilla who remembred not her mayden-head Inde tragus celeresque pili mirandáque matri Barba meâ Thence goatishnesse haires over-soone a beard To make my mother wonder and afear'd Physitians commonly enfold and joine their rules vnto profit according to the violence of sharpe desires or earnest longings that incidently follow the sicke No longing desire can be imagined so strange and vicious but nature will apply herselfe vnto it And then how easie is it to content ones fantasie In mine opinion this part importeth all in all at least more and beyond all other The most grievous and ordinary evills are those which fancy chargeth vs withall That Spanish saying doth every way please me Deffienda me Dios de my God defend me from my selfe Being sicke I am sory I have not some desire may give mee the contentment to satiate and cloy the same Scarsly would a medicine divert me from it So doe I when I am in health I hardly see any thing left to be hoped or wished-for It is pittie a man should be so weakned and enlanguished that hee hath nothing left him but wishing The arte of Physicke is not so resolute that whatsoever wee doe wee shall bee void of all authority to doe it Shee changeth and shee varieth according to climates according to the Moones according to Fernelius and according to Scala If your Physitian thinke it not good that you sleepe that you drinke wine or eate such and such meates Care not you for that I will finde you another that shall not be of his opinion The diversity of physicall arguments and medicinall opinions embraceth all manner of
women and to children As a voluntary Souldier or adventurous knight you enter the lists the bands or particular hazards according as your selfe judge of their successes or importance and you see when your life may therein be excusably employed pulchrúmque morisuccurrit in armis And nobly it doth come in minde To die in armes may honor finde Basely to feare common dangers that concerneso numberlesse a multitude and not to dare whatso many sortes of men dare yea whole nations together is onely incident to base craven and milke-sop-hearts Company and good fellowship doth harten and encourage children If some chance to exceede and outgoe you in knowledge in experience in grace in strength in fortune you have third and collateral causes to blame and take hold-of but to yeeld to them in constancie of minde and resolution of courage you have none but yourselfe to find fault with Death is much more abiect languishing grisly and painefull in a downe-bed then in a field-combate and agues catarres or apoplexies as painefull and mortall as an harquebusado He that should be made vndantedly to beare the accidents of common life should not neede to bumbast his courage to become a man at armes Vivere mi Lucilli milis are est Friend mine to live is to goe onwarre-fare I can not remember that ever I was scabbed yet is itching one of natures sweetest gratifications and as readie at hand But repentance doth over-importunately attend on it I exercise the same in mine eares and by fits which within doe often itch I was borne with all my senses sound almost in perfection My stomake is commodiously good and so is my head both which together with my winde maintaine them selves athwart my agues I have outlived that age to which some nations have not without some reason prescribed for a just end vnto life that they allowed not a man to exceede the same I have notwithstanding some remyses or intermissions yet though vnconstant and short so sound and neate that there is little difference betweene them and the health and indolencie of my youth I speake not of youthly vigor and chearefull blithnesse there is noreason they should follow mee beyond their limites Non haec amplius est liminis aut aquae Coelestis patiens latus These sides cannot still sustaine Lying without dores showring raine My visage and eyes doe presently discover me Thence beginne all my changes and somewhat sharper then they are in effect I often moove my friends to pitty ere I feele the cause of it My looking glasse doth not amaze me for even in my youth it hath diverse times befalne me so to put-on a duskie looke a wanne colour a troubled behaviour and of ill presage without any great accident so that Phisitions perceiving no inward cause to answer this outward alteration ascribed the same to the secret minde or some concealed passion which inwardly gnawed and consumed mee They were deceived were my body directly by mee as is my minde we should march a little more at our ease I had it then not onely exempted from all trouble but also full of satisfaction and blithenesse as it is most commonly partly by it's owne complexion and partly by it's owne desseigne Nec vitiant art us aegrae contagia mentis Nor doth sicke mindes infection Pollute strong joynts complexion I am of opinion that this her temperature hath often raised my body from his fallings he is often suppressed whereas she if not lasciviously wanton at least in quiet and reposed estate I had a quartan ague which held me foure or five moneths and had altogether disvisaged and altered my countenance yet my minde held ever out not onely peaceably but pleasantly So I feele no paine ot smarte weaknesse and languishing doe not greatly perplex me I see divers corporall defailances the only naming of which breede a kind of horror and which I would feare lesse then a thousand passions and agitations of the mind which I see in vse I resolve to runne no more it sufficeth me to goe-on faire and softly nor doe I complaine of their naturall decadence or empairing that possesseth me Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus Who wonders a swolne throate to see In those about the Alpes that be No more then I grieve that my continuance is not as long and sound as that of an oske I have no cause to finde fault with my imagination I have in my life had very few thoughts or cares that have so much as interrupted the course of my sleepe except of desire to awaken without dismay or afflicting me I seldome dreame and when I doe it is of extravagant things and chymeras commonly produced of pleasant conceits rather ridiculous then sorrowfull And thinke it true that dreames are the true interpretors of our inclinations but great skill is required to sort and vnderstand them Res quae in vit a vsurpant homines cogitant curant vident Quaeque agunt vigilantes agitánt que ea sicut insomno accidunt Minus mirandum est It is no wonder if the things which we Care-for vse thinke doe oft or waking see Vnto vs sleeping represented be Plato saith moreover that is the office of wisedome to draw divining instructions from them against future times Wherein I see nothing but the wonderfull experience that Socrates Xenophon and Aristotle relate of them men of vnreproovable authority Histories reporte that the inhabitants of the Atlantique Iles never dreame who feede on nothing that hath beene slaine Which I adde because it is peradventure the occasion the dreame not Pythagoras ordained therefore a certaine methode of feeding that dreames might bee sorted of some purpose Mine are tender and cause no agitation of body or expression of voice in mee I have in my dayes seene many strangely stirred with them Theon the Philosopher walked in dreaming and Pericles his boy went vpon the tiles and top of houses I stand not much on nice choice of meates at the table and commonly beginne with the first and neerest dish and leape not willingly from one taste to another Multitude of dishes and varietie of services displease mee as much as any other throng I am easily pleased with few messes and hate the opinion of Favorinus that at a banquet you must have that dish whereon you feede hungerly taken from you and ever have a new one set in the place And that it is a niggardly supper if all the guests be not glutted with pinions and rumps of divers kindes of fowle and that onely the daintie bird heccafico or snapfig deserveth to bee eaten whole at one morsell I feede much vpon salte cates and love to have my bread somewhat fresh And mine own Baker makes none other for my bord against the fashion of my countrie In my youth my overseers had much adoe to reforme the refusall I made of such meats as youth doth commonly love best as sweete-meates confets and marchpanes My Tutor was wont
liew of pleading or excusing his cause gave him this sodaine and short answere Let vs goe quoth he my good Citâzens let-vs forthwith goe I say to give hartie thankes vnto the Gods for the victorie which even vpon such a day as this is they gave me against the Carthaginians And therewith advancing hââ selfe to march before the people all the assemblie and even his accuser him selfe did vndelayedly follow him towards the Temple After that Peââlius having been aââmated and stirred vp by Câââ to solicite and demaund a strict accompt of him of the money ãâã had ââauaged and which was committed to his trust whilst he was in the Province of ãâã Scipio being come into the Senate-house of purpose to answer for himselfe pullâng ouâ the booke of his accompts from vnder his gowne told them all that that booke contained truely both the receipt and laying out thereof and being required to deliver the same vnto a Clarke to register it he refused to doe-it saying he would not doe himselfe that wrong or indignitie and therevpon with his owne hands in presence of all the Senate tore the booke in pieces I cannot apprehend or beleeve that a guiltie-cauterized conscience could possil lie dissemble or couâterfet such an vndismaied assurance His heart was naturally too great and enured to overhigh fortune saith Tâtus Liviâs to know how to be a criminall offender and stoopingly to yeeld himselfe to the basenesse to defend his innocencie Torture and racking are dangerous inventions and seeme rather to be trials of patience then Essayes of truth And both he that can and he that cannot endure them conceal the truth For wherefore shall paine or smart rather compell me to confesse that which is so indeed then force me to tell that which is not And contrariwise if he who hath not done that whereof he is accused is sufficiently patient to endure those torments why shall not he be able to tolerate them who hath done it and is guiltie indeed so deare and worthie a reward as life being proposed vnto him I am of opinion that the ground of his invention proceedeth from the consideration of the power and facultie of the conscience For to the guiltie it seemeth to give a kind of furtherance to the torture to make him confesse his fault and weakneth and dismayeth him and on the other part it encourageth and strengthneth the innocent against torture To say truth it is a meane full of vncertaintie and danger What would not a man say nay what not doe to avoide so grievous paines and shun such torments Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor Torment to lie sometimes will drive Ev'n the most innocent alive Whence it followeth that he whom the Iudge hath tortured because he shall not die an innocent he shall bring him to his death both innocent and tortured Many thousands have thereby charged their heads with false confessions Amongst which I may well place Phylotas considering the circumstances of the endâctment that Alexander framed against him and the progresse of his torture But so it is that as men say it is the least evill humane weaknesse could invent though in my conceit verie in humanely and therewith all most vnprofitablie Many Nations lesse barbarous in that then the Graeâian or the Romane who terme them so judge it a horrible and cruell thing to racke and torment a man for a fault whereof you are yet in doubt Is your ignorance long of him What can he doe withall Are not you vnjust who because you will not put him to death without some cause you doe worse then kill him And that it is so consider but how often he rather chuseth to die guiltlesse then passe by this information much more painfull then the punishment or torment and who many times by reason of the sherpnesse of it preventeth furthereth yea and executeth the punishment I wot not whence I heard this storie but it exactly hath reference vnto the conscience of our Iustice A countrie woman accused a souldier before his Generall being a most severe Iusticâr that he with violence had snatched from out hir poore childrens hands the smalâ remainder of some pappe or water gruell which shee had onely left to sustaine them forsomuch as the Armie had ravaged and wasted all The poore woman had neither witnesse nor proofe of it It was but hir yea and his no which the Generall perceiving after he had summoned hir to be well advised what thee spake and that shee should not accuse him wrongfully for if shee spake an vntruth shee should then be culpable of his accusation But shee constantly persisting to charge him he forthwith to discover the truth and to be throughly resolved caused the accused Souldiers belly to be ripped who was found faultie and the poore woman to have said true whereupon shee was discharged A condemnation instructive to others The sixt Chapter Of Exercise or Practise IT is a hard matter although our conceit doe willingly applie it selfe vnto it that Discourse and Instruction should sufficiently be powerful to direct vs to action and addresse vs to performance if over and besides that we doe not by experience exercise and frame our mind to the traine whereunto we will range-it otherwise when we shall be on the point of the effects it will doubtlesse find it selfe much engaged and empeached And that is the reason why amongst Philosophers those that have willed to attaine to some greater excellence have not been content at home and at rest to expect the rigors of fortune for feare she should surprise them vnexperienced and find them novices if she should chance to enter fight with them but have rather gone to meet and front hir before and witting-earnestly cast themselves to the triall of the hardest difficulties Some have thereby voluntarily forsaken great riches onely to practise a voluntarie povertie others have willingly found out labour and an austeritie of a toylesome life thereby to harden and envre themselves to evill and travell othersome have frankly deprived themselves of the dearest and best parts of their body as of their eyes and members of generation lest their over-pleasing and too-too wanton service might in any sort mollifie and distract the constant resolution of their minde But to die which is the greatest worke we have to doe exercise can nothing availe vs therevnto A man may by custome and experience fortifie himselfe against griefe sorrow shame want and such like accidents But concerning death we can but once feele and trie the same We are all novices and new to learne when we come vnto it There have in former times beene found men so good husbands and thriftie of time that even in death they have assayde to tast and savour it and bent their minde to observe and see what manner of thing that passage of death was but none did ever yet come backe againe to tell vs tidings of-it nemo expergiâus extat Frigida quem semel est vit
aipausasequutâ No man doth ever-ofter wake Whom once his lifes cold rest doth take Canius Iulius a noble Romane a man of singular vertue and constancie having beene condemned to death by that lewdly-mischievous monster of men Caligula besides many marvelous evident assurances he gave of his matchlesse resolution when he was even in the nicke to endure the last stroke of the executioner a Philosopher being his friend interrupted him with this question saying Canius in what state is your soule now what doth she what thoughts possesse you now I thought answered he to keep me readie and prepared with all my force to-see whether in this instant of death so short and so neere at hand I might perceive some dislodging or distraction of the soule and whether it will shew some feeling of hir sudden departure that if I apprehend or learne anything of hir I may afterward if I can returne and give advertisement therof vnto my friends Loe-here a Philosopher not onely vntil death but even in death it selfe what assurance was it and what fiercenes of courage to will that his owne death should serve him as a lesson and have leasure to thinke elsewhere in a matter of such consequence it is hoc animi morientis habebat This power of minde had he When it from him did flee Me seemeth neverthelesse that in some sort there is a meane to familiarize our selves with it and to assay-it We may have some experience of it if not whole and perfect at least such as may not altogether be vnprofitable and which may yeelde vs better fortified and more assured If we cannot attaine vnto it we may at least approch-it and discerne the same And if we cannot enter hir sort yet shall we see and frequent the approches vnto-it It is not with out reason we are taught to take notice of our sleepe for the resemblance it hath with death How easily we passe from waking to sleeping with how little interest we loose the knowledge of light and of ourselves The facultie of sleepe might happily seeme vnprofitable and against nature sithence it depriveth vs of all actions and barreth vs of all sense were it not that nature doth thereby instruct vs that she hath equally made vs as wel to live as to die and by life presenteth the eternall state vnto vs which she after the same reserveth for vs so to accustome vs thereunto and remove the feare of it from vs. But such as by some violent accident are falne into a faintnes of heart and have lost all senses they in mine opinion have well-nigh beene where they might beholde hir true and naturall visage For touching the instant or moment of the passage it is not to be feared it should bring any travell or displeasure with-it forasmuch as we can have nor sense nor feeling without leasure Our sufferances have neede of time which is so short and plunged in death that necessarily it must be insensible It is the approches that lead vnto it we should feare and those may fall within the compasse of mans experience Many things seeme greater by imagination then by effect I have passed over a good part of my age in sound and perfect health I say not onely sound but blithe and wantonly-lustfull That state full of lust of prime and mirth made me deeme the consideration of sicknesses so yrkesome and horrible that when I came to the experience of them I have found their fittes but weake and their assaultes but faint in respect of my apprehended feare Lo here what I daily proove Let me be vnder a roofe in a good chamber warme-clad and well at ease in some tempestuous and stormy night I am exceedingly perplexed and much grieved for such as are abroade and have no shelter But let me be in the storme my selfe I doe not so much as desire to be else-where Onely to be continually pent vp in a chamber seemed in tollerable to me I have now enured my selfe to live a whole weeke yea a moneth in my chamber full of care trouble alteration and weakenes and have found that in the time of my best health I moaned such as were sicke much more then I can well moane my selfe when I am ill at ease and that the power of my apprehension did well-nigh halfe endeare the essence and truth of the thing it selfe I am in good hope the like will happen to me of death and that it is not worth the labor I take for so many preparations as I prepare against hir and so many helpes as I call âosustaine and assemble to endure the ââocke and violence of it But hab ornab we can never take too much advantage of it During our second or third troubles I doe not well remember which I fortuned one day for recreation-sake to goe forth and take the ayre about a league from my house who am seated even in the bowels of all troubles of our civill wars of France supposing to be most safe so neere mine owne hoâe and petreite that I had no neede of better attendance or equipage I was mounted vpon a very easie-going nagge but not very sure At my returning home againe a sudden occasion being offered me to make vse of this nagge in a peece of service whereto he was neither trained not accustomed one of my men a-strong sturdie fellow mounted vpon a yong strong-headed horse and that had a desperate hard mouth fresh lustie and in breath to shew his courage and to out-goe his fewoes fortuned with might and maine to set spurres vnto him and giving him the bridle to come right into the path where I was and as a Colossus with his weight riding over me and my nagge that were both very little he overthrew vs both and made vs fall with our heeles vpward so that the nagge lay along astonied in one place and I in a trance groveling on the ground ten or twelfe paces wide of him my face all torne and brused my sword which I had in my hand a good way from me my girdle broken with no more motion or sense in me then a stocke It is the onely swowning that ever I felt yet Those that were with me after thy had assayed all possible meanes to bring me to my selfe againe supposing me dead tooke me in their armes and with much adoe were carying me home to my-house which was about halfe a french league thence vpon the way after I had for two houres space by all bin supposed dead and past all recoverie I began to stir and breathe for so great aboundance of blood was falne into my stomake that to discharge it nature was forced to roweze vp hir spirits I was imediately set vpon my feete and bending forward I presently cast vp n quantitie as much clottie pure blood as abucket will hold and by the way was constraâned to doe the like divers times before I could get home whereby I begane to recover ââttle life but it was by little
and which alone declareth what we are and which onely I counter poise to all others together he giveth place to no Philosopher no not to Socrates himselfe In whom innocencie is a qualitie proper chiefe constant vniforme and incorruptible In comparison of which it seemeth in Alexander subalternall vncertaine variable effeminate and accidentall Antiquine judged that precisely to sift out and curiously to prie into all other famous Captaines there is in every one severally some speciall qualitie which makes him renowmed and famous In this man alone it is a vertue and sufficiencie every where compleate and alike which in all offices of humane life leaveth nothing more to bee wished-for Bee it in publike or private in peaceable negotiations or warlike occupations be it to live or die greatly or gloriously I know no forme or fortune of man that I admire or regard with so much honour with so much love True it is I finde this obstinacie in povertie somewhat scrupulous and so have his best friends pourtrayed-it And this onely action high notwithstanding and very worthy admiration I finde or deeme somewhat sharpe so as I would nor wish nor desire the imitation thereof in me according to the forme it was in him Scipio Aemilianus alone would any charge him with as fierce and noblie-minded an end and with as deepe and vniversall knowledge of Sciences might be placed in the other scale of the ballance against him Oh what a displeasure hath swift-gliding Time done me even in the nicke to deprive our eyes of the chiefest paire of lives directly the noblest that ever were in Plutarke of these two truelyworthy personages by the vniversall consent of the world the one chiefe of Graecians the other principall of Romanes What a matter what a workeman For a man that was noe Saint but as we say a gallant-honest man of civill maners and common customes of a temperate haughtinesse the richest lise I know as the vulgar saying is to have lived amongst the living and fraughted with the richest qualities and most to bee desired parts all things imparcially considered in my humour is that of Alcibiades But touching Epaminondas for a patterne of excessive goodnesse I will here insert certaine of his opinions The sweetest contentment he had in all his life he witnesseth to have beene the pleasure he gave his father and mother of his victorie vpon Leâctra he staketh much in preferring their pleasure before his content so just and full of so glorious an action Hee thought it vnlawfull yea were it to recover the libertie of his countrey for any one to kill a man except hee knew some iust cause And therefore was he so backeward in the enterprise of Pelopidas his companion for the deliverance of Thebes Hee was also of opinion that in a battel a man should avoide to encounter his friend being on the contrary part and if he met him to spare him And his humanity or gentlenes even towards his very enemies having made him to be suspected of the ââotians for so much as after he had miraculously forced the Lacedemonians to open him a passage which at the entrance of Morââ neere Corinth they had vndertaken to make-good hee was contented without fur ther pursuing them in furie to have marched over their bellies was the cause he was deposed of his office of Captaine Generall Most honourably for such a cause and for the shame it was to them soone after to bee forced by necessitie to advance him to his first place and to acknowledge how their glorie and confesse that their safetie did onely depend on him victory following him as his shadow whither soever hee went and as the prosperitie of his countrie was borne by and with him so it died with and by him The seaven and thirtieth Chapter Of the resemblance betweene children and fathers THis âudling vp of so much trash or packing of so many severall pieces is done so strangely as I never lay hands on it but when an over lazie idlenesse vrgeth me and no where but in mine owne house So hath it beene compact at sundry pauses and contrived at severall intervalls as occasions have sometime for many months together heere and there in other places detained me Besides I never correct my first imaginations by the second it may happen I now and then alter some word rather to diversifie then take any thing away My purpose is to represent the Progresse of my humours that every part be seene or member distinguished as it was produced I would to God I had begunne sooner and knew the tracke of my changes and course of my variations A boy whom I employed to write for me supposed he had gotten a rich bootie when he stole some parts which he best liked But one thing comforts me that he shall gaine no more then I lost by them I am growne elder by seaven or eight yeares since I beganne them nor hath it beene without some new purchase I have by the liberalitie of yeares acquainted my selfe with the stone chollike Their commerce and long conversation is not easiely past-over withoââ some such-like fruite I would be glad that of many other presents they have ever in store to bestow vpon such as waite vpon them long they had made choise of some one that had beene more acceptable vnto me for they could never possesse me with any that even from my infancie I hated more Of all accidents incident to age it was that I feared most My selfe have many times thought I went on too farre and that to hold out so long a journey I must of necessitie in the end stumble vpon some such vnpleasing chance I perceived plainely and protested sufficiently it was high time to depart and that according to the âule of skillfull chirurgions who when they must cut off some member life must be seared to the quicke and cut to the sound flesh That nature is wont to make him pay vntollerable vsurie who doth not yeeld or pay the same in due time I was so farre from being readie to make lawfull tender of it that in eighteene months or thereabouts I have continued in so yrkesome and vnpleasing plight I have already learn't to apply my selfe vnto it and am now entring into covenant with this chollicall kinde of life for therein I finde matter wherewith to comfort me and to hope better So much are men enured in their miserable estate that no condition is so poore but they will accept so they way continue in the same Heare Mâcenââ Debilem facito maââ Debilem pede coxa Lubricos quate dentes Vita dum superest bene est Make me be weake of hand Scarse on my legges to stand Shake my loose teeth with paine T' is well so life remaine And Tamburlane cloked the fantasticall crueltie he exercised vpon Lazars or Leprousmen with a foolish kinde of humanitie putting all he coulde finde or heare-of to death as he saide to ridde them from so painefull and miserable